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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Several non-invasive methods of imaging body organs have been developed over the past decades. These methods are based on the tendency of particular body organs to concentrate particular chemicals which may be detectable. Particularly useful chemicals for these methods are those which emit gamma radiation. Subsequent scanning of the organ with a gamma ray camera provides an image of the organ from which diagnostic information can be obtained. 99m Tc (Tc-99m) has found particular utility in this area because of its half-life and gamma ray emission. Over the past several years different Tc-99m compounds have been disclosed for use as positive myocardial imaging agents. These different imaging agents based on substantially different chemistries, have exhibited varying levels of utility in different mammals. To effectively image the heart, the agent must localize in the heart and at the same time rapidly clear from neighboring organs such as the lungs and in particular the liver. Further, the imaging agent must not bind tightly to the blood or else image quality will be poor. An imaging agent which localizes in the heart and at the same time localizes in the liver does not provide a good image of the heart since the apex of the human heart is often obscured by the liver. Although detecting radiation from a radiation emitting pharmaceutical has proven particularly useful in non-invasive organ imaging, organ-specific radio-pharmaceuticals are still needed. For example, there is an especially strong need for an effective myocardial imaging agent. At the present time there are two known types of myocardial imaging agents. The positive agents which accumulate in an infarcted area of the heart and negative agents which accumulate in the normal healthy area of the heart but not in the infarcted areas. Using a positive agent causes an infarcted area to show up as a hot spot of radioactivity whereas with a negative agent the infarcted area shows up as a cold area against a hot background. Over the past several years different Tc-99m compounds have been disclosed for use as positive myocardial imaging agents. These different imaging agents having substantially different chemistries have found various levels of utility in different mammals. To date it is still a goal of nuclear medicine to find a more effective negative myocardial imaging agent particularly suited for the human heart. Work with myocardial imaging agents formed from Tc-99m was conducted by Deutsch, et al. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,054. Deutsch, et al. determined that cationic lipophilic complexes of Tc-99m provide a useful myocardial image in mammals. This work provided particularly good images with certain mammals, particularly dogs. Technetium can assume several valence stages ranging from +7 to -1. The method disclosed in the Deutsch, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,054 disclosed technetium complexes in the +3 state. These subsequently were found to provide a relatively poor image of the human heart. Further work conducted by Deutsch and Libson, et al. indicated that the complexes of Tc(I)-99m provided more useful heart images. These provided particularly good images of cat hearts. Unfortunately, with humans these images were obscured by accumulation of the technetium complex in the liver which interfered with obtaining a very good image of the heart. This information is disclosed in Deutsch, et al. U.S. Patent application Ser. No. 628,482 filed Jul. 6, 1984 incorporated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,626. Additional work disclosed in the Deutsch, et al. patent indicated that 99m Tc(I) compounds ligated to phosphonate and phosphonite ligands cleared the liver more quickly and provided an even better myocardial image than prior compounds. However, the 99m Tc(I) ligated compounds clear the liver exceptionally well, but do not clear from the blood to permit a useful image of the heart. Other cationic ligated complexes of 99m Tc are disclosed, for example, in Rodriquez U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,790; Glavan, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,821; and Tweedle U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,291. Other technetium compounds are disclosed in European Patent Application 0123240. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is premised on the realization that Tc(III) myocardial imaging agents which are not reducible in vivo are very effective myocardial imaging agents. These Tc(III) myocardial agents are most effective when comprising a tetradentate ligand incorporating at least one furanone ring, four hard atoms, and capped with phosphines containing dioxanyl or ether moieties to provide technetium complexes in the 3+ oxidation state. More particularly, the present invention is premised on the realization that an effective myocardial imaging agent for humans can be prepared by ligating a tetradentate ligand system containing at least one furanone ring, although more preferably containing two furanone rings, to the four planar coordination bonding sites of an octahedrally coordinated technetium center and bonding phosphine ligands to the axial positions of the technetium center to provide a commercially viable heart imaging agent. Myocardial imaging agents so prepared exhibit substantially improved biodistribution and labeling properties. High myocardial uptake accompanied with exceptionally rapid hepatobilary clearance and extensive renal clearance gives sufficiently high heart/liver and heart/lung ratios to provide nearly ideal diagnostic myocardial images in humans. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The technetium compounds of the present invention which have been found most useful as myocardial imaging agents in humans comprise hexadentate technetium complexes having an overall cationic charge. More specifically the agents comprise technetium complexes in the 3+oxidation state coordinatively bonded to six atoms as shown in FormuIa 1. ##STR1## The R 1 groups illustrated in Formula 1 may be the same or different selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxy, C 1-C 5 alkyl--such as for example methyl or ethyl whereby methyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, and C 1 -C 5 alkyl substituted by one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, ether--such as for example methoxymethyl or methoxyethyl whereby methoxymethyl is preferable to decrease lipophilicity, ester--such as for example methoxycarbonyl or phenoxycarbonyl whereby methoxycarbonyl is preferable to increase susceptibility to hydrolysis, amide--such as for example dimethylaminocarbonyl or aminocarbonyl, ketone--such as for example 2-propanoyl or 3-butanoyl, aldehyde--such as for example 1-propanoyl or 1-butanoyl and nitrile-- such as for example cyanomethyl or cyanopropyl; and n may equal 1 or 2. The R 2 groups illustrated in Formula 1 may be the same or different selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxy, C 1 -C 5 alkyl--such as for example methyl or ethyl whereby methyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, and C 1 -C 5 alkyl substituted by one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, ether--such as for example methoxymethyl or methoxyethyl whereby methoxymethyl is preferable to decrease lipophilicity, ester--such as for example methoxycarbonyl or phenoxycarbonyl whereby methoxycarbonyl is preferable to increase susceptibility to hydrolysis, amide--such as for example dimethylaminocarbonyl or aminocarbonyl, ketone--such as for example 2-propanoyl or 3-butanoyl, aldehyde--such as for example 1-propanoyl or 1-butanoyl and nitrile--such as for example cyanomethyl or cyanopropyl; and n may equal 1 or 2. The X and Y groups may be the same or different selected from the group consisting of oxygen and sulfur. The R 3 groups may be the same or different phosphine ligands of the following general Formula 2: ##STR2## The R 4 group illustrated in Formula 2 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, C 1 -C 5 alkyl--such as methyl or ethyl whereby methyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, ether--such as methyoxymethyl or methoxyethyl whereby methoxymethyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, C 1 -C 5 alkylaryl--such as phenylmethyl or phenylpropyl whereby phenylmethyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, and C 1 -C 5 dioxanylpropyl, The R 5 groups may be the dioxanylmethyl or dioxanylpropyl. The R 5 groups may be the same or different from the R 4 group selected from a group consisting of C 1 -C 5 alkyl--such as methyl or ethyl whereby methyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, ether--such as methoxymethyl or methoxyethyl whereby methoxymethyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, C 1 -C 5 alkylaryl--such as phenylmethyl or phenylpropyl whereby phenylmethyl is preferred to decrease lipophilicity, and C 1 -C 5 dioxanylalkyl--such as for example dioxanylmethyl or dioxanylpropyl. Examples of such phosphine ligands include but are not limited to tris (3-ethoxypropyl) phosphine (TEPP), trimethylphosphine (PMe 3 ), triethylphosphine (PEt 3 ), tris (3-methoxy-3-methylbutyl) phosphine (PR 3 ), tris (3-methoxypropyl) phosphine (TMPP), tris [2-[2-(1, 3-dioxolanyl)]ethylphosphine, tris 2-[2-(1,3-dioxolanyl)]ethyl]phosphine; methylbis (3-methoxypropyl) phosphine, tris (4-methoxy-butyl) phosphine (TMBP), dimethyl (3-methoxy-propyl) phosphine (L), and methylbis[2-[2-(1,3-dioxanyl]ethyl]phosphine. Preferred phosphine ligands, also referred to as the "axial ligands", represented by R 3 in Formula 1 are tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine (TMPP) and tris[2-[2-(1,3-dioxanyl)]]ethylphosphine. The technetium compounds of the present invention are bonded generally to three ligands, two axial phosphine ligands as just described (represented as R 3 in Formula 1, and more specifically illustrated in Formula 2), and a tetradentate equatorial ligand as generally described in Formula 1, and more specifically consisting of one of the following formulas: ##STR3## The R 1 groups and X groups for each of the equatorial ligands illustrated by Formulas 3 and 4 are the same as the R and X groups previously defined in Formula 1 above, and n likewise equals 1 or 2. Examples of such tetradentate equatorial ligands of Formulas 3 and 4 are 1,2-Bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methylene-amino]ethane, as illustrated by Formula 3, wherein the R 1 groups all represent hydrogen, n=1 and the X groups represent oxygen; 1-[Dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane, as illustrated by Formula 3, wherein the R 1 groups all represent hydrogen, n=1 and the X groups represent oxygen and sulfur; 1,2-Bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-ethane, as illustrated by Formula 3, wherein the R 1 groups all represent hydrogen, n=1 and the X groups represent sulfur; and butanoic acid, 2-[[[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethyl]amino]-methylene-3-oxoethylester as illustrated by Formula 4 wherein the R 1 groups all represent hydrogen, n=1 and the X groups represent oxygen. Another equatorial ligand found to be useful is 2-Ethoxy-2-methyl-4-penten-3-one,5-5'-(1,2-ethanediyldiimino)bis. Preferred equatorial ligands are 1,2-Bis[dihydro2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane, 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-(dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane, and 1,2-Bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5- tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane. The preferred complexes of the present invention include trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis-[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]-technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis-[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]-technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis-[tris(2-(2-(1,3-dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine]technetiumm-99m(III), trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetra-methyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(3-methoxy-propyl)phosphine]technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(2-(2-(l,3dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine]technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[bis(3-methoxypropyl)methylphosphine]technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[di-hydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane] bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]-technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(4-methoxybutyl)phosphine]-technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis-[(3-methoxypropyl)-dimethylphosphine]technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[trimethylphosphine]- technetium-99m(III),trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis-[bis(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]techne-tium-99m(III), trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5- tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]-ethane]bis[bis(3-methoxypropyl)methylphosphine]-technetium-99m(III),trans-[l-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[(3methoxypropyl)dimethylphosphine]technetium-99m(III), and trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4 -methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(2-(2-(l,3dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine]technetium-99m(III). Each of the above 99m Tc(III) complexes shows significantly improved biodistribution and improved positive human heart images for use in diagnosis due to the presence of at least one furanose ring on the equatorial ligand. Examples of the above 99m Tc(III) complexes are listed in Table 1 illustrating the significantly improved biodistribution characteristic to this particular class of complexes. (See Table 1.) TABLE 1__________________________________________________________________________Biodistribution Data of Selected Tc-99m (III) Complexes in Guinea PigsTc-99m (III) Complex Time (min) % Heart uptake* Heart/Liver Heart/Blood__________________________________________________________________________I 5 0.8 1.5 4.6I 60 0.9 6.6 35.6II 5 0.9 1.6 6.1II 60 0.8 5.6 26.5III 5 1.1 0.9 5.9III 60 1.0 1.5 3.5IV 5 0.8 1.2 5.4IV 60 0.9 3.0 58.6__________________________________________________________________________ *%Injected dose/Organ I = trans[1,2bis[dihydro2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]etane]bis[tris(3methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium99m (III) II = trans[1[dihydro2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino2-[diydro2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneaminoethane]bis[tris(3metoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium99m (III) III = trans[1,2bis[dihydro2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneaminoethane]bis[tris(3methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium99m (III) IV = trans[1,2bis[dihydro2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]etane]bis[tris(2(2-(1,3-dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine]technetium99m (III) The myocardial imaging agents of the present invention may be made according to the following general examples: A. General two step synthesis of technetium-99m(III) complexes of the present invention. 10-18 mg of the tetradentate equatorial ligand was dissolved in 0.1 mL of ethanol. A solution of 0.1 mL of 99m TcO 4 - in saline (obtained from a molybdenum generator), diluted with 0.9 mL of water, was added and the mixture was deareated for 15 min. with argon. A solution of 30 microliters of 1M KOH and 15 micrograms of stannous chloride (in 5 microliters of ethanol, were added. The mixture was heated for 15 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction was monitored by HPLC on a PRP-1,250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. 0.01-0.03 mmol of phosphine as its hydrochloride salt was added and the solution was heated for 15 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction mixture was purified by HPLC on a PRP-1,250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc)-95:5 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. The HPLC eluate was diluted to 6.0-8.0 mL with the addition of 0.9% sodium chloride to give a solution of the technetium-99m(III) complex ready for use. The radiochemical purity was determined by HPLC on a PRP-1,150×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 45:55 CH 3 CN:0.1M NH 4 OAc at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min. B. General one step synthesis of technetium-99m(III) complexes of the present invention. 2-5 mg of the tetradentate equatorial ligand was dissolved in 0.1 mL of ethanol, diluted with 1 mL of water and the mixture was deareated for 15 min. with argon. 0.05 mL of 0.1M KOH and 0.008 mL of stannous chloride solution (3 mg/mL in ethanol) were added. 0.001-0.01 mmol of phosphine as its hydrochloride salt was added. A solution of 0.1 mL of 99m TcO 4 - in saline (obtained from a molybdenum generator) was added. The mixture was heated for 15 min. at 100° C. and cooled to room temperature to give a solution of the technetium-99m(III) complex ready for use. The radiochemical purity was determined by HPLC on a PRP-1,250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 45:55 CH 3 CN:0.1M NH 4 OAc at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min. The myocardial imaging agents of the present invention may be made according to the following specific examples: EXAMPLE 1 Synthesis of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane Mercuric oxide (600 mg) was dissolved in 200 mL of water containing 2 mL of concentrated H 2 SO 4 . Solid 2,5-dimethyl-3-hexyne-2,5-diol (50.0g, 352 mmol) was added and the solution was heated until the homogeneous solution turned cloudy. Heating was stopped and the flask was stirred in a room temperature water bath for 30 min. The solution was distilled and 250 mL of distillate was collected (more H 2 O was added). The biphasic material was taken up into ether, separated, washed with brine, dried over MgSO 4 , filtered, evaporated and distilled (150° C.) to give 44.5 g (89%) of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone as a water-white oil. Dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (32.1 g, 226 mmol) in 50 mL of ether was added dropwise to a suspension of sodium hydride (18.1 g of 60%, 453 mmol) in 400 mL of ether containing two drops of ethanol and 36.5 mL (453 mmol) of ethyl formate stirred at 0° C. After stirring overnight at room temperature, the reaction mixture was taken up into water, washed with additional ether, acidified with 6N HCl and extracted into ether. The combined ether layers were washed with water and brine, dried over MgSO 4 , decolorized with charcoal, filtered through celite and evaporated. The solid residue was recrystallized from a small volume of ether and a large quantity of hexanes. The solid was isolated by filtration and dried to give 30.4 g (79%) of 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone as an off-white solid. Ethylenediamine (1.15 mL, 17.4 mmol) was added to a solution of 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (5.9 g, 34.7 mmol) in 40 mL of THF. This solution was refluxed for one hour. The solvents were evaporated under high vacuum with moderate heating. The solid residue was slurried in 50 mL of cold ether and filtered to give 5.3 g (76%) of off-white solid. Recrystallization from 50 mL of THF followed by drying at 70° C. (1 Torr) for 6 hours gave 4.0 g of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane as a white solid: Anal. Calc'd for C 20 H 32 N 2 O 4 : C, 65.93; H, 8.79; N, 7.69. Found: C, 65.68; H, 8.90; N, 7.65. EXAMPLE 2 Synthesis of 1,3-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-(3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]propane. Propylenediamine (0.37 mL, 4.4 mmol) and 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro- 2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone(1.5 g, 8.8 mmol) were refluxed together in 25 mL of methanol for 10 min. The solvent was evaporated and the residue was chromatographed on the Chromatotron (4 mm, 8/2 EtOAc/hexanes). The clean fractions were evaporated to leave a solid. Recrystallization from EtOAc/hexanes gave 700 mg of 1,3-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]propane as a white solid. This material was dried overnight at 70° C. under high vacuum: mp 125°-127° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 21 H 34 N 2 O 4 : C, 66.67; H, 8.99; N, 7.41. Found: C, 66.52; H, 9.03; N, 7.36. EXAMPLE 3 Synthesis of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4methoxyethyleneamino]ethane A solution of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone (5.0 g, 35 mmol) and methyl methoxyacetate (3.5 mL, 35 mmol) in 20 mL of ether was added dropwise to a suspension of sodium hydride (2.8 g of 60%, 70 mmol) in ice-cold ether (100 mL) containing two drops of ethanol. After the addition was complete, the ice-bath was removed and stirring was continued overnight. Water was added and the layers were separated. The brown aqueous layer was washed with ether, acidified with 3N HCl, and extracted with ether. The combined organic layers were washed with water and brine, dried over MgSO 4 , filtered and evaporated to leave 1,6 g (21%) of 4-(2-hydroxy-l-methoxyethylene- dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-(2H)furanone as an oil. Crude 4-(2-hydroxy-l-methoxyethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-(2H)furanone (l.6 g, 7.2 mmol) and ethylenediamine (0.25 mL, 3.6 mmol) were refluxed together in 25 mL of methanol for 5 min. Crystals formed within a few min. After cooling, the solid was isolated by filtration to give 1.47 g (90%) of cream colored solid. A 1.25 g portion was recrystallized from methanol to give 1.0 g of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4methoxyethyleneamino]ethane as white crystals: MP 192°-194° C. (d); Anal. calc'd for C 24 H 40 N 2 O 6 .2H 2 O: C, 59.02; H, 9.02; N, 5.74. Found: C, 58.91; H, 9.11; N, 5.80. EXAMPLE 4 Synthesis of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane Hydrogen gas was bubbled over the top of a mixture of 2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone (5.0 g, 45 mmol) and 5% Pd/C (1.0 g) in 50 mL of water. After 24 hours, the starting material remained unchanged, so the mixture was transfered to a parr bottle and hydrogenated overnight at a pressure of 40 psi. The catalyst was removed by filtration and the aqueous solution was saturated with sodium chloride and extracted with ether. The combined ether layers were dried over MgSO 4 , filtered and a large amount of the ether was distilled off through a short fractionating column to leave a 46 mol % or 56.5 wt % solution of dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-(3(2H)furanone in ether (4.55 g, 90%). An ether solution of dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone (4.55 g, 39.9 mmol) in 30 mL of ether was added dropwise to a suspension of sodium hydride (3.2 g of 60%, 80 mmol) in 150 mL of ether containing three drops of ethanol and 6.5 mL (80 mmol) of ethyl formate stirred at 0° C. After stirring overnight at room temperature, the reaction mixture was taken up into water, the ether layer separated, washed with additional ether, acidified with 6N HCl and with water and brine, dried over MgSO 4 , decolorized with charcoal, filtered and evaporated to leave 2.4 g of 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone as a colorless oil (43%). A solution of ethylenediamine (0.56 mL, 8.4 mmol) and 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone (2.4 g, 16.9 mmol) in 40 mL of methanol was refluxed for 5 min. The orange solution was evaporated. The residue was taken up into boiling ethyl acetate, decolorized with charcoal, filtered hot and evaporated. The residue was slurried in ether and filtered cold to give 2.0 g of yellow solid. A 1.5 g sample was recrystallized from THF/hexanes to give 1.0 g of yellow solid. This material was recrystallized from MeOH/ether to give 700 mg of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl -3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane as a light yellow solid after drying under high vacuum overnight at 100° C.: mp 171°-173° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 16 H 24 N 2 O 4 : C, 62.34; H, 7.79; N, 9.09. Found: C, 62.19; H, 7.80; N, 9.06. EXAMPLE 5 Synthesis of butanoic acid, 2-[[[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethyl]amino]-methylene-3-oxo ethyl ester Ethylenediamine (1.0 mL, 15 mmol) was added to 4-hydroxymethylene-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (750 mg,4.4 mmol) in 20 mL of ethanol. After stirring for one hour excess ethylenediamine and ethanol were removed by evaporation. Additional ethanol (20 mL) was added followed by ethyl 2-ethoxymethylene-3-oxobutanoate (820 mg, 4.4 mmol) in 20 mL of ethanol. The solution was refluxed for 15 min. then cooled. The byproduct, butanoic acid, 2,2'-[1,2-ethanediylbis(iminomethylidyne)]-bis[3-oxo]-diethyl ester (300 mg) was removed by filtration. The filtrate was evaporated and chromatographed to give 666 mg (43%) of butanoic acid, 2-[[[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethyl]amino]methylene-3-oxo-ethyl ester as a white solid. EXAMPLE 6 Synthesis of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane A heterogeneous mixture of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane (1.0 g, 2.7 mmol) and Lawesson's Reagent ([2,4-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,3-dithia-2,4-diphosphetane-2,4-disulfide],1.2 g, 3.0 mmol) was stirred in 35 mL of dimethoxyethane for one hour at room temperature. The solution became bright orange and homogeneous. The solution was poured into methylene chloride, washed with water and brine, dried over MgSO 4 , filtered and evaporated. The solid residue was slurried in ether, cooled and the orange solid was collected (1.1 g). This material was chromatographed on the Chromatotron (4 mm 1/1 EtOAc/hexanes→EtOAc). The isolated pure fractions were evaporated and the residue was recrystallized from methylene chloride/hexanes to give 720 mg (66%) of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane as an orange solid: mp 219°-221° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 20 H 32 N 2 O 2 S 2 : C, 60.61; H, 8.08;N, 7.07; S, 16.16. Found: C, 60.35; H, 8.06, N, 7.03; S, 16.28. EXAMPLE 7 Synthesis of 1,3-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]propane Propylenediamine (0.5 mL, 0.44 g, 6.0 mmol) and 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro- 2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (2.0 g, 12 mmol) were refluxed together in 30 mL of methanol for 10 min. The solvent was evaporated and the residue was crystallized from EtOAc/hexanes to give 1.7 g (76%) of white solid. This material was stirred with Lawesson's Reagent (2.0 g, 4.9 mmol) in 50 mL of DME for 30 min. at room temperature. The solvents were evaporated and the residue was diluted with methylene chloride and run through a short column of 1/1 silica/basic alumina (CH 2 Cl 2 ). The yellow eluant was evaporated and the residue was recrystallized from CH 2 Cl 2 /hexanes to give 1.5 g (82%) of 1,3-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]propane as an orange solid: mp 172°-173° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 21 H 34 N 2 O 2 S 2 : C, 61.46; H, 8.29; N, 6.83; S, 15.61. Found: C, 61.21; H, 8.33; N, 6.76; S, 15.47. EXAMPLE 8 Synthesis of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane A mixture of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane (1.0 g, 3.2 mmol) and Lawesson's Reagent (1.4 g, 3.5 mmol) was stirred in 35 mL of DME for 30 min. at room temperature. The mixture was cooled in an ice-bath for one hour to precipitate an orange solid that was collected by filtration. Recrystallization from chloroform/hexanes gave 460 mg (42%) of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane as orange crystals: mp 210°-212° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 16 H 24 N 2 O 2 S 2 : C, 56.47; H, 7.06; N, 8.24; S, 18.82. Found: C, 56.41; H, 7.10; N, 8.22; S, 18.74. EXAMPLE 9 Synthesis of 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane Ethylamine gas was bubbled through a solution of 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (4.0 g, 24 mmol) in 50 mL of chloroform at room temperature for 15 min. The solvents were evaporated and the residue was recrystallized from hexanes to give 3.0 g (65%) of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-ethylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanone as a light brown solid. A mixture of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-ethylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanone (1.0 g, 5.1 mmol) and Lawesson's Reagent (1.1 g, 2.7 mmol) was stirred in 20 mL of DME for 20 min. at room temperature. The solvent was evaporated and the residue was dissolved in methylene chloride and eluted through a plug of silica gel/basic alumina 1/1 (CH 2 Cl 2 ). The eluant was evaporated to leave dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-ethylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanthione as an orange solid. Ethylenediamine (2.2 mL, 2.0 g, 33 mmol) was added to an ice-cold solution of 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (1.6 g, 9.4 mmol) in 40 mL of chloroform. After 15 min. at room temperature, the solvent and excess ethylenediamine were removed by evaporation. The residue was diluted with 50 mL of ethanol, 2.0 g (9.4 mmol) of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4ethylaminomethylene-3-(2H)furanthione was added and the solution was refluxed for 30 min. The solvent was evaporated and the residue was chromatographed in two portions on the chromatotron (4 mm, 1 Hex/EtOAc (5% TEA)). The clean fractions of both runs were combined to give 1.33 g (36%) of yellow solid. An 800 mg fraction of this product was chromatographed in two portions (350 & 450 mg) on a Phenomenex 500×22.5 mm Partisil 10 column using the Waters 3000 (mobile phase 1/1 EtOAc (5% TEA)/hexane), injection volume .sup.˜ 1.0 mL in CH 2 Cl 2 , flow rate 15 mL/min, fractions collected starting at .sup.˜ 60 min). The early eluting clean fractions of both runs were combined and evaporated to give 700 mg of yellow solid. Recrystallization from CH 2 Cl 2 /hexanes and drying 4 hours at 60° C. gave 550 mg of 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane as yellow crystals: mp 122°-125° C. Anal. Calc'd for C 20 H 32 N 2 O 3 S: C, 63.16; H, 8.42; N, 7.37; S, 8.42. Found: C, 63.18; H, 8.51; N, 7.39; S, 8.53. EXAMPLE 10 Synthesis of 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-3 -[dihydro-2,2,5,5- tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]propane Propylenediamine (1.4 mL, 1.2 g, 17 mmol) was added to an ice-cold solution of 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (0.8 g, 4.7 mmol) in 20 mL of chloroform. After 10 min. at room temperature, the solvent and excess propylenediamine were removed by evaporation to leave a thick oil. The residue was diluted with 30 mL of ethanol and 1.0 g (4.7 mmol) of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-ethylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanthione was added. The solution was refluxed for two hours. The solution was evaporated and the residue was chromatographed on the Chromatotron (4 mm, 7/3 Hexanes/EtOAc (5% TEA)) to give 400 mg of crude O,S product. This fraction was rechromatographed (7/3 hexanes/CH 2 Cl 2 , 5% MeOH) and the clean fractions were combined, evaporated and recrystallized from CH 2 Cl 2 /hexanes to give 200 mg of 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4 -methyleneamino]- 3-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furan one-4-methyleneamino]propane as a yellow solid: mp 129°-130° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 21 H 34 N 2 O 3 S: C, 63.96; H, 8.63; N, 7.11; S, 8.12. Found: C, 63.81; H, 8.68; N, 7.06; S, 8.14. EXAMPLE 11 Synthesis of 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[2-propane-3-ethyleneamino]ethane Methylamine gas was bubbled through a solution of 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (5.0 g, 29 mmol) in 50 mL of chloroform for 30 min. The solvents were evaporated. The solid residue was recrystallized from hexanes to give 4.0 g (74%) of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-methylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanone as a light yellow solid: mp 80°-82° C.; Anal Calc'd for C 10 H 17 NO 2 : C, 65.57; H, 9.29; N, 7.65. Found: C, 65.47; H, 9.30; N, 7.60. A mixture of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-methylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanone (3.2 g, 18 mmol) and Lawesson's Reagent (3.8 g, 9.4 mmol) in 40 mL of DME was stirred for 30 min. at room temperature. The solvents were evaporated from the homogeneous orange solution. The residue was taken up in a small volume of methylene chloride and eluted through a short column of 1/1 silica gel/basic alumina with methylene chloride. The solvent was evaporated to leave a yellow solid. Recrystallization from CH 2 Cl 2 /hexanes gave 2.5 g of dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-methylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanthione as an orange solid. An analytically pure sample was made by chromatographing a small amount on the Chromatotron (Silica 1/1 EtOAc/hexanes): mp 115°-117° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 10 H 17 NOS: C, 60.30; H, 8.54; N, 7.04; S, 16.08. Found: C, 60.27; H, 8.62; N, 7.04; S, 16.15. Acetylacetone (0.5 g, 5 mmol) in 10 mL of chloroform was added dropwise to a room temperature solution of ethylenediamine (1.0 mL, 15 mmol) in 10 mL of chloroform. After three hours the excess ethylenediamine and solvent were removed by evaporation. The oily residue was dissolved in 20 mL of ethanol. Dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-4-methylaminomethylene-3(2H)furanthione (1.0 g, 5 mmol) was added and the solution was refluxed for 15 min. and the solvents evaporated. The residue was chromatographed on the Chromatotron (4 mm 3/2 Hexanes/EtOAc (5% TEA)). The clean fractions were combined and evaporated. The solid residue was slurried in cold hexanes, filtered and dried to give 222 mg of 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]2-[2-propane-3-ethyleneamino]ethane as a yellow solid: mp 163°-166° C.; Anal. Calc'd for C 16 H 26 N 2 O 2 S: C, 61.94; H, 8.39; N, 9.03; S, 10.32. Found: C, 61.89; H, 8.48; N, 8.98; S, 10.24. EXAMPLE 12 Synthesis of (2S)-2,3-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]propanoate, ethyl ester A mixture of ethyl (2S)-2,3-diaminopropanoate dihydrochloride (2.8 g, 14 mmol), 4-hydroxymethylene-dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (4.6 g, 27 mmol) and triethylamine (4.1 mL, 31 mmol) was refluxed in 50 mL of ethanol for 10 min. The solvents were evaporated and the residue was taken up into ether, washed with water and brine, dried over MgSO 4 , filtered and evaporated to leave 4.6 g (77%) of yellow glass. A one gram portion of the crude product was chromatographed on silica gel (7/3 hexanes/ethyl acetate-1/1) to give after trituration with hexanes and recrystallization from ether/hexanes 570 m of (2S)-2,3-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]propanoate, ethyl ester as a white solid: mp=95°-96° C. ; Anal. Calc'd for C 23 H 36 N 2 O 6 : C, 63.30; H, 8.26; N, 6.42. Found: C, 63.24; H, 8.33; N, 6.38. EXAMPLE 13 Synthesis of 1-[5,5-dimethyl-2,4-(3H,5H)furandione-3 -methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane Dimethylformamide dimethylacetal (10.4 mL, 78 mmol) and 5,5-dimethyl-tetronic acid (5.0 g, 39 mmol) were stirred together overnight at room temperature. Ether (25 mL) was added and after cooling in an ice-bath the solid was collected by filtration. Recrystallization from ethyl acetate/hexanes gave 6.2 g (86%) of 3-dimethylaminomethylene-5,5-dimethyl tetronic acid as a bright yellow solid. Hydroxymethylene-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone (1.0 g, 5.9 mmol) was added to a solution of ethylenediamine (1.2 mL, 18 mmol) in 20 mL of ethanol. After one hour, the excess ethylenediamine and solvent were evaporated. The residue was dissolved in 20 mL of ethanol and 3-dimethylaminomethylene-5,5-dimethyl tetronic acid (1.1 g, 5.9 mmol) was added. The mixture was refluxed for ten minutes then cooled. The solid was collected by filtration and recrystallized from ethanol and dried to give 900 mg (44%) of 1-[5,5-dimethyl-2,4-(3H,5H)furandione-3-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane as a white solid; mp 225°-227° C. Anal Calc'd for C 18 H 26 N 2 O 5 ; C, 61.71; H, 7.43; N, 8.00. Found: C, 61.68; H, 7.49; N, 8.00. EXAMPLE 14 Synthesis of tris[2-[2-(1,3-dioxanyl)]ethyl]phosphine 2-[2-(1,3-dioxanyl)]ethylmagnesium bromide was generated from 2-(2-bromoethyl)-l,3-dioxane (15.0 g, 76.9 mmol) and Mg metal (1.9 g, 76.9 mmol) and reacted with PCl 3 (1.1 ml, 12.8 mmol) according to General Method I. The residue was recrystallized (2x) from methanol to afford 4.16 g (86%) of tris[2-[2-(1,3-dioxanyl)]ethyl]phosphine as white needles. 31 P-NMR (CDCl 3 ):δ-29.6. MS (LREI) m/z=376. Anal. Calcd. for C 18 H 33 O 6 P: C 57.43, H 8.84, P 8.23. Found: C 57.42, H 8.85 P 8.37. GENERAL METHOD I To ground Mg (100 mmol) in THF (25 ml) was added 1 crystal I 2 and 1 drop of 1,2-dibromoethane followed by several drops of halide (100 mmol) in THF (25 ml) and the reaction was initiated by warming. The remaining halide/THF solution was added at a rate which maintained a gentle reflux. The reflux was continued for 2 h post-addition by external heating. The material was diluted with THF (50 ml), cannula transferred (away from unreacted Mg metal) to a fresh dry flask under Argon, cooled to -78° C. and stirred for 30 min. PX 3 (15 mmol) in THF (5 ml) was added dropwise over 1 h, allowed to warm to R 4 T., gradually, and heated to reflux for 2 h thereafter. The reaction was cooled to 10° C. and quenched by dropwise addition of deaerated water (10 ml). The THF solution was cannula transferred onto 20 g of Na 2 SO 4 , allowed to dry for 6 h and cannula transferred to a fresh flask. The THF was removed by distillation and the residue was purified by distillation or recrystallization a indicated. EXAMPLE 15 Synthesis of tris[2-[2-(1,3-dioxolanyl)]ethyl]phosphine 2-[2-(1,3-dioxolanyl)]ethylmagnesium bromide was generated from 2-(2-bromoethyl)l,3-dioxolane (15.0 g, 83.0 mmol) and Mg metal (2.1 g, 86.0 mmol) and reacted with PCl 3 (0.9 ml, 10.3 mmol) according to General Method I. The residue was distilled (kugelrhor) to provide 1.26 g (36%) of tris[2-[2-(1,3-dioxolanyl)]ethyl]phosphine as a colorless mobile oil. 31 PNMR(CDCl 3 ) δ-29.8. EXAMPLE 16 Synthesis of tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine Mechanically stirred 1,3-propanediol (1500 g, 19.7 mol) is heated to 80° C. and solid KOH (735 g, 13.1 mol) is added in portions over lh. The mixture is stirred for 1h post-addition, the apparatus is fitted with an efficient condenser and methyl iodide (815 ml, 13.1 mol) is added dropwise over 12h. The mixture is stirred for 6h post-addition at 80° C. and allowed to cool. The solids are filtered and the filtrate is extracted with chloroform (3×500 ml). The combined extracts are thoroughly dried with Na 2 SO 4 and concentrated. Fractional distillation afforded 466 g (40%) of pure 3-methoxypropanol:(bp=149° C.@1 atm). 3-Methoxypropanol (238.5 g, 2.6 mol) was dissolved in pyridine (206 g), cooled to 5° C., and thionyl chloride (284 ml, 3.9 mol) was added dropwise over 2h with vigorous mechanical stirring. When the addition was complete the reaction mixture was refluxed for 3h and poured onto 1 kg crushed ice in conc. HCl (200 ml). The layers are separated and the organic portion is dried over K 2 CO 3 . Concentration and purification of the residue by fractional distillation (bp=110° C.@1 atm) afforded 161.5 g (57%) of pure 1-chloro-3-methoxypropane as a colorless liquid. 3-Methoxypropyl-magnesium chloride was generated from 1-chloro-3-methoxypropane (20.0 g, 184 mmol) and magnesium metal (4.48 g, 184 mmol) and reacted with dichloroethoxy-phosphonite (3.50 ml, 30.7 mmol) according to General Method I. Vacuum distillation (bp.=154°-155° [email protected] mm Hg) afforded 3.80 g (49%) of tris(3 methoxypropyl)-phosphine as a colorless mobile oil. 31 P-NMR (Benzene-d 6 ): δ -32.9. MS (LREI) m/z=251 (M+1). EXAMPLE 17 Synthesis of tris(4-methoxybutyl)phosphine 4-Methoxybutylmagnesium chloride was generated from 1-chloro-4-methoxybutane (7.0 g, 57.1 mmol) and magnesium metal (1.4 g, 57.1 mmol) and reacted with PCl 3 (0.83 ml, 9.5 mmol) according to General Method I. Vacuum distillation (146° [email protected] mm Hg) afforded 2.10 g (76%) of tris(4-methoxybutyl)phosphine as a colorless mobile oil. 31 P-NMR (Benzene-d 6 ): -28.9. MS (LREI) m/z=293 (M+I). EXAMPLE 18 Synthesis of tris(3-ethoxypropyl)phosphine To 3-ethoxypropanol (50,0 g, 0.48 mol) in pyridine (250 ml) was added benzenesulfonyl chloride (67.4 ml, 0.53 mol) dropwise at 0° C. The mixture was allowed to warm to RT and stir over night. The mixture was poured into cold 6N HCl (200 ml) and the resulting mixture was extracted with ether (3×100 ml). The combined extracts were dried (Na 2 SO 4 ) and concentrated and the crude oil was immediately dissolved in acetone (300 ml) and treated with LiCl (23.5 g). After stirring at RT for 12 h the solution was poured into water (500 ml) and extracted with pentane (3×200 ml). The combined extracts were dried (Na 2 SO 4 ) and concentrated. The residue was purified by fractional distillation affording 52.0 (88%) of pure 1-chloro-3-ethoxypropane as a colorless liquid. 3-Ethoxypropylmagnesium chloride was generated from 1-chloro-3-ethoxypropane (10 g, 81.6 mmol) and Mg metal (2 g, 81.6 mmol) and reacted with PCl 3 (0.89 ml, 10.2 mmol) according to General Method I. Vacuum distillation of the residue afforded 2.2 g (74%) of tris(3-ethoxypropyl)-phosphine as a mobile colorless oil (b.p.=120° [email protected] mmHg). 31 P-NMR (CDCl 3 ):δ -31.3. MS (LRCI) m/z=309 (M+16; phosphine oxide). EXAMPLE 19 Synthesis of tris(2-methoxyethoxymethyl)phosphine To ground Mg metal (5.2 g, 214 mmol) was added I 2 (1 crystal), HgBr 2 (10 mg) and 2 ml of a solution of 2-methoxyethoxymethyl chloride (25 g, 201 mmol) in THF (100 ml) at R.T. After 30 sec, the reaction started and was cooled to -30° C. (dry-ice/acetone). The remaining chloride/THF solution was added dropwise at -20° to -10° C. over 2 h. The mixture was stirred at 0° C. for 2h post-addition and cooled to -78° C. The reagent was then treated with PCl 3 (2.2 ml, 25.1 mmol) according to General Method I and the final residue was purified by distillation to afford 1.6 (21%) of tris(2-methoxyethoxymethyl)phosphine as a colorless mobile oil (b.p.=150°-160° [email protected] mmHg). 31 P-NMR(CDCl 3 ): -42.7. MS(LREI)m/z=299(M+1 ). EXAMPLE 20 Synthesis of tris(3-methoxy-3-methylbutyl)phosphine To isoprenyl alcohol (80.0 g, 929 mmol) in CH 2 Cl 2 (500 ml) at 0° C. was added one drop of methanesulfonic acid. To this solution was added 2,3-dihydropyran (100 ml, 1.10 mol) dropwise over 3 h. After the addition was complete triethylamine (5 ml) was added and the resulting mixture was filtered through a thin pad of SiO 2 and concentrated to afford 159 g (100%) of 2-(3-methyl-3-butenyloxy)tetrahydropyran as a colorless liquid. To 2-(3-methyl-3-butenyloxy)tetrahydropyran (150.0 g, 881.0 mmol) in methanol (600 ml) was added mercuric acetate (309 g, 969 mmol) and the mixture was stirred until it became homogeneous. To this solution was added 0.5N NaOH (500 ml) in one portion followed by dropwise addition of 0.5N NaBH 4 in 0.5N NaOH (500 ml). The mixture is stirred until mercury metal congeals at the bottom of the flask. The solution is decanted into a separatory funnel and extracted with ether (3×300 ml). The combined ethereal extracts are dried (MgSO 4 ) and concentrated to afford 166 g (93%) of 2-(3-methoxy-3-methylbutyloxy)tetrahydropyran as a colorless liquid. 2-(3-Methoxy-3-methylbutyloxy)tetrahydropyran (166 g, 821 mmol) was dissolved in methanol (500 ml) and treated with Dowex-55 strong acid resin (100 g). The reaction was stirred at RT until TLC indicated no starting material remaining. The mixture was filtered and thoroughly concentrated to afford 92 g crude alcohol. This material was azeotropically dried by rotovaping with toluene (2×100 ml) and a 10.2 g (86.3 mmol) aliquot was dissolved in pyridine (75 ml). The solution was cooled to 0° C. and benzenesulfonyl chloride (12.7 ml, 99.3 mmol) was added dropwise. The reaction was stirred for 12 h at RT and poured into cold water (500 ml). The resulting mixture was extracted with ether (3×50 ml) and the combined extracts are dried (Na 2 SO 4 ) and concentrated. The crude oil was immediately dissolved in acetone (200 ml) and treated with LiCl (10.0 g, 236 mmol). The mixture was stirred for 6h filtered and concentrated. The residue was dissolved in water (500 ml) and extracted with pentane (3×50 ml). The combined extracts were dried (MgSO 4 ), concentrated and distilled (Kugelrhohr) to afford 8.70 g (78%) of pure 1-chloro-3-methoxy-3-methylbutane. 3-Methoxy-3-methylbutylmagnesium chloride was generated from 1-chloro-3-methoxy-3-methylbutane (8.0 g, 58.6 mmol) and Mg metal (1.43 g, 58.6 mmol) and reacted with PCl 3 (0.6 ml, 7.3 mmol) according to General Method 1. The residue was purified by distillation to afford 1.66 g (68%) of pure tris(3-methoxy-3-methylbutyl)phosphine as a colorless viscous oil. 31 PNMR (CD 3 OD):δ -26.3. MS (HRFAB) m/z=335.2724 (M+1); (335.2719 calc'd for C 18 H 40 O 3 P). EXAMPLE 21 Synthesis of 3-methoxypropyldimethylphosphine 3-Methoxypropyl-magnesium chloride was generated from 1-chloro-3-methoxypropane (8.0 g, 74 mmol) and Mg metal (1.8 g, 74 mmol) and reacted with dimethylchlorophosphine (3.6 g, 37 mmol) according to General Method I. The residue was purified by fractional distillation (bp=89°-90° C.@103 mm Hg) to afford pure 3-methoxypropyldimethylphosphine as a colorless liquid. 31 PNMR (Benzene-d 6 ):δ -53.5. MS (HREI) m/z=134.0858 (134.0860 calc'd for C 6 H 15 OP). EXAMPLE 22 Synthesis of bis(3-methoxypropyl)methylphosphine 3-Methoxypropyl-magnesium chloride was generated from 1 -chloro-3-methoxypropane (10.0 g, 92.0 mmol) and Mg metal (2.26 g, 93.0 mmol) and reacted with dichloromethylphosphine (4.1 ml, 0.46 mmol) according to General Method I. The residue was purified by fractional distillation (bp=110° [email protected] mm Hg) affording 5.9 g (68%) of bis(3-methoxypropyl)methylphosphine as a mobile colorless oil. 31 PNMR(Benzene-d 6 ):δ -43.3. MS (HREI) m/z=192.1279 (192.1279 calc'd for C 9 H 21 O 2 P). EXAMPLE 23 Two step synthesis of trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis-[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99 m(III) 18 mg of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane was dissolved in 0.1 mL of ethanol. A solution of 0.1 mL of 99m TcO 4 - in saline (obtained from a molybdenum generator), diluted with 0.9 mL of water, was added and the mixture was deareated for 15 min with argon. A solution of 30 microliters of 1M KOH and 15 microgams of stannous chloride (in 5 microliters of ethanol) were added. The mixture was heated for 15 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction was monitored by HPLC on a PRP-1, 250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. A volume of 300 microliters of a solution of 225 mg of tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine and 0.9 mL of 1M HCl in 9.1 mL of ethanol was added and the solution was heated for 10 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction mixture was purified by HPLC on a PRP-1, 250×4.1 mm,10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. The HPLC eluate (0.9 mL) was diluted to 8.0 mL with the addition of 7.1 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride to give a solution of trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99 m(III) ready for use. The radiochemical purity was 90% as determined by HPLC on a PRP-1, 150×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 45:55 CH 3 CN:0.1M NH 4 OAc at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min; tr=5.7 min. EXAMPLE 24 Two step synthesis of trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane]-bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99m (III) 10 mg of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane was dissolved in 0.1 mL of ethanol. A solution of 0.2 mL of 99m TcO 4 - in saline (obtained from a molybdenum generator), diluted with 0.8 mL of water, was added and the mixture was deareated for 15 min. with argon. A solution of 30 microliters of 1M KOH and 15 micrograms of stannous chloride (in 5 microliters of ethanol) were added. The mixture was heated for 15 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction was monitored by HPLC on a PRP-1, 250×4. 1 mm, 10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. A volume of 300 microliters of a solution of 225 mg of tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine and 0.9 mL of 1M HCl in 9.1 mL of ethanol was added and the solution was heated for 10 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction mixture was purified by HPLC on a PRP-1, 250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. The HPLC eluate (0.9 mL) was diluted to 8.0 mL with the addition of 7.1 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride to give a solution of trans-[1,2-bis-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis [tris(3-methoxypropyl)-phosphine]technetium-99 m(III) ready for use. The radiochemical purity was 99% as determined by HPLC on a PRP-1, 150×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 45:55 CH 3 CN:0.1M NH 4 OAc at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min; tr=8.6 min. EXAMPLE 25 Two step synthesis of trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis-tris(2-(2-(1,3-dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine]technetium-99m(III) 18 mg of 1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-(3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane was dissolved in 0.1 mL of ethanol. A solution of 0. 1 mL of 99m TcO 4 - in saline (obtained from a molybdenum generator), diluted with 0.9 mL of water, was added and the mixture was deareated for 15 min. with argon. A solution of 30 microliters of 1M KOH and 15 micrograms of stannous chloride (in 5 microliters of ethanol) were added. The mixture was heated for 15 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction was monirored by HPLC on a PRP-1, 250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. A volume of 150 microliters of a solution of 60 mg of tris(2-(2-(1,3-dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine and 20 microliters of 12M HCl in 2 mL of ethanol was added and the solution was heated for 15 min. at 70° C. and cooled to room temperature. The reaction mixture was purified by HPLC on a PRP-1,250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 80:20 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc)-95:5 MeOH:H 2 O (50 mM NH 4 OAc) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. The HPLC eluate (0.4 mL) was diluted to 6.0 mL with the addition of 5.4 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride to give a solution of trans-[1,2-bis-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(2-(2-(1,3-dioxanyl))]ethyl-phosphine]technetium-99 m(III) ready for use. The radiochemical purity was 99% as determined by HPLC on a PRP-1, 150×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 45:55 CH 3 CN:0.1M NH 4 OAc at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min; tr=8.6 min. EXAMPLES 26-37 The compounds listed below were synthesized using the procedures substantially in accordance with those of Examples 23-25: trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(2-(2-(1,3dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine]technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[bis(3-methoxypropyl)methylphosphine]technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]-technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(4-methoxybutyl)phosphine]-technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[(3-methoxypropyl)dimethylphosphine]technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[trimethylphosphine]-technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[bis(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1,2-bis[dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4 methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[bis(3-methoxypropyl)methylphosphine]technetium-99 m(III), trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[(3-methoxypropyl)dimethylphosphineltechnetium-99 m(III), and trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(2-(2-(1,3-dioxanyl))]ethylphosphine]technetium-99 m(III). EXAMPLE 38 One step synthesis of trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneaminoethane]bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium99 m(III) 2 mg of 1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane was dissolved in 0.1 mL of ethanol, diluted with 1 mL of water and the mixture was deareated for 15 min. with argon. 0.05 mL of 0.1M KOH and 0.008 mL of stannous chloride solution (3 mg/mL in ethanol) were added. A volume of 0.05 mL of a solution of 0.06M tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine hydrochloride was added. A solution of 0.1 mL of 99m TcO 4 in saline (obtained from a molybdenum generator) was added. The mixture was heated for 15 min. at 100° C. and cooled to room temperature to give a solution of trans-[1-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3(2H)-furanthione-4-methyleneamino]-2-[dihydro-2,2,5,5-tetra-methyl-3(2H)furanone-4-methyleneamino]ethane]bis[tris(3-methoxypropyl)phosphine]technetium-99 m(III). The radiochemical purity was 97% as determined by HPLC on a PRP-1, 250×4.1 mm, 10 micron column in 45:55 CH 3 CN:0.1M NH 4 OAc at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min; tr=8.7 min. The myocardial imaging agents of the present invention specified above may be used in any pharmaceutically acceptable imaging vehicle. These include those suitable for injection, such as aqueous buffer solutions, e.g. (Tris hydroxymethyl) aminomethane and its salt, phosphate, citrate, bicarbonate, e.g., sterile water for in]ection, physiological saline, and balance ionic solutions containing chloride and/or bicarbonate salt of normal blood plasma cations such as calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Other buffer solutions are described in Remington's Practice of Pharmacy, 11th Edition, for example on page 170. Additionally, the pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle may contain stabilizers, antioxidants and other adjuncts. Stabilizers include gelatin or other materials in stabilizing amounts to prevent aggregation of the particles, antioxidants, and antioxidants amounts of such as reducing sugars, (e.g. fructose, or free acid, or metal salts of gentisic acid (ascorbic acid and other adjutants such as reducing agents, preferably stanis salts, intermediate exchange ligands, and exchange amounts, such as metal salts of tartrate, glutinate or citrate, as well as bulking agents and bulking amounts, such as lactose). The myocardial imaging agents may also be formulated in a one step procedure as a lyophilized kit wherein the radioisotope solution is injected for reconstitution or is an autoclaved or radiation sterilized solution which is then treated with the radioisotope. The product may be formulated in a two-step scheme as described above where the radioisotope is bound to the equatorial ligand and then is complexed with or without purification with the axial ligand. The steps just described may additionally require heating and the intermediates or final products may require purification before use. The concentration of the myocardial imaging agent in a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle varies with its particular use. A sufficient amount is present to provide satisfactory imaging. This amount will vary with the physical properties of the imaging agent being used. The myocardial imaging agent composition is administered in a radioactive dose of from 0.01 mCi/mL to 10 mCi/mL most preferably 2 mCi/mL to 5 mCi/mL. The administration dose per human is usually in the range of 10 to 30 mCi/mL. The method of imaging of the heart can be carried out by known scanning techniques after waiting an appropriate period of time to permit blood clearance of the radio-pharmaceutical. For example, time dependent scintiscans of the chest region of a patient can be used. A computer interfaced 16 crystal, Ohio Nuclear Spectrometer can be used for these scans. The complexes of the present invention can also be used in a single photon emission computed tomography as described in Beyer, et al. Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine. Vol. I, No. 2, page 10 (Summer of 1984). Other metal radioisotopes found to be particularly useful in PET (positron emission tomography) when used as the radioisotope in the present invention are Cu 2+ and Ga 3+ . The present invention is also particularly suitable for use in a kit preparation. The kit preparation would consist of either one or two sterile, pyrogen free vials. In the "Two-Vial Kit" the first vial contains an effective equatorial ligand having the structure shown in Formula 3 or 4 above in combination with an effective reducing agent, in this case, tin chloride. This would be a lyophilized composition. The second vial would contain a protective salt of the phosphine ligand, such as those described above. Typically, this would be the phosphine salt bonded to HCL, H 2 SO 4 , iron (II), copper (I), or zinc (II). The acid salts are preferred. The kit would be prepared by injecting the purified 99 m-technetium obtained from a molybdenum generator into the first vial. Saline is added to the second vial to dissolve the protected ligand. The saline solution is then added to the first vial, which is heated to affect conversion to Tc(III). The contents of the first vial can be directly injected into the patient without further purification. The "One Vial Kit" would include an effective equatorial ligand having the structure shown in Formulas 3 and 4 above, in combination with an effective reducing agent such as tin chloride, a protective salt of the phosphine ligand such as those described above, and a bulking agent. The kit would be prepared by injecting the purified 99 m-technetium obtained from a molybdenum generator into the vial. Saline is also added to the vial to dissolve the protected ligand. The vial is then heated to affect conversion to Tc(III). The contents of the vial can then be directly injected into the patient without further purification. The 99m Tc(III) complexes of the present invention provide radio-pharmaceuticals uniquely adapted for use in the non-invasive myocardial imaging of humans. The radio-pharmaceuticals neither hang up in the blood system nor the liver while yet binding to the heart for lonq periods of time. The myocardial imaging agent of the present invention likewise shows significantly improved biodistribution and improved positive human heart images for use in diagnosis.

A myocardial imaging agent for use in humans comprising a Tc(III) complex ligated in a planar position by a tetradentate ligand having incorporated therein four hard atoms and two furanone rings and in the axial positions by phosphines containing dioxanyl or ether moieties. The agent exhibits improved biodistribution, improved labeling and extremely rapid blood clearance following administration to a human. The agent has high myocardial uptake accompanied with exceptionally rapid hepatobilary clearance and extensive renal clearance to give sufficiently high heart/liver and heart/lung ratio that provide nearly ideal myocardial images in humans.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 178,291, filed Apr. 6, 1988, now abandoned, by William D. Mensch, Jr. and entitled topography for SIXTEEN BIT CMOS MICROPROCESSOR WITH EIGHT BIT EMULATION AND ABORT CAPABILITY, which is a division of Ser. No. 675,831, filed on Nov. 28, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,475, which is a continuation-in-part of my co-pending application "TOPOGRAPHY OF INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CMOS MICROPROCESSOR CHIP", Ser. No. 534,181, filed Sept. 20, 1983, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,992 and entirely incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an efficient topography for a sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor chip having the capability of either operating as a sixteen bit microprocessor or operating to emulate the well-known 6502 eight bit integrated circuit microprocessor, depending only on the state of a software "emulation bit" or "E" bit. Those skilled in the art of integrated circuit design, and particularly microprocessor chip design, know that the size of a high volume integrated circuit chip is a dominant factor in the ultimate yield and manufacturing cost per unit. In all of the integrated circuit technologies, including the CMOS technology, large scale integrated (LSI) chips such as microprocessor chips include thousands of conductive lines and P-channel MOSFETS (metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors) and N-channel MOSFETS. Some of the lines are composed of aluminum metal interconnection layers and others are composed of polycrystalline silicon interconnection layers on different insulative layers, and others of the conductors are diffused conductors. Certain minimum line widths and spacings between the respective lines and the sources and drains of the MOSFETS must be maintained to avoid short circuits and parasitic effects despite slight variations in the manufacturing processes due to presence of minute particulates that are invariably present in the semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Due to the low current supplying capability of the very small MOSFETS that must be used in order to achieve high functional density of the integrated circuits, the lengths of the interconnecting lines and their associated capacitances must be minimized, not only to reduce chip size, but also to achieve maximum circuit operating speeds. A wide variety of design trade-offs, including the necessity to minimize chip size, obtain a suitable chip aspect ratio (which enhances integrated circuit chip yield and wire bonding yield), increase circuit operating speeds, reduce power consumption, and achieve acceptable reliability all are involved in obtaining an optimum "layout" or topography of the MOSFETS and the interconnection patterns therebetween are required in order to obtain an integrated circuit which is both economical and has acceptable operating characteristics. Some of the numerous design constraints faced by the MOS, LSI chip designer include specifications for minimum widths and spacings of diffused regions in the silicon, minimum widths and spacings for metal interconnection lines, the minimum size required for polycrystalline silicon conductors, the minimum size required for contact openings in the insulating "field" oxides, the spacings required between the edges of contact openings to the edges of the diffused regions or polycrystalline silicon regions, the fact that polycrystalline silicon conductors cannot cross over each other or over diffused regions in most silicon gate manufacturing processes, and the constraint that conductors on the same layer of insulating oxide cannot cross over like conductors. Furthermore, the high amount of capacitances associated with diffused regions and the high resistances of both diffused regions and polycrystalline silicon conductors must be carefully considered by the circuit designer and also by the chip designer in arriving at an optimum chip topography For many types of circuits, such as the microprocessor of the present invention, an extremely large number of conductive lines between sections of logic circuitry are required. The practically infinite number of possibilities for routing the various conductors and placing of the various MOSFETS taxes the skill and ingenuity of even the most resourceful chip designers and circuit designers (and is far beyond the capability of the most sophisticated computer layout programs yet available). Other constraints faced by the chip layout designer and the circuit designer involve the need to minimize cross-coupling and parasitic effects which occur between various conductive lines and conductive regions. Such effects may degrade voltages on various conductors, leading to inoperative circuitry or low reliability operation under certain operating conditions. The technical and commercial success of an electronic product utilizing MOSLSI technology hinges on the ability of the chip designer to achieve an optimum chip topography. It is well known that a very high level of creative effort is required, usually both by circuit designers or layout draftsmen, to achieve a chip topography or layout which enables the integrated circuit to have acceptable operating speeds and low power dissipation and yet is sufficiently small in chip area to have a high chip per wafer yield, i.e., to be economically feasible. Often, many months of such effort between chip designers and circuit designers result in numerous trial layout designs and redesigns and concomitant circuit design revisions before a reasonably optimum topography for a single MOSLSI chip is achieved. Often, until a particular new overall insight or approach is conceived for a particularly difficult, complex, and large functional subsection of an integrated circuit chip, such as an instruction decoding subsection in a microprocessor, is arrived at, the desired chip is clearly economically unfeasible. It is on the basis of such an insight that the eight bit CMOS chip topography described in the above-mentioned parent application became economically feasible, resulting in a CMOS that has become a commercial success. It is on the basis of another such insight, arrived at after over a year of design and layout experimentation, that the sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor layout of the present invention could be reduced to a size that made the chip size commercially practical and resulted in adequate operating speed. Although various single chip microprocessors, such as the 6502, the 6800, the 68000, the 8088, the Z80, and others have been widely used, all of them have various shortcomings from the viewpoint of a computer system designer trying to design a low cost computer system because of the inconvenience of implementing certain functions. Some of the functions that are difficult to implement using prior single chip microprocessors include the problems of efficiently using program memory, i.e., typically slow ROM (read-only memory), in which the program is stored and data memory, i.e., high speed memory in which intermediate data results are stored, dealing with abort conditions such as invalid addresses, which requires aborting the present instruction, executing an abort subroutine, and then re-executing an entire subroutine in which the aborted instruction was contained. Another problem that is faced by computer designers using prior single chip microprocessors is the need to have new software written for computers that use newly developed, faster microprocessors with greater computing power. It would be very desirable to provide a technique by means of which newer microprocessors, such as 16 or 32 bit microprocessors, can execute already available software written for previous single chip microprocessors having fewer bits in their data words, fewer instructions, and generally less computing capability. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an economical topography for a CMOS sixteen bit microprocessor chip. It is another object of the invention to provide an economical topography for the layout of a sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor chip capable, under software control, of either emulating the prior well-known 6502 eight bit microprocessor or operating as a sixteen bit microprocessor having advanced abort operation and other advanced capabilities. It is another object of the invention to provide an improved sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor chip that incorporates various new features which provide a system designer increased flexibility in dealing with memories of different speeds, in dealing with interrupts of various priorities, and in recovering from an abort condition. Briefly described, and in accordance with one embodiment thereof, the invention provides an efficient topography for an integrated circuit sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor chip including emulation logic circuitry for enabling the microprocessor, under software control, to emulate a pre-existing eight bit microprocessor or to operate as a sixteen bit processor with advanced operating capabilities, the chip including a surface with left, bottom, right, and top edges, the chip including on its surface a data bus, an address bus, low order address buffers located along the left lower side, high order address buffers located along the bottom edge, data bus buffers located on the lower right edge, a relatively large register section including low order address latches, arithmetic logic unit circuitry, stack registers, program incrementers and latches, high order address latches, status register circuitry, data output latches, and data input latches positioned in the foregoing sequence from the left side to the right side of the chip, and located generally above the high order address buffers, and between the low order address buffers and the data bus buffers the chip also including instruction register circuitry and predecode circuitry located along the right edge of the chip above the data bus buffers, timing control circuitry located along the left edge above the low order address buffers, N-channel minterm read-only memory decoding circuitry including minterms that result from a first level of decoding of op codes for sixteen bit microprocessor operation, minterm inverter drivers disposed beneath the N-channel minterm read-only memory decoding circuitry, and N-channel "sum-of-minterm" read-only memory decoding circuitry disposed between the minterm inverter drivers and the register section. In the described embodiment of the invention, the N-channel minterm read-only memory decoding circuitry includes a plurality of "vertical" diffused lines, a plurality of polycrystalline silicon gate conductors defining the minterms being decoded, and a plurality of "horizontal" metal conductors connected to outputs of the instruction register and responsive to certain bits, including an emulation bit of the status register, which horizontal metal conductors make contact to predetermined ones of the polycrystalline silicon gates. The emulation bit of the status register is coupled to emulation output logic circuitry located in the upper right-hand corner of the chip and is also connected to auxiliary index register circuitry and stack register circuitry in the register section. Specialized circuitry located along the top edge of the chip from left to right includes non-maskable interrupt logic, memory lock logic, maskable interrupt logic, abort logic, ready logic, vector pull logic, reset interrupt logic, valid data address logic, status register logic, clock oscillator circuitry, and data bus enable circuitry adjacent to the upper boundary of the N-channel minterm circuitry. Valid program address logic is located above the low order address buffers along the left edge of the chip. A conductor from the abort logic is connected to the auxiliary index registers, stack registers, accumulator circuitry and status register circuitry, i.e., to all registers that the programmer has access to, to inhibit transfers of data from any of those registers during an abort operation In the N-channel sum-of-minterm read-only memory decoding circuitry, a plurality of vertical diffused lines are connected to a ground conductor and have various short horizontal extensions thereof at locations where field effect transistors (FETs) are required in the sum-of-minterm decoding circuitry. A plurality of vertical polycrystalline silicon conductors are connected to the outputs of the respective minterm inverter drivers and run parallel to and the respective vertical diffused lines, intersecting the various horizontal extensions thereof to define the N-channel FETs. Sum-of-minterm outputs are produced on a plurality of horizontal metal conductors extending through the sum of-minterm read-only memory decoding circuitry and making electrical contacts to various ones of the diffused drain regions of the various N-channel FETs. The horizontal metal lines to which the drains of only a few of the sum of-minterm FETs are connected are positioned at the bottom of the sum-of-minterm read only memory decoding circuitry, and diffused oz polycrystalline silicon conductors from register transfer logic of the register section are connected to appropriate ones of those lower horizontal metal conductors. Those horizontal metal conductors having the largest numbers of sum-of-minterm field effect transistors connected thereto are located near the top of the sum-of-minterm read-only memory decoding circuitry, and are routed around the right end of that circuitry, downward, and are extended by means of diffused or polycrystalline silicon conductors as needed to conduct the sum-of-minterm signals to appropriate portions of the register transfer logic. Horizontal metal conductors having intermediate numbers of FETs connected thereto are located generally in the middle of the sum-of-minterm read-only memory decoding circuitry, and are arranged to allow diffused or polycrystalline silicon conductors to extend downward into the register transfer section. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the invention provides a microprocessor chip which contains an emulation bit that causes the microprocessor chip to emulate a different microprocessor that internally operates on data words having fewer bits by using the emulation bit to "extend" op codes of the different microprocessor to generate register transfer signals that effectuate operation in an "emulation" mode or a "native" mode. In the described embodiment of the invention, the sixteen bit microprocessor emulates a pre-existing eight bit microprocessor if the emulation bit is a "one". If the emulation bit is a "one", this forces two other bits to be logical "ones". The additional bits cause certain indexing operations to be eight bit operations, and cause operations on the stack registers to be sixteen bit operations, and modifies operations on certain status register bits. The emulation bit and the two additional bits also are used in conjunction with decoding the eight bit op codes. Abort logic circuitry is provided which responds to an external signal indicating an abort condition and prevents modification of data in all registers accessible by the programmer, including the program counter latches, the index registers, the stack registers, the accumulator registers, the status register, and several other registers. After the abort circuitry has been reset, execution of the instruction during which the abort condition occurred can be repeated using the information in the registers at the time the abort condition occurred. Circuitry is provided for generating valid program address and valid data address signals which facilitate convenient accessing and operation of relatively fast data memory and relatively slow program memory. Vector pull circuitry is provided to generate an external signal that indicates when an interrupt vector is being generated, facilitating, in some cases, simple interrupt prioritizing. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 /is a block diagram illustrating the general location of major circuit sections on the sixteen CMOS microprocessor chip of the present invention FIG. 2 is a schematic circuit diagram illustrating the technique for interconnection of diffused, polycrystalline silicon, and metal conductors in the sum-of-minterm decoding region of the microprocessor chip of the invention. FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating the circuitry in the minterm, minterm inverter driver, and sum-of-minterm and mode select decoding portions of the microprocessor chip. FIG. 3A is a partial layout illustrating the connection of diffused minterm lines, polycrystalline silicon gate conductors, and metal control lines in the minterm decoding region of the microprocessor chip. FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating a partial layout of the technique for layout of diffused lines, N-channel gate electrodes and metal jumpers in the microprocessor layout described in the above-referenced parent application FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the architecture of the microprocessor chip. FIG. 5 is a scale negative image of a photomask used to pattern the interconnect metal during manufacture of the sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor chip of the present invention, with major sections shown in FIG. 1 being blocked out in heavy lines. FIG. 6 is a scale negative image of a photomask used to define diffusion regions during the manufacture of the sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor chip of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a scale negative image of a photomask defining regions in which N-channel MOSFETS can be produced on the microprocessor chip of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a scale positive image of a photomask used in defining the polycrystalline silicon layer of the CMOS microprocessor chip of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a scale positive image of a photomask used in defining the N-type diffused regions in the CMOS microprocessor chip. FIG. 10 is a scale positive image of a photomask used in defining the P-type diffused regions in the CMOS microprocessor chip. FIG. 11 is a scale positive image of a photomask defining all metal-to-diffusion, metal-to polycrystalline silicon, and polycrystalline silicon-to-diffusion contacts in the microprocessor chip. FIG. 12 is a scale negative image of the photomask used in defining the metalization pattern of the sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor chip. FIG. 13 is a logic diagram illustrating the emulation circuitry generally indicated in FIGS. 1 and 4. FIG. 14 is a logic diagram illustrating the abort circuitry generally indicated in FIGS. 1 and 4. FIG. 15 is a logic diagram illustrating the valid program address (VPA) circuitry of FIGS. 1 and 4. FIG. 16 is a logic diagram of the valid data address (VDA) circuitry indicated in FIGS. 1 and 4. FIG. 17 is a logic diagram of the vector pull (VP) circuitry indicated in FIGS. 1 and 4. FIG. 18 is a logic diagram of the ready (RDY) circuitry indicated in FIGS. 1 and 4 FIG. 19 is a logic diagram of the M/X and mode select decoding circuitry indicated in FIGS. 1 and 4. FIGS. 20A and 20B are diagrams illustrating the pin connections for packages in which the microprocessor chip of FIG. 1 can be encapsulated to provide a sixteen bit microprocessor capable of emulating a 6502 microprocessor and a pin compatible replacement for prior 6502 microprocessor and having advanced operating capability, respectively. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Before describing the chip topographical layout, the architecture and general operation will first be described with reference to FIG. 4. Microprocessor 100 outputs sixteen addresses, A0-A15. The address outputs are generally designated by reference numeral 101 Address bus lines A0-A7 are connected to low order address buffers 121. Address lines A8-A15 are stored in high order address buffers 120. A bus enable conductor 150 connected to data bus/bank address buffer circuit 151 is also connected to and enables address buffers 120 and 121. Both low order address buffer 121 and high order address buffer 120 are loaded by means of internal address bus 103. The address output buffers 120 and 121 are set to a high impedance output state in response to the bus enable (BE) signal 151. Microprocessor 100 includes eight bidirectional data bus conductors D0-D7, generally designated by reference numeral 119. These eight conductors also can be used to output a eight bit "bank address" representing a third address byte. Accordingly, the signals and conductors designated by reference numeral 119 are also individually designated by DB/BA0-DB/BA7. φ2 is the main system clock, and since 24 address bits are always available for chip 100, address bits A0-A15 and bank address bits BA0-BA7 are output during the portion of the φ2 time period during which φ2 is low. When φ2 is high, data read/write operations can be performed on the output conductors 119. A data bus enable (DBE) conductor 145 and a bus enable (BE) conductor 150 are connected between data bus and bank address buffer circuits 105 and buffer control circuitry 152. External data bus enable signals DBE and bus enable signal BE are applied to inputs to buffer control circuit 152, which are gated to conductors 145 and 150 in response to control signals on conductor 153 and external inputs BE or DBE. The bus enable (BE) signal 150 allows external "three-stating" control of the data bus buffers 105 and the address buffers 120 and 121. For normal operation, the BE signal is high, causing the address buffers 120 and 121 to be "active" and also causing the data bus buffers 105 to be "active" during a write cycle. When external control of the address lines 101 is desired, the BE signal is held low to disable the address output buffers 120, 121. The data bus enable (DBE) signal allows external control of the three-state data output buffers contained in block 105. To disable the data bus externally, the DBE signal should be held low. The function of internal address bus 103 is simply to effectuate transfer of data from the internal registers to the address buffers 120 and 121. Internal bus address bus 103 is internally bidirectionally coupled to sixteen bit stack pointer register 111, sixteen bit arithmetic logic unit circuitry 110, sixteen bit program counter circuitry 108, and sixteen bit direct register 154. Sixteen bit index register 112 can be loaded onto internal address bus 103, as can sixteen bit data latch 106. Data bus buffer circuitry 105 receives all of the basic information for the microprocessor 100 in the form of op codes, addresses and operands, one byte at a time. Data bus buffer 105 then supplies such information to the appropriate bytes of data latch 106, from which that information can be transferred to the appropriate bytes of internal address bus 103, internal data bus 141, pre-decode circuitry 126, or to instruction register 118. Pre-decode circuit 126 is actually a subsection of instruction register 118, and generates control signals that are applied to register transfer logic circuitry 131 and timing control circuitry 122 in response to the present instruction. Program counter 16 actually includes four different groups of circuitry, including a low order program counter latch, a high order program counter latch, a low order program incrementer, and a high order program incrementer The two program latches store the address of the present instruction until it is over, even during execution of an abort instruction. The generalized function of the program counter 108 is to provide sequential addresses for the program being executed. Accumulator circuitry 109 includes a high order byte and a low order byte and contains the results of all data operations performed by the arithmetic logic unit circuitry 110. Internal special bus 114 is a sixteen conductor bus which can be coupled by means of transfer switches 142 to sixteen bit internal data bus 141 in response to appropriate decoding transfer signals from register transfer logic 131. Internal special bus 114 is bidirectionally coupled to index register 113, index register 112, stack pointer register 111, arithmetic logic unit circuitry 110 and accumulator circuitry 109, all of which are sixteen bit circuits. Internal data bus 141 is bidirectionally coupled to sixteen bit accumulators 109, sixteen bit program counter 108, eight bit direct register 154, eight bit program bank register 155, eight bit data bank register 156, and eight bit data latch 106. Arithmetic logic unit 110 includes four subsections, including a low order binary ALU, a low order decimal ALU, a high order binary ALU, and a high order decimal ALU. Arithmetic logic unit 110 performs all the basic logic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, exclusive ORing logical ANDing, logical ORing, bit testing, etc., and can also compute addresses, which is why it has connections to both the internal address bus and the internal bus 114 and the internal data bus 141. Stack pointer register 111 keeps track of stack locations in memory and points to them. The two index registers 112 and 113 enable a software program to simultaneously point to two different software tables. Reference numeral 117 designates a nine bit register referred to as the status register. It contains individual operating status flags for indicating the status of microprocessor 100. These flags include a negative (N) bit, an overflow (V) bit, a memory select (M) bit, an index register select (X) bit, a decimal mode (D) bit, an interrupt disable (I) bit, a zero (Z) bit, a carry (C) bit, and an emulation (E) bit. As subsequently explained in more detail, if the (E) bit is a "one", the microprocessor 100 emulates the well known 6502 eight bit microprocessor. If the (E) bit is a "zero", the microprocessor 100 is said to be in its "native" mode and does not emulate the 6502. If the (E) bit is a "one", the microprocessor forces the (X) and (M) bits to also be "ones". If the (X) bit is a "one", it in effect masks off the upper byte of the X index register 112, allowing only eight bit indexing operations, which are the type performed by the 6502 microprocessor, but which can also be performed by a sixteen bit microprocessor that might need to perform an eight bit indexing operation. If the (X) bit is a "zero", this causes index register 112 to perform a sixteen bit indexing operation. The M bit has the effect of "extending" the eight bit op codes in the instruction register. If the (M) bit is a "one", this has the effect of causing eight bit operations on the accumulator and on memory. If the M bit is a "zero" this has the effect of causing the same operations, i.e., sixteen bit operations, on all sixteen bits of the accumulator and causes all operations on external memories to be sixteen bit operations The microprocessor chip contains a simple "power up" circuit that, in addition to forcing certain other initial states in the microprocessor when it is initially powered on, sets the (E) bit at a "one". All microprocessors and most dynamic MOS logic circuits have such "power up" circuitry, which can be readily provided by those skilled in the art and therefore is not described in further detail. If E is a "zero", the microprocessor operates in the state determined by the X and M bits. The basic timing for microprocessor 100 is contained by clock generator circuit 156. The addresses are output during the φ2 period when φ2 is low, or during φ2 "low time", or φ2L. (φ2 is shown in Appendix A.) During φ2 "high time" (φ2H) data is transferred on the external data bus conductors 119. 4 is utilized to establish internal timing waveform edges which minimize the amount of internal logic circuitry associated with addressing certain random access memories requiring a row address strobe (RAS) signal and a column address strobe (CAS) signal. The OSC*(OUT) signal is applied to a crystal whose other terminal is connected to the input of the inverter having its input connected to the φIN)/-2(IN/CLK) conductor to provide enough gain to create oscillation using the external crystal. The φ1/(OUT) signal is the inverted φ2(OUT) signal to provide timing for external R/W* operations. Note that an asterisk (*) is used herein to denote the "zero" or "false" state of a logic variable, since the conventional "bar" is unavailable on the printer being used by applicant. In block 122, timing control or timing generator circuitry produces sixteen timing states that are respectively stepped through in sequence. This circuitry is reset each time a new instruction is begun and is incremented in accordance with the number of cycles, from one to sixteen required for execution of that instruction. The outputs of timing control circuit 122 are connected to inputs of the instruction decode circuitry, and more specifically to the minterm decoding circuitry 116A of the instruction decode circuitry. These outputs, in conjunction with output signals from instruction register 118, are operated upon by the instruction decoder minterm circuitry 116A to generate intermediate signals needed to produce register transfer signals such as 131-1 to 131 11, which are produced by the register transfer logic circuitry 131 The register transfer logic simply latches the intermediate signals (subsequently described as sum-of-minterm signals or register transfer signals) and then clocks the latched register transfer signals onto conductors 131-1, etc., at the appropriate times to effectuate the desired information transfers. The read/write* (R/W*) signal is normally in the high state, indicating that microprocessor 100 is reading data from memory or from an input/output bus. In the low state of the read/write* (R/W*) signal, the data bus has valid data to be output from the microprocessor to the address memory location specified by address lines A0-A5 and DB/BA0-DB/BA7 lines. The R/W* conductor can be set to a high impedance output state by the bus enable signal (BE) on conductor 150. The system control circuitry 157 receives signals from the register transfer logic circuitry 131 and the E bit of the status register 117, and produces outputs on the R/W* conductor, the VPA (valid program address) the VDA (valid data address), the memory lock (ML)* signal, the vector pull (VP)* conductor, the emulate (E) conductor, and the M/X conductor. The system control circuitry in block 157 includes the subsequently described circuits shown in FIGS. 13-19. The status register 117 is bidirectionally coupled to the register transfer logic 131. An internal sync signal produced by timing control circuit 122 is provided to identify cycles of instruction execution during microprocessor operation If the ready (RDY) line is pulled to a low state level during the φ2 low times, microprocessor 100 will stop in its current state and will remain in that state until the RDY line goes high, whereby the sync signal can be used to control the RDY signal so that it causes single instruction execution. The memory lock (ML)* signal output by timing control circuit 122 indicates the need to defer the rearbitration of the next bus cycle to ensure the integrity of read-modify-write instructions. The (ML)* signal goes low during the ASL, DEC, INC, LSR, ROL, ROR, TRB, and TSB memory referencing instructions, which are well-known to those in the art familiar with programming of the 6502 microprocessor. Interrupt logic circuitry contained in block 115 has outputs bidirectionally connected to the request transfer logic 131. The interrupt request (IRQ) signal requests an interrupt signal to be executed by microprocessor 100. If the interrupt flag in the status register 117 is a "zero", the current instruction is completed and the interrupt sequence begins during φ2 low time. The program counter and status register contents are stored in a "stack" in external memory. The microprocessor will then set the interrupt mask flag high so that no further interrupts may occur At the end of the cycle, the low order program counter register 108 will be loaded from the hexadecimal address OOFFFE in the emulation mode and OOFFEE in the native mode, and the program counter will be located from the hexadecimal location OOFFFF in the emulation mode, and OOFFEF in the native mode, thereby transferring program control to the memory vector located at these addresses. The RDY signal must be in the high state for any interrupt to be recognized. The non-maskable interrupt (NMI)* input of interrupt logic 115 makes interrupt requests in response to a negative-going edge to the effect that a non-maskable interrupt sequence is to be generated within microprocessor 100. The current instruction is completed and the interrupt sequence begins during the following φ2 low time. The program counter is loaded with the interrupt vector from the locations OOFFFA for the emulation mode and OOFFEA for the native mode for the low order byte and the locations OOFFFB for the emulation mode and OOFFEB for the native mode for the high order byte, thereby transferring program control to the non-maskable interrupt routine. The reset (RES)* input to interrupt logic 115 causes an initialization sequence to begin by means of a positive transition from a (RES)* input signal. The reset signal must be held low for at least two clock cycles after the power supply voltage V DD reaches its operating voltage from a powered down condition, after which time R/W* is high and sync is low. When a positive edge is detected on the (RES)* line, an initialization sequence lasting six clock cycles occurs. The interrupt mask flag is set, the decimal mode bit of the status register 117 is cleared, and the program counter 108 is loaded with the reset vector from the locations OOFFFC for the low order byte and OOFFFD for the high order byte which is the start location for program control. The decoding of the present instruction by means of the minterm instruction decoding circuitry 116A and sum-of-minterm section 116B produces signals which drive the register transfer logic circuitry 131. The output signals thereof 131-1 to 131-11 are coupled to transfer gates of the various registers in the "register section" of FIGS. 1 and 4 and generate the necessary enable signals to effectuate transfer of data between the various busses and various registers and the arithmetic logic unit 110. All control for transferring data between the various registers, the arithmetic logic unit, and the various busses is accomplished by these and other such transfer signals produced by decoding of the instruction op codes. The first level instruction decoding in minterm circuitry 116A generates 498 minterm signals, as opposed to 252 for the 6502 microprocessor described in the above-referenced parent application. The second level of decoding in block 116B produces 132 "sum-of-minterm" contained in the register transfer logic circuitry 131. At appropriate times the states of these clocked latches are output in response to appropriate clock signals to produce the register transfer signals to actually effectuate the various data transfers between the registers, arithmetic logic unit, and internal busses, required for execution of the present instruction. Four entirely new signals are included in the sixteen bit microprocessor, when operating in its "native" mode, i e , with the emulate (E) bit equal to "zero". These include an (ABORT)* input which can interrupt the currently executing instruction without modifying internal registers. The valid data address (VDA) and valid program address (VPA) outputs facilitate dual cache memory by indicating whether a data segment (fast memory) or program segment (slow memory) is accessed Modifying or prioritizing a vector is made easy by monitoring the vector pull (VP)* output. The ABORT input is used to abort other instructions presently being executed as a result of an error condition, such as an incorrect address appearing on the address bus. FIG. 14, subsequently described, discloses the specific abort circuitry. A negative-going edge of the ABORT input "aborts" the present instruction from the cycle during which the abort signal is pulled to a low level This prevents any and all internal registers accessible by the programmer from being modified. At the end of the present instruction, an "interrupt like" operation pushes the program counter, program status register and bank register (in the native mode only) onto the external memory stack, sets the interrupt status register flag to a "one" sets the decimal flag to "zero", sets the program bank register to "zero", and loads the program counter with the contents of address locations OOFFF8 and OOFFF9 for the emulation mode and OOFFE8 and OOFFE9 in the native mode. The ABORT signal cannot be masked, and specifically prevents internal transfers into or out of the data bank registers, the program bank register, the status register, the direct register, the accumulator registers, the stack registers, and the X and Y index registers until the abort logic is reset. However, the abort input does not affect any incrementers or the arithmetic logic unit circuitry. In order to implement the desired operation of the abort logic, none of the foregoing registers are ever updated until after an instruction is completed. Therefore, if the negative-going edge of the ABORT input occurs during the execution of a particular instruction, and if the execution of that instruction is not complete, the contents of the foregoing registers remain intact, since any transfers are inhibited by the abort circuitry. The interrupt-like operation causes the microprocessor 100 to go in a conventional manner to a vector address of an abort subroutine. After the abort subroutine has been completed, the microprocessor can return and readily re-execute the same instruction that was being executed when the abort occurred because none of the internal registers have changed. The vector pull (VP)* output goes low during the two cycles when a vector address is being pulled, for example in response to an (IRQ)* active input. The vector pull output goes low for all interrupt vector pulls, and for the (ABORT)*, BRK, COP, (IRQ)*, (NMI)*, and (RES)* signals. The vector pull output thus may be used to modify and/or prioritize interrupt routines. The vector pull logic is shown in FIG. 15. The valid data address (VDA) and valid program address (VPA) outputs indicates the type of memory being addressed by the address bus. If both VDA and VPA are "zeros", the present microprocessor operation is entirely "internal" and the address and data busses are both available. If VDA is "zero" and VPA is a "one", a valid "program" address is on the address bus 101. (Program addresses are usually for a relatively slow memory, such as read-only memory or floppy discs.) This signals other circuitry, such as a memory controller that the clock signal can be operated at a slow rate. If VDA is a "one" and VPA is a "zero", this indicates to an external memory controller that there is a valid data address on the bus, and rapid access may be desired. If both VDA and VPA are "ones", an operational code (op code) fetch operation is occurring. The VDA and VPA outputs may be used for virtual and cache memory control. A complete preliminary information data sheet for the microprocessor of the present invention, designated the W65SC816, is attached hereto as Appendix A, and describes more completely certain capabilities and the instruction set of the microprocessor chip. Those skilled in the art can obtain various designs for the various latching, arithmetic, and other logic circuits shown in FIG. 4. All of these types of circuits have been implemented in N-channel MOS in the widely used 6502 microprocessor; CMOS versions can be implemented in various ways by those skilled in the art, and a coupled circuit schematic of the chip 100 is not needed to enable one skilled in the art to produce the invention. Referring now to FIG. 1, the topography of microprocessor chip 100 will be described, indicating the locations of the various major blocks of circuitry on the chip. Chip 100 includes a flat surface with a top edge 11, a left edge 12, a bottom edge 13, and a right edge 14. The vertical dimension of chip 100 is 278 mils, and its horizontal dimension is 164 mils. (Note that the same reference numerals, with subscripts if appropriate, are used in FIG. 1 to indicate the same or corresponding blocks of circuitry in FIGS. 1 and 4.) The low order address buffer circuitry 121 is 2052 microns in the vertical direction and 716 microns in the horizontal direction, and is positioned along the lower left-hand portion of edge 12 and the lower right-hand portion of edge 13. (There are 25.4 microns per mil.) High order address buffers 120 are 566 microns in the vertical direction and 5436 microns in the horizontal direction, and lie along bottom edge 13 of microprocessor chip 100. Data bus buffers 105 are 2030 microns in the vertical direction and 906 microns in the horizontal direction, and extend from bottom edge 13 upward along right edge 14. The "register section" of microprocessor 100 is surrounded on three sides by low order address buffers 121, high order address buffers 120, and data bus buffers 105. The register section is 5436 microns in the horizontal direction and 1136 microns in the vertical direction and includes the following blocks of circuitry, the dimensions of which are given below in Table 1. The vertical dimension of each of the blocks in the register section is 1136 microns. TABLE 1______________________________________NAME WIDTH IN MICRONS______________________________________Low order address latch 121A 296X register 112 120Y register 113 120Low order stack register 111A 110High order stack register 111B 126Bus transfer and precharge 138circuitry 158Low order binary ALU 110A 486Low order decimal ALU 110B 446High order binary ALU 110C 538High order decimal ALU 110D 446Low order accumulator 109A 138High order accumulator 109B 120Low order program incrementer 107A 236Low order program counter latch 107B 61High order program counter latch 107C 61High order program incrementer 107D 232Direct register 154 176Precharge circuitry 160 88High order address latch 120A 72Status register 117 488Program bank register 155 88Data bank register 156 and 196Input bank incrementer andtransfer logic 156AHigh order output data latch 106A 114Low order output data latch 106B 110Temporary register and incrementer 256159High order input data latch 106C and 174low order input data latch 106D______________________________________ As is known to those skilled in the art, precharge circuitry such as that included in blocks 158 and 160 is required in all dynamic MOS circuitry to set initial values of certain conductors in response to certain precharge signals. For example, such precharge circuitry is used to preset the data bus conductors and address bus conductor lines to initial values at the beginnings of various operation cycles and to set certain bits in certain registers and latches to specified "one" or "zero" initial levels. Non-maskable interrupt (NMI) logic circuitry, which is 530 microns by 628 microns, is located in the upper left corner of chip 100. (Hereinafter, when dimensions of blocks of circuitry are given, the horizontal dimension will be given first and then the vertical dimension.) Memory lock logic 168 (560 by 628 microns) is located immediately to the right of NMI logic 115A. IRQ logic 115B (444 microns by 628 microns), abort logic 167 (480 microns by 628 microns), ready I/0 logic 166 (426 microns by 628 microns), vector pull logic 165 (356 microns by 628 microns), reset interrupt logic 115C (714 microns by 628 microns), VDA logic 164 (460 microns by 628 microns), status register and M/X output logic 117A (546 microns by 628 microns), clock generator oscillator circuitry 156 (896 microns by 628 microns), and DBE and BE logic circuitry 163 (538 microns by 628 microns) are positioned from left to right along the top edge 11 of chip 100. Emulate bit output is located in the extreme upper right-hand corner of chip 100, and R/W* is located immediately below emulation bit output logic 161. Instruction register 118 (840 microns wide) is located immediately below R/W* logic 162, and predecode circuit 126 (525 microns by 525 microns) is located between instruction register 118 and data bus buffer circuitry 105. Sixteen state timing control circuitry 122 is located along the left edge 12 of chip 100, as indicated in FIG. 1, occupying 780 microns by 744 microns, VDA logic 157A (340 microns by 570 microns) is located in the lower left corner of block 122. It should be noted that many (41) bonding pads which are located around the periphery of microprocessor chip are not shown in FIG. 1. These bonding pads are included in the various blocks or areas, such as data bus buffers 105, higher address buffers 120, data bus buffers 105, etc. to effectuate wire bonding of the input and output conductors of chip 100 to leads of a package such as the one in FIG. 20A. FIGS. 20A and 20B include diagrams of two pin configurations, one for the sixteen bit operational version of the microprocessor 100, and the other for the circuit when it is set up to be pin compatible with the prior 6502 microprocessor. Immediately above the register section is a N channel sum-of-minterms section 116B, which is approximately 752 microns in the vertical direction. Mode select decode circuitry 160 (866 microns by 210 microns), occupies the upper left-hand corner of block 116B, however. Above the sum-of-minterm section 116B is a block 116C (198 microns in the vertical direction), containing 498 CMOS inverters, which invert 498 N-channel minterms contained in block 116A, which is 346 microns in the vertical direction. A conductor 169 from abort logic 167 is routed around blocks 116A, 116B and 116C, and is connected to inhibit data transfers in the X and Y index registers 112 and 113, the high and low order stack registers 111A and 111B, the high and low order accumulators 109A and 109B, the direct register 154, the status register 117, the program bank register 155, the low order program counter latch 107B, the high order program counter latch 107C, and the data bank register 156. An emulate conductor connected to the E bit in status register 117 is connected to force the higher byte to be a "zero" in each of the X and Y index registers 112 and 113, and forces a hex 01 in the high order stack register 111B, and is also routed to the E output logic block 161 to produce an output signal indicative of whether the microprocessor 100 is emulating a 6502 microprocessor or is operating in its "native" sixteen bit mode. The scale images of the photomasks shown in FIGS. 6-11, 12A, and 12B are included as being of interest in that they show the density of circuitry and other features of interest to microprocessor chip designers. It would be possible to determine the precise layout of the microprocessor chip of the present invention from the information contained in the photomasks, although one skilled in the art ordinarily would not resort to this expedient because it would be more practical to follow the teachings made with reference to the other figures herein and, in accordance with the various permissible line spacings and line widths for a particular CMOS manufacturing process, use various available CMOS latch circuits, inverters, and arithmetic circuits that he prefers. The teachings herein with reference to the instruction decoding circuitry, in sections 116A, 116B, and 116C, would have to be followed in order to obtain the benefits of the invention. The main sections or blocks indicated in FIG. 1 are superimposed in heavy lines on the scale negative image metalization pattern of FIG. 5. In accordance with the present invention, the improvement of the layout of the instruction decode portion of the chip, including minterm read only memory decoding circuitry 116A, minterm inverter drivers 116C, and sum-of-minterm read-only decoding circuitry 116B made it possible to reduce the width of the instruction decode section of the chip 100 by approximately 30% over what would have been required if only the techniques used in the layout of the instruction decode section of the above-referenced parent application were used. The layout techniques of the present invention also reduced the "vertical" dimension of the instruction decode region, including all of the necessary wire routing of register transfer signals to the register section of approximately 40%. If I had not been able to achieve this reduction in the instruction decode circuitry of the chip, its width would have been roughly 65 mils greater and its height would have been about 16 mils greater. FIG. 3C of the parent application illustrates the basic layout of N-channel minterm circuitry 116A and sum-of-minterm circuitry 116B of the microprocessor chip 100. FIG. 3B of the present application more accurately represents the layout structure of N-channel minterm circuitry 116A of the present application, wherein the diffused minterm lines 175, and hence all the N-channel MOSFETs formed therein, are each nine microns wide and are spaced apart by two microns. The horizontal polycrystalline silicon lines 176 are 5 microns wide. Metal jumpers such as 177 are utilized between aligned portions of the diffused lines 175 where no N-channel FET gate is desired. Thus, the average center-to-center spacing in the horizontal direction between successive vertical diffused minterm lines is eleven microns. The nine micron width of the gate regions such as 178 is conventional for dynamic N-channel MOS NAND gates in this type of circuit, and is necessary to provide adequate output node discharge times in a read-only memory array such as 116A. When I designed this circuit for the microprocessor in the above referenced parent application, I believed, after performing a computerized circuit analysis, that the MOS gates 178 had to be at least nine microns wide. Even so, the instruction decoding in the microprocessor of the parent application was not as fast as desired. One reason for this is that I encountered a difficult design trade-off involving the capacitance of the horizontal polycrystalline silicon conductors 176 from the instruction register and the accumulated capacitance of the various MOS gates such as 178 in the N-channel minterm circuitry 116A. Making the MOSFET gates even wider decreased the minterm signal propagation time in the vertical direction, but increased the horizontal signal propagation along the polycrystalline silicon lines 176 by increasing the capacitance and the resistance of the polycrystalline silicon lines 176, and hence increasing their RC time constant At that time, I believed that in order to design a sixteen bit CMOS microprocessor which would be suitable as a "follow-up" product to the CMOS microprocessor of the present application, many more diffused minterm lines would be required, and it appeared to me that the minterm circuitry 116A therefore would be much wider and slower than desired. But I did not see any solution to this problem. Returning to the present invention, the basic layout in minterm circuitry 116A will be described and then, after also describing the layout in the sum-of-minterm circuitry 116B of FIG. 2, the combined decoding operation of the two sections will be explained, indicating the resulting improvement in operating speed and savings in chip area. In FIG. 3A, reference numerals 175, with appropriate letters, are used to designate the diffused minterm lines. Each of the diffused lines 175 is only five microns wide, rather than nine microns as in FIG. 3B. This almost doubles the channel resistance of the N-channel MOSFETS formed, slowing down signal propagation downward through the minterm region 116A. Reference numeral 179 designates horizontal metal lines (rather than the horizontal polycrystalline silicon lines 176 in FIG. 3B) which are connected to the outputs of the instruction register. These metal lines have far lower resistance than the polycrystalline silicon lines, so the RC time constant of lines 179 is much less than that of the polycrystalline silicon conductors 176 of FIG. 3B. The polycrystalline silicon gates required for each of the N-channel MOS transistors such as 178 in FIG. 3A make electrical contact to the metal lines 179 by means of contacts openings 180. Since the accumulated gate capacitance associated with each of the metal lines 179 has been nearly halved, the output drive current needed from the instruction register latches is nearly halved. This, coupled with the greatly reduced time constant associated with each of the lines 179 greatly increases the signal propagation time along the metal lines 179. Referring next to FIG. 2, reference numeral 116C discloses a plurality of CMOS minterm inverter drivers, each having its input connected to the bottom of a respective one of the minterm lines 175. Inverter drivers 116C, although they have a relatively high gate capacitance that further slows signal propagation downward through the N-channel minterm region 116A, are capable of driving the capacitance associated with the polycrystalline silicon conductors 181, 181A, 181B, etc., more effectively than the minterm lines and minterm MOSFETs 178 of FIG. 3B could if the inverter drivers 116C were to be omitted. Furthermore, the signal inversion produced by the inverter drivers 116C makes i& possible to obtain logical NORing in sum-of-minterm circuitry 116B using N-channel, rather than P-channel MOSFETs that were used in section 116B of FIG. 3C of the parent application. (Such N-channel MOSFETs have only about one-half of the channel resistance of P-channel MOSFETs of the same geometries, making it possible for there to be considerably faster downward signal propagation of the inverted minterm signals through sum-of-minterm region 116B than previously.) In FIG. 2, reference numerals 182, with appropriate suffix letters such as A, B, etc., designate diffused regions that are attached to a V SS conductor 183 and extend vertically downward through circuitry 116B. The vertical diffused regions 182 have horizontal extensions such as 184 wherever an N-channel sum-of-minterm decoding MOSFET is required. The gate electrode of such N-channel sum-of-minterm MOSFETs are indicated by X's wherever such minterm polycrystalline silicon conductors such as 185. The drain electrodes of each of the sum-of-minterm MOSFETs are connected to horizontal metal conductors such as 186 by means of contact openings such as 187, thereby performing the minterm summing operation. Each of the vertical polycrystalline silicon conductors 185 is connected to the output of a respective one of the minterm inverter drivers 116C. The general approach of providing vertical diffused lines 182, horizontal diffused extensions 184, vertical polycrystalline silicon conductors 185, horizontal metal conductors 186, and contacts 187 is basically the same as in FIG. 3C of the parent application. However, using this technique (as I did on the chip of the parent application) on the chip 100 of the present invention would have resulted in a much wider sum-of-minterm region 116B than I actually achieved because of the much higher number of sum-of-minterm transfer signals that are required for the sixteen bit microprocessor chip of the present invention. Furthermore, I was able to arrive at a reasonably optimum layout of the sum-of-minterm region in the parent application only after three very laborious trial layouts in which I followed the approach described in the above-referenced parent application to positioning the minterm summing horizontal metal lines 186 in such a way as to provide gaps through which diffused and/or polycrystalline silicon conductors could be "dropped" down into the register transfer logic where the resulting sum of minterm transfer signals were needed, to avoid utilization of an excessive amount of chip surface area for routing such signals. However, the method of arranging the relative positions of the horizontal metal sum-of-minterm lines 186 is different than in the above-referenced parent application. (Of course, the relative placement of the horizontal metal lines 186 determines the placement of all N-channel MOSFETs connected to a particular horizontal line, and hence determines how far down into sum-of-minterm region 116B the vertical poly (polycrystalline silicon) lines 185 and the vertical diffused lines 182 extend.) In view of the fact that the number of minterms (498) is nearly double that in the above-referenced parent application, and in view of the great amount of time that was required by me to use the approach described in the parent application to arrange the positions of the horizontal metal lines so as to create "gaps" between diffused regions adequate for routing diffused or polycrystalline silicon register transfer signal lines more or less directly downward to the location in the register transfer section in which those lines were needed, I decided, after much reflection, to take an entirely differently, almost opposite approach to that in the present application, partly just to get at least part of the layout done and in the hope that at that point a better solution would occur to me. I therefore brought the vertical diffused lines 182 and the adjacent vertical polycrystalline silicon lines 185 which were to be included in those sum-of-minterm signals comprised of the fewest number of minterms, for example, only one or two minterms, all the way down to the lowest horizontal metal lines 186. For example, in FIG. 2, assume that horizontal metal conductors 186-1, 186-2, 186-3 and 186-4 are the sum-of-minterm conductors having the fewest N-channel MOSFETs (denoted by X's), i.e., minterms, connected thereto. More specifically, sum-of-minterm conductors 186-1, 186-2 and 186-3 each have only one or two minterms. Only one minterm actually is shown for each of these lines in FIG. 2, but assume that another located to the left or right of the section shown in FIG. 2 might also be connected Sum-of-minterm metal conductor 186 4 has two minterms connected thereto, and possibly another to the right or left to the section shown in FIG. 2. I continued this pattern, working my way from the bottom horizontal sum-of-minterm conductor up, and each time I connected all the minterms, (only a few) to the next highest horizon&al sum-of-minterm conductor 186, I also brought downward a vertical diffused or polycrystalline silicon conductor such as 188 downward, using "cross-unders" of a different type where necessary, to the register transfer gates. The point at which each of the vertical lines 188 was connected to the various sum-of-minterm horizontal metal sum-of-minterm lines 186 was located as directly as possible above the point in the register section at which that transfer signal, i.e., the sum-of-minterm transfer signal, was needed. By the time I had done this operation for all of the sum-of-minterm lines comprising less than about approximately four or five minterms, nearly 30% of the sum-of-minterm gate transfer signals had been routed to their proper destination, leaving only 77 to go, all of which, of course, included more than five or six minterms, and which would be much more difficult to route than the first group. I then decided that the most difficult-to-route sum-of-minterm signals, i.e., those comprising the largest numbers of minterms, should be located at the top of the sum-of minterm array, and that these metal lines should be generally routed around the right-hand side of the sum-of-minterm array, as indicated by reference numeral 189 in FIG. 2, and brought back to the right, as indicated by reference numeral 189A, to locations directly above where the particular sum-of-minterm transfer signals would be needed in the register section of the chip 100, using cross-unders as necessary. I thus began working my way from the top sum-of minterm metal conductors 186 downward for the sum-of-minterm lines having large numbers of minterms, i.e., N-channel MOSFETs, connected thereto. It was my hope that by positioning the horizontal metal sum-of-minterm conductors containing the fewest numbers of minterms at the bottom and those containing the greatest numbers of minterms at the top of the sum-of-minterm array, there would be enough gaps, i.e., regions with adequate spacing between diffused regions, in the intermediate region to allow fairly direct downward routing of diffused and/or polycrystalline silicon conductors from the sum-of-minterm conductors containing intermediate numbers of minterms, located more or less directly above where those intermediate sum-of-minterm transfer signals were required in the register section. As this approach to layout of the sum-of-minterm region 116B progressed, my foregoing hunch turned out to be correct, and with much less effort than I thought might have been required, I was able to complete the layout of the sum-of-minterm region with much less expenditure of time, and with only approximately 40% less chip area than I thought would have been required if I had not hit upon this approach. Note that in FIG. 2, reference arrows 190 simply designate continuations of the diffused or polycrystalline silicon sum-of-minterm transfer lines 188 more or less directly downward into the register transfer section. FIG. 2A schematically discloses the structure of both the minterm region 116A and the sum-of-minterm region 116B and also the minterm inverter drivers 116C described above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3A, and further discloses the mode select decode circuitry 160, in which the M and X bits of the status register 117 are included in the decoding function performed by the sum-of-minterm decoding section 116B in order to produce the transfer signals CYL/CF (low order carry bit to carry flag), CYH/CF (high order early bit to carry flag), DBIL/N (data bus low bit 7 to the N flag), DBIH/N (data bus high bit 7 to the N flag), and also the transfer signals "output latch low" to DBO and "output latch high to DBO", and also "special bus low to accumulator A" and "special bus high to accumulator B", and "zero detect of the low byte to the Z flag" and "zero detect low and high to the Z flag", "reset zero bit of the timing generator", and "set timing generator bit 1". Table 2 contains a list of all of the sum-of-minterm transfer signals for chip 100 and their functional descriptions in abbreviated language that one skilled in the art familiar with the instruction set in Appendix A and the diagram of FIG. 4 will readily understand. TABLE 2______________________________________Sum-of-MintermNumber Symbol Description______________________________________1. A/DBL Transfer A accumulator to data bus low2. A/SBL Transfer A accumulator to special bus low3. AB/AL Transfer address bus to address latch4. AB/PI Transfer address bus to program incrementer5. ABH/AXH Transfer address bus high to ALU X input high6. ABL/AXL Transfer address bus low to ALU X input low7. ADD Add decimal8. AL/AB Transfer address latch to address bus9. AUH/ABH Transfer ALU high to address bus high10. AUH/DBH Transfer ALU high to data bus high11. AUH/SBH Transfer ALU high to special bus high12. AUL/ABL Transfer ALU low to address bus low13. AUL/DBL Transfer ALU low to data bus low14. AUL/SBL Transfer ALU low to special bus low15. B/DBH Transfer B accumulator to data bus high16. B/SBH Transfer B accumulator to special bus high17. BRKCOPV Execute BRK or COP instruction18. BRKE Executing BRK in emulation mode19. BRNCHE Executing branch instruction in emulation mode20. CF/A7H Transfer carry flag to ALU high bit 721. CF/A7L Transfer carry flag to ALU low bit 722. CF/CIL Transfer carry flag to ALU low carry in23. CLRV Clear V flag24. COPV Force COP vector25. CYH-BKI Transfer ALU carry high compliment to bank incrementor input26. CYH/BKI Transfer ALU carry high to bank incrementor input27. CYH/CF Transfer ALU carry high to carry flag28. CYL/CF Transfer ALU carry low to carry flag29. D/DB Transfer direct register to data bus30. DB/D Transfer data bus to direct register31. DB/PI Transfer data bus to program incrementor32. DB/SB Transfer data bus to special bus33. DBH-/AXH Transfer data bus high compliment to ALU X input high34. DBH/AXH Transfer data bus high to ALU X input high35. DBH/N Transfer data bus high bit 7 to N flag36. DBH/NEG Transfer data bus high bit 7 to NEG latch37. DBH/OLH Transfer data bus high to output latch high38. DBH/V Transfer data bus high bit 6 to V flag39. DBI/ILH Transfer input data bus to input latch high40. DBI/ILL Transfer input data bus to input latch low41. DBI/T Transfer input data bus to temporary register42. DBL-AXL Transfer data bus low compliment to ALU X input low43. DBL/AXL Transfer data bus low to ALU X input low44. DBL/CF Transfer data bus low bit 0 to carry flag45. DBL/DBH Transfer data bus low to data bus high46. DBL/DBR Transfer data bus low to data bank register47. DBL/N Transfer data bus low bit 7 to N flag48. DBL/NEG Transfer data bus low bit 7 to NEG latch49. DBL/OLL Transfer data bus low to output latch low50. DBL/P Transfer data bus low to status register51. DBL/PBR Transfer data bus low to program bank register52. DBL/V Transfer data bus low bit 6 to V flag53. DBR/DBL Transfer data bank register to data bus low54. DBR/DBO Transfer data bank register to output data bus55. DCE Decimal carry enable56. DH/ABH Transfer direct register high to address bus high57. DL/ABL Transfer direct register low to address bus low58. EOR Execute EOR operation in ALU59. GOTO6 Force timing generator to state 660. GOTO7 Force timing generator to state 761. GOTOZ Force timing generator to state 062. HLDOLD Hold previous address in address latches63. ILH/ABH Transfer input latch high to address bus high64. ILH/DBH Transfer input latch high to data bus high65. ILL/ABL Transfer input latch low to address bus low66. ILL/DBL Transfer input latch low to data bus low67. IR5 Instruction register bit 568. IR5/CF Transfer instruction register bit 5 to carry flag69. IR5/D Transfer instruction register bit 5 to decimal flag70. IR5/I Transfer instruction register bit 5 to interrupt mask flag71. LIR Load instruction register72. ML Enable memory lock output73. NEG/AYH Transfer NEG latch to ALU Y input high74. O1/CIH Force 1 to ALU carry in high75. O1/CIL Force 1 to ALU carry in low76. OLH/DBO Transfer output latch high to output data bus77. OLL/DBO Transfer output latch low to output data bus78. OR Force OR operation in ALU79. P/DBL Transfer processor status register to data bus low80. PBR/DBL Transfer program bank register to data bus low81. PBR/DBO Transfer program bank register to output data bus82. PC/AB Transfer program counter register to address bus83. PC/DB Transfer program counter register to data bus84. PI/AB Transfer program incrementor to address bus85. PI/DB Transfer program incrementor to data bus86. PICIN Increment program incrementor87. R0 Reset timing generator bit 088. R1 Reset timing generator bit 189. R2 Reset timing generator bit 290. RABORTl Reset abort latch91. S/AB Transfer stack register to address bus92. S/SB Transfer stack register to special bus93. S0 Set timing generator bit 094. S1 Set timing generator bit 195. S2 Set timing generator bit 296. S3 Set timing generator bit 397. SB/AB Transfer special bus to address bus98. SB/S Transfer special bus to stack register99. SB/X Transfer special bus to X register100. SB/Y Transfer special bus to Y register101. SBH/AYH Transfer special bus high to ALU Y input high102. SBH/B Transfer special bus high to B accumulator103. SBL/A Transfer special bus low to A accumulator104. SBL/AYL Transfer special bus low to ALU Y input low105. SDD Substract decimal106. SR Force shift right operation in ALU107. SR8/A7L Transfer ALU bit 8 to ALU bit 7108. STP Stop the clock109. SUM Force sum operation in ALU110. T/DBO/1 Transfer temporary register to output data bus during phase 2 low time111. T/DBO/2 Transfer temporary register to output data bus during phase 2 high time112. TSTL/Z Transfer test low byte to zero flag113. TSTLH/Z Transfer test word to zero flag114. V/ADL Transfer vector to address bus low115. VDA Enable valid data address output116. VH/V Transfer ALU overflow high to V flag117. VL/V Transfer ALU overflow low to V flag118. VPA Enable valid program address output119. WAI Force wait operation120. WRITE Enable write operation121. X/AB Transfer X register to address bus122. X/SB Transfer X register to special bus123. XCE Exchange carry and emulation bits in status register124. Y/SB Transfer Y register to special bus125. Z0/ADL0 Force 0 on address bus bit 0126. Z0/AYH Force zeros on ALU Y input high127. Z0/AYL Force zeros on ALU Y input low128. Z0/CIH Force zero into ALU carry in high129. Z0/DB Force zeros on data bus130. Z0/DBO Force zeros on output data bus131. ZL/Z Transfer byte zero detect output to Z flag132. ZLH/Z Transfer word zero detect output to Z flag______________________________________ In Table 2, the term "data bus low" refers to the low order byte on internal data bus 141, and similarly the term "data bus high" refers to the high data byte thereon. The term "special bus low" refers to the low order byte on internal special bus 114, and similarly for the term "special bus high". The same convention applies to the terms "address bus high" and "address bus low" with reference to internal address bus 103. The arithmetic logic unit circuitry of the chip 100 includes the high and low order binary and decimal arithmetic logic circuitry indicated in FIG. 1. Each such arithmetic logic circuitry unit includes an X input and a Y input which is referred to in various of the minterm descriptions in Table 2. The "input data bus" referred to in Table 2 refers to the bus going from the data bus/bank address buffer 105 to the sixteen bit data latch 106. The "output data bus" referred to in Table 2 refers to the eight bit bus going from program bank register 155, data bank register 156 and data latch circuit 106 to data bus/bank address buffer circuitry 105. Next, important new functional sections in the sixteen bit microprocessor chip 100 which are not included in the microprocessor described in the above-referenced parent application are described with reference to FIGS. 13 through 19, including the emulation bit circuitry, the abort circuitry, the valid program address circuitry, the valid program address circuitry, the valid data address circuitry, the vector pull circuitry, improvements to the ready circuitry, and the M/X output circuitry. Referring now to FIG. 13, reference numeral 161 designates the emulation bit output logic indicated in FIG. 1 The signal E OUT is an output signal that simply indicates whether microprocessor chip 100 is presently emulating the 6502 microprocessor, enabling external circuitry such as a memory controller or the like to readily determine how memory should be accessed. As in FIG. 1, reference numeral 155 designates the program status register. The C or carry bit, the X bit, the M bit, and the emulation or E bit are designated by reference numerals 155C, 155X, 155M and 155E, respectively. These bits are all connected to a conductor 170 that in turn is connected to an E bit 178A of instruction register 178 (FIGS. 1 and 4) which generates the E and E* lines that extend through the N-channel minterm decode circuitry 116A. Conductor 170 is also connected to X register 112, Y register 113, low order stack register 111A, high order stack register 111B, and to the input of the emulation output circuitry 161. The function of the emulation signal on conductor 170, if E is a "one", i.e., if the chip is emulating a 6502 microprocessor, is to produce a "one" on conductor 170 that causes E OUT to be a logical "one", forces a logical "one" into the X and M bits 155X and 155M, respectively, of the status register 155, an in effect only allows transfers out of the low order bytes of registers 112, 113, 111A, and 111B, and causes certain minterm decoding operations in circuitry 116A which are particular to the emulation mode of operation of chip 100. More particularly, if the E bit is a "one", this causes "zeros" to be forced into the high byte of each of registers 112 and 113 and forces a hexadecimal zero one into high order stack byte 111B. The blocks 191 and emulation output logic 161 simply designate metal options on the metal layer of FIG. 12 which disconnect inverter 192 if chip 100 is packaged in the package of FIG. 20B (which is pin compatible with the 6502 microprocessor) and cause pin 35 of the package to be disconnected, as indicated by "N/C" in FIG. 20B. Referring next to FIG. 14, the abort logic 167 of FIG. 1 is shown in detail. The ABORT signal is an input signal that is generated in response to external circuitry that detects an abort condition, for example an incorrect address on the address lines 101 (FIG. 4). The abort input conductor 193 is connected to a string of three inverters 194 and a clocked latch circuit 195 which can be reset by either the reset signal on pin 40 (FIG. 20A) or an internal circuitry RABORT (reset abort) signal which is generated when execution of an abort subroutine is completed. The P-channel MOSFET designated by reference numeral 196 is a typical "pull up" resistance that maintains conductor 193 at a high level unless the negative-going ABORT signal is applied thereto. Clock latch 195 is clocked by a signal φ21, an internal clock signal derived from the clock generator circuitry 156 in FIGS. 1 and 4 that gates or synchronizes all inputgate transfers in the chip 100 Other internally generated clock signals referred to in FIGS. 14-19 include φ20, which synchronizes all transfers from outputs of latches in the chip 100, φ20, a delayed replica of φ2. φ4 internal transfer clock signal which generally performs the function of internal transfer timing for registers. φ40 is a slightly delayed version of φ4 which is required to precharge the instruction decode logic The output of clocked latch 195 is inverted and applied to a latch circuit 197 to generate a signal (ABORT.φ1*) which causes abort vector-generating circuitry 198 (which can be readily implemented by those skilled in the art) to force a vector address on address bus 101 (FIG. 4) representing the location of an abort subroutine that must be executed next. (φ1 is simply an alternate way of describing φ2 low time.) The signal on conductor 199 is clocked into circuitry 197 by the clock signal φ21. Herein, the symbols such as 200 designate CMOS transfer gates, which are well-known to those skilled in the art and simply constitute a P-channel MOSFET and an N-channel MOSFET having common sources and common drains. The small circle 201 on each CMOS transfer gate designates the gate electrode of the P-channel MOSFET. The opposite input designates the gate electrode of the N-channel MOSFET. The (ABORT)* signal on conductor 199 is clocked into latch circuitry 202 by a pair of CMOS transfer gates of the type described above in response to a signal LIR (load instruction register) and is further synchronized from the output of the latch 202 into another latch 203 by another pair of CMOS transfer gates and in synchronization with the signal φ4. The output of the latch 203 is the (ABORT)* signal on conductor 169, which is routed to registers 107, 112, 113, 111A, 111B, 109A, 109B, 160, 117, 155, and 156 as previously described to prevent any transfers of data into those registers until the abort subroutine has been executed and the reset abort (RABORT) signal has been generated. Referring next to FIG. 15, the valid program address (VPA) circuitry 157A shown in FIG. 1 produces a signal VPA as an output on conductor 204, which is wire bonded to lead 7 of the package shown in FIG. 20A. A sum-of-minterm transfer signal produced in sum-of-minterm decoding circuitry 116B (FIGS. 1 and 2) produces a signal that is synchronized with the clock signal φ40 and is gated by a "hold program incrementer" signal (HLDPI)*, latched by φ4 and ultimately produced on conductor 204 when the present address being output on address bus 101 (FIG. 4) is a program address, i.e., an address of a location in a slow memory, such as a read-only memory or a disc. The valid program address signal on conductor 204 can also caused to be a "zero" in response to the (HLDPI)* or forced break (FRCBRKL) forced break condition due to a hardware interrupt. The two metal options designated by reference numeral 205 disable the VPA output on conductor 204, if the chip 100 is packaged in the pin compatible 6502 package of FIG. 20B. Referring now to FIG. 16, the valid data address (VDA) circuitry 164 of FIG. 1 is shown in detail The VDA signal is produced on conductor 206. It is generated as a result of a sum-of-minterm transfer signal (VDA)* produced on conductor 207 by sum-of-minterm decoding circuitry 116B (FIGS. 1, 2, and 4). After being latched by the clock signalφ4 and ANDed with the reset signal, and further latched in synchronization with the signal φ20and inverted, the VDA signal is produced on conductor 206. The circuitry 208 in FIG. 16 shows how the signal φ20 is derived from φ21 when the ready (RDY)* signal produced in block 166 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 is latched to a low level. This circuit is similar to the VPA circuit of FIG. 16, except that the VDA signal is at a logical "one" when the address presently being produced on address bus 101 is the location of data (rather than program instructions) stored in a fast memory, and enables an external circuit such as a memory controller to generate a high speed clock that is suitable for accessing a fast RAM. This is more convenient than use of the valid memory address (VMA) produced by some other microprocessors, which do not distinguish between slow program memory and high speed data memory. Referring now to FIG. 17, the vector pull circuitry of block 165 of FIG. 1 is shown. This circuit produces a logical "zero" on conductor 209 during the two cycles when a vector address is being output on address bus 101. This enables a system using the microprocessor 100 to conveniently modify and/or prioritize interrupt routines, rather than using an entire separate interrupt priority allocation circuit Whenever an interrupt or abort operation occurs, any vector interrupt system, including the one in chip 100, causes vector transfer signals 210 to be applied to vector control circuitry such as 211 that forces a particular vector address into the address latches 121 and 120 of FIG. 4. Those skilled in the art can easily provide input devices which, when enabled by the vector transfer signals 210, force logical "ones" and/or "zeros" into the inputs of the appropriate bits of the address buffers 120 and 121 to load the appropriate vector address therein. Vector control circuitry 211 simply generates a vector pull (VP) signal on conductor 212 whenever this happens. This signal is synchronized with the clock φ20 and latched into a latch 165A, inverted, and produced on conductor 209. Referring now to FIG. 18, new circuitry 166 is shown which produces the signal RDY as a low output level on conductor 213 in response to a wait (WAIT) command applied to one of the inputs of NAND gate 214. This signal is buffered by two cascaded inverters and is applied to an N-channel MOS transistor 215, the drain of which is connected to conductor 213. The IRQ and NMI signals are conventional, but the wait instruction (WAIT) described in Appendix A simply pulls the RDY signal low. This provides an advantage of a simple implementation of the wait for interrupt function The RDY signal on conductor 213 can also be an input which is loaded into latch circuitry 215 in synchronization with the φ21 signal, except during a write operation when the chip 100 is emulating a 6502 microprocessor to produce the (RDYL)* signal mentioned above. The occurrence of either an IRQ or NMI signal disables the wait instruction, allowing conductor 213 to return to its normal high state. (Is this correct, Bill? } Referring next to FIG. 19, the new M/X output logic circuitry 117A of FIG. 1 is shown. This circuitry simply provides a multiplexed output signal M/X on conductor 216 that, during φ1 high time indicates the value of the M bit in status register 117 and during φ2 low time indicates the value of the X bit in status register 117. This signal may be useful to external circuitry, such as a memory controller, enabling it to anticipate the operation about to be performed by the incoming op code. The X and M outputs of status register 117 are synchronized by the clock and applied directly, after appropriate inversion and buffering, to conductor 216. The X and M outputs of status register 17 are also transferred in response to an LIR (load instruction register) command into two instruction register latches 217 and 218 to produce the signals and complements routed into the minterm decoding circuitry 116A and also to mode select decode circuitry 60. In accordance with the present invention, the sixteen bit microprocessor chip 100 executes eight bit op codes, rather than sixteen bit op codes. Most prior sixteen bit microprocessors execute sixteen bit op codes. The eight bit op codes include, as a subset, all of the eight bit op codes of the prior 6502 microprocessor. This enables the sixteen bit microprocessor chip 100 to execute software written for the eight bit 6502 microprocessor. The M bit, the X bit and the E bit can be thought of as "op code extensions" which extend the eight bit op code to effectuate execution of a larger number of instructions having eight bit op codes in either an eight bit or a sixteen bit mode, i.e., wherein the internal data words are eight bits wide or sixteen bits wide, respectively. The way in which this is done can be illustrated with an example of how an LDA (load accumulator) instruction is executed. The op code table on page 10 of Appendix A, which lists all of the hexadecimal op codes for all of the instructions of microprocessor chip 100, shows that the op codes for the LDA instruction is A5 For the initial part of this example, assume that M is a "one", indicating that sixteen bit operation is desired The eight bit op code A5 is loaded into the instruction register, along with E, M, and X and these are decoded in minterm decoding read-only memory 166A to produce minterm signals which are inverted by minterm inverters 116C. Further decoding then is done on the inverted minterm signals by the sum-of-minterm read-only memory 116B to produce appropriate sum-of-minterm signals The "one" level of the M bit is then used in the mode select decode circuitry 160 to "select" the appropriate sum of minterm signal as a transfer signal for causing the highest order bit (i.e., bit 7) of the low order byte on the internal data bus 141 (FIG. 4) to be loaded into the N bit of status register 117, since for eight bit operation, the highest order bit on an eight bit data bus would be loaded into the N (negative) bit of the status register for certain instructions. However, if the M bit is a "zero" instead of a "one", indicating that sixteen bit operation is desired, the operation is similar in that the same op code A5 for the LDA instruction is located into the instruction register and is decoded, with E, M, and X, in the minterm decoding read-only memory 116A and sum-of-minterm decoding circuitry 116B, but this time the complement of the M bit, i.e., M*, is used to transfer the highest order bit of the upper byte of the internal data bus 141, i.e., bit 15, into the N bit of &he status register 117, since for sixteen bit operation this is the bit that must be loaded into the N (negative) bit of the status register for the same instructions to indicate whether the number on the data bus is a positive number or a negative number. The above-described sixteen bit microprocessor chip 100 provides a number of advantages that are expected to result in a "breakthrough" in microprocessor chip design by providing very high speed sixteen bit internal operation with a number of new features that greatly simplify the design of low cost computerized systems and allow the sixteen bit microprocessor to easily execute software that has been previously written for the eight bit 6502 microprocessor, and even allows the sixteen bit microprocessor chip to emulate the prior 6502 microprocessor, and achieves this result in a high speed, low power CMOS chip that require less than half as much chip area as prior sixteen bit microprocessors which utilize the generally more area consuming NMOS (N channel MOS) manufacturing technology. The sixteen bit microprocessor chip 100 provides three convenient ways of stopping the clock, by executing a wait instruction, by pulling the "RDY" input to a low level, or executing a "stop the clock" instruction referred to in Appendix A. The provision of simple output circuitry that produces the VPA (valid program address) and VMA (valid memory address) signals allows very convenient use of these signals to determine memory clock speeds in accordance with whether data addresses or program addresses are presently being output, and hence whether high speed data or scratch memory is required or low speed program memory is being addressed. The prior approach would have required execution of a subroutine to produce data indicative of the type of memory being addressed, and decoding of that data by means of external circuitry in order to produce the external signals necessary to accomplish the same result. The vector pull (VP) signal can in some cases simplify vector prioritizing schemes. The abort circuitry allows retention of all data stored in registers accessable by the programmer to be retained, so that at the end of an abort operation, it is not necessary to go all the way back to the beginning of a subroutine in order to complete execution of the subroutine. While the invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment thereof, those skilled in the art will be able to make various modifications to the described embodiment of the invention without departing from the true spirit scope thereof It is intended that operating steps and structural features which are equivalent to those in the described embodiment in that they perform substantially the same work in substantially the same way to achieve substantially the same results are within the scope of the invention For example, a 32 bit microprocessor may be designed according to the same principles, and could execute the same 8 bit op codes as the above described microprocessor chip 100.

An abort circuit for a microprocessor includes a circuit receiving and latching an external abort signal to produce an internal abort signal, and circuitry responsive to the internal abort signal for preventing register transfer circuitry from responding to register transfer signals during execution of a current instruction that would otherwise result in modifying information in internal non-addressable programmable registers during duration of the internal abort signal, and abort reset circuity for responding to a reset signal to cause the abort input circuitry to stop producing the internal abort signal at the end of the abort condition.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to control devices and more particularly is concerned with such devices which respond to input forces or torques in three dimensions and permit a control signal to be derived for controlling a machine such as a computer controlled system or the like. However, devices embodying the invention may be applied to other uses. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present inventor is also an inventor of inventions in this field relating to three dimensional force and torque sensing devices which are the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,811,608; 5,222,400; 5,706,027 and 5,798,748. [0003] A further prior published proposal in the field is U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,810 Heindl et al. [0004] In recognising this other prior published material, the inventor does not admit that any of these other proposals are necessarily known to persons working in the field or of that of common general knowledge in any particular country. [0005] The inventors prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,608 discloses a six arm device where the arms are orthogonally arranged and responses in the arms to force or torque with respect to any axis in three dimensions are monitored using sensors. [0006] The inventor has now appreciated that new and useful alternatives to his own prior art and other prior art items disclosed above would be highly advantageous and the present invention is concerned with such alternatives. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] In summary the invention may be described as a controller having four and only four arms extending from a body portion which is adapted to support the device, the arms being spaced from one another in three dimensions and the device having six or more degrees of constraint, tip portions of each of the arms engaging in connection means providing restricted relative motion, the connection means being attached to a gripping means which can apply force and/or torque in a three dimensional sense, the device including response detection means for monitoring responses in at least three of the four arms to provide an output signal representative of force and/or torque applied through the gripping means. [0008] In some embodiments the device is arranged to control a system with the signal. [0009] The arms may be arranged in a tetrahedron shaped envelope and optionally are almost equally spaced from one another in a symmetrical sense with included angles of approximately 109°. However a small degree of non-symmetry is advantageous to ensure there is some preloading mechanically which addresses friction issues yet provides a device in which the computer based system can rapidly perform the relevant calculations that derive an accurate output signal. [0010] Most usefully the arms are constrained such that the device has eight degrees of constraint. [0011] This may be achieved by the tip of each arm having a ball element which is slidable along a cylindrical bore associated with the connection means and rotatable within reasonable limits inside the bore. Thus each such connection has freedom to engage in translational movement along the axis of the bore and limited freedom to rotate. The ball joint is thus constrained in two directions defining a plane at right angles to the axis of the bore and there are four dimensions of freedom in total and two constraints at each joint. [0012] Optionally, the sensors for monitoring response in the arms are disposed around a circular path in a plane. The sensors may advantageously be an optically based system. [0013] The optical system can detect very accurately extremely small deflections in the arms responsive to the applied force or torque. [0014] Another embodiment is one in which six sensors are provided in an array so that displacements in an X-Y set of directions for each of the four arms is achieved giving eight readings which can be resolved to give the required output signal. [0015] Another advantageous embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of optical sensors as component parts of the response detection means. These optical sensors are concentric and disposed on the same plane. [0016] The six sensors may optionally be configured in pairs around three of the four arms. [0017] The present invention, embodiments of which have been described above, may be usefully arranged as a component of a computer system wether incorporated as an external facility or as an integral sub-system. [0018] By way of technical background, an explanation of principles which may further explain the invention or some of its embodiments will be given, but the applicant is not to be bound by the completeness or correctness of this explanation. Further features of a preferred embodiments will also be explained. [0019] The constraint relationship between two bodies can be determined by summing the constraints of the joint or joints between the two bodies excluding mechanisms which have special geometric alignments. A perfectly constrained device would have exactly six degrees of constraint. Perfectly constrained designs require high joint tolerances to avoid a rattling due to the joint clearances or to avoid excessive friction of the joints due to interference. In practice a slight interference renders the product unusable so perfectly constrained designs tend to exhibit a small amount of rattle due to the clearances in the joints. It is also desirable to provide a small amount of damping through some friction of the joints. [0020] When a control device having a displaceable grip is designed, it is useful to recognise that when the grip is released damping avoids vibration issues and avoids the requirements of a very lightweight grip, as is the case with purely spring-based designs. The friction of a perfectly constrained design, when the grip is released, is only dependent upon the weight of the grip and the frictional properties of the materials and hence is not adjustable in a typical design. [0021] Overconstrained designs can be easily preloaded by slightly offsetting either side of a joint. Optionally only a small overconstraint is used to avoid tolerancing issues. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is slightly overconstrained with eight degrees of constraint. This allows the arms of the tube protrusions to be offset slightly relative to the connection means such as the cylindrical bores to introduce a slight preload when the device is at rest. [0022] Durability of a design is impacted heavily by the wear characteristics of a joint. In perfectly constrained designs with point contact a small amount of wear increases the slop of the joint resulting in increased rattle of the device. The present preferred embodiments have line contact joints that wear much more slowly than point contact. In conjunction with a small preload the device does not exhibit slop. [0023] The preferred embodiment has a central body and arms moulded as a single unit to form a four-armed, generally star-shaped body which for convenience in this specification will be known as a “tetra-star” to provide rigid mounting of the arms of the body and to reduce cost. A complex tool is required to mould the central star part and each arm is formed by three sections of the tool. The preferred embodiment has spherical tips that engage with bores in an outer ball or shell which forms the grip. The mould has three parting lines. To avoid any flash from affecting the operation of the ball-in-hole joints, the ideal spherical surface is optionally cut back along the parting lines with a cylindrical surface so the flash will not touch the surface of the cylindrical bore associated with the outer ball. [0024] In the preferred embodiment, there is an inner ball structure for mounting the tetra-star and comprising a lower and an upper section. Four holes in the inner ball are provided for the cylindrically bored extensions from the outer ball to pass through and engage the tetra-star's arms. These holes also limit the range of motion of the extensions and prevent the arms from being overstressed. Impact loads are passed directly from the extensions to the inner ball structure thereby avoiding damage of the tetra-star's arms so that a robust design is achieved. [0025] Preferred embodiments use infrared LEDs and photodiodes to detect the tetra-star's arm displacements. Only six sets of sensors are required for the full 3D force and 3D torque computation. These are optionally arranged as three pairs with one arm having no sensors. Two pairs on two arms and the other two arms with a single sensor is also possible but less desirable. Similarly eight sets of sensors could be used with a pair for each arm. Each arm would optionally have the optical axes perpendicular to each other. [0026] In the preferred embodiment a shadow mask technology is used for sensing the displacement using an infrared LED and an infrared photodiode. The use of infrared provides greater immunity from ambient light affecting the measurement. Light falling on the photodiode from the LED generates a small current. As the arm deflects, the amount of light varies and in turn the amount of current varies. Greater linearity is achieved by keeping the voltage across the photodiode constant using an appropriate circuit. Each LED/photodiode pair has a characteristic loss factor measured as the ratio of the LED drive current vs. the photodiode output current with no shadow. This is typically around 200:1. For good accuracy the drive circuitry and/or computation needs to compensate for the variation in loss factor. [0027] The preferred embodiment has ball-in-hole joints being 2 degree-of-constraint joints. These have line contact between the spherical ball-tip surface and the whole surface. DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0028] For exemplification only the invention will be described with reference to the following illustrative drawings: [0029] FIG. 1 is a schematic three dimensional representation of a base unit of a three dimensional control device, eg: for controlling computers; [0030] FIG. 2 is a schematic vertical cross section through the device and having a generally spherical gripping cap for manual manipulation to operate the device; [0031] FIG. 3 is a schematic three dimensional view of a tetra-star component used in the device; [0032] FIG. 4 is a schematic three dimensional representation from the interior of one of the segments of the cap of the device and used for gripping purposes; and [0033] FIG. 5 is a three dimensional exploded view of the device of FIGS. 1-4 in the form of a practical embodiment. [0034] FIG. 6 is a schematic view similar to the view of FIG. 3 , however the tetra-star component is viewed along the axis of one of the arms. This view also shows one of the optics sub-assemblies. The tip of the arm has been excluded to provide a better view of the optics sub-assemblies. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0035] The principal components of the device comprise a tetra-star body 10 base, an inner bowl shaped cap 12 and an outer cap 13 formed from segments, one of which is shown in FIG. 4 . [0036] The tetra-star 10 has four arms 14 extending along respective axes from central body 15 , the axes, being substantially uniformly geometrically disposed relative to one another. Each arm 14 has an elongated reduced cross-section cylindrical portion 14 A extending from a tapered base 16 and leading to a tip 17 having an enlarged head with, the surface profile including substantially a spherical portion 18 with a flattened end face 19 . A series of structural webs 20 are individually formed on the tetra-star body. [0037] The inner cap 12 has apertures 30 for accommodating tubular retainers 24 associated with the outer cap 13 and thereby limited displacement of the cap 13 (which acts as a grip). [0038] As most clearly seen in FIG. 2 one of the arms extends substantially vertically upwards and, as described above, a preferred embodiment has optical sensing for detecting flexing in the arms. FIG. 2 shows schematically a photo detector unit 21 having a light omitting diode (LED) 22 and photo detector 23 . Each of the arms 14 is constrained with line contact in a respective tubular retainer 24 which is integrally formed with and projects inwardly from the respective cap segments of 13 to engage the tips 17 . [0039] Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6 small cut-outs 31 in each of the three lower printed circuit boards (PCB) 32 provides clearance for the assembly of the photo detector unit 21 into the inner cap 12 . Each of the three lower PCBs 32 mounts a printed circuit board interface 34 . There are three triplets of optics subassembly supports 35 protruding from the structural webs 20 to easily and accurately mount respective optics subassemblies 36 which include the PCB 32 and two photo detector units 21 . [0040] The PCB interface 34 provides interconnections for the optics subassemblies 36 and mounts interface electronics (not shown). A ribbon cable (not shown) is soldered to the PCB interface 34 and runs inside a stem 11 for connection to external electronics (not shown). [0041] The top and bottom sections of the inner cap 12 respectively include three pairs of clips 37 and three pairs of clip apertures 38 for inter-engagement. The stem 11 has three screw bosses (not shown) for mounting the device to a base (not shown), a ribbon cable exit slot and a keying slot to ensure the device is mounted correctly. The edges of the segments of the outer cap 13 have interlocking tabs 39 for mutual attachment and assembly. These tabs 39 require all four parts of the outer cap 13 to be assembled at the same time. The interlock design of the tabs 39 require a simple two-part moulding tool for manufacture. Although the segments of the outer cap 13 mechanically engage, the segments are glued for strength. [0042] FIG. 6 clearly shows how the arms 14 are offset from the light omitting diodes 22 and corresponding photos detectors 23 such that the variation in light due to the deflection of the arms 14 can be easily measured. [0043] The tetra-star 10 is designed for plastic injection moulding. Notably, the spherical portion 18 of each arm 14 needs to be accurate and has sections profiled to keep any moulding flash below the spherical portion 18 . The type of plastic needs to have a good fatigue life to handle the repetitive bending stresses imposed on the arms 14 and it should have low friction with the outer cap material. Delrin® is a suitable material for the tetra-star 10 . [0044] The arrangement is such that the application of force or torque through the outer cap 13 with respect to any axes is detected by a characterising flexing in the arms. This flexing can be detected and computation determines the appropriate signal to be directed to a device such as a computer. [0045] As the outer cap 13 is moved, the four tubular retainers 24 push on the four arms 14 deflecting them so they oppose the displacement of the outer cap 13 . Ignoring the very small and hence insignificant frictional components, each arm tip 17 force vector can be considered as a 2D force vector lying in a plane normal to the corresponding axis of the tubular retainer 24 . A simplifying assumption is made that each plane remains stationary as the outer cap 13 moves. The very small errors due to this assumption are insignificant. The deflection of each arm tip 17 is proportional and in the same direction as the 2D force vector. Using standard engineering mathematics, each 2D force vector acting through a arm tip 17 can be transformed into a 3D force vector and a 3D torque vector acting through the centre of the device. The 3D force vector and 3D torque vector acting on the outer cap 13 is then calculated by summing the four 3D force vectors and summing the four 3D torque vectors respectively. [0046] The force vector 13 acting on an arm tip 17 is proportional to the deflection measured by the photo detector unit 21 (or sensor 21 ) located part way down the length of the arm 14 . The ratio of the force on the arm tip 17 to the measured deflection is constant and can be measured experimentally or calculated from an arm's spring constant combined with geometric calculations of the shape of a deflected arm 14 . Given the constant ratio, the force is easily calculated from the deflection by multiplication. [0047] From engineering theory a minimum of six single value sensors are required to measure a simultaneous 3D force vector and 3D torque vector. Clearly, a device with four pairs of sensors, a pair for each arm, is functional. A device with three pairs of sensors can be used if the fourth 2D force vector can be calculated from the other three. Consider the device of FIG. 5 where the lower three arms 14 have sensors 21 but the top arm 14 does not. Using each of the three measured 2D force vectors the force component tangential to a circle, centred on the centre of the device and passing through the centre of the top arm tip 17 , is calculated. These three force vector components are then mathematically rotated so as to act through the centre of the top arm's tip 17 . These three force vectors are then summed to calculate the 2D force vector associated with the fourth arm 14 . [0048] It is helpful to consider the simple situation where the outer cap 13 is pushed downwards by a force acting through the centre of the device. The top arm 14 does not deflect but the lower three arms 14 deflect downwards sharing the load equally. The required tangential components happen to be the same as their respective 2D force vectors. Rotating these force vectors so that they act through the centre of the top arm 14 results in three equal force vectors acting 120° to each other and therefore adding to zero as expected. [0049] It is also theoretically possible to have a device with two pairs of sensors 21 on two arms 14 and two single sensors 21 , appropriately oriented, on the other two arms 14 . [0050] In this specification, the word “comprising” and its variations, such as “comprises”, has a meaning such that the word does not preclude additional or unrecited elements, substances or method steps, in addition to those specifically recited. Thus, the described apparatus, substance or method may have other elements, substances or steps in various embodiments of the invention. The purpose of the claims is to define the features which make up the invention and not necessarily all features which a working embodiment of the apparatus, substance or method, to which the invention defines, may have. The apparatus, substance or method defined in the claims may therefore include other elements, steps or substances as well as the inventive elements, steps or substances which make up the invention and which are specifically recited in the claims.

A three-dimensional force and torque converter unit for measuring an external force or torque applied to the unit and converting it into a signal, whereby the signal may be used to control a system or device incorporating the converter unit. The converter unit includes a controller formed with four spaced apart arms having six or more degrees of constraint. A force or torque may be applied to the tip portions of each of the arms via a gripping means. Sensors are used to measure the deflection of the arms under an applied loading or torque and an output signal is generated.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a cutting fluid control device for a machine tool, and more particularly, to a cutting fluid control device for a machine tool capable of calculating an optimal concentration of a cutting fluid according to machining conditions (workpiece material, cutting tool type, etc.) without relying on expert knowledge. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] A machine, such as a machine tool, is supplied with a water-soluble or water-insoluble cutting fluid during machining. The cutting fluid is stored in a cutting fluid tank and supplied to the machine side by a cutting fluid supply pump connected to the cutting fluid tank. When used, the cutting fluid adheres to a workpiece and is removed to the outside of the machine. Then, the used cutting fluid flows around the machine inside a guard cover, and is returned to the cutting fluid tank through a cutting fluid return path and recycled. While there are various cutting fluids with various properties, their concentrations and amounts should be controlled. [0005] (1) Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 5-16112 discloses a concentration meter and an oil level gauge in engagement with a cutting oil tank, time measuring means for measuring actual working hours, and a controller configured to automatically supply crude oil and clean water to the cutting oil tank based on the measured values. According to this arrangement, the concentration and amount of oil in the cutting oil tank can always be kept at a predetermined value, whereby the oil can be normalized and the machining accuracy can be stabilized. By this technique, the oil in the cutting oil tank can be decontaminated so that its life is increased and the machining accuracy is improved. [0006] (2) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-188480 discloses a machine tool and a coolant monitoring system therefor, capable of preventing various adverse influences of degradation of a liquid coolant. In this method, the quality of the liquid coolant used for cooling during cutting a workpiece or cleaning during tool replacement is detected by means of a pH sensor, water quality/hardness sensor, and concentration sensor. A detection value of each of the sensors is compared with a threshold. If the detection value is within a normal range, an indication of its normality is displayed on the screen of a display device. If the detection value is in a cautionary range, a warning is displayed on the display screen. If the detection value is in an abnormal range, cutting by the machine body is prohibited. [0007] (3) Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 6-75638 discloses an automated quality control of prevention of decay and concentration control of water-soluble cutting oil used in a machine tool or the like, which is intended to save the cost of the maintenance by keeping the life of cutting fluid long and improve the tool life and product quality by adjusting the concentration of the cutting fluid optimally. To attain this, the water-soluble oil in a tank is drawn up by a pump and extraneous matter is removed by a suction filter and a line filter. Then, the oil is heated and increased in temperature to be sterilized by a heater and then passed through a concentration sensor. Thereupon, the liquid concentration is measured by the concentration sensor, and a flow control valve is actuated in response to a command from the controller based on the rate of the measured liquid concentration. In this way, the inflow rate of an undiluted solution of the cutting oil from an undiluted solution pump or dilution water from a water pump is adjusted so that the cutting fluid with a constant concentration can be returned to the cutting oil tank. The cutting oil thus returned to the tank is supplied to the machine tool by the pump. [0008] (4) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-179880 discloses a decay prevention method for cutting oil used in a machine tool, wherein water-soluble cutting oil is supplied to the machine tool by a cutting fluid supply device which includes a reservoir, pump, cutting oil supply pipe, cutting oil reservoir, cutting fluid discharge pipe, etc, in order to reliably kill microorganisms in the cutting oil, especially anaerobic bacteria, which directly cause generation of unpleasant odors, or suppress their growth without damaging the quality or properties of the cutting oil. The reservoir is supplied with air by an air supplier and aerated. A part of the cutting oil is batched off from the reservoir, and suspended matter is separated and removed by a solid-liquid separator. The resulting clean cutting oil is supplied to an adjustment tank, in which its temperature and hydrogen-ion concentration (pH) are adjusted so that the activity of the microorganisms is reduced. Thereafter, the cutting oil is pressurized to a predetermined pressure by a booster, intermittently delivered to a pressurization device, and kept at the predetermined pressure for a predetermined time. [0009] (5) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-73084 discloses a cutting oil treatment apparatus for a machine tool, capable of maintaining the performance of water-soluble cutting oil, which may be degraded after prolonged use, at the same level as that of fresh one without producing waste. This cutting oil treatment apparatus collects a part of the water-soluble cutting oil stored in a main cutting oil tank attached to the machine tool into another tank. Then, the treatment apparatus decomposes putrefactive bacteria, additives, etc., in the water-soluble cutting oil with microorganisms, catalyst, etc., for waste treatment and returns the oil to the afore-mentioned another tank. After this decomposition treatment is carried out a predetermined number of times, an undiluted solution of the cutting oil is added to the treated oil returned to the second tank, and fresh water-soluble cutting oil is prepared by dilution to a certain concentration and returned to the main cutting oil tank. The performance of the water-soluble cutting oil in the main cutting oil tank is kept constant by sequentially repeating this operation. [0010] The concentration of the cutting fluid has an optimal value depending on the workpiece material, cutting tool type, etc. Although the predetermined concentration, amount of oil, and time are regulated in the prior art techniques (1), (2) and (3) described above, there is no description of, for example, how to determine the cutting fluid concentration in accordance with the workpiece material, cutting tool type, etc. In general, setting the cutting fluid concentration greatly depends on experts' experiences and varies depending on the operator. Further, the prior art techniques (4) and (5) are not intended to obtain an optimal concentration. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0011] Accordingly, in view of the problems of the prior art described above, the object of the present invention is to provide a cutting fluid control device for a machine tool, capable of calculating an optimal concentration of a cutting fluid according to machining conditions (workpiece material, cutting tool type, etc.) without relying on expert knowledge. [0012] A cutting fluid control device for a machine tool according to the present invention comprises a cutting fluid undiluted-solution supply device configured to supply an undiluted solution of a cutting fluid to a cutting fluid tank, a water supply device configured to supply water for diluting the cutting fluid undiluted-solution in the cutting fluid tank, and a concentration sensor configured to detect the concentration of the cutting fluid in the cutting fluid tank, and adjusts the amounts of supply of the cutting fluid and the water to control the concentration of the cutting fluid in the cutting fluid tank. The cutting fluid control device further comprises an operating unit configured to input a machining condition of the machine tool, a computing unit configured to calculate the concentration of the cutting fluid based on the machining condition input through the operating unit, and an adjustment unit configured to adjust the amounts of supply from the cutting fluid undiluted-solution supply device and the water supply device so that the concentration of the cutting fluid in the cutting fluid tank is equal to the cutting fluid concentration calculated by the computing unit. [0013] The machining condition may be one or a combination of items including the material of a workpiece, the content of machining, and the type of a cutting tool used. [0014] The computing unit may be configured so as to read the concentration of the cutting fluid corresponding to the machining condition input to the operating unit from a storage unit in which the concentration of the cutting fluid correlated with the machining condition is stored. [0015] According to the present invention, the concentration of the cutting fluid can be automatically adjusted and controlled according to the machining condition, and the viscosity of the cutting fluid can be increased to improve lubricity between the cutting tool and the workpiece, thereby increasing the cutting speed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0016] The above and other objects and features of the present invention will be obvious from the ensuing description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: [0017] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a cutting fluid control device for a machine tool according to the present invention; [0018] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by the cutting fluid control device of FIG. 1 to calculate the concentration of a cutting fluid based on machining conditions; [0019] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by the cutting fluid control device of FIG. 1 to calculate the concentration of the cutting fluid based on the content of machining; [0020] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by the cutting fluid control device of FIG. 1 to calculate the concentration of the cutting fluid based on the content of machining and the material of a workpiece; [0021] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by the cutting fluid control device of FIG. 1 to calculate the concentration of the cutting fluid based on the content of machining and the type of a cutting tool; and [0022] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a table in which concentrations of the cutting fluid are compared with the machining conditions. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0023] One embodiment of a cutting fluid control device for a machine tool according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 . [0024] The cutting fluid control device for a machine tool comprises a controller 1 with a display device 2 , a concentration sensor 3 for measuring the concentration of a cutting fluid, and a fluid level sensor 4 for measuring the volume of cutting fluid. A cutting fluid tank 5 that stores the cutting fluid comprises a clean water tank 7 , which stores the cutting fluid decontaminated by a filter 6 , and a sewage tank 8 . The sewage tank 8 of the cutting fluid tank 5 is supplied with an undiluted solution of the cutting fluid from a cutting fluid undiluted-solution supply device 9 and water through a water supply device 10 . [0025] The cutting fluid that has become unnecessary is collected as a waste fluid 13 in a waste tank 12 by opening a discharge valve 11 attached to a lower part of the sewage tank 8 . The concentration sensor 3 measures the concentration of the cutting fluid in the clean water tank 7 . To measure the cutting fluid volume, the fluid level sensor 4 measures the surface level of the cutting fluid in the clean water tank 7 . [0026] A workpiece 18 placed on a table 17 is machined by a tool 20 mounted on a spindle 19 of the machine tool. A pump (coolant pump) 14 is used to draw up the cutting fluid stored in the clean water tank 7 and discharge it from a nozzle (coolant nozzle) 16 toward the workpiece 18 through a duct 15 . The cutting fluid discharged toward the workpiece 18 is collected in the sewage tank 8 of the cutting fluid tank 5 through a duct (not shown). The collected cutting fluid is decontaminated by the filter 6 and supplied to the clean water tank 7 to be recycled. [0027] The controller 1 receives a level detection signal detected by the fluid level sensor 4 and a concentration detection signal detected by the concentration sensor 3 . Further, the controller 1 drives the coolant pump 14 to draw up the cutting fluid from the clean water tank 7 and discharge it from the nozzle 16 toward the workpiece 18 . The controller 1 is provided with a software (program) that performs the processing shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 to 5 . By executing this software, the controller 1 controls the cutting fluid undiluted-solution supply device 9 and the water supply device 10 so that the concentration of the cutting fluid in the cutting fluid tank is kept at an optimal value, based on information from the concentration sensor 3 and the fluid level sensor 4 . In this way, the supply quantities of the cutting fluid undiluted-solution and water are adjusted. The discharge valve 11 is also controlled by the controller 1 so that the cutting fluid in the cutting fluid tank 5 can be discarded as the waste fluid 13 into the waste tank 12 if it becomes unsuitable for the machining of the workpiece 18 . [0028] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by the cutting fluid control device of FIG. 1 to calculate the concentration of the cutting fluid based on machining conditions. The following is a sequential description of various steps of operation. [0029] [Step SA 01 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is calculated based on machining conditions. The machining conditions are described and specified in a machining program or input through input means (control panel, not shown) of the controller 1 by an operator. [0030] [Step SA 02 ] Concentration data on the cutting fluid is acquired from the concentration sensor. [0031] [Step SA 03 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is compared with a predetermined threshold. If the concentration of the cutting fluid is within a preset range, the program returns to Step SA 02 . If not, the program proceeds to Step SA 04 . [0032] [Step SA 04 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is adjusted. Specifically, the amounts of supply to the cutting fluid tank from the cutting fluid undiluted-solution supply device 9 and the water supply device 10 are adjusted, whereupon the program returns to Step SA 02 . [0033] (1) A case where the concentration of the cutting fluid is set (or calculated) depending on the content of machining, at Step SA 01 in the flowchart of FIG. 2 , will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 . The following is a sequential description of various steps of operation. [0034] [Step SB 01 ] The type of the cutting fluid is determined. If the cutting fluid is water-insoluble, this processing ends, as the cutting fluid need not be diluted. If the cutting fluid is water-soluble, the program proceeds to Step SB 02 . [0035] [Step SB 02 ] The content of machining is determined. If the machining is cutting, the program proceeds to Step SB 03 . If the machining is heavy-duty cutting, the program proceeds to Step SB 04 . If the machining is grinding, the program proceeds to Step SB 05 . [0036] [Step SB 03 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to 5 to 120 (optimally to about 80). [0037] [Step SB 04 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to 10 to 150 (optimally to about 120). [0038] [Step SB 05 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to 5 to 80 (optimally to about 60). [0039] The processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is processing for selecting optimal dilution concentrations of Syntilo 9918, a type of the cutting fluid, for cutting (cutting fluid concentration of 5 to 120), heavy-duty cutting (cutting fluid concentration of 10 to 150), grinding (cutting fluid concentration of 5 to 80), etc. The distribution of the cutting fluid undiluted-solution and water is adjusted based on the dilution concentration. [0040] (2) A case where the concentration of the cutting fluid is set (or calculated) depending on the content of machining and the material of the workpiece, at Step SA 01 in the flowchart of FIG. 2 , will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 . The following is a sequential description of various steps of operation. [0041] [Step SC 01 ] The type of the cutting fluid is determined. If the cutting fluid is water-insoluble, this processing ends, as the cutting fluid need not be diluted. If the cutting fluid is water-soluble, the program proceeds to Step SC 02 . [0042] [Step SC 02 ] The content of machining is determined. If the machining is cutting, the program proceeds to Step SC 03 . If the machining is heavy-duty cutting, the program proceeds to Step SC 07 . If the machining is grinding, the program proceeds to Step SC 11 . [0043] [Step SC 03 ] If the material of the workpiece is aluminum and if the cutting edge temperature ranges from 200 to 250° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 04 . If the workpiece material is carbon steel and if the edge temperature ranges from 500 to 600° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 05 . If the workpiece material is SUS and if the edge temperature ranges from 650 to 750° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 06 . [0044] [Step SC 04 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 5%. [0045] [Step SC 05 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 10%. [0046] [Step SC 06 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 12%. [0047] [Step SC 07 ] If the material of the workpiece is aluminum and if the cutting edge temperature ranges from 200 to 250° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 08 . [0048] If the workpiece material is carbon steel and if the edge temperature ranges from 500 to 600° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 09 . If the workpiece material is SUS and if the edge temperature ranges from 650 to 750° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 10 . [0049] [Step SC 08 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 10%. [0050] [Step SC 09 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 13%. [0051] [Step SC 10 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 15%. [0052] [Step SC 11 ] If the material of the workpiece is aluminum and if the cutting edge temperature ranges from 200 to 250° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 12 . If the workpiece material is carbon steel and if the edge temperature ranges from 500 to 600° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 13 . If the workpiece material is SUS and if the edge temperature ranges from 650 to 750° C., the program proceeds to Step SC 14 . [0053] [Step SC 12 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 5%. [0054] [Step SC 13 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 6%. [0055] [Step SC 14 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 8%. [0056] (3) A case where the concentration of the cutting fluid is set (or calculated) depending on the content of machining and the type of a cutting tool, at Step SA 01 in the flowchart of FIG. 2 , will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5 . The following is a sequential description of various steps of operation. [0057] [Step SD 01 ] The type of the cutting fluid is determined. If the cutting fluid is water-insoluble, this processing ends, as the cutting fluid need not be diluted. If the cutting fluid is water-soluble, the program proceeds to Step SD 02 . [0058] [Step SD 02 ] The content of machining is determined. If the machining is cutting, the program proceeds to Step SD 03 . If the machining is heavy-duty cutting, the program proceeds to Step SD 06 . If the machining is grinding, the program proceeds to Step SD 09 . [0059] [Step SD 03 ] The type of the cutting tool is determined. If the cutting tool is made of high-speed tool steel, the program proceeds to Step SD 04 . If the cutting tool is a carbide tool, the program proceeds to Step SD 05 . [0060] [Step SD 04 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 5%. [0061] [Step SD 05 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 12%. [0062] [Step SD 06 ] The type of the cutting tool is determined. If the cutting tool is made of high-speed tool steel, the program proceeds to Step SD 07 . If the cutting tool is a carbide tool, the program proceeds to Step SD 08 . [0063] [Step SD 07 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 10%. [0064] [Step SD 08 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 12%. [0065] [Step SD 09 ] The type of the cutting tool is determined. If the cutting tool is made of high-speed tool steel, the program proceeds to Step SD 10 . If the cutting tool is a carbide tool, the program proceeds to Step SD 11 . [0066] [Step SD 10 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 5%. [0067] [Step SD 11 ] The concentration of the cutting fluid is set to about 8%. [0068] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a table in which concentrations of the cutting fluid are compared with the machining conditions. The concentrations of the cutting fluid corresponding to the content of machining and the materials of the workpiece and the cutting tool are previously stored as table data in a memory (not shown) attached to the controller 1 . In the processing shown in the foregoing flowchart, a concentration of the cutting fluid corresponding to the content of machining and the materials of the workpiece and the cutting tool is read from the memory, and the read concentration are compared with the cutting fluid concentration detected by the concentration sensor. [0069] An operator can input data, such as materials of the workpiece (e.g., aluminum, casting, resin, etc.), types of the cutting tool (e.g., an end mill, drill, tap, etc., of carbide tool or high-speed tool steel), and contents of machining (e.g., cutting, heavy-duty cutting, grinding, etc.), through a control panel of the controller 1 . If the workpiece and the cutting tool are ill-matched, a warning may be issued. [0070] By the cutting fluid control device for a machine tool of the present invention, the concentration of the cutting fluid can be automatically adjusted and controlled according to the machining conditions, and the viscosity of the cutting fluid can be increased to improve lubricity between the cutting tool and the workpiece, thereby increasing the cutting speed.

A cutting fluid control device for a machine tool is used to adjust the amounts of supply of a cutting fluid and water, thereby controlling the concentration of the cutting fluid in a cutting fluid tank, and comprises an operating unit which inputs a machining condition of the machine tool, a computing unit which calculates the concentration of the cutting fluid based on the machining condition input through the operating unit, and an adjustment unit which adjusts the amounts of supply from a cutting fluid undiluted-solution supply device and a water supply device so that the concentration of the cutting fluid in the cutting fluid tank is equal to the cutting fluid concentration calculated by the computing unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/680,073 filed on Feb. 28, 2007 and entitled “HEALTH-RELATED OPPORTUNISTIC NETWORKING,” the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND [0002] With the ever-increasing popularity of personal mobile devices, e.g., cell phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal music players, laptops, etc., ‘mobility’ has been the focus of many consumer products as well as services of wireless providers. For example, in the telecommunications industry, ‘mobility’ is at the forefront as consumers are no longer restricted by location with regard to communications and computing needs. Rather, today, as technology advances, more and more consumers use portable devices in day-to-day activities, planning and entertainment. [0003] As mobile device popularity increases, the ability to make telephone calls, access electronic mail, communicate via instant message (IM) and access online services from any location has also continued to evolve. Although wireless technology for data transmission has been available for quite some time, limitations such as bandwidth and area coverage plague service providers. More particularly, these types of limitations have prevented providers from seamlessly establishing mass deployments of wireless networks. [0004] More recent innovations such as the WiFi standards and other expanded wireless technologies have made it possible to deploy location-based (e.g., city-wide) wireless access networks and thereafter, to offer revenue-generating mobile wireless access services. However, most often, these wireless access networks do not extend to less populated areas due to driving economic concerns. Rather, these conventional networks target areas with a high population density and do not address those potential consumers in less populated areas. This lack of expansion is most often due to the wired characteristics of the wireless repeater nodes, as well as costs associated therewith. For example, most often, rural areas are not covered by the service area of a conventional cell tower or mesh network thereby leaving a gap in the coverage area. [0005] An ‘opportunistic’ network can refer to the use of a co-operating set of mobile or stationary devices to transfer data whenever connection opportunities arrive. These opportunities may be limited by the effects of mobility, bandwidth limitations, and other factors. Both wired and wireless links can be used as connection opportunities. Opportunistic networks have the advantage of being able to employ “store and forward” data transfer where data is not sent from one end of the network to the other immediately, but is instead passed hop-by-hop and stored on intermediate nodes until that node has a suitable connection opportunity to pass it on in turn. This allows opportunistic networks to cope with large variations in network topology and with poor link qualities, in addition to traditional networking situations (e.g. where Internet access is available). SUMMARY [0006] The following presents a simplified summary of the innovation in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the innovation. This summary is not an extensive overview of the innovation. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the innovation or to delineate the scope of the innovation. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the innovation in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. [0007] The innovation disclosed and claimed herein, in one aspect thereof, comprises an opportunistic network that can facilitate data transfer through a group of network connected devices where each device effectively contributes to the transfer of the information. In other words, the innovation describes an opportunistic network of devices where an external carrier need not be used in order to transfer data. Rather, the carrier infrastructure is embodied and distributed throughout the individual devices comprising the network. [0008] In one aspect, the innovation describes a store/forward model by way of the opportunistic network whereby health-related data can be communicated to and shared between devices. This sophisticated communication framework can be based upon a peer-to-peer (P2P) framework, or combination of P2P together with an external (e.g., cell tower) infrastructure. For example, the infrastructure can be a completely ad hoc P2P or combination of ad hoc together with a traditional hub-and-spoke framework. [0009] In various health-related aspects, the innovation can be applied to situations ranging from monitoring basic health-related patient criteria to proactively identifying and alerting of natural disasters and/or bioterrorism. In other words, if an effect is observed, it can be reported, captured and subsequently transferred across the opportunistic network to ensure prompt attention to the matter. [0010] In yet another aspect thereof, a machine learning and reasoning (MLR) component is provided that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed. By way of example, MLR mechanisms can be employed to make inferences that facilitate timely and accurate transmission of data across the network, and to infer the correct recipient depending on properties of the data itself. In a specific example, an MLR component, based upon type of data, time of day and other contextual factors, can determine which devices to select as the destination for the data, and also as carriers across the opportunistic network in order to ensure timely and safe delivery of the data. [0011] To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the innovation are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the innovation can be employed and the subject innovation is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other advantages and novel features of the innovation will become apparent from the following detailed description of the innovation when considered in conjunction with the drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile device that facilitates transmission of data across an opportunistic network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0013] FIG. 2 illustrates an example wireless opportunistic network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0014] FIG. 3 illustrates an example data handoff by way of nodes of an opportunistic network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0015] FIG. 4 illustrates an example flow chart of procedures that facilitate transfer of data across a network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0016] FIG. 5 illustrates an example flow chart of procedures that facilitate establishment of a hop or carrier path through an opportunistic network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0017] FIG. 6 illustrates an example opportunistic connection component that enables a device to communication with another device in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0018] FIG. 7 illustrates an example data communication component that facilitates receipt and transfer of data in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0019] FIG. 8 illustrates an example receiving component that facilitates data analysis, verification and aggregation in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0020] FIG. 9 illustrates an example analysis component that facilitates evaluation of data content in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0021] FIG. 10 illustrates an example data transfer component that facilitates routing and transferring of data within an opportunistic network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0022] FIG. 11 illustrates an example data routing component that determines available and efficient routes throughout an opportunistic network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. [0023] FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram of a portable device that facilitates analysis and transfer of data (e.g., health-related data) across an opportunistic network according to one aspect of the subject invention. [0024] FIG. 13 illustrates an architecture of a portable device that includes a machine learning and reasoning component that can automate functionality in accordance with an aspect of the invention. [0025] FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of a computer operable to execute the disclosed architecture. [0026] FIG. 15 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an exemplary computing environment in accordance with the subject innovation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0027] The innovation is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the subject innovation. It may be evident, however, that the innovation can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the innovation. [0028] As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. [0029] As used herein, the term to “infer” or “inference” refer generally to the process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system, environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context or action, or can generate a probability distribution over states, for example. The inference can be probabilistic—that is, the computation of a probability distribution over states of interest based on a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether the events and data come from one or several event and data sources. [0030] Referring initially to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 that facilitates transmission of data across an opportunistic network in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. Generally, system 100 illustrates a mobile device 102 having an opportunistic connection component 104 and a data communication component 106 therein. These components ( 104 , 106 ) enable the transfer of an input (e.g., 108 ) to a target device (not shown). In other words, output (e.g., 110 ) can be delivered to a target device from mobile device 102 without any external infrastructure. [0031] As will be understood upon a review of the figures that follow, the communication infrastructure can be totally encapsulated within network-connected mobile devices (e.g., 102 ) in the form of an opportunistic connection component 104 and a data communication component 106 . In other words, in one example, a peer-to-peer (P2P) type infrastructure can be established such that the external communication infrastructures are not necessary to enable communication. However, it is to be understood that some of the features, functions and benefits described herein can be employed in other, more conventional, infrastructures such as hub and spoke (e.g., cell tower-based) infrastructures as well as combinations with P2P infrastructures. [0032] Referring now to FIG. 2 , there is illustrated a system 200 that facilitates the transmission of health-related data by way of an opportunistic network. As shown, a health-related opportunistic network 202 can be employed to transfer data between an origin device 204 to a target device 206 . Because mobile devices (e.g., cell phones) are ubiquitous in many markets today, it can be possible to establish a peering network or opportunistic network 202 such that each device can participate in information transfer throughout the network. As depicted by dashed lines throughout the network 202 , information can have multiple paths by which it can travel from an origin device 204 to a target device 206 . These multiple paths illustrate sophisticated collaboration between the devices with respect to bandwidth, available processing capacity, signal strength, cost, security, etc. Effectively, logic within each device can establish redundancies associated with the type of data which can ensure timely and accurate delivery. [0033] In summary, the subject innovation relates to an opportunistic network 202 that can be established between network-connected mobile devices (e.g., 204 , 206 ), for example, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones or the like. Rather than employing conventional cell towers that provide a centralized topology, the innovation shifts to an ‘erratic’ or dynamic topology 202 where each mobile device can carry a piece of traffic such that the infrastructure is integral to the mobile device itself (or group of devices themselves). In one example, it is possible to use the opportunistic network 202 as an intranet where data packets can be aggregated and passed to devices within the network. [0034] It will be appreciated that one feature/benefit of the opportunistic network 202 is that low communication signals can be mitigated and possibly eliminated. Reduction and/or elimination of low signal problems is essentially possible because the vast number of mobile (e.g., cellular) devices employed will effectively create a service grid 202 where each device is a node of the grid 202 . As an inherent feature of the grid 202 , each device can obtain service through a number of proximate devices. Thus, redundancy can be accomplished thereby enhancing performance of the system 200 . [0035] Overall, this opportunistic network 202 can provide ubiquitous connectivity and/or computing between network-connected devices. In other words, the more connected devices available, the better they can participate in the health-related eco-system of the subject innovation. As described supra, it is also to be understood that this ‘opportunistic’ 202 technique can be applied to most any type of portable and/or mobile computing device such as cellular telephones, smartphones, PDAs, laptops or the like. [0036] In one particular aspect, the opportunistic network 202 can execute applications with particular networking needs in a health-care context. For example, a first device 204 such as an event recorder component can be used to capture images of events associated with a monitored entity (e.g., patient, elderly person). The images can be initially stored on the first device and transferred to a subsequent device when an opportunistic connection is able to be established. In other words, when the location of the origin device in relation to the opportunistic network 202 , or in relation to at least one device of the opportunistic network, permits connectivity, the images can be automatically transferred in a P2P manner. As will be understood, this transfer can occur instantaneously (e.g., real-time), or stored/forwarded in accordance with forward criteria. For instance, images can be batch downloaded based upon a user-defined or location-based trigger. [0037] FIG. 3 is provided to add perspective to an aspect of the innovation. Effectively, FIG. 3 illustrates an example data handoff 300 between devices of an opportunistic network. As shown, health data 302 can be transmitted from a monitored entity to a first device. This handoff of data is illustrated as a first transmission path 304 . Subsequently, the data can be passed or forwarded to other devices within the opportunistic network as indicated by transmission paths 306 - 310 . Although only four passes are illustrated in FIG. 3 , it is to be appreciated that the opportunistic network can include N devices, where N is an integer. [0038] Accordingly, the data can be passed throughout the opportunistic network until ultimately reaching the end device 312 . It is to be understood and appreciated that this example illustrated in FIG. 3 is somewhat simplistic in nature and is provided to illustrate core concepts of store/forward of the innovation. In other aspects, multiple paths can be established between devices in order to effectively and/or efficiently transfer data within the opportunistic network. These alternative aspects are to be included within the scope of the innovation and claims appended hereto. [0039] FIG. 4 illustrates a methodology of transmitting data within an opportunistic networking accordance with an aspect of the innovation. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the one or more methodologies shown herein, e.g., in the form of a flow chart, are shown and described as a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciated that the subject innovation is not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance with the innovation, occur in a different order and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art will understand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with the innovation. [0040] At 402 , an opportunistic connection can be established, for example, a P2P connection can be established directly between mobile devices (e.g., cell phones). In other aspects, ‘hybrid’ connections can be established, for example, a connection to a opportunistic network can be established that employs both P2P as well as conventional hub-and-spoke (e.g., cell tower) technologies. It is to be understood that the innovation described herein includes most any connection framework or infrastructure completely or partially embodied within a distributed mobile device network. As such, although many examples described herein are directed to a P2P protocol, other examples exist and are to be included within the scope of this disclosure and claims appended hereto. [0041] A path from an origin device (or group of devices) to a target device (or group of devices) can be determined at 404 . In other words, whether, one-to-many, many-to-many, many-to-one, or one-to-one, a path (or appropriate paths) throughout the network can be determined at 404 . This path(s) can identify hops necessary to reach a desired target location as a function of most any criteria, including but not limited to, location, time of day, context, traffic content, sender identity, receiver identity, etc. As will be understood upon a review of the figures that follow, a policy and/or inference can be used to determine the path throughout the network. [0042] Once a path is determined, the data can be transmitted at 406 . However, it is to be understood that, in aspects, the complete path need not be determined before the data is transferred. Rather, only the next hop toward a target location needs to be established. For example, because the network can be dynamically changing (e.g., as mobile devices travel in/out of range), each hop within the journey to the target can be independently determined. This is indicated by the dashed line between 406 and 404 , which effectively denotes the possible recursive nature of these acts within the methodology. [0043] Referring now to FIG. 5 , there is illustrated a methodology of establishing and selecting a connection in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. Essentially, this methodology illustrates the ability to employ sophisticated intelligence or logic as well as inference mechanisms to establish a connection within the opportunistic network by which data can be transmitted. Accordingly, a different connection can be selected for a routine voice call as would be for a priority health-related data transfer (e.g., life threatening heart rate). [0044] Similarly, a different connection can be selected for unprivileged versus confidential or classified information. This connection can be a function of the number of hops necessary to reach a target, integrity of the carrier unit, etc. By way of further example, an analysis can be determined with regard fluidity of the opportunistic network thereby locating a potential carrier unit that is traveling closer to a potential target. As such, this carrier unit could be deemed desirable as a lesser number of hops could potentially be necessary to reach the target, thereby protecting the data from unintentional disclosure, loss or corruption. [0045] At 502 , an opportunistic connection can be established. Here, the location and/or motion of a subject device can be considered in determining availability of a transmission opportunistic network. At 504 , a determination can be made if a connection is available. If not, establishment of an opportunistic connection continues until the subject unit is within range of an available next-hop device. In an example, data can be stored upon a mobile device that is ‘out of range’ of any suitable transmission path. As such, data, for example health-related statistics, can continue to be aggregated until the mobile device becomes connected to an appropriate target device. In this example, it can be possible for the mobile device to continually monitor and store physiological statistics of a patient over a period of time. Subsequently, the unit can be automatically configured to forward or dump the data when the device becomes connected to a health care office. These concepts are better illustrated by acts 506 and 508 that follow. [0046] Once an initial connection is made, hop options can be identified as a function of the connected network. For example, as described above, criteria such as relative location and/or motion based upon the origin and target can be factored to determine available hop options. Still further, context such as current activity of a particular unit can be factored into hop option availability. [0047] At 508 , a next hop unit can be selected as a function of the dynamic network as well as a function of criteria of each unit within the network. As described above, the next hop can be a function of data type (e.g., voice, health, urgent, confidential, non-urgent) as well as a function of criteria of devices within the network, for example, location, motion, availability, device type, owner, classification, inferred destination, etc. It is to be understood that the examples are too numerous to list thus, alternative aspects that employ features, functions and benefits contemplated herein as well as by those in the art are to be included within the scope of this disclosure and claims appended hereto. [0048] Referring now to FIG. 6 , an example block diagram of an opportunistic connection component 102 (as described with reference to FIG. 1 ) is shown. Generally, an opportunistic connection component 102 can include a network analysis component 602 and a connection selection component 604 , each of which will be described in greater detail infra. Together, these components ( 602 , 604 ) enable a device to intelligently analyze an available network and to thereafter select and appropriate connection in view of those connections available. [0049] The network analysis component 602 can search for an available network or device available for connection. As well, the network analysis component 602 can analyze and/or evaluate the details of available devices within a network. For example, as mentioned above, the network analysis component 602 can search for an available network and subsequently evaluate availability and criteria of devices within the identified network. [0050] The connection selection component 604 can be employed to intelligently decide an appropriate device for which to connect. It is to be understood that the store/forward concepts described herein enable unique opportunities for service providers. For instance, a service provider can offer different rate packages in accordance with reserving a portion of a device's processing capability. In other words, if a user is willing to allow a device to be used as a hop or carrier device for other's traffic, a service provider can incorporate this into the user's service plan, for example, by offering a lower rate if there is an agreement to share resources (e.g., processor, storage). It will be appreciated that these monetization schemes can be based upon most any criteria, for example, permit transfer at a particular time of day, day of week, for a particular type of traffic, from particular origins, etc. [0051] FIG. 7 illustrates an example block diagram of a data communication component 104 which generally includes a receiving component 702 and a data transfer component 704 . Essentially, the receiving component 702 can receive data from a source (e.g., physiological sensor, environmental sensor, user, application) or group of sources, analyze the data, verify the data and aggregate data (if desired). The data transfer component 704 can effectively forward the data to an appropriate target or group of targets. Each of these components ( 702 , 704 ) will be described in more detail with reference to the figures that follow. [0052] FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example receiving component 702 in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. As shown, generally, the receiving component 702 can include an analysis component 802 , a verification component 804 and an aggregation component 806 each of which enable a device to capture information in the ‘store’ phase of a ‘store/forward’ process. More particularly, these components ( 802 , 804 , 806 ) enable sophisticated logic with regard to a data input 808 , such as health-related data. As will be understood, the input 808 can be of most any data format, including but not limited to, alphanumeric text, audio, video, image, etc. [0053] In operation, the analysis component 802 can evaluate the data to determine criteria of the data, for example, type, size, origin, etc. It is to be appreciated that data can be push to or pulled by way of the receiving component 702 . Once analyzed, the receiving component 702 can determine if the data is to be immediately forwarded, aggregated, etc. or if the data should be stored (e.g., cached, buffered) for later action. For example, the receiving component 702 , based upon the type of data, can determine if more data is to be received, urgency of delivery (e.g., priority), target location, etc. In addition to core content analysis techniques, the analysis component 802 can also employ techniques such as pattern recognition, speech recognition, or the like to analyze content of the received data. [0054] The verification component 804 can be employed to confirm accurate delivery of the data. Here, accuracy relates both to the lack of corruption as well as completeness of the data. In other words, the verification component 804 can establish if more information is necessary to complete the data transmission before a ‘forward’ action or transfer of the data is instantiated. [0055] The aggregation component 806 can facilitate collection of additional information if deemed necessary. For example, if the verification component 804 deems a transmission incomplete, the aggregation component 806 can be employed to collect additional information thus, completing the transmission. In addition to completeness, the logic of the verification component 806 can be employed to otherwise determine if more information can be gathered. For example, if it is deemed that current information is to be delivered to a particular target within the network and capacity is still available to capture additional information bound for the same target, in the interest of efficiency, the aggregation component 806 can gather additional information prior to forwarding. For instance, information about a health-related issue can be gathered from other proximate devices in the event that capacity is available. Here, this additional information can give a different perspective of an event such as images of a patient just prior to a heart attack, epileptic seizure, outburst, collapse, etc. [0056] Referring now to FIG. 9 , an example block diagram of an analysis component 802 is shown as having a content analysis component 902 , a target determination component 904 , and a policy component 906 . As described above, each of these components contribute to intelligent process of data. Continuing with the health-related example from above, data can be analyzed to determine type and relevance of the data, where the data is to be sent and, based upon determined criteria, how best and most efficiently to transfer the data. This functionality can be accomplished by the analysis component 902 , the target determination component 904 and the policy component 906 respectively. [0057] More specifically, the content analysis component 902 can evaluate received data to determine characteristics that can be used in processing and handling the data. For example, suppose the data is received from a physiological sensor mechanism—in this example, the content analysis can determine what the information represents (e.g., blood pressure measurement from a particular patient) and, based upon the determined content, it can further be determined if the information is urgent, confidential, etc. This determination can be made as a function of policy component 906 . Here, the policy component 906 can include rules for quality of service, priority delivery, etc. all of which can be factored to determine delivery. [0058] The target determination component 904 can further employ the policy 906 in determining where to deliver the information. For example, suppose A is a patient of doctor B—here, if it is determined that the information is not urgent, it can routinely be delivered to doctor B no matter how long the delivery may take. However, if it is determined that urgent or priority delivery is desired, the target determination component 904 can identify another suitable target such that action can be promptly taken based upon the type of information. It is also to be understood that, the target determination component can identify multiple targets to which to deliver the information. Continuing with the above example, here, the data can be sent to the alternative location (e.g., emergency medical facility) so as to prompt immediate action while still delivering a copy of the information to doctor B. [0059] FIG. 10 illustrates an example block diagram of a data transfer component 704 in accordance with an aspect of the innovation. Generally the data transfer component 704 includes a data routing component 1002 and a transmission system component 1004 . As the target destinations are determined by the content analysis component 902 , the data routing component 1002 can be employed to determine specifics with regard to transferring the data throughout the network. The data routing component 1002 employs specifics about the data in determining how best to route the data throughout the network. [0060] The transmission system component 1004 enables transfer of the data within the network. For example, the transmission system component 1004 can be based upon a P2P communications network that allows all devices in the network to act as servers and share their files with all other users and devices on the network. In accordance with the opportunistic network described herein, in aspects, most any wireless protocol can be used for example, most any cellular technology, 802.11, infrared, Bluetooth, or the like. [0061] FIG. 11 illustrates an example block diagram of a data routing component 904 . In determining a route (or group of routes) throughout the opportunistic network, a proximate device locator component 1102 can be used to identify optional ‘in-range’ devices by which data can be transferred. Further, the proximate device locator component 1102 can include logic capable of inferring locations of devices based upon historical and/or statistical data. In other words, machine learning and reasoning (MLR) mechanisms can be employed to infer if a device will be in range when data is ready or should/could be transferred. [0062] A transmit path determination component 1104 can employ the proximate device information to specify a route (or group of routes) throughout the opportunistic network. This component can also employ MLR mechanisms when determining hops or carrier devices in view of the dynamic network as a function of the data. Both the proximate device locator component 1102 as well as the transit path determination component 1104 can optionally factor device load into decisions. For instance, an optional load analysis component 1106 can be employed to assist in device identification and path determination as a function of current and/or inferred future load of a device. [0063] Referring now to FIG. 12 , there is illustrated a schematic block diagram of a portable device 1200 according to one aspect of the subject innovation, in which a processor 1202 is responsible for controlling the general operation of the device 1200 . It is to be understood that the portable device 1200 can be representative of most any portable device including, but not limited to, a cell phone, smartphone, PDA, a personal music player, image capture device (e.g., camera), personal game station, health monitoring device, event recorder component, etc. [0064] The processor 1202 can be programmed to control and operate the various components within the device 1200 in order to carry out the various functions described herein. The processor 1202 can be any of a plurality of suitable processors. The manner in which the processor 1202 can be programmed to carry out the functions relating to the subject innovation will be readily apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art based on the description provided herein. As will be described in greater detail infra, an MLR component and/or a rules-based logic component can be used to effect an automatic action of processor 1202 . [0065] A memory and storage component 1204 connected to the processor 1202 serves to store program code executed by the processor 1202 , and also serves as a storage means for storing information such as data, services, metadata, device states or the like. In aspects, this memory and storage component 1204 can be employed in conjunction with other memory mechanisms that house health-related data. As well, in other aspects, the memory and storage component 1204 can be a stand-alone storage device or otherwise synchronized with a cloud or disparate network based storage means, thereby established a local on-board storage of health-related data. [0066] The memory 1204 can be a non-volatile memory suitably adapted to store at least a complete set of the information that is acquired. Thus, the memory 1204 can include a RAM or flash memory for high-speed access by the processor 1202 and/or a mass storage memory, e.g., a micro drive capable of storing gigabytes of data that comprises text, images, audio, and video content. To this end, it is to be appreciated that the health-related data described herein can be of most any form including text (e.g., sensor readings), images (e.g., captured image sequences) as well as audio or video content. According to one aspect, the memory 1204 has sufficient storage capacity to store multiple sets of information relating to disparate services, and the processor 1202 could include a program for alternating or cycling between various sets of information corresponding to disparate services. [0067] A display 1206 can be coupled to the processor 1202 via a display driver system 1208 . The display 1206 can be a color liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display, touch screen display or the like. In one example, the display 1206 is a touch screen display. The display 1206 functions to present data, graphics, or other information content. Additionally, the display 1206 can display a variety of functions that control the execution of the device 1200 . For example, in a touch screen example, the display 1206 can display touch selection buttons which can facilitate a user to interface more easily with the functionalities of the device 1200 . [0068] Power can be provided to the processor 1202 and other components forming the device 1200 by an onboard power system 1210 (e.g., a battery pack). In the event that the power system 1210 fails or becomes disconnected from the device 1200 , a supplemental power source 1212 can be employed to provide power to the processor 1202 (and other components (e.g., sensors, image capture device)) and to charge the onboard power system 1210 . The processor 1202 of the device 1200 can induce a sleep mode to reduce the current draw upon detection of an anticipated power failure. [0069] The device 1200 includes a communication subsystem 1214 having a data communication port 1216 , which is employed to interface the processor 1202 with a remote computer, server, service, or the like. The port 1216 can include at least one of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 serial communications capabilities. Other technologies can also be included, but are not limited to, for example, infrared communication utilizing an infrared data port, Bluetooth™, etc. [0070] The device 1200 can also include a radio frequency (RF) transceiver section 1218 in operative communication with the processor 1202 . The RF section 1218 includes an RF receiver 1220 , which receives RF signals from a remote device via an antenna 1222 and can demodulate the signal to obtain digital information modulated therein. The RF section 1218 also includes an RF transmitter 1224 for transmitting information (e.g., data, service) to a remote device, for example, in response to manual user input via a user input 1226 (e.g., a keypad) or automatically in response to a detection of entering and/or anticipation of leaving a communication range or other predetermined and programmed criteria. [0071] An opportunistic connection component 1228 is provided which, as described supra, can facilitate connection of the device 1200 with an opportunistic network which can be used to transmit data in a device-to-device manner (e.g., P2P). Additionally, a data communication component 1230 can be employed to further facilitate delivery of data to a target device via the opportunistic network. It is to be appreciated that these components can enable functionality of like components (and sub-components) described supra. [0072] FIG. 13 illustrates an example device 1300 that employs MLR component 1302 which facilitates automating one or more features in accordance with the subject innovation. The subject innovation (e.g., in connection with determining carrier devices, delivery priority, data characteristics/completeness) can employ various MLR-based schemes for carrying out various aspects thereof. For example, a process for determining which carrier devices to employ as a function of data type can be facilitated via an automatic classifier system and process. Moreover, where multiple paths to a target are available, the classifier can be employed to determine which carrier devices to select in view of context and other situational factors. [0073] A classifier is a function that maps an input attribute vector, x=(x1, x2, x3, x4, xn), to a confidence that the input belongs to a class, that is, f(x)=confidence(class). Such classification can employ a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis (e.g., factoring into the analysis utilities and costs) to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed. [0074] A support vector machine (SVM) is an example of a classifier that can be employed. The SVM operates by finding a hypersurface in the space of possible inputs, which the hypersurface attempts to split the triggering criteria from the non-triggering events. Intuitively, this makes the classification correct for testing data that is near, but not identical to training data. Other directed and undirected model classification approaches include, e.g., naïve Bayes, Bayesian networks, decision trees, neural networks, fuzzy logic models, and probabilistic classification models providing different patterns of independence can be employed. Classification as used herein also is inclusive of statistical regression that is utilized to develop models of priority. [0075] As will be readily appreciated from the subject specification, the subject innovation can employ classifiers that are explicitly trained (e.g., via a generic training data) as well as implicitly trained (e.g., via observing user behavior, receiving extrinsic information). For example, SVM's are configured via a learning or training phase within a classifier constructor and feature selection module. Thus, the classifier(s) can be used to automatically learn and perform a number of functions, including but not limited to determining according to a predetermined criteria how to classify data, where to send data, what priority should be employed, which carrier device(s) to employ, when to store and for how long, when to transmit data, etc. It is further to be appreciated that device 1300 can be equipped with an optional rules-based component (not shown) that facilitates policies and/or threshold based logic to be employed in making determinations associated with the functionality described herein. [0076] In other aspects, the example device 1300 can trade off cost and privacy versus emergency needs. For example, if a user is having a heart attack, it may be a logical tradeoff to reveal confidential information and medical data (e.g., ECG) or how much it costs to send in exchange for reaching help in sufficient time to address the urgency. However, as described supra, in a ‘normal’ scenario, it can be possible to reduce or limit costs, for example, by storing data until a free network or P2P transfer agent is available rather than use expensive cell-based networks while maintaining data security/privacy. [0077] In another example, the device 1300 can automatically decide (by inference) to send data to a service rather than sending to a node-name. By way of example, an ECG can be sent to a nearby paramedic or doctor, regardless of which one, or sent to whichever device is being carried by the on-call medical resident for Ward B, as opposed to a particular named doctor or named device. As described above, these decisions can be based upon user preference, inference or rule as a function of data content or context. [0078] Still further, implicit trust relationships can be established based upon context. For example, with regard to the privacy and security context, when a device is in a hospital environment, a trust relationship can automatically be established with other devices in near proximity. This automatic trust establishment can facilitate interoperation without restrictive continual authentication demands. [0079] Referring now to FIG. 14 , there is illustrated a block diagram of a computer operable to execute the disclosed architecture of an opportunistic network-based mobile device and network. In order to provide additional context for various aspects of the subject innovation, FIG. 14 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment 1400 in which the various aspects of the innovation can be implemented. While the innovation has been described above in the general context of computer-executable instructions that may run on one or more computers, those skilled in the art will recognize that the innovation also can be implemented in combination with other program modules and/or as a combination of hardware and software. [0080] Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the inventive methods can be practiced with other computer system configurations, including single-processor or multiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, as well as personal computers, hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, and the like, each of which can be operatively coupled to one or more associated devices. [0081] The illustrated aspects of the innovation may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where certain tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. [0082] A computer typically includes a variety of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media can comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer. [0083] Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media. [0084] With reference again to FIG. 14 , the exemplary environment 1400 for implementing various aspects of the innovation includes a computer 1402 , the computer 1402 including a processing unit 1404 , a system memory 1406 and a system bus 1408 . The system bus 1408 couples system components including, but not limited to, the system memory 1406 to the processing unit 1404 . The processing unit 1404 can be any of various commercially available processors. Dual microprocessors and other multi-processor architectures may also be employed as the processing unit 1404 . [0085] The system bus 1408 can be any of several types of bus structure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures. The system memory 1406 includes read-only memory (ROM) 1410 and random access memory (RAM) 1412 . A basic input/output system (BIOS) is stored in a non-volatile memory 1410 such as ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, which BIOS contains the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the computer 1402 , such as during start-up. The RAM 1412 can also include a high-speed RAM such as static RAM for caching data. [0086] The computer 1402 further includes an internal hard disk drive (HDD) 1414 (e.g., EIDE, SATA), which internal hard disk drive 1414 may also be configured for external use in a suitable chassis (not shown), a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 1416 , (e.g., to read from or write to a removable diskette 1418 ) and an optical disk drive 1420 , (e.g., reading a CD-ROM disk 1422 or, to read from or write to other high capacity optical media such as the DVD). The hard disk drive 1414 , magnetic disk drive 1416 and optical disk drive 1420 can be connected to the system bus 1408 by a hard disk drive interface 1424 , a magnetic disk drive interface 1426 and an optical drive interface 1428 , respectively. The interface 1424 for external drive implementations includes at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies. Other external drive connection technologies are within contemplation of the subject innovation. [0087] The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, and so forth. For the computer 1402 , the drives and media accommodate the storage of any data in a suitable digital format. Although the description of computer-readable media above refers to a HDD, a removable magnetic diskette, and a removable optical media such as a CD or DVD, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of media which are readable by a computer, such as zip drives, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, cartridges, and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment, and further, that any such media may contain computer-executable instructions for performing the methods of the innovation. [0088] A number of program modules can be stored in the drives and RAM 1412 , including an operating system 1430 , one or more application programs 1432 , other program modules 1434 and program data 1436 . All or portions of the operating system, applications, modules, and/or data can also be cached in the RAM 1412 . It is appreciated that the innovation can be implemented with various commercially available operating systems or combinations of operating systems. [0089] A user can enter commands and information into the computer 1402 through one or more wired/wireless input devices, e.g., a keyboard 1438 and a pointing device, such as a mouse 1440 . Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, an IR remote control, a joystick, a game pad, a stylus pen, touch screen, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 1404 through an input device interface 1442 that is coupled to the system bus 1408 , but can be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, an IEEE 1394 serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, etc. [0090] A monitor 1444 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 1408 via an interface, such as a video adapter 1446 . In addition to the monitor 1444 , a computer typically includes other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers, printers, etc. [0091] The computer 1402 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections via wired and/or wireless communications to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer(s) 1448 . The remote computer(s) 1448 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer 1402 , although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 1450 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted include wired/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 1452 and/or larger networks, e.g., a wide area network (WAN) 1454 . Such LAN and WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network, e.g., the Internet. [0092] When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 1402 is connected to the local network 1452 through a wired and/or wireless communication network interface or adapter 1456 . The adapter 1456 may facilitate wired or wireless communication to the LAN 1452 , which may also include a wireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with the wireless adapter 1456 . [0093] When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 1402 can include a modem 1458 , or is connected to a communications server on the WAN 1454 , or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 1454 , such as by way of the Internet. The modem 1458 , which can be internal or external and a wired or wireless device, is connected to the system bus 1408 via the serial port interface 1442 . In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 1402 , or portions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 1450 . It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers can be used. [0094] The computer 1402 is operable to communicate with any wireless devices or entities operatively disposed in wireless communication, e.g., a printer, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, portable data assistant, communications satellite, any piece of equipment or location associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk, news stand, restroom), and telephone. This includes at least Wi-Fi and Bluetooth™ wireless technologies. Thus, the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices. [0095] Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity, allows connection to the Internet from a couch at home, a bed in a hotel room, or a conference room at work, without wires. Wi-Fi is a wireless technology similar to that used in a cell phone that enables such devices, e.g., computers, to send and receive data indoors and out; anywhere within the range of a base station. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11(a, b, g, etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wired networks (which use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet). Wi-Fi networks operate in the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 GHz radio bands, at an 11 Mbps (802.11a) or 54 Mbps (802.11b) data rate, for example, or with products that contain both bands (dual band), so the networks can provide real-world performance similar to the basic 10BaseT wired Ethernet networks used in many offices. [0096] Referring now to FIG. 15 , there is illustrated a schematic block diagram of an exemplary computing environment 1500 in accordance with the subject wireless opportunistic network and/or device innovation. The system 1500 includes one or more client(s) 1502 . The client(s) 1502 can be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices). The client(s) 1502 can house cookie(s) and/or associated contextual information by employing the innovation, for example. [0097] The system 1500 also includes one or more server(s) 1504 . The server(s) 1504 can also be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices). The servers 1504 can house threads to perform transformations by employing the innovation, for example. One possible communication between a client 1502 and a server 1504 can be in the form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes. The data packet may include a cookie and/or associated contextual information, for example. The system 1500 includes a communication framework 1506 (e.g., a global communication network such as the Internet) that can be employed to facilitate communications between the client(s) 1502 and the server(s) 1504 . [0098] Communications can be facilitated via a wired (including optical fiber) and/or wireless technology. The client(s) 1502 are operatively connected to one or more client data store(s) 1508 that can be employed to store information local to the client(s) 1502 (e.g., cookie(s) and/or associated contextual information). Similarly, the server(s) 1504 are operatively connected to one or more server data store(s) 1510 that can be employed to store information local to the servers 1504 . [0099] What has been described above includes examples of the innovation. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the subject innovation, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the innovation are possible. Accordingly, the innovation is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.

A wireless opportunistic network that can facilitate data transfer by way of interconnected devices is disclosed. In accordance with this opportunistic network, each of the devices effectively contributes to the transfer of the information thereby obviating the need for an external carrier. In this manner, the carrier infrastructure is embodied and distributed throughout the individual devices of the network. In a particular aspect, the opportunistic network is employed to transfer and make available health-related data. This functionality can be used in many scenarios related to heath from, monitoring patients and conveying basic diagnostic data to identifying bioterrorism by way of collaborating data between a number of devices within the network. Essentially, the innovation provides for at least two core functional ideas, the opportunistic network infrastructure and the use of the network in health related scenarios.

REVERSER SWITCH This invention relates in general to vehicles which require frequent changes in travel direction from forward to reverse in connection with their operation. More particularly, the invention involves a self-cancelling lever switch for safely and rapidly reversing the direction of vehicle travel. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There are some operations, particularly in construction and industrial applications, in which the travel direction of a vehicle must be frequently reversed. An obvious example is front-loading where the vehicle advances to force a scoop into a supply pile and then retreats and turns to unload the scoop into a truck. The constant shifting of gears often accompanied by a need to steer the vehicle simultaneously becomes difficult for the vehicle driver. Usually, the gear selection device like those in more conventional work vehicles is a single range control to select one of several forward positions, a reverse, or a park gear position as desired. The single range control with its multiple positions is not intended for quick and easy back-and-forth movements and, in fact, is designed not to be prone to accidental gear changes. Due to the inconvenience and effort required to make the frequent direction changes, it has long been recognized by operators that relief from the constant and repetitious manual shifting of the standard control would be a welcome advance. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a convenient and safe travel-reversing control for vehicles which require frequent to-and-fro movements in their operations. Another object is to simplify and reduce the difficulty of operation of vehicles such as front-end loaders and forklift trucks. A further object is the avoidance of operator fatigue in the use of vehicles in construction and industrial applications. A still further object is to provide an automatic self-canceling reversing switch for a vehicle. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These and other useful objects are attained by providing in addition to the standard gear selector a separate auxiliary control for reversing travel direction of a vehicle. The auxiliary control may be mounted for left-hand operation on the steering column of the vehicle at a point opposite the standard control. Basically, the added control is a three-position reverser switch having FORWARD, NEUTRAL, and REVERSE positions in one operating plane and a lock-out HOME position aligned with NEUTRAL but displaced from the operating plane. During normal working operation, the reverser switch overrides the standard controller. However, when the standard controller is placed in the PARK position or when the ignition switch is turned to OFF, the reverser switch automatically returns to the lock-out HOME position. Enabling of the reverser switch to control direction of vehicle travel can only be resumed by turning the ignition switch to ON, placing the standard range controller in a position other than PARK, and manually moving the reverser switch into its operating plane. A solenoid which is in circuit with the ignition switch and the standard controller must be energized as a pre-condition for the reverser switch to assume control. Thus, undesired vehicle movement at a restart of the engine is avoided. A combination of springs is provided for self-cancelling of the reverser switch and returning of the lever to the HOME position. For a better understanding of the present invention, together with other objects, features and advantages, reference should be made to the following description of a preferred embodiment which should be read in conjunction with the drawing in which: DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a reverser switch built in accordance with the present invention; FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic fragmentary cross-sectional views of the reverser switch lockout mechanism FIG. 1B being taken along the lines 1B--1B of FIG. 1; FIGS. 2 and 3 are fragmentary diagrams of the rotor detents of the switch of FIG. 1 showing components as they are deployed when the reverser switch is in NEUTRAL or HOME positions; and FIGS. 4 and 5 are similar fragmentary diagrams showing rotor components when the switch is in the REVERSE position. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the sectional view of FIG. 1, there may be seen a housing 12 of generally oblong cross-section to which a cover 13 may be attached by conventional means. At the left end of the housing as seen in FIG. 1, there is mounted an actuating lever 14. The lever 14 fits into a pivot member 18 which is pivotable to a limited degree in the plane of the drawing about a pin pivot 20 between a HOME and a NEUTRAL position. The pivot member 18 engages a rotor 26 (FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 3-5) when the lever 14 is lifted to the NEUTRAL position. The lever 14 is also movable laterally along with the pivot member 18 and the rotor 26 in a second plane at an angle to the plane of the drawing between FORWARD, NEUTRAL, and REVERSE positions. Such lateral movement is about an axis defined by the studs 27 and 29 formed on the housing 12 and the cover 13, respectively. In FIGS. 1A and 1B, the lock-out system for the lever 14 involving the HOME and NEUTRAL positions is shown. A groove 30 is formed in the interior upper wall of the housing 12. When the lever is in the HOME position, a roller 28 carried by the pivot member 18 is held in the groove 30 by the force of a compression spring 24 which is disposed between the rotor 26 and the pivot 18. The roller 28 may be dislodged by lifting the lever 14 to the NEUTRAL position. The rotor 26 in its pivoting motion about the axis defined by the studs 27 and 29 is supported from below by a second roller 32 which bears upon an insulating block 37 at the bottom of the housing. The rotor is the heart of the switching elements which are moved by the lever 14 as explained below. Mounted in the right-hand end of the housing as seen in FIG. 1, is a solenoid 42, which is in electrical circuit relationship with the vehicle ignition system and the standard range controller as well as the rotor position as determined by the lever 14. The solenoid 42 has a shaft 44 axially reciprocable within the solenoid core. Pinned to the solenoid shaft 44 is a slider 46. A slider escape spring 48 disposed between the end of the solenoid and a shoulder formed on the slider normally displaces both the shaft 44 and the slider 46 to the left. The slider carries a detent plunger 50 to which force in a downward direction as shown is applied by a plunger spring 52. The plunger tip bears against the top surface of the rotor 26. Terminals 56 are mounted on the insulating base 37 of the housing and are connected to circuits which energize the solenoid 42 and also control electrically the gears which determine the direction of travel of the vehicle. The wipers 58 carried beneath the rotor 26 are maintained in contact with the terminals 56 by the force of the wiper springs 60 which are recessed in the rotor 26. As noted above, after the lever arm 14 is lifted from the lock-out HOME position, the reverser switch is enabled and the lever 14 may be moved laterally through the FORWARD, NEUTRAL and REVERSE positions as the rotor 26 pivots about the axis passing radially through the opposing studs 27 and 29. The rotor 26 also carries a detent track 66 shown in outline in FIGS. 2-5 and engageable by the detent plunger 50 when the solenoid 42 is energized. Also, a groove 51 is formed in the top surface of the rotor 26 to engage the downwardly extending tip of the plunger 50 when the lever is in the NEUTRAL or HOME position. There is wound about the upstanding stud 29 of the cover 13 a torsion spring 74. The torsion spring 74 has ends 76 and 78 which engage shoulders formed on an arcuate portion of the rotor 26. In FIG. 2, it may be seen that when the lever 14 is in either the NEUTRAL or HOME position the torsion spring ends bear equally upon adjacent shoulders of an arcuate portion of the rotor 26. In FIG. 4, on the other hand, the spring end 78 exerts force against the shoulder 77 tending to urge the rotor 26 in a clockwise direction, the spring end 76 being against its stop 79 and the lever 14 being in the REVERSE position. Were the lever to be in the FORWARD position, the spring end 76 would be against the shoulder 81, tending to urge the rotor 26 in a counterclockwise direction. Detent action of the switch is indicated in FIGS. 3 and 5. When the lever is moved from the HOME to the NEUTRAL position as described above with reference to FIG. 2, the solenoid is energized and the plunger tip 50 is pulled to the right to engage the detent track 66 and the circuits controlling vehicle direction are closed by the contact of the wipers 58 with the contacts 56. The groove 51 is formed in the rotor surface in alignment with the central detent of the track 66, and it is this groove which maintains the alignment of the plunger centrally of the rotor when the lever is in the HOME or NEUTRAL position. In FIG. 5, there is shown the detent action which occurs with the lever in REVERSE as illustrated in FIG. 4. It will be noted that the lever is retained in that position by the action of the spring 52 on the plunger tip which is against the surface of the rotor 26, there being no groove at that point. As long as the solenoid 42 is energized, the reverser switch permits rapid and simple reversal of direction from FORWARD to REVERSE and from REVERSE to FORWARD by manipulating the lever 14. When the solenoid is deenergized, the spring 48 forces the slide 46 to the left, carrying the detent plunger 50 out of the detent track 66 and disabling the reverser switch mechanism. The lever 14 then returns to the HOME position. The solenoid is initially energized to commence operation by lifting the lever to the NEUTRAL position after turning the ignition switch to the ON position and placement of the gear selector of the standard range control in a position other than the PARK position. The energized solenoid then retracts its shaft, causing the slider and detent plunger 50 to be pulled to the right, the plunger then engaging the detent track on the rotor 26 as shown in FIG. 3. When the lever is lifted, the roller 28 is dislodged from the groove 30 and the lever 14 then may be moved laterally to the FORWARD or REVERSE positions, thus changing the electrical switching state of the wipers 58 by relocating them to adjacent terminals 56, causing shifting of gears to change direction of vehicle travel. When the lever is moved laterally, it turns the rotor 26 which winds the torsion spring 74 more tightly in either direction by the action of the arcuate portion of the rotor 26 against the spring ends 76 or 78. In other words, shifting from NEUTRAL to FORWARD causes a tightening of the torsion spring in one direction and shifting from NEUTRAL into the REVERSE position causes tightening of the torsion spring in the opposite direction. When the solenoid is deenergized, the slider and the detent plunger are ejected from the detent track under the expanding forces of the slider spring 48. The slider and the detent plunger are moved to the left as seen in FIG. 4 until the detent plunger clears the detent track. The tip of the plunger being engaged in the groove 51 assures self-alignment of the rotor in the central NEUTRAL position. At that point, the rotor 26 is itself released and the torsion spring unwinds, forcing the rotor and lever to the NEUTRAL position. The roller 28 then reenters the groove 30 under the influence of the spring 24, returning the lever 14 to the HOME position. When the solenoid is reenergized as with a new start with the standard range controller in a position other than PARK, ignition ON and the lever moved from the HOME position, the slider and detent plunger return to the detent track. The groove 51 cut in the rotor accurately guides the plunger once more into the detent track. It should be noted that in normal operation the solenoid is energized, frequently for long periods. During those periods, the slider 46 and the detent plunger 50 are pulled into the detent track. The lever 14, once lifted, can be moved laterally to the FORWARD or REVERSE positions, changing the electrical switching state by relocating the rotor wipers 58 relative to the terminals 56. The lever 14 drives the rotor 26 to wind the torsion spring 74 in either direction, FORWARD or REVERSE. The detent plunger 50 is urged against the detent track 66 by the spring, causing a temporary hold of the lever position until the lever is moved manually. When the solenoid is deenergized as by the placement of the standard range controller in PARK, shutting off the ignition, or manipulating the lever, first the slider spring 48 takes over pushing the slider and detent plunger to the left. Next, after the detent plunger clears the detent track, the torsion spring 74 centers the rotor at NEUTRAL and finally the lever arm is returned to the HOME position by the compression spring 24.

An auxiliary reverser switch for a vehicle which includes a housing mounted in the vehicle in proximity to the operator and having a lever for selecting FORWARD, NEUTRAL and REVERSE positions for vehicle movement. The reverser switch is in addition to a standard range controller having a PARK and other positions and overrides control by the range controller only when a solenoid electrically connected in series with the ignition switch, the range controller, and the reverser switch is energized. The lever is mechanically connected to a rotor which breaks and establishes electrical contact to determine the direction of vehicle travel. The switch is self-canceling in that the lever is automatically returned to a HOME position displaced from the NEUTRAL position upon movement of the range controller to the PARK position or turning off the ignition switch.

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/793,939, filed Mar. 15, 2013, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference, in their entirety and for all purposes, herein. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure generally relates to determining the risk associated with a vehicle operator and, more particularly, to a method for gathering and analyzing risk related data. BACKGROUND A common automotive insurance practice is to rate vehicles with primary, secondary, etc. drivers to generate an appropriate insurance rate for a vehicle. To this end, insurance agents collect driver information from customers and determine levels of risk associated with the drivers of the vehicle. For example, a level of risk associated with a driver is commonly based on age, gender, driving history, etc. However, information provided by insurance customers may not accurately identify drivers of a vehicle, much less the level of risk associated with those drivers. For example, insurance providers do not have easy access to information indicating who is driving the vehicle at specific times, how drivers of the vehicle perform under certain conditions (snow, rain, night, etc.), where the vehicle is driven, how drivers cognitively process important information while driving, etc. SUMMARY In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for assessing risk associated with a driver of a vehicle comprises receiving, via a network interface, a plurality of risk variables associated with a driver, the plurality of risk variables being gathered when the driver operates the vehicle. The method further comprises causing one or more processors to identify the driver based on the plurality of risk variables, wherein identifying the driver includes: (i) clustering the plurality of risk variables into a plurality of groups of risk variables, and (ii) associating one of the plurality of groups of risk variables with the driver. Still further, the method comprises causing the one or more processors to develop a risk profile for the driver based on the associated groups of risk variables, wherein developing a risk profile for the driver includes: (i) determining the risk associated with at least some of the risk variables in the associated groups of risk variables, and (ii) generating a risk index, the risk index being a collective measure of risk associated with the driver based on the associated groups of risk. In another embodiment, a computer device for assessing risk associated with a driver of a vehicle comprises one or more processors and one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors. The one or more memories include computer executable instructions stored therein that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive, via a network interface, a plurality of risk variables associated with a driver, the plurality of risk variables being gathered when the driver operates the vehicle. Further, the computer executable instructions cause the one or more processors to identify the driver based on the plurality of risk variables, the identification of the driver including: (i) clustering the plurality of risk variables into a plurality of groups of risk variables, and (ii) associating one of the plurality of groups of risk variables with the driver. Still further, the computer executable instructions cause the one or more processors to develop a risk profile for the driver based on the associated groups of risk variables, wherein developing a risk profile for the driver includes: (i) determining the risk associated with at least some of the risk variables in the associated groups of risk variables, and (ii) generating a risk index, the risk index being a relative measure of risk associated with the driver based on the associated groups of risk variables. In still another embodiment, a computer readable storage medium comprises non-transitory computer readable instructions stored thereon for assessing risk associated with a driver of a vehicle, the instructions, when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive, via a network interface, a plurality of risk variables associated with a driver, the plurality of risk variables being gathered when the driver operates the vehicle. The instructions further cause the one or more processors to identify the driver based on the plurality of risk variables, the identification of the driver including: (i) clustering the plurality of risk variables into a plurality of groups of risk variables, and (ii) associating one of the plurality of groups of risk variables with the driver. Also, the instructions further cause the one or more processors to develop a risk profile for the driver based on the associated groups of risk variables, wherein developing a risk profile for the driver includes: (i) determining the risk associated with at least some of the risk variables in the associated groups of risk variables, and (ii) generating a risk index, the risk index being a relative measure of risk associated with the driver based on the associated groups of risk variables; BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates an example system for gathering and analyzing risk variables associated with a vehicle operator. FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an example method for identifying and assessing the risk associated with a vehicle operator which can be implemented in the system illustrated in FIG. 1 . FIG. 3A-3E illustrate an example driving simulation test. FIG. 4 illustrates an example driver risk report displayed on a mobile device. FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example method for generating insurance rates based on risk profiles and obtaining payment for insurance costs which can be implemented in the system illustrated in FIG. 1 . FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example method for alerting potentially impaired vehicle operators which can be implemented in the system illustrated in FIG. 1 . FIG. 7 illustrates an example alert displayed on a mobile device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Although the following text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this disclosure. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment since describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims. It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘_’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such terms should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent is referred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for the sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph. As used herein, the term “impairment” refers to any of a number of conditions that may reduce vehicle operator performance. A vehicle operator may be impaired if the vehicle operator is drowsy, asleep, distracted, intoxicated, ill, injured, suffering from a sudden onset of a medical condition, etc. Additionally, as used herein, the term “vehicle” may refer to any of a number of motorized transportation devices. A vehicle may be a car, truck, bus, train, boat, plane, etc. Additionally, as used herein, the term “driver” may refer to any operator of a vehicle. A driver may be a car driver, truck driver, bus driver, train engineer, captain of a boat, pilot of a plane, etc. FIG. 1 illustrates an example risk assessment system 100 for identifying the driver, or operator, of a vehicle and developing a risk profile for the driver. The high-level architecture includes both hardware and software applications, as well as various data communications channels for communicating data between the various hardware and software components. The risk assessment system 100 may be roughly divided into front-end components 102 and back-end components 104 . The front-end components 102 may be mobile components disposed in the vehicle (e.g. car, truck, boat, etc.), and the back-end components 104 may stationary components, in an implementation. The front end components 102 include one or more risk variable collection modules 106 , a driver alert interface 108 , and one or more mobile devices 110 . Additionally, the front end components 102 may include an on-board computer 114 , in an implementation. The on-board computer 114 may be permanently installed in the vehicle (not shown) and may interface with various sensors in the vehicle (e.g., a braking sensor, a speedometer, a tachometer, etc.) or in the risk variable collection modules 106 . Further, the on-board computer 114 may interface with various external output devices in the vehicle such as the driver alert interface 108 , one or more speakers (not shown), one or more displays (not shown), etc. The one or more risk variable collection modules 106 may include, by way of example, a computer vision module 116 , biometric sensor module 117 , driving behavior module 118 , motion sensor module 119 , identification signal module 120 , audio sensor module 121 , geopositioning module 122 , and user preference module 123 . Each of the risk variable collection modules 116 - 123 may include sensors to gather data (e.g. accelerometers, cameras, microphones, gyroscopes, etc.), routines to analyze sensor data or otherwise manipulate sensor data, and/or interfaces for communication outside the vehicle (e.g. global positioning system (GPS) antennas, wireless network interfaces, etc.), for example. Details of the example risk modules 116 - 123 are discussed with reference to FIG. 2 . The one or more mobile devices 110 may include, by way of example, a smart-phone 125 , laptop/desktop computer 126 , tablet computer 127 , or web-enabled cell phone 128 . The front-end components 102 communicate with the back-end components 104 via the network 130 . The network 130 may be a proprietary network, a secure public internet, a virtual private network or some other type of network, such as dedicated access lines, plain ordinary telephone lines, satellite links, combinations of these, etc. Where the network 130 comprises the Internet, data communications may take place over the network 130 via an Internet communication protocol. The back-end components 104 include a server 140 with one or more computer processors adapted and configured to execute various software applications and components of the risk assessment system 100 , in addition to other software applications. The server 140 further includes a database 146 . The database 146 is adapted to store data related to the operation of the risk assessment system 100 . Such data might include, for example, data collected by the front-end components 102 pertaining to the risk assessment system 100 and uploaded to the server 140 . The server 140 may access data stored in the database 146 when executing various functions and tasks associated with the operation of the risk assessment system 100 . Although the risk assessment system 100 is shown to include one server 140 , four mobile devices 125 - 128 , eight risk variable collection modules 116 - 123 , and one on-board computer 114 , it is understood that different numbers of servers, mobile devices, risk variable collection modules, and on-board computers may be utilized. For example, the system 100 may include a plurality of servers and hundreds of risk variable collection modules or sensors, all of which may be interconnected via the network 130 . Further, the one or more mobile devices 110 and/or the one or more risk variable collection modules 106 may perform the various functions described herein in conjunction with the on-board computer 114 or alone (in such cases, the on-board computer 114 need not be present). Likewise, the on-board computer 114 may perform the various functions described herein in conjunction with the mobile devices 125 - 128 and risk variable collection modules 116 - 123 or alone (in such cases, the mobile devices 125 - 128 and risk variable collection modules 116 - 123 need not be present). Furthermore, the processing performed by the one or more servers 140 may be distributed among a plurality of servers 140 in an arrangement known as “cloud computing,” in an implementation. This configuration may provide several advantages, such as, for example, enabling near real-time uploads and downloads of information as well as periodic uploads and downloads of information. Alternatively, the risk assessment system 100 may include only the front-end components 102 . For example, one or more mobile devices 110 and/or on-board computer 114 may perform all of the processing associated with gathering data, identifying drivers of the vehicle, alerting or communicating with the vehicle operator, and/or generating appropriate insurance rates. As such, the risk assessment system 100 may be a “stand-alone” system, neither sending nor receiving information over the network 130 . The server 140 may have a controller 155 that is operatively connected to the database 146 via a link 156 . It should be noted that, while not shown, additional databases may be linked to the controller 155 in a known manner. The controller 155 may include a program memory 160 , a processor 162 (may be called a microcontroller or a microprocessor), a random-access memory (RAM) 164 , and an input/output (I/O) circuit 166 , all of which may be interconnected via an address/data bus 165 . The program memory 160 may be configured to store computer-readable instructions that when executed by the processor 162 cause the server 140 to implement a server application 142 and a web server 143 . The instructions for the server application 142 may cause the server 140 to implement the methods described herein. While shown as a single block in FIG. 1 , it will be appreciated that the server application 142 may include a number of different programs, modules, routines, and sub-routines that may collectively cause the server 140 to implement the server application 142 . It should be appreciated that although only one microprocessor 162 is shown, the controller 155 may include multiple microprocessors 162 . Similarly, the memory of the controller 155 may include multiple RAMs 164 and multiple program memories 160 . Further, while the instructions for the server application 142 and web server 143 are shown being stored in the program memory 160 , the instructions may additionally or alternatively be stored in the database 146 and/or RAM 164 . Although the I/O circuit 166 is shown as a single block, it should be appreciated that the I/O circuit 166 may include a number of different types of I/O circuits. The RAM(s) 164 and program memories 160 may be implemented as semiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, and/or optically readable memories, for example. The controller 155 may also be operatively connected to the network 130 via a link 135 . FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an example method 200 for identifying a driver of a vehicle, or vehicle operator, and profiling the risk associated with the driver. The method 200 may be implemented in the risk assessment system 100 , for example. Risk variables are received from front-end components, such as the front-end components 102 , via a computer network, such as network 130 (block 202 ), in an implementation. The risk variables may be generated by one or more of the risk variable collection modules 106 and/or the one or more mobile devices 110 , for example. The risk variables may correspond to any data useful for identifying the driver of the vehicle, driving behaviors, driving environments, etc., as described below with a series of example scenarios. In one example scenario, the computer vision module 116 may use a variety of image sensors, such as one or more cameras, infrared sensors, etc., and one or more computer vision routines to gather data related to driver identification and behavior. Any suitable computer vision technique, known in the industry, may be used to match reference driver images (e.g. collected by insurance agents or uploaded by insurance customers) and still images taken by cameras of the computer vision module 116 , for example. Alternatively or additionally, the computer vision module 116 may use motion tracking sensors to detect and cluster driver movements such as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/897,650 entitled “Risk Evaluation Based on Vehicle Operator Behavior” and filed on May 20, 2013, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. In another example scenario, the biometric sensor module 117 may collect and analyze data from a variety of biometric sensors. For example, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), fingerprint, or skin conductivity sensors may be used to collect data for identifying particular drivers by comparison to reference biometric data (e.g. collected by insurance agents or provided by insurance customers). Further, the biometric sensor module 117 may collect data from heart rate sensors, grip strength sensors, or other suitable biometric sensors useful for identifying and/or clustering driver behavior (e.g. stress, appropriate or inappropriate driving responses, etc.). In yet another example scenario, the driving behavior module 118 may gather data from various vehicle sensors (e.g., a braking sensor, a speedometer, a tachometer, etc.) related to driver identification and behavior. For example, certain drivers may consistently brake with certain braking characteristics (e.g. as recorded in reference data or learned over time with a machine learning technique known in the industry) and another driver may brake with different braking characteristics. In such a case, a computing device may use data from braking sensors to identify the driver of the vehicle. Further, data from certain vehicle sensors may indicate levels of risk, in some scenarios. For example, high speed indications from a speedometer may indicate a high level of risk. In still another example scenario, the motion sensor module 119 may gather data from motion sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, etc. For example, the motion sensor module 119 may communicate with one or more mobile devices, such as smart-phone 125 , or one or more wearable sensors (e.g. on a key fob, bracelet, etc.) which include motion sensors. The motion sensor module 119 may identify and cluster driver behaviors, such as particular motions performed when entering or exiting the vehicle, habitual driving motions, etc., to identify the driver of a vehicle, for example. In yet another example scenario, the identification signal module 120 gathers data related to customer communicated identification signals. For example, a customer may communicate an identification signal via a vehicle user interface (e.g. touchscreen, keypad, microphone, radio frequency identification (RFID) tag equipped device, Bluetooth-connected smartphone or tablet computer, etc.) to make use of user preferred vehicle setting such as seat adjustments, mirror adjustments, radio stations, air conditioning setting, etc. The identification signal may be a password, code, personal identification number (PIN), name, phrase, or any other suitable identification signal, and the identification signal module 120 may process the identification signal to identify the driver of the vehicle, in an implementation. In still another example scenario, an audio sensor module 121 may analyze audio signals. For example, one or more microphones in the audio sensor module 121 may collect audio data, and the audio sensor module 121 , or server 140 , may execute a voice recognition routine, as known in the industry, to identify the driver of a vehicle. Further, audio data may be clustered to identify certain types of risky driver behavior such a talking on a phone, road rage, etc. In yet another example scenario, a geopositioning module 122 may gather and analyze positioning data. For example, a GPS receiver may develop position and velocity fixes as a function of time, and the geopositioning module 122 , or server 140 , may attempt to identify a driver based on frequently visited points of interest or commonly used navigation routes. Further, the geopositioning module 122 may identify certain areas and times at which the driver of the vehicle is at high or low risk. For example, a position fix and timestamp may indicate that a driver is driving at rush hour in a major city. In still another scenario, a preference module 123 may gather driver preference data. For example, driver preference data, gathered via communicative connections with equipment on-board the vehicle, may indicate that particular drivers have radio, air conditioning, seat, mirror, or other adjustment preferences, and, as such, the preference module 123 may identify drivers via driver preference data. Further, the preference module 123 may collect data indicating levels of risk, such as drivers frequently making radio adjustments while driving. It is understood that any suitable module, computing device, mobile device or data collection system may collect risk variables, in combination with the above-mentioned risk variable collection modules 116 - 123 or independently, where the risk variables are associated with driver identification and/or driver behaviors, driving environments, etc. Further, the functionality, components, and/or data of the above-mentioned risk variable collection modules 116 - 123 may be combined in any suitable way to identify a driver, track driver behavior, detect driving environments, etc. Also, in some implementations, the risk variable collection modules 116 - 123 and/or the on-board computer 114 may include a clock device which assigns a timestamp (e.g. dates, hours, minutes, seconds) to the collected risk variables corresponding to the time at which the risk variables are gathered, detected, output from one or more sensors, etc. Returning to FIG. 2 , upon receiving risk variables (block 202 ), risk variables are clustered into groups of risk variables (block 204 ). For example, the server 140 may cluster risk variables into groups of risk variables each associated particular driver behaviors, preferences, etc. The server 140 may also group risk variables by levels of risk, in some implementations. For example, the server 140 may group risk variables into groups of risk variables associated with high risk variables, normal risk variables, low risk variables, etc. In some implementations, the server 140 may cluster risk variables by comparing the risk variables with reference data. For example, reference positioning or traffic data may indicate areas of high and low risk driving, and the server 140 may compare risk variables collected from the geopositioning module 122 to this reference data to determine the grouping of risk variables. One or more of the groups of risk variables is then associated with particular drivers of a vehicle, provided the particular drivers consented to such application of the risk variables, in an implementation (block 206 ). For example, the server 140 may use certain risk variables to identify a driver, while a timestamp is used to associate other risk variables, such as driver behavior data, with the identified driver. Thus, the server 140 identifies one or more drivers of a vehicle and associates, with those drivers, risk variables indicating driver behaviors, driving environments, vehicle preferences, etc. In some implementations, the server 140 may supplement collected risk variables with pre-test and/or driving simulation test data or independently analyze driver pre-test and/or driving simulation test data. For example, the server 140 , or other suitable computing device, may communicate, via the network 130 , driver pre-tests and/or driving simulation tests to one or more of the mobile devices 110 . Drivers may identify themselves, complete pre-tests and/or driving simulation tests, and communicate the resulting data to server 140 via network 130 , in an implementation. FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate an example driving simulation test used to collect data related to driver alertness, response, distraction levels, and cognitive abilities. The driving simulation test illustrated in FIGS. 3A-3E may be presented on one or more of the mobile devices 110 , for example, and a driver may complete the driving simulation test by interacting with the simulation test via clicks, tap, physical motion, etc. The driving simulation test is presented on a mobile device 220 , and resembles the view from the driver's seat of a vehicle (i.e. from inside a virtual vehicle), in an implementation. The user of the mobile device 220 may “steer” the virtual vehicle in the simulation test by rotating or moving the phone from side to side. The simulation test may register this movement and rotate a displayed steering wheel 222 accordingly, for example. The user may also perform auxiliary driving functions such as braking, accelerating, activating/deactivating vehicle functions (e.g. lights, wipers, washer fluid), etc. and other functions, such as answering questions, during the course of the driving simulation test. For example, FIG. 3A illustrates a brake response time portion of the driving simulation test in which an indication 224 of necessary braking is displayed above a nearby virtual car 226 . The simulation test may assess driver brake response time by measuring the time difference between the time at which indication 224 is displayed and the time at which the user initiates a virtual braking function (e.g. via a click or tap). FIG. 3B illustrates an example road side distraction portion of the driving simulation test in which a sign 228 , or other road side distraction, is displayed on the side of a virtual road. The simulation test may assess levels of user distraction by measuring virtual steering deviations upon the display of sign 228 or changes in virtual braking or acceleration upon the display of sign 228 , for example. FIG. 3C illustrates an example cognitive distraction portion of the driver simulation test in which a cognitive test question 230 is displayed on the screen of the mobile device 220 while the user is driving a virtual vehicle. The cognitive test question 230 may be a math, trivia, or other question stimulating cognitive distraction, for example, and the driver may answer the cognitive test question 230 using a user interface of the mobile device 220 (e.g. touchscreen, keypad, verbal response, etc.). The simulation test may assess levels of cognitive distraction by measuring virtual steering deviations upon the display and subsequent answering of the cognitive test question 230 or changes in virtual braking or acceleration upon the display and subsequent answering of the cognitive test question 230 , for example. FIG. 3D illustrates a manual distraction portion of the simulated driving test in which a manual task 232 is displayed on the screen of the mobile device 220 while the driver is driving a virtual vehicle. The manual task 232 may include indications to activate/deactivate virtual vehicle functionality, enter a phrase or message via a user interface, or any other manual distraction task requiring manual driver interaction with the simulation test in addition to interactions required in driving the virtual vehicle. The simulation test may assess levels of manual distraction by measuring virtual steering deviations upon the display and subsequent performing of the manual task 232 or changes in virtual braking or acceleration upon the display and subsequent performing of the manual task 232 , for example. Upon completion of the driving simulation test portions, the simulation test may present the driver (i.e. the user of the mobile device 220 ) with a “scoreboard” of results. FIG. 3E illustrates an example scoreboard presented to the driver in which a variety of driving scores 240 and distraction scores 242 are displayed to the driver. In addition to reporting the results to the driver, the mobile device 220 may send the results of the driving test to server 140 for use in identifying and profiling drivers of a vehicle, in an implementation. For example, the results may be sent as normalized numeric scores to the server 140 for comparison with average reference scores from other insurance customers. In some implementations, drivers may also export driving simulation test scores to a social web application such as Facebook® or Twitter. It is understood that the driving simulation test illustrated in FIGS. 3A-3E is included for illustrative purposes. The server 140 may utilize data from any suitable pre-test and/or driving simulation test adapted to test driver performance, distraction, cognitive ability, etc. For example, the server 140 may utilize results of a written pre-test, proctored by an insurance agent, consisting of questions related to commonly encountered driving situations, in an implementation. Returning again to FIG. 2 , the gathered and grouped risk variables, pre-test data, and/or driving simulation test data are analyzed to determine a collective level of risk for one or more drivers of the vehicle (block 270 ), provided the one or more drivers consented to such application of the risk variables. The server 140 combines or compares the various gathered risk variables to determine an accurate level of risk, in some scenarios. For example, a particular driver may drive frequently in high traffic areas, as determined from positioning data, which would independently (i.e. when considered alone) be associated with high risk, but the same driver may show consistently good high traffic driving habits, as determined from biometric, behavior, computer vision, etc. data. In such an example case, the server 140 may determine that the driver is associated with low risk by comparing data from multiple sources (e.g. positioning, biometric, computer vision, etc.), even though data from one of the sources (e.g. positioning) may indicate high risk. In another example case, a particular driver may drive frequently in the day and not frequently at night, as determined from timestamps, imagery, positioning, etc. data, which would independently be associated with low risk. However, the same driver may frequently text while driving, adjust the radio, and apply makeup while driving, as determined from computer vision, motion sensing, audio, etc. data. In such an example case, the server may determine that the driver is associated with high risk by comparing data from multiple sources, even though data from one of the sources (e.g. timestamps or positioning) indicates low risk. By comparing risk variables from a plurality of sources, the server 140 is able to develop a detailed (i.e. granular) profile of drivers of a vehicle, in an implementation. The server 140 may, therefore, associate risk with drivers in an accurate and up-to-date way, for example. Further, risk indices (RI's), based on the analysis of the risk variables, are developed (block 275 ). For example, risk indices may include a normalized number representing relative driver risk with respect to other drivers and/or reference data. A provider of insurance may have a preferred type of method of generating a RI, and such preferred types and methods may be integrated with the method 200 , in some implementation. For example, an RI may be a grade between zero and one hundred with a score of sixty or below indicating failure, or very high risk, and a score close to one hundred indicating low risk. In some scenarios, the server 140 may communicate a report of driver risk to insurance customers via the network 130 . For example, the server 140 may develop a driver risk report for display on one of the mobile devices 110 . FIG. 4 illustrates an example driver risk report displayed on mobile device 300 . The mobile device 330 may be implemented as smartphone 125 , for example, and communicate with server 140 via network 130 . The example driver risk report includes grades (i.e. a number between one and one hundred representing performance) in particular categories, where the grades in the particular categories may be developed by the server 140 based on clustered risk variables. For example, the driver risk report may include an acceleration grade 302 , braking grade 304 , cornering grade 306 , and distraction grade 308 . Also, the driver risk report may include a number of recent trips 310 , a duration of recent trips 312 , a distance of recent trips 314 , a RI 316 or indication of collective risk, an identification of one or more drivers 318 , an indication of risk variables leading to high risk (not shown), suggestions for safer driving or improving the RI 316 (not shown), etc. FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method 400 for utilizing risk profiles or risk indices to generate insurance rates and facilitate insurance payments. The method 400 may be implemented in server 140 , for example, and the risk profiles and risk indices may be generated using method 200 , for example. Risk profiles, such as those including RI's and indications of high risk variables, are received (block 402 ). The risk profiles may then be used to generate appropriate insurance rates (block 404 ), in an implementation. For example, the server 140 may use appropriate insurance metrics along with the risk associated with drivers of a vehicle to generate an appropriate insurance rating for insuring the vehicle. In some implementations, the server 140 may generate a driver risk report, such as the driver risk report illustrated in FIG. 3E , including insurance rates. Thus, insurance customers may be able to easily view levels of risk and the associated levels of risk, for example, and the insurance customers may modify driving habits to minimize insurance costs. In some implementations, generated insurance rates, based on gathered risk variables, may follow a driver regardless of the particular vehicle the driver is operating. For example, the server 140 may use positioning data from one of the mobile devices 110 or the geopositioning module 122 , identification signals from identification signal module 120 , or one or more other risk variable collection devices or modules to determine what vehicles a driver is operating. The server 140 may then generate an appropriate insurance rate for an insurance product that will follow the driver across any driving situation, such as driving a personally owned vehicle, family owned vehicle, peer owned vehicle, shared vehicle, rental vehicle, etc. The generated insurance rates and driver risk report may be communicated directly to a mobile device, such as one of the mobile devices 110 , via a computer network (block 406 ). For example, the server 140 may electronically communicate the rates and risk report via email, text message, hyperlink, etc. to one of the mobile devices 110 . In some implementations, the insurance company, operating server 140 , may also communicate the insurance rates and driver risk report to insurance customers in any other suitable way, such as physical mail, telephone calls, etc. In response to the communication of insurance rates, payment for the associated insurance products is received (block 408 ), in one scenario. For example, the payment may include a communication from one of the mobile devices 110 to the server 140 including credit card information, payment scheduling information, etc. FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example method 500 for alerting drivers of possible impairment based on an analysis of risk variables. The method 500 may be implemented in the risk assessment system 100 , for example. Risk variables, such as the risk variables discussed in reference to FIG. 2 , are analyzed to determine possible vehicle operator impairment (block 502 ). The analysis to determine possible vehicle operator impairment may be combined with the analysis to associate risk levels with driver (block 270 of FIG. 2 ), or the analysis to determine possible vehicle operator impairment may be performed independently, in an implementation. For example, the server 140 may analyze the risk variables gathered from the front-end components 102 that may indicate vehicle operator impairment. In an example scenario, the server 140 may analyze computer vision data to identify vehicle operator behavior associated with the vehicle operator being drowsy, asleep, distracted, intoxicated, ill, etc. The server may then determine, based on the analysis of the risk variables, if the operator is likely to be impaired (block 504 ). If the vehicle operator is not likely to be impaired, the flow reverts to block 502 where further risk variables may be analyzed. In some implementations, the analysis of risk variables for identifying operator impairment may be performed periodically or any time new risk variables (i.e. risk variables that have not yet been analyzed) are available. If the vehicle operator is likely to be impaired, the flow continues to block 506 where an alert may be sent to the vehicle operator, via the driver alert interface 108 or one or more of the mobile devices 110 , for example. The alert may be at least one or more of an audible alert, a visual alert, or a tactile alert. For example, a tactile alert system may cause a driver's seat to vibrate, or an audible alert system may cause a chime, claxon, siren, etc. and/or a custom recorded sound such as a sound clip or ringtone to be played through one or more speakers. In another example, an alert may include a mobile device alert including visual displays, sounds, and/or messages displayed on one or more of the mobile devices 110 . FIG. 7 illustrates an example mobile device alert including a visual alert display 512 on a mobile device 510 . In some implementations, the server 140 may continuously or periodically alert the vehicle operator until the server 140 receives an alert confirmation from the vehicle operator (block 508 ). For example, the vehicle operator may tap or click visual alert display 512 of the example mobile device alert to confirm receipt of the alert at which time a confirmation signal is communicated to the server 140 via the network 130 .

A method for assessing risk associated with a driver of a vehicle includes receiving a plurality of risk variables associated with a driver, the plurality of risk variables being gathered when the driver operates the vehicle. A driver is then identified based on the plurality of risk variables, and a risk profile is developed for the driver. The development of the risk profile involves determining the risk associated with at least some of the risk variables and generating a risk index, the risk index being a collective measure of risk associated with the driver.

RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application No. 09/664,288 entitled “Dual Layer Reticle Blank and Manufacturing Process” by Torbjörn Sandstrom, filed Sep. 18 , 2000. FIELD OF INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to preparation of patterned workpieces in the production of semiconductor and other devices. Methods and devices are described utilizing resist and transfer layers over a workpiece substrate. The methods and devices produce small feature dimensions in masks and phase shift masks. The methods described may apply to both masks and direct writing on workpieces having similarly small features, such as semiconductor, cryogenic, magnetic and optical microdevices. RELATED ART [0003] Semiconductor devices include multiple layers of structures. The structures are formed in numerous steps, including steps of applying resist, then exposing, developing and selectively removing the resist to form a pattern of exposed areas. The exposed areas may be etched to remove material or sputtered to add material. A critical part of forming the pattern in the resist is exposing it. Resist is exposed to an energy beam that changes its chemical properties. One cost-effective way of exposing the resist is with a stepper. A stepper uses a reticle, which typically includes a carefully prepared, transmissive quartz substrate overlaid by a non-transmissive or masking layer that is patterned with areas to be exposed and areas to be left unexposed. Patterning is an essential step in the preparation of reticles. Reticles are used to manufacture semiconductor and other devices, such as flat-panel displays and television or monitor screens. [0004] Semiconductor devices have become progressively smaller. The feature dimensions in semiconductor devices have shrunken by approximately 40 percent every three years for more than 30 years. Further shrinkage is anticipated. Current minimum line widths of approximately 0.13 microns will shrink to 0.025 microns, if the historical rate of development continues for another 15 years. [0005] The pattern on a reticle used to produce semiconductor devices is typically four times larger than that on the wafer being exposed. Historically, this reduction factor has meant that minimum feature dimensions in the reticles are less critical than the minimum feature dimensions on the surface of the semiconductor. However, the difference in criticality is much less than might be expected and will in the near future disappear. [0006] Critical dimension uniformity, as a percentage of line width, is more exacting in the pattern on a reticle than in the features on the surface of a wafer. On the wafer, critical dimension uniformity of plus or minus 10 percent of the line width has historically been acceptable. In the error budget for the wafer line width, the mask has been allowed to contribute half of the critical dimension variation, or a variation of five percent of a line width. Other factors use the remaining error budget. It has been observed that nonlinearities in transfer of a pattern from a reticle to a wafer magnify any size errors in the mask. This is empirically quantified as a mask error enhancement factor (MEEF or MEF). In current technology, the mask error enhancement factor is typically two. Therefore, the critical dimension uniformity on the reticle is reduced to approximately two and one-half percent of a line width, to remain within the error budget. [0007] It is anticipated that requirements for critical dimension uniformity will tighten in time, particularly for masks. On the surface of the wafer, a critical dimension uniformity of plus or minus five percent of the line width will be required in the future. At the same time, the mask error enhancement factor is likely to increase due to more aggressive lithographic process trade-offs, such as tuning the lithographic process to optimize the manufacture of contact holes, transistors or other critical features in order to use feature sizes closer to the theoretical resolution limit. For masks, a critical dimension uniformity of plus or minus one percent of a line width or feature size is anticipated. At this rate, the tolerance for critical dimension errors on the mask will be smaller in absolute nanometers than it is on the surface the wafer, despite the fact that the stepper takes advantage of a mask that is four times as large as the area on the wafer that is being exposed. [0008] One of the energy beam sources currently used to expose resist is deep ultraviolet (DUV), in the wavelength range of 100 to 300 nanometers. This energy source is used with two types of resist to produce masks: conventional positive, so called Novolac-DNQ, resist and chemically amplified resist. Essentially all DUV exposure in steppers uses chemically amplified resist. The requirements in pattern generators for patterning of reticles are so different than in steppers that chemically amplified resists are unsuitable for patterning reticles. Work to modify conventional Novolac-DNQ resist to produce a resist suitable for DUV exposure of mask patterns reportedly has failed. [0009] Uniformity and feature size requirements have become so demanding that wet etching no longer is suitable. Wet etching is generally not useable when the size of features approach the thickness of the films the features are etched from. A wet etch etches sideways as much as it etches vertically. Deterioration of the three-dimensional shape of small features results. When chrome is wet etched with resist as an etch mask, the etchant removes chrome under the resist, referred to as undercutting. Clear areas produced by wet etching chrome with a resist mask typically come out 0.2 microns too large. A wet etched resist image with alternating lines and spaces equally 0.4 microns wide, produces a chrome mask pattern where the spaces (clear) are 0.6 microns wide and the lines (dark) are 0.2 microns. This is a large deviation. It is difficult to compensate for this deviation by changing the data or the dose. For smaller features, narrow lines will simply disappear. Therefore any pattern with features smaller than 0.5-0.6 microns wide needs to be produced by dry or plasma etching. The plasma process used to etch chrome produces vertical “line-of-sight” etching characteristics. The chrome is removed only where it is within the line of sight from the plasma source; essentially no undercutting results. Issues Using Positive Non-Amiplified Resists [0010] Positive non-amplified resists provide excellent performance in the violet visible and near UV wavelength ranges. This resist is transparent and has high contrast, giving essentially vertical resist walls and good process latitude. It has good shelf life and mask blanks can be precoated with resist at the time of manufacturing, shipped to users, and kept in storage until needed. Although there is a small decay of the latent image, plates can in principle be exposed today and developed after weeks. [0011] In the DUV wavelength range, both the Novolac resin and the photoactive compound used in Novolac absorb strongly. The edge wall angle after development is partly controlled by the absorption of light and partly by the resist contrast. With high absorption, the features will have strongly sloping edge walls, whatever the chemical contrast. No non-amplified resist formulation is known which combines good contrast with high transparency. [0012] The effect of non-vertical trench walls is significant for narrow lines. One reason for non-vertical trench walls is that a resist layer is eroded by the plasma during the etching. The uniformity of resist erosion is difficult to control since, among other things, it depends on the pattern to be etched. Erosion makes the clear areas larger and varying plasma activity from run to run and across the surface of the workpiece gives a varying CD between masks and within each mask. The variation of the resist thickness at the end of the plasma etching step may be 50 nm peak-to-valley or more. For a wall angle of 80 degrees, instead of 90 degrees, a 50 nm variation in resist thickness produces a variation in trench width, at the bottom of the trench, of nearly 20 nm, which may translate into an undesirable three-sigma deviation of 20 nm. This erosion problem is exacerbated by the high optical absorption of non-chemically amplified resists used with DUV radiation. High optical absorption leads to greater development of the resist at the top of the trench than the bottom, further increasing the variation in line width. [0013] Resist sidewall deviation from 90° vertical inevitably limits the line resolution. In 0.5 micron thick resist layer with a side wall angle of 80 degrees, a line having a width of 0.025 microns at the top of the resist layer is only 0.2 microns wide at the bottom of the resist layer where the chrome is etched. Using current chemistry it is not possible to make the resist thinner than 0.4-0.5 microns and still protect the chrome during the dry etching. If the line at the top of the resist layer is narrowed, the wall angle less favorable or the resist thicker, the line would tend to vanish. [0014] Obviously, each of the problems described gets worse as line widths get smaller, tolerances diminish, and the wavelength move into the deep ultraviolet. Issues With Chemically Amplified Resists [0015] The use of chemically amplified resists introduces other problems. Chemically amplified resists developed for stepper processing are transparent and have high contrast, giving almost perfectly vertical resist walls. However, they need a thermal annealing or activation step after exposure, that is, a post-exposure bake (PEB). Activation and chemical amplification are highly sensitive to the temperature in time of this bake. Use of chemically amplified resists on reticles is much more difficult than on wafers, due to the thickness and shape of reticles. Reticles are much thicker and less thermally conductive than silicon wafers, making it more difficult to control the baking sequence accurately. Furthermore, reticles are square, leading to comer effects that are not experienced with round wafers. These post-exposure bake problems are not necessarily limited to chemically amplified resists, but are particularly had for chemically amplified resists due to the criticality of the baking step. Non-chemically amplified resists are sometimes baked after exposure to even out standing wave interference effects, leading to the same problems. Post-exposure baking also introduces a latent image diffusion problem, for both kinds of resist, but worse for the chemically amplified resists since the deactivation post bake often requires a substantially different temperature than that optimized for standing wave reduction. [0016] An additional problem of chemically amplified resists is their instability and short working life. Chemically amplified resists have been developed for use with steppers, which can finish 100-500 wafers in the same time that a mask writer produces one mask. Chemically amplified resists are spun on the surface of wafers and prebaked shortly before they are placed in the stepper and are baked shortly thereafter on an automated line, within the relatively short working life of the resist. This makes the current generation of chemically amplified resists unsuitable for use in a mask writer, which may take one to ten hours or more to write a mask and typically operates without an automated processing line. The related problem is that the time from prebaked to post bake depends on the pattern written and is highly variable. As more suitable chemically amplified resists are developed for use with mask making, it will be necessary to take into account the substantial variation in mask writing the time. Issues Common To All Sincle-Layer Resists [0017] All single layer resists share properties that makes them less suitable in the foreseeable future. The mask pattern is always wet developed since there exists no process for dry development. Again, the minimum resist layer thickness essentially constant at 0.4-0.5 microns, regardless of the feature size, in order to resist plasma erosion in areas where chrome is not supposed to be removed. As features get very small, wet developed resist structures assume an unfavorable aspect ratio. In a mask pattern with 10 billion features it is highly likely that some of these high aspect ration features will be damaged by hydrodynamic forces and surface tension during wet processing. [0018] For optical exposure, single layer resists further require a trade-off between transparency and interference effects. The thin resist layer needs to be transparent to be exposed from top to bottom, but the transparency makes it subject to optical interference that lowers the effective performance of the resist and increases process variability. Two interference effects are sometimes referred to as standing wave and bulk effects. The standing wave effect results from interference within the resist layer between light directed toward the reticle's surface and light reflected back. The light directed toward the non-transmissive, mirror-like masking layer and the light reflected back from that layer produce a standing wave where the crests and troughs of the directed and reflected light align. This produces vertical bands of more and less completely exposed resist. When the resist is developed and selectively removed, there is a tendency for the sides of the resulting trench to bend in and out, which is referred to as the standing wave effect. The related bulk effect results from interference above the resist layer between light reflected off the surface of the resist and light reflected off the surface of the reticle and back out of the resist. With certain thicknesses of resist, there is destructive interference between the light entering and leaving the resist, allowing a maximum number of photons to stay in the resist layer, producing high sensitivity. Variations in the resist bulk or thickness effect the sensitivity of the film and lead to non uniformity is in the pattern produced. As a resist film is made more transparent, interference effects are reduced, but the etch slope would be worse. These problems are common to ordinary and chemically amplified resists. In wafer lithography the dilemma is normally solved with a thin anti reflecting coating under the resist and sometimes also on top of the resist as well. [0019] Mask production faces additional issues. For instance, production control is difficult due to low production volume. Monitoring and feedback techniques used to improve the quality of semiconductor production are not readily applied to low volume production. Thus, a mask shop needs a more stable process through a semiconductor fab. [0020] Thus, it is desirable to develop a new process for patterning reticles and forming phase shift windows in reticles. The new process preferably would be suitable for non-chemically amplified resists or yet to be developed amplified resists and would yield very small feature sizes with great uniformity by avoiding interference effects and other process hazards. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0021] An objective of the invention is to produce small features on a reticle with precise critical dimensions, using a technique suitable to a variety of energy sources. [0022] One embodiment of the present invention includes a method of creating a patterned reticle, including creating a latent image in a resist layer using a pattern generator, creating a plasma etch barrier corresponding to said latent image, directionally etching the transfer layer through said plasma etch barrier, and removing the transfer layer to expose unetched portions of the masking layer. According to this embodiment, the resist layer maybe wet developed. It may be less than 200 nm thick and preferably 150 nm thick. The transfer layer maybe between 200 and 500 nm thick, and preferably 350 nm thick. The plasma etch barrier may comprise silicon in the resist layer, which may be present before the latent image is created or may be added after it is created. Alternatively, the plasma etch barrier comprises a separate film between the resist and transfer layers, preferably deposited by sputtering. This etch barrier film may be a metal containing film, comprising aluminum, a metal oxide, silicon, or silicon oxide. A plasma etch barrier comprising a separate film may be patterned by plasma etching through the resist layer. A further aspect of this embodiment is that the transfer layer maybe essentially non-transmissive to an energy beam used to create the latent image. This transfer layer may be removed using a first plasma chemistry. The first plasma chemistry may contain halogen ions and may be an oxygen plasma. The transfer layer may be an organic material. Directional etching of the transfer and masking layer may be carried out by RIE type etching and the transfer layer may be removed by non-preferential oxygen plasma. [0023] Additional embodiment of the present invention includes creating features on a mask blank, including the steps of exposing a resist layer using a pattern generator, developing the resist layer and selectively removing portions thereof, directionally etching a transfer layer underneath the resist layer, directionally etching a masking layer underneath the transfer layer, and removing the transfer layer to expose unhedged portions of the masking layer. The pattern generator uses may use photon energy, electron beams, or particle beams. When photon energy is used, the transfer layer maybe essentially non-transmissive to the wavelength of photon energy used. A variety of wavelengths can be used to create a variety of minimum feature dimensions, because there is a critical relationship between wavelength and resulting feature size. Energy of 300 to 380 nm wavelength can be used to create minimum feature dimensions and 75 to 285 nm. Energy of 200 to 300 nm can be used to create minimum feature dimensions of 55 to 225 nm. Energy of 100 to 220 nm can be used to create minimum feature dimensions of 32 to 124 nm. Energy of five to the 13 nm can be used to create minimum feature dimensions of 6 2 44 nm. When the electron beam is used, less than 3000 eV energy is preferred. Minimum feature dimensions of 2270 nm to be created. Depending on type of energy beam used, the minimum feature dimensions created may be in the ranges of 75-285 nm, 55-225 nm, 32-124 nm, or 6-44 nm. An aspect of this embodiment is that the pattern generator can be aligned to the reticle when the resist and transfer layers are transmissive to a certain, non-exposing wavelength of light by observing features beneath the resist and transfer layers. With a transfer layer that is more absorptive than the resist layer to another certain wavelength of light, the pattern generator can autofocus on the interface between the resist and transfer layers. [0024] According to a further aspect of the invention, multiple passes may be used to expose the resist layer, preferably four passes. The exposure passes showed take place in essentially opposing directions, yielding an average time between exposure and completion of the final exposure passes which is essentially equal for locations dispersed across the reticle. [0025] Additional aspect of the present invention is that a plasma comprising oxygen and silicon dioxide can be used to selectively remove a silicon containing resist. The resist can be treated with silicon prior to developing. Useful silicon treating compounds includes silane, liquid compounds and gaseous compounds. The silicon can be treated after development and before removal of the resist. Resist development can be carried out by wet or dry development. [0026] Either embodiment of the present invention can be enhanced by a including in steps of inspecting and repairing the selectively removed resist. Alternatively, the developed resist can be inspected and features precisely widened to match a critical tolerance. [0027] The directional etching of the transfer or masking layers according to either embodiment can be carried out by plasma etching or reactive ion etching. Chlorine may be used in etching gas to remove a masking layer. The transfer layer may comprise an organic material, preferably one adapted to planarizing the masking layer and dyed with a DUV-absorbing dye. The masking layer may comprise more than one physical layer, for instance a layer of chrome overlaid by an antireflective layer of nonstoichiometric chrome oxide. [0028] Another embodiment of present invention is a method of preparing a reticle blank for patterning, including the steps of forming a masking layer a reticle substrate, spinning an organic layer over the masking the layer, baking the organic layer, spinning a positive silicon-containing resist layer over the organic layer, and baking the resist layer. According to this embodiment, the masking layer may be comprised of chrome in the range of 40-90 nm thick. Alternatively, it may comprise aluminum or tungsten. On a quartz reticle substrate, the masking layer may comprise a patterned structure. The resist layer maybe between 50 and 200 nm thick, preferably 150 nm thick. The resist and transfer layers may have different characteristics of absorbing certain wavelengths of light, so that a pattern generator can focus on the interface between these layers. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES [0029] [0029]FIGS. 1A-1E depict a dual layer reticle blank structure and a process for preparing a patterned reticle using dual layers of resist and transfer medium. [0030] [0030]FIGS. 2A-2E also depict a dual layer reticle blank structure and a process. This process is for preparing a phase shift mask. [0031] [0031]FIG. 3 depicts the process of over-etching regions of a phase shift mask. [0032] [0032]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a reticle with dual layers of resist and transfer medium. [0033] [0033]FIG. 5 is a graph of minimum line width ranges for varying wavelengths of photon energy beams. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0034] Following detailed description of the invention and embodiments practicing the invention is made with respect to the figures. It is presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and equivalent arrangements will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art. [0035] [0035]FIGS. 1A through 1E depict a coated reticle blank and process steps for a method of removing a non-transmissive layer from the surface of the reticle. In FIG. 1A, the coated reticle comprises a reticle blank 100 , a masking or non-transmissive layer 102 , a transfer layer 104 , and a resist layer 106 . Optionally, it may include a plasma resistive layer 105 between the transfer layer 104 and the resist layer 106 . The reticle blank 100 often comprises a quartz substrate, a Zerodu™ ceramic substrate or an ULE™ glass substrate. One form factor currently used is 152 mm by 152 mm by 6.25 mm thick. In one style of mask, the blank is transmissive to an energy beam used during the manufacture of semiconductor devices. A mask is formed over the blank to block the passage of the energy beam in areas where resist on a wafer is intended not to be exposed. Unmasked portions of the blank allow an energy beam to pass through and form a pattern on the wafer resist. In another style of mask, the portions of the mask- blank system reflect and absorb the energy used to expose the resist. This style of mask is used in projection lithography. [0036] With some energy sources, a phase shift mask can be used. The thickness of a substrate may be altered either by removing some material from the reticle, for instance by etching, or by adding material, such as a dielectric, to selected portions of the mask. A thicker mask transmits light more slowly. When the passage of light is retarded by half a wavelength, destructive interference results between adjacent areas where light passes retarded and unretarded through the reticle. [0037] The non-transmissive masking layer 102 of a coated reticle typically includes a chrome masking layer approximately 40-90 nm thick. The chrome material may be applied by sputtered deposition. Alternatively, aluminum, gold, tungsten, or silicon could be used to form the non-transmissive, masking layer. Optionally, the non-transmissive layer may also include an anti-reflective layer. Non-stoichiometric chromium oxide material approximately 30 microns thick can be used to reduce reflectivity. This enhances performance when the mask is used in a stepper, but it is not necessary for patterning the mask. Its presence may reduce standing wave and bulk interference effects. However, optical focusing systems used in both steppers and pattern generating equipment require some reflection to be effective. Therefore, the anti-reflective component of a non-transmissive layer cannot be perfectly absorbing. Alternatively, the non-transmissive layer 102 could be a structure, such as used in a so called “chromeless phase shifting” mask, formed on or in the surface of the reticle which reflects, diffuses or absorbs the energy beam, so that an energy beam directed to a non-transmissive region would not produce a threshold exposure in the resist underlying the region. Alignment marks or features may be formed in the non-transmissive layer, which are useful for aligning the coordinate system of the mask making equipment. For a projection style reticle, a different type of masking layer is used, which is known in the art, to produce areas of the reticle which reflect and absorb energy. [0038] Over the non-transmissive layer, but not necessarily directly on it, a transfer layer 104 is applied. This layer may be spun on using conventional techniques to form a layer approximately 0.2-0-5 microns thick. Preferably, an organic material is used which includes a DUV-absorbing dye, preferably using a dye selective to absorption of exposure radiation and transparent to alignment radiation. The material used in the transfer layer should tend to planarize the surface, especially when spun on. This is particularly useful when the non-transmissive layer has already been patterned. When a photon beam is used to expose the resist, use of an energy absorbing dye has several advantages. For focusing, it provides a target. At the same time, a selectively DUV-absorbing dye would allow an optical alignment system working at 532 nm to take advantage of the transparency of the transfer layer and overlaying resist layer to align two features in the non-transmissive layer, particularly after initial patterning of a layer. The transfer layer reduces the amount of light reflected from the non-transmissive layer, thereby minimizing standing wave effects. At the same time, it reduces the amount of reflected light which escapes the transfer layer, thereby minimizing bulk effects. The transfer layer produces these advantages without the disadvantage of higher absorption on top than at the bottom of the resist layer. After application of the- transfer layer, baking at 150-180 degrees Celsius will drive out the solvent and improve the resistance to the transfer layer to plasma etching. [0039] Optionally, over the transfer layer, but not necessarily directly on it, a plasma resistive layer 105 is applied. This layer may be sputtered on. It preferably is a silicon layer, which forms silicon dioxide when exposed to certain plasmas, particularly an inorganic silicon layer. [0040] Over the transfer layer and the optional plasma resistive, but not necessarily directly on them, a resist layer 106 is applied. This layer may be spun on using conventional techniques to form a layer approximately 0.05-0.20 micron thick, and more preferably, approximately 0.15 micron thick. Is preferred to use a positive resist, because it is easier to expose fine lines than to expose the surrounding area, leaving fine lines unexposed. The resists used with photon energy may be referred to as photoresists. Other types of resist are used with other forms of energy. Optionally, a silicon-containing resists may be used to enhance the selectivity of plasma etching, as described further below. The silicon content of approximately 7 to 10 percent is desirable. After application of the resist layer, baking at 90 degrees Celsius will drive out the solvent. The material selected for the transfer and resist layers preferably should have good shelf life and stability so that the mask-blank manufacturer can precoat the blanks. [0041] The refractive index of the resist layer 106 should match as closely as practical the refractive index of the transfer layer 104 , in order to minimize standing wave interference effects. The standing wave interference effects of the double layer system, using resist over a transfer layer, can be analyzed by applying Brunner's formula. The action of bottom and top antireflective layers on the swing amplitude S is described in good approximation by Brunner's formula, when a two layer system is treated as a single layer: S =4 {square root}{square root over (R b □R t )}□ e −αd [0042] Where, R b is the reflectivity at the interface between the transfer layer and the masking layer. R t is the reflectivity of the interface between the resist and air, which may be reduced by an antireflective top coating. “alpha” is the rate of absorption of exposure radiation by the resist, per unit thickness. “d” is the thickness of the absorbing resist layer. When the resist and transfer layers have approximately the same refractive index, the reflection at that interface approaches 0. Thus, Brunner's formula can be applied to the resist and transfer layers as a single layer. The combined single layer has a value of alpha *d>>1, so the exponential factor in Brunner's formula is very small. As the exponential factor vanishes, the value of S for the combined resist and transfer layers is also very small. The exact value of alpha *d can be chosen by varying the dye content of the organic material or transfer layer. The two layer system allows much greater freedom in adjusting the value of alpha *d than a single resist layer, where a low absorbance value of alpha *d<1 is ordinarily preferred. For a single layer resist, the low absorbance is ordinarily preferred to give an acceptable edge slope, so that the sides of the trench after development and selective removal of portions of the resist will be nearly vertical. [0043] A variation on FIG. 1A appears in FIG. 2A. The structure includes a transmissive substrate 200 , non-transmissive layer 202 , transfer layer 204 and resist layer 206 . In this structure, part of the non-transmissive layer 202 was selectively removed before additional layers were applied. It is particularly useful for the transfer layer in this structure to be suitable for planarizing, because the non-transmissive layer is patterned. As patterning is performed at a mask shop, a structure depicted in FIG. 2A is likely to be formed at a mask shop and unlikely to be stored for long periods of time. [0044] A process embodying the present invention is depicted in FIGS. 1A through 1D, with a process variation shown in FIG. 1E. In FIG. 1A, the resist layer 106 is exposed to an energy beam 108 . In practice, this radiation or energy may be any of wide variety of types. Photon energy may be in the UV, the DUV, EUV or x-ray spectrum ranges. For instance, photon energy may be a spectrographically separated or processed through a cut filter from a high-pressure mercury vapor arc light or super high pressure xenon-mercury light, at the g line (approximately 436 nm), the h line (approximately 406 nm), the i line (approximately 365 nm) or the j line (approximately 313 nm). Photon energy also may be generated by a helium cadmium source (approximately 442 and 325 nm), a solid state source (approximately 430 and 266 nm) a krypton ion source (approximately 413 nm), an argon ion source (approximately 364 and 257 nm). Or, it can be generated by an excimer source or a krypton-fluoride or an argon- fluoride laser (approximately 308, 248, 193, 157 or 126 nm). The NanoStructures Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has additionally identified an undulator light source at the University of Wisconsin (approximately 13 nm) and the L line of copper (approximately 1:32 nm) from a helium-filled exposure chamber as sources used in research. Other wavelengths produced by a xenon gas capillary discharge take include 13.5 nm and 11.4 nm. An electron bombardment source yields 4.5 nm radiation. The wavelengths of these photon energy sources are critical to the minimum feature dimensions that may be created, with shorter wavelengths being more difficult to use and having more potential to generate smaller features. [0045] Likely feature sizes for many photon energy sources are illustrated in the table below: Widest Narrowest Source HeCd 442 497 249 221 111 Solid state 430 484 242 215 108 Kr-ion 413 465 232 207 103 Ar-ion 364 410 205 182 91 HeCd 325 366 183 163 81 Excimer 308 347 173 154 77 solid state × 4 266 299 150 133 67 Ar-ion × 2 257 289 145 129 64 Excimer 248 279 140 124 62 Excimer 193 217 109 97 48 Excimer 157 177 88 79 39 Excimer 126 142 71 63 32 13 29 15 13 7 11 25 12 11 6 5 11 6 5 3 [0046] These values are calculated based on k 1 =0.45, 0.20 and NA=0.20, 0.40, 0.80. [0047] The critical relationship between wavelength and linewidth is illustrated in FIG. 5. This relationship is expressed as: MLW = k 1 · λ NA , [0048] where MLW is the minimum line width, k 1 is an empirical factor, which is more favorable when optical proximity correction measures are implemented, λ is the wavelength of the photon source, and NA is the numerical aperture for exposure. [0049] The relationship in FIG. 5 depicts a 3 to 1 range of MLW, with the narrowest lines based on k 1 =0.20 and NA=0.80. The widest lines reflect less favorable values of k 1 , and NA. Accordingly, in a wavelength range of 380-450 nm, which brackets the 413-442 nm sources, the critical minimum feature dimensions or minimum line widths are approximately 95-340 nm. In the wavelength range 300-380 nm, which brackets the 308 and 364 nm sources, the critical minimum feature dimensions or minimum line widths are 75-285 nm. In the wavelength range of 220-300 nm, which brackets the 248 and 266 nm sources, the critical minimum line widths are 55-225 nm. In the wavelength range of 100-220 nm, which brackets the 126-193 nm sources, the critical minimum line widths are 32-124 nm. In the wavelength range of 5-13 nm, the minimum line width is based on k 1 =0.45, NA=0.40 and a 3 to 1 range of widest to narrowest lines produced under varying k 1 and NA factors. The critical minimum line widths for these wavelength sources are 6-44 nm. In this manner, ranges of critical minimum feature dimensions can be matched to individual source wavelengths, ranges of source wavelengths, or bracketed source wavelengths. Alternatively, particular minimum critical dimensions could be claimed for each wavelength source from the data in FIG. 5. [0050] In addition to photon energy, low-energy electron beams and charged particle beams have been suitably used for exposing resists. The Raith Turnkey 150 system, produced by Raith company in Dortmund, Germany is rated for electron beams of 200 eV to 30 KeV. MIT's NanoStructures Laboratory reports that it can operate at beam energies as low as 10 eV. An ion beam source for writing a pattern on a suitable resist is described by Westererg and Brodie, “Parallel Charged Particle Beam Exposure System,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,934. Most generally, the energy source being used needs to be matched to the characteristics of the resist being exposed. [0051] Exposure of the resist is performed using a pattern generator. For photon energy, a laser pattern generator or an interference lithography system may be used. For electrons, an electron-scanning device may be used. Etec, a subsidiary of Applied Materials, sells an ALTA™ line of scanning laser pattern generators. Micronic Laser Systems of Taby, Sweden sells an Omega™ line of scanning laser systems and has described a Sigma™ line of micromirror-based systems. The NanoStructures Laboratory, working with the University of Wisconsin in some aspects, has described interference lithography systems with spatial periods of 200 nm, 100 nm, and 50 nm. The 100 nm spatial period system has been used to create features (reassembling silicon whiskers) having diameters of 13 nm. The NanoStructures Laboratory also has described a Zone-Plate Array lithography system employing micromirrors to generate lines 200 nm in width, with improvements anticipated to generate lines 20 nm in width. The Etec subsidiary of Applied Materials also sells a MEBUST™ line of Gaussian beam pattern generators. [0052] At least in the case of DUV energy, it is preferred to use four passes or more to generate the scanned pattern. Pattern generation should be arranged so that the average energy dose and the average time from dosing to completion are approximately constant for different points on the mask. The preferred strategy for doing this is to write in one direction for some passes and to write in essentially the opposite direction for other passes. This is conveniently done writing in a first direction on one pass and writing in a second, essentially opposite direction on the subsequent pass. This approach helps control the decay of latent images in the resist layer. At the time the resist is developed, this writing strategy yields approximately equal average times from exposure to development throughout the reticle. [0053] The exposure in FIG. 1A forming a latent image in the resist is followed by developing and selectively removing portions of the resist. Wet developing is suitable, to be followed by rinsing and drying. The patterned resist is depicted in FIG. 1B. Some resist 106 remains. In other places 115 , resist has been removed creating trenches. The sides of the trench 115 are somewhat sloped due to the isotropic action of the developing and selective removal process and to the absorbance pattern of light in the resist. [0054] The selective removal of resist is optionally followed by inspection and repair of the patterned resist layer. In some circumstances inspection and repair at this stage may be more effective than if it is done later, particularly when these process steps lead to etching of a phase shift window in the reticle substrate, as depicted in FIG. 2. Alternatively, inspection and repair could follow etching of the transfer layer, still preceding etching of either the non-transmissive layer or a phase shift window in the patterned mask. [0055] Precise correction the minimum feature dimensions may be accomplished by writing and developing openings in the resist which are slightly too small, such as 10 nm narrower than desired. Inspection tools can be used to measure very precisely the width of lines written. A slight isotropic etching, for instance by gas, wet etching or plasma, can be employed to adjust the size of openings in the resist layer, widening lines by 5 to 15 nm before pattern transfer. This form of correction improves the uniformity of minimum feature dimensions. It also cleans up the patterns in the resist. [0056] A process variation is shown in FIG. 1E, which involves silylation of the resist. In some instances it will be preferable for the resist to be infused with a silicon-containing compound, such as silane. A liquid or gaseous silicon-containing compound 114 is applied over the resist. This may be done either after development and selective removal, as depicted in FIG. 1E, or before development. One option is dry development of the resist after silylation of the latent image. Another option, not separately shown, is to include silicon content in the top of the transfer later. [0057] When a plasma resistive layer 105 is present, the logical step of creating a plasma resistive layer corresponding the latent image in the resist may involve more than one process step. Separate process steps may be used to develop and selectively remove the resist and then to remove corresponding areas of the plasma resistive layer. These steps may precede or follow correction of minimum feature dimensions in the resist layer. [0058] Returning to FIG. 1B, the patterned resist layer is exposed to directional etching. The transfer layer below is directionally etched, with a strongly vertical preferential etch gas 110 . Techniques for directional etching include reactive ion etching (RIE) and plasma etching. Plasma etching generally takes place in or near gas discharge using a low-pressure process gas such as O 2 , CF 4 , etc. Various forms of plasma etching can be used for near-isotropic etching or for vertical anisotropic pattern transfer etching. Suitable processed gases and plasma conditions have been developed for etching thin-film materials used microlithography, such as silicon, silicon dioxide, aluminum, chromium, resist, and polyamide. One reference on suitable process gases and plasma conditions is “Handbook of Plasma Processing Technology”, Noyse Publications, 1990, ISBN 0-8155-1220-1. Reactive ion etching is suitable for vertically anisotropic etching with good line width control. The simplest configuration for RIE equipment is a parallel plate etcher, in which the workpiece is placed on the RF-driven electrode, typically driven at a frequency of 13.56 MHz. A discharge in the plasma creates a DC bias which accelerates ions towards the surface the workpiece. A plasma pressure of 10 to 50 millitorrs is often used. Other reactor types such as an inductively coupled plasma reactor also can be used. [0059] A suitable plasma for etching through the transfer layer may include oxygen and a small amount of sulfur dioxide. Including silicon in a resist 106 forms a silicon dioxide etch barrier which protects the patterned resist the oxygen plasma, reducing erosion of the resist. The result of the process depicted in FIG. 1B is the structure in FIG. 1C. A vertical or near vertical trench 117 cuts through the transfer layer 104 , after exposure to the etch gas. Some resist 106 and organic material 104 remains. [0060] The patterned resist 106 and transfer layer 104 are subjected to an additional directional etching gas 112 . To etch through the non-transmissive layer, a slightly different gas mixture is used. A suitable plasma may contain a halogen, such as chlorine. The composition and energy of the plasma should be selected so that it removes the transmissive layer in the exposed trenches 117 . It also may be desirable for this plasma step to remove the silicon-containing resist 106 . This directional etching step may be carried out in the same device or apparatus as is used to transfer the pattern from the resist layer 106 to the transfer layer 104 . Using the same RIE device, plasma etcher or other apparatus would minimize the number a wafer transfers required to pattern the non-transmissive layer. The result of this process to appears as the structure in FIG. 1D. The non-transmissive layer 102 has been etched yielding a trench 119 . [0061] The width of the trench 119 is likely to be the minimum feature size generated by this process. This minimum feature size relates the wavelength of the energy used to expose the resist, when photon energy is used. Shorter wavelengths present a number of problems, which practically restrict their use to production of very small feature sizes. For instance, EUV energy is not readily focused using conventional lenses. It is absorbed in glass and passes through many conventional mirror materials. Given a practical trade-off, EUV energy having wavelengths of 5 to 13 nm is most likely to be used to generate features having minimum dimensions of 6 to 44 nm. DUV energy is expected to be generated by an excimer, gas or solid state source having wavelengths of approximately 100-220 nm and is most likely to be used to generate features having minimum dimensions of 32-124 nm. DUV energy having wavelengths of 220 to 300 nm is most likely to be used to generate features having minimum dimensions of 55 to 225 nm. UV energy can be generated by spectrographically separating or processing through a cut filter the emissions of a high-pressure mercury vapor arc light or super high pressure xenon-mercury light. This approach produces i line energy of approximately 365 nm or j line energy of approximately 313 nm. Alternatively, a helium-cadmium laser may be used to produce radiation approximately 325 nm. Near UV energy having wavelengths of 300 to 380 nm is most likely used to generate features having minimum dimensions of 75 to 285 nm. Other energy beams can be generated by spectrographically separating or processing through a cut filter the emissions of a high-pressure mercury vapor arc light or super high pressure xenon-mercury light. This approach produces g line energy of approximately 436 nm or h line energy of approximately 406 nm. Other energy of 380-450 nm wavelength is most likely used to generate features having minimum dimensions of 95-340 nm. The use of low-energy electron beams in the practice the present invention has the potential to generate minimum feature sizes of 10 to 100 nm. Charged particle beams may generate minimum feature dimensions of 5 to 50 nm. As described, the width of the trench 119 is critically dependent upon the type of energy beam used to expose the resist. The present invention improves the critical dimension control and ability to produce fine lines across types of energy beam. [0062] The same plasma reactor used for pattern transfer can also be used for ashing to remove the remainder of the transfer and resist layers. For pattern transfer, the plasma reactor needs to produce a plasma stream for etching which is as vertically anisotropic as possible. Reactive ion etching or equivalent will accomplish this. The plasma is low-pressure. A high potential is created on the workpiece. A flat plate reactor may be used to generate the high potential on the workpiece using RF energy. The effect is somewhat like sputtering. For ashing to remove the transfer layer, and an isotropic process is preferred, though vertical alignment of the plasma is not critical. A relatively high-pressure of plasma is used, exceeding 200 millitorrs. The workpiece has a low potential. The plasma creates reactive species which diffuse to the surface and etch the transfer layer chemically, to remove it. A flat plate reactor may be used with the workpiece grounded. Alternatively, a barrel reactor with microwave excitation of the plasma may be used. For ashing, oxygen with a small amount of sulfur dioxide is suitable for removal of organic residues. In the flat plate reactor, a double RF drive with double matching networks may be particularly useful. With a double drive, the cathode and workpiece table are driven independently. A single crystal oscillator can generate the RF frequency for both drives. By controlling the phase and power of the two drives independently, the workpiece potential can be controlled within wide limits. One alternative to a flat plate reactor is the split cathode design described in L. Hollins et al., Journal of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 1, p. 32 (1968). [0063] The process described with respect to FIG. 1 also applies to etching a phase shift window in a reticle, as depicted in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2A, the initial structure before exposing the resist layer with energy is depicted. The coated reticle comprises a blank reticle 200 , one or more non-transmissive layers 202 , a transfer layer 204 and a resist layer 206 . The blank reticle 200 typically is a quartz substrate, as described above. The non-transmissive layer 202 of the structure has been patterned, for instance by using the process described above. The non-transmissive layer of the coated reticle typically includes a patterned chrome layer approximately 40-90 nm thick. Alternatively, aluminum, gold, tungsten or silicon can be used to form the non-transmissive, masking layer. Optionally, the non-transmissive layer may also include an anti-reflective layer. Non-stoechiometric chromium oxide material approximately 30 microns thick can be used to reduce reflectivity. Again, this enhances performance when the mask is used in the stepper, but it is not necessary for creating phase shift windows in the mask. Alternatively, the non-transmissive layer 202 could be a structure formed on or in the surface of the reticle which reflects or diffuses an energy beam, so that the energy beam projected on a non-transmissive region would not produce a threshold exposure in the resist underlying that region. The pattern generated in the non-transmissive layer is useful for aligning the coordinate system of the mask making equipment. [0064] Over the non-transmissive layer, but not necessarily directly on it, a transfer layer 204 is applied. This is relatively thick layer, preferably of organic material. A suitable material is Novolac, the resin component used in most positive non-amplified photoresist. It has excellent adhesion and good plasma etch resistance, and is transparent in visible and UV and absorbing in the DUV. Conventional techniques for spinning on this layer can be used to form a layer of approximately 0.2 to 0.5 microns thick, and preferably approximately 0.35 microns thick. If the organic material is not inherently absorbing, and is used with optical wavelengths it can include an absorbing dye, preferably a dye that selectively absorbs exposure radiation and is relatively transparent to alignment radiation. It is particularly useful that the transfer layer material tends to planarize the surface, especially when spun on. The differential absorbance of the dye permits different energy beam to be used for exposure and alignment, without the alignment energy beam compromising the feature size. The absorbance of exposure radiation minimizes interference effects, both standing wave and bulk interference effects. [0065] Optionally, over the transfer layer, but not necessarily directly on it, a plasma resistive layer 205 is applied. This layer may be sputtered on. It preferably is a silicon layer, which forms silicon dioxide when exposed to certain plasmas, particularly an inorganic silicon layer. [0066] Over the transfer layer and the optional plasma resistive, but not necessarily directly on them, a resist layer 206 is applied. Conventional techniques for spinning on this layer may be used to form a layer approximately 0.05 to 0.20 microns thick, and preferably 0.15 microns thick. Optionally, a silicon-containing resist may be used to enhance the selectivity of plasma etching. The resist may contain silicon initially, before it is baked, or a silylation process can be used to infuse silicon in the resist. Because the structure depicted in FIG. 2A has a patterned structure, it is anticipated that the transfer and resist layers will be applied in the mask making shop, after patterning of the non-transmissive layer. A good working life for the transfer and resist layers is more important than a good shelf life. [0067] A process embodying the present invention, following the same progression as in FIG. 1 is depicted in FIGS. 2A through 2D, with a process variation shown in FIG. 2E. Not shown in these figures use the use of an optical alignment system using as 532 nm photon energy beam source, taking advantage of the transparency of the resist and the transfer layer at this wavelength to see the pattern in the non-transmissive layer. Following alignment of the pattern generator coordinate system with the patterned reticle, the resist layer 206 in FIG. 2A is exposed to an energy beam. This may be a photon energy beam, a low-energy electron beam, a charged particle beam or any other energy beam suitable for exposing the particular resist being used. The energy beam exposes the resist using a pattern generator. The pattern generation scheme should use multiple passes so that the average energy dose and the average time from dosing to completion is relatively constant across the mask. This helps control the decay of latent images in the resist layer. [0068] Developing and selectively removing the resist follows the exposure in FIG. 2A. The patterned resist is depicted in FIG. 2B. The trench 215 is over all or part of an area where the non-transmissive layer has been etched away. In practice, the etched area of the non-transmissive layer may be wider than the trench 215 , where a phase shift window is desired, because phase shift windows are often adjacent to non-shift windows in the non-transmissive layer. [0069] Inspection and repair of the trench 215 optionally follows selective removal of the resist. In some cases, inspection and repair at this stage may be more effective than it is done later. Repair of the patterned resist is likely to be easier than modifying the shape of a phase shift window etched into a substrate such as quartz. The structure resulting from directionally etching the patterned resist 206 with plasma 210 is depicted in FIG. 2C. [0070] A process variation is shown in FIG. 2E, which involves silylation of the resist after exposure. In some instances it will be preferable for the resist to be infused with silicon compound, such as silane, after patterning. A liquid or gaseous silicon-containing compound 214 is applied over the resist. This may be done either after development and selective removal, as depicted in FIG. 2E, or it may be done before development of the resist. One option, when silylation is performed prior to development, is dry development of the resist. [0071] [0071]FIG. 2C depicts a trench 217 through the transfer layer 204 exposing the reticle substrate 200 . Additional plasma 212 is used to directionally etch a phase shift window in the substrate 200 , as depicted in FIG. 2D. [0072] To improve uniformity, an additional phase shift, for instance an additional 180-degree phase shift, may be added to a patterned mask, in addition to 180-degree phase shift windows previously created. FIG. 3A depicts a structure in which a 180-degree phase shift window has already been etched. The substrate 300 is overlaid by one or more non-transmissive layers 302 . A 180-degree phase shift window has been etched in part of the substrate 321 . In one area of the reticle 323 , the non-transmissive layer has been removed but no phase shift window has been etched. [0073] Either directional etching, depicted in FIG. 3B, or isotropic etching, depicted in FIG. 3C, can accomplish an additional phase shift etching. Plasma 310 may be used for directional etching, choosing plasma suitable to leave the non-transmissive layer intact while removing a portion of the substrate. Alternatively, a relatively nondirectional plasma 316 or a wet etch 316 can be used. The resulting structure is depicted in FIG. 3D. The phase shift window 325 appears as being etched deeper into the substrate than the non-phase shift transmissive window 327 . [0074] The basic steps of the process can be expressed in a list: [0075] 1. Begin with a reticle having a dual layer coating. [0076] 2. Expose the top, resist layer to an energy beam using a pattern generator to create a latent image. [0077] 3. Create a plasma etch barrier, corresponding to the latent image. [0078] 4. Directionally etch the transfer layer through the plasma etch barrier. [0079] 5. Remove the transfer layer, exposing the reticle substrate. [0080] A method for preparing a reticle blank to be exposed is illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4C. This method forms a masking layer 402 over, but not necessarily on the reticle substrate. A transfer layer 404 is formed over, but not necessarily on the masking layer 402 . An optional plasma resistive layer 405 may be formed over, but not necessarily on the transfer layer 404 . A resistive layer 406 may be formed over, but not necessarily on the transfer and optional plasma resistive layers 404 , 405 . [0081] Methods and devices practicing the present invention yield a variety of advantages. The process is relatively insensitive to the thickness of the resist and transfer layers, particularly the transfer layer. High-resolution, fine features are readily generated. Undercutting and widening of clear spaces is avoiding, facilitating generation of uniformly alternating lines and spaces. The sidewalls of trenches are nearly vertical. It is unnecessary to attempt a post-exposure bake. Without a post-exposure bake, image diffusion is minimized. For the initial patterning of the non-transmissive layer, precoated blanks can be used. The system is relatively insensitive to timing delays, thereby simplifying workflow. Use of a thin, transparent resist layer on top of a relatively thick underlayer or transfer layer having the nearly the same refractive index and a higher absorption minimizes interference effects, both standing wave and bulk interference effects. The same plasma reactor may be used for several process steps, to minimize the transfer of the reticle among pieces of equipment. This minimizes capital expenditure, floor space requirements, handling, and turnaround time. Inspection and repair of the resist layer tends to assure that the finished mask pattern has critical dimensions matching those intended and required. [0082] While the present invention is disclosed by reference to the preferred embodiments and examples detailed above, it is to be understood that these examples are intended in an illustrative rather than in a limiting sense. It is contemplated that modifications and combinations will readily occur to those skilled in the art, which modifications and combinations will be within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the following claims.

The status of a plurality of service orders is summarized. A first data set that includes a plurality of records corresponding to service orders, such as requests for initiation of telephone or other communications services, is imported into a database application. At least one query or test may be executed on the first data set to generate a second data set that includes at least part of the first data set and one or more labels that have been appended to at least some of the plurality of records in the first data set. This second data may be imported into a spreadsheet application so that the spreadsheet application can automatically generate a summary of at least some of the data contained in the second data set.

FIELD The disclosure relates to a system and method for purging gas bubbles from a micro-fluid ejection head which, in some embodiments, may improve operating characteristics of a micro-fluid ejection device. BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY As micro-fluid ejection devices become smaller and the frequency of ejection of fluid from ejection heads for the devices becomes greater, the ejection heads have become more susceptible to a variety of occurrences which may lead to misfiring of certain ejection actuators on the ejection heads. One such occurrence is the presence of a gas bubble in a fluid chamber of the ejection head. Because of the small size of the fluid chambers and associated ejection orifices, even minute gas bubbles in the fluid chambers may be effective to block fluid flow from the ejection orifices. There are a number of sources that may lead to the formation of gas bubbles in the fluid chambers. For example, impact of the ejection head on a hard surface may form gas bubbles in the fluid chambers. Another source of gas bubbles may be dissolved air or oxygen in the fluid. In order to reduce the occurrence of gas bubbles in the fluid chambers, impact of the ejection head may be minimized. Another method for reducing the occurrence of gas bubbles may be to provide an ejection head design which is less susceptible to retaining gas bubbles in the fluid chambers. However, neither of these solutions is completely satisfactory. Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved system and method for purging bubbles from a micro-fluid ejection head. With regard to the foregoing, the disclosure provides in one exemplary embodiment a method for purging bubbles from a fluid chamber of a micro-fluid ejection head containing a plurality of fluid chambers, an ejection actuator respectively associated with each of the fluid chambers, and a common fluid supply area for the fluid chambers. According to this exemplary method, one or more of the ejection actuators are pulsed with energy sufficient to expand a bubble present in one of the fluid chambers without substantially boiling the fluid in the common fluid supply area. A first temperature of the ejection head is maintained for a first period of time during bubble expansion so that the bubble in the fluid chamber is urged away from the fluid chamber in the absence of applying a pressure to the fluid chamber. The ejection head temperature is decreased over a second period of time to lower the ejection head temperature to a second temperature lower then the first temperature. In another exemplary embodiment, there is provided a micro-fluid ejection device including a micro-fluid ejection head containing a plurality of fluid chambers, fluid actuator devices associated with the fluid chambers, a fluid supply inlet, and fluid supply channels in fluid flow communication with the fluid supply inlet and each of the fluid chambers. A fluid supply reservoir is in fluid flow communication with the fluid supply inlet. The ejection actuators are capable of being pulsed with an energy sufficient to expand any bubbles present in the fluid chambers, without substantially boiling the fluid in the fluid supply inlet, and to force the bubbles present in the fluid chambers away from the fluid chambers. An advantage of the exemplary embodiments can be that boiling the fluid in a common fluid supply area of the ejection head is substantially avoided. Furthermore, the system can use existing ejection actuators without the need for additional ejection head heaters to effect a temperature rise of the ejection head. Since individual ejection actuators can be used for the bubble purging procedure, heat may be directed specifically to chambers containing bubbles thereby enabling lower ejection head temperatures to be used to effectuate removal of the bubbles. Specific elements of the bubble purging procedure can enable bubbles to be purged and/or shrunk to the point where they disappear from the fluid chamber. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further features and advantages of exemplary embodiments disclosed herein may become apparent by reference to the detailed description when considered in conjunction with the figures, which are not to scale, wherein like reference numbers indicate like elements through the several views, and wherein: FIG. 1 is a perspective view, not to scale, of an exemplary micro-fluid ejection device according to the disclosure; FIG. 2 is a perspective view, not to scale, of a fluid cartridge and ejection head for a micro-fluid ejection device according to the disclosure; FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view, not to scale, of a portion of a micro-fluid ejection head taken through lines 3 - 3 of FIG. 4 ; FIG. 4 is a plan view, not to scale, of a portion of a micro-fluid ejection head for a micro-fluid ejection device according to the disclosure; FIG. 5 is a plan view, not to scale, of a portion of a micro-fluid ejection head having air bubbles trapped in fluid chambers and in a fluid supply channel; FIG. 6 is a graphical representation of a heating and cooling sequence for a purging sequence of an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure; FIG. 7 is graphical representation of a bubble growth multiplier versus bubble temperature for a purging sequence as disclosed; and FIGS. 8-9 are plan views, not to scale of a portion of an ejection head during a bubble purging procedure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS For the purposes of this disclosure, unless indicated otherwise, “temperature” means the temperature of an ejection head structure rather than of the fluid as it is difficult to measure and control fluid temperatures within ejection head structures as set forth herein. With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 there are shown in perspective views, a fluid micro-fluid ejection device 10 including one or more fluid cartridges 12 for ejecting fluids, such as inks, therefrom onto a substrate or print media 14 . The fluid cartridge 12 includes an ejection head 16 disposed on an ejection head area 18 of the fluid cartridge 12 . As described in more detail below, the ejection head 16 is provided by a nozzle plate 20 containing ejection orifices 22 attached to a semiconductor substrate 24 containing fluid ejection actuators. Power may be provided to the ejection actuators on the substrate 24 as by electrical tracing 26 and a flexible circuit 28 containing electrical contact pads 30 which are in electrical communication with a controller in the micro-fluid ejection device 10 . Fluid ejected by the ejection head 16 may be contained in the fluid cartridge 12 in a fluid reservoir 32 or in other ways, such as by a separate fluid supply reservoir remote from the ejection head 16 . FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view and FIG. 4 is a partial plan view, not to scale, of a portion of an exemplary ejection head 16 . The ejection head 16 is provided by the semiconductor substrate 24 containing a plurality of fluid ejection actuators such as heater resistor 34 and the nozzle plate 20 . The heater resistor 34 is defined on a silicon substrate 36 by a resistive layer 38 deposited on a first insulating layer 40 . A first metal layer 42 provides anode and cathode conductors for the heater resistor 34 . A second insulating layer 44 insulates the first metal layer 42 from a second metal layer 46 providing power to the heater resistor 34 . One or more passivation layers 48 and 50 and a cavitation layer 52 may be deposited over the heater resistor 34 to protect the heater resistor 34 from fluid corrosion and mechanical damage caused by collapsing of vapor bubbles during a fluid ejection sequence. During a fluid ejection sequence, fluid, such as ink, is provided to a fluid chamber 54 through a fluid channel 56 that is in fluid flow communication with a common fluid supply area 58 . When energy is provided to the heater resistor 34 , fluid in the fluid chamber 54 adjacent the heater resistor 34 is superheated causing a vapor bubble to form which urges fluid in the chamber 54 through the ejection orifice 22 . After ejection of fluid from the fluid chamber 54 , the bubble collapses enabling fluid to refill the fluid chamber 54 by fluid flow through the fluid channel 56 from the common fluid supply area 58 . During manufacturing or handling of the fluid cartridges 12 , air bubbles may form in the fluid channels 56 and fluid chambers 54 when the cartridge 12 is impacted on a hard surface, shaken, or otherwise moved in a manner sufficient to form air bubbles in the fluid channels 56 and fluid chambers 54 . If the air bubbles are not eliminated, they may block or inhibit the flow of fluid to the chambers 54 from the common fluid supply area 58 or may block or inhibit ejection of fluid from the orifices 22 . The elimination of air bubbles is expected to be even more critical as the size of the ejection heads 16 and resulting fluid passages continues to decrease. Problematic air bubbles 60 , 62 , and 64 are illustrated in an enlarged portion of the ejection head illustrated in FIG. 5 . Air bubble 60 is shown in a fluid chamber 54 A blocking exit of fluid through an orifice 22 A adjacent the chamber 54 A. Air bubble 62 is shown blocking fluid flow through a fluid channel 56 C to a fluid chamber 54 C. Multiple small air bubbles 64 are shown in a fluid chamber 54 F and fluid channel 56 F while there are no air bubbles blocking fluid flow through orifices 22 B, 22 D, 22 E, and 22 G and fluid channels 56 B, 56 D, 56 E, and 56 G in this illustration. While the air bubbles 64 are not sufficiently large to block fluid flow in channel 56 F and orifice 22 F, the bubbles 64 may easily combine to form one or more bubbles large enough to block or otherwise inhibit fluid flow through the channel 56 F or orifice 22 F. In order to substantially eliminate air bubbles from the ejection heads 16 that may cause fluid flow problems through the fluid channels 56 and ejection orifices 22 , a bubble elimination scheme can be used. An aspect of such a scheme can include that boiling of fluid in the common fluid supply area 58 is not required, and, in fact, can be substantially avoided by a procedure described in more detail below. Test data showed that non-nucleate heating (NNH) of a fluid, such as ink, for an appropriate period of time and at a predetermined temperature worked well at eliminating or at least substantially reducing the presence of air bubbles in the fluid chambers 54 and fluid channels 56 . In order to create air bubbles in the ejection heads 16 , the ejection heads 16 were impacted multiple times on a hard surface. A condition corresponding to the presence of air bubbles in the ejection heads 16 sufficient to block ink flow was confirmed by observation of print tests which demonstrated that a number of ejection orifices 22 were incapable of ejecting fluid, hereinafter referred to as “missing nozzles.” For a first series of test, the average number of missing nozzles was about 100 per test, with a low of 36 and a high of 346 missing nozzles. For these tests, several different types of ink jet print heads containing different types of fluids were tested. The ejection heads 16 were not wiped and a controlled amount of fluid was not ejected after the heating and cooling sequence. The ejection heads 16 were heated at the indicated temperatures for the indicated period of time and the number of missing nozzle was determined for each temperature and period of time. Results of the bubble elimination tests are contained in the following Tables. TABLE 1 Dye type ink jet print head Temperature (° C.) Time (msec) 90 95 100 105 1 2 0 4 1 100 5 0 1 2 2000 2 0 1 — 5000 0 3 1 — TABLE 2 General purpose type ink jet print head Temperature (° C.) Time (msec) 90 95 100 105 1 45 0 4 3 100 46 6 3 3 2000 34 9 3 — 5000 40 21 3 — TABLE 3 Photographic type ink jet print head Temperature (° C.) Time (msec) 90 95 100 105 1 19 4 2 0 100 29 4 3 0 2000 37 5 2 — 5000 15 7 2 — The foregoing results indicate effective levels of bubble elimination from the print heads. It was observed, however, that the heating time at each of the indicated temperatures had more variability than desired. The test also indicated that the general purpose ink jet print head and the photographic ink jet print head may be more susceptible to bubble formation than an ink jet print head containing a dye type ink. In another series of bubble elimination tests, nine dye type ink jet print heads and nine general purpose ink jet print heads were subjected to a standard installation maintenance algorithm for aligning and priming the print heads after creating air bubbles in the print heads by impacting the print heads on a hard surface. In this test, the average number of missing nozzles decreased to 44.8 from an initial average number of 205 missing nozzles. The standard installation maintenance algorithm includes activating an ejection head so that about 800 droplets of fluid are ejected from each nozzle at an ejection frequency ranging from about 9 to about 12 kHz, then the ejection head is wiped to remove any excess fluid from the ejection head. In yet another series of bubble elimination tests, nine dye type ink jet print heads and nine general purpose ink jet print heads were subjected to a procedure in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. According to this procedure, the print heads were heated to 100° C. and held at this temperature for two seconds. The print heads were then cooled for 10 seconds, 800 drops of fluid were ejected from the print heads at a frequency of 24 kHz and the print heads were wiped to remove excess fluid from the print heads. Using this procedure, the average number of missing nozzles decreased from 176 to 1.7 missing nozzles. Based on the results of the foregoing bubble elimination test, a procedure was devised which was found to be suitable for eliminating air bubbles in most of the tested color ink jet print heads. According to the procedure, the print heads are heated to about 95° C. for about 2.5 seconds and are cooled for about ten seconds. The print heads are then wiped and a predetermined amount of fluid is ejected from the print heads at a frequency ranging from about 5 to about 30 kHz. A graphical representation of the heating and cooling cycle for the ejection head 16 is illustrated in FIG. 6 by curve 70 . Without desiring to be bound by theoretical considerations, it is believed that the foregoing bubble elimination procedure is effective to expand air bubbles in the fluid chambers 54 until they are too large for the chambers 54 and are forced out of either the orifice 22 or through the channel 56 into the common fluid area 58 . As illustrated by FIG. 7 , an air bubble reaches its maximum growth rate at a temperature of from about 90 to about 100° C. Accordingly, maintaining a temperature below the normal fluid boiling point of 100° C. for a predetermine period of time is effective in expanding the air bubble so that the bubble will be forced from the chamber 54 or channel 56 . The bubble expansion illustrated in FIG. 7 is primarily based on bubble growth due to water vapor. Dissolved air in the fluid may contribute to bubble expansion, but to much lower bubble growth levels. In FIG. 8 , the bubbles 60 , 62 and 64 have been expanded by the foregoing procedure. Expansion of bubble 62 has resulted in movement of the bubble 62 out of the fluid channel 56 C into the common fluid supply area 58 . Expansion of bubble 64 has caused bubble 64 to form a larger bubble 64 , which will move out of the fluid channel 56 F and fluid chamber 54 F either through the orifice 22 F or into the common fluid supply area 58 . FIG. 9 is an illustration of a portion of the fluid ejection head 16 after conducting the procedure described above. Occasionally a bubble may split in two or otherwise divided with part of the bubble remaining in the chamber 54 , or a small bubble will grow and become large enough to block an orifice 22 . Such bubbles tend to shrink and disappear when the fluid cools down during the cooling cycle. While the foregoing procedure is typically conducted upon the installation of a fluid cartridge 12 in a fluid ejection device 10 , the procedure may also be conducted to remove air bubbles or reduce the number of missing nozzles as part of a routine maintenance procedure for the ejection head 16 . Bubble elimination routines may be activated during manufacture of the fluid cartridges or upon use of the fluid cartridge by a user. Having described various aspects and exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and several advantages thereof, it will be recognized by those of ordinary skills that the exemplary embodiments are susceptible to various modifications, substitutions and revisions within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

A method and system for purging bubbles from a fluid chamber of a micro-fluid ejection head containing a plurality of fluid chambers, an ejection actuator respectively associated with each of the fluid chambers, and a common fluid supply area for the fluid chambers. According to this exemplary method, one or more of the ejection actuators are pulsed with energy sufficient to expand a bubble present in one of the fluid chambers without substantially boiling the fluid in the common fluid supply area. A first temperature of the ejection head is maintained for a first period of time during bubble expansion so that the bubble in the fluid chamber is urged away from the fluid chamber. The ejection head temperature is decreased over a second period of time to lower the ejection head temperature to a second temperature lower then the first temperature.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/344,279, filed Jun. 30, 1999, pending, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/091,205 filed Jun. 30, 1998. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Statement of the Invention: The present invention relates to an apparatus for high-temperature thermal applications for ball grid array semiconductor devices and a method of packaging ball grid array semiconductor devices. [0003] State of the Art: Integrated semiconductor devices are typically constructed in wafer form with each device having the form of an integrated circuit die which is typically attached to a lead frame with gold wires. The die and lead frame are then encapsulated in a plastic or ceramic package, which is then commonly referred to as an integrated circuit (IC). ICs come in a variety of forms, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), read only memory (ROM), gate arrays, etc. The ICs are interconnected in many combinations on printed circuit boards by a number of techniques, such as socketing and soldering. Interconnection among ICs arrayed on a printed circuit board are typically made by conductive traces formed by photolithography and etching processes. [0004] Such semiconductor devices typically take the form of the semiconductor die therein. The die is generally electrically attached to a lead frame within a package. The lead frame physically supports the die and provides electrical connections between the die and its operating environment. The die is generally electrically attached to the lead frame by means of fine gold wires. These fine gold wires function to connect the die to the lead frame so that the gold wires are connected electrically in series with the lead frame leads. The lead frame and die are then encapsulated. The packaged chip is then able to be installed on a circuit board by any desired manner, such as soldering, socketing, etc. [0005] However, as the speed of the semiconductor die increases, the heat generated during operation increases. Additionally, it becomes necessary to shorten the leads between the printed circuit board on which the IC is located and the IC device itself in order to keep the impedance of the circuit from affecting the response speed of the IC device. [0006] The wires connecting the leads of the lead frame to the bond pads on the active surface of the semiconductor die in an IC package are not an effective connection for high operating speed semiconductor dice as the wires slow down the response of the semiconductor die. [0007] Therefore, a packaging is required for semiconductor dice which have high operating speeds and generate heat associated therewith while minimizing the lead length between the semiconductor dice and the printed circuit boards on which they are mounted. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] The present invention comprises an apparatus package for high-temperature thermal applications for ball grid array semiconductor devices and a method of packaging ball grid array semiconductor devices. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0009] [0009]FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a stack of a first embodiment of the packaged semiconductor dice of the present invention on a printed circuit board; [0010] [0010]FIG. 2 is a top view of a packaged semiconductor die of the present invention; [0011] [0011]FIG. 3 is a bottom view of a packaged semiconductor die of the present invention; [0012] [0012]FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of stacks of the packaged semiconductor dice of the present invention on both sides of a printed circuit board; [0013] [0013]FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a stack of a second embodiment of the packaged semiconductor die of the present invention on a printed circuit board; and [0014] [0014]FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of stacks of the second embodiment of the present invention on both sides of a print circuit board. [0015] The present invention will be better understood when the drawings are taken in conjunction with the description of the invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0016] Referring to drawing FIG. 1, a plurality of assemblies 10 comprising a carrier 12 and a semiconductor device 14 located therein is illustrated installed on a substrate 2 . Each carrier 12 comprises a member having a cavity 16 therein. As illustrated, the cavity 16 may be a single-level or multi-level cavity having any desired number of levels therein. The carrier 12 is formed having a plurality of contact pads 18 located on the upper surface 20 and lower surface 22 thereof which is connected by circuits 24 (not shown) and by wire bonds 26 to the bond pads 28 located on the active surface 30 of the semiconductor die or device 14 . The semiconductor die or device 14 is initially retained within the cavity 16 by any suitable means, such as adhesive, etc. The circuits 24 (not shown) are formed on the upper surface 20 of the carrier 12 and portions of the walls or surfaces of the cavity 16 by any suitable well-known means, such as deposition and etching processes. The wire bonds connecting the bond pads 28 of the semiconductor die or device 14 to the circuits 24 (not shown) are made using any suitable commercially available wire bonder. After the wire bonds 26 are formed, the cavity 16 is filled with suitable encapsulant material 32 covering and sealing the semiconductor die 14 in the cavity 16 and sealing the wire bonds 26 in position therein. [0017] The carriers 12 may be of any desired geometric shape. The carrier 12 is formed having internal circuits 34 extending between the contact pads 18 on the upper surface 20 and lower surface 22 of the carrier 12 . The carrier 12 is formed having frustoconical recess surfaces 36 , lips 38 , and frustoconical surfaces 40 on the upper surface 20 . The surfaces 36 and 40 are formed having complementary angles so that the surfaces 36 and lips 38 of an adjacent carrier 12 mate or nest with an adjacent carrier 12 having surfaces 40 thereon, thereby forming a stable, self-aligning stack of carriers 12 . If desired, the carriers 12 may be formed having a plurality of heat transfer fins 42 thereon. The carrier 12 may be formed of any desired suitable material, such as ceramic material, high-temperature plastic material, etc. The carrier 12 may be formed by any suitable method, such as molding, extrusion, etc. [0018] Once a plurality of carriers 12 having semiconductor die or devices 14 therein is formed as an assembly, the assembly is connected to the substrate 2 using a plurality of reflowed solder balls 50 . The substrate 2 includes circuitry thereon, on either the upper surface or lower surface or both, and therein, as well as conductive vias, if desired. The substrate 2 may be any suitable substrate, such as a printed circuit board, FR-4 board, etc. Any desired number of carriers 12 may be stacked to form an assembly on the substrate 2 . As illustrated, the reflowed solder balls 50 are located in alignment with the contact pads 18 and the connecting internal circuits 34 extending between the contact pads 18 on the upper surface 20 and lower surface 22 of a carrier 12 . [0019] Referring to drawing FIG. 2, a carrier 12 having circuits 24 thereon extending between contact pads 18 on the upper surface 20 of the carrier 12 is illustrated. For purposes of clarity, only a portion of the circuits 24 extending on the surface 20 of the carrier 12 is illustrated. [0020] Referring to drawing FIG. 3, the bottom surface 22 of a carrier 12 is illustrated having a plurality of contact pads 18 located thereon. [ 0021 ] Referring to drawing FIG. 4, a plurality of assemblies 10 is illustrated located on both sides of a substrate 2 being connected to the circuitry thereon by a plurality of reflowed solder balls 50 . [0021] Referring to drawing FIG. 5, a second embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. A plurality of assemblies 100 is stacked on a substrate 2 , being electrically and mechanically connected thereto by reflowed solder balls 150 . Each assembly 100 comprises a carrier 112 having a cavity 116 therein containing a semiconductor die or device 114 therein. The semiconductor die or device 114 is electrically connected to the circuits 134 of the carrier 112 by reflowed solder balls 126 . Each carrier 112 is formed having apertures 160 therethrough connecting with circuits 134 . Each carrier 112 is formed with surfaces 136 and 140 as well as lips 138 as described hereinbefore with respect to carrier 12 . To connect each carrier 112 to an adjacent carrier 112 , a conductive material 162 , such as conductive epoxy, solder, etc., is used to fill the apertures 160 in the carriers and contact the conductive material 162 in adjacent carriers 112 . [0022] The carriers 112 are similar in construction to the carriers 12 as described hereinbefore, except for the apertures 160 , conductive material 162 , circuits 134 , and reflowed solder balls 126 between the semiconductor die or device 114 and the circuits 134 . [0023] The substrate 2 is the same as described hereinbefore. [0024] Referring to drawing FIG. 6, a plurality of assemblies 100 is illustrated stacked on both sides of a substrate 2 , being electrically and mechanically connected thereto by reflowed solder balls 150 . [0025] The present invention includes additions, deletions, modifications, and alterations which are within the scope of the claims.

An apparatus package for high-temperature thermal applications for ball grid array semiconductor devices and a method of packaging ball grid array semiconductor devices.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention generally relates to means and methods for improving the interface between the surgeon and the operating medical assistant or between the surgeon and an endoscope system for laparoscopic surgery. Moreover, this present invention discloses a device useful for controlling an endoscope system for laparoscopic surgery comprising a wearable interface for enhancing the control of an endoscope system during laparoscopic surgery. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] In laparoscopic surgery, the surgeon performs the operation through small holes using long instruments and observing the internal anatomy with an endoscope camera. The endoscope is conventionally held by a camera human assistant (i.e. operating medical assistant) since the surgeon must perform the operation using both hands. The surgeon performance is largely dependent on the camera position relative to the instruments and on a stable image shown at the monitor. The main problem is that it is difficult for the operating medical assistant to hold the endoscope steady, keeping the scene upright. [0003] Laparoscopic surgery is becoming increasingly popular with patients because the scars are smaller and their period of recovery is shorter. Laparoscopic surgery requires special training of the surgeon or gynecologist and the theatre nursing staff. The equipment is often expensive and not available in all hospitals. [0004] During laparoscopic surgery it is often required to shift the spatial placement of the endoscope in order to present the surgeon with an optimal view. Conventional laparoscopic surgery makes use of either human assistants that manually shift the instrumentation or, alternatively, robotic automated assistants. Automated assistants utilize interfaces that enable the surgeon to direct the mechanical movement of the assistant, achieving a shift in the camera view. [0005] U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,841 discloses an automated camera endoscope in which the surgeon is fitted with a head mounted light source that transmits the head movements to a sensor, forming an interface that converts the movements to directions for the mechanical movement of the automated assistant. Alternative automated assistants incorporate a voice operated interface, a directional key interface, or other navigational interfaces. The above interfaces share the following drawbacks: a. A single directional interface that provide limited feedback to the surgeon b. A cumbersome serial operation for starting and stopping movement directions that requires the surgeon's constant attention, preventing the surgeon from keeping the flow of the surgical procedure. [0008] Research has suggested that these systems divert the surgeons focus from the major task at hand. Therefore technologies assisted by magnets and image processing have been developed to simplify interfacing control. However, these improved technologies still fail to address another complicating interface aspect of laparoscopic surgery, in that they do not allow the surgeon to signal to automated assistants, to human assistants or to surgical colleagues which instrument his attention is focused on. [0009] Hence there is still a long felt need for improving the interface between the surgeon, his surgical colleagues or human assistants and an endoscope system, for laparoscopic surgery. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] It is one object of the present invention to disclose a device useful for the surgeon and the automated assistant interface, and/or the surgeon and the operating medical assistant interface, during laparoscopic surgery; wherein the device is adapted to control and/or direct the automated endoscope assistant to focus the endoscope on the desired instrument of the surgeon; further wherein the device is adapted to focus the operating medical assistant on the desired instrument of the surgeon. [0011] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the device as defined above, wherein said device additionally comprising: a. at least one wireless transmitter with at least one operating key; b. at least one wireless receiver; c. at least one conventional laparoscopy computerized system; said conventional laparoscopy computerized system is adapted to load a surgical instrument spatial locating software, and an automated assistant maneuvering software; said locating software enables a visual response to the depression of said at least one key on said wireless transmitter; said maneuvering software enables the movement of said endoscope; and d. at least one video screen. [0016] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the device as defined above, wherein each said instrument is fitted with a wireless transmitter. [0017] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the device as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is freestanding. [0018] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the device as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is adapted to locate the position of each instrument. [0019] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the device as defined above, wherein said selection of said desired instrument is confirmed by clicking on said at least one key. [0020] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the device as defined above, wherein said selection of said desired instrument is confirmed by depression of said at least one key on said wireless transmitter. [0021] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the device as defined above, wherein said depression of said at least one key is a prolonged depression. [0022] It is another object of the present invention to disclose a method useful for surgeon and the automated assistant interface, and/or said surgeon and the operating medical assistant interface, during laparoscopic surgery. The method comprises step selected inter alia from (a) obtaining a device as defined above; (b) selecting said desired instrument; and (c) displaying said desired instrument on a screen; wherein said device controlling and/or directing said automated endoscope assistant and thereby focusing said endoscope on said desired instrument of said surgeon. [0023] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of confirming by the selection of said desired instrument. [0024] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of extracting said desired instrument form said screen. [0025] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of instructing said automated assistant to focus said endoscope on said desired instrument. [0026] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, wherein said step of selecting said desired instrument additionally comprising the steps of (a) depressing of said at least one key on said wireless transmitter; (b) transmitting a generic code to said receiver; (c) communicating said signal to the computer. [0027] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, wherein said step of selecting said desired instrument additionally comprising the step confirming the selection of said desired instrument by clicking on said at least one key. [0028] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, wherein said step of selecting said desired instrument additionally comprising the step confirming the selection of said desired instrument by a prolonged depression on said at least one key. [0029] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of re-selecting said desired instrument until said desired instrument is selected. [0030] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of identifying each of said instruments to said computerized system. [0031] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of attaching said wireless transmitter to said surgical instrument. [0032] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of matching each transmitted code from said depressed wireless transmitter to said surgical instrument. [0033] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, wherein said step of matching each transmitted code additionally comprising the step of storing said matching database on a computer. [0034] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of signing said surgical instrument by a temporary onscreen graphic symbol and presenting upon the onscreen depiction of the surgical instrument. [0035] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of continuously displaying said selection graphic symbol. [0036] It is another object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, wherein the selection of the surgical instrument is signified by a continuous onscreen graphic symbol presented upon the onscreen depiction of the surgical instrument. [0037] It is another an object of the present invention to disclose the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of calculating the position of each said instrument. [0038] It is another object of the present invention to provide a device useful for the interface between a surgeon and an automated assistant, comprising: a. at least one endoscope, mechanically interconnected to said automated assistant; said automated assistant is adapted to maneuver said endoscope to a desired location; b. at least one instrument; c. at least one wearable operator comprising at least one wireless transmitter, adapted to transmit a signal once said at least one wearable operator is activated; said at least one wearable operator is in communication with said at least one of said instrument; d. at least one wireless receiver; adapted to receive said signal sent by said transmitter; e. at least one laparoscopy computerized system, in communication with said wireless receiver, adapted to provide a visual onscreen depiction of said at least one instrument to be selected following the activation of said at least one wearable operator; and, f. at least one video screen; wherein said device is adapted to control and to direct said endoscope via said laparoscopy computerized system and said automated assistant on said instrument to be selected following the activation of said at least one wearable operator. [0046] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein at least one of said wearable operators is either wire or wirelessly coupled to said at least one of said instruments. [0047] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said device is adapted to control and to direct said endoscope via said laparoscopy computerized system and said automated assistant on said instrument to which said activated wearable operator is coupled. [0048] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is worn by said surgeon on a predetermined body part. [0049] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said predetermined body part is selected from a group consisting of the hand of said surgeon, at least one of the fingers of said surgeon, the thigh of said surgeon, the neck of said surgeon, at least one of the legs of said surgeon, the knee of said surgeon, the head of said surgeon and any combination thereof. [0050] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein the shape of said wearable operator is selected from a group consisting of a ring, a bracelet and any combination thereof. [0051] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is coupled to a predetermined location on said instrument by means of an adaptor. [0052] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is adjustable so as to fit said predetermined location of said different instruments, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0053] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said wearable operator comprises a body having at least two portions at least partially overlapping each other; said two portions are adapted to grasp and hold either said instrument or said predetermined body part there-between, such that a tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part is obtained. [0054] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein one of said two portions is rotationally movable relative to the other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0055] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said two portions are rotationally movable relative to each other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0056] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said wearable operator comprises (a) at least one flexible and stretchable strip; and, (b) loop-closing means adapted to close a loop with said at least one flexible and stretchable strip; said at least one flexible and stretchable strip and said loop-closing means are provided so as to fit said wearable operator to at least one selected from a group consisting of (a) said predetermined location of said different instruments; (b) said predetermined body part of said surgeon, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0057] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is made of material selected from a group consisting of silicone, rubber and any combination thereof. [0058] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one unidirectional catch through which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0059] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one peg around which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0060] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by a varied width along its length. [0061] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by different surface roughnesses along its length. [0062] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is freestanding. [0063] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein each of said at least one instrument is fitted with at least one of said wireless transmitters. [0064] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is adapted to locate the position of at least one of said instruments. [0065] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein a selection of said at least one instrument is obtained by clicking on said at least one wearable operator. [0066] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein the activation of said at least one wearable operator is obtained by depression on the same, voice activating the same, prolonged depression on the same, double clicking on the same and any combination thereof. [0067] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said laparoscopy computerized system directs said endoscope by using image information shown on said video screen without said help of assistants. [0068] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said conventional laparoscopy computerized system comprises at least one surgical instrument spatial location software, adapted to locate the 3D spatial position of said at least one instrument. [0069] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein said conventional laparoscopy computerized system comprises at least one automated assistant maneuvering system; said automated assistant maneuvering system is coupled to said endoscope and is adapted to direct said endoscope to said at least one instrument, said instrument selected following the activation of said at least one wearable operator. [0070] It is another object of the present invention to provide the device as defined above, wherein each transmitted signal from said wearable operator and said wireless transmitter is matched to at least one of said instruments. [0071] It is another object of the present invention to provide a surgical system comprising: a. at least one laparoscopic instrument; b. at least one wearable operator comprising at least one wireless transmitter capable of being activated to transmit a signal; c. at least one computerized platform configured for tracking said at least one laparoscopic instrument and being capable of receiving said signal and identifying to a user a laparoscopic instrument selected by activation of said transmitter from said at least one laparoscopic instrument; wherein said wearable operator is being worn by the surgeon. [0075] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is activated manually or automatically. [0076] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said computerized platform tracks said laparoscopic instrument selected upon activation of said transmitter. [0077] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is freestanding. [0078] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said at least one wireless transmitter is attached to said at least one laparoscopic instrument. [0079] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said identifying to said user of said laparoscopic instrument is effected via a visual depiction of said laparoscopic instrument on a display. [0080] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, further comprising an automated assistant for controlling an endoscopic camera. [0081] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said computerized platform tracks said laparoscopic instrument using image information received from said endoscopic camera. [0082] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said computerized platform controls said automated assistant. [0083] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said computerized platform visually identifies said laparoscopic instrument to said user upon activation of said transmitter. [0084] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein at least one of said wearable operators is either wire or wirelessly coupled to said at least one of said laparoscopic instruments. [0085] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said computerized platform is adapted to track and to identify said laparoscopic instrument to which said wearable operator is coupled. [0086] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is worn by said surgeon on a predetermined body part. [0087] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said predetermined body part is selected from a group consisting of the hand of said surgeon, at least one of the fingers of said surgeon, the thigh of said surgeon, the neck of said surgeon, at least one of the legs of said surgeon, the knee of said surgeon, the head of said surgeon and any combination thereof. [0088] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein the shape of said wearable operator is selected from a group consisting of a ring, a bracelet and any combination thereof. [0089] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is coupled to a predetermined location on said instrument by means of an adaptor. [0090] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is adjustable so as to fit said predetermined location of said different instruments, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0091] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wearable operator comprises a body having at least two portions at least partially overlapping each other; said two portions are adapted to grasp and hold either said instrument or said predetermined body part there-between, such that a tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part is obtained. [0092] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein one of said two portions is rotationally movable relative to the other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0093] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said two portions are rotationally movable relative to each other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0094] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wearable operator comprises (a) at least one flexible and stretchable strip; and, (b) loop-closing means adapted to close a loop with said at least one flexible and stretchable strip; said at least one flexible and stretchable strip and said loop-closing means are provided so as to fit said wearable operator to at least one selected from a group consisting of (a) said predetermined location of said different instruments; (b) said predetermined body part of said surgeon, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0095] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is made of material selected from a group consisting of silicone, rubber and any combination thereof. [0096] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one unidirectional catch through which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0097] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one peg around which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0098] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by a varied width along its length. [0099] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by different surface roughnesses along its length. [0100] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is freestanding. [0101] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein each of said at least one laparoscopic instruments is fitted with at least one of said wireless transmitters. [0102] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is adapted to locate the position of at least one of said laparoscopic instruments. [0103] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein selection of said at least one laparoscopic instrument is confirmed by activating said at least one wearable operator [0104] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein the activation of said at least one wearable operator is obtained by depression on the same, voice activating the same, prolonged depression on the same, double clicking on the same and any combination thereof. [0105] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein said computerized platform directs an endoscope to said laparoscopic instrument by using image information shown on a video screen without said help of assistants. [0106] It is another object of the present invention to provide the system as defined above, wherein each transmitted signal from said wearable operator and said wireless transmitter is matched to at least one of said instruments. [0107] It is another object of the present invention to provide a method useful for the interface between a surgeon and an automated assistant; said method comprising the step of: a. obtaining a device comprising: i. at least one desired laparoscopic instrument; ii. at least one endoscope, mechanically interconnected to said automated assistant; iii. at least one wearable operator comprising at least one wireless transmitter; iv. at least one wireless receiver; v. at least one laparoscopy computerized system loaded with (i) surgical instrument spatial location software; (ii) automated assistant maneuvering software; (iii) and, a software that enables a visual onscreen depiction response to the activation of said at least one wearable operator; and, vi. at least one video screen; b. activating said wearable operator; thereby selecting a desired laparoscopic instrument and emitting a signal; c. receiving said signal by said receiver; d. maneuvering said endoscope so as to focus said endoscope on said desired laparoscopic instrument of said surgeon; and, e. displaying said desired instrument on a screen; wherein said device is adapted to control and to direct said endoscope via said laparoscopy computerized system and said automated assistant on said instrument to be selected following the activation of said at least one wearable operator. [0120] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of manually or automatically activating said wearable operator. [0121] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is freestanding. [0122] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of attaching said at least one wireless transmitter to said at least one desired laparoscopic instrument. [0123] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of identifying to said user of said desired laparoscopic instrument; further wherein said step is effected via a visual depiction of said laparoscopic instrument on a display. [0124] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said laparoscopy computerized system tracks said laparoscopic instrument using image information received from said endoscopic camera. [0125] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said laparoscopy computerized system controls said automated assistant. [0126] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said laparoscopy computerized system visually identifies said laparoscopic instrument to said user upon activation of said transmitter. [0127] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of confirming the selection of said desired instrument. [0128] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said step of selecting said desired laparoscopic instrument additionally comprises the steps of (a) activating wearable operator; (b) transmitting a generic code to said receiver; (c) communicating said signal to a computer, thereby operating said automated assistant. [0129] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said step of selecting said desired laparoscopic instrument additionally comprises the step of confirming the selection of said desired laparoscopic instrument by clicking on said wearable operator. [0130] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said step of selecting said desired laparoscopic instrument additionally comprises the step confirming the selection of said laparoscopic desired instrument by a prolonged depression on said wearable operator. [0131] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of identifying each of said desired laparoscopic instrument to said computerized system. [0132] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of attaching said wearable operator to said laparoscopic instrument. [0133] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising the step of matching each transmitted code from said wearable operator and said wireless transmitter to at least one of said laparoscopic instruments. [0134] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of either wire or wirelessly coupling at least one of said wearable operators to said at least one of said instruments. [0135] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of controlling and directing said endoscope via said laparoscopy computerized system and said automated assistant on said desired laparoscopic instrument to which said activated wearable operator is coupled. [0136] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of wearing said wearable operator by said surgeon on a predetermined body part. [0137] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of selecting said predetermined body part from a group consisting of the hand of said surgeon, at least one of the fingers of said surgeon, the thigh of said surgeon, the neck of said surgeon, at least one of the legs of said surgeon, the knee of said surgeon, the head of said surgeon and any combination thereof. [0138] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of selecting the shape of said wearable operator from a group consisting of a ring, a bracelet and any combination thereof. [0139] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of coupling said wearable operator to a predetermined location on said instrument by means of an adaptor. [0140] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of adjusting said wearable operator so as to fit said predetermined location of said different instruments, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0141] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of providing said wearable operator with a body having at least two portions at least partially overlapping each other; said two portions are adapted to grasp and hold either said instrument or said predetermined body part there-between, such that a tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part is obtained. [0142] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein one of said two portions is rotationally movable relative to the other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0143] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of coupling wherein said two portions are rotationally movable relative to each other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0144] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wearable operator comprises (a) at least one flexible and stretchable strip; and, (b) loop-closing means adapted to close a loop with said at least one flexible and stretchable strip; said at least one flexible and stretchable strip and said loop-closing means are provided so as to fit said wearable operator to at least one selected from a group consisting of (a) said predetermined location of said different instruments; (b) said predetermined body part of said surgeon, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0145] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of providing said flexible and stretchable strip to be made of material selected from a group consisting of silicone, rubber and any combination thereof. [0146] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one unidirectional catch through which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0147] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one peg around which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0148] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by a varied width along its length. [0149] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by different surface roughnesses along its length. [0150] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is freestanding. [0151] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein each of said at least one instrument is fitted with at least one of said wireless transmitters. [0152] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is adapted to locate the position of at least one of said instruments. [0153] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of selecting said at least one instrument by activating said at least one wearable operator. [0154] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of activating said at least one wearable operator by depression on the same, voice activating the same, prolonged depression on the same, double clicking on the same and any combination thereof. [0155] It is another object of the present invention to provide a method useful for the interface between a surgeon and an automated assistant; said method comprising the step of: a. obtaining a surgical system comprising: i. at least one laparoscopic instrument; ii. at least one wearable operator comprising at least one wireless transmitter capable of being activated to transmit a signal; iii. at least one a computerized platform configured for tracking said at least one laparoscopic instrument and being capable of receiving said signal and identifying to a user a laparoscopic instrument selected by activation of said transmitter from said at least one laparoscopic instrument; wherein said wearable operator is being worn by the surgeon; b. activating said wearable operator; thereby selecting a desired laparoscopic instrument and emitting a signal; c. receiving said signal by said receiver; d. maneuvering an endoscope so as to focus the same on said desired laparoscopic instrument of said surgeon; and, e. displaying said desired instrument on a screen; wherein said system is adapted to control and to direct said endoscope via said laparoscopy computerized system and said automated assistant on said instrument to be selected following the activation of said at least one wearable operator. [0165] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of manually or automatically activating said wearable operator. [0166] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of tracking said laparoscopic instrument selected upon activation of said transmitter by means of said computerized platform. [0167] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is freestanding. [0168] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of attaching said at least one wireless transmitter to said at least one laparoscopic instrument. [0169] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of identifying to said user of said laparoscopic instrument via a visual depiction of said laparoscopic instrument on a display. [0170] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of providing an automated assistant for controlling an endoscopic camera. [0171] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said computerized platform tracks said laparoscopic instrument using image information received from said endoscopic camera. [0172] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of controlling said automated assistant by means of said computerized platform. [0173] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said computerized platform visually identifies said laparoscopic instrument to said user upon activation of said transmitter. [0174] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein at least one of said wearable operators is either wire or wirelessly coupled to said at least one of said laparoscopic instruments. [0175] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said computerized platform is adapted to track and to identify said laparoscopic instrument to which said wearable operator is coupled. [0176] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of wearing said wearable operator by said surgeon on a predetermined body part. [0177] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said predetermined body part is selected from a group consisting of the hand of said surgeon, at least one of the fingers of said surgeon, the thigh of said surgeon, the neck of said surgeon, at least one of the legs of said surgeon, the knee of said surgeon, the head of said surgeon and any combination thereof. [0178] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein the shape of said wearable operator is selected from a group consisting of a ring, a bracelet and any combination thereof. [0179] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of coupling said wearable operator to a predetermined location on said instrument by means of an adaptor. [0180] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is adjustable so as to fit said predetermined location of said different instruments, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0181] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of providing said wearable operator with a body having at least two portions at least partially overlapping each other; said two portions are adapted to grasp and hold either said instrument or said predetermined body part there-between, such that a tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part is obtained. [0182] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein one of said two portions is rotationally movable relative to the other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0183] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said two portions are rotationally movable relative to each other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument or said predetermined body part. [0184] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wearable operator comprises (a) at least one flexible and stretchable strip; and, (b) loop-closing means adapted to close a loop with said at least one flexible and stretchable strip; said at least one flexible and stretchable strip and said loop-closing means are provided so as to fit said wearable operator to at least one selected from a group consisting of (a) said predetermined location of said different instruments; (b) said predetermined body part of said surgeon, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0185] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is made of material selected from a group consisting of silicone, rubber and any combination thereof. [0186] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one unidirectional catch through which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0187] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said loop-closing means is at least one peg around which said flexible and stretchable strip is passed so as to provide a loop. [0188] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by a varied width along its length. [0189] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said flexible and stretchable strip is characterized by different surface roughnesses along its length. [0190] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of fitting each of said at least one laparoscopic instruments with at least one of said wireless transmitters. [0191] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, wherein said wireless transmitter is adapted to locate the position of at least one of said laparoscopic instruments. [0192] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of confirming a selection of said at least one laparoscopic instrument by clicking on said at least one wearable operator [0193] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of activating said at least one wearable operator by depression on the same, voice activating the same, prolonged depression on the same, double clicking on the same and any combination thereof. [0194] It is another object of the present invention to provide the method as defined above, additionally comprising step of directing an endoscope to said laparoscopic instrument by using image information shown on a video screen by means of said computerized platform configured without said help of assistants. [0195] It is another object of the present invention to provide a wearable operator, comprising: a. at least two portions at least partially overlapping each other; said two portion are adapted to rotate and tilt relative to each other; b. at least one wireless transmitter, adapted to transmit a signal once said at least one wearable operator is activated. [0198] It is another object of the present invention to provide the wearable operator as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is worn by a user on a predetermined body part, such that activation of said wearable operator results in activation of an external instrument. [0199] It is another object of the present invention to provide the wearable operator as defined above, wherein said predetermined body part is selected from a group consisting of: the hand of said surgeon, at least one of the fingers of said user, the thigh of said user, the neck of said user, at least one of the legs of said user, the knee of said user, the head of said user and any combination thereof. [0200] It is another object of the present invention to provide the wearable operator as defined above, wherein said wearable operator is coupled to a predetermined location on an instrument by means of an adaptor, such that activation of said wearable operator results in activation of said instrument. [0201] It is another object of the present invention to provide the wearable operator as defined above, wherein said coupling between said at least one of said wearable operators and said instrument is either wire or wirelessly coupling. [0202] It is still an object of the present invention to provide the wearable operator as defined above, wherein said wearable operator comprises (a) at least one flexible and stretchable strip; and, (b) loop-closing means adapted to close a loop with said at least one flexible and stretchable strip; said at least one flexible and stretchable strip and said loop-closing means are provided so as to fit said wearable operator to at least one selected from a group consisting of (a) said predetermined location of said different instruments; (b) said predetermined body part of said user, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0203] It is lastly an object of the present invention to provide the wearable operator as defined above, wherein the shape of said wearable operator is selected from a group consisting of a ring, a bracelet and any combination thereof. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0204] In order to understand the invention and to see how it may be implemented in practice, and by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which [0205] FIG. 1 is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system that relies on a single wireless code signal to indicate the instrument on which to focus the endoscope constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention in a preferred embodiment thereof; [0206] FIG. 2 is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system that relies on at least two wireless signals to indicate the instrument on which to focus the endoscope; [0207] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the method in which the single wireless code signal choice instrumentation focus is represented on the viewing apparatus; [0208] FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the method in which multiple wireless code signal choice of instrumentation is operated; [0209] FIG. 5 represents the relative position of each tool in respect to the mechanism; [0210] FIG. 6 is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system that relies on a single wireless code signal to indicate the instrument on which to focus the endoscope, constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention in a preferred embodiment thereof; [0211] FIG. 7 a - 7 b is an illustration of a wearable operator; [0212] FIG. 8 is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system that relies on at least two wireless signals to indicate the instrument on which to focus the endoscope; [0213] FIG. 9 is a schematic view of the method in which choice of instrumentation focus via a single wireless code is represented on the viewing apparatus; [0214] FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the method in which choice of instrumentation focus via a multiple wireless code is operated; [0215] FIG. 11 a - 11 e illustrates another preferred embodiment of the present invention; [0216] FIG. 12 illustrates the adjustability of the wearable operator; [0217] FIG. 13 a - 13 e illustrates one embodiment of the wearable operator 700 and the adjustment means of the same to a surgical tool; [0218] FIG. 14 a - 14 c , illustrates another embodiment of the present invention, which provides a best adjustment of the wearable operator to the operator's hand; and [0219] FIG. 15 a - 15 b illustrates the ‘adjustability’ of the wearable operator. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS [0220] The following description is provided, alongside all chapters of the present invention, so as to enable any person skilled in the art to make use of the invention and sets forth the best modes contemplated by the inventor of carrying out this invention. Various modifications, however, will remain apparent to those skilled in the art, since the generic principles of the present invention have been defined specifically to provide means and methods for improving the interface between the surgeon and an endoscope system for laparoscopic surgery. [0221] The present invention can be also utilized to improve the interface between the surgeon and the operating medical assistant and/or the surgeon colleagues. Moreover, the present invention can be also utilized to control and/or direct an automated endoscope assistant to focus the endoscope to the desired instrument of the surgeon. In some embodiments, it comprises a wearable user interface operator (referred to also as the ‘wearable operator’). Furthermore, the device is adapted to focus the operating medical assistant on the desired instrument of the surgeon. [0222] The term “conventional laparoscopy computerized system” refers herein to system or/software conventionally used in the market such as Lapman, Endo assist or AESOP. [0223] The term “tight-fit” refers herein to a fit between two parts, such that said two parts are considered as coupled together. [0224] The device of the present invention is adapted to control and/or direct the automated endoscope assistant to focus the endoscope on the instrument desired by the surgeon. In preferred embodiments, it comprises a wearable user interface to enable to operator to activate and select tools. [0225] The present invention can be also utilized to improve the interface between the surgeon and the operating medical assistant and/or the surgeon's colleagues. Moreover, the present invention can be also utilized to control and/or direct an automated endoscope assistant to focus the endoscope on the desired instrument of the surgeon via output from the wearable operator, said output controlled by the surgeon. Furthermore, the device is adapted to direct the operating medical assistant to focus on the desired instrument of the surgeon. [0226] In general, the present invention, an enhanced interface laparoscopy device comprises: a. at least one operator comprising at least one wireless transmitter. b. at least one wireless receiver. c. at least one conventional laparoscopy computerized system; the conventional laparoscopy computerized system is adapted to load a surgical instrument's spatial locating software, and an automated assistant's maneuvering software; the locating software enables a visual response to a primary activation of the wireless transmitter; said maneuvering software enables the movement of said endoscope. d. At least one video screen. e. At least one automated assistant. [0232] The device of the present invention has many technological advantages, among them: Simplifying the communication interface between surgeon and mechanical assistants. Seamless interaction with conventional computerized automated endoscope systems. Simplicity of construction and reliability. User-friendliness. [0237] Additional features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following drawings and description. [0238] In preferred embodiment of the invention a single wireless emission code is utilized and choice is achieved by a visible graphic representation upon the conventional viewing screen. [0239] In another preferred embodiment each instrument is fitted with a unique code wireless transmitter, and selection is achieved by depressing its button. [0240] According to another preferred embodiment, each instrument is fitted with a unique code wireless transmitter, and selection is achieved by depressing a control on the wearable operator. [0241] The present invention discloses also a device joined with conventional camera assisted laparoscopic surgery systems comprising at least one wireless transmitter that can but need not be attached to the maneuvering control end of surgical instruments. [0242] Selection of an instrument can be either via a control on a wireless transmitter, or via a wearable operator, or by a combination thereof. If control is via at least one button on at least one wireless transmitter, upon depression of a button on a transmitter either a generic or a unique code is transmitted to a receiving device connected to a computer that presents (e.g. displays) the selected surgical tool on a connected video screen. Confirmation of the selection by the depression of at least one button on the wireless transmitter transmits a code to the receiver connected to the computer that instructs the automated surgical assistant to move the endoscope achieving a view on the screen that is focused on the selected instrument area. [0243] If control is via a wearable controller, upon activation (e.g., depression) of a control on the wearable operator, either a generic or a unique code is transmitted to a receiving device connected to a computer that presents (e.g. displays) the selected surgical tool on a connected video screen. [0244] After confirmation of the selection by the depression of at least one button in the wearable operator's wireless transmitter, a code is transmitted to the receiver connected to the computer that instructs the automated surgical assistant to move the endoscope, achieving a view on the screen that is focused on the selected instrument area. [0245] It would thus be desirable to achieve a device that allows the surgeon to identify to the laparoscopic computing system as well as to surgical colleagues to which surgical instrument attention is to be directed. By identifying the surgical instrument by the laparoscopic computing system the endoscope directs the view to the selected focus of attention. [0246] Therefore, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention an enhanced interface laparoscopy device is provided. The device comprises: a. At least one wireless transmitter with at least one operating key. b. At least one wireless receiver. c. at least one conventional laparoscopy computerized system; said conventional laparoscopy computerized system is adapted to load a surgical instrument spatial locating software, and an automated assistant maneuvering software; said locating software enables a visual response to the depression of said at least one key on said wireless transmitter; said maneuvering software enables the movement of said endoscope. d. At least one video screen. e. At least one automated assistant. [0252] In a further embodiment of the enhanced interface laparoscopy device the wireless transmitter or transmitters are either freestanding or attached to the maneuvering end of the surgical instruments and emit the same single code that upon the depression of at least one key on them emits a signal to the receiver that communicates with the connected computer that displays a graphic symbol upon a random choice of one of the onscreen surgical instruments depicted or extracted by the computer on the screen. If needed the surgeon repeats the depression of at least one key resulting in a shift in the displayed graphic designator from one onscreen depiction of surgical instrument to another until the desired instrument is reached and thereby selected. Subsequently the computer directs the automated assistant to focus the endoscope on the desired instrument area. [0253] In a further embodiment the selection of the instrument requires confirmation by varying the form of click on at least one key, such as a prolonged depression. Only upon confirmation is the computer authorized to instruct the automated assistant to focus the endoscope on the desired instrument area. [0254] In another embodiment of the invention each relevant surgical instrument is fitted at its maneuvering control end with a wireless transmitter with at least one key that transmits a unique code. In the initial stage of the procedure the surgeon identifies each of the instruments to the computerized system by depressing at least one key on each of the wireless transmitters fitted to the surgical instruments and matching their characteristics with a prepared database, thereby forming within the computerized system a unique signature for each of the transmitters. Thereon, upon depression of at least one key on the wireless transmitter attached to each surgical instrument, the receiver receives the unique code communicates it to the computer that identifies it with the preprogrammed signature and instructs the automated assistant to move the endoscope so as to achieve the desired focus. [0255] In another embodiment of the invention each relevant surgical instruments is fitted at its maneuvering control end with a wireless transmitter with at least one key that transmits a unique code. While performing the surgery procedure, whenever the surgeon inserts, a surgical instrument at the first time, he signals by depressing at least one key on each of the wireless transmitters fitted to the surgical instruments. [0256] Then the computer software identifies the instrument, while it is being inserted, analyzes the characteristics of the surgical instrument and keeps it in a database, thereby forming within the computerized system a unique signature for each of the transmitters. Thereon, upon depression of at least one key on the wireless transmitter attached to each surgical instrument, the receiver receives the unique code, communicates it to the computer that identifies it with the signature stored at the insertion step and instructs the automated assistant to move the endoscope so as to achieve the desired focus. [0257] In a further embodiment the selection is signified on the connected screen by displaying a graphic symbol upon the onscreen depiction of the surgical instrument. [0258] In a further embodiment the selection is confirmed by an additional mode of depression of at least one key on the wireless transmitter, such as a prolonged depression of the key, authorizing the computer to instruct the automated assistant to change view provided by the endoscope. The device of the present invention has many technological advantages, among them: Simplifying the communication interface between surgeon and mechanical assistants. Seamless interaction with conventional computerized automated endoscope systems. Simplicity of construction and reliability. User-friendliness Additional features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following drawings and description. [0264] Reference is made now to FIG. 1 , which is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system comprising one or more button operated wireless transmitters 12 a , that may or may not be attached to the maneuvering end of surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c , which once depressed aerially transmit a single code wave 14 through aerial 13 to connected receiver 11 that produces a signal processed by computer 15 thereby assigning a particular one of two or more surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c as the focus of the surgeons attention. Accordingly a conventional automated endoscope 21 is maneuvered by means of conventional automated arm 19 according to conventional computational spatial placement software contained in computer 15 . [0265] Reference is made now to FIG. 2 , which is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system comprising one or more button operated wireless transmitters 12 b and 12 c are attached respectfully to the maneuvering means at the end of surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c , which once depressed aerially, each transmit a unique code wave 14 b and 14 c through aerial 13 to connected receiver 11 that produces a signal processed by computer 15 thereby assigning a particular one of two or more surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c as the focus of the surgeons attention. Accordingly a conventional automated endoscope 21 is maneuvered by means of conventional automated arm 19 according to conventional computational spatial placement software contained in computer 15 . [0266] Reference is made now to FIG. 3 , which is a schematic view of the method in which single wireless signal code choice of instrumentation focus is achieved, by means of video representation, 35 b and 35 c of the actual surgical instruments (not represented in FIG. 3 ) displayed by graphic symbols. Wherein a light depression of the button on generic code emitting wireless transmitter 12 a transmits a code that is received by receiver aerial 13 communicated through connected receiver 11 to computer 15 that shifts the graphically displayed symbol of choice 35 b on video screen 30 from instrument to instrument until the required instrument is reached. A prolonged depression of the button on transmitter 12 a confirms the selection thereby signaling computer 15 to instruct the automated mechanical assistant (not represented in FIG. 4 ) to move the endoscope (not represented in FIG. 3 ) and achieving a camera view of the instrument area on screen 30 . [0267] Reference is made now to FIG. 4 , which is a schematic view of the method in which multiple wireless signal code choice of instrumentation focus is achieved, by means of video representation 35 b and 35 c of the actual surgical instruments (not represented in FIG. 4 ) displayed by graphic symbols. Wherein when buttons on unique code emitting wireless transmitters 12 b and 12 c attached respectfully to actual operational instruments (not represented in FIG. 4 ) displays graphic symbol 35 b on respectful video representation 37 b . A prolonged depression of the button on transmitter 12 b and 12 c confirms the selection thereby signaling computer 15 to instruct the automated mechanical assistant (not represented in FIG. 4 ) to move the endoscope (not represented in FIG. 4 ) and achieving a camera view of the instrument area on screen 30 . [0268] In another embodiment of this invention, when a prolonged depression of the buttons on transmitter 12 b and 12 c confirms the selection, the computer software analyze the characteristics of the surgical instrument and stores it in a database, thereby forming within the computerized system, a database, used for matching between each transmitting code and a surgical instrument. [0269] From now on, when the surgeon presses again on this button, the receiver that receives the transmitted code, communicates it to the computer software that identifies the code as a “known” code and matching it, to the known parameters that were stored earlier in database of the surgical tools, and extracts the surgical tool tip. When the position tool tip is known, then the tracking software instructs the automated assistant to move the endoscope so as to achieve the desired focus. [0270] Reference is made now to FIG. 5 illustrating the relative position of each tool. While performing the surgery, the surgeon often changes the position of his tools and even their insertion point. The wireless switches then may be use to locate the relative angle in which each tool is being held in respect to the camera holder mechanism. This is another advantage of the system that is used to calculate the position of the tool in the frame captured by the video camera. In that manner the surgeon does not have to inform the system where the insertion point of every tool is. The exact location of the wireless switch is not measured: the information about the relative positions of the tools in respect to each other contains in most cases enough data for the software to maintain the matching between the switches and the tools. In this figure the positioning sensors of the system are placed near or on the camera holder so the signals they receive can be utilize in order to calculate the vectors V 1 V 2 . . . Vn representing the range and the 3 angles needed to define a point in a 3D space. [0271] In order to realize a position and range system, many well known technologies may be used. For example if the switches emit wireless signals then an array of antennas may be used to compare the power of the signal received at each antenna in order to determine the angle of the switch and it's approximate range to the camera holder mechanism. If the switch emits ultra sound wave then US microphones can be used to triangulate the position of the switch. The same is for light emitting switch. [0272] Therefore, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an enhanced interface laparoscopy device is provided. The device comprises: a. at least one endoscope, mechanically interconnected to said automated assistant; said automated assistant is adapted to maneuver said endoscope to a desired location; b. at least one instrument; c. at least one wearable operator comprising at least one wireless transmitter, adapted to transmit a signal once said at least one wearable operator is activated; said at least one wearable operator is either wire or wirelessly in communication with said at least one of said instrument; d. at least one wireless receiver adapted to receive said signal sent by said transmitter; e. at least one laparoscopy computerized system, in communication with said wireless receiver, adapted to provide a visual onscreen depiction of said at least one instrument to be selected following the activation of said at least one wearable operator; and, f. at least one video screen wherein said device is adapted to control and to direct said endoscope via said laparoscopy computerized system and said automated assistant on said instrument, said instrument to be selected following the activation of said at least one wearable operator. [0280] According to one embodiment, the wearable user interface is attached to the operating tool. [0281] According to another embodiment, the interface is linked/attached to a predetermined body part of the surgeon. Said body part is selected from a group consisting of: the hand of the surgeon, at least one of the fingers of the surgeon, the thigh of the surgeon, the neck of the surgeon, at least one of the legs of the surgeon, the knee of the surgeon, the head of the surgeon and any combination thereof. [0282] In a preferred embodiment of the enhanced interface laparoscopy device, the wireless transmitter or transmitters are either freestanding or are attached to the maneuvering end of the surgical instruments. They emit the same single code so that, upon the activation (e.g., depression) of the wearable operator, they emit a signal to the receiver. The receiver communicates with a connected computer that displays a graphic symbol upon one of one of the surgical instruments depicted on the screen by the computer. On initial activation, the graphical symbol can be displayed on a randomly-chosen surgical instrument, or it can be displayed on a predefined surgical instrument. [0283] If needed, the surgeon repeats the activation (e.g., depression) of the wearable operator resulting in a shift in the displayed graphic designator from one onscreen depiction of a surgical instrument to another until the desired instrument is reached and thereby selected. Subsequently the computer directs the automated assistant to focus the endoscope on the desired instrument area. [0284] In a further preferred embodiment the selection of the instrument requires confirmation by varying the form of activating said wearable operator, such as a prolonged depression, double clicking or voice activation. Only upon confirmation is the computer authorized to instruct the automated assistant to focus the endoscope on the desired instrument area. [0285] In another preferred embodiment of the invention each relevant surgical instrument is fitted at its maneuvering control end with a wireless transmitter that transmits a unique code. [0286] In the initial stage of the procedure, the surgeon identifies each of the instruments to the computerized system by activating the wearable operator (e.g., depressing at least one key on the same) on each of the wireless transmitters fitted to the surgical instruments and matching their characteristics with a prepared database, thereby forming within the computerized system a unique signature for each of the transmitters. [0287] Thereon, upon depression of the wearable operator attached to each surgical instrument/or on the surgeon's hand, the receiver receives the unique code, and communicates it to the computer. The computer identifies it with the preprogrammed signature and instructs the automated assistant to move the endoscope so as to achieve the desired focus. [0288] It should be pointed out that the wearable operator can be coupled to a predetermined body part selected from a group consisting of: the hand of said surgeon, at least one of the fingers of the surgeon, the thigh of the surgeon, the neck of the surgeon, at least one of the legs of the surgeon, the knee of the surgeon, the head of the surgeon and any combination thereof. [0289] In another preferred embodiment of the invention, each relevant surgical instrument is fitted at its maneuvering control end with a wireless transmitter (as part of the wearable operator) that transmits a unique code. While performing the surgical procedure, whenever the surgeon inserts a surgical instrument for the first time, he signals by activating the wearable operator so as to uniquely identify the surgical instrument. [0290] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the wearable operator comprises an activating button, such that the activation of the same can be achieved by manually pressing the same. [0291] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the wearable operator is activated manually or automatically. [0292] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the activation of the wearable operator is achieved by means of depression on the same, voice activating the same, prolonged depression on the same, double clicking on the same and any combination thereof. [0293] When the instrument is being inserted for the first time, the computer software identifies the instrument, analyzes the characteristics of the surgical instrument and keeps the characteristics in a database, thereby forming within the computerized system a unique signature for each of the instruments. Thereafter, upon activation of the wireless transmitter attached to each surgical instrument, the receiver receives the unique code, communicates it to the computer that identifies it with the signature stored at the insertion step and instructs the automated assistant to move the endoscope so as to achieve the desired focus. [0294] In a further preferred embodiment, the selection is signified on the screen connected to the computer by displaying a graphic symbol upon the onscreen depiction of the surgical instrument. [0295] In a further preferred embodiment the selection is confirmed by an additional mode of depression on the wireless transmitter, such as a prolonged depression of the wearable operator, authorizing the computer to instruct the automated assistant to change the view provided by the endoscope. [0296] The device of the present invention has many technological advantages, among them: Simplifying the communication interface between surgeon and mechanical assistants. Seamless interaction with conventional computerized automated endoscope systems. Simplicity of construction and reliability. User-friendliness [0301] Reference is made now to FIG. 5 , which is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system comprising one or more wearable operators 101 (each of which comprises wireless transmitters 12 a ), that is worn by the surgeon (e.g., integrated within a bracelet or a ring). [0302] Once the same is activated (e.g., depressed), it wirelessly transmits a single code wave 14 through aerial 13 to connected receiver 11 that produces a signal processed by computer 15 , thereby assigning a particular code to one of two or more surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c within the patient 40 as the focus of the surgeon's attention. [0303] Reference is now made to FIGS. 7 a - 7 b which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the wearable operator of the present invention. [0304] According to this embodiment, the wearable operator is configured as a ring ( FIG. 7 a ) to be worn on the surgeon's finger (see FIG. 7 b ). [0305] According to this embodiment, the wearable operator comprises a pressing key 100 (also referred to as pressing button 101 d ). Once the surgeon wishes to re-orient the endoscope so as to focus on the desired instrument (linked to said wearable operator), the surgeon presses the same. [0306] FIG. 7 a illustrates the wearable operator 101 , in its ring-like configuration. [0307] FIG. 7 b illustrates the wearable operator 101 , as worn by the surgeon. [0308] According to another embodiment or the present invention, the wearable actuator may be attached to the maneuvering end of surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c. [0309] It is appreciated that each surgical instrument has particular dimensions. Therefore, since there isn't a ‘universal’ shape of surgical instruments, each surgical instrument should be provided with a dedicated wearable operator. Thus, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a dedicated wearable operator is provided for each instrument. [0310] According to another embodiment of the present invention, a universal adaptor to be attached to any surgical instrument is provided (see further detail with respect to FIGS. 11 a - 11 e hereinbelow). [0311] Once the wearable operator is operated, a conventional automated endoscope 21 is maneuvered by means of conventional automated arm 19 according to conventional computational spatial placement software contained in computer 15 [0312] Reference is made now to FIG. 8 , which is a general schematic view of an enhanced interface laparoscopic system comprising one or more wearable operators (not shown in the figure). According to this embodiment, the wearable operators are worn on the surgical instrument. As described above, each of said wearable operators comprises a wireless transmitter ( 12 b and 12 c ). [0313] Each of the wireless transmitters 12 b and 12 c is attached, respectively, to the maneuvering means at the end of surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c , within the patient 40 . Once the wearable operator is activated (e.g., depressed), each transmits a unique code wave 14 b and 14 c through aerial 13 to connected receiver 11 that produces a signal processed by computer 15 , thereby assigning a particular one of two or more surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c as the focus of the surgeon's attention. Accordingly, a conventional automated endoscope 21 is maneuvered by means of conventional automated arm 19 according to conventional computational spatial placement software contained in computer 15 . [0314] Reference is made now to FIG. 9 , which is a schematic view of a method by which choice of instrumentation focus is achieved with a single wireless signal code, by means of a display on a video screen of video representations 37 b and 37 c of the actual surgical instruments, and graphical symbols 35 b and 35 c . In this non-limiting example, solid circle 35 b indicates a selected instrument, while open circle 35 c indicates an activated but non-selected instrument. [0315] In this embodiment, on activation of the wearable operator 101 (e.g., by a light depression of the button on the wearable operator), wireless transmitter 12 a emits a generic code that is received by receiver aerial 13 and communicated through connected receiver 11 to computer 15 . Computer 15 shifts the graphically displayed symbol of choice 35 b on video screen 30 from instrument to instrument until the required instrument is reached. [0316] In this example, the wearable operator 101 is shaped as a ring and is worn on the surgeon's finger. [0317] A prolonged depression of the wearable operator 101 confirms the selection, thereby signaling computer 15 to instruct the automated mechanical assistant to move the endoscope and achieve a camera view of the instrument area on screen 30 . [0318] Reference is made now to FIG. 10 , which is a schematic view of a method in which choice of instrumentation focus is achieved in the case where there are multiple wireless signal codes, by means of a display on a video screen of video representations 37 b and 37 c of the actual surgical instruments, and graphical symbols 35 b and 35 c. [0319] When the wearable operators 101 a and 101 b (and the wireless transmitters 12 b and 12 c , respectively) are being pressed, the same emit a signal which eventually results in the display on screen 30 of graphic symbol 35 b on respective video representation 37 b or, alternatively, of graphic symbol 35 c on video representation 37 c. [0320] Confirmation of the selection may be achieved by prolonged depression of a button located on the wearable operator. Thus, a prolonged depression of the button on the wearable operator confirms the selection, thereby signaling computer 15 to instruct the automated mechanical assistant (not represented in FIG. 4 ) to move the endoscope (not represented in FIG. 4 ) and achieve a camera view of the instrument area on screen 30 . [0321] In another embodiment of this invention, when a prolonged depression of the buttons on the wearable operator confirms the selection, the computer software analyzes the characteristics of the surgical instrument and stores it in a database, thereby forming, within the computerized system, a database used for matching between each transmitting code and its associated surgical instrument. [0322] From now on, when the surgeon presses again on this button, the receiver that receives the transmitted code communicates it to the computer software that identifies the code as a “known” code, matches it to the known parameters that were stored earlier in the database of surgical tools, and extracts the position of the tip of the surgical tool. When the position of the tool tip is known, the tracking software instructs the automated assistant to move the endoscope so as to achieve the desired focus. [0323] In another embodiment of this invention, when the wearable operator is activated and an instrument is selected, the computer software analyzes the characteristics of the surgical instrument and stores it in a database, thereby forming, within the computerized system, a database used for matching between each transmitting code and a surgical instrument. [0324] From now on, when the surgeon activates the wearable activator, the receiver that receives the transmitted code communicates it to the computer software that identifies the code as a “known” code and matches it to the known parameters that were stored earlier in database of the surgical tools, and extracts the position of the tip of the surgical tool. When the position of the tool tip is known, the tracking software instructs the automated assistant to move the endoscope so as to achieve the desired focus. [0325] Reference is now made to FIGS. 11 a - 11 e illustrating another embodiment of the present invention. [0326] As mentioned above, the wearable actuator may be attached to the maneuvering end of surgical instruments 17 b and 17 c . However, since each surgical instrument has particular dimensions, there is no ‘universal’ actuator that will fit every instrument. Thus, one should provide each of surgical instruments with a dedicated operator. [0327] The present invention provides a universal adaptor 100 to be attached to the surgical instrument so as to overcome this disadvantage. The surgeon is able to couple the wearable operator 101 to the adaptor. [0328] Reference is now made to FIG. 11 a which illustrates the surgical instrument 17 b or 17 c to which the adaptor 100 is being attached. [0329] Reference is now made to FIG. 11 b which illustrates the coupling of the wearable operator 101 to the universal adaptor 100 . [0330] Reference is now made to FIG. 11 c which illustrates the wearable operator 101 coupled to the adaptor and thus to the surgical instrument. [0331] As mentioned above, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the wearable operator 101 comprises an activating button 101 d (see FIG. 11 c ). Reference is now made to FIG. 11 d which illustrates the activation of wearable operator 101 . In FIG. 11 d , activation is achieved by pressing on button 101 d in wearable operator 101 . [0332] FIG. 11 e illustrates different positions for the wearable operator 101 (and the adaptor 100 ) on the surgical instrument. [0333] In order to realize a position and range system, many well-known technologies may be used. For example, if the switches emit wireless signals then an array of antennas may be used to compare the power of the signal received at each antenna in order to determine the angle of the switch and the approximate range (distance and angle) between it and the camera holder mechanism. If the switch emits ultrasound (US), then US microphones can be used to triangulate the position of the switch. The same can be done for light emitting switches. [0334] Reference is now made to FIG. 12 which illustrates the adjustability of the wearable operator 101 . As can be seen from the figure, the wearable operator 101 can be fitted to a variety of different tools, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0335] Reference is now made to FIGS. 13 a - 13 e illustrating embodiments of the wearable operator 1300 and the adjustable means by which it may be attached to a surgical tool. [0336] According to these embodiments, the wearable operator 1300 comprises a unidirectional coupling (e.g., ratchet 1310 ). [0337] Once the wearable operator 1300 is secured to the surgical tool, the wearable operator 1300 is adjusted to the size and dimensions of the surgical tool by means of a unidirectional catch (e.g., ratchet 1310 ). [0338] According to another embodiment, the wearable operator 1300 comprises a body having at least two portions 1320 and 1321 (see FIG. 13 b ). Said portions are adapted to ‘grasp’ the surgical tool such that when the wearable operator 1300 is coupled to the surgical tool, fine-tuned movement of the two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument. [0339] According to another embodiment ( FIG. 13 c ), one of the two portions (either 1320 or 1321 ) is rotationally movable relative to the other, such that when said wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument. [0340] According to another embodiment ( FIG. 13 d ), the two portions ( 1321 and 1320 ) are rotationally movable relative to each other, such that when the wearable operator is coupled to said instrument, fine-tuned movement of said two body portions is obtainable so as to provide said tight-fit coupling between said two portions and said instrument. [0341] In reference to FIG. 13 d , the movement of either portion 1320 or portion 1321 relative to the other is obtained by fixating the position of either portion 1320 or portion 1321 and coupling the other portion to e.g., a unidirectional catch (e.g., ratchet) 1310 or a two-way directional catch 1310 on the body of the wearable operator. [0342] According to another embodiment, the movement of either portion 1320 or portion 1321 relative to the other is obtained by providing one portion, e.g., portion 1321 with cog-like teeth 1311 and the body of the wearable operator with cog-like teeth 1312 matching with cog-like teeth 1311 (see FIG. 13 e ). In such a way portion 1321 can be linearly moved relative to portion 1320 . [0343] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the wearable operator is a ring to be worn on the physician's hand. [0344] Reference is now made to FIGS. 14 a - 14 c , illustrating another embodiment of the present invention, which provides the best adjustment of the wearable operator 1400 to the operator's hand. FIG. 14 a illustrates the embodiment from the front, FIG. 14 b illustrates it from the back, and FIG. 14 c illustrates it from underneath. For illustrative purposes, the catch mechanism is not shown in FIG. 14 c, [0345] According to another embodiment, the wearable operator 1400 is adjustable by means of flexible and stretchable silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 and a loop-closing means. The loop-closing means is adapted to close a loop with the flexible and stretchable strip. Together, the flexible and stretchable strip and the loop-closing means are provided so as to fit the wearable operator to at least one selected from a group consisting of (a) said predetermined location of said different instruments; (b) said predetermined body part of said surgeon, each of which is characterized by a different size and shape. [0346] As will be disclosed hereinafter, the loop-closing means 1420 can be e.g., a unidirectional catch, a rack, a peg or any other mechanism known in the art. [0347] According to another embodiment, the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 is passed through a unidirectional catch (e.g., ratchet 1420 ), such that, when the physician wears the wearable operator 1400 , he adjusts the same by pulling the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 through the ratchet 1420 . [0348] According to another embodiment, the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 is rotated around rack or peg 1420 such that, when the physician wears the wearable operator 1400 , he adjusts the same by pulling the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 around the peg 1420 . [0349] According to this embodiment, the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 is characterized by a varied width along its length. More specifically, at least a portion of the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 is characterized by a greater width, such that when the same is twisted/rotated around peg 1420 and reaches the wider portion, the same is fixedly secured to the wearable operator 1400 . [0350] According to another embodiment, the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 is characterized by different surface roughnesses along its length. More specifically, at least a portion of the silicone and/or rubber strip 1410 is characterized by e.g., an abrasive or rough surface such that when the same is twisted/rotated around peg 1420 and reaches the rougher portion, the same is fixedly secured to the wearable operator 1400 . [0351] Reference is now made to FIGS. 15 a - 15 b illustrating the ‘adjustability’ of the wearable operator. As can be seen, the wearable operator can be fit to and be secured to both ‘wider’ fingers (see FIG. 15 b ) and ‘narrower’ fingers (see FIG. 15 a ). [0352] It is appreciated that certain features of the invention which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, can also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, can also be provided separately or in any suitable sub-combination. [0353] Although the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims. All publications, patents and patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated in their entirety by reference into the specification, to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated herein by reference. In addition, citation or identification of any reference in this application shall not be construed as an admission that such reference is available as prior art to the present invention.

Methods and devices for improving the interface between a surgeon and an operating medical assistant or between the surgeon and an endoscope system for laparoscopic surgery. A device is useful for controlling an endoscope system for laparoscopic surgery and includes a wearable interface for enhancing the control of an endoscope system during laparoscopic surgery.

FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to hoist-lines and hoist-line slings. More particularly, the present invention relates to hoist-lines adapted to receive, carry and safely hoist elongated firearms, such as rifles and shot guns, to elevated positions. BACKGROUND Frequently, when hunting, it is necessary for the hunter to climb to elevated positions, such as onto tree stands, crows nests or the like. When hunting with elongated firearms, such as rifles and shot guns, hunters have typically had the options either to carry their firearms up with them as they climb into position, or, alternatively, first climb up without the firearm, then, after assuming a safe position, use a hoisting device to pull the firearm up behind them. Several prior devices are known which allow a hunter to climb while carrying an elongated firearm. Such prior devices typically comprise gun slings or similar apparatuses, by which the hunter carries the gun over a shoulder or across his back while climbing. Turner U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,618, Shindelka U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,644, Adams U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,154, Wagner U.S. Pat. No. 1,332,088 and McDonald U.S. Pat. No. 3,258,182 are examples of such prior devices. A problem with these prior devices is that, by the very nature of carrying an elongated firearm while attempting to climb, for example, up a dense tree, the firearm impedes the user's ability to safely climb. When climbing with an elongated firearm, the firearm can easily become snagged on tree limbs or other obstacles. In addition, carrying a firearm while climbing presents a significant hazard should the climber accidently fall with the firearm strapped to him. A more desirable method of transporting a firearm to an elevated position, such as to a crows nest or to a tree platform, is to leave the gun safely on the ground, climb up to the elevated position, and then, using a hoisting device, pull the firearm up. This method has the obvious advantages of freeing the climber's hands, not allowing the firearm to become entangled (i.e. in the tree's branches) while climbing, and reducing the possibility of the hunter's falling with the gun. Several prior devices that permit a hunter to first climb to an elevated position and then hoist a firearm from the ground with his hands are known. For example, it is common practice for hunters to simply use a length of rope and tie a knot around the firearm in order to hoist the rifle. This method can result in the gun falling to the ground if the knot is not sufficiently snug. Other devices of this type, such as those disclosed in Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,311 and Lovering U.S. Pat. No. 3,074,074 are known. Another problem of this prior method is that the climber typically has to hold one end of the hoisting device (i.e. the rope or strap) in one of his hands while climbing. This not only makes it somewhat difficult to climb, but there also exists the inconvenience of having to climb back down to retrieve the rope, should the climber accidently drop the rope while climbing. SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a hoisting device which is attachable to elongated firearms with which hunters, having first climbed to an elevated location above the ground, may safely hoist the firearm. It is another object of the present invention to provide a device of the character described comprising an elongated strap provided with a clasping mechanism positioned intermediately along the strap and adapted to fasten to the trigger guard of the firearm, and a loop fastener attached to the strap and adapted to receive the barrel end of the firearm. It is another object of the present invention to provide a device of the character described wherein the loop fastener is permanently attached to the strap and spaced apart from the trigger guard clasping mechanism a sufficient distance to engage the barrel of the firearm intermediately along its barrel, and thus provide a universal hoist-line device adapted to receive a wide range of sizes and shapes of elongated firearms. It is another object of the present invention to provide a device of the character described having a clasping mechanism at the top end of the strap member for temporary fastening to the clothing, apparel or gear of a climber, thus rendering the climber's hands free of the hoisting device and the firearm while climbing. It is another object of the present invention to provide a device of the character described wherein, once attached to the hoisting device, an elongated firearm may be held in an approximately parallel orientation relative to an intermediate section of the hoisting strap, thus reducing the opportunity for the firearm to become entangled with obstacles (such as tree limbs and the like) as the device and the firearm are pulled up. It is another object of the present invention to provide a device of the character described having a clasping mechanism at the bottom end of the hoisting strap for temporary fastening the hoist-line to a pack, satchel or the like. It is another object to provide a modification of the present invention having archery bow fastener members intermediately located along the hoist-line strap, by which an archery bow may be temporarily secured to the hoist-line strap. It is another object to provide a modification of the present invention in which the archery bow fastener members are adapted to secure an archery bow to the hoist-line strap adjacent to an elongated firearm attached to the opposite face of the hoist-line strap. Further objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description thereof. DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the device constructed in accordance with the invention showing the manner of attachment to a firearm; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the device constructed in accordance with the invention showing the manner of attachment to an archery bow; FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the front of the device; FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the back of the device; FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the side of the device; FIG. 6 is a partial plan view showing the details of construction of a modification of the present invention with the archery bow engaging strap in a closed position; and FIG. 7 is a partial plan view showing the details of construction of a modification of the present invention with the archery bow engaging strap in a open position. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention is an elongated hoist line, generally designated 1 in the figures, which is adapted to safely hoist elongated firearms and other equipment to an elevated position. The hoist line 1 comprises a hoist-line strap 10 preferably constructed of a single narrow band of flexible and non-elastic material such as dacron, nylon, or cotton woven webbing or equivalent material. The hoist-line strap 10 may be constructed of dacron webbing, about 1-inch wide and about 1/8" thick, and should be of sufficient strength to support the weight of a gun, rifle or other firearm, as well as additional materials, including a pack or satchel containing ammunition and other goods which a hunter may typically carry with him to an elevated hunting position. A snap hook 20 is secured to the upper end 10a of the hoist-line strap 10 by inserting the end of the webbing 24 into the base 22 of the snap hook 20, and turning the end of the webbing 24 back onto hoist-line strap 10 and sewing the end thereto as indicated at 26. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the snap hook 20 is spring-loaded such that it is biased in the closed position, and preferably comprises a swivel 28 and a protruding finger extension 29 to facilitate ease of opening the snap hook by a user who may be wearing gloves. A snap hook 30 is secured to the lower end 10b of the hoist-line strap 10 by inserting the end of the webbing 34 into the base 32 of the snap hook 30, and turning the end of the webbing 34 back onto hoist-line strap 10 and sewing the end thereto as indicated at 36. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the snap hook 30 is spring-loaded such that it is biased in the closed position, and preferably comprises a swivel 38 and a protruding finger member 39 to facilitate ease of opening the snap hook by a user who may be wearing gloves. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the hoist-line strap 10 is approximately 25 to 30 feet long. Approximately 2 feet from the lower end 10b of the hoist-line strap, a trigger guard snap hook 50 is secured to the hoist-line strap 10. The it trigger guard snap hook 50 is attached to the hoist-line strap 10 by inserting a second length of webbing material 40 into the base 52 of the snap hook 50, and turning the two ends of the webbing 54 back onto hoist-line strap 10 and sewing the ends thereto as indicated at 56. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the snap hook 50 is spring-loaded such that it is biased in the closed position, and preferably comprises a swivel 58 and a protruding finger member 59 to facilitate ease of opening the snap hook by a user who may be wearing gloves. The trigger guard snap hook 50 is sized large enough to engage common rifle trigger guards, and, in the preferred embodiment of the invention has a maximum grasping dimension of 1/2 inch. A barrel engaging loop, generally indicated as 60 in the drawings, is located intermediately along the hoist-line strap 10, approximately 18 inches above the trigger guard snap hook 50. The barrel engaging loop 60, preferably comprises a length of webbing material 62 which is sewn to the hoist-line strap 10. The barrel engaging loop 60 preferably is oriented perpendicular to the length of the hoist-line strap 10, as shown in the figures. Opposite ends of the webbing material 62 are turned back onto itself to form a closed loop, and the overlapping portion of the webbing material 62 is sewn to the hoist-line strap 10 as indicated at 64. A modification of the invention which is adapted to carry an archery bow is shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. A bow handle engaging strap (generally indicated 70 in the figures) and a bow string engaging strap (generally indicated 90 in the figures) are attached to the hoist-line strap 10 on the opposite face of the hoist-line strap 10 to which the trigger guard snap hook 50 is attached. The bow handle engaging strap 70 preferably comprises a 15-inch length of webbing material 72 longitudinally aligned with the hoist-line strap 10, and attached at one of its ends to the hoist-line strap 10 intermediately between the points of attachment of the barrel engaging loop 60 and the trigger guard snap hook 50 to the hoist-line strap 10. The webbing material 72 is sewn to the hoist-line strap 10 on opposite sides of a strap lock 74, as indicated at 76. The strap lock 74 is a metallic loop, through which the loose end of the webbing material 72 may be inserted, as shown in FIG. 6. Mating lengths of hook-and-loop fastener material 78 and 80, respectively, are attached to the outboard side of the webbing material 72. The free end of the webbing material 72 may be pulled through the strap lock 74 until the mating lengths of hook-and-loop fastener material 78 and 80, respectively, are positioned on opposite sides of the strap lock 74, such that a closed loop 82 may be effected when the mating lengths of hook-and-loop fastener material 78 and 80 are fastened against each other. The bow string engaging strap 90 preferably comprises a 10-inch length of webbing material 92 longitudinally aligned with the hoist-line strap 10, and attached at its upper end 94 to the hoist-line strap 10 approximately 20 inches from the lower end 10b of the hoist-line strap 10. Mating lengths of hook-and-loop fastener materials 96 and 98, respectively, are attached to opposing faces of the webbing material 92 and the hoist-line strap 10. The upper ends of the hook-and-loop fastener materials 96 and 98, respectively, are preferably approximately 4-inches beneath the point of attachment 100 of the webbing material 92 to the hoist-line strap 10, thus effecting a closed loop between the webbing material 92 and the hoist-line strap 10 when the hook-and-loop fastener materials 96 and 98 are mutually engaged. OPERATION A method of using the present invention to hoist an elongated firearm (such as a rifle or a shot gun) to an elevated position (such as a tree stand) follows. The hoist line is temporarily connected to the firearm by first sliding the barrel B of the firearm into the barrel engaging loop 60. After the barrel B of the firearm is inserted into the barrel engaging loop 60, the trigger guard snap hook 50 is used to engage the trigger guard T of the firearm. It will be understood from the above description that the firearm is now secured to the hoist line and oriented approximately parallel to the intermediate section of the hoist-line strap 10 between the trigger guard snap hook 50 and the barrel engaging loop 60. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the size of the barrel engaging loop 60 is sufficiently large to encircle the barrel of most common rifles and shot guns. Also, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the trigger guard snap hook 50 and the barrel engaging loop 60 are attached to the hoist-line strap 10 in close enough proximity to each other that the barrel engaging loop 60 is several inches (i.e. between 3 and 10 inches) from the muzzle end of the barrel B when the trigger guard snap hook 50 is engaged with the firearm's trigger guard T. It will thus be understood that a single device constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention may be secured to elongated firearms of somewhat varying barrel lengths and of varying muzzle bores. An archery bow B may also be temporarily fastened to the hoist line. With the bow handle engaging strap 70 in an open position, as shown in FIG. 7, the handle H of the bow is placed against the webbing material 72 of the bow handle engaging strap 70. The free end of the webbing material 72 is then inserted through the strap lock 74, drawn tight against the bow handle H, doubled back against itself, and held in position by mating hook-and-loop fastener materials 78 and 80. The string S of the archery bow is held against the hoist-line strap 10 by the bow string engaging strap 90. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the bow handle engaging strap 70 and the bow string engaging strap 90 are positioned apart a sufficient distance to allow the string S to fit between the top ends of the mating hook-and-loop fastener materials 78 and 80 and point of attachment 100 of the webbing material 92 to the hoist-line strap 10. A pack, satchel or other hunting gear may also be attached to the snap hook 30 at the bottom end 10b of the hoist-line strap 10. After the equipment (i.e. firearm, archery bow and/or pack) is secured to the hoist line 1 in the manner described above, the snap hook 20 at the upper end 10a of the hoist-line strap may be attached to a person's belt, pack, harness, or other apparel. Once the hoist line 1 is attached to the person and the equipment to be hoisted (i.e. firearm, archery bow and/or pack), he may then begin climbing to the desired elevated position, leaving the lower end 10b of the hoist-line strap (and the equipment to be hoisted) on the ground. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the hoist-line strap 10 is approximately 25 to 30 feet long, and the barrel engaging loop 60 is approximately 36 to 42 inches from the lower end 10b of the hoist-line strap 10. Thus, it will be appreciated that a person can climb to an elevated position of some 25 feet, or so, above the ground (i.e. above the equipment to be hoisted) with hoist line 1 attached to him, while the equipment to be hoisted remains on the ground. After the person has obtained his desired elevated position, the equipment to be hoisted may then be easily and safely hoisted by hand from above by pulling up the hoist-line strap 10. It will be appreciated from the above disclosure that, when attached to the present invention in the manner described, the firearm will remain substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the hoist-line strap 10 while it is being hoisted. Thus, it will be understood that, under most circumstances, the axis of the firearm will be substantially vertically oriented while the hoist line 1 is being pulled up from above. Because the firearm remains substantially vertically oriented while the hoist line 1 is being pulled from above, the opportunity for the firearm to become entangled (i.e. with tree branches or the like) is minimized. It will also be appreciated that, because the trigger guard snap hook 50 and the bow handle engaging strap 70 are positioned on opposite faces of the hoist-line strap 10, it is possible to attach both a rifle and an archery bow to the hoist line 1, adjacent to each other, at the same time without the two devices becoming entangled with each other. While the above description contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as an exemplification of one preferred embodiment thereof. Many other variations are possible, for example: The snap hooks (20, 50 and 30) may each be constructed of common mechanical fastening mechanisms, and may be constructed without spring biasing, without swivels, and without finger extensions; and the various strap and webbing materials may be secured to each other by common attachment means, including rivets and heat sealing, rather than by sewing. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by the embodiment illustrated, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.

Hoist-line for lifting rifles and shot guns to elevated positions has a snap hook for attachment to a rifle trigger guard and a fixed barrel engagement loop, each permanently attached to an elongated hoist line near its bottom end. The trigger guard snap hook and barrel engagement loop are advantageously sized and spaced apart to maintain an attached rifle in a vertical orientation when the device is hoisted from above, and accommodate rifles of varying barrel length and bore. Modification of the hoist-line has a bow engaging strap and string engaging strap for temporary attachment of an archery bow adjacent to an attached firearm.

BACKGROUND [0001] The present invention relates generally to agricultural implements, and more particularly to a planter or similar implement designed to be towed behind a work vehicle, and that is equipped with seed tanks to assist with seed distribution. [0002] A wide range of agricultural implements are known and are presently in use, particularly designed for towing behind a work vehicle, such as a tractor. In one family of such implements, including tillers, planters, and so forth, a wide swath of ground can be tilled, planted, or otherwise worked in each pass of the implement in a tilled or untilled field. Planters, for example, often include frames supported by series of wheels and a tool bar extending transversely with respect to a line of movement of the implement across the field. Attached to the tool bar are a series of row units for dispensing seeds in parallel rows either in tilled or untilled soil. A pair of seed tanks are typically supported on the implement support structure, such as just forward of or over the tool bar. Large amounts of seed may be poured into these tanks and, as the implement is advanced across the field, seeds are transferred from the tanks by a distribution system connected to the row units. [0003] Difficulties may arise in servicing such implements owing to the need to access the upper portions of the equipment, such as seed tanks in planters. The seed tanks may, for example, have fill openings or lids that can be removed to pour the desired seeds into the tanks prior to deploying the implement in a field. Such seeds may be inserted automatically, semi-automatically or manually into the tanks. Both before and after hauling the implement to and from the field, and while the implement is in a field, operator access to the seed tanks may be needed, such as for filling, inspection, removal of debris, and so forth. In traditional planter designs, however, the fill openings may be placed toward the center of the seed tanks, making access to the fill opening difficult, especially in the case of larger tanks. While this, in certain situations, may not pose particular problems, it renders many operations difficult, such as loading heavy sacks of seed into the tanks or removing debris from the tanks. [0004] Difficulties may also occur in manufacturing seed tanks that have accessible fill openings. Tank designs may require separate manufacturing processes and parts for each left and right tank due to the need for off center tank fill openings. This requirement results in additional manufacturing costs as well as inconvenience for service or replacement. [0005] There is a need, therefore, for improved arrangements in towed implements that permit operators to more easily access seed tanks in planters. There is a particular need for arrangements that permit an operator access to fill openings of the seed tanks for tasks such as filling and inspection. There is also a particular need for improved access seed tanks which have a low manufacturing cost. BRIEF DESCRIPTION [0006] The present invention provides a novel configuration for accessing planter seed tanks by virtue of the tank design and layout. This configuration of the seed tank provides improved access to seed tanks of an agricultural planter and the contents thereof, while simplifying the manufacturing of such tanks. In an exemplary embodiment, the seed tank has a fill opening formed in the upper surface of the tank for loading and accessing seeds in the interior of the tank. The opening is off center of the shell and is centered on a diagonal plane that bisects opposing corners of the tank. Features of the tank are mirror images about this diagonal plane of the tank, which enables the same tank to be used for both the left and right sides of the planter. This is achieved by rotating the left tank 90 degrees with respect to the right tank. The design provides improved access to the interior of the tanks for filling and servicing the seed. This tank configuration reduces manufacturing costs by utilizing one part for two elements of the implement. Alternative embodiments may utilize different shapes for the tanks, which remain symmetrical about a diagonally bisecting centerline. The design may be implemented for agricultural planters as well as other implements or applications requiring access to large tanks. DRAWINGS [0007] These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein: [0008] FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a planter in accordance with aspects of the invention, including seed tanks, a fixed platform or walkway, a retractable ladder for accessing a region near the upper components of the planter, particularly seed tanks; [0009] FIG. 2 is a more detailed view of the arrangement of FIG. 1 , showing the platform or walkway and a presently contemplated arrangement for the seed tanks and the seed tank fill openings; [0010] FIG. 3 is a top view of a seed tank from FIGS. 1 and 2 , illustrating a diagonal plane that bisects the tank as well as a recess near the fill opening. [0011] FIG. 4 is a detailed front view of the tanks and the frame that supports the tanks in accordance with aspects of the invention, including components of the seed distribution system; [0012] FIG. 5 is a top view of the seed tanks, showing induction boxes and inlet openings; and [0013] FIG. 6 is a top view of the seed tanks, illustrating recesses in the seed tanks. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0014] One or more specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure. [0015] When introducing elements of various embodiments, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” “said,” and the like mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like are inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Moreover, the use of “top,” “bottom,” “above,” “below,” and variations of these terms does not require any particular orientation of the components relative to some extrinsic reference, e.g., gravity. As used herein, the term “coupled” refers to the condition of being directly or indirectly connected or in contact. Additionally, the phrase “in fluid communication” or “fluidly coupled” indicates that fluid or fluid pressure may be transmitted from one object to another. As used herein, the word “exemplary” means “an example” and not necessarily a preferred embodiment. [0016] Turning now to the drawings, and referring first to FIG. 1 , seed tanks 10 are illustrated on an implement 12 , illustrated in the form of a planter. The seed tanks 10 may be formed of steel or a moldable plastic material, such as polypropylene, by a plastic injection molding process, a rotomolding process, or any other suitable material. The implement 12 consists of a frame 14 and a tow bar 16 designed to be connected to a towing work vehicle, such as a tractor (not shown). The frame 14 and tow bar 16 may be made of any suitable material, such as structural steel. Seed tanks 10 are supported by frame 14 and the attached structures. Draft tubes 18 extend rearwardly from a forward end of tow bar 16 to aid in drawing the implement 12 . A tool bar 20 is coupled to the tow bar 16 and draft tubes 18 and supports row units designed to distribute seeds, as described below. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the tool bar 20 may define a central section 22 and outwardly extending wings 24 that can be folded forwardly to reduce the overall width of the implement for road transport. Row units, not shown for the sake of clarity, may be mounted along the tool bar 20 to facilitate seed distribution. Wheeled supports 26 are attached to support frame 14 to allow the row units to be raised out of contact with road surfaces during transport of the implement. [0017] In the illustrated embodiment, seed tanks 10 are mounted on tank support structures 28 and frame 14 . These support structures typically include structural steel and truss members. Left tank 30 and right tank 32 sit atop the support structures 28 . Platform 34 enables user access to fill and service seed tanks 10 . Access ladder 36 and folding portion 38 provide operator entry to platform 34 . Hand rails 40 allow greater stability to the operator when climbing access ladder 36 and servicing the tanks. [0018] In the illustrated embodiment, rear sides 42 and 44 along with center-oriented sides 46 and 48 compose generally vertical sides of seed tanks 10 . Centerline 50 runs along the center of the planter 12 where left tank 30 and its features are generally a mirror image of the right tank 32 . Outwardly oriented sides 52 compose the outer generally vertical sides of seed tanks 10 . The upper surface 54 of seed tanks 10 completes the enclosure and provides access to contents through a fill opening 56 . Cover assemblies 58 close the openings in the seed tanks, and levers 60 cooperate with the cover assemblies to maintain the assemblies closed and thereby to secure the contents of seed tanks 10 . Cover assemblies 58 may be removed for loading of seeds in automated, semi-automated or manual operations. The covers also permit inspection of the seeds, removal of debris, and so forth. [0019] As shown in FIG. 2 , vertical planes 62 bisect left tank 30 and right tank 32 . The upper surfaces of the tanks have fill openings centered at distances 64 from rear sides 42 and 44 and distances 66 from center oriented sides 46 and 48 . Distances 64 and 66 are generally equal, making each of the seed tanks 10 and their features symmetrical about vertical planes 62 . Arrow 68 depicts the generally 90 degree angle between vertical planes 62 . Arrow 68 further shows that left tank 30 and right tank 32 are mirror images of one another. That is, the tanks are identical, and are simply oriented at right angles or at a 90 degree rotation with respect to one another. [0020] FIG. 3 illustrates the top view of seed tank 30 or 32 . As noted above, fill openings 56 are located at equal distances 64 and 66 from rear sides 42 and 44 as well as center-oriented sides 46 and 48 . Tank center 70 and fill opening center 72 are generally centered along vertical planes 62 which bisect each tank, as discussed above. In an alternative embodiment, additional operator access to fill opening 56 may be provided by recess 74 . Recess 74 may be configured to be symmetrical about vertical plane 62 , and located near fill opening 56 . It should be noted that recess 74 creates an additional side, generally angled at 45 degrees with respect to adjacent sides 44 and 48 or adjacent sides 46 and 48 . [0021] As shown in greater detail in FIG. 4 , chutes 76 are located on the lower portion of left tank 30 and right tank 32 . Flanges 78 connect chutes 76 to induction boxes 80 . As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, these components channel seed from tanks 30 and 32 through box outlets (not shown) to row units (not shown) located on the tool bar. Inlet openings 82 are supplied air pressure from blower 84 through conduit 86 and tubes (not shown) forcing seeds from induction boxes 80 through the box outlets (not shown) to row units (not shown). [0022] FIG. 5 illustrates a top view of left tank 30 and right tank 32 in somewhat greater detail. The arrangement of FIG. 5 demonstrates the concept that features of seed tanks 30 and 32 , as well as inlet openings 82 and inductor boxes 80 are all symmetrical with respect to vertical planes 62 . As discussed above, the components are oriented such that left tank 30 and right tank 32 are mirror images. Again, arrow 68 shows that the right tank 32 is identical to and rotated 90 degrees with respect to left tank 30 . [0023] In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6 , angled left tank 88 and angled right tank 90 are shown in a top view. Each tank features recesses 74 which allow for a platform 92 . This platform 92 provides improved access to fill openings 56 by allowing an operator to stand in recess 94 while filling or servicing the tanks. [0024] While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.

A seed tank arrangement is provided with improved access to seed tanks of an agricultural planter and the contents thereof, while simplifying the manufacturing of such tanks. The seed tank has a fill opening formed in the upper surface of the tank for loading and accessing seeds in the interior of the tank. Features of the tank are mirror images about a diagonal plane of the tank, which enables the same tank to be used for both the left and right sides of the planter. This is achieved by rotating the left tank 90 degrees with respect to the right tank. The design provides improved access to the interior of the tanks for filling and servicing the seed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention pertains to an antenna, and more particularly, an antenna for cellular telephones, such as hand-held telephones, briefcase telephones, and portable telephones. The antenna can also be placed onto a window of a vehicle. 2. Description of the Prior Art Prior art antennas are vertically polarized and flexible which work properly only with a ground plane at the feed point. Other prior art antennas are coaxial dipoles providing for vertical polarization and transmission. These vertically polarized antennas do not respond to randomly polarized signals typically received in portable telephone environments. The whip antennas have less than an ideal efficiency. The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing an omni-polarized cellular antenna. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The general purpose of the present invention is to provide an omni-polarized antenna for cellular telephones. According to one embodiment of the present invention there is provided a cellular antenna including a coaxial feed-line impedance transformer connected to a one wave length copper braid element assuming a substantially rectangular configuration. The antenna responds to signals of random polarization, preferably better than a vertical whip which tends to ignore horizontally polarized signals. There is additional capture area in excess of that of a whip antenna, and provides stronger signals to and from the radio. The low standing wave ratio transfers power more efficiently to and from the telephone and minimizes duplex desensing of the receiver. Significant aspects and features of the present invention include an antenna with large capture area for high receiver sensitivity and high effective radiated power. The antenna works with randomly polarized signals in both the horizontal and vertical polarizations. There is an excellent impedance match to the telephone The antenna has a broad frequency band width, and is immune to proximity effects. Having thus described the embodiments of the present invention, it is a principal object hereof to provide a cellular antenna. One object of the present invention is to provide a cellular antenna for car telephones, such as portable telephones, hand-held telephones, and briefcase telephones. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects of the present invention and many of the attendant advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the figures thereof and wherein: FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a cellular antenna with a front panel of the antenna removed; and, FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-sectional view. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates an exploded perspective view of a cellular antenna 10, the present invention, including a front panel 12, a back panel 14, and a coaxial feed line transformer 16 extending through the back panel 14, and including an inner conductor 18 and an outer conductor 20. The front panel 12 is illustrated in a position removed from the back panel 14. A copper braid 22 of 3/32" wide copper braid forms the radiating element 24 and is positioned in a substantially rectangular configuration having dimensions of about 8 cm by 10 cm. The back panel 14 and front panel 12 are of a dimension of 12 cm by 14 cm. The length of the coaxial feed line transformer 16 is about 6 cm. The coaxial feed line transformer 16 has a 90 degree turn and terminates in a male mini UHF connector 26, as illustrated in FIG. 2, to mate with standard cellular telephone female connectors. The feed line transformer connects to each end of the braid at an off center point of one of the sides of the rectangular configuration to achieve omnipolarization. The antenna is intended for use in a cellular frequency range of 825 to 849 and 1870 to 894 megahertz. The antenna can also be used on other frequencies and other bands. The geometry of full wave radiator can assume any other predetermined geometrical configuration. FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-sectional side view of the cellular antenna where all numerals correspond to those elements previously described. MODE OF OPERATION The cellular antenna 10 is installed to the portable telephone by attaching the feed line connector 26 to the coaxial connector on the telephone. Spacing between the cellular telephone and the antenna 10 is just under 1/4 wave length, and a portion of the backwave signal is reflected in phase with the front wave, producing 6 decibels of forward gain. No other user controls or adjustments are required. Various modifications can be made to the present invention without departing from the apparent scope hereof.

A cellular antenna including a matching transformer section connected to a substantially rectangular member of braid. An off-center feed provides for an omni-polar radiation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Auger bits have been used to drill holes in utility poles made of wood for a number of years. These auger bits usually have a feed screw near their tip that helps propel the bit through a pole, at least one cutting edge located below the feed screw near the outer circumference of the main shaft of the auger bit that enables the auger bit to cut through the wood, a main shaft with a generally cylindrical shape that has at least one flute that extends from the cutting edge and allows chips formed by the auger bit as it bores into a pole to be removed from the cutting site, and a shank portion that has a diameter that is less than the main shaft that extends from the bottom of the main shaft of the auger bit. [0002] The shank portion typically has three flats milled about its periphery which allow it to be easily held in a chuck of a powered drill or impact wrench which can be used by the user to cause the auger bit as a whole to rotate. As the auger bit rotates, the threads of the feed screw help to propel the auger bit through the pole, making it easier for the user to complete the boring operation. At the same time, the cutting edges remove material as the auger bit rotates and send this material along the flute of the bit, allowing deep holes to be bored. [0003] When being used in the field, it is common for an auger bit to hit nails that are within the wooden pole. This can cause damage to the feed screw and cutting edges, impairing the function of the auger bit. For example, the threads of the feed screw could be deformed which prevents the auger bit from self feeding through the pole as it rotates, requiring the user to push and work harder to bore a hole. Likewise, the cutting edges can become chipped or dulled so that they do not efficiently remove wood chips making boring slow. Consequently, a number of techniques have been developed to remedy these problems. [0004] For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,389,578 discloses an auger bit that has a replaceable insert that has the feed screw and cutting edges incorporated therein. The replaceable insert can be attached to the shaft of the auger bit using a single screw. This design, however, has two disadvantages. First, the manufacturing the insert is difficult and costly because of the configuration of the replaceable insert because it includes both the feed screw and cutting edges. Second, both the feed screw and the cutting edges are replaced regardless of what features have been damaged on the auger bit, forcing the user to buy and use a replacement insert that is often more costly than necessary. [0005] U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,319 discloses an auger bit that has replaceable feed screw that is attached to the shaft by means of a single screw. This technique, however, does not provide for any way to replace worn cutting edges. Therefore, this auger bit does not allow the user to handle situations when the cutting edge has become dull. Conversely, U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,520 discloses replacing cutting edges using a screw to attach the replaceable cutting insert to the shaft, but provides no means to replace the feed screw. Thus, neither U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,319 nor U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,520 provides a suitable way to replace both feed screw and cutting inserts, giving the user the needed flexibility to address problems in the field. [0006] Finally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,625,593 and 6,361,255 disclose replaceable feed screws and cutting inserts, but neither show how they can be attached in a quick and effective manner. U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,593 discloses that the insert is brazed onto the shaft making replacement difficult, while U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,255 fails to specify the exact means by which the feed screw and cutting insert are attached in a replaceable manner to the shaft of the auger bit. [0007] Accordingly, there exists a need for an auger bit that has a replaceable feed screw and a replaceable cutting insert that can be attached in a quick manner, and that allows the user to select which feature needs to be replaced in a cost effective way. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0008] The organization and manner of the structure and operation of the invention, together with further objects and advantages thereof; may best be understood by reference to the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals identify like elements in which: [0009] FIG. 1 is perspective view of an auger bit which includes a shaft, an insert and a feed screw, which incorporates the features of the present invention; [0010] FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the auger bit; [0011] FIG. 3 is an alternate side elevational view of the auger bit; [0012] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a shaft of the auger bit; [0013] FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the shaft; [0014] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the shaft along line 6 - 6 of FIG. 5 ; [0015] FIG. 7 is an alternate side elevational view of the shaft; [0016] FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the shaft along line 8 - 8 of FIG. 7 ; [0017] FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the shaft along line 9 - 9 of FIG. 7 ; [0018] FIG. 10 is an end plan view of the shaft; [0019] FIG. 11 is a view of the shaft along the view of line 11 - 11 in FIG. 10 ; [0020] FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the shaft along line 12 - 12 of FIG. 10 ; [0021] FIG. 13 is a side elevational view of the feed screw; [0022] FIG. 14 is an alternate side elevational view of the feed screw; [0023] FIG. 15 is a side elevational view of the insert; [0024] FIG. 16 is a view of the insert along the view of line 16 - 16 in FIG. 15 ; [0025] FIG. 17 is an end plan view of the insert; and [0026] FIG. 18 is an alternate side elevational view of the insert. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0027] Briefly, the present invention discloses an auger bit which includes a shaft having a central axis, a cutting insert mounted to said shaft, and a feed screw that is separate from the cutting insert and which is mounted to the shaft. The cutting insert and the feed screw are engaged with each other. A single locking member, such as a set screw, secures the feed screw member to the shaft, and thereby secures the cutting insert to the shaft. If the feed screw or the cutting insert become worn, feed screw or the cutting insert can be replaced. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0028] While the invention may be susceptible to embodiment in different forms, there is shown in the drawings, and herein will be described in detail, a specific embodiment with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered an exemplification of the principles of the invention, and is not intended to limit the invention to that as illustrated and described herein. [0029] FIGS. 1-3 shows an auger bit 20 that has a replaceable cutting insert 22 and a replaceable feed screw 24 attached to a shaft 26 of the auger bit. The cutting insert 22 and the feed screw 24 are attached to the shaft 26 using a single set screw 28 . [0030] The shaft 26 has a continuous land 30 and flute 32 which extends from a leading end 34 of the shaft 26 to a shank 36 which is provided at a trailing end 38 of the shaft 26 . A central axis 39 extends along the length of the shaft 26 from the leading end 34 to the rearmost end of the shank 36 . The outer periphery of the land 30 is formed as a cutting edge. A groove 40 extends from the cutting insert 22 to the trailing end 36 and allows the removal of chips as the auger bit 20 bores a hole. The shaft 26 has first, second and third passageways first passageway 42 , 44 , 46 proximate to its leading end 34 that allow the cutting insert 22 , the feed screw 24 and the set screw 28 to be inserted into the shaft 26 . In addition, a fourth passageway 48 is provided proximate to the leading end 34 of the shaft to allow a user to place an implement within the fourth passageway 50 to force the cutting insert 22 out of the shaft 26 when desired. [0031] The shank 36 has a smaller diameter than the shaft 26 . The shank 36 has flats 52 thereon which are held in a chuck of a powered drill or impact wrench which can be used by the user to cause the auger bit 20 as a whole to rotate. [0032] The first passageway 42 forms the passageway into which the cutting insert 22 is mounted. The wall which forms the second passageway 44 is smooth. The first passageway 42 has a central axis 54 that intersects near the edge that would be formed by the leading end 34 and the circumference of the shaft 26 . The central axis 54 forms an acute angle with the central axis 39 of the shaft 26 . Preferably, the acute angle is forty-five degrees which prevents any thin areas that could occur near the leading end 34 of the shaft 26 if the angle were greater, such as ninety degrees. The first passageway 42 terminates at a predetermined distance into the shaft 26 at a floor or stop surface 56 . The depth of the first passageway 42 is great enough so that the first passageway 42 passes through the central axis 39 of the shaft 26 . [0033] The second passageway 44 forms the passageway into which the feed screw 24 is mounted. The wall which forms the second passageway 44 is generally cylindrical and smooth. The second passageway 44 extends from the leading end 34 of the shaft 26 rearwardly coincident with the central axis 39 of the shaft 26 a predetermined depth. [0034] The third passageway 46 forms the passageway into which the set screw 28 is mounted. The third passageway 46 is located on the circumference of the shaft 26 at a predetermined distance from the leading end 34 . The third passageway 46 has a central axis 58 that is perpendicular to the central axis 39 of the shaft 26 and intersects the second passageway 44 . Unlike the first and second passageways 42 , 44 which have smooth walls, the third passageway 46 has an internal thread thereon, such as a ¼-28 internal thread so it can mate with the set screw 28 as fully described herein. The positioning of the third passageway 46 is chosen to make sure that it is not too close to the groove 40 of the shaft 26 , which could compromise the structural integrity of the third passageway 46 . [0035] The fourth passageway 48 is concentric with the first passageway 42 and extends from the stop surface 56 to the other side of the shaft 26 . The fourth passageway 48 has a smaller diameter than the first passageway 42 . The wall which forms the fourth passageway 48 is smooth. [0036] The shaft 26 with these features can be made from 1144 stress proof round stock on a multi-tasking lathe such that the outer dimensions are tuned, the passageways 42 , 44 , 46 , 48 are bored or drilled, and the flats 52 are milled. Finally, the groove 40 is milled into the shank 34 using a whirler machine. Since the stock is pre-hardened, no further heat treatment is required. [0037] FIGS. 13 and 14 illustrate the construction of the feed screw 24 . The feed screw 24 includes a generally conical portion 60 on one end that has male threads thereon. Extending from threaded portion 60 is a stem 62 having a cylindrical shape and a diameter that is less than the threaded portion 60 creating an annular shoulder 64 at the bottom of the threaded portion 60 . The stem 62 has a flat surface 66 proximate to its rear end that forms an acute angle, such as five degrees, with respect to a central axis 68 of the stem portion 62 , such that the depth of the depression created by the flat surface 66 is deepest near the threaded portion 60 and decreases as the flat surface 66 nears the rear end of the stem 62 . The stem 62 is mounted into the second passageway 44 . This construction helps to retain the feed screw 24 within the shaft 26 as described herein. The rear end of the feed screw 24 has a taper 70 that facilitates assembly of the auger bit 20 as will be more fully herein. The feed screw 24 can be manufactured by a cold headed blanking operation out of medium carbon steel to produce the overall shape. Next, the threads can be rolled onto its conical portion 60 and the flat surface 66 can then be milled or ground onto the stem 62 . Finally, the feed screw 24 can be heat treated to forty-five to fifty-five Rockwell scale C. [0038] FIGS. 15-18 show the cutting insert 22 . The cutting insert 22 includes a generally cylindrical body 72 having first and second ends and a central axis 74 . Three flats 76 a , 76 b , 76 c that form cutting edges 78 a , 78 b , 78 c are formed at one end of the generally cylindrical body 72 . The generally cylindrical body 72 has a shape that corresponds to the first passageway 42 in the shaft 26 . A groove 80 is formed in the generally cylindrical body 72 and has a central axis 82 that forms a forty-five degree angle with the central axis 74 of the generally cylindrical body 72 . The groove 80 mates with a portion of the feed screw 24 as described herein. A chamfer 84 is located around the perimeter of the second end of the generally cylindrical body 72 . The second end forms an abutment surface 86 . The cutting insert 22 can be manufactured out of S-7 tool steel using a screw machine or multi-tasking lathe, such that its general shape is turned and the flats 76 a , 76 b , 76 c and groove 80 are milled thereon. The cutting insert 22 is then heat treated to a range of fifty to sixty Rockwell scale C. [0039] The auger bit 20 can be assembled in the following manner. First, the user inserts the cutting insert 22 into the first passageway 42 with the abutment surface 86 facing the stop surface 56 of the first passageway 42 until the abutment surface 86 bottoms out on the stop surface 56 . At this point, the cutting insert 22 is free to rotate within the first passageway 42 and the cutting edges 78 a , 78 b , 78 c are located near the edge defined by the front end 34 and the outer wall of the shaft 26 . Next, the user inserts the stem 62 of the feed screw 24 into the second passageway 44 of the shaft 26 located on its front end 34 and pushes the feed screw 24 into the shaft 26 until the taper 70 on the feed screw 24 contacts the cutting insert 22 . At this point, the groove 80 of the cutting insert 22 is not necessarily aligned with second passageway 44 or the stem 62 of the feed screw 24 , so the user usually must rotate the cutting insert 22 until the edge of the groove 80 contacts the stem 62 of the feed screw 24 . Once this happens, the user simply pushes on the feed screw 24 and the taper 70 will rotate the cutting insert 22 until the groove 80 is completely aligned with the stem 62 of the feed screw 24 . Once the annular shoulder 64 bottoms out on the front end 34 of the shaft 26 , the stem 62 has passed completely through the groove 80 of the cutting insert 22 and past the groove 80 , thereby fixing the orientation of the cutting insert 22 and preventing the removal of the cutting insert 22 from the shaft 26 . [0040] The depth of second passageway 44 is greater than the length of the stem 52 , ensuring that the feed screw 24 can be properly seated with no gaps between its threaded portion 60 and the front end 34 of the shaft 26 . The depth of the first passageway 42 is greater than the distance from the groove 80 of the cutting insert 22 to its abutment surface 86 , ensuring that the groove 80 can properly align the stem 62 of the feed screw 24 , while at the same time the cutting edges 78 a , 78 b , 78 c are located directly next to the groove 40 of the shaft 26 despite any possible dimensional variances due to manufacturing tolerances. The gap between the abutment surface 86 of the cutting insert 22 and the stop surface 56 of the first passageway 42 of the shaft 26 is small enough, e.g. a thirty second of an inch, to minimize the amount of possible misalignment between the groove 80 of the cutting insert 22 and the second passageway 44 , thereby easing assembly. Once the cutting insert 22 and feed screw 24 have been installed, the portions of the cutting edges 78 a , 78 b , 78 c that are nearest the tip of the feed screw 24 in a direction that is parallel to the central axis 39 of the shaft 26 extend past the last thread of the feed screw 24 , helping to make sure that as the auger bit 20 passes through the pole it is pulled through by the threads of the feed screw 24 until the hole is complete, easing the drilling operation. [0041] The last step in assembling the auger bit 20 is to insert the set screw 28 whose external threads match the internal threads of the third passageway 46 and tighten the set screw 28 until it approaches the stem 62 of the feed screw 24 . The user must then rotate the feed screw 24 so that the flat surface 66 is aligned with the third passageway 46 . Finally, the set screw 28 is tightened until it contacts the flat surface 66 , which due to its angle, exerts some force that urges the feed screw 24 toward a fully seated position. This prevents the feed screw 24 from being extracted from the shaft 26 by the force created by land 30 as the land 30 engages a workpiece or pole. [0042] Disassembly of the auger bit 20 may be achieved by reversing the above process. Sometimes, debris or slight deformation may cause the removal of the cutting insert 22 to be difficult. Consequently, the fourth passageway 48 allows a user to insert an implement, such as a punch used with a hammer, to dislodge the cutting insert 22 forcibly. [0043] As can be seen, the auger bit 20 provides an insert 22 and feed screw 24 that can be selectively replaced depending on what damage or dulling has occurred. The auger bit 20 further holds the insert 22 and feed screw 24 in place using a single locking member, set screw 28 . Other locking members are within the scope of the present invention as would be know to one of ordinary skill in the art. Hence, this auger bit 20 satisfies the needs of an auger bit 20 whose features which are subject to wear can be replaced quickly and cost effectively. [0044] While a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown and described, it is envisioned that those skilled in the art may devise various modifications of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

An auger bit includes a shaft having a central axis, a cutting insert mounted to said shaft, and a feed screw that is separate from the cutting insert and which is mounted to the shaft. The cutting insert and the feed screw are engaged with each other. A single locking member, such as a set screw, secures the feed screw member to the shaft, and thereby secures the cutting insert to the shaft. If the feed screw or the cutting insert become worn, feed screw or the cutting insert can be replaced.

FIELD OF INVENTION [0001] The present invention generally relates to paintball loading devices, more specifically, it relates to a paintball loader used to forcefully deliver paintballs to a paintball marker against the force of gravity. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0002] The game of paintball usually involves the participation of two teams. Players on each team are armed with paintball markers that shoot small paint filled gelatin balls. The object of the game is for either of the teams to capture the opposing team's flag while at the same time eliminating as many of the opposing team's players as possible. An elimination occurs when a player is struck by a paintball. The paintball must rupture on the player to count as a “hit”. A “hit” on a player's equipment, such as their marker, also counts as an elimination. The game of paintball has experienced tremendous growth in technological advancements over the past several years. With the advent of semi automatic markers there arose a requirement for more sophisticated loading devices to deliver paintballs at higher feed rates than the original gravity assisted loaders. Many designs have emerged that have achieved higher rates of fire, though still leave room for improvement. Following are some examples of existing designs and descriptions of their deficiencies. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART [0003] To date, a large number of patents relating to feed systems and bulk loaders for paintball markers have been made for designs employing gravity assisted mechanisms to deliver paintballs to the marker. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,282,454, 6,415,781, 6,305,367, 6,481,432 and 6,418,919 all disclose loaders mounted above the breach of the marker using various methods of breaking up a jam when they occur in the paintball storage compartment of the loader. [0004] U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,454 teaches a method of dislodging a jam using a paddle wheel mounted adjacent to a top inlet of a vertically oriented feed tube. An infrared sensor is used to detect an absence of paintballs in the feed tube to initiate a motor which drives the paddle wheel device, which then stirs the paintballs and dislodges the jam. [0005] U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,526,955, 6,415,781, and 6,418,919 each disclose similar methods of dislodging jams. U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,955 teaches a center-less rotating disk to agitate the paintballs through which paintballs fall, U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,781 discloses a vertically positioned, rotating conical-shaped helical member to agitate the paintballs. U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,919 discloses a vibrating member suspended from the top of the paintball storage compartment to prevent jamming of the paintballs. Although all of the above mentioned patents achieve their intended purpose, they do so only satisfactorily. There are three disadvantages to all of these designs. Primarily, they fail to completely eliminate jamming (and hence do not eliminate the root cause of the problem). Secondly, all are designs that still rely on gravity to effectively deliver paintballs to the breach of the paintball marker as the agitating devices only partially prevents jamming. As a result, they must be mounted on top of the marker. In the sport of paintball, a hit on the marker counts as a hit on the player, thus the added height profile is a disadvantage. Thirdly, relying on gravity to deliver paintballs to the breach introduces an obvious limitation. Ignoring effects of air resistance as well as friction between a paintball and the inner surfaces of the loader, the time that it takes a paintball to drop in a 152.4mm (6inch) free-fall is governed by the following equation. [h=(0.5)(g)(t)(t)] Where g=9.817 m/s_sup — 2, t=time (in seconds) and h=height (in meters). Solving for t yields 0 . 176 seconds. A six inch free-fall is chosen since it can be assumed that the average height from the opening in the lower portion of the paintball storage compartment to the breach of the marker is six inches. Taking the inverse of 0.176 will give us the theoretical number of paintballs that can be fed into the breach per second by relying on gravity alone. This number is 5.7. Assuming that the weight of several balls on top of one another will apply extra momentum to the ball-stack, and that the churning action of an agitating member might help as well, a gravity fed agitating loader might be able to achieve a rate of delivery of 10 paintballs per second. With today's high tech markers it is very easy to out-shoot this number of paintballs as many of the semi-automatic markers are capable of 20 or more paintballs per second, in the hands of an experienced player. [0006] There are some gravity assisted loaders which have managed to exceeded the feed rate of the above mentioned simple agitating-action gravity assisted loaders. One such loader is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,502,567 and 6,213,110. Both of these loaders disclose generally the same design, employing a cone-shaped rotating element located at the bottom of the paintball storage compartment with a plurality of fins distributed about the circumference of the cone. These fins are placed so as to accommodate one paintball between adjacent fins. As the cone rotates, the fins engage the paintballs and force them into an opening, which is tangentially oriented with the path of the rotating fins. The paintballs enter this opening and are then directed down a tube and thus into the breach of the paintball marker. While the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,502,567 and 6,213,110 feed the paintballs faster than the simple agitating, gravity-assist loaders, it still suffers from the fact that it is mounted on top of the marker and thus prone to taking hits from an opponent's shot. It is also incapable of effectively feeding paintballs up through a feed tube against the force of gravity and is therefore still partially dependent on gravity. Furthermore, should a paintball break within the loader during use, cleaning out the feed mechanism is not easily accomplished. [0007] U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232 discloses an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,454 made by the same inventor. The inventor lists three improvements, these being (1) forcing the paintballs into the feed tube versus just stirring paintballs up, (2) directing the paintballs into the feed tube versus imparting directionless agitating motion to the paintballs and (3) positioning the loader in a position other than directly above the inlet to the breech of the paintball marker. While the loading device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232 does impart a directional force on the paintballs via a horizontally mounted rotating paddle wheel which forcibly engages paintballs, this force is insufficient to feed the paintballs reliably against the force of gravity. Thus there is still the requirement that it positioned above the inlet to the breech of the marker and hence adds to the overall vertical profile of the player. The paddle wheel as disclosed in this invention does not provide for easy cleaning without disassembly. [0008] There are yet other loaders which have been designed to mount underneath a paintball marker and feed against the force of gravity, five of which are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,771,875, 6,467,473, 6,488,019, 5,954,042, 6,109,252, 5,520,171 and 5,335,579. [0009] U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,875 discloses a chain driven mechanism that feeds paintballs from a clip-like container mounted below the marker, very similar in looks to the ammunition clip of a real firearm. Although this particular loader effectively feeds paintballs without the aid of gravity, it has four key limitations. First, it was designed to fit only one particular marker. In actuality, U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,875 discloses a “gas powered repeating gun”, which includes the loader design. This particular design will not function on any other marker and thus has limited functionality. Another major drawback with this design is speed. By virtue of its many mechanical linkages it is not capable of the rapid rate of fire demanded by tournament players. It is also limited in capacity, and must have additional compartments added to accommodate more paintballs. Lastly, like many of the previously mentioned designs, it is very difficult to clean out both on and off the field. [0010] U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,467,473 and 6,488,019 both disclose similar designs by the same inventor. This design is for a “paintball feeder” and not actually a loader. It requires a typical gravity assisted, agitating loader much like that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232 to first supply it with a steady stream of paintballs. It then picks up each consecutive paintball between two flexible urethane discs, at least one of which spins, and essentially redirects the paintballs in the opposite direction. It's only advantage is to remove the typical gravity assisted loader from on top of the gun to either the left or right side of the marker. While in some cases this is advantageous, it still adds to the overall frontal area of the marker. In essence, it merely takes the potential target from the top of the gun and moves it to the side. Lastly, it also suffers from being difficult to clean out during play should a paintball break within its internals. [0011] U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,042 discloses a loader design which is mounted on the underside of the paintball marker. This design employs a somewhat large container, with a rotating paddle wheel mounted internally with its axis of rotation collinear with the axis of the marker barrel. The paddle wheel's individual paddles are spaced such that no more than one paintball will fit between adjacent paddles. The container is equipped with a feed tube such that paintballs can be fed to the breach of the paintball marker. A wedge positioned within slots of the paddles directs paintballs into the opening of a feed tube. Although this design would appear to be effective in feeding paintballs at a reasonable rate to the marker, it has some inherent flaws. Firstly, due to the size of the paddle wheel the frontal area is quite large, presenting an enlarged target to an opponent. Secondly, the internals are arranged such that should paintball breakage occur while in use, it would be virtually impossible to effectively clean during game time, since tournament style paintball games rarely last more than 15 to 20 minutes. Also, with the ever increasing move towards more fragile paintballs, the ease at which paintballs either break within the loader and/or marker increases. More brittle shelled paintballs are desired since a more resilient shell means that the paintball breaks less easily on an opponent. A paintball that strikes it's opponent but doesn't break does not count as a hit. As a consequence however, the markers and loaders must be gentler on the paintballs. This requires lower operating pressures in the markers and less aggressive feeding regimes used in the loaders. The loader disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,042 employs a control feature whereby an electric motor winds up a spring which has one end connected to the paddle wheel and another to the motor shaft. When the spring is wound to a desired point the amperage drawn by the motor reaches a maximum value, that is, when paintballs are not being fed into the marker. At the maximum amperage the motor shuts off. There is sufficient torsion built up in the spring at this point to feed several paintballs. A sensor determines when a predetermined number of paintballs has been fed to the marker and the motor winds the spring up again. The need to wind the spring up to the point that more than one ball could be fed means that an excessive amount of force may be applied to the paintballs within the feed tube. This increases the likelihood of breakage. Lastly, it is taught that the control circuitry of this invention is programmed so as to engage the motor until it's maximum torque is reached in winding the spring before it shuts the motor off so that the motor stalls. Repeated operation under this mode can easily wear a motor out due to heat stress in the armature windings and heat fatigue of the commutators. [0012] U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,252 discloses a generally vertically arranged cylindrical loader with an impeller-like drive member at the bottom thereof. The impeller has spherically shaped pockets designed to receive paintballs while rotating. Once received in the pockets of the impeller, the paintballs are guided into a feed tube connected to the marker. While appearing at first to be an adequate solution to feeding paintballs against the force of gravity, it becomes apparent upon closer investigation that there are three primary deficiencies with this design. Primarily, there is no provision for an adequate control system. The patent discloses a position sensor that interfaces with the trigger of a paintball marker. The sensor is configured to signal the loader to start feeding paintballs when the trigger starts to move. The design depends on the marker having a relatively long trigger pull, so that the loader has time to begin feeding paintballs before the marker actually fires. This method of operation is not particularly reasonable, as nearly all modern paintball markers have extremely short trigger travel, often less than 1 millimeter. Markers are also often fired quite rapidly, typically exceeding 15 cycles per second. This type of control system is not adequate for contemporary markers. The loader design also requires that the paintballs in the feed tube be slightly compressed prior to firing of the marker. Although paintballs do have a slight elasticity to their structure the loader disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,252 relies on this elasticity to provide a jump-start to the top-most paintball in the feed tube for entry into the breech of the marker. The primary deficiency in this dependency is that there is an elevated risk of a paintball rupturing. Finally, as with other hopper designs, the intricacy of the feed members are such that a ball breakage within the loader during game time would be very difficult to clean out without hindering a player's ability to contribute effectively to their team's efforts. [0013] U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,171 and 5,335,579 are similar designs by the same inventor, both disclose a helical indexing magazine used to feed pellets or paintballs into an air gun. The disclosed designs include a cylindrical casing, the interior surface thereof comprising a helical ridge extending from one end to the other. An internal core includes longitudinally oriented ribs. The internal core is rotatably mounted on a first end cap and is driven by an indexing cam linked to the firing mechanism of the air gun. The outer casing is fixed relative to the end caps. Paintballs are loaded into the device prior to commencement of a game. While this device allows for the feeding of paintballs into a paintball marker without the assistance of gravity, there are two main disadvantages in the design. First, the device requires a marker capable of driving the cam indexing mechanism. No mainstream marker designs currently on the market are designed for any loading device in particular. Likewise, with the exception of U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,875, nearly all contemporary loaders are generically designed to fit on a multitude of various manufacturer's markers. The loading device of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,520,171 and 5,335,579 would thus require an additional mechanism to provide its motive power, which are neither disclosed or provided for in the patent. Secondly, since it must be loaded prior to game commencement, once the supply of paintballs are depleted it is virtually useless, as the time required to reload it would prevent the user from actively participating in the game. Finally, like many other designs, the internal design of the drive mechanism is not conducive to quick cleaning should a paintball break during game time, making the device difficult to use for the duration of the game. [0014] It is therefore advantageous (and desirable) that a paintball loader possess the following attributes: (1) have a small a profile as possible while still holding a sufficient quantity of paintballs, (2) be mountable on any position of the marker (especially in locations which do not add to the overall profile of the player), (3) to not be gravity dependent in assisting in the delivery of paintballs to the breach of the marker, (4) be easily cleaned during play, (5) prevent jams from occurring (or even eliminate their occurrence altogether), (6) to feed paintballs at the highest feed rate possible. It is the object of the invention hereinafter disclosed to meet all of these requirements. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] The present invention is an automatic self feeding paintball marker consisting of a paintball marker having a breach and an automatic paintball loader for feeding the breach with paintballs. The paintball loader is mounted below the paintball marker making the marker easier to use. The paintball loader includes a hopper having a cavity, an exit port and an opening. The hopper is dimensioned to store a quantity of paintballs. A drive housing is mounted adjacent the hopper, the drive housing having a feed port in communication with the exit port of the hopper. The drive housing has an augur channel in communication with the feed port and a discharge port at one end of the augur channel. A pair of parallel augurs are rotatably mounted in the augur channel. The paintball loader includes a feed tube having opposite fist and second ends, the first end being coupled to the discharge port of the drive housing, and the second end being attachable to the breach of the paintball marker. Finally, the paintball loader also includes an electric drive mechanism for rotating the augurs in a counter rotating fashion in order to move paintballs through the augur channel, out of the discharge opening and through the feed tube. [0016] With the foregoing in view, and other advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which includes a description of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0017] The attached drawings set forth the preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0018] FIG. 1 a is a perspective of the preferred embodiment of the paintball loading device. [0019] FIG. 1 b is a profile view of the preferred embodiment of the paintball loading device. [0020] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the paintball loading device with a housing component removed for clarity in viewing the internal components. [0021] FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the primary housing components including the flip-top lid and the feed tube. [0022] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the paintball loading device of the present invention mated with a paintball marker. [0023] FIG. 5 is a top view of the paintball loading device of the present invention attached to a paintball marker. [0024] FIG. 6 shows the cross-sectional profile view of the paintball loading device and marker indicated by A-A in FIG. 5 . [0025] FIG. 7 a is a graphical representation showing the electrical current response of the drive motor of the present invention without the use of a dynamic coupling element. [0026] FIG. 7 b is a graphical representation showing the electrical current response of the drive motor utilizing a dynamic coupling element. [0027] FIG. 8 is a profile view of the electrical components, drive system, speed reduction unit, feed system and brake mechanism of the paintball loading device. [0028] FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional profile view of the internal components of the paintball loading device indicated by B-B of FIG. 8 . [0029] FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the internal mechanical and electrical components of the paintball loading device of the present invention. [0030] FIG. 11 a is a perspective view of the internal mechanical and electrical components of the paintball loading device. [0031] Fig. 11 b is an end view of the internal mechanical and electrical components of the paintball loading device. [0032] FIG. 12 a is an exploded perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the capacitive sensor of the present invention. [0033] FIG. 12 b is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the capacitive sensor of the present invention. [0034] FIG. 13 a and FIG. 13 b show perspective views of alternate embodiments of the capacitive sensor of the paintball loading device. [0035] FIG. 14 a and FIG. 14 b show perspective views two embodiments of the gear tooth position sensor of the present invention. [0036] FIG. 15 a is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the Dynamic Coupling Element of the present invention. [0037] FIG. 15 b is a perspective view of an alternate embodiments of the Dynamic Coupling Element of the present invention. [0038] FIG. 16 is a perspective view of the electrical control unit and it's various components. [0039] FIG. 17 is a perspective view the paintball loading device of the present invention showing two pieces of equipment typically used for cleaning paint residue out of existing paintball loading devices and paintball markers. [0040] FIG. 18 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the drive system of the present invention. [0041] In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0042] Referring firstly to FIG. 6 the present invention is an automatically fed paint ball marker, shown generally as item 11 which consists of a paintball marker 12 and an automatic paintball loading device 14 . Paintball loading device 14 comprises a paintball hopper 16 having opening 18 and exit port 20 . A drive housing 24 is mounted immediately below hopper 16 . Drive housing 24 has an augur channel 26 containing a pair of parallel helical augurs 114 and 116 (see FIG. 9 ). Augur channel 26 has an exit port 136 . Feed tube 131 has opposite ends 131 a and 170 a . End 131 a is coupled to exit port 136 and end 170 a is coupled to breech 170 of paintball marker 12 . The augurs are coupled to drive mechanism 22 . Drive mechanism 22 is configured to rotate the augurs in a counter rotating fashion in order to drive paintballs between the augurs and through feed tube 131 and into breach 170 . [0043] Drive mechanism 22 consists of an electric motor 108 coupled to pulley 106 which is in turn coupled to dampening spring 109 . Dampening spring 109 is coupled to augur 114 . The augurs are coupled to each other by gears 28 . Dampening spring 109 is configured to store a torsional force. Dampening spring 109 preferably comprises an elongated helical spring which is coupled to pulley 106 at one end and to augur 114 at the other end. Electric motor 108 is controlled by motor controller 125 which is configured to stop the motor when motor 108 draws too much current. Paintball sensor 123 is positioned adjacent end 170 a of feed tube 131 . Paintball sensor 123 is coupled to motor controller 125 and is further configured to send an electrical signal to the motor controller when paintballs pass by the sensor. Preferably, sensor 125 is a capacitive sensor having electrodes 402 and 403 mounted adjacent end 170 a . Preferably, motor controller 125 is programmed to start up motor 108 when the motor controller receives the electrical signal from sensor 123 . [0044] FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show various views of the paintball loading device of the present invention. The plastic housing of the paintball loading device is generally comprised of four primary components. Two main halves 129 and 130 form the generally oblong elliptical compartment which holds quantity of paintballs, typically in the range of 150 to 250 paintballs, as well as a lower portion which contains the primary drive components. For the purpose of describing the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the individual molded components of the main housing will be described as a complete part 140 (hereinafter referred to as the “main housing”). The main housing 140 comprises the two main halves 129 and 130 , an internal mounting plate 127 and a lower cover 128 . The flip-top lid 126 and feed tube 131 however will not be included in this generalized description. An opening 133 on the top side of the storage compartment allows the supply of paintballs to be replenished during game time, the hinged flip-top lid 126 is used to seal the opening 133 when not opened for refilling. The removable feed tube 131 directs paintballs out of the paintball loading device to an attached paintball marker 100 (not shown). The feed tube 131 may be a flexible conduit, but also may be made of a rigid material. Geometry of the feed tube 131 will vary according to what style of marker the paintball loading device is connected to. The inlet end 131 a of the feed tube 131 is slidably attached to the outlet port 140 g of the main casing 140 . The lower cover 128 encloses the electrical and drive components. The internal mounting plate 127 is used to separate the feed system from the rest of the internal components. It should be apparent that these molded components can be altered in shape while still performing their intended function. Therefore, deletion or modification of individual parts can be made provided the overall general function of the paintball loading device is not compromised. [0045] FIG. 2, 9 , 10 and 11 show various views of the internal mechanical components of the paintball loading device. For the purpose of simplifying some of the following description, components of the paintball loading device may be grouped together. As well, these groupings may share components of another system. For instance, the drive system 22 includes motor 108 , drive pulley 106 , o-ring belts 107 and the DCE shroud 105 (which is described in more detail below). The drive system also includes the two helical augers 114 and 115 and their respective shafts 116 and 117 . A brake mechanism 40 is comprised of a brake arm 101 , a biasing spring 102 and a roller brake 103 . The drive system is powered by a small DC motor 108 , of the kind typically used in toy cars. The motor 108 is securely attached to one of the molded plastic housing components. Power is supplied by a rechargeable battery 119 via an electronic control unit 125 . A drive pulley 106 is fitted to the shaft of the motor 108 . One or more nitrile o-rings 107 are used as drive belts to transfer power from the drive pulley 106 to a larger pulley 105 (hereinafter referred to as the DCE shroud 105 ). DCE is an acronym for “Dynamic Coupling Element”, whose function will be made clearer in the following paragraphs. The purpose of the DCE shroud 105 is twofold. Firstly, it is a component of the drive mechanism used to reduce the rotational speed of the motor 108 to a speed practicably usable by feed system 30 . The diameter of the DCE shroud 105 is generally two to three times larger than the drive pulley 106 . Its second purpose is to act as a coupling element between the speed reduction unit 20 (of which it is a part) and the feed system 30 . The DCE shroud 105 is rotatably mounted on a first auger shaft 116 (hereinafter referred to simply as the first shaft) and is positioned adjacent to the first gear 110 . The DCE 109 or “dynamic coupling element” in the preferred embodiment is a coil spring with two axial tangs 109 a , 109 b at either end. It can also take the form of a flexible molded rubber or plastic part, similar to that shown in FIG. 15 b . The DCE 109 is secured to the first gear 116 by a first tang 109 a . A second tang 109 b of the DCE 109 secures the DCE 109 to the DCE shroud 105 , thereby forming a dynamic link between the DCE 109 , the DCE shroud 105 and the first gear 110 . The first shaft 116 rotates within bushings 113 positioned at either end of the first auger 114 . The bushings 113 are located within recesses 140 b in portions of the main housing 140 , adjacent to either end of the first auger cavity 140 c . The first auger 114 is securely over-molded to the first shaft 116 , the molded material being a flexible thermoset or thermoplastic polymer. The first shaft 116 generally is a 0.25 inch diameter hollow steel shaft with a typical wall thickness of 0.035 inches or less. The first gear 110 is friction fit on the first shaft 116 and meshes with a second gear 111 , said second gear 111 being friction fit to a second shaft 117 . Said second shaft rotates within bushings 113 positioned in recesses 140 d in portions of the main housing 140 , adjacent to either end of the second auger cavity (not shown), said second shaft also typically made of 0.25 inch diameter hollow steel tubing. [0046] The first and second gear 110 , 111 are generally molded from a thermoplastic resin. Both are 1.25 inch pitch diameter, involute tooth spur gears. Since the first gear 110 directly meshes with the second gear 111 , the first auger 114 and second auger 115 are caused to counter-rotate at the same speed. [0047] FIG. 14 a illustrates in perspective the brake mechanism 40 as attached to the drive system 10 and feed system 30 as well as a frontal view in FIG. 14 b . The brake mechanism 40 is located adjacent to the DCE shroud 105 on the side opposite to that of the first gear 110 . The brake mechanism 40 consists of a brake arm 101 , a roller brake 103 and a torsional biasing spring 102 . The axis of rotation of the brake arm 101 is collinear with the axis of rotation of the DCE shroud 105 . The brake arm 101 in its at-rest state is skewed slightly off-center from vertical plane defined by the axis of rotation of the DCE shroud 105 and the pivot axis of the brake arm 101 . This allows the roller brake 103 to engage between the o-ring belts 107 and a top surface of a braking ramp 140 f . The braking ramp 140 f is a molded feature of the main casing 140 . The skewed relationship of the brake arm 101 relative to said defined vertical plane is required to prevent the roller brake 103 from going over-center and binding between the DCE shroud 105 and the braking ramp 140 f . The biasing spring 102 acts to bias the brake arm 101 so that the roller brake 103 will wedge between the o-ring belts 107 and the braking ramp 140 f when the drive system is at rest. [0048] FIG. 9 shows a section view of the drive unit, speed reduction unit and feed system and illustrates the geometry of the first and second augers 114 , 115 . The augers 114 , 115 are designed such that when configured as shown, a paintball 132 will fit loosely in the voids 135 created between the flutes 114 a , 115 a of the augers 114 , 115 . The surfaces 114 b , 115 b on either side of the flutes 114 a , 115 a have an approximate radius of 0.375 inches, slightly larger than the nominal radius of a paintball 132 , that being 0.340 inches. [0049] FIG. 6 and FIG. 8 show the electrical components which are part of the preferred embodiment of this invention. All of the electrical components, with the exception of the capacitive sensor 123 and the trigger switch 134 are contained within the molded casing 140 of the paintball loading device. The electrical control unit (or ECU) 125 is used to process signals from the capacitive sensor 123 , the gear-tooth position sensor 124 , trigger switch 134 of the paintball marker 100 and current level feedback from the electrical motor 108 . The capacitive sensor 123 is mounted between the outlet end of the feed tube 131 b and the input port 170 a to the breech 170 of the paintball marker 100 . Signal leads 123 a from the capacitive sensor 123 are routed to the ECU 125 by the most convenient route possible, preferably along the feed tube 131 . Other components of the electrical system include: an HMI (Human Machine Interface) 120 which may consist of an LED bank or LCD to indicate various fault and/or status conditions, one or more potentiometers and/or switch banks 121 for adjustment of control settings and a rechargeable battery 119 for-power supply. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED OPERATION [0050] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a paintball loading device mounted forward of the underside of a paintball marker. The paintball loading device is attached to the marker 100 via a metal bracket 167 which mounts to the underside of the marker grip-frame 169 . Note that the marker 100 is comprised of several components, these being the body 171 , bolt 161 , barrel 164 , grip 169 and trigger 162 . [0051] Prior to use, the paintball loading device is filled with a quantity of paintballs. The paintballs are loaded into the storage cavity 140 j of the main casing 140 via an opening 133 near the front end of the paintball loading device. A flip-top lid 126 is used to prevent the paintballs from spilling out of the loading device during game time. An activation button 122 is used to prime the system. Depressing the activation button 122 initializes the motor 108 causing the augers 114 , 115 to spin. The paintballs 132 are thus fed into the feed tube 131 until the first paintball reaches the breech inlet port 170 a , at which point it will come to rest against the bolt 161 of the paintball marker 100 . At this point the feed tube 131 will be filled with paintballs. Since the internal diameter of the feed tube 131 is just slightly larger than the nominal diameter of a paintball, it should be understood that the paintballs in the feed tube 131 must form a contiguous stream. Although not shown in the figures, this contiguous stream of paintballs in the feed tube 131 shall henceforth be referred to as the “paintball stack”. The amperage drawn by the motor 108 increases when the movement of the paintball stack within the feed tube 131 is halted. Current draw feedback to the ECU 125 alerts the motor control portion of the ECU 125 to stop the motor 108 . The DCE 109 builds up tension as the motor 108 slows down, thereby storing energy and exerting a force on the paintball stack. The force exerted on the paintball stack is sufficient to advance one or more paintballs into the breech 170 when the bolt 161 opens prior to the motor 108 in the paintball loading device initializing. [0052] Activation of the paintball loading device during game time may be accomplished by one or more sensor inputs to the ECU 125 . The primary method of activation is by the capacitive sensor 123 mounted between the outlet end 131 b of the feed tube 131 and the breech input port 170 a . The capacitive sensor 123 is activated when a paintball passes through said capacitive sensor 123 . The capacitive sensor 123 is typically composed of a molded plastic body 123 a , a plug 123 f , a first charge plate 123 b and a second charge plate 123 c , a first shield 123 d and second shield 123 e and a driver 123 g . The driver 123 g is comprised of a digital circuit which may be part of the capacitive sensor 123 (as shown in FIG. 12 a and 12 b ) or part of the circuitry of the ECU 125 in the main housing 140 of the paintball loading device. The driver 123 g applies a positive voltage to the first charge plate 123 b and a negative voltage to the second charge plate 123 c . An electric field is thus created between the two charge plates 123 b , 123 c . When there is no paintball between the charge plates 123 b , 123 c the amount of charge which can build up between the plates 123 b , 123 c is determined by the dielectric constant of air. [0053] The capacitive sensor 123 operates by detecting the dielectric strength of a paintball as it passes between the charge plates 123 b , 123 c . All materials have an associated dielectric strength, which is represented as “K”. For example: for air K=1.0, for vegetable oil K=4.0, for distilled water K=80. The capacitance of two parallel charged plates of area “A” and separated by a distance “d”, with a material of dielectric strength “K” between said plates is given by the equation C=(A*K)/d. As can be seen in FIG. 12 a and FIG. 12 b , the geometry of the capacitive sensor 123 is different than the case of two parallel plates separated by a thin gap. However, the general relationship of the equation will apply. Therefore, as a paintball exiting the feed tube 131 comes into the proximity of the capacitive sensor 123 , the higher dielectric strength of the paintball relative to that of ambient air will cause the charge between the two charge plates 123 b , 123 c to increase. The primary constituents of a paintball are vegetable oil and vegetable oil shortening (or similar ingredients), the balance being colorants and fillers which give the oil/shortening mixture a more viscous and colorful nature. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,092 for more detail on the general composition of the fill in paintballs. With the primary constituents of the paintball being vegetable oil, the dielectric constant “K” is generally four times greater than that of air. Therefore, the corresponding charge between the charge plates 123 b , 123 c will increase fourfold when the centroid of the paintball is coincident with the center of the capacitive sensor 123 . The change in charge between the charge plates 123 b , 123 c will cause a proportional change in voltage as detected by the driver 123 g . The driver 123 g then conditions this voltage signal so that the ECU 125 can use it for controlling the response of the drive system within the paintball loading device. [0054] A useful aspect of the capacitive sensor 123 is the output of a differential signal. As a paintball just begins to enter the charge field of the capacitive sensor 123 , the charge capacity of the capacitive sensor 123 will change ever so slightly. As the paintball continues to advance through the capacitive sensor 123 the charge capacity will continue to increase, until the centroid of a paintball is coincident with the center of the capacitive sensor 123 . As the paintball begins to exit the capacitive sensor 123 the charge capacity will begin to decrease. Because of this relative sensing capability, the capacitive sensor 123 can detect the change of position of a paintball as it passes through the capacitive sensor 123 , not just the presence or absence of a paintball. If a steady stream of paintballs is fed through the capacitive sensor 123 , the voltage output will resemble a sinusoidal waveform, the peaks and the troughs of the waveform representing the points at which the center and edge of the paintballs are coincident with the center of the sensor, respectively. The usefulness of this feature will become more apparent as the description of the present invention is further elaborated. [0055] When a voltage is applied to the first and second charge plates 123 b , 123 c , an electric field is generated all about the plates 123 b , 123 c . To inhibit extraneous sources of signal noise or interference, shields 123 d , 123 e are positioned on the exterior of the molded body 123 a of the capacitive sensor 123 . The driver 123 g applies voltages of the same magnitude as the first and second charge plates 123 b , 123 c to the first and second shields 123 d , 123 e , respectively. Since there is no difference in the voltage between the charge plates 123 b , 123 c and their respective shields 123 d , 123 e , no electric field will be created. The charge plates 123 b , 123 c are thus shielded from any extraneous interference. [0056] Two alternative embodiments to the capacitive sensor are shown in FIG. 13 a and 13 b . The capacitive sensor of FIG. 13 a is designed to be mounted in the body of a paintball marker. The sensor is comprised of two oppositely charged charge plates 402 , 403 , respective charge plate shields 404 , 405 and a driver (not shown in FIG. 13 a ). The charge plates 402 , 403 of this embodiment are actually cylindrical in shape. Since the sensor components are mounted in the body 401 of a paintball marker a molded sensor housing is no longer required. The section of the paintball marker body 401 shown in FIG. 13 a is shown cut-away for clarity. The capacitive sensor of FIG. 13 a operates on the same principals as the sensor of FIG. 12 a and 12 b . However, instead of sensing the paintballs as they pass through the sensor, the charge plates 402 , 403 are mounted on either side of the breech 406 and the paintball is detected as it passes though the inlet port 407 and into the breech 406 . A second alternative embodiment is shown in FIG. 13 b illustrates a capacitive sensor 500 which uses a slightly different method of operation. This sensor is comprised of an emitter 501 , a shell 502 and a driver 503 . In this embodiment, the capacitive sensor utilizes a method called fringing, whereby the electric field is not generated between two opposed plates. Rather, the electric field wraps back from the emitter 501 to the shell 502 . The fringing effect is represented by a number of three-dimensional arrows 504 which depict the general shape of the electric field. If a paintball is presented in front of the emitter 501 , the electric field that wraps back onto the shell 502 will be altered. The driver 503 then sends a conditioned signal to the ECU 125 for processing. The alternative embodiment of the capacitive sensor as illustrated in FIG. 13 b is particularly well suited to applications where using two opposed charge plates is inconvenient as only one sensor element is required. [0057] A second method of activating the paintball loading device is via direct coupling of the ECU 125 to a trigger switch 134 of the paintball marker 12 . This is only achievable on markers equipped with electronic control modules, or on specially modified markers. The signal type generated by the trigger switch 134 is of a discrete nature, that being, either “on” or “off”. [0058] A third sensor used for general diagnostics which can also be used to generate an activation signal is the gear tooth position sensor 124 . This sensor is mounted within the main casing 140 adjacent to the second gear 111 . The gear tooth position sensor 124 may either be a “through beam” type sensor or a “diffuse infrared” sensor. A through beam sensor (as shown in FIG. 14 a ) has an emitter 124 a placed on one side of the gear 111 and a receiver 124 b placed on the opposite side. The emitter/receiver pair are placed so as to direct an infrared beam through the tooth portion of the gear 111 . When the gear 111 moves, the teeth cut the through beam and a discrete signal is generated. Alternately, a diffuse infrared sensor may be placed in the radial plane of the gear 111 (see FIG. 14 b ), pointing towards the center of the gear 111 . The diffuse infrared sensor directs a diffuse infrared beam at the face of the gear teeth, which is redirected back to the diffuse sensor. The diffure beam is displayed as an arrow 124 e in FIG. 14 b . When the gear 111 begins to rotate, the beam is reflected away from the sensor at a different angle and a discrete signal is generated. In a diffuse infrared sensor the emitter 124 c and receiver 124 d are placed side-by-side. Back pressure exerted on the paintball stack in the feed tube 131 of the paintball loading device is released when the paintball marker 12 is cycled (fired). The back pressure on the paintball stack is exerted by the stored tension in the DCE 109 , which is connected directly to the first shaft 116 and hence the second shaft 117 via the gears 110 , 111 . Therefore, when the back pressure in the paintball stack is released, the feed system 30 will rotate, which will activate the gear tooth position sensor 124 , sending a discrete signal to the ECU 125 to initiate the paintball loading device drive system 10 . [0059] In the preferred embodiment of this invention, the method of activating the paintball loading device is via the capacitive sensor 123 . With the paintball loading device primed as described in paragraph [ 0050 ], and attached to an appropriate semi-automatic marker, the paintball loading device is now ready to be used. Upon pulling the trigger 162 of the paintball marker 12 , the bolt 161 is retracted and a paintball is advanced into the breech 170 . The tension stored in the DCE 109 after priming imparts a torque on the augers 114 , 115 , in turn exerting a force on the paintball stack in the feed tube 131 . This is the mechanism by which the paintball adjacent to the bolt 161 is forced into the breech 170 when the marker 100 is cycled. The movement of the first paintball at the top of the paintball stack into the breech 170 causes the other paintballs in the feed tube to advance. This movement is sensed by the capacitive sensor 123 and a signal is sent to the ECU 125 . What actions the ECU 125 take next will depend of the sequence of events to follow. [0060] If the paintball marker 12 is only fired once, the ECU 125 will signal the motor 108 to run for a very brief moment, just enough to rewind the DCE 109 up to its stand-by tension. This is required so that sufficient force is applied to the paintball stack to force one paintball into the breech 170 the next time the marker 12 is cycled. [0061] If the operator continues to cycle the marker 100 , the capacitive sensor 123 will continue to sense the passage of paintballs through the feed tube 131 into the breech 170 . The signal from the capacitive sensor 123 will be used by the ECU 125 to activate the motor 108 as long as the marker 100 is cycled. The ECU 125 is equipped with a motor control feature that delivers power to the motor 108 in “pulses”. This is referred to as Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). In the past, motor speed was controlled using a simple variable resistor. This wastes energy as heat dissipated by the resistor. Pulse width modulation sends pulses of energy to the motor 108 . For a slow speed, the motor controller sends widely spaced pulses of energy to the motor 108 . As the speed requirement increases, the pulses of energy become more frequent. For full speed, the energy ceases to be pulsed and becomes constant. Voltage regulation may also be used to control motor speed. This is accomplished via digital voltage regulation circuitry. The end result of using pulse width modulated and regulated voltage is increased battery life, as well as finer control of the output performance of the paintball loading device. [0062] The main component on the ECU 125 is a high-speed digital processor. This processor uses the signal generated by the capacitive sensor 123 to determine the instantaneous demand for paintballs by the marker 100 . The processor then uses this information to control the motor speed controlling portion of the ECU 125 . With the performance characteristics of the motor 108 known, the processor can exactly match motor speed to paintball demand. Another integral component of the control system is the DCE 109 . Although the DEC 109 is a mechanical component it performs critical damping and response functions. [0063] Consider the operational characteristics required of the motor 108 when connected directly to the feed system 30 of the paintball loading device. The paintball marker 100 is cyclical in its operation. This means that the bolt 161 must move from a forward position to a rearward position to load a paintball 132 and then move back to the forward position to chamber the paintball 132 in the breech 170 . The bolt in FIG. 6 is shown in the retracted position. The bolt 161 must then remain in the forward position while the paintball marker 100 is fired, expelling the paintball 132 out the barrel 164 . The top-most paintball in the paintball stack within the feed tube 131 then comes to rest against the bolt 161 for the amount of time that the bolt 161 is in the forward position. The time period for which the bolt 161 comes to rest is typically at least 20 milliseconds, but varies depending on the rate of fire of the marker 100 . With a motor 108 attached directly to the feed system 30 the current drawn by the motor 108 will spike each time a paintball stops against the bolt 161 . See FIG. 7 a for a graphical representation of current drawn by a motor as paintballs are fed into the breech 170 at a steady rate of twenty balls per second. FIG. 7 a shows a 0.25 second interval. It is a well-known characteristic with electric DC motors that the current drawn by the motor rises proportionally as the torque load on the motor increases. Section 7 a.i of the graph in FIG. 7 a represents the period of time where a paintball is stopped against the bolt 161 . As can be seen, the current drawn by the motor 108 increases markedly as the paintball is held in place by the bolt 161 . Once the bolt 161 opens to allow a paintball into the breech 170 the current drawn by the motor 108 diminishes to its minimum value. Note that while the bolt 161 is in the retracted position the motor still draws current since it is still under load. The current draw characteristics as shown in FIG. 7 a would quickly wear a motor out due to thermal fatigue of the armature windings and the motor brushes. [0064] The present invention solves this dilemma by the use of a DCE (Dynamic Coupling Element) 109 situated between the speed reduction unit 20 and the feed system 30 , as shown in FIG. 8 , FIG. 9 , FIG. 10 , FIG. 15 a and Fig. 15 b . The DCE 109 in the preferred embodiment is a coil spring with two axial tangs 109 a , 109 b at either end. It can also take the form of a flexible molded rubber or plastic part, similar to that shown in FIG. 8 b . The DCE 109 is secured to the first gear 116 by a first tang 109 a . A second tang 109 b of the DCE 109 secures the DCE 109 to the DCE shroud 105 , thereby forming a captive link between the DCE 109 and the DCE shroud 105 . The DCE shroud 105 is rotatably mounted on the first shaft 116 . Power is transferred from the motor 108 via the drive pulley 106 mounted on the motor shaft to the DCE shroud 105 by one or more nitrile o-rings 107 that act as belts. [0065] When the paintball marker 12 is fired, a paintball will pass sensor 123 causing the sensor to send an electrical signal to the ECU 125 to start the motor 108 . The ECU 125 will continue to drive the motor 108 as long as it continues receiving a varying signal from the capacitive sensor 123 , in other words, as long as the marker 12 continues to be fired. Recall that since the paintball marker's firing action is cyclical that the load on the motor 108 cycles as well, due to the stopping action of the paintballs against the bolt 161 when the bolt 161 closes. With the DCE 109 in place, there is now a shock absorbing element to smooth out the torque experienced by the motor 108 and hence the current drawn by the motor 108 . Refer to FIG. 7 b for a graphical representation of current drawn by the motor versus a 0.25 second interval in which five paintballs are fired at equal time intervals of 50 milliseconds. Note that this graph represents the current draw characteristics of a motor in a paintball loading device which is equipped with a DCE 109 . In reviewing the graph it is obvious that the current does not spike as with the loading device not equipped with the DCE 109 , as shown in FIG. 7 a . As the bolt 161 in the marker 12 moves to its forward position, the paintball stack in the feed tube 131 comes to a stop. As the paintball stack comes to a halt a force builds up in the stack and is transferred to the feed system 30 which in turn transfers the force to the drive unit 10 as an increase in torque. With the DCE 109 in place, instead of the motor 108 stopping abruptly and drawing an increased amount of current, the DCE 109 begins to wind up, absorbing the torque and storing it as potential energy. The motor 108 still experiences an increase in torque, yet at a reduced rate, as shown by the less dramatic rise in the slope (portion 7 b.i of FIG. 7 b ) of the current versus time curve in FIG. 7 b . When the bolt 161 opens to its rearward position the DCE 109 partially unwinds, releasing some of the stored energy. The unwinding action aides in propelling the top-most paintball in the paintball stack into the breech 170 of the marker 12 . [0066] A brake mechanism 40 is used to maintain tension in the DCE 109 when there is no demand for paintballs by the marker 100 . When the demand for paintballs ceases, the DCE 109 has a tendency to unwind. Without a means of arresting the unwinding action the DCE 109 would not be able to store energy, and hence would not be able to force paintballs into the breech 170 of the marker 100 at the beginning of each firing sequence. [0067] As seen in FIG. 11 a and Fig. 11 b the brake mechanism is comprised of a brake arm 101 , a torsional biasing spring 102 and a roller brake 103 . The brake arm 101 is a generally elongated “S” shaped wire form. The biasing spring 102 acts to bias the brake arm 101 in a counter clockwise direction (when viewed from the front of the paintball loading device, as in Fig. 11 b ). The top tang 101 a serves as the point of rotation of the brake arm 101 and is located in a hole formed in the main casing 140 . The lower tang 101 b of the brake arm 101 serves as the rotational axis for the roller brake 103 . The brake mechanism 40 functions by being wedged between the o-ring belts 107 which ride in guide grooves of the DCE shroud 105 and the top surface of a braking ramp 140 f . The braking ramp 140 f is a molded feature of the main casing 140 . [0068] When the demand for paintballs from the marker 100 ceases, the signal from the capacitive sensor 123 to the ECU 125 terminates. As torque in the DCE 109 builds, current drawn by the motor 108 increases until it reaches a maximum allowable value, at which point the motor driver 125 b turns the motor 108 off. The torsion built up in the DCE 109 then acts to reverse the direction of rotation of the DCE shroud 105 . Due the biasing action of the biasing spring 102 on the brake arm 101 , the roller brake 103 immediately jams between the o-ring belts 107 and the top surface of the braking ramp 140 f . The DCE 109 is thus prevented from further unwinding and exerts a torque on the feed system 30 which in turn exerts a force on the paintball stack in the feed tube 131 . The force exerted on the paintball stack holds the top-most paintball in the stack against the bolt 161 until the marker 100 cycles again. The next time the marker 100 is fired, the force exerted on the paintballs in the feed tube 131 causes the top-most paintball to advance into the breech 170 . The movement of paintballs through the capacitive sensor 123 sends a signal to the ECU 125 to restart the motor 108 . The motor 108 starts, driving the DCE shroud 105 in a clockwise direction (as viewed from the front of the paintball loading device) causing the o-ring belts 107 to dislodge the roller brake 103 . The drive system 10 is then free to drive the feed system 30 until the demand for paintballs from the marker 100 ceases, at which point the roller brake 103 is once again jammed between the 0 -rings 107 and the braking ramp 140 f. [0069] FIG. 16 shows a generalized representation of the ECU 125 and its primary components. The ECU's 125 core component is a high-speed digital microprocessor 125 a . Its function is to gather and manipulate signals from various inputs to control the motor 108 and provide status conditions to the user of the paintball loading device. Other components of the ECU 125 include a motor controller 125 b , an HMI 125 c (Human Machine Interface, which can be either Light Emitting Diodes or a Liquid Crystal Display), various signal conditioners 125 d , and control features 125 e (which may include DIP switches, push buttons, potentiometers or any other means of selecting/adjusting operational settings of the ECU 125 ). It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that exact placement of the forgoing elements of the ECU 125 need to be exactly as laid-out in FIG. 16 for operational function of the paintball loading device. FIG. 16 is for illustrative purposes only. [0070] The primary function of the ECU 125 is to control motor speed. As mentioned previously, the capacitive sensor 123 is the means by which the ECU 125 determines when to activate the motor 108 . The differential output signal generated by the capacitive sensor 123 allows proportional speed control of the motor 108 . The ECU 125 achieves proportional speed control via a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) motor controller. The ECU 125 also determines when to stop the motor 108 . Although a termination of the signal from the capacitive sensor 123 may be used to stop the motor 108 , a specific force needs to be applied to the paintballs within the feed tube 131 when the motor 108 stops. Therefore the capacitive sensor 123 signal is not adequate for this task. Feedback from the capacitive sensor 123 cannot be related to force on the paintballs in the feed tube 131 . Recall that the current drawn by a motor is directly proportional to the torque it experiences. The torque on the feed system 30 , and hence the torque on the motor 108 , is known to be proportional to the force exerted on the paintball stack in the feed tube 131 . Since the maximum desirable force that can be exerted on a paintball prior its deformation can be determined, the controller can be set to terminate power to the motor 108 before it draws the maximum current necessary to critically deform a paintball in the feed tube 131 . The maximum current set point can be adjusted using the control features 125 e on the ECU 125 . [0071] Stopping the motor 108 using current feedback is useful in that it provides for very consistent stored torque levels in the DCE 109 . This is particularly desirable because players may choose to use specific types of paintballs. Some players prefer brittle-shelled paintballs while others prefer strong-shelled paintballs. Brittle-shelled paintballs break easier upon impact with a target but also rupture more easily within the paintball marker 100 and the paintball loading device. Being able to adjust the maximum current set point allows for fine-tuning of the force exerted on the paintballs within the feed tube 131 of the paintball loading device. Therefore, for brittle-shelled paintballs the current (and hence force) can be set low, while for strong-shelled paintballs the current can be set high. [0072] Refer to FIG. 3 , FIG. 6 , FIG. 9 , and FIG. 10 for a description of the method by which the augers 114 , 115 deliver paintballs to the paintball marker. It can be seen by virtue of their geometry, the augers 114 , 115 are able to convert rotational motion into linear motion. The augers 114 , 115 are comparable to two counter rotating, oppositely threaded screws. As the augers 114 , 115 spin, the spaces 135 created between the flutes 114 a , 115 b move longitudinally relative to the rotational axis of the augers 114 , 115 . In this way the augers 114 , 115 transfer the paintballs 132 along a channel 140 i , out the exit port 136 of the main casing 140 and up through the feed tube 131 to the marker 100 . The augers 114 , 115 are over-molded onto hollow steel shafts 116 , 117 , the molding material being a semi-flexible thermoset or thermoplastic material. [0073] FIG. 9 shows a cross sectional profile view of the augers 114 , 115 , which details the geometry of the augers 114 , 115 . The geometry of the augers 114 , 115 is as follows: both augers 114 , 115 have a tip-to-tip diameter (of the flutes 114 a , 115 a ) of roughly 1 inch. The center-to-center distance between the augers 114 , 115 is 1.25 inches. A helix with a pitch of roughly 0.75 inches defines the path of the flutes 114 a , 115 a around the auger cores. The contact surfaces 114 b , 115 b have an approximate radius of 0.37 inches. The spaces 135 formed between the flutes 114 a , 115 a are just slightly larger (nominal diameter of 0.75 inches) than a paintball 132 , which has a nominal diameter of 0.68 inches. [0074] The secondary function of the augers 114 , 115 is to stir the mass of paintballs in the storage cavity 140 j of the main casing 140 . The movement of the flutes 114 a , 115 a beneath the paintballs in the storage cavity 140 j results in a continuous undulating motion that prevents jamming of the paintballs in the storage cavity 140 j . The counter-rotating action of the augers 114 , 115 also actively drag the paintballs down into the spaces 135 between the auger flutes 114 a , 115 a. [0075] Due to manufacturing irregularities in producing paintballs it is impossible to completely eliminate paintball breakage inside the storage cavity 140 j of the main casing 140 and in the area occupied by the augers 114 , 115 . The present invention provides for easy and accessible cleaning on its internal feed mechanism in two ways. FIG. 17 shows a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the paintball loading device. The second half 130 of the main casing 140 and the second auger 115 and related components have been eliminated from the drawing for better comprehension. Shown are two accessories typically used to clean paintball fill residue out of paintball equipment. The first item, a “battle swab” 190 is typically comprised of a one-foot long plastic handle 190 a and a mop-like head 190 b of braided fabric. It is used to swab paint residue out of the storage cavity 140 j of the paintball loading device. The second piece of equipment is a “barrel swab” 191 , generally a flexible cable 191 a wrapped in a wool-like material 191 b at one or both ends. The outer diameter of the wool-like wrap is nominally 0.75 inches. Although the barrel swab 191 is typically used to clean paint residue out of the barrel 164 of a paintball marker 100 , it can also be used to clean paint residue out from between the augers 114 , 115 of the paintball loading device of the present invention. A user must simply remove the lower portion of the feed tube 131 from the exit port 136 of the main casing 140 and insert the barrel swab 191 in through the exit port 136 to clean the augers 114 , 115 . The user may also activate the feed system 30 while the barrel swab is between the augers 114 , 115 in order to clean the whole circumference of the augers' 114 , 115 surface. Water under low pressure (25 psi or less) may also be used to clean out the paintball loading device. The user must simply spray water into the storage cavity 140 j through the fill opening 133 with the feed tube 131 disconnected from the exit port 136 so that the water has a place to drain out. The electronics are sufficiently sealed off from the feed system 30 so as to eliminate the possibility of ruining the electronics. [0076] A simplified schematic of an alternative embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 18 . In the majority of paintball games it is most desirable and advantageous to have a paintball loading device that operates under its own power source. In games where this type of loading device is employed the quantity of paintballs used usually exceeds 1200, the games lasting as little as five or ten minutes. It is for this reason that the preferred embodiment of the present invention uses an electrical drive means to provide motive power to the feed system 30 . In some circumstances however, such as scenario games, where generally fewer paintballs are used in such a short time span, it may be desirable to power the paintball loading device from the compressed air power source 602 of the paintball marker 100 . The following paragraphs outline the method by which this is achieved. [0077] A pneumatic drive system alternative for the paintball loading device of the present invention includes an air supply line 601 from the pressurized air tank 602 connected to the bottom of the paintball marker 100 . The air supply line 601 feeds pressurized air to a regulator 603 . The regulator 603 is adjustable via a set-screw 603 a . The regulator 603 is a schrader-type regulator commonly used in paintball applications. The output port 603 b of the regulator 603 is connected to a pneumatic motor 604 . The pneumatic motor 604 may include a gear reduction unit 605 . The output shaft 604 a of the pneumatic drive motor 604 is attached to a drive cup 606 . The drive cup 606 couples the output shaft 604 a of the pneumatic motor 604 to the DCE 607 . The DCE 607 of this alternative embodiment is the same in function as the DCE 109 of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. As in the preferred embodiment, a tang member of the DCE 607 attaches to a gear 608 . The remaining components of the feed system are the same as explained in detail in proceeding sections for the preferred embodiment of the present invention. An on/off valve 609 may be located in line between the pressurized tank 602 and the pressure regulator 603 to selectively supply air to the pneumatic motor 604 . [0078] The output torque of the pneumatic motor 604 is proportional to the pressure of the air it receives from the pressure regulator 603 . When the on/off valve 610 is turned to the “on” position, air flows through the pressure regulator 603 to the pneumatic motor 604 . The pneumatic motor 604 will continue to run, and draw air from the regulator 603 , until the torque exerted on its output shaft 604 a by the feed system 30 overcomes the torque generated by the pneumatic motor 604 . The pneumatic motor 604 will then stop since the torque it is able to generate is limited by the input pressure from the pressure regulator 603 . When the paintball marker 100 is fired, the torque exerted on the output shaft 604 a of the pneumatic motor 604 by the feed system 30 is released and the motor 604 is free to run again. The DCE 607 of this alternative embodiment performs a similar function to the DCE 109 of the preferred embodiment, in that it smoothes out the torque as experienced by the pneumatic motor 604 as well as the magnitude of the force exerted on the paintballs in the feed tube 131 .

An adaptive, force-fed paintball loading device capable of delivering paintballs to a paintball marker against the force of gravity is disclosed. The paintball loading device preferably includes a refillable compartment that is generally an oblong elliptical container holding a plurality of paintballs. Paintballs are able to flow through an opening in the lower portion of the compartment and in between two synchronously geared counter-rotating helical augers. The geometry of flutes on the counter-rotating augers causes the paintballs in the lower portion of the container to be engaged between the augers and then pushed along a channel between the augers and out through a feed tube, which is attached to a paintball marker. A DC electric motor is used to drive the augers. A speed reduction unit is employed to reduce the motor shaft speed to a level practicably used by the synchronously geared augers. A feedback control loop and dynamic coupling element are also employed to enhance the response of the loading system to changing rates of fire of the attached paintball marker. Input signals from sensors on the paintball marker and the paintball loading device may also be employed to enhance the responsiveness of the paintball loading device to the demands of the paintball marker.

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates generally to audio-video entertainment systems, and more particularly to video on demand services. BACKGROUND Today's televisions have various screen sizes, including width to height aspect ratios of 4:3 and 16:9. Interactive television (iTV) software should be able to accommodate video and graphics to fit these different screen sizes. One technique is to simply stretch a normal screen display to fit the new screen size. This technique can lead to non-esthetic distortion of on-screen graphical data objects. A user of iTV may have a heightened recognition of a distorted or misshapen on-screen graphical data object because of the user's interacting with the graphical data object, such as with a radio button, a slide bar, or a box to be checked. Another technique is to employ the cooperative efforts of a screen designer to design a different screen for each screen of a different aspect ratio and of a programmer to accommodate each different screen design with proper functionality. This cooperative effort, however, is costly. It would be an advantage in the art to provide a technique to accommodate video and graphics to fit different screen sizes without non-esthetic distortion of on-screen graphical data objects and without adding significant cost. SUMMARY Implementations provide for cost savings by permitting a designer to design an original screen that can be transformed, without screen-specific programming, into a target screen having a different resolution or aspect ratio without giving a distorted appearance to graphical data objects on the target screen. The transformation is effected by designating a “limousine” line on the original screen that is normal to and intersects with an axis at a limousine point that is designated by a designer of the original screen. A graphical data object on the original screen that intersects the limousine line is subjected to both a proportional and a non-proportional stretching while other graphical data objects on the original screen are subjected to a proportional stretching. This limousine stretching technique achieves a target screen having on-screen graphical data objects that do not have a distorted appearance. In one implementation, a substantially rectangular target screen has a different aspect ratio than a substantially rectangular original screen. The original screen has been designed with a limousine or resizing point on one of its edges. A perpendicular line from the resizing point intersects an original graphic data object on the original screen. The original graphic data object is proportionally increased in size to obtain a target graphic data object on the target screen. A stretch distance is also added to the size of the target graphic data object on the target screen. The proportional increase in size is according to the smaller of the width ratio and height ratio of the target and original screens. When the proportional increase in size is according to the height ratio, then the stretch distance is calculated by subtracting the product of the height ratio and the width of the original screen from the width of the target screen. When the proportional increase in size is according to the width ratio, then the stretch distance is calculated by subtracting the product of the width ratio and the height of the original screen from the height of the target screen. Once formed, the target graphic data object can be output on a display of the target screen. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A more complete understanding of the implementations may be had by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein: FIG. 1 shows a display screen featuring an outline of an automobile before and after a limousine stretching. FIGS. 2 a - 3 a and FIGS. 2 b and 3 b respectively show a display screen before and after a limousine stretching, where the display screen of FIGS. 2 a - 3 a has an object to the left of a limousine line, an object that is straddling the limousine line, and an object to the right of the limousine line. FIGS. 4 a - 4 b show a display screen before and after a limousine stretching, where the display screen of FIG. 4 a has an object above a limousine line, an object that is straddling the limousine line, and an object below the limousine line. FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting an implementation of a process for limousine scaling the original graphical data objects depicted in FIGS. 2 a , 3 a , and 4 a into the target graphical data objects depicted in FIGS. 2 b , 3 b , and 4 b , respectively. FIGS. 6 a - 6 b depict a graphical data object on a target screen, respectively before and after the introduction of error by using integer mathematics for the positioning of the graphical data object on the target screen. FIG. 7 depicts a main television guide or electronic programming guide (EPG) screen having an original 576 pixels by 480 pixels design, where a dashed line denotes a limousine line extending as a normal to a limousine point on a horizontal axis, where the limousine point and limousine line are to be used for limousine scaling. FIG. 8 a depicts an EPG target screen that has been limousine scaled to a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels, where graphical data objects have been scaled by a factor of 75% and the target screen height has been reduced to 75% of the height of the original screen seen in FIG. 7 . FIG. 8 b depicts the EPG screen of FIG. 8 a having been scaled non-proportionally to a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels, where space on the screen has not been used as effectively as the space used in the limousine scaled screen depicted in FIG. 8 a. FIG. 9 depicts an EPG screen having been scaled proportionally to 432 pixels by 360 pixels, where limousine scaling is not needed because the target screen has the same proportions as the original screen and its graphical data objects do not have a distorted appearance. FIG. 10 a depicts a screen having a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels that has not been subjected to limousine stretching, where objects at the left side of the screen have the appearance of being stretched too wide. FIG. 10 b depicts, for comparison purposes, the screen of FIG. 9 with different graphical data objects and a dimension of 432 pixels by 360 pixels, which is a proportionally scaled screen. FIG. 11 depicts a target screen having a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels with limousine scaling having been used to stretch most of graphical elements on the original screen towards the right side of the depicted target screen. FIG. 12 depicts a target screen having a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels in which limousine scaling has been used. FIG. 13 depicts a target screen having a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels where limousine scaling has been used such that most of the stretching of graphical elements on the original screen have been stretched toward the right side of the depicted target screen. FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary environment in which a viewer may receive content via a client that effects a transformation of an original screen having one resolution or aspect ratio into a target screen of a different resolution. The same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and figures to reference like components and features. Series 100 numbers refer to features originally found in FIG. 1 , series 200 numbers refer to features originally found in FIG. 2 , series 300 numbers refer to features originally found in FIG. 3 , and so on. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Various implementations provide a limousine stretching technique for transforming an original screen of an original dimension and having a graphical data object thereon into a target screen having a different target dimension and a resized graphical data object thereon. By use of the limousine stretching technique, the graphical data object in the original screen is scaled non-proportionally into the target screen without giving a distorted appearance to the graphical data object on the target screen. The limousine stretching technique defines a limousine point on a horizontal axis. A normal, called herein a ‘limousine line’, is extended from the limousine point so as to intersect with the graphical data object on the original screen. Each graphical data object on the original screen with which the limousine line intersects will be non-proportionally stretched. Any other graphical data object on the original screen will be proportionally stretched. Stated otherwise, graphical elements to the left or right of the limousine line are scaled proportionally, and graphical elements that straddle the limousine line are stretched non-proportionally. The non-proportional stretching of the graphical data object enables the user interface (UI) to fit the resolution (e.g., dimension or aspect ratio) of the target screen. A designer of an original screen or a template for original screens can select a limousine point to ensure that the graphical data objects to appear on the target screen will be esthetically distorted without a noticeable loss of quality. To transform the original screen of the original dimensions into the target screen having the target dimensions, the graphical data objects on the original screen are stretched proportionally and non-proportionally as set forth above. The stretched graphical data objects are placed accordingly on the target screen. The limousine stretching technique provides an esthetic presentation of the graphical data objects on the target screen without appearing distorted. A designer can designate a limousine point on an original screen or on a screen template. The limousine point can be communicated to a client, such as a set top box. When the client receives media having a first resolution or dimension that is to be transformed into a second, different resolution or dimension, the client will execute a routine having the limousine stretching technique. The executed routine will transform the media intended for an original screen into a target screen to which the client is to output a display. In so doing, graphical data objects on the target screen will not have a distorted or misshapen appearance. Advantageously, with the limousine stretching technique, a designer only needs to design one original screen for one resolution or dimension, instead of having to design an original screen for each possible resolution or dimension. Moreover, a special program is not needed for each type of original screen to transform the same into a special type of target screen. As such, embodiments enable a designer to use one design for a television user interface that, through the use of the limousine stretching technique, can be presented at multiple screen aspect ratios. One original user interface can be designed that can be used to create target screens at any one of the following screen resolutions or dimensions which can in turn be transformed into the other resolutions or dimensions: the NTSC resolution 640 pixels×480 pixels, the PAL resolution 720 pixels×576 pixels, the NTSC resolution 576 pixels×480 pixels, the High Definition TV (HDTV) resolution 1280 pixels×720 pixels, the HDTV resolution 1960 pixels×1080 pixels. The target screens so created have an esthetic appearance in that they do not appear to be stretched, but rather look as if they'd been designed. Implementations of the limousine stretch technique provide control over how graphical data objects in an original screen design are stretched to make the target scaled user interface look undistorted while also functioning correctly. Some graphical data objects on an original screen can be designed by a designer so as to be exempted from being non-proportionally scaled. These graphical data objects would rather be scaled using special proportional techniques. For example, text characters in an original screen can be re-rendered at a font size that is appropriate for the scaled space of the corresponding target screen. Still other graphical data objects can be designated for other types of stretching with different stretch distances in the horizontal and vertical dimensions. A still further refinement of stretching techniques allow for stretch distances to be applied to graphical data objects differently, depending on an object's position on the original screen. On-screen graphical data objects can be divided into two classes. In the first class are elements which cannot esthetically be scaled differently in horizontal and vertical directions such that these elements look their best when they retain their original respective aspect ratios. By way of example, these elements include letter forms, scaled picture-in-picture displays, and corporate logos where the preservation of a recognizable commercial impression is desirable. Other of such graphical elements are regular shapes that are commonly recognized as being distorted when changed, such as squares and circles. An eight-side polygon, such as the common traffic stop sign, is another example of a graphical data object for which the aspect ratio should not be altered on a target screen because of the otherwise distorted appearance that will result. For these types of graphical data objects, a proportional scaling technique can be applied to preserve the original aspect ratio. For text, such as letter forms, a new font point size can be identified that will accommodate the required text in the proportionally-scaled text area of the target screen. The text is then drawn on the target screen using the identified font point size. In the second class are on-screen graphical elements that can be scaled differently (e.g., non-proportionally) in the vertical and horizontal dimensions for the target screen. The second class includes on-screen interactive buttons, text areas, some images, lines, rectangles, and other shapes. The second class of objects is scaled using different scaling factors in the vertical and horizontal dimensions. The technique of limousine-scaling or limousine stretching is an approach that can be used to scale an automobile into a limousine and can scale rounded rectangles into rounded rectangles having a different aspect ratio. A “limousine point” is defined on a horizontal axis from which a normal limousine line is extended onto the original screen. Graphical data objects to the left of the limousine line are scaled proportionally and placed on the left side of the target screen. Graphical data objects to the right of the limousine line are scaled proportional and placed on the right side of the target screen. Each graphical data object that straddles or intersects the limousine line is stretched non-proportionally across the center area thereof between the left and right sides of the target screen. The stretching is computationally inexpensive so that it can be performed on a thin client, such as a set top box, and yields esthetic, undistorted appearances of the resultant graphical data objects. A designer of an original screen, or of a template for screens, can be selective about the parts of the screen that are to be distorted. The designer can set or define the limousine point globally for each original screen or for all screens that are designed from a template. The designer can, if needed, identify certain classes of graphical data objects that are to be proportionally stretched when changing the resolution from a designed original screen to a target screen. The scaling technique also allows reuse of existing designs and design processes. Designs that are tailored to the widely used 4:3 aspect ratio for TV screens can also be used for the 16:9 aspect ratio TV screens. The design process is visual and does not require programming skills. A user interface layout can be described in a simple declarative format, and a software runtime engine that performs the layout and scaling can run in very resource-constrained environments, such as in a conventional set top box. FIG. 1 shows a profile image of an automobile 102 before a limousine stretch and a profile image of an automobile 104 after a limousine stretch. Automobile 102 has a limousine point on an axis to which a limousine line is drawn as a normal so as to extend to both automobiles 102 and 104 . The area under the limousine line of automobile 102 is stretched by a distance labeled as “limousine distance” on automobile 104 . As such, automobile 104 appears to be limousine version of automobile 102 . FIG. 2 a is an original screen 200 a that is transformed by limousine stretching into the target screen 200 b depicted in FIG. 2 b . The upper left corner of each screen represents the (0,0) point at an intersection of horizontal and vertical axes, where the horizontal axis increments positively to the right of the page, and the vertical axis increments positively towards the bottom of the page. The width and height of the original screen 200 a are, respectively, SW 1 and SH 1 . The width and height of the target screen 200 b are, respectively, SW 2 and SH 2 . The lower right corner of each screen represents, respectively, the (SW 1 , SH 1 ) point and the (SW 2 , SH 2 ) point. The lower left corner of each screen represents, respectively, the (0, SH 1 ) point and the (0, SH 2 ) point. A limousine point on original screen 200 a is marked at the limousine point (Limousine,0). A limousine line 202 a is drawn normal to the x axis of the original screen 200 a on which limousine point (Linousine,0) is situated. The limousine point (Linousine,0) is to the right of the left edge of original screen 200 a by a distance of represented as “Limousine Distance” in FIG. 2 a . Three (3) graphical data objects 204 a , 206 a , 208 a are seen on original screen 200 a . Object 204 a is to the left of limousine line 202 a , object 206 a straddles limousine line 202 a , and object 208 a is to the right of limousine line 202 a . Object 206 a has a width W 1 and a height H 1 . The top edge of object 206 a is below the top of original screen 200 a by a distance of T 1 . The left edge of object 206 a is to the right of the left edge of original screen 200 a by a distance of L 1 . FIG. 2 b shows the result of limousine scaling of objects 204 a , 206 a , and 208 a into objects 204 b , 206 b , and 208 b from original screen 200 a to target screen 200 b . Original screen 200 a has been scaled by width and height from SW 1 to SW 2 and from SH 1 to SH 2 , respectively. The area of object 206 a under limousine line 202 a has been non-proportionally stretched by a distance of 202 b , which is also referenced as the distance “C” in FIG. 2 b. An original screen 300 a in FIG. 3 a is identical to the original screen 200 a in FIG. 2 a , although additional reference numerals and other references have been added. An target screen 300 b in FIG. 3 b is identical to the target screen 200 b in FIG. 2 b , although additional reference numerals and other references have been added. The upper left corner of each of object 204 a , 206 a , and 208 a is, respectively, (X 204 , Y 204 ), (X 206 , Y 206 ), (X 208 , Y 208 ). The width and height of each of object 204 a , 206 a , and 208 a is, respectively, W 204 and H 204 , W 206 and H 206 , and W 208 and H 208 . Limousine line 202 a is a distance of A 1 from the left edge of original screen 300 a and a distance of A 2 from the right edge of original screen 300 a. A target screen 300 b in FIG. 3 b is identical to the target screen 200 b in FIG. 2 b , although additional reference numerals and other references have been added. The respective area under limousine line 202 a in FIGS. 2 a and 3 a has been stretched as in FIGS. 2 b and 3 b to create two lines, one being a distance of B 1 from the left edge of target screen 300 b , and the other being a distance of B 2 from the right edge of target screen 300 b . A factor ‘f’ is used to transform original screen 200 a - 300 a to target screen 200 b - 300 b , where f=B 1 /A 1 =B 2 /A 2 . As such, the upper left corner of each of object 204 b , 206 b , and 208 b is, respectively, (X 204 *f, Y 204 *f), (X 206 *f, Y 206 *f), (X 208 *f+C, Y 208 *f), and the width and height of each of object 204 b , 206 b , and 208 b is, respectively, W 204 *f and H 204 *f, W 206 *f+C and H 206 *f, and W 208 *f and H 208 *f. Preferably, the smallest change between height and width, from the original to the target screen, will be used for the ‘f’ factor. By way of example, if SH 1 and SW 1 were both 10 units and SH 2 and SW 2 were 20 units and 50 units, then a re-sizing ‘f’ factor of ‘2’ would be used in the transformation of the original screen of FIGS. 2 a and 3 a into the target screen of FIGS. 2 b and 3 b. FIG. 4 a shows show an original display screen 400 a before a limousine stretching. FIG. 4 b shows show a target display screen 400 b after the limousine stretching. The change in the height of the target screen from that of the original screen is greater than change in the width of the target screen from that of the original screen. A limousine line 402 is seen extending between the left and right edges of the original screen. FIG. 4 a shows that the display screen 400 a before the limousine stretching has an object 408 a above the limousine line 402 a , an object 406 a that is straddling the limousine line 402 a , and an object 404 a below the limousine line 402 a . FIG. 4 b shows that the objects above and below the limousine line 402 a have been proportionally re-sized, whereas the object 406 a straddling the limousine line 402 a has been both proportionally and non-proportionally re-sized. The proportional re-sizing of the object 406 a straddling the limousine line 402 a is the same as the other two objects 408 a , 404 a , but the non-proportionally re-sizing of the object 406 a is directed in a stretching in the vertical direction of target screen 400 b . The factors of A 1 , A 2 , B 1 , B 2 , and C are measured similarly as were discussed with respect to FIGS. 2 a , 2 b , 3 a , and 3 b . Accordingly, target screen 400 b in FIG. 4 b shows the case where the height to width aspect ratio is greater than one. In this case, the non-proportionally re-sizing of the object 406 a is subjected to a vertical stretch due to the larger increment in the vertical distance of target screen 400 b. FIG. 5 shows a flowchart for a process 500 for the limousine scaling of all objects on an original screen to a target screen. Each object on the original screen in subjected to the process 500 which begins at block 502 and proceeds to block 504 at which a query is made as to whether the target screen is proportionally wider than the original screen. This query is determined by a comparison of SW 2 /SW 1 >SH 2 /SH 1 . If the answer to the query at block 504 is affirmative, then process 500 moves to block 506 to begin the scaling of the object's position and size by a height ratio. At block 506 , several calculations are made with the widths and heights seen in FIG. 2 a to arrive at the widths and heights that are seen in FIG. 2 b . The calculations at block 506 are as follows: L 2 =L 1 *SH 2 /SH 1 T 2 =T 1 *SH 2 /SH 1 W 2 =W 1 *SH 2 /SH 1 H 2 =H 1 *SH 2 /SH 1 C=SW 2 −SW 1 *SH 2 /SH 1 Process 500 then moves control to block 508 . At block 508 , a query determines, by a length comparison of L 1 <Limousine Distance (Limo), if the left most edge of object 206 a is to the left of the limousine line 202 a . If so, then another query is made at block 510 to determine, by a length comparison of L 1 +W 1 <Limo, if the right most edge of object 206 a is to the left of the limousine line 202 a . If so, then it is determined that object 206 a is on the left side on the original screen, so no adjustments are needed to object 206 a . Process 500 then is complete with this aspect of the transformation of object 206 a of the original screen to object 206 b of the target screen. If the answer is negative to the query at block 508 , then it is determined at block 518 that object 206 a is on the right side on the original screen, and that object 206 a is to be moved to the right side of the target screen. This move is expressed by the calculation L 2 =L 2 +C. Process 500 then is complete with this aspect of the transformation of object 206 a of the original screen to object 206 b of the target screen. If the answer is negative to the query at block 510 , then it is determined at block 516 that object 206 a straddles the limousine line 202 a on the original screen. For this determination, it is further determined that object 206 a is to be stretched from the left to the right on the target screen. This stretching is expressed by the calculation W 2 =W 2 +C. Process 500 then is complete with this aspect of the transformation of object 206 a of the original screen to object 206 b of the target screen. If the result of the query at block 504 is that the target screen is not proportionally wider than the original screen, the process 500 encompasses, by way of example, the scaling of the original objects that are seen in FIG. 4 a , where the limousine line 402 a intersects the original object 406 a . Process 500 moves to block 520 at which various calculations are made: L 2 =L 1 *SW 2 /SW 1 T 2 =T 1 *SW 2 /SW 1 W 2 =W 1 *SW 2 /SW 1 H 2 =H 1 *SW 2 /SW 1 C=SH 2 −SH 1 *SW 2 /SW 1 Process 500 then moves control to block 522 . At block 522 , a query determines, by a height comparison of T 1 <Limo, if the top most edge of the original object is above the limousine line. If so, then another query is made at block 524 to determine, by a height comparison of T 1 +H 1 <Limo, if the bottom most edge of the original object is to above the limousine line. If so, then it is determined that the original object does not need to be adjusted because the original object is on the top side of the original screen. Process 500 then is complete with this aspect of the transformation of the original object of the original screen to the target object of the target screen. If the answer is negative to the query at block 522 , then it is determined at block 530 that object 206 a is on the bottom side of the original screen, and that the original object is to be moved to the bottom side of the target screen. This move is expressed by the calculation T 2 =T 2 +C. Process 500 then is complete with this aspect of the transformation of the original object of the original screen to the target object of the target screen. If the answer is negative to the query at block 524 , then it is determined at block 528 that the original object straddles the limousine line 402 on the original screen. From this determination, it is further determined that the original object is to be stretched in a direction from the top side of the original screen to the bottom side of the target screen. This stretching is expressed by the calculation H 2 =H 2 +C. Process 500 then is complete with this aspect of the transformation of the original object of the original screen to the target object of the target screen. Following the transformation of all of the aspects of each object ( 204 a , 206 a , 208 a , 404 a , 406 a , 408 a ) on the original screen to the respective aspects of each object ( 204 b , 206 b , 208 b , 404 b , 406 b , 408 b ) on the target screen, the target screen can be displayed in a display 516 . Implementations provide for an esthetically presented arrangement of the objects ( 204 b , 206 b , 208 b , 404 b , 406 b , 408 b ) on the target screen of the display 516 . The examples given in FIGS. 2 a through 4 b provide for a shifting of graphical data objects along horizontal and vertical axes. For instance, an original screen can be a square shape having a dimension of 10 units by 10 units. The target screen can have a height of 20 units and a width of 50 units. In this case, the height to width aspect ratio is less than one for the target screen (i.e., 20/50). A horizontal shift of the graphical data objects would be performed due to the larger increment in the horizontal distance, from 10 to 50 as opposed to from 10 to 20, when resizing the original screen to the target screen. Alternatively, the target screen can but have a height of 50 units and a width of 20 units. In this case, the height to width aspect ratio is greater than one for the target screen (i.e., 50/20). A vertical shift of the graphical data objects would be performed due to the larger increment in the vertical distance, from 10 to 50 as opposed to from 10 to 20, when resizing the original screen to the target screen. The transformation of an original screen of one resolution or aspect ratio into a target screen of a different resolution or aspect via the limousine stretching technique, as described above, can be reduced in computational complexity by use of integer arithmetic. Integer arithmetic can be run with limited computational resources typical of thin clients, such as set top boxes. By comparison, floating point arithmetic is much more expensive, especially on thin client such as set-top boxes that do not have floating point coprocessors. All computation can be done accurately using only integer arithmetic and no floating point arithmetic. Ultimately, the left, top, width and height values of each graphical data object on the target screen must rounded to integer values for display on a pixel-based device. In the examples given below, the “div” operator will be used to represent integer division and the “/” operator will be used to represent real number division. When scaling coordinates of the graphical data object from the original screen to the target screen, multiplication can be done before division to preserve the accuracy of the results. For example, the computation of the left coordinate can be perform as L 2 =(L 1 *SW 2 )div SW 1 instead of L 2 =L 1 *(SW 2 div SW 1 ). On most computer systems, the integer division operation between a positive numerator N and positive denominator D truncates or “rounds down” the result to the nearest integer introducing an error E, where −1<E≦0. By multiplying before dividing, the total error is limited to E a where −1<E a ≦0. If division is done before multiplication, the error of the division operation E b where −1<E b ≦0 gets multiplied by L 1 resulting in a larger total error E c where −L 1 <E c ≦0. Thus, we minimize the total error by performing multiplication before division. Integer division between positive numerator N and positive denominator D truncates or “rounds down” the result to the nearest integer, but it is also easy to achieve the effect of rounding up using integer arithmetic. By adding D−1 to N before doing in integer division by D, we can achieve the effect of rounding up. It is desirable to round up the width and height calculations. By slightly adding to the growth of the object, a visual problem such as clipping can be avoided, such as where a portion of the clipped graphical data object would otherwise not be seen in the scaled target screen. This can be counterbalanced by rounding down the left and top coordinate calculations. This way, the error in the right and bottom coordinates is at most 1 unit in either direction. −1 <E L ≦0 −1 <E T ≦0 0< E W <1 0< E H <1 −1< E R =E L+ E W <1 −1< E B =E T+ E H <1. The calculations should be modified as follows to incorporate the proper rounding: width ratio>height ratio: left of limo: L 2 =( L 1 *SH 2 ) divSH 1 T 2 =( T 1 *SH 2 ) divSH 1 W 2 =( W 1 *SH 2 +SH 1 −1) divSH 1 H 2 =( H 1 *SH 2 +SH 1 −1) divSH 1 straddling limo: L 2 =( L 1 *SH 2 ) divSH 1 T 2 =( T 1 *SH 2 ) divSH 1 W 2 =(( W 1 −SW 1 ) *SH 2 +SH 1 −1) divSH 1 +SW 2 H 2 =( H 1 *SH 2 +SH 1 −1) divSH 1 right of limo: L 2 =(( L 1 −SW 1 ) *SH 2 ) divSH 1 +SW 2 T 2 =( T 1 *SH 2 ) divSH 1 W 2 =( W 1 *SH 2 +SH 1 −1) divSH 1 H 2 =( H 1 *SH 2 +SH 1 −1) divSH 1 height ratio>width ratio: above limo: L 2 =( L 1 *SW 2 )div SW 1 T 2 =( T 1 *SW 2 )div SW 1 W 2 =( W 1 *SW 2 +SW 1 −1) divSW 1 H 2 =( H 1 *SW 2 +SW 1 −1) divSW 1 straddling limo: L 2 =( L 1 *SW 2 ) divSW 1 T 2 =( T 1 *SW 2 ) divSW 1 W 2 =( W 1 *SW 2 +SW 1 −1)div SW 1 H 2 =(( H 1 −SH 1 ) *SW 2 +SW 1 −1) divSW 1 +SH 2 below limo: L 2 =( L 1 *SW 2 ) divSW 1 T 2 =(( T 1 −SH 1 ) *SW 2 ) divSW 1 +SH 2 W 2 =( W 1 *SW 2 +SW 1 −1) divSW 1 H 2 =( H 1 *SW 2 +SW 1 −1) divSW 1 FIGS. 6 a - 6 b provide an example of the foregoing technique for integer arithmetic to simplify mathematics of positioning objects on a target screen. FIG. 6 a shows a graphical data object 602 a on a rescaled target screen 600 a prior to the introduction of rounding error. FIG. 6 b shows a graphical data object 602 b on a rescaled target screen 600 b after to the introduction of rounding error. The rounding error so introduced enlarges object 602 a to the size depicted for object 602 b , where the width is moved from 0.1-3.9 to 0.0-4.0, and where the height is moved from 0.3-2.7 to 0.0-3.0. Thus, the position of object 602 a was rounded down with respect to the top edge of the target screen and the left side of the target screen, and was rounded up with respect to the bottom edge of the target screen and the right side of the target screen. As such, graphical data object 602 b has a resultant height of 3 and a width of 4. In summary, the size of the target graphic data object on the target screen seen in FIG. 6 b has been increased by rounding to an integer value the coordinates of the target graphic data object on the target screen. A designer can design a template having a height-to-width aspect ratio. The designer also specifies the type of graphical data objects that will appear on a screen that is formed from the template. For each type of graphical data object, the designer can further specify whether or not the object can be subjected to limousine stretching. For instance, the designer may specify that no corporate trademark or logo is to be limousine stretched, but is only to be proportionally stretched so as to maintain the original aspect ratio. The designer may further specify that text that will appear on a re-sized version of the original screen template is to be examined for an appropriate font point size that will appear best on the target screen and that the text will be drawn with the best font point size. Finally, the template designer will specify a limousine point on one of the edges of the screen, such as at the bottom edge. The designer can then specify that all other graphical data objects can be, by default, eligible to be limousine stretched when re-sizing a screen from its originally designed dimensions. Accordingly, the designer can design the original screen template to accommodate likely graphical data objects for likely target screens so as to preserve the esthetic appearance of the original screen template. FIG. 7 depicts a main television guide or electronic programming guide (EPG) screen having an original design resolution of 576 pixels by 480 pixels. The dashed line 702 depicts a limousine line that is designed by a screen designer that can be used for limousine scaling. The limousine line extends as a normal to a limousine point at the bottom edge of screen to intersect with a horizontal axis on the top edge of the screen. FIG. 8 a depicts an EPG screen 800 a that has been limousine scaled to a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels, where objects have been scaled by a factor of 75% and the target screen height has been reduced to 75% of the height of the original screen. FIG. 8 a shows interactive on-screen buttons for a “Video Store” function, a “Search” function, and an “Exit to TV” function. These buttons are seen on the left side of the screen and have the same proportions in the target screen as they do in the original screen so that their appearance on the target screen does not have a distorted appearance. The space on the target screen is used effectively by making the program listing section in the EPG on the right side of the target screen proportionally wider than on the original screen. This technique allows long titles, such as “Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter?”, to be displayed without clipping. FIG. 8 a shows that graphic characteristics for, and the text attached to, the original graphic data objects on the original screen seen in FIG. 7 have been obtained and used in the target graphic data objects on the target screen of FIG. 8 a . The attached text has been reformatted so as to correspond to the target graphic data objects on the target screen seen in FIG. 8 a . Accordingly, the attached text esthetically fits within opposing top and bottom edges and opposing left and right edges of the target graphic data objects on the target screen of FIG. 8 a . Additionally, the graphic characteristics for the original graphic data objects on the original screen in FIG. 7 (e.g., tone, borders, etc.) have been applied to the target graphic data objects on the target screen of FIG. 8 a. FIG. 8 b depicts the EPG screen of FIG. 7 having been scaled non-proportionally to a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels, where space on the screen has not been used as effectively as the space used in the limousine scaled screen depicted in FIG. 8 a . The on-screen interactive buttons on the left side of the original screen for a “Video Store” function, a “Search” function, and an “Exit to TV” function have an appearance of being too wide. These buttons would be more esthetically pleasing if they had been stretched proportionally rather than to be rendered non-proportionally. Alternatively, the grid on the right side of the original screen can be stretched non-proportionally without appearing distorted. As such, the space at the right side of the screen 800 b in FIG. 8 b is not used as effectively as the space in the limousine scaled target screen depicted in FIG. 8 a . Unlike in FIG. 8 a , the text “Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter?” is truncated in FIG. 8 b. FIG. 9 depicts an EPG screen 900 having been scaled proportionally to a resolution of 432 pixels×360 pixels. For this EPG screen, limousine scaling is not needed because the target screen has the same proportions as the original screen and thus does not have a distorted appearance. FIG. 10 a depicts a screen 1000 a having a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels that has not been subjected to limousine stretching. Graphical data objects at the left side of the screen in the depicted scaled version look stretched and have a distorted appearance of being too wide. FIG. 10 b depicts a screen 1000 b , for comparison purposes, which is the screen of FIG. 10 a as having a dimension of 432 pixels by 360 pixels, which is a proportionally scaled screen that has not been subjected to non-proportional limousine stretching. FIG. 11 depicts a screen 1100 having a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels, where non-proportional limousine scaling has been used. Most of the graphical elements on the original screen have been stretched toward the right side of the target screen as depicted in FIG. 11 . Limousine scaling is beneficial here in that the ‘Video Store’ button does not have a distorted appearance. FIG. 12 depicts a screen 1200 having a dimension of 576 pixels by 360 pixels, where non-proportional limousine scaling has been used. The result is that the on-screen graphical data objects do not have distorted or misshapen appearances. FIG. 13 depicts a screen 1300 having a dimension of 576, pixels by 360 pixels, where non-proportional limousine scaling has been used. Limousine scaling has stretched most of the graphical elements toward the right side of the target screen. Exemplary Environment Various environments are suitable and contemplated the disclosed embodiments in which a single set of user interface (UI) description data can be broadcast (such as via data carousels) to many clients with different screen resolutions and aspect ratios, and where each client can scale the UI to fit the screen because the limousine scaling uses integer arithmetic which is computationally inexpensive. Moreover, broadcast bandwidth usage is minimized by delivering only a single set of UI description data, rather than multiple sets (e.g., one for each different screen resolution). According, the environments for the various disclosed implementations are not limited to an exemplary implementation discussed below with respect to FIG. 14 regarding a TV network infrastructure. FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary environment 1400 in which a viewer may receive content via a client that re-sizes the content to fit on a target screen as has been described above. Exemplary environment 1400 is a television entertainment system that facilitates distribution of content to multiple viewers. The environment 1400 includes one or more content providers 1402 , one or more program data providers 1404 , a content distribution system 1406 , and multiple clients 1408 ( 1 ), 1408 ( 2 ), . . . , 1408 (J) coupled to the content distribution system 1406 via a broadcast network 1410 . Each client 1408 ( 1 through J) and the content distribution system 1406 are in communication with a network 1450 that provides two-way communications there between. The system may have two-way communications, but this is not required for the UI page scaling to work. The content distribution system 1406 services requests from the clients 1408 ( 1 )- 1408 (J). Each client 1408 (J) can receive an original screen that has been designed for limousine stretching and can perform limousine stretching and integer rounding to output a display of a target screen, as has been described above. Content provider 1402 includes a content server 1412 and stored content 1414 , such as movies, television programs, commercials, music, and similar audio and/or video content. Content server 1412 controls distribution of the stored content 1414 from content provider 1402 to the content distribution system 1406 . For example, the content server 1412 may broadcast the stored content 1414 to one or more of the clients 1408 ( 1 )- 1408 (J) in response to a request received from the clients 1408 ( 1 )- 1408 (J). Additionally, content server 1402 controls distribution of live content (e.g., content that was not previously stored, such as live feeds) and/or content stored at other locations to the content distribution system 1406 . Program data provider 1404 stores and provides an electronic program guide (EPG) database. Program data in the EPG includes program titles, ratings, characters, descriptions, actor names, station identifiers, channel identifiers, schedule information, and so on. The terms “program data” and “EPG data” are used interchangeably throughout this discussion, both of which may be thought of as forms of content that may be requested by one or more of the clients 1408 ( 1 )- 1408 (J). The program data provider 1404 processes the EPG data prior to distribution to generate a published version of the program data which contains programming information for all channels for one or more days. The processing may involve any number of techniques to reduce, modify, or enhance the EPG data. Such processes might include selection of content, content compression, format modification, and the like. The program data provider 1404 controls distribution of the published version of the program data to the content distribution system 1406 using, for example, a file transfer protocol (FTP) over a TCP/IP network (e.g., Internet, UNIX, etc.). Further, the published version of the program data can be transmitted from program data provider 1404 via a satellite 1434 directly to a client 1408 by use of a satellite dish 1434 . Content distribution system 1406 includes a broadcast transmitter 1428 , one or more content processors 1430 , and one or more program data processors 1432 . Broadcast transmitter 1428 broadcasts signals, such as cable television signals, across broadcast network 1410 . Broadcast network 1410 can include a cable television network, RF, microwave, satellite, and/or data network, such as the Internet, and may also include wired or wireless media using any broadcast format or broadcast protocol. Additionally, broadcast network 1410 can be any type of network, using any type of network topology and any network communication protocol, and can be represented or otherwise implemented as a combination of two or more networks. Although broadcast transmitter 1428 is illustrated as within the content distribution system 1406 , the broadcast transmitter may also be included with the content server 1412 . Content processor 1430 processes the content received from content provider 1402 prior to transmitting the content across broadcast network 1410 . Similarly, program data processor 1432 processes the program data received from program data provider 1404 prior to transmitting the program data across broadcast network 1410 . A particular content processor 1430 may encode, or otherwise process, the received content into a format that is understood by the multiple clients 1408 ( 1 ), 1408 ( 2 ), . . . , 1408 (J) coupled to broadcast network 1410 . Although FIG. 14 shows a single content provider 1402 , a single program data provider 1404 , and a single content distribution system 1406 , exemplary environment 1400 can include any number of content providers and/or program data providers coupled to any number of content distribution systems. Content distribution system 1406 is representative of a head end service with one or more carousels that provides content to multiple subscribers. For example, the content may include a result of processing that was performed in response to a request sent by one or more of the clients 1408 ( 1 )- 1408 (J). Each content distribution system 1404 may receive a slightly different version of the program data that takes into account different programming preferences and lineups. The program data provider 1404 creates different versions of EPG data (e.g., different versions of a program guide) that include those channels of relevance to respective head end services, and the content distribution system 1406 transmits the EPG data to the multiple clients 1408 ( 1 ), 1408 ( 2 ), . . . , 1408 (J). In one implementation, for example, content distribution system 1406 utilizes a carousel file system to repeatedly broadcast the EPG data over an out-of-band (OOB) channel to the clients 1408 . Clients 1408 can be implemented in a number of ways. For example, a client 1408 ( 1 ) receives broadcast content from a satellite-based transmitter via satellite dish 1434 . Client 1408 ( 1 ) is also referred to as a set-top box or a satellite receiving device. Client 1408 ( 1 ) is coupled to a television 1436 ( 1 ) for presenting the content received by the client (e.g., audio data and video data), as well as a graphical user interface. A particular client 1408 can be coupled to any number of televisions 1436 and/or similar devices that can be implemented to display or otherwise render content. Similarly, any number of clients 1408 can be coupled to a single television 1436 . Client 1408 ( 2 ) is also coupled to receive broadcast content from broadcast network 1410 and provide the received content to associated television 1436 ( 2 ). Client 1408 (J) is an example of a combination television 1438 and integrated set-top box 1440 . In this example, the various components and functionality of the set-top box are incorporated into the television, rather than using two separate devices. The functionality of the set-top box within the television enables the receipt of different kinds of signals, such as via a satellite dish (similar to satellite dish 1434 ) and/or via broadcast network 1410 . In alternate implementations, clients 1408 may receive signals via network 1450 , such as the Internet, or any other broadcast medium. Each client 1408 runs one or more applications. As mentioned above, one such application can enable client 1408 (J) to receive an original screen that has been designed for limousine stretching and can enable limousine stretching and integer rounding operations so as to output a display of a target screen, as has been described above. Another application may enable a television viewer to navigate through an onscreen program guide, locate television shows of interest to the viewer, and purchase items, view linear programming as well as pay per view and/or video on demand programming. As such, one or more of the program data providers 1404 can include stored on-demand content, such as Video On Demand (VOD) movie content, and near VOD such as pay per view movie content. The stored on-demand and near on-demand content can be viewed with a client 1408 . Each client 1408 receives content and adapts the content for output to a target screen that is displayed on the television 1436 . This adaptation process undertaken by the client 1408 includes the limousine stretching and integer rounding techniques as disclosed in this patent. The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

An adjustment is made to the size of an original graphic data object in a substantially rectangular original screen to obtain a target graphic data object on a substantially rectangular target screen having a different aspect ratio than that of the original screen. The size of the original graphic data object is proportionally increased to obtain the target graphic data object on the target screen. The size of the target graphic data object on the target screen is non-proportionally increased by the addition of a stretch distance thereto where a line projecting from a resizing point on and perpendicular to an edge of the original screen intersects the original graphic data object.

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method and a device for fixing the position at least one axis of a manipulator. BACKGROUND Although stopping brakes in robots are generally extremely reliable, the risk of failure should be reduced further, particularly for safety critical situations. However, the problem arises, when using actuators with only one brake, of realizing the maximum acceptable residual risk of an unwanted movement by a single-channel system. Carrying out a periodical brake test in order to record creeping changes in brake performance is therefore known in accordance with in-house practice. If preset performance criteria are not met, the respective brake is replaced. This method is, however, not appropriate for situations where braking performance decreases spontaneously. Another method known from in-house practice therefore consists in not closing the brake or not using it at all, in particular in safety critical situations. The axis is actively brought to a standstill instead by means of a correspondingly controlled actuator torque thereby falling under stop category 2 according to DIN EN 60204-1:2007-06, which defines three categories of a stop function for manipulators: Stop 0: uncontrolled stopping through immediate interruption of the power supply to the machine actuators; Stop 1: controlled stopping where the power supply to the machine actuators is still available in order to achieve the stop. The power supply is removed when the stop is achieved or the reliable period for stopping has been exceeded; and Stop 2: controlled stopping where the power supply to the machine actuators is left available. In terms of control technology, these three categories can be implemented in different ways. If the axis is actively brought to a standstill by a closed brake by means of a correspondingly controlled actuator torque, this results in the disadvantage of keeping the manipulator in an active state, which requires power, and can also result in noise pollution. SUMMARY One object of an embodiment of the present invention is to improve the operation of a manipulator. An inventive method to fix the position one or more, in particular all axes of a manipulator, in particular of a robot, comprises a plurality of steps explained below. Two or more of the steps can be performed sequentially and/or in parallel. The method is described below using the example of an individual axis of an individual manipulator, without being restricted thereto. The method can also be used to fix several axes of one or more manipulators. In one step a brake, in particular a stopping brake, of the axis is closed. A brake of this type can be, in particular, a mechanical, hydraulic and/or pneumatic brake; in particular have a spring-loaded brake. In one embodiment, the brake can be actuated electrically and/or magnetically, in particular is an actuated brake. In one embodiment, the brake is a normal brake or a brake closed without power, which needs to be actively ventilated and is therefore also referred to as a safety brake. In one embodiment, the axis of the manipulator is actively brought to a standstill, in particular in advance, in particular as the actuator thereof exerts corresponding braking torques on the axis. In a further step, in particular after the brake has been closed, actuation of an axis actuator is deactivated by a motion controller. In one embodiment, the motion controller can be, in particular, a position controller, a speed controller, a torque or force controller, and/or have an admittance or impedance controller. For the purpose of providing a more concise description, the term “force” will also generally describe a torsional force, i.e. an anti-parallel pair of forces. The motion controller can be cascaded in one or more hierarchies, in particular with an external cascade, which comprises a position controller, for example, and an internal cascade, which comprises a current controller, for example. In a further step, the function of the closed brake will continue to be monitored, in particular by the motion controller. This step can take place, in particular, parallel to the other steps of the inventive method, in particular constantly, and/or during operation of the manipulator, in particular when power is supplied to its controller. Monitoring can take place in various ways, some of which are described in more detail later in the description. If the monitoring system identifies a fault condition of the brake, the deactivated actuation of the actuator will be reactivated. As a result, the axis can be fixed again, in particular or exclusively, by the actuator and no longer solely or no longer also by the brake. In this manner, in one embodiment, the disadvantages of active fixing of the axis can be reduced by a correspondingly controlled force of the actuator thereof, in particular respective power consumption and/or a resulting noise emission. Additionally, or alternatively, a spontaneous failure of the brake can also be controlled in a safety-relevant manner by reactivating the actuation of the axis using the motion controller, wherein, in an advantageous embodiment, further motion control that occurs or is implemented can intervene particularly quickly even if the brake is closed, and thus can effect or ensure fixing the position of the axis. Activation of an axis actuator by a motion controller is understood accordingly, in particular, as the transfer of instructions and/or power by the motion controller to the actuator or the following or implementation of said instructions by the actuator and deactivation of an axis actuator by a motion controller is understood accordingly as the interruption of such transfer or following of instructions and/or power. In other words, in one embodiment, the motion controller continues to work when the brake is closed, in particular, the motion controller can be supplied with power and/or sensor signals, wherein only the actuation of the actuator by these deactivates further motion control, in particular a transfer of instructions and/or power by the motion controller to the actuator is interrupted. This can be illustrated using the example of a vehicle clutch, in which the actuation of the drive wheels is deactivated by the (still working) engine by releasing the clutch and activated again by closing it. An actuator in accordance with the present invention can comprise, in particular, one or more electric motors. An electric motor can be set up in particular to convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. An electric motor is operated preferably using a direct and/or an alternating current, wherein the alternating current can have, in particular, a specific frequency and/or a specific amplitude. An electric motor is configured preferably as a brushless direct current motor, synchronous machine or asynchronous machine. In particular, a motor can have an electronic commutation. Preferably, the motor has a converter and/or a booster, in particular a pulse-width modulation (“PWM”) booster. A brake in accordance with the present invention is used preferably to apply a stopping torque or a part of a stopping force for braking or fixing the position a manipulator axis. As explained above, a torsional force is generally referred to, in particular, also as force in this document. Fixing is understood in the present document, in particular, as a stopping of a motionless axis. Actuation in accordance with the present invention can include, in particular, one or more actuators of a manipulator axis. Additionally, or alternatively, actuation may comprise one or more closed loops, which are cascaded hierarchically in one embodiment, operate in parallel and/or are activated depending on their condition. Here, condition can be a condition of the inventive method, a condition of the manipulator and/or a condition from an environment of the manipulator, in particular of a device and/or a method. Various steps can take place in response to the identification of a fault condition of the brake. Inventively, there is a re (activation) of the actuator of the respective manipulator by the motion controller. Thus, active fixing of the manipulator axis by the actuator is possible. Monitoring in accordance with the present invention is, in particular, specific observation, in particular of the brake, and collection of information, in particular about the function of the brake. Monitoring can include, in particular, the recording and evaluation of conditions of the brake and/or the actuator, actuation, the axis and/or the manipulator. Monitoring serves, in particular, to increase the safety of people and machines. Preferably, monitoring serves to increase the safety of people and manipulator assembly devices. Additionally, or alternatively, monitoring can also serve to increase the safety of people and devices, who or which interact with the manipulator assembly and/or are present in the hazard area of the manipulator assembly. Monitoring preferably includes a comparison of actual and target values. Monitoring can relate to limit values that must be complied with, in particular position-dependent limit values (for example, working area, displacement of a manipulator, speed, acceleration, jerking etc.) and/or force and/or torque-dependent limit values as well a combination of said values. Additionally or alternatively, a parameter of a model, in particular an estimated model, can be monitored, wherein the model is estimated preferably on the basis of information that has been collected. In one embodiment, monitoring takes place continuously, discretely, periodically and/or at irregular intervals, in particular is event-controlled. Preferably, the manipulator, in particular one or more axes of the manipulator, is conveyed in a safe condition if monitoring registers erroneous function. A safer condition can be achieved by means of an emergency stop and/or soft switching, in particular of specific manipulator axes. In one embodiment of the inventive method, the actuator is supplied with power whilst the mechanical brake is closed. Power can be supplied permanently in particular, and consequently a power supply to the actuator remains active even after the actuator has been deactivated. This can be achieved, in particular, by not disconnecting the power electronics, which supply the actuator with power, from an external energy supply, or by keeping the connection to an external power supply and supplying power even if the brake is closed. In one embodiment, a power supply in accordance with the present invention supplies one or more, in particular all, of the manipulator actuators with electrical power. The power supply can be fed from one, in particular public, power grid and/or an independent power grid. Additionally, or alternatively, a power supply can be fed from at least one battery assembly and/or an alternative energy storage device. Preferably, several actuators, in particular all actuators, of the manipulator are connected to the same power supply. Preferably, the power supply includes an intermediate circuit by means of which one or more actuators are supplied with power. In particular, one or more brakes of the manipulator can also be supplied with power by means of the intermediate circuit. Preferably, the power supply is connected to a controller. The power supply is set up in one embodiment to reduce and/or increase the power feed to one or more actuators, in particular to one or more motors and/or to one or more brakes of said actuators. Preferably, the power supply provides sufficient power to operate one or more actuators and/or brakes. Furthermore, preferably all other peripheral devices, such as grippers, controller, safety controller etc. can also be supplied with power by means of the same power supply. According to one embodiment of the inventive method, a measurement based on a position of the axis and/or a chronological derivation of the position of the axis is monitored, in particular to identify a fault condition of the brake. Such a measurement in accordance with the invention can relate in particular to information about a device and/or a process. Preferably, such a measurement relates to information about the brake and/or a function of the brake. The position of the axis, which was duly adopted after the axis was fixed, can be monitored for example. A fault condition of the brake can be concluded in the event of a change in this position while the axis brake is closed and intended to ensure a standstill. Said fault condition would result inventively in the reactivation of the actuator in order to reduce, in particular to prevent, a further change of position, in the worst case scenario, a sinking downwards of the entire axis, and/or to return the axis to a safe condition. In addition to position, additionally or alternatively, position-based measurements can also be monitored, in particular the speed of an axis and/or the acceleration of an axis. It is also possible, instead of, or as well as monitoring the axis, to monitor the motion of the manipulator in its entirety, for example its Cartesian motion or its motion in the work areas, and preferably to conclude on the basis of this whether the brake is functioning properly or there is a fault condition. According to one embodiment of the inventive method, one measurement, in particular to identify a fault condition of the brake, is monitored based on a current and/or voltage of the axis actuator. For example, the actuator can be monitored in terms of a current, which is induced in the actuator by a movement of the actuator, i.e. by a movement of the axis. Accordingly, in the event that such an induction current is identified, a movement of the actuator or the axis of the manipulator can be concluded and thus a fault condition of the brake, which in turn triggers the activation of the actuator. Such a measurement can also be defined on the basis of the actuator voltage. Additionally and/or alternatively, a measurement in accordance with the invention can be a function of a current and of a voltage. In particular, such a measurement can also be defined as a function, which includes other measurements relevant to brake function, for example position-based measurements. In one embodiment of the inventive method, a measurement, in particular for identifying a brake malfunction, is monitored based on a force of the axis actuator. As explained above, such a force also constitutes a torque. The force can be recorded by means of an appropriate force sensor, which is present on the axis or is arranged on the manipulator such that it can record mechanical influences on the axis accordingly. A force exerted by the axis on the sensor during standstill can be measured, for example, after the axis has been fixed. In the event of a brake malfunction, which results in a movement of the axis or the manipulator, said force measured whilst the manipulator was at a standstill will change. A brake malfunction can be inferred accordingly based on such a change in force and the actuation of an actuator activated respectively in order to return the manipulator to a safe condition. In one embodiment of the inventive method, the brake is assessed while it is closed. Such assessment can take place, in particular with the aid of one of more sensors, which collect information about the functional capability of the brake. A pressure sensor, for example, can collect information about the contact pressure of the brake. Additionally, or alternatively, another measurement, in particular an electrical measurement, relating to the brake, can also be taken by means of a sensor in order to assess the function of the brake. Additionally, or alternatively, the number of braking incidences can be measured by means of a counter and the brake assessed using this information. Additionally, or alternatively, the duration of braking activity can be measured using a timer and this can be used in turn to obtain various measurements, such as the total duration of brake activation and/or the average duration of brake activation. Additionally, or alternatively, braking incidence time can be measured using a timer in order to obtain information for assessing the brake. Preferably, a stopping force and/or braking force of the brakes can be recorded in a specific position of the axis, which is required in order to fix the axis and by means of which the brakes are assessed. In one embodiment, a specific position of the axis can be defined at the places where the force of gravity is greatest. According to one embodiment of the inventive method, a force is generated by the actuator while the brake is closed. This means that the brake function can be tested and the brakes assessed in terms of their performance. An active brake test of this type can be performed in particular by continually increasing the force. This continuous increase can be linear or on a diminishing scale and consequently the increase in force on the brakes reduces continuously. Additionally, or alternatively, the force can be increased gradually, wherein a predefined increase in force is achieved at each stage. Preferably, a force is increased up to a predefined maximum force. Additionally, or alternatively, the force is increased by the actuator as long as the manipulator executes a breakaway movement. The breakaway movement while the brake is closed shows the maximum force the brake can withstand in its current condition. The gravitational torque affecting the brake can also be included in order to obtain an estimation that is as accurate as possible of the currently potential maximum force of the brake. In one embodiment, the force measured or determined, which represents a braking function of the brake, is communicated to a manipulator controller and/or to a device external to the manipulator (controller). This enables the brake to be assessed locally in the manipulator controller and/or in a central data processing system that is connected to the manipulator. Thus, advantageously, brake maintenance, in particular changing the brake for example, can be signaled and/or displayed by the controller. According to one embodiment, a signal is sent to the manipulator controller and/or a device external to the manipulator (controller) if a fault condition of the brake is identified. Thus, in particular a higher-level safety system, which the manipulator and a manipulator cell, for example, in which the manipulator moves, can be controlled accordingly and appropriate safety functions triggered if a fault condition is identified. A safety function of this kind can involve, for example, bringing the manipulator to a standstill or stopping a feed device, which conveys objects to be processed by the manipulator into the manipulator cell. According to one embodiment, the brake is also observed by a further monitoring system, which triggers a safety function if another, further fault condition is identified. This further monitoring system enables, in particular, the identification of fault conditions, which cannot be observed by the first monitoring system. Such a monitoring system can involve, in particular, monitoring the temperature of the brake, wherein, for example, a faulty brake is inferred if a specific maximum temperature is exceeded. Additionally, or alternatively, such further monitoring can be the monitoring of a safety controller, which monitors the function of the inventive first monitoring system. The further monitoring system can relate, in particular, to one or more of the measurements which are also monitored by the first monitoring system. In this case, one or more monitoring limits of the further monitoring system can be or can be defined such that the first monitoring system responds first and the further monitoring system only responds if a malfunction of the first monitoring system can be inferred. If the first monitoring system and the further monitoring system are affected, for example, by a change in position when the manipulator axis is at a standstill, the change of position, which is required for the further monitoring system to signal a fault condition, can be defined as greater than the change of position which is defined to allow inference by the first monitoring system of a fault condition of the brake. This ensures that the further monitoring system only intervenes if a malfunction of the first monitoring system can be inferred. This increases the overall safety of the manipulator and also minimizes intervention during normal operation of the manipulator, since firstly upon response by the (first) monitoring system, actuation of the axis is reactivated by the motion controller and the further monitoring system, in particular a safety monitoring system, which triggers a STOP 0 or a STOP 1 , is only activated if said transfer of the fixing of the axis from the faulty brake by the motion controller or the actuator does not function correctly. According to one embodiment of the inventive method, the brake is opened if a fault condition of the brake is identified. Such opening can take place, in particular if a fault condition is identified by the first monitoring system and/or if a fault condition is identified by a further monitoring system. Opening a faulty brake causes the residual brake torque not to affect the reactivated controller of the actuator as a disturbance variable, which controller is then intended, for example, to fix the axis. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further advantages and features are indicated in the subclaims and the example embodiments. The figures show the following partially in schematic form: FIG. 1 shows a chronological progression of a speed and a power requirement of a manipulator axis according to one embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 2 shows a chronological progression of the speed and power requirement of a manipulator axis according to a further embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram according to one embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 shows a section of a trajectory of the manipulator axis, which is executed by an industrial robot, wherein the speed {dot over (φ)} as well as a performance history P, which is dependent on various conditions of the manipulator, is shown over the time period t. The time axis is not necessarily drawn linearly to scale here, but describes the more general scenario of a qualitative chronological arrangement of the times shown. Up to time t 1 , the axis 3 of the robot, which is shown by a dotted double arrow of motion in FIG. 1 , proceeds under motion control from its controller at a positive, constant speed {dot over (φ)}>0. At time t 1 , the motion controller commands a stop and the speed of axis 3 decreases in a linear manner until {dot over (φ)}=0. From time t 2 , the axis 3 of the robot is at a standstill. Once the axis has stopped (see FIG. 3 : step S 10 ), the axis brake will close (S 20 ). The brake is a safety or normally closed brake, which engages when a power supply is deactivated. As a result of this, the power consumption of the axis 3 reduces shortly after time t 2 to the power required to open the brake. Once the brake has closed, actuation of the actuator is deactivated by the motion controller at time t 3 (S 30 ). The motion controller continues to run, wherein, however, it no longer sends instructions or transmits power to the actuator. Consequently, the actuator of axis 3 is without power. At time t 4 , when the axis 3 is still at a standstill, the brake monitoring system, which is active the whole time, identifies a fault condition (S 40 ) based on an acceleration monitoring system, which has identified an acceleration of the axis 3 . Accordingly, immediately after signaling the fault condition of the brake, actuation of the robot actuator is reactivated by the motion controller (S 60 ). After time t 5 , the motion controller sends instructions again or transmits power to the actuator. Accordingly, there is an increase in power consumption to power the motor. At time t 6 , the faulty brake is also opened (S 70 ). This ensures that braking forces still applied by the brake cannot adversely affect position control of the actuation of the robot axis. FIG. 2 also shows a section of a trajectory of a manipulator axis 3 of an industrial robot, wherein the speed thereof over the period is also shown as well as a performance history of the robot axis, which is dependent on various conditions of the robot and the monitoring system. Here, as in FIG. 1 , the time axis is not necessarily drawn linearly to scale, but describes the more general scenario of a qualitative chronological arrangement of the times shown. In the example in FIG. 2 , firstly a command is given to stop the axis 3 (S 10 ) and close the mechanical brakes of axis 3 (S 20 ). Actuation of the actuator of the axis 3 is then deactivated (S 30 ) and monitoring of the mechanical brake activated (S 40 ). It is calculated from the planning of the robot trajectory that the standstill time of the axis 3 is sufficiently long in this case for a brake test to be carried out (S 50 ). Accordingly, after time t 4 , a force is exerted gradually on the axis by the axis actuator when the mechanical brake is closed. The force increases continuously and gradually until it reaches a predefined maximum torque which indicates safe functioning of the brake. Once the maximum torque has been reached, the brake test is terminated and the force generated by the actuator on the axis is reduced to 0 again. Since, a release is expected at time t 6 based on motion planning, actuation of the actuator is reactivated by the motion controller. There is an increase in power accordingly. Moreover, the brake is supplied with power at time t 7 and consequently it opens and the axis 3 can proceed according to its planned motion. Since no fault condition of the brake has been identified in this case, no command has been given previously for activation of the actuator by the motion controller. FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram according to one embodiment of the invention. Here a manipulator axis is first stopped (Step S 10 ). A mechanical brake is then closed (Step S 20 ) and actuation of the manipulator axis actuator is deactivated by the motion controller (Step S 30 ). Monitoring of the brake commences at the same time as the deactivation of the actuator (Step S 40 ). If said monitoring system detects a fault in the brake (Step S 50 ), the actuator of the manipulator axis is reactivated by the motion controller (Step S 60 ), in order to move the manipulator axis into a safe position or to keep it in position. The brake is opened at the same time (Step S 70 ) so that the motion controller is not disrupted by braking forces. LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS t Time t 1 -t 8 absolute times φ Position axis 3 {dot over (φ)} Speed of axis 3 of the manipulator P Performance history of axis 3 S Monitoring active

A method for fixing the position at least one axis of a manipulator, in particular of a robot, includes closuring a mechanical brake of the axis, deactivating an actuator of the axis with a motion controller, monitoring the mechanical brake, and activating the actuator with the motion controller if a monitoring system identifies a fault condition of the mechanical brake.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to the field of petroleum drilling engineering, and in particular, to a wellbore pressure correction method. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] During a drilling process of petroleum and natural gas, calculation and control for the wellbore pressure become very important in order to avoid complicated accidents such as leakage, kick, hole instability, sticking, and/or the like. Currently, a gas-liquid two-phase flow theory is one of theoretical bases of gas-liquid two-phase flow simulated calculation for the wellbore, which establishes a gas-liquid two-phase continuity equation, a momentum equation by dividing different flow patterns, to simulate a flow state. However, differences between different calculation methods are relatively large and thus the precision is hard to meet requirements for calculation of dynamic pressure of a delicate controlled pressure wellbore for pressure sensitive formation. [0003] To avoid the occurrence of the accidents, the drilling method for managed pressure drilling (MPD) has been widely used in the field of drilling petroleum and natural gas. However, there is no solution for a real-time control of the MPD pressure yet to satisfy the requirements for fast and accurate calculation of the dynamic pressure of the wellbore for petroleum and natural gas. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0004] An object of the invention is to provide a wellbore pressure correction method to more fastly and accurately calculate the pressure of wellbore in real-time. [0005] To achieve the abovementioned purpose, an embodiment of the invention provides a method for wellbore pressure correction, comprising: measuring a bottom hole pressure using a downhole pressure measurement-while-drilling tool; calculating a predicted bottom hole pressure; and correcting a wellbore pressure using the measured bottom hole pressure and the predicted bottom hole pressure to achieve MPD. [0006] Preferably, the predicted bottom hole pressure is calculated according to the following equation: P b ( t)=P h (t)+P f (t)+P(t), where P b (t) is the bottom hole pressure at time t, P h (t) is a hydrostatic column pressure at time t, P f (t) is an annular pressure lost at time t, and P w (t) is a wellhead back pressure at time t. [0007] Preferably, P h (t)=ρ mix (t)gH(t), where [0000] ρ mix  ( t ) = m g  ( t ) + m l  ( t ) V  ( t ) , [0000] m g (t) is an annular gas mass for the wellbore at time t, m l (t) is an annulus liquid mass at time t, V(t) is a volume of annular at time t, g is a gravitational acceleration, and H(t) is an actual depth-drilled at time t. [0008] Preferably, [0000] P f  ( t ) = f  ρ mix  ( t )  H  ( t )  v mix 2  ( t ) 2  D a ,  where v mix  ( t ) = Q mix  ( t ) A ,  Q mix  ( t ) [0000] is a measured value by a mass flowmeter at time t A is an annular flow area, D a is a hydraulic diameter, and f is a coefficient of friction resistance. [0009] Preferably, P w (t)=P w0 −ΔP h (t +ΔP safe where ΔP safe is an additional safety pressure value, P w0 is the wellhead back pressure in the absence of overflow, [0000] Δ   P h  ( t ) = - ( ρ i - ρ g )  V g  t V  gH , [0000] ρ t is an annulus liquid density, ρ g is a gas density on the condition of an average pressure being [(P b −P w )/2 , (P b +P w )/2], V is a volume of annular in the presence of overflow, H is a well depth in the presence of overflow, V g (t)=∫ 0 t q g (t) dt, q g (t) is an overflow velocity at time t, P b is a bottom hole pressure preset at the time of designing the MPD, P w is a pressure value in a safe range of the wellhead back pressure for the MPD, H is a current well depth, V is the volume of annular corresponding to the current well depth. [0010] Preferably, correcting the wellbore pressure using the measured bottom hole pressure and the predicted bottom hole pressure to achieve MPD comprises checking an annular pressure lost according to the following equation to achieve MPD: [0000] P f  ( t ) new = f ′  ρ mix  ( t )  H  ( t )  v mix 2  ( t ) 2  D a ; where f ′ = P f ′  ( t ) P f  ( t ) · f ,  P f ′  ( t ) = P f  ( t ) - Δ   P  ( t ) ,  Δ   P  ( t ) = P b  ( t ) - P pwd  ( t ) ,  P f  ( t ) new [0000] is a checked annular pressure lost at time t, and P pwd (t) is the measured bottom hole pressure at time t. [0011] Preferably, correcting the wellbore pressure using the measured bottom hole pressure and the predicted bottom hole pressure to achieve MPD comprises checking the wellhead back pressure according to the following equation to achieve MPD: P′ w (t)=P′ b (t)−P h (t)−P f (t); where P′ w (t) is a checked wellhead back pressure at time t, [0000] α = P pwd  ( t ) P b  ( t ) ,  P b ′  ( t ) = α   P b  ( t ) . [0012] Preferably, the method further comprises controlling a choke valve aperture such that the annular pressure lost reaches the checked annular pressure lost or the wellhead back pressure reaches the checked wellhead back pressure. [0013] One or more embodiments of the invention can overcome the defect existing in the prior art, that is, the difference between a downhole pressure calculated from a wellbore pressure calculation processing method and the actual downhole pressure is relatively large. One or more embodiments of the invention can also be able to more quickly and accurately calculate the wellbore pressure in real time to achieve accurate calculation and real-time correction and control of dynamic wellbore pressure on a narrow density window formation, and thereby achieve a good control of bottom hole pressure and guarantee safe and quick drilling. [0014] Other features and advantages of the present invention will be illustrated further in detail while explaining embodiments hereafter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0015] The accompanying drawings are provided here to facilitate further understanding of the present invention, and constitute a part of this specification, they are used in conjunction with the following embodiments to explain the present invention, but shall not be construed as constituting any limitation to the present invention, wherein: [0016] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the wellbore pressure distribution; [0017] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of the wellbore dynamic pressure correction provided in the invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE SYMBOLS [0000] 10 Mud pump 12 Choke valve 14 Mass flowmeter DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS [0020] Some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail hereafter. It is appreciated that these embodiments are used to explain and illustrate the present invention, but by no means to limit the present invention. [0021] In embodiments of the invention, the correction of the wellbore pressure may be based on the basic principles of the mass and pressure conservation and the wellbore gas-liquid two-phase flow theory. [0022] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a distribution of wellbore pressure. As shown in FIG. 1 , a mud pump 10 pumps drilling circulating liquid into a well; annular circulating liquid will enter into a mud tank through a choke valve 12 and a mass flowmeter 14 . Considering the formation is of water or liquid breakthrough, the density of which differs little from that of the drilling circulating liquid, and thus a change in the wellbore pressure is relatively slow, thereby the MPD is relatively easy to be done. Therefore, only the situation where the formation is outgassed is considered rather than the situation of water or fluid-breakthrough, while calculating the wellbore pressure for the MPD. [0023] During the process of correction of the wellbore pressure, different correction approaches can apply for different situations. Embodiments of the invention primarily employ two correction approaches: one is related to checking the annular pressure lost and the other is related to checking the wellhead back pressure. The following will describe in detail how to perform the wellbore pressure correction according to the basic principles of mass and pressure conversation. [0024] According to the mass conversation law, in a case that there is a stable drilling liquid circulating system, with no fluid input and fluid output and no additional energy exchange, the mass is considered in balance. In a case that the mass is balanced, it necessarily means energy balance, i.e., pressure balance. In a case that the mass is unbalanced, energy will be unbalanced, so that the pressure will not be in balance. According to the energy conservation law, a total drilling liquid volume=a drilling tool water hole volume+a wellbore volume of annular+a mud tank volume=a constant. The drilling tool can be considered as remaining unchanged in a certain time period, so the drilling tool water hole volume remains relatively unchanged; therefore, it can be considered that: a wellbore volume of annular+a mud tank volume=a constant. [0025] Without considering fluid's acceleration motion, according to the pressure conservation principle, the bottom hole pressure is given by: [0000] P b ( t )= P h ( t )+ P f ( t )+ P w ( t )   (1) [0026] In the equation: [0027] P b (t): a bottom hole pressure at time t; [0028] P h (T):a hydrostatic column pressure at time t; [0029] P f (t): an annular pressure lost at time t; [0030] P w (t): a wellhead back pressure at time t (i.e, an upstream pressure of a choke valve). [0031] Notably, since the gas in the formation is injected into the bottom and returns upward along an annulus space, gas compressibility needs to be considered. A change in the hydrostatic column pressure is also due to the change in density of a mixture. P b (t) can be calculated and predicted using a model, P w (t) can be measured in real time by an apparatus such as a pressure sensor. [0032] The hydrostatic column pressure and the annular pressure lost are calculated as follows: [0000] P h  ( t ) = ρ mix  ( t )  gH  ( t ) ( 2 ) ρ mix  ( t ) = m g  ( t ) + m l  ( t ) V  ( t ) ( 3 ) [0033] In the above equations, ρ mix (t) is the density of the mixing liquid within the wellbore at time t; H(t) is an actual depth-drilled at time t; m g (t) is an annular gas mass for the wellbore at time t; m l (t) is an annulus liquid mass at time t; V(t) is a volume of annular at time t, which can be calculated based on a wellbore structure and a diameter of an open hole section and a volume of a well-entering part of a drilling string. [0034] m g (t)=ρ g V g , where ρ g is the gas density if an average pressure is [(P b −P w )/2, (P b +P w )/2]. At this time, P b is a bottom hole pressure preset when designing the MPD, P w is required to be within a safe range of the wellhead back pressure for the MPD. For example, it is specified as [0, 5] MPa. ρ g can be considered as a constant. [0035] V g (t) is a downhole overflow amount, which can be calculated according to the following equation: [0000] V g ( t )=∫ 0 t q g ( t )dt   (4) [0036] q g (t) is an overflow velocity at time t, which can be obtained by measuring a liquid level of the mud tank. [0000] m l =ρ l ( V ( t )− V g ( t ))   (5) [0037] When special working conditions such as overflow or leakage occur, drilling will not continue and it is required the processing for the special working conditions is complete at the current depth before continuing drilling; at this time, V(t) and H(t) are respectively a volume of annular V and a well depth H corresponding to the current well depth, where p l is the density of the drilling liquid. The time t is derived by the equation (2): [0000] dp h  ( t ) dt = - ( ρ 1 - ρ g )  q g  ( t ) V  gH ( 6 ) [0038] The annular pressure lost is calculated by the following equations: [0000] 1 f ≈ - 1.8   log 10  [ 6.9 Re + ( ε / D a 3.7 ) 1.11 ] ( 7 ) v mix  ( t ) = Q mix  ( t ) A ( 8 ) [0039] Q mix (t): a measured value by the mass flowmeter at time t (volume flow) [0040] A: an annular flow area; [0041] D a : hydraulic diameter, [0000] D a = D o - D i 2 [0042] f: a coefficient of friction resistance, which can be calculated by the following equations: [0000] 1 f ≈ - 1.8  log 10  [ 6.9 Re + ( ε / D a 3.7 ) 1.11 ] ( 9 ) [0043] ∈/D a is a relative roughness; [0000] Re = ρ mix  v mix  ( t )  D a μ ( 10 ) [0044] In the above equations, μ is a viscosity of drilling liquid, D o is a wellbore diameter, D i is an outer diameter of the drilling tool within the wellbore. [0045] The change in the hydrostatic column pressure during the drilling can be determined according to the equation (6). [0046] The wellhead back pressure is calculated as follows: [0000] P w  ( t ) = P w   0 - Δ   P h  ( t ) + Δ   P safe ( 11 ) Δ   P h  ( t ) = - ( ρ 1 - ρ g )  V g V  gH ( 12 ) [0047] In the equations: [0048] ΔP safe is an additional safety pressure value; [0049] P wo is a wellhead back pressure when no overflow occurs. [0050] In order to prevent occurrence of accidents, the hydraulic calculation model as shown in equations (1)-(10) can be corrected in real time by the annular pressure data collected by the PWD downhole pressure measurement-while-drilling tool, so as to greatly optimize and improve the precision of the wellbore dynamic pressure calculation model; the optimized hydraulic calculation model can be used for the real-time calculation of the dynamic hydraulic parameter for the managed pressure wellbore under various working conditions. [0051] As described above, when checking is performed, the annular pressure lost checking and/or the wellhead back pressure checking can be used. Generally, when PWD signals can be obtained, the annular pressure lost checking can be employed; when the PWD signals cannot be obtained, the wellhead back pressure checking can be employed. [0052] The annular pressure lost can be checked according to the following equations: [0053] The checked annular pressure lost is: [0000] P f  ( t ) new = f ′  ρ mix  ( t )  H  ( t )  v mix 2  ( t ) 2  D a [0054] In the equation: [0000] Δ P ( t )= P b ( t ) aP pwd ( t )   (13) [0000] P′ f ( t )= P f ( t )−Δ P ( t )   (14) [0055] Then a checked annular coefficient of friction resistance is: [0000] f ′ = P f ′  ( t ) P f  ( t ) · f ( 15 ) [0056] In the equations: [0057] P pwd (t): the bottom hole pressure value measured by the PWD pressure measurement-while-drilling tool at time t; [0058] ΔP(t): a difference between the calculated bottom hole pressure and the PWD measured value. [0000] ρ mix  ( t ) = m g  ( t ) + m l  ( t ) V  ( t ) ; H  ( t ) [0059] is the actual depth-chilled at time t; [0000] v mix  ( t ) = Q mix  ( t ) A ; Q mix  ( t ) [0000] is the measured value (volume flow) by the mass flowmeter at time t; A is the annular flow area; and D a is a hydraulic diameter. [0060] The wellhead back pressure can be checked according to the following equations: [0000] The checked bottom hole pressure is: P′ b ( t )=α P b ( t )   (16) [0000] The checked wellhead back pressure is: P′ w ( t )= P′ b ( t )− P h ( t )− P f ( t )   (17) [0061] In the equations: [0000] α = P pwd  ( t ) P b  ( t ) ( 18 ) [0062] α: is a ratio between the measured pressure value by PWD and the calculated value of the bottom hole pressure at time t; the choke valve can be controlled based on the wellhead pressure. [0063] FIG. 2 shows the wellbore dynamic pressure correction provided in an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, to facilitate understanding, first three steps present in the existing art are added. As shown in FIG. 2 , during the correction process, basic parameters for calculation of the wellbore pressure are acquired at first, for example, including the non-real time measurement parameters such as an known wellbore structure, a make-up of string and size, a density of drilling liquid, performance and the like, and real-time measurement parameters which are dynamically acquired in real time such as bottom hole pressure, wellhead back pressure, chilling liquid flow rate, volume change of the drilling liquid circulating tank and the like. Then, boundary conditions for the MPD can be determined. For example, according to requirements for the MPD emergency technique, the boundary conditions may be that: the upper limit of the wellhead back pressure is about 5-7 MPa, the content of hydrogen sulfide is less than 20 ppm and the overflow amount is not more than 1 m 3 . And then the bottom hole pressure and the annular pressure lost can be calculated according to the wellbore dynamic flow equation (i.e., the hydraulic calculation model). Then the annular pressure lost or wellhead pressure can be checked according to the solutions provided in embodiments of the invention, and the wellbore dynamic pressure calculation model can be modified by the checked annular pressure lost or wellhead pressure; the MPD is performed according to the model, that is, the checked annular pressure lost or wellhead pressure is used as a target value, which is used for controlling the choke valve aperture by a wellhead throttling manifold system, to adjust the wellhead back pressure, and thereby to accurately control the bottom hole pressure. The difference between the calculated bottom hole pressure and the actually measured bottom hole pressure can be used to adjust an annular checking coefficient in the hydraulic calculation model. [0064] While some preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in detail above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to the specific details in those embodiments. Various simple modifications can be made to the technical solutions of the present invention within the technical conceptual scope of the present invention, and these simple modifications belong to the protection scope of the present invention. [0065] In addition, it should be appreciated that the technical features described in the above embodiments can be combined in any appropriate manner, provided that there is no conflict among the technical features in combination. To avoid unnecessary iteration, such possible combinations are not described here in the present invention. [0066] Moreover, different embodiments of the present invention can be combined freely as required as long as the combinations do not deviate from the spirit of the present invention. Such combinations shall also be deemed as falling into the scope disclosed in the present invention.

This invention discloses a method for wellbore pressure correction. The method comprises: measuring a bottom hole pressure using a downhole pressure measurement-while-drilling tool; calculating a predicted bottom hole pressure; and correcting a wellbore pressure using the measured bottom hole pressure and the predicted bottom hole pressure, to achieve managed pressure drilling (MPD). The invention makes up for the defect in the existing art that the difference between a wellbore pressure calculation processing method and the actual downhole pressure is relatively great, and is capable of more quickly and accurately calculating the wellbore pressure in real time so that accurate calculation and real-time correction and control of dynamic wellbore pressure on a narrow density window formation are achieved, thereby meeting the requirement of good bottom hole pressure and the requirement of ensuring safe and quick drilling.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I. Field of the Invention The invention relates generally to communications. In addition, the invention relates to wireless telecommunications including cordless telephones. II. Description of the Related Art The cordless telephone has become a popular consumer good. The cordless telephone allows a user to untether himself from a wired connection to his local telephone line. Typically, a cordless telephone is comprised of two units: a base unit and a handset both of which are transceivers. The base unit connects to the public switched telephone network typically using a standard RJ-11 connector. The base unit provides a wireless connection to a handset. The handset is capable of receiving and transmitting signals over a wireless link to the base unit. The use of the wireless link allows the handset to communicate with the base unit. Many cordless telephones operate as a time division duplex (TDD) system. In time division duplex, the base unit and the handset alternately transmit such that the units do not transmit at the same time. In a time division duplex system, the same frequency band can be used for both transmission and reception. By using time division duplex, the transmit and receive circuitry within each unit can share common components. In addition, each unit requires less internal isolation between the transmit and receive circuitry. For these reasons, a cordless telephone which operates using time division duplex can be cheaper, more reliable and yet produce higher quality audio signals than a full duplex unit. Even though the wireless link operates using time division duplex, audio compression techniques are used to provide concurrent bi-directional audio communication to the user. Therefore, even though the wireless link signals are time division duplex, the end user perceives simultaneous bi-directional audio communication. In addition, cordless telephones typically use direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation in conjunction with TDD. Spread spectrum signals used for the transmission of digital information are distinguished by the characteristic that their bandwidth is much greater than their information rate in bits per second. The large redundancy introduced by spread spectrum operation can be used to compensate for severe levels of interference. In addition, spread spectrum can be used to introduce pseudo-randomness into the signal. Transmission signals spread with a pseudo-random code appear to be random noise and are difficult to demodulate by receivers other than the intended receiver. In this way, a system which uses direct sequence spread spectrum is less vulnerable to accidental or deliberate reception by a third party. In this way, direct sequence spread spectrum, in conjunction with a scrambling scheme, provides a significant element of privacy in the communications channel between a handset and a base unit. In a direct sequence spread spectrum system, data bits are modulated with a spreading sequence before transmission. Each bit of information is modulated with a series of chips from the spreading sequence. The number of chips per bit defines the processing gain. A greater number of chips per bit creates a greater immunity to noise and other interference. For example, in one common cordless telephone spreading technique, each information bit is modulated with a 12 bit spreading code. Because a cordless telephone using direct sequence spread spectrum has an enhanced immunity to noise and other interference, the cordless telephone handset may transmit a very low output power. In a typical system, the spreading code might contain an even number of one's and zero's. In this way, the energy of the spread spectrum signal is minimized at and close to 0 Hz. For this reason, a baseband spread signal may be subjected to highpass or bandpass filtering with little effect on the information content. In a system in which each information bit is modulated with a 12 bit spreading code, a preferred spreading code can be chosen by examination of the spectral content of each possible 12 bit sequence which is comprised of six 0's and six 1's. Prior to application of the spreading code to the information bit stream, the information bits may undergo a series of digital operations which further increase the performance of the system. For example, the information bits may undergo differential encoding in order to be more intolerant to an incorrect phase lock in the receiving unit phase locked loop (PLL). The information bits may be scrambled using a long scrambling sequence in order to further decrease the vulnerability of the system to interception. Conventional cordless telephones utilizing direct sequence spread spectrum coding also use binary phase shift keying (BPSK). In a phase shift keyed system, information is carried in the phase of the signal. For example, in FIG. 1A , the binary sequence 1 0 1 1 0 is represented as a series of positive and negative voltage levels. In FIG. 1B , the same sequence has been phase shift keyed modulated. In FIG. 1B , two different phases are used to denote the two different digital values. Note that whenever the sequence transitions from a “1” to a “0” or from a “0” to a “1”, the phase of the signal in FIG. 1B transitions. Such a system is referred to as a BPSK system. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a prior art BPSK architecture. This architecture may be used by both the base unit and handset. A digital mixer 21 (contained within the digital architecture) receives the digital data produced by a digital portion of the architecture which is not shown in FIG. 2 . The spreading code generator 22 supplies the spreading code to the other input of the mixer 21 . The digital spread spectrum waveform output from the mixer 21 is converted to an analog signal by a one bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 62 . The analog baseband signal is then amplified by a baseband amplifier 60 . After amplification, the signal is passed through bandpass filter 58 . The bandpass filter 58 is employed to remove higher order harmonics contained within the baseband spread spectrum signal in order to avoid transmitting out of band energy. In addition, the bandpass filter 58 attenuates signal energy at frequencies at or near 0 Hz. Attenuation of the low frequency components of the baseband signal aids in suppression of the radio frequency (RF) carrier frequency component of the radio output. In another embodiment of the system in FIG. 2 the bandpass filter 58 can be replaced with a lowpass filter. The filtered output of the bandpass filter 58 is modulated with an RF carrier by a mixer 56 . The RF carrier is generated by a phase lock loop comprised of a voltage control oscillator (VCO) 44 , a lowpass filter 46 and a frequency mixer/phase detector 48 . During operation, the mixer/phase detector 48 is programmed by the digital architecture to control the VCO 44 to generate an RF sinusoidal signal at the selected wireless link center frequency. The signal produced by the VCO 44 is applied to the mixer 56 such that the output of the mixer 56 is a BPSK waveform at the desired RF transmit frequency. The RF BPSK waveform is amplified by an amplifier 54 . In addition, the BPSK waveform is amplified by a variable gain power amplifier 50 . The gain of the power amplifier 50 is set based upon a transmit power level indication received from the digital architecture and converted to usable form by a power amplifier level control unit 52 . The gain of the power amplifier 50 at the transmitter may be decreased as the path loss between the handset and base unit is decreased in order to conserve power. During a transmission period of the time division duplex operation, an RF switch 22 connects the output of the power amplifier 50 to a radio frequency lowpass filter 20 . The output of the lowpass filter 20 is transmitted to the receiving unit over an antenna. During a reception period of the time division duplex operation, a receive signal passes through the lowpass filter 20 . The radio frequency switch 22 connects the output of the lowpass filter 20 to an RF bandpass filter 24 . The output of the bandpass filter 24 is passed to a variable gain low noise amplifier 26 . The gain of the low noise amplifier 26 is selected by an LNA gain level indication generated by the digital architecture. The gain of the low noise amplifier is decreased as the path loss between the base unit and the handset decreases in order to avoid saturation of the receive circuitry. In order to discern the phase of the received signal at the baseband, the received RF signal is down converted using an in-phase and quadrature component of the RF signal produced by the phase lock loop. The RF signal produced by the phase lock loop is shifted by 90 degrees by a phase shifter 42 before use in the quadrature receive path. The in-phase and quadrature components are applied to the mixers 28 A and 28 B respectively. The output of the mixers 28 A and 28 B are passed to bandpass filters 30 A and 30 B, respectively. The output of bandpass filters 30 A and 30 B are passed to variable gain amplifiers 32 A and 32 B respectively. The gain of the variable gain amplifiers 32 A and 32 B is set by a baseband gain level indication received from the digital architecture to control the signal level supplied to subsequent components. The output of the variable gain amplifiers 32 A and 32 B is converted to a digital representation by analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) 34 A and 34 B. The output of ADCs 34 A and 34 B is sent to matched filters 38 A and 38 B via a phase rotator 36 . The phase rotator 36 attempts to compensate for any frequency offsets affecting the received baseband signal. Although both the transmitting and receiving units have a PLL, the carrier signal produced by the receiving unit is never exactly the same as the carrier signal produced by the transmitting unit due to injected noise, reference frequency variations and other sources of errors. Any difference between the transmitter and receiver carrier signals modulates the resulting baseband signal produced by the receiving unit. The phase rotator 36 attempts to detect and correct for errors due to frequency and phase offsets which modulate the baseband signal. The matched filters 38 A and 38 B perform the despreading functions. The despreading function removes the direct sequence spread spectrum modulation from the received signal. The outputs of the matched filters 36 A and 36 B is input into a BPSK demodulator 40 . The BPSK demodulator 40 uses the amplitude of the output of each matched filter 38 A and 38 B in order to recover the transmitted information bits from the received signal. A differential decoding stage may also be used if the information bits have been differentially encoded at the transmitter. Cordless telephones employing direct sequence spread spectrum modulation and time division duplex typically provide a usable data rate of 100 kilobits per second in a full duplex communication link. The full duplex communication link provides for high quality voice communication. However, such a system has many limitations which make it unacceptable for data transmission. For example, the DSSS architecture makes it very difficult to increase the usable data rate due to restrictions in the amount of signal bandwidth available in the 902 MHz-928 MHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) frequency band utilized by cordless telephones under FCC regulations. In addition, typical time division duplex schemes employed with cordless telephones allocate fixed, equal time intervals for transmitting and receiving for the handset and base unit. Such an inflexible approach is inefficient for data transmission. Therefore, current cordless telephone systems have many drawbacks for data communications. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A cordless telephone system incorporates both frequency hopping spectrum modulation and direct sequence spread spectrum modulation with the capability to switch between the two modulation techniques switching between the two modulation techniques can, for example be dependent on whether the cordless telephone system is transmitting data or voice. In a cordless telephone system employing direct sequence spread spectrum modulation, increasing the data transmission rate requires increasing the bandwidth of the transmitted RF signal. Increasing the bandwidth requires changes to the radio frequency (RF) hardware (e.g., wider filter bandwidths, wider bandwidth power amplifiers). In addition, as the bandwidth of the DSSS signal increases to occupy a larger fraction of the frequency range allocated to cordless telephones, the probability of encountering interfering signals increases while the available number of channels for use with cordless telephones decreases. However, employing frequency hopping spread spectrum modulation allows for an increased data transmission rate within the currently available bandwidth. Such higher data transmission rates may be required, for example, for data communications such as are typically employed by personal computers communicating via the Internet. One aspect of the present invention includes a cordless telephone system which employs DSSS modulation and can switch to FHSS modulation while employing much of the same hardware for both modulation techniques. In one aspect of the present invention, a dual mode wireless transceiver includes a direct sequence spread spectrum transmitter portion, a frequency hopping spread spectrum transmitter portion and a mode selection circuit coupled to both a direct sequence spread spectrum transmission portion and the frequency hopping spread spectrum portion. The mode selection circuit selectively activates the direct sequence spread spectrum portion when in a direct sequence spread spectrum transmission mode and activates the frequency hopping spread spectrum transmission portion when in a frequency hopping spread spectrum transmission mode. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a dual mode wireless transceiver which includes a frequency generator, a mixer, a spreading code generator selectively coupled to the mixer, a hopping sequence generator selectively coupled to the frequency generator, a modulating mixer coupled to receive the output of the first mixer and the frequency generator in a mode selection circuit coupled to the spreading code generator and the hopping sequence generator. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The features, objectives and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like parts are identified with like reference numerals throughout and wherein: FIGS. 1A and B are time domain diagrams illustrating in FIG. 1A a binary transmission sequence and illustrating in FIG. 1B the same sequence which has been phase shift keyed modulated; FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a prior art binary phase shift keyed architecture of a DSSS cordless telephone handset or base unit; FIG. 3 is a graphical representation in a time-frequency plane of a frequency-hopping transmission pattern; FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a transmitter and receiver for a frequency-hopping spread spectrum system; FIG. 5 is a graphical representation of a frame timing structure; and FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a frequency-hopping spread spectrum modulation and direct sequence spread spectrum modulation transmit and receive circuitry. FIG. 7 is an exemplary cordless telephone incorporating the transmit and receive circuitry of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the situation where an increased data rate is required or desired for a cordless telephone, it is desirable to increase the bandwidth of the transmitted RF signal. In a DSSS cordless telephone system which already continuously occupies an expanded frequency bandwidth relative to the transmitted data rate, increasing the bandwidth requires changes to the RF hardware (e.g., wider filter bandwidths, wider bandwidth power amplifiers). Any such changes to the RF hardware are typically undesirable because they lead to either increased costs (if there are two hardware architectures to switch between) and/or reduced performance (if the same hardware is used for both configurations then one or other solution will be sub-optimal). Either of these effects is unacceptable in a consumer product such as a cordless telephone/data system where high quality performance and low costs are simultaneous requirements. Furthermore, as the bandwidth of the DSSS signal rises to occupy a larger fraction of the frequency range allocated by, for example, the Federal Communications Commission, the likelihood of encountering interfering signals rises, the available number of channels to operate in decreases and the potential for interfering with other users of the frequency band increases. An alternative method of achieving a higher transmitted data rate using the existing DSSS cordless telephone system is to switch off the spreading and despreading operations at the transmitter and receiver and to transmit raw data. The raw data rate can be chosen to be higher than the underlying DSSS data rate by anything from a factor of one up to a factor equal to the processing gain of the spread spectrum code. Within this constraint the same RF hardware can be used in each case (DSSS voice and raw data). However, the various signal impairments encountered in a typical RF channel in which cordless telephone systems are expected to operate makes this method of transmitting raw data unreliable. The performance and quality of the raw data transmission is improved significantly when a frequency hopping signal is employed. This can be accomplished by the frequency generated by the frequency synthesizer being changed at defined intervals equal to the dwell time. The resulting hybrid system then has the capability to select either DSSS voice signal transmission or FHSS high rate data signal transmission using the same RF hardware. All that is required is that there be provided a switching mechanism within the digital control architecture to choose between the two options. In a frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) communications system, the available channel bandwidth is subdivided into a number of (usually contiguous) frequency slots. In any signaling interval, the transmitted signal occupies one or more of the available frequency slots. Referring to FIG. 3 , a particular frequency-hopping pattern is illustrated in a time-frequency plane. During a first time interval, T c (also referred to as the dwell time) the communication system transmits in a first frequency slot. During the second time interval from T c to 2T c , the signal transmitted by the system occupies a second frequency slot and so on. This can be contrasted with a DSSS system wherein the transmission occupies the same bandwidth during each time interval. The selection of the frequency slots in an FHSS system can be made pseudo-random. In a cordless phone system, whether each time interval is a transmit or receive period depends upon the conventions used in the system. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a transmitter and receiver for a frequency-hopped spread spectrum system. During a transmit interval, a digital source signal which is produced by a digital portion of the architecture not shown in the figure, is applied to a one-bit digital to analog converter (DAC) 410 . The output of the digital to analog converter 410 is then applied to the appropriate filtering and gain stages represented by block 412 . The hopping sequence generator controls the frequency synthesizer 416 which then generates the center frequency of the channel for the signaling interval. In other words, the hopping sequence generator 414 generates the pattern of the frequency slots or channels. The output of the frequency synthesizer is then mixed with the output of the filtering and gain stages 412 by the mixer 418 . The output of the mixer 418 is then amplified by power amplifier 420 and sent through the transmit receive switch 422 out to the antenna 424 . During a receive interval, a signal received in the antenna 424 passes through the transmit/receive switch 422 to a low noise amplifier 426 . The amplified signal is then mixed at mixer 428 which removes the carrier signal. Obviously, the hopping sequence generator 414 of the receiver must be synchronized with the hopping sequence generator of the transmitter. The output of the mixer 428 is then passed to filtering and gain stages 430 A and 430 B. The outputs of the filtering and gain stages 430 A and 430 B are then each passed to analog to digital converters 432 A and 432 B. The digital outputs of the analog to digital converters 432 A and 432 B are then supplied to BPSK demodulator circuitry 434 which recovers the transmitted information bits from the received signals. A differential decoding stage may also be used if the information bits have been differentially encoded at the transmitter. FIG. 5 shows a frame timing structure for an FHSS communication system suitable for use with cordless telephones. In the timing diagram during a first dwell time, the system transmits on a channel represented by center frequency A. Prior to transmitting at center frequency A, a finite settling time is required to permit the frequency synthesizer to complete the transition from the previous frequency to the new frequency A. During this settling interval data transmission is not possible. In one embodiment, during the dwell time T c , there is a first transmit period (Tx) followed by a reception period (Rx) followed then by a second transmission and reception period. That pattern is then repeated at the next channel represented by center frequency B. Such a framing structure employing equal periods for transmitting and receiving is generally used for full duplex voice transmission which requires symmetric data rates for transmitting and receiving. However, for full duplex voice transmission an FHSS system with such a framing structure is less efficient than the DSSS system described above due to the overhead cost of the synthesizer settling time. In another embodiment the dwell time may be equal to the transmit period and the overhead of the synthesizer settling interval consumes an even greater portion of the time available for data transmission. Reducing the portion of the dwell time occupied by synthesizer settling time requires that the dwell time be increased. This has the effect of reducing the hopping rate of the FHSS system and thereby reducing the performance improvement due to frequency hopping. Therefore, for a cordless telephone providing voice communication a DSSS solution is preferable to an FHSS solution for voice transmission. Referring now to the block diagram of FIG. 6 , the frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) modulation and direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation transmit and receive circuitry for a cordless telephone handset and base station will be described. Binary source data which is produced by a digital portion of the architecture not shown in the figure, is applied to a spreading code mixer 610 , which may be a digital mixer. When the transceiver is operating as a DSSS transmitter, the mixer 610 also receives the spreading code from the spreading code generator 612 . When the transceiver is operating as an FHSS transmitter, the spreading code is not provided to mixer 610 and the binary source data passes through the mixer. The output of the mixer 610 is supplied to a digital to analog converter 614 , which may be a one bit digital to analog converter. The analog output of the digital to analog converter 614 is applied to appropriate filtering and gain stages represented by block 616 . Appropriate filtering and gain circuitry is known to those of ordinary skill in the art and one example was described previously with regard to FIG. 2 . The output of the filtering and gain stages 616 , referred to as the base band signal, is provided to a modulating mixer 618 . The mixer 618 receives a frequency output from the frequency generator 620 , which can be a frequency synthesizer, as its other input. The frequency synthesizer can be a phase lock loop comprised of a voltage controlled oscillator, a lowpass filter and a frequency mixer/phase detector as was described above with regard to FIG. 2 . The output of the mixer is then amplified by a power amplifier 622 and sent through the transmit receive switch 624 to the antenna 626 . When a signal is received by antenna 626 it passes through the transmit/receive switch 624 to the low noise amplifier 628 . The amplified signal is passed to the demodulation portion of the system beginning with a demodulator mixer 630 . The mixer 630 also receives an input from the frequency synthesizer 620 . The mixer 630 acts to remove the carrier signal. The output from the mixer 630 is applied to filtering and gain stages 632 a and 632 b . The output from the filtering and gain stages are applied to two analog to digital converters 634 a and 634 b . The digital outputs of the analog to digital converters are supplied to the despreader and BPSK demodulator 636 . The despreader and BPSK demodulator 636 demodulates the BPSK signal, and if appropriate, despreads the signal. The spread spectrum control signal system 638 , or mode selection circuit, controls the application or use of the spreading code generator 612 , a hopping sequence generator 640 and controls the application of the despreader in the despreader and BPSK demodulator 636 . The spread spectrum control signal system can be implemented, for example, as a switch or as a circuit configured to respond to signals from external equipment such as a modem would communicate over the cordless telephone. When the system is operating as a DSSS system, the spread spectrum control signal system 638 deactivates the hopping sequence generator 640 and the frequency synthesizer 620 generates the center frequency of the communication channel being used. In addition, in DSSS mode the spread spectrum control signal system 638 activates the spreading code generator so that the spreading code is supplied as an input to the mixer 610 . Finally, the spread spectrum control signal system 638 activates the despreader in the despreader and BPSK demodulator circuitry 636 . When the system is operating as an FHSS system, the spread spectrum control signal system 638 deactivates the spreading code generator 612 such that the binary source data passes through mixer 610 directly to the digital to analog converter 614 . In addition, the spread spectrum control signal system 638 activates the hopping sequence generator 640 which supplies the hopping sequence to the frequency synthesizer 620 . Finally, in FHSS mode, the spread spectrum control signal system 638 deactivates the despreader in the despreader and BPSK demodulator 636 . The spread spectrum control signal system 638 can be implemented as a switch to be operated by the user to set the cordless telephone and base station to either operate as a DSSS system or an FHSS system. Alternatively circuitry can be provided which recognizes whether the transmissions occurring in the cordless phone system are voice or data and automatically switches the system to operate as a DSSS system or an FHSS system respectively. In addition, Applicant notes that instead of incorporating BPSK modulation, the system can be implemented utilizing continuous phase, frequency shift keying (CPFSK) modulation such as is described in pending application Ser. No. 09/107,733 filed Jun. 30, 1998, titled “Direct Conversion Time Division Duplex Radio, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Cordless Telephone” and is hereby incorporated by reference. FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary cordless telephone system 700 incorporating the present invention. The cordless telephone system has a mobile unit 702 , a base unit 704 which communicate with radio communication 710 via antennae 708 , 712 . Typically, the base station 704 couples to a telephone network 720 via a telephone line 725 . The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments is to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive and the scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

A wireless transceiver capable of selectively receiving and transmitting as a direct sequence spread spectrum system or as a frequency hopping spread spectrum system is disclosed. The system is particularly suitable for use in a cordless telephone system. The transceiver includes components for both direct sequence spread spectrum transmission and reception and for frequency hopping spread spectrum transmission and reception.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to automatic calibration methods, read apparatuses and storage apparatuses, and more particularly to an automatic calibration method and a read apparatus adapted for a magnetic disk drive using a magneto-resistive (MR) head and characterized by a variation in the environment in which a reading operation takes place, and a storage apparatus using a demodulating system in such a read apparatus. Recently, the speed of computer operation has become increasingly high and the size of a computer unit has become increasingly small. A direction for high-speed and size reduction is also required for a magnetic disk drive which is used as an external storage unit. In order to realize high-speed and size reduction of a magnetic disk drive, it is necessary to conduct a high-density recording on a magnetic disk. Hence, a high density of data bits results. In a data demodulating method using a peak detection, a point of variation in data is detected by differentiating a peak point in a waveform of restored data so as to detect a zero crossing point. For this reason, a large peak shift is invited in the conventional data demodulating method when the density of data bits becomes high, due to interwaveform interference (intersymbol interference). A large peak detection error is thus created. As a result, the error rate of the magnetic disk drive increases and the reliability suffers. For the reason stated above, there is a limit to the effort of improving the reliability of the magnetic disk drive if the conventional data demodulating method is employed in high-density recording. One approach for resolving this situation is a data demodulating method wherein a partial response method called a PR4ML (partial response class 4 maximum likelihood) method is employed. In the PR4ML method, interwaveform interference is assumed as a precondition and taken advantage of. 2. Description of the Related Art In a demodulating system within a read/write circuit of a conventional magnetic disk drive, parameters of various circuits constituting the demodulating system are predetermined. Specifically, parameters of various circuits in the demodulating system are calibrated under a certain condition (for example, under a normal-temperature condition) and stored in a memory as default values for each cylinder zone. Each time a switching between cylinder zones takes place, default values for the target cylinder zone are read from the memory and set in the circuits in the demodulating system. Thereby, a variation in the characteristic of the demodulating system due to the switching between cylinder zones is canceled. Generally, the conventional magnetic disk drive uses an inductance head and uses a peak detection method as a data demodulating method. In the demodulating system, the level of equalization by a cosine equalizer is fixed for each cylinder zone. A variation in the characteristic of the demodulating system due to a variation in the characteristic of a head or due to a variation in the temperature is canceled by a margin (read margin) provided by a read characteristic of the demodulating system. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the conventional magnetic disk drive using the peak detection method. Referring to FIG. 1, NRZ (non-return-to-zero) data transferred from a host system (not shown) via an interface 111 is converted into serial data by a serial/parallel conversion circuit 110 and encoded by a RLL (run length limited) encoder circuit 117. The encoded data is fed to a write precompensation (hereinafter, referred to as write precomp.) circuit 119 for setting the level of write precompensation and fed to a write flip-flop (FF) 120. An output of the write FF is applied to a head 101 via a driver 121 and written on a magnetic disk 102. The data written on the magnetic disk 102 is read by the head 101 and fed to a low-pass filter 106 via a fixed gain amplifier 104 and a variable gain amplifier 105. A gain of the variable gain amplifier 105 is automatically set by an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit 113 based on an output from the low-pass filter 106. A memory 116 stores parameters of a cosine equalizer circuit 107. A microprocessor unit (MPU) 115 sets parameters stored in the memory 116 in the cosine equalizer circuit 107. Consequently, a restored waveform output by the low-pass filter 106 is fed to a differential zero crossing detection circuit 108 after being subjected to equalization by the cosine equalizer circuit 107. The differential zero crossing detection circuit 108 detects a point of variation in data by differentiating a peak point of the restored data waveform so as to detect a zero crossing point. An output of the differential zero crossing detection circuit 108 is fed to an RLL decoder circuit 109 via a VFO (variable frequency oscillator) circuit 114. The RLL decoder circuit 109 decodes an output of the VFO circuit 114. The decoded data is converted into parallel data (NRZ data) by the serial/parallel conversion circuit 110 and transferred to the host system via the interface 111. However, if the parameters of the various circuits in the demodulating system are fixed for each cylinder in the high-density recording on the magnetic disk, the effect caused by a variation in the characteristic of a head or a variation in the temperature cannot be canceled by a margin of the read characteristic of the demodulating system. As a result, the error rate of the magnetic disk drive increases and the reliability suffers. It is particularly to be noted that an MR head produces a relatively large variation in the characteristic of the demodulating system in response to a variation in the environment (for example, the temperature) in which the MR head is used. Hence, if the parameters of the various circuits in the demodulating system employing the PR4ML method are fixed for each cylinder, the effect caused by the variation in the characteristic cannot be canceled by a margin of the read characteristic of the demodulating system. As a result, the error rate of the magnetic disk drive increases and the reliability suffers. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic calibration method, a read apparatus and a storage apparatus wherein the aforementioned problems are eliminated. Another and more specific object of the present invention is to provide a calibration method, a read apparatus and a storage apparatus, wherein the parameters of the various circuits in a read system are automatically calibrated in accordance with a variation in the environment for a head so that the error rate of a magnetic disk drive is prevented from increasing and the reliability is improved. The aforementioned objectives can be achieved by an automatic calibration method for a read system in which data read by a head from a recording medium is demodulated using a partial response method, the automatic calibration method comprising the steps of: a) storing at least one parameter relating to a bias current fed to the head and parameters for data demodulation in the read system, for a plurality of operating conditions; and b) automatically calibrating the at least one parameter to a preset value for an operating condition. The aforementioned objectives can also be achieved by a read apparatus in which data read by a head from a recording medium is demodulated using a partial response method, the read apparatus comprising: a demodulating system provided with an equalizer circuit for demodulating data and a maximum likelihood detection circuit; storing means storing at least one parameter relating to a bias current fed to the head and parameters for data demodulation in the read system, for a plurality of operating conditions; and control means reading parameters from the storing means under an operating condition and automatically calibrating the at least one parameter to a preset value for the operating condition. The aforementioned objects can also be achieved by a storage apparatus comprising: a head reading data from a disk; a demodulating system provided with an equalizer circuit for demodulating data read by the head and a maximum likelihood detection circuit; storing means storing at least one parameter relating to a bias current fed to the head and parameters for data demodulation in the read system, for a plurality of operating conditions; and control means reading parameters from the storing means under an operating condition and automatically calibrating the at least one parameter to a preset value for the operating condition. It will be appreciated that, according to the present invention, the parameters of the circuits in the read system can be automatically calibrated in accordance with a variation in the condition for the head, so that the read margin of the magnetic disk drive is improved, the read error rate is prevented from increasing, and the reliability is improved. According to one aspect of the present invention, the parameters are automatically calibrated at predetermined intervals so as to adapt for a time-dependent variation of the head or the recording medium. Thus, it is always possible to execute a demodulating operation using most suitable parameters. According to another aspect of the present invention, the filter cut-off frequency and the filter boost level of the PR4 equalizer circuit, and the slice level of the maximum likelihood detection circuit can be automatically calibrated to a most suitable value in accordance with the operating condition. According to still another aspect of the present invention, it is possible to cancel a variation in the characteristic of heads and improve the reliability of the magnetic disk drive. The present invention also makes it possible to preset parameters suitable for different operating conditions. According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the S/N ratio is prevented from dropping when information is read from an ID part in a update write operation so that the read error rate is prevented from increasing. Read error rate in an offset operation performed in a retry operation in response to a read error can also be improved by setting the parameters to the most suitable values. The present invention also makes it possible to set the parameters to values suitable for different operating conditions. By providing a cylinder for automatic calibration, it is possible to calibrate parameters in accordance with the recording density in each zone so that a proper calibration suitable for the condition of the head can be carried out for each zone. Since it is possible to calibrate parameters without using a cylinder already used in a write operation, the likelihood of an erroneous write operation can be reduced. Additionally, time required for the calibration can be reduced because a time for accessing other cylinders is not necessary. By providing a write precompensation circuit, it is possible to prevent the read margin from decreasing due to deterioration in the linear characteristic, even if the frequency characteristic of the head, that is, the linear characteristic varies due to a variation in the operating condition. This can be achieved by automatically calibrating the write precompensation level to an appropriate value. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically calibrate parameters of the circuits in a read system in accordance with a variation in the condition for the head so that the read margin of the magnetic disk is improved, the read error rate is prevented from increasing, and the reliability is improved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and further features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional magnetic disk drive using a peak detection method; FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a storage apparatus according to the present invention; FIG. 3 shows a relationship between uncalibrated set values (digital data) fed from an MPU to a DAC and sense currents Is set in a sense current setting circuit; FIG. 4 shows a relationship between sense currents Is for each MR head and associated set values to be fed to the DAC; FIG. 5 shows a ρ-H characteristic of the MR head 1; FIG. 6 shows a frequency characteristic of an output from the MR head and a frequency characteristic of PR4ML equalization [(1+D) equalization]; FIG. 7 shows a frequency characteristic of a filter for subjecting the output from the MR head to the PR4ML equalization; FIG. 8 shows a relationship between normalized linear density K and combinations of a filter cut-off frequency Fc and a filter boost Fb; FIG. 9 shows a relationship specifying set values to be actually fed to a DAC depending on variations in the MR head; FIGS. 10A-10G are time charts showing how NRZ data is produced in a read system based on the output from the MR head; FIG. 11 shows a relationship between set values provided by a DAC and slice levels of a Viterbi detection circuit; FIG. 12 shows a relationship between write precomp. levels WCP to be set in a write precomp. circuit and associated set values to be specified in a register; FIG. 13 is a flowchart explaining an embodiment of an MPU shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 14 is a flowchart explaining another embodiment of the MPU shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of a storage apparatus according to the present invention; FIG. 16 is a sectional view of a composite head; FIGS. 17A-17D show how a write gap and a read gap relate to a track when the composite head is located in an innermost cylinder of the magnetic disk and an outer most cylinder thereof; FIG. 18 shows an output characteristic of the MR head; FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment of a storage apparatus according to the present invention; and FIG. 20 is a flowchart explaining an embodiment of an MPU shown in FIG. 19. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the storage apparatus according to the present invention. In the first embodiment of the storage apparatus, a first embodiment of the automatic calibration method according to the present invention and a first embodiment of the read apparatus according to the present invention are used. In the first embodiment of the storage apparatus, the present invention is applied to a magnetic disk drive. The magnetic disk drive shown in FIG. 2 generally comprises a write system 31, a read system 32 and a control system 33. The write system 31 comprises a scrambler circuit 17, an RLL (8/9) encoder circuit 18, a precoder circuit 19, a write precomp. circuit 20, a write FF 21, a driver 22, a write head 23 and a register 27. The read system 32 comprises an MR head 1, a sense current setting circuit 2, a fixed gain amplifier 3, a variable gain amplifier 4, a programmable electric filter (PEF) 5, a sample-and-hold circuit 6, an adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7, a Viterbi detection circuit 8, an RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9, a de-scrambler circuit 10, digital-analog converters (DAC) 11-14, a synthesizer 15, a VFO (variable frequency oscillator) circuit 16 and an AGC circuit 34. The sense current setting circuit 2, the fixed gain amplifier 3, the variable amplifier 4, the PEF 5, the sample-and-hold circuit 6 and the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7 constitute a PR4 equalizer circuit. The sample-and-hold circuit 6, the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7 and the Viterbi detection circuit 8 constitute a maximum likelihood detection (ML) circuit. The control system 33 comprises a serial port 24, an MPU 25 controlling the operation of the magnetic disk drive as a whole, and a memory 26. For convenience's sake, it is assumed that a magnetic disk 29 shown adjacent to the MR head 1 is the same as the magnetic disk 29 shown adjacent to the write head 23. A semiconductor chip 32P4910 from SSI Inc. provides certain parts of the systems shown in FIG. 2. More specifically, the semiconductor chip 32P4910 provides the part of the write system 31 including the scrambler circuit 17, the RLL (8/9) encoder circuit 18, the precoder circuit 19, the write precomp. circuit 20 and the write FF 21. The chip 32P4910 also provides the part of the read system 32 including the variable gain amplifier 4, the PEF 5, the sample-and-hold circuit 6, the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7, the Viterbi detection circuit 8, the RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9, the de-scrambler circuit 10, the synthesizer 15, the VFO circuit 16 and the AGC circuit 34. The other parts of the write system 31 and the read system 32 as well as the control system 33 can be provided respectively by a known circuit. Therefore, illustration and description of the internal construction of the individual circuits shown in FIG. 2 are omitted in this specification. Although FIG. 2 shows one MR head 1 and one write head 23, a pair of the MR head 1 and the write head 23 is provided in an actual disk drive for each one of a plurality of magnetic disks 29. In other words, a set of one write system 31 and one read system 32 is provided for each pair of the MR head 1 and the write head 23. A description will now be given of an operation for reading data. The MR head 1 detects a magnetic flux derived from the magnetic disk 29 on which data is written and outputs a restored waveform by converting a variation in magnetic field intensity into a variation in resistivity of the MR head. The sense current setting circuit 2 optimizes an operating point determined by resistivity ρ versus magnetic field intensity H characteristic (hereinafter, referred to as ρ-H characteristic) of the MR head 1. The sense current setting circuit 2 sets a sense current Is using an output of the DAC 11 so as to cancel the latitudinal asymmetry of the output waveform and biases the MR head 11 accordingly. More specifically, the MPU 25 reads from the memory 26 data specifying the sense current most suitable for the selected (that is, currently used) MR head 1 under a given operating condition of the magnetic disk drive, and feeds the read data to the DAC 11 via the serial port 24, whereupon the sense current setting circuit 2 sets the sense current Is using the output of the DAC 11. FIG. 3 shows a relationship between uncalibrated set values fed (digital data) from the MPU 25 to the DAC 11 and the sense currents Is set in the sense current setting circuit 2. FIG. 4 shows a relationship between the sense currents Is for each MR head 1 and the associated set values to be fed to the DAC 11. The memory 26 stores a table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 3. The MPU 25 determines a sense current Is to be set for the MR head 1 by referring to the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 3 and then calibrates the set value in accordance with a variation in the characteristic of the MR head 1 so as to obtain the set value which should be actually fed to the DAC 11. The MPU 25 prepares a table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 4 accordingly and stores the table in the memory 26. For example, set values entered in meshes in FIG. 4 indicate the calibrated set values. The MPU 25 reads the set value corresponding to the sense current Is for the selected MR head 1 from the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 4 and stored in the memory 26. The MPU 25 feeds the read value to the DAC 11. Based on the set value output from the DAC 11, the sense current setting circuit 2 sets the sense current Is most suitable for the selected MR head 1. FIG. 5 shows a ρ-H characteristic of the MR head 1. Referring to FIG. 5, a latitudinal asymmetry exists at operating points b and c because an upper half of the amplitude A is not equal to a lower half of the amplitude B (A≠B). Consequently, the read error rate may be increased and the read margin may be decreased. Thus, it is required that the sense current Is be calibrated so that the operating point is shifted to a point a, where the symmetry A=B is obtained. In this way, the read margin is improved. Automatic calibration for shifting the operating point to a is effected in this embodiment, by selecting a calibrated value providing a maximum margin in a slice level of the Viterbi detection circuit 8 or a calibrated value providing a maximum track offset enabling a reading operation. In the following description, the read margin having as its parameter a slice level of the Viterbi detection circuit 8 is referred to as a slice margin, and the read margin having as its parameter a track offset is referred to as a track offset margin. Referring back to FIG. 2, a restored waveform output by the MR head 1 is fed to the fixed gain amplifier 3 via the sense current setting circuit 2 and calibrated into a waveform having a constant level by the variable gain amplifier 4. The waveform output by the variable gain amplifier 4 is fed to the PEF 5 wherein filtering for PR4ML equalizing takes place. FIG. 6 shows a frequency characteristic of an output from the MR head 1 and a frequency characteristic of PR4ML equalization [(1+D) equalization]. Referring to FIG. 6, normalized amplitude of the MR head 1 is plotted vertically, and the frequency is plotted horizontally. FIG. 7 shows a frequency characteristic of a filter for subjecting the output from the MR head 1 to the PR4ML equalization. The amplitude is plotted vertically, and the frequency is plotted horizontally. FIG. 7 shows a frequency characteristic of a filter obtained when a filter cutoff frequency Fc and a filter boost Fb are varied. In order to make the frequency characteristic of the waveform as shown in FIG. 6 output by the head approach the PR4ML frequency characteristic, an initial equalization should be carried out. For this purpose, the PEF 5 calibrates the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb in accordance with the characteristic of the MR head 1. The MPU 25 reads set values (digital data) from the memory 26 for each cylinder zone and feeds the values to the DAC 12 and the DAC 13, the set values specifying the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb to be set for each cylinder zone and for the selected MR head 1. The PEF 5 sets the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb for each cylinder zone on the basis of the set values provided by the DAC 12 and the DAC 13. In an automatic calibration of the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb, a table specifying a relationship as shown in FIG. 8 is stored in the memory 26. FIG. 8 shows a relationship between the normalized linear density K and combinations of the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb. The normalized linear density K is given by K=W50/T, that is, the ratio between a half-amplitude W50 of an isolated pulse in the output from the MR head 1 and a sampling frequency T. The MPU 25 calibrates the set values of Fc and Fb to be actually fed to the DAC 12 and the DAC 13 in accordance with the variation in the MR head 1, based on the table specifying the relationship between the normalized linear density K and the combinations of Fc and Fb. The MPU 25 thereby prepares a table specifying a relationship shown in FIG. 9 and stores the table in the memory 26. The MPU 25 refers to the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 9 and stored in the memory 26 so as to read the set values of the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb for the selected MR head 1 and feeds the read values to the DAC 11 and DAC 13. Accordingly, the PEF 5 sets the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb most suitable for each cylinder zone and the selected MR head 1 based on the set values provided by the DAC 12 and the DAC 13. As has been described, the PEF 5 effects an initial equalization for making the frequency characteristic of the waveform output by the head approach the PR4ML frequency characteristic. The output of the PEF 5 is fed to the sample-and-hold circuit 6 and converted into sample-and-hold values "1", "0" and "-1". The sample-and-hold values output by the sample-and-hold circuit 6 are fed to the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7 and subjected to high-speed fine calibration by the cosine automatic equalizer having three taps or five taps. The PR4ML equalization [(1+D) equalization] is executed so as to obtain an ideal frequency characteristic. An output of the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7 subjected to the PR4ML equalization is fed to the Viterbi detection circuit 8 and subjected to maximum likelihood decoding to be turned into a data sequence that is considered most likely. The output of the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7 is also fed to the VFO circuit 16 where recovery of clocks etc. is effected. In a data write operation, the VFO circuit 16 is in synchronism with clocks output by the synthesizer 15. In a data read operation, the VFO circuit 16 is in synchronism with the output of the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 17. The VFO circuit 16 supplies clocks to the AGC circuit 34, the sample-and-hold circuit 6, the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7, the Viterbi detection circuit 8 and the RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9 so that the operation of these circuits are synchronized. The Viterbi detection circuit 8 has respective slice levels for the three sample-and-hold values "1", "0" and "-1" and effects level shift with respect to the data sequence. Since the Viterbi detection circuit 8 operates such that it shifts the slice level while referring to preceding and subsequent bit streams, the Viterbi detection circuit 8 is also equipped with an error correction capability. The slice level is set in accordance with the set value provided by the DAC 14. The memory 26 stores a table specifying the set values for setting the slice level most suitable for each cylinder zone and the MR head 1. The MPU 25 reads the set value associated with the selected MR head 1 and the cylinder zone from the memory 26 and feeds the read value to the DAC 14. The Viterbi detection circuit 8 sets the slice level most suitable for the selected MR head 1 and the cylinder zone based on the set value provided by the DAC 14. Digital data output by the Viterbi detection circuit 8 is decoded by the RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9. The de-scrambler 10 demodulates pseudo random pattern data from the RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9 into an original data sequence which is then fed as NRZ data to the host system 30 via a bus 28. FIGS. 10A-10G are time charts showing how the NRZ data is produced in a read system 32 based on the output from the MR head 1. FIG. 10A shows a waveform of an output from the MR head 1; FIG. 10B shows an output from the PEF 5; FIG. 10C shows a signal relating to the operation on the EVEN circuit of the Viterbi detection circuit 8; FIG. 10D shows a signal relating to the ODD circuit of the Viterbi detection circuit 8; FIG. 10E shows an output of the Viterbi detection circuit 8; FIG. 10F shows an input to the RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9; and FIG. 10G shows an output (NRZ data) from the RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9. The ODD circuit and the EVEN circuit of the Viterbi circuit 8 are provided to be parallel with each other, and signals from these circuits are interleaved. As a result, a high-speed operation is possible even if the operating speed of the circuits are half that of the potential speed. Referring to FIGS. 10C and 10D, a positive slice level +th and a negative slice level -th are set for sample data in the Viterbi detection circuit 8. The slice levels -th and +th are shifted in response to a variation in the level of the data. These slice levels -th and +th are set based on the set values provided by the DAC 14. As shown in FIGS. 10C and 10D, in a normal condition of the magnetic disk drive, the slice levels -th and +th are set to ±50% of the maximum amplitude of the sample data. It is possible to vary the slice levels -th and +th depending on the value of the sample data, so as to set the levels at the most suitable values. FIG. 11 shows a relationship between set values provided by the DAC 14 and slice levels in the Viterbi detection circuit 8. In the Viterbi algorithm, a data sequence is demodulated while a path is being determined, as indicated by the Trellis diagrams of FIGS. 10C and 10D. FIG. 10E shows an output from the Viterbi detection circuit 8 obtained by synthesizing the data sequence resulting from the interleaving of outputs from the ODD circuit and the EVEN circuit of the Viterbi circuit 8 into an original data sequence. In the examples shown in FIGS. 10A-10G, the data pattern output from the Viterbi detection circuit 8 and fed to the RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9 is 0B5HEX. The RLL (8/9) decoder circuit 9 converts this data pattern into NRZ data 55HEX using a known 8/9 conversion table (not shown). In FIGS. 10A-10G, the operation of the de-scrambler circuit 10 is omitted from the illustration for the convenience's sake. A description will now be given of a data write operation. When a data write operation is performed, NRZ data from the host system 30 is fed to the scrambler circuit 17 via the buss 28 and converted into a pseudo random pattern. The pseudo random pattern data output from the scrambler circuit 17 is encoded by the RLL (8/9) encoder circuit 18. The encoded data is subjected to 1/(1+D) conversion by the precoder circuit 19, where D denotes a delay operator, and is fed to the write precomp. circuit 20. A write precomp. level WCP of the write precomp. circuit 20 is set be equal to a most suitable write precomp. level WCP specified in the register 27. The write precomp. level in the register 27 can be set by the MPU 25 via the serial port 24. In accordance with the operating condition of the magnetic disk drive and the like, the MPU 25 reads a write precomp. level WCP most suitable for the selected (that is, currently used) write head 23, from among the data stored in the memory 26, and sets the read level in the register 27. An output of the write precomp. circuit 20 is fed to the driver 22 via the write FF 21. The write head 23 writes data on the magnetic disk 29 based on an output from the driver 22. FIG. 12 shows a relationship between write precomp. levels WCP to be set in the write precomp. circuit 20 and associated set values to be specified in the register 27. The memory 26 stores a table specifying the relationship as shown in FIG. 12. A description will now be given, with reference to FIG. 13, of an automatic calibration operation carried out in read/write operations. FIG. 13 is a flowchart explaining an embodiment of the operation of the MPU 25 shown in FIG. 2. When the magnetic disk drive is turned ON, MPU 25 sets defaults values of the sense current Is shown in FIG. 4, the combination of Fc and Fb shown in FIG. 9, the slice level shown in FIG. 11 and the write precomp. level WCP shown in FIG. 12, the setting being done for each MR head 1, write head 23 and cylinder zone. In S2, the MPU 25 starts its internal timer as a read/write calibration timer set to a predetermined time. In S3, a determination is made as to whether or not the time set in the read/write calibration timer has expired. If an affirmative answer is yielded in S3, the control is turned over to S4 where a determination is made as to whether or not there is a stack of commands in the interface of the magnetic disk drive. If there is a stack of commands (or if a command is being executed), that is, if an affirmative answer is yielded in S4, no calibration is carried out and the control is returned to S2. If a negative answer is yielded in S4, the control is turned over to S5 where calibration is started. A cylinder is divided into a total of n areas so that the calibration is conducted in the first cylinder zone. Hence, in S6, a seek operation targeted at a boundary of the first cylinder is executed. In S7, one of the MR head 1 from among a total of n MR heads 1 is selected. In S8, the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 3 is referred to so as to set the sense current Is. In S9, the Viterbi slice margin is measured for different levels of the sense current Is, the slice level of the Viterbi detection circuit 8 being used as a parameter. The sense current Is providing a maximum Viterbi slice margin determined as a result of the measurement of the Viterbi slice margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 4 so that the table is updated. In S10, the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 8 is referred to so as to set the combination of the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb for a normalized linear density K. In S11, the Viterbi slice margin is measured for different combinations of Fc and Fb, the slice level of the Viterbi detection circuit 8 being used as a parameter. The combination of Fc and Fb providing a maximum Viterbi slice margin determined as a result of the measurement of the Viterbi slice margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 9 so that the table is updated. In S12, the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 12 is referred to so as to set the write precomp. level WCP. In S13, the Viterbi slice margin is measured for different write precomp. levels WCP, the slice level of the Viterbi detection circuit 8 being used as a parameter. The write precomp. level WCP providing a maximum Viterbi slice margin as a result of the measurement of the Viterbi slice margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 12 so that the table is updated. In S14, a central value VD of the Viterbi slice margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 11. In S15, a determination is made as to whether or not the measurement is conducted a predetermined number of times (m). If a negative answer is yielded in S15, the control is returned to S8. If an affirmative answer is yielded in S15, the control is turned over to S16 where a determination is made as to whether or not a total of n heads have been subjected to measurement, that is whether or not a total of n MR heads 1 have been selected. If a negative answer is yielded in S16, the control is returned to S7. If an affirmative answer is yielded in S16, the control is turned over to S17 where a determination is made as to whether or not a total of n cylinder heads have been subjected to measurement. If a negative answer is yielded in S17, the control is returned to S6. If an affirmative answer is yielded in S17, the control is returned to S2. After the processes shown in FIG. 13 are executed a predetermined number of times (m), the parameters Is, Fc, Fb and WCP providing a maximum Viterbi slice margin are selected and stored in the memory 26 so as to update the content of the memory 26. The central value of the Viterbi slice margin is stored in the memory 26 so as to update the content of the memory 26. The processes are conducted for all designated heads and designated cylinder zones. This embodiment is configured such that the processes shown in FIG. 13 are carried out after the magnetic disk drive is turned ON and carried out at predetermined intervals according to the calibration timer. To reiterate, it is possible to perform at regular intervals calibration for automatically calibrating parameters like the sense current Is, the filter cut-off frequency Fc, the filter boost Fb, the slice level of the Viterbi detection circuit 8, the write precomp. level WCP in accordance with the operating condition of the magnetic disk drive. Further, even when there is a variation in the operating condition of the magnetic disk drive, for example, a variation in the temperature or the voltage, the parameters are automatically calibrated in accordance with the variation. Therefore, it is always possible to perform read/write operations using the most suitable parameters. FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing another embodiment of the operation of the MPU 25 shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 14, those steps that are the same as the steps of FIG. 13 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. While the Viterbi slice margin is used as a parameter in the measurement in the processes shown in FIG. 13, the track offset margin is used as a parameter in the measurement in the processes shown in FIG. 14. Referring to FIG. 14, in step S8, the MPU 25 refers to the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 3 so as to set the sense current Is. In S29, the track offset margin is measured for different levels of the sense current Is, the track offset being used as a parameter. The sense current Is providing a maximum track offset margin as a result of the measurement of the track offset margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 4 so that the table is updated. In S10, the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 8 is referred to so as to set the combination of the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb for a normalized linear density K. In S31, the track offset margin is measured for different combinations of Fc and Fb, the track offset being used as a parameter. The combination of Fb and Fc providing a maximum track offset margin as a result of the measurement of the track offset margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 9 so that the table is updated. In S12, the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 12 is referred to so as to set the write precomp. level WCP. In S33, the track offset margin is measured for different write precomp. levels WCP, the track offset being used as a parameter. The write precomp. level WCP providing a maximum track offset margin as a result of the measurement of the track offset margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 12 so that the table is updated. In S34, the Viterbi slice margin is measured, and the central value VD of the Viterbi slice margin is stored in the table specifying the relationship shown in FIG. 11 so that the table is updated. The other processes are substantially the same as the processes shown in FIG. 13. In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, PR4ML equalization is executed according to an analog method. However, the present invention can be equally applied to a case where the PR4ML equalization is executed according to a digital method. If the analog filter PEF5 is replaced by a digital circuit, an analog-digital converter (ADC) effects the initial PR4ML equalization. Using this construction, the same effect as that of the first embodiment described above can be achieved. FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the storage apparatus according to the present invention. In the second embodiment of the storage apparatus, a second embodiment of the automatic calibration method according to the present invention and a second embodiment of the read apparatus according to the present invention are employed. Also, in the second embodiment of the storage apparatus, the present invention is applied to a magnetic disk drive. In the second embodiment of the storage apparatus, the PR4ML equalization is executed according to a digital method. In FIG. 15, those components that are substantially the same as the components of FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. Referring to FIG. 15, an automatic equalizer circuit 41 comprises a PR4ML (1+D) equalizer and an ADC. The operation of the automatic equalizer circuit 41 corresponds to the operation of the sample-and-hold circuit 6 and the adaptive automatic equalizer circuit 7 shown in FIG. 2. The operation of a Viterbi detection circuit 42 and a de-scrambler circuit 43 corresponds to the operation of the Viterbi detection circuit 8 and the de-scrambler circuit 10 shown in FIG. 2, respectively. The operation of a scrambler circuit 46 and a precoder circuit 47 corresponds to the operation of the scrambler circuit 17 and the precoder circuit 19 shown in FIG. 2, respectively. The operation of a VFO circuit 114 and an AGC circuit 113 corresponds to the operation of the VFO circuit 16 and the AGC circuit 34 shown in FIG. 2, respectively. As in the case of the first embodiment described above, it is necessary to perform an initial equalization in order to bring the frequency characteristic of the waveform output by the head close to the PR4ML equalization frequency characteristic. Therefore, the low-pass filter 106 has its filter cutoff frequency Fc and filter boost Fb calibrated in accordance with the characteristic of the MR head 1. An MPU 215 reads set values from a memory 216 for each cylinder zone and feeds the values to a parameter setting circuit 44, the set values specifying the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb to be set for each cylinder zone and for the selected MR head 1. The low-pass filter 106 sets the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb for each cylinder zone on the basis of the set values provided by the parameter setting circuit 44. While a parameter setting circuit for providing the set value of the write precomp. level WCP to the write precomp. circuit 119 and a parameter setting circuit for providing the set value of the slice level to the Viterbi detection circuit 42 are omitted in FIG. 15, these parameters, i.e. the write precomp. level WCP and the slice level can also be set similarly to the filter cut-off frequency Fc and the filter boost Fb set by the low-pass filter 106. In the automatic calibration in read/write operations, the MPU 215 executes processes similar to the processes shown in FIGS. 13 and 14. Therefore, the description of the operation of the MPU 215 is omitted. While the present invention is applied to the PR4ML method in the first and second embodiments, the principle of the present invention can also be applied to automatic calibration, in accordance with the operating condition, of various parameters of a read apparatus or a magnetic disk drive employing the conventional peak detection method. In this case, the equalization level of the cosine equalizer or the shift level of the data window width may be used as parameters for automatic calibration. It is of course possible to apply the first and second embodiments described above to a magnetic disk drive in which a constant density recording method called a zone bit recording method is used. In this case, a cylinder may be provided specifically for the purpose of automatic calibration in a boundary of a write zone divided in radial directions of the magnetic disk. There is a proposal for a composite head in which the MR head and the write head used in the first and second embodiments are integrated. FIG. 16 is a sectional view of such a composite head. Referring to FIG. 16, the composite head generally comprises an MR element 51, magnetic poles 52 and 56, electrodes 53 and 54 and a substrate 55. In a data write operation, data is written to a magnetic disk (not shown) in a write gap having a width W and provided between the magnetic poles 52 and 56. In a data read operation, a magnetic flux derived from the magnetic disk is detected by causing a current to flow in the MR element 51 as indicated by a broken line in FIG. 16 via the electrodes 53 and 54. A restored waveform is output by converting a variation in magnetic field intensity into a variation in resistivity. Accordingly, a width R of a read gap in a data read operation is identical to a distance between the electrodes 53 and 54. A known rotary actuator may be used as a means for translating the composite head between tracks on the magnetic disk. In this case, the composite head moves in radial directions of the magnetic disk such that it describes an arc in radial directions about a point outside the magnetic disk. FIGS. 17A-17D show how a write gap and a read gap relate to a track when the composite head is located at an innermost cylinder of the magnetic disk and an outer most cylinder thereof. In FIGS. 17A-17D, W indicates a width of a write gap, R indicates a width of a read gap, and T indicates a track. FIGS. 17A and 17B show how the write gap having the width W and the read gap having the width R relate to the track T when a write operation for updating data is executed, FIG. 17A showing the composite head located in the innermost cylinder, and FIG. 17B showing it located in the outermost cylinder. Before the update write operation is carried out, an address part (hereinafter, referred to as an ID part) is read so as to confirm that the composite head is located at a target block. FIGS. 17C and 17D show how the write gap having the width W and the read gap having the width R relate to the track T when a data read operation is executed, FIG. 17C showing the composite head located in the innermost cylinder, and FIG. 17D showing it located in the outermost cylinder. It will be apparent by comparing FIGS. 17A-17D with each other, that the relative position of the read gap having the width R with respect to the track T when reading from the ID part in the update write operation differs from the corresponding position of the read gap when reading from the ID part in the data read operation. FIG. 18 shows an output characteristic of the MR head. Outputs are plotted vertically and offsets of the read gap having the width R from the center of the track T are plotted horizontally. Generally, as shown in FIG. 18, the output of the MR head exhibits a drop as the read gap is displaced from the center of the track T in a radial direction of the magnetic disk. This means that an area of the MR head sensitive to the magnetic flux is not limited to an area between the electrodes 53 and 54 shown in FIG. 16, and that the MR element 51 extending away from the electrodes 53 and 54 is also susceptible to the magnetic flux. Generally, the characteristic of the demodulating system is set to be at its best when the head reads from a data part. Thus, when the head reads from the ID part in the update write operation, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio is generally worse than when the head reads from the data part. Because of this S/N ratio deterioration occurring when the head reads from the ID part, the read error rate for the ID part increases so that the read error rate in the magnetic disk drive as a whole increases. A description will now be given of an embodiment capable of suppressing an increase in the read error rate due to a deterioration in the S/N ratio occurring when the head reads from the ID part. FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment of a storage apparatus according to the present invention. In the third embodiment of the storage apparatus, a third embodiment of the automatic calibration method according to the present invention and a third embodiment of the read apparatus according to the present invention are employed. In the third embodiment of the storage apparatus, the present invention is also applied to the magnetic disk drive. Referring to FIG. 19, the magnetic disk drive generally comprises an MR head 61, a head integrated circuit (IC) 62 having a function of setting a current supplied to the MR head 61, an AGC amplifier 63, an equalizer circuit 64, a pulse shaping circuit 65, a level detection circuit 66, a voltage generation circuit 67 for setting a slice level of the pulse shaping circuit 65, a VFO synchronization circuit 68, a demodulating circuit 69, an interface circuit 70 for exchanging commands and data with an upper system (not shown), a voice coil motor (VCM) 73 for translating the MR head 61, a power amplifier 72 for driving the VCM 73, an MPU 71 for controlling the VCM 73, and a memory 74 for storing programs and data. The MR head 61 and a write head (not shown) constitute a composite head. As in the case of the first and second embodiments, a plurality of magnetic disks are actually provided, and, accordingly, a plurality of composite heads are provided. Each of the individual circuits shown in FIG. 19 is known so that illustration and description of its construction is omitted. For example, the head IC 62 can be realized by a semiconductor chip 32R1510R from SSI Inc. The part of the magnetic disk drive including the AGC amplifier 63, the equalizer circuit 64, the pulse shaping circuit 65, the level detection circuit 66 and the voltage generation circuit 67 is provided by a semiconductor chip 32P3011 from SSI Inc. The part including the VFO synchronization circuit 68 and the demodulating circuit 69 is provided by a semiconductor chip 32D5391 from SSI Inc. The interface circuit 70 is provided by a semiconductor chip TEC336 from Q-LOGIC Inc. The MPU 71 is provided, for example, by a semiconductor chip P8031AH from TI Inc. The power amplifier 72 is provided by a semiconductor chip HA13524 from Hitachi Inc. When a data write command is fed from the host system to the MPU 71 via the interface circuit 70, the MPU 71 controls the VCM 73 via the power amplifier 72 so that the MR head 61 is translated to a target track on the magnetic disk (not shown). Thereupon, the MR head 61 reads from the IR part for confirming that the target block has been reached. Since the composite head is positioned so that the write head is not located outside the track, the read gap of the MR head 61 takes either a position as shown in FIG. 17A or a position shown in FIG. 17B, depending on whether the composite head is positioned in the innermost cylinder or the outermost cylinder, respectively. While the S/N ratio of a signal read by the MR head 61 from the ID part exhibits a deterioration otherwise, deterioration in the S/N ratio is restricted to a minimum level in this embodiment by causing the MPU 71 to set the parameter of the demodulating system anew when the head reads from the ID part. In this way, increase in the read error rate for the ID part is suppressed. The parameters of the demodulating system that are set anew when the head reads from the ID part are predetermined parameters most suitable for reading from the ID part and stored in the memory 74. The parameters include a current supplied by the head IC 62 to the MR head 61, the filter cut-off frequency and the filter boost of the equalizer circuit 64, and the slice level of the pulse shaping circuit 65. The parameters may be set each time the head reads from the ID part. Alternatively, a determination may be made as to whether or not it is necessary to set the parameters when the MR head 61 reads from the ID part, based on whether the MR head 61 is positioned in the innermost cylinder or in the outermost cylinder. The parameters may be re-set when the head reads from the ID part so as to adapt for the cylinder at which the MR head 61 is positioned. Alternatively, the parameters may be reset likewise when the data part is read by offsetting the head in the radial direction of the magnetic disk. The setting of the parameters is carried out in a manner described in the first and second embodiments, and a detailed description thereof is omitted. A description will now be given of how the parameters are measured and stored. FIG. 20 is a flowchart explaining an embodiment of the operation of the MPU 71 shown in FIG. 19. Referring to FIG. 20, in step S41, the parameters for a data part read operation are read from the memory 74 and set as default values in the head IC 62, the equalizer 64 and the voltage generation circuit 67, for all the MR heads 61 and the cylinders. In S42, a current fed to the MR head 61 selected for the target cylinder is made to vary so that a current value that enables a reading operation and provides a broadest range in which the slice level of the shaping circuit 65 is set is selected. In S43, the filter cut-off frequency of the equalizer circuit 64 is made to vary so that a filter cut-off frequency value that enables a read operation and provides a broadest slice level setting range of the pulse shaping circuit 65 is selected. In S44, the filter boost level of the equalizer circuit 64 is made to vary so that a filter boost level that enables a read operation and provides a broadest slice level setting range of the pulse shaping circuit 65 is selected. In S45, the slice level is set to a central value of the slice level setting range obtained through steps S43 and S44. In Step 46, a determination is made as to whether or not the selection of the parameters is completed for all composite heads. If a negative answer is yielded in S 46, the composite head selected in S47 is changed to a different composite head, and the control is returned to S42. If an affirmative answer is yielded in S46, the control is turned over to S48 where a determination is made as to whether or not the parameter measurement process is completed for all cylinders. If a negative answer is yielded in S48, the control is turned over to S49 where the target cylinder is switched to a different cylinder, and the control is returned to S42. If an affirmative answer is yielded in S48, the control is turned over to S50 where the measured parameters are stored in the memory 74, whereupon the processes are terminated. The parameter measurement process shown in FIG. 20 may be executed when the magnetic disk drive is turned ON or at predetermined intervals. The present invention is not limited to the above described embodiments, and variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

An automatic calibration method for a read system in which data read by a head from a recording medium is demodulated using a partial response method which includes the steps of: storing at least one of a parameter relating to a bias current fed to the head and parameters necessary for data demodulation in the read system, for a plurality of operating conditions; and automatically calibrating the at least one parameter to a preset value suitable for an operating condition.

This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/373,972, filed on Aug. 16, 1999 now abandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/879,258, filed on Jun. 19, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, the entire contents of each of said prior applications being expressly incorporated herein by reference. The invention was made with Government support under Grant Number 1 R43 CA76752-01 awarded by the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. The Government has certain rights in the invention. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making focused and unfocused grids and collimators which are movable to avoid grid shadows on an imager, and which are adaptable for use in a wide range of electromagnetic radiation applications, such as x-ray and gamma-ray imaging devices and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making focused and unfocused grids, such as air core grids, that can be constructed with a very high aspect ratio, which is defined as the ratio between the height of each absorbing grid wall and the thickness of the absorbing grid wall, and that are capable of permitting large primary radiation transmission therethrough. 2. Description of the Related Art Anti-scatter grids and collimators can be used to eliminate the scattering of radiation to unintended and undesirable directions. Radiation with wavelengths shorter than or equal to soft x-rays can penetrate materials. The radiation decay length in the material decreases as the atomic number of the grid material increases or as the wavelength of the radiation increases. These grid walls, also called the septa and lamellae, can be used to reduce scattered radiation in ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma ray systems, for example. The grids can also be used as collimators, x-ray masks, and so on. For scatter reduction applications, the grid walls preferably should be two-dimensional to eliminate scatter from all directions. For many applications, the x-ray source is a point source close to the imager. An anti-scatter grid preferably should also be focused. Methods for fabricating and assembling focused and unfocused two-dimensional grids are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, entitled “A Method and Apparatus for Making Large Area Two-dimensional Grids”, referenced above. When an anti-scatter grid is stationary during the acquisition of the image, the shadow of the anti-scatter grid will be cast on the imager, such as film or electronic digital detector, along with the image of the object. It is undesirable to have the grid shadow show artificial patterns. The typical solution to eliminating the non-uniform shadow of the grid is to move the grid during the exposure. The ideal anti-scatter grid with motion will produce uniform exposure on the imager in the absence of any objects being imaged. One-dimensional grids, also known as linear grids and composed of highly absorbing strips and highly transmitting interspaces which are parallel in their longitudinal direction, can be moved in a steady manner in one direction or in an oscillatory manner in the plane of the grid in the direction perpendicular to the parallel strips of highly absorbing lamellae. For two-dimensional grids, the motion can either be in one direction or oscillatory in the plane of the grid, but the grid shape needs to be chosen based on specific criteria. The following discussion pertains to a two-dimensional grid with regular square patterns in the x-y plane, with the grid walls lined up in the x-direction and y-direction. If the grid is moving at a uniform speed in the x-direction, the film will show unexposed stripes along the x-direction, which also repeat periodically in the y-direction. The width of the unexposed strips is the same or essentially the same as the thickness of the grid walls. This grid pattern and the associated motion are unacceptable. If the grid is moving at a uniform speed in the plane of the grid, but at a 45 degree angle from the x-axis, the image on the film or imager is significantly improved. However, strips of slightly overexposed film parallel to the direction of the motion at the intersection of the grid walls will still be present. As the grid moves in the x-direction at a uniform speed, the grid walls block the x-rays everywhere, except at the wall intersection, for the fraction of the time 2d/D, where d is the thickness of the grid walls and D is the periodicity of the grid walls. At the wall intersection, the grid walls blocks the x-rays for the fraction of the time 2d/D<t≦d/D, depending on the location. Thus, stripes of slightly overexposed x-ray film are produced. Methods for attempting to eliminate the overexposed strips discussed above are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,606,589, 5,729,585 and 5,814,235 to Pellegrino et al., the entire contents of each patent being incorporated herein by reference. These methods attempt to eliminate the overexposed strips by rotating the grid by an angle A, where A=atan(n/m), and m and n are integers. However, these methods are unacceptable or not ideal for many applications. Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus for eliminating the overexposed strips associated with two-dimensional focused or unfocused grid intersections. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing a focused or unfocused grid which is configured to minimize overexposure at its wall intersections when the grid is moved during imaging. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for moving a focused or unfocused grid so that no perceptible areas of variable density are cast by the grid onto the film or other two-dimensional electronic detectors. A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for assembling sections of a two-dimensional, focused or unfocused grid. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for joining stacked layers of two-dimensional focused or unfocused grids. These and other objects of the present invention are substantially achieved by providing a grid, adaptable for use with electromagnetic energy emitting devices, comprising at least metal layer, formed by electroplating. The grid comprises top and bottom surfaces, and a plurality of solid integrated walls. Each of the solid integrated walls extends from the top to bottom surface and having a plurality of side surfaces. The side surfaces of the solid integrated walls are arranged to define a plurality of openings extending entirely through the layer. For some applications, all the walls are 90° with respect to the top and bottom surfaces. For some other applications, at least some of the walls extend at an angle other than 90° with respect to the top and bottom surfaces such that the directions in which the walls extend all converge at a point in space at a predetermined distance from the front surface of the at least one layer. These and other objects of the present invention are also substantially achieved by providing a grid, adaptable for use with electromagnetic energy emitting devices. The grid comprises at least one solid metal layer, formed by electroplating. The solid metal layer comprises top and bottom surfaces, and a plurality of solid integrated, intersecting walls, each of which extending from the top to bottom surface and having a plurality of side surfaces. The side surfaces of the walls are arranged to define a plurality of openings extending entirely through the layer, and at least some of the side surfaces have projections extending into respective ones of the openings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apprehended from the following detailed description when read in connection with the appended drawings, in which: FIG. 1 shows a section of a focused stationary grid according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the grid openings are focused to a point x-ray source; FIG. 2 a is a schematic of the grid shown in FIG. 1 rotated an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the x and y axes, and being positioned so that the central ray emanates from point x-ray source onto the edge of the grid; FIG. 2 b is a schematic of the grid shown in FIG. 1 rotated at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the x and y axes, and being positioned so that the central ray emanates from point x-ray source onto the center of the grid; FIG. 3 is an example of a top view of a grid layout as shown in FIG. 1, modified and positioned so that one set of grid walls are perpendicular to a direction of motion along the x-axis and the other set of grid walls is at an angle 0 with respect to the direction of motion, thus forming a parallelogram grid pattern applicable for linear grid motion; FIG. 4 is an example of a top view of a grid layout as shown in FIG. 1, modified and positioned so that one set of grid walls is perpendicular to the direction of motion along the x-axis and the other set of grid walls makes an angle 0 with respect to the direction of motion, thus forming another parallelogram grid pattern applicable for linear grid motion; FIG. 5 is an example of a top view of a grid layout as shown in FIG. 1, modified so that the angle of the grid walls are neither parallel nor perpendicular to the direction of grid motion along the x-axis, thus forming a further parallelogram grid pattern applicable for linear grid motion; FIG. 6 is a variation of the grid pattern shown in FIG. 5, in which the grid openings are rectangular; FIG. 7 is a variation of the grid pattern shown in FIG. 5 in which the grid openings are squares; FIG. 8 is a variation of the grid pattern shown in FIG. 5 having modified corners at the wall intersections according to an embodiment of the present invention for eliminating artificial images or shadows on the imager along the direction of linear motion of the grid; FIG. 9 is the top view of only the additional grid areas that were added to a square grid shown in FIG. 7 to form the grid pattern shown in FIG. 8; FIG. 10 is the top view of a grid with modified corners at the wall intersections according to another embodiment of the present invention for eliminating artificial images or shadows on the imager along the direction of linear motion of the grid; FIG. 11 is a top view of only the additional grid areas that were added to a square grid shown in FIG. 7 to form the grid pattern shown in FIG. 10; FIG. 12 is a detailed view of a wall intersection of the grid illustrating a general arrangement of an additional grid area that is added to the wall intersection of the grid; FIG. 13 is a detailed view of a wall intersection of the grid illustrating a general arrangement of an additional grid area that is added to the wall intersection of the grid; FIG. 14 is a detailed view of a wall intersection of another grid according to an embodiment of the present invention, illustrating a general arrangement of an additional grid area that is added proximate to the wall intersection and not connected to any of the grid walls; FIG. 15 is a detailed view of a wall intersection of another grid according to an embodiment of the present invention, illustrating a general arrangement of an additional grid area that is added to the wall intersection of the grid, such that two rectangular or substantially rectangular pieces are placed at opposing (non-adjacent) left and right comers of the wall intersection; FIG. 16 is a detailed view of a wall intersection of another grid according to an embodiment of the present invention, illustrating a general arrangement of an additional grid area that is added to the wall intersection of the grid, such that two trapezoidal pieces are placed at opposing (non-adjacent) left and right comers of the wall intersection; FIG. 17 shows a top view of a portion of a grid according to an embodiment of the present invention, having more than one type of modified corner as shown in FIGS. 12-16; FIG. 18 shows one layer of grid to be assembled from two sections and their joints, using the pattern as shown in FIG. 7; FIG. 19 shows the location of the imaginary central ray and reference lines for photoresists exposures using the grid shape of FIG. 4; FIGS. 20 a and 20 b illustrate exemplary patterns of x-ray masks used to form the grid pattern shown in FIG. 19 according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIGS. 21 a and 21 b show an exposure method according to an embodiment of the present invention which uses sheet x-ray beams, such that FIG. 21 a shows the cross-section in the plane of the sheet x-ray beam and FIG. 21 b shows the cross-section perpendicular to the sheet x-ray beam, and the x-ray mask and the substrate are tilted with respect to the sheet x-ray beam to form the focusing effect of the grid; FIG. 21 c shows another exposure method according to an embodiment of the present invention which uses sheet x-ray beams to form the focusing effect of the grid; FIG. 22 shows an exposure method according to an embodiment of the present invention which is used in place of the method shown in FIG. 21 b for exposing grids or portions of grids where the walls, joints or holes are not focused; FIG. 23 shows an example the top and bottom patterns of the exposed photoresists exposed according to the methods shown in FIGS. 21 a and 21 b; FIG. 24 shows an example of the top and bottom patterns of an incorrectly exposed photoresists which was exposed using only two masks and a sheet x-ray beam; FIGS. 25 a and 25 b show an example of x-ray masks used to expose the central portion of right-hand-side of a focused grid shown in FIG. 18 using a sheet x-ray beam according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 25 c shows an example of an x-ray mask used to expose the grid edge joints of the right-hand-side of a focused grid shown in FIG. 18 using a sheet x-ray beam according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 26 shows a portion of the grid including the left joining edge and a wide border; FIG. 27 shows an example of an x-ray mask used to expose the grid edge joint and the border of FIG. 26, which is in addition to the masks already shown in FIGS. 25 a and 25 b, according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIGS. 28 a and 28 b show an example of an x-ray masks used to expose the photoresist for the focused grids shown in FIGS. 7, 8 , 10 or 17 using a sheet x-ray beam according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 28 c shows an example of an x-ray mask required to expose the additional grid structure for linear motion according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 29 is a side view of an example of a grid including a frame according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 30 illustrates a top view of the frame shown in FIG. 29, less the grid layers; and FIG. 31 illustrates pieces of a grid layer that can be assembled in the frame shown in FIGS. 29 and 30. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention provides a method and apparatus for making large area, two-dimensional, high aspect ratio, focused or unfocused x-ray anti-scatter grids, anti-scatter grid/scintillators, x-ray filters, and the like, as well as similar methods and apparatus for ultraviolet and gamma-ray applications. Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a schematic of a section of a two-dimensional, focused anti-scatter grid 30 produced by a method of grid manufacture according to an embodiment of the present invention, as described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850 referenced above. The object to be imaged (not shown) is positioned between the x-ray source and the x-ray grid 30 . The grid openings 31 which are defined by walls 32 are square in this example. However, the grid openings can be any practical shape as would be appreciated by one skilled in the methods of grid construction. The walls 32 are uniformly thick or substantially uniformly thick around each opening in this figure, but can vary in thickness as desired. The walls 32 are slanted at the same angle as the angle of the x-rays emanating from the point source, in order for the x-rays to propagate through the holes to the imager without significant loss. This angle increases for grid walls further away from the x-ray point source. In other words, an imaginary line extending from each grid wall 32 along the x-axis 40 could intersect the x-ray point source. A similar scenario exists for the grid walls 32 along the y-axis 50 . As shown, the x-ray propagates out of a point source 61 with a conical spread 60 . The x-ray imager 62 , which may be an electronic detector or x-ray film, for example, is placed adjacent and parallel or substantially parallel to the bottom surface of the x-ray grid 30 with the x-ray grid between the x-ray source 61 and the x-ray imager. Typically, the top surface of the x-ray grid 30 is perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the line 63 that extends between the x-ray source and the x-ray grid 30 . To facilitate the description below, a coordinate system in which the grid 30 is omitted will now be defined. The z-axis is line 63 , which is perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the anti-scatter grid, and intersects the point x-ray source 61 . The z=0 coordinate is defined as the top surface of the anti-scatter grid. As further shown, the central ray 63 propagates to the center of the grid 30 , which is marked by a virtual “+” sign 64 . FIGS. 2 a and 2 b show schematics of two air-core x-ray anti-scatter grids, such as grid 30 shown in FIG. 1, which are stacked on top of each other in a manner described in more detail below to form a grid assembly. These layers of the grid walls can achieve high aspect ratio such that they are structurally rigid. The stacked grids 30 can be moved steadily along a straight line (e.g., the x-axis 40 ) during imaging. As shown in these figures, the grids 30 have been oriented so that their walls extend at an angle of 45° or about 45° with respect to the x-axis 50 . The top surface of the top grid 30 is in the x-y plane. The central ray 63 from the x-ray source 61 is perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the top surface of the top grid 30 . For mammographic applications, the central ray 63 propagates to the top grid 30 next to the chest wall at the edge or close to the edge of the grid on the x-axis 40 , which is marked as location 65 in FIG. 2 a. For general radiology, the central ray 63 is usually at the center of the top grid 30 , which is marked as location 64 in FIG. 2 b. In this example, the line of motion 70 of the grid assembly is parallel or substantially parallel to the x-axis 40 . In the x-y plane, one set of the walls 32 (i.e., the septa) is at 45° with respect to the line of motion 70 , and the shape of the grid openings 31 is nearly square. The grid assembly can move in just one direction or it can move in both directions in the x-y plane. During motion, the speed at which the grid moves should be constant or substantially constant. Two categories of grid patterns can be used with linear grid motion to eliminate non-uniform shadow of the grid. The description below pertains to portions of the grid not at the edges of the grid, so the border is not shown. For illustration purposes only, the dimensions of the drawings are not to scale, nor have they been optimized for specific applications. I. Grid Design Art Type I for Linear Motion As discussed above, the present invention provides a two-dimensional grid design and a method for moving the grid so that the image taken will leave no substantial artificial images for either focused or unfocused grids for some applications. In particular, as will now be described, the present invention provides methods for constructing grid designs that do not have square patterns. The rules of construction for these grids are discussed below. Essentially, Type I methods for eliminating grid shadows produced by the intersection of the grid walls are based on the assumptions that: (1) there is image blurring during the conversion of x-rays to visible photons or to electrical charge; and/or (2) the resolution of the imaging device is low. A general method of grid design provides a grid pattern that is periodic in both parallel and perpendicular (or substantially parallel and perpendicular) directions to the direction of motion. The construction rules for the different grid variations are discussed below. Grid Design Variation I.1: A Set of Parallel Grid Walls Perpendicular to the Line of Motion FIG. 3 shows a top view of an exemplary grid layout that can be employed in a grid 30 as discussed above. The grid layout consists of a set of grid walls, A, that are perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the direction of motion, and a set of grid walls, B, intersecting A. The thicknesses of grid walls A and B are a and b, respectively. The thicknesses a and b are equal in this figure, but they are not required to be equal. The angle θ is defined as the angle of the grid wall B with respect to the x-axis. The grid moves in the x-direction as indicated by 70 . P x and P y are the periodicities of the intercepting grid wall pattern in the x- and y-directions, respectively. D x and D y represent the pitch of grid cells in the x- and y-directions, respectively. The periodicity of the grid pattern in the x-direction is P x =MD x , where M is a positive integer greater than 1. The periodicity of the grid pattern in the y-direction is P y =M(D y /N), where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, M≠N and P y =|tan(θ)|P x . For linear motion, the grid pattern can be generated given D x , (θ or D y ), (M or P x ) and (N or P y ). The parameter range for the angle θ is 0°<|θ|<90°. The best values for the angle θ are away from the two end limits, 0° and 90°. The grid intersections are spaced at intervals of P y /M in the y-direction. If D x , θ, M and N are given, the parameters P x , P y , and D y can be calculated FIG. 3 is a plot of a section of the grid for the following chosen parameters: θ=45°, M=3 and N=1. If the parameters D x , D y , M and N are chosen, the angle θ, P x and P y can be calculated: P x =MD x , P y =ND y and θ=±atan(P y /P x ). FIG. 4 is a plot of a section of the grid for the parameters N=2, M=7 and θ=−atan (2D y /7D x ). Grid Design Variation I.2: Grid Walls Not Perpendicular to the Line of Motion FIG. 5 is the top view of a section of the grid layout where neither grid walls A nor B are perpendicular to the direction of linear motion. The thicknesses of grid walls A and B are a and b, respectively. The thicknesses a and b are equal in this figure, but they are not required to be. The angles between the grid walls A and B relative to the x-axis are φ and θ, respectively. Choosing D x , (M or P x ), (N or P y ), and angles (θ or D y ) and φ, then P y =|tan(θ)|P x , N=P y /D y and (M=P x /D x ). The centers of grid intersections are separated by a distance P y /M in the y-direction. FIG. 5 shows an example where θ=−15°, φ=−80°, M=5 and N=1. FIG. 6 is the top view of a section of the grid layout where neither grid walls A or B are perpendicular to the direction of motion, but grid wall A is perpendicular to grid wall B, thus a special case of FIG. 5, where the grid openings are rectangular. The thicknesses of grid walls A and B are a and b, respectively. The thicknesses are equal in this figure, but again, they are not required to be equal. The angles between the grid walls A and B relative to the x-axis are φ and θ, respectively. By choosing D x , (M or P x ), (N or D y ), (θ or P y ) and φ, then P y =|tan(θ)|P x , P y =ND y , and P x =MD x . The centers of grid intersections are separated by a distance P y /M in the y-direction. FIG. 6 shows an example where θ=10°, φ=−80°, M=10 and N=1. Comments on the Grid Motion Associated with Grid Design I For all grid layout methods, the range of parameters for the grid can vary depending on many factors, such as film versus digital detectors, the type of phosphor used in film, the type of application, and whether there is direct x-ray conversion or indirect x-ray conversion, etc. The ultimate criteria are that the overexposed strip caused by grid intersections is close enough to each other so that they do not appear in the imaging system. Some general conditions can be given for the range of parameters for Grid Design Type I and associated motion. It is better for grid openings to be greater than the grid wall thicknesses a and b. For film, P y /M should be smaller than the x-ray to optical radiation conversion blurring effect produced by the phosphor. For digital imagers with direct x-ray conversion, it is preferable that pixel pitch in the y-direction is an integer multiple of the spacing, P y /M. Otherwise, the grid shadows will be unevenly distributed on the pixels. The distance of linear travel, L, of the grid during the exposure should be many times the distance P x , where kP x >L>(kP x −δL), D x >δL>αsin(φ), D x >δL>b/sin(θ) δL/P x <<1, k?1, and k is an integer. The ratio of δL/L should be small to minimize the effect of shadows caused by the start and stop. The distance L can be traversed in a steady motion in one direction if it is not too long to affect the transmission of primary radiation. Assuming that the x-ray beam is uniform over time, the speed the grid traverses the distance L should be constant, but the direction can change. In general, the speed at which the grid moves should be proportional to the power of the x-ray source. If the distance L to be traveled in any one direction at the desired speed is too long, causing reduction of primary radiation, then it can be traversed by steady linear motion that reverses direction. II. Grid Design Type II for Linear Motion The present invention provides other two-dimensional grid designs and methods of moving the grid such that the x-ray image will have no overexposed strips at the intersection of the grid walls A and B. The principle is based on adding additional cross-sectional areas to the grid to adjust for the increase of the primary radiation caused by the overlapping of the grid walls. This grid design and construction provides uniform x-ray exposure. Two illustrations of the concept are given below, followed by the generalized construction rules. This grid design is feasible for the SLIGA fabrication method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850 referenced above, because x-ray lithography is accurate to a fraction of a micron even for a thick photoresist. Grid Design Variation II.1: Square Grid Shape with an Additional Square Piece FIG. 7 shows a section of a square patterned grid with uniform grid wall thickness a and b rotated at a 45° angle with respect to the direction of motion. When square pieces in the shape of the septa intersection are added to the grid next to the intersection, with one per intersection as shown in FIG. 8, the grid walls leave no shadow for a grid moving with linear motion 70 . In the FIG. 8, D x =D y =P x =P y and θ=45°. The additional grid area is shown alone in FIG. 9 . Grid Design Variation II.2: Square Grid Shape with Two Additional Triangular Pieces FIG. 10 shows another grid pattern, which has the same or essentially the same effect as the grid pattern in FIG. 8, by placing two additional triangular pieces at opposite sides of intersecting grid walls. In this FIG. 10 example, D x =D y =P x =P y and θ=45°. The additional grid area is shown alone in FIG. 11 . With these modified corners added to the grid, there will not be any artificial patterns as the grid is moved in a straight line as indicated by 70 for a distance L, where kD x >L≧(kD x −δL), D x >>δL>s, δL<<L, k>>1 and k is an integer. Along the x-axis, the grid wall thickness is s and the periodicity of the grid is P x =D x . The distance of linear travel L should be as large as it can be while keeping the maximum transmission of primary radiation. The condition for linear grid motion in just one direction is easier for grid Design Type II to achieve than grid Design Type I or the designs in U.S. Patents by Pellegrino et al., because P x >D x for grid Design Type I. General Construction Methods for Quadrilateral Grid Design Type II for Linear Motion The exact technique for eliminating the effect of slight overexposure caused by the intersection of the grid walls with linear motion is to add additional grid area at each corner. Two special examples are shown in FIGS. 8 and 10 discussed above, and the general concept is described below and illustrated in FIGS. 12-16. The general rule is that the overlapping grid region C formed by grid walls A and B has to be “added back” to the grid intersecting region, so that the total amount of the wall material of the grid intersected by a line propagating along the x-direction remains constant at any point along the y axis. In other words, the total amount of wall material of the grid intersected by a line propagating in a direction parallel to the x-axis along the edge of a grid of the type shown, for example, in FIGS. 8 or 10 , is identical to the amount of wall material of the grid intersected by a line propagating in a direction parallel to the x-axis through any position, for example, the center of the grid. This concept can be applied to any grid layout that is constructed with intersecting grid walls A and B. The widths of the intersecting grid walls do not have to be the same and the intersections do not have to be at 90°, but grid lines cannot be parallel to the x-axis. The width of the parallel walls B do not have to be identical to each other, nor do they need to be equidistant from one another, but they do have to be periodic along the x-axis with period P x . The widths of the parallel lines A do not have to be identical to each other, nor do they need to be equidistant from one another, but they do have to be periodic along the y-axis with period P y . The generalized construction rules are described using a single intersecting corner of walls A and B for illustration as shown in FIGS. 12-16. The top and bottom corners of parallelogram C are both designated as γ and the right and left corners of the parallelogram C as β1 and β2, respectively. Dashed lines, f, parallel to the x-axis, the direction of motion, are placed through points γ. The points where the dashed lines f intersect the edges of the grid lines are designated as α1, α2, α3 and α4. FIG. 12 shows the addition to the grid in the form of a parallelogram F formed by three predefined points: α1, α2, β1, and δ , where δ is the fourth corner. This is the construction method used for the grid pattern shown in FIG. 8 . FIG. 13 shows the addition of the grid area in the shape of two triangles, E1 and E2, formed by connecting the points α1, α2, β1 and α3, α4, β2, respectively. This is the construction method used to make the grid pattern shown in FIG. 10 . There are an unlimited variety of shapes that would produce uniform exposure for linear motion. Samples of three other alternatives are shown in FIGS. 14-16. They produce uniform exposure because they satisfy the criteria that the lengths through the grid in the x-direction for any value y are identical. There is no or essentially no difference in performance of the grids if motion is implemented correctly. Additional grid areas of different designs can be mixed on any one grid without visible effect when steady linear motion is implemented. FIG. 17, for example, illustrates and arrangement where different combinations of grid corners are implemented in one grid. However, the choice of grid comers depends on the ease of implementation and practicality. Also, since it is desirable for the transmission of primary radiation to be as large as possible, the grid walls occupy only a small percentage of the cross-sectional area. General Construction Methods for Grid Design Type II for Linear Grid Motion It should be first noted that this concept does not limit grid openings to quadrilaterals. Rather, the grid opening shapes could be a wide range of shapes, as long as they are periodic in both x and y directions. The grid wall intercepts do not have to be defined by four straight line segments. Artificial non-uniform shadow will not be introduced as long as the length of the lines through the grid in the x-direction are identical through any y coordinate. In addition to adding the corner pieces, the width of some sections of the grid walls would have to be adjusted for generalized grid openings. However, not every grid shape that is combined with steady linear motion produces uniform exposure without artificial images. The desirable grid patterns that produce uniform exposure have to satisfy, at a minimum, the following criteria: The grid pattern has to be periodic in the direction of motion with periodicity P x . No segment of the grid wall is primarily along the direction of the grid motion. The grid walls block the x-ray everywhere for the same fraction of the time per spatial period P x at any position perpendicular to the direction of motion. The grid walls do not have to have the same thickness. The grid patterns are not limited to quadrilaterals. These grid patterns have to be coupled with a steady linear motion such that the distance of the grid motion, L, satisfies the condition described in Sections Grid Design Type I and Type II for Linear Motion. If the walls are not continuous at the intersection or not identical in thickness through the intersection, the construction rule that must be maintained is that the length of the line through the grid in the x-direction is identical through any y-coordinate. Hexagons with modified corners are examples in this category. Implementation of the Grid Design Type II for Linear Grid Motion The additional grid area at the grid wall intersections can be implemented in a number of ways for focused or unfocused grids to obtain uniform exposure. The discussion will use FIGS. 8 and 10 as examples. 1. The grid patterns with the additional grid area, such as FIGS. 8, 10 , 17 , and so on, may have approximately the same cross-sectional pattern along the z-axis. 2. Since the additional pieces of the grid are for the adjustment of the primary radiation, these additional grid areas in FIGS. 8, 10 , 17 , and so on, only have to be high enough to block the primary radiation. This allows new alternatives in implementation. A portion of the grid layer need to have the additional grid area, while the rest of the grid layer do not. For example, a layer of the grid is made with pattern shown in FIG. 8, while the other layers can have the pattern shown in FIG. 7 . The portion of the grid with the shapes shown in FIGS. 8, 10 , 17 , and so on, can be released from the substrate for assembly or attached to a low atomic weight substrate. The portion of the grid with the pattern shown in FIGS. 8, 10 , 17 , and so on, can be made from materials different from the rest of the grid. For example, these layers can be made of higher atomic weight materials, while the rest of the grid can be made from fast electroplating material such as nickel. The high atomic weight material allows these parts to be thinner than if nickel were used. For gold, the height of the grid can be 20 to 50 μm for mammographic applications. The height of the additional grid areas depends on the x-ray energy, the grid material, the application and the tolerances for the transmission of primary radiation. The photoresist can be left in the grid openings to provide structure support, with little adverse impact on the transmission of primary radiation. 3. The additional grid areas shown in FIGS. 9, 11 , and so on, can be fabricated separately from the rest of the grid. These areas can be fabricated on a low atomic weight substrate and remain attached to the substrate. These areas can be fabricated along with the assembly posts, which are exemplified in FIGS. 16 a and 16 b of U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, referenced above. Patterns shown in FIGS. 9, 11 , and so on, can be made of a material different from the rest of the grid. For example, these layers can be made from materials with higher atomic weight, while the rest of the grid can be made of nickel. The high atomic weight material allows these parts to be thinner than if nickel were used. For gold, the height of the grid can be 20 to 100 μm for mammographic applications. The height of the additional grid areas depends on the x-ray energy, the grid material, the application and the tolerances for the transmission of primary radiation. The photoresist can be left on for low atomic weight substrate to provide structure support with little adverse impact on the transmission of primary radiation. Grid Parameters and Design Examples of the parameter range for mammography application and definitions are given below. Grid Pitch is P x . Aspect Ratio is the ratio between the height of the absorbing grid wall and the thickness of the absorbing grid wall. Grid Ratio is the ratio between the height of the absorbing wall including all layers and the distance between the absorbing walls. Range Best case Grid Type Type I or II Type II/FIG. 10 Grid Opening Shape Quadrilateral Square Thickness of Absorbing Wall 10 μm-200 μm ≈20 μm on the top plane of the grid Grid Pitch for Type I 1000 μm-5000 μm Grid Pitch for Type II 100 μm-2000 μm ≈300 μm Aspect Ratio for a Layer 1-100 >15 Number of Layers 2-100 2-7 Grid Ratio 3-10 5-8 However, it should be noted that different parameter ranges are used for different applications, and for different radiation wavelengths. III. Grid Joint Design Designs of grid joints were described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, referenced. FIG. 18 shows a grid to be assembled from two sections, using the pattern of FIG. 7 as an example. The curved corner interlocks in the shape of 110 and 111 shown in FIG. 18 are found to be more desirable structurally than other grid joints. The details of the corner can vary depending on the implementation of the additional grid structure with motion. IV. Grid Fabrication Unfocused grids of any design can be easily fabricated with one mask and a sheet x-ray beam. When grid size is too large to be made in one piece, sections of grid parts can be made and assembled from a collection of grid pieces. Grids with high grid ratios can be obtained by stacking if they cannot be made the desired thickness in one layer. Focused grids of any pattern can be fabricated by the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, referenced above. For focused grids, methods for exposing the photoresist using a sheet of parallel x-ray beams are described below. Grid Design Type I For Linear Motion and Single Piece If the pattern of the grid in the x-y plane can be made in one piece (not including the border and other assembly parts), the easiest method is to expose the photoresist twice with two masks. The pattern of FIG. 4 is used as an example to assist in the explanation below. This method can be applied to any grid patterns with quadrilateral shapes formed by two intersecting sets of parallel lines. 1. For exemplary purposes, the case where the central ray is located at the center of the grid, as shown in FIG. 19, which is marked by a virtual “+” sign 100 , will be considered. Two imaginary reference lines 101 are drawn running through the “+” sign, parallel to grid walls A and B. 2. The grid pattern is to be produced by two separate masks. The desired patterns for the two masks are shown in FIG. 20 a and 20 b. 3. The photoresist exposure procedure by the sheet x-ray beam is shown in FIGS. 21 a and 21 b. For the first exposure, an x-ray mask 730 , with pattern shown in FIG. 20 a or 20 b, is placed on top of the photoresist 710 and properly aligned, as follows. In FIG. 21 a, the sheet x-ray beam 700 is oriented in the same plane as the paper, and the reference lines 101 in FIGS. 20 a or 20 b of the x-ray masks 730 are parallel to the sheet x-ray beam 700 . In FIG. 21 b, the sheet x-ray beam 700 is oriented perpendicular to the plane of the paper, as are the reference lines of x-ray mask 730 . The x-ray mask 730 , photoresist 710 , and substrate 720 form an assembly 750 . The assembly 750 is positioned in such a way that the line 740 that connects the virtual “+” sign 100 with the virtual point x-ray source 62 is perpendicular to the photoresist 710 . The angle α is 0° when the reference line 101 is in the plane of the x-ray source 700 . To obtain the focusing effect in the photoresist 710 by the sheet x-ray beam 700 , the assembly 750 rotates around the virtual point x-ray source 62 in a circular arc 760 . This method will produce focused grids with opening that are focused to a virtual point above the substrate. There are situations that one would like to produce a layer of the grid with that are focused to a virtual point below the substrate as shown in FIG. 21 c. In FIG. 21 c, the sheet x-ray beam 700 is oriented perpendicular to the plane of the paper, as are the reference lines of x-ray mask 730 . The assembly 750 is positioned in such a way that the line 740 that connects the virtual “+” sign 100 with the virtual point x-ray source 62 is perpendicular to the photoresist 710 . The angle α is 0° when the reference line 101 is in the plane of the x-ray source 700 . To obtain the focusing effect in the photoresist 710 by the sheet x-ray beam 700 , the assembly 750 rotates around the virtual point x-ray source 62 in a circular arc 770 . 4. For the second exposure, the second x-ray mask is properly aligned with the photoresist 710 and the substrate 720 . The exposure method is the same as in FIGS. 21 a and 21 b or 21 c. 5. To facilitate assembly, a border is desirable. The border can be part of FIGS. 20 a or 20 b; or it can use a third mask. The grid border mask should be aligned with the photoresist 710 and its exposure consists of moving the assembly 750 such that the sheet x-ray beam 700 always remains perpendicular to the photoresist 710 , as shown in FIG. 22 . The assembly 750 moves along a direction 780 . 6. The rest of the fabrication steps are the same as in described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, referenced above. Grid Design Type I For Linear Motion and Multiple Pieces Joint Together per Layer If two or more pieces of the grid are required to make a large grid, the grid exposure becomes more complicated. In that case, at least three masks will be required to obtain precise alignment of grid pieces. The desired exposure of the photoresist is shown in FIG. 23, using pattern 1 15 shown on the right-hand-side of FIG. 18 as an example. The effect of the exposure on the photoresist outside the dashed lines 202 is not shown. The desirable exposure patterns are the black lines 120 for one surface of the photoresist, and are the dotted lines 130 for the other surface. The location of the central x-ray is marked by the virtual “+” sign at 200 . The shape of the left border is preserved and all locations of the grid wall are exposed. Although the procedures discussed above with regard to FIGS. 21 a and 21 b are generally sufficient to obtain the correct exposure near the grid joint using two masks, one for wall A and one for wall B, incorrect exposure may occur from time to time. This problem is illustrated in FIG. 24 . The masks are made so as to obtain correct photoresist exposure at the surface of the photoresist next to the mask. The dotted lines 130 denote the pattern of the exposure on the other surface of the photoresist. Some portions of the photoresist will not be exposed 140 , but other portions that are exposed 141 should not be. The effect of the exposure on the photoresist outside the dashed lines 202 is not shown. At least three x-ray masks are required to alleviate this problem and obtain the correct exposure. Each edge joint boundary needs a mask of its own. These are shown in FIGS. 25 a - 25 c. FIG. 25 a shows a portion of the grid lines B as lines 150 , which do not extend all the way to the grid joint boundary on the left. FIG. 25 b shows a portion of the grid lines A as items 160 , which do not extend all the way to the grid joint boundary on the left. FIG. 25 c shows the mask for the grid joint boundary on the left. The virtual “+” 200 shows the location of the central ray 63 in FIGS. 25 a - 25 c. The distances from the joint border to be covered by each mask depend on the grid dimensions, the intended grid height, and the angle. The exposures of the photoresist 710 by all three masks shown in FIGS. 25 a - 25 c follow the method described above with regard to FIGS. 21 a and 21 b or FIGS. 21 a and 21 c. The three masks have to be exposed sequentially after aligning each mask with the photoresist. If this pattern is next to the border of the grid as shown in FIG. 26, then the grid boundary 180 can be part of the mask of the grid joint boundary on the left, as shown in FIG. 27 . At a minimum, the grid border 180 consists of a wide grid border for structural support, may also include patterned outside edge for packaging, interlocks and peg holes for assembly and stacking. The procedure would be to expose the photoresist 710 by masks shown in FIGS. 25 a and 25 b following the method described in FIGS. 21 a and 21 b or FIGS. 21 a and 21 c. The exposure of the joint boundary section 170 in FIG. 27 follows the method described in FIGS. 21 a and 21 b or FIGS. 21 a and 21 c while the exposure of the grid border section 180 in FIG. 27 follows the method described in FIG. 22 . Grid Design Type II For Linear Motion The exposure of the photoresist for a “tall” type II grid pattern design for linear grid motion, such as those grid patterns illustrated in FIGS. 8, 10 , 17 , and so on, can be implemented based on the methods described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, referenced above. The grid is considered “tall” when Hsin(Φ max )?s, where H is the height of a single layer of the grid, Φ max is the maximum angle for a grid as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and s is related to the thickness of the grid wall as shown in FIGS. 7, 8 , 10 and 17 . “High” grids are not easy to expose using long sheet x-ray beams when the same grid pattern is implement from top to bottom on the grid. As described in an earlier section, the grid shape shown in FIGS. 8, 10 , 17 , and so on, need only be just high enough to block the primary radiation without causing undesirable exposure. Using the grid pattern shown in FIG. 10 as an example, three x-ray masks, FIGS. 28 a, 28 b and 28 c can be used for the exposure. Additional x-ray masks might be required for edge joints and borders. The exposure of the photoresist for the joints and borders would be the same as for that describing FIG. 27 . The virtual “+” 210 shows the location of the central ray 63 in FIGS. 28 a, 28 b and 28 c. The dashed lines 211 denote the reference line used in the exposure of the photoresist by sheet x-ray beam as described in FIGS. 21 a and 21 b or FIGS. 21 a and 21 c. The three masks have to be exposed sequentially after aligning each mask with the photoresist. V. Packaging The grids have to be assembled, and sealed for protection and made rigid for sturdiness, as will now be described. 1. Assembly: A layer of the grid can be made in one piece or assembled together using a number of pieces and stacking the layers using pegs, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,850, referenced above. 2. Sturdiness: The grid can be made rigid when two or more layers become physically attached after stacking to make a higher grid. A few of these methods are described below. The grid and pegs can be soldered together along the outer border. A layer of the grid, made of lead/tin, can be placed next to a layer of the grid made of a different material such as nickel. When heated, these two layers will be attached. This process can be repeated until the desired height is reached for the grid. A layer of the grid does not have to be electroplated using just one type of material. For example, either the top or bottom surface, or both surfaces, of a predominantly nickel grid layer can be electroplated with lead/tin next to the nickel before it is polished to the desirable height. When layers of grids made by this approach are stacked together and heated, the various layers become physically connected. This method does not coat the whole grid with solder. Many parts of an assembled and stacked nickel grid will be fused together when the grid is brought up near the annealing temperature. 3. Framed Construction: Instead of using pegs and fixed posts, a thick and wide frame can be sued for assembly and packaging. FIG. 29 is a side view of the grid showing frame 400 . The bottom layer 401 of the grid has extra material at comers of the intersections of its walls as shown, for example, in FIGS. 8, 10 and 17 , to provide uniform exposure during grid motion, and the other grid layers 402 do not have extra material at the corners of their wall intersections. The frame 400 can be made by the SLIGA process as known in the art. FIG. 30 illustrates a top view of an exemplary frame 400 . The shape of the frame wall can be any design appropriate for interlocking, and the material of which the frame is made can be any suitable material, as long as it is not excessively soft. Also, the frame 400 can be made by joining two or more pieces together. The grid is assembled by fitting grid layers 401 and 402 into the frame. If grid layer 401 is attached to the substrate but the photoresist is removed, the frame 400 can be fitted over grid layer 401 , and the grid layers 402 can then be fit into the frame. Since the frame 400 provides structural support and alignment of the openings in the grid layers 400 and 401 , the joints of the grid pieces as shown in FIG. 31 can be relaxed to straight borders 1 10 and 11 1 , and do not need to be rounded as shown in FIG. 18, for example. 4. Sealing: To protect the assembled grid, the grid has to be covered and sealed using low atomic number materials. There are a wide variety of commercially available choices for sealing material. Although only a few exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the following claims.

A grid, for use with electromagnetic energy emitting devices, includes at least metal layer, which is formed by electroplating. The metal layer includes top and bottom surfaces, and a plurality of solid integrated walls. Each of the solid integrated walls extends from the top to bottom surface and having a plurality of side surfaces. The side surfaces of the solid integrated walls are arranged to define a plurality of openings extending entirely through the layer. All of the walls can extend at 90° with respect to the top and bottom surfaces, or alternatively, some of the walls can extend at an angle other than 90° with respect to the top and bottom surfaces, such that the directions in which the walls extend all converge at a point in space at a predetermined distance from the front surface of the at least one layer. At least some of the walls also can include projections extending into the respective openings formed by the walls.

[0001] This application is a Continuation of International Application No. PCT/DK00/00741, filed Dec. 29, 2000. The disclosure of the prior application is hereby incorporated by reference. [0002] The present invention relates to novel heteroaryl derivatives potently binding to the 5-HT 1A receptor, pharmaceutical compositions containing these compounds and the use thereof for the treatment of certain psychiatric and neurological disorders. The compounds of the invention are also potent dopamine D 4 receptor ligands and are considered to be particularly useful for the treatment of depression and psychosis. [0003] Furthermore, many compounds of the invention have potent serotonin reuptake inhibition activity and/or effect at dopamine D 3 receptors. BACKGROUND ART [0004] Clinical and pharmacological studies have shown that 5-HT 1A agonists and partial agonists are useful in the treatment of a range of affective disorders such as generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and aggression. [0005] It has also been reported that 5-HT 1A ligands may be useful in the treatment of ischaemia. [0006] An overview of 5-HT 1A antagonists and proposed potential therapeutic targets for these antagonists based upon preclinical and clinical data are presented by Schechter et al., Serotonin , 1997, Vol.2, Issue 7. It is stated that 5-HT 1A antagonists may be useful in the treatment of schizophrenia, senile dementia, dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease, and in combination with SSRI antidepressants also to be useful in the treatment of depression. [0007] 5-HT reuptake inhibitors are well known antidepressant drugs and useful for the treatment of panic disorders and social phobia. [0008] The effect of combined administration of a compound that inhibits serotonin reuptake and a 5-HT 1A receptor antagonist has been evaluated in several studies (Innis, R. B. et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol., 1987, 143, p 195-204 and Gartside, S. E., Br. J. Pharmacol. 1995, 115, p 1064-1070, Blier, P. et al, Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 1994, 15, 220). In these studies it was found that combined 5-HT 1A receptor antagonists and serotonin reuptake inhibitors would produce a more rapid onset of therapeutic action. [0009] Dopamine D 4 receptors belong to the family of dopamine D 2 like receptors which is considered to be responsible for the antipsychotic effects of neuroleptics. Dopamine D 4 receptors are primarily located in areas of the brain other than striatum, suggesting that dopamine D 4 receptor ligands have antipsychotic effect and are devoid of extrapyramidal activity. [0010] Accordingly, dopamine D 4 receptor ligands are potential drugs for the treatment of psychosis and positive symptoms of schizophrenia and compounds with combined effects at dopamine D 4 , and serotonergic receptors may have the further benefit of improved effect on negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as anxiety and depression, alcohol abuse, impulse control disorders, aggression, side effects induced by conventional antipsychotic agents, ischaemic disease states, migraine, senile dementia and cardiovascular disorders and in the improvement of sleep. [0011] Dopamine D 3 receptors also belong to the family of dopamine D 2 like receptors. D 3 antagonistic properties of an antipsychotic drug could reduce the negative symptoms and cognitive deficits and result in an improved side effect profile with respect to EPS and hormonal changes. [0012] Accordingly, agents acting on the 5-HT 1A receptor, both agonists and antagonists, are believed to be of potential use in the therapy of psychiatric and neurological disorders and thus being highly desired. Furthermore, antagonists at the same time having potent serotonin reuptake inhibition activity and/or D 4 and/or D 3 activity may be particularly useful for the treatment of various psychiatric and neurological diseases. [0013] WO 95/04049 discloses related compounds of the general formula [0014] wherein A is a phenyl group or a benzofuran or benzodioxan group. These compounds are said to be α 1A -adrenergic receptor antagonists and to be useful for the prevention of contractions of the prostate, urethra and lower urinary tract [0015] Bart J van Steen et al., Structure-Affinity Relationship Studies on 5-HT 1A receptor Ligands. 2. Heterobicyclic Phenylpiperazines with N4-Aralkyl Substituents, J. Med. Chem. , 1994, 37(17), 2761-73 describes certain related benzofuran and benzodioxan derivatives having affinity for the 5-HT 1A receptor and therefore being useful in the treatment of depression and anxiety. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0016] It has now been found that compounds of a certain class of heteroaryl derivatives bind to the 5-HT 1A receptor with high affinities. Additionally, the compounds also have effect at dopamine D 4 receptors. Furthermore, it has been found that many of the compounds have potent serotonin reuptake inhibition activity and/or effect at dopamine D 3 receptors. [0017] Accordingly, the present invention relates to novel compounds of the general Formula I: [0018] wherein [0019] X is —O—, —S—, or —CR 4 R 5 —; and [0020] Y is —CR 6 R 7 —, —CR 6 R 7 —CR 8 R 9 —, or —CR 6 ═CR 7 —; or [0021] X and Y together form a group —CR 4 ═CR 5 —, or —CR 4 ═CR 5 —CR 6 R 7 —; [0022] Z is —O—, or —S—; [0023] W is N, C, or CH; [0024] n is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10; [0025] m is 2 or 3: [0026] A is O or S [0027] wherein the dotted lines mean an optional bond; [0028] R 1 , R 2 and R 3 are each independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, nitro, cyano, trifluoromethyl, trifluoromethoxy, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 2-6 -alkenyl, C 2-6 -alkynyl, C 3-8 -cycloalkyl, C 3-8 -cycloalkyl-C 1-6 -alkyl, C 1-6 -alkoxy, C 1-6 -alkylthio, hydroxy, formyl, acyl, amino, C 1-6 -alkylamino, di(C 1-6 -alkyl)amino, acylamino, C 1-6 -alkoxycarbonylamino, aminocarbonylamino, C 1-6 -alkylaminocarbonylamino and di(C 1-6 -alkyl)aminocarbonylamino; [0029] R 4 , R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 and R 9 are each independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, trifluoromethyl, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 2-6 -alkenyl, C 2-6 -alkynyl, C 3-8 -cycloalkyl, C 3-8 -cycloalkyl-C 1-6 -alkyl, C 1-6 -alkoxy, C 1-6 -alkylthio, amino, C 1-6 -alkylamino, di(C 1-6 -alkyl)amino, phenylamino or phenyl-C 1-6 -alkylamino wherein the phenyl group may be substituted, acylamino, hydroxy, —SH, cyano, nitro, —COOR 18 , —SO 2 —R 19 or [0030] C 1-6 -alkyl substituted with a substituent selected from halogen, C 1-6 -alkoxy, C 1-6 -alkylthio, amino, C 1-6 -alkylamino, di(C 1-6 -alkyl)amino, acylamino, hydroxy, —SH, cyano, nitro, —COOR 18 or —SO 2 —R 19 ; [0031] R 18 is hydrogen, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 2-6 -alkenyl, C 2-6 -alkynyl, phenyl or phenyl-C 1-6 -alkyl wherein the phenyl groups may be substituted, amino, C 1-6 -alkylamino or di(C 1-6 -alkyl)amino, and [0032] R 19 is hydrogen, C 1-6 -alkyl, amino, C 1-6 -alkylamino, di(C 1-6 -alkyl)amino, phenyl or phenyl-C 1-6 -alkyl wherein the phenyl groups may be substituted; [0033] R 10 and R 11 are each independently selected from hydrogen and C 1-6 -alkyl; and [0034] R 12 , R 13 , R 14 , R 15 and R 16 are each independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, nitro, cyano, trifluoromethyl, trifluoromethoxy, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 2-6 -alkenyl, C 2-6 -alkynyl, C 3-8 -cycloalkyl, C 3-8 -cycloalkyl-C 1-6 -alkyl, C 1-6 -alkoxy, C 1-6 -alkylthio, C 1-6 -alkylsulphonyl, hydroxy, formyl, acyl, amino, acylamino, C 1-6 -alkoxycarbonylamino, aminocarbonylamino, C 1-6 -alkylaminocarbonylamino, di(C 1-6 -alkyl)aminocarbonylamino and NR 20 R 21 wherein R 20 and R 21 independently represent hydrogen, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 3-8 -cycloalkyl, or phenyl; or R 20 and R 21 together with the nitrogen to which they are attached form a 5- or 6-membered carbocyclic ring optionally containing one further heteroatom; [0035] provided that when X-Y-Z together with the phenyl ring forms a benzofuran or a benzodioxan ring; and A is O, then at least one of R 12 , R 13 , R 14 , R 15 and R 16 is not hydrogen; [0036] any of its enantiomers or any mixture thereof, or an acid addition salt thereof. [0037] In one embodiment of the invention X is —O—; and Y is —CR 6 R 7 —CR 8 R 9 —; and Z is —O—. [0038] In another embodiment of the invention X is —CR 4 R 5 —; and Y is —CR 6 R 7 ; and Z is —O—. [0039] In a further of the invention X and Y together form a group —CR 4 ═CR 5 —; and Z is —S—. [0040] In a further embodiment of the invention A is O. [0041] In a further embodiment of the invention A is S. [0042] In a further embodiment of the invention W is N. [0043] In a further embodiment of the invention R 1 , R 2 and R 3 are hydrogen; [0044] In a further embodiment of the invention n is 2, 3 or 4; [0045] In a further embodiment of the invention R 12 , R 13 , R 14 , R 15 and R 16 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 2-6 -alkenyl, C 1-6 -alkoxy, cyano, C 1-6 -alkylsulphonyl, acyl, nitro, trifluoromethyl, and trifluoromethxoy. [0046] In a preferred embodiment of the invention at least one of R 12 , R 13 , R 14 , R 15 and R 16 is halogen. [0047] In a further preferred embodiment of the invention at least one of R 12 , R 13 , R 14 , R 15 and R 16 is halogen. and the other substituents are selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen, C 1-6 -alkoxy, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 2-6 -alkenyl, C 1-6 -alkylsulfonyl, acyl, nitro, cyano and trifluoromethyl; [0048] Specific compounds of the invention are compounds selected from [0049] 1-[3-(2-Chloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0050] 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0051] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,4,6-trifluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0052] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-fluoro-2-methoxy-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0053] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-fluoro-2-methyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0054] 1-[3-(4-Chloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0055] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-trifluoromethyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0056] 1-(2,3-D ihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0057] 2-{3-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-benzonitrile; [0058] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0059] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine; [0060] 1-[2-(3,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0061] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0062] 1-[2-(Bromo-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0063] 1-[2-(2,6-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0064] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(3-phenylsulfanyl-propyl)-piperazine; [0065] 1-[3-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0066] 1-[4-(2,6-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzol[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0067] 1-[3-(2-Chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0068] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0069] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0070] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2,6-dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0071] 1-[4-(3-Chloro-2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0072] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(3-chloro-2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0073] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0074] 1-[3-(2,6-Dibromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0075] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dibromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0076] 4-{3-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-3,5-diiodo-benzonitrile; [0077] 3,5-Di-tert-butyl-4-{3-[4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-benzonitrile; [0078] 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0079] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0080] 1-[3-(Bromo-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0081] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(bromo-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0082] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0083] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0084] 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0085] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0086] 1-[4-(2-Chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0087] 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0088] 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(2-chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0089] 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(2-chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0090] 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0091] 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-phenysulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0092] 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0093] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine; [0094] 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine; [0095] 1-[4-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0096] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine; [0097] 1-[4-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(5-chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-piperazine; [0098] 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0099] 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0100] 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(3-chloro-2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0101] 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0102] 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0103] 1-(4-{4-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-butoxy}-3,5-difluoro-phenyl)-propan-1-one; [0104] 1-[2-(2-Bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0105] 1-[3-(2-Bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0106] 1-[4-(2,6-Dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0107] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,4,6-tribromo-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0108] 1-(4-{3-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-3,5-difluoro-phenyl)-propan-1-one; [0109] 1-{4-[4-(4-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-piperazin-1-yl)-butoxy]-3,5-difluoro-phenyl}-propan-1-one; [0110] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0111] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine; [0112] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,4,6-tribromo-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0113] 1-{4-[3-(4-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-piperazin-1-yl)-propoxy]-3,5-difluoro-phenyl}-propan-1-one; [0114] 3,5-Dibromo-4-{3-[4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-benzonitrile; [0115] 1-[4-(2,6-Dibromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0116] 1-[4-(4-Bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0117] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dibromo-4-nitro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0118] 4-[3-(4-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-piperazin-1-yl)-propoxy]-3,5-dibromo-benzonitrile; [0119] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(4-bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine; [0120] 1-[3-(2-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0121] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0122] 1-[3-(2,4-Difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0123] 25 1-[3-(4-Bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0124] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[2-(2-bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0125] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,4-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0126] 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(4-bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine; [0127] 8-{4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluorophenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile; [0128] 8-{4-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile; [0129] 8-{4-[3-(4-Fluoro-2-methyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile; [0130] 8-{4-[3-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile; [0131] 8-{4-[3-(2-Chloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile; [0132] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(2-phenylsulfanyl-ethyl)-piperazine; [0133] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2,6-dimethyl-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0134] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2,6-dimethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0135] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2,4-dimethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0136] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-trifluoromethyl-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0137] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0138] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-ethyl-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0139] 1-[2-(2,3-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0140] 1-[2-(2-Allyl-6-chloro-phenoxy)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0141] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,4-dimethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0142] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0143] 1-[3-(2,3-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0144] 1-[3-(3,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0145] 1-[4-(3,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0146] 1-[4-(2-Chloro-5-methyl-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0147] 1-[2-2,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0148] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(3-m-tolylsulfanyl-propyl)-piperazine; [0149] 1-[4-(2,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0150] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-ethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0151] 1-[2-(2,5-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0152] 1-[2-(3-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0153] 1-[2-(2-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0154] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0155] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-ethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0156] 1-[3-(2,5-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0157] 1-[3-(3-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0158] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0159] 3-Chloro-4-{4-[4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-butoxy}-benzonitrile; [0160] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(4-o-tolylsulfanyl-butyl)-piperazine; [0161] 1-[4-(2,5-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0162] 1-[4-(2-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0163] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0164] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(3,4-dimethoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine; [0165] 3-{4-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-butoxy}-benzonitrile; [0166] 1-[4-(2-Chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0167] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-trifluoromethoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0168] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,5-dimethoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0169] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(3-bromo-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine; [0170] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0171] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2-isopropyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine; [0172] 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(2-o-tolylsulfanyl-ethyl)-piperazine; [0173] 1-[4-(2-Allyl-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine; [0174] or an acid addition salt thereof. [0175] The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising a compound of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent. [0176] In a further embodiment, the invention relates to the use of a compound of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt thereof for the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of a disorder or disease responsive to the combined effect of 5-HT 1A receptors and dopamine D 4 receptors. [0177] In a further embodiment, the invention relates to the use of a compound of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt thereof for the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of a disorder or disease responsive to the inhibition of serotonin uptake and antagonism of 5-HT 1A receptors. [0178] In particular, the invention relates to the use of a compound according to the invention or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt thereof for the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of affective disorders such as general anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, social phobia and eating disorders, and neurological disorders such as psychosis. [0179] In still another embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for the treatment of a disorder or disease of living animal body, including a human, which is responsive to the effect of 5-HT 1A and D 4 receptors comprising administering to such a living animal body, including a human, a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt thereof. [0180] The compounds of the invention have high affinity for the 5-HT 1A and D 4 receptors. Accordingly, the compounds of the invention are considered useful for the treatment of affective disorders such as general anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, social phobia and eating disorders, and neurological disorders such as psychosis. [0181] Due to their combined antagonism of 5-HT 1A receptors and serotonin reuptake inhibiting effect, many of the compounds of the invention are considered particularly useful as fast onset of action medicaments for the treatment of depression. The compounds may also be useful for the treatment of depression in patients who are resistant to treatment with currently available antidepressants. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0182] Some of the compounds of general Formula I may exist as optical isomers thereof and such optical isomers are also embraced by the invention. [0183] The term C 1-6 alkyl refers to a branched or unbranched alkyl group having from one to six carbon atoms inclusive, such as methyl, ethyl, 1-propyl, 2-propyl, 1-butyl, 2-butyl, 2-methyl-2-propyl and 2-methyl-1-propyl. [0184] Similarly, C 2-6 alkenyl and C 2-6 alkynyl, respectively, designate such groups having from two to six carbon atoms, inclusive. [0185] Halogen means fluoro, chloro, bromo, or iodo. [0186] The term C 3-8 cycloalkyl designates a monocyclic or bicyclic carbocycle having three to eight C-atoms, such as cyclopropyl, cyclopentyl, cyclohexyl, cycloheptyl, and cyclooctyl. [0187] The terms C 1-6 alkoxy, C 1-6 alkylthio and C 1-6 alkylsulphonyl designate such groups in which the alkyl group is C 1-6 alkyl as defined above. [0188] Acyl means —CO-alkyl wherein the alkyl group is C 1-6 alkyl as defined above. [0189] Amino means NH 2 . [0190] C 1-6 alkylamino means —NH-alkyl, and di(C 1-6 -alkyl)amino means —N-(alkyl) 2 where the alkyl group is C 1-6 alkyl as defined above. [0191] Acylamino means —NH-acyl wherein acyl is as defined above. [0192] C 1-6 alkoxycarbonylamino means alkyl-O—CO—NH— wherein the alkyl group is C 1-6 alkyl as defined above. [0193] C 1-6 alkylaminocarbonylamino means alkyl-NH—CO—NH— wherein the alkyl group is C 1-6 alkyl as defined above. [0194] di(C 1-6 -alkyl)aminocarbonylamino means (alkyl) 2 —N—CO—NH— wherein the alkyl group is C 1-6 alkyl as defined above. [0195] As used herein, a phenyl group which may be substituted means a phenyl group which may be substituted one or more times with a substituent selected form halogen, trifluoromethyl, cyano, nitro, amino, C 1-6 -alkylamino, di(C 1-6 -alkyl)amino, C 1-6 -alkyl, C 1-6 -alkoxy and hydroxy. [0196] Exemplary of organic acid addition salts according to the invention are those with maleic, fumaric, benzoic, ascorbic, succinic, oxalic, bis-methylenesalicylic, methanesulfonic, ethanedisulfonic, acetic, propionic, tartaric, salicylic, citric, gluconic, lactic, malic, mandelic, cinnamic, citraconic, aspartic, stearic, palmitic, itaconic, glycolic, p-aminobenzoic, glutamic, benzenesulfonic, and theophylline acetic acids, as well as the 8-halotheophyllines, for example 8-bromotheophylline. Exemplary of inorganic acid addition salts according to the invention are those with hydrochloric, hydrobromic, sulfuric, sulfamic, phosphoric, and nitric acids. The acid addition salts of the invention are preferably pharmaceutically acceptable salts formed with non-toxic acids. [0197] Furthermore, the compounds of this invention may exist in unsolvated as well as in solvated forms with pharmaceutically acceptable solvents such as water, ethanol and the like. In general, the solvated forms are considered equivalent to the unsolvated forms for the purposes of this invention. [0198] Some of the compounds of the present invention contain chiral centres and such compounds exist in the form of isomers (e.g. enantiomers). The invention includes all such isomers and any mixtures thereof including racemic mixtures. [0199] Racemic forms can be resolved into the optical antipodes by known methods, for example, by separation of diastereomeric salts thereof with an optically active acid, and liberating the optically active amine compound by treatment with a base. Another method for resolving racemates into the optical antipodes is based upon chromatography on an optically active matrix. Racemic compounds of the present invention can thus be resolved into their optical antipodes, e.g., by fractional crystallisation of d- or l-(tartrates, mandelates, or camphorsulphonate) salts for example. The compounds of the present invention may also be resolved by the formation of diastereomeric derivatives. [0200] Additional methods for the resolution of optical isomers, known to those skilled in the art, may be used. Such methods include those discussed by J. Jaques, A. Collet, and S. Wilen in “Enantiomers, Racemates, and Resolutions”, John Wiley and Sons, New York (1981). [0201] Optically active compounds can also be prepared from optically active starting materials. [0202] The compounds of the invention can be prepared by one of the following methods comprising: [0203] a) reducing the carbonyl groups of a compound of formula [0204]  wherein o=0-8, m=2-3, and R 1 -R 3 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 -R 16 , W, X, Y, Z, A, and the dotted line are as defined above; [0205] b) reducing the carbonyl group of a compound of formula [0206]  wherein p=0-4, o′=0-9, and R 1 -R 3 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 -R 16 , W, X, Y, Z, A, m, and the dotted line are as defined above; [0207] c) alkylating an amine of formula [0208]  wherein R 1 -R 3 , R 10 , R 11 , W, X, Y, Z, m, and the dotted line are as defined above with a reagent of formula [0209]  wherein R 12 -R 16 , A and n are as defined above and G is a suitable leaving group such as halogen, mesylate, or tosylate; [0210] d) reductive alkylation of an amine of formula [0211]  wherein R 1 -R 3 , R 10 , R 11 , W, X, Y, Z, m, and the dotted line are as defined above with a reagent of formula [0212]  wherein R 1 -R 16 , A and n are as defined above and B is either an aldehyde or a carboxylic acid derivative; [0213] e) reducing the double bond of the unsaturated cyclic amines of formula [0214]  wherein R 1 -R 3 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 -R 16 , A, X, Y, Z, m and n are as previously defined, in order to obtain the corresponding saturated derivatives; [0215] f) treating a compound of general formula (I) wherein Y is —CR 6 ═CR 7 —, or wherein X and Y together form a group —CR 4 ═CR 5 —, or —CR 4 ═CR 5 —CR 6 R 7 with a reducing agent in order to reduce the double bond, thereby obtaining a corresponding reduced ring system; [0216] g) reductive removal of one or more of the substituents R 1 -R 3 or R 12 -R 16 in a compound of general formula (I) in which one or more of these substituents are selected from chloro, bromo, or iodo; [0217] h) dialkylating an amine of formula [0218]  wherein R 1 -R 3 , X, Y, Z, are as defined above with a reagent of formula [0219]  wherein R 12 -R 16 , A, m and n are as defined above and G is a suitable leaving group such as halogen, mesylate, or tosylate; [0220] i) dialkylating an amine of formula [0221]  wherein R 12 -R 16 , A and n are as defined above, with a reagent of formula [0222]  wherein R 1 -R 3 , X, Y, Z, m, are as defined above and G is a suitable leaving group such as halogen, mesylate, or tosylate; [0223] j) reduction of sulfones or sulfoxides of the formula [0224]  wherein R 1 -R 3 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 -R 16 , W, X, Y, Z, m, n, and the dotted line are as defined above, and B′ is a sulfonyl or sulfinyl group; [0225] k) alkylation of compounds of formula [0226]  wherein R 12 -R 16 and A are as defined above, with a reagent of formula [0227]  wherein R 1 -R 3 , R 10 , R 11 , W, X, Y, Z, m, n, and the dotted line are as defined above and G is a suitable leaving group such as halogen, mesylate, or tosylate; [0228]  whereupon the compounds of formula (I) are isolated as the free base or in the form of a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. [0229] The reduction according to methods a) and b) is preferably carried out in an inert organic solvent such as diethyl ether or tetrahydrofuran in the presence of lithium aluminium hydride at reflux temperature. [0230] The alkylation according to method c) is conveniently performed in an inert organic solvent such as a suitably boiling alcohol or ketone, preferably in the presence of a base (potassium carbonate or triethylamine) at reflux temperature. [0231] Arylpiperazine derivatives of formula (IV) are either commercially available or conveniently prepared from the corresponding arylamine according to the method described by Martin et al, J. Med. Chem., 1989, 32, 1052, or the method described by Kruse et al, Rec. Trav. Chim. Pays - Bas, 1988, 107, 303. The starting arylamines are either commercially available or are well-described in the literature. [0232] Aryltetrahydropyridine derivatives of formula (IV) are known from literature, cf. U.S. Pat. No. 2,891,066; McElvain et al, J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 1959, 72, 3134. Conveniently, the corresponding arylbromide is lithiated with BuLi followed by addition of 1-benzyl-4-piperidone. Subsequent treatment with acid gives the N-benzyl-aryltetrahydropyridine. The benzyl group can be removed by catalytic hydrogenation or by treatment with e.g. ethyl chloroformate to give the corresponding ethyl carbamate followed by acidic or alkaline hydrolysis. The starting arylbromides are either commercially available or well-described in the literature. [0233] Reagents of formula (V) are either commercially available or can be prepared by literature methods, e.g. from the corresponding carboxylic acid derivative by reduction to the 2-hydroxyethyl derivative and conversion of the hydroxy group to the group G by conventional methods, or from the corresponding dihalo alkyl or1-halo alkohol. [0234] The reductive alkylation according to method d) is performed by standard literature methods. The reaction can be performed in two steps, i.e. coupling of (IV) and the reagent of formula (VI) by standard methods via the carboxylic acid chloride or by use of coupling reagents such as e.g. dicyclohexylcarbodiimide followed by reduction of the resulting amide with lithium aluminium hydride. The reaction can also be performed by a standard one-pot procedure. Carboxylic acids or aldehydes of formula (VI) are either commercially available or described in the literature. [0235] Reduction of the double bonds according to methods e) and f) is most conveniently perfomed by hydrogenation in an alcohol in the presence of a noble metal catalyst, such as e.g. platinum or palladium. [0236] The removal of halogen substituents according to method g) is conveniently performed by catalytic hydrogenation in an alcohol in the presence of a palladium catalyst or by treatment with ammonium formate in an alcohol at elevated temperatures in the presence of a palladium catalyst. [0237] The dialkylation of amines according to methods h) and i) is most conveniently performed at elevated temperatures in an inert solvent such as e.g. chlorobenzene, toluene, N-methylpyrrolidone, dimethylformamide, or acetonitrile. The reaction might be performed in the presence of base such as e.g. potassium carbonate or triethylamine. Starting materials for processes h) and i) are commercially available or can be prepared from commercially available materials using conventional methods. [0238] The N-alkylation according to method i) is performed in an inert solvent such as e.g. an alcohol or ketone at elevated temperatures in the presence of base, e.g. potassium carbonate or triethylamine at reflux temperature. Alternatively, a phase-transfer reagent can be used. [0239] Reduction of sulfones and sulfoxides according to method j) can performed using several commercially available reagents as titaniumtetrachloride and sodiumborohydride at room temperature (S. Kano et al. Synthesis 1980, 9, 695-697). [0240] Alkylation of commercially available compounds corresponding to formula (XIII) using method k) is conveniently performed using a alkylating reagent with the appropriate leaving group (eg. mesylate, halide) using a base (eg. potassium carbonate or similar) in a polar aprotic solvent (eg. methyl isobutylketone, dimethylformamide). [0241] Arylpiperazines used as described in the examples are prepared from the corresponding arylamine according to the method described by Martin et al, J. Med. Chem. 32 (1989) 1052, or the method described by Kruse et al, Rec. Trav. Chim. Pays-Bas 107 (1988) 303. The starting arylamines are either commercially available or are described in the literature as follows: [0242] The synthesis of 5-amino-1,4-benzodioxane is described by Dauksas et al, Zh. Org. Khim., 1967, 3, 1121. The corresponding chlorinated derivatives are made in a similar manner. [0243] The synthesis of 7-amino-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,592. [0244] The synthesis of 7-amino-benzofuran is described by Van Wijngaarden et al, J. Med. Chem., 1988,31, 1934. [0245] The synthesis of 7-amino-benzo[b]thiophene is described by Boswell et al , J. Heterocycl. Chem., 1968, 5, 69. [0246] 7-amino-2,3-dimethylbenzofuran and the corresponding 5-chloro and 5-methyl derivatives are prepared according to Ger. Offen. DE 3526510. [0247] 4-Amino-benzothiopyran were prepared according to Eur. Pat. Appl. EP 79683. [0248] 8-Amino-6-chloro-2,2-dimethylebenzopyran was prepared by conventional nitration of 6-chloro-2,2-dimethylebenzopyran (prepared according to Bolzoni et al, Angew. Chem., 1978, 90, 727-) with subsequent reduction of the obtained 8-nitro derivative. In a similar manner 7-amino-5-chloro-3,3-dimethylbenzofuran was obtained from 5-chloro-3,3-dimethylbenzofuran (prepared according to Eur. Pat. Appl. EP 7719 800206). The corresponding dechloro derivatives were obtained by treatment with hydrogen gas in the presence of a noble metal catalyst according to standard procedures. [0249] Aryl tetrahydropyridine derivatives are known from literature (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 2,891,066 or McElvain et al, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1959, 72, 3134). Most conveniently, the corresponding aryl bromide is lithiated with BuLi followed by addition of 1-benzyl-4-piperidone. Subsequent treatment with mineral acid or trifluoroacetic acid gives the N-benzyl-aryltetrahydropyridine. The benzyl group can be removes by catalytic hydrogenation or by treatment e.g. ethyl chloroformate to the corresponding ethyl carbamate followed by acidic or alkaline hydrolysis. The corresponding piperidine derivatives can be obtained by reductive removal of the double bond of the tetrahydropyridine ring. All these procedures are well-known to a person skilled in the art. The starting aryl bromides are well-described in the literature. In this manner 4-(1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, 4-(2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethylbenzofuran-7-yl)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, 4-(2,3-dihydrobenzofuran-7-yl)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, 4-(benzofuran-7-yl)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, and the corresponding piperidines were obtained. [0250] The following examples will illustrate the invention further. They are, however, not to be construed as limiting. EXAMPLES [0251] Melting points were determined on a Büchi SMP-20 apparatus and are uncorrected. Analytical LC-MS data were obtained on a PE Sciex API 150EX instrument equipped with IonSpray source (method D) or heated nebulizer (APCI, methods A and B) and Shimadzu LC-8A/SLC-10A LC system. The LC conditions [30×4.6 mm YMC ODS-A with 3.5 μm particle size] were linear gradient elution with water/acetonitrile/trifluoroacetic acid (90:10:0.05) to water/acetonitrile/trifluoroacetic acid (10:90:0.03) in 4 min at 2 mL/min. Purity was determined by integration of the UV trace (254 nm). The retention times R. are expressed in minutes. [0252] Mass spectra were obtained by an alternating scan method to give molecular weight information. The molecular ion, MH+, was obtained at low orifice voltage (5-20V) and fragmentation at high orifice voltage (100V). [0253] Preparative LC-MS-separation was performed on the same instrument. The LC conditions (50×20 mm YMC ODS-A with 5 μm particle size) were linear gradient elution with water/acetonitrile/trifluoroacetic acid (80:20:0.05) to water/acetonitrile/trifluoroacetic acid (10:90:0.03) in 7 min at 22.7 mL/min. Fraction collection was performed by split-flow MS detection. [0254] [0254] 1 H NMR spectra were recorded at 500.13 MHz on a Bruker Avance DRX500 instrument or at 250.13 MHz on a Bruker AC 250 instrument. Deuterated chloroform (99.8%D) or dimethyl sulfoxide (99.9%D) were used as solvents. TMS was used as internal reference standard. Chemical shift values are expressed in ppm-values. The following abbreviations are used for multiplicity of NMR signals: s=singlet, d=doublet, t=triplet, q-quartet, qui=quintet, h=heptet, dd=double doublet, dt=double triplet, dq=double quartet, tt=triplet of triplets, m=multiplet, b=broad singlet. NMR signals corresponding to acidic protons are generally omitted. Content of water in crystalline compounds was determined by Karl Fischer titration. Standard workup procedures refer to extraction with the indicated organic solvent from proper aqueous solutions, drying of combined organic extracts (anhydrous MgSO 4 or Na 2 SO 4 ), filtering and evaporation of the solvent in vacuo. For column chromatography silica gel of type Kieselgel 60, 230-400 mesh ASTM was used. For ion-exchange chromatography (SCX, 1 g, Varian Mega Bond Elut®, Chrompack cat. no. 220776). Prior use the SCX-columns were pre-conditioned with 10% solution of acetic acid in methanol (3 mL). Example 1 [0255] 1a. 1-[3-(2-Chloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine, Oxalate. [0256] A solution of 2-chlorophenol (5 g) in tetrahydrofuran (25 mL) was added dropwise to a slurry of sodiumhydride (47 mmol) in tetrahydrofuran (50 mL) at room temperature. The mixture was stirred for 30 min. The reaction mixture was then warmed to reflux whereafter 2-bromopropanol (3.5 mL) in tetrahydrofuran (25 mL) was added over 5 min. The mixture was refluxed over night, one more equivalent of 3-bromopropanol was added and the mixture was refluxed for 12 hrs more. The mixture was cooled, brine and ethylacetate added, and washed using standard procedure. The combined organic phases were dried and evaporated. The crude 3-(2-chlorophenoxy)-1-propanol was dissolved in acetonitrile (500 mL) and carbon tetrabromide (38.7 g) was added. To the cooled (0° C.) mixture triphenylphosphine (25.5 g) was added portionwise over 30 min. The reaction was allowed to react at room temperature for 3 hrs, then evaporated to give an oily product. The crude product was purified using silica gel flash chromatography (heptane: ethylacetate: triethylamine/70:15:5) to give 3-(2-chlorophenoxy)-1-propyl bromide (10.7 g). A mixture of 1-(1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl)piperazine (0.84 g), potassium carbonate (1.6 g), potassium iodide (cat.) and 3-(2-chlorophenoxy]-1-propyl bromide (1.0 g) in methyl isobutylketone/dimethylformamide (1/1, 100 mL) was heated to 120° C. When TLC indicated the reaction to be completed (24 hrs) the mixture was cooled, filtered and concentrated. The crude material was dissolved in ethyl acetate and washed using standard procedure, followed by drying, filtration and evaporation. The crude materials were purified using silica gel flash chromatography (heptane: ethylacetate: triethylamine/55:43:2). The resulting oil was dissolved in acetone followed by addition of oxalic acid. Filtration gave the title compound as pure crystalline material (0.6 g). Mp 163-166° C. 1 H NMR: 2.15 (m, 2H); 3.00-3.20 (m, 10H); 4.15 (t, 2H); 4.20 (m, 4H); 6.50 (d, 1H); 6.55 (d, 1H); 6.75 (dd, 1H); 6.95 (d, 1H); 7.15 (d, 1H); 7.30 (dd, 1H); 7.40 (d, 1H). MS: m/z: 389 (MH+), 218, 150. Anal. Calcd for C 21 H 25 ClN 2 O 3 : C, 57.67; H, 5.69; N, 5.85. Found C, 57.71; H, 5.74; N, 5.77. [0257] The following compounds were prepared analogously: [0258] 1b. 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 179-181° C. 1 H NMR: 2.15 (m, 2H); 3.00-3.20 (m, 10H); 4.05 (t, 2H); 4.20 (m, 4H); 6.50 (d, 1H); 6.55 (d, 1H); 6.75 (dd, 1H); 7.20 (dd, 1H); 7.50 (d, 2H). MS: m/z: 423 (MH+), 247, 178. Anal. Calcd for C 21 H 24 Cl 2 N 2 O 3 : C, 53.80; H, 5.1 1; N, 5.46. Found C, 53.73; H, 5.01; N, 5.40. [0259] 1c. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,4,6-trifluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine, dihydrochloride. Mp 210-220° C. 1 H NMR: 2.10 (m, 2H); 3.05-3.25 (m, 10H); 3.80 (s, 3H); 4.00 (t, 2H); 4.25 (m, 4H); 6.50 (d, 1H); 6.55 (d, 1H); 6.65-6.80 (m, 2H); 6.85-7.00 (m, 2H); 11.25 (b, 1H). MS: m/z: 409 (MH+), 232, 150. Anal. Calcd for C 21 H 23 F 3 N 2 O 3 : C, 52.39; H, 5.25; N, 5.82. Found C, 52.63; H, 5.40; N, 5.71. [0260] 1d. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-fluoro-2-methoxy-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 141-142° C. 1 H NMR: 2.10 (m, 2H); 3.05-3.25 (m, 10H); 3.80 (s, 3H); 4.00 (t, 2H); 4.25 (m, 4H); 6.50 (d, 1H); 6.55 (d, 1H); 6.65-6.80 (m, 2H); 6.85-7.00 (m, 2H). MS: m/z: 403 (MH+), 164. Anal. Calcd for C 22 H 27 FN 2 O 4 : C, 58.52; H, 5.95; N, 5.69. Found C, 58.53; H, 6.24; N, 5.22. [0261] 1e. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-fluoro-2-methyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 139-150° C. 1 H NMR: 2.05-2.15 (m, 2H); 2.15 (s, 3H); 3.05-3.20 (m, 10H); 4.00 (t, 2H); 4.20-4.25 (m, 4H); 6.50 (d, 1H); 6.55 (d, 1H); 6.75 (dd, 1H); 6.95 (m, 2H); 7.00 (m, 1H). MS: m/z: 387 (MH+), 218, 164. Anal. Calcd for C 22 H 27 FN 2 O 3 : C, 59.92; H, 6.19; N, 5.82. Found C, 59.82; H, 5.32; N, 5.49. Example 2 [0262] 2a, 1-[3-(4-Chloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. A solution of 4-chlorophenol (5 g) in dimethylformamide (50 mL) was added dropwise to a slurry of sodiumhydride (60%, 1.7 g) in dimethylformamide (50 mL) at room temperature over 15 min. The mixture was stirred for 30 min. The reaction mixture was then slowly (10 min) added to a solution of 1,3-dibromopropane (78.5 g) in dimethylformamide (25 mL) at roomtemperature. The final mixture was stirred for further 60 min at 70° C. The reaction to was quenched by addition of sufficient amounts of water to destroy excess sodiumhydride, acidified using etheral hydrogen chloride followed by evaporation. The crude oil was purified using silicagel flash chromatography, (heptane: ethylacetate: triethylamine/ 95:2.5:2.5) to give 3-(4-chlorophenoxy)-1-propyl bromide (4.5 g). [0263] A mixture of 1-(1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl)piperazine (1.0 g), potassium carbonate (1.9 g), potassium iodide (cat.) and 3-(4-chlorophenoxy)-1-propyl bromide (1.13 g) in methyl isobutylketone/dimethylformamide (1/1, 100 mL) was heated to 120° C. When TLC indicated the reaction to be completed (24 hrs) the mixture was cooled, filtered and evaporated. The crude material was dissolved in ethylacetate and washed using standard procedure, followed by drying, filtration and concentration. The crude material was purified using silica gel chromatography (heptane: ethylacetate: ethanol: triethylamine/85:5:25:5). The collected oil was crystallized from ethanol. Filtration gave the title compound as pure crystalline material (0.64 g). Mp 116-119° C. 1 H NMR: 1.90 (q, 2H); 2.40-2.60 (m, 6H); 2.90-3.00 (m, 4H); 4.00 (t, 2H); 4.20 (m, 4H); 6.45 (m, 2H); 6.70 (t, 1H); 6.95 (d, 2H); 7.30 (d, 2H). MS: m/z: 389 (MH+), 178. Anal. Calcd for C 21 H 25 ClN 3 N 2 O 3 : C, 64.86; H, 6.48; N, 7.20. Found C, 64.59; H, 6.49; N, 7.23. [0264] The following compounds were prepared analogously: [0265] 2b, 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-trifluoromethyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 148-150° C. 1 H NMR: 2.10 (m, 2H); 3.00-3.25 (m, 10H); 4.15 (t, 2H); 4.25 (m, 4H); 6.45-6.55 (m, 2H); 6.75 (t, 1H); 7.15 (d, 2H); 7.60 (d, 2H). MS: m/z: 423 (MH+), 178. Anal. Calcd for C 22 H 25 F 3 N 2 O 3 : C, 56.25; H, 5.31; N, 5.47. Found C, 56.10; H, 5.34; N, 5.51. [0266] 2c. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 167-169° C. 1 H NMR: 2.10 (m, 2H); 3.00-3.20 (m, 10H); 4.15 (t, 2H); 4.20 (m, 4H); 6.45-6.55 (m, 2H); 6.75 (t, 1H); 6.95 (m, 1H); 7.10-7.25 (m, 3H). MS: m/z: 373 (MH+), 178, 122. Anal. Calcd for C 22 H 25 FN 2 O 3 : C, 59.73; H, 5.88; N, 6.06. Found C, 59.15; H, 5.99; N, 6.04. [0267] 2d. 2-{3-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-benzonitrile, oxalate. Mp 130 (amorphous) C. 1 H NMR: 2.15 (m, 2H); 3.00-3.20 (m, 10H); 4.20-4.30 (m, 6H); 6.50 (d, 1H); 6.55 (d, 1H); 6.75 (t, 1H); 7.10 (t, 1H); 7.25 (d, 1H); 7.65-7.75 (m, 2H). MS: m/z: 380 (MH+), 178. Anal. Calcd for C 22 H 25 N 3 O 3 : C, 61.40; H, 5.80; N, 8.95. Found C, 59.97; H, 6.02; N, 8.72. [0268] 2e. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine, hydrochloride. Mp 216-219° C. 1 H NMR: 2.06-2.17 (m, 2H); 3.10-3.18 (t, 2H); 3.21-3.35 (m, 6H); 3.58-3.69 (d, 4H); 7.02 (d, 1H); 7.27 (t, 1H); 7.38 (t, 1H); 7.48 (d, 1H); 7,52-7.60 (m, 2H); 7,62 (d, 1H); 7.77 (d, 1H); 11.0 (s, 11H). MS: m/z: 421 (MH+), 299, 176. Anal. Calcd for C 21 H 22 ClFN 2 S 2 : C, 55.13; H, 5.08; N, 6.12. Found C, 55.06; H, 5.09; N, 6.15. [0269] 2f. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine, hydrochloride. Mp 193-195° C. 1 H NMR: 1.80-1.88 (m, 2H); 1.95-2.06 (m, 2H); 3.18-3.42 (m, 6H); 4.05-4.14 (m, 2H); 7.05 (d, 1H); 7.20 (t, 1H); 7.43 (m, 3H); 7.63 (d, 1H); 7.77 (d, 1H); 11.30(s, 1H). MS: m/z: 419 (MH+), 216, 134. Anal. Calcd for C 22 H 24 ClFN 2 OS: C, 58.01; H, 5.54; N, 6.15. Found C, 57.89; H, 5.54; N, 6.19. Example 3 [0270] 3a, 1-[2-(3,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzof[, 4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine, oxalate. A solution of chloroacetyl chloride (0.72 g) in dry tetrahydrofuran (5 mL) was added dropwise to a mixture of 1-(1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl)piperazine (1.28 g) and potassium carbonate (2.4 g) in dry tetrahydrofuran at room temperature. The reaction was allowed to stir for 30 min. and 3,4-dichlorothiophenol (1.25 g) was added followed by addition of potassium tert-butoxide (1.49 g). The mixture was stirred 30 min at room temperature and 30 min at reflux, whereafter it was cooled and concentrated. The crude mixture was washed using standard procedure (ethylacetate/brine), dried and evaporated to give 1-[1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl]-4-[3,4-dichlorophenylthiomethylcarbonyl]piperazine (2.54 g). [0271] Aluminium trichloride (0.4 g) in cold tetrahydrofuran (10 mL) was added dropwise to a suspension of lithium aluminium hydride (0.4 g) in tetrahydrofuran (20 mL) at 0° C. The mixture was stirred for 15 min and then allowed to warm to approx. 10° C., whereafter a solution of the intermediate amide, prepared above, in tetrahydrofuran (20 mL) was added. The reaction was complete after 1 h and concentrated sodium hydroxide (2 mL) was added, dropwise. Drying agent was added followed by filtration and evaporation to give the crude target base (1.94 g). Purification using silica gel flash chromatography gave the pure base. Addition of oxalic acid in acetone followed by filtration gave the title compound as pure white crystalline material (1.26 g). Mp 159-161° C. 1 H NMR: 2.9-3,05 (s, 6H); 3.05-3.15(s, 4H); 3.25-3.40 (t, 2H); 4.15-4.30 (m, 4H); 4.70-6.40 (b, 1H); 6.45-6.50 (d, 1H); 6.50-6.55 (d, 1H); 6.70-6.80 (t, 1H); 7.30-7.40 (d, 1H); 7.55-7.60 (d, 1R); 7.65-7.67 (s, 1H). MS m/z: 425 (MH+), 177. Anal. Calcd for C 20 H 22 Cl 2 N 2 O 2 S: C, 51.26; H, 4.70; N, 5.44. Found C, 51.41; H, 4.86; N, 5.44. [0272] The following compounds were prepared analogously: [0273] 3b. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 200-202° C. 1 H NMR: 2.90-3.10 (m, 6H); 3.15-3.30 (s, 4H); 3.30-3.40 (t, 2H); 3.60-4.50 (b, 1H); 6.35-6.40(s, 1H); 6.45-6.50 (d, 1H); 6.95-7.00 (t, 1H); 7.05-7.10 (d, 1H); 7.15-7.20 (s, 1H); 7.25-7.30 (s, 1H); 7.35-7.40 (d, 1H); 7.55-7.60 (d, 1H). MS m/z: 375 (MH+), 177. Anal. Calcd for C 20 H 23 FN 2 O 2 S: C, 56.88; H, 5.44; N, 6.03. Found C, 56.88; H, 5.55; N, 5.96. [0274] 3c. 1-[2-(Bromo-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 196-197° C. 1 H NMR: 2.65-2.85 (m, 4H); 2.85-2.95 (m, 2H); 2.95-3.15 (s, 4H); 3.15-3.35 (m, 2H); 4.15-4.40 (dd, 4H); 6.40-6.55 (m, 2H); 6.70 (t, 1H); 7,57 (d, 1H); 7.73 (d, 1H); 7.95 (s, 1H). MS m/z: 504 (MH+), 214. Anal. Calcd for C 20 H 22 BrF 3 N 2 O 2 S: C, 45.5 1; H, 4.24; N, 4.62. Found C, 46.00; H, 4.25; N, 4.58. [0275] 3d. 1-[2-(2,6-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine, oxalate. Mp 188-191° C. (decomposes). 1 H NMR: 2,85-3,0(m, 6H); 3.00-3.15 (s, 4H); 3.20 (t, 2H); 4.15-4.25 (m, 4H); 5.00-6.00 (b, 1H); 6.45(d, 1H); 6.50 (d, 1H); 6.70(t, 1H); 7.40(t, 1H); 7.60(d, 2H). MS m/z. 425 (MH+), 170. Anal. Calcd for C 20 H 22 Cl 2 N 2 O 2 S: C, 51.27; H, 4.69; N, 5.44. Found C, 51.17; H, 4.81; N, 5.46. Example 4 [0276] 4a 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(3-phenylsulfanyl-propyl)-piperazine, dihydrochloride hydrate. To a stirred solution of concentrated sodiumhydroxide (100 mL), dichloromethane (900 mL) and water (600 mL), was added thiophenol (56 g), 3-bromopropan-1-ol (111 g) and tetrabutylammonium sulphate (12 g). The mixture was refluxed for 42 h, slowly cooled, followed by washing using dichloromethane/hydrochloric acid and water, drying and evaporation to give crude 3-phenylthiopropan-1-ol which was purified by distillation (35 g, bp 102-15° C./0.15 mmHg. A portion (10 g), was dissolved in dichloromethane (100 mL) and triethylamine (8.6 g) was added, followed by dropwise addition of a dichloromethane (100 mL) solution of methanesulfonic acid chloride (9.3 g) at 2° C. The reaction was allowed to proceed at this temperature for 90 min and and at 10° C. for same amount of time. The reaction was then washed using dichloromethane and diluted sodiumcarbonate solution, dried and evaporated to give the crude mesylate (14.9 g). The mesylate (3.1 g) was directly treated with 1-(1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl)piperazine, dihydrochloride (3.22 g) and potassium carbonate (9.15 g) in methyl isobutylketone (120 mL). The reaction was refluxed for 48 h, cooled, evaporated then washed using standard procedure. Purification using silica gel flash chromatography gave the target base (0.56 g), which was crystallized as the hydrochloride by addition of etheral hydrogen chloride. Filtration yielded the title compound (0.50 g). Mp 185-206° C. 1 H NMR: 2.00-2.16 (m, 2H); 3.03-3.30 (m, 8H); 3.34-3.55 (m, 4H); 4.18-4.25 (s, 4H); 5.80 (s, 4H); 6.48-6.61 (m, 2H); 6.73 (t, 1H); 7.14-7.25 (m, 1H), 7.28-7.32 (m, 4H); 11.48 (s, 1H). MS m/z: 371 (MH+). Anal. Calcd for C 21 H 26 N 2 O 2 S: C, 54.73; H, 6.56; N, 6.08. Found C, 55.37; H, 6.65; N, 6.27. Example 5 [0277] 5aa. 1-[3-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0278] A solution of 2-bromo-4-fluoro-phenol (3.0 g) in tetrahydrofuran (50 ml) was added dropwise at room temperature to a suspension of sodium hydride (38.4 mmol) in ethanol (50 ml). The mixture was stirred for an additional 30 min after the generation of hydrogen stopped. The solution was then slowly dropped (0.3 mL/min) to a solution of 1,3-dibromopropane (159 g) in ethanol (300 mL) at 75° C. and stirred for 16 h. The mixture was evaporated from the solvents and the residue was extracted with ethyl acetate. The solution was washed with water and brine, dried, filtered and concentrated. The excess 1,3-dibromopropane was removed in vacuo (60° C., 0.01 mbar) and the oily residue was purified by silica gel flash chromatography (eluent:heptane) to yield 3-(2-bromo-4-fluorophenoxy)-1-propyl bromide (2.9 g, 60%) as a colorless oily liquid. [0279] Cesium carbonate (108 mg) was added to a solution of 3-(2-bromo-4-fluorophenoxy)-1-propyl bromide (46 mg) and 1-(1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl)piperazine (26 mg) in acetonitril (2 mL). The mixture was stirred at 70° C. for 16 h. After 12 h isocyanomethyl polystyrene (75 mg) was added and the mixture was slowly cooled to room temperature. The resin was filtered and washed with methanol (1×1 mL) and dichloromethane (1×1 mL). The combined liquid phases were evaporated from volatile solvents to yield a dark brown oil. The crude product was dissolved in ethyl acetate (3 mL) and loaded on a pre-conditioned ion exchange column. The column was washed with methanol (4 mL) and acetonitrile (4 mL), followed by elution of the product with 4 N solution of ammonia in methanol (4.5 mL). After evaporation of volatile solvents the product was purified by preparative reversed phase HPLC chromatography. The resulting solution was again loaded on a pre-conditioned ion exchange column. As described above the column was washed with methanol (4 mL) and acetonitrile (4 mL), followed by elution of the product with 4 N solution of ammonia in methanol (4.5 mL). Evaporation of the volatile solvents afforded the title compound as a yellow oil (34 mg). LC/MS (m/z) 451 (MH+), Rt=6.0 (method A), purity: 95.6%. [0280] The following compounds where prepared analogously: [0281] (Method A) [0282] 5ab. 1-[4-(2,6-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0283] LC/MS (m/z) 453 (MH+), Rt=2.52(method A), purity 96.1%. [0284] 5ac. 1-[3-(2-Chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0285] LC/MS (m/z) 424 (MH+), Rt=5.75 (method A), purity 91.8%. [0286] 5ad. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0287] LC/MS (m/z) 421 (MH+), Rt=6.40 (method A), purity 73.2%. [0288] 5ae. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0289] LC/MS (m/z) 437 (MH+), Rt=6.39 (method A), purity 84.1%. [0290] 5af. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2,6-dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0291] LC/MS (m/z) 451 (MH+), Rt=6.64 (method A), purity 87.6%. [0292] 5ag. 1-[4-(3-Chloro-2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-henzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0293] LC/MS (m/z) 449 (MH+), Rt=5.91 (method A), purity 90.8%. [0294] 5ah. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(3-chloro-2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0295] LC/MS (m/z) 447 (MH+), Rt=6.54 (method A), purity 73.8%. [0296] 5ai. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0297] LC/MS (m/z) 422 (MH+), Rt=6.32 (method A), purity 94.2%. [0298] 5aj. 1-[3-(2,6-Dibromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0299] LC/MS (m/z) 531 (MH+), Rt=5.87 (method A), purity 96.4%. [0300] 5ak. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dibromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0301] LC/MS (m/z) 529 (MH+), Rt=6.98 (method A), purity 87.7%. [0302] 5al. 4-{3-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-3,5-diiodo-benzonitrile. [0303] LC/MS (m/z) 632 (MH+), Rt=5.85 (method A), purity 86.0%. [0304] 5am. 3,5-Di-tert-butyl-4-{3-[4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-benzonitrile. [0305] LC/MS (m/z) 492 (MH+), Rt=6.74 (method A), purity 83.6%. [0306] 5an. 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0307] LC/MS (m/z) 503 (MH+), Rt=5.06 (method A), purity 93.6%. [0308] 5ao. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0309] LC/MS (m/z) 499 (MH+), Rt=5.82 (method A), purity 80.1%. [0310] 5ap. 1-[3-(Bromo-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0311] LC/MS (m/z) 519 (MH+), Rt=6.27 (method A), purity 86.5%. [0312] 5aq. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(bromo-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0313] LC/MS (m/z) 517 (MH+), Rt=6.86 (method A), purity 73.7%. [0314] 5ar. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0315] LC/MS (m/z) 431 (MH+), Rt=6.66 (method A), purity 87.4%. [0316] 5as. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0317] LC/MS (m/z) 435 (MH+), Rt=6.94 (method A), purity 83.0%. [0318] 5at. 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0319] LC/MS (m/z) 441 (MH+), Rt=5.80 (method A), purity 96.8%. [0320] 5au. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0321] LC/MS (m/z) 439 (MH+), Rt=6.49 (method A), purity 93.6%. [0322] 5av. 1-[4-(2-Chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0323] LC/MS (m/z) 433 (MH+), Rt=6.14 (method A), purity 96.6%. [0324] 5aw. 1-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0325] LC/MS (m/z) 439 (MH+), Rt=5.89 (method A), purity 93.0%. [0326] 5ax. 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(2-chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0327] LC/MS (m/z) 479 (MH+), Rt=7.38 (method A), purity 91.3%. [0328] 5ay. 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(2-chloro-6-methyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0329] LC/MS (m/z) 479 (MH+), Rt=7.38 (method A), purity 93.1%. [0330] 5az. 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0331] LC/MS (m/z) 488 (MH+), Rt=6.92 (method A), purity 93.1%. [0332] 5ba. 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0333] LC/MS (m/z) 488 (MH+), Rt=6.91 (method A), purity 88.7%. [0334] 5bb. 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0335] LC/MS (m/z) 469 (MH+), Rt=6.84 (method A), purity 88.8%. [0336] 5bc. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine. [0337] LC/MS (m/z) 419 (MH+), Rt=6.44 (method A), purity 98.5%. [0338] 5bd. 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(2-chloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine. [0339] LC/MS (m/z) 467 (MH+), Rt=6.91 (method A), purity 94.2%. [0340] 5be. 1-[4-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0341] LC/MS (m/z) 467 (MH+), Rt=5.94 (method A), purity 99.3%. [0342] 5bf. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2-bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine. [0343] LC/MS (m/z) 465 (MH+), Rt=6.57 (method A), purity 99.7%. [0344] 5bg. 1-[4-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(5-chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-piperazine. [0345] LC/MS (m/z) 514 (MH+), Rt=7.02 (method A), purity 99.2%. [0346] 5bh. 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0347] LC/MS (m/z) 549 (MH+), Rt=6.34 (method A), purity 88.6%. [0348] 5bi. 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-methanesulfonyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0349] LC/MS (m/z) 549 (MH+), Rt=6.43 (method A), purity 84.0%. [0350] 5bj. 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[4-(3-chloro-2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0351] LC/MS (m/z) 496 (MH+), Rt=6.80 (method A), purity 78.9%. [0352] 5bk. 1-(5-Chloro-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0353] LC/MS (m/z) 487 (MH+), Rt=6.65 (method A), purity 98.5%. [0354] 5bl. 1-(5-Chloro-3,3-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-7-yl)-4-[3-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0355] LC/MS (m/z) 488 (MH+), Rt=7.56 (method A), purity 88.2%. [0356] 5bm. 1-(4-{4-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-butoxy}-3,5-difluoro-phenyl)-propan-1-one. [0357] LC/MS (m/z) 461 (MH+), Rt=5.50 (method A), purity 72.9%. [0358] 5bn. 1-[2-(2-Bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0359] LC/MS (m/z) 455 (MH+), Rt=5.17 (method A), purity 77.3%. [0360] 5bo. 1-[3-(2-Bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0361] LC/MS (m/z) 471 (MH+), Rt=5.34 (method A), purity 98.9%. [0362] 5bp. 1-[4-(2,6-Dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0363] LC/MS (m/z) 455 (MH+), Rt=5.73 (method A), purity 95.0%. [0364] 5bq. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzof[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,4,6-tribromo-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0365] LC/MS (m/z) 593 (MH+), Rt=6.09 (method A), purity 99.7%. [0366] 5br. 1-(4-{3-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-3,5-difluoro-phenyl)-propan-1-one. [0367] LC/MS (m/z) 447 (MH+), Rt=5.20 (method A), purity 99.2%. [0368] 5bs. 1-{4-[4-(4-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-piperazin-1-yl) -butoxy]-3,5-difluoro-phenyl}-propan-1-one. [0369] LC/MS (m/z) 459 (MH+), Rt=6.11 (method A), purity 80.0%. [0370] 5bt. 1-Benzo[h]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0371] LC/MS (m/z) 467 (MH+), Rt=6.05 (method A), purity 98.7%. [0372] 5bu. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(2,6-dichloro-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl/]-piperazine. [0373] LC/MS (m/z) 455 (MH+), Rt=6.36 (method A), purity 96.7%. [0374] 5by. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,4,6-tribromo-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0375] LC/MS (m/z) 591 (MH+), Rt=6.71 (method A), purity 99.6%. [0376] 5bw. 1-{4-[3-(4-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-piperazin-1-yl)-propoxy]-3,5-difluoro-phenyl}-propan-1-one. [0377] LC/MS (m/z) 445 (MH+), Rt=5.87 (method A), purity 98.4%. [0378] 5bx. 3,5-Dibromo-4-{3-[4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-benzonitrile. [0379] LC/MS (m/z) 538 (MH+), Rt=5.37 (method A), purity 76.8%. [0380] 5by. 1-[4-(2,6-Dibromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0381] LC/MS (m/z) 545 (MH+), Rt=5.91 (method A), purity 71.2%. [0382] 5bz. 1-[4-(4-Bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0383] LC/MS (m/z) 483 (MH+), Rt=5.76 (method A), purity 91.9%. [0384] 5ca. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,6-dibromo-4-nitro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0385] LC/MS (m/z) 554 (MH+), Rt=6.24 (method A), purity 87.4%. [0386] 5cb. 4-[3-(4-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-piperazin-1-yl)-propoxy]-3,5-dibromo-benzonitrile. [0387] LC/MS (m/z) 538 (MH+), Rt=6.05 (method A), purity 94.1%. [0388] 5cc 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[4-(4-bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-butyl]-piperazine. [0389] LC/MS (m/z) 481 (MH+), Rt=6.34 (method A), purity 94.1%. [0390] 5cd. 1-[3-(2-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0391] LC/MS (m/z) 405 (MH+), Rt=5.57 (method A), purity 99.5%. [0392] 5ce. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2-chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0393] LC/MS (m/z) 403 (MH+), Rt=5.99 (method A), purity 100%. [0394] 5cf. 1-[3-(2,4-Difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0395] LC/MS (m/z) 391 (MH+), Rt=7.66 (method A), purity 92.5%. [0396] 5cg. 1-[3-(4-Bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0397] LC/MS (m/z) 471 (MH+), Rt=5.53 (method A), purity 97.9%. [0398] 5ch. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[2-(2-bromo-4,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0399] LC/MS (m/z) 455 (MH+), Rt=5.93 (method A), purity 92.0%. [0400] 5ci. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(2,4-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0401] LC/MS (m/z) 389 (MH+), Rt=5.76 (method A), purity 81.7%. [0402] 5cj. 1-Benzo[b]thiophen-7-yl-4-[3-(4-bromo-2,6-difluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazine. [0403] LC/MS (m/z) 469 (MH+), Rt=6.20 (method A), purity 98.5%. [0404] 5ck. 8-{4-[3-(2-chloro-4-fluorophenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile. [0405] LC/MS (m/z) 432 (MH+), Rt=2.29 (method A), purity 75.0%. [0406] 5cl. 8-{4-[3-(2,6-Dichloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile. [0407] LC/MS (m/z) 464 (MH+), Rt=2.41 (method A), purity 67%. Example 6 [0408] 6a. 8-{4-[3-(4-Fluoro-2-methyl-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile, oxalate. Ethyl 2,3 dihydroxybenzoic acid (103 g) and 1,2-dibromoethane (250 mL) was dissolved in ethanol (1.0 L), to this stirred mixture was a solution of potassium tert-butoxide (316 g) in ethanol (1.5 L) added dropwise over 8 hrs, the reaction was stirred for 16 hrs. 1,2 dibromoethane (100 mL) more was added, and also potassium tert-butoxide (126 g) in ethanol (700 mL) added dropwise and reaction was again stirred for 16 hrs. When the reaction was complete it was filtered and evaporated followed by standard washing procedure from ethylacetate. The crude dioxane (108 g) was obtained sufficiently pure for direct use in the subsequent reaction. 5-Carboxyethyl benzodioxane was dissolved in an ethanol:water mixture (400 mL, 1:1) and sodiumhydroxide (68 mL) was added dropwise at ambient temperature, followed by stirring for 16 hrs. The reaction was evaporated, redissolved in ethylacetate and pH was adjusted to 3, followed by washing using standard procedure to give the free acid (86.5 g). [0409] The acid (229 g) was dissolved in thionyl chloride (2.0 L) and heated at reflux temperature for 3 hrs, and then cooled and evaporated, the remaines was co-evaporated 3 times with toluene. The crude chloride was dissolved in toluene and added dropwise to ammoniumhydroxide solution (1.5 L) at 0° C. Further stirring at room temperature for 30 min gave the full precipitation of the amido-derivative. The precipitated product was filtered and washed (water and ethylacetate) to give the pure amido-derivative (267 g) containing some moisture. This compound was mixted with thionylchloride (1.5 L) and heated at reflux temperature for 7 hrs, cooled, evaporated and co-evaporated with toluene (3 times) followed by standard washing to give the 5-cyano benzodioxane (202 g) as clear pure oil. A part of this cyano derivative (25.5 g) was dissolved in acetic acid (120 mL) and warmed to 60° C., whereafter acetic acid solution (70 mL) of bromine (61 mL) was added dropwise over 15 min. The mixture was heated at 80° C. for 2.5 hrs, cooled and filtered to give the crude crystalline 6,7-dibromo-5-cyano benzodioxane (24.7 g). The obtained dibromo derivative was added portionwise to cooled nitric acid (fuming, 100 mL) at 0° C. over 5 min. After 10 min at room temperature the reaction was poured into icewater (800 mL) and stirred for 30 min. the precipitated product was filtered and dried (25.7 g). The obtained nitro compound was reduced by dissolving it together with potassium hydroxide (11.8 g) in methanol (600 mL). Palladium on charcoal (5%, 21.0 g) was added and the mixture was shaken under a hydrogen pressure (3 bar) for 3 hrs. When all strating material was consumed water was added and mixture was washed using standard procedure into ethylacetate. Evaporation gave the pure 5-amino-8-cyano benzodioxane (12 g) which was dissolved in chlorobenzene (160 mL), and bis-(chloroethyl)amine hydrochloride (12.3 g) was added. The reaction mixture was heated at reflux temperature for 60 hrs, the reaction mixture was cooled and chlorobenzene was decanted of. The crude product was directly dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (500 mL) and water (500 mL) and potassiumcarbonate (92 g) was added, a solution of di tertbutyl carbonate (46.8 g) in tetrahydrofuran (100 mL) was added dropwise to the stirred solution at room temperature. The reaction was stirred for 16 hrs and washed using standard procedure. The obtained crude product was purifyed using silica gel flash chromatography to give the tertbutylcarbamate derivative (25 g). A part of this product (10.9 g) was deprotected by hydrochloride acid-ether treatment to give the pure crystalline amine (8.6 g) as a hydrochloride salt. Treatment of this hydrochloride with ammoniumhydroxide gave the free base, which was washed with ethylacetate using standard procedure. A part of the 1-[8-Cyano-1,4-benzodioxan-5-yl]-piperazine (0.44 g) was dissolved in a mixture of methyl isobutylketone and N,N-dimethylformamide (6+6 mL) followed by addition of potassiumcarbonate (0.48 g), this mixture was stirred for 15 min. 3-(2-chloro-4-fluorophenyl-1-yl)-oxy]propyl bromide (0.53 g) dissolved in methyl isobutylketone (4 mL) was added and the reaction mixture heated to reflux temperature for 1.5 hrs, cooled and evaporated to dryness followed by washing from ethylacetate using standard procedure. The collected pure oil was dissolved in acetone followed by addition of oxalic acid, filtration gave the title compound as pure crystalline material (0.14 g). Mp 118-120° C. 1 H NMR (500 MHz): 2.18 (m, 5H); 2.75-3,00 (m, 6H); 3.35 (m, 4H); 4.00 (t, 2H); 4.35 (dd, 4H); 6,50 (d, 1H); 6.63 (m, 1H); 6.72 (m, 2H); 7,08 (d, 1H); 7,30 (dd, 1H); 7,50 (d, 2H). MS (m/z): 496 (MH+). Anal. Calcd. for C 23 H 26 FN 3 O 3 : C, 58.19; H, 5.80; N, 8.15. Found C, 58.26; H, 5.55; N, 8.50. [0410] 6b. 8-{4-[3-(2-Bromo-4-fluoro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile, oxalate. Mp 152-154° C. 1 H NMR: 2.08 (t, 2H); 3.00 (t, 2H); 3,05 (s, 4H); 3.25 (s, 4H); 4.09 (t, 2H); 4.35 (dd, 4H); 6,60 (d, 1H); 7.18 (m, 3H); 7,55 (d, 1H). MS (m/z): 476 (MH+), 397, 258, 149. Anal. Calcd. for C 22 H 23 BrFN 3 O 3 : C, 50.25; H, 4.54; N, 7.33. Found C, 50.31; H, 4.64; N, 6.85. [0411] (d, 1H). MS (m/z): 476 (MH+), 397, 258, 149. Anal. Calcd. for C 22 H 23 BrFN 3 O 3 : C, 50.25; H, 4.54; N, 7.33. Found C, 50.31; H, 4.64; N, 6.85. [0412] 6c. 8-{4-[3-(2-Chloro-phenoxy)-propyl]-piperazin-1-yl}-2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxine-5-carbonitrile, oxalate. Mp 96-98° C. 1 H NMR: 2.09 (m, 2H); 2.95-3,05 (m, 6H); 3.28 (m, 4H); 4.12 (s, 2H); 4.38 (dd, 4H); 6,60 (d, 114); 6.95(t, 1H); 7.15-7.23 (m, 2H); 7.30 (t, 1H); 7,43 (d, 1H). MS (m/z): 414 (MH+), 258, 149. Anal. Calcd. for C 22 H 24 ClN 3 O 3 : C, 56.28; H, 5.30; N, 8.21. Found C, 56.22; H, 5.35; N, 8.21. Example 7 [0413] 7aa. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(2-phenylsulfanyl-ethyl)-piperazine. [0414] To a solution of thiophenol (176 mg, 1.6 mmol) in DMF (1.6 mL) was added a solution of potassium-tert.-butoxide (1.6 mL, 1.6 mmol, 1.0M in tert.-butanol). The mixture was stirred for 5 min. at room temperature. An aliquot of the resulting solution (850 μL) was added to a solution of 2-bromo-1,1-dimethoxyethane (59 mg, 0.35 mmol) in DMF (0.70 mL). The reaction mixture was warmed to 80° C. and stirred for 16 h. After cooling to room temperature, ethyl acetate (6 mL) was added. The organic phase was washed with water (2×4 mL), and dried over sodium sulphate. After evaporation of the volatiles in vacuo, the resulting oil was dissolved in a mixture of dioxane and 3M HCl (4 mL, dioxane:3M HCl 8:1) and heated to 80° C. for 1 h. After cooling to room temperature, ethyl acetate (6 mL) was added. The organic phase was washed with water (2×4 mL), and dried over sodium sulphate. After evaporation of the volatiles in vacuo, the resulting oil was dissolved in 1,2-dichloroethane (1.80 mL). An aliquot of the resulting solution (600 μL) was added to a solution of 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin)piperazine (22.4 mmol) in DMF (60 PL), followed by sodium triacetoxyborohydride (30 mg, 0.14 mmol). After shaking the mixture at room temperature for 2 h, a mixture of methanol/water (600 μL, methanol:water 9:1) was added, and the resulting solution was loaded on a pre-conditioned ion exchange column. The column was washed with acetonitrile (2.5 mL) and methanol (2.5 mL), followed by elution of the product with 4 N solution of ammonia in methanol (4.5 mL). After removal of solvents in vacuo, the the title compound was obtained as a colorless oil (5.7 mg, 16.9 μmol, 75%). [0415] LC/MS (m/z) 338 (MH+), Rt=2.07 (method B), purity 89.3%. [0416] The following compounds where prepared analogously: [0417] 7ab. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2,6-dimethyl-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0418] LC/MS (m/z) 369 (MH+), Rt=2.34 (method B), purity 88.86%. [0419] 7ac. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2,6-dimethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0420] LC/MS (m/z) 413 (MH+), Rt=2.54 (method B), purity 99.1% [0421] 7ad. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2,4-dimethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0422] LC/MS (m/z) 385 (MH+), Rt=2.35 (method B), purity 96.14% [0423] 7ae. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-trifluoromethyl-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0424] LC/MS (m/z) 409 (MH+), Rt=2.31 (method B), purity 80.22% [0425] 7af. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0426] LC/MS (m/z) 425 (MH+), Rt=2.33 (method B), purity 98.58% [0427] 7ag. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-ethyl-phenoxy)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0428] LC/MS (m/z) 369 (MH+), Rt=2.32 (method B), purity 75.61% [0429] 7ah. 1-[2-(2,3-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0430] LC/MS (m/z) 425 (MH+), Rt=2.38 (method B), purity 97.58% [0431] 7ai. 1-[2-(2-Allyl-6-chloro-phenoxy)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0432] LC/MS (m/z) 415 (MH+), Rt=2.44 (method B), purity 91.16% [0433] 7aj. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,4-dimethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0434] LC/MS (m/z) 399 (MH+), Rt=2.43 (method B), purity 95.09% [0435] 7ak. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0436] LC/MS (m/z) 439 (MH+), Rt=2.4 (method B), purity 93.66% [0437] 7al. 1-[3-(2,3-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0438] LC/MS (m/z) 439 (MH+), Rt=2.47 (method B), purity 94.59% [0439] 7am. 1-[3-(3,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0440] LC/MS (m/z) 439 (MH+), Rt=2.52 (method B), purity 94.34% [0441] 7an. 1-[4-(3,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-henzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0442] LC/MS (m/z) 453 (MH+), Rt=2.62 (method B), purity 72.11% [0443] 7ao. 1-[4-(2-Chloro-5-methyl-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0444] LC/MS (m/z) 417 (MH+), Rt=2.27 (method C), purity 84.86% [0445] 7ap. 1-[2-(2,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-henzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0446] LC/MS (m/z) 425 (MH+), Rt=2.17 (method C), purity 93.15% [0447] 7aq . 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(3-m-tolylsulfanyl-propyl)-piperazine. [0448] LC/MS (m/z) 385 (MH+), Rt=2.05 (method C), purity 75.1% [0449] 7ar. 1-[4-(2,4-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0450] LC/MS (m/z) 453 (MH+), Rt=2.37 (method C), purity 73.44% [0451] 7as. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-ethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0452] LC/MS (m/z) 385 (MH+), Rt=2.09 (method C), purity 96.15% [0453] 7at. 1-[2-(2,5-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-henzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0454] LC/MS (m/z) 425 (MH+), Rt=2.11 (method C), purity 96.58% [0455] 7au. 1-[2-(3-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0456] LC/MS (m/z) 391 (MH+), Rt=1.99 (method C), purity 95.76% [0457] 7av. 1-[2-(2-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0458] LC/MS (m/z) 391 (MH+), Rt=1.92 (method C), purity 97.93% [0459] 7aw. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(2-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0460] LC/MS (m/z) 375 (MH+), Rt=1.82 (method C), purity 94.32% [0461] 7ax. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-ethyl-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0462] LC/MS (m/z) 399 (MH+), Rt=2.17 (method C), purity 83.64% [0463] 7ay. 1-[3-(2,5-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0464] LC/MS (m/z) 439 (MH+), Rt=2.19 (method C), purity 89.61% [0465] 7az. 1-[3-(3-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0466] LC/MS (m/z) 405 (MH+), Rt=2.09 (method C), purity 87.22% [0467] 7ba. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0468] LC/MS (m/z) 389 (MH+), Rt=1.91 (method C), purity 85.93% [0469] 7bb. 3-Chloro-4-{4-[4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-butoxy}-benzonitrile. [0470] LC/MS (m/z) 428 (MH+), Rt=1.95 (method C), purity 76.61% [0471] 7bc. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(4-o-tolylsulfanyl-butyl)-piperazine. [0472] LC/MS (m/z) 399 (MH+), Rt=2.13 (method C), purity 72.93% [0473] 7bd. 1-[4-(2,5-Dichloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0474] LC/MS (m/z) 453 (MH+), Rt=2.31 (method C), purity 77.14% [0475] 7be. 1-[4-(2-Chloro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0476] LC/MS (m/z) 419 (MH+), Rt=2.14 (method C), purity 75.5% [0477] 7bf. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0478] LC/MS (m/z) 403 (MH+), Rt=2.03 (method C), purity 74.97% [0479] 7bg. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[2-(3,4-dimethoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-ethyl]-piperazine. [0480] LC/MS (m/z) 417 (MH+), Rt=1.7 (method D), purity 89.79% [0481] 7bh. 3-{4-[4-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazin-1-yl]-butoxy}-benzonitrile. [0482] LC/MS (m/z) 394 (MH+), Rt=1.85 (method D), purity 75.52% [0483] 7bi. 1-[4-(2-Chloro-4-fluoro-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0484] LC/MS (m/z) 437 (MH+), Rt=2.23 (method D), purity 86.05% [0485] 7bj. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(4-trifluoromethoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0486] LC/MS (m/z) 455 (MH+), Rt=2.29 (method D), purity 86.83% [0487] 7bk. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(2,5-dimethoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0488] LC/MS (m/z) 431 (MH+), Rt=1.9 (method D), purity 74.89% [0489] 7bl. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[3-(3-bromo-phenylsulfanyl)-propyl]-piperazine. [0490] LC/MS (m/z) 449 (MH+), Rt=2.13 (method D), purity 88.56% [0491] 7bm. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2-methoxy-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0492] LC/MS (m/z) 415 (MH+), Rt=1.94 (method C), purity 94,04 [0493] 7bn. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-[4-(2-isopropyl-phenylsulfanyl)-butyl]-piperazine. [0494] LC/MS (m/z) 427 (MH+), Rt=2.39 (method C), purity 73,56 [0495] 7bo. 1-(2,3-Dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-4-(2-o-tolylsulfanyl-ethyl)-piperazine. [0496] LC/MS (m/z) 371 (MH+), Rt=1.92 (method C), purity 93,93 [0497] 7bp. 1-[4-(2-Allyl-phenoxy)-butyl]-4-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[1,4]dioxin-5-yl)-piperazine. [0498] LC/MS (m/z) 409 (MH+), Rt=2.26 (method C), purity 91,57 [0499] Pharmacological Testing [0500] The affinity of the compounds of the invention to 5-HT 1A receptors was determined by measuring the inhibition of binding of a radioactive ligand at 5-HT 1A receptors as described in the following test: [0501] Inhibition of 3 H-5-CT Binding to Human 5-HT 1A Receptors [0502] By this method the inhibition by drugs of the binding of the 5-HT 1A agonist 3 H-5-carboxamido tryptamine (3H-5-CT) to cloned human 5-HT 1A receptors stably expressed in transfected HeLa cells (HA7) (Fargin, A. et al, J. Biol. Chem., 1989, 264, 14848) is determined in vitro. The assay was performed as a modification of the method described by Harrington, M. A. et at, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 1994, 268, 1098. Human 5-HT 1A receptors (40 μg of cell homogenate) were incubated for 15 minutes at 37° C. in 50 mM Tris buffer at pH 7.7 in the presence of 3 H-5-CT. Non-specific binding was determined by including 10 μM of metergoline. The reaction was terminated by rapid filtration through Unifilter GF/B filters on a Tomtec Cell Harvester. Filters were counted in a Packard Top Counter. The results obtained are presented in table 1. [0503] The compounds of the invention have also been tested for their affinity to dopamine D 4 receptors in the following test. [0504] Inhibition of the Binding of 3 H-YM-09151-2 to Human Dopamine D 4 Receptors [0505] By this method the inhibition by drugs of the binding of [ 3 H]YM-09151-2 (0.06 nM) to membranes of human cloned dopamine D 4.2 receptors expressed in CHO-cells is determined in vitro. Method modified from NEN Life Science Products, Inc., technical data certificate PC2533-10/96. [0506] The results are given in the following Table 1 as IC 50 -values. TABLE 1 Binding Data Inhibition of Inhibition of Inhibition of Inhibition of 3 H-5-CT Binding 3 H-YM-09151-2 binding 3 H-5-CT Binding 3 H-YM-09151-2 binding Compound IC 50 (nM) or % IC 50 (nM) or % Compound IC 50 (nM) or % IC 50 (nM) or % No. inhibition at 100 nM inhibition at 50 nM No. inhibition at 100 nM inhibition at 50 nM 1a 10. 1.1 5ci 3.5 2.0 1b 1.1 5.9 5cj 93% 59. 1c 2.0 13 5ck 180 77% 1d 5.3 3.0 5cl 83% 42% 1e 4.5 1.3 6a 120 6.9 2a 4.4 4.0 6b 230 10 2b 15. 12. 6c 68 13 2c 4.0 1.2 7aa 78% 84% 2d 15. 1.7 7ab 86% 91% 2e 3.0 5.4 7ac 96% 96% 3a 76. 5.4 7ad 21 91% 3b 97. 4.3 7ae 82% 75% 3c 11. 35 7af 99% 91% 3d 31. 11 7ag 79% 88% 4a 2.8 1.3 7ah 1.6 87% 5aa 4.9 0.53 7ai 90% 82% 5ab 1.9 2.1 7aj 99% 84% 5ac 2.4 1.4 7ak 93% 98% 5ad 15. 6.6 7al 98% 97% 5ag 7.4 3.1 7am 100%  99% 5ai 17. 2.9 7an 100%  91% 5aj 3.4 13. 7ao 97% 89% 5ao 3.8 68. 7ap 91% 78% 5ap 6.2 6.3 7aq 101%  82% 5at 2.2 3.4 7ar 3.8 99% 5au 6.4 7.6 7as 80% 93% 5av 5.1 1.4 7at 88% 92% 5aw 1.7 1.9 7au 84% 87% 5ax 33% 23. 7av 90% 75% 5ay 14% 12. 7aw 74% 92% 5az 18% 9.9 7ax 9.2 100%  5bc 53. 1.9 7ay 2.0 102%  5bd 52. 6.5 7az 100%  92% 5be 8.0 1.2 7ba 97% 84% 5bf 35. 3.1 7bb 101%  94% 5bh 1.7 76. 7bc 82% 96% 5bi 3.5 87. 7bd 84% 102%  5bk 22. 11. 7be 102%  102%  5bl 88. 26. 7bf 101%  91% 5bo 1.7 2.4 7bg 81% 64% 5bp 4.8 6.2 7bh 95% 84% 5bq 1.2 2.4 7bi 96% 101%  5bt 8.6 6.3 7bj 106%  92% 5bx 2.2 19. 7bk 91% 84% 5by 2.5 4.3 7bl 95% 102%  5bz 5.0 10. 7bm 95% 83% 5cc 9.7 34. 7bn 93% 93% 5cd 8.8 2.3 7bo 91% 102%  5ce 4.8 16. 7bp 92% 99% 5cf 4.9 1.4 — — — 5cg 1.7 12. [0507] The compounds of the invention have also been tested for their effect on re-uptake of serotonin in the following test: [0508] Inhibition of 3 H-5-HT Uptake Into Rat Brain Synaptosomes [0509] Using this method, the ability of drugs to inhibit the accumulation of 3 H-5-HT into whole rat brain synaptosomes is determined in vitro. The assay was performed as described by Hyttel, J., Psychopharmacology 1978, 60, 13. [0510] Furthermore, the 5-HT 1A antagonistic activity of some of the compounds of the invention has been estimated in vitro at cloned 5-HT 1A receptors stably expressed in transfected HeLa cells (HA7). In this test, 5-HT 1A antagonistic activity is estimated by measuring the ability of the compounds to antagonize the 5-HT induced inhibition of forskolin induced cAMP accumulation. The assay was performed as a modification of the method described by Pauwels, P. J. et al, Biochem. Pharmacol. 1993, 45, 375. [0511] The compounds of the invention have also been tested for their affinity to dopamine D 3 receptors in the following test. [0512] Inhibition of the Binding of [ 3 H]-Spiperone to Human D 3 Receptors [0513] By this method the inhibition by drugs of the binding [ 3 H]Spiperone (0.3 nM) to membranes of human cloned dopamine D 3 receptors expressed in CHO-cells is determined in vitro. Method modified from R. G. MacKenzie et al., Eur. J. Pharm. Mol. Pharm. Sec., 1994, 266, 79-85. [0514] As seen from the above, the compounds of the invention show affinity for the 5-HT 1A receptors and for dopamine D 4 receptors. Furthermore, many of the compounds of the present invention possess valuable activity as serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and/or have effect at dopamine D 3 receptors. Accordingly, the compounds are considered useful for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders as mentioned previously. [0515] Pharmaceutical Formulation [0516] The pharmaceutical formulations of the invention may be prepared by conventional methods in the art. For example: Tablets may be prepared by mixing the active ingredient with ordinary adjuvants and/or diluents and subsequently compressing the mixture in a conventional tabletting machine. Examples of adjuvants or diluents comprise: corn starch, potato starch, talcum, magnesium stearate, gelatine, lactose, gums, and the like. Any other adjuvants or additives usually used for such purposes such as colourings, flavourings, preservatives etc. may be used provided that they are compatible with the active ingredients. Solutions for injections may be prepared by dissolving the active ingredient and possible additives in a part of the solvent for injection, preferably sterile water, adjusting the solution to desired volume, sterilisation of the solution and filling in suitable ampules or vials. Any suitable additive conventionally used in the art may be added, such as tonicity agents, preservatives, antioxidants, etc. [0517] The pharmaceutical compositions of this invention or those which are manufactured in accordance with this invention may be administered by any suitable route, for example orally in the form of tablets, capsules, powders, syrups, etc., or parenterally in the form of solutions for injection. For preparing such compositions, methods well known in the art may be used, and any pharmaceutically acceptable carriers, diluents, excipients, or other additives normally used in the art may be used. [0518] Conveniently, the compounds of the invention are administered in unit dosage form containing said compounds in an amount of about 0.01 to 1000 mg. The total daily dose is usually in the range o f about 0.05-500 mg, and most preferably about 0.1 to 50 mg of the active compound of the invention.

A heteroaryl derivative having the formula (I) any of its enantiomers or any mixture thereof, wherein X is —O—, —S—, or CR 4 R 5 —; and Y is —CR 6 R 7 ; —CR 6 R 7 —CR 8 R 9 —, or —CR 6 —CR 7 ; or X and Y together form a group —CR 4 ═R 5 —, or —CR 4 ═CR 5 —CR 6 R 7 —; Z is —O—, or —S—; W is N, C, or CH; n is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10; m is 2 or 3; A is O or S wherein the doted lines mean an optional bond. The compounds of the invention are considered useful for the treatment of affective disorders such as general anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, social phobia and eating disorders, and neurological disorders such as psychosis.

This application is the national phase of PCT International Application Ser. No. PCT/US09/44487 filed May 19, 2009, and claims the priority right of Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/054,306 filed May 19, 2008 by applicants herein. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates in general to a process for making an electronic device. In particular, it relates to a method and apparatus for solution coating layers using a slot die coater in conjunction with a vacuum assist device. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Increasingly, active organic molecules are used in electronic devices. These active organic molecules have electronic or electro-radiative properties including electroluminescence. Electronic devices that incorporate organic active materials may be used to convert electrical energy into radiation and may include a light-emitting diode, light-emitting diode display, or diode laser. Two methods are commonly used to prepare organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”) displays: vacuum deposition, and solution processing. (The latter includes all forms of applying the layers from a fluid, as a true solution or a suspension.) Vacuum deposition equipment typically has very high investment costs, and inferior material utilization (high operating costs), so solution processing is preferred, especially for large area displays. Liquid processes for the deposition of organic active layers include any number of technologies for control of layer thickness on a substrate. Some of these technologies include self regulated methods to control thickness, including spin coating, rod coating, dip coating, roll coating, gravure coating or printing, lithographic or flexographic printing, screen coating or printing, etc. Other of these technologies seek to control deposition thickness using controlled deposition techniques including ink jet printing, spray coating, nozzle coating, slot die coating, curtain coating, bar or slide coating, etc. Self regulated techniques present a number of drawbacks. Fluids used in coating OLED displays are often applied over surfaces with topography—electrodes, contact pads, thin film transistors, pixel wells formed from photoresists, cathode separator structures, etc. The uniformity of the wet layer deposited by a self regulated technique depends on the coating gap and resulting pressure distribution, so variations in the substrate topography result in undesirable variations in the wet coating thickness. Self regulated techniques generally accrue higher operating costs in that not all the fluid presented to the substrate is deposited. Some fluid is either recycled in the fluid bath (e.g., dip coating), or on the applicator (e.g., roll or gravure coating), or, it is wasted (e.g., spin coating). Solvent evaporates from the recycled fluid, requiring adjustment to maintain process stability. Wasting material, and recycling and adjusting material, add costs. Controlled techniques can provide lower operating cost. However, in some cases, poor wetting of underlying organic layers may lead to thickness variations or even voids within the organic active layer. Inconsistent formation of organic active layers typically leads to poor device performance and poor yield in device fabricating processes. There continues to be a need for improved processes for the solution deposition of organic active materials. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE In a controlled coating method all the fluid supplied to the coating applicator is applied to the substrate or workpiece. The average wet coating thickness can be calculated a priori from the volumetric flow rate of the coating fluid, the coated width, and the speed at which the substrate moves past the applicator. Fluid properties (e.g., viscosity, surface tension) and external forces (e.g., gravity) may affect the quality of the coating, but they do not affect the average wet thickness. Of particular interest of the controlled coating methods is the slot die coating method, in particular, when used in conjunction with a vacuum assist device. Slot die coating has many variations, including design of the die itself, orientation of the die to the web, “on roll” versus “off roll”, “patch coating” versus “continuous coating”, “stripe coating”, and the method of generating the pressure which forces liquid out of the die. Slot die coating is generally recognized to be coating with a die “against” a web, in which the die is actually separated from the web by a cushion of liquid being coated. Further discussions of slot die coating and apparatus can be found in, for example, Kistler, S. F., and Schweizer, P. M., “Liquid Film Coating,” Chapman & Hall, 1997. Typical thickness levels associated with conventional slot die coater processes are on the order or tenths of microns when wet, and can dry to final films on the order of a few microns. In contrast, slot die coating of organic layers for fabricating OLED displays produces layers on the order of tens of nanometers thick. Process improvements are required to produce acceptable layer performance at such thin dimensions. Application of a vacuum to one side of the slot die coater holds the liquid solution in a gap between faces of the slot die coater and the substrate. In addition, the vacuum appears to resist the viscous drag forces associated with the solution. Viscous drag forces are one factor in removing solution from the gap, leading to non-uniform deposition of the layers and resultant poor performance in an electronic device. Several advantages accrue from a reduction in viscous drag forces, including wider process latitude for operation of larger gaps between an edge of the slot die coater and the substrate. Operation at larger gap distances will minimize errors associated with non-uniformities in substrate height and the height of slot die coater above the substrate during relative motion between the slot die coater and the substrate. Operation at the larger gap distances will permit use of a more concentrated or viscous solution, resulting in thinner layers of wet solution with attendant reduction in drying time. Higher coating speeds can be used in response to the lower process sensitivity, the higher throughput resulting in cost savings. An advantage is realized upon startup of the coating process, before the liquid solution has formed a stable bridge between the edge of the slot die coater and the substrate, as any liquid solution withdrawn from the gap can contaminate the trailing surface of the slot die coater, and from streaks in the subsequent layers. Slot die coating operations include a number of stations to facilitate the coating process, including: a cleaning station, a priming station, a coating station and a traversing die support that moves the slot die coater between the various stations. In addition, a sensing system can be used to measure the distance between the edge of the slot die coater and various surfaces, such as the priming roll surface and substrate surface. A programmable controller can be used to operate and regulate the process. One possible sequence for the coating operation is outlined below: 1. Load the coating fluid in a supply system to fill the slot die coater. Measure or infer the distance from the edge of the slot die coater to the top tangent of the priming roll. 2. Load the substrate on a chuck that holds it in place. One embodiment is to use a vacuum system with the chuck to prevent the substrate from bowing. 3. Measure or infer the distance from the edge of the slot die coater to the surface of the substrate that will be coated (i.e., the surface facing away from the chuck). Usually the coating is applied vertically downward onto the substrate. 4. Clean the slot die coater in the cleaning station if required. 5. Prime the slot die coater by pumping solution through a slot of the slot die coater and onto the priming roll. The gap between the edge of the slot die coater and the top surface of the priming roll may be the same or different from the gap between the edge of the slot die coater and the substrate. The priming roll is typically rotated so the surface of the priming roll moves past the edge of the slot die coater to receive coating solution. Typically the rotation is in the direction simulating coating the substrate. The surface speed of the priming roll may be the same or different from the coating speed over the substrate. 6. Move the slot die coater to the starting position for coating the substrate, at a starting gap. Flood the coating gap with liquid solution. Adjust the coating gap before or during the initial motion of the slot die coater relative to the substrate. 7. Coat the substrate. 8. Stop liquid solution flow to the slot die coater at or near the end of the desired coating area. Raise the slot die coater from the substrate at or near the end of the desired coating area. Flow rate and gap may be adjusted together or sequentially at the end of coating to achieve a clean break in the coating with no dripping from the slot die coater, while minimizing the amount of substrate lost to non-uniform coating. 9. Optionally allow the substrate to dry in place. 10. Remove the coated substrate from the chuck. Return the die to the cleaning station. 11. Go to step 2 above. The vacuum system used in the above sequence utilizes a vacuum assist device (VAD) that creates a chamber around a selected station providing a pressure of less than one atmosphere. The combination of the VAD and slot die coater is referred to as a coating assembly. Sealing elements are used in conjunction with the coating assembly to produce the chamber having a designated pressure. The sealing elements provide a controlled leakage where the VAD approaches, but does not touch, the surface within the station (i.e. substrate, priming roll, etc.). In the cleaning station the VAD can remain in place with the slot die coater and vacuum to the VAD is off during the cleaning operation, alternatively, the VAD can be moved away from the slot die coater to accommodate cleaning of the slot die coater. After the cleaning operation a reverse flow of gas (air, nitrogen, etc.) can be sent through the VAD to remove any residual cleaning fluid. When sealing elements are working in conjunction with the coater assembly, a vacuum source of the VAD may be any source of vacuum, such as a blower, pump, evacuated tank or any known means of providing sub-ambient pressure. Within the priming station, a stationary surface can be used to mimic the substrate, the stationary surface is located near the priming roll and works in conjunction with the coating assembly and sealing elements to provide a static pressure drop across the coating gap while priming the slot coater die. In one embodiment, the workpiece comprises a substrate (such as glass) useful for an organic electronic device. The term “organic electronic device” or sometimes just “electronic device”, is intended to mean a device including one or more organic semiconductor layers or materials. An organic electronic device includes, but is not limited to: (1) a device that converts electrical energy into radiation (e.g., a light-emitting diode, light emitting diode display, diode laser, or lighting panel), (2) a device that detects a signal using an electronic process (e.g., a photodetector, a photoconductive cell, a photoresistor, a photoswitch, a phototransistor, a phototube, an infrared (“IR”) detector, or a biosensors), (3) a device that converts radiation into electrical energy (e.g., a photovoltaic device or solar cell), (4) a device that includes one or more electronic components that include one or more organic semiconductor layers (e.g., a transistor or diode), or any combination of devices in items (1) through (4). BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 is an illustration of an electronic device. FIG. 2 is an illustration of one embodiment of a priming station of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an illustration of one embodiment of a coating station of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an illustration of one embodiment of a cleaning station of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION One example of an electronic device comprising an organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”), as shown in FIG. 1 and designated 100 . The device has an anode layer 110 , a buffer layer 120 , a photoactive layer 130 , and a cathode layer 150 . Adjacent to the cathode layer 150 is an optional electron-injection/transport layer 140 . Between the buffer layer 120 and the photoactive layer 130 , is an optional hole-injection/transport layer (not shown). As used herein, the term “buffer layer” or “buffer material” is intended to mean electrically conductive or semiconductive materials and may have one or more functions in an organic electronic device, including but not limited to, planarization of the underlying layer, charge transport and/or charge injection properties, scavenging of impurities such as oxygen or metal ions, and other aspects to facilitate or to improve the performance of the organic electronic device. Buffer materials may be polymers, oligomers, or small molecules, and may be in the form of solutions, dispersions, suspensions, emulsions, colloidal mixtures, or other compositions. The term “hole transport” when referring to a layer, material, member, or structure, is intended to mean such layer, material, member, or structure facilitates migration of positive charges through the thickness of such layer, material, member, or structure with relative efficiency and small loss of charge. The term “electron transport” when referring to a layer, material, member or structure, is intended to mean such a layer, material, member or structure that promotes or facilitates migration of negative charges through such a layer, material, member or structure into another layer, material, member or structure. The term “hole injection” when referring to a layer, material, member, or structure, is intended to mean such layer, material, member, or structure facilitates injection and migration of positive charges through the thickness of such layer, material, member, or structure with relative efficiency and small loss of charge. The term “electron injection” when referring to a layer, material, member, or structure, is intended to mean such layer, material, member, or structure facilitates injection and migration of negative charges through the thickness of such layer, material, member, or structure with relative efficiency and small loss of charge. The device may include a support or substrate (not shown) that can be adjacent to the anode layer 110 or the cathode layer 150 . Most frequently, the support is adjacent the anode layer 110 . The support can be flexible or rigid, organic or inorganic. Generally, glass or flexible organic films are used as a support. The anode layer 110 is an electrode that is more efficient for injecting holes compared to the cathode layer 150 . The anode can include materials containing a metal, mixed metal, alloy, metal oxide or mixed oxide. Suitable materials include the mixed oxides of the Group 2 elements (i.e., Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra), the Group 11 elements, the elements in Groups 4, 5, and 6, and the Group 8-10 transition elements. If the anode layer 110 is to be light transmitting, mixed oxides of Groups 12, 13 and 14 elements, such as indium-tin-oxide, may be used. As used herein, the phrase “mixed oxide” refers to oxides having two or more different cations selected from the Group 2 elements or the Groups 12, 13, or 14 elements. Some non-limiting, specific examples of materials for anode layer 110 include, but are not limited to, indium-tin-oxide (“ITO”), aluminum-tin-oxide, gold, silver, copper, and nickel. The anode may also comprise an organic material such as polyaniline, polythiophene, or polypyrrole. The IUPAC number system is used throughout, where the groups from the Periodic Table are numbered from left to right as 1-18 (CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 81 st Edition, 2000). In one embodiment, the buffer layer 120 comprises hole transport materials. Examples of hole transport materials for layer 120 have been summarized for example, in Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Fourth Edition, Vol. 18, p. 837-860, 1996, by Y. Wang. Both hole transporting molecules and polymers can be used. Commonly used hole transporting molecules include, but are not limited to: 4,4′,4″-tris(N,N-diphenyl-amino)-triphenylamine (TDATA); 4,4′,4″-tris(N-3-methylphenyl-N-phenyl-amino)-triphenylamine (MTDATA); N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4,4′-diamine (TPD); 1,1-bis[(di-4-tolylamino) phenyl]cyclohexane (TAPC); N,N′-bis(4-methylphenyl)-N,N′-bis(4-ethylphenyl)-[1,1′-(3,3′-dimethyl)biphenyl]-4,4′-diamine (ETPD); tetrakis-(3-methylphenyl)-N,N,N′,N′-2,5-phenylenediamine (PDA); α-phenyl-4-N,N-diphenylaminostyrene (TPS); p-(diethylamino)benzaldehyde diphenylhydrazone (DEH); triphenylamine (TPA); bis[4-(N,N-diethylamino)-2-methylphenyl](4-methylphenyl)methane (MPMP); 1-phenyl-3-[p-(diethylamino)styryl]-5-[p-(diethylamino)phenyl]pyrazoline (PPR or DEASP); 1,2-trans-bis(9H-carbazol-9-yl)cyclobutane (DCZB); N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis(4-methylphenyl)-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (TTB); N,N′-bis(naphthalen-1-yl)-N,N′-bis-(phenyl)benzidine (α-NPB); and porphyrinic compounds, such as copper phthalocyanine. Commonly used hole transporting polymers include, but are not limited to, poly(9,9,-dioctyl-fluorene-co-N-(4-butylphenyl)diphenylamine), and the like, polyvinylcarbazole, (phenylmethyl)polysilane, poly(dioxythiophenes), polyanilines, and polypyrroles. It is also possible to obtain hole transporting polymers by doping hole transporting molecules such as those mentioned above into polymers such as polystyrene and polycarbonate. The photoactive layer 130 may typically be any organic electroluminescent (“EL”) material, including, but not limited to, small molecule organic fluorescent compounds, fluorescent and phosphorescent metal complexes, conjugated polymers, and mixtures thereof. Examples of fluorescent compounds include, but are not limited to, pyrene, perylene, rubrene, coumarin, derivatives thereof, and mixtures thereof. Examples of metal complexes include, but are not limited to, metal chelated oxinoid compounds, such as tris(8-hydroxyquinolato)aluminum (Alq3); cyclometalated iridium and platinum electroluminescent compounds, such as complexes of iridium with phenylpyridine, phenylquinoline, or phenylpyrimidine ligands as disclosed in Petrov et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,645 and Published PCT Applications WO 03/063555 and WO 2004/016710, and organometallic complexes described in, for example, Published PCT Applications WO 03/008424, WO 03/091688, and WO 03/040257, and mixtures thereof. Electroluminescent emissive layers comprising a charge carrying host material and a metal complex have been described by Thompson et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,238, and by Burrows and Thompson in published PCT applications WO 00/70655 and WO 01/41512. Examples of conjugated polymers include, but are not limited to poly(phenylenevinylenes), polyfluorenes, poly(spirobifluorenes), polythiophenes, poly(p-phenylenes), copolymers thereof, and mixtures thereof. The particular material chosen may depend on the specific application, potentials used during operation, or other factors. The EL layer 130 containing the electroluminescent organic material can be applied using any number of techniques including vapor deposition, solution processing techniques or thermal transfer. In another embodiment, an EL polymer precursor can be applied and then converted to the polymer, typically by heat or other source of external energy (e.g., visible light or UV radiation). Optional layer 140 can function both to facilitate electron injection/transport, and can also serve as a confinement layer to prevent quenching reactions at layer interfaces. More specifically, layer 140 may promote electron mobility and reduce the likelihood of a quenching reaction if layers 130 and 150 would otherwise be in direct contact. Examples of materials for optional layer 140 include, but are not limited to, include metal chelated oxinoid compounds, such as tris(8-hydroxyquinolato)aluminum (Alq3), bis(2-methyl-8-quinolinolato)(para-phenyl-phenolato)aluminum(III) (BAIQ), and tetrakis-(8-hydroxyquinolinato)zirconium (IV) (ZrQ); and azole compounds such as 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(4-t-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD), 3-(4-biphenylyl)-4-phenyl-5-(4-t-butylphenyl)-1,2,4-triazole (TAZ), and 1,3,5-tri(phenyl-2-benzimidazole)benzene (TPBI); quinoxaline derivatives such as 2,3-bis(4-fluorophenyl)quinoxaline; phenanthrolines such as 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (DPA) and 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (DDPA); and mixtures thereof. Alternatively, optional layer 140 may be inorganic and comprise BaO, LiF, Li 2 O, or the like. The cathode layer 150 is an electrode that is particularly efficient for injecting electrons or negative charge carriers. The cathode layer 150 can be any metal or nonmetal having a lower work function than the first electrical contact layer (in this case, the anode layer 110 ). As used herein, the term “lower work function” is intended to mean a material having a work function no greater than about 4.4 eV. As used herein, “higher work function” is intended to mean a material having a work function of at least approximately 4.4 eV. Materials for the cathode layer can be selected from alkali metals of Group 1 (e.g., Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs,), the Group 2 metals (e.g., Mg, Ca, Ba, or the like), the Group 12 metals, the lanthanides (e.g., Ce, Sm, Eu, or the like), and the actinides (e.g., Th, U, or the like). Materials such as aluminum, indium, yttrium, and combinations thereof, may also be used. Specific non-limiting examples of materials for the cathode layer 150 include, but are not limited to, barium, lithium, cerium, cesium, europium, rubidium, yttrium, magnesium, samarium, and alloys and combinations thereof. In other embodiments, additional layer(s) may be present within organic electronic devices. For example, a layer (not shown) between the buffer layer 120 and the EL layer 130 may facilitate positive charge transport, band-gap matching of the layers, function as a protective layer, or the like. Similarly, additional layers (not shown) between the EL layer 130 and the cathode layer 150 may facilitate negative charge transport, band-gap matching between the layers, function as a protective layer, or the like. Layers that are known in the art can be used. In addition, any of the above-described layers can be made of two or more layers. Alternatively, some or all of inorganic anode layer 110 , the buffer layer 120 , the EL layer 130 , and cathode layer 150 , may be surface treated to increase charge carrier transport efficiency. The choice of materials for each of the component layers may be determined by balancing the goals of providing a device with high device efficiency with the cost of manufacturing, manufacturing complexities, or potentially other factors. The different layers may have any suitable thickness. In one embodiment, inorganic anode layer 110 is usually no greater than approximately 500 nm, for example, approximately 10-200 nm; buffer layer 120 , is usually no greater than approximately 250 nm, for example, approximately 50-200 nm; EL layer 130 , is usually no greater than approximately 100 nm, for example, approximately 50-80 nm; optional layer 140 is usually no greater than approximately 100 nm, for example, approximately 20-80 nm; and cathode layer 150 is usually no greater than approximately 100 nm, for example, approximately 1-50 nm. If the anode layer 110 or the cathode layer 150 needs to transmit at least some light, the thickness of such layer may not exceed approximately 100 nm. In organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), electrons and holes, injected from the cathode 150 and anode 110 layers, respectively, into the EL layer 130 , form negative and positively charged polar ions in the polymer. These polar ions migrate under the influence of the applied electric field, forming a polar ion exciton with an oppositely charged species and subsequently undergoing radiative recombination. A sufficient potential difference between the anode and cathode, usually less than approximately 12 volts, and in many instances no greater than approximately 5 volts, may be applied to the device. The actual potential difference may depend on the use of the device in a larger electronic component. In many embodiments, the anode layer 110 is biased to a positive voltage and the cathode layer 150 is at substantially ground potential or zero volts during the operation of the electronic device. A battery or other power source(s) may be electrically connected to the electronic device as part of a circuit but is not illustrated in FIG. 1 . FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a priming station 200 . A side view of a slot die coater 202 contains solution 204 fed to an edge 206 of the slot die coater 202 . A vacuum assist device (VAD) 208 is shown adjacent the slot die coater 202 , and the combination of slot die coater 202 and VAD 208 form coating assembly 210 . A priming roll 214 accepts solution 204 to provide a stable web of material prior to the step of coating a substrate (not shown). Sealing elements 212 work in conjunction with the coating assembly 210 to help provide a controlled atmosphere at the upstream side of the slot die coater 202 . The sealing elements 212 provide a controlled leakage where the VAD 208 approaches, but does not touch the surface of the priming roll 214 . FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a coating station 300 containing slot die coater 202 , VAD 208 and a substrate 302 . Sealing elements 212 (not shown) assist VAD 208 to establish a controlled atmosphere on the upstream portion of the die slot coater 202 , as a vacuum source (not shown) withdraws air from VAD 208 to create a reduced pressure region on the upstream side of a coating gap 304 . A liquid film 306 of solution 204 is applied to substrate 302 and subsequently dried to provide one of the organic layers illustrated in FIG. 1 . A slot-shaped opening can be used for one or more layers that may be blanket deposited over substrate 302 or a portion thereof (e.g., an array for the electronic device). In one embodiment, the slot has a width in a range of approximately 5 to 80 microns and a length substantially the same dimension or longer than the corresponding dimension of the substrate or the portion thereof printed using the slot die coater 202 . Such an embodiment can be useful for depositing a buffer layer, a charge-blocking layer, a charge-injection layer, a charge-transport layer, or a combination thereof. FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a cleaning station 400 containing the slot die coater 202 , VAD 208 , sealing elements 212 and a solvent spray 402 to remove any contaminants from the slot die coater 202 . In the cleaning station 400 the VAD 208 can remain in place with the slot die coater 202 , as shown in FIG. 4 ., with vacuum to the VAD 208 turned off during the cleaning operation. Alternatively, the VAD 208 can be moved away (not shown) from the slot die coater 202 when located within the cleaning station 400 . After the cleaning operation a reverse flow of gas (air, nitrogen, etc.) can be sent through the VAD 208 to remove any residual cleaning solvent. A traversing device (not shown) can be used to transfer the coating assembly 210 between priming station 200 , coating station 300 and cleaning station 400 . In one embodiment not shown in FIG. 3 , a process for forming an electronic device includes placing the substrate 302 onto a chuck (not shown), and printing the layer 306 onto the substrate 302 and at least one exposed portion of the chuck. The chuck supports, holds, or retains the substrate 302 . The substrate 302 can be held in place by clamps or pins, by one or more adhesive films, by vacuum, electrostatically, or any combination thereof. Several variables are used in the coating process to improve yields and final performance of the electronic device. A coating gap of 50-200 μm, a coating velocity of 50-200 mm/s, flow rate 5-600 μl/s, offset from coating height 0-150 μm (gap setting to form a bead), delay 1 of 0.1-10.0 s (dwell time at offset from the coat height) and delay 2 of (0.1-10.0 s (dwell time at the coating gap to stretch and stabilize the bead before coating). A solids content of 0.10-15%, viscosity of 1-100 cp, and a surface tension of 20-72 dynes/cm for the liquid solution 204 . In a further embodiment, the liquid solution 204 has a viscosity no greater than 50 centipoise. In still a further embodiment, the liquid solution includes a liquid medium, wherein the liquid medium includes at least two solvents. In yet a further embodiment, at least one of the solvents is water. Additional equipment may reside within or be used with the slot die coater 202 , including containers and feed lines fluidly coupled to the slot die coater 202 to accommodate any number of constituents to form the solution 204 . Other equipment can include any one or more stepper motors, pumps, filters, air handling equipment, control electronics, other electrical, mechanical, or electro-mechanical assemblies or subassemblies, facilities connections, or any combination thereof. During the coating operation, the pressure within the slot die coater 202 can be in a range of approximately 10 to 350 KPa. The flow rate of solution 204 from the slot die coater 202 can be in a range of 5 to 600 microliters per minute. In other embodiments, a higher or lower pressure, a higher or lower flow rate, or any combination thereof can also be used. After reading the specification, skilled artisans will be able to adjust or modify the priming and coating operations, 200 and 300 respectively, to achieve pressures and flow rates for their particular applications. The coating station 200 can be adjusted to allow a much greater range in distance between the substrate 302 and the edge 206 of the slot die coater 202 . While an actual upper limit is unknown, in one embodiment, the distance between the substrate 302 and the edge 206 does not exceed approximately 2.0 mm. At distances greater than approximately 2 mm the liquid stream coming from the slot die coater 202 may start to diverge before reaching the substrate 302 . When working with small dimensions (e.g., no greater than 50 microns), such divergence may be unacceptable. In still other embodiments, other distances may be used, such as at least 11 microns, or no greater than 0.9 mm. After reading this specification, skilled artisans will appreciate that many other distances between the edge 206 and the substrate 302 can be used and tailored to specific applications and dimensions of electronic components within or on the substrate 302 . 3. Liquid Compositions The coating station 200 can be used to deposit a variety of different materials, including liquid solutions. The following paragraphs include only some but not all of the materials that may be used. In one embodiment, one or more materials for an organic or inorganic layer within an electronic device are formed using the coating station 200 . The coating station 200 is well suited for printing liquid compositions. The coating station 200 allows a wider range of operating parameters and liquid compositions to be used compared to a conventional ink-jet printer. In one embodiment, one or more parameters can affect the flow characteristics of the liquid composition. Viscosity is a parameter that can affect the flow characteristics. The viscosity can be affected by selection of the liquid medium, the solids content within the liquid medium, temperature of the liquid composition, or potentially one or more other factors, or any combination thereof. Viscosity can be affected directly by temperature (viscosity of the liquid medium increases with decreasing temperature or decreases with increasing temperature) or indirectly by changing the evaporation rate of the liquid medium within the liquid composition (i.e., using liquid medium having lower or higher boiling points, changing the temperature of the liquid composition, or a combination thereof). After reading this specification, skilled artisans will appreciate that they have many different ways to allow a significantly larger selection of liquid medium, a larger range of solids concentration of the liquid composition to be used, or a combination thereof. The liquid solution 204 can be in the form of a solution, dispersion, emulsion, or suspension. In the paragraphs that follow, non-limiting examples of solid materials and liquid medium are given. The solid material(s) can be selected upon the electronic or electro-radiative properties for a subsequently-formed layer. The liquid medium can be selected based on criteria described later in this specification. When using the coating station 200 , the liquid composition may have solid(s) greater than approximately 0.1 weight percent without having to worry about clogging. In one embodiment, the solid(s) content is in a range of approximately 2.0 to 3.0 weight percent. Therefore, the coating station 200 can use a liquid composition having a higher viscosity or lower boiling point compared to a conventional ink-jet printer. Further, the coating station 200 can use a liquid composition having a lower viscosity or higher boiling point compared to a conventional ink-jet printer. Additionally, the liquid medium within a liquid composition does not need to be degassed before printing. For example, a conventional ink-jet printer used for dispensing a conductive organic material within an aqueous solution requires the aqueous solvent to be degassed. However, because coating station 200 allows for more processing margin, degassing of a liquid medium is not required for the proper operation of the coating station 200 . An organic layer printed using the coating station 200 can include an organic active layer, (e.g., a radiation-emitting organic active layer or a radiation-responsive organic active layer), filter layer, buffer layer, charge-injecting layer, charge-transport layer, charge-blocking layer, or any combination thereof. The organic layer may be used as part of a resistor, transistor, capacitor, diode, etc. For a radiation-emitting organic active layer, suitable radiation-emitting materials include one or more small molecule materials, one or more polymeric materials, or a combination thereof. A small molecule material may include any one or more of those described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,429 (“Tang”); U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,507 (“Van Slyke”); U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0121638 (“Grushin”); or U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,199 (“Kido”). Alternatively, a polymeric material may include any one or more of those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,190 (“Friend”); U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,109 (“Heeger”); or U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,169 (“Nakano”). An exemplary material is a semiconducting conjugated polymer. An example of such a polymer includes poly(paraphenylenevinylene) (PPV), a PPV copolymer, a polyfluorene, a polyphenylene, a polyacetylene, a polyalkylthiophene, poly(n-vinylcarbazole) (PVK), or the like. In one specific embodiment, a radiation-emitting active layer without any guest material may emit blue light. For a radiation-responsive organic active layer, a suitable radiation-responsive material may include a conjugated polymer or an electroluminescent material. Such a material includes, for example, a conjugated polymer or an electro- and photo-luminescent material. A specific example includes poly(2-methoxy,5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene) (“MEH-PPV”) or a MEH-PPV composite with CN-PPV. For a hole-injecting layer, hole-transport layer, electron-blocking layer, or any combination thereof, a suitable material includes polyaniline (“PANI”), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (“PEDOT”), polypyrrole, an organic charge transfer compound, such as tetrathiafulvalene tetracyanoquinodimethane (“TTF-TCQN”), a hole-transport material as described in Kido, or any combination thereof. For an electron-injecting layer, electron transport layer, hole-blocking layer, or any combination thereof, a suitable material includes a metal-chelated oxinoid compound (e.g., Alq 3 or aluminum(III)bis(2-methyl-8-quinolinato)4-phenylphenolate (“BAlq”)); a phenanthroline-based compound (e.g., 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (“DDPA”) or 9,10-diphenylanthracene (“DPA”)); an azole compound (e.g., 2-tert-butylphenyl-5-biphenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (“PBD”) or 3-(4-biphenyl)-4-phenyl-5-(4-t-butylphenyl)-1,2,4-triazole (“TAZ”); an electron transport material as described in Kido; a diphenylanthracene derivative; a dinaphthylanthracene derivative; 4,4-bis(2,2-diphenyl-ethen-1-yl)-biphenyl (“DPVBI”); 9,10-di-beta-naphthylanthracene; 9,10-di-(naphenthyl)anthracene; 9,10-di-(2-naphthyl)anthracene (“ADN”); 4,4′-bis(carbazol-9-yl)biphenyl (“CBP”); 9,10-bis-[4-(2,2-diphenylvinyl)-phenyl]-anthracene (“BDPVPA”); anthracene, N-arylbenzimidazoles (such as “TPBI”); 1,4-bis[2-(9-ethyl-3-carbazoyl)vinylenyl]benzene; 4,4′-bis[2-(9-ethyl-3-carbazoyl)vinylenyl]-1,1′-biphenyl; 9,10-bis[2,2-(9,9-fluorenylene)vinylenyl]anthracene; 1,4-bis[2,2-(9,9-fluorenylene)vinylenyl]benzene; 4,4′-bis[2,2-(9,9-fluorenylene)vinylenyl]-1,1′-biphenyl; perylene, substituted perylenes; tetra-tert-butylperylene (“TBPe”); bis(3,5-difluoro-2-(2-pyridyl)phenyl-(2-carboxypyridyl) iridium III (“F(Ir)Pic”); a pyrene, a substituted pyrene; a styrylamine; a fluorinated phenylene; oxidazole; 1,8-naphthalimide; a polyquinoline; one or more carbon nanotubes within PPV; or any combination thereof. For an electronic component, such as a resistor, transistor, capacitor, etc., the organic layer may include one or more of thiophenes (e.g., polythiophene, poly(alkylthiophene), alkylthiophene, bis(dithienthiophene), alkylanthradithiophene, etc.), polyacetylene, pentacene, phthalocyanine, or any combination thereof. Examples of an organic dye include 4-dicyanmethylene-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethyaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM), coumarin, pyrene, perylene, rubrene, a derivative thereof, or any combination thereof. Examples of an organometallic material include a functionalized polymer comprising one or more functional groups coordinated to at least one metal. An exemplary functional group contemplated for use includes a carboxylic acid, a carboxylic acid salt, a sulfonic acid group, a sulfonic acid salt, a group having an OH moiety, an amine, an imine, a diimine, an N-oxide, a phosphine, a phosphine oxide, a β-dicarbonyl group, or any combination thereof. An exemplary metal contemplated for use includes a lanthanide metal (e.g., Eu, Tb), a Group 7 metal (e.g., Re), a Group 8 metal (e.g., Ru, Os), a Group 9 metal (e.g., Rh, Ir), a Group 10 metal (e.g., Pd, Pt), a Group 11 metal (e.g., Au), a Group 12 metal (e.g., Zn), a Group 13 metal (e.g., Al), or any combination thereof. Such an organometallic material includes a metal chelated oxinoid compound, such as tris(8-hydroxyquinolato)aluminum (Alq 3 ); a cyclometalated iridium or platinum electroluminescent compound, such as a complex of iridium with phenylpyridine, phenylquinoline, or phenylpyrimidine ligands as disclosed in published PCT Application WO 02/02714, an organometallic complex described in, for example, published applications US 2001/0019782, EP 1191612, WO 02/15645, WO 02/31896, and EP 1191614; or any mixture thereof. An examples of a conjugated polymer includes a poly(phenylenevinylene), a polyfluorene, a poly(spirobifluorene), a copolymer thereof, or any combination thereof. Selecting a liquid medium can also be an important factor for achieving one or more proper characteristics of the liquid composition. A factor to be considered when choosing a liquid medium includes, for example, viscosity of the resulting solution, emulsion, suspension, or dispersion, molecular weight of a polymeric material, solids loading, type of liquid medium, boiling point of the liquid medium, temperature of an underlying substrate, thickness of an organic layer that receives a guest material, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the liquid medium includes at least one solvent. An exemplary organic solvent includes a halogenated solvent, a hydrocarbon solvent, an aromatic hydrocarbon solvent, an ether solvent, a cyclic ether solvent, an alcohol solvent, a glycol solvent, a glycol ether solvent, an ester or diester solvent, a glycol ether ester solvent, a ketone solvent, a nitrile solvent, a sulfoxide solvent, an amide solvent, or any combination thereof. An exemplary halogenated solvent includes carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride, chloroform, tetrachloroethylene, chlorobenzene, bis(2-chloroethyl)ether, chloromethyl ethyl ether, chloromethyl methyl ether, 2-chloroethyl ethyl ether, 2-chloroethyl propyl ether, 2-chloroethyl methyl ether, or any combination thereof. An exemplary colloidal-forming polymeric acid includes a fluorinated sulfonic acid (e.g., fluorinated alkylsulfonic acid, such as perfluorinated ethylenesulfonic acid) or any combinations thereof. An exemplary hydrocarbon solvent includes pentane, hexane, cyclohexane, heptane, octane, decahydronaphthalene, a petroleum ether, ligroine, or any combination thereof. An exemplary aromatic hydrocarbon solvent includes benzene, naphthalene, toluene, xylene, ethyl benzene, cumene (iso-propyl benzene) mesitylene (trimethyl benzene), ethyl toluene, butyl benzene, cymene (iso-propyl toluene), diethylbenzene, iso-butyl benzene, tetramethyl benzene, sec-butyl benzene, tert-butyl benzene, anisole, 4-methylanisole, 3,4-dimethylanisole, or any combination thereof. An exemplary ether solvent includes diethyl ether, ethyl propyl ether, dipropyl ether, diisopropyl ether, dibutyl ether, methyl t-butyl ether, glyme, diglyme, benzyl methyl ether, isochroman, 2-phenylethyl methyl ether, n-butyl ethyl ether, 1,2-diethoxyethane, sec-butyl ether, diisobutyl ether, ethyl n-propyl ether, ethyl isopropyl ether, n-hexyl methyl ether, n-butyl methyl ether, methyl n-propyl ether, or any combination thereof. An exemplary cyclic ether solvent includes tetrahydrofuran, dioxane, tetrahydropyran, 4 methyl-1,3-dioxane, 4-phenyl-1,3-dioxane, 1,3-dioxolane, 2-methyl-1,3-dioxolane, 1,4-dioxane, 1,3-dioxane, 2,5-dimethoxytetrahydrofuran, 2,5-dimethoxy-2,5-dihydrofuran, or any combination thereof. An exemplary alcohol solvent includes methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, 1-butanol, 2-butanol, 2-methyl-1-propanol (i.e., iso-butanol), 2-methyl-2-propanol (i.e., tert-butanol), 1-pentanol, 2-pentanol, 3-pentanol, 2,2-dimethyl-1-propanol, 1-hexanol, cyclopentanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-2-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 2,2-dimethyl-1-propanol, 3-hexanol, 2-hexanol, 4-methyl-2-pentanol, 2-methyl-1-pentanol, 2-ethylbutanol, 2,4-dimethyl-3-pentanol, 3-heptanol, 4-heptanol, 2-heptanol, 1-heptanol, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 2,6-dimethyl-4-heptanol, 2-methylcyclohexanol, 3-methylcyclohexanol, 4-methylcyclohexanol, or any combination thereof. A glycol ether solvent may also be employed. An exemplary glycol ether solvent includes 1-methoxy-2-propanol, 2-methoxyethanol, 2-ethoxyethanol, 1-methoxy-2-butanol, ethylene glycol monoisopropyl ether, 1-ethoxy-2-propanol, 3-methoxy-1-butanol, ethylene glycol monoisobutyl ether, ethylene glycol mono-n-butyl ether, 3-methoxy-3-methylbutanol, ethylene glycol mono-tert-butyl ether, propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME), dipropylene glycol monomethyl ether (DPGME), or any combination thereof. An exemplary glycol solvent includes ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, or any combination thereof. An exemplary glycol ether ester solvent includes propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (PGMEA). An exemplary ketone solvent includes acetone, methylethyl ketone, methyl iso-butyl ketone, cyclohexanone, isopropyl methyl ketone, 2-pentanone, 3-pentanone, 3-hexanone, diisopropyl ketone, 2-hexanone, cyclopentanone, 4-heptanone, iso-amyl methyl ketone, 3-heptanone, 2-heptanone, 4-methoxy-4-methyl-2-pentanone, 5-methyl-3-heptanone, 2-methylcyclohexanone, diisobutyl ketone, 5-methyl-2-octanone, 3-methylcyclohexanone, 2-cyclohexen-1-one, 4-methylcyclohexanone, cycloheptanone, 4-tert-butylcyclohexanone, isophorone, benzyl acetone, or any combination thereof. An exemplary nitrile solvent includes acetonitrile, acrylonitrile, trichloroacetonitrile, propionitrile, pivalonitrile, isobutyronitrile, n-butyronitrile, methoxyacetonitrile, 2-methylbutyronitrile, isovaleronitrile, N-valeronitrile, n-capronitrile, 3-methoxypropionitrile, 3-ethoxypropionitrile, 3,3′-oxydipropionitrile, n-heptanenitrile, glycolonitrile, benzonitrile, ethylene cyanohydrin, succinonitrile, acetone cyanohydrin, 3-n-butoxypropionitrile, or any combination thereof. An exemplary sulfoxide solvent includes dimethyl sulfoxide, di-n-butyl sulfoxide, tetramethylene sulfoxide, methyl phenyl sulfoxide, or any combinations thereof. An exemplary amide solvent includes dimethyl formamide, dimethyl acetamide, acylamide, 2-acetamidoethanol, N,N-dimethyl-m-toluamide, trifluoroacetamide, N,N-dimethylacetamide, N,N-diethyldodecanamide, epsilon-caprolactam, N,N-diethylacetamide, N-tert-butylformamide, formamide, pivalamide, N-butyramide, N,N-dimethylacetoacetamide, N-methyl formamide, N,N-diethylformamide, N-formylethylamine, acetamide, N,N-diisopropylformamide, 1-formylpiperidine, N-methylformanilide, or any combinations thereof. A crown ether contemplated includes any one or more crown ethers that can function to assist in the reduction of the chloride content of an epoxy compound starting material as part of the combination being treated according to the invention. An exemplary crown ether includes benzo-15-crown-5; benzo-18-crown-6; 12-crown-4; 15-crown-5; 18-crown-6; cyclohexano-15-crown-5; 4′,4″(5″)-ditert-butyldibenzo-18-crown-6; 4′,4″(5″)-ditert-butyldicyclohexano-18-crown-6; dicyclohexano-18-crown-6; dicyclohexano-24-crown-8; 4′-aminobenzo-15-crown-5; 4′-aminobenzo-18-crown-6; 2-(aminomethyl)-15-crown-5; 2-(aminomethyl)-18-crown-6; 4′-amino-5′-nitrobenzo-15-crown-5; 1-aza-12-crown-4; 1-aza-15-crown-5; 1-aza-18-crown-6; benzo-12-crown-4; benzo-15-crown-5; benzo-18-crown-6; bis((benzo-15-crown-5)-15-ylmethyl)pimelate; 4-bromobenzo-18-crown-6; (+)-(18-crown-6)-2,3,11,12-tetra-carboxylic acid; dibenzo-18-crown-6; dibenzo-24-crown-8; dibenzo-30-crown-10; ar-ar′-di-tert-butyldibenzo-18-crown-6; 4′-formylbenzo-15-crown-5; 2-(hydroxymethyl)-12-crown-4; 2-(hydroxymethyl)-15-crown-5; 2-(hydroxymethyl)-18-crown-6; 4′-nitrobenzo-15-crown-5; poly-[(dibenzo-18-crown-6)-co-formaldehyde]; 1,1-dimethylsila-11-crown-4; 1,1-dimethylsila-14-crown-5; 1,1-dimethylsila-17-crown-5; cyclam; 1,4,10,13-tetrathia-7,16-diazacyclooctadecane; porphines; or any combination thereof. In another embodiment, the liquid medium includes water. A conductive polymer complexed with a water-insoluble colloid-forming polymeric acid can be deposited over a substrate and used as a charge-transport layer. Many different classes of liquid medium (e.g., halogenated solvents, hydrocarbon solvents, aromatic hydrocarbon solvents, water, etc.) are described above. Mixtures of more than one of the liquid medium from different classes may also be used. The liquid composition may also include an inert material, such as a binder material, a filler material, or a combination thereof. With respect to the liquid composition, an inert material does not significantly affect the electronic, radiation emitting, or radiation responding properties of a layer that is formed by or receives at least a portion of the liquid composition. It is to be appreciated that certain features of the invention which are for clarity, described above in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention that are, for brevity described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any subcombination. Further, reference to values stated in ranges include each and every value within that range.

An apparatus and method for solution coating layers onto a substrate of an electronic device. A slot die coater in conjunction with a vacuum assist device is used in priming, coating and cleaning stations to produce thin layers having performance advantages over competing technologies.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention is concerned with the use of scopes in low-light conditions. More particularly, scopes in accordance with the present invention utilize a reticle to aid in range-finding and aiming of the scope or an object attached to the scope. Still more particularly, the present invention concerns illuminating the reticle such that the scope maybe utilized in low-light conditions without sacrificing the utility of the reticle. Even more particularly, the present invention involves the use of photoluminescent material to aid in the illumination of the reticle. The photoluminescent material may be deposited directly on the reticle or in an area adjacent the reticle such that ambient light from the photoluminescent material illuminates the reticle. When deposited directly on the reticle, the photoluminescent material may be found on only a portion of the reticle as an enhanced sighting marker such as the center of a cross-hair or may be used on the entire reticle. [0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art [0004] Scopes utilizing reticles as sighting markers have been in use for many years. Because the reticle is located within the housing of the scope, the usefulness of prior art reticles is decreased in low-light conditions. This loss of utility is a result of the lack of light illuminating the reticle and making it visible to the person looking through the scope. Such a deficiency makes the aiming of scopes more difficult in low-light conditions as the reticle as a sighting marker cannot be differentiated from the object being observed through the scope. In the case of hunters using riflescopes having reticles, this problem makes hunting in low-light conditions difficult due to the lack of precision resulting from a reticle which is undifferentiated from the hunted animal and surrounding background. [0005] There have been many attempts to overcome this problem but all solutions of the prior art suffer various deficiencies. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,171, to Dudney provides a cross-hair illuminator which uses a lamp powered by a battery which transmits light through a fiber optic cable onto the reticle. Such a solution requires the use of batteries which suffer from dramatically reduced output and life in low temperature conditions. Furthermore, the battery may become exhausted prior to the end of the a hunt, thereby requiring either replacement of the battery during which time potential sighted objects may move out of range, or loss of the advantage provided by an illuminated reticle. Another example is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,035 to Stiles which illuminates the reticle using a chemically illuminated reticle sight. Light from a chemical illumination device is used to create a reticle image which is highly visible in low-light conditions. Such an invention suffers from the short life of the light produced by the chemicals. As a result, replacement chemicals must be available for use in case the light fades or disappears. Another solution to this problem has been the incorporation of radioactive materials to illuminate the reticle. Such a solution obviously requires special handling techniques and presents difficult manufacturing problems. Other solutions to this problem include using illumination sources which either illuminate the sighted object or illuminate an area around the scope. Each of these solutions is undesirable in that either the sighted object becomes aware of the illuminated area or the hunter's position is given away by the light, thereby reducing the possibility of approaching the sighted object without being detected. [0006] Accordingly, what is needed is an illuminated reticle which does not require electrical current or light sources which need to be replaced. What is further needed is an illuminated reticle which does not illuminate the sighted object or an area around the scope. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The present invention overcomes the problems outlined above and provides a unique advance in the state of the art. Briefly, the present invention utilizes photoluminescent material to illuminate a reticle such that the scope containing the reticle can be used in low-light conditions. Using photoluminescent material is advantageous over other methods of illuminating reticles in that photoluminescent material does not need to be replaced in order to become recharged, does not require electrical current, does not illuminate the sighted object, and does not illuminate an area around the scope. By having an illuminated reticle, animals or objects which are active in the early morning or the late evening are more visible and the user of such a scope will be able to focus their vision more quickly and accurately than was heretofore possible. [0008] In one aspect of the present invention, a quantity of photoluminescent material is deposited on the reticle. The photoluminescent material may be deposited on only a portion of the reticle or it may substantially cover the reticle. The photoluminescent material may be in granular form, in a paint or dye, incorporated in tape, or any combination of these forms. It is preferred that the particle size of the photoluminescent material be less than about 30 μm. Such a small particle size permits the photoluminescent material to have sharply defined edges when incorporated into a paint or dye. More preferably, the particle size is between about 2 μm and 20 μm. Still more preferably, the average particle size is between about 5 μm and 10 μm. [0009] When the photoluminescent material is deposited on the reticle, the light emitted from the material illuminates the reticle so that it can be seen and used in low-light situations. Depositing the photoluminescent material can be accomplished using many different conventional methods including dipping, airbrushing, standard paint brushing, powder coating, vacuum deposition, sputtering, gluing, various photolithographic processes, and combinations of all of these methods. The material deposited on the reticle may be in any shape or may be directly incorporated into reticle or even used as the reticle itself. When not used as the reticle, the photoluminescent material may be deposited on any portion of the reticle or in an area adjacent the reticle which does not interfere with the view through the scope but which still allows light emitted from the material to illuminate the reticle. For example, the photoluminescent material may be placed in sufficient quantity around the edge of the reticle and the light emitted illuminates the reticle. Alternatively, the photoluminescent material may be used as an enhanced sighting marker by being deposited on a portion of the reticle. For example, in a conventional cross-hair sighting marker, any portion of the cross-hairs may comprise photoluminescent material which will illuminate the reticle. For example, the reticle may comprise a conventional cross-hair pattern and the center of the cross hair may comprise or have photoluminescent material deposited thereon, thereby providing an enhanced sighting marker on the reticle. Thus, the reticle may comprise a first line intersected by a second line and oriented such that the first line is perpendicular to the second line and any portion of these lines may include photoluminescent material. Such is also true for the circumscribing ring which is commonly used to encircle the crosshair region of a reticle. Alternatively, the photoluminescent portion may comprise a dot of photoluminescent material on the reticle. [0010] In some forms, the photoluminescent material will be included as the reticle itself. For example, fine strips of photoluminescent material may be used to construct the reticle. Alternatively, when the reticle is located on another object such as a plate of optical material, the photoluminescent material may be deposited onto the reticle or comprise the reticle, as described above. [0011] In another aspect of the invention, a riflescope having enhanced utility in low light conditions is provided. Generally, the riflescope will comprise a tubular housing having an interior and an exterior and two opposed ends. One end of the housing will have an eyepiece and the other end will have an objective lens. A reticle will be located in the interior of the housing between the two opposed ends and photoluminescent material will be deposited on the interior of the housing in order to illuminate the reticle. Preferably, the photoluminescent material is located adjacent to the reticle in order to aid in its illumination. In some forms, the photoluminescent material is placed on the interior of the housing in a ring shape in order to provide the reticle with even levels of light about the entire reticle. Such a ring shape may circumscribe the interior of the housing as an uninterrupted coat of photoluminescent material or may be in the form of a broken series of lines of photoluminescent material to provide a ring comprised of dash shapes. [0012] In another aspect of the present invention, the photoluminescent material is located away from the interior of the housing of a scope, remote from the reticle, and the light emitted from the photoluminescent material is transmitted to the reticle via a light-transmitting pipe. One preferred example of a light-transmitting pipe is fiber optic cable. In this form of the invention, a scope will include a quantity of photoluminescent material on the housing of the scope and the pipe will transmit the light from the material to the interior of the scope housing wherein the light will be cast onto the reticle. Another form of this embodiment will have the light-transmitting pipe terminate adjacent the edge of a plate of optical material. Preferably, there will be two pipes leading from the photoluminescent material to the plate of optical material and these two pipes will have their light-transmitting end terminate at the edge of the plate and be oriented at 90° angles relative to each other. The plate of optical material will have an etched portion which allows light emitted from the pipe and into the plate to escape from the etched out portion of the plate and escape. The escaping light serves as an illuminated reticle and provides a reticle identical in shape to the etched out portion. Preferably, the plate of optical material will also include an anti-reflective layer and a protective layer thereon which will both be etched out during the etching process. In another embodiment using a light transmitting pipe optically connected to a quantity of photoluminescent material, the pipe is secured to the reticle and the end of the pipe which emits light is positioned on the reticle and aimed so that it serves as the illuminated reticle. That is to say, the end of the pipe emitting light is aimed toward the eyepiece end of the scope such that a user of the scope can see the emitted light and it serves as the reticle. [0013] When the photoluminescent material is located remote from the reticle, it may be contained in a receptacle located on the housing of a scope. Preferably, the receptacle will have a removable cap and in some preferred embodiments, the cap will have the photoluminescent material therein. In other forms of the invention, the photoluminescent material will be removably placed in the receptacle. Regardless of the particular structure, the photoluminescent material will be transmitted from a location remote from the reticle to a location either adjacent to or on the reticle. [0014] Scopes useful with the present invention are any scopes which utilize a reticle. Such scopes include riflescopes, telescopes, spotting scopes, binoculars, and the like. When the form of the invention using light transmitted via a light-transmitting pipe optically connected with photoluminescent is used in conjunction with rifles, the photoluminescent material may be located on the housing of the scope or may be on the rifle to which the scope is connected. [0015] In use, the photoluminescent material of the present invention is activated by exposing the material to a light source. This exposure can be either direct exposure or indirect exposure. Once the material is activated, it will emit a quantity of light for a period of time related to the amount of activation or charging. It is this emitted light which is used to illuminate reticles in scopes, thereby increasing their utility in low-light conditions. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0016] [0016]FIG. 1 is an illustration of a riflescope in accordance with the present invention; [0017] [0017]FIG. 2 is an illustration of a circle-x reticle having a quantity of photoluminescent material thereon; [0018] [0018]FIG. 3 is an illustration of a mil-dot reticle having a quantity of photoluminescent material thereon; [0019] [0019]FIG. 4 is an illustration of a multiplex reticle having a quantity of photoluminescent material thereon; [0020] [0020]FIG. 5 is an illustration of a low light reticle having a quantity of photoluminescent material thereon; [0021] [0021]FIG. 6 is an illustration of a low light reticle having a center dot with a quantity of photoluminescent material thereon; [0022] [0022]FIG. 7 is an illustration of a reticle inside the housing of a scope that is illuminated by a band of photoluminescent material adjacent the reticle; [0023] [0023]FIG. 8 is an illustration of a reticle inside the housing of a scope that is illuminated by a broken band of photoluminescent material adjacent the reticle; [0024] [0024]FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a reticle in a reticle housing having a layer of photoluminescent material thereon; [0025] [0025]FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a disc of optical material having an etched out reticle pattern in the center thereof and two light sources on the periphery thereof; [0026] [0026]FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view through the center of FIG. 12 illustrating the etched out portion; [0027] [0027]FIG. 12 is a cross sectional view of the eyepiece end of a scope illustrating a quantity of photoluminescent material located remote from the reticle; and [0028] [0028]FIG. 13 is a view of a reticle having an illuminated center dot wherein the dot is illuminated by being at the end of a light transmitting pipe. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0029] The following description sets forth preferred embodiments of the present invention. It is to be understood, however, that these embodiments are provided by way of illustration and nothing therein should be taken as a limitation upon the overall scope of the invention. [0030] Turning now to the drawing figures, FIG. 1 illustrates a riflescope 10 in accordance with the present invention. The scope 10 presents an elongated tubular housing 12 having a first end 14 and an opposed second end 16 . First end 14 terminates at eyepiece 18 which includes a first eyepiece lens 19 and a second eyepiece lens 20 . Second end 16 terminates at objective lens 22 which is also located within housing 12 . There are also three erector lenses 24 , 26 , 28 located within housing 12 between first end 14 and second end 16 . Reticle 30 is located within housing 12 between first end 14 and erector lens 24 . This places reticle 30 in the second focal plane of the riflescope 10 . However, reticle 30 may also be located in the first focal plane (between lens 26 and 22 ) either alone or together with another reticle in the second focal plane. Located on housing 12 are covers for the windage adjusting screw 32 and the elevation adjusting screw 34 . [0031] In accordance with the present invention, reticle 30 will comprise a quantity of photoluminescent material on cross-hairs 36 , 38 , thereby providing an illuminated reticle which will provide greater utility under low light conditions. This photoluminescent material may be located at any position on either cross-hair 36 , 38 . Alternatively, either one or both cross-hairs may have photoluminescent material deposited thereon or the intersection 40 of the cross-hairs 36 , 38 may be the only point at which there is photoluminescent material. [0032] FIGS. 2 - 6 illustrate some of the potential reticle embodiments that are possible with the present invention. As shown by the wide variety of applications possible in accordance with the present invention, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the construction of the reticle, the orientation of the sighting markers of a reticle, and the placement of photoluminescent material on or around a reticle is a matter of choice. [0033] [0033]FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional circle-x reticle 30 a . Reticle 30 a presents four wide band cross-hairs 42 a , 42 b , 42 c , 42 d encircled by a circumscribing ring 44 . Crosshairs 42 a , 42 b , 42 c , 42 d each present a first end 46 adjacent ring 44 and a second end 48 which terminates at interior ring 50 which circumscribes two thin band cross hairs 52 , 54 which are oriented perpendicularly to each other. In this embodiment, ring 50 and cross-hairs 52 , 54 have a quantity of photoluminescent material deposited thereon which illuminates the center of the reticle, thereby providing an enhanced sighting marker at the center of the reticle which is useful in low-light conditions. The photoluminescent material could be deposited on ring 50 and cross-hairs 52 , 54 using any conventional process including painting, dipping, airbrushing, standard brushing, powder coating, vacuum deposition, sputtering, gluing, or even be used as the reticle itself. Of course, the reticle can be formed of any material which could be used as a reticle such as thin pieces of metal wire, spider webs, or even thin film alloys such as a nickel alloy. Some of these materials use a photolithographic process to etch a reticle pattern out of the material and this etched out pattern may be applied to a plate of optical material and subsequently covered with a protective coating and/or an antireflective (AR) coating. In another alternative embodiment, a thin sheet of photoluminescent material is shaped into a reticle pattern by cutting or etching and the entire reticle would then comprise photoluminescent material. [0034] [0034]FIG. 3 illustrates another reticle 30 b , commonly known as a mil-dot reticle which includes wide-band cross-hairs 42 a , 42 b , 42 c , 42 d which extend from reticle ring 44 to cross-hairs 52 , 54 . These wide-band cross-hairs have a tapered second end 48 eventually leading to cross-hairs 52 , 54 which have a plurality of dots 56 comprising photoluminescent material. These dots 56 aid in directing a user's eye to the center of the reticle 30 b and the photoluminescent material increases visibility of reticle 30 b in low-light conditions. Dots 56 may be applied or deposited to cross-hairs 52 , 54 as described above. [0035] [0035]FIG. 4 illustrates a multiplex reticle 30 c in accordance with the present invention. Reticle 30 c includes circumscribing ring 44 , wide-band cross-hairs 42 a , 42 b , 42 c , 42 d which taper into thin cross-hairs 52 , 54 . In this embodiment, ring 44 includes the photoluminescent material which emits enough light to illuminate the reticle. Typically, reticles similar to reticle 30 c are made via conventional photolithographic processes on thin film nickel alloy. Again, the photoluminescent material may be applied or deposited to ring 44 as described above. [0036] [0036]FIG. 5 illustrates one version of a low-light reticle 30 d . This reticle includes ring 44 , wide-band cross-hairs 42 a , 42 b , 42 c , 42 d , and thin cross-hairs 52 , 54 . The first end 46 of the wide-band cross-hairs terminates in ring 44 while second end 48 includes narrow portion 58 at the end thereof. Thin cross-hairs 52 , 54 extend from portion 58 , intersecting at the center of reticle 30 d . Photoluminescent material is applied to, deposited on, or comprises wide-band cross-hairs 42 a , 42 b , 42 c , 42 d and thin crosshairs 52 , 54 such that both of these sighting markers emits light after being charged with either ambient light or directed light. [0037] [0037]FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 5, however, there is a quantity of photoluminescent material at the intersection of thin cross-hairs 52 , 54 in the form of a center dot 60 . Because the center dot 60 comprises photoluminescent material, the visibility at this center of aim is increased in low-light conditions. [0038] [0038]FIG. 7 illustrates another embodiment in accordance with the present invention wherein a cut-away version of eyepiece 18 is shown without eyepiece lenses 18 , 19 . Eyepiece 18 includes housing 62 having an interior surface 64 and an exterior surface 66 . Reticle 30 is secured inside housing 68 and comprises first wire 70 oriented perpendicularly to second wire 72 . The interior housing surface 64 includes a circumscribing band of photoluminescent material 74 located adjacent reticle 30 . Band 74 may be deposited or applied to surface 64 as described above or may comprise a separate band of frictional material placed inside housing 62 . Moreover, band 74 may be located on either side of reticle 30 provided that the light emitted from the photoluminescent material is capable of sufficiently illuminating the reticle. Another alternative embodiment is provided in FIG. 8 which is identical to FIG. 7 with the exception of the band 74 which is contiguous in FIG. 7 but is broken or separated in the embodiment of FIG. 8. This band of material is shown as a series of spaced dash-shaped portions 74 a , 74 b , 74 c , 74 d forming a divided band circumscribing the interior of housing 62 . Of course, the portions of photoluminescent material need not be in any particular shape provided that the shape and spacing of the photoluminescent portions provide enough illumination of the reticle for increased visibility in low-light conditions. [0039] [0039]FIG. 9 illustrates a reticle 30 similar to those described for FIGS. 7 and 8. Reticle 30 has cross-hairs 76 , 78 oriented perpendicularly to each other and secured within housing 68 . Housing 68 is in the shape of a donut having exterior surface 80 and interior surface 82 . The quantity of photoluminescent material is deposited on, or applied to interior surface 82 such that reticle 30 is illuminated by the light emitted from the photoluminescent material. [0040] [0040]FIG. 10 illustrates yet another embodiment of the present invention comprising a disc 84 of optical material having a peripheral edge 86 circumscribing disc 84 . A pair of light-transmitting pipes 88 , 90 contact peripheral edge 86 and are located approximately 90° apart. Pipes 88 , 90 each present a light-emitting end 92 , 94 contacting peripheral edge 86 for emitting light into disc 84 . Preferably, pipes 88 , 90 are aimed at etched out portion 96 which is in the shape of a cross-hair reticle. Disc 84 further presents a coating 98 on each side thereof. This coating 98 may be an antireflective coating, a protective coating or a combination thereof. Etched out portion 96 is also etched out of coating 98 on one side thereof such that a groove extends through coating 98 and a portion of disc 84 . Light transmitted through pipes 88 , 90 is emitted from portion 96 , thereby providing a lighted reticle shape which can be used in low-light conditions. Thus, in the field of view through a scope, when light is transmitted through pipes 88 , 90 , into disc 84 and emitted through portion 96 , the reticle shape appears as a lighted cross-hair, thereby improving its use as a sighting marker in low-light conditions. [0041] [0041]FIG. 11 illustrates a cross-sectional view through the center of FIG. 10. Etched out portion 96 is clearly shown to extend through one surface of coating 98 and into a portion of disc 84 . Pipe 90 is aimed at one of the two cross-hair lines 100 , 102 of portion 96 . In use, disc 84 is positioned inside the housing of a scope such as the one illustrated in FIG. 12. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, light-transmitting pipes 88 , 90 are optically connected to light emitted by a quantity of photoluminescent material 104 . To assist in the transmission of light from material 104 , a lens 106 is positioned to direct light from material into the light-receiving end of a light-transmitting pipe 108 . This light is transmitted through pipes 88 , 90 and into disc 84 . [0042] [0042]FIG. 12 illustrates a cross-sectional view of an eyepiece end of a scope. Eyepiece end 110 includes rubber eyecup 112 circumscribing one end of eyepiece 110 , reticle 114 at the end opposite eyecup 112 , connected by housing 116 . Within housing 116 between reticle 114 and eyecup 112 are a plurality of lenses 118 . Reticle 114 is positioned between reticle fastener frame 120 and reticle base 122 . Light transmitting pipe 124 extends from an area adjacent reticle 114 into the interior 126 of turret 128 . Turret 128 includes cap 130 threadably received on turret base 132 and preferably includes a quantity of photoluminescent material preferably located on the interior of cap 130 . Turret interior 126 includes lens 106 which is positioned to receive emitted light from the photoluminescent material 124 on cap 130 when cap is placed onto turret 128 . Pipe 124 is sealed by grommet 134 and positioned such that light emitted from photoluminescent material 104 is directed by lens 106 toward the light receiving end 136 of pipe 124 where it is transmitted through pipe 124 until it is emitted from light emitting end 138 and projected onto reticle 114 such that reticle 114 is illuminated. To use this embodiment, cap 130 is removed from base 132 to permit light to activate photoluminescent material 104 . This removal can be done by unthreading or otherwise removing the cap 130 and exposing the material to a light source to activate the material. Once material 104 has been sufficiently activated, cap 104 is replaced onto base 132 and the light emitted by the photoluminescent material is transmitted toward the reticle through pipe 124 . In some embodiments, the light is projected onto the reticle and in others, the light is projected into the reticle such as is shown in FIG. 10 or in FIG. 13 wherein the light transmitting pipe 124 (shown enlarged for detail) is affixed to the reticle such that the light transmitting end 138 projects light at the center point of the reticle 30 e . Of course, pipe 124 can be located anywhere on the reticle 30 e and will preferably run along one of the sighting markers such as 42 a.

Reticles and scopes using reticles are provided with increased visibility in low-light conditions by illuminating the reticle using the light emitted by a quantity of photoluminescent material. The photoluminescent material may be placed on the reticle itself or emit light which is cast onto the reticle. In some forms, the reticle is entirely coated with the photoluminescent material and in other forms, the photoluminescent material is selectively deposited on a portion of the reticle or an area adjacent the reticle. In other forms, the photoluminescent material is located remote from the reticle and the light emitted from the reticle is transmitted to the reticle. Alternatively, the light may be transmitted directly into a disc of optical material which has an area etched into a reticle pattern whereby the transmitted light escapes from the disc through the etched out portion and provides an illuminated reticle pattern which is visible in low light conditions.

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 699,104, filed Feb. 7, 1985, now abandoned; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser No. 453,979, filed Dec. 28, 1982, now abandoned. TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to a novel apparatus and process for vapor degreasing which use an open top vessel and more particularly to an improvement in such apparatus and processing which has the purpose of conserving solvent losses occurring from vapor-air diffusion. BACKGROUND ART It is recognized in the art of degreasing that the mixing of solvent vapor with air is very costly in terms of solvent loss. Solvent/air mixtures of the kind with which the present invention deals are to be distinguished from vapors which are essentially wholly solvent and appreciably more dense and behave differently. Because halogenated hydrocarbons which are most frequently employed as solvent in degreasing systems are heavier than air, trichloroethylene being an example, the vapor can be controlled by a simple condenser coil or jacket near the top of the degreasing tank. However, when small concentrations of solvent vapor and air intermix, the much lighter combined mixture will be carried off by normal air movement. Even in a quiet atmosphere, the loss due to diffusion in air is considerable. Drafts or improper introduction and removal of the work pieces aggravate the vapor (solvent) loss substantially at this rate. The normal diffusion of solvent in air is nearest the theoretical minimum when the degreaser is in an area where the working atmosphere is as quiet as possible. Installation of baffles or shields helps to control air movement. Even under ideal conditions, a degreaser is constructed with a freeboard (height of sidewall above the vapor line) preferably of the order of 60% or more of the machine width. In operation, the degreaser should be large enough and have enough heat input to handle the normal work load. Overloading increases solvent loss. For example, as the work basket is inserted into the degreaser opening, there is considerable intermixing of air and vapor and the resulting turbulence increases the tendency for vapor loss. To stem this very considerable potential loss of solvent by diffusion, a second condenser near the top of the degreaser, which is sometimes referred to as a freeboard chiller, has been devised to suppress the tendency of solvent vapors to escape through the open top of the degreasing apparatus. A vapor condenser or freeboard chiller system of this kind is disclosed in the Rand U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,177 which utilizes a second condenser means above a first condenser and below the upper edge of the open top degreasing vessel into which the parts to be treated are lowered and raised when the parts are withdrawn. In a degreaser system, vapors are generated in an open topped vessel by boiling a solvent in a heated chamber. The generated vapors rise within the vessel and contact the work piece(s) to be cleansed, generally, metal parts, supported upon a work rest within the vessel. The vapors will dissolve the grease on the metal parts. The vessel used in degreasing apparatus of this kind is open to provide ready access to the interior of the vessel. The use of an open access vessel in degreasing apparatus, while of great convenience from the standpoint of practical access, has caused several problems. These include: (1) excessive loss of the expensive solvent which is dispersed with air and lost rendering the degreasing operation costly; (2) noxious solvent odors emitted from the apparatus; and (3) a toxic hazard to personnel through air pollution of the work place and the environment. As noted in U.S. Pat. No. 3,375,177, the objective of the freeboard chiller is to control the vapor/air mixtures generated by the apparatus, but not condensed by the condensing coils or water jacket, before they are expelled into the atmosphere. Low temperature (less than 0° C.) refrigeration coils have been installed in the freeboard zone of degreasers above the primary condensing coils. The cold air blanket produced by these coils acts as a thermal inversion tending to trap rising air/solvent vapor mixtures and effectively condensing a portion of the solvent vapor, thus preventing its escape from the degreasers. Substantial loss reductions have been reported with normal loss reductions of 40% being represented in the industry. The known low temperature freeboard chillers, such as the kind described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,375,177 are currently incorporated in new degreasers at the time of manufacture, and although such freeboard chillers may be retrofitted on existing degreasers, it is necessary that trained factory personnel be employed for installation. During installation, the trained factory person must cut, fit, mount and solder finned refrigeration tubing around the inner periphery of the degreaser in situ in the freeboard zone and then connect said tubing to a low temperature refrigeration condensing unit. The system must then be checked for leaks and charged with a refrigerant gas. Such installation requires sizeable expenditures. Downtime is also a significant drawback. Also, because of the exacting nature of this type of installation, relative to the fitting of components and preclusion of leaks, as well as the necessity to operationally check the equipment, the purchase of the necessary components for self-assembly by the degreaser owner, as a rule, has not been attempted. It is evident that the installed cost of freeboard chillers is considerably higher due to travel and living costs for the factory trained personnel which must of necessity be borne by the purchaser. Another limitation in the matter of installation of current freeboard chillers is the reduction in the top opening of the degreaser which results and which can preclude the retrofitting of the solvent saving device due to insufficient clearance for existing workload sizes or the reduction in the maximum workload size that can be placed in a degreaser. It is obvious from the above that it would be advantageous to develop a low temperature compact freeboard chiller that could be shipped as a completed, sealed with refrigerant included and pretested unit, i.e., a module, that could be installed or retrofitted by the ultimate user, thus eliminating the very substantial travel and living costs from the purchase price required when factory trained personnel must install such systems. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a novel, modular, low temperature freeboard chiller for open top vapor degreasing units that may be suitably packaged, shipped to, and readily installed by the ultimate user. A further object of the invention is to provide a novel apparatus for effectively suppressing the escape of vapors to the atmosphere from the top of an open vapor degreaser. An additional objective resides in the provision of a relatively simple drop-in easily retrofitting unit to prevent escape of air/vapor mixtures. Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows. The objects of the invention are achieved in an apparatus for solvent cleaning of work pieces consisting essentially of an open-top receptacle for containing a volatile solvent said receptacle consisting essentially of a lower liquid solvent zone, an intermediate solvent vapor zone and an upper freeboard zone; means adjacent the bottom of said receptacle to vaporize the solvent; primary condenser means within said receptacle supported by said receptacle at the top of the solvent vapor zone and at the bottom of the freeboard zone for condensing vapors generated from said solvent and thereby defining the upper limit of a vapor zone above the liquid solvent zone; a freeboard chiller comprising a second condenser within said receptacle supported on said receptacle above said primary condenser means and positioned below the upper edge of the receptacle for generating a cold air blanket in the freeboard zone over the top of the solvent vapor zone to trap rising air and solvent vapor mixtures and condensing solvent vapors from the air and solvent vapor mixture forming above said solvent vapor zone, said freeboard chiller being affixed to one interior side wall in the freeboard zone of said open top receptacle; and a condensate collection trough below said first condenser means for collecting condensate and preventing condensed moisture from mixing with the solvent. To achieve the objects of the invention, a unit comprising refrigerant coils which affords adequate heat exchange capacity, i.e. equal to the capacity which surrounds the opening in the degreasing vessel, is formed so as to be disposed along one side only of the degreaser vessel rather than on all four sides. This one-sided freeboard chiller, contrary to the expected loss of effective vapor suppression when compared to an open top unit as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,375,177 in which the coil surrounds the opening, produced a vapor suppression blanket that is surprisingly effective. The one-sided unit constructed and disposed in accordance with the invention not only affords a substantial economy, including the relative ease of installation, but offers the further advantage of introducing less interference to work piece(s) access, i.e. less obstruction of passage into the open top degreasing vessel. In order to condense the lighter vapors before they reach the atmosphere, a freeboard chiller unit of the kind disclosed by the present invention and comprising cooling coils is positioned on one upright wall and disposed and supported preferably parallel to one of the walls of the longest dimension of the cleaning apparatus or tank is provided. This freeboard chiller unit comprises a module discrete from and not in fluid communication directly or indirectly with the conventional condensers (lower) coil of the cleaning or degreasing apparatus. The coils of this freeboard chiller are chilled by mechanical refrigeration to temperatures not above about 0° F. (-18° C.) and preferably between about -25° F. (-31° C.) and -35° F. (-37.2° C.). The lowest coil of the freeboard chiller module is located within about eight inches (20.32 cm) of the vapor line and, preferably, at a distance of about six inches (15.2 cm) or less, i.e., about 15 cm, above the vapor line as determined by the primary condensing coil. The coils of the freeboard chiller are appropriately connected to a compressor and pump unit and refrigerant is pumped through the coils to maintain the coils at a temperature not above 32° F. (0° C.). BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Reference is made to accompanying drawings which form a part of the present application and in which: FIG. 1 illustrates perspectively a freeboard chiller modular unit in accordance with the invention installed on one side of the open top degreaser, a fragment of which is illustrated. FIG. 2 is an elevational sectional view taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is an elevational sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is an elevational sectional view similar to FIG. 2 but showing an alternative embodiment. FIG. 5 is an elevational sectional view taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 4. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT While the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,177 describes the use of a freeboard chiller to prevent the loss of solvent vapor from the open top degreaser apparatus, the installation of freeboard chillers of the kind disclosed in that patent requires condenser coils that surround the opening and as noted above are relatively expensive particularly when retrofitting existing units. To alleviate the noxious and sometimes hazardous nature of the vapors defusing from an open top degreaser, lip vent exhausts have been installed along one or two sides of existing degreasers. Such exhausts, while effective in removing the solvent vapors prior to their entering the workers' area, sometimes double or triple solvent losses by creating air turbulence and above the freeboard area of the degreaser. This effect is particularly pronounced with smaller degreasers with short freeboard zones having less than eighteen inches (45.7 cm) between the vapor line and the top opening of the degreaser. A freeboard zone, it will be understood, typically comprises a "fenced in" area, i.e. an atmosphere of air with some minor amount of vapor escaping therein from below. The purpose of the freeboard zone is to reduce solvent vapor losses; this zone prevents sweeping of air across the top of and contiguous to the pure vapor zone. Because a freeboard chiller can reduce emissions into the work area enough to eliminate the need for an exhaust equipment, the use of a freeboard chiller is a preferred means of protecting workers by confining the solvent vapors and conserving solvents. However, in the past, the relatively high cost of an effective freeboard chiller has precluded the retrofitting of cleansing or degreasing apparatus with conventional freeboard chillers. This is particularly so with respect to smaller degreasers because of the space reduction in the work piece access opening that would result after the retrofit of a freeboard chiller that would be placed around the entire inner periphery in the freeboard zone. The versatile one-sided freeboard chiller of the present invention makes such retrofitting of solvent cleaning or degreasing apparatus feasible in that the modular freeboard chiller unit of the invention may be shipped to the user in a substantially self-contained unit. The user can readily install it on the degreaser in the freeboard zone and on one side only without the concommitant downtime and expense of installations by manufacturers' technicians that would require breaking into the integrity of the existing system. An advantage of the apparatus of the invention resides, also, in the fact that original equipment manufacturers who build solvent cleaning and/or degreasing apparatus will find that the one-sided configuration for generating a cold blanket of air in the freeboard zone allows the incorporation of a freeboard chiller of this kind on new degreasing apparatus without increasing the physical size of the present design. In order to obtain the desired effect of a freeboard chiller in accordance with the invention, and having determined the heat extraction capacity (British Thermal Units per foot of perimeter), the required capacity needed to effectively conserve the solvent vapors can be achieved with a suitable number of passes of finned tubing on one side operating at a temperature in the range of from about -20° F. (-28.9° C.) and (-40° C.). To determine the feasibility of building and shipping a totally completed and tested freeboard chiller that may be installed in an existing degreasing unit that does not have a freeboard chiller, a system was designed for an existing water cooled vapor degreaser that had a top opening of 2 feet by 4 feet (30.5 cm×61 cm). In constructing the unit, the space reduction problem of a more conventional four-sided coil was avoided by placing the total heat exchange capacity along one side of the degreaser as illustrated in FIG. 1. By so doing, it might be assumed that the performance of the system would be reduced compared to a system with finned tubing around all four sides. Following installation, tests were run with the degreaser being operated with trichlorotrifluoromethane, fluorocarbon 113. The first, or base-line test, was run without the freeboard chiller turned on and the test run indicated a loss of 0.1505 lbs per hour per square foot (0.7348 kg/sq. meter/hr.) of vapor air interface. Under identical conditions, with the exception that the freeboard chiller was turned on and was operating at a measured temperature of -35° F. (-37.2° C.), losses were measured at 0.0598 lbs per hour per square foot (0.292 kg/sq. meter/hr.), a reduction in solvent loss of 60.2%. This was a totally unexpected magnitude since tests on a similar sized degreaser operating in the same area with a conventional four-sided freeboard chiller showed loss reductions of 57%. It could not be predicted that the one-sided coil would be able to produce savings on the order of 30% to 40%. In an effort to ascertain an explanation for the unexpected high solvent savings, the cold air blanket was probed with the thermocouple at various location across this freeboard zone strata in the degreaser, above the vapor line, moving in a direction away from the one-sided modular coil of the invention. The measured temperature varied from a low of -1° F. (-18.3° C.) in front of the coil to +14° F. (-10° C.) at the far side of the degreaser. This relatively small gradient was also unexpected in that the lowest previously measured blanket temperature with a four-sided freeboard chiller was 11° F. (-6.8° C.) at the centroid. Prior to the test, it had been postulated that while producing the necessary cold air blanket above the vapor zone, the one-sided low temperature coil would produce a convection air current which would flow down from the coil, across the degreaser and rise to the top of the freeboard on the opposite side of the machine from the coil. Such air movement while slow, would tend to produce solvent losses that were greater than those achieved with a (four-sided) system that ringed the opening. Having found that the solvent loss measurements with the one-sided system were surprisingly beneficial in comparison to the four-sided system, further testing was done to better understand the mechanism. Such test consisted of injecting smoke at a point immediately below the low temperature coil in the freeboard zone, i.e., in the space between the cold air blanket and the vapor line, and observing its motion. It was found that the smoke moved across the degreaser from the freeboard chiller to the far side. Moreover, as opposed to moving up the wall and out of the degreaser, the smoke moved across the top of the cold air blanket and concentrated at the low temperature coils. This demonstrated that the slow circular air motion within the freeboard area caused by the one-sided coil of the kind provided by the present invention tends to drag escaping vapors to the low temperature area where they are condensed and returned to the system. It is to be emphasized that the solvent/air mixtures which the apparatus of the present invention processes differ from the relatively denser pure solvent vapor which is substantially relatively readily condensable by a primary condenser coil 36 in the vapor zone 47 shown in FIG. 2 of the drawing and operating at a temperature substantially above 0° C. e.g. about 18° C. to about 27° C. With primary condenser coils, there are essentially no convection currents, i.e., convection currents are not a significant factor because the relatively pure vapor because its weight does not circulate as dispersed but is held down and moves to the condenser where it is condensed. However, with a solvent/air mixture, convection currents and the tendency of such mixtures to disperse or diffuse are a substantial factor. It is not reasonable to expect that such lighter solvent/air mixtures would be condensed by the primary condenser and in fact, such mixtures have been found not to be condensed but rather account for substantial losses in solvent due to their dispersion or diffusion. The difference between solvent vapors found in zone 47 and solvent/air mixtures found in the freeboard zone 48 and which the apparatus of the invention effectively recovers may be better visualized by an analogy with steam and with moist air, respectively. A mechanism which may be employed to efficiently condense steam is not likely to be the same as the apparatus that efficiently removes entrained moisture from air. The details of the apparatus of the invention are better visualized by reference to the figures of the drawing. As shown in FIG. 1, the "freeboard chiller" apparatus 11 of the invention which functions to generate a blanket of cold air over the vapor zone in a degreasing or cleaning unit is depicted as being secured to the interior in the freeboard zone of the open container 10. The unit is devised to be readily dropped in place within the solvent cleaning apparatus and secured to one side wall thereof to generate a cold blanket of air across and at the top of the solvent vapor zone 47, said blanket is generated at a distance of about 10 to 18 cm above the vapor line. A fragment only of the open cleaning apparatus container 10 is illustrated and shows a transverse wall 33 and a longitudinal wall 34 of such cleaning apparatus. The freeboard chiller or modular unit 11 comprises a plurality of coils 12 preferably equipped with fins 13 and mounted on a back plate or support 15. The unit 11 is provided with suitable mounting brackets 16 and 17 which facilitate a mounting of the unit 11 on the solvent degreaser unit 10 such as by fasteners 20. The finned coils 12 are preferably equipped with a protective shield 18. Line connectors for the chiller 11 are made through a suitable mounting plate 22 and comprise a liquid refrigerant input line 24 with connector 23, a refrigerant return line 26 with connector 25 and a hot gas (defrost) line 28 with connector 27. The hot gas line 28 is connected to the evaporator feed line 30 at a point downstream from the expansion valve 29. The chiller unit may optionally include a condensate collection trough 19 which may suitable be mounted on the same support 15 on which the cooling coils 12 are mounted. The chiller 11 is positioned in the degreasing unit above the primary condensing coils 36. The primary condensing coils 36 define the vapor line of the degreaser 10, i.e. essentially the upper limit of the zone which contains the concentrated pure solvent vapor. A water jacket 40 is also preferably employed and is situated around the outside walls of the unit 10 substantially at the vapor line. The several zones of the degreasing unit with the freeboard chiller 11 of the invention is more clearly illustrated in the cross-sectional views of FIGS. 2 and 3. For purpose of better clarity of description, the apparatus includes a liquid solvent zone 46, a solvent pure vapor zone 47 and the freeboard zone 48 of confined air. Located in the solvent boiling sump 43 (zone 46) is a suitable heating coil 45 connected by leads 44 to a suitable electric source. It will be understood that any suitable heating means, internally, as shown, or externally (not shown) may be employed. The freeboard chiller unit 11, which comprises the novel apparatus of the invention, is positioned in the freeboard zone to recover the solvent vapor which may be present in the vapor air mixture in the zone 48 which is above the pure solvent vapor zone 47 and above the primary condensing coils 36. Condensate collected from the drop in chiller unit 11 may be collected in the chiller trough 19 and separately treated via line 39 in a separator 51 or the condensate may be fed via line 38 and comingled with the condensate from the primary condensing coils 36 collected in the primary coil condensate trough 37. Collected condensate may be processed in a conventional manner, such as shown in the separator 51 where condensate fed into the entry side 53 is separated with a top water layer 55 that is discharged at 56 and the solvent layer is returned to the solvent boiling sump 43 via the passage 57 underneath the separator partition 52 to the deliver side 54 of the separator and through the discharge opening 50. As illustrated in FIG. 2, an independent separator 58 fed by line 59 may be used for the condensate collected by the primary condensing coils 36 and another separator 51 for the condensate from the freeboard chiller 11; although, as referred to above, the condensates from both the freeboard chiller 11 and primary coils 36 may be collected and treated in a single separator. The space advantage of the invention is described by reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. As shown, the degreasing or cleaning unit 60 is equipped with a single helical primary condensing coil 61 on one of the interior transverse walls of the apparatus. The unit includes a sump 64 with heater 65 connected to electrical means 65a and water jacket 66 that function as described above by reference to corresponding parts in FIGS. 1-3. By use of the freeboard chiller module lla which is mounted only on one longitudinal interior wall only of the degreaser, restriction of the opening over a conventional installation where the cold blanket generating unit would surround the opening as shown by phantom lines 82 and 83 is minimized. The arrangement shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 in other respects is similar to that described by reference to FIGS. 1-3, i.e., the freeboard chiller includes cooling coils 77 with fins 78, a guard 79, condensate collection trough 80 and condensate discharge line 81. The degreaser tank includes a water jacket 66, a primary condensate collection trough 67 into which the condensate from both the unit lla and primary coil 61 are collected. The combined condensate as best shown in FIG. 5 passes into the separator from the trough 67 through line 75 to the entry side 70 of the separator 68. In the separator, the water (lighter) layer 72 is discharged at 73 and the heavier solvent layer flows through passage 74 beneath the separator partition 69 into the boiling solvent sump 64 through passage 76. It will be apparent that various modification may be made to the invention disclosed without departing from the scope of the invention. The various details provided are illustrated to better describe the invention and are not to be considered as placing limitation on the invention other than those recited in the claims.

A volatile solvent conservation modular unit and method for effecting solvent conservation is provided. The cooling coil modular unit is arranged to be disposed in the freeboard zone of a cleaning or degreasing apparatus that uses a volatile solvent. The freeboard zone chiller positioned above the vapor zone and the primary condenser to recover solvent from the relatively less dense solvent/air mixture escaping above the primary condenser and is formed so as to be disposed along one side of the degreaser vessel rather than on all four sides to minimize the obstruction of access into the vapor zone. This one-sided single freeboard chiller positioned on but one side produces a vapor suppression blanket that is effective and is readily retrofitted on existing apparatus without the need for dismantling of the existing unit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to spray on wound dressing bandages, and, more particularly, to compositions suitable for forming an anti-microbial film dressing including a permanently bound, effective anti-microbial agent. 2. Description of the Prior Art The advantages of using a spray on wound dressing in place of gauze bandages for protection of wounds from infection and water is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,801,201; 2,804,073; 2,972,545; 3,073,794; 3,079,299; 3,269,903; 3,476,853; 3,577,516; and 3,932,602; and in the J. Biomedical Material Research, Vol. 6, p. 571-590 (1972). Generally such wound dressings are compositions of two components, namely, a film-forming polymer and an anti-microbial substance, which are applied as a liquid, or sprayed with an aerosol propellant. The requirements of a suitable spray on wound dressing is an ability to form a flexible non-irritating thin polymer film which is innocuous to the wound, which conforms to the skin surface and exhibits good skin adhesion, possesses a high moisture transmission rate to permit some wound excretion to pass through the film and evaporate moisture from the covered surface, and which prevents bacterial and dirt invasion. These and other attributes of an idealized spray on wound dressing, while known, have been difficult to achieve in prior art compositions for this use. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved spray on wound dressing composition. Another object herein is to provide a spray on wound dressing capable of forming an anti-microbial film which is non-toxic, non-irritating, flexible, skin conformal and air permeable and which allows the epitheral tissue to regrow without substantial water loss. A specific object of this invention is to provide an improved spray on wound dressing composition in which both the anti-microbial and film-forming components of the composition are present in one compound. These and other objects and features of the invention will be made apparent from the following particular description of the invention. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION What is described herein is an improved spray on wound dressing composition which comprises a compound which is an anti-microbial organosilicon quaternary ammonium salt chemically bonded to a film-forming organic polymer, and a suitable propellant solvent therewith. The organosilicon quaternary ammonium salt constitutes 2 to 30 wt. % by weight of the compound, and the organic polymer is 70-98% by weight of the compound. The composition itself comprises 2-30 wt. % by weight of the anti-microbial film-forming compound, the rest being a propellant solvent. In the preferred forms of the invention, the organosilicon quaternary ammonium salts are 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride, bromide or triiodide, 3-(dimethoxymethylsilyl) propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride, bromide or triiodide, or 3-(methoxydimethylsilyl) propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride, bromide or triiodide, and the organic polymer is polyvinylpyrrolidone, in a propellant solvent, preferably a chlorofluorohydrocarbon or a high vapor pressure, low boiling solvent, such as methanol, ethanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, methylene chloride, and the like, and mixtures thereof. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The organic polymers used in the compound and compositions of this invention include such polymers as polyvinylpyrrolidone, e.g. PVP-K30 polymer, and those related polymers disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,073,794; cellulosic polymers, e.g. ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose, e.g. Klucel® (Hercules); polyhydroxy and alkoxy alkyl acrylates and methacrylates, e.g. polyhydroxypropyl acrylates, ethoxyethyl acrylates and the corresponding methacrylates; polyacrylamides and derivatives thereof; polysaccharides; protein-type polymers such as gelatin and collagin; and mixtures thereof. The anti-microbial organosilicon quaternary ammonium salt compounds and their preparation are described in the literature, as for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,471,541; 3,560,385; 3,730,701; 3,817,739; 3,865,728; 4,005,028; 4,005,030; 4,394,378 and British Pat. No. 1,433,303. Particularly useful are those compounds described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,730,701, 3,817,739 and 4,394,378. The essential characteristics of such compounds are anti-microbial activity, usually imparted by the presence of a long chain alkyl group on the quaternary nitrogen atom and a hydrolyzable group on the silicon atom which can be reacted with polymer. Generally the hydrolyzable group is a hydrolyzable hydrocarbonoxy group such as alkoxy or acyloxy, for reaction with an active hydrogen of the polymer. In water solution, alkoxy and acyloxy groups are hydrolyzed to hydroxyl groups, i.e., a silanol, for reaction with the polymer. A useful class of anti-microbial organosilicon quaternary ammonium salts are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,701 and has the general formula: ##STR1## where Y is a hydrolyzable radical, e.g. a hydrocarbonoxy group; e.g. alkoxy, or acyloxy; R is a monovalent hydrocarbon group, e.g. lower alkyl or phenyl; a is 0-2; Q is a divalent hydrocarbon radical, e.g. alkylene or phenylene; m is 1-20; R' is alkyl C 1 -C 18 , aryl, alkaryl, or aralkyl; R" is lower alkyl; n is 9-17; X is monovalent inorganic or organic radical or group selected from halogen; triiodide; acyloxy; or YSO 4 , where Y is a monovalent hydrocarbon, hydrogen, or --(CH 2 --) x --COOR'", where x is at least 2 and R"' is a monovalent hydrocarbon group free of unsaturation. Particularly useful compounds are those in which: Y is alkoxy; e.g. methoxy; R is lower alkyl; e.g. methyl; m is 2-4; e.g. 3; R' is lower alkyl or aralkyl; e.g. methyl or benzyl; R" is lower alkyl; n is 11-17, and X is halogen or triiodide. Some representative compounds are the following: Typical organosilicon quaternary ammonium salts compounds for use herein include the following: (1) 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR2## (2) 3-(triethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR3## (3) 3-(methyldimethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR4## (4) 3-(phenyldimethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR5## (5) 3-(dimethylmethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR6## (6) 3-(diphenylmethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR7## (7) 6-(methyldimethoxy)hexyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR8## (8) 8-(methyldimethoxysilyl)octyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR9## (9) 12-(methyldimethoxysilyl)dodecyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride ##STR10## (10) 3-(methyldimethoxysilyl)propylmethyldidodecyl ammonium chloride ##STR11## (11) 3-(methyldimethoxysilyl)propylmethyldodecylbenzyl ammonium chloride ##STR12## (12) 3-(methyldimethoxysilyl)propylbenzyldidodecyl ammonium chloride ##STR13## (13) 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium bromide ##STR14## (14) 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium triiodide ##STR15## (15) 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium acetate ##STR16## (16) 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium sulfate ##STR17## (17) 3-(methoxydimethylsilyl)propylomethyldidodecyl ammonium triiodide ##STR18## (18) 2-(trimethoxysilyl)ethyl p-benzyl dimethyloctadecyl ammonium chloride ##STR19## (19) 2-(trimethoxysilyl)ethyl-4-methylcyclohexyl dimethyl octadecyl ammonium chloride ##STR20## The reaction between organosilicon quaternary ammonium halide and polymer is carried out in water solution, or in water-alcohol mixtures, suitably with about 2-30 wt. of said organosilicon halide, and about 70 to 98 wt % of the polymer. The reaction medium can be acidic, neutral or alkaline. The water soluble polymers used herein are of a sufficiently, high molecular weight, so that they cannot readily be adsorbed through the skin. The preparation of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is well documented in the literature; see U.S. Pat. No. 2,265,450. It can be obtained in various degrees of polymerization designated by Fichentscher K value. A preferred grade used in formulations is the pharmaceutical grade with an average molecular weight of about 40,000 and is available from GAF Corporation. Water-soluble PVP having average molecular weights of from several thousand to several hundred thousand are within the scope and spirit of the invention, e.g., from about 10,000 to about 250,000, and higher; however, commercially available PVP are, for obvious economic reasons, most suitable. EXAMPLE 1 A spray on wound dressing composition is prepared by mixing the compound 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl octadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride chemically bound to polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-K30) polymer, in the ratio of 15% by weight of the silane quat to 85% by weight of the polymer, with Freon 21 (dichlorofluoromethane) propellant in the ratio of 10% by weight of the compound to 90% by weight of the propellant. The spray on composition then is applied to an abraded skin surface to provide an anti-microbial film dressing thereon. The dressing is able to conform to the surface of the skin, is flexible, non-toxic, non-tacky and non-irritating, dries rapidly, inhibits water loss from the skin surface while permitting air free of bacteria and dirt from entering the wound. EXAMPLE 2 A spray on wound dressing composition is prepared from (a) 10% by weight of the reaction product of 8% by weight of 3-(triethoxysilyl) propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride and 92% by weight of PVP-K30 (GAF Corp.) and (b) 90% by weight of Freon 21 (dichlorofluoromethane) in a pressure vessel equipped with a spray nozzle. The aerosol spray composition is stable over a wide temperature range and upon application to a skin wound gives a suitable dressing. EXAMPLE 3 A spray on wound dressing composition is prepared from (a) 15% by weight of the polymer reaction product of 5% by weight of 3-(dimethoxymethylsilyl) propyloctadecyldimethyl ammonium chloride and 95% by weight of ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose and (b) 60% by weight of Freon 21, 5% by weight of ethyl acetate and 20% methanol, in a pressure vessel equipped with a spray nozzle. The aerosol spray composition is stable over a wide temperature range and upon application to a skin wound gives a suitable dressing. EXAMPLE 4 A spray on wound dressing composition is prepared from (a) 20% by weight of the reaction product of 10% by weight of 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl dioctadecylmethyl ammonium chloride and 90% by weight of poly hydroxyethyl acrylate, and (b) 55% by weight of Freon 21, 5% by weight of ethyl acetate and 20% by weight methanol, in a pressure vessel equipped with a spray nozzle. The aerosol spray composition is stable over a wide temperature range and upon application to a skin wound gives a suitable dressing.

A spray on wound dressing composition comprises an anti-microbial, film-forming compound which is an anti-bacterial organosilicon quaternary ammonium salt chemically bonded to a film-forming organic polymer, and a propellant solvent.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/260,944 filed on Nov. 13, 2009 entitled “REAL TIME VISION BASED HUMAN HAND RECOGNITION AND TRACKING METHOD AND TOUCHLESS VISION BASED COMMAND SYSTEM INCORPORATING THE SAME.” TECHNICAL FIELD This application is directed, in general, to an image capture device and a method of detecting a presence of a human hand in a field of view of the image capture device. BACKGROUND Real-time vision-based human hand recognition has typically been focused on fingerprint recognition and palm print recognition for authentication applications. These conventional recognition methods process a small amount of hand feature data and usually execute on large, expensive computer systems in a non-real-time fashion. To recognize a human hand out of complex backgrounds, tracking hand movement and interpreting hand movements into predefined gesture identification have conventionally been limited by capabilities of imaging systems and image signal processing systems and typically involve a database for pattern matching, requiring a significant amount of computing power and storage. Conventional human control system interfaces generally include human to computer interfaces, such as a keyboard, mouse, remote control and pointing devices. With these interfaces, people have to physically touch, move, hold, point, press, or click these interfaces to send control commands to computers connected to them. SUMMARY One aspect provides a method. In one embodiment, the method includes capturing images of a hand in a field of view (FOV) of a camera of an image capture device. The method further includes processing a first one of the images to detect a presence of a hand, assigning a position of the presence of the hand, tracking movement of the hand, generating a command based on the tracked movement of the hand within the FOV and communicating the presence, position and command to an external apparatus. The processing of the first one of the images to determine the presence of the hand is completed by an image processor of the image capture device. The assignment of a position of the presence of the hand is completed by the image capture device. The tracking of the movement of the hand is accomplished by similarly processing, as the first image was processed by the image processor of the image capture device, of at least a second one of the captured images. The generating of the command is performed by the image capture device as is the transmitting the presence of the hand, the position of the hand and the command itself. Another aspect provides an image capture device. In one embodiment, the image capture device includes a camera, an image processor, a storage device and an interface. The camera is coupled the image processor and storage device and the image processor is coupled the storage device and an interface. The camera is configured to capture images in ambient light of a human hand in a field of view (FOV) of the camera. The image processor is configured to process a first one of the images to detect a presence of the hand. The image capture device is configured to assign a position of the presence of the hand, track movement of the hand within the FOV by processing at least a second one of the images and generate a command based on the tracked movement of the hand within the FOV. The interface is configured to transmit the detection of the presence of the hand, the assigned position of the hand and the command to an external apparatus. BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of an image capture device; FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of the image capture device relative to a field of vision and human hand; FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of details of a human hand in a field of vision; FIGS. 4-6 illustrate a flow diagram of an embodiment of a method of an image capture device; FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of tracking movement in an image capture device; and FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of another embodiment of an image capture device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Missing in today's conventional solutions is an image capture device that operates in real-time and can communicate with a conventional computer that: requires no physical interface; needs only ambient light; requires no angular, positional, or velocity information of a hand as it enters a monitored area; is seamless with respect to different hands presented in the monitored area; and is not sensitive to a size or skin color of the hand in the monitored area. FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment 100 of an image capture device 110 . The image capture device 100 includes a camera 120 , a lens 130 , an image processor 150 , a storage device 160 , an interface 170 and an external communication port 180 . The camera 120 is coupled to the lens 130 and captures an image in a field of view (FOV) 140 . The camera 120 couples to the image processor 150 and the storage device 160 . Images captured by the camera 120 are stored in the storage device 160 in conventional manners and formats. The interface 170 is coupled to the image processor 150 and the external communication port 180 . The external communication port 180 supports known and future standard wired and wireless communication formats such as, e.g., USB, RS-232, RS-422 or Bluetooth®. Image processor 150 is also coupled to the storage device 160 to store certain data described below. The operation of various embodiments of the image capture device 110 will now be described. In other embodiments of an image capture device, a conventional camera could be used in place of the camera 120 of the embodiment of FIG. 1 . The conventional camera could communicate with the image capture device using conventional standards and formats, such as, e.g., USB and Bluetooth®. FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment 200 of an image capture device 210 , similar to the image capture device 110 of FIG. 1 . FIG. 2 shows the image capture device 210 coupled to an external apparatus 285 via a coupling 282 . An external apparatus 285 is depicted as a conventional laptop computer but could be any other handheld electronic computing device, such as but not limited to a PDA, or smartphone. The coupling 282 can be a wired or wireless coupling of conventional standards, as listed above and further standards. FIG. 2 shows an FOV 240 of a lens 230 of the image capture device 210 . The embodiment 200 illustrated in FIG. 2 allows for a detection and position of a hand 290 in the FOV 240 to be communicated to the external apparatus 285 in a manner detailed below. The illustrated embodiment 200 provides an embedded solution that only transmits a limited amount of data, i.e., presence and position detection of a human hand and commands corresponding to movement of the presence of the human hand, to be used by a conventional computer. There is no need, with the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 to transmit large amounts of image data. Furthermore, image capture device 210 in the embodiment of FIG. 2 typically operates in real time, often operating on 30 frames of image per second. In other embodiments, the image capture device 210 may not include a camera, as described in an embodiment above, and plug in to a standard USB port on the external apparatus 285 . FIG. 3 illustrates in further detail the hand 290 in the FOV 240 of FIG. 2 . An embodiment 300 illustrated in FIG. 3 illustrates a hand 390 in an FOV 340 . The image capture device 210 of FIG. 2 (not shown) searches for a first contour line 392 of the hand 390 that starts at a border of the FOV 340 . Second contour lines 396 are contour lines of each edge of a finger 394 of the hand 390 . The first contour line 392 and the second contour lines 396 , as discussed below, help the image capture device 210 determine a presence of the hand 390 in the FOV 340 . FIGS. 4-6 illustrate an embodiment of a method the image capture device 110 / 210 may use to determine a presence and position of the hand 390 in the FOV 340 . FIG. 4 illustrates a first portion 400 of a flow diagram of a method used by the image capture device 110 , 210 to determine a presence and position of a hand in an FOV. The method begins at a step 405 . In a step 410 , a background of an image in an FOV is removed. A Sobel edge detection method may be applied to the remaining image in a step 420 . In a step 430 , a Canning edge detection is also applied to the remaining image from the step 410 . A Sobel edge detection result from the step 420 is combined in a step 440 with a Canning edge detection result from the step 430 to provide thin edge contour lines less likely to be broken. The thin edge contour lines produced in the step 440 are further refined in a step 450 by combining split neighboring edge points into single edge points. The result of the step 450 is that single pixel width contour lines are generated in a step 460 . The first portion 400 of the method ends in point A. FIG. 5 illustrates a second portion 500 of the flow diagram of the method and begins at point A from the first portion 400 of FIG. 4 . In a step 510 , the method searches for a single pixel width contour line that starts from a border of FOV 340 of FIG. 3 . After a single pixel contour line that starts from a border of the FOV is found, a step 520 determines if a length of that line is greater than a first threshold. If the length of the single pixel contour line is less than the first threshold, the method returns to the step 510 to find another single pixel contour line that starts at the border of the FOV. If the length of the single pixel contour line is greater than the first threshold, the method initially considers the single pixel contour line as a candidate for the presence of a hand in the FOV. At this point, the method in the second portion 500 of the flow diagram qualifies the candidate single pixel contour line as either a finger edge line or a finger tip point. Steps 530 - 538 describe the qualification of a finger edge line, and steps 540 - 548 describe the qualification of a finger tip point. In a step 530 , the finger edge line qualification method begins and the candidate single pixel contour line is continuously approximated into a straight line. If the straight line approximation of the single pixel contour line falls below a second threshold, the method continues to a step 532 where a length of the candidate single pixel contour line with a straight line approximation below the second threshold is compared to a third threshold. If the length of the line is less than the third threshold, the method does not consider the line a finger edge line and the method returns to the step 530 . If the length of the line is greater than the third threshold, the line is considered a finger edge line and the method continues to a step 534 where a slope of the finger edge line is calculated and the slope and a position of the finger edge line is saved in the storage device 160 of the image capture device 110 of FIG. 1 . The method continues to a step 536 where a determination is made of an end of the finger edge line. If an end of a finger edge line is determined, then the stored slope and length represent a final slope and length of the finger edge line and the finger edge line qualification method ends at point B. If an end of the finger edge line is not determined, the method resets a contour starting point index in a step 538 and the method returns to the step 530 . In a step 540 , the finger tip point qualification method begins and the candidate single pixel contour line is continuously approximated into a straight line. If the straight line approximation of the single pixel contour line is greater than the second threshold, a first order derivative and second order derivative of the candidate single pixel contour line is computed in the step 540 . The step size for the first and second order derivatives is at least one tenth of a width of the FOV. In a step 542 , the second order derivative of the candidate single pixel contour line is smoothed to remove noise points that may be included in the candidate single pixel contour line. Because of the shape of a finger tip, the second order derivative of the candidate single pixel contour line should change signs once. In a step 544 , a determination of a number of times the computed second order derivative changes and if the number of sign changes is not one, the method continues back to the step 540 . If the number of times the second order derivative changes is one, a position of the finger tip point is stored in a step 546 in the storage device 160 of the image capture device 110 of FIG. 1 . A step 548 determines if the finger tip point ends. If the finger tip point ends, as determined by the step 548 , the finger tip point qualification method ends at point C. If an end of the finger tip point is not determined in the step 548 , the method returns to the step 540 . FIG. 6 illustrates a third portion 600 of the flow diagram of the method and begins at points B and C from the second portion 500 of FIG. 5 . In a step 610 , the saved position and slope of the finger edge line and the saved position of the finger tip point stored in the storage device 160 of the image capture device 110 of FIG. 1 is combined for processing. In a step 620 , a determination is made if at least five of the saved slopes are substantially the same. If at least five of the saved slopes are not substantially the same, the method ends without a determination of a presence of the hand and assignment of a position of the hand in a step 640 . If at least five of the saved slopes are substantially the same, as determined in the step 620 , the method continues to a step 630 where a determination is made if any of the saved positions of the finger tip points are between any two adjacent finger edge lines. If none of the saved finger tip points are between any two adjacent finger edge lines, the method ends without a determination of a presence of the hand and assignment of a position of the hand in the step 640 . If any of the saved finger tip positions are between any two adjacent finger edge lines, the method ends with a determination of a presence of a hand and an assignment of a position of the hand, based on the stored positions of the finger edge lines and finger tip points, in a step 650 . The determination of a presence of the hand and the assignment of the position of the hand is made available by the interface 160 to the external communication port 180 of the image capture device 110 of FIG. 1 and can be sent via the coupling 282 to the external apparatus 285 of FIG. 2 . The determination of a presence of a hand and an assignment of a position of the hand may take at least 0.5 seconds. The method described in the portions of the flow diagrams of FIGS. 4-6 does not require that a relative angle of an orientation of a hand in an FOV be known. The method also does not require any pre-detection training with the hand prior to implementing the method. FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a flow diagram describing a method to track movement with an image capture device. The method 700 begins at a step 705 . In a step 710 , a position for any stored finger edge line of a first image, the determination of which is described above, is retrieved from a storage device of the image capture device. In a step 720 , a position of the same finger edge line in at least a second image, the determination of which is also described above, is retrieved from the storage device of the image capture device. These positions are compared in a step 730 , and a tracked movement is generated in a step 740 by the image capture device. In a step 750 , the image capture device assigns a command to the tracked movement. Examples of a tracked movement may be move right, move left, move up, move down, or move diagonally. The method 700 ends in a step 755 . The command can be sent from the interface 170 and the external communication port 180 of the image capture device 110 of FIG. 1 via the coupling 282 to the external apparatus 285 of FIG. 2 . An application for the image capture device described above may be, but not limited to, associating an object in a field of view to a hand in the same field of view and moving the object based on recognizing the presence and position of the hand. One example of this embodiment could be a medical procedure where a surgeon, for example, would command operation of equipment during a surgery without physically touching any of the equipment. Another example of this embodiment could be a presenter in front of a projection screen that has objects displayed on it. The image capture device would recognize the presence of a hand of the presenter and associate a position of the hand to one of the objects displayed on the screen. An external apparatus, such as the conventional laptop computer 285 of FIG. 2 , would receive a position of the hand from the image capture device and associate the position of the hand with an object displayed on the screen. The external apparatus would then cause the object displayed on the screen to move corresponding to a received command of a tracked movement of the hand by the image capture device. FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment 800 of the example of a presenter described above. The embodiment 800 includes an image capture device and an external apparatus (not shown), such as the image capture device 210 and the conventional laptop computer 285 depicted in FIG. 2 . The external apparatus either includes or interfaces to a projector that displays an object 898 , such as a Microsoft PowerPoint® object, on a screen. The screen with the displayed object 898 is in an FOV 840 of the camera of the image capture device. The image capture device detects the presence and position of a hand 890 of the presenter in the FOV 840 and transmits it to the conventional laptop computer. The conventional laptop computer associates the position of the hand 890 of the presenter with a position of the object 898 . The image capture device then tracks a movement of the hand 890 of the presenter (move up, move down, etc.), as described above and assigns a corresponding command (move up, move down, etc.) based on the tracked movement of the hand 890 of the presenter. The presence, positional data and command are then transmitted to the external apparatus that then causes the displayed object to move according to the command (moves displayed object up, down, etc.) Certain embodiments of the invention further relate to computer storage products with a computer-medium that have program code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations that embody the vision systems or carry out the steps of the methods set forth herein. The media and program code may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the invention, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media such as optical disks; and hardware devices that are specifically configured to store and execute program code, such as ROM and RAM devices. Examples of program code include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler and files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter. Those skilled in the art to which this application relates will appreciate that other and further additions, deletions, substitutions and modifications may be made to the described embodiments.

In one aspect there is provided an embodiment of an image capture device comprising a camera, an image processor, a storage device and an interface. The camera is configured to capture images in ambient light of a human hand in a field of view (FOV) of the camera. The image processor is configured to process a first one of the images to detect a presence of the hand. The image capture device is configured to assign a position of the presence of the hand, track movement of the hand within the FOV by processing at least a second one of the images and generate a command based on the tracked movement of the hand within the FOV. The interface is configured to transmit the detection of the presence of the hand, the assigned position of the hand and the command to an external apparatus.

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 from U.S. provisional patent application 62/158,529 titled Server Rack with Integrated Precision Air Flow filed on May 7, 2015. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present disclosure relates to a computer server rack and more particularly, a computer server rack system that can be used to efficiently direct air flow to electric equipment such as servers and other network devices for dissipation of heat. BACKGROUND [0003] Existing rack-mount server systems include a server rack and a plurality of server units received in the server rack. Typically each of the server units is mounted to the server rack with a pair of mounting brackets or rails respectively fixed to the inside surface of opposite sidewalls of a server rack. There have been numerous efforts to direct air and other fluids to electronic equipment to aid in heat dissipation. SUMMARY [0004] The server rack according to the invention includes a frame that includes hollow tubular support posts on the front sides and rear sides of the device. Between the front and rear posts are forward side panels and rearward side panels. The panels receive a complement of cartridges that have valve members to control the flow of air from a rear cavity though passages in the cartridges, through the rail and into servers. A plurality of side rails for receiving servers are attached to the front and rear posts. The rails have passages through the sidewalls that correspond with passages provided on the sidewalls of the servers. [0005] In a preferred embodiment, air conditioned air is introduced to forward side panels through passages provided on the upper and lower surfaces. Next, air travels from the forward panel, though one or more passages that is provided through a cartridge member, and then, into a front section of a server through a passage that is provided on the lateral sidewall of the server. Air travels through the server from the front section of the server to a rear section and then exits through a passage in the lateral sidewall to a cartridge that is provided in a rear panel. Next the air is returned to the air conditioner unit for recirculation. [0006] In an embodiment the sever rack is approximately 6 feet tall and designed to accommodate forty-two server units in 4.445 cm (1.75 inch) increments. Rail members are provided at each unit segment on the side panels and support a server, in embodiments further discussed below, passages through the cartridges have at least one valve member that can be individually electromechanically or manually controlled. When no server is provided in a specific rack unit, or when the temperature is otherwise adequately controlled in a particular server unit, the aperture may be closed, in embodiments, a controller automatically opens or closes valve members provide in cartridges in response to a signal from a thermometer. [0007] As such, it should be appreciated that the valves or passages can be opened and closed variably for each server depending on the cooling needs for the server. Further, as discussed herein, the degree of air flow through the aperture can be controlled using a damper or weir arrangement. Therefore, in embodiments, a local controller is provided and can receive input information from thermometers reading the temperatures of the servers and can adjust the opening and dosing valves aperture accordingly. Alternatively the dampers may be manually adjusted. In yet further embodiments a central controller receives signals from a plurality of server racks. [0008] Each of the openings on the post is provided with a releasable seal to block flow depending on the particular configuration of servers. In embodiments, flexible manifolds extend from the posts to direct the fluid to and from access areas provided on the servers. While the preferred embodiment contemplates the use of air flow, in embodiments the frame is configured to receive a liquid and the posts and manifold direct fluid to heat exchange elements that engaged the respective servers. [0009] In yet further embodiments the rack is configured to allow both liquid flow and air flow. [0010] These aspects of the invention are not meant to be exclusive. Furthermore, some features may apply to certain versions of the invention, but not others. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art when read in conjunction with the following description, and accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a prior art server rack and side panel. [0012] FIG. 2 a is a perspective view of a partial rack assembly according to an embodiment of the invention. [0013] FIG. 2 b is a perspective view of two side panels of a partial rack assembly according to an embodiment of the invention. [0014] FIG. 3 is a perspective exploded view of a first rail assembly, a server and a second rail assembly according to an embodiment of the invention. [0015] FIG. 4A is a top exploded view of a first rail assembly, a server and a second rail assembly according to an embodiment of the invention. [0016] FIG. 4B is a top view of a first rail assembly, a server and a second rail assembly attached together according to an embodiment of the invention. [0017] FIG. 5 is a perspective exploded view of a side panel and server in alignment before assembly according to an embodiment of the invention. [0018] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a side panel and server attached to one another. FIG. 7 is a perspective exploded view of side panel rails, a server and a second panel according to an embodiment of the invention. [0019] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of side panel rails, a server and a second panel according to embodiment of FIG. 7 that has been assembled. [0020] FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a rack assembly including side panels, rails, and a server that schematically illustrates a server sliding into the assembly. [0021] FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a side panel, rails, a server and a second panel that further includes cartridges received in the forward and rearward side panels that illustrate a server sliding into the assembly. [0022] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 10 with a server secured within the device. [0023] FIG. 12 is a perspective illustration of an embodiment of the invention that includes a schematic representation of the direction of air flow from the forward panels to a server. [0024] FIG. 13 is a perspective illustration of an embodiment of the invention that includes a schematic representation of the direction of air flow from a server through rearward side panels. [0025] FIG. 14 is a perspective view of a rail assembly that is used connection with an embodiment of the invention. [0026] FIG. 15 is a top view of the rail assembly that is shown in FIG. 14 . [0027] FIG. 16 is a perspective view in elevation of the rail assembly with the front section extended from the rear section that is shown in FIG. 14 . [0028] FIG. 17 is a top view of the rail assembly with the front section extended from the rear section. [0029] FIG. 18 is a perspective view of a forward side panel and forward post according to an embodiment of the invention depicting the top surface of the panel. [0030] FIG. 19 is a perspective view of a forward side panel and forward post shown in FIG. 18 depicting the bottom surface of the panel. [0031] FIG. 20 is a top view of the forward side panel and forward post shown in FIG. 18 . [0032] FIG. 21 is a top sectional view of the forward side panel and forward post shown in FIG. 18 also depicting a cartridge and the manner in which it is received in the panel. [0033] FIG. 22 is a top sectional view of the forward side panel and forward post shown in FIG. 18 with a cartridge retained in the panel. [0034] FIG. 23 is a front view in elevation of a post member used in connection with the invention. [0035] FIG. 24 is a fragmented view in elevation of a forward side panel, a series of cartridges, a cover plate and a forward post according to an embodiment of the invention. [0036] FIG. 25 is a front view in elevation of a forward panel having a complete complement of cartridges. [0037] FIG. 26 is a perspective view of a rearward side panel depicting the top surface. FIG. 27 is a perspective view of a rearward side panel depicting the lower surface. [0038] FIG. 28 is a top view of an iris air flow control valve used in a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention. [0039] FIG. 29 is a side view of an iris valve used in a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention. [0040] FIG. 30 a is a perspective view of an iris valve used in a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention in a closed position. [0041] FIG. 30 b is a perspective view of an iris valve used in a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention in a partial opened position. [0042] FIG. 30 c is a perspective view of an iris valve used in a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention in a fully opened position. [0043] FIG. 31 is a side fractional view in elevation of a cartridge assembly with the valves partially opened. [0044] FIG. 32 is a side fractional view in elevation of a cartridge assembly with the valves fully opened. [0045] FIG. 33 is a side sectional fractional view in elevation of a cartridge assembly. FIG. 34 is side sectional fractional view of a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention. [0046] FIG. 34B is side sectional fractional view of a cartridge according to a further embodiment of the invention. [0047] FIG. 35 is a perspective partial view of a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention. [0048] FIG. 36 is a perspective partial view of a cartridge according to an embodiment of the invention depicting a central channel impeded by a block member. [0049] FIG. 37 is a perspective partial view of a cartridge according to a further embodiment of the invention with a central channel that is partially impeded by an adjustable shutter and that schematically depicts air flow through the device. FIG. 38 isperspective partial view of a cartridge according to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 36 that schematically depicts air flow through the device. [0050] FIG. 39 is a perspective partial view of an alternative cartridge according to a further embodiment of the invention with iris valves in partially open position that schematically depicts air flow through the device. [0051] FIG. 40 is a perspective partial view of a cartridge according to the embodiment depicted in FIG. 39 with iris valves in fully open position and that schematically depicts air flow through the device. [0052] FIG. 41 is a perspective fractional front view of side panel members and servers that schematically depicts air flow through the device. [0053] FIG. 42 is a perspective fractional rear view of side panel members and servers that schematically depicts air flow through the device. [0054] FIG. 43 is a perspective partial view of a cartridge according to a further embodiment of the invention with a series of circular passages. [0055] FIG. 43A is a side sectional view of the cartridge embodiment depicted in FIG. 43 without the top seal member. [0056] FIG. 43B is a sectional view of a forward panel, a cartridge rail and server that illustrates the direction of airflow through the elements. [0057] FIG. 43C is a sectional view of a forward panel, a cartridge, a rail and server that illustrates the direction of airflow through the elements according to a further embodiment of the invention. [0058] FIG. 43D is a sectional view of a rearward panel, a cartridge, a rail and server that illustrates the direction of airflow through the elements according to an embodiment of the invention. [0059] FIG. 44 is a perspective partial view of a cartridge according to the embodiment of 43 with the passages obstructed. [0060] FIG. 45 is a perspective fractional view of a forward side panel depicting a plurality of different cartridges. [0061] FIG. 46 is a perspective view of a forward side panel depicting a plurality of different cartridges. [0062] FIG. 47 is a perspective view of a forward side panel in an alternative embodiment depicting a plurality of different cartridges. [0063] FIG. 48 is a perspective view of a forward side panel depicting a plurality of different cartridges that are all devoid of passages. [0064] FIG. 49 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the rack according to the invention with a full complement of servers. [0065] FIG. 50 is a perspective exploded view of an embodiment of the rack of the invention and depicting external paneling. [0066] FIG. 51 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the invention depicting a controller and external paneling. [0067] FIG. 52 is a perspective fractional top view of an embodiment of the invention with an air conditioner and air pump system with a schematic representation of an air flow system. [0068] FIG. 53 is a perspective fractional bottom view of an embodiment of the invention with a schematic representation of an air flow system with an air conditioner and air pump system. [0069] FIG. 54 is a perspective fractional front view of an embodiment of the invention wherein air is delivered from the side panel cartridge to the front of a server using a flexible hose. [0070] FIG. 55 is a top view of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 54 . [0071] FIG. 56 is a perspective fractional front view of an embodiment of the invention wherein air is delivered from the side panel cartridge to an opening in the top of a server using a flexible hose. [0072] FIG. 57 is a top view of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 54 . [0073] FIG. 58 is a perspective fractional front view of an embodiment of the invention wherein air is delivered from the rear of a server to a rear cartridge using a flexible hose. [0074] FIG. 59 is a top view of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 58 [0075] FIG. 60 is a perspective view of a further embodiment that uses two servers in a single rack unit and an alternative air flow configuration. [0076] FIG. 61 is a perspective view of a plurality of blade servers according to prior art. [0077] FIG. 62 is a perspective view of an alternative arrangement of blade servers according to the prior art. [0078] FIG. 63 is a front perspective fractional view of a chassis containing a number of blade servers according to an embodiment of the invention. [0079] FIG. 64 is a front perspective fractional view of a chassis containing a number of blade servers in multiple rows. [0080] FIG. 65 is a front fractional view of a chassis containing a number of blade servers according to an embodiment of the invention. [0081] FIG. 66 is a front perspective fractional view of a chassis containing a number of blade servers in multiple rows according to an embodiment of the invention. [0082] FIG. 67 is a schematic illustration of a system used according in connection with a data center. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0083] The forgoing description, including the accompanying drawings, is illustrated by way of example and is not to be construed as limitations with respect to the invention. Now referring to FIG. 1 , a prior art rack system is depicted that includes upright members and side members and is configured to receive a plurality of servers. [0084] FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B depicts aspects of an embodiment of the invention 200 including forward side panel 204 and 202 and rearward side panels 201 and 203 . As best seen in FIG. 2B the side panels have respective cavities 210 and 212 on their inner sides. The opposite side panels may be attached together by a rear member or rear panel or other transverse members that spans the opposite sidewalls of the device. [0085] Now referring to FIG. 3 , a further feature of embodiments of the invention includes use of a rail member 307 which is configured to be attached to server 305 . On the opposite side of the server is rail 309 which includes passages 315 and 322 which correspond with adjacent passages such as passages 310 and 320 that are located on the lateral sidewall 312 of the server 305 . FIG. 4 a is a top view of the invention illustrates how rails 307 and 309 engage server 305 using fasteners 410 , 411 and 412 on one side and 414 , 415 and 416 on the opposite side. FIG. 4 b depicts the rails attached to the server 305 . [0086] FIG. 5 shows a plurality of rails 307 , 308 and 309 that are secured to lateral panels 505 . These rails are configured to engage server 305 . FIG. 6 depicts the side panel 505 wherein server 305 is engaged with the panel at the top rail. [0087] FIG. 7 depicts an exploded view of the assembly of rack assembly components including side panel 505 , rails 307 and 309 and opposite side panel 702 . [0088] FIG. 8 is an embodiment of the invention holding server 305 between panels 505 and 702 . Server 305 slides along rails 307 and 309 which are affixed to the side panel sections 505 and 702 . [0089] FIG. 9 depicts how the server 305 slides in to the rack system from the front along the opposite rails 307 and 309 attached to panels 505 and 702 in an embodiment of the invention. [0090] FIG. 10 depicts assembly 1000 that includes a depiction of the air passages 1010 , 1011 , 1015 , and 1020 in the lateral side panels. In this embodiment there are plurality of cartridges provided in the side panels such as cartridges 1028 and 1025 and 1030 . A server is received in the rack member by sliding it in the direction illustrated along the opposite rails. [0091] FIG. 11 depicts the rack invention including server 305 in engagement with the rails in position. The panel depicts a series of cartridges attached and connected to the panel wherein the cartridges are designed to control the flow of air from the panel to the servers. [0092] FIG. 12 illustrates the airflow though the rack of the invention. Airflow enters the left and right side panels through passages that are provided on the top and bottom surface and passes from the front of the panel, through cartridges, through side and into a server. As best seen in FIG. 13 , air from the servers passes rearward and out passages in the sidewall back to a rear panel section. Air passes from the through passages provided on the top and bottom of the panels. [0093] Now referring to FIG. 14 , a two part rail member is depicted that includes passages 1450 and 1451 to allow for air flow and are located at the front of rail member 1400 and passages 1460 and 1461 near the opposite end. The two parts of the rail slide along one another to allow the rail to extend, such as that used in a conventional drawer. In embodiments the rails may include bearing and roller elements. Each end of rail 1400 has attachment sections 1480 and 1481 that are oriented perpendicular to the length of the rail element and includes fastening means to engage the upright members. The rail includes fastener elements 1420 , 1421 , and 1422 that engage the server. FIG. 15 , a top view of the rail 1400 , depicts the fastening members 1420 , 1421 and 1422 . As seen in FIG. 16 , the passages 1450 , 1451 , 1460 , & 1461 allow air flow though the rail. FIG. 17 depicts a rail with the forward member fully extended. [0094] FIG. 18 depicts panel 1800 that includes a front hollow upright member 1825 and rear upright member 1850 that frame panel 1828 . Panel 1800 includes passages 1830 that allows airflow into the panel member. Along the inside surface of panel are a series of electrical contact pins 1840 that are designed to receive the cartridge members. FIG. 19 depicts panel 1800 illustrating the bottom surface 1905 that includes a services of passages such as passages 1910 , 1911 , 1913 , and 1914 that allow air flow into the panel. In embodiments, interior horizontal surface 1980 of the panel is provided with an elastomeric material on the surface which can engage opposite surfaces of the cartridge and establish an air tight seal. Vertical surface 1940 has a series of contact pins 1945 that can establish an electrical connection with the cartridge members. Like surface 1980 , in embodiments, the surface 1940 panel is provided with an elastomeric material on the surface which can engage opposite surfaces of the cartridge and establish an air tight seal. [0095] FIG. 20 is a top view of panel member 2100 showing openings 2140 , 2142 , and 2143 through top surface 2150 . The openings provide an entrance for air flow to a section of the panel member. [0096] FIGS. 21 and 22 are top sectional view of panel 2100 that shows how cartridge is received in the panel. In this regard, the cartridge is retained in place by pins 2165 and 2166 which engage upright members 2168 and 2169 located in the lateral panel. The assembly creates a void 2159 behind the cartridge. FIG. 22 depicts a top section view of the engagement of the cartridge with a side panel member 2100 . [0097] FIG. 24 includes a side view of a series of different cartridges 2410 , 2412 , 2414 , and 2416 that have passages through their respective lateral sides that are at different locations. The cartridges are designed to complement different servers that may be used in the rack system. Cartridge 2416 is depicted in engagement with side panel member 2400 . It is in electrical connection to a central bus 2455 by control wire 2450 that is routed through a cavity in the side portion of panel 2400 . The cavity within the side panel is covered by plate 2420 or plate 2425 . FIG. 23 is a front view of member 2482 and surface 2302 depicts holes provided for attachment of the rails members. Flange section 2480 is provided for attachment to the supporting frame for the rack system. [0098] FIG. 25 depicts a side view of an exemplary panel containing a plurality of cartridges, such as cartridges 2510 , 2511 , 2512 , and 2513 . In addition, FIG. 25 depicts an alternative configuration of cover plates to 2420 or 2425 . [0099] FIG. 26 depicts a rearward side panel 2600 designed to be used in the rack system of the invention. Like the front panel, rearward panel includes a series of vertical passages 2620 , 2621 , 2622 , and 2623 though top surface 2605 of panel 2600 . The passages terminate in the recess region 2608 defined by upright members 2630 and 2631 and horizontal members 2635 and 2636 and rear flat section 2618 . The panel 2600 is attached to the supporting frame for the rack using flange member 2675 . At the rear of the section, upright post member 2650 provides additional structural support for the panel. As shown in FIG. 27 , panel 2600 also includes passages through the lower member 2635 such as passage 2620 . A series of connector pins 2615 is provided on upright member 2631 for engagement to the cartridges. [0100] Now referring to FIGS. 28-30 an exemplary iris control valve is shown. The valve includes movable panel 2804 that can be opened and closed to define different sized openings that are retained by an annular ring 2802 . [0101] FIG. 31 depicts cartridge assembly 3100 that includes a control switch 1301 which can be used to slide the pin members into or out of the panel to lock the cartridges into place. In embodiments, a control value is manually manipulated to selectively open and close the values 1340 , 1341 , 1342 and 1343 . In further contemplated embodiments, valves may be opened and closed using a sliding planar sheet that covers the passage. In yet further embodiment the cartridge may use a motorized screw gear that may be controlled by a rotating handle at the top of the panel attached to an extended threaded rod and the rotational movement of the rod is translated to rectilinear motion. In yet a further embodiment the cartridge may use a servo-motor that may be connected to the iris valve selector arm by a connecting rod. In embodiments, on the ends of the cartridge are spring biased contact pins such as pin 1310 that is designed to engage the lateral interior side surfaces of forward or rearward panel members. As seen in FIG. 33 , sensor 1391 is designed to detect the presence of an adjacent server. In an embodiment, the sensor includes is an infrared light 1320 and photo detector 1356 wherein light is reflected from a reflective surface provided on the server can be detected. When the server is present opposite the detector infrared light is reflected off of a surface on the server and impinges on the photo detector. The photo detector then sends a signal via wire 1371 to controller 1348 which in turn can provide a signal to open the valves, such as valve 1340 , on the cartridge opposite the sever and allow air to flow. [0102] In yet further contemplated embodiments the sensor can communicate with the server transmitted by the server, such as a signal containing information relating to the internal temperature of the server components. This signal is transmitted to the controller and may be further related to the processor associated with a server rack. The server rack processor received data from the various servers and the status of the valves that are associated with the cartridges. As discussed below the processor may be configured to communicate with a remote computer that may include a display that allows for remote monitoring and control by an administrator and alerts that provide information that relates to the status of the respective servers. Such communication may employ an Ethernet connection, USB connection, other cabling, or using wireless technology. [0103] As best seen in FIG. 33 , pin 1310 is also connected to the controller 1348 which can bring power and control signals from an external source. Contact member 1340 is on the opposite end of the cartridge 3300 from pin 1310 . Contact member 1340 engages its adjacent side panel in order to complete a power circuit. The contact surfaces along the side surface and top interior surfaces are made of an elastomeric material and, when the cartridges are in an engaged position with the panel, an air tight seal is established wherein a cavity formed in the panel behind the cartridges can be pressurized. [0104] Controller 1348 is attached to valves 1340 , 1341 , 1342 , and 1343 . In an embodiment, sensor 1319 includes an infrared light source and photo detector and will send a signal to the controlled reflecting the presence of absence of a server opposite the sensor. If a server is present, the valves will be opened. If no server is detected opposite the sensor, the valves remain closed. [0105] Now referring to FIG. 34 , cartridge 3300 is shown opposite side members 2168 and 2169 . [0106] FIG. 34B depicts a further embodiment wherein the cartridge includes a reservoir 3412 (not shown to scale) which contains an inert gas under pressure that can be used for fire suppression. Reservoir 3412 is connected to a valve 3414 by tubular passage 3413 . Valve 3414 controls the regulation of the inert gas into one of the passageways through cartridge 3400 . Valve 3414 is controlled by controller 3401 and, in embodiments, a temperature control sensor in communication with the central controller can send a signal indicative of temperature. The central controller is programmed to send a signal to local controller 3401 over wire 3415 when the temperature within a server has rapidly increased thereby reflecting a possible fire event. [0107] FIG. 35 depicts air flow through an exemplary cartridge 3500 that includes valves 3505 , 3511 , 3512 , and 3513 in a partially-opened position. As shown in FIG. 36 an alternative embodiment of the cartridge 3600 depicts cavity 3608 that may receive removable insert 3610 that functions to block airflow through the cartridge. In a further embodiment, depicted in FIG. 37 and cartridge 3700 , a movable flap 3709 is provided to regulate air flow. As depicted the shutter 3709 or shutter is mounted for pivotal movement and only allows flow through gap 3707 . In embodiments shutter is 3709 is incrementally opened using a stepper motor that can incrementally adjust the position of the shutter and correspondingly incrementally adjust the size of the opening. In other embodiments the shutter can be manually adjusted. It is contemplated that this cartridge design may be used with a server that has corresponding rectangular passages on the lateral sidewall (not shown). Referring to FIG. 38 , the shutter is depicted in a fully opened position and the gap or opening is defined by space 3809 . In this position the air flow through the cartridge is maximized. [0108] FIG. 39 illustrates a fractional view of a cartridge 3900 having a series of valves 3910 , 3911 , 3912 , and 3913 in a partially open position and depicts the direction of airflow through the valves. FIG. 40 depicts valves 3910 , 3911 , 3912 , and 3913 in a fully open position wherein the air flow is increased. [0109] FIG. 41 is a sectional view of a front section of a rack system and server depicting air flow first into the received cavity section 4105 of panel 4100 from both the lower and upper directions. Air flows into passage 4120 , through a rail section (not shown) and into server 4150 . Another flow path that is illustrated travels from the panel cavity 4105 through passage 4125 that is provided through cartridge 4109 . Air introduced in the front of servers 4150 and 4151 cools components within the servers and flows rearward. As shown in FIG. 42 , air flows from the front of server 4150 passes through passage 4195 that is provided though cartridge 4185 and into panel cavity section 4205 . From the rear cavity 4205 the air flows either upwardly or downwardly to the passages in the top and bottom of the rearward side panel section. [0110] FIG. 43 depicts an embodiment of a cartridge member 4300 having a plurality of passages 4310 , 4311 , 4312 , and 4313 depicted in an open position. In this embodiment there is a sealing member 4370 received in a groove 4325 provided along the top surface of the cartridge member 4300 . Sealing member 4370 designed to engage the bottom surface of an adjacent cartridge or a top horizontal member of a panel and form an air tight seal. Sealing member 4370 can be raised and lowered via a mechanical connection with member 4380 . When member 4380 is in the retracted position, pins 4381 and 4382 will be retracted along with seal 4370 being lowered. When member 4380 is in the engaged position, pins 4381 and 4382 will be moved forward and seal 4370 will be in the raised position. The bottom of the cartridge is also provided with a lower groove 4330 that can be received the top of a cartridge positioned under cartridge 4300 . In this embodiment a flat blocking member 4330 is provided within the cartridge 4300 which can be controlled by engagement of member 4345 to laterally slide the member to block the passages and thereby impede the flow of air through the cartridge. In this embodiment pin 4381 and pin 4382 are spring biased and can be retracted by sliding control lever 4380 in a lateral direction. Upon release of the lever, the pins may be received in opposite openings provided on the side panel members to retain the cartridge members in place. In FIG. 43A , blocking member 4330 is depicted retained within opposite grooves 4351 and 4352 provided in the interior top surface 4370 and bottom interior surface 4372 of the cartridge 4300 and engaged to allow for movement within the grooves. [0111] FIG. 43B depicts a sectional view of an assembly that includes the planar sheet member 4105 that defines a void region through which air flows into the rear of a cartridge 4110 . The cartridge includes a top sealing member 4370 that is comprised of a resilient material which is provided to assist with forming a seal with an adjacent cartridge. The air flow is interfered by member 4351 which will slide to open and close a passage 4310 that allows air flow to server 4150 . The rail member is depicted as two part member 307 and 308 through which is provided with a passage to allow for air flow from cartridge 4110 to server 4150 . [0112] FIG. 43C depicts a further embodiment that include annular seal ring member 4398 . In this embodiment an annular fabric shroud will axially extend from the annular ring 4399 provided at the junction of air passages and, in response to air flow, shroud 4399 is radially displaced to seal the junction between the components. As such when air flows, the shroud fills the gap between the cartridge, rail, and server. [0113] FIG. 43D schematically depicts air flow from server 4150 to a rear panel. Like the embodiment depicted in FIG. 43C , the embodiment includes annular seal member 3488 and shroud member 4389 that, in response to air flow is displaced to minimize the air loss through the interface between server 4150 , rail members 307 and 308 and cartridge 4162 . [0114] FIG. 44 depicts cartridge 4300 wherein the blocking member 4330 has been moved to close the passages 4310 , 4311 , 4312 , and 4313 and the pins 4381 and 4382 are depicted in a retracted position. In embodiments, the seal is mechanically lifted by rotation of a cam member that alternatively lowers and raises a seal member such as seal member 4370 . In yet alternative embodiments, the resilient member is spring biased and can be displaced downwardly upon assembly. In yet further embodiments, a mechanical switch is provided that lifts and mechanically locks the resilient member by lateral movement of a switch extension that is accessible through an L shaped opening. FIG. 45 illustrates a side panel assembly 4500 including a plurality of cartridges such as cartridges 4550 and 4551 that span upright member 4521 and upright member 4520 . The rear surface of the cartridges define a front surface of an internal cavity of the panel. Adjacent to upright member 4521 is an upright front post member 4575 that is provided to support the servers and rails of the device. [0115] FIG. 46 depicts a completely assembled forward panel including upright front post member 4575 , section and cartridges such as 4558 , 4559 , 4560 . FIG. 47 depicts an alternative assembly that includes a number of cartridges that are devoid of valves and passages. FIG. 48 depicts a further alternative assembly where the cartridges that were selected include no valves or passages. Thus FIGS. 47 and 48 illustrate alternative configurations of cartridges that may be used with the invention. As best seen in FIG. 47 , the cartridges may have different vertical dimensions to conform the vertical dimension of a server. In addition, in embodiments cartridges may have different lateral placement of the iris valves and passages to conform to the needs of differing servers and network equipment. [0116] FIG. 49 depicts a server assembly with a full complement of single rack unit servers. [0117] As shown in FIG. 50 , the server rack assembly and servers are optionally enclosed in a cabinet 5000 that includes side exterior panels 5005 and 5006 , top exterior panel 5025 and bottom exterior panel 5008 . All of the quarter panels are attached to an intermediate frame to be fully supported. The entire rack is elevated from a support surface by legs 5020 or 5021 or, alternatively, on casters. The top panel is provided with passages that allow air to flow to the forward panel 5012 and rearward panel 5010 that is contained within exterior panels. Additional passages, not pictured, may be added to 5008 and 5025 for power, network cables, and other cabling. [0118] Referring now to FIG. 51 , an assembled rack system 5100 includes exterior side panels 5008 and 5009 that contain the side forward panels and rearward side panels. [0119] In embodiments, there are front and rear doors provided that can be used to close and lock the whole rack. In further embodiments, the panels used are insulated. Again referring to FIG. 51 , the top of the device includes front top passages 5121 and 5130 that communicate with the forward lateral side panels. Next to the inlet passages 5121 and 5130 are pressure relief valves 5128 and 5131 . When the pressure in the system exceeds a predetermined pressure, the values will release air to the atmosphere and prevent damage to components of the system. Similar pressure relief values 5138 and 5142 are located in the rear panel. On the top of the panel is a controller 5150 that is in communication with the cartridges via wires 5140 . [0120] A top view of a rack device 5200 is depicted in FIG. 52 that includes an air conditioner 5204 that provides cool air to top inlet passages in forward panels thought conduits 5220 and 5223 . Air, after it has passed through a server, flows to the rearward panels and may exit through top passages 5282 and 5285 . Air exiting the panels is then directed through conduits 5228 and 5229 to pump 5229 that maintains negative pressure in the exhaust system and moves the air from the forward panels, through the servers and out to the rearward panels. Air from the pump may be transferred back to the air conditioner through passages (not shown) for recirculation through the system. [0121] As shown in FIG. 53 the bottom surface 5310 of a rack system 5300 receives cool air from air conditioner 5340 from conduits 5325 . Air is vented from the system through conduits 5329 and 5330 . A pump 5345 is provided that creates and maintains negative pressure in the exhaust air flow system and may transfer air back through passages (not shown) to the air conditioner. [0122] In embodiments, the system includes a controller and servo motor that can adjust the flow parameters depending on the temperature of the server or group of servers. In further embodiments, the system includes a control board that includes a small circuit board with an Ethernet communications port for communication with the servers, a valve controller, air conditioner, heat pump, and a remote central monitoring and control location. [0123] Referring now to FIG. 54 , in a further embodiment 5400 air is directed from a cartridge member 5410 to openings provided in the front panel 5412 of server 5415 using flexible tubular members 5420 , 5421 , and 5422 . The depiction includes panels 5428 and 5429 that receive the cartridges that are described herein, FIG. 55 depicts a top view of the system described above and includes the flexible tubes 5420 , 5421 , and 5422 that are depicted extending past the front edge of the server 5417 . [0124] In another embodiment of the invention that is depicted in FIG. 56 , air is distributed from cartridge member 5602 through flexible tubular members 5620 , 5621 , and 5622 to openings on the top of a server 5615 . In this embodiment, server 5615 only extends one half the distance of the server rack. FIG. 57 , a top view of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 56 , shows conduits that extend from the lateral panel 5627 to the top of server 5615 . Now referring to FIG. 58 , a further aspect of the invention is depicted wherein air is removed or vented from the rear of server 5905 using flexible hoses or tubular members to cartridge 5930 in rear panel 5908 . As seen in FIG. 59 , the air is directed from server 5905 to the rear panel section 5908 using tubular members 5917 , 5916 and 5915 . [0125] FIG. 60 depicts a schematic representation of an alternative air flow arrangement in a further embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment servers 6011 and 6012 are attached to the same vertical location that is in turn attached to the front side panel 6005 and rear side panel 6006 . Also shown are servers 6010 and 6009 that are also attached to the front side panel opposite 6005 and rear side panel opposite 6006 using conventional a rack mount hardware. Air from cartridges provided in the front panel 6005 and rear panel 6006 flows laterally into the servers 6009 , 6010 , 6011 , and 6012 and exits the servers through openings such as openings 6025 , 6076 , 6027 and 6078 . The openings are on the opposite sides of the servers and passages on cartridges (not shown) provided on lateral panels (not shown) that are opposite panels 6005 and 6006 and which receive from the servers and distribute the air out of the panels. [0126] FIG. 61 is a depiction of prior art blade server system 6100 wherein a plurality of server blades 6121 , 6122 , 6123 , 6124 , 6125 , 6126 , 6127 and 6128 are oriented in a vertical direction and contained in an external housing 6110 . External hosing 6110 is designed to be received in server rack. FIG. 62 depicts a further alternative wherein an external housing 6120 encloses a plurality of servers such as 6221 and 6222 . Blade server system 6200 includes two rows of vertically oriented servers. FIG. 63 depicts an embodiment of the invention adapted to provide cool air to and remove air from vertically oriented blade servers. Here, conduit 6320 is connected to a cartridge according to one of the embodiments of the invention discussed above and direct air to an opening provided on the top surface of server 6301 . Air is removed from server 6301 using hollow tubular conduit 6328 which is directed air to a cartridge provided in rearward lateral panel as described above. FIG. 63 therefore depicts a server device in which each of the serves 6301 , 36302 , 6303 , 6304 6307 , 6308 , 6309 and 6310 are provided with air flow to and from the server. These conduits pass through the external casing 6340 that retains the servers and then direct the air laterally. [0127] FIG. 64 depicts a further embodiment 6400 wherein hollow tubular cooling conduits such as 6420 and 6421 provide airflow into servers 6401 and 6402 . Air is removed from the servers in a similar manner as described with respect to the embodiment 6300 depicted herein. [0128] FIG. 65 depicts a blade server arrangement 6500 wherein air is distributed to servers through openings on their bottom surfaces through tubular conduits 6530 , 6531 , 6532 , 6533 , 6534 , 6535 , 6536 and 6537 . Air is removed from the servers using tubular conduits 6538 , 6539 , 6540 , 6541 , 6542 , 6543 and 6544 and is directed laterally wherein it can be received by cartridge members as described herein provided on lateral panels. In a further embodiment 6600 depicted in FIG. 66 , a row of blade servers includes multiple rows of servers oriented vertically. Air is provided to servers on a lower row using through tubular conduits such as 6630 and 6631 . These conduits provide air flow from lateral sides of the device 6600 and deliver the air to the bottom surface of severs. Air is removed from the servers using similar conduits and directed laterally. [0129] In further embodiments (not shown), fans are provided in the cartridges to assist with air flow to the servers and to assist with the removal of air from the servers. In yet other embodiments the fans may be provided in connection with the intake openings and exhaust opening in the panels, or along the conduits that provide for air handling to and from the panels. [0130] FIG. 67 is a schematic view of an embodiment wherein a plurality of racks 6705 are positioned in a building structure 6701 to constitute a server facility or data center. The data center includes a central controller 6730 that may be in proximity to the data center or in remote communication. The system optionally includes an air conditioner system that includes conventional exterior components 6710 such as a compressor, condenser element and a fan and interior components 6711 that include fans, evaporator coils, and an expansion device for the coolant used in the system. The system may also include heat pump technology including interior components 6721 (not shown) which may include a blower, an expansion device, and an exterior coil and conventional exterior components 6720 including a compressor, check valves, an expansion device, exterior coils and a fan. [0131] In yet further embodiments, a variety of rails members are provided in connection with the rack systems to receive different server models, wherein the rails have different designs with different passages to complement the passages in different servers. [0132] It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the embodiment have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the embodiment, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in the matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the present disclosure to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed. [0133] Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred versions thereof, other versions would be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred versions contained herein. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY [0134] The present invention permits the efficient cooling of computer equipment, particularly aggregated computer equipment confined to enclosed spaces. The power use of server farms, co-location facilities, and other data centers that specialize in providing computation and storage availability are using a sizeable percentage of available electricity. Much of this power use is related, not only to operating the computer equipment, but also cooling the computer equipment. The present invention represents a substantial advance in the effectiveness of cooling this equipment in way that does not require the substantial modifications to facilities, and allows a modular and upgradable solution.

Disclosed is system, method, and rack stand portion for the advantageous cooling of computer equipment 305 . The rack stand 200 includes a hollow body 210, 212 that may be formed of cartridges 2416 . Gas from an airflow source 5204 is guided into the rack stand body and then into a sealed case of the computer equipment. Air flow is then guided out of the computer equipment for recirculation, exhaust, or other purpose.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to image processing apparatus and method, and more particularly relates to image processing method and apparatus which perform correction according to an observation condition, and a recording medium. 2. Related Background Art FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing general color matching. Input data (R, G and B data) is converted into X, Y and Z data in a color space independent of a device by an input profile. Since color outside a color reproduction range of an output device can not be represented by this output device, color gamut mapping is performed to the input data converted into the device-independent color space data such that all colors can be held within the color reproduction range of this output device. After the color gamut mapping is performed, the input data in the device-independent color space is converted into C, M, Y and K data in a color space dependent on the output device. In the color matching, a standard white point and environment light are fixed. For example, in a profile defined by ICC (International Color Consortium), a PCS (profile connection space) for connecting profiles is represented by XYZ values and Lab values based on reference light D 50 . For this reason, when an input original and a printed output are observed under a light source of D 50 characteristic, correct color reproduction is guaranteed. However, the correct color reproduction is not guaranteed under light sources of other characteristics. In a case where an identical sample (e.g., an image) is observed under the different light sources, the XYZ values for the observed sample are naturally different from others. Thus, in order to predict the XYZ values under the different light sources, there are various conversion methods such as (1) a ratio conversion method, (2) a Von Kries conversion method, (3) a prediction expression method based on a color perception model, and the like. In the ratio conversion method, in order to convert the XYZ values under a standard white point W1 into the XYZ values under a standard white point W2, ratio conversion of W2/W1 is performed. If this method is applied to an Lab uniform color space, an Lab value under the standard white point W1 coincides with an Lab value under the standard white point W2. For example, if the XYZ values of a sample under the standard white point W1(X W 1, Y W 1, Z W 1) are assumed to (X1, Y1, Z1) and the XYZ values of a sample under the standard white point W2(X W 2, Y W 2, Z W 2) are assumed to (X2, Y2, Z2), the following relation can be obtained by the ratio conversion method. X 2=( X W 2 /X W 1)· X 1 Y 2=( Y W 2 /Y W 1)· Y 1 Z 2=( Z W 2 /Z W 1)· Z 1  (1) In the Von Kries conversion method, in order to convert the XYZ values under the standard white point W1 into the XYZ values under the standard white point W2, ratio conversion of W2′/W1′ is performed in a human's color perception space PQR. If this method is applied to the Lab uniform color space, the Lab value under the standard white point W1 does not coincide with the Lab value under the standard white point W2. For example, if the XYZ values of a sample under the standard white point W1(X W 1, Y W 1, Z W 1) are assumed to (X1, Y1, Z1) and the XYZ values of a sample under the standard white point W2(X W 2, Y W 2, Z W 2) are assumed to (X2, Y2, Z2), the following relation can be obtained by the Von Kries conversion method. [ X2 Y2 Z2 ] = [ inv_Mat ] ⁢ [ P W ⁢ 2 / P W ⁢ 100 OQ W ⁢ 2 / Q W ⁢ 10 OOR W ⁢ 2 / R W ⁢ 1 ] ⁢ [ Mat ] ⁢ [ X1 Y1 Z1 ] ( 2 ) however, [ P W ⁢ 2 Q W ⁢ 2 R W ⁢ 2 ] = [ Mat ] ⁢ [ X W ⁢ 2 Y W ⁢ 2 Z W ⁢ 2 ] ( 3 ) [ P W ⁢ 1 Q W ⁢ 1 R W ⁢ 1 ] = [ Mat ] ⁢ [ X W ⁢ 1 Y W ⁢ 1 Z W ⁢ 1 ] ( 4 ) [ inv_Mat ] = [ 1.85995 - 1.12939 0.21990 0.36119 0.63881 0 0 0 1.08906 ] ( 5 ) [ Mat ] = [ 0.44024 0.70760 - 0.08081 - 0.22630 1.16532 0.04570 0 0 0.91822 ] ( 6 ) In the prediction expression method based on the color perception model, in order to convert the XYZ values in an observation condition VC1 (including the standard white point W1) into the XYZ values in an observation condition VC2 (including the standard white point W2), for example, such the conversion is performed in a human's color perception space QMH (or JCH) such as CIE CAM97s. Here, in the human's color perception space QMH, symbol “Q” represents brightness, symbol “M” represents colorfulness, and symbol “H” represents a hue quadrature or a hue angle. In the human's color perception space JCH, symbol “J” represents lightness, symbol “C” represents chroma, and symbol “1” represents a hue quadrature or a hue angle. If this method is applied to the Lab uniform color space, as well as the Von Kries conversion method, the Lab value under the standard white point W1 does not coincide with the Lab value under the standard white point W2. For example, if the XYZ values of a sample under the standard white point W1(X W 1, Y W 1, Z W 1) are assumed to (X1, Y1, Z1) and the XYZ values of a sample under the standard white point W2(X W 2, Y W 2, Z W 2) are assumed to (X2, Y2, Z2), the following conversion is performed by the prediction expression method based on the color perception model. ( X 1 , Y 1 , Z 1)→[CIE CAM97s forward conversion] →( Q,M,H ) or ( J,C,H ) →[CIE CAM97s inverse conversion]→( X 2 , Y 2 , Z 2) Namely, if it is assumed that the XYZ values under the different reference standard white points can be converted by the ratio conversion method, an equal-interval hue line of the Lab color space under the different standard white point is always constant. However, when human's color perception is considered as in the Von Kries conversion method and the prediction expression method based on the color perception model, the equal-interval hue line of the Lab color space under the different standard white point is different according to the standard white point. Because of the above reason, in the color matching between the different standard white points, when color gamut mapping (hue conservation) defined in the identical Lab color space is applied, it might be felt by human's sight that hue is not constant. Further, in the current ICC profile, since the PCS is limited to the XYZ values and the Lab values based on the reference light D 50 , it is impossible to perform the color matching corresponding to the environment light. Further, there is a method that color not depending on the PCS and the device is represented by an RGB space which can be linearly converted from the XYZ space by a 3×3 matrix. However, when such the conversion matrix is fixed by the standard white point, there is following problems. Namely, when the colors under the different standard white points are converted by the conversion matrix under which the standard white point is fixed, overflow and underflow occur in the device-independent RGB space, whereby there is some fear that some colors (especially, colors in the vicinity of a white point) can not be represented. In a three-dimensional LUT (look-up table) for which the device-independent RGB space is used as an input color space, when grays under the different standard white points are input, since these grays are not on a diagonal axis of the three-dimensional LUT, linear interpolation using three or more lattice points is performed in tetrahedron interpolation, whereby there is some fear that color misregistration occurs. Further, when a linear model such as the Von Kries conversion method or the like is used to predict the XYZ values under the different light sources, gray (achromatic color) under an input-side standard white point is converted into gray under an output-side standard white point. However, when a nonlinear model such as a color adaptation equation (CIE CAT94), a color perception model (CIE CAM97s) or the like is used, there is a case where the gray converted in the color matching does not represent the gray under the output-side standard white point. Here, the gray under the standard color point represents a set of colors having the same chromaticity as that of the standard white point. Generally, a generation probability of the gray under the standard white point is extremely low in a natural image but very high in a graphics image. For this reason, since reproducibility of the gray becomes especially important when the graphics image on a monitor is printed, a specific process is frequently performed to the gray so as to improve the reproducibility. When the gray converted by using the nonlinear model such as the color perception model or the like does not represent the gray under the output-side standard white point, it is difficult to detect the gray by the output-side profile, whereby it is impossible to perform the specific process of, e.g., allocating gray of a printer device to the gray under the output-side standard white point. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to be able to excellently and satisfactorily perform color reproduction to achromatic color even under different observation conditions. In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, it is provided an image processing method which inputs a color image signal and corrects the input color image signal according to an observation condition, comprising the steps of: judging whether or not the input color image signal represents achromatic color; and controlling the correction according to the judged result. Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the attached drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing general color matching; FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a concept of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional structure example of the first embodiment; FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a process example of restructuring a conversion LUT corresponding to environment light; FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a process example of updating the conversion LUT corresponding to environment light; FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a process example of performing color gamut mapping in a JCH color space or a QMH color space; FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a dodecahedron approaching a color reproduction area; FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams showing a concept of color gamut mapping in a JCH color perception space; FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams showing a concept of color gamut mapping in the QMH color perception space; FIGS. 10A and 10B are diagrams showing a concept of color gamut mapping to be performed between different devices; FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing a process example of restructuring a conversion LUT corresponding to environment light; FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a concept of a color matching process; FIG. 13 is a flow chart for explaining a color perception model used in the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an RGB area including a human's entire visible area; FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a dislocation of a gray axis in a case where a standard white point is fixed; FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example in which a CRGB color space according to an input-side standard white point and a CRGB color space according to an output-side standard white point are used in the present invention; and FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of gray compensation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an image processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the attached drawings. First, an example of CAM (color appearance model) in which a correction process according to an observation condition is performed will be explained. It is known that color perceived by a human's sight system is sometimes seen or viewed as different color according to ambient conditions such as difference of illumination light, a background of a stimulus, and the like, even if light entered into human's eyes is the same. For example, white irradiated by an incandescent lamp is not felt as red like a characteristic of light entered into the eyes. Further, when white in a black background is compared with white in a light background, the latter white is felt lighter. The former phenomenon is known as color adaptation, and the latter phenomenon is known as contrast. Therefore, it is necessary to represent color by a quantity corresponding to a degree of physiological revitalization of optic cells distributed like retina, whereby a color perception model is developed because of such a purpose. CIE (Commission Internationale de L'eclarage, International Commission Illumination) recommends use of CIE CAM97s. This color perception model uses physiological three principles of chromatic vision (color sense). For example, it is thought that the values of J (lightness), C (chroma) and H (hue), or Q (brightness), M (colorfulness) and H (hue) which are color perception correlative quantities calculated by CIE CAM97s represent a color display method independent of an observation condition. When color reproduction is performed such that the values of J, C and H or the values of Q, M and H become coincident between the devices, it is possible to eliminate or solve a difference of observation conditions between input and output images. Process contents in forward conversion of the color perception model CIE CAM97s to perform a correction process (converting XYZ into JCH or QMH) according to the observation condition at a time when the input image is observed will be explained with reference to FIG. 13 . First, in a step S 160 , as observation condition information of the input image, luminance LA of adaptation field of view (cd/m 2 ; ordinarily 20% selected from the luminance of white in the adaptation field of view), relative tristimulus values XYZ of a sample in a light source condition, relative tristimulus values X W Y W Z W of white light in the light source condition, and relative luminance Yb of a background in the light source condition are set. Further, in a step S 170 , as observation condition information of the input image, a constant c of an ambient influence, a color induction coefficient Nc, a lightness contrast coefficient FLL and an adaptation coefficient F are set on the basis of an observation condition type designated in a step S 180 . Then, a following process is performed to the values XYZ representing the input image on the basis of the input image observation condition information set in the steps S 160 and S 170 . First, a Bradford cone response RGB is obtained by converting the values XYZ based on Bradford's three primary colors which are considered as human's physiological three primary colors (step S 100 ). Since human's sight is not always adapted completely to the observation light source, a variable D representing adaptation is obtained based on a luminance level and the ambient conditions (LA and F), and an imperfect adaptation process is performed to the response RGB based on the variable D and the values X W Y W Z W to obtain values RcGcBc (step S 110 ). Next, a Hunt-Pointer-Estevez cone response R′G′B′ is obtained by converting the values RcGcBc based on Hunt-Pointer-Estevez's three primary colors which are considered as human's physiological three primary colors (step S 120 ). Then, estimation of a degree of adaptation is performed to the response R′G′B′ according to a stimulus intensity level, thereby obtaining an adaptation cone response R′aG′aB′a according to both the sample and white (step S 130 ). In this step S 130 , non-linear response compression is performed by using a variable FL obtained based on the luminance LA of the adaptation field of view. Next, a following process is performed to obtain a correlation between the adaptation cone response R′aG′aB′a and sight. An opposite color response ab of red-green and yellow-blue is obtained from the adaptation cone response R′aG′aB′a (step S 140 ), and the hue H is obtained from the opposite color response ab and an eccentricity coefficient (step S 150 ). Further, a background induction coefficient n is obtained from the value Y W and the relative luminance Yb of the background, and achromatic color responses A and A W concerning both the sample and white are obtained by using the background induction coefficient n (step S 190 ). The lightness J is obtained on the basis of a coefficient z obtained from the background induction coefficient n and the lightness contrast coefficient FLL, the achromatic color responses A and A W , and the ambient influence constant c (step S 151 ). Further, saturation S is obtained based on the color induction coefficient Nc (step S 153 ), the chroma C is obtained based on the saturation S and the lightness J (step S 152 ), and brightness Q is obtained based on the lightness J and the white achromatic color response A W (step S 154 ). Further, the colorfulness M is obtained based on the variable FL and the ambient influence constant c (step S 155 ). Next, the embodiment that a profile is dynamically changed by using the correction process according to the above observation condition will be explained. In the present embodiment, a XYZ color space is used as a device-independent color space. In FIG. 2 , numeral 11 denotes a conversion matrix or a conversion LUT which converts data depending on an input device into the device-independent color space based on a white point standard of input-side environment light, numeral 12 denotes a color perception model forward conversion unit (CAM) which converts the data obtained from the conversion LUT 11 into a human's color perception color space JCh or QMh, numeral 13 denotes the relative color perception space JCh (or JCH) for the standard white of the environment light, numeral 14 denotes the absolute color perception space QMh (or QMH) of which size is changed according to an illumination level, numeral 15 denotes an inverse conversion unit of the color perception model which converts the human's color perception space JCh or QMh into the device-independent color space data based on a white point standard of output-side environment light, and numeral 16 denotes a conversion LUT which converts the data from the inverse conversion unit into color space data depending on an output device. Generally, the white point of the environment light under the observation condition is different from a white point of a standard light source at a time when a color chip such as a color target, a color patch or the like is color-measured. For example, a standard light source used in the color measurement is a light source D 50 or D 65 . However, environment light used in case of actually observing an image is not only the light sources D 50 and D 65 in a light booth but often also illumination light of an incandescent lamp or a fluorescent lamp, and mixture of illumination light and sun light. In the following, it is assumed that light source characteristics of the environment light under the observation condition are D 55 , D 65 and D 93 to simplify explanations. However, the XYZ values of the white point on a media are actually set as the white point. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional structure example of the present embodiment. In FIG. 3 , numeral 41 denotes a data generation unit which generates data depending on an input-side observation condition 1 , from an input profile 42 and the input-side observation condition 1 . Numeral 43 denotes a color gamut mapping mode selection unit which selects whether color gamut mapping is to be performed in a JCH color space or a QMH color space on the basis of user's designation or a profile designation. Numerals 44 and 45 denote color space compression units which perform the color gamut mapping to the data respectively in a JCH color perception space and a QMH color perception space on the basis of an output profile 46 . Numeral 47 denotes a data generation unit which generates data depending on an output-side observation condition 2 , from the output profile 46 and the output-side observation condition 2 . Numeral 48 denotes a color matching unit which performs color matching by using the data depending on the observation condition 1 , the color gamut mapping data, the data depending on the observation condition 2 and a color perception model. It is needless to say that the device for the present embodiment can be achieved by supplying software of achieving the function of FIG. 3 to a general-purpose computer device such as a personal computer. In this case, the software of achieving the function of the present embodiment may be included in an OS (operating system) of the computer device, or included in, e.g., driver software of input/output devices different from the OS of the computer device. The input device which is the target of the present embodiment includes various image input devices such as a shooting (or photographing) equipment, an image reader and the like. It should be noted that the shooting equipment includes a digital still camera, a digital video camera or the like, and the image reader includes an image scanner, a film scanner or the like. Further, the output device includes various image output devices such as a color monitor (a CRT, an LCD or the like), a color printer, a film recorder and the like. The input and output profiles used for the color matching are stored in a hard disk (HD). However, in addition to the HD, an optical disk such as a MO or the like can be used. Hereinafter, an example that the color matching is performed by using the input and output profiles will be explained. [Data Generation Depending on Observation Condition 1 ] The conversion LUT 11 is generated by using the data generation unit 41 . Here, there are two methods of generating the conversion LUT 11 . FIG. 4 shows an example of one method that the conversion LUT 11 corresponding to the environment light is restructured from the relation between the XYZ values (or the Lab values) of the color target and the RGB values of the input device. FIG. 5 shows an example of the other method that the conversion LUT of converting the device RGB space in the input profile 42 into the XYZ space is updated to the conversion LUT 11 corresponding to the environment light. FIG. 4 is the flow chart showing a process example of restructuring the conversion LUT 11 corresponding to the environment light. In a step S 51 , a profile which was designated by a user is read from the input profile 42 to restructure the conversion LUT 11 corresponding to the environment light. In the input profile 42 , XYZ→RGB relation data which correlates the XYZ values (or the Lab values) of the color target with the device RGB values at the time when this color target is read by one input device has been prestored. In a step S 52 , the XYZ→RGB relation data is fetched from the profile. Since the observation condition 1 has been also prestored in the profile, this observation condition 1 is fetched from the profile in a step S 53 . Since the XYZ values of the XYZ→RGB relation data fetched in the step S 52 are the data based on the standard light D 50 or D 65 at the time when the color target is measured, it is necessary to correct the XYZ values based on the measured color light source into the XYZ values based on the environment light. In a step S 54 , the XYZ values based on the measured color light source are converted into the human's color perception space JCH on the basis of the color perception model according to the D 50 light source white point “case based on D 50 ” being the color measurement condition, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like. Then, the obtained values are inverse-converted into the XYZ values on the basis of the color perception model according to, e.g., the D 60 light source white point being the observation condition 1 different from the color measurement condition, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like, thereby obtaining the XYZ values based on the environment light. Thus, since the relation between the XYZ values based on the environment light and the device RGB values can be obtained, an RGB→XYZ conversion matrix based on RGB→XYZ relation data is formed in a step S 55 , and the obtained data is optimized by a repetition method or the like, whereby the conversion LUT 11 corresponding to the environment light can be obtained. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a process example of updating the conversion LUT 11 corresponding to the environment light. It should be noted that the steps in which the same process as those in FIG. 4 are performed are added with the same symbols as those in FIG. 4 , and the detailed explanation thereof is omitted. Generally, since the conversion matrix (colorant tag) or the conversion LUT (AtoB 0 tag) for performing the RGB→XYZ conversion has been stored in an ICC profile for the input device, the RGB→XYZ relation data is fetched from the profile in a step S 62 . When the relation between the XYZ values based on the environment light and the device RGB values is obtained in the step S 54 , then the conversion matrix (colorant tag) or the conversion LUT (AtoB 0 tag) in the profile are updated in a step S 66 , whereby the conversion LUT 11 corresponding to the environment light can be obtained. Generally, the conversion matrix (colorant tag) or the conversion LUT (AtoB 0 tag) for performing the RGB→XYZ conversion has been stored in the ICC profile for the input device. Further, although the examples of using the RGB→XYZ relation data were explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 , the present embodiment is not limited to this. Namely, other device-independent color data such as RGB→Lab relation data and the like can be used. [Color Gamut Mapping Mode Selection and Color Gamut Mapping] The color gamut mapping mode is selected by a user through a user interface or automatically selected by “Rendering Intent” in the header of the source-side profile. Namely, this mode is automatically selected on the basis of the profile, as follows. “Perceptual” color gamut mapping mode in JCH color space “Relative Colorimetric” color gamut mapping mode in JCH color space “Saturation” color gamut mapping mode in JCH color space “Absolute Colorimetric” color gamut mapping mode in QMH color space Namely, the JCH color perception space 13 is selected in case of the relative color matching, while the QMH color perception space 14 is selected in case of the absolute color matching. FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a process example of performing the color gamut mapping in the JCH color perception space 13 or the QMH color perception space 14 . In a step S 81 , a profile which was designated by the user is read from the output profile 46 to perform the color gamut mapping in the color perception space. Generally, a judgment LUT (gamut tag) to which the XYZ values or the Lab values are input has been stored in the output-device ICC profile in order to judge whether the input data is inside or outside the color reproduction area (simply called color reproduction area inside/outside judgment). However, since the XYZ values are based on the light source D 50 or D 65 being the characteristic of the color measurement light source, it is impossible to directly use such the XYZ values for the color reproduction area inside/outside judgment according to the environment light. Therefore, CMYK→XYZ relation data is fetched and used from a conversion LUT (AtoB 0 tag or the like) for performing CMYK→XYZ conversion stored in the profile, instead of the LUT (gamut tag) for performing the color reproduction area inside/outside judgment (step S 82 ). Since the observation condition 2 has been also prestored in the output profile, this observation condition 2 is fetched from the profile in a step S 83 . Since the XYZ values of the CMYK→RGB relation data fetched in the step S 82 are the data based on the standard light D 50 or D 65 being the color measurement light, it is necessary to correct such the XYZ values into the XYZ values based on the environment light. In a step S 84 , the XYZ values based on the measured color light are converted into the human's color perception space JCH on the basis of the color perception model according to the D 50 light source white point “case based on D 50 ” being the color measurement condition, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like. Then, the obtained values are inverse-converted into the XYZ values on the basis of the observation condition 2 , e.g., the D 65 light source white point, being different from the color measurement condition, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like, thereby obtaining the XYZ values based on the environment light. Thus, in the step S 84 , the relation between the XYZ values based on the environment light and the device CMYK values is obtained. In a step S 85 , the color reproduction range of the output device in the color perception space JCH or QMH is obtained on the basis of the CMYK→XYZ (based on the environment light) relation data obtained in the step S 84 . The color reproduction range of the output device in the color perception space JCH or QMH is obtained as follows. For example, the XYZ values based on the environment light for eight points, i.e., red (C:0%, M:100%, Y:100%, K:0%), yellow (C:0%, M:0%, Y:100%, K:0%), green (C:100%, M:0%, Y:100%, K:0%), cyan (C:100%, M:0%, Y:0%, K:0%), blue (C:100%, M:100%, Y:0%, K:0%), magenta (C:0%, M:100%, Y:0%, K:0%), white (C:0%, M:0%, Y:0%, K:0%), and black (C:0%, M:0%, Y:0%, K:100%) are obtained by using the CMYK→XYZ (based on the environment light) relation data obtained in the step S 84 , and the obtained data is converted into the coordinate values of the human's color perception space JCH or QMH based on the observation condition 2 according to the color perception model. Thus, the color reproduction range of the output device can be approached by a dodecahedron as shown in FIG. 7 . In the color reproduction range approached by the dodecahedron, when points (e.g., an intermediate point between white and black on an achromatic color axis, and an input color signal point (JCH value or QMH value) of the inside/outside judgment target) inside the color reproduction range are on the same side, it is judged that these points are located inside the color reproduction range. Conversely, when these points are on the opposite sides, it is judged that these points are located outside the color reproduction range. In a step S 86 , the color gamut mapping is performed on the basis of the result of the inside/outside judgment for the color reproduction range obtained in the step S 85 . FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams showing a concept of the color gamut mapping in the JCH color perception space, and FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams showing a concept of the color gamut mapping in the QMH color perception space. The input color signal which was judged to be outside the output-device color reproduction range in the above inside/outside judgment is mapped into the color reproduction range such that a hue angle h (or H) is conserved in the color perception space JCH or QMH. In the relative color matching, the result of such the mapping is stored in the LUT which manages the color perception space JCH as the input/output color space. In the absolute color matching, the result of such the mapping is stored in the LUT which manages the color perception space QMH as the input/output color space. FIGS. 10A and 10B are diagrams showing a concept of the color gamut mapping to be performed between the different devices. In the drawings, the dotted line represents the color reproduction area of the input device, and the solid line represents the color reproduction area of the output device. In color perception space JCH, since the magnitude of the lightness J is normalized by the light source white points (sometimes referred as white points 1 and 2 hereinafter) of the observation conditions 1 and 2 respectively, the lightness J does not depend on the illumination levels (sometimes referred as illumination levels 1 and 2 hereinafter) of the observation conditions 1 and 2 . On the other hand, in the color perception space QMH, the magnitude of the brightness Q is changed according to the illumination levels 1 and 2 . Therefore, in the relative color matching, the white point 1 becomes the white point 2 as it is. On the other hand, in the absolute color matching, in case of the illumination level 1 >the illumination level 2 , the white point 1 is mapped to the white point 2 , and in case of the illumination level 1 <the illumination level 2 , the white point 1 is output as gray because the white point 1 is lower than the white point 2 . [Data Generation Depending on Observation Condition 2 ] Next, the conversion LUT 16 is generated by using the data generation unit 47 . FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing a process example of restructuring the conversion LUT 16 corresponding to the environment light. Generally, the conversion LUT (AtoB 0 tag or the like) for converting the XYZ or Lab values into the device CMYK or RGB values has been stored in the ICC profile for the output device. It should be noted that the conversion LUT includes the color gamut mapping. However, since the XYZ values to be input to the LUT are the data based on the standard light D 50 or D 65 , it is impossible to directly use this LUT as the conversion LUT according to the environment light. Thus, as well as the color gamut mapping process, in a step S 71 the conversion LUT (AtoB 0 tag or the like) for performing the CMYK→XYZ conversion stored in the output profile 46 is read, and in a step S 72 the CMYK→XYZ relation data is fetched from the conversion LUT. It should be noted that the CMYK values in the CMYK→XYZ relation data may be another device-dependent color such as the RGB values or another device-independent color such as the XYZ or Lab values. Next, in a step S 73 , the observation condition 2 prestored in the output profile is fetched. Since the XYZ values of the fetched CMYK→XYZ relation data are the data based on the standard light D 50 or D 65 , in a step S 74 the XYZ values based on the measured color light source are adjusted into the XYZ values based on the environment light. Namely, the XYZ values based on the measured color light source are converted into the human's color perception space JCH on the basis of the color perception model according to the color measurement condition (the D 50 light source white point “case based on D 50 ”, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like). Then, the obtained values are inverse-converted into the XYZ values on the basis of the observation condition 2 (the D 65 light source white point, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like) different from the color measurement condition, whereby the XYZ values based on the measured color light source can be converted into the XYZ values based on the environment light. Thus, since the relation from the device CMYK values to the XYZ values based on the environment light can be obtained, in a step S 75 XYZ (based on the environment light)→CMYK relation data is optimized by a repetition method or the like on the basis of the CMYK→XYZ (based on the environment light) relation data, whereby the conversion LUT 16 corresponding to desired environment light can be obtained. [Color Matching Execution] FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a concept of the color matching process. In FIG. 12 , numeral 11 denotes the conversion LUT which is generated based on the observation condition 1 by the data generation unit 41 , numeral 132 denotes an LUT which is generated in the color perception space JCH by the color gamut mapping unit 44 , numeral 133 denotes an LUT which is generated in the color perception space QMH by the color gamut mapping unit 45 , and numeral 16 denotes the conversion LUT which is generated based on the observation condition 2 by the data generation unit 47 . Input RGB or CMYK color signals from the input device are converted into XYZ signals being the device-independent color signals by the conversion LUT 11 . Then, the XYZ signals are converted into human's color perception signal JCH or QMH on the basis of the observation condition 1 (the D 50 light source white point, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like) by color perception model forward conversion units 134 and 135 . The color perception space JCH is selected in case of the relative color matching, while the color perception space QMH is selected in case of the absolute color matching. The color perception signals JCH and QMH are compressed into the color reproduction range of the output device (i.e., subjected to the color gamut mapping) by the LUT's 132 and 133 respectively. The color perception signals JCH and QMH subjected to the color gamut mapping are converted into the XYZ signals being the device-independent color signals on the basis of the observation condition 2 (the D 65 light source white point, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like) by color perception model inverse conversion units 136 and 137 . Then, the XYZ signals are converted into the color signals depending on the output device in the observation condition 2 by the conversion LUT 134 . The RGB signals or the CMYK signals obtained in the above processes are sent to the output device, and the images represented by these signals are printed and output. When the printout is observed under the observation condition 2 , a tint of the observed image can be seen or viewed to be the same as that of the original document observed under the observation condition 1 . In the above embodiment, the XYZ color space was explained as the device-independent color space. However, a device-independent RGB color space is often used instead of the XYZ color space (XYZ signals). Namely, the kind of device-independent color space can be arbitrarily designated by, e.g., the source profile. The XYZ color space can be subjected to one-to-one linear conversion according to a 3×3 matrix to obtain the RGB color space, and the color reproduction range can be determined based on chromaticity of three primary color points and the standard white point. Further, in the case where the RGB color space is used as the input color space, the gray axis can be set on the diagonal axis of the three-dimensional LUT, whereby color misregistration of gray in tetrahedron interpolation can be prevented irrespective of the number of lattice points. On the other hand, in the case where the Lab color space or the like is used as the input color space, the gray axis is disposed on the lattice points when the number of lattice points in a-axis/b-axis directions of the three-dimensional LUT is odd, whereby any color misregistration of gray does not occur in the linear interpolation. However, when the number of lattice points is even, the color misregistration occurs in the linear interpolation. On the basis of the chromaticity R(xr, yr), G(xg, yg), B(xb, yb) of the RGB three primary colors and the tristimulus values (X W , Y W 1, Z W 1) of the standard white point, a conversion expression between the RGB color space and the XYZ color space is obtained by the following method. zr= 1 xr yr   (7) zg= 1 xg yg   (8) zb= 1 xb yb   (9) [ Tr Tg Tb ] = [ xr xg xb yr yg yb zr zg zb ] - 1 ⁡ [ X W Y W Z W ] ( 10 ) [ X Y Z ] = [ xr · Tr xg · Tg xb · Tb yr · Tr yg · Tg yb · Tb zr · Tr zg · Tg zb · Tb ] ⁢ [ R G B ] ( 11 ) [ R G B ] = [ xr · Tr xg · Tg xb · Tb yr · Tr yg · Tg yb · Tb zr · Tr zg · Tg zb · Tb ] - 1 ⁡ [ X Y Z ] ( 12 ) For example, the conversion matrix which is determined by the chromaticity (x, y) represented by expressions (13) to (15) and including a human's entire visible area as shown in FIG. 14 is given as represented by expressions (16) and (17), by using the expressions (7) to (12). R ( x, y )=(0.7347, 0.2653)  (13) G ( x, y )=(−0.0860, 1.0860)  (14) B ( x, y )=(0.0957, −0.0314)  (15) [ X Y Z ] = [ 0.895585 - 0.056474 0.111389 0.323396 0.713152 - 0.036548 0 0 1.089100 ] ⁢ [ R G B ] ( 16 ) [ R G B ] = [ 0.895585 - 0.056474 0.111389 0.323396 0.713152 - 0.036548 0 0 1.089100 ] ⁢ [ X Y Z ] ( 17 ) Hereinafter, in order to distinguish the device RGB color space from the device-independent RGB color space, the RGB color space defined by the standard white point and the three primary colors of the expressions (13) to (15) is called a CRGB color space. Incidentally, the RGB three primary colors not depending on the device are not limited to those of the expressions (13) to (15). For example, if CRGB values for the standard white point D 65 (X, Y, Z)=(0.9505, 1.0000, 1.0891) is represented by eight-bit quantization, (R, G, B)=(255, 255, 255) is given by using the expression (11). On the other hand, the values which are obtained by converting another standard white point A(X, Y, Z)=(1.098675, 1.000000, 0.355916) with use of the same expression are given as (R, G, B)=(562, 106, 83) in the eight-bit quantization, whereby overflow occurs. Even if all the colors can be represented, the gray axis is not disposed on a diagonal axis of the three-dimensional LUT for which the CRGB color space is used as the input color space, as shown in FIG. 15 . Thus, there is some fear that color misregistration occurs in tetrahedron interpolation. In the present embodiment, the conversion expression between the XYZ color space and the CRGB color space is dynamically formed according to the standard white point under the observation condition. Thus, it is possible to prevent overflow and underflow in the CRGB color space, and it is also possible to prevent that the color misregistration occurs in the tetrahedron interpolation because the gray axis is dislocated from the diagonal axis in the three-dimensional LUT. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example in which the conversion expression between the XYZ color space and the CRGB color space is dynamically formed according to the standard white point under the observation condition, and the color matching under the different observation conditions is performed. In FIG. 16 , numeral 161 denotes a profile for converting the device-dependent signals such as the RGB signals, the CMYK signals and the like into the CRGB signals based on the white point under the observation condition. The profile 161 is generated as follows. Namely, the RGB→XYZ relation data is generated in the method by the data generation unit 41 , and then the RGB→CRGB relation data can be obtained by applying the XYZ→CRGB conversion. Here, the XYZ→CRGB conversion matrix is given by the following expressions (18) and (19), on the basis of the CRGB three primary colors represented by the expressions (13) to (15) and the input-side standard white point D 50 (X, Y, Z)=(0.9642, 1.0000, 0.8249). [ X Y Z ] = [ 0.934492 - 0.054660 0.084368 0.337445 0.690237 - 0.027682 0 0 0.824900 ] ⁢ [ R G B ] ( 18 ) [ R G B ] = [ 0.934492 - 0.054660 0.084368 0.337445 0.690237 - 0.027682 0 0 0.824900 ] ⁢ [ X Y Z ] ( 19 ) The obtained RGB→CRGB relation data is converted into LUT format or the like, and stored in the profile together with the input-side standard white point D 50 . The stored CRGB values are not limited to quantization precision of eight bits but may be quantization precision of 16 bits or the like. In the data generation unit 41 , the XYZ values based on the measurement color light are corrected to the XYZ values based on the observation light by using the color perception model. However, when spectral reflectance of the color target and spectral distribution of the observation light can be obtained, the XYZ values based on the observation light can be directly obtained. Numeral 166 denotes a profile for converting the CRGB signals based on the white point under the observation condition into device-dependent signals such as the RGB signals, the CMYK signals and the like. In the profile generation means, the RGB→XYZ relation data is generated in the method of the step S 74 by the data generation unit 47 , and then the RGB→CRGB relation data can be obtained by applying the XYZ→CRGB conversion. Here, the XYZ→CRGB conversion matrix is given by the following expressions (20) and (21), on the basis of the CRGB three primary colors represented by the expressions (13) to (15) and the input-side standard white point A(X, Y, Z) (1.098675, 1.0000, 0.355916). [ X Y Z ] = [ 1.110649 - 0.048376 0.036402 0.401055 0.610889 - 0.011944 0 0 0.355916 ] ⁢ [ R G B ] ( 20 ) [ R G B ] = [ 1.110649 - 0.048376 0.036402 0.401055 0.610889 - 0.011944 0 0 0.355916 ] ⁢ [ X Y Z ] ( 21 ) In the data generation unit 47 , the XYZ values based on the measurement color light is corrected to the XYZ values based on the observation light by using the color perception model. However, when spectral reflectance of the color patch and spectral distribution of the observation light can be obtained, the XYZ values based on the observation light can be directly obtained. The obtained RGB→CRGB relation data is converted into the CRGB→RGB relation data in the process of the step S 75 , and stored in the profile together with the output-side standard white point A. Further, as another method of generating the CRGB→RGB relation data from the RGB→XYZ relation data obtained in the method of the step S 74 by the data generation unit 47 , instead of the method of performing the inverse conversion by applying XYZ→CRGB conversion, there is a method of generating the XYZ→RGB relation data by the process of the step S 75 and then applying the expression (20) in the pre-stage of the XYZ→RGB conversion. The color matching for which the profile 161 storing the input-side standard white point D 50 and the profile 166 storing the output-side standard white point A is as follows. First, in the profile 161 , the RGB or CMYK input color signals are converted into the CRGB signals based on the standard white point D 50 by the conversion LUT or the like. The color matching means reads the input-side standard white point D 50 stored in the profile 161 , generates the CRGB→XYZ conversion matrix of the expression (18), and converts the CRGB signals based on the standard white point D 50 into the XYZ signals. Next, the XYZ signals are converted into the human's color perception signal JCH or QMH on the basis of the observation condition 1 (the D 50 light source white point, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like) by color perception model forward conversion unit 134 or 135 . Here, the color perception space JCH is selected in case of the relative color matching, while the color perception space QMH is selected in case of the absolute color matching. The color perception signals JCH and QMH are compressed into the color reproduction range of the output device (i.e., subjected to the color gamut mapping) by the LUT's 132 and 133 respectively. The color perception signals JCH and QMH subjected to the color gamut mapping are then converted into the XYZ signals on the basis of the observation condition 2 (the A light source white point, the illumination level, the ambient light state and the like) by the color perception model inverse conversion unit 136 or 137 . The color matching means reads the output-side standard white point A stored in the profile 166 , generates the XYZ→CRGB conversion matrix of the expression (21), and converts the XYZ signals into the CRGB signals based on the standard white point A. Then, in the profile 166 , the CRGB signals based on the standard white point A are converted into the RGB or CMYK output signals by the conversion LUT or the like. Thus, by dynamically forming the conversion expression between the XYZ color space and the CRGB color space according to the standard white point under the observation condition, following effects can be given. (1) The conversion matrix between the XYZ color space and the RGB color space according to the arbitrary standard white point is dynamically formed, and the device-independent color is represented in the RGB color space according to the standard white point, whereby it is possible to prevent overflow and underflow in case of the quantization in the RGB color space. (2) Since the RGB color space according to the standard white point of the environment light is used as the input color space of the three-dimensional LUT, it is possible to dispose gray on the diagonal axis in the three-dimensional LUT, whereby it is possible to prevent the color misregistration in the tetrahedron interpolation irrespective of the number of lattice points. Incidentally, in a case where the standard white point is not stored in the profile 161 or 166 when the color matching means is applied, e.g., the reference light D 50 defined by the ICC profile is substituted for a default standard white point. The feature of the present embodiment is as follows. Namely, in the color matching means, after the CRGB (or XYZ) signals under the observation condition 1 are converted into the human's color perception signal JCH or QMH by the color perception model forward conversion unit 134 or 135 , the obtained signal is compressed (i.e., subjected to the color gamut mapping) into the color reproduction range of the output device by the LUT 132 or 133 , and the compressed data is then converted into the CRGB (or XYZ) signals under the observation condition 2 by the color perception model inverse conversion unit 136 or 137 . However, the place where the color gamut mapping is performed is not limited to that within the color matching means. Namely, it is possible not to perform the color gamut mapping in the color matching means but perform the color gamut mapping in the output-side profile. In this case, the CRGB (or XYZ) signals under the observation condition 1 are converted into the human's color perception signal JCH or QMH by the color perception model forward conversion unit 134 or 135 , and the converted signal is converted into the CRGB (or XYZ) signals under the observation condition 2 by the color perception model inverse conversion unit 136 or 137 without any color gamut mapping. Then, when the output-side profile 166 is formed, the CRGB (or XYZ) signals under the observation condition 2 are again converted into the human's color perception signal JCH or QMH by the color perception model forward conversion unit 134 or 135 , and the obtained signal is subjected to the color gamut mapping for the output device by the LUT 132 or 133 . After then, the compressed signal is converted into the CRGB (or XYZ) signals under the observation condition 2 by the color perception model inverse conversion unit 136 or 137 , and then converted into the RGB or CMYK output signals by the conversion LUT or the like. Moreover, the further feature of the present embodiment is as follows. Namely, the color matching means dynamically forms the conversion matrix between the CRGB color space and the XYZ color space by using the standard white point of the observation light stored in the profile and the previously defined chromaticity of RGB three primary colors. However, the profile information for obtaining the above conversion matrix is not limited to the standard white point of the observation light. Namely, it is possible to prestore the conversion matrix between the CRGB color space and the XYZ color space according to the observation condition, as the profile information. When the non-linear model such as the color perception model or the like is used to predict the XYZ values under the different light sources, there is a case where the gray under the input-side standard white point converted by the color matching does not represent the gray under the output-side standard white point. For example, in FIG. 16 , if it is assumed that the CRGB values based on the standard light D 50 being the input of a color perception model forward conversion unit 162 represent the CRGB signals of gray in which R=G=B is satisfied (chromaticity xy is the same as that of the light D 50 ), and that the conversion by the color perception model conserves gray, the CRGB values based on the white point A being the output of a color perception model inverse conversion unit 165 should represent R=G=B (chromaticity xy is the same as that of the point A). However, since the color perception model is not linear actually, the gray might not be able to be conserved according to the combination of the input-side observation condition and the output-side observation condition. In the present embodiment, the gray detection is performed to the input signal of the color perception model forward conversion unit, and the color matching process is performed such that the gray for the input signal is conserved even in the output signal of the color perception model inverse conversion unit. Namely, in the color matching process which performs the correction according to the observation condition, gray compensation to compensate gray color reproduction is performed. According to the present embodiment, the gray color reproduction can be improved. FIG. 17 shows an example in a case where the gray compensation process is applied to a color matching system in which a color space other than the CRGB color space can be set as the device-independent color space. For example, if a PCS (profile connection space) of an input-side profile 171 is represented by the Lab values, a PCS of an output-side profile 176 is represented by the XYZ values, and the gray compensation is on, the following process is performed in the color matching means. First, the RGB or CMYK signals are converted into the Lab signals by the input-side profile 171 , and the Lab→XYZ conversion based on the input-side standard white point stored in the input-side profile is performed to convert the Lab signals into the XYZ signals. After then, as described above, the conversion matrix based on the input-side standard white point to perform the XYZ→CRGB conversion is formed, thereby converting the XYZ signals into the CRGB signals. Next, the CRGB signals based on the input-side standard white point are separated into an achromatic color component and a chromatic color component by an achromatic color detection means 172 . Since the achromatic color component under the input-side standard white point satisfies R′=G′=B′ in the CRGB color space, the input signal satisfying the condition R′=G′=B′ is detected as the achromatic color component in the achromatic color detection means 172 . Here, a certain tolerance is provided in the achromatic color detection condition because there is a case where such the condition does not satisfy R′=G′=B′ due to a calculation error and the like. As above, when the color space other than the CRGB color space is set as the device-independent color space, the process condition by the input-side profile is converted into the CRGB color space, and the achromatic color detection is performed. This is because the achromatic color detection can be easily performed in the CRGB color space. Both the achromatic color component and the chromatic color component of the CRGB signals (R′, G′, B′) based on the input-side standard white point are converted into the CRGB signals (R″, G″, B″) based on the output-side standard white point by a color perception model forward conversion unit 173 and a color perception model inverse conversion unit 174 . After then, the CRGB signals (R″, G″, B″) corresponding to the achromatic color component detected by the achromatic color detection means 172 are further converted into the gray (Rg″, Gg″, Bg″) under the output-side standard white point by an achromatic color generation means 175 . The achromatic color generation means 175 performs, e.g., following conversion. Rg″=Gg″=Bg ″=( R″+G″+B″/ 3  (22) Next, as described above, the conversion matrix based on the output-side standard white point to perform the CRGB→XYZ conversion is formed, thereby converting the CRGB signals into the XYZ signals. Then, the XYZ signals are converted into the RGB signals or the CMYK signals by the output-side profile 176 . Gray compensation on/off controlling is achieved based on gray compensation flag information stored in the profile. For example, when a gray compensation on flag [1] is stored in the input-side profile and a gray compensation off flag [0] is stored in the output-side profile, MAX(1, 0) is obtained according to a following theory. MAX(input-side flag value, output-side flag value)  (23) Thus, the gray compensation in the color matching becomes ON[1]. Further, the gray compensation need not be limited to the gray compensation on/off controlling. Namely, when a user interface such as a gray compensation check box or the like is provided on a printing setting panel or the like, a user can directly perform the gray compensation on/off controlling. For example, when on/off of the gray compensation is determined by the profile controlling as shown by the expression (23), an application or a device driver performs setting of profile flag information on the basis of on/off states of the gray compensation check box, whereby the user can remotely perform the gray compensation on/off controlling. Here, it is needless to say that the application or the device driver can directly control the gray compensation in the color matching means. According to the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. (1) Since the achromatic color signal under the input-side standard white point is detected from the device-independent input color signal and the detected achromatic color signal is then converted into the achromatic color signal under the output-side standard white point, it is possible to maintain gray reproducibility even if the non-linear color perception model is used in the color matching according to the observation condition. (2) Since the conversion result of the color perception model is reflected when the achromatic color signal under the output-side standard white point is generated, it is possible to improve gray reproducibility in the color matching according to the observation condition. (3) Since the achromatic color detection is performed to the CRGB color space which was converted by the dynamically-formed conversion expression, it is possible to perform the high-accurate and easy detection. Especially, the achromatic color detection can be performed based on the same standard, irrespective of the standard white point value. For example, in order to detect the achromatic color in the XYZ color space, it is necessary to detect the XYZ signals by which a chromaticity value xy becomes equal to the chromaticity value of the standard white point. Therefore, in a case where the standard white value can be arbitrarily set, the process becomes complicated. Further, in the present embodiment, the achromatic color based on the standard white point is detected by using the CRGB color space. However, it is possible to detect the achromatic color by using another color space (e.g., an sRGB color space). (Modifications) In the above embodiment, the correction process according to the observation condition is performed by using the color perception model CIE CAM97s. Although the color perception model CIE CAM97s can achieve high-precise correction, the processes are complex and it takes long time in this model as shown in FIG. 13 . On the other hand, in the ratio conversion and the Von Kries conversion, it does not take time as the processes are relatively simple, thereby achieving high-speed processes. Therefore, in order to cope with user's usage, it is possible to provide in the system the correction processes according to the plural observation conditions. When the non-linear process (CIE CAM97s) is selected, since there is some fear that color misregistration of gray occurs, gray compensation is performed. On the other hand, when the linear process (the ratio conversion, or the Von Kries conversion) is selected, since any color misregistration of gray does not occur, gray compensation is not performed. By doing so, it is possible to appropriately combine the kinds of correction processes according to the observation conditions with the gray compensation process, thereby achieving an effective process. The reproducibility of gray is more important in the graphics and the text rather than in the image. Therefore, it is possible to first discriminate the kind of input object (or target) image and then control the gray compensation according to the discriminated result. The discrimination of the kind of object image can be achieved by analyzing code information of the object image input from applications through an OS (operating system). For example, when the object image is represented in bit map format, this object image can be discriminated as the image. On the other hand, when the object image includes vector data or text commands, this object image can be discriminated as the graphics or the text. As above, by controlling the gray compensation according to the kind of object image, it is possible to improve the color reproducibility. OTHER EMBODIMENTS The present invention is applicable to a system structured by plural devices (e.g., a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, and the like) or to an apparatus structured by one device (e.g., a copying machine, a fax machine, or the like). Further, it is needless to say that the object of the present invention can be attained in a case where a storage medium which stores a program code of software to achieve the functions of the above embodiments is supplied to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) provided in this system or this apparatus reads and executes the stored program code. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium achieves the functions of the above embodiments, whereby the storage medium which stores the program code constitutes the present invention. Further, it is needless to say that the present invention includes not only the case where the functions of the above embodiments can be achieved by executing the program code read by the computer, but also a case where an OS (operating system) or the like running on the computer executes a part or all of the actual process based on an instruction of the program code and the functions of the above embodiments can be achieved by such the process. Further, it is needless to say that the present invention includes a case where the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted in the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, and then based on an instruction of the program code, a CPU or the like provided in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit executes a part or all of the actual process and the functions of the above embodiment can be achieved by such the process.

An image processing method for inputting a color image signal and correcting the color image signal according to an observation condition, comprising the steps of: judging whether or not the input color image signal represents achromatic color; and controlling the correction according to the judged result, thereby enabling to excellently and satisfactorily perform color reproduction to achromatic color even under different observation conditions.

This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/090,188, filed Jun. 22, 1998, now abandoned. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the Invention The present invention pertains to an apparatus that is one part of a conveying system for transferring objects, such as bottles, where the apparatus arranges the objects in layers on a pallet. In particular, the present invention pertains to an apparatus that is employed to palletize objects, where improvements result in more time efficient operation of the apparatus. (2) Description of the Related Art Many containers such as bottles, cans, jars, jugs, etc. are packaged on pallets for transportation from a manufacturer to a user of the containers or objects. The pallet loads often include layers of the objects, each separated by a paperboard slipsheet, stacked on top of a pallet constructed of wood. The layers of objects and the slipsheets on which the layers rest are secured on the top surface of the pallet by banding, plastic sheet wrap or by other equivalent methods. The pallet loads facilitate the transportation of a significant number of the objects on each pallet load from the manufacture of the objects, through distribution and ultimately to the end user of the objects. In many conveyor systems in which objects are loaded onto pallets, the faster the system can operate to load pallets the more cost efficient is its operation. With manual loading of pallets being long recognized as slow and expensive, a number of different types of machines have been developed over time that quickly perform the function of unloading and/or loading pallets. These machines are referred to as depalletizers and/or palletizers in the conveying industry. Examples of these types of machines are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,774,489, 3,780,884; 3,844,422; 3,954,190; 3,974,922; 4,058,225; 4,197,046; 4,214,848, and 4,557,656 the disclosures of all of which are incorporated herein by reference. FIG. 1 is a schematic representation depicting a palletizer apparatus that comprises many features found in other prior art apparatus. The machine shown in FIG. 1 includes an object infeed section A, an elevator section B, and an object outfeed section C. As stated earlier, machines of this type are known in the prior art and various examples of these machines are disclosed in the above-listed patents. In order to simplify the explanation of the construction and operation of these types of machines the drawing of the machine in FIG. 1 has been simplified, deleting many of the intricate component parts of the machine, examples of which are disclosed in the above-listed patents, that enable the machine to function in the manner to be described. The machine will be described as palletizing objects, in this case plastic blow-molded bottles as shown in FIG. 1 . It should be understood that “objects” is intended to mean any of the various different types of objects that may be transported in pallet loads and is not intended that the interpretation be limited to plastic bottles. The sections of the machine shown in FIG. 1 are all supported by a framework 10 . At the object infeed section A, the framework supports the end of a supply conveyor 12 depicted as a belt and pulley conveyor. However, any other type of known supply conveyor may be employed to transport objects to the machine infeed section A. As depicted in FIG. 1, the supply conveyor 12 has transported a layer of objects into the object infeed section A. Conveyors of palletizers of this type usually have side rails (not shown) and depending, vertically reciprocated gates (not shown) that arrange a plurality of the objects into a generally square grouping that is dimensioned to cover a majority of the load supporting surface of a pallet onto which the objects are to be loaded. The grouping of objects 14 arranged on the supply conveyor 12 will comprise one layer of objects to be loaded onto a pallet by the palletizer. When the supply conveyor 12 has conveyed the grouping of objects 14 into the infeed section A and adjacent the elevator section B, the programmable control unit of the palletizer (CU) controls the motor or drive system M for the supply conveyor 12 to stop the conveyor with the grouping of objects adjacent the elevator section B. Positioned in the elevator section B is an elevator platform 16 having a drive system M that is controlled by the control unit to move vertically in the elevator section B and, to a limited extent, to move horizontally. The elevator platform 16 is part of a carriage assembly of the palletizer, where the carriage assembly is mounted in the frame 10 and is driven by its drive system to move vertically through the elevator section B. The elevator platform 16 , being mounted on the carriage assembly, moves vertically with the carriage assembly through the elevator section B and also moves horizontally to a limited extent relative to the carriage assembly. A sweeper assembly 18 is also mounted on the carriage assembly for vertical movement with the carriage assembly. In addition, the sweeper mechanism 18 is mounted on the carriage assembly for horizontal movement of the sweeper mechanism 18 across the carriage assembly between the infeed section A, the elevator section B, and the object outfeed section C. Therefore, the sweeper mechanism 18 not only moves vertically with the elevator platform 16 as the carriage assembly moves vertically, but may also move horizontally relative to the elevator platform 16 . The sweeper mechanism 18 has a pair of side flaps 22 , a front flap 24 and a rear flap 26 mounted for pivoting movement about the top edges of the four flaps. The top edges of the four flaps are suspended from four edges of a base 28 of the sweeper mechanism 18 . The base 28 is generally rectangular so that when the four flaps are moved to depend straight downward from the base 28 they define a square that extends around the grouping of objects 14 . The pivoting movement of the flaps is controlled by actuators M that are controlled by the control unit of the palletizer to move the pair of side flaps 24 upwardly and move the front 24 and rear 26 flaps upwardly. An end of an output conveyor 30 is supported in the palletizer frame in the object outfeed section C. The output conveyor 30 in the preferred embodiment is a chain and sprocket conveyor. Conveyors of this type are known in the art and are generally comprised of shafts with two or more sprockets mounted on the shaft in a spaced apart relation. The shafts are positioned parallel to each other in a spaced arrangement along the conveying length of the conveyor. Loops of chain are meshed between the sprockets of adjacent shafts. In prior art FIG. 1, the sprockets 32 and loops of chain 34 are represented schematically. The drive system for the output conveyor 30 is controlled by the control unit to selectively rotate the shafts and their sprockets 32 , thereby causing the chains 34 around the sprockets to convey objects, such as the pallet 36 shown in FIG. 1, on the output conveyor 30 . The output conveyor 30 shown in FIG. 1 conveys a pallet 36 loaded with layers of objects 14 out of a loading station 38 in the object outfeed section C of the palletizer. However, before the pallet 36 is loaded with layers of objects by the palletizer, an empty pallet 36 , with a slipsheet 40 positioned thereon, must first be moved into the loading station 38 of the outfeed section C. An empty pallet with its slipsheet is usually conveyed into the loading station 38 by a pallet input conveyor (not shown). In the schematic representation of the palletizer shown in FIG. 1, the supply conveyor 12 , the elevator platform 16 and the output conveyor 30 are all arranged in a longitudinal line from left to right. The empty pallet input conveyor in systems such as that shown in FIG. 1 is usually positioned to a lateral side of the object outfeed section C so that it will supply an empty pallet and slipsheet in a lateral direction onto the output conveyor 30 at the loading station 38 in the object outfeed section C of the palletizer. As shown in FIG. 1, the pallet input conveyor would be positioned in a perpendicular orientation relative to the output conveyor 30 on either the side of the loading station 38 shown in FIG. 1 or on the opposite side. Therefore, an empty pallet is supplied to the loading station 38 by the pallet input conveyor by being conveyed in a first direction into the loading station 38 and onto the chains 34 of the output conveyor 30 , and the loaded pallet is conveyed by the output conveyor 30 in a second direction that is oriented at a right angle to the first conveyor direction of the empty pallet input conveyor. In the prior art palletizer apparatus shown in FIG. 1, several sensors are mounted at key positions on the palletizer to detect the movement of component parts of the palletizer as well as the empty pallets, layers of objects being loaded onto the pallets, and loaded pallets in controlling the sequential operation of the palletizer. The information determined by these sensors is monitored by the palletizer control unit and the control unit controls the systematic operation of the drive systems of the several palletizer components. Various different types of sensors are employed such as photo sensors and mechanical sensors. The photo sensors are typically photo emitters and reflectors that are mounted on the palletizer spaced from each other. A light beam is emitted by the photo emitter to the photo receptor and the reflection of the light beam is sensed by the photo emitter. However, when the light beam is interrupted by either a component part of the palletizer, a layer of objects being palletized, or a pallet, this interruption is also conveyed to the control unit where the information is employed in controlling the operation of the component parts of the palletizer. The mechanical sensors employed are typically switches that are contacted by a component part of the palletizer or the objects or pallets, which contact activates the switch and sends a signal to the control unit of the palletizer informing the control unit that contact has occurred. The control of palletizers by programmable computerized control units and by sensors such as those discussed above is well known in the prior art and, in order to simplify the description of the improvements provided by the present invention, will only be described generally without going into intricate detail. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides improvements to the palletizing apparatus of the prior art described above that enable certain operative sequences of the prior art palletizer to occur quicker, thereby increasing the overall speed by which the palletizer positions an empty pallet into the loading station, loads layers of objects onto the empty pallet in the loading station and then conveys the loaded pallet from the loading station to again restart the sequence by conveying an empty pallet into the loading station. By enabling certain operating sequences of the palletizer to occur in less time, sometimes only reducing the operating time of the sequence by a few seconds, the improvements provided by the present invention can significantly increase the efficiency of operation of the palletizer when the palletizer is operated continuously over an extended period of time, for example an eight hour work shift. One of the improvements provided by the present invention is made to the empty pallet input conveyor. The empty pallet input conveyor is a sprocket and chain conveyor, similar to the full pallet output conveyor. The empty pallet input conveyor and the full pallet output conveyor intersect each other at right angles. Because these two conveyors intersect, they cannot be operated simultaneously. Furthermore, in the prior art palletizer the empty pallet input conveyor was operated to retract below the level of the conveyor chains of the full pallet output conveyor after an empty pallet had been conveyed into the loading station. With the conveying chains of the full pallet output conveyor positioned above the conveying chains of the empty pallet input conveyor, the output conveyor could be operated to convey a loaded pallet out of the loading station without interference from the chains of the input conveyor. However, once the full pallet left the loading station, the input conveyor would be elevated so that its chains were positioned above those of the output conveyor to enable an empty pallet to be conveyed by the input conveyor into the loading station. However, to avoid interfering with the chains of the full pallet output conveyor conveying a loaded pallet from the loading station, the chains of the empty pallet input conveyor could not be elevated until the loaded pallet had completely cleared the loading station. Therefore, the conveying of an empty pallet into the loading station could not begin to occur until the loaded pallet had completely cleared the loading station. An improvement provided by the present invention divides the empty pallet input conveyor into first and second sections where the second section intersects with the full pallet output conveyor. The first and second sections of the empty pallet input conveyor could be elevated separately and in sequence with the first section adjacent the full pallet output conveyor being elevated first and the second section intersecting the full pallet output conveyor being elevated sequentially second. This enables the first section of the empty pallet input conveyor to be elevated and the drive system activated to begin conveying an empty pallet toward the loading station of the output conveyor while the output conveyor was still conveying a loaded pallet out of the loading station. This early activation of the empty pallet input conveyor drive system enables an empty pallet to be loaded into the loading station seconds earlier than the prior art empty pallet input conveyor. Over an extended period of time of operation of the palletizing apparatus these saved seconds would amount to a significant savings in time and a more efficient operation of the palletizing apparatus. In the prior art palletizer the object supply conveyor is elevated slightly above the output conveyor. This relative positioning of the supply and output conveyors would distribute the total range of vertical movement of the elevator platform and the sweeper mechanism below and above the supply conveyor. When initially positioning a first layer of objects to be loaded onto an empty pallet positioned in the loading station of the palletizer, the control unit would first have to determine if an empty pallet was present in the loading station. This was accomplished by a photo sensor in the loading station that would detect a pallet when the pallet was positioned in the loading station. When the elevator mechanism receives a first layer of objects from the supply conveyor by the sweeper mechanism, the downward movement of the elevator mechanism would not commence until the control unit received a signal from the sensor switch in the loading station indicating that an empty pallet was positioned in the loading station. Upon receiving this signal, the control unit would then cause the elevator mechanism drive system to vertically lower the elevator platform until it would contact a mechanical switch at the bottom of the elevator section B indicating that the elevator platform had arrived at the bottom of the elevator section and was adjacent the empty pallet. Therefore, in the prior art palletizer, the downward movement of the elevator mechanism would not commence until the sensor in the loading station communicated to the control unit that an empty pallet was positioned in the loading station. The present invention adds a second sensor in the form of a mechanical switch in the elevator section B, where the second sensor switch is positioned a short distance vertically above the switch at the bottom of the elevator section that senses when the elevator platform is adjacent the empty pallet. In addition, the control unit is reprogrammed so that, the elevator platform, having a layer of objects swept thereon by the sweeper mechanism, begins its vertically downward movement before the control unit determines the presence or absence of an empty pallet in the loading section. However, when the elevator platform reaches the added sensor switch and trips this switch, the control unit then determines the presence or absence of an empty pallet in the loading section. If the presence of a pallet in the loading section is communicated to the control unit by the sensor in the loading section, then the elevator platform continues with its vertically downward movement until it trips the second, lower switch at the bottom of the elevator section where the elevator platform is positioned adjacent the empty pallet. However, if the elevator platform trips the added switch in the elevator section and the control unit determines that an empty pallet has not yet been loaded into the loading section, then the downward movement of the elevator platform is stopped by the control unit until the control unit receives a signal from the switch in the loading station indicating that an empty pallet has been loaded into the loading station. By adding the additional switch to the elevator section, the elevator platform can begin its downward movement before the control unit determines whether or not an empty pallet is present in the loading station. This modification also results in the savings of small increments of time, for example, seconds. However, when measured over the continuous operation of the palletizer for an extended period of time, for example an 8 hour shift, the savings of time becomes substantial. Additional time saving improvements are provided on the carriage assembly that supports the elevator platform 16 and the sweeper mechanism 18 . In operation of the prior art carriage assembly, after the sweeper mechanism 18 had swept a layer of objects onto the elevator platform 16 , the carriage assembly would vertically position the elevator platform adjacent either the empty pallet or a slipsheet covering a layer of objects loaded onto the empty pallet. In positioning the elevator platform 16 , the drive system of the carriage assembly would first move the elevator platform 16 horizontally forward toward the loading station so that a forward edge of the elevator platform 16 would slightly overlap the empty pallet or the slipsheet covering a layer of objects on the pallet. The carriage mechanism control system would then control the elevator platform 16 and sweeper mechanism 18 to move downwardly a short distance so that the forward edge of the elevator platform was resting on or just above the empty pallet or slipsheet covering a layer of objects on the pallet. This would ensure that there was not a gap between the forward edge of the elevator platform and the pallet or slipsheet before the sweeper mechanism 18 was controlled to move horizontally to sweep the layer of objects off the elevator platform 16 and onto the pallet or slipsheet. The present invention improves the operation of the prior art carriage assembly by adding an additional sensor that senses the horizontal position of the sweeper mechanism and allows it to move with the elevator platform when the carriage is moving downward toward the pallet or slipsheet. The control unit controls the drive system of the carriage assembly to move the elevator platform and sweeper mechanism downward as they are continued to move horizontally toward the added horizontal sensor and the pallet or slipsheet. As a result, the sensor mechanism 18 and the elevator platform 16 move diagonally downward and toward the pallet or slipsheet in the improved operation of the carriage assembly instead of moving horizontally toward the pallet or slipsheet and then downwardly toward the pallet or slipsheet. This modification also results in the savings of small increments of time. However, when multiplied over the continuous operation of the palletizer for an extended period of time, the savings of time becomes substantial. A still further time saving modification of the carriage assembly adds a photo sensor and receptor to the carriage assembly that gives the control unit an early indication that the carriage assembly is about to clear a top layer of objects on a pallet stack when the carriage is moving upwardly. This early indication reduces the time required to reverse the carriage movement from upward movement to downward movement. Again, the modification results in the savings of small increments of time. However, when measured over the continuous operation of the palletizer for an extended period of time, the savings of time becomes substantial. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further objects and features of the present invention are revealed in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and in the drawing figures, wherein: FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a prior art palletizing machine to which the improvements of the invention are added; FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the palletizer of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a plan view of the empty pallet input conveyor and loaded pallet output conveyor of the palletizer; FIG. 4 is a side elevation view of the empty pallet input conveyor; FIG. 5 is a fragmented side elevation view of the elevator section and carriage assembly of the palletizer; FIGS. 6-8 are side elevation views of the carriage assembly; and FIG. 9 is an end elevation view of the carriage assembly. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of the typical construction of a prior art palletizing apparatus such as that also shown in FIG. 1 . The apparatus includes an object infeed section A, an elevator section B, and an object outfeed section C. The component parts of the apparatus are supported by a framework 10 . The object supply conveyor 12 has been shown as a belt and pulley conveyor, however other types of conveyors may be employed as explained earlier. Also as explained earlier, the supply conveyor 12 is operated to transport a grouping of objects into the object infeed section A that will be palletized as a layer of objects on a pallet by the apparatus. The objects approach the palletizer in a longitudinal direction represented by the arrow D. The objects are conveyed by the supply conveyor 12 until they approach the forward edge 42 of the conveyor where the objects will be stopped by a vertically reciprocating gate (not shown) and the supply conveyor will be stopped by the apparatus control unit. The carriage assembly 44 is generally comprised of pairs of side rails 46 , 47 that are controlled to move vertically in the apparatus frame 10 by the carriage assembly drive system (not shown). Mounted on the carriage assembly side rails 46 is the sweeper mechanism 18 and mounted on the other pair of rails 47 is the elevator platform 16 . As explained earlier, the drive system of the carriage assembly 44 also drives the elevator platform 16 and is controlled by the control unit of the apparatus to move the elevator platform vertically in the elevator section B and, to a limited extent, horizontally. The elevator platform 16 moves vertically in the elevator section B as the carriage assembly 44 is moved vertically and also moves horizontally through its limited range of movement relative to the carriage assembly. The sweeper mechanism 18 also moves vertically in the elevator section B with the carriage assembly 44 . In addition, the sweeper mechanism 18 is mounted on the side rails 46 of the carriage assembly for horizontal movement along the side rails from a position over the supply conveyor 12 in the infeed section A, to a position over the elevator platform 16 in the elevator section B, and to a position over the loading station 38 of the loaded pallet output conveyor 30 . The sweeper mechanism 18 has a pair of side flaps 22 , a front flap 24 and a rear flap 26 that are mounted to a rectangular base 28 of the sweeper mechanism for pivoting movement about the top edges of the four flaps. The four flaps are suspended from the four edges of the base 28 so that when they are moved to depend straight downward from the base they define a square that extends around the grouping of objects being swept by the sweeping mechanism. The pivoting movement of the flaps is controlled by pneumatic actuators 29 that are controlled by the apparatus control unit. The pair of side flaps 22 and the rear flap 26 are controlled by their actuators to pivot only a slight distance outwardly from their straight downward orientations. The forward flap 24 pivots to a position where it extends substantially horizontally from the base 28 in order to enable the flap to pass over objects as the sweeper mechanism 18 is retracted from over a layer of objects loaded onto a pallet in the loading station 38 . As explained earlier, the output conveyor 30 is a chain and sprocket conveyor of a type that is known in the art. The conveyor is basically comprised of several shafts 48 that are positioned parallel to each other in a spaced arrangement along the conveying length of the conveyor that extends along the longitudinal line D. As shown, each of the shafts has three sprockets 32 mounted thereto. Loops of chain 34 are meshed between the sprockets of adjacent shafts. The drive system (now shown) for the output conveyor is typically an electric motor that is controlled by the palletizer control unit to selectively rotate the shafts 48 and thereby their sprockets 32 which in turn causes the chains 34 to convey objects, such as a pallet supported on the chains of the output conveyor. It can be seen in FIG. 2 that the output conveyor 30 is actually comprised of two sections with each section having three chain loops 34 stretch between pairs of sprockets 32 . With each section positioned adjacent each other, a loaded pallet supported on the chains of the output conveyor can be transported from the loading station 38 and longitudinally along the output conveyor 30 . FIG. 2 also shows an empty pallet input conveyor 50 positioned at one side of the palletizing apparatus. The empty pallet input conveyor 50 conveys empty pallets into the loading station 38 of the palletizer along a lateral line of travel represented by the arrow E. Therefore, the empty pallet input conveyor 50 is positioned in a perpendicular orientation relative to the output conveyor 30 and intersects with the output conveyor in the loading station 38 . Because the input conveyor 50 and output conveyor 30 intersect, they cannot be operated at the same time. Therefore, in prior art input conveyors 50 the entire lateral length of the conveyor would be raised so that the chains 56 of the conveyor are slightly above the chains 34 of the output conveyor. This enables the input conveyor 50 to pass an empty pallet over the chains 34 of the output conveyor when loading an empty pallet into the loading station 38 . Once the pallet was positioned in the loading station 38 , the control unit of the palletizer would cause the input conveyor 50 to lower, thus lowering the chains 56 of the input conveyor below the chains 34 of the output conveyor 30 , thereby supporting the loaded empty pallet on the chains 34 of the output conveyor. As in the output conveyor 30 , the input conveyor 50 is also comprised of several parallel shafts 52 having spaced sprockets 54 secured therein. Loops of chains 56 extend between pairs of sprockets on adjacent shafts 52 . The palletizing apparatus shown schematically in FIGS. 1 and 2 and described above to this point is typical of many palletizing apparatus known in the prior art. As stated earlier, the present invention provides improvements to the palletizing apparatus of the prior art that enable certain operative sequences of the palletizer to occur quicker, thereby increasing the overall speed by which the palletizer positions an empty pallet into the loading station, loads layers of objects onto the empty pallet in the loading station, and then conveys the loaded pallet from the loading station to again restart the sequence by conveying an empty pallet into the loading station. By enabling certain sequences of the palletizer to occur in less time, sometimes only reducing the operating time of the sequence by a few seconds, the improvements provided by the present invention can significantly increase the efficiency of operation of the palletizer when the palletizer is operated continuously over an extended period of time, for example, an 8 hour work shift. One of the improvements provided by the present invention was made to the empty pallet input conveyor 50 . As explained earlier and as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, like the output conveyor, the empty pallet input conveyor is comprised of several shafts 52 having sprockets 54 fixed thereto. Loops of chain 56 extend around pairs of sprockets 54 of adjacent shafts 52 . The empty pallet input conveyor 50 of the invention is divided into first and second sections. The first section is comprised of two segments 58 , 60 of the input conveyor, each segment comprising a pair of shafts 52 with sprockets 54 thereon and a pair of chains 56 looped around the sprockets. As can be seen in the drawing figures, these first two segments 58 , 60 of the first section of the input conveyor 50 are positioned adjacent the output conveyor 30 but do not intersect with the output conveyor. The second section of the input conveyor is also comprised of two segments 62 , 64 , with each segment comprising a pair of shafts 52 and their sprockets 54 and a pair of chains 56 looped around the shafts. The two segments 62 , 64 of the input conveyor second section do intersect with the output conveyor 30 . The two segments 58 , 60 of the first section of the input conveyor are controlled by the control unit of the palletizing apparatus to be raised and lowered relative to the output conveyor 30 independent of the two segments 62 , 64 of the second section of the input conveyor. The two segments 58 , 60 of the input conveyor first section are supported on their own framework that, in turn, is supported on four pneumatic actuators 66 . In a like manner, the two segments 62 , 64 of the input conveyor second section have their own framework that is supported on four pneumatic actuators 68 . By selective activation of the two groups of pneumatic actuators 66 , 68 , the control unit of the palletizing apparatus can elevate and lower the two sections of the input conveyor separately. The control unit controls the activation of the pneumatic actuators to raise the first section of the input conveyor comprised of the first segments 58 , 60 in sequence with the second section of the input conveyor comprised of the second segments 62 , 64 to first raise the first section and then raise the second section when loading an empty pallet into the loading station 38 while a previously loaded pallet is being conveyed out of the loading station 38 by the output conveyor 30 . This enables the first section 58 , 60 of the empty pallet input conveyor to be elevated and its drive system activated to begin conveying an empty pallet toward the loading station 38 of the output conveyor while the output conveyor 30 is still conveying a loaded pallet out of the loading station. It is no longer necessary for the loaded pallet to completely clear the loading station 38 before the input conveyor 50 is activated as was in the prior art. This early activation of the empty pallet input conveyor 50 enables an empty pallet to be loaded into the loading station seconds earlier than the prior art empty pallet input conveyor. In the prior art output conveyor a photo emitter and its receptor were positioned on opposite sides of the output conveyor and adjacent the loading station 38 . When the beam emitted from the photo emitter toward the reflector was interrupted by a loaded pallet being conveyed out of the loading station and then was re-established once the loading pallet had been conveyed completely onto the output conveyor, the re-establishment of the beam would send a signal to the palletizer control unit that the loading station was cleared and the empty pallet input conveyor could be activated to transport an empty pallet into the loading station. The present invention provides an improvement to this prior art arrangement that sends an earlier signal to the control unit informing the control unit that the loaded pallet is about to clear the loading station 38 and that the first section of input conveyor segments 58 , 60 can be raised and activated to begin transporting an empty pallet into the loading station 38 . This is accomplished by the photo emitter 70 and its associated reflector 72 shown in FIG. 3 . As can be seen in FIG. 3, because the light beam from the photo emitter 70 is angled across the loading station 38 toward its reflector 72 , this light beam will be re-established before the loaded pallet completely clears the loading station 38 . Thus, an earlier signal is sent to the control unit of the palletizer informing it that the loaded pallet is about to clear the loading station and that the first section of input conveyor segments 58 , 60 can be raised and activated to begin conveying an empty pallet into the loading station. A further photo emitter 74 and its associated reflector 76 are positioned on opposite sides of the first segments 58 , 60 of the input conveyor first section adjacent to the output conveyor 30 . The light beam emitted from this photo emitter 74 is interrupted by an empty pallet being transported by the two segments 58 , 60 of the input conveyor first section just before the pallet passes to the two segments 62 , 64 of the input conveyor second section. When this light beam is interrupted, a signal is sent to the control unit that causes the control unit to activate the pneumatic actuator 68 of the input conveyor second section segments 62 , 64 raising these segments to receive the empty pallet being transported by the input conveyor first section segments 58 , 60 . By the operation of the input conveyor 50 described above and its associated photo emitters and receptors, an empty pallet is loaded into the loading station 38 in a more time efficient manner. As explained earlier, in the operation of the palletizer in initially loading layers of objects onto an empty pallet positioned in the loading station, from an elevated position of the carriage assembly 44 as it approaches the infeed section A, the sweeper mechanism 18 and elevator platform 16 are in their relative positions shown in FIG. 6 . The carriage assembly 44 moves horizontally to the left as shown in FIG. 1, or to the right as shown in FIG. 2, until the sweeper mechanism 18 is positioned over the area of accumulated objects or the grouping of objects 14 positioned in the infeed section. The flaps 22 , 24 , 26 of the sweeper mechanism 18 are slightly extended as shown in FIG. 6 as the carriage assembly 44 moves downwardly until the sweeper mechanism 18 is positioned over the grouping of objects 14 . At this point in the operation of the prior art palletizer, the flaps 22 , 24 , 26 would be controlled by the control unit to close around the grouping of objects 14 . The sweeping movement of the sweeper mechanism 18 horizontally to the right as viewed in FIG. 1 sweeping the layer of objects over the elevator platform 16 would not begin for a short time period allowing all of the flaps to close. One of the improvements provided by the present invention is in a pair of Hall effect switches 100 provided on the sides of the actuators 29 that open and close the rear flap 26 and on the sides of the pair of actuators 29 that open and close the front flap 24 . Hall effect switches are known in the art and provide a signal in response to sensing the passage of the pistons through the piston cylinder actuators 29 . These switches 100 provide an early indication signal to the control unit letting it know that the forward and rearward flaps 24 , 26 are approaching their closed position and that the sweeping movement of the sweeping mechanism 18 can begin early. By adding the Hall effect switches 100 to the actuators 29 of the front 24 and rear 26 flaps, the time delay for the flaps to close is eliminated and the sweeping movement of the sweeper mechanism 18 is begun earlier. The sweeper mechanism 18 then sweeps the layer of objects 14 on the elevator plate 16 until it trips a first position switch 102 . This first position switch 102 is employed on prior art palletizers and sends a signal to the control unit letting it know that the sweeper mechanism 18 has completed its sweeping motion moving the layer of objects 14 onto the elevator platform 16 and that the elevator platform is now ready to be moved with the carriage assembly 44 to align it in its proper vertical position for unloading the layer of objects onto a pallet. As explained earlier, a photo sensor in the object outfeed section C or the loading station 38 provides the control unit with information indicating that a pallet is present in the loading station. The control unit now moves the carriage assembly 44 vertically upward or downward depending on whether there is an empty pallet in the loading station or whether there is a pallet having one or more layers of objects loaded onto the pallet. The prior art carriage assembly was provided with a photo emitter 104 and an associated reflector 106 that sends a photo beam laterally across the object outfeed section C to detect if there are any layers of objects loaded onto a pallet in the loading station. The carriage assembly 44 is controlled by the control unit to move vertically downwardly until the photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 detect the presence of a layer of objects on a loaded pallet by an interruption of the light beam passed between the emitter and receptor. If a light beam is not interrupted, the downward movement of the carriage 44 will continue until it reaches the bottom of the elevator section B where it is positioned adjacent an empty pallet. However, in the prior art palletizer, the downward movement of the carriage 44 would not commence until the photo sensor in the object outfeed section C or the loading station 38 detected the presence of an empty pallet in the station. An improvement provided by the present invention reprograms the control unit so that, if no layers of objects loaded on a pallet are detected by the lateral photo emitter 104 and receptor 106 , the carriage will begin its downward movement even before the photo receptor in the loading station 38 detects the presence of an empty pallet in the loading station. However, to prevent the carriage 44 from moving to its lowest position in the elevator section B before an empty pallet is positioned in the loading station 38 , an upper carriage detector switch 108 is added to the palletizer positioned vertically above the existing lowest position detector switch 110 . With the addition of the upper carriage detector switch 110 , the carriage 44 can now be controlled by the control unit to begin its vertically downward movement toward the bottom of the elevator section B before an empty pallet is detected in the loading station 38 . The downward movement of the carriage will continue until it reaches the added upper carriage detector switch 108 . At this point the downward movement of the carriage assembly 44 will be stopped if an empty pallet is not detected in the loading station 38 . The downward movement to the lowest position of the carriage detected by the existing lowest positioned detector switch 110 will not begin again until an empty pallet is detected in the loading station. This ensures that the forward edge of the elevator platform 16 will overlap the empty pallet for a smooth sweeping movement of the layer of objects 14 onto the pallet. If an empty pallet is detected in the loading station 38 by the time the carriage assembly 44 reaches the upper carriage detector switch 108 , then the downward movement of the carriage assembly will continue until it reaches the bottom of the elevator section as detected by the existing lowest position switch 110 . By adding the additional switch 108 to the elevator section B, the carriage assembly 44 and its elevator platform 16 can begin its downward movement before the control unit determines whether or not an empty pallet is present in the loading station. This modification also results in a savings of small increments of time that, when multiplied by continuous operation of the palletizer for an extended period of time become a substantial time savings. Additional time saving improvements have been added to the carriage assembly 44 . After a layer of objects 44 has been swept by the sweeper mechanism 18 onto the elevator platform 16 , the sweeper mechanism 18 and elevator platform 16 have their relative positions shown in FIG. 7 . These positions are determined by existing sweeper mechanism position switch 102 on the carriage assembly 44 . With the elevator platform 16 positioned adjacent the accumulated layer of objects on the supply conveyor 12 , the sweeper mechanism 18 is activated to sweep the layer of objects onto the elevator platform 16 until its position is sensed by the horizontal position switch 102 . At this point, the horizontal sweeping motion of the sweeper mechanism 18 is stopped by the control unit until vertical positioning movements of the carriage assembly 44 take place. As explained earlier, if the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 do not detect the presence of layers of objects stacked on the pallet by their photo beam being interrupted, the carriage assembly 44 will move downward until the beam is interrupted by a layer of objects loaded on a pallet. If a layer of objects has not yet been loaded on a pallet and a new pallet is positioned in the loading station 38 , the vertical movement of the carriage assembly 44 will be controlled as explained earlier when describing the operation of the new upper carriage detector switch 108 . If the horizontal sweeping movement of the sweeper mechanism 18 has been completed by its position being sensed by the horizontal position switch 102 , and no layer of objects is detected by the lateral photo emitter 104 and receptor 106 , the control unit will then control the carriage assembly 44 to move downwardly. However, in the prior art palletizer before the downward movement of the carriage assembly 44 would be commenced, the elevator platform 16 would be extended horizontally a short distance to ensure that it would overlap the edge of a pallet loaded in the loading station or the edge of a slipsheet resting on the last loaded layer of objects on the pallet. This would ensure a smooth surface for the sweeper mechanism 18 to sweep the layer of objects off of the elevator platform 16 and onto the pallet or slipsheet. In the sequence of steps of the prior art device, first the elevator platform 16 would be extended forward its short distance to overlap the pallet or slipsheet. Then the carriage assembly 44 would be moved downward slowly until the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 detected a layer of objects by an interruption in their light beam. This detection would then stop the downward movement of the carriage assembly 44 positioning the elevator platform 16 adjacent the pallet or slipsheet with the forward edge 112 of the platform slightly overlapping the pallet or slipsheet. The sweeper mechanism 18 would then be operated to sweep horizontally to the right as shown in FIGS. 5-8, sweeping the layer of objects 14 onto the pallet or the slipsheet of the last loaded layer of objects. In order to speed up the sweeping motion of the sweeper mechanism 18 , a second horizontal position switch 114 has been added adjacent the first horizontal position switch 102 . In addition, the control unit has been reprogrammed for the presence of the second horizontal position switch 114 . Like the first horizontal switch 102 , the second horizontal position switch 114 detects when the sweeper mechanism 118 has been moved to a position adjacent the second position switch 114 . In the improved operation of the carriage assembly 44 , if the carriage assembly has begun its downward movement in the elevator section B the horizontal sweeping motion of the sweeper mechanism 18 will continue past the first horizontal position switch 102 to the second horizontal position switch 114 . This additional horizontal movement of the sweeper mechanism 18 occurs with the additional horizontal movement of the elevator platform 16 as the forward edge 112 of the elevator platform is advanced slightly in order to position it over the pallet or slipsheet to be loaded. This positions the layer of objects 14 to be loaded onto the pallet or slipsheet slightly closer and eliminates the small increment of time it would take to sweep the layer of objects from the position detected by the first horizontal position switch 102 to the position detected by the second horizontal position switch 114 . If at the time the horizontal sweeping movement of the sweeper mechanism 118 is detected by the second horizontal position switch 114 the layer of objects has not yet been detected by the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 so that the downward movement of the carriage 44 has not stopped, the horizontal movement of the sweeper mechanism 18 will be controlled by the control unit to stop at the position sensed by the second horizontal position switch 114 . If however the carriage assembly 44 has completed its downward movement and the top most layer of objects is detected by the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 , then the horizontal sweeping motion of the sweeper mechanism 18 will continue past the second horizontal position switch 114 sweeping the layer of objects onto the slipsheet or pallet adjacent which the elevator platform 16 has been positioned. Therefore, it can be seen that with the addition of the second horizontal position switch 114 , the layer of objects loaded onto the elevator platform 16 is moved slightly forward by the motion of the sweeper mechanism 18 to the second position switch 114 as the carriage assembly moves downwardly to a position adjacent the pallet or slipsheet to be loaded. In the prior art, the horizontal movement of the sweeper mechanism 18 from the position detected by the existing position switch 102 to the new position switch 114 would not begin until the vertical movement of the carriage assembly 44 had stopped. By allowing that increment of horizontal movement to take place while the carriage assembly 44 is being vertically positioned results in the savings of time. The vertical positioning movements of the carriage assembly 44 to position the forward edge 112 of the elevator platform 16 over the pallet or a slipsheet covering a layer of objects loaded onto a pallet always takes place with the slower, downward movement of the carriage assembly. If the sweeper mechanism 18 sweeps a layer of objects onto the elevator platform 16 and an existing layer of objects is not detected by the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 , the carriage assembly 44 will be controlled by the control unit to begin its vertically downward positioning movement until a layer of objects is detected by the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 . However, if a layer of objects is swept by the sweeper mechanism 18 onto the elevator platform 16 and the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 detect a layer of objects loaded on the pallet, then the control unit controls the carriage assembly 44 to first move vertically upwardly until the photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 no longer detect a layer of objects loaded on the pallet. This tells the control unit that the carriage assembly 44 has been moved above the last loaded layer of objects on the pallet and can then begin its downward positioning movement to position the elevator platform 16 adjacent the pallet or slipsheet to be loaded in the same manner discussed above when no layer of objects is initially detected by the photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 and the carriage assembly is controlled to move downwardly. In the prior art palletizer, the control unit would control the carriage assembly 44 to move upward at a faster rate than its positioning movement downward. This upward movement would continue until the photo beam between the lateral emitter 104 and the receptor 106 was no longer interrupted by layers of objects, letting the control unit know that the carriage assembly 44 had moved sufficiently upwardly. However, the momentum of the rapid upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 would cause it to move well above the last loaded layer of objects on the pallet, sometimes one or two feet above. It would then take a period of time for the control unit to reverse the upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 causing it to move at its slower positioning rate downwardly until the last loaded layer of objects on the pallet was detected by an interruption in the light beam passed between the lateral emitter 104 and its receptor 106 . In order to provide the control unit with an early signal that the carriage assembly 44 has been elevated sufficiently above the last layer of objects stacked on the pallet in the loading station, a vertical positioned photo emitter 120 and its associated receptor 122 have been added to the carriage assembly 44 . As shown in FIGS. 6-9, the vertical position photo emitter 120 is elevated by a support 124 above the carriage assembly 44 and is angled downwardly toward its associated receptor 122 . Represented in dashed lines 126 in FIGS. 7 and 8 is the top of the last loaded layer of objects on the pallet and its covering slipsheet. In operation of the prior art palletizer, the rapid upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 would continue until the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 cleared the top of the last layer of objects 126 loaded on the pallet. Time would then be lost as the upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 was brought to a halt and its vertically positioning downward movement, which is slower than its upward movement, was commenced by the control unit. By adding the angled vertical position photo emitter 120 and its associated receptor 122 , it can be seen in FIG. 7 that the light beam between this emitter 120 and its receptor 122 will be reestablished before the light beam between the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 on upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 . The reestablishment of the light beam between the vertical position photo emitter 120 and its receptor 122 provides an early indication to the control unit to stop the vertically upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 and begin the slower, more deliberate downward positioning movement. On the downward positioning movement of the carriage assembly 44 the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 are still relied on to provide the control unit with a signal indicating that the elevator platform 16 has been positioned adjacent the last loaded layer of objects on the pallet by the interruption of the light beam between this emitter 104 and receptor 106 . However, because the added vertical position photo emitter 120 and its receptor 122 provide and earlier signal to the control unit that the carriage assembly 44 is approaching its vertical position where the lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 will clear the top most layer of objects as indicated by the dashed line 126 , the operation of the improved palletizer is able to save additional time by stopping the upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 earlier and beginning its downward vertical positioning movement earlier. When the upward movement of the carriage assembly 44 stops and its downward vertical positioning movement begins, then the control unit controls the elevator platform 16 and sweeper mechanism 18 to move slightly forward from the position of the sweeper mechanism 18 detected by the existing horizontal position switch 102 to the position of the added horizontal position switch 114 as explained earlier. When the existing lateral photo emitter 104 and its receptor 106 detect that the downward movement of the carriage 44 has positioned the elevator platform 16 adjacent the last loaded layer of objects on the pallet with the elevator platform forward edge 112 overlapping the slipsheet, the sweeper mechanism 18 is then activated to sweep the layer of objects horizontally off of the elevator platform 16 and onto the slipsheet over the last loaded layer of objects. When the sweeping motion of the sweeper mechanism 18 has been completed, the motion must be reversed. This requires that the rear flap 26 and the pair of side flaps 22 be pivoted open slightly to disengage from the sides of the layer of objects but also requires the front flap 24 to be completely raised horizontally to clear the layer of objects when the layer of objects is the top most layer to be loaded on the top of the stack of objects supported by the pallet. If the layer of objects is not the top most layer, then the carriage assembly 44 can be raised relative to the loaded pallet while the flaps are moved toward their open positions making it unnecessary for the forward flap 24 to be completely raised to clear the top loaded layer as the sweeper mechanism is retracted from this layer. However, where the layer is the top most layer of objects loaded onto the stack on the pallet, the front flap 24 must be completely raised to its horizontal position in order to clear this last loaded layer as the sweeper mechanism 18 is retracted from the layer. The addition of the Hall effect switches 100 on the actuator 29 that moves the front flap 24 saves time in this operation. The Hall effect switch 100 on the actuator 29 that moves the front flap 24 to its completely opened horizontal position detects the passage of the piston in the actuator before it is completely moved to its position where the front flap 24 is oriented horizontally. This gives an early signal to the control unit that the front flap 24 is approaching its completely open, horizontal position, although it has not yet reached that position. This enables the control unit to begin the control of the sweeper mechanism 18 causing the sweeper mechanism to move to the left as viewed in FIGS. 5-8 toward its retracted position over the elevator platform 16 and then continuing on to its position to the left of the carriage assembly where it is over the accumulation area of the supply conveyor 12 . In the prior art palletizer, there was a programmed time delay that would prevent the sweeper mechanism 18 from retracting to its left until the time period had expired, thus enabling sufficient time for the actuator 29 to completely open the front flap 24 to its horizontal position. By adding the Hall effect switch 100 to the actuator 29 that opens the front flap 24 , an early signal is provided to the control unit that enables it to start the sequence of operations that will cause the sweeper mechanism 18 to move to its retracted position. By elimination of the time delay in moving the sweeper mechanism 18 in the prior art palletizer, the addition of the Hall effect switch to the front flap actuator results in a more time efficient operation of the improved palletizer. While the present invention has been described by reference to a specific embodiment, it should be understood that modifications and variations of the invention may be constructed without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the following claims.

An apparatus that is one part of a conveying system for transferring objects, such as bottles, where the apparatus arranges the objects in layers on a pallet is improved by the addition of sensors that provide early indications of movements of component parts of the apparatus to a control unit of the apparatus where the signals are used in a more time efficient operation of the apparatus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to the treatment of autism and, more specifically, the use of a ciliary neurotrophic factor peptide mimetic to address autism disorders. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] Autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders of as yet unknown etiology characterized clinically by a behavioral phenotype comprising of impaired social interaction, absence or delay in language, and repetitive, stereotyped purposeless behavior. The onset of symptoms usually occurs after 3 years of life. The prevalence of autism has increased dramatically over the last decade with most recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates suggesting that ASDs affect 1 in 88 children in U.S. with a five-fold higher occurrence in boys as compared to girls. Even though the exact etiology of autism is as yet not precisely elucidated, existing scientific literature suggests a multifactorial etiopathogenesis encompassing genetic, environmental, and immunological factors, neurotrophic dysregulation, and an increased susceptibility to oxidative stress. [0005] A consistent phenomenon reported in scientific literature on autism cases is an accelerated brain growth during early development followed by slowed brain growth and decreased neuronal number and size and less dendritic branching in various brain regions such as cerebellum, hippocampus, and amygdala. These findings point towards an abnormality in regulatory mechanisms that govern growth and differentiation of central nervous system leading to an imbalance in neuronal and synaptic formation and pruning. One of the most prominent factors in neurogenesis, neuronal proliferation, differentiation, and pruning in normal brain development is the microenvironment provided by various neurotrophic factors. A dysregulation of neurotrophic factors can be a major cause of abnormalities in neurogenesis, neuronal migration and differentiation, synaptic connectivity and maturation, and neuronal and synaptic pruning leading to deficits in social behavior and cognition observed in autism. [0006] Alterations in the levels of neurotrophic factors in the brain, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and blood of individuals with autism have been reported extensively. A main cause of dysregulation of neurotrophic factors in autism might be oxidative stress during prenatal and early development which is a widely implicated in the pathogenesis of autism. For example, increased oxidative stress has been shown to block ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) activity in neurons which is essential for neuronal survival and maintenance. On a similar note, serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been linked to oxidative stress in ASDs. Previously, cerebrolysin, a peptidergic neurotrophic preparation which has been shown to protect chicken cortical neurons from neurodegeneration in an iron-induced oxidative stress model and to enhance dentate gyms neurogenesis and associated memory in normal adult rats was found to improve expressive and receptive speech and fine motor performance in 17 out of 19 children with autism. Targeting the neurotrophic abnormalities in autism can, thus, serve as potential therapeutic approach. [0007] The therapeutic usage of neurotrophic factor such as BDNF and CNTF has been limited primarily because full-length neurotrophic factor molecules poorly reach the central nervous system after peripheral administration and have short plasma half-lives. Besides, recombinant CNTF was shown to cause anorexia, skeletal muscle loss, hyperalgesia, severe cramps, and muscle pain in human clinical trials. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] The present invention comprises the use of Peptide 6 (P6) to treat autism. Peptide 6 is an 11-mer peptide derived from ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and exerts a beneficial effect on neurogenesis, neuronal and synaptic plasticity, and cognition via inhibition of LIF signaling pathway and elevation of BDNF level by increasing its transcription. To establish the efficacy of the use of Peptide 6 to treat autism, an example was performed where: (i) sera from children with autism were used to cause neurodegeneration and increased oxidative stress in embryonic day 18 mouse primary neuronal cultures; (ii) the intracerebroventricular injection of the autistic sera within hours after birth was used to produce characteristic autistic behavioral phenotype in young rats; and (iii) pre-treatment with P6 was found to be neuroprotective to autistic sera-induced changes both in mouse primary neuronal cultures and in vivo in rats. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) [0009] The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated by reading the following Detailed Description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: [0010] FIG. 1A is a series of representative images of phase contrast microscopy and β-III-tubulin (mature neuronal marker) staining of DIV7 primary cultured cortical neurons treated with 0.2% sera from autistic or control children with or without 1 μM P6 for 72 hours showing the effect of autism and control sera treatment with or without P6 on neuronal morphology. Data is based on evaluation of the effect of 22 pairs of autism/control sera in 3 independent set of experiments. Autism sera markedly reduced the length of the neurites and the number of cells and showed increased number of cell spheres and P6 could rescue these changes. [0011] FIGS. 1B and 1C are graphs of the quantification of LDH cytotoxicity assay for evaluation of cell death (LDH release) and neuronal viability in DIV7 primary cultured cortical neurons treated with 0.2% sera from autistic or control children with or without 1 μM P6 for 72 hours. Data are shown as mean+S.E.M. based on the effect of 3 pairs of autism/control sera in 3 independent sets of experiments. [0012] FIGS. 1D and 1E are graphs showing oxidative stress data from a DCF-DA assay for free radical production and TBARS assay for lipid peroxidation 3 days after treatment (DIV7) with sera from autistic or control children) with or without P6 pre-treatment (0.005 μM, 0.05 μM, and 1 μM). Data are shown as mean+S.E.M. based on two independent sets of experiments evaluating 3 pairs of autism/control sera. *p<0.05, **p<0.01, and ***p<0.001. ANOVA with Bonferroni's post-hoc test and/or Student's t-test (scale bar=100 μm). [0013] FIGS. 2A and 2B are representative images and graphical quantifications of Western blots for evaluation of levels of various neurotrophic factors in 3 pairs of sera from autistic and control children used in the study showing the levels of various neurotrophic factors in sera from autistic and control children. A1, A2, A3, and C1, C2, C3, represent 3 autism and 3 control cases, respectively and *p<0.05, **p<0.01, and ***p<0.001 (Student's t-test). [0014] FIG. 3A is a schematic of the design of an in vivo study where newly born Wistar rat pups were injected intracerebroventricularly on postnatal day (P)0.5 with saline (sham) or ˜2% (final concentration) autism or control serum with or without ˜20 nM (final concentration) P6. Behavioral studies were performed from postnatal day 2 to 25 in rats and the effects of autism and control sera in the presence or absence of P6 on neurobehavioral development in rats. [0015] FIGS. 3B and 3C are a series of graphs of the evaluation of neurobehavioral development in Wistar rat pups from postnatal day 1-21, wherein FIG. 3B includes the day of appearance of surface righting, negative geotaxis, cliff aversion, rooting, and forelimb grasp and FIG. 3C includes air righting, eye opening, auditory startle, ear twitch reflex, and fore limb placing. Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. based on sham (n=17), autism serum (n=15-16), autism serum+P6 (n=16-17), control serum (n=15-16), and control serum+P6 (n=16-17) and *p<0.05, **p<0.01, and ***p<0.001 (ANOVA with Bonferroni's post-hoc test and/or Student's t-test). [0016] FIGS. 4A and B are a series of graphs of the effects of autism and control sera in the presence or absence of P6 on ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) from postnatal day 2-11 in rat pups. Social communication in young Wistar rats injected intracerebroventricularly on P0.5 with sham or 2% autism or control serum with or without 20 nM P6. Social communication was evaluated by the number, FIG. 4A , and duration, FIG. 4B , of isolation induced ultrasonic calls emitted by rat pups during the 5 min test on postnatal days 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. in saline (sham) (n=15-17), autism serum (n=15-17), autism serum+P6 (n=15-17), control serum (n=15-17), and control serum+P6 (n=15-17) treated pups where *p<0.05, **p<0.01, and ***p<0.001 (ANOVA with Bonferroni's post-hoc test and/or Student's t-test). [0017] FIGS. 5A through 5E are a series of graphs of the effect of autism and control sera in the presence or absence of P6 on grooming, social approach and novelty in young Wistar rats. P0.5 rat pups were injected intracerebroventricularly with saline (sham) or 2% autism or control serum with or without 20 nM P6. FIG. 5A includes grooming time measured during the first 5 min habituation phase in the central chamber of the 3-chamber social approach/novelty task. FIG. 5B includes sniffing time and time in the chamber (stranger rat 1 versus novel object) spent in the social approach task. FIG. 5C includes sniffing time, FIG. 5D , and time in the chamber, FIG. 5E , (stranger rat 1 versus stranger rat 2) spent in the social novelty task. Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. based on sham (n=15), autism serum (n=15), autism serum+P6 (n=16), control serum (n=15), and control serum+P6 (n=16) with *p<0.05, **p<0.01, and ***p<0.001 (ANOVA with Bonferroni's post-hoc test and/or Student's t-test). [0018] FIG. 6A through 6F are images and graphs of the effect of autism and control sera in the presence or absence of P6 on neurodegeneration, oxidative stress, and CNTF, BDNF, and pro-BDNF expression in the cerebral cortex of young Wistar rats. On day P0.5, rats were injected intracerebroventricularly with saline (sham) or 2% autism or control serum with or without 20 nM P6. On postnatal day 26-27, rats were sacrificed and their brain tissue was evaluated by quantitative immunohistochemistry and Western blots. FIG. 6A are 6 B are a graph of the quantification (% sham) and representative images of Fluorojade C staining, a sensitive marker of neurodegeneration, in the cerebral cortex. Quantification is based on minimum of 6 animals/group (including 2 animals for each serum sample injected). FIGS. 6C and 6D are a graph of the quantification and representative images of 8-OHdG positive neurons, a marker of DNA damage caused by oxidative free radicals, in the cerebral cortex. Quantification is based on minimum of 6 animals/group (including 2 animals for each serum sample injected). FIGS. 6E and 6F are representative Western blots and densitometric quantification of BDNF, pro-BDNF, and CNTF expression normalized to GAPDH in the cerebral cortex of young Wistar rats. Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. based on sham (n=7), autism serum (n=7), autism serum+P6 (n=8), control serum (n=6), and control serum+P6 (n=7) with *p<0.05, **p<0.01, and ***p<0.001 (ANOVA with Bonferroni's post-hoc test and/or Student's t-test). [0019] FIG. 7 is a line graph of the body weight evaluation of young Wistar rats from postnatal day 3 to 21. Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. based on sham (n=17), autism serum (n=16), autism serum+P6 (n=17), control serum (n=16), and control serum+P6 (n=17). [0020] FIGS. 8A and B are bar graphs of the performance in negative geotaxis testing and cliff aversion where FIG. 8B is a graph of negative geotaxis time on days 8, 11, and 14, and FIG. 8A is a graph of cliff aversion on postnatal days 9, 12, and 15. Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. based on sham (n=17), autism serum (n=15-16), autism serum+P6 (n=16-17), control serum (n=15-16), and control serum+P6 (n=16-17) with *p<0.05, **p<0.01, and ***p<0.001 (ANOVA with Bonferroni's post-hoc test and/or Student's t-test). [0021] FIG. 9A through 9F are graphs of the general behavioral characterization in young Wistar rats injected intracerebroventricularly on P0.5 with sham or 2% autism or control serum with or without 20 nM P6. Anxiety-like behaviors were evaluated by, as seen in FIG. 9A , percent time in the open arm, OA (ANOVA, p=0.8551), as seen in FIG. 9B , the number of entries to OA (ANOVA, p=0.5295) in an elevated plus maze on postnatal day 18-19, and, as seen in FIG. 9C , the time in the center (ANOVA, p=0.9975) in an open field arena on postnatal day 19-20. There was a trend towards decreased number of OA entries in autism serum injected young rats (sham group vs autism serum group, Bonferroni's post hoc test, p>0.05, Student's t-test, p=0.08). FIG. 9D is a graph of the spontaneous locomotor and exploratory activities assessed in open field [repeated measures 2-way ANOVA, group effect, F=0.34 (8, 219), p=0.9513]. FIG. 9E is a graph of the motor strength evaluated by latency to fall in prehensile traction test on postnatal day 24-25 (ANOVA, p=0.9332). FIG. 9F is a graph of the behavioral despair and depression-like behavior analyzed by immobility time in forced swim test on postnatal day 24-25 (ANOVA, p=0.9410). Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. based on sham (n=15-17), autism serum (n=15-17), autism serum+P6 (n=15-17), control serum (n=15-17), and control serum+P6 (n=15-17). DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0022] The present invention involves the use of an 11-mer peptide, Peptide 6 (P6), which is blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeable, has a plasma half-life of over 6 hr, and does not cause adverse effects associated with the full-length protein in mice or rats, to treat autism. This CNTF derived small peptide mimetic exerts a beneficial effect on neurogenesis, neuronal and synaptic plasticity, and cognition via inhibition of LIF signaling pathway and elevation of BDNF level by increasing its transcription. To establish the efficacy of the use of Peptide 6 to treat autism, a series of experiments were performed and show that: (i) sera from children with autism cause neurodegeneration and increased oxidative stress in embryonic day 18 mouse primary neuronal cultures; (ii) intracerebroventricular injection of autistic sera within hours after birth produces characteristic autistic behavioral phenotype in young rats; and (iii) pre-treatment with P6 is neuroprotective to autistic sera-induced changes both in primary neuronal cultures and in vivo in rats. Example Materials and Methods [0023] Sera from Children with Autism and from Healthy Controls [0024] Table 1 below summarizes the general clinical profiles of 22 pairs of children with autism and healthy controls whose sera were screened in in vitro studies, and Table 2 below provides details of the 3 pairs of these autism and control subjects whose sera were used for further in vitro and in vivo investigations. The diagnosis of autism was made using Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic (ADOS-G) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV). [0000] TABLE 1 Characterization of serum donors initially screened Diagnosis (DSM-IV; ADOS-G) Autism Control Number of donors (M/F) 22 (15/7) 22 (13/9) Mean Age (± S.E.M.) 4.96 ± 0.11   5.17 ± 0.195 Age range 4.1-6 3.76-6.4 Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised Scale (ADI-R) QA in reciprocal social interaction  17.45 ± 1.47 (7-28) a N/A QA in communication 12.14 ± 0.58 (7-20) N/A Restricted, repetitive and  5.09 ± 0.41 (3-12) N/A stereotyped behavior Verbal Adaptive Behavior Scale Communication  58.86 ± 3.9 (40-106) N/A Daily living skills       59 ± 3.01 (36-104) N/A Socialization   58.14 ± 1.81 (49-78) N/A Motor   61.41 ± 2.93 (41-93) N/A a Range of the results; N/A, Not applicable [0000] TABLE 2 Diagnosis (DSM-IV; ADOS-G) Age Gender ADIQRS ADICOM ADIREPST CSS DSS SSS MSS Autism 5.11 M 16 14 5 57 58 57 59 Autism 4.8 M 15 13 8 61 63 58 56 Autism 4.6 M 25 12 4 73 65 63 61 Control 5 M N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Control 5.4 M N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Control 4.8 M N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A, Not applicable [0025] Further confirmation of the diagnosis was performed with Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), an abridged version of ADI administered through interviewing the parents. Additional characterization of the subjects was carried out by Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale. Blood samples were collected from children in families belonging to the same population based in the New York City (NYC) area and expectedly exposed to similar profile of external environmental factors e.g. air pollution and water contamination. Additional differences owing to variable child care, dietary patterns, inherent household customs and preferences, and various other non-specific environmental factors that may play some role in the development of autism but have not yet been assigned a definitive role were not taken into consideration. The level of IQ was not used as a selection criterion for donors as it is not a definitive diagnostic tool for autism. Control samples were collected from normal children who had siblings with autism but were not related to the probands evaluated in the current study. All autism and control subjects belonged to the ethnic group white. The study subjects did not have any significant history of seizures or gastrointestinal problems, none had received a concomitant diagnosis of fragile X syndrome or Rett syndrome, and none were on antidepressants, neuroleptics, seizure medications, or stimulants. All sera were stored as coded anonymous samples at −80° C. Immediately before experiments, sera were thawed once and used for in vitro and in vivo studies as indicated. [0026] Design and Synthesis of Peptide 6 (P6) [0027] P6, which corresponds to amino acid residues 146-156 of human CNTF, VGDGGLFEKKL (SEQ ID NO: 1) was identified as an active region by epitope mapping of neutralizing antibodies to CNTF. The peptide was synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis (SPSS) methods, purified by reverse phase HPLC to >96% purity, lyophilized, and characterized via HPLC, NMR, and ESI-MS. [0028] In Vitro Studies [0029] Study Outline [0030] The effects of treatment with the sera from autistic and control children and of P6 were evaluated in the in vitro studies using primary cortical neuronal cell cultures from embryonic day 18 (E18) mouse cortex. The cultured neurons were treated on 4th day in vitro (DIV4, 72 hours after seeding) and their morphology was analyzed on DIV7 (72 hours after treatment). Subsequently, cell death and viability, and oxidative stress were analyzed. [0031] Primary Neuronal Cultures [0032] Primary cortical neuronal cell cultures were prepared from E18 C57BL/6 mice cortex. Briefly, C57BL/6 time pregnant E18 female mice from Charles River labs were anesthetized and killed by cervical dislocation. All studies were performed in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The protocol was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (Protocol no. 199). Embryos were removed and placed in cold hibernate A (Brain bits, Springfield, Ill., USA), and all following steps were performed in ice-cold hibernate A, using the stereoscopic (dissection) microscope placed in a laminar flow hood. Fetal brains were removed carefully; cerebral cortex was separated, and was dissected and cut into small pieces using microsurgical scissors. The cut tissue was transferred with number 5 forceps to 15 ml tubes containing 0.1% trypsin in versene (Invitrogen Life Technologies, Grand Island, N.Y., USA) and incubated for 15 min at 37° C. followed by inactivation with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) in Neurobasal complete medium (Neurobasal Medium supplemented with 2× B-27, 0.3% glutamine, and penicillin/streptomycin 0.1 mg/ml and 0.1 U/ml respectively). After 72 hours, the medium was replaced and supplemented with fresh medium with or without autism or control serum+P6 as described below. All medium components were purchased from Invitrogen Grand Island, N.Y., USA. Cells were maintained in an incubator at 37° C. at 5% CO 2 /95% atmospheric air. [0033] For recovering the protein, cells were seeded in 6-well plates precoated overnight with 50 μg/ml poly-D-lysine (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo., USA) at a density of 1×10 6 cells/well. For immunocytochemistry, LDH and oxidative stress assays, cells were seeded onto 8-well chambers or 96-well plates (precoated with poly-D-lysine) at a density of 8×10 4 cells/well or 7×10 4 cells/well in 300 or 100 μl Defined Medium, respectively. [0034] Treatment of Cultured Neurons with Sera with or without P6 [0035] The cells were cultured for 72 hours prior to beginning of the treatment with a serum alone or serum with P6 or vehicle. Initially, the effect of 22 pairs of autism/control sera were evaluated in 3 separate set of primary cultures. Based on these experiments, 3 pairs of sera with consistent marked effect on neuronal morphology were selected for further experiments. Initially different concentrations of the sera in culture medium (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5%, and 1%) were evaluated and based on these analyses, a final concentration of 0.2% was chosen for subsequent experiments. Similarly, different concentrations of P6 (0.0005 μM, 0.005 μM, 0.05 μM, and 1 μM) were evaluated. [0036] To study the cytotoxic effects of autism sera and the potential rescue with P6, 72 hours after seeding the cells, the culture medium was replaced with fresh medium containing different concentrations of P6. The P6 was dissolved in water from which necessary amount was added directly to the culture medium to achieve the desired final concentration. Three hours after the pre-treatment with P6, sera from autistic or control children were added to the culture medium already containing P6 to achieve a final concentration of sera to be 0.2%. Few wells in each plate or chamber were left vehicle treated only to serve as controls. The treatment continued for a total of 72 hours after which light microscopic evaluation of cultured neurons was performed and low and high magnification images were captured using Nikon digital camera system for digital sight, DS-Fi 1 coupled with Nikon Labophot microscope. After a total of 6 days-in-vitro, immunohistochemical analysis and LDH and oxidative stress assays were performed in different set of experiments. [0037] LDH Assay for Cell Death and Cell Viability [0038] Cell death and cell viability were analyzed using the LDH cytotoxicity assay kit (Promega, Madison, Wis., USA), following manufacturer's instructions. Cell death (LDH release at OD 490 nm) and cell viability (percent of control) were plotted separately. [0039] Oxidative Stress Assays [0040] DCFH-DA for Evaluating the Generation of Free Radicals [0041] Dichlorofluorescein (DCF) fluorescence assay was used to determine the intracellular production of reactive oxygen species as described previously (Muthaiyah et al., 2011). Briefly, the primary neuronal cells were treated with the cell permeable 2,7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate, DCFH-DA (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo., USA) which is converted into 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescein. The 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescein interacts with intracellular peroxides to form a highly fluorescent compound. The medium was removed three days after serum with or without Peptide 6 treatment and cells were washed with Hank's Balanced Solution, HBSS (Invitrogen, Camarillo, Calif., USA). The cells were incubated with DCFH-DA (10 μM) for 30 min and then washed with HBSS solution two times. DCF fluorescence was quantified (excitation wave length=485 nm, emission wave length=530 nm) using a fluorescence multi well plate reader (Spectra Max M5, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif., USA). [0042] TBARS Assay for Evaluation of Lipid Peroxidation [0043] Lipid peroxidation was assessed by determining the level of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) in primary neuronal cell lysates. Cultured neurons were lysed in lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, 1% Triton X-100, 50 mM NaCl, 5 mM EGTA, 50 mM sodium fluoride, 20 mM sodium pyrophosphate, 1 mM sodium vanadate, 2 mM PMSF, and 8 mM diisopropylfluorophosphate) containing 0.05% butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The 100 μl of cell lysate was added to 200 μl ice-cold 10% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) on ice for 15 min to precipitate protein. Precipitated samples were centrifuged at 2200×g for 15 min at 4° C. Supernatants were mixed with an equal volume of 0.67% thiobarbituric acid and then boiled for 10 min. Once cooled, the absorbance was read at wave length 532 nm on an absorbance plate reader (Spectra Max M5, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif., USA). Malonyldialdehyde (MDA, an end product of peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids and related esters and a marker of lipid peroxidation) content was calculated using a molecular extinction coefficient for MDA of 2.56×10 5 . [0044] Immunocytochemistry of Cultured Neurons for β-III-Tubulin Staining [0045] After 3 days of treatment, cells seeded in 8-well chambers were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde (Electron Microscopy Sciences, PA, USA) for 30 min at room temperature, and then washed two times in PBS for storage at 4° C. prior to staining Cells were permeabilized in 0.05% Triton-X-100 in PBS for 20 min at 25° C., washed in PBS 3×10 min, and then incubated in blocking buffer (1% BSA w/v, 0.2% Triton-X-100 v/v in PBS) for 45 min at 25° C. The cells were then incubated with rabbit polyclonal anti-Tuj-1, β-III-tubulin (1:200, Covance, Emeryville, Calif., USA) antibody in blocking buffer at 4° C. overnight. The cells were washed three times for 10 min in PBS and then incubated with fluorescently-labeled CY3-conjugated goat anti-rabbit secondary antibody (1:500, Jackson Laboratory, Maine, USA) diluted in blocking buffer for 2 h at 25° C. in the dark. The cells were washed 3×10 min in PBS and 24×60 mm cover glass (Brain Research Laboratories, Newton, Mass., USA) was mounted with Vectashield anti-fade mounting medium (Vector Laboratories Inc., Burlingame, Calif., USA) and sealed with nail polish. The slides were examined using 20× and 40× objectives of a Nikon 90i fluorescent microscope equipped with Nikon C1 three-laser confocal system and a Nikon DS U1 digital camera, and analyzed with EZ-C1 Viewer Image software, Version 6.0. [0046] Western Blots of Human Serum Samples for Neurotrophic Factors Levels [0047] For Western blots to evaluate the levels of various neurotrophic factors in sera samples, the serum samples were diluted in loading buffer and loaded as appropriate assuming normal human serum protein concentration to be ˜80 μg/μL. SDS-PAGE 10% or 12.5% gels were employed followed by transfer of separated proteins on 0.45 μm PVDF membranes (Pall, Pensacola, Fla., USA) for Western blots. The following primary antibodies were used at the indicated dilutions: rabbit polyclonal anti-CNTF, FL-200 (1:500, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA); rabbit polyclonal anti-BDNF, N-20 (1:1000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA); goat polyclonal anti-LIF, N-18 (1:500, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA); rabbit polyclonal anti-NGF, M-20 (1:1000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA); and rabbit polyclonal anti-FGF2, 147 (1:500, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA). [0048] Blots were blocked for 1 hr at 37° C. in TBST (0.05% Tween 20 in TBS) containing 5% w/v blotting grade dry milk (Bio-rad, Hercules, Calif., USA), incubated in primary antibody in blocking buffer overnight at 4° C., washed 3 times for 10 min in TBST at room temperature, followed by incubation with secondary antibody i.e. peroxidase-conjugated anti-rabbit or anti goat IgG (Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, Pa., USA) diluted in blocking buffer. Blots were washed 3×10 min in TBST and immunoreactive protein bands were visualized with enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) reagents (Pierce, Rockford, Ill., USA). The ECL films of the blots were scanned and analyzed using Multi Gauge software version 3.0 (Fujifilm, Tokyo, Japan). For loading control, the blots were developed with rabbit polyclonal antibody to GAPDH (1:1000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA). [0049] In Vivo Studies in Rats [0050] Study Outline [0051] To study the effect of sera and P6 in the in vivo setting, new born Wistar rat pups (within 24 hours of birth) were injected intracerebroventricularly with sera (final concentration ˜2%) from autism or control children with or without P6 (final concentration ˜20 nM). The same 3 pairs of sera which showed consistent marked effects in in vitro studies were used for in vivo evaluation. Following injections, a battery of behavioral tests including recording of ultrasonic vocalizations and neonatal developmental milestones in pups and evaluation of anxiety, exploration, grooming, social approach/novelty, depression like behavior, and motor strength in young rats were performed. Both male and female pups were studied, and the data were pooled. Corresponding to in vitro investigations, evaluation of neurodegeneration and oxidative stress was carried out in the brain tissue from young rats. The analyses were done in different batches of animals as described below. [0052] Animal Housing and Intracerebroventricular Injections [0053] Normal Wistar rats were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Germantown, Md., USA) and were bred at the New York State Institute for Basic Research Animal Colony according to the PHS Policy on Human Care and Use of Laboratory animals (revised Mar. 15, 2011). Rats were housed (2/3 animals per cage) with a 12:12-h light/dark cycle and with ad libitum access to food and water. Studies on animals were carried out according to approved protocols from our Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). [0054] On the day of birth, designated as P0.5, pups were individually cryoanesthetized by placing them directly on wet ice for 3 min; the anesthetized pup's head was placed on a non-heat conducting fiber optic light source and the lateral ventricles of the cerebrum were visualized by transillumination. A total of 4 μL of serum with or without P6 (concentrations described below) was injected unilaterally into the lateral ventricle through transcutaneous insertion with a specifically designed fine 10 μL Hamilton syringe with a 30-gauge/0.5 inch/hypodermic cemented needle (Hamilton Syringe Co., Reno, Nev., USA). For injections with sera without P6, 2 μL of autism or control serum was diluted with 2 μL of 0.9% NaCl (physiological saline) to make a final concentration of ˜2% serum in rat pup CSF (assuming the total CSF volume in rat pup to be ˜100 μL). For injections of sera with P6, 2 μL of autism or control serum was mixed with 2 μL of 1 μM P6 stock solution (final concentration of P6 in rat pup CSF ˜20 nM). For sham injection group, 4 μL of 0.9% NaCl was injected. From each litter, equal numbers of pups were injected for each group (sham, autism serum, control serum, autism serum+P6, control serum+P6) to diminish the litter effect among study groups. After intracerebroventricular injections (i.c.v.), pups were returned to the mother, and later behavioral tests were carried out. [0055] To avoid the potential confounding effects of previous handling, different badges of animals were used for ultrasound vocalizations and for neurobehavioral development and young rat behavior. [0056] Behavioral Procedures [0057] General Examination [0058] The physical state and condition of the rats were carefully examined throughout the study period by evaluating grooming, posture, physical state, and clasping reflex. Body weight was recorded daily during the initial 21 days (till weaning). [0059] Neurobehavioral Development [0060] Examination of neurobehavioral development in rodents is an important study tool to model neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and Down's syndrome, which are characterized by growth retardation and delays in the appearance of developmental milestones. In mice and rats, the early postnatal period is characterized by a spurt of brain growth, synaptogenesis, myelination, and the development of motor and sensory abilities. Thus, evaluation of neurobehavioral development in rodents provides an opportunity to track the ontogeny of the nervous system through examination of neurological reflexes, early motor behavior including muscular strength and coordination, and developmental signs. [0061] Evaluation of neurobehavioral development was performed following procedures described in the relevant literature. Examination was started on postnatal day 1 and was carried out until postnatal day 17 (or until the appearance of developmental milestone/reflex) daily between 12:00-15:00 in a set up made specifically for the purpose in the behavior lab. Weight was also recorded each day. The rat pups were evaluated for the following neurological signs, reflexes, and developmental milestones. [0062] Surface Righting [0063] Surface righting is a measure of labyrinthine and body righting mechanisms, motor strength and coordination. Each rat pup was placed on its back with the experimenter's fingers holding the head and the hind body. The pup was released gently and the time taken in seconds to turn over with all four paws placed on the surface of the table was measured. The test was stopped if the pup did not turn over within maximum 30 s. It was measured once daily until the rat pup could right itself in less than 1 s for two consecutive days. The data for the day of first appearance of the reflex was analyzed. [0064] Negative Geotaxis [0065] Negative geotaxis measures labyrinthine reflex and body righting mechanisms, strength, and motor coordination (Hill et al., 2007). Each rat pup was placed head down on a square of screen mounted at an angle of 450. The time taken by the pup to turn around 180° to the head up position was recorded. The test was stopped if the pup did not turn around within 30 s. If the rat pup lost grip and slipped on the screen, it was replaced at the start point once. The test was repeated daily until the rat pup could perform appropriately in less than 30 s for two consecutive days. The first day of appearance of the reflex was analyzed for different groups. [0066] Cliff Aversion [0067] The cliff aversion test is a measure of labyrinthine reflex function, feel sensitivity, and motor strength and coordination (Hill et al., 2007; Toso et al., 2008). The rat pup was placed on the edge of a cliff (smooth box) with the snout and fore limbs over the edge, and the time taken in seconds to turn and crawl away was recorded. The test was repeated daily until the rat pup could perform appropriately in less than 30 s for two consecutive days. The first day of appearance of the reflex was analyzed for different groups. [0068] Rooting Reflex [0069] The rooting reflex is a sensory tactile reflex also requiring motor coordination; it is mediated by the trigeminal nerve (cranial nerve V) (Hill et al., 2007; Toso et al., 2008). A cotton swab was applied from front to back along the side of the head and the head turning response towards this tactile stimulus was recorded. The test was continued daily till the pup responded correctly for 2 consecutive days. [0070] Ear Twitch Reflex [0071] A measure of sensory tactile reflex, ear twitch test was performed daily by gently brushing the pulled out end of cotton swab against the tip of the ear; a positive reflex consisted of rat pup flattening the ear against the side of the head (Hill et al., 2007). The test was repeated daily until the pup responded correctly for 2 consecutive days. [0072] Eye Opening [0073] A developmental milestone, the first day of opening of both eyes was recorded. [0074] Air Righting [0075] Like surface righting, air righting is also a measure of labyrinthine and body righting mechanisms and motor coordination. The rat pup was held upside nearly 12 cm above the soft bedding of a cage and was released; the test was considered positive on the day when the pups land with all its four paws placed on the surface of the bedding. The test was repeated daily until the pup responded correctly for 2 consecutive days. [0076] Fore Limb Grasp [0077] A measure of strength, fore limb grasp test was performed by holding a rat pup with its forepaws grasping a string fixed from one end to the other end of the cage nearly 12 cm above the bedding. The pup was released, and the amount of time the pup spent grasping the string was recorded. The test was considered positive when the pup kept on grasping the string with fore limb for >1 s; it was repeated every day until performed correctly for 2 consecutive days (Hill et al., 2007). [0078] Fore Limb Placing [0079] A measure of placing reflex development which measures sensory and motor coordination, fore limb placing test was performed by touching the dorsum of the paw with the edge of the table with the animal suspended; the first day of raising the forepaw and placing on the surface of the table was noted. The test was repeated daily until the pup responded correctly for 2 consecutive days. [0080] Auditory Startle [0081] The auditory reflex was evaluated by clapping within 10 cm of the rat pup and the first day of the startle response was recorded. The test was repeated daily until the pup responded correctly for 2 consecutive days. [0082] Ultrasonic Vocalizations [0083] Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) have been widely used for behavioral phenotyping of rodent models of neurodevelopmental disorders. USVs emitted by infant rats have been reported to be a reliable index of emotional development and communicative behavior. Infant rats emit USVs in many different situations including isolation from dam and littermates, physical manipulation, and thermal and olfactory challenges. Isolation induced USVs are considered to be distress vocalizations and have been shown to elicit maternal searching and retrieval. In rat pups, USVs in response to isolation distress are evident usually on the first postnatal day; they increase in number and intensity toward the beginning of second week of life and then abruptly disappear by the end of second week. USVs produced by rat pups typically fall in the range 20-50 KHz. [0084] USVs were recorded daily from 2nd to 11th postnatal day in experimental animals based on the baseline measurements obtained initially with 12 untreated Wistar rat pups during a 5 minute session daily from postnatal day 1 to 15. On each day of testing, pups were isolated one-by-one from their home cage and placed into an empty rectangular glass container (length×width×height=10 cm×7.5 cm×6 cm) located inside a sound-attenuating Styrofoam box mounted with a bat detector. Three such systems were used at the same time, thus, allowing recording of USVs emitted by 3 pups simultaneously. Each box was closed to prevent the detectors from detecting sounds that were not derived from the pup inside. The temperature of the room was fixed at 22+/−1° C. The frequency detectors were set to 40 KHz, which is within the vocalization range of isolation induced USVs produced by rat pups. The frequency detectors were attached via a Noldus box to a computer equipped with Ultravox software, which detected the number and duration of USVs. Minimum USV duration (on time; shortest time of the noise to be counted as a call) was set to be 10 ms. For a call to be considered independent, an off time (minimum time silent before a new noise is counted as a call) of 5 ms was set to be required. No differences were observed in the patterns of calling between male and female pups; thus, the data was pooled together across gender. [0085] Elevated Plus-Maze [0086] The level of anxiety in 18-19 day old young rats was evaluated by elevated plus maze testing. The elevated plus maze comprised of four arms (30×5 cm) connected by a common 5×5 cm center area. There were two opposite facing open arms (OA) and the other two facing arms enclosed by 20-cm high walls (CA). The entire plus-maze was elevated on a pedestal to a height of 82 cm above floor level in a room separated from the experimenter. The anxiogenic feature of the light for rats was maintained by ambient luminosity at 60 Lux which is considered to be non-anxiogenic. The young rat was placed onto the central area facing an open arm and was allowed to explore the maze for a single 8 min session. Between each rat, the feces were removed from the maze and the maze floor was wiped with paper towel soaked with 70% ethanol to avoid any urine or scent cues. For each rat, the number of OA and CA entries and the amount of time spent in each arm were recorded by a video tracking system (ANY-Maze software, version 4.5, Stoelting Co., Wood Dale, Ill., USA). The anxiety-like behavior was evaluated by calculating the percentage of time spent in OA [OA/(OA+CA)×100]; OAs are more anxiogenic for rodents than CAs. [0087] Open Field [0088] Exploratory behavior was analyzed by allowing 19-20 day old young rats to freely explore an open field arena in a single 15 min session. The testing apparatus was a classic open field consisting of a 50×50 cm PVC square arena surrounded by 40 cm high walls. The open field was placed in a room separated from the investigator and was surmounted by a video camera connected to a computer tracking animals using a video tracking system (ANY-Maze software, version 4.5, Stoelting Co., Wood Dale, Ill., USA). The parameters analyzed included time spent in the center of the arena and total distance traveled which are measures of anxiety and exploratory activity, respectively. [0089] Grooming, Social Approach, and Social Novelty Test [0090] Grooming, social approach, and social novelty were analyzed using a 3-chamber box in 21-23 day old young rats. The rectangular testing box consisted of clear plastic divided into three adjacent chambers (each 20 cm long, 40 cm wide and 22 cm high) and connected by open doorways (7 cm wide and 6.4 cm high). Social approach behaviors were tested in a single 35-min session, divided into 4 phases. This experiment had two habituation phases (center and all 3 chambers) followed by two testing phases (sociability and novelty). The first test or social approach phase of the test compared the preference for a social stimulus versus an inanimate object. The second test or social novelty phase of the test compared the preference for a now familiar social stimulus to a novel social stimulus. [0091] The subject young rat was acclimated to the apparatus for 5 min in the center chamber (phase 1), and then for an additional 10 min with access to all 3 empty chambers (phase 2). The subject was then confined to the middle chamber, while the novel object (an inverted wire cup, Galaxy Cup, Kitchen Plus, Streetsboro, Ohio) was placed into one of the side chambers, and the stranger mouse (stranger 1), inside an identical inverted wire cup, was placed in the opposite side chamber. Age and gender matched Wistar rats were used as the stranger rat. The location (left or right) of the novel object and stranger rat alternated across subjects. The chamber doors were opened simultaneously, and the subject had access to all 3 chambers for 10 min (phase 3). After this, the fourth 10-min session provided a measure of preference for social novelty (phase 4). The subject rat was gently guided to the center chamber, the doors closed, and the novel object removed, and a second novel rat (stranger 2) was placed in the side chamber. The chamber doors were opened simultaneously, and the subject again had access to all 3 chambers for 10 min. The fourth 10-min phase provided a measure of recognition and discrimination. Video tracking with ANYmaze (Stoelting, Inc.; Wood Dale, Ill.) automatically scored the time spent in each of the 3 chambers, frequency and duration of grooming episodes; frequency and duration of sniffing episodes; and number of entries into each chamber during each phase of the test. Animals used as strangers were age and gender matched rats habituated to the testing chamber for 30-min sessions on 3 consecutive days and were enclosed in the wire cup to ensure that all social approach was initiated by the subject rat. An upright plastic drinking cup weighed down with a lead weight was placed on top of each of the inverted wire cups to prevent the subject rat from climbing on top. Ambient luminosity was maintained at 60 Lux. [0092] Forced Swim Test (Behavioral Despair Test) [0093] Depression-like behavior was analyzed using behavioral despair test (Forced swimming test, FST, or Porsolt test) in 24-25 day old young rats. The FST assesses the tendency to give up attempting to escape from an unpleasant environment, whereby fewer attempts are interpreted as behavioral despair. The test was conducted in a single 6-minute session. Briefly, test rats were transported to a separate treatment room at least 1 hour before testing. The rat was placed in a cylinder of water (23 cm high, 11.5 cm diameter) filled to a depth of 16 cm that was meticulously maintained at 24+/−1° C. The time mice spent floating on the water (immobility time, sec) during 6 minutes as well as latency (sec) to the first immobility episode were manually observed by the investigator. After the testing, the animal was dried briefly with a towel and returned to its home cage. As is standard in the literature, all rats were exposed to the forced swim stressor in a cylinder that had been freshly cleaned and disinfected prior to the session. An animal was considered immobile when floating motionless or making only those movements necessary to keep its head above the water surface. Swimming was defined as vigorous movements with forepaws breaking the surface of the water. Finally, the data was analyzed for immobility time (sec) for the last 4 min of the 6 min testing session. [0094] Prehensile Traction Test [0095] Prehensile traction force was evaluated measuring fall latency of the 24-25 day old young rats suspended with forepaws from a string suspended 60 cm from a padded surface. The latency for the rat to fall from the string was measured up to 60 s. [0096] Tissue Processing [0097] After completion of behavioral testing, the 26-27 day old young rats were perfused and brain tissue was collected for immunohistochemical and biochemical analysis. Animals were anesthetized with an overdose of sodium pentobarbital (125 mg/kg) and transcardially perfused with 0.1 M phosphate buffered saline (PBS). After perfusion, the brains were removed from the skull immediately. The left hemisphere was dissected into hippocampus, cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and brain stem, immediately frozen on dry ice, and then stored in—800 C ultrafreezer till used for biochemical analysis. The complete right hemisphere was immersion fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in 0.1 M PBS for 24-48 hours, followed by cryoprotection in a 30% sucrose solution at 40° C. overnight. Later, the 40-μm-thick sagittal sections were cut on a freezing microtome. The sections were stored in glycol anti-freeze solution (Ethylene glycol, glycerol, and 0.1 M PBS in 3:3:4 ratio) at −20° C. until further processing for immunohistochemical staining. [0098] Western Blot Analysis of Rat Brain Tissue [0099] The tissue from left cerebral cortex from each rat was homogenized in a Teflon-glass homogenizer to make 10% (w/v) homogenate. The pre-chilled homogenization buffer contained 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.4), 8.5% sucrose, 2 mM EDTA, 2 mM EGTA, 10 mM b-mercaptoethanol plus the following protease and phosphatase inhibitors: 0.5 mM AEBSF, 10 μg/ml aprotinin, 10 μg/ml leupeptin, 4 μg/ml pepstatin, 5 mM benzamidine, 20 mM beta-glycerophosphate, 50 mM sodium fluoride, 1 mM sodium orthovanadate, and 100 nM okadaic acid. Protein concentration of each brain homogenate was estimated by modified Lowry assay (Bensadoun & Weinstein, 1976). The tissue homogenates were boiled in Laemmli's buffer for 5 min, and then subjected to 12.5% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), followed by transfer of separated proteins on 0.45 μm Immobilon-P membrane (Millipore, Bedford, Mass., USA). The following primary antibody was used: rabbit polyclonal anti-BDNF, N-20 (1:1000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA); rabbit polyclonal anti-CNTF, FL-200 (1:500, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA); and rabbit polyclonal antibody to GAPDH (1:1000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, Calif., USA) as loading control. The blots were developed and quantified as described before. [0100] Fluoro-Jade C Labeling for Neurodegeneration in Rat Brain Tissue [0101] Fluoro-Jade C staining was performed as described previously (Schumed et al, 1997; Wang et al, 2013) on 4-5 sections/animal and minimum of 6 animals/group (including 2 animals for each serum sample injected). Briefly, free floating brain sections were washed in large volumes of distilled water, followed by 3 min incubation in 100% alcohol, 1 min in 70% alcohol, 1 min in 30% alcohol, and a 1 min wash in distilled water. The tissue sections were then incubated in 0.06% potassium permanganate solution for 15 mins with gentle shaking followed by 1 min wash in distilled water. The staining solution contained a 0.001% Fluoro-Jade C (Chemicon Millipore, Temecula, Calif.) in 0.1% acetic acid. After 30 min incubation in Fluoro-Jade C solution with gentle shaking, the sections were washed three times for 1 min in distilled water followed by three 2 min rinses in xylene. The sections were mounted and cover slipped using DPX Fluka (Milwaukee, Wis.). Maximum projection images were generated based on confocal z-stacks using Nikon 90i fluorescent microscope equipped with Nikon C1 three-laser confocal system and a Nikon DS U1 digital camera. Images were filtered with a predetermined threshold using NIH Image J (v.1.46r) to create a binary image identifying positive and negative labeling and percentage of area occupied by Fluoro-Jade C positive labeling was calculated. Mean positive label values were averaged from 3-4 non-overlapping representative fields (40× objective) from cerebral cortex. The data from serum+Peptide 6 treatment groups was calculated as percentage of sham treated group. [0102] Measurement of oxidative stress using 8-OHdG in young adult rat brain tissue Immunohistochemistry for the DNA oxidative damage marker, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) was performed on free-floating sections and every tenth brain section was chosen for quantification. For quantification, 5-6 brain sections of minimum 6 animals per group (including 2 animals for each serum) were analyzed. The mouse monoclonal 8-OhdG primary antibody (1:500, QED Biosceince Inc., San Diego, Calif.) and Alexa 488-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG secondary antibody (1:500, Molecular Probes, Carlsbad, Calif., USA) were used. For quantification of 8-OHdG positive cells in cerebral cortex, four non-overlapping representative fields were imaged using 40× objective and maximal projection images were generated as described before. The number of positive cells in each cerebral cortex high power field (hpf) were counted and were averaged. [0103] Statistical Analysis [0104] Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 17.0 (© SPSS Inc., 1989-2007, Chicago, Ill., USA) and GraphPad Prism version 5.0 (GraphPad software inc., La Jolla, Calif., USA). Data are presented as mean+S.E.M. The normality of the data was determined using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The analysis involving multiple groups was done using one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni's post-hoc test. Student's t-test was used for all other comparisons (including inter-group comparisons for sera/peptide treatment effect). The statistically significant outliers excluded from the analysis were identified using Grubb's test. For all purposes, p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. [0105] Results [0106] Sera from autistic children induce cell death and oxidative stress which can be rescued by P6 pre-treatment in mouse primary cultured cortical neurons Previously, sera from individuals with autism which possess abnormal levels of various regulatory elements were shown to alter the development and proliferation of human neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and to possess autoantibodies against human NPCs (Mazur-Kolecka et al., 2007; Mazur-Kolecka et al., 2009; Mazur-Kolecka et al., 2013). Mouse primary cultured cortical neurons grown for 72 hours in medium supplemented with sera from autistic children either formed neurospheres like colonies of cells with sharp spinous processes or multiple small cells with markedly short processes and decreased cell density as compared to the untreated or control sera treated cell cultures both as observed by phase contrast microscopy and by immunostaining for neuronal marker, tubulin ( FIG. 1A ). Primary cultured neurons grown in the presence of sera from normal healthy controls revealed no gross morphological changes and only a few neurosphere like colonies were observed. Pretreatment with 1 μM P6 for 3 hours prevented the decrease in neurite length and cell density caused by the autism sera ( FIG. 1A ). These results were confirmed with 22 pairs of sera (autism and age-matched control, Table 1) in 3 different sets of primary cultures. Further analyses of cell death and oxidative stress were performed in 3 pairs of sera which showed the most marked consistent effect on neuronal morphology. A significant increase in cell death was found by LDH cytotoxicity assay in cultured neurons grown in the presence of sera from autistic children compared to untreated neurons ( FIG. 1B ; Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05; Student's t-test, p=0.0039). Pretreatment with different doses of P6 resulted in a significant reduction in cell death in cultured neurons treated with sera from autistic children ( FIG. 1B ; P6 0.005 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05, Student's t-test, p=0.0183; P6 0.05 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01; P6 1 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01). The cell death was not significantly altered in cultured neurons treated with sera from normal healthy controls compared to untreated controls ( FIG. 1B ; Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05). Also, the cell death was less in control sera treated neurons compared to neurons treated with sera from autistic children ( FIG. 1B ; Student's t-test, p=0.0642, marginal significance). The neuronal viability, measured as a percentage of viability in untreated cells, was also significantly decreased in autistic sera treated neurons compared to those treated with control sera ( FIG. 1C ; Bonferroni's post hoc test, p<0.01, Student's t-test, p=0.0076). P6 pretreatment showed improvement in neuronal viability in autism sera treated cultured neurons ( FIG. 1C ; P6 0.005 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05, Student's t-test, p=0.5619; P6 0.05 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05, Student's t-test, p<0.0765; P6 1 μM, Student's t-test, p<0.0964). Thus, primary cultured neurons grown in the presence of sera from autistic children showed neuronal loss which was rescued by pretreatment with P6. [0107] Primary cortical neurons grown in the presence of autistic sera showed higher levels of oxidative stress as analyzed by DCF-DA assay for free-radical production and TBARS assay for lipid peroxidation both compared to untreated neurons ( FIG. 1D , DCF-DA, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; FIG. 1E , TBARS, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05) and to neurons treated with control sera ( FIG. 1D , DCF-DA, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; FIG. 1E , TBARS, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05). Pretreatment with P6 resulted in a significant reduction in generation of free-radicals in autistic sera treated neurons ( FIG. 1D ; P6 0.05 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05; P6 1 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001). Even though a trend towards reduction in lipid peroxidation was noted in P6 pretreated autism sera treated neurons but it did not reach statistical significance ( FIG. 1E ; P6 1 μM, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05). Thus, it appeared that sera from autistic children could cause an increase in oxidative stress in primary cortical neurons which was counteracted by pretreatment with P6. [0108] Levels of Neurotrophic Factors are Altered in Sera from Autistic Children [0109] The inappropriate brain milieu because of altered levels of various neurotrophic factors in the sera has been hypothesized to play a major role in abnormal brain development in autistic individuals. The levels of various key neurotrophic factors were evaluated in the 3 pairs of autism/control sera (Table 2) which induced increased cell death and oxidative stress in primary cultured cortical neurons. Indeed, the levels of various neurotrophic factors were found to be altered in sera from autistic children compared to those from age and gender matched control children as evaluated by quantitative Western blots ( FIG. 2 ). The levels of mature CNTF and BDNF were markedly decreased in autism sera ( FIGS. 2A &B; CNTF, Student's t-test, p=0.0026; BDNF, Student's t-test, p=0.027). Conversely, the levels of pro-BDNF, FGF-2, and LIF were found to be increased in autism sera compared to control ( FIGS. 2A &B; pro-BDNF, Student's t-test, p=0.0043; LIF, Student's t-test, p=0.0216; FGF-2, Student's t-test, p=0.0194). No statistically significant differences were observed in the levels of NGF ( FIGS. 2A &B, Student's t-test, p=0.5693). These data suggested the presence of neurotrophic abnormalities in the sera from autistic children that could have contributed to altered development of neurons and increase in cell death and oxidative stress found above in FIG. 1 . [0110] Sera from autistic children induce developmental delay in rat pups which can be rescued by co-treatment with P6. [0111] The Wistar rat pups were injected intracerebroventricularly with autism or control sera with or without P6 within 24 hours of birth to evaluate their possible neurotoxic effect and potential neuroprotection by P6 in vivo. The in vivo studies were carried out using the same 3 pairs of autism/control sera as above for in vitro studies. Five groups of animals of 5-6/group were employed ( FIG. 3A ): (1) sham group injected with saline; (2) pups injected with sera from autistic children (5-6 rat pups for each serum); (3) pups injected with sera from normal healthy controls (5-6 rat pups for each serum); (4) pups injected with sera from autistic children plus P6 (5-6 rat pups for each serum); and (5) pups injected with sera from controls plus P6 (5-6 rat pups for each serum). The body weight recorded daily for infant rats (both male and female) from postnatal day 1 to postnatal day 21 did not differ significantly among the groups, as seen in FIG. 7 (repeated measures 2-way ANOVA; group effect, F=0.36 (4, 672), p=0.836). [0112] In neurobehavioral development study, autism serum injected pups displayed a significant delayed development of surface righting reflex compared to saline injected sham group and control serum group ( FIG. 3B , panel 1; ANOVA, p=0.0049, sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01, autism serum vs. control serum group, p<0.05). Autism serum with P6 injected group showed a trend towards earlier development of surface righting compared to autism serum alone group; however, the difference did not reach statistical significance ( FIG. 3B , panel 1; autism serum vs. autism serum+P6, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05, Student's t-test, p=0.074). [0113] Similarly, autism serum injected pups showed delayed appearance of negative geotaxis as compared to sham and control serum pups ( FIG. 3B , panel 1; ANOVA, p=0.0018, sham vs. autism group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01, autism serum vs. control serum group, p<0.01). Autism serum with P6 group showed earlier development of negative geotaxis reflex compared to autism serum group ( FIG. 3B , panel 1; Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05, Student's t-test, p=0.044). Besides delay in appearance of negative geotaxis, autism serum group also took longer times to turn 180° to head up position and move towards the top of the metallic grid in negative geotaxis testing over the period of development, as seen in FIG. 8A (repeated measures 2-way ANOVA; group effect, F=4.78 (4, 219), p=0.001; postnatal day 8, sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05; postnatal day 14, sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01). Autism serum with P6 group showed a trend towards better performance compared to autism serum alone group, however, it was not statistically significant. [0114] The appearance of cliff aversion reflex did not differ significantly across groups ( FIG. 3B , panel 1; ANOVA, p=0.8410). The autism serum injected pups took longer time to show cliff aversion compared to sham group during the observed period of development; however, it was not statistically significant, as seen in FIG. 8B (repeated measures 2-way ANOVA, group effect, F=1.68 (4, 219), p=0.1567; sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05), and P6 treatment had no detectable effect on cliff aversion reflex. [0115] The tests for rooting reflex and forelimb grasp did not reveal any significant differences among groups (FIG. 3 B 1 ; rooting, ANOVA, p=0.1044; forelimb grasp, ANOVA, p=0.2626). Similarly, the appearance of eye opening and auditory startle did not differ between groups (FIG. 3 B 2 , eye opening, ANOVA, p=0.9708; auditory startle, ANOVA, p=0.3677). [0116] The development of air righting which like surface righting is a measure of labyrinthine reflex and motor coordination was significantly delayed in autism serum injected pups compared to sham group and control serum group; this developmental delay was significantly corrected by P6 treatment ( FIG. B2 ; ANOVA, p=0.0002; sham vs. autism group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01; autism serum vs. control serum group, p<0.001; autism serum vs. autism serum+P6 group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05). Similarly, development of ear twitch reflex was markedly delayed in autism serum injected pups compared to sham and control serum groups but P6 had no significant effect (FIG. 3 B 2 ; ANOVA, p<0.0001; sham vs. autism group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; autism serum vs. control serum group, p<0.01; autism serum vs. autism serum+P6 group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05). [0117] Finally, fore limb placing was significantly delayed in autism serum injected animals compared to sham and control serum groups and the performance in autism serum with P6 group was improved (FIG. 3 B 2 ; ANOVA, p=0.0075; sham vs. autism group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05, Student's t-test, p=0.0143; autism serum vs. control serum group, p<0.05; autism serum vs. autism serum+P6 group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05). [0118] Overall, the developmental milestones in rats which were affected by treatment with autism serum involved complex motor performance and skills; on the contrary, most of the neurodevelopmental behaviors which were unaltered in autism serum injected pups are known to be mediated by simplex reflex circuitry. P6 co-injected with autism serum was able to ameliorate the deficits in negative geotaxis, air righting and fore limb placement induced by autism serum. [0119] Sera from Autistic Children Induce Deficits in Isolation-Induced Ultrasonic Vocalization Calls in Rat Pups [0120] Social communication deficit is one of the fundamental clinical phenotype of ASDs. Although rodents such as rats and mice do not use language, they emit auditory signals including USVs. USVs emitted by rat pups upon separation from the dam and littermates can be used to assess the ability of social communication. The number of isolation-induced ultrasonic calls was significantly lower in pups injected with sera from autistic children compared to saline injected sham group and control sera injected group on postnatal days 5, 7, and 9 [ FIG. 4A ; repeated measures 2-way ANOVA, group effect, F=28.84 (4, 365), p<0.0001; postnatal day 5, sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001, autism serum vs control serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; postnatal day 7, sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05, autism serum vs control serum group, post-hoc test, p<0.05; postnatal day 9, sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01, autism serum vs control serum group, post-hoc test, p<0.01]. No significant effect of P6 treatment was found on USVs emitted by the rat pups. The mean duration of ultrasonic calls did not differ between groups [ FIG. 4B ; repeated measures 2-way ANOVA, group effect, F=1.79 (4, 365), p=0.1306]. The decreased number of ultrasonic calls emitted after maternal and littermate isolation in rat pups injected with sera from autistic children suggest decreased propensity towards their mothers as is also common in autistic infants. [0121] P6 Treatment can Rescue Social Approach and Novelty Impairments in Autism Sera Treated Young Rats [0122] During the first habituation phase of the 3-chamber social approach/novelty task, the grooming time as measured during the 5 min exploration of the central chamber did not differ between the different groups ( FIG. 5A ; ANOVA, p=0.2988). Nonetheless, there was a strong trend towards increased grooming time in young rats injected with sera from autistic children compared to the sham group suggesting an increased tendency towards a spontaneous repetitive behavior ( FIG. 5A ; Bonferroni's post hoc test, p>0.05; Student's t-test, p=0.014). [0123] In the 3-chambered social arena test, young rats injected with sera from autistic children displayed dysfunctional social interaction behavior (one of the most recognizable manifestations of autistic behavior) compared to sham and control serum injected groups (FIG. 5 B&C). The young rats injected with autistic sera spent much less time interacting with social partner (stranger 1) compared to sham and control serum groups; P6 treatment had no effect on this autistic behavior ( FIG. 5B ; sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001, autism serum vs control serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; autism serum vs autism serum+P6, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05). Similar trends were observed for time spent in social partner chamber and empty cup chamber ( FIG. 5C ; sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001, autism serum vs control serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; autism serum vs autism serum+P6, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05). [0124] In a subsequent trial, when a novel social partner (stranger 2) was introduced, autism sera injected rats displayed a marked lack of preference for social novelty compared to sham and control serum groups; P6 treatment was able to rescue this deficit ( FIG. 5C ; sniffing time, sham vs. autism serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001, autism serum vs control serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; autism serum vs autism serum+P6, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; time spent in stranger 2 chamber, sham vs. autism serum group. [0125] Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001, autism serum vs control serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05; autism serum vs autism serum+P6, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05). These data suggest that the dysfunction in social novelty which is also a measure of short-term social memory induced by sera from children with autism was rescued by P6. [0126] The autism sera did not induce any significant changes in the level of anxiety, exploratory activity, motor performance, or depression in rats, as seen in FIG. 9 . [0127] Sera from Autistic Children Induce Neurodegeneration and Increase Oxidative Stress in Young Rats Brains which is Counteracted by P6 Probably Via Increase in BDNF Expression [0128] In parallel with the in-vitro studies utilizing primary cultured cortical neurons, the in vivo effect of sera from autistic and control children and potential neuroprotective effect of P6 on neurodegeneration and oxidative stress was investigated in the cerebral cortex of young rats. Fluorojade C histochemical staining, a sensitive marker of neurodegeneration, confirmed a marked increase in neurodegeneration in autism serum injected rats compared to sham and control serum group; P6 was able to significantly reduce this autism serum induced neurodegeration ( FIGS. 6A &B; ANOVA, p<0.0001; sham vs. autism group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; autism serum vs. control serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01; autism serum vs. autism serum+P6 group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05). Similarly, a marked increase in 8-OHdG positive neurons, a marker of DNA damage caused by oxidative free radicals, was observed in autism serum injected rats; P6 also exerted a beneficial effect here ( FIGS. 6C &D; ANOVA, p<0.0001; sham vs. autism group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; autism serum vs. control serum group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; autism serum vs. autism serum+P6 group, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05). Collectively, these data provided the anatomical and physiological basis for the behavioral abnormalities observed in autism sera injected rats and the potential therapeutic beneficial effect of P6. [0129] The effect of sera with or without P6 treatment on the expression of BDNF and CNTF in rat brain tissue was also investigated. The densitometric quantification of Western blots developed with anti-BDNF and normalized to GAPDH revealed decreased levels of both pro-BDNF and mature BDNF in autistic sera treated rat brains compared to control sera treatment ( FIGS. 6E &F; Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.05 for both pro-BDNF and BDNF). P6 (20 nM) co-treatment was able to correct the autistic sera induced reduction in both pro-BDNF and BDNF expression ( FIGS. 6E &F; pro-BDNF, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.001; BDNF, Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p<0.01). These data suggests that the beneficial effect of P6 on behavioral abnormalities in autism sera treated rats could be because of rescue of BDNF level. [0130] The CNTF levels did not differ significantly between sham, autism serum, autism serum+P6, and control serum groups ( FIGS. 6E &F; Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05); however, there was a significant increase in CNTF expression in control serum+P6 group compared to control serum alone group ( FIGS. 6E &F; Bonferroni's post-hoc test, p>0.05; Student's t-test, p=0.0155). [0131] The present example shows that alterations in the levels of neurotrophic factors in the sera from autistic individuals could contribute to neurobehavioral phenotype of autism in rats. In particular, a CNTF small peptide mimetic, P6, can rescue the ASD specific deficits in rats, probably by inducing an increase in BDNF level. This example provides a basis for neurotrophic factors based serum/plasma screening assay for autism and a potential therapeutic strategy via modulation of neurotrophic support. Furthermore, the intracerebroventricular treatment of newborn rats with sera from children with autism provides a potential useful animal model of the disease. [0132] The present example suggests that dysfunction of brain environment in autism can contribute to behavioral deficits. Exposing the cultured neurons and early postnatal brains to sera from autistic children resulted in neurodegeneration, increased oxidative stress, and behavioral impairments. It has been hypothesized that the abnormal behavioral phenotype of autism may result from structural and functional alterations in brain caused by abnormalities in brain development during embryonic period and early postnatal life. Increased oxidative stress and imbalance of neurotrophic factors could be major contributing factors to pathophysiology of autism. During early brain development, neurotrophic factors provide an appropriate brain milieu necessary for all aspects of neural development including neuronal proliferation, differentiation, growth, and migration. Similarly, neurogenesis is highly sensitive to oxidative stress induced damage; hippocampal neurogenesis is reported to be reduced after exposure to oxidative stress in vivo in an environment lacking antioxidant enzymes. Thus, impaired neurotrophic balance and increased oxidative stress could alter the early brain development and lead to an autistic behavioral phenotype. [0133] The beneficial effect observed with P6 treatment further strengthens the idea that autism could be caused by an early imbalance of neurotrophic factors and increased oxidative stress. P6 pretreatment prevented cell death induced by autism sera in primary cultured cortical neurons. In the current study, P6 was able to rescue autism serum-induced neurodegeneration and oxidative stress in cultured neurons and rat brains. The neuroprotective effect of P6 against autism serum-induced neurodegeneration and oxidative stress could be mediated via BDNF because of increased BDNF expression that was observed in P6 treated rat brains. [0134] One of the most remarkable results of the example is the development of several features of autism in young rats whose brains were exposed to sera from autistic children via i.c.v. injections. This result strongly suggests the important role brain environment plays during early development in the pathophysiology of autism. Early postnatal exposure of brain tissue to sera from autistic children which had abnormalities in neurotrophic factor levels led to developmental delay and social communication, interaction, and memory deficits in young rats. Several of these deficits, such as developmental delay and social memory deficits, were rescued by P6 treatment. Interestingly, the early postnatal exposure to autistic sera resulted in increased oxidative stress induced DNA damage and neurodegeneration in cortical tissue of young rats, providing the structural correlate for the behavioral abnormalities observed in these rats. Remarkably, P6 treatment was able to rescue these structural abnormalities, possibly via increased BDNF expression. [0135] This example provides evidence regarding the neurotrophic abnormalities in autism and the potential role they play in the pathophysiology of the disease. The brain milieu of autistic children is altered and favors increased oxidative stress and neurodegeneration. Ameliorating the neurotrophic imbalance during early stages of brain development can serve as a potential therapeutic approach for autism. Based on the example, P6 represents a new class of neurotrophic peptide mimetics that has potential therapeutic value for ASD and related conditions. [0136] The compound of the present invention may be administered as such or after its modification, such as the addition of an adamantylated amino acid (e.g., adamantylated glycine or glutamate) at its C-terminus or N-terminus (or both) to increase its stability or to generate a cyclized form of the peptide or its mirror image in D-form amino acids. The compound can be administered in liquid form or as a slow release tablet or capsule orally, or in liquid form intravenously, subcutaneously or as a patch or as a nasal inhaler. The treatment may be started as early as prenatally or early postnatally and be performed preventatively. For example, the compound could be administered prenatally through the mother of the fetus (placentally), starting with the second trimester, and/or early postnatally through oral routes such as through the milk of the mother or combined with infant formula. The amount of the compound sufficient to produce beneficial effect is an appropriate amount that achieves nanomolar concentration levels in sera and thus picomolar levels in the brain.

A method of treating autism spectrum disorders using a therapeutic amount of a synthetic amino acid sequence corresponding to a portion of human ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). In particular, the synthetic amino acid sequence is VGDGGLFEKKL (SEQ ID NO: 1), referred to as Peptide 6. Peptide 6 was tested and shown to exert a neuroprotective effect by modulating CNTF/JAK/STAT pathway and LIF signaling and enhancing brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/635,822, filed Sep. 19, 2012, which is a Section 371 of Internation Application No. PCT/CN2011/071926, filed Mar. 17, 2011, which was published in the Chinese language on Sep. 22, 2011, under Internation Publication No. WO 2011/113367 A1 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF INVENTION This invention relates to the field of chemical synthesis, and particularly relates to the methods and processes for preparation and production of deuterated ω-diphenylurea. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Ω-diphenylurea derivatives are known compounds with c-RAF kinase inhibition activity. For example, WO2000/042012 had disclosed a class of ω-carboxyl-aryl-substituted diphenylurea and the use thereof for treating cancer and related diseases. Initially, ω-diphenylurea compounds, such as Sorafenib, were firstly found as the inhibitor of c-RAF kinase. The other studies had shown that they could also inhibit the MEK and ERK signal transduction pathways and activities of tyrosine kinases including vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2), vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 (VEGFR-3), and platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFR-β) (Curr Pharm Des 2002, 8, 2255-2257). Therefore, they were called multi-kinase inhibitors that resulted in dual anti-tumor effects. Sorafenib (trade name Nexavar), a novel oral multi-kinase inhibitor, was developed by Bayer and Onyx. In December 2005, based on its excellent performance in phase III clinical trials for advanced renal cell carcinoma, Sorafenib was approved by FDA for treating advanced renal cell carcinoma, and marketed in China in November 2006. However, Sorafenib has various side-effects, such as hypertension, weight loss, rash and so on. However, novel compounds with raf kinase inhibition activity or better pharmacodynamic properties and the preparation process thereof are still needed to be developed. SUMMARY OF INVENTION The object of the invention is to provide novel compounds with raf kinase inhibition activity and better pharmacodynamic properties and the uses thereof. Another object of the invention is to provide a series of methods to prepare deuterated ω-diphenylurea and the intermediates thereof, thereby meeting the production guidances in the pharmaceutical industry and improving the operability and safety. In the first aspect, the invention provides a deuterated ω-diphenylurea compound or the pharmaceutical acceptable salts thereof, wherein, said compound is N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)-4-pyridyl oxy)phenyl)urea; In one embodiment, N in said compound is 14 N. In the second aspect, the invention provides a method for preparing N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)-4-pyridyl oxy)phenyl)urea, comprising: (a) in an inert solvent and in the presence of a base, reacting compound III with compound V to form said compound; wherein, X is Cl, Br, or I; or, comprising: (b) in an inert solvent, reacting compound I× with CD 3 NH 2 or CD 3 NH 2 .HCl to form said compound; CD 3 NH 2 or CD 3 NH 2 .HCl wherein, R is straight-chain or branched chain C1-C8 alkyl, or aryl; or comprising: (c) in an inert solvent, reacting 4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl phenyl isocyanate (VIII) with compound 5 to form said compound; or comprising: (d) in an inert solvent and in the presence of CDI and CH 2 Cl 2 , reacting compound 5 with compound 6 to form said compound. In one embodiment, compound III is prepared as follows: (i) condensing 4-hydroxy-aniline (I) with 4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-aniline (II) to form compound III. In one embodiment, compound III is prepared as follows: (ii) reacting p-methoxy-aniline (X) with 4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-aniline (II) or 4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl phenyl isocyanate (VIII) to form compound XI. and then, in an acidic or basic condition, demethylation of compound XI to give compound III. In one embodiment, compound VII is prepared as follows: In the presence of a base, reacting compound VI and p-hydroxyl-aniline to form compound VII: wherein, X is chlorine, bromine or iodine; R is straight-chain or branched chain C1-C8 alkyl, or aryl. In one embodiment, said base is selected from potassium tert-butoxide, sodium hydride, potassium hydride, potassium carbonate, cesium carbonate, potassium phosphate, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide or the combination thereof. In one embodiment, the method (a) further comprises that the reaction is conducted in the presence of a catalyst, wherein said catalyst is selected from CuI and proline; or CuI and picolinate. In one embodiment, the reaction temperature is 0-200° C. In the third aspect, the invention provides an intermediate as formula B, wherein, Y is halogen or In one embodiment, Y is Cl, and the structure of formula B is In the fourth aspect, the invention provides a method for preparing 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide, which comprises: (a1) under a basic condition and in an inert solvent, reacting methyl 4-chloropicolinate with (methyl-d 3 )amine or salts thereof to form 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide; or (a2) in an inert solvent, reacting 4-chloropicolinoyl chloride with (methyl-d 3 )amine to form 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide. In one embodiment, said inert solvent includes tetrahydrofuran, ethanol, methanol, water, or the mixture thereof. In one embodiment, in step (a1) and (a2), the reaction temperature is −10° C. to reflux temperature, preferably is −4° C. to 60° C., and more preferably is 5-50° C. In one embodiment, in step (a1) and (a2), the reaction time is 0.5-72 hours, preferably is 1-64 hours, and more preferably is 2-48 hours. In one embodiment, in step (a1), said basic condition means that potassium carbonate, sodium carbonate, cesium carbonate, KOH, NaOH, or the combination thereof is present in the reaction system. In the fifth aspect, the invention provides a method for preparing 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide, which comprises: under a basic condition and in an inert solvent, reacting 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide with 4-amino-phenol to form 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide. In one embodiment, said basic condition means that KOH, NaOH, potassium carbonate, sodium carbonate, cesium carbonate, potassium tert-butoxide, sodium tert-butoxide or the combination thereof is present in the reaction system. In one embodiment, said inert solvent is selected from DMF, DMSO, N,N-dimethylacetylamide, tetrahydrofuran, methylpyrrolidin-2-one, 1,4-dioxane, or the mixture thereof. In one embodiment, the reaction temperature described above is 0° C. to 160° C., preferably is 20° C. to 120° C., and more preferably is 30-100° C. The reaction time is 0.5-48 hours, preferably is 1-36 hours, and more preferably is 3-24 hours. In the fifth aspect, the invention provides the use of said intermediates according to the third aspect of the invention for preparing deuterated ω-diphenylurea or as the starting material for preparing deuterated ω-diphenylurea. In one embodiment, said deuterated diphenylurea includes 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (CM4307); and 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide p-toluenesulfonate (CM4307.TsOH). It should be understood that in the present invention, any of the technical features specifically described above and below (such as in the Examples) can be combined with each other, thereby constituting new or preferred technical solutions that are not described one by one in the specification. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows the curves of drug concentration (ng/ml) in plasma after oral administration of 3 mg/kg of the control compound CM4306 to the male SD rats. FIG. 2 shows the curves of drug concentration (ng/ml) in plasma after oral administration 3 mg/kg of the compound CM4307 of the invention to the male SD rats. FIG. 3 shows the curves of inhibition efficacy of CM4306 and CM4307 in nude mice xenograft model inoculated with human liver cancer cell SMMC-7721. In this figure, “treatment” means that the treating period was 14 days, followed by the observation period after administration was stopped. The five days before treatment was the period for preparing animal models. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION After studies, the inventors unexpectedly discovered that, compared with the un-deuterated compound, the deuterated ω-diphenylurea of the invention and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof possessed better pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic properties. Therefore, they were much more suitable as raf kinases inhibitors for preparing medicaments to treat cancer and the relevant diseases. Moreover, the inventors also discovered that diphenylurea compounds could be efficiently and readily prepared using the new intermediate of formula B, wherein Y is halogen or Based on this discovery, the inventors completed the present invention. Definition As used herein, the term “halogen” refers to F, Cl, Br and I. Preferably, halogen is selected from F, Cl, and Br. As used herein, the term “alkyl” refers to straight-chain or branched chain alkyl. Preferably, alkyl is C1-C4 alkyl, such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, iso-propyl, butyl, iso-butyl, tert-butyl and so on. As used herein, the term “deuterated” means that one or more hydrogen in the compound or group is substituted by deuterium. “Deuterated” can be mono-substituted, bi-substituted, multi-substituted or total-substituted. The terms “one or more deuterium-substituted” and “substituted by deuterium once or more times” can be used interchangeably. In one embodiment, the deuterium content in a deuterium-substituted position is at least greater than the natural abundance of deuterium (0.015%), preferably >50%, more preferably >75%, more preferably >95%, more preferably >97%, more preferably >99%, more preferably >99.5%. In one embodiment, the compound of formula (I) comprises at least one deuterium atom, preferably three deuterium atoms, and more preferably five deuterium atoms. As used herein, the term “compound CM4306” is 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-methylpicolinamide. As used herein, the term “compound CM4307” is 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide. As used herein, the term “TsOH” represents p-toluenesulfonic acid. Therefore, CM4307.TsOH represents the p-toluenesulfonate of CM4307. Deuterium-Substituted ω-Diphenylurea The preferred deuterium-substituted ω-diphenylurea compounds according to the invention have the structure of formula (I): wherein, X is N or N + —O − ; R 1 is halogen (such as F, Cl or Br), one or more deuterium-substituted or perdeuterated C1-C4 alkyl; R 2 is non-deuterated C1-C4 alkyl, one or more deuterium-substituted or perdeuterated C1-C4 alkyl, or partly or totally halogen-substituted C1-C4 alkyl; each of R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , R 8 , R 9 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 , R 13 and R 14 is independently hydrogen, deuterium, or halogen (such as F, Cl or Br); R 6 is hydrogen, deuterium or one or more deuterium-substituted or perdeuterated C1-C4 alkyl; R 7 is hydrogen, deuterium or one or more deuterium-substituted or perdeuterated C1-C4 alkyl; provided that at least one of R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 , R 9 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 , R 13 or R 14 is deuterated or is deuterium. In one embodiment, the deuterium content at a deuterium-substituted position is at least greater than the natural abundance of deuterium (0.015%), preferably >30%, more preferably >50%, more preferably >75%, or >95%, or >99%. In one embodiment, except for H, all or almost all (>99 wt %) of the elements (such as N, C, O, F, etc.) in the compound of formula (I) are naturally existing elements with highest abundance, such as 14 N, 12 C, 16 O and 19 F. In one embodiment, compounds of formula (I) contain at least one deuterium atom, preferably three deuterium atoms, and more preferably five deuterium atoms. In one embodiment, R 1 is halogen, and preferably chlorine. In one embodiment, R 2 is trifluoromethyl. In one embodiment, R 6 or R 7 is independently selected from hydrogen, deuterium, deuterated methyl, or deuterated ethyl; preferably, mono-deuterated methyl, bi-deuterated methyl, tri-deuterated methyl, mono-deuterated ethyl, bi-deuterated ethyl, tri-deuterated ethyl, tetra-deuterated ethyl, or penta-deuterated ethyl. In one embodiment, R 6 or R 7 is independently selected from hydrogen, methyl or tri-deuterated methyl. In one embodiment, R 3 , R 4 or R 5 is independently selected from hydrogen or deuterium. In one embodiment, R 8 , R 9 , R 10 or R 11 is independently selected from hydrogen or deuterium. In one embodiment, R 12 , R 13 or R 14 is independently selected from hydrogen or deuterium. In one embodiment, said compound is the preferred compound selected from the group consisting of the following compounds: N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)-4-pyridyloxy)phenyl)urea (or 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide); 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)-2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)pyridine-1-oxide; Intermediates As used herein, the term “the intermediate of the invention” is the compound of formula B: wherein, Y is halogen or In one embodiment, except for H, all or almost all (>99 wt %) of the elements (such as N, C, O, etc.) in the above compounds are naturally existing elements with highest abundance, such as 14 N, 12 C, and 16 O. Active Ingredients As used herein, the term “compound of the invention” refers to the compound of formula (I). This term also includes various crystal forms, pharmaceutically acceptable salts, hydrates or solvates of the compound of formula (I). As used herein, the term “pharmaceutically acceptable salts” refers to the salts which are suitable for medicine and formed by the compound of the invention and an acid or base. Pharmaceutically acceptable salts include inorganic salts and organic salts. A preferred salt is formed by the compound of the invention and an acid. The acid suitable for forming salts includes, but not limited to, inorganic acid, such as hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid; organic acid, such as formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, oxalic acid, malonic acid, succinic acid, fumaric acid, maleic acid, lactic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, picric acid, methanesulfonic acid, benzene methanesulfonic acid, benzene sulfonic acid; and acidic amino acid, such as aspartic acid, glutamic acid. Preparation The preparation methods of compound (I) and the intermediate of formula B are described in detail as below. However, these specific methods are not provided for the limitation of the invention. The compounds of the invention can be readily prepared by optionally combining any of the various methods described in the specification or various methods known in the art, and such combination can readily be carried out by the skilled in the art. The method for preparing un-deuterated ω-diphenylurea and the physiologically compatible salts thereof used in the invention is known. The deuterated ω-diphenylurea can be prepared in the same route using the corresponding deuterated compounds as starting materials. For example, compound (I) can be prepared according to the method described in WO2000/042012, except that the deuterated material is used instead of un-deuterated material in the reaction. In general, during the preparation, each reaction is conducted in an inert solvent, at a temperature between room temperature to reflux temperature (such as 0-80° C., preferably 0-50° C.). Generally, the reaction time is 0.1-60 hours, preferably, 0.5-48 hours. Taking CM4307 as an example, an optimized preparation route is shown as follows: As shown in Scheme 1, in the presence of N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole, phosgene or triphosgene, 4-aminophenol (Compound I) reacts with 3-trifluoromethyl-4-chloro-aniline (Compound II) to give 1-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)urea (Compound III). 2-(N-(methyl-d3))carbamoyl pyridine (Compound V) is obtained by reacting methyl picolinate (Compound IV) with (methyl-d 3 )amine or (methyl-d 3 )amine hydrochloride directly or in the presence of the base such as sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, triethylamine, pyridine and the like. In the presence of base (such as potassium tert-butoxide, sodium hydride, potassium hydride, potassium carbonate, cesium carbonate, potassium phosphate, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide) and an optional catalyst (such as cuprous iodide and proline, or cuprous iodide and picolinic acid), Compound III reacts with Compound V to form compound CM-4307. The above reactions are conducted in an inert solvent, such as dichloromethane, dichloro ethane, acetonitrile, n-hexane, toluene, tetrahydrofuran, N,N-dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide and so on, and at a temperature of 0-200° C. Taking CM4307 as an example, another preferred process is shown as below: As shown in Scheme 2, amine (Compound VII) is obtained by reacting picolinate (Compound VI) with 4-aminophenol (Compound I) in the presence of base (such as potassium tert-butoxide, sodium hydride, potassium hydride, potassium carbonate, cesium carbonate, potassium phosphate, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide) and an optional catalyst (such as cuprous iodide and proline, or cuprous iodide and pyridine carboxylic acid). The urea (Compound IX) is obtained by reacting Compound VII with Compound II in the presence of N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole, phosgene or triphosgene, or with 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene (Compound VIII). Compound CM4307 is obtained by reacting Compound IX with (methyl-d 3 )amine or (methyl-d 3 )amine hydrochloride directly, or in the presence of base (such as sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, triethylamine, pyridine and the like). The above reactions are conducted in an inert solvent, such as dichloromethane, dichloroethane, acetonitrile, n-hexane, toluene, tetrahydrofuran, N,N-dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide and so on, and at a temperature of 0-200° C. Taking CM4307 as an example, another preferred process is shown as below: As shown in Scheme 3, the urea (Compound XI) is obtained by reacting 4-methyloxyphenylamine (Compound X) with Compound II in the presence of N,N′-carbonyldiimidazole, phosgene or triphosgene, or with 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene (Compound VIII). 1-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)urea (Compound III) is obtained using any of demethylation methods known in the art. Compound CM4307 is obtained by reacting Compound III with Compound V by the same method as described in Scheme 1, or any methods known in the art. The above reactions are conducted in an insert solvent, such as dichloromethane, dichloroethane, acetonitrile, n-hexane, toluene, tetrahydrofuran, N,N-dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide and so on, and at a temperature of 0-200° C. Taking CM4307 as an example, another particularly preferred process is shown as below: The deuterium can be introduced by using deuterated methylamine. Deuterated methylamine or the hydrochloride thereof can be prepared through the following reactions. Deuterated nitromethane is obtained by reacting nitromethane with deuterium water in the presence of base (such as sodium hydride, potassium hydride, deuterated sodium hydroxide, deuterated potassium hydroxide, potassium carbonate and the like) or phase-transfer catalyst. If necessary, the above experiment can be repeated to produce high purity deuterated nitromethane. Deuterated nitromethane is reduced in the presence of zinc powder, magnesium powder, iron, or nickel and the like to form deuterated methylamine or the hydrochloride thereof. Furthermore, deuterated methylamine or the hydrochloride thereof can be obtained through the following reactions. The key intermediate 3 can be synthesized from deuterated methanol (CD 3 OD) through the following reactions. The detailed preparation procedure is described in Example 1. The main advantages of the present invention include: (1) Compounds of the present invention possess excellent inhibition activities of phosphokinases such as raf kinases. (2) Various of high-purity deuterated diphenylurea can be prepared conveniently and high efficiently by using the intermediate of formula B of the invention. (3) The reaction conditions are milder and the operation is safer. The present invention will be further illustrated below with reference to the specific examples. It should be understood that these examples are only to illustrate the invention but not to limit the scope of the invention. The experimental methods with no specific conditions described in the following examples are generally performed under the conventional conditions, or according to the manufacture's instructions. Unless indicated otherwise, parts and percentage are calculated by weight. Example 1 Preparation of N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)-4-pyridyloxy)phenyl)urea (Compound CM4307) Synthetic Route: 1. Preparation of 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (3) Into a 250 mL single-neck round-bottom flask equipped with waste gas treatment device, thionyl chloride (60 mL) was added. Anhydrous DMF (2 mL) was added slowly dropwise while keeping the temperature at 40-50° C. After addition, the mixture was stirred for 10 min, and then nicotinic acid (20 g, 162.6 mmol) was added in portions over a period of 20 min. The color of the solution gradually changed from green into light purple. The reaction mixture was heated to 72° C., and refluxed for 16 hours with agitation. A great amount of solid precipitate formed. The mixture was cooled to room temperature, diluted with toluene (100 mL) and concentrated to almost dry. The residue was diluted with toluene and concentrated to dry. The residue was filtered and washed with toluene to give 4-chloropicolinoyl chloride as a light yellow solid. The solid was slowly added into a saturated solution of (methyl-d 3 )amine in tetrahydrofuran in an ice-bath. The mixture was kept below 5° C. and stirred for 5 hours. Then, the mixture was concentrated and ethyl acetate was added to give a white solid precipitate. The mixture was filtered, and the filtrate was washed with saturated brine, dried over sodium sulfate and concentrated to give 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (3) (20.68 g, 73% yield) as a light yellow solid. 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 , 300 MHz): 8.37 (d, 1H), 8.13 (s, 1H), 7.96 (br, 1H), 7.37 (d, 1H). 2. Preparation of 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (5) To dry DMF (100 mL) 4-aminophenol (9.54 g, 0.087 mol) and potassium tert-butoxide (10.3 g, 0.092 mol) were added in turn. The color of the solution turned into deep brown. After stirring at room temperature for 2 hours, to the reaction mixture was added 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (3) (13.68 g, 0.079 mol) and anhydrous potassium carbonate (6.5 g, 0.0467 mol), then warmed up to 80° C. and stirred over night. TLC detection showed the reaction was complete. The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature, and poured into a solution mixture of ethyl acetate (150 mL) and saturated brine (150 mL). The mixture was stirred and then stood for layers separation. The aqueous phase was extracted with ethyl acetate (3×100 mL). The extracted layers were combined, washed with saturated brine (3×100 mL) prior to drying over anhydrous sodium sulfate, and concentrated to afford 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (18.00 g, 92% yield) as a light yellow solid. 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 , 300 MHz): 8.32 (d, 1H), 7.99 (br, 1H), 7.66 (s, 1H), 6.91-6.85 (m, 3H), 6.69 (m, 2H), 3.70 (br, s, 2H). 3. Preparation of N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)-4-pyridyl oxy)phenyl)urea (CM4307) To methylene chloride (120 mL) was added 4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-phenylamine (15.39 g, 78.69 mmol) and N,N-carbonyldiimidazole (13.55 g, 83.6 mmol). After stirring at room temperature for 16 hours, a solution of 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (18 g, 73 mmol) in methylene chloride (180 mL) was slowly added dropwise and the mixture was stirred at room temperature for another 18 hours. TLC detection showed the reaction was complete. The mixture was concentrated to about 100 mL by removing part of methylene chloride through a rotary evaporator and stood for several hours at room temperature. A great amount of white solid precipitated. The solid was filtered and the solid was washed with abundant methylene chloride. The filtrate was concentrated by removing some solvents, and some solids precipitated again. Two parts of solid were combined and washed with abundant methylene chloride to afford N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)-4-pyridyl oxy)phenyl)urea (CM4307, 20.04 g, 58% yield) as a white powder (pure product). 1 H NMR (CD 3 OD, 300 MHz): 8.48 (d, 1H), 8.00 (d, 1H), 7.55 (m, 5H), 7.12 (d, 1H), 7.08 (s, 2H), ESI-HRMS m/z: C 21 H 13 D 3 ClF 3 N 4 O 3 , Calcd. 467.11. Found 490.07 (M+Na) + . Furthermore, Compound CM4307 was dissolved in methylene chloride and reacted with peroxybenzoic acid to afford the corresponding oxidized derivative: 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)-2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )aminoformyl)pyridine-1-oxide. Example 2 Preparation of 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (3) a) Into a solution of phthalimide (14.7 g, 0.1 mol), deuterated methanol (3.78 g, 0.105 mol, 1.05 eq) and triphenylphosphine (28.8 g, 0.11 mol, 1.1 eq) in anhydrous tetrahydrofuran was dropwise added a solution of DEAD (1.1 eq) in tetrahydrofuran under the ice-bath. After addition, the mixture was stirred for 1 hour at room temperature. The mixture was purified by chromatography column, or the solvent in the mixture was removed, and then the residue was dissolved with an appropriate amount of DCM and cooled in the refrigerator to precipitate the solid. The mixture was filtered and the filtrate was concentrated by a rotary evaporator, and then the residue was purified by flash chromatography column to afford the pure product of 2-(N-(methyl-d 3 ))-isoindole-1,3-dione (14.8 g, 90% yield). b) 2-(N-(methyl-d 3 ))-isoindole-1,3-dione (12.5 g, 0.077 mol) was dissolved in hydrochloric acid (6N, 50 mL) and the mixture was refluxed for 24-30 hours in a sealed tube. The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature and then cooled below 0° C. in a refrigerator to precipitate the solid. The solid was filtered and washed with cold deionized water. The filtrate was collected and concentrated by a rotary evaporator to remove water and dried to afford (methyl-d 3 )amine hydrochloride salt. Anhydrous DCM (100 mL) was added to (methyl-d 3 )amine hydrochloride salt and methyl 4-chloropicolinate hydrochloride (6.52 g, 0.038 mol, 0.5 eq) and sodium carbonate (12.2 g, 0.12 mol, 1.5 eq) were added. The reaction flask was sealed and placed in a refrigerator for one day. After TLC detection showed the reaction was complete, the reaction mixture was washed with water, dried, concentrated and purified by chromatography column to afford 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (compound (3), 5.67 g, 86% yield). The structural feature was the same as that in Example 1. Example 3 Preparation of Compound CM4307 1. Preparation of 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene A4 With a waste gas absorption device, triphosgen (167 g, 0.56 mol, 0.5 eq) was dissolved in chloroform (500 mL). A solution of N-methyl morpholine (11.4 g, 0.11 mol, 0.1 eq) in chloroform (100 mL) was added dropwise into the above mixture at 5° C. After addition, a solution of 4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)aniline (220 g, 1.13 mol, 1.0 eq) in chloroform (700 mL) was added dropwise at 10° C. The mixture was warmed to 40° C. and stirred for 15 hours, and then warmed to 50° C. and stirred for 5 hours, and then heated to 60-65° C. and refluxed for 5 hours. The solvent was removed under atmospheric pressure. The residue was distilled under vacuum (oil temperature 110-120° C., vacuum 200 Pa) and the fractions at 95-100° C. were collected to give the title compound (200 g, purity 98.7%, yield 84%) as a colorless liquid. 2: preparation of 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (intermediate A2) Method 1: To a three-necked flask with tetrahydrofuran (250 mL) was added methyl 4-chloropicolinate (50 g, 0.29 mol, 1 eq), (methyl-d 3 )amine hydrochloride (31 g, 0.44 mol, 1.5 eq) and anhydrous potassium carbonate (400-mesh, 80 g, 0.58 mol, 2 eq) with agitation. After the mixture was stirred for 20 hours at room temperature, water (250 mL) and methyl tert-butyl ether (150 mL) were added. After stirring, the organic layer was separated. The aqueous layer was extracted with methyl tert-butyl ether (100 mL). The organic layers were combined, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and filtered. The solvent in the filtrate was removed under reduced pressure to give the title compound (48 g, purity 99%, yield 96%) as a light yellow liquid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.64 (dd, J=2 Hz, 5.2 Hz, 1H), 7.97 (d, J=1.6 Hz, 1H), 8.54 (d, J=5.2 Hz, 1H), 8.74 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 7 H 4 D 3 ClN 2 O: 173. found: 174 [M+H] + . Method 2: Methyl 4-chloropicolinate (130 g, 0.76 mol, 1 eq) was dissolved in anhydrous ethanol (1.3 L). (Methyl-d 3 )amine hydrochloride (80 g, 1.13 mol, 1.5 eq) and anhydrous potassium carbonate (313 g, 2.67 mol, 3 eq) were added into the mixture with agitation. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for 50 hours. The mixture was filtered and washed with ethanol (260 mL×2), the solvent in the filtrate was removed under reduced pressure, ethyl acetate (400 mL) was added and the resulted mixture was washed with saturated brine (250 mL×2). The aqueous layer was extracted with ethyl acetate (100 mL×2). The organic phases were combined, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, and filtered. The solvent in the filtrate was removed under the reduced pressure to give the title compound (109 g, purity 98%, yield 83%) as a light yellow liquid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.64 (dd, J=2 Hz, 5.2 Hz, 1H), 7.97 (d, J=1.6 Hz, 1H), 8.54 (d, J=5.2 Hz, 1H), 8.74 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 7 H 4 D 3 ClN 2 O: 173. found: 174 [M+H] + . 3. Preparation of 1-(4-chloro-3-trifluoromethylphenyl)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)urea A5 Method 1: 4-amino-phenol (5 g, 45.82 mmol, 1 eq) was dissolved in dichloromethane (40 mL) at room temperature. A solution of 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene (10.7 g, 48.11 mmol, 1.05 eq) in dichloromethane (40 mL) was added dropwise. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for 16 hours. The mixture was filtered and washed with dichloromethane (10 mL×2) to give the title compound (14.2 g, purity 97%, yield 94%) as a light brown solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ6.70 (dd, J=2 Hz, 6.8 Hz, 1H), 7.22 (dd, J=2 Hz, 6.4 Hz, 1H), 7.58-7.24 (m, 1H), 8.10 (d, J=2 Hz, 1H), 8.50 (br, 1H), 9.04 (br, 1H), 9.14 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 14 H 10 ClF 3 N 2 O 2 : 330. found: 331 [M+H] + . Method 2: 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene (5.15 g, 26 mmol, 1.05 eq) was dissolved in dichloromethane (30 mL). A solution of p-methoxyaniline (3.07 g, 25 mmol, 1 eq) in dichloromethane (20 mL) was added dropwise and the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 20 hours. The mixture was filtered and washed with dichloromethane (5 mL×2). The solid was dissolved in ethyl acetate (50 mL), and the resulted solution was washed with diluted hydrochloric acid (1N, 10 mL) and saturated brine (20 mL). The organic phase was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and the solvent was removed under reduced pressure to give 1-(4-chloro-3-trifluoromethylphenyl)-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)urea A6 (4.5 g, yield 52%) as a white solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ3.73 (s, 3H), 6.86-6.90 (m, 2H), 7.35-7.39 (m, 2H), 7.59-7.65 (m, 2H), 8.11 (d, J=2 Hz, 1H), 8.65 (br, 1H), 9.09 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 15 H 12 ClF 3 N 2 O 2 : 344. found: 345 [M+H] + . 1-(4-chloro-3-trifluoromethylphenyl)-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)urea A6 (344 mg, 1 mmol, 1 eq) was dissolved in acetic acid (4 mL). Hydrobromic acid (40%, 1 mL) was added and the mixture was refluxed for 5 hours. The mixture was cooled to room temperature and ice water (10 mL) was added. The mixture was extracted with ethyl acetate (20 mL). The organic phase was washed with saturated sodium bicarbonate (10 mL), dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate. The solvent in the organic phase was removed under reduced pressure to give the title compound (140 mg, purity 90%, yield 42%) as a light yellow solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ6.70 (dd, J=2 Hz, 6.8 Hz, 1H), 7.22 (dd, J=2 Hz, 6.4 Hz, 1H), 7.58-7.24 (m, 1H), 8.10 (d, J=2 Hz, 1H), 8.50 (br, 1H), 9.04 (br, 1H), 9.14 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 14 H 10 ClF 3 N 2 O 2 : 330. found: 331 [M+H] + . 4. Preparation of 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (CM4307) 1-(4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-3-(4-hydroxy-phenyl)urea A5 (4 g, 12.10 mmol, 1 eq) was dissolved in N,N-dimethyl formamide (20 mL). Potassium tert-butoxide (4.6 g, 41.13 mmol, 3.4 eq) was added in portions. After the mixture was stirred for 3 hours, 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (2.3 g, 13.31 mmol, 1.1 eq) and potassium carbonate (0.8 g, 6.05 mmol, 0.5 eq) was added. The mixture was heated to 80° C. and stirred for 1.5 hours. The mixture was cooled to room temperature and ethyl acetate (200 mL) was added, and filtered to remove the inorganic salts. The filtrate was washed with saturated brine (50 mL×3) and the organic layer was separated. The organic phase was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and filtered. The solvent was removed under reduced pressure to give a solid followed by adding acetonitrile (15 mL). The resulted mixture was refluxed for 2 hours, cooled to room temperature, and filtered to give CM4307 (3.4 g, purity 96%, yield 60%) as a light yellow solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.15 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 5.6 Hz, 1H), 7.17-7.19 (m, 2H), 7.40 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 7.59-7.69 (m, 4H), 8.13 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 8.51 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H), 8.75 (br, 1H), 8.90 (br, 1H), 9.22 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 21 H 13 D 3 ClF 3 N 4 O 3 : 467. found: 468 [M+H] + . Example 4 Preparation of Compound CM4307 1. Preparation of 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (Intermediate A2) Under nitrogen, tetrahydronfuran (10.86 kg) was added into a reactor (30 L). After the mixer was started, (N-(methyl-d 3 ))amine hydrochloride (1.50 kg, 21.26 mol, 1.5 eq), methyl 4-chloropicolinate (2.43 kg, 14.16 mol, 1 eq) and anhydrous potassium carbonate (3.92 kg, 28.36 mol, 2 eq) were added in turn. The reaction was conducted at 33° C. for 15 h, and then pure water (12.20 kg) was added. The reaction mixture was extracted with methyl tert-butyl ether (3.70 kg×2). The organic phases were combined, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate (0.50 kg) and stirred for 1 hour, and filtered. The solvents were removed under vacuum (≦−0.09 MPa) at 40±2° C. with water bath to give the title compound (2.41 kg, purity 99.0%, yield 98%) as a light yellow oil. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.64 (dd, J=2 Hz, 5.2 Hz, 1H), 7.97 (d, J=1.6 Hz, 1H), 8.54 (d, J=5.2 Hz, 1H), 8.74 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 7 H 4 D 3 ClN 2 O: 173. found: 174 [M+H] + . 2. Preparation of 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (Intermediate A3) Method 1: Under nitrogen, dimethylsulfoxide (2.75 kg) was added into a reactor (20 L). After the mixer was started, 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (2.41 kg, 13.88 mol, 1 eq), 4-aminophenyl (1.62 kg, 14.84 mol, 1.08 eq) and potassium tert-butoxide (1.66 kg, 14.79 mol, 1.1 eq) were added in turn. After the temperature of the reactor was stable, the inner temperature was heated to 80° C. and stirred for 4 hours. After the inner temperature was cooled to 40° C., isopropanol (7.90 kg) was added to dilute the reaction mixture with stirring. The reactor was washed by isopropanol, and the resulted mixture was transferred to a reactor (30 L). Under nitrogen, hydrochloric acid (5.81 kg) was added dropwise. After the addition, the mixture was stirred, filtered by centrifugation, and washed with pure water. The solid was transferred into a reactor (50 L), and completely dissolved in water (21.00 kg) with stirring. Under nitrogen, a solution of potassium carbonate (2.5 kg potassium carbonate dissolved in 7 L pure water) was added dropwise into the above reactor (50 L) for about 1.5 hours. The mixture was discharged and centrifuged, and the product was washed with pure water and dried under vacuum for 24 hours to give the title compound (2.72 kg, purity 99.9%, yield 78%) as a light brown crystal. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ5.19 (br, 2H), 6.66-6.68 (m, 2H), 6.86-6.88 (m, 2H), 7.07 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 5.6 Hz, 1H), 7.36 (d, J=2.8 Hz, 1H), 8.45 (d, J=5.6 Hz, 1H), 8.72 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 13 H 10 D 3 N 3 O 2 Cl: 246. found: 247 [M+H] + . Method 2: 4-chloro-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (4.3 g, 24.77 mmol, 1 eq) was dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (20 mL) at room temperature. 4-aminophenol (2.7 g, 24.77 mmol, 1 eq), tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate (1.68 g, 4.95 mmol, 0.2 eq) and sodium hydroxide (1.35 g, 33.69 mmol, 1.36 eq) was added with stirring at room temperature. A solution of sodium hydroxide in water (45%, sodium hydroxide (1.32 g) was dissolved in water (1.6 mL)) was added dropwise slowly. The mixture was heated to 67° C. and stirred for 20 hours. The mixture was cooled to below 20° C., and concentrated hydrochloric acid (37%, 10 mL) was added at a rate keeping the reaction temperature below 25° C. The mixture was stirred for 1 hour, filtered and washed with tetrahydrofuran (20 mL). The resulted solid was dissolved in water (60 mL). The mixture was cooled to 10-20° C. and slowly added dropwise a solution of sodium hydroxide (22.5%, 2.6 mL) till the pH was 3-3.5. A solution of sodium hydroxide (22.5%, 3.4 mL) was continuously added till the pH was 7-8 and a light yellow solid precipitated. During the addition, the temperature of the mixture was kept below 20° C. The mixture was filtered and the solid was washed with water (12 mL×2). The solid was dried under vacuum to give 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (5.01 g, purity 99%, yield 82%) as a light yellow solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ5.19 (br, 2H), 6.66-6.68 (m, 2H), 6.86-6.88 (m, 2H), 7.07 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 5.6 Hz, 1H), 7.36 (d, J=2.8 Hz, 1H), 8.45 (d, J=5.6 Hz, 1H), 8.72 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 13 H 10 D 3 N 3 O 2 Cl: 246. found: 247 [M+H] + . 3. Preparation of 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (CM4307) Under nitrogen, dichloromethane (17.30 kg) and dimethylsulfoxide (2.92 kg) was added into a dry reactor (50 L). The mixture was stirred at room temperature, 4-(4-aminophenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (2.65 kg, 10.76 mol) was added. 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene (2.50 kg, 11.26 mol, 1.05 eq) was dissolved in dichloromethane (7.00 kg). The solution of 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene in dichloromethane was dropwise added into the reactor. The reaction was conducted for 10 min at room temperature. The reaction mixture was cooled to 3±2° C. by an ice-brine bath. Pure water (10.60 kg) was dropwise added into the reactor while keeping the temperature at 3±2° C. After the addition, the mixture was stirred for 30 min, then discharged and centrifuged. The product was washed with dichloromethane (7.00 kg). The resulted product was dried under vacuum for 24 h to give an off-white powder (4.8 kg, purity 99.8%, yield 95.4%). 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.15 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 5.6 Hz, 1H), 7.17-7.19 (m, 2H), 7.40 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 7.59-7.69 (m, 4H), 8.13 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 8.51 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H), 8.75 (br, 1H), 8.90 (br, 1H), 9.22 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 21 H 13 D 3 ClF 3 N 4 O 3 : 467. found: 468 [M+H] + . Example 5 Preparation of 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide p-toluenesulfonate (CM4307.TsOH) A reactor (100 L) was charged with anhydrous ethanol (45.00 kg). After the mixer was started, 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide (4.50 kg, 9.62 mol, 1 eq) and p-toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate (0.66 kg, 3.47 mol, 0.36 eq) were added separately. The mixture was heated to 78° C. and refluxed for 40 min till the solid was fully dissolved. p-toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate (1.61 kg, 8.46 mol) was added into anhydrous ethanol (4.50 kg), and the mixture was heated to 70° C. till the solid was dissolved. The resulted solution was added into the reactor (100 L). The mixture was cooled to 0-2° C. and kept for 30 min. The mixture was discharged and centrifugally filtered. The solid was washed with anhydrous ethanol (13.50 kg), dried under vacuum for 24 h to give the title compound (5.75 kg, purity 99.3%, yield 93.4%) as a white to off-white solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ2.30 (s, 3H), 7.15 (d, J=8.8 Hz, 2H), 7.20 (d, J=8.8 Hz, 2H), 7.23 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 6 Hz, 1H), 7.52 (d, J=8 Hz, 2H), 7.55 (d, J=2.8 Hz, 1H), 7.63 (d, J=8.8 Hz, 3H), 7.68 (dd, J=2.4 Hz, 9.2 Hz, 1H), 8.03 (br, 1H), 8.14 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 8.56 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H), 8.91 (br, 1H), 9.17 (br, 1H), 9.36 (br, 1H). 13 C NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ21.1, 26.1, 111.7, 115.2, 117.0, 120.7 (2C), 121.6 (2C), 121.9, 122.8, 123.2, 124.6, 125.6 (2C), 127.2, 129.0 (2C), 132.3, 138.8, 139.5, 139.9, 144.1, 146.6, 147.2, 152.8, 159.9, 170.7 ppm. Liquid chromatography condition: Agilent 1100 Series; chromatographic column: Synergi 4μ POLAR-RP 80A, 250×4.6 mm, 4 μm; column temperature: 25° C.; detection wavelength: UV 210 nm; mobile phase: A: ammonium dihydrogen phosphate 10 mmol/L, B: methanol; injection volume: 10 μL; flow rate: 0.8 mL/min; run time: 70 min; gradient: 50% mobile phase B from 0 to 15 min, mobile phase B being increased to 75% from 15 to 32 min, then 75% mobile phase B eluting for 23 min from 32 to 55 min. retention time: 4.95 min (p-toluenesulfonic acid); 47.11 min (CM4307). Example 6 Preparation of Compound CM4307 1: Preparation of tert-butyl 4-chloropicolinate A7 4-chloropicolinic acid (10.5 g, 66.64 mmol) was suspended in thionyl chloride (40 mL), and the mixture was heated to 80° C. and refluxed. N,N-dimethylformamide (0.2 mL) was added dropwise, and the mixture was refluxed for 2 hours. The excess of thionyl chloride was removed under reduced pressure to give the pale yellow acyl chloride, followed by addition of dichloromethane (60 mL). The resulted solution was added into a mixed solution of tert-butanol (25 mL), pyridine (20 mL) and dichloromethane (80 mL) at −40° C. The reaction mixture was heated to 50° C. and stirred for 16 hours. The solvents were removed under reduced pressure and ethyl acetate (150 mL) was added. The resulted mixture was washed with saturated brine (50 mL×2) and a sodium hydroxide solution (1N, 50 mL×2), and separated. The organic phase was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated under the reduced pressure. The residue was dried under vacuum to give the title compound (11.1 g, purity 95%, yield 78%) as a pale yellow solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ1.56 (s, 9H), 7.80 (dd, J=2.4 Hz, 5.2 Hz, 1H), 8.02 (d, J=2 Hz, 1H), 8.69 (d, J=5.2 Hz, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 10 H 12 ClNO 2 : 213. found: 158[M−Bu t +H] + . 2: Preparation of tert-butyl 4-(4-aminophenoxy)picolinate A8 At room temperature, p-aminophenol (0.51 g, 4.70 mmol, 1 eq) was dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (10 mL). To the resulted solution, potassium tert-butoxide (0.53 g, 4.70 mmol, 1 eq) was added in portions and the resulted mixture was stirred for 0.5 hours. Tert-butyl 4-chloropicolinate (1 g, 4.70 mmol, 1 eq) and potassium carbonate (45 mg, 0.33 mmol, 0.07 eq) were added, and the mixture was heated to 80° C. and stirred for 2 hours. The mixture was cooled to room temperature and ethyl acetate (50 mL) was added. The mixture was filtered to remove the undissolved material and the filtrate was washed with saturated brine (20 mL×2). The organic phase was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, concentrated under reduced pressure to remove the solvent. The residue was purified by column chromatography (dichloromethane:ethyl acetate=30:1) to give the title compound (805 mg, purity 96%, yield 60%). 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ1.52 (s, 9H), 5.21 (br, 2H), 6.64 (d, J=8.8 Hz, 2H), 6.87 (d, J=8 Hz, 2H), 7.35 (dd, J=2.4 Hz, 5.6 Hz, 1H), 8.50 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 10 H 12 ClNO 2 : 286. found: 231[M-Bu t +H] + . 3: Preparation of tert-butyl 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)picolinate A9 At room temperature, 1-chloro-4-isocyanato-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzene (656 mg, 2.96 mmol, 1.05 eq) was dissolved in dichloromethane (5 mL). To the resulted solution, a solution of tert-butyl 4-(4-aminophenoxy)picolinate (805 mg, 2.81 mmol, 1 eq) in dichloromethane (5 mL) was slowly added dropwise. The mixture was stirred for 16 hours at room temperature. The solvent was removed under reduced pressure, and the resulted solid was purified by column chromatography (dichloromethane:methanol=30:1) to give the title compound (1.4 g, purity 95%, yield 85%) as a white solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ1.53 (s, 9H), 7.13 (dd, J=2.4 Hz, 5.2 Hz, 1H), 7.18 (d, J=8.8 Hz, 2H), 7.41 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 7.59-7.66 (m, 4H), 8.13 (d, J=1.6 Hz, 1H), 8.55 (d, J=5.6 Hz, 1H), 9.06 (br, 1H), 9.27 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 24 H 21 ClF 3 N 3 O 4 : 507. found: 508 [M+H] + . 4: Preparation of 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)picolinic acid A10 At room temperature, tert-butyl 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)picolinate (1.4 g, 2.76 mmol) was dissolved in dichloromethane (20 mL). To the resulted solution, trifluoroacetic acid (20 mL) and triethylsilane (0.5 mL) were added. The resulted mixture was heated to 50° C. and stirred for 16 hours. The solvent was removed under reduced pressure, and water (50 mL) and ethyl acetate (70 mL) were added. The resulted mixture was separated and the organic phase was removed. The aqueous layer was filtered and the solid was washed with water (30 mL×2). The solid was dried under vacuum to give the title compound (1.1 g, purity 97%, yield 90%) as a light green solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.21-7.25 (m, 2H), 7.33 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 6 Hz, 1H), 7.57 (d, J=2.8 Hz, 1H), 7.60-7.67 (m, 4H), 8.12 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 2H), 8.64 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H), 9.84 (br, 1H), 10.17 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 20 H 12 ClF 4 N 3 O 4 : 451. found: 450 [M−H] − . 5: Preparation of 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]ureido)-phenoxy)-N-(methyl-d 3 )picolinamide CM4307 Method 1: At room temperature, 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)picolinic acid (0.5 g, 1.11 mmol, 1 eq) was dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (5 mL). To the resulted solution, (N-(methyl-d 3 ))amine hydrochloride (0.15 g, 2.22 mmol, eq), 2-(7-aza-1H-benzotriazole-1-yl)-N,N,N′N′-tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate (HATU, 0.84 g, 2.22 mmol, 2 eq) and N,N-diisopropylethylamine (DIEA, 0.86 g, 6.66 mmol, 3 eq) were added. The resulted mixture was stirred at room temperature for 16 hours. To the above reaction mixture, water (20 mL) was added. The resulted mixture was stirred for 0.5 hour and then filtered to give a pale-white solid. The solid was dissolved in ethyl acetate (50 mL), and the resulted mixture was washed with saturated brine (10 mL×3), and then separated. The organic phase was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and filtered. The solvent in the filtrate was removed under reduced pressure to give CM4307 (0.42 g, purity 97%, yield 81%) as an off-white solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.15 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 5.6 Hz, 1H), 7.17-7.19 (m, 2H), 7.40 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 7.59-7.69 (m, 4H), 8.13 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 8.51 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H), 8.75 (br, 1H), 8.90 (br, 1H), 9.22 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 21 H 13 D 3 ClF 3 N 4 O 3 : 467. found: 468 [M+H] + . Method 2: 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)picolinic acid (0.5 g, 1.11 mmol) was suspended in methanol (10 mL). Concentrated sulfuric acid (2 mL) was added at room temperature, and the resulted mixture was refluxed for 3 hours. The solvent was removed under reduced pressure, and the residue was purified by column chromatography (dichloromethane:methanol=10:1) to give methyl 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)picolinate A11 (0.46 g, purity 95%, yield 90%) as a white solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ3.85 (s, 3H), 7.18-7.21 (m, 3H), 7.43 (d, (dd, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 7.59-7.66 (m, 4H), 8.13 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 8.59 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H), 9.06 (br, 1H), 9.27 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 21 H 15 ClF 3 N 3 O 4 : 465. found: 466 [M+H] + . Methyl 4-(4-(3-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ureido)phenoxy)picolinate (300 mg, 0.65 mmol, 1 eq) was added into a three-necked bottle containing tetrahydrofuran (10 mL) with stirring. To the resulted mixture, (N-(methyl-d 3 ))amine hydrochloride (91 mg, 1.3 mmol, 2 eq) and anhydrous potassium carbonate (400 mesh, 179 mg, 1.3 mmol, 2 eq) were added. After the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 20 hours, water (5 mL) and methyl ter-butyl ether (15 mL) were added. The mixture was stirred and separated the organic phase. The aqueous layer was extracted with methyl ter-butyl ether (10 mL), and the organic layers were combined, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and filtered. The solvent in the filtrate was removed under reduced pressure to afford CM4307 (261 mg, purity 96%, yield 86%) as an off-white solid. 1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 400 MHz): δ7.15 (dd, J=2.8 Hz, 5.6 Hz, 1H), 7.17-7.19 (m, 2H), 7.40 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 7.59-7.69 (m, 4H), 8.13 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 8.51 (d, J=6 Hz, 1H), 8.75 (br, 1H), 8.90 (br, 1H), 9.22 (br, 1H). MS (ESI, m/z) calcd. for C 21 H 13 D 3 ClF 3 N 4 O 3 : 467. found: 468 [M+H] + . Example 7 Pharmacokinetic Evaluation for Deuterated Diphenylurea Compounds in Rats 8 male Sprague-Dawley rats, 7-8 weeks-old and body weight about 210 g, were divided into two groups, 4 in each group (rat No.: control group was 13-16; experimental group was 9-12). The rats were orally administrated at a single dose of 3 mg/kg of (a) the undeuterated compound N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-methyl-aminoformyl)-4-pyridyloxy)phenyl)urea (control compound CM4306) or (b) N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-(methyl-d 3 )-aminoformyl)-4-pyridyloxy)phenyl)urea (Compound CM4307 of the invention) prepared in Example 1. The pharmacokinetics differences of CM4306 and CM4307 were compared. The rats were fed with the standard feed, given water and chlordiazepoxide. Chlordiazepoxide was stopped at the last night before experiment, and given again two hours after the administration of the compound. The rats were fasted for 16 hours before the test. The compound was dissolved in 30% PEG400. The time for collecting orbital blood was 0.083, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 24 hours after administration of the compound. The rats were anaesthetised briefly by inhaling ether. A 300 μL orbital blood sample was collected into the tubes containing a 30 μl 1% heparin saline solution. The tubes were dried overnight at 60° C. before use. After the blood samples were subsequentially collected, the rats were anaesthetised by ether and sacrificed. After the blood samples were collected, the tubes were gently reversed at least five times immediately to mix the contents sufficiently, and placed on the ice. The blood samples were centrifuged at 4° C. at 5000 rpm for 5 minutes to separate the serum and red blood cells. 100 μL serum was removed to a clean plastic centrifugal tube by pipettor, and the name of the compound and time point was labeled on the tube. Serum was stored at −80° C. before LC-MS analysis. The results were shown in FIGS. 1-2 . The results showed that, compared with CM4306, the half-life (T 1/2 ) of CM4307 was longer [11.3±2.1 hours for CM4307 and 8.6±1.4 hours for CM4306, respectively], area under the curve)(AUC 0-∞ ) of CM4307 was significantly increased [11255±2472 ng·h/mL for CM4307 and 7328±336 ng·h/mL for CM4306, respectively], and apparent clearance of CM4307 was reduced [275±52 mL/h/kg for CM4307 and 410±18.7 mL/h/kg for CM4306, respectively]. The above results showed that, the compound of the present invention had better pharmacokinetics properties in the animal, and thus had better pharmacodynamics and therapeutic effects. In addition, the metabolism for the compound of the present invention in organism was changed through deuteration. In particular, the hydroxylation of phenyl became more difficult, which led to the reduction of first-pass effect. In such cases, the dose can be changed, long-acting preparations can be formed, and the applicability can be improved by using long-acting preparations. Furthermore, the pharmacokinetics was also changed through deuteration. Since another hydrate film is fully formed by deuterated compounds, the distribution of deuterated compounds in organisms is significantly different from that of the non-deuterated compounds. Example 8 The Pharmacodynamic Evaluation of CM4307 for Inhibiting Tumor Growth of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma SMMC-7721 in Nude Mice Xenograft Model 70 Balb/c nu/nu nude mice, 6 weeks-old, female, were bought from Shanghai Experimental Animal Resource Center (Shanghai B&K Universal Group Limited). SMMC-7721 cells were commercially available from Shanghai Institutes for Biological Science, CAS (Shanghai, China). The establishment of tumor nude mice xenograft model: SMMC-7721 cells in logarithmic growth period were cultured. After cell number was counted, the cells were suspended in 1×PBS, and the number of the cell in suspension was adjusted to 1.5×10 7 /ml. The tumor cells were inoculated under the skin of right armpit of nude mice with a 1 ml syringe, 3×10 6 /0.2 ml/mice. 70 nude mice were inoculated in total. When the tumor size reached 30-130 mm 3 , 58 mice were divided randomly into different groups. The difference of the mean value of tumor volume in each group was less than 10%, and drugs were started to be administrated. The test doses for each group were listed in the following table. Ani- Adminis- Dose Group mal Compounds tration (mg/kg) Method 1 10 control po 0.1 ml/10 g qd x 2 weeks (solvent) BW 2 8 CM4306 po 10 mg/kg qd x 2 weeks 3 8 CM4306 po 30 mg/kg qd x 2 weeks 4 8 CM4306 po 100 mg/kg qd x 2 weeks 5 8 CM4307 po 10 mg/kg qd x 2 weeks 6 8 CM4307 po 30 mg/kg qd x 2 weeks 7 8 CM4307 po 100 mg/kg qd x 2 weeks Animal body weight and tumor size were tested twice a week during the experiment. Clinical symptoms were recorded every day. At the end of the administration, the tumor size was recorded by taking pictures. One mouse was sacrificed in each group and tumor tissue was taken and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. Observation was continued after the administration, and when the mean size of tumor was larger than 2000 mm 3 , or the dying status appeared, the animals were sacrificed, gross anatomy was conducted, and the tumor tissue was taken and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. The formula for calculating the tumor volume (TV) is: TV=a×b 2 /2, wherein a, b independently represent the length and the breadth of the tumor. The formula for calculating the relative tumor volume (RTV) is: RTV=Vt/V 0 , wherein V 0 is the tumor volume at the beginning of the administration, and Vt is the tumor weight when measured. The index for evaluating the antitumor activity is relative tumor increment rate T/C (%), and the formula is: T/C (%)=(T RTV /C RTV )×100%, wherein, T RTV is the RTV of the treatment group, and C RTV is the RTV of the negative control group. Evaluation standard for efficacy: it is effective if the relative tumor increment rate T/C (%) is <40% and p<0.05 by statistics analysis. The results were shown in FIG. 3 . CM4306 and CM4307 were intragastric administrated every day for 2 weeks at doses of 10, 30, 100 mg/kg respectively, and both compounds showed the dose-dependent effect of the inhibition of tumor growth. At the end of administration, T/C % of CM4306 was 56.9%, 40.6% and 32.2%, respectively. T/C % of CM4307 was 53.6%, 40.8% and 19.6%. T/C % for 100 mg/kg dose groups was <40%, and tumor volume was significantly different (p<0.01) from the control group, indicating the significant effect in inhibiting tumor growth. Compared with CM4306, the inhibitory efficacy of tumor growth at dosing 100 mg/kg of CM4307 was stronger (the T/C % for CM4307 and CM4306 is 19.6% and 32.2%, respectively, at day 15), there was significant difference in tumor volume between groups (p<0.01). Compared with CM4306, the absolute value of tumor inhibition rate for CM4307 increased more than 10%, the relative value increment about 60% (32.2%/19.6%−1=64%), and CM4307 showed more significant effect for inhibiting tumor growth. In addition, during the experiment, no other drug-relevant toxic effects were observed. Example 9 Pharmaceutical Compositions Compound CM4307 (Example 1) 20 g Starch 140 g  Microcrystalline cellulose 60 g By routine methods, these substances were blended evenly, and loaded into ordinary gelatin capsules, thereby forming 1000 capsules. All literatures mentioned in the present application are incorporated by reference herein, as though individually incorporated by reference. Additionally, it should be understood that after reading the above teaching, many variations and modifications may be made by the skilled in the art, and these equivalents also fall within the scope as defined by the appended claims.

Methods and processes for preparation and production of deuterated ω-diphenylurea are disclosed. Especially, a kind of deuterated ω-diphenylurea compounds which can inhibit phosphokinase and the preparation method of N-(4-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-N′-(4-(2-(N-d3-methylcarbamoyl)-4-pridinyloxy)phenyl)urea are disclosed. The said deuterated diphenylurea compounds can be used for treating or preventing tumors and relative diseases.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates in general to mass flow measuring techniques and, in particular to a new and useful apparatus and method of measuring mass flow rate of the fluid utilizing two spaced apart tubes each meant for carrying about one half of the flow, which tubes are forced to oscillate between fixed points in order to impart a reciprocating angular rotation to the tubes. Devices are known which utilize the effect of angular motion on a moving fluid to directly measure mass flow. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,865,201 issued Dec. 23, 1958 to Roth and U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,944 issued Dec. 5, 1967 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,098 issued Dec. 23, 1969 to Sipin. U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,524 issued Aug. 29, 1978 to Smith, discloses an apparatus and method for measuring mass flow rate through a conduit by reciprocating a section of the conduit to produce longitudinal angular rotation of that section. Linkages are connected to the section both for reciprocating it and for measuring a force exerted on the section which force is due to an apparent force produced by mass flow through the conduit section. A direct measurement can thus be taken of the mass flow rate in this manner. To understand how mass flow rate can be measured using the effects of this force, reference is now made to FIG. 1 which shows an arrangement of vectors on an X, Y, Z coordinate system. When a moving mass m with a velocity vector v is acted upon by a force that causes angular velocity w about some axis, a force F c is observed such that: F c =2mw×v If a tube for carrying a fluid, shown at 10 in FIG. 1, is rotated in the F c -v plane, in the clockwise direction shown by arrow 12, this causes an angular velocity w as shown in FIG. 1. If however, rather than rotating conduit 10 in one direction shown by arrow 12, the conduit is caused to oscillate back and forth about its pivot which is shown at 16, the magnitude and polarity of the angular velocity w will also oscillate and, therefore, the magnitude and polarity of the force F c will oscillate proportionately. For any point along the tube, for example the point 14, a displacement vector can be represented for small amplitudes as lying along the Y-axis only. As the flow tube 10 is forced to oscillate by a sinusoidal driver about its pivot point 16 with very small amplitude, and with the point 14 far from the pivot point 16, then the magnitude of its displacement, velocity and acceleration vectors can be represented by a graph which is shown at FIG. 2. The displacement of point 14 along the Y-axis is shown by the solid line 20. The velocity v of the point 14 is shown by the dash double dot line 22. This is in the units of inches/second and represents dy/dt. Acceleration A is shown by the solid line 26 and represents the second derivative of displacement with respect to time, in the units inches/second 2 and represents d 2 y/dt 2 . If there is a fluid flowing in the tube, a force F c =2mw×v, acting on the flowing mass, will also be developed. By Newton's third law it will develop an equal and opposite force -F c acting on the tubing itself and be acceleration A', with -F c and A' along the Y-axis. The magnitude of A' is shown by the dotted line 28. From the definition for the force -F c set forth above, it can be seen that this force is proportional to the velocity of the point 14, which is 90° out of phase with the acceleration due to the driving force applied to the conduit. The resultant force acting at the point 14 will be the sum of the driving and the force -F c , with these two forces 90° our of phase. The dot-dash curve 24 represents the sum associated with the accelerations A plus A' which is proportional to the sum of the driving force and the force -F c . A phase difference of φ between the original driving acceleration and the resultant summed acceleration will, therefore, be a direct measurement of the force -F c which is directly proportional to the mass flow rate. If the driving force is sinusoidal, then its displacement, velocity and acceleration will likewise be sinusoidal and vary by 90° and 180° respectively. This allows the phase difference φ to be equal regardless of whether it is measured relative to the displacement, velocity or acceleration functions of the drive force versus resultant drive force plus the force -F c . SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is drawn to a method and apparatus for measuring mass flow rate. According to the invention, a pair of parallel conduits are mounted in side by side relationship with their ends being fixedly supported. Driving means are provided in the middle of the conduits and between them for applying lateral oscillations to the conduits which displace them repeatedly away and toward each other. This oscillation is permitted due to the flexibility of the conduits and since their ends are held at fixed locations. Sensors are provided on either side of the driving means and roughly halfway between the driving means and each respective support. These sensors produce signals which correspond to the velocity of the tubes at the locations of the sensors. Connectors and passages are provided to the supports for supplying a mass flow which is divided approximately evenly between the two conduits through one of the supports and then recombined and discharged from the other support. With no fluid passing through the conduits, the frequency of oscillation for the drive means will exactly match and be in phase with the frequency of oscillations sensed by the two sensors. If a mass flow beings to pass through the conduits, however, all the sensors will continue to sense the same frequency as the driving frequency, the leading sensor in the direction of mass flow will lag the driving frequency with regard to its phase and the downstream sensor will lead the driving frequency, again with regard to phase. This phase lead and lag is directly usable as a measurement of mass flow rate through the conduits. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for measuring mass flow rate of a fluid which comprises a pair of parallel conduits which have opposite ends, an axis and a mid-point, support means for supporting the opposite ends at substantially fixed locations and drive means for oscillating the conduits between their opposite ends and in a direction transverse to their axes. Connector means are provided on the support means for supplying fluid to the conduit and for dividing the flow of fluid substantially equally between the conduits. At least one sensor is provided at a location spaced from the mid-point and spaced from both opposite ends, the sensor sensing movement. The movement sensor may either sense displacement, velocity or acceleration. A phase difference between the sensed motion and the driving motion is a measurement of mass flow rate for the fluid through the conduits. Another object of the invention is to provide such an apparatus wherein the drive means is provided at the mid-point of the conduits and a pair of sensors are provided on opposite ends of the mid-point. The upstream sensor lags the driving force with regard to phase and the downstream sensor leads the driving force. A measurement of phase lead and phase lag yields a measurement of mass flow rate. A still further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for measuring mass flow rate which is simple in design, rugged in construction and economical to manufacture. A still further object of the invention is to provide a method of measuring mass flow rate which utilizes the difference in phase between sensed movements of oscillating parallel conduits, and an oscillating force supplied near the mid-point of the conduits. The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a coordinate system in which a conduit for carrying a mass flow can be rotated to illustrate the occurrence of a force F c . FIG. 2 is a graph showing various characteristics of motion and forces experienced at a certain point on the conduit in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the movement experienced by conduits used in the invention; FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the maximum amplitude of an oscillating conduit; and FIG. 6 is graph of two equal frequencies but out of phase sinusoidal curves showing a t 1 time difference between them. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 3, the invention embodied therein comprises a device for measuring mass flow rate supplied to an inlet connection 30. Inlet connection 30 is connected to a first support 32 which fixes ends 34 and 35 of a pair of parallel conduits 36 and 37. A Y-shaped passage 38 is defined in support 32 for approximately dividing the mass flow into connection 30 into two equal parts. Half the mass flow is supplied to conduit 36 and the other half to conduit 37. Conduits 36 and 37 have opposite ends 42 and 43 respectively which are connected to a second support 40 which carries an outlet connection 44. Another Y-shaped passage 46 is defined in support 40 for combining the flows of conduits 36 and 37 back together and into discharge connection 44. A driving mechanism 48 is provided near the middle and between conduits 36 and 37. Driving mechanism 48 includes a solenoid coil 54 which is fixed for example, to conduit 36, and a permanent magnet 52 which rides in coil 54 and is fixed to conduit 37. By applying electricity to coil 54 at a selected frequency, conduits 36 and 37 can be made to oscillate toward and away from each other, in an up and down direction. FIG. 4 which is a schematic representation of the device in FIG. 3, shows tubes 36 and 37 as lines. The maximum amplitude that the tubes achieve away from each other are shown by the solid lines 36a and 37a. The maximum approach is shown by the dotted lines 36c and 37c and the rest position is shown by the dot-dash lines 36b and 37b. Turning back to FIG. 3, tubes 36 and 37 are provided with a pair of sensors 56 and 58 which are spaced apart from each other and positioned on opposite sides of the driving mechanism 48. Sensor 56 comprises a permanent magnet 62 which is magnetically coupled to coil 66 which are connected to tubes 37 and 36 respectively. In similar fashion, sensor 58 includes a permanent magnet 72 which rides in coil 76 connected to conduits 37 and 36 respectively. By oscillating conduits 36 and 37 in the manner shown in FIG. 4, sinusoidal currents are induced in coils 66 and 76. These signals are proportional to velocities of the tubes toward and away from each other at the respective sensor locations. When no fluid is passing through conduits 36 and 37, the oscillation applied by driving mechanism 48 to the mid-point of tubes 36 and 37 will generate signals in sensors 56 and 58 which are in phase with each other and in phase with the velocity of the driving mechanism 48. When fluid passes through conduits 36 and 37 however, a phase difference appears between the signals of sensors 56 and 58. Sensor 56 generates a velocity signal which lags behind the velocity of the driving mechanism 48 and sensor 58 generates a signal which leads the velocity of the driving mechanism 48. A device shown schematically at 80 in FIG. 3 is connected to sensors 56 and 58 as well as to the driving mechanism 48 or at least its power supply for measuring the phase lead and phase lag of the respective velocity signals. The phase lead and phase lag, relative to the velocity of the driving mechanism is related directly to the mass flow rate through the conduits 36, 37. FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of one of the conduits. The position for one of the sensors is shown at "o". This is at a point a distance r from the closest support for the conduit. At this point "o" the conduit executes an upward swing having a maximum amplitude plus A and a downward swing having a maximum amplitude minus A. In the following analysis the displacement from point "o" is designated by the letter y. For any point on the flow tube, the displacement from its rest position, y, while being forced to oscillate at resonance with maximum amplitude A in simple harmonic motion is given as: y=A sin wt (1) where y=displacement from rest position A=maximum amplitude w=2πf f=resonant frequency t=time, t=θ is when the oscillating begins. Since the tube is fixed at both ends and can only move transversely to its own rest axis, the displacement y is up and down. The velocity of point "o" up and down is then: ##EQU1## and its acceleration is then: ##EQU2## The force -F c (a vector) acting on point "o" will be up and down as well as the induced oscillations and follow the equation: -F.sub.c =-2mW.sub.c ×v.sub.c (4) where -F c =the apparent force resulting from the effect of the angular velocity on the moving fluid. m=mass of fluid flowing past point "o" w c =angular velocity of point "o" =|V/r| and (V=w×r) V c =velocity of the fluid flowing past point "o". If k=spring constant of the tube at point "o", then the induced oscillating force amplitude is: |F|=-ky=-kA sin wt (5) since the two forces act in the same directions, their magnitudes can be summed directly: F-F.sub.c =|F|+|-F.sub.c |=(-2m.sub.c V.sub.c V/r)+(-kA sin wt) (6) Substituting V=wA cos wt: ##EQU3## Since m c , r, V c , w, w 2 and A are all constants for constant mass flowrate, then this reduces to: F-F.sub.c =B.sub.1 cos wt+B.sub.2 sin wt (8) with ##EQU4## and B 2 =-kA. The sum of B 1 cos wt+B 2 sin wt as shown in Equation (8) may be expressed as: B.sub.1 cos wt+B.sub.2 sin wt=γ sin (wt+β) (9) with γ=(B 1 2 +B 2 2 ) 1/2 and β=arctan (B 1 /B 2 ) Equation (9) mathematically shows that the resultant force on point "o" is at the same frequency as both driving resonant oscillations, B 1 cos wt and B 2 sin wt; but out of phase by β, where: ##EQU5## since w=2πf, where f=frequency of oscillations, which is held constant at the natural resonant frequency of the tube and r is a fixed distance and k is a constant then ##EQU6## Therefore: m.sub.c V.sub.c =α tan (β) (13) with m c V c =mass flow rate. Thus, the force acting on point "o" is sinusoidal as is the driving force and at the same frequency and only differs by a phase change β. The displacement, velocity or acceleration functions (as well as any higher derivates of these) also differ in phase to the corresponding drive force by the same amount: β±nπ/2 (14) where n is an integer. For very small phase shifts, equation (12) becomes β=arctan (m.sub.c V.sub.c /α)≈m.sub.c V.sub.c /α=m.sub.c V.sub.c (4πf/kr) (15) In order to eliminate the frequency dependent term f, we must examine the two signals, which differ only in phase φ as they are represented in the amplitude as a function of time graph in FIG. 6. Their frequencies are equal and their periods will be: T=1/f (16) with T=period=2 (t.sub.1 +t.sub.2) (17) Their relative phase angle β is then defined as: β=πt.sub.1 /(t.sub.1 +t.sub.2)=2πt.sub.1 f (18) Substituting equation (18) into (15) yields: β=m.sub.c V.sub.c (4πf/kr)=2πt.sub.1 f (19) and therefore: m.sub.c V.sub.c =mass flowrate=(kr/2)t.sub.1 (20) which eliminates the frequency dependency and requires only that the spring constant k, length r and time interval t 1 be known. The time interval t 1 can be measured using an oscilloscope and standard laboratory techniques. For any set of conditions, k and r will be constants, and therefore, a measure of t 1 will be directly proportional to mass flowrate. It is obvious that t 1 can be measured along any line through the signals as shown in FIG. 6 and is not restricted to the "zero crossing" base line. The time difference t 1 can be measured between any two points with equal first and second derivatives during any one cycle on the two signals regardless of gain or DC offset factors. In the present design, the point "a" on the split parallel tubes of FIG. 3 will follow the above progression. The mass flowrate can be directly measured by measuring the time difference t 1 between the induced signal at point "u" and the mass flowrate effected signal at point "a". With flow as shown in FIG. 3, point "a" will lag point "u". Likewise point "b" will lag point "v", point "c" will lead point "u" and point "d" will lead point "v". (The phase angle amplitude will be equal between all these respective points with leading points positive and lagging points negative.) Therefore, the total phase difference φ between the lag at points "a" and "b" and the lead at points "c" and "d" will provide a signal sampling the total direct mass flowrate through both tubes twice as a weighted average. The sum of the lead and lag phase angles will, therefore, cancel and provide the resonant frequency data necessary to maintain the tubes at their natural resonant frequency regardless of pressure, density or temperature variations. The split parallel tubing arrangement of FIG. 3 also allows both halves of the drive coil 48 and both of the sensor coils 66, 76 to be mounted to the flow tubes 36, 37 directly and help reduce common mode vibration noise and improve performance (provided that the sprung masses at points "a", "b", "c" and "d" are all equal, and at points "u" and "v" are equal.) Thus, the advantages of the split parallel tubes approach of FIG. 3 are as follows. Direct mass flowrate measurement proportional to the time measurement between points with equal first and second derivatives during any one cycle of two equal frequency signals; simple, rugged mechanical design; ease of assembly; small overall size; ease of installation; process fluid density insensitive; only slight temperature dependency ease of scaling up and down in size; process fluid viscosity insensitive and applicable to liquids, gases and slurries. In the alternative, phase measuring devices, such as that shown in FIG. 3 at 80, are known. An example is Hewlett Packard Model 3575A. The phase difference from the driving point to the sensing point near the center of the tubes, and the sensing point, spaced away from the center, can thus be utilized as a measurement of mass flowrate. Sensors, as provided, on both sides of the driving mechanism increase accuracy. While a specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described in detail to illustrate the application of the principles of the invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without departing from such principles.

An apparatus and method for measuring mass flow rate utilizes a pair of parallel conduits having fixed ends. A driving mechanism is connected between the conduits near their mid-point for applying transverse oscillations to the conduits at a selected frequency. The fluid whose mass flow rate is to be measured is divided roughly equally and supplied through the parallel conduits. A motion sensor upstream of the driving mechanism and another one downstream of the driving mechanism produce signals which have the same frequency as the driving frequency but which lead or lag the driving frequency with regard to phase. This difference is phase is a measurement of mass flow rate.

[0001] This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/321,411, filed Apr. 6, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to asthma. More particularly, the present invention relates to clinical screening, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and prophylaxis, as well as for drug screening and drug development for the treatment of asthma. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lower respiratory tract characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness and mucus obstruction (Busse et al., Am J Respir Crit. Care Med 2004, 170:683-690). Bronchial asthma is the most common chronic disease affecting children and young adults and is a complex genetic disorder with several overlapping phenotypes (Cookson and Moffatt, Hum. Mol. Genet. 9: 2359-64 (2000); Weiss, Ann. Allergy Asthma Immunol., 87 (Suppl 1): 5-8 (2001)). There is strong evidence for a genetic component in asthma (Bleecker et al., Am J. Respir. Crit. Care. Med., 156: S113-6 (1997); Kauffmann et al., Chest, 121(3 Suppl): 27S (2002)). Multiple environmental factors are also known to modulate the clinical expression of asthma as well as the asthma-associated phenotypes: bronchial hyperresponsiveness, atropy and elevated IgE (Koppelman et al., Eur. Resp. J, 13: 2-4 (1999); Cookson, Nature, 25: B5-11 (1999); Holloway, Clin. Exp. Allergy, 29: 1023-1032 (1999)). It is a commonly held view that asthma is caused by multiple interacting genes, some having a protective effect and others contributing to the disease pathogenesis, with each gene having its own tendency to be influenced by the environment (Koppelman et al., 1999; Cookson, 1999; Holloway, et al., 1999). Thus, the complex nature of the asthma phenotype, together with substantial locus heterogeneity and environmental influence, has made it difficult to uncover factors that underlie asthma. [0004] Pharmacologic analogues of cortisol (e.g. prednisone) have been used clinically since 1948 and remain the standard of care for the treatment of a variety of inflammatory diseases including asthma (Larj et al., Chest 2004; 126:138 S-149S). These glucocorticoids (GC) reduce pathological inflammation that is central to asthma, and they are thought to control clinical asthma symptoms through their anti-inflammatory effects (Expert Panel Report 3 (EPR-3): Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma-Summary Report 2007. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007, 120:S94-138). For example, Martinez and co-workers report that inhaled fluticasone shows sustained (albeit reversible) improvement in the proportion of asthma episode-free days, a reflection of reduced inflammation, compared to placebo over a two-year study period (Guilbert et al., N Engl J Med 2006, 354:1985-1997). Curiously, anti-inflammatory agents that specifically target inflammatory cells (e.g. eosinophils, T and B cells) and their intercellular signaling pathways have not shown similar efficacy to GCs in human trials (Lemanske, Proc Am Thorac Soc 2009, 6:312-315). That argues against the idea that asthmatic inflammation is merely the result of interactions between external stimuli and classic inflammatory cells like eosinophils and T cells. Rather, it is likely to involve complex interactions among multiple cell types including non-inflammatory resident cells of the lung (i.e. airway epithelium, fibroblasts, and smooth muscle). [0005] Therefore, there remains a need for a new model of asthma and the use of that model for diagnosis, drug screening, and treating asthma. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] To that end, the present inventors proposed a model for asthma placing airway epithelium at the center of a network of interacting inflammatory mediators. Due to its ability to simultaneously respond to airborne pathogens and environmental challenges and interact with its tissue environments, airway epithelium is regarded as a key lung tissue in asthma. In addition, airway epithelium communication with lamina propria fibroblasts (Davies et al., J Allergy Clin Immunol 2003; 111:215-225; quiz 226) and smooth muscle has been described (Malavia et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2009; 41:297-304). Our model predicts that asthmatic inflammation is driven by intrinsic inflammatory, fibrogenic, and regenerative characteristics of epithelium that are rescued by GCs. [0007] The present inventors have discovered that mitotically active asthmatic airway epithelium is asynchronous when compared to normal cells (non-asthmatic). Additionally, when those asthmatic cells are treated with a composition capable of pausing cell cycle, such as dexamethasone, the asthmatic cells become more synchronous. [0008] Accordingly, the present invention relates to methods for diagnosing asthma. The methods comprise obtaining a cell sample of an individual's airway epithelium, inducing the cells to undergo mitosis, and determining the synchrony of the mitotic cells. Asynchronous mitosis indicates the increased likelihood of asthma. Cell synchrony of the sample is compared to that of normal cells. Generally, less than about 70 percent, preferably 65 percent, more preferably 60 percent of cells in the same phase of the cell cycle indicates asynchrony and indicates an increased susceptibility to asthma. [0009] The present invention further provides methods for monitoring the treatment efficacy of an individual with asthma. The methods comprise administering a pharmaceutical composition to an individual, obtaining a cell sample of an individual's airway epithelium, inducing the cells to undergo mitosis, and determining the synchrony of the mitotic cells. If the cells become more synchronous upon the administration of the pharmaceutical composition, the treatment is likely effective. [0010] The present invention further provides methods for screening for an agent capable of alleviating asthma. This method involves inducing an airway epithelium cell sample to undergo mitosis, exposing the cell sample to an agent, and determining the synchrony of the mitotic cells. If the cells become increasingly synchronous upon exposure to the agent (when compared to cells not exposed to the agent), the agent is a good candidate for further study in treating asthma. [0011] The present invention also relates to methods for synchronizing airway epithelia by administering to the epithelia a composition capable of pausing mitosis in a particular phase of mitosis so that the cells can be synchronized. The composition preferably stops mitosis only briefly to let the cells catch up to the particular phase of mitosis. Once the cells are in phase, they can proceed through the cell cycle synchronously. [0012] The present invention also relates to methods for treating or alleviating the symptoms of asthma in an individual by administering to the individual a composition capable of pausing mitosis in a particular phase of mitosis so that the cells can be synchronized. The composition needs to stop mitosis only briefly to let the cells catch up to the particular phase of mitosis. Once the cells are in phase, they are then allowed to proceed through the cell cycle synchronously. Thus, the composition is administered for only a short period of time (about 2 hours or less, preferably about 1 hour or less), rather than around the clock as in the current treatments of asthma which treat inflammation rather than cell synchronization. [0013] The compositions appropriate to synchronize airway epithelia and to treat asthma include glucocorticoids, statins, azoles, and antineoplastic agents. Examples of glucocorticoids include hydrocortisone, cortisone acetate, prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone, dexamethasone, betamethasone, triamcinolone, beclometasone, fludrocortisone acetate, deoxycorticosterone acetate, and aldosterone. Examples of statins include atorvastatin, cerivastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin, mevastatin, pitavastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin. Examples of azoles include clotrimazole, posaconazole, ravuconazole, econazole, ketoconazole, voriconazole, fluconazole, itraconazole, and carbimazole. Examples of antineoplastics include actinomycins such as dactinomycin; anthracyclines such as, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, valrubicin, idarubicin, and epirubicin; and certain antibiotics such as bleomycin, plicamycin, and mitomycin. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] FIG. 1 is a chart that shows the experimental design for in vitro wounding of respiratory epithelia. Epithelia were pulsed for 2 h every 24 h with 20 nM dexamethasone (DEX) or vehicle (VEH) at the times shown. Mechanical scrape-wounding occurred at Oh with continuous apical and basolateral BrdU exposure until cell harvest at +48 h for histological and mitotic analyses. Media samples were frozen before measurement of inflammatory cytokines. [0015] FIG. 2 is a chart that shows that asthmatic epithelial basolateral secretions are relatively inflammatory after wounding. Levels of specific cytokines (TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-6, IL-13, and IL-1β) measured by cytometric bead assay are shown for basolateral epithelial secretions from asthmatic and normal epithelia at 0, +24, and +48 h. Asthmatic epithelia had significantly higher basolateral secretion of TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-13, and IL-1β at one or more time points. DEX pulses decreased secretion of TGF-β1 and IL-13 in asthmatic epithelia. Data are shown as mean±SEM in pg/mL. [0016] FIG. 3 is a series of charts that show that mitosis is diminished in asthmatic epithelium and increased by pulse DEX. Flow cytometry was used to measure the presence of BrdU in single cell suspensions of normal and asthmatic human airway epithelia at +48 h. A) The quantity of BrdU positivity is shown as the percent of total counted cells in non-wounded, wounded, and wounded DEX-pulsed epithelial cultures. Asthmatic epithelial wounds (n=6) showed approximately 40% fewer mitotically active cells than normal epithelial wounds (n=3) but intermittent DEX exposures abrogated this difference. B) Shown are gating and cell cycle analyses for one representative wounded normal and one representative wounded asthmatic epithelial culture. All events measured by the cytometer were gated on the BrdU+FLICA-population (left panels). The selected cells were further gated by 7-AAD height and area to remove cell doublets (middle panels). Finally, 7-AAD height was used to identify the cell cycle distribution of the gated cell population (right panel). C) Compared to wounded normal epithelia, wounded asthmatic epithelia at +48 h showed a more even distribution of BrdU+ cells among the cell cycle phases (i.e. G1/G0, S, and G2/M) consistent with mitotic dyssynchrony. Intermittent exposures of the asthmatic epithelia to DEX improved cell cycle synchrony as shown by normalization of the percentage of mitotic cells in each cell cycle phase. [0017] FIG. 4 are images and a chart that show that regeneration of asthmatic human airway epithelia is impaired. A) Shown are contrast-enhanced bright-field microscopy (16×) images of scrape-wounded primary differentiated human airway epithelia at wounding (i.e. Oh) and +48 h from representative normal and asthmatic donors. Normal epithelial wounds showed complete healing in all conditions (i.e. 20 nM DEX or VEH) by +48 h. Similarly cultured asthmatic epithelia showed thinly repaired wounds at +48 h regardless of DEX exposure. [N.B. The wounds are pale appearing X-shaped regions. Thick appearing dark areas (arrows) are heaped up areas of epithelium resulting from the scraping process. B) Percent wound area reduction over 48 h according to culture condition and DEX exposure. Wound area was measured in triplicate by a single operator blinded to the culture conditions using ImageJ Software. [0018] FIG. 5 are charts that show the proposed model for glucocorticoid efficacy in asthma. Tobacco smoke and viruses are among many agents known to induce apoptosis in airway epithelium, prompting regenerative processes. A) Untreated asthmatic airway epithelium is characterized by dyssynchronous regeneration that ineffectively repairs apoptotic regions of epithelium. The concomitant basolateral inflammatory cytokine secretion (e.g. increased IL-1β and TGF-β1, variable IL-10) would lead to pathological immune cell recruitment/activation as well as fibroblast and smooth muscle cell proliferation. B) In our proposed model for glucocorticoid efficacy in asthma, intermittent glucocorticoid dosing simultaneously mediates anti-inflammation in injured asthmatic epithelium and increases the ability of asthmatic epithelium to synchronize its mitosis. This leads to more effective regeneration of injured regions. [0019] FIG. 6 is a chart that shows that asthmatic epithelial mitosis is dyssynchronous and is improved by both dexamethasone (DEX) and simvastatin (SIM). Cell cycle analysis was performed by flow cytometry of regenerating (i.e. BrdU+) epithelial cells from wounded cultures. Compared to wounded normal epithelia, wounded asthmatic epithelia showed a more even distribution of BrdU+ cells among the cell cycle phases (i.e. G1/G0, S, and G2/M) consistent with mitotic dyssynchrony. Exposure of the asthmatic epithelia to DEX and SIM improved cell cycle synchrony as shown by normalization of the percentage of mitotic cells in each cell cycle phase. [0020] FIG. 7 is a chart that shows that SIM and DEX effectively reduce postwounding asthmatic epithelial basolateral inflammatory secretions. Levels of cytokines measured by cytometric bead assay are shown for basolateral secretions from asthmatic and normal in vitro airway epithelia at 0, +24, and +48 hours. Data are shown as mean±SEM in pg/mL. *p<0.05 vs. VEH [0021] FIG. 8 is a chart that shows that asthmatic epithelial apical secretions are no more inflammatory than normals after wounding. Levels of specific cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-13, and TGF-β1) measured by cytometric bead assay are shown for apical epithelial secretions from asthmatic and normal epithelia at 0, +24, and +48 h. Apical asthmatic epithelial cytokine secretion was not statistically significantly different from normal epithelial apical secretion. DEX-exposure decreased secretion of IL-13 in both normal and asthmatic epithelia. Levels of other measured cytokines were unchanged on DEX-exposure, except IL-1β which differed between DEX-exposed asthmatic and normal epithelia. This difference appeared only at +24 h. Data are shown as mean±SEM. Only significant (<0.05) P-values are shown for between-group comparisons (i.e. asthma versus normal) by repeated measures general linear. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0022] The present inventors have discovered that mitotically active asthmatic airway epithelium is asynchronous when compared to normal cells (non-asthmatic). Additionally, when those asthmatic cells are treated with a composition capable of pausing cell cycle, such as dexamethasone, the asthmatic cells become more synchronous. [0023] Methods of the present invention depend on the measure of cellular synchrony. “Synchronous,” or variations thereof, as used herein, refers to a population of cells where the cells are in the same phase of the mitotic cell cycle. Conversely, “asynchronous” or “dyssynchonous” or variations thereof, as used herein refers to a population of cells where the cells are in different phases of the mitotic cell cycle. Thus, a population of cells is 60 percent synchronous when 60 percent of the cells are in the same phase of the cell cycle. That same population can also be described as 40 percent asynchronous. Cellular synchrony can be determined using methods well-known in the art as cell cycle analysis. Flow cytometers are often used for cell cycle analysis. In this measurement, the relative fraction of sample cells in the G1/G0, S, G2, or M phase of the cell cycle can be determined by staining them with a DNA-specific dye and passing them through the excitation volume of a flow cytometer. The size and amount of DNA in the nucleus of a given particle is dependent on its cell cycle stage and, hence, the pulses produced by particles in different stages have different shapes. Pulses may be analyzed according to their amplitude, area, and width using well-known techniques as described in Wersto et al. (Cytometry 46:296-306 (2001)), which is incorporated herein by reference. Alternative techniques for pulse shape analysis are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,021,117 and 3,938,038, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0063602, which are incorporated herein by reference. [0024] Alternatively, cell cycle analysis can be carried out using a BrdU label. That method includes: causing a BrdU to be taken into a cell for a given period; and subsequently, carrying out immunohistochemistry by using an anti-BrdU antibody. Another method for cell cycle analysis is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0100977, which is incorporated herein by reference. Use of Airway Epithelium Synchrony as Diagnostics [0025] As described herein, cellular synchrony of airway epithelia may be used as diagnostic markers for the detection, diagnosis, or prognosis of asthma. For instance, an airway epithelium sample from a patient may be assayed by any of the methods described herein, or by any other method known to those skilled in the art, for cell cycle synchrony. Asynchronous airway epithelium indicates asthmatic conditions or increased likelihood of asthma in the patient. Generally, less than about 70 percent, preferably 65 percent, more preferably 60 percent of cells in the same phase of the cell cycle indicates asynchrony and indicates an increase susceptibility to asthma. [0026] Alternatively, the synchrony of the sample can be compared to that of a control (non-asthmatic cells). If the synchrony of the sample is less than that of the control, then asthma can be diagnosed. The diagnosis can be made by looking at airway epithelium synchrony alone or in conjunction with the other diagnostic methods known in the art, such as medical history, family history, symptoms, spirometry, methacoline challenge test, exhaled nitric oxide test, etc. Use of Airway Epithelium Synchrony for Drug Screening [0027] According to the present invention, airway epithelium synchrony may be used as markers to evaluate the effects of a candidate drug or agent on treating asthmatic patients. [0028] A patient suffering from asthma is treated with a drug candidate and the progression of the disease is monitored over time by looking at his/her airway epithelium synchrony. This method comprises treating the patient with a drug candidate, periodically obtaining airway epithelium samples from the patient, determining the cellular synchrony of the samples, and comparing the synchrony over time to determine the effect of the agent on the progression of asthma. The drug candidate can be considered effective in treating asthma, if it improves cell synchrony in the patient. [0029] Alternatively, the screening of the drug candidate can be accomplished ex vivo by using an asthmatic airway epithelia cell suspension or cell culture. Here, the cells are induced to undergo mitosis. The drug candidate is then brought into contact with the cells for a predetermined time period, preferably for less than about 4 hours, more preferably less than about 2 hours, and most preferably less than about 1 hour. More preferably, the drug candidate is administered to the cells for two periods, once within a 24 hour cycle. For example, the cells can be brought in contact with the drug candidate for 4 hours our of each 24 hour period for two periods. After that contact time, the synchrony of the cells is determined. This is then compared with a control cell population that has not been in contact with the drug candidate. If the drug candidate is able to synchronize the cells, when compared to the control, then it is a viable candidate for further testing as a drug to treat asthma. [0030] The candidate drugs or agents of the present invention can be, but are not limited to, proteins, peptides, small molecules, vitamin derivatives, as well as carbohydrates. In addition to the proteins, DNA encoding these proteins, antibodies to these proteins, peptide fragments of these proteins or mimics of these proteins may be introduced into the patient as candidate agents. “Mimic” as used herein refers to the modification of a region or several regions of a peptide molecule to provide a structure chemically different from the parent peptide but topographically and functionally similar to the parent peptide. A skilled artisan can readily recognize that there is no limit as to the structural nature of the candidate drugs or agents of the present invention. Use of Airway Epithelium Synchrony for Monitoring Disease Progression [0031] Airway epithelium synchrony can also be used to monitor progression of asthma in a patient, for instance, the development of asthma. For instance, a sample from a patient may be assayed by any of the methods described herein, and the cell synchrony may be compared to the levels found in non-astmatic individuals. The airway epithelium synchrony can be monitored over time to track progression of asthma in the patient. The present methods are especially useful in monitoring disease progression because the degree of asynchonicity is proportional to the severity of asthma. Comparison of the cell synchrony may be done by researcher or diagnostician or may be done with the aid of a computer and databases. Treatment of Asthma by Affecting Cell Synchrony [0032] In an embodiment, the present invention provides methods for synchronizing airway epithelia by contacting the airway epithelia with a compound or drug capable of pausing mitosis (and thereby synchronizing the epithelia). The contact of the compound or drug with the epithelia takes place over a relatively short period of time, preferably about 4 hours, more preferably about 2 hours or less, most preferably about 1 hour or less. That short contact period is sufficient to synchronize the cells. As a consequence of cellular synchronization, the airway epithelia reduces inflammatory cytokine secretion. [0033] Cell synchrony can be used as a target for asthma treatment. Compounds or drugs that are capable of synchronizing airway epithelium can be administered to an asthmatic patient to treat, alleviate, or ameliorate symptoms of asthma. Preferably, the drug pauses mitosis in a particular phase so that the cells can be synchronized. The composition needs to stop mitosis only briefly to let the cells catch up to the particular phase of mitosis. Once the cells are in phase, the effect of the drug is no longer needed. Thus, the advantage of targeting cell synchrony, rather than inflammation, is that the drug can be used at a much lower dose because of the short time frame required to synchronize the cells. Accordingly, the dosage used is half, preferably ⅓, more preferably ¼ of the normal recommended dosage of that particular drug, which results in lower possible side and adverse effects associated with the particular drug. Alternatively, the compound or drug can be administered or compounded so that the area under the blood concentration vs. time curve (AUC) is lower than for the recommended dosage for the particular drug. Either way, the shorter exposure to the drug results in lower side effects while maintaining effectiveness. [0034] The compounds or drugs appropriate to synchronize airway epithelia and to treat asthma include glucocorticoids, statins, azoles, and antineoplastic agents. Examples of glucocorticoids include hydrocortisone, cortisone acetate, prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone, dexamethasone, betamethasone, triamcinolone, beclometasone, fludrocortisone acetate, deoxycorticosterone acetate, and aldosterone. Examples of statins include atorvastatin, cerivastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin, mevastatin, pitavastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin. Examples of azoles include clotrimazole, posaconazole, ravuconazole, econazole, ketoconazole, voriconazole, fluconazole, itraconazole, and carbimazole. Examples of antineoplastics include actinomycins such as dactinomycin; anthracyclines such as, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, valrubicin, idarubicin, and epirubicin; and certain antibiotics such as bleomycin, plicamycin, and mitomycin. One particular class of molecules is the compound disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0087408, which is incorporated herein by reference. [0035] The terms “preventing” or “treating” or “ameliorating” and similar terms used herein, include prophylaxis and full or partial treatment. The terms may also include reducing symptoms, ameliorating symptoms, reducing the severity of symptoms, reducing the incidence of the disease, or any other change in the condition of the patient, which improves the therapeutic outcome. [0036] The administration of the drug can be through any known and acceptable route. Such routes include, but are not necessarily limited to, oral, via a mucosal membrane (e.g., nasally, via inhalation, rectally, intrauterally or intravaginally, sublingually), intravenously (e.g., intravenous bolus injection, intravenous infusion), intraperitoneally, and subcutaneously. Administering can likewise be by direct injection to a site (e.g., organ, tissue) containing a target cell (i.e., a cell to be treated). Furthermore, administering can follow any number of regimens. It thus can comprise a single dose or dosing of the drug, or multiple doses or dosings over a period of time. Accordingly, treatment can comprise repeating the administering step one or more times until a desired result is achieved. In embodiments, treating can continue for extended periods of time, such as weeks, months, or years. Those of skill in the art are fully capable of easily developing suitable dosing regimens for individuals based on known parameters in the art. The methods thus also contemplate controlling, but not necessarily eliminating, asthma. The preferred route of administration in accordance with the present invention is via inhalation. [0037] The amount to be administered varies depending on the subject, stage of the disease, age of the subject, general health of the subject, and various other parameters known and routinely taken into consideration by those of skill in the medical arts. As a general matter, a sufficient amount of the drug will be administered in order to make a detectable change in the symptom of asthma. Suitable amounts are disclosed herein, and additional suitable amounts can be identified by those of skill in the art without undue or excessive experimentation. The dosage used in accordance with the present invention is lower than the usual recommended dosage for the particular drug as noted in the package insert, prescribing information, or the Physician's Handbook. For the present invention, the dosage used is half, preferably ⅓, more preferably ¼ of the normal recommended dosage of that particular drug. Alternatively, the drug can be administered so that the AUC is lower than for the recommended dosage. [0038] The drug is administered in a form that is acceptable, tolerable, and effective for the subject. Numerous pharmaceutical forms and formulations for biologically active agents are known in the art, and any and all of these are contemplated by the present invention. Thus, for example, the drug can be formulated in oral solution, a caplet, a capsule, an injectable, an infusible, a suppository, a lozenge, a tablet, a cream or salve, an inhalant, and the like. It should be evident that the preferred dosage form provides for efficient contact of the drug with the airway epithelia to effect synchronization of those cells. [0039] Without further description, it is believed that one of ordinary skill in the art can, using the preceding description and the following illustrative examples, make and use the present invention and practice the claimed methods. The following examples are given to illustrate the present invention. It should be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific conditions or details described in the examples. Example 1 [0040] We proposed a model placing airway epithelium at the center of a network of interacting inflammatory mediators Our model predicts that asthmatic inflammation is driven by intrinsic inflammatory, fibrogenic, and regenerative characteristics of epithelium that are rescued by glucocorticoids. [0041] We present herewith data that support this proposed model. We utilized a well-established in vitro system wherein human primary airway epithelial cells, lacking inflammatory cells, from normal and asthmatic individuals are differentiated at an air-liquid interface to morphologically mimic conducting airway epithelium. Our experiments showed that when induced to regenerate, asthmatic epithelium is intrinsically inflammatory, fibrogenic, and mitotically dyssynchronous. Furthermore, intermittent glucocorticoid exposures simultaneously reduced asthmatic inflammation and resynchronized epithelial mitotic regeneration. Materials and Methods Cell Culture and Intermittent Glucocorticoid Exposures [0042] Normal (n=3) and asthmatic (n=6) primary differentiated human airway (i.e. bronchial) epithelia grown in 12-well plates on collagen-coated Transwell membrane inserts at an air-liquid interface were obtained commercially (#AIR-606 and #AIR-606-Asthma; MatTek Corporation, Ashland, Mass.). Donors underwent bronchoscopic brushing to acquire epithelial cells. Descriptive donor information provided by MatTek Corporation for the individuals from whom cells were obtained is shown in Table 1. [0000] TABLE 1 Description of human bronchial epithelial cell donors* Donor Age (Years) Gender Race Smoking Medications Asthmatic  7 Female Caucasian No Albuterol  9 Female African No Albuterol, American Fluticasone, Salmeterol 27 Female African No Unknown American 43 Female African No Oral and American inhaled steroids 45 Female Caucasian Yes Albuterol, Fluticasone, Salmeterol 46 Female Caucasian Yes None Normal  5 Female Caucasian No None 13 Male Caucasian No None 33 Female Caucasian No None *Provided by MatTek, Inc. [0043] On arrival, the in vitro epithelia were washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and the basal medium was replaced with proprietary defined medium supplied by the manufacturer. Cells were equilibrated at 37° C. and 5% CO 2 for 16 h followed by medium replacement with identical proprietary medium lacking glucocorticoids and epidermal growth factor (EGF). This condition was maintained for an additional 22 h. Upon completion (i.e. −26 h on the experimental timeline shown in FIG. 1 , intermittent glucocorticoid exposures began: Dexamethasone (DEX) (20 nM) or PBS vehicle (VEH) was added to the apical and basolateral epithelial surfaces for 2 h. At −24 h, the medium was replaced with glucocorticoid- and EGF-free medium. This two-hour DEX/VEH pulse was repeated every 24 h (i.e. at −2, +22, and +46 h) thereafter until cell harvest at +48 h. Mechanical Injury Model [0044] An in vitro epithelial injury model that allows for the study of epithelial repair processes in the lung was adapted for use in this study. Briefly, at Oh on the timeline in FIG. 1 , epithelia were scraped in two perpendicular lines with a p1000 pipette tip and placed in bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-containing (10 μM) medium. BrdU-containing medium was changed at +24 h following the DEX/VEH pulse mentioned previously. Epithelia were incubated at 37° C. and 5% CO 2 until +48 h. In some experiments, wounds were imaged daily (i.e. 0, +24, +48 h) using a 16× phase contrast objective lens and wound area was measured in triplicate by a single operator blinded to the culture conditions using ImageJ Software (Rasband. ImageJ. Bethesda, Md., USA: U.S. National Institutes of Health; 1997-2009). Contrast was enhanced equally in all images to improve wound visualization. [0045] Although the cultures were kept at an air-liquid interface, depending on interval culture time they generated up to 0.5 mL of apical secretions (including fluid used to wash the apical surface). These apical secretions and all basolateral media (−1 mL) were collected at all time points and frozen prior to analysis. No medium was added to the apical surface of the cultures to maintain them at an air-liquid interface. Analysis of Inflammatory Mediator S [0046] Inflammatory (i.e. interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-13) and fibrogenic (i.e. transforming growth factor [TGF]-(31) cytokines were measured in apical and basolateral secretions at 0, +24, and +48 h by flow cytometry on a FACSCalibur™ System (BD Biosciences, San Jose, Calif.) using a FlowCytomix Multiplex Kit with FlowCytomix Pro 2.3 software (Bender MedSystems, Burlingame, Calif.). These cytokines were selected as an initial screening set for these experiments because of their prominent role in asthmatic inflammation and/or remodeling Cell Cycle Analysis [0047] Epithelia were washed once with PBS and harvested at +48 h ( FIG. 1 ) for analysis by flow cytometry. A single cell suspension was achieved by exposure for 5 minutes with trypsin-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) solution (#T3924; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.) followed by filtration through a 40 μm strainer. Cells were simultaneously labeled with the following according to the manufacturers' protocols: 1) Carboxyfluorescein FLICA Apoptosis Poly-Caspase Detection Kit (Immunochemistry Technologies, LLC, Bloomington, Minn.) and 2) APC BrdU Flow Kit containing 7-AAD (amino-actinomycin-D) (BD Biosciences, San Jose, Calif.). Flow cytometry data were generated on a FACSCalibur™ System (BD Biosciences). Samples were gated to study 7-AAD content in BrdU + FLICA − cells. Data were analyzed by means of the cell cycle analysis feature of FlowJo 7.6 (Tree Star, Inc., Ashland, Oreg.) using a Watson (Pragmatic) model with equal coefficients of variation for the G1/G0 and G2/M peaks Statistical Analysis [0048] Statistical comparisons were performed in SPSS 17.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill.) using T-test functions within time points. Results are reported as mean±SEM unless otherwise noted. Results Injured Asthmatic Epithelium is Inflammatory and Fibrogenic [0049] Flow cytometric bead assays were used to quantify a select screening group of inflammatory (i.e. IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-13) and fibrogenic (i.e. TGF-β1) cytokines in apical and basolateral secretions from asthmatic and normal epithelia at 0, +24, and +48 h post-wounding. Normal and asthmatic epithelia at time 0 h (i.e. before wounding) exhibited statistically similar levels of the cytokines investigated except for higher basolateral secretion of IL-10. However, asthmatic epithelia basolaterally secreted significantly higher levels of four of the five cytokines during wound healing ( FIG. 2 ). In particular, there was a significant between-group (i.e. asthma>normal) difference for secretion of TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-13, and IL-1β (all P<0.05) for at least one time point during wound healing ( FIG. 2 ). IL-6 was the only cytokine for which basolateral secretion was not significantly different between asthmatic and normal epithelia. With DEX pulses, asthmatic TGF-β1 and IL-13 basolateral secretion were significantly reduced. Although generally higher than in basolateral secretions, cytokine levels in apical secretions were not different between wounded untreated asthmatic and normal epithelia, except that IL-1β levels were significantly increased at 24 h in asthmatic secretions ( FIG. 8 ). Asthmatic Epithelial Cell Mitosis is Slow and Dyssynchronous [0050] Epithelia were harvested into single cell suspensions at +48 h for flow cytometry. Non-wounded asthmatic and normal epithelia showed similar minimal background levels of BrdU + cells, an indicator of mitosis ( FIG. 3A ). Due to the lack of mitotic cells, no cell cycle analysis was performed on samples from this condition. [0051] Wounded asthmatic epithelia showed 40% fewer BrdU + cells than wounded normal epithelia (mean±SEM: 0.32±0.05% vs. 0.56±0.07% of total cells; P=0.03). Exposure of normal cells to pulses of DEX did not significantly alter the quantity of BrdU + cells in normal epithelia, whereas the quantity of asthmatic epithelial mitosis approximated normal levels with DEX pulses (0.55±0.13%; P=0.19 vs. wounded untreated asthmatic cells) ( FIG. 3A ). In order to evaluate normal and asthmatic epithelial mitosis during wound repair, flow cytometric cell cycle analysis for DNA content (i.e. 7-AAD) was performed by gating on BrdU + cells with no detectable caspase activation (i.e. apoptosis) ( FIG. 3B ). Notably, caspase + (i.e. apoptotic) cells were rare in all conditions. Cells in active mitosis were presumed to be regenerating the scrape wound because of the extremely low rate of background mitosis in non-wounded cultures. As shown in FIG. 3C , normal epithelial mitosis was fairly synchronous (e.g. >70% of cells in G1/G0) in the absence and presence of pulse DEX. Conversely, mitotically-active asthmatic epithelial cells exhibited a dyssynchronous distribution among the cell cycle phases (i.e. G1/G0, S, G2/M) (53±5, 21±3, 26±4%) compared to normal epithelia (71±1, 12±2, 17±2%). DEX-pulsed asthmatic cells showed similarly synchronous mitotic activity to normal cells. Normal and Asthmatic Epithelia Exhibit Differential Wound Healing [0052] Wounded normal and asthmatic epithelia were imaged by bright field microscopy daily at 0, +24, and +48 h using a 16× phase contrast objective lens. As illustrated in FIG. 4A , normal epithelial wounds showed visible healing regardless of DEX pulse. Alternatively, the asthmatic scars appeared relatively thin and were still visible at +48 h regardless of DEX pulses. This was evaluated quantitatively by measurement of the wound area. Normal wound area decreased from 0 to +48 h by 78.6±7.7% with vehicle alone and 86.8±5.4% with DEX pulses. However, in the absence of DEX, asthmatic epithelial wound area decreased by significantly less (50.2±7.5%; P=0.02) than normals. With DEX pulses, asthmatic wound narrowing improved significantly (75.7±9%; P=0.04) ( FIG. 4B ). Discussion [0053] We studied cultures of human primary differentiated asthmatic and normal airway epithelia cultured at an air-liquid interface. As in a recent study (Parker et al., Pediatr Res 67:17-22), we found that confluent, quiescent normal and asthmatic epithelial cultures were similar with minimal secretion of cytokines and mitotic activity as evidenced by BrdU labeling. However, upon mechanical wounding, asthmatic and normal epithelia exhibited different responses. The asthmatic epithelial cultures showed increased basolateral secretion of inflammatory/fibrogenic cytokines (as exemplified by TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-13, and IL-1β) and showed slow, poorly synchronized mitosis relative to normal controls. This predictably was associated with the poor wound repair observed for asthmatic epithelia. Those markers of inflammation and dyssynchronous regeneration were attenuated by intermittent glucocorticoid-pulses. These results support our proposed model that predicts asthmatic inflammation is driven by intrinsic inflammatory, fibrogenic, and regenerative characteristics of airway epithelium that are rescued by glucocorticoids. [0054] Cytokine (i.e. TGF-β1, IL-10, IL-13, and IL-1β) secretion in our experiments in response to epithelial injury is important given accumulating evidence for airway epithelium-induced inflammatory cell recruitment (Cheng et al., J Immunol 2007, 178:6504-6513; Hammad et al., Nat Rev Immunol 2008, 8:193-204), and proliferation of fibroblasts (Perng et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2006, 34:101-107; Hostettler et al., Clinical & Experimental Allergy 2008, 38:1309-1317; Royce et al., Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology 2009, 102:238-246) and smooth muscle (Malavia et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2009, 41:297-304). In particular, basolateral secretion of TGF-β1, which was increased in asthmatic epithelia in our experiments, is one of the key mediators of fibroblast and smooth muscle proliferation (Makinde et al., Immunol Cell Biol 2007, 85:348-356) and is a central component of our previously published airway epithelial stress response gene/protein network (Freishtat et al., J Investig Med 2009). Further, IL-1β activates many inflammatory genes in asthma (Rosenwasser, J Allergy Clin Immunol 1998, 102:344-350) and IL-13 is a critical mediator of the classical Th2 asthmatic inflammation (Walter et al., J Immunol 2001, 167:4668-4675; Wills-Karp, Respiratory Research 2000, 1:19-23). Conversely, IL-10 is a potent immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine that suppresses eosinophils (Takanaski et al., J Exp Med 1994; 180:711-715), decreases airway hyperresponsiveness (Makela et al., PNAS 2000, 97:6007-6012; Justice et al., Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2001, 280:L363-368), and is increased during acute viral exacerbations of asthma (Grissell et al., Am J Respir Crit. Care Med 2005; 172:433-439). The elevated basolateral secretion of IL-10 from asthmatic epithelium at all time points suggests a constitutive epithelial counter-regulation of inflammation in vitro. This runs counter to reports of decreased IL-10 in BAL fluid from individuals with asthma (Borish et al., The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology 1996, 97:1288-1296; Message et al., PNAS 2008, 105:13562-13567). However, this difference may be accounted for by BAL fluid cytokines reflecting both apical epithelial and inflammatory cell secretions. [0055] In addition to inflammation, epithelial regeneration is of particular importance in asthma due to the fact that many typical asthma triggers, including tobacco smoke and viruses, are known to induce apoptotic injury in airway epithelium (Tesfaigzi et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2006, 34:537-547). Epithelial stress/injury, independent of inflammation, has been observed in moderate and severe childhood asthma (Fedorov et al., Thorax 2005, 60:389-394). In fact, airway epithelial injury, in the forms of physical damage to the columnar cell layer and apoptosis (Cohen et al., Am J Respir Crit. Care Med 2007, 176:138-145; Bucchieri et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2002, 27:179-185), is a hallmark of asthma (Holgate, Allergol Int 2008, 57:1-10). Puchelle and colleagues have shown that regeneration of normal human airway epithelium in response to injury includes three stages: cell spreading/migration, proliferation, and differentiation (Zahm et al., Cell Motil Cytoskeleton 1997, 37:33-43; Puchelle et al., Proc Am Thorac Soc 2006, 3:726-733). Using a similar in vitro mechanical injury model to the one used in our study, Wadsworth et al showed that normal human differentiated airway epithelial wounds closed over the initial 16 to 24 h. This primarily reflected cell migration mediated by autocrine EGF secretion that subsequently led to mitosis of epithelial cells within the wound (Wadsworth et al., J Clin Immunol 2006; 26:376-387). Our results for normal epithelium wound repair were temporally similar to those described by Wadsworth et al. However, the thinly repaired wounds in asthmatic cultures observed in our study are consistent with effective migration without effective regeneration. [0056] The simultaneous resolution of inflammation and resynchronization of epithelial mitotic regeneration on exposure to intermittent glucocorticoids following in vitro injury addresses an important inconsistency in asthma. That is, despite well-demonstrated anti-inflammatory efficacy, inhaled glucocorticoids have not been shown to improve long-term pathologic airway remodeling. The classic model is that asthmatic inflammation leads to long-term pathological lung function decline (i.e. remodeling). However, this is not supported by several trials that have shown inhaled glucocorticoids improve lung function in the short-term but regresses toward the placebo group over the course of several years (Guilbert et al., N Engl J Med 2006, 354:1985-1997; The Childhood Asthma Management Program Research Group, N Engl J Med 2000, 343:1054-1063; Murray et al., Lancet 2006; 368:754-762). Recently, this was confirmed by a large trial comparing inhaled budesonide to placebo in children and adults with recent-onset mild persistent asthma. In this study, the initial pre- and post-bronchodilator differences in fraction of expired volume in 1 second (FEV 1 ) between the treatment and placebo groups disappeared by the fourth year of the study (Busse et al., J Allergy Clin Immunol 2008, 121:1167-1174). Further, asthmatic bronchial biopsy reticular layer thickness does not decrease with inhaled glucocorticoid treatment unless given at relatively high doses (Sont et al., Am J Respir Crit. Care Med 1999, 159:1043-1051). These patients were only studied for 2 years so any sustained long-term effect of relatively high dose glucocorticoids remains unclear. Therefore, our data address this inconsistency in asthma by supporting our proposed alternative model of glucocorticoid efficacy in asthma shown in FIG. 5 . Therein, direct anti-inflammatory effects of intermittent glucocorticoid dosing are accompanied by simultaneous resynchronization of epithelial mitosis thereby reducing pathological lung remodeling in asthma. [0057] Pulsatile secretion of endogenous adrenal glucocorticoids (i.e. cortisol in humans) can reset an organism's internal and peripheral circadian clocks (Knutsson et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1997, 82:536-540), and this has been shown to occur in the bronchiolar epithelium where it is mediated by Clara cells (Gibbs et al., Endocrinology 2009, 150:268-276). The result of this is synchronous progression of a tissue's cells through normal regeneration/mitosis. The intermittent glucocorticoid exposure scheme used in our experiments was a gross reflection of a circadian peak in circulating endogenous glucocorticoid levels. Although crude by comparison to in vivo glucocorticoid circadian fluctuations, a 2 hour pulse glucocorticoid exposure is sufficient to induce precursors to the inhibition of mitosis, including cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p57 kip2 (Puddicombe et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2003, 28:61-68) and clock gene Per1 (Balsalobre et al., Science 2000, 289:2344-2347). [0058] In summary, these data, generated in an airway model lacking inflammatory cells, support the concept that asthmatic epithelium is intrinsically inflammatory, fibrogenic and mitotically dyssynchronous. These results support our previously proposed model predicting asthmatic inflammation is driven by intrinsic inflammatory, fibrogenic, and regenerative characteristics of epithelium that are rescued by glucocorticoids (Freishtat et al., Journal of Investigative Medicine 2010, 58:19-22). If extended by further studies, anti-inflammatory treatment of asthma with glucocorticoids may best be redirected to target pathological lung remodeling directly. Example 2 [0059] Fundamental questions persist about the pathobiology underlying asthma. A prime example of this is the paradigm on which the standard of care for asthma, anti-inflammationwith glucocorticoids, is based: chronic asthmatic inflammation is the upstream impetus for long-term airway remodeling (e.g. goblet cell hyperplasia, lung function decline, basement membrane thickening). However, this model is called into question by the persistence of airway remodeling despite effective anti-inflammation with glucocorticoids. To address this inconsistency, we proposed that the principal target of current asthma treatment regimens, inflammation, is actually downstream of the causal biological defect, remodeling ( FIG. 5 ). We showed in Example 1 above that human primary differentiated asthmatic airway epithelial inflammatory cytokine secretions correlate with dyssynchronous mitosis upon in vitro mechanical injury. We show in this example that improving asthmatic airway epithelial cell mitotic cell cycle synchrony reduces inflammatory cytokine secretion. Materials and Methods [0060] Human fully-differentiated (air-liquid interface) normal (n=3) and asthmatic (n=3) primary airway epithelia, lacking inflammatory cells, were cultured in glucocorticoid-free medium beginning at −48 h. The cells were pulsed with mitotic cell cycle synchrony-inducing (i.e. dexamethasone, simvastatin) compounds or vehicle for 2 h at −26, −2, +22, and +46 h. Cultures were mechanically scrape-wounded at Oh and thereafter exposed continuously to bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to identify mitotically active cells. The time line for the experiment is shown in FIG. 1 . Results [0061] The results confirmed our previous findings, discussed in Example 1, that asthmatic epithelia secreted more basolateral cytokines and regenerated less efficiently than normals following wounding ( FIG. 6 ). Asthmatic epithelia were dyssynchronously distributed along the cell cycle (G1/G0, S, G2/M: 52±10, 25±4, 23±7%) compared to normal epithelia (71±1, 12±2, 17±2%) ( FIG. 6 ). Dexamethasone pulses improved mitotic cell cycle synchrony (72±5, 8±2, 20±4%) ( FIG. 6 ) while reducing asthmatic epithelial inflammatory cytokine secretion ( FIG. 7 ). Similarly, simvastatin improved asthmatic epithelial mitotic cell cycle synchrony (75±6, 11±4, 14±3%) ( FIG. 6 ) and reduced basolateral TGFB1, IL-6, and IL-13 secretion (0.01<P<0.04) ( FIG. 7 ). [0062] Although certain presently preferred embodiments of the invention have been specifically described herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains that variations and modifications of the various embodiments shown and described herein may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the invention be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the applicable rules of law.

The present invention relates to asthma. Particularly, the present invention relates to clinical screening, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and prophylaxis, as well as for drug screening and drug development for the treatment of asthma. The present invention relates to a new paradigm in diagnosing, screening, and treating asthma by affecting airway epithelial synchronization.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to selective crystallization of the desired salt of an α-aryl carboxylic acid from a mixture containing an α-aryl carboxylic acid and a suitable amino acid. By appropriate choice of the amounts of reactants, the process enables selective crystallization of the desired diastereomer salt. Repetition of this process affords high yields of the desired salt in good enantiomeric excess, which may then be optionally acidified to afford optically active α-aryl carboxylic acid. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION α-Aryl carboxylic acids are well known non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAI) drugs. An example is ibuprofen (Formula 1) which is typically a racemic mixture of the S(+)- and R(-)-enantiomers. ##STR1## Studies have indicated that the S(+)-isomer is more pharmacologically active than the R(-)-isomer, see, for Example, A. Avgerinos et al, Chirality, Vol. 2, 249 (1990). Attempts have been made recently to isolate the S(+)-isomer from the racemic mixture. U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,764 (assignee: Ethyl Corp.) discloses a process whereby the triethylamine salt of racemic ibuprofen is treated with chiral α-methylbenzylamine (MBA). The MBA salt of one isomer of ibuprofen separates as crystals and is filtered off. The triethylamine salt of the other isomer is isolated from the filtrates, and is separately racemized, which is then treated again as described above. U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,604 (assignee: Merck & Co.) teaches S-lysine for the resolution of racemic ibuprofen. Racemic ibuprofen and S-lysine are combined in equimolar quantities in a solvent system, such as ethanol:water, so that the solution is supersaturated in both R, S and S, S salts. The solution is first aged at around 30° C., and then seeded at around 25° C. with a fairly large amount of S-ibuprofen-S-lysinate. This allows the S-ibuprofen-S-lysinate from the racemate mixture to crystallize out. The mother liquor, after filtration, is seeded again to precipitate additional S-salt. Repetition of this process gives the S-ibuprofen-S-lysinate as crystals, and leaves the R-salt in the solution, thus allowing a recovery of 50% of the original amount of the racemic ibuprofen as S-ibuprofen lysinate salt. Other methods such as enzymatic resolution and chromatography have also been suggested for resolution. The disadvantage with such processes is that they are time-consuming, and the yields are low. While resolution of racemic mixtures is known, generally such processes lead to yields of a maximum 50% of one isomer, and 50% of the other isomer. In order to get higher yields of one isomer, the other isomer, after isolation, must be separately racemized to eventually isolate more of the desired isomer. Such processes generally employ conditions that are so different from the resolution step that the two are incompatible for efficient recycle. Because optically active α-aryl carboxylic acids and their salts have greater commercial value than racemic acids and their salts, there is a growing interest in finding improved methods to selectively crystallize such salts from solutions containing the racemic acid and a chiral amine. SUMMARY OF INVENTION The inventive process includes selectively crystallizing a salt of optically active α-aryl carboxylic acid in more than 50% yields with recycle and in high enantiomeric excess from a solution typically containing the racemic form of the same acid and a suitable optically active amino acid. Suitable amino acids include optically active lysine, arginine, histidine. The α-aryl carboxylic acid is of the formula Ar(R)CHCO 2 H, wherein R is selected from the group consisting of C 1 -C 8 alkyl and C 1 -C 8 substituted alkyl, and Ar is selected from the group consisting of phenyl, substituted phenyl, 2-naphthyl, substituted 2-naphthyl, 2-fluorenyl, and substituted 2-fluorenyl. The inventive process includes (a) forming a solution of a mixture of enantiomers of α-aryl carboxylic acid in a suitable solvent; (b) adding a suitable optically active amino acid such that the amount of said amino acid is not more than about a molar equivalent of the desired enantiomer in said racemic acid; (c) optionally seeding the above mixture with pure crystals of the salt of said α-aryl carboxylic acid and said amino acid and letting it to form crystals of the desired salt typically at a temperature range of about -10° C. to 10 ° C. over a period of about 0.25-8 hours; (d) separating the crystals of the desired salt enriched in one enantiomer of said acid; (e) substantially evaporating the solvent to isolate the other enantiomer of the α-aryl carboxylic acid; (f) racemizing said other enantiomer of step (e) to give racemic α-aryl carboxylic acid which is then recycled to step (a) of the next batch, thus ultimately converting all racemic α-aryl carboxylic acid into almost exclusively the salt of one enantiomer; and (g) optionally acidifying the salt of step (f) to liberate free optically active α-aryl carboxylic acid. The inventive process is described in detail below in connection with selective crystallization of the L-lysinate salt of S(+)-ibuprofen from typically racemic ibuprofen and L-lysine. [The term S-ibuprofen and S(+)-ibuprofen are hereinafter used interchangeably, as are the terms R-ibuprofen and R(-)-ibuprofen.] Although the instant invention is described herein as a process for resolving racemic ibuprofen, it is potentially useful to prepare optically active α-aryl carboxylic acids in general whether or not the initial acid feed is racemic. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The invention is described in detail below with reference to the various figures which are flow diagrams of procedures of the present invention as described in the examples which follow. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In one embodiment, the invention discloses a novel process to selectively crystallize salts of optically active ibuprofen from solutions containing racemic ibuprofen and an optically active amino acid which forms the salt with the desired enantiomer of ibuprofen. The process, unlike conventional resolution methods, yields, after recycle over several batches, the desired isomer in high yields with high enantiomeric excess, while using not more than about a molar equivalent of the amino acid based on the desired enantiomer of ibuprofen in any single batch. By way of the inventive process, the solution remains unsaturated with respect to the undesired diastereomer. Furthermore, after removing the desired isomer salt from the mix, the undesired isomer of ibuprofen present in the mother liquors is racemized, preferably without any added catalyst or solvent. Such racemization is environmentally desirable, and permits direct recycle of the undesired enantiomer thus ultimately resulting in virtually complete conversion of racemic ibuprofen feed to the salt of the desired enantiomer. The following description illustrates the isolation of the salt of S-ibuprofen. The process typically begins by forming the salt of racemic ibuprofen with an optically active amino acid such as, for example, L-lysine. The reaction is conducted in a solvent mixture of a suitable alcohol and water. Suitable alcohols are those that can dissolve the ibuprofen and are also miscible with water. Examples include, but are not limited to, methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, isopropanol, 1-butanol, 2-butanol, isobutyl alcohol, t-butyl alcohol, 1-pentanol, 2-pentanol, 3-pentanol, 2-methyl-l-butanol, 2-methyl-2-butanol, 3-methyl-2-butanol, 3-methyl-l-butanol, neopentyl alcohol, and the like, with ethanol and methanol being the preferred, and ethanol the most preferred. Generally the ibuprofen is dissolved in the alcohol to which the requisite amount of an aqueous solution of the amino acid, L-lysine, is added. The amount of water in the total mix ranges generally from 1 parts of water for 99 parts of the alcohol to 10 parts of water for 90 parts of the alcohol, typically from 2 parts of water for 98 parts of the alcohol to 7 parts of water for 93 parts of alcohol, and preferably from 3 parts of water for 97 parts of the alcohol to 5 parts of water for 95 parts of the alcohol. The amount of the amino acid in the mixture is not more than about a molar equivalent of the S(+)-ibuprofen in the racemic acid, typically about 0.6 to 1.0 molar equivalent, and preferably about 0.7-0.9 molar equivalent. The same ratios are preferable with respect to other α-aryl carboxylic acid/amino acid pairs. The concentration of dissolved solids in the alcohol-water mixture ranges from about 3 to about 30 weight %. The above mixture is then partially distilled with a suitable azeotroping agent to lower the water content of the mixture to about 0.5-7 wt %. Suitable water-immiscible azeotroping agents and organic solvents for this and other steps of the present process include, but are not limited to, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene, chlorobenzene, methyl t-butyl ether, ethyl t-butyl ether, ethyl n-butyl ether, di-n-propyl ether, diisopropyl ether, dibutyl ether, methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, propyl acetate, isopropyl acetate, butyl acetate, pentyl acetate, methyl propionate, ethyl propionate, propyl propionate, t-butyl propionate, linear, cyclic or branched pentanes, heptanes, hexanes, octanes, nonanes, and other C 4 -C 10 hydrocarbons, ether, and esters, and the like, with cyclohexane, heptane and cycloheptane being the preferred, with cyclohexane and heptane being the most preferred. The mixture is then cooled to about -10° C. to about 10° C, preferably at about -10° C. to about 5° C., and typically at about -5° C. to about 5° C., to start crystallization of S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate salt. The mixture may optionally be seeded with pure crystals of S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate to induce crystallization. Whether seeded or not, the solution is maintained at the above-described temperature for a period of about 0.25-8 hours. If seeding is desired, usually a small amount of seed, a few crystals, is sufficient. The separated first crop crystals of crude S-ibuprofen L-lysinate may be separated by processes such as filtration, centrifugation and the like. This first crop is highly enriched, generally to more than 90%, in the S-form of ibuprofen. The first crop crystals of crude S(+)-ibuprofen L-lysinate may be recrystallized as follows. The crystals are mixed with an alcohol-water mixture of the types described above, at about 40°-80° C. generally and about 50°-78° C. preferably, to form about a 3-30 wt % mixture. This mixture is then cooled to about -10° C. to about 10° C. for about 0.25-8 hours to crystallize pure S(+)-ibuprofen L-lysinate. The mixture may be optionally seeded with the crystals of S(+)-ibuprofen L-lysinate to induce crystallization, if seeding is desired. Enantiomeric purities of more than 99% in the S(+) form of ibuprofen may be obtained. The filtrates from the first crop filtration contain R-enriched ibuprofen, with small amounts of lysine as the lysinate salt of ibuprofen, and may be processed as follows. The filtrates may be concentrated azeotropically to reduce the water content of the filtrates to about 0.01-3 wt %. This may then be cooled to about 0°-35° C. to deposit a second crop of ibuprofen lysinate. Alternately, a nonsolvent such as, for example, hexane, may be added to the mixture to precipitate the second crop ibuprofen lysinate. This second crop ibuprofen lysinate salt which has an S/R enantiomeric ratio of about 20:80 may then be recycled to the next batch's first crop crystallization of crude S(+)-ibuprofen L-lysinate. The mother liquors after removing the second crop ibuprofen lysinate salt may be evaporated to leave behind a residue of substantially lysine-free R-enriched ibuprofen which is racemized as described below, and then recycled to first crop crystallization of crude S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate. Racemization of the R-enriched ibuprofen may be accomplished by several methods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,764 referred to above, describes racemization in the presence of triethylamine in octane for 18 hours, or in concentrated hydrochloric acid for 72 hours, or in refluxing isopropanol in the presence of NaOH for 16 hours. U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,997 describes racemization in refluxing isopropyl acetate in the presence of acetic anhydride and sodium acetate, or by heating ibuprofen acid chloride with sodium ibuprofenate. Ruchardt et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., Vol. 23, page 162 (1964) discloses racemization by refluxing in acetic anhydride and pyridine. While such methods can be used for racemization in the instant case, they, however, have several disadvantages. They generally consume reagents which produce by-products necessitating elaborate separation and waste disposal procedures. They also are carried out in solvents requiring procedures for separation and recovery. Some of the reagents and solvents are also toxic. It has been found, as an aspect of the present invention, that compositions which consist essentially of an optically active α-aryl carboxylic acid, free from solvents, catalysts, and the like, can be spontaneously racemized by heating under an inert atmosphere. The inert atmosphere may be provided by nitrogen, argon, and the like. The temperature of heating is generally in the range 100°-300° C., typically about 100°-250° C., and preferably about 200°-250° C. The duration of heating is usually about 1-10 hours generally, 2-8 hours typically, and 3-6 hours preferably. As used herein, the term "consisting essentially of" refers to a pure isomer or a mixture of isomers of the same α-aryl carboxylic acid, i.e. the R and S isomers, but specifically excludes other ingredients such as solvents, catalysts, and the like, that would alter the basic and novel characteristics of the invention. The racemization conditions depend on the thermal properties of the material, such as, for example, thermal decomposition characteristics. Such properties may be ascertained by analytical techniques known to those skilled in the art, such as thermal gravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and the like. The goal is to find conditions where thermal decomposition of the material during heating would be minimal. The progress and completion of the racemization may be ascertained by analytical techniques such as, for example, chiral High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (chiral HPLC). Heating R-ibuprofen or R-enriched ibuprofen under the above-described conditions effectively converts half of the optically active acid to its mirror image, thus producing the racemic modification as the product. Similar racemization may be performed on S-ibuprofen or S-enriched ibuprofen also. Racemic ibuprofen obtained from the racemization reaction above may be subjected to selective crystallization as described above to isolate more S-ibuprofen lysinate. Preferably, the racemic ibuprofen from the racemization reaction is vacuum distilled at about 150°-250° C. The distillation residue, with recycles fully implemented, weighs generally about 2% of the final S-ibuprofen lysinate product weight. The distilled, racemized ibuprofen is recycled to the next batch's selective crystallization to isolate more S-ibuprofen lysinate. By combining the racemization and selective crystallization, the inventive process produces S-ibuprofen L-lysinate in yields substantially more than 50%, generally close to 100%, based on the amount of racemic ibuprofen and lysine feeds. Although the process has been described above for the L-lysinate salt of S(+)-ibuprofen, substantially the same process can be used for selective crystallization of salts of other similar optically active α-aryl carboxylic acids using other similar optically active amino acids. The α-aryl carboxylic acids include, but are not limited to, naproxen, fenoprofen, indoprofen, ketoprofen, flurbiprofen, pirprofen, suprofen, cicloprofen, minoxiprofen, and the like. The amino acids include arginine and histidine. The S(+)-ibuprofen L-lysinate may optionally be acidified to yield the free S(+)-ibuprofen. Suitable acids include acetic acid, carbonic acid, formic acid, propionic acid, C 4 -C 5 acids, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, and the like. Suitable solvents include hexane, heptane, cyclohexane, xylene, and the other aforementioned solvents. In a typical process, the salt is treated, in a two-phase mixture of an organic solvent and water, with hydrochloric acid. L-Lysine hydrochloride forms and stays in the aqueous layer, while free acid S(+)-ibuprofen stays in the organic layer. The two layers are separated and S(+)-ibuprofen may be isolated by removing the organic solvent. L-Lysine hydrochloride in the aqueous layer may be converted to L-lysine which may then be recycled in the selective crystallization process. If acetic acid is used in the process, L-lysine acetate forms in the process, which may be isolated from the aqueous layer and processed to free L-lysine by lysine acetate cracking described below in the Examples. The following Examples are provided for purposes of illustration only and not by way of limitation. The various steps described in the examples are illustrated schematically in FIGS. 1-7. EXAMPLE 1 Precipitation of NaCl from Aqueous Lysine Referring to FIG. 1, a mixture containing L-lysine hydrochloride (53.48 g, 0.2928 mole) and water (53.48 g) [stream 2, FIG. 1] is added to a stirred mixture containing sodium hydroxide (11.71 g, 0.2928 mole) [from stream 3] and ethanol (221.3 g) [from stream 24a] at 60° C. Heptane [stream 22a] and ethanol [stream 24a] are added to the resulting stirred mixture as an azeotrope [stream 21a] of water, ethanol, and heptane is removed by distillation at atmospheric pressure until the weight ratio of water:ethanol:lysine is lowered to 7:93:17.988. The resulting mixture is filtered hot to remove a solid [stream 4, 17.11g] consisting mostly of NaCl from a solution [stream 5a] containing free lysine. EXAMPLE 2 First Crop Crystallization of S(+)-Ibuprofen Lysinate from Racemic Ibuprofen in Aqueous Ethanol To a stirred mixture containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.538 moles, 110.98 g), R(-)-ibuprofen 0.597 moles, 123.11 g), L-lysine (0.43023 moles, 62.895 g), ethanol (606 g), and water (ca. 125 g) [from streams 5a, b; 6a; 8; 11; 19; 24b; and 26a, b, c; FIG. 1]is added heptane [from stream 22b] and ethanol [from stream 24b] as an azeotrope [stream 2lb] of water, ethanol, and heptane is removed by distillation at atmospheric pressure until the weight ratio of water: ethanol: lysine is lowered to 6:94:9.747. The stirred, undistilled residue is cooled to 25° C. and seeded with S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate crystals (143 mg). The stirred mixture is seeded with two additional 143 mg portions of S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate crystals, one after the stirred mixture has been cooled further to 0° C. and the other fifteen minutes later. After the mixture is stirred at 0° C. for 4 hours, the resulting precipitate is filtered from the mother liquor [stream 7] and then washed with a mixture [stream 12] containing ethanol (138 g) and water (12 g). The washed precipitate [stream 9] is the first crop crude S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate (0.3442 mole, 121.32 g dry basis) with an ibuprofen S/R ratio of 94:6. The wash liquor [stream 8] is recycled to the next batch's first crop crystallization of S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate. EXAMPLE 3 Recrystallization of S(+)-Ibuprofen Lysinate First crop crude S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate [stream 9, FIG. 1, 0.3442 mole, 121.32 g dry basis] is dissolved in a stirred mixture [stream 24c, FIG. 1] containing ethanol (357 g) and water 31 g) at 70°. The resulting stirred mixture is cooled to 25° C., seeded with S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate monohydrate crystals (200 mg), and then cooled further to 0° C. for 4 hours. The resulting precipitate is filtered from the mother liquor [stream 11] and then washed with a mixture [stream 24d] containing ethanol (138 g) and water (12 g). The washed precipitate [stream 10] is pure S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate monohydrate (0.2837 mole, 100 g dry basis) with an ibuprofen S/R ratio of ν99.5:1. The wash liquor [stream 12]is used to wash the next batch's crude S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate from first crop crystallization. EXAMPLE 4 Evaporation of Solvent from the Mother Liquor of First Crop Crystallization Water and ethanol are removed as azeotrope stream 21c by distillation in a evaporator from a mixture [stream 7; FIG. 1] containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.2145 moles, 44.25 g), R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5763 moles, 118.89 g), L-lysine (0.08603 moles, 12.577 g), ethanol (ca. 570 g), and water (ca. 36.4 g). During the distillation, water [30 g, stream 25a] is injected into the base of the evaporator to help strip out the last traces of ethanol and to prevent formation of amides and ethyl esters. The molten evaporation residue [stream 13] contains S(+)-ibuprofen (0.2145 moles, 44.25 g), R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5763 moles, 118.89 g), and L-lysine (0.08603 moles, 12.577 g). EXAMPLE 5 Second Crop Crystallization of Ibuprofen Lysinate A molten mixture [stream 13, FIG. 2] containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.2145 moles, 44.25 g), R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5763 moles, 118.89 g), and L-lysinate (0.08603 moles, 12.577 g) is added to heptane [350 g. stream 14a] heated to 50° C. The resulting mixture is stirred for fifteen minutes and then filtered at 50° C to remove precipitated ibuprofen lysinate from the mother liquor. The filtered solid is washed with heptane [50 g, stream 14b]. The mother and wash liquors are combined to provide a mixture [stream 15] containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.1912 moles, 39.43 g) and R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5136 moles, 105.95 g). The washed filtered solid is a second crop of ibuprofen lysinate and is dissolved in a mixture [stream 23a] containing water (15 g), ethanol (76 g), and heptane (9 g). The resulting aqueous mixture [stream 16]contains ibuprofen lysinate (0.08603 moles, 30.32 g, ibuprofen S/R ratio of 27:73) and is recycled as stream 26a to the next batch's first crop crystallization of crude S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate. EXAMPLE 6 Racemization and Distillation of R(-)-Enriched Ibuprofen Heptane is removed as stream 18, FIG. 1, by distillation in an evaporator at atmospheric pressure from a mixture [stream 15, FIG. 1]containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.1912 moles, 39.43 g), R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5136 moles, 105.95 g), and heptane (ca. 390 g). During the distillation, water [30 g, stream 17]is injected into the base of the evaporator to help strip out the last traces of heptane and to minimize formation of ibuprofen ethyl ester. The molten evaporation residue [stream 33], which contains ibuprofen with an S/R ratio of 27/73, is first racemized by being heated under nitrogen at 220° C. for four hours and is then distilled at about 220° C., 10 mm HgA in an evaporator to provide a distillate [stream 19] of substantially pure racemized ibuprofen (0.6907 moles, 142.48 g, S/R ratio of 47:53) and an undistilled residue [stream 20, 2.91 g] for incineration as a waste stream. Racemized ibuprofen distillate [stream 19] is recycled to the first crop crystallization of crude S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate. Heptane/water distillate stream 18 is allowed to phase in decanter to provide a heptane upper phase [stream 14] and a water lower phase [stream 17]. EXAMPLE 7 Separation of Azeotrope Streams Azeotrope distillate streams 21a-d are combined and allowed to separate into two liquid phases inside a decanter (FIG. 1). The alkane upper phase [stream 22] is a 94.8:5.0:0.2 mixture by weight of heptane, ethanol, and water. The aqueous lower phase [stream 23] is a 75.9:15.0:9.1 mixture by weight of ethanol, water, and heptane, a portion of which provides stream 23a. The remainder of the aqueous lower phase [stream 23] is distilled to provide a 92:8 by weight overhead mixture [stream 24] of ethanol and water and a heavy end [stream 25] of substantially pure water. A portion of heavy end water stream 25 is waste water stream 25c, which could be used as a pure water feed for other processes. EXAMPLE 8 Extraction of Ibuprofen Lysinate from the Crystallization Liquor's Evaporation Residue with Water This procedure is an alternative to the above-described second crop crystallization of crude ibuprofen lysinate (Example 5). A molten mixture [stream 13, FIGS. 1, 3] containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.2145 moles, 44.25 g), R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5763 moles, 118.89 g) and L-lysine (0.08603 moles, 12.577 g) is injected into the middle of a York-Scheibel-type counter-current extractor fed at the top with a mixture [stream 23a] containing water (15 g), ethanol (76 g), and heptane (9 g) and at the bottom with a mixture [stream 22c] containing heptane (350 g), ethanol (18.5 g), and water (0.73 g). The aqueous lower phase removed from the bottom of the extractor is a mixture [stream 16] containing ibuprofen lysinate (0.08603 moles, 30.32 g, ibuprofen S/R ratio of 27:73) and is recycled as stream 26b to the next batch's first crop crystallization of crude S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate. The alkane upper phase removed from the top of the extractor is a mixture [stream 15] containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.1912 moles, 39.43 g) and R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5136 moles, 105.95 g) and is evaporated and racemized as described in Example 6, except that the evaporated solvent is recycled as azeotrope stream 21d and not as stream 18. EXAMPLE 9 Extraction of Ibuprofen Lysinate from the Crystallization Liquor's Evaporation Residue with Aqueous HCl This procedure is an alternative to the above-described second crop crystallization of crude ibuprofen lysinate (Example 5). A molten mixture [stream 13, FIGS. 1, 4] containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.2145 moles, 44.25 g), R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5763 moles, 118.89 g) and L-lysine (0.08603 moles, 12.577 g) is added to a 50° C. mixture containing heptane (400 g), water (16 g), and HCl (0.08603 mole, 3.137 g) [from streams 14 and 27a]. The resulting mixture is mixed thoroughly and then allowed to phase. The upper phase is a mixture [stream 15] containing ibuprofen (0.7908 moles, 163.13 g; S/R ratio of 27:73) and heptane (ca. 400 g). The lower phase is an aqueous mixture [stream 28a] containing lysine hydrochloride (0.08603 moles, 15.71 g) and is recycled as stream 36a to precipitation of NaCl from aqueous lysine (Example 1). EXAMPLE 10 Extraction of Ibuprofen Lysinate from the Crystallization Liquor's Evaporation Residue With Aqueous Acetic Acid This procedure is an alternative to the above-described second crop crystallization of crude ibuprofen lysinate (Example 5). A molten mixture [stream 13, FIG. 4] containing S(+)-ibuprofen (0.2145 moles, 44.25 g), R(-)-ibuprofen (0.5763 moles, 118.89 g) and L-lysine (0.08603 moles, 12.577 g) is added to a 50° C. mixture containing heptane (400 g), water (167 g), and acetic acid (0.08603 mole, 5.166 g) [from streams 14 and 27a]. The resulting mixture is mixed thoroughly and then allowed to phase. The upper phase is a mixture [stream 15] containing ibuprofen (0.7908 moles, 163.13 g; S/R ratio of 27:73) and heptane (ca. 400 g). The lower phase is an aqueous mixture [stream 28a] containing lysine acetate (0.08603 moles, 17.743 g) and is recycled as stream 32a to lysine acetate cracking (Example 13 or 14). EXAMPLE 11 Conversion of S(+)-Ibuprofen Lysinate to S(+)-Ibuprofen Free Acid by Treatment With HCl A mixture of S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate (0.2837 mole, 100 g dry basis), heptane (88 g) , S (+) -ibuprofen (8.53 mole, 1.76 g), water (52 g), and HCl (0.2837 mole, 10.344 g) [from streams 10, 27b, and 29, FIG. 5] is mixed thoroughly at 60° C. and then allowed to phase. The lower phase is an aqueous mixture [stream 28b] containing lysine hydrochloride (0.2837 moles, 51.82 g) and is recycled as stream 36b to precipitation of NaCl from aqueous lysine (Example 1). The upper phase [stream 30] is a mixture containing S(+)-ibuprofen free acid (0.2837 moles, 58.524 g) and heptane (ca. 88 g) and is cooled from 60°to 0° C. to crystallize S(+)-ibuprofen free acid. The S(+)-ibuprofen free acid [stream 31, 0.2837 mole, 58.52 g] is removed by filtration from the heptane mother liquor stream 29], which contains S(+)-ibuprofen (8.53 mmole, 1.76 g). EXAMPLE 12 Conversion of S(+)-Ibuprofen Lysinate to S(+)-Ibuprofen Free Acid by Treatment With Acetic Acid A mixture of S(+)-ibuprofen lysinate (0.2837 mole, 100 g dry basis), heptane (88 g), S(+)-ibuprofen (8.53 mmole, 1.76 g), water (551 g), and acetic acid (0.2837 mole, 17.037 g) [from streams 10, 27b, and 29, FIGS. 1, 5] is mixed thoroughly at 60° C. and then allowed to phase. The lower phase is an aqueous mixture [stream 28b] containing lysine acetate (0.2837 moles, 58.51 g) and is recycled as stream 32b to lysine acetate cracking (Example 13 or 14). The upper phase [stream 30] is a mixture containing S(+) -ibuprofen free acid (0.2837 moles, 58.524 g) and heptane (ca. 88 g) and is cooled from 60°to 0° C. to crystallize S(+)-ibuprofen free acid. The S(+)-ibuprofen free acid [stream 31, 0. 2837 mole, 58.52 g] is removed by filtration from the heptane mother liquor [stream 29], which contains S (+)-ibuprofen (8.53 mmole, 1.76 g) . EXAMPLE 13 Lysine Acetate Cracking To a stirred mixture [streams 32a,b, FIG. 6] containing lysine acetate (0.36973 moles, 76.254 g) and water (718 g) is added water [stream 25b, 54 g] and heptane [from stream 34] as an azeotrope [stream 35] of water, acetic acid, and heptane is removed by distillation at atmospheric pressure. The distillation residue [stream 5b] contains free lysine (0.36973 moles, 54.05 g) and water (54 g) for recycle to first crop crystallization (Example 2). Distillate stream 35 is allowed to phase in a decanter to provide a heptane upper phase [stream 34] and an aqueous acid lower phase [stream 27] containing acetic acid (0.36973 moles, 22.202 g) and water (718 g). EXAMPLE 14 Lysine Acetate Cracking with Ibuprofen To a stirred mixture containing racemic ibuprofen (0.36973 moles, 76.27 g), lysine acetate (0.36973 moles, 76.254 g) and water (718 g) [from streams 6b and 32a, b, FIG. 7] is added water [stream 25b, 150 g]and heptane [from stream 34] as an azeotrope [stream 35] of water, acetic acid, and heptane is removed by distillation at atmospheric pressure. The distillation residue [stream 26c] contains ibuprofen lysinate (0.36973 moles, 130.32 g) and water (150 g) for recycle to first crop crystallization (Example 2). Distillate stream 35 is allowed to phase in a decanter to provide a heptane upper phase [stream 34] and an aqueous acid lower phase [stream 27] containing acetic acid (0.36973 moles, 22.202 g) and water (718 g).

There is disclosed and claimed a process whereby S(+)-ibuprofen L-lysinate salt is produced by selective precipitation from a mixture containing enantiomers of ibuprofen and L-lysine. The quantity of L-lysine is not more than about a molar equivalent of the quantity of S(+)-ibuprofen in the ibuprofen enantiomeric mixture. The mother liquors after separating the above salt are enriched in R-ibuprofen which is racemized by a novel thermal racemization process and may then be recycled.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to biopsy forceps and, more particularly, relates to an endoscopic biopsy forceps device incorporating a novel and unique camming arrangement for selectively opening and closing the biopsy cutting jaws of the biopsy forceps which will render the entire device of a simpler construction and reliable in operation, while concurrently marking it considerably less expensive to produce. Although varied types of biopsy forceps are currently in widespread use, such as in conjunction with endoscopic purposes, these are generally of complicated constructions necessitating the manufacture and assembly of numerous, highly precise components and, as a consequence, are quite expensive. Ordinarily, an endoscopic biopsy forceps device must be sterilized in strict compliance with rigid medial standards after each use thereof with a patient, so as to enable the device to again be safely employed with another patient for subsequent medical and/or surgical endoscopic biopsy procedures. Such sterilizing procedures entail immersing and rinsing the contaminated endoscopic biopsy forceps devices in a suitable chemical sterilizing solutions and/or subjecting the biopsy devices to sterilizing in an autoclave. The sterilizing of the biopsy devices with the utilization of chemical sterilizing solutions has, in more recent years, given rise to concerns that the contaminated biopsy devices were not adequately sterilized for reuse with other patients, particularly in view of the considerable dangers to patients through exposure to potentially serious and even life-threatening infection with the AIDS virus (Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome) or hepatitis B viruses, wherein sterilizing of the devices by means of such chemical solutions may not always be adequate to destroy the viruses, or at the very least, raise doubts as to the efficacy of the solutions. Furthermore, subjecting currently utilized endoscopic biopsy forceps devices to sterilizing procedures in an autoclave, under extremely rigorous physical conditions, frequently causes the rather delicate biopsy forceps devices to be destroyed, or damaged and warped to such an extent as to render the devices unusable for repeated applications. In order to overcome the limitations and drawbacks which are currently encountered in the technology, and particular in endoscopy, with respect to the constructions and employment of endoscopic biopsy forceps which will meet with the requirements of the medical profession, the present invention contemplates the provision of an endoscopic biopsy forceps device which, to an appreciable and highly desirably extent, reduces the large number of components in each such device; and in particular, affords for a considerable reduction in the necessary articulated elements, pivot points, rivets and attendant riveting operations in assembling the forceps device. In view of the complex construction of such prior art biopsy forceps devices are extremely expensive, and because it may not always be possible to properly sterilize the device to provide adequate safeguards against infections for patients exposed to previously used devices, rendering discarding thereof uneconomical, and possibly subjecting the medical facility and/or staff to legal liabilities in the event a patient is infected by a contaminated device. 2. Discussion of the Prior Art Among the typical types of endoscopic biopsy forceps and similar types of devices which are currently known, the following are considered to be representative of the state-of-the-technology. Komiya U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,987 discloses a forceps device for an endoscope, wherein the operation of the cutting jaws of the forceps are effectuated through the intermediary of a toggle joint which is articulated by a control wire through the interposition of suitable linkage components. The toggle mechanism provided for in this patent necessitates the utilization of separate pivot pins for each forceps jaw and provides for the type of operation in which the least amount of mechanical advantage is applied to the jaws during the closing of the forceps. This structure utilizes a multiplicity of linkage elements and pivots, rendering it highly susceptible to damage during sterilizing, while the device is extremely expensive because of the numerous components employed therein, necessitating the repeated use thereof in order to cause the device to be economical. Blake, III, U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,374 discloses a ligator device in which a cam track is employed as a so-called "time delay" for the retraction of the clips proximate one of the clamping jaws. The operation of the camming arrangement utilized in Blake is completely unlike that of the camming arrangement utilized in the inventive endoscopic biopsy forceps and, moreover, necessitates the incorporation of an additional toggle mechanism in order to actuate the movement of the jaws. This particular device would not be employable as an endoscopic biopsy forceps. Rich U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,185 employs a movable pin engaging a cam track in an operative mode as described hereinabove with respect to Blake, and necessitates the incorporation of a secondary pin as a pivot for the jaws of a surgical needle holder. This structure requires a more complex pin and cam track arrangement in comparison with the inventive endoscopic biopsy forceps device, and necessitates the utilization of auxiliary components which render the structure thereof expensive and inapplicable to a simple biopsy forceps device as is contemplated by the present invention. Walter, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,701 primarily pertains to a camming structure incorporated into a tweezer device, which requires the use of secondary pin and linkage components in order to actuate the jaws of the device, and is not at all suggestive of the simple, reliable and inexpensive camming arrangement employed in conjunction with the inventive endoscopic biopsy forceps device. Further types of biopsy forceps and the like, all of which employ relatively complex pivot points, linkages and toggle mechanisms, are respectively disclosed in Komiya U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,003; Hayashi U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,471; Maslamka U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,751; and Schmidt U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,636. The constructions disclosed therein are primarily of the complex pivot pin and linkage systems, also employing toggle linkages and parallelogram linkages, which render the devices extremely complex, expensive and not at all adapted for single use or so-called throw-away operation as contemplated by the invention. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, in order to eliminate or ameliorate the disadvantages and drawbacks encountered in prior art biopsy forceps, particularly those employed in endoscopy, the present invention relates to a unique and novel endoscopic biopsy forceps device inexpensively constituted from only a few and simple parts, wherein the usual types of linkages and number of pivot points required for the articulation of the forceps jaws have been extensively eliminated or reduced, and replaced by a simple camming arrangement in the form of cam tracks which, nevertheless, results in a highly reliable and simply operated endoscopic biopsy forceps device. This novel structure extensively reduces the production costs of the forceps device to such an extent in comparison with the more complex prior art devices, such as to enable the device to be economically employed and discarded after only a single use; in essence, causing the device to become an inexpensive, disposable or so-called "throw-away" endoscopic biopsy forceps. This eliminates the necessity for having to subject the endoscopic biopsy forceps device to sterilizing in a chemical solution and/or an autoclave, and completely eliminates the danger of possible infection of a patient by a previously used and sterilized, but possibly still contaminated forceps device. In order to achieve the foregoing object, the inventive endoscopic biopsy forceps device incorporates a novel camming arrangement comprising cooperating cam tracks formed in each of the shank portions of the cooperating forceps levers which cam tracks are displaceable along the surface a stationary guide or cam pin extending therethrough, and which is fastened to a housing attached to a flexible sheath which, in turn, is connected to an operating handle for the endoscope. The levers of the endoscopic biopsy forceps are articulated to a member which is slidable within a housing fastened to the end of the flexible sheath, the slidable member being reciprocated by a wire extending within the sheath, causing the cam tracks to move along the stationary pivot pin such as to in view of their curvatures or shapes, respectively, open or close clamping jaws on the forceps levers. This construction reduces the number of pivot points encountered in prior art devices, and reduces the linkage components and pivots required by more than one-half in comparison with those of the currently known endoscopic biopsy forceps devices. Pursuant to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the stationary pivot or pin along which the cam tracks are movable may be in the form of a screw extending through and fastened to the housing, thereby eliminating the necessity for welding and/or riveting of a pivot pin, and even further increasing the reliability and reducing the cost of the biopsy forceps device. In accordance with a modification of the invention, the cam tracks may be of a linearly-angled slot configuration so as to impart the greatest clamping force to the jaws upon closing thereof. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel endoscopic biopsy forceps device which incorporate a camming arrangement for securely opening and closing the clamping jaws of the forceps. It is another object of the present invention to provide an endoscopic biopsy forceps of the type described herein, in which the device eliminates toggle linkages and pivot points and renders the construction thereof extremely simple with a few as possible operating components. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an endoscopic biopsy forceps device in which the pivot for the levers and jaws of the forceps device comprises a stationary screw member having the cam tracks articulated there along for actuating the levers of the forceps. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Reference may now be had to the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention showing preferred constructions for the inventive endoscopic biopsy forceps device; taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings; in which: FIG. 1 illustrates, generally diagrammatically, a first embodiment of the operating end of an endoscopic biopsy forceps device which is constructed pursuant to the invention, the forceps jaws thereof being shown in an opened condition; FIG. 2 illustrates the device of FIG. 1 with the clamping jaws of the forceps shown in a closed position; FIG. 3 illustrates a sectional view through the device taken along line 3--3 in FIG. 2; and FIG. 4 illustrates a second embodiment of the endoscopic biopsy forceps device similar to FIG. 1 but with a modified cam track configuration. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now in detail to FIGS. 1 to 3, there is illustrated the inventive endoscopic biopsy forceps device 10 which includes a forceps sheath 12 constituted of a generally flexible or pliable material; for instance, teflon tubing or the like, which is connected at a distal end thereof to a suitable operating mechanism (not shown) for actuating the forceps jaw structure of the biopsy forceps device. Attached to the illustrated end of the sheath 12 is a suitable forceps lever support housing 14, which, if desired, may be constituted of stainless steel, and which includes a longitudinal central slot 16 fully extending between two opposite halves 18 and 19 of the housing 14. A slide member 20 is slidably supported for reciprocatory movement in the slot 16 in coaxial relationship with the flexible sheath 12. The slide member 20 has one end thereof fastened to a flexible cable or wire 22 which is telescopingly movable within the sheath 12 in response to operation of the endoscope operating mechanism (not shown), as is well known in this technology. A pair of cooperating forceps levers 24 and 26 are articulated to the slide member 20 through the intermediary of pivots 28 and 30, as shown in more extensive detail in FIGS. 2 and 3. The pivots may be integrally formed with or fastened to the slide member 20, whereby reciprocatory movement of the wire 22 within the sheath 12 in response to actuation thereof will cause the pivots 28 and 30 to be rotated within bores 29, 31 in the shank portions of the forceps levers while being axially displaced within the slot 16 of housing 14 along the directions of double-headed arrow A, depending upon whether the forceps devices is to be opened or closed. The articulation of the wire 22, which causes the displacement of pivots 28 and 30 along the directions of arrow A will cause the concurrent displacement of the shank ends of the forceps levers 24 and 26 which are hinged to the sides member 20 at these pivots. The pivots 28, 30, if desired, may also be formed or rivets for fastening the forceps levers to the slide member. The camming action which is imparted to the forceps levers 24 and 26 in response to the actuation or movement of wire 22 within the sheath 12 so as to selectively open or close forceps clamping jaws 34 and 36 at the free ends of the forceps levers distant from pivots 28, 30, is effectuated through the intermediary of a novel camming arrangement provided for on the forceps levers 28, 30 incorporation with housing 14. This arrangement comprises cam tracks, in the form of an elongate arcuate slot 38 formed in lever 24 and a similar oppositely curved slot 40 in the other forceps lever 26, adapted to superimposed impart, as shown in detail in FIG. 1 of the drawings. A fixed or stationary pivot pin 42, extends transversely through the cam track slots 38, 40, and is preferably in the shape of a screw which has the leading end of the screw portion thereof threadingly arranged in a completely threaded hole 44 formed in one of the opposite halves 18 or 19 of the housing 14, and with the head end of the screw being recessed in the opposite housing half so as to have the screw (or pivot pin) extend across the slot 16. Fastened to the slide 20 so as to extend axially from the slot 16 between the clamping jaws 34 and 36 on the forceps levers, is a suitable pointed spike element 46, for engaging tissue from a body cavity of a patient, which tissue is to be clamped off by the jaws of the forceps for purposes of biopsies, as is well-known in the art. As may be ascertained from the foregoing, the axial displacement of the slide member 20 with the pivots 28, 30, and the resultant movement of the ends of forceps levers 24, 26 which are hinged thereto, causes the cam track slots 38, 40 to move relative to the fixed pin or screw 42 extending therethrough. Consequently, as the wire 22 is retracted in the sheath 12, pulling the sliding member 20 and pivots 28, 30 away from the fixed screw or pin 42, the slots 38, 40 are biased together by the presence of the screw in their ends towards the forceps jaws, as shown in FIG. 2, and the forceps jaws pivoted towards each other into clamping engagement. Conversely, the movement of slide member 20 in the opposite direction of arrow A, causes the slots 38, 40 to be moved along screw 42 into a position towards the lower ends of slots 38, 40 (as shown in FIG. 1), and pivots the forceps levers 24, 26 apart so as to open the forceps jaws 34, 36. In essence, all movement is effected relative to a single fixed and two displaceable pivot joints in the camming arrangement, rather than through the numerous pivots of the prior art devices. The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4 of the drawings in which all components similar to or identical with those in FIGS. 1 through 3 are designated with the same reference numerals, is merely modified with regard to the previous embodiment, in that the cam track slots 50 and 52 each have two continuous linear portions 50' and 50", and 52' and 52" angled with regard to each other in lieu of the curvilinear cam track configurations of the previous embodiment. The portions 50' and 52' of the cam track slots 50, 52 which are proximate the ends of the forceps jaws are angled so as to extend more acutely with or closer to the axial centerline of the slide member 20 and forceps levers 24, 26 such that, upon closing of the forceps jaws, any further displacement of the wire 22 tending to continue closing of the jaws will impart a greater biasing or clamping force to the cooperating jaws by the screw in the slots, thereby enhancing the clamping action or mechanical advantage in gripping any tissue between the jaws. From the foregoing, it becomes readily apparent to one skilled in the art that the novel endoscopic biopsy forceps device is constituted of appreciably fewer and simpler parts than the devices which are currently being marketed, offering an enhanced degree of product reliability through the reduction of components, simplicity in design, operation and manufacture, which renders the entire device much less expensive and highly economical in comparison with currently employed devices, so as to adapt it for use as a "throw-away" unit. Due to the inventive camming arrangement, wherein the opening and closing movement of the forceps levers and of the forceps jaws are improved, the advantages offered by the inventive structure resides in: (a) the cutting plane of the forceps jaws being closer to that of a straight line in comparison with the curvilinear movement employed by prior art devices, which results in an improved cutting action during the separation of the desired specimen or tissue; (b) during the closing of the forceps jaws, the specimen or tissue is prevented from slipping out of the cutting zone of the biopsy forceps; (c) the production cost of the inventive endoscopic biopsy forceps device is considerably reduced due to the considerably fewer employed components and articulated parts, thereby also increasing its operational reliability and stability; (d) the area provided for engaging the jaws in cutting the specimen or tissue is considerably larger than for conventional forceps; (e) basically all rivets and linkages encountered in prior art forceps of this type have been eliminated, which simplifies the overall assembly and also reduces the necessary assembling time for the forceps device. (f) the resultant shorter operating stroke provided for by the camming arrangement increases the radius of operation of the device and imparts better control and feel of the device to nurses, physicians or medical technicians handling the forceps; (g) elimination of any danger to a patient caused by an infection through the subsequent use of a biopsy forceps device which may still be contaminated, in that the reduction in the cost thereof renders the device disposable as a "throw-away" after a single use, while nevertheless still being appreciably more cost-effective in contrast with currently utilized biopsy forceps devices. While there has been shown and described what is considered to be preferred embodiments of the invention, is will, of course, be understood that various modifications and changes in form or detail could readily be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is therefore intended that the invention be not limited to the exact form than the whole of the invention herein disclosed as hereinafter claimed.

An endoscopic biopsy forceps device incorporating a novel and unique camming arrangement for selectively opening and closing the biopsy cutting jaws of the biopsy forceps which will render the entire device of a simpler construction and reliable in operation, while concurrently making it considerably less expensive to produce.

REFERENCE TO CROSS-RELATED APPLICATION This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/074,032 filed Mar. 29, 2011, which is a Continuation-in-Part of PCT/IL2009/001061, filed Nov. 12, 2009. This application claims priority benefits from U.S. application Ser. No. 13/074,032 filed Mar. 29, 2011, which claims priority benefits from PCT/IL2009/001061, filed Nov. 12, 2009, which claims priority benefits from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/117,251, Filed on Nov. 24, 2008, and from U.S. Provisional Application 61/218,948, filed on Jun. 21, 2009, the full disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a shelf bracket, and, more particularly, to a utility corner shelf bracket. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The need for installing shelves at intersections of structure walls or ends of furniture, which form corners, has existed for many generations. Many solutions are based on placing a shelf on a bracket, which has been fixed to the corner walls at the desired height. A corner bracket is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,325,143 (1919) of Conterio, which is incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein. A shelf assembly and a support bracket are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,082 (1985) of Sack, et al. which is incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein. This solution is supposed to overcome the limitations of previous solutions, including that of Conterio. These limitations also include being assembled of many separate components, whose assembly is expensive and time consuming, while also being aesthetically unpleasant to the sight. However, even the solution of Sack, et al. has its faults, particularly the need for mounting means, such as nails or screws that are partially inserted into a pair of walls that form a corner before the installment of the shelf assembly. None of the prior art devices enable easy installment and removal, which are done quickly and without requiring tools, of a utility corner shelf bracket, upon which a corner shelf is mounted. There is therefore a need for a utility corner shelf bracket which enables easy installation and removal, which are done quickly and without requiring tools, and upon which a shelf can be mounted, and it would be advantageous if additional accessories could be engaged, for the purpose of bearing loads. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention is described herein below in which a utility corner shelf bracket can be easily installed and removed, quickly and without requiring tools, and a shelf can be mounted upon it. The utility corner shelf bracket according to the present invention is composed of two external arced elastic bows and an internal arced elastic bow. Upon the external surface of one of the external elastic bows are insertion means and pulling means. Installation of the utility corner shelf bracket according to the present invention is an extremely simple process which includes manual tensioning, similar to tensioning a bow prior to shooting an arrow, placing it where it should be in the corner, releasing the manual tension, and applying pulling force between the bows with the pulling means, causing the insertion means to be inserted into the walls. Afterwards, all that remains to be done is to place a corner shelf on the utility corner shelf bracket. Removal is done by performing similar actions in reverse order. These actions can be performed in a matter of seconds. According to the present invention there is provided a utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) including: a first bow ( 11 ), the first bow ( 11 ) including: two first bow wings ( 11 b ); a first bow arc ( 11 a ), wherein each one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ) is operatively connected to the first bow arc ( 11 a ); at least one nail ( 18 ) operatively connected to each one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ); a second bow ( 12 ) operatively connected to the first bow ( 11 ); and a pulling assembly ( 20 ), having a length, operatively connected to the second bow ( 12 ), wherein an operation of the pulling assembly ( 20 ) creates a pulling force on the second bow ( 12 ), and wherein the second bow ( 12 ) applies force to the two first bow wings ( 11 b ), wherein the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) is adapted to be combined with at least one insert ( 80 ). According to another feature of the present invention each one of the two first bow wings ( 11 b ) includes at least one first bow window ( 11 bc ), wherein each one of the first bow window ( 11 bc ) is configured to contain a an insert arm ( 82 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the pulling assembly ( 20 ) includes: a turnbuckle sleeve ( 21 c ); a central rod ( 27 ), having two ends, wherein one of the ends of the central rod ( 27 ) is disposed on the second bow ( 12 ), and wherein one of the ends of the central rod ( 27 ) is engaged with the turnbuckle sleeve ( 21 c ); and a screwing rod ( 22 a ) having two ends wherein one end of the screwing rod end is engaged with the turnbuckle sleeve ( 21 c ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: a T rod ( 31 ) disposed on the screwing rod ( 23 c ); and two side rods ( 28 ) wherein each one of the side rods ( 28 ) is disposed on the T rod ( 31 ), and wherein a rotation of the turnbuckle sleeve ( 21 c ) changes the length of the pulling assembly ( 20 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: at least one insert ( 80 ), wherein the insert ( 80 ) is inserted with the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the at least one insert ( 80 ) includes: an insert body ( 81 ); and an adhesive layer ( 18 b ) attached to the insert body ( 81 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the at least one insert ( 80 ) includes: an insert body ( 81 ); and at least one nail ( 18 ) attached to the insert body ( 81 ). According to the present invention there is provided an insert ( 80 ), including: an insert body ( 81 ); and at least one inserting means ( 89 ) attached to the insert body ( 81 ), wherein the insert ( 80 ) is adapted to be inserted with a utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ). According to another feature of the present invention the inserting means ( 89 ) includes: an insert arm ( 82 ); and an insert push button ( 83 ) having an insert stair ( 84 ), the insert push button ( 83 ) is attached to the insert arm ( 82 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the insert ( 80 ) further including: at least one nail ( 18 ), attached to the insert body ( 81 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the insert ( 80 ) further including: an adhesive layer ( 18 b ), attached to the insert body ( 81 ). According to the present invention there is provided a utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) including: a first bow ( 11 ), the first bow including: a first bow arc ( 11 a ); two first bow wings ( 11 b ), wherein each one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ) is operatively connected to the first bow arc ( 11 ); two pressing handles ( 36 ), wherein each one of the pressing handles ( 36 ) is disposed on one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ); and a second bow ( 12 ) having two ends ( 12 a ), wherein each one of the ends ( 12 a ) of the second bow ( 12 ) is disposed on an element of the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) selected from a group consisting of the first bow wings ( 11 b ), and the pressing handles ( 36 ). According to another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) is made as a one integral piece of an elastic material. According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: at least one nail ( 18 ) disposed on each one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: at least one strengthening rib ( 30 ) disposed on one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: at least one hanging device ( 37 ) disposed on the second bow ( 12 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the first bow arc ( 11 a ) and the second bow ( 12 ) are springs, wherein in a free state the first bow arc ( 11 a ) has a bow arc bending angle (C) of at most ninety degrees and wherein the second bow ( 12 ) has a second bow bending angle (D) of at least forty degrees. According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) is made of a polymer. According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: two nail protectors ( 50 ), wherein each one of the two nail protectors ( 50 ) is connected to another one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ) by a protector connector ( 50 a ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: (e) two protective wings ( 60 ), wherein each one of the protective wings ( 60 ) has at least one protective wing hole ( 60 a ), wherein each one of the protective wings ( 60 ) has a protective wing connecting end ( 60 b ), wherein each one of the protective wing connecting ends ( 60 b ) is connected to the first bow ( 11 ), wherein the connection is configured to produce a moment force which tends to couple the protective wing ( 60 ) to another one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ); and (f) two protective wing supports ( 61 ), wherein each one of the protective wing supports ( 61 ) has a protective wing support first end ( 61 a ), and a protective wing support second end ( 61 b ) wherein each one of the protective wing support first ends ( 61 a ) is connected to another one of the two pressing handles ( 36 ), wherein each one of the protective wing supports ( 61 ) is made of an elastic material, wherein each one of the pressing handles ( 36 ) has a handle groove ( 36 a ), wherein each one of the protective wing support second ends ( 61 b ) is configured to prevent another one of the protective wings ( 60 ) to move in with a tendency for coupling the protective wing ( 60 ) to another one of the first bow wing ( 11 b ), if there is applied an external force on the protective wing supports ( 61 ) and to gather, at least partially, into the handle grooves ( 36 a ) and cease from preventing another one of the protective wings ( 60 ) to move in a tendency for coupling the protective wing ( 60 ) to another one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ), if an external force is applied on the protective wing supports ( 61 ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: two first integral pivots ( 73 ), wherein each one of the two first integral pivot ( 73 ) is attached to another one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ); two shield arms ( 70 ), wherein each one of the two shield arms ( 70 ) is attached to another one of the two first integral pivots ( 73 ); two second integral pivots ( 73 a ), wherein each one of the two second integral pivots ( 73 a ) is attached to another one of the two shield arms ( 70 ); and two nails shield ( 70 ) wherein each one of the two nails shield ( 70 ) is attached to another one of the two second integral pivots ( 73 a ). According to still another feature of the present invention each one of the two nail shields ( 70 ) includes: a shield front wall ( 71 ); and two shield side walls ( 72 ), wherein each one of the two shield side walls ( 72 ) is attached to the shield front wall ( 71 ), and wherein at least one of the two shield side walls ( 72 ) has a side wall slot ( 72 a ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: at least one first bow first pin ( 11 e ) attached to each one of the first bow wing; and at least one first bow second pin ( 11 f ) attached to each one of the first bow wing. According to still another feature of the present invention at least one of each of the two shield side walls ( 72 ) of the nails shield has an shield stair ( 94 ). According to still another feature of the present invention at least one of the first bow first pin ( 11 e ) is located inside one of the wall slots ( 72 a ). According to still another feature of the present invention the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 ) further including: at least one nail ( 18 ) disposed on each one of the first bow wings ( 11 b ). Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket, installed in a corner wall, according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket, at a stage prior to installation, according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket, in a corner wall, at a stage prior to installation, according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket, and a shelf, at a stage prior to placing the shelf on the utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a right side schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket, and a shelf, at a stage following placing the shelf on the utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 a is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, first variant of a utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 b is an isometric view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, first variant of a utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 c is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, variant of the utility corner shelf bracket and of two inserts, according to the present invention, upon which the section plane 7 f - 7 f is marked FIG. 7 d is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, second variant of the utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 e is an isometric view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, variant of the utility corner shelf bracket and two inserts, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 f is a schematic cross sectional view 7 f - 7 f of the utility corner shelf bracket and of an insert, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 g is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 h is an isometric view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 i is a front view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 j is a back view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of an insert, according to the present invention. FIG. 7 k is a side view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 a is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of a utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 b is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 c is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, installed in a corner wall upon which is mounted a shelf, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 d is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, which is attached to a load, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 e is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, second variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket having a protector connector, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 f is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, having a protective wing in open state, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 g is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, having a protective wing in closed state, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 h is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, having a protective wing in open state, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 i is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket having two nail shields in a protective state according to the present invention. FIG. 8 j is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, having two nail shields in a nails exposed state according to the present invention. FIG. 8 k is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket having two nail shields in an immediately after molding state according to the present invention. FIG. 8 l is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket having two nail shields in an immediately after molding state according to the present invention. FIG. 8 m is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket having two nail shields in a protective state according to the present invention. FIG. 8 n is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket having two nail shields in a safe state according to the present invention. FIG. 8 o is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket, having two nail shields in a pressed against corner walls state, according to the present invention. FIG. 8 p is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket having two nails shields in an installed on a corner walls state according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS The present invention is of a utility corner shelf bracket and of a method for its installation with a shelf in a corner wall, and a method of removing them from the corner wall. The principles and operation of a utility corner shelf bracket according to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and the accompanying description. Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The materials, dimensions, methods, and examples provided herein are illustrative only and are not intended to be limiting. To remove any doubt, note that the manner in which the elements of the present invention are described in the illustrations can be highly detailed, however is not in any way limiting the present illustration, but rather is for the purpose of clarification and furthering understanding. The present invention can be implemented in embodiments that differ from the specification given with regard to the illustration. The following list is a legend of the numbering of the application illustrations: 11 first bow 11 a first bow arc 11 b first bow wing 11 bb first bow flap 11 bc first bow window 11 bd first bow wing outer surface 11 c first bow extender 11 e first bow first pin 11 f first bow second pin 12 second bow 12 a first end of a second bow 12 b second end of a second bow 13 a third bow (of first embodiment) 14 hinge 15 socket 16 first socket plate 17 second socket plate 18 nail 18 b adhesive layer 19 support 20 pulling assembly 21 a turnbuckle sleeve (of first embodiment) 21 c turnbuckle sleeve (of second and third and embodiments) 22 a first screwing rod 23 a second screwing rod (of first embodiment) 23 c second screwing rod (of second embodiments) 24 first nut 25 second nut 27 central rod 28 side rod 30 strengthening rib 31 T rod 36 pressing handle 36 a pressing handle groove 37 hanging device 40 load 50 nail protector 50 a protector connector 50 b protector pin 50 c first bow wing hole 60 protective wing 60 a protective wing hole 60 b protective wing connecting end 61 protective wing support 61 a protective wing support first end 61 b protective wing support second end 70 nail shield 71 shield front wall 72 shield side wall 72 a side wall slot 73 shield arm 73 a first integral pivot 73 b second integral pivot 74 shield stair 80 insert 81 insert body 81 a insert area 82 insert arm 83 insert push button 84 insert stair 85 insert outer surface 86 insert nail housing 87 a insert outer side wall 87 b insert inner side wall 88 insert back rail 89 inserting means 100 c utility corner shelf bracket (second embodiment) 100 f utility corner shelf bracket (third embodiment) 101 corner wall 102 corner shelf F force When the accompanying description of a specific illustration mentions an element not shown in that illustration or without numbering, its numbering is shown in parentheses, and can be found in one or more other illustrations. Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 a , (first embodiment), according to the present invention. The utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment) includes a first bow 11 and a second bow 12 , connected to each other at their ends so as to enable angular movement between their ends around two hinges 14 , one at each end, which form a closed shape from top view. Each hinge 14 is assembled within a socket 15 , which can be an integral part of a first socket plate 16 , which is engaged with an additional socket, which can be an integral part of a second socket plate 17 , while the two first socket plates 16 are disposed near both ends of the first bow 11 , and the two second socket plates 17 are disposed near both ends of the second bow 12 . In another possible embodiment, the sockets are integral parts of the first bow 11 and the second bow 12 . The first bow 11 and second bow 12 have arced shapes, while the center point of the first bow 11 is origin of a Cartesian axis system, whose axes X, Y, and Z, are in directions shown in the present illustration: the X axis is in the direction of the center point of the second bow 12 , the Y axis is to the left, in view from the origin, on a plane parallel to that on which the first bow 11 and second bow 12 are placed so that after assembly to a corner wall ( 101 ), assuming that its walls are vertical, it is essentially a horizontal plane, and the Z axis in this state is vertically downwards. The central part of first bow 11 has a first bow arc 11 a and two first bow wings 11 b , each of which progresses to one of either end of first bow arc 11 a , and whose shape is planar after assembly to the corner wall ( 101 ), (if the wall is planar), as will be shown in FIG. 2 . The external side of each first bow wing lib has several nails 18 , which are designated for insertion into the corner wall ( 101 ) after assembly, in order to prevent movement between the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), and the corner wall ( 101 ). In order to facilitate the prevention of movement, the external surface of each first bow wing lib can have a high friction coefficient, which can be achieved either by selection of the material and the processing of the surface, or by adding an external layer of a suitable material, such as a layer of rubber. The first bow 11 and second bow 12 can be composed of various materials, such as aluminum, and have a good ability for bending on the XY plane, suitable for manual forces applied on a pulling assembly ( 20 ), while they are durable to loads in the direction of the Z axis which may be applied to the corner shelf 102 while it is mounted upon the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment). Inwards from the first bow 11 and second bow, is a third bow 13 a , (of the first embodiment), whose ends rest upon two supports 19 , each of which is disposed on the internal side of the first bow 11 for the purpose of transmitting forces from the first bow 11 and second bow 12 , which are generated at a certain point which will be described later on, by the pulling assembly 20 . Note that this form of force transmission from the third bow 13 a , (of the first embodiment), to the first bow 11 , is one viable option of several, and does not limit the present invention in any way. The pulling assembly ( 20 ), one possible structure of which, and whose method of action, will be specified later on, includes a turnbuckle sleeve 21 a , with left and right hand internal threads on both ends, which can be rotated to the left or to the right, for purposes that will be specified later on, around axis X, with the rotation leftward in view from the origin, around axis X, marked in the present illustration with arrow ‘B’. FIG. 2 is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), installed on a corner wall 101 , according to the present invention. In this state, the angle ‘A’ formed between both of the first bow wings lib, equals the angle formed between both walls comprising the corner wall 101 , and the nails 18 are inserted in the walls. In this state, a corner shelf 102 can be placed upon the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment). The angle ‘A’ is, in most cases, of 90 degrees, however the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), can also be installed in other values of this angle. The pulling assembly 20 , which can apply pulling force, is disposed along the X axis, between the second bow 12 , and the third bow 13 a (of the first embodiment), which applies forces F 3 on the first bow wings lib. This pulling also causes the second bow 12 to apply forces F 4 on the first bow wings lib. These force components fasten the first bow wings lib towards the two walls of the corner wall 101 . The pulling assembly 20 , shown in the illustrations of the present patent application, includes two rods, a first screwing rod 22 a , with external threads in a first direction, and a second screwing rod 23 a , with external threads in a second direction. The two rods are engaged with turnbuckle sleeve 21 a , namely are screwed into turnbuckle sleeve 21 a , which has left and right hand internal threads at both of its ends and ability to rotate left and right around the X axis, as shown by arrow ‘B’. The turnbuckle sleeve 21 a can be shaped as a cylinder with a closed wall or partial wall, as shown in the illustrations of the present application. The first screwing rod 22 a is connected to a second bow 12 , and the second screwing rod 23 a is connected to a third bow 13 a (of the first embodiment), through a hole in its center, and its location, according to one embodiment, can be adjusted by means of a first nut 24 , and a second nut 25 . In this manner, the operation of the pulling assembly 20 , which is done by means of rotation of the turnbuckle sleeve 21 a , in one direction, changing its length L, results in the first_rod 22 a and the second screwing rod 23 a moving towards one another, creating the pulling force described above, while rotation in the other direction causes the rods to move away from one another, and the pulling force is replaced by a pushing force which reverses the directions of forces F 3 and F 4 , thus decreasing the angle ‘A’ between the two first bow wings lib and therefore causing their moving away and the removal of the nails 18 from the walls. FIG. 3 is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), at a stage prior to installation, according to the present invention. At this stage, the installing person, who can be without any special expertise, uses both hands to tension the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), along the X axis, ensuring that the angle ‘A’ is small enough to bring close to the corner wall 101 . FIG. 4 is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), installed at a corner wall 101 , at a stage prior to installation, according to the present invention. Because angle ‘A’ is sufficiently small, the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), can be brought close to the corner wall 101 , as shown in the present illustration, for the purpose of installation. FIG. 5 is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), and a corner shelf 102 , at a stage prior to placing the shelf 102 on the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a , (first embodiment), according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a right side schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary first embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), and a corner shelf 102 , at a stage following placing the corner shelf 102 upon the utility corner shelf, according to the present invention. The invention according to the present patent application is not limited to the installation of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 a (first embodiment), in corners of vertical walls, and it can also be installed, for example, in a corner formed between a wall and a ceiling. A method for installing a utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 a ) (first embodiment), and a corner shelf ( 102 ) at a corner wall includes the stages of: providing a utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 a ) (first embodiment)), and a shelf ( 102 ); tensioning the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 a ) (first embodiment); turning the turnbuckle sleeve ( 21 a ), until the nails ( 18 ) are sufficiently inserted into the walls; and placing the corner shelf ( 102 ) upon the utility corner shelf bracket. The method for removing a utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 a ) (first embodiment), and a corner shelf ( 102 ) from a corner wall includes the stages of: removing the corner shelf ( 102 ) from the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 a ) (first embodiment); turning the turnbuckle sleeve, until reaching extraction of the nails ( 18 ) from the walls; and removing the utility corner shelf bracket ( 100 a ) (first embodiment) from the corner wall. The following illustrations and the accompanying description specifies additional embodiments. Many of the structural features and qualities typical of the first embodiment also apply to these additional embodiments. Various combinations of structural elements and features mentioned in the present patent application can serve for additional embodiments of the utility corner shelf bracket according to the present invention. FIG. 7 a is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, first variant of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c , according to the present invention. The pulling assembly 20 of the present illustration includes a central rod 27 (of second), a turnbuckle sleeve 21 c (of second embodiments), and a second screwing rod 23 c (of second embodiments), whose end is connected to a T rod 31 , both of whose ends have shafts which are connected to two side rods 28 , as shown in the illustration. The central part of first bow 11 has a first bow arc 11 a and two first bow wings 11 b , each of which progresses to one of either end of first bow arc 11 a , and whose shape is planar after assembly to a corner wall ( 101 ) (if the wall is planar). The internal wall of the first bow 11 has at least one support rod 32 , which prevents overextension, and thus protects the user's fingers. Each first bow wing lib on the internal wall is connected to a strengthening rib 30 , which provides additional resistance to bending and facilitates mounting up to a wall. The first bow extenders 11 c lie shown in the present illustration are of another possible top view shape, and as noted, are designated to increase the area of contact with the corner shelf ( 102 ). FIG. 7 b is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, first variant of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c , according to the present invention. FIG. 7 c is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, second variant of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c , and two inserts 80 , according to the present invention, upon which the section plane 7 f - 7 f is marked. In this configuration, no nail 18 is permanently attached to a first bow wing 11 b . The attachment to a corner wall 101 (not shown in the present drawing) can be done by means of nails 18 connected to insert 80 or by means of an adhesive layer 18 b (not shown in the preset drawing), which is upon an insert 80 that is free of nails 18 . A user assembling the second embodiment, second variant of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c can choose the type of insert 80 suitable for attachment to the corner wall 101 according to the type of wall. Each one of the first bow wings 11 b can be mounted with an insert 80 which can be removed and replaced with another insert 80 as necessary. Even though the present invention mentions only two means for mounting insert 80 to a surface such as a wall, the present invention is in no way limited to these specific two means. Likewise, an insert 80 can include both nails 18 and an adhesive layer 18 b (not shown in the present drawing). The pulling assembly 20 is connected to second bow 12 which is connected to both first bow wings 11 b which are connected to first bow arc 11 a. The utility corner shelf bracket 100 c includes a pulling assembly 20 as described in FIG. 7 a , however, the present invention is in no way limited to pulling assembly 20 , and other variations and types of pulling assemblies. FIG. 7 d is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, second variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c and two inserts 80 , according to the present invention. In the present illustration, an insert 80 equipped with nails 18 is mounted on one of the first bow wings 11 b of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c and facing the second first bow wings 11 b , is disposed an insert 80 without nails 18 . The first bow wings 11 b and the inserts 80 are configured so that the insert outer surface 85 practically creates a unified surface with the first bow wing outer surface 11 bd , or as another possibility, the outer surface 85 slightly protrudes, relative to the dimensions of the inserts 80 , in order to enable good adhesion to the wall if the attachment to the wall is by means of adhesive. In the configuration shown in the present illustration each one of the inserts 80 has an insert body 81 , from which four elastic insert arms 82 protrude, at the end of each of which is an insert push button 83 , however according to the present invention, other configurations of inserts 80 are also possible. FIG. 7 e is an isometric view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary second embodiment, second variant of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c and two inserts 80 , according to the present invention. In the present illustration an insert 80 equipped with nails 18 is mounted on one of the first bow wings 11 b of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c and facing the second first bow wings 11 b is disposed an insert 80 without nails 18 . In this state, the illustration shows two first bow windows 11 bc . In the configuration shown in the present illustration, each one of both first bow wings 11 b has four first bow windows 11 bc , the shape and location of which correspond with those of the insert arms 82 for the purpose of engagement with each other during assembly. The insert 80 without nails 18 includes an adhesive layer 18 b shown in the present illustration, for the purpose of visualization, with the adhesive layer 18 b separated and disposed facing the insert body 81 . FIG. 7 f is a schematic cross sectional view 7 f - 7 f of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 c and of an insert 80 , according to the present invention. The illustration marks detail A in a circle, which is magnified in the circle on the left side of the illustration. In the configuration shown in the present illustration, nails 18 are permanently fixed in the insert body 81 . The insert arm 82 is disposed within a first bow window 11 bc while a first bow flap 11 bb prevents undesired separation of the insert arm 82 , by means of an insert stair 84 , which is part of the shape of the insert push button 83 , which is leaning on it. In order to enable separation, the insert push button 83 must be pressed in the direction demonstrated by the pressing force F 5 arrow. FIG. 7 g is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts 80 , according to the present invention. One of the two inserts 80 has nails 18 the other one has an adhesive layer 18 b. From the insert body 81 an elastic insert back rail 88 and elastic insert arms 82 protrude backward, while at their edges are disposed the insert push buttons 83 . The insert back rail 88 grants insert 80 mechanical strength and improves its grip of utility corner shelf bracket 100 c (not shown in the present drawing), if both have shapes that conform to each other. In the configurations shown in the present illustration, all components of each insert 80 are made as a single part of a uniform material, other than nails 18 and adhesive layer 18 b , however, according to the present invention, other configurations are also possible. FIG. 7 h is an isometric view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts 80 , according to the present invention. One of the two inserts 80 has nails 18 and the other one has an adhesive layer 18 b . At each of both distant ends of insert 80 , an insert outer side wall 87 a protrudes backward from the insert body 81 . In insert body 81 , on the side wall facing the front, there can be an insert area 81 a designated for partially containing an adhesive layer 18 b , such that it protrudes slightly from the insert 80 toward the front. FIG. 7 i is a front view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts 80 , according to the present invention. One of the two inserts 80 has nails 18 and the other one has an adhesive layer 18 b . In the configuration shown in the present illustration, in a view from the front, each insert push button 83 slightly protrudes from the boundaries of the insert body 81 , however other configurations are also possible according to the present invention. FIG. 7 j is a back view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of an insert 80 , according to the present invention. Parallel to each insert outer side wall 87 a is an insert inner side wall 87 b , while between every pair of an insert outer side wall 87 a and an insert inner side wall 87 b are disposed two insert nail housings 86 . Each one of the nails 18 (not shown in the present drawing), is partially and permanently disposed within an insert nail housing 86 . The insert outer side walls 87 a and the insert inner side walls 87 b grant insert 80 mechanical strength and improve its grip of utility corner shelf bracket 100 c , if it has a suitable, conforming shape. FIG. 7 k is a side view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary embodiment, of two inserts 80 , according to the present invention. The illustration marks detail C in a circle, which is magnified in the circle on the left side of the illustration, which also shows inserting means 89 . One of the two inserts 80 has nails 18 the other one has an adhesive layer 18 b . The insert outer side wall 87 a , protruding from the insert body 81 , is disposed between two insert arms 82 . Each insert arm 82 has an insert push button 83 and an insert stair 84 . For every pair of adjacent insert stairs 84 , each insert stair 84 is facing outward, in an opposite direction. In order to remove an insert 80 from a utility corner shelf bracket 100 c (not shown in the present drawing), each pair of insert push buttons 83 should be pressed inward, and then the insert 80 can be removed forward. The adhesive layer 18 b protrudes slightly forward from the insert outer surface 85 . This protrusion can be at an order of magnitude of parts of a millimeter. The adhesive layer 18 b can be made of adhesive applied to a sheet or in some other configuration to the insert outer surface 85 , which can be covered with a protective sheet that is removed prior to performing attachment, for the purpose of preventing the adhesive from drying. Even though the illustrations of the present application describe the structures of the inserts 80 in high detail, the present invention is in no way limited strictly to these structures, and according to the present invention, other structures are possible according to the present invention to fill the same functions. The inserting means 89 includes the insert arm 82 , the insert push button 83 , and the insert stair 84 , shown in the present illustration, however the present illustration is not limited to only one type of inserting means 89 . FIG. 8 a is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , according to the present invention. The utility corner shelf bracket 100 f is made, possibly not including the nails 18 , as a one integral piece of an elastic material. The third embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f does not have any pulling assembly and the forces attaching it to the walls come from the elasticity of the first bow 11 , having a first bow arc 11 a , and the second bow 12 , which are, for all practical purposes, springs. Compression prior to mounting in a wall corner is done by means of pressing two pressing handles 36 . When the dimensions of the third embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f are sufficiently small, the compression can be done with one hand. Likewise, the third embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f can also include a hanging device 37 , to which one can, for example, tie a string with a balloon on its end. The second bow 12 has two ends, a first end of a second bow 12 a , and a second end of a second bow 12 b , while each end is disposed directly to the end of each of the two first bow wings lib or to one of the two pressing handles 36 , while both options are acceptable and efficient. The state shown in the present illustration is a free state, namely, there is no influence of any external forces on the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f (third embodiment), and its shape is determined by the equilibrium of the internal elastic forces. The first bow 11 , which is a spring, as noted, is bent in the free state bow arc bending angle ‘C’, the value of which is smaller than 90 degrees, while the second bow 12 , which is also a spring, as noted, is bent at second bow bending angle ‘D’. It has been determined that for the purpose of effective functioning of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f (third embodiment), the angle ‘D’ must be larger than a value suitable for a given model of utility corner shelf bracket 100 f according to its structure and its composing materials. A typical value is bending of 40 degrees. The present illustration shows that strengthening ribs 30 can have a suitable shape and dimensions to serve as buffers preventing excessive compression of the sixth embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f . The third embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f can be composed of a single part and of a single material, without any moving parts, namely without any hinges or the like, and it can be manufactured in an injection process, without any connection means such as adhesives, welding, screws, etc. between its various parts. However, there is an advantage that the nails 18 be composed of a rigid material, for example a metal, and be connected to an assembly that is cast at a later stage. In this configuration as well, the third embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f has no connection means such as adhesives, welding, screws, etc. between its various parts. Good materials for the production of a third embodiment of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f can be selected from the group of polymers. FIG. 8 b is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , according to the present invention. FIG. 8 c is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , installed in a corner wall 101 upon which is mounted a corner shelf 102 , according to the present invention. Corner shelf 102 can be transparent, as shown in the present illustration, or opaque. The corner wall 101 shown in the present illustration has an angle of practically ninety degrees, and the corner shelf bracket 100 f was mounted into the corner after it was sufficiently compressed from its released mode, and after being placed next to the corner wall 101 , opened and latched into place by means of its elasticity. FIG. 8 d is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, first variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f which is attached to a load 40 , according to the present invention. Load 40 , in the case of the present illustration, is a string and an attached balloon which is filled with a gas lighter than air so that it floats upwards. Load 40 can also be heavier than air, and can include various different means, such as string, chains, or hooks, for connection to the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f . The connection can be to hanging device 37 as well as to other locations of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f. FIG. 8 e is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, second variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f having a nail protector 50 , according to the present invention. In order to reduce the risk of injury from a nail 18 , the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f can be equipped with nail protectors 50 , one of which is shown in the present illustration. The illustration marks detail B in a circle, which is magnified in the circle on the upper side of the illustration, which also shows the nail protector 50 . Nail protector 50 is connected to first bow wing 11 b by means of a protector connector 50 a , which is thin relative to the thickness of the first bow wing 11 b , enabling bending and shifting the protector connector 50 a from an open state, as shown in the present illustration, to a closed state (by rotational movement as indicated by an arrow in the illustration), in which the protector connector 50 a covers nails 18 . The protector connector 50 a can also be equipped with a protector pin 50 b , which in a closed state will be inserted into a first bow wing hole 50 c , in which it will be held by forces of friction, until force is applied to release it. FIG. 8 f is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having a protective wing 60 in open state, according to the present invention. The third embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , including all of the components described with regard to FIG. 11 a , namely to the sixth embodiment, first variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , namely it includes the first bow 11 , having a first bow arc 11 , and tow first bow wings 11 b , the second bow 12 having two ends, a first end of a second bow 12 a , and a second end of a second bow 12 b , the two pressing handles 36 , the hanging device 37 , and the nails 18 . Furthermore, the sixth embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f includes two protective wings 60 , and two protective wing supports 61 . The protective wings 60 are meant to shield from damage that can be caused to humans, animals, and inanimate objects as a result of contact with nails 18 . Each protective wing 60 is connected to the first bow 11 at the protective wing connecting end 60 b . The connection can be by various means, such as by means of a shaft, an elastic connection, or any other suitable connection, while it is preferable for the connection to be such that will generate a moment driving the protective wing 60 toward a first bow wing 11 b . In the open state shown in the present illustration, each protective wing 60 is supported toward a protective wing support 61 and protects from contact with nails 18 . Each protective wing support 61 is connected at a protective wing support first end 61 a to one of the two pressing handles 36 . FIG. 8 g is a top schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having a protective wings 60 in closed state, according to the present invention. In this state, each protective wing support 61 , which is made of elastic material, is within a pressing handle groove 36 a , and it is impossible to see neither the protective wing supports 61 nor the pressing handle grooves 36 a. Each one of the protective wings 60 is now pressed to one of the first bow wings 11 b and the nails 18 are exposed, a state which is suitable for attachment to the wall. FIG. 8 h is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, third variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having a protective wings 60 in open state, according to the present invention. The present illustration also clearly shows both pressing handle grooves 36 a , one in each pressing handle 36 , as well as the manner in which a protective wing supports 61 protective wing support first end 61 a to a pressing handle 36 , and supports a protective wing 60 . Likewise the present illustration shows protective wing holes 60 a enabling the passage of nails 18 through a protective wing 60 . FIG. 8 i is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of a utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nail shields 70 in a protective state according to the present invention. The two nail shields 70 prevent undesired human contact with the nails 18 . This is a state suitable for storage of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f prior to use. FIG. 8 j is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nail shields 70 , in a nails exposed state according to the present invention. The utility corner shelf bracket 100 f is also in this state when it is connected to a corner wall 101 (not shown in the present drawing). In this state, the nail shields 70 aren't disrupting the exposure of nails 18 . FIG. 8 k is an isometric schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nail shields 70 , in an immediately after molding state according to the present invention. This state is achieved immediately after casting in the production process of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f and prior to its protective state. Each one of the two nail shields 70 has a shield front wall 71 which is connected to two shield side walls 72 . On each shield side wall 72 there is a side wall slot 72 a. Each shield front wall 71 is connected to a first bow wing 11 b by means of a shield arm 73 one end of which is connected to a first integral pivot 73 a and the other end of which is connected to a second integral pivot 73 b. FIG. 8 l is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nails shields 70 , in an immediately after molding state according to the present invention. The illustration marks detail C in a circle, which is magnified in the circle on the lower side of the illustration. The present illustration shows no nails 18 , which can be assembled, according to the present invention, at a later stage of production. In order to shift the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f from the immediately after molding state to a protective state, a moment must be activated to cause angular movement in the direction shown by arrow α, the center of which is second integral pivot 73 b of the nails shield 70 relative to the shield arm 73 . Furthermore, a moment must be activated to cause angular movement in the direction shown by arrow β, the center of which is the first integral pivot 73 a of the shield arm 73 relative to the first bow wing 11 . Likewise, the elastic shield side wall 72 should be tilted in a direction perpendicular to the illustration sheet, and released at a position ensuring that a first bow first pin 11 e is inserted into the side wall slot 72 a . The same should be done for the concealed shield side wall 72 not shown in the present illustration. Once the first bow first pins 11 e are within the side wall slots 72 a , they prevent the nail shields 70 from returning to the immediately after molding state that would occur due to the elastic qualities of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f. The first bow second pin 11 f is located such that in certain states, it will prevent movement of the nail shield 70 when it meets with the shield stair 74 . As used herein in the specification and claims sections, the term ‘integral pivot’ refers to a device that enables performance of repeated angular movements with at least two components connected to it, with which it composes a single integrated part, which can be made of a uniform material. FIG. 8 m is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nails shields 70 , in a protective state according to the present invention. The first bow first pins 11 e , when engaged with the side wall slots 72 a , prevent the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f from returning to the immediately after molding state. The shape of the side wall slot 72 a is not limited to that of an arc as shown in the present illustration, and it can be shaped as any other orifice, as long as it fills its purpose as described so far. When a force F 6 is applied on the nails shield 70 as shown in the present illustration, for example by a finger, the nails shield 70 moves toward the first bow wing 11 b. FIG. 8 n is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nail shields 70 , in a safe state according to the present invention. The continued activation of the force F 6 causes further movement of the nails shield 70 until it stops as a result of contact of the shield stair 74 with the first bow second pin 11 f . In this state, if the force F 6 is generated by the pressure of a finger, the finger will not be injured seeing as the nails 18 are not exposed but rather contained within the nails shield 70 . FIG. 8 o is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nails shields 70 , in a press against corner walls 101 state, according to the present invention. Prior to installation of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f on corner walls 101 , the user presses the pressing handles 36 so that they draw close to each other, and disposes the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f as close as possible to the designated place of installation, so that both the nail shields 70 are in contact with the corner walls 101 . In the next stage, the user releases the force from the pressing handles 36 , and thanks to the elasticity of the first bow wing 11 b and of the second bow 12 , pressure forces of the corner walls 101 are generated upon the nails shields 70 , causing them to move relative to the remaining components of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , and unlike the movement described in the previous illustration and accompanying description, the movement of each one of the nail shields 70 in the state shown in the present illustration does result in the exposure of the nails 18 , subsequently enabling contact of the nails 18 with the corner walls 101 and even penetration. FIG. 8 p is a top view schematic illustration of an illustrative, exemplary third embodiment, fourth variant, of the utility corner shelf bracket 100 f , having two nails shields 70 , in an installed on a corner walls 101 state according to the present invention. In this state, the shield front walls 71 are attached to the corner walls 101 and the nails 18 penetrate them. While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications and other applications of the invention may be made.

A utility corner shelf bracket which enables easy installation and removal, which are done quickly and without requiring tools, of a utility corner shelf bracket, and placing a shelf upon it, and which it based on bows which are capable of bending on one plane and durable to loads perpendicular to this plane and a tensioning system which enables adjustment to the wall corner prior to installation and fastening to the wall during installation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] As critical dimensions shrink and current control remains a significant issue in microelectronic structure manufacturing, accurate deposition of passivation or barrier materials to provide step coverage using conventional techniques such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) becomes increasingly challenged and alternative technologies are needed. Passivation layer deposition may be required at complex surfaces which comprise passivation target regions interspersed among regions where a passivation layer is not needed or desired. For example, upon a surface comprising an exposed surface of a metal interconnect line which is surrounded by exposed surfaces comprising interlayer dielectric materials, it may not be desirable to passivate the entire layer in whole, because such blanket passivation may be more likely to facilitate current leakage to adjacent interconnect lines or devices. Such a scenario is illustrated in FIG. 1 . [0002] Referring to FIG. 1 , an interconnect structure is shown comprising a first dielectric layer ( 102 ) formed between a substrate layer ( 100 ) and a second conductive layer ( 108 ), the first dielectric layer ( 102 ) being crossed by a conductive layer ( 104 ). The depicted passivation or barrier layer ( 107 ), positioned between the conductive layer ( 104 ) and the second dielectric layer ( 108 ), also extends across portions ( 110 , 112 ) of the first dielectric layer ( 102 ) due to the limitations of modem conventional techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or PVD, for depositing thin barrier materials. As illustrated in FIG. 1 , portions of the barrier layer ( 107 ) extending beyond the conductive layer ( 104 ) may facilitate detrimental current leakage to and from other adjacent conductive layers (not shown) by providing possible conduction pathways ( 136 , 137 ), depending upon the materials selected for the barrier layer ( 107 ). In scenarios such as the one depicted, the extra coverage of the passivation layer ( 107 ) beyond the conductive layer ( 104 ) surface is nonideal. Another weakness of conventional barrier deposition techniques such as CVD and PVD is coverage and uniformity. With such techniques, extra material may be deposited to ensure coverage as close to 100% of the desired surface, and adequate thickness of deposited barrier material on surfaces such as trench sidewalls or out-of-plane curved surfaces, which may have less direct exposure to the deposition source, may be questionable depending upon the particular modality. [0003] Given the common use of interconnect materials such as copper which are known to diffuse or electromigrate into other commonly adjacent materials and potentially fatally contaminate adjacent devices or transistors, along with the inadequacies of conventional blanket deposition techniques as applied in passivation scenarios, accurate and reliable passivation remains an issue. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0004] The present invention is illustrated by way of example and is not limited in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements. Features shown in the drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale, nor are they intended to be shown in precise positional relationship. [0005] FIG. 1 depicts a cross-sectional view of a conventional interconnect-related structure having a blanket-deposited passivation layer. [0006] FIG. 2 depicts a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of the inventive interconnect-related structure having a passivation layer selectively deposited upon a surface of the depicted conductive layer. [0007] FIGS. 3A-3G depict cross-sectional views of various phases of an embodiment of the present invention wherein a passivation layer is selectively deposited upon a surface of a conductive layer. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0008] In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. The illustrative embodiments described herein are disclosed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the invention is defined only by the appended claims. [0009] Referring to FIG. 1 , a microelectronic structure is depicted having a passivation layer ( 107 ) which has been blanket deposited across not only the exposed surface of the associated conductive layer ( 104 ), but also across exposed surfaces ( 110 , 112 ) of the adjacent first dielectric layer ( 102 ). Per the discussion above, such a structure can be nonideal, leading to possible current leakage, among other things. Referring to FIG. 2 , a structure formed in accordance with the present invention is depicted, such structure having a passivation layer ( 106 ) selectively deposited only across the exposed surface of the conductive material ( 104 ), at an appropriate time during the pertinent integration process. FIGS. 3A-3G illustrate an embodiment of such a process in further detail. [0010] Referring to FIG. 3A , a substrate layer ( 100 ) is depicted, upon which a first dielectric layer ( 102 ) has been formed. The substrate ( 100 ) may be any surface generated when making an integrated circuit, upon which a conductive layer may be formed. Substrate ( 100 ) thus may comprise, for example, active and passive devices that are formed on a silicon wafer, such as transistors, capacitors, resistors, diffused junctions, gate electrodes, local interconnects, etcetera. Substrate ( 100 ) may also comprise insulating materials (e.g., silicon dioxide, either undoped or doped with phosphorus or boron and phosphorus; silicon nitride; silicon oxynitride; or a polymer) that separate active and passive devices from the conductive layer or layers that are formed adjacent them, and may comprise other previously formed conductive layers. [0011] Referring back to FIG. 2 , the passivation layer ( 106 ) is selectively positioned adjacent the conductive layer ( 104 ), while the nearby interface between the first dielectric layer ( 102 ) and the second dielectric layer ( 108 ) is not interrupted by passivation material. The passivation layer ( 106 ) preferably is selectively deposited upon the conductive layer ( 104 ) and not upon the first dielectric layer ( 102 ) using sequential exposure of gaseous precursors selected to react with the material comprising the conductive layer ( 104 ) without substantially reacting to the material comprising the first dielectric layer ( 102 ). Sequential precursor exposure for selective deposition of atomic layers of material, variations of which may be referred to as “atomic layer deposition”, has been applied to facilitate the formation of passivation materials such as transition metal nitrides upon substrate materials such as silicon, silicon dioxide, and glass. To the contrary, the inventive integrations described herein apply sequential precursor exposure to avoid deposition of passivation materials upon dielectric materials comprising the first dielectric layer ( 102 ), while facilitating deposition of passivation materials upon adjacent conductive layer surfaces. Referring again to FIG. 3A , the first dielectric layer ( 102 ) therefore preferably comprises a dielectric material which does not nucleate or chemisorb subsequently introduced gaseous precursors used to form a passivation layer such as the passivation layer ( 106 ) depicted in FIG. 3F . In the preferred embodiment, the first dielectric layer comprises a dielectric material lacking available negative polar groups reactive with precursors comprising ammonia and titanium tetrachloride, such as polyarylene-based polymer dielectric materials, and carbon doped oxides, preferably formed using conventional techniques such as spin-on, chemical vapor deposition, and physical vapor deposition. For example, the polyarylene-based polymers sold under the names “SiLK™” and “GX-3™” do not substantially nucleate or chemisorb ammonia or titanium tetrachloride precursors, which may be sequentially introduced to selectively deposit a titanium nitride passivation layer upon a copper conductive layer surface. Porous and nonporous carbon doped oxide (“CDO”) materials, having the molecular structure Six Oy Rz, in which “R” is an alkyl or aryl group, the CDO preferably comprising between about 5 and about 50 atom % carbon, and more preferably, about 15 atom % carbon, also do not substantially nucleate or chemisorb ammonia or titanium tetrachloride precursors. Suitable CDO materials for the first dielectric layer ( 102 ) include but are not limited to a CVD-deposited CDO materials such as those sold under the trade names “Black Diamond™” and “Coral™”, distributed by Applied Materials Corporation and Novellus Corporation, respectively, as well as commercially available electron-beam-cured CVD-deposited CDO materials. [0012] Referring to FIG. 3B , a structure similar to that of FIG. 3A is shown with the exception that a trench ( 114 ) has been formed through the first dielectric layer ( 102 ) using conventional techniques, such as patterning and etching lithography techniques, as are well known in the art. As shown in FIG. 3C , an enlarged trench ( 116 ) is formed using similar conventional techniques, the enlarged trench having a relatively narrow via portion ( 120 ) and a relative wide line portion ( 118 ), as is convention, for example, in dual damascene electroplating of conductive materials such as copper. As would be apparent to one skilled in the art, the trench ( 116 ) need not have a dual damascene shape or extend to the substrate layer ( 100 ) as shown in the depicted embodiment. [0013] Referring to FIG. 3D , the enlarged trench ( 116 ) of the previous illustration has been filled with a conductive material, such as copper, using, for example, conventional electroplating techniques. The trench may be overfilled, as depicted, to leave conductive layer portions ( 110 , 112 ) outside of the previously defined trench. Such portions ( 110 , 112 ) may be removed with techniques such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), to leave a substantially planar surface comprising an exposed conductive layer surface ( 132 ) and an exposed first dielectric layer surface ( 130 ), as shown in FIG. 3E . These surfaces ( 130 , 132 ) need not be substantially within the same plane, and indeed, often they will be positioned in different planes and/or comprise nonplanar exposed surfaces. For example, the conductive layer exposed surface ( 132 ) may be recessed within the first dielectric layer, and positioned in a plane below that of the depicted first dielectric layer exposed surface ( 130 ). Similarly, the exposed surfaces ( 130 , 132 ) may not be uniformly planar, and ridges, trenches, etc may define such surfaces. Conventional “subtractive metallization” techniques, wherein a layer of conductive material is deposited and then partially removed to leave behind a desired discrete conductive layer, may also be used to form conductive layers, as would be apparent to one skilled in the art. [0014] A series of dashed arrows ( 134 ) positioned above the exposed surfaces ( 130 , 132 ) in FIG. 3E represents a series of sequential precursor gas exposures selected to react with the surface chemistry of the conductive layer exposed surface, and not with the first dielectric layer exposed surface, to produce a selectively deposited barrier or passivation layer ( 106 ), as shown in FIG. 3F . Per the above discussion, key to this invention are pairings of dielectric material, gaseous precursors, and conductive layer material conducive to such selective reaction and concomitant deposition. In one embodiment a titanium nitride barrier layer ( 106 ) is selectively deposited upon an exposed surface of a copper conductive layer ( 104 ) and not upon the exposed surface of the first dielectric layer ( 102 ), which preferably comprises one of the aforementioned materials not substantially nucleating or chemisorbing ammonia and titanium tetrachloride gaseous precursors, such precursors being selected to deposit titanium nitride upon the copper conductive layer exposed surface as a result of sequential and distinct saturative surface reactions. In between the distinct exposures of gaseous ammonia and gaseous titanium tetrachloride, timed at a minimum of about I second to allow for full saturative surface reaction, exposures of inert gas, such as argon, are used to purge the exposed surfaces of prior gaseous precursors or airborne surface reaction byproducts. In other words, each cycle comprises a first saturation surface reaction, a purging, and a second saturation surface reaction building upon the results of the first saturation surface reaction, each cycle resulting in a thin passivation layer ( 106 ) having atomic-level thickness uniformity due to the saturative, self-limiting nature of the surface chemistry involved. As noted above, the deposition of monolayers of atoms or molecules with sequential saturative reactions as described herein may be categorized as a variation of “atomic layer deposition”, which has been used for depositing thin, controllable layers of material upon surfaces such as glasses or oxides. The exposed surface of the preferred copper conductive layer ( 104 ) preferably is maintained at a temperature between about 370 and 390 degrees Celsius while sequential pulses or ammonia and titanium tetrachloride are introduced at a frequency of about 1 second, separated by pulses of argon gas. Approximately 0.005 nanometers of titanium nitride are grown per cycle, meaning that an overall barrier layer thickness of 1-2 nanometers requires a significant quantity of cycles and time. [0015] Referring to FIG. 3G , subsequent to formation of the passivation layer ( 106 ), a second dielectric layer ( 108 ) may then be deposited over the exposed portions of the passivation layer ( 106 ) and first dielectric layer ( 102 ). The second dielectric layer ( 108 ) may comprise any material that may insulate one conductive layer from another without incompatibility with the adjacent passivation layer ( 106 ) and first dielectric layer ( 102 ). Suitable materials include but are not limited to silicon dioxide (either undoped or doped with phosphorus or boron and phosphorus); silicon nitride; silicon oxy-nitride; porous oxide; an organic containing silicon oxide; carbon doped oxides, as further described above, with a low dielectric constant: preferably less than about 3.5 and more preferably between about 1.5 and about 3.0; organic polymers such as polyimides, parylene, polyarylethers, organosilicates, polynaphthalenes, polyquinolines, and copolymers thereof. Examples of other types of materials that may be used to form the second dielectric layer ( 108 ) include aerogel, xerogel, and spin-on-glass (“SOG”). In addition, the second dielectric layer ( 108 ) may comprise either hydrogen silsesquioxane (“HSQ”), methyl silsesquioxane (“MSQ”), which may be coated onto the surface of a semiconductor wafer using a conventional spin coating process. Although spin coating may be a preferred way to form the second dielectric layer ( 108 ) for some materials, for others chemical vapor deposition, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, a SolGel process, or foaming techniques may be preferred. Other suitable second dielectric layer ( 108 ) materials, such as those known as “zeolites”, have naturally occurring interconnected pores. While the term “zeolite” has been used in reference to many highly-ordered mesoporous materials, several zeolites are known as dielectric materials, such as mesoporous silica and aluminosilicate zeolite materials. Zeolite materials may be synthesized by an aerogel or xerogel process, spin-coated into place, or deposited using chemical vapor deposition to form a voided structure upon deposition. In the case of spin coating or other deposition methods, solvent may need to be removed using evaporative techniques familiar to those skilled in the art. [0016] Thus, a novel passivation solution is disclosed. Although the invention is described herein with reference to specific embodiments, many modifications therein will readily occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, all such variations and modifications are included within the intended scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.

Method and structure for passivating conductive material are disclosed. Atomic layer deposition of a thin passivation layer such as titanium nitride upon a conductive layer comprising a material such as copper, in the presence of a dielectric material not conductive to surface reaction with gaseous precursors used in the deposition schema, facilitates highly selective and accurate passivation which may improve electromigration performance, minimize leakage current to other conductive layers, and streamline process steps.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/472,740 filed Jun. 22, 2006 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,582,399, and which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND Herein disclosed are imaging members useful in electrostatographic apparatuses, including printers, copiers, other reproductive devices, and digital apparatuses. Some specific embodiments are directed to imaging members that have nano-size particles serving as fillers dispersed or contained in one or more layers of the imaging member. The nano-size particles provide, in some embodiments, an imaging member with a transparent, smooth, and less friction-prone surface. In addition, the nano-size particles may provide a imaging member with longer life and reduced marring, scratching, abrasion and wearing of the surface. Furthermore, the nano-size particle filler has good dispersion quality in the selected binder and reduced particle porosity. Thus, incorporation of the nano-size particles into the imaging member provides for increased mechanical strength and improved wear. In electrostatographic reproducing apparatuses, including digital, image on image, and contact electrostatic printing apparatuses, a light image of an original to be copied is typically recorded in the form of an electrostatic latent image upon a imaging member and the latent image is subsequently rendered visible by the application of electroscopic thermoplastic resin particles and pigment particles, or toner. Electrophotographic imaging members may include imaging members (photoreceptors) which are commonly utilized in electrophotographic (xerographic) processes, in either a flexible belt or a rigid drum configuration. Other members may include flexible intermediate transfer belts that are seamless or seamed, and usually formed by cutting a rectangular sheet from a web, overlapping opposite ends, and welding the overlapped ends together to form a welded seam. These electrophotographic imaging members comprise a photoconductive layer comprising a single layer or composite layers. The term “electrostatographic” is generally used interchangeably with the term “electrophotographic.” In addition, the terms “charge blocking layer” and “blocking layer” are generally used interchangeably with the phrase “undercoat layer.” One type of composite photoconductive layer used in xerography is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,990 which describes a imaging member having at least two electrically operative layers. One layer comprises a photoconductive layer which is capable of photogenerating holes and injecting the photogenerated holes into a contiguous charge transport layer (CTL). Generally, where the two electrically operative layers are supported on a conductive layer, the photoconductive layer is sandwiched between a contiguous CTL and the supporting conductive layer. Alternatively, the CTL may be sandwiched between the supporting electrode and a photoconductive layer. Imaging members having at least two electrically operative layers, as disclosed above, provide excellent electrostatic latent images when charged in the dark with a uniform negative electrostatic charge, exposed to a light image and thereafter developed with finely divided electroscopic marking particles. The resulting toner image is usually transferred to a suitable receiving member such as paper or to an intermediate transfer member which thereafter transfers the image to a member such as paper. In the case where the charge-generating layer (CGL) is sandwiched between the CTL and the electrically conducting layer, the outer surface of the CTL is charged negatively and the conductive layer is charged positively. The CGL then should be capable of generating electron hole pair when exposed image wise and inject only the holes through the CTL. In the alternate case when the CTL is sandwiched between the CGL and the conductive layer, the outer surface of CGL layer is charged positively while conductive layer is charged negatively and the holes are injected through from the CGL to the CTL. The CTL should be able to transport the holes with as little trapping of charge as possible. In flexible web like imaging member the charge conductive layer may be a thin coating of metal on a thin layer of thermoplastic resin. As more advanced, higher speed electrophotographic copiers, duplicators and printers were developed, however, degradation of image quality was encountered during extended cycling. The complex, highly sophisticated duplicating and printing systems operating at very high speeds have placed stringent requirements including narrow operating limits on imaging members. For example, the numerous layers used in many modern photoconductive imaging members must be highly flexible, adhere well to adjacent layers, and exhibit predictable electrical characteristics within narrow operating limits to provide excellent toner images over many thousands of cycles. One type of multilayered imaging member that has been employed as a belt in electrophotographic imaging systems comprises a substrate, a conductive layer, an optional blocking layer, an optional adhesive layer, a CGL, a CTL and a conductive ground strip layer adjacent to one edge of the imaging layers, and an optional overcoat layer disposed on the charge transport layer. Such an imaging member may further comprise an anti-curl back coating layer on the side of the substrate opposite the side carrying the conductive layer, support layer, blocking layer, adhesive layer, CGL, CTL and other layers. In a typical machine design, a flexible imaging member belt is mounted over and around a belt support module comprising numbers of belt support rollers, such that the top outermost charge transport layer is exposed to all electrophotographic imaging subsystems interactions. Under a normal machine imaging function condition, the top exposed charge transport layer surface of the flexible imaging member belt is constantly subjected to physical/mechanical/electrical/chemical species actions against the mechanical sliding actions of cleaning blade and cleaning brush, electrical charging devices, corona effluents exposure, developer components, image formation toner particles, hard carrier particles, receiving paper, and the like during dynamic belt cyclic motion. These machine subsystem interactions against the surface of the charge transport layer have been found to consequently cause surface contamination, scratching, abrasion-all of which can lead to rapid charge transport layer surface wear problems. Thus, a major factor limiting imaging member life in copiers and printers, is wear and how wear affects the multiple layers of the imaging member. For example, the durability of the charge transport and overcoat, and the ability of these layers to resist wear will greatly impact the imaging member life. Many current imaging members have their top charge transport layers comprised of dispersed charge transport molecules or components in polycarbonate binders. The charge transport molecule or components may be, for example, represented by the following structure: wherein X is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, alkoxy, and halogen. In embodiments the alkyl and alkoxy contain from about 1 to about 12 carbon atoms. In other embodiments, the alkyl contains from about 1 to about 5 carbon atoms. In yet another embodiment, the alkyl is methyl. In an embodiment, the charge transport molecule is (N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-(1,1′-biphenyl-)-4,4′diamine). In order to provide a sufficient charge transporting capability, the charge transport molecule loading level is typically very high, for example, around 43 percent to 50 percent by weight of the total weight of the charge transport layer. High charge transport molecule content leads to poor physical properties of the device, for example, a decrease in mechanical strength. Moreover, charge transport molecule content constitutes one of the most expensive components of the imaging member. Consequently, high charge transport molecule content increases the cost of imaging member devices. Thus, maintaining sufficient charge transporting capability in current imaging members not only increases the associated costs but also decreases the mechanical strength of the imaging member. The overcoat layer provides an outer level of protection on the imaging member and may help bolster wear resistance and scratch resistance of the charge transport layer in the print engine. Because the overcoat layer is one of the outermost layers of the imaging member, it is subjected to more wear and friction than some of the other layers. Thus, how well the overcoat layer is maintained will greatly affect imaging member life. Another limiting factor is associated with the anti-curl back coating layer. In the production of multilayered imaging members, the drying/cooling process used to form the layers will often cause upward curling of the multiple layers. This upward curling is a consequence of thermal contraction mismatch between the CTL and the substrate support. Curling of a imaging member web is undesirable because it hinders fabrication of the web into cut sheets and subsequent welding into a belt. To offset the curling, an anti-curl back coating is applied to the backside of the flexible substrate support, opposite to the side having the charge transport layer, to render the imaging member web stock with desired flatness. Common anti-curl back coating formulations, however, do not always providing satisfying dynamic imaging member belt performance result under a normal machine functioning condition; for example, exhibition of anti-curl back coating wear and its propensity to cause electrostatic charging-up are the frequently seen problems to prematurely cut short the service life of a belt which requires frequent and costly replacements. The electrostatic charge build up is due to contact friction between the anti-curl layer and the backer bars, which increases the friction and thus requires higher torque to pull the belts. Because the anti-curl back coating is an outermost exposed layer and has high surface contact friction when it slides over the machine subsystems of belt support module, such as rollers, stationary belt guiding components, and backer bars, during dynamic belt cyclic function, these mechanical sliding interactions against the belt support module components not only exacerbate anti-curl back coating wear, but also cause the relatively rapid wearing away of the anti-curl layer which produces debris. Such debris scatters and deposits on critical machine components such as lenses, corona charging devices and the like, thereby adversely affecting machine performance. Thus, how well the anti-curl layer is maintained will greatly affect imaging member life. Therefore, there is a need for an alternative design of the imaging member in which mechanical wear can be reduced while improving the electrical properties in the various layers, such as the overcoat layer, anti-curl back coating layer and charge transport layer, without high costs. BRIEF SUMMARY Embodiments include an imaging member, comprising a substrate, a charge generating layer disposed on the substrate, a charge transport layer disposed on the charge generating layer, and an overcoat layer disposed on the charge transport layer, wherein the overcoat layer comprises a polycarbonate resin embedded with nano polymeric gel particles, and further wherein the nano polymeric gel particles comprise crosslinked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate copolymers. Another embodiment provides an imaging member, comprising a substrate, a charge generating layer disposed on the substrate, a charge transport layer disposed on the charge generating layer, an overcoat layer disposed on the charge transport layer, an anti-curl back coating layer disposed on the substrate opposite to the charge transport layer, and a ground strip layer disposed on one edge of the imaging member, wherein the overcoat layer comprises a polycarbonate resin embedded with nano polymeric gel particles, and further wherein the nano polymeric gel particles comprise crosslinked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate copolymers having an average particle size of from about 1 nanometer to about 250 nanometers. Yet another embodiment provides an imaging member, comprising a substrate, a charge generating layer disposed on the substrate, a charge transport layer disposed on the charge generating layer, and an overcoat layer disposed on the charge transport layer, wherein the overcoat layer is formed from a solution of resin binder dissolved in a solvent, and further wherein the resin binder comprises a polycarbonate resin embedded with nano polymeric gel particles comprising crosslinked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate copolymers. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above embodiments will become apparent as the following description proceeds upon reference to the drawings, which include the following figures: FIG. 1 is a cross-section view of a multilayered electrophotographic imaging member of flexible belt configuration according to an embodiment; and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a printing drum having a substrate and an imaging member layer thereon having nano-sized gel particles dispersed or contained in the layer according to an embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and which illustrate several embodiments. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and operational changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present embodiments. The present embodiments relate to the use of embedding nano-size gel particles into a layer or layers of a imaging member to increase wear resistance and promote longer life of the imaging member. In embodiments, a imaging member with nano-size particles as a filler exhibits good dispersion quality in the selected binder, and reduced particle porosity. A method of producing such nanoparticles is disclosed in commonly assigned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/472,715 entitled “Methods for Producing Nanoparticles,” to Mishra et al., filed Jun. 22, 2006 and use of such produced nanoparticles is disclosed in commonly assigned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/472,757 entitled “Imaging Member having Nano-size Phase Separation in Various Layers,” to Mishra et al., filed Jun. 22, 2006, which are herein incorporated by reference. In accordance with embodiments, nano polymeric gel particles are dispersed or embedded into and embedded in the matrix of a binder polymer. This matrix is subsequently used to form a layer of an imaging member, to impart mechanical strength and improve electrical properties in that layer. The layer may be, for example, a charge transport layer, an overcoat layer, an anti-curl back coating layer or a ground strip layer. For example, such nano polymeric gel particles can be incorporated into a charge transport layer to achieve high performance imaging members which are able to operate with much less charge transport molecules but still retain good mobility and electrical properties. In one embodiment, nano-polymeric gel particles are dispersed into a polycarbonate charge transport layer. For example, a cross-linked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate copolymer may be used as such nano-polymeric gel particles. These imaging members are able to exhibit high performance and use much less charge transport molecule without affecting the charge transport mobility due to the excluded volume effect provided by the inert nanoparticles. In other embodiments, the nano polymeric gel particles are dispersed in a polycarbonate binder used to form an overcoat layer. In specific embodiments, a cross-linked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate copolymer may be used as such nano-polymeric gel particles. Imaging members including a protective overcoat layer with the nano-polymeric gel nanoparticles improved mechanical strength and electrical properties. In yet other embodiments, the nano polymeric gel particles comprising cross-linked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate are dispersed in a polycarbonate binder used to form an anti-curl back coating layer or a ground strip layer. Incorporation of the nano polymeric gel particles into these layers has shown to increase mechanical strengths of the layers. In embodiments, the polycarbonate resin used can be bisphenol-Z-polycarbonate (PCZ) or bisphenol-A-polycarbonate or mixtures thereof. The different polycarbonate resins can be used interchangeably, as well as in mixtures, in the above described imaging member layers. The nano polymeric gel particles can be present in one or more of the above layers, as well as be present in each of the layers. In embodiments, the nano-particles may be present in the respective layer from about 0.1 percent to about 30 percent weight of the total weight of the respective layer. The embodiments of the present imaging member are utilized in an electrophotographic image forming member for use in an electrophotographic imaging process. As explained above, such image formation involves first uniformly electrostatically charging the imaging member, then exposing the charged imaging member to a pattern of activating electromagnetic radiation such as light, which selectively dissipates the charge in the illuminated areas of the imaging member while leaving behind an electrostatic latent image in the non-illuminated areas. This electrostatic latent image may then be developed at one or more developing stations to form a visible image by depositing finely divided electroscopic toner particles, for example, from a developer composition, on the surface of the imaging member. The resulting visible toner image can be transferred to a suitable receiving member, such as paper. The imaging member is then typically cleaned at a cleaning station prior to being recharged for formation of subsequent images. Alternatively, the developed image can be transferred to another intermediate transfer device, such as a belt or a drum, via the transfer member. The image can then be transferred to the paper by another transfer member. The toner particles may be transfixed or fused by heat and/or pressure to the paper. The final receiving medium is not limited to paper. It can be various substrates such as cloth, conducting or non-conducting sheets of polymer or metals. It can be in various forms, sheets or curved surfaces. After the toner has been transferred to the imaging member, it can then be transfixed by high pressure rollers or fusing component under heat and/or pressure. An exemplary embodiment of a multilayered electrophotographic imaging member of flexible belt configuration is illustrated in FIG. 1 . The exemplary imaging member includes a support substrate 10 having an optional conductive surface layer or layers 12 (which may be referred to herein as a ground plane layer), optional if the substrate itself is conductive, a hole blocking layer 14 , an optional adhesive interface layer 16 , a charge generating layer 18 and a charge transport layer 20 , and optionally one or more overcoat and/or protective layer 26 . The charge generating layer 18 and the charge transport layer 20 forms an imaging layer described here as two separate layers. It will be appreciated that the functional components of these layers may alternatively be combined into a single layer. Other layers of the imaging member may include, for example, an optional ground strip layer applied to one edge of the imaging member to promote electrical continuity with the conductive layer 12 through the hole blocking layer 14 . An anti-curl back coating layer 30 of the imaging member may be formed on the backside of the support substrate 10 . The conductive ground plane 12 is typically a thin metallic layer, for example a 10 nanometer thick titanium coating, deposited over the substrate 10 by vacuum deposition or sputtering process. The layers 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 and 26 may be separately and sequentially deposited on to the surface of conductive ground plane 12 of substrate 10 as solutions comprising a solvent, with each layer being dried before deposition of the next. The Substrate The imaging member support substrate 10 may be opaque or substantially transparent, and may comprise any suitable organic or inorganic material having the requisite mechanical properties. The entire substrate can comprise the same material as that in the electrically conductive surface, or the electrically conductive surface can be merely a coating on the substrate. Any suitable electrically conductive material can be employed. Typical electrically conductive materials include copper, brass, nickel, zinc, chromium, stainless steel, conductive plastics and rubbers, aluminum, semitransparent aluminum, steel, cadmium, silver, gold, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, vanadium, hafnium, titanium, nickel, chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, paper rendered conductive by the inclusion of a suitable material therein or through conditioning in a humid atmosphere to ensure the presence of sufficient water content to render the material conductive, indium, tin, metal oxides, including tin oxide and indium tin oxide, and the like. It could be single metallic compound or dual layers of different metals and/or oxides. The substrate 10 can also be formulated entirely of an electrically conductive material, or it can be an insulating material including inorganic or organic polymeric materials, such as MYLAR, a commercially available biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate from DuPont, or polyethylene naphthalate available as KALEDEX 2000, with a ground plane layer 12 comprising a conductive titanium or titanium/zirconium coating, otherwise a layer of an organic or inorganic material having a semiconductive surface layer, such as indium tin oxide, aluminum, titanium, and the like, or exclusively be made up of a conductive material such as, aluminum, chromium, nickel, brass, other metals and the like. The thickness of the support substrate depends on numerous factors, including mechanical performance and economic considerations. The substrate 10 may have a number of many different configurations, such as for example, a plate, a cylinder, a drum, a scroll, an endless flexible belt, and the like. In the case of the substrate being in the form of a belt, the belt can be seamed or seamless. The thickness of the substrate 10 depends on numerous factors, including flexibility, mechanical performance, and economic considerations. The thickness of the support substrate 10 may range from about 25 micrometers to about 3,000 micrometers. In embodiments of flexible imaging member belt preparation, the thickness of substrate 10 is from about 50 micrometers to about 200 micrometers for optimum flexibility and to effect minimum induced imaging member surface bending stress when a imaging member belt is cycled around small diameter rollers in a machine belt support module, for example, 19 millimeter diameter rollers. An exemplary substrate support 10 is not soluble in any of the solvents used in each coating layer solution, is optically transparent or semi-transparent, and is thermally stable up to a high temperature of about 150° C. A typical substrate support 10 used for imaging member fabrication has a thermal contraction coefficient ranging from about 1×10−5 per ° C. to about 3×10−5 per ° C. and a Young's Modulus of between about 5×10−5 psi (3.5×10−4 Kg/cm2) and about 7×10−5 psi (4.9×10−4 Kg/cm2). The Conductive Layer The conductive ground plane layer 12 may vary in thickness depending on the optical transparency and flexibility desired for the electrophotographic imaging member. When a imaging member flexible belt is desired, the thickness of the conductive layer 12 on the support substrate 10 , for example, a titanium and/or zirconium conductive layer produced by a sputtered deposition process, typically ranges from about 2 nanometers to about 75 nanometers to allow adequate light transmission for proper back erase, and in embodiments from about 10 nanometers to about 20 nanometers for an optimum combination of electrical conductivity, flexibility, and light transmission. Generally, for rear erase exposure, a conductive layer light transparency of at least about 15 percent is desirable. The conductive layer need not be limited to metals. The conductive layer 12 may be an electrically conductive metal layer which may be formed, for example, on the substrate by any suitable coating technique, such as a vacuum depositing or sputtering technique. Typical metals suitable for use as conductive layer 12 include aluminum, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, vanadium, hafnium, titanium, nickel, stainless steel, chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, combinations thereof, and the like. Where the entire substrate is an electrically conductive metal, the outer surface can perform the function of an electrically conductive layer and a separate electrical conductive layer may be omitted. Other examples of conductive layers may be combinations of materials such as conductive indium tin oxide as a transparent layer for light having a wavelength between about 4000 Angstroms and about 9000 Angstroms or a conductive carbon black dispersed in a plastic binder as an opaque conductive layer. The illustrated embodiment will be described in terms of a substrate layer 10 comprising an insulating material including inorganic or organic polymeric materials, such as, MYLAR with a ground plane layer 12 comprising an electrically conductive material, such as titanium or titanium/zirconium, coating over the substrate layer 10 . The Hole Blocking Layer An optional hole blocking layer 14 may then be applied to the substrate 10 or to the layer 12 , where present. Any suitable positive charge (hole) blocking layer capable of forming an effective barrier to the injection of holes from the adjacent conductive layer 12 into the photoconductive or charge generating layer may be utilized. The charge (hole) blocking layer may include polymers, such as, polyvinylbutyral, epoxy resins, polyesters, polysiloxanes, polyamides, polyurethanes, HEMA, hydroxylpropyl cellulose, polyphosphazine, and the like, or may comprise nitrogen containing siloxanes or silanes, or nitrogen containing titanium or zirconium compounds, such as, titanate and zirconate. The hole blocking layer should be continuous and may have a thickness in a wide range of from about 0.2 microns to about 10 micrometers depending on the type of material chosen for use in a imaging member design. Typical hole blocking layer materials include, for example, trimethoxysilyl propylene diamine, hydrolyzed trimethoxysilyl propyl ethylene diamine, N-beta-(aminoethyl) gamma-aminopropyl trimethoxy silane, isopropyl 4-aminobenzene sulfonyl di(dodecylbenzene sulfonyl) titanate, isopropyl di(4-aminobenzoyl)isostearoyl titanate, isopropyl tri(N-ethylaminoethylamino)titanate, isopropyl trianthranil titanate, isopropyl tri(N,N-dimethylethylamino)titanate, titanium-4-amino benzene sulfonate oxyacetate, titanium 4-aminobenzoate isostearate oxyacetate, (gamma-aminobutyl)methyl diethoxysilane which has the formula [H2N(CH2)4]CH3Si(OCH3)2, and (gamma-aminopropyl)methyl diethoxysilane, which has the formula [H2N(CH2)3]CH33Si(OCH3)2, and combinations thereof, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,338,387; 4,286,033; and 4,291,110, incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. An embodiment of a hole blocking layer comprises a reaction product between a hydrolyzed silane or mixture of hydrolyzed silanes and the oxidized surface of a metal ground plane layer. The oxidized surface inherently forms on the outer surface of most metal ground plane layers when exposed to air after deposition. This combination enhances electrical stability at low RH. Other suitable charge blocking layer polymer compositions are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,762 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These include vinyl hydroxyl ester and vinyl hydroxy amide polymers wherein the hydroxyl groups have been partially modified to benzoate and acetate esters which are then blended with other unmodified vinyl hydroxy ester and amide unmodified polymers. An example of such a blend is a 30 mole percent benzoate ester of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) blended with the parent polymer poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate). Still other suitable charge blocking layer polymer compositions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,597, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These include polymers containing an alkyl acrylamidoglycolate alkyl ether repeat unit. An example of such an alkyl acrylamidoglycolate alkyl ether containing polymer is the copolymer poly(methyl acrylamidoglycolate methyl ether-co-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate). The blocking layer 14 can be continuous or substantially continuous and may have a thickness of less than about 10 micrometers because greater thicknesses may lead to undesirably high residual voltage. In aspects of the exemplary embodiment, a blocking layer of from about 0.005 micrometers to about 2 micrometers gives optimum electrical performance. The blocking layer may be applied by any suitable conventional technique, such as, spraying, dip coating, draw bar coating, gravure coating, silk screening, air knife coating, reverse roll coating, vacuum deposition, chemical treatment, and the like. For convenience in obtaining thin layers, the blocking layer may be applied in the form of a dilute solution, with the solvent being removed after deposition of the coating by conventional techniques, such as, by vacuum, heating, and the like. Generally, a weight ratio of blocking layer material and solvent of between about 0.05:100 to about 5:100 is satisfactory for spray coating. The Adhesive Interface Layer An optional separate adhesive interface layer 16 may be provided. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 , an interface layer 16 is situated intermediate the blocking layer 14 and the charge generator layer 18 . The interface layer may include a copolyester resin. Exemplary polyester resins which may be utilized for the interface layer include polyarylate and polyvinylbutyrals, such as ARDEL POLYARYLATE (U-100) commercially available from Toyota Hsutsu Inc., VITEL PE-100, VITEL PE-200, VITEL PE-200D, and VITEL PE-222, all from Bostik, 49,000 polyester from Rohm Hass, polyvinyl butyral, and the like. The adhesive interface layer 16 may be applied directly to the hole blocking layer 14 . Thus, the adhesive interface layer 16 in embodiments is in direct contiguous contact with both the underlying hole blocking layer 14 and the overlying charge generator layer 18 to enhance adhesion bonding to provide linkage. In yet other embodiments, the adhesive interface layer 16 is entirely omitted. Any suitable solvent or solvent mixtures may be employed to form a coating solution of the polyester for the adhesive interface layer 16 . Typical solvents include tetrahydrofuran, toluene, monochlorobenzene, methylene chloride, cyclohexanone, and the like, and mixtures thereof. Any other suitable and conventional technique may be used to mix and thereafter apply the adhesive layer coating mixture to the hole blocking layer. Typical application techniques include spraying, dip coating, roll coating, wire wound rod coating, and the like. Drying of the deposited wet coating may be effected by any suitable conventional process, such as oven drying, infra red radiation drying, air drying, and the like. The adhesive interface layer 16 may have a thickness of from about 0.01 micrometers to about 900 micrometers after drying. In embodiments, the dried thickness is from about 0.03 micrometers to about 1 micrometer. The Charge Generating Layer The charge generating layer 18 may thereafter be applied to the adhesive layer 16 . Any suitable charge generating binder including a charge generating/photoconductive material, which may be in the form of particles and dispersed in a film forming binder, such as an inactive resin, may be utilized. Examples of charge generating materials include, for example, inorganic photoconductive materials such as amorphous selenium, trigonal selenium, and selenium alloys selected from the group consisting of selenium-tellurium, selenium-tellurium-arsenic, selenium arsenide and mixtures thereof, and organic photoconductive materials including various phthalocyanine pigments such as the X-form of metal free phthalocyanine, metal phthalocyanines such as vanadyl phthalocyanine and copper phthalocyanine, hydroxy gallium phthalocyanines, chlorogallium phthalocyanines, titanyl phthalocyanines, quinacridones, dibromo anthanthrone pigments, benzimidazole perylene, substituted 2,4-diamino-triazines, polynuclear aromatic quinones, and the like dispersed in a film forming polymeric binder. Selenium, selenium alloy, benzimidazole perylene, and the like and mixtures thereof may be formed as a continuous, homogeneous charge generating layer. Benzimidazole perylene compositions are well known and described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,189, the entire disclosure thereof being incorporated herein by reference. Multi-charge generating layer compositions may be utilized where a photoconductive layer enhances or reduces the properties of the charge generating layer. Other suitable charge generating materials known in the art may also be utilized, if desired. The charge generating materials selected should be sensitive to activating radiation having a wavelength between about 400 and about 900 nm during the imagewise radiation exposure step in an electrophotographic imaging process to form an electrostatic latent image. For example, hydroxygallium phthalocyanine absorbs light of a wavelength of from about 370 to about 950 nanometers, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,245. Any suitable inactive resin materials may be employed as a binder in the charge generating layer 18 , including those described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,121,006, the entire disclosure thereof being incorporated herein by reference. Typical organic resinous binders include thermoplastic and thermosetting resins such as one or more of polycarbonates, polyesters, polyamides, polyurethanes, polystyrenes, polyarylethers, polyarylsulfones, polybutadienes, polysulfones, polyethersulfones, polyethylenes, polypropylenes, polyimides, polymethylpentenes, polyphenylene sulfides, polyvinyl butyral, polyvinyl acetate, polysiloxanes, polyacrylates, polyvinyl acetals, polyamides, polyimides, amino resins, phenylene oxide resins, terephthalic acid resins, epoxy resins, phenolic resins, polystyrene and acrylonitrile copolymers, polyvinylchloride, vinylchloride and vinyl acetate copolymers, acrylate copolymers, alkyd resins, cellulosic film formers, poly(amideimide), styrene-butadiene copolymers, vinylidenechloride/vinylchloride copolymers, vinylacetate/vinylidene chloride copolymers, styrene-alkyd resins, and the like. Another film-forming polymer binder is PCZ-400 (poly(4,4′-dihydroxy-diphenyl-1-1-cyclohexane) which has a viscosity-molecular weight of 40,000 and is available from Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Corporation. The charge generating material can be present in the resinous binder composition in various amounts. Generally, from about 5 percent by volume to about 90 percent by volume of the charge generating material is dispersed in about 10 percent by volume to about 95 percent by volume of the resinous binder, and more specifically from about 20 percent by volume to about 60 percent by volume of the charge generating material is dispersed in about 40 percent by volume to about 80 percent by volume of the resinous binder composition. The charge generating layer 18 containing the charge generating material and the resinous binder material generally ranges in thickness of from about 0.1 micrometer to about 5 micrometers, for example, from about 0.3 micrometers to about 3 micrometers when dry. The charge generating layer thickness is generally related to binder content. Higher binder content compositions generally employ thicker layers for charge generation. In embodiments, the charge generating layer may comprise a charge transport molecule or component, as discussed below in regards to the charge transport layer. The charge transport molecule may be present in some embodiments from about 0 percent to about 60 percent by weight of the total weight of the charge generating layer. The Charge Transport Layer The charge transport layer 20 is thereafter applied over the charge generating layer 18 and may include any suitable transparent organic polymer or non-polymeric material capable of supporting the injection of photogenerated holes or electrons from the charge generating layer 18 and capable of allowing the transport of these holes/electrons through the charge transport layer to selectively discharge the surface charge on the imaging member surface. In one embodiment, the charge transport layer 20 not only serves to transport holes, but also protects the charge generating layer 18 from abrasion or chemical attack and may therefore extend the service life of the imaging member. The charge transport layer 20 can be a substantially non-photoconductive material, but one which supports the injection of photogenerated holes from the charge generation layer 18 . The layer 20 is normally transparent in a wavelength region in which the electrophotographic imaging member is to be used when exposure is effected therethrough to ensure that most of the incident radiation is utilized by the underlying charge generating layer 18 . The charge transport layer should exhibit excellent optical transparency with negligible light absorption and negligible charge generation when exposed to a wavelength of light useful in xerography, e.g., 400 to 900 nanometers. In the case when the imaging member is prepared with the use of a transparent substrate 10 and also a transparent or partially transparent conductive layer 12 , image wise exposure or erase may be accomplished through the substrate 10 with all light passing through the back side of the substrate. In this case, the materials of the layer 20 need not transmit light in the wavelength region of use if the charge generating layer 18 is sandwiched between the substrate and the charge transport layer 20 . The charge transport layer 20 in conjunction with the charge generating layer 18 is an insulator to the extent that an electrostatic charge placed on the charge transport layer is not conducted in the absence of illumination. The charge transport layer 20 should trap minimal charges as the charge passes through it during the discharging process. The charge transport layer 20 may include any suitable charge transport molecule or activating compound useful as an additive molecularly dispersed in an electrically inactive polymeric material to form a solid solution and thereby making this material electrically active. The charge transport molecule may be added to a film forming polymeric material which is otherwise incapable of supporting the injection of photogenerated holes from the charge generation material and incapable of allowing the transport of these holes through. This addition converts the electrically inactive polymeric material to a material capable of supporting the injection of photogenerated holes from the charge generation layer 18 and capable of allowing the transport of these holes through the charge transport layer 20 in order to discharge the surface charge on the charge transport layer. The charge transport molecule typically comprises small molecules of an organic compound which cooperate to transport charge between molecules and ultimately to the surface of the charge transport layer, for example, the charge transport molecule may be represented by the following structure: wherein X is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, alkoxy, and halogen. In embodiments the alkyl and alkoxy contain from about 1 to about 12 carbon atoms. In other embodiments, the alkyl contains from about 1 to about 5 carbon atoms. In yet another embodiment, the alkyl is methyl. In an embodiment, the charge transport molecule is (N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-(1,1′-biphenyl-)-4,4′diamine). The charge transport molecule may be present in some embodiments from about 0 percent to about 60 percent by weight of the total weight of the charge transport layer or in other embodiments from about 10 percent to about 60 percent by weight of the total weight of the charge transport layer. In the embodiments, any suitable inactive polymer may also be used in the charge transporting layer. Any suitable electrically inactive resin binder may be used to apply the charge transport layer. Typical inactive resin binders include polycarbonate resin, polystyrene, polyester, polyarylate, polyacrylate, polyether, polysulfone, and the like. Molecular weights can vary, for example, from about 20,000 to about 150,000. Examples of binders include polycarbonates such as poly(4,4′-isopropylidene-diphenylene)carbonate (also referred to as bisphenol-A-polycarbonate or PCA), poly(4,4′-cyclohexylidine-diphenylene) carbonate (referred to as bisphenol-Z polycarbonate or PCZ), poly(4,4′-isopropylidene-3,3′-dimethyl-diphenyl)carbonate (also referred to as bisphenol-C-polycarbonate) and the like and mixtures thereof. Any suitable and conventional technique may be used to mix and thereafter apply the charge transport layer coating mixture to the charge generating layer. Typical application techniques include spraying, dip coating, roll coating, wire wound rod coating, and the like. Drying of the deposited coating may be effected by any suitable conventional technique such as oven drying, infra red radiation drying, air drying and the like. Crosslinking agents can be used in combination with the charge transport layer to promote crosslinking of the polymer, thereby providing a strong bond. Examples of suitable crosslinking agents include acrylated polystyrene, methacrylated polystyrene, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, Bisphenol A glycerolate dimethacrylate, (dimethylvinylsilyloxy)heptacyclopentyltricycloheptasiloxanediol, and the like, and mixtures thereof. The crosslinking agent can be used in an amount of from about 1 to about 20 percent, or from about 5 to about 10 percent, or about 8 to about 9 percent by weight of total polymer content. In the present embodiments, nano polymeric gel particles are added to the charge transport layer in the imaging member to reduce the amount of charge transport molecule needed without affecting charge mobility. The nano polymeric gel particles are relatively simple to disperse, have extremely high surface area to unit volume ratio, have a larger interaction zone with the dispersing medium, are non-porous, and are chemically pure. Further, in embodiments, the nano-size filler is highly crystalline, spherical, and/or has a high surface area. The nano-size particles may have a surface area of from about 2 m 2 /g to about 200 m 2 /g, or from about 4 m 2 /g to about 100 m 2 /g. In one embodiment, the charge transport molecule, such as N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-(1,1′-biphenyl-)-4,4′diamine, dispersed polycarbonate charge transport layer is embedded with nano-polymeric gel particles, such as crosslinked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate copolymer, in an effort to increase its mechanical strength. The crosslinked polymeric gel particles are not soluble in the charge transporting solvents and will remain dispersed in the solution. The nano polymeric gel particles are soluble in tetrahydrofuran (THF), toluene, or some other organic solvents, but not in halogen solvents, such as methylene chloride. Single or multiple solvents may be used. The embedded charge transport layer can be coated and dried as usual. A clear charge transport layer with much less curl can then be obtained after the drying of the coating. Embedding with the nano polymeric gel particles provides polymeric material reinforcement. In general, the resulting composites have excellent wear resistance and bending strength. Since the nano polymeric gel particles only function as a filler and charge transport molecules have very low solubility in them, the distance between the charge transport molecules in the binder is unchanged by the embedding. Thus, the particles will not impact the concentration of the charge transport molecule and charge mobility will be unaffected. With a proper solvent selection, the nano polymeric gel particles remain embedded in the matrix of binder, such as for example polycarbonate or polystyrene, with very little diffusion into the binder. Hence, charge transport molecule loading may be reduced without affecting its mobility or sacrificing the electrical properties. Consequently, less charge transport molecules are needed to achieve the same level of charge transport mobility. As the nano polymeric gel particles are not soluble in methylene chloride, a thin precipitate film protects and/or stabilizes the nano gel particles/toluene nano-droplets. During the drying step, methylene chloride evaporates off first, and gives rise to a uniformly dispersed nano-size gel particle phase in the charge transport layer film. The binder and charge transport molecule have good miscibility, so the nano-size phase should be very stable in solid state. In the nano-size phase, there is no or very little charge transport molecules as most of the charge transport molecules remains in the binder. Because the high charge transport molecule concentration remains in the binder, and low or no charge transport molecule concentration remains in the nano-size phase, the charge migration takes place through the charge transport molecule/binder phase and mobility is not affected. As a result, the overall charge transport molecule to binder ratio is reduced while maintaining sufficient charge transport mobility. In embodiments, the nano polymeric gel particle is added to the charge transport member in an amount of from about 0.1 to about 30 percent, from about 1 to about 15 percent, or from about 2 to about 10 percent by weight of the total solids. Examples of nano polymeric gel particles include particles having an average particle size of from about 1 to about 250 nanometers, or from about 1 to about 199 nanometers, or from about 1 to about 195 nanometers, or from about 1 to about 175 nanometers, or from about 1 to about 150 nanometers, or from about 1 to about 100 nanometers, or from about 1 to about 50 nanometers. FIG. 2 illustrates an enlarged view of an embodiment, wherein the electrophotographic imaging member 28 comprises a substrate 10 , having thereover charge transport layer 20 having nano polymeric gel particles 36 dispersed or contained therein. FIG. 2 illustrates the new structural design of a charge transport layer according to the embodiment. The charge transport layer 20 is shown as comprising a binder 32 and charge transport molecule 34 . The nano polymeric gel particles 36 , serving as fillers, are dispersed throughout the charge transport layer 20 . In embodiments, these nano-polymeric gel particles are crosslinked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate copolymers. In other embodiments, the imaging member layer having the nano polymeric gel particles dispersed therein may be layers other than the charge transport layer. For example, other layers that may incorporate the nanoparticles include, from FIG. 1 , the overcoat layer 26 or the anti-curl back coating layer 30 . Other exemplary charge transport molecules include aromatic polyamines, such as aryl diamines and aryl triamines. Exemplary aromatic diamines include N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(alkylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4-diamines; (N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis[3-methylphenyl]-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4,4′-diamine); N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(chlorophenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine; and N,N′-bis-(4-methylphenyl)-N,N′-bis(4-ethylphenyl)-1,1′-3,3′-dimethylbiphenyl)-4,4′-diamine, N,N′-bis-(3,4-dimethylphenyl)-4,4′-biphenyl amine, and combinations thereof. Further suitable charge transport molecules include pyrazolines, such as 1-[lepidyl-(2)]-3-(p-diethylaminophenyl)-5-(p-diethylaminophenyl)pyrazoline, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,315,982, 4,278,746, 3,837,851, and 6,214,514, substituted fluorene charge transport molecules, such as 9-(4′-dimethylaminobenzylidene)fluorene, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,245,021 and 6,214,514, oxadiazole transport molecules, such as 2,5-bis(4-diethylaminophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole, pyrazoline, imidazole, triazole, as described, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,944, hydrazones, such as p-diethylaminobenzaldehyde (diphenylhydrazone), as described, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,150,987 4,256,821, 4,297,426, 4,338,388, 4,385,106, 4,387,147, 4,399,207, 4,399,208, 6,124,514, and tri-substituted methanes, such as alkyl-bis(N,N-dialkylaminoaryl)methanes, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,989. The disclosures of all of these patents are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The concentration of the charge transport molecule in layer 20 may be, for example, at least about 5 weight percent and may comprise up to about 60 weight percent. The concentration or composition of the charge transport molecule may vary through layer 20 , as described, for example, in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/736,864, filed Dec. 16, 2003, entitled “Imaging Members,” by Anthony M. Horgan, et al., which was published on Jul. 1, 2004, as Application Serial No. 2004/0126684; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/320,808, filed Dec. 16, 2002, entitled “Imaging Members,” by Anthony M. Horgan, et al., which was published on Jun. 17, 2004, as Application Serial No. 2004/0115545, and U.S. application Ser. No. 10/655,882, filed Sep. 5, 2003, entitled “Dual charge transport layer and photoconductive imaging member including the same,” by Damodar M. Pai, et al., which was published on Mar. 10, 2005 as Application Serial No. 2005/0053854, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. In one exemplary embodiment, the charge transport layer 20 comprises an average of about 10-60 weight percent N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine, such as from about 30-50 weight percent N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine. The charge transport layer 20 is an insulator to the extent that the electrostatic charge placed on the charge transport layer is not conducted in the absence of illumination at a rate sufficient to prevent formation and retention of an electrostatic latent image thereon. In general, the ratio of the thickness of the charge transport layer 20 to the charge generator layer 18 is maintained from about 2:1 to about 200:1 and in some instances as great as about 400:1. Additional aspects relate to the inclusion in the charge transport layer 20 of variable amounts of an antioxidant, such as a hindered phenol. Exemplary hindered phenols include octadecyl-3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyhydrociannamate, available as IRGANOX I-1010 from Ciba Specialty Chemicals. The hindered phenol may be present as up to about 10 weight percent based on the concentration of the charge transport molecule. Other suitable antioxidants are described, for example, in above-mentioned U.S. application Ser. No. 10/655,882 incorporated by reference. In one specific embodiment, the charge transport layer 20 is a solid solution including a charge transport molecule, such as N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine, molecularly dissolved in a polycarbonate binder, the binder being either a poly(4,4′-isopropylidene diphenyl carbonate) or a poly(4,4′-diphenyl-1,1′-cyclohexane carbonate). The thickness of the charge transport layer 20 can be from about 5 micrometers to about 200 micrometers, e.g., from between about 15 micrometers and about 40 micrometers. The charge transport layer may comprise dual layers or multiple layers with different concentration of charge transporting components. Other layers such as conventional ground strip layer 38 including, for example, conductive particles dispersed in a film forming binder may be applied to one edge of the imaging member to promote electrical continuity to the conductive layer 12 . The ground strip layer 38 may include any suitable film forming polymer binder and electrically conductive particles. Typical ground strip materials include those enumerated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,995, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. An overcoat layer 26 may also be utilized to provide imaging member surface protection, improved cleanability, reduced friction, as well as improve resistance to abrasion. The Overcoat Layer Additional aspects relate to overcoat layers that may comprise a dispersion of nanoparticles, such as silica, metal oxides, ACUMIST (waxy polyethylene particles), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and the like. The nanoparticles may be used to enhance the lubricity, scratch resistance, and wear resistance of the overcoat layer 26 . In embodiments, the nanoparticles are comprised of nano polymeric gel particles of crosslinked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate which is dispersed or embedded into a binder polymer matrix. In embodiments, the overcoat layer may comprise a charge transport molecule or component. The charge transport molecule may be present in some embodiments from about 0 percent to about 60 percent by weight of the total weight of the overcoat layer. In the larger printing apparatuses, adequate reduction of friction largely removes the need for additional members or components, subsequently reducing the cost of the imaging member. The overcoat layer 26 provides an outer level of protection on the imaging member and may help bolster wear resistance and scratch resistance of the charge transport layer in the print engine. Any suitable and conventional technique may be utilized to form and thereafter apply the overcoat layer mixture to the imaging layer. Typical application techniques include, for example extrusion coating, draw bar coating, roll coating, wire wound rod coating, and the like. The overcoat layer 26 may be formed in a single coating step or in multiple coating steps. Drying of the deposited coating may be effected by any suitable conventional technique such as oven drying, infra red radiation drying, air drying and the like. The thickness of the dried overcoat layer may depend upon the abrasiveness of the charging, cleaning, development, transfer, etc. system employed and can range up to about 10 microns. In these embodiments, the thickness can be between about 0.5 microns and about 10 microns in thickness, or be between about 1 micron and about 5 microns. An overcoat can have a thickness of at most 3 microns for insulating matrices and at most 6 microns for semi-conductive matrices. However, the thickness of overcoat layers may be outside this range. The Ground Strip The ground strip 38 may comprise a film forming polymer binder and electrically conductive particles. Any suitable electrically conductive particles may be used in the electrically conductive ground strip layer. Typical electrically conductive particles include carbon black, graphite, copper, silver, gold, nickel, tantalum, chromium, zirconium, vanadium, niobium, indium tin oxide and the like. The electrically conductive particles may have any suitable shape. Typical shapes include irregular, granular, spherical, elliptical, cubic, flake, filament, and the like. In embodiments, the electrically conductive particles have a particle size less than the thickness of the electrically conductive ground strip layer 38 to avoid an electrically conductive ground strip layer 38 having an excessively irregular outer surface. An average particle size of less than about 10 micrometers generally avoids excessive protrusion of the electrically conductive particles at the outer surface of the dried ground strip layer and ensures relatively uniform dispersion of the particles throughout the matrix of the dried ground strip layer. The concentration of the conductive particles to be used in the ground strip depends on factors such as the conductivity of the specific conductive particles utilized. In addition, silica particles are typically included in the ground strip layer 38 to improve wear. However, in the present embodiments, nanoparticles are added in place of the silica particles. Nanoparticles of, for example, MAKROLON, can reduce electrostatic charge buildup and enhance wear resistance of the ground strip layer 38 . In these embodiments, the nanoparticles comprised of polymeric gel particles are dispersed or embedded into a binder polymer matrix, such as PCZ. In embodiments, the ground strip layer may comprise a charge transport molecule or component. The charge transport molecule may be present in some embodiments from about 0 percent to about 60 percent by weight of the total weight of the ground strip layer. The ground strip layer 38 may have a thickness from about 7 micrometers to about 42 micrometers, or from about 14 micrometers to about 27 micrometers. The Anti-Curl Back Coating Layer In some cases, an anti-curl back coating may be applied to the surface of the substrate opposite to that bearing the photoconductive layer to provide flatness and/or abrasion resistance where a web configuration imaging member is fabricated. These overcoatings and anti-curl back coating layers are well known in the art, and can comprise thermoplastic organic polymers or inorganic polymers that are electrically insulating or slightly semiconductive. The thickness of anti-curl back coating layers is generally sufficient to balance substantially the total forces of the layer or layers on the opposite side of the substrate layer. An example of an anti-curl back coating layer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,284, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference. A thickness of from about 70 to about 160 micrometers is a typical range for flexible imaging members, although the thickness can be outside this range. Because conventional anti-curl back coating formulations often suffer from electrostatic charge build up due to contact friction between the anti-curl layer and the backer bars, which increases the friction and wear, incorporation of nano polymeric gel particles into the anti-curl back coating layer substantially eliminates this occurrence. In addition to reducing the electrostatic charge build up and reducing wear in the layer, the nano polymeric gel particles may be used to enhance the lubricity, scratch resistance, and wear resistance of the anti-curl back coating layer 30 . In embodiments, the nano polymeric gel particles are comprised of crosslinked polystyrene-n-butyl acrylate, which is dispersed or embedded into a binder polymer matrix. In embodiments, the anti-curl back coating layer may comprise a charge transport molecule or component. The charge transport molecule may be present in some embodiments from about 0 percent to about 60 percent by weight of the total weight of the anti-curl back coating layer. All the patents and applications referred to herein are hereby specifically, and totally incorporated herein by reference in their entirety in the instant specification. EXAMPLES The examples set forth hereinbelow are being submitted to illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure. These examples are intended to be illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Also, parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise indicated. Comparative examples and data are also provided. Example 1 An imaging member was prepared by providing a 0.02 micrometer thick titanium layer coated on a biaxially oriented polyethylene naphthalate substrate (KALEDEX 2000) having a thickness of 3.5 mils. Applied thereon with a gravure applicator, was a solution containing 50 grams 3-amino-propyltriethoxysilane, 41.2 grams water, 15 grams acetic acid, 684.8 grams of 200 proof denatured alcohol and 200 grams heptane. This layer was then dried for about 2 minutes at 120° C. in the forced air drier of the coater. The resulting blocking layer had a dry thickness of 500 Angstroms. An adhesive layer was then prepared by applying a wet coating over the blocking layer, using a gravure applicator, containing 0.2 percent by weight based on the total weight of the solution of polyarylate adhesive (Ardel D100 available from Toyota Hsutsu Inc.) in a 60:30:10 volume ratio mixture of tetrahydrofuran/monochlorobenzene/methylene chloride. The adhesive layer was then dried for about 2 minutes at 120° C. in the forced air dryer of the coater. The resulting adhesive layer had a dry thickness of 200 angstroms. A photogenerating layer dispersion was prepared by introducing 0.45 grams of LUPILON200 (PC-Z 200) available from Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Corp and 50 ml of tetrahydrofuran into a 4 oz. glass bottle. To this solution was added 2.4 grams of hydroxygallium phthalocyanine and 300 grams of ⅛ inch (3.2 millimeter) diameter stainless steel shot. This mixture was then placed on a ball mill for 8 hours. Subsequently, 2.25 grams of PC-Z 200 was dissolved in 46.1 gm of tetrahydrofuran, and added to this OHGaPc slurry. This slurry was then placed on a shaker for 10 minutes. The resulting slurry was, thereafter, applied to the adhesive interface with a Bird applicator to form a charge generation layer having a wet thickness of 0.25 mil. However, a strip about 10 mm wide along one edge of the substrate web bearing the blocking layer and the adhesive layer, was deliberately left uncoated without any photogenerating layer material, to facilitate adequate electrical contact by the ground strip layer that was to be applied later. The charge generation layer was dried at 120° C. for 1 minute in a forced air oven to form a dry charge generation layer having a thickness of 0.4 micrometer. The charge generator layer was coated with a charge transport layer. In a 120 ml amber bottle, 10 grams of MAKROLON 5705 (available from Bayer Chemicals) was dissolved in 113 grams of methylene chloride. After the polymer was completely dissolved, 10 grams of N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4-4′-diamine was added to the solution. The mixture was shaken overnight to assure a complete solution. The solution was applied onto the photogenerating layer using a 4.5 mil Bird bar to form a coating. The coated device was then heated in a forced air oven at 120° C. for 1 minute to form a charge transport layer having a dry thickness of 27.3 micrometers. Example 2 Sample Preparation of Polymer Gel Solution 75 grams of toluene were added into a 250-ml flask, containing 20 grams of styrene, 5 grams of n-butyl acrylate, 0.1 gram of 1,10-decanediol diacrylate and 0.05 gram of free radical initiator bis(4-tert.butylcyclohexyl)peroxydicarbonate. The mixture was heated under nitrogen atmosphere (constant nitrogen gas purging) to 120° C. for 5 hours with a constant magnetic stirring. After being cooled to room temperature, the polymer gel solution was obtained. The solid content of this solution was about 25 weight percent. Example 3 Sample Preparation of Nano-Polymeric Gel Reinforced Charge Transport (CTL) Layer In a 30 ml amber bottle, 1.5 grams of N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4-4′-diamine, 1.5 grams of MAKROLON 5705 and 3.0 gram of polymer gel solution prepared in Example 2, were dissolved in 17 grams of methylene chloride. After being ball milled for overnight, the charge transport solution was ready for coating. This solution was applied onto the charge generation layer (CGL) with a 4.5-mil gap bar and then dried at 120° C. for 1 minute. The thickness of this CTL was 22.2 microns. Very little curl was observed as compared to Example 1, which showed significant curl after drying. Comparative Example 1 Electrical Test The imaging member device of Example 3 with nano polymer gel reinforced CTL was tested for xerographic properties, at 40 percent RH and 21.1° C. As a comparison, control Example 1 with 50/50 CTL (thickness of 27.3 microns) was also tested under the same condition. The flexible photoreceptor sheets prepared as described in Examples 1 and 3 were tested for their xerographic sensitivity and cyclic stability in a scanner. In the scanner, each photoreceptor sheet to be evaluated was mounted on a cylindrical aluminum drum substrate, which was rotated on a shaft. The devices were charged by a corotron mounted along the periphery of the drum. The surface potential was measured as a function of time by capacitively coupled voltage probes placed at different locations around the shaft. The probes were calibrated by applying known potentials to the drum substrate. Each photoreceptor sheet on the drum was exposed to a light source located at a position near the drum downstream from the corotron. As the drum was rotated, the initial (pre-exposure) charging potential (Vddp) was measured by voltage probe 1 . Further rotation lead to an exposure station, where the photoreceptor device was exposed to monochromatic radiation to obtain a photoinduced discharge curve (PIDC) of Vddp versus ergs/cm 2 . S is the initial slope of the PIDC, Vc is the Vddp on the curve where the slope is ½ of S. The devices were erased by a light source located at a position upstream of charging to obtain Vr. The dark decay is the discharge without illumination in volts/sec. The devices were charged to a negative polarity corona. After 10,000 charge-erase cycles the measurements were repeated. The test results are summarized in the following Tables 1 and 2. TABLE 1 PIDC data for new imaging member Sample V0 S Vc Vr Vdepl Vdd Exampe 1 599.7 379.2 139.2 42.2 17.4 37.2 Example 2 599.5 319.9 137.9 38.5 16.4 24.6 TABLE 2 PIDC data after 10k Cycling test Sample V0 S Vc Vr Vdepl Vdd Example 1 600.2 367.6 210.2 70.3 37.6 27.3 Example 2 600.1 309.3 194.7 88.3 54.7 18.5 The new device with nano-polymeric gel particles in CTL showed very good charging and discharging performance, similar to the control. The difference in the S value is due to the difference in thickness. The charge transport mobility of Example 3 was also shown to be comparable to those of 50/50 imaging member control of Example 1. It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims. Unless specifically recited in a claim, steps or components of claims should not be implied or imported from the specification or any other claims as to any particular order, number, position, size, shape, angle, color, or material.

Imaging members useful in electrostatographic apparatuses, including printers, copiers, other reproductive devices, and digital apparatuses. More particularly, imaging members having nano polymeric gel particles embedded into one or more layers of the imaging member that provide for increased mechanical strength and improved wear.

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/506,216, filed Jul. 11, 2011, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention relates to methods for thermal control of a system, and more particularly to methods for thermally controlling a mold, die, or injection barrel. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Thermal exchange liquid circulator systems are commonly used in the plastics, metals, ceramics, and die cast molding industries to control the operating temperatures of molds, dies and injection barrels. These circulator systems typically include a mechanism for circulating a thermal exchange liquid through the mold, die, or injection barrel, as well as a mechanism for cooling the thermal exchange liquid, such as a built-in chiller, a heat exchanger in thermal communication with a central chilling system, or a water tower evaporative cooling system. [0004] Similar thermal exchange liquid circulators are used in other industries for temperature control purposes. For example, a circulator is sometimes used for controlling the operating temperature in a two-component mixing process, such as molding liquid silicone rubber or LSR (sometimes called LIM), which is an exothermic process where heat is given off when the polymer chains cross link with each other. This type of process requires precise temperature control of a specially designed injection barrel, which keeps the two-part mixture from chemically setting up prematurely. [0005] Note that except where the context specifically requires a mold, the term “mold” is used generically throughout this document to refer to a mold, die, injection barrel, extruder, or to any other apparatus which is thermally controlled by a thermal exchange liquid circulator. [0006] Thermal exchange liquid circulators are referred to in various industries by different names. They are sometimes called temperature control units or “TCU's.” In some fields they are called “Thermolators.” They may also be called “water circulators.” In this document, unless the context requires otherwise, the term “circulator” is used generically for all types of thermal exchange liquid circulators. [0007] Some thermal exchange liquid circulators use oil as the thermal exchange liquid medium, and are sometimes called “oil circulators” or “oil TCU's.” Oil circulators are primarily used to heat, not cool a mold, die or barrel. Water circulators can circulate water over a wide range of temperatures, depending on system pressure. By maintaining water at higher-than-ambient pressures, water-based circulator systems can be used for circulating water at temperatures up to 300° F., and in some cases as high as 500° F., and are commonly used where heating is desired instead of cooling, for example for the molding of thermoset plastics and other high-temperature plastics. [0008] Circulators come in two basic types. One type of circulator is called “direct injection” and the other is called “closed loop.” The expressions “direct injection” and “closed loop” describe how the thermal exchange liquid that is directed from the liquid pump of the circulator to the process is returned to the main circulation system after it has exchanged energy with the molding process. Circulators can be configured to be both types, and can be convertible from one type to the other in the field. For convenience, the discussions presented in this paper are mainly directed to direct injection circulators, but it should be noted that the present invention is applicable to either type of circulator. [0009] The amount of energy absorbed or shed by a thermal exchange liquid during circulation through a process depends on several variables, including details regarding the mold, details regarding the thermal exchange liquid, details regarding the process taking place within the mold, and details regarding the thermal exchange liquid circulator. With regard to the mold, for example, variables may include the thermal conductivity of the material of which the mold is fabricated, the volume of the mold, the mass of the mold, the amount and temperature of the material being molded, the amount of surface area of the mold which is exposed to localized and/or total ambient air temperatures, and other incidental or purposeful environmental heating and cooling influences which affect the mold. [0010] With regard to the process, variables can include the location and concentration of the plastic or other moldable material within the mold, the range of variation or curve of thermal demand or excess over a cycle of operation, the duration of the thermal mold cycle, and the dwell time between cycles. [0011] With respect to the thermal exchange liquid, relevant variables can include the viscosity, the thermal conductivity, the density, and the heat capacity. [0012] With regard to the circulator, relevant variables can include the proximity of the process within the mold to the network of thermal exchange liquid channels in the mold, the absolute temperature of the thermal exchange liquid, the average temperature differential between the thermal exchange liquid and the process, the absolute and average rates of BTU transfer between the thermal exchange liquid and the process which are required to sustain a repetitive or continuous process, the volume and surface area of the thermal exchange liquid channels within the mold, and the time of exposure and flow rate of the thermal exchange liquid within the mold. The thermal exchange liquid circulator must have the capacity to supply and control a sufficient quantity of thermal exchange liquid at the right temperature and rate to satisfy the requirements of the molding process. [0013] Using an example of a water circulator being used to control the temperature of a plastics injection mold, the direct injection of molten plastic into the mold adds heat to the mold, which must be extracted by the thermal exchange liquid. The circulator therefore injects cooled water into the mold and extracts heated water from the mold. In a closed-loop system, a “loop of water” is circulated between the pump and the mold. In some of these systems, the circulator removes heated water from the loop and adds cooled water to the loop as needed so as to control the temperature of the loop of water, and thus the temperature of the process. In other systems, the liquid circulation path includes a water-to-water heat exchanger, which removes the excess heat picked up by the loop of water from the molding process. In some of these systems, coolant supplied to the heat exchanger is adjusted or cycled on and off so as to control the temperature of the closed loop of thermal control liquid. [0014] Typically, the circulator includes a pump of some sort which controls the flow of thermal exchange liquid through the mold. The pump can be a rotary pump that operates an impeller at a fixed or variable speed, depending on the control system, but provides an output that depends strongly on back pressure. Or it may be a fixed displacement pump, such as a piston-driven pump or a gear pump, that outputs a substantially fixed volume of liquid for each cycle. [0015] The pump may be configured to run at a constant speed, or it may have a variable speed which can be controlled according to requirements of the molding process and/or in response to measured temperature fluctuations. As an alternative or in addition to a variable speed pump, a controllable valve can be used to control the rate of flow of thermal exchange liquid through the mold. Some systems use a pulsed flow system, wherein thermal control liquid is supplied to the process in pulses or bursts by opening and closing valves and the degree of cooling (or heating) of the mold is controlled by the average on/off ratio of the valves. [0016] Molding systems vary considerably as to the supply pressure that is available, the back pressure that is generated (e.g. if many circulator pumps are installed on a plurality of molding systems), and the maximum pressure that they can tolerate. Therefore, even if satisfactory operating conditions are known in theory or are known from practical experience from a first molding system, it is quite possible that a desired flow rate will not be available for a second molding system due to the constraints that are applicable to that system. [0017] The quality and consistency of the product produced by a mold, die, or injection barrel production run depends strongly on the repeatability and consistency with which the process is thermally controlled. When a new molding run is to be initiated, typically the mold is mounted in a press and the system is operated under various conditions until a satisfactory set of operating conditions is established. This procedure can be time consuming and wasteful of product, but can nevertheless be critical to a successful run, especially if the process is highly sensitive to the operating conditions. [0018] In addition, even when a satisfactory set of operating conditions has been identified, it may be desirable to continue trying other sets of conditions in an attempt to reduce the energy cost of operating the circulator, which can be significant. The circulator energy cost includes the cost of operating the thermal exchange liquid circulation pump, as well as costs for cooling the thermal exchange liquid after it has flowed through the mold and/or for chilling additional liquid to be added to the returning thermal exchange liquid, so as to bring the thermal exchange liquid back to its set point temperature. In the case of a process which must be heated rather than cooled, the energy cost for heating the thermal exchange liquid can be significant. [0019] Unfortunately, the additional time and expense of searching for acceptable operating conditions which also minimize circulator energy consumption can be prohibitive. Therefore, it is often a necessary compromise to operate the circulator under conditions which are satisfactory in terms of producing an acceptable product, but which nevertheless waste circulator energy and increase cost. [0020] Very often when a previously successful molding run is to be repeated, much of the time and cost of setting up the run can be avoided if the press and circulator which were previously used can be re-used, and can be configured to repeat the operating conditions and molding cycle which were previously established as giving acceptable results. In these cases, it can be important to be certain that the same press and circulator which were previously used have been correctly identified and selected, or that sufficiently identical components have been selected. If the press and/or circulator which were previously used are not available, the previously established operating parameters may be unusable without adjustment, and it may be difficult, time consuming, and costly to re-establish a successful set of operating parameters. And if the wrong press and/or circulator is mistakenly selected, a considerable loss of time and product may result before the error is detected, after which a new set of operating parameters may need to be established. [0021] Even if the identical apparatus is available and is correctly identified, the system may have changed or degraded in some way since it was previously used for the same process. For example, the plumbing of the liquid circulation system may have changed due to maintenance, repair, or for some other reason, or some portion of the system may have degraded or failed, for instance due to a clogged circulation line or a degraded or faulty valve. This may cause the previously established operating parameters to produce unsatisfactory results, until the problem is discovered and either the system is returned to its previous condition or the operating parameters are adjusted to compensate for the changes. [0022] Once appropriate operating parameters have been established and a production run has been initiated, it is usually necessary to wait until the system has reached thermal equilibrium before the produced parts can be retained and used with confidence. Typically, product from a certain number of initial “warm-up” molding cycles is discarded, so as to (hopefully) allow the system to reach thermal equilibrium. Often, the number of warm-up cycles is selected according to some sort of “rule of thumb,” which is typically greater than what is actually needed, since it is important to err on the side of discarding all potentially defective product, even if some usable product is also discarded. [0023] It is sometimes desirable to operate a molding process at a high rate of speed, so as to produce product as rapidly as possible. This necessarily requires that heat be removed from (or added to) the mold at a high rate. The equilibrium temperature of the mold will depend on a balance between the rate at which raw material is added to the mold, and the rate at which heat is exchanged between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold. However, it is usual to begin circulation of the thermal exchange liquid through the mold well before a molding run is started. This means that when the molding run is first started, the mold will typically be at a temperature which is approximately equal to the temperature of the thermal exchange liquid, which may be too cold (or too warm) for the molding process. In extreme cases, the plastic or other raw material may harden too quickly and fail to completely fill the mold, or it may fail to harden by the end of the molding cycle. In either case, the molded material may fail to eject properly, and may cause a failure of the process to start. [0024] Also, if it becomes necessary to temporarily stop a molding run, for example to remove a part which did not eject properly or to make a minor repair, the mold may drift into an untested thermal state somewhere between the tested startup conditions and the tested running conditions. Restarting of the molding run may subsequently fail, if the untested thermal state is not compatible with the start-up procedure. [0025] Even after the production run is successfully underway, conditions in the system may nevertheless change, thereby causing the product to degrade and be unusable. For example, the ambient temperature may change, physical or chemical properties of the raw material may vary from batch to batch, or equipment may become clogged or otherwise may degrade in performance. This can lead to additional delay and cost before the problem is discovered and corrected. [0026] In an attempt to monitor the actual conditions in the mold and to thereby detect and/or compensate for changes in the apparatus, raw materials, or environment, one or more temperature sensors are sometimes placed in the mold, and the rate of cooling is adjusted according to the measured temperatures, thereby hopefully establishing and maintaining stable and repeatable mold conditions. However, temperature sensors in the mold are necessarily remote from the substance being molded, and can only measure local temperatures within the mold itself, which typically has a very high thermal mass. This prevents the sensors from providing accurate indications of the actual temperature of the molded material. Also, there is typically a considerable time lag before a change in temperature of the molded material is indirectly detected by the temperature sensors. This can cause compensating actions of the circulator to be significantly delayed, and can lead to overreactions of the circulator whereby the stability of the system is made worse by the attempts to regulate the mold temperature. [0027] What is needed, therefore, are techniques for determining the operating characteristics of a mold and circulator so as verify their identity and integrity, optimizing circulator energy efficiency, accurately repeating previously established operational conditions, accurately determining when the system has reached start-up equilibrium, reliably starting a molding run and bringing it successfully to equilibrium, monitoring the status of the molding apparatus during a molding run so as to detect equipment degradation and/or failures, and precisely monitoring and controlling the thermal conditions to which the molded material is subjected during each molding cycle, thereby providing repeatable results even when a system's configuration or status has changed, or the process has been moved to a different press and/or circulator. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0028] Various aspects of the present invention monitor the pumping speed, pressure, flow rate, temperature to the process, and temperature from the process of the thermal exchange liquid supplied to a mold, die, or injection barrel, as well as the circulator energy consumption, so as to characterize the operating limits of the apparatus and assist in selecting achievable operating conditions, verify the identity and integrity of the apparatus, optimize energy efficiency, accurately determine when start-up equilibrium has been achieved, detect any changes which may occur during a production run, and reproduce and control the thermal environment to which the plastic or other molded substance is subjected, thereby providing consistent, expected results even when the configuration or status of the apparatus has changed, or a different apparatus is being used. [0029] In one general aspect of the present invention, for a specific configuration of molding apparatus, the user is allowed to enter a desired flow rate as well as a maximum pressure, and in some embodiments also an “alarm pressure” at which an alarm should be issued notifying the operator that the system is approaching its maximum pressure. The pumping speed versus flow rate, the pressure to the process versus flow rate and/or the differential process pressure (pressure to the process minus pressure returning from the process) versus the flow rate of the thermal exchange liquid are then measured over a range of conditions, which in some embodiments is the range from 98% of the specified maximum pressure and/or a set limit differential pressure down to 10% of the set limit pressure. Pumping speed versus flow and/or pressure versus flow data is established, sometimes in the form of a pumping speed versus flow curve and/or a pressure versus flow curve. The measured data is then used to determine if the desired flow rate is achievable without exceeding the maximum pressure. If not, then the user is informed of the maximum available flow rate and is invited to adjust the operating conditions accordingly. [0030] In embodiments, the control system also includes a specified maximum pressure, and will not accept user specified pressures that exceed that limit. [0031] In addition, the measured pumping speed versus flow and/or pressure versus flow data is used as a “fingerprint” for identifying the specific apparatus and configuration. During a subsequent molding run, a measurement of at least one pumping speed versus flow rate or pressure versus flow rate value, typically from a middle portion of the measured curve, is repeated and compared to the value or values obtained during the original molding run to ensure that the same or identical equipment is being used, and that the thermal exchange liquid circulation system has not changed or degraded since the process was previously run. In embodiments, the entire pumping speed versus flow and/or pressure versus flow data curve measurements are repeated and compared. [0032] In embodiments, once the initial pumping speed versus flow and/or pressure versus flow data have been measured, at least one value of pumping speed versus flow or pressure versus flow is monitored or periodically checked during a molding run to detect any changes in the circulation system during the production run. In some embodiments, pumping speed versus flow and/or pressure versus flow measurements are repeated periodically during the molding run at a few different pumping speeds or pressures, so as to better detect any changes in the system. If a change in the system is detected beyond specified limits, the operator is alerted to re-optimize the operating conditions and measure a new set of pumping speed versus flow and/or pressure versus flow data. [0033] In embodiments, measurements of flow versus both pressure and pumping speed are made before beginning the process run and during the process run, so that variations in pumping speed versus pressure can be used to detect and/or anticipate an eventual requirement to refurbish or replace the circulator. [0034] Measured changes in pumping speed versus flow over time are also used in some embodiments to monitor pump degradation, and to anticipate an approaching requirement to service or replace a pump. [0035] In another general aspect of the present invention, the rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold is determined. In embodiments, this includes measurement of the temperatures of the thermal exchange liquid to and from the process. In various embodiments, the energy exchange is measured on a cycle-by-cycle basis. In some embodiments, the rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold is monitored during start-up of a production run, and the system is deemed to have reached start-up equilibrium once the rate of energy exchange is constant from cycle to cycle within specified criteria. [0036] In various of these embodiments, the flow rate and the temperature of the liquid delivered to the process are held substantially constant (in some of these embodiments, the temperature to the process is held to within 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit), and changes in the temperature of the liquid returned from the process are monitored. In other embodiments, the temperature and/or flow rate of the liquid delivered to the process follows a repeated pattern during each molding cycle, and the temperature of the liquid returning from the process is sampled at a specific point in each mold cycle, such that the system is deemed to have reached equilibrium when the sampled points vary by no more than a specified amount from cycle to cycle. [0037] In still another general aspect of the present invention, the rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold is monitored and controlled as the process is started. During one or more start-up molding cycles (or other start-up time periods) the energy exchange rate set point is set to relatively lower values than the energy set point after the process reaches equilibrium and the actual molding run has begun. This allows the molding run to start properly and then to progress to the desired equilibrium state. In some embodiments, the set point for the temperature of the thermal exchange liquid supplied to the process is also set to a higher or lower value than the temperature set point after the process reaches equilibrium. In some embodiments, instead of discrete start-up time intervals and set points the energy set point (and in some embodiments also the set point temperature supplied to the process) transitions from a starting value to the equilibrium value according to a startup profile. [0038] In various embodiments, the process is brought to equilibrium with a first energy exchange rate set point before operation of the process is started, so as to ensure that the system has reached a known and tested state. The remainder of the startup procedure is then followed under known and tested conditions. In certain embodiments, this approach applies also to situations wherein a molding run is temporarily halted, for example to remove a part which has failed to properly eject, or to make a minor repair. When the process is ready for re-start, it is initially brought from whatever untested state it has reached back to equilibrium with the first energy exchange rate set point. The remainder of the startup procedure can then be followed under known and tested conditions. [0039] In certain embodiments where the equilibrium molding temperature is lower than the start-up temperature, a heater is included in the thermal exchange liquid system, and is used to temporarily warm the thermal exchange liquid to assist in quickly bringing the mold to its calibrated starting temperature, either when a new run is started, or if a molding run is temporarily halted for some reason. In some of these embodiments the heater is a tankless water heater, and the flow rate of the thermal exchange liquid is temporarily reduced during this warm-up process so that the liquid can be heated by the heater to a specified temperature. [0040] In yet another general aspect of the present invention, the flow rate and the temperatures of the thermal control liquid to and from the process are monitored during a molding run, and a rate of energy exchange with the mold is calculated. A desired rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold is established as an energy set point, and if the characteristics of the mold, press, or circulator change, or if a different press or circulator is used, the system is adjusted so as to maintain the energy set point during each cycle. In some embodiments, the rate of energy exchange is not constant, but varies according to a desired energy set point profile during each mold cycle. In these embodiments, the system is controlled so as to maintain the desired energy exchange profile during each cycle, even if the characteristics of the apparatus change or a different press or circulator is used. [0041] In some of these embodiments the energy set point is established by operating the molding system under a selected set of initial conditions and measuring an average rate of energy exchange over a plurality of molding cycles or an otherwise specified time period. In some of these embodiments, the average is over 30 minutes or over 30 molding cycles. The averaging continues during the molding run, and the energy set point is continually adjusted according to the “rolling average” energy exchange rate. In some of these embodiments, an error response is initiated if the energy set point migrates beyond specified limits. In some of these embodiments, the error response is stopping the process, sending an error message to an operator, and/or initiating a perceptible alarm signal. [0042] In still another general aspect of the present invention, during the establishment of operating conditions for a molding run, the energy consumption of the circulator and the rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold are monitored under a variety of different flow rates and/or other sets of operating conditions. An energy consumption versus energy exchange relationship is established and used to determine the operating conditions under which thermal energy exchange with the mold has the lowest circulator electrical energy cost. In some embodiments, only the circulator pump energy consumption is monitored, while in other embodiments the total energy consumption of the circulator is monitored, including energy required to cool or heat the thermal exchange liquid. [0043] The present invention is a method for establishing initial operating conditions for a molding system, the molding system including an injection mold, die, or barrel (herein referred to as a “process”), a circulator, and a thermal exchange liquid circulated by the circulator through the process. The method includes, before beginning a first process run, accepting from a user a desired flow rate of the thermal exchange liquid and a maximum value of an operating pressure of the thermal exchange liquid, measuring and recording a flow rate value of the thermal exchange liquid for each of a plurality of values of a flow control parameter spanning a range of achievable values of the flow control parameter, said range of achievable values being limited so that no value within said range causes the operating pressure to exceed the maximum value of the operating pressure, determining from the measured flow rate values if the desired flow rate can be provided by setting the flow control parameter to a value within the range of achievable values. if the desired flow rate can be provided, setting an operating value of the flow control parameter to a value that provides the desired flow rate, if the desired flow rate cannot be provided, informing the user and taking at least one further specified action, and beginning the process run. [0044] In embodiments, the flow control parameter is an operating speed of the circulator. In some embodiments, the flow control parameter is a pressure of the thermal control liquid as it enters the process. In other embodiments, the flow control parameter is a pressure of the thermal control liquid as it exits the process. [0045] In various embodiments the flow control parameter is a difference between pressures of the thermal control liquid as it enters the process and exits the process. In certain embodiments the plurality of values of the flow control parameter includes a value that is 98% of a maximum achievable value, a value that is 90% of the maximum achievable value, and values successively reduced from said 90% value in 10% increments. [0046] Embodiments further include accepting from said user an alarm value of the operating pressure proximal to said maximum value, said alarm value being a value at which, when achieved, an alarm should be issued to said operator alerting said operator that the operating pressure is close to the maximum value. In some of these embodiments at least one further specified action includes setting the operating pressure to the alarm pressure, and informing the user as to the resulting flow rate. [0047] In some embodiments, the at least one further specified action includes setting the operating value of the flow control parameter to the value within the range of achievable values that provides a flow rate that is as close as possible to the desired flow rate, and informing the user as to the resulting flow rate. [0048] In other embodiments the at least one further specified action includes informing the user of the range of flow rates that can be achieved and the corresponding values of the flow control parameter from the range of achievable values of the flow control parameter, allowing the user to revise the desired flow rate to an achievable value, and setting the operating value of the flow control parameter to a value that provides the revised desired flow rate. [0049] In various embodiments the maximum pressure accepted from the user is not allowed to be more than a specified system maximum pressure value. [0050] Certain embodiments further include, after beginning the first process run, measuring a verification flow rate value of the thermal exchange liquid for at least one of the plurality of values of the flow control parameter, and verifying that the verification value is within a specified tolerance of the previously measured value. Some of these embodiments further include, if the verification fails, stopping the first process run and alerting an operator of the process. In other of these embodiments measuring the verification flow rate value includes temporarily pausing the first process run while the flow rate value is measured. In still other of these embodiments measurements of flow versus both pressure and pumping speed are made before beginning the first process run and are compared with verification measurements made during the first process run, and variations in pumping speed versus pressure are used to at least one of detect and anticipate an eventual requirement to refurbish or replace the circulator. [0051] Various embodiments further include, after completing the first process run and before beginning a second process run, measuring a verification flow rate value of the thermal exchange liquid for at least one of the plurality of values of the flow control parameter, and verifying that the verification value is within a specified tolerance of the corresponding value measured before beginning the first process run. Some of these embodiments further include, if the verification fails, at least one of inspecting, repairing, replacing, cleaning, and adjusting at least one element of the molding system. Other of these embodiments further include, if the verification fails, measuring and recording a new flow rate value of the thermal exchange liquid for each of the plurality of values of the flow control parameter spanning the range of achievable values of the flow control parameter, and establishing new initial operating conditions for the molding system. [0052] In still other of these embodiments a verification flow rate value is measured for each value of the thermal exchange liquid for which a flow rate value was measured before beginning the first process run, and the verification fails if any of the verification flow rate values is not within the specified tolerance of the corresponding value measured before beginning the first process run. And in yet other of these embodiments measurements of flow versus both pressure and pumping speed are made before beginning the first process run and are compared with verification measurements before beginning the second process run, and variations in pumping speed versus pressure are used to at least one of detect and anticipate an eventual requirement to refurbish or replace the circulator. [0053] The features and advantages described herein are not all-inclusive and, in particular, many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings, specification, and claims. Moreover, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and not to limit the scope of the inventive subject matter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0054] FIG. 1 is a functional diagram of a typical thermal exchange liquid circulator of the prior art; [0055] FIG. 2 is a functional diagram illustrating a thermal exchange liquid circulator according to an embodiment of the present invention, including apparatus for monitoring of the pressure, flow rate, and temperature of the thermal exchange liquid delivered to a mold, the pumping speed, the electrical energy used by the pump, and the temperature and pressure of the thermal exchange liquid returning from the process; [0056] FIG. 3A is a flow diagram illustrating steps in obtaining pumping speed versus flow rate data in an embodiment of the invention. [0057] FIG. 3B is a flow diagram illustrating steps in obtaining pressure versus flow rate data in an embodiment of the invention. [0058] FIG. 3C is a pumping speed versus flow rate curve generated using the steps of FIG. 3A according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0059] FIG. 3D is a pressure versus flow rate curve generated using the steps of FIG. 3B according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0060] FIG. 4A is a flow diagram illustrating a method of specifying a process flow rate according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0061] FIG. 4B is a flow diagram illustrating steps used in certain embodiments for verifying the identity and integrity of a mold system by comparing measurements made before a first process run with measurements made before a second process run; [0062] FIG. 4C is a flow diagram illustrating a process used in certain embodiments for monitoring the integrity of a process during a run, or verifying the continued integrity of a process after a temporary stopping of a process run. [0063] FIG. 5A presents a typical set of temperature and flow rate measurement curves measured during a mold cycle by the apparatus of FIG. 2 where the flow rate is controlled according to a shaped flow profile; [0064] FIG. 5B presents a typical set of temperature and flow rate measurement curves measured during a mold cycle by the apparatus of FIG. 2 , where the flow is applied in a burst mode having a fixed flow amplitude beginning at a user-specified time during each cycle and continuing for a user-specified duration, there being substantially no flow except during the bursts; [0065] FIG. 6 presents a typical curve showing the approach to start-up equilibrium of a selected point from the temperature curve of FIG. 5A in successive mold cycles; [0066] FIG. 7A illustrates a visible indication presented by the circulator in an embodiment of the present invention indicating that the temperature of thermal exchange liquid returned from the process is below the equilibrium value; [0067] FIG. 7B illustrates a visible indication presented by the circulator in the embodiment of FIG. 7A indicating that the temperature of thermal exchange liquid returned from the process is above the equilibrium value; [0068] FIG. 7C illustrates a visible indication presented by the circulator in the embodiment of FIG. 7A indicating that the temperature of thermal exchange liquid returned from the process is within a specified maximum offset from the equilibrium value; [0069] FIG. 7D illustrates a simple visible indication presented by the circulator in an embodiment indicating that the temperature of thermal exchange liquid returned from the process is within a specified maximum offset from the equilibrium value, the indication begin given without any reference to a direction of approach to equilibrium; [0070] FIG. 8A is a typical energy exchange curve calculated over a mold cycle according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0071] FIG. 8B is a graph which illustrates startup time intervals and energy exchange rate set points during a startup phase of a molding run according to an embodiment of the present invention; and [0072] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of regulating energy exchange between a thermal exchange liquid and a process according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0073] With reference to FIG. 1 , a thermal exchange liquid circulator system 100 is commonly used in the plastics, metals, ceramics, and die cast molding industries to control the operating temperatures of a mold, die, or injection barrel (generically referred to herein as the “mold” or the “process”). These circulator systems 100 typically include a rotary pump 102 or other mechanism for circulating a thermal exchange liquid through the mold, die, or injection barrel, as well as a mechanism 104 for cooling the thermal exchange liquid, such as a chilled water direct injection system 104 , a built-in chiller, a heat exchanger in thermal communication with a central chilling system, or a water tower evaporative cooling system. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1 , the circulator further includes a heater 106 , and a touch pad microprocessor control system 110 . [0074] Circulators 100 such as the example illustrated in FIG. 1 provide varying degrees of control over the temperature and flow rate of the thermal exchange liquid to the process. In an attempt to monitor the actual conditions in the mold and to thereby detect and/or compensate for changes in the apparatus, raw materials, or environment, one or more temperature sensors (not shown) are sometimes placed in the mold and monitored either by a human operator who controls the circulator 100 , or by the automatic control system 110 of the circulator 100 , which adjusts the rate of cooling (typically the temperature set point to the process) according to the temperatures measured in the mold in an attempt to establish and maintain a stable and repeatable mold temperature. [0075] However, temperature sensors in the mold are necessarily separated from the substance being molded, and can only measure local temperatures within the mold itself, which typically has a very high thermal mass. This prevents the sensors from providing accurate indications of the actual temperature of the molded material. Also, there is typically a considerable time lag before a change in temperature of the molded material is indirectly detected by the temperature sensors. This can cause compensating actions of the circulator 100 to be significantly delayed, and can lead to overreactions of the circulator 100 whereby the stability of the system is made worse by the attempts to regulate the mold temperature. In addition, the temperatures sensors can record temperatures only at one or at a few discrete locations, and may not give an adequate measurement of the overall temperature status of the process. [0076] With reference to FIG. 2 , in various embodiments the present invention includes apparatus to measure the pressure 200 , flow rate 202 and/or temperature 204 of the thermal exchange liquid supplied to the process, and/or the temperature 206 and pressure 207 of the thermal exchange liquid as it emerges from the process and returns to the circulator 200 . Embodiments also include measurement of the energy consumed by the circulator, including the energy 208 consumed by the pump 102 and in some embodiments also by the chiller (not shown). Some embodiments include measurement of the pumping speed 209 . In the embodiment of FIG. 2 , a fixed displacement pump 210 is used to drive the thermal exchange liquid. [0077] With reference to FIG. 3A , in embodiments after assembling and preparing the system, a series of measurements of flow 202 versus pumping speed 209 are made over a wide range of pumping speeds. The pumping speed 209 is initially set to a high value, which in the embodiment of FIG. 3A is 98% of the maximum pumping speed 300 . The system is allowed to stabilize 302 , and then the flow 202 value is recorded 304 . The pumping speed 209 is then reduced to 90% of the maximum 306 , the system is again allowed to stabilize 308 , and another measurement of the flow rate 202 is recorded 310 . The pumping speed 209 is then reduced by 10% 312 , and the process is continued in increments of 10% until the pumping speed 209 is below 10% of the maximum 314 , at which point the measurements are terminated 316 . [0078] With reference to FIG. 3B , in similar embodiments after assembling and preparing the system, a series of measurements of flow 202 versus pressure 200 are made over a wide range of pressures. The pressure 200 is initially set to a high value, which in the embodiment of FIG. 3A is 98% of the maximum pressure 318 . The system is allowed to stabilize 320 , and then the flow value is recorded 322 . The pressure 200 is then reduced to 90% of the maximum 324 , the system is again allowed to stabilize 326 , and another measurement of the flow 202 rate is recorded 328 . The pressure 200 is then reduced by 10% 330 , and the process is continued in increments of 10% until the pressure 200 is below 10% of the maximum 332 , at which point the measurements are terminated 334 . [0079] With reference to FIGS. 3C and 3D , the measurement results are used to create a pumping speed versus flow curve 336 and/or a pressure versus flow curve 340 for the system. Note that unless the context specifically requires otherwise, the term “pressure” is used herein to refer to any of the pressure supplied to the process, the pressure returning from the process, and the differential pressure defined as the difference between the pressure supplied to the process and the pressure returning from the process. [0080] With reference to FIG. 4A , in one general aspect of the present invention, for a specific configuration of a process apparatus, the user is allowed to enter a desired flow rate as well as a maximum pressure, and in some embodiments also an “alarm pressure” at which an alarm should be issued notifying the operator that the system is approaching its maximum pressure 400 . The pumping speed 209 versus flow rate 202 and/or the pressure to the process 200 , pressure from the process 207 or the difference between the two pressures (the differential pressure) versus the flow rate 202 of the thermal exchange liquid are measured 402 over a range of conditions, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B . [0081] The measured data 336 , 340 are then used to determine if the desired flow rate is achievable 404 without exceeding the maximum pressure or a maximum pumping speed. If not, then in the embodiment of FIG. 4A the operating flow is set to the flow achieved at the alarm pressure 406 (which provides a flow rate as close to the desired flow rate as possible without exceeding the maximum pressure). The user is then informed of the maximum available flow rate and is invited to adjust the operating conditions accordingly 408 . Finally, the process is initiated 410 . If the desired flow rate is achieved at a pressure below the alarm pressure, then the operating flow rate is set to the desired flow rate 412 and the process is initiated 410 . [0082] In embodiments, the control system also includes a factory-specified maximum pressure, and will not accept user specified pressures that exceed that limit. [0083] With reference to FIG. 4B , in some embodiments the measured pumping speed versus flow 336 and/or pressure versus flow 340 data is used as a “fingerprint” for identifying the specific apparatus and configuration and verifying its status. During initial setup, a pumping speed versus flow curve 336 and/or a pressure versus flow curve 340 is measured 414 . The process is then initiated 416 . [0084] If at some later time it is desired that the previous process be repeated, the hardware previously used (or hardware identical thereto) is gathered and assembled 418 , and a measurement 420 of at least one pumping speed versus flow rate value 338 or pressure versus flow rate value 342 , typically from a middle portion of the measured curve 336 , 340 , is repeated and compared to the value or values obtained during the original process run 422 to ensure that the same or identical equipment is being used, and that the thermal exchange liquid circulation system has not changed or degraded since the process was previously run. In embodiments, the entire pumping speed versus flow curve 306 and/or pressure versus flow curve 302 measurements are repeated and compared. If the measured points agree with the original points to within a certain tolerance 422 , then the process run is allowed to proceed 424 . If not, then the hardware is inspected, repaired, replaced, cleaned, or otherwise adjusted, and the selected points are re-measured 420 . In similar embodiments, the entire pumping speed versus flow curve 336 and/or the complete pressure versus flow rate curve 340 is re-measured and compared with the originally measured curve(s). [0085] In some embodiments, once the initial pumping speed versus flow data set 336 and/or pressure-versus-flow data set 340 has been established 426 and the process has been started 428 , values 338 , 342 from the data curves 336 , 340 are periodically re-measured 432 and compared to the initial data set 302 , 306 so as to detect if any hardware degradation, changes, or failures have taken place during the run. If the measured points agree with the initially measured points to within a specified tolerance 434 , then the process is allowed to proceed 428 . If not, the process is stopped 436 and an operator is alerted. In certain embodiments, if the process run is temporarily paused and then re-started for some reason 430 , the re-measurement 432 and comparison 434 can be used to determine if the pause or if any adjustments made during the pause led to any degradation or change in the system. [0086] In embodiments, measurements of flow versus both pumping speed 336 and pressure 340 are made before beginning the process run, and are repeated during the process run, so that variations in pumping speed versus pressure can be used to detect and/or anticipate an eventual requirement to refurbish or replace the circulator. [0087] Other general aspects of the present invention include measurement of the flow rate and the temperatures of the thermal exchange liquid to the process 204 and from the process 206 . FIG. 5 illustrates a typical set of measured points and associated curves obtained using the apparatus of FIG. 2 during a single process cycle for an embodiment in which the circulator 200 maintains the temperature to the process 500 at a substantially constant value during the cycle (in some embodiments within 0.1° F.), while the flow rate 502 is intentionally varied in a specified manner according to a pre-determined flow rate profile. The temperature from the process 504 varies during the molding cycle according to thermal factors associated with the molding process and the ambient environment, as well as in response to changes in the cooling flow supplied by the circulator 200 . At equilibrium, the curve 504 indicating temperature from the process repeats the same pattern of variation during each molding cycle. [0088] With reference to FIG. 5B , in some embodiments the thermal exchange liquid is applied in a “burst” mode where the flow is either on or off, and the user is able to control only the start time Ts and/or the duration Td of the burst during each cycle. In embodiments, the bursts are generated by controlling the operation of a fixed displacement pump, instead of or in addition to controlling a valve. In some embodiments, a graphical representation of the burst pulse location and duration within a cycle is presented to the user, and in some of these embodiments the user can adjust the starting time and duration by using a pointing device to adjust the graphical representation. [0089] In various embodiments, during initial startup of a molding run, the temperature supplied to the process and the flow rate are held at constant values, and a point 506 on the curve 504 of the temperature from the process is monitored from one molding cycle to the next. As illustrated in FIG. 6 , the value of the monitored temperature point 506 varies from one cycle to the next, and the measured values form a start-up curve 600 which approaches an equilibrium value. After a certain number of cycles 602 , the measured points will not vary beyond a specified tolerance 604 , and the system is deemed to have reached start-up equilibrium, whereby the product can be retained and used. Since the flow rate and temperature to the process are regulated to constant values or to repeated and well defined profiles, monitoring from cycle to cycle of the temperature from the process is equivalent to monitoring the rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold, and start-up equilibrium is deemed to have been reached when the energy exchange rate is constant to within a specified tolerance. [0090] FIG. 7A illustrates a visual indication presented on the circulator control display 112 in some embodiments when the measured temperature or calculated energy exchange rate is below its equilibrium value, FIG. 7B illustrates a visual indication presented on the circulator control display 112 in some embodiments when the measured temperature or calculated energy exchange rate is above its equilibrium value, and FIG. 7C illustrates a visual indication presented on the circulator control display 112 in some embodiments when the measured temperature or calculated energy exchange rate is within the specified tolerance range 604 of its equilibrium value. FIG. 7D illustrates a similar embodiment where a single illuminated indication 700 and text label 702 indicate when equilibrium has been achieved, without providing any indication as to whether the temperature or energy exchange rate is rising or falling as the system approaches equilibrium. [0091] In some embodiments, monitoring of the temperature points 506 from the process and/or the energy exchange rate (on a selected point or cycle average basis) continues during the run, so as to detect any unexpected changes or deviations of the system, for example due to degradation or clogging of a cooling line, a change in the properties of the raw material introduced into the mold, a change in ambient conditions such as the surrounding temperature, and such like. If the points 506 vary beyond the specified tolerance range 604 , the process is halted and/or an operator is alerted. [0092] In various embodiments, during set up of a molding run the temperature to the process 500 , the temperature from the process 504 , and the flow rate 502 are used to calculate the average rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold during each cycle. At the same time, the energy consumption 208 of the circulator pump and/or of the complete circulator system is monitored, and compared with the energy exchange rate. The flow rate 502 and/or temperature to the process 500 are then varied above and below initially selected values to determine conditions of maximum cooling efficiency whereby the quantity of energy exchanged with the mold per BTU (or equivalent unit) of circulator energy consumption is a maximum. In many instances, this provides the most energy efficient operating conditions for the circulator. [0093] While there are advantages to repeating a molding run under conditions which are virtually identical to a previous run, this is not always possible. And even if the same circulator conditions can be nominally reproduced, there can still be variations in the process and environment such as changes in ambient temperature, changes in the physical or chemical properties of the raw materials introduced into the mold, and short or long term degradation in the cooling system. For these and other reasons, it can be desirable to monitor and control the actual thermal environment within in the mold during each molding cycle. As has been discussed above, one approach of the prior art is to provide temperature sensors in the mold, and attempt to manually or automatically respond to temperature changes detected by these sensors. However, such measurements are necessarily indirect and significantly delayed as compared to what is actually happening in the mold. They are also necessarily limited to one or to only a few locations within the mold, and may not provide an accurate representation of the thermal state of the overall mold system. [0094] With reference to FIG. 8A , embodiments of the present invention monitor energy exchange with the mold 800 as a direct and responsive method for characterizing and controlling the thermal status of the mold during each mold cycle. In these embodiments, the flow rate and the temperatures of the thermal exchange liquid to and from the process are measured, and the energy exchange ΔE is calculated according to the equation [0000] Δ E =( T out −T in )* m*C p   (1) [0000] where T out is the temperature from the process, T in is the temperature as supplied to the process, m is the mass flow rate of the thermal exchange liquid circulating through the mold, and C p is the specific heat of the thermal exchange liquid. Since liquids are mainly incompressible, m can typically be determined from the flow rate and known properties of the thermal exchange liquid. In some embodiments, the effects of temperature and/or the pressure are also included in the determination of m. [0095] In some embodiments it is desirable to operate a process at a high rate of speed, so as to produce product as rapidly as possible. This necessarily requires that heat be removed from (or added to) the mold at a high rate. The equilibrium temperature of the mold will depend on a balance between the rate at which raw material is added to the mold, and the rate at which heat is exchanged between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold. However, it is usual to begin circulation of the thermal exchange liquid through the mold well before a molding run is started. This means that when the molding run is first started, the mold will typically be at a temperature which is approximately equal to the temperature of the thermal exchange liquid, which may be too cold (or too warm) for the molding process. In extreme cases, the plastic or other raw material may harden too quickly and fail to completely fill the mold, or it may fail to harden by the end of the molding cycle. In either case, the molded material may fail to eject properly, and may cause a failure of the process to start. [0096] In certain embodiments where the temperature of the thermal exchange liquid during a process run is lower than temperature of the process itself, a heater is included in the thermal exchange liquid system, and is used to temporarily warm the thermal exchange liquid to assist in quickly bringing the mold to its calibrated starting temperature, either when a new run is started, or if a molding run is temporarily halted for some reason. In some of these embodiments the heater is a tankless water heater, and the flow rate of the thermal exchange liquid is temporarily reduced during this warm-up process so that the liquid can be heated by the heater to a specified temperature. [0097] With reference to FIG. 8B , in some embodiments of the present invention the rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the mold is monitored and controlled as the circulator is operated, and one or more start-up time intervals 802 , 804 , are defined during which the energy exchange rate set point 806 , 808 is set to relatively lower values than the equilibrium set point 810 . In some embodiments, the set point of the temperature to the process is also set to relatively higher or lower values than the equilibrium set point. Then, during a final setup time interval 812 the energy exchange rate set point 810 (and in embodiments also the set point of the temperature to the process) is set to the equilibrium value and the process is allowed to reach thermal equilibrium, after which the actual molding run is begun 814 . This method allows the molding run to start properly and then to progress to the desired equilibrium state in an energy controlled manner. In some embodiments, instead of discrete start-up time intervals 802 , 804 , 812 and set points 806 , 808 , 810 the energy set point (and in some embodiments also the set point of the temperature to the process) transitions from a starting value 806 to the equilibrium value 810 according to a startup profile. [0098] In various embodiments, the process is brought to equilibrium during the first time interval 802 with the first energy exchange rate set point 806 before operation of the process is started, so as to ensure that the process has reached a known and tested state before operation is attempted. The remainder of the startup procedure 804 , 812 then takes place under known and tested conditions. In certain embodiments, this approach applies also to situations wherein a molding run is temporarily halted, for example to remove a part which has failed to properly eject, or to make a minor repair. When the process is ready for re-start, during the first time interval 802 it is brought from whatever untested state it has reached back to equilibrium with the first energy exchange rate set point 806 . The remainder of the startup procedure 804 , 812 can then be followed under known and tested conditions. In embodiments, the approach to equilibrium with each of the energy set points during the startup procedure is indicated to an operator by visual indications such as those illustrated in FIGS. 7A through 7C . In other embodiments, only the final achievement of equilibrium is indicated, as illustrated in FIG. 7D . [0099] With reference to FIG. 9 , in some embodiments the energy exchange rate between the thermal exchange liquid and the process is monitored during each molding cycle and the temperature to the process and/or flow rate or pumping rate of the circulator is controlled so as to ensure that the average energy exchange rate equals a desired set point exchange rate, or that the energy exchange curve faithfully reproduces a desired energy set point energy exchange profile. In some embodiments, a temperature set point is established 900 and the temperature of the thermal exchange liquid supplied to the process is regulated to the set point 902 , in some embodiments to within +/−0.1° F. A flow rate set point is also established 904 and the flow rate is controlled to the set point, using a controlled valve and/or a positive displacement pump (P. D. pump) driven by a programmable, speed controlled motor (S. C. motor) 906 . [0100] The actual temperatures of the thermal exchange liquid to the process 908 and from the process 910 are measured, as well as the actual flow rate 912 , and these measurements are used to calculate the actual rate of energy exchange between the thermal exchange liquid and the process 914 . In embodiments, the actual energy exchange rate is averaged over a molding cycle 916 or over some other selected period, and the average is compared to a desired set point energy exchange rate 918 , and the difference ΔE is determined 920 . Accordingly, the flow rate set point is adjusted 924 so as to regulate the energy exchange rate to the energy set point. In some embodiments, the adjustment is equal to less than ΔE 922 (e.g. 0.5 times ΔE), so that hypothetically if no further fluctuations occurred (and in practice this is unlikely), the average energy exchange rate over the measured cycle and more than one additional cycle (e.g. two additional cycles) would be equal to the set point. [0101] In some embodiments, the energy exchange rate set point is established as a fixed value. In other embodiments, the energy set point is established and updated during the molding run as a rolling average, whereby after each molding cycle (or after each of some other time interval, such as every minute for some extrusion or other continuous processes), an average actual energy exchange rate over that cycle is combined with averages over a plurality of previous cycles or intervals, such as an average over 30 total cycles 926 , so as to calculate a “rolling” or “moving” average which is used to update the energy set point 928 every molding cycle or other interval (e.g. every minute for some continuous processes). The energy set point is thereby always equal to an average of the actual energy exchange rate over a most recent fixed number of intervals, such as the most recent 30 molding cycles. [0102] According to this approach, the energy set point may slowly change during a molding run. In some of these embodiments, if the energy set point evolves beyond an established set of boundaries 930 , then a specified action is triggered, such as stopping the process, notifying an operator (e.g. by email or text message), and/or triggering an audible and/or visible alarm 932 . [0103] The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of this disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto.

In a method for thermally controlling a mold, initial measurements of flow versus pressure or pumping speed for a thermal exchange liquid are used to select an achievable flow within a maximum pressure. Subsequently, the system's identity and integrity are verified by repeating at least one measurement before and/or during a process run. An energy exchange rate can be adjusted to a moving average over preceding cycles. Thermal equilibrium can be detected by sensing changes in temperature to or from the process, or in energy exchange rates, from cycle to cycle. An energy exchange rate set point can be set to an initial value during startup, and then reset to an equilibrium value. Energy efficient operating conditions can be determined by comparing circulator energy consumption with thermal energy exchange rates over a range of flow rates and/or temperatures to the process. Cooling flow pulse timing can be graphically adjusted.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS Subject patent application is related to our previous filed U.S. Patent Applications entitled CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD USING COMBINED INFORMATION TESTING (Ser. No. 08/858,186, filing date of 2 May 1997) and DATA REDUCTION SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING CLASSIFIER PERFORMANCE (Ser. No. 09/285,173, filing date of 18 Mar. 1999) are incorporated herein by reference. STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by of for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the Invention The present invention relates to system and more specifically to a classification technique which combines the information in training data (of known characteristics) and test data to infer about the true symbol probabilities prior to making a classification decision. In particular, it is related to an automatic feature selection system for data (training of known classes and input data of an known classes) containing missing values. (2) Description of the Prior Art The use of classification systems to classify input data into one of several predetermined classes is well known. Their use has been adapted to a wide range applications including target identification as a threat and non-threat conditions, medical diagnosis, speech recognition, digital communications and quality control systems. For a given input X, classification systems decide to which of several output classes does the input X belong. If known, measurable characteristics separate classes, the classification decision is straightforward. However, for most applications, such characteristics are unknown, and the classification system must decide which output class does the input X most closely resemble. In such applications, the output classes and their characteristics are modeled (estimated) using statistics for the classes derived from training data belonging to known classes. Thus, the standard classification approach is to first estimate the statistics from the given training data belonging to known classes and then to apply a decision rule using these estimated or modeled statistics. However, often there is insufficient training data belonging to known classes i.e., having known characteristics to accurately infer the true statistics for the output classes which results in reduced classification performance or more occurrences of classification errors. Additionally, any new information that arrives with the input data is not combined with the training data to improve the estimates of the symbol probabilities. Furthermore, changes in symbol probabilities resulting from unobservable changes in the source of test data, the sensors gathering data and the environment often result in reduced classification performance. Therefore, if based on the training data a classification system maintains a near zero probability for the occurrence of a symbol and the symbol begins to occur in the input data with increasing frequency, classification errors are likely to occur if the new data is not used in determining symbol probabilities. Attempts to improve the classification performance and take advantage of information available in test data have involved combining the test data with the training data in modeling class statistics and making classification decisions. While these attempts have indicated that improved classification performance is possible, they have one or more drawbacks which limit or prevent their use for many classification systems. One early approach to combining the training and test data to estimate class statistics is described in A. Nædas, “Optimal Solution of a Training Problem in Speech Recognition,” IEEE Trans. Acoust., Speech, Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-33, no. 1 (1985), pp. 326-329. In Nædas, the input (test) data which comprised a sample to be classified was combined with the training data to obtain an estimate of the probability distribution for each of the classes. However, the result in Nædas showed that combining the test sample with the training data did not provide improved performance but resulted in classification decision based on a standard general likelihood ratio test. It is known in prior art artificial intelligence systems to reduce data complexity by grouping data into worlds with shared similar attributes. This grouping of the data helps separate relevant data from redundant data using a co-exclusion technique. These methods search saved data for events that do not happen at the same time. This results in a memory saving for the systems because only the occurrence of the event must be recorded. The co-exclusive event can be assumed. Bayesian networks, also known as belief networks are known in the art for use as filtering systems. The belief network is initially learned by the system from data provided by an expert, user data and user preference data. The belief network is relearned when additional attributes are identified having an effect. The belief network can then be accessed to predict the effect. A method for reducing redundant features from training data is needed for reducing the training times required for a neural network and providing a system that does not require long training times or a randomized starting configuration. Thus, what is needed is a classification system which can be easily and readily implemented, and is readily adaptable to various applications and which uses all the available data including the information in the training data and test data to estimate the true symbol probabilities prior to making a classification decision. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a general purpose and object of the present invention to provide a classifier which uses the information in the training and test data to estimate the true symbol probabilities wherein either the test data or the training data or both have missing values in it. Another object of the present invention is to provide a classification system and method which uses quantized training data and test data with missing values therein to re-estimate symbol probabilities before each classification decision. Yet another object of the present invention is the provision of a classification system which depends only on the available training data and test data with missing values therein and is readily implemented and easily adapted to a variety of classification applications. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a combined classification system which combines the test data having missing values and the training data to simultaneously estimate the symbol probabilities for all output classes and classify the test data. These and other objects made apparent hereinafter are accomplished with the present invention by providing a combined classification system which combines the information available in the training data and test data having missing values to estimate (or model). This invention thus provides another object of the invention is that such classification system should not include redundant and ineffectual data. A further object of the invention is to provide a method for reducing feature vectors to only those values which affect the outcome of the classification. Accordingly, this invention provides a data reduction method for a classification system using quantized feature vectors for each class with a plurality of features and levels. The reduction algorithm consisting of applying a Bayesian data reduction algorithm to the classification system for developing reduced feature vectors. Test data is then quantified into the reduced feature vectors. The reduced classification system is then tested using the quantized test data. A Bayesian data reduction algorithm is further provided having by computing an initial probability of error for the classification system. Adjacent levels are merged for each feature in the quantized feature vectors. Level based probabilities of error are then calculated for these merged levels among the plurality of features. The system then selects and applies the merged adjacent levels having the minimum level based probability of error to create an intermediate classification system. Steps of merging, selecting and applying are performed until either the probability of error stops improving or the features and levels are incapable of further reduction. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A more complete understanding of the invention and many of the attendant advantages thereto will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals and symbols designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views and wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating implementation of subject invention; and FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the details of the Bayesian Data Reduction Algorithm (BDRA). DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The data reduction system 10 is illustrated in the FIG. 1 . This figure provides a functional block diagram of the major components of the data reduction system. Intended users of this system should implement it using FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and the associated formulas and algorithms described below, by writing a computer program in the language of their choice. In block 12 of the data reduction system all training data for each class are represented as quantized feature vectors. The classification can have two or more classes. In the case when there are two classes such as threat and non-threat conditions, there are N target quantized feature vectors for the target class and N nontarget quantized feature vectors for the nontarget class. Each feature vector is quantized by mapping it to a symbol. There are M possible symbols representing the number of discrete levels for a specific feature multiplied by the number of discrete levels for each feature. For example, a feature vector having three binary valued features can take on one of M=8 possible discrete symbols given by; (0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 1), . . . , (1, 1, 1). In some cases, either one or all of the features will be continuous, and these features must then be discretized before the vectors are mapped to one of the M possible symbols. If a given set of thresholds does not exist for discretizing a particular feature then the feature should be discretized into a sufficient number of levels via percentiles. Ten discrete levels has been found to be adequate for most continuous features; however, other levels can be established depending on the sensitivity of the system to the feature vector and the capacity of the computer performing the data reduction. That is, to discretize a feature into ten levels its training data are used to define ten thresholds corresponding to ten percentile regions (e.g., the first threshold is found such that 10 percent of the data are less than it in value). This procedure is then repeated for the remaining continuous features. Notice also that there is no specified limit to the number of features used in the data reduction system. If the computational limits of the computer platform allow, using all known features is best. However, the same features must be used for each class, but it is not necessary that the initial quantization of each feature be the same. Block 12 of FIG. 1, the quantized feature vectors of the training data for each class are assumed to be made up of either or both of the following two observation types: features which are represented by discrete values, and missing features which have no values (and represented by the same dummy variable). For example, with three binary features a possible feature vector that is missing a single feature might appear as (1,1,x), where x represents the missing value. In this case, x can have the value of 0 or 1 so that this feature vector has a cardinality (which depends on the number of discrete levels assigned to each feature) of two. Notice, the missing features are assumed to appear according to an unknown probability distribution. The missing feature information can be modeled using two different approaches in step 14 for both the training data provided in step 12 and the test data provided in step 17 . With the first of these approaches (Method 1), the Dirichlet prior is extended to accommodate missing features in the natural way. That is, each missing feature is assumed to be uniformly distributed over its range of values. For example, in the previous paragraph, the feature vector (1,1,x) is assigned to both values associated with its cardinality, and they are both considered equally likely to occur. In the second approach (Method 2), the number of discrete levels for each feature is increased by one so that all missing values for that feature are assigned to the same level (M must also be appropriately increased). Again returning to the feature vector (1,1,x) of the previous paragraph, in this case the dummy variable x would be assigned a single value of 2. Observe that Method 2 is a better model when the missing feature information is relevant to correctly classifying the data. In general, the specific method chosen to deal with missing features depends upon the level of prior knowledge existing about the data (for more on this on this see the publications in Section 7, Part I, of the disclosure). Typically, if no prior knowledge about the data is available, or, if missing feature values are no more likely to occur with one class than they are with another, then Method 1 should be used. However, if it is known a priori that missing features are more likely to occur in one of the classes then Method 2 should be used, as the missing feature values represent relevant classification information. Block 14 of FIG. 1 represents the Bayesian Data Reduction Algorithm (BDRA) is simultaneously applied to the quantized training data of all classes. The input of the quantized test data and the test performance of trained classifier are represented in block 17 and 18 respectively in FIG. 1 . The algorithm uses the Dirichlet distribution as a noninformative prior. The Dirichlet respresents all symbol probabilities as uniformly-distributed over the positive unit-hyperplane. Using this prior, the algorithm works by reducing the quantization fineness, M, to a level which minimizes the average conditional probability of error, P(e). The formula for P(e) is the fundamental component of this algorithm, and in its typical form, which is also the form used for Method 2, it is given by f     ( z ) = ∫ p    ∏ i = 1 N     [ ∑ l ∈ w i       p l ]     f     ( p )      p ( 1 ) where, in the following k and l are exchangeable. This formula is applicable when the missing feature values are incremental i.e., as described above as method 2. However, for uniform distribution of missing feature values i.e., method 1, the following formula should be used. f     ( y | w k , H k ) = ( N k + M - 1 ) !     ( N y ) ! ( N k + N y + M - 1 ) !     ∏ i = 1 M     ( ∑       j     ɛ     s i     1  ω     kj  + y i ) ! ( ∑       j     ɛ     s i     1  ω     kj  ) !     ( y i ) ! where ω y,j is a single observation of a feature vector in the test data and |ω y,j | is its cardinality S y,i is defined as the event of being all those ω y,j that can take on symbol i. ω k,j is a single observation of a feature vector for class k, and |ω k,j | is its cardinality. S i is defined as the event of being all those ω k,j that can take is on symbol i for class k. z k = f     ( y | x k , H k ) = N y !     ( N k + M - 1 ) ! ( N k + N y + M - 1 ) !     ∏ i = 1 M     ( χ k , i + y i ) ! χ k , i !  Y i ! ; k,l ε{target, nontarget}, and k≠l; H k :{right arrow over (P)} y ={right arrow over (P)} k ; M is the number of discrete symbols; X≡(x k , x k ) is all training data; x k,j is the number of i th symbol in the training data for class and N k {N k =Σ i=1 M x k,j }; y i is the number of i th symbol type in the test data and N y {N y ≐Σ i=1 M y i }; The use of the modified BDRA is shown in FIG. 2 wherein given formula (1), the algorithm is implemented by using the following iterative steps as shown in FIG. 2 . In block 20 , using the initial training data with quantization M, formula (1) is used to compute P(e|X; M). In step 22 , a feature is selected arbitrarily, and then a two adjacent levels of the feature are selected in block 24 . Block 26 merges the training data of those adjacent quantized symbols. In the binary case, quantized symbols containing a binary zero with are combined with those containing a binary one effectively removing the feature. In the continuous case, two levels are merged into one level removing the distinction between the two levels. Block 28 uses the newly merged training data, X′, and the new quantization, M′, and again computes P(e|X′; M′). Step 30 is a loop wherein Blocks 22 through 28 are repeated for all adjacent feature quantizing levels, and all remaining features. The algorithm then selects the merged configuration having the minimum probability of error, P(e|X′; M′) in block 32 from the probabilities computed in block 28 . The configuration with the minimum probability of error (or maximum probability of recognition) is then used as the new training data configuration for each class (i.e., the new quantization, and its associated discrete levels and thresholds for each feature). Block 34 is another loop which repeats blocks 22 through 32 until the probability of error decreases no further, or until features can no longer be reduced, i.e. M′=2. In cases when the several probabilities are the same, the minimum can be selected arbitrarily. As an alternative the multiple configurations each having the same minimum probabilities can all be applied. By applying all configurations, computer processing time can be reduced at some increase in error. Accordingly, arbitrary selection of a single configuration is the preferred alternative. Observe that the algorithm described above is “greedy” in that it chooses a best training data configuration at each iteration (see block 34 above) in the process of determining a best quantization fineness. A global search over all possible merges and corresponding training data configurations may in some cases provide a lower probability of error at a higher computational cost. However, a simulation study involving hundreds of independent trials revealed that only about three percent of the time did the “greedy” approach shown above produce results different than a global approach. Additionally, the overall average probability of error for the two approaches differed by only an insignificant amount. When the Bayesian data reduction algorithm finds the new quantization fineness upon completion of block 34 in FIG. 2, this new configuration can be established as in block 36 . The resulting trained classifier can be tested as block 17 of FIG. 1 . To test the classifier all test data from block 17 are now quantized using the remaining features, and their associated discrete levels and threshold settings that were found in step 12 for the training data. An advantage of the Bayesian data reduction algorithm of the current invention is that it permanently reduces, or eliminates, irrelevant and redundant features (as opposed to appropriately adjusting the weights of a neural network and keeping all features) from the training data. Thus, with the current invention features are important to correct classification are highlighted. With this, the algorithm presented here does not require the long training times that can accompany a neural network, nor does it require a randomized starting configuration. In light of the above, it is therefore understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

An automatic feature selection system for test data with data (including the test data and/or the training data containing missing values in order to improve classifier performance. The missing features for such data are selected in one of two ways: first approach assumes each missing feature is uniformly distributed over its range of values whereas in the second approach, the number of discrete levels for each feature is increased by one for the missing features. These two choices modify the Bayesian Data Reduction Algorithm accordingly used for the automatic feature selection.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 08/087,136 filed Jul. 2, 1993, now U.S. Pat No. 5,523,492, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 07/673,289, filed Mar. 19, 1991, now abandoned. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a preparation of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymer which has an improved toxicity and efficacy profile. The present invention also includes polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymers with a polydispersity value of less than approximately 1.05. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Certain polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers have been found to have beneficial biological effects when administered to a human or animal. These beneficial biological effects are summarized as follows: Polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene Copolymers as Rheologic Agents The copolymers can be used for treating circulatory diseases either alone or in combination with other compounds, including but not limited to, fibrinolytic enzymes, anticoagulants, free radical scavengers, antiinflammatory agents, antibiotics, membrane stabilizers and/or perfusion media. These activities have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,801,452, 4,873,083, 4,879,109, 4,837,014, 4,897,263, 5,064,643; 5,028,599; 5,047,236; 5,089,260; 5,017,370; 5,078,995; 5,032,394; 5,041,288; 5,071,649; 5,039,520; 5,030,448; 4,997,644; 4,937,070; 5,080,894; and 4,937,070, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. The polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers have been shown to have quite extraordinary therapeutic activities. The surface-active copolymers are useful for treating pathologic hydrophobic interactions in blood and other biological fluids of humans and animals. This includes the use of a surface-active copolymer for treatment of diseases and conditions in which resistance to blood flow is pathologically increased by injury due to the presence of adhesive hydrophobic proteins or damaged membranes. This adhesion is produced by pathological hydrophobic interactions and does not require the interaction of specific ligands with their receptors. Such proteins and/or damaged membranes increase resistance in the microvasculature by increasing friction and reducing the effective radius of the blood vessel. It is believed that the most important of these proteins is soluble fibrin. Pathological hydrophobic interactions can be treated by administering to the animal or human suffering from a condition caused by a pathological hydrophobic interaction an effective amount of a surface-active copolymer. The surface-active copolymer may be administered as a solution by itself or it may by administered with another agent, including, but not limited to, a fibrinolytic enzyme, an anticoagulant, or an oxygen radical scavenger. The method described in the foregoing patents comprises administering to an animal or human an effective amount of a surface-active copolymer with the following general formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein a is an integer such that the hydrophobe represented by (C 3 H 6 O) has a molecular weight of approximately 950 to 4000 daltons, preferably about 1200 to 3500 daltons, and b is an integer such that the hydrophile portion represented by (C 2 H 4 O) constitutes approximately 50% to 95% by weight of the compound. A preferred surface-active copolymer is a copolymer having the following formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) is approximately 1750 daltons and the total molecular weight of the compound is approximately 8400 daltons. The surface-active copolymer is effective in any condition where there is a pathological hydrophobic interaction between cells and/or molecules. These interactions are believed to be caused by 1) a higher than normal concentration of fibrinogen, 2) generation of intravascular or local soluble fibrin, especially high molecular weight fibrin, 3) increased friction in the microvasculature, or 4) mechanical or chemical trauma to blood components. All of these conditions cause an increase in pathological hydrophobic interactions of blood components such as cells and molecules. It is believed that fibrin, especially soluble fibrin, increases adhesion of cells to one another, markedly increases friction in small blood vessels and increases viscosity of the blood, especially at low shear rates. The effects of the surface-active copolymer are believed to be essentially lubrication effects because they reduce the friction caused by the adhesion. Although not wanting to be bound by the following hypothesis, it is believed that the surface-active copolymer acts according to the following mechanism: Hydrophobic interactions are crucial determinants of biologic structure. They hold the phospholipids together in membranes and protein molecules in their native configurations. An understanding of the biology of the surface-active copolymer is necessary to appreciate the biologic activities of the compound. Water is a strongly hydrogen bonding liquid which, in its fluid state, forms bonds in all directions with surrounding molecules. Exposure of a hydrophobic surface, defined as any surface which forms insufficient bonds with water, produces a surface tension or lack of balance in the hydrogen bonding of water molecules. This force can be exceedingly strong. The surface tension of pure water is approximately 82 dynes/cm. This translates into a force of several hundred thousand pounds per square inch on the surface molecules. As two molecules or particles with hydrophobic surfaces approach, they adhere avidly. This adhesion is driven by the reduction in free energy which occurs when water molecules transfer from the stressed non-hydrogen bonding hydrophobic surface to the non-stressed bulk liquid phase. The energy holding such surfaces together, the work of adhesion, is a direct function of the surface tension of the particles: 1 W.sub.AB =γ.sub.A +γ.sub.B -γ.sub.AB where W AB =work of adhesion or the energy necessary to separate one square centimeter of particle interface AB into two separate particles, γ A and γ B are the surface tensions of particle A and particle B, γ AB the interfacial tension between them. Consequently, any particles or molecules in the circulation which develop significant surface tensions win adhere to one another spontaneously. Such adhesion within membranes and macromolecules is necessary to maintain their integrity. We use the term "normal hydrophobic interaction" to describe such forces. Under normal circumstances, all cells and molecules in the circulation have hydrophilic non-adhesive surfaces. Receptors and ligands which modulate cell and molecular interactions are generally located on the most hydrophilic exposed surfaces of cells and molecules where they are free to move about in the aqueous media and to interact with one another. Special carrier molecules are necessary to transport lipids and other hydrophobic substances in the circulation. In body fluids such as blood, nonspecific adhesive forces between mobile elements are extremely undesirable. These forces are defined as "pathologic hydrophobic interactions" because they restrict movement of normally mobile elements and promote inappropriate adhesion of cells and molecules. In damaged tissue, hydrophobic domains normally located on the interior of cells and molecules may become exposed and produce pathologic adhesive surfaces whose interaction compounds the damage. Fibrin deposited along vessel walls also provide an adhesive surface. Such adhesive surfaces appear to be characteristic of damaged tissue. It is believed that the ability of the surface-active copolymer to bind to adhesive hydrophobic surfaces and convert them to non-adhesive hydrated surfaces closely resembling those of normal tissues underlies its potential therapeutic activities in diverse disease conditions. Adhesion due to surface tension described above is different from the adhesion commonly studied in biology. The commonly studied adhesion is due to specific receptor ligand interactions. In particular, it is different from the receptor-mediated adhesion of the fibrinogen--von Willibrands factor family of proteins. 2 Both the hydrophilic and hydrophobic chains of the surface-active copolymer have unique properties which contribute to biologic activity. The hydrophilic chains of polyoxyethylene (POE) are longer than those of most surfactants and they are flexible. They bind water avidly by hydrogen bond acceptor interactions with ether-linked oxygens. These long, strongly hydrated flexible chains are relatively incompressible and form a barrier to hydrophobic surfaces approaching one another. The hydroxyl moieties at the ends of the molecule are the only groups capable of serving as hydrogen bond donors. There are no charged groups. This extremely limited repertoire of binding capabilities probably explains the inability of the molecule to activate host mediator and inflammatory mechanisms. The POE chains are not necessarily inert, however. Polyoxyethylene can bind cations by ion-dipole interactions with oxygen groups. The crown polyethers and reverse octablock copolymer ionophores are examples of such cation binding. 3 It is possible that the flexible POE chains form configurations which bind and modulate calcium and other cation movements in the vicinity of damaged membranes or other hydrophobic structures. The hydrophobic component of the surface-active copolymer is large, weak and flexible. The energy with which it binds to a cell membrane or protein molecule is less than the energy which holds the membrane phospholipids together or maintains the tertiary conformation of the protein. Consequently, unlike common detergents which dissolve membrane lipids and proteins, the surface-active copolymer adheres to damaged spots on membranes and prevents propagation of the injury. The ability of the surface-active copolymer to block adhesion of fibrinogen to hydrophobic surfaces and the subsequent adhesion of platelets and red blood cells is readily demonstrated in vitro. Most surfactants prevent adhesion of hydrophobic particles to one another, however, the surface-active copolymer has a unique balance of properties which optimize the anti-adhesive activity while minimizing toxicity. Thus, the surface-active copolymer is not routinely used by biochemists who use nonionic suffactants to lyse cells or dissolve membrane proteins. The surface-active copolymer protects cells from lysis. The hydrophobe effectively competes with damaged cells and molecules to prevent pathologic hydrophobic interactions, but cannot disrupt the much stronger normal hydrophobic interactions which maintain structural integrity. The viscosity of blood is generally assumed to be the dominant determinant of flow through vessels with a constant pressure and geometry. In the smallest vessels, such as those in damaged tissue, other factors become significant. When the diameter of the vessel is less than that of the cell, the blood cell must deform in order to enter the vessel and then must slide along the vessel wall producing friction. The deformability of blood cells entering small vessels has been extensively studied 4 but the adhesive or frictional component has not. The adhesion of cells to vessel walls is generally attributed to specific interactions with von Willebrand's factor and other specific adhesive molecules. 5 Our data suggests that in pathologic situations, friction resulting from nonspecific physicochemical adhesion between the cell and the vessel wall becomes a major determinant of flow. Mathematically, both the strength of adhesion between two particles and the friction force which resists sliding of one along the other are direct functions of their surface tensions which are largely determined by their degree of hydrophobic interaction. The friction of a cell sliding through a small vessel consists of an adhesion component and a deformation component 6 which are in practice difficult to separate: F=Fa+Fd where F is the friction of cells, Fa is the adhesion component and Fd is the deformation component. The deformation component within a vessel differs from that required for entry into the vessel. It may be similar to that which occurs in larger vessels with blood flowing at a high rate of shear. 7 Friction within blood vessels has been studied very little, but undoubtedly involves the same principles which apply to polymer systems in which the friction force correlates directly with the work of adhesion: 8 Fa=k WA+c where Fa is the adhesional component of the friction force, WA the work of adhesion, and k and c constants which pertain to the particular system studied. Many lubricants act as thin films which separate the two surfaces and reduce adhesion. 9 The effects of the surface-active copolymer on microvascular blood flow were evaluated in several models ranging from artificial in vitro systems where critical variables could be rigidly controlled to in vivo systems mimicking human disease. First, the surface-active copolymer can be an effective lubricant when used at therapeutic concentrations in a model designed to simulate movement of large cells through small vessels. It markedly reduced the adhesive component of friction, but had no detectable effect on the deformation component of friction. Second, the surface-active copolymer greatly accelerates the flow through the narrow channels formed by the thrombogenic surfaces of glass and air. A drop of blood was placed on a cover slip and viewed under a microscope with cinemicroscopy during the time it took the blood to flow to the edges of the cover slip in response to gentle pressure. The surface-active copolymer inhibited the adhesion of platelets to the glass and maintained the flexibility of red cells which enabled them to pass through the microscopic channels. While the surface-active copolymer did not inhibit the formation of rouleaux by red cells, it did cause the rouleaux to be more flexible and more easily disrupted. Third, the surface-active copolymer increases the flow of blood through tortuous capillary-sized fibrin-lined channels by over 20-fold. It decreased viscosity of the blood by an amount (10%) far too small to account for the increased flow. In a more physiologic model, the surface-active copolymer increased coronary blood flow by a similar amount in isolated rat hearts perfused with human red blood cells at a 30% hematocrit following ischemic damage. In an in vivo model of stroke produced by ligature of the middle cerebral artery of rabbits, the surface-active copolymer increases blood flow to ischemic brain tissue. As much as a two-fold increase was measured by a hydrogen washout technique. In each of these models, there were controls for hemodilution and there was no measurable effect on viscosity at any shear rate measured. It is believed that available data suggests that the surface-active copolymer acts as a lubricant to increase blood flow through damaged tissues. It blocks adhesion of hydrophobic surfaces to one another and thereby reduces friction and increases flow. This hypothesis is strengthened by the observation that the surface-active copolymer has little effect on blood flow in normal tissues where such frictional forces are small. 10 The surface-active copolymers are not metabolized by the body and are quickly eliminated from the blood. The half-life of the copolymer in the blood is believed to be approximately two hours. It is to be understood that the surface-active copolymer in the improved fibrinolytic composition is not covalently bound to any of the other components in the composition nor is it covalently bound to any proteins. The surface-active copolymer can be administered with a fibrinolytic enzyme, a free radical scavenger, or it can be administered alone for treatment of certain circulatory conditions which either are caused by or cause pathological hydrophobic interactions of blood components. These conditions include, but not limited to, myocardial infarction, stroke, bowel or other tissue infarctions, malignancies, adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), diabetes, unstable angina pectoris, hemolytic uremic syndrome, red cell fragmentation syndrome, heat stroke, retained fetus, eclampsia, malignant hypertension, burns, crush injuries, fractures, trauma producing shock, major surgery, sepsis, bacterial, parasitic, viral and rickettsial infections which promote activation of the coagulation system, central nervous system trauma, and during and immediately after any major surgery. It is believed that treatment of the pathological hydrophobic interactions in the blood that occurs in these conditions significantly reduces microvascular and other complications that are commonly observed. The surface-active copolymer is also effective in increasing the collateral circulation to undamaged tissues with compromised blood supply. Such tissues are frequently adjacent to areas of vascular occlusion. The mechanism appears to be reducing pathological hydrophobic interactions in small blood vessels. Circulatory conditions where the surface-active copolymers are effective include, but are not limited to, cerebral thrombosis, cerebral embolus, myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, transient cerebral ischemic attacks, intermittent claudication of the legs, plastic and reconstructive surgery, balloon angioplasty, peripheral vascular surgery, and orthopedic surgery, especially when using a tourniquet. The surface-active copolymer has little effect on the viscosity of normal blood at shear rates ranging from 2.3 sec -1 (low) to 90 sec -1 (high). However, it markedly reduces the abnormally high viscosity found in postoperative patients and in those with certain pathologic conditions. This observation posed two questions: 1) what caused the elevated whole blood viscosity in these patients and, 2) by what mechanisms did the surface-active copolymer, which has only minor effects on the blood viscosity of healthy persons, normalize pathologic elevations in viscosity? It is generally accepted that hematocrit and plasma fibrinogen levels are the major determinants of whole blood viscosity. This has been confirmed in normal individuals and in many patients with inflammatory conditions. However, these factors could not explain the changes that were observed. In patients having coronary artery cardiac bypass surgery, it was found that hematocrit fell an average of 23±4% and fibrinogen fell 48±9% within six hours after surgery. The viscosity did not decrease as expected, but increased from a mean of 23±2 to 38±4 centipoise (at a shear rate of 2.3 sec -1 ). Viscosities in excess of 100 were found in some patients. The abnormally high viscosity of blood was associated with circulating high molecular weight polymers of soluble fibrin. 11 The soluble fibrin levels rose from 19±5 μg/ml to 43±6 μg/ml during surgery. These studies utilized a colorimetric enzymatic assay for soluble fibrin 12 and Western blotting procedures with SDS agarose gels to determine the molecular weight of the large protein polymers. 13 In the absence of specific receptors, cells and molecules in the circulation adhere to one another if the adherence reduces the free energy or surface tension between them. An assessment of the surface tension of various components of the blood can be made by measuring contact angles. Red blood cells, lymphocytes, platelets, neutrophils all have contact angles in the range of 14 to 17 degrees. Peripheral blood proteins, such as albumin, α 2 macroglobulin, and Hageman factor have contact angles in the slightly lower range of 12-15. This means that these proteins have no adhesive energy for the cells. In contrast, fibrinogen has a contact angle of 24 degrees and soluble fibrin of 31. Consequently, fibrinogen adheres weakly to red blood cells and other cells in the circulation promoting rouleaux formation. Fibrin promotes a very much stronger adhesion than fibrinogen because of its elevated contact angle and its tendency to form polymers with fibrinogen. Soluble fibrin in the circulation produces the increased adhesion which results in a very markedly increased viscosity at low shear rates. This adhesion also involves the endothelial walls of the blood vessels. If the adhesive forces are insufficient to slow movement of cells, they produce an increased friction. This is especially important in the very small blood vessels and capillaries whose diameters are equal to or less than that of the circulating cells. The friction of cells sliding through these small vessels is significant. The surface-active copolymer blocks the adhesion of fibrinogen and fibrin to hydrophobic surfaces of cells and endothelial cells. This prevents their adhesion and lubricates them so there is a greatly reduced resistance to flow. This can be measured only partially by measurements of viscosity. Whether a certain fibrinogen level is sufficient to cause a problem in circulation is dependent upon several parameters of the individual patient. High hematocrits and high levels of fibrinogen are widely regarded as the primary contributors to increased viscosity. However, elevated fibrinogen levels are frequently associated with elevated soluble fibrin in the circulation. Careful studies have demonstrated that the fibrin is frequently responsible for the most severe changes. The normal level of fibrinogen is 200-400 μg/ml. It has been determined that, in most patients, fibrinogen levels of greater than approximately 800 μg/ml will cause the high blood viscosity at the low shear rates mentioned hereinabove. The normal level of soluble fibrin has been reported to be approximately 9.2±1.9. 14 Using the Wiman and Rånby assay, viscosity at low shear rates was unacceptably high above about 15 μg/ml. It must be understood that soluble fibrin means molecular species that have a molecular weight of from about 600,000 to several million. Numerous methods have been used for demonstrating soluble fibrin. These include cryoprecipitation especially cryofibrinogen. Heparin has been used to augment the precipitate formation. Ethanol and protamine also precipitate fibrin from plasma. Modem techniques have demonstrated that the soluble fibrin in the circulation is generally complexed with solubilizing agents. These are most frequently fibrinogen or fibrin degradation products. Des AA fibrin in which only the fibrin of peptide A moieties have been cleaved, tends to form relatively small aggregates consisting of one molecule of fibrin with two of fibrinogen. If both the A and B peptides have been cleaved to produce des AABB fibrin, then much larger aggregates are produced in the circulation. Fibrin degradation products can polymerize with fibrin to produce varying size aggregates depending upon the particular product involved. Soluble fibrin in the circulation can markedly increase blood viscosity, especially at low shear rates. However, the relevance of this for clinical situations remains unclear. Viscosity assesses primarily the aggregation of red blood cells which is only one of many factors which determine in vivo circulation. Other factors affected by soluble fibrin are the endothelial cells, white blood cells and platelets. Soluble fibrin is chemotactic for endothelial cells, adheres to them avidly and causes their disorganization. It also has stimulatory effects for white blood cells, especially macrophages. Some of the effects of soluble fibrin may be mediated by specific receptors on various types of cells. However, since the free energy, as measured by contact angles of soluble fibrin, is less than that of any other plasma protein, it adheres avidly by a nonspecific hydrophobic interactions to virtually all formed elements in the blood. Circulating soluble fibrin is normally cleared by macrophages and fibrinolytic mechanisms without producing damage. However, if the production of soluble fibrin is too great or if the clearance mechanisms have been compromised or if complicating disease factors are present, then soluble fibrin can induce deleterious reactions. Soluble fibrin is produced in damaged or inflamed tissues. Consequently, its effects are most pronounced in these tissues where it coats endothelial cells and circulating blood cells in a fashion which markedly reduces perfusion. The largest effects are in the small blood vessels where soluble fibrin coating the endothelial cells and white blood cells produces a severe increase in friction to the movement of white cells through the small vessels. Friction appears to be a much more severe problem with white blood cells and red blood cells because they are larger and much more rigid. If production of soluble fibrin is sufficient, then effects are noticed in other areas. The best studied is the adult respiratory distress syndrome where soluble fibrin produced in areas of damaged tissue produces microthrombi and other processes in the lungs which can cause pulmonary failure. However, lesser degrees of vascular compromise can be demonstrated in many other organs. Soluble fibrin, either alone or in complex with fibrinogen and other materials, is now recognized as being a major contributor to the pathogenesis of a diverse range of vascular diseases ranging from coronary thrombosis through trauma, bums, reperfusion injury following transplantation or any other condition where there has been localized or generalized activation of coagulation. A recent study demonstrated that virtually all patients with acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina pectoris have markedly elevated levels of soluble fibrin in their circulation. An example of the effects of soluble fibrin has been shown in studies using dogs. A normal dog is subjected to a hysterectomy. Then, while the animal is still under anesthesia, the external jugular vein is carefully dissected. Alternatively, the vein may be occluded by gentle pressure with the fingers for seven minutes. It is examined by scanning electron microscopy for adhesion of fibrin, red blood cells and other formed elements. One finds that very few cells adhere to the endothelia of veins from dogs which had not undergone hysterectomy, whether or not there had been stasis produced by seven minutes occlusion. Similarly, there was only a small increase in adhesion of red blood cells to the endothelium of the jugular vein in animals who had undergone hysterectomy. If, however, the animals had a hysterectomy in addition to mild seven minute occlusion of the veins, then there was a striking increase in adhesion of formed elements of blood to the endothelial surfaces in some cases producing frank mural thrombi. Both red blood cells and fibrin were visibly adherent to the endothelial surfaces. In addition, there was disruption of the normal endothelial architecture. All of the animals had elevated levels of soluble fibrin after the surgery. This model demonstrates the effects of soluble fibrin produced by relatively localized surgery to produce a greatly increased risk of deep vein thrombosis at a distant site. The surface-active copolymer addresses the problems of fibrin and fibrinogen in the blood by inhibiting the adhesion of fibrin, fibrinogen, platelets, red blood cells and other detectable elements of the blood stream. It blocks the formation of a thrombus on a surface. The surface-active copolymer has no effect on the viscosity of water or plasma. However, it markedly increases the rate of flow of water and plasma in small segments through tubes. The presence of air interfaces at the end of the columns or air bubbles which provide a significant surface tension produce a friction along the walls of the tubes. The surface-active copolymer reduces this surface tension and the friction and improves flow. This is an example whereby the surface-active copolymer improves flow of fluid through tissues through a tube even though it has no effect on the viscosity of the fluid as usually measured. The surface-active copolymer has only a small effect on the viscosity of whole blood from normal individuals. It has little effect on the increase that occurs with high hematocrit. However, it has an effect on the very large increase in viscosity at low shear rates thought to be caused by soluble fibrin and fibrinogen polymers. Recent studies demonstrate that the surface-active copolymer also has the ability to protect myocardial and other cells from a variety of noxious insults. During prolonged ischemia, myocardial cells undergo "irreversible injury." Cells which sustain irreversible injury are morphologically intact but are unable to survive when returned to a normal environment. Within minutes of reperfusion with oxygenated blood, cells containing such occult lesions develop swelling and contraction bands and die. Irreversibly injured myocardial cells have mechanical and osmotic fragility and latent activation of lipases, proteases and other enzymes. Reperfusion initiates a series of events including calcium loading, cell swelling, mechanical membrane rupture and the formation of oxygen free radicals which rapidly destroy the cell. The surface-active copolymer retards such injury in the isolated perfused rat heart model. The mechanisms probably include osmotic stabilization and increased mechanical resistance in a fashion similar to that known for red blood cells. The protective effects of the surface-active copolymer on the myocardium are not limited to the myocardial cells. It also protects the endothelial cells of the microvasculature as assessed morphologically. By maintaining the integrity of such cells and helping to restore and maintain non-adhesive surfaces, the surface-active copolymer tends to reduce the adhesion of macromolecules and cells in the microvasculature, to reduce coronary vascular resistance and to retard development of the no reflow phenomenon. Examples of conditions where the surface-active copolymer can be used is in the treatment of sickle cell disease and preservation of organs for transplantation. In both of these embodiments, blood flow is reduced because of pathologic hydrophobic interactions. During a sickle cell crisis, sickled red blood cells aggregate because of the abnormal shape of the cells. In many cases, there are high concentrations of soluble fibrin due to disseminated intravascular coagulation. This results in pathological hydrophobic interactions between blood cells, cells lining the blood vessels and soluble fibrin and fibrinogen. By administering to the patient the surface-active copolymer, blood flow is increased and tissue damage is thereby reduced. The surface-active copolymer may be given prior to a sickle cell crisis to prevent onset of the crisis. In addition, the solution with the effective amount of surface-active copolymer may also contain an effective amount of anticoagulant. In organs that have been removed from a donor for transplantation, the tissue is damaged due to ischemia and lack of blood. Preferably, the surface-active copolymer is mixed with a perfusion medium. The perfusion media that can be used with the surface-active copolymer are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. The perfusion media can also be whole blood or plasma. The solution can be perfused through the organ thereby reducing the damage to the tissue. Because the tissue damage is reduced by perfusing the organ with the surface-active copolymer solution, the time the organ is viable and therefore the time the organ can be transplanted is increased. Because the surface-active copolymer improves flow of blood through diseased or damaged tissue with minimal effect on blood flow in normal tissue, it is contemplated that the surface-active copolymer includes a method for delivering drugs to damaged tissue comprising the step of administering to the animal or human a solution containing an effective amount of a drug, and an effective amount of the surface-active copolymer. Any drug that has an activity in diseased or damaged tissue is suitable for use with the surface-active copolymer. These drugs include: 1. antimicrobial drugs antibiotics antifungal drugs antiviral drugs antiparasitic drugs; 2. antifungal drugs; 3. chemotherapeutic drugs for treating cancers and certain infections; 4. free radical scavenger drugs, including those drugs that prevent the production of free radicals; 5. fibrinolytic drugs; 6. perfusion media; 7. anti-inflammatories, including, but not limited to, both steroids and nonsteroid antiinflammatory drugs; 8. membrane stabilizers, such as dilantin; 9. anticoagulants; 10. ionotropic drugs, such as calcium channel blockers; 11. autonomic nervous system modulators. Polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene Copolymers as Adjuvants Other polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers are also useful as an adjuvant and a vaccine which is comprised of an antigen and an improved adjuvant. In one embodiment, the antigen is admixed with an effective amount of a surface-active copolymer having the following general formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sup.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) is between approximately 4500 to 5500 daltons and the percentage of hydrophile (C 2 H 4 O) is between approximately 5% and 15% by weight. The improved vaccine also comprises an antigen and an adjuvant wherein the adjuvant comprises a surface-active copolymer with the following general formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) is between approximately 3000 to 5500 daltons and the percentage of hydrophile (C 2 H 4 O) is between approximately 5% and 15% by weight which is formulated as a water-in-oil emulsion. The copolymers destabilize commonly used water-in-oil vaccine emulsions, but surprisingly increase their efficacy and increase stability if the usual emulsifying agents are omitted. The improved vaccine also comprises an antigen and an adjuvant wherein the adjuvant comprises a surface-active copolymer with the following general formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sup.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) is between approximately 3000 to 5500 daltons and the percentage of hydrophile (C 2 H 4 O) is between approximately 5% and 15% by weight, and a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) derivative. The adjuvant comprising a combination of LPS and surface-active copolymer produces a synergy of effects in terms of peak titer, time to reach peak titer and length of time of response. In addition, the combination tends to increase the protective IgG2 isotypes. The adjuvants also comprise an octablock copolymer (poloxamine) with the following general formula: ##STR1## wherein: the molecular weight of the hydrophobe portion of the octablock copolymer consisting of (C 3 H 6 O) is between approximately 5000 and 7000 daltons; a is a number such that the hydrophile portion represented by (C 2 H 4 O) constitutes between approximately 10% and 40% of the total molecular weight of the compound; b is a number such that the (C 3 H 6 O) portion of the octablock copolymer constitute between approximately 60% and 90% of the compound and a lipopolysaccharide derivative. The (C 3 H 6 O) portion of the copolymer can constitute up to 95% of the compound. The (C 2 H 4 O) portion of the copolymer can constitute as low as 5% of the compound. The combination of lipid conjugated polysaccharide with copolymer and an immunomodulating agent such as monophosphoryl lipid A, induces the production of a strong IgG response in which all of the subclasses of IgG are present. In particular, the IgG2 and IgG3 subclasses which are protective against pneumococcal infections are predominant. This is an unexpected finding because there is no protein or peptide in the immunogen preparation. It is believed that peptide moieties are essential for stimulating T cells which are required for production of these isotypes. Others have reported that polysaccharides are incapable of stimulating T cells. Nevertheless, the combination of copolymer, lipid conjugated polysaccharide and immunomodulating agent is able to produce such a response. The adjuvant activity of the poloxamers and the poloxamines is described in detail in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/544,831, which is incorporated herein by reference. Polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene Copolymers as Antiinfective Agents Another group of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers inhibit the growth of bacteria and viruses. For example, these surface-active copolymers have been shown to inhibit HIV viruses, Mycobacteria species and Toxoplasma gondii. The surface-active copolymers are effective in treating a viral infection in a human or animal including infections caused by the HIV virus or related strains. The present invention provides a composition that can be administered to patients who are infected with HIV viruses or similar viruses. The surface-active copolymer is effective in inhibiting or suppressing the replication of the HIV virus and related virus strains in cells. The surface-active copolymers are useful for treating infections caused by microorganisms when used alone or with a conventional antibiotic. Several conventional antibiotics that can be used with the surface-active copolymer include, but are not limited to, rifampin, isoniazid, ethambutol, gentamicin, tetracycline, and erythromycin. The surface-active copolymer has the following general formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein a is an integer such that the hydrophobe represented by (C 3 H 6 O) has a molecular weight of about 1200 to 5300 daltons, preferably about 1750 to 4500 daltons, and b is an integer such that the hydrophile portion represented by (C 2 H 4 O) constitutes approximately 10% to 50% by weight of the compound. The antiinfective activity of the poloxamers is described in detail in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/760,808, which is incorporated herein by reference. Polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene Copolymers as Growth Stimulators and Immune Stimulators Certain of the polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers are capable of effecting biological systems in several different ways. The biologically-active copolymers are capable of stimulating the growth of an organism, stimulating the motor activity of an organism, stimulating the production of T-cells in the thymus, peripheral lymphoid tissue, and bone marrow cells of an animal, and stimulating immune responsiveness of poultry. The biologically-active copolymers also have a wide variety of effects on individual cells. These compounds have ionophoric activity, i.e., they cause certain ions to be transported across cell membranes. The compounds can cause non-cytolytic mast cell degranulation with subsequent histamine release. In addition, it has been found that certain members of this class of biologically-active copolymers are capable of specifically killing certain cancer cell lines. Certain of the biologically-active copolymers can be administered orally to animals to stimulate the growth of food animals such as chickens and swine. These and other biological activities are discussed in detail in copending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 07/107,358 and 07/610,417, which are incorporated herein by reference. Polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene Copolymer Structure The surface-active copolymer blocks are formed by condensation of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide at elevated temperature and pressure in the presence of a basic catalyst. However, there is statistical variation in the number of monomer units which combine to form a polymer chain in each copolymer. The molecular weights given are approximations of the average weight of copolymer molecule in each preparation. A more detailed discussion of the preparation of these compounds is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,674,619, which is incorporated herein by reference. A more general discussion of the structure of poloxamers and poloxamine block copolymers can be found in Schmolka, I. R., "A Review of Block Polymer Surfactants", J. AM. OIL CHEMISTS' SOC., 54:110-116 (1977), which is incorporated herein by reference. It has been determined that the commercially available preparations of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers vary widely relative to the size and configuration of the constituent molecules. For example, the preparation of poloxamer 188 that is purchased from BASF (Parsippany, N.J.) has a published structure of a molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) of approximately 1750 daltons and the total molecular weight of the compound of approximately 8400 daltons. In reality, the compound is composed of molecules which range from a molecular weight of less than 3,000 daltons to over 20,000 daltons. The molecular diversity and distribution of molecules of commercial poloxamer 188 is illustrated by broad primary and secondary peaks detected using gel permeation chromatography. In addition to the wide variation in polymer size in the poloxamer preparations currently available, it has been further determined that these fractions contain significant amounts of unsaturation. It is believed that this unsaturation in the polymer molecule is responsible, at least in part, for the toxicity and variable biological activities of the available poloxamer preparations. Thus, the wide diversity of molecules which are present in the commercially available polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers make prediction of the biological activity difficult. In addition, as is shown in the poloxamer 188 preparations, the presence of other molecular species in the preparation can lead to unwanted biological activities. The surface-active copolymer poloxamer 188 has been used as an emulsifier for an artificial blood preparation containing perfluorocarbons. It has been reported that patients receiving the artificial blood preparations have exhibited toxic reactions. The toxic reactions included activation of complement 15 , paralysis of phagocyte migration 16 , and cytotoxicity to human and animal cells in tissue culture 17 . Efforts using supercritical fluid fractionalion to reduce the toxicity of the copolymers proved only partially successful. 18 In addition, in toxicological studies in beagle dogs, infusion of poloxamer 188 was shown to result in elevated liver enzymes, (SCOT) and increased organ weights (kidney). Histologic evaluation of the kidney demonstrated a dose related cytoplasmic vacuolation of the proximal tubular epithelial cells. The enormous variation that can occur in biological activity when only small changes are made in chain length in the poloxamer copolymers is illustrated in Hunter, et al. 19 The authors show that a difference of 10% in the chain length of the polyoxyethylene portions of the poloxamer polymer can mean the difference between an excellent adjuvant and no adjuvant activity at all. Poloxamer 121 has a molecular weight of approximately 4400 daltons and contains approximately 10% by weight of polyoxyethelene. Poloxamer 122 has a molecular weight of approximately 5000 daltons and contains approximately 20% by weight of polyoxyethelene. The amount of polyoxypropylene in each molecule is approximately the same. As shown in Hunter, et al., when poloxamer 121 was used as an adjuvant with bovine serum albumin, the antibody titers were 67,814±5916. When poloxamer 122 was used as an adjuvant with bovine serum albumin under the same conditions, the antibody titer against BSA was 184±45. The control titer without any adjuvant was <100. Thus, a relatively small change in the chain length of the poloxamer can result in enormous changes in biological activity. Because the commercially available sources of the polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers have been reported to exhibit toxicity as well as variation in biological activity, what is needed is a preparation of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers which retain the therapeutic activities of the commercial preparations but are free from their other biological activities such as toxicity. In addition, what is needed is a preparation of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers which is less polydisperse in molecular weight and contains less unsaturation and therefore is more efficacious. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises novel preparations of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers which retain the therapeutic activity of the commercial preparations, but are free from the undesirable effects which are inherent in the prior art preparations. Because the polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers which comprise the present invention are a less polydisperse population of molecules than the prior art polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers, the biological activity of the copolymers is better defined and more predictable. In addition, the polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers which comprise the present invention are substantially free of unsaturation. The present invention also comprises a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymer which has the following formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) is approximately 1750 daltons and the total molecular weight of the compound is approximately 8400 daltons. The compound has a polydispersity value of less than approximately 1.05. It has been determined that the toxicity exhibited by the commercially available surface-active copolymer poloxamer 188 is primarily due to the small amounts of high and low molecular weight molecules that are present as a result of the manufacturing process. The high molecular weight molecules (those greater than 15,000 daltons) are probably responsible for activation of the complement system. The low molecular weight molecules (those lower than 5,000 daltons) have detergent-like physical properties which can be toxic to cells in culture. In addition, the low molecular weight molecules have unsaturated polymers present in the population. The optimal rheologic molecules of poloxamer 188 are approximately 8,400 to 9400 daltons. It has also been determined that poloxamer 188 molecules above 15,000 and below 5,000 daltons are less effective rheologic agents and exhibit unwanted side effects. A preparation containing molecules between 5,000 and 15,000 daltons is a more efficient rheologic agent. The present invention also includes a method of preparing polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymers with polydispersity values of less than 1.05. The method of preparing a non-toxic surface-active copolymer includes first condensing propylene oxide with a base compound containing a plurality of reactive hydrogen atoms to produce polyoxypropylene polymer and then condensing ethylene oxide with the polyoxypropylene polymer to produce a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymer with the following general formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the polydispersity value of the copolymer is less than 1.05, the improvement being the purification of the polyoxypropylene polymer to remove any truncated polymers before condensation with the ethylene oxide. The purification of the polyoxypropylene polymer can be by gel permeation chromatography. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer with a higher proportion of therapeutically active molecules while also eliminating molecules responsible for toxic effects. It is another object of the present invention to provide a more homogeneous polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymer relative to the molecular weight range. It is another object of the present invention to provide a preparation of polyoxyethylene/polyoxypropylene block copolymer with a polydispersity value of less than 1.05. It is another object of the present invention to provide a preparation of polyoxyethylene/polyoxypropylene block copolymer with substantially no unsaturation. It is another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer with the therapeutic activity of poloxamer 188 that will not activate complement. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a purified poloxamer 188 that can be used safely in both humans and animals in treating tissue that has been damaged by ischemia. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer that can be used safely in both humans and animals in treating tissue that has been damaged by reperfusion injury. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer that can be used safely in both humans and animals as a vaccine adjuvant. It is another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer with the therapeutic activity of poloxamer 188 that is not cytotoxic. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer that can be used safely in both humans and animals in treating stroke. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer which has less renal toxicity and less detergent-like activity. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer that can be used safely in both humans and animals as an antimicrobial agent. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer that can be used safely in both humans and animals as an antibacterial, an antiviral, an antifungal and an antiprotozoa agent. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer that can be used safely in both humans and animals in treating myocardial damage. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a surface-active copolymer that can be used safely in both humans and animals in treating adult respiratory distress syndrome. These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent after a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 is a poloxamer grid for naming poloxmer compounds. FIG. 2 is a chromatogram of commercially available poloxamer 188 subjected to gel permeation chromatography. FIG. 3 is a chromatogram of fraction 1 of the poloxamer 188 collected from the chromatographic run described in Example I. FIG. 4 is a chromatogram of fraction 2 of the poloxamer 188 collected from the chromatographic run described in Example I. FIG. 5 is a chromatogram of fraction 3 of the poloxamer 188 collected from the chromatographic run described in Example I. FIG. 6 is a chromatogram of fraction 4 of the poloxamer 188 collected from the chromatographic run described in Example I. FIG. 7 is a chromatogram of fraction 5 of the poloxamer 188 collected from the chromatographic run described in Example I. FIG. 8 is a chromatogram of fraction 6 of the poloxamer 188 collected from the chromatographic run described in Example I. FIGS. 9A through 9C are gel permeation chromatograms of unfractionated and fractionated poloxamer 760.5. FIGS. 10A through 10C are nuclear magnetic spectra of the fractions represented in FIGS. 9A through 9C. FIGS. 11A through 11C are gel permeation chromatograms of three fractions of poloxamer 188. FIGS. 12A through 12C are gel permeation chromatograms of unfractionated and fractionated poloxamer 331. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Although the prior art preparations of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymers may have been suitable for industrial uses, it has been determined that the newly discovered uses for the copolymers as therapeutic agents require less polydisperse populations of molecules in the preparations. The present invention comprises polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers that have a polydisperse value of less than 1.05. The novel copolymers can be prepared by removing disparate molecules from the prior art preparation or by preparing the copolymer according to the method that is contemplated as part of the present invention. The method of preparation of the copolymers of the present invention is the purification of the polyoxypropylene block of the polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymer before the polyoxyethylene blocks are added to the molecule. In this way, the partially polymerized polyoxypropylene polymers are removed before the addition of polyoxyethylene polymers to the molecule. This results in a block copolymer that is within the physical parameters which are contemplated as the present invention. The present invention also comprises a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymer which has the following formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sup.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight represented by the polyoxypropylene portion of the copolymer is between approximately 900 and 15000 daltons with a more preferred molecular weight of between 1,200 and 6500 daltons and the molecular weight represented by the polyoxyethylene portion of the copolymer constitutes between approximately 5% and 95% of the copolymer with a more preferred range of between approximately 10% and 90% of the copolymer and the polydispersity value is less than approximately 1.07. The present invention also comprises a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymer which has the following formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) is approximately 1750 daltons and the average molecular weight of the compound is approximately 8300 to 9400 daltons. The compound has a molecular weight distribution ranging from approximately 5,000 to 15,000 daltons with a preferred molecular weight range of between approximately 7,000 to 12,000 daltons. In addition, the copolymer has substantially no unsaturation as measured by nuclear magnetic resonance. The nomenclature of the poloxamer compounds is based on a poloxamer grid (FIG. 1). The poloxamer grid is the relationship between nomenclature and composition of the various polymer members. The hydrophobe (polyoxypropylene) molecular weights are given as approximate midpoints of ranges. The first two digits of a poloxamer number on the grid, multiplied by 100, gives the approximate molecular weight of the hydrophobe. The last digit, times 10, gives the approximate weight percent of the hydrophile (polyoxyethylene) content of the surfactant 20 . For example, poloxamer 407, shown in the upper right hand quadrant of the grid (FIG. 1), is derived from a 4000 molecular weight hydrophobe with the hydrophile comprising 70% of the total molecular weight of the copolymer. Another example is poloxmer 760.5 which has a hydrophobe with a molecular weight of 7600 daltons and has a hydrophile which comprises 5% of the total molecular weight of the copolymer. The representative poloxamers that are described in this patent application along with their Pluronic® numbers are shown in Table I. TABLE I______________________________________Poloxamer No. Pluronic ® No. % POE______________________________________188 F68 80%331 L101 10%760.5 L180.5 5%1000.5 L331 5%______________________________________ Although molecular weight averages are important and useful when characterizing polymers in general, it is important to know the molecular weight distribution of a polymer. Some processing and end-use characteristics (melt flow, flex life, tensile strength, etc.) are often predicted or understood by observing the values and/or changes occurring in specific molecular weight averages. These values can also be assigned to biological properties of the polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers. A list of the processing characteristics follows. ______________________________________Molecular Weight ProcessingAverages Characteristics______________________________________Mz Flex life/stiffnessMn Brittleness; flowMw Tensile strength______________________________________ For example, the breadth of the distribution is known as the polydispersity (D) and is usually defined as Mw/Mn. A monodisperse sample is defined as one in which all molecules are identical. In such a case, the polydispersity (Mw/Mn) is 1.0. Narrow molecular weight standards have a value of D near 1 and a typical polymer has a range of 2 to 5. Some polymers have a polydispersity in excess of 20. The equations for expressing polydispersity are as follows: ##EQU1## where: Area i =area of the ith slice Mi=molecular weight of the ith slice Thus, by calculating the parameters listed above, one can specify a certain polydispersity that is acceptable for a pharmaceutical preparation. A high polydispersity value indicates a wide variation in size for the population of molecules in a given preparation while a lower polydispersity value indicates less variation. Because molecular size is an important determinant of biological activity, it is important to restrict the dispersity of the molecules in the preparation in order to achieve a more homogeneous biological effect. Thus, the polydispersity measurement can be used to measure the dispersity of molecules in a preparation and correlates to that compound's potential for variation in biological activity. It is to be understood that the polydispersity values that are described herein were determined from chromatograms which were obtained using a Model 600E Powerline chromatographic system equipped with a column heater module, a Model 410 refractive index detector, Maxima 820 software package (all from Waters, Div. of Millipore, Milford, Mass.), two LiChrogel PS-40 columns and a LiChrogel PS-20 column in series (EM Science, Gibbstown, N.J.), and polyethylene glycol molecular weight standards (Polymer Laboratories, Inc., Amherst, Mass.). Polydispersity values obtained using this system are relative to the chromatographic conditions, the molecular weight standards and the size exclusion characteristics of the gel permeation columns. Polydispersity measurements using different separation principles may give absolute polydispersity values which are different from those described herein. However, one of ordinary skill in the an can easily convert any polydispersity value that is obtained using a different separation method to the values described herein simply by running a single sample on both systems and then comparing the polydispersity values from each chrommatogram. In accordance with the present invention, a composition is provided that is a polyoxypropylene/polyoxy. ethylene block copolymer that has a polydispersity value of less than 1.07. Preferably, the polydispersity value is less than approximately 1.05, with a most preferable polydispersity value of 1.03. It is to be understood that the present invention includes, but is not limited to, poloxamer compounds and poloxamine compounds. Also in accordance with the present invention, a composition is provided that is a surface-active copolymer comprising a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymer with the following general formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the total molecular weight of the copolymer is between approximately 5,000 and 15,000 daltons, preferably a molecular weight of between approximately 7,000 and 12,000 daltons and the molecular weight represented by the polyoxyethylene portion of the copolymer constitutes approximately 80% of the copolymer. One embodiment of the present invention comprises a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymer which has the following formula: HO(C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b (C.sub.3 H.sub.6 O).sub.a (C.sub.2 H.sub.4 O).sub.b H wherein the molecular weight of the hydrophobe (C 3 H 6 O) is approximately 1750 daltons and the average molecular weight of the compound is approximately 8300 to 9400 daltons. The polydispersity value is less than approximately 1.05. A block copolymer corresponding to at least these physical parameters has the beneficial biological effects of the prior art poloxamer 188 but does not exhibit the unwanted side effects which have been reported for the prior art compound. By reducing the polydispersity value of the surface-active copolymer, it has been found that the toxicity associated with the prior art poloxamer 188 is significantly reduced. However, the beneficial therapeutic activity of the modified poloxamer 188 is retained. The surface-active copolymers of the present invention can be prepared in a number of ways. The polydispersity value can be reduced by subjecting the prior art compounds to gel permeation chromatography. In addition, the compounds can be subjected to molecular sieving techniques that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art. The surface-active copolymer of the present invention can be prepared in several ways. In the first method, commercially available poloxamer 188 is subjected to gel permeation chromatography. The chromatogram that is obtained from this procedure is shown in FIG. 1. As can be seen in FIG. 1, commercial poloxamer 188 is composed of a broad distribution of molecules with a peak molecular weight of approximately 7900 to 9500 daltons. This corresponds generally to the published molecular weight for poloxamer 188 of 8400 daltons. The published molecular weight for poloxamer 188 is determined by the hydroxyl method. The end groups of polyether chains are hydroxyl groups. The number averaged molecular weight can be calculated from the analytically determined "OH Number" expressed in mg KOH/g sample. It should be understood that the molecular weight of a polydisperse compound can be different depending upon the methodology used to determine the molecular weight. FIG. 1 also shows small secondary peaks or shoulders lying to the left and fight of the primary peak. These areas of the poloxamer 188 chromatogram represent the high and low molecular weight molecules respectively. The high molecular weight species range in size from approximately 24,000 to 15,000 daltons. It is believed that these larger molecules have a greater capacity to activate complement compared to the lower molecular weight species. The shoulder on the fight or lower molecular weight side of the chromatogram is composed of molecules between approximately 2,300 daltons and 5,000 daltons. This species represents compounds which have more detergent-like properties and are cytotoxic to cells. Using the gel permeation chromatography procedure, it has been determined that a fraction of poloxamer 188 with molecules ranging from approximately 5,000 daltons to 15,000 daltons, preferably between approximately 6,000 daltons and 13,000 daltons, with a peak at approximately 8,700 daltons, represents a population of surface-active copolymers which are essentially devoid of toxic activities while still retaining the beneficial therapeutic activity of the commercially available poloxamer 188. This new composition is a much more homogeneous preparation than those currently available and unexpectedly has fewer side effects than the prior art preparation. It should be understood that the molecular weight range that is described as the optimum range for the copolymer is to be considered the outside range and that any population of molecules that fall within that range are considered as embodiments of the present invention. The present invention also includes a novel method of preparing a surface-active copolymer composition with the specifications described herein. The novel method involves the preparation of a uniform hydrophobic polyoxypropylene polymer and then proceed with the addition of the hydrophilic polyoxyethylene as is normally done. It is believed that the toxic copolymers that are the result of the standard commercial method of preparing poloxamer 188 are due to truncated polymer chains and to unsaturation in the polymer. In practicing the present invention, the hydrophobic polyoxypropylene polymer is purified to obtain a substantially uniform population of polyoxypropylene polymers. The purification can be performed using gel permeation chromatography. However, any method known to one of ordinary skill in the art which gives the desired range of polyoxypropylene polymers can be used. In preparing the improved rheologic reagent, the polyoxypropylene polymer should have an average molecular weight of approximately 1750 daltons with an approximate molecular weight range between 1,000 and 2,600 daltons. The preferred molecular weight range is between 1,200 and 2,400 daltons. After the desired polyoxypropylene copolymer has been obtained, the ethylene portion of the copolymer is added to both ends of the molecule by standard methods well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. The final polymer population should have a polyoxyethylene composition of approximately 20% of the total molecular weight of the molecule. This invention is further illustrated by the following examples, which are not to be construed in any way as imposing limitations upon the scope thereof. On the contrary, it is to be clearly understood that resort may be had to various other embodiments, modifications, and equivalents thereof which, after reading the description herein, may suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention and/or the scope of the appended claims. EXAMPLE I Poloxamer 188 (BASF Corporation, Parsippany N.J.) is dissolved in tetrahydrofuran at a concentration of 20 mg/mL. A Model 600E Powerline chromatographic system equipped with a column heater module, a Model 410 refractive index detector and Maxima 820 software package (all from Waters, Div. of Millipore, Mifford, Mass.) is used to fractionate the commercially prepared poloxamer 188 copolymer. The chromatographic system is equipped with two LiChrogel PS-40 columns and a LiChrogel PS-20 column in series (EM Science, Gibbstown, N.J.). The LiChrogel PS-40 columns are 10 μm particle size and the LiChrogel PS-20 column is 5 μm particle size. All columns are 7 mm by 25 cm in size. 200 μL (4 mg) of the poloxamer 188 in tetrahydrofuran is added to the column and the sample is run with the columns and the detector at 40° C. The resulting chromatogram is shown in FIG. 2. EXAMPLE II The sample that was collected in Example I was fractionated into five fractions and each fraction was run on the column as described in Example I. The chromatograms from the various chromatographic runs are shown in FIGS. 3 through 8. The fraction that demonstrates the least toxicity while retaining the therapeutic activity of the poloxamer 188 is shown in FIG. 5. As can be clearly seen, the shoulders on either side of the peak in FIG. 5 are absent. The average molecular weight for each fraction is shown in Table II. The chromatogram for each fraction is indicated in FIGS. 3 through 8. TABLE II______________________________________ Time off Column Molecular PolydispersityFraction FIG. (Min) Wt. Value______________________________________1 3 11.5-12.0 17000 1.04002 4 12.0-12.5 10270 1.04743 5 12.5-13.0 8964 1.02804 6 13.0-13.5 8188 1.03325 7 13.5-14.0 5418 1.11036 8 14.0-14.5 3589 1.0459______________________________________ The polydispersity value for the unfractionated poloxamer 188 is 1.0896. The fraction that most closely corresponds to poloxamer 188 is fraction 3 which has a polydispersity value of approximately 1.0280. EXAMPLE III In a one-liter 3 neck round bottom flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, reflux condenser, thermometer and propylene oxide feed inlet, there is placed 57 grams (0.75 mol) of propylene glycol and 7.5 grams of anhydrous sodium hydroxide. The flask is purged with nitrogen to remove air and heated to 120° C. with stirring until the sodium hydroxide is dissolved. Sufficient propylene oxide is introduced into the mixture as fast as it reacts until the product possesses a calculated molecular weight of approximately 1750 daltons. The product is cooled under nitrogen and the NaOH catalyst is neutralized with sulfuric acid and the product is then filtered. The final product is a water-insoluble polyoxypropylene glycol. EXAMPLE IV The polyoxypropylene glycol from Example III is dissolved in tetrahydrofuran at a concentration of 20 mg/mL. A Model 600E Powerline chromatographic system equipped with a column heater module, a Model 410 refractive index detector and Maxima 820 software package (all from Waters, Div. of Millipore, Milford, Mass.) is used to fractionate the commercially prepared poloxamer 188 copolymer. The chromatographic system is equipped with two LiChrogel PS-40 columns and a LiChrogel PS-20 column in series (EM Science, Gibbstown, N.J.). The LiChrogel PS-40 columns are 10 μm particle size and the LiChrogel PS-20 column is 5 μm particle size. All columns are 7 mm by 25 cm in size. 200 μL (4 mg) of the polyoxypropylene glycol in tetrahydrofuran is added to the column and the sample is run with the columns and the detector at 40° C. The fraction which corresponded to an average molecular weight of 1750 daltons with a molecular weight distribution between 1,000 and 2,600 daltons was collected. Other fractions were discarded. EXAMPLE V The purified polyoxypropylene glycol from Example IV was placed in the same apparatus as described in Example III with an appropriate amount of anhydrous sodium hydroxide. An appropriate amount of ethylene oxide was added at an average temperature of 120° C. using the same technique described in Example III. The amount of added ethylene oxide corresponded to 20% of the total weight of the polyoxypropylene glycol base plus the weight of added ethylene oxide. This procedure results in a polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene block copolymer composed of molecules which are far more homogeneous relative to molecular size and configuration compared to commercial preparations. EXAMPLE VI Fractions of poloxamer 760.5 prepared by gel permeation chromatography and were analyzed for weight percent of oxyethylene and for unsaturation by NMR analysis as follows: Poloxamer 760.5 (BASF Corporation, Parsippany N.J.) is dissolved in tetrahydrofuran at a concentration of 20 mg/mL. A Model 600E Powerline chromatographic system equipped with a column heater module, a Model 410 refractive index detector and Maxima 820 software package (all from Waters, Div. of Millipore, Milford, Mass.) is used to fractionate the commercially prepared poloxamer 760.5 copolymer. The chromatographic system is equipped with Ultrastyragel 10 3 A and 500 A in series (Waters, Div. of Millipore, Milford, Mass.). Column size is 7.8 mm internal diameter by 30 cm. Precolumn filters #A-315 with removable 2 μm fits (Upchurch Scientific, Oak Harbor, Wash.) were used for protection of the columns. 200 μL (4 mg) of the poloxamer 760.5 in tetrahydrofuran is added to the column and the sample is run with the columns at 40° C. and the detector at 45° C. Sample one is an unfractionated sample of the polaxamer 760.5 as obtained from BASF Corporation (Parsipanny, N.J.) and is shown in FIG. 9A. Fraction one is an early fraction from the chromatographic system and is shown in FIG. 9B. Fraction two is a late fraction and is shown in FIG. 9C. All proton NMR analyses were performed in accordance with the NF procedure "Weight Percent Oxyethylene" on a Bruker 300 MHz instrument. The proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectra from FIGS. 9B and 9C showed slight ban broadening in the spectra when compared to the unfractionated sample. The late eluting fraction (Fraction 2) contains the largest amount of unsaturation as noted by a doublet signal at about 4.0 ppm. The proton spectra for the early eluting peak (Fraction 1) showed no impurities except water. The weight percent oxyethylene was calculated for the samples. As can be seen from Table III, the early eluting fraction, which is the purest fraction, has the lowest percentage of oxyethylene. This fraction also showed no unsaturation as measured by nuclear magnetic resonance. Using the poloxamer nomenclature system described above, the various fractions have the following characteristics and poloxamer number. TABLE III______________________________________Fraction % POE.sup.a MW.sup.b Poloxamer Unsaturation.sup.c______________________________________Unfractionated 5.5 8135 760.5 YesEarly Fraction 3.9 10856 104.4 NoLate Fraction 7.5 3085 291 Yes______________________________________ .sup.a As measured by NMR .sup.b Polyoxypropylene as measured by gel permeation chromatography .sup.c As measured by NMR EXAMPLE VII Poloxamer 188 (Pluronic® F68) was fractionated on a gel permeation chromatography system according to Example I. Three fractions were collected. FIG. 11A shows Fraction 1, an early, high molecular weight fraction. FIG. 11B shows Fraction II, which is the major peak. FIG. 11C shows Fraction III, a late eluting, lower molecular weight population of molecules. The percent oxyethylene of each fraction was determined by proton NMR using a 200 MHz NMR spectrophotometer. Approximately 10 mg of each sample was tested. Samples were prepared by adding approximately 0.7 mL of CDCl 3 to each vial. The solution was filtered and transferred to a 5-mm NMR tube. One drop of D 2 O was added, and the tube was shaken prior to measurement. TABLE IV______________________________________Fraction % POE.sup.a MW.sup.b Poloxamer______________________________________Early 85 16,500 258Middle Fraction 82 8652 178Late Fraction 90 3751 039______________________________________ .sup.a As measured by NMR .sup.b As measured by gel permeation chromatography As shown in Table IV, the early eluting, the large molecular weight fraction had a high percentage of oxyethylene and corresponded to a poloxamer 258. The middle fraction had the smallest percentage of oxyethylene while the late eluting, small molecular weight fraction had the highest percentage of oxyethylene. The middle fraction had a calculated poloxamer number of 178 which corresponds closely to the desired number of 188. The late fraction had a calculated poloxamer number of 039. Thus, the commercially available poloxamer preparation has a significant population of polymers which may be harmful in a biological system. EXAMPLE VIII Poloxamer 331 (Pluronic® L101) was fractionated according to the protocol in Example VI. The chromatographs for unfractionated poloxamer 331, an early eluting fraction and a late eluting fraction are shown in FIGS. 12A through 12C respectively. The NMR spectra for each sample was then determined as in Example VI. The results of these spectra and chromatograms are summarized in Table V. TABLE V______________________________________Fraction % POE.sup.a MW.sup.b Poloxamer Unsaturation.sup.c______________________________________Unfractionated 17 4045 342 YesEarly Fraction 15 4452 381 NoLate Fraction 31 1466 103 Yes______________________________________ .sup.a As measured by NMR .sup.b As measured by gel permeation chromatography .sup.c As measured by NMR When the poloxamer number for each fraction is calculated based on the empirical data collected, it is seen that the late fraction polymer is a very different poloxamer than the unfractionated preparation. In addition, the unsaturated population of polymers has been removed by the fractionation procedure. It should be understood that the foregoing relates only to a preferred embodiment of the present invention and that numerous modifications or alterations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

The present invention comprises novel preparations of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers which retain the therapeutic activity of the commercial preparations, but are substantially free from the undesirable effects which are inherent in the prior art preparations. Because the preparations of polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers which comprise the present invention are a less polydisperse population of molecules than the prior art polyoxypropylene/polyoxyethylene copolymers, the biological activity of the copolymers is better defined and more predictable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to determining the presence of chromosomal abnormalities, such as abnormal numbers of specific chromosomes, in cells. All cells contain DNA comprising the genetic information necessary to control a cell's biologic function. DNA is made up of two linear strands of four different chemical building blocks or nucleotides arranged in specific sequences which are translated by mechanisms in cells to control the manufacture of specific proteins such as enzymes. The total of the some 100,000 genes in humans, each of which codes for one specific protein, constitute the genome of an individual. These genes are organized into rod-like chromosomes which can be visualized microscopically for only a brief time in a cell's life cycle, during the so-called metaphase, which is just prior to cell division. In humans, each cell contains 46 chromosomes, 23 of which are contributed by each parent. As a result, many genes occur on two different chromosomes and are located at two separated positions in the interphase cell nucleus. Medical research has shown links between flaws in specific genes or chromosomes and certain diseases. Of major importance are gene modifications causing cancer or birth defects such as Down's syndrome, or a predisposition to certain cancers. Such genetic modification may take any of the following forms: 1) aneuploidy, an abnormal number of one of the 23 chromosomes; 2) translocations, genetic material moved to a wrong chromosome; 3) rearrangement mutations, genetic material moved to the wrong place on a chromosome; 4) amplifications, an abnormal number of copies of a specific gene; 5) deletion mutations, a specific gene segment is missing; and 6) point mutations, altered nucleotides in a gene sequence. Of particular interest are mutations of genes which may enhance or suppress tumor growth, the so-called oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. It is important to identify such genetic modifications to diagnose or predict certain diseases. For example, chromosome banding techniques are widely used to identify numerical and/or structural chromosome aberrations in tumor and prenatal diagnosis. However, the interpretation of the banding patterns requires skilled technicians, is often complicated by imperfect banding, chromosome condensation, and limited numbers of metaphases, and is difficult, e.g., in cases of highly aneuploid tumors with extensive structural changes. An alternative method to detect chromosomal aberrations is an in situ hybridization technique, which uses chromosome-specific probes to analyze nuclear DNA directly when the cells are in interphase. A variation of this method, called fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), also involves a nucleic acid probe with a defined nucleotide sequence that preferentially hybridizes with a specific complementary nucleotide sequence of DNA, or target DNA, on one or more chromosomes in a cell. The target nucleotide sequence may be unique or repetitive, as long as it can be used to distinguish one or more specific chromosomes. In the FISH technique, the probe is marked with a fluorescent label so that cells with the target DNA sequence(s), to which the marked probes hybridize, can be detected microscopically. Each chromosome containing the target DNA sequence(s), and hence the marked probe, will emit a fluorescent signal or spot in every cell. For example, a cell sample allowed to hybridize with a fluorescently labeled DNA probe that hybridizes to a specific target nucleotide sequence on chromosome number 21 will show two fluorescent spots in each cell from a normal person, and three spots in each cell from a Down's syndrome patient, because these patients have an extra chromosome number 21. Probes specific for chromosome 21 are well known. See, e.g., Pinkel et al., P.N.A.S., USA, 85:9138-9142 (1988), which is incorporated herein by reference. The six different genetic abnormalities described above are detected by the FISH technique as follows. Aneuploidy is determined by counting spots per cell using a DNA probe specific to one chromosome. Translocations and rearrangements are determined by using DNA probes covering the translocation or rearrangement and a neighboring sequence and determining whether the spots from each sequence are separated or concentric. Amplification, deletion, and point mutations are determined by quantifying the fluorescence from spots using FISH for a specific target nucleotide sequence. The FISH technique can be used for a variety of diagnostic and screening tests. For example, it can be used in conjunction with techniques such as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS) to screen fetuses to determine whether the baby will have a serious birth defect such as Down's syndrome. Both amniocentesis and CVS are associated with the risk of miscarriage, which may be minimized by the FISH technique. This risk is estimated at 1.0% to 2.0% for CVS and at 0.5% for amniocentesis. It may soon be possible to sidestep that risk entirely by obtaining fetal cells from the mother's blood, so that only a blood sample rather than an umbilical cord sample is required. To apply the FISH technique as a prenatal screening tool, sets of DNA probes may be used that hybridize to regions of five different chromosomes, e.g., 21, 18, 13, X, and Y, which together account for 90% to 95% of all birth defects related to chromosomal abnormalities. There are also FISH tests proposed for cancer screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment monitoring in which the presence or the absence of specific gene sequences must be determined in patient cell samples. Such screening and diagnosis currently requires technicians to visually count fluorescent spots in each cell under a microscope. However, such manual microscopic visualization is quite laborious and is therefore not currently performed on a routine basis. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention features an automated method of generating different properties of a large population of cells in a sample treated using the FISH technique, which can indicate and display for every cell 1) the number of copies of a specific DNA sequence, 2) the number of chromosomes containing this sequence, and 3) whether two different sequences are contiguous. Generation of these properties by applicants' apparatus will allow automation of cytogenetic screening for birth defects and the use of DNA probes for cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, determination, and monitoring. Applicants have discovered that the automation of laboratory tests using the FISH technique may be carried out with applicants' apparatus which can quantify two aspects of the fluorescence emanating from cells treated with the FISH procedure. First, it determines the amount of fluorescence resulting from each FISH spot to quantify the number of copies of a target DNA sequence. Second, it determines the number of spots in each cell to determine how many chromosomes contain the specific DNA sequences, or if the spots are concentric. In general, the invention features a method of characterizing the chromosomes in a sample of cells, e.g., from a mammal or a fetus, by fixing the cell sample on a substrate, contacting the cell sample with a nucleic acid probe having a detectable label, e.g., a fluorescent label such as fluorescein, CY3, rhodamine, or CY5, under conditions that allow the probe to hybridize preferentially to a target nucleotide sequence within one or more chromosomes in the cells to form hybridized complexes, wherein each complex forms a labeled region, detecting each labeled region in the sample, assigning a position on the substrate to each detected labeled region, defining a predetermined number of neighboring, e.g., nearest adjacent, labeled regions as a region group and assigning a position on the substrate to each region group which is related to the positions of each of the regions within the group, generating a distance parameter based on the distance between the position of a region group and the position of the next neighboring labeled region and recording the distance parameter for each region group in the sample, and comparing the distance parameter for each region group to a standard distance value to characterize the chromosomes in the cells of the sample. An alternative method of calculating and recording a distance parameter is to define a predetermined number N of labeled regions as a region group, generate a distance parameter for a labeled region based on the distance between the position of the labeled region and the position of the Nth closest labeled region, and recording the distance parameter for each labeled region in the sample. The phrase "hybridize preferentially to a specific nucleotide sequence" means that a given nucleic acid probe will hybridize selectively with the target nucleotide sequence or sequences within a specific chromosome more stably than with other sequences in any other chromosome under the same hybridization conditions. This selectivity is based on the nucleotide sequence of the probe, which is complementary to the target nucleic acid sequence or sequences. Nucleic acid hybridization is based on the ability of two nucleic acid strands to pair at their complementary segments to form hybridization complexes. The formation of these complexes can be made highly specific (preferential) by adjustment of the hybridization conditions (stringency) such that hybridization will not occur unless the probe and the target sequence are precisely complementary. The term "region" means a specific set of digital data points that statistically encompass the optical signal from the label of one hybridized complex. That is, on average, only one set of digital data points corresponding to one complex will be located within a region. A "region group" is a set of one, two, or more, regions that are combined and processed as one group. In a preferred embodiment, the target nucleotide sequence is unique to a specific chromosome, the standard distance value is based on the cellular nuclear diameter, the predetermined number of neighboring labeled regions in a region group is two, and the comparison step provides a determination of the number of chromosomes in the cells of the sample. Under these conditions, a distance parameter greater than the standard distance value indicates two chromosomes per cell, and a distance parameter less than the standard distance value indicates more than two chromosomes per cell. For example, when the target sequence is unique to chromosome 21, cells having more than two chromosomes per cell indicate Down's Syndrome. As used herein, a target nucleotide sequence that is "unique to a specific chromosome" is a single copy or highly repetitive nucleotide sequence that is found only on one specific chromosome, or in such a concentration or copy number on one chromosome that it can be used to distinguish that chromosome from other chromosomes that may have a lower concentration of the same or a similar sequence. In another embodiment, the target nucleotide sequence is unique to a specific chromosome, the standard distance value is based on the cellular nuclear diameter, the predetermined number of neighboring labeled regions in a region group is one, and the comparison step provides a determination of the number of chromosomes in the cells of the sample. In this case, a distance parameter greater than the standard distance value indicates one chromosome per cell, and a distance parameter less than the standard distance value indicates more than one chromosome per cell. For example, when the target sequence is unique to chromosome X, cells having one chromosome per cell are from a male. In another embodiment, the standard distance value is based on the cellular nuclear diameter, the predetermined number of neighboring labeled regions in a region group is greater than one, and the comparison step provides a determination of a chromosomal abnormality in the cells of the sample. Under these conditions, a distance parameter greater than the standard distance value indicates the predetermined number of neighboring labeled regions per cell, and a distance parameter less than the standard distance value indicates more than the predetermined number of neighboring labeled regions per cell. In preferred embodiments, the target nucleotide sequence may be unique to a specific genetic abnormality, and more than one type of probe may be used, each type of probe hybridizing preferentially to a unique target nucleotide sequence of one or more chromosomes in the cells, and each type of probe having a unique detectable label. In further embodiments, the method may further include the step of defining a threshold level below which no label is detected, and the label detecting step may include measuring a level for each label in the sample, if any, and comparing the label level with the threshold level, a label being detected only when its level is above the threshold level. The invention also features a method of characterizing the chromosomes in a sample of cells by (a) fixing the cell sample on a substrate, (b) contacting the cell sample with a nucleic acid probe comprising a detectable label under conditions that allow the probe to hybridize preferentially to a target nucleotide sequence within one or more chromosomes in the cells to form labeled hybridized complexes, (c) scanning the cell sample with a laser beam to generate an optical, e.g., fluorescent, signal, (d) detecting the optical signal and digitizing the detected signal to produce a set of digital data points, (e) storing the set of digital data points, (f) locating a region within a stored set of digital data points, this region including contiguous data points with digital values above a predetermined threshold value, this region representing one labeled complex, (g) assigning a position on the substrate to each region, (h) defining a predetermined number of neighboring regions as a region group and assigning a position on the substrate to each region group which is related to the positions of each of the regions within the group, (i) generating a distance parameter based on the distance between the position of a region group and the position of the next neighboring region, (j) recording the distance parameter for each detected region group, and (k) processing the distance parameters to characterize the chromosomes in the cells of the sample. The processing step of this method may include the steps of (a) summing the digital values in each region for each probe, and (b) recording the summed digital values for each probe, wherein these values are proportional to the DNA copy number. Furthermore, an alternative method of calculating the distance parameter is to define a predetermined number N of regions as a region group, and generate a distance parameter for a region based on the distance between the position of the region and the position of the Nth closest region. In a further preferred method, the standard distance value is based on an inter-chromosomal distance, the predetermined number of neighboring regions is one, the combining step involves a first probe which hybridizes preferentially to a first target nucleotide sequence normally within a first chromosome, and a second probe which hybridizes preferentially to a second target nucleotide sequence normally within a second chromosome, and the processing step involves a comparison of the distance parameter with the inter-chromosomal distance to determine the presence of translocations of the first and second nucleotide sequences in the cells of the sample. Under these conditions, a distance parameter less than the standard distance value indicates a translocation. The method also allows the manual or automatic movement of the microscope stage to an assigned position of a region having a specific distance parameter so that the operator may observe cells visually. In the methods of the invention, the position assigned to a region group may be, for example, proportional to an average of the positions of peak intensity value of each region in the region group. The invention also features a method in which the contacting step involves a first probe which hybridizes preferentially to a first target nucleotide sequence and comprises a first label, and a second probe which hybridizes preferentially to a second target nucleotide sequence and comprises a second label, and wherein the first probe is scanned in the cell sample with a laser beam having a first wavelength which excites the first label, and the second probe is scanned in the cell sample with a laser beam having a second wavelength which excites the second label. In this method, the first wavelength and second wavelength laser beams may scan the cell sample at different times, e.g., sequentially. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, and from the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an instrument for measuring optical signals from cell samples at high rates of speed. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the electromechanical circuit used in the instrument shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the general optical signal data acquisition loop. FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing of the scan pattern of the laser beam. FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the data processing function steps used to manipulate digital data stored in memory. FIG. 6 is a schematic of two cells scanned by the laser scanner microscope of the invention. FIGS. 7A-D are a series of monitor displays of fluorescent spot count and distance parameters for X chromosomes in male and female cell samples. FIGS. 8A-E are is a series of monitor displays similar to FIGS. 7A-D, for male, female, and mixed gender cell samples. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Mechanical and Optical Systems The hardware of the laser scanner microscope described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,072,382 and 5,107,422 (the "Kamentsky et al. patents"), which are incorporated herein by reference, is the preferred apparatus to carry out the method of this invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the instrument 10 includes a light source 12, a mirror scanner 14, such as a resonant galvanometer scanner, an epi-illumination microscope 16, a stepper motor controlled stage 18, light detectors 20, 22, 24, 26, and various associated optical components which will be described below. Light source 12 produces a light beam 12a that reflects off of scanner 14 to produce a scan beam 12b and finally illuminates a scan spot 12c of a fixed diameter or size on a specimen plane or surface 28. Specimen plane or surface 28 is positioned on stage 18. Light source 12 is a laser such as, for example, a Helium-Neon, Helium-Cadmium, solid state, or Argon ion laser, depending on the application. More than one laser may be used for a given application, in which case, the beams can be combined using a dichroic mirror so that they are coaxial. For some applications it may be desirable to control the intensity of the laser beams or shutter them under the control of a computer. Lasers with multiple wavelength outputs may also be used, in which case, it may be desirable to use a computer-controlled filter, prism or Bragg cell to select a specific wavelength. In the preferred embodiment, the laser is preferably a Helium-Neon laser emitting in the green wavelength (542 nm) when used with the fluorescent dye CY3, which fluoresces in the red wavelength (590 nm). An Argon ion laser emitting in the blue wavelength (488 nm) may be used in conjunction with the dye fluorescein, which fluoresces in the green wavelength (530 nm). After passing through a dichroic mirror 30, the laser beam is imaged by two lenses 32 and 34 onto an epi-illumination field stop 36 of microscope 16. Resonant scanner 14 is located between lenses 32 and 34 and scans the beam across the field stop when electrically driven. The focal lengths of lenses 32 and 34 and the deflection angle of scanner 14, which is proportional to the galvanometer drive voltage, control the size of the spot and the length of the scan at field stop 36 and thus, at surface 28. Slides containing cells are preferably scanned with a spot size of approximately 2 microns using a 40X objective lens. The scanner is driven at 800 Hz and the scan length at the specimen is 100μ. These are nominal values and can be changed by the user by rotating microscope nosepiece 38 bearing objectives 39 from 40X to other higher magnifications to reduce the spot size and scan length or lower magnifications to increase them. Epi-illumination is used to illuminate the specimen and to transmit fluorescent light to the viewing eyepiece 40 or to a film or video camera 42. The light transferring assembly 44 may contain a dichroic or partially or fully silvered mirror as well as an optical filter in the viewing path. These assemblies are interchangeable and the microscope used in the described embodiment includes a movable rod to exchange these assemblies. Specimen surface 28 may be a slide upon which a tissue or cytology specimen is mounted. The FISH technique results in one or more optical signals, i.e., fluorescent spots, of approximately 2 microns diameter each, that are emitted by the label of the nucleic acid probes hybridized to a specific complementary target DNA sequence on a chromosome in the cell nucleus. Each signal represents one such hybridized complex. One or more fluorescence parameters, e.g., in the wavelength range 460 to 650 nm, are measured by the laser scanner microscope. The sampling rate is selected to be 150 KHz digitizations per second, which results in sampling the fluorescence optical signal at spatial intervals of approximately 1μ that are smaller than the spot size taught in the Kamentsky et al. patents. Although the FISH technique uses fluorescent stains, the present invention may be carried out using other stains that can be optically detected, e.g., horseradish peroxidase. Optical, e.g., fluorescent, signals from the cell sample are collected by objective lens 38 at high numerical aperture and imaged back through the lenses 35, 34, and 32 to dichroic mirror 54 which is designed to reflect the fluorescent wavelengths. Dichroic mirror 30 transmits almost all of the laser wavelength and reflects the fluorescent wavelengths. Dichroic mirror 54 splits the light into two parts so as to measure two different wavelengths of fluorescence. Mirror 54 reflects part of the incident energy through filter 56 of the appropriate bandpass wavelength onto photomultiplier 24. Similarly, mirror 58 reflects the remaining energy through filter 60 to photomultiplier 26. The signals from the two photomultipliers are amplified and become inputs for the data acquisition circuit. The position of the cell sample with respect to scanning beam 12b is controlled by X and Y stepping motors 46, 47. The X motor is driven in steps that are of a size ranging from a fraction of the spot size to the spot size. This step size is under the control of a computer program. The stage is also provided with sensors to provide signals to the computer to indicate a "Home" or reference position for the stage and to limit its travel. By always moving the stage to Home at the beginning of each run or periodically during a run (i.e., a group of scan strips), it is possible to obtain the absolute position of given cells on the specimen surface so they can be manually reviewed or remeasured. For normal use, the stage can be moved manually by knobs attached to the motors. The stage may also be manually controlled by buttons, a joystick or a computer mouse with a specifically programmed display. The microscope 16 is focused manually by knob 62. Electromechanical System Referring to FIG. 2, the electromechanical system provides means of inputting signals from the light sensors 20, 22, 24 and 26, the scanner driver 70, and the microscope stage 18, to the computer 81 and outputting signals from the computer to the X stepper motor 46 and Y stepper motor 47 which move the microscope stage 18. As used for the method of this invention, photomultipliers 24 and 26 are used to detect analog optical, e.g., fluorescence, signals. Two commercially available circuit boards 80, which accept four analog voltages, digitize them at rates up to 200,000 Hz with analog-to-digital converter 80a, and cause the resultant digital data to be stored in the computer memory under direct memory access (dma) control are used to control the entire system. Boards 80 also accept digital values from inputs 82-88, which provide limit information from the stage, and provide digital output values on lines 94-104, which control the stage. This also controls the values of two analog voltages used to control the supply voltages to photomultipliers (light detectors) 24 and 26. A detailed description is available in the Kamentsky patents. The position of the scanning mirror 14 may be synchronized with the data acquired by the sensors and converted to a stream of digital data. The digital data stream for a scan may be stored in contiguous blocks of memory. For synchronization purposes, the D.C. level of circuit 78 is initially set so that a negative synchronization pulse is easily detected. Synchronization is accomplished by using a pulse synchronization signal generated by the scanner mirror driver 70 which controls the motion of scan mirror 14 through scanner 72. The synchronization signal may be added to the sensor signal from sensor 24, or used as a separate input signal. The signal at input 112 is the fluorescence signal of sensor 24 and the pulse signal is negatively added near one scan extreme. This synchronization pulse is detected by the program and used to properly synchronize the digital data stored in the computer memory. The sampling rate is set by the user through an initialization program which allows the user to define a protocol for each test. The protocol is monitored on a screen that the operator uses to set the sampling rate and the various test parameters, area scanned, threshold settings, etc. The number of parameters digitized is also preset and the amplifier gain settings and input/output relationship, i.e., linear or logarithmic, may be used as additional parameters. The levels of the digital outputs 94, 96, 98, 100, 102 and 104, of circuit boards 80 are under the control of the computer program. The digital inputs 82, 84, 86, and 88 are read at specific times also determined by the control of the program. These outputs and inputs are used to control the movement of the microscope stage 18 via X stepper motor 46 and Y stepper motor 47, which are each driven by translator circuits 116 and 117, respectively. The microscope stage is provided with limit switches which indicate when the stage has reached its limit of travel in the x and y directions. These switches generate signals on lines 18a-18d which are used as inputs 82 to 88, respectively, of boards 80. Although not shown here, additional digital outputs may be used to control the wavelength of the light source by controlling specific light sources, shutters, or filter positions. The program controlled stage motion is designed to perform the following sequence that is depicted in the flow chart of FIG. 3. First, when the user initiates a test, both stepper motors are moved to a specific "Home" position. This is accomplished by calling a program subroutine to pulse lines 94 and 100 on and off until inputs 82 and 88 indicate that the stage has reached Home. Under program control, outputs 96 and 102 are set to produce the proper stage direction by producing signals received at inputs 116b and 117b. As soon as the stage reaches Home, the Y stepper is pulsed to move the stage 18 to the initial y position, then a subroutine is called to move the stage to the right in the x direction by changing the signal on output 96. In one embodiment, the pulse rate on output 94 is ramped-up in rate from about 100 up to 1600 pulses per second (pps) for a fixed total number of pulses or distance, typically 100 pulses or steps. This is the ramp-up number. This fixed ramp-up and the final step rate may also be adjusted by the program or by a commercially available ramp-up controller circuit (Metrobyte, Taunton, Mass.). The program typically produces a rate of 1600 pps, at the end of the ramp-up, so the stepper is moving at full stepping speed at this time. The X step size is 1 micron so that the stage is preferably moving at the rate of one step per scan. The stepping motion in conjunction with the scanning motion generated by scanner driver 70 which is perpendicular to the stepping motion creates the scan pattern shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, the scan starts at the left, at the Home position, and forward and reverse scans of length "L" are produced until the end of one scan strip is reached. Such a strip typically encompasses 5000 forward and 5000 reverse scans. An additional parameter of the protocol is the X scan distance. This distance determines the length of one scan strip. This length can be used to calculate the size required for the data buffers by multiplying the number of parameters measured by the total number of data values digitized per scan strip. The boards 80 digitize inputs and store them in a buffer. At this time the boards 80 send 100 pulses to the X stepper to ramp it down in velocity to a stop. The digital data in the buffers may be processed at the end of a complete scan strip, as will be described below, or it may be processed as the next strip is being digitized. At the conclusion of this scan strip, stepper motor 47 moves the stage in the y direction so that a new scan strip can be run. Output 100 is used to send pulses to input 117a to step the motor; output 102 determines whether movement is in the positive or negative y direction and output 104 determines the size of the steps (5 or 10μ) and passes a signal to input 117c. Again, smaller or larger movements may be used under protocol control. After stepping the Y motor 47 to move the specimen "up" or "down" in the y direction a distance equal to 60% of the scan length L, as shown in FIG. 4, the procedure described above, in which the X stepper motor 46 is ramped up in rate and moved the X distance, and ramped back down to a stop is repeated but the stage is moved back to the left in the x direction. The Y stepper then moves the stage in the y direction a number of steps and the complete cycle is repeated. The number M of Y steps are counted by the program and the test is terminated when the Y distance is reached as determined by the user through the appropriate protocol parameter. Preparation of the Probes Probes typically used in FISH assays are suitable for use in the methods of the invention. For example, probes specific for different human chromosomes, under the proper stringency conditions, are known. See, e.g., Devilee et al., Cytogenet. Cell Genet., 41:193-201 (1986) (chromosomes #13, 18, and 21); Waye et al., Mol. Cell Bio., 7:349-356 (1987) (chromosome #7); Higgins et al., Chromosoma, 93:77-86 (1985) (chromosome #15); Waye et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 14:6915 (1986) (chromosome #17); Yang et al., P.N.A.S., USA, 79:6593-6597 (1982) (chromosome X); and Donis-Keller et al., Cell, 51:319-337 (1987) (chromosomes 1-18, 20-22, and X) which are incorporated herein by reference. Many of these probes preferentially hybridize to target sequences that are highly repetitive on one or more specific chromosomes. Such highly repetitive target sequences are preferred for use in the present invention so that hundreds or thousands of separate probes, each of the same type, will each hybridize with one of the many copies of the repetitive target sequence, and give a high concentration of label, which provides a strong signal, on the desired chromosome. However, probes that hybridize preferentially to repetitive sequences are not very useful for the detection of structural aberrations or mutant genes, since it is unlikely that the aberrations will involve the repetitive region. If it is desired to detect such structural aberrations, then the techniques described, e.g., in Pinkel et al., supra, can be used in the present invention. Probes directed to specific sections of chromosomes, e.g., genes, and to chromosomes with specific abnormalities are also known, as are methods for their preparation. See, e.g., Pinkel et al., supra, and Gerhard et al., P.N.A.S., USA, 78:3755-3759 (1981), which are incorporated herein by reference. The signal amplification techniques used by Gerhard et al. for radioactive probes may also be applied to fluorescently labeled probes. The probes must be labeled, e.g., by nick translation with biotin-11-dUTP, and later detected by indirect immunofluorescence using a rabbit anti-biotin IgG for a first step, and a fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated second goat anti-rabbit IgG as described in Popp et al., Exp. Cell Res., 189:1-12 (1990), which is incorporated herein by reference. The probes may also be labeled by other standard techniques, e.g., using CY3, CY5, or rhodamine. Preparation of the Microscope Slides Cells are centrifuged on cleaned slides, allowed to air dry (overnight), washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS: 0.15M NaCl, 10 mM Na phosphate, pH 7.2), and gradually dehydrated with ethanol. Before hybridization, the slide mounted cells are treated with 100 μg/ml RNase A in 2×SSC buffer (0.3M NaCl, 30 mM Na citrate, pH 7.2) under a coverslip for 60 min at 37° C., treated with proteinase K (0.1 μg/ml in 20 mM Tris-HCl, 2 mM CaCl 2 , pH 7.4), for 7.5 min at 37° C., and post-fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde (in PBS, 50 mM MgCl 2 ) for 10 min, dehydrated, and kept at room temperature until used. Other protocols, such as the one described in Gerhard et al., supra, or Pinkel et al., supra, may also be used. In Situ Hybridization Hybridization conditions are defined by the nucleotide composition of the probe-target complex, as well as by the level and geometry of mispairings between the probe and the target. Normal hybridization conditions for probes of 10 to 250 nucleotides in length are a temperature of about 37° to 60° C. in the presence of, e.g., 1.0M sodium chloride, 60 mM sodium phosphate, and 6 mM EDTA (pH of 7.4). Such conditions are well known and can readily be altered and manipulated for specific probes and target sequences by those skilled in the art. For each hybridization, the labeled probe(s) are mixed in a hybridization buffer containing, e.g., 60% deionized formamide, 2×SSC (SSC=0.15M NaCl/0.015M sodium citrate, pH 7), and a carrier DNA (50 times excess of salmon sperm DNA and yeast RNA). Approximately 5 to 20 μl of the, e.g., fluorescently, labeled probe mixture is used (containing 10 or 20 ng for each probe) for each hybridization. The cells in the sample are preferably in the interphase stage during hybridization. The probes and cell samples are denatured together under a coverslip (18×18 mm) at 80° C. for 5 min in an incubator. Hybridization is then performed in a moist chamber for 10 to 20 h at 37° C. to 60° C. depending on the desired level of stringency and probe length. To remove any unhybridized probes, the slides may be washed at room temperature two or more times for 5 min each with 60% formamide, 2×SSC, and two times for 10 min each with 2×SSC. If the probes are labelled with biotin, the slides must be treated with fluoresceinated avidin to provide the fluorescent signal. Other protocols, such as the one described in Pinkel et al., supra, may also be used. The slides are now ready for scanning. As described in Singer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 79:7334-7335 (1982), the detection of the target DNA sequences within a cell requires an adequate signal-to-noise ratio, which may be accomplished by avoiding nonspecific hybridization, adventitious sticking of nucleic acids to the cellular matrix, and nonspecific association of fluorescent labels. Implementation In principle, it is possible to isolate optical signals of individual cells from each other using a second parameter such as light scatter, or to isolate individual nuclei using DNA fluorescence, and then to count spots generated by the FISH technique within each cell or nuclear boundary. However, we found this to be difficult because the bright nuclear DNA fluorescent signal interfered with the very faint FISH fluorescent signal, which could not be distinguished. Also, the light scatter signal can not be reliably used to isolate FISH treated cells, because the FISH technique requires a close refractive match between the cell and its surrounding medium, which results in undetectable scatter signals. Therefore, the preferred method of determining chromosomal abnormalities measures only one parameter per probe, the fluorescent or other optical signal emitted by each labeled hybridized complex, which allows for a simple chemical protocol, simple hardware, and rapid cell scanning rates. Optical Signal Acquisition After mounting the prepared slide in the apparatus and selecting a protocol to define the scan area and the sampling parameters, the user then sets a threshold fluorescence signal value T for establishing the presence of a detectable signal for any signal emitted from a label in the FISH treated cells. The operator can then initiate one or more data acquisition runs to scan an area of a test slide defined in the protocol, find all of the optical signals on the slide that meet the signal threshold T, group contiguous optical signals into regions, and generate a list of digital data representing each region found, and the X and Y position of each region with respect to Home. The user places the cell sample on the stage and initiates a run by typing a key on the computer keyboard. The flow chart of FIG. 3 illustrates the general mechanical optical signal data acquisition loop as described above. The program causes the stage to be driven to Home and then moves the stage over the test area. As the stage moves, the beam is scanned back and forth to create the scan path shown in FIG. 4. For each X direction scan strip, the optical signal emitted by the specimen is digitized by an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter at a sample rate set by the protocol to create a sequence of digital data. Typically 450,000 such optical signals are digitized and stored in a buffer memory within 3 seconds. Data acquisition and processing may be done sequentially or simultaneously. Digital Data Processing The optical, e.g., fluorescent, signal obtained from cell samples treated with the FISH technique must be processed to provide useful information for the operator. This processing is preferably carried out by software which performs the steps shown in the flow chart of FIG. 5 and described in greater detail below. The first data processing program function step, 200 in FIG. 5, locates the beginning of each forward scan (typically 5000 per strip) in the strip. One of the signals has added to it a synchronization pulse of sufficient amplitude, duration, and negative polarity so that it can be distinguished from all normal signals. The synchronization pulse is derived directly from the mirror scan driver 70, occurring once for each forward scan at the same time for every scan and near its beginning so that this pulse does not interfere with the actual data. In the described embodiment, only the middle (approximately 60) sample points of the 100 sample scan (i.e., there are 100 samples per scan length L) are used and will be referred to as POINTS. The program first searches successive memory locations of the buffer for values below a value to find the synchronization pulses and produces a table of pointers to all of these locations. The starting location of every data POINT value is fixed at a known displacement in the buffer from each of these pointer locations. Because the relationship of the synchronization signal and scan position is fixed, the start position of every scan can be marked and the data buffer values can each be associated with a specific scan position by appropriate record keeping in the program. Once the digital data is stored, and scans are properly organized in the computer memory, the data is processed by a variety of protocol controlled functions to correct the data, e.g., for background, and to generate the desired distance parameters as described below. These function steps are shown in the flow chart of FIG. 5. The second step, 202 in FIG. 5, is to find and isolate the digital data "regions" that correspond to each of the small (approx. 2 micron) fluorescent "spots" in a cell sample treated with the FISH technique, which may be very close to each other. A background value is initially determined by finding the n lowest signal values of each scan pixel of the first few scans and averaging these n values. In this second step, the program determines the pixel number, or position along the scan line, where the threshold fluorescence signal value T is exceeded by the signal less background, and again the pixel number, or position along the scan line, where the signal less background is smaller than T. This is repeated for successive scans until the signal no longer exceeds T. Pixels of contiguous scans exceeding T are grouped together and are now processed as one "region," as described for the "neighborhoods" in the Kamentsky et al. patents, to generate properties, such as the integrated value and distance parameters, for that region. This is illustrated in FIG. 6, which schematically shows how two cells, one with two fluorescent spots and the second with one fluorescent spot, are scanned. The thin vertical lines are the scan lines. The heavy portion of the scan lines show the areas above threshold T which form the separate regions. The distance parameters are D 1 ,2 for spots 1 and 2 in the first cell, and D 3 for the single spot 3 in the second cell. Background is recomputed for each region at this time using scans adjacent to, but not including, the region. The third step, 204 in FIG. 5, is to calculate the integrated fluorescence from each region. Corrections, e.g., for background, are performed and parameters are generated for each region as described in the Kamentsky et al. patents as if they were entire cells. For example, a center pixel is determined for each region and the digital values are corrected based on the scan position of this pixel. For each region found, the corrected, integrated intensity is determined by adding the corrected pixels in the region. This intensity value is proportional to the number of copies of the target DNA sequence that preferentially hybridizes with the DNA probe used in the FISH procedure in each region. The fourth step, 206 in FIG. 5, is to generate an N=x distance parameter, where N is the number of regions that are grouped together. This distance parameter is proportional to the distance between (1) an average, or other related position measure, of the peak value of each of one, two, three, or more spots (regions) grouped into a region group, and (2) the next nearest neighboring region to this group. For N=1, the distance parameter is the distance between the two closest regions in the digital data, i.e., each region is its own group. For N=2, the distance parameter is the distance between a point halfway between the two closest adjacent regions, i.e., N=2 regions together form a group, and the third closest adjacent region. For N=x, the distance parameter is the distance between a point at the center of the group of the first most adjacent x regions, and the x+1st region. The present method avoids the need to count the number of fluorescent spots per cell, as in the prior art manual counting methods. For each region found in the scan strip, a list of property values is determined and stored in computer memory. These values include the integrated intensity, the number of pixels above threshold, the peak intensity, and the scan pixel and X and Y step position of each found region. Inter-scan pixel and X step distance values are scaled using appropriate multiplication factors so that these two distance values are equally dimensioned when combined to calculate the distance parameter. The record containing this list of values is processed one region at a time and combined with the lists of a given number of neighboring regions to form a property value list for each region group, which is used to compute the distance between that region group and its nearest neighboring region. A new distance parameter based on the computed distance between the digital data regions is added to the list for every region. For example, if a probe that preferentially hybridizes to the X chromosome is employed, and the sample is from a normal male, the N=1 distance parameter will be the distance between two neighboring cells, because males have one X chromosome per cell. If the specimen were from a normal female, each cell would contain two X chromosomes, and the distance would be the distance between the two chromosomes in the nucleus, and thus smaller than the nuclear diameter of the cell. Thus the distance parameter is an indicator of the number of a given type of chromosome per cell, in this case distinguishing cells with one chromosome from those with two chromosomes, i.e., males from females. The use of the N=1 distance parameter is shown in the series of monitor displays in FIGS. 7A-D for samples of male and female blood cells treated with the FISH technique using a DNA probe that preferentially hybridizes to a target region of DNA on the X chromosome. The female cells have two X chromosomes, while the male cells have one. The monitor displays in FIGS. 7A and 7C show peak fluorescence versus spot distance, whereas the displays in FIGS. 7B and 7D show spot count per spot distance value. FIGS. 7A and 7B show the male sample, and FIGS. 7C and 7D show the female sample. FIGS. 8A-F show a second set of tests, with different staining conditions, in which female cells (FIGS. 8A and 8B), male cells (FIGS. 8C and 8D), and a mixture of half male and half female cells (FIGS. 8E and 8F) were scanned, and regions along the distance parameter axis were used to perform a differential count after calibration with 100% and 0% samples. The monitor displays in FIGS. 8A, 8C and 8E show peak fluorescence versus spot distance, whereas the displays in FIGS. 8B, 8D and 8F show spot count per spot distance value. We found the distance parameter to be robust against problems in the FISH protocol such as irrelevant spots or overlapping spots, because of the large number of cells in the sample population. The same procedure can be extended to groups of N=x spots, or regions in the data, where x is greater than one, by grouping x neighboring regions into region groups, and finding for each region group its nearest adjacent x+1 region. The distance between the average scan and X step position of the individual regions within this region group and its nearest neighboring region is computed. Group positions can also be based on measures other than the average of the scan and X step position. In addition, measures of adjacent scan strips may be combined to produce inter-strip distances. In this manner, the N distance parameters can be added to the list along with neighboring region distances. An alternative distance calculation method where N is greater than one, is to find the distance to the Nth closest region where N is the number of regions grouped together. The distance parameter for a region is then proportional to the distance between that region and the Nth closest region. For N=x, the distance parameter is calculated by finding and ignoring the x-1 regions closest to the region in question, and then determining and recording the distance from that region to the xth closest region. In another example, if a probe to chromosome 21 is employed, and the sample is from a normal individual, the N=2 distance parameter will be the distance between that cell and its neighboring cell since normal individuals have two chromosomes 21 per cell, and the distance parameter is the distance between a point midway between the group of two closest regions, e.g., chromosomes 21, which are in one cell nucleus, and the next closest third region, which would be in an adjacent cell. If the specimen is from a Down's Syndrome individual, each cell would contain three chromosomes 21, and the N=2 distance would be the distance between a point halfway between the two closest chromosomes 21 in the nucleus, and the third chromosome 21, also in the nucleus. The distance parameter is thus smaller than the nuclear diameter of the cells. Thus, the N=2 distance parameter is an indicator of abnormal numbers of given chromosomes, in this case distinguishing cells with two chromosomes from those with three chromosomes, i.e., normal from Down's Syndrome individuals. The distance parameter can also be set to include further information by the use of multiple fluorescence determinations. Cells stained with two different probes, each tagged with a different dye such as CY3 and fluorescein and emitting energy at different wavelengths when excited by one or more lasers, can be scanned to define regions that can be independently located simultaneously for each cell, and the distance between them determined. When using multiple probes in which different wavelength fluorescence emissions can be distinguished, these distance parameters can be determined and used to detect cells with translocations. If, for example, a probe that preferentially hybridizes to a particular chromosomal segment is employed and a second probe to a segment normally found on a different chromosome is also employed, and the sample is from a normal individual, the distance parameter will be the distance between the two chromosomes. If the specimen were from an individual in which a portion of a chromosomal segment containing one probe sequence is translocated to the other chromosome containing the second probe sequence, the distance parameter would be the distance along the same chromosome, and thus smaller than a given standard distance value, on the order of less than 2 microns, representing an average inter-chromosomal distance. Thus the distance parameter is an indicator of a chromosomal abnormality, a translocation. In a final fifth step, 208 in FIG. 5, the summed data values, region positions, peak values, region areas, and N distance parameter values are stored in a list for each region found. Display and Storage of Optical Parameters Through the use of a display protocol, the operator can select two of the properties listed for each region, e.g., integrated intensity and the distance parameter, to be displayed on a monitor screen as a dot representing each region, with x and y positions proportional to each of the properties. Alternatively or simultaneously, the operator can request the display of a population distribution of a property such as the total number of regions for each value of a given distance parameter versus a distance parameter as shown in FIGS. 7A-D. This display is generated at the conclusion of the computation of digital values from a complete scan strip. The property list is also stored in a protocol-named computer disk file along with a header describing the instrument protocol employed. After moving the stage in the y direction, a new strip is scanned, new region parameters are found, and they are added to the list and additional dots or counts are accumulated, until either a set number of regions is found or a set area of the slide is scanned. Typically, 500 to 5000 regions are found, processed, and stored on disk in one complete run. During a run, or after its conclusion, the operator can, e.g., with a mouse, define polynomial areas on the monitor display, and cells within each of these areas can be counted. The instrument has the capability to nest property displays so that additional displays can be generated resulting from cells within a defined area of a previous display. This can be used to differentially count the numbers of cells with defined properties, for example, those with copy numbers above a threshold level and having distances to their neighboring region smaller than the nuclear diameter. This technique can be used to define cell data to be used to control the position of the microscope stage since the position of each region is included in the property list. The operator can also program the instrument to stop each time a cell is found with given properties, for example, to view the cell directly or by means of a CCD camera. Alternatively, the instrument can be used to reread a data file at the conclusion of a run to review the slide to show the user selected cells with defined property sets. Other Embodiments Another, though less preferred embodiment, may be used when accurate DNA sequence copy numbers are not required and fluorescent signal strengths are adequate. This method involves distinguishing cells with, e.g., three fluorescent spots from those with, e.g., two spots, but does not allow matching the spot size and sampling rate. In this alternative method, the slide is scanned at high resolution by a sensitive video camera (e.g., the Sony XC57) mounted on a standard fluorescence microscope. In this embodiment, the operator visually locates an area on the slide containing cell samples. Using a standard microscope arc lamp as the light source with appropriate excitation and barrier filters to view a fluorescent image of the cells, the operator changes the viewing light path from visual to video camera viewing. Excitation filters are used between the lamp and the cell sample slide to select the wavelength from the arc lamp that is best absorbed by the fluorescent dye used, e.g., 490 nm for fluorescein. Barrier filters are used in front of the camera lens to select the light emitted by the dye and to discriminate it from the excitation energy, e.g., 530 nm for fluorescein. The video images can be digitized by a circuit board called a frame grabber, now available as a standard card for IBM compatible PCs (e.g., the Cortex-1, Imagenation Corp., Vancouver Wash.), into a pixel array in a block of computer memory representing fluorescence at each pixel in the scanned field. The operator could at this point change lamp excitation and/or barrier filters to grab a second frame of pixels representing the fluorescence from a second dye to be stored in a second block of computer memory. If each column of pixels represented in computer memory is considered to be a scan and successive columns are considered as resulting from steps of the stage, the above "Implementation" section applies identically to this alternative method. The use of background correction is preferred, but may not be essential if the only result required is a per cell spot count. Intensity correction is similarly unnecessary for per cell spot counting. While the invention has been described in conjunction with the detailed description thereof, this description is intended to illustrate and not limit the scope of the invention, which is defined by the scope of the appended claims. Other aspects, advantages, and modifications within the scope of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.

A method of characterizing the chromosomes in a sample of cells by fixing the cell sample on a substrate, contacting the cell sample with a nucleic acid probe having a detectable label under conditions that allow the probe to hybridize preferentially to a chromosome in the cells to form a hybridized complex, optically detecting each labeled complex in the sample, defining a predetermined number of neighboring labeled complexes as a group, generating a distance parameter based on the distance between the position of a group and the position of the next neighboring labeled complex, and comparing the distance parameter for each group to a standard distance value to characterize the chromosomes in the cells of the sample.

PRIORITY CLAIM, CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE [0001] This application is related to, claims priority under, and claims the benefit of the following provisional applications filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office: “MODIFIED TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY PATCH WITH MULTIPLE ABSORBENT PADS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 3, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,623: “MODIFIED TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY DEVICE OR PATCH AND METHOD OF DELIVERING INSULIN FROM SAID MODIFIED TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY DEVICE”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 3, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,622; “METHOD FOR GLUCOSE CONTROL IN DIABETICS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 3, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,624; “ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS SUITABLE FOR ULTRASONIC DRUG DELIVERY VIA A SYSTEM WHICH IS PORTABLE AND WEARABLE BY THE PATIENT”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 7, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,683; “METHOD FOR THE ATTENUATION ENHANCEMENT OF ABSORBENT MATERIALS USED IN BOTH PASSIVE AND ACTIVE TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 9, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,788; “MODIFICATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS TO MAKE THEM MORE CONDUCIVE TO ULTRASONIC TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 9, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,790; “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE DOSE REMAINING UPON A TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY DEVICE”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Aug. 1, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/999,589; “ULTRASONICALLY ENHANCED SEED GERMINATION SYSTEM SOIL TREATMENT PROCESS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jan. 2, 2015, and having Ser. No. 62/124,758; “ULTRASONIC TREATMENT OF SEEDS DELTA SEED MACHINE”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Feb. 2, 2015, and having Ser. No. 62/125,836; “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING ALTERNATING ULTRASONIC TRANSMISSIONS WITHOUT CAVITATION”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Feb. 2, 2015, and having Ser. No. 62/125,837. [0002] This application hereby incorporates herein by reference the subject matter disclosed in the abstracts, the written descriptions, the drawings, and the claims, in their entireties, of the following provisional applications filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office: “MODIFIED TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY PATCH WITH MULTIPLE ABSORBENT PADS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 3, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,623: “MODIFIED TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY DEVICE OR PATCH AND METHOD OF DELIVERING INSULIN FROM SAID MODIFIED TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY DEVICE”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 3, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,622; “METHOD FOR GLUCOSE CONTROL IN DIABETICS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 3, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,624; “ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS SUITABLE FOR ULTRASONIC DRUG DELIVERY VIA A SYSTEM WHICH IS PORTABLE AND WEARABLE BY THE PATIENT”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 7, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,683; “METHOD FOR THE ATTENUATION ENHANCEMENT OF ABSORBENT MATERIALS USED IN BOTH PASSIVE AND ACTIVE TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 9, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,788; “MODIFICATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS TO MAKE THEM MORE CONDUCIVE TO ULTRASONIC TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jul. 9, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/998,790; “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE DOSE REMAINING UPON A TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY DEVICE”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Aug. 1, 2014, and having Ser. No. 61/999,589; “ULTRASONICALLY ENHANCED SEED GERMINATION SYSTEM SOIL TREATMENT PROCESS”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Jan. 2, 2015, and having Ser. No. 62/124,758; “ULTRASONIC TREATMENT OF SEEDS DELTA SEED MACHINE”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Feb. 2, 2015, and having Ser. No. 62/125,836; “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING ALTERNATING ULTRASONIC TRANSMISSIONS WITHOUT CAVITATION”, Bruce K. Redding, Jr., filed on Feb. 2, 2015, and having Ser. No. 62/125,837.” BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for reducing or eliminating the cavitation forces in an acoustic transmission while retaining the vibratory energy associated with said acoustic transmission. The invention also relates to non-cavitation ultrasound generating systems. [0004] One aspect of the present invention relates to an ultrasonic device which produces reduced or no cavitation forces, or temperature effects as a result of alternating the waveform of the sonic transmission. [0005] Reference is made to the following publications: The Temperature of Cavitation, Edward B. Flint and Kenneth S. Suslick, Science , New series, Volume 253, Issue 5026 (Sep. 20, 1991), 1397-1399; and “Ultrasound, Cavitation bubbles and their interaction with Cells”, Junru Wu and Wesley L. Nyborg, Elsevier, Advanced Drug Delivery Review 60 (2008) 1103-1116, Apr. 8, 2008. [0007] A review of the referenced material indicates that ultrasound is generally formed in a single waveform, a sine wave, as indicated in FIG. 1 . A standard acoustical transmission in the ultrasonic range, above 20 kHz frequency, possesses a positive part of the wave front called the compression wave which is followed by a negative portion of the wave front, termed the expansion section. [0008] FIG. 1 shows the positive and negative portions of a typical sine wave transmission. The quick drop off of pressure is shown in the graph of FIG. 4 and can lead to intense cavitation effects as disclosed in the Suslick article. [0009] Referring to FIG. 1 again, it can be seen that a typical sinusoidal ultrasonic transmission grows to an implosive effect typically at the 400 micro-second (msecs) duration point in the transmission. Once at 400 msecs, the sinusoidal ultrasound transmission has formed a bubble in the solution or substrate exposed to the ultrasonic transmission with as high as a 150 micron radius and then generates a shock wave which causes the bubble to collapse. In FIG. 1 , the microject shockwave collapses the bubble and in the process of collapse, a hot spot or instantaneous temperature rise occurs at the microscopic level in the solution or substrate exposed to the ultrasonic transmission. [0010] Suslick describes a cavitation temperature range as high as 5075+/−156° K within 1 millionth of a second. [0011] This intense cavitation effect and the resultant temperature rise can have the effect of damaging materials, biological structures or cells and denaturing pharmaceutical preparations as indicated in FIG. 3 . [0012] A further review of the fundamental physics of ultrasonic waves indicates non-focused ultrasonic plane-traveling waves as shown in FIG. 35 , a plane-wave sound source and its wave front. [0013] Wu and Nyborg disclose that ultrasound within a fluid or within a biological tissue can have cavitation effects: considering a half-space (x>0) filled with a liquid or soft tissue. For most cases, the soft-tissue may be considered as a liquid like medium. At x=0, there is a thin solid-plane as shown in FIG. 35 with lateral dimensions (perpendicular to x direction) much greater than the wavelength (λ) of the sound wave. This plane, a sound source, is vibrating sinusoidally with time and back and forth in space around its initial position at x=0; its vibration leads to the production of a sound wave in the region x>0. The displacement of this source plane with respect to x=0 can be written as (Eq-1): [0000] x ( t )= A cos(2π ft+φ 0 ), [0000] where f is frequency of the vibration, A (>0) is the amplitude, φ 0 is the initial phase which determines the initial (t=0) conditions of the source plane. For example, if φ 0 =0, the displacement and velocity of the source plane are x=A and v=dx/dt=0, respectively, when t=0. In the regime of linear acoustics (discussion of non-linear acoustics in later sections), a traveling pressure wave propagating along x direction in a medium is generated by the vibrating sound source. [0014] That is to say, the pressure in the medium is a function of x and t and fluctuates around the atmospheric pressure. If we define the acoustic pressure p(x, t) as the excess of the total pressure to the atmospheric pressure, it can be written as (Eq-2): [0000] p ( x,t )= P 0 ( x )cos( kx−ωt )= p 0 e −αx cos( kx 0 −ωt ), [0000] where P 0 (x) is the acoustic pressure amplitude which is a function of position x and is equal to [0015] p 0 e −αx , where p 0 =P 0 (0), the pressure amplitude at x=0. Other parameters include the angular frequency ω=2πf, the propagation constant (or wave number) k=2π/λ and the attenuation coefficient of the medium α. [0016] In water, α is approximately a linear increasing function of frequency in the megahertz range. [0017] The attenuation coefficient α describes the energy transfer from the sound wave to the medium mainly through absorption and scattering processes. Absorption converts acoustic energy irreversibly into heat mainly via viscous friction. Inside the tissue or in aqueous suspensions of cells, inhomogeneities exist. [0018] Scattering is a process whereby the inhomogeneities re-direct some sonic energy to regions outside the original wave-propagation path. If the density of the inhomogeneity is high, multiple-scattering may occur. In other words, in such instances sonic energy may scatter among several inhomogeneities back and forth for several times before it is diminished by absorption. In water, the attenuation coefficient α is often negligible and the multiplying factor e −αx may be considered to be unity in Eq. (2). [0019] Frequency and wavelength are not independent for a sound wave; they are related by the relationship of fλ=c, where c is called the phase velocity. In water, the phase velocity at 20° C. is approximately equal to 1500 m/s. [0020] Noting that if x=x 0 , p(x, t) in Eq. (2) becomes [0000] p ( x,t )= P 0 ( x )cos( kx 0 −ωt )= p 0 e −αx 0 cos( kx 0 −ωt ); [0021] thus, the acoustic pressure at any point on the plane x=x 0 changes sinusoidally in time, the phase being equal to kx 0 −ωt. A plane or a surface where every point has the same phase is called a wavefront. An acoustic wave which has a set of planes as its wavefronts and can be represented by Eq. (2) is often called a non-focused plane-traveling wave. When the frequency f is above the typical human audible range (f≧20 kHz), this type of sound wave is called ultrasound (US). In principle, the plane wavefront of a traveling wave described by Eq. (2) has infinite dimensions. In practice, however, a simple sound source is often a circular ceramic disk that exhibits a piezoelectric effect and has a radius a of a finite dimension; it is also called a “piston” sound source. The nature of the US generated by the piston source is quite different from a plane-traveling wave; it depends on the ratio α/λ. However, under the condition a λ, the sound wave in the far-field region (which will be defined later) behaves like an ultrasonic beam with a circular cross section. Within the beam, particularly close to the beam axis, the acoustic pressure may be approximately described by Eq. (2). Interaction Between Ultrasound and Bubble Formation and Cavities: [0022] Basic physics of free bubbles and microbubbles lead to “acoustic cavitation” which refers to activities associated with air or gas bubbles, pockets and cavities under excitations of acoustic waves. There are two types of bubbles related to the sonoporation application: free bubbles and encapsulated microbubbles (EMB), as shown in FIG. 2 . Free bubbles are usually cavities filled with air, other gases, or gas vapor from surrounding liquid. Unlike EMBs, they have no artificial boundaries to prevent leakage of air or gas from the bubbles. They are not stable in a liquid for a variety of reasons. They may float to the top of the liquid and disappear under the influence of gravitational force or may be dissolved into the liquid because of the so-called “Laplace pressure imbalance” due to the surface tension or they may coalesce into larger bubbles. Microscopic free bubbles may be stably present in cracks or other irregularities on solid surfaces or on small dust particles or impurities. Those microscopic bubbles may grow in size as the time of the ultrasonic transmission lengthens as shown in FIG. 1 . [0023] Therefore the formation of cavitation is tied to the waveform dynamic of the ultrasound [0000] Inertial (Transient) and Non-Inertial (Stable) Cavitation. Transmission. [0024] There are two types of acoustic cavitation: (1)“inertial” and (2) “non-inertial”. Inertial cavitation, formerly called “transient” cavitation, occurs if the acoustic pressure amplitude is sufficiently high and above a threshold level. Under this condition the EMBs will first grow in volume, and then implode violently. [0025] If the core of an EMB is gas of high κ(=Cp/Cv), high temperature may result during implosions and highly reactive free radicals may be generated. For some biological and other effects, inertial cavitation seems to be required and for others it should be avoided. [0026] Non-inertial cavitation, formerly called “stable” cavitation; occurs when an EMB in a liquid is forced to oscillate with only a relatively small to moderate increase and decrease of radius as shown in FIG. 2 (off-resonance regime), when the pressure amplitude of the external acoustic field is not too high. [0027] Acoustic microstreaming and shear stress associated with the waveform and ultrasound propagation in liquids or biological tissue is a non-linear partial differential equation. In general, the propagation speed of a traveling plane wave in a medium is a function of particle velocity of the medium. [0028] If the amplitude of ultrasound becomes significantly large (many applications in diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound applications belong to that category), the linear approximation does not hold any more; leading to acoustic streaming—a steady and direct current (DC) flow in an acoustic field can result again in bubble formation and collapse and intense thermal effects. One of the acoustic streaming phenomena relevant to sonoporation is microstreaming, which leads to repeat implosion, shockwave and hot spot formation in a liquid, followed by rapid quenching and then a cycling back to shockwave growth upon the recycle. [0029] The vibratory effects of ultrasound are welcome in many industrial, chemical, biological and drug delivery applications, however the cavitation effect can damage the material under ultrasonic transmission and can result in thermal effects which detract from the overall vibratory effects. [0030] It is a purpose of this invention to provide a method and an apparatus for obtaining ultrasonic vibration, with reduced cavitation or thermal effects. This is accomplished by disrupting the following factors in the ultrasonic transmission: [0031] (1) Disrupt the timing sequence of the ultrasonic transmission (UT) by reducing the transmission time below 400 msecs. FIG. 1 shows that for typical sinuosdial ultrasound, which is the current waveform dynamic associated with ultrasound that below 400 msecs the formation of an implosion-shockwave-hot spot thermal effect can be minimized. The optimum cavitation avoidance is to drop the cycling below 400 msecs. Arbitrarily, the use of a 100 msec cycle instead of a 400 msec cycle was chosen in the apparatus described below, however the cycle could have been 200 or 300 or some other variation below 400 msecs. Other non-limiting examples include varying the ultrasound timing below 400 msecs, for instance from about 50 msecs to about 90 msecs for the first waveform and from about 10 msecs to about 50 msecs for the second waveform, such as 80 msces for the first, leading waveform and 20 msces for the second, following waveform, or other variations which include 70/30, or 90/10 respective msecs for the first leading waveform and the second, following waveform. [0032] (2) Conventional ultrasound is limited to sinusoidal waveforms because that is the limit of the transducer. Conventional transducers emit sine wave based waveforms as shown in FIG. 13 , which shows that no matter the waveform of the electrical signal delivered to the transducer, the mechanical force emits as a sinusoidal waveform. To provide a cavitation-free ultrasonic transmission, the transducer design needed to be revised to allow for a match between the electronic signal delivered to the transducers and the resultant mechanical waveform, as shown in FIG. 14 . [0033] (3) A further means of providing a cavitation-free ultrasonic transmission is to alternate the waveform. In FIG. 1 the variation of acoustic pressure, between the compression positive and the expansion negative, leads eventually to an implosion, shockwave, thermal effect, i.e. cavitation. Within the normal 400 msec time period there is a build up to the cavitation effect. By disrupting that buildup pattern the cavitation ultrasonic transmission can be minimized or forced to not form in the first cycle and in subsequent acoustic cycles. The use of an alternating waveform dynamic instead of a sinusoidal waveform can be used to disrupt cavitation formation. FIG. 5 shows the use of an alternating signal to drop off the cavitation growth, as shown in FIG. 1 , through the use of at least two waveforms, waveform A which is a different waveform dynamic than waveform B. In FIG. 5 waveform A can be a sawtooth waveform, which has a timing function below 100 msecs, and ideally 50 msecs. Just before any semblance of a cavitation growth pattern, as shown in FIG. 1 , can form, the waveform A converts to waveform B, a totally different wave dynamic. In FIG. 5 waveform B is a square waveform. Referring back to FIG. 1 , this alternating waveform (from one form, such as sawtooth or sine to another, such as square) interrupts the formation of cavitation and eliminates the cavitation growth track in the ultrasonic transmission [0034] FIG. 5 shows a cavitation free ultrasonic transmission which relies on 4 components: Component 1: A priming sequence of one waveform, such as sawtooth, shown for a period of just 30 msecs, which can be used to prime the material, chemical agent or biological structure to ultrasound. In drug delivery the sawtooth waveform is used to dilate the pores of the skin as shown in FIG. 28 . Component 2: The waveform “A” transmission. Component 3: The waveform “B” transmission, which should be a different waveform than the waveform “A” transmission. [0038] A null gap between the waveforms to relax the ultrasonic transmission, and thereby avoid cavitation further. [0039] Various combinations can be used to affect the alternating waveform dynamic including: FIG. 6 : (A) sine to sawtooth; (B) FIG. 7 : sine to square (C) FIG. 8 : sawtooth to square; (D) FIG. 10 : triangular to square. Any combination of alternating waveforms can be used to minimize cavitation ultrasound. A transducer according to the present invention is capable of delivering mechanically a waveform fed to it electronically from a first waveform to any other second waveform, wherein the waveforms are any one of a sine waveform, a sawtooth waveform, a square waveform and a triangular waveform. Preferably the first and second waveforms are different. [0040] (4) An alternate method to minimize cavitation ultrasound is to use a waveform transmission which automatically loses energy during the transmission stage, and thereby never reaches the implosion, shockwave and hot spot effect normally associated with sinusoidal ultrasound. The use of a triangular waveform dynamic as shown in FIG. 9 where the waveform slides through a frequency range, leading to a drop in the amplitude, can also be used to avoid the cavitation formation. [0041] (5) In FIG. 11 the cavitation drop off is effected by switching the ultrasonic waveform by a change in either the Duty Cycle or the Timing Cycle associated with the ultrasonic propagation. In FIG. 11 the Duty Cycle is varied so that the waveform switches every so many milliseconds. In FIG. 12 the Timing cycle is altered so that the alternating wave dynamic is deactivated in a gap period of time before the alternating waveform recycles. That gap period is a totally deactivated signal, which again stops the growth pattern first shown in FIG. 1 and stops cavitation from forming. [0042] Other variations of the use of alternating or combination waveforms may be employed to avoid cavitation ultrasound and the inventor does not want to be limited by the combinations illustrated herein. [0043] These and other objects of the invention can be accomplished by applying various ultrasound frequencies, intensities, amplitudes and/or phase modulations to control the magnitude of the transdermal flux to achieve a cavitation free ultrasonic transmission, using the vibratory effects of the ultrasound to accomplish the purpose of the directed no-cavitation ultrasound. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0044] One aspect of the invention is the use of phase modulation, alternating waveforms, timing cycles and frequency modulation to achieve more effective ultrasonic transmissions, which exhibit little or no cavitation or thermal effects. [0045] Another aspect of the invention is a method of providing cavitation free ultrasound in an ultrasonic device, whereby an ultrasonic signal employs a combination of two or more waveforms, and whereby the growth of the acoustic signal is interrupted from becoming cavitational. [0046] Another aspect of the invention is the combination of alternating waveforms, to effect cavitation free ultrasound, via an ultrasonic transmission device, a transducer which will propagate mechanically the electronic waveform delivered to it. [0047] Still another aspect of the invention is a transducer which is capable of delivering mechanically a waveform fed to it electronically from a first waveform to any other second waveform, wherein the waveforms are any one of a sine waveform, a sawtooth waveform, a square waveform and a triangular waveform. [0048] Yet another aspect of the invention is a transducer which is capable of delivering cavitation free ultrasound, which employs a reflector on a top face of the transducer to reflect ultrasonic signals back to a target. [0049] Another aspect of the invention is a transducer which is capable of delivering cavitation free ultrasound, which employs one or more individual transducer discs or elements in an array, placed over a stainless steel face plate, and which cause the face plate to irradiate harmonic ultrasound in resonance to the ultrasound delivered from the transducer discs affixed to it, wherein the face plate and transducer disc array are covered by a block containing a flexible foam rubber layer between the stainless steel face plate and the block housing, whereby increasing overall intensity of the transducer and increasing the diameter of surface area to the overall sonic transmission. [0050] Still another aspect of the invention is a method of delivering cavitation free ultrasound, which produces a sonic pattern upon a target, which is spherical and which avoids troughs in the beam profile, thereby avoiding cavitation effects upon the target material subjected to the ultrasound transmission. [0051] Another aspect of the invention is a method of delivering cavitation free ultrasound, which employs one or more alternating sonic waveforms where one waveform is a triangular wave front where the frequency and amplitude of the wave front is diminishing over time, thereby preventing the growth of a cavitation or thermal effect to the ultrasound transmission. [0052] Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS [0053] The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of the invention, will be better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there are shown in the drawings embodiments which are presently preferred. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown. [0054] In the drawings: [0055] FIG. 1 is an illustration of the effects of conventional ultrasound in the formation of an implosion, shockwave and thermal effect which leads to cavitation. [0056] FIG. 2 is an illustration of bubble formation and collapse as a result of cavitation ultrasound. [0057] FIG. 3 is an illustration of drug degradation which can be effected via cavitation ultrasound. [0058] FIG. 4 shows the compression and expansion effects of cavitation ultrasound. [0059] FIG. 5 shows the cavitation drop off that can be effected through the use of an alternating waveform dynamic wherein a waveform A is followed by a different wave structure in the waveform B transmission. [0060] FIG. 6 is a combination of sine to sawtooth waveform. [0061] FIG. 7 is a combination of sine to square waveform. [0062] FIG. 8 is a combination of sawtooth to square waveform. [0063] FIG. 9 is an illustration of the use of a triangular waveform dynamic, where the waveform slides through a frequency range, leading to a drop in amplitude, to avoid the cavitation formation. [0064] FIG. 10 is a combination of triangular to square waveform combination. [0065] FIG. 11 illustrates a cavitation drop off by switching the ultrasonic waveform timing cycle. [0066] FIG. 12 illustrates the use of a timing cycle to interrupt the formation of cavitation. [0067] FIG. 13 shows that no matter the waveform of the electrical signal delivered to the transducer, the mechanical force emits as a sinusoidal waveform. [0068] FIG. 14 shows the transducer of the new design which utilizes a special transducer construction which will provide a cavitation-free ultrasonic transmission, by allowing for a match between the electronic signal delivered to the transducers and the resultant mechanical waveform. [0069] FIG. 15 is a modified transducer design utilizing a reflector design to focus the ultrasound toward the target. [0070] FIG. 16 shows the reflective transducer which minimizes “loose” ultrasound transmission and focuses the ultrasonic signal in one direction. [0071] FIG. 17 is a modified transducer design utilizing a reflector design to focus the ultrasound toward the target, and shows the placement pattern of transducer discs upon a face plate. [0072] FIG. 18 shows binary or stacked transducer configurations. [0073] FIG. 19 shows a “C-type single element transducer disc. [0074] FIG. 20 shows the transducer reflector casing. [0075] FIG. 21 shows a 9-element transducer array. [0076] FIG. 22 shows a 4-element transducer array. [0077] FIG. 23 is an assembly diagram showing the formation of a transducer block, capable of delivering no-cavitation ultrasonic transmissions. [0078] FIG. 24 illustrates the test apparatus used in Experiments 1 A and 1 B. [0079] FIG. 25 illustrates the result of Experiment 2. [0080] FIG. 26A illustrates the results of Experiment 3 upon insulin compared to regular insulin. FIG. 26A is an HPLC Spectra of Lispro Insulin, A control sample which has not been subject to ultrasound. [0081] FIG. 26B is the HPLC Spectra of Lispro Insulin, which has been subject to the alternating ultrasound transmission of 50 milliseconds sawtooth, followed by 50 milliseconds square wave ultrasound, showing no damage occurred to the insulin sample. [0082] FIG. 27 shows the damage caused by conventional low power ultrasound upon insulin. [0083] FIG. 28 shows pore dilation effects upon the skin using sawtooth waveform ultrasound directed against the skin. [0084] FIG. 29 is an acoustic pattern in water of a single element transducer producing an alternating waveform. [0085] FIG. 30 is a beam profile comparison of alternating ultrasonic transmission at 25 kHz and 40 kHz. [0086] FIG. 31 is a beam profile comparison of conventional sinusoidal cavitation ultrasonic transmission at 25 kHz and 40 KHz. [0087] FIG. 32 is a beam profile comparison of conventional cavitation ultrasound transmission at 60 KHz. [0088] FIG. 33 is a beam profile comparison of conventional cavitation ultrasound transmission at 80 kHz and 100 KHz. [0089] FIG. 34 is a circuit diagram of the electronic alternating ultrasonic generator used to effect cavitation free ultrasound. [0090] FIG. 35 shows a plane-wave sound source and its wavefront DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Transducer Design [0091] In FIG. 13 the function of a conventional piezoelectric transducer, which is designed traditionally employing a piezoelectric crystal which converts an electronic signal into mechanical vibratory energy. No matter the electronic signal waveform delivered to the transducer, a sinusoidal ultrasonic waveform mechanical force is generated, creating the cavitation effect depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 . [0092] FIG. 14 illustrates the function of a modified transducer, wherein the electronic signal delivered to the transducer is repeated purely as mechanical force upon the output of the transducer. A sinusoidal electronic transmission is delivered as an ultrasonic sinusoidal waveform mechanical force output. Similarly a sawtooth, triangular or square waveform electronic transmission is delivered as an ultrasonic sawtooth, triangular or square waveform mechanical force output, respectively. This type of transducer eliminates or minimizes the formation of micro-bubbles and cavitation and resultant heat, which could damage a drug or the skin. [0093] FIG. 15 is a schematic design of a modified transducer which will create the alternating ultrasonic transmission as depicted in FIG. 14 , wherein the mechanical sonic waveform follows the electronic waveform delivered to the piezoelectric crystal. [0094] In particular the transducer consists of a piezoelectric crystal or a magnetorestrive crystal ( 1 ) in FIG. 15 , which is sandwiched between two cover layers which control the vibratory direction of mechanical force emitted from the crystal ( 1 ). At the bottom of the transducer a sonic film layer ( 5 ) allows the sonic signal to pass through it undeterred. On top of the crystal ( 1 ) a reflective, non-sonic permeable material ( 2 ) reflects mechanical force back through an air gap ( 7 ) which is between both film coverings ( 2 ) and ( 5 ). The covers ( 2 ) and ( 5 ) encapsulate the crystal ( 1 ) and are connected by a flexible rubber connector, such as a sponge foam connector ( 3 ) which is placed between the top cover ( 5 ) and the bottom cover ( 2 ). A rubber stop or gasket ( 4 ) is placed on both sides and seals the entire transducer into place. [0095] Electrical energy delivered to the crystal ( 1 ) causes it to vibrate mechanically and develop ultrasonic force. That mechanical force travels through the air gap to the top of the transducer where it is reflected back downwards by the material at the top cover ( 2 ), back through the top air gap ( 7 ) to the bottom of the transducer where the mechanical energy passes through the bottom cover ( 5 ) and exits the transducer as ultrasonic force ( 8 ). As the crystal ( 1 ) vibrates it flexes the rubber stop ( 4 ) and the sponge foam connector ( 3 ) allowing the entire cover, both ( 2 ) on top and the bottom cover ( 5 ) to vibrate harmonically with the vibration of the crystal ( 1 ). The result is an intense ultrasonic transmission, which delivers a waveform shape commensurate with the electrical waveform delivered to the transducer as seen in FIG. 26B . [0096] The top cover ( 2 ) is designed to reflect ultrasonic energy back downward through the bottom of the transducer. Conventional transducers deliver ultrasound in all directions, lowering their overall intensity. The preferred material for the top cover ( 2 ) is a titanium foil. On the interior of the foil an insulating coating of epoxy resin is placed to enhance the ability of the titanium foil to remain rigid and non-harmonically reactive to the ultrasound emanated from the crystal ( 1 ). By re-focusing the sonic energy downward, the top cover enhances the intensity of the sonic transmission and avoids waste of the energy. The use of sponge foam connector ( 3 ), which is placed between the top cover ( 2 ) and the bottom cover ( 5 ) coupled with the rubber stop ( 4 ) allows the transducer to flex, much like a speaker, with the ultrasonic transmission ( 8 ), resulting again in a stronger more intense transmission. The slight air gap ( 7 ) between the covers ( 2 ) and ( 5 ) and the crystal ( 1 ) avoids complete rigidity for the transducer and enhances its flexing capacity. The result is a high intensity transducer which will require less energy to power it and which performs the function of delivering the mechanic ultrasonic waveform, matching the electrical waveform delivered to the transducer. [0097] In FIG. 16 it can be seen that the transducer delivers null or very little ultrasound out the top or sides of the transducer while most of the energy is directed downward from the bottom of the transducer, forming a directional ultrasonic transmission. [0098] In FIG. 17 the transducer discs are generally constructed on a single plane. FIG. 17 depicts two transducer discs affixed onto a stainless steel face plate all on one level making what is termed as a Standard Transducer Array. [0099] FIG. 18 illustrates a stacked array which may consist of two transducers (a binary stacked array) or a stacked array, which is several transducers placed on top of one another. The stacked array can increase the intensity of the ultrasonic transmission. The use of stacked transducers, essentially transducers fitted on top of each other, increases ultrasonic intensities while maintaining a given frequency level. Used in this invention, the stacked transducer construction is intended to increase intensity while improving the power utilization of the transducer system. [0100] FIG. 19 illustrates that the “C” type transducer disc enables a compact and minute size for the transducer element of the invention. The sizing of the transducers was obtained at just 0.5 inch in diameter. The small size transducer was used in the invention to enable the transducers to fit within the dimensions of transdermal patches for drug delivery applications but have many other uses, and can have other sizes. In addition, the small size enabled a lower weight potential for the transducers, again aiding in the portability of the invention. [0101] The transducer disc is a “C” type construction attached to a power cable. The transducer disc is coated in a polymer housing, ideally composed of URALITE™ urethane resin and referred to an Echo-Seal resin, which is used to avoid short circuits between the two metallic caps ( FIG. 15 ) and provides acoustic coupling for the sonic transmission. Design of Transducer Element or Disc [0102] FIG. 15 illustrates the design of ultrasonic transducer, which is the preferred embodiment of the transducer element of this invention. From FIG. 15 it can be seen that a transducer 40 is based upon a piezoelectric disc ( 1 ), such as available as PZT4 (Piezokinetics Corp. Bellefonte, Pa.), connected between two metal caps ( 2 ) and ( 5 ) composed of titanium foil preferably, without limitation. A hollow air space ( 7 ) is between the piezoelectric disc ( 1 ) and the end caps ( 2 ) and ( 5 ). The end caps ( 2 ) and ( 5 ) are connected to the piezoelectric disc ( 1 ) by a non-electrically conductive adhesive ( 3 ) to form a bonded layered construction to the transducer ( 4 ). A polymer coating ( 6 ) is placed on the inside of the top and bottom end caps ( 2 ) and ( 5 ) and helps minimize harmonic reaction of the end caps to the ultrasound generated from the disc ( 1 ). End cap ( 2 ), with the help of the internal coating ( 6 ), acts a reflector directing the ultrasound in one direction, shown by the arrows ( 8 ), at the bottom side of the transducer. [0103] The transducer offers a thin, compact structure more suitable for a portable ultrasonic drug delivery apparatus. Additionally, this transducer offers greater efficiency for the conversion of electric power to acoustically radiated power. This design of a transducer was also chosen because of its potential to be battery powered and its small, lightweight features. [0104] FIG. 16 shows that the design illustrated in FIG. 15 has sonic energy emanating in one direction from the transducer and not at the top or at the sides. [0105] FIG. 20 shows that the design illustrated in FIG. 15 , through the use of the caps achieves a high efficiency of electrical to mechanical conversion of sonic energy, as high as 88% when traditional cavitation based sonic transducers generally have efficiency as low as 18%. The reflector end cap directs the vibration in one direction. Fabrication of the “C Type” Transducer-Standard Construction as Illustrated in FIG. 15 Part List and Step By Step Manufacturing PARTS LIST [0000] 1. Piezoelectric ceramic Material: PZT4 disc 0.5-inch diameter, 1-mm thickness (PKI402) SD 0.500-0.000-0.040-402 Actual supplier: Piezo Kinetics Inc. Mill Road and Pine St. PO Box 756 Bellefontte Pa. 16823 2. Titanium caps Material: Alfa Aesar, Titanium Foil, 0.25 mm thick, metal basis 5%, Item #10385 Actual supplier: Alfa Aesar, A Johnson Matthey Company 30 Bond Street Ward Hill, Mass. 01835-8099, USA 3. Bonding layer Material: Eccobond 45LV+catalyst 15LV Actual supplier: Emerson & Cuming 46 Manning Road Billerica, Mass. 01821 4. Low temperature soldering Material: Indalloy Solder #1E, 0.30″ dia x 3 ft long Actual supplier: The indium corporation of America 1676 Lincoln AVE UTICA N.Y. 13502 5. Wires Material: Stranded wire, Gauge/AWG: 30 Catalog number (Digikey): A3047B-100-ND Note: Maximum Temperature: 80 C Conductor Strand: 7/38 Voltage Range: 300V Number of Conductors: 1 Actual supplier: Alpha Wire Corporation 6. Housing polymer Material: Uralite FH 3550 part AB Actual supplier: HB Fuller Company 7. Ethyl Alcohol Note: 200 proof (at least) 8. Sand paper [0138] Manufacturing Procedure: Step-by-Step [0139] Reference is made to FIG. 4B : [0140] 1. Dye cut titanium foils into several disks. Materials: Titanium foil ( 2 ), circular saw 10.7 mm diameter. [0141] 2. Sand rough edges. One side of the disks results with edges. Those edges should be removed with sand (fine scale) paper. Materials: Sand paper ( 8 ) [0142] 3. Alcohol bath to remove dust generated by sanding the disks. Materials: alcohol ( 7 ) [0143] 4. Put disk into a high pressure (12000 torr) shaping tool (polished side up). For this step should be designed a custom-made punch dye in order to shape the disks into the dimensions reported in FIG. 2 . [0144] 5. Sand rough edges again. Materials: sand paper ( 8 ) [0145] 6. Immerse in alcohol to remove dust. Materials: alcohol ( 7 ) [0146] 7. Wipe to remove alcohol and dust from disk [0147] 8. Measure thickness of cap with special measuring pen [0148] 9. Identify matching caps (by thickness). This step should be accurate because slight differences between the two caps generate spurious resonance into the C Type. [0149] 10. Clean piezo disk ceramic with alcohol. Materials: piezodisks ( 1 ) and alcohol ( 7 ). [0150] 11. Screen printing on both sides with epoxy bond. Materials: bonding epoxy ( 3 ) and a tool for screen-printing (like T-shirt screen-printing). We should generate a ring of epoxy to glue the caps with the disks. This ring should be accurate and regular in order to avoid spurious resonance. [0151] 12. Place C Types on ceramic disk [0152] 13. Place into a press. This press should just keep the C Type made in place. It could be a custom-made tool where several C Types are kept in place. [0153] 14. Place press into oven for at least 4 hours, 70 Celsius [0154] 15. Solder at maximum 270° C. at 4 points per piece. Materials: wires ( 5 ) and low temperature solder ( 4 ). [0155] The transducer produced by the above procedure is a standard construction. To form a stacked array construction transducer two or more transducers are placed directly atop one another as shown in FIG. 4C and fitted together. To form an array the transducers are generally connected in parallel electrically within the polymer or epoxy bonding material as shown in FIG. 6 , in either single element form or in a stacked construction format. [0156] FIG. 21 illustrates the original design of the transducer array with nine transducer discs encased in an epoxy block. [0157] FIG. 22 shows the final design which is four transducer discs attached to a stainless steel face plate. In the design shown in FIG. 21 , there are nine separate ultrasonic transmission form the block, over each transducer discs. In FIG. 22 the four transducer discs develop a harmonic between their individual transmissions and cause the face plate to deliver a uniform, single, larger transmission over a larger transmission area. Transducer Block [0158] FIG. 23 is a schematic design of a modified transducer which will create the alternating ultrasonic transmission as depicted in FIG. 5 . FIG. 17 is a an array of two transducer discs affixed to a stainless steel face plate, and covered by a block material which assists in the direction of the ultrasound transmission through the face plate and toward the target. FIGS. 23 A, B and C show the assembly steps for this block transducer array. Experiment—1 [0159] Temperature Comparison Between a Sinusoidal Vs. The Alternating Ultrasonic Transmission in Tap Water [0160] Refer to the configuration depicted in FIG. 24 . A glass beaker ( 30 ), containing 1,000 mls of tap water ( 40 ) was placed atop a magnetic stirrer ( 31 ). Inside the beaker a magnetic stir bar ( 32 ) was made to slowly rotate within the water. [0161] An ultrasonic probe ( 35 ) was placed into the water using an ultrasonic single transducer tip ( 34 ). The tip can be a sinusoidal ultrasonic tip or one practicing this invention, which generates an ultrasonic alternating waveform transmission ( 38 ). The ultrasonic generator ( 37 ) powered the ultrasonic probe ( 35 ) through a cable ( 36 ). [0162] Using a Sonic Vibra Cell Model No VCX 130 pb, manufactured by Sonics and Materials Inc., Newtown, Conn., as an ultrasonic generator ( 37 ), which is a sinusoidal ultrasonic generator and probe, temperature comparison tests were made vs. a B2 Alternating Ultrasound generator made according to the present invention by Transdermal Specialties, Inc., Broomall, Pa. The alternating system employed the ultrasonic 4-element array depicted in FIG. 22 , while the conventional probe only had one element at the tip. [0163] After 5 minutes of ultrasound application to 1,000 ml of tap water, the Vibracell system exhibited a 5.5° C. rise, evidence of intense cavitation. [0164] After 5 minutes of ultrasound application to 1,000 ml of tap water, the B2 Alternating Ultrasound generator produced a −0.9° C. change in temperature, a drop of −0.9 degrees. Essentially there was no change in the temperature of the water within the beaker, the slight downward temperature resulting from the water sitting out. If there had been any cavitation generated from the alternating system the temperature would have risen. Experiment 2 Temperature Comparison Between a Sinusoidal Transducer Vs. Fluid Mobility Caused by the Alternating Ultrasonic Transducer [0165] Referring to FIG. 25 , this experiment placed one gram of tap water on the surface of a transducer and observed the effects. [0166] In a first run, a Sonic Vibra Cell Model No VCX 130 pb, manufactured by [0167] Sonics and Materials Inc., Newtown, Conn., the conventional probe only had one element at the tip, which is a sinusoidal ultrasonic generator and probe temperature comparison tests, was used, upside down, to determine what the visual effect would be on one gram of water. The observation indicated very fast conversion from a liquid state to steam, an indication of intense cavitation. [0168] Repeating the experiment using a B2 Alternating Ultrasound generator according to the present invention made by Transdermal Specialties, Inc., Broomall, Pa., the alternating system employing the Ultrasonic 4-element array depicted in FIG. 22 , resulted in a fountain that actually pushed the water from the surface of the transducer. No appreciable heat was detected and no steaming was observed. [0169] These tests showed that the alternating ultrasonic transmission again demonstrated no cavitation force, but also demonstrated a vibratory force which moved the liquid vertically from the transducer array. Experiment 3 A Series of HPLC Spectrographs were Taken of Lispro Insulin Subjected to Either Sinusoidal Ultrasound or to the Alternating Ultrasonic Waveform Transmission [0170] In graph of FIG. 26A , it can be seen that 1 gram of Lispro insulin has an HPLC spectra shown as control, in that insulin is not subjected to ultrasound. [0000] In the FIG. 26B graph, 1 gram of Lispro insulin was subjected to the alternating ultrasound transmission, over 8 hours of continuous exposure, at 50 msecs sawtooth followed by 50 msecs square wave. This experiment produced an HPLC spectra identical to the control, indicating no degradation of the insulin. [0171] FIG. 27 shows damage to the insulin caused by a sinusoidal ultrasound transmission as effected to 1 gram of Lispro insulin, using a Sonic Vibra Cell Model No VCX 130 pb, described in the previous experiments, using a conventional sonic tip, which is a sinusoidal ultrasonic generator. The exposure was just 1 minute. In this case the insulin HPLC spectra showed severe degradation of the drug. This is due to cavitation. The temperature of the drug rose by 4.3° C. over a 1 minute exposure. Experiment 4 Use of Alternating Ultrasonic Transmission to Effect Pore Dilation in the Skin to all the Delivery of Large Molecule Substances [0172] FIG. 28 shows pore dilation of human skin as effected by the use of the alternating ultrasonic waveform. It is believed the sawtooth component exerts a horizontal force upon the skin which acts to dilate the skin pores and expand the opening from 5 to 10 microns, using cadaver facial skin. Experiment 5 Beam Analysis and Comparison Between Cavitation Ultrasound Vs. The Alternating Ultrasound Transmission [0173] FIG. 29 illustrates the beam transmission of a single element transducer configured according to the four-element transducer design according to the present invention depicted in FIG. 22 , which propagates a 50 msec sawtooth followed by a 50 msec squarewave alternating transmission according to the design depicted in FIG. 5 . [0174] As depicted in FIGS. 15 and 16 , the ultrasonic transmission in colored water ( FIG. 29 ) shows the transmission was emanated in one direction from the transducer. [0175] Looking at the beam profile of the ultrasonic transmission upon contact with paper, the alternating transmission at 25 kHz and 40 kHz frequency shown in FIG. 30 shows a nearly uniform spherical transmission pattern in two separate experiment runs. [0176] FIG. 31 illustrates a beam profile at 24 and 40 kHz using a sinusoidal ultrasonic transmission. The beam profile is odd shaped and intense heating effects are apparent at the intersection point on the patterns. The cavitation was more intense at 25 kHz and less at 40 kHz. [0177] FIG. 32 and FIG. 33 illustrate the sinusoidal beam pattern with multiple cavitation spike points at 60, 80 and 100 kHz. [0178] The beam analysis indicates that sinusoidal ultrasound, even at low frequencies, produces an irregular pattern upon a target, and in the troughs of the sonic transmission intense cavitation and thermal effects were observed. Apparatus Design [0179] FIG. 34 is the circuit diagram of the ultrasonic generator capable of delivering a cavitation free ultrasonic generator to a transducer, Model No. BKR-1011-27, according to the present invention. [0000] The following parts lists are for the cavitation free circuit capable of powering the special transducers at 50 msec sawtooth/50 msec square wave, at 125 mW/sq. cm intensity per transducer element in a 4-element array for a total power output of 500 mW/sq. cm, at 23-30 kHz frequency, shown in FIG. 34 , according to the present invention. [0180] The following is a parts list for the alternating ultrasound driver board for the cavitation free ultrasonic generator to a transducer shown in FIG. 34 : [0000] CIRCUIT ID DESCRIPTION U1- CD74HC14M, Hex CMOS Schmidt Trigger IC-296- 9179-5-ND U2 Quasi LDO Voltage Regulator 1C- LM34801M3- 5.0CT-ND D1 5.6 Volt Zener Diode- MMBZ5232B- FDICT-ND D3 Schottky Diode, SOT-23-BAT54- FDICT-ND Q1 Transistor PNP- MMBT3906- FDICT-ND Q2 Pre Biased transistor NPN 22k- DDTC124TCA- FDICT-ND Q3 Pre Biased transistor NPN 22k- DDTC124TCA- FDICT-ND Q4 Power MOSFET NCHAN- IRFRO24PBFCT- ND Q5 Pre Biased transistor NPN 47k- DDTC144TCA- FDICT-ND Q6 Power MOSFET PCHAN- IRFR9O24PBFCT- ND Q7 Pre Biased transistor NPN 22k- DDTC124TCA- FDICT-ND Q8 Pre Biased Digi-Key 0.384 transistor NPN Corp 1-800- 22k- 344-4549 DDTC124TCA- FDICT-ND Q9 Pre Biased Digi-Key 0.96 transistor Corp 1-800- PNP 47k 344-4549 DDTA144TCA- FDICT-ND C1 0.47 UT 25 v Digi-Key 0.0955 Tantalum A Corp 1-800- Electrolytic 344-4549 Capacitor-399- 3695-1-ND C2 47 uf 10 v Digi-Key 1.3875 Tantalum B Corp 1-800- Electrolytic 344-4549 Capacitor-399- 3726-1-ND C3 47 uf 10 v Digi-Key 1.3875 Tantalum B Corp 1-800- Electrolytic 344-4549 Capacitor-399- 3726-1-ND C4 47 uf 10 v Digi-Key 1.3875 Tantalum B Corp 1-800- Electrolytic 344-4549 Capacitor-399- 3726-1-ND C5 C6 22 uf 16 v Digi-Key 0.26725 Tantalum B Corp 1-800- Electrolytic 344-4549 Capacitor-399- 3717-1-ND C7 47 pf 50 V 0805 Digi-Key 0.03424 Ceramic Corp 1-800- Capacitor NPO- 344-4549 PCC470CGCT- ND C8 47 pf 50 V 0805 Digi-Key 0.03424 Ceramic Corp 1-800- Capacitor NPO- 344-4549 PCC470CGCT- ND C9 1000 pf 50 V Digi-Key 0.2640 0805 Ceramic Corp 1-800- Capacitor NPO- 344-4549 PCC102CGCT- ND C10 0.1 uf 25 V 0805 Digi-Key 0.2295 Ceramic Corp 1-800- Capacitor X7R- 344-4549 PCC1828CT- ND C11 0.1 uf 50 V 0805 Digi-Key 0.01280 Ceramic Corp 1-800- Capacitor X7R- 344-4549 PCC223BGCT- ND R1 5.6 Ohm 5% Digi-Key 0.1595 0805- Corp 1-800- RHM5.6kACT- 344-4549 ND R2 3.9 Ohm 5% Request 0.03879 0805- Inventory RHM3.9kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R3 910k Ohm 5% Request 0.1595 0805- Inventory RHM910kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R4 3.9 Ohm 5% Request 0.03879 0805- Inventory RHM3.9kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R5 1.5k Ohm 5% Request 0.1595 0805- Inventory RHM1.5kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R6 10k Ohm 5% Request 0.1595 0805- Inventory RHM10kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R7 20k Ohm Trim Request 0.348 Pot SMD- Inventory P3V203CT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R8 10k Ohm 5% Request 0.03858 1206- Inventory RHM10kECT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R9 10k Ohm 5% Request 0.03858 1206- Inventory RHM10kECT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R-10 R-11 510k Ohm 5% Request 0.01595 0805- Inventory RHM510kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R-12 150k Ohm 5% Request 0.01595 0805- Inventory RHM150kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R13 2.0k Ohm 5% Request 0.03849 0805- Inventory RHM2.0kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R14 2.0k Ohm 5% Request 0.03849 0805- Inventory RHM2.0kACT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R15 43.0k Ohm 1% Request 0.01827 0805- Inventory RHM43.0kCCT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R16 180k Ohm 1% Request 0.03654 0805- Inventory RHM180kCCT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility R17 180k Ohm 1% Request 0.03654 0805- Inventory RHM180kCCT- verification ND* for ROHS compatibility PCB Driver, Bare Digi-Key 1.43 Corp 1-800- 344-4549 Sub-Total 6.49641 [0181] The following is a parts list for the electronics used in the alternating ultrasound power board for the cavitation free ultrasonic generator to a transducer shown in FIG. 34 : [0000] EST PRICING* at CIRCUIT ID DESCRIPTION SOURCE 1,000 pcs Power PCB Bare Digi-Key Corp 1- 0.95 800-344-4549 BZ2 4.1 KHz Piezo-electric Digi-Key Corp 1- 1.392 Buzzer, Digi Key 102- 800-344-4549 1115-ND L1 Custom 6800 uh CET Technologies 1.01 Inductor CT-6341 1-603-894-6100 T2 Custom Transformer CET Technologies 2.82 CT-6299-1 1-603-894-6100 Test Points Yellow, 5004K-ND Digi-Key Corp 1- 0.10895 800-344-4549 Test Points Black, 5001K-ND Digi-Key Corp 1- 0.10895 800-344-4549 Sub-Total 12.88631 [0182] The following is a parts list for the alternating ultrasound chassis for the cavitation free ultrasonic generator to a transducer shown in FIG. 34 : [0000] EST PRICING* at 1,000 CIRCUIT ID DESCRIPTION SOURCE pcs S1 Momentary normally Mouser Electronics 1- 0.99 Open Push Button, 800-344-4539 Mouser 10PA019 CN1 Battery Connector, Digi-Key Corp 1-800- 0.23385 Keystone, Digi-Key 344-4549 2242K-ND D2 Red Light emitting Digi-Key Corp 1-800- 0.058 Diode, Digi-Key 160- 344-4549 1139-ND BZ1, BZ2, BZ3 mounted Ultrasonic Transducer Encapsulation Systems in array configuration on Transducers Bldg, 109, 1489 S.S. Plate Baltimore Pike, Springfield, PA. 19064 USA Phone: 610-543-0800 Misc-Cable 2 inch, flat, 7 conductor, Digi-Key Corp 1-800- 0.25373 Digi-Key WM07A-02- 344-4549 ND Misc. Washers Lock, #2, 5 required, McMaster Carr ph: 732- 0.05 91102A710 329-3200 Misc screws 2-56 × ¼ plastic, 5 McMaster Carr ph: 732- 1.00 required, 90380A005 329-3200 Sub-Total 15.47189 [0183] The device of this invention is intended to provide certain key functions: a) Using a new transducer design and array of transducers which produce one or more differing ultrasonic waveforms can reduce or eliminate the tendency for ultrasound to generate cavitation and intense heating effects in a target material subjected to the ultrasound. b) Using a new transducer design and array of transducers which produce one or more differing ultrasonic waveforms can provide higher power utilization efficiencies and helps to avoid the damaging effects of excessive cavitation upon the target material. c) By varying the timing of the time present on any one waveform, when using one or more differing alternating sonic waveforms in an ultrasonic transmission cavitation formation and growth can be interrupted. d) Further by installing a deactivation period in the timing cycle between differing alternating sonic waveforms in an ultrasonic transmission cavitation formation and growth can be interrupted. e) A transducer design, capable of providing cavitation free ultrasound has been disclosed, in both a single element transducer and through an array of transducers, along with means or fabricating same, and making the transducer develop a mechanical waveform similar to the electronic signal delivered to the device has been disclosed. f) The damaging effects of cavitation ultrasound have been demonstrated in drug interactions whereupon Lispro insulin was found to degrade with conventional single waveform sonic energy, sinusoidal ultrasound. Beam profiles of conventional ultrasound exhibit irregular shaped transmission energy, with intense thermal effects within the sonic patter, but not with a patterns discovered through the use of alternating ultrasonic waveform transmissions. [0190] Having described the invention in the above detail, those skilled in the art will recognize that there are a number of variations to the design and functionality for the device, but such variations of the design and functionality are intended to fall within the present disclosure. [0191] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the broad inventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but it is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Ultrasound generation produces in general an acoustic field, characterized by both inertial and non-inertial acoustic cavitation, a process by which non-linear oscillation of a microbubble and its associated micro streaming and radiation force generated by ultrasound can lead to intense heating effects in a material, solution or biological cell which comes into contact with a conventional ultrasound transmission. Typically an ultrasound signal contains both an acoustic vibration effect, a resonance effect where a material receiving the ultrasound transmission resonates in response to the transmission, and unfortunately in many applications a damaging cavitation effect and a damaging thermal effect. This invention is both a method and an apparatus to reduce the damaging effects of ultrasound in both the thermal and mechanical effects and to provide a safer ultrasonic process which can be used in sonochemistry applications, material science and for biological or medical applications.

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/391,924, filed Mar. 18, 2003, incorporated herein by reference. FIELD The present invention generally relates to semiconductor integrated circuit technology and, more particularly, to an electroetching or electropolishing process and apparatus. BACKGROUND Conventional semiconductor devices generally include a semiconductor substrate, usually a silicon substrate, and a plurality of sequentially formed dielectric layers such as silicon dioxide and conductive paths or interconnects made of conductive materials. Interconnects are usually formed by filling a conductive material in trenches etched into the dielectric layers. In an integrated circuit multiple levels of interconnect networks laterally extend with respect to the substrate surface. Interconnects formed in different layers can be electrically connected using vias or contacts. The filling of a conductive material into features such as vias, trenches, pads or contacts, can be carried out by electrodeposition. In electrodeposition or electroplating method, a conductive material, such as copper is deposited over the substrate surface including into such features. Then, a material removal technique is employed to planarize and remove the excess metal from the top surface, leaving conductors only in the features or cavities. The standard material removal technique that is most commonly used for this purpose is chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). Chemical etching and electropolishing, which is also referred to as electroetching or electrochemical etching, are also attractive process options that are being evaluated for this application. Copper is the material of choice, at this time, for interconnect applications because of its low resistivity and good electromigration properties. Therefore, the present invention will be described for the electropolishing of copper and copper alloy layers as an example, although electropolishing of other materials such as Pt, Co, Ni etc., can also be achieved using the method and apparatus of this invention. Standard electroplating techniques yield copper layers that deposit conformally over large features, such as features with widths larger than a few micrometers. This results in a plated wafer surface topography that is not flat. FIG. 1A shows a workpiece surface 100 with an exemplary via 102 and an exemplary trench 104 coated with conductor 106 using standard electroplating technique. As can be seen from this figure, although the surface of the conductor 106 may be flat over the small via 102 , the surface of the conductor 106 over the larger trench 104 has a step “S”. During the excess conductor or overburden removal process step employing CMP, etching or electroetching, this non-flat surface topography needs to be planarized as the excess conductor is removed from the surface leaving it only within the features. If planarization is not achieved, as the thickness of the conductor is reduced, presence of the step S causes loss of conductor from within the large trench. Dashed lines 110 and 112 schematically show how conductor loss from the trench may increase from an amount “d” to a larger amount “D” as the excess conductor thickness on the surface is reduced from “t” to nearly zero, respectively. As can be appreciated, such conductor loss from within features is not acceptable. CMP techniques have been developed to provide the capability of planarizing and at the same time removing the excess conductor layers. This is shown in FIG. 1B as dashed lines of 120 and 122 . After excess conductor removal, the resulting surface is ideally planar as indicated by dashed line 122 , and both the via 102 and the trench 104 are completely filled with the conductor. It should be noted that any remaining part of the excess conductor along with any other conductor layer (such as a barrier layer) are all removed to assure electrical isolation between the conductors within features 102 and 104 . Planarization capability of standard electroetching techniques is not as good as CMP. Therefore, results from these processes may lie somewhere between the cases shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B . Planarization capability of electroetching may be increased and the ideal result shown as dashed line 122 in FIG. 1B may be approached by employing a planarization pad or workpiece surface influencing device (WSID) which introduces mechanical action on the wafer surface as the conductor removal from the workpiece surface is performed. This way it may be possible to planarize the non-planar or non-flat copper surface as the excess copper is removed. Since there is mechanical action in such processes they are referred to as Electrochemical Mechanical Etching (ECME) or Electrochemical Mechanical Polishing. As the name suggest, in such approaches, electroetching is carried out as the wafer surface is contacted by a planarization pad and relative motion is established between the wafer surface and the planarization pad. As described above, standard electroplating techniques yield conformal deposits and non-planar workpiece surfaces that need to be planarized during the excess material removal step. Newly developed electrodeposition techniques, which are collectively called Electrochemical Mechanical Deposition (ECMD) methods, utilize a pad or WSID in close proximity of the wafer surface during conductor deposition. Action of the WSID during plating gives planar deposits with flat surface topography even over the largest features present on the workpiece surface. Such a planar deposit is shown as layer 130 in FIG. 1C . Removal of excess conductive material, such as copper from such planar deposits does not require further planarization during the material removal step. Therefore, CMP, electroetching, chemical etching, electrochemical mechanical etching and chemical mechanical etching techniques may all be successfully employed for removing the overburden in a planar and uniform manner in this case. There are several patents and patent applications describing the electroetching process carried out with the assistance of the mechanical action provided by a pad or WSID. Details of such processes are given in the following patents and patent applications: U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,925; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/238,665, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Electro-Chemical Mechanical Deposition,” filed Sep. 9, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,659; U.S. application Ser. No. 09/671,800, entitled “Process to Minimize and/or Eliminate Conductive Material Coating over the Top Surface of a Patterned Substrate and Layer Structure Made Thereby,” filed Sep. 28, 2000; U.S. application Ser. No. 09/841,622, entitled “Electroetching Process and System,” filed Apr. 23, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,630; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/201,604, entitled “Multi Step Electrodeposition Process for Reducing Defects and Minimizing Film Thickness,” filed Jul. 22, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,946,066; and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/362,513, filed Sep. 1, 2003, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Planar Material Removal Technique Using Multi-Phase Process Environment,” filed Mar. 6, 2002. During the standard electrodeposition and electroetching processes, workpiece or wafer is typically contacted on its front surface near its edge, all around its circumference. The conventional way of contacting the wafer involves a clamp-ring design where electrical contacts such as spring-loaded metallic fingers are pressed against the edge of the surface along the perimeter of the wafer. Contacts are protected from the process solution using seals such as O-rings or lip seals that are pushed against the wafer surface at the edge. Advance of low-k material usage in wafer processing, however, is bringing new restrictions to the use of such contacts. Low-k materials are relatively soft and mechanically weak. Pressing metallic contacts and seals against conductive films deposited on low-k materials causes damage to such materials and may even cause loss of electrical contact since the conductive film over the damaged low-k layer may itself become discontinuous. To address this challenge, a new method for forming an electrical contact to a wafer edge has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,471,847 and 6,251,235, which are commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention. In this approach there is no metallic contact touching the wafer. Electrical contact is achieved using a liquid conductor, which is confined within a chamber. Review of the above mentioned art related to Electrochemical Mechanical Etching and Electrochemical Mechanical Deposition techniques will reveal that these methods have the capability to electrotreat, i.e., electrodeposit as well as electropolish, full surface of the wafer without any need to set aside a “contacting region” protected from the process solution, such as the edge surface region that would be under a clamp-ring in an apparatus that uses electrical contacts with a clamp-ring design. Contact designs that allow full-face electrodeposition or electroetching have been described in the following U.S. patent applications: U.S. application Ser. No. 09/685,934, entitled “Device Providing Electrical Contact to the Surface of a Semiconductor Workpiece During Metal Plating,” filed Oct. 11, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,800; U.S. application Ser. No. 09/735,546, entitled “Method of and Apparatus for Making Electrical Contact to Wafer Surface for Full-Face Electroplating or Electropolishing,” filed Dec. 14, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,482,307; and U.S. application Ser. No. 09/760,757, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Electrodeposition of Uniform Film with Minimal Edge Exclusion on Substrate,” filed Jan. 17, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,610,190, all commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention. As described in these applications, one method of making electrical contact to the workpiece surface involves physically touching the conductive surface of the workpiece by conductive contact elements, such as wires, fingers, springs, rollers, brushes etc., and establishing a relative motion between the contact elements and the wafer surface so that different sections of the wafer surface is physically and electrically contacted at different times. In another method, electrical contact to the workpiece surface is achieved without physically touching the wafer by the conductive contact elements. Either way, electrical contacts may be made substantially all over the surface of the wafer or only at the edge region of the wafer. Although much progress has been made in electropolishing approaches and apparatus including contacting means of the workpiece during electropolishing, there is still need for alternative contacting means and electroetching techniques that uniformly remove excess conductive films from workpiece surfaces without causing damage and defects especially on advanced wafers with low-k materials. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the identified limitations of conventional electropolishing approaches and provides alternative contacting means and electroetching techniques that uniformly remove conductive films from a workpiece surface. In one or more embodiments of the invention, an apparatus and a method for electropolishing a surface of a conductive layer on a workpiece are disclosed. The method of the present invention includes the steps immersing a contact electrode in a contact solution, contacting a portion of the surface of the conductive layer with the contact solution to define a contact region, immersing a process electrode in a process solution, contacting a portion of the surface of the conductive layer with the process solution to define a process region, and applying an electrical potential between the contact electrode and the process electrode to electropolish the surface of the conductive layer of the process region. According to another aspect of the invention, the method further includes the step of moving at least one of the contact or process region from a first location to a second location on the surface of the conductive layer. In moving at least one of the regions from the first location to another location throughout the process, the entire surface of the conductive layer can be electropolished. In another aspect of the invention, the contact solution and the process solution are the same conductive solution. The conductive solution contacts the surface of the conductive layer. According to another aspect of the invention, a second contact electrode is provided, and the method further includes the steps of immersing the second electrode in the contact solution, contacting a portion of the surface of the conductive layer with the contact solution to define a second contact region, and applying an electrical potential between the contact electrodes and the process electrode to electropolish the second contact region. According to another aspect of the invention, the method further includes the step of contacting the surface of the conductive layer with a top surface of a pad thereby planarizing non-uniformities of the surface of the conductive layer during electropolishing. The top surface of the pad may be abrasive. The pad may intermittently contact the surface of the conductive layer. In another embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for electropolishing a surface of a conductive layer on a workpiece includes a contact unit containing a contact solution, a contact electrode immersed therein and having an opening through which the contact solution contacts a portion of the surface of the conductive layer to define a contact region, and a process unit containing a process solution, a process electrode immersed therein and having an opening through which the process solution contacts a portion of the surface of the conductive layer to define a process region configured to electropolish the surface of the conductive layer defined by the process region in response to a potential difference applied between the contact electrode and the process electrode. According to other aspects of the invention, the contact electrode and/or the process electrode may be proximate to the surface of the conductive layer. The potential difference includes a DC voltage or a variable voltage. According to yet another aspect of the invention, a mechanism produces relative motion between the process region and the surface of the conductive layer to electropolish substantially the whole surface of the conductive layer on the workpiece. The mechanism may further produce relative motion between the contact region and the surface of the conductive layer. According to additional aspects of the invention, the process unit includes a plurality of process openings through which the process solution contacts portions of the surface of the conductive layer to define a plurality of process regions and the potential difference applied between the contact electrode and the process electrode electropolishes the surface of the conductive layer defined by the plurality of process regions. Moreover, the contact unit includes a plurality of contact openings through which the contact solution contacts portions of the surface of the conductive layer, each contact opening includes a contact electrode disposed therein and the potential difference applied between the contact electrodes and the process electrode electropolishes the surface of the conductive layer defined by the plurality of process regions. In yet other aspects of the invention, a first set of contact units is configured to contact portions of the surface of the conductive layer wherein the potential difference applied between the contact electrodes of the first set of contact units and the process electrode electropolishes the surface of the conductive layer defined by a first set of process regions. Moreover, a second set of contact units is configured to contact portions of the surface of the conductive layer wherein a second potential difference applied between the contact electrodes of the second set of contact units and the process electrode electropolishes the surface of the conductive layer defined by a second set of process regions. In yet another aspect of the invention, a zone switch is configured to select the first contact zone or the second contact zone to apply the potential difference. The potential difference and the second potential difference may be different voltages. The above and additional advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the identified limitations of conventional electropolishing approaches and provides alternative contacting means and electroetching techniques that uniformly remove conductive films from a workpiece surface. The present invention achieves electropolishing of the conductive films through the combination of the use of a process solution and electrical contact electrodes that do not make physical contact to the workpiece surface. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1A is a schematic illustration of a substrate having a non-planar copper overburden layer which has been deposited using a conventional deposition process; FIG. 1B is a schematic illustration of the substrate shown in FIG. 1A wherein a planarization process has been applied to the non-planar copper overburden layer; FIG. 1C is a schematic illustration of a substrate having a planar copper overburden layer which has been deposited using an electrochemical mechanical deposition process; FIG. 2A is a schematic cross-sectional view of a portion of a semiconductor wafer having a copper layer formed on it; FIG. 2B is a schematic cross sectional view of the semiconductor wafer in detail; FIG. 3A is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of an electropolishing system of the present invention; FIGS. 3B-3D are schematic illustrations of various embodiments of the contact units for establishing electrical contact with wafer surface through the process solution; FIGS. 3E-3G 3 D are schematic illustrations of various designs of the contact units and process units for establishing electrical contact with and processing a wafer surface; FIG. 4A is a schematic illustration of another embodiment of an electropolishing system of the present invention including multiple contact and process electrodes; FIG. 4B is a schematic planar view of the electropolishing system shown in FIG. 4A ; FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of yet another embodiment of an electropolishing system of the present invention using multiple contact electrodes with a single process electrode; FIGS. 6A-6B are schematic illustrations of a holder structure used with the electropolishing system of the present invention; FIGS. 8A-8B are schematic illustrations of another holder structure used with the electropolishing system of the present invention; FIGS. 9A-9B are schematic illustrations of yet another holder structure used with the electropolishing system of the present invention; FIG. 10A-10B are schematic illustrations of other embodiments of an electropolishing system of the present invention using multiple contact electrodes with a single process electrode; FIGS. 11A-11B are schematic illustrations of stages of an electropolishing process using the electropolishing system shown in FIG. 10A ; FIG. 12A is a schematic side view of an electropolishing system of the present invention wherein a holder structure of the system includes and array of contact and process units; FIG. 12B is a schematic perspective view of the system shown in FIG. 2A ; FIG. 12C is a top plan view of the system shown in FIG. 12B ; FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of the holder structure shown in FIGS. 12A-12C , wherein the holder structure has multiple electropolishing zones; FIG. 14A is a schematic perspective view of an embodiment of an holder structure including an array of electrodes and insulating members; FIG. 14B is a schematic plan view of the array of an holder structure shown in FIG. 14B : FIG. 15 is a schematic cross sectional view of the array of the holder structure including a compressible material layer; FIG. 16 is a schematic side view of the holder structure with electrical contact devices; and FIG. 17 is a schematic cross sectional view of a contact device of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION As will be described below, the present invention provides a method and a system to electroetch or electropolish a conductive material layer deposited on a surface of a semiconductor. The invention can be used with Electrochemical Mechanical Etching processes or conventional electroetching systems. The present invention achieves electroetching of the conductive material through the combination of the use of a process solution and electrical contact elements that do not make physical contact to the workpiece surface. Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. FIG. 2A shows a cross-sectional view of a portion of a workpiece 100 a . The workpiece may be an exemplary portion of a preprocessed semiconductor wafer. As also shown in FIG. 2B in detail, a top layer 102 a of the workpiece 100 a may include a layer of conductive material such as electroplated copper. A bottom layer 104 a of the workpiece may include an insulating layer 106 a such as a low-k dielectric film and substrate 108 of the wafer, preferably silicon. In this embodiment, although the conductive layer 102 a is a part of the workpiece 100 a , it is within the scope of the present invention that the workpiece 100 a may be entirely made of a conductive material. The insulating layer is patterned to provide a via feature 110 and a trench feature 112 . The features and surface 114 of the insulating layer may be lined with a barrier layer 116 such as a layer of Ta, TaN, Ti, WCN, WN, TiN or a composite of these materials. The barrier layer may be also coated with a conductive seed layer such as a copper seed layer that is not shown in FIG. 2B for the purpose of clarity. Such seed layers are commonly deposited on semiconductor wafers before conductive layer deposition. The workpiece 100 a may comprise a plurality of via, trench and other features. As illustrated in FIG. 2B , in order to exemplify one embodiment of the present invention the surface 103 a of the conductive layer 102 a may be planar, i.e. may not have a surface topography having high and low regions formed during the deposition of the conductive layer 102 a . It should be appreciated that the invention can also process non-planar wafer surfaces. FIG. 3A schematically explains how electropolishing of a material on a wafer surface may be achieved using a remote electrical contact to the wafer. The cross-sectional segment in FIG. 3A shows a portion of an exemplary electroetching or electropolishing system 200 to electrochemically etch a portion of the copper layer 102 a , off the surface of the workpiece 100 a, which is held by a wafer carrier (not shown). The electroetching system in this example embodiment has a contact unit 202 and a process unit 204 . As will be described more fully below, the contact unit 202 is able to establish electrical contact with the conductive layer 102 a through a liquid contact solution. In this respect, the contact unit 202 comprises a contact container 206 or a contact nozzle to contain a contact solution 208 . A contact electrode 209 is placed inside the contact container 206 and thus immersed in the contact solution 208 . The contact electrode does not physically touch the surface 103 a of the copper layer 102 a . The contact electrode 209 is electrically connected to a positive terminal of a power source 210 . Contact solution 208 fills the container through a contact inlet 212 and leaves the container through contact opening 214 . The inlet 212 may be connected to a contact solution reservoir (not shown). The contact opening 214 is placed in close proximity of a contact region 220 a of the surface 103 a of the conductive layer 102 a . As the contact solution 208 flows through the opening 214 , it physically touches the contact area and establishes electrical communication between the electrode 209 and the contact region 220 a since it is a conductive liquid. For lowest voltage drop, the contact electrode 209 is as close as possible to the contact area 220 a . However, if the resistivity of the contact solution 208 is low and the voltage drop is not a concern the contact electrode 209 may even be placed outside the contact container and placed anywhere as long as it maintains physical contact with the contact solution 208 . The process unit 204 comprises a process container 222 or a process nozzle to contain process solution 224 , which is an electroetching or electropolishing solution. A process electrode 226 is located inside the process container 222 and kept immersed in the process solution 224 . It should be noted that the process electrode does not have to be confined in the process container. It may be outside as long as it physically touches the process solution and therefore establishes electrical contact with it. The process electrode 226 is electrically connected to a negative terminal of the power source 210 . Process solution 224 fills the process container through a process inlet 228 and exits the container through process opening 230 . The process solution 224 can be re-circulated or agitated. The inlet 228 may be connected to a process solution reservoir (not shown). The process opening 230 is placed in close proximity of a process region 220 b of the surface 103 a of the conductive layer 102 a . In this embodiment, the process region 220 b may be approximately equal to the area of the process opening 230 . The process solution 224 flowing through the opening 230 contacts the process region 220 b and establishes electrical contact between the process electrode 226 and the process region 220 b . Although a specific contact region and process region are illustrated in FIG. 3A , it is understood that these regions may be located anywhere on the workpiece. Furthermore, a plurality of contact units and process units may be used. The contact solution and the process solution may be different solutions or they may be same. If they are the same solution, they need to be effective electroetching or electropolishing solutions for the material to be removed from the workpiece surface. The contact units and process units may be constructed in different ways using various different materials. For example, it is possible that the contact electrode 209 is on the wall of the container 206 or it actually is the wall of the container 206 . Similar approach may be used for the construction of the process container 222 . The contact or process units may comprise an insulating spongy material within which the conductive electrodes are embedded. FIG. 3B shows such a case for the contact unit 202 a , comprising insulating spongy material 250 , which holds and passes through the contact solution 208 . Contact electrode 209 touches the contact solution 208 in the sponge 250 . It should be noted that, as shown in FIG. 3B , the spongy material may physically touch the copper film 102 a surface during electropolishing since it is a soft material and does not damage the surface. Similarly, use of an insulating spongy material or insulating soft pad in the construction of the process unit, which may physically contact the wafer surface during processing is within the scope of this invention. Referring to FIG. 3A , electroetching of the copper layer 102 a is initiated at the process region 220 b when a potential is applied between the contact electrode 209 , which is anode, and the process electrode 226 , which is cathode. The electrical current passes from the contact electrode 209 to the contact solution 208 and through the contact solution enters the copper layer 102 a at the contact region 220 a . The current then flows in the copper layer 102 a towards the process region 220 b , enters the electroetching solution 224 and flows to the process electrode 226 . In this respect, the contact electrode 209 is more anodic than the copper film at the contact region 220 a and the copper film at the process region 220 b is more anodic than the cathode 226 . The anodic voltage on the copper film at the process region causes electropolishing or electroetching of the copper in this particular region. The copper removed from the substrate in this region deposits on the process electrode 226 . If the solution is formulated to contain complexing agents it is possible that copper complexes to stay in the solution rather than deposit on the process electrode 226 . However, in this embodiment the process solution is a standard electroetching solution such as a phosphoric acid solution. The contact electrode 209 is made of an inert material such as Pt or Pt-coated metal, stainless steel, conductive mesh or foam etc., and therefore anodic voltage on this inert electrode cannot remove any material. It may, however, generate bubbles of gas, which can be removed by the flowing solution or by other designs built in the contact unit. One such design is shown in FIG. 3C and it includes a permeable barrier 260 placed over the contact electrode 209 . The permeable barrier 260 is porous and it lets the contact solution 208 through. It, however, does not allow the bubbles to go to the substrate surface by guiding them towards a bleed opening 261 , which directs them away from the workpiece surface. Similar structure may be used in the process unit also. Another design shown in FIG. 3D is a two-chamber contact container 206 a , which comprises a primary container 206 aa and a secondary container 206 aaa . The contact electrode 209 is placed in the primary container 206 aa , and therefore any bubble that is generated may be diverted away from the substrate surface through the bleed opening 261 a . More complex designs of contact containers and process containers utilizing multi chambers can be used for bubble minimization or elimination. Referring back to FIG. 3A , since the copper film at the contact region 220 a is more cathodic compared to the contact electrode 209 , no copper dissolution is expected in this region. In fact, copper is protected by this cathodic voltage. In this respect, it is important that the contact solution does not contain any ions of materials that can deposit onto the surface of the copper layer and the contact electrode 209 does not contain any material that may be etched or electroetched by the contact solution 208 . Therefore, deposition solutions containing ionic species of metals are not suitable for use as a contact solution. During the process, the process unit is preferably moved between the edge of the workpiece and the center of the workpiece while the workpiece is rotated or otherwise moved. The movement of the process unit along the radius of the wafer can cause electoetching of the entire surface of the wafer as the wafer is rotated. Other motions can also be used. What is important is to make every point on the wafer a process region at some point in time to remove copper from substantially the whole surface. Scanning of the wafer surface by the process unit can be accomplished by moving the wafer, the process unit or both with respect to each other. It is possible to design contact units and process units in different shapes and forms. These designs include but are not limited to circular, oval, pie shape, linear and others and they define the shape of the contact region and the process region. Depending upon the nature of the relative motion established between the workpiece surface and the contact and process units the most appropriate shapes of these units may be selected for the most uniform electroetching. Three of such examples are shown in FIGS. 3E , 3 F, and 3 G, which show the top view of process units 270 a , 270 b and 270 c , and contact units 280 a , 280 b and 280 c . Wafer 290 is placed in close proximity (preferably 0.1 to 5 mm range depending on the conductivity of the solutions used) of the process and contact units so that its copper coated surface (not shown) is wetted by the process and contact solutions. As explained before, when the electroetching process is initiated wafer 290 in FIG. 3E may be translated over the contact units 280 a , and the process unit 270 a in a linear direction 291 . Wafer may also be slowly rotated. The linear motion may or may not be bi-directional. During process, the process unit 270 a effectively scans the whole surface of the wafer for uniform material removal. Multiple contact units assure electrical contact to wafer at all times. Even more process and contact units may be used in the design (see for example, FIGS. 6A , 6 B, 7 A, 7 B, 8 A, 8 B, 9 A, 9 B). A specific design of contact unit 280 b and process unit 270 b , appropriate for rotational motion of the wafer 290 is shown in FIG. 3F . The pie-shaped process region in this case scans the wafer surface for uniform material removal from the whole front surface. Contact unit 280 b maybe placed anywhere at the edge of the wafer. Again, multiple contact and process units may be utilized in this design. In FIG. 3G , a ring-shaped contact region is provided. The process region, where material removal is carried out constitutes the rest of the wafer surface. In this case copper left in the contact region needs to be removed later using another process such as chemical etching or electrochemical etching. There are many other shapes and forms of the process and contact units that can be optimized for best uniformity of material removal. FIGS. 4A , 4 B and 5 illustrate two alternative electroetching systems that may include a plurality of contact units and process units. The contact and process units in these embodiments are held by various base structures that allow units to use the same electroetching solution as the contact solution as well as the process solution. In both embodiments, electrical contact to the wafer surface is established through the electroetching solution applied through the contact units. The contact electrodes do not physically contact to the surface of the wafer, however, as described earlier a soft, sponge or pad like material may be placed in the contact or process units and this material may touch the workpiece surface at the contact region and the process region. The electroetching solution provides the conductive path between the contact electrode and the conductive surface of the wafer. Exemplary electroetching or electropolishing system 300 of FIG. 4A may be used for processing copper layer 102 b of the substrate 100 b , which is held by a carrier (not shown). The electroetching system in this example embodiment has also a contact unit 302 and a process unit 304 . Differing from the previous embodiment, the units 302 , 304 are held by or formed in a holder structure 301 . The holder structure 301 in this embodiment is shaped as a plate having a top surface 303 and a bottom surface 305 . As described in the previous embodiment, the contact unit 302 is able to establish electrical contact with the conductive layer 102 b through a liquid electrical contact. During the process, the holder structure 301 and the workpiece may be moved relative to one another. The contact unit 302 or a contact nozzle may be comprised of a contact hole 306 formed in the holder structure 301 . A contact electrode 309 inside the contact unit 306 is immersed in an electroetching solution 308 . It should be understood that the contact electrode shown in FIG. 4A may totally fill the contact hole 306 in which case the electroetching solution 308 would mainly wet the top surface of the contact electrode 309 . The top surface of the contact electrode may be below the level of the top surface 303 of the holder structure 301 as shown in FIG. 4A , it may be at the same level as the top surface 303 of the holder structure 301 , it may even be above the top surface 303 of the holder structure 301 as long as it does not touch the surface of the wafer. These embodiments are applicable to all examples herein and any variations thereof. In this embodiment, the electroetching solution 308 is used for both establishing contact and electroetching the conductive layer 102 b . The contact electrode 309 is electrically connected to a positive terminal of a power source 310 . The electroetching solution 308 fills the unit and touches the conductive layer. The contact opening 314 is preferably in the plane of the top surface 303 of the holder structure 301 . The inlet 312 may be connected to a common electroetching solution reservoir (not shown) or the whole structure may be immersed into an electroetching solution that fills all the gaps including the contact unit and the process unit. The contact opening 314 is placed in close proximity of a contact region 320 a of the surface 103 b of the conductive layer 102 b . Since the holder structure 301 and the wafer 100 b is moved relative to one another during the process, the contact region 320 a may be at any appropriate location on the surface of the wafer and may be at any location at a given instant. As the solution 308 wets the contact region, the solution establishes electrical contact between the electrode 309 and the contact region 320 a since the solution 308 is selected to be conductive. The process unit 304 may be comprised of a process hole 322 . A process electrode 326 is in physical contact with the solution 308 . The process electrode 326 is electrically connectable to a negative terminal of the power source 310 . The top surface 303 of the holder structure is placed across the surface of the wafer in a substantially parallel fashion during the process. In this respect, the process opening 330 is placed in close proximity of a process region 320 b of the surface 103 b of the conductive layer 102 b . In this embodiment, the process region may be approximately equal to the area of the opening 230 . Due to the relative motion between the wafer and the holder structure 301 , the process region 320 b may be at various locations on the surface 103 b of the wafer at different times during the process. FIG. 4B shows the top surface 303 of an exemplary holder structure 301 in plan view. The top surface 303 comprises contact and process openings 314 , 330 of the units 302 and 304 , which may be distributed in a predetermined pattern. Shapes of the process openings and contact openings shown in FIG. 4B are only exemplary, and as discussed in relation to FIGS. 3A , 3 B, 3 C, 3 D, 3 E, 3 F, 3 G, various shapes and forms of process or contact units may be employed. The contact electrodes 309 and process electrodes 326 , which are immersed in the electroetching solution may also have any geometrical shape and cross section. They may be in the form of mesh or even conductive foam. During the process, the surface 303 is substantially parallel to the conductive surface of the wafer to perform uniform electroetching. Electroetching solution 308 contacts the process region 320 b and establishes electrical contact between the electrode 326 and the process region 320 b . The electroetching of the copper layer 102 b is initiated when a potential is applied between the contact electrode, which becomes an anode and the process electrode, which becomes a cathode. The electrical current passes from contact electrode 309 , into the electroetching solution 308 and enters the copper layer 102 b at the contact region 320 a . The current then flows in the copper film 102 b towards the process region 320 b , enters the electroetching solution 308 and flows to the cathode 326 . Although, there may be electroetching solution between the surface 103 b of the wafer and the top surface 303 of the holder 301 , the resistivity of this electroetching solution is much higher than the resistivity of copper layer. If the distance between the surface of the holder structure and the surface of the wafer is small enough, such as 0.1-5 mm, the total resistance of this section of the etching solution will also be higher. Consequently, the electrical current will substantially follow the path through the copper layer and cause electroetching at the process region 320 b . Any leakage of electrical current through the solution itself will reduce the efficiency of material removal since such leakage current would not result in electropolishing of the copper film. It should be noted that in this embodiment the electroetching solution is the common solution for the contact unit and the process unit and the units are in fluid communication through the electroetching solution that exists between the wafer surface and the top surface of the holder structure. As described before, the anodic voltage on the copper layer at the process region 320 b causes electropolishing or electroetching of the copper in that region. During the process, the wafer may be rotated and/or linearly moved over the holder structure 301 to accomplish uniform electroetching over the entire surface of the wafer. The process may be performed by bringing the wafer surface 103 b in close proximity of the surface 303 of the holder 301 or even by contacting the surface 103 b to the top surface 303 of the holder structure 301 . If wafer surface is physically contacted to the top surface 303 , it is preferable that the top surface comprises a pad material. With the selection of an appropriate pad, an electrochemical mechanical etching or polishing process can be carried out, which can planarize originally non-planar workpiece surfaces as discussed earlier, for electrochemical mechanical etching applications, a soft pad or a pad comprising abrasives on its surface may be employed. The power sources 210 and 310 shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 4A provide the power necessary to accomplish electropolishing. It should be understood that the various electrodes described may be all connected to a single power supply or multiple power supplies may be connected groups of electrodes to form zones, which may be controlled independently from each other. For example, a first group of process electrodes may be used to remove copper from the near-edge surface of the wafer and they may be connected to the negative terminal of a first power supply. A second group of process electrodes may scan the central region of the wafer surface to remove copper from this central region. This second group of process electrodes may be connected to the negative terminal of a second power supply. In this case, an electropolishing process may be carried out at the central region of the wafer using the second power supply and the second group of process electrodes. Then copper removal from the near-edge portion may be initiated powering the first group of process electrodes by the first power supply. Ability of independently removing material from multiple different zones on a wafer allows great flexibility in obtaining highly uniform electropolishing. Number of zones and number of electrodes per zone may be as small or large as practical. The contact electrodes may or may not be divided into different zones. When the copper is removed from a certain zone on the wafer, the electrical current passing through that zone is expected to decrease, if voltage is constant. Alternately, if a constant current source is used as the power supply, as copper is removed from the surface, voltage drop is expected to increase. These changes in the current or voltage can be used to monitor the amount of material removed from the wafer surface. By knowing the position of a certain process area on the wafer surface at a certain time and the value of the current and voltage, one can determine the amount of copper left at that process region. If constant voltage supplies are used as power supplies, as the copper is removed by electroetching at a certain process area, the current value drops and therefore the electroetching rate also drops. This way, self-limiting of the electroetching process is achieved at regions of the wafer where copper is removed. This is important to avoid the copper loss from within the features as indicated in FIG. 1A . FIG. 5 shows another exemplary electroetching or electropolishing system 400 that can be used to electrochemically etch the copper layer 102 c . The system 400 comprises a plurality of contact and process units. In this embodiment, a common cathode, which is immersed in an electroetching solution, is used to electroetch the layer 102 c through the process units and provides electrical power to the layer 102 c through the contact units. This design is attractive especially for cases where material is being removed from the surface of the wafer and it gets deposited onto the common cathode. Since cathode is large and away from the wafer surface many wafers such as a few thousand wafers can be processed in this approach before the need to clean or replace the cathode. Referring to FIG. 5 , a plurality of contact units 402 and process units 404 may be formed in a holder structure 401 . The holder structure 401 in this embodiment is also shaped as a plate having a top surface 403 and a bottom surface 405 . The system 400 is operated the way the system 300 is operated in the previous embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 5 , the contact units 402 or contact nozzles are comprised of contact holes 406 formed in the holder 401 . Contact electrodes 409 are placed inside the contact holes 406 and thus immersed in an electroetching solution 408 . As mentioned before, in this embodiment, the electroetching solution 408 is used for both establishing contact with and electroetching the conductive layer 102 c . The contact electrodes 409 are electrically connected to a positive terminal of a power source 410 . In this embodiment, the process units 404 or nozzles are comprised of process holes 430 or process openings formed through the holder structure 401 . The electroetching solution 408 fills the contact holes 406 as well as the process holes 430 . During processing, contact holes are in close proximity of the wafer surface and they define contact regions 420 a on the surface 103 c of the conductive layer 102 c . A common process electrode 426 , which is the cathode, is placed in the reservoir and kept in physical contact with the electroetching solution 408 . The process electrode 426 is electrically connected to a negative terminal of the power source 410 . The electroetching solution 408 fills the process holes 430 . In this embodiment, in order to minimize electrical current leakage from the contact electrodes through the electroetching solution to the process electrode, the contact electrodes may be placed very close to the wafer surface and insulating plugs 450 may be used below the contact electrodes. These insulating plugs may or may not be permeable by the solution. Wires connecting the various electrodes to the power supply are preferably isolated from the solution. During processing, the top surface 403 of the holder 401 may or may not physically contact the wafer surface. If there is physical contact, it is preferred that the top surface 403 comprise a pad. It is also possible to use a fixed abrasive pad at the top surface to sweep the surface of the wafer to assist the material removal process, especially if planarization is required during copper electropolishing step. The holder 401 may itself be made of a pad material with process openings 430 and contact openings 406 cut into it. Contact electrodes 409 may then be placed into this pad. Contact electrodes may be placed very close to the top surface 403 to reduce voltage drop, but they should not protrude beyond the surface 403 to avoid physical contact with the surface of the copper layer 102 c . Holder structures having various designs of process openings 430 and contact openings 406 may be employed as explained before. FIGS. 6A through 9B depict some of these different holder structures having various contact and process unit designs. As in all above embodiments, in the following embodiments, the contact electrodes in the contact units do not physically contact the wafer surface that is electropolished. The electrical conduction between the surface of the wafer under process and the contact electrodes is provided through the process solution that is touches the contact electrodes and the surface. As illustrated in one embodiment, in FIG. 6A in a perspective view and in FIG. 6B in plan view, a holder structure 460 has a top surface 462 and a bottom surface 464 . A number of contact units 466 are formed in the top surface 462 of the holder structure 460 . Further, a number of process units 468 are formed through the holder structure 460 and between the top surface 462 and bottom surface 464 . In this embodiment, the contact units 466 are channels, preferably near-rectangular in cross-section, having a bottom wall 470 and side walls 472 . Although in this embodiment, the channels are distributed parallel and separated one another equidistantly, they may be distributed in any manner such as non-parallel or radial and the distance between the channels may vary. The contact electrode 474 is placed in the channel 466 , preferably on the bottom wall 470 . The electrodes are shaped as bars or wires extending along the channels. Although it is not necessary, there may be a contact base 476 between the electrode 474 and the bottom wall 470 . The contact electrodes may be directly placed on the bottom wall 470 . If there is, the base 476 may be extended down to the bottom surface of the holder structure 460 and may be made of an insulator. The height of the electrode is at the level of the surface 462 or slightly less than the depth of the channel so that during the process the electrode cannot touch the wafer surface that is electropolished but allow current flow through the process solution. An insulated wire 478 connects the electrode to a terminal of a power supply (not shown). In this embodiment, the process units 468 may be shaped as round holes extending through the holder structure and allowing solution flow to the top surface. Holes 468 may be rectangular or any other geometrical form, including slits. Process units may also be continuous slits in between the channels 466 . It should be noted that the designs of FIGS. 6A , 6 B, 7 A, 7 B, 8 A, 8 B, 9 A, 9 B, 10 A and 10 B will be described as applied to the concept shown in FIG. 5 , namely, a design with one cathode and multiple contact electrodes. It will be appreciated, however, that the designs and concepts shown in FIGS. 6A-10B are also directly applicable to the cases shown in FIGS. 3A , 3 B, 3 C, 3 D, 3 E, 3 F, 3 G and 4 A. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6A , every other channel 466 may be made a contact unit (shown as 302 in FIG. 4A ) with a contact electrode 474 in it (shown as 309 in FIG. 4A ). In between these contact units then, every other channel 466 could be a process unit (shown as 304 in FIG. 4A ), and the electrodes within these process units would be the process electrodes (shown as 326 in FIG. 4A ). In this case solution would be fed through the openings (shown as 468 in FIG. 6A ), and power would be applied between contact electrodes and process electrodes as shown in FIG. 4A . In this case, a single power source can be used if all contact electrodes are connected together and all process electrodes are connected together. Alternately, as discussed earlier, multiple power supplies can be used to power multiple contact electrode-process electrode pairs, or a single power supply may be switched between various pairs of contact electrode-process electrode. FIG. 7A shows, in plan view and FIG. 7B in partial cross section, another embodiment of a holder structure 480 , which is a variation of the holder structure 460 shown in the previous embodiment. The holder structure 480 comprises channels 486 and holes 488 . The channels in this example are placed in diagonal fashion and equidistantly parallel to one another. The channels 486 are in rectangular shape and are defined by a bottom wall 490 and side walls 492 , as shown in FIG. 7B . Contact electrodes 494 are shaped as beads that are lined along the bottom of the channels 486 and connected a terminal of a power supply (not shown). As described above, the contact electrodes 494 may or may not be placed on an electrode base 496 . FIGS. 8A-8B illustrate another embodiment of a holder structure 500 . In FIG. 8A in a perspective view and in FIG. 8B in plan view, the holder structure 500 has a top surface 502 and a bottom surface 504 . A number of contact units 506 are formed in the top surface 502 . Further, a number of process units 508 are formed through the holder structure 500 and between the top and bottom surfaces 502 , 504 . In this embodiment, the contact units 506 are channels, preferably rectangular cross-section, having a bottom wall 510 and side-walls 512 . As in the previous embodiments, the channels are distributed parallel and separated one another equidistantly, they may also be distributed in any manner such as non-parallel or radial, and the distance between the channels may vary. In this embodiment, contact electrodes 514 are preferably conductive brushes made of thin conductive wires or bristles. The contact electrodes 514 are placed in the channel 506 , preferably on the bottom wall 510 . As in the previous embodiments, there may be a contact base 516 between the conductive brushes 514 and the bottom wall 510 . The height of the conductive brushes 514 is preferably slightly less than the depth of the channel 506 so that during the process brushes 514 cannot touch the wafer surface that is electropolished but allow current to flow through the process solution. As in the previous embodiments, the base 516 may be extended down to the bottom surface of the holder structure 500 and may be made of an insulator. An insulated electrical line 518 connects the conductive brushes to a terminal of a power supply (not shown). In this embodiment, the process units 508 may be shaped as round holes extending through the holder structure and allowing solution flow to the top surface during the process. Holes 502 may be rectangular or any other geometrical form. FIGS. 9A-9B illustrate another embodiment of the holder structure using conductive brushes that are used in the previous embodiment. Of course, use of conductive brushes is for the purpose of exemplifying subject embodiment. Contact electrodes with any other shape and geometry may be used with the embodiments described in connection to FIGS. 9A-9B . Similarly, use of different shape, size and geometry of process units and contact units as well as their possible distribution alternatives on the holder structures are within the scope of this invention. As illustrated in FIG. 9A in perspective view and in FIG. 9B in a partial perspective side view, a holder structure 520 is a variation of the holder structure 500 shown in the previous embodiment. The holder structure 520 comprises contact units 526 and process units 528 . The process units 528 in this example are placed in diagonal fashion and equidistantly parallel to one another. The process units in this embodiment are shaped as slits extending between the top and bottom surfaces 522 , 524 of the holder structure 520 and allowing process solution to flow. The contact units in this embodiment are shaped as holes in the holder structure. The contact units 526 include a bottom wall 530 and side-wall 532 which is cylindrical in this example. Conductive brushes 534 are placed on the bottom wall 530 of the contact units 526 and connected to a terminal of a power supply (not shown). As described above, the contact electrodes 534 may be placed on an electrode base 536 . Two other designs that employ the buried electrical contact concept of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B . As shown in FIG. 10A , contact electrodes 600 are over supports 601 and they are in close proximity of the surface 103 c of the copper layer 102 c . The supports 601 may be held by a holder structure (not shown), which may be made of an open frame. Supports 601 are made of insulating material and they reduce the electrical current leakage that may flow from the contact electrodes 600 through the electropolishing solution 608 , to the electrode 626 when a voltage rendering the contact electrodes anodic is applied between the electrode and the contact electrodes. In operation, contact electrodes 600 do not touch the surface 103 c . However, close proximity of them to the surface electrically couples the contact electrodes 600 to the copper surface 103 c . As in previous examples, most of the material removal takes place on the wafer surface in the area in between the contact electrodes, i.e., process openings. Reduction of leakage current is important in this design. Such reduction may be achieved by insulating all surfaces of contact electrodes except the surface facing the wafer and by reducing the distance between the wafer and the contact electrodes. A version of the design in FIG. 10A that can be used for touchprocessing is shown in FIG. 10B . In FIG. 10B , the contact electrodes 600 b and structures 601 b are buried in a spongy material 620 or a pad material. The spongy material maybe a porous polymeric pad that allows the electroetching solution 608 b to wet the wafer surface as well as the contact electrodes 626 b . During electropolishing, the surface of the copper layer 102 c may or may not touch the surface of the pad material. Again, in this embodiment, most of the material removal takes place on the wafer surface in the area in between the contact electrodes, i.e., process openings, which may contain the spongy material as shown in FIG. 10B , or spongy material may be removed from these process openings to reduce electrical resistance and resistance to flow of the electrolyte. The surface of the pad material may comprise abrasives to assist material removal process, especially if planarization is required during electropolishing, i.e., the starting copper surface is non-planar. FIGS. 1A and 1B schematically illustrates exemplary stages of an electropolishing process using the system described in FIG. 10A . In this example for the purpose of clarification, a system 700 with two contact electrodes, a first contact electrode 701 a and a second contact electrode 701 b . The electrodes are placed on supports 702 and connected to a positive terminal of a power supply. In this respect, a cathode electrode 705 is also connected to a negative terminal of the power supply. Since the electropolishing process is exemplified with two contact electrodes, a portion of cathode electrode 705 is shown in FIGS. 11A-11B . Electropolishing process is applied to an exemplary substrate 704 having a copper layer 706 . The material removal takes place on the wafer surface in a process opening 707 in between the contact electrodes. The substrate 704 may be a semiconductor substrate including features 708 filled with copper layer. The features 708 and the surface of the substrate 704 may be lined with a barrier layer 710 , which has generally a lesser conductivity than the conductivity of the copper. As described before, Ta, W, WN, WCN or TaN are the typical barrier materials for copper deposition. A copper removal solution such as an electropolishing solution 712 is in contact with the copper layer 706 and the cathode electrode 705 (see also FIG. 10A ). As shown in FIG. 11A , during an instant of the electropolishing process the contact electrodes 701 a and 701 b are placed in close proximity of the copper layer. As the current from the contact electrodes 701 a and 701 b flow through the copper layer 706 , a surface portion 714 a of the copper layer 706 is removed or electropolished. The surface portion is the portion of the copper layer that is located across the process hole 707 and the contact electrodes. As shown in FIG. 1A , direction of the current flow from the first contact electrode 701 a and the second contact electrode 701 b is depicted with the arrows A and B respectively. The electropolishing uniformly reduces the thickness of the copper layer down to the barrier layer level and continues as long as conductive copper remains on the barrier layer. It will be appreciated that during the removal of the portion 714 , resistance against the current flow increases and the current flow chooses the least resistive path where it may still have conductive copper and continues etching the remaining copper until the surface portion 714 is almost entirely removed. This brings the electropolishing of the copper layer to a stop at that location of the surface, i.e., process self-limits, before moving over the neighboring location as shown in FIG. 11B . FIG. 11B shows another instant during the electropolishing process, as the system 700 moves over the remaining portion of the copper layer 706 . As the contact electrode 701 a moves over the copper layer 706 , current flows through the remaining layer and starts electropolishing process. At this instant, since the second contact electrode is still over the exposed barrier layer, current flow from the second electrode faces resistance. This causes a larger current I 1 to flow through the first electrode 701 a and through the path A compared to the current I 2 that flows through the second electrode 701 b . The current flow from the first contact electrode causes electropolishing of the remaining copper, whereas the small current or lack of current through the electrode 701 b arrests further copper removal from the areas where barrier is exposed. Accordingly, the system 700 is able to reduce and increase the current flow from a particular contact electrode depending on the remaining copper across that particular electrode as the process progresses and once the barrier is exposed copper removal is drastically reduced or arrested to avoid copper loss from within the features 708 . FIGS. 12A-12C illustrate an exemplary non-contact electropolishing system 800 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 12A in a side view, the system 800 comprises a solution container 802 , a holder structure 804 and a wafer carrier 806 . The holder structure 804 is placed on the side walls 808 of the solution container 802 which contains a process solution 810 , preferably an electropolishing or electroetching or electrochemical mechanical polishing solution. The process solution 810 flows through the holder structure and wets front surface 812 of the wafer 814 during the process. The diameter of the wafer, or wafer size, may be any size such as 200 mm or 300 mm or larger. The front surface 812 comprises a conductor, such as copper, tantalum, tungsten and other materials commonly used in electronics industry. The process solution 810 is delivered to the container 802 through a solution inlet 816 . The solution 810 leaves the system from the edges of the holder structure 804 and filtered and pumped back to the container 802 from a recycle unit (not shown). The wafer carrier 806 can rotate and move the wafer laterally or in orbital fashion in proximity of the holder structure 804 . In this embodiment, the holder structure 804 is comprised of a plurality of contact electrodes 818 and process electrodes 820 that are separated and electrically insulated from one another by insulation members 822 . The contact electrodes 818 and the process electrodes 820 have top surfaces 819 and 821 respectively. Except the top surfaces 819 and the 821 , the electrodes 818 and 820 are coated with an insulating film such as a Teflon™ film. In this embodiment, all of the top surfaces 819 and 821 are leveled and substantially coplanar. As shown in FIGS. 12B and 12C , which are perspective and top plan views of the system 800 , the contact electrodes and the process electrodes are made of conductive rods that are separated by insulating members 822 which are also shaped as rods. The widths of the contact electrodes, process electrodes and the insulating members may be in the range of 1-10 mm. Referring back to FIG. 12A-12C , a compressible layer 824 is also attached to the holder structure 804 , in between the contact and process electrodes. The compressible layer 824 is preferably made of strips of a compressible and insulating material, such as polyurethane, and attached on top of the insulation members. The compressible material of the strips also has a closed pore structure, which does not allow solution to flow through it and therefore also limits any leakage current that may pass between the contact electrodes and adjacent process electrodes, forcing the current to pass through the conductor on the workpiece surface. The compressible layer will be referred to as compressible layer strips hereinafter. Top surfaces 826 of the compressible layer strips 824 are all substantially coplanar. The top surfaces 826 of the compressible layer strips 824 are above the top surfaces 819 and 821 of the contact and process electrodes by an amount that may be in the range of 1-10 mm, preferably 2-5 millimeters. In this respect, top surfaces of the contact electrode rods between the compressible layer strips define contact units and, top surfaces of the process electrode rods between the strips define process units of the electropolishing system 800 . As described earlier, the contact electrodes do not physically contact the surface of the wafer. However, the surface of the compressible layer strips 824 may touch the surface of the wafer during polishing stage. Due to the closed pore structure of the strips, very little or no electrical current flows between the contact units and the process units, directly through the compressible layer strips. The tops of the strips 824 preferably contain a suitable pad material that efficiently sweeps the substrate surface when a contact is established between the tops of the strips and the substrate surface. As shown in FIG. 12B , contact electrodes 818 are electrically connected to a positive terminal of a power source 828 through a first electrical contact 830 . The process electrodes 820 are connected to a negative terminal of the power source 828 using a second electrical contact 832 . It should be noted that instead of the polarity stated above, a variable polarity may also be applied to the two terminals. In other words a variable voltage or an AC voltage may be applied between the contact and process electrodes. As will be described below, multiple electropolishing zones may be established on the holder structure (see FIG. 13 ). The process solution provides the conductive path that allows current to pass between the contact and process electrodes and the conductive surface. As shown in FIGS. 12A and 12C , the process solution flows through openings 828 provided in the holder structure 804 . The openings are preferably formed through the contact electrodes 818 and process electrodes 820 , although they may also be opened through the insulating members 822 and the compressible strips 826 . As in the above embodiments, the process solution is used for both establishing electrical contact and electrochemical processing of the conductive layer. As described above, electrical contact to the wafer surface is established through the contact electrodes while the electrochemical processing of the surface is performed over the process electrodes. During the process, the surface 812 of the wafer is placed in close proximity of the top surface of the compressible strips 824 . In this position the surface 819 of the contact electrodes are positioned across contact regions 834 of the surface 812 while the process electrodes are positioned across the process regions 836 of the surface 812 (see FIG. 12A ). Since the holder structure 804 and the wafer 814 are moved relative to one another during the process, the contact regions and process regions may be at any appropriate location on the surface of the wafer and may be at any location at a given instant. As the process solution wets the contact region, the solution establishes electrical contact between the contact electrode and the contact region since the solution is selected to be conductive. In this respect, the current flows from the contact electrodes and through the process solution to the surface, and then through the process solution to the process electrodes. Although both electrodes are coated with an insulating film, except at the top surfaces facing the substrate, an extended isolation member 838 may be used between the contact and process electrodes to further assure minimum leakage current between these electrodes at their bottom ends. This way the pathway for any possible leakage current between the bottom ends of the electrodes is made longer, increasing the resistance. To reduce the overall leakage of the assembly, all isolation members may be made extended type. With predetermined intervals, the top surface of the holder structure 804 may be cleaned and conditioned using a pad cleaner/conditioner or a platen surface cleaner to remove particulates dispersed or formed on the holder structure during the electropolishing or electrochemical mechanical polishing process. Such particulates may be small pieces of conductor deposits formed on the pad surfaces or electrode surfaces. Designs such as those used for cleaning pads employed in ECMD and ECME processes disclosed in our recent patent applications are applicable to the present case. Referring to FIG. 12A-12C , rods forming the contact and process electrodes as well as the isolation members are all fastened together as an array of alternating process and contact electrodes which are separated by the isolation members. Although many alternative fastening methods may be used, in this embodiment, a pin and nut combination may be used to fasten the electrodes and the isolation members together. As shown in FIG. 12A , a number of pins 840 are placed through holes 842 extending through the electrode and the isolation member rods and locked in place by tightening nuts 844 . The holes extend perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the array of rods. End plates 846 may be placed at both ends of the array of electrodes and the isolation members to tighten the array of electrodes and the isolation members more uniformly. It should be noted that ability of placing pad materials at the top surface of compressible strips allow application of uniform and low force on the wafer surface when this surface makes contact with the pad material during process. In this case, the wafer surface is brought in contact with the pad material surface and then pushed against it. Once the pad strips on top of the compressible layer strips are pushed down by the wafer surface by a predetermined distance, force generated by the compressible layer strips pushes the pad material against the wafer surface. The amount of force depends on the spring constant of the compressible material and can be pre-selected by selecting harder or softer compressible materials of the strips. This design assures good and uniform physical contact between the pad material and the wafer surface. FIG. 13 illustrates an embodiment of the holder structure 800 with multiple electropolishing zones. In one embodiment, multiple electropolishing zones may be established by dividing the surface area of the holder structure into different zones such as zones z 1 and z 2 . For example zone z 1 may electropolish a center region 815 a of the surface of the wafer 814 ′ and the zone z 2 may electropolish an edge region 815 b of the same surface. As shown in FIG. 13 , the zone z 1 may cover a center area of the holder structure and extends longitudinally from the beginning to the end of the electrodes. Zone z 2 may be the rest of the surface area located at both sides of the zone z 1 . Electrodes in zone z 1 are connected to terminals of a power source S 1 , and the electrodes in the zone z 2 are connected to terminals of a power source S 2 . In this respect, lines C 1 , C 3 , C 1 ′ and C 3 ′ electrically connect the contact electrodes 818 in zone z 2 to a positive terminal of the power source S 2 . Lines C 2 and C 2 ′ electrically connect the process electrodes 820 in zone z 2 to a negative terminal of the power source S 2 . Similarly, lines C 4 and C 6 electrically connect the process electrodes 820 in zone z 1 to a negative terminal of the power source S 2 . Line C 5 connects the contact electrode 818 in zone z 1 to a negative terminal of the power source S 1 . During the electropolishing process, as the wafer 814 ′ is rotated and moved laterally in the x-direction, uniformity of the electropolishing is controlled by varying the voltage in zones z 1 and z 2 . Varying the voltage in the zones z 1 and z 2 , in turn, vary the electropolishing rate in the center region 815 a and edge region 815 b of the wafer. As described above and shown in FIG. 5 , process units may be established as openings in the holder structure. In such holder designs, a common cathode electrode works through the openings or the process units. The same inventive approach is also applicable to the holder structure 804 that is illustrated in FIGS. 12A through 12B . In order to form the process openings, the process electrodes 820 are removed from the holder structure and small spacers are placed, preferably, between the insulating members 822 to form the openings. Two spacers maybe used one at each end of the insulating members. Alternately, more spacers may be used at specific intervals. This is possible as long as the spacers are narrow and do not shade the wafer surface from the field going to the process electrode. Similar end result may be obtained by using insulating members having holes or slits and placing them between the contact electrodes 818 after the removal of the process electrodes 820 . In a following step a single process electrode (cathode) is placed in the process solution 810 to complete the system. FIG. 14A illustrates an embodiment of an array 900 of contact electrodes 902 , process electrodes 904 as well as isolation members 906 . The array 900 can be used to form a holder structure that also includes compressible strips (not shown). In this embodiment, for the purpose of clarity the pad strips 908 are only shown in FIG. 14 . The array 900 is held between end plates 909 and fastened together by inserting pins 910 through the holes 912 and using nuts 914 ( FIG. 15 ) to hold the pins in place, as described above. For illustration purposes, in FIG. 14A , one of the electrodes and one of the end plates are separated from the array to demonstrate their design characteristics. As shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B , a number of grooves 916 extend from bottom surfaces 918 of the electrodes to top surfaces 920 . The grooves are formed on the side walls 922 of the electrodes so that when the side walls 922 of the electrodes placed against the side walls of the insulation members 906 to form the array 900 , openings for solution flow are formed. In this embodiment the contact electrodes 902 and the process electrodes 904 are connected to a power source (not shown) through their contact ends 903 and 905 . Except an electrical contact line 924 and the top surfaces 920 of the electrodes 902 and 904 , all other surfaces are coated with an insulating film such as a Teflon™ film. The contact ends 903 and 905 may be shaped as a step with a recessed surface 926 . Contact ends of the contact electrodes and the contact ends of the process electrodes are positioned along opposite ends of the array 900 as in the manner shown in FIGS. 14A-16 . The electrical contact line may be placed on the recessed surface 926 . Electrical connection to the power source may be made using a first contact device 928 to connect contact electrodes to the positive terminal and a second contact device 930 to connect the process electrodes to the negative terminal of the power source. As shown in FIG. 14A-17 , the contact devices 928 and 930 comprise an elongated body 932 having a support portion 934 and an extended portion 936 . Referring to FIGS. 16 and 17 , a front wall 938 of the support portion 936 and a bottom wall 940 of the extended portion 936 of the contact devices define a corner cavity which engages with the step shaped ends of the electrodes 902 and 904 when the contact devices are attached to the ends of the electrodes. In this respect, the first contact device 928 is attached to the contact ends 903 of the contact electrodes while the second contact device 930 is attached to the contact ends 905 of the process electrodes. In FIG. 17 the contact device 928 is illustrated in detail. Although the contact device 928 is used to describe details of the contact devices, the same description is applicable to the contact device 930 because of the identical features of the devices. As shown in FIG. 17 , a contact member 942 , which is attached to the bottom wall 940 of the extended portion 936 , enables electrical connection between the contact line 924 on the recessed surface 926 and the power source. Except the contact member 942 , bodies 932 of the contact devices 928 and 930 are coated with Teflon or made of insulating materials such as polymer base materials. Although the example shown in FIGS. 14A-17 describes an array for a single zone holder structure, a system with a multiple zone electropolishing holder structure (see FIG. 13 )can also be established using the array 900 and within the scope of this invention. A conductive line 944 connects the contact member 942 to the power source terminal. Referring to FIG. 16 , the contact devices are attached to top ends 946 of side walls of a solution container (not shown) using bolts 948 or other fastening means. The bolts 948 are inserted through the bolt holes 950 shown in for example FIG. 14B . In this respect contact devices 928 and 930 secure the array 900 and hence the holder structure on the process solution container (see FIGS. 12A-12B ). Seal members 952 on top ends 946 of the side walls and seal members 954 on the extended portion of the contact devices 928 and 930 prevents any solution leakage into the area where the contact member 942 touches the contact line 924 . Although various preferred embodiments and the best mode have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications of the exemplary embodiment are possible without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention.

An apparatus for electropolishing a conductive layer on a wafer using a solution is disclosed. The apparatus comprises an electrode assembly immersed in the solution configured proximate to the conductive layer having a longitudinal dimension extending to at least a periphery of the wafer, the electrode assembly including an elongated contact electrode configured to receive a potential difference, an isolator adjacent the elongated contact electrode, and an elongated process electrode adjacent the isolator configured to receive the potential difference, a voltage supply is configured to supply the potential difference between the contact electrode and the process electrode to electropolish the conductive layer on the wafer.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a U.S. national stage application of international app. No. PCT/FI2005/050006, filed Jan. 14, 2005, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, and claims priority on Finnish App. No. 20040049, filed Jan. 15, 2004, and also claims priority on Finnish App. No. 20045148, filed Apr. 23, 2004. STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not applicable. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The invention relates to an arrangement in a paper machine or similar, which includes a press section equipped with one or more press nips and a dryer section comprising a web-supporting closed web transfer, a vertical impingement dryer and one or more subsequent cylinder dryer groups. The invention relates particularly to impingement unit applications blowing directly to the web. [0004] With increasing paper machine speeds the runnability of the machine becomes very critical unless measures are taken at the same time for improving runnability. Runnability can be improved up to a certain limit by maintaining a sufficient web tension by means of a speed difference between successive stages. Even this method will become exhausted at the stage when the paper quality starts to deteriorate. [0005] Rising paper machine speeds have led to a tendency to preferably use a closed transfer from the press section to the dryer section, and, particularly in a multicylinder dryer, the single fabric run arrangement, as far as possible, even to the end of the cylinder dryer. These are used to get rid of fluttering and similar phenomena, which occur in the free web transfer. From the center roll of the press section the paper web can however be picked up to the dryer section using an open transfer. [0006] A paper machine dryer section using merely a multicylinder dryer becomes fairly long at high, 30 m/s to 40 m/s, speeds. According to Finnish patent 102623 (WO 97/130131) and Finnish patent application 20002429, impingement dryers are used to replace dryer cylinders, particularly at the beginning of the dryer section, in which full steam pressure cannot be used in dryer cylinders or steam supply of the first cylinder is sometimes even completely closed. A wet paper web attaches to a hot cylinder surface due to which it is necessary to use a lower cylinder surface temperature, whereat drying capacity is lost. [0007] In an impingement drying unit, in which impingement takes place directly against the paper web and not through the fabric, it is possible to use fairly high blowing temperatures, 250° C. to 700° C., and thus achieve a very efficient heating effect. The paper web is set to travel on top of a support fabric, which is supported in the blowing area by a set of rolls either in a straight run or with a large curvature radius. Suction/blow boxes are placed between the rolls for keeping the paper web against the support fabric. [0008] According to patent application 20002429 (WO 02/36880), it is possible to spare the machine-directional length by using one or more vertical impingement units. The support fabric has in the vertical direction a notably long loop compared to its machine-directional dimension, at least in the dryer cylinder line. The support fabric remains under the paper web as regards blowing and consequently is not subjected to heat. On both sides of the loop generally there are impingement units, both of which thus have a drying length of even several meters. Keeping the paper web attached to the support fabric is ensured by using internal suction devices, which direct the suction effect to the paper web from inside via the support fabric. The side profile of the impingement surface is straight, slightly curved, possibly variably curved, in a shape of a broken line or a combination of these. [0009] The impingement unit comprises a web arrangement that provides support for the paper web and a blowing chamber, which has a perforation on its web side flank for distributing air or other hot gas onto the blowing surface. [0010] Space saving is realized also in such a case when the orientation of the unit deviates even remarkably from the vertical, as it will in any case be located in a space below or above the paper machine. On the other hand, a vertical construction has the advantage that the earth's gravity cannot disturb the attachment of the fabric to the support surface. [0011] In a closed transfer, a great number of fabric loops composed of support fabrics are needed. As the number and total length of these increase, web break risks generally increase. Therefore, the optimization of their number and lengths is aimed at. [0012] Although the above-mentioned known impingement solutions have provided improvements compared to the prior art technique related to runnability at high speeds and the machine size in the longitudinal direction, the situation has not been completely satisfactory. A simpler, yet a reliable concept is still required. [0013] The bulk, in units of cm 3 /g, of paper is a significant quality factor for many paper grades. However, good bulk is in contradiction with the maximum press section dewatering, because achieving a high dry content after the press requires high nip pressures. [0014] According to patent 102623, an impingement unit is located after the press section before the first dryer cylinder. Units blowing through a fabric according to the patent suffer from the blast air temperature limit, since the present drying fabrics cannot be stressed with blast air or steam hotter than 200° C. The construction becomes, however, relatively long, and the machine longitudinal saving is not notably achieved with simple solutions. With vertical impingement units according to patent application 20002429, remarkable savings are achieved much faster in the machine length. With the proposed solutions using vertical impingement units, the runnability is not better than today after the press section. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] The object of the invention is to provide an improved arrangement in a paper machine, in which a vertical impingement unit is used. With the invention, elimination or at least minimization of the above-mentioned drawbacks is aimed at. [0016] Impingement dryers are best used to replace exactly the first cylinder dryers, as their capacity remains rather poor due to a reduced steam pressure. Instead, there are no similar restrictions for straight impingement, and extraordinarily high temperatures can be used in it when blowing directly to the web. An efficient vertical impingement dryer requires however, for ensuring runnability, a pre-impingement dryer for drying the opposite side of the paper web at least to a certain extent and by running the moisture gradient growing towards the bottom surface. At the same time, the preceding efficient web heating enables the full drying capacity of a vertical unit. Preferably a vertical impingement dryer is unilaterally drying and directed to the same side as the first cylinder dryer such that full or almost full steam pressures can be applied starting from the first cylinder, that is, high drying temperatures on the cylinder surface without the risk of sticking. [0017] Here “horizontal” and “vertical” should be understood widely as comprising a deviation of even 45°. In addition, the impingement surface can be curved or a polygon imitating a curved shape or a combination of these. [0018] In another embodiment the top surface of the impingement chamber of the vertical impingement unit forms the pulper chute. [0019] In a third embodiment the vertical impingement unit has several support rolls on top of each other, supporting the support fabric from the inside of the fabric loop. Between these rolls, there are arranged suction boxes in the web direction and in the vicinity of the fabric surface in a method known as such. [0020] In a fourth embodiment, a pre-impingement dryer is placed over the section of the press transfer belt and the paper web is transferred therefrom directly to the fabric loop of the vertical impingement dryer. This is used to replace even two separate transfer fabric loops. This type of combination is particularly compact. [0021] Pre-impingement follows immediately after the press is already on the press fabric or on the transfer or dryer fabric after the press. The rest of the machine design determines how near to the press, i.e. how compactly pre-impingement can be carried out. [0022] The relative distances between the pre-impingement dryer, generally horizontal, and the vertical impingement dryer as well as the first dryer cylinder following those, are restricted by the fact that it is not desired that the web cools down excessively in the unheated section. In order to gain benefit from pre-impingement, the web must not cool down between the air blows, but the cooling effect of normal evaporation is still advantageous for the entity with dimensions given later. On the other hand, the web surface temperature should deviate less than 15° C., most preferably less than 8° C. from the dryer cylinder surface temperature, normally approximately 80° C. in a paper machine, to avoid harmful sticking of fibers etc. Normally it is allowed that this interval be 4 meters at the maximum, preferably less than 2 meters. In a compact construction, pre-impingement starts at a distance less than 2 meters, most preferably less than 1 meter from the press. [0023] Higher steam pressures are used in board machines, thus the cylinder surface temperature can be as high as 130° C., whereat the deviations can also be greater. In addition, the cylinder may have a temperature profile, in which the edges are warmer than the rest of the cylinder, which can also be taken into account by profiling impingement and/or the steambox. [0024] The invention can be fully utilized when a short pre-impingement dryer and a vertical impingement dryer are compactly installed between the press and the first cylinder group. Here a vertical impingement dryer equipped with two opposite units can be adapted to a short machine length, and the first dryer cylinder immediately following it can be adapted to essentially full steam pressures. More than one vertical impingement dryers cannot be compactly installed one after another in the machine direction, because the opposite hoods must be installed relatively far from each other. Instead, in addition to the underneath unit, it is possible to have opposite impingement units above the machine, as the arrangement does not increase the machine length. [0025] The invention is described below in more detail by making reference to the enclosed drawings, which illustrate some of the embodiments of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0026] FIG. 1 illustrates an arrangement of a paper machine using impingement after the press. [0027] FIG. 2 illustrates another arrangement according to the invention. [0028] FIG. 3 a illustrates a third arrangement according to the invention. [0029] FIG. 3 b illustrates another embodiment using a steambox. [0030] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the interdependencies between bulk after press and dry matter for some paper grades. [0031] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the second group of the invention. [0032] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the second embodiment of the second group of the invention. [0033] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the third embodiment of the second group of the invention. [0034] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the fourth embodiment of the second group of the invention. [0035] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the fifth embodiment of the second group of the invention. [0036] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the sixth embodiment of the second group of the invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0037] FIGS. 1-4 depict a paper machine, in which shown are the press section 11 and some of the first sections of the dryer section, namely the pre-impingement dryer 20 , vertical impingement dryer 21 and a beginning of the cylinder group 14 . The first dryer cylinder is indicated with reference number 14 . 1 . [0038] The various parts of the arrangement, namely the press section, impingement dryers and cylinder dryers are known for their basic design from e.g. the above-mentioned patent publications. [0039] The twin-nip press 11 has nips 13 . 1 and 13 . 2 . The paper web is picked up in a known manner to the press section 11 with the pick-up roll 15 . 1 and it is transferred through the nips by means of the press felts 12 and the transfer belt 28 . As regards this invention, the design of the press section can vary to a great extent. Particularly essential is however that after the press section 11 , or integrated to its end part, there is a horizontal or pre-impingement dryer 20 , which in FIGS. 1 , and 3 a uses the dryer fabric 17 , against which the blowing unit 20 . 1 is placed. According to the prior art technique, in the center roll solution there is an open interval in the transfer from the press to drying, and with this embodiment, too, it is possible, irrespective of the press, to arrange an open/openable interval if required when shifting from impingement drying to cylinder drying. [0040] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3 a , the paper web is picked up from the transfer belt 28 with the transfer suction roll 15 . 3 and led to the transfer fabric 16 , which transports it to the dryer fabric 17 of the horizontal impingement dryer 20 by means of the transfer suction roll 15 . 4 . [0041] The paper web travels on top of the dryer fabric 17 from below the blowing unit 20 . 1 , whereat it is subjected to a strong heating effect. In a short blowing zone drying occurs relatively little, but the web warms up and its top surface layer dries slightly. This is however significant as regards the runnability. At the same time, the moisture gradient in the thickness direction of the web becomes strongly growing towards the bottom surface. Inside the dryer fabric loop 17 there are vacuum boxes 20 . 3 and support rolls 20 . 2 for keeping the web attached to the said fabric 17 . [0042] After the horizontal impingement dryer 20 , the paper web is transferred from the dryer fabric 17 after the vacuum roll 17 . 1 onto the dryer fabric 14 . 2 of the first dryer cylinder group 14 . This same dryer fabric 14 . 2 is also used by the vertical impingement dryer 21 . In a method known as such, the paper web is transferred to the dryer fabric 14 . 2 by means of the topmost roll 21 . 3 , functioning as a vacuum roll, suction roll or VAC roll, of the vertical impingement dryer 21 . The roll 21 . 3 has a fabric wrap within an area of 3° to 10°. The dryer fabric 14 . 2 is supported in the straight section forming the blowing surface by several small support rolls 21 . 5 , between which there are blow boxes 21 . 6 providing aspiration for creating a vacuum on the bottom surface of the transfer fabric, i.e. on the opposite surface of the paper web, whereat the paper web becomes aspirated against the transfer fabric 14 . 2 . [0043] The vertical impingement dryer 21 has two opposite impingement units 21 . 1 and 21 . 2 , which are set on both sides of a narrow dryer fabric loop as seen from the side. The impingement surfaces are mainly delimited between the above-located roll 21 . 3 and the turning suction roll 21 . 4 , although their hoods can extend to the curved section. Between these, on both surfaces, more precisely inside the fabric loop, there are support rolls 21 . 5 and blow boxes 21 . 6 , such as is set forth for example in patent application 20002429. The support rolls can be grooved rolls, VAC rolls or suction rolls. [0044] The center line of the vertical impingement dryer 21 deviates from the perpendicular by a maximum of 35°, such that it still saves machine-directional space. The pre-impingement predryer may deviate as much as 60° from the horizontal. [0045] The temperature of the blast gas in the impingement dryers 20 , 21 is preferably in a range of 200° C. to 700° C., most preferably in a range of 250° C. to 400° C. The steam of the steambox 16 . 1 used for the preheating of impingement drying is preferably slightly, normally 7° C., superheated and condenses on contacting the web, but not yet in the steambox. The web temperature can also be influenced by the impingement air moisture, air blow recirculation. [0046] At the doctor of the first dryer cylinder 14 . 1 there is designed a web knock-down for web break situations. In this case the broke is conveyed to the pulper 30 along the upper flank 21 . 21 of the blowing unit 21 . 2 hood. In tail threading the web is run at full width to the pulper through the press and the impingement units. For tail threading, there is a tail squirt (not shown) located in the vicinity of the cylinder 14 . 1 . In a center roll press, tail threading is carried out as a band over blowing units until to the said doctor. [0047] In a normal situation the paper web travels with the dryer fabric 14 . 2 through the cylinder group to the subsequent group. [0048] The impingement length of a horizontal impingement dryer is 50% at the maximum, most preferably 15% to 35% of the total web length of impingement. A greater pre-blowing length provides even drying in addition to preheating. [0049] FIG. 2 shows a preferable modification of the arrangement according to the invention as compared to FIG. 1 . Functionally similar parts are referred to using the same reference numbers as above. [0050] Here it has been possible to leave out two transfer fabric loops, as the horizontal impingement dryer 20 has been placed on the press transfer belt 28 . From the transfer belt 28 the paper web is transferred to the dryer fabric 19 of the vertical impingement dryer. In FIG. 2 it is separate, but it can as well be a part of the dryer fabric 14 . 2 of the first cylinder group as above. [0051] The paper web transfer from the transfer belt 28 to the dryer fabric 19 takes place in a method known as such. The turning roll 28 . 1 takes the fabric loops together and the transfer suction roll 21 . 3 picks up the paper web onto its own dryer fabric 19 . When the vertical impingement dryer is equipped with a fabric loop of its own, an additional transfer point is provided in connection with the first cylinder, at which transfer point it is possible to use a speed difference for maintaining runnability. This has a particular importance when the dry content is lower, such as is set forth below. [0052] Generally at a vertical impingement unit: An own fabric loop is arranged when the subsequent web dry content is 48% to 54%, or A fabric loop common with the short, i.e. a maximum of 3 dryer cylinders, dryer cylinder group when the dry content after the blowing units is 52% to 57%, or A fabric loop common with the long, i.e. 4 or more cylinders, dryer cylinder group when the dry content after the blowing units is 56% to 65%. [0056] It should be noted that for quality reasons, e.g. with a weak furnish/web or in an embodiment according to FIG. 2 , it is possible, if necessary, to use an own fabric loop also with a higher dry content, arranging thus one additional transfer point. [0057] The arrangement of FIG. 3 a is for the main part similar as in FIG. 1 . The design of the impingement unit is however simplified such that inside the dryer fabric loop, between the auxiliary turning roll 21 . 4 and the vacuum roll 21 . 3 , support rolls 21 . 5 of the same size as these rolls are used, which are preferably vacuum rolls, being actually the same as the turning suction rolls of the dryer cylinder. The suction boxes between these are of the same type as above. Depicted with broken lines in this figure is also a possible steambox 16 . 1 , the use of which provides completely new possibilities in impingement. In this figure it is located below the web, but it would also be possible to replace the first impingement box completely with the steambox. The application possibilities of the steambox are discussed below. In one modification the support rolls 21 . 5 are larger than rolls 21 . 3 and 21 . 4 such that the fabric touches the rolls for a longer distance. This improves the suction effect, which enhances further the runnability. [0058] The arrangement according to the invention can be used to improve the paper value for certain grades, in which the paper's bulk is significant. According to FIG. 4 , dry content and bulk after press correlate inversely in different paper grades. Instead of using high nip pressures of 1000 kN/m at the press, the nip pressures are reduced in the first and second nip to a range of 400 kN/m to 800 kN/m. With the invention, drying of 1% to 2% of dry matter is transferred from the press section to impingement such that the paper's bulk is maintained. The increase in dry content for the impingement stages is preferably 3% to 12% in total before the dryer cylinders, more precisely 400%±100%/basis weight, g/m 2 , where a large range of fluctuation compensates the effect of the paper machine speed on the dry content. [0059] With the invention, runnability is maintained, although the draw difference between the press and the first cylinder is set below 2.9%, most preferably below 2.5%, irrespective of the fact that the web is dried with impingement blows and is possibly transferred from a fabric to another even more than once. [0060] FIG. 3 b shows another steambox application, in which all impingement blows are on the same side of the paper web, because pre-impingement is carried out with steam. Reference numbering corresponds to the previous figures for applicable parts. Here installed on the fabric 14 . 2 of the first dryer group 14 there are also a steambox 16 . 1 , vertical, i.e. straight, impingement unit 20 . 1 and the impingement unit 21 of the vacuum roll, before the first dryer cylinder 14 . 1 . The paper web travels on the bottom surface of the fabric 14 . 2 , onto which it has been transferred with the transfer suction roll 14 . 3 . The steambox 16 . 1 efficiently increases the paper web temperature and consequently even a short impingement section dries the web surface on the cylinder side preventing it from attaching to the first dryer cylinder. By lowering the vacuum roll 14 . 4 , the impingement length can be increased in this embodiment, too, approaching thus the combination of preheating and vertical. [0061] Differing from gas operated impingement, the steambox can be better located on the same side of the paper web as vertical impingement, because the heating effect provided by steam condensing is particularly strong compared to gas convection. The steambox is profiling already as such, but it can be further divided into accurately profiling compartments in the cross-machine direction. Although condensing brings water to the paper web, this is not a great drawback when using impingement, because the paper web surface can in any case be made drier than without it, allowing full pressures in the first dryer cylinder. [0062] The following advantages are associated with the use of a steambox: Known as such as a process and currently used at the press. The steambox creates a temperature profile and drying continues more intensive from warmer places in the dryer section. The phenomenon is intensified with the proposed arrangement. More accurate, precise and efficient moisture profile control, compared to the traditional steambox use at the press, because the web does not get wet again after profiling. Increased drying capacity, since the web temperature is raised by 20° C. to 30° C. before impingement. The moisture profile is controlled throughout the entire dryer section, as warmer places dry faster than the cold ones. Enables better optimization of press loads e.g., in solutions requiring bulk load reduction at press. [0068] FIGS. 5-10 show embodiments of the second group of the invention and equal reference symbols are used for corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. [0069] In the embodiment according to FIG. 5 , the web 100 is led from the press section 110 , from the last press nip 105 thereof, which has been formed between rolls 112 , 113 , on the surface of the last fabric, most appropriately on the surface of a transfer belt or felt 111 , to the first transfer fabric 120 , to which the web 100 is transferred by means of the pick-up roll 121 . On the transfer fabric 120 the web transfer is supported by blow boxes 125 , which are most appropriately blow boxes of the type marketed by Metso Paper, Inc. with the trademark PressRun. Followed by this there is a tail squirt 126 or a similar element for cutting a web threading tail, which is followed by a roll 130 , with a movable position, which is most appropriately smooth and equipped with a doctor 131 . For the tail threading, the roll 130 with a movable position is lifted to the top position, as shown with broken lines in the figure. From the smooth roll 130 the web is doctored with the doctor 131 to the pulper 141 during tail threading. The web travel to the pulper is ensured by a guide plate 142 , and the chute 143 guides the web that has advanced any further to the pulper 141 in a disturbance/when required. The chute 143 can also be separate from the impingement hood 151 and comprises water showers for guiding the web to the pulper 141 . From the first transfer fabric 120 the web is led to a second transfer fabric 136 , onto which the web is transferred by means of the transfer suction roll 135 . This can be followed by an impingement drying unit 140 located above the web on the transfer fabric 136 . The guide and lead rolls of the first transfer fabric loop are indicated with reference number 122 . The guide and lead rolls of the second transfer fabric loop are indicated with reference number 138 . From the second transfer fabric 136 the web is led to vertical impingement drying, onto its dryer fabric 159 , with which the web is transferred via the transfer suction roll 155 . The guide and lead rolls of the dryer fabric loop 159 are indicated with reference number 154 . First the web travels essentially vertically downwards, whereat it is dried with the impingement unit 151 , after which the web travel direction is reversed at roll 153 , after which the web 100 travel is essentially vertically upwards, during which travel it is dried by means of air blows provided by the impingement unit 152 . After this the web is led on the dryer fabric 159 to cylinder drying, where the web 100 to be dried remains between the dryer fabric 159 and the heated cylinder surface 156 and the web 100 travel conforms to a normal single fabric run, whereat its travel is windingly turned with turning rolls or turning cylinders 157 . The transfer suction rolls can also be moved to the tail threading position for the duration of tail threading of the web. For the transfer suction rolls, this position is also the standard operating position, such that tail threading and normal operation differ as regards the vacuum levels of the transfer suction rolls in that generally the vacuum used during tail threading is higher. [0070] Exemplifying embodiments of the invention shown in the following FIGS. 6-8 correspond to the exemplifying embodiment of FIG. 5 unless otherwise indicated. [0071] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 the web travel is essentially lineal and this has been so arranged that the second transfer fabric 136 extends to the area of the first transfer fabric loop 120 providing for the web a bilateral support, which allows arranging the web travel as essentially lineal. In this embodiment the web is transferred to the transfer fabric 136 with the transfer suction roll 137 and further to the dryer fabric 159 of the impingement drying group with the transfer suction roll 155 . In this embodiment the first transfer fabric loop 120 is equipped with blow boxes 125 , which are used to guide the web travel. [0072] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , the roll with a movable position is located inside the first transfer fabric loop 120 and it is indicated with reference number 124 , as it simultaneously forms one of the guide and lead rolls of the transfer fabric loop during tail threading. Because this roll is movable, the transfer fabric loop is additionally provided with another roll 123 with an adjustable position for maintaining the tension of the transfer fabric loop 120 . In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 the second transfer fabric loop 136 transports the web 100 only for a short distance mainly in the area of the transfer suction roll 137 and for a short section before the web 100 encounters the dryer fabric 159 of the impingement dryer group at the transfer suction roll 155 . The other roll 134 of the transfer fabric loop 136 is movable for its position, as is illustrated in the figure with an arrow and the transfer position marked with broken lines. Thus the transfer fabric loop 136 can be moved away from contact with the transfer suction roll 155 of the impingement drying group such that the web 100 can be led to the pulper via the chute 143 in a disturbance/when required. [0073] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 the transfer fabric 120 is simultaneously the dryer fabric of the vertical group, which reduces the number of transfer points and thus the need of transfer suction rolls. The roll 133 is preferably a blow roll, and the suction box 158 can also make sure that the web 100 follows the fabric 120 in the downwardly fabric travel. In this way it is at the same time possible to increase the length of the impingement drying section. The roll 133 is preferably a blow roll, but by intensifying the vacuum device 158 it is possible to locate even a cylinder in this position, which however in a tail threading situation may be a slightly less advantageous alternative, because then it is necessary to controllably use the cylinder on the opposite side of the blow roll only over the width of the proceeding band. In case the roll 133 is a blow roll, it can be for example a warm blow roll, approximately 140° C. inside the roll, or the roll can be a grooved roll, the groove size of which is 1×1 mm and then its effect is intensified with the vacuum device 158 . [0074] In the embodiments of FIGS. 6-8 impingement drying is carried out with steamboxes according to FIG. 3 b. [0075] Referring to the embodiments of FIGS. 5-8 , the web dry content is raised in the dryer section of a paper machine to a sufficient value, being typically 50% to 65% of dry matter, even 70% of dry matter before dryer cylinders are used for drying. According to the invention the paper web is thus dried after the press section with impingement drying in a vertical impingement drying group before cylinder drying. According to the invention, in the method the paper web is led from the press section to the vertical impingement drying group from the last fabric of the press section, i.e. a transbelt or a felt, by means of at least one transfer fabric. [0076] In connection with the invention, especially FIGS. 5-8 , arranged in connection with at least one transfer fabric used for leading the web from the press section to the first vertical impingement drying group of the dryer section, there is preferably a roll with a movable position or similar, for example, which for the duration of tail threading is moved to the tail threading position, most appropriately to the top position, and after tail threading to a position, in which it does not affect the web travel. The section of the web to be led from the movable roll to the pulper can be selected for example by moistening the roll over this desired width, thus the tail position in the roll continuing further in tail threading would be dry, and correspondingly it is possible to moisten the roll over the entire width when running down the entire wide web. Arranged in connection with the transfer fabric there are preferably blow boxes, providing a vacuum effect, by means of which the web is kept in the conveyance of the transfer fabric. According to one preferable additional feature of the invention, the first transfer fabric is followed by a second transfer fabric, which is located below the web and by means of which the web is led to the dryer fabric of the vertical impingement drying group. [0077] According to one preferable embodiment of the invention, the web is led from the last press nip of the press section on the surface of the last fabric, most appropriately a transbelt or a felt, from which the web is transferred to the first transfer fabric. The web transfer is then followed by a tail squirt or other similar device for cutting a web threading tail. This is followed by a roll with a movable position, most appropriately a smooth roll, associated with a doctor. The web is run at full width from the pick-up roll of the first transfer fabric loop, i.e. from the roll that picks it up from the previous fabric, to the roll with a movable position, which has been moved to the tail threading position, to the top position, while the pick-up roll goes down and picks up the web from the last fabric of the press section. Because the transfer fabric covers a part of the roll with a movable position, the web follows the roll and arrives at the roll doctor, from where it slides down to the pulper. After this the concept includes a second transfer fabric, which is used to take the web to the dryer fabric of the vertical impingement drying group. The drying effect of the vertical impingement drying unit is such that the web dry content can be raised to a level of 50% to 65% of dry matter, most appropriately 55% to 63% of dry matter, before leading the web to cylinder drying. The roll with a movable position is in the top position while the web threading tail is transported over the vertical impingement unit, and once the web is widened, the roll with a movable position is lowered to a position unaffecting the web travel, to the bottom position such that it does not create a problem point as regards the opening gap, as in this case an opening gap, in which a vacuum complicating runnability that is harmful for the web travel would otherwise be created, is not formed. Located inside the loop of the first transfer fabric there are blow boxes, most appropriately boxes of the type marketed by Metso Paper, Inc. with the trademark PressRun, for ensuring the web travel. [0078] In the exemplifying embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 9 , the web 200 is led from the press section 202 , from the last nip 205 thereof, with the bottom fabric 211 of the press to position 207 , in which the web 200 travel takes a steep curve downwards at the roll 212 to vertical impingement drying 220 , in which the web 200 is dried, in the downwardly section thereof, by means of drying air blows provided by the impingement drying unit 221 . The lead and guide rolls of the fabric 211 are indicated with reference number 223 . Located in the section between the last press nip 205 and position 207 there is the impingement drying unit 215 for pre-impingement, which preferably provides more drying blow length for impingement drying. According to this embodiment, too, when using the last press section fabric 211 , savings are made in fabric arrangements and the related roll arrangements. After the downwardly impingement drying 220 , the web 200 is led onto the dryer fabric 232 of the first dryer group 209 , on which the web 200 , after the horizontal section, in which the web 200 is supported by vacuum boxes 233 , is first turned by means of roll 235 to vertical upwardly impingement drying 230 , whereat the web 200 is dried with drying air blows provided with the impingement drying unit 236 , after which the web 200 is taken to cylinder drying applying the single fabric run arrangement, in which the web 200 windingly travels on the dryer cylinders 243 and the suction or turning cylinder 242 . The runnability of the web 200 is intensified by the vacuum components 241 . In a knock-down situation, such as tail threading and web break, it is possible to lead the web 200 from the cylinder drying section 209 to the pulper 250 at one of its first dryer cylinders. The pulper chute is indicated with reference number 259 . [0079] In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 10 , the web 200 is led from the last press nip 205 of the press section on the surface of the last bottom fabric 211 of the press section, where the press nip 205 is first followed by pre-impingement in the horizontal impingement drying unit 215 , after which in position 207 the web 200 takes a curve downwards at roll 212 on fabric 211 , from which it is picked up onto the dryer fabric 232 of the first dryer group 209 with the transfer suction roll 238 and the web 200 is led to vertical impingement drying 220 , in which the web 200 is dried in an essentially downwardly section by means of drying air blows provided by the impingement drying unit 221 . Keeping the web 200 attached to the fabric 232 surface is facilitated by the vacuum boxes 234 . The web 200 travel is turned to an essentially upwardly direction at roll 235 , in which upwardly travel the web 200 is dried with vertical impingement drying 230 by means of drying air blows provided by the impingement drying unit 236 , after which the web 200 is led to cylinder drying applying the single fabric run arrangement. The pulper is indicated with reference number 250 and the pulper chute with reference number 259 . In a knock-down situation the web 200 is led to the pulper 250 from one of its first cylinders of its first dryer group. This embodiment of the invention enables locating another pulper 255 after the press section 202 before vertical impingement drying 220 . [0080] In one simulation the paper grade used was fine paper, 78 g/m 2 , a pre-impingement length of 6 m, and the paper temperature coming from the press section has been assumed to be 45° C. In this case preblowing warms up the web to 74° C. This is followed by 2.7 meters of blowless run while moving to the subsequent fabric and to a new impingement unit, whereat the web temperature falls to 65° C., that is, approximately 9° C. is lost from the temperature increase of 29° C. Over six meters the decrease is 6.5° C. or more. Over a blowless interval of 8 meters the web temperature decreased further to 55.5° C., i.e. by 19.5° C. Lighter paper cools down faster and heavier paper correspondingly cools down slower. This blowless length varies due to, for example, the web transfer geometry, moving from a fabric to another, the space required by the lead rolls, or the required transfer fabric.

An arrangement and method for improving runnability, and dryer section length, by using a vertical impingement dryer before a first dryer cylinder of a group of dryer cylinders. After a pressing section, the web is dried with a pre-impingement dryer, closely followed by a vertical impingement dryer, which is closely following by the first dryer cylinder. The pre-impingement dryer and vertical impingement dryer of the first dryer cylinder to have a drying temperature of approximately 80° C. with no undesirable sticking to the dryer cylinder. The pre-impingement dryer can be arranged to dry a first side of the web, and a vertical impingement dryer after the first dryer cylinder is arranged to dry a second side of the web. The impingement drying takes place directly against the web without an intervening fabric.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic bearing system employed in a high power (on the order of 100-200 kilowatts) flywheel intended for a hybrid electric vehicle and other applications. More specifically, the present invention relates to a magnetic bearing system employed in a high power flywheel to overcome the stringent demands regarding high electrical power and vehicle motions placed on the stiffness and speed of response of the magnetic bearings while the vehicle is being driven. Moreover, the present invention relates to a magnetic bearing system employed in a high power flywheel producing the long rundown time required, thus providing the extremely low power consumption required, for a parked vehicle. 2. Brief Discussion of Related Art Modern high strength-to-weight ratio fibers make it possible to construct high energy density flywheels, which, when combined with high power (on the order of 100-200 kilowatts) motor-generators, are an attractive alternative to electrochemical batteries for use as energy buffers in hybrid electric vehicles. A properly designed flywheel system would provide higher power density, higher efficiency, and longer life than a conventional electrochemical battery. Flywheel energy storage systems have been proposed for many years; many of the storage systems have even been proposed for use in motor vehicles. U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,034, for example, discloses a flywheel contained in an evacuated sphere which is surrounded by a liquid but does not address itself to the dynamics of the driving environment. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,266,442, 4,285,251 and 4,860,611, on the other hand, disclose different ways of constructing high speed rotors. However, the above referenced patents do not recognize, let alone describe, design features needed for compatibility with the environment of a motor vehicle. High speed rotors (greater than 2500 radians per second, for example) such as used in high energy density flywheels, often require a magnetic bearing system in order to avoid the problems associated with the lubrication and cooling of mechanical bearings. Magnetic bearings require a set of sensors to measure, with adequate speed and precision, the displacement of the rotor axis from its neutral position in order for the corrective magnetic forces to be applied in a timely fashion. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,490,816 and 3,860,300, both of which were issued to Joseph Lyman, describe the general principles of a magnetic bearing system wherein the static load, i.e., the resting weight of a rotor, is supported by one or more permanent magnets while dynamic force generators, i.e., force coils, provide compensation for acceleration differences between the rotor and a surrounding stator. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,816, for example, the axial velocity is derived from a sensing coil disposed above the load bearing permanent magnet while axial displacement over relatively long time periods is sensed using an opaque piston, a light source, optical baffles and optical sensors arranged at the end of the rotor shaft opposite the permanent magnet. The system proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,816 requires two separate amplifiers, one specifically matched to the associated sensor type. It will be appreciated that non-contacting sensors are required for high speed energy storage flywheel systems because non-contacting sensors offer long life in a high rotational speed environment. Examples of non-contacting sensors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,036,236 and 5,314,868. While magnetic sensors such as those disclosed in either U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,816 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,236 may be used, magnetic sensors are generally degraded by changes in the material properties of the surfaces being sensed, such as the electrical resistivity and magnetic permeability of the sensed surfaces. On the other hand, optical sensors such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,816 may be subject to degradation since such optical sensors normally include delicate, sophisticated circuit components. These supporting components would frequently be located outside of the flywheel enclosure, which would require the routing of signal lines between the optical sensors themselves and the supporting components and between the supporting components and the force generators. It will be appreciated that this would severely complicate the connections between the energy storage flywheel and the rest of the power train components. An alternative approach would be to locate the supporting components within the confines of the flywheel, which would simplify the cable routing concerns but would require additional efforts to adapt the supporting components to the environment of the interior of the flywheel, i.e., a vacuum environment. The magnetic bearing system described in U.S. Pat. No, 3,860,300 proposes a virtually zero powered magnetic suspension system, which may provide a solution to the problem of maximizing the rundown time in the parking mode of operation. However, the system proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,300 is not up to the task of compensating for high velocity rotor displacements while maintaining adequate bearing stiffness in the driving mode of operation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,190 to Caye et al. describes a magnetic bearing system for stationary systems that uses a passive method of controlling radial instability, which system is apparently incompatible with the automobile environment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,308 to Meeks describes an efficient combination of permanent magnets and electromagnets in radial magnetic bearings. It will be appreciated that the use of permanent magnets in the radial bearings is incompatible with the need for a long run down time in the parking mode, since the eddy currents developed in the rotor create losses which must be replaced with energy stored in the flywheel. The present invention was motivated by a desire to correct the perceived weaknesses and identified problems associated with conventional magnetic bearing systems used with flywheel energy storage systems. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The principal purpose of the present invention is to allow the rotor of a flywheel to freely rotate at high speeds, up to 6500 radians per second, without contacting the rotationally stationary elements surrounding the rotor, with which the rotor has small clearances, in a driving environment which may produce high accelerations in all directions. According to one aspect of the present invention, the magnetic bearing system consumes extremely low amounts of power when the vehicle is parked, so that a long rundown time for the flywheel may be attained. An object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system for supporting the rotor of a flywheel used for energy storage and high surge power in vehicular applications. According to one aspect of the present invention, the bearing system includes upper and lower radial force generators using only electromagnets, and upper and lower axial force generators each including an electromagnet with the upper axial force generator having a permanent magnet. According to another aspect of the present invention, the magnetic bearing system is backed up by upper and lower touchdown ball bearings, which advantageously are engaged only under extraordinary mechanical load conditions. Another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system which is capable of suspending the rotor under all foreseeable high accelerations the vehicle may encounter during braking, turning, or accelerating, or the vibrations caused by traversing rough roads at high speeds, without engaging the touchdown bearings. A further object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system capable of suspending the rotor without engaging the touchdown bearings, despite the highest radial forces which can be exerted by a high power motor-generator. A still further object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system wherein the suspension requirements described immediately above are met despite the small radial gaps of the touchdown bearings which are necessitated by the small radial gaps between rotating and stationary elements of the flywheel. Yet another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system wherein the power consumption of the electronic control elements is sufficiently low while driving to produce a negligible impact on the fuel economy of the vehicle. A still further object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system wherein the power consumption of the electronic control elements while the vehicle is parked is small enough to be supplied for several weeks by the electrical energy stored in the vehicle's starter battery. Another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system whereby the rotor losses caused by eddy currents is small enough when the vehicle is parked to produce a rotor spin down time on the order of several weeks. Yet another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system wherein the magnetic bearings and the associated control circuitry are sufficiently compact to be contained entirely within the vacuum envelope of the flywheel, and efficient enough to be easily cooled by a flywheel stator cooling system. Another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system producing the high equivalent spring stiffness required to overcome starting, acceleration and vibration requirements in a dynamically stable system. Still another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system producing a high equivalent spring stiffness required to overcome starting, acceleration and vibration requirements in a dynamically stable system whose resonance damping phase lead is achieved with minimum high frequency gain. According to one aspect of the present invention, the use of narrow band phase lead networks, having complex poles and zeroes, permits damping of the higher frequency resonances of the rotor with minimum gain. According to another aspect of the present invention, the use of a very low frequency phase lead network permits dampening of the low frequency resonance associated with rigid body coning motion at high spin speeds. This latter aspect is advantageously achieved by the processing of this function in a separate path to the processor. Yet another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system producing the high equivalent spring stiffness required without over-loading the power amplifiers by eliminating the synchronous runout signal in the operating speed range of the rotor. Another object according to the present invention is to produce a magnetic bearing system which is non-responsive to a selected shaft bending mode frequency. According to one aspect of the present invention the selected shaft bending mode is a sinusoidal bending mode. Preferably, the control electronics incorporated into the magnetic bearing system includes narrow band notch filters tuned to the sinusoidal shaft bending mode frequency. Still another object according to the present invention is to produce control circuitry for a magnetic bearing system which squelches incipient system oscillations associated with control system power amplifier non-linearities. According to one aspect of the present invention, the control circuitry includes a rapidly acting gain reduction circuit. Yet another object according to the present invention is to produce control circuitry for a magnetic bearing system which greatly simplifies the tasks performed by an included processor, making the circuitry realizable in an affordable unit, while reducing the power consumption as compared to single path control circuitry implementation. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic bearing system consists of displacement sensors which detect the displacement of the rotor from its desired position, signal processing amplifiers which impose desired dynamic functions on the signals generated by the displacement sensors, and amplifiers powering magnetic force generators which restore the rotor to its desired position in accordance with the amplified signals. Advantageously, there may be radial bearings near each end of the rotor shaft, each of which controls forces in two directions orthogonal to the rotational axis of the rotor. In addition, axial bearings are preferably located near each end of the rotor shaft, which axial bearings control forces along the rotational axis. According to the exemplary case, the magnetic bearing system advantageously can include six sensors, six signal processing amplifiers, and tell force generators. These and other objects, features and advantages according to the present invention are provided by control circuitry for a magnetic bearing system wherein the digital processing is separated into high and low rate paths having high and low rate signals, respectively, the high rate path being used for high frequency phase compensation, the low rate path being used for low frequency phase compensation. These and other objects, features and advantages according to the present invention are provided by a bearing system positioning and supporting a rotor having a vertical shaft coincident with a main rotation axis included in a flywheel used for energy storage and high surge power in vehicular applications. Preferably, the bearing system includes first and second radial force generators, which include only electromagnets and which are located in a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis, third and fourth radial force generators, which include only electromagnets and which are located in a different plane perpendicular to the rotation axis, and upper and lower axial force generators each containing an electromagnet and a permanent magnet. According to one aspect of the present invention, the bearing system additionally includes upper and lower touchdown ball bearings which are engaged only when the first through fourth radial force generators are unable to maintain the rotor in a predetermined cylindrical volume within the touchdown bearing inner race. These and other objects, features and advantages according to the present invention are provided by a bearing system of a flywheel for positioning and supporting a rotating assembly including a vertical shaft coincident with a main rotation axis and an attached cylinder used for energy storage and high surge power delivery. Preferably, the bearing system includes first through fourth radial force generators disposed in a first plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotating assembly, the first through fourth force generators including only electromagnets, fifth through eighth radial force generators disposed in a second plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotating assembly and different than the first plane, the fifth through eighth force generators including only electromagnets, an upper axial force generator containing an electromagnet and a permanent magnet, and first and second circuits for maintaining the rotor in a predetermined cylindrical volume within the flywheel when forces generated by the first through eighth radial force generators are less than displacement force applied to the shaft. According to one aspect of the invention, a lower axial force generator can be included in the magnetic bearing system in the event that the flywheel is subjected to rapid vertical displacements, e.g., vertical shocks applied to a vehicle in motion. These and other objects, features and advantages according to the present invention are provided by a radial magnetic bearing system for supporting a rotating assembly including a rotor having N modes of vibration and a circuit generating a shaft signal indicative of shaft speed in a flywheel. Preferably, the radial magnetic bearing includes a radial magnetic bearing including a plurality of radial force generators disposed in a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotor, the force generators including only electromagnets, and a control system positively damping N-1 modes of vibration using N-1 phase lead networks and 1 synchronous notch filter responsive to the shaft signal for eliminating a synchronous runout signal generated by the control system in a predetermined operating speed range. Advantageously, N can be an integer greater than 2. These and other objects, features and advantages according to the present invention are provided by a control system for operating a bearing system of a flywheel having first through fourth radial force generators disposed in a first plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of a rotating assembly, the first through fourth force generators including only electromagnets, fifth through eighth radial force generators disposed in a second plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotating assembly and different than the first plane, the fifth through eighth force generators including only electromagnets, an upper axial force generator containing an electromagnetic and a permanent magnet, and a lower axial force generator containing an electromagetic for positioning and supporting the rotating assembly including a vertical shaft coincident with a main rotation axis and an attached massive cylinder used for energy storage and high surge power delivery. Preferably, the control system includes first through fourth sensors for locating the rotor with respect to the first through eighth radial force generators and for generating corresponding first through fourth position signals, notch filters, eliminating the synchronous runout signal generated by the control system in an operating speed range, for receiving the first through fourth position signals and a rotor speed signal and for generating first through fourth filtered signals, transfer function circuits which dynamically stabilize the control system for receiving the filtered signal and for applying a transfer function so as to generate first through fourth transfer function signals; gain control circuits responsive to the first through fourth transfer function signals and respective first through eighth coil currents for generating respective first through fourth gain-limited signals, first through eighth square root circuits each receiving one of the first through fourth gain-limited signals for generating respective first through eighth square root signals, and first through eighth power amplifiers for generating respective first through eighth coil currents responsive to respective first through eighth square root signals. According to one aspect of the present invention, the first through eighth coil currents excite respective ones of the first through eighth radial force generators. These and other objects, features and advantages according to the present invention are provided by a method system for operating a bearing system of a flywheel having first through fourth radial force generators disposed in a first plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of a rotating assembly, the first through fourth force generators including only electromagnets, fifth through eighth radial force generators disposed in a second plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotating assembly and different than the first plane, the fifth through eighth force generators including only electromagnets, an upper axial force generator containing an electromagnetic and a permanent magnet, and a lower axial force generator containing an electromagnetic for positioning and supporting the rotating assembly including a vertical shaft coincident with a main rotation axis and an attached massive cylinder used for energy storage and high surge power delivery. Advantageously, the method includes steps for locating the rotor with respect to the first through eighth radial force generators and for generating corresponding first through fourth position signals, eliminating the synchronous runout signal generated by the control system in an operating speed range, by receiving the first through fourth position signals and a rotor speed signal and thereby generating first through fourth filtered signals, dynamically stabilizing the control system by receiving the filtered signal and applying a transfer function so as to generate first through fourth transfer function signals, generating respective first through fourth gain-limited signals responsive to the first through fourth transfer function signals and respective first through eighth coil currents, generating respective first through eighth square root signals responsive to the first through fourth gain-limited signals, and generating the first through eighth coil currents responsive to respective first through eighth square root signals, each of the first through eighth coil currents exciting a respective one of the first through eighth radial force generators. These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention are disclosed in or will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments, when taken in conjunction with the following drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The preferred embodiment is described with reference to the drawings, in which like elements are denoted by like numbers and in which: FIG. 1 is an interior view of selected components of a flywheel energy storage system; FIG. 2 is a sectional view of these selected components of the flywheel energy storage system in isolation; FIG. 3 provides a top view of a radial magnetic bearing associated with the capacitive sensor; FIG. 4 shows a radial capacitive sensor element; FIG. 5 shows the integration of a radial capacitive sensor illustrated in FIG. 4 into the radial magnetic bearing of FIG. 3; FIGS. 6A and 6B are partially schematic, partially block diagrams of alternative capacitive sensor systems incorporating the capacitive sensor in a magnetic bearing system according to the present invention; FIGS. 7A through 7F show various radial vibration modes associated with the rotating assembly illustrated in FIG. 2; FIG. 8A shows the radial modal frequencies associated with the rotating assembly illustrated in FIG. 2 as a function of the rotor rotation speed while FIG. 8B is an expanded portion of the low frequency range illustrated in FIG. 8A; FIG. 9 shows the radial negative spring rate of the motor-generator as a function of stator current; FIG. 10 is a high level block diagram of the radial control electronics according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the synchronous notch filter illustrated in FIG. 10; FIG. 12 is a mathematical function diagram collectively formed from FIGS. 12A through 12D, which FIGS. 12A through 12D illustrate exemplary circuitry for providing preferred discreet transfer functions employed in the radial control electronics depicted in FIG. 10; FIGS. 13A and 13B show the amplitude and phase, respectively, of the transfer function provided by the circuitry of FIG. 12; FIGS. 14A and 14B show the amplitude and phase, respectively, of the transfer function of the notch circuit which suppresses the second shaft bending mode; FIG. 15 is a detailed schematic diagram of the square root circuit depicted in FIG. 10; FIG. 16 is a detailed, partially schematic diagram of the automatic gain control circuit depicted in FIG. 10; FIG. 17 is a system block diagram of a digital processor according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 18 shows the functions provided by a digital signal processor included in the circuitry depicted in FIG. 17; FIG. 19 illustrates, in block diagram form, synthesis of the transfer function employed in FIG. 10; FIG. 20 is a partially block, partially schematic diagram of a radial power amplifier of the radial control electronics depicted in FIG. 10; FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary pulse width modulated radial power amplifier of the radial control electronics depicted in FIG. 10; FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary design of an axial magnetic bearing incorporating a capacitive sensor; FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary axial capacitive sensor; FIG. 24 depicts the integration of an exemplary axial capacitive sensor into the axial magnetic bearing; FIGS. 25A and 25B show the axial vibration modes of the rotating assembly; FIG. 26 shows the axial modal frequencies as a function of the rotor rotation speed; FIG. 27 is a high level block diagram of the axial bearing electronic control system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 28 is a mathematical function diagram collectively formed from FIGS. 28A and 28B, which latter Figures from a schematic diagram of an exemplary axial control amplifier employed in the circuitry of FIG. 27; FIG. 29 illustrates the variation of force for the axial permanent magnet versus axial gap; FIG. 30A is a high level block diagram illustrating the axial transfer function employed in the circuitry of FIG. 27 while FIGS. 30B and 30C show the respective amplitude and phase provided by the axial transfer function; FIG. 31 is a diagram of the axial power amplifier of the axial bearing electronic control system illustrated in FIG. 27; FIG. 32 shows an exemplary pulse width modulated axial power amplifier of the axial bearing electronic control system illustrated in FIG. 27; and FIG. 33 is a partially cutaway sketch of a hybrid electric vehicle showing the elements of its power train including a high level diagram of its power control system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 33 shows the power train elements of a hybrid electric vehicle using a flywheel 1001 as an energy buffer. In this configuration, the flywheel 1001 provides surge power for accelerating the vehicle and for hill climbing, complementing the relatively low, steady power provided by a fuel-burning power source 1003, e.g., a turbo-generator set. The flywheel 1001 is also used to absorb energy by storing it during dynamic braking and downhill driving. An electric motor (or drive motors) 1004 converts the electric power from either the flywheel 1001 or power source 1003 to mechanical motive power. Preferably, all of these elements are regulated by the electronic controller 1002, which regulates the vehicle's power flow in response to the driver's inputs, which inputs are supplied by the accelerator pedal 1005 and the brake pedal 1006. Controller 1002 channels power to the drive motor (or motors) 1004 from the turbo-generator 1003 during cruise conditions and augments this power with power from flywheel 1001 for accelerating or hill climbing. Controller 1002 advantageously charges the flywheel 1001 with power from the drive motor 1004 (or motors) which acts (act) as a generator during braking or downhill driving. Preferably, controller 1002 maintains the speed of flywheel 1001 within a predetermined range by charging it from power source 1003 to avoid its lower limit or giving flywheel 1001 a higher share of the driving load to thus avoid the flywheel's 1001 upper limit. Controller 1002 also channels power from the flywheel 1001, or a storage battery 1007 to the lower source 1003 for starting. In FIG. 33, power leads are designated by solid lines and signal leads are designated by dashed lines. It will be appreciated that storage battery 1007 advantageously can be used to supply power to the vehicle for energizing control systems and components associated with flywheel 1001. The general arrangement of the flywheel energy storage system according to the present invention is shown in the interior view of FIG. 1, wherein a rotating assembly 1, i.e., the flywheel 1001, includes an energy storing cylinder 10 connected to the rotating shaft 20, which shaft is supported by upper and lower bearing elements 100 and 200. These components are enclosed within a vacuum housing 30, which housing can be suspended within an outer housing by a gimbal system (not shown), or the like. The bearing elements 100, 200 include respective radial magnetic bearings 110 and 210 and axial bearings 120 and 220, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Each of the bearing elements advantageously includes a mechanical touchdown bearing 130, 230. Preferably, the rotating assembly 1 is powered by motor 15, including a rotor 15a and a stator 15b. The stator 15b advantageously can be supported by a cooling mechanism 16 surrounding the stator 15b. Beneficially, one or more circuit assemblies 17 can be provided to support the control circuitry making up the electronic control system, which control system is discussed in greater detail below. The cylinder 10 in this exemplary case is 12 inches in diameter and stores 4 million joules of energy at a maximum rotational speed of 6500 radians per second. It will be appreciated that this corresponds to a surface speed of 990 meters per second. It will be noted that this high speed requires that the rotating assembly 1, i.e., the cylinder 10 mechanically connected to rotating shaft 20, be enclosed in an evacuated container, i.e., vacuum housing 30. The combined design requirements of a high rotational speed, a vacuum environment, and a desired long life with low friction makes the use of magnetic bearings preferable to mechanical bearings for this application. The preferred embodiment, according to the present invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, uses active radial bearings 110, 210 in an upper and lower position along the shaft 20, each having two orthogonal force directions transverse to the axis of shaft 20, and active axial bearings 120 and 220 in upper and lower positions along the shaft 20 which have a force direction along the axis of shaft 20. It should be noted that active magnetic bearings require a system of sensors to measure the deviation of the shaft axis from its desired position within the respective bearing stator. In a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, each radial bearing 110, 210 has a sensor, e.g., sensor element 112 with its nonconducting mechanical supporting structure 114 (illustrated in FIG. 4), for each of its force directions, and each axial bearing has a single sensor, for example, sensor 122 (illustrated in FIG. 22). Non-contacting sensors are required for this application because of the requirement for long life in conjunction with the high rotational speeds. Such sensors may use either magnetic or electric fields for their operation. As discussed above, magnetic sensors are generally degraded by changes in the material properties of the surfaces being sensed, such as their resistivity and permeability and, thus, are not suited for flywheel energy storage system applications. Electric field sensors, which detect the change in capacitance between the sensor element and the rotor shaft, advantageously are not affected by changes in these properties. The capacitance sensor elements are designed for the bearing elements 100, 200 shown in FIG. 1 and preferably are mechanically integrated into the force generators 119, providing improvements both in accuracy and ease of assembly compared to systems whose position sensors are physically separate from the force generators. It will be appreciated that the sensors for the radial and the axial bearing elements 110, 210 and 120, 220, respectively, are of different designs. The stator 115 for a radial bearing 110, illustrated in FIG. 3, is composed of a stack of magnetic steel laminations 115A (illustrated in FIG. 5) and includes an outer ring portion 116 having eight teeth 117, each of which is enclosed by a coil of wire, i.e., winding, 118. It will be appreciated that adjacent pairs of teeth create a magnetic force when current is supplied to their associated coils, with the direction of this magnetic force being midway between the teeth. FIG. 4 shows a radial sensor element 112 while FIG. 5 shows how radial sensor element 112 fits between two of the teeth 117 for the axial extent of the stator 115, and provides additional sensing area beyond the stator 115, but within the axial space occupied by the windings 118. Thus, no additional space in the axial direction is required for the radial sensor 112. All of the space along the shaft 20 is occupied by essential elements of the flywheel 1001, as shown in FIG. 2, so that providing separate axial locations for the radial sensors would require a longer and heavier shaft, and a larger and heavier enclosure for the flywheel 1001. Referring now to FIGS. 6A and 6B, the sensing system for each of the two orthogonal axes of the radial magnetic bearing 110 consists of two identical sensor elements 112 on opposite sides of the stator 115 and, thus, separated by shaft 20. Each sensor element 112 has capacitance to the rotating shaft 20 which is inversely proportional to its radial distance from shaft 20. For the undisturbed rotor position, this distance is designated g, and the capacitance is designated C. If the rotating shaft 20 is displaced a distance x from this position, the X axis sensor in the +X direction will have a capacitance with respect to the shaft C 1 (x) equal to Cg/(g-x) and the sensor in the -X direction will have a capacitance with respect to the shaft C 2 (x) equal to Cg/(g+x). The capacitance of a sensor element 112 to the stator 115 is designated C 0 . It will be appreciated that the capacitance of the rotating shaft 20 to ground is very large compared to the others, effectively grounding the rotor. Stated another way, the capacitive sensor element 112 acts as one plate in a conventional capacitor, the opposing plate being formed by an adjacent portion of the shaft 20, which shaft is coupled to ground. A sensor signal processing circuit for the axial bearing system is shown in FIG. 6A. The sensor element 112 is connected to a high frequency oscillator 300 which, in an exemplary case is a 5 MHz oscillator, by an inductance L. The transfer function of this circuit is: Vo/Vref=1/{1-L C.sub.0 +C(x)!T.sup.2 } (1) where Vo is the output voltage of envelope detector 302, Vref is the output reference voltage of oscillator 300, and T is the frequency divided by 2 π. When the inductance L is resonated with C 0 at the oscillator frequency, the product of L and C 0 is 1/T 2 . Thus, the transfer function reduces to ##EQU1## The output signal Vo is seen to be linearly related to the shaft 20 displacement x. This intrinsic linearity results from the resonance of L with C 0 . Stated another way, the linearity of sensor output with shaft 20 position is an intrinsic property of the processing electronics, which inductively tunes out any stray capacitance from the capacitance sensor system. As shown in FIG. 6B, identical circuits are connected to opposing radial sensors 112, and their outputs are detected, yielding signals designated V 1 and V 2 . By subtracting V 2 from V 1 in subtractor 304, the detected sensor signal becomes (V.sub.1 -V.sub.2)/Vref=(2x/g)(C.sub.0 /C) (5) which is zero when shaft 20 is centered and which is proportional to the displacement of the shaft 20 from its central position, as desired. Each of the bearings consists of a rotating part, or rotor, and a stationary part, or stator. The rotor 20A, 20B of each respective radial bearing 110, 210 consists of a laminated stack of magnetic steel washer-like elements which surround the solid shaft 20 and provide a low reluctance path for the field produced by the stator. The elements of a radial bearing stator 115 are shown in FIG. 2 and were described above. The stator 115 consists of a stack of laminations 115A of magnetic steel each having eight teeth. Windings 118 surrounding a pair of adjacent teeth 117 of the stator 115 are connected in series in the sense that, when excited by a control current, as described in greater detail below, magnetic flux is driven across the radial gap in a local loop that includes the rotor 20A, 20B washers. This magnetic flux creates a force directed midway between the teeth 117. The vector addition of the forces available from the four pairs of teeth 117 provides a force in any desired direction in the plane perpendicular to the rotor 20 axis. Preferably, signal processing amplifiers perform the operations on the sensor signals, i.e., the output signals produced by the circuitry illustrated in FIG. 6B, for example, needed to achieve the required bearing stiffness in the response times essential for the mobile environment. Before describing this circuitry in detail, a brief discussion of rotor dynamics will first be presented. The feedback loop dynamics are complicated by the many vibration modes of the rotating assembly 1 whose frequencies lie within the control bandwidth. The elements of the rotating assembly 1 of the flywheel 1001, as shown in FIG. 2, are the composite cylinder 10, a transition ring 12, a metal hub 14 and the shaft 20. The compliance of the shaft 20 and the hub 14 creates several flexible body modes in the frequency band of interest. The vibration modes interacting with the radial control system are shown in FIGS. 7A through 7F, and their frequencies as a function of rotation speed are shown in FIG. 8A. More specifically, FIG. 7A illustrates rigid body translation in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation (mode R1), FIG. 7B illustrates rigid body rotation about a point, e.g., about the center of mass of the rotating assembly 1 (mode R2), FIG. 7C denotes flexible body translation (mode R3) while FIG. 7D depicts flexible body rotation (mode R4). Moreover, FIGS. 7E and 7F illustrated first and second shaft bending modes, respectively, which may best be understood as simple bending (mode R5) and sinusoidal bending (mode R6). The variation of the frequencies with spin speed are due to gyroscopic coupling, which is substantial for the modes, i.e., modes 3 and 4, involving coning motion, i.e., a tilt of the axis of rotation which when revolved forms conical surfaces. It should be noted that in FIG. 8A, a positive sign for a modal frequency indicates coning motion in the same direction as the spin; a negative sign implies coning motion in the opposite direction. It will also be noted that the stiffness of the bearing is the ratio of the restoring force produced by the force generators 119 in stator 115 to the displacement of the rotor 20A, 20B from its desired position. The required stiffness is determined by the vehicle accelerations, and also, in the case of the radial bearings 110, 210 by the radial forces developed by the motor-generator 15, as shown in FIG. 9, which must be overcome by the bearing forces. The requirement for the exemplary case discussed above is on the order of 10,000 pounds of force per inch of displacement, for each bearing axis. It should be noted that, with this magnitude of feedback required, the effect of the vibration modes of the rotating assembly 1 on the control stability is substantial. FIG. 10 is a high level block diagram of the radial bearing control electronics system 400 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Preferably, radial bearing control electronics system 400 includes of a synchronous notch filter 410, which advantageously can be engaged in the desired operating speed range, a transfer function circuit 420, which dynamically stabilizes the control system, a gain control circuit 430, which limits undesirable high amplitude oscillations, a pair of square root circuits 440, which compensate for the magnetic force generator 119 non-linearity, and a pair of power amplifiers 450, which drive current through the coils 118 of the force generator 119. It will be appreciated that the radial bearing power amplifiers 450 must deal with synchronous signals generated at spin speeds by residual unbalance and that this could saturate the power amplifiers 450 at spin speeds in a predetermined operating range. The synchronous notch filter 410 advantageously can be used in the operating speed range, which in this design extends from 40% maximum speed to the maximum speed, to eliminate these signals from each power amplifier 450. Preferably, the signal corresponding to shaft speed is generated, in an exemplary case, by a light emitting diode (LED) 490 and an opposing photodetector 492 disposed on either side of shaft 20, which shaft includes a bore for transmitting light generated by the LED 490 to the photodetector 492 twice per revolution of shaft 20. Advantageously, the signal generated by photodetector 492 is converted into a shaft speed signal received by notch filter 410 by an amplifier 494. A block diagram of an exemplary synchronous notch filter 410 for the radial bearing control electronics system 400 is shown in FIG. 11. Preferably, synchronous notch filter 410 includes a differential amplifier 411 and amplifiers 412 and 415, arranged in a loop. Advantageously, the output of amplifier 412 is connected to parallel circuit branches, each including a detector 413, a resistor R 101 , a node and a modulator 414, where each node is connected to ground via a capacitor C 1 . Preferably, the components in one branch receive a signal corresponding to the component I of the spin speed while the other parallel branch receives a signal corresponding to the component Q of the spin speed. The outputs of these parallel branches are added and then amplified by amplifier 415, thereby producing a synchronous component. It will be appreciated that by subtracting the synchronous component from the composite signal by means of a high gain feedback loop which uses shaft speed as a reference for its detectors 413, more than 50 db of synchronous signal rejection is achieved over the operating speed range. It is to be noted that the synchronous notch filter 410 must be removed in the lower speed regime, which contains only the; rigid body modes, i.e., modes 1 and 2. The damping of modes 1 and 2 requires synchronous frequency feedback when they are traversed during rotor spin up to, or spin down from, the operating speed range of rotating assembly 1. It should be mentioned that the preferred technique used to deal with the vibration modes of the rotating assembly 1 is to provide positive damping for all of the modes for which the loop gain is much greater than unity via a suitable phase lead network. It will be appreciated that ordinary techniques for creating phase lead over such a wide range of frequencies, more than one hundred to one, would result in such a high value for the high frequency gain of the network that extraneous signals, such as the high frequency switching components of the motor-generator currents, which may be picked up by sensor amplifiers in close proximity thereto, would saturate the power amplifiers 450 driving the force generators 119. An elegant solution to this problem is use of a plurality of relatively low gain phase lead networks incorporated into transfer function circuit 420. Referring to FIGS. 12A through 12D, which collectively constitute FIG. 12, the transfer function circuit 420 advantageously includes five lead networks, three non-contiguous simple phase lead networks 423, 424 and 425, each having a real pole and a real zero, and two non-contiguous phase lead networks 421 and 422 having complex poles and zeroes tuned to provide phase lead at the frequencies of modes 3 and 5 of FIG. 8A. These networks, which are serially connected in numerical order in an exemplary case, are described mathematically and implemented in analog form as shown in FIGS. 12A through 12D. Amplitude and phase plots of the output of transfer function circuit 430 are shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, respectively. It will be appreciated that comprehension and reconstruction of the circuitry shown in FIGS. 12A through 12D, particularly with the associated transfer function outputs illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B, is well within the level of one of ordinary skill in the art; further detailed discussions will not be provided. It should also be noted that the highest frequency mode which must be considered is the second shaft bending mode, mode R6 of FIG. 7F, whose resonance frequency is at approximately twice the frequency of the first shaft bending mode, as shown in FIG. 7E. Mode R6 resonance could be damped with another complex phase lead network, at the cost of an increase in gain of about 3 decibels, or nulled with a fixedly tuned notch filter of adequate bandwidth, which would cause some additional phase lag at the frequency of the first bending mode (mode RS). Since the loop gain at this frequency exceeds unity only slightly when adjusted to the desired equivalent spring stiffness, it was found expedient to prevent its excitation by using a notch filter. This filter has the transfer function outputs shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B. It will be appreciated that the magnetic force generated by the force generators 119 is proportional to the square of the current in the coils, in the absence of a permanent magnet biasing field. Permanent magnets advantageously have been avoided in the radial bearings 110, 120 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, since the power loss resulting from the eddy currents generated by the permanent magnets in the rotor 20A, 20B would preclude a long rundown time for the flywheel 1001. A bias current equal to half of the maximum current in each winding 118 would provide a linear net force versus control current for each axis, the net force being the difference in the forces in the positive and negative directions. The provision for this large of a bias current results in an inconveniently high continuous power drain. Advantageously, a linear response can be achieved using the square root circuit 440, which provides a compensating square root function, in series with the power amplifier 450. However, it will be apparent that a complete square root function has an undesirable infinite derivative at zero input. The solution utilized in the square root circuit 440 provides a combined linear and a truncated square root function, in which the square root function does not extend down to zero input where the singularity exists. The linear portion requires a small bias current to provide linearity, in this example one seventh of the maximum current, resulting in an acceptable power drain. An exemplary block diagram of the square root circuit 440 is shown in FIG. 15. Square root circuit preferably includes a resistor R 104 serially connected between the input and output terminals of the circuit and diodes D 1 , D 2 , and D 3 , which are connected between resistor R 104 and ground via a network of resistors R 105 -R 111 . The required bias voltage for circuit operation is provided by a voltage source B1. The foregoing descriptions of stabilizing the active bearing control system presumes linear behavior of all of the circuit elements (except for the intentional square root function). However, certain high frequency, high level excitations can require rates of change of current in the coils 118 beyond the capabilities of the power amplifiers 450 at the maximum voltage available. This condition introduces additional phase lag in the force generated, resulting in an undesirable high amplitude oscillation. In order to prevent these oscillations from occurring, the automatic gain control circuit shown in FIG. 16 is incorporated into the control electronics system 400 between the transfer function circuit 420 and the square root function circuits 440. The coil voltages on opposing sides of each force generator 119 are detected by detectors 431 and compared to a preset threshold using a comparator 432 suitably conditioned by resistors R 112a and R 112b . A voltage exceeding this threshold is applied to a voltage controlled attenuator 433, which immediately reduces the gain by an amount, in decibels, proportional to this excess, via diode D 4 . This momentary gain reduction, which is effected by the voltage controlled attenuator 433, quenches the incipient oscillation and solves the rate limit problem. In order to provide redundancy and for ease of physical implementation, the radial control system is implemented with two independent sets of amplifiers and processors, one of which is shown in FIG. 17. An independent digital signal processor (DSP) 510 and set of amplifiers 526-530 are present in both the upper and lower halves of the flywheel 1001. Preferably, the output stage for the Z (axial) channel, which includes digital to analog converter (DAC) 518, low pass filter (LPF) 524, and amplifier 530 would not be present in the lower half, since only the upper axial bearing 120 includes an active force generator. In order to provide acceptable control across the required frequency band, i.e., DC to 5 kHz, a high sample rate must be employed. In this preferred embodiment according to the present invention, each analog channel is preferably sampled fifty thousand times per second. As shown in FIG. 17, sampling is accomplished via a high-speed multiplexing analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 508. It should be mentioned that the noise spectrum of the sensors 112 and the sampling rate of the ADC 508 dictate the required performance of the anti-aliasing filters 502, 504 and 506, which are advantageously serially connected between the sensor elements and ADC 508. LPF 502, 504 and 506 are preferably first-order lowpass filters with cutoff frequencies of 100,000 radians per second (rad/s). In an exemplary case, the digital signal processor (DSP) 510 utilized in FIG. 17 can be a Motorola DSP56303. On power-up of DSP 510, a program is loaded from a non-volatile read only memory (ROM) 512 and, subsequently, executed at a high rate of speed from an on-chip random access memory (RAM, not shown). Preferably, sensor data is converted to digital words via ADC 508, which advantageously can operate under control of the DSP 510. Advantageously, processing can be carried out entirely within DSP 510, which preferably provides output data to high-speed DACs 513-518. The output of the DACs 513-518 is then provided as control signals to amplifiers 526-530 via reconstruction filters 519-524, respectively. Serial ports in 510 are used to provide communications with another DSP 510 located in the opposite half of the flywheel 1001 as well as telemetry with an external control system. The digital processing carried out within DSP 510 for a single radial channel is shown in FIG. 18. After conversion to analog form in ADC 508, the digital signal is applied to a digital notch filter 550, which attenuates the sinusoidal component of the input signal, that signal being synchronous with shaft speed. The operation of this digital notch filter 550 is similar to that of the analog notch filter 410. Preferably, in-phase phase and quadrature sine waves are derived from the speed pickup by a digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) 549. As the bandwidth of the notch filter 550 is proportional to the bandwidth of the lowpass filter 552 in its feedback loop, it is advantageous to reduce the sample rate of this feedback signal prior to filtering. Decimator 551 reduces the sample rate by a factor of N, along with appropriate band-limiting. In the digital form of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention, decimation by a factor of twenty advantageously can be used. Low pass filtering is accomplished by digital fitter 552. Preferably, the sample rate of the filtered signal generated by LPF 552 is then increased to the original sample rate by an interpolator 553. Preferably, phase compensation in the functional block diagram depicted in FIG. 18 is provided by digital filters 554 and 556, where 554 is an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter providing low frequency phase compensation for radial mode R2 at high spin speed, as illustrated in FIGS. 8A, 8B. while 556 denotes an asymmetric finite impulse response (FIR) filter providing high-frequency phase compensation and noise filtering of the input signal. The coefficients of the FIR filter correspond to the discrete-time impulse response of the phase-compensation and noise-filtering transfer functions, excluding the low-frequency lead ramp function implemented in 554. In the digital alternative preferred embodiment according to the present invention, a one hundred-tap FIR filter is used, which at fifty thousand samples per second advantageously provides a very close approximation of the transfer-function impulse response. Referring again to FIG. 18, following the phase compensation functions, the digital signal is preferably applied to two paths. In the upper path illustrated in FIG. 18, the output of FIR 556 is applied to DAC 513 via square-rooter 562a and limiter 564a. In the lower path of FIG. 18, the output of FIR 556 is applied to DAC 514 via inverter 560, square-rooter 562b and limiter 564b. It will be appreciated that the functional blocks between the ADC 508 and DACs 513, 514 illustrate the overall signal processing carried out by DSP 510 in FIG. 17. The transfer function provided according to FIG. 18 is further illustrated in the functional block diagram of FIG. 19. Preferably, each half of flywheel 1001 contains a single DSP 510 and each DSP 510 simultaneously processes two radial channels. As discussed above, only one of the DSPs 510 processes an axial channel. It will appreciated that the less stringent processing requirements of the axial control loop, which preferably are carried out only by the upper DSP, can be readily understood and implemented by one of ordinary skill in the art and, for that reason, will not be discussed further. As the DSP 510 advantageously can be implemented using CMOS technology, power consumption of DSP 510, and hence the entire control circuitry, can be reduced by reducing the instruction rate when appropriate, i.e., between sample processing times. A block diagram of a radial power amplifier 450 is shown in FIG. 20. The stability of the control system requires the linear time delay of the coil current in response to the input signal to be less than 20 microseconds. This amplifier design meets this requirement by feeding back the coil current to the input of the high loop gain negative feedback amplifier, in which the current is sensed by a small resistor R 115 in series with the coil 118 and the high internal gain is supplied by the low power amplifier 453. The output power stage 455 is a high peak power capability linear current amplifier. Since the coil impedance has a large inductive reactance component, the voltage across the coil increases linearly with frequency for a constant current input. Voltage feedback is introduced through a network 454 designed to limit the high frequency gain while still permitting the needed fast current response. The small bias current mentioned above is provided by a bias level set adjustment potentiometer P 1 . When the input signal is driven so negative that the combination of the input signal and the bias current would be negative, the clamp circuit 451 clamps their sum to zero. It should be noted that this feature is necessary in order to obtain the desired linear relationship between the input signal and the total force exerted by the sum of the positive and negative force generators 119. It should also be mentioned that he output of bias/negative clamp circuit 451 is applied to amplifier 453 via buffer 452 and resistor R 113 . Advantageously, the thin laminations used in the magnetic circuit 20A, 20B result in the force following the current with a time delay of 25 microseconds. This value is consistent with the radial bearing control system requirements. A pulse width modulated (PWM) power amplifier 450' advantageously may be employed in place of the linear power amplifier 450, in order to improve the efficiency. Such an amplifier is shown in FIG. 21. The PWM amplifier 450' preferably includes a bridge arrangement of field effect transistors (FETs) Q1-Q4, which permit current to be switched into the coil 118 in either direction, with the duty cycle of the PWM signals determining the magnitude of the current switched by these transistors. Advantageously, the FET control signals are developed in a PWM controller 4507 in response to the error signal amplifier 4506, which amplifies the difference between the current request of the input signal applied to clamp circuit 4502 and the actual current in the coil 118, as determined by the current detector 4509. PWM controller 4507 is preferably clocked via clock generator 4501, which can optionally be synchronized to an external clock (not shown). Advantageously, detector 4509, which includes a differential amplifier 4511 and a suitable network of biasing resistors R 117 , R 118 , R 119 , and R 151 , which preferably are connected as shown in FIG. 21. It will be understood that resistors R 120 and R 121 are used to sense respective currents passing through each leg of the bridge circuit. The gate driver circuit 4508, which receives the output of the PWM controller 4507, supplies appropriate On/Off signals to the FETs Q1-Q4. As in the exemplary case wherein the power amplifier 450' is a linear amplifier, the high loop gain of the feedback amplifier 4509 provides a time delay of the current response small enough to meet the control system requirements. Preferably, the input bias and clamp and buffer circuits 4502, 4503 perform the same functions as the corresponding circuits in the linear amplifier 450. Preferably, the output of buffer 4503 is provided to error amplifier 4506 via a level shift circuit 4505, which circuit 4505 also receives a reference voltage signal from voltage reference source 4504. It will be noted that level shift circuit 4505 provides a linearizing bias current through coil 118. The requirements for the axial magnetic bearing differ substantially from those of the radial bearings. It will be appreciated that: there are fewer axial vibration modes in the frequency range of interest; the synchronous vibrations due to residual unbalance do not couple to the axial system; the high power motor generator 15 forces have negligible effect in the axial direction; and, because of the permanent magnet bias, adequate linearity is achieved without resorting to a square root function circuit. However, the stiffness of the axial system must still be substantial in order to permit the flywheel 1001 to traverse potholes and cobblestone roads without engaging the touchdown bearings 130, 230. Achieving the required stiffness is complicated by the time delay of the axial force relative to the current in the axial force generator coil, which is more than ten times that in the radial bearing control electronics system 400. It should be noted that the axial delay results from the eddy currents created in the solid (unlaminated) metal used in the magnetic paths, particularly in the ends of shaft 20, by transient coil currents. It will be appreciated that spatial constraints dictate against laminating the axial magnetic circuit. The simplified requirements cited above, however, allow this higher delay to be acceptable. Referring to FIGS. 22-24, an exemplary configuration of the axial bearings 120, 220 will now be described. An axial bearing 120 which includes the capacitive sensor 122 is shown in FIG. 22. Its magnetic field is produced by a combination of a permanent magnet 124 and a controllable electromagnet 126 whose magnetic field adds algebraically to that of the permanent magnet 124. The power amplifier (which is discussed in greater detail below), which produces this current, responds to the axial sensor 122 via a suitable transfer function (also discussed below). It is desirable for this sensor output signal to be linear with axial displacement of the shaft 20 over the range of interest, which in an exemplary case ranges from five thousandths to forty thousandths of an inch. The sensor processor shown in FIG. 6A has adequate linearity for this task, a consequence of resonating the capacitance to the stator C 0 with the inductance L at the oscillator frequency. FIG. 23 shows the ring shaped sensing element 122 used in the axial sensing system, and the integration of this element into an axial bearing 120 is shown in FIG. 24. Since the orientation of the rotor axis is nearly vertical while driving, and exactly vertical when parked, the weight of the rotor must be borne by the axial bearing 120. This force is provided by the permanent magnet 124 in the axial bearing 120's magnetic circuit, augmented by electromagnet coil 126 current to stabilize the control system 600 and respond to the transient loads incurred while driving. It should be mentioned that the exemplary case being discussed includes a permanent magnet 124 in the upper axial bearing only; the lower axial bearing 220 may advantageously include a permanent magnet 224 when operating conditions warrant the additional magnetic bias. Since the permanent magnet 124 provides a field whose lifting force is equal to the weight of the rotating assembly 1, the incremental force provided by the electromagnet 126 is linear with its current, to the first order. Therefore, it will be recognized that no square root circuit is needed to linearize the axial control system 600. The axial vibration modes of the rotating assembly are shown in FIG. 25A, which illustrates rigid translation (mode A1), and FIG. 25B, which depicts flexible translation (mode A2). The frequencies associated with these modes are illustrated as a function of spin speed in FIG. 26. Unlike the coning modes associated with the radial bearing system, there is no gyroscopic coupling associated with the axial modes; thus the positive and negative frequencies are identical. It should be noted that the frequency of the flexible translation mode A2 is associated primarily with the compliance of the hub 14. See FIG. 2. Because of the stiffening of the hub 14 due to its radial stretch under centrifugal force, the frequency of mode A2 vibrations increases with spin speed. A block diagram of the axial bearing electronic control system 600 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 27, wherein the capacitive sensing element 122 is coupled to a power amplifier 620, in an exemplary case, via a control amplifier 610 and the sensing circuit shown in FIG. 6A. Preferably, the analog control amplifier 610, which provides the desired control stiffness, resonance damping, and power minimization in the parking mode of operation can be configured as shown in FIGS. 28A and 28B, which comprise the overall block diagram of FIG. 28. It should be noted that the phase lead for damping the rigid body resonance (mode A1 of FIG. 25A) is provided by the simple lead network 611 having a real pole and zero, while the phase lead needed to damp the flexible body resonance (mode A2 of FIG. 25B) is produced by a complex lead network 612 having complex poles and zeroes. Because the power consumed in the parking mode of operation must be minimized, it is necessary to null the axial electromagnet current when parked. The variation with magnetic gap of the lifting force produced by the permanent magnet is shown in FIG. 29, which also indicates the gap at which this force is equal to the weight of the rotating assembly 1. The integrator 614 shown in an internal positive feedback path in the axial control amplifier circuit 600 changes the axial position of the shaft 20 until the input signal of integrator 614, which signal in the steady state is also the input to the power amplifier 620, is zero. Thus, the rotating assembly 1 is automatically driven to the unique axial position at which the control current is nulled. It will be appreciated that this technique is quite similar to the technique taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,300 to Lyman, which patent is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. It will be again be appreciated that comprehension and reconstruction of the circuitry shown in FIGS. 28A through 28B, particularly with the associated transfer function illustrated in FIG. 30A and its associated outputs illustrated in FIGS. 30B and 30C, is well within the level of one of ordinary skill in the art; further detailed discussions will not be provided. The transfer function of the control amplifier 610 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 30A; the corresponding amplitude and phase as a function of frequency produced using this transfer function is illustrated in FIGS. 30B and 30C. It should be mentioned that in an alternative digital implementation of the axial bearing control electronics circuit 600, these axial control functions are produced in the same microprocessor 510 previously described with respect to the radial functions. It will be again be appreciated that comprehension and reconstruction appreciated that the PWM axial power amplifier 620' differs from the PWM radial power amplifier 450' mainly with respect to the input voltage clamp resulting from the use of a permanent magnet field rather than electromagnet current to generate the bias field. A pulse width modulated power (PWM) amplifier 620' advantageously may be employed in place of the power amplifier 620, in order to improve the efficiency of the power output stage. Referring to FIG. 32, the PWM amplifier 620' preferably includes a bridge arrangement of field effect transistors (FETs) Q10-Q13, which permit current to be switched into the coil in either direction, with the duty cycle of the PWM signals determining the magnitude of the current switched by these transistors. Advantageously, the control signals applied to FETs Q10-Q13 are developed in a PWM controller 6208 in response to the error signal amplifier 6207, which amplifies the difference between the current request of the input signal applied to level shift circuit 6206 and the actual current in the coil 126, as determined by the detector 6210. Advantageously, the level shift is provided to allow a quiescent current to be provided to each coil 126. It will again be noted that the gate driver circuit 6209, which receives the output of the PWM controller 6208, supplies appropriate On/Off signals to the FETs Q10-Q13. Advantageously, these signals are developed in a PWM controller 6208 in response to a control signal produced by error signal amplifier 6207, which amplifies the difference between the current request of the input signal applied to an input amplifier stage including amplifier 6202 and resistors R 130 , R 131 and the actual current in the coil 126, as determined by the current detector 6210. PWM controller 6208 is preferably clocked via clock generator 6201, which can optionally be synchronized with an external master clock signal. Advantageously, detector 6210, which includes a differential amplifier 621 2 and a suitable network of biasing resistors R 133 , R 134 , R 135 and R 136 , which preferably are connected as shown in FIG. 32. It will be understood that resistors R 132 and R 138 are used to sense the current through each leg of the bridge circuit discussed above. Also from FIG. 32, it will be appreciated that output of the amplifier 6202 is of the circuitry shown in FIGS. 28A through 28B, particularly with the associated transfer function illustrated in FIG. 30A and its associated outputs illustrated in FIGS. 30B and 30C, is well within the level of one of ordinary skill in the art; further detailed discussions will not be provided. The axial power amplifier circuit 620 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 31. It will be appreciated that circuit 620 provides enough current to the control coil 126 to maintain magnetic suspension while traversing very rough pavement. In addition, power amplifier circuit 620 advantageously is capable of providing sufficient current to coil 126 for lifting, in conjunction with the permanent magnet 124, the rotating assembly 1 from its extreme downward position on the lower touchdown bearing 230 whenever the need arises. Referring to FIG. 31, the output stage consists of a master amplifier 621 driving one end of the coil 126 and a slave amplifier 622 driving the other end with a voltage of the opposite sign, thus doubling the voltage available across the coil 126 for a given power supply voltage. An input voltage clamp 623 advantageously can be used to prevent a magnetic field created by the coil 126 in the direction which opposes the permanent magnet bias field from reversing the total field. The output of control amplifier 610 (610') is provided to master amplifier 621 via a biasing amplifier stage including amplifier 624 and resistors R 124a and R 124b and a buffer/clamp stage including resistor R 125 and amplifier 625. Advantageously, master amplifier 621 includes a high internal gain amplifier 627a and a high power amplifier 627b. The output current from power stage 627b is detected by current sense circuit 628 and a voltage indicative of the current level is provided to amplifier 627a via resistor R127a. The output of amplifier 627a is also provided to slave amplifier 622, which includes a conditioning resistor R 129b , high internal gain amplifier 629a, power stage 629b and a feedback path connecting the output of power stage 629b with the input of amplifier 629a via resistor R129a. A PWM version of the axial power amplifier 620' according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 32. It will be appreciated that amplifier 620' is similar to the radial amplifier 450' depicted in FIG. 21. It will be applied to error amplifier 6207 via resistor R132, buffer amplifier 6205 and level shift circuit 6206. Circuit 6205 also receives a reference voltage signal from voltage reference source 6204. As in the exemplary case wherein the power amplifier 620 is a linear amplifier, the high loop gain of the feedback amplifier 6210 provides a time delay of the current response small enough to meet the control system requirements. Preferably, the input voltage clamp circuit 6203 performs the same function as the corresponding circuit element in power amplifier 620, which is illustrated in FIG. 31. It will be appreciated that the bearing system and associated control systems advantageously can be part of a flywheel used in applications other than motor vehicles. For example, the flywheel, which includes a motor-generator, can be coupled to a power distribution system so as to permit the flywheel to act as a power conditioning device. It will be appreciated that a power conditioning flywheel would not be subjected to the high amplitude, short duration vertical shocks associated with vehicle applications. Therefore, in stationary applications the lower axial force generator 220 can be omitted; any necessary downward force can be provided by the simple expedient of reducing the coil current in the upper axial force generator 120. Other modifications and variations to the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing disclosure and teachings. Thus, while only certain embodiments of the invention have been specifically described herein, it will be apparent that numerous modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

A bearing system for positioning and supporting a rotor having a vertical shaft coincident with a main rotation axis included in a flywheel used for energy storage and high surge power in vehicular applications includes first and second radial force generators disposed in a first plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotor, the first and second force generators including only electromagnets, third and fourth radial force generators disposed in a second plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotor, the third and fourth force generators including only electromagnets, and upper and lower axial force generators each containing an electromagnet and a permanent magnet. According to one aspect of the bearing system, each of the force generators includes control circuitry having simple and complex lead networks so as to permit the force generators to rapidly respond to vehicular transients while maintaining a desired bearing stiffness. The bearing system also includes upper and lower touchdown ball bearings which are engaged only when the first through fourth radial force generators are unable to maintain the rotor in a predetermined cylindrical volume within the flywheel. A method for controlling the bearing system is also described.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates to video and image enabled business management software. More particularly, this invention relates to business reporting, event management, exception management and loss prevention software that mines data from multiple devices, pinpoints defined activity, and refines related video and images for distribution or storage with metadata to improve local or remote business functionality, including evaluation and assessment of events in business and industry. [0003] 2. Description of the Background Art [0004] Present day video enabled business management software typically comprises storing device exceptions (e.g., data events, suspects, items taken, people involved, and vehicles) that are hyperlinked to a video repository containing the associated video. Incident queries/reports may be generated based upon the device exceptions allowing the user to access the specific video segments via the hyperlink for further review and verification of the incident (e.g., motion event, internal/external theft, multiple refunds, sweet hearting, coupon fraud, employee error, bottom-of-basket and customer oversights). Unfortunately, however, manual review of each device exception and the hyperlinked video segment, is highly time consuming. Moreover, implementation of loss prevention software typically requires custom programming that is dependent on the devices in use. Accordingly, there presently exists a need for universal video and image enabled event management software that is easily integrateable with a plethora of industry standard devices. [0005] Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the video enabled business reporting and loss prevention software art. [0006] Another object of this invention is to provide a more efficient and expedited manner in which to view, review, use and analyze physical and data events associated with normal operations of business and industry, including loss prevention, event monitoring or retail facility management, by pinpointing defined events and extracting, refining and distributing relevant images from a video source to designated recipients in a scheduled manner, on demand, or in real-time. [0007] The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] For the purpose of summarizing this invention, this invention comprises a flexible and innovative video and image enabled business management tool featuring multiple device data mining, and a broad range of real time, event driven, local and enterprise tools that simplify event management and report and data analysis, and pinpoints and distributes targeted events for evaluation, review or use in real-time. The video and image enabled software is particularly suited for use in convenience stores, quick service and table service restaurants, specialty shops, grocery stores, big-box retail, warehousing and industrial applications, among others. The video and image enabled business management software includes exception based tools and alerts, that enable local and remote staff, and corporate executives to review or evaluate specific events in a scheduled manner, on-demand or in real time. Importantly, data is mined and available in real-time from a plethora of industry standard devices and integrated in a common database format, allowing immediate review of metadata with images or video frames. [0009] The image auditor portion of the invention extracts video clips from the local video management system associated with defined business evets and creates filmstrips of images based upon operational, management, loss-prevention or other business information needs. The protocol of the image auditor is Requested Globally, Executed Locally, Distributed Globally, Dynamic Aggregation: 1. Business Management Hardware and Software Create Data Events in Archived in Report Form a. Defined Event or Rule Violation by CBS Storekeeper or CBS Remote Hub b. Receipt of Defined Event from Proprietary Application 2. CBS Storekeeper/Services Process Event or Proprietary Input and Generate Image Auditor Request a. Specific Data for Event b. Associated Data c. Video clip d. Single Images e. Filmstrip 3. CBS Storekeeper/Services Query VMS for Time and Cameras Information 4. CBS Storekeeper/Services Acquires Video From Proprietary DVR, VMS, or VMS Storage Drive a. Using Web Services b. Using VMS API/SDK c. Using Microsoft AVI/DirectX libraries d. Using COM Objects 5. CBS Storekeeper/Services Process Video by Defined Parameters a. Processing by defined parameters in memory i. Elapsed time required ii. Resolution Reduction iii. Frame Rate Reduction iv. Selected coordinates extracted v. Assembly of Stills, Filmstrip or refined video clip vi. Add hyperlinks and connectivity protocol per provisional patent diagrams vii. Add reports and links viii. Add Designated recipients ix. Add Distribution Protocol x. Aggregate by rule b. post to local secondary storage c. push or pull transmission to cloud, server, IP address d. distribute to tablet, server, web app, laptop or smart phone 6. Construction and Review of Filmstrip, video clip or images a. Display Events and images b. Flag events or images c. Push refined/full filmstrip and/or report to designated recipients. [0044] More particularly, a main overview of the image auditing protocol is as follows: [0045] 1. Acquire Events and Images a. Acquire event data b. b. Acquire relevant video clip c. extract images d. Tag Images w/metadatareate Filmstrips [0050] 2. Storage of Images for later retrieval/viewing a. Saved to storage (can be multiple locations based on business rules) i. Add metadata to catalog ii. Save metadata with images b. Perform Recycle on Images based on business rules [0055] 3. Distribute filmstrips a. Filmstrips may be aggregated based on configuration/business rules b. Based on business rule for event add communication protocol c. Add addressees based on business rule and communication protocol d. Create message document containing filmstrip(s) per communication protocol i. Attached hyperlinks ii. Attach additional metadata per communication protocol e. Transmit message document to addressees based on communication protocol [0063] 4. View Stored Images a. Read Image Tags and open desired filmstrip in viewer application b. Read Image Catalog metadata and open desired filmstrip in viewer application c. Filmstrips/Images may be Annotated, Tagged and Stored i. Perform Recycle on Storage d. Filmstrip/Images may be Annotated, Tagged and Distributed [0069] 5. View Distributed Images a. Read Image Tags and open desired filmstrip in viewer application b. Read Image Catalog metadata and open desired filmstrip in viewer application c. Filmstrips/Images may be Annotated, Tagged and Stored i. Perform Recycle on Storage d. Filmstrip/Images may be Annotated, Tagged, and Distributed [0075] 6. Recycle Images on Storage media based on business rules a. This recycling application will delete specific images based on business rules. [0077] By way of example, the image auditing of the invention may be employed in a Retail Exception Multiple Store Audit, as follows: [0078] 1. Acquisition of Events and Images a. Acquisition of Event Times from Proprietary Method i. Storekeeper application (running in Windows PC) receives POS transaction data in real time from Gilbarco Passport POS Register 1 and Register 2 1. Data is analyzed, parsed, time coded and stored in daily Access Database a. The Register number (known as a device) is also stored ii. Auditing Service application is running on same Windows PC as Storekeeper 1. At 1:00 am (a configured time) the service queries the previous days transaction database (this is known as post processing) a. The queries are based on criteria (known as exceptions) stored in an Access Database (as a collection these are known as business rules) 2. Each result of the query (known as an event) contains a time code along with transaction information (this transaction information is known as metadata) 3. For each event, the two preceding transaction event and the next three transaction event on the same device are added to event metadata a. These settings are in the AS configuration file 4. For each event, images are extracted from a video source (this video source is a collection of recorded video files) a. The Audit Service (AS) application connects via TCP to another application called Liveserver (LS) b. The AS then sends a request to LS to retrieve images from camera 1 video files based on a set of a time codes and the device number the event was received on  i. These returned images will make up what is known as a filmstrip for the event  ii. These time codes are determined by configuration rules stored in the AS configuration file  1. Starting at 30 seconds before the event and every 5 seconds until the event, images are retrieved  2. An image with a time closest to the event time is retrieved  3. Starting at 5 seconds after the event and every 5 seconds after the event until 60 seconds after the event, images are retrieved  4. All time intervals are based on exception types and are configurable per exception  iii. The Camera assignment is based on configuration rules stored in the AS configuration file  iv. These images are returned in a JPEG format with the same dimensions as the video source  1. If the video source have video dimensions of 640 pixels width by 480 pixels height, then the image would have dimensions of 640 pixels width by 480 pixels height  a. These images can also be returned in other resolutions than the original video source, this would be determined by a configuration file for the AS c. After the AS receives the images, the event metadata is encoded into the JPEG's EXIF fields  i. A unique ID known as a GUID is assigned for the event, this event ID is then written as metadata to each image creating a common identifier linking the images d. If a single camera source is being used for multiple devices then a region of interest is extracted from the returned image(s) and a new image is created from the original  i. The region of interest is a predetermined region based on configuration information for the AS that has the region's top, left, width, height coordinates in relation to the original image  ii. This new extracted image then replaces the original image and is also encoded with metadata  iii. These images are stored in memory until ready for storage and distribution e. This process is repeated until all events have been processed [0095] 2. Storage of images/filmstrips to a storage media a. The AS aggregates the images into a compressed zip file (a standard computer file format) i. The zip file is named with a GUID with the date of the events appended to it b. The AS uploads the file to a Windows Azure account (one per client) i. This file will be retrieved later by another application (ASSA) c. The Audit Service Storage Aggregator downloads this zip file at a set time (2:00 am, based on a configuration file) d. The ASSA extracts the images and organized them in computer folders on a hard-drive(s) based on client, site location, exception, and date [0102] 3. Distribute filmstrips a. This solution does not auto distribute filmstrips, this is done manually by a user (of the Viewer Application in Step 4) [0104] 4. Viewed Stored Images a. The Image Auditor (IA) application on starting reads thru a file directory and loads all site names it finds i. These can be limited/modified by the IA configuration file ii. These site names get loaded into a treeview control on the upper left side of the application b. The user then selects a site from the list of site names i. The IA will then parse thru the site name's file directory to determines the dates it has images available ii. It will create a count of events that have not been reviewed (audited) 1. Events already reviewed are listed in a corresponding xml file that exists in the same directory as the images 2. These counts will be displayed in a treeview control in the lower left a. This is organized by exceptions b. Then organized by dates  i. A count is listed next to date for total exceptions not reviewed 3. The user selects a date and a corresponding image is displayed for each event (whether reviewed or not) in either a filmstrip view control or a coverflow view a. The image displayed for the event is the image with the time code closest to the event  i. This is configurable in the IA b. The metadata for the event is displayed in a textbox below the event image, with the transaction detail that matched the exception criteria highlighted in red c. A button control appears above the image to allow the image to be marked as viewed (can also be done by keyboard shortcut d. A button control appears above the image to allow the user to view all the images corresponding to the event 4. The user browses the events/images and based on criteria (based upon retail loss prevention techniques and skills) selects an event to audit further and clicks on the filmstrip button a. This displays a new window that displays all images for the event (a filmstrip of images with a time code above each image b. The filmstrip is centered on the image closest to the event and then images before event are displayed to the left and images after the event are displayed to the right c. The metadata for the event is displayed in the same manner as in events view d. A textbox control is available for the user to annotate the event e. Each image can have a section highlighted to draw attention to an area of interest f. An email alert can be created from this view by the user clicking on the alert button  i. Metadata will be included in the body of the email  ii. Annotation will be included in the body of the email  iii. A list of email addresses related to the client are available for distribution  iv. An alert type is available for selection which will be include in the subject title and body of message  v. Selected image are attached to email  1. Hyperlinks to the images being stored in an Azure cloud account is also an option g. The user can also select a button control that links to the video source and camera related to the event  i. This will open up Storekeeper with a connection string that allows Storekeeper to connect to the DVR that stores the video where the images where extracted from 5. This process is repeated for all dates, exception, and sites as per business agreement [0129] 5. Viewed Distributed Images a. The user opens up their email client application i. This could also be a web site/application b. The application displays the email message generated by the IA c. The user may then forward this message, delete it, and/or save it for future reference [0134] 6. Recycle Images on Storage Media based on business rules a. The ASSA application at periodic times (based on configuration files) deletes images from the computer's hard drive (the storage media) that are five days old or older (based on configuration) b. The ASSA application at periodic times (based on configuration files) deletes images from the Azure Cloud account that are five days old or older (based on configuration) c. The AS application at periodic times (based on configuration files) deletes images from the local DVR hard drive that are five days old or older (based on configuration). [0138] In another example, the image auditor of the invention may be employed as a Y Lane Touch Line Auditor used to help process payments and food delivery in a drive-though fast food restaurant environment. It is critical that the order in view of the caahier and expediter match the customer/automobile, specificclly in the case of persons in automobiles ordering from multiple lanes converging into one lane to pay and retrieve their order. Because orders are queued based upon the time at the beginning of the order the automobiles may therefore be out of sequence based upon the length of the orders or other factors. Therefore cars arriving at the cashier window may not appear in the proper sequence. More specifically, if a family of 6 begins an order then 3 smaller orders are subsequently placed in the adjacent lane the first order will be listed first in the queue of the cashier. With the Image Auditor the images of multiple customers are displayed simultaneously with the order detail and the cashier can simply confirm the correct customer/order visually. By having the image and order number displayed together, the cashier can quickly see which order corresponds to the automobile that is currently at their window allowing for faster recall and less confusion. The exemplary protocol is as follows: [0139] 1. Acquisition of Events and Images a. Acquisition of Event Times from Proprietary Method i. Storekeeper application (running in Windows PC) receives POS transaction data in real time from NCR Aloha POS Register 1 and Register 2 1. Device Data is analyzed, parsed, time coded and stored in daily Access Database a. The Register number (known as a device) is also stored 2. Device Data is compared against certain saved criteria a. This criteria is stored in a configuration file b. The criteria includes POS register number c. The criteria includes lane information d. The criteria includes a live camera source that matches the lane number e. The data analytics confirm that the transaction is a new POS order 3. If criteria matches, a live image is saved from a live video source that matches configuration data for the lane number a. Storekeeper receives a constant live video feed via a COM integration with Geovision b. A command is called to save the current acquired image from Geovision for the configured channel c. Image is saved in a jpeg format  i. The directory where the image is saved is a temporary directory  ii. Image names are unique names based on system time and the channel number of the camera d. This image is saved with a resolution of 320 pixels×240 pixels e. Metadata is written to the images EXIF tags which includes the order number of the transaction f. The image is then moved from the temporary directory to a new directory such as “c:\y drive images” 4. The lane number may change for the current order and the old image is deleted and a new image is created following the steps above 5. Device data may match other criteria which will update/add metadata to the image's EXIF tag a. Other criteria could be of type void  i. This writes void to the metadata EXIF tag on the image that corresponds to the transaction order number b. Other criteria could be of type multi-order  i. This writes multi to the metadata EXIF tag on the image that corresponds to the transaction order number c. Other criteria could be of type Total  i. This writes Total to the metadata EXIF tag on the image that corresponds to the transaction order number [0162] 2. Storage and Recycle a. Storekeeper saves images (per above) b. Images may be deleted via a batch file on Windows startup c. Images may be deleted by the Touch Line Auditor (known as TLA) after x number of images exist in its image directory or after y seconds. i. This image directory is the directory where Storekeeper moves images to ii. The oldest images will be deleted first iii. A certain number of y images will not be deleted 1. This number is configured in TLA [0170] 3. A separate viewing application (TLA) runs on a computer a. This application normally runs on the same computer as Storekeeper but this is not required b. TLA on startup hooks into the file system and watches a particular directory for the addition of new images i. This directory is the same directory as configured in Storekeeper where images are moved to (normally c:\y drive images) c. When a new image is received the TLA displays this image within the application i. This image will display after older images ii. The application can be run as multiple instances that run independently except for a shared configuration file iii. When the application is running in multiple instances, each instance will run on a single monitor on an extended desktop d. If the image metadata is updated with the word ‘multi’ an image of a bag will be overlayed on top of the main image in a semi-opaque fashion so the original image is still viewable e. If the image metadata is updated with the word ‘void’ an image of a circle with a line thru it will be overlayed on top of the main image in a semi-opaque fashion so the original image is still viewable i. There is a configurable option to remove the image from being displayed in the application f. If the image metadata is updated with the word ‘total’ a button control above the image will have its text changed to the word ‘Paid’ i. The text that appears is configurable ii. There is a configurable option to remove the image from being displayed in the application iii. If the order number that corresponds to the image is paid (this is known by the application because of the image metadata being updated) and there exists an image with an earlier order number that has not been paid then the TLA may perform several actions 1. The image may be placed earlier in the sequence then the unpaid order 2. The label control that contains the order number associated with the image may also change its text color (flash) for x seconds g. A user of the system may also remove an image from the application display by pressing a button control above the image i. This button control is the same as the above for paid (3.f) h. A user may also re-order the images by pressing a button control i. The image may be moved so it displays before or after another image i. A User may also recall an image that has been removed from the display by pressing a button control called ‘recall’. [0192] In still another example, the image auditor of the invention may be employed as a remote tool used in an audit solution: [0193] 1. Acquisition of Events and Images a. Acquisition of Event Times from Proprietary Method i. Storekeeper application (running in Windows PC at a site location) receives POS transaction data in real time from Gilbarco Passport POS Register 1 and Register 1. Data is analyzed, parsed, time coded and stored in daily Access Database a. The Register number (known as a device) is also stored 2. This process is repeated at other site locations a. A user might have ten stores they want to monitor and distribute exception information from. The Storekeeper app would be running at each location acquiring device data ii. Remote Tools—Audit (RTA) is running on a remote centralized server 1. This server is normally installed at a corporate office 2. This server may also be a managed server on the internet 3. At 1:00 am (a configured time), RTA starts connecting to a list of predefined sites and sends a list of queries to an application called LiveServer which runs on the same computer normally that Storekeeper is running on a. If there are ten sites being monitored then RTA will connect and transmit a set of queries to Liveserver at each location b. The queries are SQL queries (known as exceptions) that Liveserver will execute  i. Each exception is customizable by site location  ii. There is no limit on the number of queries that can be transmitted 4. At each site, Liveserver will respond with a list of events results that correspond to the query(s). a. Each result of the query (known as an event) contains a time code along with transaction information (this transaction information is known as metadata) 5. RTA then sends these results to the Media Archiver application (known as MA) b. Acquisition of images and metadata i. MA then connects to Liveserver at each site location and sends image requests for each exception 1. These are the same time rules as Image Auditing—Retail Exception Multiple Store Audit 2. Liveserver retrieves the images from the video sources a. These are the same retrieval methods as Image Auditing—Retail Exception Multiple Store Audit 3. Mediarchiver receives the images and performs other processing a. These are the same image processing rules as Image [0216] Auditing—Retail Exception Multiple Store Audit [0217] 2. Storage and recycling a. Mediarchiver saves these images as jpeg in folders on a computer hard drive i. These images are organized into filmstrips like the Image Auditing Application [0220] 3. Distribution a. After image retrieval has been completed by MA, RTA then checks its configuration to see if there is a scheduled distribution b. For each distribution a set of email(s) are created i. Configuration rules are checked to see if site image/filmstrips are to be aggregated ii. An email message is created in memory iii. Addresses are added per configuration iv. Metadata will be included in the body of the email that corresponds to retrieved images v. Retrieved images are attached or embedded into to the email per configuration 1. Hyperlinks to the images being stored in an Azure cloud account may be placed in the body of the email vi. An email title message with metadata pertaining to the site(s) c. After creation of email message in memory, each message is distributed to addressees using standard emailing communication technique d. This process is repeated until all messages are created and distributed according to the distribution list [0232] 4. Viewing Stored Images a. See Image Audit Step 4 for details [0234] 5. Viewing distributed images a. The user opens up their email client application i. This could also be a web site/application b. The application displays the email message generated by the IA c. The user may then forward this message, delete it, and/or save it for future reference [0239] 6. Recycle Images on Storage Media based on business rules a. The MA application at periodic times (based on configuration files) deletes images from the computer's hard drive (the storage media) that are five days old or older (based on configuration) b. The MA application at periodic times (based on configuration files) deletes images from the Azure Cloud account that are five days old or older (based on configuration). [0242] The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the more pertinent and important features of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood so that the present contribution to the art can be more fully appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and the specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0243] For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: [0244] FIGS. 1A-1D are block diagrams showing a representative list of some industry standard devices, their device connectivity, data set formats, and input/data conversion summary; [0245] FIGS. 2A-2C are block diagrams showing a representative list of device connectivity and hardware communication protocols used by industry standard devices; [0246] FIGS. 3A-3C present a block diagram showing the database details; [0247] FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the device data relationship; [0248] FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a summary of the data/video integration and distribution protocol summary; [0249] FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing in greater detail the data/video integration and distribution protocol; [0250] FIGS. 7A through 7J present a flow chart showing in detail the image auditor of the invention. [0251] Example 1 is a flow diagram showing a typical money order transaction; [0252] Example 2 is a flow diagram showing a typical cooler temperature alert; and [0253] Appendix A-II illustrate typical Category/Data Types for a variety of devices. [0254] Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0255] Referring to FIG. 1A , present invention is operable with a plethora of devices typically employed in establishments such as, without limitation, convenience stores, quick service restaurants, table service, specialty shops, grocery stores, big-box retail, warehousing and industrial applications, among others. For example, typical devices in a convenience store may include point-of-sale devices, electronic cash registers, fuel dispensers, drink dispensers, retail scales, smart cash drawers whereas typical devices in a warehouse may include power conditioning systems, door contacts, motion sensors and alarm systems. It should be appreciated that, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, the invention is adaptable to many other devices and the listing shown in FIG. 1A is merely exemplary of some of the most commonly found devices. [0256] In accordance with the present invention, the devices communicate over a suitable communication connection. FIG. 1B lists exemplary communication hardware and software communication protocols. It should be appreciated that, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, the invention is adaptable to many other hardware and software communication protocols and the listing shown in FIG. 1B is merely exemplary of some of the most commonly found types of hardware and software communication protocols. [0257] FIG. 1C lists exemplary data set formats that may be used in connection with the present invention. It should be appreciated that, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, the invention is adaptable to many other data set formats and the listing shown in FIG. 1C is merely exemplary of some of the most commonly found types of data formats. [0258] As listed in FIG. 1D , the present invention achieves many features such as the acquisition, sorting, parsing, standardization, analysis, modification and augmentation of device data, archiving and indexing of standardized device and derived data; special encoding to a defined area and its related data; and integration with multi-zone facility analysis, video analytics, image characteristic analysis and object analysis. [0259] The details of the multiple device input/data conversion are shown in the flow chart of FIGS. 2A through 2C . The device inputs/data conversions are generally identified by reference numeral 10 . The device data is the broken down into single events 12 . Each of the events 12 is then parsed 14 against a matrix 16 to determine individual characteristics of the event 12 . The ambiguous characteristics are transformed 18 into specific characteristics. The characteristics are re-assembled 20 to create a human readable output 22 for display 24 or in the form of configurable standards based ASCII text output 26 . The parsed data may be assigned 28 additional markers such as listed in block 30 . [0260] Data and events are typically filtered and archived for future reference, for matrix development or archive modification. In some other cases, data is processed using the invention for specific functionality related to ongoing operations but not necessarily required in archive form for ongoing operational efficiency. For example, the Y-Drive Through application used in the Quick Service Restaurant environment requires images to be associated with specific orders to insure that the proper order is executed, rung correctly, expedited and delivered to the appropriate customer. In this case the order detail is associated with an image of the vehicle and driver in a multiple drive through environment and displayed for the cashier, cooks, expediters and delivery staff on multiple monitors throughout the facility. The image of the customer and order is placed in sequence and displayed at several stages of the transaction. The sequence of customers may be modified if the vehicles and customers do not present themselves in the expected order. After acquiring, processing and utilizing the data and images in the course of the transaction, the data and images may be of no further value to the user and may therefore be discarded. [0261] The data is filtered 34 and stored in an external database 36 . The data may also flow through transformation filters 38 before performing real time analytics via an analytic detection engine 40 across multiple devices, multiple events, multiple items, cross events and items, missing event or item. If certain criteria are matched, real time alerts 42 may be generated. [0262] Referring now to FIGS. 3A through 3C , the database 36 employed by the present invention comprises a plurality records, each record composed of a plurality of database fields 50 categorized by field names 52 . The database 36 may be of any type (e.g., XML, MS SQL, Oracle, IBM db2) stored locally or distributed in one database management system or stored locally or distributed in separate database management systems. [0263] The fields of the database 36 are defined to store the applicable categories of data (i.e., data type) that is associated with the particular devices being employed. Appendix A-II lists exemplary categories/data types for some specific devices. [0264] As shown in FIG. 4 , when a device produces an event 60 , it is parsed and assigned additional markers 62 , whereupon the event is stored 72 for later if the event is related to a previous detail us event 64 , is anticipated by time, transaction, etc. 66 , has exceeded a predefined threshold 68 or has not exceed a predefined threshold 70 . [0265] FIG. 5 is a block diagram summarizing the data/video integration and distribution protocol of the invention and the display to some of the anticipated users of the invention (e.g., operations, marketing, sales, customer service, compliance, loss prevention, risk management, security & fire and human resources). [0266] FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing further details of the data/video integration and distribution protocol. The present invention allows the user to define a proprietary query 80 which may access previously-stored data/images from the external database 36 or request new data. When the query 80 requests new data/images, the present invention via a “Storekeeper” module 82 produces appropriate image queries 84 and video queries 86 , which are then sent to the user's video management system 88 to retrieve the requested images/videos. The retrieved images/video are then sent to the archival module 90 of the invention for processing in accordance with the present invention, and then stored in the database 36 . The archival module 90 may output through the user's firewall 92 for cloud storage 94 and viewing 96 by the user or other properly authenticated and authorized persons. [0267] The details of the image auditor of the invention is illustrated in the flow chart of FIGS. 7A through 7J and outlined as follows: [0268] 1. Acquisition of Events and Images a. Acquisition of Event Times from Proprietary Method (ex. Storekeeper) i. Real time device data collection ii. If Device data matches Business Rules/Configuration then 1. If real time image acquisition then retrieve live image(s) 2. If post processing collected data then retrieve recorded image(s) b. Acquisition of Event Times from 3 rd Party/Other Source i. If real time image acquisition then retrieve live image(s) ii. If post processing 3 rd Party/Other source then retrieve recorded image(s) c. If Acquiring live images i. Connect/Reconnect to live video source ii. Based on Connection Protocol acquire current image 1. Images may be buffered in memory to allow for pre-event image acquisition 2. Images may also be retrieved from recorded video for pre-event image acquisition iii. Repeat live image acquisition per business rule 1. May delay for x seconds at y intervals for particular event type d. If Acquiring recorded images i. Connect/Reconnect to recorded video source ii. Based on Connection Protocol, Access recorded video source iii. Extract images from recorded video source (see Appended Parameters below) e. Appended Parameters for image acquisition whether video source is live or recorded i. With a certain number of frames before the event, image retrieval times spaced at a specified interval that may or may not be linear. ii. An image is extracted from a video frame at the time of the video that is closest to the event. iii. with a certain number of frames after the event, image retrieval times spaced at a specified interval that may or may not be linear. iv. A region(s) may be extracted from image based on business rules creating a new image 1. This new image may replace the original image 2. This new image may be added to filmstrip v. A region(s) may be highlighted on the image based on business rules vi. A computer image analysis may be done to extract other metadata from image 1. Image analysis may be look for missing object or person 2. The metadata is added to the event metadata vii. Image may be tagged with metadata corresponding to the event and based on certain business rules, events that occur before and after based on x seconds or y events may also be tagged. 1. Metadata may be written to image EXIF P 2. A separate computer file containing metadata may be created to be transported/saved along with image f. Once all images are extracted for event, a filmstrip of image(s) for the event is created i. This filmstrip is created by Tagging the same unique guid to the metadata on each related image ii. A File can also be created linking the images together based on image name and other metadata iii. Metadata can also be held in computer memory and transferred to a catalog or other messaging system when the images are stored or distributed [0306] 2. Storage of Images for later retrieval/viewing a. Images/Filmstrips are saved/copied/converted to a specific storage media based on business rules i. These images may be stored in a computer file system ii. These images may be stored in a database iii. These images may be stored in a mobile or other non-pc computer system iv. These images may be stored in the cloud v. These images may be stores in multiple locations based on business rule for the event vi. These images may be stored multiple times in separate storage media 1. This may help with availability 2. This may help with redundancy vii. These images may also be stored in different standard image formats and different image resolutions to provide compatibility, portability, and other forensic analysis. viii. These images may be encoded into a computer video file using a video compression codec 1. This would further reduce the total file size for all images in filmstrip(s) 2. Video file may be tagged with metadata for event(s) b. Event Metadata may be added to a catalog system appropriate to storage media c. Event metadata may be added along with images as a separate computer file based on storage media [0322] 3. Distribute filmstrips a. Filmstrips may be aggregated based on configuration/business rules i. Images/Filmstrips may be stored in a temporary memory buffer or storage media while images/filmstrips are being appended b. Based on business rule for event add communication protocol c. Add addressees based on business rule and communication protocol d. Create message document containing filmstrip(s) per communication protocol i. Attached/embed into message document hyperlinks 1. Hyperlinks may be to video source 2. Hyperlinks may be for Images/Filmstrips stored on a different storage media and not transmitted with message document (such as hosted on a web server or cloud device 3. Hyperlinks may be to additional metadata ii. Attach/embed additional metadata into message document per communication protocol iii. Attach/embed filmstrips/images into message document per communication protocol e. Transmit message document to addressees based on communication protocol [0335] 4. View Stored Images a. An user starts image viewer application i. This may be a computer application ii. This may be a web application iii. This may be a mobile/non-pc application b. The viewer application connects to a/many storage media(s) or catalog i. This may be from a configuration file ii. This may be restricted by user rights iii. This may be manually chosen by user iv. A catalog(s) may be opened containing metadata about images/filmstrips v. And/or Metadata about image/filmstrips may be cataloged on demand c. User searches catalog in viewer application and selects event(s) to view i. Either thru browsing catalog ii. Or performing search query on catalog d. Viewer application retrieves and displays image(s) nearest to event(s) time i. Images/Filmstrips may be stored in a separate storage media than catalog ii. A single image may be displayed in viewer for each event 1. This image may be an image with time code closest to event time 2. This image may be an image with time code x seconds before or y seconds after event time based on a business rule or configuration for event iii. A complete filmstrip may be displayed in viewer for each event iv. A pre-selected set of images from filmstrip for each event may be displayed 1. The pre-selection is based on business rules or configuration file for event type v. Metadata for each event is displayed 1. Portions of metadata may be highlighted or have some other textual formatting done to signify relevant information to the viewer 2. Time code for the image may be displayed vi. User may select single image and retrieve entire/partial filmstrip for event 1. Portions of metadata may be highlighted or have some other textual formatting done to signify relevant information to the viewer 2. Time code for the image may be displayed vii. User may distribute selected image/filmstrip for event 1. See distribution protocol above 2. User may add annotate images to draw attention to a region of interest on image 3. User may annotate event with other data, such as observation of events viii. User may save images/filmstrips to storage media for event 1. See storage protocol above 2. User may annotate images to draw attention to a region of interest on image 3. User may annotate event with other data, such as observation of events [0371] 5. View Distributed Images a. User opens viewer application i. This could be an email application ii. This could be an SMS application iii. This could be a proprietary computer application iv. This could be a mobile phone/non-pc application v. This could be a website b. Application displays received images with metadata i. These will be organized based on viewer application type ii. These events will be searchable c. User may annotate event/images d. User may delete event/images e. User may redistribute event/images f. User may save event/images to storage media [0385] 6. Recycle Images on Storage media based on business rules a. A computer application at a periodic interval determined by business rules may delete images/filmstrips from a storage media i. These may be all images in a filmstrip for a particular event that has existed for x number of days ii. These may be some images in a filmstrip for a particular event that has existed for x number of days iii. The chosen images to be deleted will be based on some business rule [0390] The present invention described above provides a marked improvement over present-day industry standard strategies utilizing integration of POS data and VMS platforms that feature the synchronized review of data (POS) events with archived video by means of a hyperlink from a global reporting tool or LP dashboard, which facilitates the review and analysis of the event by streaming the relevant video across a network from the retail location or the cloud. More particularly, the present invention eliminates the vast majority of bandwidth and time resources required to execute this task by extracting, parsing and refining relevant images from the VMS archive, then distributing filmstrips or single images to designated or multi-level recipients. This tactical process in effect refines the events and images to the essential information required to facilitate the investigation, rather than streaming bulk video clips. It also provides a hyperlink to the full video archive if necessary. [0391] For example, referring to Fig. “Example 1,” in the case of a return fraud investigation, the present invention would acquire and queue a single image of the transaction from the VMS to confirm the presence of the product and customer, then compile a secondary filmstrip of the entire event (perhaps one image every 5 seconds before and after). A five minute filmstrip review of the event would consist of 60 images, pre-loaded on a desktop server or the cloud. Comparatively a 5 minute video clip at 30 FPS streaming remotely to an auditor would consist of roughly 4,500 images. In addition, to dramatically reduced bandwidth requirements, the time required to review the transaction using the present invention is approximately 10 seconds versus streaming a 5 minute video clip. More specifically, as shown in Money Order Transaction 1, when a transaction is rung at a POS terminal 100 , if a money order 102 is generated and cash is deposited 104 in the safe, the sequence is approved 106 , and the event is stored 108 . But, as shown in Money Order Transaction 2, when a transaction is rung at a POS terminal 100 , if a money order 102 is generated but cash is not deposited 104 in the safe, the sequence is not approved 106 , and a query 110 is generated, which then determines 112 if the safe deposit 104 was made before the POS transaction 100 . If so, the modified transaction is stored 114 in the database 36 and a report is generated 116 . If not, a theft alert 118 is generated. [0392] By way of another specific example, referring to Fig. “Example 2,” in the case of a cooler temperature monitor, where the temperature gauge registers a spike 120 , the present invention will acquire and dispatch an image of the cooler door to the manager on duty facilitating immediate verification that the door is closed 122 . If the door is closed and power consumption is increased as may be detected via an interface with door contacts and power consumption monitoring devices 124 , the present invention determines 126 from a query of past door images if the door was left open 128 . If so, a report 130 is generated and the event is stored 132 in the database 36 . If not, a service order to a vendor is dispatched 134 in real time and the event is stored 132 in the database 36 . [0393] The present invention may also be used to archive credit card transactions (to facilitate review after the VMS archive expires), evaluate operations, facilitate compliance reviews, or conduct operational audits where it is impractical to stream video. [0394] The present disclosure includes that contained in the appended claims, as well as that of the foregoing description. Although this invention has been described in its preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. [0395] Now that the invention has been described,

Auditing images including the steps of acquiring events and images, storing of images for later retrieval and viewing, distributing filmstrips, viewing stored images, viewing distributed images, recycling images on storage media based on business rules, acquiring images from a live or recorded local video source by extracting images from the live or recorded video at particular times based on events acquired from certain devices existing in a local business environment, wherein the images are then compiled into a filmstrip based on business rules along with event metadata based on business rules and then stored on a local electronic storage media(s) and optionally a remote storage media for later retrieval and viewing. The filmstrips are then automatically distributed electronically to interested parties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to acoustic ground vibration detectors which are used to detect vibrations in the ground and render them audible. Such ground vibration detectors are used inter alia in disaster control and rescue work, especially for detecting knocking sounds from persons buried under the surface and locating the trapped persons. 2. Description of the Prior Art Known ground vibration detectors operate with one or more three-component geophone probes. These three-component geophone probes contain three individual geophones operating on electrodynamic principles to detect vibrations in the ground. The effective axes of vibration of the individual geophones are positioned like the three axes x, y, z of a three-dimensional, rectangular system of coordinates;see e.g. the leatlet "3D unit", July 1984 of the Dutch company Sensor Nederland bv, 2251 AP Voorschoten. This arrangement enables the three-component geophone probe to detect P-waves (primary waves or longitudinal waves), S-waves (shear waves or transverse waves) and O-waves (surface waves). These different types of waves are propagated at different velocities; the high frequency primary wave has the highest propagation velocity, the low frequency shear wave a medium velocity and the surface wave is propagated at the lowest velocity. The geophone probes of the known ground vibration detectors are connected by a cable to an amplifier arrangement by which the signals corresponding to the ground vibrations received by the individual geophones are rendered audible, e.g. in hoadphones, and processed to locate the source of the ground vibration. The known ground vibration detectors are, however, not entirely satisfactory as they are only able to process frequencies within the audible range, i.e. above 30 Hz or thereabouts. In some cases, it is necessary to detect ground waves at very low frequencies far below the range to which the human ear is receptive. Thus it has been found, for example, that in areas of soft ground or compacted sand or areas covered with grass or rubble or loose stone, ground vibrations at audible frequencies, say above 30 Hz, may be entirely absent, at least if these areas are at some distance from the source of the ground vibration, e.g. from a person trapped underground, but in such cases these areas still carry ground vibrations at a very low frequency which could be described as "ground infrasound". SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an acoustic ground vibration detector having at least one three-component geophone probe which is capable of detecting ground vibrations and rendering them audible for location even if their frequency is below the human audibility limit. It is a further object of this invention to provide a particularly sturdy acoustic ground vibration detector in which each three-component geophone probe is connected by a simple two-cord cable to an amplifier arrangement to render the detected ground vibrations audible. Lastly, it is an object of the invention to provide a ground vibration detector in which the detected ground vibrations are rendered audible by simple and reliable means in that the signals corresponding to the ground vibrations actuate a sound frequency generator to produce an audible signal. In the acoustic ground vibration detector according to the invention, the three individual geophones of each three-component geophone probe arranged along the three axes of a three-dimensional, rectangular coordinate system are electrically connected in series. This arrangement deliberately foregoes the differential reception of separate signals for each of the three axes and instead produces a mixed signal which is common to the three axes because it has been found that infrasound ground vibrations which are at a frequency below the range of the human ear can thereby be detected much more clearly than by means of individual signals. There is also the important constructional advantage that a simple two-core cable can be used to connect the three-component geophone probe to the amplifier arrangement. This is particularly important when the geophone probes are to be laid out in chains or carpets for exact location. The signals corresponding to the infrasound ground vibrations, which are not directly audible, e.g. with a frequency of 5Hz, are readily and reliably made audible by the ground vibration detector according to the invention by means of the fact that throughout their duration these frequencies activate a sound-frequency generator by way of a high speed relay, e.g. a Reed relay, so that the sound frequency generator emits an audio signal at a fixed frequency within the hearing range of the human ear, e.g. at 2.5 KHz, which is rendered audible. The ground vibration detector according to the invention is particularly suitable for locating buried persons in difficult terrain in which relatively high frequency vibrations are only propagated over short distances, if at all. Moreover, it serves to protect important objects by registering infrasound ground vibrations produced by footfall sound; but the detector is, of course, not limited to such applications since it can also be used to detect ground vibrations of a higher frequency and render them audible. The high-speed electronic relays used may be, for example, field effect transistor circuits, but in the embodiment of the ground vibration detector which is preferred at the present time the preferred high-speed relay used is a Reed relay because it is very simple to set up, in contrast to transistor circuits, and responds to very brief impulses, in the millisecond range. Moreover, due to its construction, the apparatus has an accurately defined threshold voltage such that the output signal of the operation amplifier must lie above or, respectively, below this threshold so that the Reed relay will switch on or off. This operation with a threshold voltage prevents creeping or wobbling contact and eliminates any interferences in the output signal of the operation amplifier which lie below the threshold voltage. Since the individual geophones have a natural frequency below 10 Hz and preferably below 4.5 Hz, they are particularly sensitive in the required frequency range of infrasound ground vibrations, which extends right down to below 2 Hz. To suppress unwanted resonance vibrations at the natural frequency, the individual geophones may be damped by an ohmic damping resistor connected in parallel. The resistance of this resistor is calculated to make the sensitivity of the geophone as frequency-independent as possible, also in the region of its natural frequency that is, to keep the sensitivity/frequency curve as flat as possible. A filter capacitor connected in parallel with the series circuit of the three individual geophones eliminates interference signals of a higher frequency, e.g. stray radio frequencies. If the sound frequency generator is supplied from a source of direct voltage, i.e. is connected to a direct voltage source through the Reed relay, a storage capacitor connected in parallel with the sound frequency generator may enable the sound frequency generator to continue in operation for some time after decay of the Reed relay, i.e. for longer than the duration of the particular ground vibration signal. The audibility of very brief ground vibration signals is thereby improved. In the preferred exemplary embodiment, the sound frequency generator is a piezoelectric signal transmitter which converts a direct voltage directly into an audible signal and thus constitutes a second frequency generator and sound transmitter combined in a single unit. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention together with further advantageous details thereof will now be described with reference to an exemplary embodiment schematically illustrated in the drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram of an acoustic ground vibration detector having two different three-component geophone probes, FIG. 2 shows schematically the three-dimensional arrangement of a three-component geophone probe for the ground vibration detector of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is the electric circuit diagram of a three-component geophone probe for the ground vibration detector of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is the electric circuit diagram of the amplifier arrangement of the ground vibration detector of FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, an acoustic ground vibration detector 10 for detecting infrasound ground vibrations of a frequency down to below 2 Hz and rendering them audible comprises two vibration receivers in the form of three-component geophone probes 11 and 11a and an amplifier arrangement 19,20. The two three-component geophone probes 11 and 11a differ only in the form of their housing. The housing of the geophone probe 11 comprises an elongated, circular cylindrical casing 12 extending into a truncated cone-shaped section 13 at the free end of the probe. By virtue of its external form, the geophone probe 11 is particularly suitable for use in boreholes into which it can be introduced with the truncated cone section 13 forwards. The housing 12, 13 contains three individual geophones G x , G y and G z (not shown in FIG. 1) extending along the three axes x, y and z of a three-component dimensional rectangular coordinate system. The three-component geophone probe 11a has a parallelipiped or rectangular housing 14 which also contains three individual geophones G x , G y and G z . As shown in FIG. 2, these individual geophones are orientated along the three axes x, y and z of a three-dimensional, rectangular coordinate system so as to be placed at rightangles to the walls of the housing 14. FIG. 3 is the electronic circuit diagram of the three-component geophone probe 11a and is identical to the electric circuit diagram of the geophone probe 11. Each individual geophone G x , G y and G z has two output terminals 15 and 16. The three individual geophones are electrically connected in series so that their terminals are all arranged in the same direction. Each individual geophone has a damping resistor R D connected in parallel therewith. Each individual geophone has a natural frequency of about 4.5 Hz so that the geophones are very sensitive also at the low frequency range of infrasound ground vibrations. The magnitude of resistance of the damping resistors R D is calculated on the one hand to suppress unwanted resonance vibrations and, on the other hand, to keep the sensitivity/frequency curve as flat as possible right into the region of the natural frequency. A filter capacitor 26 is connected in parallel with the whole series circuit of the three individual geophones. This filter capacitor 26 short-circuits interference signals at a higher frequency, in particular stray radio frequency signals. The two output terminals A and B of the series circuit are connected to the amplifier arrangement 19,20 by a simple, two-cord cable 17 as shown in FIG. 1. A communicator 18 connected into the cable 17 can be used to switch selectively to the cylindrical three-component geophone probe 11 or the rectangular (parallelipiped) three-component geophone probe 11a. The switch is only functionally represented in FIG. 1. Constructionally, it is best positioned at the amplifier arrangement. It can also be replaced by plugs, across which the geophone probe can alternatively be connected. Details of the amplier arrangement 19,20 are shown in FIG. 4. The two output terminals A and B of the series circuit of the individual geophones are connected to two input terminals 21 and 22 by the two-cord cable 17. The input terminal 22 is earthed at M 1 and connected to the negative input terminal of an operation amplifier 19 by a series resistor R V . The input terminal 21 is directly connected to the positive input terminal of the operation amplifier 19. The output terminal 23 of the operation amplifier 19 is connected back to the negative input terminal of the operation amplifier 19 through the series circuit composed of a fixed resister R 1 and an adjustable resistor R p . The required degree of amplification can be adjusted by means of the adjustable resistor R p . The excitation coil of a Reed relay 24 is connected between the output terminal 23 and the earth point M 2 and is therefore actuated by the output signal of the operation amplifier 19. The Reed relay has a threshold voltage determined by its construction and amounting to about 2 V so that the relay is switched on and off, respectively, when the output voltage of the operation amplifier 19 exceeds or falls below this threshold. The output terminal 23 is in addition connected to a capacitor 25 to suppress natural high frequency vibrations of the operation amplifier 19. The operation amplifier 19 is supplied symmetrically with current from two batteries 30 which are connected on one side to earth M 3 and on the other side to the operation amplifier 19 by a terminal of an On/Off switch 29. A trimming resistor R e serves to adjust the offset voltage at the output terminal 23 to zero. The circuit arrangement f 1 described so far (see also FIG. 1) comprising the operation amplifier 19 which functions as direct voltage amplifier amplifies the extremely low frequency signals which are transmitted from the three-component geophone probe 11 or 11a by way of the two-cord cable 17 and correspond to the detected infrasound ground vibrations. The corresponding output signal at the output terminal 23 of the operation amplifier 19 activates the Reed relay 24 so that a normally open contact of the Reed relay 24 remains closed whenever and so long as the output signal exceeds the threshold voltage of 2 V of the Reed relay. The normally open contact of the Reed relay 24 forms part of a circuit arrangement f 2 which produces an audible signal of about 2.5 KHz when the normally open contact is closed and thus indicates by its audible sound at 2.5 KHz the presence of a low frequency ground vibration signal which in itself is not audible. For this operation, the circuit arrangement f 2 comprises a sound frequency generator in the form of a piezoelectric signal transmitter 20 which is connected to a battery 27 by its two current supply terminals 31 and 32 by way of the normally open contact of the Reed relay 24. When the signal transmitter 20 is supplied with direct voltage from the battery 27, i.e. when the normally open contact is closed, the signal transmitter 20 directly produces an audible sound of about 2.5 KHz. A storage capacitor 28 is connected in parallel with the current supply terminals 31 and 32. This capacitor 28 charges up when the normally open contact is closed and discharges through the signal transmitter 20 when the normally open contact has opened again so that the signal transmitter 20 can continue to operate for a short time after the normally open contact of the Reed relay 24 has opened. The audibility of very brief ground vibration signals is thereby improved. When the ground vibration detector is to be put into use, it is switched on by means of the switch 29 and one of the two three-component geophone probes 11 or 11a is selected by means of the commutator 18. The selected three-component geophone probe is introduced into a borehole or placed on the ground. Any infrasound ground vibrations, for example with a frequency in the region of 2 to 8 Hz, detected by at least one of the three individual geophones of the three-component geophone probe give rise to a signal at the input terminals 21, 22, and this signal is amplified by the operation amplifier 19. The amplified signal at the output terminal 23 of the operation amplifier 19 causes the normally open contact of the Reed relay 24 to be closed for the duration of the ground vibration signal so that a 2.5 KHz sound is produced by the signal transmitter 20, thereby rendering the ground vibration audible. The degree of amplification produced by the operation amplifier 19 is adjusted by means of the adjustable resistor R p so that in the event of any undesirable interferences, the voltage of the output signal of the amplifier 19 will remain below the threshold voltage of the Reed relay 24 and the interferences will therefore not give rise to an audible signal. In addition, several geophone probes laid out in chains or carpets may be used for improved location.

In an acoustic ground vibration detector for the detection of infrasound ground vibrations, comprising at least one three-component geophone probe, the three individual geophones of said geophone probe are electrically connected in series and act upon an operation amplifier whose output signal activates a Reed relay. The activated Reed relay switches on a sound signal transmitter which produces an audible acoustic signal for the duration of the ground vibration signal. The acoustic ground vibration detector is intended in particular for locating buried persons. Moreover, it serves to protect important objects by registering infrasound ground vibrations produced by footfall sound.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/989,008, filed on Nov. 15, 2004, entitled PORTABLE BASKETBALL SYSTEM, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,044,867; which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/212,443, filed on Aug. 5, 2002, entitled PORTABLE BASKETBALL GOAL SYSTEM, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,916,257; which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/638,529, filed on Aug. 14, 2000, entitled ADJUSTABLE WHEEL ENGAGEMENT ASSEMBLY FOR BASKETBALL GOAL SYSTEMS, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,432,003; which is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 09/249,275, filed on Feb. 11, 1999, entitled PORTABLE BASKETBALL GOAL SYSTEM HAVING TWO-PART BASE SUPPORT ASSEMBLY, now abandoned, each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to basketball goal assemblies and, more particularly, to novel adjustable wheel engagement assemblies for basketball goal systems employing a unique structural design that facilitates selective movement of the basketball goal system in relation to a playing surface. 2. The Relevant Technology As the game of basketball has increased in popularity a greater number of people have purchased basketball goals for use at their homes. Typically, home basketball goals are permanently mounted in a manner such that the driveway of the home serves as a playable basketball court, as few homes have sufficient land surrounding the home to dedicate space for exclusive use as a basketball court. In some instances, deciding where to position or mount a basketball goal can pose some playing difficulties. For example, mounting a basketball goal adjacent to the driveway of a home may precipitate a risk to any traffic in the driveway, resulting in potential injury to the players or damage to parked or moving automobiles. In some cases, the perfect location for mounting a basketball goal is the place where permanently mounting the basketball goal cannot be easily accomplished. Such a location may be where there is concrete or asphalt on the ground. To permanently mount the basketball goal assembly would therefore require breaking up the concrete or asphalt and then repairing the receiving hole after inserting an end of a support pole into the ground. Such a procedure could be relatively expensive and would most likely leave the driveway appearing unsightly at least during the period of construction and repair. Other disadvantages are also associated with permanently installed basketball goal assemblies. Since basketball goal assemblies are generally mounted to a surface outdoors, they are generally exposed to the harsh elements of the weather throughout the entire year. As appreciated, constant exposure to the elements of the weather (e.g., rain, snow, sleet, high temperatures) will typically cause the component parts of the basketball goal assembly to prematurely wear by promoting oxidation. Premature oxidation can be particularly troublesome in basketball goal assemblies having any moving parts, such as height adjustment mechanisms or breakaway rim assemblies. Moreover, consistent exposure to the elements of the weather may cause premature failure of such mechanisms. Mounted basketball goal assemblies that are utilized in an indoor environment may suffer from similar disadvantages associated with permanent placement. For example, schools typically have a gymnasium which generally serves many functional purposes. Having several basketball goals permanently mounted for use in the gymnasium may preclude, or at least interfere, with certain other activities. On formal occasions, objection may be made to the appearance of one or more permanently mounted basketball goals. In response to these and other disadvantages inherent in basketball goal assemblies that are permanently mounted to a surface, those skilled in the art began developing portable basketball assemblies. In order for a portable basketball goal assembly to be effective, sufficient weight must be employed to maintain the basketball goal in a generally rigid, upright position for use when playing the game of basketball or shooting baskets. Hence, portable basketball goal assemblies were developed utilizing a great deal of weight at the base, thereby making the goal assembly particularly difficult to move and typically requiring the assistance of several people to set up or relocate the basketball goal. Additionally, such designs can be prohibitively expensive for people desiring to purchase one for home use. Other prior art portable basketball goal assemblies were developed which incorporate removable weights such as, for example, sand bags or metal weights, that are generally disposed in relation to the support structure. A principal disadvantage in using these types of removable weights is that they can be extremely heavy, difficult to lift and arrange. Accordingly, although the basketball goal assemblies employing such designs may be easier to move in relation to permanently mounted goal assemblies, the weights or weighted members are not. In an attempt to make portable basketball goal assemblies that are better suited for home use, support bases were developed having a hollow cavity sufficient for receiving a ballast material. The ballast material introduced into the cavity of the support base may include water, sand or other suitable material. Such portable basketball goal assemblies can be more easily moved to a desired location where the support base is then filled with the ballast material, thereby providing sufficient weight to maintain the goal in a generally rigid, upright position for game play. A principal advantage of using a support base fillable with a ballast material is that water, sand or other fillable materials are usually inexpensive and convenient to use. When it is desired to move these prior art portable basketball goal assemblies, the ballast material is generally emptied out of the internal cavity in the support base and then the basketball goal assembly is moved. However, having to fill and empty the goal each time the goal is to be set up or moved requires time and is inherently inconvenient. To assist in moving prior art basketball goal assemblies, one or more wheels were incorporated into support bases to facilitate movement of the basketball goal assembly. For example, one such wheeled support base design is disclosed wherein the support base generally engages the ground and rests on one or more base wheels. Movement is achieved by lifting and tilting the support base generally on an end until substantially the weight of the base rests on the wheels. Thus, the base wheels serve as a rotating fulcrum upon which the effective weight of the basketball goal assembly may be supported such that the basketball goal assembly then is maneuverable in this position from place to place. A disadvantage to prior art base support wheel assemblies is that pivoting a heavy base to facilitate its relocation can be difficult for some people and especially for children to move. Specifically, attempting to pivot a heavy support base may present dangers associated with having the entire basketball goal assembly dropped on one or more persons or children. This is especially true when someone without sufficient physical strength attempts to pivot or move a heavy support base. Whereas, a sudden release of the heavy base can cause bodily injury or damage to the base or those in its vicinity. In addition, many portable basketball goal assemblies do not fully engage the playing surface when positioned for game play. This is particularly problematic for basketball goal assemblies that incorporate wheels in the support base. For example, a portion of the base must be lifted off the playing surface to keep the basketball goal assembly from resting on the wheels and being somewhat moveable under little force. As a result, there is less friction between the support base and the playing surface, therefore the support base is liable to move during play, especially during slam dunks and other maneuvers that place a substantial lateral force on the basketball goal assembly. Another disadvantage with prior art portable basketball goal assemblies is that many are formed having the support pole positioned only a few inches from the inner edge of the base. As a result, the moveable support base extends outwardly and underneath the basketball net. This makes it difficult to execute game play strategies in which a player is positioned behind or beneath the basketball net because the support base extends into this area of game play, and may even cause a player to stumble. Moreover, many prior art portable basketball goal assemblies do not permit lateral (sideways) motion of the front portion of the support base. Thus, anyone attempting to move the heavy support base and attached pole and basketball goal support must intuitively push the assembly backward to move it or, alternatively, swing the rear portion of the support base around in an effort to orient the base before attempting to move the basketball goal assembly. This can be particularly troublesome when the basketball goal assembly is to be stored in a narrow enclosure; there may not be sufficient room to pivot the support base in order to remove the basketball goal assembly from the enclosure. As appreciated, small adjustments in the positioning of these type of prior art basketball goal assemblies for game play are generally more difficult if the front portion of the assembly, which supports the basketball goal, does not the capacity to be moved laterally. Furthermore, many prior art portable basketball goal assemblies cannot be manipulated from a stationary configuration to a mobile configuration without changing the position of the device (i.e., forceably tilting the support base). This makes minor repositioning even more difficult, as a user must attempt to move the support base and then try to guess where the base will end up after the basketball goal assembly is returned to a stationary configuration. A user may thus find it exceptionally difficult to move these prior art basketball goal assemblies only an inch or two. As noted above, some of the prior art designs of portable basketball goal assemblies also have a number of other problems. For example, some have portions that protrude from the support base and thereby create a playing hazard. Others have moving parts that may pinch body parts as they fold or collapse together. Many prior art designs of portable basketball goal assemblies are also overly expensive and difficult to assemble because they require the use of special fixtures such as bearings, collars, and the like to retain metal parts such as wheels, posts, and sliding members in engagement with the support base. Consistent with the foregoing, it would be an advancement in the art to provide an improved support base for portable basketball goal assemblies that can be easily moved by one person without having to pivot a significant portion of the weight of the support base in order to facilitate movement. It would be a further advancement in the art to provide a novel support base and wheel system for basketball goal assemblies that can be readily adapted into a playing position, thereby being resistant to movement during game play. Yet further, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a portable basketball goal system that is readily movable, as described above, in which substantially the entire underside of the base rests upon the playing surface during game play, so as to impart additional stability and resistance to forces acting on the basketball goal assembly which may tend to move the assembly when configured in the playing position. A still further advancement over the prior art devices would provided by such a basketball goal system wherein the support base does not extend underneath the basketball net, thus impeding net play or causing potential injury to one or more players. It would be a further advancement in the art to provide a portable basketball goal assembly having a front portion that could be easily moved in a lateral direction. Furthermore, an advancement would be provided by a portable basketball goal assembly that could be made mobile without having to significantly shift the weight of the assembly for movement, so that minor positioning adjustments may easily be made. Further advancements in the art may stem from providing a support base that is substantially free from protruding objects or members that may impede normal use or game play, and substantially free from folding or compressing areas accessible to a user. Still further advancements in the art would be to provide a basketball goal assembly in which comparatively few fixtures are required to retain moving or assembled parts within the support base. Such a device is disclosed and claimed herein. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a basketball goal system employing a novel adjustable wheel engagement assembly that facilitates movement of the basketball goal system relative to a playing surface. One presently preferred embodiment of the novel basketball goal system of the present invention comprises a rigid support pole having a first end configured to supportably engage a basketball goal above a playing surface and a second opposing end adapted to engage a movable support base. The support base may include a receiving aperture formed in a first portion of the support base, wherein the receiving aperture is adapted to receive and maintain the second end of the support pole in either a fixed or pivotal relationship thereto. The support base further includes sufficient weight appropriately disposed along its dimensional length and width so as to support the rigid support pole and the basketball goal in a general upright position over a playing surface for game play. In one presently preferred embodiment, an adjustable wheel assembly is operably disposed proximate the front portion of the support base having the receiving aperture for receiving the support pole. Preferably, the adjustable wheel assembly comprises a caster rotatably disposed in relation to a support assembly. As will be appreciated, one or more rollers may be supportably disposed in relation to the support base between the front portion and the back portion of the base, if desired. In one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the adjustable wheel assembly and one or more rollers, in combination, may provide sufficient support to the base to allow for selective maneuvering of the basketball goal system to various locations for either game play or storage. An engaging member, moveable between an extended position and a retracted position, is disposed in operable engagement to the support pole. In one presently preferred embodiment, the engaging member comprises a proximal end pivotally connected to the second end of the support pole contiguous the front portion of the base and proximate the receiving aperture that receives the support pole. The engaging member further comprising a distal end configured to engageably receive a hand of a user (e.g., forming a handle). Preferably, the engaging member is pivotally engages the support pole such that the engaging member may be selectively pivoted between an extended position wherein the distal end of the engaging member extends substantially outward and at an angle relative to the generally upright disposition of the support pole and a retracted position wherein the distal end of the engaging member extends substantially parallel to the disposition of the support pole positioned for game play. In one presently preferred embodiment, the adjustable wheel assembly may comprise a caster mounted on a slider that selectively extends outward from a hollow channel formed at the second end of the support pole. The distal end of the engaging member may include a cam adjustment surface designed to rest upon a follower that is attached to the slider. In operation, the rotational positioning of the cam adjustment surface, when selectively pivoting the engaging member between the retracted position and the extended position, subsequently controls the vertical position of the follower, and therefore that of the slider. As noted above, in the retracted position, the engaging member is generally disposed substantially upward and parallel to the disposition of the support pole. In operation, the cam adjustment surface of the engaging member may be pivoted in such a way that the follower remains in an upward position. Consequently, the slider of the adjustable wheel assembly may be retained within the internal periphery of the hollow chamber of the support pole, and the caster may therefore be retracted such that the weight of the basketball goal system does not rest upon the adjustable wheel assembly, but rather on the contacting surface of the base support to prevent movement of the basketball goal system. Although one or more rollers may remain in constant contact with the playing surface, the rollers alone are ineffective to allow movement of the support base from one location to another when the engaging member is selectively positioned in the retracted position. Significant movement of the basketball goal system is thus prevented during game play when the engaging member is disposed in the retracted position and the caster is selectively retracted from supporting engagement with the playing surface. In the extended position, the engaging member extends substantially outward and at an angle relative to the generally upright disposition of the support pole for game play. In operation, the cam adjustment surface of the engaging member may be rotated to a position in which the follower is forced generally downward in relation to the support base. Consequently, the slider generally slides outward from within the hollow channel at the second end of the support pole and, as the caster supportably engages the playing surface, the front portion of the support base is subsequently lifted off the playing surface so that the weight of the front portion of the support base supportably rests upon the caster of the adjustable wheel assembly. As noted above, the distal end of the engaging member may then used as a handle or lever for gripping in order to facilitate maneuvering of the support base and, accordingly, the basketball goal system from one location to another for game play or storage. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel adjustable wheel assembly for a basketball goal system having an engaging member adapted to be selectively positionable between a retracted position such that the support base is restricted from significant movement in relation to the playing surface and an extended position which facilitates controlled movement of the support base and, correspondingly, the basketball goal system from one location to another. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a support base for a basketball goal assembly that may be moved from one location to another without having to physically lift or tilt the support base from its substantially horizontal position relative to the playing surface. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a basketball goal system having an engaging member comprising a distal end that serves as a handle or lever for gripping by a user when attempting to manually maneuver the basketball goal system from one position to another. It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a novel adjustable wheel assembly for basketball goal systems that maintains a substantial frictional area between the support base and the playing surface for stable game play when the engaging member is disposed in a retracted position and, correspondingly, a significant portion of the length of the slider is selectively disposed in the hollow channel formed in the second end of the support pole. Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a support base for a basketball goal system that remains substantially displaced from beneath a basketball net to make net play safer and easier. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a support base for a basketball goal system, wherein a front portion of the support base can be moved in a lateral direction by means of displacing the engaging member in an extended position, thus disposing the caster of the adjustable wheel assembly in supportable relation to the playing surface so as to facilitate easy maneuvering of the basketball goal assembly from one location to another. These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS To further clarify the above and other advantages and features of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one presently preferred embodiment of a basketball goal system in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 is a side view of the embodiment of the basketball goal system of FIG. 1 illustrating a support pole, a support base, and an extending member, wherein the basketball goal system is disposed in a stationary configuration for game play; FIG. 3 is a side view of the embodiment of the basketball goal system of FIG. 1 illustrating an engaging member disposed in an extended position and an adjustable wheel assembly supportably engaging the playing surface, wherein facilitating selective movement of the basketball goal system from one location to another; FIG. 4 is an exploded, cross-sectional, side view of a front portion of the support base illustrating the pivotal relationship of the extending member and the adjustable wheel assembly of the embodiment of the basketball goal system of FIG. 1 , wherein a contacting surface of the support base remains in frictional contact with the playing surface to prevent movement of the basketball goal system; FIG. 5 is an exploded, cross-sectional, side view of the front portion of the support base illustrating the structural relationship between the cam surface of the engaging member and the follower attached to the slider of the adjustable wheel assembly of the embodiment of the basketball goal system of FIG. 1 , wherein the slider slidably extends outwardly from its telescopic engagement with the second end of the support pole and thereby positions the caster in supportable relation to the playing surface so as to lift a portion of the contacting surface of the support base from its frictional engagement with the playing surface so as to allow for easy transportation of the basketball goal system from one location to another; FIG. 6 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the basketball goal system, illustrating the engaging member disposed in a playing position; FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 6 with the engaging member disposed in an extended position; FIG. 8 is a rear perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 6 showing the engaging member secured in the playing position; FIG. 9 , is a perspective view of another embodiment of the support base of the basketball goal system; FIG. 10 is a bottom plan view of the support base of the basketball goal system; FIG. 11A is a side view of another embodiment of the basketball goal system with the engaging member disposed in the playing position; FIG. 11B is a side view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 11A with the engaging member disposed in the extended position; and FIG. 12 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the basketball goal assembly illustrating the engaging member in the extended position for storage. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS It will be readily understood that the components of the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in the Figures herein, could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of the embodiments of the system and method of the present invention, as represented in FIGS. 1 through 5 , is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as claimed, but it is merely representative of the presently preferred embodiments of the invention. The presently preferred embodiments of the invention will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout. One presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, designated generally at 10 , is best illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 . As shown, the basketball goal system 10 comprises a rigid support pole 14 having a first end 13 configured to supportably engage a basketball goal assembly 30 above a playing surface 26 and a second opposing end 13 adapted to mountably engage a support base 12 . Structurally, the support base 12 includes a receiving aperture 28 formed in a front portion 36 of the support base 12 , wherein the receiving aperture 28 is adapted to receive and maintain the opposing second end 13 of the support pole 14 in either a fixed or pivotal relationship to the base 12 . The support base 12 preferably comprises sufficient weight so as to support the pole 14 and the basketball goal assembly 30 in a general upright position over a playing surface 26 . In addition, one or more brace supports 15 may have opposing ends adapted to provide a structural connection between the support base 12 and the pole 14 so as to assist in providing structural support to retain the support pole 14 and the attached basketball goal assembly 30 in a generally upright configuration for game play. In one presently preferred embodiment, the basketball goal assembly 30 may include a backboard 16 , a rim 18 , a net 20 , and upper and/or lower engagement arms 19 a , 19 b pivotally connected between the basketball backboard 16 and the first end 11 of the support pole 14 . As contemplated herein, an adjustment assembly (not shown) may be operably disposed in relation to the upper and/or lower engagement arms 19 a , 19 b of the basketball goal assembly 30 such that selective manipulation of the adjustment assembly results in a corresponding adjustment in the height of the basketball goal assembly 30 above the playing surface 26 . The support base 12 of the present invention is preferably formed of a substantially sturdy, rigid material. For example, the support base 12 may be formed of a polymeric material such as, for example, a low-density linear polyethylene. It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, however, that a wide variety of other suitable materials such as wood, fiberglass, ceramic, any of numerous organic, synthetic or processed materials which are mostly thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers of high molecular weight, and/or other composite or polymeric materials are possible which are consistent with the spirit and scope of the present invention. The support pole 14 is preferably constructed of a rigid material having comparatively high resistance to impact and yielding. Although certain plastics and polymers may be used, the support pole 14 of one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention is formed of metal, such as steel or aluminum, or of a sufficiently sturdy composite material. It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the support pole 14 of the present invention may comprise two or more sectional members that can be assembled together to form a single support pole having sufficient structural integrity so as to support a goal support assembly 30 above a playing surface 26 . For example, the support pole 14 may include two or more sectional members that telescopically engage each other to provide a single support pole 14 . Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5 , in one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the support base 12 is formed having a cavity 60 having an internal periphery sufficient for receiving a ballast material such as, for example, water, sand, or the like. In operation, the ballast material provides sufficient weight and adequate support to retain the support pole 14 and the basketball goal assembly 30 in a general upright position during rigorous game play. In such an embodiment, the support base 12 may be configured with an opening (not shown) formed in the upper surface 40 of the support base 12 such that when the base 12 is filled, for example, with water to the point that the water level in the support base 12 reaches the opening, a void remains within the upper portion of the cavity 60 which does not fill with water. This is to allow for expansion of the water in the case of freezing temperatures. In operation, after introducing the ballast material into the internal periphery of the cavity 60 of the support base 12 , a closure or cap (not shown) may be secured in the face of the opening to prevent the displacement of the ballast material from the cavity 60 of the support base 12 . As will be appreciated, the support base 12 may not include a cavity 60 for introducing a ballast material, but rather comprise sufficient weight, in and of itself, to ensure the stability of the basketball goal system 10 when the support pole 14 and the attached basketball goal assembly 30 are disposed generally upward from the playing surface 26 for game play. Referring back to FIGS. 1 and 2 , in one presently preferred embodiment, the support base 12 comprises a front portion 36 , a rear portion 38 , an upper surface 40 , and a contacting surface 42 . The receiving aperture 28 of the support base 12 , which receives and maintains the second end 13 of the support pole 14 in fixed or pivotal relation thereto, is preferably formed within the front portion 36 of the support base 12 . The engagement between the support pole 14 and the receiving aperture 28 of the support base 12 may include a cross-brace member 66 (e.g., a linear shaft or axle) having a proximate end, a distal end, and an intermediate body portion formed between the proximate and distal ends thereof. In this regard, the proximate end of the cross-brace member 66 may be engageably disposed in relation to the support base 12 and the distal end of the cross-brace member 66 engageably disposed in relation to the support pole 14 . In one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, a first and second cross-brace member 66 are formed on opposite sides of the support pole 14 , thus engaging opposite sides of the receiving aperture 28 of the support base 12 , as best shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 . It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that other mechanisms may be constructed in accordance with the inventive principles set forth herein so as to facilitate a fixed or pivotal connection between the support pole 14 and the support base 12 . It is intended, therefore, that the example provided herein be viewed as exemplary of the principles of the present invention, and not as restrictive to a particular structure for implementing those principles. Also disposed in relation to the cross-brace member 66 is an engaging member 22 . As best illustrated in FIGS. 1-3 , the engaging member 22 , being selectively moveable between an extended position and a retracted position so as to define an adjustable distance 24 therebetween, is disposed in pivotal engagement to the support pole 14 by means of one or more cross-brace members 66 . In one presently preferred embodiment, the engaging member 22 comprises a proximate end 21 pivotally connected to the second end 13 of the support pole 14 contiguous the front portion 36 of the support base 12 and proximate the receiving aperture 28 which structurally receives the support pole 14 in relation to the base 12 . The engaging member 22 also includes a distal end 23 and an elongate intermediate body portion 25 formed between the proximal and distal ends 21 , 23 thereof. The distal 23 of the engaging member 22 is preferably configured to receive a hand of a user (e.g., forming a handle) to assist in maneuvering the basketball goal system 10 from one position to another when the engaging member 22 is positioned in the extended position. As noted above, the engaging member 22 is structurally disposed relative to the rigid support pole 14 and the base 12 in such a manner that the engaging member 22 may be selectively pivoted between an extended position wherein the distal end 23 of the engaging member 22 may extend substantially outward and at an angle relative to the support pole 14 (as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 ) and a retracted position such that the distal end 23 of the engaging member 22 may be positioned substantially parallel to the generally upright disposition of the support pole 14 (as shown in FIGS. 1 , 2 , and 4 ). When the engaging member 22 is positioned in the extended position, an adjustable wheel assembly 50 is operably disposed into supportable engagement with the playing surface 26 such that the front portion 36 and at least a portion of the contacting surface 42 of the support base 12 is lifted from its frictional engagement with the playing surface, thereby allowing the basketball goal system 10 to be moved from one location to another. In contrast, when the engaging member 22 is positioned in the retracted position, the adjustable wheel assembly 50 is retracted from supportable engagement with the playing surface 26 such that the contacting surface 42 of the support base 12 remains in frictional engagement with the playing surface, thus restricting movement of the support base 12 and, correspondingly, the basketball goal system 10 . Referring now to FIG. 2 , one presently preferred embodiment of the support base 12 includes a contacting surface 42 that may be formed having a slight slope upward gently toward the back portion 38 of the support base 12 to expose a roller 44 supportably engaging a portion of the contacting surface 42 . Preferably, a portion of the roller 44 remains in substantial communication with the playing surface 26 when the support base 12 is in the playing position. As will be appreciated, one or more rollers 44 may be supportably disposed in relation to the support base 12 at various positions between the front portion 36 and the back portion 38 of the support base, if desired, to assist in maneuvering the basketball goal system 10 when the engaging member 22 is selectively positioned in the extended position as shown in FIG. 3 . In one presently preferred embodiment, the roller 44 may comprise a caster or a single cylindrical wheel extending a sufficient length across the width of the support base 12 to assist with maneuvering of the support base 12 when the adjustable wheel assembly 50 is disposed in supportable relation to the playing surface 26 . It is anticipated, therefore, that any arrangement of rollers is herein contemplated to be within the scope of the present invention, so long as the rollers, independent of the adjustable wheel assembly 50 , cannot facilitate significant movement of the support base 12 without selectively disposing the engaging member 22 in the extended position, thus activating the supportable engagement of the adjustable wheel assembly 50 with the playing surface 26 . Preferably, two or more cylindrical wheels 44 are rotatably disposed in relation to the contacting surface 42 of the support base 12 proximate the back portion 38 to provide additional maneuvering support to the support base 12 when engaging the adjustable wheel assembly 50 and thus moving the basketball goal system 10 from one location to another. The rollers 44 preferably turn about axles that are mounted in at least a portion of the contacting surface 42 of the support base 12 and are thus configured to support translation of the support base 12 along an axis extending between the front and back portions 36 , 38 . The contacting surface 42 , however, fictionally engages the playing surface 26 at the front portion 36 of the support base 12 , so that the support base 12 remains substantially immobile until the adjustable wheel assembly 50 is selectively positioned to supportably engage the playing surface 26 . A substantial portion of the contacting surface 42 of the support base 12 therefore remains in frictional contact with the playing surface 26 to ensure that the basketball goal system 10 remains sufficiently stable even during rough game play. As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 , the engaging member 22 , when positioned in the retracted position, may be generally oriented substantially vertical in relation to the support base 12 , and may further act as a rebound surface for a basketball during game play. In this regard, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the intermediate body portion 25 of the engaging member 22 may be formed in geometrical configuration or shape sufficient to provide a rebound surface for a basketball. Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 5 , when the extending member 22 in positioned in the extended position, the distal end 23 of the extending member 22 is disposed outwardly away from the generally upward direction of the support pole 14 . Correspondingly, the adjustable wheel assembly 50 extends a length from its telescopic engagement with the second end 13 of the support pole 14 , thereby supportably lifting the front portion 36 of the support base 12 from frictional engagement with the playing surface 26 . In one presently preferred embodiment, the adjustable wheel assembly 50 comprises a caster 52 operably disposed in relation to a support assembly comprising a slider 64 having a dimensional length sufficient for selectively extending from a hollow channel formed at the second opposing end 13 of the support pole 14 when the engaging member 22 is positioned in the extended position. In structural relationship, the engaging member 22 preferably includes a cam adjustment surface 74 designed to rest upon a follower 68 that is operably attached to the slider 64 approximate a leading end thereof. In operation, the rotational position of the cam adjustment surface 74 determines the vertical positioning of the follower 68 along its length and therefore the corresponding vertical positioning of the slider 64 relative thereto, as best illustrated in FIG. 4 and 5 . In one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the caster 52 engages a swivel base 82 rigidly connected to the leading end of the slider 64 . The operable relationship between the caster 52 and the swivel base 82 supports multiple directions of movement so that the front portion 36 of the support base 12 can be oriented in a lateral direction by manual manipulation of the distal end 23 of the engaging member 22 (e.g., which preferably provides a handle for gripping by a user). Maneuvering the basketball goal system 10 by selectively positioning of the engaging member 22 in the extended position and thereby disposing the caster 52 of the adjustable wheel assembly SO in supportable relationship with the playing surface 26 is thus intuitive and simple. Preferably, the caster 52 is rotatably mounted at the leading end of the slider 64 of the adjustable wheel assembly SO. The caster 52 may comprise any configuration that permits rolling in several different directions. In one presently preferred embodiment of the adjustable wheel assembly SO, the caster 50 comprises a swivel base 82 affixed to the slider 64 to permit a full 3600 of rotation about the axis of the support pole 14 . An extension plate 84 may be mounted vertically, extending outwardly from engagement with the swivel base 82 to retain the caster 52 via an axle 86 . The caster or wheel 52 is preferably horizontally displaced from the axis of the support pole 14 , so that the caster 52 will align itself with a direction of motion of the front portion 36 of the base support 12 . Thus, a user may pull on the distal end 23 of the engaging member 22 to move the basketball goal system lain a forward direction or, in the alternative, a user may apply a pushing force against the distal end 23 of the engaging member 22 to rotate the caster 52 and thereby induce lateral movement in the front portion 36 of the support and, accordingly, cause controlled movement of the basketball goal system 10 from a first location to second location. In one presently preferred embodiment, the caster 52 may be configured to extend directly from the second end 13 of the support pole 14 so as to directly bear the weight of the pole 14 . It will be appreciated, however, that the caster 52 may be formed off-set the support pole 14 in such a manner so as to sufficiently support the weight of the support pole 14 and the front portion 36 of the support base 12 supportably lifted from engagement with the underlying playing surface 26 . It is intended, therefore, that the example provided herein be viewed as exemplary of the principles of the present invention, and not as restrictive to a particular structure for implementing those principles. Referring to FIG. 4 , a cross-sectional side view of the front portion 36 of the support base 12 of the basketball goal system 10 is illustrated as defined along lines “ 4 - 4 ” of FIG. 1 . As shown, a receiving aperture 28 is preferably formed in the front portion 36 of the support base 12 and includes an internal periphery having a dimensional size and configuration sufficient to accommodate the second end] 3 of the support pole] 4 in fixed or pivotal engagement with the support base 12 . The receiving aperture 28 may be formed separate from an internal cavity 60 also formed in the support base 12 . The internal cavity 60 preferably comprises an internal dimensional periphery sufficient for holding a ballast material, as discussed above. In one presently preferred embodiment, the support pole 14 pivotally engages the support base 12 by means of a shaft 66 that preferably extends into the support base 12 on either or both sides of the second end 13 of the support pole 14 . The shaft 66 may terminate at one or both ends in a locking pin or shaped cap segment (not shown) designed to fit within a corresponding receiving slot (not shown) integrally formed in the front portion 36 of the support base 12 to restrict pivotal motion of the support pole 14 about the shaft 66 . The receiving slot may be open on the upper surface 40 of the support base 12 to permit easy assembly of the pole 14 and the base 12 by way of introducing the shaft 66 into the receiving slot (not shown). The proximal end 21 of the engaging member 22 may also be pivotally mounted on the shaft 66 , but is free to pivot about the shaft 66 independent the pivotal relationship of the support pole 14 . It will be appreciated that a follower 68 may be supportably mounted on one or both sides of the slider 64 to provide structural support between the support base 12 and proximate end 21 of the engaging member 22 when the basketball goal system 10 is being moved from one location to another. Moreover, the follower 68 may take any form or configuration suitable for variably engaging the contoured cam adjustment surface 74 of the engaging member 22 . A simple smooth, rounded projection or knob may form the follower 68 ; however, in one presently preferred embodiment, a bearing 70 may be rotatably mounted on a hub 72 to provide smooth motion with a minimum of wear. As best illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 , the outer contacting edges of the follower 68 engage the cam adjustment surface 74 formed at the proximal end 21 of the engaging member 22 . The cam adjustment surface 74 preferably takes the form of a cam shaped to push the follower 68 to an extended position when the extending member 22 is positioned in the extended position, wherein the distal end 23 thereof is situated substantially outward and at an angle from the pole support 14 , as best illustrated in FIG. 4 . Referring specifically now to FIG. 5 , the cam adjustment surface 74 is reoriented to structurally encourage the slider 64 substantially outward a length from the second end 13 of the support pole 14 via the engagement between the follower 68 and the cam surface 74 . As appreciated, the cam adjustment surface 74 must be properly contoured to ensure that a substantially consistent downward force on the follower 68 is maintained through the entire range of motion of the engaging member 22 . Referring back to FIGS. 4 and 5 , a first structural stop 80 may be formed at the proximate end 21 of the engaging member 22 to engage the follower 68 and thereby provide a form of “capture” to prevent further extension of the engaging member 22 when positioned in the fully extended position. Alternatively, the engaging member 22 may function without the first structural stop 80 and thus permit the engaging member to extend into a near horizontal position, if desired. A second structural stop 81 may be formed at the proximate end 21 of the engaging member 22 to engage the follower 68 and thereby provide a form of “capture” to prevent further extension of the engaging member 22 when disposed in the fully retracted position. Consistent with the foregoing, the present invention provides a novel basketball goal system 10 having a support base 12 which is moveable without having to physically tilt the support base 12 and thereby support a significant portion of the overall weight of the basketball goal system 10 . By selectively retracting the caster 52 of the adjustable wheel assembly 50 from supportable contact with the playing surface 26 , maneuverability and operation of the support base 12 are facilitated and safety is therefore increased. The pivoting engaging member 22 serves to thereby restrict movement of the support base 12 by preventing contact of the caster 52 with the playing surface 26 . Moreover, the engaging member 22 may provide a handle to assist in movement of the basketball goal assembly 10 and a rebound surface for the basketball during game play, if desired. Stability of the basketball goal system 10 during play is improved by selectively maintaining a substantial portion of the contacting surface 38 of the support base 12 in frictional contact with the playing surface 26 for game play. Movement of the basketball goal system 10 from one location to another is further simplified by the use of an adjustable wheel assembly 50 operably disposed in extendable relation to the second end 13 of the support pole 14 engageably received at the front portion 36 of the support base 12 . The adjustable wheel assembly 50 comprises a caster 52 connected to a swivel base 82 which, in combination, permits the lateral movement of the front portion 36 of the support base 12 when the extending member 22 is positioned in the extended position. The incorporation of one or more rollers 44 in concert with the adjustable wheel assembly 50 facilitates controllable maneuverability of the basketball goal system 10 of the present invention from one location to another location. Moreover, the linear path of extension and retraction of the slider 64 and the caster 52 of the adjustable wheel assembly 50 enables supportable deployment of the caster 52 in relation to the playing surface 26 without substantially moving the basketball goal system 10 , so that easy adjustments are possible. In addition, the structural arrangement of the cam adjustment surface 74 and the follower 68 has a number of operative benefits. For example, the leverage involved enables a user to lift the considerable weight of the front portion 36 of the support base 12 (i.e., over an inch or more) with a comparatively small downward force acting on the engaging member 22 . The cam adjustment surface 74 and the follower 68 are also enclosed within the receiving aperture 28 , so that fingers or other extremities of a user may not be easily pinched, and no significant part protrudes horizontally outward from the support base 12 in any configuration so as to injure a user or impede storage of the basketball goal system 10 . The telescopic engagement between a length of the slider 64 and the second end 13 of the support pole 14 also imparts a number of distinct advantages to the present invention. For example, the mounting of the caster 52 on the slider 64 selectively disposed within hollow channel formed in the support pole 14 provides a more rigid connection than a fixture attached to a polymeric material, such as plastic, which may be used to form the support base 12 . This structural arrangement between the caster 52 and the slider 64 of the adjustable wheel assembly 50 with the support pole 14 provides a sturdier basketball goal system 10 in which the greatest loads are carried by stronger, more rigid members. Manufacturing and assembly of the basketball goal system 10 is also simplified by reducing the number of metal fixtures that must be mounted in relation to the support base 12 to retain metal parts. Consequently, the basketball goal system 10 of the present invention may be manufactured with comparatively little expense and difficulty. The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its structures, methods, or other essential characteristics as broadly described herein and claimed hereinafter. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative, and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims, rather than by the foregoing description. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope. Another presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, designated generally at 110 , is best illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 . As shown, the basketball goal assembly 110 comprises a support base 112 having a top surface 114 , a bottom surface 116 , a front end 118 , and a rear end 120 . The support base 112 rests on a generally horizontal playing surface and is configured to support the additional members of the basketball goal assembly 110 . In one presently preferred embodiment, the support base 112 is formed of a substantially sturdy, rigid material. For example, the support base 112 may be formed of a polymeric material such as, for example, a low-density linear polyethylene. It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, however, that a wide variety of other suitable materials such as wood, fiberglass, ceramic, any of numerous organic, synthetic or process materials which are mostly thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers of high molecular weight, and/or other composite or polymeric materials are possible which are consistent with the spirit and scope of the present invention. The basketball goal assembly 110 further comprises an engaging member 122 having first and second ends 124 and 126 . In one presently preferred embodiment, the engaging member 122 generally tapers in width from the first end 124 as it extends towards the second end 126 . The first end 124 of the engaging member 122 is pivotally connected to the front end 118 of the support base 112 . This allows the engaging member 122 to pivot between the playing position as shown in FIG. 6 and the extended position as shown in FIG. 7 . As with the support base 112 , in one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the engaging member 122 is formed of a substantially sturdy, rigid material. For example, the engaging member 122 may be formed of a polymeric material such as, for example, a low-density linear polyethylene. It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, however, that a wide variety of other suitable materials such as wood, fiberglass, ceramic, any of numerous organic, synthetic or process materials which are mostly thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers of high molecular weight, and/or other composite or polymeric materials are possible which are consistent with the spirit and scope of the present invention. In the playing position, the engaging member 122 extends in a generally upward direction relative to the support base 112 . The engaging member 122 is configured and disposed relative to the support base 112 such that when the engaging member 122 is selectively positioned in the playing position the first end 124 of the engaging member 122 contacts the playing surface. Contacting the playing surface thereby restricts movement of the support base 112 , as will be discussed in further detail below. In one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the engaging member 122 includes a second end 126 having one or more extended portions 130 . The extended portions 130 form a recess 132 through which the front end 118 of the support base 112 may at least partially extend. The extended portions 130 are configured to contact the playing surface when the engaging member 122 is in the playing position. Upon assembly, a support pole 128 is inserted into a receiving aperture (not shown) that is formed in the support base 112 such that the support pole 128 is retained in a substantially vertical orientation in relation to the base 112 . As appreciated, the support pole 128 is sufficiently secured in the receiving aperture of the base 112 to maintain the disposition of the pole 128 . The support pole 128 serves to support a basketball goal assembly 129 in relation to the playing surface. In one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the engaging member 122 may be configured with a recess 134 which receives at least a portion of the pole 128 when the engaging member 122 is disposed in the playing position. In the playing position, the engaging member 122 operates to restrict the movement of the support base 112 by supportably contacting the playing surface. Functionally, the engaging member 122 further serves to provide a rebound surface for a basketball during game play of shooting baskets. In addition, the engaging member 122 may provide protection for the securement of the pole 128 in the receiving aperture and function as a support to the pole 128 by means of engaging the pole 128 , as will be explained in further detail herein below. With reference to FIG. 7 , the basketball goal assembly 110 is shown with the engaging member 122 pivoted into the extended position. The extended position is defined herein as a position where the first end 124 of the engaging member 122 is not in contact with the playing surface. Specifically, the extended portions 130 of the engaging member 122 are no longer disposed in restrictive contact with the playing surface such that the support base 112 may be moved to another location, if desired. In the extended position, the engaging member 122 may serve as a lever or handle to allow manual movement of the support base 112 . In one presently preferred embodiment, the engaging member 122 is further configured with one or more handles 136 on the second end 126 . The handles 136 serve to facilitate manual manipulation of the engaging member 122 . With reference to FIG. 8 , another perspective view of the basketball goal assembly 110 is shown with the engaging member 122 disposed in the playing position. In one presently preferred embodiment, the second end 126 of the engaging member 122 is configured with a recess to receive and engage at least a portion of the length of the support pole 128 . The engaging member 122 may further comprise a removable fastener disposed on the second end 126 to secure the engaging member 122 to the pole 128 when in the playing position. One of skill in the art will appreciate that the removable fastener may include one or more clamps, pins, collars or the like. In one presently preferred embodiment, the removable fastener may comprise a pair of brackets 138 formed adjacent the second end 126 of the engaging member 122 , as best shown in FIG. 8 . When in the playing position, the support pole 128 is generally disposed between the brackets 138 . A retaining pin 140 may be introduced through a slot formed in the support pole 128 and supported to thereby selectively secure the engagement of the engaging member 122 to the pole 128 . This engagement prevents unexpected movement of the engaging member 122 during game play and thus retains the engaging member 122 in the playing position. In an alternative embodiment, the engaging member 122 , when secured to the pole, provides additional structural support to the pole 128 . Still referring to FIG. 8 , a removable cap 144 is shown disposed at the back end 120 of the support base 112 . The cap 142 serves to allow the insertion or removal of a ballast material into an internal cavity formed in the support base 112 . With reference to FIG. 9 , the support base 112 is shown without the engaging member 122 . In one presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the support base 112 has an internal cavity 146 for receiving a ballast weight such as, for example, water, sand, or the like. The ballast weight provides support to the basketball goal assembly during rigorous game play. In such an embodiment, the support base 112 is configured with an opening 148 near, but spaced from, the top surface 114 of the support base 112 such that when the base 112 is filled with water to the point that the water level in the support base 112 reaches the opening 148 , a void remains within the top of the cavity 146 which does not fill with water. This is to allow expansion of the water in the case of freezing temperatures. In operation, after introducing the ballast material into the internal cavity 146 of the support base 112 , the cap 144 may be secured into the opening 148 to prevent the displacement of the ballast material from the base 112 . As will be appreciated, the support base 112 may alternatively forgo the use of a cavity 146 and comprise sufficient weight to act as ballast in order to ensure the stability of the basketball goal assembly 110 . With reference to FIG. 10 , the bottom surface 116 of the support base 112 is shown. Preferably, the support base 112 comprises a roller 150 disposed in supportable relation to the support base 112 adjacent to the front end 118 of the base 112 . The roller 150 is capable of supporting the effective weight of the support base 112 to thereby maneuver the base 112 from place to place. In one presently preferred embodiment, the roller 150 comprises a single roller extending a sufficient length across the width of the support base 112 to allow maneuvering of the base 112 . Alternatively, the roller 150 may comprise two or more rollers 150 for supporting the support base 112 . The roller 150 may be embodied as a cylindrical wheel or a caster. One of skill in the art will readily appreciate that various embodiments of the roller 150 are possible and are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention. The support base 112 may include a caster 152 disposed in relation to the bottom surface 116 of the base 112 at a spaced apart distance from the roller 150 . The caster 152 serves to provide additional support to facilitate maneuvering of the support base 112 when disposing the engaging member 122 in the extended position. In one presently preferred embodiment, the caster 152 may be disposed at an intermediate position between the front and back ends 118 , 120 of the support base 112 to better balance the weight between the roller 150 and the caster 152 . Referring again to FIG. 10 , the support base 112 may include a shaft 154 (shown in phantom) that preferably extends across at least a portion of the width of the base 112 and is operably secured to the engaging member 122 at its first end 124 . The shaft 154 supports the engaging member 122 and provides an axle about which the engaging member 122 can pivot between the playing position as shown in FIG. 6 and the extended position as shown in FIG. 7 . In the presently preferred embodiment illustrated in FIG. 10 , the shaft 154 extends into the extended portions 130 of the support base 112 . In an alternative preferred embodiment, the shaft 154 may comprise two portions with each portion separately secured to the engaging member 122 and the support base 112 . In yet another alternative embodiment, the shaft 154 may extend through the roller 150 and provide a supporting axle to the roller 150 . With reference to FIG. 11A , a side view of the basketball goal assembly 110 is shown with the engaging member 122 in the playing position. The engaging member 122 is configured and disposed in relation to the support base 112 such that when in the playing position the first end 124 of the engaging member 122 contacts the playing surface 156 to prevent movement of the basketball goal assembly 110 . In a presently preferred embodiment, the extended portions 130 of the engaging member 122 contact the playing surface 156 , as best shown in FIG. 6 . The engaging member 122 contacts the playing surface 156 and thus prevents contact between the roller 150 and the playing surface 156 . This effectively renders the roller 150 inoperable and prevents movement of the support base 112 . In an embodiment utilizing the caster 152 , contact between the caster 152 and the playing surface 156 is maintained. The support base 112 may be slightly tilted by the engaging member 122 such that a portion of the support base 112 adjacent the back end 120 contacts the playing surface 156 . This contact prevents a further restriction to movement. With reference to FIG. 11B , a side view of the basketball goal assembly 110 is shown with the engaging member 122 in the extended position. In this position, the engaging member 122 is not in contact with the playing surface 156 . Thus, the roller 150 , as well as the caster 152 , remains in contact with the playing surface 156 . In the extended position, the support base 112 may then be maneuvered to another location, as desired. The second end 126 of the engaging member 122 may be used to guide and otherwise maneuver the support base 112 to the new location. With reference to FIG. 12 , the engaging member 122 is shown in the extended position wherein being disposed in a generally horizontal position relative to the support base 112 to accommodate for compact storage of the support base 112 and the engaging member 122 after removal of the support pole 128 . In such a position, the basketball goal assembly 110 is suitable for storage or shipping. As disclosed herein, the present invention provides a novel two-part support base for a basketball goal assembly 110 having a support base 112 which is readily moveable without having to physically tilt the base 112 and thereby support a significant portion of its weight. By manually maintaining contact between the first end 124 of the engaging member 122 with the playing surface 156 , movement of the support base 112 is facilitated and safety is therefore increased. The pivoting engaging member 122 serves to thereby restrict movement of the support base 112 by preventing contact of the roller 150 with the playing surface 156 . Moreover, the engaging member 122 may provide a handle to assist in movement of the basketball goal assembly 110 , a rebound surface for the basketball during game play and a protective shield to protect the securement of the support pole 128 in relation to the support base 112 , if desired. The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

A portable basketball goal system having an adjustable wheel assembly is disclosed. The portable basketball goal system may comprise a rigid pole, a support base, an adjustable wheel assembly, and an engaging member. The support base is configured to maintain the rigid pole in a generally elevated position. The adjustable wheel assembly is connected to the support base and has an engaged and disengaged position. In the engaged position, the wheel assembly supportably engages a playing surface. In the disengaged position, the wheel assembly may not supportably engage the playing surface. The adjustable wheel assembly may be slidably coupled to the support base. The adjustable wheel assembly may be operated by an engaging member coupled to a cam surface. The cam surface may interact with a follower to transition the adjustable wheel assembly between the supportable and unsupportable engagements.

BACKGROUND [0001] Mobile electronic devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and digital cellular telephones are increasingly used for electronic commerce (e-commerce) and mobile commerce (m-commerce). Programs that execute on the mobile devices to implement e-commerce and/or m-commerce functionality may need to operate in a secure mode to reduce the likelihood of attacks by malicious programs (e.g., virus programs) and to protect sensitive data. [0002] For security reasons, at least some processors provide two levels of operating privilege: a first level of privilege for user programs; and a higher level of privilege for use by the operating system. The higher level of privilege may or may not provide adequate security, however, for m-commerce and e-commerce, given that this higher level relies on proper operation of operating systems with highly publicized vulnerabilities. In order to address security concerns, some mobile equipment manufacturers implement yet another third level of privilege, or secure mode, that places less reliance on corruptible operating system programs, and more reliance on hardware-based monitoring and control of the secure mode. An example of one such system may be found in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0140245, entitled “Secure Mode for Processors Supporting MMU and Interrupts.” [0003] In addition to this secure mode, various hardware-implemented security firewalls and other security monitoring components have been added to the processing systems used in mobile electronic devices to further reduce the vulnerability to attacks. Despite this addition of security protection in the processing hardware, mobile electronic devices remain vulnerable to a common software security attack known generically as “stack buffer overflow.” In a stack buffer overflow attack, executable code is written on an execution stack and the return address of a currently executing function is modified so that it will point to the beginning of this new code. When the function call returns, the attacker's code is executed. SUMMARY [0004] Accordingly, there are disclosed herein techniques by which a system is protected from malicious attacks such as those described above (e.g., buffer overflow attacks). An illustrative embodiments includes a system comprising control logic adapted to activate multiple security levels for the system. The system further comprises a storage coupled to the control logic and comprising a stack, the stack associated with one, but not all, of the multiple security levels. The system also comprises security logic coupled to the control logic and adapted to restrict usage of the system if the control logic attempts to fetch an instruction op-code from the stack. [0005] Another illustrative embodiment includes a system comprising a storage having a range of memory addresses associated with a security mode of the system. The system also comprises firewall logic coupled to the storage and adapted to restrict usage of the system if a signal attempting to access an instruction op-code from memory associated with the range of addresses is detected. [0006] Yet another illustrative embodiment includes a method of protecting a system comprising monitoring memory access signals, at least a portion of the memory associated with one, but not all, of a plurality of security modes. The method also comprises restricting usage of the system if one of the memory access signals attempts to access an instruction op-code from the portion. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0007] For a detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which: [0008] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system in accordance with embodiments of the invention; [0009] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram describing a security infrastructure in accordance with embodiments of the invention; [0010] FIG. 3 shows a detailed version of the security infrastructure of FIG. 2 , in accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention; [0011] FIG. 4 shows a detailed version of the system of FIG. 1 , in accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention; and [0012] FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of a method in accordance with embodiments of the invention. NOTATION AND NOMENCLATURE [0013] Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claims to refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, companies may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . . ” Also, the term “couple” or “couples” is intended to mean either an indirect or direct electrical connection. Thus, if a first device couples to a second device, that connection may be through a direct electrical connection, or through an indirect electrical connection via other devices and connections. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0014] The following discussion is directed to various embodiments of the invention. Although one or more of these embodiments may be preferred, the embodiments disclosed should not be interpreted, or otherwise used, as limiting the scope of the disclosure, including the claims. In addition, one skilled in the art will understand that the following description has broad application, and the discussion of any embodiment is meant only to be exemplary of that embodiment, and not intended to intimate that the scope of the disclosure, including the claims, is limited to that embodiment. [0015] Inasmuch as the systems and methods described herein were developed in the context of a mobile computing system, the description herein is based on a mobile computing environment. However, the discussion of the various systems and methods in relation to a mobile computing environment should not be construed as a limitation as to the applicability of the systems and methods described herein to only mobile computing environments. The teachings herein can be applied to any type of system (e.g., desktop computers). [0016] The system disclosed herein comprises a hardware-based firewall subsystem which protects the system from malicious attacks, such as buffer overflow attacks. FIG. 1 shows the system 100 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention. The system 100 preferably comprises an ARM® TrustZone® architecture, but the scope of this disclosure is not limited as such. In accordance with at least some embodiments, the system 100 may be, or may be contained within, a mobile device such as a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), text messaging system, and/or a device that combines the functionality of a messaging system, PDA and a cellular telephone. The system 100 includes a multiprocessor unit (MPU) 102 and a secure state machine (SSM) 104 comprising the firewall subsystem (shown in FIG. 4 ). The MPU 102 couples to a storage 106 via an interface 110 , a write bus 112 and a read bus 114 . The write bus 112 and read bus 114 also couple to the SSM 104 via buses 118 and 116 , respectively. The SSM 104 monitors activity (e.g., data transactions, instruction op-code fetches) on the read and write buses to detect specific activities which indicate the possibility that a malicious attack is being carried out on the system 100 . If such malicious activity is detected, the SSM 104 sends security violation signals to one or more of the MPU 102 , the interface 110 , and/or the security enforcement module 108 , depending on the specific violation that has occurred. Upon receiving a security violation signal, each of the MPU 102 , the interface 110 , and the security enforcement module 108 takes a different action to prevent or at least mitigate damage to the system 100 . [0017] The system 100 is capable of operating within a variety of different security modes. The security modes of the system 100 are established to protect memory in the storage 106 from attack. Specifically, the storage 106 , which may comprise random access memory (RAM), NOR and NAND flash memory, synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), etc., is partitioned into public and secure domains. The public domain is accessible in a non-secure mode and the secure domain is accessible only in a secure mode. In at least some embodiments, the public and secure domain partitions are virtual (i.e., non-physical) partitions generated and enforced by a memory management unit (MMU) in the MPU 102 (shown in FIG. 4 ). [0018] Each of the secure and non-secure modes may be partitioned into “user” and “privileged” modes. Programs that interact directly with an end-user, such as a web browser, are executed in the user mode. Programs that do not directly interact with an end-user, such as the operating system (OS), are executed in the privileged mode. By partitioning the secure and non-secure modes in this fashion, a total of four security modes are available. As shown in FIG. 2 , in order of ascending security level, these four modes include the non-secure user mode 200 , the non-secure privileged mode 202 , the secure user mode 204 , and the secure privileged mode 206 . There is an additional security mode, called the monitor mode 208 , between the modes 202 and 204 . The computer system 100 may operate in any one of these five modes at a time. [0019] The computer system 100 may switch from one mode to another. FIG. 2 illustrates a preferred mode-switching sequence 210 . The sequence 210 is preferred because it is more secure than other possible switching sequences. For example, to switch from the non-secure user mode 200 to the secure privileged mode 204 , the system 100 should first pass through non-secure privileged mode 202 and the monitor mode 208 . Likewise, to pass from the secure user mode 206 to the non-secure user mode 200 , the system 100 should switch from the secure user mode 206 to the secure privileged mode 204 , from the secure privileged mode 204 to the monitor mode 208 , from the monitor mode 208 to the non-secure privileged mode 202 , and from the non-secure privileged mode 202 to the non-secure user mode 200 . [0020] Some of the five security modes shown in FIG. 2 comprise additional sub-modes, as shown in FIG. 3 . FIG. 3 shows the non-secure privileged mode 202 comprising six sub-modes 300 - 310 . Specifically, the non-secure privileged mode 202 comprises a non-secure supervisor mode 300 , a non-secure system mode 302 , a non-secure FIQ mode 304 , a non-secure IRQ mode 306 , a non-secure abort mode 308 , and a non-secure UNDEF mode 310 . Similarly, the secure privileged mode 204 comprises six sub-modes 312 - 322 . In particular, the secure privileged mode 204 comprises a secure supervisor mode 312 , a secure system mode 314 , a secure FIQ mode 316 , a secure IRQ mode 318 , a secure abort mode 320 , and a secure UNDEF mode 322 . Each of these modes, except for the supervisor and system modes, is dedicated to one or more software actions and is triggered by an exception vector. By contrast, the supervisor and system modes are execution modes. [0021] Briefly referring to FIG. 1 , the security mode of the system 100 is determined using security bits stored in the MPU 102 . Adjusting the security bits adjusts the security mode of the system 100 . Bus 128 , which couples the MPU 102 and the SSM 104 , provides a copy of the security bits to the SSM 104 so that the SSM 104 may determine the current security mode of the system 100 . Informing the SSM 104 of the current security mode of the system 100 enables the SSM 104 to protect the system 100 appropriately. [0022] Each of the security modes shown in FIG. 3 preferably is allocated a portion of the memory in storages 106 . At least some of the memory allocated to the security modes is in the form of “stacks,” which are data structures capable of storing data in a last-in, first-out (LIFO) format. Each security mode is assigned a different stack so that, for example, the stack of a secure mode is not corrupted by data associated with a non-secure mode. When the system 100 is operating in a particular security mode, the stack associated with that mode is used and stacks associated with other modes are not used. [0023] In some cases, the system 100 may engage in multi-thread processing. Accordingly, some of the security modes shown in FIG. 3 are assigned multiple stacks, each stack associated with a different thread (or “context”). For example, while in secure supervisor mode 312 , the MPU 102 may use a stack associated with the secure supervisor mode 312 to temporarily store data while executing in a first thread. If the MPU 102 needs to switch to a second thread while operating in the same secure supervisor mode 312 , a second stack associated with the secure supervisor mode 312 is used in the second thread. If the MPU 102 needs to resume operating in the first thread, the original stack is used in lieu of the second stack. [0024] Referring to FIG. 1 , when switching from a first thread to a second thread (and thus from a first stack to a second stack), the MPU 102 stores context information associated with the first stack in the SSM 104 . Context information may include the range of addresses associated with the first stack, a pointer indicating a current position in the first stack, and one or more bits indicating the type of security mode associated with the first stack. When the MPU 102 needs to resume using the first stack, the context information is retrieved from the SSM 104 and is used to find the first stack and to find the current position in the first stack. [0025] The storage of context information in the SSM 104 is advantageous because the SSM 104 may use the context information to monitor the write and read buses 112 and 114 for malicious activity. The SSM 104 may conceivably use the context information to enforce security in myriad ways, and all such permutations are encompassed within the scope of this disclosure. In one possible security technique, the SSM 104 restricts access to the various memory stacks in the storage 106 to data accesses only. If the SSM 104 detects an attempt by the MPU 102 to fetch an instruction op-code from a stack, the SSM 104 generates one or more alert signals, which are serviced as described further below. In this way, the SSM 104 is able to thwart various types of attacks, such as buffer overflow attacks, which intend to hijack execution flow and which can involve the fetching of instruction op-codes off of dedicated security mode stacks in the storage 106 . [0026] In another possible security technique, the SSM 104 ensures that each dedicated security mode stack in the storage 106 is protected from being accessed in unauthorized security modes. For example, if the SSM 104 determines (i.e., using the SECMON bus 128 ) that the system 100 is in a non-secure user mode 200 and that the MPU 102 is attempting to access a stack that is associated with the monitor mode 208 , the SSM 104 generates one or more alert signals. [0027] In still another possible security technique, the SSM 104 may be pre-programmed to monitor the write and read buses 112 and 114 for specific activities which, if detected, cause the SSM 104 to generate security violation signals. For example, if the SSM 104 determines via the write bus 112 that the MPU 102 is attempting to write to the same location in the same stack two consecutive times (as is often done with buffer overflow attacks), the SSM 104 may generate one or more alert signals. The SSM 104 is not limited to the protective security measures described above. Any and all such monitoring techniques are encompassed within the scope of this disclosure. The three possible security techniques specifically mentioned above are now described in detail with reference to FIG. 4 . [0028] FIG. 4 shows the system 100 of FIG. 1 in detail. The MPU 102 comprises a core 400 which couples to a plurality of caches 402 , a memory management unit (MMU) 404 and an interrupt handler 406 . The storage 106 comprises an interconnect 432 which couples ROM 424 , RAM 426 , SDRAM 428 and FLASH 430 with the write and read buses 112 and 114 . The security enforcement module 108 comprises a security attack indicator 420 and a program reset control module 422 . The SSM 104 comprises a write access handler 408 and a read access handler 410 . The write access handler 408 couples to a static firewall 416 and a dynamic firewall 418 via bus 434 . The read access handler 410 couples to the static firewall 416 and the dynamic firewall 418 via bus 436 . The dynamic firewall 418 couples with a violation handler 412 via bus 438 and registers 414 via bus 442 . The static firewall 416 couples with the violation handler 412 via bus 440 and registers 414 via bus 444 . The violation handler 412 couples with the security attack indicator 420 via bus 126 A and the program reset control module 422 via bus 126 B. The violation handler 412 further couples with the interface 110 via bus 446 and the interrupt handler 406 via bus 122 . [0029] As described above, memories in the storage 106 (e.g., ROM 424 , RAM 426 ) allocate memory space for a plurality of dedicated security mode stacks. Each security mode of the system 100 is assigned to one or more of the stacks, so that when the system 100 is operating in a particular security mode, the stack of that security mode is used to temporarily store data. If a thread switch occurs from a first thread to a second thread, the context of the stack used in the first thread is stored in the registers 414 (e.g., via interface 110 and bus 120 ), and a different stack is used in the second thread. As previously mentioned, the context of the stack may include information such as a range of memory addresses associated with the stack, a pointer indicating a current position in the stack, a security level associated with the stack, etc. In some embodiments, the registers 414 in the SSM 104 are programmed with the range of addresses associated with each dedicated security mode stack, as well as an identifier indicating the security mode associated with each stack. [0030] Data writes performed via the write bus 112 are monitored by the write access handler 408 via bus 118 . Likewise, data reads performed via the read bus 114 are monitored by the read access handler 410 via bus 116 . The write and read access handlers 408 and 410 decode signals carried on the buses 112 and 114 and transfer the decoded signals to the static firewall 416 and dynamic firewall 418 via buses 434 and 436 , respectively. [0031] Although each of the firewalls 416 and 418 monitors the decoded signals for different types of malicious activity, each of the firewalls operates in a similar manner. Specifically, each firewall receives a decoded signal from one of the write or read access handlers and compares the decoded signal to context information stored in the registers 414 . If, by performing such a comparison, a firewall determines that an attack is being carried out, the firewall sends a violation signal to the violation handler 412 . In turn, the violation handler 412 takes appropriate action to prevent or at least mitigate damage to the system 100 . Each of the firewalls is now described in turn. [0032] The static firewall 416 preferably is a hardware-based firewall. The static firewall 416 uses signals received from the write and read access handlers 408 and 410 to detect malicious activity. Specifically, each signal processed by the read access handler 408 comprises a memory address and further comprises data associated with that memory address. The static firewall 416 compares the memory address with each of the ranges of addresses associated with the security mode stacks stored in the storage 106 . If the memory address falls within one of these ranges, and further if the static firewall 416 determines that the read signal is an attempt to fetch an instruction op-code from this memory address, then it is determined that the MPU 102 is attempting to fetch an instruction op-code from a dedicated security mode stack, an action which is indicative of a buffer overflow attack. Accordingly, the static firewall 416 issues a violation signal to the violation handler 412 via bus 440 . The violation handler 412 services the violation signal as described further below. [0033] In addition, the static firewall 416 compares the address associated with each read and/or write signal to the ranges of addresses associated with the dedicated security mode stacks to determine if the MPU 102 is attempting to access a stack whose security level is higher than the current security level of the system 100 . Specifically, if it is determined that the MPU 102 is attempting to access a dedicated security mode stack, the static firewall 416 further compares the current security mode of the system 100 (i.e., determined using SECMON bus 128 ) to the security mode associated with that stack. If the two security modes match, or if the current security mode of the system 100 is more secure than the security mode associated with the stack, the static firewall 416 preferably takes no action. However, if the two security modes do not match, or if the current security mode of the system 100 is less secure than the security mode associated with the stack, the static firewall 416 issues a violation signal to the violation handler 412 via bus 440 . The violation handler 412 services the violation signal as described further below. [0034] Like the static firewall 416 , the dynamic firewall 418 preferably is a hardware-based firewall. The dynamic firewall 418 monitors stack accesses for activity that is indicative of a malicious attack. The dynamic firewall 418 may be programmed with one or more pre-determined activities which, if detected, indicate a malicious attack. If the activity detected on a read or write bus matches one of the pre-determined activities, the dynamic firewall 418 issues a violation signal to the violation handler 412 via bus 438 . For example, buffer overflow attacks are often characterized by the writing of data to the same memory location in the same stack two or more times in a row. If the dynamic firewall 418 detects two consecutive write signals that have the same destination memory address, and further if this destination memory address falls within an address ranges of a dedicated security mode stack (i.e., determined using registers 414 and bus 442 ), the dynamic firewall 418 may issue a violation signal to the violation handler 412 via bus 438 . [0035] Specifically, the dynamic firewall 418 may comprise a temporary storage (e.g., a register) in which it logs the destination memory address of each write operation to a dedicated security mode stack. Upon receiving a next write operation, the firewall 418 compares the destination address stored in the temporary storage with the destination memory address of the received write operation. If the two match, it is determined that the MPU 102 is attempting to write to the same location in the same stack two consecutive times in a row. As such activity is indicative of a buffer overflow attack, the firewall 418 issues a violation signal to the violation handler 412 via bus 438 . Multiple variations of this general security technique are possible, and the scope of this disclosure encompasses any and all such variations. [0036] Upon receiving a violation signal from a firewall, the violation handler 412 takes appropriate action to prevent or at least mitigate damage to the system 100 . Specifically, the violation handler 412 decodes a received violation signal to determine what type of action should be taken in response to the malicious activity being carried out on the system 100 . In some cases, the violation handler 412 may send an alert signal to the program reset control module 422 , thereby resetting a currently executing program. In other cases, the violation handler 412 may send an alert signal to the security attack indicator 420 , thereby providing an indication to a user of the system 100 that system integrity has been compromised. Such an indication may take the form of a visual indication (e.g., an alert message on a display, a flashing light-emitting-diode (LED)), an audible indication (e.g., a ring tone or a beeping tone), or a tactile indication (e.g., vibration), although the scope of this disclosure is not limited to these possibilities. In yet other cases, the violation handler 412 may send an alert signal to the interface 110 , causing the interface 110 to abort a current instruction op-code fetch or data retrieval. In still other cases, the violation handler 412 may send an alert signal to the interrupt handler 406 , causing the interrupt handler 406 to stop the core 400 from executing malicious code. In some embodiments, a combination of one or more of the above alert signals may be generated by the violation handler 412 in response to a received violation signal. The violation handler 412 may comprise a data structure that cross-references various types of possible violation signals with suitable actions that may be taken in response to receipt of the violation signals. [0037] FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of a method 500 usable in accordance with embodiments of the invention. The method 500 begins by determining a destination address of an access to storage 106 (block 502 ) and determining whether the MPU 102 is attempting to access dedicated security mode stacks (block 504 ). As described above, the firewalls in the SSM 104 may determine whether the MPU 102 is attempting to access dedicated security mode stacks by comparing the destination address of the access to the ranges of addresses stored in the registers 414 of the SSM 104 . If the MPU is not attempting to access the dedicated security mode stacks, control of the method 500 returns to block 502 . However, if the MPU is attempting to access one of the dedicated stacks, the method 500 also comprises determining whether the MPU is fetching an instruction op-code from the stack (block 506 ). If the MPU is fetching an instruction op-code from the stack, the method 500 comprises issuing a violation signal (block 512 ) and taking protective action (block 514 ). [0038] However, if the MPU is not fetching an op-code from a dedicated stack, the method 500 further comprises determining whether the current security mode of the system 100 (i.e., determined using the bus 128 ) is more secure than or equivalent in security to the security mode of the destination stack of the current access (block 508 ). If not, the method 500 comprises issuing a violation signal (block 512 ) and taking protective action (block 514 ). Otherwise, the method 500 comprises determining whether the destination address is the same as the destination address of a preceding write signal (block 510 ). If the destination address of the current access is identical to that of a preceding write signal, a buffer overflow attack is likely being carried out on the system 100 . Accordingly, the method 500 comprises issuing a violation signal (block 512 ) and taking protective action (block 514 ). Otherwise, control of the method 500 resumes at block 502 . [0039] The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the principles and various embodiments of the present invention. Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.

A system comprising control logic adapted to activate multiple security levels for the system. The system further comprises a storage coupled to the control logic and comprising a stack, the stack associated with one, but not all, of the multiple security levels. The system also comprises security logic coupled to the control logic and adapted to restrict usage of the system if the control logic attempts to fetch an instruction op-code from the stack.

FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for removing volatile organic compounds from gaseous mixtures, and collecting the organic compounds in condensed form. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION N 2 streams in chemical plants and air streams in chemical processes are contaminated by volatile organic compounds and enormous amounts of these compounds are discharged into the atmosphere. Small and mid-size distributed sources of such VOC-contaminated air are found in air stripping product streams, centrifugal purge/inerting systems, degreasing of metal parts, dry cleaning stores, printing and painting facilities, propellant manufacturing operations, soil decontamination facilities, ventilation systems, etc. The solvent encountered in such air streams are, for example, toluene, xylene, acetone, trichloroethylene, trichloroethane, methanol, ethanol, etc. These solvent vapors pose a serious environmental problem, which in turn creates a large financial expense to those companies that produce streams of volatile organic compounds. Under the Clean Air Act and government regulations, volatile organic compounds can no longer be simply discharged into the air. It is now mandatory to treat such air streams to remove volatile organic compounds. Common methods of reducing emissions are adsorption on activated carbon, absorption in a liquid, incineration or thermal oxidation (usually without energy recovery) and catalytic oxidation. There are disadvantages to these common methods. Firstly, adsorption on activated carbon is the most widely used process. However, this process is quite expensive, especially if the organic content in the process air stream exceeds 0.1-0.5% (Baker, R.; C. M. Bell; and H. Wijmans: "On Membrane Vapor Separation versus Carbon Absorption," Paper 174d presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Calif. (1989)). In addition, relative humidity should be lower than 30-50% for carbon adsorption to be effective. The exothermic adsorption process leads to high temperatures in the carbon beds for higher organic concentrations, resulting in persistent operational problems and even fires in the activated charcoal plant (Armand, B. L.; H. B. Uddholm; and P. T. Vikstrom: "Absorption Method to Clean Solvent-Contaminated Process Air", Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 29, 436 (1990)). This type of method is not effective in removing light hydrocarbons. Additionally, expensive construction materials must be used to lessen contamination of activated carbon and the corrosion of equipment, which occurs during steaming to recover the solvent from the carbon bed. Many solvents hydrolyze in the presence of water or steam at high temperatures and the activated carbon acts as a catalyst for these hydrolysis reactions (Kohl, A. and F. Riesenfeld, Gas Purification 3rd Edition, Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, (1979)). Conventional liquid absorption systems are too bulky and costly for processes with small or large air flow. For small air flow, the capital cost of air absorption apparatus is not cost effective; for large systems, the scale-up is difficult. In addition, absorption systems are subject to flooding, loading, entrainment, etc. Incineration is an unattractive method because of the very dilute concentrations of volatile organic compounds in the air and the possibility of forming chlorinated compounds like dioxin (Armand, B. L.; H. B. Uddholm; and P. T. Vikstrom: "Absorption Method to Clean Solvent-Contaminated Process Air," Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 29, 436 (1990)). The incineration method also requires supplemental fuel-firing unless the volatile organic compound concentration is quite high. Another method for removing volatile organic compounds from air applies a vacuum to one side of a permselective membrane. Nonporous polymeric rubbery membranes are highly selective for volatile organic compounds (Peinemann, K. V.; J. M. Mohr; and R. W. Baker: "The Separation of Organic Vapors from Air", AIChE Symp. Ser., 82 (250), 19 (1986)). Using this method, however, it is difficult to bring the volatile organic compound concentration below 200 ppm. A further disadvantage to this method, if an air/N 2 selective membrane is used, is that Air/N 2 has a very low permeability through most membranes. As a result, the membrane area must be very large so as to provide adequate permeation. The cost of such a large membrane area would be very high. A further method for removing volatile organic compounds from air uses biofilters. One known disadvantage to this method is that the microorganisms, if available, usually metabolize a specific compound or class of compounds; they cannot metabolize arbitrary volatile organic compound mixture. An enormous amount of research and development will be required to determine whether microorganisms can effectively reduce the volatile organic compounds in air to a level of 1-5 ppm. Hollow fiber devices have been used to strip volatile species from water (Zhang, Qi and E. L. Cussler: "Microporous Hollow Fibers for Gas Absorption", J. Membrane Sci., 23 321 (1985); Semmens, M. J.; R. Qin; and A. Zander: "Using a Microporous Hollow Fiber Membrane to Separate VOCs from Water", Journal AWWA, April, 162 (1989)), or absorb gases in aqueous solutions (Zhang, Qi and E. L. Cussler: "Microporous Hollow Fibers for Gas Absorption", J. Membrane Sci., 23, 321 (1985); Karoor, S. and K. K. Sirkar: "Gas Absorption Studies in Microporous Hollow Fiber Membrane Modules", Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 32, 674 (1993)). In conventional hollow fiber gas-liquid contactors, the pore is usually gas filled and the absorbent does not wet the hydrophobic fibers. The absorbent, in the conventional systems, is at a pressure higher than that of the gas, and the gas-liquid contacting interface at the pore mouth is on the liquid side of the fiber (Zhang, Qi and E. L. Cussler: "Microporous Hollow Fibers for Gas Absorption", J. Membrane Sci., 23, 321 (1985)). Other devices permit nondispersive gas absorption using an aqueous nonwetting absorbent in the pores of the microporous hydrophobic fiber and the gas phase at a higher pressure (Karoor, S. and K. K. Sirkar: "Gas Absorption Studies in Microporous Hollow Fiber Membrane Modules", Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 32, 674 (1993)). In that device, the absorbent had to be introduced by a complicated exchange process since it was nonwetting. Other efforts using nonporous hollow fibers for nondispersive gas-liquid contacting for volatile organic compound scrubbing or removal by an organic wetting liquid have failed due to an inadequate understanding of the role of phase pressure (Jansen, A. E.; P. H. M. Feron; J. J. Akkerhuis; and B. P. T. Meulen: "Vapor Recovery from Air with Selective Membrane Absorption", Paper presented at ICOM '93, Heidelberg, Germany, Sep. 2, 1993). The prior art includes a number of separation devices. These devices perform satisfactorily for their purpose, however, there is room for improvement. U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,918 to Sirkar, issued Jun. 14, 1988, relates to an apparatus which permits a gas to be selectively transferred from a feed gas mixture to an output fluid. This device does not provide a means for regenerating the output fluid so as to permit its reuse. European Patent Publication No. 0430331A1 relates to a method for removing organic compounds from air by flowing air on one side of a membrane and flowing a liquid in which the organic compounds are highly soluble in a countercurrent direction on the other side of the membrane. U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,434 to Sirkar et al., issued Nov. 27, 1990, relates to a single-ply immobilized liquid membrane, which is immobilized within a hydrophobic microporous support, and the process for making such a membrane. U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,468 to Sirkar, issued Dec. 6, 1988, relates to an apparatus for liquid--liquid solute-transfer. The apparatus consists of a feed solution chamber, a liquid extractant chamber, and a pressure difference regulator. In operation, the feed solution is pumped into the feed solution chamber at a substantially constant rate under pressure. The extractant is pumped into the extractant chamber at a controlled pressure. The feed solution contacts one side of the porous membrane. Pressures of the feed solution and the extractant are imposed in directions and magnitude to substantially immobilize the interface between the feed solution and the extractant at the porous membrane. The solute passes through the pores of the membrane into the extractant. The extractant is then discharged from the housing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,612 to Sirkar, issued May 1, 1990, relates to an asymmetrically-wettable porous membrane and a process for transferring solute from a liquid feed solution to a liquid extractant, which is substantially immiscible with the feed solution. The housing of the unit has an asymmetrically-wettable porous membrane which divides the interior of the housing into a feed chamber, into which a feed solution is pumped then discharged, and an extractant chamber, into which an extractant is pumped then discharged. The side of the membrane facing the feed solution chamber is hydrophilic whereas the side of the membrane facing the extractant chamber is hydrophobic. Pores in the membrane permit communication between the feed solution and the extractant. The solute diffuses into the extractant. The extractant containing the solute is then discharged from the unit. This device does not provide a means for regenerating the extractant. U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,132 to Sirkar, issued Oct. 1, 1991, is a continuation of the previously discussed patent which relates to the asymmetrically-wettable porous membrane. U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,000 to Grasso et al., issued Mar. 30, 1993, relates to a method and apparatus for removing volatile compounds from a contaminated gas stream. The citation of any reference herein should not be deemed an admission that such reference is available as prior art to the invention. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a system for transferring a solute from a feed gas mixture to an absorbent liquid. The system comprises an absorption module, a pressure control means and a regeneration module. The absorption module contains a porous membrane. The pores of the membrane are wetted by the absorbent liquid contacting the feed gas mixture. The gas-liquid contact at the pore mouth is on the gas side of the fiber. The pressure within the absorption module is controlled so that the interface between the gas feed mixture and the liquid absorbent is substantially immobilized at the membrane to effectively prevent the formation of a dispersion of gas feed mixture and liquid absorbent in either chamber. The regeneration module contains a nonporous material which divides the regeneration module into a liquid absorbent chamber and a vacuum atmosphere chamber. A vacuum outlet port communicates with the vacuum chamber. In a specific embodiment, the present invention comprises two hollow fiber devices which resemble shell and tube-type heat exchangers. In the first hollow fiber device, contaminated gas-feed mixtures containing solutes are fed inside a plurality of hollow fibers with microporous walls. A suitable liquid absorbent, with a high solubility for the solute, is pumped countercurrently over the outside of the fibers. The solute partitions from the gas-feed mixture into the liquid absorbent where its concentration increases. The absorbent containing solute is transferred into a second hollow fiber device. The second hollow fiber device contains a plurality of hollow fibers with nonporous walls. The solute is recovered and the absorbent is regenerated by applying a vacuum through the lumen of the fibers. Since the absorbents can be inert, nontoxic and essentially nonvolatile, they can be reused. The present invention satisfies the need in this field for a simple, cheap and reliable method of removing volatile organic compounds from air gases or N 2 which can be used on any scale. The present invention uses efficient compact hollow fiber absorbers to remove volatile organic compounds from N 2 and recovers these volatile solvents for recycle by vacuum in a hollow fiber membrane regenerator for subsequent condensation, thus reducing air pollution. Both the solutes and the absorbent liquid used to remove the solute, can be reused after separation. This method is more efficient than incineration of volatile liquid compounds in air with respect to the ultimate destruction of volatile liquid compounds because a much smaller volume of liquid is to be incinerated. Another advantage is that the recovered volatile organic compounds can directly act as a fuel requiring no supplemental fuel firing. It is a primary object of this invention to provide various industries with a more efficient apparatus for reducing emissions. Another object of this invention is to provide various industries with an apparatus for reducing emissions which is cost effective. A third object of this invention is to provide an apparatus which removes solutes from gaseous mixtures by use of a liquid absorbent and simultaneously regenerates the liquid absorbent. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a combined volatile organic compound absorption/regeneration system. FIG. 2A depicts local partial pressure and concentration profiles of volatile organic compounds being absorbed in a microporous/porous hollow fiber module. FIG. 2B depicts the local partial pressure and concentration profiles of volatile organic compounds being absorbed in microporous/porous hollow fibers having an ultrathin plasma polymerized nonporous silicone skin. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a volatile organic compound absorption system. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a hollow fiber module with microporous fibers. FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating the outlet concentration and percent removal for acetone absorption in experimental module 3. FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating how the concentration of acetone in feed gas mixtures decreases as a function of the feed gas flow rate in experimental module 2 using microporous hollow fibers and silicone liquid as absorbent. Also illustrated is the corresponding percent removal of acetone from the gas stream. The initial concentration of acetone was 983 ppm (solid circle), or 204 ppm (open circle). FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating the outlet concentration and percent removal for methylene chloride absorption in experimental module 2. FIG. 8 illustrates the outlet concentration and percent removal for methanol absorption in experimental module 2. FIG. 9 illustrates the outlet concentration and percent removal in toluene absorption in experimental module 2. FIG. 10 illustrates the results of toluene removal in experimental module 1. FIG. 11 illustrates acetone removal in experimental module 2 as a function of feed gas composition for a given flow rate and a given silicone absorbent flow rate. FIG. 12 illustrates the effect of the silicone oil absorbent flow rate on the concentration of acetone in the treated gas feed leaving the apparatus of the invention. FIG. 13 illustrates the effect of the silicone oil absorbent flow rate on the outlet concentration of methylene chloride. FIG. 14 illustrates the effect of the silicone oil absorbent flow rate on the outlet concentration of toluene. FIG. 15 illustrates the variation of the overall mass transfer coefficient as a function of the gas flow rate for absorption of various VOCs (toluene represented by inverted triangle; methylene chloride represented by open square; and acetone represented by open circle) in silicone oil (for experimental module 2). FIG. 16 illustrates the removal of methylene chloride by absorbents Paratherm oil (represented by solid circle) and silicone oil (represented by open square) in experimental module 3 as a function of gas flow rate. FIG. 17 illustrates a comparison of the overall mass transfer coefficient of methylene chloride absorption in two types of fibers, one a microporous fiber with a thin silicone skin (open square); the other a porous fiber (open circle). FIG. 18 illustrates the outlet concentration as a function of gas flow rate for simultaneous absorption and stripping of methylene chloride. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention for removing vaporizable solutes from gaseous mixtures and collecting the solutes in condensed form is comprised of an absorber module and a regeneration module. Within the absorber module is a porous membrane. The porous membrane may have an ultrathin but highly solute-permeable plasma polymerized nonporous silicone skin on its outside surface. On one side of the porous membrane the gaseous mixture flows and on the other side of the porous membrane flows the liquid absorbent in a countercurrent or crosscurrent direction. A pressure difference is maintained between the gaseous feed mixture and the liquid absorbent. This pressure difference immobilizes the interface between the gaseous feed mixture and the liquid absorbent at the pore mouth of the porous membrane. There is no dispersion of the gas or liquid in the other phase. The regeneration module contains nonporous membrane that is selectively permeable to the solute. In a preferred aspect, a porous membrane with an ultrathin but highly solute-permeable plasma polymerized nonporous silicone skin on a surface is used. In a specific embodiment, the skin is on the outside of the membrane. In another embodiment, a nonporous material can be formed as a capillary. On one side of the membrane, the absorbent containing solute flows. A vacuum is applied to the other side. Preferably, the absorbent liquid flows on the outside of the membrane, and the vacuum is applied to the lumen. The reverse is also possible. Thus, in a preferred aspect, the porous membrane with an ultrathin plasma polymerized nonporous silicone skin contacts the liquid extractant and is permeable to the solute. As used herein, the term "solute" refers to, for example, volatile organic compounds. Specific examples of volatile organic compounds include toluene, xylene, acetone, trichloroethylene, trichloroethane, methanol, ethanol, methyl ethyl ketone, carbon tetrachloride, isobutanol, chlorobenzene, pentane, hexane, octane, fluorinated hydrocarbons (CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, CFC-114, CFC-115, etc.), HCFC (C 2 HCl 2 F 3 ), perchloroethylene, to mention but a few. Those skilled in the art will recognize the above list of examples is not exhaustive. The source of the gas-feed mixture containing a gas stream and volatile organic compounds may be, for example, air stripping product streams, centrifugal purge/inerting systems, degreasing of metal parts, dry cleaning stores, printing and painting facilities, propellant manufacturing operations, soil decontamination facilities, ventilation systems and gasoline transfer terminals. The gas stream may be, for example, air, N 2 O 2 , CO 2 , methane, argon, and helium. Those skilled in the art will recognize the above list of examples is not exhaustive. The term "porous membrane" or "microporous membrane" refers to a hydrophobic, a hydrophilic, or an asymmetric (hydrophobic on one surface and hydrophobic on the other) material containing pore having a diameter between 1 nm to about 10 μm. The pores allow the gas-feed mixture and the liquid absorbent to form an interface. The pores are spontaneously wetted when they fill with liquid absorbent. Preferably, the membrane is provided in the form of a hollow fiber. A porous membrane thickness is the range of about 5-50 μm is preferred. The term "ultrathin" when referring to the thickness of a highly solute-permeable plasma polymerized nonporous silicone skin on the outside surface of the porous membrane means approximately 0.1 μm to 10 μm; preferably about 1 μm. This ultrathin nonporous skin is a significant barrier to permeation for the higher molecular weight absorbent molecules. The skin developed by plasma polymerization on the microporous substrate develops an integral bonding with the substrate which has a much greater resistance to solvent swelling than conventional silicone rubber coatings. Examples of ultrathin nonporous skin include rubbers like dimethylsilicone, copolymers of silicone-polycarbonate, poly (1-trimethyl silyl-1-propyne), fluoroelastomers, polyurethane, and polyvinylchloride, to mention a few. The term "highly solute-permeable plasma polymerized nonporous silicone skin membrane" refers to a hydrophobic, hydrophilic, or an asymmetric (hydrophobic on one surface and hydrophilic on the other) material which is nonporous and provides a significant barrier to permeation for absorbent molecules. The molecular weight of solute molecules is considerably less than the molecular weight of the absorbent molecules. The nonporous membrane is much more permeable to the solute molecules than the absorbent molecules as a result. Preferably, the membrane is provided on the outer surface of a hollow fiber. The term "hydrophobic" describes a substance which does not absorb or adsorb water. Preferred hydrophobic membranes include porous polyethylene, porous polypropylene, porous polyamides, porous polyimides, porous polyetherketones, porous polyvinylidene fluoride, porous polyvinylchloride, porous polysulfone, porous polyethersulfone, and porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). In a specific embodiment, the hydrophobic membrane is a porous propylene membrane, CELGARD (Hoechst Celanese, SPD, Charlotte, N.C.). These membranes may be isotropic (like CELGARD), or they may be asymmetric, as in ultrafiltration membranes. In an embodiment of the invention, the hydrophobic membranes may be CELGARD X-10 and CELGARD X-20. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the above list of examples is not exhaustive. The term "hydrophilic" describes a substance that readily associates with water. Preferred hydrophilic membranes include porous regenerated cellulose, porous cellulose acetate, porous cellulose acetate-nitrate, porous cellulose triacetate, microporous glass, porous porcelain, and polyacrylonitrile, to mention a few. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the above list of examples is not exhaustive. The term "absorbent liquid" refers to a liquid that can be used to form a liquid membrane. The absorbent liquid may be any high boiling, inert, nonvolatile, organic absorbent which has a very low vapor pressure. The absorbent liquid may or may not be water insoluble. Examples of suitable absorbent liquids are dimethyl/polymethyl siloxanes, mineral oils, paraffinic oils, vegetable oils, heat transfer fluids, aqueous solutions of alkanolamines, hindered amines, pure polar hydrocarbons (n-methylpyrollidone, dimethylsulfoxide, sulfolane, etc.), and synthetic hydrocarbon solvents. More specifically, the examples may include silicone oil, Paratherm, Syltherm, Dowtherm, Calflo, Therminol, Syntrel, Isopar, and Norpar. A specific embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 1. Regenerated absorbent liquid is transported using a pump, 102, from an absorbent storage vessel, 104, through a rotameter, 106, into an absorber module. FIG. 1 shows the absorption of volatile organic species in absorber module, 108, with the absorbent liquid entering through the liquid absorbent inlet, 110. The absorber module, 108, contains a plurality of microporous hydrophobic fibers. The gas feed mixture containing volatile organic compounds is housed in a feed cylinder, 112. The cylinder pressure regulator, 114, is released and the gas feed mixture flows into the absorber module, 108, entering through the gas feed inlet, 116. The gas feed mixture flows through the absorber module on one side of the hollow fiber wall and the absorbent liquid flows on the other side. The liquid flow pressure of the absorbent within the absorber module is monitored by use of a pressure gage, 118, on the inlet side of the absorber module and a pressure gage, 120, on the outlet side of the absorber module, 108. Liquid flow rates are controlled by adjusting the stroke-length and the stroke frequency of the pump, 102. The gaseous flow pressure, of the gas feed mixture, is monitored by a pressure gage, 122, on the inlet side of the absorber module and a back pressure gage, 124, on the outlet side of the absorber module. The gas flow rate is maintained using a mass flow controller, 126, and a back pressure regulator, 128. Preferably, the gas pressure and absorbent liquid pressure are controlled by a microprocessor control means. In a system in which a microporous membrane is used in the absorbent module, the gas feed is maintained at a higher pressure than the pressure of the liquid absorbent. In a specific embodiment, the gas feed is in the range of about 1-10 psig, and the liquid absorbent is at about atmospheric pressure to about 10 psig. However, the absolute pressure of the gas feed and absorbent liquid can be much higher, as long as the gas feed pressure is slightly greater than the liquid absorbent pressure. The maximum difference, the breakthrough pressure, can be calculated as ##EQU1## where γ is surface tension, Θ is the wetting angle, and R p is the pore radius. The pressure difference should be less than this value. In a system in which the microporous hollow fibers in the absorbent module have a nonporous ultrathin skin, the gas feed pressure cannot be greater than the liquid absorbent pressure. In a specific embodiment, the gas feed pressure and the liquid absorbent pressure are atmospheric. In another embodiment, the microporous membrane can form a polymeric gel after wetting and swelling with the liquid absorber. More preferably, to avoid weakening of the membrane that can result from swelling, a polymeric gel is formed in the pores of the membrane. Such a gel stabilizes the gas-liquid interface. In one embodiment, an aqueous material can be introduced into the fiber to form a gel inside the hollow fiber. The material is then removed from the lumen of the fiber, but remains in the pores. After contacting the liquid absorbent, the liquid absorbent can replace water in the gel in the pores of the hollow fiber. The gas feed, which has had the volatile organic compounds removed, exits the absorber module through the gas feed outlet, 130. The volatile organic compound concentrations are measured at a gas chromatograph. The volatile organic compound laden absorbent exits the absorbent module through the absorbent outlet, 132. The liquid absorbent containing volatile organic compounds enters the regeneration module, 134, through the absorbent/volatile organic compound inlet, 136. The regeneration module contains a plurality of microporous hollow fibers having an ultrathin nonporous silicone skin. A vacuum is applied to the lumen of the hollow fibers in the regeneration module by a vacuum pump 138. The volatile organic compounds in the absorbent pass from the liquid absorbent into the membrane, and then into the vacuum. The volatile organic compounds, which have been stripped from the absorbent, exit the regeneration module through two outlets, 140. The volatile organic compounds are condensed in a condenser, 142. The regenerated absorbent, which has been stripped of volatile organic compounds, exits the regeneration module through an outlet, 144, and is returned to the absorbent storage vessel, 104. The pressure of the liquid absorbent is monitored using a pressure gage, 146. Another apparatus for regenerating volatile organic compound laden absorbent liquid heats the laden absorbent prior to passing the laden absorbent through the regeneration module. Alternatively, rather than applying a vacuum, a sweep vapor may be applied to draw off the volatile organic compounds which have to be removed from the liquid absorbent. The sweep vapor stream may be condensed into two immiscible layers. One layer may be condensed vapor and the other may be condensed volatile organic compounds. For example, large amounts of steam can be used to strip the volatile organic compounds from the liquid absorbent. FIG. 2A shows the absorption of volatile organic compounds from a gas-feed mixture by a liquid absorbent at the pores of a microporous hollow fiber. The hollow fibers may be hydrophobic or hydrophilic. The wall of the hollow fiber may be a gel membrane, for example, any polymeric membrane swollen by absorbent liquid. In a preferred embodiment, the microporous hydrophobic hollow fibers may be Celgard X-10 (Hoechst Celanese, Charlotte, N.C.). In a preferred embodiment, the inner diameter and the outer diameters of the hollow fibers are in the range of 50 μm-500 μm, respectively. The absorbent and the gas feed mixture flow in opposite directions on either side of the microporous membrane. In a preferred embodiment, silicone oil 200 fluid (Dow Corning, Midland, Mich.) and Paratherm (Paratherm Corporation, Conshohocken, Pa.) are used. The gas-feed mixture is comprised of a gas stream and volatile organic compounds. The gas stream may be, for example, air, N 2 or O 2 . In a preferred embodiment, acetone, methylene chloride, methanol and toluene are the volatile organic compounds. In an embodiment in which a hydrophobic membrane is used, and the absorbent liquid wets the membrane including the pore spaces, the gas mixture is maintained at a higher pressure than that of the liquid absorbent, in order to immobilize the liquid absorbent within the pores of the microporous membrane. The liquid absorbent wets or fills the pores of the microporous membrane interfacing with the gas-feed mixture. The volatile organic compounds pass from the gas-feed mixture into the liquid absorbent through the pores of the microporous membrane. In this embodiment, the surface tension at each pore can be used with the pressure exerted by the gas to keep the phases apart. FIG. 2B shows the absorption of volatile organic compounds from a gas feed mixture by a liquid absorbent at the pores of the microporous hollow fiber tube having an ultrathin plasma polymerized silicone skin. A microporous hydrophobic hollow fiber having an ultrathin, but highly permeable to volatile organic compounds, plasma polymerized nonporous silicone skin, on the outside surface of the hollow fiber (AMT, Inc., Minnetonka, Minn.) may be used. In a preferred embodiment, the ultrathin plasma polymerized layer of silicone may be, for example, ˜1 μm thick. The hydrophobic microporous fiber, in a preferred embodiment, using the ultrathin plasma polymerized layer of silicone has an inner diameter and outer diameter in the range of 50 μm-500 μm. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2B, the liquid absorbent flow pressure is maintained at higher or equal pressure with respect to the pressure of the gas-feed mixture. This pressure difference is necessary to prevent gases from easily permeating through the silicone skin and bubbling through the flowing organic solvent. If this occurred, gas bubbles get saturated with volatile organic compounds and would need to be recycled back to the gas feed stream after disengagement from the organic solvent at the end of the module. Since the thin silicone is nonporous, there is reduced contamination of the gas-feed stream by the liquid extractant than in previous devices. The skin used in the present invention is intrinsically different from conventional silicone rubber coatings applied onto microporous fibers. Because plasma polymerization on the microporous hollow fiber substrate develops an integral bonding with the substrate, the result is a much greater resistance to solvent swelling than is provided by conventional silicone rubber coating. EXAMPLES Membranes and Modules Two types of hollow fiber membranes were used. The first type was hydrophobic microporous polypropylene Celgard® X-10 fiber (Hoechst Celanese, Charlotte, N.C.), having 100 μm I.D. and 150 μm O.D. The second type was a hydrophobic microporous polypropylene fiber of 240 μm I.D. and 300 μm with an ultrathin (˜1 μm) plasma polymerized nonporous layer of silicone on the outside surface (AMT, Inc., Minnetonka, Minn.). A number of parallel flow modules were made using these two types of fibers. The geometrical characteristics of these modules, the properties of the fiber used and the fiber surface area information are provided in Table 1. TABLE 1__________________________________________________________________________GEOMETRICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT HOLLOW FIBER MODULES USED MassType Fiber Fiber Effective Shell No. Void Transfer Mass TransferModuleof ID OD Length ID of Fraction Area Area/VolumeNo. Fiber (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) Fibers (%) (cm.sup.2) (cm.sup.2 /cm.sup.3)__________________________________________________________________________1 Celgard* 0.01 0.015 35.7 0.60 600 62.5 1009.40 100.00X-102 Celgard 0.01 0.015 31.0 0.37 102 83.23 149.00 44.70X-103 Celgard** 0.024 0.030 20.5 0.80 300 57.81 579.62 56.25with asiliconeskin__________________________________________________________________________ *Hoechst Celanese SPD, Charlotte, NC. **AMT Inc., Minnetonka, MN. Module Fabrication In this study, shell-and-tube type of modules were fabricated using the hollow fibers mentioned above. The shell was made from stainless steel tube/pipe having a male run tee connected at each end. The epoxy used for potting the fibers was Armstrong C-4 epoxy with D activator (Beacon Chemicals, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.) mixed in the ratio of 4:1 of epoxy to activator. A predetermined number of fibers were counted first and arranged in the form of a bundle on a table. Both ends of the bundle thus made were tied with a thread. This bundle was carefully inserted inside the shell by pulling the thread connected to one end of the fiber bundle through the shell. Insertion of fiber inside the shell was done by first immersing the shell in water to reduce friction. The fiber length was selected such that about 2 inch length of fibers remained outside the end fittings at both ends of the module. The fibers were then dried by applying vacuum for about 24 hours. The ends of the fittings were first sealed with silicone rubber (RTV 118, General Electric, Waterford, N.Y.). It was then allowed to cure for about two hours. The epoxy and activator were then mixed thoroughly and the mixture was degassed by applying vacuum for about four to five minutes. This mixture was then poured through the shell side opening at one end until the lower portion of the male run tee was full. The epoxy was allowed to cure for about 10 hours by keeping the module vertical. The other end of the module was potted in a similar way. When epoxy was completely cured, a leak test was performed with water in the shell-side under 20 psig pressure. Modules for silicone skinned Celgard® fibers for absorption and stripping experiments were prepared in a similar way. However, one additional potting layer of silicone rubber, RTV 615 A&B (GE Silicones, Waterford, N.Y.) was essential as epoxy did not bond well with the silicone coating of the fiber. This layer was put between the other two layers of pottings. Chemicals and Gases The absorbents used were silicone oil 200 fluid obtained from Dow Corning (Midland, Mich.) and Paratherm NF® supplied by Paratherm Corporation (Conshohocken, Pa.). Their properties are listed in Table 2. Paratherm NF® oil is mineral oil based. It is very stable and has an extremely low vapor pressure. TABLE 2______________________________________PROPERTIES OF ABSORBENTS Absorbent LiquidProperties Silicone Oil Paratherm NF ™______________________________________Chemical Name Polydimethylsiloxane --Molecular Weight 300 (avg) 350 (avg)Density 0.98 @ 77° F. 0.87 gm/cc @ 77° F.Viscosity 50 cs @ 77° F. 35 cp @ 77° F.Vapor Pressure <5 mm Hg @ 77° F. 0.001 mm Hg @ 100° F. 0.026 mm Hg @ 200° F.Surface Tension -- 28 dynes/cm @ 77° F.Flash Point 605° F. --Pour Point -94° F. -45° FMelt Point -42° F. --Refractive Index 1.402 1.4768Appearance Colorless, clear liquid Colorless, clear liquidOther Nontoxic, nonbioactive, Nontoxic, FDA/USDAProperties nonstinging to skin, high approved for use in food oxidation resistance and pharmaceuticals______________________________________ The VOC-N 2 mixture for each individual VOC was obtained in primary standard cylinders from Matheson (993 ppmv for acetone, 999 ppmv for methylene chloride, 514 ppmv for methanol and 236 ppmv for toluene (certified standard)). Additional mixtures were developed by careful blending of this primary standard gas mixture and N 2 -zero gas (99.99% N 2 ) in predetermined ratios via two electronic mass flow transducer-controllers. Experimental Setup and Procedure for Absorption The experimental setup for gas absorption is shown in FIG. 3. The fresh absorbent from a covered glass container acting as the absorbent storage vessel was pumped by an electronic metering pump (model 10313M, LMI, Milton Roy, Acton, Mass.) through the shell-side of the hollow fiber module. A pulse dampener was used at the pump discharge end to eliminate flow pulsations. Liquid flow rates were controlled by adjusting the stroke-length and the stroke-frequency of the pump. The spent absorbent liquid was collected in a separate vessel. The VOC-containing feed gas mixture was sent from a cylinder through the fiber bores countercurrent to the absorbent flow into a gas chromatograph (GC). Prior to entering the membrane module, the gas was passed through an electronic mass flow transducer and a flow controller (Matherson, E. Rutherford, N.J.). Beyond the membrane module, the gas was passed through a back pressure regulator into the GC to maintain an appropriate level of gas pressure in the module. In experiments employing an absorption module made of microporous hydrophobic Celgard® X-10 membranes, the gas-phase pressure was always maintained higher than the liquid pressure. In most experiments, the tube-side outlet pressure of gas was maintained at around 3 psig by means of the back pressure regulator. In some experiments values as low as 1 psig were maintained. Prior to the first experiment with a module, the absorbent liquid was poured into the shell-side to wet the fibers. For continuing experiments, the tube-side gas pressure is kept under pressure during the gap between experiments. All experiments were done at room temperature (23±1° C.). When an absorption module made of microporous hollow fibers having a nonporous ultrathin skin was used for gas absorption experiments, the pressures of the gas phase and the liquid phase were essentially atmospheric. The gas and the liquid flows were countercurrent. A few experiments were done using the gas pressure at a level considerably higher than that of the liquid to explore the deficiencies of such a condition. In any given experiment, after the liquid and the gas flow rates were adjusted, concentration measurement of the gas stream exiting the module was begun via the GC. A specific experimental run for a given liquid and gas flow rate was continued until the exiting gas composition was found to be constant. The time required for this varied between 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on the VOC and the flow rates. The liquid or the gas flow rate was changed only after a steady state was reached. The gas composition was measured by a FID in a Varian 3400 Star GC using a column containing 0.3% Carbowax 20M on a Carbopack C support (Varian Analytical Services, Sunnyvale, Calif.). Experimental Setup and Procedure for Combined Absorption-Stripping of VOC The schematic diagram of the experimental setup for combined absorption-stripping is shown in FIG. 1. Regenerated absorbent liquid was pumped (MP) from a small glass container (ASV) to the shell side of the absorber module (HFM) containing microporous fibers for absorbing VOC from VOC-N 2 feed gas mixture flowing through the tube side of the module countercurrently with respect to the absorbent flow. The absorbent exiting from the absorber was connected to the shell side of the stripper hollow fiber module based on fibers having a nonporous silicone skin. Vacuum pump (VP) was connected to the tube side of the stripping module via a condenser. The purified absorbent liquid from the stripper was recycled back to the absorbent storage vessel. This vessel was tightly closed to avoid any VOC escape from the holdup liquid. The gas outlet from the absorber was connected to the GC via a back pressure regulator. The GC outlet was connected to the bubble flow meter for manual measurement of the gas flow rate. Finally, the exit gas was vented out through a laboratory fume hood. Before starting the first experiment, the absorber module was filled with the absorbent to wet the membrane as in absorption runs. Then the VOC-N 2 gas mixture flow was switched on at a predetermined flow rate through the tube side of the absorber module. The constant gas flow rate was maintained and monitored by means of an electronic mass flow transducer and controller. The tube side gas pressure at the outlet of the absorber was maintained at 3 psig by adjusting the back pressure regulator. The absorbent circulation pump was then started. First the liquid flow rate was measured manually by collecting the liquid in a measuring cylinder in a definite period of time from the outlet of the stripper module. Once the liquid flow rate was set, the stripper outlet liquid line was connected to the absorbent storage vessel. The amount of liquid inside this vessel was in excess of the amount required to fill the pump suction line and the hold-up volume of the setup. The amount of circulation liquid was kept at the lowest possible level in order to reduce the time required to achieve the steady state. After some time, the absorbent storage vessel may be bypassed. The VOC concentration of the exiting gas was monitored every hour. Time taken to attain a steady state composition of VOC at the absorber outlet was found to be approximately 7 to 8 hours. The procedure was repeated for different gas flow rates. All experiments for VOC absorption as well as VOC absorption-stripping were done with the gas at essentially atmospheric pressure except for the needed pressure difference. Calculation of Mass Transfer Coefficient in Gas Absorption The overall gas-phase based mass transfer coefficient, K OG , for any VOC absorption experiment has been defined by the following expression: ##EQU2## Here C 1g is the molar concentration (mole/cc) of VOC in the gas at module inlet and C 2g is that at the module outlet; C 1g * and C 2g * are the hypothetical gas phase concentrations in equilibrium with the absorbent concentrations at the module inlet and the module outlet respectively. The values of C 1g * and C 2g * are obtained from the corresponding liquid phase concentrations of the VOC and the Henry's law constant H i for the VOC. If we assume that the absorbent phase concentrations of the VOC are quite small and may be neglected, then ##EQU3## RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results for VOC-absorption studies in absorbents silicone oil and Paratherm® are presented first. Results for all or some of the VOCs, e.g., acetone, methylene chloride, methanol and toluene are provided for both kinds of membranes (FIGS. 2A and 2B) in terms of the extent of removal of an individual VOC as a function of the feed N 2 -VOC gas flow rate. Similar VOC removal results as a function of the absorbent flow rate have been shown. Estimates of the VOC mass transfer coefficients have been obtained from such data as a function of the gas and the liquid flow rates. We have next provided the results for simultaneous absorption-stripping experiments in terms of the cleaned gas composition as a function of the feed gas flow rate for a given absorbent recirculation rate and vacuum level. This will provide a comprehensive basis for adopting such a process for VOC emission control in various large or small processes and operations. Note that we have used equation (2) for defining (ΔC) 1m and, therefore, K OG . VOC Absorption Results FIG. 5 illustrates the results of an absorption experiment in which feed gas containing acetone is fed through the bores of module No. 3 (a microporous membrane having a plasma polymerized nonporous skin). Paratherm was used as the absorbent liquid. Both the outlet concentration of acetone in the feed gas and the percent removal of acetone from the feed gas are shown in FIG. 5. In this system, the gas feed pressure never exceeded the absorbent liquid pressure. FIG. 6 illustrates how the composition of acetone in treated feed gas mixtures changes as a function of the feed gas flow rate through the fiber bores in module No. 2 (microporous membrane) for silicone liquid as absorbent. FIG. 6 also illustrates the corresponding percent removal of acetone from the gas stream. We observe that a feed gas mixture containing 999 ppmv of acetone in N 2 can be reduced to as low as 2 ppmv in the treated gas stream exiting the module at low gas flow rates. Thus, 99.5%+removal of the polar VOC, acetone, is possible in a microporous hollow fiber gas-liquid contactor using silicone fluid as the organic absorbent flowing countercurrent to the gas. Note that the pores of the membrane were spontaneously wetted by silicone fluid and the gas pressure was maintained always slightly higher than the liquid pressure. At the lowest gas flow rates achieving the highest VOC absorption, the gas flow rate per fiber was in the range of 0.1 cc/min/fiber. If the module were longer providing more gas-liquid (and, therefore, membrane) contact area, then higher gas flow rates may be used for equivalent VOC reduction. For lower fractional VOC absorption, say, 90%, a much higher flow rate of 0.4 cc/min/fiber can be maintained continuously. These numbers are very convenient for scaling up VOC scrubbing unless the liquid flow pattern on the shell-side changes very substantially in a scaled up module due to bypassing. FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 show respectively the VOC removal capabilities of the same module 2 for methylene chloride (feed concentration, 999 ppmv), methanol (feed concentration, 514 ppmv) and toluene (feed concentration, 200 ppmv) as a function of the feed gas flow rate. It appears that toluene is much more easily removed allowing a much higher gas flow rate per fiber in the range of 1 cc/min/fiber for the highest fractional toluene removal. This figure of 1 cc/min/fiber is reinforced by the results of toluene removal shown in FIG. 10 where the large module No. 1 was utilized and virtually all of the toluene present in the feed gas was removed for much higher gas flow rates. FIG. 11 explores acetone removal in module 2 as a function of feed gas composition for a given gas flow rate and a given silicone absorbent flow rate. We observe that the percent removal of acetone remains independent of the feed composition, however, the outlet concentration of acetone in the treated gas increases with increasing acetone level in the feed gas for the given module and the absorbent liquid flow rate. What is the effect (if any) of the silicone absorbent flow rate on the exiting VOC composition of the cleaned gas? FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 show for the VOCs, acetone, methylene chloride and toluene respectively, that as the absorbent flow rate increases, the outlet VOC concentration decreases first and then achieves a constant value. Similar behavior has been observed for Paratherm® as the absorbent using the same module 2. FIG. 15 illustrates how the overall mass transfer coefficient, K OG , for an individual VOC varies with the gas flow rate at any given absorbent flow rate. For low gas flow rates, it appears that K depends significantly on the gas flow rate. At higher gas flow rates, K OG becomes independent of the gas flow rate as shown in the Figure for methylene chloride and acetone. This plateau value is determined by the resistance of VOC diffusion through the stagnant absorbent in the membrane pores and in the flowing absorbent liquid. Additional VOC Absorption Experiments Using Fibers Having a Nonporous Skin The previous experiments, with the exception of the first one, employed absorption modules 1 and 2 made out of microporous Celgard® X-10 hollow fibers; further, the gas and the liquid contacted directly at each pore mouth on the fiber I.D. under conditions of the gas side having a slightly higher pressure than that of the liquid absorbent to maintain nondispersive contacting. We report now absorption cleanup of VOCs from N 2 using module 3 where the microporous polypropylene hollow fibers have an ultrathin plasma polymerized nonporous skin of silicone on the fiber outside diameter which prevents direct gas-liquid contact. There is an explicit criterion of phase pressures in such a case, namely, the gas and liquid pressures should be essentially equal or the liquid pressure should be higher. FIG. 16 reports results of methylene chloride removal by two different absorbents, Paratherm® oil and silicone oil in module 3 built out of such fibers having a nonporous silicone skin. For both absorbents, the gas flowed on the tube side and the absorbent was on the shell side. We observe that the outlet concentration of the VOC, methylene chloride, decreases strongly as the gas flow rate is decreased. The behavior shown in this countercurrent membrane absorber is quite similar to those observed earlier in FIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9. This similarity should not foster the assumption that the skinned fibers having a nonporous silicone layer provide no extra resistance. In fact, there is significant extra resistance as shown in FIG. 17 where the overall mass transfer coefficient, K OG , has been plotted for methylene chloride absorption for both kinds of fibers, i.e., module 2 and module 3. We find that the plateau values of the overall mass transfer coefficient in module 3 are about 3.5 times lower than those in module 2. It is then obvious that the microporous hollow fibers without a coating provide faster VOC absorption in the absorbent oil in a nondispersive fashion when compared with hollow fibers having a nonporous highly VOC-permeable silicone skin. We have suggested earlier that nondispersive gas absorption will not be achieved if the gas pressure is significantly higher than that of the liquid when the fiber has a nonporous skin or coating. We provide now the basis for such a suggestion. An absorption experiment was run in module 3 using Paratherm® as an absorbent. The gas flowed at 34.1 cc/min on the tube-side at a pressure of 10 psig. The absorbent flowed countercurrently on the shell-side at 5.6 ml/min; the absorbent was at atmospheric pressure. Bubble generation in the absorbent stream was observed. The bubble flow rate was found to be approximately 0.3 cc/min. Experiments were also conducted under identical conditions with the gas flowing at atmospheric pressure. No bubble generation was observed. One may now conclude wrongly that there may not be any operational advantage to having a nonporous skin or coating since in either case (with or without coating) one of the phases has to be at a higher pressure unless both phases have the same pressure. For many VOC removal applications, the gas (N 2 or air) is at atmospheric pressure. However, the viscous absorbent encounters pressure drop during its flow which suggests that the VOC-containing gas pressure should be raised from atmospheric if a microporous fiber without a nonporous coating or skin is used. This requirement is eliminated when a nonporous skin or coating is employed. This will result in considerable energy saving since the gas pressure does not have to be raised much. The skinned fiber also allows absorption under conditions of arbitrarily high liquid pressure levels for the absorbent (within certain limits so as not to damage the skin or the fibers). This condition is not allowed in a microporous fiber without nonporous skin since breakthrough pressures are usually much lower. Simultaneous VOC Absorption-Stripping A continuous process for VOC absorption from N 2 /air into an absorbent via either of two different kinds of hollow fibers requires simultaneous regeneration of the spent absorbent in a VOC stripper. We have used the membrane module 2 containing microporous hollow fibers as the VOC absorber where the gas flowed at a pressure slightly higher than that of the absorbent along with the membrane module 3 as the VOC stripper (and, therefore, an absorbent regenerator). The experimental schematic shown in FIG. 1 was employed. The results for simultaneous methylene chloride absorption and stripping using silicone oil are shown in FIG. 18. A vacuum of 29.9 inch Hg was pulled in the bore of the fibers in module 3 to remove VOC from the absorbent flowing on the module 3 shell side on a continuous basis. In module 2, the absorber, the flow arrangement was similar to simple absorption experiments, namely, gas through the fiber bore and the absorbent on the shell side (and in the pores) flowing countercurrent to the gas flow direction. We observe that the feed gas containing 999 ppmv of methylene chloride was brought down to around 20 ppm on a continuous basis when the feed gas flow rate was low. If the membrane stripper module had a higher surface area, there is a possibility that the cleaned gas composition would have been even lower. However, the level of available vacuum plays an important role here. Too high a level of vacuum, although useful for reducing this treated gas composition to an even lower level via higher level of regeneration of the absorbent, is not desirable from a practical larger scale operational point of view. Simultaneous Removal of Multiple VOCs Absorption experiments have been carried out where the N 2 gas stream contained multiple VOCs. Table 3 shows the Paratherm®-based absorption data for two flow rates of a N 2 stream containing acetone (226 ppmv), methylene chloride (201 ppmv), toluene (204 ppmv) and methanol (163 ppmv). These experiments were carried out in module 2 as well as module 3; the results from the latter are shown in Table 3. We observe very high rates of removal of all the VOCs except for the highly polar methanol. Results with module 2 not reported here are even better. TABLE 3______________________________________Absorption Data* for a Mixed VOC-N.sub.2 Gas MixtureVOC Gas Flow Rate (cc/min)Composition 11.65 34.08in Inlet N.sub.2 Outlet OutletGas Stream Composition Removal Composition Removal(ppmv) (ppmv) (%) (ppmv) (%)______________________________________Acetone 226 13.42 94.06 86.97 61.52Methylene 201 9.17 95.43 17.35 91.34ChlorideToluene 204 0.00 100.00 0.00 100.00Methanol 163 77.23 52.62 128.35 21.26Total 794 99.82 87.43 232.67 70.70______________________________________ *Module #3 Absorbent: Paratherm NF Liquid Flow Rate: 5.6 ml/min Temperature: 22° C. Additional Results and Considerations During our experiments with Paratherm® or silicone oil, we did not observe any peaks of the vapors of these absorbents in the GC. This indicated that their very low vapor pressures at 25° C. and the silicone skin barrier on the membrane have reduced their pressure (if any) in the gas stream to be scrubbed to sub-ppm level. Paratherm® absorbent is known to be stable over long lengths of time. Silicone oil, having a much higher vapor pressure, however, slowly starts deteriorating after one year. We have taken such a degraded silicone oil and observed small peaks in GC from such a deteriorated silicone oil flowing as an absorbent in the microporous hollow fiber. The absorbent scheme and operational conditions vis-a-vis the different phase pressures are equally useful and applicable to general gas scrubbing and regeneration of absorbents. The gas species to be selectively removed could be CO 2 , H 2 S, SO 2 , O 2 , etc. The absorbents may be aqueous solutions of alkanolamines, hindered amines and pure polar hydrocarbons like n-methylpyrollidone, dimethylsulfoxide, sulfolane, etc. We have employed hollow fibers having an ultrathin nonporous skin of plasma polymerized silicone (poly(dimethylsiloxane)) on the hollow fiber outer surface. This material must be highly permeable to the gas species or VOCs to be absorbed. Other materials of considerable use for VOC removal are copolymers of silicone-polycarbonate, neoprene and different rubbers, poly(1-trimethyl silyl-1-propyne) etc. Microporous hollow fibers that are hydrophobic were used. It is equally useful to use microporous hollow fibers that are hydrophilic. However, when used in that contacting mode without a nonporous skin, it is important to have the nonpolar organic absorbent in the pore and not water since that would increase the resistance to VOC mass transfer considerably. A hollow fiber whose wall is a gel membrane may also be used. It is preferable that the gel is due to the organic absorbent being used; otherwise, the resistance to VOC transfer will be significantly increased. We have employed a parallel-flow hollow fiber module with two streams flowing countercurrently. One can also employ crossflow modules to increase the shell-side mass transfer coefficient. Further, the shell-side may have baffles to improve the flows distribution. It is not intended to limit the present invention to the specific embodiments disclosed above. It is recognized that changes may be made in the process and apparatus specifically described herein without departing from the scope and teachings of the present invention. Various references are cited herein, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

A vaporizable solute transfer system for transferring a vaporizable solute from a gas feed mixture to an absorbent liquid comprises an absorption module, a porous membrane which divides the absorption module into a gas-feed chamber and an absorbent chamber, a regeneration module, and a nonporous material which divides the regeneration module into an absorbent chamber and a vacuum atmosphere chamber. The absorption module has gas feed mixture inlet and outlet ports which communicate with the gas feed chamber, and absorbent liquid inlet and outlet ports which communicate with the absorbent chamber. The regeneration module has a liquid absorbent inlet and outlet port which communicate with the liquid absorbent chamber, and a vacuum outlet port which communicates with the vacuum chamber.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Not Applicable STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT Not Applicable DESCRIPTION OF ATTACHED APPENDIX Not Applicable. ROTATABLE STEP ATTACHMENT This invention relates generally to the field of a step, having several working positions which can be achieved by rotating the step around a fixed pivot, and more specifically to a machine to assist a person entering into a vehicle or on a machine. HISTORY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to any type of platform such as Pickup trucks, SUV's, and construction equipment, etc. where user access is required. These vehicles are often very difficult to climb on or into because of their height above the ground. My invention provides an improved selectively rotatable step attachment that is not only positionable in more than one working position, but also in a stowable position when the platform is being used for other purposes. Each position is easily lockable in it's working position, or stowage position. The improved rotatable step is attached to the vehicle frame, trailer hitch, or other substantial part of the vehicle providing a safe method of entry. For many people getting into the rear of a pickup truck, for example, involves sitting on the opened tailgate then swinging their legs up to the tailgate, then kneeling on the tailgate and finally to the standing position. This exercise is time consuming, tiring, and sometimes embarrassing or unsafe. With my invention a person with modest agility can step up to the improved rotatable step, then onto the tailgate, remaining on their feet at all times. The improved attachment [rotatable step] is normally positioned for stowage in a clearance between the ground and the lower portion of the platform of a vehicle at one end thereof. A working step height is normally one half the distance from the ground to the platform [tailgate] height. By reason of the improved step attachment both feet of the user are stably supported as the user accesses any platform, for servicing, loading/unloading or maintaining the vehicle. If necessary, for additional safety any user can readily attach the hand support bar for additional support when accessing a platform. Without the improved step attachment any one accessing a raised platform from the ground would have to do so in a cumbersome, awkward, and unsafe fashion, that could lead to personal injury. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION My invention essentially comprises a rotatable step assembly that is attached to a platform providing improved access to the side, rear, and roof of the vehicle. The device pivots into various operative positions, including a stowage position, and is locked in position, before a safe climb or vehicle movement is attempted. The “Rotatable Step” Assembly for Vehicle Platforms, essentially comprises three main sub assemblies, [for illustration a pickup truck is used as the vehicle platform] A)—an accessory receiver and vehicle mount assembly, which can be attached to the frame, trailer hitch, or other substantial part of the vehicle, hereafter called “accessory receiver”. The “accessory receiver” establishes the working height above the ground for the rest of the pivot step components, and defines the connection to the vehicle platform. The “accessory receiver” can have many geometries, depending on 1) height of the tailgate from the ground, 2) location of the receiver of the vehicle's trailer hitch, frame,or substantial mounting surface for the step. 3) accessible clearance under the vehicle for safe step stowage while traveling and 4) desired access locations, left or right and front or back of the vehicle. With these variations each model of vehicle could have a unique “Rotatable Step” designed around a series of standard components provided by the company. One means of attaching the “accessory receiver” to the vehicle platform is by fitting the extension bar of the accessory receiver into the receiver of the vehicle's existing trailer hitch. At the distal end of the extension bar is secured a drop bar, mounted vertically downward at 90 degrees, to the extension bar, to achieve the proper vertical elevation for the “Rotatable Step”. Mounted to the drop bar is a dually opposed receiver with receiver openings facing left and right, capable of accepting accessories, such as a rotatable step, from either of it's open ends. This dual receiver is normally horizontal to the ground in its assembly to the drop bar. An alternate design for the “accessory receiver” uses one or both of the open ends of an existing industry standard trailer hitch, mounted on the vehicle platform. The accessory device such as a pivot step, is inserted into the end of the main horizontal tubular support member of the trailer hitch, providing with adoption, horizontal receivers at both the left and right end of the trailer hitch. Subsequent subassemblies required for the completion of the pivot step are installed into either of these horizontal sideways receivers, being held in place by a hitch pin and clip. Height adjustments for the final location of the pivot step are provided in the subsequent components. Trailer hitch manufacturers may provide the required revisions during their assembly of the standard trailer hitch, or field conversion for “End Mounted” accessories is also possible. A Frame mounted “accessory receiver” has been designed and proven successful by affixing horizontal and vertical structural members to the truck frame which in turn support a receiver tube facing rearward on the vehicle platform and some 12 to 18 inches to the right or left of the centerline of of the vehicle. This frame mounted receiver then is fitted with the remainder of the parts required for a rotatable step, right or left. The proper rotatable step height is achieved by adjusting the vertical structural member's length. The surface of the rotatable step is normally located approximately one half the distance from the ground to the tailgate. Thus different height dimensions are required for the “accessory receiver” to accommodate differing vehicle platform heights. The company supplies these various “accessory receivers” under the standard components listing. My invention also uses a frame mounted mini bumper as an “accessory receiver”. This mini bumper is essentially an additional bumper mounted under or lower than the original bumper, and is added to the front or rear of a high platform vehicle, having a rearward facing receiver centered in the bumper face, and two opposed openings “accessory receivers” facing left and right at the extreme ends of the mini bumper. Into these horizontal “accessory receivers” accessories such as a rotatable step or the like may be installed. The mini bumper is mounted to the frame of the vehicle platform in the same fashion as standard trailer hitches, using similarly formed steel plate brackets, in it's present embodiment, giving a substantial support to the mini bumper for it's dual purpose of “accessory receiver” and as a bumper. A four wheeled vehicle, having a top of platform height [tailgate height] of 36 inches may have a bumper height of 32 to 24 inches above the ground, placing it several inches above the bumper height of a conventional automobile. With safety as a major consideration, a mismatched bumper height means that the automobile's bumper will slide under the high truck bumper with considerable damage to the auto and possible severe personal injury to it's occupants. If however the truck were equipped with a mini bumper instead of the currently standard trailer hitch, the bumper height mismatch would not exist, since the mini bumper would be the same height as the automobile bumper. It is my understanding that the majority of automobile crash tests are conducted using a flat wall as the crash barrier, with the resulting impact being absorbed by distortion of all the various components of the front of the vehicle. With the automobile bumper being low enough to slide beneath the truck bumper, it is felt there is little chance for the automobile bumper and the front part of the frame to help with this impact distortion and it's proportionate impact absorption. It is likewise felt that insurance claims, as well as personal injuries, could be reduced by installing a mini bumper or full width lower bumper, on high bumper vehicles, front and back. B)—a pivot pin and pivot pin extension bar assembly, which is attached to the “accessory receiver”, and hereafter is called a “pivot pin bar”. The pivot pin and pivot pin extension bar assembly consists firstly of an extension bar adapted to fit within the accessory receiver, and is secured thereto by means of a hitch pin. This extension bar is essentially parallel with the rear of the vehicle and normally below the vehicle bumper location. At the distal end of the extension bar is located a vertical pivot pin on which the pivot step can be rotated in a horizontal plane into it's several working positions and it's stowage position. Pivot pin bars fit into either the right or left receiver of the “accessory receiver”, giving flexibility of installing a pivot step on either side of the vehicle platform. C)—a step assembly, comprising an L shaped bar and a non slip tread and having a bushing which serves as a pivot for the step assembly, and hereafter is called a “step assembly”. This unique L-shaped design for the step support beam gives one of the solutions for the proper positioning of the tread to have access to the multiple working positions and stowage position claimed by my invention. The non slip tread, being large enough to support both feet at one time, is fastened to the L-shaped bar on one leg of this bar while the pivot hole, index plate, and locking holes are located at the distal end of the other leg. This “step assembly” will fit either the left or right positioned “pivot pin bar”, giving the option of installing the pivot step on either side of the vehicle platform. Additionally a locking index plate fastened to the step support bar has a number of holes, corresponding to each of the working and stowage positions, located around the pivot pin bushing hole. As the “step assembly” is rotated around the pivot pin, a hole in the index plate will align with a matching hole in the pivot pin extension bar, permitting a hitch pin to be installed, locking the step in a safe working position. Each of the working and stowage positions for the step, has it's own indexing lock hole in the index plate, providing easy unlocking, repositioning, and relocking by removing, repositioning and reinsertion of the hitch pin. The uniqueness of the pivot step dictates the location of the pivot pin on the “pivot pin bar” and the geometry of the L shaped step support bar in relation to the truck platform. These features enable the tread to be positioned in at least four positions, including a stowage position. To satisfy the multiple height, position, location, and stowage clearances for each vehicle, a multiplicity of designs is required for each of the three subassemblies comprising the “pivot step”. The subassemblies are; A—“accessory receiver”, B—“pivot pin bar”, C—“step assembly”. To enable a local dealer of truck accessories or trailer parts to quickly satisfy a customers requirements a business structure is provided comprised of; 1) dealer inventory of standard components, which can be assembled in a unique fashion for diverse customer requirements. 2) dealer or company use of standard vehicle clearances as developed on software for a preassembly visual presentation. 3) dealer or company use of software showing scaled drawings of the standard components, which can be used to assemble on the computer the unique steps for various vehicles or other accessories. 4) dealer or company use of a personal computer, using items 2, and 3 above to develop visual presentations of step assemblies for final assembly,and as a sales aid. PRIOR TECHNOLOGY U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,843 to Maxwell describes a step giving access to the side of a tailgate in the down position. U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,842 to Mueller shows a step which is bumper mounted on a horizontal pivot enabling an L shaped step to pivot downward to it's working position or to be raised to a storage position on top of the bumper. U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,927 to Debo shows a small step on a bar which slides out to permit entry into the rear of the lowered tailgate position. This device is attached to the main carrying beam of an existing trailer hitch, using a clamp arrangement. U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,125 to Bundy has a step which pivots into its working position from a travel position under the truck. This device is attached to the front spring mount and is intended to be used for easier access to, and for retrieving items out of the truck bed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,362 to Ludwick has a step which inserts into a standard trailer hitch receiver and pivots to a storage position under the receiver when not in use. U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,996 to Graffy et al shows a step attached to the inside of the tailgate for storage when the tailgate is in the up position, and hangs down over the end of the tailgate when in use. U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,064 to Frerichs describes a pull out step which is attached to the vehicle by bolting to the front spring mount of the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,930 to Elia describes a ladder which can be fastened to the upper face of the tailgate, when in the down position, to give access to the back of the truck. U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,134 to Stewart shows a step designed to pivot out of the way when it strikes a protruding object, having as it's intended use, as a step for entry to the cab of a high access truck. Canadian Pat. No 1,058,251 to Kirkpatrick has a pivoting step which pivots to one working position. Canadian Pat. No 1,219,020 to Yont relates to a step which has a permanently mounted bumper bracket, into which is inserted a step having a square L shaped support member. None of these patents, however, whether taken alone or in combination, show the rotatable step with multiple working positions and stowage position, which my invention discloses. Also none of these patents anticipate the, diversity of design required to satisfy the requirements of various vehicles manufactured world wide, nor the computer, business, and design system required to backup a dealer sales network. DEFICIENCY IN PRIOR DESIGNS While the prior patents solve a singular problem, none of them has the versatility of three working positions,able to be locked into position, and a stowage position locked under the vehicle for travel. These positions are; 1) for access to a roof rack on a vehicle equipped with a bed cap or for loading or unloading the bed of a truck, not having a cap. 2) for easy and safe access to the side of a truck tailgate in the down position, where additional safety can be had be installing a handle either on the truck or on the cap. 3) for easy access to the rear of a truck with the tailgate in the up position. 4) a stowage position under the vehicle with safe vehicle travel possible. Further enhancements my invention provide are; the ability to have rotatable step assemblies service either left or right hand, or both sides of the vehicle at one time; the ability to use the pivot pin as a support for other rotatable accessories; the safety feature of having a lower bumper which serves the dual purpose of being a bumper with matching bumper heights with an automobile and as an “accessory receiver” capable of supporting a pivot step or the like, on either or both sides of the vehicle platform. With the subassemblies being pinned together there is an advantage in being able to have a relatively small number of standard components be able to be assembled into many different final assemblies. Each vehicle has it's own parameters to develop the geometry required to position the pivot pin in precisely the correct location to achieve the four step positions. Height of the tailgate above the ground: under truck clearance for the step stowage: location of the vehicle trailer hitch, frame support or other substantial mounting surface to support the swivel step: and desired access locations, left or right and front or back of the vehicle, provide the data necessary to assemble a unique swivel step. This phase of the patent submission will then satisfy the diverse customer step requirements, and other accessory development. Also individual “standard components”, such as a “double ended receiver with a four inch drop” may be sold as individual components. None of the patents researched addresses these issues. None of the researched patents speaks to the complex design and assembly problems of providing for the dimensional changes required for different vehicles and how to provide a system for solving them. With my invention dealers and the company will have the capability to design and install unique step assemblies on site, using “standard components” as provided by the company. The primary object of the invention is To provide a rotatable step to permit easier access to vehicle platforms with relatively high entry levels. Another object of the invention is To additionally provide a means of securing this step to a machine or vehicle to permit multiple step positions, permitting multiple uses for said step. Another object of the invention is To additionally provide a step position locking device to hold the step securely in place while in use. A further object of the invention is To provide a means of storing the step in a location which will permit safe operation of the machine or vehicle,while step is mounted to the machine or vehicle platform. Yet another object of the invention is To provide a means of attachment of the step device to the vehicle using a receiver of an industry standard trailer hitch. Still yet another object of the invention is To provide alternate means of attachment of the step device by mounting directly to the bumper. A further object of the invention is To provide a mini bumper located directly under the standard vehicle bumper giving a much safer height match for typically lower automobile bumpers. Yet another object of the invention is to have a lower bumper equipped with a center receiver, two accessory receivers, and effectively being able to replace the industry standard receiver type trailer hitch. Still another object of the invention is To provide a mini bumper with a smooth surface with no protrusions, as normally presented by the receiver and safety chain fastening plate on a standard trailer hitch. A further object of the invention is To provide in a lower full width vehicle bumper, a recessed center receiver as well as two recessed accessory receivers, located on the left and right of the center receiver, attached to the frame of the vehicle. A further object of the invention is To provide a substantial truck frame mounted lower bumper capable of having two pivoting accessories mounted on either side of the vehicle platform, such as a rotatable step on one side and a pivoting cargo tray on the other side, facilitating pivoting the cargo tray out of the way so the vehicle rear door can be opened then a pivot step can be locked into place permitting a person to enter the vehicle. Another object of the invention is To provide a step position which will give better access to vehicle mounted roof racks, and items fastened thereon. Still another object of the invention is To provide a step position which will give single or multiple treads, at appropriate levels from the ground to gain access to (for example the tailgate of a pickup truck). Another object of the invention is to provide a step tread large enough to place both feet at one time, giving a secure method of balancing yourself. A further object of the invention is To provide a step position which will give single or multiple treads for a person to climb on machinery, farm machinery, construction machines, trucks, and the like. Yet another object of the invention is To provide a step position which will give easier access to a vehicle bumper, for entry into the rear of (for example a pickup truck with the tailgate up). Still yet another object of the invention is To provide a step giving elevated access on over the road trucks and other high vehicles to clean windshields, do repair work, or provide elevated access to other parts of the vehicle using a rotatable step. Another object of the invention is To provide an optional center receiver extension, to the company fabricated “accessory receiver”, giving the ability to install and use a standard trailer hitch and ball insert to tow an auxiliary platform. Another object of the invention is To provide multiple ways of fastening the step to the primary machine or vehicle platform, and providing multiple ways for rotating and locking said pivot step safely into position,using manual, air, hydraulic, electric, mechanical or a combination of the like to achieve this purpose. A further object of the invention is To provide an optional detachable safety handle bar to assist user access to a vehicle platform. Another object of the invention is To provide subassemblies which can be detached from one another to permit revisions or adjustments in the final pivot step installation. A further object of the invention is To provide a computer design system which gives a dealer software which can be used to utilize standard components, provided by the company,to assemble unique step configurations to fit most vehicle or customer requirements. Special components may be ordered from the company, and the company will increase the standard components, and the software drawings as necessary. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed. In accordance with the present invention,a step with a nonskid tread is used to assist a person in climbing into a elevated vehicle, such as a 4×4 pickup truck. This step is able to be locked into multiple working positions, as well as a stowage position under the vehicle for travel. The various working positions and the stowage position are achieved by rotating the step support around a vertical pivot pin with a locking pin engaging holes in the step support to secure the step safely in one of the working or the stowage positions. Multiple means are described for fastening the step support to the vehicle, but are not to be considered as the only way to accomplish this task. Additionally, a computer design system is described in which a computer with company supplied software is used to design unique pivot step applications for the various vehicles on the road. This computer software also gives drawings of the company supplied standard components which when assembled on the computer will provide a complete design for customer approval and final shop assembly. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments to the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention. FIG. 1 is an isometric drawing of the rotatable step mounted as an accessory in the receiver of a commercially available trailer hitch. FIG. 2 is a pickup truck side elevation with the rotatable step mounted in the trailer hitch center receiver, and showing the relationship of the step to the lowered tailgate, the ground, and the safety handle installed in it's socket. FIG. 3 is a pickup truck rear elevation view with the rotatable step mounted in the trailer hitch center receiver, and showing the relationship of the safety handle, step, lowered tailgate, and ground to one another, and showing the mounting relationship of the trailer hitch to the step components. FIG. 4 is a plan view of a pickup truck with the rotatable step locked in the stowage position under the truck, [with the bumper omitted for clarity]. FIG. 5 is a plan view of a pickup truck bed with the rotatable step locked in the roof rack access position, [bumper is omitted for clarity]. FIG. 6 is a plan view of a pickup truck bed with the pivot step locked in the tailgate down position, [bumper is omitted for clarity]. FIG. 7 is a plan view of a pickup truck bed with the pivot step locked in the tailgate up access position [bumper is included in this figure since it would be used with the step to enter the truck with the tailgate up, or if the tailgate was missing]. FIG. 8 is an isometric rear view of a mini bumper with brackets shown being attached to the mini bumper and the truck frame. FIG. 9 is an isometric partial view of a mini bumper with a rotatable step and optional safety handle and their relationship to one another. FIG. 10 is a side elevation of a pickup truck with the tailgate down and the mini bumper with a side mounted rotatable step serving the tailgate in the down position. FIG. 11 is a rear elevation of a pickup truck with a mini bumper and rotatable step installed in the side accessed receiver, built into the mini bumper. Take note of how the vehicle exhaust pipe [right hand side] may restrict the stowage position of the rotatable step. FIG. 12 is a drawing of a vehicle bumper cross section adapted to accept a partly threaded pivot pin on which is installed a step assembly, used in common with other embodiments of this invention. FIG. 13 is an isometric drawing of a commercially available trailer hitch adapted to have the extreme ends of the horizontal support tube become side entered accessory receivers, with components required to become a rotatable step assembly, and appropriate assembly directions. FIG. 14 is a pickup truck plan view with a commercially available trailer hitch refitted to have the extreme ends of the horizontal support tube become side entered accessory receivers,with the pivot pin subassembly and the step subassembly positioned on the truck as they would be used. The tailgate is partly removed as well as the truck bumper being completely removed to clarify the drawing. FIG. 15 is an isometric drawing showing a frame mounted rotatable step with a commercially available trailer hitch installed,both using the same truck frame mounting holes. FIG. 16 is an isometric drawing showing a clamp on accessory receiver attached to a commercially available trailer hitch, giving two auxiliary accessory receivers. FIG. 17 is an isometric drawing showing an accessory receiver saddle which may be attached by bolting or welding or the like, requiring original hitch manufacturers adaptation. FIG. 18 is a rear elevation of a pickup truck showing the approximate location of a full width lower protective bumper with the center receiver and the two accessory receivers, left and right and the safety chain attachment plates for each. FIG. 19 is an isometric drawing of a full width lower bumper, rear view and omitting the center receiver, chain attachment plate, and hand holes, to show more clearly the fabrication details on the rear of the bumper, for the two accessory receivers FIG. 20 is an isometric drawing showing a mini bumper with two rotatable accessory assemblies installed on a mini bumper, a rotatable step on the left and a rotatable cargo tray on the left, showing the versatility of the different adaptations of my invention. FIG. 21 is a typical software compilation of standard components manufactured for dealer use and in preparing rotatable step assembly computer drawings for customer acceptance and final shop assembly. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Detailed descriptions of the preferred embodiment are provided herein. It is to be understood, however, that the present invention may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed system, structure or manner. Turning first to FIG. 1 there is shown an isometric view of a rotatable step assembly with all it's components as mounted in the receiver of a conventional receiver type trailer hitch 130 , and secured in place with a hitch pin and clip 132 in hole 131 . An “accessory receiver” is shown comprising components 30 through 36 and is fabricated by welding or the like. The center receiver extension bar 30 is normally a solid member to support weight of a trailer or other platform being towed. Tubular member 32 is suitably fastened to the extension bar 30 and will accept a commercially available trailer ball holding device 133 , and is locked in place by a standard hitch pin and clip 132 placed in hole 33 . The accessory receiver is further comprised of a vertical member 34 which establishes the correct vertical dimension for the horizontal rotational plane in which the step operates. Attached to the drop bar 34 is the dual receiver 35 which can accept accessories, secured by hitch pins 132 in holes 36 , from either or both sides at once, permitting accessories such as rotatable steps to be installed on either side of the vehicle, obstructions such as exhaust pipes permitting. The “pivot pin bar” with components 36 through 39 extends the step support from the “accessory receiver” 30 to 36 to the critical pivot pin 38 , on which the step can be selectively rotated. The extension bar 37 is inserted into the dual receiver 35 and held in place by another hitch pin and clip 132 in holes 36 . Hole 39 serves to lock the step in it's various positions, when assembled with the indexing plate 40 and step locking hole 41 . The last of the major subassemblies “step assembly” uses components numbering from 40 through 45 , with the safety handle adding components 46 through 50 . The complete “step assembly” 40 to 45 is placed on the pivot pin 38 utilizing bushing hole 42 , on which said step assembly rotates in a horizontal plane. To lock the step assembly in one of it's working or stowage positions one of the four step locking holes 41 in the indexing plate 40 is aligned with the pivot locking hole 39 and the hitch pin 132 and clip inserted. To reposition the step to another location the hitch pin in holes 39 and 41 is removed, the “step assembly” is manually rotated to a new position, and the hitch pin is reinserted into a new hole 41 in the indexing plate 40 , and hole 39 in the “pivot pin bar”. Fabrication of the “step assembly” is by bolting, forming welding and the like with hitch pins or the like holding the major subassemblies together. The L shaped step support 43 holds the slip resistant tread 44 in place using fastening devices 45 . At the distal end of the step support 43 the indexing plate 40 is fastened with a hole 42 matching hole 42 in the L shaped support bar 43 . The indexing plate 40 also has four concentric equally spaced holes 41 which give rotational positioning for each of the step positions. Safety handle accessory 46 to 50 is attached to the L shaped step support 43 near the tread 44 using conventional fasteners in holes 48 to secure the safety handle support 47 . This support 47 has a stop on the bottom 46 which holds the safety handle 50 in place while the hitch pin 132 and clip are inserted in holes 49 securing the handle 50 in place. The safety handle support 47 can be a permanent add on to the L shaped bar 43 , but the safety handle 50 must be removed for the “step assembly” to be rotated into the stowage position under the truck 51 . [ FIG. 4 ] Turning next to FIG. 2 , there is shown a side elevation of a conventional pickup truck 136 with the tailgate 138 in the down position, supported by the tailgate support cable 137 . The vehicle is equipped with a conventional receiver 130 , comprising a square tubular sleeve rigidly secured to the underside of the vehicle frame 144 by a commercially available receiver type trailer hitch. This receiver 130 is positioned beneath the vehicle bumper 139 and is located in the center of and faces rearward on the vehicle 136 , presenting a rearward opening socket, as shown in FIG. 3 . FIG. 3 shows a rear elevation of the pickup truck 140 with the tailgate in the down position. Traditionally the receiver 130 accepts a ball mount assembly (not shown), to facilitate pulling a trailer or to engage a trailer hitch accessory such as a bicycle carrying rack. According to the present invention, the ball mount assembly is replaced by a rotatable step assembly comprising major subassemblies “accessory receiver”, “pivot pin bar”, and “step assembly” as detailed above and in FIG. 1 . The “accessory receiver” with it's double end receiver 35 , and drop or lowering bar 34 , may have varying dimensions to suit the height requirement, calling for multiple models of “accessory receiver”, as may be found in the standard components software typical printout FIG. 21 . To accomplish an important function of the invention, there is shown in FIGS. 1 , 2 , and 3 a dual receiver 35 having the ability to accept trailer hitch accessories from two directions 180 degrees from one another. This enables devices, such as a “pivot pin bar” 37 , to be installed from either the left or the right enabling installation of a pivot step on either side of a vehicle. Personal preferences, location of under truck obstructions such as exhaust pipes 143 , or other obstructions may be reasons for installing a swivel step on either the left or the right side of the vehicle. The dual receiver 35 also enables installation of pivot step assemblies parts 40 to 45 on both sides of the vehicle at the same time, obstructions permitting. The center receiver extension 32 is fastened to the center receiver extension bar 30 with suitable fastening devices to prevent movement between the two members. The center receiver extension 32 thus may be used for any of the ball mounts, or other trailer hitch accessory devices available. Dimensional changes to this double end receiver with the drop feature, enabled by substituting another standard part from the software represented in FIG. 21 to accomplish the desired height. These changes do not alter the intent of the present invention, and double end receivers with different support configurations may be offered as standard components as in FIG. 21 by the company in several different sizes. Referring again to FIGS. 2 & 3 the double end receiver assembly, parts 30 to 36 are attached to the center receiver 130 , shown best in FIG. 2 , and presents left and right accessory openings, FIG. 3 . A pivot pin extension bar 37 is also shown secured in the left hand side of the double end receiver 35 , using a standard hitch pin and clip. At the opposite end of the bar 37 is located a vertical pivot pin 38 and FOUR holes 41 into which a step locking pin 132 is inserted, locking the pivot step in any one of the several working positions FIGS. 5 , 6 , and 7 , or the stowage position FIG. 4 . FIGS. 2 and 3 also show the pivot step assembly, 40 to 45 locked in the truck tailgate down step access position 53 , giving access to the side of the tailgate where additional assistance can be gained by installing a handle 155 on the truck cap 154 . It will be noted that the step tread 44 is approximately one half the distance from the ground level 151 to the tailgate 138 , and is positioned outside of the vertical shadow of the tailgate, permitting easy stepping access to the tailgate. This access is achieved by using an important feature of this patent, the geometry or positioning of the tread 44 which is achieved by the rotatable L shaped support bar 43 being pivoted around the pivot pin 38 . Under truck stowage is shown as position 51 , in FIG. 4 , giving out of the way stowage of the “step assembly” for vehicle travel. Position 52 , FIG. 5 , achieved by rotating the step 90 degrees counterclockwise around the pivot pin 38 from the stowage position 51 gives better access to items on an elevated roof rack, which may be mounted on a pickup bed cap. Position 52 also gives better access to items in the truck bed when a cap is not in use. A further counter clockwise rotation of 90 degrees around the pivot pin 38 , puts the step in position 53 , FIG. 6 , the truck tailgate down step access position. The last working position 54 , FIG. 7 , truck tailgate up step access position is achieved by a similar 90 degree counter clockwise movement from the position 53 , around the pivot pin 38 . Reversing the direction of rotation to clockwise movement, around the pivot pin 38 , can take the step from position 54 to 53 then to 52 and finally back to the stowage position 51 , for vehicle travel. Each of the four positions has a specific locking hole 41 in the locking plate 40 , which is secured to the L shaped support bar 43 , and the locking pin 132 is removed to effect a new position and then replaced in the new set of holes 41 and 39 . Further provision is made for installation of a rotatable step on the right hand side of the vehicle through use of the right hand accessory entry of the dual receiver shown in FIG. 3 , or any other receiver mounted accessory, with appropriate connection bars. All components used for the left hand installation are used in reverse for the right hand installation, for example the dogleg support bar 33 has means to secure the step tread 31 for either left or right hand use. Obviously there could be more or less working locations by increasing or decreasing the number and location of locking holes 41 in the indexing plate 40 , giving different positions for the step 44 . With this invention, the rotatable step can be used on many different vehicles or on machinery requiring access to elevated positions and having requirements for multiple working positions. To further enhance the safety of the rotatable step my invention discloses on FIGS. 1 , 2 , and 3 , a safety handle bar 50 mounted in a safety handle bar receiver 47 and secured by a standard hitch pin 132 inserted in 49 , the safety handle bar securing pin hole. The safety handle bar receiver 47 is welded or substantially fastened to the swivel step L shaped support bar 43 , and presents a vertical upward opening socket at the end of the L shaped support bar 43 . As the safety handle bar 50 is inserted into the safety handle bar receiver 47 , a means of restricting the downward travel is provided to help align the hitch pin 132 in the safety handle bar securing pin holes 49 . This safety handle bar 50 provides a substantial means of pulling oneself up to the rotatable step 44 using the strength of the arm and upper body, and then gives further aid in ascending to the tailgate itself 138 . Additionally the safety handle bar 50 serves as a guide for the foot when descending from the tailgate 138 to the swivel step 44 , by placing the side of the foot against the handle bar 50 and sliding the foot downward until the step tread 44 is engaged. This prevents overstepping the step tread 44 . To use position 51 , the stowage position, the safety handle bar 50 must be disengaged from the safety handle bar receiver 47 , before rotation of the pivot step to the under truck position 51 can be attained. The safety handle bar assembly is adaptable to all rotatable step installations, left or right hand, and with all of the foreseeable structural supporting systems. An alternate means of providing the structural support for the swivel step, instead of using the center mounted receiver of a conventional trailer hitch, is shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 , end mounted rotatable step drawings. According to my invention, using either the right or left hand end of the open horizontal tubular socket 90 of the conventional receiver type trailer hitch 134 , a structural supporting receiver is created by clearing any internal obstructions in the central support tube 98 , right or left, and providing a hitch pin hole 91 at either or both ends of tube 98 . Thus a dual receiver is created out of a conventional trailer hitch 134 , leaving the center receiver 130 available for use in pulling a trailer or in mounting any of the available trailer hitch accessories. The same pivot step assembly comprised of components 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , and 45 can be used with this end mounting assembly. To duplicate the position of the pivot pin 38 ,shown in FIG. 6 , a new pivot pin assembly calling for components 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , and pivot pin 97 are required, as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 , mounted into either of the openings 90 , or both. The present invention is also concerned with mounting the pivot step assembly 40 to 45 , directly beneath the conventional bumper 147 , supplied with the vehicle as standard equipment, [ FIG. 12 ]. FIG. 12 shows a cutaway view of a typical conventional bumper 147 with one possible structural support system 88 , 89 , and commercially available components 148 and 149 , for mounting the rotatable step with parts 40 to 45 and hitch pin and clip 132 . This embodiment has a round bar, the upper portion of which is threaded 89 , while the lower portion 88 is left unthreaded and serves as a pivot pin for the L shaped support bar 43 and step tread 44 as used in previously detailed assemblies of the rotatable step, FIGS. 1 , 2 , and 3 . This version of the rotatable step installation rotates through the four locked positions 51 , 52 , 53 , and 54 and has a stowage position under the truck 51 for vehicle travel. Similar locking principles are used to lock the swivel step assembly, 40 to 45 into one of the working or stowage positions, by rigidly attaching 40 , the locking plate, to the bottom of the circular support member 89 and pivot pin 88 , and locking the step by inserting the step locking pin 132 into one of the pivot locking pin holes 41 , similar to that shown in FIG. 1 . Installation of this pivot pin assembly may require drilling two holes in the horizontal portions of the bumper, for the pivot pin to pass through and to be locked in place. Pursuant to the present invention, provision is made for a structural support system of the swivel step assembly, parts 40 to 45 , to be bolted directly to the frame of the vehicle. To this end FIG. 15 shows a frame mounted support assembly comprised of components 100 , 101 , 102 103 , 104 and 105 with component 104 being the rearward open receiver. Component 101 is a vertical extension of part 100 , which was offset for drawing clarity. This frame mounted support assembly, 100 to 105 , is bolted to the vehicle frame 144 in at least three places along with the trailer hitch 134 using common mounting holes 102 , 135 and 145 provided in the truck frame. These holes 145 , normally provided by the vehicle manufacturer may be used with or without a trailer hitch assembly 134 . A L shaped pivot pin mounting bar having parts 106 , 107 , 108 , and mounting hole 109 is secured in the receiver 104 using a standard hitch pin and safety pin 132 , inserted in holes 105 and 109 This mounting bar 106 to 109 has at its distal end, the pivot pin 108 rigidly fixed to the mounting bar. Onto this pivot pin 108 the swivel step assembly parts 40 to 45 of FIGS. 15 and 1 can be assembled to make a functioning rotatable step. Full operational features as shown in FIG. 1 , and described above are now in place for the frame mounted rotatable step. A mirror image of the frame mounted support assembly with components 100 to 105 and with the L shaped pivot pin assembly 106 to 109 may be attached to the right frame of the vehicle 144 , using similar mounting holes 145 . Thus a swivel step or other accessories requiring a rotatable feature may also be mounted on the right hand side of the vehicle. Another unique advantage this frame mounted support assembly with parts 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 and 105 gives is the possible installation of two frame mounted receivers mounted equidistant from the center receiver 130 and at the same or a different elevation from the center receiver 130 . This enables attachment of auxiliary accessories requiring two accessory receivers 104 requiring additional support and stability, not provided by a single receiver 130 . Examples of auxiliary accessories requiring this additional stability are devices which would carry a motorcycle, or a job box for tools. It is also possible that these accessory receivers 104 could be equipped with vices, work tables or other tradesman type appliances. FIG. 16 shows another unique way of securing a three receiver hitch, with a pair of clamp on accessory receivers being fastened to the commercially available trailer hitch 134 . The receiver type trailer hitch 134 is fastened to the truck frame 144 and may not have to be removed for this installation. An accessory receiver 160 with a hitch pin securing hole 161 also has a vertical member 162 which positions the accessory receiver on a slightly lower horizontal plane from the center receiver, giving more user flexibility. To complete this assembly, a plate 163 with four tapped holes or the like 164 , is fastened to the vertical member 162 . This subassembly of parts 160 to 164 is placed on the bottom flat side of the horizontal supporting member of the trailer hitch and held securely in place by four bolts 152 going through the four holes 166 in the upper plate 165 and screwing into the four holes 164 in the lower plate 163 . This fastening arrangement gives flexibility in the positioning of the clamp on accessory receivers, left and right on the trailer hitch support tube. Since this is an add on to a device that has a weight limiting restriction, the accessory receivers must comply with these limitations. The left hand side of the trailer hitch shows the clamp on accessory receiver bolted in place, and ready for use. FIG. 17 again shows an arrangement for adding accessory receivers to a conventional center receiver type trailer hitch 134 . The present embodiment provides a saddle 172 , which holds the accessory receiver 170 securely in place, and is bolted 153 through holes 174 and 175 , or welded, or the like, to the horizontal supporting tube of the trailer hitch 134 . In operation, holes 171 in the receiver tube and holes 173 of the saddle are aligned so a hitch pin may be inserted, to hold an accessory device in place. The right hand side of the trailer hitch shows the accessory receiver in place and ready for use. Again weight restrictions for the original trailer hitch are required to be observed. FIG. 11 shows another novel way of mounting the rotatable step to a vehicle, namely a mini bumper 58 . The “accessory receivers” 59 are formed as an integral part of the mini bumper shell, 60 and are entered from the side or end of the bumper, as shown on FIG. 9 . Parts numbering 58 to 69 make up the mini bumper itself, while the mini bumper frame attachment members 70 , 71 , 72 , and 73 , are shown best in FIG. 8 . Holes 145 in the truck frame 144 are matched with holes 73 in the frame connectors 70 [right] and 71 [left] with bolts and nuts, or the like. Further assembly requires aligning four holes 72 on each frame connector 70 and 71 , with four holes 62 on each of the two shell stiffeners 61 . Next a “pivot pin bar”, FIG. 9 , having parts numbered 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , are inserted into the mini bumper receiver 59 and two fastening devices, 146 pass through holes 63 in the shell 60 , and holes 77 in the pivot pin bar 74 making a secure connection. As in previous embodiments of this invention, the standard “step assembly” having parts 40 to 44 , and safety handle optional add on, numbers 46 to 50 are assembled by inserting pivot pin 75 of the “pivot pin bar” 74 , into hole 42 of the “step assembly”. A standard hitch pin and clip 132 complete the assembly by being inserted into one of the four indexing holes 41 and the index locking hole 76 located on the pivot pin bar 74 . If desired, a safety handle can be added at any time by the customer. As in previously described embodiments of this invention, the “step assembly” assembled on the mini bumper can be rotated and locked into all four working and stowage positions. The fabrication details of the mini bumper are shown in FIG. 8 with an isometric view from the rear and under the mini bumper. The main body or shell 60 of the mini bumper is formed as a “C” or channel with the bottom leg turned up 90 degrees to form a three sided receptacle 59 into which accessories such as a pivot pin bar 74 may be inserted. Further a hole is formed, centered left to right, and at the top of the face of the mini bumper 58 , into which a tubular center receiver 68 can be flush mounted with the face of the mini bumper shell 60 . The two shell stiffeners 61 , in this embodiment are welded at 90 degrees to the back of the face of the shell and in alignment with the two frame connectors 70 and 71 . A further stiffener, 67 is secured to and becomes an integral part of the top edge of the mini bumper shell 60 , and is welded in this embodiment, to the shell stiffeners 61 as well as the shell itself to provide a substantial support for the center receiver 68 , which is also welded to member 67 .and to the shell 60 . Beneath the receiver is positioned the safety chain plate 65 with two holes 66 , to receive the safety chain fasteners. Holes 64 on either side of the center receiver 68 , in the face of the shell 60 are to provide access to the hitch pin hole 69 and to allow the safety chain to be fastened to the holes 66 . It should be noted that the face of the mini bumper is free of any obstructions, such as receivers or safety chain plate. The mini bumper is designed to match the bumper height of automobiles and to create a less dangerous and costly collision, should one occur. The mini bumper can with it's center receiver and two side accessory receivers, become the next generation of trailer hitches. FIG. 18 shows a full width version of the mini bumper 80 in place on the back of a pickup truck 142 , with a center receiver and two rearward facing accessory receivers, all with flush mounts and easily accessible safety chain plates. FIG. 19 has a rear view of the two ends of the full width bumper 80 showing the “accessory receiver” parts assembly on the left and the completely assembled “accessory receiver” on the right. The receiver tube 83 is welded into hole 86 in the face of the shell 80 . The receiver tube 83 also is welded to the turned up leg of the shell 79 . A heavier gauge metal plate 81 encircles the receiver tube and is welded to it 83 as well as to the top and bottom of the rear of the full width shell 80 . This same plate serves as the safety chain plate, with holes 82 exposed under the face of the lower bumper for easy attachment of the safety chains This full width lower bumper 80 also has a frame support system as shown on FIG. 8 of the mini bumper drawing, giving it 80 the same structural support that current trailer hitches have, enabling it 80 to do all of the functions of a receiver type trailer hitch plus providing a lower safety bumper with a protrusion free surface. FIG. 20 gives a sample of how a mini bumper can be utilized for mounting two different rotatable accessory devices. On the left, mounted in the receiver opening 59 and secured by bolts with nuts 152 going through holes 63 and 77 , is a pivot pin bar assembly having parts 74 to 77 , onto which is mounted the step assembly, with components 40 through 45 . As in previously presented designs, the bushing hole 42 is mounted on the pivot pin 75 , and a hitch pin 132 secures the step in one of the working or stowage positions by being inserted into one of the four index holes 41 and the locking hole 76 . On the right side of the mini bumper an identical except slightly longer, pivot pin bar, having parts 74 to 77 , is inserted into the receiver opening 59 . On this pivot pin 75 a rotary cargo tray is installed, using bushing hole 125 , with a similar index locking plate 124 having a choice of three locking holes 126 , with three corresponding stationary cargo tray positions. The cargo tray 120 positions are; A. travel position—covering the full width of the truck or other vehicle with a rear door access, and occupying less in depth. B. rear door access position—in situations where the cargo tray 120 is loaded and rear door access is required, the cargo tray 120 can be unloaded and dismantled or it may be pivoted out of the way 90 degree, using prior art. C. loading or unloading position from another vehicle parked parallel and forward of the cargo tray equipped vehicle. The C position for the cargo tray is achieved by rotating the tray 180 degrees from the travel position behind the truck or van. Included in FIG. 20 is a “pivot platform support” which is insertable into a center receiver or an accessory receiver, with parts numbered 115 to 119 . The receiver insertable bar 115 having a hitch pin securing hole 116 , also has a vertical member 117 to attain the correct height, and an engagement plate 118 with a pin locking hole 119 . In use the “pivot platform support” is inserted and locked in a receiver 68 with a hitch pin 132 and the cargo tray, or pivot platform 120 rests on the engagement plate 118 with holes 121 and 119 being penetrated by a hitch pin 132 , to provide a secure support for the rotatable cargo tray 120 , while the vehicle is traveling. FIG. 21 is representative of the standard components presented by the company, for use in developing scaled drawings of the rotatable step. The parts, standard components are all on floppy disks, cd rom, or the like, each presented in three or four views to give all sides of the part. On the computer, with software such as AUTOCAD, having it's own registered trademark, any of the views of a part may be selected [cut] from the company supplied disks, and placed in a hold situation [paste] for later use. Further, from the company supplied disk, a rear or side view of a certain model vehicle can be placed on the monitor, the parts being held can be moved into the proper position in relation to the vehicle, and imprinted there. So the four step CAD drawing process for drawing a rotatable step on the rear of a pickup truck would be; [for reference use FIGS. 1 and 3 ]. 1 Pull up the rear view image of a Dodge 4×4 pickup truck, 1997 year, from the company supplied disk, and imprint it on a new CAD drawing. 2 Pull up from the standard components FIG. 21 , the rear view of an “accessory receiver” parts numbering 30 through 36 , with the proper vertical elevation, and place it in the center receiver 130 of the vehicle drawing. 3 Pull up from the standard components FIG. 21 , the rear view of “pivot pin bar” 37 and place it in position in either side of the accessory receiver 35 , depending on customer preference, engaging the two holes numbered 36 with a hitch pin 132 , using the cut and paste technique. 4. Pull up the “step assembly” drawing, parts 40 to 45 , also from FIG. 21 , and using the same process of cut and paste, install the new parts with hole 42 going on pivot pin 38 . If the safety handle is also desired it may also be placed on the step assembly drawing at this time. What if the customer, who probably has been watching this computer drawing process, feels a change is necessary? The computer program enables deletion of selected components and substitution of others from the same pictorial representation of the standard components FIG. 21 , so any substitution of parts is possible. This is also where special customer ideas can be tried out first. While the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the particular form set forth, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Improved selectively rotatable multipositionable step attachment for a vehicle platform and the like for not only facilitating safe user access to the platform, for loading and unloading same, when the step attachment is in an operative position, but also when it is in a non operative or stowage position for facilitating additional use of the platform such as for towing another platform or for facilitating attachment of an auxiliary platform to the vehicle platform. The step attachment is generally made up of a support bar, a rotatable step tread of L-shaped configuration, a multiappatured index plate concentrically affixed to the outer end of either the support bar or the rotatable step tread, and a device to fasten the step assembly to the vehicle platform. Depending on the various requirements of the step attachment when being connected to a vehicle platform and the like, various mounting arrangements are provided.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION There are certain apparatuses in use today which require temporary connection to service vehicles. For example, many vehicles require temporary connection to a fuel re-supply truck, and some fixed structures require either that or temporary connection to a battery recharging vehicle. Most large aircraft require temporary connection to ground power units (GPUs) which are typically mounted on a trailer towed by a “tug” and which supply electric power to an aircraft before its engines are started. Many turbine-powered aircraft further require temporary connection to an “airstart” unit to spin the engines prior to ignition. A problem with such temporary attachments is that there exists the potential for the service vehicle inadvertently to be driven away from the apparatus being serviced before detachment from the apparatus being serviced, almost certainly causing damage to the apparatus and/or the vehicle, and in addition possibly injuring personnel. Many incidents have been logged of aircraft GPUs or airstart trailers being driven off while the CPU umbilical is still attached to aircraft, causing, at a minimum, damage to the receptacle on the aircraft. Not only is such damage costly to repair, but also admits the possibility of exacerbated or even catastrophic damage to the aircraft in flight. The system currently in use to prevent such incidents; involving CPU connections to aircraft consists simply of detaching the CPU towbar from the tug while the CPU is attached to the aircraft, raising the towbar to a vertical position, and placing a safety-yellow “sock” over it to signify to personnel that the CPU is attached to the aircraft. Procedures require that the sock not be removed from the towbar until the CPU is disconnected from the aircraft. The weakness in this procedure is that if someone should fail to follow it, the towbar can, and therefore inevitably sometimes will, be reattached to the tug and the tug driven away without the umbilical having been first detached from the aircraft. It would be possible to arrange a safety interlock that would interconnect the ignition switch on the tug with the umbilical plug and receptacle combination on the aircraft. In other words, a sensor, such as a switch embedded in the CPU plug, could be electrically arranged from the plug to the CPU and thence from the GPU towbar to the tug, to keep the tug starter circuit open as long as the plug was in the receptacle. The main drawback here is expense of making, installing, and maintaining the interlock system itself on the GPUs and the tugs. Also, if it is relied upon, a failure in it would practically guarantee an occasional damage incident. As in all critical service routines where human life is at stake, it is important to assure that, as a final step in preparation for aircraft flight, human beings are alerted to hazards and allowed to take corrective action. This is why the preflight walkaround has been the capstone of aviation safety since the beginning of flight. An uncomplicated, and therefore inexpensive and reliable, system to warn personnel of an unsafe condition involving service vehicles is needed. SUMMARY OF INVENTION The present invention is an electrical warning system mounted on a service vehicle, in this case an aircraft ground power unit (GPU). The system consists of two electrical switches, normally closed, connected in series with the existing GPU battery power source and a combined strobe light and horn. One of the switches is mounted near or on the GPU towbar so that it is closed unless the towbar is in its raised position. The other switch is mounted in a holster specially shaped to hold the GPU plug. This second switch is closed unless held open by the presence of the plug in the holster. If both the towbar is down and the plug is not in the holster, both switches are closed and the light flashes and the horn sounds, alerting personnel that conditions are right for aircraft damage. If the plug is in the aircraft, personnel can only prevent the alarm from sounding by raising the towbar, thereby making it impossible to tow the GPU away from the aircraft. Similarly, if the towbar is attached to the tug, personnel can only prevent the alarm from sounding by unplugging the GPU from the aircraft. An object of this invention is to provide warning to personnel of the potential for damaging an aircraft by towing a service vehicle away from it while the service vehicle's umbilical is still attached. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a warning system attached to only one vehicle (a towed service vehicle). Still other objects of this invention are to provide a warning system that is highly reliable, inexpensive to build into existing service vehicles or to retrofit to existing service vehicles, and inexpensive to maintain. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the prior art arrangement of a tug, a CPU, and an aircraft prior to connection of the CPU to the aircraft. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the prior art arrangement of a CPU connected to and providing power to an aircraft. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a CPU with the present invention installed. FIG. 4 is a top view of the front end of the CPU. FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a CPU connected both to an aircraft and a tug, with the alarm system of this invention in activation. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a CPU equipped with the present invention and the alarm function deactivated by removal of the plug from the aircraft. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a fuel trailer equipped with the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Now referring to the drawings, in which like reference numerals in all the drawings refer to like features in each of the drawings, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the prior art arrangement of a tug 1 , a GPU 2 , and an aircraft 3 ; prior to connection of the GPU to the aircraft. The tug has a hitch 4 to which a towbar 5 may be removably attached, the towbar being attached by hinge 6 in a horizontal position to the front end 7 of the GPU. A service umbilical 8 containing electric wires lies in a tray 9 along one side of the GPU. The service umbilical terminates in a plug 10 for connection to the aircraft. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the prior art arrangement of GPU 2 connected to and providing power to aircraft 3 . GPU towbar 5 is disconnected from hitch 4 and raised to the vertical. Placement of a safety-yellow sock 201 over towbar 5 constitutes a signal to personnel that the umbilical plug 10 may be inserted into GPU receptacle 202 on aircraft 3 . Note that since the sock must be removed from the towbar at some point in the process anyway, its removal per se does not positively warn a person who removes it and reattaches the towbar to the tug that he or she has created the potential for a drive-off incident. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a CPU 2 with the present invention installed. A momentary-open, normally-closed towbar switch 301 is provided near the hinge 6 connecting towbar 5 to the front end of the CPU 2 . A holster 303 is attached to one side of the front end 7 of the CPU. When the towbar is fully raised, key 304 is pressed by the towbar, opening the switch 301 . A strobe light 305 is affixed to the top of the CPU and a horn 306 (not visible) is installed behind grille 307 on the CPU. FIG. 4 is a top view of the front end 7 of CPU 2 , more closely showing the holster 303 for plug 10 (not shown here but shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 ). Note that in the cavity 402 of the holster there is a smooth lever 403 which projects through one of the inner faces 404 of the cavity 402 . The smooth lever 403 can be pressed toward face 404 , thereby opening a second momentary-open, normally-closed plug switch 405 , as would happen when a CPU umbilical plug (not shown here) is placed in it. FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the present invention. The positive pole 501 of the CPU onboard battery 502 is connected by a wire to the normally-closed terminal 504 of plug switch 405 . The common, or in this case, negative, terminal 505 of the plug switch 405 is in turn connected to the normally-closed terminal 506 on the towbar switch 301 . The towbar switch common 507 is connected to the positive terminals 508 and 509 , respectively, of horn 306 and strobe light 305 . The negative terminals 512 and 513 , respectively, of horn 306 and strobe light 305 , are connected to the negative battery terminal 514 . Plug switch 405 , being normally-closed, is opened by pressure on lever 403 by the GPU umbilical plug (not shown here). Similarly, towbar switch 301 , being normally-closed, is opened by pressure on key 304 by the GPU towbar (not shown). FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a GPU connected both to aircraft 23 and tug 1 , with the alarm system of this invention in activation. Note that towbar 5 is down (connected to tug 1 ) and plug 10 is connected to GPU receptacle 202 in aircraft 3 . Horn 306 is sounding and strobe light 305 is flashing. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a GPU equipped with the present invention and the alarm function deactivated by removal of the plug 10 from the aircraft 3 (not shown) and placement in holster 303 . Deactivation is also effected by raising towbar 5 . This invention has applicability to other service vehicles, particularly trailers towed by a tractor vehicle which are intended for temporarily connection to another vehicle or structure. FIG. 8 shows one example, a fuel trailer 801 equipped with the invention. This trailer has a towbar 5 that is fixed in a horizontal position and can only be raised enough to place over a hitch ball (not shown) on a tractor (not shown). A normally-open towbar switch 301 , mounted on the front of ball socket 802 on trailer towbar 5 , closes when the socket 802 is lowered onto, and comes into contact with, a ball hitch. The nozzle receptacle 803 on the side of the trailer 801 has a normally-closed nozzle switch 405 within it which is opened by insertion of the fuel filler nozzle 10 . Light 305 and horn 306 are powered by and on-board battery 502 .

An aircraft ground power unit (GPU) is equipped with a device that warns personnel with a flashing light and a siren when the unsafe condition exists of the GPU being connected to both the tug and the aircraft at the same time. Similar devices can be used on other towed vehicles that can cause damage to vehicles or structures if towed away while still attached to the vehicle or structure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to static converters and more particularly to a static converter having the ability to accommodate a high input voltage that would ordinarily be excessive for a conventional static converter. 2. Description of the Prior Art One of the important factors that must be considered in the use of a static converter is whether or not it can safely handle available power supply voltages. For example, in some European systems the available power from a three-phase rectified source will exceed 500 volts nominal. Since the maximum voltage that normally-used transistors can handle is less than 400 volts, most regular converters cannot handle such high source voltages without exceeding the breakover limits of the switching transistors. Although attempts have been made to connect two conventional bridge converters in series in order to solve the high voltage problem, it has been found that during those times that both converters are OFF, the voltages are not equally divided among the transistors will be exceeded and cause it to break over. The subject matter of the present invention is related to that disclosed in my previously issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,872, and the entire disclosure thereof is hereby incorporated by reference into this application. SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a novel static converter which is capable of handling supply voltages which exceed the breakover voltage of the switching devices utilized. Briefly, a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a pair of power switching bridge circuits, a common output transformer that has a primary winding for each bridge circuit and conventional secondary output circuits, an input capacitor connected across each bridge, a current balance inductor connected in series with each primary winding of the output transformer, two power switch drive transformers and a pair of drive transistors that can be driven from a low power rectangular wave source. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art following a reading of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings. IN THE DRAWING The FIGURE is a schematic diagram illustrating a static converter in accordance with the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing, there is shown a preferred embodiment of a static converter circuit that can alternatively handle excessively high supply voltages. As illustrated, the circuit includes two converter subcircuits which share a common pair of drive transformers and a common output transformer, and are alternatively connectable in either series or parallel configuration. More specifically, the circuit includes a pair of drive transistors Qd1 and Qd2, a pair of drive transformers T1 and T2, a first bridge circuit 10, a second bridge circuit 12, a bridge switching means 14, a current balancing indicator L1, and an output transformer T3. The transformer T1 includes a primary winding 16 that is connected in series with the drive transistor Qd1, the two being connected across a voltage source Ec, and four secondary windings 1, 2, 7 and 8 which are respectively coupled in driving relationship to the power transistors Q1 and Q2 of bridge 10 and the power transistors Q7 and Q8 of bridge 12. Similarly, the transformer T2 includes a primary winding 18 that is connected in series with the drive transistor Qd2, the two also being connected across source Ec, and four secondary windings 3, 4, 5 and 6 which are respectively coupled in driving relationship to the power transistors Q3 and Q4 of bridge 12 and the power transistors Q5 and Q6 of the bridge 10. As illustrated in the drawing, bridges 10 and 12 include 8 power transistors Q1 thru Q8 and 8 diodes CR1 thru CR8. The transistors Q1, Q2, Q7 and Q8 are polarized such that when rendered conductive by signals received from transformer T1 will complete a circuit from power supply terminal 20 thru transistor Q1, in one direction, thru T3 primary winding Np1 and current balancing inductor winding NL1, and thru transistor QL to terminal 22. From terminal 22 the path continues thru Q7 in the same direction, through balancing inductor winding NL2, T3 primary winding Np2 and thru Q3 to terminal 24. The transistors Q5, Q6, Q3 and Q4 are polarized such that when rendered conductive by signals received transformer T2 on the opposite half cycle will complete a circuit from power supply terminal 20 thru transistor Q5 in the opposite direction thru current balancing inductor winding NL1, thru T3 transformer winding Np1, and thru Q6 to terminal 22. From terminal 22 this path continues thru Q3 in the opposite direction thru T3 primary Np2, thru balancing inductor winding NL2 and thru Q4 to terminal 24. In addition to the primary windings Np1 and Np2 which are wound in series aiding relationship, and the primary windings NL1 and NL2 which are wound in series opposing relationship to each other, transformer T3 also includes a plurality of output secondary windings NSl-NSn which are adapted for connection to various loads. The switch 14 is a double pole--double throw device which in the position illustrated in solid lines couples the bridges 10 and 12 in series across power supply terminals 20 and 24, and which in the opposite position shown in dashed lines couples the bridges 10 and 12 in parallel across power supply materials 20 and 22. Assuming that Qd1 has been gated into saturation by the positive-going current waveform "a" of the drive signal Eg applied to terminal 30, a current having a waveform resembling that shown at "b" will be established in primary 16. The rising portion 32 of this waveform represents the magnetizing current of the transformer T1. The primary current i1Bp will then induce a current i1B in the secondary windings 1, 2, 7 and 8 which will have a waveform resembling that shown at "c". Note that at termination of the pulse "a" the stored energy in T1 (stored as a result of the magnetizing current) will cause the current i1B to have a reverse current component 34 which will cause a back biasing of the power transistors Q1, Q2, Q7 and Q8, and give rise to faster turn off. As illustrated, the current i1B will cause a current i1 to flow through the circuit along the path illustrated. Similarly, when Qd2 is gated ON the T2 secondaries will be energized with a current having a waveform "d" similar to waveform "c" but displaced in time, and this current will turn ON transistors Q3, Q4, Q5 and Q6 to create a current in transformer T3 and indicator L1 which is in a direction opposite to that of i1. Obviously, the magnitude and waveform shape of the currents developed in the primary of T3 will be primarily determined by T3 magnetizing current and the secondary load, but such currents may be generally represented by the output waveform "e". Since the windings Np1 and Np2 are wrapped around a common core, the voltage across each will be determined by the turns ratio between them. Moreover, since the number of turns in Np1 is equal to that of Np2, each winding will absorb 1/2 of the input voltage Ei. Capacitors C1 and C2 are relatively small capacitors which are used to maintain a balanced voltage across each bridge during the converter switching means. For unity ratio between Np1 and Np2, capacitors C1 and C2 will each support 1/2 of the input voltage E1. Note that there is normally a difference in the turn ON and turn OFF times of the converter power transistors Q1-Q8, and as a consequence one converter bridge is likely to turn ON and/or OFF before the other one with the result being that the ON bridge must switch the total load current, i.e., twice its normal operating current in this case. Since the windings on inductor L1 are series opposing and of equal turns, the total flux linkages in the core will be 0 and thus no voltage drop will occur across the current transformer when both converters are in the ON state during a particular 1/2 cycle. However, when one converter turns OFF prior to the turn-off of the other, the balancing inductor winding in series with the still conducting converter will absorb voltage because there is no cancellation flux from the other inductor winding. Thus, the current rise through the still conducting converter bridge, i.e., that which would normally take place without the current transformer, is now restricted by the inductance of L1. The purpose of CR1 through CR8 is to present paths back to C1 and C2 for any energy stored in T3 and L1 at the time the converters turn off. With equal voltages across C1 and C2, the voltage across each bridge will thus be 1/2 the input voltage Ei. In the event that it should be desirable to operate from a nominal input voltage that is approximately 1/2 of Ei, the two converters can be connected in parallel to each other by merely moving the contact arms of switch 14 to the position shown in dashed lines. This will cause circuit node I to be connected to node III and node II to be connected to node IV. In this case the secondary outputs and the primary voltage and currents will remain essentially unchanged. Although the present invention has been described in terms of a single embodiment, it is contemplated that numerous alterations and modifications of the illustrated circuit will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore intended that the appended claims be interpreted as covering all such alterations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

Two or more static converter switching circuits are connected in series across an input voltage source and have their primaries wound on a single power transformer core. Each converter circuit includes a current primary winding so as to limit the current through the power switches during the switching periods. The circuit arrangement allows equal input voltage distribution across the power switches and controls the current rise through each power switch during the turn ON and turn OFF times.

This application is a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/457,597, filed Jun. 1, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,598; and a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/457,486, filed Jun. 1, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,368. The U.S. application Ser. No. 08/457,597, filed Jun. 1, 1995 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,598) is a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/238,528, filed May 5, 1994, still pending. The U.S. application Ser. No. 08/457,486, filed Jun. 1, 1995 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,368) is also a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/238,528, filed May 5, 1994, still pending, which is a Divisional Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/727,059, filed Jul. 8, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,199. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system for transmitting a digital video signal and recording the received video signal. More particularly, the present invention relates to great extension of the range of use of a digital signal recording/reproducing system by greatly shortening a recording time through transmission of a video signal in a compressed form, and further relates to great extension of the range of use of a digital signal recording/reproducing system by making the number of signals to be recorded and a recording/reproducing time variable. As a digital magnetic recording/reproducing system (hereinafter referred to as VTR) is conventionally known, for example, a D2 format VTR. In such a conventional digital VTR, the elongation or shortening of a reproducing time is possible by using variable-speed reproduction. However, the prior art reference does not at all disclose high-speed recording in which a recording time is shortened to 1/m, multiple recording in which a plurality of signals are recorded, and the compression/expansion of a recording/reproducing time. The above-mentioned conventional digital VTR has a feature that a high quality is attained and there is no deterioration caused by dubbing. However, the shortening of a dubbing time is not taken into consideration. Therefore, for example, in the case where a two-hour program is to be recorded, two hours are required. Thus, there is a drawback that inconveniences are encountered in use. Also, the multiplexing of recording signals is not taken into consideration. Therefore, for example, when two kinds of programs are to be simultaneously recorded or reproduced, two VTR's are required. This also causes inconveniences in use. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a digital VTR in which high-speed recording onto a tape can be made with the same format as that used in standard-speed recording, to provide a transmission signal processing system for transmitting at a high speed a video signal to be recorded by such a digital VTR, and to extend the range of use of the digital VTR by shortening a recording time. For example, the digital VTR can be used in such a manner that a two-hour program is recorded in about ten minutes and is reproduced at a standard speed. The above object is achieved as follows. A video signal and an audio signal are subjected to time-base compression to 1/m, bit compression to 1/n, addition of a parity signal and modulation, and are thereafter transmitted or outputted. The transmitted signal is received, is subjected to demodulation, error correction, addition of a parity signal and modulation, and is thereafter recorded, onto a magnetic tape which travels at a travel speed m times as high as that upon normal reproduction, by use of a magnetic head on a cylinder which rotates at a frequency m times as high as that upon normal reproduction. The signal on the magnetic tape traveling at a travel speed upon normal reproduction is reproduced by a magnetic head on the cylinder which rotates at a frequency upon normal reproduction. The reproduced signal is subjected to demodulation, error correction, bit expansion of video and audio signals and D/A conversion, and is thereafter outputted. Address signals corresponding to a plurality of VTR's may be transmitted prior to a signal to be recorded. Further, control signals indicative of the start of recording and the stop of recording may be transmitted. The transmitted signals are received and error-corrected, and controls of the standby for recording, the start of recording and the stop of recording are made on the basis of the control signals. With the above construction, since the video signal and the audio signal are time-base compressed to 1/m and bit-compressed to 1/n, a transmission time is shortened to 1/m and a signal band turns to m/n. The time-base compressed and bit-compressed signal is transmitted after addition of a parity signal for error correction and modulation to a code adapted for a transmission path. The transmitted signal is received and demodulated. The detection of an error produced in a transmitting system and the correction for the error can be made using the added parity signal. The error-corrected signal is added with a parity signal for correction for an error produced in a magnetic recording/reproducing system and is modulated to a code adapted for the magnetic recording/reproducing system. Upon recording, since the rotation frequency of the cylinder and the travel speed of the magnetic tape are increased by m times, the recording onto the magnetic tape can be made at an m-tuple speed. Upon reproduction, by setting the rotation frequency of the cylinder and the travel speed of the magnetic tape to normal ones, the reproduction at a normal speed can be made. The reproduced signal is code-demodulated. The detection of an error produced in the magnetic recording/reproducing system and the correction for the error can be made on the basis of the parity signal. By bit-expanding the video signal and the audio signal compressed by the transmission signal processing system, the original video and audio signal can be restored. The bit-expanded signal is converted into an analog signal by a D/A converter. Simultaneous and selective control of the start/stop of recording for a multiplicity of VTR's can be made in such a manner that the address signals corresponding to the VTR's are transmitted prior to a signal to be recorded, the correction for an error of the received signal is made, required VTR's are brought into recording standby conditions by the corrected address signals, and the controls of the start of recording and the stop of recording are made by the transmitted control signals. Another object of the present invention is to provide a digital signal recording/reproducing system in which multiple recording onto a tape can be made with the same format as that used in standard recording and simultaneous multiple reproduction is possible, and to extend the range of use of a digital VTR by compressing/expanding a recording/reproducing time in accordance with the transmission rate of a multiplexed input/output signal and the number of signals in the multiplexed input/output signal. This object is achieved as follows. There are provided means for selecting one or plural desired signals from a time-base compressed and time-division multiplexed digital input signal, and helical scan recording means for making time-division multiplex recording of the selected signals with a time-base compressed speed after selection being retained. There is further provided means for reproducing the recorded signals with the rotation speed of a cylinder, a tape speed and so on being set to values proportional to the transmission rate of a reproduction signal and the number of signals to be simultaneously reproduced and with the signal being time-base expanded or being retained as time-base compressed. With the above construction, N kinds of desired signals selected from the multiplexed input digital signal and time-base compressed to 1/K are subjected to time-division multiplex recording with a time-base compressed speed after selection being retained. Upon reproduction, for example, if both the cylinder rotation speed and the tape speed are set to N/K times, a recording track and a reproducing track coincide with each other and the use of a reproducing time K/N times as long as a recording time enables the reproduction of each of the N kinds of signals at a standard speed. Also, if both the cylinder rotation speed and the tape speed are set to (M×N)/K times, a recording track and a reproducing track coincide with each other and the use of a reproducing time as K/(M×N) times as long as the recording time enables the reproduction of each of the N kinds of signals at an M-tuple speed. In the case where L kinds of signals are selected from among the N kinds of reproduced signals and a processing speed at a reproduction signal processing circuit is set to L×M times as long as a standard reproduction processing speed, each of the L kinds of signals among the N kinds of multiple-recorded signals is outputted at a speed M times as high as a standard speed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital transmission signal processing system and a recording/reproducing system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a recording/reproducing system according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the conventional parity adding method; FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a recording/reproducing system according to still another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a digital transmission signal processing system and a recording/reproducing system according to a further embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6 shows the format of control signals used in one of applications of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a still further embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 shows one example of the specification of signals to be recorded; FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a furthermore embodiment of the present invention; FIGS. 10, 11 and 12 are block diagrams of different examples of applications of the present invention; FIG. 13 is a block diagram for explaining one example of the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7; FIG. 14 is a timing chart showing the waveforms of signals involved in the example shown in FIG. 13; FIG. 15 is a block diagram for explaining another example of the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7; FIG. 16 is a timing chart showing the waveforms of signals involved in the example shown in FIG. 15; FIG. 17 is a table showing some applications of the examples shown in FIGS. 13 and 15; FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a still furthermore embodiment of the present invention; and FIGS. 19 and 20 are signal diagrams for explaining different operations of the embodiment shown in FIG. 18. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will now be explained by use of FIG. 1. In the figure, reference numerals 1 and 40 denote magnetic tapes, numerals 2, 3, 41 and 42 magnetic heads, numerals 4 and 43 cylinders, numerals 5 and 44 capstans, numerals 10 and 50 servo control circuits, numerals 20, 31 and 60 demodulation circuits, numerals 21, 32 and 61 error correction circuits, numerals 22 and 23 compression circuits, numerals 24 and 33 parity addition circuits, numerals 25 and 34 modulation circuits, numerals 26 a transmission circuit, numeral 27 a transmission path, numeral 30 a reception circuit, numerals 62 and 63 expansion circuits, numerals 64 and 65 D/A conversion circuits, numeral 70 a video signal output terminal, and numeral 71 an audio signal output terminal. Firstly, the operation of a transmission signal processing system will be explained. Digital video and audio signals recorded on the magnetic tape 1 are reproduced by the magnetic heads 2 and 3 mounted on the cylinder 4 and are inputted to the demodulation circuit 20. The magnetic tape 1 travels by virtue of the capstan 5. The travel speed of the magnetic tape 1 and the rotation frequency of the cylinder 4 are, for example, ten times as high as the tape travel speed and the cylinder rotation speed upon normal reproduction. Accordingly, the signal inputted to the demodulation circuit 20 is a signal time-compressed to one tenth. For example, a 120-minute signal recorded on the magnetic tape 1 can be reproduced in 12 minutes. Generally, in the case where a digital signal is to be recorded on a magnetic recording medium, the signal is recorded after having been modulated into scrambled NRZ code, M 2 code or the like. The demodulation circuit 20 performs a demodulation processing, that is, a signal processing for restoring the thus modulated signal into original digital data. The signal demodulated by the demodulation circuit 20 is inputted to the error correction circuit 21 in which erroneous data produced in a magnetic recording/reproducing process is detected and the correction for the erroneous data is made. Further, the signal is separated into a video signal and an audio signal which are in turn inputted to the compression circuits 22 and 23, respectively. The video signal is bit-compressed through, for example, discrete cosine conversion. The audio signal is bit-compressed through, for example, non-linear quantization or differential PCM. As a result, the transmission rate of the video signal and the audio signal in total is reduced to, for example, one twentieth. Output signals of the compression circuits 22 and 23 are inputted to the parity addition circuit 24 for performing a signal processing which includes adding a parity signal for error correction and outputting the video signal and the audio signal serially in accordance with a transmission format. A serial output signal of the parity addition circuit 24 is inputted to the modulation circuit 25. In the modulation circuit 25, the serial signal is modulated in accordance with the characteristic and the frequency band of the transmission path 27. For example, in the case where the signal is transmitted in an electric wave form, quadruple phase shift keying (QPSK) is made. The modulated signal is inputted to the transmission circuit 26 from which it is outputted to the transmission path 27. As apparent from the foregoing explanation of the operation of the transmission signal processing system, it is possible to transmit a signal at a speed which is ten times as high as a normal speed. The above embodiment has been shown in conjunction with the case where a signal from the VTR is reproduced. However, a signal source is not limited to the VTR and may include a magnetic disk device, an optical disk device or the like. Next, explanation will be made of the operation of the VTR for receiving and recording the transmitted signal. The signal transmitted from the transmission signal processing system is received by the reception circuit 30. The received signal is inputted to the demodulation circuit 31. The demodulation circuit 31 is provided corresponding to the modulation and demodulates the signal to the original signal. The demodulated signal is inputted to the error correction circuit 32 in which the detection of and the correction for an error produced in the transmission path 27 are made on the basis of the parity signal added by the parity addition circuit 24. At this time, in the case where the S/N ratio of the transmission system is not sufficient so that complete correction for the error is impossible, correction is made through, for example, signal replacement, by use of the signal correlation. An output signal of the error correction circuit 32 is inputted to the parity addition circuit 33. In the parity addition circuit 33, a parity signal for detecting an error produced in a recording/reproducing process and making correction for the error is added. The parity-added signal is inputted to the modulation circuit 34. In the modulation circuit 34, the signal is modulated to scrambled NRZ code, M 2 code or the like as mentioned above. The modulated signal is recorded on the magnetic tape 40 by the magnetic heads 41 and 42 mounted on the cylinder 43. Since the signal supplied to the magnetic heads 41 and 42 is a signal which is time-base compressed to one tenth as compared with a signal upon normal operation, the servo control circuit 50 controls the cylinder 43 and the capstan 44 so that the rotation frequency of the cylinder 43 and the travel speed of the magnetic tape 40 become ten times as high as those upon normal recording. Also, in order to record a predetermined signal at a predetermined position on the magnetic tape 40, synchronization information is detected from the received signal to control the phase of rotation of the cylinder 41 on the basis of the detected synchronization information. Next, the operation of the VTR for reproducing the thus recorded signal will be explained. Upon reproduction, the travel speed of the magnetic tape 40 and the rotation frequency of the cylinder 43 are set to those upon normal reproduction. The reproduced signal is inputted to the demodulation circuit 60. The demodulation circuit 60 is provided corresponding to the modulation circuit 34 and demodulates the modulated signal. The demodulated signal is inputted to the error correction circuit 61 in which the detection of an error produced in the magnetic recording/reproducing system and the correction for the error are made on the basis of the parity signal added by the parity addition circuit 33. In the case where there is an error which cannot be corrected, the error is properly corrected by use of the signal correlation. Also, the signal is outputted after having been separated into a video signal and an audio signal. The video signal is inputted to the expansion circuit 62. The expansion circuit 62 is provided corresponding to the compression circuit 22 and restores the compressed video signal into the original video signal. An output signal of the expansion circuit 62 is inputted to the D/A conversion circuit 64 and is converted thereby into an analog video signal which is in turn outputted from the terminal 70. The audio signal is inputted to the expansion circuit 63. The expansion circuit 63 is provided corresponding to the compression circuit 23 and restores the compressed audio signal into the original audio signal. An output signal of the expansion circuit 63 is inputted to the D/A conversion circuit 65 and is converted thereby into an analog audio signal which is in turn outputted from the terminal 71. In the foregoing, the embodiment of the present invention has been shown and the operation thereof has been explained. According to the present invention, a video signal and an audio signal over a long time can be transmitted and recorded in a short time, thereby making it possible to extend the range of use of the digital VTR. Another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is partially similar to FIG. 1. The same parts in FIG. 2 as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals as those used in FIG. 1 and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted. The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 concerns a VTR in which a signal transmitted/received at a high speed can be recorded while being monitored. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 80 denotes a change-over switch, numeral 81 an error correction circuit, and numeral 82 a memory circuit. An error-corrected video signal outputted from the error correction circuit 81 is inputted through the memory circuit 82 to a terminal R side of the change-over switch 80 which is selected upon recording. The memory circuit 82 has a memory capacity for at least one field. The video signal received at a high speed is stored into a memory of the memory circuit 82 with the number of frames being reduced. The stored signal is read from the memory at a normal speed and is inputted to an expansion circuit 62. Upon reproduction, a video signal output of an error correction circuit 61 is inputted to a terminal P side of the change-over switch 80 which is selected upon reproduction. Accordingly, the operation of the embodiment of FIG. 2 upon reproduction is similar to that of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, upon recording, the video signal outputted from the error correction circuit 81 is inputted to the expansion circuit 62 through the memory circuit 82. Alternatively, an output signal of a modulation circuit 34 may be inputted to a demodulation circuit 60 through a memory circuit. Also, in the case where the operating speed of the demodulation circuit 60 or the error correction circuit 61 leaves a margin, a memory circuit may be properly placed at a post stage. Or, in the case where the storage capacity of the error correction circuit 61 or the expansion circuit 62 leaves a margin, the circuit may be used as a memory circuit or any additional memory circuit may be omitted. As has been explained in the above, the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 makes it possible to record a received video signal while monitoring it in the form of a picture having a reduced number of frames. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the parity signal is added in order to make the detection of and the correction for an error which may be produced in the transmission system or the magnetic recording/reproducing system. One example of a parity adding method is shown in FIG. 3 in conjunction with the case of a D2 format VTR. In the D2 format VTR, a signal for one field is divided into a plurality of segments for signal processing. FIG. 3 shows one segment. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 90 represents a group of video data, numeral 91 a group of outer code parities, and numeral 92 a group of inner code parities. Firstly, outer code parities are added for data of the matrix-like arranged video data group 90 which lie in a vertical direction in FIG. 3. Thereafter, inner code parities are added for data of the video data group 90 and the outer code parity group 91 lying in a horizontal direction in FIG. 3, thereby producing a signal to be recorded. Though detailed explanation of the generation of parities will be omitted herein, the parities are generated in accordance with a generating function G(x). In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, if the same parity generation manner is employed by the parity addition circuits 24 and 33, the error correction circuits 32 and 61 may hold the most part thereof in common. Namely, since the error correction circuits 32 and 61 are circuits which are respectively used upon recording and upon reproduction, it is possible to reduce the circuit scale or size by using the most part of the circuits 32 and 61 in common. Further, in the case where the same parity generation manner is employed by the parity addition circuits 24 and 33 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to further reduce the circuit scale or size of the recording/reproducing system. The construction in that case is shown in FIG. 4 as still another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is partially common to FIG. 1 or 2. The parts in FIG. 4 common to those in FIG. 1 or 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals as those used in FIG. 1 or 2 and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted. The embodiment shown in FIG. 4 is based on a concept that an error produced in a transmission system and an error produced in a magnetic recording/reproducing system are simultaneously detected and corrected by an error correction circuit 61. Accordingly, a signal received by a reception circuit 30 is demodulated by a demodulation circuit 31 and is inputted to a modulation circuit 34 without being subjected to error correction and parity addition. The subsequent processing is the same as that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 or 2. Namely, a reproduced signal is inputted to the error correction circuit 61 after demodulation by a demodulation circuit 60. As mentioned above, an error produced in the transmission system and an error produced in the magnetic recording/reproducing system are simultaneously detected and corrected by the error correction circuit 61 in the reproducing system. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the error correction circuit 32 and the parity addition circuit 33 can be removed as compared with the embodiment sown in FIG. 1 or 2, thereby making it possible to reduce the circuit scale. Though having not been mentioned in the foregoing embodiments, in a helical scan VTR as shown, since a signal becomes discontinuous when a track jump is made upon reproduction, the recording is made with an amble signal being added to the heading portion of a signal. Since the addition of an amble signal is employed in the D2 format VTR, detailed explanation thereof will be omitted. Also, in order to define a starting position of a signal, a synchronizing signal is properly added. Since the addition of a synchronizing signal is known in, for example, the D2 format VTR, detailed explanation thereof will be omitted. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the addition of an amble signal may be made by the parity addition circuit 24. Alternatively, it may be made on the recording/reproducing system side in order to enhance the efficiency of use of the transmission path 27. In this case, the addition of an amble signal can be made by the parity addition circuit 33. As for the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, in the case where the addition of an amble signal is to be made on the recording/reproducing system side, the amble signal can be added by the modulation circuit 34. In the case where the addition of an amble signal is made on the recording/reproducing system side, it is possible to enhance the efficiency of use of the transmission path 27. On the other hand, in the case where the addition of an amble signal is made on the transmission signal processing system side, the lowering of the cost of a VTR can be attained as a great effect when a signal is sent to a multiplicity of VTR's simultaneously. FIG. 5 shows a further embodiment of the present invention in which the further reduction of the circuit scale of a VTR on the receiving side and hence the further lowering of the cost can be attained in the case where a signal is sent to a multiplicity of VTR's simultaneously. FIG. 5 is partially common to FIG. 1, 2 or 4. The parts in FIG. 5 common to those in FIG. 1, 2 or 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals as those used in FIG. 1, 2 or 4 and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 100 denotes modulation circuit. The embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is based on a concept that a signal processing required upon a recording mode of a VTR is performed on the transmitting side. Namely, modulation adapted for magnetic recording/reproduction, for example, a signal processing corresponding to the modulation circuit 34 shown in FIG. 4 is performed on the transmission signal processing system side. After parities have been added by a parity addition circuit 24 of the transmission signal processing system, the modulation adapted for the magnetic recording/reproduction is performed by the modulation circuit 100. Therefore, modulation adapted for transmission is performed by a modulation circuit 25. As a modulation system employed by the modulation circuit 100 is suitable a system which does not cause the extension of a frequency band by modulation, for example, scrambled NRZ. A signal modulated by the modulation circuit 25 is transmitted to a transmission path 27 through a transmission circuit 26 in a manner to that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1. The signal received by a reception circuit 30 through the transmission path 27 is inputted to a demodulation circuit 31 in which the signal is subjected to demodulation corresponding to the modulation circuit 25. Since the signal demodulated by the demodulation circuit 31 is one which has already been subjected by the modulation circuit 10 to the modulation adapted for the magnetic recording/reproduction, the signal is recorded on a magnetic tape 40 by magnetic heads 41 and 42 as it is. As a result, the same recording as that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 is made. An operation upon reproduction is similar to that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4. As apparent from the above, the present embodiment makes it possible to remarkably reduce the circuit scale of the VTR. According to one of applications of the present invention, it is possible to transmit a signal from a transmission signal processing system to a multiplicity of VTR's through a transmission path simultaneously and at a high speed, as has already been mentioned. In this case, it is difficult to control a multiplicity of VTR's simultaneously. Further, it is required to make a control which causes specified ones of the VTR's to perform recording operations and specified others of the VTR's not to perform recording operations. A technique for realizing such a control will be shown just below. For the above purpose, control signals are transmitted prior to transmission of a signal to be recorded. One example of the control signals is shown in FIG. 6. In the figure, reference numeral 110 denotes a synchronizing signal, numeral 111 an ID signal indicative of a control to be made, numeral 112 an address signal indicative of a VTR to be controlled, numeral 113 a control signal for bringing a VTR designated by the address signal 112 into a recording mode, numeral 114 a control signal for stopping the recording, numerals 115 and 116 blank signals, and numeral 120 a recording signal to be actually recorded. The ID signal 111 indicating the transmission of the address signals 112 indicative of VTR's in which a signal is to be recorded, is transmitted at a predetermined position relative to the synchronizing signal 110 to bring each VTR into a standby condition. After all the address signals have been transmitted, the ID signal 113 is transmitted to start the recording of the signal 120 in the designated VTR's. After the signal 120 has been transmitted, the ID signal 114 to control the stop of recording is transmitted. Each of the blank signals 115 and 116 is a signal for conforming a signal transmission format to the other transmission signal and is therefore an insignificant signal portion. In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, those control signals are produced by a control signal generation circuit 130 and are transmitted with parities which are added by the parity addition circuit 24 for making correction for an error produced during transmission. In the VTR shown in FIG. 1, the control signals are detected by a control circuit 131 after the reception by the reception circuit 30, the demodulation by the demodulation circuit 31 and the correction by the error correction circuit 32 for an error produced during transmission to make a control for the recording and the stop of recording in the recording/reproducing system. In the case of the VTR's shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, an output signal of the demodulation circuit 31 is inputted to the error correction circuit 61 for a need of making correction for an error produced during transmission and error-corrected control signals are inputted to a control circuit 131. In a change-over circuit 132, the terminal R side for selecting an output signal of the demodulation circuit 31 is selected upon recording and the terminal P side for selecting an output signal of the demodulation circuit 60 is selected upon reproduction. As apparent from the foregoing, the present embodiment makes it possible to control a multiplicity of VTR's selectively and simultaneously. Also, the use of the change-over circuit 132 and a memory circuit makes it possible to record a signal while monitoring it in the form of a picture having a reduced number of frames, as explained in conjunction with the embodiment shown in FIG. 2. Next, a still further embodiment of the present invention will be explained by use of FIG. 7. In the figure, reference numeral 301 denotes an input terminal for standard analog video signal, numeral 302 an input terminal for standard digital video signal, numeral 303 an input terminal for high-speed digital video signal, numeral 305 a recording system mode change-over switch, numeral 306 a recording system change-over signal generation circuit, numeral 310 an A/D converter, numeral 320 a change-over circuit, numeral 330 a data compression circuit, numeral 340 a change-over circuit, numeral 350 a recording system signal processing circuit for performing a signal processing which includes addition of error correction code and modulation for recording, numeral 370 a cylinder, numeral 371 a magnetic tape, numerals 372 and 372' magnetic heads, numeral 380 a reproducing system signal processing circuit for performing a signal processing which includes demodulation for reproduction, error detection and error correction. Numeral 390 a change-over circuit, numeral 400 a data expansion circuit, numeral 420 a D/A converter, numeral 431 an output terminal for standard analog video signal, numeral 432 an output terminal for standard digital video signal, numeral 433 an output terminal for high-speed digital video signal, numeral 435 a reproducing system mode change-over switch, and numeral 436 a reproducing system change-over signal generation circuit. The present embodiment is an example of a digital magnetic recording/reproducing system which has recording modes of standard-speed recording and high-speed recording and reproduction modes of standard-speed reproduction and high-speed reproduction. FIG. 8 shows one example of the specification of input video signals. Firstly, explanation will be made of standard-speed recording. A digital signal into which an analog video signal inputted from the input terminal 301 is converted by the A/D converter 310 or an equivalent digital signal which is inputted from the input terminal 302, is switched or selected by the change-over circuit 320, is subjected to a predetermined data compression processing by the data compression circuit 330 and is thereafter inputted to a terminal 340a of the change-over circuit 340. In the change-over circuit 340, a change-over to connect the terminal 340a and a terminal 340c is made by a change-over signal from the recording system change-over signal generation circuit 306. Thereby, the data-compressed signal is inputted to the recording system signal processing circuit 350. In the recording system signal processing circuit 350, a signal processing such as channel division, addition of error correction code and modulation for recording is performed at a predetermined processing clock adapted for the data-compressed signal. Thereafter, the signal is supplied to the magnetic heads 372 and 372' mounted on the cylinder 370 so that it is recorded onto the magnetic tape 371. The cylinder 370 and the magnetic tape 371 are controlled by a servo control circuit 360. The servo control circuit 360 controls a cylinder motor and a capstan motor so as to provide a cylinder rotation speed and a tape speed for standard speed and so as to be synchronized with the input video signal. Next, explanation will be made of high-speed recording. A high-speed digital video signal inputted from the input terminal 303 is sent to a terminal 340b of the change-over circuit 340. Since the high-speed digital video signal is a signal which has already been subjected to a data compression processing, it is not necessary to pass the signal through the data compression circuit 330. A change-over to connect the terminal 340b and the terminal 340c is made by a change-over signal from the recording system change-over signal generation circuit 306 so that the high-speed digital video signal is inputted to the recording system signal processing circuit 350. In the recording system signal processing circuit 350, a signal processing similar to that in the case of the standard-speed recording is performed at a predetermined processing clock adapted for the high-speed digital video signal. Thereafter, the signal is supplied to the magnetic heads 372 and 372' mounted on the cylinder 370 so that it is recorded onto the magnetic tape 371. The cylinder 370 and the magnetic tape 371 are controlled by the servo control circuit 360. The servo control circuit 360 control the cylinder motor and the capstan motor so as to provide a predetermined cylinder rotation speed and a predetermined tape speed and so as to be synchronized with the input video signal. In the present invention, the recording onto the tape can be made with the quite same format in both the standard-speed recording and the high-speed recording, thereby making it possible to greatly shorten a recording time in the high-speed recording mode. Next, explanation will be made of a signal processing upon reproduction. In the present embodiment, the recording pattern on the magnetic tape is the same whichever of the standard-speed recording and the high-speed recording is selected as a recording mode. Therefore, either standard-speed reproduction or high-speed reproduction can be selected irrespective of the recording mode. Firstly, the standard-speed reproduction will be explained. The servo control circuit 360 controls the cylinder motor and the capstan motor so that a cylinder rotation speed and a tape speed for standard speed are provided. A signal reproduced by the magnetic heads 372 and 372' is inputted to the reproducing system signal processing circuit 380. In the reproducing system signal processing circuit 380, a signal processing such as demodulation for reproduction, channel synthesis, error detection and error correction is performed at a predetermined processing clock adapted for the standard-speed reproduction. Thereafter, the signal is supplied to a terminal 390a of the change-over circuit 390. In the change-over circuit 390, a change-over to connect the terminal 390a and a terminal 390c is made upon standard-speed reproduction by a change-over signal from the reproducing system change-over signal generation circuit 436. Thereby, the reproduced signal is supplied to the data expansion circuit 400. In the data expansion circuit 400, a signal processing reverse to the data compression processing upon recording is performed so that the signal is restored to the original signal. Thereby, the original transmission rate is restored. The data-expanded reproduction signal is sent to the D/A converter 420 on one hand to be outputted as an analog video signal from the output terminal 431 after D/A conversion and is sent to the output terminal 432 on the other hand to be outputted as a digital video signal therefrom. Next, explanation will be made of the high-speed reproduction. The servo control circuit 360 controls the cylinder motor and the capstan motor so that a predetermined cylinder rotation speed and a predetermined tape speed adapted for the high-speed reproduction are provided. A signal reproduced by the magnetic heads 372 and 372' is inputted to the reproducing system signal processing circuit 380. In the reproducing system signal processing circuit 380, a signal processing such as demodulation for reproduction, channel synthesis, error detection and error correction is performed at a predetermined processing clocks adapted for the high-speed reproduction. Thereafter, the high-speed reproduction signal is supplied to the terminal 390a of the change-over circuit 390. In the change-over circuit 390, a change-over to connect the terminal 390a and a terminal 390b is made upon high-speed reproduction. Thereby, the high-speed digital video signal is outputted from the output terminal 433. A furthermore embodiment of the present invention will be explained by use of FIG. 9. The construction of the present embodiment is similar to that of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 but is different therefrom in that the change-over circuit 340 is placed at a different position, the change-over circuit 390 used in FIG. 7 is eliminated and a change-over circuit 345 is newly added. An input/output signal upon standard-speed recording/reproduction in the present embodiment is the same as that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7. As for high-speed recording and high-speed reproduction, however, the present embodiment is different from the embodiment of FIG. 7 in that the transmission of a high-speed digital video signal is made in the form of a recording format. Accordingly, upon high-speed recording, the high-speed digital video signal is not passed through a recording system signal processing circuit 350 but is recorded onto a tape through the change-over circuit 340 as it is. Upon high-speed reproduction, a reproduced signal is subjected to a signal processing for reproduction such as error detection and error correction by a reproducing system signal processing circuit 380 and is thereafter inputted to a terminal 345b of the change-over circuit 345. The signal supplied through the change-over circuit 345 to the recording system side signal processing circuit 350 is subjected to a signal processing for recording such as addition of error correction code and modulation for recording by the signal processing circuit 350 to form a recording format and is thereafter outputted as a high-speed digital video signal from an output terminal 433. The embodiments shown in FIGS. 7 and 9 have feature that high-speed recording and high-speed reproduction are possible. The best use of this feature can be made for dubbing or data communication with the result of effective shortening of a dubbing time, a data communication time or a data circuit line occupation time. Also, though those embodiments have been mentioned in conjunction with an example in which all of standard-speed recording, high-speed recording, standard-speed reproduction and high-speed reproduction modes are involved, it is not necessarily required to implement all of those modes. There may be considered an example in which only a necessary mode is provided in compliance with the purpose of use. FIG. 10 shows an embodiment in which a high-speed recording function is provided as a recording mode and at least a high-speed reproduction function is provided as a reproduction mode. Also, there may be considered an embodiment as a system for the exclusive use for reproduction in which at least a high-speed reproduction function is provided, as shown in FIG. 11. Further, FIG. 12 shows an embodiment in which a high-speed recording function is provided as a recording mode and a standard-speed reproduction function is provided as a reproduction mode. FIG. 13 is a block diagram of one example of the magnetic recording/reproducing system of the embodiment of FIG. 7 for explaining processings subsequent to the compression processing. In FIG. 13, reference numeral 201 denotes a synchronization detection circuit, numeral 204 a recording modulation circuit, numeral 205 a cylinder servo control circuit, numeral 206 a capstan servo (or tape speed) control circuit, numeral 207 a reproduction reference signal generation circuit, numeral 210 a demodulation circuit, numeral 211 a cylinder, numeral 212 a pair of recording heads, numeral 213 a pair of reproducing heads, numeral 214 a capstan which controls the tape speed, numeral 215 a magnetic tape, numeral 216 a delivery reel, and numeral 217 a take-up reel. FIG. 14 is a timing chart of input and output signals in the example shown in FIG. 13 and schematically illustrate a compressed picture signal 251 which is an input signal, a synchronizing signal 252 of the picture signal, a standard-speed reproduction signal 255 which is an output signal, and a reproduction synchronizing signal 256. In the shown example, n-tuple speed recording is realized by making a tape speed and a cylinder rotation speed upon recording n times as high as those upon standard-speed reproduction. As shown in FIG. 14, the compressed video signal as an input signal of the circuit shown in FIG. 13 and the synchronizing signal include information 251 for n pictures and n synchronizing pulses 252 synchronous therewith in a time when one picture is reproduced at a standard speed. The picture information is converted into a predetermined recording format by the recording modulation circuit 204 and is recorded onto the magnetic tape 215 by the recording heads 212. At this time, a synchronizing signal for the cylinder servo control circuit 205 and the capstan servo control circuit 206 is increased by n times in compliance with the n-tuple speed video signal, as shown by 252 in FIG. 14, so that the rotation speed of the cylinder 211 and the feed speed of the magnetic tape 215 are increased by n times. Thereby, the recording onto the tape can be made with the quite same recording format as that in the case of the standard-speed recording. Upon reproduction, a synchronizing signal for the cylinder servo control circuit 205 and the capstan servo control circuit 206 is supplied from the reproduction reference signal generation circuit 207 to restore the cylinder rotation speed and the tape feed speed to those upon standard-speed reproduction, and a signal read by the reproducing heads 213 is demodulated by the demodulation circuit 210 and is outputted therefrom. In the circuit shown in FIG. 13, if the input video signal and the synchronizing signal are ones of standard speed, standard-speed recording is possible. Also, n-tuple speed reproduction is possible if the frequency of an output signal from the reproduction reference signal generation circuit is increased by n times. FIG. 15 is a block diagram of another example of the magnetic recording/reproducing system of the embodiment of FIG. 7 for explaining processings subsequent to the compression processing. FIG. 16 is a timing chart of input and output signals in the example shown in FIG. 15. In FIG. 15, the same reference numerals as those used in FIG. 13 denote the same or equivalent components as or to those shown in FIG. 13. In FIG. 15, reference numeral 202 denotes a÷m circuit, numeral 203 recording system memories, numeral 208 a÷m circuit, and numeral 209 reproducing system memories. In FIG. 16, the same reference numerals as those used in FIG. 14 denote the same or equivalent signals as or to those shown in FIG. 14. In FIG. 16, reference numeral 253 denotes outputs of the recording system memories 203 and numeral 254 denotes an output of the ÷m circuit 208 or a synchronizing signal divided by m. The embodiment shown in FIG. 15 is an example in which m pairs of recording heads are used to simultaneously record magnetic signals for m pictures on m tracks, thereby realizing high-speed recording while suppressing an increase in the cylinder rotation speed. Upon reproduction, m pairs of reproducing heads are used. Though FIG. 15 shows the case where two pairs of recording heads 212 are used to simultaneously record information for two pictures on two tracks, three or more pairs of heads can be used in a similar manner. FIG. 17 is a table showing some examples of the tape speed and the cylinder rotation speed (rpm) in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 13 and 15. In the table, high-speed recording or reproduction at a speed ten times as high as the standard speed is shown by way of example. Design for implementing another high-speed recording or reproduction is similarly possible. In the table shown in FIG. 17, examples 1, 2 and 3 correspond to the embodiment shown in FIG. 13 and examples 4 and 5 correspond to the embodiment shown in FIG. 15. A still furthermore embodiment of a digital signal recording/reproducing system of the present invention will be explained by use of a block diagram shown in FIG. 18. In FIG. 18, reference numeral 501 denotes a signal input terminal to which a plurality of video signals are inputted in a time-division multiplex form, numeral 502 a recording selection signal input terminal to which a recording selection signal for selecting one or plural signals to be recorded from the multiplexed input signal is inputted, numeral 503 a recording signal selection circuit for selecting the signals to be recorded from the multiplexed input signal in accordance with the recording selection signal from the input terminal 502, numeral 504 a recording signal processing circuit for subjecting the selected signals to a digital processing for recording onto a recording medium, numerals 505 and 505' magnetic heads, numeral 506 a rotating drum, numeral 507 a magnetic tape or the recording medium, numeral 508 a servo circuit for controlling the rotation of the drum 506 and the travel of the tape 507, numeral 511 a reproduction selection signal input terminal to which a reproduction selection signal for selecting one or plural signals to be outputted as a reproduction signal from among the multiple-recorded and reproduced signals is inputted, numeral 509 a reproduction signal selection circuit for selecting the signals to be outputted as a reproduction signal from among the multiple-recorded and reproduced signals in accordance with the reproduction selection signal from the input terminal 511, numeral 510 a reproduction signal processing circuit for subjecting the selected signals to a digital processing, and numeral 512 a reproduction signal output terminal. The time-division multiplexed input video signal from the signal input terminal 501 is supplied to the recording signal selection circuit 503. The recording signal selection circuit 503 is also supplied with the recording selection signal from the recording selection signal input terminal 502 to make the selection of signals to be recorded. For example, in the case where six kinds of video signals A, B, C, D, E and F are inputted in a time-division multiplex form as shown in (a) of FIG. 19 and four signals A, B, C and D thereof are to be selected and recorded, an output of the recording signal selection circuit 503 is as shown in (b) of FIG. 19. Such an output signal of the recording signal selection circuit 503 is inputted to the recording signal processing circuit 504 which in turn performs a signal processing for recording such as addition of error correction code. Also, the recording signal selection circuit 503 produces a speed control signal on the basis of the number of signals in the time-division multiplexed input video signal, the transmission rate of the input signal and the number of signals to be recorded which are selected by the recording selection signal. The speed control signal is supplied to the recording signal processing circuit 504 and the servo circuit 508. For example, in the case where the input video signal is time-division multiplexed to sextuplet with each of six signals in the multiplexed input signal being transmitted at a rate time-base compressed to 1/6 and four signals among the six signals in the multiplexed input signal are to be selectively recorded, a signal indicative of a quadruple speed is produced as the speed control signal. Also, in the case where the input video signal is time-division multiplexed to sextuplet with each of six signals in the multiplexed input signal being transmitted at a rate time-base compressed to 1/12 and four signals among the six signals in the multiplexed input signal are to be selectively recorded, a signal indicative of a octuple speed is produced as the speed control signal. Namely, in the case where an input signal is multiplexed to N-plet, the compression rate of each of the N signals in the multiplexed input signal is 1/K and the number of signals to be selectively recorded is L, a speed control signal indicative of an (L×K)/N-tuple speed is produced. The operating speed of the recording signal processing circuit 504 which processes a signal from the recording signal selection circuit 503, is changed in accordance with the speed control signal. For example, in the case of a speed control signal indicative of a quadruple speed, the recording signal processing circuit 504 performs a signal processing at a speed four times as high as a normal speed and supplies the processed signal to the magnetic heads 505 and 505'. Here, for example, in the case where the input video signal is time-division multiplexed to sextuplet with each of the six signals in the multiplexed input signal being transmitted at a rate time-base compressed to 1/6 and a speed control signal indicative of a quadruple speed is used to selectively record four signals from among the six signals, the speed of an input signal inputted to the recording signal processing circuit 504 is four times as high as that of one video signal having a normal speed and the recording signal processing circuit 504 processes this quadruple-speed input signal at a quadruple speed and supplies the processed signal to the magnetic heads, thereby making it possible to record all of the four selected signals. Also, if the recording signal selection circuit 503 is constructed so that signals be selectively recorded are sequentially changed for every one track on the tape, compatibility can be held in regard to the number of signals to be selectively recorded and a processing speed by causing the recording signal processing circuit 504 to perform a completed processing for every one track. In the following, explanation will be made in conjunction with the case where each video signal is recorded in such a form completed for every track. However, it should be noted in advance that the present invention is applicable to another recording system, for example, a system in which signals are recorded in a form changed for every pixel, line or field. On the other hand, the servo circuit 508 supplied with the speed control signal indicative of the quadruple speed controls the rotation speed of the rotating drum 506 so that it becomes four times as high as a normal speed and the travel speed of the magnetic tape 507 so that it becomes four times as high as a normal speed. Thereby, four signals A, B, C and D are alternately recorded on successive tracks of the magnetic tape 507, as shown in FIG. 20. According to the control mentioned above, the pattern of recording tracks on the tape becomes the same irrespective of the number of signals in the multiplexed input signal, the transmission rate of each signal and the number of signals to be selectively recorded. In order to make a control upon reproduction easy, it is preferable that the number of selectively recorded signals and the identification codes or signal numbers thereof (for example, A, B, C and D or 0, 1, 2 and 3) are recorded as an ID signal for every track. In the above example, the recording of the time-division multiplexed signal has been mentioned. However, it is needless to say that the present invention is also applicable to the case where the number of multipet signal components in an input video signal is 1 or the input video signal is not multiplexed. In such a case, since the recording signal processing circuit 504 and the servo circuit 508 operate at speeds proportional to the transmission rate of the input video signal, an effect is manifested, for example, in high-speed dubbing. As apparent from the foregoing explanation of the operation, it is of course that a multiplexed signal can be recorded at a high speed. Upon reproduction, a signal reproduced from the magnetic tape 507 by the magnetic heads 505 and 505' mounted on the rotating drum 506 is inputted to the reproduction signal selection circuit 509. The reproduction signal selection circuit 509 produces a speed control signal, for example, by detecting the number of multiple-recorded signals from the ID signal included in the reproduced signal and sends the speed control signal to the servo circuit 508. The speed control signal is a signal indicative of a speed four times as high as the normal reproduction speed in the case where the number of multiple-recorded signals is 4 and a signal indicative of a sextuple speed in the case where it is 6. In the case of the quadruple speed, the servo control circuit 508 supplied with the speed control signal indicative of the quadruple speed controls the rotation speed of the rotating drum 506 so that it becomes four times as high as a normal speed and the travel speed of the magnetic tape 7 so that it becomes four times as high as a normal speed. Thereby, there can be traced all of signals recorded so that the recording track pattern on the tape becomes the same irrespective of the number of signals to be selectively recorded. In a system which has not a signal indicative of the number of selectively recorded signals, there may be employed a method in which the speed control signal is manually set. In a system in which the number of signals to be recorded on the tape is fixed, the speed control signal has a fixed value. The reproduction signal selection circuit 509 receives a reproduction selection signal inputted from the reproduction selection signal input terminal 511 to select a desired signal(s) from among the signals reproduced by the magnetic heads 505 and 505' and to output the selected signal as a reproduction signal to the reproduction signal processing circuit 510. The reproduction signal selection circuit 509 also outputs a selection number signal indicative of the number of selected signals to the reproduction signal processing circuit 510. The reproduction signal processing circuit 510 performs a signal processing such as code error correction processing and picture signal processing for the reproduction signal at a processing speed corresponding, to the selection number signal and outputs the processed reproduction signal from the output terminal 512. For example, in the case where the number indicated by the selection number signal is 2, the signal processing speed is two times as high as a normal speed and various processings are performed for each selected signal. For example, in the case where signals A and C are selected, the signals A and C are outputted alternately for each field. In the case where the number indicated by the selection number signal is 1, for example, when the reproduction selection signal from the reproduction selection signal input terminal 511 selects only the signal C, the reproduction signal processing circuit 510 performs the signal processing at the normal speed to output the signal as reproduced at a normal speed. As apparent from the above, the present embodiment makes it possible to simultaneously record any number of signals selected from among a plurality of signals in a multiplexed video signal and to simultaneously reproduce any number of signals from among the recorded signals. In the case where a plurality of signals are simultaneously reproduced, a construction for outputting the reproduced signals from separate output terminals simultaneously and in parallel may be employed, particularly, in the case of an analog output, as a method other than the construction in which the plurality of reproduced signals are outputted in a time-division multiplex form, as mentioned above. Though in the above-mentioned example the reproduction signal is outputted at a reproduction speed for a usual video signal, the transmission rate of the reproduction signal may be made higher than the reproduction speed for the usual video signal in order to transmit the reproduction signal to another system in an analog or digital signal form at a high rate or to perform high-speed dubbing which is one of effects of the present embodiment. This can be realized in such a manner that the fundamental operating speed of there producing system is set to be higher than a normal reproduction speed and the operating speeds of the servo circuit 508, the reproduction signal selection circuit 509 and the reproduction signal processing circuit 510 are changed in accordance with the number of multiple-recorded signals and/or the number of signals to be outputted as a reproduction signal with the above fundamental speed being the standard. If the transmission rate of a reproduction signal is made variable so that a rate adapted for a transmission path to which the reproduction signal is to be connected or the performance or function of a recorder by which the reproduction signal is to be recorded, can be selected. As mentioned above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to simultaneously record any number of signals selected from among a plurality of signals in a multiplexed video signal and to reproduce any number of signals from among the recorded signals at any speed. Also, in the case where a plurality of signals are selected and reproduced and the plurality of reproduced signals are simultaneously outputted in a time-division multiplex form or from separate output terminals in parallel, it is possible to arbitrarily set the transmission rate of an output signal. The present embodiment has been explained in conjunction with the case where the present invention is applied to a helical-scan digital-recording VTR. It is of course that a similar effect can be obtained in the case where the present invention is applied to a fixed head VTR. The fixed head system is convenient for the structuring of a system since it has a higher degree of freedom for the setting of the units of division of a signal subjected to time-division multiple recording as compared with the helical scan system. Also, it is of course that the present invention is applicable to a recording/reproducing equipment other than the VTR or is applicable to a digital signal processing and analog recording system. The present invention can be applied to not only the case where an input signal is time-division multiplexed, as mentioned above, but also the case where a plurality of signals are inputted simultaneously and in parallel. In the latter case, the recording signal selection circuit 503 is constructed to receive the input signals in parallel. As has been mentioned in the foregoing, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a digital VTR in which high-speed recording onto a tape can be made with the same format as that used in standard-speed reproduction. Further, there can be realized a transmission signal processing for transmitting at a high rate a video signal to be recorded by such a digital VTR. Also, in the case where a signal transmitted from the transmission signal processing system is to be recorded by a multiplicity of VTR's, it is possible to designate those ones of the multiplicity of VTR's by which recording is to be made and to make a control of the start/stop of recording.

An information recording and/or reproducing apparatus including a record parity signal adder for receiving error corrected compressed information and an error corrected control signal both of which have been corrected based upon a transmission parity signal added to the compressed information and to the control signal. The record parity signal adder adds a record parity signal to the compressed information which is different from the transmission parity signal. A modulator is provided for modulating the record parity signal added compressed information and a recorder is provided for recording the compressed information modulated by said modulation means. A controller is provided for controlling a start of recording of the recorder based upon the error corrected control signal.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is based upon and claims benefit of and co-owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/566,539 entitled “System and Method for Sensing an Object and Determining the Speed of Same,” filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Apr. 29, 2004 by the inventors herein, and and co-owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/583,559 entitled “System and Method for Traffic Monitoring, Speed Determination, and Traffic Light Violation Detection and Recording,” filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jun. 28, 2004 by the inventors herein, the specifications of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention This invention relates to a system and method for detecting the presence of an object and more particularly the invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring and recording the activity of traffic in a controlled intersection. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A system and method for traffic monitoring, vehicle speed determination and traffic light violation detection and recording is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the system and method are capable of monitoring traffic in an intersection/highway, measure vehicle speed, identify potential traffic violations, and trigger a visual recording device such as a camera or video system. The method and system can also serve as a tool for use by law enforcement agencies and research groups for other applications such as measurement of traffic density, monitoring vehicle speed, and studying traffic patterns. One of the potential applications of the system is to monitor and record red light violations. The disclosed system relies on generation of laser light and the detection of the scattering of such radiation off the road surface or intervening object to determine the presence of a car, estimate its speed, determine when a violation is likely to occur (based on predetermined criteria), and trigger a recording mechanism for collecting evidence of the violation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention are considered in more detail, in relation to the following description of embodiments thereof shown in the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic of a detection system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2( a ) is a schematic drawing of main parts and overall arrangement of a Laser system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2( b ) is a schematic drawing of main parts and overall arrangement of a Laser system according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2( c ) shows a principle of operation of a system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 illustrates the time delay for estimating the range between the disclosed system and the ground. FIG. 4 illustrates the time delay for estimating the range between the disclosed system and an object above the ground. FIG. 5 illustrates a timing diagram detecting absence of an object according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates a timing diagram detecting presence of an object according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic of the detection system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 illustrates a timing diagram for estimating the speed of a moving object according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 9( a )-( b ) illustrate speed estimation principles using the front or rear of an object. FIGS. 10( a )-( c ) are flowcharts for estimating speed according to various alternate embodiments of the present invention. FIGS. 11( a )-( g ) illustrate schematics for cross correlation analysis of object speed according to a first embodiment of the invention. FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart for detecting and recording a red light violation according to a first embodiment of the invention. FIG. 13 illustrates a flowchart for detecting and recording a red light violation according to an alternate embodiment of the invention. FIGS. 14( a )-( b ) illustrates the pulse delay as recorded corresponding to a passing vehicle according to additional features of the present invention. FIG. 15 illustrates a timing diagram detecting absence of an object according to another alternate embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 16 illustrates a timing diagram detecting presence of an object according to another alternate embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 17 is a graph of sensor beam pulses per foot of profiled vehicle versus speed of a profiled vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 18( a )-( b ) illustrate general concepts of speed uncertainty due to sensor repetition rate. FIGS. 19( a )-( b ) are graphs of speed estimation uncertainty as a function of object speed according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 20 illustrates general concepts of speed uncertainty due to sensor beam size. FIGS. 21( a )-( b ) are graphs of speed estimation uncertainty as a function of sensor beam size according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 22 illustrates schematic views of monitoring and violation detection system positioning options according to various embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 23 illustrates typical two-lane architecture for a monitoring and violation detection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 24 illustrates typical three-lane architecture for a monitoring and violation detection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 25 illustrates typical two-lane architecture for a speed monitoring and violation detection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention summarized above and defined by the enumerated claims may be better understood by referring to the following description, which should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. This description of an embodiment, set out below to enable one to build and use an implementation of the invention, is not intended to limit the invention, but to serve as a particular example thereof. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the conception and specific embodiments disclosed as a basis for modifying or designing other methods and systems for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent assemblies do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form. The overall system is shown in FIG. 1 . The system consists of two subsystems A and B each containing a laser and a sensor. The lasers are preferably powered and controlled by a common unit, namely, the control electronic boards, which include electrical power transforming/conditioning electronics and pulse generating electronics. Laser pulses from the two lasers are directed towards the road's surface. Part of the scattered/reflected light is collected and focused onto the sensors. A Master Controller Circuit processes signals generated by the two sensors and generates an output trigger signal when appropriate for a recording media, such as a camera or a video recording device. FIGS. 2( a ) and ( b ) show the main parts and overall arrangement of a single lens speed sensor system according to the present invention. The sensor system includes two lasers (preferably diode lasers for compactness), two detectors (or an array of detectors), a lens, a mirror (or beam splitter), and several electronic boards for power conditioning and distribution, information recording, and decision-making. In FIG. 2( a ), there are two holes in the mirror (beam splitter), one for each laser beam, to allow the beam from the lasers to pass through. In FIG. 2( b ), a single hole is in the mirror and the lasers are configured such that both laser beams pas through the same aperture in the middle of the mirror. Each laser with its associated laser controller generates short pulses at high frequency. The duration of the optical pulses and the repetition frequency are a function of the desired speed accuracy, and can be adjusted according to the needs of the specific application. Short optical pulses in conjunction with high frequency lead to high accuracy in evaluating vehicle/object speed and other information from the recorded data. Reducing the frequency or increasing the pulse width decreases the system accuracy. Another factor that affects the system accuracy is the separation d between the two laser beams, described in more detail below. The beam separation can serve as an accuracy adjustment in order to satisfy requirements for specific applications. The optical principle that provides the basis for operation of the disclosed system is scattering of optical radiation when it encounters a solid surface. It is always true that a small percentage of incident optical radiation on a surface (interface) will be scattered in many directions in addition to the other optical phenomena such as reflection and refraction. This is also true for shiny surfaces since a short exposure to open air will contaminate the surface enough to enable light scattering. The disclosed system relies on a small percentage of scattered optical radiation to be detected and to generate an electrical signal thru the use of a sensitive optical detector. The generated electrical signal is, in turn, used to trigger electronic processes and logic algorithms that enable the system to detect the presence of an object/vehicle. The schematic in FIG. 2( c ) provides more details of the basic optical principles that enable the operations of the disclosed speed sensor system. Two lasers generate optical radiation that is directed through an aperture or apertures on the mirror (beam splitter). In the special case that diode lasers are used (which are more divergent than traditional lasers), the hole(s) on the mirror serve as specialized apertures to control and/or shape the beam profile. Another function of the apertures may be to limit the maximum output optical radiation. A dielectric coated beam splitter can also be used instead of a mirror with holes. Next, the optical radiation travels through the lens and is focused onto the desired surface. In the case of a traffic system, the two lasers are focused onto or above the asphalt surface. After hitting the surface the optical radiation is scattered in all directions as shown in FIG. 2( c ), where it is assumed that the distribution of the scattered radiation has a Lambertian profile. A small portion of the scattered photons follows exactly the opposite direction (as compared to their initial direction before being scattered) and is collected by the lens. The lens, with the aid of the mirror (beam splitter), focuses all collected optical radiation onto a detector. It is important to note that most of the return photons are deflected by the mirror and focused onto the detectors rather than going through the mirror hole(s). This is due to the fact that the returned photons are spread throughout the lens surface. The assumption of Lambertian distribution for the scattered radiation suggests that it is advantageous to position the system in such a way as to minimize the angle of incidence on the reflective/scattering surface. The angle of incidence is defined as the angle between the beam direction and the perpendicular to the scattering surface at the point of contact. As is the case with many optical systems, it is possible to interchange the position of the lasers and the detectors provided that the mirror (beam splitter) instead of having holes for the beam to go through, it will have one or more areas of high reflectivity for the beams to be reflected. The overall principle of operation of the speed sensor system and the various functions performed to estimate the speed are outlined below: 1. The electronic boards controlling the two diode lasers provide direct current modulation to the diode laser resulting in the generation of short optical laser pulses. The duration of the laser pulses is in the order of few nanoseconds (4 ns pulses were used during experimental verification of the disclosed system) while the frequency of the pulses is in the order of few kHz, (a pulse repetition rate of 10 kHz was used during experiments). As previously noted, the accuracy of the speed sensor is a function of the pulse duration, the frequency of pulses or pulse repetition rate, and the laser beam separation on the scattering surface. 2. The two laser beams travel through the mirror hole(s) (as shown in FIGS. 1 , and 2 ( a )-( c )) and are focused on or above the surface under surveillance using the lens. 3. Before the optical pulses leave the system assembly, a small portion is directed towards the detectors. The signals generated are used to trigger corresponding delay counters dedicated to measure how long it takes before the two optical pulses return back to the system (after they have been scattered by a surface). 4. When the two laser pulses encounter a surface several phenomena can take place such as reflection, refraction, and scattering. Unless the surfaces are extremely clean, a small part of the incident radiation scatters in all directions. Part of the scattered optical radiation travel exactly the opposite way as compared to the initial beam direction, and is collected by the lens that focuses incoming light onto the image plane (where the two detectors are located). 5. When the collected optical radiation reaches the two detectors electrical signals are generated, which trigger the delay counters to stop counting. The time delay between the outgoing laser pulse and the collected scattered radiation is recorded. This is the information needed to estimate the range between the system and the scattering surface. The range is estimated using the expression: r = c ⁢ τ 2 ( 1 )  where: c—the speed of light (approximately 300,000 km per second); and τ—the time delay (see FIG. 3 ).  Note that the recorded time delay, τ, is divided by 2 in the expression above. This is done since the recorded time delay corresponds to the round trip. 6. In the case that a vehicle/object intersects the laser beam instead of the road surface, a shorter delay is recorded. The height of the vehicle/object can then be estimated using the expression: h = c ⁡ ( τ 1 - τ 2 2 ) = c ⁢ Δ ⁢ ⁢ τ 2 ( 2 )  where: Δτ—the difference between the time delay corresponding to the asphalt surface and the time delay corresponding to the object's surface (see FIG. 4 ). Using the recorded delay in conjunction with the signal strength, the presence/absence of a vehicle can be determined using the analysis as illustrated in Table 1, below. Column 1 lists the various possibilities and column 2 contains the criterion used for the conclusion. Chart 1: Conditions for detecting the presence of a vehicle. CHART 1 Conditions for detecting the presence of a vehicle. NO VEHICLE The recorded time delay is slightly longer or equal PRESENT to the delay corresponding to the “Range - Minimum height for vehicle detection” (R-E) as indicated in FIG. 7, and there is no change in the signal strength (See Note 1 below) as recorded by the detectors. VEHICLE The recorded time delay is shorter as compared to PRESENT the delay corresponding to R-E, and/or there has been a change in the signal strength (See Note 1 below) as recorded by the detectors. Note 1: A change in the signal strength is defined as either an increase or decrease of the recorded voltage. In most cases, the change corresponds to a decrease of the signal strength due to slight misalignment of the optical sensors. There are however exceptional cases where an increase of the signal's strength can be observed due to high reflectivity of a car's surface aided by reflecting/scattering alignment conditions. The method used for determining the presence/absence of a vehicle from an intersection is further illustrated in the timing diagrams shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 . FIG. 5 shows the timing diagram for both lasers when there is no vehicle present, while FIG. 6 illustrates the case when a vehicle is present. Flip-flops 0, 1, and 2 may be used as part of the control circuit to compare the range to a threshold as shown in FIG. 1 . The function of the three flip-flops can be implemented in a microprocessor or the range can be measured by a time interval measuring apparatus and compared to a threshold as follows: Flip-flop 0 (FF0) is set to state one (high) at the beginning of each cycle and is reset to zero state (or low) after a programmable delay that corresponds to the range between the sensor and the asphalt. Flip-flop 1 (FF1) is set to zero state (or low) at the beginning of each cycle and is set to state one (high) when the pulse reaches the detector. Flip-flop 2 (FF2) is set to the same state as FF0 when the return pulse reaches the detector. A final decision is made by combining the outputs of FF1 and FF2 through an AND gate. If the output of the AND gate is set to zero it means that no vehicle is present, while if it is high it indicates the presence of a vehicle. In a preferred embodiment, the flip-flops are replaced by electronic timing circuits for timing return pulses. 7. In the case that the speed of a moving object is needed, the time delay between the first pulse of “Laser beam 1 ” interrupted by the object's surface and the first pulse of “Laser beam 2 ” interrupted by the moving object, Δτ s , needs to be measured. This is shown in FIG. 7 , where it is assumed that an object is moving from laser beam 1 to laser beam 2 . The speed of the moving object can be estimated using the expression υ = d Δτ s ( 3 )  where: d—Beam separation give by R * sin(θ) where θ is the angle between the vertical beam and the slope beam; and Δτ s —time delay between the first pulse of “Laser beam 1 ” interrupted by the object's surface and the first pulse of “Laser beam 2 ” interrupted (see FIG. 8 ). The speed of a moving vehicle can be estimated at two instances, one corresponding to the front of the vehicle, and the second corresponding to the back of the vehicle in conjunction with the separation d of the two laser beams (which is known and is a design parameter). Speed estimation using the output of the two detectors is illustrated in FIGS. 9( a )-( b ). The process for speed estimation of a moving vehicle is outlined in greater detail in flowcharts presented in FIGS. 10( a )-( c ). As mentioned above there are two opportunities where the speed of a passing vehicle can be measured, one corresponding to the front of the vehicle, and one corresponding to the back of the vehicle. The flowcharts corresponding to these two cases are shown in FIGS. 10( a ) and 10 ( b ). A third method is also shown in FIG. 10( c ), which considers both the values estimated for the front of the object and back of the object and, if desired, can estimate the object's average speed, acceleration, or deceleration. The algorithms outlined in the flowcharts of FIGS. 10( a )-( c ) for speed estimation are better described in the following tables where the logic steps are presented in greater detail. In the below tables and accompanying figures, Sensor A corresponds to Laser 1 and Detector 1 and Sensor B corresponds to Laser 2 and Detector 2 . TABLE 1 Steps for speed estimation using information recorded when the front of a vehicle intersects the laser beams of sensors A and B. (FIG. 10(a)). Item Description STEP 1 Check output of sensor A. If the recorded signal strength is equal to (or within a small margin of) the signal strength corresponding to the road surface signal, and the signal's delay with respect to the laser firing corresponds to the road surface delay, then wait for next recording. If the recorded signal strength is different from the expected value, and/or the time delay is smaller than the one corresponding to the road surface, then trigger the timer to start. This means that the received signal corresponds to reflected/scattered radiation from the front of a vehicle intercepting the laser beam of sensor A (or in other words the recorded signal corresponds to reflection/scattering from a vehicle). STEP 2 Check the output of sensor B. If the recorded signal strength is equal to (or within a small margin of) the value corresponding to a return from the road surface, and the signal's time delay with respect to the laser firing corresponds to the delay corresponding to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If the recorded signal strength is different from the expected value, and/or the time delay is smaller than the one corresponding to the road surface, then trigger the timer to stop. This means that the received signal corresponds to reflected/scattered radiation from the front of a vehicle intercepting the laser beam of sensor B (or in other words the recorded signal corresponds to reflection/scattering from a vehicle). STEP 3 Record the value of timer (Δτ1) and calculate the speed of the vehicle using the expression Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed front = d Δτ1 Where: d = beam separation (See FIG. 1) Δτ1 = Recorded timer value corresponding to the time it takes for the front of a vehicle to transverse the laser beam separation d. TABLE 2 Steps for speed estimation using information recorded when the back of a vehicle crosses the path of the laser beams of sensors A and B. For the following steps, prior knowledge of a vehicle presence based on previous recordings of sensors A and B and processing performed by the Timing Unit/Control Circuit is assumed. (FIG. 10(b)). Item Description STEP 1 Check the output of sensors A and B. If the recorded signal strength values are equal (or within a small margin) to previously recorded values corresponding to a vehicle present and/or the time delay between the recorded signal and the laser firing signal is shorter than the time delay corresponding to reflection/scattering from the road surface, then wait for next recording. When recorded signal strength of sensor A is different, usually bigger (or in some cases smaller) than expected value and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing has increased (corresponding to the time delay of the road surface), then trigger the timer to start. This means that the back of a vehicle has stopped blocking the laser beam of sensor A. STEP 2 Check output of sensor in sensor B. If the recorded signal strength is equal (or within a small margin) to previously recorded value corresponding to a vehicle present and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing signal is shorter than the time delay corresponding to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If recorded signal strength is larger (or in some cases smaller) than expected value and/or the time delay is bigger than previous recordings (corresponding to the time delay of the road surface) then trigger the timer to stop. This means that the back of a vehicle has unblocked the laser beam of sensor B. STEP 3 Record the value of the timer (Δτ2) and calculate the speed of the vehicle using the equation Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed back = d Δτ2 Where: d = beam separation (See FIG. 1) Δτ2 = Recorded timer value corresponding to the time it takes for the back of a vehicle to transverse the laser beam separation d The acceleration/deceleration of a moving vehicle can be estimated by comparing the speed estimates for the front and the rear of the moving vehicle and is given by the following expression. α = Δ ⁢ ⁢ υ Δ ⁢ ⁢ t = υ f - υ r Δ ⁢ ⁢ t ( 4 ) where: α—Acceleration (deceleration is negative acceleration); υ f —speed estimate for the front of the passing vehicle; and υ r —speed estimate for the rear of the passing vehicle. The ability to estimate acceleration/deceleration of a moving vehicle may prove to be significant since in applications such as red light photo enforcement this information can show whether a driver tried to stop to avoid running the red light, or whether the driver accelerate to beat the red light. TABLE 3 The logic steps displayed in FIG. 10(c) is a combination of the steps outlined in FIGS. 10(a) and (b). Combining information regarding the speed of the front of a vehicle and the back of a vehicle, and considering additional information gathered using more timers, additional information for the passing vehicle can be estimated, such as acceleration/deceleration, average speed, and approximate vehicle length. (FIG. 10(c)). Item Description STEP 1 Check output of sensor A. If the recorded signal strength is equal (or within a small margin) to signal strength corresponding to the road surface signal and the signal's delay with respect to the laser firing corresponds to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If the recorded signal strength is smaller (or in some cases larger) than expected value, and/or the time delay is smaller than the one corresponding to the road surface, then trigger timers 1 and 2 to start. This means that the received signal corresponds to reflected/scattered radiation from the front of a vehicle intercepting the laser beam of sensor A (or in other words the recorded signal corresponds to reflection/scattering from a vehicle). STEP 2 Check the output of sensor B. If the recorded signal strength is equal (or within a small margin) to the value corresponding to a return from the road surface, and the signal's time delay with respect to the laser firing corresponds to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If the recorded signal strength is smaller (or in some cases larger) than expected value, and/or the time delay is smaller than the one corresponding to the road surface, then trigger the timer 1 to stop and timer 3 to start. This means that the received signal corresponds to reflected/scattered radiation from the front of a vehicle intercepting the laser beam of sensor B (or in other words the recorded signal corresponds to reflection/scattering from a vehicle). STEP 3 Record the value of timer 1 (Δτ1) and calculate the speed corresponding to the front of the vehicle using the expression Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed front = d Δτ1 Where: d = beam separation (See FIG. 1) Δτ1 = Recorded timer 1 value corresponding to the time it takes for the front of a vehicle to transverse the laser beam separation d. STEP 4 Check the output of sensors A and B. If the recorded signal strength values are equal (or within a small margin) to previously recorded values corresponding to a vehicle present and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing signal is shorter than the time delay corresponding to the road surface, then wait for next recording. When the recorded signal strength from sensor A is different, usually bigger (or in some cases smaller) than expected value and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing has increased (corresponding to the time delay of the road surface), then trigger the timer 2 (Δτ2) to stop and timer 4 to start counting. This means that the back of a vehicle has stopped blocking the laser beam of sensor A. STEP 5 Check output of sensor B. If the recorded signal strength is equal (or within a small margin) to previously recorded value corresponding to a vehicle present and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing signal is shorter than the time delay corresponding to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If recorded signal strength is larger (or in some cases smaller) than expected value and/or the time delay is bigger than previous recordings (corresponding to the time delay of the road surface) then trigger timers 3 and 4 to stop recording (Δτ3 and Δτ4 respectively). This means that the back of a vehicle has unblocked the laser beam of sensor B. STEP 6 Record the value of timer 4 (Δτ4) and calculate the speed of the vehicle using the equation Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed back = d Δτ4 Where: d = beam separation (See FIG. 1) Δτ4 = Recorded timer value corresponding to the time it takes for the back of a vehicle to transverse the laser beam separation d. STEP 7 In order to calculate average speed of the vehicle while crossing the laser beams, the following expression can be used: Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed averahe = Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed front + Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed back 2 STEP 8 In order to determine whether the vehicle was accelerating or decelerating while crossing the path of the laser beams, one of the following two expressions can be used: Acceleration1 = Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed back - Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed front Δτ2 Acceleration2 = Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed back - Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed front Δτ3   The average acceleration/deceleration may be estimated using the expression: Average ⁢ ⁢ Acceleration = Acceleration1 + Acceleration2 2 (Note: Deceleration can be considered as negative acceleration) STEP 9 Approximate vehicle length may be estimated using one of the following expressions: If there is no measurable acceleration or deceleration then Vehicle Length = Vehicle Speed × Δτ Where: Vehicle Speed can be either the one calculated when considering the front of a vehicle, or the one calculated when considering the back of a vehicle, or the calculated average speed. Δt can be either Δτ2 or Δτ3 or an average of the two-recorded values. In the case of significant acceleration or deceleration the vehicle length can be estimated using the relationship Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Length = Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed front × Δτ + Acceleration × ( Δτ ) 2 2 Where Acceleration can be either the one calculated when considering the two different time delays, Δτ2 or Δτ3, or the calculated average acceleration. Δτ can be either Δτ2 or Δτ3 or an average of the two-recorded values. Speed estimation can be carried out using a variety of methods. The simplest and most straightforward method is the one previously described where the time between the first interruption of laser beam 1 to the first interruption of laser beam 2 is recorded. Given that the beam separation is fixed and can be measured, then the speed of the moving vehicle may be estimated. The disadvantage of this method, when the system shown in FIG. 7 is used, is that the distance between the lines defined by the laser beams is not constant. Therefore, the distance (d) between the beams must be corrected based on the range. For example, if one beam is vertical and the second beam makes an angle θ with respect to the first beam, then the distance the vehicle travels between the laser beams is given by: d+r sin (θ) where: r —the range to the vehicle as defined in equation (1). Any error in measuring the range will translate into an error in d .Improvements in the measuring accuracy of the time delay minimizes associated errors. Another method for estimating the speed of a moving object/vehicle is by recording the range corresponding to every optical pulse and then comparing the two streams of data recorded by the two detectors. This can be accomplished by performing a cross-correlation analysis on the recorded profiles that considers the possibility of acceleration and deceleration during the recording. The result of this analysis will be a better estimate of the time delay (τ s ) that it takes for the vehicle to cross from laser beam 1 to laser beam 2 . The analysis may be performed on carefully selected sections of the vehicle or for the whole vehicle profile. The series of schematics in FIGS. 11( a )-( g ) illustrates in greater detail how the disclosed system can be used to record the streams of data necessary for the cross correlation analysis. When the lasers beams are not interrupted by any vehicle the recorded time delays for the two laser pulses are constant and correspond to Δt 1a and Δt 2a ( FIG. 11 a ). When a moving vehicle intercepts laser beam 1 ( FIG. 11 b ) then the time delay for sensor 1 decreases (since light pulses travels a shorter distance before they get scattered by the vehicle's surface). The time delay corresponding to laser beam 2 remains the same as before. As the vehicle keeps moving, both laser beams are interrupted, and the recorded time delays vary according to where on the vehicle surface each beam hit. ( FIGS. 11 c thru 11 e ) Eventually the moving vehicle clears the path for laser beam 1 ( FIG. 11 f ), and the time delay corresponding to laser beam 1 goes back to its original value corresponding to initial range. Finally, the vehicle clears the path for both laser beams ( FIG. 11 g ) and both time delays go back to their original values. In computing the correlation, proper account must be made of the changing distance between the beams with vehicle height because of the angle between the beams. The flowchart shown in FIG. 12 illustrates the sequence of steps that lead to the detection of a “Red Light” traffic violation and the capture of images documenting the violation. The specific setting outlined in the flowchart is one that a vehicle crosses the intersection without stopping and while the traffic light is red. As indicated in the flowchart, the status of the traffic light is an external input and is needed for the decision process. This can be accomplished either by direct hardware connection to the red light control or by installing photodetector/filter combinations to externally detect the status of the traffic light (red, amber, or green). External detection of the traffic light status can be achieved from a distance by incorporating a telescope with the photodetector/filter combinations. A detailed description of an exemplary process of detecting a vehicle and documenting a violation is presented in Table 4. Notably, the contents of Table 4 present only one step sequence and decision process with the main characteristic that there is no image capturing unless a violation is highly probable. Simpler algorithms can be developed where, even though they might seem to be simpler, image recordings are needed before any indication of a violation will occur. TABLE 4 A narrative form of the algorithm shown in the flowchart of FIG. 12. The initial assumption is that both sensors A and B start at a state where no vehicle is present. Item Description STEP 1 Check output of sensor A. If the recorded signal strength is equal (or within a small margin) to signal strength corresponding to the road surface signal and the signal's delay with respect to the laser firing corresponds to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If the recorded signal strength is smaller (or in some cases larger) than expected value, and/or the time delay is smaller than the one corresponding to the road surface, then trigger timers 1 and 2 to start. This means that the received signal corresponds to reflected/scattered radiation from the front of a vehicle intercepting the laser beam of sensor A (or in other words the recorded signal corresponds to reflection/scattering from a vehicle). STEP 2 Check the output of sensor A. If the recorded signal strength and time delay are equal (or within a small margin) to previous recorded value then proceed to next step. If the newly recorded values are considerably different as compared with previous recording, it is an indication that previous recording may have been due to something other than a passing vehicle such as a bird or other flying object. In this case abort the process, clear the timers 1 and 2 and start over (go back to STEP 1). STEP 3 Check the output of sensor B. If the recorded signal strength is equal (or within a small margin) to the value corresponding to a return from the road surface, and/or the signal's time delay with respect to the laser firing corresponds to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If the recorded signal strength is smaller (or in some cases larger) than expected value, and/or the time delay is smaller than the one corresponding to the road surface, then trigger the timer 1 to stop and timer 3 to start. This means that the received signal corresponds to reflected/scattered radiation from the front of a vehicle intercepting the laser beam of sensor B (or in other words the recorded signal corresponds to reflection/scattering from a vehicle). If the recorded signal is the one corresponding to the road surface then go back to STEP 2. STEP 4 Record the value of timer 1 (Δτ1) and calculate the speed corresponding to the front of the vehicle using the expression Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed front = d Δτ1 Where: d = beam separation (See FIG. 1) Δτ1 = Recorded timer 1 value corresponding to the time it takes for the front of a vehicle to transverse the laser beam separation d. STEP 5 If the traffic light signal is red, and the time Δτ1 it took for the front of the vehicle to cross the laser beam separation d is smaller than a predefined time, T, then it is highly probable that a red light violation will occur. (Note: Time T corresponds to a vehicle speed that is fast enough, making it unlikely that the vehicle will be able to stop before the intersection. Therefore, it is assumed that a red light violation will occur). STEP 6 Take first picture/image of the vehicle documenting the vehicle just before entering the intersection (or in other words before the occurrence of a violation). STEP 7 Check the output of sensors A and B. If the recorded signal strength values are equal (or within a small margin) to previously recorded values corresponding to a vehicle present and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing signal is shorter than the time delay corresponding to the road surface, then wait for next recording. When recorded signal strength of sensor A is different, usually bigger (or in some cases smaller) than expected value and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing has increased (corresponding to the time delay of the road surface), then trigger the timer 2 to stop (recording (Δt2) and timer 4 to start counting. This means that the back of a vehicle has stopped blocking laser beam of sensor A. STEP 8 Check output of sensor B. If the recorded signal strength is equal (or within a small margin) to previously recorded value corresponding to a vehicle present and/or the time delay between the received signal and the laser firing signal is shorter than the time delay corresponding to the road surface, then wait for next recording. If recorded signal strength is larger (or in some cases smaller) than expected value and/or the time delay is bigger than previous recordings (corresponding to the time delay of the road surface) then trigger timers 3 and 4 to stop recording and store values Δτ3 and Δτ4 respectively. This means that the back of a vehicle has unblocked laser beam of sensor B. The recorded value of timer 4 (Δτ4) can be used to calculate the speed of the vehicle using the equation Vehicle ⁢ ⁢ Speed back = d Δτ4 Where: d = beam separation (See FIG. 1) Δτ4 = Recorded timer value corresponding to the time it takes for the back of a vehicle to transverse the laser beam separation d. STEP 9 If the traffic light signal is still red then proceed to capture more information concerning the violation. If traffic light signal is green, disregard all collected information (clear all timers, and first picture/image) and go back to the beginning. STEP Using the various recorded time delays and simple calculations (similar to the 10 ones displayed in table 3) one can estimate how long it will take (wait time t 1 ) for the vehicle that violates the red light to approximately reach the middle of the intersection. This wait time provides the input to a counter that is interfaced with the recording media. STEP Wait until the counter expires and then record the second picture/image of the 11 violating vehicle. The algorithm and decision process presented in the flowchart of FIG. 12 and the narrative of table 4 cover most cases of a vehicle violating a red light signal. There are, however, few circumstances where the described algorithms will fail to capture a violating vehicle. One such case is when a vehicle stops at the red light signal, but then proceeds through the intersection before the traffic light turns green. The flowchart of FIG. 12 can be adapted for addressing this shortcoming by slight modification of the algorithm, which is presented in the flowchart of FIG. 13 . A less complicated version of the system described above is one in which the decision process is only based on the presence or absence of the detected pulses. In other words, if no pulse is detected within the predetermined programmable time interval Δ τ , then it is assumed that an object is present. Signal absence may be due to either high absorption of the vehicle's surface, or highly efficient specular reflection, or high transmission of the vehicle's surface, which results in less laser radiation scattering. Yet another embodiment of the disclosed method and apparatus is a more complex case, but can provide maximum information concerning a moving vehicle. The continuous recording of the time delay for the two laser beams generates a table that contains important information that can be used to evaluate several properties of the moving vehicle. Simple plotting of the inverse of the recorded time delay as a function of time reveals the shape of the car. This process is schematically shown in FIGS. 16( a )-( b ). (The recordings of the time delay from both laser beams reveal the shape of the passing vehicle.) Examples of information that can be generated from the recorded data are: Vehicle length Vehicle speed Whether the vehicle was accelerating or decelerating Vehicle profile. FIGS. 15 and 16 illustrate timing diagrams for continuous recording of the time delay. The number of time delay recordings is a function of several quantities such as: Vehicle length Vehicle speed Frequency of pulses The graph in FIG. 17 shows the relationship between the number of pulses per foot of the vehicle length (or possible time delay recordings) as a function of vehicle speed for three pulse frequencies. The disclosed system is able to record 100 points per foot even along a vehicle moving at over 100 miles per hour creating a high-resolution profile of the vehicle. In the case that a specific number of recordings per foot is required rather than all possible information, then this can be accomplished by using information recorded at the beginning, such as vehicle speed, and direct the disclosed system to discard some data. In an alternate embodiment, a comparable system to the one disclosed above can be built in a different way. Rather than sending laser pulses and waiting for their return, the transmitter can send laser radiation that has undergone an intensity modulation using a repetitive waveform (such as a sinusoidal, triangular, or similar). The laser radiation scatters off the hard surface and a fraction of it is directed into the detector. The phase of the detected radiation depends on the round trip distance, which in turn can be processed in a similar fashion to determine the presence of an object and its speed. The uncertainty in speed estimation depends on several factors: Vehicle's speed Laser beam spot separation (d) Frequency of laser pulses (f) Laser beam spot size (g) There are several ways of controlling the accuracy in speed determination. The disclosed system becomes more accurate by a. Increasing the separation between the two laser spots b. Increasing the laser repetition rate c. Decreasing the laser spot size. FIGS. 18( a ) and ( b ) present the source of the speed estimation uncertainty due to the repetition rate. A vehicle may intercept the beam path of sensor A just after a laser pulse has been reflected/scattered by the asphalt and intersect the beam path of sensor B just before a light pulse hits the asphalt. This will result in a time measurement error equal to the period. In other words, the time it takes for the vehicle to cover the distance d will be larger by one period and as indicated by equation (2) the vehicle's speed will be underestimated. (“E 1 ” and “O 1 ” markings on FIG. 18) Using the same logic there is the possibility of overestimating the speed of a moving vehicle (“E 2 ” and “O 2 ” markings on FIG. 18 ). The two graphs shown on FIGS. 19( a ) and ( b ) present the speed uncertainties as a function of the vehicle's speed for various pulse repetition rates. The spot separation was assumed to be one meter and the uncertainty due to the finite size of the laser spots was ignored. During the numerical evaluations, it was assumed that the maximum uncertainty corresponds to one full period. A schematic detailing the speed uncertainty due to the finite spot sizes of the two laser beams is shown in FIG. 20 . The source of the uncertainty is the fact that in many situations a sensor may be more sensitive to one part of the beam as compared to another part of the beam. The worst case scenario occurs either when sensor A is more sensitive in point 1 or 2 and sensor B is more sensitive in point 3 or 4 , respectively. The maximum uncertainty corresponds to an error in d equal to the size of the beam. The results of a numerical simulation are shown in the graphs presented in FIGS. 21( a ) and ( b ). It was assumed that the maximum uncertainty corresponds to an increase in the beam separation by an amount equal to the width of the laser spot (See FIG. 20) . One of the main applications for the speed sensor discussed above is red light photo enforcement. The simplest two-laser beam speed sensor has one of the laser beams vertical (or perpendicular with respect to the road surface) while the second laser beam is at a slight angle as compared to the other beam (see FIG. 7 ). An important system parameter is the value of “E”, which represents the minimum height for detection. Below this height, no vehicle detection is possible. In terms of time delay, there will be no measurement unless there is a decrease in the recorded time delay that corresponds to a height bigger than E. The use of the speed sensor for red light photo-enforcement is schematically predicted in FIG. 22 . The speed sensors are installed above the street (at a height between 16 and 20 feet) and close to the intersection for monitoring the speed of the passing vehicles (just before entering the intersection). Information generated by the speed sensor is communicated through an appropriate interface to a central computer, which is located in the same cabinet as the digital recording media. The status of the traffic light is also communicated to the central computer in order to aid the decision making process. The process of detecting and recording a traffic violation starts with sensing the status of the traffic light. When the traffic light is red then the speed of passing vehicles is estimated. If the vehicle's speed is lower than a critical value then it means that the vehicle will be able to stop before the intersection. In this case, no image recording takes place. On the other hand, if the vehicle's speed is above a critical value then the probability of stopping before the intersection is minimum, and the process of recording the violation starts. The violation recording may consist of still images of the vehicle before and during the traffic violation as well as a short video clip documenting the violation. The compactness of the disclosed system allows multiples of the system to be package into a single housing, and the system can be used in an intersection for “Red Light Violation Detection and Recording”. An example of a two-lane configuration using the system, coupled with a recording mechanism for documenting red light violations is shown in FIG. 23 . The details of the laser beam arrangement are shown in the insert. The compactness of the system enables multiple systems to be placed in a single housing, thus servicing more than one lane. The exact height for placing the system is subject to local codes and laws. For convenience, during the analysis of the disclosed system, a hanging height between 16-20 feet was assumed. (According to the commercial drivers license study guide no vehicle can exceed a height of 14 feet.) Another important feature of the disclosed arrangement is the ease of disguise. It is feasible to design a street lighting feature that would be able to house both a light bulb as well as the disclosed system. This will provide maximum camouflage. Similar to a two-lane configuration the disclosed system can be used in a three-lane intersection. The schematic in FIG. 24 displays some of the details of a three-lane system. In the case of a four-lane intersection where all lanes need to be instrumented it is anticipated that two light-posts (as the one shown in the figures) will be used, each supporting a two-lane system housing. Another possible application for the disclosed system is its potential use for speed violation detection and speed photo enforcement in urban and rural areas as well as highways. FIG. 25 presents a possible arrangement of the disclosed system in speed photo enforcement configuration. The speed photo enforcement system consists of a lens system per lane and a recording mechanism. Contrary to the system dedicated for red light camera photo enforcement, no input is necessary and the algorithm for violation detection is simplified and is always on. The only criterion is whether a passing vehicle exceeds the speed limit. The systems can be strategically positioned to enforce speed limits close to street intersection or close to pedestrian street crossing. Another potential application is close to schools. Additionally, a variety of laser systems can be used for the construction of the disclosed system. The prime candidates are diode lasers due to their small size, low cost, rugged package, ability to operate in harsh environments, ease of installation and maintenance-free operation. Diode laser sources where the light emitting area is rectangular (and are currently well developed) offer the additional advantage that they can be focused to very narrow lines on the road surface. The maximum advantage is realized when the long side of the rectangular focusing spot is arranged perpendicular to the traffic direction, which also minimizes the speed uncertainty due to spot size. Even though there is no specific wavelength requirement for the disclosed system, lasers operating in the wavelength region between 0.8 μm to 2 μm are preferred. The main reason is the fact that these wavelengths are invisible to the human eye, therefore eliminating the possibility of obstructing the drivers. As is the case with laser sources, there is a great variety of sensors that can be used for the disclosed systems. Some examples are avalanche photodiodes (analogue mode or “Geiger mode,”) photodiodes, and photomultipliers. Mainly the choice of light detector depends on the operating wavelength. Concerning the road surface, it is well published that the scattering efficiency of asphalt is typically between 5% and 15%. Numerical simulations and experimental investigation performed indicated that even the low end of scattering efficiency is sufficient for operation of the disclosed system. Special reflective tapes or road paints developed by a variety of vendors can be also used to enhance scattering efficiency and improve the operating characteristics of the disclosed system. Lastly, the disclosed system can be easily configured to work as an autonomous portable device for traffic monitoring, vehicle speed determination, and speed violation detection and recording. Such a device can operate using batteries or a small portable electrical generator depending on the duration of needed operation. Possible applications of a portable system may be areas where road construction and maintenance is performed. A portable system may also provide a useful tool for preliminary investigation and feasibility studies of traffic light intersections and highways before permanent installation is carried out. The invention has been described with references to a preferred embodiment. While specific values, relationships, materials and steps have been set forth for purposes of describing concepts of the invention, it will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the basic concepts and operating principles of the invention as broadly described. It should be recognized that, in the light of the above teachings, those skilled in the art can modify those specifics without departing from the invention taught herein. Having now fully set forth the preferred embodiments and certain modifications of the concept underlying the present invention, various other embodiments as well as certain variations and modifications of the embodiments herein shown and described will obviously occur to those skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with such underlying concept. It is intended to include all such modifications, alternatives and other embodiments insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or equivalents thereof. It should be understood, therefore, that the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically set forth herein. Consequently, the present embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

A system of lasers and detectors to detect the presence of objects and determine their speed is disclosed. The system comprises of a pair of lasers and a pair of detectors focused through a single lens or a pair of lenses. An electronic board that accompanies the lasers and detectors is used to provide the logic and decision making mechanism. Data collected and processed by the system yields such information as whether an object is present, whether the object is stationary or is moving, and subsequent speed information. The described system is also capable of providing additional information concerning the characteristics of the moving object such as its profile and length, and indication of a traffic violation.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/519,640, filed on Mar. 6, 2000 which claims priority to Provisional Application No. 60/123,900, filed on Mar. 11, 1999, entitled “Solid State Thennionic Energy Converter and Method,” and naming Yan R. Kucherov and Peter L. Hagelstein as the inventors which applications are incorporated herein by specific reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to the conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy, and electrical energy to refrigeration, and more particularly to a thermionic converter of improved efficiency and power densities, which utilizes electron tunneling and thermionic emission facilitated by the reduction in the barrier height from image force effects. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention was developed to fill a need for a device which efficiently converts thermal energy to electrical energy at relatively low operating temperatures and with power densities large enough for commercial applications. The present invention also operates in reverse mode to provide efficient cooling. [0004] Thermionic energy conversion is a method of converting heat energy directly into electrical energy by thermionic emission. In this process, electrons are thermionically emitted from the surface of a metal by heating the metal and imparting sufficient energy to a portion of the electrons to overcome retarding forces at the surface of the metal in order to escape. Unlike most other conventional methods of generating electrical energy, thermionic conversion does not require either an intermediate form of energy or a working fluid, other than electrical charges, in order to change heat into electricity. [0005] In its most elementary form, a conventional thermionic energy converter consists of one electrode connected to a heat source, a second electrode connected to a heat sink and separated from the first electrode by an intervening space, leads connecting the electrodes to the electrical load, and an enclosure. The space in the enclosure is either highly evacuated or filled with a suitable rarefied vapor, such as cesium. [0006] The essential process in a conventional thermionic converter is as follows. The heat source supplies heat at a sufficiently high temperature to one electrode, the emitter, from which electrons are thermionically evaporated into the evacuated or rarefied-vapor-filled interelectrode space. The electrons move through this space toward the other electrode, the collector, which is kept at a low temperature near that of the heat sink. There the electrons condense and return to the hot electrode via the electrical leads and the electrical load connected between the emitter and the collector. [0007] The flow of electrons through the electrical load is sustained by the temperature difference between the electrodes. Thus, electrical work is delivered to the load. [0008] Thermionic energy conversion is based on the concept that a low electron work function cathode in contact with a heat source will emit electrons. These electrons are absorbed by a cold, high work function anode, and they can flow back to the cathode through an external load where they perform useful work. Practical thermionic generators are limited by the work function of available metals or other materials that are used for the cathodes. Another important limitation is the space charge effect. The presence of charged electrons in the space between the cathode and anode will create an extra potential barrier which reduces the thermionic current. [0009] Typical conventional thermionic emitters are operated at temperatures ranging from 1400 to 2200K and collectors at temperatures ranging from 500 to 1200K. Under optimum conditions of operation, overall efficiencies of energy conversion range from 5 to 40%, electrical power densities are of the order of 1 to 100 watts/cm 2 , and current densities are of the order of 5 to 100 A/cm 2 . In general, the higher the emitter temperature, the higher the efficiency and the power and current densities with designs accounting for radiation losses. The voltage at which the power is delivered from one unit of a typical converter is 0.3 to 1.2 volts, i.e., about the same as that of an ordinary electrolytic cell. Thermionic systems with a high power rating frequently consist of many thermionic converter units connected electrically in series. Each thermionic converter unit is typically rated at 10 to 500 watts. [0010] The high-temperature attributes of thermionic converters are advantageous for certain applications, but they are restrictive for others because the required emitter temperatures are generally beyond the practical capability of many conventional heat sources. In contrast, typical thermoelectric converters are operable at heat source temperatures ranging from 500 to 1500K. However, even under optimum conditions, overall efficiencies of thermoelectric energy converters only range from 3 to 10%, electrical power densities are normally less than a few watts/cm 2 , and current densities are of the order of 1 to 100 A/cm 2 . [0011] From a physics standpoint, thermoelectric devices are similar to thermionic devices. In both cases a temperature gradient is placed upon a metal or semiconductor, and both cases are based upon the concept that electron motion is electricity. However, the electron motion also carries energy. A forced current transports energy for both thermionic and thermoelectric devices. The main difference between thermoelectric and thermionic devices is whether the current flow is diffusive (thermoelectric) or ballistic (thermionic). A thermionic device has a relatively high efficiency if the electrons ballistically go over and across the barrier. For a thermionic device all of the kinetic energy is carried from one electrode to the other. The motion of electrons in a thermoelectric device is quasi-equilibrium and diffusive, and can be described in terms of a Seebeck coefficient, which is an equilibrium parameter. [0012] In structures with narrow barriers, the electrons will not travel far enough to suffer collisions as they cross the barrier. Under these circumstances, the thermionic emission theory is a more accurate representation of the current transport. The current density is given by: j = A 0  T 2   - e     ϕ k     T , [0013] where A 0 is the Richardson's constant, φ is the barrier height (electron work function), e is the electron charge, κ is Boltzmann's constant, and T is the temperature. Richardson's constant A 0 is given by A 0 =(emκ 2 T 2 )/(2π 2 2 ), where m is the effective electron mass and is Plank's constant. [0014] The diffusion theory is appropriate for barriers in which the barrier thickness (length) is greater than the electron mean-free-path in one dimension, while the thermionic emission theory is appropriate for barriers for which the barrier thickness (length) is less than the mean-free-path. However, if the barrier becomes very narrow, current transport by quantum-mechanical tunneling becomes more prominent. [0015] There remains a need to provide a more satisfactory solution to converting thermal energy to electrical energy at lower temperature regimes with high efficiencies and high power densities. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0016] The present invention seeks to resolve a number of the problems which have been experienced in the background art, as identified above. More specifically, the apparatus and method of this invention constitute an important advance in the art of thermionic power conversion, as evidenced by the following objects and advantages realized by the invention over the background art. [0017] An object of the present invention is to generate high power densities and efficiencies of a typical thermionic converter, but to operate at temperature regimes of typical thermoelectric devices. [0018] Another object of the present invention is to maintain thermal separation between the emitter and collector. [0019] A further object of the present invention is to minimize the effects of thermal expansion. [0020] Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description which follows, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. [0021] Briefly summarized, the foregoing and other objects are achieved by an apparatus which comprises: an electrically and thermally conductive electron emitter; an electrically and thermally conductive electron collector for receiving electrons from the emitter; a solid-state barrier disposed between and in intimate contact with said emitter and collector for filtering high energy electrons transferred from the emitter to the collector; one or more electrically and thermally conductive fractional surface contacts disposed between and in intimate contact with the emitter and barrier, or the barrier and collector, or a combination thereof; a thermally and electrically nonconductive space adjacent to the fractional surface contacts and the emitter and barrier, or the barrier and collector, or a combination thereof; and an electric load connected to the emitter and collector. [0022] In the refrigeration embodiment, carrier transport is assisted by a potential applied between the emitter and collector, and the emitter is connected to a thermal load that is cooled by heat flow to the emitter. A heat exchanger dissipates the heat from hot electrons on the collector. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0023] In order to more fully understand the manner in which the above-recited advantages and objects of the invention are obtained, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, the presently preferred embodiments and the presently understood best mode of the invention will be described with additional detail through use of the accompanying drawings in which: [0024] [0024]FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a thermionic converter of the present invention. [0025] [0025]FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a fractional surface contact having a triangular cross-section. [0026] [0026]FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of an emitter utilizing tantalum-hydride powder with a honeycomb structure to support the powder. [0027] [0027]FIGS. 4A and 4B shows a cross-sectional view of a low thermal conductivity semiconductor barrier placed in a vacuum between a metal emitter and a metal collector. [0028] [0028]FIG. 5 illustrates a plot of Richardson thermionic current density versus barrier height at various temperatures. [0029] [0029]FIG. 6 illustrates the thermal expansion pattern and nanowire positioning for a circular plate. [0030] [0030]FIG. 7 illustrates the thermal expansion pattern and nanowire positioning for a rectangular plate. [0031] [0031]FIG. 8 illustrates various nanowire cross-sections. [0032] [0032]FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention wherein the fractional surface contact is associated with the barrier. [0033] [0033]FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a barrier configuration comprising a metallic layer, an n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer, and a metallic layer. [0034] [0034]FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a barrier configuration comprising a metallic layer, an n-type semiconductor layer, and a metallic layer. [0035] [0035]FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of a barrier configuration comprising a metallic layer, a p-type semiconductor layer, and a metallic layer. [0036] [0036]FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of a barrier configuration comprising a resonant tunneling diode. [0037] [0037]FIG. 14 shows the transmission probability for a specific GaAs—Al x Ga 1-x As heterostructure. [0038] [0038]FIG. 15A shows a cross-sectional view of a nonmetallic collector with a metallic layer. [0039] [0039]FIG. 15B shows a cross-sectional view of a nonmetallic collector with a metallic layer and a surface barrier matching material disposed between the collector and the barrier to prevent the leak back of electrons to the emitter. [0040] [0040]FIG. 16 is an I-V curve for an emitter comprising TaH and a barrier comprising Al 2 O 3 . [0041] [0041]FIG. 17 is an I-V curve for an emitter comprising TaH and a barrier comprising Al 2 O 3 at a different temperature differential than FIG. 16. [0042] [0042]FIG. 18 is a plot of the voltage dependence on the temperature gradient for an emitter comprising TaH and a barrier comprising Al 2 O 3 . [0043] [0043]FIG. 19 is an I-V curve for an emitter comprising TiH 2 , a barrier comprising PbTe, and a collector comprising Pt on an Al substrate. [0044] [0044]FIG. 20 shows a cross-sectional view of a thermionic converter for providing refrigeration. [0045] [0045]FIG. 21 shows a cross-sectional view of a barrier in the form of point contacts (microspheres) in a refrigeration embodiment. [0046] [0046]FIG. 22 shows cross-sectional view of a barrier in the form of microspheres comprising a non-thermally conductive core material having an outer metallic layer and a semiconductor layer. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0047] The present invention embodies a thermionic energy converter 10 and is directed to a method and apparatus for conversion of energy generally illustrated in FIG. 1. The present invention 10 comprises an electrically and thermally conductive electron emitter 12 , an electrically and thermally conductive electron collector 16 for receiving electrons from the emitter 12 , a solid-state barrier 14 disposed between and in intimate contact with said emitter 12 and collector 16 for filtering high energy electrons transferred from the emitter 12 to the collector 16 , and an electric load connected to said emitter 12 and collector 16 . [0048] The present invention 10 maintains a thermal separation between the emitter 12 and the collector 16 through a fractional surface contact 13 , such as that shown in FIG. 1. Maintaining a thermal separation between the emitter 12 and the collector 16 provides for ballistic electron transport through barrier 14 and reduces the transport of phonons and electrons through thermal conductivity. Hence, the efficiency is increased through the collection of ballistic electrons and the reduction of thermal conductivity electrons which cannot be collected. It is also important to note that the inventive principle works for hole conductivity, as well as for electrons. Also, reference to metals herein includes alloys. [0049] The fractional surface contact 13 is defined by a fractional surface geometry of decreasing cross-sectional area towards fractional surface contact 13 . For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a fractional surface contact 13 which is defined by a barrier 14 comprised of spherical particles, wherein the fractional surface geometry is a spherical shape. The fractional surface contacts may be integral to the emitter 12 , the barrier 14 , or the collector 16 . The emitter 12 , barrier 14 , or collector 16 has one or more fractional surface contacts 13 disposed between and in intimate contact with the emitter 12 and barrier 14 , or the barrier 14 and collector 16 , or a combination thereof. [0050] The fractional surface contact 13 also provides for quantum mechanical tunneling, for example, along the non-contacting surface of the fractional contact 13 and between the collector 16 at a distance of 50 Å or less. This distance depends upon the materials utilized and their corresponding work functions. The fractional surface contact 13 also provides for thermionic emission facilitated by the reduction in the barrier height from image force effects, for example, along non-contacting surface of the fractional contact 13 and between the collector 16 at a distance of 25 Å or less. This distance also depends upon the materials utilized and their corresponding work functions. See Coutts, T. J. Electrical Conduction in Thin Metal Films. N.Y., Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co., 1974, pp. 54-55, for a discussion of the image force effect. [0051] [0051]FIG. 2 illustrates a fractional surface contact 13 having a triangular cross-section that acts as point emitters or contacts. Other examples of various fractional surface contact shapes include, but are not limited to, parabolic-shaped contacts, elliptical-shaped contacts, curved-shaped contacts, nanotubes, particles, dendrites made from methods such as micro-lithography and holographic lithography, Tonks' method (electric instability on liquid metal surface), ion milling, or equivalents thereof. [0052] A thermally and electrically nonconductive space 15 , including but not limited to a vacuum, xenon, radon, or other nonconductive gas, is adjacent to the fractional surface contacts 13 and the emitter 12 and barrier 14 , or the barrier 14 and collector 16 , or a combination thereof. Space 15 reduces electrons that would otherwise be thermally transported and assists in maintaining a thermal separation between the emitter 12 and the collector 16 . [0053] Electron flow occurs when an electrical load R L is connected to the emitter 12 and collector 16 , where the work function of the emitter 12 is less than the work function of the collector 16 . When determining the load resistance, it is noted that the maximum efficiency for any electric power source normally occurs when the internal resistance of the power source is the same as the load resistance. Therefore, if the internal resistance is very low, the desired load resistance should also be very low. [0054] If the barrier 14 is adjusted to sort hot electrons, the emitter 12 will be cooled and the electron current will result in the potential increase on the collector 16 . To achieve a desirable converter efficiency, the barrier 14 must effectively stop electrons with lower energies. The emitter 12 and the barrier 14 are matched such that electron concentration on the emitter 12 is higher than electron concentration on the collector 16 at a given energy defined by the barrier height. [0055] Utilizing materials with a low reflectance on the emitter side and a high reflectance on the collector side are beneficial for maintaining a high efficiency. [0056] 1. Emitter [0057] The emitter 12 comprises an electrically and thermally conductive material, such as metals, metal alloys, semiconductor or doped semiconductor materials. The emitter 12 may also comprise an electrically and thermally conductive layer on a substrate, such as materials including, but not limited to, SiO 2 , glass, quartz, or equivalents thereof, coated with a metallic layer or other thermally and electrically conductive material. [0058] Another embodiment of the present invention wherein the fractional surface contact is associated with the emitter utilizes a high phonon energy material as the emitter 12 , preferably with a mean energy of at least about 3 kT, to distort the electron energy distribution using electron-phonon interaction. Materials exhibiting these characteristics are metal hydrides Me x H y , irrespective of stoichiometry. Examples include, but are not limited to, TiH x , VH x , ZrH x , NbH x , TaH x , ScH x , YH x , ThH x , UH x all rare earth hydrides, or combinations thereof. Many metals which form hydrides may be alloyed with normal metals even to high concentrations without losing the high energy component in their phonon spectrum and may have better properties in terms of oxidation, e.g., TaCu or TiCu alloys. The emitter 12 should also provide thermal and electrical conductivity. [0059] [0059]FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an emitter comprising a metal hydride powder 17 supported in a honeycomb structure 18 . [0060] In general, all metal hydrides Me x H y have median phonon energy in their spectra of more than 100 meV, with the exception of Pd and Pd alloys. Me x H y is preferable over Me x D y (or Me x T y ), since the 1 H 1 isotope is lighter and provides higher phonon frequencies (energies). It should also be noted that the phonon frequency is basically independent of the hydrogen concentration (See Landolt-Börnstein, Numerical Data and Functional Relationships in Science and Technology, Group III: Crystal and Solid State Physics, (1983) Vol. 13b Metals: Phonon States, Electron States and Fermi Surfaces, pp. 333-354, the contents of which are specifically incorporated herein.). [0061] Other stable materials with high phonon energies include, but are not limited to, BH, B 4 C, BN (hexagonal), BN (cubic), diamond, or combinations thereof. An emitter 12 using a non-conductive substrate must also have a conductive or doped layer, such as silver, with a thickness less than the electron mean free path, in order to emit electrons into the barrier 14 . Alternatively, the conductive or doped layer may be placed on the barrier 14 when the emitter 12 comprises a thermally and electrically non-conductive material. A conductive or doped layer provides thermal and electrical conductivity. For example, if the emitter 12 comprises BN microspheres and the conductive or doped layer comprises Ag (electron mean free path is 400 Å), the conductive or doped layer thickness is preferably between 50-200 Å. [0062] 2. Barrier [0063] Most semiconductors with a low forbidden gap have a very low thermal conductivity, such as a few W/(m·K), or roughly 100 times less than for copper or silver. This provides for a barrier geometry selection corresponding to at least a few degrees of thermal separation between the emitter 12 and the collector 16 . This embodiment is illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B, wherein a low thermal conductivity semiconductor barrier 14 (e.g., fixed pillars, microspheres, etc.) is placed in a vacuum between a metal emitter 12 and a metal collector 16 . The emitter 12 is at a higher temperature than the collector 16 . Isotherms (different scale in two materials) are indicated by dashed lines 19 . The spacing of isotherms 19 is much larger in metals due to a larger thermal conductivity. Estimations for a thermal conductivity difference of 100:1 result in a bridge cross-sectional linear dimension (e.g., diameter) of up to one micron. Area A will then emit electrons, since it is facing a low barrier on a metal-semiconductor interface (a fraction of 1 eV). Area B will not emit electrons, since it is facing a metal-vacuum interface with a few eV potential barrier. The ratio of area A to area B will define the decrease in the thermal conductivity of the gap (without a radiation component). For example, a 1:100 ratio provides for a thermal separation of 100K between the emitter 12 and collector 16 . Decreasing the emitter 12 area by 100 times will require relatively high current densities. A graph of the Richardson current density as a function of the barrier height and temperature is shown in FIG. 5. Line 20 represents values at 300K; line 22 represents values at 350K; line 24 represents values at 400K; line 26 represents values at 500K; line 28 represents values at 700K; line 30 represents values at 800K; and line 32 represents values at 900K. For instance, a 1 W device having a total area of 1 cm 2 and a temperature of 400K on the emitter 12 , will require a Richardson current of approximately 10 3 A/cm 2 . This current can be achieved with a barrier of 0.35 eV, such as PbTe. 10 4 -10 5 A/cm 2 is an electromigration practical limit for doped semiconductors with a small forbidden gap. [0064] The embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B can be constructed with known techniques such as micro-lithography or holographic lithography. However, thermal expansion characteristics must be considered for certain materials. For example, a 1 cm 2 metal plate end with a thermal expansion coefficient of 10 −5 K −1 will travel 10 5 Å at a 100K temperature change, which is inconsistent with a bridge length of only a few hundred angstroms. Therefore, the barrier 14 preferably should be a moveable (rolling or sliding) barrier. A moveable barrier 14 may comprise microspheres or short microwires disposed between an emitter 12 and a collector 16 . Microspheres are preferable because of an absence of thermal expansion and orientation challenges. The microsphere embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 1, wherein 5-100 nanometer-size semiconductor spheres 14 are available from precipitation, aerosol, or plasma spray manufacturing methods. However, advances in submicron lithography make the nanowire approach feasible from a technological point of view. The nanowire approach requires uniform and stress-relieved materials on both the emitter 12 and collector 16 sides. The simplest design is a circular plate which expands radially. FIG. 6 illustrates the expansion pattern 34 and nanowire positioning 36 of a circular plate. It should be noted that plate movement across the nanowire may cause degradation after a few thermal cycles, and should be avoided. A rectangular plate provides a more complex thermal expansion pattern 38 , as illustrated in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows that nanowire positioning 40 is relatively complex and will be effective when the absolute size change is relatively small to avoid second order effects. The plate preferably should have a small thermal expansion coefficient to minimize the absolute size change at elevated temperatures. [0065] Circular and rectangular emitter 12 and collector 16 plate geometries are not the only possible configurations. However, each configuration has its own thermal expansion pattern, which must be analyzed mathematically with the nanowire orientation designed accordingly. A nanowire cross-section can vary depending upon the materials used, operating temperatures, and temperature gradients. Some example cross-sections 42 include, but are not limited to, those illustrated in FIG. 8. [0066] The potential barrier for electrons with this embodiment can be formed only with Schottky barriers. Examples of known Schottky barriers for some of the semiconductors in contact with metals are shown in Table 1 below. This list can be expanded for basically any Schottky barrier, or when comparing an interface material's electron work function with the vaccum energy level (See Band Structure Engineering in Semiconductor Microstructures, NATO ASI Series, Series B: Physics, Vol. 189 (1988), p. 24. Lerach, L. and Albrecht, H. Current Transport in Forward Biased Schottky Barriers on Low Doped n - Type InSb, North-Holland Publishing Co., 1978. pp. 531-544.; Brillson, L. Contacts to Semiconductors, Fundamentals and Technology, Noyes Publications, 1993; Rhoderick, E. H. and Williams R. H. Metal - Semiconductor Contacts, Second Edition, Clarendon Press, 1988.). Positioning of the spheres 14 may be made by precipitation from a liquid, dielectrophoresis, vibration/charge, masking or equivalents thereof. For example, dielectrophoresis involves a powder assuming a charge in a dielectric medium, such as ethyl alcohol. It is important to use fresh ethyl alcohol, since the alcohol will pick up water from the atmosphere. This will make the medium somewhat conductive and the process will degrade. The charge moves when an electric field is applied. The controls for coating are the voltage applied and the concentration of powder in the mixture. The powder is dispersed by ultra sonics or shaking. [0067] As set forth previously, if the emitter 12 comprises a non-metallic material, a metallic layer may be placed on either the emitter 12 or the barrier 14 . For example, the barrier 14 comprising microspheres illustrated in FIG. 1 would include an outer metallic layer and metal contacts placed on the emitter 12 . TABLE 1 Material Barrier (eV) Si 0.5-0.8 n-Ge 0.18-0.45 n-GaAs 0.70 n-InAs 0.50 n-GaSb 0.07 n-InSb ˜0.1 Sb ˜0.1 n-PbS ˜0.2 n-PbSe ˜0.2 p-Cu 2 O 0.4 p-Se 0.30-0.55 n-CDs 0.88 DySi2 0.37 IrSi3 0.94 Hg x Cd x−1 Te 0.0-0.5 p-Ge 0.26 B (Amorphous) 0.43 LaB 6 0.35 YbB 6 0.30 Pd 2 Si 0.7 n-PbTe 0.32 p-GaAs 0.55 n-InP 0.32-0.54 [0068] Table 1 shows various materials having a barrier height in the range of 0.1 eV to 1.0 eV. All practical temperatures are included in FIG. 5 for the materials listed in Table 1. For example, n-GaAs or Pd 2 Si (0.7 eV) are acceptable barrier materials at an operation temperature of 800K, 1:100 area coverage, and 10 3 A/cm 2 current limit through the barrier material (≈1 W/cm 2 converter specific power). Semiconductors may also be doped with impurities that provide for sub-band conduction. For example, doping Ge with Te provides a donar sub-bandwith of 0.3 eV spacing from the conductance band bottom, thus changing the intrinsic surface barrier by a value of 0.15-0.20 eV. [0069] An example of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 may comprise semiconductor spheres with a 100 Å diameter deposited on a variety of substrates with a desired density per unit area by methods such as laser ablation, or equivalents thereof. The surface finish on semiconductors and dielectrics is preferably within a few angstroms RMS; however, the surface must be metallized. Metal coatings with a 10 Å RMS surface are routine with magnetron sputtering. Standard optical polishing provides 1-3 arcmin. parallelism. Without a flexible plate on one side, the absence of electrical shorts can only be guaranteed over a distance of about 100 microns. Materials having a thickness of approximately 0.1 mm or less such as glass, quartz, Si, Ge, mica, or equivalents thereof, will function as a local spring and compensate for parallelism if a thermally conductive cushion such as carbon fibers, or equivalents thereof, are used as an intermediate layer for compression. [0070] To illustrate thermal management and compression challenges, the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 comprises 100 Å germanium spheres 44 between two ideally smooth molybdenum 46 or molybdenum coated plates 48 of 1×1 cm 2 squares, with a 100K temperature difference between plates 46 and 48 and a 10 W heat flow across the converter. One of the plates 46 or 48 is thin enough (e.g., 10-20 microns) to be sufficiently flexible to compensate locally for parallelism problems. [0071] The heat flow q is supplied by a heat source (not shown). A thermal differential is maintained between the cold plate 46 at a temperature T 2 and a hot plate 48 at a temperature T 1 . In this case, T 1 -T 2 =100K. Plate 48 is made of a silicon wafer material having a thickness of 10 microns and metallized with a 2000 Å molybdenum coating on both sides. Ge nanospheres 44 are deposited by laser ablation onto plate 46 . A thin layer of carbon fibers 50 provide for a uniform load on the plate 48 and conduct heat and electrical flow through the flat compressing plate 52 . The mechanical load on the nanospheres 44 is regulated by calibrated springs 54 . In principle, the springs 54 may also be attached to plate 46 instead of plate 52 . The compression force supplied by springs 54 defines the deformation of the spheres 44 , and indirectly defines the thermal and electric contact properties on the sphere-plate interface. The entire device is enclosed in a vacuum chamber and evacuated to a residual pressure below 5×10 −4 torr. At this pressure the thermal conductivity of air is smaller than the radiative losses at room temperature (see Kaganer, M. G. Thermal Insulation in Cryogenic Engineering. Israel Program for Scientific Translations Ltd. 1969. Pp7-106.). Kaganer discusses that the thermal resistance on the interface is a complex function of many parameters. For simplicity, the following example assumes that the thermal resistance of the sphere 44 is equivalent to a rod having a cross-section of 1000 Å 2 . The specific heat flow (q 1 =κ∂T/∂y) through one contact with a thermal conductivity, κ, value of 40W/(mK) for germanium, yields a value of 4×10 −6 W. To maintain a 100K temperature gradient at 10W total heat flow requires 2.5×10 6 spheres, or approximately 6 micron spacing between the spheres 44 , which corresponds to about 3 arcminutes of plate parallelism that is standard for thin silicon wafers. [0072] It can be assumed that under compression the Ge sphere 44 will deform and the plate 46 will remain flat since the elasticity modulus for Mo (300 GPa) is much higher than for Ge (82 GPa). The calculations show that approximately a 10 −7 N force is required to provide 1000 Å contact area. The total compressive force in this case will be 0.25N, which is relatively small and allows for only a partial plate parallelism compensation with a 10 micron thick silicon plate. Improved results are possible with thinner plates or a more flexible plate material such as glass. [0073] The previous example also illustrates the optimization principle for this device. If the desired temperature differential is increased to 200K, 20 watts of heat flow must be supplied to the device. If only 10 watts are available, the number of nanospheres must be cut by two, and so forth. [0074] Examples of various barrier 14 materials are disclosed in the following references, the contents of which are specifically incorporated herein: Burstein, E. and Lundqvist, S. Tunneling Phenomena in Solids. N.Y., Plenum Press, 1969. pp.47-78, 127-134, 149-166, and 193-205. Mizuta, H. and Tanoue, T. The Physics and Applications of Resonant Tunneling Diodes. N.Y. Cambridge University Press, 1995. pp. 52-87. Duke, C. B. Tunneling in Solids. N.Y., Academic Press 1969. pp. 49-158, and 279-290. Conley, J. W. and Tiemann, J. J. Experimental Aspects of Tunneling in Metal - Semiconductor Barriers. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 38, no. 7 (June 1967), pp. 2880-2884. Steinrisser, F. and Davis, L. C. Electron and Phonon Tunneling Spectroscopy in Metal - Germanium Contacts. Physical Review, Vol. 176, no. 3 (Dec. 15, 1968), pp. 912-914. Hicks, L. D. and Dresselhaus, M. S. Effect of Quantum - well Structures on the Thermoelectric Figure of Merit. Physical Review B, Vol. 47, no. 19 (May 15, 1993), pp. 12 272-12 731. Abram, R. A. and Jaros, M. Band Structure Engineering in Semiconductor Microstructures. Series B: Physics, Vol. 189, N.Y. Plenum Press 1988. pp. 1-6, and 21-31. Ferry et al. Quantum Transport in Ultrasmall Devices. Series B: Physics, Vol. 342, N.Y. Plenum Press 1995. pp. 191-200. Shakorui, A. and Bowers, J. E. Heterostructure Integrated Thermionic Coolers. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 71, no. 9 (Sep. 1, 1997), pp. 1234-1236. [0075] One skilled in the art of applying thin barrier materials recognizes the need for cleanliness and to avoid contamination such as bacteria, foreign particles, dust, etc. It is also important to prepare a smooth surface finish on the substrate on which the barrier is placed. [0076] Dielectrics in the pure form have extremely high barrier properties. For example, a typical forbidden gap for a dielectric is 4-6 eV. It is extremely difficult to thermally excite electrons to this kind of energy, in order to provide a significant current. Impurities and lattice defects within dielectrics provide local conductive bands that give lower barriers. [0077] The behavior of lattice defects and impurities in dielectrics has not been extensively explored, see e.g., Hill, R. M. Single Carrier Transport in Thin Dielectric Films. Amsterdam, Elsevier Publishing Co., 1967. pp. 39-68, the contents of which are specifically incorporated herein. In principle, the barrier height may be controlled by changing the impurity type and concentration. Conduction by multi-step tunneling through defects also provides some conductivity at a low electron energy. [0078] One skilled in the relevant art recognizes there are a variety of deposition techniques that may be employed to form ultra thin dielectric coatings, which include, but are not limited to, CVD (chemical vapor deposition), PVD (physical vapor deposition), in their various forms such as magnetron, electron beam, pulsed laser deposition, or equivalents thereof. These deposition techniques are known for the deposition of 10-500 Å layers of dielectrics, such as Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 . [0079] The electron energy sorting barrier 14 may also utilize semiconductors, rather than dielectrics. Since the metal-semiconductor interface barrier can be selected for a desired barrier height value, a metal-semiconductor potential barrier can be more easily regulated than a metal-dielectric-metal junction. A metal-semiconductor junction exhibits tunneling properties for highly degenerated semiconductors, for example heavily doped semiconductors, which allows for thin potential barriers. [0080] Three types of semiconductor barriers can be used: (1) conductive or doped material 62 /n-type semiconductor 64 /p-type semiconductor 66 /conductive or doped material 68 (see FIG. 10; note also that the n-type and p-type layers may be reversed); (2) conductive or doped material 70 /n-type semiconductor 72 /conductive or doped material 74 (see FIG. 11); and (3) conductive or doped material 76 /p-type semiconductor 78 /conductive or doped material 80 (see FIG. 12). In this embodiment, an electron injected into a p-type region can be accelerated by a local electric field. Examples of semiconductor materials are disclosed in the following references, the contents of which are specifically incorporated herein. See Landolt-Börnstein, Numerical Data and Functional Relationships in Science and Technology, Group III: Crystal and Solid State Physics, (1982) Vols. 17b-17i and (1987) Vol. 22a Semiconductors. Madelung, O. Data in Science and Technology. Semiconductors Other than Group IV Elements and III - V Compounds. N.Y., Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1992. pp. 1-153. Conwell, E. M., Semiconductors I, Bulletin of American Physical Society, Vol. 10, (Jun. 14, 1965), p. 593. Hall R. N. and Racette J. H. Band Structure Parameters Deduced from Tunneling Experiments, Journal of Applied Physics, Supp. to Vol. 32, no. 10 (October 1961), pp. 2078-2081. [0081] With a forbidden gap energy E g , the first barrier will have an exponential factor E g and a second exponential factor of approximately E g /2 (without a Schottky barrier associated with surface defects and crystallography). [0082] Barrier heights for semiconductors are lower than corresponding barriers for dielectrics. The barrier 14 thickness is not as crucial with a semiconductor and the barrier height can be adjusted using a proper semiconductor material. For example, the semiconductor thickness may be in the region of hundreds of angstroms (or thicker) compared to tens of angstroms required for a dielectric. A thicker barrier 14 is much easier to manufacture because it is less susceptible to pin holes, dust and other contaminants. Also, the current exponentially depends on the barrier height. [0083] From Richardson's Equation with a semiconductor having a barrier height φ equal to 150 meV, the current density at room temperature is very high, roughly ≧10 6 A/cm 2 and ˜10 4 A/cm 2 at φ equal to about 300 meV. Semiconductors having a barrier height of less than 0.6 to 0.7 eV may be used in this embodiment, since reasonably high current densities (>1 A/cm 2 ) may be provided. [0084] A resonant tunneling (RT) barrier 81 comprises two or more barriers 82 and 86 with a spacing 84 between barriers 82 and 86 that is sufficient for electrons to form a standing wave (see FIG. 13). Spacing 84 is typically 100 Å or less and requires a precision deposition technique, such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), or equivalents thereof. The physics and technology of RT devices is disclosed in Mizuta, H. and Tanoue, T. The Physics and Applications of Resonant Tunneling Diodes. Cambridge University Press, 1995. pp.1-235, the contents of which are specifically incorporated herein. [0085] The advantage of a resonant tunneling barrier 81 is in its selective electron energy dependent transmission. The example of the transmission probability for a specific GaAs- Al x Ga 1-x As heterostructure is given in FIG. 14. From FIG. 14 it can be seen that there are a few transmission peaks, each one of which is a multiple of the fundamental harmonics. RT fundamental harmonics can be tuned to a first phonon harmonics of an emitter material, such as TiH 2 . Higher harmonics will be automatically matched, thereby providing for electrons to be sorted from the Fermi distribution tail resulting in higher efficiencies. RT leak currents are extremely small compared to other types of barriers. For example, the probability of an electron with 0.1 eV energy to penetrate the RT barrier 81 is much less than for an electron with 0.25 eV energy. This type of sorting efficiency provides for a high converter efficiency. [0086] 3. Collector [0087] The collector 16 material must have the properties set forth below to assure proper operation of the converter. The collector 16 must provide thermal and electrical conductivity. FIG. 15A illustrates a collector 16 having a substrate 88 , which is not electrically conductive, coated with a conductive or doped layer 90 for electrical conductivity. If the collector 16 is used as a substrate for the electron sorting barrier 14 , it must be polished to a surface finish that is superior to the barrier 14 thickness. For example, with a barrier 14 thickness of 150-200 Å, the surface finish must be better than 50 Å over the entire collector 16 . Metals meeting a surface finish requirement of <50 Å are known in the metals optics industry. Such metals include, but are not limited to, Cu, Mo, W, Al, combinations thereof, or equivalents thereof. [0088] An alternative approach is to utilize optically polished dielectric or semiconductor collectors 16 , which have good thermal conductivity and are coated with a conductive or doped material to achieve the requisite electrical conduction. Such materials include, but are not limited to, silicon, gallium arsenide, sapphire, quartz (fused silica), or equivalents thereof. These materials are readily available with a surface finish better than 10 Å. Glass has a low thermal conductivity of 1-2 W/(m·K) and is therefore only practical in low power density converters. Refractory single crystals and diamond can be used for more stringent applications. [0089] For embodiments utilizing a high phonon energy material as the emitter 12 , the collector 16 must not have a high energy component in its phonon spectrum. Moreover, the collector 16 material must have an atomic mass sufficient to have a spectrum cutoff below kT, since the phonon frequency normally decreases with the mass of a metal atom. The list of metals meeting this criteria are set forth in Landolt-Börnstein, Numerical Data and Functional Relationships in Science and Technology, Group III: Crystal and Solid State Physics, (1981) Vol. 13a Metals: Phonons and Electron States. Fermi Surfaces, pp. 7-180, and Khotkevich et al., Atlas of Point contact Spectra of Electron - Phonon Interactions in Metals, (1995), the contents of which are specifically incorporated herein. Examples of such metals include, but are not limited to, Au, Bi, Hf, Pb, Pt, W, Zr, Ta, and Sn. [0090] The thermal expansion coefficient of the collector 16 material preferably should be matched to that of the barrier 14 material to prevent coating peel-off during operation of the converter under thermal cycling. In addition, the collector 16 material must have sufficient mechanical integrity to withstand operation temperatures. [0091] When the materials of the barrier 14 and the collector 16 are not selected so as to prevent the leak back of electrons through the barrier 14 , an electrically conductive, barrier matching material 92 must be disposed between the collector 16 and the barrier 14 (See FIG. 15B). The selection rule for the barrier matching material 92 with an electron work function φ c , an emitter 12 material with an electron work function φ c , and a barrier 14 material with an electron work function φ b , is: φ c >φ b {tilde under (>)}φ e . The actual Δφ depends on the operating temperature and application. [0092] The electron energy in an emitter 12 , barrier 14 , and collector 16 will be positioned according to their electron work function, when measuring the electron energy from the vacuum energy level as a reference point. When the work function of the collector 16 material is too low, the collector 16 functions as an additional barrier for emitted electrons and, therefore, should be avoided. Metals such as Pt or Ir have a very high work function and are preferred. However, they may not be necessary when the emitter material has a low electron work function. [0093] 4. Examples [0094] 4(a). Converter with Dielectric Barrier [0095] A converter was assembled using an emitter comprising tantalum-hydride powder 17 housed in a honeycomb structure 18 (See FIG. 3). The converter was assembled on a rigid microscope frame with a microscopic linear positioning stage providing for a ±0.5 micron spacing regulation. A cartridge heater (Omega, 100W) was fed with a regulated DC power supply, and thermal contact to the tantalum-hydride powder was provided by a polished copper rod. Both the heater and the rod were enclosed in Macor insulation and spring loaded to the microscope stand. A water cooled heat sink made of copper was mounted on a positioning stage with an additional laser mirror mount, which provided for 3D alignment of the contacting planes. Cooling water was supplied from a large tank at room temperature by means of a peristaltic pump at ±0.5° C. stability over a one-hour interval. The temperature of the copper rods was measured with two platinum RTDs connected to a Keithly 2001 multimeter for data acquisition (±0.02° C. accuracy). A stainless steel envelope of each RTD was also used was electric leads to make a connecting circuit between the emitter and collector. The voltage in the external circuit was measured with a Hewlett Packard model HP34420A nanovoltmeter (R n =10 Gigaohm). [0096] A sample I-V curve was measured with a Kepco ABC 25-1DM external power supply and a Keithly 2001 as an ampmeter. A resistor bank (1% accuracy) was connected in parallel with the circuit, allowing up to 0.5 Gohm loads without interfering with the nanovoltmeter. The I-V curve was defined by voltage-load measurements. The emitter powders 17 included either TaH or TiH 2 particles, ball-milled from an initial 10-20 micron size to 0.2-0.3 micron average particle size. The emitter was formed either by tapping the powder 17 into a low thermal conductivity honeycomb structure 18 glued to a copper plate, or by drying a powder suspension in alcohol on the copper plate. The honeycomb structure 18 utilized in this prototype was procured from Goodfellow Corporation, located in Berwyn Pa. The part number of the honeycomb structure is AR312610 having the following specifications: 5 mm thickness, 0.05 mm cell wall, and 3 mm cell size. [0097] A variety of collector substrates were tested, including metallized, optically polished sapphire, optically polished Kovar and molybdenum, and metallized optical glass. A barrier matching material 92 having a thickness of 200-500 Å was deposited on a substrate 90 , for example, Ta for a TaH emitter. Dielectric layers of Al 2 O 3 were deposited by PVD (physical vapor deposition, magnetron sputtering), or CVD (chemical vapor deposition). The impurity, or defect, concentration on the collector samples, deposited by both means, was not meticulously controlled. The minimum barrier thickness achieved, that was not electrically shorted over a 1 cm 2 area, was approximately 250 Å. In some samples the barrier was not shorted at room temperature, but failed at 35-40° C. The highest observed voltage was 0.22V using dielectric barriers at a temperature difference of 35° C. between the emitter and collector. The highest observed current was about 2 μA. Some of the samples had an S-type current-voltage curve, which is typical for tunneling diodes (See FIG. 16). In FIG. 16, the temperature of the emitter was approximately 31.96° C., and the temperature differential between the emitter and the collector was approximately 11.06° C. The S-curve 94 is not smooth, suggesting the existence of a localized conduction band in an amorphous dielectric. Some samples had I-V curves 96 and 98 resembling the initial portion of a tunneling S-curve (See FIG. 17). For I-V curve 96 , the temperature of the emitter was approximately 22.5° C., and the temperature differential between the emitter and the collector was approximately 3.1° C. For I-V curve 98 , the temperature of the emitter was approximately 24.5° C., and the temperature differential between the emitter and the collector was approximately 5.4° C. In FIG. 18, line 100 indicates the voltage dependence on the temperature gradient, which was basically linear for most of the samples. The linear V(T) line 100 indicates a phonon mechanism, which should depend linearly on the heat flow through the sample. The heat flow is a linear function of the temperature difference, while the electron distribution is an exponential function with temperature. [0098] These tests provided an initial proof-of-concept for a converter with a voltage output of up to 10-15 mV/K, which is significantly higher than any known thermoelectric device. The current density for the converter utilizing an Al 2 O 3 barrier was low, which is expected for relatively thick barriers and the absence of conduction band control. However, the conduction band can be engineered. Continuous layers of Al 2 O 3 are taught in the literature, with some as low as 20 Å, and a factor of 10 6 times gain on current can be achieved. [0099] 4(b). Converter with Semiconductor Barrier [0100] A converter was made utilizing PbTe coatings as a semiconductor barrier, deposited by magnetron sputtering. The magnetron sputtering target was 99.99% pure p-type PbTe doped with Al to 0.3-0.5 atomic %. PbTe has a high electron work function (4.8-5.1 eV) that creates challenges in forming a barrier that will prevent a backflow of electrons. Only a limited number of metals have a higher electron work function, such as Pt and Au. A polished glass substrate was coated with 3000 Å layer of Ta for electrical conductivity, with 500 Å of gold barrier matching, and 350 Å of PbTe as a barrier material. The Schottky barrier height in this case was not known. [0101] At PVD temperatures of 100-200° C., PbTe usually forms a crystalline coating. The deposition temperature of the sample in this case was 30-100° C.; therefore, an amorphous coating is not excluded. [0102] Test results are shown below in Table 2, wherein a TaH powder emitter was utilized with a cross-sectional area of 17 mm 2 . The emitter temperature was 26.9° C. and the collector temperature was 22.0° C. TABLE 2 Resistive Load (ohms) Output Voltage (mV) 10 6 5.2 10 4 2.7 10 3 2.4 500 2.3 100 2.2  10 0.020 [0103] The results show that the “over the barrier” current was apparently not achieved, since the voltage spread is too small, e.g., 5.2 mV when compared to an expected range of more than 100 mV. This means that the actual potential barrier in this case was more than, or close to, 1 eV. The conductivity appears to be similar to a phonon-assisted impurity conduction band conductivity in a dielectric. Nevertheless, the recalculated efficiency of this device was 5.7% of an ideal Carnot cycle without accounting for the thermal conductivity of air. The efficiency is 6.6% when taking into account the thermal conductivity of air at temperature of 300K and a temperature differential of 4.9K. The measurement errors were insignificant with 10 −3 % on the voltage side, 1% on the resistance (current) side, and 0.02° C. on the temperature side. The temperature drift during the test was less than 0.2° C. [0104] 4(c). Converter with Semiconductor Barrier [0105] A converter, similar in construction to the converter constructed in Section 4(b) above, was constructed from the same PbTe sputtering target (0.3-0.5 atomic % doping with Al). The main difference between the present converter and that in Section 4(b) was the collector substrate, which was polished to 50 Å RMS surface finish aluminum (15×12×3 mm 3 ). The Al was coated with 3000 Å of Ta and 300 Å of Pt. The PbTe layer on top of the Pt layer was 240 Å. Also, the emitter comprised TiH 2 microspheres. [0106] The test was performed with an emitter temperature of 31±0.5° C., and a temperature difference between the emitter and collector was 7.5±0.5° C. The resulting I-V curve 102 obtained by varying the load resistor is shown in FIG. 19. [0107] The voltage spread was sufficient to resemble over-the-barrier current transport, unlike the I-V curve produced in Section 4(b). Efficiency estimations cannot be made because the Al substrate has a high thermal conductivity. However, the output of the present converter is higher than that produced in Section 4(b). [0108] 5. Refrigeration Embodiments [0109] The main components of a thermionic converter 104 for providing refrigeration (see FIG. 20) are essentially the same as those of a thermionic converter 10 for converting heat to electricity, as set forth above. The essential difference is that carrier transport is assisted by an external electric field, E Ext , and the emitter 12 is connected to a thermal load. The emitter 12 is thermally insulated by means of an insulating material 106 . Rather than a heated emitter 12 , as is the case in the heat to electricity embodiment, a thermal load is cooled by heat flow, Q Load , to the emitter 12 in the thermionic converter 104 illustrated in FIG. 20. The back surface of the collector 16 acts as a heat exchanger, and heat flow Q Exchange dissipates the heat from hot electrons. One skilled in the art of heat exchangers recognizes there are many means for accomplishing heat exchange including, but not limited to, air and liquid cooling, or equivalents thereof. [0110] Barrier configurations that provide for a large thermal separation between the emitter 12 and collector 16 are set forth above. [0111] It is important to note that phonon-assisted electron transport is less important in the refrigeration embodiment than in the heat-to-electricity embodiments, because the refrigeration mode depends primarily on the operating voltage. For example, there cannot be more than a 0.3 eV gain from phonons at significant currents. The operating voltage can be obtained from an external voltage source, E ext . [0112] [0112]FIG. 21 illustrates a thermionic converter 108 for providing refrigeration, which utilizes a barrier 14 in the form of point contacts. The barrier 14 may comprise, for example, spherical semiconductor particles similar to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1. [0113] The barrier 14 illustrated in FIG. 22 comprises particles having a thin semiconductor layer 114 that allows ballistic carrier transport, a conductive or doped layer 112 for electrical conductivity and electron work function matching, and a core material 110 (see FIG. 22). The core material 110 may be a dielectric, conductive or doped material, semiconductor, or plastic, if it is sufficiently hard and has suitable operating temperatures and thermal expansion coefficients. In this embodiment, one side of the particle will function as an emitter and the other side as a collector. It is also important to note that the conductive or doped layer 112 must have an electron work function value between that of the emitter 12 and collector 16 . [0114] 6. Applications [0115] Since energy conversion is the basis of modern civilization, an efficient energy converter has numerous applications, such as existing utility power plants, solar power plants, residential electricity supplies, residential/solar electricity supply, automotive, maritime, solar/maritime, portable electronics, environmental heat pump, refrigeration (cooling, air conditioning, etc.), aerospace, and so forth. [0116] Power plants have a tremendous amount of waste heat with a potential of 300° C. and lower. Converting the waste heat at 20-40% of Carnot efficiency will give an additional 10-20% overall plant efficiency with equivalent savings on fuel. [0117] The proliferation of low-cost converters will lower the capital costs of solar concentrator power plants with a higher efficiency than current steam/electricity cycles. Lower operating temperatures will also lower maintenance costs. [0118] Residential electric supplies based on direct heat to electrical energy conversion is ideal for remote areas, where it is difficult or inconvenient to install power lines. The heat source may either be in the form of fossil fuel or solar concentrators. Solar concentrators can also be in the form of solar heated water pools, utilizing day/night temperature differences. A few hundred cubic meters of water with a hundred square meters of surface and cover could provide the electricity supply for a house in areas with a temperature differential of about 10° C. [0119] A thermionic converter in combination with a conventional engine driving an electric generator and an electric motor would substantially increase mileage. [0120] Direct energy conversion has tremendous application in electric cars. One application involves using thermionic devices with operating temperatures up to about 150 to 200° C. as overall efficiency boosters. Another application is an automobile with an electric drive and a conventional engine coupled with an electric generator having a converter array as an intermediate radiator. [0121] Automotive and propulsion applications are also applicable to maritime applications. In addition, solar concentrators may be used in a sail-type fashion. A combination of light and inexpensive plastic Fresnel lenses with thermionic converters may be incorporated into modern rigid wing-type sails, providing for the use of wind and sun energy to propel a boat with about 100-200 W/m 2 of the sail solar component. [0122] Since the converter can utilize very small temperature gradients in a self-sustaining mode, a temperature gradient between the heat sinks will be created with asymmetric heat exchange on the surface (e.g. one heat sink can be thermally insulated). Also, the system will run until something malfunctions, cooling the environment and producing electricity. [0123] In summary, the method and apparatus disclosed herein is a significant improvement from the present state of the art of thermionic energy conversion. [0124] The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which comes within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

The present invention embodies a solid state thermionic energy converter and is directed to a method and apparatus for conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy, and electrical energy to refrigeration. The present invention maintains a thermal separation between an emitter and a collector through a fractional surface contact of decreasing cross-sectional area towards the point of contact. The fractional surface contacts may be associated with the emitter, a barrier, or the collector. Maintaining a thermal separation between the emitter and the collector provides for ballistic electron transport through the barrier and reduces the transport of electrons through thermal conductivity. Hence, the efficiency is increased through the collection of ballistic electrons and the reduction of thermal conductivity electrons which cannot be collected. The inventive principle works for hole conductivity, as well as for electrons. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus and a method for reproducing information by using a multibeam spot. 2. Related Background Art In recent years, it has been advertised that the present day is a multimedia era, in which there are many requests for a variety of information, high density of information, high speed transmission of information, and the like, and various information media and information recording and reproducing apparatuses have been developed every year. Particularly, in the case of an optical disk recording medium in which a random access can be performed, since recording density can be raised, many expectations are achieved. Among those optical disks, attention is paid to a magneto-optical recording disk, a phase change recording disk, or the like in which color still images, motion images, and the like can be stored and which can also treat data of a personal computer as a recording and reproducing medium of a large capacity. As a modulation system of the magneto-optical recording disk, there are a light modulation system and a magnetic field modulation system. According to the light modulation system, information is recorded by a light intensity modulation. According to the light modulation system, information can be recorded to a front side and a back side of a both-side medium. Information also can be overwritten if an exclusive-use disk having recording films of layers of a number larger than that of the ordinary disk is used. According to the magnetic field modulation system, on the other hand, a laser beam is continuously irradiated and a magnetic field of a magnetic head is inverted in a form near a rectangular wave during the irradiation. According to such a system, since it is necessary to raise a recording frequency in a state in which a current that is supplied to a coil for applying a magnetic field is set to a form near a rectangular wave, it is difficult to record data at a high speed. Although electric power consumption is large, such a system is generally called a simple magnetic field modulation system and is used in what is called a mini disc player. According to a laser pulse magnetic field modulation system as an improved system of such a modulation system, information is recorded by a magnetic field direction when a region heated by irradiating a pulse-shaped laser beam at regular intervals is cooled. According to the laser pulse magnetic field modulation system, when recording, the laser beam is irradiated in a pulse shape at regular intervals and the direction of the magnetization of only a spot to which the laser beam has been irradiated is reversed as a recording mark. Therefore, as compared with the general magnetic field modulation system in which a shape of a recording mark is determined by a waveform of a current which inverts the magnetic field, an edge of the recording mark is sharp. Such a laser pulse magnetic field modulation system is suitable for mark edge recording such that information is recorded at an edge position of the recording mark and is also expected as an application to a digital video disc (DVD). As one kind of such a magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus, there is an apparatus with a construction as shown in FIG. 1. In the diagram, a laser beam emitted from a semiconductor laser 101 is converted into a parallel light beam by a collimator lens 102 and is focused onto a recording medium 105 through a beam splitter 103 and an objective lens 104, thereby forming a beam spot. FIG. 2 shows a state near the beam spot on the recording medium 105. An information domain 122 is detected by a beam spot 121, thereby reproducing information. The information domain 122 shown in the diagram shows an example of the mark edge recording in which recording signals are made to correspond to both edges of the information domain 122. It is known that a recording density can be raised about 1.5 times as compared with that of a mark position recording, which will be explained hereinafter. A reproducing process will be explained later. By a servo control apparatus, the beam spot 121 is positioned onto a land 123 between grooves formed on the recording medium by a focusing servo and a tracking servo. Returning to FIG. 1, the construction of FIG. 1 will now be explained. When information is recorded, an output light amount of the semiconductor laser 101 is increased, a temperature of a portion on the recording medium 105 to which the laser spot is positioned is locally elevated, and a recording magnetic field is applied by a bias magnet 106, thereby forming the information domain 122 and recording the information. In this instance, while a magnetic field is applied to the bias magnet 106, an output light amount of the laser is set to low and high levels by, for example, binary information "0" and "1" and the laser spot is supplied. When a temperature of a laser spot point to which the laser beam was irradiated rises to a temperature near the Curie point, the magnetization is inverted. When erasing, the direction of the bias magnetic field applied by the bias magnet 106 is reversed, the laser beam is continuously irradiated, and the magnetizing direction is aligned to a predetermined direction. In this case, there is an example such that the disk is rotated twice for one writing operation to write information after the information which had previously been written was erased. There is also an example of an overwrite such that both of the erasure and the writing operations are simultaneously finished by one rotation. When information is reproduced, the output light amount of the semiconductor laser 101 is set to be small, thereby preventing that the temperature of the portion on the recording medium 105 to which the laser spot is located is largely raised. On the recording medium 105, a reflected light whose plane of polarization has been rotated in accordance with the recording information by a Kerr effect again reaches the beam splitter 103 through the objective lens. The reflected light is separated from incident light and a part of the light beam is guided to a servo sensor 108 through the collimator lens 102 by a beam splitter 107. An output of the servo sensor 108 is inputted to a servo control circuit 109. In accordance with an output of the servo control circuit 109, a focusing servo control, a tracking servo control, a tilt servo control, and the like are executed, so that the beam spot is positioned to the desired land 123 on the recording medium. After the plane of polarization was rotated by a λ/2 plate 110, the remaining light beam is separated into two light beams by a beam splitter 111 and is received by RF sensors 112 and 113. Current outputs of the RF sensors 112 and 113 are converted into voltages by preamplifiers 114 and 115. A difference between the voltages is obtained by a differential amplifier 116. An output of the differential amplifier 116 will be called a "magneto-optical signal" hereinafter. The magneto-optical signal obtained is inputted to data reproducing means 117 and recorded data is detected. The outputs from the preamplifiers 114 and 115 are inputted to an adding amplifier 118 and are added, thereby detecting a signal due to a change in reflected light amount. Such a signal is called a "sum signal" hereinafter and is used in, for example, a control of a tracking servo control system. FIG. 3 shows a construction of the data reproducing means 117. The differential magneto-optical signal is inputted to a waveform equalizing circuit 131 and a waveform in shaped. A resultant output is shown in FIG. 5(a). This output signal is supplied to a binarizing circuit 132 and is compared with a predetermined slice level, thereby binarizing and obtaining a waveform as shown in FIG. 5(b). Such a binary signal is supplied to a PLL circuit 133, thereby obtaining a clock as shown in FIG. 5(c). The clock is supplied to a data separator 134. By detecting data by a sampling clock, reproduction data shown in FIG. 5(g) is derived. FIG. 4 shows a construction of the PLL circuit 133 in this instance. A deviation between the phases of the output signal from the binarizing circuit 132 shown in FIG. 5(b) and the clock shown in FIG. 5(c) is detected by a phase difference detection circuit 135, thereby obtaining, for example, a phase delay pulse signal shown in FIG. 5(d) and a phase advance pulse signal shown in FIG. 5(e). Those pulse signals are supplied to a low-pass filter 136, thereby obtaining a voltage value corresponding to a deviation of the phase shown in FIG. 5(f). This voltage signal is supplied to a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) 137 and an oscillating frequency is controlled, thereby obtaining a sync clock synchronized with the output signal from the binarizing circuit 132. In this example, a (1, 7) RLL (Run Length Limited) code is used as a recording code of the recording modulation system. There are a minimum inversion time (d) and a maximum inversion time (k) as elements to decide a performance of the recording code. In this construction, when using an optical system in which a laser wavelength is set to 780 nm and a numerical aperture NA of an objective lens is set to 0.55, a shortest mark length can be set to about 0.80 μm. In this case, a recording density of 0.60 μm/bit can be accomplished. In this instance, now assuming that a linear velocity of the disk is set to 15.0 m/sec, a transfer rate of 3.13 bytes/sec can be obtained. In the case of the example shown here, as a pit recording method, a mark edge system of a PWM modulation and demodulation system in which a width of the pulse of the output signal of the binarizing circuit changes is used. In such a case, an edge of the pulse of the magneto-optical signal, namely, an edge of the information domain is used as an information mark. Subsequently, a construction of a pit position (or called a "mark position") recording system is utilized in which the recording signal is made to correspond to the center of the recorded information domain. Since a difference with the foregoing example relates to only data reproducing means, a construction after the data reproducing means will be described. FIG. 6 shows a construction of the data reproducing means. The magneto-optical signal is inputted to a waveform equalizing circuit 141, thereby shaping a waveform. A resultant output is shown in FIG. 8(a). This output signal is supplied to a binarizing circuit 142 and is binarized by detecting a position of an information domain, thereby obtaining a waveform as shown in FIG. 8(b). This signal is inputted to a PLL circuit 143, thereby obtaining a clock as shown in FIG. 8(c). The clock is supplied to a data separator 144. By detecting the data by the clock, reproduction data shown in FIG. 8(g) is derived. FIG. 7 shows a construction of the PLL circuit in this instance. A deviation between the phases of the output signal from the binarizing circuit shown in FIG. 8(b) and the clock shown in FIG. 8(c) is detected by a phase difference detection circuit 145, thereby obtaining a phase delay pulse signal shown in FIG. 8(d) and a phase advance pulse signal shown in FIG. 8(e). Those pulse signals are inputted to a low pass filter 146 and a voltage value corresponding to a deviation of the phase shown in FIG. 8(f) is obtained. Such a voltage signal is supplied to a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) 147 and an oscillating frequency is controlled, thereby obtaining a sync clock of FIG. 8(c). In the above construction, when using an optical system in which a laser wavelength is set to 780 nm and a numerical aperture NA of an objective lens is set to 0.55, a shortest mark length can be set to about 0.67 μm. In this case, a recording density of 1.00 μm/bit can be accomplished. In this instance, now assuming that a linear velocity of the disk is set to 15.0 m/sec, a transfer rate of 1.88 bytes/sec can be obtained. The reproduction data detecting means of a self clock system such that a sync clock is extracted from the reproduction signal from the binarizing circuit has been mentioned above. A method of extracting the sync clock signal from a mark which has previously been recorded on a recording medium is also considered as a detecting method of the sync clock signal. A construction of such an extracting method will now be described hereinafter. The whole apparatus has a construction similar to that shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram on the recording medium surface. In the diagram, portions similar to those in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals and their descriptions are omitted. A tracking servo and the extraction of a sync clock are executed by a reproduction signal from a mark 155 which has previously been recorded on the recording medium surface. In this instance, generally, a mark accompanied with a fluctuation of a reflectance due to a recess, projection or the like on the recording medium surface is generally used as a mark which has previously been recorded. Therefore, a sum signal which is derived from an output of the adding amplifier 118 shown in FIG. 1 is used as a reproduction signal. FIG. 10 shows a construction of the data reproducing means. The magneto-optical signal is inputted to a waveform equalizing circuit 111, thereby shaping a waveform. A resultant output is shown in FIG. 11(a). This output signal is supplied to a binarizing circuit 152 and is compared with a predetermined slice level, thereby binarizing and obtaining a waveform as shown in FIG. 11(b). Such a binary signal is supplied to a data separator 154 and a clock signal synchronized with the sum signal is formed from the signal by a PLL circuit 153. Data is detected by the extracted sync clock shown in FIG. 11(c), thereby obtaining reproduction data shown in FIG. 11(d). In the construction, when using an optical system in which a laser wavelength is set to 780 nm and a numerical aperture NA of an objective lens is set to 0.55, a shortest mark length can be set to about 0.44 μm. In this case, if a 4/11 code (one byte is converted into 11 channel bits and recording pits are formed at a total of four positions of two odd number designated positions and two even number designated positions) is used as a code, a recording density of 0.60 μm/bit can be accomplished. In this instance, now assuming that a linear velocity of the disk is set to 15.0 m/sec, a transfer rate of 3.13 bytes/sec can be obtained. Hitherto, the magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus records and reproduces information by the mark edge system or mark position system as described above or by the mark construction shown in the example using the read only PLL circuit. Generally, when the size of an information domain which is recorded on the magneto-optical recording medium is made small, a quality of an amplitude, a phase, or the like of a reproduction data signal deteriorates and an error rate upon reproducing information increases. Therefore, a size of an information domain which can be recorded is preliminarily determined in dependence on the magneto-optical recording medium. Although the transfer rate of the information depends on a rotational speed and a moving speed of the recording medium for the position of a beam spot, such a transfer rate cannot be set to a large value because of a limitation from a position control of the beam spot or the like. In the conventional apparatus, the minimum value and the maximum value of intervals between two continuous information marks which are detected from the beam spot are specified, thereby deciding the improvement of the recording density and the easiness of the extraction of the sync clock. Particularly, with regard to the minimum value of the intervals of the information marks, the recording density is determined by how many periods of the sync clocks are allocated to such an interval. That is, the recording density is determined by to which extent the interval of the information marks can be decreased. Therefore, since the size of an information domain cannot be reduced to a certain size in the foregoing conventional apparatus, namely, since the interval of the information marks cannot be reduced, there is a problem such that it is difficult to raise the recording density and transfer rate of information. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is made in consideration of the above problems and it is an object to provide an information reproducing apparatus for simultaneously reproducing information recorded on a recording medium through a plurality of information channels, wherein the apparatus includes means for generating a reproduction signal on the basis of a signal detected from one of the information channels and a signal detected from another information channel. Further, the above object is accomplished by the above apparatus in which the generating means comprises: a light source, a photodetective sensor, a waveform equalizing circuit, and a binarizing circuit which are provided in correspondence to the information channels; and a data separator for generating reproduction data on the basis of each output of the binarizing circuit and a clock signal. Further, the above object is accomplished by the above apparatus, in which an interval between the information mark detected from, one of the information channels and the information mark detected subsequently from another information channel is set to a value which is equal to or larger than a predetermined value and is equal to or less than a predetermined value. Further, the above object is accomplished by an information reproducing method of simultaneously reproducing information recorded on a recording medium through a plurality of information channels, wherein the method includes a step of generating a reproduction signal on the basis of a signal detected from one of the information channels and a signal detected from another information channel. The "information channel" denotes, for example, an information track, and the wording "is equal to or larger than a predetermined value" and "is equal to or less than a predetermined value" correspond to the minimum inversion time (d) and the maximum inversion time (k) of the recording code, respectively. For example, in the invention, in the mark edge recording system, when information is recorded by using the (1, 7) RLL code as a recording code (it is now assumed that the shortest mark length is set to about 0.8 μm), the above-mentioned wording "is equal to or larger than a predetermined value" is set to "is equal to or larger than 0.4 μm" and the wording "is equal to or less than a predetermined value" is set to "is equal to or less than 1.6 μm". In the mark position recording system, when information is recorded by using the (1, 7) RLL code as a recording code (it is now assumed that a shortest mark length is set to about 0.67 μm), the above-mentioned wording "is equal to or larger than a predetermined value" is set to "is equal to or less than 2.68 μm". In the sampling servo recording system, when information is recorded by using the 4/11 code as a recording code, the above-mentioned wording "is equal to or larger than a predetermined value" is set to "is equal to or larger than 0.44 μm" and the wording "is equal to or less than a predetermined value" is set to "is equal to or less than 2.64 μm". The details will now be described in embodiments hereinafter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a recording medium surface using a conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus; FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of reproducing means of the conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of PLL means of the conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus; FIGS. 5(a) through 5(g) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the reproducing means of a conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus; FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of reproducing means of a conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus according to a pit position recording; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the PLL means of the conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus according to the pit position recording; FIGS. 8(a) through 8(g) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the reproducing means of the conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus according to the pit position recording; FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram on a recording medium surface using a conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus of a sampling servo system; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of reproducing means of the conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus of the sampling servo system; FIGS. 11(a) through 11(d) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the reproducing means of the conventional magneto-optical reproducing apparatus of the sampling servo system; FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus embodying the present invention; FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram on a recording medium surface of a magneto-optical reproducing apparatus embodying the invention; FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of reproducing means of the magneto-optical reproducing apparatus embodying the invention; FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of PLL means of the magneto-optical reproducing apparatus embodying the invention; FIGS. 16(a) through 16(i) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the reproducing means of the magneto-optical reproducing apparatus embodying the invention; FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of reproducing means of a magneto-optical reproducing apparatus according to pit position recording embodying the invention; FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of the PLL means of the magneto-optical reproducing apparatus according to the pit position recording embodying the invention; FIGS. 19(a) through 19(i) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the reproducing means of the magneto-optical reproducing apparatus according to the pit position recording embodying the invention; FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram on a recording medium surface using a magneto-optical reproducing apparatus of a sampling servo system embodying the invention; FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of reproducing means of the magneto-optical reproducing apparatus of the sampling servo system embodying the invention; FIGS. 22(a) through 22(f) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the reproducing means of the magneto-optical reproducing apparatus of the sampling servo system embodying the invention; FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram of recording means of the magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus embodying the invention; FIGS. 24(a) through 24(f) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the recording means shown in FIG. 23; FIG. 25 is a diagram showing a construction of data recording means; and FIGS. 26(a) through 26(d) are diagrams showing flows of signals in the data recording means in FIG. 25. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail hereinafter. Embodiment 1! An embodiment of the invention will now be described hereinafter with reference to the drawings. FIG. 12 shows a construction of a magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus embodying the invention. Two laser beams emitted from a semiconductor laser array 1 are respectively converted into parallel light beams by a collimator lens 2 and are focused onto a recording medium 5 through a beam splitter 3 and an objective lens 4, thereby forming two beam spots. FIG. 13 shows a portion of the recording medium near the beam spots. An information domain 33 is detected by two beam spots 31 and 32, thereby reproducing information. A process in this case will be explained hereinafter. The beam spots are positioned onto a land 34 between grooves formed previously on the recording medium by a focusing servo and a tracking servo by a servo control apparatus. The information domain 33 shown in the diagram shows an example of a mark edge recording in which recording signals are made to correspond to both ends of the information domain 33. It is well known that a recording density can be raised to a value that is about 1.5 times as high as a recording density by the mark position recording, which will be explained hereinafter. In each track in the diagram, the information domains 33 show three or more kinds of shapes and have multivalue information by differences among the lengths of the information domains 33 on each track. As a method of forming the two beam spots 31 and 32, for example, two semiconductor lasers in the semiconductor laser array 1 can be formed on the semiconductor chip or two semiconductor lasers also can be used. According to the invention, it is preferable that characteristics such as a laser wavelength and the like are matched. Each of information domains 35 and 36 indicates the shortest mark length and can be used as an information domain or a domain for synchronization. In the case of recording desired information, when the information is divided into two beam spots to be recorded, it is sufficient to record the information in consideration that the two beam spots are synthesized and reproduced. It is also sufficient to modulate a recording power of each semiconductor laser 1 under conditions such that information is reproduced using two tracks and that the track scanning operation is executed for every track. A recording method of the invention will be further specifically explained. FIG. 23 shows a construction of data recording means. Recording data is first inputted to an encoding circuit 301 and is subjected to a predetermined encoding process. An output of the encoding circuit 301 is shown in FIG. 24(a). An output signal of the encoding circuit 301 is supplied to a leading edge detection circuit 302 and a trailing edge detection circuit 303, thereby obtaining a leading edge signal shown in FIG. 24(b) and a trailing edge signal shown in FIG. 24(c). Further, those signals are inputted to NRZI converting circuits 304 and 305 and are NRZI converted, thereby forming recording signals shown in FIGS. 24(e) and 24(f). The recording signals are supplied to semiconductor laser drive circuits 306 and 307. By independently modulating the two beam spots on the basis of the recording signals, the recording is performed. Waveforms of reproduction signals are shown in FIGS. 24(d) and 24(g). Although the above construction has been shown and described with respect to an example in which the recording is executed by using two beam spots, by providing the leading edge detection circuit, trailing edge detection circuit, and NRZI converting circuit at the post stage of each of the NRZI converting circuits 304 and 305, the recording using four beam spots also can be performed. In this case, however, the reproduction is also executed by using four beam spots. Returning to FIG. 12, the construction will now be described. When recording information by the magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus, an output light amount of the laser is increased and a temperature of a portion on the recording medium where the laser spot is positioned is locally raised. By applying a recording magnetic field by a bias magnet 6, an information domain is formed, thereby recording information. When information is reproduced, an output light amount of the laser beam emitted from the semiconductor laser array 1 of two beams is reduced, thereby preventing that a temperature of the portion on the recording medium 5 where the laser spot is positioned is largely raised. On the recording medium, the reflected light whose plane of polarization has been rotated by a Kerr effect in accordance with the recording information again reaches the beam splitter 3 through the objective lens 4. The reflected light is separated from the incident light by the beam splitter 3. A part of the light beam is guided toward a servo sensor 8 by a beam splitter 7. An output of the servo sensor 8 is inputted to a servo control circuit 9, so that the beam spot is positioned at a land on the recording medium 5. After the plane of polarization was rotated by a λ/2 half wave plate 10, the remaining light beam is separated by a beam splitter 11 and is received by RF sensors 12 and 13. Each of the RF sensors 12 and 13 is divided into a plurality of photosensitive portions. The reflected lights corresponding to the two beam spots enter the exclusive-use photosensitive portions, respectively. Current outputs of the RF sensors 12 and 13 are converted into voltages by preamplifiers 14, 15, 16, and 17, respectively. Differences between outputs of the preamplifiers 14 and 15 and outputs of the preamplifiers 16 and 17 are obtained by differential amplifiers 18 and 19, respectively, thereby obtaining magneto-optical signals from the two beams. The magneto-optical signals obtained are inputted to data reproducing means 20 and data is detected. The outputs of the preamplifiers 14 and 15 are inputted to adding amplifiers 21 and 22 and are added to the outputs from the preamplifiers 16 and 17, respectively, thereby obtaining sum signals of the two beams. The sum signals are used, for example, to form a sync signal. FIG. 14 shows a construction of the data reproducing means 20. The two magneto-optical signals of the outputs of the differential amplifiers 18 and 19 are inputted to waveform equalizing circuits 41 and 42 and waveforms are shaped. Resultant outputs of the waveform equalizing circuits 41 and 42 are shown in FIGS. 16(a) and 16(c). By inputting those signals to binarizing circuits 43 and 44 and comparing those signals with predetermined slice levels, they are binarized and waveforms as shown in FIGS. 16(b) and 16(d) are derived. Those signals are supplied to a PLL circuit 45, thereby obtaining a clock as shown in FIG. 16(e). The clock signal is supplied to a data separator 46 as a logic circuit. By detecting data by the clock, reproduction data shown in FIG. 16(d) is derived. FIG. 15 shows a construction of the PLL circuit 45 in this instance. Deviations between phases of the output signals from the binarizing circuits 43 and 44 shown in FIGS. 16(b) and 16(d) and the clock shown in FIG. 16(e) are detected by a phase difference detection circuit 51, thereby obtaining a phase delay pulse signal shown in FIG. 16(f) and a phase advance pulse signal shown in FIG. 16(g). Those pulse signals are inputted to a low pass filter 52, thereby obtaining a voltage value corresponding to a deviation of the phase shown in FIG. 16(h). Such a voltage signal is inputted to a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) 53 and an oscillating frequency of a built-in voltage controlled oscillator is controlled, thereby obtaining a sync clock in FIG. 16(e). On the other hand, the sync clock shown in FIG. 16(e) is supplied to the data separator 46. For example, by getting the NAND of the two binary data while sampling each binary data, reproduction data recorded on the magneto-optical disk and shown in FIG. 16(i) is obtained. In the example, the (1, 7) RLL (Run Length Limited) code is used as a recording code of the recording modulation system. There are the minimum inversion time (d) and the maximum inversion time (k) as parameters to decide the performance of the recording code. In the construction, when using an optical system such that a laser wavelength is set to 780 nm and a numerical aperture NA of the objective lens is set to 0.55, a shortest mark length can be set to about 0.80 μm. In this case, a recording density of 0.30 μm/bit can be accomplished in the linear recording density direction. Now, assuming that a linear velocity of the disk is set to 15.0 m/sec in this instance, a transfer rate of 6.25 bytes/sec can be obtained. As compared with the mark edge recording system shown first as a conventional apparatus, it will be understood that even if the linear velocity of the recording medium is constant, a double transfer rate can be obtained. In this case, however, although the linear recording density is two times as high as the conventional one, since two tracks are used, the area recording density is constant and the recording capacity doesn't increase. However, when the transfer rate is set to the same value of 3.13 bytes/sec as the conventional one, the linear velocity of the disk can be reduced to about 7.5 m/sec. In this instance, a frequency distribution of the reproduction signal is about half that shown in the conventional apparatus. Thus, the S/N ratio is improved, so that the recording density can be improved by raising the recording frequency, further reducing the number of revolutions of the disk, or the like. From the above description, according to the invention, the transfer rate and the recording density can be improved. In the embodiment, although the construction of the magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus has been described, it will be understood that similar effects are derived with regard to an optical reproducing apparatus such as a CD-ROM or the like, an optical disk recording and reproducing apparatus, or the like with a construction similar to the above construction. As a recording method of the optical disk, there are two kinds of methods of the light modulation type and the magnetic modulation type as a magneto-optical disk. Reproducing methods of data in those types are common. There is also a phase change optical disk type for recording by changing a phase of a recording film by applying heat to the recording film. According to such a type, information is reproduced by detecting a difference between reflectances of the information domains. However, in any one of those types, by using two beam spots by two semiconductor lasers according to the invention, the transfer rate and the recording density can be improved. Embodiment 2! An example in the case of embodying the invention by an apparatus for performing a pit position (mark position) recording will now be described. Since a construction other than data recording means and data reproducing means is almost similar to that mentioned above, only the data recording means and data reproducing means will be explained here. FIG. 25 shows a construction of the data recording means. Recording data is first inputted to an encoding circuit 311 and is subjected to a predetermined encoding process. An output of the encoding circuit 311 is shown in FIG. 26(a). The processed signal of the encoding circuit is supplied to an NRZI converting circuit 312 and is NRZI converted, thereby forming a signal shown in FIG. 26(b). Further, this signal is inputted to a leading edge detection circuit 313 and a trailing edge detection circuit 314, thereby obtaining a leading edge signal shown in FIG. 26(c) and a trailing edge signal shown in FIG. 26(d). Those signals are inputted as recording signals to semiconductor laser drive circuits 315 and 316 and two beam spots are independently modulated, thereby recording. Although the above construction relates to the example using two beam spots, by providing the NRZI converting circuit, leading edge detection circuit, and trailing edge detection circuit at the post stage of each of the leading edge detection circuit 313 and trailing edge detection circuit 314, respectively, the recording using four beam spots also can be performed. FIG. 17 shows a construction of the data reproducing means. Two magneto-optical signals of the outputs of the differential amplifiers 18 and 19 are inputted to waveform equalizing circuits 61 and 62, thereby shaping waveforms. Resultant outputs are shown in FIGS. 19(a) and 19(c). Those output signals are inputted to binarizing circuits 63 and 64 and are compared with predetermined slice levels, thereby binarizing and obtaining waveforms as shown in FIGS. 19(b) and 19(d). The binary signals are inputted to a PLL circuit 65, thereby obtaining a clock as shown in FIG. 19(e). The clock is inputted to a data separator 66 and data is detected by the clock, thereby obtaining reproduction data shown in FIG. 19(i). Consequently, it will be understood that information domains of each track on the optical disk exist at points corresponding to the high level shown in FIGS. 19(b) and 19(d) and have been recorded. FIG. 18 shows a construction of the PLL circuit in this instance. Deviations between the phases of the output signals from the binarizing circuit shown in FIGS. 19(b) and 19(d) and the clock shown in FIG. 19(e) are detected by a phase difference detection circuit 71, thereby obtaining a phase delay pulse signal shown in FIG. 19(f) and a phase advance pulse signal shown in FIG. 19(g). Those pulse signals are inputted to a low-pass filter 72, thereby obtaining a voltage value corresponding to a deviation of the phase shown in FIG. 19(h). Such a voltage signal is inputted to a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) 73 and an oscillating frequency is controlled, thereby obtaining a sync clock. In the example, the (1, 7) RLL (Run Length Limited) code is used as a recording code of the recording modulation system. There are the minimum inversion time (d) and the maximum inversion time (k) as parameters to decide the performance of the recording code. Generally, those times d and k are changed and are decided so as to be adapted to the optical disk. In the construction, when using an optical system in which the laser wavelength is set to 780 nm and the NA of the objective lens is set to 0.55, a shortest mark length can be set to about 0.67 μm. In this case, a recording density of 0.50 μm/bit can be accomplished. In this instance, now assuming that a disk linear velocity is set to 15.0 m/sec, a transfer rate of 3.75 bytes/sec can be obtained. As compared with the conventional example shown first, it will be understood that even if the linear velocity is constant, a double transfer rate can be obtained. In this case, although the linear recording density is two times as high as the conventional one, since two tracks are used, an area recording density is constant and the capacity doesn't increase. However, when the transfer rate is set to the same value of 1.88 bytes/sec as the conventional one, the disk linear velocity can be reduced to about 7.5 m/sec. In this instance, a frequency distribution of the reproduction signal is reduced to about half that shown in the conventional apparatus, so that the S/N ratio is improved. The recording density, consequently, can be improved. With the above construction, even for an apparatus for performing the pit position recording, the transfer rate and recording density can be improved according to the invention. Although the construction about the magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus has been shown and described in the embodiment, it will be understood that a similar effect is obtained with respect to an optical reproducing apparatus such as a CD-ROM or the like, an optical disk recording and reproducing apparatus, or the like with a construction similar to the above construction. Embodiment 3! An example in which the invention is embodied to an apparatus in which a self clocking is not taken is now shown. An example in which the invention is embodied to a magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus of a sampling servo system will now be described. The whole apparatus has a construction similar to that shown in FIG. 12. FIG. 20 shows a schematic diagram on the recording medium surface. In the diagram, portions similar to those in FIG. 13 are designated by the same reference numerals and their descriptions are omitted here. The information domain 33 is shown as an example of the mark edge recording system. A tracking servo and an extraction of a sync clock are executed by a reproduction signal from a mark 81 which has previously been recorded on the recording medium surface. In this instance, generally, a mark accompanied with a fluctuation of reflectance due to a recess, projection or the like on the recording medium surface is used as a mark which has previously been recorded. As such a reproduction signal, therefore, a sum signal which is obtained from the outputs of the adding amplifiers shown in FIG. 12 is used. FIG. 21 shows a construction of data reproducing means. A magneto-optical signal is inputted to waveform equalizing circuits 91 and 92, thereby shaping waveforms. Resultant outputs are shown in FIGS. 22(a) and 22(c). Those output signals are supplied to binarizing circuits 93 and 94 and compared with predetermined slice levels, thereby binarizing and obtaining waveforms as shown in FIGS. 22(b) and 22(d). Those waveform signals are inputted to a data separator 95 and data is detected by a sync clock extracted from a sum signal by a PLL circuit 96 and shown in FIG. 22(e), thereby obtaining reproduction data shown in FIG. 22(f). In the above construction, when using an optical system in which a laser wavelength is equal to 780 nm and the NA of the objective lens is set to 0.55, a shortest mark length can be set to about 0.44 μm. In this case, when a 4/11 code (one byte is converted into 11 channel bits and recording pits are formed at a total of four positions of two odd number designated positions and two even number designated positions) is used as a code, a recording density of 0.30 μm/bit can be accomplished. In this instance, now assuming that a disk linear velocity is set to 15.0 m/sec, a transfer rate of 6.25 bytes/sec can be obtained. In this case, however, although a linear recording density is two times as high as a conventional one, since two tracks are used, an area recording density is constant and a recording capacity doesn't increase. Now, assuming that the transfer rate is set to the same value of 3.13 bytes/sec as a conventional one, the disk linear velocity can be reduced to about 7.5 m/sec. In this instance, a frequency distribution of the reproduction signal is reduced to about half that shown in the conventional apparatus, so that the S/N ratio is improved. The recording density, therefore, can be improved. With such a construction, even in the information recording and reproducing apparatus in which the clock is not extracted by the self clocking system, the transfer rate can be improved and the recording density can be improved by the invention. In the embodiment, although the construction of the magneto-optical recording and reproducing apparatus has been described, it will be understood that a similar effect is obtained with regard to an optical reproducing apparatus such as a CD-ROM or the like, an optical disk recording and reproducing apparatus, or the like with a construction similar to that mentioned above. In the above embodiment, although the example using two beam spots has been shown, the number of laser spots is not limited to two, but the recording and reproduction can be executed by irradiating two or more beam spots. With this method, by simultaneously reproducing the data of two or more tracks, the shortest mark length can be further reduced and the transfer rate can be improved. On the contrary, by reducing the disk linear velocity, the recording density also can be improved. Although the above embodiment has been shown and mainly described with respect to the example having the waveform equalizing circuits, binarizing circuits, data separator, and PLL circuit as a reproducing method, the invention is not limited to such an example but many various modifications are possible. Even when information is recorded, so long as an information domain of the shortest mark length or longer can be individually formed, one time-sequential information can be detected by two or more beam spots, and the transfer rate and the high recording density can be improved.

An information reproducing apparatus for simultaneously reproducing information recorded on a recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk through a plurality of information channels by using a multibeam spot of a laser beam includes a circuit for generating a reproduction signal on the basis of a signal detected from one of the information channels and a signal detected from another information channel. The generating circuit includes a light source, a photodetective sensor, a waveform equalizing circuit, and a binarizing circuit provided in correspondence to each information channel and a data separator for generating reproduction data on the basis of an output of each binarizing circuit and a clock signal.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] Present invention discloses biocompatible metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) of formula I that combine a metal and a derivative of an amino acid. Particularly, the invention discloses MOFs of a metal and a derivative of an amino acid which are water soluble. BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART OF THE INVENTION [0002] Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of new materials well known for their high surface area and pore size. They can be tuned by dictating the various derivatives of amino acids. Most of the reported MOFs in the literature, numbering nearly 25000 till date, are insoluble in water. The brittle nature of these crystalline materials put many challenges for their industrial processing. Further, it is also a challenge to synthesize them in combination with other functional materials without pore blocking and/or decrease of the inner surface area. [0003] Research on Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) has picked up researchers attention because of their diverse topological architectures and applications like gas sorption, catalysis, magnetism and electrical conductivity. Proton (ion) conductivity in solid-state materials are important due to their application in transport dynamics; electrochemical devices, fuel cells and most importantly to understand the complex biological ion channels. For such diverse applications there is a need for the MOFs to have adequate stability in environments that vary in temperature, pressure, water content and such like. A very limited attempt on the proton conductivity on MOFs has been reported where either lattice backbone, added guest molecules like imidazole and 1,2,4-triazole in an anhydrous medium, or water chains and clusters already present inside the framework facilitate proton conduction. [0004] References may be made to Journal J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 13516 by Kitagawa et al. have extensively studied proton conductivity in various MOFs where coordinated water or guest molecules play a vital role in proton conduction. However, the role of halogens (especially halogens coordinated to metals) in controlling proton conduction in MOFs has not been explored at all. Moreover, most of the MOFs, due to their insoluble nature in water can't be fabricated easily as a thin film and usable for proton conduction and various separation applications. [0005] References may be made to Journal entitled “Helical Water Chain Mediated Proton Conductivity in Homochiral Metal_Organic Frameworks with Unprecedented Zeolitic unh-Topology” (JACS) by Sahoo et al which discloses Four new homochiral metal_organic framework (MOF) isomers, [Zn(l-LCl)/(Cl)](H2O)2 (1), [Zn(l-LBr)(Br)]—(H2O)2 (2), [Zn(d-LCl)(Cl)](H2O)2 (3), and [Zn(d-LBr)—(Br)](H2O)2 (4) [L=3-methyl-2-(pyridin-4-ylmethylamino)-butanoic acid], have been synthesized by using a derivative of LID-valine and Zn(CH3COO)2 3 2H2O. A three-periodic lattice with a parallel 1D helical channel was formed along the crystallographic c-axis. [0006] Present invention disclose amino acid based MOFs as a water soluble MOF for industrial application like thin film fabrication etc. which are non-obvious from the point of view that although more than 25000 MOFs have been reported in the literature in the last decade, still most of them are water unstable and thus inappropriate for application in day to day purpose, which narrow down the picture many fold to a few class of MOFs which are water stable. Furthermore, the MOF backbone disintegrates as ligand and corresponding metal oxide/hydroxide by means of which the process become irreversible to reconstruct the MOF. Hence, it will be utmost difficult for a researcher to envisage a homochiral MOF material to be water soluble, which is the most non-obviousness disclosed in the patent. Synthesis of four valine based MOFs in the JACS paper, along with the proton conducting data has been reported. However, the process of water solubility has not been at all discussed anywhere in the paper, which is the most striking feature, as well as the most non-obvious, too. Moreover, in the present patent control over the anion to tune the solubility along with the proton conductivity has achieved. Also, change of the ligand backbone (from valine to alanine) has been achieved to prove the extension of the concept described in the disclosure, which has not been ever discussed in the ma paper. The synthesis of Alanine based MOFs were achieved entirely different procedure described in the JACS paper, as general/straightforward synthetic pathway didn't yield the same. The synthesis of the MOFs with suitable variation of eight synthetic parameters i.e. the ligand backbone, the synthesis temperature, the solvents and their ratio for synthesis, the choice of anion, the reactant ratio and the metal salt as well as the pH of the medium has been reported in the present patent proposal. Hence, under this circumstance we, enable us to claim that any researcher, established and expertise in the synthesis of MOF arena won't be able to synthesize the aforementioned MOFs as now the difficulty level of synthesis has increased eight fold as compared to procedure reported in our JACS paper. Also, the water solubility in non-obvious from the point of view that most of the well known MOFs reported in the literature are water unstable and also they decompose in contact of water. The water solubility information is not reported in JACS paper and also non-obvious for any reader or researcher to envisage the water solubility from the data reported therein. Hence, we have pinpointed the non-obviousness of the process in an elaborated manner along with the new Alanine based MOF structures prepared by suitably adjusting synthesis parameters resulted from the point to point description given in the patent disclosure. [0007] Thus it will highly desirable to have MOFs that have properties that are enlisted herein, but till date, there is no patent or publication available that disclose a MOF with solubility in water. MOFs known in the art, due to their 3-D orientation are known to be water insoluble. [0008] There is therefore a need in the art to provide stable and water soluble MOFs that can be easily fabricated for proton conduction and for various thin film applications. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION [0009] The main objective of the present invention is to provide water soluble Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for synthesizing various functionalized materials for proton conduction as well as for selective separation applications including various thin film applications. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0010] FIG. 1 represents ( a ) schematic representation of the links with mirror isomers (l-L X ) and (d-L X ) in the form of different salts, where X═Cl, Br are shown in green. ( b ) Ball and stick model of an asymmetric unit of MOFs with mirror isomers, showing a five-coordinated zinc center (pink ball): ( c ) Space-filling model of two enantiomers of MOF 1 and 3. Opposite helicity is shown as a blue curved arrow. Colour code: gray, Cl; green, Cl; red, 0; blue, N; pink, Zn; white, H. [0011] FIG. 2 represents ( a ) Polyhedral representation of the MOF 1 lattice viewed down the c-axis. Pink polyhedra represent zinc centers, and lattice water molecules are shown as red balls. ( b ) Tiling figure of MOF 1, showing zeolitic unh-topology (unh is a three letter code representing the topology (structural arrangement) of a zeolite) along the c-axis. The tiling shows one kind of vertices, two kinds of edges, two kinds of faces, and one kind of tiles. ( c ) Mirror isomers of helical water chains surrounded by a molecular helix (outer helix). The molecular helix (outer helix) is shown as pink balls connected via gray bonds, and the helical water chain (inner helix) is shown as red balls connected via blue rods. [0012] FIG. 3 represents ( a ) In situ variable-temperature powder X-ray diffraction (VT-PXRD) of MOF 3 upon both heating (25-200° C.) and cooling (200-25° C.). This VT-PXRD experiment shows that the framework is stable and remains crystalline over a wide range of temperatures and after solvent removal. ( b ) Water adsorption isotherm of MOF 1 and MOF 2 showing 12 and 6 wt % of adsorption, respectively, at relative pressure P/Po=0.9. wherein P actual pressure exerted by gas and Po=pressure exerted by gas at standard condition. [0013] FIG. 4 represents ( a ) Photographs of MOF 1 before and after evacuation at 150° C., followed by rehydration showing reappearance of single crystallinity. ( b ) Appearance and disappearance of water peaks in IR spectra of as-synthesized, evacuated, and rehydrated MOF 1 confirms the reversible transformation. The Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SSNMR) spectrum of MOF 1-D 2 O (D 2 O exchanged sample of MOF1) is shown in the inset. ( c ) Reversible crystal transformation of MOF 1 confirmed by in situ single-crystal XRD showing the MOF framework with/without solvent (water) as a balland- stick model along the c-axis. Crystallinity of MOF 1 remains intact and suitable for data collection over the temperature, as shown by crystal pictures taken during data collection. ( d ) Thermal desolvation and in situ VT (variable-temperature) single-crystal experiment of evacuated MOFs 1 and 2 achieved at 80 and 40° C., respectively, confirms that MOF 2 has lower water holding capacity than MOF 1. [0014] FIG. 5 represents ( a ) Proton conductivity data comparison of MOF 1 and 1-D 2 O (inset) at 98% relative humidity (RH) showing decreasing proton conductivity value after D 2 0 substitution. ( b ) Temperature-dependent proton conductivity values of MOF 1 at different temperatures. ( c ) Proton conductivity of MOF 2 at 98% RH, showing zero proton conduction as compared to MOF 1 under similar conditions. ( d ) Arrhenius plots of proton conductivity of MOF 1. [0015] FIG. 6 represents 3D representation of the water soluble MOF of the invention. MOF crystallizes in the P6 1 space group, which comprises of one Zn(II), one derivative of amino acids and one lattice water molecule in the asymmetric unit. The Zn(II) center adopts a distorted square pyramidal geometry (τ=0.88) chelated by monodentate carboxylate [(Zn1-O2 2.170(3) Å)], and one amino functionality [(Zn1-N1 2.092(4) Å)] of first derivative of amino acids. One pyridyl functionality and one carboxyl oxygen atom of the second derivative of amino acids coordinates in the equatorial positions, and one free chlorine atom occupies the axial site. Noticeably, the amine group is induced by the neighboring chiral carbon center into a homochiral unit to coordinate the zinc atom. As a result, the zinc atom acquires a third homochiral center associated with two homochiral centers. All adjacent zinc nodes are bridged, by pyridyl group to form a 6 1 helical chain with a pitch of 12 Å along the crystallographic c axis. The two coordinated carboxylate oxygen stay opposite to each other along c axis through which additional molecules derivative of amino acids to form the wall of the helical chain. Among the pyridyl rings along the helical chain, one set of pridyl rings run in clockwise direction while other (linking two molecular chains) run anti clockwise to extend the lattice along the ab-plane. This result in a 3D supramolecular network containing close-packed 1D open channel along the c-axis filled with free water molecules weekly hydrogen bonded to halogen atoms coordinated to metal ions. All pyridyl rings and isopropyl groups constitute the wall of the helical channel and provide a hydrophobic environment to it. This molecular arrangement results in a rare zeolitic unh-topology which has not been perceived so far in any synthetic means even though it is theoretically proposed in ZIFs (Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework). [0016] FIG. 7 represents the schematic process of water solubility exhibited by the water soluble MOF. When a specific amount of water soluble MOF (50 mg) was taken along with specific amount of solvent (2 ml) the MOF shows water solubility, yielding first turbid solution which turns clear upon heating. Both the solution represents the MOF solution in water. To get back or regenerate the original MOF material, only one step is necessary is that to heat the solution at 90° C. to take out the water. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0017] Accordingly, present invention provides stable, water soluble and biocompatible metal organic frameworks (MOFs) of formula I [0000] [M( l/d -L X )(X)](H 2 O) 2   Formula I wherein M is a metal selected from the group consisting of Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Cd, La, W, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Al, Ga, In, Ge, Sn, Pb), Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Mg, Ca, Sr or Ba: L is derivatives of an amino acid ligand of formula II [0000] wherein R 1 =methyl or isopropyl; R 2 =pyridyl, bipyridyl, imidazoleyl, piparizineyl, napthayl, tetrazoleyl and nitrogen containing heterocycles; X═CH3COO or HCOO when R1=isopropyl in Ligand L of formula II; X═Cl, Br, CH 3 COO or HCOO; when R1=methyl in Ligand L of formula II. [0024] In an embodiment of the present invention, representative compounds of said MOF comprising: [Zn(l-L1 CH3COO )(CH 3 COO)](H 2 O) 2 (5); wherein R1=isopropyl, R2=pyridyl in ligand L; [Zn(l-L1 HCOO )(HCOO)](H 2 O) 2 (6); wherein R1=isopropyl, R2=pyridyl in ligand L; [Zn(l-L2 Cl )(Cl)](H 2 O) 2 (7); wherein R1=methyl, R2=pyridyl in ligand L; [Zn(l-L2 Br )(Br)](H 2 O) 2 (8); wherein R1=methyl, R2=pyridyl in ligand L; [Zn(l-L2 CH3COO )(CH 3 COO)](H 2 O) 2 (9); wherein R1=methyl, R2=pyridyl in ligand L; [Zn(l-L2 HCOO )(HCOO)](H 2 O) 2 (10); wherein R1=methyl, R2=pyridyl in ligand L [0031] In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the derivative of an amino acid ligands of formula II is selected from the group consisting of: [0000] [0032] in yet another embodiment of the present invention, water solubility of compound of formula 1 [0000] [0000] wherein R 1 =methyl or isopropyl; R 2 =pyridyl, bipyridyl, imidazoleyl, piparizineyl, napthayl, tetrazoleyl and nitrogen containing heterocycles; X═Cl, Br, CH 3 COO or HCOO; when R1=methyl or isopropyl in Ligand L of formula II are in the range of 20-28 mg/ml. [0033] In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the biocompatible metal organic frameworks are useful for proton conduction. [0034] In yet another embodiment of the present invention, proton conductivity of the said MOFs is in the range of 3.6×10 −5 S cm −1 to 3.5×10 S cm −1 . [0035] In an embodiment, present invention also provides a process for preparation of biocompatible water soluble metal organic frameworks (MOF) prepared under hydrothermal conditions and the said process comprising the steps of: a) adding metal salt to an aqueous solution of derivative of an amino acid in the ratio ranging between 1:1 to 1:2 followed by sonicating to obtain clear solution; b) keeping the tightly capped solution as obtained in step (a) undisturbed, at temperature in the range of 50 to 90° C. to obtain transparent crystals of water soluble metal organic framework (MOF) of formula I. [0038] In yet another embodiment of the present invention, metal salt is zinc acetate. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION [0039] Present invention provides stable, water soluble biocompatible Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) of formula I comprises a metal and derivatives of an amino acid ligand L of formula II [0000] [M( l/d -L X )(X)](H 2 O) 2 ,  Formula I [0000] wherein M is metal; X is a anion selected from Cl, Br, CH 3 COO or HCOO. [0040] L is derivatives of an amino acid ligand of formula II and [0000] The metal of the water soluble MOF of the invention is selected from d-block metals (M +n ═Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Cd, La, W, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg), f-block metals (M +n ═Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho), p-block metals (M +n ═Al, Ga, In, Ge, Sn, Pb), alkali metals (M +n ═Na, K, Rb, Cs), alkaline earth metals (M +n ═Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) and such like. [0041] The derivative of an amino acid (L) is selected from [0000] [0000] wherein R 1 is side chain residue of amino acids; R1 is methyl for Alanine and isopropyl for valine. R 2 =pyridyl, bipyridyl, imidazoleyl, piparizineyl, napthayl, tetrazoleyl and nitrogen containing heterocycles, [0042] Some preferred derivative of an amino acid ligand of the water soluble MOF of the invention are selected from the group consisting of [0000] [0043] The MOFs of the invention is prepared by a process under hydrothermal conditions comprising: a) adding metal salt to an aqueous solution of derivative of an amino acid followed by sonicating the solution to obtain clear solution and b) keeping the tightly capped solution undisturbed at 90° C. to obtain transparent crystals of water soluble MOF. [0046] Accordingly, to an aqueous solution (2 ml) of derivative of an amino acid (0.2 mmol), suitable metal salt (0.1 mmol) was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a tightly capped 5 ml vial for 24 h at 90° C. to produce rod shaped transparent crystals of water soluble MOF (Solubility is 20 mg/ml of water). One preferred metal salt according to the invention is Zn salt, preferably Zn acetate. [0047] The MOF is characterized by its 3D coordinates as exemplified herein. The MOF is tested for solubility in water by boiling it in water for few minutes. The MOF dissolves in boiling water and on evaporation of the solvent water, the crystallized MOF has been characterized. [0048] Saturated solutions of the MOF can be made by adding excess MOF into the solution and filtering out the undissolved portion. Such water soluble MOFs are proton conducting and can be fabricated for various thin film applications. The present MOF, due to its easy solubility and stability in water has major advantage over the known MOFs and thus can easily be fabricated for various thin film applications. Due to its solubility in water, a rarely observed phenomenon, as compared to reported′ MOFs, it can provide a new pathway for synthesizing various functionalized materials for selective separation applications. [0049] Present invention provides six novel biocompatible homochiral metal organic framework (MOF) isomers have been synthesized by using a derivative of L-/D-valine and Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 .2H 2 O and studied for their proton conductivity. [0000] [Zn( l -L1 CH3COO )(CH 3 COO)](H 2 O) 2   (5) [0000] [Zn( l -L1 HCOO )(HCOO)](H 2 O) 2   (6) [0000] [Zn( l -L2 Br )(Br)](H 2 O)2  (7) [0000] [Zn( l -L2 Br )(Br)](H 2 O) 2   (8) [0000] [Zn( l -L2 CH3COO )(CH 3 COO)](H 2 O) 2   (9) [0000] [Zn( l -L2 HCOO )(HCOO)](H 2 O) 2   (10). [0050] These MOFs are characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), circular dichroism (CD), and hot-stage microscopy. The mobility of the water molecule with respect to temperature has been monitored by in situ variable-temperature powder X-ray diffraction (VT-PXRD) and single-crystal to single-crystal (SC-SC) transformation experiments. The ordered water molecules anchored by weak metalhalogen groups facilitate proton conduction, as confirmed by proton conductivity measurements coupled with deuterium exchange and solid-state (SS) NMR experiments. MOFs such as [Zn(l-L1Cl)(Cl)](H2O)2 (1) and [Zn(d-L1Cl)(Cl)](H2O)2 (3), due to this helical water chain, exhibit a high proton conductivity of ˜4.45×10-5 S cm-1 at ambient temperature, while MOFs [Zn(l-L1Br)(Br)](H2O)2 (2) and [Zn(d-L1Br)(Br)](H2O)2 (4) show almost zero proton conductivity, even though all four MOFs adopt similar architectures [L=3-methyl-2-(pyridin-4-ylmethylamino)butanoic acid]. [0051] MOFs 1-6 reported here were synthesized by mixing Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 .2H 2 O and 3-methyl-2-(pyridin-4: ylmethylamino) butanoic acid (a valine-derived link) ( FIG. 1 a ) under hydrothermal conditions in water medium. Phase-pure rod shaped crystals were grown in a capped vial at 90° C. within 5-6 h. MOFs 1-6 are structural isomers with different anions (Cl or Br or CH 3 COO or HCOO) coordinated to the metal atoms or enantiomers with respect to ligand backbone (d or I). MOF 1 crystallizes in the P61 space group, comprising one Zn(II), one l-L Cl ligand, and two lattice water molecules in the asymmetric unit. The Zn(II) center adopts a distorted square pyramidal geometry (r=0.38), chelated by monodentate carboxylate [(Zn1O2 2.170(3) Å)] and one amino functionality [(Zn1N1 2.092(4) Å)] of the first l-L Cl link. One pyridyl functionality and one carboxyl oxygen atom of the second l-L Cl ligand coordinate in the equatorial positions, and one free chlorine atom occupies the axial site ( FIG. 1 b ). Noticeably, the amine group is induced by the neighboring chiral carbon center into a homochiral unit to coordinate the zinc atom. As a result, the zinc atom acquires a third homochiral center associated with two homochiral centers. All adjacent zinc nodes are bridged by pyridyl groups to form a 6 1 helical chain with a pitch of 12 Å along the crystallographic c-axis ( FIG. 1 c ). The two coordinated carboxylate oxygens stay opposite to each other along the c-axis, through which additional molecules link to form the wall of the helical chain. [0052] Among the pyridyl rings along the helical chain, one set of pridyl rings run in a clockwise direction while the others (linking two molecular chains) run anti-clockwise to extend the lattice along the ab-plane. This results in a 3D supramolecular network containing a close-packed 1D open channel along the c-axis filled with water molecules ( FIG. 2 a ). Pyridyl rings and isopropyl groups constitute the wall of the helical channel, providing a hydrophobic environment. This molecular arrangement results in a rare zeolitic unh-topology which has not been perceived so far in any synthetic means, even though it is theoretically proposed in ZIFs. [0053] Lattice water molecules weakly H-bonded to the M-Cl atom (0 . . . . Cl-M, 3.175(1) Å) run along the helical channel ( FIG. 2 c ). The second water molecule resides within H-bonding distance of the first water molecule (DO . . . O=3.234(3)Å) to make a continuous water channel along the c-axis. This H-bonding distance is well within the range of DO . . . O of O—H . . . O hydrogen-bonding reported in the literature. As a result, a secondary helical water chain surrounded by the molecular helix is formed. Weak (O—H . . . Cl-M) H-bonding may allow the water protons to become more acidic. It was found that the helical orientation of [0000] water molecules is the structural basis by which K+ ion and proton transport occurs inside a KcsA K+ channel and in protein aquaporin-1, respectively. 1D water chains also play vital roles for stabilizing the native conformation of biopolymers, but such helical water chains are less reported in synthetic homochiral crystal hosts, especially in MOFs, because in most cases high boiling solvents like DMF, DMA, DMSO, and DEF are used for MOF synthesis instead of water. [0054] Single-crystal XRD analysis revealed that MOFs 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are isomorphous to MOF 1, where ½ and ¾ are isomers with respect to substituted halogen atoms, like 1 [L 2 M-Cl] and 2 [L 2 M-Br], but ⅓ and 2/4 are enantiomers. In further experiments, it has been confirmed that all six isomers possess similar lattice arrangement (unh-topology) and the helical water chain persists irrespective of the different anion substitution or change in chirality of the ligand backbone. [0055] The phase purity of the bulk materials was confirmed by PXRD experiments, which are in good agreement with the simulated PXRD patterns. TGA performed on as-synthesized 1-4 MOFs revealed that these compounds have thermal stability up to ˜270° C. The TGA trace for as synthesized 1, 2, 3 and 4 showed gradual weight-loss steps of ˜7% (2H2O in 1 and 3, calcd 10.5%) and ˜6% (2H2O in 2 and 4, calcd 9.3%) over a temperature range of 40-100° C., corresponding to escape of guest water molecules from the pores. We note that the water molecules of 1 and 2 were released without damaging the frameworks, as evidenced by the coincidence of the PXRD patterns of 1 and 2 samples heated to and held at 150° C. in a N2 atmosphere with the PXRD patterns simulated from single-crystal structures. The above fact is also verified by in situ VT-PXRD of MOF 1 and MOF 2. All major peaks of experimental and simulated PXRDs are well matched, indicating the sample's phase purity ( FIG. 3 a ). A combined heating and cooling in situ VT-PXRD experiment reveals that the framework is stable, remains crystalline over a wide temperature range (heating from 25 to 200° C. and then cooling from 200 to 25° C.), and remains stable after solvent removal (solvent escape ˜100° C., confirmed by TGA). Escape of water molecules from the crystals was also monitored by hot-stage microscopy at different temperature intervals (25-270° C.). Pictures taken on a hot-stage microscope reveal that the trapped water molecules escape the lattice between 60 and 120° C. as heating gees on and cracking appears on the crystal surface, but crystallinity remains intact up to 250° C. This observation indicates that it is possible to monitor the arrangement of water molecules with respect to temperature, and we can achieve a solvent-free framework after successful removal of solvent at higher temperatures. [0056] It is noteworthy that the water molecules adopt similar arrangements in all MOFs 1-6 reported in this paper, except the handedness. The guest-free frameworks of MOFs 1-6 reported in this paper show high affinity for water, irrespective of different structural variation. [0057] To provide further evidence of water affinity apart from crystallographic information, MOF 1 was extensively studied by various experiments. MOF 1 shows a reversible transformation in the presence of water vapor. After evacuation at 150° C. for 2 days, the dehydrated polycrystalline sample of 1 (confirmed by PXRD, IR, and TGA) was exposed in a closed chamber saturated with water vapor. The single-crystalline nature of MOF 1 comes back within 6-12 h ( FIG. 4 a ), which is confirmed by IR, TGA, and crystallography. FT-IR spectra of the evacuated MOF 1 sample collected at time intervals of 1 h showed a gradual increase in the intensity of the water peaks after exposure of 1 to moisture ( FIG. 4 b ), which further confirms the high affinity of 1 for water. The water affinity of 1 and 2 was also examined by water adsorption isotherms. Surprisingly, it was found that MOF 1 shows 12 wt % water vapor uptake (150 cm3/g at STP), whereas MOF2 shows 6 wt % (75 cm3/g at STP), about half at a relative pressure (P/Po) of 0.9 ( FIG. 3 b ). It is quite clear that MOF 2 has less water affinity compared to MOF 1, though the framework arrangements in 1 and 2 are similar. The CO2 adsorption isotherm indicates much less uptake (25 cm3/g for 1 and 20 cm3/g for 2) than predicted on the basis of X-ray crystallography and indicates a low degree of interaction points inside the pore. [0058] From TGA experiments, it was found that the MOFs lose lattice water molecules in the temperature range of 40-80° C. After careful observation of the collected data, it was found that 80° C. is the ideal temperature at which one could achieve a stable and solvent-free framework of 1 with reasonably good data [R1=6.4%, wR2=14.7%, GOF=1.005]; below that temperature, water stays in the lattice as solvent and the framework remains intact, but high thermal vibration observed in some of the atom sites results in high refinement parameters ( FIG. 4 d ). A similar experiment performed on MOF 2 (Br analogue′ of MOF 1) reveals that one can achieve an evacuated framework at a much lower temperature of 40° C. [R1=5.7%, wR2=15.12%. GOF=1.071]. So far, the amount of water uptake of MOF1 with respect to MOF 2 and the achievement of an evacuated framework of MOF 2 at only 40° C. clearly indicate that MOF 2 has a lower water affinity than MOF 1. It has been mentioned already that the structural arrangements of MOFs 1-6 are all similar, except for the handedness and halogen atoms in the framework [M-X, X═—Cl, —Br, —CH3COO, —HCOO)]. The X-ray crystal structures of 1-6 established that these materials are amenable to proton-conduction owing to the continuous (O . . . O) helical 1D water chain (D O . . . O =3.234(3)Å) in a confined hydrophobic and acidic environment (D O . . . Cl-M =3.164 Å, D O . . . Br-M =3.175 Å). [0059] The invention provides the proton conductivity of the MOFs 1 to 4, The proton conductivities of two halogen isomers, 1 and 3, were measured by a quasi-two-probe method, with a Solartron 1287 electrochemical interface with frequency response analyzer. The conductivities were determined from the semicircles in the Nyquist plots ( FIG. 5 . The proton conductivities of 1 and 3 were 4.45×10 −5 and 4.42×10 −5 S cm −1 , respectively, at 304 K and 98% relative humidity (RH). This value, was highly humidity dependent and dropped to 1.49×10 −5 and 1.22×10 −5 S cm4 at 75% and 60% RH, respectively, at 304 K. [0060] Surprisingly, 2 and 4 show almost zero proton conductivity after testing the proton conduction′ 4-5 times on different batches of samples. The above anomalous behavior is attributed to a few reasons: (1) the water holding capacity of MOF 2 is less than that of MOF 1, confirmed by water adsorption; (2) at room temperature (˜35° C.), MOF 1 has a continuous water chain, while MOF 2 has a discrete water assembly, confirmed by VT-SCXRD experiments; (3) the interior cavities with halogen atoms with different electro-negativities are hydrogen bonded to water molecules. The present results also supported the lower water adsorption property shown by MOF 2 (6 wt %) compared to MOF 1 (12 wt %), as discussed previously. [0061] To prove the role of water molecules, we synthesized 1-D 2 O [Zn(l-L Cl )(Cl)(D 2 O)], taking D 2 O as solvent of synthesis. 1-D 2 O was studied further by IR and 2H SSNMR, which confirmed the D 2 O incorporation in 1-D 2 O and its structural similarity to MOF 1. [0062] Impedance studies on the deuterated sample in a H2 atmosphere humidified (98%) with D 2 O gave a conductivity value of 1.33×10 −5 S cm-1. The lower value is expected due to the heavier isotopic substitution. Proton conductivity measurements performed at different temperatures show a gradual increase in proton conductivity from 3.13×10 −5 to 4.45×10 −5 S cm −1 as the temperature is increased from 299 to 304 K, respectively ( FIG. 5 b ). At higher temperatures, above. 40° C., the proton conductivity of 1 decrease due to partial dehydration, as indicated by a TGA plot, and the 2H SSNMR data had indicated mobile protons/deuterons even at 25° C. The above result concludes the fact that MOFs having higher water holding capacity has the better proton conductivity over the MOFs having lower water holding capacity. [0063] The ordered water molecules anchored by weak metal halogen groups facilitate proton conduction, as confirmed by proton conductivity measurements coupled with deuterium exchange and solid-state (SS) NMR experiments. [0064] The activation energies (Ea) for the proton transfer derived from the bulk conductivity of 1 and 3 were 0.34 and 0.36 eV, respectively, as determined from least-squares fits of the slopes. MOF 1 show a higher Ea value than Nafion (0.22 eV), 25b but comparable with those of Zr(HPO4)2 (0.33)25c and HUO2PO4 3 4H2O (0.32 eV).25d This low Ea observed in 1 indicates that the ordered helical water chain (observed crystallographically) functions to transport protons via a Grotthuss hopping mechanism, as opposed to the higher Ea value, observed for a vehicular transfer mechanism. The proton conductivity value of MOF 1 is higher than those of MIL-53-based MOFs (˜10 −6 10 −9 S cm reported by Kitagawa et al. at 25° C., 95% RH) and comparable to that of a zinc-phosphonate MOF (1.33×10 −5 S cm −1 reported by Shimizu et al. at 25° C., 98% RH) but lower than those of ferrous oxalate dihydrate (1.3×10 −3 S cm −1 at 25° C., 98% RH) and cucurbit [6]uril (1.1×10 −3 S cm −1 at 25° C., 98% RH) under similar conditions. [0065] By judicial choice of different metal ions stated above and various derivative of amino acids shown above (where variation in the derivative of amino acids back bone can be easily made by changing both amino acid residue and aromatic groups), it will become obvious to one skilled in the art to synthesize a wide verity of different MOFs. Such synthesized MOFs and examples given are merely an illustration of the instant invention and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention in any manner means that innumerous MOFs can be prepared using varying the R1, R2 and metal ion and only limited MOFs are presented here for examples. EXAMPLES [0066] Following examples are given by way of illustration therefore should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention. Materials and General Methods [0067] All reagents were commercially available and used as received. Powder X-ray diffraction patterns were recorded on a Phillips PANalytical diffractometer with Cu Kα irradiation (A=1.5406 Å), a scan speed of 2° min −1 , and a step size of 0.02° in 2θ. Fourier transform (FT)IR spectra (KBr pellet) were obtained on a Perkin Elmer FT-IR spectrometer (Nicolet). Thermogravimetric analysis was carried out in the temperature range of 25-800° C. on an SDT Q600 TG-DTA analyzer under aN2 atmosphere at a heating rate of 10° C. min-1. All low-pressure CO2 adsorption experiments (up to 1 bar) were performed on a Quantachrome Quadrasorb automatic volumetric instrument. All low-pressure water adsorption experiments (up to 1 bar) were performed on a BELSORPmax volumetric instrument. A Leica M-80 optical, microscope with hot stage and camera attachment was used for collecting photographs. Proton conductivity data were measured by a quasi-two-probe method, with a Solartron 1287 electrochemical interface and a frequency response analyzer; circular dichroism data were measured with a JASCO J-851-150 L CD spectropolarimeter. Solid-state NMR spectra were recorded with a Bruker 300 MHz NMR spectrometer, and ligand NMR spectra were recorded with a Bruker 200 MHz NMR spectrometer. Comparative Examples 1 to 7 Example 1 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.HCl [l-L Cl ] [0068] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.HCl (l-L Cl ) was prepared using a modified literature procedure. To an aqueous solution (10 mL) of L-valine (2 g, 17 mmol) and Na 2 CO 3 (0.91 g, 8.5 mmol), 4-pyridinecarboxaldehyde (1.82 g, 17 mmol) in MeOH (10 mL) was added slowly. The solution was stirred for 1 h and cooled in an ice bath. NaBH 4 (0.76 g, 20.4 mmol) in 10 ml of water was added. The mixture was stirred for 1 h, and 3 N HCl, was used to adjust the pH to 6. The solution was stirred further for 2 h and then evaporated to dryness. The solid was extracted in hot and dry MeOH (150 mL×3), and the filtrate was evaporated to get a white powder. Yield: 2.9 g, 70% yield. IR (KBr, cm −1 ): vOH, 3421; vas(CO 2 ), 1562; vs(CO 2 ), 1409. [0069] 1H NMR (D 2 O, ppm): —CH 3 (1.21, d, 3H), —CH 3 (1.35, d, 3H), —CH (3.20, m, 1H), —HN—CH (3.65, m, 1H), —CH2 (3.82, dd, 2H), py-H (7.34, d, 2H), py-H (8.38, d, 2H). Example 2 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.HBr [l-L Br ] [0070] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.HBr (l-L Br ) was prepared exactly as l-LCl, except HBr was used instead of HCl for off adjustment (i.e. 5.5). Yield: 3.4 g, 70%. IR (KBr, cm −1 ): vOH, 3420; vas(CO 2 ), 1560; vs(CO 2 ), 1411. [0071] 1H NMR (D 2 O, ppm): —CH 3 (1.20, d, 31-1), —CH 3 (1.33, d, 3H), —CH (3.24, m, 1H), —HN—CH (3.63, m, 1H), —CH 2 (3.79, dd, 2H), py-H (7.34, d, 2H), py-H (8.37, d, 2H). Example 3 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-D-valine.HCl [d-L Cl ] [0072] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-D-valine. HCl (d-L Cl ) was prepared exactly as (l-L Cl ), except D-valine was used instead of L-valine. Yield: 3.1 g, 72%. [0073] IR (KBr, cm −1 ): vOH, 3417; vas(CO 2 ), 1564; vs(CO 2 ), 1415. [0074] 1H NMR (D 2 O, ppm): —CH 3 (1.21, d, 3H), —CH 3 (1.34, d, 3H), —CH (3.22, m, 1H), —HN—CH (3.65, m, 1H), —CH 2 (3.78, dd, 2H), py-H (7.30, d, 2H), py-H (8.36, d, 2H). Example 4 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-D-valine.HBr [d-L Br ] [0075] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-D-valine.HBr (d-L Br ) was prepared exactly as l-L Br , except D-valine was used instead of L-valine. Yield, 3.6 g, 72%. [0076] IR (KBr, cm −1 ): vOH, 3419; vas(CO 2 ), 1570; vs(CO 2 ), 1421. [0077] 1H NMR (D 2 O, ppm): —CH 3 (1.20, d, 3H), —CH 3 (1.34, d, 3H), —CH (3.24, m, 1H), —HN—CH (3.63, m, 1H), —CH 2 (3.80, dd, 2H), py-H (7.35, d, 2H), py-H (8.37, d, 2H). Example 5 [Zn(l-L1 Cl )(Cl)](H 2 O) 2 (1) [0078] To an aqueous solution (2 mL) of l-L Cl (0.044 g, 0.2 mmol), Zn(CH3COO)2 0.2H2O (0.022 g, 0.1 mmol) was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a tightly capped 5 mL vial for 24 h at 90° C. to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.025 g, 71%. [0079] IR (KBr, cm1): vOH, 3421; vNH, 2977; vas(CO2), 1589; vs(CO2), 1395; vCN, 1626. [0080] Elemental analysis: calcd C (38.8%), H (4.44%), N (8.23%). Found C (38.78%), H (4.41%), N (8.25%). [0000] Empirical formula C 11 H 15 ClN 2 O 3 Zn Formula weight  324.09 CCDC No. 831054 Wavelength 0.71073 Å Temperature 296(2) K Volume 2862.76(6) Å 3 Crystal system Hexagonal Z   6 Space group P6 1 Density (calculated)   1.128 Unit cell dimensions a = 17.691(2) Å Absorption coefficient   1.427 b = 17.691(2) Å c = 10.5617(12) Å γ = 120 F(000)   996 Reflections collected 4581 Independent  4302 Goodness-of-fit on F2   1.065 reflections Final R indices R1 = 0.0408, wR2 = 0.1423 R indices (all data) R1 = 0.0456, wR2 = [I > 2sigma(I)] 0.1467 Atoms Bond lengths (Å) Bond Angles (°) Zn1N1 2.090(2) Zn1Cl/Br 2.2389(14) Zn1N2 2.057(3) N2Zn1N1 116.48(13) Zn1O1 2.167(3) N2Zn1O2  89.83(12) Zn1O2 2.093(3) N1Zn1O2  91.61(11) N2Zn1O1  91.71(11) N1Zn1O1  78.60(9) O2Zn1O1 169.71(11) N2Zn1Cl/Br 115.45(10) N1Zn1Cl/Br 127.87(9) O2Zn1Cl/Br  92.77(10) O1Zn1Cl/Br  95.75(8) Example 5 [Zn(l-L1 Br )(Br)](H2O)2 (2) [0081] To an aqueous solution (2 mL) of l-L Br (0.044 g, 0.2 mmol), Zn(CH3COO)2.2H2O (0.022 g, 0.1 mmol) was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a tightly capped 5 mL vial for 24 h at 90° C. to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.026 g, 67%. [0082] IR (KBr, cm1): vOH, 3427; vNH, 2974; vas(CO2), 1590; vs(CO2), 1394; vCN, 1623. [0083] Elemental analysis: calcd C (34.37%), H (3.90%), N (7.29%). Found C (34.35%), H (3.92%), N (7.25% Y. Example 6 [Zn(d-L1 Cl )(Cl)](H 2 O) 2 (3) [0084] To an aqueous solution (2 mL) of d-L a (0.044 g, 0.2 mmol), Zn(CH3COO)2. 2H2O (0.022 g, 0.1 mmol) was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a tightly capped 5 mL vial for 24 h at 90° C. to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.023 g, 71%. [0085] IR (KBr, cm1): vOH, 3420; vNH, 2975; vas(CO2), 1589; vs(CO2), 1397; vCN, 1627. [0086] Elemental analysis: calcd C (38.82%), H (4.44%), N (8.23%). Found C (38.79%), H (4.42%), N (8.24%). Example 7 [Zn(d-L1Br)(Br)](H2O)2 (4) [0087] To an aqueous solution (2 mL) of d-L B , (0.044 g, 0.2 mmol), Zn(CH3COO)2. 2H2O (0322 g, 0.1 mmol) was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a tightly capped 5 mL vial for h at 90° C. to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield. 0.026 g, 69%. [0088] IR (KBr, cm1): vOH; 3425; vNH, 2970; vas(CO2), 1592: vs(CO2), 1395; vCN, 1622. [0089] Elemental analysis: calcd C (34.37%), H (3.90%), N (7.29%). Found C (34.36%), H (3.91%), N (7.27%). Examples 8 to 20 Example 8 (4-Pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.CH 3 COOH [l-L CH3COO ] [0090] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.CH 3 COOH (l-L CH3COO ) was prepared exactly as l-L Cl , except CH 3 COOH was used instead of HCl for pH adjustment. Yield: 3.6 g, 70%. [0091] IR (KBr, cm1): vOH, 3420; vas(CO2), 1560; vs(CO2), 1411. [0092] 1H. NMR (D 2 O, ppm): —CH 3 (1.20, d, 3H), —CH 3 (1.33, d, 3H), —CH (3.24, m, 1H), —HN—CH (3.63, m, 1H), —CH 2 (3.79, dd, 2H), py-H (7.34, d, 2H), py-H (8.37, d, 2H). Example 9 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.HCOOH [l-L HCOO ] [0093] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-valine.HCOOH (l-L HCOO ) was prepared exactly as l-L Cl , except HCOOH was used instead of HCl for pH adjustment. Yield: 3.5 g, 70%. IR (KBr, cm1): vOH, 3420; vas(CO2), 1560; vs(CO2), 1411. [0094] 1H NMR (D 2 O, ppm): —CH 3 (1.20, d, 3H), —CH 3 (1.33, d, 3H), —CH (3.24, m, 1H), —HN—CH (3.63, m, 1H), —CH2 (3.79, dd, 2H), py-H (7.34, d, 2H), py-H (8.37, d, 2H). Example 10 N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine.HCl (l-L1 Cl ) [0095] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine. HCl (l-L1 Cl ) was prepared using a modified literature procedure. To an aqueous solution (10 mL) of L-alanine (1.78 g, 17 mmol) and Na 2 CO 3 (0.91 g, 8.5 mmol), 4-pyridinecarboxaldehyde (1.82 g, 17 mmol) in MeOH (10 mL) was added slowly. The solution was stirred for 1 h and cooled in an ice bath. NaBH 4 (0.76 g, 20.4 mmol′)′ in 10 mL of water was added. The mixture was stirred for 1 h, and 1 N Ha was used to adjust the pH to 6-7. The solution was stirred further for 2 h and then evaporated to dryness. The solid was extracted in hot and dry MeOH (150 mL×3), and the filtrate was evaporated to get a white powder. Yield: 2.7 g, 75% yield. Example 11 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine.HBr [l-L1 Br ] [0096] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine. HBr (l-L1 Br ) was prepared using same procedure as described for Example 11, only HBr was used instead of HCl for pH adjustment of 5.5-6. Yield: 2.9 g, 72% yield. Example 12 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine.CH 3 COOH [l-L1 CH3COO ] [0097] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine. CH 3 COOH (l-L1 CH3COO ) was prepared using same procedure as described for Example 11, only CH 3 COOH was used instead of HCl for pH adjustment of 6.2-6.5: Yield: 2.9 g, 70% yield. Example 13 N-(4-Pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine. HCOOH [l-L1 HCOO ] [0098] The ligand N-(4-pyridylmethyl)-L-alanine.HCOOH(l-L1 HCOO ) was prepared using same procedure as described for Example 11, only HCOOH was used instead of HCl for pH adjustment of 5.7-6. Yield: 2.7 g, 72% yield. Example 14 [Zn(l-L1 CH3COO )(CH3COO)](H2O)2 (5) [0099] To an aqueous solution (0.5 ml) of l-L CH3COO (0.046 g, 0.2 mmol) Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 .2H 2 O (0.022 g, 0.1 mmol) in 5 ml MeOH was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a 15 mL vial for 24 h to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0,028 g, 71%. Example 15 [Zn(l-L1 HCOO )(HCOO)](H2O)2 (6) [0100] To an aqueous solution (0.5 mL) of l-L HCOO (0.046 g, 0.19 mmol), Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 .2H 2 O (0.022 g, mmol) in 5 ml MeOH was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a 15 mL vial for 24 h to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.027 g, 71%. Example 16 [Zn(l-L2 Cl )(Cl)](H2O)2 (7) [0101] To an aqueous solution (0.25 mL) of l-L1 Cl (0.045 g, 0.19 mmol), Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 .2H 2 O (0.020 g, 0.09 mmol) in 5 ml MeOH was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a 15 mL vial for 24 h to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.026 g, 70%. [0000] Empirical formula C9H11ClN2O4Zn Formula weight  312.04 Radiation type Mo/K α Wavelength 0.71073 Å Temperature 293(2) K what is 2 in this Volume 2777.4(5) Å 3 value. Crystal system Hexagonal Z   6 Space group P6 1 Density (calculated)   1.119 Unit cell dimensions a = 17.6588(13) Å Absorption coefficient   1.473 b = 17.6588(13) Å c = 10.2847(6) Å γ = 120 F(000)  948 Reflections collected 3431 Independent 2889 Goodness-of-fit on F2   1.119 reflections Final R indices R1 = 0.0665, wR2 = 0.1946 R indices (all data) R1 = 0.0818, wR2 = [I > 2sigma(I)] 0.2301 Atoms Bond lengths (Å) Bond Angles (°) Zn1N1 2.081(6) Zn1Cl/Br 2.220(4) Zn1N2 2.044(7) N2Zn1N1 122.5(3) Zn1O1 2.190(6) N2Zn1O2  88.0(3) Zn1O2 2.124(7) N1Zn1O2  88.9(3) N2Zn1O1  90.7 (3) N1Zn1O1  76.4(2) O2Zn1O1 161.6(3) N2Zn1Cl/Br 113.0(3) N1Zn1Cl/Br 124.2(3) O2Zn1Cl/Br  98.8(3) O1Zn1Cl/Br  98.6(2) Example 17 [Zn(l-L2 Br )(Br)](H2O)2 (8) [0102] To an aqueous solution (0.4 mL) of l-L1 Br (0.048 g, 0.19 mmol), Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 .2H 2 O (0.021 g, 0.95 mmol) in 5 ml MeOH was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a 15 mL vial for 12 h, to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.029 g, 70%. Example 18 [Zn(l-L2 CH3COO )(CH3COO)](H2O)2 (9) [0103] To an aqueous solution (0.2 mL) of l-L1 CH3COO (0.046 g, 0.2 mmol), Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 .2H 2 O (0.020 g, 0.9 mmol) in 8 ml MeOH was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a 15 mL vial for 36 h to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.025 g, 65%. Example 19 [Zn(l-L2 HCOO )(HCOO)](H2O)2 (10) [0104] To an aqueous solution (0.1 mL) of l-L1 HCOO (0.045 g, 0.2 mmol), Zn(HCOO) 2 .2H 2 O (0.022 g, 0.1 mmol) in 10 ml MeOH was added and sonicated for 10 min. The clear solution was kept in a 15 mL vial for 24 h to produce rod-shaped transparent crystals. Yield: 0.025 g, 75%. Example 20 Water Solubility of MOF [0105] 50 mg of MOF as prepared in example 2 was dissolved in 10 ml of water by boiling it for 5 minutes to get a clear solution. After allowing, water to evaporate overnight, the crystallized MOF was tested again and found to match the coordinates of the MOF of examples 1 and 2. [0000] MOF Solubility MOF 1 22 mg/ml MOF 2 20 mg/ml MOF 3 22 mg/ml MOF 4 20 mg/ml MOF 5 25 mg/ml MOF 6 26 mg/ml MOF 7 25 mg/ml MOF 8 21 mg/ml MOF 9 27 mg/ml MOF 10 28 mg/ml Example 21 Proton Conductivity of MOFs [0106] [0000] MOFs PROTON CONDUCTIVITY MOF 1 4.45 × 10 −5 S cm −1 MOF 2 NO PROTON CONDUCTIVITY MOF 3 4.42 × 10 −5 S cm −1 MOF 4 NO PROTON CONDUCTIVITY MOF 5 NO PROTON CONDUCTIVITY MOF 6 3.6 × 10 −5 S cm −1 MOF 7 3.5 × 10 −3 S cm −1 MOF 8 NO PROTON CONDUCTIVITY MOF 9 NO PROTON CONDUCTIVITY MOF 10 2.2 × 10 −4 S cm −1 Advantages of the Invention [0107] This easy one step solution-state processing of proton conducting homochiral MOF will provide us an environment friendly low cost pathway for casting MOF films and many other things for industrial applications. Further control over MOF solubility and proton conductivity has been demonstrated by suitable choice of ligand and anion, which will be another advantageous effort for tailor made materials for different applications.

An efficient, one step solution state processing of Proton Conducting Homochiral Metal Organic Framework has been achieved by using derivate of amino acid and Zn(II) salt as a MOF constructor. Control over MOF solubility as well as proton conductivity has also been achieved by judicious of the ligand architecture. This invention will lead the way for ease preparation of MOF films for industrial application.

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/475,109, filed on Jun. 2, 2003, the entire teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the field of usage rights enforcement and management for digitally encoded documents and data. The encoding and distributing of audio, video, graphical, and written work in digital formats has become a fundamental part of modern business. However, the ease with which copies may be made that are identical to the original and the speed of distribution enabled by the Internet have caused the owners of such works to adopt technologies that associate and enforce usage rights with digitally encoded data. Examples of those interested in such technologies include: providers of music, movies, or other entertainment content; publishers of electronic newspapers, magazines, or books; and corporations with confidential, proprietary, or otherwise sensitive information. Without loss of generality and for ease of exposition, we will refer to all of these kinds of digitally encoded works as data objects. Many approaches exist to associate and enforce usage rights with data objects. One common approach is based on technologies that attempt to prevent the unauthorized copying of data objects from the physical media carrying the objects. U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,260 is an example of one such copy protection scheme. Though copy-protection techniques are appropriate for some domains, the types of usage rights that they can enforce are too coarse grained to be a general solution. For example, the owner of a proprietary and confidential document may wish to have one group of individuals be able to only read a protected document and a different group be allowed to read and write it. Copy-prevention technologies are not powerful enough to describe such usage policies. More general-purpose approaches exist that protect the data objects so that only authorized users can access and use the objects according to a set of rules specified for each class or group of authorized user. This approach typically relies on encryption technology to guarantee that only authorized users have access to the actual data object. In particular, authorized users are given access to the secret key needed to decrypt the protected object and produce the actual data object. The usage rights typically specify who is authorized to access the secret key and what an authorized user can do with the decrypted data object. This basic approach includes the large body of work in digital rights management (DRM) and related rights management technologies. Though this approach does not prevent copying of the encrypted bits, it achieves the same end result as copy protection since unauthorized users cannot access the protected data objects without the secret key. To be effective, a rights management system must tightly couple the usage rights to the encrypted data objects so that the usage rights always appear with the associated object. This coupling should make it very difficult and ideally impossible for someone, who is not the owner of the object or otherwise authorized, to separate the data object from its usage rights. We can group attacks that attempt to separate a data object from its usage rights into two categories. The first category comprises attacks on the combination of the usage rights and encrypted data object. Replacing the usage rights of one file with the usage rights of another is an example of an attack in this category. The second category comprises attacks undertaken while the data object is decrypted and being used by an authorized user. The goal here is to obtain an unprotected copy of the decrypted data object by directly circumventing the usage rights. To be effective, a rights management system must contain mechanisms that protect against both categories of attack. The second category of attacks highlights the fact that the encrypted data object must eventually be decrypted in order to be accessed by an authorized user. A rights management system may either allow the user to decrypt the data object directly, or it may require the deployment and use of rights-management-aware applications. In many commercial situations, the owner of the protected data object may not want to bother the end user with an explicit encryption and decryption step or may not trust the end user to abide by the usage rights. Thus, the preferred method is to employ rights-management-aware applications that transparently decrypt the data objects for authorized users and enforce the usage rules attached to the objects. Rights-management-aware applications act as trusted agents for the rights management system, enforcing the rules specified by the owners of the protected data objects. Media players that can play music files in encrypted formats are examples of rights-management-aware applications. The closeness of the coupling and the reliance on trusted application agents constitute the fundamental differences between rights management systems and technologies like encrypting file systems. In an encrypting file system (e.g., Microsoft's EFS, U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,866), usage rights are associated only with the computer structure holding the data object (e.g., a file) and not with the data object itself. Since applications are not aware of the usage rights enforced by an encrypting file system, it is fairly simple for a user, who is authorized to access the object but not to change its usage rights, to save the data object in a manner that does not propagate the rights. In particular, an authorized user of a protected file in an encrypting file system needs only to save the file to a directory outside the encrypting file system to create an unencumbered copy of the protected file. The use of rights-management-aware applications allows a rights management system to enforce a tight coupling between an encrypted data object and its associated usage rights. Some designers have chosen to implement this tight coupling by storing the usage rights together with the encrypted data object, producing a new data object that is often referred to as a secure container (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,140). In this approach, usage rights are explicitly tied to a particular copy of the protected data object. This approach works well, for example, in commercial markets like online music where the owner of the data object publishes read-only content and simply wants to maintain control over the usage and distribution of the content. We refer to such rights management systems as supporting publish-only distribution models. A key characteristic of the publish-only distribution model is that the usage rights in the secure container are not expected to change over time. Or if they do change, they change slowly, and the change affects only one end user at a time. To change the usage rights in the publish-only distribution model, the owner must have access to the secure container holding the usage rights. Access to the secure container would enable the rights management system to modify the usage rights stored in the container. If the secure container was not available, the owner can remove the end user's authorization to access the original secure container (e.g., by destroying the decryption key for this container) and re-issue a new secure container to the end user with the same protected data object but new usage rights. This latter approach requires the rights management system to notify the end user of the new secure container, and it requires that the rights management system has a copy of the data object to put into the new secure container. Though these requirements are not an imposition in a domain like online music, they are a serious impediment to dynamic environments, i.e., ones where the usage rights protecting data objects may change frequently and in possibly significant ways. These requirements are also a serious impediment to distributed environments, where multiple users may have individual copies of a protected data object on diverse computer devices and storage media, some of which may not be online or otherwise accessible to the owner of the protected object. Clearly, it is not possible in such environments for the rights management system to have access to all of the copies of the protected object when the owner wishes to make a change to the usage rights of that protected object. It is also not desirable to re-issue a new protected data object to a group of users, since the change in usage rights may affect only a few users and should be unnoticed (transparent) to the rest. Furthermore, it may not even be possible to re-issue the protected data object in a distributed environment where the owner controls the usage rights but does not have a copy of the latest version of the object. In a truly collaborative environment, it's often difficult and sometimes impossible to identify a single “publisher” of collaborative material. For corporate data, it is possible however to identify the “owner” of collaborative material produced for the purposes of a corporation's business. The owner is the company that employs the author or authors of the collaborative works. For collaborative environments then, there is a clear need to distinguish between those who produce sensitive material and those that determine the usage rights of the same material. Authentica has patented a partial solution to the enforcement and management of usage rights for digital data objects in dynamic and distributed environments (U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,721). This approach allows the owner of a digital data object to maintain control over the usage rights even after the protected objects have been distributed to end users. In particular, the approach stores the usage rights of protected objects in a single, central location so that an owner of a protected data object can change the usage rights of that object without requiring simultaneous access to any of the (possibly numerous) copies of the data object. Ideally, this approach allows multiple, distributed copies of the data object to exist while maintaining only a single, authoritative copy of the object's usage rights. Having a single, authoritative copy of the object's usage rights simplifies management of the usage rights. Authentica's approach creates a unique identifier for each segment of protected information. The Authentica key server maintains an association between unique segment identifiers, the usage rights for those segments, and the encryption keys used to protect and access each segment. To access a protected segment, an end user must authenticate to the server and provide the identifier of the protected segment he or she wishes to access. Assuming that the user is authorized to access the protected segment, the server responds with a decryption key for that segment and the usage rights for that segment and user combination. A rights-management-aware application on the end-user's machine uses the server's response to provide the end user with the owner-designated level of access to the protected segment. Though an approach like Authentica's allows the owners of protected data objects to control usage of distributed information and dynamically change that usage information without the need to collect or redistribute the protected data objects, it is not a complete solution to the problems associated with the enforcement and management of usage rights in collaborative environments. In particular, a solution for collaborative environments needs to focus on protecting the products of collaboration in a manner that fits naturally into existing collaborative models. For example, in commercial enterprises, collaboration often produces multiple documents all protected by the same usage rights, and thus a truly collaborative solution should allow for the easy grouping of multiple documents under a single set of usage rights. In addition, it is also often expected that derivative works created during collaboration would also be protected by the usage rights of the collaboration and that changes to these rights would coincide with existing processes for moving a work into a new collaborative setting. Finally, all of the current rights management systems, especially those focused on publish-only distribution models, too tightly control the creation, modification, and distribution of protected documents to be appropriate for protecting the data objects comprising collaborative interactions. An appropriate solution should clearly distinguish between the rights held by “authors” and those held by “owners.” SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Various technologies and inventions in this field, including models of discretionary, mandatory, or role-based access control, and DRM (Digital Rights Management) related technologies have addressed one or another of the requirements mentioned above. The embodiments of the present invention, however, offer a unique approach that addresses all of the necessary features for a rights management system targeting dynamic, distributed, collaborative contexts. Aspects of the invention include a method and a system for maintaining and managing control over data objects authored, accessed, and altered by users in dynamic, distributed, and collaborative contexts. A data object is any audio, graphical, video, or written work encoded in digital form and encapsulated in a computer structure, such as a file, message, or shared memory object, that a software program can access and manipulate. A distributed and collaborative context is one in which groups of one or more users work individually or collaboratively on collections of one or more data objects on a network of computers with at least intermittent connectivity to achieve some common purpose. In the present invention, we refer to this common purpose as a business process. Within a business process, there can be classes of users with different sets of rights and responsibilities. In the present invention, we refer to these classes as roles. The present invention considers a context to be dynamic if properties of the system can change during the lifetime of a business process. For example, the system might allow the set of users belonging to a role to change during a business process, or it might allow the type of control imposed on a data object to change. The invention separates the publication and modification of protected data objects from the ownership and manipulation of the policies controlling the usage of those data objects. Control over a data object is specified by a set of rules describing how software programs run by a computer user in a particular role may access and manipulate the object. In the present invention, we refer to these rules as usage rights. Control policies are signed assertions that describe the conditions under which usage rights are authorized. A control policy comprises at least a list of users who may access the data object, the privileges of those users with access, and an additional list of users who may define or edit the control policy. Policies in the present invention may also define supplemental properties that apply to the objects under its control, to assure authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of those objects. As stated in the previous paragraph, the term ‘control’ as used in the present invention typically implies protection against access by unauthorized users and their applications. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a system and method for obtaining visibility into a business process. Such visibility may be achieved without committing to the risks of securing data objects by encrypting or otherwise changing the actual digital representation of their data objects. When control does not include protection, we obviously cannot ensure that we maintain control against malicious adversaries, i.e. ones that manipulate the protected data objects outside of our protected environment. However, this level of control is still desirable in business situations where an enterprise might want visibility into a business process while their data objects remain in plain text. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for storing control policies on one or more central servers. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for editing control policies, based on an indication of the users that may edit the control policies and the types of changes that those users can perform. Changes to a control policy would be enacted on the server storing that control policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for temporarily changing one or more control policies and then reverting back automatically to the original settings at some point in the future. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for having one or more preset temporary changes that can be enacted by the click of one button and then rolled back on the click of another button. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for attaching to each data object an identification of one (i.e., a respective) control policy. In the present invention, we refer to the control policy whose identification is attached to a data object as the control policy protecting that data object. We also refer to such a data object as a protected data object. A further objective of the present invention is to allow multiple data objects to reference the same control policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system wherein the identification of a control policy specifies the server in whose name space the actual control policy identifier is defined. In the preferred embodiment, the policy reference attached to a data object comprises a server URL and a numerical value known to that server. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for checking by a client connected possibly intermittently to a policy server that a user attempting to create, access, or alter a data object protected by a control policy has the right to perform that action on that data object. If the user has the right, the client allows the requested action to proceed. If the user does not have the right, the client responds with an appropriate error message. In other words, the protection provided by the business process approach does not just protect proprietary, confidential, or otherwise sensitive data objects while they're stored on disk or transmitted over a communication link, but it also protects them while they are operated on by the software applications of authorized users and during inter-application communication (e.g., clipboard operations in the Microsoft Windows operating system). A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system with control policies that may contain conditions that specify device, location, time-of-access, or network connectivity constraints. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system wherein users authorized to edit a control policy can change that policy without physical or electronic access to all data objects protected by the policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system allowing the only authoritative copy (or copies) of a protected data object to be located on computing machines or media of users without the rights to change the control policy protecting the data object. In one embodiment of the invention, there is no notion of registering a protected data object with the policy server before distributing it to other users. This is a key aspect of the system required to support collaborative work that involves creation and modification of data objects on machines of authorized users that may be off-line. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for allowing authorized users to create new protected data objects even when the client that they are working on has lost connectivity with the server of the specified control policy. Authorized users in this circumstance are those users that have the right to create data objects under the control policy. In the preferred embodiment, the user must have had some recent access to the policy server, where “recent” means within the cache timeout period as specified for that policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for two or more authorized users to view protected data objects and work collaboratively on new and existing protected data objects even when one or more of these users' clients may have lost connectivity with the server (or servers) of the control policies protecting the collaborative data objects. The protected data objects may never have been viewed while connected to the server (or servers). The shared data objects may be new, that is, created while the users did not have connectivity with the server. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system in which the storage of the policy server scales in proportion to the number of control policies defined. The storage should not scale in proportion to the number of unique protected data objects nor with the number of copies of these protected data objects. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for grouping control policies into business processes. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for constructing a control policy by identifying one or more roles involved in that control policy. Each role comprises a respective set of usage rights and a list of users. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for aggregating the usage rights of a user appearing in multiple roles contained in a single control policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for differentiating between users with the privilege to administer (create, edit, and delete) business processes and their encompassing control policies from those users with the privilege to modify only the list of users in one or more roles of a control policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system in which the identification of a control policy on a data object can change. This change might cause the data object to be no longer managed by the system. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system allowing users with appropriate usage rights to change the control policy identifications on data objects. A user may be granted the right to unprotect data objects by changing the objects control policy identifier to “unmanaged” or equivalent status. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system with control policies that further define a list of users who may transfer data objects out of the control policy and a separate list of users who may assign the policy to data objects. Both of these actions involve changing the control policy identifier attached to a data object. There may be times when these lists contain no users. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for automating the transfer of data objects between control policies for those users with the privilege to do the transfer and assign manually. The preferred embodiment of this aspect involves integrating a tool into the software component of an existing electronic business process. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for allowing the administrators of business processes to determine the events that cause the automatic transfer of data objects between control policies. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for organizing business processes in a hierarchical manner. Such a hierarchy may be used to limit the scope of transfers of data objects between control policies. It may also be used to define control policies or other properties that are common to several business processes in a single location. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system (e.g., graphical user interface) for displaying and changing the control policy of a protected data object. In one embodiment this is implemented as a drop-down window located in the title bar of the window displaying the data object. This drop-down window is referred to as the droplet control. When a user clicks on the droplet control, a window may open up with several policies and options for selection by the user. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for displaying the list of possible control policies that a user can transfer the current data object to when the user activates the droplet control. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for changing a data object's control policy when a user selects a new control policy in the activated droplet control window of the data object. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for illustrating the hierarchy of control policies within business processes within an activated droplet control window. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for encrypting data objects with a content encryption key (CEK), which is then encrypted with a key encryption key (KEK) of the control policy associated with the data object. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for indicating whether the data objects protected by a control policy should be treated as ephemeral or permanent objects. An ephemeral data object is accessible until some designated future time; after that time, the object becomes inaccessible and unrecoverable. A permanent data object is always accessible or recoverable when presented to the rights management system or its agents. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for forcing all data objects protected by a control policy to become inaccessible and unrecoverable before the designated future time. The business process's administrator can permanently revoke access earlier than planned. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for recording the control policy identifier in a data structure stored with the (possibly encrypted) bits of the protected data object. In the preferred embodiment, we refer to this data structure as the Control Policy Tag (CPT). A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for attaching the CPT to the beginning or end of the protected data object. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for constructing the CPT of a protected data object on either a client or a server machine. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for storing the CEK safely in the CPT. The client can access protected data objects off-line with only cached policy and key (KEK) information because the CPT contains the CEK. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for automatically replacing an expired CPT on a protected data object. Expiration of a CPT may occur because the CPT format has changed or the control policy KEK for the CPT has expired (i.e., gone beyond its validity period). A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system where the trustworthy clients of the rights management system do not need code to interpret old CPT formats. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for indicating that a control policy protects data objects that are read-only or stored on read-only computer media. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for informing an unauthorized user of the system protecting the data object accessed. The preferred embodiment includes a text message in the CPT. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for protecting the integrity of the CPT against tampering. The preferred embodiment uses a secure hash over the CPT fields. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for protecting the confidentiality of a data object's CEK while stored in the CPT. The preferred embodiment encrypts the CEK with the control policy's KEK. The encrypted CEK is protected against known plaintext attacks (i.e. attacks based on the knowledge of identical pieces of two similar documents) by using random seed values and changing the CEK whenever the data object is changed. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for protecting the server and client communication against network-based attacks. The preferred embodiment uses a Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer (HTTPS) connection for communications between the client and server. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for enabling an audit or forensic analysis of a business process based on activities granted and denied within one or more of the control policies of that business process. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for identifying the data objects in an activity log based on unique document identifiers maintained in the CPT. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for allowing the client to access the server at user login time to obtain and cache the control policies in which the user is mentioned. This feature addresses issues arising in collaborative and distributed environments, including intermittent connectivity, off-line usage of protected data objects, and off-line collaboration with others mentioned in the control policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for varying the polling frequency at which clients verify cached policies with the server. The frequency may be set so that the client must always verify the cache policy before permitting access. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for having clients verify and refresh cached policies when network access is restored. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for the server to prompt clients to refresh their cached policies. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for specifying the expiration time of a cached control policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for specifying the validity period of the KEK of a control policy. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for allowing the server to supply a client with a limited history of KEKs for a control policy. The use of an expired policy KEK in a protected data object does not force the client to have to contact the server before accessing the object. Even though a user never accesses a protected data object while online, as long as his or her off-line access occurs within the cache timeout period of the control policy of the data object, the user will not be denied access due to an out-of-date KEK. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an organization structure for rights management policies; FIGS. 2-5 are illustrations of various applications of business processes and control policies; FIG. 6 is an architectural block diagram of main components of one embodiment of the invention; FIG. 7 is a flow diagram describing logic of policy administration; FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of a control policy tag; FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of accessing a protected data object; FIG. 10 is an architectural block diagram of the client agent in another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of client handler processing; FIG. 12 is an illustration of key encryption, key distribution and expiry; FIG. 13 is a second flow diagram of accessing a protected data object; FIG. 14 is a third flow diagram of accessing a protected data object; FIG. 15 is an illustration of control policy display; FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of policy transfer logic; FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of off-line collaboration between two users. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A description of preferred embodiments of the invention follows. The present invention starts with centralized management of usage rights organized in a structure that mirrors the important processes of the business. FIG. 1 illustrates the organizing structure 10 for policies employed in one embodiment of the present invention. A business process 12 represents progressively continuing procedures based on controlled phases or activities that are systematically directed at achieving specific business results. Business processes 12 within the hierarchical organizing structure 10 act as containers that hold one or more control policies 14 . A control policy 14 specifies usage rules that govern how the protected data objects may be used and by whom. Policies typically represent the phases or activities within a business process and are flexible enough to support data classifications (e.g. company confidential, executive only, etc.). Each protected data object (illustrated as a document) is associated with and under the control of a single control policy 14 within a business process 12 . Each control policy 14 specifies one or more roles 16 . A role 16 describes the set of users (or groups) and their privileges on the data managed by a policy 14 . Using the organizing structure 10 in FIG. 1 , the following embodiment of the present invention will allow an organization to retain control of usage and flow of its data objects in a manner that separates rights management actions from physical access to the copies of data objects. For example, assume that we are given a set of data objects, all of which are protected by a single control policy; note that this set may contain only a single data object. The invention and its preferred embodiments guarantee that changes to the control policy will be propagated to end users and ultimately experienced by those users when they next access the data objects protected by that changed policy. This guarantee holds even though access by the owner of the protected data objects to any or all copies of those objects may be impractical or impossible at the time of the change. The preferred embodiments will illustrate how the present invention supports the transparent use of protected data objects in a dynamic, distributed, and collaborative environment, where multiple users are modifying individual copies of protected data objects on diverse computer devices and storage media, some of which may not be online or otherwise accessible to the owner of the protected data objects. The discussion will clearly show that the invention supports the distinction between an information author and owner. It will also illustrate that the invention includes protections against adversaries that would try to attack the association between policies and data objects. As an example of a dynamic, distributed, collaborative environment where we need to protect data objects while simultaneously providing the ability to create, modify, and distribute these protected data objects within the constrains of a policy model, consider a company that wishes to control and protect data objects in compliance with NASD 2711, a regulation that requires a clear and auditable separation of information between the bankers and research analysts in investment banks. FIGS. 2-5 enumerate hypothetical steps in such a dynamic, distributed, and collaborative process. The “NASD 2711” business process 150 comprises three control policies 14 : “Background Research” 152 ( FIG. 2 ); “Industry Review” 154 ( FIGS. 3 and 4 ); and “Publish” 156 ( FIG. 5 ). The “VP Compliance” owns the business process and administers all aspects of it. For the “Background Research” policy 152 in FIG. 2 , she creates two roles: “Analyst” and “Director”. Each person listed in the “Analyst” role is able to create, read, and write reports within the “Background Research” policy. Each person listed in the “Director” role can read (but not write) the report and transfer a copy of such reports to the “Industry Review” policy 154 . The example illustrated in FIG. 2 describes the creation of an analyst report for “Big Motor Co.”, which is protected and controlled by the “NASD 2711” business process 150 . As the figure illustrates, analysts can draft and collaborate on reports (a data object) in this policy 152 , and when they have completed a report, they can forward it to the “Director of Research”, who is a member of the “Director” role, for review and ultimately transfer to compliance. Individuals not listed in one of the roles under the “Background Research” policy 152 are unable to access the reports protected by this policy. FIG. 3 describes the first part of the dynamic “Industry Review” piece 154 of this business process 150 . “Industry Review” comprises a policy with three roles: the “Director” role can read protected data objects in this policy 154 and transfer data objects into the policy 154 ; the “Compliance” role can read the protected data objects, transfer copies of data objects to the “Publish” policy 156 ( FIG. 5 ), and administer membership in the “External Reviewer” role; and the “External Reviewer” role can edit the protected data objects. When the “VP Compliance”, who is a member of the “Compliance” role, receives a protected data object from the “Director of Research”, who is a member of the “Director” role of the “Industry Review” policy 154 , the “VP Compliance” edits the membership of the “External Reviewer” role to allow the “BMCo CFO” and the “Automotive I-Banker” to review and edit the protected analyst report. When the members of the “External Reviewer” role are done with their collaborative interaction, they will send the updated data object back to the “VP Compliance”. The “VP Compliance” can now remove the “BMCo CFO” and the “Automotive I-Banker” from the membership of the “External Reviewer” role (and thus from the “Industry Review” policy 154 ) so that they are no longer able to view reports (subject data object) protected under the “Industry Review” policy, as illustrated in FIG. 4 . Such removal illustrates one aspect of the dynamic nature of the present invention. FIG. 5 completes the progression of the analyst report through the phases of a Big Motor Co. analyst review constrained by the “NASD 2711” business process 150 . FIG. 5 illustrates the three roles within the “Publish” policy 156 , all of which can read but not write the protected data objects. In addition, the “Compliance” role can transfer data objects into the policy 156 , and the “Director” role can administer membership in the “Reader” role. When the “VP Compliance” in the “Compliance” role transfers a copy of an analyst's report to the “Publish” policy 156 , the “Director of Research” in the “Director” role adds the necessary parties (e.g., the sales group and the BMCo CFO) to the “Reader” role and makes the protected analyst report available to the outside world. The block diagram in FIG. 6 illustrates the main architectural components of an embodiment of the present invention and the primary interactions between these architectural components. A user 20 uses a rights-management-aware application 21 to operate on a protected data object 32 . The protected data object 32 comprises an encrypted data object 22 and a tag 23 . In some embodiments, the data object 32 may not be encrypted. The reference monitor 24 in the client agent 26 intercepts operation requests on the data of the protected data object 32 by the rights-management-aware application 21 . This monitor uses the tag 23 on the protected data object 32 to obtain the usage rights in the policy protecting this data object 22 for the user 20 . The client agent 26 may have to communicate with the policy manager 27 on the policy server 29 to obtain the details of the control policy identified by the tag 23 . Assuming the user 20 has the right to perform the requested operation, the crypto engine 25 in the client agent 26 will perform the appropriate encryption operation for the requested operation on the data object 22 . The encryption key required to perform this operation was originally obtained from the key manager 28 on the policy server 29 as part of control policy request and reply actions. The control policies stored on the policy server 29 may be created and edited by an appropriately authorized user 30 using a policy administration application 31 , which interacts with the policy manager 27 on the policy server 29 . A particular embodiment may use multiple policy servers. Multiple servers may be used for the purpose of improved reliability or load balancing. In a particular embodiment, the client agent 26 may have only intermittent connectivity with the policy server 29 . Though the invention supports the propagation of modified usage rights to the copies of the effected data objects in a timely manner, the definition of “timely” is set by the users 30 authorized to manage policies. For example, in some commercial situations, timely might mean that all accesses to a data object after modification of its usage rights would be governed by the new rights. In other situations where the commercial environment calls for limited “off-line” access to protected data objects, timely might mean that the usage rights are updated once the local agent for the rights management system comes back online. Rights-management-aware Applications The client application 21 in FIG. 6 is described as a rights-management-aware application that cooperates with the client agent 26 of the rights management system to enforce the policies stored on the policy server 29 . There exist numerous methods for creating such a rights-management-aware application. We might code the application 21 to interact directly with the client agent 26 . Alternatively, we might code an application 21 to load and use a set of rights management libraries with standard interfaces. We would then implement a version of these rights management libraries that would manage all interactions with the client agent 26 . Finally, the system on which the application 21 runs might inject the client agent 26 into applications to create rights-management-aware applications, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/194,655, filed on Jul. 11, 2002 by Bala and Smith, entitled “METHOD FOR PROTECTING DIGITAL CONTENT FROM UNAUTHORIZED USE BY AUTOMATICALLY AND DYNAMICALLY INTEGRATING A CONTENT-PROTECTION AGENT” herein incorporated by reference. In general, client-centric processing based on reference monitoring, as illustrated in FIG. 6 , enables applications to become trusted agents of the rights management system and thus provide for local enforcement of the specified usage rights, even when the client machines are disconnected from the rest of the rights management system. Embodiments employing dynamic injection enable existing as well as new applications to become immediate participants in the rights management system. Policies and Policy Administration In the embodiment explained below, a control policy 14 comprises at least a list of the users authorized to access the data objects protected by that policy, a digest of the privileges granted to each user in the authorization list, a current Key Encryption Key (KEK), and a unique identifier (i.e., the Policy ID used in tags 23 ). Control policies 14 may also contain conditions on those privileges; these conditions may specify additional device, location, time-of-access, or network-connectivity constraints. The present invention differentiates between the set of users 20 authorized to access data objects protected by a policy (mentioned above) and the set of users 30 to administer (i.e. create, edit, and delete) control policies and the encompassing business processes. Notice that a user might be a member of both sets of users 20 , 30 . To better address business process needs of enterprises, the preferred embodiment supports three explicit types of administrative users: information technology (IT) administrators; business process owners; and business role administrators. IT administrators are those users that have administrative access to the policy server 29 in FIG. 6 . Their task is to maintain the computing infrastructure required by the policy server; the IT administrators are not needed to perform the business-related administrative aspects of policy management. A business process owner is a user with the right to administer a specified business process. A business process owner may edit all aspects of the control policies 14 within the owned business process, but he or she cannot modify other business processes (unless the user is also the business process owner of those other business processes as well). A business role administrator is a user that may modify the user lists within the roles of a specified control policy 14 . A business role administrator has a subset of the privileges granted to the business process owner of the business process in which the business role administrator is named. To facilitate further categorization of an enterprise's business processes and directly reflect the hierarchical nature of business process management, one preferred embodiment supports the organizing of defined business processes in a hierarchical manner. For example, consider a collection of business processes that are organized as a tree. The business process at the root of the tree represents the topmost context, and the business processes at the leaves of the tree are the individual components of the business process at the root. Additional interior tree nodes may be used to represent major categories within the overall business process. Such a hierarchy organized as a tree may be used to indicate the user or users that are able to administer all of the business processes within a subtree of the hierarchy. Similarly, the indicated users might be able to administer only the roles within that subtree. FIG. 7 describes the logic of the policy administration application 31 in FIG. 6 . The process begins in step 40 with a user starting the policy administration application 31 and connecting to a policy server 29 . In one embodiment, the policy administration application 31 is a J2EE web application. At step 41 , the system verifies that the user is an authorized administrator, identifies the type of administrator that the user is, and determines the types of operations that the user can perform on the policy database. If the user is not authorized to perform any actions or even view the database, an error message is displayed in Step 42 . Step 43 presents a view of the business processes, their control policies, and associated roles that the authorized user can administer; the view depends upon the rights of the authorized user. Step 43 then waits for the user to select an action that modifies the database of business processes. An authorized user may choose to create or edit a business process, control policy 14 , or role list, as illustrated in step 44 . All changes performed by the user are logged and committed in step 46 . The changes are then displayed to the user in Step 43 . By logging the changes, the system may allow authorized users to undo an earlier change to the database on the policy server 29 . In particular, Step 43 also allows the user to rollback a set of committed changes, as illustrated in step 45 . This action is also logged and committed in step 46 . Steps 43 through 46 are repeated until the user exits the policy administration application 31 . All of these steps can occur without any access to or knowledge of the exact data objects protected by the changed business processes and policies on the policy server 29 . Security Knob One preferred embodiment of the invention uses the rollback feature mentioned above to implement a one-click security setting that can be enabled or disabled in a dynamic manner. We colloquially call the one-click security setting the security knob. In the simplest case, consider a business process with two security alert states: normal and lock-down. “Normal” is the default security state; the enterprise proceeds without any special considerations beyond the policies enforced in the normal day-to-day workflow of this business process. The security officers and business process owners have together also defined a set of changes to this business process that should go into effect whenever the business process is “under attack” or otherwise vulnerable (e.g., vulnerable to an identified and determined adversary, or vulnerable to potential violations of a governmental regulation during some critical time period). When applied to the appropriate pieces of the business process, these set of changes comprise the “lock-down” security state. A key aspect of this feature is that an enterprise or business process owner may want to enter this “lock-down” security state quickly and only for a temporary time period. Once the threat or vulnerability has passed, the system should revert to the policy characteristics defined for the “normal” security state. It would be too slow, error-prone, and tedious to edit each of the pieces of a business process every time the enterprise or business process owner wanted to enter or exit the “lock-down” security state. To implement this capability, one embodiment would create a set of log events that would automatically be applied when the security knob was set to a pre-defined setting. The log events for the “lock-down” security state described above could be captured by simply having the authorized administrator perform the changes to the current business process (i.e. “normal” security state), having the system log and store those changes under the appropriate security setting identifier (i.e., “lock-down”), and not having those changes actually applied to the database at the time of definition. The log events for the transition from “lock-down” to “normal” are simply those used to revert from the “lock-down” change. To keep the security setting coherent, the system would ask the user if he or she also wanted to change, for example, the “lock-down” security state while the authorized user was making changes to the business process under the “normal” security state. Those of ordinary skill in the art should recognize the methods of extending this two-setting security knob example and implementation to one that implements an n-setting security knob, for any specific n greater than 2. Policy Deletion Since the system does not have access to all of the data objects 32 protected by a control policy 14 when that policy is modified, we must be careful when “deleting” a control policy. First, we cannot reuse a control policy identifier from a “deleted” control policy for a new policy, since any data object 32 protected by the “deleted” policy would then appear to be part of the new control policy. We might also want some privileged user to be able to recover data objects from “deleted” control policies. In the preferred embodiment, we use a globally unique identifier (GUID) as the identifier on a control policy 14 , ensuring that no two control policies 14 ever get the same identifier. When an authorized administrative user deletes a control policy, the system removes the control policy from the system (possibly logging the action and the deleted information) so that data objects protected by the “deleted” control policy will appear as data objects that users are not authorized to access. Recovering a protected data object is handled through the “disaster recovery” mechanism described later. Encryption and the Control Policy Tag (CPT) To ensure continuous protection of and control over a data object 22 , a preferred embodiment of the current invention encrypts the data object 22 when it is not being accessed by rights-management-aware application. To each encrypted data object 22 , the system attaches a Control Policy Tag (CPT). FIG. 8 is an abstract representation of the control policy tag 23 of the protected data object 32 in FIG. 6 . The CPT contains the content encryption key (CEK) used to encrypt the data object 22 . (We describe all of the fields of the CPT below.) The CPT is also the mechanism by which policies in the rights management system are associated with data objects. The combination of an encrypted (or encryptable) data object 22 and its CPT is called a protected data object 32 . For each data object 22 , the rights management system generates a pseudo-random number that it uses as a symmetric key for encrypting and decrypting the data object 22 . This process effectively produces a unique CEK for each data object. The control policy tag 23 in FIG. 8 is a data structure with fields that provide identity information, encryption information, and integrity information. Though the fields may appear in any order, a client agent 26 must always be able to find and interpret the CPT version 51 and length 52 fields. The version field 51 identifies the version of the CPT structure being used. This field allows the system designers to change the format or contents of the CPT in the future and yet still be able to access content protected by old as well as new CPT structures (see FIG. 14 and its associated explanation below). The version field 51 may begin with a “magic number” that content filtering applications can use to identify the data object 32 as one encrypted and protected under the current invention. This “magic number” could, for example, be used by anti-virus scanning applications to know that the protected data object 32 is encrypted (and presumably free of viruses due to a scan before encryption). The length field 52 specifies the size of the CPT in bytes. The text message field 53 is an optional field that explains to an unauthorized user (or users executing programs not under control of the rights management system) that the attached data object 32 is protected and where to go to get more information. This field is optional; some deployments may choose greater secrecy (no information provided to unauthorized users) over ease-of-use concerns (informing users how they can become part of the rights management system). The control policy id field 54 identifies the control policy 14 that protects the attached data object. This field contains a globally unique identifier (GUID). The control policy id field 54 may also specify (e.g., via a URL) the policy server 29 in whose name space the GUID is known. The object id field 55 is another optional field; it specifies a unique identifier for each data object 22 . Each protected data object 32 is encrypted with a secret key, called the Content Encryption Key (CEK), and this key is stored in at least two places in the CPT structure 23 , labeled Encrypted CEK 56 and 57 . One of these two fields 56 , 57 contains the CEK encrypted with the policy server's KEK. The other field contains the CEK encrypted with the Key Encryption Key (KEK) of the policy identified in the control policy id field 54 . The KEKs may be either symmetric or asymmetric keys. For the rest of the description of the preferred embodiment, we will assume that a KEK comprises a public/private key pair. Another embodiment may include additional KEK fields that support role-based KEKs. In this manner, an administrator could specify unique key properties (e.g., shorter off-line access) for certain roles. Since an embodiment of the present invention may use one or more different content encryption algorithms, the encryption algorithm id field 58 identifies the actual algorithm and other definable properties (e.g., key length) used to encrypt the data object with the CEK. The final field, the integrity check field 59 , is used to ensure that no one has tampered with the fields in the CPT 23 . It may contain, for example, a secure hash of the entire CPT. If the data object is tagged but not encrypted, the two encrypted CEK fields 56 and 57 and the encryption algorithm id field 58 are zeroed. Control policies 14 are considered an integral part of a protected data object 32 , accompanying the data object even as it moves among computers and their internal structures (e.g., file systems and memory buffers). The CPT, which references the governing control policy through the control policy id field 54 and contains the CEK secured by the control policy's KEK, is propagated with the encrypted data object 22 until explicitly removed by an authorized user through an embodiment of the rights management system of the present invention. An explicit decision of the present invention is to allow multiple data objects 32 to refer to and be protected by a single control policy 14 . The CPT structure described above clearly supports this decision. The embodiment also emphasizes the fact that the value in the control policy id field 54 of the CPT does not uniquely identify a document (as a unique document identifier would do). The policy server 29 of FIG. 6 stores only the details of control policies 14 and not the association between data objects 32 and control policies 14 . The association between data objects and control policies is stored only in the CPT 23 of the protected data objects 32 . This design implies that the storage of the policy server 29 dedicated to policies 14 scales in proportion to the number of control policies 14 defined. The storage of the policy server is not affected by the number of unique protected data objects 32 . It is also not affected by the number of copies of these protected data objects. The preferred embodiment of the present invention has the CPT 23 located in front of the data object 32 (i.e. the CPT is encountered before the data object when scanning a protected data object 32 starting with the first byte of the protected data object). A different embodiment could place the CPT at the end or at any other explicit location within the protected data object 32 . The preferred embodiment allows both the policy server 29 and the client agent 26 of FIG. 6 to construct CPTs 23 . Reference Monitoring FIG. 9 describes the logic followed by the reference monitor 24 of FIG. 6 on an operation that accesses a protected data object 32 . Given a particular operation, the reference monitor 24 in step 61 first determines if the operation accesses a protected data object 32 . This check involves looking for a CPT 23 on the data object. If no CPT exists, the reference monitor 24 allows the application 21 to continue at step 62 . If a CPT 23 exists, the monitor 24 in step 63 checks the CPT's version field 51 and determines if the version of the CPT is the current version. If it is not, the reference monitor proceeds to step 64 , which is explained in FIG. 14 . If the monitor 24 can interpret the CPT 23 , the monitor in step 65 proceeds to check the integrity of the CPT via field 59 ( FIG. 8 ). If the CPT has been tampered with, the monitor 24 displays an error message in step 66 ; otherwise, in step 67 it uses the control policy id (field 54 , FIG. 8 ) in the CPT along with the user's authentication credentials to determine the user's usage rights for this protected data object 32 . Given a set of usage rights, the monitor in step 68 determines if the user is authorized to perform the requested operation. If not, the monitor 24 in step 69 inhibits the application 21 from performing the requested operation and displays an appropriate error message. If the user appears in multiple roles under the corresponding (associated) control policy 14 , the preferred embodiment aggregates the usage rights for each of the roles containing the user. This aggregation yields a set of usage rights that contains all of the positive rights of that user's individual roles. Clearly, another embodiment might use a different aggregation method. If the operation is authorized, the monitor 24 in step 70 uses the KEK of the control policy 14 identified in the CPT to decrypt the CEK used to encrypt and decrypt the contents of the subject protected data object 32 . The sections on CPT update and disaster recovery below describe some exceptional conditions that may occur during the processing of step 70 in some embodiments. Finally, given a decrypted CEK, the monitor 24 in step 72 uses the CEK to either decrypt the encrypted contents on a read operation or encrypt new contents on a write operation. Architecture of Client Agent 26 FIG. 10 illustrates the details of the preferred embodiment of the client architecture of the present invention. This embodiment splits the client agent 26 of FIG. 6 into a client handler process 82 and an integration bundle 84 . There is one client handler process 82 per user machine. The integration bundle 84 could be implemented as a single dynamically linked library that would be loaded into each process running on the user machine. The integration bundle 84 contains the reference monitor 83 and crypto engine 85 analogous to those 24 , 25 described in FIG. 6 . The client handler process 82 acts as a local proxy for the policy server 29 of FIG. 6 . The client handler process 82 contains a policy service and cache 86 for caching and managing control policies 14 received from the policy manager 27 of FIG. 6 , and it contains a key service and cache 87 for securely caching and managing KEKs from the key manager 28 of FIG. 6 . Under this embodiment, the reference monitor 83 requests the policy KEK from the key service and cache 87 in the client handler process 82 in order to extract the CEK for a protected document from its CPT (step 70 of FIG. 9 ). Once the CEK is obtained, the integration bundle 84 scrubs the KEK from its memory and passes the CEK to the crypto engine 85 . The client handler process 82 also includes a logging service 88 for collecting log information from each integration bundle 84 and eventually passing that log information back to the policy server 29 of FIG. 6 . FIG. 11 describes the logic followed by the client handler process 82 of FIG. 10 . The handler sits in an event loop waiting for one of the several events labeled on the outgoing edges of step 90 . When a new user logs in and authenticates to the client machine, the client handler process 82 will request all policies 14 on the policy server 29 related to the user, as stated in step 91 . On a regular polling interval, the handler process 82 in step 92 checks the policy server 29 for new policies 14 related to the logged-in user or changes to the cached policies 14 . Some control policies 14 state how long they can be cached and used off-line. When such policies timeout, the handler process 82 in step 93 will re-fetch expired policies 14 from the policy server 29 . The control policy KEK can also expire; the embodiment's handling of this time out condition is described below in the section labeled “Expired KEKs and CPT Update.” The preferred embodiment currently implements a three-way toggle (labeled Basic, Standard, and High) for setting control policy KEK expiry periods and cache timeout values. The policy KEK validity period and length of time before cached policy timeout are longer in the “Low” setting than the “Medium” setting, providing more potential exposure if a KEK is compromised or a control policy changed. The “High” setting provides the highest level of security and thus lowest level of exposure; however, it also implies that users can work off-line for shorter periods of time. Each deployment of the embodiment of the present invention will select control policy KEK expiry periods and cache timeout values according to their level of risk tolerance and need for off-line use of protected data objects 32 . Finally, the policy server 29 can prompt the handler processes 82 of online clients to flush and refresh their cached policies, as stated in step 94 . Off-line clients will synchronize their cached policy stores with the policy server 29 when again connected. For steps 91 - 94 , the client handler process 82 in step 95 will check to make sure that the necessary network communication occurred. If everything was successful, the handler process 82 in step 96 will cache the received control policies 14 in secure storage. If the client had no network connectivity with the policy server 29 , the handler process 82 in step 97 will record the missed event for replay later in steps 98 and 99 , after network connectivity is restored. Expired KEKs and CPT Update The CPT 23 of a protected data object 32 is the only structure in the present invention that contains the CEK used to encrypt the data object 32 . As explained earlier, the CEK is encrypted with the KEK of the control policy 14 identified in the control policy id field 54 of FIG. 8 . To limit the risks associated with a compromised KEK, the system limits the lifetime of such encryption keys. This means however that a protected data object 32 in the field may be no longer accessible once its control policy KEK expires. Since the system does not have access to all data objects protected by a control policy 14 when the policy's KEK expires, the system must have a mechanism for allowing access to data objects protected with an expired KEK and eventually lazily updating the CPT 23 of those data objects with the control policy's current KEK. The policy server 29 of FIG. 6 is responsible for defining and managing the lifetime of each control policy KEK. The preferred embodiment of the present invention assigns a unique identifier to each KEK within a control policy 14 . Using key manager 28 , the policy server 29 stores the current KEK and maintains a history of KEKs for each active control policy 14 . This history may contain all KEKs ever generated for a control policy 14 , or it may contain only a limited number of the most recent expired KEKs for that policy. To let the client agent 26 of FIG. 6 determine if it has the correct KEK for decrypting the CEK of a protected data object 32 , the encrypted CEK fields 56 and 57 of FIG. 8 include the (plaintext) value of the KEK unique identifier used to encrypt the CEK. To increase the probability that the client of an authorized user has the KEK necessary to decrypt the CEK of a protected data object 32 , the preferred embodiment of the present invention (e.g., policy server 29 ) distributes to the client agent 26 not only the current KEK for a control policy 14 but also some portion of the most recent stored history of KEKs for the control policy. The length of the distributed history is less than or equal to the length of the history maintained on the policy server 29 by key manager 28 . We will consider two cases associated with an attempt to access a protected data object 32 with a CEK encrypted with an expired control policy KEK; we consider further cases in the later section entitled “Disaster Recovery and CPT Version Control.” Both of the current cases assume that the policy server 29 maintains a complete history of expired KEKs and distributes only a limited number of the most recently expired keys to the client agent 26 . We assume that it is not practical for the policy server 29 to distribute a complete history of expired KEKs to every client agent 26 . FIG. 12 illustrates the scenario for an embodiment that distributes the current and past three expired KEKs 125 to the client agent 26 ; the figure assumes that a KEK comprises a key pair 121 a,b. In the first case, if the expired control policy KEK is one of the ones sent by the server 29 in the distributed history, the client agent 26 is able to decrypt the CEK, use this CEK to access the protected data object 32 , and create a new CPT for the protected data object 32 that uses the control policy's current KEK. All of this occurs without any involvement of the user or further communication with the policy server 29 , i.e. it could occur even while the client was off-line. The second case solves the problem that the expired KEK is not part of the history distributed to the client agent 26 . To recover from this situation, the client agent 26 must be online and able to communicate with the policy server 29 , since the policy server maintains a complete history expired KEKs for the control policy 14 of the protected data objects 32 . The preferred embodiment simply has the client agent 26 request the particular expired KEK of the control policy 14 of interest. When the policy server 29 responds with the appropriate archived KEK, the client proceeds as above (as if it found the expired KEK in the distributed history). FIG. 12 also illustrates that there may exist times when a control policy 14 has no current KEK, due to the expiration of the current KEK. The preferred embodiment of the current invention generates a new KEK for a policy only when a client agent 26 asks for the user-specific usage rules and current KEK of a control policy (step 91 of FIG. 11 ). To guarantee that the client agent 26 does not have to wait an excessive amount of time for step 91 of FIG. 11 to complete, the policy server 29 does cache a set of pre-generated KEKs. This cache of KEKs is used to satisfy demands for a new current KEK in response to a client agent's 26 request for a control policy 14 without a current KEK. The cache of pre-generated KEKs is managed using a simple low and high watermark scheme well known to those practiced in the art. This approach in the preferred embodiment guarantees that the policy server 29 does not generate a large number of unused KEKs that it would need to archive for control policies 14 with protected data objects 32 that experience long periods of inactivity. Persistence Models for Protected Data Objects The present invention supports two explicit persistence models for protected data objects 32 . In general, the protected data objects 32 of a control policy 14 are either considered permanent or ephemeral assets. In the “permanent” model, protected data objects 32 within a control policy 14 are considered permanent assets that should be protected and never lost. The preferred embodiment implements this model by encrypting the CEK of each protected data object 32 with the public master KEK of the policy server 29 . This encrypted value is stored in the one of the encrypted CEK fields (e.g., field 56 of FIG. 8 ); the other field (field 57 of FIG. 8 ) contains the CEK encrypted with the current KEK of the control policy identified in field 54 of FIG. 8 . The next section, entitled “Disaster Recovery and CPT Version Control”, describes how the preferred embodiment uses the private master KEK to be always able to recover the CEK of a protected data object 32 . For now, we simply state that the master KEK of the policy server 29 also has a validity period, except that the validity period of the master KEK is typically longer than those assigned to control policy KEKs. The validity period can be longer because, as explained in the next section, the private portion of the master KEK is never distributed to the client agents 26 (i.e., it is used only on the policy server 29 ). Since the master KEK has a validity period, the preferred embodiment also associates a unique identifier with each generated master KEK of the policy server 29 , and this identifier is stored with the encrypted CEK in field 56 of FIG. 8 . Thus, contents stored in the storage for fields 56 and 57 in FIG. 8 are identical. In the “ephemeral” model, protected data objects 32 within a control policy 14 are considered ephemeral assets that should be protected for some pre-determined period of time and then destroyed. By “destroyed” we mean that it is theoretically impossible to recover the plaintext of the protected data object 32 . The preferred embodiment implements the “ephemeral” model by encrypting the CEK in the CPT 23 not with the policy server's master KEK but with a “policy master” KEK (field 56 of FIG. 8 ). The system never encrypts the CEK of the protected data object 32 with the server's master KEK. The policy master KEK has all of the same attributes as the server master KEK (e.g., it has a very long expiration time, never leaves the server 29 , and supports recovery of the CEK as long as it is archived). When the owner of an ephemeral policy decides that it is time to permanently destroy all data objects associated with that policy 14 , he or she simply requests that all archived copies of the policy master KEKs for that policy be deleted on the policy server 29 . Disaster Recovery and CPT Version Control There are many types of disasters that an embodiment of the present invention must protect against and recover from (e.g., loss of the policy store and restoration of that store from backups). In this section, we focus on two unique aspects of the present invention's disaster recovery mechanisms. The first concerns embodiments that maintain only a limited history of control policy KEKs (or have through some catastrophic event lost all of the archived KEKs for one or more control policies 14 ). The second describes support within the present invention for forward and backward compatibility of CPT formats. This feature is again necessary to address the dynamic nature of the enterprise security space and to ensure that the system is always able to recover the CEK stored in the CPT 23 of a protected data object 32 that may not have been referenced for years. FIG. 13 expands upon the logic followed by the reference monitor 24 of FIG. 6 in step 70 of FIG. 9 . At this point, the monitor 24 attempts to extract the CEK of the protected data object 32 from the CPT 23 (both of FIG. 6 ). The client agent 26 already has the current KEK and some number (possibly zero) expired KEKs of the subject control policy 14 . The monitor 24 compares (step 110 ) the unique identifier of the current KEK with the unique identifier (stored in field 57 of FIG. 8 ) of the KEK used to encrypt the CEK. If the identifiers match, the monitor 24 proceeds with decryption of the encrypted CEK, as stated in step 115 of FIG. 13 . As described above, the KEK for the control policy can expire; the embodiment identifies such an occurrence by noticing that none of the unique identifiers of the stored KEKs match the unique identifier of the KEK used to encrypt the CEK. To recover, in step 111 , the monitor 24 extracts the CPT 23 and sends it to the policy server 29 with a request for the server to encrypt the CEK with the current policy KEK. The server 29 in step 112 recovers the CEK by using the appropriate master KEK (server or policy), as indicated by the unique identifier stored with the encrypted CEK. The server 29 in step 113 returns the updated CPT to client agent 26 . The client agent 26 in step 114 retrieves the CEK from the received CPT, generates a new CEK, wraps it into an updated CPT, and replaces the original CPT 23 if the protected data object 32 is not marked read-only or stored on read-only media, and proceeds to step 115 using the updated CPT. The client may cache the received CPT in the case where the data object 32 is marked read-only. The preferred embodiment treats the versioning of CPT formats as a disaster recovery problem. This approach allows the embodiment to distribute client agents 26 with code that only knows how to interpret the current CPT format and how to recover from disasters. FIG. 14 describes the logic followed by the reference monitor 24 of FIG. 6 when it gets to step 64 of FIG. 9 . The monitor 24 reaches this logic when the version of the CPT 23 of a protected data object 32 (both of FIG. 6 ) does not match the CPT version supported by the monitor 24 . The reference monitor 24 in the client agent 26 in step 100 extracts the entire CPT from the protected data object 32 . In step 101 , the client agent 26 sends the extracted CPT to the policy server 29 with a request to convert the CPT to the specified version that the client agent 26 supports. The server 29 in step 102 uses the version field 51 of the CPT to select the correct converter routine, which simply maps the fields in the given version of the CPT data structure to the fields in the specified version (possibly using a canonical intermediate form). Notice that only the server 29 needs to have the entire set of converter codes. During this conversion, the server 29 in step 103 decrypts the CEK using either the indicated control policy KEK or the master KEK, and re-encrypts the CEK with the current control policy KEK and master KEK. The server 29 in step 104 returns the updated CPT to client agent 26 . The client in step 105 extracts the current CEK, renews the CEK, updates the received CPT, caches the updated CPT, replaces the original CPT if the protected data object 32 is not marked read-only or stored on read-only media, and proceeds to step 65 of FIG. 9 using the updated CPT. Read-Only Protected Data Objects So far, the description has generally assumed a collaborative environment involving the creation and modification of protected data objects 32 . The preferred embodiment also supports a publish-only model of document generation and distribution. In particular, the preferred embodiment allows the business process administrator to indicate that the KEK for a control policy 14 should always remain valid. This option is desirable when the administrator knows that the data objects protected by the control policy 14 are read-only or are stored on read-only computer media. Even though the system cannot update the CPT 23 of a read-only data object 32 , it may still want to expire the policies 14 associated with read-only documents in the client's policy cache 86 to restrict the length of time allowed for off-line viewing of read-only data objects. Policy Identification and Data Object Transfer FIG. 15 illustrates how the preferred embodiment displays the name for the control policy 14 currently protecting the data object displayed in a computer window. The subject control policy name is displayed in a drop-down window object called the droplet control 120 . When activated, the drop-down window displays the name of the business process 122 containing the active control policy 124 , and the other business processes 12 and control policies 14 that the user may transfer the protected data object to. In one embodiment, an ActiveX Window supports droplet control 120 . Contents and hierarchy of same are obtained from policy server 29 via cache 86 , tag 23 and/or client handler 82 as further explained below. FIG. 16 describes the logic involved in transferring a data object (represented by a document) between control policies 14 . The transferring of a protected data object 32 from one control policy 14 to another is an important aspect of a dynamic, distributed, and collaborative environment, as described earlier in reference to FIGS. 2-5 . In particular, the preferred embodiment allows business process owners (i.e. business administrators) to specify the flow of information between control policies 14 within or between business processes 12 . The business process owners define the flows while authorized users perform the actual transferring of protected data objects. Often a transfer will occur as part of normal workflow. An authorized user in step 130 opens a document in a rights-management-aware application 21 . This might be a new document 22 (data object), in which case the client agent 26 in step 132 displays the default “Unmanaged” control policy in droplet control 120 . Alternatively, this might be an existing protected document, in which case the agent 26 in step 132 displays the name of the control policy protecting the document 22 in the droplet control 120 . The user in step 134 edits and further manipulates open document within the usage rights specified by the control policy 14 for that user. The logic flow from step 134 back to itself represents the fact that such editing may continue for some unspecified and extended period of time. At some point, the user in step 136 may decide to activate the droplet control 120 and select a new control policy 14 to which he would like to transfer the protected document. After selection, the agent 26 in step 138 creates a new CPT 23 with the selected control policy identifier in it and tags the document 22 with it. If specified in the control policy 14 , an authorized user may in step 136 select the “Unmanaged” control policy, in which case the agent 26 in step 138 does not create a new CPT, deletes the existing CPT, and decrypts the document 22 . After step 138 , the user can continue to edit the document 22 under the constraints of the new control policy 14 . Each control policy 14 in the system records a list of users with the authority to transfer data objects 22 out of the protection provided by that control policy. The control policy 14 also contains a list of users with the authority to assign new data objects 22 to the control policy. In order for a user to transfer a data object 22 from its current control policy 14 to a new control policy, the user must be a member of the “transfer-out” list of the current control policy 14 and a member of the “assign-to” list of the new control policy 14 . “Transfer” rights are not necessary, i.e. the “transfer-out” and “assign-to” lists of a control policy 14 can be empty. However, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, at least one of the roles in a control policy 14 will allow users to assign data objects 22 to the policy 14 . If none of the roles has assign privileges, the policy 14 would not have any meaning (i.e., it would never have objects associated with it). The “assign-to” list may become empty because the privilege was needed only initially to assign data objects to the control policy 14 . For instance, a member may have “assign-to” privileges during the initial creation of the policy and assignment of data objects to the policy. After this initialization, the “assign-to” privilege is removed and the policy 14 controls a fixed set of objects. In general, the preferred embodiment supports three kinds of “transfers” within the hierarchy of business processes 12 ( FIG. 1 ): (a) An authorized user may be granted the privilege of changing the association between a data object 22 and its control policy 14 within a single business process 12 . (b) A user may also be granted the privilege of moving data objects 22 between business processes 12 . (c) A user may also be granted the privilege of moving data objects 22 out of the rights management system, i.e. the data object 22 resulting from the transfer is no longer managed or protected. The types of transfers described above can be explicitly initiated by an authorized user through the droplet control 120 described earlier, or transfers can be implicitly initiated as a byproduct of some other electronic action undertaken by the authorized user. We refer to this latter category as “automatic transfers.” The policy 14 associated with a data object 22 may be changed automatically via merge operations (e.g., cut/paste operations). The preferred embodiment of the present invention implements the following kinds of automatic transfers on merge operations: If a protected data object 32 is pasted into an unmanaged data object, the targeted data object assumes the policy 14 of the pasted object. If the protected data object is pasted into a protected data object with a different policy 14 , the target object maintains its policy and the paste is allowed to complete only if the source data object's policy allows transfer and the target data object's policy allows assign. The preferred embodiment of the present invention implements “automatic transfers” by integrating a standalone transfer tool into a software component of an existing electronic business process. For example, a report generator for a large database system might be modified to use the standalone transfer tool to produce reports as protected data objects 32 under a pre-configured control policy 14 . As another example, an email server might be configured to use the standalone transfer tool as a type of filter (i.e. exploiting those interfaces used by anti-virus filters) to transfer automatically data objects from one control policy 14 to another based on the people or groups in the “to” and “from” fields of an email message. An automatic transfer would take place only if the sender of the email message had the appropriate transfer rights. Such an embodiment would also want to employ digital signatures to ensure that the email message actually came from the person specified in the “from” field. Off-line Collaboration Collaboration in a dynamic and distributed environment implies that the only authoritative copy of a protected data object 32 may reside in the field, away from the policy server 29 , and in locations not accessible by the business process owner. A system in support of dynamic, distributed, and collaborate environments must make it easy for two (or more) authorized users to generate and share protected data objects 32 both on and off-line. The preferred embodiment of the present invention supports such a goal with the only criterion that the authorized users must have had some recent access to the policy server 29 , where “recent” means within the cache timeout for the control policy 14 under which they wish to collaborate. In other words, collaboration is driven by pre-defined business processes 12 and not by pre-registered data objects 32 . FIG. 17 presents a flow diagram illustrating collaboration between two users within a rights management system 200 based on the present invention, where the collaboration occurs through a document (data object 22 ) that was never known to the policy server 29 . Step 140 begins with an administrator creating a control policy P that includes both users A and B in roles. Users A and B in step 141 are logged in to their laptops connected to the corporate network where the policy server 29 is located. In step 142 , the client handler processes 82 on the users' laptops cache the control policy P and its KEK. Users of A and B in step 143 then disconnect from the corporate network and take their laptops to an off-site meeting. At this point, the client handler processes 82 are prepared to permit any collaborative activity within the bounds of the cached control policies 14 ; the client handler processes 82 act as trusted agents of the rights management system 200 . While off-line, user A in step 144 creates a sensitive data object D (in the example, a document) and protects it with control policy P. This action takes place while user A is disconnected from the policy server 29 . Since control policy P is cached on user A's laptop, he or she is able to create and protect document D. User A in step 145 gives a copy of document D to user B. User B in step 146 is able to edit protected document D on his or her laptop while also disconnected from the policy server 29 . The collaboration of users A and B around document D (or any other document protected by control policy P) continues in step 147 , as long as no expiry periods occur. Audits, Forensics, and Compliance The preferred embodiment of the present invention supports logging of the activities (granted and denied) monitored and controlled by the client agent 26 of FIG. 6 . The logging service 88 in FIG. 10 collects the log data from the individual rights-management-aware applications 21 and communicates the data back to the policy server 29 . The collected information can then be reviewed and mined by the business process owner to support business needs, such as audits, forensics, and compliance. Auditing the activities associated with the data objects 32 of a business process 12 does not necessarily require encryption of the identified data objects 32 . In one embodiment of the invention, the identified data objects 32 may be simply “managed” and not “protected.” In other words, auditing requires only that an identified data object 32 have a CPT 23 ; it does not require that the contents 22 of that data object 32 be encrypted. The object id field 55 in the CPT 23 ( FIG. 8 ) aids in audits, forensics, and compliance. It is a globally unique identifier generated when the client agent 26 first creates a protected data object 32 . If the new data object 22 was generated from an existing protected data object (e.g., via a “Save As” command), a log record is written linking the new and existing data objects using their object identifier 55 values. Otherwise, the system 200 records that the new protected data object 32 was generated from scratch or from an unmanaged data object 22 . This example emphasizes the fact that the preferred embodiment of the present invention uses object identifiers only for audits, forensics, and compliance purposes. The embodiment does not use the object identifier 55 of a protected data object 32 for determining the control policy 14 or associated usage rules. While this invention has been particularly shown and described with references to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.

In a network of intermittently-connected computers, a method and apparatus for maintaining and managing control over data objects authored, accessed, and altered by users in dynamic, distributed, and collaborative contexts. The invention method and apparatus attach to each data object an identification of a respective control policy. Each control policy comprises at least an indication of a subset of the users who may access the data object, an indication of the privileges granted to each subset of users able to access the data object, and an indication of a subset of users who may define or edit the control policy. The invention method and apparatus separate the management of the control policies of data objects from the creation and use of the data objects. The invention method and apparatus automate common policy changes, distribution of policy changes to the enforcement agents, and propagation of control policies to derivative works.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to dehumidification apparatus, and more particularly to a novel regenerative desiccant bundle adapted to absorb moisture from a surrounding environment and further being adapted to be dried and reused. 2. Brief Description of the Prior Art In the past, it has been the conventional practice to employ a variety of desiccant materials for absorbing moisture present in rooms, boat interiors, instrument packages and the like. In some instances, dehumidifiers take the form of electric devices, such as lights, which generate heat in order to effect drying of a moisture environment. In other instances, crystals, such as silica gel, are employed in elastomeric webs. In the latter instance, the silica gel is of micron-size similar to a powder. In the majority of instances cited above, the removal of moisture is limited to a small amount of water and such devices are not useful in an extremely wet environment, such as freezers or the like. In instances where silica gel is employed, the desiccant becomes readily saturated with moisture and cannot be dried for subsequent use. Therefore, in the latter instance, the desiccant package must be discarded. Therefore, a long standing need has existed to provide a moisture absorbing packet or bundle which may be placed in an extremely wet environment, such as a walk-in freezer where wetness generally forms into ice and provides an unsafe condition. Such a bundle or packet must include a desiccant, such as in crystalline form, which offers high capacity of moisture accumulation and which is suitable for heat drying, such as in an oven, so that the packet or bundle can be reused. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the above problems and difficulties are obviated by the present invention which provides a novel regenerative desiccant bundle or packet comprising porous material sheets which are placed together so that their edge marginal regions can be joined and wherein attachment means are further crisscrossed across the joined sheets in order to define a plurality of pockets or compartments. Each pocket or compartment includes a desiccant in the form of multi-side or surfaced crystals having high capacity of moisture absorption and storage capabilities. Means are employed for detachably mounting or holding the packet or bundle to supporting structure which is located in an extremely wet environment. The fabric material is characterized as being highly porous so as to conduct moisture therethrough from the surrounding environment into the desiccant crystals. The packet or bag is reinforced about the attachment or securement means so that the accumulated weight of moisture within the desiccant crystals in each of the respective pockets or compartments will not tear or unduly fatigue the sheet material. Therefore, it is among the primary objects of the present invention to provide a novel regenerative desiccant packet or bundle having the ability to absorb moisture in the ratio of one pound of moisture for nine pounds of desiccant material. Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel desiccant bundle having a plurality of desiccant crystals or granules offering multi-sided surfaces in order to absorb the maximum amount of surrounding moisture. Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel regenerative desiccant pack or bundle that employs desiccant material adapted to be heatdried, such as in an oven, so that the packet or bundle may be reused time and time again. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a novel dehumidifying bundle or packet presenting a greater area of exposed desiccator surface than in conventional use so that maximum moisture absorption and retention is assured. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The present invention, both as to its organization and manner of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood with reference to the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a typical walk-in freezer offering an extremely wet environment in which the novel regenerative desiccant pack or bundle is used; FIG. 2 is an enlarged front elevational view of the novel regenerative desiccant package incorporating the present invention; FIG. 3 is a transverse cross-sectional view of the regenerative desiccant pack or bundle shown in FIG. 2 as taken in the direction of arrows 3--3 thereof; and FIG. 4 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the pack or bundle illustrated in FIG. 2 as taken in the direction of arrows 4--4 thereof. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1, the novel regenerative desiccant pack or bundle of the present invention is illustrated in the general direction of arrow 10 and is being illustrated as downwardly depending or suspended from a support rod 11. The support rod is in a humidity or moisture environment, such as a walk-in freezer or the like. In such an instance, a room is provided having an access door 12 incorporating a window 111. Normally, because of the extreme low temperature, moisture collects at the ceiling, indicated by numeral 13, which turns into icicles, frost or similar moisture-laden elements which then fall, drip or otherwise rest on the floor 14 of the room. However, by suspending the inventive desiccant pack or bundle 10 near the ceiling 13, moisture in the air is drawn or sucked into the pack or bundle and absorbed by the enclosed desiccant contained therein. In one form of the invention, a pack is indicated by numeral 15 which includes an edge marginal region 16 joining adjacent regions together by stitching or the like of a pair of sheets. Also, additional attachment means for joining the pair of sheets together is indicated by lines 17 and 18 whereby a plurality of compartments are defined, such as compartment 20. A quantity of granular or crystalline desiccant particles is captured within each of the pockets or compartments and the pair of sheets is of porous material so that surrounding moisture will be drawn through the material into the desiccant particles. Hangers, such as loop 21, downwardly suspend each of the desiccant packs or bundles from the support rod or pipe 11. It is to be understood that the packs or bundles may be supported by an suitable structure located in the room. Referring now in detail to FIG. 2, the desiccant package or bundle 10 is illustrated wherein the edge marginal regions of a pair of sheets 22 and 23 are illustrated as being the same shape or overall configuration so that they are conformal when placed against one another and joined about the edge marginal regions in order to provide an enclosed pouch. In the present instance, the edge marginal regions are stitched together, such as by stitching 24, and preferably, the stitching goes around the entire peripheral edge marginal region. Inasmuch as absorption of water into the desiccant will cause an increase in weight, the stitching is reinforced so that the added weight can be accommodated. Additionally, attachment means such as stitching is passed through the midsection of the pouch, as indicated by numeral 25, and other stitching is introduced in spaced vertical arrangement, such as stitching 26, which is normal to the stitching 25 so that a plurality of compartments or individual pockets are defined. Each of the pockets is employed for enclosing a quantity of desiccant particles which may be of granular or crystal formation. Such a crystal is indicated by numeral 27 and it is to be understood that the particle size is substantially large, such as an average of 1/32nd in thickness. Each of the granules or particles is considered multi-sided so as to provide a greater area for exposure to atmosphere for the collection or absorption of moisture in the surrounding air. It is to be understood that the sheet material is fabric, such as cotton canvas, and preferably, of a 7 ounce weight so that the fabric may "breathe" which draws moisture into the chemical desiccant. Because of the porousness of the fabric, a powdered desiccant or any type of desiccant which is of micro size is totally unsuitable. Furthermore, the bundle or pack of the present invention is suitable for reuse by drying of the desiccant in a heated environment such as in an oven. Powder or desiccant of small micro size is not adaptable for drying in this manner and would only form a sticky mass. In order to reuse or dry the bundle or pack, the bundle or pack is subjected to oven temperature at approximately 250 degrees in temperature. Powder would normally break down under such circumstances and this would reduce the life use of the desiccant. Therefore, the large size granules and particles offer long shelf life and long reusability for the inventive desiccant bundle. In some instances, a coloring such as dye may be put into the fabric and at times, graphic representations or other indicia can be carried on the exterior face of the fabric. Referring now in detail to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, it can be seen that the upper edge marginal region, as identified by numeral 30, is reinforced by stitching and includes eyelets, such as eyelet 31, for releasably retaining a fastener, such as a hanger 21. Other means of suspending or supporting the package or pack is envisioned and the present invention is not limited to hangers. FIGS. 3 and 4 show the horizontal stitching 25 and the vertical stitching 26 serving as attachment means or securing means for defining the respective pockets between the opposing surfaces of the fabric sheets 22 and 23. In view of the foregoing, it can be seen that the inventive regenerative desiccant pack or bundle of the present invention is suitable for absorbing a substantial quantity of moisture from the surrounding environment and that once fully absorbed to its capacity, the pack or bundle may be dried out, utilizing a conventional oven or the like so that reuse is available. The bundle may consist of a single compartment or may be defined as having a plurality of compartments such as illustrated. While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from this invention in its broader aspects and, therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

A desiccant bundle is disclosed herein having front and back sheets of porous fabric material joined about edge marginal regions and across the middle to define a plurality of sealed compartments. A multiplicity of multiple surface desiccant granules are situated in each compartment for absorbing moisture in the fabric material or passing through it. Hangers are provided for detachably securing the desiccant bundle to supporting structure in a humid or wet environment.

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/566,815, filed Dec. 5, 2011, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. This application is also related to application Ser. No. 13/705668, filed on Dec. 5, 2012, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates generally to methods for customizing food service articles; more particularly, this invention relates to a method and system for utilizing computer communication for customizing a food service article for a specific event, function or occasion according to customer input and including custom indicia in the form of a mark, message, pattern, image, or photograph on the food service article. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Disposable food service items such as containers, plates, trays, bowls, cups, and cutlery are in increasingly widespread use in all food related industries, including restaurants, caterers, institutional food service establishments, cafeterias, and households for storing, serving and consuming food, due to their reasonably low-cost and the convenience they provide. The increasing popularity of fast-food restaurant chains further fuels the demand for plastic tableware and takeout packaging. In addition to fast food restaurants, caterers also prefer disposable food service items for the associated convenience, hygiene, and competitive costs. Disposable food service items are also used at a variety of private, corporate and public functions and events. [0004] Food service articles often feature decorative treatments applied to a surface thereof for a variety of reasons, including product identification, appearance enhancement, promotion, advertising, and/or providing instructions. The prior art yields a variety of methods for decorating plastic articles, including printing, labeling, hot stamping, heat transfers, and metalizing. [0005] Despite numerous printing and decorating technologies being available in the marketplace, there remain unmet and unrecognized needs. [0006] For example, there remains a natural need and demand for bridging the perception gap between disposable food service articles and their permanentware counterparts, so that disposable items may offer both aesthetic appeal as well as functional equivalence. For instance, Waddington North America, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, sells a line of printed dinnerware plates under the Masterpiece™ brand name that simulates china plates, and, a line of cutlery articles under the Reflections™ brand name that simulates fine metal silverware. In addition to these WNA offerings, other companies offer dinnerware items such as plates and bowls that display a foil-stamped metallic appearance on the rims of the articles. These types of disposable food service products attempt to simulate their permanentware counterparts, and also offer the convenience of disposability, but may still not be perceived as equivalent to permanentware by some customers. Therefore, there is a need to further enhance the perception of value offered by upscale disposable products. [0007] These and other needs are met by the system and method of the present invention. DEVELOPMENT OF THE INVENTION [0008] Until the present invention, the chief objective of creating high-end disposable food service items was to provide a disposable product that simulated permanentware in appearance, and was functionally adequate for its intended use. The inventors recognized, however, that to truly enhance the perception of value of disposable food service articles, these products must offer something that their permanent counterparts cannot readily offer. This recognition led to the understanding that customizing a disposable food service article offers a novel approach to adding value to disposable products and distinguishing them over their permanentware counterparts. Permanentware items are usually purchased by consumers, caterers and restaurants for a plurality of uses, and therefore customizing permanentware for a specific event or function would be inconsistent with their intended purpose. Since customized food service articles would be needed just for the specific event or occasion for which they were ordered, they would likely be discarded after use at the intended event or occasion. Accordingly, customized disposable food service articles offer a benefit that cannot be readily duplicated, or at least economically attained, with permanentware. Therefore, although the present invention can be implemented for decorating and customizing a variety of food service articles, it is particularly applicable to disposable, single use food service articles. [0009] The need for customizing and personalizing food service articles has hitherto not been recognized or addressed in the marketplace due to a lack of a comprehensive technique, system, and/or methodology. The inventors also recognized that the need for customizing food service articles has been mostly unaddressed because quantity requirements for occasional functions and events, such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and meetings, were expected to be fairly modest. While certain institutional customers might satisfy large quantity requirements for custom decorated products, the quantities of customized food service articles needed by most customers for their specific events or occasions would be limited to the expected usage at such events. [0010] In addition, it was expected that most custom orders would be unique, as customization may mean different things to different people, so that even returning customers of customized food service articles might not want the same customization that they previously ordered. Thus, prior to the present invention, personalization or customization of disposable food service articles had been economically infeasible or unviable for personal, family and social events such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and meetings for the majority of customers because of short-run requirements for most such events, in contrast with long-run requirements for attaining reasonable pricing on disposable items decorated using traditional techniques. [0011] Customization of items such as business cards, letterhead, certificates, and other flat paper items produced in small quantities is well known. However, there are several issues which render a similar approach impractical for food service items produced in small quantities. It would be useful to discuss the development of the invention in light of the prior art. [0012] A common method of decorating food service articles is by printing an image, graphic or text on one or more surfaces of the articles, usually by offset printing, screen printing, or pad printing. It has been the experience of the inventors that manufacturers of food service articles and food processors generally print products in relatively large quantities that may exceed thousands of pieces, so that printing set-up and changeover costs can be distributed over the entire run for economic reasons. Therefore, in the prior art a lot of attention has been paid to maximizing the efficiency and speed of large printing operations geared towards the need of fulfilling sizeable orders from institutional customers. These efforts, however, do not address the needs of customers who may require shorter runs. In addition, shorter runs may be necessary for special and custom situations. Therefore, there is a need for commercially viable technologies and methods that will enable and facilitate decorating food service articles in smaller batches. [0013] Traditional printing techniques, however, do not lend themselves to customizing food service articles because these processes require additional pre-press work once the artwork for printing has been created. Pre-press work may involve creating a master plate, a stencil, or a cliché, and other preparatory work before even a single food service article can be printed. [0014] Once pre-press work has been completed, food service articles can be printed on a commercial scale in relatively large quantities with these techniques. However, traditional printing techniques do not readily permit small quantities of customized or personalized content to be printed economically, due to the cost of the pre-press work required and other preparatory and changeover costs associated with switching from one printing pattern to another. Costs associated with a changeover from a first printing pattern to a second printing pattern include creation of an additional printing plate or cliché, ink clean-up, installation of the new printing plate, and other preparatory activities. Therefore, creating a unique or customized printing pattern for a customer with traditional printing techniques inevitably requires minimum order quantities, which can easily be tens of thousands of pieces for economic reasons. Otherwise, the customer would incur significant set-up and changeover expenses. [0015] In addition, traditional printing processes suffer from other shortcomings when applied to food service items. Traditional printing techniques inevitably require the use of ink and handling ink related issues. Aspects of ink management include ensuring that selected inks are suitable for use on food service articles, that ink ingredients are deemed safe in toxicological evaluations, that the method offers adequate adhesion with substrate material, and that the inks are completely dried or cured. Accordingly, it is desirable for printing on food service articles that either the selection of inks is limited to ink types that will be suitable for food contact, or the printed image is protected from direct food contact with the ink by applying a barrier overcoat to guard against accidental migration of inks into food. While adequate ink adhesion would be normally required for printing a substrate material for use in any kind of application, it is particularly essential in food-service applications, because poor adhesion may lead to migration of inks into foods and cause food contamination and/or health hazards. Ensuring that the inks are completely dried or cured, and that any solvents are removed and/or reactants are neutralized, is critical to ensuring that the ink will remain adhered to the food service substrate, and will not become a food additive. [0016] Thus, ink management practices frequently require the use of secondary processes which add to the cost and complexity of the operation. For instance, ensuring adequate adhesion may require subjecting a food service article to a corona treatment or flame treatment prior to printing thereon, in order to remove any surface compounds, processing aids, or other materials that may exude or bloom to the surface of plastic materials after molding or forming operations. In addition to the adhesion-promoting pretreatment, printing a food service article may require a post-treatment in the form of a barrier or protective overcoat. One of the disadvantages of using a barrier overcoat is that it detrimentally affects the vibrancy of the underlying print, but is required due to food contact reasons. It has been the experience of the inventors that a barrier overcoat on black or other dark colored food service plate surfaces significantly mars or impairs the appearance of the printed pattern or graphic, and the luster of the underlying dark color. [0017] Another method of decorating plastic food-service articles is by transferring a pre-printed pattern onto the surface of an article. Once again, this method does not readily facilitate customization, because the pattern has to be printed onto the transfer medium using traditional printing techniques and then transferred onto the desired substrate via heat and pressure. Similarly, foil stamping does not provide a viable method for customizing food service articles because foil stamping still requires creation of a die for stamping a pattern onto the surface of a substrate. Foil-stamped plates are currently being sold in the marketplace with the purpose of emulating permanent ware. However, a shortcoming of this method is that the foil-stamped portions of the plate surface cause arcing in a microwave oven, and may create other electrical and fire hazards in use. [0018] Thus, it can be firmly established that traditional printing and decorating techniques do not viably address customization of food service articles. [0019] The above insights led the inventors to recognize that customization and personalization of food service articles for various events and occasions can serve as means for adding value to disposable food service items and distinguishing these products from their permanentware counterparts. However, the hurdles that remained to be overcome included overcoming the problems of prior art with respect to long-run requirements with traditional printing techniques, addressing the fact that even upscale disposable products that simulate permanentware cannot readily be customized with traditional printing techniques, addressing the lack of a technique for creating customized food service products in a reasonably price-effective manner without resorting to long runs, and addressing the lack of availability of a system to customers for customizing food service products for their personal events and occasions. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to overcome the hurdles identified above and the disadvantages of the prior art. [0020] Thus, there is a need for facilitating customization of food service articles for events, functions and occasions via a decorating technique for plastic plates and other disposable food service articles which does not require long runs, and does not require the use of inks, foil stamps, heat transfers, metallic coatings, or labels. These and other needs are met by the food service articles and method of the present invention. [0021] It is important to mention here that the disadvantages of the prior art, viz. printing via traditional printing techniques, only became acutely apparent because of the insight that customizing of food service articles cannot be readily implemented by utilizing traditional printing technologies, because they require long product runs while customization requires short and extremely short runs. It is counter-intuitive in the sense that typically long runs on large and sophisticated printing presses are considered favorable for maximizing efficiency. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Decorating System [0022] At the heart of the present invention is the discovery of an unexpected result, namely that the right combination of laser wavelength, laser power, plastic substrate, and colorant can yield a high contrast and aesthetically pleasing decoration for customizing disposable food service items and/or simulating permanentware articles without utilizing inks, foils or metallic coatings. The inventors had the insight that almost all conventional printing processes require transfer or placement of a printable pattern via direct contact between a master and a substrate, and this unavoidable aspect makes these techniques unsuitable for short run customization of food service products. In accordance with the present invention, a non-contact method for decorating food service articles by laser marking is used for customizing food service articles. This technique obviates the need for creating a master, a printing plate, a stencil or a cliché as is required in the prior art, and makes short runs viable, substantially removing key impediments to customization of food service articles. Laser marking does not involve the use of inks. Therefore ink-associated issues relating to ink toxicology, adhesion, curing, and clean-up are also avoided. In addition, any secondary processes to improve ink-adhesion are avoided, and the need for protecting ink via protective coatings or barrier layers is also obviated. [0023] In the prior art, laser marking applications have mostly involved placing relatively small portions of alphanumeric information, such as date codes, serial numbers, batch numbers, part numbers, lot numbers, and machine readable UPC-type markings, on packaging or plastic substrates. US Pat. Pub. 2008/0124433 lists some of the examples of the use of laser marking in the food industry, including marking of two dimensional codes on eggs, date-code markings on plastic bottles, and marking of cheeses and fruits as a means of tracking, identification, promotion and advertising. [0024] Thus, while laser marking has been traditionally used in packaging applications for product identification, inventory and stock control, and product tracking purposes, it fundamentally involved placing functional markings which were not required to be prominently conspicuous, and did not provide a readymade way to decorate and customize food service articles. In particular, application of laser marking for decorating plastic food service articles, and specifically articles that are intended to simulate permanentware counterparts, was hitherto unknown. Furthermore, laser marking on surfaces that come in actual food contact, such as the top surface of a plate or a tray that also offers a decorative effect, was also unknown. [0025] Pursuing laser marking technique(s) for decorating food service articles posed a number of challenges. [0026] Firstly, while laser marking is functionally adequate for placing date codes, UPC codes, and other alphanumeric data on plastic products, decorating plastic plates and other articles requires that the marking be very conspicuous, attractive, and offer a distinctive visual appeal. For instance, achieving a relatively conspicuous mark on, for example, a plastic plate may be enough for coding purposes, but may not provide a decorative effect that simulates a china plate which includes silver or gold colored patterning. Thus, a laser marked decorative pattern on a plastic plate must also offer the desired appearance, color contrast, and some degree of reflectivity for offering the impression of a china plate. [0027] Secondly, decorating a relatively large surface of a food service article such as a plate may require a much longer marking time than simply marking text, which may render the technique uneconomical for decorating food service articles. [0028] Thirdly, depending on the area of decoration, laser radiation may lead to overheating and melting of the plastic products, or produce a rough surface texture, causing an undesirable feel and a possibility that particulate matter from the marked region may separate from the plastic article and may contaminate foods. Thus, there was no reasonable expectation of success that a laser marked surface of a food service article would be aesthetically and functionally acceptable and would be suitable for food contact. [0029] Fourthly, depending on the wavelength of the laser beam, the interaction between the laser beam and the plastic substrate produces different effects which may not be deemed attractive enough from a decorating standpoint. [0030] Given these expectations and the problems outlined above, laser marking was not significantly explored before the present invention for decorating food service articles. [0031] Other difficulties associated with decoration of plastics by laser marking included developing the correct match between the plastic substrate and the laser beam wavelength for optimizing absorptivity of laser radiation. When a light beam strikes the surface of an object it can interact in the following ways: some of it is reflected from the object, some of it may be absorbed by the object, and the rest is transmitted through the object. Therefore, if the laser radiation is substantially reflected by or transmitted through the plastic substrate, then there will be very little interaction between the laser beam and the plastic substrate, and hence the markings will be relatively weak, i.e. lacking sufficient contrast. [0032] Thus, in order to achieve a visible laser mark on the surface of a plastic article, there must be some degree of absorption of the laser energy by the plastic material. The difficulty this posed is that most of the plastics used for food service articles are naturally transparent or translucent, and even non-clear food service articles are produced by adding just the requisite amount of colorant for achieving the desired appearance. Various approaches for enhancing the absorptivity of laser radiation for achieving a distinct mark are described in the art. One approach is to coat the article with a material that will readily change color upon exposure to laser light. However, this requires a more complex manufacturing process, and can significantly increase the cost of a food service article such as a plastic plate. In addition, toxicity of the coating material can be a safety concern, if there is any chance that the adhesion of the coating may be less than perfect. For example, US Pat. Pub. 2008/0131563 describes a food-compatible laser-imageable coating and indicates that many laser-imageable coating components are not food-compatible. [0033] Another approach for enhancing laser absorptivity is to add a secondary laser-absorbent substance or pigment to the plastic itself, and a variety of pigment compositions are described in the prior art. Laser marking pigments are also available commercially. For example, Eckart America Corporation sells a laser marking additive under the brand name LASERSAFE. It is well known that plastic products are normally produced in a desired color by incorporating colorants or dyes during molding or forming operations. However, including a secondary laser-absorbing pigment or additive may significantly increase the cost of the article, and may adversely affect the appearance or color of the article. [0034] In experiments, the inventors also witnessed that food service articles out-gassed during laser marking and left fine particulate deposits on surfaces thereof. Fine particulate matter was very noticeable at certain process settings, despite the fact that a vacuum exhaust for removing process fumes was operational during laser marking. This was of particular concern as any visible residue on a food service article, such as a plate, would be very unsightly and make it unfit for use in food contact applications. [0035] The present invention addresses the above challenges; and inter alia teaches a plastic food service article that is decorated by laser marking. The food service article is made from a thermoplastic resin, such as polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, etc., and is tinted by adding a colorant to the plastic, such as a dye or pigment, so as to impart a desired color or appearance to the final article. A variety of colorants can be used in food service articles for obtaining a variety of colors. Many or most of them can be used in the present invention. For example, white food service articles that employ titanium dioxide as a colorant, and black food service articles that employ carbon black as a colorant are compatible with the present invention. The laser marking process itself does not involve the use of inks on the article. [0036] In exemplary embodiments of the invention, no special laser absorptive substances are added to the plastic products other than customary tints or colorants which may be included for imparting a desired color or appearance to the plastic article. In some exemplary embodiments, laser marking is provided on surfaces that come in actual contact with food, such as the top surface of a plate or tray. In some embodiments, deposition of fine particulate during marking was controlled by blowing ionized air onto the surface of the part for eliminating static and assisting the escape of gaseous and particulate matter through the exhaust. [0037] The method of decorating food service articles according to the invention includes exposing a surface of the article to a high intensity laser beam, produced in some embodiments by a YAG laser or a Fiber laser, the beam exposure causing localized surface absorption of the laser radiation by the colored plastic substrate and consequent heating of the plastic sufficient to cause localized surface foaming or discoloration of the plastic in a precisely defined region that is distinguishable from both light and dark backgrounds. It will be apparent that various laser types can be utilized for accomplishing the objects of the invention including lasers that operate at wavelengths in the ultraviolet region (e.g. 355 nanometers UV laser); visible region (e.g. 532 nanometers Green laser); and infrared region (e.g. lasers operating at 1062 nanometers, or 1064 nanometers, or 1070 nanometers). [0038] The inventors have observed that lasers operating in the far infrared region (CO 2 lasers operating at 10.6 microns) do not provide a high color contrast, but simply engrave the surface of the plastic. CO 2 lasers have been tried in the past for marking lids, but have not been commercialized in the marketplace, perhaps due to lack of contrast and quality of marking. [0039] In certain embodiments of the invention, the food service articles can be molded from plastic resins such as general-purpose polystyrene, high-impact polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polylactic acid (PLA), styrene acrylonitrile (SAN), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), styrene-butadiene-copolymer (SBC), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polycarbonate or a mixture and/or a copolymer thereof. In various embodiments, the laser intensity and beam deflection are controlled by a computer so as to produce a pattern defined by software instructions. [0040] In some embodiments and design variants, the laser marking operation requires between 0.5 seconds and about 5 seconds for decorating an entire tableware article such as a plate or cup. Nonetheless, extremely intricate artwork and high resolution photographs may require 30 to 90 seconds or even longer in terms of marking time on a 10″ plate. It will be appreciated by skilled artisans that marking times can be influenced by a variety of factors, including the speed of marking, the size and quality of the graphic artwork, the level of detail and intricacy of the graphic artwork, the resolution used for marking, and the absorptive properties of the plastic-colorant combination. [0041] One of the benefits of decorating by laser marking is that the decoration is applied in a non-contact manner without distorting or deforming the article or any portion thereof, thereby allowing decoration to be applied or scribed over various surfaces of an article, including non-planar surfaces and three-dimensional features. Accordingly, a feature of the present invention is to provide a method for decorating a food-service article that includes a plurality of surfaces comprising at least one of a flat surface, a single curvature surface, a concave surface, a dual curvature surface, and a multi curvature surface. For example, a plate having a molded-in pattern in the form of flutes, scallops, or a similarly ornate pattern can be laser-marked without undue distortion of either the mark or the plate itself. [0042] Another feature of the present invention is that a display graphic can be placed on a complex surface without undue manipulation of the artwork. [0043] An additional feature of the present invention is to provide a method for applying custom decorations to food-service articles for a variety of events and functions, including birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, sports events, corporate gatherings, and such like, in relatively low quantities at a reasonable cost. Customization System and Method [0044] The inventors recognized that in addition to printing technique hurdles, there are infrastructure and system hurdles in customizing food service articles; for instance, while a customer may want customized food service articles for their specific event or occasion, they might not be readily able to specify exactly the type of customization that would be suitable for their particular event or occasion. Furthermore, since customization may mean different things to different people, the system should be sufficiently flexible to accommodate a variety of user requests and customization needs for a variety of use situations, events and occasions. The present invention addresses the need for such a system. [0045] Accordingly, a computer-assisted method and system for customizing a food service article is disclosed. According to an aspect of the invention, the present invention provides a method for a customer to interact with a computer system over a computer network, for specifying custom decoration of a food service article. A computer-assisted decorating machine then processes the customer input and customizes the food service article according to the customer input. Thereafter, the customized article is delivered to the customer. [0046] According to embodiments of the invention, the customizing system displays available templates for customizing a food service article to a customer or purchaser over a computer network. A template is simply a digital representation or an image of a food service article showing at least a portion of the food service article that can be customized. The template may indicate the basic type of food service article, and other attributes such as its color and size. The customizable portion in a specific template may be in the form of a text element, an image, a graphical element, or a photograph. After the customer selects a particular template, the customer is then directed to provide input corresponding to the nature of the customizable portion for that specific template. Input may be supplied by entering text into a text field or by uploading an image or a photograph. Customer input may also be a selection of at least one of text, images, patterns, characters and photographs from a design library. [0047] The system may define specific limitations for customer input in terms of customizable elements; for instance, the system may pose limitations with regard to number of characters for text entries, font types and sizes, image size and resolution, portion of the plate to which customization can be implemented, and so forth. Once the system accepts the custom input provided by the user or purchaser, the system then converts the custom input to a file type that is processable by a decorating machine computer system. [0048] Accordingly, a feature of the present invention is to provide a system and method for enabling a user to engage interactively with a computer server for selecting and designing food service articles with custom decoration or indicia for a specific event, function, or occasion, including birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, sports events, corporate gatherings, and such like, and to submit an order to purchase the same. [0049] According to an embodiment of the invention, a computer-assisted decorating system receives the order for customer product along with information for customizing the selected food service article. The computer-assisted decorating system converts user input into a processable file, the desired custom information is marked by the decorating system, and the completed order is shipped to the customer. [0050] One general aspect of the present invention is a method for providing a decorated foodservice article, said method comprising the steps of receiving an input over a computer network for decorating a foodservice article, converting said input to at least a file type, said file type being processable by a decorating machine computer system, applying a visible marking pattern on a surface of said foodservice article in accordance with said processable file, transforming said foodservice article to said decorated foodservice article, said application of said visible marking pattern being suitable for food contact, and controlling at least one of location, size, and prominence of said marking pattern on said surface of said foodservice article. [0051] In embodiments, the method further includes evaluating said input prior to converting said input for at least one of artwork type, image resolution, file format, size, and font type. [0052] In some embodiments, said step of applying said marking pattern is implemented by a laser beam. In other embodiments, said foodservice article comprises a plastic material. In certain embodiments said foodservice article comprises a paper substrate. In further embodiments said foodservice article comprises at least one of a plastic material, a paper substrate, and a metallic coating. [0053] In various embodiments said foodservice article comprises a first material component and a second material component, said first material component having higher laser absorptivity than said second material component. [0054] In some embodiments said visible marking pattern offers an appearance of printed ink without utilizing an ink composition. In other embodiments said visible marking pattern offers an appearance of a metallic coating without utilizing said metallic coating. [0055] In various embodiments, said foodservice article comprises at least one of polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, PET, PLA, ABS, SAN, PMMA, and SBC. [0056] In some embodiments, said foodservice article comprises at least a plastic material and at least a colorant. In other embodiments, said visible marking pattern on said surface of the foodservice article is difficult to detect by human touch. In certain embodiments said visible marking pattern on said surface of the foodservice article is detectable by human touch. And in further embodiments said visible marking pattern on said surface of the foodservice article provides a gold appearance. [0057] In various embodiments, said visible marking pattern on said surface of the foodservice article provides a silver appearance. In certain embodiments said visible marking pattern on said surface of the foodservice article provides a pewter appearance. [0058] In some embodiments said visible marking pattern on said surface of the foodservice article provides a white appearance. In other embodiments, said visible marking pattern on said surface of the foodservice article provides at least one of a gold appearance, a pewter appearance, and a silver appearance. [0059] In embodiments, said surface of said foodservice article is non-planar. And in various embodiments said visible marking pattern is applied to a portion of the foodservice article comprising at least one of a flat surface, a non-planar surface, a single curvature surface, a multi-curvature surface, a fluted region, and a scalloped region. [0060] Another general aspect of the present invention is a method for customizing a plastic foodservice article, where the method includes receiving an input over a computer network for customizing said plastic foodservice article from a customer, converting said input into a form processable by a decorating machine computer system, subjecting a surface of said plastic foodservice article to a laser beam, said laser beam having sufficient intensity to cause localized discoloration of said plastic foodservice article, controlling said laser beam through a software-based beam director implemented on said decorating machine computer system, and transforming said plastic foodservice article to customized plastic foodservice article by forming a visible marking pattern on said surface of said plastic foodservice article in accordance with said input received from said customer. [0061] Yet another general aspect of the present invention is a method for customizing a plastic foodservice article, where the method includes offering a plurality of templates, over a computer network, for customizing said plastic foodservice article, said plurality of templates including at least a first template, said first template comprising at least a standard portion and a custom portion, receiving, over said computer network, a selection of at least said first template and an input corresponding to said custom portion of said first template from a customer, converting said first template into a custom file in accordance with said input, said custom file being in a form processable by a decorating machine computer system, applying a marking pattern on a surface of said plastic foodservice article by a laser beam, said laser beam having sufficient intensity to cause localized discoloration of said plastic foodservice article, controlling said laser beam through a software-based beam director implemented on said decorating machine computer system, and transforming said plastic foodservice article to customized plastic foodservice article by forming a visible marking pattern on said surface of said plastic foodservice article in accordance with said input received from said customer. [0062] Still other features and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description, wherein we have shown and described only a few embodiments of the invention, simply by way of illustration contemplated by us in carrying out this invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various respects, all without departing from the scope of the invention. [0063] The features and advantages described herein are not all-inclusive and, in particular, many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings, specification, and examples of claims. Moreover, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and not to limit the scope of the inventive subject matter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0064] The invention will be better understood upon reading the following Detailed Description in conjunction with the drawings, in which: [0065] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the customization system according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; [0066] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing method steps according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; [0067] FIG. 2A is the continuation of the flow diagram from FIG. 2 ; [0068] FIG. 3 is a digital selection tool for customizing food service articles according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; [0069] FIG. 4 shows an exemplary template for facilitating customization according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; [0070] FIG. 5 shows another exemplary template for facilitating customization according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention; [0071] FIG. 6 shows another exemplary template showing user supplied graphic and text for facilitating customization according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and [0072] FIG. 7 shows a custom order according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0073] For a comprehensive discussion of the present invention, it will be beneficial to define the various concepts, phrases and instrumentalities utilized in the present invention. In the following description, various functional aspects of the present invention will be described. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention has a broader field of application than the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. Specific examples of customization templates, customer inputs, artwork, food service products, custom layouts, and product configurations are provided by way of illustration, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, and not by way of limitation. Furthermore, various operational elements of the system for customizing food service articles will be described in a particular order. However, the order of presentation is not necessarily the functional order of practicing the invention. [0074] Customizing a food service article involves placing visibly distinct information or indicia, specified by the customer, on the food service article. Customer specified information may include textual content, graphical content, an image, a commercial message, a logo, and/or other indicia. [0075] The term “computer system” is used broadly to refer to a device capable of processing, storing, accessing, manipulating, modifying, displaying, and transmitting information related to any aspect of the invention, and includes a general purpose computer as well as a special purpose computer system, such as a decorating machine computer system, which can be standalone, embedded, or networked. [0076] The term “information” refers broadly to all data that can be represented or transmitted electronically or digitally. Information related terms, such as data, files, programs, text, images, graphics, bits, number, and characters, describing specific information types or representations or elements thereof, are used in consistency with their common use. It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that these data or information representations take the form of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored, accessed, copied, transferred, deleted, modified, combined, reproduced, captured, and/or otherwise manipulated through mechanical, electrical, and operational components of a computer system. [0077] Referring to FIG. 1 , there is shown a block representation of a customization system 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention for customizing food service articles on demand. System 100 comprises a computer network 110 , which can be public, private, internet, intranet, or some other network. Network 110 is capable of linking information devices for interactive communication, including sending, receiving, selecting, retrieving, and transmitting information. The communication link itself can be wire-based or wireless, and can utilize telephone lines, coaxial cable, fiber optics, or satellite communication links or networks. [0078] System 100 can include a server 120 which can be accessed via computer network 110 by at least a user information device 150 . In an embodiment of the invention, server 120 can be an HTTP server that is accessible over the internet. It will be realized that server 120 could be accessed by a plurality of users through a plurality of user devices. User information device 150 could be a personal computer, a notebook computer, a tablet, a phone, or other information device operated by a user or a potential customer. [0079] According to an exemplary embodiment, server 120 can also be accessed by at least a marketing entity information device 160 over network 110 . The marketing entity information device 160 could be a general purpose computer or a special purpose computer, and is operated by an entity authorized for marketing and selling customized products. A marketing entity information device 160 can be operated by an agent, an affiliate, a business partner, a franchisee, a reseller, a wholesaler, a retailer or an e-tailer. Accordingly, marketing entity information device 160 can be located at a variety of business locations, such as an office, a party store, a kiosk, a station, or a department within a large store. According to embodiments of the invention, the marketing entity could be a caterer requesting customized food service products on the customer's behalf for a customer event, for which the caterer is providing catering services. In certain exemplary embodiments, marketing entity information device 160 can function in a server mode and communicate with user information device 150 over network 110 to provide an alternate conduit to server 120 or to decorating system 140 . [0080] Server 120 is connected to a storage device 130 . Storage device 130 can be configured to maintain information relating to a plurality of attributes, including, for example, usernames, user account information, user validation data, user addresses, marketing entity data, product inventory, customization templates, customization forms, rules, constraints, ordering information, shipping details, due dates, inventory, and order status, etc. Storage device 130 can store data in a format compatible with any of the data storage or database standards. [0081] Server 120 is connected to decorating system 140 either directly or indirectly through network 110 . In an exemplary embodiment, decorating system 140 is located proximate to server 120 , while in other exemplary embodiments decorating system 140 is remotely accessible over network 110 . It will be recognized that while the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 shows only one decorating system 140 , a plurality of decorating systems can be provided at various geographical locations and selected for processing orders according to factors such as manufacturing ease, available inventory, available decorating capacity, status of pending orders, and/or geographical proximity to the ordering customer. [0082] According to embodiments of the invention, a user or a potential customer can utilize user information device 150 for communication with server 120 for requesting, providing, receiving, and selecting information related to customizing a food service product, including information related to pricing, purchasing, and ordering. [0083] If, the request from the user relates to a custom product based on a standard template already stored by server 120 , and customer input is consistent with predefined parameters, then the server can confirm that the input is acceptable. Upon receiving confirmation that the input is acceptable, the customized product processing advances to the next stage. In some embodiments of the invention, the system provides an automated preview of a digital version of the customized product in accordance with the customer input, and awaits acknowledgement from the customer prior to further processing of the customer request. In some embodiments of the invention, the customer may be allowed to store digital versions of customized food service articles based on a plurality of templates in his or her account for a certain period of time, for reviewing and selecting between various options, such as template options, text options and graphic options, prior to placing an order for a custom product. [0084] In situations where a user request is not based on a standard template and may require human intervention or expert help, the system can request additional information from the user for creating or quoting the desired custom product. [0085] FIG. 2 and FIG. 2A present a flow chart delineating the steps of a method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In step 205 , a user may access an online storefront or website for the purposes of ordering customized food service articles, or for the purpose of designing (customizing) food service articles for later ordering. It will be realized that the storefront or website can reside on server 120 , or it can be mirrored from or onto other servers that are operated or hosted by the system provider, a vendor, or a third party. [0086] At step 210 , the system verifies whether the user is a registered user and has an account on the system, or is a new user. If the user is already registered, the system awaits input from the user to authenticate pre-registered user (step 215 ). If the user is accessing server 120 from a personal device or home computer (user information device 150 ), authentication information can include login user identification and a user password as is known in the art. Alternately, a potential customer may access the system through a device provided by a marketing entity and located at a commercial location (marketing entity information device 160 ). In this case, the user can be authenticated through the marketing entity information device according to a sign-in procedure or protocol established by the marketing entity. [0087] If the user is not a registered user, the system requests input from the user for becoming a registered user at step 220 . Thereafter, at step 225 , a new account can be created for the newly registered user for authorizing/enabling user interactions with the customization system for customizing food service articles. [0088] Once a visiting user or potential customer has been converted to a registered user, or a previously registered user has been authenticated, the system can present the user with a menu of product options for a customer to select and/or design a custom product (step 230 ). It will be realized that the menu of options is a product specification tool that can be configured in a variety of ways for enabling a user to select, design, and/or specify the customized product the user desires to purchase. Depending on the user and type of customized product desired, creating a custom product design for ordering or specifying a customized food service product can be achieved by simply navigating the selection tools, either one time or multiple times through an iterative process. [0089] FIG. 3 provides a conceptual representation of an exemplary digital tool for facilitating design and specification of customized products by a user. The attributes for specifying user preferences include PRODUCT TYPE, PRODUCT SIZE, PRODUCT COLOR, CUSTOMIZATION TYPE, and EVENT OR THEME. Each of these attributes can have a variety of choices that may be selected by the user according to his/her preferences. In the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 3 , the selected options are shown surrounded by boxes. It will be recognized that the selection methodology depicted in FIG. 3 is exemplary, and that a provider of customized food service articles could configure it in a variety of ways to yield a variety of alternate embodiments. For instance, the selection menu can be arranged in the form of a drop-down menu or check boxes, or in some other format. [0090] The specific selected options according to FIG. 3 indicate user selection of 10.25″ diameter, white round plates, customized using standard templates for a birthday theme. Reverting now to FIG. 2 , once the user has selected and narrowed down preliminary options, the customer can be presented with digital images of various birthday templates for white round plates available in the system (step 235 ). [0091] Two exemplary birthday templates are presented in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 , which show round white plates having areas for customization where a user or potential customer could insert his/her own message or custom text. One of the main objectives of providing theme templates is to provide the user with the convenience of quickly selecting a basic product style which can be customized by the user by simply providing textual input. However, it will be realized that customization of food service articles, according to the present invention, is not limited to placing text at a designated location on food service articles. A potential customer may want to place a graphic or photograph on the food service article in addition to text. An exemplary template according to an embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 6 , wherein the customization includes a user-supplied photograph or graphic and user-supplied text. It will be realized that a commercial system may offer any number of theme templates rather than the ones shown here. [0092] Reverting now to discussion relating to FIG. 2 , once the system receives a selection of a template by the user and additional information in the form of text, graphic, image, or photograph for further customization within the constraints of the specific template selected by the user, the system can modify the template according to customer input (step 240 ). Thereafter, the system can provide a digital preview or “proof” of the customized product, and a quote for the custom product (step 245 ). In certain embodiments of the invention, a digital preview of the customized product as requested by the customer can be automatically generated by the system and provided to the customer. It will be realized that digital output for certain custom products may require further manipulation by the decorating system before a digital image can be made available to the customer. If the system cannot readily generate a digital output of the custom product, the system can notify the customer to proceed with the order with an option to approve the digital image of the customized product at a later time. [0093] At step 250 , the system seeks verification from the customer whether the customized product is acceptable or not. If the user is satisfied with the custom product output and the specifications and appearance of the customized product, the user can indicate that the custom product is acceptable and proceed with placing the order (step 265 ). If the user is not satisfied with the customized product output, the user may continue with the customization process by selecting another template (step 255 ), or may restart the entire selection process for customizing the food service product (step 260 ). In some embodiments, the user may be provided with an option to create and design customized products by utilizing the tools provided by the system, and saving or storing the customized product output and specification details in his or her account for ordering and/or modifying at a later time. Similarly, after placing an order the customer may have the option to store the design for future re-use, either with or without modification. It will be realized that the system provider can place certain limitations on user accounts with respect to storing unordered or ordered customized product designs on the system. For example, the system may limit the amount of memory space available to a user in his/her account for storing unordered and/or ordered customized product designs, and/or the system may set a limit on the allowable time period for storing unordered customized product designs in a user's account, and/or the system may place a limit on the number of customized product designs that can be held in an unordered or ordered state in a user's account. [0094] In some embodiments, finalization of the order for customizing food service products in step 265 may also require receiving a pre-payment for the custom product, which can be handled via a credit card, a gift card, a debit payment, or electronic payment from a bank account, or from an online payment service such as PayPal. Alternately, the credit card information may be stored in the user account, and can be retrieved during the approval process. [0095] Once the ordering process is complete, the system transmits or forwards the customization order to the decorating system for processing (step 270 ). A completed order may take the form of an output file approved by the customer and may in addition include all relevant information that would allow decorating system 140 to fulfill the customer order. An exemplary representation of the output file that may be provided to the decorating system 140 is shown in FIG. 7 . As shown in FIG. 7 , the attributes and details specific to the order are listed in a tabular form. It will be appreciated that some of these attributes may be customer selectable, while others may not be selectable depending on the choice of other attributes. For instance, DECORATION COLOR is shown in FIG. 7 as a non-selectable attribute by placing the specified color in parentheses. [0096] With reference to FIG. 2A , it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any input received from the customer may need to be converted into a file type that is processable by the decorating system 140 (step 275 ). As discussed above, conversion of input to a digital output may be automatic, or may require subsequent manipulation, depending on a variety of factors such as the type of output, complexity of the template, user perception, image resolution, and size of the product relative to the length of custom text. Examples of file conversions include converting a multi-color image to a grey scale image, converting a multi-color image to a line art or sketch, converting a grey scale image to line art, converting an image file format to a vector format, reversing portions of an image, removing the background of an image, changing the resolution of an image, etc. [0097] Once the customer input is converted into a processable file, the customer order can be completed by running the customer order on a laser decorating system that manipulates the laser beam using a software controlled beam director (step 280 ). After the completion of the order, there may be a verification or quality assurance step for ensuring that the order is correct, and the customized food service articles comport with the placed order and customer input (step 285 ). [0098] After the quality check, the order is shipped to the customer and shipping notification is sent electronically to the customer (steps 295 and 300 ). [0099] While in the above description, an exemplary embodiment of the customizing system and method has been described for customizing round plates of a specific size and color for a certain theme, it will be recognized that the system can be extended to a variety of food service articles in any form or shape including trays, cups, cutlery, utensils etc. [0100] In exemplary embodiments, the plastic food service article that can be customized by the system and method detailed herein above is made from a colored plastic that exhibits a localized change in color when exposed to laser radiation. The food service article can be either injection molded or thermoformed. Suitable plastic materials for forming or molding the food service articles may include polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, polycarbonate, PET, PLA, ABS, SBC, SAN, PMMA, or a copolymer thereof, or a blend of two or more of the above resins or copolymers. The plastic is tinted with a colorant, pigment or dye typically used for coloring plastic; for example, the colorant can be a titanium dioxide colorant for white products, or carbon black colorant for black products. In embodiments, the colorant is selected to provide the appearance of china or another permanentware ceramic. In some embodiments, the food service article is free of any surface coatings, and laser markings are formed directly on the surface of the food service article. For white and light colored food service articles, the loading of the colorant in the plastic material is adjusted to provide an optical density of the colored plastic food service articles to be at least 1.0, and preferably greater than 1.2, for ensuring fast interaction with the laser beam. Higher optical densities allow the same marking intensity to be achieved at faster marking times. The inventors have obtained acceptable marking results on white plates with titanium dioxide pigment loading in the range of 2.5% to 5% by weight when using a laser marking system operating at 1062 nanometers and nominal power of 50 watts. It was found that the black articles exhibit much higher optical densities (greater than 3.0) even at 1% to 2% colorant loading. While higher colorant loadings may favorably impact marking speed or reduce marking time, they also tend to increase the overall cost of the article due to increased usage of the colorant in the plastic resin. The costs of the article can be optimized by establishing and experimenting with acceptable ranges of marking times and colorant loadings. [0101] In embodiments, a YAG, a YLP, or a Fiber laser operating at a wavelength between 1060-1070 nanometers and preferably at 1062 nanometers or 1064 nanometers, is used for accomplishing the objects of this invention. Laser beams can be generated by supplying energy through a lamp or a diode. As is known in the art, the laser beam from the marking unit is guided or steered by a pair of mirrors through an optical lens which focuses the beam onto the plastic surface. Decorative markings and images can then be applied to the plastic foodservice article by appropriate deflection of the laser beam and modulation of its power. Different lenses can provide different spot size for the incident beam. If the spot size is too wide, then the laser energy will be distributed over a larger area, and the intensity of marking or contrast may be feeble. If the spot size is too small, the line thickness may be too thin for sufficient visual impact. Larger lenses provide larger spot sizes but also cover a larger area. Therefore, spot size must be reasonably large for achieving the optimum marking effect. According to certain embodiments of the invention, spot sizes in the range of 100 to 200 microns (0.1 to 0.2 mm) are deemed appropriate. The inventors have found that certain plastic materials such as PLA perform better or provide high contrast markings at smaller spot size compared to polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene and PET. [0102] To achieve optimal marking effect within the shortest time period for reasons of cost and expediency, the incident laser beam hitting the surface of the food service article must be focused; therefore, the food service article must be placed at the right focal distance from the lens. [0103] The food service article is exposed to a laser beam having sufficient power such that absorption by the plastic-colorant combination causes localized heating of the surface at the laser impact location, where the localized heating is sufficient to cause localized foaming and/or discoloration of the surface of the plastic article. The optimal laser power and exposure time will depend on the type of plastic used and on the type and amount of colorant included in the plastic. For each type of plastic and colorant, the optimal laser power and exposure time can readily be determined by applying different laser powers and exposure times to a sample of the plastic and noting a range of parameters for preventing excessive melting, charring or vaporization of the plastic substrate. Optimal exposure conditions will produce visible and well contrasted markings on both light-colored and dark-colored plastics. By manipulating various equipment variables, including laser power, marking speed, and resolution, surface roughness and texture of the decorated area can be controlled for achieving the desired visual appearance. It will be realized by those skilled in the art that the laser beam in most commercial marking system is not continuous, but pulsed rapidly at frequencies that can be as high as 80 kHz or 80,000 times per second. [0104] In embodiments, application of a complete decorative pattern or image (as are illustrated in the figures) requires between a half-second and a few seconds. The beam deflection is controlled by a computer or other software-driven processor (step 104 ). If a series of plastic articles are decorated, it is therefore easy to transition between different decorations as often as every article, by simply providing appropriate instructions to the processor. One of the advantages of laser marking is that digital control of the marked pattern facilitates customization of food service articles and decorative patterns can be changed quickly compared to, for example, offset printing, which is a typical prior art method of printing these articles which is only practical for printing a non-varying decorative pattern on a relatively large number of articles for economic reasons. In some embodiments, two or more patterns can be sequenced in a continuous loop for creating an assorted batch of decorated food service articles. [0105] As will become readily apparent from the description herein, a plastic food-service item that can be readily laser-decorated according to the present invention provides several advantages over prior methods for decorating food-service items, some of which are discussed above. [0106] With reference to FIG. 5-7 , using a 50 Watts, Pulsed Fiber laser operating at a wavelength of about 1062 nm, the inventors have found that a tinted disposable plastic food service article, such as a plastic plate, can be laser marked to emulate the look of a permanentware china plate. For instance, upscale chinaware often includes decorative marking in the form of silver or gold bands or other decorative artwork. The inventors have used a Fiber laser according to the present invention to decorate food service articles such as plates made of a plastic that have been tinted to resemble china, and have produced decorated plastic plates that simulate the appearance of ornately decorated chinaware having gold or silver markings without applying or using any metallic materials, inks, foils, or any other externally applied materials, and without adding any special or secondary pigments to the plastic. The markings on white plates, for example, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 , offer a silver colored appearance, while the markings on black plates (not shown here) offer a gold colored appearance. [0107] In particular, the marking pattern shown in FIG. 4 was obtained using a 50 Watts Pulsed Fiber laser operating at 1062 nanometers with a power setting of 100%, a frequency setting of 50%, a marking speed of about 1000 mm/sec, and resolution of 20 dots/mm. A 300 mm lens was used and the focal distance was about 28 inches. The white plate of FIG. 2 is 10.25 inches in diameter and was injection molded using polystyrene resin and titanium dioxide colorant. The titanium dioxide loading in the final article was about 3.5%. Marking time for this plate was about 1.5 seconds and marking exhibited a silver color. It is worth mentioning that laser radiation at these wavelengths and power is harmful to the human eyes and appropriate protective equipment must be worn when working with laser equipment and preferably laser marking should be conducted inside a suitably guarded enclosure that prevents harmful radiation from reaching the operator's eyes. [0108] It has been generally noticed that black food service articles can be marked at faster speeds or shorter marking times compared to lighter colors, most likely due to higher absorptivity of the carbon black colorant. [0109] The inventors have also discovered that one way to speed up the laser marking process and/or to achieve higher contrast markings is to construct the food service articles from a blend of two or more plastic resins, wherein one of the resin components has a lower melting or vaporization temperature than the other resin components. For example, a blend of about 2% to 5% by weight of linear low density polyethylene in a colored polystyrene material yields shorter marking times than colored polystyrene by itself [0110] The ability to simulate the appearance of an ornately decorated permanentware china plate without using inks and foils provides several advantages. Since there is no risk of ink-migration into food, there is no risk of arcing or electrical hazards when the plate is used in a microwave, unlike a foil-stamped plate. Printing equipment changeover and associated clean-up is eliminated, no barrier overcoat is required, and much finer and more intricate patterns can be applied onto the plate surface, as compared to ink printing, without risk of ink-smearing. In addition, changeovers from one graphic or pattern to another can be readily accomplished without significant downtime or line-stoppages, so that product personalization and customization for various events and occasions becomes practically feasible and economically viable. [0111] It will be appreciated that in printing or stamping a food-service article, the printed portions of the article have to be fully supported to allow exertion of pressure on the inked surface or master to cause transference of the pattern onto the article, requiring use of dedicated fixtures. Laser decoration of a food service article does not require that the plate be in contact with a physical surface during the decorating process. Any post-molding contamination from ink-carrying templates, stamping dies, or other hardware is thereby avoided. A particular advantage of the non-contact laser decoration method is that the plate surface to be decorated does not have to be substantially flat or maintained in a flat configuration during the decoration process. [0112] In commercially available laser systems, the incidence of the laser beam on the article surface is controllable in accordance with the desired graphic or pattern using software, whereby the laser beam interacts with the plastic substrate and creates a mark in accordance with the intended artwork. If the surface of the article is shaped, the movements of the beam can be adjusted to compensate, thereby producing an undistorted image of the artwork on the shaped surface. Changing the artwork is achieved simply by loading a new file that changes the software commands, so that the pattern can be changed as frequently as every article without significant economic impact. [0113] One of the aspects of the laser marking process is that the artwork file needs to be in an appropriate format to serve as suitable input for controlling laser beam deflection via the software program. CAD format files in, for example, DXF format have been found to yield acceptable results, but the choice of file format depends on the type of commercial laser unit and the specifications provided by the manufacturer of the laser marking equipment. It has been the experience of the inventors that typical image formats such as JPEG tend to result in longer marking times and conversion of images to line art and/or a vector format file results in a significant reduction in marking time. One of the advantages of vector format files is that images can be scaled without loss in quality. [0114] Use of a high-intensity laser according to the present invention to irradiate the plastic substrate provides rapid local heating of the plastic substrate, as radiation from the laser beam is absorbed by the substrate and converted to thermal energy. Depending on the process parameters, type of plastic, colorant, and design pattern, absorbed radiation may induce decorated markings by causing foaming, carbonizing or charring, discoloration, and/or chemical changes in the plastic structure. The inventors have found that exposing dinnerware to laser radiation produces a moderate coloration that is suggestive of a metal such as silver, pewter or gold, without actually containing any metal. For example, in FIGS. 4 and 5 the white plate articles include markings that resemble silver colored ink. Of course, too much laser power or longer exposure to laser radiation could vaporize the plastic, resulting in engraving rather than marking [0115] The 50 Watts Fiber laser unit used for decorating examples shown here yielded marking times for a typical plastic plate in some embodiments of between 0.5 seconds and 5 seconds. At least in some embodiments, the laser marked decoration produces an optically visible but relatively shallow plastic discoloration effect that is difficult to detect by touch, does not have an unpleasant feel, and does not raise concerns of any substance detaching from the plate surface and migrating into food during use. In other words, the markings can be safely placed in areas which are generally intended for food contact, such as the central area of the plate or a tray, and having sufficient durability to withstand mechanical, thermal and chemical challenges offered by various foods. Laser marked plates have been subjected to dishwasher cycles and have been used with a variety of foods. One of the appeals of the laser marking process is that the markings can be placed in food-contact areas without utilizing a barrier overcoat or a secondary protective layer. [0116] The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of this disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto.

The present invention provides a method for a customer to interact with a computer system over a computer network for specifying custom decoration of a plastic food service article. A computer-assisted decorating machine then processes the customer input and customizes the food service article according to the customer input. Thereafter, the customized article is delivered to the customer. Creation of customized and/or personalized designs is rendered feasible by providing readymade templates for a variety of events and occasions. In embodiments, the computer-assisted decorating machine is a laser marking system, and the food service articles are made from a plastic material that discolors when irradiated with a laser beam. The markings can emulate silver, gold, or pewter without applying metals, inks, or coatings to the plastic articles, and laser marked plate products can resemble decorated china plates or other permanent ware articles.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §§120/121 to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/345,637 filed on Jan. 31, 2006, which is a non-provisional of, and claims the benefit of, co-pending, commonly-assigned, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/649,282 entitled “VARIABLE EXPOSURE FOR COLOR IMAGER,” filed on Feb. 1, 2006, by Yosefin and of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/649,337 entitled “DUAL EXPOSURE FOR IMAGE SENSOR,” filed on Feb. 1, 2006, by Yaffee, the entire disclosure of each of which is herein incorporated for all purposes. [0002] This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/345,642 (Attorney Docket No. 040013-004210US) entitled “DUAL EXPOSURE FOR IMAGE SENSOR,” which has issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,554,588, the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated for all purposes. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Embodiments of the invention relate generally to image sensors. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to increasing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of image sensors using variable exposure techniques. [0004] Selecting the proper exposure duration for image sensors, such as CMOS image sensors (CIS), can be difficult. If the selected exposure duration is too long, pixels may become saturated and the resulting image quality may be poor. If the selected exposure duration is too short, pixels values may be below the dynamic threshold and detail may be lost. [0005] U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,442 (the '442 patent) discloses a method to increase the dynamic range of still images (and of video streams) by acquiring the same scene with multiple exposure periods, then merging the multiple images into a single wide dynamic range image. Conventional techniques to obtain multiple images of the same scene include: using multiple image sensors; and using two sequential image acquisitions, one with a long exposure and one with a short exposure. The first method is expensive, not only because of the need for two image sensors, but also because the two image sensors need to be optically aligned with great precision so that the image of any object in front of the lens will be projected on the same pixel row and column of both image sensors. The second method, using sequential image acquisitions, is cheaper. Because the two acquisitions are not done at the same time, however, the resulting image is susceptible to motion artifacts. Other conventional techniques (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,696) offer means to correct for such motion artifacts, but those methods are complex and expensive. [0006] In view of the foregoing, improved methods are needed to increase the dynamic range of image sensors. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] Embodiments of the invention provide a method of capturing an image of a scene using an image capture device having an array of pixels. The array of pixels includes pixels of different colors. The method includes, for a first duration, capturing a first portion of the scene with a first plurality of the pixels of a first color, and for a second duration, capturing a second portion of the scene with a second plurality of the pixels of a second color. The first and second durations are different and the first and second durations are chosen, at least in part, to improve the signal to noise ratio of the image capture device. [0008] In some embodiments the method includes, for a third duration, capturing a third portion of the scene with a third plurality of the pixels of a third color. The first, second, and third colors may be red, green, and blue. The first, second, and third durations may be different. The array of pixels may be a Bayer grid. The image capture device may be a CMOS image sensor. The first color may be red, the second color may be green, and the third color may be blue and two of the three durations may be the same. [0009] In other embodiments, an image capture device, includes an array of pixels having pixels of different colors and circuitry configured to control the operation of the pixels to thereby capture an image of a scene. In doing so, the control circuitry causes the pixels to, for a first duration, capture a first portion of the scene with a first plurality of the pixels of a first color and, for a second duration, capture a second portion of the scene with a second plurality of the pixels of a second color. [0010] In some embodiments, the first and second durations are different. The circuitry may be further configured to control the operation of the pixels to thereby capture an image of a scene by, for a third duration, capture a third portion of the scene with a third plurality of the pixels of a third color. The first, second, and third colors may be red, green, and blue. The first, second, and third durations may be different. The array of pixels may be a Bayer grid. The image capture device may be a CMOS image sensor. The first color may be red, the second color may be green, and the third color may be blue, and two of the three durations may be the same. The first, second, and third durations may be chosen, at least in part, to improve the signal to noise ratio of the image capture device. [0011] In still other embodiments, an image capture device includes an array of pixels having pixels of different colors and circuitry configured to control the operation of the pixels to thereby capture an image of a scene. The circuitry includes means for capturing a first portion of the scene for a first duration with a first plurality of the pixels of a first color, means for capturing a second portion of the scene for a second duration with a second plurality of the pixels of a second color, means for capturing a third portion of the scene for a third duration with a third plurality of the pixels of a third color. The first and second durations are different. [0012] In some embodiments the first, second, and third colors are red, green, and blue. The first, second, and third durations may be different. The array of pixels may be a Bayer grid. The image capture device may be a CMOS image sensor. The first color may be red, the second color may be green, and the third color may be blue and two of the three durations may be the same. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label. [0014] FIG. 1 illustrates timing waveforms a dual exposure image capture device according to embodiments of the invention. [0015] FIG. 2 illustrates a functional block diagram of a circuit to accomplish the dual exposure embodiment of FIG. 1 . [0016] FIG. 3 illustrates a functional block diagram of the intelligent interpolator of FIG. 2 . [0017] FIG. 4 illustrates an energy profile for an image captured by a conventional image capture device. [0018] FIG. 5 illustrates an energy profile for an image captured by an image capture device according to embodiments of the invention. [0019] FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary 3-T pixel circuit according to embodiments of the invention. [0020] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary pixel array for use with the circuit of FIG. 6 . [0021] FIG. 8 illustrates timing waveforms for the pixel array of FIG. 7 . [0022] FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary 4-T pixel circuit according to embodiments of the invention. [0023] FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary 2×2 array employing transistor sharing between two pixels according to embodiments of the invention. [0024] FIG. 11 illustrates timing waveforms for the pixel array of FIG. 10 . [0025] FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary 2×2 array employing transistor sharing among four pixels according to embodiments of the invention. [0026] FIG. 13 illustrates timing waveforms for the pixel array of FIG. 12 . [0027] FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary 2×4 pixel array having sharing of pixels and transfer lines according to embodiments of the invention. [0028] FIG. 15 illustrates timing waveforms for the pixel array of FIG. 14 . [0029] FIG. 16 illustrates an energy profile for an image captured by an image capture device using the pixel array of FIG. 14 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0030] The ensuing description provides preferred exemplary embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention. Rather, the ensuing description of the preferred exemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing a preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention. It is to be understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. [0031] Specific details are given in the following description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. It will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, however, that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments. [0032] In the ensuing embodiments, methods and circuits to improve the dynamic range of image sensors are disclosed and claimed. Such embodiments reduce the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and/or prevent saturation of CMOS image sensors (CIS). Disclosed embodiments do not require multiple image sensors and do not require capturing multiple images at different times. In some embodiments, alternating short and long exposure durations are applied for every other row for an image array. In other embodiments, alternating short and long exposure durations are applied for every other row pair. In still other embodiments, different exposure durations are used for different colors and/or different color groups. Exemplary circuits to provide the timing waveforms to implement some embodiments are disclosed and claimed. An exemplary algorithm to merge information from alternating exposure pairs of rows to a seamless wide dynamic range picture or video stream is also disclosed. [0033] A CIS-based camera typically adjusts the exposure level based on the brightness of the image to be captured. If the exposure is too long, some of the pixels—in particular those in the brighter areas of the image—tend to reach saturation—a point where they can no longer integrate light energy. Image regions with such over-exposed pixels are referred to as saturated regions, and pictures with large saturated regions are considered to be of low quality. On the other hand, when the exposure time is too short, the energy accumulated in some of the pixels—in particular those in the darker areas of the image—will be low relative to the energy of the inherent noise, resulting in poor SNR and, again, poor image quality. [0034] Real-time software programs are used with CIS-based cameras. This software measures the energy levels of the pixels, extracts basic statistics from the measurement results, and then changes the exposure time accordingly so as to achieve an optimum picture. The software ideally converges to an exposure duration that is long enough so that a minimal number of pixels in dark area will exhibit poor SNR, but is short enough so that few—if any—pixels will be in saturation. Such real time software programs are generally referred to as “Auto-Exposure” functions. Dual Exposure Embodiments [0035] In the immediately ensuing embodiments, exposure durations are different for different rows. In some embodiments, the exposure durations are alternated between short and long after every pair of rows. Such embodiments are particularly useful for image arrays that employ Bayer grids. The color pattern of the pixels in a Bayer grid has a repetition period of two rows. Using different exposures for all odd rows on one hand and all even rows on the other hand may result in the loss of color information. Hence, in some embodiments with a Bayer grid, exposure durations are alternated every two rows. [0036] FIG. 1 illustrates a timing diagram 100 for the top eight rows 102 of a CMOS image sensor (CIS) according to embodiments of the current invention. In this timing diagram, rows n ( 102 - 0 ), n+1 ( 102 - 1 ), n+4 ( 102 - 4 ), n+5 ( 102 - 5 ), . . . have a long exposure setting, while rows n+2 ( 102 - 2 ), n+3 ( 102 - 3 ), n+6 ( 102 - 6 ), n+7 ( 102 - 7 ) . . . have a short exposure setting. For each row, the exposure period is the period of time from the moment the row is Reset (RST) to the moment that the row is Read (RD). [0037] The ratio of long exposure duration to short exposure duration need not be a whole number. The short exposure duration may be any fraction of the long exposure duration and may be optimized for different environments. The ratio may be user selectable or may be determined automatically. [0038] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the timing diagram of FIG. 1 corresponds to a “rolling shutter” image capture system. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that other embodiments may be employed for use with “global shutter,” or “snapshot shutter,” systems wherein the exposure periods are initiated electronically (by resetting the short and long exposure rows at different times) and mechanically ending all the exposures at the same time. Rows are then read sequentially as shown and processed as will be described hereinafter. [0039] Having described an exemplary timing diagram, attention is directed to FIG. 2 , which illustrates an exemplary circuit 200 according to embodiments of the invention. The timing diagram of FIG. 1 , in which alternating row pairs have different exposure durations, may be implemented in the circuit of FIG. 2 . [0040] The circuit 200 includes a pixel array 202 , a row decoder 204 , a read counter 206 , a reset multiplexer 208 , and a readout analog-to-digital converter 210 . The pixel array 202 includes a number of CMOS sensors arranged into rows. The row decoder 204 addresses rows to be read in response to signals from the read counter 206 and reset multiplexer 208 . The read counter 206 advances through the rows sequentially. The reset multiplexer 208 multiplexes logic signals from a long exposure counter 212 , a short exposure counter 214 , and a toggle circuit 216 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the reset multiplexer 208 may be replaced with a reset counter to implement prior art algorithms. [0041] The long exposure counter 212 advances the address of the row to be reset for those rows which are to have long exposure. The short exposure counter 214 advances the address of the row to be reset for those rows which are to have short exposure. The toggle circuit 216 toggles the reset multiplexer 208 between the long exposure counter 212 and the short exposure counter 214 every two rows. [0042] The readout analog-to-digital converter 210 reads the voltages of CMOS sensors in the addressed row, optionally subtracts the pre-sampled Reset level and/or the Black Level, and coverts the output to digital form. The digital output is then fed into an intelligent interpolator 218 that combines the short and long exposure rows to form a wide-dynamic range image. The function of the intelligent interpolator 218 is described immediately hereinafter. [0043] FIG. 3 depicts the operation of the intelligent interpolator 218 logically. It includes two, two-row buffers DL 1 ( 301 ) and DL 2 ( 302 ). Rows are read serially into DL 1 , then through to DL 2 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the interpolator operates on one pixel at a time. If the “current row” is defined to be the row being output from DL 1 , the interpolation functions as follows. [0044] As each pixel value is clocked out of DL 2 , it value is added to the value of the pixel being clocked from the A-to-D converter by the adder 304 . The result is divided by 2 by the divider 306 to produce an average value. This operation creates an interpolated pixel value using the values of the pixels in the rows two above and two below the current row. This interpolated row is herein referred to as a “neighborhood row.” A selection is then made between the current pixel of the neighborhood row and the current pixel of the current row that is being output from DL 1 . It should be apparent that the exposure duration of the current row will always be different than the exposure duration of the neighborhood row. When the exposure duration of the current row is short, the neighborhood row exposure duration will be long, and vice versa. [0045] If the current row is a short exposure row and the current pixel value is above a predetermined threshold (i.e., above the noise level), then interpolation is not needed. The merger block 308 sets the value of W 1 to be α (alpha) and sets the value of W 2 to be 0, wherein α (alpha) is a scale factor. As a result, the output of the first multiplier 310 is the value of the current pixel of the current row multiplied by the scale factor and the output of the second multiplier 312 is 0. The values are summed by the adder 314 , which outputs the high dynamic range output. [0046] The scale factor α (alpha) is the ratio of the long exposure duration to the short exposure duration. For example, if the long exposure duration is 100 ms and the short exposure duration is 50 ms, then the scale factor is 2. Hence, when the exposure duration of the current row is short and the current pixel value is above the dynamic threshold, thus not requiring interpolation, the pixel value of the current row is used, but the value is scaled up to be on par with the long exposure duration rows. [0047] If the current row is a short exposure row and the current pixel value is below the predetermined threshold, then interpolation is needed. The merger block 308 sets the value of W 1 to be 0 and sets the value of W 2 to be 1. The high dynamic range output for the current pixel then becomes the neighborhood row pixel value. [0048] When the current row is a long exposure duration row and the current pixel value is not saturated, then interpolation is not needed. The merger block 308 sets W 1 to be 1 and sets W 2 to be 0. The high dynamic range output for the current pixel then remains the current pixel value. [0049] If the current row is a long exposure duration row and the current pixel value is saturated, then interpolation is needed. The merger block 308 sets W 1 to be 0 and sets W 2 to be α. The high dynamic range output becomes the value of the neighborhood row pixel, which is a short duration value, scaled up by the scale factor. [0050] A nearly identical interpolator may be used to implement systems wherein the exposure duration is alternated every other row, rather than every two rows. The row buffers DL 1 and DL 2 need only be shortened to buffer one row at a time. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that similar interpolators may implement methods wherein exposure durations vary according to other patterns. [0051] The foregoing embodiments change the exposure duration for various rows of an image sensing array. Other embodiments may change the exposure time for portions of rows or even individual pixels. Any number of exposure times could be used for a particular scan of the imaging array in various embodiments. Several such embodiments are described hereinafter. Variable Exposure Durations Based on Pixel Color [0052] In the immediately ensuing embodiments, methods and circuits to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of color CMOS image sensors (CIS) are disclosed. In some embodiments, SNR improvement is achieved by adjusting the exposure time for each color component separately, avoiding the situation where, due to high energy level for one of the color components in the image, the exposure time to all color components is short, which could yield a low SNR. In other embodiments, two separate exposure controls are used, one for the Green color component and the other common for the Red and the Blue components. Any color grouping may be used in other embodiments. [0053] Typical CIS-based cameras use a color filter array (CFA). Under normal lighting conditions, the energy response is not symmetrical with respect to the CFA colors. Specifically, the Green component typically has much more energy than the Red or the Blue components. As a result, Auto-Exposure software typically limits the exposure to the point where Green pixels reach saturation and, consequently, the Red and the Blue pixels have a relatively short exposure and exhibit poor SNR. This situation is illustrated for a typical image at FIG. 4 . [0054] Referring to FIG. 4 , suppose the relative strengths of the Green, Blue and Red components are normally distributed around the values of 130, 60 and 40 (out of 256 full scale levels), respectively. The exposure setting cannot be further increased since some of the Green pixels are close to or at 255—the saturation level. Suppose further that the RMS of the noise is 10 levels—designated by the region 406 . [0055] As can be seen with reference to FIG. 4 , the SNR for the green pixels at the peak is 20*log(130/10)=22.3 dB. However, for the peak value of the blue pixels, which is around level 60, the SNR is 20*log(60/20)=15.6 dB, and for the peak value of the red pixels around level 40, the SNR is only 20*log(40/10)=12 dB. [0056] A CIS built according to one embodiment of the present invention has different exposure times for one or more of the color components. For example, each color component in the CIS array could have a separate exposure time control. FIG. 5 illustrates the energy profile for such an embodiment. [0057] Referring to FIG. 5 , an energy profile is illustrated for a CIS embodiment that has different exposure times for each color component. According to this embodiment, the three color components have similar distributions. If this were the same captured image whose energy profile is depicted in FIG. 4 , it is apparent that the Red and Blue exposure times have been increased so as to approach saturation. The SNR for the peak value of all three components is, therefore, about 22.3 dB, a significant improvement for both the Red and Blue components. [0000] 3- and 4-Transistor Pixel Active Pixel Sensor Embodiments with No Transistor Sharing [0058] FIG. 6 illustrates a first exemplary circuit for implementing an embodiment that results in the energy profile of FIG. 5 . FIG. 6 illustrates a single, 3-transistor (3-T) pixel 600 having transistors 602 , 604 , and 606 . The first transistor 602 receives a reset pulse, which begins charging of a photo-diode 608 (the n + -p − junction) to an initial high level. Following release of the reset pulse, the photo-diode starts the exposure period, the period when the pixel integrates light energy. The integration ends when the voltage on the diode is read to the column bus, through the transistor 604 , a source follower transistor, and through the transistor 606 , a row select transistor. [0059] FIG. 7 illustrates a 4×4 portion of a pixel array using a Bayer Grid. This embodiment uses the circuit of FIG. 6 , although other appropriate circuits may be used. The rows are identified starting with row n at the top and ending with row n+3 at the bottom (column numbers are not depicted). Reset inputs of the individual pixels are shown and are identified as “reset” followed by a letter indicating the color being reset for the row. Every color component in a row of pixels has a dedicated reset line to every pixel of that color in the row. Hence, each row requires two reset lines since each row has two different color pixels. [0060] FIG. 8 illustrates timing waveforms for the pixel array of FIG. 7 . For each row, the exposure time begins when the reset turns low (inactive) for that row and lasts until the pixel is read out. According to this embodiment, readout of all color components is done sequentially by rows. The reset for each color component, however, has different time periods. Differing periods allow the exposure time for the Blue pixels of row n+1 or for row n+3 to be longer than the exposure time for Green pixels in rows n, n+1, n+2, n+3, but shorter than the exposure time for the Red pixels in rows n, n+2. In other words, each color component exposure time may be adjusted to optimize the quality of the captured image. [0061] The split reset lines for each color employ additional logic in the row decoder of the imaging array. Rather than generating a single reset pulse for each row, a row decoder according to the present embodiment generates a separate reset pulse for each color of the row. [0062] FIG. 9 depicts a 4-T pixel 900 according to embodiments of the invention. In this embodiment a fourth transistor 901 separates the photo-diode 908 from the reset transistor 902 , the source follower transistor 904 , and the row select transistor 906 . With respect to the reset transistor 902 , a difference between a 4-T and a 3-T pixel is that exposure start is achieved by a combination of a pulse on the gate of the reset transistor 902 concurrently with or a short time before a pulse on the transistor 901 , which charges the photodiode to its initial voltage. [0063] For a pixel array using a 4-T pixel such as the pixel 900 , the arrangement is similar to that shown in FIG. 7 for a 3-T pixel, except that horizontal TX lines, in addition to the reset lines, are used. [0064] The timing waveforms for a 4-T pixel array is similar to that shown in FIG. 8 for a 3-T pixel array. For such embodiments, TX lines are wired in parallel to the reset lines and have similar timing waveforms to achieve color-varying exposure. [0000] 4-T Active Pixel Sensor with Sharing of Pixels Between Two Pixels [0065] In some embodiments of the present invention, some pixels share various elements. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 10 , the Reset (RST 1 , RST 2 ), Source-Follower (SF 1 , SF 2 ), and Read (RD 1 , RD 2 ) transistors are shared between two vertically adjacent pixels. FIG. 10 depicts a 2×2 portion of a CIS array. [0066] FIG. 11 illustrates timing waveforms for use with the circuit of FIG. 110 . The use of such timing waveforms in combination with the circuit of FIG. 10 results in improved SNR since the exposure durations for each color may be determined independently. The timing of the RST and Txx pulses (wherein Txx is T 11 , T 12 , T 21 , and T 22 ) are varied according to feedback from the auto-exposure software. [0067] The RST line, which is common to all pixels of the two depicted rows of the array, is pulsed four times. The Txx lines of the four color components are pulsed separately, each concurrently with the corresponding RST pulse, thus starting the integration of one of the four pixels of the 4×4 pixel array with each pulse. For readout, the Txx lines are pulsed again, this time simultaneously with read pulses. As is apparent, columns 1 and 2 may be read simultaneously, although row two is read in a subsequent clock cycle from row 1, which is common for Rolling Shutter image capture, widely used with respect to CIS devices. Although not shown, extra reset pulses may be applied prior to readout to achieve correlated double sampling [0000] 4-T Active Pixel Sensor with Sharing of Transistors Between Four Pixels [0068] In another embodiment depicted in FIG. 12 , the reset (RST), source-follower (SF) and read (RD) transistors are shared between four adjacent pixels in two neighbor rows and two neighbor columns. A 2×2 portion of the array for this embodiment is depicted. There are separate Transfer lines (Txx) for each of the color components and a single column line (COLUMN) for all four. Hence, each of the four pixel values must be read out during different clock periods. The timing for this embodiment is depicted in FIG. 13 . [0069] Integration for each pixel is initiated by simultaneous pulses on the RST and respective Txx lines. Read is done sequentially for the four pixels with simultaneous pulses on the READ and respective Txx lines. This achieves different exposure times for each of the color components by having the timing of the RST pulses being determined by Auto-Exposure software or a user input. [0000] 4-T Active Pixel Sensor with Shared Transistors Between Four Pixels and Shared Transfer Lines Between Two Rows [0070] The circuit embodiments of FIGS. 10 and 12 use two transfer lines for each row since each row has two color components. The large number of horizontal control lines may undesirably enlarge the area of the pixels. FIG. 14 depicts a 4×2 portion of a 4-T CIS pixel array having transistors shared by four adjacent pixels and having only one transfer line per row (T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , T 4 ). The areas 1402 , 1404 denote the common parts of the respective four-pixel groups and include a source follower transistor, a read transistor, and a reset transistor, which are not shown for simplicity sake. [0071] As is apparent, each pixel row uses a single horizontal transfer control line (T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , T 4 ), which it shares with a neighbor row. The transfer lines are arranged, however, so that the green pixels for neighboring rows are all controlled by the same transfer line (T 1 , T 3 ). The red and blue pixels on neighboring rows are then controlled by the other transfer line (T 2 , T 4 ). This reduces the number of horizontal controls lines by 50% while still allowing some improvement in SNR with respect to conventional techniques. That is because the embodiments of FIG. 14 facilitates a different exposure time setting for the Green pixels on one hand and for the Red and Blue pixels on the other. FIG. 15 depicts the timing waveform for the embodiment of FIG. 14 . Other groupings (e.g., Green and Blue pixels having one exposure time setting and Red pixels having a different exposure time setting; Green and Red pixels having one exposure time setting and the Blue pixels having a different exposure time setting) may be used. [0072] As can be see with reference to FIG. 15 , the Red and Blue pixels get the same exposure time, which is longer than that of the Green pixels. This allows the exposure duration to be optimized for the green pixels and either the red or blue pixels for the image. This improves the image quality over conventional systems without requiring an increase in the number of horizontal control lines as with embodiments that allow each color's exposure duration to be determined independently. A corresponding energy profile for this embodiment is depicted in FIG. 16 . [0073] As can be seen with reference to FIG. 16 , if this were the same captured image whose energy profile is depicted in FIG. 4 , it is apparent that the Red/Blue exposure time has been optimized for the Blue pixels by increasing the Red/Blue exposure time so as to approach saturation. Hence, the SNR for Green and Blue is 22.3 dB and the SNR for Red is 20*log (40*130/60)=18.8 dB. [0074] Having described several embodiments, it will be recognized by those of skill in the art that various modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents may be used without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, although the above embodiments are explained in relation to CMOS imagers, the principals could be extended to CCD or other types of imagers. Additionally, a number of well-known processes and elements have not been described in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention. Accordingly, the above description should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention, which is defined in the following claims.

A method of capturing an image of a scene using an image capture device having an array of pixels, wherein the array of pixels includes pixels of different colors, includes, for a first duration, capturing a first portion of the scene with a first plurality of the pixels of a first color, and for a second duration, capturing a second portion of the scene with a second plurality of the pixels of a second color. The first and second durations are different and the first and second durations are chosen, at least in part, to improve the signal to noise ratio of the image capture device.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a Continuation Application of PCT Application No. PCT/JP2006/310923, filed May 31, 2006, which was published under PCT Article 21(2) in Japanese. [0002] This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-089869, filed Mar. 29, 2006, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Field of the Invention [0004] The present invention relates to a person oneself authenticating system and a person oneself authenticating method for authenticating whether a user, who accesses a transaction system from a terminal device, is a registered user, by using a sound or an image as an authentication key. [0005] 2. Description of the Related Art [0006] At present, in an Internet transaction system such as Internet banking, a system in which a password is memorized or a system using a contractor's card on which a number for authentication is recorded (see, e.g. Patent Document 1) is generally adopted as user authentication means. In these systems, however, the user is forced to memorize the password or to manage the contractor's card, and the problem is how to avoid a risk, such as unlawful use of the password or loss of the contractor's card. [0007] In ATMs of banks or the like, in particular, with recent serious problems of leakage of passwords, the introduction of an IC card system and a biometrics system has been promoted in order to perform person oneself authentication with higher security. Besides, there has been disclosed an invention in which a melody is used as an authentication key as authentication means which is easier for the user to memorize and is higher in security than passwords, and the melody is compared with a melody that is input by the user, thereby performing person oneself authentication (see, e.g. Patent Document 2). [0008] In addition, there has been proposed a candidate presentation/selection system as an authentication system which requires no dedicated reading apparatus or the like, unlike the IC card system or biometrics system, and is relatively easy to introduce, wherein a user's personal information is registered in advance in a server side, valid information which is mixed with dummy information is presented at a time of login, and person oneself authentication is executed on the basis of whether the valid information is selected from the presented information (see, e.g. Patent Document 3). [0009] Patent Document 1: Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. H9-305541, [0010] Patent Document 2: Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. H3-126095, and [0011] Patent Document 3: Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-46553. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention [0012] Of these authentication systems, the password system and the contractor card system have the above-described problems. The IC card system and the biometrics system require the provision of a dedicated reading device or the like, and there is a problem that these systems are not suited to, e.g. the Internet banking in which a user's personal belonging such as a PC (Personal Computer) or a mobile phone is used in usual cases. As regards the melody authentication system as disclosed in Patent Document 2, there is such an operational burden on the user that a melody which becomes an authentication key has to be input, as well as a burden that the melody has to be memorized so that it may exactly be input. [0013] The candidate presentation/selection system can be realized by functions ordinarily provided in a PC or a mobile phone and, as disclosed in Patent Document 3, the burden on the user that the user has to memorize the authentication key is relaxed by using the user's personal information for authentication. However, in the case of a simple selection system, there is a high risk of accidental agreement with a right answer or a risk of guessing of the user's personal information. For this reason, there is a problem that this system is not sufficient in terms of safety. [0014] The present invention has been made in order to solve these problems. The object of the invention is to provide a person oneself authenticating system and a person oneself authenticating method for authenticating whether a user, who has accessed a transaction system from a terminal device, is a registered user or not by using sound or video as an authentication key, as person oneself authenticating means which is mainly used for Internet banking or the like and is high in security, and can be carried out by functions ordinarily provided in a PC, a mobile phone, or the like while the authenticating means is less in burden required for user authentication key management and authentication operations. Means for Solving the Problems [0015] A first invention for solving the problems relating to the present application is a person oneself authenticating system, provided in a transaction system, for authenticating whether a user who has accessed the transaction system from a terminal device is a registered user, comprising: authentication request accepting means for accepting an authentication request by the user who has accessed from the terminal device; authentication key list memory means for storing one or two or more authentication keys, which are selected by the registered user, as an authentication key list; authentication data creating means for selecting at least one authentication key from the authentication key list, which is stored in the authentication key list memory means, of the user whose authentication request is accepted, combining at least a part of authentication key data, which constitutes the authentication key, and at least a part of key data of one or two or more keys, which are not included in the authentication key list, thereby creating authentication data which is continuously reproduced; authentication data transmission means for transmitting the authentication data to the terminal device; authentication information reception means for receiving authentication information which is generated by an authenticating action which is performed by the user on the terminal device by reproducing the authentication data in the terminal device; and authentication information collation means for collating the authentication information and normal authentication information which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is an authenticated person, wherein each of the authentication key data and the key data, which are used in the authentication data creating means, is sound source data or image data, which varies with time at a time of reproduction, the authentication information, which is received by the authentication information reception means, is data for specifying a time in which the authentication key recognized by the user is reproduced, the data being generated from a time in which an authentication operation, which is executed by the user by recognizing that the authentication key is being reproduced, is accepted in the terminal device during the reproduction of the authentication data, and the authentication information collation means collates whether the time in which the authentication key is reproduced, which is specified from the authentication information, agrees with a time in which the authentication key should be reproduced, which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is the authenticated person. [0016] A second invention for solving the problems relating to the present application is a person oneself authenticating system, provided in a transaction system, for authenticating whether a user who has accessed the transaction system from a terminal device is a registered user, comprising: authentication request accepting means for accepting an authentication request by the user who has accessed from the terminal device; authentication key list memory means for storing one or two or more authentication keys, which are selected by the registered user, as an authentication key list; authentication data creating means for selecting at least one authentication key from the authentication key list, which is stored in the authentication key list memory means, of the user whose authentication request is accepted, designating a combination between the authentication key and a time of reproduction of the authentication key and one or two or more keys, which are not included in the authentication key list, and a time of reproduction of the one or two or more keys, thereby creating authentication data which is continuously reproduced; authentication data transmission means for transmitting the authentication data to the terminal device; authentication information reception means for receiving authentication information which is generated by an authenticating action which is performed by the user on the terminal device by reproducing the authentication data in the terminal device; and authentication information collation means for collating the authentication information and normal authentication information which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is an authenticated person, wherein each of the authentication key and the key, which are used in the authentication data creating means, specifies sound or an image, which is reproduced at a time of authentication, the authentication information, which is received by the authentication information reception means, is data for specifying a time in which the authentication key recognized by the user is reproduced, the data being generated from a time in which an authentication operation, which is executed by the user by recognizing that the authentication key is being reproduced, is accepted in the terminal device during the reproduction of the authentication data, and the authentication information collation means collates whether the time in which the authentication key is reproduced, which is specified from the authentication information, agrees with a time in which the authentication key should be reproduced, which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is the authenticated person. [0017] In the present invention (including the first invention and second invention; the same applies to the below), sound, image, etc. are adopted as authentication keys for person oneself authentication. The authentication key, which is selected by the registered user, and the key other than the authentication key are combined and continuously reproduced. The person oneself authentication is executed on the basis of whether the use, who listens to the reproduced sound or views the reproduced image, has exactly selected the time in which the authentication key is reproduced. According to this method, by the number, length and combination of sounds and images, the probability of accidental agreement can remarkably be reduced. In addition, the authentication can be executed by the audio reproducing function or image reproducing function which is ordinarily provided in the PC or mobile phone. Furthermore, since authentication can be executed with a simple operation by the auditory sense, the authentication method with a less operational burden on the user can be provided. [0018] In the first invention, sound source data or image data, which varies with time at the time of reproduction, is adopted as the sound or image that is used as the authentication key and the key. In the case of using the sound source data, the kind of sound that is used for authentication is not particularly limited. Sound effects or voice may be used. If consideration is given to easy learning by the user, the use of a music file is preferable. Similarly, in the case of using image data, the kind of image is not particularly limited, but it is preferable to use an image file which is easy for the user to discriminate. In the present invention, all or a part of such sound source data or image data is arranged to create the authentication data. The order of arrangement and the reproduction time of the sound source data or the like in the authentication data are not particularly limited. The sound source data or the like may be arranged at random or may be arranged on the basis of some algorithm. [0019] In the second invention, sound or an image, which is reproduced at the time of authentication, is designated as each of the authentication key or the key. The authentication data is created by specifying the combination between the sound or image that is reproduced and the time of reproduction. In the case of using sound, for example, authentication data is created such that different sound effects including the sound corresponding to the authentication key are continuously reproduced. In the case of using images, for example, authentication data is created such that different still images including the image corresponding to the authentication key are displayed while being switched. The image to be displayed may represent a picture, a photo, characters, numerals, symbols, etc. In the second invention, too, the order of arrangement and the reproduction time of the sound or images in the authentication data are not particularly limited. [0020] The present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information, which is received by the authentication information reception means and is the data for specifying the time in which the authentication key recognized by the user is reproduced, is composed of bits which discriminate whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, the bits being recorded in every unit time during the reproduction of the authentication data in the terminal device, and the authentication information collation means determines that the user is the authenticated person, in a case where the bits recorded in the authentication information, which correspond to the time in which the authentication key should be reproduced, which is specified from the authentication data, indicate that the authentication operation has been accepted. [0021] With this structure, by collating the bits recorded in the authentication information with the time in which the authentication key should be reproduced, it becomes possible to easily determine whether the user is the authenticated person, by the authentication operation that is executed by the user. [0022] The present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information collation means creates first sequence data composed of first bit strings into which the bits recorded in the authentication information are divided in units of a time of reproduction of the authentication key or the key in accordance with a time of change of the reproduction of the authentication key or the key, which is specified from the authentication data, creates second sequence data composed of second bit strings which are formed by deleting bits corresponding to a predetermined grace time from a first bit of each of the first bit strings in the first sequence data, and determines, from each of the second bit strings in the second sequence data, whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, with respect to each time in which the authentication key or the key has been reproduced. [0023] Further, the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information collation means creates first sequence data composed of first bit strings into which the bits recorded in the authentication information are divided in units of a time of reproduction of the authentication key or the key in accordance with a time of change of the reproduction of the authentication key or the key, which is specified from the authentication data, creates second sequence data composed of second bit strings which are formed by deleting bits corresponding to a predetermined grace time from a first bit of each of the first bit strings in the first sequence data, specifies a predetermined number of last bits of each of the second bit strings in the second sequence data, and determines whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, with respect to each time in which the authentication key or the key has been reproduced. [0024] The invention may be characterized in that the grace time is set for each individual user by a total value of a time that is needed for the user to determine a change of the key, and a time that is needed for judging the authentication key, and the authentication information collation means creates, at a time of creating the second sequence data, the second sequence data by using the second bit string from which only the bit, which corresponds to the time that is needed for judging the authentication key, is deleted with respect to the authentication key or the key which is positioned at a beginning of the authentication data. [0025] The invention may be characterized in that the authentication data creating means sets the time of reproduction of each of the authentication key and the key, which are used in the authentication data, at least at a time that is longer than the time in which the time corresponding to the bit number necessary for authentication is added to the grace time, thereby creating the authentication data. [0026] Further, the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information collation means creates sequence data composed of bit strings into which the bits recorded in the authentication information are divided in units of a time of reproduction of the authentication key or the key in accordance with a time of change of the reproduction of the authentication key or the key, which is specified from the authentication data, specifies a predetermined number of last bits of each of the bit strings in the sequence data, and determines whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, with respect to each time in which the authentication key or the key has been reproduced. [0027] The invention may be characterized in that the authentication data creating means sets the time of reproduction of each of the authentication key and the key, which are used in the authentication data, at a time that is longer than the time corresponding to a predetermined number of bits which are specified in the authentication information collation means, thereby creating the authentication data. [0028] When a user's authentication operation is recorded as bits in authentication information, it is possible that there occurs so-called “jitter” which is a time error between the switching of sound or an image, which is reproduced, and the execution of the authentication operation by the user. In order to perform exact judgment by coping with the jitter, it is preferable to delete bits corresponding to the “jitter” from the object of determination. The time corresponding to the “jitter” comprises the time that is needed for the user to judge the change of the key and the time that is needed to judge the authentication key, and is set by taking into account the individual differences of users, such as the ages. As regards the authentication key or the key which is positioned at the beginning of the authentication data, it is preferable to delete only the time, which is needed to judge the authentication key, from the object. In addition, in order to enable judgment even if “jitter” is eliminated, it is preferable to set the reproduction time of each of the authentication key and the key at a time that is longer than the time in which the time corresponding to the bit number necessary for authentication is added to the time corresponding to “jitter”. [0029] There is another method for coping with “jitter”. Even if some erroneous operation occurs at the time of the change of the sound or image that is reproduced, it is considered that the user himself/herself can correctly execute the authentication operation at the last part of the reproduction of each sound or image. Thus, in the above-described part of the structure, the person oneself authentication is executed on the basis of whether a predetermined number of last bits of each bit string indicate the correct authentication operation. This method may be used in combination with the above-described method of deleting the beginning part, or may be used singly. In order to secure the recording of the predetermined number of bits that are necessary for determination, it is preferable to set the reproduction time of each of the authentication key or the key at a time which is longer than the time corresponding to the predetermined number of bits. [0030] The present invention may be characterized in that the terminal device includes authentication program transmission means for transmitting a program which records, when the authentication data is reproduced in the terminal device, the time in which the authentication operation, which is performed by the user by recognizing that the authentication key is being reproduced, is detected, and the time in which the authentication operation is not detected, from the start time of the reproduction of the authentication data, thereby generating the authentication information that is to be transmitted to the transaction system. [0031] The PC or mobile phone, which is used as the terminal device, needs to have the function of generating the authentication information by measuring the time in which the user recognizes and selects the authentication key at the time of reproduction, as well as the function of reproducing the authentication data such as sound source data or image data. In this structure, the program for executing this function is distributed on-line from the transaction system side. [0032] Further, the present invention may be characterized by including designated key list memory means for storing a designated key list in which keys that are usable as authentication keys are designated; candidate key list transmission means for creating a candidate key list in which two or more keys that are selectable as authentication keys are selected from the designated key list according to a predetermined condition, and transmitting the candidate key list to the terminal device; and authentication key information accepting means for accepting, from the terminal device, information which specifies keys that are selected from the candidate key list by the registered user as authentication keys. The authentication key list memory means stores, as an authentication key list, the authentication keys that are specified from the information that is accepted by the authentication key information accepting means. [0033] In consideration of the convenience for the user, it is preferable that the keys, which are used as the authentication keys, be selected and registered by the user himself/herself. However, if the user himself/herself selects the keys from all the keys that can be designated, it is possible that the kind of keys, which are selected, are guessed by attributes of the user (for example, “young people would like pops” in the case of using music as authentication keys). Thus, in this structure, the candidate key list is narrowed down so that the attributes are hard to guess on the transaction system side, and the user is made to select the keys from this candidate key list. [0034] Further, the present invention may be characterized by including master information memory means for storing master information including the ID code and name of the registered user; and user ID generating means for generating, by applying a predetermined function to at least one item of the master information, a user ID for identifying the registered user by whom the authentication key list is stored in the authentication key list memory means. The user ID and the authentication key list are associated and stored in the authentication key list memory means. [0035] The information, which specifies the authentication keys that are selected by the user, is very important information as the key for person oneself authentication. In order to more securely manage this information, the information is managed separately from the master information of the registered user, as in the present structure, and the linking to each individual user is made by an ID which is obtained by hashing a part of the master information. Thereby, the security is enhanced. [0036] Further, the present invention can be specified as a person oneself authenticating method which is executed by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. [0037] The person oneself authenticating method, which corresponds to the first invention, is a person oneself authenticating method for authenticating, in a transaction system, whether a user who has accessed the transaction system from a terminal device is a registered user, comprising: an authentication request accepting step of accepting, by the transaction system, an authentication request by the user who has accessed from the terminal device; an authentication data creating step of selecting, by the transaction system, at least one authentication key from an authentication key list of the user whose authentication request is accepted, the authentication key list being stored in an authentication key list memory unit that stores an authentication key, which is selected by the registered user, as the authentication key list, combining at least a part of authentication key data of the authentication key and at least a part of key data of one or two or more keys, which are not included in the authentication key list, thereby creating authentication data which is continuously reproduced; an authentication data transmission step of transmitting, by the transaction system, the authentication data to the terminal device; an authentication information reception step of receiving, by the transaction system, authentication information which is generated by an authenticating action which is performed by the user on the terminal device by reproducing the authentication data in the terminal device; and an authentication information collation step of collating, by the transaction system, the authentication information and normal authentication information which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is an authenticated person, wherein each of the authentication key data and the key data, which are used in the authentication data creating step, is sound source data or image data, which varies with time at a time of reproduction, the authentication information, which is received in the authentication information reception step, is data for specifying a time in which the authentication key recognized by the user is reproduced, the data being generated from a time in which an authentication operation, which is executed by the user by recognizing that the authentication key is being reproduced, is accepted in the terminal device during the reproduction of the authentication data, and the authentication information collation step collates whether the time in which the authentication key is reproduced, which is specified from the authentication information, agrees with a time in which the authentication key should be reproduced, which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is the authenticated person. [0038] The person oneself authenticating method, which corresponds to the second invention, is a person oneself authenticating method for authenticating, in a transaction system, whether a user who has accessed the transaction system from a terminal device is a registered user, comprising: an authentication request accepting step of accepting, by the transaction system, an authentication request by the user who has accessed from the terminal device; an authentication data creating step of selecting, by the transaction system, at least one authentication key from an authentication key list of the user whose authentication request is accepted, the authentication key list being stored in an authentication key list memory unit that stores an authentication key, which is selected by the registered user, as the authentication key list, designating a combination between the authentication key and a time of reproduction of the authentication key and one or two or more keys, which are not included in the authentication key list, and a time of reproduction of the one or two or more keys, thereby creating authentication data which is continuously reproduced; an authentication data transmission step of transmitting, by the transaction system, the authentication data to the terminal device; an authentication information reception step of receiving, by the transaction system, authentication information which is generated by an authenticating action which is performed by the user on the terminal device by reproducing the authentication data in the terminal device; and an authentication information collation step of collating, by the transaction system, the authentication information and normal authentication information which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is an authenticated person, wherein each of the authentication key data and the key data, which are used in the authentication data creating step, specifies sound or an image, which is reproduced at a time of authentication, the authentication information, which is received in the authentication information reception step, is data for specifying a time in which the authentication key recognized by the user is reproduced, the data being generated from a time in which an authentication operation, which is executed by the user by recognizing that the authentication key is being reproduced, is accepted in the terminal device during the reproduction of the authentication data, and the authentication information collation step collates whether the time in which the authentication key is reproduced, which is specified from the authentication information, agrees with a time in which the authentication key should be reproduced, which is specified from the authentication data, thereby determining whether the user is the authenticated person. [0039] In addition, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information, which is received in the authentication information reception step and is the data for specifying the time in which the authentication key recognized by the user is reproduced, is composed of bits which discriminate whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, the bits being recorded in every unit time during the reproduction of the authentication data in the terminal device, and the authentication information collation step determines that the user is the authenticated person, in a case where the bits recorded in the authentication information, which correspond to the time in which the authentication key should be reproduced, which is specified from the authentication data, indicate that the authentication operation has been accepted. [0040] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information collation step creates first sequence data composed of first bit strings into which the bits recorded in the authentication information are divided in units of a time of reproduction of the authentication key or the key in accordance with a time of change of the reproduction of the authentication key or the key, which is specified from the authentication data, creates second sequence data composed of second bit strings which are formed by deleting bits corresponding to a predetermined grace time from a first bit of each of the first bit strings in the first sequence data, and determines, from each of the second bit strings in the second sequence data, whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, with respect to each time in which the authentication key or the key has been reproduced. [0041] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information collation step creates first sequence data composed of first bit strings into which the bits recorded in the authentication information are divided in units of a time of reproduction of the authentication key or the key in accordance with a time of change of the reproduction of the authentication key or the key, which is specified from the authentication data, creates second sequence data composed of second bit strings which are formed by deleting bits corresponding to a predetermined grace time from a first bit of each of the first bit strings in the first sequence data, specifies a predetermined number of last bits of each of the second bit strings in the second sequence data, and determines whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, with respect to each time in which the authentication key or the key has been reproduced. [0042] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized in that the grace time is set for each individual user by a total value of a time that is needed for the user to determine a change of the key, and a time that is needed for judging the authentication key, and the authentication information collation step creates, at a time of creating the second sequence data, the second sequence data by using the second bit string from which only the bit, which corresponds to the time that is needed for judging the authentication key, is deleted with respect to the authentication key or the key which is positioned at a beginning of the authentication data. [0043] In addition, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication data creating step sets the time of reproduction of each of the authentication key and the key, which are used in the authentication data, at least at a time that is longer than the time in which the time corresponding to the bit number necessary for authentication is added to the grace time, thereby creating the authentication data. [0044] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication information collation step creates sequence data composed of bit strings into which the bits recorded in the authentication information are divided in units of a time of reproduction of the authentication key or the key in accordance with a time of change of the reproduction of the authentication key or the key, which is specified from the authentication data, specifies a predetermined number of last bits of each of the bit strings in the sequence data, and determines whether the authentication operation has been accepted or not, with respect to each time in which the authentication key or the key has been reproduced. [0045] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized in that the authentication data creating means sets the time of reproduction of each of the authentication key and the key, which are used in the authentication data, at a time that is longer than the time corresponding to a predetermined number of bits which are specified in the authentication information collation means, thereby creating the authentication data. [0046] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized by including a step of receiving, by the terminal device, the authentication data from the transaction system and reproducing the authentication data; a step of recording, by the terminal device, the time in which the authentication operation, which is performed by the user by recognizing that the authentication key is being reproduced, is detected, and the time in which the authentication operation is not detected, from the start time of the reproduction of the authentication data, thereby generating the authentication information that is to be transmitted to the transaction system; and a step of transmitting the authentication information to the transaction system. [0047] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized by including a candidate key list transmission step of creating, by the transaction system, a candidate key list in which two or more sounds that are selectable as authentication sounds are selected from a designated key list according to a predetermined condition, and transmitting the candidate key list to the terminal device, the designated key list being stored in a designated key list memory unit which stores a designated key list in which keys that are usable as authentication keys are designated; and an authentication key information accepting step of accepting, by the transaction system, information, which specifies keys that are selected from the candidate key list by the registered user as authentication keys, from the terminal device. The authentication key list memory unit stores, as an authentication key list, the authentication keys that are specified from the information that is accepted by the authentication key information accepting step. [0048] Further, the person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention may be characterized by including a user ID generating step of generating, by the transaction system, a user ID for identifying the registered user, by whom the authentication sound list is stored in the authentication key list memory unit, by applying a predetermined function to at least one item of master information which is stored in a master information memory unit which stores master information including the ID code, name and authentication key of the registered user. In the authentication sound list memory unit, the user ID and the authentication sound list are associated and stored, with the user ID being used as the key. ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECT OF THE INVENTION [0049] By the person oneself authenticating system and person oneself authenticating method according to the present invention, which authenticate whether a user, who has accessed a transaction system from a terminal device, is a registered user or not by using sound or video as an authentication key, it becomes possible to person oneself authenticating means which is mainly used for Internet banking or the like and is high in security, and can be carried out by functions ordinarily provided in a PC, a mobile phone, or the like, the authenticating means being less in burden required for user authentication key management and authentication operations. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING [0050] FIG. 1 is a view showing the outline of a first embodiment of a person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0051] FIG. 2 is a view showing the outline of a second embodiment of the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0052] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the structure of the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0053] FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a customer master in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0054] FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of an authenticating music list in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0055] FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of an authenticating music selection screen, which is displayed on a user terminal, in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0056] FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of authenticating sound source data which is generated in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0057] FIG. 8 is a view showing a first example of authentication information collation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0058] FIG. 9 is a view showing a second example of authentication information collation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0059] FIG. 10 is a first view showing a method of adjusting “jitter” occurring in a user's authentication operation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0060] FIG. 11 is a second view showing a method of adjusting “jitter” occurring in a user's authentication operation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0061] FIG. 12 is a third view showing a method of adjusting “jitter” occurring in a user's authentication operation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0062] FIG. 13 is a fourth view showing a method of adjusting “jitter” occurring in a user's authentication operation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0063] FIG. 14 is a first flow chart illustrating a process flow for registering an authenticating music list in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0064] FIG. 15 is a second flow chart illustrating the process flow for registering the authenticating music list in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0065] FIG. 16 is a third flow chart illustrating the process flow for registering the authenticating music list in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0066] FIG. 17 is a first flow chart illustrating a process flow for executing person oneself authentication by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0067] FIG. 18 is a second flow chart illustrating the process flow for executing person oneself authentication by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0068] FIG. 19 is a third flow chart illustrating the process flow for executing person oneself authentication by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0069] FIG. 20 is a fourth flow chart illustrating the process flow for executing person oneself authentication by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; [0070] FIG. 21 is a flow chart illustrating a process flow for adjusting “jitter” occurring in a user's authentication operation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention; and [0071] FIG. 22 is a view showing an example of a guide screen of an authentication operation which is displayed on the user terminal. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0072] Best modes for carrying out the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The description below is given of examples in which the present invention is applied to a transaction system of Internet banking, and sound source data of music is used as an authentication key. However, the transaction system is not limited to Internet banking, and may be some other transaction system such as a settlement system of electronic commerce transactions. In addition, the authentication key is not limited to music, and may be other sound source data such as voice or sound effects, or a moving picture such as motion video, or still image data such as photographs or characters. As described above, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the examples which will be described below. [0073] FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are views showing the outlines of first and second embodiments of a person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the structure of the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a customer master in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of an authenticating music list in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of an authenticating music selection screen, which is displayed on a user terminal, in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of authenticating sound source data which is generated in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are views showing first and second examples of authentication information collation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 10 to FIG. 13 are first to fourth views showing methods of adjusting “jitter” occurring in a user's authentication operation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 14 to FIG. 16 are first to third flow charts illustrating a process flow for registering an authenticating music list in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 17 to FIG. 20 are first to fourth flow charts illustrating a process flow for executing person oneself authentication by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 21 is a flow chart illustrating a process flow for adjusting “jitter” occurring in a user's authentication operation in the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 22 is a view showing an example of a guide screen of an authentication operation which is displayed on the user terminal. [0074] As is shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention can be practiced as person oneself authenticating means in an Internet banking system using a PC or a mobile phone. A user connects the PC or mobile phone to the Internet and accesses a Web server which controls, e.g. display of a Web page of the Internet banking. Then, a login process is required for performing a transaction. In a job processing server, an authentication key, such as a password, which is sent from the PC or mobile phone, is collated with a pre-registered one in a customer DB. If the collation shows agreement, the user is authenticated as the registered user, and login to a transaction page or the like is permitted. [0075] In the person oneself authenticating system of the present invention, person oneself authentication is executed by causing the user to discriminate a preselected authentication key, which is, in this example, authenticating music that is music for authentication. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , a music distribution server for distributing music for authentication is provided outside a bank system. When person oneself authentication is executed, the music distribution server receives information relating to authenticating music which is pre-registered by the user, edits music for authentication in which authenticating music and music other than the authenticating music, which are acquired from a music DB, are combined, and sends the music for authentication to the PC or mobile phone. In the PC or mobile phone which has received the music for authentication, the music for authentication is reproduced. The user performs an operation, for instance, depression of a predetermined button, while the authenticating music is being reproduced, thereby generating authentication information which specifies the time during which the user executes the operation such as the depression of the button. The authentication information is sent to the bank system. The bank system receives the authentication information, and confirms whether the user has executed the operation, such as the depression of the button, during the time in which the authenticating music was being reproduced, on the basis of the time that is recorded in the authentication information, thereby executing person oneself authentication. [0076] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , the same flow of authentication is performed, but the edit and transmission of the music for authentication are performed within the bank system. Specifically, a music edit server and a music DB are provided in the bank system. In the case of executing the person oneself authentication, the music edit server edits the music for authentication, which includes the user's authenticating music, and directly transmits the music for authentication to the PC or mobile phone. [0077] Next, the operation of the person oneself authenticating system according to the invention is described in detail with reference to a block diagram of FIG. 3 and examples of data structures shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 9 . The block diagram of FIG. 3 shows the structure corresponding to the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 . The functions necessary for the embodiment of FIG. 2 are not greatly different from the structure of the block diagram of FIG. 3 , except that the registration of the authenticating music and the edit function of the music for authentication, which are executed by the music distribution server 40 in FIG. 3 , are executed by the music edit server in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , and that the communication with a user terminal 10 is concentrated in a Web server 20 . [0078] As the user terminal 10 , use is made of a terminal device such as a PC, a mobile phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). The user terminal 10 is equipped with a Web browser for connection to the Internet and for executing data communication. The user terminal 10 can start the Web browser and access the Web server 20 which provides services relating to browser Internet banking, and the user terminal 10 is equipped with a music reproducing program 11 which can play back authenticating music which is used in person oneself authentication at the time of login. [0079] The music reproducing program 11 is not necessarily a dedicated one for person oneself authentication of the present invention, and is not specifically limited if it has a reproducing function of a sound source file. For example, a music reproducing player that is attached to the OS of the PC may be used, or a program which is downloadable from the Web server 20 may be used. The music reproducing program 11 is not necessarily stored in an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) of the user terminal 10 . For example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) sound device, which stores the music reproducing program 11 for Internet banking users, may be distributed and may be connected to the user terminal 10 , and the music reproducing program 11 may be read out at the time of executing person oneself authentication. [0080] In a case where moving pictures or still images, in place of music, are displayed as an authentication key while the moving pictures or still images are being switched, a program for reproducing images is activated in the user terminal 10 . This reproducing program is not particularly limited, like the above-described case of music. In order to display moving pictures or still images while switching them, use may be made of, e.g. a plug-in which is dedicated to a generally used Web browser. [0081] The user terminal 10 is provided with an authenticating program 12 for executing a necessary process for person oneself authentication and sending to the Web server 20 authentication information which is generated by the authentication operation that is executed in the user terminal 10 . The authenticating program 12 is a dedicated one for use in the person oneself authentication of the present invention, which may be always stored in the HDD of the user terminal 10 or may be transmitted from the Web server 20 at the time of login and temporarily stored in a memory area at the time of execution of the person oneself authentication. In the case of the former, a dedicated memory medium which stores the authenticating program 12 may be distributed to the Internet banking user and the authenticating program 12 may be installed in the user terminal 10 by the user, or the authenticating program 12 may be downloaded from the Web server 20 . [0082] As will be described later, the authenticating program 12 instructs the user to press a predetermined key on the keyboard when the user recognizes that the authenticating music is being reproduced, and executes recording by setting bits while the button is being pressed. Accordingly, the authenticating program 12 needs to have a function of discriminating the state in which the predetermined key on the keyboard is pressed. In addition, in order to make the user execute an exact authentication operation, the authenticating program 12 should preferably have a function of executing the training of the authentication operation, and a function of displaying guidance explaining the rules of the authentication operation, as shown in an example of FIG. 22 . [0083] A job processing server 30 is a computer which constitutes a part of the bank system, and has a function of executing a person oneself authentication process at a time of login for the user who has accessed Internet baking services, or requesting the host computer 50 to perform necessary processes (e.g. balance inquiry, transfer instruction) in response to the user's request. In order to realize this function, various job processing programs are stored in the job processing server 30 , and necessary processes are executed by reading out them. In order to execute the person oneself authentication of the present invention, a user registration program 31 which register authenticating music for each user and an authentication program 32 which executes a process for person oneself authentication need to be provided. [0084] The job processing server 30 is connected to a customer database 33 which stores information relating to Internet banking users. The customer database 33 is a functionally specified one, and may be provided in a database server which is a computer different from the job processing server 30 , or may be stored in the HDD of the job processing server 30 . The customer database 33 is provided with a customer master 331 which stores basic information of each individual registered user, and an authenticating music list 332 which stores a list of authenticating music selected by each individual registered user. The customer master 331 and authenticating music list 332 are also functionally specified ones with physical structures being not specifically limited, and may be provided in a database server which is a different computer. [0085] FIG. 4 shows an example of the customer master 331 which is provided in the customer database 33 . Basic information, such as an account number, an account name and a password, are stored in a record which is provided for each individual registered user. In this example, while this password is used at each time of login, a secret number (for registration) is used at a time of first registration of authenticating music. In the case of adopting authentication by authenticating music as person oneself authenticating means, in place of password authentication, it is not an indispensable requirement to register the password. [0086] FIG. 5 shows an example of the authenticating music list 332 which is provided in the customer database 33 . A list of authenticating music, which is used for person oneself authentication, is stored in a record which is provided for each individual registered user. The registered authenticating music is a list of music which the user memorizes for authentication. The music is used in order to authenticate that the user, who has identified the authenticating music when the music is played, is the authentic person. It is thus preferable to register authenticating music which is selected by the user, but authenticating music, which is designated by the bank side, may be registered and reported to the user. The number of songs, which are registered as authenticating music, may be one. However, in order to enhance security, a plurality of songs should preferably be registered and changed at proper times. [0087] In the example of the authenticating music list 332 shown in FIG. 5 , three variables, “Tmin”, “Tch” and “Tjd”, are defined and stored in the list (these variables may be stored in the customer master 331 ). These variables are defined for individual users as follows: [0088] Tmin: a minimum play time for which each music is at least reproduced, [0089] Tch: a maximum time that is needed for judging a change of music, and [0090] Tjd: a maximum time that is needed to take an action by judging whether music is right or wrong. [0091] Of these variables, “Tch” and “Tjd” are considered to have large differences among individuals due to, e.g. the ages of users. It is thus preferable to set “Tch” and “Tjd” for each individual user by reflecting, e.g. the condition of use and the success/failure of past authentication. The method of setting “Tch” and “Tjd” for each individual user is not particularly limited. For example, initial values may be set by considering, e.g. the age or computer skill, and subsequently the values may be updated at proper times by recording the authentication operation each time authentication is executed and by reflecting the actual result of occurrence of jitter. On the other hand, as regards “Tmin”, it is an indispensable condition that the length of “Tmin” exceeds the sum of “Tch” and “Tjd” and the time corresponding to the necessary number of bits for authentication (however, consideration of “Tch” is needless for the first song). This value, too, may be set individually by reflecting each user's “Tch” and “Tjd”, or a value exceeding the value of a user, whose “Tmin” is the longest, may be set as a common value for all users. [0092] In the example of FIG. 5 , an authentication ID, which is different from the account number or account name, is used as a key that identifies the user. The authentication ID is generated by a hash function, or the like, on the basis of master information such as the account number and account name, and the master information and the authenticating music list can be associated by applying the hash function or the like to the master information. Under this presupposition, if the customer master 331 and the authenticating music list 332 are separately managed, even in case the authenticating music list 332 leaks, the user cannot be specified unless the customer master 331 or the hash function or the like is acquired. Therefore, the security in case of data leakage can be enhanced. In addition, if such security of customer information management is considered, it is advantageous to separately manage the customer master 331 and the authenticating music list 332 in physically different database servers. [0093] The music distribution server 40 is a computer which is provided separately from the bank system and is managed by a music distribution agent, etc., and has a function necessary for registration and distribution of music. In order to realize this function, various application programs are stored in the music distribution server 40 and necessary processes are executed by reading them out. In order to execute the person oneself authentication of the present invention, the music distribution server 40 needs to be provided with a music registration program 41 which prompts each user to select authenticating music and register the authenticating music, and a music distribution program 42 which edits music for authentication for use in person oneself authentication and distributing the music for authentication. [0094] The music distribution server 40 is connected to a music database 43 which stores information relating to music that is used for person oneself authentication. The music database 43 is a functionally specified one, and may be provided in a database server which is a computer different from the music distribution server 40 , or may be stored in the HDD of the music distribution server 40 . The music database 43 is provided with a music master 431 which stores basic information, such as a title and a genre of music, which is used for person oneself authentication, and a music file 432 which is sound source data for reproducing each music. [0095] In the second embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , the function of the music edit server does not greatly different from the music distribution server 40 shown in FIG. 3 . Although the music edit server has the function of editing music for authentication, which is included in the music distribution program 42 , but the distribution of the music for authentication is executed by the Web server 20 . [0096] The host computer 50 is a mission-critical system in the bank system for executing not only Internet banking services but also processes necessary for bank businesses. In the present invention, the function of the host computer 50 is not specifically limited. The host computer 50 executes, for example, management of deposit/withdrawal information of bank accounts, bank transfer, and a rewrite process of balance due to bank transfer, etc. A process, which is requested by the Internet banking service, is executed by a process instruction from the job processing server 30 . [0097] Registration of authenticating music in the authenticating music list 332 , which is shown in the example of FIG. 5 , is executed in the following manner. If the user terminal 10 accesses the Web server 20 , the account number and password, which are input to the user terminal 10 , are transmitted in order to log in to the Internet banking. The job process server 30 refers to the customer master 331 and accepts login if the input account number exists and the password corresponding to the account number agrees with the input password. Thus, the session with the user terminal 10 is established. A Web page, which is transmitted from the Web server 20 , includes a menu display for authenticating music registration. [0098] If the menu for authenticating music registration is selected in the user terminal 10 , the Web server 20 accepts this, and the user registration program 31 is activated in the job process server 30 . With the operation of the user registration program 31 , in the case where a dedicated password for the authenticating music registration is set, the password from the user terminal 10 is received here. The received password is collated with the password stored in the customer master 331 , and agreement of the passwords is confirmed, and the authenticating music registration process is advanced. The job processing server 30 reads out the master information of the user from the customer master 331 , generates an authentication ID by applying a hash function to the account number or the like, and temporarily stores the generated authentication ID in the memory area. [0099] Then, a request for selection of candidate music which is registered as authenticating music and for transmission of an authenticating music selection screen to the user terminal 10 is issued to the music distribution server 40 . In the music distribution server 40 , the music registration program 41 is activated. With the operation of the music registration program 41 , a plurality of candidate songs are selected from the music master 431 , and a display file of the authenticating music selection screen is generated and sent to the user terminal 10 . The algorithm for selecting candidate songs is not specifically limited, and may be selected at random, or may be selected according to the user's attributes (for example, in order to exclude the estimation of the authenticating music from the tendency that young users would select pops, it is effective to select Japanese enka songs or classic music as candidate music). The method in which the music distribution server 40 transmits the display file to the user terminal 10 is not specifically limited. For example, the information for specifying the session with the Web server 20 including the IP address of the user terminal 10 is delivered from the job process server 30 , and the connection to the user terminal 10 may be established by using the IP address. Alternatively, the display file may be delivered from the music distribution server 40 to the Web server 20 , and the display file may be transmitted in the session that is established between the Web server 20 and the user terminal 10 . Alternatively, a one-time ID may be assigned in the job processing server 30 , and may be sent to the user terminal 10 and music distribution server 40 . When the user terminal 10 accesses the link to the music distribution server 40 , which is displayed by the Web server 20 , the connection between the user terminal 10 and the music distribution server 40 may be established by using the one-time ID. [0100] FIG. 6 shows an example of the authenticating music selection screen which is displayed on the user terminal 10 in this manner. A list of candidate songs, which are selectable as authenticating music, is displayed, and the user selects songs from the list, which are to be registered as authenticating music. The selected authenticating music is specified by a music code (it should suffice if the music code is associated with a field which indicates presence/absence of selection of each song, and the music code may not necessarily be displayed on the screen as in the example shown in FIG. 6 ), and the list of authenticating music is sent to the music distribution server 40 . [0101] As shown in FIG. 6 , such a structure may be adopted that a trial-listening button is provided for each song, and with the selection of the button, the song is played back for trial-listening. The music file for trial-listening is stored as a music file 432 in the music database 43 , and the music file is distributed upon request from the user terminal 10 . [0102] The music distribution server 40 , which has received the list of authenticating music, delivers the authenticating music list, in which each authenticating music is specified by the music code, to the job processing server 30 of the bank system. In the job processing server 30 , the temporarily stored authentication ID and the authenticating music list are associated and registered in the authenticating music list 332 of the customer database 33 , with a new record being provided. [0103] Next, the person oneself authentication using the authenticating music is executed in the following manner. In the case where person oneself authentication is needed in, e.g. login to the Internet banking system by the user, the authentication program 32 is activated in the job processing server 30 . With the operation of the authentication program 32 , after the confirmation of the account number and the collation of the password are executed, the information necessary for specifying the authentication ID is read out from the customer master 331 , and the authentication ID of the user is generated. If the authentication ID is generated, the music code of the authenticating music corresponding to the authentication ID is read out from the authenticating music list 332 . [0104] Music codes of music, other than the authenticating music, which can be distributed, are stored in the job processing server 30 . The music codes, which are stored in the authenticating music list, and the music codes of music other than the authenticating music are combined, and a music play list that is used for the music for authentication is created. The music codes of the authenticating music, which is used for single-time authentication, may be all the music codes of the registered authenticating music, or a part thereof. [0105] The play list for the music for authentication is created, for example, as shown in FIG. 7 . In this example, songs which are registered as authenticating music are four songs of music codes 0123 , 8901 , 3690 and 2468 . These songs and other songs of music codes 0001 , 1111 , 2222 and 3333 , which are different from the authenticating music, are combined and arranged, thus constituting the music for authentication. The numeral that is added to the end of the music code indicates a play time. If the sound source data of the music for authentication is reproduced, the song of the music code 0001 is reproduced for six seconds, and the song of the music code 0123 is reproduced for seven seconds in this order. [0106] As described above, the play time of each song included in the music for authentication is designated. As regards the play time, it is preferable not to designate the time for completely playing the music file 432 of each song, but to arbitrarily designate a part of the time. The variations of the music for authentication are increased by how to set the play time, as well as by properly setting the time that is necessary for authentication. The risk of accidental agreement can be reduced, and the security can be enhanced. [0107] Specifically, as has been described with reference to the example shown in FIG. 5 , the variables of “Tmin”, “Tch” and “Tjd”, which are defined in the authenticating music list 332 that is specified by the authentication ID, are read out, and the time of play of each song is designated. The play time is set to be longer than the time that is designated by “Tmin”. [0108] In the case where a moving picture file, in place of the music file, is used as an authentication key, the moving picture file for authentication may similarly be edited. In the case where sounds (e.g. sounds with fixed pitches, such as “do”, “re” and “mi”), which do not vary with time, or still images displaying photos or characters, are used as authentication keys, the process of generating data for authentication becomes different. In this case, sounds or still images are designated as authentication keys and keys other than the authentication keys, and sound source data in which these sounds are reproduced while being switched, or image data in which the still images are reproduced while being switched, is generated as data for authentication. For example, in the case where numerals “1” and “2” are designated as authentication keys, the numerals “1” and “2” are combined with numerals “3” and “4” which are other than the authentication keys, thereby generating data for authentication, which is to be displayed on the screen of the user terminal 10 at such intervals as “five seconds for 1, six seconds for 3, seven seconds for 2, five seconds for 4, . . . ”. The method of setting the time for displaying each numeral is the same as the above-described method of using “Tmin”, “Tch” and “Tjd”. In the case of this method, the function of the music distribution server 40 , in particular, the function corresponding to the music file 432 of the music database 43 , is not necessarily required. In the job processing server 30 , authentication keys (“1” and “2” in the above example), which are recorded in the part corresponding to the authenticating music list 332 , may be acquired, and may be combined with other keys (“3” and “4” in the above example), thereby creating data for authentication. [0109] If the sound source data of the music for authentication, which is edited as shown in FIG. 7 , is reproduced, the time in which the authenticating music is played and the time in which the song other than the authenticating music is played are switched in the order of 6 seconds, 7 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds, 6 seconds and 14 seconds. It is possible to authenticate whether the user is the registered user or not, on the basis of whether the user can properly distinguish these times. The play list of the music for authentication, which is created here, is temporarily stored in the job processing server 30 so that the play list may be used in the collation for person oneself authentication. [0110] If the play list of the music for authentication is thus created, a transmission request for the music for authentication, in which the music codes and play times of the songs to be played and the order of play are designated, is issued from the job processing server 30 to the music distribution server 40 . In the music distribution server 40 , the music distribution program 42 is activated. With the operation of the music distribution program 42 , the sound source data of the music for authentication is edited. [0111] In the music distribution server 40 , sound source data is read out from each music file 432 according to the play list, and the sound source data of the music for authentication, in which the sound source data corresponding to the designated play times are combined, is edited and sent to the user terminal 10 . In the user terminal 10 , the music reproducing program 11 and authenticating program 12 are activated. With the operation of the music reproducing program 11 , the sound source data of the music for authentication is read in the buffer in the user terminal 10 . With the operation of the authenticating program 12 , the time in which the user discriminates the authenticating music is recorded from the time point of the start of reproduction. [0112] The user listens to the reproduced music for authentication by a speaker or headphone which is provided on the user terminal 10 . The user terminal 10 displays instructions of the authentication operation which is to be performed by the user when the music for authentication is being reproduced. For example, an operation of pressing a predetermined key on the keyboard or an operation of pressing a predetermined button on the screen is requested while the authenticating music is being reproduced. Thereby, it is possible to specify the time in which the user discriminates that the music that is being played is the authenticating music. The specifying of the time is executed by the operation of the authenticating program 12 . [0113] As shown in FIG. 8 , in the case where the sound source data of the music for authentication, which is shown in FIG. 7 , is reproduced, the song of the music code 0001 is reproduced for six seconds and the song of the music code 0123 is reproduced for seven seconds in this order. By setting bits when the user presses a predetermined button (in this example, data is recorded in units of one second, and bit “1” is set when the button is pressed), it becomes possible to record the time in which the user discriminates that the music that is being played is the authenticating music. In the example of FIG. 8 , from the bits that indicate the pressing of the button, it is understood that the user has discriminated that the authenticating music and the music other than the authenticating music are switched in the order of 6 seconds, 7 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds, 6 seconds and 14 seconds. [0114] The information indicating the time history, which shows how the time in which the user discriminates that the music that is being played is the authenticating music and the time in which the user discriminates that the music that is being played is not the authenticating music, which are understood by the operation of the authenticating program 12 as described above, have passed, is specified as a PIN (authentication information for use in collation for person oneself authentication). The PIN is sent from the user terminal 10 to the Web server 20 . The PIN that is sent is not specifically limited and, for example, use may be made of run-length data (63d749 . . . ) which is generated from combinations of 0 and 1 as shown in FIG. 8 , or use may be made of hexadecimal data (038003f8 . . . ) which is generated in every four bits as shown in FIG. 9 . [0115] The PIN that is received by the Web server 20 is delivered to the job processing server 30 . On the other hand, since the play list of the music for authentication is temporarily stored in the job processing server 30 , it is possible to specify the time in which the user should discriminate the authenticating music in the case where the play list is played. In the job processing server 30 , with the operation of the authentication program 32 , the time in which the user has recognized that the music that is being played is the authenticating music, which is specified from the PIN, is collated with the time in which the user should discriminate that the music that is being played is the authenticating music, which is specified from the play list. If both times agree, the user is authenticated as the registered user. [0116] In actual authentication, a slight error of timing may occur in the user's authentication operation on the user terminal 10 , and it may be assumed that the time that is specified from the PIN differs from the normal time. As regards so-called “jitter” occurring due to such a reason, it is possible to cope with “jitter” by setting the authentication program 32 , for example, such that it is determined that the time that is specified from the PIN agrees with the normal time if a difference therebetween is, e.g. about one second, or selection of only one second is ignored as an erroneous operation. [0117] Such “jitter” is adjusted by adopting adjusting methods as will be described below with reference to FIG. 10 to FIG. 13 , and more exact authentication can be executed. The process for adjusting jitter, which will be described below, is executed by the operation of the authentication program 32 in the job processing server 30 which receives the PIN. [0118] To start with, if the job processing server 30 receives the PIN, the job processing server 30 divides the PIN into blocks corresponding to songs which are switched, as shown in FIG. 10 , in accordance with an ideal numerical sequence which is to be generated from bits when authentication is correctly executed, so that an actual numerical sequence which is generated from bits recorded in the PIN may correspond to the ideal sequence. The reproduction of the ideal numerical sequence is not indispensable. The PIN may be divided on the basis of bit numbers corresponding to the play times of the respective songs which are designated in the play list of the music for authentication. [0119] Next, in accordance with the above division, two sequences, which are shown in an example of FIG. 11 , are created. The first sequence YN[n] is a sequence which is generated in such a manner that if an n-th song is the authenticating music, “1” is set, and if the n-th song is not the authenticating music, “0” is set. This sequence may be generated in advance before the music for authentication is transmitted to the user terminal 10 , and may be temporarily stored in the job processing server 30 . The second sequence AT[n] is a sequence which is obtained by dividing the numeral sequence, which is generated from the bits recorded in the PIN, into bit strings which are associated with the blocks corresponding to the songs that are switched. [0120] Subsequently, a process for eliminating jitter from the AT[n] is executed. It is considered that jitter occurs due to the time that is needed for the user to judge a change of music, and the time that is needed to take an action by judging whether music is the authenticating music or not. Hence, by eliminating the bits corresponding to the above-described “Tch” and “Tjd”, it becomes possible to execute person oneself authentication by eliminating jitter. Thus, the values of “Tch” and “Tjd” of the user, who has executed the authentication operation, are read out from the authenticating music list 332 (or customer master 331 ) of the customer database 33 , and a process is executed for deleting bits, which correspond to “Tch” and “Tjd”, from each of the divided bit strings in the AT[n]. [0121] Specifically, as shown in an example of FIG. 12 , since the total value of the user's “Tch” and “Tjd” is “3”, a process of deleting the first three-digit bits from each bit string is executed. As regards the bit string corresponding to the first song, however, since the judgment of the change of the song is needless, there is no need to reflect “Tch”. Thus, only “Tjd” is considered, and only the first one-digit bit is deleted. In this manner, a sequence AT′[n] is created, and collation between the sequence AT′[n] and the sequence YN[n] is executed. If all bits included in a bit string in the AT′[n] comprises only the YN[n], the collation of this bit string is determined to be “OK”. If even one inconsistent bit is included, additional collation is executed. In the example of FIG. 12 , the fourth song and the eighth song are determined to be objects of additional collation. [0122] The additional collation is executed on the presupposition that if the user is the registered user, the user must correctly execute the authentication operation at the last part of the reproduction of each song. Specifically, collation is executed with respect to only a predetermined number of last bits of each of the bit strings, and if these bits agree, the collation of this bit string is determined to be “OK”. In an example of FIG. 13 , it is defined that collation is executed with respect to the last three-digit bits. As regards the fourth song and eighth song that are the objects of additional collation, the last three digits of YN[4] is 000 while AT′[4]=0, and the last three digits of YN[8] is 111 while AT′[8]=1. Thus, the collation of both cases is determined to be “OK”. [0123] If the collation between AT′[n] and YN[n] is executed up to the additional collation and the collation is determined to be “OK” with respect to all bit strings, the user is successfully authenticated, and the transaction process is started. In accordance with the level that is required for authentication, the user may be authenticated in a case where bit strings, which are collated to be “OK”, exceed a predetermined reference level even if all bit strings are not collated to be “OK”. [0124] The above description relates to the example in which first several digits are first deleted from each bit string, and then last several digits are collated as the additional collation for a disagreeing bit string. In order to increase the precision of authentication, it is desirable to execute the deletion of first digits and the additional collation of last digits at the same time. However, the adjustment of jitter may be executed by one of them. In particular, in the case where the adjustment is to be executed by a simple method with a less load on the system process, it is thinkable to adopt only the latter additional collation method. [0125] Referring to flow charts of FIG. 14 to FIG. 16 , a description is given of a process flow for registering an authenticating music list by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 14 shows a process flow of the job processing server which has accepted an authenticating music registration request. FIG. 15 shows a process flow of the music distribution server which transmits a candidate music list to the user terminal and creates an authenticating music list. FIG. 16 shows a process flow of the job processing server which registers the authenticating music list that is received from the music distribution server. [0126] Upon receiving an authenticating music registration request from the user (S 01 ), the job processing server specifies the user's account number, account name and password that is set for authenticating music registration, which are accepted by the Web server (S 02 ). Of these, the account number or the like is used as a key and the customer database is searched for the user's master information (S 03 ), thereby confirming whether the master information is present and the account name and password agree with the information registered in the master information (S 04 ). [0127] If the master information is not present or if any one of the information items disagrees, data for displaying an error message is transmitted to the user terminal (S 07 ). If the master information is present and the agreement of the information is confirmed, a hash function, or the like, is applied to predetermined information of the master information, thereby to generate an authentication ID, and the generated authentication ID is temporarily stored in the memory area (S 05 ). Further, a process instruction for prompting the user to select music for authentication is transmitted to the music distribution server (S 06 ). [0128] If the music distribution server receives the process instruction for music selection from the job processing server (S 11 ), music is selected from the music database according to a predetermined condition, and a candidate music list, which can be registered as authenticating music, is created (S 12 ). A screen file for displaying the candidate music list is transmitted to the user terminal (S 13 ). The method for transmitting the candidate music list from the music distribution server to the user terminal is not specifically limited. For example, the job processing server may deliver the IP address of the user terminal to the music distribution server. A link button, in which a URL for the user to browse the candidate music list is embedded, may be set on the display screen of the user terminal, and the music distribution server may be accessed from the user terminal. A display screen file of the candidate music list may be delivered to the Web server on the job processing server side, and may be displayed on the user terminal. [0129] If the candidate music list is displayed on the user terminal, there may be a case in which a trial-listening request, which designates a music code, is issued from the user terminal. If the music distribution server accepts the operation of the trial-listening request (S 14 ), the music distribution server reads out a music file, which is specified by the music code, from the music database, and transmits the music file for trial-listening to the user terminal (S 15 ). The music file for trial-listening, which is to be transmitted, may be a dedicated music file for trial-listening which is stored in the music database, and the dedicated music file may be read out and transmitted. Alternatively, a part of an ordinary music file may be cut out for trial-listening and may be transmitted. [0130] If the user selects authenticating music, the music distribution server accepts the music code of the selected authenticating music (S 16 ). The authenticating music list is created on the basis of the accepted music code (S 17 ), and the authenticating music list is delivered to the job processing server (S 18 ). [0131] If the job processing server receives the authenticating music list from the music distribution server (S 21 ), the authenticating music list is associated with the authentication ID that is temporarily stored in the memory area (S 22 ), and the authenticating music list is registered on the authentication ID table for registering the authenticating music in the customer database (S 23 ). Thus, the process of authenticating music registration is finished. [0132] Referring to flow charts of FIG. 17 to FIG. 21 , a description is given of a process flow for executing person oneself authentication by the person oneself authenticating system according to the present invention. FIG. 17 shows a process flow of the job processing server which receives a person oneself authentication request from the user at the time of login, and creates a play list. FIG. 18 shows a process flow of the music distribution server which transmits, to the user terminal, sound source data of music for authentication according to the play list. FIG. 19 is a process flow for reproducing the sound source data of the music for authentication in the user terminal, and generating authentication information. FIG. 20 shows a process flow of the job processing server which executes person oneself authentication from the authentication information that is accepted from the user terminal. FIG. 21 is a process flow of adjusting “jitter” occurring in the user authentication operation in the person oneself authentication process flow shown in FIG. 20 . [0133] When a request for login or a predetermined transaction is issued, the job processing server accepts an authentication request for authenticating the registered user with the account number, password, etc. (S 31 ). Of these, the account number or the like is used as a key and the customer database is searched for the user's master information (S 32 ), thereby confirming whether the password agrees with the registered information (S 33 ). If the password disagrees, data for displaying an error message is transmitted to the user terminal (S 38 ). [0134] If the password agrees, a hash function, or the like, is applied to predetermined information of the master information, thereby generating an authentication ID (S 34 ). As regards the password authentication in S 33 , in the present embodiment, both the authentication by the password and the authentication by the authenticating music are executed. In the case where the authentication by the authenticating music is adopted as person oneself authenticating means in place of the password authentication, the step of the authentication by the password may be omitted. [0135] The authenticating music list, which corresponds to the generated authentication ID, is read out from the authentication ID table of the customer database (S 35 ), and a play list, in which the authenticating music included in the authenticating music list and the music other than the authenticating music are combined, is created (S 36 ). In the play list, the music codes of the selected songs and the play times of the respective songs are designated. The algorithm for creating the play list is not specifically limited. Use may be made of an algorithm in which music, which is hard to guess by a third person, is selected according to a predetermined condition, or songs may be selected at random. Subsequently, the created play list and a transmission instruction for music for authentication, which is created by editing the sound source data of the music for authentication according to the play list and is to be transmitted to the user terminal, are sent to the music distribution server (S 37 ). [0136] If the music distribution server receives the play list and the transmission instruction for the music for authentication (S 41 ), the music distribution server reads out music files of the music codes, which are designated in the play list, from the music database (S 42 ), and edits sound source data according to the play times and play order which are designated in the play list, thereby creating the sound source data of the music for authentication (S 43 ). The created sound source data of the music for authentication is transmitted to the user terminal (S 44 ). The method of transmitting the sound source data of the music for authentication from the music distribution server to the user terminal is not specifically limited. The above-described method of transmitting the candidate music list for registration may be applied. [0137] If the user terminal receives the sound source data of the music for authentication (S 51 ), the reproducing program for use in music reproduction, for instance, is activated (S 52 ), and the reproduction of the sound source data of the music for authentication is started (S 53 ). At the same time, the program for authentication is activated, and the recording of the authentication operation, which is executed by the user, is started from the start point of the reproduction of the sound source data of the music for authentication (S 54 ). [0138] The user listens to the music for authentication by the speaker or headphone. If the user recognizes that the authenticating music is being reproduced, the user presses the selection button on the screen or a predetermined key on the keyboard. In the user terminal, the pressing of the selection button is detected (S 55 ). At the timing when the selection button is pressed, a bit, which indicates that the user discriminates the authenticating music, is set (S 56 ). If the reproduction of all songs included in the music for authentication is completed (S 57 ), a PIN is created from the time history which indicates the passing of the time during which the bits are set from the start time of the reproduction of the sound source data of the music for authentication (S 58 ), and the created PIN is transmitted to the Web server (S 59 ). [0139] The PIN, which is sent from the user terminal, is received by the job processing server via the Web server (S 61 ). The time in which the user has recognized that the music that is being played is the authenticating music, which is specified from the PIN, is collated with the time in which the user should discriminate that the music that is being played is the authenticating music, which is specified from the play list that is temporarily stored in the job processing server (S 62 ). It is determined whether both times agree or not (S 63 ). If both times agree, the user is authenticated as the registered user (S 64 ), and the authenticating process is finished. If both times disagree, the person oneself authentication is determined to have failed, and an error process is executed (S 65 ) and the authenticating process is finished. [0140] In the case of adjusting so-called “jitter” occurring in the user's authentication operation in the process flow up to the collation (S 62 ) between the PIN and the play list and the confirmation (S 63 ) of agreement therebetween, the following process is executed. If the PIN is received by the job processing server (S 61 ), the PIN is divided into blocks in units of a song on the basis of the play times that are designated in the play list (S 71 ). In addition, the sequence YN[n], which indicates the order of arrangement of the authenticating music and the music other than the authenticating music, is created from the play list (S 72 ). [0141] Subsequently, the sequence AT[n], in which the PIN is decomposed into bit strings corresponding to the divided blocks, is created (S 73 ). On the basis of the bit strings which are the elements of the sequence AT[n], the change of the music is determined and the authenticating music is recognized. An x-number of digits of bits, which correspond to the time that is set in consideration of the time necessary for executing a predetermined operation, are deleted from each bit string from the uppermost bit thereof, and the sequence AT′[n] is created (S 74 ). The thus created sequence YN[n] is collated with each sequence element of the sequence AT′[n] (S 75 ), and it is confirmed whether there is a disagreeing element (S 76 ). If all bits in all sequence elements agree, the user is authenticated as the registered user (S 64 ). [0142] In the case where there is a disagreeing sequence element, it is determined to which of the sequentially ordered songs the disagreeing sequence element corresponds (S 77 ). Then, the sequence YN[n] of the disagreeing sequence element is collated with lower y-digit bits which reflect the authentication operation at the last part of each song (S 78 ). It is confirmed whether the total number of agreeing cases, in combination with the number of agreeing cases in the preceding collation between the sequence YN[n] and the sequence AT′[n], exceeds a predetermined reference value (S 79 ). If the total number exceeds the predetermined reference value, the user is authenticated as the registered user (S 64 ). If the total number does not exceed the reference value, the person oneself authentication is determined to have failed, and an error process is executed (S 65 ) and the authenticating process is finished. DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS [0000] 10 . . . user terminal 11 . . . music reproducing program 12 . . . authenticating program 20 . . . Web server 30 . . . job processing server 31 . . . user registration program 32 . . . authentication program 33 . . . customer DB 331 . . . customer master 332 . . . authenticating music list 40 . . . music distribution server 41 . . . music registration program 42 . . . music distribution program 43 . . . music DB 431 . . . music master 432 . . . music file 50 . . . host computer.

There is provided person oneself authenticating means for authentication of a user, which is mainly used for person oneself authentication in Internet banking or the like and is high in security, and is realizable by functions ordinarily provided in a PC, a mobile phone, or the like, the authenticating means being less in burden required for user authentication key management and authentication operations. Sound or an image is adopted as an authentication key for person oneself authentication. Authentication data is edited by combining an authentication key, which is selected by a registered user, and sound or an image that is other than the authentication key, and the authentication data is continuously reproduced in a user terminal. A time in which a user has discriminated the authentication key from the reproduced audio or video is compared with a time in which the authentication key should normally be discriminated, which is specified from the authentication data. When both times agree, the user is authenticated as a registered user.

RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This U.S. patent application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/861,923, “Method for Hierarchical Signal Quantization and Hashing,” filed by Boufounos on Aug. 24, 2010. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates generally to hashing a signal to preserve the privacy of the underlying signal, and more particularly to securely comparing hashed signals. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Many signal processing, machine learning and data mining applications require comparing signals to determine how similar the signals are, according to some similarity, or distance metric. In many of these applications, the comparisons are used to determine which of the signals in a cluster of signals is most similar to a query signal. [0004] A number of nearest neighbor search (NNS) methods are known that use distance measures. The NNS, also known as a proximity search, or a similarity search, determines the nearest data in metric spaces. For a set S of data (cluster) in a metric space M, and a query q ∈ M, the search determines the nearest data s in the set S to the query q. [0005] In some applications, the search is performed using secure multi-party computation (SMC). SMC enables multiple parties, e.g., a server computes a function of input signals from one or more client to produce output signals for the client(s), while the inputs and outputs are privately known only at the client. In addition, the processes and data used by the server remain private at the server. Hence, SMC is secure in the sense that neither the client nor the server can learn anything from each other's private data and processes. Hence, hereinafter secure means that only the owner of data used for multi-party computation knows what the data and the processes applied to the data are. [0006] In those applications, it is necessary to compare the signals with manageable computational complexity at the server, as well as a low communication overhead between the client and the server. The difficulty of the NNS is increased when there are privacy constraints, i.e., when one or more of the parties do not want to share the signals, data or methodology related to the search with other parties. [0007] With the advent of social networking, Internet based storage of user data, and cloud computing, privacy-preserving computation has increased in importance. To satisfy the privacy constraints, while still allowing similarity determinations for example, the data of one or more parties are typically encrypted using additively homomorphic cryptosystems. [0008] One method performs the NNS without revealing the client's query to the server, and the server does not reveal its database, other than the data in the k-nearest neighbor set. The distance determination is performed in an encrypted domain. Therefore, the computational complexity of that method is quadratic in the number of data items, which is significant because of the encryption of the input and decryption of the output is required A pruning technique can be used to reduce the number of distance determinations and obtain linear computational and communication complexity, but the protocol overhead is still prohibitive due to processing and transmission of encrypted data. [0009] Therefore, it is desired to reduce the complexity of performing hashing computations, while still ensuring the privacy of all parties involved in the process. [0010] The related application Ser. No. 12/861,923, describes a method that uses non-monotonic quantizers for hierarchical signal quantization and locality sensitive hashing. To enable the hierarchical operation, relatively larger values of a sensitivity parameter A enable coarse accuracy operations on a larger range of input signals, while relatively small values of parameter enable fine accuracy operations on similar input signals. Therefore, the sensitivity parameter decreases for each iteration. [0011] As described therein, the most important parameter to select is the sensitivity parameter. This parameter controls how the hashes distinguish signals from each other. If a distance measure between pairs of signals is considered, (the smaller the distance, the more similar the signals are), then Δ determines how sensitive the hash is to distance changes. Specifically, for small Δ, the hash is sensitive to similarity changes when the signals are very similar, but not sensitive to similarity changes for signals that are dissimilar. As Δ becomes larger, the hash becomes more sensitive to signals that are not as similar, but loses some of the sensitivity for signals that are similar. This property is used to construct a hierarchical hash of the signal, where the first few hash coefficients are constructed with a larger value for Δ, and the value of Δ is decreased for the subsequent values. Specifically, using a large Δ to compute the first few hash values allows for a computationally simple rough signal reconstruction or a rough distance estimation, which provides information even for distant signals. Subsequent hash values obtained with smaller Δ can then be used to refine the signal reconstruction or refine the distance information for signals that are more similar. [0012] That method is useful for hierarchical signal quantization. However, that method does not preserve privacy. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0013] The embodiments of the invention provide a method for privacy preserving hashing with binary embeddings for signal comparison. In one application, one or more hashed signals are compared to determine their similarity in a secure domain. The method can be applied to approximate a nearest neighbor searching (NNS) and clustering. The method relies, in part, on a locality sensitive binary hashing scheme based on an embedding, determined using quantized random embeddings. [0014] Hashes extracted from the signals provide information about the distance (similarity) between the two signals, provided the distance is less than some predetermined threshold. If the distance between the signals is greater than the threshold, then no information about the distance is revealed. Furthermore, if randomized embedding parameters are unknown, then the mutual information between the hashes of any two signals decreases exponentially to zero with the l 2 distance (Euclidian norm) between the signals. The binary hashes can be used to perform privacy preserving NNS with a significantly lower complexity compared to prior methods that directly use encrypted signals. [0015] The method is based on a secure stable embedding using quantized random projections. A locality-sensitive property is achieved, where the Hamming distance between the hashes is proportional to the l 2 distance between the underlying data, as long as the distance is less than the predetermined threshold. [0016] If the underlying signals or data are dissimilar, then the hashes provide no information about the true distance between the data, provided the embedding parameters are not revealed. [0017] The embedding scheme for privacy-preserving NNS provides protocols for clustering and authentication applications. A salient feature of these protocols is that distance determination can be performed on the hashes in cleartext without revealing the underlying signals or data. Cleartext is stored or transmitted unencrypted, or in the clear. Thus, the computational overhead, in terms of the encrypted domain distance determination is significantly lower than the prior art that uses encryption. Furthermore, even if encryption is necessary, then the inherent nearest neighbor property obviates complicated selection protocols required in the final step to select a specified number of nearest neighbors. [0018] In part, the method is based on rate-efficient universal scalar quantization, which has strong connections with stable binary embeddings for quantization, and with locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) methods for nearest neighbor determination. LSH uses very short hashes of potentially large signals to efficiently determine their approximate distances. [0019] The key difference between this method and the prior art is that our method guarantees information-theoretic security for our embeddings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] FIG. 1A is a schematic of universal scalar quantization according to embodiments of the invention. [0021] FIG. 1B is a non-monotonic quantization function with unit intervals according to embodiments of the invention; [0022] FIG. 1C is an alternative non-monotonic quantization function with sensitivity intervals according to embodiments of the invention; [0023] FIG. 1D is an alternative non-monotonic quantization function with multiple level intervals according to embodiments of the invention; [0024] FIG. 2 is an embedding map with bounds as a function of distance between two signals according to embodiments of the invention; [0025] FIG. 3A-3B are graphs of the embedding behavior of Hamming distances as a function of signal distances according to embodiments of the invention; [0026] FIG. 4 is a schematic of approximate secure nearest neighbor clustering for star-connected parties according to embodiments of the invention; [0027] FIG. 5 is a schematic of user authentication by a server in the presence of an eavesdropper according to embodiments of the invention; and [0028] FIG. 6 is a schematic of approximating nearest neighbors of a query using locality-sensitive hashing according to embodiments of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0029] Universal Scalar Quantization [0030] As shown schematically in FIG. 1A , universal scalar quantization 100 uses a quantizer, shown in FIG. 1B or 1 C with disjoint quantization regions. For a K-dimensional signal x ∈ K , we use a quantization process [0000] y m = 〈 x , a m 〉 + w m , ( 1 ) q m = Q  ( y m Δ m ) , ( 2 ) [0000] represented by [0000] q=Q (Δ −1 ( Ax+w )),  (3) [0000] as shown in FIG. 1A , and where x, a is a vector inner product, Ax is matrix-vector multiplication, m=1, . . . , M are measurement indices, y m are unquantized (real) measurements, a m are measurement vectors which are rows of the matrix A, W m are additive dithers, Δ m are sensitivity parameters, and the function Q(•) is the quantizer, with y ∈ M , A ∈ M×K , w ∈ M , and Δ∈ M×M are corresponding matrix representations. Here, Δ is a diagonal matrix with entries Δ m , and the quantizer Q(•) is a scalar function, i.e., operates element-wise on input data or signals. [0031] It is noted, the quantization, and any other steps of methods described herein can be performed in a processor connected to memory and input/output interfaces as known in the art. Furthermore, the processor can be a client or a server. [0032] The matrix A is random, with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.), zero-mean, normally distributed entries having a variance σ 2 . Hence, we can say that the entries in the matrix A have a Gaussian distribution. The sensitivity parameters Δ m =Δ is identical and predetermined for all measurements, and w is uniformly distributed in an interval [0, Δ]. [0033] Hereinafter, the parameters A, w, and Δ are known as the embedding parameters. [0034] Note, that the sensitivity parameter in the related Application is decreasing as m increases. This is useful for hierarchical representations, but does not provide any security. This time, the parameter Δ remains constant for all m, which provides the security, as described in greater detail below. [0035] As shown in FIG. 1B , we use the quantization function, Q(•) 100 . This non-monotonic quantization function Q(•) enables universal rate-efficient scalar quantization, and provides information-theoretic security according to embodiments of the invention. In this function, a width of the intervals in the function is 1 for binary quantization levels. For example as shown in FIG. 1B , a real numbers −3.2, 1.5, and 2.5 are quantized to 1, 0 and 1, respectively. [0036] FIG. 1C shows an alternative embodiment 120 for the function Q. Here, the interval widths are equal to the sensitivity Δ 121 , which essentially replaces the division by Δ. In general the function Q describes a quantizer with discontinuous quantization regions. [0037] FIG. 1D shows an alternative embodiment 120 for the function Q. Here, the intervals correspond to multiple (multi-bit) quantization levels. For example, the value of each quantization level is encoded in the hash as two bits, b 0 , b 1 , instead of one bit. [0038] Lemma I [0039] For a similarity measurement application, the inputs are two (first and second) signals x and x′ with a difference or squared distance d=∥x−x′∥ 2 , and a quantized measurement function 100 as shown in FIG. 1 [0000] q = Q  ( 〈 x , a 〉 + w Δ ) , ( 3.5 ) [0000] where Q(x)=┌x┐ mod 2, a ∈ K contains i.i.d. elements selected from a normal distribution with a mean 0, a variance σ 2 , and w is uniformly distributed in the interval [0, Δ]. [0040] As shown in FIG. 2 , the probability that 202 a single measurement of the two signals produces consistent, i.e. equal, quantized measurements is [0000] P  ( x , x ′   consistent | d ) = 1 2 + ∑ i = 0 + ∞    - ( π  ( 2  i + 1 )  σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 ( π  ( i + 1 / 2 ) ) 2 , [0000] where the probability is taken over the distribution of matrix A and w. The term “consistent” means both signals produce the identical hash value, i.e. if the hash value for x is 1 then the hash value for x′ is also 1, or 0 and 0 for both. In FIG. 2 , probabilities are generally expressed in the form 1−P. [0041] Furthermore, the above probability can be bound using [0000] P c | d ≤ 1 2 + 1 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 , ( 4 ) P c | d ≥ 1 2 + 4 π 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 , ( 5 ) P c | d ≥ 1 - 2 π  σ   d Δ , ( 6 ) [0000] where P c|d means P(x, x′ consistent | d) herein. Equations (4-6) correspond to 204 - 206 in FIG. 2 . For a particular signal, each quantization bit takes the value is 0 or 1 with the same probability 0.5 as shown in FIG. 1B , for example. [0042] Secure Binary Embedding [0043] Our quantization process has properties similar to locality-sensitive hashing (LSH). Therefore, we refer to q, the quantized measurements of x, as the hash of x. Therefore for the purpose of this description, the terms hash and quantization are used interchangeably. [0044] Our aim is twofold. First, we use an information-theoretic argument to demonstrate that the quantization process provides information about the distance between two signals x and x′ only if the l 2 distance d=∥x−x′∥ 2 is less than a predetermined threshold. Furthermore, the process preserves security of the signals when the l 2 distance is greater than the threshold. Second, we quantify the information provided by the hashes of the measurements by demonstrating that they provide a stable embedding of the l 2 distance under the normalized Hamming distance, i.e., we show that the l 2 distance between the two signals bounds the normalized Hamming distance between their hashes. One requirement is that the measurement matrix A and the dither w remain secret from the receiver of the hashes. Otherwise, the receiver could reconstruct the original signals. However, the reconstruction from such measurements, even if the measurement parameters A and w are known, are of a combinatorial complexity, and probably computationally prohibitive. [0045] Information-Theoretic Security [0046] To understand the security properties of this embedding, we consider mutual information between the i th bit, q i and q′ i , of the two signals x and x′ conditional on the distance d: [0000] I  ( q i ; q i ′ | d ) =  ∑ q i , q i ′ ∈ { 0 , 1 }   P  ( q i , q i ′ | d )  log  P  ( q i , q i ′ | d ) P  ( q i | d )  P  ( q i ′ | d ) =  P c | d  log  ( 2  P c | d ) + ( 1 - P c | d )  log  ( 2  ( 1 - P c | d ) ) =  log  ( 2  ( 1 - P c | d ) ) + P c | d  log  ( P  c | d 1 - P c | d ) ≤  log ( 1 - 4 π 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 ) + ( 1 2 + 1 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 )  log  ( 1 2 + 1 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 1 2 - 4 π 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 ) ≤  10   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 , [0000] where the last step uses log x≦x−1 to consolidate the expressions. [0047] Thus, the mutual information between two length M hashes, q, q′ of the two signals is bounded by the following theorem. [0048] Theorem I [0049] Consider two signals, x and x′, and the quantization method in Lemma I applied M times to produce the quantized vectors (hashes) q and q′, respectively. The mutual information between two length M hashes q and q′ of the two signals is bounded by [0000] I  ( q ; q ′ | d ) ≤ 10   M    - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 ( 7 ) [0050] According to Theorem I, the mutual information between a pair of hashes decreases exponentially with the distance between the signals that generated the hashes. The rate of the exponential decrease is controlled by the sensitivity parameter Δ. Thus, we cannot recover any information about signals that are far apart (greater than the threshold, as controlled by Δ), just by observing their hashes. [0051] Stable Embedding [0052] This stable embedding is similar in spirit to a Johnson-Lindenstrauss embedding from a high-dimensional relationship between distances of signals in the signal space, and the distance of the measurements, i.e., the hashes. Because the hash is in the binary space {0, 1} M , the appropriate distance metric is the normalized Hamming distance [0000] d H  ( q , q ′ ) = 1 M  ∑ m   ( q m ⊕ q m ′ ) . [0053] We consider the quantization of vectors x and x′ with an l 2 distance d==∥x−x′∥ 2 , as described above. The distance between each pair of individual quantization bits (q m ⊕q′ m ) is a random binary value with a distribution [0000] P ( q m ⊕q′ m |d )= E ( q m ⊕q′ m |d )=1− P c|d . [0054] This distribution and the bounds are plotted in FIG. 2 . For multi-bit quantizers, for example as in FIG. 1D , the Hamming distance could be replaced by another appropriate distance in the embedding space. For example, it could be replaced by the l 1 or the l 2 distance in the embedding space. [0055] Using Hoeffding's inequality, which provides an upper bound on the probability for the sum of random variables to deviate from its expected value, it is straightforward to show that the Hamming distance satisfies [0000] P (| d H ( q,q′ )−(1− P c|d )|≧ t|d )≦2 e −2t 2 M   (8) [0056] Next, we consider a “cloud” of L data points, which we want to securely embed. Using the union bound on at most L 2 possible signal pairs in this cloud, each satisfying Eqn. (8), the following holds. [0057] Theorem II [0058] Consider a set S of L signals in K and the quantization method of Lemma I. With probability 1−2e 2logL-2t 2 M , the following holds for all pairs x, x′ ∈ S and their corresponding hashes q, q′ [0000] 1− P c|d −t≦d H ( q,q ′)≦1− P c|d +t,   (9) [0000] where Pc|d is defined in Lemma I, d is the l 2 distance, and d H (•, •) is the normalized Hamming distance between their hashes. [0059] Theorem II states that, with overwhelming probability, the normalized Hamming distance between the two hashes is very close, as controlled by t, to the mapping of the l 2 distance defined by 1−P c|d . Furthermore, using the bounds in Eqns. (4-6), we can obtain closed form embedding bounds for Eqn. (9): [0000] 1 2 - 1 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 - t ≤ d H  ( q , q ′ ) ≤ 1 2 - 4 π 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 + t , ( 10 ) [0060] FIG. 2 shows the mapping 1−Pc|d, together with its bounds. The mapping 201 is linear for small d, and becomes essentially flat 202 , therefore not invertible, for large d, with the scaling is controlled by the sensitivity parameter Δ. Furthermore, it is clear in FIG. 2 that the upper bounds 201 , [0000] 1 - P c | d ≤ 2 π  σ   d Δ ,  and ( 11 ) 1 - P c | d ≤ 1 2 - 4 π 2   - ( π   σ   d 2  Δ ) 2 , ( 12 ) [0000] are very tight for small and large d, respectively, and can be used as approximations of the mapping. Of course, the results of Theorem II, and the bounds on the mapping, can be reversed to provide guarantees on the l 2 distance as a function of the Hamming distance. [0061] FIGS. 3A-3B show how the embedding behaves in practice. The Figs. show results on the normalized Hamming distance between pairs of hashes as a function of the distance between the signals that generated the distances. The figures show the significant characteristics of our secure hashing. For all distances larger than the threshold T 301 , the normalized distance response is flat, and nothing can be learned of the actual distance, since the normalized hamming distance is identical for all l 2 distances. However, for distances smaller than the threshold, the normalized Hamming distance is approximately proportional to the actual distance. [0062] In the example shown, the signals are randomly generated in 1024 , i.e., K=2 10 . The plot in FIG. 3A uses M=2 12 =4096 measurements per hash, i.e., four bits per coefficient. The plot in FIG. 3B uses M=2 8 =256 measurements per hash, i.e., ¼ bit per coefficient. Two different A are used in each plot, Δ=2 −3 , 2 −1 . For the larger Δ, the slope of the linear part of the embedding increases, and a larger range of l 2 distances can be identified. This reduces security because information is revealed for signals at larger distances. Furthermore, for a smaller number of hashing bits M the width 301 of the linear region increases, which increases the uncertainty in inverting the map in the linear region. On the other hand, as the number of hashing bits M increases, the embedding becomes tighter at the expense of larger bandwidth requirements. This means that the l 2 distance between near neighbors can be more accurately estimated from the hashes. Note that a similar uncertainty on the exact mapping between distances of signals exists even if the signals are quantized, and then compared in the encrypted domain using, for example, a homomorphic cryptosystem. [0063] This behavior is consistent with the information-theoretic security described above for the embedding. For small distance d, there is information provided in the hashes, which can be used to find the distance between the signals. For larger distances d, information is not revealed. Therefore, it is not possible to determine the distance between two signals from their hashes, or any other information. [0064] Applications [0065] We describe various applications where a nearest neighbor search based on the hashes is particularly beneficial. We assume that all parties are semi-honest, i.e., the parties follow the rules of the protocol, but can use the information available at each step of the protocol to attempt to discover the data held by other parties. [0066] In all of the protocols described below, we assume that the embedding parameters A, w and Δ are selected such that the linear proportionality region in FIG. 2 extends at least up to an l 2 distance of D. Within this proportionality region, denote by D H , the normalized Hamming distance between hashes corresponding to the l 2 distance of D between the underlying signals. Recall, outside the linear proportionality region, the embedding has a flat response, and is non-invertible and therefore secure. In other words, if the distance between two signals is outside the linear proportionality region, then one cannot obtain any information about the signals by observing their hashes. [0067] Privacy Preserving Clustering with a Star Topology [0068] In this application as shown in FIG. 4 , we take advantage of the property that, when the embedding matrix A and the dither vector w are unknown, no information is revealed about the vector x by observing the corresponding hash. In this application, multiple client parties P (i) provide data x (i) to be analyzed by a server S. The goal is to allow S to cluster the data and organize the clients P into classes without revealing the data. For each client, the server obtains the approximate nearest neighbors of the client within the l 2 distance of D. [0069] Protocol: The protocol is summarized in FIG. 4 . 1) All the parties identically obtain the random embedding matrix A, the dither vector w, and the sensitivity parameter Δ. One way to accomplish this is for one client party to transmit A, w and Δ to the other client parties using public encryption keys of the recipients. 2) Each client, for i ∈ I={1, 2, . . . , N}, determines q (i) =Q(Δ −1 (Ax (i) +w)), and transmits q (i) to the server S as plaintext. 3) Corresponding to each party P (i) , the server constructs a set C={i|d H (q, q (i) )≦D H }. [0073] From Eqn. (9), we know that the elements of C 1 are the approximate nearest neighbors of the party P (i) . Owing to the properties of the embedding, the server can perform clustering using the binary hashes in cleartext form, without discovering the underlying data x (i) . Thus, apart from the initial one-time preprocessing overhead incurred to communicate the parameters A, w and Δ to the N parties, encryption is not needed in this protocol for any subsequent processing. [0074] This is in contrast with protocols that need to perform distance calculation based on the original data x (i) , which require the server to engage in additional sub-protocols to determine O(N 2 ) pairwise distances in the encrypted domain using homomorphic encryption. [0075] Authentication Using Symmetric Keys [0076] In this application as shown in FIG. 5 , we authenticate using a vector x derived, for example, from biometric parameters or an image. The goal is to authenticate a user x with a trusted server without revealing the data x to a possible eavesdropper. If the goal is authentication, then the client user claims an identity and the server determine whether the submitted authentication hash vector q is within a predefined l 2 distance from an enrollment hash vector q (N) vector stored in a database at the server. If the goal is identification, the server determines whether or not the submitted vector is within a predefined l 2 distance from at least one enrollment vector stored in its database. We perform the authentication in a subspace of quantized random embeddings. Here, the embedding parameters (A, w, Δ) serves as a symmetric key known only to the client and the trusted authentication server, but not to the eavesdropper. The protocol for the user identification scenario is described below. The authentication protocol proceeds similarly. [0077] The user of the client has a vector x to be used for identification. The server has a database of N enrollment vectors x (i) , i ∈ I={1, 2, . . . , N}. The user and the server (but not the eavesdropper) have embedding parameters (A, w, Δ). [0078] The server determines the set C of approximate nearest neighbors of the vector x within the l 2 distance of D. If C=Ø, i.e., is empty, then user the identification has failed, otherwise the user is identified as being near at least one legitimate enrolled user in the database. The eavesdropper obtains no information about x. [0079] Protocol: The protocol transmissions are summarized in FIG. 5 . 1) The user 501 determines q=Q(Δ−1(Ax+w)), and transmits q to the server as plaintext. 2) The server 503 determines q (i) =Q(Δ −1 (Ax (i) +w)) for all i. 3) The server constructs the set C={i|d H (q, q (i) )≦D H }. [0083] Again, from Eqn. (9), we see that the set C contains the approximate nearest neighbors of x. If C=Ø, then identification has failed, otherwise the user has been identified as having one of the indices in C. Because the eavesdropper 502 does not know (A, w, Δ) 504 , the quantized embeddings do not reveal information about the underlying vector. This protocol does not require the user to encrypt the hash before transmitting the hash to the authentication server. In terms of the communication overhead, this is an advantage over conventional nearest neighbor searches, which require that the client transmits the vector to the server in encrypted form to hide it from the eavesdropper. [0084] As a variation, to design a protocol for an untrusted server, we can stipulate that the server only stores q (i) , not x (i) and does not possess the embedding parameters (A, w, Δ). If the authentication server is untrusted, the client users do not want to enroll using their identifying vectors x (i) . In this case, change the above protocol so that only the users (but not the server) possess (A, w, Δ). [0085] The users enroll in the server's database using the hashes q (i) , instead of the corresponding data vectors x (i) . The hashes are the only data stored on the server. In this case, because the server does not know (A′, w, Δ), the server cannot reconstruct x (i) from q (i) . Further, if the database is compromised, then the q (i) can be revoked and new hashes can be enrolled using different embedding parameters (A′, w′, Δ′). [0086] Privacy Preserving Clustering with Two Parties [0087] Next as shown in FIG. 6 , we consider a two-party protocol in which a client 601 initiates a query to a database server 602 . The privacy constraint is that the query is not revealed to the server, and the client can only learn the vectors in the database server that are within a predefined l 2 distance from its query. Unlike the earlier protocol for star topology, it is now necessary to use a homomorphic cryptosystem scheme, such as the probabilistic asymmetric Paillier cryptosystem for public key cryptography, to perform simple operations in the encrypted domain. [0088] The additively homomorphic property of the Paillier cryptosystem ensures that ξ p (a)ξ q (b)=ξ pq (a+b), where a and h are integers in a message space, and is the encryption function. The integers p and q are randomly selected encryption parameters, which make the Paillier cryptosystem semantically secure, i.e., by selecting the parameters p, q at random, one can ensure that repeated encryptions of a given plaintext results in different ciphertexts, thereby protecting against chosen plaintext attacks (CPAs). For simplicity, we drop the suffixes p, q from our notation. As a corollary to the additively homomorphic property, ξ(a)b=ξ(ab). [0089] The client has the query vector x. The server has a database of N vectors x (i) , for I=1, . . . , N. The server generates (A, w, Δ) and makes Δ public. The client obtains C , the set of approximate nearest neighbors of the query vector x within the l 2 distance of D. If no such vectors exist, then the client obtains C=Ø. [0090] Protocol: The protocol transmissions are summarized in FIG. 6 . 1) The client generates a public encryption key pk, and secret decryption key sk, for Paillier encryption. Then, the client performs elementwise encryption of x, denoted by ξ(x)=(ξ(x 1 ), ξ(x 2 ), . . . , ξ(x k )). The client transmits ξ(x) to the server. 2) The server uses the additively homomorphic property to determine ξ(y)=ξ(Ax+w) and returns ξ(y) to the client. 3) The client decrypts y and determines q=Δ −1 y, and transmits ξ(q) to the server. 4) The server determines the hashes q (i) =Q(Δ −1 (Ax (i) +w)). 5) The server uses homomorphic properties to determine the encryption of the Hamming distances between the quantized query vector and the quantized database vectors, i.e., it determines d H (q, q (i) ): [0000] ξ  ( Md H  ( q , q i ) ) =  ξ  ( ∑ m = 1 M   q m ⊕ q m ( i ) ) =  ∏ m = 1 M   ξ  ( q m ⊕ q m ( i ) ) =  ∏ m = 1 M   ξ  ( q m + q m ( i ) - 2  q m  q m ( i ) ) =  ∏ m = 1 M   ξ  ( q m )  ξ  ( q m ( i ) )  ξ  ( q m ) - 2  q m ( i ) transmits the encrypted distances to the client. 6) The client decrypts d H (q, q (i) ), and obtains the set D={i|d H (q, q (i) )≦D H . 7) If D=0, the protocol terminates. If not, the client performs a |D|-out-of-N oblivious transfer (OT) protocol with the server to retrieve C={x (i) }. [0099] The OT guarantees that the client does not discover any of the vectors x (i) such that i ∉ D, while ensuring that the query set D is not revealed to the server. [0100] From Eqn. (9), the set C contains the approximate nearest neighbors of the query vector x. Consider the advantages of determining the distances in the hash subspace versus encrypted-domain determination of distance between the underlying vectors. For a database of size N, determining the distances between the vectors reveals all N distances ∥x−x (i) ∥ 2 . A separate sub-protocol is necessary to ensure that only the distances corresponding to the nearest neighbors, i.e., the local distribution of the distances, is revealed to the client. [0101] In contrast, our protocol only reveals distances if ∥x−x (i) ∥ 2 ≦D. If ∥x−x (i) ∥ 2 >d, then the Hamming distances determined using the quantized random embeddings are no longer proportional to the true distances. This prevents the client from knowing the global distribution of the vectors in the database of the server, while only revealing the local distribution of vectors near the query vector. Effect of the Invention [0102] We describe a secure binary method using quantized random embeddings, which preserves the distances between signal and data vectors in a special way. As long as one vector is within a pre-specified distance d from another vector, the normalized Hamming distance between their two quantized embeddings is approximately proportional to the l 2 distance between the two vectors. However, as the distance between the two vectors increases beyond d, then the Hamming distance between their embeddings becomes independent of the distance between the vectors. [0103] The embedding further exhibits some useful privacy properties. The mutual information between any two hashes decreases to zero exponentially with the distance between their underlying signals. [0104] We use this embedding approach to perform efficient privacy-preserving nearest neighbor search. Most prior privacy-preserving nearest neighbor searching methods are performed using the original vectors, which must be encrypted to satisfy privacy constraints. [0105] Because of the above properties, our hashes can be used, instead of the original vectors. to implement privacy-preserving nearest neighbor search in an unencrypted domain at significantly lower complexity or higher speed. To motivate this, we describe protocols in low-complexity clustering, and server-based authentication. [0106] Although the invention has been described by way of examples of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

A hash of signal is determining by dithering and scaling random projections of the signal. Then, the dithered and scaled random projections are quantized using a non-monotonic scalar quantizer to form the hash, and a privacy of the signal is preserved as long as parameters of the scaling, dithering and projections are only known by the determining and quantizing steps.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to safety alarm systems and in particular to a safety alarm to be associated with small arms such as rifles and shotguns. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART It is conventional in small arms to include a safety mechanism to inhibit operation of the trigger mechanism and ensure that the weapon may not be inadvertently discharged. Generally, an indication of whether the safety is on or off is a mere visual indication of the position of the safety mechanism. It is evident, however, that in many circumstances the visual indication may not be sufficient and indeed, under some conditions, may not even be visible. It is therefore the purpose of this invention to provide an indication as to whether the safety mechanism has been deployed, in such a way that the condition of the safety mechanism will be drawn to the attention of the user and avoid inadvertent discharge of the firearm. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, a switch is associated with the safety mechanism of the weapon and is actuated by the safety mechanism. A predetermined time after the switch is actuated, an electronic circuit causes an audible and/or visual alarm to be actuated thus warning the user that the safety mechanism has not been applied. A clearer understanding of the invention may be had from a consideration of the following description and drawing in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system: FIG. 2 is an illustration, partly in section, of a typical installation of the alarm system; and FIG. 2A is a detail of a component of the alarm system. FIG. 3 is an electronic circuit diagram of an alarm circuit suitable for use in the system of FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Considering first FIG. 1, there is shown an alarm circuit 1 which is supplied with energy from a battery 2 and is controlled by a switch 3. The output from the electronic circuit is applied to indicators 4 and 5, 4 being a LED and 5 an acoustic transducer. FIG. 2 illustrates the location of the various elements of the system of FIG. 1 within a typical weapon. As will be seen, the stock of the weapon, designated 6, has a bore 10 for access to the bolt 8 which retains the stock 6 on gunbody 9 and an opening at the butt providing a chamber to accept battery 2. A small bore 7 is provided through the butt to conduct a wire 11 from one terminal of battery 2 to the electronic circuit 1 which is located within the normal mechanism compartment of the weapon. The other terminal of battery 2 is connected through wire 12 to bolt 8 which retains the stock 6 on gunbody 9. The switch 3, shown in more detail in FIG. 2A, is also located within the body 9 of the gun in proximity to the safety mechanism so that the switch is operated when the safety mechanism is operated. As will be seen from FIG. 2A, the switch comprises a metallic ball 13 retained in a plastic bolt 14 and urged outward by spring 15. A bolt 16 has a central bore through which passes insulated wire 17 which is connected to ball 13. When the slide 18 of the safety mechanism moves to the right, it completes a circuit between the body 9 and the ball 13, thus connecting the wire 17 to the body 9 and thus to a terminal of the battery. The wire 17 in turn is connected to the electronic circuit 1. A further bore in the stock provides an aperture to receive the acoustic transducer 5. The LED 4 may be located elsewhere in the weapon in a place easily viewed by the user, for example, at a location on the side of the stock nearest the operating mechanism of the weapon. OPERATION OF THE SYSTEM With the system installed in a weapon as shown in FIG. 2, the circuit 1 is not energized unless the switch 3 is closed. Switch 3 is closed only when the safety is released. Battery voltage i applied to the circuit through the switch. A predetermined time after application of battery voltage the electronic circuit 1 produces an output, activating the transducer and the LED causing both a visual and audible alarm warning the user that the safety on the weapon has been released. If the safety is now reapplied or is reapplied before the electronic circuit causes the alarm to sound, the electronic circuit is reset and will not reactivate the transducer or LED until the safety is once more released, switch 3 is closed and a predetermined time interval elapses. As has been previously indicated, switch 3 as shown in FIG. 2A, provides the necessary connection between wire 12 from the battery through bolt 8, body 9, slide 18, ball 13 and wire 17 to the electronic circuit. A suitable electronic circuit for activating the alarm in response to the switch 3 is shown in greater detail in FIG. 3. As will be seen in FIG. 3, when switch 3 is closed the battery voltage from battery is applied through wire 17 to the electronic circuit. Astable 28 initially has a zero output on its terminal 19 because the voltage applied to its input terminal 20 is greater than the voltage applied to its input terminal 21. However, as capacitor 22 charges through resistor 23, the potential on terminal 21 approaches the potential on terminal 20 and at a predetermined time, determined by the resistance of resistor 23 and the capacity of capacitor 22, astable 28 assumes its unstable condition and produces a 1 hertz output at terminal 19. This output is applied to astable 24 which is arranged to produce an output at a 5 kilohertz frequency at terminal 25. The 1 hertz signal from terminal 19 results in a series of bursts at a 5 kilohertz frequency and a 1 hertz repetition rate at terminal 25. This output from terminal 25 is applied to transducer 5 and to LED 4, producing an audible output from transducer 5 in the form of a series of 5 kilohertz bursts of sound and an output from LED 4 as a series of flashes of light. When switch 3 is open, capacitor 22 is discharged, the output from circuit 28 becomes a zero and the operation of both the transducer and the LED is terminated. If the switch 3 is once more closed, the operation repeats with the timing interval once more determined by the rate of charge of capacitor 22 through resistor 23. While a specific electronic circuit has been shown, it will be understood that numerous variations could be made to perform similar functions. It is only necessary that the transducer and LED be activated at a predetermined time after the closure of switch 3 and produce a suitable audible and/or visual output. The actual construction of switch 3 and its location will depend upon the particular weapon. It is only necessary that the switch be of suitable size as to be placed within the mechanism chamber and be of suitable nature as to be actuated by the actuation of the safety mechanism. It will also be understood that while the battery, transducer, electronic circuit and switch have been shown in particular locations, these locations will vary depending upon the nature of the weapon to which the system is applied. It is, however, desirable that all components be placed in locations that do not detract from the normal shape and function of the weapon and that the transducer and LED are so located as to suitably alert the user and others to the fact that the safety has been released.

A safety alarm system for small arms arranged to be incorporated within the structure of the gun. A battery energizes an electronic circuit through a switch activated by the safety mechanism of the gun. A predetermined time after energization the electronic circuit activates a visual or audible alarm to warn the handler that the weapon safety mechanism has been deactivated.

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application no. 200810127641.8, filed with the Chinese Patent Office on Jul. 2, 2008 and entitled “Match authentication method, device and system for wireless communication devices”, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to the filed of wireless communications and in particular to a match authentication method, device and system for wireless communication devices. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Numerous large engineering mechanical products, e.g., a concrete pump truck, a crane, etc., are typically equipped with a wireless control signal receiver and thus remotely controllable by a remote controller. Along with the increasing number of electronic devices controllable by a remote controller, such a situation may occur that a nearby electronic device using the same code system will be initiated or mis-operated by another remote controller, thus resulting in a fatal security accident. For example, several pump trucks operate at the same site, and if remote controller and receivers of the respective pump trucks are not strictly one-to-one correspondence relationships, then such a situation may occur that one of the remote controllers will be operated to improperly make cantilevers of the pump trucks act concurrently. This apparently tends to cause a fatal security accident. [0004] There are already solutions to this problem: 1. each pair of a remote controller and a receiver of an electronic device is assigned with a specific identification signal (hereinafter referred to a feature code), so the remote controller can control only the electronic device with the same feature code. However, in this solution, the feature code is required to be cured in both the remote controller and the receiver of the device by complex operations of hardening the feature code, and the feature code registered in the electronic device and the remoter controller is typically fixed and not convenient in use to modify. Thus, if the remote controller is lost, then the device can not be used, which means poor interchangeability of devices; 2. a universal remote controller is used, and a cipher key is added so that the feature code in the cipher key and in the receiver of the electronic device is in one-to-one correspondence. Although this method address the problem of poor interchangeability of remote controllers, the feature code has also to be cured in both the cipher key and the receiver of the device by complex operations of hardening the feature code. If the cipher key is loss or not taken along, then the device can not be used. Furthermore, this solution requires to add a device (a cipher key), thus resulting in a consequential increased cost. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] The invention provides a match authentication method, device and system for a wireless communication device, which can make a wireless controller correspond uniquely to a controlled device to secure an operation control and accommodate interchangeability of controller devices. [0006] An embodiment of the invention provides a match authentication method for a wireless communication device, which includes: [0007] transmitting a match request from a transmitting terminal device to a receiving terminal device; [0008] receiving, by the transmitting terminal device, a response message fed back from the receiving terminal device, wherein the response message carries a feature code; and [0009] acquiring, by the transmitting terminal device, the feature code as an authorization authentication code for communication with the receiving terminal device. [0010] Preferably, the response message further carries a communication parameter for communication between the transmitting terminal device and the receiving terminal device, wherein the communication parameter includes a carrier frequency and/or bit rate of communication. [0011] Preferably, an initial value of the feature code is pre-stored in the receiving terminal device and the feature code includes a serial number and a maintenance running number of the device. [0012] Preferably, the receiving terminal device updates the feature code in the receiving terminal device upon reception of the match request transmitted from the transmitting terminal device, and the updated feature code is used in ongoing match authentication; or [0013] the feature code in the receiving terminal device is updated at the end of each match authentication for use in subsequent matching. [0014] Preferably, the transmitting terminal device and the receiving terminal device perform wired communication during match authentication. [0015] An embodiment of the invention provides a match authentication method for a wireless communication device, which includes: [0016] receiving a match request message from a radio controller to a receiver, wherein the match request message carries a feature code; [0017] acquiring, by the receiver, the feature code and using the feature code for authorization authentication with the wireless controller; and [0018] receiving, by the receiver, a control command from the wireless controller after authorization authentication is passed. [0019] Preferably, the match request message further carries a communication parameter which comprises a carrier frequency and/or bite rate of communication, and the wireless controller uses the communication parameter for communication with the receiver. [0020] An initial value of the feature code is pre-stored in the wireless controller and the feature code includes a serial number and a maintenance running number of the wireless controller. [0021] Preferably, the wireless controller and the receiver perform match authentication in a wired communication manner. [0022] An embodiment of the invention provides a wireless communication device capable of match authentication, which includes: [0023] a storage unit adapted to store a feature code; [0024] a communication unit adapted to transmit the feature code to an opposite device in response to a request and receive a request or command from the opposite device; and [0025] an authorization authentication unit adapted to use the feature code to perform authentication with the opposite device. [0026] An embodiment of the invention provides a wireless communication system capable of match authentication, which includes a transmitting terminal device and a receiving terminal device, [0027] the transmitting terminal device interacts with the receiving terminal device to determine a feature code for authorization authentication; [0028] the receiving terminal device performs authorization authentication for the transmitting terminal device by the feature code prior to communication; and [0029] the transmitting terminal device and the receiving terminal device communicate upon passing authorization authentication. [0030] In summary, in the technical solutions according to the embodiments of the invention, the feature code can be cured in only one of the remote controller and the receiver and then transmitted to the other one over a wired connection for authentication to thereby simplify hardening of the feature code and perform conveniently and securely connection authentication between wireless devices; and match authentication can be performed to achieve one-to-one correspondence between the wireless remote controller and the controlled device to thereby avoid the remote operation from interfering with a ambient similar device. [0031] Since the registered feature code can be automatically updated for subsequent match authentication, it can be ensured uniqueness of the feature code for each match authentication to thereby perform simply and conveniently new match authentication. A universal device can act as the part in which the feature code is not cured, thus implementing a high interchangeability. If the feature code is pre-cured on the receiver of the device, then the original remote controller in the case of being lost will just be replaced with a new universal remote controller, and the remote controller will be interfaced to the receiver of the device in which the feature code is cured to perform new match authentication to thereby setup connection communication between the new remote controller and the device, thus replacing the remote controller. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0032] FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a match authentication method for a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the invention; [0033] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a feature code used in the embodiment of the invention; [0034] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a wireless communication device capable of match authentication according to an embodiment of the invention; [0035] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a wireless communication system capable of match authentication according to an embodiment of the invention; and [0036] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a flow of performing match authentication in a particular application example of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0037] The invention provides a method for match authentication between wireless devices, which can perform connection authentication between the wireless devices conveniently and securely and can avoid a wireless remote control from mis-operating or interfering an ambient similar device while ensuring interchangeability between a wireless remote controller and a receiver. [0038] According to the invention, firstly a match authentication between a remote controller and a receiver of a remote control device are performed prior to operation of the remote control device. [0039] A feature code can be pre-stored in the remote controller or the receiver. The remoter controller and the receiver interact to determine the feature code and use the feature code for authorization authentication. During the match authentication, the remote controller and the receiver communicate in a wired way (e.g., over CAN bus). [0040] Furthermore, a bit rate and a frequency band for communication between the remote controller and the receiver (arranged on a controlled device) can also be prescribed, thus avoiding actively interference from the ambient same signal. [0041] In an embodiment of the invention, a receiver is arranged on a controlled device (e.g., a crane) to receive a command transmitted from a wireless controller and forward the command to a control processing unit of the device, thus performing a control operation on the controlled device. As illustrated in FIG. 1 , an embodiment of the invention provides a method for match authentication between wireless communication devices, which includes: [0042] S 101 . A wireless controller transmits a match request to a receiver; [0043] S 102 . The wireless controller receives a response message which feeds back from the receiver and carries a feature code; and [0044] An initial feature of the feature code is pre-stored in the receiving terminal device, and the feature code includes a serial number and a maintenance sequential number of the device. [0045] S 103 . The wireless controller acquires and stores the feature code; [0046] The wireless controller stores the feature code for use in subsequent communication authorization authentication after acquiring the feature code. [0047] In the present embodiment, the receiver updates the feature code in the receiving terminal device upon reception of the match request transmitted from the wireless controller, and the updated feature code is for use in ongoing match authentication; or [0048] The feature code in the receiving terminal device is updated at the end of each match authentication for use in subsequent matching. [0049] As illustrated in FIG. 2 , the feature code is composed of data with eight bytes, for example, where the first four bytes represent a serial number (SN code) of the device, and the last four bytes represent an internal maintenance running number of the device. In this respect, the running number is set initially to 31; and each time a different corresponding device is matched, the running number increased automatically by one to ensure uniqueness of the feature code and further prepare for subsequent matching. Since the serial number of the device is fixed, the number of times that the device can be matched is approximately four billion, which is sufficient for the device to be authenticated for match. [0050] The response message further carries a communication parameter including a carrier frequency and/or bite rate of communication. The wireless controller communicates with the receiver by using the communication parameter. [0051] S 104 . The wireless controller uses the feature code for communication authorization authentication with the receiver. [0052] During match authentication, the wireless controller and the receiver perform wired communication. [0053] In an embodiment of the invention, a wired connection is performed over a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus so that the wireless controller and the receiver are connected over the CAN bus and relevant information including the feature code, etc., is transmitted in a differential signal of the CAN bus to perform stable and reliable communication. The unique feature code is determined between the wireless controller and the receiver as an authorization authentication code of wireless communication therebetween to thereby ensure a unique relationship between the wireless controller and the receiver. [0054] A CAN interface is configured on both the wireless controller and the receiver, which is a field bus adapted for various process detection and control. Data over the CAN interface is structured in a short frame with eight significant bytes to thereby offer a CRC check and other detection measures as well as a corresponding error handling function, achieve an insignificant data error ratio and ensure reliable data communication. A communication medium of the CAN bus adopts a cheap twisted pair, coaxial cable, etc., and a user interface is simple and easy to implement. CAN bus protocol has been certified by International Standardization Organization, and its technologies are rather matured. A control chip of the CAN bus has been commercialized with a high performance-price ratio. [0055] The receiver uses the feature code for authorization authentication with the wireless controller prior to communication; [0056] The wireless controller communicates with the receiver after authorization authentication is passed. [0057] It shall be noted that in another embodiment, the feature code can alternatively be pre-stored in the wireless controller and transmitted to the receiver to perform authorization authentication using the determined feature code during match authentication. [0058] Furthermore, the communication parameter (including a carrier frequency and/or bit rate of communication) can alternatively be set at the wireless controller and then notified to the receiver for use in subsequent communication. [0059] At the end of each match authentication, the receiver updates the feature code, for example, by increasing the running number by one, to generate and store a new feature code for use in subsequent matching. [0060] It shall further be noted that the receiver can alternatively update the feature code prior to each matching, specifically: [0061] The feature code is updated and stored upon reception of the match request transmitted from the remote controller, and the original running number is increased by one to generate a new feature code, which is in turn used to perform ongoing matching. [0062] An embodiment of the invention further provides a wireless communication device capable of match authentication as illustrated in FIG. 3 , where the wireless communication device 300 includes: [0063] A storage unit 301 adapted to store a feature code; [0064] A communication unit 302 adapted to transmit the feature code to an opposite device in response to a request and to receive a request or command from the opposite device; [0065] An authorization authentication unit 303 adapted to use the feature code to perform authentication with the opposite device; [0066] Particularly, the feature code includes a serial number and a maintenance running number of the wireless communication device; [0067] The wireless communication device 300 further includes: [0068] A feature code updating unit 304 adapted to update the feature code; [0069] At the end of each matching, the feature code updating unit increases the running number by one to generate a new feature code and transmit it to the storage unit 301 for storage in order for use in subsequent matching. [0070] A CAN bus interface is arranged on the wireless communication device over which the wireless communication device and the opposite device are connected to perform match authentication. [0071] An embodiment of the invention further provides a wireless communication system capable of match authentication as illustrated in FIG. 4 , where the wireless communication system includes a transmitting terminal device 410 and a receiving terminal device 420 , particularly: [0072] The transmitting terminal device 410 includes a transmitting unit 411 and a receiving unit 412 ; [0073] The receiving terminal device 420 includes: [0074] A storage unit 421 adapted to store a feature code; [0075] A communication unit 422 adapted to transmit the feature code to an opposite device in response to a request and to receive a request or command from the opposite device; [0076] An authorization authentication unit 423 adapted to use the feature code to perform authentication with the opposite device. [0077] Particularly, the feature code includes a serial number and a maintenance running number of the wireless communication device; [0078] A feature code updating unit 424 is adapted to update the feature code. [0079] The transmitting terminal device 410 and the receiving terminal device 420 interact to determine the feature code for authorization authentication, particularly: [0080] The transmitting terminal device 410 transmits a match request to the receiving terminal device 420 ; [0081] The transmitting terminal device 410 receives a response message which is fed back from the receiving terminal device 420 and carries the feature code to acquire the feature code; [0082] The receiving terminal device 420 uses the feature code for authorization authentication with the transmitting terminal device 410 prior to communication; [0083] The transmitting terminal device 410 communicates with the receiving terminal device 420 after authorization authentication is passed. [0084] The transmitting terminal device 410 and the receiving terminal device 420 perform wired communication during match authentication. [0085] The transmitting terminal device 410 and the receiving terminal device 420 are connected over a Controller Area Network (CAN) communication bus. [0086] An initial value of the feature code is pre-stored in the transmitting terminal device 410 or the receiving terminal device 420 , and the feature code includes a serial number and a maintenance running number of the transmitting terminal device 410 or the receiving terminal device 420 . [0087] A particularly application solution of the invention will be described below taking a remote control system of a cantilever of a concrete pump truck as an example. In an embodiment, a feature code is composed of a Serial Number (SN) and a maintenance running number of a device to be matched. The serial number is a unique product code set by a manufacturer of the device, but if the serial number alone is used as the feature code, then the device and another different device in match will have the same feature code, thus resulting in disordered matching between the devices. Therefore, the maintenance running number of the device is added in the feature code. It is set initially as 31 and upon each successful matching, increased by one to generate a new feature code, thereby avoiding any duplicate feature code. [0088] The remote control system of the cantilever of the concrete pump truck includes an operation control unit and a receiver which is adapted to receive a command transmitted from a wireless remote controller and forward the command to the operation control unit to thereby perform a control operation on the concrete pump truck. Based upon the foregoing method for generating a unique feature code, a specific feature code is cured in a dedicated receiver paired with each pump truck, and during match authentication, the remote controller and the receiver are connected over a CAN bus for communication, and the feature code stored on the receiver is transmitted to a universal remote controller. Successful matching is determined after two handshakes. [0089] Referring to FIG. 5 , a match authentication flow particularly includes: [0090] S 501 . The remote controller and the receiver are connected over the CAN bus; [0091] A CAN bus interface on the remote controller and that on the receiver are connected over the CAN bus. [0092] S 502 . A match request button on the remote controller is pressed to transmit a match request to the receiver; [0093] S 503 . The receiver transmits the feature code to the remote controller upon reception of the request; [0094] S 504 . The remote controller stores the feature code automatically upon reception thereof and transmits an acknowledgement message to the receiver; [0095] An indicator lamp on the remote controller is lightened to indicate successful authentication, thus finishing match authentication; or if no feature code for authentication is received, then the indicator lamp on the remote controller is inoperative, and at this time it is necessary to check a wiring condition, and the match request button on the remote controller is pressed again for another authentication until successful authentication. [0096] S 505 . Upon successful authentication, the running number is increased by one to generate and store a new feature code for use in subsequent match authentication; [0097] Furthermore, a communication parameter including a carrier frequency and/or bit rate of communication can further be set during match authentication, for example, by setting the communication parameter and transmitting it to the receiver through the remote controller. [0098] S 506 . In a subsequent operation control, the remote controller uses the communication parameter to communicate with the receiver and transmit a control command to the receiver; [0099] S 507 . The receiver receives the command transmitted from the remote controller and forwards the command to the operation control unit to thereby perform a control operation on the concrete pump truck. [0100] In summary, in the technical solutions according to the embodiments of the invention, the feature code can be cured in only one of the remote controller and the receiver and then transmitted over a wired connection to the other one for authentication to thereby simplify hardening of the feature code and perform conveniently and securely connection authentication between wireless devices. [0101] One-to-one correspondence can be achieved between the wireless remote controller and the controlled device to avoid the remote operation from interfering with an ambient similar device, and a universal device can act as the one of them without any feature code. [0102] Since the feature code registered on the device is modifiable, it can perform match authentication again with a new remote controller in the event that the original remote controller is lost, thereby achieving good interchangeability. [0103] Those skilled in the art can appreciate that all or a part of the modules or the respective steps in the foregoing embodiments can be performed by a program instructing relevant hardware, which can be stored in a computer readable storage medium, e.g., an ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc. Alternatively, they can be can be implemented by being fabricated respectively as respective integrated circuit modules or a plurality of modules or steps among them can be implemented by being fabricated as a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the embodiments of the invention will not be limited to any particular combination of hardware and software. [0104] The foregoing embodiments serve to illustrate and explain the principle of the invention. As can be appreciated, the embodiments of the invention will not be limited thereto. Various modifications and variations that can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention shall come into the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention shall be as defined in the appended claims.

A matching authentication method for wireless communication equipment comprises that: a device at the transmitting end sends a matching request (S 101 ) to a device at the receiving end; the device at the transmitting end receives the response messages feedback from the device at the receiving end, and the response message carry with feature codes (S 102 ); the device at the transmitting end obtains the feature codes and takes the feature codes as the authentication and authorization codes communicating with the receiving end. The invention also provides a wireless communication device with the function of matching authentication correspondingly. The wireless communication device comprises a memory unit, a communication unit, and an authentication and authorization unit and a feature code updating unit. The invention also provides a wireless communication system with the function of matching authentication correspondingly.

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 018,068, filed Feb. 16, 1993 now abandoned, which is a divisional of Ser. No. 733,365, filed Jul. 19, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,935, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 294,749; filed Jan. 9, 1989 now abandoned, which is a divisional of Ser No. 595,311, filed Mar. 30, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,962. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to tapes and is concerned with tapes suitable for use as teartapes. 2. Description of the Prior Art Teartapes are known to provide a means of facilitating the opening of packages such as packs of cigarettes, confectionery and the like including overwrapping formed form filmic packaging materials. They are adhered to the surface of the packaging material in a manner such that, in use, an end of the teartape can be pulled so as to tear the packaging material underlying the teartape to allow access to the contents. Traditionally such teartapes have been made from cellulose film or derivatives of cellulose which are coated with barrier resistant and/or heat seal coatings. Such tapes can be readily applied to packaging material formed from films of a similar materials by moistening the coating with a solvent, to soften the coating, and applying heat and pressure to give firm adhesion. The replacement of cellulose-based packaging material by stronger and more cost effective polyolefin film packaging materials, and especially by biaxially oriented polypropylene films, has similarly led to the substitution of polypropylene for cellulose in teartape manufacture. Polypropylene teartapes often comprise two-ply laminates of similar polypropylene film to provide increased tear strength and, also, to protect any print applied to the surface of the lower layer. Two methods have been employed to apply these polypropylene tapes to polyolefin film packaging materials. In the case where the polyolefin packaging material is a lacquer coated film a solvent is used to activate the coating and ensure adhesion of the teartape. Alternatively, if the polyolefin packaging material is uncoated, the teartape is caused to adhere by applying a hot melt wax composition. A lacquer coating is not, usually, a packaging requirement, when using polyolefin packaging film, since these have superior barrier properties to cellulose films. Also, in the case of polyolefins there is the opportunity to co-extrude films in order to provide for any specially demanding barrier properties. Hence, the use of lacquer coated polyolefin packaging film simply to promote the adhesion of a teartape involves an unacceptable coat penalty. The use of hot melt wax compositions is, also, undesirable since this gives rise to: 1. the need for cleaning, 2. the need for close attention by the operator to recharge the baths with adhesive wax and to ensure temperatures are correct in order to promote satisfactory adhesion, 3. a safety hazard with high temperature wax baths, 4. distortion of the packaging film and/or tape as a consequence of the heat of application or stress on cooling which can cause an unsightly “cockling” effect, and 5. poor and inconsistent adhesion to film, especially, on starting and restarting the lamination process. These disadvantages are particularly troublesome when stopping and starting the application of the teartape to the packaging film and the nature of the teartapes and their means of application are such that relatively small spools of tape containing no more than 2500-5000 meters have had to be used, thus, causing frequent stoppages on fast operating packaging lines. The present invention provides a teartape suitable for applying to polyolefin film packaging materials without the foregoing disadvantages. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, generally, provides an improved method of applying a tape to a film packaging material, as well as a novel means for applying a tape to film packaging material. According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a teartape for applying to film packaging materials, particularly to polyolefin film packaging materials, which teartape is formed from an oriented thermoplastic plastic material base film coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive composition. The base film may, for example, have a thickness of from 20 to 100 microns and a width of from 1 to 10 mm. Preferably, the thickness is from 40 to 70 microns and the width is from 1.5 to 4 mm. The thermoplastic plastic material of the base film may be, for example a polyvinyl chloride or vinyl chloride copolymer, a linear polyester, or, preferably, a polyolefin, such as, polypropylene or a copolymer of propylene and ethylene. Preferably, the plastic material of the base film is monoaxially oriented since this provides improved cross tear resistance and enables a thinner tape to be produced than in the case where biaxially oriented or non-oriented material is used. Advantageously, the tensile strength of such polypropylene or ethylene/propylene copolymer tape is from 1500 to 3000 kg/cm 2 in the longitudinal direction and from 200 to 500 kg/cm 2 in the transverse direction. Also, in this preferred embodiment, the extension in the longitudinal direction is from about 30 percent to about 50 percent and the extension in the transverse direction is from about 800 percent to about 1000 percent. Any suitable pressure sensitive adhesive composition may be used. Thus, it may, for example, be a natural or synthetic rubber of an acrylic compound and, normally, a primer coating will be provided between it and the surface of the base film so as to promote anchorage of the pressure sensitive adhesive composition. The surface of the base film which is not coated with the pressure sensitive adhesive composition will ordinarily be coated with a release agent. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the base film is printed in a manner such that the printed matter is righted for reading when the teartape is adhered to the filmic packaging material. For example, the printed matter may be printed normally onto a surface of the base film and overcoated with a transparent pressure sensitive adhesive composition. Thus, when the teartape is adhered to the inner surface of the filmic packaging material, the printed matter is righted for reading when viewed through the filmic packaging material and the adhesive composition. In this way, the printed matter is protected from abrasion and from possible contact with the contents of the package. Alternatively, the printed matter may be printed in reverse on one surface of a transparent base film and overcoated with release agent, the other surface being coated with a transparent pressure sensitive adhesive composition. The printed matter will then be righted for reading when the teartape is adhered to the inner surface of the packaging material and viewed through he base film, the adhesive and the packaging material. The matter printed can be either decorative or informative. Thus the teartape can form a sales promotion aid and/or carry a health warning, for example, the case where it is used in cigarette packing. The tape is such that it can be produced in the form of traverse wound reels containing a large quantity of tape (e.g. at least 30,000 meters). In using the tape as a teartape it is applied to the surface of filmic packaging material and, particularly, polyolefin film packaging material and adhered thereto by means of the pressure sensitive adhesive composition. According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of applying a tape, such as the aforementioned pressure sensitive adhesive teartape, to the surface fo filmic packaging material, which comprises affixing an end portion of the tape to a portion of the surface, moving the surface so as to move the tape in a manner such that successive portions of the tape are drawn into contact with successive portions of the surface and become affixed thereto, and controlling the speed of movement of the surface, so as to reduce tension imbalance between the tape and the surface. By reducing imbalance between the tension in those portions of the tape which are affixed to the surface and the tension in those portions of the surface to which tape is affixed, unsightly puckering is reduced. The method of the present invention is particularly useful in the case where the filmic packaging material surface is a polyolefin film material. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the speed of movement of the tape is controlled in dependence upon the tension in that part of the tape which is being drawn towards the surface i.e. in a part of the tape which has yet to be affixed to the surface. Generally, the optimum value of this tension will be in the range of from 5 to 200 grams. The desired tension in the tape can be achieved by utilizing a novel tape dispenser provided by the present invention. This aspect of the present invention provides a dispenser for supplying tape at a controlled tension to a location where it is to be affixed to a moving surface, the dispenser comprising: a frame carrying: (a) a support means for receiving a reel of tape, the reel rotating as tape is drawn from the reel by said moving surface, (b) a guide means defining a tape path from the reel to said location, (c) a brake means for reducing the speed of rotation of the reel in dependence on a reduction in tension of the tape passing along said tape path, and (d) a drive means for increasing the speed of rotation of the reel in dependence on an increase in tension of the tape passing along said tape path. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the guide means comprises first and second guide members, which are relatively movable, such that the length of the tape in the tape path is varied. Variations in tension of the tape in the tape path cause the members to move with respect to one another, so as to increase or decrease the length of the tape path, as appropriate. The movement of the guide members is arranged to control the brake means, whereby, as the tension increase, the brake means is released and, as the tension decrease, the brake means is applied. The drive means is such that it is approximately equivalent to the braking force and is, preferably, such as to exert a high torque at low speeds. For a better understanding of the invention and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, to the accompanying figure in which: BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 shows a side view of a teartape dispenser in accordance with the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the figure, the dispenser comprises a, generally, vertical frame 1 including a, generally, horizontal rotatable spindle 2 for receiving a reel 3 of a teartape of the present invention in such a manner that the reel is freely rotatable with the spindle. The dispenser includes a brake arranged to act upon the spindle so that upon actuation it reduces the rotation speed of the reel. The brake comprises a generally L-shaped member having first and second limbs 4 , 5 which are mounted for pivotal movement about pin 6 passing through a bracket 7 fixed to the frame 1 . The first limb 4 carries a brake pad 8 which ordinarily is urged into engagement with the spindle 2 by means of a spring. A torque motor 10 is affixed to the frame 1 and rotates the spindle 2 (and hence the reel 3 ) by means of a belt drive 11 . The motor 10 is controlled by means of an autotransformer 12 (a Variac control) mounted on the frame 1 . The autotransformer 12 is capable of producing a continuously variable output voltage to drive the motor. The dispenser is for use in conjunction with an overwrapping machine for applying filmic packaging material, and particularly polyolefin film packaging material, to packs of cigarettes, confectionery and similar articles. Only a part of this machine is shown in the drawing wherein reference numeral 50 denotes a roller over which the packaging material 51 passes en route to the station at which it is applied to the article to be packaged. The roller 50 is driven by motor 53 so as to move the packaging material through the machine. The free end of the tape is adhered to the packaging material and the tape is fed from the dispenser to the location where it is applied to the packaging material (i.e. to where the packaging material passes over roller 50 ) as a consequence of the movement of the packaging material, the reel 3 rotating, as appropriate, to allow the tape to be fed in this way. Thus, successive portions of the tape are drawn into contact with successive portions of the packaging material and become adhered thereto by the pressure sensitive adhesive coating of the tape. The dispenser includes a guide which defines a tape path from the reel 3 to the roller 50 . The guide comprises first and second guide members. The first guide member is in the form of a fixed arm 13 secured to the frame 1 and including a plurality of guide rollers 15 . The second guide member is in the form of a compensating arm 14 pivotally mounted on frame 1 about a pin 16 . The compensating arm 14 includes a plurality of guide rollers 17 . One end of the fixed arm 13 carries a threaded adjusting screw 18 . A tension spring 19 is provided between the end of the screw 18 and the compensating arm 14 . The compensating arm 14 carries a slidable balance weight 20 and is provided with an adjustable screw 21 , at a location where it can abut against the second limb 5 of the brake. A microswitch (not shown) is provided in a location where it will sense a predetermined lower position of the compensating arm 4 and disengage the motor 10 . The guide rollers 15 and 17 , together with additional guide roller 52 of the packaging machinery define a tape path (shown by the broken line) between the reel 3 and the location at which the tape is to be applied to the packaging material. In use, the slidng balance weight 20 is first adjusted so that the compensating arm 14 is in equilibrium about the fulcrum pin 16 . The tape is then led from the reel 3 and threaded through guide roller 15 , 17 and 52 and the free end is adhered to the packaging material 51 on roller 50 . The tension of the tape in the tape path depends upon the tension in spring 19 (which is determined by adjusting screw 18 ) and the number of guide rollers traversed by the tape and these are selected so that the tension in the tape is as desired. The compensating arm 14 will, then, adopt a preferred disposition with respect to the fixed arm 13 , and the brake and the motor 10 are, then, adjusted so that the compensating arm 14 ordinarily adopts this disposition during running conditions. This is achieved by appropriately setting the adjustable screw 21 and by appropriately setting the autotransformer 12 so that the torque developed by the motor 10 is just sufficient to overcome the braking force exerted by the brake. In this way, in the event that the speed of the packaging material 51 is less than the speed of the tape in the guide path, (i.e. when the tape is overrunning, for example when the packaging machinery is stopping), the resultant decrease in tension in the tape in the guide path allows the compensating arm 14 to pivot about pin 16 under the influence of tension spring 19 so as to extend the length of the tape path and thereby increase the tension in the tape. Simultaneously, this movement of the compensating arm also causes the brake pad 8 to become engaged with the spindle 2 whereby the speed of the spindle 2 (and hence the speed of the tape in the tape path) is decreased. The compensation arm also activates the aforementioned microswitch to disengage the motor 10 and thereby prevent any possible overriding of the brake. In the event that the speed of the tape in the tape path is less than the speed of the packaging material 51 (for example during start up of the packaging machinery), the tension in the tape in the tape path increases and causes the compensating arm 14 to pivot about pin 16 against the action of the spring 19 so as to reduce the length of the tape path and thereby decrease the tension in the tape. Simultaneously, this movement of the compensating arm 14 causes the brake pad 8 to become disengaged from the spindle 2 whereby the torque motor 10 can increase the speed of rotation of the spindle and hence increase the speed of the tape in the tape path. The use of a torque motor 10 to drive the spindle 2 and hence reel 3 is particularly valuable when reels containing a large quantity of tape are used since it can readily overcome the initial inertia of such reels. The torque motor drive provided maximum torque when the brake is applied and reduced torque as speed increases and, thus, reduces the tendency to snatch at start-up or to overrun on rapid deceleration. By use of a tape dispenser of the above type, the speed of the tape in the tape path is controlled in dependence on the speed of the packaging material whereby the tension in the tape in the tape path is controlled so that it approximates to the optimum tension. Hence tension imbalance between the tape and the packaging material and the puckering effects caused thereby are significantly reduced. The following examples illustrate the invention. In the examples all parts are by weight, absent contrary indications. EXAMPLE 1 A uniaxially oriented film was formed from a copolymer of 90 percent propylene and 10 percent ethylene by extending a film of the copolymer on to chill casting rollers in a conventional manner followed by stretching the machine direction between heated rollers to impart a stretch of about six times the original length. After annealing the film had a tensile strength in the machine direction of 2800 kg/cm 2 with an elongation, at break of 30 to 50 percent. Elongation in the lateral direction was about 800 to 1000 percent at break. The film had a thickness of 40 microns and both surfaces fo the film were subjected to a corona discharge at 40 to 50 dynes per cm. One of the surfaces was then printed normally by a gravure process. (Other conventional printing processes such as a flexographic process may be used). The printed surface was, then, coated with a primer suitable for promoting anchorage of a subsequently applied coating of a transparent pressure sensitive adhesive composition. The non-printed surface was coated with a release agent. The release agent comprised 100 parts of Silicolease 425 (ICI trade name for a 30 percent solids concentration of dimethyl polysiloxane and methyl hydrogen polysiloxane resins in toluene) together with 4 parts of Catalyst 62A and 4 parts Catalysts 62B (ICI trade names to describe a 50 percent solids concentration of amino alkoxy—polysiloxane in toluene and alkyl tin acylate in xylene). The release agent was applied to give a dry coating weight of 0.25 gms. per square meter. The primer was a solution in toluene of 25 parts of natural crepe rubber and 8 parts of a cross-linking agent (Vulcabond TX) applied over the printed surface to give a dry coating weight of 0.25 gms. per square meter. Vulcabond TX is manufactured by ICI and is a 50 percent solution of polyisocyanate (mainly diphenyl methane di-isocyanate) in xylene. The pressure sensitive adhesive composition was a solution of 100 parts of natural crepe rubber, 100 parts of a tackifying resin having a melting pint of 100°/115°C. (Akron P) and 1 part of an antioxidant (Irganox) dissolved in a hydrocarbon mixture (SBP2). this was applied by conventional reverse roll coating to give a dry coating weight of 15 to 20 gms. per square meter. Akron P is marketed by Arakara Chemicals and is a fully saturated allcyclic hydrocarbon resin and Irganox is marketed by Ciba Geigy and is a high molecular weight hindered polyphenol. The coated film was, them slit to a 3 mm width and the resultant teartape was traverse wound on to centers of internal diameter 150 mm and width 170 m to provide reels carrying continuous lengths of tape (e.g. 30,000 to 50,000 meters long, as required). The reels wee then inserted into a tape dispenser as shown in the drawing and this was used to apply the tape to a polypropylene packaging film in a film overwrap machine. The interacting tension compensator and brake mechanisms and the adjustable torque motor drive of the tape dispenser enable tension imbalance between the tape and the film to be avoided, particularly during starting and stopping of the machine. The printed matter on the teartape was righted for reading when viewed through the adhesive and the packaging film. EXAMPLE 2 Example 1 was repeated using a pressure sensitive adhesive composition, a primer based on acrylic resins, and a release agent based on a different silicone resin. Similar results were obtained. The pressure sensitive adhesive composition was a 45 percent solids solution of a self cross-linking acrylic polymer in a mixture of 37 parts ethyl acetate, 26 parts heptane, 26 parts isopropanol, 1 part toluene and 1 part acetylacetone. This is commercially available as Bondmaster 1054 from National Adhesive Ltd. The primer was a mixture of 100 parts of the aforesaid Bondmaster 1054, 1400 parts of toluene, and 10 parts of the aforesaid Vulcabond TX. The release agent comprised 20 parts of Syloff 7046, 79.9 parts of toluene and 0.1 part of a reactive siloxane polymer known as catalyst/cross linking agent 7048 (Dow Corning). Syloff 7046 is a mixture of reactive siloxane polymers available from Dow Corning.

A teartape for packaging materials, and particularly such materials based on polyolefin films, includes a base film coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive composition. The teartape is affixed to the packaging material by the adhesive composition. This avoids the problem of distortion which can occur when affixing conventional teartapes to such packaging materials by means of hot melt wax compositions. The teartape is applied to moving packaging material by controlling the speed of the teartape in accordance with the speed of the packaging material so as to reduce tension imbalance. The speed of the teartape may be controlled in dependence upon the tension in the teartape. This can be achieved by supplying the teartape from a dispenser having a brake means ( 4,5 ) and a drive means ( 10,11,12 ) for regulating the speed oft he teartape in dependence on the tension in the teartape.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The subject disclosure relates to battery packs having cells and more particularly, to a battery pack for vehicles having a cooling system or a heating system for cooling the cells within the battery pack. BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY [0002] Motor vehicles, such as, for example, hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles use propulsion systems to provide motive power. In hybrid vehicles, the propulsion system most commonly refers to gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, which use gasoline (petrol) to power internal-combustion engines (ICEs), and electric batteries to power electric motors. These hybrid vehicles recharge their batteries by capturing kinetic energy via regenerative braking. When cruising or idling, some of the output of the combustion engine is fed to a generator (merely the electric motor(s) running in generator mode), which produces electricity to charge the batteries. This contrasts with all-electric cars which use batteries charged by an external source such as the grid, or a range extending trailer. Nearly all hybrid vehicles still require gasoline as their sole fuel source though diesel and other fuels such as ethanol or plant based oils have also seen occasional use. [0003] Batteries and cells are important energy storage devices well known in the art. The batteries and cells typically comprise electrodes and an ion conducting electrolyte positioned therebetween. Battery packs that contain lithium ion batteries are increasingly popular with automotive applications and various commercial electronic devices because they are rechargeable and have no memory effect. Storing and operating the lithium ion battery at an optimal operating temperature is very important to allow the battery to maintain a charge for an extended period of time. [0004] Due to the characteristics of the lithium ion batteries, the battery pack operates within an ambient temperature range of −20° C. to 60° C. However, even when operating within this temperature range, the battery pack may begin to lose its capacity or ability to charge or discharge should the ambient temperature fall below 0° C. Depending on the ambient temperature, the life cycle capacity or charge/discharge capability of the battery may be greatly reduced as the temperature strays from 0° C. Nonetheless, it may be unavoidable that the lithium ion battery be used where the ambient temperature falls outside the ambient temperature range. [0005] Alluding to the above, in a battery or battery assembly with multiple cells, significant temperature variances can occur from one cell to the next, which is detrimental to performance of the battery pack. To promote long life of the entire battery pack, the cells must be below a desired threshold temperature. To promote pack performance, the differential temperature between the cells in the battery pack should be minimized. However, depending on the thermal path to ambient, different cells will reach different temperatures. Further, for the same reasons, different cells reach different temperatures during the charging process. Accordingly, if one cell is at an increased temperature with respect to the other cells, its charge or discharge efficiency will be different, and, therefore, it may charge or discharge faster than the other cells. This will lead to decline in the performance of the entire pack. [0006] The art is replete with various designs of the battery packs with cooling systems. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,652 to Jones et al. teaches a metal oxide-hydrogen battery including an outer pressure vessel of circular configuration that contains a plurality of circular cell modules disposed in side-by-side relations. Adjacent cell modules are separated by circular heat transfer members that transfer heat from the cell modules to the outer vessel. Each heat transfer member includes a generally flat body or fin which is disposed between adjacent cell modules. A peripheral flange is located in contact with the inner surface of the pressure vessel. The width of each cell module is greater than the length of the flange so that the flange of each heat transfer member is out of contact with the adjacent heat transfer member. The flanges are constructed and arranged to exert an outward radial force against the pressure vessel. Tie bars serve to clamp the cell modules and heat transfer members together in the form of a stack which is inserted into the pressure vessel. [0007] The metal oxide-hydrogen battery taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,652 to Jones et al. is designed for cylindrical type of batteries. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,652 to Jones et al. teaches the heat transfer members be in direct contact with the vessel. Thus the U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,652 to Jones et al. does not teach creating a clearance between the vessel and the heat transfer members, which can be used to introduce cooling or heating agent to cool or heat the cells. [0008] The U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,630 to Earl et al. teaches a common pressure vessel of a circular configuration type Ni—H 2 storage battery having an outer pressure vessel that contains a stack of compartments. Each of the compartments includes at least one battery cell, a heat transfer member, and a cell spacer for maintaining a relatively constant distance between adjacent compartments. The heat transfer members include a fin portion, which is in thermal contact with the battery cell, and a flange portion which extends longitudinally from the fin portion and is in tight thermal contact with the inner wall of the pressure vessel. The heat transfer member serves to transfer heat generated from a battery cell radially to the pressure vessel. [0009] Similar to the metal oxide-hydrogen battery taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,652 to Jones et al., the storage battery taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,630 to Earl et al. is designed for cylindrical types of batteries. This metal oxide-hydrogen battery taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,630 to Earl et al. has the heat transfer members being in direct contact with the vessel thereby failing to create a clearance between the vessel and the heat transfer members which can be used to introduce cooling or heating agent to cool or heat the cells. [0010] The U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,584 to Hoffman et al. teaches a thermal conductor for use with an electrochemical energy storage device. The thermal conductor is attached to one, or both, of the anode and cathode contacts of an electrochemical cell. A resilient portion of the conductor varies in height or position to maintain contact between the conductor and an adjacent wall structure of a containment vessel in response to relative movement between the conductor and the wall structure. The thermal conductor conducts current into and out of the electrochemical cell and conducts thermal energy between the electrochemical cell and thermally conductive and electrically resistive material disposed between the conductor and the wall structure. The thermal conductor taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,584 to Hoffman et al. is attached to one or both of the anode and cathode contacts of the cell and not between the cells. [0011] The U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,783 to Ogata et al. teaches a battery pack having a plurality of prismatic flat battery modules constituted by nickel metal hydride batteries, arranged parallel to each other. Each battery module consists of an integral case formed by mutually integrally connecting a plurality of prismatic battery cases having short side faces and long side faces, the short side faces constituting partitions between adjacent battery cases and being shared. A plurality of spacers are made of a sheet bent in opposite directions such that alternately protruding grooves or ridges respectively contact the opposite long side faces of the battery modules for providing cooling passages between the battery modules. The battery pack taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,783 to Ogata et al. is intended to define voids, i.e. the cooling passages between the cells thereby diminishing the packaging characteristics of the pack. [0012] The U.S. Pat. No. 6,821,671 to Hinton et al. teaches an apparatus for cooling battery cells. As shown in FIG. 1 of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,821,671 to Hinton et al., a cooling fin is connected to the battery cell having railings for holding the cooling fin as each cooling fin slides between the railings thereby fitting the cooling fin within the respective battery cell thereby forming the aforementioned apparatus. The engagement of the cooling fin with the battery cell is presented in such a manner that the cooling fins do not extend beyond the battery cells. Thus, the cooling agent only serves its intended purpose if introduced from the side of the apparatus. If, for example, the cooling agent is applied to the front of the apparatus, only first battery cell is exposed to the cooling agent thereby preventing effective cooling of other battery cells. [0013] Alluding to the above, FIG. 7 of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,821,671 to Hinton et al. shows the apparatus wherein straps are inserted through ears extending from the cooling fins to connect multiple battery cells to form the apparatus and fins together to keep the battery cells in compression. The straps, as shown in FIG. 7 deform the battery cells thereby negatively affecting chemical reaction between electrolyte, cathodes and anodes of each battery cells and resulting in a reduced life span of the cells. [0014] The Japanese publication No. JP2001-229897 teaches a battery pack design and method of forming the same. The purpose of the method is to create the voids between the cells for cool air to go through the voids and between the cells to cool the cells. Similar to the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,783 to Ogata et al., the battery pack taught by the Japanese publication No. JP2001-229897 is intended to define the voids between the cells thereby diminishing the packaging characteristics of the pack. [0015] Packaging of lithium battery cells is one of the areas of continuous development and research. Generally, the lithium battery cells packaged in a metallic case are known, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,406,815. These metallic cases have the advantage of protecting the cells from handling and vibration damage. They are also dimensionally consistent, allowing for combining of multiple cases into a single large pack as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,743. However, the metallic cases are expensive to manufacture and each different configuration requires new dies to produce the various components and new tools to assemble those components. Consequently, techniques and materials for enclosing lithium battery cells in envelopes creating lithium battery cell packs have been developed, one type of which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,908. Unfortunately, these packages do not provide structural rigidity or protection from handling and vibration nearly as well as the metallic cases, nor can they be combined into consistently sized groups of cells because of the inherent variation in the thickness of a lithium battery cell pack. [0016] Therefore, there remains an opportunity to improve upon the packs of lithium batteries of the prior art to increase the ambient temperature range at which the lithium battery operates and to provide a new battery pack with improved packaging and safety characteristics. [0017] Also, there remains an opportunity to maintain the battery pack at the optimal operating temperature to ensure the longest possible life cycle, rated capacity, and nominal charge and discharge rates. [0018] There is also an opportunity provide a new frame design that will present structural rigidity or protection from handling and vibration nearly as well as the metallic cases, as the cells are combined into consistently sized groups of cells or modules because of the inherent variation in the thickness of a lithium battery module or cell pack. Also there remains another opportunity to provide a solution that allows escape of gases away from the passenger compartment of the vehicle as pressure inside the battery pack exceeds the normal pressure thereby preventing escape of gases in to the compartment to eliminate potential risk and any unwanted hazardous events to driver and/or passengers. A battery assembly of the present disclosure is adaptable to be utilized in various configurations including and not limited to horizontally or vertically stacked battery cell packaging configurations used in an automotive vehicle. A plurality of battery modules are housed in a container, such as, for example, a dish or support tray which may include a cover. The container may be supported by a floor pan assembly or other part of the vehicle. The container presents a base and a plurality of side walls extending therefrom. At least one pressure release device is disposed in the base or walls for allowing fluid such as gas, to escape beyond the dish. The pressure release device may be, for example, a rupture element or disk formed by scoring or otherwise weakening areas of the container or a valve device. In one embodiment, a plurality Of rupture elements are disposed in the walls of the container. The rupture elements may present scoring lines that rupture under high pressure. As an alternative to the rupture elements, the battery assembly may include a valve device that would enable low pressure venting as well as emergency high pressure venting. In one embodiment, the valve device is disposed in the base of the container and is configured to selectively open and close an opening formed in the base of the container. In one embodiment, the valve device includes a closure plate with a seal or O-ring, a spring retainer portions of which extend across the opening in the base of the dish, a rod with a compression plate that is spaced opposite from the closure plate, and a spring or biasing element disposed between the closure plate and the compression plate and secured by the spring retainer. In one embodiment, the spring retainer is in the form of a cross and includes a core portion and, illustratively, at least four radial portions with each presenting a high pressure break feature. The valve device and rupture elements provide an over pressure relief system and act as “bursting elements”. The areas wherein the devices are disposed are designed to break open during an event which would cause the pressure within the battery pack to exceed specified limits. [0019] In one embodiment of the disclosed battery module, a potting material, such as for example, polyurethane, polyurethane foams, silicones or epoxies, is injected into the battery module placed in a case to at least partially or fully encapsulate the battery module and the corresponding cells thereby eliminating air gaps between the module and the case. The potting material also serves to prevent the electrode stack from shifting inside the cell packaging material during exposure to shock and vibration. The potting material also prevents the cell packaging from relaxing over time and allowing the electrolyte to settle into the base of the cell package and thus reducing the cell's electrical capacity. The potting/encapsulating material also prevents movement of the battery module within the battery pack case. A wrap blanket is disposed between the module and the potting material thereby providing “green” solution to allow the user to remove the module from the dish and service the module or simply to recycle the pack in a highly efficient fashion. [0020] An advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a solution that allows escape of gases away from the passenger compartment of the vehicle by placing pressure release elements in the dish, wherein the pressure release elements activate as pressure inside the pack exceeds the normal or predetermined pressure thereby preventing escape of gases in to the passenger compartment to eliminate potential risk and any unwanted hazardous events to driver and/or passengers. [0021] Still another advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a battery module having excellent retention that surrounds and secures the cells. [0022] Still another advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a battery module having excellent retention that surrounds and secures the electrode stack within the cell envelope from shifting. [0023] Still another advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a battery module encapsulated by the potting material which greatly reduces the potential permeation of liquids into the battery pack, or leakage from inside the battery module to the outside of the battery pack thereby preventing reduced product life or premature failures of the battery module. [0024] Still another advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a low mass design of a battery pack which includes polyurethane foam as a potential retention device, which is very competitive to that of traditional methods of retention, such as, for example, silicone or epoxy adhesives. [0025] Still another advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a packaging method which utilizes a case that houses the module and an encapsulant which locks the module in position and will allow the pack to be mounted in any orientation. [0026] Still another advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a battery pack that reduces manufacturing costs due to simplified assembly methods. [0027] Still another advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a pack that is simple in design and has a reduced mass. [0028] The disclosed battery assembly provides several advantages over the battery packs of the prior art by increasing an ambient temperature range at which the battery pack can operate. Also, the disclosed battery assembly helps maintain the battery pack at an optimal operating temperature to extend the life cycle of the battery pack, and to increase battery pack safety. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0029] Other advantages of the present disclosure will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein: [0030] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a battery pack assembly showing a dish and a cover with fluid inlets and outlets in which a plurality of battery sub-packs and other components are housed; [0031] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the battery assembly of FIG. 1 supported by a floor pan assembly of a vehicle; [0032] FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the longitudinal axis of the battery pack assembly supported by the floor pan assembly of the vehicle showing a valve acting as one embodiment of a high pressure release elements located in the base of the dish inside a central bridge formed to include a plenum allowing fluid such as air to be circulated through the battery pack assembly; [0033] FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view of the battery assembly of FIG. 1 with the cover removed showing the dish, battery sub-packs and other components; [0034] FIG. 5 is perspective view of the dish or support tray of FIG. 1 showing a plurality of pressure release elements in side walls of the dish; [0035] FIG. 6 is a perspective section view of the battery pack assembly of FIG. 1 with the cover removed showing a typical airflow path through the battery pack assembly and showing pressure release elements located on the base of the dish in the area inside the bridge; [0036] FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a valve assembly type of pressure release element with a spring retainer in the form of a spring retainer cross attached to the base of the dish across a hole formed through the base of the dish with the valve assembly being biased to normally close the hole formed through the base of the dish; [0037] FIG. 8A is a plan view of a retaining spring cross of one embodiment of the disclosed battery assembly attached to the base of the dish across a hole formed in the base of the dish with high pressure break features located at the periphery of the hole so that upon breakage portions of the retaining spring cross spanning the hole and the remainder of the valve assembly can be ejected from the battery assembly leaving a large opening for discharging fluid from the dish; [0038] FIG. 8B is a plan view of a retaining spring cross of one embodiment of the disclosed battery assembly integrally formed in the base of the dish having high pressure break features located so that upon breakage the retaining spring cross and the remainder of the valve assembly can be ejected from the battery assembly leaving a large opening for discharging fluid from the dish; [0039] FIG. 9 is a plan view of a burst element formed by scoring the base of the dish; [0040] FIGS. 10 A, B and C are various views of the air inlet and outlet formed in the dish for circulating air through the dish; [0041] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a heatsink element having a corrugated thermal fin extending from one edge of a sheet and an L-shaped thermal; [0042] FIG. 12 is a close up perspective view of a portion of the heatsink element of FIG. 11 ; [0043] FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a frame member utilized to secure components of the battery module together; [0044] FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the heatsink element of FIGS. 11 and 12 held within two frame members of FIG. 13 to form a heatsink assembly; [0045] FIG. 15 is a perspective view of a cells secured on opposite sides of the heatsink assembly of FIG. 14 by two frame members of FIG. 13 to form a cell assembly; [0046] FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a cover utilized to form a battery module; [0047] FIG. 17 is a perspective view of a battery module formed utilizing a plurality of cell assemblies of FIG. 15 and two covers of FIG. 16 ; [0048] FIG. 18 is an exploded view of an alternate heatsink assembly utilizing slight variants of the heatsink of FIG. 11 and the frame member FIG. 13 ; [0049] FIG. 19 is an exploded view of a cell assembly formed using the heatsink assembly of FIG. 18 and modified frame members of FIG. 18 ; [0050] FIG. 20 is an exploded view of an alternate battery module; [0051] FIG. 21 is an exploded view of a portion of a battery sub-pack; [0052] FIG. 22 is a perspective view of a portion of a battery sub-pack including a housing and two battery modules of FIG. 17 ; [0053] FIG. 23 is a perspective view of a battery sub-pack of FIG. 22 with a housing cover attached; [0054] FIG. 24 is a perspective view from a different perspective of the battery sub-pack of FIG. 23 ; [0055] FIG. 25 is a sectional view of the sub-pack of FIG. 23 showing potting material received in the housing and a wrap blanket disposed between the potting material and the battery modules; [0056] FIGS. 26 and 27 are perspective views with portions removed of the battery sub-pack of FIG. 23 and a connector and cable; and [0057] FIG. 28 is a perspective view with portions removed of the battery sub-pack of FIG. 23 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0058] Referring to the Figures, wherein like numerals indicate like or corresponding parts, a battery assembly or battery pack of the present disclosure is adaptable to be utilized in various configurations including and not limited to a horizontally or vertically stacked battery cell packaging configuration used in an automotive vehicle applications. The battery assembly or pack or battery pack assembly is generally shown at 10 in FIG. 1 . The battery assembly 10 includes a plurality of battery sub-packs, each generally shown at 12 in FIG. 1 . [0059] As best shown with reference to FIGS. 11-22 , each battery module 13 of each sub-pack 12 includes a plurality of cells 91 . Preferably, each cell 91 is a lithium ion cell without limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the battery art will appreciate that other cells can be utilized within the scope of the present disclosure. Each cell 91 includes a plurality of battery components (not shown) co-acting between one another with electrolyte therebetween as known to those skilled in the lithium battery art. [0060] According to one embodiment, the disclosed battery pack has a plurality of battery modules 13 each presenting a multitude of cells 91 each sandwiched by respective heatsinks 90 formed from thermally conductive materials such as, for example, flat stock aluminum alloy foils and the like, without limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Preferably, each cell 91 is a lithium ion cell having a first current collector and a first electrode adjacent the first current collector and a second current collector and a second electrode of charge opposite from the first electrode and adjacent the second current collector. A separator layer is positioned between the first and second electrodes with the first and second electrodes conducting electrolyte therebetween. The plurality of the first electrodes and the second electrodes are stacked and packaged into an electrical insulating envelope to form a cell 91 . The cell packaging includes side edges and terminal ends. Illustratively, one terminal end includes a first bend extending therefrom in a first direction. Another terminal end includes a second bend extending therefrom in a second direction opposite from the first direction. One example of such a construction is described more fully in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0090137, (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/748, 690 filed May 15, 2007), now U.S. Pat. No. 7,531,270, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference to the full extent permissible by law. [0061] The heatsink includes terminal ends, and top and bottom thermal transfer edges. The top and bottom thermal transfer edges may include a plurality of fins integral with and extending from the heatsink. The fins may be cold formed and are designed to transfer heat either to or from the cells 91 depending on application. A pair of electrically insulating spacer devices or ears are mechanically attached on each side of the heatsink. A plurality of studs are molded in to and extend from the spacer on one side of the heatsink, while a spacer without the plurality of studs but with relief for a sensor occupies the opposite side to form a heatsink assembly. The cell terminals are folded over the studs in an electrical series or electrical parallel configuration. The cells 91 are disposed between the heatsink assembly. Several examples of heatsinks that may be utilized within the teaching of this disclosure are described more fully in the above referenced U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0090137, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,531,270. [0062] In one embodiment of the disclosed battery assembly 10 , a plurality of flexible circuits are positioned over the studs for sensing voltage at every series connection. Integral sensors are positioned on the flexible circuit to provide temperature sensing. A nut with integral spring washer is threaded over each stud to provide for electrical conductivity and mechanical retention. Two end or compression plates 104 , 106 are attached to the heatsink assemblies aligned with one another with the cells 91 disposed therebetween. One example of such an assembly that may be utilized within the teaching of this disclosure is described more fully in the above referenced U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0090137, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,531,270. [0063] In one embodiment of the disclosed heatsink assemblies, illustratively at least four tie rods 110 extend peripherally through each of the heatsink assemblies and the compression plates 104 , 106 thereby placing the entire battery module 13 into a compressive state to promote shorter path length for ion conduction inside the cell 91 and improved thermal transfer of heat either to or from the heatsink 90 . [0064] As best shown in FIGS. 2-6 and 21 - 27 , the modules 13 may be enclosed in housings to form a plurality of battery sub-packs 12 which are housed in a container such as a dish or support tray, generally indicated at 14 . As best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 , the dish 14 is supported by a floor pan assembly 16 or other part of the vehicle (not shown). As best shown in FIGS. 3-5 , the dish 14 presents a base 18 and a plurality of side walls 20 , 22 , 24 , 26 extending therefrom. The side walls 20 , 22 , 24 , 26 may be generally perpendicular to the base 18 and may be slightly inclined without limiting the scope of the present disclosure. A peripheral lip 28 extends from each wall 20 , 22 , 24 , 26 . The walls 20 and 24 that extend parallel to a bridge, generally indicated at 30 , include a plurality of first locking elements 32 , such as scalloped cut out portions to receive a respective plurality of second locking elements 34 , such as tongs, extending from the sub-packs 12 , as shown in FIGS. 3 , 4 and 24 , thereby securing the modules 12 within the dish 14 in mechanical connection and preventing relative movement of the modules 12 inside the dish 14 . The type of the mechanical connection as illustrated herein is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. The walls 20 and 24 may also extend parallel to the bridge 30 . [0065] As shown for example, in FIG. 6 , a typical airflow for controlling the temperature of the disclosed battery assembly has air from an external source entering the interior of the housing formed from the dish 14 and cover 70 through the air inlet 74 in the direction of arrow 1 . This external source of air may in some embodiments be conditioned air from a vehicles air conditioning and heater system. In such a situation, the pressure relief devices 38 help to prevent gasses from the battery pack from entering into the passenger compartment of a vehicle via the vehicles air conditioning and heating system during a high pressure condition, such as resulting from an emergency situation in which a battery sub-pack 12 rupture, by providing an alternative path for exhausting the gasses. The air entering the interior of the battery pack 10 flows through a plenum formed in the bridge 30 then in the direction of arrow 2 through the ports 60 and tubular member 128 into the interior of each battery sub-pack 12 . In the interior of each sub-pack 12 the air flows in the direction of arrow 3 across the fins 94 of the heat transfer elements 90 . The air exits the interior of each battery sub-pack 12 in the direction of arrow 4 through the slot 126 formed in the housing cover 124 . The air then flows in the direction of arrow 5 across the exterior of the housing cover 124 of each sub-pack 12 so that it can be exhausted in the direction of arrow 6 through the outlet port 72 . [0066] A plurality of pressure release elements are disposed in the dish 14 for allowing fluid such as gas, to escape beyond the dish 14 . The pressure release elements may include rupture elements or disks 37 disposed in the walls 20 and 24 for allowing fluid such as gas, to escape beyond the dish 14 . The rupture elements 37 may present scoring lines formed in the wall of the dish in a circular pattern that rupture under high pressure to discharge a disk from the wall leaving an opening through which pressurized fluid may exit the dish. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 9 , the rupture element 37 may present scored lines in other shapes in the base 18 of the dish 14 , such as the illustrated X-shape, that burst open in high pressure situations creating and opening for discharging fluid. [0067] As an alternative to the rupture elements 37 , the pressure release elements of the disclosed battery assembly 10 may include a valve device 38 that acts as the pressure relief element, as shown in FIGS. 3 , 6 , 7 and 8 that would enable low pressure venting as well as emergency high pressure venting. As shown in FIG. 7 , rupture elements 37 and valve devices 38 may be used together within the scope of the disclosure. [0068] In one embodiment of the disclosed battery assembly 10 , the valve device 38 is disposed in the base 18 of the dish 14 to selectively open and close an opening 41 extending through the base 18 of the dish 14 and is biased to normally close the opening 41 . One embodiment of the valve device 38 includes and a closure plate 40 , illustratively in the form of a disk, with a seal or O-ring 42 , a spring retainer 43 extending across the opening 41 in the base 18 of the dish, a linkage member such as rod 44 with a compression plate 46 that is spaced opposite from the disk 40 , and a spring or biasing element 48 disposed between the plate 46 and the disk 40 and secured by the spring retainer 43 , as best shown in FIG. 7 . As shown for example in FIG. 8A , one embodiment of the spring retainer 43 may include a retainer spring cross mechanically engaged with the base 18 of the dish 14 . As shown for example, in FIG. 8B , one embodiment of the spring retainer 43 may be a retainer spring cross integrally formed in the base 18 of the dish 14 . As shown, in FIGS. 8A and B, the retainer spring cross 43 includes a core portion 47 formed to include a hole to allow rod 44 to pass therethrough and at least four radial portions 49 with each presenting a high pressure break feature 45 . Radially inwardly from each break feature 45 , each radial portion 49 is formed to include an upwardly extending spring retainer lip 51 . As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 , the break features 45 are positioned adjacent the walls of the opening 41 in the base of the dish 14 . The cross 43 holds the valve in place under normal low pressure situations but will break at the high pressure break features 45 under high pressure. Under normal operating pressure, the spring or biasing element 48 is located inside the dish 14 . Illustratively, the spring 48 , rod 44 and compression plate 46 are sized and the spring retainer lip 51 is positioned, so that upon rupture of the high pressure break features 45 in a high pressure situation, the valve assembly is at least substantially discharged from the dish 14 leaving a substantially unobstructed opening 41 for discharge of fluids. [0069] As shown, for example, in FIGS. 3 , 5 and 6 , a bridge 30 extends between the walls 22 and 26 of the dish 14 . The bridge 30 includes a top portion 50 and side walls 52 and 54 extending generally perpendicular to the side walls 20 and 24 . The bridge 30 divides the dish 14 into two sections 57 and 58 to house a plurality of the modules 13 which may be enclosed in cases or housings to form a plurality of battery sub-packs 12 . The side walls 52 and 54 present a plurality of slots 56 to provide fluid passage between the sections 58 and 57 to escape from the dish 14 . The valve devices 38 or rupture elements 37 will be disposed in the base 18 and between the side walls 52 and 54 extending from the walls 22 and 26 . The top portion 50 presents a plurality of ports 60 spaced from one another and extending in two rows from the walls 22 to wall 26 of the dish 14 . [0070] The valve devices 38 provide an over pressure relief system and act as “bursting elements”. The areas wherein the devices 38 and rupture elements 37 are disposed are designed to break open during an event which would cause the pressure within the battery pack 10 to exceed specified limits. [0071] In one embodiment of the disclosed battery assembly 10 , the ports 60 would fluidly communicate with each of the modules 12 as illustrated in FIG. 6 . First and second brackets 62 and 64 are integral with and extend from the walls 22 and 26 and aligned with the top portion 50 . The brackets 62 and 64 may present various designs as shown in FIGS. 2 and 6 or may be identical without limiting the scope of the present disclosure. A cover 70 is designed to enclose the dish 14 with the modules 12 disposed therein, as shown in FIGS. 1-3 The material of the dish 14 and the cover 70 is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In one embodiment of the disclosed battery assembly, both of the cover 70 and the dish 14 may be formed from metal and metal alloys, polymers, and combination thereof. [0072] FIG. 10A-C provides several views the first bracket 62 . Each bracket 62 and 64 includes airflow check valve features 72 and 74 connected to a respective biasing element 76 . Biasing elements 76 actuate the valve features 72 and 74 to open or close based on pack pressure. When cooling air is required, pressure from a fan system opens the inlet valve 72 . When the pressure is no longer present, the spring tension closes the valve 72 . If the pack 10 experiences internal overpressure, the inlet valve 72 will be closed and the exhaust valve 74 will be opened. The inlet valve 72 additionally serves to keep fumes and gases from a thermal event from entering the passenger compartment. [0073] FIGS. 11-20 include various illustrations of portions of a module 13 and subcomponents thereof, generally shown at 13 in FIGS. 17 and 20 - 21 . A thermally conductive plate, sheet, or foil 92 terminates to a first edge fin portion 94 presenting a corrugated configuration in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 11-17 and an open box configuration in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 18-21 . FIG. 12 shows the second edge fin portion 95 being planar in the form of a bend to provide a thermal interface plane for an external heating or cooling device including but not limited to heater blankets and/or cooling jacket. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous other shapes of the fin portion 94 can be utilized to provide better surface area for cooling or heating media, such as liquids, solids, or gasses, and the like, introduced to the fin portion 94 of each thermally conductive plate, sheet, or foil to either cool or to heat the cells of the battery module 13 of the sub-pack 12 without limiting the scope of the present disclosure. [0074] Alluding to the above, as shown, for example, in FIGS. 15 and 19 , a cell assembly 90 includes two sets of frames 96 and 98 . The first set of frames 96 , as shown, for example, in FIGS. 14 and 18 , presents a set of mechanical connections to secure the conductive plate, sheet, or foil 92 therebetween. The second set of frames 98 is used to secure the cells 91 attached to the opposite sides of the conductive plate, sheet, or foil 92 . [0075] As best illustrated in FIGS. 16 , 17 and 20 , a pair of compression plates, generally indicated at 104 and 106 , are designed to form terminal walls of each battery module 13 of each sub-pack 12 . A set of spaced holes 108 are defined in the compression plates 104 and 106 and also the cell assembly 90 to receive rods 110 extending through the compression plates 104 and 106 and the assembly 90 and are secured by fasteners 112 to apply pressure to the cells and to place the entire battery module 13 into a compressive state to promote a shorter path length for ionic conduction inside the cells 91 and improve heat transfer to the cell assemblies 90 . Alternatively, each compression plate 104 and 106 presents male and female features (not shown) that engage and retain adjacent assemblies 90 . A set of conical/countersink features may extend from the thermally conductive plate, sheet, or foil 92 . [0076] As best illustrated in FIGS. 21 and 22 , two battery modules 13 are assembled into a sub-pack 12 and then placed into a sub-pack housing 122 and enclosed by a housing cover 124 . The housing cover 124 includes a slot 126 exposed to the thermally conductive plate, sheet, or foil 92 and a tubular member 128 with each of them fluidly connected to the ports 60 . The first locking elements 32 and the second locking elements 34 , such as tongs, extending from the housing 122 , as shown in FIGS. 4 , 5 and 24 . The housing 122 and the housing cover 124 are formed from a polymer material or non-polymer material or combination thereof without limiting the scope of the present disclosure. [0077] During assembly, a blanket of material 148 is wrapped around portions of each assembled battery module 13 to form a wrap blanket 150 to allow for easy removal of the module 13 from potting material 152 disposed between the module and the housing 122 . For example, a laminar flow of a mixed two-part encapsulating solution or potting material 152 is poured or otherwise introduced into the sub-pack housing 122 of the sub-pack 12 . The abundance of surface area contact and excellent adhesion properties of the encapsulating solution to the wrap blanket partially encompassing each module 13 provides a significant mechanical advantage of retention versus traditional methods such as RTV. The expansion of the encapsulating solution also greatly enhances the structural integrity of the battery pack 10 with respect to shock, vibration, and crush loads. The encapsulating solution illustratively depicted in FIG. 25 at least partially encapsulates the battery module 13 , reducing air gaps between the module 13 and the case or housing 122 . [0078] Heat transfer coefficients are improved due to the elimination of associated insulation layers created by dead air gaps. The encapsulating solution shot size would be controlled not to allow it to rise over the heat sink fin 94 configuration for air cooled applications as shown in FIG. 25 . The encapsulating solution 152 also serves to prevent the electrode stack from shifting inside the cell packaging material during exposure to shock and vibration. The encapsulating solution 152 also prevents the cell packaging from relaxing over time and allowing the electrolyte to settle into the base of the cell package and thus reducing the cell 91 electrical capacity. In one embodiment, the a wrap blanket 150 is formed from a polymeric material. Other materials that will inhibit the encapsulating material from adhering directly to the module 13 may be utilized within the scope of the disclosure. The wrap blanket 150 is disposed between the module 13 and the encapsulating solution 148 thereby providing “green” solution to allow the user to remove the module 13 from the sub-pack 12 and from the dish 14 and service the module 13 or simply to recycle the pack 10 or individual sub-packs 12 in a highly efficient fashion. [0079] FIGS. 26-28 present a Radsok assembly as generally shown at 130 . Each module 13 of each sub-pack 12 includes a sub-pack terminal 132 to be cooperable with a cable 134 . A Radsok connector 136 presents a core member to securely connect the Radsok connector 136 with the terminal 132 . An over molded boot 138 formed from a polymeric material encapsulates the connector 136 and extends to the cable 134 . A plurality of anti-pullout ribs 140 extend from the boot 138 to secure the cable 134 to the sub-pack terminal 132 . Upon insertions, the ribs 140 collapse as they are inserted into an opening 125 extending through the housing cover 124 . [0080] The disclosed battery sub-pack 12 is configured so that the housing cover 124 is formed to include an opening 125 extending between an interior and an exterior of the housing. The battery module 13 received in the interior of the housing includes at least one sub-pack terminal 132 having a connector portion 133 configured to act as a first portion of a connector. The connector portion 133 of the sub-pack terminal 132 is disposed adjacent the opening 125 in the housing cover 124 . The Radsok connector 136 forms a second portion of the connector and is physically and electrically coupled to the cable 134 . The Radsok connector 136 is configured to cooperate with the connector portion 133 of the sub-pack terminal 132 to electrically couple the sub-pack terminal 132 to the cable 134 . [0081] The boot 138 encapsulates at least a portion of the Radsok connector 136 and is formed at least in part from a resilient electrical insulating material. During insertion of the boot 138 into the opening 125 , the ribs 140 move to permit the Radsok connector 136 to extend through the opening 125 to be connected to the connector portion 133 of the sub-pack terminal 132 . Upon connection of the Radsok connector 136 to the connector portion 133 , the ribs 140 of the boot 138 assume a configuration such that the boot 138 and the housing cooperate to inhibit physical disconnection of the Radsok connector 136 from the connector portion 133 . [0082] The pack 10 includes a pre-charge circuit, a short circuit protection, a current sensor, a power connector, a pair of power contactors, and a pair of power buss bars extending from each module of each sub-pack 12 and connected to the respective power contactors. Alluding to the above, the battery pack 10 further includes temperature sensors (not shown) disposed within the housing for sensing the temperature of the cells. The temperature sensors are electrically connected to the flexible circuit that receives the temperature from the temperature sensors and routes the data to the battery controller circuits. If the temperature exceeds set safe limits, the battery controller will shut down the entire battery pack 10 . [0083] Those skilled in the art may appreciate that the battery pack 10 may include multiple temperature sensors and multiple control circuits. In addition, the arrangement of the cells, cooling devices, heaters, if required, the temperature sensors, and the control circuits may be different than as shown in the figures or described. Furthermore, one temperature sensor may be used with multiple control circuits, or each control circuit may have its own temperature sensor. Each may be controlled by the control circuit, or each heater, if required, may be controlled by separate control circuits. [0084] One skilled in the art can appreciate that a lithium ion battery may only operate optimally within an ideal temperature range. When the ambient temperature is below 0° C., the performance of the cells 91 is greatly reduced. Therefore, the heater heats the battery module 13 to the optimal operating temperature, which allows the battery module 13 to be used when the ambient temperature is below 0° C. For instance, with the heater, the battery module may be used in ambient temperatures as low as −40° C. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the temperatures referenced are merely given as an example. Alternatively, the heater may be replaced by a water jacket devices (not shown) for cooling the co-planar interface surface for introducing cooling agent such as for example liquid, gas, or solids and the like to the heat sink assembly thereby cooling the cells. [0085] Alluding to the above other advantages of the present disclosure are shown. The battery pack 10 has very high energy density characteristics, wherein the high energy density is accomplished by assembling the cells, power and data bussing devices, the controllers, thermal management, and retention architecture in the small volume of space thereby improving packaging characteristics and providing a compact product. The battery pack 10 presents excellent retention methods that surrounds and secure the cells and present a cost effective design of the battery module 13 and sub-pack 12 . Another advantage of the present disclosure provides the battery module 13 is at least partially encapsulated by the potting material 152 , which greatly reduces the potential permeation of liquids into the battery module 13 , or leakage from inside the battery packs 10 to the outside of the battery pack 10 thereby preventing reduced product life or premature failures of the battery pack 10 . [0086] The disclosed battery pack provides other advantages over the prior art. The battery pack 10 has efficient packaging characteristics, which provide an excellent retention method that surrounds and secures the cells 91 , and the internal electrode stacks within the cells. Another advantage is the unique design of the battery pack 10 that provides improved adhesion and surface area contact between the blanket wrapped module and the housing of the battery sub-pack 12 and the encapsulant disposed therebetween and material density thereby providing the battery pack 10 with the structural integrity being superior to prior art battery packs using traditional retention methods. Still another advantage of the disclosed battery pack 10 is that the battery pack 10 has a chemical resistant design wherein the internal components of the battery pack 10 are encapsulated by the potting material 152 which greatly reduces the potential permeation of liquids into the battery pack 10 , or leakage from inside the battery pack 10 to the outside of the battery pack 10 thereby preventing reduced product life or premature failures of the battery pack 10 . [0087] While the invention has been described as an example embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

A battery module includes pressure release features ( 37, 38 ) for releasing excess pressure in a battery container, a wrap blanket ( 150 ) disposed between a module ( 13 ) and potting material ( 152 ) disposed in a case to secure modules ( 13 ) while allowing repair, replacement, recycling and/or reuse of modules ( 13 ) and a connector ( 130 ).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is related to medical technology for blood flow measurement, and in particular to a blood flow measurement device suitable for controlling the operation of a cardiac pacemaker. 2. Background and Prior Art Measurement of blood flow velocity can be undertaken transcutaneously (through the skin) or intraluminally (directly within the flow). The present invention relates to techniques for intraluminal flow measurements. Intraluminal flow measurement is needed in all invasive cardiovascular procedures, e.g., catheterization, pacemaker applications and cardiovascular surgery. Currently such measurements are undertaken using Doppler methods as well as by thermodilution techniques. Measurements using the Doppler effect function by means of transmission of ultrasound energy in the form of a pulse or a continuous wave into the blood stream, and detection of the Doppler frequency shift of the received, reflected waves. Techniques for undertaking measurements of this type are described in Yugoslavian pending patent application P1852/89, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,790,323, 4,771,787, 4,706,681, and 4,697,595, as well as in the paper "Properties of Ultrasound Catheters," B. Breyer and B. Ferik-Petric, in the book "Intracavitary Ultrasound" published by Kluwer, Inc., 1991, edited by N. Bom and N. Roelant. Using these known techniques, with appropriate frequency filtering, data is obtained regarding the flow in the volume within the field of view of the Doppler system, i.e., in the proximity of a catheter. The advantage of such ultrasound techniques is that it is a direct measurement of the flow, but disadvantages are the relatively high power consumption and sophisticated electronics which are necessary in such Doppler systems. Another method for bulk flow estimation is that of thermodilution, in which thermometers mounted on a catheter measure the rate of cooling of the blood stream after the injection into the stream of a liquid of a different temperature. The advantage of this method is its simplicity, but disadvantages are the relatively poor accuracy and the necessity of undertaking time averaging of the measurement. This method has been known in medical technology for over 20 years, and is the result of the state of electronics at the time of its development. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a new method for intraluminal blood flow velocity measurement which combines the advantages of the thermodilution method and the Doppler method, but avoids the disadvantages of those methods. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide such a method for intraluminal blood flow velocity method which has low power consumption, as in the thermodilution method, but has frequency handling capability comparable to the Doppler method. The method and apparatus disclosed herein are based on the physical principle of the fluid energy continuance described with Bernoulli equations. The method disclosed herein is mathematically equivalent to measurement by means of the Pitot method and Venturi tube, but the apparatus disclosed herein is technologically different. The apparatus disclosed herein is for the purpose of undertaking measurement of the blood flow in the vicinity of a catheter implanted in a blood vessel or the heart. The flow must be measured without introducing additional disturbances to the flow, and the measurement must be undertaken with a frequency spectrum which covers the relevant frequencies present in the flow. The power consumption must be low, and therefore the system must be passive, i.e., it should not transmit any energy into the body. The system must be small enough to be constructed on a catheter of 2.7 mm diameter or larger, and must be sufficiently rugged so as not to be damaged by implantation procedures using a standard venous introducer. The system proportions and dimensions should not degrade the catheter flexibility, and therefore the rugged section should not be longer than 1.5 cm. The system must be insensitive to changes in atmospheric or body pressure. The system cannot cause erythrocyte trauma, or thrombocyte reaction, nor can it cause cholesterol sedimentation. The objects are achieved in accordance with the principles of the present invention in a device for blood flow measurement in the vicinity of a catheter implanted within a vascular vessel or the heart which measures the flow velocity using the principles of hydrodynamics, i.e., events described by means of the Bernoulli equations. The device has two transducers mounted at the surface of a catheter, spaced from each other. One of the transducers has a protrusion from the catheter surface, which may be glued or otherwise fixed to the surface, in the shape of a hydrofoil profile (i.e., an underwater wing). The other transducer is generally in the form of a band surrounding the transducer, and presents a generally flat exterior surface to the blood flow. The transducer having the hydrofoil profile generates an electrical signal due to the surround quasi-static pressure acting on the transducer, as well as due to the drag force acting on the transducer caused by the blood flow. The other transducer generates an electrical signal solely due to the quasi-static pressure. The transducers can either be connected with opposite polarity, or their respective signals can be subtracted in a differential amplifier, so that a difference signal is obtained which represents the axial flow velocity. The system enables a real time flow velocity measurement by means of simple electronic circuits and with low energy consumption in comparison to known methods. Because the system can be easily implemented on a catheter, it is suited for implantation as part of a cardiac pacemaker system, with the flow velocity measurement obtained by the system being used, as needed, to control the operation of the pacemaker. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cardiac pacemaker lead embodying a hydrodynamic system for blood flow measurement constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged, detailed perspective view of the portion of the catheter of FIG. 1 embodying the hydrodynamic system for blood flow measurement constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a longitudinal cross section of the portion of the catheter shown in FIG. 2, in a first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a longitudinal cross section of the portion of the catheter shown in FIG. 2 in a second embodiment. FIG. 5 is a transverse cross section taken along line V--V of FIG. 3. FIG. 6 is an enlarged detailed view of the portion of the catheter shown in FIG. 1 embodying the hydrodynamic system for blood flow measurement constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention, in a further embodiment. FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram of a circuit for obtaining a signal corresponding to blood flow from the two transducers in accordance with the principles of the present invention, in a first embodiment. FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram of a circuit for obtaining a signal corresponding to blood flow from the two transducers in accordance with the principles of the present invention, in a second embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The hydrodynamic system for blood flow measurement disclosed herein is based on the solution of the hydrodynamic problem using the Bernoulli equation. Two sets of piezoelectric transducers are mounted on an intraluminal device, such as a catheter, at a small distance from each other, e.g. 1 cm. One transducer set, referred to as the static set or static transducer, is mounted on the catheter in a manner so as not to disturb the flow and stream around the catheter. It is covered with a flexible insulating and waterproof membrane having a thickness of less than 0.1 mm. This transducer set is therefore exposed to the pressure of the surrounding liquid. A further transducer set, referred to as the dynamic set or the dynamic transducer, is also mounted on the exterior of the catheter, in a manner similar to the static set, but has an outer protrusion consisting of plastic material having a cross section in the shape of a laminar flow hydrofoil or airfoil (e.g. NACA 4512), which increases the flow velocity in the immediate vicinity of this transducer set, thereby inducing a lift force as predicted by the Bernoulli equation. This lift force and the associated induced drag force are proportional to the square of the fluid velocity. The sensitivity of the dynamic transducer set to hydrostatic pressure is equal to that of the static transducer set. In order to cancel the influence of the static pressure, which is much larger than the hydrofoil lift, the transducer sets can be connected with opposite polarities, as shown in FIG. 3, or can be connected independently as shown in FIG. 4, in which case the respective transducer signals are subtracted in a differential amplifier. Mounting of the measurement system on a standard catheter is shown in FIG. 1, with further details of the measurement system in different embodiments being shown in FIGS. 2 through 6. As shown in FIG. 1, two sets 2 and 3 of piezoelectric transducers are mounted on a catheter 1. The portion of the catheter 1 on which the transducer sets 2 and 3 are mounted is reinforced with metal or a reinforcing plastic tube (formed by conductive plastic). As shown in greater detail in other figures, the transducer set 2 has a hydrofoil profile mounted thereon and is thus referred to as the dynamic transducer set. The transducer set 3 is the static transducer set. The transducers are connected to electrical connector assembly 5, 6 and 7 via internal electrical conductors (not shown), shown in greater detail in other figures. The conductors (not shown) carry the measurement electrical signals as well as electrical stimulation signals, which are delivered at an exposed, electrically conductive electrode tip 8, being electrically connected to the pin 6 of connector assembly. The electrode tip 8 is anchored in contact with the endocardium by fins 9 or some other anchoring means. Centralizing means enables positioning of transducer sets apart from the wall of a blood vessel, when system is used in a great cardiac vessel. A detailed, enlarged showing of the measurement transducer assembly, in a first embodiment, is shown in FIG. 2. The two transducer sets are mounted on a reinforcing tube 10 made of plastic or metal and having a size which fits into the catheter 1. Each transducer set consists of a number of piezoelectric cylindrical segments which are conductively glued or soldered to the reinforcing tube 10, so that the device is axially symmetrical. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, each transducer set consists of two such segments, the static set being formed by piezoelectric segments 11 and 12 and the dynamic set being formed by piezoelectric segments 13 and 14. All properties for any one of the segments of the transducers are the same for the other segments. On the respective outer and inner sides of the transducers are thin, fired-on electrodes. The piezoelectric segment 11 has an exterior electrode 15 and the piezoelectric segment 12 has an exterior electrode 16, the respective inner electrodes not being visible in FIG. 2. The static transducer set has a flat exterior profile, and is covered only with an insulating membrane (not shown). The dynamic transducer set also has inner and outer electrodes, however, the outer electrodes for that set cannot be seen in FIG. 2 because the piezoelectric segments 13 and 14 are covered by a hydrofoil element 17. The hydrofoil element 17 is glued to the exterior of the piezoelectric segments 13 and 14. Both sets of transducers will thus be acted upon by quasi-static pressures which are respectively substantially the same, however, the dynamic transducer set will additionally be subjected to drag forces caused by the hydrofoil element 17. The difference between the total electrical signal output of the transducer sets will therefore correspond only to the drag forces, which in turn correspond to the flow velocity. For this purpose, electrical connections are provided, which in the embodiment of FIG. 2 are formed by conductors 18 and 19 which conduct the output signals from the piezoelectric segments into the catheter body where they are connected to respective internal conductors 20 and 21. The electrical connection to the respective exterior electrodes of the transducer segments are in the embodiment of FIG. 2 achieved by elastic conductive rings 22, the ring 22 for the static transducer set being visible in FIG. 2, with the other ring for the dynamic transducer set being covered by the hydrofoil element 17. The electrical connection to the inner transducer electrodes is achieved by the conductive reinforcing tube 10. A longitudinal section of the catheter portion of FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. 3. This is a so-called self-compensating measurement system embodiment. The insulating covering of the catheter (pacing lead) 1 holds the reinforcing tube 10. Identical piezoelectric transducer segments 31, 32, 33 and 34 are shown, the segments 31 and 32 forming the static set and the segments 33 and 34 forming the dynamic set. These segments have respective fired-on inner sheath electrodes 35, 36, 37 and 38, and respective outer fired-on electrodes 39, 40, 41 and 42. There may be three or four transducer segments per transducer set, which cannot be seen in a longitudinal section, but will be arranged with axial symmetry on the device. The respective inner sheath electrodes 35 and 36 are conductively glued or soldered at 43 and 44 to the conductive reinforcing tube 10. The outer electrodes of all of the piezoelectric segments in a set are electrically connected with elastic conductors, i.e., an elastic conductive ring 45 for the static set containing segments 31 and 32 and an elastic ring 46 for the dynamic transducer set containing segments 33 and 34. The elastic conductive rings 45 and 46 are connected by gluing or soldering at 47 and 48 to respective conductors 49 and 50, which conduct the output signals from the piezoelectric segments to one or more remotely located electronic circuits. One or more further conductors, such as conductor 51, may be present as well inside the catheter 1 for other purposes, such as supplying stimulation pulses for pacing. The dynamic set of transducers has hydrofoil profiles or protrusions 52 and 53, such as an NACA 4512 or Goettingen laminar profile. The profiles 52 and 53 cause a difference in the total output signals of the two transducer sets, i.e., the difference between the signals conducted by conductors 49 and 50, which is proportional to the square of the axial flow velocity. A longitudinal cross section of a further embodiment, which is not self-compensating is shown in FIG. 4. This embodiment differs from the embodiment in FIG. 3 primarily in the different manner of electrical connections. Structural components which are the same as in the embodiment of FIG. 3 are provided with the same reference numerals in FIG. 4. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, a conductor 56 is soldered or conductively glued at 55 to the reinforcing tube 10. This results in three conductors 49, 50 and 56 which conduct the transducer signals to the remote electronics. The electrical signals in this embodiment are thus independent, and can be combined as desired in the remote electronic circuits, such as are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. Further details of the structure are shown in FIG. 5 which is a transverse cross section through the static transducer set in the embodiment of FIG. 3. The lumen of the catheter or pacing lead 1 can accommodate all of the necessary conductors, which are omitted for clarity in FIG. 5. In the cross-sectional view of FIG. 5, a further transducer segment 61 can be seen, which was not visible in the longitudinal section of FIG. 3. The piezoelectric transducer segments 31, 32 and 61 are independently mechanically glued at 43 to the reinforcing tubing 10. Their respective inner electrodes 35, 36 and 65 are electrically connected together by the conducting reinforcing tube 10. Their external electrodes 39, 40 and 69 are electrically connected together by the elastic conductive ring 45. The conductive ring 45 may be formed, for example, by metallized plastic foil less than 10 mm thick, however, in FIG. 5 the ring 45 is shown with an enlarged thickness for clarity. The hydrofoil projection glued to the dynamic transducer set is segmented in the same manner as the transducer segments. In all embodiments, the number of segments is two or more. A further embodiment of the electrical connection of the transducer segments is shown in FIG. 6, which makes use of interconnecting bridges 101 and 102 instead of the conducting ring. The bridges 101 and 102 may consist of braided wire or strip. Because of the perspective view, only two such bridges can be seen in FIG. 6, however, it will be understood that all of the piezoelectric transducer segments are connected by means of such bridges. Two embodiments of the electronics portion of the measurement system are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. In both embodiments, signals generated by the transducer sets 2 and 3 are supplied to the respective inputs of a differential amplifier 401. The circuit in FIG. 7A is for use with a conductor arrangement for the transducer sets as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 3, whereas the circuit shown in FIG. 7B is for use with a conductor arrangement as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 4. In the embodiment of FIG. 7A, the static signals from the two transducer sets 2 and 3 are cancelled within the catheter, by virtue of connection with opposite polarity to the respective transducers, so that only the difference between those signal is supplied to the amplifier 401. In the embodiment of FIG. 7B, the static component of the respective signals from the transducer sets 2 and 3 is subtracted within the amplifier 401. The amplifier 401 is a stable operational amplifier of the type well-known in the electronics art. The output signal of the amplifier 401 is supplied to further signal processing circuitry, generally shown at 402, which may include filtering and analog-to-digital conversion, in order to extract the required information for a particular use by any number of known techniques. Although modifications and changes may be suggested by those skilled in the art, it is the intention of the inventors to embody within the patent warranted hereon all changes and modifications as reasonably and properly come within the scope of their contribution to the art.

A device for measuring blood flow in the vicinity of a catheter implanted within the vascular vessel or the heart uses hydrodynamic principles. The device has two transducers mounted at the exterior surface of the catheter spaced from each other. One of the transducers has a protrusion in the form of a hydrofoil profile, and the other transducer presents a substantially flat surface at the exterior of the catheter. The transducer having the hydrofoil profile generates a signal due to the quasi-static pressure acting on the transducer as well as due to the drag force acting on the transducer caused by the blood flow. The other transducer generates a signal solely due to the quasi-static pressure. The transducers can either be connected with opposite polarity, or their respective signals can be subtracted in a differential amplifier, so that a signal proportional to the axial flow velocity is obtained.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority from provisional patent application, Ser. No. 60/047,982, filed on May 28, 1997. FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the general area of remote site blood sample collection for medical diagnostic tests. More specifically, the invention relates to medical diagnostic tests using filter paper to collect the blood sample. DISCUSSION OF THE RELEVANT ART Historically, blood samples have been drawn from a patient in a hospital or physician's office using an evacuated test-tube to collect blood from a venipuncture by a physician, nurse, or other medical professional. Alternatively, a method for sampling of blood at a site remote from the hospital, physician's office, or laboratory has developed over the years where a small amount of blood may be obtained from a fingerstick and the blood can be absorbed onto filter paper to collect the sample. This is known in the art as a “dry” technique, as opposed to a “wet” remote site sampling technique that involves collection of a blood sample in a capillary tube. Dry remote site blood spot sampling had its beginning in the 1960's with the use of filter paper to gather blood spot samples from neonates for use in the determination of the presence of phenylketones (Guthrie, et al., [1963] Pediatrics 32(3): 338-343). Since that time, a number of products have been introduced that are designed to facilitate remote site sample collection and transport of the sample to a laboratory for analysis. The availability of remote site blood collection such that the collected sample can be transported to a laboratory for analysis has been very successful in monitoring blood components of diabetics. Diabetes is a chronic and serious disease which affects over 100 million individuals worldwide. In the United States, there are 8 million diagnosed cases of diabetes, with an estimated 8 million cases undiagnosed. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, stroke, kidney failure, and amputations in the U.S. Because a person with diabetes is ten (10) times more likely to require hospitalization than the general population, the direct and indirect medical costs for treating diabetes have been estimated to exceed $105 billion annually. This total equals 14.6% of total U.S. health care expenditures being consumed by 3% of the population. In about 1980, Schleicher and Schuell Corp. (S&S) began producing a filter paper attachable to a test request form (designed to order). In using the S&S system, a blood spot is placed in one or more designated areas of the filter paper, allowed to dry, and then mailed along with the test request form to the laboratory. Eross, et al. introduced the use of filter paper spots for the gathering of blood spot samples for the measurement of glycohemoglobin. Eross, et al. (1984) Ann. Clin. Biochem. 21: 477-483. In 1986 Little, et al. reported on the use of filter paper blood spotting for measuring glycohemoglobin by affinity chromatography (Little, et al., [1986] Clin. Chem. 32(5): 869-871). Measurement of glycosylated hemoglobin (glycohemoglobin) or a component thereof, e.g., HbA1c, is extremely important in metabolic control of diabetics. Using the Little technology, Evalu-lab, a subsidiary of Awareness Technology, produced a product, Self-Assure™ (now owned by FlexSite Diagnostics), between 1987 and 1992 which gathered a blood spot sample on filter paper for glycohemoglobin or HbA1c determination. The blotting material used in these assays was a glucose oxidase-treated filter paper. The methods and materials in this art have been the subject of many patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,487, which describes the use of various antibiotics or preservatives in combination with a cotton fiber filter paper, as well as the use of multiple application zones on the filter paper which are isolated from each other by perforations in the filter paper; U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,200, which describes the use of S&S 903 and S&S 470 filter papers in a complex integrated analytical system and measurement of chemical reactions on the filter paper matrix; U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,097, concerning digestion of the filter paper with cellulase so that recovery of intact cells can be achieved; U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,953, which concerns measurement of a heavy metal (e.g., lead) from blood samples collected on filter paper; U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,267, which describes preservation of blood samples collected on various filter matrices for glucose analysis; U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,224, which is directed to a multiple layer device for separating plasma or serum from a blood sample collected for glucose analysis; U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,812, pertaining to an improved thyroid function (T4) test; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,249, which primarily concerns a drying procedure and its effect on the results of an assay measuring somatomedin. The disclosures of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference. Other patents describing the use of certain blotting materials used in biological assay methods include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,496,626; 5,460,057; 5,415,758; 4,790,797; and 4,774,192. None of the above-referenced patents relate to the use of blotting materials used in association with a standard assay for hemoglobin (Hb) or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) or describe superior performance of the Hb or HbA1c assay by use of those materials. In about 1992, Bio-Rad introduced a 100 test kit (wet samples) to facilitate the collection of capillary samples for analysis on their Diamat™ HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) system. Eli Lilly subsequently packaged a one test version of this kit as a promotional tool for their insulin products. In Sweden about 1994 Boehringer Mannheim Corp. (BMC) introduced a mail-in, filter paper based (“dry”) blood spot kit under the name of “Via Post™” for HbA1c measurement. This BMC kit was evaluated by Jeppsson, et al. (Diabetes Care 19(2): pp. 142-145). BMC also introduced a “wet” capillary HbA1c kit for analysis on a Bio-Rad HPLC in 1995, and in 1996 introduced a screen material for blood spot sampling for analysis with their TinaQuant™ method for Hemoglobin A1c (Niederau, et al. [1996] Clin. Chem. 42(6): 167). Little, et al. ([1996] Clin. Chem. 42(6): 193) evaluated the use of filter paper for HbA1c sample collection with analysis by HPLC and by the Roche Unimate™ method Voss, et al. evaluated capillary collection systems for HbA1c analyses. Diabetes Care (1992) 15: 700. Historically, the most commonly used material for these assays has been S&S 903, a cotton linter paper. However, certain disadvantages have been associated with the S&S 903 paper and its equivalents available from other manufacturers, e.g., Whatman. Specifically, certain of these commercially available and commonly used materials lack characteristics which provide precision values and accuracy that is preferred for carrying out a commercially superior HbA1c assay. Measurement of HbA1c, unlike blood glucose monitoring which provides an individual with their glucose value at that instant, measures the degree of diabetes control over the last 2-3 month period. In doing so, HbA1c monitoring provides the health care professional and patient a critical tool to determine the effectiveness of the patient's therapy and/or the patient's overall compliance. Albeit recognized that HbA1c monitoring is beneficial, it is estimated that fewer than 16% of the 8 million individuals with diabetes have an A1c test annually, less than 10% have the test performed on a quarterly basis as recommended. The primary reasons for this is that a majority of patients with diabetes are treated by primary care physicians who are not current on the benefits of intensive therapy and HbA1c monitoring. Also, A1c testing has historically been an expensive laboratory test which required a blood draw by venipuncture which is poorly tolerated by both young and older patients. Thus, discovery of unexpectedly improved or superior Hb or HbA1c assay results using materials that are commercially available and presumed to provide only equivalent results adds significantly to this art by improving the accuracy of detection of the blood components of interest. Improved accuracy of detection can contribute to more precise monitoring and overall better health care and quality of life for the patients who may rely on these assays to monitor glycohemoglobin. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to provide an improved assay for measuring or detecting a component of interest in a biological fluid, e.g., blood. It is another object of the invention to provide an improved assay method or an article of manufacture for detecting or measuring hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in a biological fluid. It is a further object of the invention to provide a kit having particular unexpected advantages for measuring or detecting a component of interest in a biological sample, e.g., HbA1c in blood. The subject invention thus concerns a system which can provide an improvement, e.g., superior performance, in a standard assay for measuring HbA1c. Specifically, the improved performance results from the utilization as a blotting material of a particular membrane or filter product made from natural or synthetic materials or composites. The material selected for use in accordance with the subject invention, e.g., the cellulose filter paper, Ahlstrom 319, which is commercially available, advantageously exploits one or more properties that can give improved performance characteristics such as assay precision, sample stability, accuracy of quantitative or qualitative detection, ease of sample handling, and the like. Certain materials according to the subject invention can provide improved precision or other advantages as compared to the commonly used S&S 903 cellulose filter paper as a blotting material. Improved precision or other such performance characteristics can result in superior product performance. Improving the procedure of measuring or detecting HbA1c so that the precision of the HbA1c assay has a within-run precision coefficient of variation (CV) less than 2%, as provided by the subject invention, can be commercially significant and advantageous. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The subject invention concerns an advantageous system for detecting or measuring a component of interest in a biological sample. For example, the system according to the instant invention includes the use of a particular blotting material for collection of a blood specimen for assaying the presence or amount of a component that is present in or absent from the blood of a patient being tested for that component. In a preferred embodiment, the invention concerns the use of a particular blotting or “blood spotting” material in a method article of manufacture, or kit for determining concentrations of hemoglobin A1c in the blood of a patient. In a most preferred embodiment, the blotting material comprises a single layer of material. A plurality of distinct layers of materials can also be used in accordance with the subject invention. For example, certain laminations can be included to achieve separation of certain components, e.g., red blood cells, in a blood sample. Certain properties or characteristics of the blotting materials have shown unexpected improvements in biological assays as compared to commonly used blotting materials, e.g. S&S 903. The advantageous properties include: ability to absorb blood quickly and neatly, release of protein readily during elution, reproducibility of protein elution, spot diameter, spot appearance, wet strength, and ability to be punched, or “punchability”. Several categories of blotting materials for blood specimen collection are available. These include: cellulose (wood or cotton derived), glass fiber, glass fiber/cellulose composites, nylon, modified polyester, polypropylene, nitrocellulose, modified polyethersulfone, polyvinylidene fluoride, modified natural and synthetic fibers, laminated materials, and screens. From more than 100 materials evaluated with regard to their properties for blood spot collection and recovery, we have discovered that the use of certain membranes or filter materials as a blotting material for gathering, storing and/or transporting a physiological fluid, e.g., blood, can facilitate or improve the capabilities of measuring hemoglobin (Hb) or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). One requirement for a material that can be used in accordance with the subject invention is its ability to absorb blood readily and quickly. Many of the materials examined do not. A second property of a material used in accordance with the subject invention is its ability to release the components of interest, e.g., hemoglobin and hemoglobin A1c, that has been absorbed into or onto the blotting material. In a preferred embodiment, the material used can release the component of interest efficiently and precisely. That is, the material itself should minimally affect measurement or detection of the component of interest. In general, the better the precision of the hemoglobin elution, the better the precision of the HbA1c measurement. Thus the most favorable materials provide high Hb recovery, low coefficient of variation (CV) for Hb precision, and low coefficient of variation (CV) for HbA1c precision. One preferred material is a cellulose (cotton fiber) filter paper, Ahlstrom 319, which has a low precision characteristic and a low CV for the hemoglobin measurement. It also gives a spot with a good appearance and is easy to punch after drying. The hemoglobin recovery is relatively low compared with other cotton fiber filter papers, but this does not seem to hurt the performance in the critical area of precision of HbA1c measurement. Another preferred material is Ahlstrom 205. Its performance mirrors that of Ahlstrom 319 and can give slightly higher hemoglobin recovery than Ahlstrom 319. It would be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the blotting material can be treated, e.g., with enzymes, enzyme inhibitors, or other chemicals, to achieve certain results in accordance with the assay being conducted. Both of these filter materials, Ahlstrom 319 and Ahistrom 205 are commercially available from Ahlstrom Filtration, Inc., Mt. Holly Springs, Pa. In one embodiment of the invention, the blotting material can be included as part of a kit for remote site blood sampling. The kit can comprise a blotting material having at least one designated area for placing a blood drop, a sterile lancet commonly used for obtaining a finger prick blood sample, instructions for use of the kit, and a sealable container, e.g., a plastic bag suitable for containing a biological sample. The preferred embodiment of the kit of the subject invention can include Ahlstrom 319 or Ahlstrom 205 as the blotting material. The kit can further comprise a return mailer, with instructions for transmitting the sample to the laboratory for analysis. Other components, as would be readily recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art, can also be included as part of the kit. Following are examples which illustrate procedures for practicing the invention. These examples should not be construed as limiting. All percentages are by weight and all solvent mixture proportions are by volume unless otherwise noted. Example 1—Precision of S&S 903 filter paper: Spot-to-spot precision of S&S 903 paper was determined by spotting five spots of EDTA antimicrobial-coagulated blood from three patients (low, medium, or high percent of HbA1c) on cards made of the blotting material of interest, drying overnight, placing the cards in plastic bags and storing at room temperature, eluting the spots on the day noted and assaying the eluate on the Roche Cobas Mira to determined HbA1c percentage in the blood of the patient. The results are shown below in Table 1. TABLE 1 SPOT-TO-SPOT PRECISION OF PERCENTAGE OF HbA1c MEASUREMENTS USING S & S 903 Sample Result 1 2 3 4 5 Mean s.d. CV % Low day 2 6.5 6.9 6.9 6.9 6.6 6.5 0.17 2.6 (5-7% HbA1c) day 4 6.7 6.4 6.5 6.4 6.6 6.5 0.12 1.8 day 6 6.6 6.4 6.7 6.4 6.3 6.5 0.15 2.3 day 9 6.5 6.4 6.4 6.4 6.9 6.5 0.19 3.0 day 11 6.6 6.4 6.5 6.4 6.6 6.5 0.09 1.4 Medium day 2 8.5 8.0 8.6 8.7 8.4 8.4 0.24 2.9 (7-9% HbA1c) day 4 8.3 8.0 8.3 8.2 8.8 8.3 0.26 3.2 day 6 8.0 7.8 7.9 8.4 8.0 8.0 0.20 2.5 day 9 8.0 8.6 8.5 8.0 8.6 8.3 0.37 4.3 day 11 8.1 8.6 8.2 8.7 8.3 8.4 0.23 2.8 High day 2 12.4 12.6 12.0 12.4 12.5 12.4 0.20 1.7 (10-15% HbA1c) day 4 12.4 12.9 12.7 12.7 12.4 12.6 0.19 1.5 day 6 12.1 12.7 12.8 13.0 12.6 12.6 0.30 2.4 day 9 13.2 12.8 13.3 12.6 13.0 13.0 0.26 2.0 day 11 13.3 12.9 13.8 13.2 13.6 13.6 0.31 2.4 The median coefficient of variation (CV), which is a measurement of precision of the assay, is at least about 2.5% for measurement of HbA1c using S&S 903 filter paper as a blotting material. However, the range of CV's is 1.4-4.5% more than 46% of all runs have a CV in excess of 2.5%. These precision values were measured at HbA1c levels in the normally encountered range (typically 5-15% HbA1c). Example 2—Properties of other blotting materials: While S&S 903 has been utilized rather extensively for many years as a means to gather and transport blood samples, we have discovered certain materials which offer better performance in one or more properties. The precision of the materials studied for better performance was also determined by measuring the spot-to-spot variability of five spots. The reproducibility of the performance of a given material was determined by repeating a precision study several times (typically 5 or more) over a period of several days. The other properties of interest were recorded during the precision studies. Several materials have been found which advantageously have precision coefficients of variation (CV), at most below about 2.5%, and advantageously consistently below 2%. Each of the materials has the ability to readily absorb blood from a fingerstick. Table 2, below, lists the materials with performance superior to that of S&S 903. TABLE 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF PREFERRED MATERIALS Hb HbA1c Precision Punch- Mfr Material Composit'n Hb CV % CV % Appearance ability S & S 470 Cellulose 210 5 1.9, 2.2, 2.5, 2.6, 0.9 Good Good S & S 740E Cellulose 250 8 2.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.9, 2.3 Good Good Whatman C/DE 30 Cellulose 210 4 2.1, 2.2, 1.2, 1.5, 2.0 Good Good Whatman 3MMchr Cellulose 235 4 1.5, 2.1, 1.5 Good Good Whatman C-5031 Cellulose 260 4 0.8, 1.5, 1.1, 2.1 Good Good Ahlstrom 205 Cellulose 200 5 0.9, 1.1, 1.4, 1.0 Good Good Ahlstrom 319 Cellulose 150 3 1.3, 1.4, 0.9, 1.9, 1.7 Good Good Pail Hemsep-L Modified 160 5 2.0, 1.3, 2.5, 2.8 Good Hard Polyester Pail Loprosorb Modified 320 8 2.1, 0.9, 1.1, 2.3 Irreg Hard Fiber The Hb and Hb CV values are approximate averages. Precision values are determined from five replicate spots of 20 microliters of blood applied to the material with a pipet. All of the materials listed in Table 2 give precision performance superior to that of S&S 903 in the experiments performed. However, in combination with the other properties certain of the materials are superior in overall performance. For example, a cellulose blotting material sold as Ahlstrom 319 has a low precision characteristic and the lowest CV for hemoglobin measurement of the cellulose tested. These characteristics can provide a technical and commercial advantage for HbA1c determinations by maintaining an HbA1c precision value consistently at 2.0% or below.

For blood or other physiological fluid sample collection kits that use filter paper to collect the sample, the performance of the kit and associated analytical method can be improved by using a material having properties which are superior to those of standard filter paper or modified filter paper routinely used in standard biological assays. Certain materials currently available for uses other than blood collection, storage, or transport have properties that are advantageous as employed in assays of biological fluids, including the use of specific cellulose blotting materials for collecting blood samples for hemoglobin or hemoglobin A1c monitoring.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a new coupling method for the post-synthetic modification of nucleic acids by combining aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reactions and azide-alkyne cycloaddition reactions. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Extensive research has been devoted to exploring the therapeutic potential of nucleic acids, including small interfering (siRNA), microRNA (miRNA), catalytic RNA (ribozymes), aptamer oligonucleotides (oligonucleotides with exquisite roles similar to protein receptors), and antisense oligonucleotides. Theoretically, when designed appropriately, nucleic acids delivered into biological systems will participate in cellular activities, such as RNA interference or gene silencing, to abolish specific gene expression in cells and to attain more precise therapeutic targeting than typical small molecule drugs. Nucleic acid-based therapeutics have shown promise for treating a variety of human genetic diseases and microbial infections. Recent progress has resulted in some antisense oligonucleotides and aptamer RNA reaching clinical applications, while a significant number of clinical trials for siRNA are underway. [0003] The direct use of nucleic acids for treating diseases, however, faces serious hurdles. Difficulties include cell specificity, inefficient cellular uptake of nucleic acids, and inaccessibility of nucleic acids to cell nuclei, due primarily to ineffective translocation of nucleic acids across biological barriers after administration. Consequently, successful use of nucleic acids in clinical practice will not be achieved until there are better strategies for targeted and efficient delivery of nucleic acids to cells and tissues. The critical issue of efficient target delivery for nucleic acids has been studied by many laboratories through chemical modification of nucleic acids to improve stability and cellular delivery properties of nucleic acids in vivo. [0004] Developed methods include conjugating cellular surface receptor-specific ligands with various nucleic acid-containing nanocarriers or covalently linking cellular surface receptor-specific ligands with nucleic acids directly. [0005] The use of peptides as ligands to traffic nucleic acids across the plasma membrane has been extensively investigated in the development of effective nucleic acid-based therapeutic agents. Conjugating nucleic acids such as oligonucleotides with cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) or cell-targeting peptides (CTPs) to acquire peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates (POCs) has created appropriate designs to circumvent cellular delivery or cell specificity problems inherited from administrating only oligonucleotides in clinics. CPPs, including the Tat, the Antennapedia, the CyLoP-1 (a cysteine-rich CPP), and the (KFF) 3 K peptides, are either protein-derived or artificially developed short sequences (10-16 amino acids), and they are able to spontaneously cross cellular barriers when provided in extracellular media. The unique cell permeability properties of CPPs significantly improve the uptake efficiency of oligonucleotides in POCs by cells and facilitate broader uses of POCs in science and medicine. [0006] POCs are primarily prepared by coupling peptides with oligonucleotides after solid-phase synthesis (fragment coupling strategy) or directly synthesized through stepwise solid-phase reactions (online solid-phase synthesis). To achieve peptide-oligonucleotide conjugations, current POC synthesis methods typically require previous incorporations of additional functionalities in peptides, oligonucleotides, or both. The requirement to have additional functional groups renders these methods inefficient, inconvenient, and not cost-effective for academia or industry. The development of a facile approach to exploit readily available functionalities, such as hydroxyl or phosphate groups, in standard oligonucleotides in order to synthesize POCs with high purity and yields is crucial to the advancement of POC applications. [0007] Regioselective modifications of biomolecules with tags, probes or other biological molecules have been a critical tool which significantly advanced biomolecular studies for fundamental research and clinical application. In nucleic acids, site-specific modifications of smaller DNA/RNA such as oligonucleotides can be achieved through phosphoramidite chemistry to link predefined chemical moieties to positions in specific nucleotides during solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis. However, the solid-phase chemistry approach for regioselective modifications of oligonucleotides suffers from inherited drawbacks including limits on the length of synthesized oligonucleotides and on the variety of their incorporated chemical functionality. [0008] To complement the shortcomings of solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis, many site-specific post-synthetic modification methods for nucleic acids have been studied and adapted to any size of nucleic acid and a broad diversity of chemical groups integrated into the nucleic acids. Nevertheless, recently developed post-synthetic modification methods for nucleic acids rely on enzyme catalysis to carry out chemical transformations but are unable to provide a universal strategy for both DNA and RNA modifications. Moreover, the required expensive enzymes and specific substrates in enzymatic reactions further stymie the efforts to modify nucleic acids with various chemical entities within reasonable costs. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] To overcome the deficiencies in the prior arts, the present invention discloses a facile universal, economical approach by harnessing versatile aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reactions to regioselectively incorporate alkynyl/azido groups into post-synthetic nucleic acids primed with phosphate at the 5′ termini. [0010] This post-synthetic modification method for nucleic acids is made possible by orthogonal azide-alkyne cycloaddition reactions. The powerful copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction, a prototype of click chemistry, has found broad applications in science ranging from material studies to biomolecular research. In addition, the copper-free variant of the CuAAC reaction, strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC), harnesses excellent reactivity of cyclooctyne derivatives and dramatically expands the biocompatibility of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction for studying biomolecules in vivo. [0011] The aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reactions are an ideal strategy to synthesize POCs without compromising oligonucleotide base-pairing specificity, an essential criterion when administrating oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents. This facilitates the introduction of azido and alkynyl groups to DNA/RNA. The acquired azide- and alkyne-modified nucleic acids set the stage for azide-alkyne cycloaddition and allow effective and efficient conjugations with derivatives of biotin, fluorescein, and a CPP the Tat peptide. As proof of the concept, the inventors further demonstrated that the CuAAC-synthesized POC was bioavailable and successfully trafficked into human cells. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawing will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee. [0013] FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B) are gel electrophoretic results showing azide-alkyne cycloaddition for conjugations of the 32 P-labeled azide-modified (A) 3′ primer DNA and (B) 17-mer RNA with alkynyl-containing substrates. Lanes in FIG. 1(A) : 1, ethylenediamine; 2, ethylenediamine+6d; 3, ethylenediamine+6d+Alkyne MegaStokes dye 608; 4, ethylenediamine+6d+15; and 5, ethylenediamine+6d+the alkynyl Tat peptide. Lanes in FIG. 1(B) : 6, cystamine; 7, cystamine+6c; and 8, cystamine+6c+15 Labels in FIG. 1(A) : a, the azido-3′ primer DNA-alkynyl Tat peptide conjugate prepared by the CuAAC reaction; b, the azido-3′ primer DNA-15 conjugate prepared by the CuAAC reaction; c, the azido-3′ primer DNA-Alkyne MegaStokes dye 608 conjugate prepared by the SPAAC reaction; d, the 3′ primer DNA-ethylenediamine-6d conjugate; e, the 3′ primer DNA-ethylenediamine conjugate; and f, the 3′ primer DNA. Labels in FIGS. 1(B) : g, the azido-17-mer RNA-10 conjugate prepared by the CuAAC reaction; h, the 17-mer RNA-cystamine-6c conjugate; i, the 17-mer RNA-cystamine conjugate; and j, the 17-mer RNA. [0014] FIGS. 2(A) and 2(B) are gel electrophoretic results showing azide-alkyne cycloaddition for the 32 P-labeled alkyne-modified (A) 3′ primer DNA and (B) 17-mer RNA with azido-containing substrates. Lanes in FIG. 2(A) : 1, ethylenediamine; 9, ethylenediamine+19; and 10, ethylenediamine+19+16. Lanes in FIG. 2(B) : 6, cystamine; 11, cystamine+19; and 12, cystamine+19+12. Labels in FIG. 2(A) : e, the 3′ primer DNA-ethylenediamine conjugate; f, the 3′ primer DNA; k, the alkynyl 3′ primer DNA-16 conjugate prepared by the CuAAC reaction; and l, the 3′ primer DNA-ethylenediamine-19 conjugate. Labels in FIG. 2(B) : h, the 17-mer RNA-cystamine-6c conjugate; j, the 17-mer RNA; m, the streptavidin (SAv)-shifted alkynyl 17-mer RNA-12 conjugate prepared by the CuAAC reaction; n, the alkynyl 17-mer RNA-12 conjugate prepared by the CuAAC reaction; and o, the 17-mer RNA-cystamine-19 conjugate. It is to be noted that the area between the wavy lines in FIG. 2(B) has been cut off from the original scan because it contains no detectable signals. [0015] FIG. 3 is gel electrophoretic results showing that the studied DNA was the 3′ primer DNA and was labeled with 32-P at the 5′ end before the reactions. The reaction products were analyzed by 20% urea-PAGE and visualized by an Amersham Typhoon Phosphorlmager. 1, ethylenediamine; 2, ethylenediamine+6d; 3, ethylenediamine+6d+10; 4, tris(3-hydroxypropyltriazolylmethyl)amine (THPTA); 5, tris(benzimidazol-2-ylmethyl)amine (NTB); a, the CuAAC reaction product between the azido 3′ primer DNA and 10; b, the 6d-ethylenediamine-3′ primer DNA conjugate; c, the ethylenediamine-modified 3′ primer DNA; and d, the 3′ primer DNA. [0016] FIG. 4 is a set of confocal laser scanning microscopic images showing the combination of phosphoramidation and CuAAC reactions to synthesize POCs successfully taken up by human A549 cells. A, the alkynyl Tat peptide-azido 3′ primer DNA conjugate (the POC) with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) labelled to the DNA; B, the FITC-labelled alkynyl Tat peptide; and C, the FITC-labelled 3′ primer DNA. PC, phase contrast. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0017] The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only; they are not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed. [0018] In order to accomplish the purpose of the present invention, the technical schemes of the present invention are specifically described as follows. [0019] The present invention discloses the aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reaction-based modifications of nucleic acids with azides and alkynes for subsequent synthesis of nucleic acid conjugates including POCs by the CuAAC and SPAAC reactions. [0020] In a first preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for modifying an oligonucleotide by the CuAAC or SPAAC reaction with azide-modified oligonucleotides is disclosed as follows and includes steps of: (a) conjugating H 2 N(CH 2 ) n NH 2 to the 5′ end of the oligonucleotide (i.e. an reactant 1) to form an intermediate 1 where n is an integer from 2 to 6; (b) amidating the free -NH 2 group of the intermediate 1 with [0000] [0000] to form an intermediate 2; and (c) reacting the terminal -N 3 group of the intermediate 2 with one of HC≡C—R 2 by the CuAAC reaction and 1-{3-{[4-(2-cyclooctyn-1-ylmethyl)benzoyl]amino}propyl}-4-{2-[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethenyl}pyridinium hexafluorophosphate (Alkyne MegaStokes dye 608) by the SPAAC reaction to form a product 1 and a product 2, respectively. [0000] [0000] R 3 , substituents in azides; R 4 , substituents in alkyne; n is an integer from 2 to 6 [0024] The step (a) is called the aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reaction. [0025] In a second preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for modifying an oligonucleotide by the CuAAC reaction with alkyne-modified oligonucleotides is disclosed as follows and includes steps of: (a) conjugating H 2 N(CH 2 ) n NH 2 to the 5′ end of the oligonucleotide (i.e. the reactant 1) to form the intermediate 1 where n is an integer from 2 to 6; (b) amidating a free —NH 2 group with [0000] [0000] to form an intermediate 3; and (c) reacting the alkyne group of the intermediate 3 with R 6 —N 3 by the CuAAC reaction to form a product 3. [0000] [0000] R 6 , substituents in azides; R 5 , substituents in alkynes; n is an integer from 2 to 6 [0029] The step (a) above is called the aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reaction. [0030] In a third preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for modifying an nucleic acid by the CuAAC reaction with azide-modified nucleic acids for synthesis of POCs is disclosed as follows and includes steps of: (a) conjugating H 2 NCH 2 CH 2 NH 2 to the 5′ end of the nucleic acid (i.e. the reactant 1) to form an intermediate 4; (b) amidating a free —NH 2 group of the intermediate 4 with [0000] [0000] to form an intermediate 5 where m=4; and (c) reacting the alkyne group of the intermediate 5 with a molecule having a structure of CH≡C-Tat peptide by the CuAAC reaction to form a product 4 (a type of POCs). [0000] [0034] The step (a) above is called the aqueous-phase two-step phosphoramidation reaction. [0035] In order to accomplish the purposes of the present invention, the materials and methods are described as follows. The following Examples illustrate the invention and are not to be construed as limitations of the invention. [0036] General Materials and Methods [0037] The standard Tat peptide (being the 48 th to 57 th amino acid residues in the Tat protein and having the sequence in H 2 N-GRKKRRQRRR-COOH (SEQ ID NO.1); each bold and capitalized letter standing for a specific amino acid residue) and its alkynyl version (amidation with 5-hexynoic acid at the N terminus of the Tat peptide) were purchased from Peptide 2.0 (Chantilly, Va., USA). [0038] 1 H and 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were recorded using either a Varian 200 or 400 MHz spectrometer (Varian, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., USA). NMR samples were prepared in CD 3 OD, D 2 O or CDCl 3 , and the chemical shifts of 1 H signals were given in parts per million downfield from tetramethylsilane (TMS). 13 C signals were given in parts per million based on the internal standard of each deuteriated solvent. Electrospray ionization (ESI) high resolution mass spectra were acquired on a Bruker APEX II Fourier-transfer mass spectrometer (FT-MS; Bruker Daltonics Inc., Taiwan). Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) analysis for quantification of copper in POCs was also performed on a PE-SCIEX ELAN 6100 DRC mass spectrometer (PerkinElmer Taiwan, Kaohsiung, Taiwan). Radio-labeled or biotin-/fluorophore-modified nucleic acid conjugates were analyzed by urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (urea-PAGE) or SAv gel shift assay in urea-PAGE, visualized and quantified by an Amersham Typhoon PhosphorImager (GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences AB, Uppsala, Sweden). The molecular mass of purified nucleic acid conjugates was determined by an Autoflex III TOF/TOF analyzer (Bruker Daltonics). POC uptake by human A549 cells was analyzed by a BD FACSCalibur cytometer (BD, Franklin Lakes, N.J., USA) and a FluoView 1000 confocal laser scanning microscope (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). EXAMPLE 1 Optimization of Two-Step Nucleic Acid Phosphoramidation Reactions [0039] The optimized two-step phosphoramidation reaction for RNA was carried out by dissolving the guanosine monophosphate (GMP)-primed TW17 RNA (SEQ ID NO: 2, 87-mer; 5′-GGGAUCGUCAGUGCAUUGAGAAGUGCAGUGUCUUGCGCUGGGU UCGAGCGGUCCGUGGUGCUGGCCCGGUGGUAUCCCCAAGGGGU A-3′) (0.32 nmol) and 1-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC, 4.17 μmol) in 4 μL 4(5)-methylimidazole-Triton X-100 buffer [0.1 M 4(5)-methylimidazole, 15% Triton X-100, pH 6.0] and activating at room temperature (rt) for 90 min. The resulting 5′-phosphorimidazolide RNA was purified by ethanol precipitation and resuspended in 5.5 μL of EPPS-Triton X-100 buffer (100 mM EPPS, 15% Triton X-100, 2 mM EDTA, pH 7.5). One microliter of compound 1 [187.2 mM in dimethylformamide (DMF)] was then added to the 5′-phosphorimidazolide RNA solution to allow a phosphoramidation reaction at 41° C. for 3 h. [0000] [0040] For single-stranded DNA, the optimized two step phosphoramidation reaction was performed by dissolving the single-stranded DNA (0.32 nmol) and EDC (4.17 μmol) in 4 μL of 4(5)-methylimidazole buffer [0.1 M 4(5)-methylimidazole, pH 6.0] and activating at rt for 90 min. Similarly, the resulting 5′-phosphorimidazolide DNA was purified by ethanol precipitation and redissolved in 5.5 μL of EPPS buffer (100 mM EPPS, 2 mM EDTA, pH 7.5). A solution of compound 1 (1 μL; 187.2 mM in DMF) was later added to the 5′-phosphorimidazolide DNA solution to allow a phosphoramidation reaction at 55° C. for 3 h. No co-solute was used in the two-step phosphoramidation reaction of the single-stranded DNA to attain a higher reaction yield. All of the resulting nucleic acid—substrate conjugates were purified twice by ethanol precipitation, analyzed by urea-PAGE and SAv gel shift assay (8% urea-PAGE for the TW17 RNA, and 20% urea-PAGE for the single-stranded 3′-primer DNA), visualized, and quantified by an Amersham Typhoon PhosphorImager to determine the reaction yield. EXAMPLE 2 Two-Step Phosphoramidation Reactions for Synthesis of Nucleic Acid-Tat 48-57 Peptide Conjugates [0041] The single-stranded 3′-primer DNA was conjugated with the Tat 48-57 peptide according to the optimized two-step phosphoramidation reaction described previously but with the following modifications. First, the scale of the reaction was increased five times to acquire sufficient conjugates for the subsequent ex vivo studies. In addition, the pH of the conjugation reaction between the 5′-phosphorimidazolide DNA and the Tat 48-57 peptide was increased to 8.0 achieved by the addition of concentrated EPPS buffer (600 mM EPPS, 5 mM EDTA, pH 8.0) to attain a higher yield. Finally, only 20 mM of the Tat 48-57 peptide was required in the coupling reaction to generate the best yield. [0042] For RNA-Tat 48-57 conjugates, preparation also followed the optimized two-step RNA phosphoramidation reaction but with the following modifications: (1) Only 20 mM of the Tat 48-57 peptide was required in conjugation reactions, and (2) concentrated EPPS-Triton X-100 buffer (600 mM EPPS, 15% Triton X-100, 5 mM EDTA, pH 7.5) was added to the conjugation reaction between the 5′-phosphorimidazolide RNA and the Tat 48-57 peptide to retain the buffering capacity. [0043] The synthesized nucleic acid-Tat 48-57 conjugates were also purified twice by ethanol precipitation, analyzed by 8% (the TW17 RNA) or 20% (the 3′ primer DNA and the TW17 1-17 RNA) urea-PAGE, visualized and quantified by an Amersham Typhoon PhosphorImager. EXAMPLE 3 Two-Step Phosphoramidation Reactions for Synthesis of Nucleic Acid-Cystamine Conjugates [0044] Similar optimized two-step phosphoramidation reactions were applied when preparing nucleic acid-cystamine conjugates and are described below. The RNA-cystamine conjugate synthesis was carried out by dissolving the GMP-primed TW17 1-17 RNA (0.32 nmol) and EDC (4.17 μmol) in 4 μL of 4(5)-methylimidazole-Triton X-100 buffer and activating at rt for 90 min. The resulting 5′-phosphorimidazolide RNA was purified by ethanol precipitation and then resuspended in 5.5 μL of concentrated EPPS-Triton X-100 buffer with the addition of 1 μL of cystamine (187.2 mM in water) to allow a reaction at 41° C. for 3 h. [0045] For the single-stranded 3′-primer DNA, the cystamine conjugate was prepared by dissolving the DNA (1.59 nmol) and EDC (26 μmol) in 20 μL 4(5)-methylimidazole buffer and activating at rt for 90 min. The resulting 5′-phosphorimidazolide DNA was purified by ethanol precipitation, redissolved in 27.5 μL of concentrated EPPS buffer. Five microliters of cystamine (187.2 mM in DEPC water) was then added to the 5′-phosphorimidazolide DNA solution to allow a reaction at 55° C. for 3 h. Again, no co-solute was used in the two-step phosphoramidation reaction of the single-stranded DNA to attain a higher reaction yield. [0046] The products of the conjugation reactions between cystamine and nucleic acids (the 3′ primer DNA and the TW17 1-17 RNA) were separated by 20% urea-PAGE, visualized and quantified by an Amersham Typhoon Phosphorlmager to determine reaction yield. EXAMPLE 4 Synthesis of Azido Carboxylic Acid Succinimidyl Esters (6) [0047] [0048] Synthesis of 6a and its precursor 3-azidopropionic acid (5a) from 3-bromopropionic acid (4a), and synthesis of 6b from 4-bromobutyric acid (4b) were achieved by following the procedures of Grandjean et al. (C. Grandjean et al., J. Org. Chem., 2005, 70, 7123-7132). The synthesis of 6c generally adhered to the method of Seo et al. (T. S. Seo et al., J. Org. Chem., 2003, 68, 609-612). Synthesis of 6-azido-hexanoic acid 2,5-dioxo-pyrrolidin-1-yl ester (6d) [0049] [0050] Synthesis of 6d was achieved by modifying a published method (N. M. Leonard et al., J. Org. Chem., 2011, 76, 9169-9174) as briefly described below. First, the required 6-azidohexanoic acid (5d) was synthesized by dissolving and reacting 6-bromohexanoic acid (4d; 3.0 g, 15.4 mmol) with sodium azide (2.0 g, 30.8 mmol) in DMF (10 mL) at 85° C. for 3 h. The resulting reaction mixture was diluted with dichloromethane (DCM), extracted with 0.1 N HCl, dried over Na 2 SO 4 , and concentrated under reduced pressure to obtain the colorless oil of 5d (80%). [0051] Without further purification, the acquired 5d (1.352 g, 8.8 mmol) was dissolved and stirred in a DMF solution (20 mL) and submerged in an ice-water bath, followed by the slow addition of sym-collidine (2.5 mL, 18.5 mmol) in 10 min to obtain the Flask A solution. Immediately, the Flask B solution was prepared by dissolving N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS, 4.048 g, 35.2 mmol) in the other DMF solution (20 mL) also immersed in an ice-water bath, followed by the slow addition of trifluoroacetic anhydride (TFAA, 4.93 mL, 35.2 mmol) while stirring for 10 min, and finally drop-wisely adding sym-collidine (4.66 mL, 34.5 mmol) in 10 min to obtain the solution. The Flask B solution was then slowly dripped into the Flask A solution in 1.5 h while maintaining both solutions at 0° C. The resulting mixture was returned to rt and stirred overnight. The final reaction mixture was diluted with DCM (60 mL), extracted with 1 N HCl (50 mL) three times, dried over Na 2 SO 4 , concentrated under reduced pressure, and further washed with Et 2 O (40 mL) three times to obtain the white-colored solid 6d (2.14 g, 76%). [0052] Compound 6d: 1 H NMR (400 MHz) (CDCl 3 ) δ: 3.30 (t, 2H), 2.84 (br s, 4H), 2.64 (t, 2H), 1.79 (q, 2H), 1.68-1.60 (m, 2H), 1.55-1.48 (m, 2H). 13 C NMR (100.67 MHz) (CDCl 3 ) δ: 169.1, 168.4, 51.0, 30.7, 28.3, 25.8, 25.5, 24.1. HRMS (ESI) calculated for C 10 H 14 N 4 O 4 , [M+Na] + 277.09073 (calculated), 277.09081 (found). Synthesis of 2′-aminoethyl 5-azido-pentanamide, TFA salt (7) [0053] A reaction mixture for compound 7 synthesis was prepared by dissolving 6c (0.29 g, 1.2 mmol) in DCM (2 mL) first followed by the addition of Et 3 N (0.16 mL, 1.16 mmol) and mono-t-Boc-ethylenediamine (0.24 g, 1.5 mmol) to the DCM solution. After reacting at rt for 7 h, the final reaction mixture was diluted with DCM, and extracted with 1 N HCl, 5% NaHCO 3 and saturated NaCl, sequentially. The resulting organic phase was dried over Na 2 SO 4 and concentrated under reduced pressure to obtain the Boc-protected 7 which was deprotected by dissolving in 1 mL of TFA while stirring at 0° C. for 1 h, removed TFA under reduced pressure, washed with Et 2 O to obtain the colorless oil-like compound 7 (0.17 g, 75%). [0054] Compound 7: 1 H NMR (400 MHz) (CDCl 3 ) δ: 3.32 (t, 2H), 2.41 (t, 2H), 1.78-1.60 (m, 4H). 13 C NMR (100.67 MHz) (CDCl 3 ) δ: 178.1, 51.0, 33.2, 28.3, 28.2, 21.8. HRMS (ESI) calculated for C 7 H 16 N 5 O, [M+H] + 186.13494 (calculated), 186.13490 (found). EXAMPLE 5 Synthesis of Biotin Derivatives, 10 and 12 5-(2-Oxo-hexahydro-thieno[3,4-d]imidazol-4-yl)-pentanoic acid prop-2-ynylamide (10) [0055] [0000] The method of Poole et al. (L. B. Poole et al., Bioconjugate Chem., 2007, 18, 2004-2017) was adopted to synthesize 10. 5-(2-Oxo-hexahydro-thieno[3,4-d]imidazol-4-yl)-pentanoic acid [2-(5-azido-pentanoylamino)-ethyl]-amide (12) [0056] [0057] The reaction mixture for 12 synthesis was prepared by dissolving 7 (0.098 g, 0.58 mmol), Et 3 N (82 μL, 0.58 mmol) and (+)-biotin N-hydroxysuccinimide ester [11; 0.19 g, 0.55 mmol; synthesized from (+)-biotin (8)] in 5 mL of DMF while stirring at rt for 5 h. The final reaction mixture was concentrated under reduced pressure, recrystallized in isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and washed with ethyl acetate (EA) to obtain the white-colored solid 12 (0.371 g, 80%). [0058] Compound 12: 1 H NMR (400 MHz) (CD 3 OD) δ: 4.49 (1H, dd), 4.31 (1H, dd), 2.93 (1H, dd), 2.70 (1H, d), 1.60-1.31 (4H, m), 1.25 (2H, q). 13 C NMR (100.67 MHz) (CD 3 OD) δ: 176.4, 176.1, 63.4, 61.6, 57.0, 52.1, 47.9, 41.0, 40.1, 36.8, 36.5, 29.8, 29.5, 29.4, 26.8, 24.1. HRMS (ESI) calculated for C 17 H 29 N 7 O 3 , [M+Na] + 434.1950 (calculated), 434.1947 (found). EXAMPLE 6 Synthesis of Fluorescein Derivatives, 15 and 16 5(6)-(N-Propargyl)amidofluorescein (15) [0059] [0060] 5(6)-Carboxyfluorescein (13; 1.13 g, 3 mmol) was first dissolved in 10 mL of THF followed by the slow addition of a 10-mL THF solution containing NHS (0.414 g, 3.6 mmol) and N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC, 0.70 g, 3.6 mmol). The resulting reaction mixture was stirred at rt for 2 h, concentrated under reduced pressure, and resuspended in pentane (5 L) to precipitate the orange-red-colored 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (14; 0.145 g, 0.3 mmol). Without further purification, the acquired 14 was dissolved in 10 mL THF, followed by the addition of propargylamine (9; 39 μL, 0.6 mmol) and Et 3 N (45 μL, 0.32 mmol) to initiate the reaction at rt for 3 h. The final reaction mixture was concentrated under reduced pressure, redissolved in EA (10 mL) and sequentially extracted with 1 N HCl, water and saturated NaCl. The afforded organic phase was dried over Na 2 SO 4 and concentrated under reduced pressure to give 15 (0.08 g, 59%). [0061] Compound 15: 1 H NMR (400 MHz) (CD 3 OD) δ: 8.01 (2H, s), 7.68 (1H, s), 7.33 (2H, dd), 6.58-6.57 (4H, m), 4.13 (2H, d), 2.59 (1H, t). 13 C NMR (100.67 MHz) (CD 3 OD) δ: 181.4, 160.5, 135.7, 132.3, 131.2, 130.6, 129.7, 129.2, 129.0, 123.7, 113.6, 72.2, 34.8. HRMS (ESI) calculated for C 24 H 15 NO 6 , [M+Na] + 436.0797 (calculated), 436.0795 (found). 5(6)-[N-(5-azido-N′-ethylpentamido)]amidofluorescein (16) [0062] [0063] Synthesis of 16 began with the crude 14 which was synthesized as described above and also used without further workup. A reaction mixture for 16 synthesis was prepared by dissolving crude 14 (260 mg, 0.55 mmol), 7 (0.98 mg, 0.58 mmol) and Et 3 N (82 μL, 0.58 mmol) in a 6-mL DCM/DMF (5:1) solution while stirring at rt for 4 h. The final reaction mixture was concentrated under reduced pressure, redissolved in DCM (20 mL) and sequentially extracted with 1 N HCl, water and saturated NaCl. The resulting organic phase was dried over Na 2 SO 4 and concentrated under reduced pressure to give 16 (0.08 g, 61%). [0064] Compound 16: 1 H NMR (400 MHz) (CD 3 OD) δ: 8.47 (s, 1H), 8.11 (s, 1H), 7.63 (s, 1H), 7.32 (d, 1H), 6.69 (t, 4H), 6.60 (d, 1H), 6.58 (t, 2H), 6.56 (d, 1H), 4.17-4.04 (m, 2H), 2.35 (t, 2H), 2.27-2.22 (m, 2H), 1.70-1.56 (m, 2H). 13 C NMR (100.67 MHz) (CD 3 OD) δ: 103.8, 71.1, 66.5, 64.0, 52.1, 36.5, 34.9, 33.1, 30.8, 29.4, 26.7, 26.0. HRMS (ESI) calculated for C 28 H 25 N 5 O 7 , [M+Na] + 566.16462 (calculated), 566.16482 (found). EXAMPLE 7 Synthesis of 6-propynoylamino-hexanoic acid 2,5-dioxo-pyrrolidin-1-yl ester (19) [0065] [0066] Propiolic acid (17; 98.4 L, 1.6 mmol) was activated in an EDC (0.33 g, 1.6 mmol)-dissolved DMF solution (2 mL) at 0° C. while stirring for 15 min, followed by the addition of a 6-aminohexanoic acid (0.212 g, 1.61 mmol)-containing 1 M Na 2 CO 3 /DMF mixture (1 M Na 2 CO 3 /DMF=1:2; 3 mL) and reacting at rt for 3 h. The final reaction mixture was diluted with DCM, extracted with water twice and sat. NaCl once. The resulting organic phase was dried over Na 2 SO 4 and concentrated under reduced pressure to give light orange-colored oily crude 18 (0.183 g, 1 mmol). Without further purification, the obtained 18 was dissolved in a DCM solution (5 mL) containing EDC (0.24 g, 1.2 mmol), followed by the addition of NHS (0.18 g, 1.2 mmol) and reaction at rt while stirring for 12 h. The final reaction mixture was diluted with DCM, extracted with water twice and saturated NaCl once. The afforded organic phase was again dried over Na 2 SO 4 and concentrated under reduced pressure to obtain the golden-colored 19 (0.31 g, 82%). [0067] Compound 19: 1 H NMR (400 MHz) (D 2 O) δ: 3.11 (t, 2H), 3.08-2.98 (m, 4H), 2.79 (s, 4H), 2.69 (s, 1H), 1.84-1.77 (m, 2H), 0.98 (t, 2H). 13 C NMR (100.67 MHz) (D 2 O) δ: 176.7, 174.5, 160.7, 55.4, 42.8, 36.5, 35.1, 25.5, 25.3, 25.1, 14.5. HRMS (ESI) calculated for C 13 H 16 N 2 O 5 , [M+Na] + 303.09514 (calculated), 303.09503 (found). EXAMPLE 8 Nucleic Acid Preparation and Radio-Labeling [0068] The single-stranded 3′ primer DNA (SEQ ID NO.3, 5′-TACCCCTTGGGGATACCACC-3′) was purchased from Purigo Biotech, Inc., Taiwan and purified using 20% urea-PAGE. The TW17 1-17 RNA (SEQ ID NO.4, 5′-GGGAUCGUCAGUGCAUU-3′), which is the first 17 nucleotides in the TW17 RNA, was purchased from Bioneer (Daejeon, South Korea) and used without purification. Both the 3′ primer DNA and the TW17 1-17 RNA were 32 P-labeled at the 5′-end. EXAMPLE 10 Modifications of Nucleic Acids with Azides and Alkynes DNA [0069] As prepared in N-hydroxysuccimide esters, either azides 6 or alkynes (9 and 19) were covalently linked to the ethylenediamine-modified 3′ primer DNA by the amidation reaction reported previously (T.-P. Wang et al., Bioconjugate Chem., 2012, 23, 2417-2433). The ethylenediamine-conjugated 3′ primer DNA was synthesized according to the optimized two-step phosphoramidation reaction of DNA in which ethylenediamine was the nucleophile in the reaction. Acquired DNA conjugates were purified by ethanol precipitation and analyzed using 20% urea-PAGE. RNA [0070] Similarly, N-hydroxysuccimide esters of either azides (6) or alkynes (9 and 19) were coupled to the cystamine-modified TW17 1-17 RNA by the same amidation reaction for DNA modifications indicated above. (T.-P. Wang et al., Bioconjugate Chem., 2012, 23, 2417-2433). The cystamine-conjugated TW17 1-17 RNA was also prepared by the optimized two-step phosphoramidation reaction of RNA in which cystamine served as the nucleophile in the reaction (T.-P. Wang et al., Bioconjugate Chem., 2010, 21, 1642-1655). Acquired RNA conjugates were again purified by ethanol precipitation and analyzed using 20% urea-PAGE. EXAMPLE 10 Copper-Catalyzed 1,3-Dipolar Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition for Nucleic Acid Modifications [0071] Nucleic acids were modified with appropriate substrates in the CuAAC reaction, and the best yield was attained. The acquired optimal CuAAC reactions are briefly stated below. Either azido- or alkynyl-modified DNA/RNA (80 pmol) and corresponding alkynyl- or azido-containing molecules (1.6 nmol) were dissolved in 8.85 μL phosphate buffer (100 mM potassium phosphate, pH 7.0), followed by the addition of a CuSO 4 -THPTA premix solution (0.15 μL; prepared by mixing one part of 20 mM CuSO 4 in water and two parts of 50 mM THPTA in water), 0.5 μL of 100 mM aminoguanidine, and 0.5 μL of 100 mM fresh-prepared sodium ascrobate in sequence to obtain the final reaction mixture of 10 μL. After the reaction at rt for 1 h, the reaction products were purified by ethanol precipitation and analyzed using 20% urea-PAGE. [0072] In addition, the optimal CuAAC reaction was scaled up ten times to more efficiently synthesize enough quantities of the Tat peptide-3′ primer DNA conjugate (a POC) for bioactivity studies of the POC in human A549 cells. The scaled-up CuAAC reaction (10×) generally gave a triazole product yield similar to that of the optimal CuAAC reaction (1×). EXAMPLE 11 [0073] Copper-Free Strain-Promoted 1,3-Dipolar Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition for the Modification of Azido Nucleic Acids with the Cyclooctyne Substrate [0074] The azido nucleic acids were modified with the cyclooctyne Alkyne MegaStokes dye 608 based on Winz et al. (M.-L. Winz et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 2012, 40, e78) as described below. The azide-conjugated DNA/RNA (80 pmol) was dissolved in 76 μL of phosphate buffer (50 mM potassium phosphate, pH 7.0) to obtain an 1 μM nucleic acid solution. The SPAAC reaction was initiated by adding in 0.4 μL of Alkyne MegaStokes dye 608 (10 mM in DMSO) and proceeded at 35° C. for 2 h. The final reaction products were purified by ethanol precipitation and analyzed using 20% urea-PAGE. EXAMPLE 12 Cytotoxicity by MTT Assay [0075] The cytotoxicity of inoculates was determined by MTT assays against A549 cells. In brief, A549 cells were seeded in 96-well tissue culture plates at a density of 5×10 3 /well in a medium containing 10% FBS before treating inoculates. The cytotoxicity of the inoculates was evaluated by determining cell viability after 24 h of incubation with various concentrations of inoculates (1-10 μM). The number of viable cells was acquired by estimating their mitochondrial reductase activity using the tetrazolium-based colorimetric method (MTT conversion test). EXAMPLE 13 Flow Cytometry Analysis of Cellular Uptake [0076] In order to observe the cellular uptake efficiency of the inoculates, A549 cells were seeded in 6-well culture plates at a density of 2×10 5 /well in a medium containing 10% FBS for 24 h. The medium containing 5 μM concentration of inoculates were added to cells. After 24 h of incubation, cells were washed, trypsinized, centrifuged, and resuspended in 1 mL of cold PBS, and then analyzed using the flow cytometer. The fluorescein-labeled inoculates (peptide, DNA and POC) used in flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy were prepared according to published methods (T.-P. Wang et al., Bioconjugate Chem., 2012, 23, 2417-2433). EXAMPLE 14 Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) [0077] The intracellular delivery of inoculates was observed using CLSM. A549 cells were seeded at a density of 1.0×10 5 /well in 12-well plates containing one glass coverslip/well in RPMI supplemented with 10% FBS, and then incubated for 24 h. Each inoculate of 5 μM was added to cells for 24 h at 37° C. After incubation, the inoculate-containing medium was removed and washed gently with 1 mL of 0.1 M PBS at pH 7.4. The cell nuclei was then stained with 5 μg/mL Hoechst 33342 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.) for 30 min. The cells on the coverslips were washed 3 times with 0.1 M PBS and mounted with a fluorescent mounting medium on glass slides. Cell imaging was obtained using CLSM (Fv 1000; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) and analyzed using Olympus CLSM software. EXAMPLE 15 Optimal Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition for Universal Modifications of Nucleic Acids [0078] The optimal CuAAC reactions for azide- and alkyne-modified DNA/RNA derived from the two-step phosphoramidation reactions were effectively developed with all the required reagents. The inventors first determined that 6c and 6d were better electrophiles to react with amino-nucleic acids and provided higher yields of azide-modified nucleic acids. For the synthesis of alkyne-modified DNA/RNA, the commercially available propargylamine (9) was first used as the substrate for nucleic acid modifications. The 9-modified DNA/RNA, however, resulted in sluggish CuAAC reactions with low yield. [0079] The inventors envisioned that the reaction yield could be improved by moving the alkynyl group away from the nucleic acids and introducing an electron-withdrawing group adjacent to the alkynyl group. Indeed, when substituting 19 for 9 in nucleic acid conjugates, the CuAAC reactions provided far better yield. The inventors then systematically surveyed the effects of nucleic acid concentration, the concentrations of 6c/6d and 19, copper concentration, THPTA concentration, reaction pH, the azide: alkyne ratio ( FIG. 3 ), and the Cu: THPTA ratio to obtain the optimal reaction conditions for the conjugation of azide-/alkyne-modified nucleic acids with corresponding alkyne/azide substrates. [0080] Please refer to FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B) , azide-alkyne cycloaddition for conjugations of the 32 P-labeled azide-modified (A) 3′ primer DNA and (B) 17-mer RNA with alkynyl-containing substrates. [0081] The optimal CuAAC reactions were successfully exploited to synthesize various nucleic acid conjugates. For instance, the azide-modified 3′ primer DNA was effectively conjugated with several alkynyl-containing substrates [referring to FIG. 1(A) and steps (a) through (c) in the first embodiment above]. Similar results were acquired by using azide-modified RNA in the optimal CuAAC reactions [ FIG. 1(B) ]. Moreover, the alkyne-modified 3′ primer DNA was also effectively conjugated with azido-containing substrates by the other optimized CuAAC reaction [referring to FIG. 2(A) and steps (a) through (c) in the second embodiment above]. Again, a similar high yield was observed in the optimized CuAAC reaction when azides were reacted with the alkyne-modified 17-mer RNA [ FIG. 2(B) ]. The presence of biotin and fluorescein moieties in the CuAAC triazole products was confirmed by streptavidin (SAv) gel-shift analysis and fluorescence imaging after electrophoresis [ FIG. 2(B) ]. In addition, the modified nucleic acids were gel-purified and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption inoization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) to demonstrate the production of the expected DNA and RNA conjugates. [0082] The inventors again employed the two-step phosphoramidation reactions to easily synthesize azido-containing nucleic acids which could react with cyclooctynes in the SPAAC reaction (referring to the first embodiment above). Congruent with expectations, the cyclooctyne Alkyne MegaStokes dye 608 [DNA conjugation substrate 3 in FIG. 1(A) ] was smoothly labelled to the azide-modified 3′ primer DNA without incurring detectable DNA degradation. Moreover, the identity of the gel-purified MegaStokes dye 608-modified DNA was affirmed by MALDI-TOF MS analysis. The results clearly show the reactivities of phosphoramidation reaction-derived azido-containing nucleic acids in the CuAAC and SPAAC reactions to provide the desired modified nucleic acids with good yields. EXAMPLE 16 CuAAC for POC Synthesis [0083] The inventors employed the optimized CuAAC reaction to more effectively synthesize POCs [referring to steps (a) through (c) of the third embodiment above] and demonstrate the cell-penetrating ability of the acquired POCs. Click chemistry has been applied for POC synthesis. However, past POC synthesis studies depended on solid-phase phosphoramidite chemistry to afford alkynyl- or amino-containing oligonucleotides and the CuAAC reaction to obtain POCs. Intriguingly, these synthesized POCs were never administered to biological systems nor did they demonstrate cell-penetrating activity. Here the inventors successfully exploited the optimized CuAAC reaction and conjugated the azide-modified FITC-labelled 3′ primer DNA with an alkynyl-containing Tat peptide [DNA conjugation substrate 5 in FIG. 1(A) ] with an excellent yield [ FIG. 1(A) ]. [0084] Please refer to FIG. 4 , wherein the inventors further demonstrate translocation of the EDTA-treated POC into human A549 cells after inoculation by confocal laser scanning microscopy ( FIG. 4 ) even though the deformation of A549 cells was visible (PC in row A of FIG. 4 ). Embodiments [0085] Embodiment 1: A method for modifying an oligonucleotide, comprising: (a) conjugating H 2 N(CH 2 ) n NH 2 to the 5′ end of the oligonucleotide to form a conjugated product; (b) amidating the free —NH 2 group of the conjugated product with R 1 —N 3 ; and (c) reacting the terminal —N 3 group with one of HC≡C—R 2 and a cycloalkyne, wherein n is an integer from 2 to 6, R 1 is a first substituent, and R 2 is a second substituent. [0089] Embodiment 2 is a method as described in Embodiment 1, wherein the first substituent and the second substituent are carbonaceous substituents. [0090] Embodiment 3 is a method as described in Embodiment 1, wherein R 1 —N 3 is [0000] [0000] HC≡C—R 2 is one selected from a group consisting of an alkynyl derivative of biotin, an alkynyl derivative of fluorescein, and an alkynyl carboxylic acid succinimidyl ester; R 3 is —(CH 2 ) m —, and m is an integer from 2 to 5. [0091] Embodiment 4 is a method as described in Embodiment 1, wherein R 2 is a cell-penetrating peptide. [0092] Embodiment 5 is a method as described in Embodiment 4, wherein the cell-penetrating peptide is a trans-activating transcriptional activator (TAT) peptide. [0093] Embodiment 6 is a method as described in Embodiment 3, wherein the alkynyl derivative of biotin is [0000] [0094] Embodiment 7 is a method as described in Embodiment 3, wherein the alkynyl derivative of fluorescein is [0000] [0095] Embodiment 8 is a method as described in Embodiment 3, wherein the alkynyl carboxylic acid succinimidyl ester is [0000] [0096] Embodiment 9 is a method as described in Embodiment 1, wherein the cycloalkyne is 1-{3-{[4-(2-cyclooctyn-1-ylmethyl)benzoyl]amino}propyl∵-4-{2-[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethenyl pyridinium hexafluorophosphate. [0097] Embodiment 10 is a method as described in Embodiment 1, wherein the reacting step is one of a copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction and a strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction. [0098] Embodiment 11 is a method as described in Embodiment 1, wherein the oligonucleotide is an antisense oligonucleotide, siRNA, miRNA or a splice switching oligonucleotide. [0099] Embodiment 12: A method for modifying an oligonucleotide, comprising: (a) conjugating H 2 N(CH 2 ) n NH 2 to the 5′ end of the oligonucleotide to form a conjugated product; (b) amidating a free —NH 2 group of the conjugated product with R 1 —C≡CH; and (c) reacting the alkyne group with R 4 —N 3 , wherein n is an integer from 2 to 6, R 1 —C≡CH is [0000] [0000] R 3 is —(CH 2 ) m —, m is an integer from 2 to 5, and R 4 —N 3 is one selected from a group consisting of an azido derivative of biotin and an azido derivative of fluorescein. [0103] Embodiment 13 is a method as described in Embodiment 12, wherein the azido derivative of biotin is [0000] [0104] Embodiment 14 is a method as described in Embodiment 12, wherein the azido derivative of fluorescein is [0000] [0105] Embodiment 15 is a method as described in Embodiment 12, wherein the reacting step is one of a copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction and a strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction. [0106] Embodiment 16: A method for modifying a nucleic acid, comprising: (a) conjugating H 2 N(CH 2 ) n NH 2 to the 5′ end of the nucleic acid to form a conjugated product; (b) reacting a free —NH 2 group of the conjugated product with R—N 3 and R′—C≡CH to form a nucleic acid compound, wherein n is an integer from 2 to 6, R is a substituent in azide, and R′ is a substituent in alkyne. [0109] Embodiment 17 is a method as described in Embodiment 16, wherein R—N 3 is one being selected from a group consisting [0000] [0110] Embodiment 18 is a method as described in Embodiment 17, wherein R 5 is —(CH 2 ) m —, and m is an integer from 2 to 5. [0111] Embodiment 19 is a method as described in Embodiment 16, wherein R′—C≡CH is one being selected from a group consisting [0000] [0112] Embodiment 20 is a method as described in Embodiment 19, wherein R 6 is —(CH 2 ) m —, and m is an integer from 2 to 5. [0113] Embodiment 21 is a method as described in Embodiment 16, wherein R′ is a cell-penetrating peptide. [0114] Embodiment 22 is a method as described in Embodiment 20, wherein the cell-penetrating peptide is a trans-activating transcriptional activator (TAT) peptide. [0115] Embodiment 23 is a method as described in Embodiment 16, wherein the nucleic acid is a single-stranded or a double-stranded DNA or RNA, a nucleic acid analog or chimera thereof with DNA and/or RNA or an enzymatically modified PCR product. [0116] While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred Embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed Embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.

The present invention discloses a method of harnessing versatile phosphoramidation reactions to regioselectively incorporate alkynyl/azido groups into post-synthetic nucleic acids primed with phosphate at the 5′ termini. With and without the presence of copper, the modified nucleic acids were subjected to azide-alkyne cycloaddition to obtain various nucleic acid conjugates including a peptide-oligonucleotide conjugate (POC) with a high yield.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/530,181 filed on Apr. 4, 2005, pending, allowed. The entire disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/530,181 is hereby incorporated herein by reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/530,181 is the U.S. National Stage application of PCT/JP2004/006021, and claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-123493, filed on Apr. 28, 2003. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention is related to a refrigerator unit for a container. [0004] 2. Background Information [0005] For some time, refrigerator units for container have been used to cool the inside of containers used for freight transport and the like. Some of these refrigerator units for container are equipped with ventilation units for ventilating the interior of the container. For example, in the case of a container used for transporting fruits and vegetables, it is necessary to provide an appropriate degree of ventilation of the air inside the container in order to keep the fruits and vegetables fresh. A ventilation unit is therefore used to accomplish the ventilation of the interior of the container (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-280720). [0006] Meanwhile, there is a need to know the quantity of air that is exchanged by the ventilation units used in container refrigeration units. In the example presented above, since the ventilation affects the freshness of the fruits and vegetables, knowing the quantity of air that has been ventilated is useful for maintaining the freshness of the fruits and vegetables. Also, if the quantity of ventilation is known, a transport company transporting fruits and vegetables can provide a fruit and vegetable owner with a guarantee that an appropriate degree of ventilation is being conducted. [0007] However, it is difficult to know the quantity of air that is ventilated to and from conventional container refrigeration units like that just described. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] The object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator unit for container for which it is possible to know the quantity of air that is ventilated. [0009] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the first invention is equipped with a ventilation unit, an acquisition unit, and a recording unit. The ventilation unit ventilates the air inside the container. The acquisition unit acquires ventilation data related to the quantity of air ventilated by the ventilation unit. The recording unit records the ventilation data acquired by the acquisition unit. The ventilation data is not limited to data that indicates the quantity of ventilated air directly; it is also acceptable for the ventilation data to be data that indicates the quantity of ventilated air indirectly. [0010] With this refrigerator unit for container, the interior of the container is ventilated and ventilation data related to the quantity of ventilated air is recorded. Consequently, it is possible to review the recorded ventilation data. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to know the quantity of ventilated air. [0011] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the second invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the first invention, further equipped with a first output unit. The first output unit is configured to output the quantity of air ventilated by the ventilation unit based on the ventilation data recorded by the recording unit. [0012] With this refrigerator unit for container, the quantity of air ventilated by the ventilation unit is outputted by the first output unit. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to easily know the quantity of ventilated air. [0013] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the third invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the first invention, further equipped with a second output unit. The second output unit is configured to output the ventilation data recorded by the recording unit. [0014] With this refrigerator unit for container, the ventilation data is outputted by the second output unit. Consequently, if the ventilation data is data that directly indicates the quantity of ventilated air, the quantity of ventilated air can be known directly. Meanwhile, if the ventilation data is data that indirectly indicates the quantity of ventilated air, the quantity of ventilated air can be known indirectly. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to easily know the quantity of ventilated air. [0015] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the fourth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to third inventions, wherein the ventilation unit has a ventilation passage and an opening/closing member. The ventilation passage serves as a passage through which the ventilated air passes. The opening/closing member opens and closes the ventilation passage. The ventilation data includes opening degree data indicating the degree to which the opening/closing member has opened the ventilation passage. [0016] With this refrigerator unit for container, the interior of the container is ventilated by opening and closing the ventilation passage with the opening/closing member. Consequently, the quantity of ventilated air is affected by the degree to which the opening/closing member opens the ventilation passage. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to know the quantity of ventilated air based on the opening degree data. [0017] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the fifth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the fourth invention, wherein the opening/closing member is configured to open and close the ventilation passage by being moved in a manual fashion. [0018] With this refrigerator unit for container, the opening/closing member is configured to open and close the ventilation passage by being moved in a manual fashion. Conventionally, it is difficult to know the quantity of ventilated air when the opening degree of the ventilation passage is changed manually. For example, if the opening/closing member is manually moved more than once during a transport, at the end of the transport it is difficult to know the history of how the opening degree of the ventilation passage has changed. However, with this refrigerator unit for container, the opening degree data is recorded by the recording unit. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to know the quantity of ventilated air. [0019] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the sixth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the fourth or fifth inventions, wherein the acquisition unit has an opening degree detecting means. The opening degree detecting means detects the opening degree based on the amount of movement of the opening/closing member. [0020] With this refrigerator unit for container, the opening degree detecting means detects the opening degree based on the amount of movement of the opening/closing member. As a result, the opening degree data can be acquired easily based on the movement amount of the opening/closing member. [0021] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the seventh invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the sixth invention, wherein the acquisition unit has a transmitting means configured to transmit the movement amount of the opening/closing member to the opening degree detecting means. [0022] With this refrigerator unit for container, the transmitting means transmits the movement amount of the opening/closing member to the opening degree detecting means. As a result, the movement amount of the opening/closing member can be transmitted to the opening degree detecting means even if the opening/closing member and the opening degree detecting means are in separated positions. [0023] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the eighth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the seventh invention, further equipped with a thermally insulated wall. The thermally insulated wall is made of a thermal insulation material and is arranged and configured to separate the interior and exterior of the container. The transmitting means is a member imbedded in the thermally insulated wall. [0024] Refrigerator units for container are generally provided with a thermally insulated wall in order to maintain the temperature of the container interior. If the transmitting means is installed on the outside of the thermally insulated wall in a position facing the exterior of the container, it will affect the exterior appearance of the container. Conversely, if the transmitting means is installed on the inside of the thermally insulated wall in a position facing the interior of the container, it is possible that the ability of the transmitting means to transmit will be disturbed when the temperature of the container interior is extremely low. [0025] However, with this refrigerator unit for container, the transmitting means is embedded in the thermally insulated wall. As a result, the transmitting means is prevented from affecting the external appearance of the container. Also, the transmitting means can transmit in a trouble-free manner without being affected by the temperature of the container interior. [0026] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the ninth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the seventh or eighth inventions, further provided with a temperature detecting means and a correction unit. The temperature detecting means detects the ambient temperature surrounding the transmitting means. The correction unit corrects the opening/closing member movement amount transmitted by the transmitting means based on the ambient temperature. [0027] With this refrigerator unit for container, the opening/closing member movement amount transmitted by the transmitting means is corrected based on the ambient temperature. As a result, even if the transmitting means elongates or shortens due to the temperature, the movement amount of the opening/closing means can be detected accurately. [0028] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the tenth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the fourth to ninth inventions, wherein the recording unit is configured to record ventilation data when the opening degree of the opening/closing member is changed. [0029] With this refrigerator unit for container, ventilation data is recorded when the opening degree of the opening/closing member is changed. As a result, it is possible to know with good precision how the quantity of ventilated air has changed due to changes in the opening degree of the opening/closing member. [0030] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the eleventh invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to tenth inventions, wherein the recording unit is configured to record ventilation data when the refrigerator unit for container starts running. [0031] With this refrigerator unit for container, ventilation data is recorded when the refrigerator unit for container starts running. As a result, ventilation data can be obtained from the time when the refrigerator unit for container starts running. [0032] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the twelfth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to eleventh inventions, wherein the recording unit is configured to record ventilation data each time a specific amount of time elapses or at a specific time of day. [0033] With this refrigerator unit for container, the ventilation data is recorded each time a specific amount of time elapses or at a specific time of day. As a result, it is possible to know how the quantity of ventilated air changes with respect to a specific repeated time interval or a specific time of day. [0034] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the thirteenth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to third inventions, wherein the ventilation unit has a ventilation passage and an air speed detecting means. The ventilation passage serves as a passage through which the ventilated air passes. The air speed detecting means detects the speed of the air passing through the ventilation passage. The ventilation data includes the air speed data detected by the air speed detecting means. [0035] With this refrigerator unit for container, the air speed data detected by the air speed detecting means is recorded. The speed of the air passing through the ventilation passage indicates the quantity of ventilated air indirectly. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to know the quantity of ventilated air because the air speed data is recorded. [0036] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the fourteenth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to third inventions, wherein the ventilation unit has a ventilation passage and a blower device. The ventilation passage serves as a passage through which the ventilated air passes. The blower device generates a flow of air that is ventilated through the ventilation passage. The ventilation data includes output data from the blower device. [0037] With this refrigerator unit for container, the output data of the blower device is recorded. The output of the blower device indicates the quantity of ventilated air indirectly. For example, the larger the output of the blower device, the larger the quantity of ventilated air; the smaller the output of the blower device, the smaller the quantity of ventilated air. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to know the quantity of ventilated air because the output data is recorded. [0038] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the fifteenth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to third inventions, wherein the ventilation unit has a ventilation passage and a pressure detecting means. The ventilation passage serves as a passage through which the ventilated air passes. The pressure detecting means detects the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the ventilation passage. The ventilation data includes the pressure difference data detected by the pressure detecting means. [0039] With this refrigerator unit for container, the pressure difference data detected by the pressure detecting means is recorded. The pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the ventilation passage indicates the quantity of ventilated air indirectly. For example, the larger the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the ventilation passage, the larger the quantity of ventilated air; the smaller the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the ventilation passage, the smaller the quantity of ventilated air. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to know the quantity of ventilated air because the pressure difference data is recorded. [0040] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the sixteenth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to third inventions, wherein the ventilation data includes freight quantity data related to the quantity of freight loaded in the container. [0041] With this refrigerator unit for container, freight quantity data related to the quantity of freight loaded in the container is recorded. The quantity of freight loaded in the container affects the pressure difference between the interior and exterior of the container. The pressure difference between the interior and exterior of the container affects the quantity of air that is ventilated. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, it is possible to know the quantity of ventilated air because the freight quantity data is recorded. [0042] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the seventeenth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to any one of the first to sixteenth inventions, wherein the ventilation data is data that indirectly indicates the quantity of air ventilated by the ventilation unit. Also, this refrigerator unit for container is further provided with a conversion unit configured to convert the ventilation data into a quantity of air. [0043] With this refrigerator unit for container, the ventilation data is converted into a quantity of air by the conversion unit. Thus, even if the ventilation data is data that indirectly indicates the quantity of ventilated air, the quantity of ventilated air can be known directly by converting the ventilation data into the quantity of ventilated air. [0044] A refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the eighteenth invention is a refrigerator unit for container according to the seventeenth invention, wherein the conversion unit has a plurality of different converting means adapted to different ventilation unit configurations. [0045] The relationship between the ventilation data and the quantity of air often differs depending on the constituent features of the ventilation unit. Consequently, it is difficult to convert the ventilation data accurately when the same conversion formula is used irregardless of the constituent features of the ventilation unit. [0046] With this refrigerator unit for container, however, the ventilation data is converted into a quantity of air using a plurality of different converting means adapted to different ventilation unit configurations. Thus, with this refrigerator unit for container, the ventilation data can be converted more accurately into the quantity of ventilated air. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0047] FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the refrigerator unit for container 1 . [0048] FIG. 2 is a side cross sectional view showing of the refrigerator unit for container 1 . [0049] FIG. 3( a ) shows the ventilation mechanism 4 in a completely closed state. [0050] FIG. 3( b ) shows the ventilation mechanism 4 in an opened state. [0051] FIG. 3( c ) shows the ventilation mechanism 4 in a completely opened state. [0052] FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the opening degree detecting mechanism 5 . [0053] FIG. 5 illustrates how the opening degree detecting mechanism 5 detects the opening degree. [0054] FIG. 6 is a side cross sectional view in the vicinity of the thermally insulated wall 26 . [0055] FIG. 7 is a control block diagram. [0056] FIG. 8 is a graph plotting the first conversion formula F 1 and the second conversion formula F 2 . [0057] FIG. 9 is a front view of the control panel 72 . [0058] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of the output indicating the ventilation quantity and other information. [0059] FIG. 11 is a flowchart indicating the procedure for logging and outputting the ventilation quantity. [0060] FIG. 12( a ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which air speed data is detected. [0061] FIG. 12( b ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which output data is detected. [0062] FIG. 12( c ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which pressure difference data is detected. [0063] FIG. 13( a ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is detected using a photoelectric sensor 66 . [0064] FIG. 13( b ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is detected using a reed switch 67 . [0065] FIG. 13( c ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which the movement of the opening/closing member 41 is transmitted by means of a gear. [0066] FIG. 14( a ) shows an opening/closing member 41 configured to open and close the ventilation passage 40 by rotating. [0067] FIG. 14( b ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which the movement of the opening/closing member 41 is transmitted by means of a wire 51 . [0068] FIG. 14( c ) is a schematic view illustrating a case in which the movement of the opening/closing member 41 is transmitted by means of a gear. [0069] FIG. 15 is a schematic view illustrating a case in which the ventilation passage 40 is provided in a position that is separated from the first chamber R 1 or the second chamber R 2 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Constituent Features of Refrigerator Unit for Container [0070] A refrigerator unit for container 1 that employs an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 . FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the external appearance of the refrigerator unit for container 1 and FIG. 2 is a side cross sectional view of the refrigerator unit for container 1 when it is mounted to a container C. The refrigerator unit for container 1 is a device for maintaining a prescribed temperature in the interior IS of the freight container C and is mounted to an opening of the container C in such a manner as to separate the interior IS of the container C from the exterior OS of the same. The refrigerator unit for container 1 is provided with a frame 2 , refrigerant circuit component parts 3 , a ventilation mechanism 4 (ventilation unit), an opening degree sensing mechanism 5 (acquisition unit), various sensors 6 (see FIG. 7 ), and a control unit 7 . Frame [0071] The frame 2 has a generally sheet-like shape and is mounted in such a fashion as to block one side of the container C. As shown in FIG. 2 , the frame 2 is provided with an exterior storage space SP 1 and an interior storage space SP 2 . [0072] The exterior storage space SP 1 has a recessed shape and is formed in a lower portion of a front face 21 on the side of the frame 2 that faces the exterior OS of the container C. The exterior storage space SP 1 is isolated from the interior IS of the container C and communicates with the exterior OS of the container C. The upper portion of the front face 21 has a flat shape that is generally parallel to the vertical direction. [0073] The interior storage space SP 2 is arranged between the front face 21 and a rear panel 22 . The rear panel 22 faces the interior IS of the container C and is separated from the front face 21 by a prescribed distance. The interior storage space SP 2 spans from the rear (rear panel side) of the external storage space SP 1 to space above the exterior storage space SP 1 and communicates with the interior IS of the container C through air vents 23 , 24 provided near the top and bottom ends of the rear panel 22 . A plate-shaped fan guide 25 is provided in a generally horizontal state in the interior storage space SP 2 . The an evaporator fan 36 (described later) is mounted to the fan guide 25 . The interior storage space SP 2 is divided by the fan guide 25 and evaporator fan 36 into a first chamber R 1 located above the fan guide 25 and a second chamber R 2 located below the fan guide 25 . [0074] A thermally insulated wall 26 is provided on the rear side of an upper portion of the front face 21 between the interior storage space SP 2 and the exterior OS and on the rear side of a lower portion of the front face 21 between the interior storage space SP 2 and the exterior storage space SP 1 . The thermally insulating wall 26 is made of a thermal insulation material and is arranged and configured to separate the interior IS and exterior OS of the container C. The thermally insulated wall 26 serves to suppress the movement of heat between the interior IS and exterior OS of the container C. Refrigerant Circuit Component Parts [0075] The refrigerant circuit component parts 3 include such parts as a condenser 30 , a compressor 31 , an expansion valve 32 (see FIG. 7 ), and an evaporator 33 and these parts constitute a refrigerant circuit. [0076] The condenser 30 , the compressor 31 , and the expansion valve 32 are housed in the external storage space SP 1 . The external storage space SP 1 also houses a condenser fan 34 and a condenser fan motor 35 . The condenser fan 34 is rotated by the condenser fan motor 35 and serves to produce a flow of air that is drawn into the exterior storage space SP 1 from the exterior OS, passes through the condenser 30 , and is discharged to the exterior OS (see unshaded arrow A 1 ). [0077] The evaporator 33 is housed in the second chamber R 2 of the interior storage space SP 2 on the rear side of the upper portion of the front face 21 . The internal storage space SP 2 also houses an evaporator fan 36 and an evaporator fan motor 37 . The evaporator fan 36 and evaporator fan motor 37 are arranged above the evaporator 33 . The evaporator fan 36 is provided in the opening of the fan guide 25 and is positioned between the first chamber R 1 and the second chamber R 2 . The first chamber R 1 is positioned on the inlet side of the evaporator fan 36 and the second chamber R 2 is positioned on the outlet side of the evaporator fan 36 . The evaporator fan 36 is rotated by the evaporator fan motor 37 and produces an interior air flow. The interior air flow flows from the interior IS of the container C through the air vent 23 at the upper end of the rear panel 22 and into the first chamber R 1 of the interior storage space SP 2 (see unshaded arrow A 2 ). The interior air flow then flows from the first chamber R 1 through the opening of the fan guide 25 and into the second chamber R 2 , where it passes through the evaporator 33 arranged in the second chamber R 2 . Then, the interior air flow flows through the vent 24 at the lower end of the rear panel 22 to the interior IS (see unshaded arrow A 3 ). Ventilation Mechanism [0078] The ventilation mechanism 4 serves to ventilate the interior IS of the container C and is provided with a ventilation passage 40 and an opening/closing member 41 . [0079] The ventilation passage 40 is a passage through which the ventilated air passes and has an intake passage 42 and an exhaust passage 43 . The intake passage 42 and exhaust passage 43 are provided so as to be aligned above and below each other in an upper portion of the front surface 21 ; the inlet passage 42 is positioned above the exhaust passage 43 . The exhaust passage 42 is the passage through which air is drawn into the first chamber R 1 from the exterior OS of the container C and is arranged and configured to communicate from an intake port 44 to the first chamber R 1 through the thermally insulated wall 26 . The exhaust passage 43 is the passage through which air is discharged to the exterior OS of the container C from the second chamber R 2 and is arranged and configured to communicate to an exhaust port 45 and the exterior OS through the thermally insulated wall 26 . The intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 are provided in an upper portion of the front face 21 and arranged so as to face the exterior OS with a prescribed vertical spacing there-between. As shown in FIG. 3 , the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 have the shapes of trapezoids arranged such that the upper and lower bases are parallel to the vertical direction. The upper edges of the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 are horizontal and the bottom edges are slanted. [0080] The opening/closing member 41 serves to open and close the ventilation passage 40 . The opening/closing member 41 is provided such that it slides freely up and down over the front face 21 . The opening/closing member 41 serves to adjust the quantity of ventilated air by adjusting the opening degree of the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 in accordance with its slide position. As shown in FIG. 3( a ), the opening/closing member 41 has the shape of a rectangle that is long in the vertical direction in a frontal view and is provided with a square opening 46 in the center thereof. [0081] When the ventilation passage 40 is closed, the opening 46 of the opening/closing member 41 is positioned between the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 such that the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 are closed by the opening/closing member 41 . As shown in FIG. 3( b ), the opening cross sectional areas of the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 increase in accordance with the amount of movement of the opening/closing member 41 when the opening/closing member 41 is slid in the vertical direction. When the opening/closing member is moved in this way and the exhaust passage 40 is opened, pressure differences causes the interior IS of the container C to be ventilated. The pressure differences mentioned here are the pressure difference between the interior IS and the interior storage space SP 2 and the pressure difference between the exterior OS and the interior storage space SP 2 . Since the first chamber R 1 is positioned on the inlet side of the evaporator fan 36 , its pressure is lower than the pressures of both the interior IS and the exterior OS. Consequently, air is drawn from the interior IS to the first chamber R 1 through the air vent 23 . Likewise, air is drawn from the exterior OS to the first chamber R 1 through the intake port 44 and intake passage 42 . The air drawn into the first chamber R 1 is pulled through the opening of the fan guide 25 by the evaporator fan 36 and delivered to the second chamber R 2 . Since the second chamber R 2 is positioned on the outlet side of the evaporator fan 36 , its pressure is higher than the pressures of both the interior IS and the exterior OS. Consequently, a portion of the air delivered to the second chamber R 2 is discharged to the exterior OS through the exhaust passage 43 and the exhaust port 45 . Meanwhile, the remainder of the air delivered to the second chamber R 2 is sent to the interior IS through the evaporator 33 and the air vent 24 . In this way, with this refrigerator unit for container 1 , the pressure difference generated by the evaporator fan 36 is utilized to ventilate the container C. By moving the opening/closing member 41 , the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is adjusted and thus the ventilation quantity is adjusted. As shown in FIG. 3( c ), the ventilation passage 40 is completely open when the positions of the opening 46 of the opening/closing member 41 and the intake port 44 are aligned. [0082] When the opening/closing member 41 is slid in the opposite direction as just described, the opening cross sectional areas of the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 decrease in accordance with the amount of movement of the opening/closing member 41 . The ventilation passage 40 is fully closed when the opening 46 of the opening/closing member 41 is positioned between the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 (see FIG. 3( a )). A graduated scale is provided in near the opening/closing member 41 and the opening/closing member 41 is moved manually using this scale as an indicator of the ventilation quantity. Opening Degree Detecting Mechanism [0083] The opening degree detecting mechanism 5 is configured to acquire opening degree data (ventilation data) indicating the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 . The opening degree data indicates the quantity of air ventilated by the ventilating mechanism 4 (hereinafter called “ventilation quantity”) indirectly. As shown in FIG. 4 , the opening degree detecting mechanism 5 is provided with an opening degree detecting device 50 (opening degree detecting means) and a wire 51 (transmitting means) configured and arranged to transmit the amount of movement of the opening/closing member 41 to the opening degree detecting device 50 . [0084] The opening degree detecting device 50 is arranged in the exterior storage space SP 1 and serves to detect the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 based on the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 . The opening degree detecting device 50 has a wire winding drum 52 and a position meter 53 . The wire winding drum 52 has a circular shape for winding the wire 51 and is configured to rotate in accordance with the movement of the wire 51 (see unshaded arrow A 6 ). The position meter 53 serves to detect the rotational angle of the wire winding drum 52 and send the detected rotational angle to a controller 7 . In short, the position meter 53 can detect the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 by detecting the movement amount and position of the opening/closing member 41 based on the rotational angle of the wire winding drum 52 . [0085] The wire 51 is a metal wire member configured and arranged to transmit the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 to the opening degree detecting device 50 . The wire 51 is arranged to span from the upper portion of the front face 21 where the opening/closing member 41 is provided to the exterior storage space SP 1 where the opening degree detecting device 50 is arranged and, as shown in FIG. 5 , the wire 51 links the opening/closing member 41 and the wire winding drum 52 together. FIG. 5 illustrates the linkage of the opening/closing member 41 and the wire winding drum 52 in a simplified schematic manner. As shown in FIG. 6 , the wire 51 is inserted through a lead-through pipe 54 embedded in the thermally insulated wall 26 . The lead-through pipe 54 passes from the upper portion of the front face 21 where the opening/closing member 41 is provided, through the interior of the thermally insulated wall 26 , and down into the exterior storage space SP 1 and serves to guide the wire 51 from the upper portion of the front face 21 to the external storage space SP 1 . The wire 51 moves through the lead-through pipe 54 (see unshaded arrow A 5 ) in accordance with the movement of the opening/closing member 41 (see unshaded arrow A 4 ) and thereby transmits the movement of the opening/closing member 41 to the opening degree detecting device 50 . [0086] Thus, with this opening degree detecting mechanism 5 , the opening/closing member 41 and the opening degree detecting device 50 can be arranged in separated positions because the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 is transmitted to the opening degree detecting device 50 by the wire 51 . Sensors [0087] The sensors 6 include an exterior temperature sensor 61 (temperature detecting means) for detecting the temperature of the exterior OS of the container C and an interior temperature sensor 62 for detecting the temperature of the interior IS of the container C (see FIG. 7 ). The exterior temperature, interior temperature, and other information detected by the sensors are sent to the controller 7 . Controller [0088] The controller 7 is a device for controlling the refrigerator unit for container 1 and is arranged in the external storage space SP 1 . As shown in FIG. 7 , the controller 7 has a control unit 70 comprising a CPU or the like, a memory 71 , a control panel 72 for displaying information and making entries to control, an output unit 78 , etc. [0089] The control unit 70 is connected to the compressor 31 , the condenser fan motor 35 , the expansion valve 32 , the evaporator fan motor 37 , and the sensors 6 and serves to control the operation of the refrigerator unit for container 1 . The control unit 70 is also connected to the position meter 53 of the opening degree detecting device 50 and is configured to log (record) the ventilation quantity in the memory 71 based on the information detected by the opening degree detecting device 50 . The control unit 70 has a conversion unit 73 , a correction unit 74 , and a recording unit 75 . [0090] The conversion unit 73 converts the opening degree data, which indicates the ventilation quantity indirectly, into the ventilation quantity. More specifically, the conversion unit 73 is configured to convert the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 detected by the opening degree detecting device 50 into a quantity of ventilated air. Since the opening cross sectional areas of the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 are adjusted when the opening/closing member 41 moves, the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 corresponds to the quantity of ventilated air. Thus, the quantity of ventilated air can be calculated using a conversion formula that indicates the correspondence between the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 and the quantity of ventilated air. The conversion unit 73 is provided with a first conversion formula F 1 (conversion means) and a second conversion formula F 2 as shown in FIG. 8 and is configured to use either conversion formula, whichever is selected. The first conversion formula F 1 indicates the correspondence between the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 and the quantity of ventilated air in a case where a protective screen is not mounted to the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 . The second conversion formula F 2 indicates the correspondence between the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 and the quantity of ventilated air in a case where a protective screen is mounted to the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 and is different from the first conversion formula F 1 . The protective screen serves to prevent contaminants from entering the interior IS of the container C from the exterior OS and is mounted to the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 . Since the pressure difference between the first chamber R 1 and the exterior OS is different in a case where a protective screen is mounted to the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 than in a case where a protective screen is not provided, the first conversion formula F 1 and the second conversion formula F 2 are different. Thus, a more accurate conversion can be accomplished by using the conversion formulas F 1 , F 2 selectively depending on the constituent features of the ventilation mechanism 4 . [0091] The correction unit 74 corrects the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 transmitted by the wire 51 based on the exterior temperature. More specifically, since the wire 51 expands and contracts as the temperature changes, error occurs in the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 depending on the change in the temperature. The correction unit 74 is configured to compensate for the error that results from changes in the exterior temperature. The correction unit 74 corrects the detected movement amount using, for example, the formula shown below. [0000] l c =l t ×{1+α( t−t 0 )} [0092] In the formula, l c is the corrected movement amount, l t is the actual measured value of the movement amount, α is the coefficient of linear thermal expansion of the wire 51 , t is the exterior temperature at the time when the movement amount is detected, and t 0 is the exterior temperature when setting the zero-point. [0093] Since the error resulting from expansion and contraction of the wire 51 is corrected in this way, the ventilation quantity can be calculated more accurately. [0094] Although in this embodiment the correction is performed using the exterior temperature as the ambient temperature of the wire 51 , it is also acceptable to detect the temperature near the wire 51 and use the detected temperature for the correction. [0095] In addition to logging the history of the ventilation quantity in the memory 71 , the recording unit 75 displays the ventilation quantity on a display panel 76 (first output unit and second output unit) of the control panel 72 (see FIG. 9 ). The recording unit 75 records the history of the ventilation quantity, which comprises the ventilation quantities obtained by converting the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 and the dates (year/month/day) and times of day when the ventilation quantities were recorded, in the memory 71 . The recording unit 75 logs the ventilation quantity history at the following three timings. The first timing is when the refrigerator unit for container 1 starts running. That is, the recording unit 75 logs the ventilation quantity and other data when the compressor 31 , evaporator fan motor 37 , and condenser fan motor 35 are driven and the refrigerator unit for container 1 starts cooling the interior IS of the container C. The second timing is each time a specific amount of time elapses or at a specific time of day. For example, the recording unit 75 might log the ventilation quantity and other data once per day at a specific time (e.g., 00:00 AM). The third timing is when the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is changed. That is, the recording unit 75 logs the ventilation quantity and other data when the opening/closing member 41 is moved and the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is changed. By logging the ventilation quantity and other data at these three timings, the ventilation quantity can be logged in a more detailed fashion. Thus, the ventilation quantity can be known in more detail. Additionally, the value of the ventilation quantity is logged according to a prescribed incremental value. For example, in consideration of the conversion error between the opening degree and the ventilation quantity, the ventilation quantity might be logged in increments of 5 m 3 /h. [0096] The control panel 72 is arranged in the external storage space SP 1 of the front face 21 and faces the exterior OS. As shown in FIG. 9 , the control panel 72 is provided with a display panel 76 and input keys 77 . The display panel 76 displays such information as the interior temperature of the container C and the ventilation quantity obtained by converting the opening degree data. The input keys 77 are used to turn the refrigerator unit for container 1 on and off and to enter operation details. [0097] The ventilation quantity is not only displayed on the display panel 76 but also outputted by the output unit 78 (first output unit and second output unit). The output unit 78 outputs the logged history of the ventilation quantity. The output unit 78 is, for example, a printer serving to print the ventilation quantities, dates (year/month/day), and times that have been logged, a write device configured to write the ventilation quantities and other data to a recording medium as electronic data, or an output port for transmitting the ventilation quantities and other data to another information terminal through a communication cable or wireless connection as electronic data. An example of the ventilation quantity history list outputted by the output unit 78 is shown in FIG. 10 . In this history list, the ventilation quantity D 1 is a ventilation quantity logged when the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is changed. The ventilation quantity D 2 is a ventilation quantity logged at a specific time of day. The ventilation quantity D 3 is a ventilation quantity logged when the refrigerator unit for container 1 started operating. The ventilation quantities D 1 , D 2 , D 3 are outputted together with the temperatures T 1 and the date (year/month/day) and time T 2 when the ventilation quantities D 1 , D 2 , D 3 , and the interior temperature T were detected. The temperatures T 1 are the temperature setting, the interior temperature of the container C detected during transport, etc. The temperatures T 1 and the ventilation quantities D 1 , D 2 , D 3 are detected and recorded at a plurality of times T 2 during transport. Logging and Output of Ventilation Quantities [0098] The procedure for logging the ventilation quantity will now be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 11 . [0099] In step S 1 , the ventilation passage 40 is closed or opened. In this embodiment, the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is changed manually by sliding the opening/closing member 41 . When the opening/closing member 41 is moved, the wire 51 is either pulled or pushed in accordance with the movement of the opening/closing member 41 . The movement of the wire 51 is transmitted to the wire winding drum 52 and the wire winding drum 52 rotates. [0100] In step S 2 , the opening degree is detected. In this embodiment, the position meter 53 detects the rotational angle of the wire winding drum 52 . The opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is outputted from the opening degree detecting device 50 . That is, the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is outputted in the form of the rotational angle of the wire winding drum 52 . The outputted opening degree is sent to the control unit 70 of the controller 7 . [0101] In step S 3 , a conversion calculation is executed to obtain the ventilation quantity. In this embodiment, the opening degree of the opening/closing member 41 is converted to a ventilation quantity using either the first conversion formula F 1 or the second conversion formula F 2 . [0102] In step S 4 , the ventilation quantity and other data is logged and displayed. In this embodiment, the conversion-calculated ventilation quantity and the date (year/month/day) and time it was logged are recorded in the memory 71 and the ventilation quantity is displayed on the display panel 76 . The logging and display of the ventilation quantity and other data are performed at the aforementioned three timings. The output unit 78 outputs the history of the ventilation quantity and other data. Characteristic Features [0103] (1) With this refrigerator unit for container 1 , the interior IS of the container C is ventilated and the ventilation quantity is logged. As a result, the fact that the opening/closing member 41 was moved and ventilation was conducted during transport of a container C can be confirmed afterwards by checking the ventilation quantity history. [0104] In particular, it is difficult to check the history of the opening degree of the opening/closing member 41 and the ventilation quantity when the opening/closing member 41 is moved a plurality of times. However, with this refrigerator unit for container 1 , the history of the ventilation quantity can be known easily by outputting the logged ventilation quantities. [0105] For example, in the case of a container C used to transport fruit, it is necessary to exhaust the ethylene gas generated by the fruit and draw in fresh outside air. Therefore, it is important to manage the ventilation quantity in order to maintain the freshness of the fruit. With this refrigerator unit for container 1 , by logging the ventilation quantity, a transport company transporting the container C can provide the fruit owner with a guarantee that a certain amount of ventilation is conducted. [0106] (2) With this refrigerator unit for container 1 , the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is detected based on the amount of movement of the opening/closing member 41 and the ventilation quantity is calculated based on the opening degree. As a result, ventilation quantity can be obtained with a system having a simple configuration. Other Embodiments [0107] (1) In the embodiment described above, the ventilation quantity is found using the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 and a conversion formula. It is also acceptable to find the ventilation quantity based on the speed of the ventilated air and the opening cross sectional area. For example, as shown in FIG. 12( a ), an air speed sensor 63 (air speed detecting means) can be provided in the ventilation passage 40 . In such a refrigerator unit for container as this, an air speed sensor 63 that detects the speed of the air passing through the exhaust passage 43 is provided in the exhaust passage 43 . The control unit 70 logs data (ventilation data) that includes the air speed data detected by the air speed sensor 63 and the opening cross sectional area. The control unit 70 converts the air speed data into a ventilation quantity by finding the product of the detected air speed and the opening cross sectional area of the exhaust port 45 and logs the resulting ventilation quantity. In view of improving the detection accuracy, it is preferred that the air speed sensor 63 be mounted on the side where the opening/closing member 41 begins to open. [0108] (2) Although in the embodiment described above, the ventilation quantity is found using the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 and a conversion formula, when the refrigerator unit for container 1 is provided with a blower device 47 for ventilation as shown in FIG. 12( b ), it is also acceptable to detect the output of the blower device 47 and log the detected output data (ventilation data). It is also acceptable to convert the output data into a ventilation quantity and log the ventilation quantity. The blower device 47 conducts ventilation by creating a flow of air that flows from the second chamber R 2 to the exterior OS and a flow of air that flows from the exterior OS to the first chamber R 1 . Since the ventilation quantity is affected by the output of the blower device 47 , the controller 70 can find the ventilation quantity based on the output of the blower device. [0109] (3) In the embodiment described above, the ventilation quantity is found using the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 and a conversion formula. It is also acceptable to find the ventilation quantity by detecting the pressure difference between the exterior OS and the interior IS. For example, as shown in FIG. 12( c ), there may be a refrigerator unit for container 1 provided with an exterior pressure sensor 64 (pressure detecting means) that detects the pressure of the exterior OS and an interior pressure sensor 65 (pressure detecting means) that detects the pressure of the first chamber R 1 or the second chamber R 2 . In such a refrigerator unit for container 1 as this, pressure difference data (ventilation data) indicating the difference between the exterior pressure detected by the exterior pressure sensor 64 and the interior pressure detected by the interior pressure sensor 65 are logged. The output data can then be converted into a ventilation quantity and logged. [0110] The ventilation of the air in the interior IS of the container C takes place due to the pressure difference between the exterior OS and the interior IS. In other words, the existence of a pressure difference between the exterior OS and the interior IS causes a flow of air that flows from the exterior OS to the interior IS or a flow of air that flows from the interior IS to the exterior OS to be generated. As a result, ventilation occurs. Thus, the ventilation quantity can be found by detecting the pressure difference between the exterior OS and the interior IS. [0111] It is also acceptable to log freight quantity data related to the quantity of freight in the interior IS of the container C and find the ventilation quantity using the freight quantity data. The quantity of freight in the interior IS of the container C affects the pressure difference between the exterior OS and the interior IS. In other words, the pressure inside the container C is different when the quantity of freight in the interior IS of the container C is large than when the quantity of freight is small. Thus, the ventilation quantity can be found by taking the freight quantity data into consideration. [0112] (4) Although in the embodiment described above, the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is detected by using a wire 51 to transmit the movement of the opening/closing member 41 to an opening degree detecting device 50 , it is also acceptable to detect the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 with a photoelectric sensor 66 (opening degree detecting means) as shown in FIG. 13( a ). The photoelectric sensor 66 is arranged to face the opening/closing member 41 in the direction in which the opening/closing member 41 moves so that it can detect the distance between itself and the opening/closing member 41 . With this arrangement, the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 and thus the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 imposed by the opening/closing member 41 can be detected. It is also acceptable to detect the amount of movement of the opening/closing member 41 using radio waves instead of light. [0113] (5) Although in the embodiment described above, the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 is detected by using a wire 51 to transmit the movement of the opening/closing member 41 to an opening degree detecting device 50 , it is also acceptable to detect the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 with a plurality of reed switches 67 (opening degree detecting means) as shown in FIG. 13( b ). The reed switches 67 are arranged parallel to the slide direction of the opening/closing member 41 and are configured to enter an on state when exposed to a magnetic force. A magnet 68 is provided on the opening/closing member 41 and the magnet 68 moves over the reed switches 67 when the opening/closing member 41 moves. Thus, the movement amount and position of the opening/closing member 41 can be detected based on the on/off status of the reed switches 67 . [0114] It is also acceptable to detect the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 using a plurality of limit switches. In such a case, the limit switches are arranged parallel to the slide direction of the opening/closing member 41 and are configured to enter an on state when subjected to mechanical contact. A lever configured and arranged to contact the limit switches is provided on the opening/closing member 41 so that when the opening/closing member 41 moves, the limit switches in positions through which the opening/closing member 41 has passed are turned on. Thus, the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 can be detected based on the on/off status of the limit switches. [0115] (6) Although in the embodiment described above, the movement of the opening/closing member 41 is transmitted to the opening detecting device 50 by means of a wire 51 , it is also acceptable to transmit the movement of the opening/closing member 41 to the opening degree detecting device 50 with a gear 55 (transmitting means) as shown in FIG. 13( c ). The gear 55 has a circular shape and is arranged to the side of the opening/closing member 41 . A linear gear 56 is provided on a side edge of the opening/closing member 41 and the linear gear 56 of the opening/closing member 41 meshes with the gear 55 . A position meter 53 is mounted to the rotational center of the gear 55 and serves to detect the rotational angle of the gear 55 . Thus, when the opening/closing member 41 moves up and down, the gear 55 rotates (see solid arrow A 6 ) and the position meter 53 detects the movement amount of the opening/closing member 41 in the form of the rotational angle of the gear 55 . As a result, the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 can be detected. [0116] (7) Although in the embodiment described above, the ventilation passage 40 is opened and closed by sliding the opening/closing member 41 linearly up and down, it is also acceptable to open and close the ventilation passage 40 by rotating an opening/closing member 48 as shown in FIG. 14( a ). The opening/closing member 48 has a circular shape and is mounted to the upper portion of the front face 21 such that its center is positioned between the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 . Two openings 481 , 482 corresponding to the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 are provided in the opening/closing member 48 . When the opening/closing member 48 rotates (see the solid arrow A 7 ), the two openings 481 , 482 overlap the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 and thereby open the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 . When the portions of the opening/closing member 48 other than the openings 481 , 482 overlap the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 , the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 are closed. In FIG. 14( a ), the two openings 481 , 482 are positioned such that the ports are completely closed. When an opening/closing member 48 like that shown in FIG. 14( a ) is rotated 90 degrees from a position where the portions of the opening/closing member 48 other than the openings 481 , 482 are aligned with the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 , the ventilation passage 40 is completely closed. When the opening/closing member 48 is rotated 90 degrees further or 90 degrees in the opposite direction to a position where the two openings 481 , 482 are aligned with the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 , the ventilation passage 40 is completely open. A position meter 53 is mounted to the center of the gear 48 and serves to detect the rotational angle of the opening/closing member 48 as the movement amount of the opening/closing member 48 , i.e., as the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 . [0117] It is also acceptable to provide the position meter 53 in a position separated from the position meter 53 instead of at the center of the opening/closing member 48 . For example, as shown in FIG. 14( b ), an opening degree detecting device 50 comprising a wire winding drum 52 and a position meter 53 arranged at the center of the wire winding drum 52 can be arranged in a position separated from the opening/closing member 48 and a wire 51 can be used to transmit the rotation of the opening/closing member 48 to the wire winding drum 52 . It is also acceptable to provide a circular gear 57 , 58 (transmitting means) at the center of each of the opening/closing member 48 and the position meter 53 and to provide another circular gear 59 (transmitting means) that is positioned between and meshes with the gears 57 , 58 , as shown in FIG. 14( c ). With this arrangement, too, the rotation of the opening/closing member 48 is transmitted to the position meter 53 by the gears 55 , 57 , 58 , 59 and the opening degree of the ventilation passage 40 can be detected. When a wire winding drum 52 or gears 57 , 58 , 59 are used as described above, the resolution with which the movement amount of the opening/closing member 48 is detected can be changed easily by changing the diameter of the wire winding drum 52 or the gear ratio of the gears 57 , 58 , 59 . [0118] (8) In the embodiment described above, the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 are provided closely adjacent to the first chamber R 1 and the second chamber R 2 , respectively. However, due to various circumstances, there are cases in which the intake port 44 and the exhaust port 45 are provided in positions separated from the first chamber R 1 or second chamber R 2 . In such cases, a duct joining the intake port 44 and first chamber R 1 and a duct joining the exhaust port 45 and second chamber R 2 can be provided. For example, consider a case in which the exhaust port 45 and intake port 44 are provided in the lower portion of the front face 21 such that the intake port 44 is separated from the first chamber R 1 , as shown in FIG. 15 . In such a case as this, it is acceptable to provide a duct 49 that runs from the first chamber R 1 , passes through the second chamber R 2 , penetrates the thermally insulated wall 26 and the front face 21 , and connects to the intake port 44 . In this way, even though the intake port 44 is in a position separated from the first chamber R 1 , air drawn into the intake port 44 from the exterior OS can be delivered to the first chamber R 1 by the duct 49 (see solid arrow A 6 ). [0119] In the case of marine freight containers C, there are times when the refrigerator unit for container runs at terminals and the like in order to keep the freight cool after disembarkation. In such cases, a generator G is often installed on the upper portion of the front face 21 as shown in FIG. 15 because a power supply is not available. Consequently, the intake port 44 and exhaust port 45 cannot be provided in the upper portion of the front face 21 and must be provided in the lower portion of the front face 21 . Therefore, particularly in cases where ventilation is accomplished by utilizing pressure differences, it is effective to provide a duct(s) 49 as just described in order to ventilate the container. [0120] (9) Although in the embodiment described above, ventilation quantities calculated based on the opening degree data are outputted to the display panel 76 of the control panel 72 and the output unit 78 , it is also acceptable to output such ventilation data as opening degree data. [0121] (10) Although in the embodiments described above, such data as opening degree data, air speed data, output data, pressure difference data, and freight quantity data that indicate the ventilation quantity indirectly are detected and logged, it is also acceptable to provide a ventilation quantity sensor that detects the ventilation quantity directly and log the detected ventilation quantity. [0122] (11) Although in the embodiments described above, the ventilation quantity is logged in a controller 7 arranged in the exterior storage space SP 1 , it is also acceptable to log the ventilation quantity in an external computer terminal, such as a desktop computer or notebook computer. [0123] By using a refrigerator unit for container in accordance with the present invention, the quantity of air ventilated in the interior of a container can be known because recorded ventilation data related to the quantity of ventilated air can be reviewed afterwards.

A refrigerator unit is configured for a container in which it is possible to know the quantity of air that is ventilated. The refrigerator unit is equipped with a ventilation mechanism, an opening degree detecting mechanism, and a recording unit. The ventilation mechanism ventilates the air inside the container. The opening degree detecting mechanism acquires ventilation data related to the quantity of air ventilated by the ventilation mechanism. The recording unit records the ventilation data acquired by the opening degree detecting mechanism.

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,077, titled “Apparatus, Computer Readable Medium, And Program Code For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And A Downhole Broadband Transmitting System,” filed on Jul. 20, 2012, which is a non-provisional of and claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,165, titled “Apparatus And Program Product For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And A Downhole Broadband Transmitting System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,369, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, titled “Methods of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors and a Downhole Broadband Transmitting System”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,019, filed on Jul. 20, 2013, titled “Apparatus, Computer Readable Medium and Program Code for Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors and Telemetry System”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/553,958, filed on Jul. 20, 2012 , titled “Methods of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors and Telemetry System”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,298, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, titled “Apparatus for Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,470, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, titled “Methods for Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors”; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,171, titled “Methods Of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And A Downhole Broadband Transmitting System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,201, titled “Apparatus For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,213, titled “Methods For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,242 titled “Apparatus And Program Product For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And Telemetry System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,246 titled “Methods Of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And Telemetry System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates in general to hydrocarbon production, and more particularly, to identifying rock types and rock properties in order to improve or enhance drilling operations. 2. Description of the Related Art [0003] Measuring rock properties during drilling in real time can provide the operator the ability to steer a drill bit in the direction of desired hydrocarbon concentrations. In current industrial practice and prior inventions, either resistivity or sonic logging while drilling (LWD) tools are employed to guide the drill bit during horizontal or lateral drilling. The center of these techniques is to calculate the locations of the boundary between the pay zone and the overlying rock (upper boundary), and the boundary between the pay zone and underlying rock at the sensors location. The drill bit is steered or maintained within the pay zone by keeping the drill string, at the sensors position, in the middle, or certain position between the upper and lower boundaries of the pay zone. The conventional borehole acoustic telemetry system, which transmits data at low rate (at about tens bit per second), is employed to transmit the measured data to surface. [0004] Since the sensors are located 30-50 feet behind the drill bit, theses conventional LWD steering tools only provide data used in steering the drill bit 30-50 feet behind the drill bit. As the result, it is only after the 30-50 feet that the operator finds out if the selected drilling path is or is not the desired one. Therefore, these tools are not true real-time tools. [0005] Some newer types of systems attempt to provide data at the drill bit, at real-time, while still utilizing conventional borehole telemetry systems (having a relatively slow bit rate). Such systems, for example, are described as including a downhole processor configured to provide downhole on-site processing of acoustic data to interpret the lithologic properties of the rock encountered by the drill bit through comparison of the acoustic energy generated by the drill bit during drilling with predetermined bit characteristics generated by rotating the drill bit in contact with a known rock type. The lithologic properties interpreted via the comparison are then transmitted to the surface via the conventional borehole telemetry system. Although providing data in a reduced form requiring only a bit rate speed, as such systems do not provide raw data real-time which can be used for further analysis, it is nearly impossible to construct additional interpretation models or modify any interpretation models generated by the downhole processor. [0006] Some newer types of borehole data transmitting systems utilize a dedicated electronics unit and a segmented broadband cable protected by a reinforced steel cable positioned within the drill pipe to provide a much faster communication capability. Such systems have been employed into conventional LWD tools to enhance the resolution of the logged information. However the modified tools still measures rock properties at the similar location which is 30-50 feet behind the drill bit. [0007] Accordingly, recognized by the inventor is the need for apparatus, computer readable medium, program code, and methods of identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, and more particularly, apparatus having acoustic sensors adjacent the drill bit positioned to detect drill sounds during drilling operations, a broadband transmitting system for pushing the raw acoustic sensor data to a surface computer and a computer/processor positioned to receive raw acoustic sensor data and configured to derive the rock type and to evaluate the properties of the rocks in real-time utilizing the raw acoustic sensor data. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] In view of the foregoing, various embodiments of the present invention advantageously provide apparatus, computer readable medium, program code, and methods of identifying rock types and rock properties of rock that is currently in contact with an operationally employed drilling bit, which can be used in real-time steering of the drilling bit during drilling. Various embodiments of the present invention provide apparatus having acoustic sensors adjacent the drill bit positioned to detect drill sounds during drilling operations, a broadband transmitting system for pushing the raw acoustic sensor data to a surface computer, and a computer/processor positioned to receive raw acoustic sensor data and configured to derive the rock type and to evaluate the properties of the rocks in real-time. [0009] According to various embodiments of the present invention, the computer/processor is a surface computer which receives the raw acoustic sensor data. Utilizing the raw acoustic sensor data, the computer can advantageously function to derive a frequency distribution of the acoustic sensor data, derive acoustic characteristics from the raw acoustic data, and determine petrophysical properties of rock from the raw acoustic sensor data. The acoustic characteristics can advantageously further be used to identify the lithology type of the rock encountered by the drill bit, to determine the formation boundary, to determine an optimal location of the casing shoe, among other applications. According to various embodiments of the present invention, to determine petrophysical properties of the rock directly from the raw acoustic sensor data (generally after being converted into the frequency domain and filtered), a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm can be derived from acoustic sensor data and correspondent petrophysical properties of formation samples. [0010] More specifically, an example of an embodiment of an apparatus for identifying rock properties of rock in real-time during operational drilling, to include identifying lithology type and other petrophysical properties, can include both conventional components and additional/enhanced acoustic components. Some primary conventional components of the apparatus include a drill string including a plurality of drill pipes each having an inner bore, a drill bit connected to the downhole end of the drill string, and a top drive system for rotating the drill string having both rotating and stationary portion. The additional/acoustic components of the apparatus can include a downhole sensor subassembly connected to and between the drill bit and the drill string, acoustic sensors (e.g. accelerometer, measurement microphone, contact microphone, hydrophone) attached to or contained within the downhole sensor subassembly adjacent the drill bit and positioned to detect drill sounds during drilling operations. The apparatus can also include a broadband transmitting system operably extending through the inner bore of each of the plurality of drill pipes and operably coupled to the acoustic sensors through the downhole data transmitting interface position therewith, a surface data transmitting interface typically connected to a stationary portion of the top drive system, a surface data acquisition unit connected to the surface data transmitting interface, and a surface computer operably coupled to the downhole data transmitting interface through the data acquisition unit, the surface data transmitting interface, and the broadband transmitting system. [0011] According to an embodiment of the apparatus, the computer includes a processor, memory in communication with the processor, and a petrophysical properties analyzing program, which can adapt the computer to perform various operations. The operations can include, for example, sending sampling commands to the data acquisition unit, receiving raw acoustic data from the downhole data transmitting interface, processing the received raw acoustic sensor data—deriving a frequency distribution of the acoustic data from the raw acoustic data, employing an acoustics characteristics evaluation algorithm to thereby derive acoustic characteristics from the raw acoustic sensor data (e.g., via analysis of the processed acoustics data), and employing a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm to thereby derive petrophysical properties of rock undergoing drilling, real-time, from the acoustics data. [0012] According to an embodiment of the apparatus, the acoustic characteristics evaluation algorithm evaluates filtered Fast Fourier Transform data for acoustic characteristics. The acoustic characteristics can include mean frequency, normalized deviation of frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of amplitude, and apparent power. These characteristics can be predetermined for rock samples having a known lithology type and/or petrophysical properties, and thus, can be used to identify lithology type and other properties by comparing such characteristics of the acoustic data received during drilling to that determined for the rock samples. According to another embodiment of the apparatus, the computer uses the derived acoustic characteristics to determine formation boundaries based on real-time detection of changes in the lithology type of the rock being drilled and/or petrophysical properties thereof. [0013] According to an exemplary configuration, the petrophysical properties analyzing program or separate program functions to derive a “bit specific” or “bit independent” petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm. Similarly, the derived bit specific or bit independent petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm evaluates filtered Fast Fourier Transform data for petrophysical properties. This petrophysical property data can advantageously be applied by other applications to include real-time lithology type identification, formation boundary determination, casing shoe position fine-tuning, etc. [0014] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the petrophysical properties analyzing program can be provided either as part of the apparatus or as a standalone deliverable. As such, the petrophysical properties analyzing program can include a set of instructions, stored or otherwise embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, that when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform various operations. These operations can include the operation of receiving raw acoustic sensor data from a surface data interface in communication with a communication medium that is further in communication with a downhole data interface operably coupled to a plurality of acoustic sensors. The operations can also include the processing operations of deriving a frequency distribution of the raw acoustic sensor data, deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics including mean frequency and normalized deviation of frequency from the raw acoustic sensor data, and/or deriving petrophysical properties from the raw acoustic sensor data utilizing a derived petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm employable to predict one or more petrophysical properties of rock undergoing drilling. [0015] According to an embodiment of the program, the operation of deriving a frequency distribution of the acoustic data from the raw acoustic sensor data includes transforming the raw acoustic sensor data into the frequency domain (e.g., employing a Fast Fourier Transform), and filtering the transformed data. [0016] According to an embodiment of the petrophysical properties analyzing program, the operation of deriving the plurality of acoustic characteristics from the raw acoustic sensor data can include comparing the mean frequency, the normalized deviation of frequency, the mean amplitude, the normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power of the rock undergoing drilling with the mean frequency, normalized deviation of frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power of a plurality of rock samples having different known lithologies according to a first configuration, or comparing only part of acoustic characteristics, such as the mean frequency and the normalized deviation of frequency of the rock undergoing drilling with the same type of the acoustic characteristics of a plurality of rock samples having different known lithologies according to another configuration. The operations can also include identifying lithology type of the rock undergoing drilling, determining a location of a formation boundary encountered during drilling, and/or identifying an ideal location for casing shoe positioning, among others. [0017] According to an exemplary implementation, the mean frequency and normalized deviation of frequency are examined together to determine an amount of correlation of the acoustic characteristics associated with the rock undergoing drilling and the acoustic characteristics associated with the rock samples. Also or alternatively, the mean frequency and the mean amplitude can be examined together and/or with normalized deviation of frequency and/or normalized deviation of amplitude and apparent power, or a combination thereof. The operation of comparing can beneficially be performed substantially continuously during drill bit steering in order to provide enhanced steering ability. [0018] According to an embodiment of the petrophysical properties analyzing program employing a bit-specific evaluation methodology, the operation of deriving petrophysical properties from the raw acoustic sensor data can include deriving a bit-specific petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm. The derivation of the algorithm can include collecting petrophysical properties data describing one or more petrophysical properties of rock for a plurality of formation samples and correspondent acoustic data for a preselected type of drill bit, processing the collected acoustic data to produce filtered FFT data, and determining one or more relationships between features of the filtered FFT data and correspondent one or more petrophysical properties of rock describing petrophysical properties of the plurality of formation samples. This can be accomplished, for example, by utilizing mathematical modeling techniques such as, multiple regression analysis, artificial neural network modeling, etc. The derivation of the algorithm can also include coding the determined relationships into computer program code defining the petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm. The operations can correspondingly include employing the derived petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm to predict one or more petrophysical properties of the rock undergoing drilling real-time responsive to filtered data associated with raw acoustic sensor data produced in response to the drilling. [0019] According to another embodiment of the petrophysical properties analyzing program employing a bit-independent evaluation methodology, the petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm derivation can also or alternatively include collecting petrophysical properties data describing one or more petrophysical properties of rock for a plurality of formation samples and correspondent acoustic data for a plurality of different types of drill bits, processing the collected acoustic data to produce filtered FFT data, determining bit-type independent features of the filtered FFT data, and determining one or more relationships between the bit-type independent features of the filtered FFT data and correspondent one or more petrophysical properties of the rock to provide a bit-independent evaluation methodology. The algorithm derivation can also include coding the determined relationships into computer program code defining a bit-independent petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm. The operations can correspondingly include employing the derived petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm to predict one or more petrophysical properties of the rock undergoing drilling real-time responsive to filtered data associated with raw acoustic sensor data produced in response to the drilling, as described, for example, with respect to the prior described bit-specific evaluation methodology. [0020] According to various embodiments of the present invention, methods of analyzing properties of rock in a formation in real-time during drilling are also provided. For example, various embodiments of the methods include both computer employable steps (operations) as described with respect to the operations performed by the apparatus/program code, along with various non-computer implemented steps which provide substitutable replacements for the featured computer implemented steps, in conjunction with additional non-computer implemented steps as described below and/or as featured in the appended claims. Examples of various embodiments of the method are described below. [0021] According to an embodiment of a method of analyzing properties of rock in a formation in real-time during drilling, the method can include the step of receiving raw acoustic sensor data from a data acquisition unit in communication with a surface data interface in further communication with a communication medium and further in communication with a downhole data interface operably coupled to a plurality of acoustic sensors. The method can also include various processing steps which include deriving a frequency distribution of the raw acoustic sensor data, deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics including mean frequency and normalized deviation of frequency from the raw acoustic sensor data utilizing, for example, an acoustics characteristics evaluation algorithm, and/or deriving petrophysical properties from the raw acoustic sensor data utilizing, for example, a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm employable to predict one or more petrophysical properties of rock undergoing drilling. [0022] According to an embodiment of the method, the step of deriving a frequency distribution of the acoustic data from the raw acoustic sensor data includes transforming the raw acoustic sensor data into the frequency domain (e.g., employing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)), and filtering the transformed data. [0023] According to an embodiment of the method, the step of deriving the plurality of acoustic characteristics from the raw acoustic sensor data can include providing the acoustic characteristics evaluation algorithm and comparing the mean frequency, the normalized deviation of frequency, the mean amplitude, the normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power for the rock undergoing drilling with the mean frequency, normalized deviation of frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of amplitude, and the apparent power for a plurality of rock samples having different known lithologies according to a first configuration, or comparing only part of the acoustic characteristics, such as the mean frequency and the normalized deviation of frequency of the rock undergoing drilling with the same type of the acoustic characteristics of a plurality of rock samples having different known lithologies according to another configuration. The method can also include identifying lithology type of the rock undergoing drilling, determining a location of a formation boundary encountered during drilling, and/or identifying an ideal location for casing shoe positioning, among others. According to an exemplary implementation, the mean frequency and normalized deviation of frequency are examined together to determine an amount of correlation of the acoustic characteristics associated with the rock undergoing drilling and the acoustic characteristics associated with the rock samples. Also or alternatively, the mean frequency and the mean amplitude can be examined together and/or with the normalized deviation of frequency and/or normalized deviation of amplitude, or a combination thereof. The step of comparing can beneficially be performed substantially continuously during drill bit steering in order to provide enhanced steering ability. [0024] According to an embodiment of the method, the step of deriving petrophysical properties from the raw sensor data can include deriving a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm for use in evaluating the received signals. The derivation of the algorithm can include collecting petrophysical properties data describing one or more petrophysical properties of rock for a plurality of formation samples and correspondent acoustic data for a preselected type of drill bit and processing the collected acoustic data to produce filtered FFT data. The algorithm derivation can also include determining one or more relationships between features of the filtered FFT data and correspondent one or more petrophysical properties of rock describing petrophysical properties of a plurality of formation samples, e.g., utilizing mathematical modeling techniques such as, multiple regression analysis, artificial neural network modeling, etc. The algorithm derivation can also include coding the determined relationships into computer program code defining the petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm. The derived algorithm can then be used in predicting one or more petrophysical properties of the rock undergoing drilling real-time responsive to filtered data associated with raw acoustic sensor data produced in response to the drilling. [0025] According to an embodiment of the method, the step of deriving petrophysical properties from the raw sensor data can also or alternatively include deriving a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm. The derivation of the algorithm can include collecting petrophysical properties data describing one or more petrophysical properties of rock for a plurality of formation samples and correspondent acoustic data for a plurality of different types of drill bits, processing the collected acoustic data to produce filtered FFT data, and determining bit-type independent features of the filtered FFT data. The algorithm derivation can also include determining one or more relationships between the bit-type independent features of the filtered FFT data and correspondent one or more petrophysical properties of the rock, e.g., using mathematical modeling techniques, such as artificial neural network modeling, etc., to provide a bit-independent evaluation methodology. The algorithm derivation can also include coding the determined relationships into computer program code defining the petrophysical evaluation properties algorithm. Correspondingly, the method can include employing the derived petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm to predict one or more petrophysical properties of the rock undergoing drilling real-time responsive to filtered data associated with raw acoustic sensor data produced in response to the drilling, as described, for example, with respect to the prior described bit-specific evaluation methodology. [0026] Various embodiments of the present invention advantageously supply a new approach for a much better drilling steering. Various embodiments of the present invention provide apparatus and methods that supply detailed information about the rock that is currently in contact with the drilling bit, which can be used in real-time steering the drilling bit. That is, various embodiments of the present invention advantageously provide an employable methodology of retrieving a sufficient level of information so that the driller always knows the rock he is drilling, so that the drilling bit can be steered to follow the desire path more accurately than conventionally achievable. In comparison with conventional drilling steering tools, the real-time data provided by various embodiments of the present invention advantageously allow the driller to drill smoother lateral or horizontal wells with better contact with the production zone, to detect formation boundaries in real time, to detect the fractured zones in real time, and to perform further analysis on raw sensor data, if necessary. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0027] So that the manner in which the features and advantages of the invention, as well as others which will become apparent, may be understood in more detail, a more particular description of the invention briefly summarized above may be had by reference to the embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings, which form a part of this specification. It is to be noted, however, that the drawings illustrate only various embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of the invention's scope as it may include other effective embodiments as well. [0028] FIGS. 1A-1B is a partial perspective view and partial schematic diagram of a general architecture of an apparatus for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0029] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a data processing procedure performed by a computer program according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0030] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a data preprocess module according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0031] FIGS. 4A-4B are graphs illustrating examples of a frequency distribution of two types of carbonate according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0032] FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating a three dimensional depiction of the frequency distribution in correlation with various lithography types according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0033] FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating a comparison of mean frequency and normalized deviation of frequency correlated with a plurality of lithology types according to an embodiment of the present invention; [0034] FIG. 7 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating steps for forming a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm for a particular type of drill bit according to an embodiment of the present invention; and [0035] FIG. 8 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating steps for forming a drill bit independent petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0036] The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate embodiments of the invention. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the illustrated embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. Prime notation, if used, indicates similar elements in alternative embodiments. [0037] When drilling into different lithologies or the same lithology with different properties (e.g., porosity, water saturation, permeability, etc.) the generated acoustic sounds emanating from the drill bit when drilling into rock, are distinctly different. The sounds, termed as drilling acoustic signals hereafter, transmit upward along the drill string. According to various embodiments of the present invention, a sensor subassembly containing acoustic sensors is positioned above the drill bit and connected to the above drill string. The drilling acoustic signals transmit from the drill bit to the sensor subassembly and are picked up by the acoustic sensors. The drilling acoustic signals received by the sensors are transmitted (generally after amplification) to surface by a borehole transmitting system which can include various components such as, for example, a downhole data interface, a broadband conductor, a surface data interface, etc. On the surface, the received acoustic signals are transformed by a data processing module into the frequency domain using, for example, a Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) to generate FFT data (primarily the frequency and amplitude data). Some acoustic characteristics are derived directly from the FFT data. The frequency distribution and acoustic characteristics, for example, can be used immediately in some applications, such as lithology type identification and formation boundary determination. The FFT data can be further analyzed using a calibrated mathematical model, for the lithology type and petrophysical properties, which have wider applications than the direct results (frequency distribution and acoustic characteristics). [0038] Where conventional measurement-while-drilling tools are typically located 30 to 50 feet behind the drill bit, beneficially, a major advantage of approaches employed by various embodiments of the present invention is that such approaches can derive information about lithologies from a position located at the cutting surface of the drill bit to provide such information to the operator steering the drill bit, in real time. This advantage makes aspects of various embodiments of the present invention ideal in the application of horizontal and lateral well drill steering, locating the relative position for setting the casing shoe, detecting fractured zones, and interpreting rock lithologies and petrophysical properties in real time. [0039] FIGS. 1A-1B schematically show the setup of an exemplary apparatus for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling 100 . Acoustic sensors 102 are connected to a downhole data “transmitting” interface 103 . According to the exemplary configuration, both are contained in a sensor subassembly 104 , which is positioned above a drill bit 101 and connected to a drill string 117 . In operation, the drilling acoustic signals are generated when the drill bit 101 bites rocks at the bottom of a borehole 118 during the drilling process. [0040] Different acoustic sensors 102 may be used, e.g. accelerometer, measurement microphone, contact microphone, and hydrophone. According to the exemplary configuration, at least one, but more typically each acoustic sensor 102 either has a built-in amplifier or is connected directly to an amplifier (not shown). The drilling acoustic signals picked up by the acoustic sensors 102 are amplified first by the amplifier before transmitted to the downhole data interface 103 . [0041] From the downhole data interface 103 , acoustic signals are transmitted to a surface data “transmitting” interface 106 through a borehole broadband data transmitting system 105 . Currently, one commercially available broadband data transmitting system, NOV™ IntelliServ®, can transmit data at the rate of 1000,000 bit/s. A study indicated that with two acoustic sensors 102 at normal working sampling rate of 5 seconds per sample, the required data transmitting rate was about 41,000 bits/s. Therefore, the NOV™ IntelliServ® borehole broadband data transmitting system is an example of a broadband communication media capable of transmitting acoustic signals data for at least four acoustic sensors 102 to surface directly from a downhole data interface 103 . [0042] According to the exemplary configuration, the surface data interface 106 is located at the stationary part of the top drive 107 . From the surface data interface 106 , the acoustic signals are further transmitted to a data acquisition unit 110 through an electronic cable 108 , which is protected inside a service loop 109 . The data acquisition unit 110 is connected to a computer 124 through an electronic cable 126 . The data acquisition unit 110 samples the acoustic signal in analog format and then converts the analog acoustic signals into digit data in FIG. 2 . [0043] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 , the digitized data 111 is read by a computer program 112 (e.g., a petrophysical properties analyzing program), installed in memory 122 accessible to processor 123 of computer 124 . The computer program 112 analyzes the digitized data 111 to derive a frequency distribution 113 , acoustic characteristics 114 , and petrophysical properties 115 of the rock undergoing drilling. The respective results, e.g., frequency distribution 113 , acoustic characteristics 114 , and petrophysical properties 115 , can be used in various applications 116 to include lithology identification, drill bit steering, formation boundary identification, among others. Such data along with rock sample data, rock modeling data, etc. can be stored in database 125 stored in either internal memory 122 or an external memory accessible to processor 123 . [0044] Note, the computer 124 can be in the form of a personal computer or in the form of a server or server farm serving multiple user interfaces or other configurations known to those skilled in the art. Note, the computer program 112 can be in the form of microcode, programs, routines, and symbolic languages that provide a specific set or sets of ordered operations that control the functioning of the hardware and direct its operation, as known and understood by those skilled in the art. Note also, the computer program 112 , according to an embodiment of the present invention, need not reside in its entirety in volatile memory, but can be selectively loaded, as necessary, according to various methodologies as known and understood by those skilled in the art. Still further, at least portions of the computer program 112 can be stored in memory of the sensor subassembly 104 when so configured. [0045] Referring to FIG. 3 , according to the exemplary configuration, the digitized data 111 needs to be preprocessed before any use. According to the exemplary configuration, this is accomplished by a subroutine program referred to as data preprocess module 200 . As illustrated in the figure, the digitized data is transformed into Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) data 202 by a FFT 201 . The FFT data 202 is then filtered by a filter 203 to remove some low/high frequency and/or low amplitude data points, generated from other sources, i.e. not from the bit cutting into the rocks. The filtered FFT data 301 is then used in the various part of data process. Note the filtered FFT data 301 is relabeled as 403 in FIG. 7 and 503 in FIG. 8 . Note also, the digitized data 111 is relabeled as 402 in FIG. 7, and 502 in FIG. 8 . [0046] Major components and functions of the computer program 112 according to an exemplary configuration are detailed in FIG. 2 . According to the exemplary configuration, there are four modules (components) in the computer program 112 : a data preprocess module 200 , a data sampling module 210 , an acoustic characteristics evaluation algorithm 302 , and a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm 303 . The sampling module 210 sends sampling commands 127 , such as sampling rate, to the data acquisition unit 110 for data sampling control. The main part of the filtered FFT data 301 is a frequency distribution 113 , which is the frequency and amplitude information of a sampled acoustic signal. Two examples of such signal are shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B . FIG. 4A illustrates the frequency distribution for a limestone and FIG. 4B illustrates the frequency distribution for a dolomite. A review of the frequency distribution of the two different types of carbonates illustrates how the frequency distribution can be used directly to distinguish lithologies. [0047] According to the exemplary configuration, the frequency distribution 113 can be used directly in some applications, such as lithology type identification, formation boundaries determination, etc., represented by example at 116 . The frequency distribution 113 can be plotted into time-frequency spectrum which can be used directly in some applications, such as lithology type identification, formation boundaries determination, etc., represented by example at 116 . [0048] An example of such signal displaying diagram is shown in FIG. 5 , which illustrates results of a laboratory experiment showing different lithologies have different frequency spectrums and lithology boundaries can be determined using the diagram. In FIG. 5 , the color represents amplitude, with color normally displayed as red being highest (the intermixed color mostly concentrated just below the 4000 Hz range in this example) and the color normally displayed as blue being the lowest (the more washed out color in this example). [0049] According to the exemplary configuration, an acoustic characteristics evaluation algorithm 302 evaluates the filtered FFT data 301 for select acoustic characteristics, such as, for example, mean frequency, normalized deviation of frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of amplitude, and apparent power. These acoustic characteristics for an acoustic signal sample are defined as follows: [0000] µ f = Σ i = 1 n  A i · f i Σ i = 1 n  A i ( 1 ) σ f_N = 1 µ f  Σ i = 1 n  A i Σ i = 1 n  A i  ( f i - µ f ) 2 ( 2 ) µ A = 1 n  ∑ f - 1 n  A i ( 3 ) σ A_N = 1 µ A  1 n  Σ i = 1 n  ( A i - µ A ) 2 ( 4 ) P a = Σ i = 1 n  A i 2  f i 2 ( 5 ) [0000] wherein: μ f —mean frequency, Hz, σ f _ N —normalized deviation of frequency, Hz, μ A —mean amplitude, the unit depending on the type of acoustic sensor used in the measurement, σ A _ N —normalized deviation of amplitude, the unit depending on the type of acoustic sensor used in the measurement, P a —apparent power, the unit depending on the type of acoustic sensor used in the measurement, f i —frequency of the i th point of the acoustic signal sample, Hz, A i —amplitude of the i th point of the acoustic signal sample, the unit depending on the type of acoustic sensor used in the measurement, and n—number of data points of the acoustic signal sample. [0058] The mean frequency and the normalized deviation of frequency characterize the frequency distribution, while the mean amplitude and the normalized deviation of amplitude characterize the loudness level of the drilling sound. Apparent power represents the power of the acoustic signals. In the evaluation, these characteristics can be calculated within the whole range or a partial range of the frequency of the acoustic samples. The range is selected to achieve the maximum difference of these characteristics among different lithologies. [0059] The derived acoustic characteristics 114 can be used directly for certain applications, such as lithology type identification, formation boundary determination represented by example at 116 . FIG. 6 illustrates results of a laboratory experiment showing that the mean frequency and normalized deviation of frequency correlated well with different lithology types. [0060] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the mean frequency, the normalized deviation of frequency, the mean amplitude, the normalized deviation of amplitude, and/or the apparent power of the rock undergoing drilling can be compared with a corresponding mean frequency, normalized deviation of frequency, mean amplitude, normalized deviation of amplitude and/or apparent power of a plurality of rock samples having different known lithologies, to thereby determine an amount of correlation of the acoustic characteristics associated with the rock undergoing drilling and the acoustic characteristics associated with the rock samples. Responsively, the lithology type of the rock undergoing drilling can be determined. [0061] FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate examples of the construction of two types of petrophysical properties evaluation algorithms 303 : one designed for a particular type of drill bit shown at 303 A and the other designed to be drill bit type independent shown at 303 B. Unlike the FFT 201 and the acoustic characteristics evaluation algorithm 302 , which are based on known mathematical equations, the petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm 303 is based on mathematical models, which are to be built utilizing acoustic data and petrophysical properties according to an exemplary configuration. [0062] FIG. 7 illustrates the procedure for constructing a “Petrophysical Properties Evaluation Algorithm” for a particular type of drill bit. According to the exemplary configuration, datasets of petrophysical properties 401 and correspondent digitized acoustic data 402 for a particular drill bit are collected. The digitized acoustic data 402 is preprocessed by the data preprocess module 200 (referred to in FIG. 2 ) to produce the filtered FFT data 403 . The relationships 405 between filtered FFT data 403 and petrophysical properties 401 are constructed (step 404 ) using suitable mathematical modeling techniques, such as, multiple regression analysis, artificial neural networks modeling. Once relationships 405 between the filtered FFT data 403 and petrophysical properties 401 are constructed, the relationships are coded (step 406 ) to produce a computer program, module, subroutine, object, or other type of instructions to define the “petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm” 303 A. The algorithm 303 A is then available to be used in the computer program 112 to predict the petrophysical properties from drilling acoustic signals for the particular drill bit type. [0063] FIG. 8 illustrates the procedure for constructing a drill bit type independent “Petrophysical Properties Evaluation Algorithm” 303 B. The datasets of petrophysical properties 501 and the correspondent acoustic data 502 measured from different types of drill bit are collected. The acoustic data 502 is preprocessed by the data preprocess module 200 (e.g., the module referred to FIGS. 2 and 3 ) to produce the filtered FFT data 503 . Bit type independent features 505 of the filtered FFT data 503 are then determined by comparing the filtered FFT data of different types of drill bit and the correspondent petrophysical properties 501 (step 504 ). Features which have weakest correlation with the drill bit types and strong correlation with the petrophysical properties are the bit-type independent ones. The relationships 507 between the petrophysical properties 501 and the bit type independent features 505 are constructed (step 506 ) using suitable mathematical modeling techniques, such as, for example, multiple regression analysis, artificial neural networks modeling, among others. The constructed relationships 507 are then coded (step 508 ) into a computer program, module, subroutine, object, or other type of instructions to define the “petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm” 303 B. The algorithm 303 B is then available to be used in the computer program 112 to predict the petrophysical properties from drilling acoustic signals. [0064] Application of the Results from the Processed Acoustic Signal. [0065] One direct result is the frequency distribution 113 ( FIG. 2 ), which may be used directly in lithology type identification, formation boundary determination. FIGS. 4A and 4B , for example, show the frequency distribution of two different types of carbonates. The figures illustrate that the frequency distribution can be used in the lithology type identification from matching a detective frequency distribution with a frequency distribution of a rock of known lithography type. [0066] FIG. 6 demonstrates the feasibility of using acoustic characteristics 114 ( FIG. 2 ) to derive lithology information. In FIG. 6 , mean frequency and normalized deviation were calculated from FFT data of the drilling sounds of a sample corer drilling into cores of different lithologies. The figure demonstrates how the lithology types can be distinguished by the combination of the two characteristics: mean frequency and the normalized deviation of frequency. If mean amplitude and the normalized deviation of the amplitude are also used, an even better result may be achieved. The figure also inherently demonstrates that formation boundaries can be determined from acoustic characteristics. FIGS. 7 and 8 demonstrate the feasibility of building a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm 303 ( FIG. 2 ) which can be used to evaluate processed forms of the sound generated by operationally engaging the drilling bit with the rock being drilled. [0067] Various embodiments of the present invention provide several advantages. For example, various embodiments of the present invention beneficially provide a means to identify lithology type and physical properties, truly in real-time. This advantage makes various embodiments of the present invention ideal in the applications of (1) horizontal and lateral well drill steering and (2) locating the relative position for setting the casing shoe at a much higher precision. Various embodiments can also be used to (3) detect fractured zones; and (4) interpret rock lithologies and petrophysical properties. Various embodiments of the present invention beneficially supply more information for evaluating petrophysical properties of the rocks, such as porosity, strength, and presence of hydrocarbons, through the utilization of data obtained through the analysis of acoustic signals to evaluate these petrophysical properties. Such data can beneficially be beyond that which can be conventionally supplied. [0068] This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,077, titled “Apparatus, Computer Readable Medium, And Program Code For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And A Downhole Broadband Transmitting System,” filed on Jul. 20, 2012, which is a non-provisional of and claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,165, titled “Apparatus And Program Product For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors and a Downhole Broadband Transmitting System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,369, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, titled “Methods of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors and a Downhole Broadband Transmitting System”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,019, filed on Jul. 20, 2013, titled “Apparatus, Computer Readable Medium and Program Code for Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors and Telemetry System”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/553,958, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, titled “Methods of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors and Telemetry System”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,298, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, titled “Apparatus for Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,470, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, titled “Methods for Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors”; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,171, titled “Methods Of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And A Downhole Broadband Transmitting System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,201, titled “Apparatus For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,213, titled “Methods For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Drilling Rig-Mounted Acoustic Sensors,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,242 titled “Apparatus And Program Product For Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And Telemetry System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/539,246 titled “Methods Of Evaluating Rock Properties While Drilling Using Downhole Acoustic Sensors And Telemetry System,” filed on Sep. 26, 2011, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. [0069] In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed a typical preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, the terms are used in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The invention has been described in considerable detail with specific reference to these illustrated embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that various modifications and changes can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the foregoing specification.

Apparatus, computer readable medium, and program code for identifying rock properties in real-time during drilling, are provided. An example of an embodiment of such an apparatus includes a downhole sensor subassembly connected between a drill bit and a drill string, acoustic sensors operably coupled to a downhole data interface, and a surface computer operably coupled to the downhole data interface. The computer can include a petrophysical properties analyzing program configured or otherwise adapted to perform various operations including receiving raw acoustic sensor data generated real-time as a result of rotational contact of the drill bit with rock during drilling, transforming the raw acoustic sensor data into the frequency domain, filtering the transformed data, deriving a plurality of acoustic characteristics from the filtered data and deriving petrophysical properties from the filtered data utilizing a petrophysical properties evaluation algorithm employable to predict one or more petrophysical properties of rock undergoing drilling.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/534,823 filed on May 13, 2005, which is a 371 of PCT/AU03/01507 filed on Nov. 17, 2003, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/303,348 filed on Nov. 23, 2002 now Issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,086,718, all of which are herein incorporated by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a thermal ink jet printhead, to a printer system incorporating such a printhead, and to a method of ejecting a liquid drop (such as an ink drop) using such a printhead. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention involves the ejection of ink drops by way of forming gas or vapor bubbles in a bubble forming liquid. This principle is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,120 (Stemme). [0004] There are various known types of thermal ink jet (bubblejet) printhead devices. Two typical devices of this type, one made by Hewlett Packard and the other by Canon, have ink ejection nozzles and chambers for storing ink adjacent the nozzles. Each chamber is covered by a so-called nozzle plate, which is a separately fabricated item and which is mechanically secured to the walls of the chamber. In certain prior art devices, the top plate is made of Kapton™ which is a Dupont trade name for a polyimide film, which has been laser-drilled to form the nozzles. These devices also include heater elements in thermal contact with ink that is disposed adjacent the nozzles, for heating the ink thereby forming gas bubbles in the ink. The gas bubbles generate pressures in the ink causing ink drops to be ejected through the nozzles. [0005] It is an object of the present invention to provide a useful alternative to the known printheads, printer systems, or methods of ejecting drops of ink and other related liquids, which have advantages as described herein. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided an ink jet printhead comprising: a substrate having a substrate surface; a plurality of nozzles, each nozzle having a nozzle aperture opening through the substrate surface, the areal density of the nozzles relative to the substrate surface exceeding 10,000 nozzles per square cm of substrate surface; and at least one respective heater element corresponding to each nozzle, wherein each heater element is arranged for being in thermal contact with a bubble forming liquid, and each heater element is configured to heat at least part of the bubble forming liquid to a temperature above its boiling point to form a gas bubble therein thereby to cause the ejection of a drop of an ejectable liquid through the nozzle corresponding to that heater element. [0012] According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a printer system incorporating a printhead, the printhead comprising: a substrate having a substrate surface; a plurality of nozzles, each nozzle having a nozzle aperture opening through the substrate surface, the areal density of the nozzles relative to the substrate surface exceeding 10,000 nozzles per square cm of substrate surface; and at least one respective heater element corresponding to each nozzle, wherein each heater element is arranged for being in thermal contact with a bubble forming liquid, and each heater element is configured to heat at least part of the bubble forming liquid to a temperature above its boiling point to form a gas bubble therein thereby to cause the ejection of a drop of an ejectable liquid through the nozzle corresponding to that heater element. [0018] According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method of ejecting a drop of an ejectable liquid, the method comprising the steps of: providing a printhead that includes a substrate having a substrate surface, a plurality of nozzles, each nozzle having a nozzle aperture opening through the substrate surface wherein the areal density of the nozzles relative to the substrate surface exceeds 10,000 nozzles per square cm of substrate surface, and at least one respective heater element corresponding to each nozzle; heating at least one heater element corresponding to a nozzle so as to heat at least part of a bubble forming liquid which is in thermal contact with the at least one heated heater element to a temperature above the boiling point of the bubble forming liquid; generating a gas bubble in the bubble forming liquid by said step of heating; and causing a drop of the ejectable liquid to be ejected through the nozzle corresponding to the at least one heated heater element by said step of generating a gas bubble. [0026] As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the ejection of a drop of the ejectable liquid as described herein, is caused by the generation of a vapor bubble in a bubble forming liquid, which, in embodiments, is the same body of liquid as the ejectable liquid. The generated bubble causes an increase in pressure in ejectable liquid, which forces the drop through the relevant nozzle. The bubble is generated by Joule heating of a heater element which is in thermal contact with the ink. The electrical pulse applied to the heater is of brief duration, typically less than 2 microseconds. Due to stored heat in the liquid, the bubble expands for a few microseconds after the heater pulse is turned off. As the vapor cools, it recondenses, resulting in bubble collapse. The bubble collapses to a point determined by the dynamic interplay of inertia and surface tension of the ink. In this specification, such a point is referred to as the “point of collapse” of the bubble. [0027] The printhead according to the invention comprises a plurality of nozzles, as well as a chamber and one or more heater elements corresponding to each nozzle. Each portion of the printhead pertaining to a single nozzle, its chamber and its one or more elements, is referred to herein as a “unit cell”. [0028] In this specification, where reference is made to parts being in thermal contact with each other, this means that they are positioned relative to each other such that, when one of the parts is heated, it is capable of heating the other part, even though the parts, themselves, might not be in physical contact with each other. [0029] Also, the term “ink” is used to signify any ejectable liquid, and is not limited to conventional inks containing colored dyes. Examples of non-colored inks include fixatives, infra-red absorber inks, functionalized chemicals, adhesives, biological fluids, water and other solvents, and so on. The ink or ejectable liquid also need not necessarily be a strictly a liquid, and may contain a suspension of solid particles or be solid at room temperature and liquid at the ejection temperature. [0030] In this specification, the term “periodic element” refers to an element of a type reflected in the periodic table of elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0031] Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying representations. The drawings are described as follows. [0032] FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view through an ink chamber of a unit cell of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention, at a particular stage of operation. [0033] FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view through the ink chamber FIG. 1 , at another stage of operation. [0034] FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view through the ink chamber FIG. 1 , at yet another stage of operation. [0035] FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view through the ink chamber FIG. 1 , at yet a further stage of operation. [0036] FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view through a unit cell of a printhead in accordance with the an embodiment of the invention showing the collapse of a vapor bubble. [0037] FIGS. 6, 8 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 19 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 28 and 30 are schematic perspective views ( FIG. 30 being partly cut away) of a unit cell of a printhead in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, at various successive stages in the production process of the printhead. [0038] FIGS. 7, 9 , 12 , 15 , 17 , 20 , 22 , 25 , 27 , 29 and 31 are each schematic plan views of a mask suitable for use in performing the production stage for the printhead, as represented in the respective immediately preceding figures. [0039] FIG. 32 is a further schematic perspective view of the unit cell of FIG. 30 shown with the nozzle plate omitted. [0040] FIG. 33 is a schematic perspective view, partly cut away, of a unit cell of a printhead according to the invention having another particular embodiment of heater element. [0041] FIG. 34 is a schematic plan view of a mask suitable for use in performing the production stage for the printhead of FIG. 33 for forming the heater element thereof. [0042] FIG. 35 is a schematic perspective view, partly cut away, of a unit cell of a printhead according to the invention having a further particular embodiment of heater element. [0043] FIG. 36 is a schematic plan view of a mask suitable for use in performing the production stage for the printhead of FIG. 35 for forming the heater element thereof. [0044] FIG. 37 is a further schematic perspective view of the unit cell of FIG. 35 shown with the nozzle plate omitted. [0045] FIG. 38 is a schematic perspective view, partly cut away, of a unit cell of a printhead according to the invention having a further particular embodiment of heater element. [0046] FIG. 39 is a schematic plan view of a mask suitable for use in performing the production stage for the printhead of FIG. 38 for forming the heater element thereof. [0047] FIG. 40 is a further schematic perspective view of the unit cell of FIG. 38 shown with the nozzle plate omitted. [0048] FIG. 41 is a schematic section through a nozzle chamber of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention showing a suspended beam heater element immersed in a bubble forming liquid. [0049] FIG. 42 is schematic section through a nozzle chamber of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention showing a suspended beam heater element suspended at the top of a body of a bubble forming liquid. [0050] FIG. 43 is a diagrammatic plan view of a unit cell of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention showing a nozzle. [0051] FIG. 44 is a diagrammatic plan view of a plurality of unit cells of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention showing a plurality of nozzles. [0052] FIG. 45 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber not in accordance with the invention showing a heater element embedded in a substrate. [0053] FIG. 46 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber in accordance with an embodiment of the invention showing a heater element in the form of a suspended beam. [0054] FIG. 47 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber of a prior art printhead showing a heater element embedded in a substrate. [0055] FIG. 48 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber in accordance with an embodiment of the invention showing a heater element defining a gap between parts of the element. [0056] FIG. 49 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber not in accordance with the invention, showing a thick nozzle plate. [0057] FIG. 50 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber in accordance with an embodiment of the invention showing a thin nozzle plate. [0058] FIG. 51 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber in accordance with an embodiment of the invention showing two heater elements. [0059] FIG. 52 is a diagrammatic section through a nozzle chamber of a prior art printhead showing two heater elements. [0060] FIG. 53 is a diagrammatic section through a pair of adjacent unit cells of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention, showing two different nozzles after drops having different volumes have been ejected therethrough. [0061] FIGS. 54 and 55 are diagrammatic sections through a heater element of a prior art printhead. [0062] FIG. 56 is a diagrammatic section through a conformally coated heater element according to an embodiment of the invention. [0063] FIG. 57 is a diagrammatic elevational view of a heater element, connected to electrodes, of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention. [0064] FIG. 58 is a schematic exploded perspective view of a printhead module of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention. [0065] FIG. 59 is a schematic perspective view the printhead module of FIG. 58 shown unexploded. [0066] FIG. 60 is a schematic side view, shown partly in section, of the printhead module of FIG. 58 . [0067] FIG. 61 is a schematic plan view of the printhead module of FIG. 58 . [0068] FIG. 62 is a schematic exploded perspective view of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention. [0069] FIG. 63 is a schematic further perspective view of the printhead of FIG. 62 shown unexploded. [0070] FIG. 64 is a schematic front view of the printhead of FIG. 62 . [0071] FIG. 65 is a schematic rear view of the printhead of FIG. 62 . [0072] FIG. 66 is a schematic bottom view of the printhead of FIG. 62 . [0073] FIG. 67 is a schematic plan view of the printhead of FIG. 62 . [0074] FIG. 68 is a schematic perspective view of the printhead as shown in FIG. 62 , but shown unexploded. [0075] FIG. 69 is a schematic longitudinal section through the printhead of FIG. 62 . [0076] FIG. 70 is a block diagram of a printer system according to an embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0077] In the description than follows, corresponding reference numerals, or corresponding prefixes of reference numerals (i.e. the parts of the reference numerals appearing before a point mark) which are used in different figures relate to corresponding parts. Where there are corresponding prefixes and differing suffixes to the reference numerals, these indicate different specific embodiments of corresponding parts. [0078] Overview of the Invention and General Discussion of Operation [0079] With reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 , the unit cell 1 of a printhead according to an embodiment of the invention comprises a nozzle plate 2 with nozzles 3 therein, the nozzles having nozzle rims 4 , and apertures 5 extending through the nozzle plate. The nozzle plate 2 is plasma etched from a silicon nitride structure which is deposited, by way of chemical vapor deposition (CVD), over a sacrificial material which is subsequently etched. [0080] The printhead also includes, with respect to each nozzle 3 , side walls 6 on which the nozzle plate is supported, a chamber 7 defined by the walls and the nozzle plate 2 , a multi-layer substrate 8 and an inlet passage 9 extending through the multi-layer substrate to the far side (not shown) of the substrate. A looped, elongate heater element 10 is suspended within the chamber 7 , so that the element is in the form of a suspended beam. The printhead as shown is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) structure, which is formed by a lithographic process which is described in more detail below. [0081] When the printhead is in use, ink 11 from a reservoir (not shown) enters the chamber 7 via the inlet passage 9 , so that the chamber fills to the level as shown in FIG. 1 . Thereafter, the heater element 10 is heated for somewhat less than 1 micro second, so that the heating is in the form of a thermal pulse. It will be appreciated that the heater element 10 is in thermal contact with the ink 11 in the chamber 7 so that when the element is heated, this causes the generation of vapor bubbles 12 in the ink. Accordingly, the ink 11 constitutes a bubble forming liquid. FIG. 1 shows the formation of a bubble 12 approximately 1 microsecond after generation of the thermal pulse, that is, when the bubble has just nucleated on the heater elements 10 . It will be appreciated that, as the heat is applied in the form of a pulse, all the energy necessary to generate the bubble 12 is to be supplied within that short time. [0082] Turning briefly to FIG. 34 , there is shown a mask 13 for forming a heater 14 of the printhead (which heater includes the element 10 referred to above), during a lithographic process, as described in more detail below. As the mask 13 is used to form the heater 14 , the shape of various of its parts correspond to the shape of the element 10 . The mask 13 therefore provides a useful reference by which to identify various parts of the heater 14 . The heater 14 has electrodes 15 corresponding to the parts designated 15 . 34 of the mask 13 and a heater element 10 corresponding to the parts designated 10 . 34 of the mask. In operation, voltage is applied across the electrodes 15 to cause current to flow through the element 10 . The electrodes 15 are much thicker than the element 10 so that most of the electrical resistance is provided by the element. Thus, nearly all of the power consumed in operating the heater 14 is dissipated via the element 10 , in creating the thermal pulse referred to above. [0083] When the element 10 is heated as described above, the bubble 12 forms along the length of the element, this bubble appearing, in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 , as four bubble portions, one for each of the element portions shown in cross section. [0084] The bubble 12 , once generated, causes an increase in pressure within the chamber 7 , which in turn causes the ejection of a drop 16 of the ink 11 through the nozzle 3 . The rim 4 assists in directing the drop 16 as it is ejected, so as to minimize the chance of a drop misdirection. [0085] The reason that there is only one nozzle 3 and chamber 7 per inlet passage 9 is so that the pressure wave generated within the chamber, on heating of the element 10 and forming of a bubble 12 , does not effect adjacent chambers and their corresponding nozzles. [0086] The advantages of the heater element 10 being suspended rather than being embedded in any solid material, is discussed below. [0087] FIGS. 2 and 3 show the unit cell 1 at two successive later stages of operation of the printhead. It can be seen that the bubble 12 generates further, and hence grows, with the resultant advancement of ink 11 through the nozzle 3 . The shape of the bubble 12 as it grows, as shown in FIG. 3 , is determined by a combination of the inertial dynamics and the surface tension of the ink 11 . The surface tension tends to minimize the surface area of the bubble 12 so that, by the time a certain amount of liquid has evaporated, the bubble is essentially disk-shaped. [0088] The increase in pressure within the chamber 7 not only pushes ink 11 out through the nozzle 3 , but also pushes some ink back through the inlet passage 9 . However, the inlet passage 9 is approximately 200 to 300 microns in length, and is only approximately 16 microns in diameter. Hence there is a substantial viscous drag. As a result, the predominant effect of the pressure rise in the chamber 7 is to force ink out through the nozzle 3 as an ejected drop 16 , rather than back through the inlet passage 9 . [0089] Turning now to FIG. 4 , the printhead is shown at a still further successive stage of operation, in which the ink drop 16 that is being ejected is shown during its “necking phase” before the drop breaks off. At this stage, the bubble 12 has already reached its maximum size and has then begun to collapse towards the point of collapse 17 , as reflected in more detail in FIG. 5 . [0090] The collapsing of the bubble 12 towards the point of collapse 17 causes some ink 11 to be drawn from within the nozzle 3 (from the sides 18 of the drop), and some to be drawn from the inlet passage 9 , towards the point of collapse. Most of the ink 11 drawn in this manner is drawn from the nozzle 3 , forming an annular neck 19 at the base of the drop 16 prior to its breaking off. [0091] The drop 16 requires a certain amount of momentum to overcome surface tension forces, in order to break off. As ink 11 is drawn from the nozzle 3 by the collapse of the bubble 12 , the diameter of the neck 19 reduces thereby reducing the amount of total surface tension holding the drop, so that the momentum of the drop as it is ejected out of the nozzle is sufficient to allow the drop to break off. [0092] When the drop 16 breaks off, cavitation forces are caused as reflected by the arrows 20 , as the bubble 12 collapses to the point of collapse 17 . It will be noted that there are no solid surfaces in the vicinity of the point of collapse 17 on which the cavitation can have an effect. [0093] Manufacturing Process [0094] Relevant parts of the manufacturing process of a printhead according to embodiments of the invention are now described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 29 . [0095] Referring to FIG. 6 , there is shown a cross-section through a silicon substrate portion 21 , being a portion of a Memjet printhead, at an intermediate stage in the production process thereof. This figure relates to that portion of the printhead corresponding to a unit cell 1 . The description of the manufacturing process that follows will be in relation to a unit cell 1 , although it will be appreciated that the process will be applied to a multitude of adjacent unit cells of which the whole printhead is composed. [0096] FIG. 6 represents the next successive step, during the manufacturing process, after the completion of a standard CMOS fabrication process, including the fabrication of CMOS drive transistors (not shown) in the region 22 in the substrate portion 21 , and the completion of standard CMOS interconnect layers 23 and passivation layer 24 . Wiring indicated by the dashed lines 25 electrically interconnects the transistors and other drive circuitry (also not shown) and the heater element corresponding to the nozzle. [0097] Guard rings 26 are formed in the metallization of the interconnect layers 23 to prevent ink 11 from diffusing from the region, designated 27 , where the nozzle of the unit cell 1 will be formed, through the substrate portion 21 to the region containing the wiring 25 , and corroding the CMOS circuitry disposed in the region designated 22 . [0098] The first stage after the completion of the CMOS fabrication process consists of etching a portion of the passivation layer 24 to form the passivation recesses 29 . [0099] FIG. 8 shows the stage of production after the etching of the interconnect layers 23 , to form an opening 30 . The opening 30 is to constitute the ink inlet passage to the chamber that will be formed later in the process. [0100] FIG. 10 shows the stage of production after the etching of a hole 31 in the substrate portion 21 at a position where the nozzle 3 is to be formed. Later in the production process, a further hole (indicated by the dashed line 32 ) will be etched from the other side (not shown) of the substrate portion 21 to join up with the hole 31 , to complete the inlet passage to the chamber. Thus, the hole 32 will not have to be etched all the way from the other side of the substrate portion 21 to the level of the interconnect layers 23 . [0101] If, instead, the hole 32 were to be etched all the way to the interconnect layers 23 , then to avoid the hole 32 being etched so as to destroy the transistors in the region 22 , the hole 32 would have to be etched a greater distance away from that region so as to leave a suitable margin (indicated by the arrow 34 ) for etching inaccuracies. But the etching of the hole 31 from the top of the substrate portion 21 , and the resultant shortened depth of the hole 32 , means that a lesser margin 34 need be left, and that a substantially higher packing density of nozzles can thus be achieved. [0102] FIG. 11 shows the stage of production after a four micron thick layer 35 of a sacrificial resist has been deposited on the layer 24 . This layer 35 fills the hole 31 and now forms part of the structure of the printhead. The resist layer 35 is then exposed with certain patterns (as represented by the mask shown in FIG. 12 ) to form recesses 36 and a slot 37 . This provides for the formation of contacts for the electrodes 15 of the heater element to be formed later in the production process. The slot 37 will provide, later in the process, for the formation of the nozzle walls 6 , that will define part of the chamber 7 . [0103] FIG. 13 shows the stage of production after the deposition, on the layer 35 , of a 0.25 micron thick layer 38 of heater material, which, in the present embodiment, is of titanium nitride. [0104] FIG. 14 shows the stage of production after patterning and etching of the heater layer 38 to form the heater 14 , including the heater element 10 and electrodes 15 . [0105] FIG. 16 shows the stage of production after another sacrificial resist layer 39 , about 1 micron thick, has been added. [0106] FIG. 18 shows the stage of production after a second layer 40 of heater material has been deposited. In a preferred embodiment, this layer 40 , like the first heater layer 38 , is of 0.25 micron thick titanium nitride. [0107] FIG. 19 then shows this second layer 40 of heater material after it has been etched to form the pattern as shown, indicated by reference numeral 41 . In this illustration, this patterned layer does not include a heater layer element 10 , and in this sense has no heater functionality. However, this layer of heater material does assist in reducing the resistance of the electrodes 15 of the heater 14 so that, in operation, less energy is consumed by the electrodes which allows greater energy consumption by, and therefore greater effectiveness of, the heater elements 10 . In the dual heater embodiment illustrated in FIG. 38 , the corresponding layer 40 does contain a heater 14 . [0108] FIG. 21 shows the stage of production after a third layer 42 , of sacrificial resist, has been deposited. As the uppermost level of this layer will constitute the inner surface of the nozzle plate 2 to be formed later, and hence the inner extent of the nozzle aperture 5 , the height of this layer 42 must be sufficient to allow for the formation of a bubble 12 in the region designated 43 during operation of the printhead. [0109] FIG. 23 shows the stage of production after the roof layer 44 has been deposited, that is, the layer which will constitute the nozzle plate 2 . Instead of being formed from 100 micron thick polyimide film, the nozzle plate 2 is formed of silicon nitride, just 2 microns thick. [0110] FIG. 24 shows the stage of production after the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of silicon nitride forming the layer 44 , has been partly etched at the position designated 45 , so as to form the outside part of the nozzle rim 4 , this outside part being designated 4 . 1 [0111] FIG. 26 shows the stage of production after the CVD of silicon nitride has been etched all the way through at 46 , to complete the formation of the nozzle rim 4 and to form the nozzle aperture 5 , and after the CVD silicon nitride has been removed at the position designated 47 where it is not required. [0112] FIG. 28 shows the stage of production after a protective layer 48 of resist has been applied. After this stage, the substrate portion 21 is then ground from its other side (not shown) to reduce the substrate portion from its nominal thickness of about 800 microns to about 200 microns, and then, as foreshadowed above, to etch the hole 32 . The hole 32 is etched to a depth such that it meets the hole 31 . [0113] Then, the sacrificial resist of each of the resist layers 35 , 39 , 42 and 48 , is removed using oxygen plasma, to form the structure shown in FIG. 30 , with walls 6 and nozzle plate 2 which together define the chamber 7 (part of the walls and nozzle plate being shown cut-away). It will be noted that this also serves to remove the resist filling the hole 31 so that this hole, together with the hole 32 (not shown in FIG. 30 ), define a passage extending from the lower side of the substrate portion 21 to the nozzle 3 , this passage serving as the ink inlet passage, generally designated 9 , to the chamber 7 . [0114] While the above production process is used to produce the embodiment of the printhead shown in FIG. 30 , further printhead embodiments, having different heater structures, are shown in FIG. 33 , FIGS. 35 and 37 , and FIGS. 38 and 40 . [0115] Control of Ink Drop Ejection [0116] Referring once again to FIG. 30 , the unit cell 1 shown, as mentioned above, is shown with part of the walls 6 and nozzle plate 2 cut-away, which reveals the interior of the chamber 7 . The heater 14 is not shown cut away, so that both halves of the heater element 10 can be seen. [0117] In operation, ink 11 passes through the ink inlet passage 9 (see FIG. 28 ) to fill the chamber 7 . Then a voltage is applied across the electrodes 15 to establish a flow of electric current through the heater element 10 . This heats the element 10 , as described above in relation to FIG. 1 , to form a vapor bubble in the ink within the chamber 7 . [0118] The various possible structures for the heater 14 , some of which are shown in FIGS. 33, 35 and 37 , and 38 , can result in there being many variations in the ratio of length to width of the heater elements 10 . Such variations (even though the surface area of the elements 10 may be the same) may have significant effects on the electrical resistance of the elements, and therefore on the balance between the voltage and current to achieve a certain power of the element. [0119] Modern drive electronic components tend to require lower drive voltages than earlier versions, with lower resistances of drive transistors in their “on” state. Thus, in such drive transistors, for a given transistor area, there is a tendency to higher current capability and lower voltage tolerance in each process generation. [0120] FIG. 36 , referred to above, shows the shape, in plan view, of a mask for forming the heater structure of the embodiment of the printhead shown in FIG. 35 . Accordingly, as FIG. 36 represents the shape of the heater element 10 of that embodiment, it is now referred to in discussing that heater element. During operation, current flows vertically into the electrodes 15 (represented by the parts designated 15 . 36 ), so that the current flow area of the electrodes is relatively large, which, in turn, results in there being a low electrical resistance. By contrast, the element 10 , represented in FIG. 36 by the part designated 10 . 36 , is long and thin, with the width of the element in this embodiment being 1 micron and the thickness being 0.25 microns. [0121] It will be noted that the heater 14 shown in FIG. 33 has a significantly smaller element 10 than the element 10 shown in FIG. 35 , and has just a single loop 36 . Accordingly, the element 10 of FIG. 33 will have a much lower electrical resistance, and will permit a higher current flow, than the element 10 of FIG. 35 . It therefore requires a lower drive voltage to deliver a given energy to the heater 14 in a given time. [0122] In FIG. 38 , on the other hand, the embodiment shown includes a heater 14 having two heater elements 10 . 1 and 10 . 2 corresponding to the same unit cell 1 . One of these elements 10 . 2 is twice the width as the other element 10 . 1 , with a correspondingly larger surface area. The various paths of the lower element 10 . 2 are 2 microns in width, while those of the upper element 10 . 1 are 1 micron in width. Thus the energy applied to ink in the chamber 7 by the lower element 10 . 2 is twice that applied by the upper element 10 . 1 at a given drive voltage and pulse duration. This permits a regulating of the size of vapor bubbles and hence of the size of ink drop ejected due to the bubbles. [0123] Assuming that the energy applied to the ink by the upper element 10 . 1 is X, it will be appreciated that the energy applied by the lower element 10 . 2 is about 2X, and the energy applied by the two elements together is about 3X. Of course, the energy applied when neither element is operational, is zero. Thus, in effect, two bits of information can be printed with the one nozzle 3 . [0124] As the above factors of energy output may not be achieved exactly in practice, some “fine tuning” of the exact sizing of the elements 10 . 1 and 10 . 2 , or of the drive voltages that are applied to them, may be required. [0125] It will also be noted that the upper element 10 . 1 is rotated through 180° about a vertical axis relative to the lower element 10 . 2 . This is so that their electrodes 15 are not coincident, allowing independent connection to separate drive circuits. Features and Advantages of Particular Embodiments [0126] Discussed below, under appropriate headings, are certain specific features of embodiments of the invention, and the advantages of these features. The features are to be considered in relation to all of the drawings pertaining to the present invention unless the context specifically excludes certain drawings, and relates to those drawings specifically referred to. [0127] Suspended Beam Heater [0128] With reference to FIG. 1 , and as mentioned above, the heater element 10 is in the form of a suspended beam, and this is suspended over at least a portion (designated 11 . 1 ) of the ink 11 (bubble forming liquid). The element 10 is configured in this way rather than forming part of, or being embedded in, a substrate as is the case in existing printhead systems made by various manufacturers such as Hewlett Packard, Canon and Lexmark. This constitutes a significant difference between embodiments of the present invention and the prior ink jet technologies. [0129] The main advantage of this feature is that a higher efficiency can be achieved by avoiding the unnecessary heating of the solid material that surrounds the heater elements 10 (for example the solid material forming the chamber walls 6 , and surrounding the inlet passage 9 ) which takes place in the prior art devices. The heating of such solid material does not contribute to the formation of vapor bubbles 12 , so that the heating of such material involves the wastage of energy. The only energy which contributes in any significant sense to the generation of the bubbles 12 is that which is applied directly into the liquid which is to be heated, which liquid is typically the ink 11 . [0130] In one preferred embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 1 , the heater element 10 is suspended within the ink 11 (bubble forming liquid), so that this liquid surrounds the element. This is further illustrated in FIG. 41 . In another possible embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 42 , the heater element 10 beam is suspended at the surface of the ink (bubble forming liquid) 11 , so that this liquid is only below the element rather than surrounding it, and there is air on the upper side of the element. The embodiment described in relation to FIG. 41 is preferred as the bubble 12 will form all around the element 10 unlike in the embodiment described in relation to FIG. 42 where the bubble will only form below the element. Thus the embodiment of FIG. 41 is likely to provide a more efficient operation. [0131] As can be seen in, for example, with reference to FIGS. 30 and 31 , the heater element 10 beam is supported only on one side and is free at its opposite side, so that it constitutes a cantilever. [0132] Efficiency of the Printhead [0133] The feature presently under consideration is that the heater element 10 is configured such that an energy of less than 500 nanojoules (nJ) is required to be applied to the element to heat it sufficiently to form a bubble 12 in the ink 11 , so as to eject a drop 16 of ink through a nozzle 3 . In one preferred embodiment, the required energy is less that 300 nJ, while in a further embodiment, the energy is less than 120 nJ. [0134] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that prior art devices generally require over 5 microjoules to heat the element sufficiently to generate a vapor bubble 12 to eject an ink drop 16 . Thus, the energy requirements of the present invention are an order of magnitude lower than that of known thermal ink jet systems. This lower energy consumption allows lower operating costs, smaller power supplies, and so on, but also dramatically simplifies printhead cooling, allows higher densities of nozzles 3 , and permits printing at higher resolutions. [0135] These advantages of the present invention are especially significant in embodiments where the individual ejected ink drops 16 , themselves, constitute the major cooling mechanism of the printhead, as described further below. [0136] Self-Cooling of the Printhead [0137] This feature of the invention provides that the energy applied to a heater element 10 to form a vapor bubble 12 so as to eject a drop 16 of ink 11 is removed from the printhead by a combination of the heat removed by the ejected drop itself, and the ink that is taken into the printhead from the ink reservoir (not shown). The result of this is that the net “movement” of heat will be outwards from the printhead, to provide for automatic cooling. Under these circumstances, the printhead does not require any other cooling systems. [0138] As the ink drop 16 ejected and the amount of ink 11 drawn into the printhead to replace the ejected drop are constituted by the same type of liquid, and will essentially be of the same mass, it is convenient to express the net movement of energy as, on the one hand, the energy added by the heating of the element 10 , and on the other hand, the net removal of heat energy that results from ejecting the ink drop 16 and the intake of the replacement quantity of ink 11 . Assuming that the replacement quantity of ink 11 is at ambient temperature, the change in energy due to net movement of the ejected and replacement quantities of ink can conveniently be expressed as the heat that would be required to raise the temperature of the ejected drop 16 , if it were at ambient temperature, to the actual temperature of the drop as it is ejected. [0139] It will be appreciated that a determination of whether the above criteria are met depends on what constitutes the ambient temperature. In the present case, the temperature that is taken to be the ambient temperature is the temperature at which ink 11 enters the printhead from the ink storage reservoir (not shown) which is connected, in fluid flow communication, to the inlet passages 9 of the printhead. Typically the ambient temperature will be the room ambient temperature, which is usually roughly 20 degrees C. (Celsius). [0140] However, the ambient temperature may be less, if for example, the room temperature is lower, or if the ink 11 entering the printhead is refrigerated. [0141] In one preferred embodiment, the printhead is designed to achieve complete self-cooling (i.e. where the outgoing heat energy due to the net effect of the ejected and replacement quantities of ink 11 is equal to the heat energy added by the heater element 10 ). [0142] By way of example, assuming that the ink 11 is the bubble forming liquid and is water based, thus having a boiling point of approximately 100 degrees C., and if the ambient temperature is 40 degrees C., then there is a maximum of 60 degrees C. from the ambient temperature to the ink boiling temperature and that is the maximum temperature rise that the printhead could undergo. [0143] It is desirable to avoid having ink temperatures within the printhead (other than at time of ink drop 16 ejection) which are very close to the boiling point of the ink 11 . If the ink 11 were at such a temperature, then temperature variations between parts of the printhead could result in some regions being above boiling point, with the unintended, and therefore undesirable, formation of vapor bubbles 12 . Accordingly, a preferred embodiment of the invention is configured such that complete self-cooling, as described above, can be achieved when the maximum temperature of the ink 11 (bubble forming liquid) in a particular nozzle chamber 7 is 10 degrees C. below its boiling point when the heating element 10 is not active. [0144] The main advantage of the feature presently under discussion, and its various embodiments, is that it allows for a high nozzle density and for a high speed of printhead operation without requiring elaborate cooling methods for preventing undesired boiling in nozzles 3 adjacent to nozzles from which ink drops 16 are being ejected. This can allow as much as a hundred-fold increase in nozzle packing density than would be the case if such a feature, and the temperature criteria mentioned, were not present. [0145] Areal Density of Nozzles [0146] This feature of the invention relates to the density, by area, of the nozzles 3 on the printhead. With reference to FIG. 1 , the nozzle plate 2 has an upper surface 50 , and the present aspect of the invention relates to the packing density of nozzles 3 on that surface. More specifically, the areal density of the nozzles 3 on that surface 50 is over 10,000 nozzles per square cm of surface area. [0147] In one preferred embodiment, the areal density exceeds 20,000 nozzles 3 per square cm of surface 50 area, while in another preferred embodiment, the areal density exceeds 40,000 nozzles 3 per square cm. In a preferred embodiment, the areal density is 48 828 nozzles 3 per square cm. [0148] When referring to the areal density, each nozzle 3 is taken to include the drive-circuitry corresponding to the nozzle, which consists, typically, of a drive transistor, a shift register, an enable gate and clock regeneration circuitry (this circuitry not being specifically identified). [0149] With reference to FIG. 43 in which a single unit cell 1 is shown, the dimensions of the unit cell are shown as being 32 microns in width by 64 microns in length. The nozzle 3 of the next successive row of nozzles (not shown) immediately juxtaposes this nozzle, so that, as a result of the dimension of the outer periphery of the printhead chip, there are 48,828 nozzles 3 per square cm. This is about 85 times the nozzle areal density of a typical thermal ink jet printhead, and roughly 400 times the nozzle areal density of a piezoelectric printhead. [0150] The main advantage of a high areal density is low manufacturing cost, as the devices are batch fabricated on silicon wafers of a particular size. [0151] The more nozzles 3 that can be accommodated in a square cm of substrate, the more nozzles can be fabricated in a single batch, which typically consists of one wafer. The cost of manufacturing a CMOS plus MEMS wafer of the type used in the printhead of the present invention is, to a some extent, independent of the nature of patterns that are formed on it. Therefore if the patterns are relatively small, a relatively large number of nozzles 3 can be included. This allows more nozzles 3 and more printheads to be manufactured for the same cost than in a cases where the nozzles had a lower areal density. The cost is directly proportional to the area taken by the nozzles 3 . [0152] Bubble Formation on Opposite Sides of Heater Element [0153] According to the present feature, the heater 14 is configured so that when a bubble 12 forms in the ink 11 (bubble forming liquid), it forms on both sides of the heater element 10 . Preferably, it forms so as to surround the heater element 10 where the element is in the form of a suspended beam. [0154] The formation of a bubble 12 on both sides of the heater element 10 as opposed to on one side only, can be understood with reference to FIGS. 45 and 46 . In the first of these figures, the heater element 10 is adapted for the bubble 12 to be formed only on one side as, while in the second of these figures, the element is adapted for the bubble 12 to be formed on both sides, as shown. [0155] In a configuration such as that of FIG. 45 , the reason that the bubble 12 forms on only one side of the heater element 10 is because the element is embedded in a substrate 51 , so that the bubble cannot be formed on the particular side corresponding to the substrate. By contrast, the bubble 12 can form on both sides in the configuration of FIG. 46 as the heater element 10 here is suspended. [0156] Of course where the heater element 10 is in the form of a suspended beam as described above in relation to FIG. 1 , the bubble 12 is allowed to form so as to surround the suspended beam element. [0157] The advantage of the bubble 12 forming on both sides is the higher efficiency that is achievable. This is due to a reduction in heat that is wasted in heating solid materials in the vicinity of the heater element 10 , which do not contribute to formation of a bubble 12 . This is illustrated in FIG. 45 , where the arrows 52 indicate the movements of heat into the solid substrate 51 . The amount of heat lost to the substrate 51 depends on the thermal conductivity of the solid materials of the substrate relative to that of the ink 11 , which may be water based. As the thermal conductivity of water is relatively low, more than half of the heat can be expected to be absorbed by the substrate 51 rather than by the ink 11 . [0158] Prevention of Cavitation [0159] As described above, after a bubble 12 has been formed in a printhead according to an embodiment of the present invention, the bubble collapses towards a point of collapse 17 . According to the feature presently being addressed, the heater elements 10 are configured to form the bubbles 12 so that the points of collapse 17 towards which the bubbles collapse, are at positions spaced from the heater elements. Preferably, the printhead is configured so that there is no solid material at such points of collapse 17 . In this way cavitation, being a major problem in prior art thermal ink jet devices, is largely eliminated. [0160] Referring to FIG. 48 , in a preferred embodiment, the heater elements 10 are configured to have parts 53 which define gaps (represented by the arrow 54 ), and to form the bubbles 12 so that the points of collapse 17 to which the bubbles collapse are located at such gaps. The advantage of this feature is that it substantially avoids cavitation damage to the heater elements 10 and other solid material. [0161] In a standard prior art system as shown schematically in FIG. 47 , the heater element 10 is embedded in a substrate 55 , with an insulating layer 56 over the element, and a protective layer 57 over the insulating layer. When a bubble 12 is formed by the element 10 , it is formed on top of the element. When the bubble 12 collapses, as shown by the arrows 58 , all of the energy of the bubble collapse is focused onto a very small point of collapse 17 . If the protective layer 57 were absent, then the mechanical forces due to the cavitation that would result from the focussing of this energy to the point of collapse 17 , could chip away or erode the heater element 10 . However, this is prevented by the protective layer 57 . [0162] Typically, such a protective layer 57 is of tantalum, which oxidizes to form a very hard layer of tantalum pentoxide (Ta 2 O 5 ). Although no known materials can fully resist the effects of cavitation, if the tantalum pentoxide should be chipped away due to the cavitation, then oxidation will again occur at the underlying tantalum metal, so as to effectively repair the tantalum pentoxide layer. [0163] Although the tantalum pentoxide functions relatively well in this regard in known thermal ink jet systems, it has certain disadvantages. One significant disadvantage is that, in effect, virtually the whole protective layer 57 (having a thickness indicated by the reference numeral 59 ) must be heated in order to transfer the required energy into the ink 11 , to heat it so as to form a bubble 12 . This layer 57 has a high thermal mass due to the very high atomic weight of the tantalum, and this reduces the efficiency of the heat transfer. Not only does this increase the amount of heat which is required at the level designated 59 to raise the temperature at the level designated 60 sufficiently to heat the ink 11 , but it also results in a substantial thermal loss to take place in the directions indicated by the arrows 61 . These disadvantage would not be present if the heater element 10 was merely supported on a surface and was not covered by the protective layer 57 . [0164] According to the feature presently under discussion, the need for a protective layer 57 , as described above, is avoided by generating the bubble 12 so that it collapses, as illustrated in FIG. 48 , towards a point of collapse 17 at which there is no solid material, and more particularly where there is the gap 54 between parts 53 of the heater element 10 . As there is merely the ink 11 itself in this location (prior to bubble generation), there is no material that can be eroded here by the effects of cavitation. The temperature at the point of collapse 17 may reach many thousands of degrees C., as is demonstrated by the phenomenon of sonoluminesence. This will break down the ink components at that point. However, the volume of extreme temperature at the point of collapse 17 is so small that the destruction of ink components in this volume is not significant. [0165] The generation of the bubble 12 so that it collapses towards a point of collapse 17 where there is no solid material can be achieved using heater elements 10 corresponding to that represented by the part 10 . 34 of the mask shown in FIG. 34 . The element represented is symmetrical, and has a hole represented by the reference numeral 63 at its center. When the element is heated, the bubble forms around the element (as indicated by the dashed line 64 ) and then grows so that, instead of being of annular (doughnut) shape as illustrated by the dashed lines 64 and 65 ) it spans the element including the hole 63 , the hole then being filled with the vapor that forms the bubble. The bubble 12 is thus substantially disc-shaped. When it collapses, the collapse is directed so as to minimize the surface tension surrounding the bubble 12 . This involves the bubble shape moving towards a spherical shape as far as is permitted by the dynamics that are involved. This, in turn, results in the point of collapse being in the region of the hole 63 at the center of the heater element 10 , where there is no solid material. [0166] The heater element 10 represented by the part 10 . 31 of the mask shown in FIG. 31 is configured to achieve a similar result, with the bubble generating as indicated by the dashed line 66 , and the point of collapse to which the bubble collapses being in the hole 67 at the center of the element. [0167] The heater element 10 represented as the part 10 . 36 of the mask shown in FIG. 36 is also configured to achieve a similar result. Where the element 10 . 36 is dimensioned such that the hole 68 is small, manufacturing inaccuracies of the heater element may affect the extent to which a bubble can be formed such that its point of collapse is in the region defined by the hole. For example, the hole may be as little as a few microns across. Where high levels of accuracy in the element 10 . 36 cannot be achieved, this may result in bubbles represented as 12 . 36 that are somewhat lopsided, so that they cannot be directed towards a point of collapse within such a small region. In such a case, with regard to the heater element represented in FIG. 36 , the central loop 49 of the element can simply be omitted, thereby increasing the size of the region in which the point of collapse of the bubble is to fall. [0168] Chemical Vapor Deposited Nozzle Plate, and Thin Nozzle Plates [0169] The nozzle aperture 5 of each unit cell 1 extends through the nozzle plate 2 , the nozzle plate thus constituting a structure which is formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In various preferred embodiments, the CVD is of silicon nitride, silicon dioxide or oxi-nitride. [0170] The advantage of the nozzle plate 2 being formed by CVD is that it is formed in place without the requirement for assembling the nozzle plate to other components such as the walls 6 of the unit cell 1 . This is an important advantage because the assembly of the nozzle plate 2 that would otherwise be required can be difficult to effect and can involve potentially complex issues. Such issues include the potential mismatch of thermal expansion between the nozzle plate 2 and the parts to which it would be assembled, the difficulty of successfully keeping components aligned to each other, keeping them planar, and so on, during the curing process of the adhesive which bonds the nozzle plate 2 to the other parts. [0171] The issue of thermal expansion is a significant factor in the prior art, which limits the size of ink jets that can be manufactured. This is because the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion between, for example, a nickel nozzle plate and a substrate to which the nozzle plate is connected, where this substrate is of silicon, is quite substantial. Consequently, over as small a distance as that occupied by, say, 1000 nozzles, the relative thermal expansion that occurs between the respective parts, in being heated from the ambient temperature to the curing temperature required for bonding the parts together, can cause a dimension mismatch of significantly greater than a whole nozzle length. This would be significantly detrimental for such devices. [0172] Another problem addressed by the features of the invention presently under discussion, at least in embodiments thereof, is that, in prior art devices, nozzle plates that need to be assembled are generally laminated onto the remainder of the printhead under conditions of relatively high stress. This can result in breakages or undesirable deformations of the devices. The depositing of the nozzle plate 2 by CVD in embodiments of the present invention avoids this. [0173] A further advantage of the present features of the invention, at least in embodiments thereof, is their compatibility with existing semiconductor manufacturing processes. Depositing a nozzle plate 2 by CVD allows the nozzle plate to be included in the printhead at the scale of normal silicon wafer production, using processes normally used for semi-conductor manufacture. [0174] Existing thermal ink jet or bubble jet systems experience pressure transients, during the bubble generation phase, of up to 100 atmospheres. If the nozzle plates 2 in such devices were applied by CVD, then to withstand such pressure transients, a substantial thickness of CVD nozzle plate would be required. As would be understood by those skilled in the art, such thicknesses of deposited nozzle plates would give rise certain problems as discussed below. [0175] For example, the thickness of nitride sufficient to withstand a 100 atmosphere pressure in the nozzle chamber 7 may be, say, 10 microns. With reference to FIG. 49 , which shows a unit cell 1 that is not in accordance with the present invention, and which has such a thick nozzle plate 2 , it will be appreciated that such a thickness can result in problems relating to drop ejection. In this case, due to the thickness of nozzle plate 2 , the fluidic drag exerted by the nozzle 3 as the ink 11 is ejected therethrough results in significant losses in the efficiency of the device. [0176] Another problem that would exist in the case of such a thick nozzle plate 2 , relates to the actual etching process. This is assuming that the nozzle 3 is etched, as shown, perpendicular to the wafer 8 of the substrate portion, for example using a standard plasma etching. This would typically require more than 10 microns of resist 69 to be applied. To expose that thickness of resist 69 , the required level of resolution becomes difficult to achieve, as the focal depth of the stepper that is used to expose the resist is relatively small. Although it would be possible to expose this relevant depth of resist 69 using x-rays, this would be a relatively costly process. [0177] A further problem that would exist with such a thick nozzle plate 2 in a case where a 10 micron thick layer of nitride were CVD deposited on a silicon substrate wafer, is that, because of the difference in thermal expansion between the CVD layer and the substrate, as well as the inherent stress of within thick deposited layer, the wafer could be caused to bow to such a degree that further steps in the lithographic process would become impractical. Thus, a layer for the nozzle plate 2 as thick as 10 microns (unlike in the present invention), while possible, is disadvantageous. [0178] With reference to FIG. 50 , in a Memjet thermal ink ejection device according to an embodiment of the present invention, the CVD nitride nozzle plate layer 2 is only 2 microns thick. Therefore the fluidic drag through the nozzle 3 is not particularly significant and is therefore not a major cause of loss. [0179] Furthermore, the etch time, and the resist thickness required to etch nozzles 3 in such a nozzle plate 2 , and the stress on the substrate wafer 8 , will not be excessive. [0180] The relatively thin nozzle plate 2 in this invention is enabled as the pressure generated in the chamber 7 is only approximately 1 atmosphere and not 100 atmospheres as in prior art devices, as mentioned above. [0181] There are many factors which contribute to the significant reduction in pressure transient 30 required to eject drops 16 in this system. These include: 1. small size of chamber 7 ; 2. accurate fabrication of nozzle 3 and chamber 7 ; 3. stability of drop ejection at low drop velocities; 4. very low fluidic and thermal crosstalk between nozzles 3 ; 5. optimum nozzle size to bubble area; 6. low fluidic drag through thin (2 micron) nozzle 3 ; 7. low pressure loss due to ink ejection through the inlet 9 ; 8. self-cooling operation. [0190] As mentioned above in relation the process described in terms of FIGS. 6 to 31 , the etching of the 2-micron thick nozzle plate layer 2 involves two relevant stages. One such stage involves the etching of the region designated 45 in FIGS. 24 and 50 , to form a recess outside of what will become the nozzle rim 4 . The other such stage involves a further etch, in the region designated 46 in FIGS. 26 and 50 , which actually forms the nozzle aperture 5 and finishes the rim 4 . [0191] Nozzle Plate Thicknesses [0192] As addressed above in relation to the formation of the nozzle plate 2 by CVD, and with the advantages described in that regard, the nozzle plates in the present invention are thinner than in the prior art. More particularly, the nozzle plates 2 are less than 10 microns thick. In one preferred embodiment, the nozzle plate 2 of each unit cell 1 is less than 5 microns thick, while in another preferred embodiment, it is less than 2.5 microns thick. Indeed, a preferred thickness for the nozzle plate 2 is 2 microns thick. [0193] Heater Elements Formed in Different Layers [0194] According to the present feature, there are a plurality of heater elements 10 disposed within the chamber 7 of each unit cell 1 . The elements 10 , which are formed by the lithographic process as described above in relation to FIG. 6 to 31 , are formed in respective layers. [0195] In preferred embodiments, as shown in FIGS. 38, 40 and 51 , the heater elements 10 . 1 and 10 . 2 in the chamber 7 , are of different sizes relative to each other. [0196] Also as will be appreciated with reference to the above description of the lithographic process, each heater element 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 is formed by at least one step of that process, the lithographic steps relating to each one of the elements 10 . 1 being distinct from those relating to the other element 10 . 2 . [0197] The elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 are preferably sized relative to each other, as reflected schematically in the diagram of FIG. 51 , such that they can achieve binary weighted ink drop volumes, that is, so that they can cause ink drops 16 having different, binary weighted volumes to be ejected through the nozzle 3 of the particular unit cell 1 . The achievement of the binary weighting of the volumes of the ink drops 16 is determined by the relative sizes of the elements 10 . 1 and 10 . 2 . In FIG. 51 , the area of the bottom heater element 10 . 2 in contact with the ink 11 is twice that of top heater element 10 . 1 . [0198] One known prior art device, patented by Canon, and illustrated schematically in FIG. 52 , also has two heater elements 10 . 1 and 10 . 2 for each nozzle, and these are also sized on a binary basis (i.e. to produce drops 16 with binary weighted volumes). These elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 are formed in a single layer, adjacent to each other in the nozzle chamber 7 . It will be appreciated that the bubble 12 . 1 formed by the small element 10 . 1 , only, is relatively small, while that 12 . 2 formed by the large element 10 . 2 , only, is relatively large. The bubble generated by the combined effects of the two elements, when they are actuated simultaneously, is designated 12 . 3 . Three differently sized ink drops 16 will be caused to be ejected by the three respective bubbles 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 and 12 . 3 . [0199] It will be appreciated that the size of the elements 10 . 1 and 10 . 2 themselves are not required to be binary weighted to cause the ejection of drops 16 having different sizes or the ejection of useful combinations of drops. Indeed, the binary weighting may well not be represented precisely by the area of the elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 themselves. In sizing the elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 to achieve binary weighted drop volumes, the fluidic characteristics surrounding the generation of bubbles 12 , the drop dynamics characteristics, the quantity of liquid that is drawing back into the chamber 7 from the nozzle 3 once a drop 16 has broken off, and so forth, must be considered. Accordingly, the actual ratio of the surface areas of the elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 , or the performance of the two heaters, needs to be adjusted in practice to achieve the desired binary weighted drop volumes. [0200] Where the size of the heater elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 is fixed and where the ratio of their surface areas is therefore fixed, the relative sizes of ejected drops 16 may be adjusted by adjusting the supply voltages to the two elements. This can also be achieved by adjusting the duration of the operation pulses of the elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 —i.e. their pulse widths. However, the pulse widths cannot exceed a certain amount of time, because once a bubble 12 has nucleated on the surface of an element 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 , then any duration of pulse width after that time will be of little or no effect. [0201] On the other hand, the low thermal mass of the heater elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 allows them to be heated to reach, very quickly, the temperature at which bubbles 12 are formed and at which drops 16 are ejected. While the maximum effective pulse width is limited, by the onset of bubble nucleation, typically to around 0.5 microseconds, the minimum pulse width is limited only by the available current drive and the current density that can be tolerated by the heater elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 . [0202] As shown in FIG. 51 , the two heaters elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 are connected to two respective drive circuits 70 . Although these circuits 70 may be identical to each other, a further adjustment can be effected by way of these circuits, for example by sizing the drive transistor (not shown) connected to the lower element 10 . 2 , which is the high current element, larger than that connected to the upper element 10 . 1 . If, for example, the relative currents provided to the respective elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 are in the ratio 2:1, the drive transistor of the circuit 70 connected to the lower element 10 . 2 would typically be twice the width of the drive transistor (also no shown) of the circuit 70 connected to the other element 10 . 1 . [0203] In the prior art described in relation to FIG. 52 , the heater elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 , which are in the same layer, are produced simultaneously in the same step of the lithographic manufacturing process. In the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 51 , the two heaters elements 10 . 1 , 10 . 2 , as mentioned above, are formed one after the other. Indeed, as described in the process illustrated with reference to FIGS. 6 to 31 , the material to form the element 10 . 2 is deposited and is then etched in the lithographic process, whereafter a sacrificial layer 39 is deposited on top of that element, and then the material for the other element 10 . 1 is deposited so that the sacrificial layer is between the two heater element layers. The layer of the second element 10 . 1 is etched by a second lithographic step, and the sacrificial layer 39 is removed. [0204] Referring once again to the different sizes of the heater elements 10 . 1 and 10 . 2 , as mentioned above, this has the advantage that it enables the elements to be sized so as to achieve multiple, binary weighted drop volumes from one nozzle 3 . [0205] It will be appreciated that, where multiple drop volumes can be achieved, and especially if they are binary weighted, then photographic quality can be obtained while using fewer printed dots, and at a lower print resolution. [0206] Furthermore, under the same circumstances, higher speed printing can be achieved. That is, instead of just ejecting one drop 14 and then waiting for the nozzle 3 to refill, the equivalent of one, two, or three drops might be ejected. Assuming that the available refill speed of the nozzle 3 is not a limiting factor, ink ejection, and hence printing, up to three times faster, may be achieved. In practice, however, the nozzle refill time will typically be a limiting factor. In this case, the nozzle 3 will take slightly longer to refill when a triple volume of drop 16 (relative to the minimum size drop) has been ejected than when only a minimum volume drop has been ejected. However, in practice it will not take as much as three times as long to refill. This is due to the inertial dynamics and the surface tension of the ink 11 . [0207] Referring to FIG. 53 , there is shown, schematically, a pair of adjacent unit cells 1 . 1 and 1 . 2 , the cell on the left 1 . 1 representing the nozzle 3 after a larger volume of drop 16 has been ejected, and that on the right 1 . 2 , after a drop of smaller volume has been ejected. In the case of the larger drop 16 , the curvature of the air bubble 71 that has formed inside the partially emptied nozzle 3 . 1 is larger than in the case of air bubble 72 that has formed after the smaller volume drop has been ejected from the nozzle 3 . 2 of the other unit cell 1 . 2 . [0208] The higher curvature of the air bubble 71 in the unit cell 1 . 1 results in a greater surface tension force which tends to draw the ink 11 , from the refill passage 9 towards the nozzle 3 and into the chamber 7 . 1 , as indicated by the arrow 73 . This gives rise to a shorter refilling time. As the chamber 7 . 1 refills, it reaches a stage, designated 74 , where the condition is similar to that in the adjacent unit cell 1 . 2 . In this condition, the chamber 7 . 1 of the unit cell 1 . 1 is partially refilled and the surface tension force has therefore reduced. This results in the refill speed slowing down even though, at this stage, when this condition is reached in that unit cell 1 . 1 , a flow of liquid into the chamber 7 . 1 , with its associated momentum, has been established. The overall effect of this is that, although it takes longer to completely fill the chamber 7 . 1 and nozzle 3 . 1 from a time when the air bubble 71 is present than from when the condition 74 is present, even if the volume to be refilled is three times larger, it does not take as much as three times longer to refill the chamber 7 . 1 and nozzle 3 . 1 . [0209] Heater Elements Formed From Materials Constituted by Elements with Low Atomic-Numbers [0210] This feature involves the heater elements 10 being formed of solid material, at least 90% of which, by weight, is constituted by one or more periodic elements having an atomic number below 50. In a preferred embodiment the atomic weight is below 30, while in another embodiment the atomic weight is below 23. [0211] The advantage of a low atomic number is that the atoms of that material have a lower mass, and therefore less energy is required to raise the temperature of the heater elements 10 . This is because, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, the temperature of an article is essentially related to the state of movement of the nuclei of the atoms. Accordingly, it will require more energy to raise the temperature, and thereby induce such a nucleus movement, in a material with atoms having heavier nuclei that in a material having atoms with lighter nuclei. [0212] Materials currently used for the heater elements of thermal ink jet systems include tantalum aluminum alloy (for example used by Hewlett Packard), and hafnium boride (for example used by Canon). Tantalum and hafnium have atomic numbers 73 and 72, respectively, while the material used in the Memjet heater elements 10 of the present invention is titanium nitride. Titanium has an atomic number of 22 and nitrogen has an atomic number of 7, these materials therefore being significantly lighter than those of the relevant prior art device materials. [0213] Boron and aluminum, which form part of hafnium boride and tantalum aluminum, respectively, like nitrogen, are relatively light materials. However, the density of tantalum nitride is 16.3 g/cm 3 , while that of titanium nitride (which includes titanium in place of tantalum) is 5.22 g/cm 3 . Thus, because tantalum nitride has a density of approximately three times that of the titanium nitride, titanium nitride will require approximately three time less energy to heat than tantalum nitride. As will be understood by a person skilled in the art, the difference in energy in a material at two different temperatures is represented by the following equation: E=ΔT×C p ×V OL ×ρ, where ΔT represents the temperature difference, C p is the specific heat capacity, V OL is the volume, and ρ is the density of the material. Although the density is not determined only by the atomic numbers as it is also a function of the lattice constants, the density is strongly influenced by the atomic numbers of the materials involved, and hence is a key aspect of the feature under discussion. [0214] Low Heater Mass [0215] This feature involves the heater elements 10 being configured such that the mass of solid material of each heater element that is heated above the boiling point of the bubble forming liquid (i.e. the ink 11 in this embodiment) to heat the ink so as to generate bubbles 12 therein to cause an ink drop 16 to be ejected, is less than 10 nanograms. [0216] In one preferred embodiment, the mass is less that 2 nanograms, in another embodiment the mass is less than 500 picograms, and in yet another embodiment the mass is less than 250 picograms. [0217] The above feature constitutes a significant advantage over prior art inkjet systems, as it results in an increased efficiency as a result of the reduction in energy lost in heating the solid materials of the heater elements 10 . This feature is enabled due to the use of heater element materials having low densities, due to the relatively small size of the elements 10 , and due to the heater elements being in the form of suspended beams which are not embedded in other materials, as illustrated, for example, in FIG. 1 . [0218] FIG. 34 shows the shape, in plan view, of a mask for forming the heater structure of the embodiment of the printhead shown in FIG. 33 . Accordingly, as FIG. 34 represents the shape of the heater element 10 of that embodiment, it is now referred to in discussing that heater element. The heater element as represented by reference numeral 10 . 34 in FIG. 34 has just a single loop 49 which is 2 microns wide and 0.25 microns thick. It has a 6 micron outer radius and a 4 micron inner radius. The total heater mass is 82 picograms. The corresponding element 10 . 2 similarly represented by reference numeral 10 . 39 in FIG. 39 has a mass of 229.6 picograms and that 10 represented by reference numeral 10 . 36 in FIG. 36 has a mass of 225.5 picograms. [0219] When the elements 10 , 102 represented in FIGS. 34, 39 and 36 , for example, are used in practice, the total mass of material of each such element which is in thermal contact with the ink 11 (being the bubble forming liquid in this embodiment) that is raised to a temperature above that of the boiling point of the ink, will be slightly higher than these masses as the elements will be coated with an electrically insulating, chemically inert, thermally conductive material. This coating increases, to some extent, the total mass of material raised to the higher temperature. [0220] Conformally Coated Heater Element [0221] This feature involves each element 10 being covered by a conformal protective coating, this coating having been applied to all sides of the element simultaneously so that the coating is seamless. The coating 10 , preferably, is electrically non-conductive, is chemically inert and has a high thermal conductivity. In one preferred embodiment, the coating is of aluminum nitride, in another embodiment it is of diamond-like carbon (DLC), and in yet another embodiment it is of boron nitride. [0222] Referring to FIGS. 54 and 55 , there are shown schematic representations of a prior art heater element 10 that is not conformally coated as discussed above, but which has been deposited on a substrate 78 and which, in the typical manner, has then been conformally coated on one side with a CVD material, designated 76 . In contrast, the coating referred to above in the present instance, as reflected schematically in FIG. 56 , this coating being designated 77 , involves conformally coating the element on all sides simultaneously. However, this conformal coating 77 on all sides can only be achieved if the element 10 , when being so coated, is a structure isolated from other structures—i.e. in the form of a suspended beam, so that there is access to all of the sides of the element. [0223] It is to be understood that when reference is made to conformally coating the element 10 on all sides, this excludes the ends of the element (suspended beam) which are joined to the electrodes 15 as indicated diagrammatically in FIG. 57 . In other words, what is meant by conformally coating the element 10 on all sides is, essentially, that the element is fully surrounded by the conformal coating along the length of the element. [0224] The primary advantage of conformally coating the heater element 10 may be understood with reference, once again, to FIGS. 54 and 55 . As can be seen, when the conformal coating 76 is applied, the substrate 78 on which the heater element 10 was deposited (i.e. formed) effectively constitutes the coating for the element on the side opposite the conformally applied coating. The depositing of the conformal coating 76 on the heater element 10 which is, in turn, supported on the substrate 78 , results in a seam 79 being formed. This seam 79 may constitute a weak point, where oxides and other undesirable products might form, or where delamination may occur. Indeed, in the case of the heater element 10 of FIGS. 54 and 55 , where etching is conducted to separate the heater element and its coating 76 from the substrate 78 below, so as to render the element in the form of a suspended beam, ingress of liquid or hydroxyl ions may result, even though such materials could not penetrate the actual material of the coating 76 , or of the substrate 78 . [0225] The materials mentioned above (i.e. aluminum nitride or diamond-like carbon (DLC)) are suitable for use in the conformal coating 77 of the present invention as illustrated in FIG. 56 due to their desirably high thermal conductivities, their high level of chemical inertness, and the fact that they are electrically non-conductive. Another suitable material, for these purposes, is boron nitride, also referred to above. Although the choice of material used for the coating 77 is important in relation to achieving the desired performance characteristics, materials other than those mentioned, where they have suitable characteristics, may be used instead. [0226] Example Printer in Which the Printhead is Used [0227] The components described above form part of a printhead assembly which, in turn, is used in a printer system. The printhead assembly, itself, includes a number of printhead modules 80 . These aspects are described below. [0228] Referring briefly to FIG. 44 , the array of nozzles 3 shown is disposed on the printhead chip (not shown), with drive transistors, drive shift registers, and so on (not shown), included on the same chip, which reduces the number of connections required on the chip. [0229] With reference to FIGS. 58 and 59 , there is shown, in an exploded view and a non-exploded view, respectively, a printhead module assembly 80 which includes a MEMS printhead chip assembly 81 (also referred to below as a chip). On a typical chip assembly 81 such as that shown, there are 7680 nozzles, which are spaced so as to be capable of printing with a resolution of 1600 dots per inch. The chip 81 is also configured to eject 6 different colors or types of ink 11 . [0230] A flexible printed circuit board (PCB) 82 is electrically connected to the chip 81 , for supplying both power and data to the chip. The chip 81 is bonded onto a stainless-steel upper layer sheet 83 , so as to overlie an array of holes 84 etched in this sheet. The chip 81 itself is a multi-layer stack of silicon which has ink channels (not shown) in the bottom layer of silicon 85 , these channels being aligned with the holes 84 . [0231] The chip 81 is approximately 1 mm in width and 21 mm in length. This length is determined by the width of the field of the stepper that is used to fabricate the chip 81 . The sheet 83 has channels 86 (only some of which are shown as hidden detail) which are etched on the underside of the sheet as shown in FIG. 58 . The channels 86 extend as shown so that their ends align with holes 87 in a mid-layer 88 . Different ones of the channels 86 align with different ones of the holes 87 . The holes 87 , in turn, align with channels 89 in a lower layer 90 . Each channel 89 carries a different respective color of ink, except for the last channel, designated 91 . This last channel 91 is an air channel and is aligned with further holes 92 in the mid-layer 88 , which in turn are aligned with further holes 93 in the upper layer sheet 83 . These holes 93 are aligned with the inner parts 94 of slots 95 in a top channel layer 96 , so that these inner parts are aligned with, and therefore in fluid-flow communication with, the air channel 91 , as indicated by the dashed line 97 . [0232] The lower layer 90 has holes 98 opening into the channels 89 and channel 91 . Compressed filtered air from an air source (not shown) enters the channel 91 through the relevant hole 98 , and then passes through the holes 92 and 93 and slots 95 , in the mid layer 88 , the sheet 83 and the top channel layer 96 , respectively, and is then blown into the side 99 of the chip assembly 81 , from where it is forced out, at 100 , through a nozzle guard 101 which covers the nozzles, to keep the nozzles clear of paper dust. Differently colored inks 11 (not shown) pass through the holes 98 of the lower layer 90 , into the channels 89 , and then through respective holes 87 , then along respective channels 86 in the underside of the upper layer sheet 83 , through respective holes 84 of that sheet, and then through the slots 95 , to the chip 81 . It will be noted that there are just seven of the holes 98 in the lower layer 90 (one for each color of ink and one for the compressed air) via which the ink and air is passed to the chip 81 , the ink being directed to the 7680 nozzles on the chip. [0233] FIG. 60 , in which a side view of the printhead module assembly 80 of FIGS. 58 and 59 is schematically shown, is now referred to. The center layer 102 of the chip assembly is the layer where the 7680 nozzles and their associated drive circuitry is disposed. The top layer of the chip assembly, which constitutes the nozzle guard 101 , enables the filtered compressed air to be directed so as to keep the nozzle guard holes 104 (which are represented schematically by dashed lines) clear of paper dust. [0234] The lower layer 105 is of silicon and has ink channels etched in it. These ink channels are aligned with the holes 84 in the stainless steel upper layer sheet 83 . The sheet 83 receives ink and compressed air from the lower layer 90 as described above, and then directs the ink and air to the chip 81 . The need to funnel the ink and air from where it is received by the lower layer 90 , via the mid-layer 88 and upper layer 83 to the chip assembly 81 , is because it would otherwise be impractical to align the large number (7680) of very small nozzles 3 with the larger, less accurate holes 98 in the lower layer 90 . [0235] The flex PCB 82 is connected to the shift registers and other circuitry (not shown) located on the layer 102 of chip assembly 81 . The chip assembly 81 is bonded by wires 106 onto the PCB flex and these wires are then encapsulated in an epoxy 107 . To effect this encapsulating, a dam 108 is provided. This allows the epoxy 107 to be applied to fill the space between the dam 108 and the chip assembly 81 so that the wires 106 are embedded in the epoxy. Once the epoxy 107 has hardened, it protects the wire bonding structure from contamination by paper and dust, and from mechanical contact. [0236] Referring to FIG. 62 , there is shown schematically, in an exploded view, a printhead assembly 19 , which includes, among other components, printhead module assemblies 80 as described above. The printhead assembly 19 is configured for a page-width printer, suitable for A4 or US letter type paper. [0237] The printhead assembly 19 includes eleven of the printhead modules assemblies 80 , which are glued onto a substrate channel 110 in the form of a bent metal plate. A series of groups of seven holes each, designated by the reference numerals 111 , are provided to supply the 6 different colors of ink and the compressed air to the chip assemblies 81 . An extruded flexible ink hose 112 is glued into place in the channel 110 . It will be noted that the hose 112 includes holes 113 therein. These holes 113 are not present when the hose 112 is first connected to the channel 110 , but are formed thereafter by way of melting, by forcing a hot wire structure (not shown) through the holes 111 , which holes then serve as guides to fix the positions at which the holes 113 are melted. The holes 113 , when the printhead assembly 19 is assembled, are in fluid-flow communication, via holes 114 (which make up the groups 111 in the channel 110 ), with the holes 98 in the lower layer 90 of each printhead module assembly 80 . [0238] The hose 112 defines parallel channels 115 which extend the length of the hose. At one end 116 , the hose 112 is connected to ink containers (not shown), and at the opposite end 117 , there is provided a channel extrusion cap 118 , which serves to plug, and thereby close, that end of the hose. [0239] A metal top support plate 119 supports and locates the channel 110 and hose 112 , and serves as a back plate for these. The channel 110 and hose 112 , in turn, exert pressure onto an assembly 120 which includes flex printed circuits. The plate 119 has tabs 121 which extend through notches 122 in the downwardly extending wall 123 of the channel 110 , to locate the channel and plate with respect to each other. [0240] An extrusion 124 is provided to locate copper bus bars 125 . Although the energy required to operate a printhead according to the present invention is an order of magnitude lower than that of known thermal ink jet printers, there are a total of about 88,000 nozzles 3 in the printhead array, and this is approximately 160 times the number of nozzles that are typically found in typical printheads. As the nozzles 3 in the present invention may be operational (i.e. may fire) on a continuous basis during operation, the total power consumption will be an order of magnitude higher than that in such known printheads, and the current requirements will, accordingly, be high, even though the power consumption per nozzle will be an order of magnitude lower than that in the known printheads. The busbars 125 are suitable for providing for such power requirements, and have power leads 126 soldered to them. [0241] Compressible conductive strips 127 are provided to abut with contacts 128 on the upperside, as shown, of the lower parts of the flex PCBs 82 of the printhead module assemblies 80 . The PCBs 82 extend from the chip assemblies 81 , around the channel 110 , the support plate 119 , the extrusion 124 and busbars 126 , to a position below the strips 127 so that the contacts 128 are positioned below, and in contact with, the strips 127 . [0242] Each PCB 82 is double-sided and plated-through. Data connections 129 (indicated schematically by dashed lines), which are located on the outer surface of the PCB 82 abut with contact spots 130 (only some of which are shown schematically) on a flex PCB 131 which, in turn, includes a data bus and edge connectors 132 which are formed as part of the flex itself. Data is fed to the PCBs 131 via the edge connectors 132 . [0243] A metal plate 133 is provided so that it, together with the channel 110 , can keep all of the components of the printhead assembly 19 together. In this regard, the channel 110 includes twist tabs 134 which extend through slots 135 in the plate 133 when the assembly 19 is put together, and are then twisted through approximately 45 degrees to prevent them from being withdrawn through the slots. [0244] By way of summary, with reference to FIG. 68 , the printhead assembly 19 is shown in an assembled state. Ink and compressed air are supplied via the hose 112 at 136 , power is supplied via the leads 126 , and data is provided to the printhead chip assemblies 81 via the edge connectors 132 . The printhead chip assemblies 81 are located on the eleven printhead module assemblies 80 , which include the PCBs 82 . [0245] Mounting holes 137 are provided for mounting the printhead assembly 19 in place in a printer (not shown). The effective length of the printhead assembly 19 , represented by the distance 138 , is just over the width of an A4 page (that is, about 8.5 inches). [0246] Referring to FIG. 69 , there is shown, schematically, a cross-section through the assembled printhead 19 . From this, the position of a silicon stack forming a chip assembly 81 can clearly be seen, as can a longitudinal section through the ink and air supply hose 112 . Also clear to see is the abutment of the compressible strip 127 which makes contact above with the busbars 125 , and below with the lower part of a flex PCB 82 extending from a the chip assembly 81 . The twist tabs 134 which extend through the slots 135 in the metal plate 133 can also be seen, including their twisted configuration, represented by the dashed line 139 . [0247] Printer System [0248] Referring to FIG. 70 , there is shown a block diagram illustrating a printhead system 140 according to an embodiment of the invention. [0249] Shown in the block diagram is the printhead (represented by the arrow) 141 , a power supply 142 to the printhead, an ink supply 143 , and print data 144 which is fed to the printhead as it ejects ink, at 145 , onto print media in the form, for example, of paper 146 . [0250] Media transport rollers 147 are provided to transport the paper 146 past the printhead 141 . A media pick up mechanism 148 is configured to withdraw a sheet of paper 146 from a media tray 149 . [0251] The power supply 142 is for providing DC voltage which is a standard type of supply in printer devices. [0252] The ink supply 143 is from ink cartridges (not shown) and, typically various types of information will be provided, at 150 , about the ink supply, such as the amount of ink remaining. This information is provided via a system controller 151 which is connected to a user interface 152 . [0253] The interface 152 typically consists of a number of buttons (not shown), such as a “print” button, “page advance” button, an so on. The system controller 151 also controls a motor 153 that is provided for driving the media pick up mechanism 148 and a motor 154 for driving the media transport rollers 147 . [0254] It is necessary for the system controller 151 to identify when a sheet of paper 146 is moving past the printhead 141 , so that printing can be effected at the correct time. This time can be related to a specific time that has elapsed after the media pick up mechanism 148 has picked up the sheet of paper 146 . Preferably, however, a paper sensor (not shown) is provided, which is connected to the system controller 151 so that when the sheet of paper 146 reaches a certain position relative to the printhead 141 , the system controller can effect printing. Printing is effected by triggering a print data formatter 155 which provides the print data 144 to the printhead 141 . It will therefore be appreciated that the system controller 151 must also interact with the print data formatter 155 . [0255] The print data 144 emanates from an external computer (not shown) connected at 156 , and may be transmitted via any of a number of different connection means, such as a USB connection, an ETHERNET connection, a IEEE1394 connection otherwise known as firewire, or a parallel connection. A data communications module 157 provides this data to the print data formatter 155 and provides control information to the system controller 151 . [0256] Although the invention is described above with reference to specific embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms. For example, although the above embodiments refer to the heater elements being electrically actuated, non-electrically actuated elements may also be used in embodiments, where appropriate.

A printhead has a plurality of micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangements. Each nozzle arrangement includes a substrate, side walls and a nozzle plate which together define a chamber. The substrate defines a fluid inlet and the nozzle plate defines a nozzle. Each chamber has a heater element suspended therein. In use, when the chamber contains printing fluid, activation of the heater element produces a vapour bubble in the fluid. This, in turn, produces a pressure increase in the chamber which ejects a drop of printing fluid via the nozzle onto a printing medium.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/144,596, filed May 10, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,943,938 and entitled “Tunable Wavelength Filter with Invariant Transmission and Reflection Beam Angles,” which is hereby incorporated by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention is generally related to the area of optical communications. In particular, the invention is related to a method and apparatus for processing optical channel or channel band signals with specified wavelengths, and more particularly, to optical add/drop devices and the method for making the same. 2. The Background of Related Art The future communication networks demand ever increasing bandwidths and flexibility to different communication protocols. DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is one of the key technologies for such optical fiber communication networks. DWDM employs multiple wavelengths or channels in a single fiber to transmit in parallel different communication protocols and bit rates. Transmitting several channels in a single optical fiber at different wavelengths can multi-fold expand the transmission capacity of the existing optical transmission systems, and facilitating many functions in optical networking. There are many optical parts/devices used in the optical fiber communication networks. Optical tunable filter is one of the optical parts/devices widely used in many important fiber optical applications, such as, optical add/drop modules, optical cross connect systems and tunable receivers. An ideal filter is a device which can isolate an arbitrary spectral band with an arbitrary center wavelength over a broad spectral range. Accordingly, a tunable filter is known or desired to be able to transmit at any given wavelengths with some minor turning adjustments. There are many ways of making a filter with tuning capability and, consequently, many types of tunable filters. These include those using fiber Bragg grating and tunable acoustical filter (TAOF), traditional interferometers such as Fabry-Perot, and liquid crystal filters. All have advantages and limitations and are ended up with a trade-off among the technical feasibility, the performance demands and costs. On the other hand, it is often needed to select a signal with a particular wavelength from a multiplexed signal with a group of wavelengths. This is advantageous in order to drop/add the same or different channel signals at various points within an optical network. Optical add/drop devices are often employed to add/drop one or more of these channel signals. It is desirable to have tunable filters that have the advantages of simple structure, good performance, high reliability and low cost. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This section is for the purpose of summarizing some aspects of the present invention and to briefly introduce some preferred embodiments. Simplifications or omissions may be made to avoid obscuring the purpose of the section. Such simplifications or omissions are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The present invention is related to designs of optical devices for processing optical channel or channel band signals with arbitrarily specified wavelengths over a predefined spectral range. According to one aspect of the present invention, an optical filter, such as a thin film filter with a bandpass WDM filter coating on one side and an antireflection (AR) coating on the other side, is integrated with a high-reflective (HR) mirror. Specifically, the optical filter and the mirror are integrated such that the mirror rotates accordingly when the optical filter rotates. The integrated part, also referred to as a filter mirror assembly, is then rotatably mounted around a rotation axis positioned at an intersection of the incident side of the optical filter and the reflecting side of the mirror. In general, the optical filter has a frequency response of a bandpass filter and the center bandpass frequency depends on an incident angle at which an incoming optical signal impinges upon the filter coating side of the optical filter. As a result, the beam angles of the transmitted signal as well as the reflected optical signal are invariant to the rotation of the filter mirror assembly around the axis, and thus invariant to the incident angle of the incoming signal to the optical filter. By positioning the rotation axis at the intersection, not only the beam angle but the total position of the reflected beam will be invariant to the rotation of the filter-mirror assembly. Therefore, a wide range of wavelengths can be selected to transmit through the optical filter, and kept the reflected signal uninterrupted. The present invention may be implemented as an apparatus and a method. According to one implementation, the present invention is an optical device comprising an optical filter having an incident side, a frequency response of the optical filter to an incoming signal depending on an incident angle of the incoming signal to the incident side; a mirror having a reflecting side and integrated with the optical filter to form an integrated part rotatably mounted on a rotation axis such that the mirror rotates accordingly when the optical filter is caused to rotate to a position in response to a selected wavelength; and a compensator configured to rotate oppositely with the optical filter to compensate a lateral shift in a light beam passing through the optical filter. According to another implementation, the present invention is an optical device comprising a filter mirror assembly including an optical filter having an incident side, a frequency response of the optical filter to an incoming signal depending on an incident angle of the incoming signal to the incident side and a mirror having a reflecting side, the filter mirror assembly rotatably mounted on a rotation axis such that the mirror rotates accordingly when the optical filter is caused to rotate to a position to select a wavelength; a first collimator optically coupled to the optical filter; a second collimator optically coupled to the mirror; a third collimator; and an optical compensator optically coupled between the filter mirror assembly and the third collimator, wherein the compensator performs in accordance with the optical filter to cancel or minimize a lateral shift when a light beam goes through either one of the optical compensator and the optical filter. There are numerous benefits, features, and advantages in the present invention. One of them is a simple structure, good performance, high reliability and low cost in the tunable filters contemplated in the present invention. Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon examining the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where: FIG. 1A shows an optical device including an optical filter integrated with a mirror to facilitate the understanding of the present invention; FIG. 1B shows characteristics of an exemplary optical filter; FIG. 2 shows that a filter mirror assembly including an optical filter and a mirror has been rotated around a rotation axis from a position P 1 to a new position P 2 ; FIG. 3A shows an optical filter according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3B shows exemplary real tray tracing at three beam incident angles in which the reflected beam and the incident beam are kept the same position when the filter mirror assembly is rotated from 20 to 30 and to 40 degree; FIG. 3C shows a measurement of a lateral shift versus an incident angle onto the filter mirror assembly; FIG. 3D shows collective measurements of the coupling loss versus the lateral shift Δx for four given collimated beam sizes; FIG. 3E shows the T-channel (transmission) coupling loss as a function of the tilting angle of the filter mirror assembly, for a fixed 1.2 mm thickness substrate with an index of refraction value 1.5 at various beam waist radii; FIG. 4 shows an exemplary mechanical structure that may be used to control the rotation of the filter mirror assemble as well as the compensator as shown in FIG. 3A ; FIG. 5A shows a different configuration of the filter mirror assembly in which the angle between the thin film filter and the mirror is less than a right angle, for example 85 degree; and FIG. 5B shows an exemplary situation in which an optical compensator is not positioned perfectly systemic to a filter mirror assembly about a vertical bisector line, resulting in a two-degree offset in angle causes 0.1 dB insertion loss increase at 20° incident angle. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will become obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. The description and representation herein are the common means used by those experienced or skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuitry have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present invention. Reference herein to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Further, the order of blocks in process flowcharts or diagrams representing one or more embodiments of the invention do not inherently indicate any particular order nor imply any limitations in the invention. Embodiments of the present invention are discussed herein with reference to FIGS. 1A–5B . However, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the detailed description given herein with respect to these figures is for explanatory purposes as the invention extends beyond these limited embodiments. FIG. 1A shows an optical device 100 that may be used to facilitate the understanding of the present invention. The optical device 100 is capable of maintaining beam direction and angle of both transmission beam and reflection beam while rotating a filter mirror assembly relatively to an incoming optical beam or signal (e.g., a multiplexed signal) with a plurality of wavelengths. The filter mirror assembly includes an optical filter 102 and a mirror 104 . As shown in the figure, the filter mirror assembly appears an “L” shape and provides a filtering function as well as a reflecting function. As will be detailed more below, the angle between the optical filter 102 and the mirror 104 does not have to be a right angle (i.e., 90 degree). The drawing showing a 90 degree is for easy understanding only and shall not be understood as an implied limitation of the current invention. According to one embodiment, the optical filter 102 is so chosen that the frequency response thereof to an incoming signal depends on an incident angle of the incoming signal coming to its incident side 106 while the mirror is preferably of high reflection. FIG. 1B shows characteristics of an exemplary optical filter. A pass-through wavelength of the optical filter changes when the incident angle changes. For example, at an incident angle of 0 degree, the pass-through wavelength is 1550 nm while, at an incident angle of 27 degree, the pass-through wavelength is 1470 nm. In general, the optical filter 102 has two sides, preferably, a bandpass WDM filter coating on one side and an antireflection (AR) coating on the other side with both side substantially parallel with each other. Depending on the use of the optical device 100 , either side can be an incident side to receive an optical signal. To facilitate the description of the present invention, it is assumed that the optical device 100 is used to drop or filter out a specific (selected) wavelength from an incoming multiplexed signal 107 as shown in FIG. 1A . In operation, the incoming signal or light beam 107 , assumed to have wavelengths λ 1 , (2, . . . , and (N, is coupled from a collimator 110 to the optical filter 102 . According to a particular requirement, for example, only a signal with wavelength (j (1≦j≦N) is to be transmitted through the optical filter 102 positioned at a particular position (angle), for example, P 1 , at the same time, the remaining wavelengths in the signal 107 (i.e., the reflected signal 114 ) are reflected to the mirror 104 that further reflects the reflected signal 114 to a collimator 116 . As a result, the collimator 110 couples in the incoming signal 107 with wavelengths (1, (2, . . . , and (N, the collimator 112 outputs a transmitted signal 111 at a selected wavelength (j and the collimator 116 outputs the reflected signal 114 with all wavelengths except for the selected wavelength (j. When there is a need to alter the selection of the transmitted wavelength (j to (i, wherein 1≦i, j≦N and i≠j, the filter mirror assembly can be rotated accordingly to a new position, for example, P 2 . Referring now to FIG. 2 , it shows that the integrated optical filter 102 and the mirror 104 have been rotated around a rotation axis 200 from a position P 1 202 to a new position P 2 , 204 . Because the incident angle of the signal 107 is changed, only a signal with wavelength λ i is transmitted through the optical filter 102 positioned at the present position, at the same time, the remaining wavelengths in the signal 108 are reflected to the mirror 104 that further reflects the reflected signal 114 to the collimator 116 . According to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3A shows an optical device 300 that may be readily understood if viewed in conjunction with FIGS. 1A–2 . It is assumed that the device 300 is used to drop a selected wavelength λ j . Accordingly, the device 300 includes a filter mirror assembly 302 and a compensator 304 in addition to three collimators 306 , 308 and 310 that are respectively labeled as input port collimator, express port collimator and transmission port. In one embodiment, the filter mirror assembly 302 is similar to that in FIG. 1A and appears an “L” shape and provides a filtering function as well as a reflecting function. The filtering function is provided by, for example, a thin film filter 312 on top of a substrate 314 , and the reflecting function may be simply provided by a mirror 316 . As described above, when the filter mirror assembly 302 is controlled at a certain angle, only one selected wavelength λ j in a light beam can pass through the thin film filter 312 and the substrate 314 to the transmission port collimator. The rest of the light beam with wavelengths other than the selected wavelength λ j is reflected towards the mirror 316 . The mirror 316 then redirects the beam to the direction that is parallel to the optical path of the input beam (or the input beam direction) to the express (or reflection) port 308 . One of the features of the device 300 is that the optical path of the reflected beam (or the reflected beam position) is always maintained as the same beam position of the incident beam while the filter mirror assembly 302 is controllably rotated around the rotation pivot 318 . When the angle in the filter mirror assemble 302 is other than 90 degrees, as detailed below, the incidental beam position and the reflected beam position remains unaltered, although not necessarily being parallel. In any case, it can be shown in FIG. 3A that the separation between the incident beam position and the reflected beam position is always 2 D, where D is the vertical distance between the rotation axis 318 to the incident beam position. Exemplary real tray tracing at three beam incident angles are shown schematically in FIG. 3B in which the reflected beam and the incident beam are kept the same position when the filter mirror assembly is rotated from 20 to 30 and to 40 degree. It may be observed in FIG. 1A or FIG. 3 that, as the light beam at the selected wavelength λ j passes the filter mirror assembly 302 , there is a certain lateral shift, noted as Δx, of the transmitted light with respect to the incident beam position. Such lateral shift Δx, observable in FIG. 1A or FIG. 3A , is largely caused by the difference between the two media. The magnitude of the lateral shift Δx depends on the combination of the thickness of the thin film filter 312 and the index of the substrate 314 . A measurement of such lateral shift versus an incident angle onto the filter mirror assembly 302 is shown in FIG. 3C . In operation, such lateral shift Δx, depending on the magnitude thereof, ultimately affects the transmission of the light beam at the selected wavelength λ j , thus introducing a coupling loss. Measurements of the coupling loss versus the lateral shift Δx for four given collimated beam size on the transmission port coupling loss are collectively shown in FIG. 3D . Combining these two effects together, the T-channel (transmission) coupling loss as a function of the tilting angle of the filter mirror assembly, for a fixed 1.2 mm thickness substrate with an index of refraction value 1 . 5 , at various beam waist radii are plotted in FIG. 3E . One of the important features in the present invention is the introduction of the compensator 304 in the device 300 . The compensator 304 is made as identical as possible to the substrate 314 such that the lateral shift Δx can be cancelled or minimized when the light beam at the selected wavelength λ j passes the compensator 304 . In operation, the shifted light beam enters the compensator 304 and is shifted in a direction opposite to that of the substrate 314 , thus resulting in a cancellation of the lateral shift Δx or at least a minimization of the lateral shift Δx. As a result, the coupling loss is significantly reduced. It can be readily appreciated that the above description equally applied to the applications in which a signal at a specific wavelength (e.g., λ j ) is to be combined with an incoming signal by reversing the optical paths. A resultant newly combined or multiplexed signal will be output from the collimator 306 . FIG. 4 shows an exemplary mechanical structure 400 that may be used to control the rotation of the filter mirror assemble as well as the compensator as shown in FIG. 3A . The mechanical structure 400 includes four rigid arms 402 , 404 , 406 and 408 connected at its ends to form a frame, wherein both of the arms 406 and 408 are attached a filter 410 and a compensator 412 . The arm 408 is also extended to include a mirror 414 and thus provides an exemplary filter mirror assembly. In operation, to drop or filter out a selected wavelength, the filter mirror assembly is caused to rotate to a position where the spectral response of the filter 410 falls on the selected wavelength. As the arm 414 rotates, because of the framing of the mechanical structure 400 , the compensator 412 moves oppositely with the filter 410 . One of the features in the present invention is that the reflected signal always maintains the same beam position regardless how the incident angle to the optical filter 410 is changed, as long as the rotation of the filter mirror assembly is around the rotation axis which is located at the intersection of the mirror and filter coating surface of the filter. FIG. 5A shows a different configuration of the filter mirror assembly in which the angle between the thin film filter and the mirror is less than a right angle, for example 85 degree. It shows by ray tracing that as long as the filter mirror assembly rotates about the rotation pivot, the incident light path and the reflection light path will remain unaltered. It can be appreciated that the filter mirror assembly of FIG. 5A can be still supported by the mechanical structure 400 of FIG. 4 . There are some results observed. For the reflection port, for example, 308 of FIG. 3 , the angle between the filter surface and the reflection mirror surface does not have to be 90° and the incident and reflection optical paths can still maintain unchanged while rotating the filter mirror assembly. This feature has been demonstrated in FIG. 5A in which the reflection port collimator is no longer parallel to the input port collimator while the light coupling is kept at optimal condition. For the transmission port, for example, 310 of FIG. 3A , if the compensator 304 is not positioned perfectly systemic to the filter mirror assembly about a vertical bisector line 320 , the situation is modeled and shown in FIG. 5B , a two-degree offset in angle causes 0.1 dB insertion loss increase at 20° incident angle. In operation and mechanically, such angle offset can easily be controlled under 2 degree. The present invention has been described in sufficient details with a certain degree of particularity. It is understood to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure of embodiments has been made by way of examples only and that numerous changes in the arrangement and combination of parts may be resorted without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description of embodiments.

Improved designs of optical devices for processing optical signals with one or more specified wavelengths are disclosed. According to embodiment, a filter mirror assembly appears an “L” shape and provides a filtering function as well as a reflecting function. The filter mirror assembly is so mounted that a rotation thereof will not alter the optical path the beam positions of signals resulted from a rotation of the filter mirror assembly. To cancel or minimize a lateral shift introduced to a light beam going through an optical filter, an optical compensator is introduced and rotates oppositely whenever the optical filter rotates.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the cooperative deployment of resource management objects in an integrated solutions console and more particularly to security management for resource management objects in an integrated solutions console. 2. Description of the Related Art The rapid evolution of technology and the Internet have created an unforgiving consumer. End-users expect e-business to be fast and focused, providing a quick response to service requests. End users further expect dynamic adaptation to meet new computing demands and the provisioning of uninterrupted, round-the-clock access to products and services. Meeting the demands of this unforgiving consumer can require new levels of integration and performance management. To remain competitive, the enterprise must deploy the appropriate technology to effectively integrate business processes across the enterprise and with key partners, suppliers and customers. The correct infrastructure can enable e-business agility allowing the business to immediately respond to customer demands, market opportunities and security threats. Yet, building and managing an on-demand operating environment can be difficult even for the most skilled technology team. Years of expanding the system architecture to capitalize on new and more advanced technology has created a complex infrastructure. Despite the complexity, though, the demands remain the same: complete and seamless integration of all disparate and similar technologies. To facilitate the integration and management of multiple, disparate technologies, integrated resource management systems have been deployed to provide a singular view to the enterprise, despite the disparate nature of the resources disposed therein. Through an integrated solutions console, a view of the enterprise can be provided, not only in reference to the performance of individually monitored resources, but also in respect to the administration of security, the authorization of users, the management of service level agreements and the like. Cutting edge implementations of the integrated solutions console demonstrate unparalleled flexibility by providing a portal view to independently developed resource management components. Generally, console modules disposed within the integrated solutions console can be charged with the management or monitoring of one or more corresponding resources. Referred to in the art as a “resource management object”, each resource management object can be rendered within the integrated solutions console to represent an independently developed and self-contained object directed to a specific target platform or resource. Notably, the integration of resource management objects in the integrated services console can provide previously unknown challenges in respect to the identification and verification of console users in respect to the different resource management objects accessed through an integrated services console. Presently, a myriad of authentication tools have been developed for disparate products operating in disparate platforms. Most permit the replacement of one authentication or authorization solution for another through the implementation of a standard interface. Yet, replacing one authentication solution for another across multiple disparate resources viewable through a single integrated solutions console can require substantial changes to existing authentication and authorization models of administered resources and an associated user interface. For example, conventional solutions allow defining new user registries and mapping the new registries to console resources without accounting for pre-existing user registries. Moreover, a clear demarcation of administrative responsibilities accounting for usage patterns is lacking among conventional solutions. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to user authentication and authorization in an integrated services console and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for security management in an integrated console for resource objects associated with multiple user registries. A system for security management for resource objects associated with multiple user registries can include an integrated console configured to host one or more resource objects in corresponding realms. The system also can include one or more roles mapped to different ones of the resource objects in different realms and also to different users permitted to access the integrated console. The system yet further can include a user-user mapping of users having associations with multiple different ones of the roles. Finally, the system can include console security management logic programmed to manage authentication for the users according to the user-user mapping. A method for security management for applications associated with multiple user registries can include mapping a first role to at least one resource object in a first realm and mapping a second role to at least one resource object in a second realm. The method further can include mapping the first role to a user permitted to access an integrated console and mapping the second role to a user permitted to access an integrated console. The users can be equated as a singular user. The equating step can include, for example, writing an entry in a user-user mapping which equates the users as a singular user. Finally, access through an integrated console to the resource objects can be authenticated for the singular user. Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspects of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein: FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an integrated console configured for security management for applications associated with multiple user registries; and, FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a process for establishing a set of user-user mappings in the integrated console of FIG. 1 ; and, FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for security management for applications associated with multiple user registries. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for security management for applications associated with multiple user registries. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, different set of permissions, referred to as roles, can be defined for different resource objects for different applications operating in different security domains referred to as realms. Likewise, different users can be assigned to the different roles so as to secure access to the resource objects through the different applications. Finally, a user-user mapping can be established in coordination with an integrated console to associate a single user having different roles corresponding to different realms for resource objects accessed through the different applications in the integrated console. In more particular illustration, FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an integrated console configured for security management for applications associated with multiple user registries. As shown in FIG. 1 , an integrated console 120 can include views to one or more applications 130 accessing one or more resource objects 170 . In this regard, each of the applications 130 can be application logic configured to be a portlet within a portal environment hosting the integrated console 120 . To that end, users 110 can individually access the applications 130 through the integrated console 120 in a manner limited only by access permissions defined for the applications 130 . Each applications 130 can be associated with a different realm. As such, a registry of access permissions 140 can be defined for each different realm. The registry of access permissions 140 can include access control information specifying access restrictions to different ones of the resource objects 170 for the applications 130 disposed within the realm. A set of roles 150 further can be established which roles 150 can be associated with selected ones of the access permissions 140 . The roles can be a logical group of permissions to perform an administrative task in said integrated console. In this regard, users 110 which are assigned to particular ones of the roles 150 are provided with the access permissions 140 associated with the particular ones of the roles 150 . Finally, console security management logic 200 can establish a set of user-user mappings 160 to associate single ones of the users 110 having multiple different roles 150 for multiple different ones of the applications 130 accessing different resource objects 170 across different realms. In this way, an authentication process managed within the console security management logic 200 can be harmonized and simplified within a single location associated with the integration console 120 without requiring the creation of separate, independent registries to be used in lieu of existing registries for the applications 130 . In further illustration, FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a process for establishing a set of user-user mappings in the integrated console of FIG. 1 . Beginning in block 210 , a role can be created for a realm including one or more resource objects which can be accessed through the integrated console. In block 220 , the role can be mapped to one or more users. Subsequently, in block 230 a first resource object in the realm can be selected and in block 240 the role can be mapped to the selected resource object. In decision block 250 , if more resource objects are to be mapped to the role, in block 260 a next resource object can be selected and the process can repeat through block 240 . In decision block 270 , if additional realms are to be processed, the process can repeat through block 210 for each additional realm. When no additional realms are to be processed, in decision block 280 it can be determined whether one or more of the users who have been assigned to multiple roles are to be mapped together across different realms to be treated as a singular user for purposes of authentication in the integration console. Alternatively, a super-role can be created to include the multiple roles and an entire hierarchy of roles can be accommodated. Specifically, a third role encompassing both the first and second role can be mapped and a user defined in one realm can be equated with a user defined in another realm as a singular user. Accordingly, the singular user can be mapped to a third role. In any event, if, in decision block 280 , multiple roles are to be associated with a single user, in block 290 a mapping can be created for the user for each role association for the user. For example, the mapping can be maintained in the integrated console, or within a portal hosting the integrated console. Subsequently, in block 300 the process can end. Utilizing the user-user mapping produced in FIG. 2 , the console security management process can proactively provide user credentials for applications in the integrated console. Specifically, FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for security management for applications associated with multiple user registries. Beginning in block 310 , a user of the integrated console can be challenged for authentication and credentials for the user can be obtained in block 320 . In block 330 , the credentials can be passed to a corresponding realm for an application in the integrated console. In decision block 340 , if the credentials can be validated, the credentials for other applications in the integrated console can be retrieved via the user-user mapping, and the credentials for other applications for the user can be retrieved in block 350 . Subsequently, in block 350 the applications can be rendered in the integrated console for the user to access. Notably, the applications can be rendered in the integrated console without requiring the user to separately authenticate in each application, even though the credentials may differ from application to application and realm to realm. Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.

A system for security management for applications associated with multiple user registries can include an integrated console configured to host a one or more applications or resource objects in corresponding realms. The system also can include one or more roles mapped to different ones of the resource objects and also to different users permitted to access the integrated console. The system yet further can include a user relationship system having associations with multiple different ones of the roles. Finally, the system can include console security management logic programmed to manage authentication for the users using realm of the resource object while not requiring a separate user registry for the integrated console.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/692,129 filed Aug. 5, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,977, issued Jul. 7, 1998, which is a division of application Ser. No. 08/444,518 filed May 19, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,514 issued Dec. 31, 1996, which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/002,863 filed Jan. 14, 1993, abandoned, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to novel arylcycloalkyl derivatives, their production, and their use. 2. Description of Related Art The chalcones of the following general formula Ia are known by the following prior art: ##STR2## 1. J.P. 281022--Compounds of formula Ia, wherein R 1 =substituted phenyl, R 2 =OH, a=single or double bond, R 3 =OH, R 4a =H, isoprenyl or isopentyl, and are effective in treatment of diseases caused by hypersecretion of androgens, e.g., prostatomegaly, alopecia in males, acne vulgaris or seborrhoea. 2. J.P. 026775--Compounds of formula Ia wherein R 1 =substituted phenyl, R 2 =H, OH, acetoxy, carboxymethoxy or methoxycarbonylmethoxy, R 3 =OH, methoxy, benzyloxy, H, R 4a =H, isoprenyl or isopentyl, and possess anti-hyaluronidase activity. 3. J.P. 142166--Compounds of formula Ia wherein R 1 =substituted phenyl, R 2 =OH, acetoxy, carboxymethoxy, methoxycarboxylmethoxy, R 3 =OH, methoxy, H, a=single or a double bond, R 4a =isoprenyl, isopentyl, n-propyl or H, and are useful as aldose reductase inhibitors--used to treat diabetic complications such as cataracts, retinitis, nerve disorder or kidney disease. 4. J.P. 248389--Compounds of formula Ia wherein R 1 =substituted phenyl, R 2 =OH, R 3 =OH, a=a double bond, R 4a =H, and are useful as aldose reductase inhibitors--for treatment of diabetes mellitus complications. 5. J.P. 144717--Compounds of formula Ia wherein R 1 =substituted phenyl, R 2 =H or OH, R 3 =H or OH, a=a double bond, R 4a =H or OH, and are useful as c-kinase inhibitors and antitumor agents. 6. EP 150166--Compounds of formula Ia wherein R 1 =substituted phenyl, R 2 =H, halogen, lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, CN, carboxy, nitro, R 3 =H, halogen, lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, CN, carboxy, nitro, hydroxy, substituted acetic acid derivative, a=a double bond, R 4a =as in R 3 , and having inhibitory effect on hydroxy-prostaglandin dehydrogenase. They may have potential local activity against gastrointestinal disorders such as gastric ulcer, and ulcerative colitis. Other potential fields of application include the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, circulatory disorders, cancer, lack of fertility and cell regulation. 7. J.P. 167288--Compounds of formula Ia wherein R 1 =substituted phenyl, R 2 =H, R 3 =OH, a=a single bond, R 4a =OH, and are selective inhibitors of 5-lipoxygenase and have excellent anti-allergic activity, thus are useful as a safe anti-allergic drug such as antiasthmatic, antiphlogistic and immune activating drug. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to compounds of formula I, ##STR3## wherein R 1 =C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, substituted C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, C(O)O--C 1 -C 4 -alkyl, C(O)OH, or a residue selected from ##STR4## wherein R 5 is one, two, three, or four of the residues which are independent of each other and are selected from the group consisting of H, C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, substituted C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, hydroxy, C 1 -C 6 -alkoxy, carboxy, cyano, NHC(O)C 1 -C 3 -alkyl, --OC 1 -C 3 -alkyl-phenyl, --OCH 2 --O--, C 1 -C 4 -alkyl-O--C 1 -C 4 -alkyl, --O--(O)--C 1 -C 4 -alkyl, --C(O)--O--C 1 -C 4 -alkyl, halogen, amino, nitro, --NH--C 1 -C 4 -alkyl, --N--(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl) 2 , and --C 1 -C 4 -alkyl-R 6 wherein R 6 is a residue selected from ##STR5## X is O, S, N--H, N--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl; R 2 is H, C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, --C(O)--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl; R 3 is one, two, or three of the residues which are independent of each other and are selected from the group consisting of H, C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, --C(O)--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, --C(O)--O--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, OH, O--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, --O--C(O)--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, halogen; R 4 is H, --OH, --O--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, --O--C(O)--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, --C(O)--OH, --C(O)--O--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, O--C(O)--(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl-NH 2 , O--C(O)--(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl)-NH--(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl), O--C(O)--(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl)-N--(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl) 2 ; n 0, 1 or 2; and a represents an optional additional single bond, and to the physiologically tolerable salts thereof. Preferred compounds are compounds of formula II ##STR6## wherein R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 and a are as previously defined, and the physiologically tolerable salts thereof. Among this group of compounds, those are preferred in which R 1 is ##STR7## R 5 denoting H, C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, substituted C 1 -C 6 -alkyl, hydroxy, C 1 -C 3 -alkoxy, halogen, C 1 -C 4 -alkyl-R 6 wherein R 6 stands for ##STR8## R 4 denotes H, OH or --O--C(O)--(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl)-NH 2 ; X stands for O, NH, S, N--C 1 -C 6 -alkyl; and a stands for an optional additional bond, and the physiologically tolerable salts thereof. Particularly preferred are compounds of formula III ##STR9## wherein R 2 is H or C 1 -C 3 -alkyl, R 5 denotes one or two halogens or one or two C 1 -C 6 -alkyl or C 1 -C 3 -alkoxy groups, and a denotes an optional additional single bond, and the physiologically tolerable salts thereof. The above term substituted alkyl means alkyl, preferably C 1 -C 3 -alkyl, substituted by preferably one halogen, hydroxy, C 1 -C 3 -alkoxy, amino, C 1 -C 4 -alkylamino, di-(C 1 -C 4 -alkyl)-amino, carbonyl or carboxy-C 1 -C 4 -alkyl. The compounds of the invention contain two asymmetric centers, designated with asterisks in formula II, at the points of attachment of R 4 , (e.g., formula II, when R 4 =H) and of the aryl group on the carbocyclic ring; therefore, four isomers are possible, designated individually as the cis-(+), cis-(-), trans (+), and trans-(-) forms. The present invention includes each of the four isomers individually or as mixtures of two or more of the four isomers. Examples of particularly preferred compounds are: 1. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-chlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 2. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(2-chlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 3. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-chlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 4. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(2-bromophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 5. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 6. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-bromophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 7. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-fluorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 8. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(2-methylphenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 9. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-methylphenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 10. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(2,3-dichlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 11. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(2,6-dichlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 12. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(2,6-dichlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]-phenylcyclohexanol. 13. trans-(+)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-chlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 14. trans-(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-chlorophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 15. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-methoxyphenyl))prop-2-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 16. trans-(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-methoxyphenyl))prop-2-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 17. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-chloro-3-nitrophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 18. trans-(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-chloro-3-nitrophenyl))prop-2-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 19. trans-(+/-)-1-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(2-(β-amino)acetoxy)cyclohexyl]phenyl-1-(3-(3,4-dimethoxy)phenyl)propanone hydrochloride. 20. trans(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-enoyl)-phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-carb-tertbutoxyamino propanoate hydrochloride. Further examples of particularly preferred compounds are: 21. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-amino acetate hydrochloride monohydrate. 22. trans-(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-amino acetate hydrochloride monohydrate. 23. trans-(+)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-amino acetate hydrochloride monohydrate. 24. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-amino propanoate. 25. trans-(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-amino propanoate hydrochloride. 26. trans-(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-amino propanoate hydrochloride. 27. cis-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl))prop-2-(E)-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 28. trans-(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl))prop-2-(E)-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 29. trans-(+)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl))prop-2-(E)-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 30. trans-(+/-)-2-[6-Methoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl))prop-2-(E)-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 31. trans-(+/-)-2-[2,6-Dimethoxy-4-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl))prop-2-(E)-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol. 32. trans-(+/-)-2-[2-Hydroxy-4-methoxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl))prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenylcyclohexanol hemihydrate. 33. trans-(+/-)-1-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(2-(β-amino)acetoxy)cyclohexyl]phenyl-(3-(3,4-dimethoxy)phenyl)propanone hydrochloride monohydrate. 34. trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(2,5-dimethylphenyl))prop-2-(E)-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol monohydrate. A further subject of the instant application is a process for the production of compounds of formula I as described above wherein a compound of formula V ##STR10## A) is converted into a compound of formula VI, ##STR11## R 4 denoting OH by treatment with a borane-solvent-complex followed by oxidation or B) to get a compound of formula VI, a compound of formula V is treated with a peracid and the epoxide thus produced is treated with a hydride reagent or C) the compound of formula VI is produced by condensation of a suitable arene with cyclohexene oxide in the presence of an acid catalyst and D) a compound of formula VI is treated with acetic anhydride and a mineral acid to give a compound of formula VII, ##STR12## wherein R 2 is methyl and R 4 is O--C(O)--Me and E) a compound of formula VII as described under D) is demethylated by treatment with a Lewis acid or a demethylating agent to give a compound of formula VII wherein R 2 denotes H and R 4 denotes OC(O)Me and F) a compound of formula VII wherein R 2 denotes H and R 4 denotes OH is produced by treatment of a compound produced under E) with dilute alkali, and G) the compound of formula VII is converted into a compound of formula I (a=additional bond) by treatment with an appropriate aldehyde in the presence of a base and the compound of formula I (a=no additional bond) is produced by hydrogenation of the compound of formula I (a=additional bond), R 1 , R 2 and R 3 , where not explained explicitly, having the meaning as indicated above. H) a compound of the formula II wherein R 4 is an amino acid ester can be prepared by treating a compound of the formula II (wherein R 4 is --OH) with an appropriate N-protected amino acid in the presence of dicyclohexyl carbodiimide and a weak base, for example, 2,4-dimethyl amino pyridine. The ester obtained can be subjected to deprotection of the amino function using a weak acid. The weak acid can be formic acid in the presence of anisaldehyde. The formate salt can be exchanged with the hydrochloride salt. The compounds of formula V are prepared by methods known to a person skilled in the art. Typically, they are prepared by addition of aryllithiums of formula IV to cyclohexanone followed by acid catalyzed dehydration, R 2 and R 3 having the meaning as indicated above. ##STR13## A suitable borane-solvent complex for step A of the above sequence is, for instance, borane-tetrahydrofuran or borane dimethylsulfide. The oxidation can be carried out using alkaline hydrogen peroxide. A suitable peracid for step B is, for instance, chloroperbenzoic acid. An example of a suitable hydride reagent is lithium aluminum hydride. Step C can be carried out using as arene, 1.3.5-trimethoxy-benzene, for example, the acid catalyst being aluminum chloride. The mineral acid needed for step D can be, for instance, phosphoric acid. Step E can be carried out using, for example, as Lewis acid boron tribromide and as demethylating agent, metal thiolates. The preferred dilute alkali for step F is 2N sodium hydroxide solution. The base in the presence of which step G is carried out can be sodium hydroxide, for example. The products according to the above reaction steps can be used for further reactions to compounds according to the instant invention. Most of said reactions can be carried out according to procedures described in European patent application 0 241 003. Additional information about starting products, intermediates and derivatization reactions can be obtained from the patent literature mentioned in the introduction. The physical constants of some of the preferred compounds of the present invention are listed in Tables 1, 1A and 2. TABLE 1______________________________________ ##STR14##Compound Sign ofNo. R.sub.5 R.sub.2 a m.p. ° C. Rotation______________________________________ 1. H H Δ 2',3' 183-185 ± 2. 2-Cl H " 204-206 " 3. 3-Cl H " 170 " 4. 4-Cl H " 221 " 5. 2-Br H " 203 " 6. 3-Br H " 171 " 7. 4-Br H " 222 " 8. 4-F H " 215-216 " 9. 2,3-Cl.sub.2 H " 216 "10. 2,4-Cl.sub.2 H " 226-228 "11. 2,6-Cl.sub.2 H " 197 "12. 2-Me H " 199 "13. 4-Me H " 213 "14. 4-OMe H " 210 "15. 4-Cl Me " 175 "16. 4-Cl H H,H 190 "17. 4-F H H,H 169 "18. 3,4-Cl.sub.2 H Δ2',3' 202 "19. 3,5-Cl.sub.2 H " 227 "20. 2-OMe H " 215 "21. 3-OMe " 178 "22. 3,4-(OMe).sub.2 H " 194 "23. 2,5-(OMe).sub.2 H " 185 "24. 2,4-(OMe).sub.2 H " 224-225 "25. 2,4,6-(OMe).sub.3 H " 162 "26. 4-COOH H " 240 "27. 4-N(CH.sub.3).sub.2 H " 187 "28. 4 Cl,3-NO.sub.2 H " 215 "29. 3-OH H " 210 "30. 4-OH H " 210 "31. 2-OH H " 209 "32. 4-CF.sub.3 H " 177 "33. 4-NHCOCH.sub.3 H " 274 "34. 3,4-(OMe).sub.2 H H,H 151 "35. 2,4,6-(OMe).sub.3 H H,H 132 "36. 2-OH H H,H 190 "37. 3-OH H H,H 63 "38. 4-OH H H,H 216 "39. 3,4-(OH).sub.2 H H,H 201 "40. 2-CH.sub.3 H H,H 157 "41. 3,4-(OCH.sub.2 Ph).sub.2 H Δ'2,'3 173 "42. 3,4-O--CH.sub.2 --O-- H Δ'2,'3 185 "43. 4-Cl H " 231 (+)44. 4-Cl H " 231 (-)45. 4-Cl,3-NO.sub.2 H " 235 (+)46. 4-Cl,3-NO.sub.2 H " 235 (-)47. 3-OMe H " 191 (+)48. 3-OMe H " 191 (-)49. 3,4-(OMe).sub.2 H " 195 (+)50. 3,4-(OMe).sub.2 H " 195 (-)51. 2,3-Cl.sub.2 H " 217 (+)52. 2,3-Cl.sub.2 H " 217 (-)______________________________________ TABLE 1A__________________________________________________________________________Compounds of formula II in which R.sub.3 = 4,6-(OCH.sub.3).sub.2Compound Sign ofNo. R.sub.1 a R.sub.2 R.sub.4 m.p. ° C. Rotation__________________________________________________________________________1. 2-Thienyl Δ2',3' H OH 179-180 (±)2. 2-Furyl " H OH "3. 4-Nitrophenyl " H --OCOCH.sub.3 175 "4. 4-Cyanophenyl " H --OCOCH.sub.3 172 "5. 4-Chlorophenyl " H --OCOCH.sub.2 NH.sub.2 --HCl 152 "6. 3,4-Dimethoxy- " H --OCOCH.sub.2 NH.sub.2 --HCl 136-138 " phenyl__________________________________________________________________________ The physical constants of further preferred compounds of the present invention are listed in Table 2. TABLE 2__________________________________________________________________________ (II) ##STR15## Activity (Concn.)No R.sub.1 a R.sub.2 R.sub.3 R.sub.4 *1 *2 m.p. ° C. Rot IL-1 Rel.__________________________________________________________________________ Inhib. 1 3-Bromophenyl Δ2',3' H 4,6-(OCH.sub.3).sub.2 --OCOCH.sub.3 trans 173-74 (+/-) 41% (10 μM) 2. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCOCH.sub.2 N(CH.sub.3).sub.2.HCl " 217-18 (+/-) 50% (17 μM) 3. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCOCH.sub.2 NH.sub.2.HCl " 140-42 (+/-) 63% (17 μM) 4. 3-Bromophenyl " H " ##STR16## " 224-47 (+/-) 43% (16 μM) 5. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCOCH.sub.2 NH.sub.2.HCl R,S 139-41 (-) 95% (1 μM) 6. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCOCH.sub.2 NH.sub.2.HCl S,R 138-39 (+) 88% (1 μM) 7. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCO--(S)--CH(NH.sub.2)CH.sub.3.HCl trans 122-24 (+/-) 35% (1 μM) 8. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCO--(S)--CH(NH.sub.2)CH(CH.sub.3).sub.2.HCl " (+/-) ND 9. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCO--(S)--CH(NH.sub.2)CH.sub.3.HCl R,S 138-40 (-) 55% (5 μM)10. 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OCO--CH(NH.sub.2)CH.sub.3.HCl S,R 130-32 (-) 72% (5 μM) 3-Bromophenyl Δ2',3' H 4,6-(OCH.sub.3).sub.2 --OH cis 175-76 (+/-) 90% (10.8 μM) 3-Bromophenyl H,H H " --OH trans 124-25 (+/-) 26% (10.5 μM) 3-Bromophenyl Δ2',3' H 4-OH,6-OCH.sub.3 --OH " 215-17 (+/-) 22% (11.6 μM) 3-Bromophenyl " H 4,6-(OCH.sub.3).sub.2 --OH R,S 156-57 (-) 50% (0.3 μM) 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OH S,R, 154 (+) 50% (0.3 μM) 3-Bromophenyl " H 6-OCH.sub.3 --OH trans 148-50 (+/-) 81% (11.6 μM) 3-Bromophenyl " CH.sub.3 4-OH,6-OCH.sub.3 --OH " 141-42 (+/-) 71% (10.8 μM) 3-Bromophenyl " H 4-OCH.sub.3 --OH " 164 (+/-) 71% (5 μM) 3,4-Dimethoxyphenyl H,H H 4,6-(OCH.sub.3).sub.2 --OCOCH.sub.2 NH.sub.2.HCl " 136-38 (+/-) 51% (10 μM)20. 3-Methylphenyl Δ2',3' H " --OH " 148 (+/-) 49% (10 μM) 2,5-Dimethylphenyl " H " --OH " 197 (+/-) 96% (10 μM) 4-Chlorophenyl " H " H -- 208 (+/-) 30% (12 μM) 2,4-Dimethyl phenyl " H " --OH trans 211 (+/-) ND 4-Methylphenyl H,H H " --OH " 165 (+/-) ND 3-Methoxy phenyl H,H H " --OH " 112 (+/-) ND 3-Bromo-4,5- Δ2',3' H " --OH " 135 (+/-) 50% (9.5 μM) Dimethoxyphenyl 3-Bromophenyl " H " --OH " 74-76 (+/-) 52% (1 μM) 3-Aminophenyl " H " --OH " 152-58 (+/-) 33% (1__________________________________________________________________________ μM) The novel compounds of the present invention display interesting pharmacological activity when tested in pharmacological models; Compound Nos. 4 and 6 of Table 1 will be used in the examples as representative compounds. As shown in the examples, the instant compounds have antiinflammatory properties. The compounds are particularly useful to inhibit or antagonize the responses mediated by endogenous molecules such as lipoxygenases and/or leukotrienes, interleukins and protein kinase C. The compounds of the invention, alone or in the form of a suitable formulation, are thus useful as medicaments in the treatment of inflammatory conditions, in particular chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, asthma and malignancies. Accordingly, other subjects of the instant invention are the use and methods of use to treat and prevent the above-mentioned inflammatory conditions by administration of an effective amount of one or more compounds of the instant invention. Furthermore, pharmaceuticals containing one or more compounds as explained above are a subject of this invention. Said pharmaceuticals can be produced and administered according to methods known in the art. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a graph illustrating the effect of Compound 4 of Table 1 as inhibitor of LPS stimulated IL-1 alpha; FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating the effect of Compound 9 of Table 2 at varying dosages on adjuvant arthritis in rats (uninjected paw); FIG. 3 is a graph comparing the effect of Compound 6 of Table 1 and Compound 9 of Table 2 on adjuvant arthritis in rats (uninjected paw); FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating the effect of Compound 9 of Table 2 on EAE (survival rate in %) in guinea pigs; and FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating the effect of Compound 9 of Table 2 on EAE (clinical grading) in guinea pigs. The following examples as well as the appended claims further illustrate the instant invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION EXAMPLE 1 Inhibition of Leukotriene Induced Contraction of Isolated Guinea Pig Ileum Guinea pigs of either sex weighing 300-350 g were sensitized with a suspension of aluminum hydroxide gel and egg albumin. After 21 days, each animal was exposed to 0.5% egg albumin aerosol in an air tight perspex chamber and only those animals which developed allergic bronchoconstriction were selected for further experiment. The animals were tested for one week after antigenic exposure and then sacrificed by head blow and cutting carotid arteries. The lung was quickly removed and placed in aerated Tyrode solution kept at 37° C. The lung was cut into uniform strips and each strip was placed in an organ bath containing isolated guinea pig ileum connected to potentiometric recorder through isotonic transducer in the presence of Tyrode solution kept at 37° C. After a stabilizing period of 30 minutes, the reactivity of ileum to histamine was confirmed by challenging it with 100 ng-200 ng/ml of histamine. The perfusion fluid was then replaced by Tyrode solution containing Atropine (10 -7 M), Mepyramine maleate (10 -7 M) and methylsergide (10 -7 M). Three minutes later, lung strip was challenged by egg albumin (25 μg/ml) and release of leukotrienes was monitored in terms of slow contraction of ileum. The ileum was allowed to contract for 10-15 minutes when a plateau was achieved. The test compound (compound 4 of Table 1) was then added to observe the relaxation. The specificity of leukotriene antagonism was determined by inducing contraction of guinea pig ileum with agonists like histamine, acetylcholine and KC1. Compounds having specific effect against lipoxygenase products induced contraction normally would not show any inhibition of histamine, acetylcholine and KC1 induced contraction. The data are shown in Table 3. TABLE 3______________________________________Effect of Compound No. 4 on isolated guinea pig ileumprecontracted with leukotrienes.Conc. (M) % Relaxation App. IC.sub.50 (M)______________________________________ 1.2 × 10.sup.-6 36.81.68 × 10.sup.-6 50.5 1.68 × 10.sup.-6 2.4 × 10.sup.-6 62.4 7.2 × 10.sup.-6 68.0______________________________________ No effect on histamine and KC1 induced contraction up to 7.11×10 -5 M. Compound 4 as representative of the novel compounds of the present invention inhibits the contractions induced by leukotrienes. EXAMPLE 2 Inhibition of Cotton Pellet Granuloma in Rats This model permits the evaluation of a compound's potential to inhibit artificially induced granuloma. The implantation of carrageenin impregnated cotton pellets results in production of large, well-defined granuloma which are easily dissected. The potency of the compounds are assessed by measuring the reduction in granuloma tissue formation. Preparation of Saline and Carrageenin Cotton Pellets Cotton wool pellets weighing 40 mg were used for sterilization. Half the number of pellets were dipped in saline and the remaining in 1% aqueous solution (Viscarin® type 402, Marine Colloids Inc. Springfield) until they were soaked well, then squeezed slightly to remove excess saline or carrageenin. Pellets were dried overnight under a lamp. The pellets in the weight range of 42-44 mg were selected. Animal Preparation Rats (in groups of 6, male or female, Charles River, Wistar, weighing 140-150 g) were anaesthetized with ether. The back was shaved and cleaned; swabbed with alcohol and one centimeter incision was made in the lower midback. A small channel was made bilaterally using a blunt forceps and one cotton pellet placed in each channel. Air from the incision was removed and the wound was stitched. The test compound was prepared in 0.5% carboxyl methyl cellulose and was administered orally at a dose of 10, 20 and 30 mg/kg daily for seven days. Three hours after the administration of the last dose on day 7, animals were sacrificed. The pellets were removed by cutting the skin along the dorsal midline and peeling the skin away from the bodywall in both lateral directions. The pellets were weighed and then placed in drying oven at 140° C. overnight. The dry weights were then recorded and the amount of granuloma was assessed by subtracting the original pellet weight from wet weights and dry weights. The data was evaluated using the difference of left and right weights (cf. Table 4). TABLE 4______________________________________Effect of Compound No. 4 on Cotton Pellet Granuloma in Rats. Dose mg/kg, % Inhibition of granulomaTreatment p.o. × 5 Wet wt. Dry wt.______________________________________Compound No. 4 10 21 35.6 20 54 89.0 30 64 82.8Hydrocortisone 30 20.5 37.5______________________________________ Compound 4 as representative of the compounds of the present invention inhibits the granuloma formation induced by carrageenin. EXAMPLE 3 Inhibition of Micro-Anaphylactic Shock of Guinea Pigs Guinea pigs of either sex weighing between 300-350 g were sensitized with egg albumin absorbed over Al(OH) 3 gel. After 21 days of sensitization, each animal was placed in an air tight perspex chamber and exposed to 0.5% egg albumin aerosol through EEL atomizer. EEL atomizer was operated by connecting it to pressurized air through a water trap and dial type sphygmomanometer at the constant air pressure of 180 mm Hg. The time of onset of asthma in seconds and recovery period in minutes was noted. Each animal was exposed to egg albumin aerosol at an interval of 15 days to maintain the consistency of the reactivity of animals to the antigen. After 3 such control exposures, animals were subjected to drug treatment. On the day of the experiment one group of Guinea pigs consisting of 10 animals was kept as control exposing them only to 0.5% egg albumin aerosol. Another group of 10 guinea pigs was treated with Indomethacin 10 mg/kg i.p. 30 mins. before exposure to the antigen. Yet another group of 10 guinea pigs was pretreated with Indomethacin 10 mg/kg i.p. and 30 mins. after Indomethacin pretreatment the test compound (20 mg/ip) was injected. Fifteen mins. after the administration of the test compound the animals were exposed to 0.5% egg albumin aerosol. Onset time of recovery period of each group was noted (cf. Table 5). TABLE 5______________________________________Effect of Compound No. 4 on microanaphylactic shock of guinea pigs. Onset Time Recovery periodTreatment in secs. in mins.______________________________________Control group 75 + 8.7 37 + 3.4Indomethacin treated group 82.4 + 11.5 147.8 + 3.510 mg/kg, i.p.Compound 4, 20 mg/kg.sup.-1, i.p. 149.2 + 25.1 77.6 + 4.7present invention + pretreatmentwith indomethacin,10 mg/kg, i.p.______________________________________ Compound 4 as a representative example of the novel compounds of the present invention protects the animals from bronchoconstriction induced by leukotrienes, subsequent to the exposure of egg albumin aerosol. EXAMPLE 4 Inhibition of IL-1 Release Human Mononuclear Cells Purification of Mononuclear Cells From Human Blood 10 ml of human blood were carefully drawn from the antecubital vein using a syringe containing 1 ml of a solution of 3.8% sodium citrate. After dilution with 10 ml PM 16 (Serva, Heidelberg, FRG) and underlayering with 15 ml Lymphoprep® (Molter GmbH), the sample was centrifuged at 400×g for 40 min at 20° C. The mononuclear cells forming a white ring between lymphoprep and plasma were carefully aspirated by a syringe, diluted 1:1 with PM 16 and centrifuged again at 400×g for 10 min. The supernatant was washed with 10 ml RPMI 1640 (Gibco, Berlin, FRG), containing additionally 300 mg/l L-glutamine, 25 mmol/l RPM 1640, containing additionally 300 mg/l L-glutamine, 25 mmol/l HEPES, 100 μg/ml streptomycin and 100 μg/ml penicillin. Finally, using a Coulter counter IT, the cell suspension was adjusted to 5×10 6 cells/ml. The cells consist of approx. 90% lymphocytes and 10% monocytes. Stimulation of Interleukin 1 From Human Mononuclear Cells in Vitro 10 μl DMSO/water (1:10, v/v), containing the test compound, was added to 480 μl of a suspension, containing 5×10 6 mononuclear cells. The synthesis of IL-1 was stimulated by the addition of 10 μl DSMO/water (1:10, v/v), containing 0,5 μg LPS (Salmonella abortus equi, Sigma). After incubation at 37° C. for 18 hours, the samples were cooled to 0° C. and centrifuged for 1 min. in a table centrifuge. 25 μl aliquots of the supernatant were assayed for IL-1 alpha activity using a commercially available 125-J-IL-1-alpha radioimmunoassay Kit (Amersham/UK), and for IL-1 beta in a similar way using the specific test kit. Control experiments were performed as described without test compound, or with cycloheximide as a test compound. The effect of compound 4 as inhibitor of LPS stimulated IL-1 alpha (Approx. IC 50 =200-300 nmol/l), is shown in FIG. 1. Compound 4 as a representative example of the compounds of the present invention inhibits LPS stimulated IL-1 alpha release from human mononuclear cells in vitro. Compounds of the instant application are prepared as described below: EXAMPLE 5 Preparation of 1-(2,4,6-Trimethoxyphenyl)cyclohexene An Example of Formula V Wherein R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy, R 2 =CH 3 2,4,6-Trimethoxybromobenzene (1 eqvt.) was placed in a flame dried 3-necked flask under nitrogen. Dry tetrahydrofuran (THF) (983 ml) was added and the reaction mixture was cooled to -30° C. n-BuLi (1.3 eqvt.) in hexane (commercial) was added dropwise and after the addition the reaction mixture was stirred for 30 min. Thin layer chromatographic examination at this stage indicated completion of metallation reaction. Cyclohexanone (1.1 eqvt.) diluted with equal volume of dry THF was added to the reaction mixture at -30° C. and the reaction mixture was stirred for another one hour at -30° C. and later allowed to come to room temperature. Water (150 ml) was added and extracted with ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate layer was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated. The residue was added to dichloromethane and stirred for 30 min. with a catalytic amount of p-toluenesulphonic acid (9 g). The dichloromethane layer was washed with sodium bicarbonate solution followed by water and dried. The residue was crystallized from diisopropylether to give the title compound; m.p. 127° C., Yield: 64.7%. EXAMPLE 6 Preparation of trans-(±)-2-(2,4,6-Trimethoxyphenyl)cyclohexanol An Example of Formula VI Wherein R 2 =CH 3 , R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy and R 4 =OH A compound of formula V (from Example 5) (1 eqvt.) was mixed with sodium borohydride (4 eqvt.) and dry THF (2,200 ml). The reaction mixture was cooled to 0° C. under nitrogen and borontrifluoride etherate (5.1 eqvt.) was added dropwise. After the addition was complete, the temperature was raised to 50° C. and stirred for 30 min. The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature and water was added dropwise to destroy excess diborane. The organoborane was oxidized by simultaneous addition of 30% H 2 O 2 (248 ml) and 3M NaOH (248 ml) solution. After the addition, the reaction mixture was heated at 50° C. for 3 hours. After completion of oxidation, the reaction mixture was diluted with water and extracted with ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate layer was dried and concentrated. The crude product was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel using 10% ethyl acetate in pet. ether; m.p. 123° C., Yield: 52%. EXAMPLE 7 Preparation of trans-(±)-1-[3-(2-Acetoxy)cyclohexyl-2,4,6-trimethoxy]phenyl-1-ethanone Formula VII Wherein R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy, R 2 =CH 3 and R 4 =O--CO--CH 3 The product from Example 6 (1 eqvt.) was mixed with dry methylene chloride (1520 ml). Acetic anhydride (25 eqvt.) and phosphoric acid (152 ml) were added and stirred at room temperature for one hour. The reaction mixture was worked up by adding sodium carbonate solution until the reaction mixture was alkaline and extracted with dichloromethane. The organic layer was thoroughly washed with water and dried. The crude product after removal of the solvent was crystallized from pet. ether; m.p. 87° C., Yield: 84%. EXAMPLE 8 Preparation of trans-(±)-1-[3-(2-Acetoxy)cyclohexyl-4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy]phenyl-1-ethanone Formula VII Wherein R 2 =H, R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy and R 4 =O--CO--CH 3 The product from Example 7 (1 eqvt.) was mixed with dry dichloromethane (5,450 ml) and cooled to 0° C. Borontribromide (1.1 eqvt.) was added with a syringe and stirred at 0° C. for one hour. Water was added carefully and the product was extracted with ethyl acetate, washed with water, and dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate. The crude product was crystallized from ethyl acetate; m.p. 151° C., yield: 70-71%. EXAMPLE 9 Preparation of trans--(±)-2-[3-Acetyl-4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy]phenylcyclohexanol Formula VII Wherein R 2 =H, R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy, and R 4 =OH The product from Example 8 (1 eqvt.) was stirred under nitrogen atmosphere with methanolic potassium hydroxide solution (20 eqvt., MeOH:water:3:1) for six hours. The reaction mixture was acidified with dil. HCl and the precipitate was filtered off, washed, dried and crystallized from ethylacetate; m.p. 161° C., Yield: 88-89%. EXAMPLE 10 Preparation of trans-(±)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-chlorophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)]phenylcyclohexanol Formula II Wherein R 1 =4-chlorophenyl, a=Another Bond, R 2 =H, R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy and R 4 =OH The product from Example 9 (1 eqvt.) was stirred with 4-chlorobenzaldehyde (3 eqvt.) and 10% alcoholic sodium hydroxide (30 eqvt.) at room temperature for 24 hours. The reaction mixture was acidified with the dil. HCl at 0° C. to pH 5 and the orange precipitate was collected by filtration. Recrystallized from ethyl alcohol; m.p. 221° C., yield: 60%. EXAMPLE 11 Preparation of trans-(±)-2-(4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(4-chlorophenyl)propanoyl)]phenylcyclohexanol Formula II Wherein R 1 =4-chlorophenyl, a=No Bond, R 2 =H, R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy and R 4 =OH The product from Example 10 was stirred with 10% pd/c (5 mol %) in ethyl alcohol and under hydrogen overnight. The catalyst was filtered off and the solvent concentrated to give the product; m.p. 190° C., Yield: 90%. EXAMPLE 12 An Alternative Preparation of trans-(±)-2-[2,4,6-trimethoxy)phenylcyclohexanol Formula VI Wherein R 2 =CH 3 , R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy and R 4 =OH 2,4,6-Trimethoxybenzene (1 eqvt.), cyclohexene oxide (1.5 eqvt.) and dry dichloromethane (840 ml) were placed in a 3-necked r.b flask equipped with a stirrer. The reaction mixture was cooled to -78° C. and aluminum chloride (1.5 eqvt.) was added in small portions over a period of one hour. The stirring was continued for an additional period of three hours. The reaction mixture was worked up by addition of water and extracted with ethyl acetate. The crude product was crystallized from petroleum ether; m.p. 123° C., Yield: 63-64%. EXAMPLE 13 Resolution of (±)-trans-2-(2,4,6-trimethoxy)phenylcyclohexanol A Compound of Formula VI Wherein R 2 =H, R 3 =4,6-dimethoxy and R 4 =OH (±) trans-2-(2,4,6-Trimethoxy)phenylcyclohexanol (50.0 g; 0.18797 mol), 3-nitrophthalic anhydride (26.399 g; 0.18797 mol) and pyridine (42.18 ml; 2.78×0.18797 mol) were heated at 100° under N 2 atmosphere for three hours. The reaction mixture was cooled to 0° C., neutralized with 2N HCl and the product obtained extracted with chloroform. The residue after evaporation of solvent was crystallized from methanol (400 ml) to give the crystals of compound of the formula VI, wherein R 4 is 3-nitrophthalyloxy (59.0 g; m.p. 198-200°). The hemi acid (0.1285 mol) was treated with (+) cinchonine (37.85 g; 0.1285 mol) in methanol (250 ml) on a steam bath for 30 minutes. Solvent was removed at reduced pressure and the residual salt [96.5 g, OR (+) 84.75° (Hg, 578)] crystallized from ethyl acetate pet. ether (1:1 1400 ml) to afford the crystals (45.0 g; OR (+) 75.11° (Hg 578) and a mother liquor [50.0 g; OR (+) 97.30° (Hg, 579)]. The crystals (45.0 g) on further crystallizations (thrice) from ethyl acetate-pet. ether afforded enriched cinchonine salt [31.0 g, OR (+) 71.08° (Hg, 578)]. The enriched salt on treatment with 2N HCl at 0° gave the resolved (-) compound of the formula VI, wherein R 4 is 3-nitrophthalyloxy [16.1 g; OR (-) 37.15° (Hg, 578). The hemi acid on hydrolysis with 7.5% KOH solution in methanol-water (1:2, 5878 ml) at reflux temperature, followed by crystallization of the product from ethyl acetate-pet. ether (24:160 ml) yielded (-)-trans-2-(2,4,6-trimethoxy)phenylcyclo-hexanol [7.0 g; OR (-) 43.430 (Hg, 578)]. The mother liquor (50.0 g) was treated with 2N HCl at 0° and the product was subjected to crystallizations (thrice) from ethyl acetate-pet. ether to give the crystals of the resolved (+) compound of formula VI; wherein R 4 is 3-nitrophthalyloxy [15.1 g; OR (+) 35.65° (Hg, 578)]. The hemi acid on hydrolysis with 7.5% KOH solution in methanol-water (1:2; 548.5 ml) at reflux temperature for 60 hours followed by crystallization of the product from ethyl acetate-pet. ether (25:150 ml) yielded (+) trans-2-(2,4,6-trimethoxy)phenylcyclohexanol [7.24 g; OR (+) 42.30° (Hg, 578)]. EXAMPLE 14 Preparation of trans-(+/-)-2-[4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl]phenylcyclohexanol The product from Example 9 (1 eqvt.) was stirred with 3-bromobenzaldehyde (3 eqvt.) and 10% sodium hydroxide solution (10 eqvt. in 1:1 ethanol-water) at room temperature for 4 hours. The reaction mixture was diluted with ice-cold water and filtered. The orange residue on chromatographic purification over silica-gel furnished the title compound; m.p. 172-74° C., yield: 64%. EXAMPLE 15 Preparation of trans-(+/-)-[4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-carb-tertbutoxyamino propanoate The product from Example 14 (1 eqvt.) was stirred with 2-(S)-carb-tert-butoxyamino propanoic acid (1.5 eqvt.) and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (0.2 eqvt.) in dichloromethane (2,174 ml). Dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (1.5 eqvt.) in dichloromethane (1,176 ml) was added slowly using an addition funnel at room temperature and stirred for 1 hour. Dichloromethane was removed at a rotary evaporator and the residue crystallized from ethanol (1,450 ml) to afford the title compound was stirred with ether. The precipitated dicyclohexyl urea was filtered out. The filtrate was concentrated and the residue was chromatographed over silica-gel. The fractions enriched with less polar (tlc) diasteriomer were concentrated and the residue stirred with ethyl acetate-pet. ether (5,882 ml; 1:10) to afford the title compound; m.p. 139-44° C., yield: 30%. [HPLC: column-μ-porosil, detection--247 nm, flow rate--1.5 ml/min., mobile phase--hexane:ethyl acetate (80:20), assay--94.6%, retention time--13.7 min.]. EXAMPLE 16 Preparation of trans-(-)-2-[4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-amino propanoate hydrochloride The product from Example 15 (1 eqvt.) was stirred with anisole (6 eqvt.) at 0° C. Cold formic acid (200 eqvt.) was added slowly through an addition funnel and stirred at that temperature for 10 minutes. The temperature was then raised slowly (over 1.5 hours) to 20° C. and stirred at that temperature for 2 hours. Formic acid was removed completely in-vacuo (bath temperature 22° C.). The residue was stirred with dichloromethane (5,550 ml) at 0° C. and charged with etherial HCl (5,550 ml). The reaction mixture was stirred for 25-30 minutes and the solvents were removed at vacuum (bath temperature 22° C.). The oily residue was dissolved in dichloromethane (925 ml) and slowly charged with hexane (4,625 ml) while stirring. The supernant was decanted off and the gummy residue was again dissolved in dichloromethane (925 ml) and charged with hexane (4,625 ml) while stirring. The supernant was decanted off and the powdery residue was dried at high vacuum; m.p. 138-40° C., yield: 88% [HPLC: column--C18 nucleosil, detection--220 nm, flow rate--1.5 ml/min., mobile phase--water:acetonitrile:triethyl amine (40:60:0.1%) pH adjusted to 3.0 with orthophosphoric acid, assay--99.95%, retention time--5.43 min.] The following is a sequence for the synthesis of Compound No. 9 of Table 2 and a description of the synthesis procedure therefor. ##STR17## Synthesis Procedure for Compound No. 9 of Table 2 1. trans-(+/-)-2-(2,4,6-Trimethoxyphenyl)cyclohexanol (II) Cyclohexene oxide (90.2 ml; 0.89 mol) was added dropwise to a mechanically stirred mixture of trimethoxybenzene (I, 100 g; 0.594 mol) and aluminum chloride (118.82 g; 0.89 mol) in dichloromethane (500 ml) cooled at -78° C. The addition was done over a period of 50 min. The reaction mixture was allowed to stir at that temperature and the progress of the reaction monitored by TLC (tlc system 25% ethyl acetate-pet ether; anisaldehyde spray; pdt. Rf-value 0.35). The reaction mixture was worked up after 3 hours by adding cold-water (400 ml) and extracting with ethyl acetate (4×400 ml). The combined organic layers were washed with water, brine, and dried over sodium sulphate. The solvents were removed in-vacuo at a rotary evaporator. The oily residue was crystallized from pet ether (400 ml) to get the crystals of the title compound (62 g). The mother liquor, on evaporation of the solvents followed by chromatography over silica gel (column diam. 9.5 cm; silica gel 800 g; eluent 10, 25 and 40% ethyl acetate-pet ether), gave 28 g of the title compound. In total, 90 g (yield 57%; mp. 125-27° C.) of the title compound was isolated. 2. trans-(+/-)-2-(3-Acetyl-2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)cyclohexyl acetate (III) Acetic anhydride (660 ml; 6.975 mol) was added to the solution of the trans-(+/-)-2-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)cyclohexanol (II; 60 g; 0.225 mol) in dichloromethane (300 ml) at room temperature, while stirring. It was followed by the dropwise addition of orthophosphoric acid (85%; 40 ml; 0.347 mol) over 45 min. Reaction progress was monitored by TLC (tlc system 30% ethyl acetate-pet ether; spray reagent--anisaldehyde; product Rf--value=0.5). TLC of the reaction mixture after 15 min. revealed complete consumption of the starting material. The reaction mixture was then diluted with 250 ml of cold water, neutralized with solid sodium bicarbonate and extracted with dichloromethane (3×500 ml). The combined organic layer was washed with bicarbonate solution, water, brine and dried over sodium sulphate. It was then concentrated in-vacuo and the residue chromatographed over silica gel (column diam. 9.0 cm; silica gel--1 kg; eluent--5% and 10% ethyl acetate-pet ether) to get the title compound (64 gm; yield 81%; m.p. 82-85° C.). 3. trans-2-(3-Acetyl-4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxyphenyl)cyclohoxyl acetate (IV) Boron tribromide (16.3 ml; 0.176 mol) dissolved in 250 ml of dichloromethane was added slowly to the solution of the trans-2-(3-acetyl-2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)cyclohexyl acetate (III; 56 g; 0.160 mol) in dichloromethane (350 ml) at 0° C. over 30 min. The reaction progress was monitored by TLC (tlc system 5% ethyl acetate-pet ether; anisaldehyde spray; pdt. Rf value--0.6); TLC of the reaction mixture after 15 min. indicated complete consumption of the starting material. The reaction mixture was then diluted with 250 ml of water and poured into saturated bicarbonate solution and extracted with dichloromethane (3×500 ml). The combined organic layer was washed with bicarbonate, water, brine, and dried over sodium sulphate. Solvents were removed at the rotary evaporator and the residue triturated with ethyl acetate-pet ether (100 ml; 1:1). The solid was filtered at suction and dried at high vacuum to get 34 g of the title compound. The mother liquor was chromatographed over silica gel (column diam. 5 cm; silica gel 150 g; eluent 10% ethyl acetate-pet ether) to get 9 g of the title compound. The total amount of the title compound isolated was 43 g (yield 80%; mp. 155-57° C.). 4. trans-2-(3-Acetyl-4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxyphenyl)cyclohexanol (V) To a suspension of trans-2-(3-acetyl-4,6,-dimethoxy-2-hydroxyphenyl)cyclohexyl acetate (IV; 43 g; 0.128 mol) in methanol (460 ml) was added a solution of sodium hydroxide (20%; 154 ml) using the addition funnel and allowed to stir at room temperature for 15 min. The reaction mixture was then heated to 60° C. and the progress of the reaction monitored by TLC (tlc system 10% ethyl acetate-chloroform; anisaldehyde spray; pdt. Rf value 0.3). Complete consumption of the starting material was seen after stirring at 60° C. for 3 hours. The reaction mixture was then cooled in an ice bath and neutralized with 2N HCl. The precipitated solid was filtered and dried at high vacuum (dry solid 32 g). The filtrate was concentrated in-vacuo to remove methanol and extracted with ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate layer was washed with water, brine and dried over sodium sulphate. It was concentrated and chromatographed over silica gel (eluent 3% ethyl acetate-chloroform) to get 3 g of the title compound. In total, 35 g of the title compound was isolated (yield 93%; mp. 162-64° C.). 5. trans(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)]phenyl cyclohexanol (VI) A cold solution of sodium hydroxide (20%; 500 ml) was added slowly using the addition funnel to a solution of trans-2-(3-acetyl-4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxyphenyl)cyclohexanol (V; 72 g; 0.244 mol) and 3-bromobenzaldehyde (85.34 ml; 0.732 mol) in 500 ml of ethanol at room temperature and progress of the reaction monitored by TLC (tlc system 10% ethyl acetate-chloroform; UV detection). TLC of the reaction mixture after 4 hours revealed complete consumption of the starting material. The reaction mixture was diluted with ice-cold water (1000 ml) and the precipitated solid was filtered out. The residue after chromatography over silica gel (column diam. 9.5 cm; silica gel 1.5 Kg; eluent chloroform and 2% ethyl acetate-chloroform) furnished 21 g of the title compound. The filtrate on extraction with ethyl acetate followed by concentration and chromatography of the residue over silica gel (column diam. 5.5 cm; silica gel 400 g; eluent 50% chloroform-pet ether; chloroform and 2% ethyl acetate-chloroform) gave 4 g of the title compound. In total, 25 g of the title compound was isolated (yield 63.72%; mp. 172-74° C.). 6. trans(+/-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-(E)-enoyl)-phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-carb-tertbutoxyamino propanoate (VII) To the stirred mixture of trans(+/-)-2-[4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-enoyl)]phenyl cyclohexanol (VI; 85 g; 0.184 mol), 2-(S)-carb-tert-butoxyamino propanoic acid (52.22 g; 0.276 mol), and dimethylaminopyridine (4.25 g; 5% by weight of VII) in dichloromethane (400 ml) was slowly added a solution of dicyclohexyl carbodiimide (57 g; 0.276 mol) in dichloromethane (220 ml) using an addition funnel at room temperature. Reaction progress was monitored by TLC (tlc system 40% ethyl acetate-pet ether or 20% ethyl acetate, 20% chloroform-pet ether; UV detection; pdt. Rf value 0.8). TLC of the reaction mixture after 1 hour revealed complete consumption of the starting material. Dichloromethane was removed at the rotary evaporator and the residue stirred with ether. The precipitated dicyclohexylurea was filtered out. The filtrate was concentrated at the rotary evaporator and the residue chromatographed over silica gel (column diameter 10.5 cm; silica gel 1 Kg; eluent 5% and 10% ethyl acetate-pet ether). The fractions enriched with less polar diasteriomer (tlc) were mixed together and concentrated. The residue was stirred with ethyl acetate-pet ether (1300 ml/1:12) and the precipitated solid was filtered out. This solid was again stirred with ethyl acetate-pet ether (1100 ml; 1:10) and filtered to give 34.5 g of the pure title compound (HPLC) as a yellow orange solid (yield 30%). 7. trans(-)-2-[4,6-Dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-enoyl)-phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-aminopropanoate hydrochloride (VIII) A cold formic acid (408 ml; 10.8 mol) was added slowly through the addition funnel to the precooled (0° C.) suspension of trans(-)-2-[4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-carb-tert-butoxyamino propanoate (34 g; 0.054 ml) in anisole (34 ml; 0.313 mol), over a period of 15 min. The reaction mixture was stirred at that temperature for 10 min. Then the temperature was allowed to rise slowly (over 1.5 hours) to 20° C. and stirred at that temperature for 2 hours. TLC (tlc system 10% methanol-chloroform; UV detection; pdt. Rf value 0.6) of the reaction mixture showed complete consumption of the starting material. Formic acid was removed completely in-vacuo (bath temperature 22° C.). The residue was stirred with toluene and the toluene stripped off in-vacuo (bath temperature 22° C.) to remove the traces of formic acid. The residue, i.e., trans-2-[4,6-dimethoxy-2-hydroxy-3-(3-(3-bromophenyl)prop-2-enoyl)phenyl]cyclohexyl-2-(S)-aminopropanoate formate salt, was immediately subjected to the hydrochloride formation as follows. Etherial HCl (300 ml) was added slowly using an addition funnel to the precooled (0° C.) solution of the formate salt in dichloromethane (300 ml) and stirred at that temp. for 25-30 min. Solvents were removed in-vacuo (bath temperature 20-22° C.). The oily residue was then dissolved in dichloromethane (50 ml) and slowly charged with hexane (250 ml), whilst stirring. The stirring was then stopped and the reaction mixture allowed to settle. The supernatant was decanted off. The gummy residue was again stirred with 50 ml of dichloromethane and 300 ml of hexane. The supernatant was decanted off and the residue stirred thrice with hexane (300 ml each time). The supernatants were decanted off and the powdery residue was dried at high vacuum (bath temperature 50° C.) to get the title compound (27 g; yield 88%). ______________________________________HPLC details of Compound No. 9 of Table 2:______________________________________Retention time: 5.43 min.Detection: 220 nmAssay (purity): 99.95%Flow rate: 1.5 ml/min.Mobile phase: Water-acetonitrile-triethylamine; (40:60:0.1%) (pH adjusted to 3.0 with orthophosphoric acid)Column: C18, Nucleosil______________________________________ Pharmacological Profile of Compound No. 9 of Table 2 EXAMPLE 17 Effect on Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis in Rats Adjuvant-induced arthritis in the rat is a model which permits the evaluation of the potential of a compound to inhibit an arthritic condition in rats which is similar to the human rheumatoid arthritis. This model differentiates between the immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory potential of the compound. The potency of the test compound is statistically assessed by measuring the reduction in the volumes of both injected and uninjected hind paws in comparison with the control (untreated) group. Method Female Wistar rats (120-150 g) were randomly distributed in groups of 10 rats each, after receiving 0.1 ml of a 1% suspension of Mycobacterium tuberculi in paraffin oil intrapedally into one hind paw (injected paw). Contralateral hind paw (uninjected paw) developed secondary lesions in about 10 days time, which were due to the development of an immune reaction. Drug treatment was started on the day of induction of arthritis and continued for 12 days. Treatments included different doses of the test compound and the standard compound viz, cyclophosphamide. Paw volume measurements were done using a water plethysmometer on day one and thereafter for the period of 35-40 days. The volumes of both injected and uninjected hind paws were monitored in control (untreated) as well as treated groups. Compound 9 of Table 2 was administered at the doses of 1, 3, 10, 30 mg/kg orally once a day. The test compound showed significant and dose dependent reduction in the uninjected paw volumes at doses 3, 10, and 30 mg/kg; as shown in FIG. 2. This activity is to be contrasted with the activity for the representative compound, compound 6 of Table 1, which when fed orally at 30 mg/kg once every day for 12 days showed very slight reduction in the uninjected paw volume (FIG. 3) compared to control, demonstrating thereby the superiority of compound 9 of Table 2 in this activity. EXAMPLE 18 Effect on Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Guinea Pigs This method permits the evaluation of the potential of the test compound in preventing the development of an autoimmune disorder leading to demyelination in the guinea pigs which can be equated to multiple sclerosis disease in humans. EAE is a reproducible chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system in which an animal is immunized with either a homologous or heterologous extract of the whole brain and spinal cord, which contains the basic myelin protein together with Freund's Complete Adjuvant (FCA). A pathological condition would set in during ten to twenty days following immunization, which is characterized by weight loss, abnormal gait, mild to severe ataxia, paraparesis and moribund state leading to death. The potential of the test compounds to prevent this autoimmune condition was evaluated by observing the severity of the disease and mortality in comparison with untreated and hydrocortisone (standard drug) treated animals. Method Guinea pigs (200-300 g) were randomly distributed into groups of 10 each after receiving 0.075 ml of it brain and spinal cord extract in FCA intradermally on the back and 0.050 ml intrapedally in one hind paw. Compound 9 of Table 2 was administered orally at 3 mg/kg once daily for 10 days. The standard compound was administered 100 mg/kg p.o. once daily for 10 days. The weights of the animals were noted every day. Eight days after the induction of the disease, the animals were rated regularly for the severity of the disease and mortality was monitored. The test compound reduced the mortality rate by 45% while hydrocortisone produced only 21% reduction in the mortality as shown in FIG. 4. Also the clinical symptoms were significantly reduced in the test compound treated group as compared to the untreated group as shown in FIG. 5. EXAMPLE 19 Oral bioavailability in the Rat and Dog Since the test compound produced significant activity in the adjuvant arthritic rats and experimental allergic encephalomyelitic guinea pigs when administered orally, the extent of oral bioavailability of this compound was estimated in rats and dogs. Compound 9 of Table 2 was administered intravenously (1 mg/kg) to conscious rats and dogs and blood samples were collected at various time points after administration. Similarly, the test compound was also administered orally (10 mg/kg) to a different set of rats and dogs and blood samples were collected at various time points. The blood samples were extracted and were analyzed by HPLC to obtain the concentration of compound 9 in the plasma. The plasma levels obtained after intravenous and oral administration were plotted against time, areas under the curves were calculated and percent bioavailability were estimated. The test compound showed 46% oral bioavailability in the rat and 73% oral bioavailability in dog as shown in Table 6. The extent of oral bioavailability in different species clearly indicates that compound 9 of Table 2, a representative example of the compounds of the present invention can be administered orally as a therapeutic agent. TABLE 6______________________________________ Dose mg/kg %Species (Oral) Bioavailability______________________________________Rat 10 46Dog 10 73______________________________________

Compounds of formula I, ##STR1## and the physiologically tolerable salts thereof, wherein the substituents R 1 -R 4 have the meanings given in the specifications and show an activity against inflammatory conditions.

[0001] The present invention relates to the use of hepatitis C virus HCV) p7 protein, and particularly but not exclusively, to its use in rationalised drug design and a method therefor and also it its use in a screen for antiviral therapeutic agents. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0002] Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the prototype member of the Hepacivirinae genus of the Flaviviridae. The viral genome is a single coding sense RNA of around 9.5 Kilobases and encodes a single polyprotein of around 3000 amino acids translated in a cap-independent manner from an Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES). The polyprotein contains the viral structural proteins towards the N-terminus, and the non-structural replicative proteins in the C-terminal two thirds of the molecule. Individual proteins are generated from this precursor by the action of both host and viral proteases. Replication of HCV RNA is thought to occur in the cytoplasm of the infected cell in complexes associated with cellular membranes derived from the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER), leading to the generation of new viral progeny which are released through the secretory pathway. [0003] The HCV viral polypeptide comprises 10 viral proteins in the order of: NH(2)-Core-E1-E2-p7-NS2-NS3-NS4A-NS4B-NS5A-NS5B-COOH [0004] Located at the junction between the viral structural and non-structural genes, the p7 protein of HCV is a 63 amino acid protein of a highly hydrophobic nature (accession number AF054247 (HCVJ4)). Sequence analysis suggests that p7 forms an integral membrane protein with two alpha-helical trans-membrane domains of an amphipathic nature separated by a short stretch of charged residues. p7 has been shown to localise to the ER and plasma membrane and is predicted to have its' termini present in the ER lumen and the charged region on the cytosolic side from CONFIRMATION COPY topological studies. However, the function of HCV p7 in the virus life cycle is not known. [0005] Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has emerged as the major cause of non-A, non-B viral hepatitis (NANBH) in the world. Current estimates from the World Health Organisation predict that over 3% of the world population are currently infected with the virus, making it a major public health issue in many countries. Exposure to HCV via contact with infected blood leads in most cases to a chronic persistent infection of the liver. Furthermore, this process is often asymptomatic thereby delaying clinical intervention until late stage disease manifests in the form of liver cirrhosis, often leading to end stage liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma; a rapidly progressive cancer with a poor prognosis. Current treatment of HCV disease comprises type I Interferon often in combination with Ribavirin, there being no vaccine currently available. However, this treatment is often ineffective against the HCV genotypes common in the USA and Western Europe, and therefore there is a need for new and effective anti-viral agents/therapies. STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION [0006] The present invention resides in the surprising observation that HCVp7 forms ion channels both in vitro and in vivo (in hepatocyte-derived cell lines) thus making it a suitable target for rationalised drug design of anti-viral compounds. [0007] As used herein the word “comprises” is not exclusive, i.e. it indicates that the subject of the verb need not consist only of its object but may include the object of the verb and one or more additional elements. Cognate expressions are to be construed accordingly. [0008] According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided use of HCVp7, a variant, functionally effective fragment or a mutation thereof that retains ion channel forming capability in screening candidate compounds that inhibit or increase ion channel activity. [0009] Reference herein to an HCVp7 variant, functionally effective fragment or a mutation thereof is intended to include any part of the sequence identified as accession number AF054247 (HCVJ4) or its expression products which has ion channel activity. [0010] Preferably, HCVp7 is coupled to a poly(amino acid) sequence. [0011] Coulping may be for example by covalent bonding, homo or heterofunctional linking or through chemical cross-linkage or by a natural pepetide. [0012] Preferably, the poly(amino acid) sequence comprising basic natural or unnatural amino acids such as ARG, LYS or HIS. [0013] Preferably, the linker is a poly HIS comprising at least 2 and up to 50 residues. [0014] Preferably, the poly HIS comprises at least 2 and up to 15, or at least 2 and up to 10 or more preferably still at least 2 and up to 6 and preferably at least 4 residues. [0015] Preferably, the HCVp7 is incorporated into a membrane for example and without limitation a black lipid membrane. [0016] In another embodiment of the invention nucleic acid encoding the HCVp7 protein, variant, functionally effective fragment or a mutation thereof is incorporated into or comprised in a viral system. [0017] Reference herein to viral system is intended to include, examples such as and without limitation a herpes virus, adenovirus, pestivirus such as bovine viral diarrhoea virus, picomavirus, Flavivirus or pox virus vector. [0018] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided a method of screening a compound, preferably from a compound library for compounds, that inhibit or enhance ion channel activity comprising the steps of: (i) contacting a membrane comprising an HCVp7 protein or a viral system including a nucleic acid encoding an HCVp7 protein with a candidate compound; and (ii) measuring ion channel activity across said membrane or in viral system. [0021] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided a method of screening a compound or a compound library for efficacy of inhibition or enhanced ion channel activity comprising the steps of: (i) contacting a membrane comprising a HCVp7 protein with a candidate compound or a viral system including a nucleic acid encoding an HCVp7 protein with a candidate compound; and (ii) comparing the activity of said candidate compound with a standard. [0024] The standard may be a known inhibitor or enhancer of ion channel activity, for example amantadine. [0025] It will be appreciated that the methods of the present invention advantageously allow for high-throughput screening of large drug libraries for compounds that inhibit or increase ion channel activity or compounds with improved efficacy over prior art compounds. [0026] Preferably, the methods of the invention further include any one or more of the preferred features hereinbefore disclosed. [0027] In one embodiment of the invention the method may comprise combining amantadine therapy with another antiviral compound or amantadine may for comparative purposes. [0028] According to a yet farther aspect of the invention there is provided use of HCVp7 in the assessment of channel formation by p7 variants and mutants thereof. [0029] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided a compound identified according to the method of the invention. [0030] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided an antiviral therapeutic agent as identified by the method of the invention. [0031] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided use of a therapeutic agent identified by the method of the present invention in the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of a viral infection. [0032] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided use of a therapeutic agent identified by the method of the present invention in the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of hepatitis. [0033] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided use of a therapeutic agent identified by the method of the present invention in the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. [0034] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided use of an antibody directed against HCVp7 as an inhibitor of channel ion activity, pharmaceutical preparations thereof and use in the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. [0035] According to a yet further aspect of the invention there is provided a membrane incorporating HCVp7, a variant, functionally effective fragment or a mutation thereof that retains ion channel forming capability. The membrane may be used in the method or for the uses hereinbefore described in any of the other aspects of the present invention. [0036] The invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the following Figures wherein: [0037] FIG. 1 illustrates p7 hexamerisation in membranes of HepG2 cells; [0038] FIG. 2 shows transmission electron microscope images of GSTp7 in liposomes; [0039] FIG. 3 illustrates computer modelling of p7 hexamerisation; [0040] FIG. 4 a schematic representation of a black lipid membrane (BLM); [0041] FIG. 5 shows GSTp7 voltage-gated ion channel activity in BLMs; [0042] FIG. 6 shows GSTHISp7 stabilisation; [0043] FIG. 7 shows GSTMSp7 calcium ion channel activity; [0044] FIG. 8 shows HISp7 calcium ion channel activity; [0045] FIG. 9 shows amantadine inhibits HISp7 ion channel formation; [0046] FIG. 10 shows the putative method of transport of functional influenza H5 HA and facilitation by co-expression with HCVp7 and; [0047] FIG. 11 shows HA transport is inhibited in the presence of amantadine and by KR mutant. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0048] Many animal viruses encode proteins of low molecular weight, which are hydrophobic and form oligomers. When these proteins are individually expressed in bacteria or in animal cells, they induce profound modifications in cellular permeability. These proteins therefore, have been collectively termed as “viroporins”. Amongst the viral proteins that enhance membrane permeability are poliovirus 2B, 2BC and 3A, the togavirus 6K polypeptide, influenza M2 and Vpu from HIV-1. These Viroporins are all small integral membrane proteins that oligomerise to form ion channels in cellular and often viral membranes. They usually function so as to modulate cation exchange to facilitate egress of virus particles from cells or changes to the interior of virus particles. Perhaps the most famous of these proteins is the M2 protein of Influenza A virus which is the target of the first anti-viral drug; Amantadine. We provide evidence that p7 is a Viroporin and that it too will oligomerise in membranes to form ion channels in a similar fashion as M2 thus making HCVp7 a suitable target for anti-viral compounds. [0000] Materials and Methods [0049] BLM Experimental Procedures [0000] Solutions/Chamber Preparation [0050] All buffer solutions were prepared by dissolving the relevant amounts of KCl, CaCl 2 (Both Aldrich 99+%) and PBS in Millipore water (≧18 MΩ) to give the following concentrations. 0.1M, 0.2M, 0.5M, 1M and 4M. A commercially available BLM chamber was pre-cleaned by immersion in DECON/Millipore water (≧18 MΩ) for 24 hrs prior to all experiments. To remove all traces of detergent the chamber was flushed with running water for at least five hours. Immediately before use the chamber was washed extensively with Millipore water (≧18 MΩ) and dried in N 2 . Silver chloride electrodes were prepared using electrochemical deposition of chloride onto silver wire (d=1 mm) from a concentrated KCl solution. Agar bridges were prepared by cleaning glass pipettes in Methanol (HPLC grade) then storing in a drying oven. The pipettes were moulded into the correct shape using glass blowing techniques. A 4M buffer solution containing 2% bacterial agar was pipetted and the Agar bridges thus formed were stored in 4M buffer solution until required. [0000] Lipid Preparation [0051] A number of lipid compositions were investigated using the following methodology. A 30 μl aliquot of phosphatidylethanolamine (25 mg ml −1 —Lipid Products) was added to 38 μl of phosphatidylserine (25 mg ml −1 —Lipid Products). The solvent was removed with N 2 and the lipids were dried under vacuum for 3 hours. After drying the lipids were redissolved in 30 μl decane (Aldrich 99.5+%), vortexing as required, then stored on ice prior to use. [0000] Lipid Bilayer Formation/Recording [0052] The two Ag/AgCl electrodes were placed in a Faraday cage to minimise noise during current recordings and connected to a computer via an AXON patchclamp filtered at 50 Hz, an ADC interface and a DAT recorder. AXON pclamp software was utilised to record and analyse the traces. A sample of the lipid in decane solution was brushed around the chamber cup pore (200 μm) to act as a “glue” and aid stable bilayer formation. The chambers were filled with the required buffer solution and the current and capacitance monitored to ensure that the cup pore was unblocked. A sample of the lipid solution was brushed across the cup pore until a stable capacitance was recorded. The lipid was then allowed to thin and stabilise over a 15 min period. Only membranes that gave zero current and specific capacitances of 0.3-1μF cm −2 were used further for protein studies. The cis chamber was clamped and the trans chamber applied voltage was varied between +/−280 mV to monitor the stability of the bilayer and to determine the presence of possible contaminants. [0000] Protein/Amantadine Studies [0053] Varying amounts (15-100 μl) of the proteins under study (GST, GSTp7, GSThisp7 and hisp7 in methanol or PBS— see detailed description of the invention) were injected into the trans compartment of the BLM chamber. After 10 minutes the applied voltage was varied between +/−280 mV and the resultant current signals recorded as a function of time. [0054] To monitor the effect of amantadine (Aldrich) on the formation of ion channels, 401 μl of amantadine (20 μM in methanol) was added to both cis and trans compartments. [0055] The current traces showing blocking of ion channels were recorded within 30 secs after amantadine injection. [0000] Detailed Protocol for Cloning/Expression/Purification of GSTp7, GSTHISp7, and HISp7. [0056] Generation of plasmid constructs. The p7 sequence of hepatitis C virus 1B was amplified via PCR using the J4 isolate infectious clone pCVJ46LS as a template (Virology. 1998 Apr. 25;244(1):161-72). PCR was carried out using a proof-reading thermostable polymerase; Vent polymerase (New England Biolabs) according to manufacturers instructions. The p7 cassette was generated using primers; newp7Fwd 5′-ATATATGAATTCGCGGCCATGGCCTTAGAGAACTTGGTG-3′ (SEQ ID NO:1) and newp7Rev 5′-ATATATACTGCAGGCGGCCGCGGCGTAAGCTCG TGGTGGTAACG-3′ (SEQ ID NO:2). The HISp7 cassette was generated using primers; newp7Rev (above), and HISp7Fwd 5′-ATATATGAATTCGCGGCCAT GCATCATCATCATCATCATGCCTTAGA GAAC TTG-3′ (SEQ ID NO:3). PCR amplified DNA was extracted with phenol/chloroform (25:1) pH 8.0, ethanol precipitated, and digested with Eco RI and Not I restriction endonucleases (New England Biolabs) at 37° C. for 3 hours. Resulting sticky-ended DNAs were purified by agarose gel electrophoresis followed by phenol extraction and ligated to the Glutathione-S-Transferase expression vector, pGEX4T1 (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Genbank accession number U13853) which had been digested and purified in the same manner, using a rapid DNA ligation kit (Roche Diagnostics). Ligations were transformed into E. coli DH5α and resulting clones were confirmed by restriction digest to release the cloned fragment and by double stranded DNA sequencing (Lark Technologies, UK). Plasmids were named pGEXp7 and pGEXHISp7. [0057] Expression and purification of GSTp7. A single colony from a fresh transformation of pGEXp7 was used to inoculate a 5 ml overnight culture (LB+100 μg/ml Ampicillin) grown at 30° C. This was then used to seed a 400 ml culture which was grown at 30° C. to an OD 600 of 1.0. At this point, IPTG (Isopropyl β-D-thiogalactopyranoside) was added to a final concentration of 0.1 mM in order to induce expression from the Taq promoter, and the cultures grown for a further 2 hours. Cells were pelleted at 6000 rpm in a Sorvall SLA-3000 rotor for 10 min at 4° C. The resulting pellet was resuspended in 10 ml PBS containing 1 mM DTT (Dithiothreitol) and protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche Diagnostics). 0.5 ml of lysozyme (10 mg 1 ml) was then added and the mixture incubated at room temperature for 5 min to clear. Large cellular debris was disrupted by sonication, followed by the addition of 1 ml PBS/DTT/10% Triton X-100 and centrifugated (Sorvall SLA-1500 rotor) at 10000 rpm for 10 min to pellet debris. 1 ml of a 1:1 suspension of glutathione-sepharose beads was then added to the supernatant and the mixture rotated at 4° C. for 1 h. Beads were then washed three times in PBS/DTT/protease inhibitor, and finally resuspended in PBS/DTT at a 1:1 ratio v/v. Beads were loaded onto a gravity column (Clontech) and washed three times with 50 mM Tris-Cl, pH 8.0 to equilibrate. Fusion proteins were then eluted by the addition of 3×0.5 ml Tris-Cl, pH 8.0 containing 20 mM reduced Glutathione (SIGMA). The second and third elutions were pooled and dialysed using a Slide-a-lyzer cassette (Pierce Endogen) in PBS or MeOH. Purity and concentration of the protein was then determined by SDS-PAGE and BCA. [0058] Expression and purification of GSTHISp7. GSTHISp7 was expressed and purified in the same way as GSTp7, except that instead of a starter culture, the 400 ml culture was inoculated with a single colony and grown for 12 h at 30° C. before induction with 0.1 mM final concentration IPTG, followed by growth overnight at the same temperature. [0059] Generation of HISp7 from GSTHISp7 by thrombin cleavage. Pre-dialysis, GSTHISp7 was cleaved at the thrombin cleavage site present in the pGEX4T1 polylinker by the addition of 10 units/mg fusion protein thrombin (SIGMA). Incubation was carried out overnight at room temperature and the cleaved HISp7 separated by GS-trap™ (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) chromatography followed by collecting the flow-through after passing through a 10 000 MWt filter (Microsep, Pall life sciences). Purity and concentration were then determined by mass spectometry, SDS-PAGE and BCA. [0000] Haemadsorption Assay [0060] Vero cells were prepared to about 70% confluency in 6-well trays and then incubated overnight at 37° C. Cells were washed once in PBS and 1 ml of a 1:10 dilution of T7 (diluted in serum-free medium) was added to each well. This was then incubated at 37° C. for a further 1 hr and washed once in PBS. The transfection mix (see below). Was then added and incubated for 5-12 h at 37° C., the mix was removed and 2 ml of medium with 10% FCS was added with a further incubatation period of 48 h at 37° C. Untransfected control and infected positive control were also prepared, the positive was infected with virus 24 h after the transfection. [0061] The bacterial mixture was then diluted to a concentration of 5.5mU/ml with medium (1:182 dilution), 1 ml of sample was added to each well and incubated at 37° C. for 1 h and then washed three times with PBS. 1 ml of 0.5% horse red blood cells was added to each well and incubate for at least 2 hr at room temperature. Plates were agitated to re-suspend all loose red blood cells and washed gently three times with PBS. 1 ml of 1× CAT lysis buffer was added to each well and left for 1 minute to lyse the cells. Samples were then microfuged at 13,000 rpm for 3 min and the supernatant decanted into a plastic cuvette so that the absorbance could be read at 540 nm. [0000] Lipofectamine Transfection [0062] DNA was made up to 100 μl with optimem in a bijou bottle and 4 μl lipofectamine added to 96 μl optimem in another bijou bottle. (41 per 1 μg DNA and 1 μg of HA and 0.2 μg of M2 were used). The DNA mix was then added to the lipofectamine mix and incubated for 30-45 min at room temperature. Vero cells were then washed with serum-free medium, and 800 μl of optimem added to each transfection mix. The mix was then dripped onto the cells. EXAMPLE 1 [0063] As previously discussed, Viroporins are all small integral membrane proteins that oligomerise to form ion channels in cellular and often viral membranes. They usually function so as to modulate cation exchange and to facilitate egress of virus particles from cells or changes to the interior of virus particles. [0064] With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 it has been shown that HCVp7 forms hexamers both in vitro in HePG2 cells and in vivo in liposomes. FIG. 3 illustrates the computer modelling of HCVp7 hexaherisation. These observations coupled with the hydrophobic nature at the amino acid level suggest that HCVp7 is indeed a member of the Viroporin family. FIG. 4 provides a schematic representation of HCVp7 incorporated in a BLM. EXAMPLE 2 [0065] With reference to FIG. 5 , we have been able to demonstrate that a GSTp7 fusion protein has voltage-gated ion channel activity in BLM. Moreover, stability of the fusion protein increases by the incorporation of a 6-HIS linker as seen in FIG. 6 . In addition, we have been able to demonstrate that the inclusion of a 6-HIS linker increases ion channel activity in the presence of both K + and Ca 2+ electolytes as seen in FIG. 7 . The effect being more pronounced in the presence of the Ca 2+ electolyte. EXAMPLE 3 [0066] We have found that removal of the GST part of the fusion protein, so that p7 is associated only with the 6-HIS linker, resulted in an unexpected 5 fold increase in ion channel activity in the presence of both K + and Ca 2+ electolytes ( FIG. 8 ). The ion channel activity still being more pronounced in the presence of the Ca 2+ electolyte. These results are surprising since p7, which has two a helices, is lipid soluble and was fused to GST in order to make the molecule more soluble. Accordingly these results suggest that HISp7 acts as a voltage-gated calcium channel BLM in the absence of a fusion protein and that it represents a novel target for screening compounds that inhibit ion channel activity. EXAMPLE 4 [0067] Our studies have demonstrated that amantadine inhibits ion channel formation by HISp7 FIG. 9 ) in the micromolar range. This confirms the potential use of HISp7 as a target for screening inhibition of channel activity and may lead to the discovery of alternative anti-viral therapies. EXAMPLE 5 [0068] Using the haemadsorption assay and Vero cells we have been able to show that transport of functional influenza H5 HA is facilitated by co-expression with HCV p7 ( FIG. 10 ) and that HA transport is inhibited by the presence of amantidine and by the K33A/R35A mutation ( FIG. 11 ). We believe that HA flu protein is shipped to the cell surface where it adopts a fusogenic state (see schematic representation). However, the presence of either M2 or p7 prevents HA from becoming fusogenic so that it is able to bind to sialic acid on red blood cells. We have also shown that the his-tag does not substantially alter activity and that expression (as demonstrated by Western blot FIG. 11 ) is not affected by the presence of the his-tag and that the KR mutation is dominant negative and that mutation does not affect expression. We have also been able to demonstrate that p7 ion channel activity is substantially abrogated in the KR mutant and that bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) p7 also mediates mammalian cell membrane permeability ( FIG. 10 ). These data support the present invention that p7 forms ion channels and has utility in the pharmaceutical industry. [0069] Our studies have shown that we are able to express the p7 protein of HCV alone or as part of a fusion protein in vitro, in bacteria and mammalian hepatocyte-derived cell lines. We have observed by electron microscopy a hexameric form of p7 fusion proteins purified from bacteria and the frequency of this oligomeric form is greatly enhanced in the presence of lipid membranes. The hexameric form is entirely attributable to the presence of the p7 domain as none was seen in preparations of the fusion protein partner alone. Furthermore, following expression of p7 alone in hepatocyte-derived cells a 42 KDa species was detected by western blotting. This species was only detected in gels run under denaturing conditions after prior stabilisation with a lipid-soluble chemical cross-linking reagent, suggesting that its formation occurred within cellular membranes. These properties are characteristic of viroporins, which mediate cation permeability across membranes and are important for viral particle release or maturation. We believe that p7 is of particular utility as a target for rationalised drug design of antiviral therapies and that including p7 in a membrane will offer an improved screening system and method for detecting candidate therapeutics.

The present invention relates to the use of hepatitis C virus (HCV) p7 protein, and particularly but not exclusively, to its use in rationalised drug design and as a screen for antiviral therapeutic agents.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention is in the field of Dentistry study appliances and study methods for correcting irregularities in the position and alignment of teeth in the mouth of the patient and also deals with the combination of such appliances with mounting apparatus for mounting an artificial model of the teeth simulating those of the patient in order to study the occulsion and the articulation of the model and to reproducably monitor the orthodontic treatment. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 1. Prior Apparatus Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 1,485,657, granted Mar. 4, 1924 discloses a dental articulator in which upper and lower model supporting members are relatively adjustable to obtain, in the practice of prosthesis, the proper position of the teeth on one model in the occlusal plane relative to the other model. Comparison may be made with the one model, the upper has been moved, after those in the other model have been arranged according to given measurements and calculations, thus the Williams device can serve for movement of the lower teeth to give measurements and calculations after the movement has been accomplished. Alternatively, the Williams device may be used to plan movement in order to reach the desired positioning of teeth in the upper and lower set. The purpose of the Williams dental articulator is to provide certain movements and adjustments of the cooperating upper and lower tooth model parts which greatly facilitate its use in positioning these uppers and lowers before treatment is started or to monitor while it is going on or after it is finished. Because the position of the teeth in the x and y planes can be accurately controlled and charted with the Williams device, the use of this device will promote the accuracy of the dental work in which it is employed. It is, however, ackward to use the Williams geared articulator with stone models based upon impressions of the teeth and a very high degree of skill is required for the Orthodontist to painstakingly chart the movements in the x and y plane for the present intermediate and desired tooth positions in each of the upper and lower sets. In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,979, an Orthodontic Study device is provided wherein the position of each tooth may be universally adjusted. The tooth, in for form of a crown, is connected by a ball and socket joint to one end of a post which is secured at its other end to a supporting base plate. The post is in the form of elongated telescopic members whereby the height thereof may be adjusted. The post is secured to the base plate by a ball and socket joint whereby its position may be adjusted. My Orthodontic Study device will serve to provide a precise replica of each tooth in each set, upper and lower, of the patient and will also serve to monitor positions of each tooth in intermediate and finished stages of orthodontic treatment. However, the mechanism for locating and moving the assemblies of upper and lower models in the x, y and z directions is required in order to provide the full scale utilization of my three dimensional study device in my aforesaid patent. Wollney et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,680, granted Mar. 7, 1972, presents an Orthodontic Force Model for demonstrating the direction of tooth displacement in response to externally applied forces. The Wollney apparatus is a system of springs which maintain a tooth model suspended in space. Forces are applied to this model and the direction in which the tooth is displaced as well as the amount of displacement are recorded and measured. These forces based upon springs in Wollney can be estimated from positions in my own Orthodontic Study Model if there were available a mechanism to achieve x and y movements as in Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 1,485,657, but there would still be the requirement to achieve a tilting movement in the z direction (vertical) absent in the Williams construction. The panoramic tripod head of the Leitz Company, known as the Tiltall Tripod and that of Peterson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,461,175, granted Feb. 8, 1949, are swiveling mechanisms which provide the free rotations and tilting movements required for panning in photography. If the Williams articulator in U.S. Pat. No. 1,485,657 were to be combined with my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,979, one would have an adjusting mechanism for bringing the lower and upper dental arch into position in respect to the x, y and z axes, but one would not have the ability to adjust the angle of tilt required by the jaw bone structure so that one would make calculations and measurements for planning treatment and for establishing the diagnosis without having the unique tilt of the jaw structure and the positioning of the teeth relative to the jaw bone structure as the factor which will permit achieving the desired bite. Accordingly, the requirement for a proper and true understanding of the geometry of each of the teeth goes beyond the combination of my prior study model with the aforesaid Williams patent, particularly since the jaw structure is tilted and the relationships of the teeth and the upper and lower dental arches must be defined in precise relation to the existing jaw structure, the bite, the head structure, etc., all of these determined by X-ray. The deficiencies of a simple mounting of my three-dimensional of Stereodont Model of my aforesaid patent in the Williams articulator will be overcome by utilizing a triad of my new bit registration guide and complete coronal assemblies, this triad mount in my new geared articulator is characterized by a swiveling mechanism for free tilting movement in an entirely new relationship which permits extremely accurate measurement and charting as good as or better than the most accurate micrometric measurements using an accurate measuring microscope. PRIOR ART ORTHODONTIC PROCEDURES The process associated with routine orthodontics consists of the following steps: Step 1: It is routine for the Orthodontist to send to the laboratory the usual standard Alignate Impressions of the teeth of the patient. In the routine prior art practice, the laboratory pours its impression in white stone, trims, polishes, labels it and sends it back to the Orthodontist as the "Stone Model" of that patient. This is a routine procedure familiar to all who have been fitted in prosthetic dentistry. Step 2: The stone model of the patient for the uppers and the lowers is placed in an articulator and a record is made of the position of each of the teeth. Step 3: A dental arch representing the ideal arch for the patient's dimensions is superposed over each of the stone models in order to estimate the displacements of the teeth which require movement. Step 4: A plan for the treatment is set forth based upon Steps 1, 2 and 3 above reflecting the condition of the patient and best judgement of the Orthodontist. Laborious hand measurements of each of the teeth and detailed charting for planning tooth movement are essential aspects of the careful examination of the stone models and the charting procedures in Steps 2, 3 and 4 above in the prior art. SUMMARY OF APPARATUS INVENTION: NEW APPARATUS FEATURES Bite Registration Guide In carrying out a basic alteration of the above conventional orthodontic procedures, my invention contemplates the creation of a bite registration guide which starts with the stone models but which adds the following steps: a. From the stone impressions of the patient in Step 1, the laboratory pours a second stone model, but this time the model is made of the crowns of the teeth only. Thus the first model is the complete repleca while the second is a crown model. b. While the stone is still soft and before it sets, a coronal sphere is embedded in each crown with the post held uprights until the stone sets, to provide support for the stereodont mountings. c. The individual crowns are now removed from the alginate impression and are trimmed. The laboratory man selects one Stereodont base containing the apical ball and sockets and their posts (apical assemblies) to mount these in the crown model prepared in (b) above. d. The laboratory man inserts each coronal assembly into its corresponding apical assembly to produce the upper and lower stereodont assembly mounted on the crown model. e. The Bite Registration Guide. A bite registration blank comprising a piece of laminar acrylic ester or vinyl chloride paste polymer plastic 1/8 inch thick having the general parabolic contour of the dental arch, but smaller in width, is provided in at least three different sizes for corresponding different sizes of dental arch encountered in practice. f. After the proper size of bite registration blank is selected and fits loosely along the lingual aspects of the teeth in the original model of the patient's malocclusion, the blank is now converted into the guide by the following steps: 1. Paint the lingual surfaces of the teeth in the model with separating medium. 2. Pour a thin layer of self-curing acrylic (mixed monomer and polymer) on the lingual surfaces of the teeth. 3. Bring the bite block blank into alignment and contacting the poured acrylic. 4. Hold the blank in position until the acrylic sets. 5. Remove the bite registration blank and trim it. This plate how now impressed on its periphery, the lingual surfaces of the teeth as they are in the original malocclusion. This plate is called the bite registration guide and is now clamped to the post of the rack and pinion assembly of the stereodont. The bite registration guide prepared in accordance with the above steps is provided with a mounting slot or opening in a center portion thereof and provides two aspects of a dental arch of the patient, the first aspect representing actual lingual aspects of the teeth in the original model of the patient's "malocclusion) (see for instance paragraph f above) and in another aspect the bit registration guide provides the ideal dental arch which conforms to and is related to the specific malocclusion. Microscope Like Mounting for Geared Articulator With Hinged Portion Adapting Mounting An important feature of the invention is the mounting of the bite registration guide and the teeth which are removable teeth of the stereodont to reconstruct the original malocclusion to thereby provide a model of the upper and of the lower of the patient, the upper having its own bite registration guide for the lingual surfaces of the upper arch and the lower having the bite registration guide for the lingual surfaces of the lower to thereby provide actual and ideal arches in the guide for upper and lower in a mounting in microscope like mounting for geared articulator with hinged portion adapting mounting. In short the microscope like mount differs from the ordinary microscope in being mounted with a hing which permits the entire mounted construction to be opened, the elongating elements of the stereodont each precisely placed, each bite registration guide being mounted through its mounting slot on a pin and the assembly of microscope mounting and enumerated components closed to produce an exact replica of the teeth in the X, Y, Z measurement space which is contributed by the articulator. The simple mounting steps place each element for orthodontic treatment in a precise relationship for actual to ideal arch in X, Y, Z space and thereby permit, for the first time, measurements using the bite registration guide as template for monitoring planning and concluding orthodontic treatment. Tilting Table for Adjustment to Jaw Angle An important aspect of the invention is the tilting table which is part of the microscope like mounting because only by control of the tilt of the table on which the bite registration guide is mounted can the movement of each tooth in the direction of angular tilt corresponding to jaw angle be correlated for all of the teeth in the lower arch and for all the teeth in the upper arch. This tilting table has its most important advantage achieved in practice as a result of reversal mounting for bite registration guide. Reversible Mounting for Bite Registration Guide A single post mounting served for positioning the bite registration guide in relation to the separately mounted teeth of the stereodont. Reversal of the bite registration guide effects a change in the positioning of the teeth from the actual malocclusion to new positions for each of the teeth corresponding to the ideal arch; one side of the bite registration guide corresponds in form to the lingual surfaces of the malocclusion while the other side is the outer boundary of the ideal arch. All of the foregoing steps may be carried out by the laboratory technician who can carry out the following steps with the plate which is called the bite registration guide, step a, is positioned and is now clamped to the post of the Rack and Pinion assembly of the Stereodont. Thus positioned on the stereodont, the bite-registration serves as a guide to position the movable teeth of the stereodont, thus reconstructing in the stereodont the original malocclusion. Step b: The laboratory man positions the bite registration and arranges the teeth accordingly. This assembled and organized reproduction of the malocclusion is sent to the Orthodontist. Step c: The Orthodontist simply attaches the received stereodont to his geared articulator and proceeds with the diagnosis and treatment planning. SUMMARY OF PROCESS INVENTION The process invention as illustrated in the drawings herein comprises the following steps of instruction and operation to the orthodontist or his assistant: 1. send alginate impression to laboratory; 2. pour white stone into alginate impression to produce only the tooth crowns; 3. embed coronal spheres which supports upright in white stone until set; 4. remove crowns with embedded coronal spheres and supports from alginate impression and trim; 5. assemble coronal and apical units on model base; 6. make bit registration template; 7. assemble completed registration template to model; 8. align crowns on model withcompleted bite registration template according to patient's malocclusion; 9. send model to orthodontist; and, 10. orthodontist assembles completed model on articulator and proceeds with diagnosis and treatment planning. As shown in the drawings the assembly of the coronal and apical units on the model base bring together the Stereodont Orthondontic Study Model of my U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,979, granted on Jan. 29, 1973 into x, y and z space for very accurate positioning of each of the units in respect to the dental arch of the patient. At this stage a full jaw X-ray will serve to monitor and verify the x, y and z locations. SUMMARY OF THE BITE REGISTRATION GUIDE OR TEMPLATE INVENTION As the pre-assembly step for the manufacture of the bite registration template, the following additional steps under Step 6 are taken: a. select correct bite registration template; b. paint lingual surfaces of crowns with separating medium and add a thin layer of self curing acrylic; c. position bite registration template contacting the lingual surfaces of the crowns until acrylic layer sets; and, d. withdraw bite registration template and trim. The bite registration guide comprises two arches and a central mounting bore, the mounting bore permitting one arch which is the ideal arch of the size of an idal arcuate form and the other arch being the result of the lingual positioning of the teeth in precise conformity to the model of the patient. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be more fully described with the aid of the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the steps for assembling an orthodontic dental model; FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the articulator of the present invention showing an upper and lower orthondontic study model mounted thereon; FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view, taken on the line 3--3 of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a fragmentary end elevational view of the articulator of FIG. 2 as seen from the right thereof; FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view, taken on the line 5--5 of FIG. 2; and FIG. 6 is an enlarged, plan view, partially in section showing the one-way ratchet of the bite registration template and also the crown lingual impressions thereon. FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view, before treatment, of a Class III, Division I malocclusion showing by legends and accepted by symbols a few of the cephalometric relations of the original condition; FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic view, with legends of the original condition of the teeth, after extraction of the first four premolars and showing the axis of the teeth before treatment; FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 8 of a partial stage of treatment in which the canines are upright; FIG. 10 is a view similar to FIGS. 8 and 9 of a later stage with legends in which the canines are retracted by tilting into the extraction space; FIG. 11 is a view similar to FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 of a still later stage showing the anterior teeth retracted into the "extraction" space by means of reciprocal forces which cause a relative shift of the molars (Class II mechanics); FIG. 12 is a view similar to FIGS. 8, 9, 10 and 11 of a final stage just before the residual spaces are closed and the stirring of the occlusion for optimum intercuspation is attended to, wherein the closing of the spaces is identified by the legend CONSOLIDATION; FIG. 13 shows, in diagrammatic form, the origianl condition but after extraction, as in FIG. 8, with the teeth mounted on the cephalometric Stereodont; FIG. 14 shows, in diagrammatic form, with legends, similar to FIG. 8, the cephalometric changes resulting from treatment (extraction, uprighting retraction, and tilting of canines, retraction and tilting of anterior teeth, setting the occulsion and consolidation); FIG. 15 shows the original condition set up on the bite registration guide corresponding to FIG. 8; and, FIG. 16 shows the condition after treatment on the bite registration guide corresponding to FIGS. 12 and 14. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Bite Registration Guide The preferred method steps are set out in FIG. 1, starting with the taking of the impression, (step 1), pouring the stone in the tray (step 2), embedding coronal spheres with supports provided by telescoping rod means 136 and ball 140 as shown in step 3, thereafter removing the tooth crowns 130 from the alginate impression with its associated telescoping supporting means 134, to provide the assembly illustrated in step 5. The front portion of the assembly illustrated to the right at step 5 is representative of my Orthodontic Study Model in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,979 granted on Jan. 29, 1973, and reproduces very accurately the orthodontic parameters of the patient's dentition. Thus, the tooth crown 130 mounted on the telescoping support means 134 and the preparation of additional stone crowns 130 provides basis for the complete upper and lower assemblies. The bite registration template is shown in its final form in FIG. 3 in top plan view and the crowns 130 are at the forward edge, the lingual crowns 117 lying in advance of the molar crowns 130 on the right and left side respectively. The bite registration template has a rear smooth area 115 which is bounded by the arcuate perimeter constituting the idealized dimensions of the arch, these dimensions including the distance between the rear molar positions or the base, the distance between the central bore or socket 119 and the forward edge of the front surface. If one were to take the socket as the point of origin at the center focus of the parabola constituting the smooth arch of the template 113, the y axis from the socket to the edge of the arcuate arch represents the base and the x axis represents the height dimension of the parabola constituting the arch. As is seen in FIG. 1, step 6 , the selection of the correct bite registration template requires the measurement of the dimension between the rear molars in order to get the x axis measurement and the measurement at the center line to the front teeth. The dental arches are formed of wire and are commercially available in these measurements. These wire parts constitute the smooth surface of the bite registration template 113. The preparation of the template is from a mass of self curing acrylic resin of the conventional type used and the steps for preparing this template are set out under step 6 in the blocks at the right of this step as shown in FIG. 1, these steps consisting of: 1. selecting the wire arch for the left side and the general outline of the acrylic mass; 2. painting the lingual surfaces of the crowns of the model in step 5 with a separating medium; 3. positioning the soft gel mass of self curing acrylic material into contact with the lingual surfaces of the crowns in the model; 4. permitting the acrylic mass to harden whereby the finished forward sockets of 117 (FIG. 6) as shown in top plan view in FIG. 3 are formed while the rear smooth arcuate wire bounded portion 115 forms the other side of the template, the post for the template being formed as a hexagonal post (not shown) to produce thereby a socket 119 for mounting the template. After the bite registration template 113 has been prepared, it is checked against the positions in the Orthodontic Study Model to verify that the placement of the crowns correspond exactly to the positions that these have in the patient's mouth. To assist in this original assembling of the Orthodontic Study Model and the verification, the Orthodontic Study Model 80 itself is adapted to be mounted by mounting post 111 on to the stage of the mounting and for the purpose of positioning the Study Model on the mounting, a mounting knob 101 serves to immobilize the model 80 in a pre-set position of the track, the rear end of the base of the model 80 occupying the same relative position to the rear of the crowns on the model as the ideal arch position at the rear of the template 113 occupies in the mounting of the template shown in FIG. 3. At this point the bite registration template is assembled and checked against the model as shown in step 7, the crowns in the model are aligned with the complete bite registration template to account for malocclusion and the bite registration model is ready for the Orthodontist's assembly which will now be described in detail in connection with FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, wheel 101 moves only the bite registration template 113 and does not move the model 80. This wheel 101 is the knob of pinion 107 shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 5 which moves the rack and which couples the rack 88 and pinion 89 in FIG. 2 and couples rack 88, pinion 89 and slide 86 in FIG. 5. Wheel 101 moves the bite registration forward and backward which is towards and away from the operator or that is to and from the crowns 130 of the teeth of the model. This wheel is the means for anterior and posterior movement or in the direction referred to as the z axis. Wheel 101 does not and cannot move the model 80 or the crowns 130 of the teeth with posts as shown in FIG. 1, and referred to in step 5 of FIG. 1. Wheel 101, which is the knob of pinion 107, is held within frame 84 shown in FIG. 2 and this frame 84 is rigidly attached to the base of the model 80 as is also shown in FIG. 2. The movements brought about by wheel 101 are large movements of at least 50 mm. This is the approximate minimum distance that the anterior edge of the bite registration must be retracted away from contact with the anterior crowns so that there will be enough free space for the fingers to manipulate the crowns. It is seen in FIG. 1 that the bite registration may be turned around to bring the opposite edge to the front, and also that once this bite registration has been used, it may be lifted up and replaced with a totally different one. The rack and pinion mounting and adjustment was chosen instead of a simple slide because once the bite registration is brought close to the teeth, the bite registration must be held there with a high degree of rigidity while the finer movements of the crowns are being effected so as to couple or oppose each crown to its impression on the border of the bite registration. The friction provided by a good rack and pinion assembly is satisfactory for the staying power required here, while a simple slide would not be satisfactory and would lead to serious othodontic error. The lower model 80 of the stereodont shown in FIGS. 2 - 5 can be moved in all three directions by four different wheels as follows: a. wheel 30 provides up and down movements referred to as the y axis of base 20 in FIG. 2 and pari-passu, of everything on top of it; b. wheel 76 provides different inclinations as required by the different Mandibular Angles; c. the two wheels, which are marked in x and z, are the x and z plane wheels which belong to the standard-stage of the microscope. In the microscope they move the glass-slide laterally on the x axis and also anteriorly or posteriorly on the z axis. In this particular stage, shown in FIG. 5, knob x moves the base of the model 80 in FIG. 2 along the x axis which is laterally from right to left and vice-versa, while knob z is for the z axis or for anterior and posterior movements. The x-range is approximately 40 mm. while the z-range is approximately 60 mm. Their combined movements cover a wide expanse which is not required in the usual clinical practice of Orthodontics, but which welcomes in the research on the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Dention through its evolutionary history and also as a means of framing problems for students during the teaching of the Dynamics of Occlusion; and although wide ranging, these x and z movements are nevertheless very fine and accurately calibrated to a fraction of a millimeter because they are used in determining the so-called "occlusal contacts," "working points," "balancing points," "overjet" and other factors in Occlusal Equilibration which is an important facet of Orthondontic Treatment. It is at this stage also that the "fine adjustment" of wheel 30 comes into play. While the lower model has movements along the three axis, the upper model has only a hinge movement on hinge 93 in FIG. 2. This hinge provides movement over a 90° angle, from flat horizontal to straight vertical. This hinge action is equivalent to lifting the upper model away from the lower model so that: the operator can get his hands and fingers into the space to manipulate the crowns; the bite registration can be rotated or lifted up and out of its post 111; and, access can be had into the innerspace of the instrument for cleaning, repair and lubrication. The bite registration and their rack and pinion assemblies for the upper and lower models are similar and are therefore almost exact mirror-images of each other. The rotary function of 85 in FIG. 2 is also calibrated in fractions of millimeter because it participates in the study of the fine points of occlusion above described. It also establishes saggital deviations of the incisal midlines, of the buccal segments and of the mandibular condyles. The curvature of the handle is dictated mainly by the excursion of the rack 89 as shown in FIG. 2. When this rack is in its most retracted position, the concavity of the handle must provide sufficient space for the grabbing fingers. Summarizing the x, y and z movements, the z axis movements are effected by three different wheels: in the upper member, wheel 101, moves the upper bite registration only and not the model anteriorly and posteriorly; in the lower member, wheel 101, moves the lower bite registration only and not the model along the z axis, which is anteriorly and posteriorly; un-numbered wheel z moves the lower model along the z axis. The y axis movements which are up and down: only wheel 30 does this, but it has both coarse and fine adjustments. The x axis movement which are laterally: only un-numbered wheel x moves the lower model laterally. Rotation on the horizontal plane is by stage 85 only. Rotations on the vertical plane, which is a hinge-like movement, occurs at two places: at simple hinge 93 for the upper model; and, at worm-gear assembly 76, 68 and 62 for the lower member. It should be noted that the present detailed construction of the new dental articulator illustrated in FIGS. 2 - 5 and in particular the detailed showing of the gearing therein includes certain common mechanical movements with a conventional microscope, especially for the vertical movements which brings table 85 into the proper relationship to the base 80 of the model. The x and y movements in the present drawings are similar to the x and y movements of the Williams articulator in U.S. Pat. No. 1,485,657, acknowledged as the prior art herein, and details of the movements of the control knobs for the x and y movements for the rack and pinion are evident from the drawings herein, especially FIGS. 2 - 5. The support 32 for the circular or rotary stage 85 is anchored by means of screw 33, and the operation of this circular or rotary stage is the same as in the circular stage of a microscope. The tilting operation for the pan head in FIG. 2 under the control of shaft 68 fitted in recesses 74 to engage gear 34 is comparable to that of a pan head used in photography, but the operation has been uniquely simplified in the present construction, which permits centering on indicating mark 40 at the middle of the scale provided by the setting at the index 46. This tilt housing 42 is a wholly new feature in the art of dental articulators. The rack and pinion tables for the study model 80 are comparable to those in the Williams patent just mentioned. The coarse and fine vertical adjustments for the articulator are provided by adjustment means 30 and the movement of the assembly is similar to adjustments in a microscope as shown by the up and down arrow for vertical flange 18 but there are no optics. Assembly and disassembly of the tilt mechanism is facilitated by virtue of recesses which accommodates shaft 34 and recess 74 for plate 54, the bight portion of 74 fitting in the relationship shown in FIG. 2. The curved handle 21 has a portion 16 which facilitates easy back and forth movement of each of the models within any limits for comparing the crowns or elements of upper to lower. The curve at the lower portion 14 is such that the placement of the tilt mechanism and the up and down coarse and fine adjustment 24 permits compactness in construction. The hinge 93 at the top of the handle support 12 is a unique structural feature which provides a parallel relation between the upper model and lower model, and thumb screws 142 can be aligned in this parallel relationship in accordance with proper procedure. The three major axis, the x axis, the y axis, and the z axis in relation to the lower and upper models are shown in FIG. 3 wherein adjusting wheel 101 moves the model and bite registration guide forward and backward from the lips of the X-ray, and this is identified as the z direction. The movements are large movements in comparison with the other movements in the x direction. The control means for the x axis (sidewise) movement of the model is wheel 79 which has been identified earlier as the wheel from the mechanical stage for x and y movements. This x and y movement is now eliminated, because the vertical or y axis is controlled by the coarse and fine adjustment 30. Wheel 79 may give adjustments as little as a tenth of a millimeter. The total displacement required will be very small, perhaps a maximum of 1 to 2 centimeters. The movement up and down (y axis) by control 30 is relatively large, perhaps 10 to 15 centimeters, but nevertheless, a very fine adjustment of a tenth of a millimeter must be measured with the fine adjustment. The movement in the z direction (forward and backward on the jaw) must be made to a very fine accuracy, 0.1 millimeter, and is made by wheel 101. This distance traveled by the bite registration guide and model in the z direction may be from 1 to 10 centimeters but is a lesser distance than the distance traveled by adjustment 30. The numerical value of these dimensions are important in teaching the uses of the machine. OUTLINE OF OPERATION The details of the operating stages are now disclosed in outline form. Stage A Preparation of Coronal Assemblies on Model Base Step 1 (See FIG. 1) Step 2 (See FIG. 1) Step 3 (See FIG. 1) Step 4 (See FIG. 1) Step 5 (See FIG. 1) Step 6 (See FIG. 1) Step 7 (See FIG. 1) Stage B Preparation of the Assembled Stereodont Step 1: Making the bite registration template (FIG. 1) a: Selection of the bite registration Blank (See substeps under Step 6) Step 2: Positioning the bite registration on the guide and confirming to model a: The upper guide consists of a simple rack 88 and pinion 89 with a hexagonal post 111 which exactly fits the center opening of the bite registration guide 113 at socket 119 b: By means of the knob 101, the rack 185 is moved to its extreme outward position. c: The bite registration template 113 is now affixed to the post 111 and turned so that the edge with the impressions of the teeth is nearest to the upper coronal assembly of teeth crowns 130. d: By means of the knob 101 the rack is moved forward until the bite registration contacts the coronal assembly of teeth crowns 130 e: The individual crowns are now moved into close contact with their corresponding impressions in the bite registration. This results in an arrangement of the crowns similar to that in the patient Stage C Mounting the Assembled Stereodont on the Geared Articulator The geared articulator is a mechanical frame to position the assembled Stereodont in the equivalent orthodontic parameters of the patients dentition. These parameters ae obtained from the cephalometric analysis of the standard head-plate which the orthodontist has already studied. The parameters relate certain planes and angles of the dentition to the profile, this providing an evaluation of the esthetics of the case. GEARED ARTICULATOR The geared articulator consists of six elements, which are shown in FIGS. 2, 4 and 5. Handle 10 is a C-shaped piece of plastic or metal. The lower half has a square configuration to provide a stable attachment to base 22 and for attachment of the coaxial microscope type vertical adjustment 30. Base 22 is a rectangular flat rigid plastic or metal. Coaxial vertical adjustment 30 is the standard coaxial mechanism with control gear 62 and adjustable stops as used in the conventional Nikon Microscope. Tilt-table support 32 is a pan-head which is modified by incorporation of a worm-gear control 62 on shaft 68 and the housing 42 has a scale 46 graduated in degrees with index pointer 40 to provide rotation in the vertical plane. Turning the knob 76 causes the gear 62 to rotate. This rotation is transmitted directly to the stem 33 attached to the shaft of the gear 62. Rotary Stage 85 is a standard graduated, rotary stage as used in the Nikon Microscope which provides rotation in the horizontal plane. Linear-mechanical stages 80 and 81 (upper and lower) are each standard mechanical stages as used in the Nikon Microscope and provide linear movements in the x and y directions. Hinge 93 serves to attach the upper assembled Stereodont and provides rotation through 90° from a straight vertical to a straight horizontal position (latter shown in FIG. 2). Stage D Assembly to Articulator Step 1: Clamp lower member of the assembled Stereodont on mechanical stage 81 Step 2: Clamp the upper member of Stereodont to the hinged stage 80 below ring 91 Step 3: By turning tilt knob 76, tilt the lower assembly to the angular value of the Mandibular Plane. (A cephalometric value) Step 4: By means of the coaxial adjustment 30 raise the lower member until it contacts the upper member Step 5: By adjustments of the rotary stage 85 the midlines of the upper and lower assemblies are brought into alignment Step 6: By adjustment of one or both mechanical stages 80 and 81, the upper and lower first molars are brought into their correct occlusal relation Step 7: The instrument is now ready for the orthodontist who will analyze and explain diagnosis and treatment planning THE BITE REGISTRATION GUIDE USED AS AN ADJUNCT WITH CEPHALOMETRIC TRACING ANALYSIS AND THE TWEED AND STEINERS PROCEDURES IN DIAGNOSIS AND PLANNING The arch wire portion of the bite registration guide is formed to an ideal shape which represents the natural curve which the teeth of the patient will take for the most desirable movement to accomplish the objective of the orthodontic treatment. The ideal arch in the natural curve obviously matches the span of the molars, the forward ideal arch of the incisors and canine teeth, and effectively serves as a short stiff beam spring against which the basic movements of the teeth can be measured and can be related directly to a standard Cephalometric Tracing Analysis and to the entries by the Tweed and Steiners procedures which is common practice in copyrighted orthodontic charts such as those put out by the Dental Corporation of America. The basic movements which are carried out against the arch are the same as those with the arch appliance: labiolingual movement; rotation; rootmovement in a mesiodistal direction; depression and elevation of teeth; buccolingual and labiolingual root movement (edgewise arch only); space closure and opening; and the correction of arch relation by means of intermaxillary and extra-oral traction. It should be kept in mind that the ideal arch as an essential component of the present bite registration guide provides an additional guide to orthodontic procedures because it permits the Orthodontist to evaluate the nature of the pressures which are required to move single teeth and the nature of the forces where imbricated teeth are ligatured to the arch so that the pressure is dispersed through pressure of the teeth against each other. The ideal arch provides another important advantage especially when the arch is mounted on the new dental articulator of the invention and is used to evaluate the depression and elevation of individual teeth. The usual twin wire arch orthodontic appliance used for depression and elevation of individual teeth requires great care, especially with incisors to exert a very gentle force at the ligature of an arch wire into the channel since the apical vessels and nerves are particularly susceptible to injury by excessive elongating forces. In this case the planning for the movement of the neighboring teeth can be part of the diagnosis planning which is suggested and indeed graphically presented because of the two sides of the bite registration guide. The imbricated teeth may require movement as a group on order to accommodate the gentle forces for the incisors. The tipping of the apices of the teeth can likewise be controlled in a new manner because of the single "split-field" representation, actual bite on one side and ideal on the other, which, together with the Cephalometric Tracing Analysis, introduces the tilt displacement in the vertical or z direction. Rotations can be duplicated with the Stereodont Orthodontic Study Model and each of the seven basic movements can be charted by the Tweed and Steiners procedures in order to create a plurality of alternate orthodontic treatment plans, these being carried out by model movements with the Stereodont Orthodontic Study Model of my U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,979. An especially valuable advantage of the bite registration guide can be achieved with the planning mesiodistal root movement can be effected in the buccal segments either with the "round arch" or with the edgewise arch with the use of second order bends. These movements tip the teeth in the buccal segment en masse at the crowns or at the apices as the operator desires. The importance of these plan movements is based upon the fact that all of the fixed orthodontic appliances give rise to complicated anchorage problems. The reactions from the stressed sections of the arches are applied directly to the adjoining teeth and, on account of the continuity of the dental arch, to the teeth immediately beyond. The effect of these forces of reaction have to be carefully assessed and appropriate steps taken to make sure that no unwanted tooth movements take place. Intermaxillary and extra-oral traction are frequently used with all these appliances for the purpose of correcting arch relationships and for securing adequate anchorage in some cases. There is an extensive literature dealing with these fixed appliances. These appliances introduce such a complexity of pressures and reactions into the dental arch that it is sometimes difficult or impossible to assess exactly how much pressure is being applied to any one spot. Furthermore, root form influences the movement of the teeth mechanically and the small alterations in occlusal relation and the relation of the teeth in the same arch affects the distribution of stress from day to day. Lastly, the alveolar bone is a living tissue and it does not always react in a purely mechanical way to mechanical stresses. When an arch type of appliance has been planned and put into position, it must be carefully watched and accurate assessments made of changes that occur and particular care taken that relative movements are not mistaken for the particular movements that are the objectives aimed at. THE ARTICULATING APPARATUS USED AS AN ADJUNCT TO CEPHALOMETRICS AND ANTHROPOMETRICS IN DIAGNOSIS AND PLANNING Cephalometrics comprises measurement, description and appraisal of the configuration and growth changes in the skull by ascertaining the dimensions of lines, angles, and planes between anthropometric landmarks established by physical anthropologists, and between points selected by orthodontists. The quantification of the faciodental complex by means of roentgenographic cephalometrics is a principal concern of orthodontists. Anthropometry furnishes the dimensions of the teeth and jaws in various stages of human development, and in different races. It supplies reliable data on changes in the jaws during growth. It shows the dentist the normal variability in all the structures that concern him, and the progression of changes under changing conditions. Downs' cephalometric analysis in 1948 was the first and most successful contribution which made of cephalometrics a valuable semantic, diagnostic and research medium in orthodontics. The Tweed method is based on Tweed's contention that the great majority of malocclusions are characterized by a deficiency between teeth and "basal bone," which shows itself in an abnormal forward relationship of the teeth to the bodies of the maxillary and mandibular jaws. The Tweed evaluation as described in the Practice of Orthodontics*, Volume II, at page 868 is actually a cephalometric evaluation of the need for extraction and is used most directly in determining the amount of space available or required for correction of malocclusion. The mandible usually is characterized by excessive irregularity of the teeth, alveolodental protrusion of incisors, and frequent impaction of third molars. The forward relationship of the dental arches and forward axial inclination of the incisor teeth are responsible in large measure for malrelation of the dental arches, crowding and imbalance of the facial profile. When the teeth in a dental arch cannot be put into regular alignment without increasing the axial procumbency of the incisors, it becomes necessary to reduce the number of teeth to be accommodated in the arch. This procedure avoids displacing the teeth in relation to the basal bone (basal arch) of the jaws which otherwise would result in an unstable dentition followed by "relapse" when the use of orthodontic appliances, including retainers, is discontinued. Tweed conceived the diagnostic facial triangle as a basis for diagnosis and treatment planning. The facial triangle consists of tracing the following angles on the X-ray: 1. FMA -- the Frankfort Mandibular Plane Angle. 2. IMA -- the Incisor Mandibular Plane Angle. 3. FMIA -- the Frankfort Mandibular Incisor Angle. The above are defined in the Practice of Orthodontics, Volume II, page 869. In addition consideration is given to: A-N-B -- the A-point-Nasion-B-point Angle, and S-N -- the sella-nasion line. The above lines are also defined in the Practice of Orthodontics, Volume II, page 869. Tweed established 25° as the norm for the frankfort-mandibular plane angle (FMA), and 90° as the norm for the mandibular incisor-mandibular plane angle (IMA). By extending the line through the axial plane of the mandibular incisor to the Frankfort-horizontal plane the third angle, the Frankfort-mandibular incisor angle (FMIA) of 65°, is obtained. After the Tweed diagnostic triangle is traced on the profile roentgenogram and a template may be used in locating the apex of the mandibular incisor tooth. The A-N-B angle indicates the mesiodistal relation of the anterior limits of the maxillary and mandibular basal arches. The normal range is from -5° to 0°, with 65 per cent of cases examined ranging from -3° to 0°. S-N line is used for superimposing cephalometric tracings in order to obtain the facial growth changes in patients under observation. The Bolton construction also may be used. As a result of the Tweed procedure and based upon hundreds of studies, the angles are related to each other by means of a FMIA formula. Tweed adopted an FMA range of 16° to 35° with an average norm of 25°. If the FMA is 16° to 25° less extraction is necessary than when the FMA is upward of 30°. When FMA is 30° the mandibular incisor must be tipped to 85° to maintain 65° for the FMIA. The A-N-B angle is reduced by the following method: 1. Distal movement of the A-point 2. Mesial movement of the B-point 3. Combination of the above. The above very brief summary of the Tweed method illustrates recommendation for extraction and the specific use of orthodontic appliances. It will be seen that by the Tweed method available dental arch space is recorded by measuring the mesiodistal dimensions of all teeth present or that should be present in the mouth mesial to the 1st molars on both sides. Also by the Tweed method a profile roentgenogram correction is planned and carried out. The diagnostic facial triangle is drawn on the profile roentgenogram. A dotted line is drawn from the apex of the most forward mandibular incisor to the Frankfort horizontal at the desired FMIA of 65°. The mandibular incisor teeth will then have to be moved labially or lingually to this newly established FMIA. If 10° have to be subtracted from the existing FMIA to obtain the desired FMIA of 65° it is necessary to move the incisors inward approximately 5 mm. on each side of the mandibular dental arch. The present articulating device correlates the precise position with both roentgenograms, the profile and the full face. Similarly, the Steiners' procedure can be correlated to the present articulator to follow the initial placement and final placements under the treatment goal and treatment plan. The Steiner analysis compares a specific case of malocclusion to a set of norm measurements. This is used then as a basis for planning treatment in the individual patient. Variations from the norms presented depend on certain factors that occur in individual patients. Steiner's method of cephalometrics can be divided into the following three steps: 1. Diagnosis. Determine the nature of the dentofacial abnormality. 2. Treatment Goal. What can be done to correct the anomaly. 3. Treatment Plan. The treatment indicated to accomplish the treatment goal. Under the Steiner treatment a profile analysis is made for the varying stages of treatment and a very accurate evaluation of the success of the treatment can be made in difficulty cases where the mandibular arch and its anchorage are to be changed for permanent improvement. It is recognized that the Tweed and Steiner procedures are only a few of the large number of procedures which utilize cephalometric analysis to change the facial appearance and the dentition of the patient. For each of these, there is a need for accurately positioning nodels of the patients dentition against standard roentgenograms to add an additional quantitative dimension to orthodontics. USE OF THE TRIAD INVENTION WITH ACCEPTED CEPHALOMETRIC ANALYSIS The method of using the Stereodont adds to the known cephalometric analysis procedures a precise quantitative measurement in absolute units applicable to each tooth which can be visually displayed as well as manipulated by hand. These measurements are x, y and z displacements in relation to the Frankfort plane. In the textbooks Practice of Orthodontics, Salzmann, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1966, Volumes I and II, there are listed 10 different procedures on cephalometric analysis and the three different procedures on tooth ratio analysis. A brief summary of Downs, Tweed and Steiner's procedures shows the typical application of the invention. The articulator movement of special teeth anticipates extraction or movement in a particular mode, e.g., laterially, vertically, canting, or the like. Specifically utilizing the Stereodont assembly with the full complement, we can identify the location of a particular tooth in a space available for correcting malocclusion. In the Tweed method we are dealing with the tooth and the bone and a forward relationship in respect to the ideal lingual arch. If the arch of the bite registration guide is placed over the Stereodont replica, one can simultaneously overlay the roentgenogram to determine the movement of the tooth relative to the bone, the movement of the tooth relative to the arch on the bite registration guide, and the absolute value in millimeters in the x, y and z directions together with the angle of cant or tilt. These relationships permit the identification, by diagram, of a sector of the bite registration guide in the area of specific tooth movement or extraction. The sector of the bite registration guide defines an area, the matching of the Stereodont assembly moved against the ideal arch provides a depth relationship for this same sector, and the roentgenogram provides a delimiting dimension at the bone interface with the tooth to precisely define the depth of the sector. In short, the sector area and depth can be directly measured on the articulator with the full assembly of Stereodont and bite registration guide. Obviously, templates may be used which would be definitive of each of the three methods of cephalometrics identified herein. Utilizing the views of the drawings in FIGS. 2 and 3, one selects a particular tooth and describes a specific area in a sector between the bordering teeth identified in the drawing. Manipulation of the tilting table by handle 76, worm 68 and gear 34 would provide a measure of the jaw angle. The steps are as follows: a. extraction and relocation to provide the ideal bite; b. improvement in facial features for plastic surgery where teeth and jaw are lost and damaged by accident; and, c. correction of malformation in a young growing child where limitations are placed upon degree of movement or correction due to growth factors. All three procedures, Downs, Tweed and Steiner, provide a systematic recording for diagnosis and treatment planning in which an overlay over the X-ray can be diagrammed in relation to the mandibular plane, the Frankfort plane and the facial planes. By making the plane of the bite registration guide as the Frankfort plane, the Stereodont and bite registration guide will automatically be lined up and the treatment diagnosis chart may be made on a projection screen with the aligned bite registration guide, Stereodont, and profile roentgenogram. All of the measurements may be posted on the treatment diagnosis draft. The present method expresses the concept of adjusting the plane of the bite registration guide in the Frankfort plane relative to the roentgenogram, and measuring the displacement of any selected tooth in millimeters along the x, y and z directions and further adjusting the angle of tilt in order to properly rotate the tooth. CLASS II, DIVISION I EXTRACTION We will now focus on a particular tooth and define its sector depth, sector area, and bone interface, as its critical parameters. To this effect, reference is made to FIGS. 7 - 16 for disclosing the capacities of the instrument. There is selected the most typical malocclusion: Class II, Division, requiring the extraction of the four first premolars. FIG. 7: Shows a few of the cephalometric relations of the original condition: 1. teeth protrude considerably beyond the Facial Plane; and, 2. the molar relation is incorrect. FIG. 8: The teeth have been abstracted so that we may follow the treatment procedure and remedy. Note that tooth No. 4 (1st premolar) is missing due to extraction. This provides a space which is called "a deleted neighborhood." FIG. 9: The canines (No. 3) have been retracted by tilting them into the extraction space. FIG. 10: The canines are now upright. The "deleted neighborhood" or space has now shifted to the other side (mesial) of the canines. FIG. 11: The anterior teeth are now retracted into the space. The reciprocal forces utilized (called Class II mechanics) causes a relative shift of the molars also, which is desirable. FIG. 12: Residual spaces are closed (consolidation) and the details of occlusion (setting the occlusion for optimum intercuspation) attended to. FIG. 14: This shows the cephalometric changes. These are best appreciated by superposing FIG. 13 on the Frankfort plane and/or the Facial plane. FIG. 13: Shows how the original condition is setup on the Stereodont and the full treatment procedures carried out there so as to confirm or correct the proposed Treatment Plan. The outline of the bite registration guide is shown.

A novel articulating apparatus, a novel bite registration guide, and a new procedure for diagnosis and study are used for the mounting preparation and arrangement of my stereodont Orthodontic Study Model of U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,979, granted on Jan. 29, 1973. In the form of my guide and my new articulator and my Orthodontic Study Model, there is reproduced very accurately the orthodontic parameters of the patient's dentition. The Orthodontist with this new articulator, bite registration guide, and my study model has a new and powerful tool which he can utilize in diagnosis and in treatment planning to shorten the treatment time and have better control of the desired tooth measurements. The novel procedure comprises sequential stages as follows: Stage A: The coronal assemblies of the Orthodontic Study Model are provided with the stone models of the crowns of the upper and lower teeth of the patient; Stage B: The completed coronal assemblies of Stage A are coupled to my new bite registration guide in the Orthodontic Study Model to form a triad of upper and lower models with the bite registration guide; and, Stage C: The triad obtained in Stage B, consisting of coronal assemblies coupled to a bite registration and mounted on the Orthodontic Study Model, is now mounted in my new geared articulator. In the mounted position the triad assembly is an accurate reproduction of the orthodontic parameters of the patient's dentition and serves as a basis for charting future movements of each of the teeth in x, y and i z directions to provide reproducable and highly accurate monitoring of orthodontic treatment.

This application is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 08/254,146, filed Jun. 6, 1994, now abandoned. FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a communications network designed to provide user access, presentation and gateway functions that permit a user to communicate with financial institutions and other providers of goods and services via an interactive telecommunications device, and more particularly, to a novel user interface at remote locations in the network for accessing services and information and for transaction processing. REFERENCE TO APPENDICES A listing of the source code used with the present invention is annexed as Appendix A. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION An increasing number of people are demanding more convenience to access various types of consumer services, including banking, bill paying, shopping, travel and others. Catering to the demand for added convenience in banking services are ATMs, direct deposit, and banking by telephone and mail. Personal computers have not been accepted as a convenient provider means for these services. Only a small percentage of the public have personal computers with modems, and even fewer have the capability to access any network platform offering banking services. Marketing research has indicated a consumer demand for convenience-driven services delivered via a screen-based interactive telecommunications device or terminal, such as the telephone/modem or terminal device announced by AT&T and identified by the trade designation AT&T Smart Phone™. There is a need for a user interface for such an interactive telecommunications terminal that will efficiently enable users to have access to many types of services from their homes or offices. The present invention provides such a user interface, which is supported by a service platform network, for communicating with a service provider, thus enabling users to have access to a large variety of services from a single location. Through the present invention, users can perform a multitude of transactions electronically via the terminal, such as banking, purchasing merchandise, making travel arrangements and paying bills, from the convenience of home or office. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention includes a programmable user interface adapted to provide a multiplicity of images on a touch screen terminal to enable a user to select from multiple service functions, such as from a group that includes banking, bill paying, shopping, travel, gifts and information. The user interface generates displays for providing the user with an option from the group including transaction confirmation, error explanation, transaction repetition and user/provider voice communication. The user interface interacts with a communications network for operating an account or conducting a transaction from a remote location. The present invention relates to a touch screen terminal at a remote location for sending and receiving communications, a service platform for processing the communications, and at least one provider of the account or transaction accessible by the service platform. The service platform includes an application processor with means for user selection of a category of services from a predetermined menu. A service provider can customize the menu of services for its users. The terminal screen displays the data received from the service platform, which in a touch screen version includes virtual “buttons” touched by the user to continue the transaction as well as to provide directions for subsequent steps to perform the transaction. As referred to herein, a “button” is a relatively small area on the touch screen defined by a box or circle on a particular display of the present interface and which, when touched by the user, will initiate a request or cause a display to be shown on the screen. The flow of data from the service platform is managed to insure a rapid flow of screen displays on the terminal by prioritizing information that the user is most likely to use next. Once the transaction is completed, data about the transaction are sent to the service provider for logging. In the present invention, a confirmation number is sent to the user's terminal when a financial transaction is successfully completed or an error message is sent to the user's terminal if a transaction is not successfully completed. The user can repeat a transaction or can be connected directly to a service representative upon request. If the user desires, a voice call, Telecommunications Device for the Deaf, generally known to the public by the historical acronym, and as consistently referred to herein as TDD or data transmission communication and a complete session log of the user's transaction sequence are sent to a customer service representative. The user interface includes a security mechanism for preventing unauthorized access from the user interface to the network, including a user identification number, secret code and serial number of the terminal encoded in the transmission protocol from the user interface. The present invention includes a method of providing services to a remote location. A user terminal for sending and receiving data communications is provided and interacts with a service provider computer for sending and receiving data communications. An intermediate service platform is operatively connected to the user terminal and the service provider computer. Requests for services from the user terminal are transmitted to the service platform which receives and processes the request and then sends the request for services to the appropriate service provider's computer. The service provider's computer then receives and processes the request for services in response to communications initiated from or sent to the user terminal and transmitted through the service platform. Responses from the service provider's computer, such as the generation of information and messages, are sent as a response to the user terminal. The response is displayed on the user terminal with instructions enabling the user to proceed with the request for services. Typical services provided include banking, bill paying, shopping, travel, flowers and gifts, and information. The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent when viewed in light of the accompanying drawings and the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a general flow chart showing the interrelationship of the functional and operational components with which the present invention is associated; FIG. 1A illustrates an embodiment of a terminal used with the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a main menu of the present invention; FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a customized menu of the present invention; FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment showing a list of user's accounts; FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment showing the balance and overall status of an account; FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment containing information on an installment loan; FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment showing a user's most recent printed statement; FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment showing a list of accounts that the user can move funds from and to, along with an on-screen “form;” FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment showing a transfer confirmation number after funds transfer has been completed; FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment showing a stop payment “form” on a screen; FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment showing a list of the various types of accounts for which information is available; FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment showing a page of text with information about accounts; FIG. 13 illustrates an embodiment showing a user's personalized account; FIG. 14 is a flow chart of the bill paying operations of the present invention; FIG. 15 is a flow chart of the shopping service operations of the present invention; and FIG. 16 is a flow chart of the travel service operations of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In general, the present invention is a user interface for a communications network facility designed to provide access, presentation and gateway functions that allow financial institutions and service providers to receive, translate, process and send data between a user's terminal and their computer. The terminal may be any communication device that can receive and send electronic data communications, such as a combined telephone and modem device. The terminal is linked through telephone lines, X.25 packet or other public switched communication networks, to a service platform or network host, which translates protocol and relays the information onto the application processor or remote gateways for access to the service provider's computer. The service provider's computer receives, translates, processes and responds to the user's commands and sends information back to the user through the network. All proprietary data are captured and retained on the service provider's computer. From the user's perspective, the service platform is invisible. Goods or services are delivered directly from a vendor, a financial institution or a service provider. When a user requests access to a service representative through the user terminal, the connection is made through the public switched telephone network to the service representative. The service platform consists of a flexible hardware processing and application software environment governed by the UNIX operating system. The UNIX operating system is the resource manager supporting the multiple demands placed upon the service platform by multiple financial institutions and service providers. The service platform receives, translates, processes and sends data between a user's terminal and the computer of the service provider. The present invention is a “user friendly” terminal interface. To access services, a user uses a “touch screen” which displays virtual buttons labeled with various functions, such as “Banking,” “Bill Paying,” “Shopping,” and the like. When one of these buttons is touched, the terminal automatically dials the telephone number for the service platform using the public telephone network. The interface responds to user requests, presenting the user with a choice of services. For example, a user who requests banking services chooses from a menu of specific services, including balance inquiry, transfers between accounts, transaction information, bill paying, and others. Directions appearing on the user's screen provide instructions for subsequent steps. To complete transactions requested by a user, the service platform accesses the computer of the service provider to obtain information regarding the user and the proposed transaction. Once the transaction is completed, the data are sent back to the computer for logging. Access to services and information other than banking services is also provided by the terminal through the service platform. These services provided by affiliated organizations interconnected with the service platform include home shopping, entertainment and travel agents. To access these services, the consumer uses the terminal in the same fashion described above for financial services. The user interface shows the particular service provider's services and transactions. The service platform interfaces with the service provider's computer to access the requested information. With the present invention, each service provider is able to customize the particular menus of services that it provides for its consumers. Users of the terminal are provided with three layers of security. Each transaction is identified by (1) a user identification number, (2) a secret code and (3) the serial number of the terminal. In this manner, user data are protected from unauthorized access, thus protecting the confidentiality and integrity of the data. Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is an overall flow chart showing, in general fashion, the interrelationship of certain functional and operative components of a communications network, generally designated 10 , in which the present user interface may be employed. The services provided by the present invention operate through a combination of the capabilities of a telephone/modem or terminal 11 and a service platform or processing center 12 , which will be typically owned and operated by the network provider. FIG. 1A is an embodiment of a terminal 11 that may be used with the present invention. The terminal 11 is a combined telephone and modem that features a touch-sensitive liquid crystal touch screen display 13 with “buttons” 14 that the user touches to access services. The interactive touch screen display 13 is the user accessible aspect of the terminal interface with the service platform. Although a touch screen is the present preferred embodiment, the invention is adaptable to other technologies, such as audible read-out, voice-recognition, optical remote control, and the like. The terminal 11 may include a telephone handset 15 for voice communications. The terminal also includes a microprocessor that is internally programmable to provide the user interface displayed on the screen and to interact with the service platform through modem communications according to protocol determined by the network provider for the service platform. The terminal also includes permanent and active memory for storage of the operating program and displays and for recording user input data, such as names, account identification, security codes and the like on display (or information) templates, and for recording a sequence of user choice selections for a historical record, or for use when a service representative is called or required. Source code for a representative program useful with an AT&T Smart Phone™ telephone/modem terminal is included herein at Appendix A, pages 2 through 73. Thus, the user interface, in combination with the terminal 11 , processes information in organized flows which provide access to a variety of information. In addition, the present user interface and the terminal 11 manage the flow of information from the service platform 12 to insure a rapid flow of “screens,” prioritizing information the user is most likely to use next, based on the principles of human factors engineering. A sequential paging function in the flow of screens enables users to scan through descriptions of products and services. The paging display is essentially instantaneous because the terminal temporarily stores the relevant information retrieved from the service platform. The UNIX system in the service platform 12 serves as the “manager” of all outside resources and coordinates a number of functions including scheduling and executing processes, performing inputs and outputs, handling interrupts, managing storage and monitoring the system. As such, UNIX communicates between the various types of computer hardware systems in place at a participating financial institution and any of a number of participating providers of goods and/or services 20 . This flexibility enables the participating financial institution 21 and the service providers 20 to use existing computers to connect to the service platform 12 to offer products and services to users. Typically the participating financial institution 21 interacts with the user by making the user's accounts available for informational and/or transactional purposes. The financial institution 21 is connected to the service platform 12 via one or more data and voice lines. Once the user sends the appropriate command, via the terminal 11 to the service platform 12 , the user is then connected via a high-speed data transmission line to the computer of the financial institution 21 or other service provider 20 . When a user initiates a transaction on the terminal 11 , the service platform 12 relays the information to the financial institution's computer, instructing it to execute that transaction for the user. A connection to the service platform may also be provided using various X.25 packet assembler/disassembler equipment in a public or private network with the same functionality. A conventional software application environment connects the financial institution's computer 21 to the service platform 12 and also drives the terminal operation for users. Application development software packages may be customized to provide terminal users access to particular services and to optimally match the financial institution's banking service features and functionality. Bill paying services and related programming may be provided on a turnkey basis for both terminal and voice-response applications. When a terminal user successfully completes a financial transaction such as a debit or credit to an account, a confirmation number appears on the screen 13 , indicating the completion of the transaction. If the transaction was not completed successfully, an “error” message will appear, instructing the terminal user concerning the reason the transaction was not completed. At this point, the user may choose to repeat the transaction or contact a service provider's customer service representative for clarification and assistance. For example, if the user were in the travel services menu, the service platform 12 would automatically launch a voice or TDD call to the travel agency's customer service department. A complete “session log” of the user's step-by-step transaction sequence as recorded in the memory of the terminal is immediately sent by the service platform to the service provider's customer service representative to assist in resolving the terminal user's inquiry. The service platform 12 also provides back-up customer service when the financial institution cannot directly resolve a customer inquiry while terminal users are linked to the selected service through the service platform 12 . This link is “invisible” to users, who thus perceive their selected provider as offering the service. The present interface presents the user with a number of options that are available with each of the services. The common options relate to security/identification, confirmation of transaction, error explanation, repetition of transaction, and customer service voice or TDD communication. These common options, as well as the options which are associated with a particular service, are presented as graphic and alphanumeric images on the terminal screen 13 . I. SIGN-ON The user at sign-on is required to provide identification and other details before access to an account or other transaction is provided. Users access terminal services by entering their user ID, which they keep confidential as a security precaution. PIN encryption with a secret code may also be used, thus providing another safeguard for terminal users. The service platform also provides an additional level of security by recognizing the unique identification of each terminal. After accessing the terminal, users view a main menu, such as shown in FIG. 2, from which service options such as banking, shopping, and bill paying may be selected. II. BANKING When “Banking” is touched on one of the “sign-on” menu screens (FIG. 2 ), a menu of banking services, FIG. 3, appears on the screen. The basic menu includes: Account Information, Transfer, Stop Payment, Information and Personalized Account. This latter feature allows users to name an account (for example, “Mike's Checking,” “Jan's Checking”) to distinguish various accounts. A customized menu tailored to the offerings of a particular banking provider may also be developed. After a choice from the menu is selected, for example, when a user touches the “Banking” button appearing on the screen, the service platform retrieves a user profile stored in the financial institution's computer. This profile will usually include the user's name, listing of accounts and balances, and other basic data. The profile is stored in the service platform during the banking session to insure smooth and rapid flows of information. As the banking session proceeds, the service platform/processing center ( 12 in FIG. 1) moderates the flow of information between the user's terminal and the financial institution's computer. If account information that is more detailed than that included in the user profile is needed, the service platform accesses the financial institution's computer to retrieve the necessary data. If a user desires to know the balances of various accounts, he or she chooses the “Account Information” service from the banking menu (FIG. 3 ). Next, a list of user's accounts appears on the screen, including checking, savings, CD's, money market accounts, installment loans and other. The accounts may be listed by number or by a name as chosen by the user. Each account will have a button beside it, as shown in FIG. 4 . Once the user chooses the account to review, the balance and overall status of that account appears on the screen. An example of this screen is shown in FIG. 5 . The type of information will vary according to the type of account. For example, for a checking account, the information includes the balance, last statement date, interest received and checking reserve available (overdraft protection). By comparison, the information on an installment loan includes: loan amount, balance, term, maturity date, collateral and next payment date. An example of a screen containing the information on an installment loan is shown in FIG. 6 . The user may make payments on the installment loan through the bill paying service of the present invention. By touching the button marked “Latest Transactions” at the top of the screen shown in FIG. 5, the user can review account history. The amount and type of information available varies according to the type of account. For example, by touching “Latest Transactions” for a checking account, a user can review all transactions since the last statement. By next touching “Last Statement,” the user can review the most recent printed statement received, as shown by the example of FIG. 7 . The user has the option to move back and forth between the “Latest Transactions” and “Balance and Status” screens at any time. To exit “Account Information,” the user either touches “DONE” at the end of a transaction, which returns the screen to the Banking menu, or the user touches “Start Over,” which returns the screen to the main menu. A user may also transfer money between accounts by pressing the “Transfer” button in the Banking menu. Next, the screen will feature a list of accounts that the user can move funds from and to, along with an on-screen “form” which asks “From Account,” “To Account,” and “Amount,” as shown in FIG. 8 . Once the user fills out the form using the subject display, the next display will request a confirmation. To do so, the user presses “DONE.” The next display, FIG. 9, provides a transfer confirmation number, which the user should enter into a check register. When the user touches “DONE” again, the screen returns to the banking menu. With reference to FIG. 10, if a user needs to stop a payment, the appropriate display prompts the user to specify the account. Next, the display provides a message explaining the fee for the service. The present interface prompts the user to complete a “form” on the screen which includes the check number and, if possible, the dollar amount and the reason. Once the form is complete, the user presses the “DONE” button and the request is entered. The screen next provides a disclaimer about the terms and conditions of the transaction, explaining that the stop payment order will be placed within 24 hours and that the stop payment cannot be enforced if the check has already been cashed. When the user again presses “DONE,” the screen returns to the banking menu. Upon registration of the stop payment instruction at the financial institution, the user will receive via mail a form from the institution which must be completed and returned to confirm the stop payment order. The same procedure is necessary if the stop payment order is made verbally over a conventional telephone. Users can review an electronic “catalog” of the financial institution's products and services by pressing “Information” on the main banking service menu (FIG. 3 ). The information appears in pages of text, which the user can scan by “paging through” the material. FIG. 11 shows the first screen which lists the various types of accounts for which information is available. The terminal and service platform are designed to manage the flow of multiple pages of text so that moving from page to page is easy and essentially instantaneous. An example of a page of text is shown in FIG. 12 . If a user wishes to open an account, he or she presses the “Huntington Direct” button and is connected by voice, TDD or data transmission communication to a customer service representative. The customer service representative will open the account, as requested. This voice, TDD or data transmission communication option may be chosen from any screen or menu. The programmable aspect of the user terminal also allows users to personalize the name of accounts for easy recall. For example, different savings accounts might be labeled “Eric's College Fund” or “Vacation Account.” After an account is personalized, the detailed information regarding these accounts can be accessed by the user. If a user wants to personalize his or her account, he or she presses the “Personalized Accounts” button, and a list of all accounts appear on the screen (FIG. 13 ). Next, the user touches a button beside the account to create a customized name. A “keyboard” appears on the screen asking the user to enter the new name for the account. The user enters the information and the terminal asks for a confirmation. When the user presses “DONE,” the screen returns to the list of accounts and the new personalized name appears on the screen. Once the user confirms the name, it appears under the user-selected name whenever that account appears on a terminal menu. If the user wishes, the personalized name appears on printed statements. When the user presses “DONE” again, the screen returns to the banking menu. When a user pays a bill using the terminal bill paying service, the bill paying service asks the banking service to verify if there are sufficient funds. Further, the bill paying service updates the user's information in the computer when a bill is paid. The transaction is memo posted so that the funds are not available. The user will see the updated balance on the terminal on the morning after the next business day. In accordance with the present invention, on nearly every screen, the user has the opportunity to press a button to reach a customer service representative from the user's financial institution. Once the user confirms the request for personal service, the banking session ends, the data link to the service platform terminates, and the service platform dials the financial institution's customer service center. III. BILL PAYING The user interface offers different access methods including terminal and automated voice response (AVR) applications accessed using conventional telephone networks. FIG. 14 is an overall flow chart of bill paying operations. When the bill paying service is accessed by the terminal, access to the service platform processing center is similar to that stated above, with the user accessing the system with an account number and PIN. Access procedures for voice response users are determined by individual financial institutions. Voice response users may access the bill paying service through the service platform using a regular touch tone telephone, rotary dial telephone, or voice recognition technology. Many of the advanced features of the service platform bill paying service are available to voice response users as well as to users using a terminal. Financial institutions may choose to offer both AVR and terminal access so that customers can access bill paying capabilities in either mode. The system architecture of the service platform allows users to move from service to service without re-entering their identification number and PIN. Once the terminal user accesses the bill paying function, the following procedures occur: (1) The service platform communicates with the computer of the user's financial institution to identify the terminal user's profile, which includes payees and accounts. (2) The user may add, delete or change payees, schedule, reschedule or cancel future payments, or inquire about previously made payments. (3) Each time a payment is made or a payee is added or modified, the information is sent to the service platform. The user is provided with a confirmation number for financial transactions, which serves as a “receipt.” (4) Upon completion of all bill-paying transactions, the terminal user touches “DONE” and the platform terminates bill-paying activities. The user is returned to the main services menu display, where they can choose additional services. When “DONE” is touched again, all transactions are completed. To establish the electronic bill paying service, terminal users that are customers of a financial institution sign up for bill paying services using their terminal display. Voice response users follow procedures established by their financial institution, using the mail or conventional telephone. Terminal users can add, delete and change information regarding businesses which participate in electronic bill-paying, without the need for access to a customer service representative. Users can make payments to any individual or business, meaning that their electronic transactions will serve as a complete “checkbook.” After each payment, users are provided with a confirmation number which serves as a receipt. Terminal users will see the number on their display, while voice response users will hear the number. Users can set up, change or delete a schedule of recurring payments for the same amount and account on a specific date. Users can receive information on the last two payments made to each payee, either by terminal display or voice response. Furthermore, users can view their personal list of payees at any time. The service platform bill paying system offers functions and services which enhance user convenience. These include: (1) Payee Subtitle. Users may establish a personalized subtitle for each payee, such as separate credit card accounts for spouses with titles such as “Credit Card, Liz,” and “Credit Card, Andy.” Terminal users may establish such subtitles using their screen. Voice response users can call or write their financial institution. (2) Instant Payee Startup. Through a selected display in the present interface, a user may establish a new participating payee and immediately authorize a payment. (3) Payee Search. This terminal function enables users to view a master list of participating payees and quickly punch an access code for convenient access to frequently used payees. (4) Payee Search-by-Category. This function permits users to view participating payees in pre-defined categories (utilities, credit cards, etc.). This is useful when establishing new payees in a user's personal list. (5) List of Upcoming Payments. Users have access to present and future scheduled payments, either via terminal display or voice response listing. (6) Multiple Funding Accounts. All users are able to debit any of their accounts even at different financial institutions to fund payments. This flexibility simplifies finance management. (7) Expected Funds Delivery Date. Each transaction confirmation includes the average number of days before the payee receives the appropriate funds, based upon the remittance method used. The service platform bill paying system uses electronic networks whenever possible to make payments convenient for the payee and the user. Typical networks available include: (1) Automated Clearinghouse and Electronic Data Interchange (ACH/EDI) using the automated clearinghouse to send debits and credits, with remittance information transmitted in EDI format; (2) Automated Clearinghouse Facsimile (ACH/Fax) which will also send a credit via the ACH system and send remittance information to payees via fax; and (3) MasterCard's Remittance Processing Service (RPS) that allows electronic transmissions of payments and remittances to be delivered to an already established payee base. Other methods may be added to provide flexibility to the financial institution to customize a package which meets local needs. For example, a major local department store could set up an automatic payment account. Whenever electronic means cannot be used, the bill paying system creates paper checks and mails them to payees. The electronic bill paying portion of the service platform may be driven by a customized version of Personal Transaction Teller (PTT), a bill paying software package that is proprietary to The Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio, or other appropriate types of bill paying software packages. In addition, the financial institution's customer service representative will have immediate access to bill paying information, in many instances enabling representatives to resolve inquiries while the user is on the telephone. The service platform maintains records of, and reports the standards of customer service to the financial institution on a regular basis. Measurable service standards that are monitored and reported include total time of error resolution, total number of user inquiries, and ratio of problems to total transactions. IV. SHOPPING The present interface allows terminal users to enjoy the convenience and control of shopping with participating suppliers at home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Users of the system are provided with catalog shopping services. The “catalog” is a data base organized by product categories and types, enabling users to shop for items by department, as they would if they were in a major department store. The data base is updated frequently to incorporate the most popular items for terminal users. Examples of the type of merchandise available through the catalog shopping service are electronics, appliances, toys, luggage, home furnishings, jewelry, and the like. As illustrated in FIG. 15, the terminal user accesses the catalog shopping service through the service platform. Using the appropriate displays of the present interface, users are guided through the shopping options by on-screen directions. As the terminal user touches buttons on the screen, the service platform routes information, enabling users to make price comparisons and order the latest merchandise quickly and easily. Terminal users use the catalog shopping services by following the procedures outlined below. (1) Select “Catalog Shopping Service.” From the main shopping display menu, the user selects “Catalog Shopping Service.” (2) Choose Shopping Option. The terminal user chooses from three options: (A) “Best Buys” Category. Users can shop for merchandise by browsing through the service's most popular product categories. Upon entering “Best Buys,” the display prompts users to select a category of merchandise, such as “Stereo Equipment.” The next step is a selection of a specific type of product within those categories, such as “Cassette Players” or “Portable Radios.” Once the selection is made, the user views a choice of manufacturers and models. The user can “page through” listings, which include a brief description, manufacturer's suggested list price, the price available to terminal users, and the cost savings associated with making the purchase through the service platform. Further, the user can access more detailed product descriptions by touching the appropriate “button.” Once the user has made the selection, the order is placed directly from the “Best Buys” category. (B) Order by Model Number. Comparison shoppers, who have researched the product and know its brand name and model number, can enter the model number to retrieve the product's catalog listing. The listing states the manufacturer's suggested list price compared to the price available to terminal users. (C) “What's New?” This terminal feature informs users of new merchandise available through the catalog service. Other shopping options may allow users to select a specific manufacturer, price range or product feature and review all products included in the catalog which fit the user's needs. (3) Order Merchandise and Arrange for Payment and Delivery. Once the purchase decision has been made, the terminal user presses “Order This,” along with the product identification number, price, quantity, size, color and other specifications as appropriate. When prompted for payment, the user enters his or her credit card number and expiration date. The service platform verifies the information to insure the card number is valid. When the user places an order, the service platform retrieves basic user information from the financial institution's computer, such as name, address and telephone number, for billing and shipping purposes. The user confirms the order and shipping/billing information as prompted on the screen display and the order is placed. Most merchandise orders are sent instantaneously via electronic data interchange to the appropriate participating vendor that ships the order in accordance with instructions provided by the user through the terminal interface. (4) Exit Shopping Service. Upon completion of the catalog shopping transaction, the terminal user touches “DONE” on the screen and the platform terminates the catalog shopping activities. Then the user is returned to the main services menu display. At any time while shopping through the terminal, the user can choose to speak to a customer service representative of the catalog service provider by touching the appropriate screen button. This disengages the on-screen shopping session and automatically dials the catalog vendor's service department. The user can then inquire about the status of an order, check on the availability of items or receive assistance in locating an item. Catalog shopping requires the same access to the service platform established with bill paying or banking services. V. TRAVEL FIG. 16 is a general flow chart of the travel service operations of the present invention. Airline reservations and other travel services are available through the present interface. The service platform provides a link between the terminal user and an airline reservation system. The participating service provider travel agency handles ticket fulfillment and customer service. Users can make domestic airline reservations directly, without contacting a customer service representative or travel agent, thus the result will be increased consumer control and convenience. To arrange a flight, the user: (1) selects the displayed menu button to access “Travel” services; (2) enters the city of departure using the display relating thereto; 3) enters the destination; and 4) enters the desired date and time of departure or arrival. The interface will ask questions necessary to clarify any ambiguities. For example, if the user enters “Columbus,” the screen will ask “Columbus, Ohio or Columbus, Ga.?” The user will provide the same information regarding the return trip. The service platform uses this information to access an airline reservation data base which contains domestic flight information. The service platform gathers information on all available flights which meet the user's specifications, and the present interface displays them on the user's terminal screen. A user can establish a travel profile through the present interface that includes basic information such as seating preference and frequent flyer account numbers. This enhances convenience by allowing the user to bypass routine booking information. The interface also prompts the user regarding the need for hotel or car rental reservations for the trip. These arrangements can be made by touching an appropriate screen button. Cruise and package vacations also can be booked by connecting directly to the service provider's travel consultants. Once the user has made final choices, the interface to the reservation system books the reservation and queues the ticket to the service provider travel agency, who mails or delivers the tickets to the user. VI. FLOWERS AND GIFTS The present interface may provide the user with the ability to send flowers and other items to designated recipients, along with standard or original messages. Displays are provided for entering the name and location of the recipient. Additional displays are provided for selecting the desired type and quantity of flower or other gift. Pricing and availability, and shipping information are also provided by the present interface. Order review, order confirmation, billing information, credit card information appear in sequential fashion. The present invention may also be used in conjunction with commercial applications that include services for businesses. These services may include general banking services such as bill paying, an “electronic checkbook,” payroll applications, credit and loan-related services, investment services, tax services, information services such as credit bureau information, reference services, and a community calendar. Entertainment services can be provided which enable the terminal user to order a wide range of items such as event tickets, flowers, and make restaurant and hotel reservations. Having described the invention in detail, those skilled in the art will appreciate that, given the present disclosure, modifications may be made to the invention without departing from the spirit of the inventive concept herein described. Therefore, it is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the specific and preferred embodiments illustrated and described. Rather, it is intended that the scope of the invention be determined by the appended claims.

In a communications network for accessing an account, conducting a transaction, obtaining services or obtaining information from a remote location, a programmable user interface is adapted to provide a multiplicity of separate choices perceptible to a user on a user operable terminal. The terminal is capable of registering for transmission to a service platform, a user's input to the terminal corresponding to at least one choice from the multiplicity, including banking, bill paying, shopping, travel, flowers and gifts and information. The user interface includes means for communicating the user selected choice to a service platform, means for communicating by voice, TDD or data transmission through the service platform, and means in the terminal for permitting the user to communicate directly by at least one of an interactive voice, TDD or data transmission communication with respect to a provider in the user's selection from the multiplicity.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device and method for the gripping and or handling of tubular members. These tubular members vary widely in size, shape, thickness, function, orientation while in service, and industries served. They can be pipes, steel structures, columns, tubing, casing, culverts, pilings, caissons, pipelines, etc. A non-inclusive list of uses for the present invention includes: 1) A first use is in the construction of oil and gas wells where it is usually necessary to drill and line the well bore with a string of steel pipes commonly known as tubulars, casing, tubing, or generically as oil country tubular goods (“OCTG”). 2) A second use is in the abandonment or decommissioning of oil and gas wells where it is usually necessary to remove the steel pipes commonly known as tubulars, casing, tubing, or generically as oil country tubular goods (“OCTG”), steel structures, pilings, caissons and or pipelines 3) A third use is in anchoring connector systems for offshore drilling establishments. In deepwater drilling activities the use of floating drilling rigs is necessary. These drilling rigs may be in the form of semi-submersibles, spars, drill ships, etc. These drilling rigs must be anchored or tethered to the sea floor to remain in position. To accomplish this, suction anchors are deployed and placed onto the sea floor. Large ropes or chains must then be attached from the drilling rig to these anchors. Anchoring connectors are used to connect the ropes or chains to the anchors via ROV's. These anchoring connectors are far easier to attach in deep water or extreme depth conditions using large shackles or the like. 4) A fourth use is in the recovery of damaged or abandoned pipelines from the sea floor. These connectors provide a means to grip the pipeline while being manipulated by a ROY. 5) A fifth use is in the placement of columns for wind energy turbines. 6) A sixth use is in the erection of structures fabricated from tubular members such as offshore platforms, water towers, etc. While not limiting in any way the intended use of the present invention, for purposes of description the use of the present invention as it relates to a device and method for facilitating the connection of tubulars used in the oil and gas exploration and extraction industries using a top drive will be presented to illustrate the elements of the present invention. More specifically, the invention will be described as it relates to a device and method for running tubulars into and or out of a well bore. In the construction of oil or gas wells it is usually necessary to drill and line the well bore with a string of steel pipes commonly known as tubulars, casing, tubing, or generically as oil country tubular goods (“OCTG”). For purposes of this application, such steel pipes shall hereinafter be referred to as “tubular OCTG”. Because of the length of the tubular OCTG required, individual sections of tubular OCTG (tubular members) are typically progressively added to the string (tubular string) as it is lowered into or lifted out of a well from a drilling rig or platform. The section to be added or removed is restrained from falling into the well by some tubular engagement means, typically a spider or the like, and is lowered into the well to position the threaded pin of the tubular OCTG section adjacent the threaded box of the tubular OCTG in the well bore. The sections are then joined by relative rotation of the sections and the process repeated until such time as the desired total length has been achieved. It is common practice to use a power tong to torque each connection to a predetermined torque in order to connect the sections of tubular OCTG. This traditional method and equipment types have been used extensively around the world for a period in excess of fifty years. While this method is in daily use it normally requires a large team of specialist personnel along with a plethora of equipment to successfully undertake this task. It is also a very dangerous task with personnel often having to be located on a small platform suspended up to 50 feet from the rotary table or drilling rig floor and the power tong tethered to a steel cable under high loads. In more recent times, a top drive may be used; this is, a top drive rotational system used for drilling purposes. Where a top drive system is used to make up the connection, the use of a slip type elevator to restrain the section of tubular OCTG to be added may be problematic, due to the configuration of the top drive apparatus on the drilling platform. It is therefore known to make use of an apparatus connected to the top drive, which can be inserted into the interior of or around the exterior of a section of tubular OCTG to be added, and engaged therewith to hold the section in place. Such apparatus may comprise one or more toothed grapple/dies, which may be hydraulically operated to engage an inner or outer surface of the tubular OCTG. While this is an advancement over the traditional approach as it requires substantially less equipment, it does however have serious drawbacks in the form of potential damage it may cause to the outer or inner surface of the tubular OCTG. These grapple/dies also tend to be very sensitive to varying changes in tubular weight and diameters and therefore require a large resource of alternative sizes for each tubular OCTG size or weight to be run. Secondly, as the grapple/dies tend to bite aggressively into the tubular OCTG and take no account of alignment issues it is possible to load one side of the grapple/dies while running the tubular OCTG into the well bore. The possibility of loading one side of the tubular OCTG can present serious consequences for the integrity of the tubular OCTG and its ability to withstand down-hole pressures in the borehole. This in turn may also result in premature failure of the grapple/dies or impede their ability to act correctly on the tubular OCTG. Thirdly, as the grapple/dies tend to be suspended on the outside of the member for internal gripping tools with no means of constraint they can become a huge safety issue if the rotational drive is engaged whilst the probe is not inside the tubular OCTG. The centrifugal forces cause the grapple/dies to separate from the tool member, causing them to become entangled in the steel framework of the rig and potentially becoming dangerous objects falling from the derrick structure. Fourthly, traditional methods of tool design permits the slip assemblies, bodies or inserts to potentially friction bond or become adhered to each other under heavy load conditions. This factor is due to the static frictional forces increasing; thereby displacing the lubricants between the sliding member surfaces. If these slip assemblies, bodies or inserts become frictionally adhered, this can cause serious problems, especially in a well control situation. It can cause the tubular OCTG or the slip assemblies, bodies or inserts to require to be mechanically separated by means of a cutting torch or other means. Lastly in more recent designs the grapple/dies portion has been replaced by the adoption of ball and taper or rolling element and taper technology originally designed for anchor handling applications where a static or dynamic axial load is applied. In order to better understand the terminology and advantages of the present invention the definitions of a ball and rolling support are: Ball—shape in which all surfaces are equidistant from its centroid with no limitation of rotation in any given plane or direction Rolling Support—shape in which all surfaces are not equidistant from its centroid but with constraints can function as a rolling support in one plane or direction. The surfaces can be multi-faceted and or can be geometrically altered to fit a given profile with the ability to bear, hold, or support a load, mass, structure or part thereof In mooring applications for offshore floating structures chain is widely used, usually as part of a system combining chain and rope, be it fiber or wire. Multiple connectors and chain are favored for mooring systems for several reasons: It is rugged and less prone to damage than wire or fiber rope when used with topsides, catenary, or seabed equipment. It is also easy to handle and requires only standard topsides tensioning equipment It is less prone to corrosion than wire rope Chain weight per unit length is higher than wire rope for a given strength. So chain can be used mid-line as a clump weight to alter the catenary shape or as a ground line so that a smaller anchoring system can be used. While this method of multiple connectors or anchor stations has been successful in mooring connectors where a failure of one connector will most likely not have a serious impact on the other connectors and repairs can be expedited. Design safety factors for mooring connectors and or mooring chains are substantially lower than the International Standard ISO 13535 for Petroleum and natural gas industries—Drilling and production equipment—Hoisting equipment. When it comes to handling tubulars OCTG's where a single connector is used the failure of this single connector has the potential for catastrophic consequences. A first disadvantage of previous attempts is in the design of the member containing the inclined or tapered ramps which include areas of deeper than necessary pockets as well as sharp corners. These pockets are used for assembly purposes in some previous attempts and for locating spring biasing devices in others. These pockets decrease the minimum cross sectional area. The minimum cross sectional area of the member containing the inclined ramps is a critical factor in determining the Safe Working Load rating and or capabilities for the gripping device. The International standard ISO 13535 for Petroleum and natural gas industries—Drilling and production equipment—Hoisting equipment requires that all hoisting equipment furnished under this International Standard shall be rated in accordance with a specific load rating based on the design safety factor. This is especially important for internal gripping devices where the device outside diameter is dictated by the internal diameter of the tubular OCTG to be run or pulled. Thus, the main cross sectional area of the load bearing member is vitally important and must be maximized by all means possible. The design safety factor is specified as a multiplication formula for hoisting equipment whereby the specified minimum yield strength of the materials chosen must be tested between two and a quarter (2¼) and three (3) times the safe working load, then checked for functionality, fit and fully inspected for signs of failure. Thus, it is evident that in order to comply with the Safe Working Load Rating and Design Safety Factors hoisting tools must have the cross sectional area maximized to achieve the high load carrying capacities required of them. A second disadvantage of previous attempts is that they were ineffective in providing the rotational torque capacity required for the make-up or break-out of said tubular OCTG. This is due to the self-engaging, spring biased, or gravity biased balls or rolling elements of current designs. Some embodiments of previous attempts utilize springs on individual balls or rolling elements to urge them down the inclined surface toward the shallow end causing them to protrude from the cage. This method of energizing the balls or rolling elements is ineffective in applying an adequate amount of preload force on the balls or rolling elements to create an indentation of sufficient size and depth to apply the required torque without slipping. These designs do not allow the operator the ability to hydraulically, pneumatically, or mechanically control these preload forces to create the required indentations for applying torque. A third disadvantage of this previous attempts is in the design of the openings or slots and its role in applying torque. Previous attempts cage housing openings make no attempt to aid in the application of torque. It will be shown in the accompanying drawings that the design of the cage housing openings of the invention presented here make accommodations for aiding in the transmission of torque. The cage housing openings contain large surface areas on the flat sides to contact against the sides of the rolling supports for torque transmission. This cage housing can also be splined, keyed, or otherwise affixed to the member containing the inclined surfaces to allow relative axial movement while disallowing relative rotational movement. This feature allows torque to be transmitted from the member having the inclined surfaces, through the cage and rolling supports, to the tubular. A fourth disadvantage of this previous attempts is the use of elongated slots where the length of the slot is substantially longer than the diameter of the ball or rolling element. When disengaging a gripping device utilizing these elongated slots, the cage housing must travel axially an excessive distance before the slot comes into contact with the ball or rolling element then must continue to travel axially to urge the ball or rolling elements up the inclined surface toward the deep end of the pocket and thus released position. A fifth disadvantage of these elongated slots is the large cavity created between the elongated slots and the inclined surfaces. This cavity may become filled with debris or other materials than can inhibit or prevent the function of the gripping device. A sixth disadvantage of the elongated slot design is that the slot must contain a means of retaining the ball or rolling element along the longer sides of the slot because the ball or rolling element must be allowed to travel the entire length of the slot. This is generally accomplished by having the width of the slot narrower than the diameter or width of the ball or rolling element. This aspect of the design prevents the sides or edges of a rolling element to protrude from the cage housing which limits the options for the shape of the rolling element. It is important to have the ability to change or modify the shape of the rolling elements to accommodate varying applications. The shape of the rolling element can also limit the range of outer or inner surface diameters which can be gripped with a given gripping device configuration. A seventh disadvantage of the elongated slots is amount of material that is removed from the cage housing diminishing the structural integrity of the cage housing. Tools and equipment manufactured for service on a drilling rig must be very robust as they operate in extreme conditions. Transporting tools to or from a drilling rig, loading, and unloading of these tools, especially on an offshore location, as well as handling of these tools can create damages. Thus tool designs must account for these conditions of service. A eighth disadvantage of previous attempts is the means of disengaging or releasing an internal gripping device during entry into a tubular whereby frictional forces acting upon the outer surface of the cage housing imposed from the internal surface of the tubular act to urge the cage housing in a direction such that the rolling elements move toward the deep end of the inclined surfaces, thus released position. This previous attempts design requires these frictional forces to function properly. This “dragging” of the cage housing produces wear on the cage housing as well as the internal surface of the tubular. This dragging can also cause damage to the internal tubular threads. Again, it will be evident from the accompanying drawings and descriptions that the present invention is superior in that it provides a hydraulic, pneumatic, or mechanical means of retracting or releasing the gripping device prior to entering a tubular. It is also a feature of this invention that the rolling supports are not allowed to fully retract into the cage housing. In a fully retracted position, the rolling supports remain partially protruded from the cage housing. This allows the rolling supports to act as rolling bearings between the cage housing and tubular surface aiding in the entering and or exiting of a tubular. A ninth disadvantage of previous attempts is in the design of the member containing the inclined or tapered ramps which include areas of deeper than necessary pockets as well as sharp corners. It is known that sharp edges or corners should be eliminated where possible to remove stress concentration areas as well as areas increasing the potential for cracking. These sharp corners also create areas prone to corrosion and or rusting. A tenth disadvantage of previous attempts is in the use of multiple components such as small springs, plungers, inserts, biasing devices, etc which are all made unnecessary by the embodiments of the present invention. All of these components must be held in place via means such as press fitting, adhesives, threaded fasteners, etc. which all initiate the potential for failures. It is well known that as the number of parts is increased for a single mechanical device so does the odds of failure. The corresponding machining or manufacturing processes for these components is greatly complicated by the use of these components. The complexity and tight tolerances required to successfully manufacture these components substantially increases the overall cost of the gripping device. An eleventh disadvantage of previous attempts again in the use of multiple components such as small springs, plungers, inserts, biasing devices, etc is that should any of these small components become loose or free from constraint, they can potentially fall into the wellbore. This potential is very high due to the jarring and shock loads the gripping device will experience in service as well as transport. These shock loads can loosen threaded fasteners or other means of retention. Also, heat and or extreme cold can affect retention means such as adhesives, press fit and interference fit tolerances. Should any of these components become free from constraint, the elongated slots will allow these items to depart from the assembly, thereby becoming major safety hazards with the potential for serious damage to personnel or structures from flying debris. Materials or items which unintentionally fall into the wellbore create an array of very costly problems. A twelfth disadvantage of the previous attempts utilizing the aforementioned inserts which are press fit or otherwise attached to the member containing the inclined surfaces is in the non destructive testing of these components after each use in the field. It is well known in the oilfield industry that after each use, all load carrying tools must be completely disassembled, cleaned, and inspected for cracks, wear, damages, or anything else that may prevent a tool from functioning properly or possibly failing in service. Components which are press fit or adhered using adhesives are generally very difficult or impossible to remove for inspection purposes. This means that these parts will likely not be removed thereby possibly hiding a crack or damage. If a threaded fastener is used, these threads create stress risers and areas for corrosion to begin. The intention of the present invention is to offer a much improved apparatus and method of running tubular OCTG into or out of a borehole vastly improving the safety, efficiency and torque capability without the shortfalls in the tools available today. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A device and method has been invented for gripping and or handling tubular members. For purposes of clarity, the embodiment of the present invention as it relates to the handling of OCTG will be described. The inventive device is connectable to a top drive and can be used to grip the tubular OCTG from the inside or the outside. The system comprises a top drive, a tubular OCTG running assembly, elevator links, transfer elevators, tubular sealing element, and mud valve. The operator can remotely manipulate the elevator links to extend or retract the transfer elevators to pick up and position a tubular OCTG above the tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table on the drill floor. This function is normally achieved using a manually operated single joint elevator; however the present invention has incorporated a hydraulic transfer elevator complete with safety interlock thereby reducing the need to manually position or function the transfer elevator making the operation much safer and more operationally efficient. The operator can then engage a probe and activate a hydraulic or pneumatic actuator causing the inventive gripper assembly to grip the tubular OCTG, and then use the rotational capability of the top drive to remotely couple the two joints of tubular OCTG together. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tubular OCTG running assembly for running tubular OCTG into and/or out of the well bore, the assembly comprising a probe engageable within the tubular OCTG, wherein the probe comprises an inner member having an outer surface with a plurality of ramped or inclined surfaces and an outer cage surrounding the inner member having a plurality of openings to captively constrain rolling supports with or without a central spindle. The openings of the outer member are aligned with the ramped or inclined surfaces of the inner member and are axially movable to cause the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to climb and descend the ramped or inclined surfaces thus, respectively to retract within and protrude from said openings and, when protruding, to bear upon the inner surface of the tubular OCTG to lock the probe and receiving tubular OCTG in engagement. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tubular OCTG running assembly for running tubular OCTG into and/or out of the well bore, the assembly comprising a housing assembly engageable with the external surface of the tubular OCTG, wherein the housing assembly comprises an outer member having an inner surface with a plurality of ramped or inclined surfaces and a cage within the outer member having a plurality of openings to captively constrain the rolling supports with or without a central spindle. The openings of the inner member are aligned with the ramped or inclined surfaces of the outer member and are axially movable to cause the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to climb and descend the ramped or inclined surfaces thus, respectively to protrude from and retract within said openings and, when protruding, to bear upon the outer surface of the tubular OCTG to lock the probe and receiving tubular OCTG in engagement. The probe or external latching assembly farther comprises a hydraulic, pneumatic or mechanical actuator having a sleeve that is in connectable engagement with the cage housing (member with the openings), and when activated, will cause the cage housing to travel axially relative to the movement of the member with the ramped or inclined surfaces, thus providing a means of controlling the placement of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle relative to the ramped or inclined surfaces, therein locking or unlocking the probe or external latching assembly in place prior to applying a rotational force, lifting action or lowering action or both upon the tubular OCTG. The contact forces between the rolling supports with or without a central spindle and the surface of the tubular OCTG can be controlled such that necessary indentations are produced on the tubular OCTG to provide for the required torque value. The surface of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle can be hemispherical or can be of any other surface profile such as nodular, sinusoidal, waveform, etc. The surface finish or texture can be smooth, coated with a grit type material, toothed such as conventional inserts (could possibly look like a carbide burr), or a combination of these. The hemisphere profiles could be shaped so that they extend beyond the cage housing more than the hemispheric diameter as is with current ball and taper technology which is extremely limited. They can extend out any desired distance allowing the tool to work for a larger range of sizes and or weights. One major advantage of this method of engagement of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle against the tubular OCTG is that this method provides for maximum displacement of load without causing damage to the inner surface of the tubular OCTG. Damage to or scarring of the inner or outer face of the tubular OCTG can cause premature failure of the tubular OCTG resulting in the requirement to undertake expensive remediation work on the well bore. Standard dies, grapple/dies, inserts, etc. tend to scar the tubulars in both longitudinal and circumferential directions, placing stress concentration areas as well as crevices for corrosion to take place. The advantage of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle engagement mechanism is that they produce smooth indentations which do not create areas of increased corrosion or stress concentrations. The areas of indentation are actually work hardened thus they are mechanically stronger than the remaining tubular material. Thus, this means of engagement enhances the mechanical properties of the tubular rather than degrading the mechanical properties. According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a remotely operated elevator assembly for facilitating the transfer of a tubular OCTG from the V-door of a drilling rig to the vertical position and thereby allowing the tubular OCTG to be stabbed into a similar tubular OCTG located in the slip assembly located in or on the drill floor for the running or pulling of tubular OCTG into and/or out of the well bore. The elevator assembly comprises a set of telescoping transfer elevator links attached to the tubular running assembly of the present invention connected to the top drive system or drilling hook on a non-top-drive fitted rig, whereby the telescoping transfer elevator links can be extended to facilitate engagement of the tubular OCTG at the V-door and then retracted to bring the tubular OCTG into a position to be raised to a position ready for stabbing of the tubular OCTG into a similar tubular OCTG located in the slip assembly located in or on the drill floor. The elevator assembly may also have an elevator link tilt assembly comprising two or more hydraulic actuators, wherein the link tilt assembly is coupled to the telescoping transfer elevator links such that the extension or retraction of the hydraulic actuators can pivot the telescoping transfer elevator links about a point located on a horizontal axis; providing a secondary means of positioning the transfer elevators to facilitate transfer of the tubular OCTG into the stabbing position for make-up. The tubular running assembly may further be provided with a positive locking means to maintain the rolling supports with or without a central spindle in engagement with a tubular OCTG should the make-up assembly otherwise fail. The positive locking means may be provided in conjunction with axially angled faces, and/or in conjunction with circumferentially angled faces. The positive locking means may comprise, for example, a spring or hydraulic safety interlock system. In addition to gripping, rotating, anchoring, lifting and lower the tubular OCTG, another function of the tubular running assembly is to transmit the circulation of drilling fluid or mud through the tubular OCTG. In order to pump drilling fluids or mud, a seal must be established between the tubular OCTG and the tubular running assembly of the present invention. In use, the tubular running assembly will be connected to a top drive via a threaded connection at its upper end, or to a non-top-drive rig via a pup joint latched into an elevator. Both systems have available a means of connecting to a circulating system that will permit the tubular being handled to be filled or circulated at any time during the running operation. In preferred embodiments, the members of the tubular running assembly are equipped with a through bore to permit tubular fill-up and circulation to take place at any time. There may also be provided a packer cup with a sealing element, preferably comprising an elastomeric element or layer over a steel body. The sealing element of the packer cup is self energizing or pressure activated through a port or chamber located in the inner mandrel, which forces the sealing element against the walls of the tubular OCTG, thereby forming a seal to allow mud or drilling fluid to be pumped through the tubular OCTG assembly. The present invention further comprises a wireless communication control system that is able to manipulate the telescoping transfer elevator links, link tilts, and other elements of all aspects of the present invention. The control system of the present invention is able to open and close the transfer elevators, retract and extend the telescoping transfer elevator links, the secondary link tilt, control and measure the application of torque and turns and may also stop the rotation of the make-up assembly of the present invention at a pre-determined torque point utilizing either a wireless communication safety system or a system of hydraulic or pneumatic control line umbilicals. The wireless communication safety control system can also be used in other applications to measure and control torque, applied loads such as string weight and/or have the ability to dump torque or applied load at a predetermined point. The wireless communication safety system may also be coupled conventionally using a series of cables should the use of wireless communication be restricted. The safety control system is also able to set and unset the hydraulic actuator used to hydraulically manipulate the cage housing of the tubular engagement apparatus causing the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to contact the tubular OCTG to facilitate handling and make-up or breakout of the tubular OCTG threaded connection. The safety control system is also able to monitor feedback loops that include sensors or monitors on the elements of the present invention. For example, sensors of the safety control system of the present invention monitor the open and close status of the transfer elevator, the status of the hydraulic, pneumatic and or mechanical actuator and thereby the position of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle. The safety control system is design rated and or certified for use in a hazardous working environment. Communication with the processor of the safety control system can be accomplished through a wireless communications link. The tubular running assembly may further comprise a lower member with a ramp or inclined surface guide shoe or a bull-nose centralizer with a ramp or inclined surface high density urethane, polymer coated, or composite section sized to suit the tubular OCTG being run, to facilitate easy stabbing of the apparatus into the tubular OCTG, attached to the bottom of the inner member to further protect the thread and sealing areas of the tubular OCTG to be coupled together. The lower member farther comprises a valve to prevent mud discharge onto the drill floor when the mud pumps are disengaged and the apparatus is removed from the tubular OCTG. The lower member can also be fitted with singular or multiple two-way acting check valves to facilitate reverse circulation or a solid member if necessary. It is an object of this invention to provide a tubular running assembly for connection to a top drive for running individual or multiple tubular OCTG into and/or out of a well bore, and allowing the operator to make-up or breakout a tubular OCTG, wherein the tubular engagement apparatus comprises a series of inner and outer members or housings, one of which has an array of ramped surfaces while the other comprises a series of openings, with a plurality of rolling supports with or without a central spindle captively located between the inner and outer members, wherein relative axial movement of the members or cage housing acts to urge the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to protrude radially through the openings in the cage housing thus engaging the tubular OCTG. It is further intended that the gripping principal may be used for internal or external gripping. It is further intended that the rolling supports with or without a central spindle and their respective ramped or inclined surfaces may be disposed randomly about the tubular engagement apparatus or in longitudinally spaced rows where the rolling supports with or without a central spindle of each row are offset laterally with respect to those of the next succeeding row. It is a further object of this invention to provide a tubular running assembly for handling a tubular member, making up or breaking out of threaded connections between the tubular member and another tubular member or tubular string, and the handling of the tubular string into or out of a wellbore, comprising a tubular engagement apparatus connectable to the driveshaft of a top drive, power swivel, or the like, the tubular engagement apparatus having rolling supports with or without a central spindle and a ramped or inclined surface assembly and an actuator wherein the rolling supports assembly consist of inner and outer members, one member containing an array of ramped or inclined surfaces while the other member comprises a tube with a plurality of openings which retain the rolling supports with or without a central spindle; wherein relative axial movement between the inner and outer members of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle acts to urge the rolling supports with or without a central spindle up or down the ramped or inclined surfaces to radially protrude or retract rolling supports with or without a central spindle through the openings in the tube member, thus engaging or disengaging the tubular member; wherein the tubular engagement apparatus is energized and de-energized by powered mechanical means provided by the hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical or the like actuator, whereby the rolling supports with or without a central spindle are forced up or down the ramped or inclined surfaces of the drive member thereby causing the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to come into contact with or retract from the surface of the tubular member; and wherein rotation of the driveshaft of a top drive, power swivel, or the like produces a corresponding rotation in the tubular member or tubular string via engagement of the rolling supports, whereby there is minimal relative rotation between the tubular engagement assembly and the tubular member or tubular string. The inventive tubular running assembly may also be connected to a power swivel or suspended under a traditional Kelly in the event that the drilling rig does not have a top drive installed and/or on a hydraulic work-over rig or snubbing unit. In the latter application the power swivel may be installed into a hydraulic or pneumatically controlled frame to lift and lower the power swivel and tubular running assembly of the present invention into and out of the tubular OCTG and thereby the well bore. It is a further object of this invention that the tubular running assembly comprise a hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical or the like actuator, that when energized will cause the cage housing to travel axially relative to the movement of the member with the ramped or inclined surfaces thus providing a means of controlling the placement of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle relative to the member containing the ramped or inclined surfaces therein locking the probe in place prior or external latching assembly to applying a rotational force, lifting or lowering action upon the tubular OCTG. It is further intended that the tubular running assembly be provided with a through bore to allow the transmission of drilling fluids or mud for the purpose of filling or circulation of the tubular OCTG while running into the well bore and further comprise a lower packer cup on the lower member section of the make-up assembly which is self energizing or pressure activated through a port or chamber located in the inner mandrel thereby forming a seal to allow drilling fluid or mud to be pumped into the tubular OCTG and/or well bore. It is an object of this invention that the tubular running assembly further comprise an elevator assembly with elevator links and transfer elevators which can be remotely manipulated to extend or retract the transfer elevators to pick up and position a tubular OCTG above the tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table on the drill floor wherein the operator can then engage the make-up assembly to energize the rolling supports and use the rotational capability of the top drive to remotely couple the two tubular OCTG together. It is a further object of this invention that the elevator assembly comprise a set of links used to position the tubular OCTG from a mostly horizontal position to the vertical position wherein said links each contain a single and or multi stage hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder contained within the body of the links or mounted externally allowing the operator to extend the links into the correct position to accept the tubular OCTG in the transfer or lifting elevators. It is a further object of this invention that the hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders may be coupled to a weight compensation control system whereby the activation of the weight compensation system will provide for the tubular OCTG to be lowered in a controlled fashion into the tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table on the drill floor and utilizing the weight compensation system will effectively give the tubular OCTG zero weight in gravity and protect the threads of the tubular OCTG during stabbing operations, for make-up or breakout operations. It is a further object of this invention that the weight compensation control system can be a separate system installed above the tubular running assembly actuator and below the top drive whereby the activation of the weight compensation system will provide for the tubular OCTG to be lowered in a controlled fashion into the tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table on the drill floor and utilizing the weight compensation system will effectively give the tubular OCTG zero weight in gravity and protect the threads of the tubular OCTG during stabbing operations, for make-up or breakout operations. It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of running tubular OCTG into and/or out of a well bore, comprising the steps of: locating a tubular OCTG and extending links and transfer elevators around the tubular OCTG; latching transfer elevator around tubular OCTG; moving a top drive with a tubular running assembly in an upward movement causing the captured or retained tubular OCTG into a vertical position above a tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table on the drill floor; activation of the weight compensation system to lower the tubular OCTG in a controlled fashion into the aforementioned tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table; engage the threads of the upper tubular OCTG in the threads of the tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table on the drill floor; activate the hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical or the like actuator, into the release position producing relative movement of the members causing the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to retract radially through openings in the tube; lowering the tubular running assembly onto or into the tubular OCTG; activate the hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical or the like actuator into the latch position producing relative movement of the members causing the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to protrude radially through openings in the tube; once the rolling supports with or without a central spindle are engaged on the inner or outer wall of the tubular OCTG, rotate the top drive mechanism to cause the upper tubular OCTG threads to engage correctly with the mating threads of the tubular OCTG already secured in the rotary table on the drill floor and thereby connecting both tubular OCTG into one continuous member; lifting the tubular OCTG members in an upward direction by the tubular running assembly connected to the top drive while unsetting the slip mechanism of the retaining device in the rotary table to allow the joined tubular OCTG to be lowered into the well bore. By reversing the process the tubular OCTG members can be removed from a well bore if desired. It is further intended that the surface of rolling supports with or without a central spindle may be: smooth, smooth and hardened, coated with a grit type material, toothed such as conventional inserts and dies, toothed and grit coated, or a multitude or combination thereof. The rolling supports with or without a central spindle block surface may be of any shape or profile including: smooth, curved, flat, hemispherical, nodular, lumpy, sinusoidal, waveform, etc., and any combination thereof. The hemispheres or other surface profiles on the rolling supports with or without a central spindle can either be smooth, coated with a grit type material, can include some type of tooth profile such as conventional dies, or any combination thereof. The hemispherical profiles of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle can be shaped so that they extend beyond the tube member more than is possible with current ball and taper technology. They can extend out any desired distance, thereby allowing the tool to work for a larger range of sizes and or weights. The backing surfaces and cage provide far more contact surface area between the rolling supports with or without a central spindle backing surface and member ramped or inclined surface ramp than balls. The rolling supports with or without a central spindle also provide more surface area on their edges for the application of torque than do balls. Again, balls create a point loading on the sides of the ramped or inclined surface slots on the member with the potential for indentation. The rolling supports with or without a central spindle greatly reduce this potential for member damage. The surfaces of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle and or the sliding mating surface of the member can be coated with a friction reduction material, plating or process such as Teflon, Xylan, plain bearing or self lubricating materials such as an acetal filled bronze, chrome plating, hard chrome plating, electroless nickel, etc. The rolling supports are constrained within a housing, such that they cannot be removed without complete disassembly of the tool. This becomes important should the assembly be rotated in free space (such as above a rig floor in the derrick), the rolling supports with or without a central spindle cannot become projectiles. The rolling supports with or without a central spindle technology including the hemispherical or nodular surface features may also be used as inserts, dies or grapple/dies for other tubular running or gripping tools such as tongs, spiders, elevators, hand-slips safety clamps, fishing tools, sub surface tools, whipstocks or packer type assemblies etc. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other aspects of the present invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 shows an axially sectioned view of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle and inclined surface assembly for gripping the internal surface of a tubular OCTG. FIG. 2 shows an axially sectioned view of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle and inclined surface assembly for gripping the external surface of a tubular OCTG. FIG. 3 is a side view of an elongated slot of the cage housing of previous attempts. FIG. 4 is a side view of an inclined ramp of previous attempts. FIG. 5 is a sectioned view of FIG. 4 through A-A. FIG. 6 shows an axially sectioned view of a rolling supports with or without a central spindle and inclined surface assembly according to the invention for gripping the internal surface of a tubular OCTG displaying the inclined surface profile used to urge the rolling supports with or without a central spindle against the inner wall of a tubular OCTG. FIG. 7 is a front elevation view of one embodiment of a rolling supports with or without a central spindle and inclined surfaces assembly for gripping the internal surface of a tubular OCTG. FIG. 8 is a sectioned view of one embodiment of a rolling support partially protruded from the cage housing. FIG. 9 is a side view of one embodiment of a cage housing with a rolling support mounted within an opening. FIG. 10 is a sectioned view of one embodiment of a cage housing with the rolling support removed for clarity. FIG. 11 is a sectioned view of a second embodiment of a rolling support partially protruded from the cage housing. FIG. 12 is a side view of a second embodiment of a cage housing with a rolling support mounted within an opening. FIG. 13 is a sectioned view of a second embodiment of a cage housing with the rolling support removed for clarity. FIG. 14 is a side view of one embodiment of an inclined surface. FIG. 15 is a sectioned view of FIG. 14 through B-B. FIG. 16 is a front elevation view of one embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 17 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 16 with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 18 is a front elevation view of one embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 19 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 18 with no spindle. FIG. 20 is a front elevation view of a second embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 21 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 20 with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 22 is a front elevation view of a second embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 23 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 22 with no spindle. FIG. 24 is a front elevation view of a third embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 25 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 24 with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 26 is a front elevation view of a third embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 27 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 26 with no spindle. FIG. 28 is a front elevation view of a fourth embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle through its central axis FIG. 29 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 28 with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 30 is a front elevation view of a fourth embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 31 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 30 with no spindle. FIG. 32 is a front elevation view of a fifth embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 33 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 32 with a spindle through its central axis. FIG. 34 is a front elevation view of a fifth embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 35 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 34 with no spindle. FIG. 36 is a front elevation view of a sixth embodiment of a rolling support with nodules on its outermost surface. FIG. 37 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 36 with nodules on its outermost surface. FIG. 38 is a front elevation view of a seventh embodiment of a rolling on its outermost surface with several rows of nodules on outermost surface. FIG. 39 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 38 with nodules on its outermost surface. FIG. 40 is a front elevation view of an eighth embodiment of a rolling support with several rows of dimples or divots on its outermost surface. FIG. 41 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 40 with dimples or divots. FIG. 42 is a front elevation view of a rolling support illustrating the aspect ratio which is defined by the width (W)/height (H). FIG. 43 shows an elevation view of a tubular engagement apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention with rolling supports with or without a central spindle and their respective openings mounted in circumferential and longitudinal rows thereon. FIG. 44 shows an elevation view of a tubular engagement apparatus in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention with a plurality of rolling supports with or without a central spindle and their respective openings mounted randomly thereon. FIG. 45 shows an elevation view of a tubular engagement apparatus in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention with a plurality of rolling supports with or without a central spindle and their respective openings mounted diagonally thereon. FIG. 46 shows an elevation view of a tubular engagement apparatus in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention with a plurality of rolling supports with or without a central spindle and their respective openings mounted in longitudinal rows whereby every other row is staggered either up or down thereon. FIG. 47 shows a pictorial view of a top drive assembly defining how the tubular running assembly and elevator assembly of the present invention may be installed. It should be noted that manufacturers of top drive systems are many and each may have their own technical differences in configuration of moving parts. However, it is generally found that they are all capable of executing the same tasks of providing a means for connection to a drilling string or cross-over sub, providing a means to lift and or lower the OCTG tubular or string, providing a means for rotation in both forward and reverse directions, and the ability to apply torque in varying degrees of power. FIG. 48 shows an axial view of a tubular running assembly in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 installed inside a tubular joint OCTG. FIG. 49 shows a sectional view through the elevator links of the elevator assembly in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention showing the multi-stage hydraulic ram installed inside the link along with the adjustment holes used to further extend the length of the links for varying rig applications. FIG. 50 shows an elevation view of the tubular running assembly and elevator assembly in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention showing how it would be rigged up for connection to a top-drive assembly. FIG. 51 shows an elevation view of a tubular running assembly in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention showing how it would be rigged up to a power swivel and hydraulic or pneumatically controlled torque frame. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In FIGS. 1-2 and 6 through 51 is shown a series of embodiments of a tubular engagement apparatus comprising a first member having a plurality of ramped or inclined surfaces, a second member(s) having a plurality of openings, and a plurality of rolling supports with or without a central spindle mounted upon and aligned with the inclined surfaces of the first member. These rolling supports are constrained by the second member(s) while allowing the rolling supports to travel up or down the ramped or inclined surfaces. This tubular engagement apparatus can be configured to grip the interior or exterior surface of a tubular as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 respectively. The tubular engagement apparatus configured to grip the interior of a tubular comprises an inner tubular member 7 shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 having a plurality of ramped or inclined surfaces 8 spaced apart thereon, a second elongate outer cage member 3 superimposed with respect to the ramped surfaces 8 of the inner member 7 , a plurality of rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 captively retained within openings 4 of the cage 3 so as to reside respectively on the ramped surfaces 8 of the inner member 7 . Energizing a hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical or like actuator 2 will cause relative movement of the outer cage 3 with respect to the inner member 7 to cause the rolling supports with or without a central spindle to ascend or descend the ramped or inclined surface 8 of the inner member 7 thereby protruding from or retracting within openings 4 . These openings can be arranged in various styles about or around the outer cage 3 . As the rolling members 9 protrude from the openings 4 , they come into contact with the interior surface of tubular 10 . Sufficient force is applied to the outer cage 3 via the actuator 2 to urge the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 down the ramped or inclined surfaces 8 of inner member 7 causing contact with the interior surface of the tubular. The contact forces between the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 and the interior surface of the tubular are sufficient to create an indentation. The size of this indentation can be calculated and carefully controlled by means of controlling the forces generated by the actuator 2 . The size of this indentation and thus the necessary output forces of the actuator 2 are predetermined to provide the torque capability necessary to make up or break out a tubular connection with the proper torque values. Once the indentations are created, a rotational movement can be applied by the top drive to connect a tubular to its respective partner located in the rotary table. In addition the inner member 7 has a through bore 20 shown in FIG. 6 formed through its longitudinal axis for the purpose of allowing conveyance of drilling fluids or mud. The inner member 7 may be of circular cross section having the outer cage 3 concentrically disposed around it. The inner member 7 and the cage 3 may be arranged for longitudinal movement one with respect to the other. The inner member 7 and the outer cage 3 may be splined or keyed to one another thereby allowing longitudinal relative movement but disallowing rotational movement there between. The cage may be an outer cage 3 having an array of openings 4 , through which the respective rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 may partially protrude. The cage is substantially a tube, but may also be split into two or more parts or may be manufactured in more than one component, plate, etc. for assembly purposes. The tubular engagement apparatus can also be configured to grip the exterior surface of a tubular. This exterior tubular engagement apparatus operates just as the aforementioned internal tubular engagement apparatus but is configured such that the cage member and the inclined surfaces are on the interior of the tubular engagement apparatus. An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings numbered as FIG. 1 through to 51 . FIG. 1 is a sectioned view illustrating the relationship and orientation of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 , the inner member 7 , cage housing 3 , internal bore 20 , ramped or inclined surfaces 8 , and nose cone 6 for an internal gripping tubular engagement apparatus. FIG. 2 is a sectioned view illustrating the relationship and orientation of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 , outer member 17 , cage housing 3 , internal bore 20 , and inclined ramps 8 for an external gripping tubular engagement apparatus. FIG. 3 is a side view of an elongated slot 50 of the cage housing of previous attempts such that the length 55 is greater than the width 54 . The length 55 is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cage housing. The rolling element 52 is allowed to travel the full length of the slot 50 while being retained between the cage housing and the member containing the inclined ramps 59 . The width 54 is at least about or greater than the diameter of the rolling member 52 . FIG. 4 is a side view of an inclined ramp 58 of previous attempts illustrating the deepened portion 56 of the member containing the inclined surfaces 59 . Also illustrated is the insert 57 containing the inclined ramp which is affixed to member 59 via press fit, interference fit, adhesive, threaded fasteners, etc. FIG. 5 is a sectioned view of FIG. 4 through A-A illustrating the insert 57 containing the inclined ramp 58 . Also shown are the square corners 61 created by the deepened portion 56 . FIG. 6 is a detailed close-up sectioned view of an internal gripping tubular engagement apparatus showing the ramped surfaces 8 of the inner member 7 that the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 ascend and descend. The view also shows the openings 4 through which the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 can partially protrude through and engage the inner surface of a tubular. Also shown are the smooth generous radii 71 and 72 . These radii maximize the cross sectional area of the load carrying member 7 . Bore 20 permits fluid transmission through the gripping device. FIG. 7 is an elevation view of FIG. 6 showing the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 protruding through openings 4 in cage housing 3 . The rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 are retracted until their outermost surfaces only partially protrude from outer surface of cage housing 3 prior to entering a tubular. This very slight protrusion allows the rolling supports 9 to act as bearings as the gripping device is entering or exiting a tubular. It can be seen that the openings 4 closely match the profile of rolling supports 9 . This minimizes the potential for debris entering the assembly. It can also be seen from FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 that the rolling supports 9 can only roll up or down the inclined surfaces 8 in one direction, thus are restricted from rotating in a transverse direction relative to the central axis of the gripping device. This restriction from rotation aids in the transmission or torque from the gripping device to the tubular. FIG. 8 is a sectioned view of one embodiment of a rolling support without a central spindle 9 partially protruded from an opening 4 in the cage housing 3 . The rolling support 9 is retained within the assembly via shoulders 68 . The rolling support 9 is only allowed to move radially relative to cage housing 3 . This makes the movement of the rolling support 9 very responsive to movement of the cage housing 3 . FIG. 9 is a side view of one embodiment of the cage housing 3 of FIG. 8 with a rolling support without a central spindle 9 mounted within an opening 4 . The opening 4 has substantially flat sides 67 and substantially curved ends 75 . The flat sides 67 are aligned with the longitudinal axis of cage housing 3 . The sides 66 of the rolling support without central spindles 9 are allowed to protrude through opening 4 and are close in proximity to the sides of the opening 67 . The curved portion 65 of the rolling support 9 constrains the rolling support within the assembly via shoulders 68 . FIG. 10 is a sectioned view of one embodiment of an opening 4 in the cage housing 3 with the rolling support removed for clarity. The rolling support without a central spindle 9 is retained within the assembly via features 68 . The flat 67 of opening 4 provides a large surface area for torque transmission. The contact between the flat surface 67 of the cage housing 3 and the flat surface 66 of the rolling support 9 prevents the rolling support from rotating within the pocket or inclined surface 8 of member 7 . This aids in the transmission of torque to the tubular. FIG. 11 is a sectioned view of a second embodiment of a rolling support 9 with a central spindle 34 partially protruded from an opening 4 in the cage housing 3 . The rolling support 9 is retained within the assembly via spindle 34 . The rolling support 9 is only allowed to move radially relative to cage housing 3 . This makes the movement of the rolling support 9 very responsive to movement of the cage housing 3 . FIG. 12 is a side view of a second embodiment of the cage housing 3 of FIG. 11 with a rolling support with a central spindle 9 mounted within an opening 4 . The opening 4 has substantially flat sides 67 and substantially curved ends 75 . The flat sides 67 are aligned with the longitudinal axis of cage housing 3 . The sides 66 of the rolling support with central spindles 9 are allowed to protrude through opening 4 and are close in proximity to the sides of the opening 67 . Undercut feature 69 of the cage housing 3 retains rolling support with central spindles 9 within the assembly via spindle 34 . FIG. 13 is a sectioned view of a second embodiment of an opening 4 in the cage housing 3 with the rolling support 9 removed for clarity. The rolling support with a central spindle 9 is retained within the assembly via feature 69 . The flat 67 of opening 4 provides a large surface area for torque transmission. The contact between the flat surface 67 of the cage housing 3 and the flat surface 66 of the rolling support 9 prevents the rolling support from rotating within the pocket or inclined surface 8 of member 7 . This aids in the transmission of torque to the tubular. FIG. 14 is a side view of one embodiment of an inclined surface 8 with a radius 72 on the bottom surface and a radius 70 along the sides of the incline which may or may not be the same as radius 72 . There is also a radius 71 near the deep portion at the end of the incline along with another radius 76 at the corners. All of these aforementioned radii can be the same or different depending on the profile of the rolling support 9 . These radii will be the same as or similar to those of the rolling support 9 . In order to maximize the cross sectional area of the member 7 containing the inclined surfaces 8 , the radii are sized as large as the application or rolling support 9 profile will permit. This eliminates all sharp corners and edges thus greatly reducing stress concentrations and thereby increasing load carrying capacities dramatically. FIG. 15 is a sectioned view of the inclined surface 8 of member 7 through B-B again illustrating the large radii 71 and the radii 70 along the sides of the inclined surface. In one embodiment of the invention, the inclined surface would be at an angle between 5 degrees and 19 degrees relative to the central axis. In another embodiment of the invention, the inclined surface would be at an angle between 6 degrees and 13 degrees relative to the central axis. In yet another embodiment of the invention, the inclined surface would be at an angle between 9 degrees and 11 degrees relative to the central axis. FIG. 16 is a front elevation view of one embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle 34 through its central axis and curved or arced profile 35 on its outermost surface. The radius of arc 35 can be varied to accommodate differing applications. This radius can match that of the tubular or can be a much smaller radius creating a sharper edge. This surface may also include tooth profiles, grooves, grit coatings or other means to increase the grip onto the tubular. It may also include multiple radii or a radius that varies or changes across the profile. The central spindle 34 is shown here as a round or rounded feature but can be substantially cylindrical or various other shapes. FIG. 17 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 16 with a spindle 34 through its central axis. FIG. 18 is a front elevation view of one embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 19 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 18 with no spindle. FIG. 20 is a front elevation view of a second embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle 36 through its central axis. FIG. 21 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 20 with a spindle 36 through its central axis. FIG. 22 is a front elevation view of a second embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 23 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 22 with no spindle. FIG. 24 is a front elevation view of a third embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle 37 through its central axis and a substantially flat surface 38 on its outermost surface. FIG. 25 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 24 with a spindle 37 through its central axis. FIG. 26 is a front elevation view of a third embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 27 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 26 with no spindle. FIG. 28 is a front elevation view of a fourth embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle 39 through its central axis and curved outermost surface 40 . FIG. 29 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 28 with a spindle 39 through its central axis. FIG. 30 is a front elevation view of a fourth embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 31 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 30 with no spindle. FIG. 32 is a front elevation view of a fifth embodiment of a rolling support with a spindle 41 through its central axis and a concave profile 42 on its outermost surface. This outer profile 42 may or may not have the same radius as the tubular to be gripped. For example, in exterior gripping applications, the profile 42 may match that of the outer diameter of the tubular. FIG. 33 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 32 with a spindle 41 through its central axis. FIG. 34 is a front elevation view of a fifth embodiment of a rolling support with no spindle. FIG. 35 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 34 with no spindle. FIG. 36 is a front elevation view of a sixth embodiment of a rolling support with nodules 43 on its outermost surface 35 . Shown is a single row of mostly spherical nodules but these can be of any shape, size, number, and orientation. These can resemble hemispheres, cubes, pyramids, cylinders, etc. These nodules can also be coated with a grit or abrasive material or can be of a rough or textured surface. FIG. 37 is a side elevation view of rolling support of FIG. 36 with nodules 43 . FIG. 38 is a front elevation view of a seventh embodiment of a rolling support with several rows of nodules 43 on outermost surface 42 . Shown are four rows of mostly spherical nodules but these can be of any shape, size, number, and orientation. FIG. 39 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 38 with nodules 43 . FIG. 40 is a front elevation view of a seventh embodiment of a rolling support with several rows of dimples or divots 44 on outermost surface 42 . Shown are four rows of mostly spherical dimples but these can be of any shape, size, number, and orientation. FIG. 41 is a side elevation view of the rolling support of FIG. 40 with dimples 44 . FIG. 42 is a front elevation view of a rolling support illustrating the aspect ratio which is defined by the width (W)/height (H). These variables can be modified to suit varying applications. The number of balls which can be physically placed around the circumference of a given diameter shaft is dependent on the width of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle. Thus, this width can be adjusted to increase or decrease the concentration of rolling supports with or without a central spindle on a shaft per unit length. The height of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle can also be adjusted to maximize the gripping range to accommodate a larger range of tubular OD's or ID's. This aspect ratio can be modified to suit regardless of the embodiment of the rolling support. This feature of the rolling supports provides enormous mechanical advantages over conventional ball and taper technology. FIG. 43 shows an internal tubular running assembly with a series of longitudinally displaced rows of openings 4 , a lower packer cup 5 , and a guide shoe 6 to facilitate stabbing of the tubular running assembly into a tubular and a hydraulic or pneumatic actuator 2 for energizing the cage 3 in respect to the inner member 7 . The size, quantity, and shape or profile of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 can be modified to suit varying applications, types of tubulars, total string weight, and or length of the tubulars. FIG. 44 shows an internal tubular running assembly with a series of randomly displaced rows of openings 4 , a lower packer cup 5 , and a guide shoe 6 to facilitate stabbing of the tubular running assembly into a tubular and a hydraulic or pneumatic actuator 2 for energizing the cage 3 in respect to the inner member 7 . The size, quantity, and shape or profile of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 can be modified to suit varying applications, types of tubulars, total string weight, and or length of the tubulars. FIG. 45 shows an internal tubular running assembly with a series of diagonally displaced rows of openings 4 , a lower packer cup 5 , and a guide shoe 6 to facilitate stabbing of the tubular running assembly into a tubular and a hydraulic or pneumatic actuator 2 for energizing the cage 3 in respect to the inner member 7 . The size, quantity, and shape or profile of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 can be modified to suit varying applications, types of tubulars, total string weight, and or length of the tubulars. FIG. 46 shows an internal tubular running assembly with a series of staggered displaced rows of openings 4 , a lower packer cup 5 , and a guide shoe 6 to facilitate stabbing of the tubular running assembly into a tubular and a hydraulic or pneumatic actuator 2 for energizing the cage 3 in respect to the inner member 7 . The size, quantity, and shape or profile of the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 can be modified to suit varying applications, types of tubulars, total string weight, and or length of the tubulars. FIG. 47 shows a pictorial view of a top drive assembly defining how the make-up assembly and elevator assembly of the present invention may be installed. In this depiction, a top drive 30 on a frame 29 rides on a track 33 , being raised or lowered by a block 32 . A typical toothed grapple apparatus 31 is shown attached to the top drive 30 . FIG. 48 shows an embodiment of the present invention installed inside a tubular OCTG 10 prior to the rolling supports with or without a central spindle 9 being energized. It can be clearly seen that the hydraulic or pneumatic actuator 2 or the drill pipe crossover joint 1 which connects the make-up assembly to the top drive or hook assembly does not engage the tubular OCTG 10 . FIG. 49 shows a sectional cross view of the main elevator link body 16 showing the inner hydraulic or pneumatic multi-stage cylinder 14 used to extend or retract the lower link body 18 in relation to the corresponding link body 16 . It also displays the adjustable mounting points 13 contained in the link body 16 such that the total length of the link body 16 may be set prior to extension or retraction. This will allow for a greater flexibility of total length, which will compensate for the variable distances between well centers and V-doors on drilling rigs. The figure also shows the mounting point 15 for the link tilt mounted on the outside of the link main body 16 . The figure also shows the attachment points 11 to facilitate mounting the main link bodies 16 onto the hydraulic actuator 2 . Also shown is the lower link extendable portion 18 of the link assembly with the elevator attachment point 19 near its end. FIG. 50 shows a vertical view of the tubular running assembly and elevator assembly detailing one configuration for attachment to a top drive assembly via the drill pipe crossover 1 , the hydraulic actuator 2 , the outer cage 3 , rolling support openings 4 , packer cup 5 , lower guide shoe 6 , link lower body 18 , transfer elevator attachment points 19 , and the transfer elevator 27 . FIG. 51 shows an elevation view of tubular running assembly installed into a frame 23 installed onto a base plate 21 with telescoping members 24 allowing the tubular running assembly to be raised and lowered. In this arrangement the tubular running assembly would be typically installed onto a wellhead assembly where no rig, derrick or top drive assembly was present. It could also be installed on a hydraulic work-over unit or snubbing twit utilizing a power swivel or rotary drive assembly 22 . The frame 23 is variable in height and contains multi-stage hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders 28 to raise and lower the apparatus as well as track forwards and backwards relative to the tubular OCTG. Member 25 is an attachment member to the powered rotational device. It will be apparent that many other changes may be made to the illustrative embodiments, while falling within the scope of the invention and it is intended that all such changes can be covered by the claims appended hereto. Although the disclosed embodiments have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made to the embodiments without departing from their spirit and scope. Other technical advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, drawings, descriptions and claims.

A method and apparatus for running tubular(s) into a well bore for use with a top drive or power swivel comprising a make-up assembly with inner and outer members, one of which has an array of ramped or inclined surface(s) while the other is an inner or outer cage with rolling support(s) with or without a central spindle and openings which may also be referred to as tubular engagement apparatus wherein relative movement of the members urges the rolling support(s) to protrude radially through the openings to engage a tubular internally or externally. Also provided is an elevator assembly with elevator links and transfer elevators to position tubular for engagement by the make-up assembly.

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention belongs to the field of natural medicine and pharmaceutical chemistry, and relates to novel homoharringtonine derivatives, in particular aminated homoharringtonine derivatives, to a process for the preparation of these compounds, compositions containing such compounds and their use in preparing antineoplastic medicaments. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Homoharringtonine (HHT), also known as O-3-[(2R)-2,6-dihydroxy-2-(2′-methoxy-2′-oxoethyl)-6-methylheptanoyl]cephalotaxine, is an alkaloid extracted and separated from Chinese herbal plants of Cephalotaxaceae family, in particular from cephatotaxus fortuneif or congeners thereof. Cephatotaxus genus plants of the Cephalotaxaceae family consist of 9 species, 8 of which are originated in China. Plants of this genus contain a plurality of alkaloids, in which harringtonine, homoharringtonine, isoharringtonine and deoxyharringtonine have been extracted, identified and extensively investigated [ZHONG Sanbao et al., Studies on Semi-synthesis of Cephalotaxine Esters and Correlation of Their Structures with Antitumor activity, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica, 1994, 29 (1), 33-39; WANG Dingzhi et al., Studies on Alkaloids in Cephatotaxus genus Plants, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica, 1992, 03, 178-184]. Furthermore, a non-ester alkaloid (i.e. cephalotaxine) is also separated from Cephatotaxus as a main component. [0000] [0003] Clinical studies demonstrate that HHT can be applied in the remission induction and post-remission treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), chronic myelogenous leukemia, polycythemia vera and malignant lymphoma, etc., particularly in the treatment of acute non-lymphocytic leukemia [ZHANG, Zhixue et al., Clinical study of HAG projects for the treatment of middle and high risk myeloid hyperplasia singular syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia, Journal of Jinggangshan University, 2010, 31(6),108-110; DENG, Jianqun et al., The impact of homoharringtonine to leukemia proto-oncogene bcl-2, c-myc, tumor suppressor gene p15, Chin J of Clinical Rational Drug Use, 2010, 3(7), 15-16; CHEN, Lijuan et al., A Study of Apoptosis on Non-lymphocytic Leukemia Cells Induced by Cytosine Arabinoside and Homoharringtonine, Jiangsu Medical Journal, 1999, 25(4), 257-258; ZHANG, Hui et al., 27 clinical analysis of LD-HA regimen in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, Acta Academiae Medicinae Suzhou, 1997, 17(4), 689-690; DING, Suxin et al., 26 clinical analysis of LD-HA regimen in the treatment of hypoplastic leukemia, Acta Academiae Medicinae Suzhou, 1997, 17(1), 89-90; XUE, Yanping et al., Clinical observation of HAD regimen in the treatment of adult acute non-lymphocytic leukemia, Chinese Journal of Hematology, 1995, 16(2), 59-61]. [0004] HHT can promote cell differentiation and apoptosis [WANG Yun et al., Experimental study of K562 and CML cell apoptosis and differentiation induced by homoharringtonine, Shanghai Medical Journal, 2001, 24(3), 166-168; LU, Dayong et al., Effect of homoharringtonine on leukemia cell differentiation and tumor metastasis, Journal of Shanghai University, 1999, 5(2), 175-177]. [0005] According to the studies on the synchronous KB (human oral epidermoid carcinoma) cells, HHT possesses cell cycle specificity and has the strongest killing effect on the cells in G1 and G2 phases and a relatively weaker effect on cells in S phase [JIN, Wei et al., Studies on the effect of homoharringtonine on HL-60 cells and QCY7703 cells, Acta Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology, 2001, 29(3), 44-45; LUO, Chenmei et al., Effect of homoharringtonine and Xueshuantong on human pterygium fibroblasts cell cyclic variation, Journal of Traditional Chinese Ophthalmology, 1999, 9(2), 67-70]. [0006] The pharmacological effects of HHT are mainly in inhibiting the protein synthesis of the eukaryotic cells, inhibiting the binding of aminoacyl-tRNA to riboses and the formation of the ribosomes thereof and peptide chains, thereby affecting the early stages of polymer formation, and causing the polyribosomes to disaggregate, interfering ribosomal protein functions, and also inhibiting the synthesis of intracellular DNAs [CAI, Zhen et al., Involvement of apoptosis-related gene Survivin, bcl-2 and bax in the homoharringtonine-induced apoptosis of myelodysplastic syndrome cell line(MUTZ-1), Journal of Practical Oncology, 2003, 18(3), 188-191; CAI, Zhen et al., Expression of survivin mRNA in HHT-induced cell apoptosis of hematological malignancy cell lines, Journal of Zhejiang University, 2006, 35(2), 204-208; WANG, Hengxiang et al., Homoharringtonine Induces Apoptosis of K562 Cells through Inhibition of P210bcr/abl, Chinese Journal of Experimental Hematology, 2000, 8(4), 287-289; CHEN, Chunyan et al., Comparative proteomics research of apoptosis initiation induced by homoharringtonine in HL-60 cells, Chinese Journal of Hematology, 2003, 24(12), 624-628; LI, Yufeng et al., Effect of homoharringtonine on the telomerase activity of bone marrow CD34+ cells in patients of chronic myeloid leukemia, Journal of Leukemia - Lymphoma, 2004, 13(1), 42-43; LI, Yufeng et al., Effect of homoharringtonine on bone marrow CD34 − +CD7 − +cells in patients of chronic myeloid leukemia, Chinese Journal of Hematology, 2007, 28(10), 706-707; LI, Yufeng et al., Effect of homoharringtonine on T and Th lymphocytes subsets in patients of chronic myeloid leukemia, Leukemia - Lymphoma, 2006, 15(1), 37-39; LI, Yufeng et al., Effect of homoharringtonine on the telomerase activity of bone marrow cells and K562 cells in patients of chronic myeloid leukemia, Chinese Journal of Hematology, 2003, 24(6), 329-329; MENG, Xiaoli, Effects of homoharringtonine on telomerase activity in HL60 cells, Journal of Zhengzhou University, 2004, 39(3), 440-442; XIE, Wanzhuo et al., Effect of telomerase in homoharringtonine-induced apoptosis of HL-60 cells, Chinese Journal of Medical Genetics, 2002, 19(2), 169-171]. [0007] On the other hand, aminated or amidated small molecules have been widely applied in pharmaceutical research, development and applications. However, reports on the synthesis and application of aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivatives have not yet been seen. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] One object of the present invention is to provide novel aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivatives characterized by formula (I) [0000] [0000] wherein R 1 and R 2 are selected from H, substituted or unsubstituted C 1 -C 18 alkyl, substituted or unsubstituted C 2 -C 18 alkenyl or alkynyl, substituted or unsubstituted C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl or alkenyl, substituted or unsubstituted aryl, substituted or unsubstituted heterocyclyl or heteroaryl. The substituent is selected from the group consisting of halogen, amino, C 1 -C 6 substituted amino, nitro, cyano, hydroxyl, C 1 -C 6 alkoxy, thiol and C 1 -C 6 alkylthio. R 1 and R 2 can be identical or different, or together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached form a ring, [0009] or a pharmaceutically acceptable adduct, complex or salt thereof. [0010] Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for preparing the aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivatives of formula (I) of the present invention: [0000] [0011] The aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivatives of formula (I) of the present invention can be prepared in a two-step reaction as shown in the above scheme. Firstly, subject homoharringtonine to mild hydrolysis in the presence of an alkali or an alkaline reagent to produce an acid homoharringtonine as an intermediate, and then subject said intermediate and an appropriate organic amine R 1 R 2 NH to condensation amination in the presence of a condensation agent and an alkali to produce an aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivative. Alternatively, subject homoharringtonine and an appropriate organic amine R 1 R 2 NH to a one-step condensation amination in the presence of a condensation agent or an alkaline reagent and produce an aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivative. R 1 and R 2 in formula (I) are as defined above for formula (I). [0012] Another object of the present invention is to provide a pharmaceutical composition containing the compounds of the present invention, wherein said pharmaceutical composition comprises at least one compound of the present invention and optionally a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient. [0013] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide use of the compound of the present invention or the pharmaceutical composition comprising said compound in the manufacture of a medicament, in particular an antitumor medicament. Accordingly, the present invention also provides a method for treating a subject suffering from tumor, comprising administering to the subject in need thereof an effective amount of at least one compound of the present invention. Said tumor is particularly selected from leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, liver cancer, gastric cancer, breast cancer, cholangiocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, osteosarcoma, melanoma, human cervical cancer, glioma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, laryngeal carcinoma, esophageal cancer, middle ear tumor and prostate cancer, etc. [0014] The present invention also relates to the compounds of the present invention used for treating a tumor. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0015] Specifically, the present invention relates to the following items in particular. [0016] 1. An aminated homoharringtonine derivative of formula (I) [0017] wherein [0000] [0018] R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from H, C 1 -C 18 alkyl, C 2 -C 18 alkenyl, C 2 -C 18 alkynyl, C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl or cycloalkenyl, aryl, heterocyclyl, heteroaryl, aryl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl, heteroaryl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl, heterocyclyl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl, or [0019] R 1 and R 2 , together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, form N-heterocyclyl, aryl-N-heterocyclyl or heteroaryl-N-heterocyclyl; [0020] each of said groups is optionally substituted with one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of C 1 -C 4 alkyl, halogen, amino, C 1 -C 6 alkyl amino, nitro, cyano, hydroxyl, hydroxyl C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 1 -C 6 alkoxy, thiol and C 1 -C 6 alkylthio; [0021] or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. [0022] 2. The aminated homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to claim 1 , wherein R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from H, C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 2 -C 6 alkenyl, C 2 -C 6 alkynyl, C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl or cycloalkenyl, aryl, heterocyclyl, heteroaryl, aryl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl, heteroaryl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl, heterocyclyl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl, or R 1 and R 2 , together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, form N-heterocyclyl, aryl-N-heterocyclyl or heteroaryl-N-heterocyclyl; each of said groups is optionally substituted with one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of C 1 -C 4 alkyl, halogen, amino, C 1 -C 6 alkylamino, nitro, cyano, hydroxyl, hydroxyl-C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 1 -C 6 alkoxy, thiol and C 1 -C 6 alkylthio. [0023] 3. The aminated homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to claim 1 , wherein R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from H, C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl, heteroaryl, heteroaryl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl, or R 1 and R 2 , together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, form N-heterocyclyl, aryl-N-heterocyclyl or heteroaryl-N-heterocyclyl with the nitrogen atoms to which they are connected; each of said groups is optionally substituted with one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of C 1 -C 4 alkyl, halogen, amino, C 1 -C 6 alkyl amino, nitro, cyano, hydroxyl, hydroxyl C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 1 -C 6 alkoxy, thiol and C 1 -C 6 alkylthio. [0024] 4. The aminated homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to any one of claims 1 - 3 , wherein said aryl is phenyl or naphthyl. [0025] 5. The aminated homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to any one of claims 1 - 3 , wherein said heteroaryl is furanyl, thiophenyl, pyrrolyl, thiazolyl, oxazolyl, isoxazolyl, pyrazolyl or pyridinyl; preferably furanyl, thiophenyl or thiazolyl. [0026] 6. The aminated homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to any one of claims 1 - 3 , wherein said heterocyclic radical or N-heterocyclyl is piperazinyl, morpholinyl, thiomorpholinyl, piperidyl, pyrrolidyl, pyrrolinyl, oxazolidinyl, isooxazolidinyl, thiazolidinyl, or pyrazolidinyl. [0027] 7. The homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to any one of claims 1 - 3 , wherein said C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl is cyclopropyl, cyclobutyl, cyclopentyl or cyclohexyl. [0028] 8. The homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to any one of claims 1 - 3 , wherein said substituent is selected from halogen, amino, C 1 -C 6 alkyl amino, nitro, cyano, hydroxyl C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 1 -C 6 alkoxy, C 1 -C 6 alkyl; preferably methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, methoxy, ethoxy, hydroxymethyl, hydroxyethyl, hydroxyl, nitro, cyano, fluorine or chlorine. [0029] 9. The homoharringtonine derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof according to claim 1 , wherein R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from H, C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl such as cyclohexyl, heteroaryl-C 1 -C 4 alkyl such as furfuryl or methyl furfuryl, or R 1 and R 2 , together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, form N-heterocyclyl such as pyrrolidinyl, piperidyl or dimethylanimopiperidyl, or aryl-N-heterocyclyl such as 4-phenylpiperazin-1-yl or 4-(4-fluorophenyl)-piperazin-1-yl. [0030] Some examples of the aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivatives of the present invention are shown as follows. These examples are intended only for further illustrating the present invention but not to limit the scope of the present invention by any means. [0000] [0031] Some characterization data for the above compounds is listed in the following table: [0000] Compound Molecular Molecular Total yield of No. formula weight Appearance State two-step reaction (%) BS-HH-008 C 31 H 39 N 3 O 8 S 613.7 white powder 11 BS-HH-009 C 33 H 47 N 3 O8 613.7 light yellow viscous 24 BS-HH-011 C 32 H 44 N 2 O 9 600.7 white solid 37 BS-HH-012 C 32 H 44 N 2 O 8 584.7 white solid 41 BS-HH-014 C 32 H 44 N 2 O 8 S 616.8 white solid 44 BS-HH-018 C 32 H 42 N 2 O 8 582.7 white solid 43 BS-HH-020 C 34 H 49 N 3 O 9 643.8 white solid 34 BS-HH-021 C 33 H 46 N 2 O 9 614.7 white solid 42 BS-HH-025 C 33 H 46 N 2 O 9 614.7 white solid 39 BS-HH-028 C 32 H 46 N 2 O 9 602.7 light yellow viscous 11 BS-HH-034 C 35 H 51 N 3 O 8 641.8 white solid 38 BS-HH-035 C 34 H 45 N 3 O 8 623.7 white solid 41 BS-HH-037 C 34 H 48 N 2 O 8 612.8 yellowish brown viscous 27 BS-HH-038 C 33 H 46 N 2 O 8 612.8 light yellow viscous 38 BS-HH-041 C 34 H 49 N 3 O 8 627.8 light yellow viscous 33 BS-HH-042 C 34 H 48 N 2 O 8 612.8 light yellow viscous 32 BS-HH-043 C 33 H 42 N 2 O 9 610.7 white oil 6 BS-HH-044 C 37 H 48 N 4 O 8 676.8 light yellow viscous 37 BS-HH-046 C 38 H 48 FN 3 O 8 693.8 light yellow solid 42 BS-HH-050 C 35 H 51 N 3 O 8 641.8 yellow viscous 29 BS-HH-051 C 33 H 46 N 2 O 8 598.7 yellow viscous 34 BS-HH-054 C 34 H 44 N 2 O 9 624.7 light yellow powder 25 BS-HH-055 C 33 H 42 N 2 O 8 S 626.8 light yellow oil 9 [0032] In another embodiment, the following compound of formula (I) is particularly preferred according to the present invention: [0000] [0033] O-3-[(2R)-2,6-dihydroxy-2-(2′-pyrrolyl-2′-oxoethyl)-6-methylheptanoyl]cephalotaxine [0000] [0034] O-3-[(2R)-2,6-dihydroxy-2-(2′-cyclohexaneamino-2′-oxoethyl)-6-methylheptanoyl]cephalotaxine [0000] [0035] O-3-[(2R)-2,6-dihydroxy-2-(2′-(4-(4-fluorophenyl)piperazinyl)-2′-oxoethyl)-6-methylheptanoyl]cephalotaxine [0000] [0036] O-3-[(2R)-2,6-dihydroxy-2-(2′-(4-N,N-dimethylaminopiperidylpyrrolyl-2′-oxoethyl)-6-methylheptanoyl]cephalotaxine [0000] [0037] O-3-[(2R)-2,6-dihydroxy-2-(2′-(5-methyl)furan-2-methylamino-2′-oxoethyl)-6-methylheptanoyl]cephalotaxine [0038] The present invention also relates to salts, solvates, hydrates, adducts, complexes, polymorphs or prodrugs of the compounds of formula (I) of the present invention. [0039] As used herein, the term “alkyl” refers to a straight or branched hydrocarbon radical containing designated number of carbon atoms, such as C 1 -C 18 alkyl, C 1 -C 6 alkyl, C 1 -C 4 alkyl, C 1 -C 3 alkyl, etc. Examples of alkyl include, but not limited to, methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, tert-butyl, n-pentyl, n-hexyl, n-octadecyl, etc. [0040] The term “alkenyl” refers to a straight or branched hydrocarbon radical containing designated number of carbon atoms and at least one carbon-carbon double bond, such as C 2 -C 18 alkenyl, C 2 -C 10 alkenyl, C 2 -C 8 alkenyl, C 2 -C 7 alkenyl, C 2 -C 6 alkenyl, C 2 -C 4 alkenyl, C 2 -C 3 alkenyl, etc. Examples of alkenyl include, but not limited to, vinyl, allyl and octadecenyl. [0041] The term “alkynyl” refers to a straight or branched hydrocarbon radical containing designated number of carbon atoms and at least one carbon-carbon triple bond, such as C 2 -C 18 alkynyl, C 2 -C 10 alkynyl, C 2 -C 8 alkynyl, C 2 -C 7 alkynyl, C 2 -C 6 alkynyl, C 2 -C 4 alkynyl, C 2 -C 3 alkynyl, etc. Examples of alkynyl include, but not limited to, ethynyl, propargyl and octadecynyl. [0042] The term “C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl or cycloalkenyl” refers to a saturated or unsaturated 3-7 membered monocyclic hydrocarbon radical. Representative examples of C 3 -C 7 cycloalkyl can be cyclopropyl, cyclobutyl, cyclopentyl, cyclohexyl, cycloheptyl, cyclopropenyl and cyclohexenyl. [0043] The term “aryl” refers to a monocyclic aryl or polycyclic aryl, fused or unfused, containing 6-14 carbon atoms. In the case of polycyclic aryl, at least one ring is aromatic. Aryl can also be one fused with a heterocyclic radical. Examples of aryl include phenyl, biphenyl, naphthyl, 5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthyl, 2,3-dihydrobenzofuranyl, etc. [0044] The term “heteroaryl” refers to an aromatic ring group having 1-4 heteroatoms (e.g. 1, 2, 3 or 4 heteroatoms) in the ring as ring atom(s). A heteroatom refers to nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur. A heteroaryl can be a monocyclic heteroaryl having 5-7 ring atoms or a bicyclic heteroaryl having 7-11 ring atoms. Said bicyclic heteroaryl should comprise at least one aromatic heterocycle, and the other ring(s) can be aromatic or non-aromatic, with or without a heteroatom. Examples of heteroaryl include such as pyrrolyl, pyrazolyl, imidazolyl, oxazolyl, pyridinyl, pyrimidinyl, furanyl, thiophenyl, isoxazolyl, indolyl, etc. [0045] “Heterocyclyl” refers to a non-aromatic cyclic group containing 1-4 heteroatoms (e.g. 1, 2, 3 or 4 heteroatoms) as ring atoms. A heteroatom refers to nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur. A heterocyclic radical can be a monocyclic heterocyclic radical having 4-8 ring atoms or a bicyclic heterocyclic radical having 7-11 ring atoms. A heterocyclic radical can be saturated, or can be unsaturated and meanwhile non-aromatic. Examples of heterocyclic radicals include azacyclobutyl, pyrrolidinyl, tetrahydrofuranyl, dihydrofuranyl, piperazinyl, piperidinyl, tetrahydropyranyl, tetrahydrothiophenyl, etc. [0046] The term “halogen” refers to fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine. [0047] The term “alkylamino” refers to an amino group substituted with one or two alkyl (including cycloalkyl) having designated number of carbon atoms. [0048] The term “alkoxy” includes alkoxy and cycloalkyloxy. [0049] The term “alkylthio” includes alkylthio and cycloalkylthio. [0050] The term “pharmaceutically acceptable adducts and complexes of the compounds of formula (I)” refers to the product formed by a compound of the present invention with further combined small molecule or biological macromolecule via a non-chemical bond or non-covalent intermolecular force. [0051] The term “pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the compounds of formula (I)” used herein is exemplified by the organic acid salts formed by an organic acid bearing a pharmaceutically acceptable anion. These organic acid salts include, but not limited to, tosylate, methanesulfonate, malate, acetate, citrate, malonate, tartrate, succinate, benzoate, ascorbate, α-ketoglutarate, and α-glycerophosphate. Suitable inorganic salts may also be formed, including but not limited to, hydrochloride, sulfate, nitrate, bicarbonate and carbonate, phosphate, hydrobromate, hydriodate salts and the like. [0052] A pharmaceutically acceptable salt may be obtained using standard procedures well known in the art, for example by reacting a sufficient amount of alkaline compound with a suitable acid that provides a pharmaceutically acceptable anion. [0053] As used herein, the term “polymorph” means a solid crystalline form of the compound of the present invention or a complex thereof. Various polymorphs of one same compound may exhibit different physical, chemical and/or spectroscopic properties. The different physical properties include, but not limited to, stability (e.g., thermal or light stability), compressibility and density (which are important for formulation and manufacture of the product), and dissolution rate (which may affect its bioavailability and absorbability). Differences in stability may result in a change in chemical reactivity (e.g., differential oxidation, such that a dosage form comprised of one polymorph discolors more rapidly than one comprised of another polymorph) or mechanical properties (e.g., in storage, crushed parts of the tablet of a kinetically favored polymorph is converted to a thermodynamically more stable polymorph) or both (e.g., tablets composed of one polymorph are more susceptible to breakdown at high humidity). Different physical properties of various polymorphs may affect their processing. For example, one polymorph may be more likely to form a solvate or may be more difficult to be filtered out or purified by washing than another one due to, for example, their different particle shapes or size distributions. [0054] As used herein, the term “hydrate” means such a compound of the present invention or a salt thereof as further comprising a stoichiometric or non-stoichiometric amount of water bound via non-covalent intermolecular forces. [0055] Unless otherwise indicated, the term “prodrug” used herein means a derivative of an inventive compound that, via hydrolyzation, oxidization, or other reactions under a biological condition (in vitro or in vivo), can provide a compound of this invention. A prodrug may only become active upon such a reaction under a biological condition, or may have activities in its unreacted form. Typically, a prodrug can be prepared using known methods, such as those described in Burger's Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery (1995) 172-178, 949-982 (Manfred E. Wolff, 5 th edition), Prodrugs and Targeted Delivery by J. Rautio (2011) 31-60 (Wiley-VCH, Methods and Principles in Medicinal Chemistry, Vol. 47), and Fundamentals of Medicinal Chemistry (2003) by G. Thomas, 195-200 (Wiley). [0056] In the compounds of the present invention, the homoharringtonine derivatives have four chiral centers in the stereochemical structure represented by the structural formula (I). The stereochemical definitions and conventions used herein generally follow M C G RAW -H ILL D ICTIONARY OF C HEMICAL T ERMS (S. P. Parker, Ed., McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1984); and E LIEL , E. AND W ILEN , S., S TEREOCHEMISTRY OF O RGANIC C OMPOUNDS (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1994). Many organic compounds are present in optically active forms, i.e., they have the ability to rotate a plane of plane-polarized light. [0057] The terms “treatment,” “treating,” “treat,” and the like used herein refer generally to obtaining a desired pharmacological and/or physiological effect. The effect may be prophylactic in terms of completely or partially preventing a disease or symptoms thereof and/or may be therapeutic in terms of partial or complete stabilization or cure of a disease and/or adverse effects caused by the disease. “Treatment” as used herein covers any treatment of a disease in a subject, including: (a) preventing the disease or symptoms from occurring in a subject who is predisposed to the disease or symptoms but has not yet been diagnosed as having it; (b) inhibiting the symptoms of a disease, i.e., arresting its development; or (c) relieving the symptoms of a disease, i.e., causing regression of the disease or symptoms. [0058] The compounds of the present invention can be prepared through a conventional organic chemistry synthesis process. For example, the compound of formula (I) of the present invention is prepared as follows. [0000] [0059] The aminated homoharringtonine derivative of formula (I) can be prepared by firstly hydrolyzing extracted natural homoharringtonine (HHT) and then reacting it with appropriate organic amines via condensation. R 1 and R 2 in formula (I) are identical to those defined above for formula (I). [0060] The above hydrolysis reaction typically takes place in the presence of an alkali or an alkaline reagent. The alkali herein can be, but not limited to, an inorganic alkali, such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide or lithium hydroxide. [0061] The above hydrolysis reaction typically takes place in a solution. The solvents used herein include, but not limited to, polar solvents, such as methanol, water or the mixed solvent of methanol and water, etc. [0062] The above hydrolysis reaction typically takes place under a temperature of 0° C.-40° C., which may varies with the alkali used or the concentration thereof. [0063] The raw material for the hydrolysis reaction is homoharringtonine (HHT), which is obtained by extraction from natural products and is commercially available. The organic amines for the amination or amidation reaction can all be commercially available. [0064] The hydrolysate of homoharringtonine, i.e. the acid as an intermediate, is subjected to condensation amination with appropriate organic amines in the presence of a condensation agent and an alkali to produce the aminated or amidated homoharringtonine derivatives of formula (I). [0065] The amination or amindation reactions are carried out typically in the presence of a condensation agent. The condensation agent herein can be, but not limited to, organic condensation agents, such as 2-(7-azobenzotriazolyl)-N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate (HATU), benzotriazolyl-N,N,N′, N′-tetramethyluronium hexafluoroborate (HBTU), benzotriazol-1-yl-oxy-tris(dimethylamino)phosphonium hexafluorophosphate (BOP), and benzotriazolyl-N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyluronium hexafluoroborate (TBTU). [0066] The amination or amindation reactions are carried out typically in the presence of an alkali. The alkali herein can be, but not limited to, organic alkalis such as N,N-diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA), triethylamine (TEA), pyridine and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP). [0067] The amination or amindation reactions are carried out typically in the presence or absence of a solvent. The solvent used herein includes, but not limited to, organic polar solvents such as dichloromethane (DCM), tetrahydrofuran (THF), N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), etc. [0068] The typical operation of the amination or amindation reactions can comprise, but not limited to, adding the reactants, the alkali and the condensation agent in a suitable proportion to DCM; stirring for 24 h under room temperature; extracting the resulted product with an organic solvent; washing it with water and saturated saline solution, drying and concentration to obtain the crude product; and purifying the crude product with HPLC to obtain the pure product. [0069] Conventional chemical conversion processes may be used to practice this invention. One skilled person in the art can determine suitable chemical agents, solvents, protecting groups, and reaction conditions for these chemical conversions. Relevant information are described, for example, in R. Larock, Comprehensive Organic Transformations, VCH Publishers (1989); T. W. Greene and P. G. M. Wuts, Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis, 3 rd Ed., John Wiley and Sons (1999); L. Fieser and M. Fieser, Fieser and Fieser's Reagents for Organic Synthesis, John Wiley and Sons (1994); and L. Paquette, ed., Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis, John Wiley and Sons (1995) and subsequent editions thereof. [0070] Protecting groups refer to the groups that, upon being attached to an active moiety (e.g., a hydroxyl or amino group), prevent the moiety from interference in a subsequent reaction and, after the reaction, can be removed through a conventional method. Examples of a hydroxyl protecting group include, but not limited to, alkyl, benzyl, allyl, trityl (also known as triphenylmethyl), acyl (e.g., benzoyl, acetyl, or HOOC—X″—CO—, wherein X″ is alkylidene, alkenylene, cycloalkylene, or arylene), silyl (e.g., trimethylsilyl, triethylsilyl, and t-butyldimethylsilyl), alkoxylcarbonyl, aminocarbonyl (e.g., dimethylaminocarbonyl, methylethylaminocarbonyl, and phenylaminocarbonyl), alkoxymethyl, benzyloxymethyl, and alkylmercaptomethyl. Examples of an amino protecting group include, but not limited to, alkoxycarbonyl, alkanoyl, aryloxycarbonyl, aryl-substituted alkyl and the like. Hydroxyl and amino protecting groups have been discussed in T. W. Greene and P. G. M. Wuts, Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis, 2nd. Ed., John Wiley and Sons (1991). All hydroxyl and amino protecting groups can be removed by a conventional method after the reaction. [0071] The present invention also provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound of formula (I) of the present invention. [0072] The present invention provides a pharmaceutical composition which comprises at least one compound of formula (I) of the present invention as defined above and optionally a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient. [0073] The methods for preparing various pharmaceutical compositions having a given amount of active components are known or will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of this disclosure. As described in R EMINGTON'S P HARMACEUTICAL S CIENCES , Martin, E. W., ed., Mack Publishing Company, 19th ed. (1995), the methods for preparing such pharmaceutical compositions include incorporation of other suitable pharmaceutical excipients, carriers, diluents, etc. [0074] The pharmaceutical preparations of the present invention are produced by known methods, including mixing, dissolving, or freeze drying processes. [0075] The compounds of the present invention may be formulated into a pharmaceutical composition and administered to a subject in a route suitable for the selected administration manner, e.g., orally or parenterally (for example, by an intravenous, intramuscular, topical or subcutaneous route). [0076] Thus, the present compounds may be systemically administered, e.g., orally administered, in conjugation with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier such as an inert diluent or an edible carrier. They may be enclosed in hard or soft gelatin capsules, or may be compressed into tablets. For therapeutic oral administration, the active compound may be combined with one or more excipients and may be taken in a form of ingestible tablet, buccal tablet, troche, capsule, elixir, suspension, syrup, wafer, and the like. Such a composition or preparation should contain at least 0.1% of the active compound. Of course, the proportion of active compound in the compositions and preparations may vary and may be from about 1% to about 99% by weight of a given unit dosage form. In a therapeutically useful composition, the active compound is present in an amount such that an effective dosage level is achieved. [0077] A tablet, troche, pill, capsule and the like may also comprise a binder, such as gum tragacanth, arabic gum, corn starch or gelatin; an excipient such as calcium dihydrogenphosphate; a disintegrating agent such as corn starch, potato starch, alginic acid and the like; a lubricant such as magnesium stearate; and a sweetening agent such as sucrose, fructose, lactose or aspartame; or a flavoring agent such as peppermint, wintergreen oil, or cherry flavor. In case the unit dosage form is a capsule, it may comprise, in addition to the above materials, a liquid vehicle such as a vegetable oil or polyethylene glycol. Various other materials may be present as coatings or otherwise modify the physical form of the solid unit dosage form. For instance, a tablet, pill, or capsule may be coated with gelatin, wax, shellac or sugar, etc. A syrup or elixir may contain an active compound, a sweetening agent such as sucrose or fructose, a preservative such as methylparaben or propylparaben, a dye and a flavoring agent (such as cherry or orange flavor). Of course, any materials used in preparing unit dosage forms should be pharmaceutically acceptable and substantially non-toxic in the amounts employed. In addition, the active compound may be incorporated into a sustained-release preparation or in a device. [0078] The active compound may also be administered intravenously or intraperitoneally by infusion or injection. An aqueous solution of the active compound or its salt may be prepared, optionally mixed with a nontoxic surfactant. Also can be prepared is dispersion in glycerol, liquid polyethylene glycol, triacetin, or a mixture thereof, or in an oil. Under ordinary storage and use conditions, these preparations contain a preservative to prevent the growth of microorganisms. [0079] The pharmaceutical dosage forms suitable for injection or infusion may include a sterile aqueous solution, a dispersion or a sterile powder comprising active ingredient (optionally encapsulated in liposomes), which are adapted for an extemporaneous preparation of a sterile injectable or infusible solution or dispersion. In all cases, the final dosage form must be sterile and stable liquids under the manufacture and storage conditions. The liquid carrier or vehicle may be a solvent or a liquid dispersion medium comprising, for example, water, ethanol, a polyol (for example, glycerol, propylene glycol, liquid polyethylene glycol, and the like), a vegetable oil, a nontoxic glyceryl ester, and a suitable mixture thereof. A proper fluidity can be maintained, for example, by formation of liposomes, by maintenance of the required particle size in the case of dispersion or by the use of a surfactant. The prevention of microorganism can be achieved by various antibacterial and antifungal agents, such as parabens, chlorobutanol, phenol, sorbic acid, thimerosal, and the like. In many cases, an isotonic agent is preferably comprised, such as sugar, buffer agent or sodium chloride. Prolonged absorption of an injectable composition can be obtained by the use of a composition of the agents for delaying absorption, for example, aluminum monostearate and gelatin. [0080] An injectable sterile solution is prepared by combining a required amount of the active compound in a suitable solvent with various additional desired components as listed above, followed by filtration and sterilization. For sterile powder used to prepare an injectable sterile solution, the preferred preparation process is vacuum drying and freeze drying techniques, which yield a powder of the active ingredient plus any additional desired ingredient present in the previous filtered sterile solution. [0081] Useful solid carriers include finely divided solids such as talc, clay, microcrystalline cellulose, silica, alumina and the like. Useful liquid carriers include water, ethanol or ethylene glycol or a water-ethanol/ethylene glycol mixture, in which the compound of the present invention can be dissolved or dispersed at an effective content, optionally with the aid of a non-toxic surfactant. An adjuvant (such as a flavour) and additional antimicrobial agent can be added to optimize the properties for a given application. [0082] Thickening agent (such as a synthetic polymer, a fatty acid, a fatty acid salt and ester, a fatty alcohol, a modified cellulose or a modified inorganic material) can also be used with a liquid carrier to form a spreadable paste, gel, ointment, soap and the like for applying directly to the skin of a user. [0083] The amount of the compound or an active salt or derivative thereof required for a treatment varies depending not only on the selected particular salt but also on the administration route, the nature of the condition to be treated and the age and condition of the subject, and will be ultimately determined at the discretion of the attendant physician or clinician. [0084] The above formulations can be present in a unit dosage form which is a physically discrete unit containing a unit dosage, which is suitable for administering to a human or other mammalians. The unit dosage form may be a capsule or a tablet, or a plurality of capsules or tablets. Depending upon the intended particular therapy, the amount of the active ingredient in a unit dosage form can be varied or adjusted in the range of about 0.1 mg to about 1,000 mg or more. [0085] The present invention also provides the use of a compound according to the present invention or a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound of the present invention in manufacture of a medicament, especially an antitumor medicament. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for treating a subject suffering from tumor, comprising administering to the subject in need thereof a therapeutically effective amount of at least one compound of the present invention. The homoharringtonine derivative of the present invention or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof can be used, for example, for the treatment of leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, liver cancer, gastric cancer, breast cancer, cholangiocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, osteosarcoma, melanoma, cervical cancer, glioma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, laryngeal carcinoma, esophageal cancer, middle ear tumor, prostate cancer, etc. [0086] The present invention will be explained in more detailed by the following examples. However, it should be understood that the following examples are intended for illustration only but not to limit the scope of the present invention in any way. [0087] The raw chemicals used in the following examples are commercially available or may be obtained by a synthesis method known in the art. [0088] The General Scheme and Process of the Amination Reaction: [0000] [0089] Homoharringtonine (HHT, 2.5 g, 4.58 mmol) is dissolved in methanol (18 mL), in which an alkaline solution (1M, 4.6 mL) is added, wherein the alkali can be either sodium hydroxide or lithium hydroxide. The mixture is stirred for 7 h under room temperature and the pH of the reacting solution is adjusted to 5-7 with an acid solution (1N), wherein the acid can be either HCl or another inorganic acid. Organic solvent is removed by concentration. The resulted aqueous solution is treated several times with toluene, concentrated and dried to obtain a homoharringtonine acid (2.5 g, 88% of purity) as a white solid. The rest 5% of raw materials can be recycled, followed by hydrolysis again. [0090] The homoharringtonine acid X01-1(1.0 eq) and an amine (1.0-1.5 eq) are dissolved in anhydrous DMF (20-50 eq), in which N,N-diisopropyl-ethylamine (2.0 eq) and 2-(7-azobenzotriazolyl)-N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate (1.5 eq) are also added. After stirring for 2 h under room temperature, water is added to the reacting solution, followed by extraction with ethyl acetate. The organic phase is washed with a saturated saline solution, dried and concentrated. The resulted crude product is purified with HPLC to obtain 2′-aminated homoharringtonine. EXAMPLE 1 The Synthesis of Compound BS-HH-043 [0091] [0000] wherein, X01-1: homoharringtonine acid; Zi: furan-2-ethylamine; HATU: 2-(7-azobenzotriazolyl)-N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate; DIPEA: N,N-diisopropylethylamine. [0092] Homoharringtonine is hydrolyzed according to the general scheme above. Afterwards, the acid resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, as an intermediate, X01-1(106 mg, 0.2 mmol), and 2-aminomethylfuran (24 mg, 0.24 mmol) are dissolved in anhydrous DMF (2 mL). N,N-diisopropylethylamine (52 mg, 0.4 mmol) and 2-(7-azobenzotriazolyl)-N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate (114 mg, 0.3 mmol) are added and the mixture is stirred for 3 h under 30° C. Water (6 mL) is added under 5-10° C. and the mixture is extracted with ethyl acetate. The organic phase is washed with a saturated saline solution, dried and concentrated. The crude product is separated and purified with a silicagel column (DCM: methanol=10:1) to give BS-HH-043 (9 mg, 6%) as a colorless oil product. [0093] LC-MS: retention time: 1.18 min (60.6%), m/z: 611.4 [M+H] + . [0094] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 7.34 (s, 1H), 6.67 (s, 1H), 6.58 (s, 1H), 6.31 (d, 1H), 6.20 (d, 1H), 5.94-5.87 (m, 3H), 4.34 (m, 2H), 3.81 (s, 1H), 3.71 (s, 3H), 2.02 (m, 3H), 1.17 (s, 6H). [0095] BS-HH-008 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 using the same coupling reagent by reacting acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 2-aminothiazole. [0096] LC-MS: retention time: 1.09 min (90.35%), m/z: 614.5 [M+H] + . [0097] BS-HH-009 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 1-methylpiperazine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0098] LC-MS: retention time: 1.08 min (94.6%), m/z: 308.2 [1/2M+H] + . [0099] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.60 (s, 1H), 6.59 (s, 1H), 5.95 (m, 2H), 5.80-5.8 (s, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H), 4.49 (s, 1H), 3.78 (d, J=12.0Hz, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.13-3.39 (m, 4H), 2.95 (m, 1H), 2.39 (m, 2H), 2.28 (s, 3H), 2.26-2.16 (m, 4H), 1.69 (m, 6H), 1.18 (d, 6H). [0100] BS-HH-011 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with morpholine in the presence of the same coupling reagent. [0101] LC-MS: retention time: 1.05 min (90.03%), m/z: 601.3 [M+H] + . [0102] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.60 (d, 2H), 5.97 (m, 2H), 5.81 (s, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H), 4.31 (s, 1H), 3.79 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.57 (m, 2H), 2.59(m, 2H), 2.38 (m, 1H), 2.00 (s, 3H), 1.05 (s, 6H). [0103] BS-HH-012 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with pyrrolidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent. [0104] LC-MS: retention time: 1.14 min (95.15%), m/z: 585.4 [M+H] + . [0105] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.60 (d, 2H), 5.89 (m, 2H), 5.79 (s, 1H), 5.01 (s, 1H), 4.76 (s, 1H), 3.78 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.36 (m, 2H), 3.27-3.01 (m, 4H), 2.59(m, 2H), 2.38 (m, 1H), 1.18 (s, 6H). [0106] BS-HH-014 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with thiomorpholine in the presence of the same coupling reagent. [0107] LC-MS: retention time: 1.17 min (100%), m/z: 617.4 [M+H] + . [0108] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.58 (d, 2H), 6.00 (m, 2H), 5.80(s, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H), 4.32 (s, 1H), 3.75 (d, J=9 Hz, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.48 (m, 2H), 2.95 (m, 1H), 2.37 (m, 1H), 2.23 (d, 1H), 1.19 (s, 6H). [0109] BS-HH-018 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 2,5-dihydropyrrole in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0110] LC-MS: retention time: 1.08 min (100%), m/z: 583.3 [M+H] + . [0111] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.60 (s, 1H), 6.58 (s, 1H), 6.02 (d, J=9 Hz, 1H), 5.85 (m, 2H), 5.78 (m, 2H), 5.01 (s, 1H), 4.37 (s, 1H), 3.78 (d, 1H), 3.67 (s, 3H), 2.56 (m, 2H), 2.38 (m, 1H), 2.24 (d, 1H), 2.00 (s, 3H), 1.19 (s, 6H). [0112] BS-HH-020 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 2-(piperazin-1-yl)ethanol in the presence of the same coupling reagent. [0113] LC-MS: retention time: 0.91 min (96.62%), m/z: 644.5 [M+H] + . [0114] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.59 (d, 2H), 5.93 (m, 2H), 5.80 (s, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H), 4.43 (s, 1H), 3.79 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.61 (m, 2H), 2.95 (m, 1H), 2.61-2.54 (m, 5H), 2.00 (m, 4H), 1.32 (m, 6H), 1.18 (s, 6H). [0115] BS-HH-021 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 4-hydroxypiperidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0116] LC-MS: retention time: 1.02 min (98.13%), m/z: 615.4 [M+H] + . [0117] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.60 (s, 1H), 6.58 (s, 1H), 5.99-5.90 (m, 2H), 5.80 (s, 1H), 5.01 (s, 1H), 4.54 (d, 1H), 3.78 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 2.61 (m, 2H), 2.39 (m, 1H), 2.26 (m, 2H), 1.18 (s, 6H). [0118] BS-HH-025 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 3-hydroxypiperidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0119] LC-MS: retention time: 1.04 min (97.26%), m/z: 615.3 [M+H] + . [0120] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.61 (d, 2H), 5.90 (m, 2H), 5.81 (s, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H), 4.60 (s, 1H), 3.76 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 2.63-2.56 (m, 2H), 2.36 (m, 1H), 1.18 (s, 6H). [0121] BS-HH-028 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 3-methoxypropylamine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0122] LC-MS: retention time: 1.06 min (69.32%), m/z: 603.8 [M+H] + . [0123] BS-HH-034 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 1-isopropylpiperazine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0124] LC-MS: retention time: 0.95 min (98.32%), m/z: 642.4 [M+H] + . [0125] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.58 (d, 2H), 5.95 (m, 2H), 5.82 (d, 1H), 5.01 (s, 1H), 4.56 (s, 1H), 3.79 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 2.72 (m, 1H), 2.55 (m, 4H), 2.36 (m, 3H), 2.25 (s, 2H), 2.00 (s, 3H), 1.31 (m, 6H), 1.18 (s, 6H), 1.01 (d, 6H). [0126] BS-HH-035 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 4-cyanopiperidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0127] LC-MS: retention time: 1.11 min (99.31%), m/z: 624.3 [M+H] + . [0128] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.61 (d, 2H), 5.9 (m, 2H), 5.79 (d, 1H), 5.01 (s, 1H), 4.30 (d, 1H), 3.67 (s, 3H), 3.35 (m, 2H), 2.59 (m, 2H), 2.38 (m, 1H), 2.24 (m, 1H), 2.16 (d, 1H), 1.66-1.87 (m, 4H), 1.19 (s, 6H). [0129] BS-HH-037 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 2-methylpiperidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0130] LC-MS: retention time: 1.59 min (98.91%), m/z: 613.6 [M+H] + . [0131] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.60 (d, 2H), 5.88 (m, 2H), 5.82 (s, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H),4.41 (d, 1H), 3.80 (d, 1H), 3.69 (s, 3H), 2.59 (m, 2H), 2.38 (m, 1H), 1.18 (s, 6H). [0132] BS-HH-038 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 3-methylpiperidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0133] LC-MS: retention time: 1.57 min (98.69%), m/z: 613.6 [M+H] + . [0134] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.59 (d, 2H), 5.97-5.88 (m, 2H), 5.81 (m, 1H), 5.02 (d, 1H), 4.64 (m, 1H), 3.80 (m, 1H), 3.69 (s,3H), 2.59 (m, 2H), 2.28 (m, 2H), 1.18 (d, 6H), 0.92-0.84 (m,3 H). [0135] BS-HH-041 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 1-ethylpiperazine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0136] LC-MS: retention time: 1.08 min (100%), m/z: 628.6 [M+H] + . [0137] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.58 (d, 2H), 5.94 (m, 2H), 5.80 (s, 1H), 5.01 (s, 1H), 3.77 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.35-3.05 (m, 4H), 1.75 (m, 4H), 1.18 (s, 6H), 1.07 (t, 3H). [0138] BS-HH-042 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 2-aminomethylfuran in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0139] LC-MS: retention time: 1.57 min (85.35%), m/z: 613.6 [M+H[ + . [0140] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.66 (d, 2H), 5.97-5.88 (m, 3H), 4.91 (s, 1H), 4.74 (d, 1H), 3.78 (s, 3H), 3.48 (m, 2H), 3.19 (m, 2H), 2.90 (m, 2H), 1.88 (m, 4H), 1.20-1.17 (m, 10H). [0141] BS-HH-044 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 1-(pyridin-2-yl)piperazine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0142] LC-MS: retention time: 1.17 min (100%), m/z: 677.6 [M+H] + . [0143] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 8.20 (dd, J=4.8 Hz, 1.2 Hz, 1H), 7.50 (m, 1H), 6.68-6.63 (m, 2H), 6.60 (d, 2H), 5.96 (d, 1H), 5.81 (s, 1H), 5.74 (s, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H), 4.39 (s, 1H), 3.83-3.73 (m, 3H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.45-3.30 (m, 5H), 2.63-2.56 (m, 2H), 1.19 (s, 6H). [0144] BS-HH-046 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 1-(4-fluorophenyl)piperazine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0145] LC-MS: retention time: 1.61 min (89.27%), m/z: 694.6 [M+H[ + . [0146] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.98 (m, 2H), 6.85 (m, 2H), 6.61 (d, 2H), 5.98 (d, 1H), 5.88 (d, 1H), 5.78 (d, 1H), 5.02 (s, 1H), 4.36 (s, 1H), 3.79 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.44 (m, 3H), 3.12 (m, 4H), 2.93 (m, 2H), 2.59 (s, 1H), 1.19 (s, 6H). [0147] BS-HH-050 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 4-(N,N-methylamino)piperidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0148] LC-MS: retention time: 1.10 min (90.31%), m/z: 642.6 [M+H] + . [0149] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.59 (d, 2H), 5.98-5.86 (m, 2H), 5.80 (m, 1H), 5.02 (m, 1H), 3.80 (m, 1H), 3.69 (s, 3H), 3.57 (s, 1H), 2.59 (m, 3H), 2.28 (d, 6H), 1.71 (m, 8H), 1.19 (s, 6H). [0150] BS-HH-051 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with piperidine in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0151] LC-MS: retention time: 1.48 min (98.45%), m/z: 599.5 [M+H] + . [0152] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.59 (d, 2H), 5.95-5.81 (m, 3H), 5.01 (s, 1H), 4.72 (s, 1H), 3.78 (d, 1H), 3.68 (s, 3H), 3.25-2.90 (m, 6H), 2.59 (m, 2H), 2.40 (m, 1H), 2.26 (s, 1H), 1.69 (m, 6H), 1.18 (s, 6H). [0153] BS-HH-054 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 5-methyl-2-aminomethylfuran in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0154] LC-MS: retention time: 1.23 min (63.39%), m/z: 625.8 [M+H] + . [0155] 1 H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl 3 ): δ 6.73 (s, 1H), 6.62 (s, 1H), 6.06-5.89 (m, 4H), 4.30 (s, 1H), 3.78 (s, 3H), 2.26 (s, 3H), 1.33 (s, 6H). [0156] BS-HH-055 is obtained according to the process in Example 1 by reacting the acid intermediate resulted from the hydrolysis of homoharringtonine, X01-1, with 2-aminomethylthiophene in the presence of the same coupling reagent as above. [0157] LC-MS: retention time: 1.21 min (83.64%), m/z: 627.8 [M+H] + . EXAMPLE 2 Evaluation of the Aminated Homoharringtonine Derivatives of the Present Invention for Their Anti-Leukemia Activities [0158] (1) Experimental Materials [0159] Leukemia cell lines: K562/adr (drug-resistant, chronic myeloid leukemia, CML), NB4 (acute promyelocytic leukemia, AML), Kasumi-1 (acute myeloid leukemia M2 type, AML-M2), Jurkat (acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ALL), all of which are donated by Cancer Research Institute of Zhejiang University, China; and H9 (acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ALL), which is purchased from China Center for Type Culture Collection. [0160] Reagents: The standard sample of homoharringtonine (HHT) is purchased from Taihua Natural Plant Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shaanxi, China; and the homoharringtonine derivatives of the present invention. [0161] Main apparatuses: a Thermo Scientific 3111 incubator and a Bio-Rad iMark microplate reader. [0162] (2) Experimental Method [0163] Obtaining 6000 well-growing leukemia cells and inoculating them into wells of a 96-well cell culture plate. The culture medium is the 1640 cell culture medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum. After adding the homoharringtonine derivatives of different concentrations and mixing uniformly, placing the plate in a carbon dioxide cell incubator (5% CO 2 ) at 37° C. and incubating for 72 hours. Then the viable cell concentration is determined by the MTT method. In this experiment, the cell viability in control group (not treated with any compound) is set as 100%. On such basis, the cell viability (%) after treatment and the half maximal inhibitory concentration of the compound for the leukemia cell growth at 72 hours (IC 50 value of 72 hours) are calculated. [0164] (3) The Experimental Results [0165] The experimental results are shown in table 1. Table 1 shows that the aminated homoharringtonine derivatives of the present invention can induce the cell death of human chronic myeloid leukemia cells, acute myeloid leukemia cells and acute lymphocytic leukemia cells and inhibit the growth of these leukemia cells. The aminated homoharringtonine derivatives of the present invention BS-HH-012, BS-HH-042, BS-HH-050 and BS-HH-054, have demonstrated strong anti-K562/adr (drug-resistant, chronic myeloid leukemia, CML), anti-NB4 (acute promyelocytic leukemia, AML), anti-Kasumi-1 (acute myeloid leukemia M2 type, AML-M2) and anti-H9 (acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ALL) activity. [0000] TABLE 1 Determination of the inhibiting concentrations of the aminated homoharringtonine derivatives on leukemia cell growth (72 h, IC 50 (μg/mL) value and IC 90 (μg/mL) value) K562/adr Kasumi-1 NB4 Compound IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 HHT 0.035 0.98 0.005 0.024 0.006 0.012 BS-HH-008 >16 >16 5 >16 5.62 12.83 BS-HH-009 >16 >16 8.54 >16 2.97 11.2 BS-HH-011 >16 >16 8.28 >16 3.22 9.54 BS-HH-012 0.65 9.87 0.038 0.14 0.08 0.23 BS-HH-014 >16 >16 1.33 8.61 1.29 3.7 BS-HH-018 7.77 >16 0.47 2.32 0.38 1 BS-HH-020 >16 >16 >16 >16 7.46 15.79 BS-HH-021 >16 >16 14.58 >16 8 16 BS-HH-025 >16 >16 >16 >16 8.31 >16 BS-HH-028 >16 >16 2.75 13 2.59 7.52 BS-HH-034 4.53 16 0.31 1.77 0.48 2.3 BS-HH-035 14.1 >16 0.8 2.96 0.72 6.3 BS-HH-037 >16 >16 1.58 16 0.7 5.08 BS-HH-038 >16 >16 2 12.02 0.32 4.24 BS-HH-041 >16 >16 2.79 14.99 1.85 16 BS-HH-042 3.2 16 0.048 0.21 0.06 0.13 BS-HH-043 >16 >16 11.06 >16 15 >16 BS-HH-044 5.18 16 0.38 2.25 0.25 0.64 BS-HH-046 14.5 >16 0.26 2.26 0.19 0.5 BS-HH-050 0.72 8.99 0.041 0.18 0.08 0.17 BS-HH-051 >16 >16 2 16 1.5 16 BS-HH-054 0.66 4.4 0.053 0.19 0.09 0.2 BS-HH-055 6.24 16 1.3 6.68 2.38 7.61 Jurkat H9 Compound IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 HHT 0.007 16 0.02 0.046 BS-HH-008 4.69 16 13.43 >16 BS-HH-009 3 >16 8 >16 BS-HH-011 6.7 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-012 0.058 16 0.27 3.49 BS-HH-014 2 >16 8.25 >16 BS-HH-018 0.88 16 2.69 >16 BS-HH-020 15.14 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-021 13.4 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-025 >16 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-028 3.56 15.04 6.52 >16 BS-HH-034 0.46 16 0.6 2.7 BS-HH-035 0.87 >16 5.49 >16 BS-HH-037 0.41 >16 3.69 >16 BS-HH-038 1.47 16 7.37 >16 BS-HH-041 0.89 >16 3.2 >16 BS-HH-042 0.037 16 0.04 0.1 BS-HH-043 13 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-044 0.48 16 1.41 16 BS-HH-046 0.32 15.21 0.5 7.84 BS-HH-050 0.12 16 0.13 0.35 BS-HH-051 1.3 >16 7.26 >16 BS-HH-054 0.11 16 0.17 0.43 BS-HH-055 1.58 8 4 10.64 EXAMPLE 3 Evaluation of the Aminated Homoharringtonine Derivatives of the Present Invention for Their Anti-Human Multiple Myeloma and Lymphoma Cell Activities [0166] (1) Experimental Materials [0167] Multiple myeloma and lymphoma cell lines: RPMI8226 (multiple myeloma), purchased from Fuxiang Bio-tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China. [0168] Reagents: the same as in Example 2. [0169] Main apparatuses: a Thermo Scientific 3111 incubator and a Bio-Rad iMark microplate reader. [0170] (2) Experimental Method [0171] Obtaining 6000 well-growing leukemia cells and inoculating them into wells of a 96-well cell culture plate. The culture medium is the 1640 cell culture medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum. After adding the homoharringtonine derivatives of different concentrations and mixing uniformly, placing the plate in a carbon dioxide cell incubator (5% CO 2 ) at 37° C. and incubating for 72 hours. Then the viable cell concentration is determined by the MTT method. In this experiment, the cell viability in control group (not treated with any compound) is set as 100%, and the cell viability (%) after treatment and the half maximal inhibitory concentration of the compound for the leukemia cell growth at 72 hours (IC 50 value of 72 hours) are calculated. [0172] (3) The Experimental Results [0173] The experimental results are shown in table 2. Table 2 shows that the aminated homoharringtonine derivatives of the present invention can induce the cell death of human myeloma and lymphoma cells and inhibit the growth of these tumor cells, wherein the aminated homoharringtonine derivatives, BS-HH-012, BS-HH-042 and BS-HH-054, of the present invention have demonstrated strong anti-RPMI8226 (multiple myeloma) effect. EXAMPLE 4 Evaluation of the Aminated Homoharringtonine Derivatives of the Present Invention for Their Anti-Human Solid Tumor Effect [0174] (1) Experimental Materials [0175] Human solid tumor cell lines: Hep-2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma), A549 (human lung cancer), CaES-17 (esophageal cancer cell), PC-3 (prostate cancer), CNE (nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell), and SK-OV-3 (ovarian cancer cell), all of which are purchased from China Center For Type Culture Collection; RKO (human colon adenocarcinoma cell), MGC 803 (human gastric cancer cell), MG63 (osteosarcoma) and U87 MG (malignant glioma cell), all of which are purchased from Fuxiang Bio-tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China; PANC-1 (pancreatic cancer), Huh7 (human liver cancer cell), Becap37 (human breast cancer cell), and Hela (human cervical cancer cell), all of which are donated by Cancer Research Institute of Zhejiang University, China. [0176] Reagents: the same as in Example 2. [0177] Main apparatuses: a Thermo Scientific 3111 incubator and a Bio-Rad iMark microplate reader. [0178] (2) Experimental Method [0179] Obtaining 4000 well-growing human solid tumor cells and inoculating them into wells of a 96-well cell culture plate. The culture medium is DMEM High Glucose cell culture medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum. The plate is placed in a carbon dioxide cell incubator (5% CO 2 ) at 37° C. and incubating for 24 hours. After adding the homoharringtonine derivatives of different concentration and mixing uniformly, the plate is placed in a carbon dioxide cell incubator (5% CO 2 ) at 37° C. and incubating for 72 hours. Then the viable cell concentration is determined by the MTT method and the cell viability (%) after drug treatment is calculated. In this experiment, the cell viability of control group (not treated with any compound) is set as 100%. [0180] (3) The Experimental Results are Shown in Table 2. [0181] Table 2 shows that the aminated homoharringtonine derivatives of the present invention can induce the cell death of human solid tumor cells and inhibit the growth of these tumor cells. The aminated homoharringtonine derivatives of the present invention BS-HH-012, BS-HH-042, BS-HH-046, BS-HH-050 and BS-HH-054, have demonstrated strong anti-A549 (human lung cancer), anti-PANC-1 (pancreatic cancer), anti-Becap37 (human breast cancer cell), anti-MG63 (osteosarcoma), anti-Huh7 (human liver cancer cell), anti-RKO (human colon adenocarcinoma cell), anti-Hela (human cervical cancer cell), anti-CaES-17 (esophageal cancer cell), anti-CNE (nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell), anti-Hep-2 (laryngeal carcinoma), anti-PC-3 (prostate cancer) and anti-SK-OV-3 (ovarian cancer cell) effect. [0000] TABLE 2 Determination of the inhibiting concentrations of the aminated homoharringtonine derivatives on lymphoma, multiple myeloma and human solid tumor cell growth (72 h, IC 50 (μg/mL) value and IC 90 (μg/mL) value). RPMI8226 A549 PANC-1 Becap37 Compound IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 HHT 0.006 0.027 0.03 >16 0.035 >16 0.01 11.56 BS-HH-008 10.97 >16 16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-009 3.6 16 10.25 >16 16 >16 3.09 >16 BS-HH-011 6.71 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 11.32 >16 BS-HH-012 0.057 0.36 0.45 >16 0.26 >16 0.26 16 BS-HH-014 2.43 16 9.79 >16 8 >16 6.89 >16 BS-HH-018 0.6 5.66 4.09 >16 2.89 >16 1.7 >16 BS-HH-020 16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-021 16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-025 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-028 4.92 >16 16 >16 16 >16 13.14 >16 BS-HH-034 0.47 3.72 1.74 >16 1.94 >16 0.81 >16 BS-HH-035 1.44 14.13 5.41 >16 5.02 >16 3.75 >16 BS-HH-037 1 9.86 1.96 >16 6.47 >16 1.5 >16 BS-HH-038 1.22 16 5.72 >16 8.83 >16 1.95 >16 BS-HH-041 1.96 13.36 8.11 >16 6.35 >16 0.9 >16 BS-HH-042 0.042 0.24 0.45 >16 0.13 >16 0.17 >16 BS-HH-043 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-044 0.48 3.36 1.76 >16 1.91 >16 0.71 >16 BS-HH-046 0.17 0.72 0.84 >16 0.45 >16 0.4 >16 BS-HH-050 0.1 0.38 0.7 >16 0.23 >16 0.26 16 BS-HH-051 1.7 16 6.96 >16 6.84 >16 1.99 >16 BS-HH-054 0.092 0.24 0.72 >16 0.15 >16 0.14 16 BS-HH-055 2.1 16 11.21 >16 8 >16 5.9 >16 MG 63 Huh7 RKO U87 MG Compound IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 HHT 0.01 1.2 0.004 0.049 0.003 0.009 0.004 0.018 BS-HH-008 15.5 >16 11.22 >16 4.44 16 BS-HH-009 1.72 >16 6.7 >16 1.46 5.72 BS-HH-011 6.33 >16 16 >16 4 >16 BS-HH-012 0.18 >16 0.2 >16 0.11 0.43 0.24 1.13 BS-HH-014 6.24 >16 4 >16 1.25 5.36 BS-HH-018 0.96 >16 2.5 >16 0.34 1.5 BS-HH-020 14.14 >16 >16 >16 8.38 >16 BS-HH-021 >16 >16 >16 >16 8.51 >16 BS-HH-025 >16 >16 >16 >16 15.35 >16 BS-HH-028 6.8 >16 5.93 >16 BS-HH-034 0.32 16 1.05 >16 0.18 1.25 0.89 5.74 BS-HH-035 1.98 >16 4.46 >16 BS-HH-037 1.44 16 16 >16 BS-HH-038 3.71 >16 16 >16 BS-HH-041 1.97 >16 16 >16 BS-HH-042 0.12 16 0.044 >16 0.029 0.23 0.12 13.03 BS-HH-043 >16 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-044 0.8 >16 0.94 >16 0.16 2.37 0.64 16 BS-HH-046 0.23 >16 1.37 >16 0.054 0.93 0.25 >16 BS-HH-050 0.19 7.22 0.1 16 0.053 0.23 0.24 1.06 BS-HH-051 2.72 >16 >16 >16 BS-HH-054 0.12 8.07 0.12 16 2.75 6.97 0.32 16 BS-HH-055 3.83 16 4.83 >16 2.75 6.97 6.54 >16 Hela CaES-17 CNE Hep2 Compound IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 HHT 0.019 16 0.037 >16 0.038 >16 0.014 >16 BS-HH-012 0.35 >16 0.43 >16 0.13 >16 0.15 >16 BS-HH-034 1.97 >16 1.91 16 0.49 16 1.29 >16 BS-HH-042 0.45 >16 0.29 16 0.13 >16 0.97 >16 BS-HH-044 1.91 >16 1.63 16 0.76 >16 1.23 >16 BS-HH-046 1.56 >16 0.98 16 0.3 16 0.27 >16 BS-HH-050 0.46 >16 0.46 16 0.15 >16 0.31 >16 BS-HH-054 0.3 >16 1.37 >16 0.15 16 0.23 >16 MGC 803 PC-3 SK-OV-3 Compound IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 IC 50 IC 90 HHT 0.016 0.2 0.004 0.049 0.003 0.009 BS-HH-012 0.24 6.84 0.32 >16 0.41 >16 BS-HH-014 2.92 15.5 BS-HH-018 0.94 4.96 BS-HH-020 7.5 >16 BS-HH-021 >16 >16 BS-HH-025 >16 >16 BS-HH-028 8.62 24.34 BS-HH-034 0.81 11.81 0.91 >16 2.81 >16 BS-HH-035 1.79 9.2 BS-HH-037 0.9 9.29 BS-HH-041 1 11.84 BS-HH-042 0.096 0.25 0.31 >16 0.21 >16 BS-HH-043 >16 >16 BS-HH-044 0.74 >16 0.78 >16 3.97 >16 BS-HH-046 0.39 8.28 0.78 >16 1.89 >16 BS-HH-050 0.18 0.48 0.45 >16 0.57 >16 BS-HH-051 1.9 26.73 BS-HH-054 0.15 6 0.46 >16 0.47 >16 BS-HH-055 6.06 18.97

The present invention belongs to the field of natural medicine and pharmaceutical chemistry and specifically relates to novel aminated homoharringtonine derivatives of formula (I) and a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, to a process for the preparation of these compounds, compositions containing such compounds and their use in preparing antineoplastic medicaments.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a U.S. National Stage Application of International Application No. PCT/EP2015/078979 filed Dec. 8, 2015, which designates the United States of America, and claims priority to EP Application No. 15151622.6 filed Jan. 19, 2015, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present disclosure relates to membranes for use in electrolysis systems. The teachings thereof may be embodied in a method and a test device for checking a membrane leaktightness of at least one membrane of an electrolyzer which comprises two electrolyzer volumes separated from one another by the at least one membrane and is configured in order to produce two product gases from a starting liquid by means of electrolysis. BACKGROUND [0003] During the electrolysis of water, two product gases hydrogen and oxygen are formed simultaneously. These product gases must be separated, and must not be mixed with one another. Membranes of the electrolyzer may develop leaks during operation, and then hermetic separation of the two product gases can no longer be ensured. In this case, mixing of the product gases may occur, so that in the extreme case an unsafe operating state may arise. This eventuality must be prevented by suitable measures. [0004] Leaks of membranes of an electrolyzer may, for example, be detected by checking whether a product gas penetrates through a membrane. This procedure requires separate monitoring of the product gases and is relatively expensive. A challenge in the case of an electrolyzer for water electrolysis is, in particular, that water is present in the system, so that together with the two product gases up to three components may be present simultaneously. In a dynamic process, which generally entails temperature and pressure changes, the water content sometimes varies greatly. This makes calibration more difficult, particularly in the case of simple analysis methods. Furthermore, undesired condensation may occur. In a typical technical implementation of the monitoring of the product gases to detect membrane leaks, a relatively small gas flow, diverted from a product gas, is analyzed. With the aid of an actively cooled condenser, for example, the diverted gas can be dried. Time-varying operating pressures can be regulated by a pressure reducer. For example, gas chromatographs, thermal conductivity detectors, or catalytic sensors may be envisioned as detectors. In the presence of hydrogen and oxygen, the latter cause a chemical reaction and thereupon register a temperature increase. Such a procedure has the disadvantage that additional components are required, and that relatively elaborate calibrations need to be carried out. SUMMARY [0005] The teachings of the present disclosure may be embodied in a method and a test device for checking a membrane leaktightness of at least one membrane of an electrolyzer which comprises two electrolyzer volumes separated from one another by the at least one membrane and is configured in order to produce two product gases from a starting liquid by means of electrolysis. In particular, the method may include checking of the membrane leaktightness of an electrolyzer for water electrolysis, in which water is decomposed into the product gases oxygen and hydrogen, the electrolyzer being for example configured as a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer (so-called PEM electrolyzer) having at least one proton-permeable polymer membrane (PEM=polymer electrolyte membrane). PEM electrolyzers have the advantage that they can be operated very dynamically and are therefore suitable for the use of regenerative surplus current for the production of hydrogen. [0006] An example method for checking a membrane leaktightness of at least one membrane ( 7 ) of an electrolyzer ( 1 ) which comprises two electrolyzer volumes separated from one another by the at least one membrane ( 7 ) and is configured in order to produce two product gases ( 10 , 30 ) from a starting liquid ( 50 ) by means of electrolysis, may include during electrolysis, an electrolysis current strength is detected and a liquid flow rate of the starting liquid ( 50 ) between the two electrolyzer volumes is determined, and a ratio parameter (Q), which is proportional to the ratio of the liquid flow rate determined and the electrolysis current strength detected, is formed and is used to check the membrane leaktightness. [0007] In some embodiments, to determine the liquid flow rate, a time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid ( 50 ) in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes is determined. [0008] In some embodiments, each of the two electrolyzer volumes comprises a container volume of a separator container ( 5 , 6 ), in which a product gas ( 10 , 30 ) and starting liquid ( 50 ) are collected, characterized in that the time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid ( 50 ) in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes is determined by repeatedly detecting and evaluating a filling level of starting liquid ( 50 ) in the container volume of the electrolyzer volume. [0009] In some embodiments, the time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid ( 50 ) in at least one container volume of an electrolyzer volume is determined by repeatedly detecting and evaluating a gas pressure in the container volume. [0010] In some embodiments, each of the two electrolyzer volumes comprises a container volume of a separator container ( 5 , 6 ), in which a product gas ( 10 , 30 ) and starting liquid ( 50 ) are collected, characterized in that the liquid flow rate is determined by detecting and evaluating a time variation of a pressure difference between gas pressures in the two container volumes. [0011] In some embodiments, a first ratio threshold value (Q s1 ) for the ratio parameter is specified, and a leak of at least one membrane ( 7 ) is inferred when the ratio parameter (Q) exceeds the specified first ratio threshold value (Q s1 ). [0012] In some embodiments, a second ratio threshold value (Q s2 ) for the ratio parameter is specified, and a leak of at least one membrane ( 7 ) is inferred when the ratio parameter (Q) falls below the specified second ratio threshold value (Q s2 ). [0013] In some embodiments, the electrolysis is interrupted for an interruption time, the electrolyzer volumes are filled with mutually different liquid amounts of the starting liquid ( 50 ), and a time requirement for equalization of the liquid amounts in the two electrolyzer volumes is determined with the aid of a liquid flow rate determined during the interruption time and is used to assess the membrane leaktightness. [0014] In some embodiments, before the determination of the time requirement for equalization of the two liquid amounts, gas pressures in the two electrolyzer volumes are equalized to one another. [0015] In some embodiments, before the determination of the time requirement for equalization of the two liquid amounts, gas pressures in the two electrolyzer volumes are equalized to an ambient pressure in an environment of the electrolyzer ( 1 ). [0016] In some embodiments, the liquid flow rate is determined repeatedly during the interruption time, and the time requirement for equalization of the two liquid amounts is determined with the aid of an extrapolation of the liquid flow rates detected. [0017] The teachings of the present disclosure may be embodied in a test device ( 3 ) for checking a membrane leaktightness of at least one membrane ( 7 ) of an electrolyzer ( 1 ) which comprises two electrolyzer volumes separated from one another by the at least one membrane ( 7 ) and is configured in order to produce two product gases ( 10 , 30 ) from a starting liquid ( 50 ) by means of electrolysis. The test device ( 3 ) may include: an ammeter ( 60 ) for detecting an electrolysis current strength of the electrolyzer ( 1 ), a measuring device ( 8 ) for detecting a liquid amount of the starting liquid ( 50 ) in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes and an evaluation unit for determining a liquid flow rate of the starting liquid ( 50 ) between the two electrolyzer volumes with the aid of the measurement values detected by the measuring device ( 8 ). [0018] In some embodiments, each of the two electrolyzer volumes comprises a container volume of a separator container ( 5 , 6 ), in which a product gas ( 10 , 30 ) and starting liquid ( 50 ) are collected, characterized in that the measuring device ( 8 ) comprises at least one filling level sensor ( 9 ) for detecting a filling level of the starting liquid ( 50 ) in a container volume and/or at least one pressure sensor ( 15 ) for detecting a gas pressure in a container volume. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0019] The above-described properties, features and advantages of this invention, as well as the way in which they are achieved, will become more clearly and readily comprehensible in conjunction with the following description of the exemplary embodiments, which will be explained in more detail in connection with the drawings, in which: [0020] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an electrolyzer and a device for checking a membrane leaktightness of the electrolyzer, and [0021] FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a time variation of a ratio parameter. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0022] In some example methods for checking a membrane leaktightness of at least one membrane of an electrolyzer which comprises two electrolyzer volumes separated from one another by the at least one membrane and is configured in order to produce two product gases from a starting liquid by means of electrolysis, a liquid flow rate of the starting liquid between the two electrolyzer volumes is determined and is evaluated in order to check the membrane leaktightness. [0023] An example method may be used for monitoring the membrane leaktightness of an electrolyzer not with the aid of gas analyses of product gases, but instead by analysis of a liquid flow rate of the starting liquid through the at least one membrane of the electrolyzer, which is manifested as a liquid flow rate between the two electrolyzer volumes separated by the at least one membrane. Besides the molecules of a product gas, molecules of the starting liquid that are not involved in the electrolysis also penetrate through the at least one membrane and therefore pass from one electrolyzer volume into the other electrolyzer volume. In the event of a leak of a membrane, more molecules of the starting liquid can penetrate through this membrane, which leads to a change in the liquid flow rate between the two electrolyzer volumes. Determination of this liquid flow rate therefore makes it possible to check the membrane leaktightness. [0024] The method therefore allows checking of the membrane leaktightness without an elaborate gas analysis and calibration. In particular, in contrast to gas analysis methods, the method can be carried out without diverting a gas flow and without additional detectors or gas analysis of the diverted gas flow, such as gas chromatographs, thermal conductivity detectors or catalytic sensors. To carry out the method, only sensors for determining the liquid flow rate between the two electrolyzer volumes, and in one configuration of the method as described below ammeters for detecting electrolysis current strengths, are required. Such sensors are generally provided anyway as component parts of an electrolyzer, so that no additional sensors are required to carry out the method. Furthermore, the method allows reliable checking of the membrane leaktightness because of the high measurement accuracy of sensors for determining the liquid flow rate and electrolysis current strength. [0025] In some embodiments, to determine the liquid flow rate, a time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes is determined. A time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes can be determined simply and precisely by measurement technology, for example by means of filling level sensors, and is therefore suitable for determining the liquid flow rate between the electrolyzer volumes. [0026] In general, each of the two electrolyzer volumes comprises a container volume of a separator container, in which a product gas and starting liquid are collected. The time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes is determined by determining a time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid in the container volume of the electrolyzer volume. The time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid in the container volume of an electrolyzer volume is, for example, determined by repeatedly detecting and evaluating a filling level of starting liquid in the container volume, and/or by repeatedly detecting and evaluating a gas pressure in the container volume, and/or by detecting and evaluating a time variation of a pressure difference between gas pressures in the two container volumes. [0027] The aforementioned configurations make use of the fact that a liquid volume of the starting liquid in a separator container can be determined particularly simply and precisely by detecting a filling level of the starting liquid and/or a gas pressure in the separator container and/or a pressure difference between gas pressures in the two separator containers. During electrolysis, an electrolysis current strength is detected and a ratio parameter, which is proportional to the ratio of the liquid flow rate determined and the electrolysis current strength detected, is formed and is used to assess the membrane leaktightness. [0028] In general, the ratio of the amounts of a product gas and of the starting liquid, which penetrate through a membrane, is to a good approximation constant. In the event of a leak of a membrane an additional transport path is formed for the starting liquid through the membrane, and this ratio changes. This ratio is therefore suitable as a parameter for assessing the membrane leaktightness. In this case, the electrolysis current strength is a simply accessible measurement quantity that is a measure of the amount of a product gas penetrating through the membrane. A ratio parameter which is proportional to the ratio of the liquid flow rate determined and the electrolysis current strength detected is therefore particularly advantageously suitable for assessing the membrane leaktightness. [0029] In some embodiments, a first ratio threshold value for the ratio parameter is specified, and a leak of at least one membrane is inferred when the ratio parameter exceeds the specified first ratio threshold value, and/or a second ratio threshold value for the ratio parameter is specified, and a leak of at least one membrane is inferred when the ratio parameter falls below the specified second ratio threshold value. These embodiments define easily testable criteria for detecting a leak of at least one membrane, which are furthermore proven to be surprisingly reliable. In particular, a specification of the two ratio threshold values defines a tolerance range for values of the ratio parameter, outside which a leak of a membrane is inferred. In this way, the starting liquid can pass a leak of a membrane both in the same direction as a product gas penetrates through the membrane and in the opposite direction thereto, the direction depending on the relative level of the pressures in the two electrolyzer volumes. [0030] In some embodiments, the electrolysis is interrupted for an interruption time, the electrolyzer volumes are filled with mutually different liquid amounts of the starting liquid, and a time requirement for equalization of the liquid amounts in the two electrolyzer volumes is determined with the aid of a liquid flow rate determined during the interruption time and is used to assess the membrane leaktightness. [0031] Some methods may include a test procedure for assessing the membrane leaktightness, carried out during an interruption of the electrolysis. In this case, it is merely necessary to determine and evaluate a time requirement for equalization of initially different liquid amounts of the starting liquid in the electrolyzer volumes. A disadvantage, however, is that the electrolyzer is not available for electrolysis operation during the test procedure. [0032] In some embodiments, before the determination of the time requirement for equalization of the two liquid amounts, gas pressures in the two electrolyzer volumes are equalized to one another, and for example to an ambient pressure in an environment of the electrolyzer. Equalization of the gas pressures in the two electrolyzer volumes may define uniform conditions for the test procedure and thereby simplify evaluation of the test procedure for assessing the membrane leaktightness. Equalization of the gas pressures in the two electrolyzer volumes to the ambient pressure in an environment of the electrolyzer can be carried out particularly simply, for example by controlled opening of blow-off lines of the electrolyzer. [0033] In the case of the aforementioned test procedure, for example, the liquid flow rate may be determined repeatedly during the interruption time, and the time requirement for equalization of the two liquid amounts is determined with the aid of an extrapolation of the liquid flow rates detected. This may shorten the test procedure, since the test procedure does not need to be continued until equalization of the two liquid amounts is reached. [0034] Some embodiments may include a test device for checking a membrane leaktightness of at least one membrane of an electrolyzer which comprises two electrolyzer volumes separated from one another by the at least one membrane and is configured in order to produce two product gases from a starting liquid by means of electrolysis comprises a measuring device for detecting a liquid amount of the starting liquid in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes and an evaluation unit for determining a liquid flow rate of the starting liquid between the two electrolyzer volumes with the aid of the measurement values detected by the measuring device. One configuration of the test device provides an ammeter for detecting an electrolysis current strength of the electrolyzer. According to further configurations of the test device, the measuring device comprises at least one filling level sensor for detecting a filling level of the starting liquid in a container volume and/or at least one pressure sensor for detecting a gas pressure in a container volume. [0035] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an electrolyzer 1 and of a test device 3 for checking a membrane leaktightness of at least one membrane 7 of the electrolyzer 1 . The electrolyzer 1 may produce two product gases 10 , 30 from a starting liquid 50 by means of electrolysis. The starting liquid 50 is for example water, in which case oxygen as a first product gas 10 and hydrogen as a second product gas 30 are produced during the electrolysis. [0036] The electrolyzer 1 comprises a cell block 2 having at least one electrolysis cell 4 and two separator containers 5 , 6 . Only one electrolysis cell 14 is represented in FIG. 1 . However, it will be assumed below that the cell block 2 comprises a plurality of electrolysis cells 4 . Each electrolysis cell 4 has a membrane 7 , which divides the electrolysis cell 4 into a first subcell 4 . 1 and a second subcell 4 . 2 . Each first subcell 4 . 1 has an anode for the electrolysis, and each second subcell 4 . 2 has a cathode for the electrolysis. Each membrane 4 separates the product gases 10 , 30 produced in the respective electrolysis cell 4 during the electrolysis. [0037] The first subcells 4 . 1 are connected by means of a first feed line 20 and a first return line 25 to a first separator container 5 , in which the first product gas 10 produced in the electrolysis cells 4 during the electrolysis and starting liquid 50 are collected. In the first feed line 20 , there is a first heat exchanger 21 for thermally regulating starting liquid 50 and a first feed pump 22 , by means of which starting liquid 50 is pumped from the first separator container 5 through the first feed line 20 into the first subcells 4 . 1 . The first return line 25 is used to convey the first product gas 10 produced in the electrolysis cells 4 during the electrolysis into the first separator container 5 . [0038] The first subcells 4 . 1 , a container volume of the first separator container 5 , as well as the first feed line 20 and the first return line 25 , form a first electrolyzer volume of the electrolyzer 1 . Starting liquid 50 can be delivered to the first separator container 5 through a supply line 13 . To this end, the supply line 13 contains a supply pump 11 and a solenoid valve 12 , by means of which the supply line 13 can be opened and closed. First product gas 10 can be removed from the first separator container 5 via a first output line 17 . In the first output line 17 , there is a first pressure regulating valve 16 for regulating a gas pressure of the first product gas 10 . [0039] The second subcells 4 . 2 are connected by means of a second feed line 40 and a second return line 45 to the second separator container 6 , in which the second product gas 30 produced in the electrolysis cells 4 during the electrolysis and starting liquid 50 are collected. In the second feed line 40 , there is a second heat exchanger 41 for thermally regulating starting liquid 50 and a second feed pump 42 , by means of which starting liquid 50 is pumped from the second separator container 6 through the second feed line 40 into the second subcells 4 . 2 . The second return line 45 is used to convey the second product gas 30 produced in the electrolysis cells 4 during the electrolysis into the second separator container 6 . [0040] The second subcells 4 . 2 , a container volume of the second separator container 6 , as well as the second feed line 40 and the second return line 45 , form a second electrolyzer volume of the electrolyzer 1 . Starting liquid 50 can be removed from the second separator container 6 through a blow-off line 14 . To this end, the blow-off line 14 contains a blow-off valve 31 , by means of which the blow-off line 14 can be opened and closed. Second product gas 30 can be removed from the second separator container 6 via a second output line 37 . In the second output line 37 , there is a second pressure regulating valve 36 for regulating a gas pressure of the second product gas 30 . [0041] The embodiment of the test device 3 as represented in FIG. 1 comprises a measuring device 8 for detecting a liquid amount of the starting liquid 50 in each of the two electrolyzer volumes, as well as an evaluation unit (not represented) for determining the liquid flow rate of the starting liquid 50 between the two electrolyzer volumes with the aid of the measurement values detected by the measuring device 8 . For each separator container 5 , 6 , the measuring device 8 comprises a filling level sensor 9 for detecting a filling level of the starting liquid 50 in the container volume of the respective separator container 5 , 6 , and/or a pressure sensor 15 for detecting a gas pressure in the container volume of the respective separator container 5 , 6 . [0042] In the exemplary embodiment represented in FIG. 1 , for each separator container 5 , 6 , the measuring device 8 comprises both a filling level sensor 9 and a pressure sensor 15 . In simpler exemplary embodiments, the measuring device 8 comprises either a filling level sensor 9 or a pressure sensor 15 for each or for only one of the separator containers 5 , 6 . [0043] According to a first exemplary embodiment of a method for checking membrane leaktightness of the electrolyzer 1 , the electrolysis is interrupted for an interruption time, and a test procedure for checking the membrane leaktightness is carried out during the interruption time. For the test procedure, the two electrolyzer volumes are initially filled with mutually different defined liquid amounts of the starting liquid 50 . To this end, one of the two separator containers 5 , 6 is filled with starting liquid 50 up to a specified first filling level and the other of the two separator containers 5 , 6 is filled with starting liquid 50 up to a specified second filling level, which is different to the first filling level. [0044] In some embodiments, the gas pressures in the two separator containers 5 , 6 are furthermore equalized to one another. To this and, for example, the gas pressures in the two electrolyzer volumes are equalized to an ambient pressure in an environment of the electrolyzer 1 . [0045] Subsequently, a time requirement for equalization of the liquid amounts in the two electrolyzer volumes is determined with the aid of a liquid flow rate that has been determined between the two electrolyzer volumes. To this end, a difference between the filling levels of the starting liquid 50 and/or between the gas pressures in the two separator containers 5 , 6 is repeatedly determined and evaluated by means of the measuring device 8 . [0046] The time requirement for equalization of the liquid amounts in the two electrolyzer volumes is, for example, either directly measured by detecting the time until the liquid flow rate vanishes or until a specified liquid amount difference between the liquid amounts or a specified gas pressure difference between the gas pressures in the separator containers 5 , 6 is reached, or by determining a time requirement for equalization of the two liquid amounts with the aid of an extrapolation of the detected liquid flow rates. [0047] In some embodiments, a mathematical model of a time variation of the equalization of the liquid amounts may be used to determine the time requirement. For the case in which the liquid filling levels in the separator containers 5 , 6 correlate linearly with the liquid amounts, as is the case for common forms of separator containers 5 , 6 , it is for example assumed that the filling level difference Δh between the liquid filling levels in the separator containers 5 , 6 decreases exponentially with time t according to Δh(t)=h 0 ·exp(−kt), where k is a constant that is a measure of the time requirement for equalization of the liquid filling levels in the two separator containers 5 , 6 . Evaluation of the logarithmic values ln(Δh) of the measurement values for the filling level difference Δh as a function of time t allows approximate determination of the constant k from the slope of the straight line plotted through these logarithmic values. [0048] A leak of at least one membrane 7 is, for example, inferred when the time requirement for equalization of the liquid amounts in the two electrolyzer volumes as determined during the test procedure, is less than a specified time requirement threshold value. [0049] The described test procedure may also be carried out two times in succession, the roles of the separator containers 5 , 6 being interchanged so that the first time the test procedure is carried out, for example, the first separator container 5 is filled with a larger liquid amount of the starting liquid 50 than the second separator container 6 , while the second time the test procedure is carried out the second separator container 6 is filled with a larger liquid amount of the starting liquid 50 than the first separator container 5 . In this way, the reliability of the checking of the membrane leaktightness can be increased since systematic disruptive effects can be found. [0050] As an alternative or in addition, the membrane leaktightness of the electrolyzer 1 is checked during electrolysis. To this end, the test device 3 may comprise an ammeter 60 for detecting an electrolysis current strength of the electrolyzer 1 . During electrolysis, an electrolysis current strength is detected by means of the ammeter 60 and a liquid flow rate of the starting liquid 50 between the two electrolyzer volumes is determined by means of the measuring device 8 . The liquid flow rate is, for example, in this case determined by determining the time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid 50 in at least one of the two electrolyzer volumes. To this end, for example, a time variation of a liquid volume of the starting liquid in the container volume of the separator container 5 , 6 of the respective electrolyzer volume is determined by repeatedly detecting and evaluating a filling level of starting liquid 50 in the container volume. [0051] From the liquid flow rate determined and the electrolysis current strength detected, a ratio parameter Q is formed which is proportional to the ratio of the liquid flow rate determined and the electrolysis current strength detected. The ratio parameter Q is used to assess the membrane leaktightness. To this end, a first ratio threshold value Q s1 and a second ratio threshold value Q s2 for the ratio parameter Q are specified, and a leak of at least one membrane 7 is inferred when the ratio parameter Q exceeds the specified first ratio threshold value Q s1 or falls below the second ratio threshold value Q s2 . [0052] This formation and evaluation of the ratio parameter Q is based on the idea that, particularly when using water as the starting liquid 50 , a few molecules of water, which are not involved in the electrolysis reaction, also pass through a membrane 7 with each molecule of hydrogen. In this case, the ratio of these two substance flows is to a good approximation constant. If a leak of a membrane 7 should occur, an additional transport path is formed so that this ratio is perturbed. The water flow rate is quantified with the aid of the time variation of the filling level of the water in the second separator container 6 . The water flow rate is given as [0000] dn w /dt=c w ·A·dh/dt.   [1] [0053] In Equation [1], n w stands for the water amount in the second separator container 6 , c w stands for the molar concentration of water, A stands for the cross-sectional area of the second separator container 6 , and h stands for the filling level of water in the second separator container 6 . For example, 55.5 mol/l may be used as a numerical value for c w , temperature effects and possibly existing gas bubbles being neglected in this case. Surprisingly, it has been found that such relatively rough approximations nevertheless lead to a reliable method. The time variation of the filling level is expediently calculated with the aid of a linear regression of the temporally discrete filling level values. For example, 10 values may respectively be employed, which are detected at a time interval of 5 seconds each. [0054] The hydrogen flow through the membranes 7 is calculated with the aid of Faraday's laws. In this case, the number of active electrolysis cells 4 of the cell block 2 and the electrolysis current strength are taken into account. Furthermore, an electrical efficiency of 100% is assumed. The hydrogen flow is given as [0000] dn H2 /dt=a·I /(2· F ).  [2] [0055] In Equation [2], n H2 stands for the amount of hydrogen generated, a stands for the number of active electrolysis cells 4 of the cell block 2 , I stands for the electrolysis current strength and F stands for the Faraday constant. [0056] The ratio of the water flow rate according to Equation [1] and the hydrogen flow according to Equation [2] is therefore proportional to the ratio (dh/dt)/I and therefore to the ratio parameter Q. [0057] In the consideration above, the ratio of the flow rates is calculated by means of Equations [1] and [2]. Because of approximations used in this case, the actual values may differ slightly from the values calculated according to Equations [1] and [2]. In the case of intact membranes 7 , the ratio of the water flow rate to the hydrogen flow typically assumes a single-figure numerical value, so that for example the numerical value 10 may be set as an upper limit beyond which a membrane 7 is considered defective. In principle, however, constant factors, for example the cross-sectional area A of the second separator container 6 or the number a of active electrolysis cells 4 , do not need to be taken into account for the definition of the ratio parameter Q and the ratio threshold values Q s1 , Q s2 , so that the pure numerical value (and the unit) of the ratio threshold values Q s1 , Q s2 may be adapted accordingly. [0058] FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a profile of such a ratio parameter Q as a function of time t, values determined for the ratio parameter Q being represented as crosses. At an overshoot time t 0 , the ratio parameter Q exceeds the first ratio threshold value Q s1 . It is inferred therefrom that at least one membrane 7 has a leak at the overshoot time t 0 . A leak of at least one membrane 7 is correspondingly inferred when the ratio parameter Q falls below the second ratio threshold value Q s2 . The time fluctuations of the ratio parameter Q are attributable to fluctuations of the electrolysis current strength, the temperature and the system pressure. Although the influences of these fluctuations of the electrolysis current strength, the temperature and the system pressure may be reduced by replacing the ratio parameter Q with a simplified parameter, such a simplification is however generally unnecessary since the effects of a leak of a membrane 7 greatly surpass the influences of fluctuations of the electrolysis current strength, the temperature and the system pressure. [0059] Although the invention has been illustrated and described in detail by exemplary embodiments, the teachings are not restricted to the examples disclosed and other variants may be derived therefrom by the person skilled in the art without departing from the protective scope of the claims below.

The present disclosure relates to membranes for use in electrolysis systems. The teachings thereof may be embodied in a method for checking a membrane of an electrolyzer comprises two volumes separated by the membrane and produces two product gases from a starting liquid. The method may include: detecting an electrolysis current strength during electrolysis, measuring a liquid flow rate of the starting liquid between the two electrolyzer volumes, calculating a ratio of the measured liquid flow rate and the detected electrolysis current strength, and using the calculated ratio as an indication of membrane leaktightness.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED UNITED STATES APPLICATIONS This application claims priority from “Automatic segmentation of vessels in breast MR sequences as a false positive elimination technique for automatic lesion detection and segmentation using the shape tensor”, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/764,122 of Hermosillo, et al., filed Feb. 1, 2006, and from “Method for automatic extraction of image structure based on the second order geometric moment”, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/704,930 of Hermosillo, et al., filed Aug. 2, 2005, the contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD This invention is directed to segmentation of digitized medical images. DISCUSSION OF THE RELATED ART Contrast enhanced MR sequences are a powerful diagnostic tool for the detection of lesions in breast. Typically, the diagnosis begins by identifying suspicious regions of enhancement in post contrast acquisitions with respect to a pre-contrast one. Automating this process is therefore one that a computer aided detection system needs to perform. A difficulty for such a system is the fact that, besides the lesions, a number of non-suspicious structures also enhance in the post-contrast image. Most of these structures are vessels. Vessels are the main type of false positive structure that arise when automatically detecting lesions as regions that are enhanced after injection of the contrast agent. Dynamic subtraction of post-contrast T1 weighted images is routinely performed as part of a protocol to evaluate breast lesions with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Because lesions usually contain a high vascularity, perfusion of a contrast agent makes the lesions appear brighter than the background and therefore this modality is quite sensitive. Automatically segmenting the lesions can provide the radiologist with accurate automatic measurements and render these measurements more consistent across readers. Region growing segmentation algorithms or even simple thresholding could be used to segment those lesions, if it was not for the fact that the vessels that are attached to them cause the segmentation to leak through the vessels. Removing the vessels could therefore facilitate the segmentation task. On the other hand, automatic detection of the lesions requires the ability to distinguish the lesions from the various types of normal structures that also enhance with the contrast agent. These include breast parenchyma, vessels, the area under the nipples and the area surrounding the heart. There has been interest in developing automatic methods for segmenting the vascular structure in modalities like CT and MR angiography, etc. The literature is very abundant on this subject, describing both automatic and semi-automatic methods, which cover a very wide range of models, assumptions and techniques. In a clinical work-flow context, the extraction of the vascular structure should be fully automatic and require no more than a few seconds of computation time. One technique that performs well, can be easily validated with clinical data, and is easily implemented, involves the use of moments, for which there is little reported in the research literature. Previous approaches based on moments includes the use of moment invariants to extract and characterize vessels in infrared images of laser-heated skin, the use of geometrical moments to extract the vascular structure from large CT data sets, as well as to characterize the vessels, and computing multi-resolution moment filters for the extraction of linear structures from very noisy 2D images. The use of geometrical moments to extract image structure varies among methods proposed in the literature. Many times, the moments of inertia are computed on a binarized image obtained after thresholding. The problem with this is that the threshold is usually difficult to choose and might not allow detection of small vessels because a low threshold will cause smaller vessels, which tend to have lower intensities, to be merged with neighboring structures. Another problem with thresholding is that the structure becomes “pixelized”, i.e. develops sharp edges that render the computation of its shape imprecise with respect to the true shape of the underlying structure. An alternative to thresholding is to compute the moments using the image intensity function ƒ as density function. However, in regions where the signal-to-noise (SN) ratio is low, it becomes difficult to establish a threshold on the eccentricity of a fitted ellipse to detect elongated structures. For example, FIG. 1( a ) depicts an MIP of a sub-volume extracted from a real image around a vessel junction. The top row depicts the original voxel values using nearest-neighbor interpolation. The middle row depicts the binary image obtained after manual thresholding. The threshold was adjusted to capture both vessels, a task that is quite difficult to achieve automatically. The pixelization effect of the thresholding is evident, which affects the precision of the shape descriptors. The third row shows the same sub-volume using a more sophisticated interpolation scheme. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Exemplary embodiments of the invention as described herein generally include methods and systems for automatic detection of bright tubular structures and its performance for automatic segmentation of vessels in breast MR sequences based on geometrical moments for the extraction of tubular structures from images. A method according to an embodiment of the invention is based on the eigenvalues of the shape tensor, and reconciles not having to threshold the image with reliably recovering structure under very low signal to noise (SN) ratios. A method according to an embodiment of the invention does not rely on image derivatives of either first order, like methods based on the eigenvalues of the mean structure tensor, or second order, like methods based on the eigenvalues of the Hessian, and the smoothing of the output which is inherent to approaches based on the Hessian or structure tensor is avoided. A method according to an embodiment of the invention can execute quickly, needing only a few seconds per sequence. Testing results based motion-corrected breast MR sequences indicate that a method according to an embodiment of the invention reliably segments vessels while leaving lesions intact, and out-performs differential techniques both in sensitivity and localization precision and is less sensitive to scale selection parameters. According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for segmenting digitized images including providing a digitized image comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points on a 3-dimensional grid, defining a shape matrix for a selected point in said image from moments of the intensities in a window of points about said selected point, calculating eigenvalues of said shape matrix, determining an eccentricity of a structure underlying said point from said eigenvalues, and segmenting said image based on said eccentricity values, wherein the steps of defining a shape matrix, calculating eigenvalues of said shape matrix, and determining the eccentricity of the underlying structure are repeated for all points in said image. According to a further aspect of the invention, the selected point has a median enhancement greater than a predefined threshold, wherein a contrast enhancing agent was applied to the subject matter of said digitized image prior to acquisition of said image. According to a further aspect of the invention, the median enhancement is calculated by taking a difference of a median value of said contrast enhanced image and a median value of a pre-contrast enhanced image, and normalizing said difference to be within a predefined range. According to a further aspect of the invention, the shape matrix S α is defined as S α = ( μ xx , α μ xy , α μ xz , α μ xy , α μ yy , α μ yz , α μ xz , α μ yz , α μ zz , α ) , ⁢ wherein μ xx , α = m 2 , 0 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 ⁢ , α - m 1 , 0 , 0 , α 2 m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 μ xy , α = m 1 , 1 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 1 , 0 , 0 , α ⁢ m 0 , 1 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 , μ yy , α = m 0 , 2 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 0 , 1 , 0 , α 2 m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 , ⁢ μ xz , α = m 1 , 0 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 1 , 0 , 0 , α ⁢ m 0 , 0 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 , ⁢ μ yz , α = m 0 , 1 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 0 , 1 , 0 , α ⁢ m 0 , 0 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 , μ zz , α = m 0 , 0 , 2 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 0 , 0 , 1 , α 2 m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 , wherein moments m p,q,r,α are defined as m p,q,r,α ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 )=∫ R 3 ( x−x 0 ) p ( y−y 0 ) q ( z−z 0 ) r ƒ( x, y, z) α w ( x−x 0 , y−y 0 , z−z 0 ) dxdydz, wherein w is a window function with compact support, p, q, rμ0 and αμ1. According to a further aspect of the invention, the integral is calculated by a sum over a finite neighborhood about each point. According to a further aspect of the invention, the window function is defined by w ⁡ ( x , y , z ) = { 1 if ⁢ ⁢ { x ∈ [ - N x ⁢ v x , N x ⁢ v x ] y ∈ [ - N y ⁢ v y , N y ⁢ v y ] z ∈ [ - N z ⁢ v z , N z ⁢ v z ] , 0 otherwise wherein ν x , ν y , ν z are image point spacings, N x , N y , N z are non-negative integers defined wherein a window size contains a largest diameter of interest. According to a further aspect of the invention, the method comprises computing said moments using nearest neighbor interpolation, and correcting said shape matrix according to S ^ α + 1 12 ⁢ ( v x 2 0 0 0 v y 2 0 0 0 v z 2 ) , wherein ν x , ν y , ν z are image point spacings. According to a further aspect of the invention, the method comprises computing said moments using trilinear interpolation. According to a further aspect of the invention, α=1, and correcting said shape matrix according to S ^ α + 1 6 ⁢ ( v x 2 0 0 0 v y 2 0 0 0 v z 2 ) , wherein ν x , ν y , ν z are image point spacings. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform the method steps for segmenting digitized images. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1( a ) depicts an MIP of a sub-volume extracted from a real image around a vessel junction, according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 1( b ) depicts a simulated vessel and its detection using moments of inertia without thresholding, according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 illustrates basis functions used for 1D linear interpolation, according to an embodiment of the invention. FIGS. 3( a )-( c ) depict segmentation of a large lesion, according to an embodiment of the invention. FIGS. 4( a )-( c ) depicts segmentation of multiple small lesions, according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 5 depicts segmentation of the vascular structure in breast MRI using the shape tensor, according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 6 depicts a flow chart of a method for a moment-based segmentation according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system for implementing a moment-based segmentation method according to an embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Exemplary embodiments of the invention as described herein generally include systems and methods for automatic detection of bright tubular structures and its performance for automatic segmentation of vessels in breast MR sequences. A method according to an embodiment of the invention is based on the eigenvalues of a shape tensor. It can be compared to methods based on the eigenvalues of the mean Hessian and those based on the eigenvalues of the mean structure tensor. The Hessian, being defined from the second-order derivatives, can be regarded as a structure descriptor of order two. Similarly, the structure tensor is a structure descriptor of order one. The shape tensor can be regarded as a structure descriptor of order zero. As used herein, the term “image” refers to multi-dimensional data composed of discrete image elements (e.g., pixels for 2-D images and voxels for 3-D images). The image may be, for example, a medical image of a subject collected by computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, or any other medical imaging system known to one of skill in the art. The image may also be provided from non-medical contexts, such as, for example, remote sensing systems, electron microscopy, etc. Although an image can be thought of as a function from R 3 to R, the methods of the inventions are not limited to such images, and can be applied to images of any dimension, e.g. a 2-D picture or a 3-D volume. For a 2- or 3-dimensional image, the domain of the image is typically a 2- or 3-dimensional rectangular array, wherein each pixel or voxel can be addressed with reference to a set of 2 or 3 mutually orthogonal axes. The terms “digital” and “digitized” as used herein will refer to images or volumes, as appropriate, in a digital or digitized format acquired via a digital acquisition system or via conversion from an analog image. A method according to an embodiment of the invention works on the image intensities by computing second-order geometric moments of the underlying (bright) structure. A method can be applied to a binarized image obtained by applying a threshold to the initial post-contrast enhanced image, but a method can be applied without this threshold. The eigenvalues of the second-order geometric moments are a classical tool for shape characterization in object recognition. They, however, have never been applied as a filter for extracting image structure. Given a binary image, a small sub-volume around each pixel (its size being related to the structures of interest) is considered and a shape tensor is defined at that location as the second-order moments of the positions of the bright voxels with respect to the center of the sub-volume. For voxels in which the center pixel is both bright and lies close enough to the center of the underlying shape, eigenvalues of the shape tensor are computed and assigned the value λ 1 −λ 2 /(λ 1 +λ 2 ) to the filter response, where λ 2 >λ 1 are the largest eigenvalues. According to an embodiment of the invention, a geometrical 3D moment can be defined as: m p,q,r,α ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 )=∫ R 3 ( x−x 0 ) p ( y−y 0 ) q ( z−z 0 ) r ƒ( x, y, z ) α w ( x−x 0 , y−y 0 , z−z 0 ) dxdydz, where w is a positive and symmetric window function with compact support that provides localization, p, q, rμ0 and αμ1. The shape tensor of order α is defined in terms of these moments as S α = ( μ xx , α μ xy , α μ xz , α μ xy , α μ yy , α μ yz , α μ xz , α μ yz , α μ zz , α ) , ⁢ where μ xx , α = m 2 , 0 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 ⁢ , α - m 1 , 0 , 0 , α 2 m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 μ xy , α = m 1 , 1 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 1 , 0 , 0 , α ⁢ m 0 , 1 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 μ yy , α = m 0 , 2 , 0 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 0 , 1 , 0 , α 2 m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 μ xz , α = m 1 , 0 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 1 , 0 , 0 , α ⁢ m 0 , 0 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 μ yz , α = m 0 , 1 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 0 , 1 , 0 , α ⁢ m 0 , 0 , 1 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 μ zz , α = m 0 , 0 , 2 , α m 0 , 0 , 0 , α - m 0 , 0 , 1 , α 2 m 0 , 0 , 0 , α 2 This matrix is symmetric, so all of its eigenvalues are real. Letting the three eigenvalues be λ 3 >λ 2 >λ 1 μ0, a filter response can be defined by C line = λ 3 - λ 2 λ 3 + λ 2 . For a line or cylindrical like structure such as a vessel, C line λ1. According to an embodiment of the invention, the eccentricity of the underlying shape is computed based on the eigenvalues 0[λ 1 [λ 2 [λ 3 of S α , with α>>1. As α becomes larger, the higher intensity values are given more importance, acting almost like a thresholding. High values of α can cope with very low SN ratios as shown in the simulated experiment of FIG. 1( b ), were a synthetic tubular structure with added uniform noise is detected with the classic matrix of inertia and the shape tensor at α=15. FIG. 1( b ) depicts a simulated vessel and its detection with the standard moments of inertia without thresholding and with the shape tensor at α=15. The columns show from left to right: (1) the center slice of the original synthetic volume, (2) its maximum intensity projection (MIP), (3) the MIP of the volume with the vessel removed by the standard moment method, (4) the MIP of the detected vessel by the moment method, (5) the MIP of the volume with the vessel removed using the shape tensor with α=15, and (6) the MWP of the detected vessel using shape tensor with α=15. The six rows represent increasing levels of additive uniform noise, giving respectively SN ratios of, from top to bottom: (1) 56.3, (2) 36.7, (3) 20.4, (4) 11.6, (5) 5.5 and (6) 0.8 dB. The threshold on the eccentricity of the shape is the same across rows for each algorithm. In all cases the detection criterion was λ 3 λ 2 > 15 for S 15 and λ 3 λ 2 > 2 for the matrix of inertia corresponding to S 1 . This improved detection performance has been noticed in real cases. In practice, the above integral is usually replaced by a sum over a finite neighborhood around each voxel since ƒ is only known at voxel locations. It can be assumed for all experiments that the localization function is given by w ⁡ ( x , y , z ) = { 1 if ⁢ ⁢ { x ∈ [ - N x ⁢ v x , N x ⁢ v x ] y ∈ [ - N y ⁢ v y , N y ⁢ v y ] z ∈ [ - N z ⁢ v z , N z ⁢ v z ] , 0 otherwise where ν x , ν y , ν z are the image voxel spacings and N x , N y , N z are non-negative integers defined such that the window size contains the largest diameter of interest. Then, given an image, consider a small sub-volume around each pixel and define m ^ p , q , r , α = ∑ i = 1 2 ⁢ N x ⁢ ∑ j = 0 2 ⁢ N y ⁢ ∑ k = 0 2 ⁢ N z ⁢ ( iv x ) p ⁢ ( jv y ) q ⁢ ( kv z ) r ⁢ ρ ijk α , where ρ ijk is the value of the image at the voxel corresponding to the indexes i,j,k. The eigenvalues 0[λ 1 [λ 2 [λ 3 of the matrix S α = ( μ ^ xx , α μ ^ xy , α μ ^ xz , α μ ^ xy , α μ ^ yy , α μ ^ yz , α μ ^ xz , α μ ^ yz , α μ ^ zz , α ) , are computed where the values {circumflex over (μ)} . . . are computed as above but using the summation moments. The eccentricity or elongation of the underlying structure can be measured by the classic eccentricity measure ε=(λ 3 −λ 2 )/(λ 3 +λ 2 ), which takes values between 0 and 1, or simply by the ratio λ 3 /λ 2 , provided that λ 2 >0. Since moment based methods do not assume differentiability of the image intensity function ƒ, simple interpolation schemes can be used such as nearest-neighbor or tri-linear, to compute integrals of the interpolated function instead of sums over the voxel values. One may expect better precision using the value of these integrals, especially in the case of tri-linear interpolation. Using the equalities ∫ ( i - 1 / 2 ) ⁢ v x ( i + 1 / 2 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ ⅆ x = v x , ⁢ ∫ ( i - 1 / 2 ) ⁢ v x ( i + 1 / 2 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ x ⁢ ⅆ x = v x 2 ⁢ i , ⁢ ∫ ( i - 1 / 2 ) ⁢ v x ( i + 1 / 2 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ x 2 ⁢ ⅆ x = v x 3 ⁡ ( i 2 + 1 12 ) , it can be seen that, for the nearest-neighbor interpolation integral, the matrix Ŝ α above should be replaced by S ^ α + 1 12 ⁢ ( v x 2 0 0 0 v y 2 0 0 0 v z 2 ) . In the case of tri-linear interpolation, the function ƒ is given by Σ i,j,k ρ ijk g ijk , where i,j,k are the indices of the image voxels, ρ ijk is the image value at a voxel and g i , j , k , ⁡ ( x , y , z ) = { ( 1 -  x - v x ⁢ i  v x ) ⁢ ( 1 -  y - v y ⁢ j  v y ) ⁢ ( 1 -  z - v z ⁢ k  v z ) 0 ⁢ ⁢ otherwise ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ { x ∈ [ ( i - 1 ) ⁢ v x , ( i + 1 ) ⁢ v x ] y ∈ [ ( j - 1 ) ⁢ v y , ( j + 1 ) ⁢ v y ] z ∈ [ ( k - 1 ) ⁢ v z , ( k + 1 ) ⁢ v z ] Then, writing ∫ xyz ⁢ ( · ) ≡ ∫ ( k - 1 ) ⁢ v z ( k + 1 ) ⁢ v z ⁢ ∫ ( j - 1 ) ⁢ v y ( j + 1 ) ⁢ v y ⁢ ∫ ( i - 1 ) ⁢ v x ( i + 1 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ ( · ) ⁢ ⅆ x ⁢ ⅆ y ⁢ ⅆ z ⁢ : ∫ xyz ⁢ g ijk = v x ⁢ v y ⁢ v z , ⁢ ∫ xyz ⁢ xg ijk = iv x 2 ⁢ v y ⁢ v z , ⁢ ∫ xyz ⁢ xyg ijhk = ij ⁢ ⁢ v x 2 ⁢ v y 2 ⁢ v z , ⁢ ∫ xyz ⁢ x 2 ⁢ g ijk = ( i 2 + 1 6 ) ⁢ v x 3 ⁢ v y ⁢ v z , so that, for tri-linear interpolation in the case α=1, the matrix Ŝ α should be replaced by S ^ α + 1 6 ⁢ ( v x 2 0 0 0 v y 2 0 0 0 v z 2 ) . The situation becomes more complex in the case of the general shape tensor (α>1) using tri-linear interpolation, in which ƒ α is given by (Σ i,j,k ρ ijk g ijk ) α . Although the corresponding integrals are still computable in closed form, the complexity is increased significantly. According to an embodiment of the invention, to compute the corresponding shape tensor, note that it is no longer useful to compute moments of g ijk α , as in the case α=1 above. To proceed, the above moments can be obtained using a less direct method but which can be generalized to α>1. This can be done in the 1-D case, with the 2-D and 3-D cases being straightforward generalizations thereof. Assuming ρ k =0 for k<i−2 or k>i+2, one obtains ∫ ( i - 2 ) ⁢ v x ( i + 2 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ f ⁡ ( x ) ⁢ ⅆ x = ⁢ ∑ k = i - 1 i + 1 ⁢ ∫ ( k - 1 ) ⁢ v x ( k + 1 ) ⁢ v ⁢ ρ k ⁢ g k ⁡ ( x ) ⁢ ⅆ x = ⁢ ∫ ( i - 2 ) ⁢ v x ( i - 1 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ ρ i - 1 ⁢ g i - 1 ⁡ ( x ) ⁢ ⅆ x + ∫ ( i - 1 ) ⁢ v x iv x ⁢ ( ρ ⁢ i ⁢ - ⁢ 1 ⁢ g ⁢ i ⁢ ( x ) + ρ ⁢ i ⁢ g i ⁡ ( x ) ) ⁢ ⅆ x + ∫ v x ( i + 1 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ ( ρ i ⁢ g i ⁡ ( x ) + ρ i + 1 ⁢ g i + 1 ⁡ ( x ) ) ⁢ ⅆ x + ∫ ( i + 1 ) ⁢ v x ( i + 2 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ ρ i + 1 ⁢ g i + 1 ⁡ ( x ) ⁢ ⅆ x = ⁢ v x ⁡ ( ρ i - 1 + ρ i + ρ i + 1 ) . The four integrals above can be obtained from the 3 piecewise-linear basis functions illustrated in FIG. 2 . Referring to the figure, the first basis function g i−1 is defined over the domain (i−2)ν x to iν x , the second basis function g i is defined over the domain (i−1)ν x to (i+1)ν x , and the third function g i+1 is defined over the domain iν x to (i+2)ν x . This method of computing the integral can be generalized to α>1. For instance, one can compute: ∫ ( i ⁢ - ⁢ 2 ) ⁢ ⁢ v ⁢ x ( i ⁢ + ⁢ 2 ) ⁢ ⁢ v ⁢ x ⁢ ( f ⁢ ( x ) ) 2 ⁢ ⅆ x = ⁢ ∫ ( i - 2 ) ⁢ v x ( i - 1 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ ( ρ i - 1 ⁢ g i - 1 ⁡ ( x ) ) 2 ⁢ ⅆ x + ⁢ ∫ ( i - 1 ) ⁢ v x iv x ⁢ ( ρ i - 1 ⁢ g i ⁡ ( c ) + ρ i + 1 ⁢ g i + 1 ⁡ ( x ) ) 2 ⁢ ⅆ x + ⁢ ∫ ( i + 1 ) ⁢ v x ( i + 2 ) ⁢ v x ⁢ ( ρ i + 1 ⁢ g i + 1 ⁡ ( x ) ) 2 ⁢ ⅆ x = ⁢ ( 2 3 ⁢ ρ i - 1 2 + 1 3 ⁢ ρ i - 1 ⁢ ρ i + 2 3 ⁢ ρ i 2 + 1 3 ⁢ ρ i ⁢ ρ i + 1 + 2 3 ⁢ ρ i + 1 2 ) ⁢ v x Similarly , ⁢ ∫ ( i ⁢ - ⁢ 2 ) ⁢ ⁢ v ⁢ x ( i ⁢ + ⁢ 2 ) ⁢ ⁢ v ⁢ x ⁢ xf ⁡ ( x ) 2 ⁢ ⅆ x = ( i ⁢ ⁢ ρ i 2 + ( i - 1 ) ⁢ ρ i - 1 2 + ( 1 2 ⁢ i - 1 4 ) ⁢ ρ i - 1 ⁢ ρ i + ( 1 2 ⁢ i + 1 4 ) ⁢ ρ i ⁢ ρ i + 1 + ( i + 1 ) ⁢ ρ i + 1 2 ) ⁢ v x 2 , ⁢ and ∫ ( i ⁢ - ⁢ 2 ) ⁢ ⁢ v ⁢ x ( i ⁢ + ⁢ 2 ) ⁢ ⁢ v ⁢ x ⁢ x 2 ⁢ f ⁡ ( x ) 2 ⁢ ⅆ x = ( ( 11 15 + 4 3 ⁢ i + 2 3 ⁢ i 2 ) ⁢ ρ i + 1 2 + ( 1 10 + 1 3 ⁢ i + 1 3 ⁢ i 2 ) ⁢ ρ i ⁢ ρ i + 1 + ( 1 15 + 2 3 ⁢ i 2 ) ⁢ ρ i 2 + ( 1 10 - 1 3 ⁢ i + 1 3 ⁢ i 2 ) ρ i - 1 ⁢ ρ i + ( 11 15 - 4 3 ⁢ i + 2 3 ⁢ i 2 ) ⁢ ρ i - 1 2 ) ⁢ v x 3 Although generalized formulas could potentially be found for the 3-D case and a given α>1, the complexity of the resulting polynomials is quite high for the potential precision improvement. In the 2-D case, the four integrals above become sixteen integrals, and become sixty-four integrals in 3D. A method according to an embodiment of the invention has been tested on more than 100 motion-corrected breast MR dynamic sequences. The results obtained show that vessels can be reliably segmented while leaving lesions intact. According to an embodiment of the invention, moments are computed on a sliding window of fixed size, but only points for which the median enhancement is higher than a given threshold are considered. This threshold can be chosen low enough so as to detect even small vessels. It is not difficult to set because it is not relied upon for the computations but only to accelerate the whole process, by treating fewer voxels. The median enhancement is calculated by taking the median value of the post-contrast acquisitions minus the value of the pre-contrast acquisition at each image voxel. This difference is then normalized by applying an affine function such that the resulting enhancement is in the range [0, 200]. FIGS. 3( a )-( c ), 4 ( a )-( c ), and 5 show a few representative examples of the results. FIGS. 3( a )-( c ) depict segmentation of a large lesion, while FIGS. 4( a )-( c ) depicts segmentation of multiple small lesions. For both of these figures, panel (a) depicts a thresholded initial post-contrast enhancement image, panel (b) depicts the detected vessels, and panel (c) depicts the lesions with the vessels removed. FIG. 5 illustrates segmentation of the vascular structure in breast MRI using the shape tensor with α=6. The three columns show orthogonal views of the same patient. The first row shows the original MIP of the median enhancement. The second row shows the same volume with automatically removed vessels. The third row shows a MIP of the removed vessels alone. Notice that vessels of very different diameters and enhancement levels are correctly segmented. The detection was performed by taking locations for which the eigenvalues of the shape tensor were such that λ 3 /λ 2 >3. In each of these figures, note how even small vessels are correctly segmented and even small spherical structures are left intact. As a further validation, a method according to an embodiment of the invention extracted the vascular structure on 40 cases reviewed by three radiologists who marked a total of 75 lesions. The vessels were correctly segmented in all the cases and all the marked lesions were left intact. A flow chart of a moment-based segmentation method according to an embodiment of the invention is depicted in FIG. 6 . Referring now to the figure, an image to be segmented is provided at step 61 . The shape tensor is calculated for voxel in the image whose median contrast enhancement exceeds a pre-defined threshold, as determined at step 62 . The moments from which the shape tensor is defined are calculated at step 63 on a fixed size window about the selected voxel. At step 64 , the eigenvalues of the shape tensor are calculated, and at step 65 , the eccentricity of the underlying structure is determined. The process loops at step 66 until every voxel has been processed. The image is segmented at step 67 based on the eccentricities derived from the shape tensor. Moment-based methods to extract local shape information can be compared to methods based on higher order image derivatives. For instance, the Gradient Square Tensor (GST), or structure tensor, has been proposed as a robust method to estimate local structure dimensionality. It is based on first order derivatives and hence could be called a structure descriptor of order one. The eigenvalues of the Hessian also provide local image structure information, as well as the principal curvatures of the isolevel at a given point. The Hessian and the principal curvatures are defined from second-order derivatives and hence could be called structure descriptors of order two. The shape tensor can be seen as a structure descriptor of order zero. It is based on integrals and hence has the property of being very robust to noise compared to methods based on either first or second order derivatives. In addition, there is no need to assume any differentiability on the image function, which simplifies the modeling. A problem with a shape tensor based method is that junctions are not detected. Also, a better understanding is needed to determine whether geometrical shape properties could be computed from the eigenvalues of the shape tensor with α>1. It is to be understood that the present invention can be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purpose processes, or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, the present invention can be implemented in software as an application program tangible embodied on a computer readable program storage device. The application program can be uploaded to, and executed by, a machine comprising any suitable architecture. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system for implementing a moment-based segmentation method according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring now to FIG. 7 , a computer system 71 for implementing the present invention can comprise, inter alia, a central processing unit (CPU) 72 , a memory 73 and an input/output (I/O) interface 74 . The computer system 71 is generally coupled through the I/O interface 74 to a display 75 and various input devices 76 such as a mouse and a keyboard. The support circuits can include circuits such as cache, power supplies, clock circuits, and a communication bus. The memory 73 can include random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), disk drive, tape drive, etc., or a combinations thereof. The present invention can be implemented as a routine 77 that is stored in memory 73 and executed by the CPU 72 to process the signal from the signal source 78 . As such, the computer system 71 is a general purpose computer system that becomes a specific purpose computer system when executing the routine 77 of the present invention. The computer system 71 also includes an operating system and micro instruction code. The various processes and functions described herein can either be part of the micro instruction code or part of the application program (or combination thereof) which is executed via the operating system. In addition, various other peripheral devices can be connected to the computer platform such as an additional data storage device and a printing device. It is to be further understood that, because some of the constituent system components and method steps depicted in the accompanying figures can be implemented in software, the actual connections between the systems components (or the process steps) may differ depending upon the manner in which the present invention is programmed. Given the teachings of the present invention provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the related art will be able to contemplate these and similar implementations or configurations of the present invention. While the present invention has been described in detail with reference to a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and substitutions can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

A method for segmenting digitized images includes providing a digitized image, selecting a point with a median enhancement greater than a predefined threshold, wherein a contrast enhancing agent was applied to the subject matter of said digitized image prior to acquisition of said image, defining a shape matrix for the selected point in said image from moments of the intensities in a window of points about said selected point, calculating eigenvalues of said shape matrix, determining an eccentricity of a structure underlying said point from said eigenvalues, and segmenting said image based on said eccentricity values, wherein the steps of defining a shape matrix, calculating eigenvalues of said shape matrix, and determining the eccentricity of the underlying structure are repeated for all points in said image.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a Division of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/162,243 filed Jun. 4, 2002 with claim to the benefit of the Jun. 5, 2001 filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/296,089 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to seismic survey acquisition equipment. In particular, the invention relates to seismic survey equipment assembly combinations, survey data management strategies, operating software for carrying out the management strategies, the logistics of equipment deployment, and operation of equipment. [0004] 2. Description of Related Art [0005] In principle, a seismic survey represents a voluminous data set containing detailed information that may be analyzed to describe the earth's layered geology as indicated by seismic wave reflections from acoustic impedance discontinuities at the layer interfaces. The analysis is influenced by elastic wave propagation velocities respective to the differences in strata density or elasticity. A seismic event such as is caused by the ignition of buried explosives in a shallow borehole or by a vibratory mechanism placed at the earth's surface is launched into the earth at a precisely known location and time. Seismic wave reflections of this man-made seismic event are detected by a multiplicity of transducers characterized in the art as geophones. The geophones are distributed in an orderly grid over the area of interest. The location of each geophone array is precisely mapped relative to the location of the seismic event. As the seismic wave from the timed event travels out from the source, reflections from that original seismic wave are returned to the surface where they are detected by the geophones. The geophones respond to the receipt of a wave with a corresponding analog electrical signal. These analog signals are received by data acquisition modules that digitize the analog signal stream for retransmission to a central recording unit. Among the significant data digitized by a data acquisition module may be the amplitude or strength of the reflected wave and the exact time lapse between the moment the event occurred and the moment an analog value of the geophone array is translated to a digital value. [0006] In a single survey, there may be thousands of geophone signal sources. Consequently, the data flow must be orderly and organized. For example, the data acquisition modules transmit geophone signal values in digital data groupings called packets. Each packet contains a predetermined number of digital data bits representing, among other things, the digital value of the analog signal amplitude at the time that a seismic wave or increment thereof was translated to the digital value. The acquisition modules are programmed to transmit a data packet respective to a set of geophone channels at a predetermined bit rate. The variable data in a data packet represents an instantaneous snapshot of the analog signal flow from each geophone channel. There may be numerous individual geophone units transmitting respective analog signals to the data acquisition module on the same geophone signal channel. [0007] Managing an orderly flow of this massive quantity of data to a central recording unit, often in a field survey truck, requires a plurality of digital signal processing devices. The data acquisition modules convert the geophone analog data to digital data and transmit the digital data packets along receiver lines or radio transmission channels. There may be numerous data acquisition modules transmitting respective data packets along a single receiver line. Among the functions of each data acquisition module is data packet transmission timing respective to the flow of data packets from other data acquisition modules transmitting respective data packets along the same receiver line. Typically, two or more receiver lines connect with base line units that further coordinate the data packet flow of numerous additional base line units into a base transmission line for receipt by a central recording unit. [0008] Seismic surveying is often carried out under extremely inhospitable conditions of heat or cold, tropics or arctic, land or sea, desert or swamp. Regardless of the environment, the geophones must be positioned precisely relative to the seismic source event. Necessarily, manual placement of the geophones is normally required. [0009] One of the many challenges facing seismic ground crews using cable connected systems is the initial decision of cable configuration(s). Data demands by geologists and investors are not always predictable. Seismic contractors must try to choose cable configurations that minimize weight for their workers in the field while keeping the number of line connectors to a minimum. However, prior art seismic systems are inflexibly designed as an integrated unit. If a remote data acquisition module is designed to operate in an 8-channel mode, a prior art system cannot readily be reconfigured to operate in a 6-channel mode notwithstanding that a particular survey task may be especially suited to the 6-channel mode. Prior art data acquisition modules are manufactured for a typical configuration with a fixed bit transmission rates and power settings that may not be adjusted. Consequently, bit transmission rates and power of transmission are mandated which are optimum only for a single type of equipment configuration. [0010] Prior art systems rely upon interrogation commands from the central control module which are synchronously transmitted to the remote data acquisition modules, relying solely on the central system clock to control times of sampling. [0011] An object of the present invention, therefore, is to assist a field observer to maximize an efficient use of the recording resources available to him for any particular task. Another object of the invention is to provide the greatest possible quantity of data of the highest possible quality for a given equipment configuration. [0012] Another object of the present invention is a seismic system that may have its bit transmission rate tuned to optimize application of the available cable and other equipment to the seismic task objectives. [0013] A further object of the present invention is to utilize deliberately asynchronous sampling of data at the remote units to increase efficiency of utilization of the network components. [0014] Also an object of the present invention is the provision of a configurable seismic telemetry network having multiple data transmission paths available by remote selection. A further object of the invention is a remotely actuated termination point for data interrogation signals. [0015] An additional object of the present invention is a seismic telemetry network in which all data carriers may function at the same bit transmission rate. [0016] Still another object of the invention is a seismic telemetry network in which data transmission base lines may be operated at transmission rates greater or less than those of receiver lines when advantageous to the survey geometry. Prior art provides base lines operating at fixed transmission rates higher than the receiver line transmission rates. These prior art systems do not provide means to easily vary the bit rate of base line transmission to take advantage of differing requirements of seismic surveys or to match base line bit rate to the bit rate of the receiver line transmissions. [0017] Other objects of the invention include an extension of receiver line take-out distances by optimizing data signal strength. Transmission electrical power influences the distance over which reliable telemetry can occur with higher power required for longer distances. Prior art does not provide ability to vary power as may be required to optimize communication for variable transmission distances over different cables, such as may be used within a project or on projects with differing requirements. Power conservation is an important consideration in prolonging battery life in a distributed seismic data acquisition system. Conservation of battery power in the distributed telemetry units by limiting transmission power to a minimum required for reliable communication is an object of this invention. [0018] Receiver line take-out distances are also enhanced by an increase in data transmission efficiency. By an optimization of communication for a given receiver line take-out distance, the weight of equipment for a given system configuration is reduced. [0019] Also an object of the invention is an increase in the time density of data transmission by minimizing wasted time between data packets. [0020] A further object of the invention is to increase the efficiency of data telemetry by excluding information from the data packet that would identify the signal processing unit that originated the data and its time of creation (which reduces the amount of data that is to be transmitted) and to use the position of the data packet within the data stream to implicitly communicate data packet identity. [0021] The capacity and option to selectively split the data-reporting route of portions of receiver lines is also an object of the present invention. [0022] Another object of the invention is to provide network elements that are interconnectable and able to perform multiple functions thereby maximizing flexibility and efficiency of equipment utilization. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0023] The foregoing objects of the invention and others not specifically stated above will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description of the invention. Each Remote Acquisition Module (RAM) of the present invention is controlled by a Central Recording Unit (CRU) for cyclically converting analog seismic amplitude values to digital values. The digital values respective to a cycle are combined with other information as a digital data packet. Alternate RAMs in a receiver line transmit respective data packets along one of two communication lines to a Line Tap Unit (LTU) for transmission to a CRU. Data packets are transmitted from respective RAMs on command from interrogation signals. The interrogation signals are initiated from a CRU and retransmitted from the LTUs to the nearest RAM, which immediately begins transmitting data assembled since the previous transmission cycle. The interrogation signal, however, is delayed from retransmission to the next RAM until the data packet of the first RAM may be accommodated by the segment of communication conduit between the first RAM and the LTU. Interrogation signal retransmission is timed to receive the first data packet from the next RAM as transmission of the last data packet of the first RAM is completed. This pattern is repeated for all RAMs in a receiver line. [0024] Transmission bit rate is adjusted to an appropriate value between about 6 to 12 megabits per second (mbps), for example, to accommodate the number of data packets to be transmitted along a given receiver line in a transmission cycle. Also considered in the transmission bit rate selection are the properties and physical characteristics of the cable between the RAMs in a receiver line series. However, the RAMs and base line units have 1 to 2 megabytes of data memory, for example, to accommodate a surplus of data generation. The data storage may be sufficient to store and entire sequence of shot data for later transmission. Alternatively, the data storage may be used to allow data transmission at a slower rate than the rate of data creation during the period of recording. [0025] Transmission signal power is also adjusted to an appropriate value to both provide reliable communication between adjacent RAMs (and LTUs) and to minimize power consumption, thus prolonging battery life in the distributed units. [0026] Base line transmission rate may be selected to be the same as the receiver line transmission rate to match capacity of the two types of communication, or base line transmission rate may be set higher or lower than receiver line transmission rate to take advantage of characteristics of the survey such as differing in-line and cross-line spacing and/or differing in-line and cross-line data volume requirements. [0027] Collaterally, the system has the capacity to logically link all receiver lines with selectable communication conduit whereby a receiver line may be terminated where desired by commands issued from the central recording unit. The data packets from the RAMs isolated along one receiver line may be transmitted to another base line along another receiver line or they may be left unused. [0028] Another characteristic of the system is RAM channel flexibility whereby any number of channels may be accommodated, up to the maximum capacity of a RAM. Consequently, the RAMs are not limited to a fixed communication scheme having a specific number of signal channels per RAM. RAMs constructed according to the present embodiment of the invention may be connected with 2, 4, 6, and 8 channel cable, for example. [0029] The system further provides a flexible, multi-path network for connection of RAMs to the CRU. Universal cable connectors allow receiver line, base line and jumper cable to be connected to any type of device in the network, including RAMs, LTUs and the CRU. RAMs may be used as repeaters. Receiver line cable may be used as base line cable with reduced number of conduits. The system operator manipulates the network using a graphic user interface with a substantially true-scale map of the survey area that shows the location of physical obstacles and all seismic survey equipment items and their network connections. System software guides the operator in optimizing the equipment and network configuration, while overcoming physical barriers and sporadic equipment failures. [0030] Bi-directionality of the RAMs and multi-directionality of LTUs, combined with looping of cables and logical breaks in receiver line cables, together with the inter-connectibility of cables and modules, provides adaptability not available in prior art. [0031] Because the RAMs and LTUs are configurable from the CRU, necessary changes can be made to the network configuration without physical visits to remote line equipment modules when changing circumstances require alteration of the configuration. Multiple communication conduits within receiver-line and base-line cables provide opportunities to optimize use of transmission capacity and avoid shut down in case of disruption of some of the conduits. The multiple conduit base-line cable design is exploited in base-line splitting and rejoining to bypass obstacles and distribute capacity on both sides of obstacles. [0032] The invention includes a new method of operating a seismic network which is deliberately asynchronous to allow more efficient telemetry of seismic data to the CRU and which utilizes independent clocks in the RAMs to more efficiently control the timing of samples. The asynchronous sampling is converted to synchronous sampling through a novel processing method effected by the RAMs and the CRU. [0033] This processing method enables accurate and precise timing of seismic signal amplitude values and also overcomes the inaccuracy of the clocks in the individual RAMs. This method predicts time delays inherent in the network and measures RAM clock drift. Utilizing a highly accurate CRU clock and the sampled amplitude values, estimates of the amplitude values at the correct times are determined. This feature of the invention allows implementation of continuous recording as opposed to conventional intermittent recording as is useful and necessary in latest state-of-the-art land and marine seismic systems. [0034] Another unique feature of the invention includes a definition of the seismic network by specifying the location and status of all system elements including RAMs, LTUs and the CRU. The network definition further includes a specification of the exact order of transmission of data packets by all active elements in the network, enabling an implicit determination of the identity of the RAM that originated a data packet and its time of creation. This method of implicit conveyance of information reduces the amount of data to be physically transmitted and improves network efficiency. A method of compensating for missing or surplus data packets is also provided to make the method of implicit identification of data packets more practicable. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0035] Other features and advantages of the invention will be recognized and understood by those of skill in the art from reading the following description of the preferred embodiments and referring to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters designate like or similar elements throughout the several figures of the drawings and wherein: [0036] FIG. 1 a is a half-plan schematic of the invention as deployed for a 3D survey; [0037] FIG. 1 b is a half-plan schematic of the invention as deployed for a 3D survey; [0038] FIG. 2 is a detailed schematic of communication conduit between a pair of RAMs and geophones connected to the RAMs; [0039] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an 8 channel receiver line cable and universal connector; [0040] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an 8 channel base line cable and universal connector; [0041] FIG. 5 is a functional schematic of a remote acquisition module (RAM); [0042] FIG. 6 is a functional schematic of an analog-to-digital conversion module; [0043] FIG. 7 is a functional schematic of a RAM communication module. [0044] FIG. 8 is a functional schematic of a base line unit (BLU); [0045] FIG. 9 is a functional schematic of a line tap unit (LTU); [0046] FIG. 10 is a functional schematic of a central recording unit (CRU); [0047] FIG. 11 is a functional schematic of a communications module for a CRU; [0048] FIG. 12 is a functional schematic of a base line splitter; [0049] FIG. 13 is a data table and corresponding graph correlating cable length and signal transmission rate for a comparison of two types of cable; [0050] FIG. 14 is a tabulation of possible survey layout parameters available with the invention; [0051] FIG. 15 is a diagram showing typical equipment layout and signal flow routing for the invention; [0052] FIG. 16 is the diagram of FIG. 15 but with a revised signal flow routing due to a receiver line break; [0053] FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a typical base line splitter application; [0054] FIG. 18 is a typical map display of a seismic equipment field layout used to overcome physical barriers, superimposed upon a topographical map; [0055] FIG. 19 is a graph of interrogate command time skew; [0056] FIG. 20 is a seismic wave graph illustrating seismic signal skew and signal amplitude interpolation; [0057] FIG. 21 is an illustration showing the utilization of LTUs as repeaters. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0058] FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a model seismic survey matrix according to the invention wherein geophones are distributed over the terrain of interest in an orderly manner of period and spacing. For this example, the geophones are aligned in four rows, T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 . Row T 3 is extended discontinuously across a physical obstacle such as a river or highway. Distributed along each of the geophone rows are three (for example) RAMs, 10 . Construction of a RAM 10 will be described more fully with respect to FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 . [0059] The RAMs are connected by two Receiver Line cables 12 respective to an “A” side and a “B” side of each RAM. See FIG. 5 . As shown in cross-section by FIG. 3 , a receiver line cable 12 comprises four pairs of geophone channel conduits 32 and two pairs of communication conduits 30 and 31 , surrounding a stress carrying core element 28 . The six pairs of receiver line conduit are aligned within an insulation annulus 24 and encased by a shield jacket 26 . The receiver line cable is terminated at both ends with a universal cable connector 39 . This cable connector allows connection of the receiver line cable to any RAM 10 , LTU 14 , BLU 38 or to the CRU 18 as shown in FIG. 1 . The connector pins include one pair 135 for communication conduit 30 , a second pair 136 for communication conduit 31 , four pairs 137 for geophone channel conduits, and two unused pairs 138 . The unused pairs are retained to allow use of a universal cable connector 39 for all types of cable in the system, including receiver line cable, base line cable and jumper cable types. [0060] Referring to FIG. 1 , the two receiver line cable sections respective to RAMs R- 1 /RAM 1 and R- 1 /RAM 2 in row T 1 are mutually joined by a back-to-back connection 36 . The same is true for the receiver line cables between R- 2 /RAM 2 and R- 2 /RAM 3 in row T 2 . Row T 4 includes two back-to-back connectors 36 . The back-to-back connectors 36 provide continuity between communication conduits 30 and 31 of connected receiver line cables 12 but not for the geophone channel conduits 32 . Each of the four geophone channel conduits 32 in a single cable section respectively connects to only one RAM. Hence, each RAM receives up to eight geophone channels in this preferred embodiment example. [0061] It is common industry practice for each geophone channel 32 to be connected with a plurality of geophones. Each of the geophones respective to a given channel 32 has a predetermined position relative to the seismic disturbance location whereby those commonly connected geophones all receive substantially the same subsurface reflection signal thereby (through summation) reinforcing the signal strength but receive substantially different seismic noise, thereby attenuating noise when summed. [0062] Usually, not always, the geophone signals through the channels 32 are analog: analog-to-digital conversion being performed by the RAM as will subsequently be described more fully. However, A/D conversion by dedicated circuitry in individual geophone units is possible and is advantageous under certain circumstances. [0063] Again referring to FIG. 1 , LTUs 14 1 , 14 2 and 14 3 join the rows T 1 , T 2 and T 3 to a base line cable 16 . The LTUs will be described more fully with respect to FIG. 9 . [0064] The base line cable 16 shown in cross-section by FIG. 4 comprises eight communication conduit pairs 34 1-8 within an insulation annulus 24 and shield jacket 26 . At the core of the assembly may be a stress carrying core 28 . A universal cable connector 39 terminates both ends of a section of base line cable, allowing connection to any module in the system. Connector pins 147 for communication conduits 34 are shown. The universal connector 39 is physically identical to the connector used in the receiver line and jumper cable types allowing full inter-connectability of all equipment in the system. [0065] Shown in FIG. 1 is a section of base line cable 16 joining LTUs 14 4 and 14 5 . The use of base line cable 16 instead of receiver line cable 12 to connect RAMs that are on the same logical receiver line, as in this example, illustrates one aspect of the inter-connectability and adaptability of the system. [0066] The eight communication conduits 34 1-8 ( FIG. 4 ) connect the geophone field matrix to a CRU 18 ( FIG. 1 ) that is often carried in a vehicle for mobility. Depending on the data processing capacity of the CRU 18 , one or more base lines 16 may serve a CRU 18 . There are eight communication conduits in the base line cable 16 and two communication conduits in each receiver line cable 12 . Geophone data will be reported to the CRU 18 along the four receiver lines R- 1 through R- 4 . Two of the eight communication conduits of the base line are made available to each active receiver line ensuring a one-to-one correspondence between receiver line and base line conduits that are utilized. [0067] Specifically, receiver line R- 1 serves RAMs R- 1 /RAM 1 and R- 1 /RAM 2 . Data from geophone channels 1 - 8 connected to RAM R- 1 /RAM 1 is initially processed by that RAM and transmitted along receiver line communication conduit 30 1 to base line communication conduit 34 5 . The data produced by geophone channels 9 - 16 of row T 1 is processed by RAM R- 1 /RAM 2 and transmitted along receiver line communication conduit 31 1 to base line communication conduit 34 1 . [0068] Receiver line R- 2 serves R- 2 /RAM 1 , R- 2 /RAM 2 , R- 2 /RAM 3 in row T 2 and R- 2 /RAM 4 in row T 3 . The communication conduit 30 2 and 31 2 respective to the cable 12 end sections for rows T 2 and T 3 are linked by a jumper cable 17 . The jumper cable is a cable that may contain only two communication conduits and no geophone channel conduits. It may be used to connect the ends of two receiver lines to form a loop. The data of geophone channels 9 - 16 in row T 2 is transmitted by R- 2 /RAM 2 and channels 17 - 24 in row T 3 is transmitted by R- 2 /RAM 3 along receiver line communication conduit 30 2 to base line communication conduit 34 6 . The data of geophone channels 25 - 32 in row T 3 is transmitted by R- 2 /RAM 4 along receiver line communication conduit 31 2 to base line communication conduit 34 2 . Also, geophone data from channels 1 - 8 of row T 2 is transmitted by R- 2 /RAM 1 along communication conduit 31 2 to base line communication conduit 34 2 . [0069] Receiver line R- 3 serves only geophones 1 - 8 in row T 3 that are signal processed by R- 3 /RAM 1 . The data is transmitted along receiver line communication conduit 30 3 to base line communication conduit 34 7 . [0070] Receiver line R- 4 serves R- 4 /RAM 1 in row T 1 and R- 4 /RAM 2 in row T 3 . In row T 4 , receiver line R 4 also serves R- 4 /RAM 3 , R- 4 /RAM 4 and R- 4 /RAM 5 . Geophone channels 25 - 32 in row T 4 are connected to R- 4 /RAM 4 for data transmission along receiver line communication conduit 30 4 to base line communication conduit 34 8 . [0071] Receiver line communication conduit 31 4 receives the data of geophone channels 1 - 8 in row T 1 , channels 17 - 24 in row T 4 and channels 33 - 40 in row T 4 for transmission to the CRU along base line communication conduit 34 4 . Receiver line communication conduit 30 4 receives the data of geophone channels 9 - 16 in row T 3 and channels 25 - 32 in row T 4 for transmission to the CRU along base line communication conduit 34 8 . [0072] The invention embodiment of FIG. 2 illustrates two receiver lines R- 1 and R- 2 connected to a base line 16 . The communication conduits 30 , and 31 , of receiver line R- 1 connect R- 1 /RAM 1 , R- 1 /RAM 2 and R- 1 /RAM 3 to base line communication conduits 34 1 and 34 5 , respectively. The communication conduits 30 2 and 31 2 of receiver line R- 2 connect R- 2 /RAM 1 , R- 2 /RAM 2 and R- 2 /RAM 3 to base line communication conduits 34 2 and 34 6 , respectively. [0073] The RAMs 10 , the LTUs 14 , and the CRU 18 communicate by several types of digital data packets. The CRU 18 uses “Commands” to communicate with the line equipment comprising the RAMs 10 , LTUs 14 , BLUs 38 and repeaters. The line equipment sends Line Data back to the CRU. Each piece of equipment in the matrix system knows its orientation relative to the CRU. RAMs and LTUs recognize only Commands on their CRU side and Line Data on their line side. [0074] Each RAM and LTU inherently has a logical “Command Side” and a “Line Side”. There is no physical difference between the two sides, and either physical side may play either functional role. Definitively, however, the Command Side is the side closer to the CRU, normally, with a possible exception in the case where both physical sides are reachable by direct path from the CRU (requires looping of Receiver Lines by use of jumper cable 17 ). In the preferred embodiment, in a multipath environment as in FIG. 2 , the Command Side of each device is determined by the CRU under the control of the operator. The CRU may switch the sides of a particular RAM or LTU as the survey progresses. This would be desirable, for example, in response to a communication failure in a particular cable segment. Another benefit of this ability to configure the directionality of the RAMs and LTUs is that when the CRU is moved to another location during the course of the survey, these modules are readily adapted to the new network configuration by the operator (without the necessity of a physical visit to the site of every RAM and LTU to be reconfigured, as in prior art). [0075] In FIG. 2 the jumper cable 17 allows RAMs to communicate with the CRU from either side, and thus with a simple re-assignment of Command Side, an otherwise stranded RAM can be accessed by the CRU. The CRU controls the assignment of Command Side at system initialization by sending a “power-up” voltage to the device. [0076] A digital data packet includes 204 bits per packet. Of this total, 8 data bits are reserved for a packet identification header, 192 bits are available for data use, and 4 bits are reserved for a data integrity check (checksum). [0077] Commands may comprise, for example, of 32 bits of data for instructing one (or all) line equipment module to perform a given task. For example, the software may instruct a particular LTU to “power off” all RAMs on its “B” side. In another case, the software program may instruct all RAMs to switch into a low-power mode. Typically, the data bit structure of a Command data packet devotes the first 5 bits in the sequence to identification of a packet type e.g. Command, Interrogate Command or Line data. The sixth and seventh bits in a Command packet-identify the type of device (RAM, LTU, etc.) to which the Command is being sent. The eighth bit in the Command preamble is a “global” bit that defines which devices are to act on the Command. One setting of the global bit addresses all devices of the selected type. Another setting incorporates the 16 following bits to specifically designate which devices are to act on the Command (Addressed Command). The last 8 bits in a Command packet define the Command being sent. When an LTU receives a command from the truck, it forwards the command simultaneously in three directions: out the “A” side, the “B” side and the “Line side” (unless the command is the special case of an Interrogate Command, which is treated differently). As each RAM on the spread receives a Command, it decides (based on the preamble and address bits) whether or not to act upon it, then sends it to the next device on the line. [0078] Interrogate Commands are a special type of Command consisting of only 8 bits. The Interrogate Commands tell all devices to transmit Line data back to the CRU if primed to do so by previous Commands. In identifying an Interrogate Command, a device looks at only the first five bits of data and ignores the rest. Upon receiving an Interrogate Command, an LTU passes it to the RAMs on its “A” side and on its “B” side simultaneously, then begins transmitting toward the CRU the prior time sample “A” and “B” data which it has stored in memory. When the prior sample data has been transmitted for the “A” and “B” sides, the LTU, having purposely delayed sending the Interrogate Command out the “Line” side to minimize the gap in transmission of data towards the CRU, begins transmitting newly received “Line” side data (from the current sample) toward the CRU. [0079] If an LTU does not receive enough responses within the programmed length of time, it inserts simulated data for the missing RAMs. If the LTU receives too many responses, it ignores those over the defined number. This method allows the CRU to identify the origin of data packets without resorting to use of explicit identification bits within the data packet. Once finished with the “A” side, the LTU repeats the process on the “B” side. Thereafter, the LTU sends the Interrogate Command out the “Line Side” side. [0080] The LTU must transmit data toward the CRU in this order “A”, “B” and “Line” sides. The order transmitted is the same order as would have occurred if it had actually interrogated the “A” side, the “B” side and the “Line” sides in turn. This strict adherence to the correct ordering of data packets for transmission toward the CRU is necessary for reducing data packet size through omission of identifying information, which improves efficiency of the telemetry. [0081] A RAM or LTU may be used in Repeater Mode. In this mode its function is merely to receive Commands from the CRU and transmit them on the “Line” side to the next RAM or LTU. In Repeater Mode the RAM or LTU also receives data from the “Line” side and decodes and re-transmits the data toward the CRU. [0082] When an active RAM (activated by previous Commands) receives an Interrogate Command, it begins sending its data towards the CRU. Just before finishing transmitting its data packet, (e.g. at a time calculated to minimize the time gap in transmission) the RAM passes the 8-bit Interrogate Command to the next RAM or LTU on the line. [0083] Line Data packets consist of 204 data bits, for example. These packets include either analog-to-digital (e.g. geophone pulse or geophone noise) or status (e.g. battery voltage, serial number, etc.) information sent by line equipment to the recording system. The first 8 bits of a Line Data packet are the preamble. Bits 1 - 5 identify the block of information as data from the line as described previously. The next 3 bits identify what type of information is contained in the packet and how it was originated. For example, information may be real or simulated shot data, or device status. [0084] The Data Word portion of a Line Data packet is 192 bits long and may include either shot data (24 bits from each of a RAM's eight channels) or status information. The remaining four bits of a Line Data packet are the Checksum Count. Before a RAM sends data to the recording system, it counts the number of “high” bits (or “1s”) in the Data Word and writes the total here in binary format. The RAM counts in cycles of 16 (from 0 to 15), repeating the cycle until it finishes counting all high bits in the Data Word. For example, if a total of 20 bits were set “high” in the Data Word, the RAM would count to 15 then repeat the cycle, counting 16 as 0, 17 as 1, 18 as 2, 19 as 3 and 20 as 4. The Checksum Count in this case would be 4 (written as “0-1-0-0” in binary format). [0085] After a RAM sends Line Data towards the CRU, each device along the way verifies it. When a device receives Line Data, it counts the high bits in the Data Word and compares that number with the data packet's Checksum Count. If these numbers do not match, the device notes the fact that it detected a transmission problem. The device then sends the data towards the CRU and waits for more data from the line or the CRU. [0086] After collecting data, the system polls all devices on the line in order to determine which devices detected transmission problems and where to place error flags on the CRU monitor display, for example. [0087] The construction of a RAM 10 , as is shown schematically by FIG. 5 , comprises a communication module 40 and an analog-to-digital conversion module 42 . The communication module 40 is supported by a clock circuit 44 and a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 46 . The CPU includes a random access memory circuit 48 . The communication module is energized by a power supply circuit 45 that manages the power demands upon an internal battery 47 and an external battery 49 . [0088] The schematic of analog-to-digital module 42 is shown more expansively by FIG. 6 to include, for each analog signal channel 32 , a line surge isolator 50 for limiting stray voltage surges; an analog signal amplifier 52 ; and an analog-to-digital converter 54 . Each analog-to-digital converter 54 transmits, upon receipt of an interrogation signal (called an Interrogate Command) from the communication module 40 ( FIG. 5 ), its current geophone signal value to the communication module 40 for integration into a respective data packet. [0089] The communication module 40 of a RAM is schematically represented by FIG. 7 to comprise a line surge isolator 56 to limit voltage surges carried by the communication conduits 30 and 31 . Digital values of the geophone signals are received from the analog-to-digital converter 42 . The delivery of the digital signals is coordinated by the CPU 46 to encode a data packet onto one or the other of the communication conduits 30 or 31 . Of the two communication conduits 30 and 31 in a receiver line 12 , one is selected to receive the data packet transmission. The other communication conduit is decoded and retransmitted by a repeater circuit in the controller 60 . Generally, each communication conduit 30 or 31 is logically connected for data packet input from alternate RAM units along a single receiver line. With respect to FIG. 2 , for example, communication conduit 30 , may be connected to receive data packets from R- 1 /RAM 1 and R- 1 /RAM 3 whereas R- 1 /RAM 2 may report data packets along communication conduit 31 1 . [0090] Under the software program control of the CPU 46 , FIG. 5 , and paced by the clock circuit 44 , the controller 60 ( FIG. 7 ) receives the digital signal values from the analog-to-digital conversion module 42 and combines that data with other header and with the checksum data to create a data packet. The seismic sampling rate is programmable from about 0.125 samples per ms to about 4 ms/sample, for example. Amplitude data are stored in the RAM's memory until an Interrogate Command is received, after which it transmits the amplitude data in the form of data packets along the Receiver Line toward the CRU. [0091] Along the receiver lines 12 , signal streams comprising a series of data packets are redirected into base line 16 signal streams by either LTUs 14 or BLUs 38 . The only difference between the two signal transmission units is an expanded data memory capacity for the BLUs 38 . Both LTUs and BLUs potentially have signal processing capability. [0092] With respect to the FIG. 9 schematic of an LTU 14 , for example, the preferred embodiment of the invention comprises communication conduits for a pair of receiver lines 12 a and 12 b and communication conduits for a pair of base lines 16 a and 16 b . Each of these ports is served by a remotely controlled line isolator circuit 64 . In the normal operational mode, communication conduits 30 a and 31 a respective to receiver line 12 a and communication conduits 30 b and 31 b respective to receiver line 12 b , are connected to the communication module 70 . Similar to the RAM 10 , the communication module 70 of LTU 14 is directed by a CPU 72 and paced by a clock circuit 74 . The CPU 72 memory capacity is expanded by random access memory 76 . A unit power distribution circuit 66 is supplied by internal batteries 68 and/or external batteries 67 . [0093] The BLU 38 of FIG. 8 is substantially the same as an LTU 14 of FIG. 9 except for bulk data storage capacity 78 . A BLU may be used in place of an LTU, but not necessarily vice versa. In instances where the bulk data storage of the BLU is not required, the terms “LTU” 14 and “BLU” 38 are used interchangeably in this description of the preferred embodiments and in the following claims. [0094] The preferred embodiment of the CRU 18 is represented by FIG. 10 to include communication conduits for two base lines 16 that are served by respective communication modules 80 . The communication modules 80 are paced by a clock 82 and externally powered by a source 84 such as a battery or generator. A power management circuit 86 includes both filtering and distribution. A CPU 88 controls the communication modules 80 . The CPU 88 is functionally supported by a random access memory 85 and a bulk data storage circuit 87 . The entire system is manually interfaced by a keyboard 90 , a monitor 92 , a mouse 94 , a plotter 96 and a printer 98 . [0095] The communication modules 80 for the CRU 18 are illustrated schematically by FIG. 11 to include line isolators 100 1-8 for each of the eight communication conduits 34 1-8 and a data controller 102 . [0096] There are several distinctive characteristics of the software programs that control the invention operation. These distinctive characteristics cooperate to overcome several obstacles or inefficiencies inherent in prior art systems. One of these inefficiencies is an occurrence of large time lapses between data packets resulting in a reduction in the amount of line equipment that can be accessed in a given time period. Another inefficiency arises from the complex relationship between (1) data cable length, (2) data transmission bit rate and (3) data generation rate. [0097] To address the prior art inefficiency of data rate transmission and to reduce the interval between data packets, the operational procedure of the invention includes a signal protocol by which the digital data packets are assembled and queued for transmission from the numerous RAMs to the CRU 18 . This procedure generally includes transmission of an Interrogate Command from the CRU to the LTUs 14 . The LTUs relay the Interrogate Command on toward the RAM units along each of the receiver line communication conduits 30 and 31 . Respective to the pair of communication conduits 30 and 31 in a single receiver line 12 , the two Interrogate Commands are independently timed. They may or may not be simultaneously emitted. Although both of the communication conduits 30 and 31 in a single receiver line 12 are connected to each RAM in the respective receiver line, the response each RAM will make to the connection is normally different. [0098] Referring to FIG. 2 , an Interrogate Command A 0 originates from the CRU 18 and is carried along communication conduit 34 1 of base line 16 to LTU 14 1 , for example. The LTU 14 1 relays the Interrogate Command A 0 along conduit 30 1 to R- 1 /RAM 1 Upon receipt, the R- 1 /RAM 1 begins immediately to sequentially transmit along the communication conduit 30 1 , back to the LTU 14 1 , the data packet containing the data of all geophone system channels 32 ( FIG. 5 ) connected to R- 1 /RAM 1 . Significantly, the signal A 0 is not carried further along communication conduit 30 1 than R- 1 /RAM 1 . When signal A 0 is received by R- 1 /RAM 1 , a timing delay is initiated by the RAM communication module 40 for the relay transmission of Interrogate Command A 1 along communication conduit 30 1 from R- 1 /RAM 1 to R- 1 /RAM 3 via the repeater circuitry in R- 1 /RAM 2 . The length of this time delay is variable as a function of numerous system and project parameters. In particular, the time delay is most strongly influenced by the number of geophone system channels connected to a particular RAM (i.e. 4, 6 or 8), the cable type and length, the number of repeater RAMs and the transmission bit rate between the RAMs. The design philosophy of the retransmission delay of Interrogate Command A 0 is to coordinate transmission of the last data packet from R- 1 /RAM 1 with arrival of the first data packet from R- 1 /RAM 3 at R- 1 /RAM 1 and to minimize the inter-packet stream gap between the successive signal streams. Although the Interrogate Command A 1 is received by R- 1 /RAM 2 , the signal is merely repeated on to R- 1 /RAM 3 . [0099] When the Interrogate Command A 0 is received by R- 1 /RAM 1 , transmission of the data packets respective to the geophone system channels reporting to R- 1 /RAM 1 (up to 8, for example) begins immediately. However, execution of the data packet signal requires a finite time period. A portion of this finite time period is the delay interval for the relay transmission of Interrogate Command A 1 by R- 1 /RAM 1 . While the data packet from R- 1 /RAM 1 is being transmitted back to the LTU 14 1 , Interrogate Command A 1 advances to R- 1 /RAM 3 to initiate a corresponding data packet transmission from that RAM. Immediately, transmission of the R- 1 /RAM 3 data packets begins along the segment of communication conduit 30 1 between R- 1 /RAM 3 and R- 1 /RAM 1 that has carried Interrogate Command A 1 . The origination of Interrogate Command A 1 is timed to make the first elements of the data packet from R- 1 /RAM 3 arrive at R- 1 /RAM 1 just after the last of the R- 1 /RAM 1 data packet is transmitted. [0100] An Interrogate Command B 0 transmitted from the CRU 18 independently of Interrogate Command A 0 is relayed by LTU 14 along line communication conduit 31 1 to R- 1 /RAM 1 . Upon receipt of the Interrogation Command B 0 , R- 1 /RAM 1 merely relays the signal on to R- 1 /RAM 2 . R- 1 /RAM 2 begins transmission of a respective data packet to the LTU 14 1 along the segment of communication conduit 31 1 between R- 1 /RAM 2 and R- 1 /RAM 1 . Upon receipt of the data packet, R- 1 /RAM 1 merely repeats the data packet signals to the LTU 14 1 . [0101] The Interrogate Command delay at each of the RAMs is not a fixed value but is potentially variable for each RAM depending on the number of analog channels reporting to a respective RAM, the number of repeater RAMs between the active RAMs and other factors affecting transmission time. Although the preferred embodiment of the invention provides for 8 geophone system channels 32 to each RAM, the respective CPU 46 may be programmed to accommodate any number of channels less than 8, also. Moreover, there is no rule of nature that sets the maximum number of analog channels at 8. This is simply a matter of equipment design and engineering practicalities. [0102] It should also be noted that the communication conduit 30 or 31 for a particular RAM may be changed from one to the other. Such a step may be required in the event of a broken connection or continuity in an intended communication conduit. However, in the event of such a change, the Interrogate Command delay time at the affected RAM may be altered. [0103] Of especial note is a logical break capability of each RAM to be programmed for the termination rather than re-transmission to the next RAM of an Interrogate Command. This capability allows the receiver lines to be looped and thus have cable connections to two LTUs 14 . Functionally, however, in a given programmed configuration, each RAM will operate with only one pair of communication conduits 30 / 31 respective to a single, designated, LTU 14 . In one example, as represented by FIG. 1 , the continuity of geophone row T 3 is interrupted between RAMs R- 3 /RAM 1 and R- 2 /RAM 4 by an insurmountable obstacle such as a river or sheer cliff. Consequently, the Interrogate Command from base line communication conduit 34 3 that would normally be transmitted to R- 2 /RAM 4 from LTU 14 3 is, instead, terminated by the LTU. Cooperatively, the Interrogate Command from LTU 14 2 that would normally be terminated at R- 2 /RAM 3 is transmitted further via jumper cable 17 to R- 2 /RAM 4 in geophone row T 3 . [0104] In the similar example shown in FIG. 2 , the obstacle is represented by the logical break line P-P across conduits 302 and 312 between R- 2 /RAM 2 and R- 2 /RAM 3 . Interrogate commands C 0 and D 0 from the CRU 18 are relayed by LTU 14 2 . Interrogate Command C 0 is received by R- 2 /RAM 1 and delayed for retransmission to R- 2 /RAM 3 as Interrogate Command C 1 . Because of a logical break command to R- 2 /RAM 2 , Interrogate Command C 1 is not issued. Meanwhile, Interrogate Command D 1 is relayed through R- 2 /RAM 1 to R- 2 /RAM 2 for the R- 2 /RAM 2 geophone data. However, no retransmission signal D 1 is issued by R- 2 /RAM 2 . The R- 2 /RAM 3 geophone data is reported along conduit 30 1 via jumper cable 17 in response to a delay of Interrogate Command A 2 from R- 1 /RAM 3 . [0105] Although this result may obviously be accomplished by a physical disconnection of the communication conduits along the line P-P between R- 2 /RAM 2 and R- 2 /RAM 3 , the need for such reporting reassignment may not always be apparent at the time the RAMs are distributed. Moreover, certain RAMs may fail after distribution and require replacement, repair or omission. With the present invention, the options of omissions and revised connections may be exercised from the CRU 18 as compared to the prior art options of repair or replacement that require a physical return to the respective RAM locations. [0106] The logical break capacity of the invention may be accomplished by direct Commands (originated by the CRU) to the CPUs 46 respective to the RAMs. The CPUs 46 program the respective RAMs to cause them to selectively prevent the retransmission of Interrogate Command [0107] By strictly defining the sequencing of data packets based on the network configuration, the position of any data packet within the sequence may be used to determine which RAM created that data packet. And because the data packet sent in response to one Interrogate Command contains data samples that were created proximate the time of the Interrogate Command's arrival at the creating RAM, the time the data packet was created need not be explicitly stated within the data packet. The time of creation is implicitly knowable by its position within the overall data stream arising from the Interrogate Command [0108] Thus, both the RAM of origin and the time of creation of any data packet can be implicitly determined. This reduces the amount of data that must be explicitly written within the data packet. Therefore the total amount of data that is transmitted is reduced accordingly. This aids in the optimization of seismic telemetry and makes the system more efficient and cost effective. [0109] The multiple base line communication conduits, e.g. conduits 34 1 through 34 8 and their respective receiver lines are each made to independently follow the methods as described above for sequencing data packets by the actions of the base line units and RAMs. Thus multiple data trains, one per base line communication conduit, exist simultaneously and may be operated in parallel, optimizing total transmission capacity. [0110] Data packet integrity along communication conduits is affected by transmission rate, transmission power, cable type and cable length. As cable length increases so does the attenuation. Attenuation is greater as the transmission rate increases. To optimize the transmitted signal definition, the transmission bit rate and transmission power must be tuned for the length of the communication conduit. [0111] Data bit definition relates to the ability of the receiving instrument to distinguish a data bit in the received signal continuum. Due to transmission line losses, data bit definition will decay over the length of the transmission line. At some point along the line length, the data bit pulse that was transmitted has decayed beyond distinction from random noise anomalies. Using a lower transmission bit rate, the distance may be extended over which reliable communication may occur. Also, using greater power in transmission may extend this transmission distance. [0112] The ability to control the power of transmission is a feature of the preferred embodiment of this invention. The control is exercised from the CRU and determines the power level of transmission used by the RAMs and LTUs. The power level is increased as required for greater distances of transmission and decreased for lesser distances. As different cable lengths and types may be used on one project, there may be different transmission power settings invoked for different RAMs within the network, and the power level used by RAMs may differ from that used for LTUs. Power of signal transmission may be set differently for forward transmission toward the CRU and reverse transmission (away from the CRU). Power settings depend on transmission characteristics of the communication conduits of the cables, length being a primary characteristic, but other characteristics such as nature of the conductors also influences the power required and hence the optimum setting. It is generally beneficial to conserve power by only using sufficient power to ensure reliable communication but not excessive power. This prolongs battery life in the remotely distributed RAMs and LTUs. [0113] Determination of optimum power settings is done experimentally for different types and lengths of cables and the CRU is programmed to use these settings for the given cable, in the preferred embodiment. Power settings are controllable independently of frequency of transmission. However, optimum power settings will be different for different frequencies of transmission, hence the CRU is programmed to recognize different optimum settings for different frequencies of transmission, as well as for different types and lengths of communication conduits. [0114] By conserving battery power, productivity and cost effectiveness of the system are enhanced over that available from prior art. [0115] The graph and associated table of FIG. 13 illustrate the operation of the present interrogation signal strategies as described above with two cables of differing conductor size and construction. This FIG. 13 graph plots the relation of transmission bit rate and cable length at the limits of signal definition. To be noted from this comparison is the influence that cable construction has upon data transmission capacity. [0116] For example, a 28 AWG conductor of construction “A” will transmit reliably discernable data over a cable length of 288 meters at 7.5 mbits per second. Comparatively, a 26 AWG conductor of construction “B” may transmit reliable data over a cable length of 342 meters at the same transmission rate; a 54 meter extension that represents a 15% advantage. [0117] The advantages of the invention are further illustrated by the tabulated data of FIG. 14 . Here, the capacity of the system is organized into 3 groups respective to the number of geophone channels connected to each RAM in an array. Specifically, the data of Group I corresponds to an equipment distribution matrix that connects 8 geophone analog channels 32 to a single RAM. The Group II data corresponds to an equipment matrix having 6 geophone analog channels 32 connected to a single RAM. Group III data corresponds to a 4-channel connection. [0118] Referring to the schematic of FIG. 1 , the TO/Cable (takeouts per cable) column of the FIG. 14 table shows the preferred maximum number of analog geophone channel connections to a receiver line cable. The TO Interval (takeout interval) is the distance, in meters, between adjacent analog connections along a cable length. The Weight column, is, in pounds, the weight of a corresponding cable of the tabulated length. The Distance/RAM column is the spacial distance, in meters, between adjacent RAMs in a receiver line. The Cable Length column is, in meters, the length of a corresponding cable. [0119] The 8 columns of data respective to 8 Sampling Frequency values (i.e. Interrogation Frequency), 500 Hz, 400 Hz, etc., correspond to the maximum number of analog channels 32 that may be connected to a single receiver line of the tabulated length. The XMIT Rate column corresponds to the transmission bit rate charging the respective receiver line. A specific number of analog channels 32 per receiver line listed by FIG. 14 relates to the corresponding Sampling Frequency column and XMIT Rate row. [0120] FIG. 1 depicts a typical land 3D seismic survey with receiver lines and base lines that are perpendicular to the receiver lines. In some types of 3D surveys the distance between receiver lines may be significantly less than the distance beween RAMs along the receiver lines. In this situation it is advantageous in terms of optimizing base line telemetry to be able to select a higher transmission bit rate than the rate selected to optimize receiver line telemetry, because the cable segments connecting LTUs may be much shorter than the cable segments connecting RAMs. The CRU therefore, elects to use an appropriate higher rate of transmission for the base lines, setting it independently from the receiver line transmission rate. By using a higher transmission rate the base line capacity is increased and more channels may be accommodated on one base line communication conduit. Using a lower transmission rate on the receiver line communication conduit may be advantageous in particular survey projects because it allows a greater distance between RAMs and hence fewer total RAMs to cover a given area. [0121] Thus, in the preferred embodiment, the transmission rate of the base line may be set to be higher, lower or the same as the receiver line transmission rate. The system sets the transmission rates to be used under the control of the operator at the CRU and the CRU programs each device in the network accordingly. [0122] Seismic surveys have spatial and temporal sampling requirements that are a function of the local geology, geophysical objectives, seismic noise and signal characteristics and other factors. Sampling density requirements in time and space are both affected and in a similar manner. Seismic surveys that have very shallow geologic targets generally have the potential to retain signals at relatively high frequency, e.g. 250 Hz. However to successfully image the shallow targets at up to 250 Hz requires relatively dense spatial sampling as well as dense time sampling. Conversely, deep geologic targets have the potential to retain only lower frequency signal, e.g. up to 50 Hz. Imaging deep targets thus requires less dense time sampling (to define up to 50 Hz) but beneficially also requires less dense spatial sampling. [0123] As an example, a first seismic survey targeting very shallow geologic horizons may require very dense time sampling at a high sampling rate of 500 Hz (to preserve with fidelity 250 Hz signal). To maintain reliable signal definition, a short separation distance between adjacent RAMs is appropriate. From the table of FIG. 14 , an extreme layout would connect 1984 analog channels in a single receiver line to one side of an LTU. Cooperatively, the signal transmission rate (XMIT Rate) should be set at about 16.25 Mbits per second. These analog channels could have maximum take-out intervals of 17 meters along a maximum single cable length of 136 meters. Only one cable would span between adjacent RAMs which are also separated by a maximum of 136 meters. At each take-out point, the cable channel is broken and a geophone set is connected to an analog conduit line from the take-out point. A single analog conduit is broken twice and reports in opposite directions to respective RAMs whereby each RAM in the array is connected to 8 analog channels. [0124] In the preceding example, although only 1984 channels may be connected along the receiver line to one side of the LTU, another 1984 channels may be connected along an extension of the receiver line if it is connected to the opposite side of the LTU. Thus the operator may in practice utilize double the number of channels per receiver line with respect to the number of channels shown in the table, if he follows this practice. [0125] A subsequent survey targeting deep geologic layers with the same equipment may require a very sparse sub-surface sampling that is distributed over a large area. Long distances between geophone groups and accordingly wide spacing between RAMs may be appropriate for such a survey. Referring to FIG. 14 , by adjusting the RAM sampling rate to about 100 Hz and setting a transmission rate of about 3.5 mbits per second; this low density survey could accommodate 416 analog channels per receiver line (or 932 if receiver lines are connected on both sides of the LTU). The RAMs could be spaced along the line at 528 meter intervals and connected to receive only 4 analog channels per RAM. Geophone take-out intervals along the data cable in this case may be a maximum of about 132 meters. [0126] Thus, the adjustable sampling rate and signal transmission rate of the present invention, along with variability in the number of channels per RAM, allows optimization of the equipment investment for varying survey requirements. A variable bit rate translates directly into operational and logistical advantages in the field. The transmit power control feature of the present invention is one more tool the user has to make data transmission more robust under varying survey conditions, while optimizing power consumption. Data packet transmission control minimizes the time gaps between data packet groups according to the cable type and lengths used in the network. This benefit provides the survey crew with close to 100% time utilization of the cable with extra time available for more channels to be added to the line resulting in higher communication conduit limits. [0127] In the preferred embodiment of the system, the CRU 18 software is programmed to understand the 3-dimensional earth's surface and the location of geographic features, both natural and man-made, as well as the location and operating status of all items of the seismic data acquisition equipment. The CRU software understands the configuration and interconnections of the network of RAMs, receiver-line cable, LTUs, base-line cables and the CRU. The system operator is provided a substantially true-scale map view of all of this information as exemplified in FIG. 18 . The network connections may be established and modified at any time by the operator or automatically by the software at the request of the operator. In this way the desired subset of the total set of deployed RAMs may be made active to record and transmit seismic data when required to do so by the operator. Standard computer tools including keyboard, mouse, touchpad and touch screen may be provided as tools to the operator to assist him to manipulate the network to achieve the geophysical objectives. The operator may request the system software to optimize the network configuration to take best advantage of the communication capacity of the individual equipment items to reduce the required transmission time to a minimum. [0128] Looping of receiver lines (by joining ends of adjacent pairs of receiver lines using jumper cables 17 ) is a recommended practice in the preferred embodiment so that in event of failure of any RAM or breakage in the receiver line cable, connection to the CRU may be re-established by use of the bi-directional communication capability of the RAM. The operator is notified on the map screen of the failure and needs simply to re-direct the otherwise stranded RAMs to communicate in the opposite direction to reach the CRU. This is done by re-positioning the logical break in the receiver line. This is illustrated by the schematics of FIGS. 15 and 16 . [0129] The originally expected data transmission routing is shown by FIG. 15 wherein the data of RAMs 1 - 6 is transmitted along receiver lines R- 1 to LTU 14 1 . The data of RAMs 7 - 12 is transmitted along receiver line R- 2 to LTU 14 2 . Although RAM 6 is physically connected to RAM 12 by loop 17 , the loop is off-line to the respective R- 1 and R- 2 Interrogate Command transmissions from RAMs 6 and 12 . [0130] After the equipment array has been positioned and connected, unexpected circumstances cause a signal continuity interruption along receiver line R- 1 between RAM 3 and RAM 4 as shown by the X on FIG. 16 . Responsively the operator of the present invention terminates the R- 1 Interrogate Command retransmission at RAM 3 (by insertion of a logical break), activates the R- 2 Interrogate Command from RAM 12 and also terminates the R- 2 Interrogate Command from RAM 4 . [0131] Failure of one of the two communication conduits in a receiver line cable during transmission will not result in loss of data because of two key aspects of the system, (1) the storage of data in the memory of the RAM until the CRU confirms receipt of the data, and (2) the ability of the system to transmit all of the data over the remaining receiver line communication conduit. Although throughput capacity of the cable is cut in half, no data is lost. [0132] Similarly, if a base line loses a portion of its communication conduits, for example due to physical damage during operation, all data may be directed over the remaining conduits. The flexible network design allows this adaptability to unanticipated conditions. [0133] Data storage is also available in the LTU (as it is with the RAM) which allows saving of data while it awaits re-transmission to the CRU. [0134] The capacity of the base line to communicate seismic data is provided by eight (8) independent communication conduits. In addition to providing redundancy useful in overcoming failure of some of the conduits as described immediately above, this design facilitates the distribution of base-line capacity around both sides of physical obstacles. This is illustrated in FIG. 17 . The base line needs to be connected to receiver lines on both sides of the obstacle. In prior art systems this would inevitably require the provision of two complete base lines distributed all the way from the CRU to the maximum extent of the area to be covered, an unnecessary burden in the preferred embodiment. Using the base line splitter device 19 , shown in FIG. 12 , the capacity of the single base line from the CRU may be positioned on both sides of the obstacle. On the far side of the obstacle the base line may be re-joined by use of another base-line splitter device 19 . The eight selected communication conduits may be spread evenly, four to each side, or in any combination totaling to eight. Conduits not selected at the split are not connected and are unused around the obstacle. The base line could be designed with a number of communication conduits different from eight without changing the principles of this method, of course. [0135] Instead of requiring two complete base lines from the CRU to the edge of the recording area, one suffices, except at the obstacle itself, resulting in a significant savings in labor and equipment. The basic concept of providing base lines with sub-dividable capacity makes this achievable. Prior art systems that use a high capacity base line cannot achieve this savings and are more subject to total loss of transmission capacity due to equipment failure. [0136] The preferred embodiment also provides inter-connectability of network devices to make the total network more flexible and adaptable to different layout requirements. Either a base line cable or a receiver line cable may be connected to any port of the LTU. An LTU may be connected to a receiver line between any pair of RAMs. Physical receiver lines may be connected at both ends to base lines, or to the same base line at different LTUs. Base lines may be split and rejoined. Receiver lines may be used to carry base line telemetry. [0137] FIG. 18 illustrates the benefits to seismic data acquisition operations of the inter-connectability of the preferred embodiment. The operator with the guidance of the system software, uses the true scale map of the area and the seismic equipment, and builds the network in the optimum way, given the nature of the obstructions. [0138] In this example there are three kinds of physical obstacles that obstruct the layout of the desired ideal grid of seismic receiver lines. There is a river running across the area, a highway inhibits access and a series of sandstone cliffs blocks access. The operator at the CRU views the map as depicted in FIG. 18 . This map changes as often as necessary to depict the current equipment configuration. As the operator constructs the network he has the advantage of viewing the exact locations of equipment items with respect to the physical features of the terrain. He also sees the operability status of equipment items, for example whether a particular base line and the receiver lines with RAMs connected to it are operating within specifications. He makes decisions which best utilize available equipment to build the network. [0139] The operator has chosen to establish a separate base line south of the highway to reduce safety concerns by limiting the number of cables and workers on the highway. He has also chosen to establish a base line running north and to split it several times, one part staying below the cliffs, the other climbing the cliff at the easiest point, where it divides again and again to take advantage of the topography. [0140] At the NE corner of the area, the operator has chosen to use receiver line cable with RAMs used solely as repeaters and with no geophones connected to these RAMs. Here the receiver line cable has been used to carry the base line telemetry and therefore acts as a base line with only two communication conduits. An LTU at the end of this section of cable joins a receiver line with the RAMs at the NE extremity of the area. This illustrates the dual roles the RAMs may serve, i.e. as pure repeaters to overcome distance limitations, and as data acquisition devices for the geophone arrays. Also, the ability of the receiver line cable to substitute for base line cable, although with reduced number of communication conduits, is another feature which increases system flexibility and hence productivity. Prior art systems do not have these capabilities. [0141] Jumper cables 17 are used to connect segments of receiver line cable to create loops at the ends of pairs of receiver lines. This allows extension of receiver lines but also may provide alternate transmission paths that can be used to overcome cable breaks and failure of one of the RAMs in the pair of receiver lines. [0142] Thus the operator with the aid of the map view and layout tools provided by the software, devises the most practical and cost-effective way to acquire the seismic data. The flexibility of the network improves ease and safety of deployment, but also improves productivity after deployment, as the multiple paths available from each RAM to the CRU allow continued production without need for re-deployment in event of equipment damage or failure. [0143] FIG. 18 depicts the CRU and a typical RAM in the network that is separated from the CRU and connected to it by a base-line cable with a series of LTUs and a receiver line with several intervening RAMs. A desirable objective of all seismic data acquisition systems is that amplitude samples are recorded by all RAMs in the network that, in effect are all taken at the exact same instant. It is not necessary, however, to actually sample the amplitudes simultaneously if a means is available to know the varied actual times of sampling respective to each RAM and a means is provided to calculate the probable values of amplitude at the ideal sample time. The preferred embodiment of the invention incorporates unique means to accomplish the sampling objective stated above. [0144] The method of the invention recognizes that there are two categories of errors that cause the time of an amplitude sample to differ from the intended ideal time. The first category of errors includes those caused by the successive delays in the network as the Interrogate Command travels from the CRU through the series of intervening network elements to the RAM. The second category of error occurs within the RAM. [0145] Transmission delays in the base line cable, LTUs, receiver line cable, and intervening RAMs all contribute to the first category of error. These delays may be either physically measured in the laboratory prior to the seismic survey and tabulated in CRU system software for each type of network element, or in the case of deliberately-imposed delays of Interrogate Command retransmission, may be computed by the system software. The CRU is programmed to simply sum up these predictable delays for the given network configuration and thereby compute the total predictable transmission delay for each RAM in the network. This predicted value equates to the total delay between the time the Interrogate Command is sent from the CRU until the given RAM takes the corresponding initial amplitude samples for its channels at the beginning of the period of recording. [0146] In the preferred embodiment, after the first sample of a seismic record is taken, the RAM continues to take samples at increments of time equal to the programmed sample period, for example every 2 ms, according to the RAM's own internal clock. The RAM's internal clock may be a relatively low-powered and drift-prone clock, such as Temperature-Compensated Crystal Oscillator (TCXO), with a drift such as 2.5 parts per million (PPM). However the system master clock in the CRU is much more accurate and also consumes much more power. Typically it might have a drift rate such as 0.02 PPM. The system master clock may be periodically corrected using an external time source such as from a GPS clock. [0147] Freeing the RAM from dependence upon receiving each and every Interrogate Command from the CRU prior to taking the next sample has advantages in terms of system efficiency and in error prevention in case of sporadic errors in transmission from the CRU to the RAM and is a novel feature of the invention. [0148] As the RAM proceeds to take amplitude samples after the initial sample in the recording period, say every 2 ms according to its clock, the samples increasingly may drift away from the intended sampling times due to increasing buildup of error in its clock. The error may become so great as to invalidate and render useless the amplitude data when the length of the recording period is great if the method of the preferred embodiment is not used. FIG. 19 illustrates the buildup of clock drift error between the time of the initial sample and the time of a later sample. [0149] This RAM clock drift can be monitored in the following way which is the method of the preferred embodiment. 1. The RAM stores its clock times periodically on a predetermined schedule of receipt of Interrogate Commands, e.g. every 100 receipts, beginning with the first Interrogate Command at the beginning of a period of recording. 2. At the end of the period of recording, or when requested by the CRU, the RAM sends back its table of stored clock times to the CRU. 3. The CRU, knowing the times on its internal clock that correspond to the times in the table containing the RAM clock times, and knowing the total predictable delay for the RAM, constructs a drift curve for the RAM's clock consisting of values of RAM clock time versus master clock time. [0153] Any Interrogate Command which fails in transmission and is thus not received by the RAM will decrease its count by one and cause a diagnostic shift in the drift curve. Unless transmission errors are rampant, the method includes detection and correction of such Interrogate Command transmission errors. [0154] Using the drift curve and the total predicted delay for each channel of each RAM, the CRU computes the actual times at which each RAM took its amplitude samples. FIG. 20 shows the two sets of times, the desired times and the actual times, marked off against a representative analog seismic waveform. The actual samples provide a basis for estimation of the amplitudes at the intended sample times according to the master clock. A simple regression or curve-fitting method may be used to compute the estimated amplitude values at the intended times. Alternatively, more elaborate methods well-known in the art such as (sin X)/X or optimum least-mean-square-error (LSME) interpolation filtering may be used. The CRU thus computes amplitude values for the ideal intended time of sampling for each recorded channel, effectively achieving the objective. [0155] Accounting for drift of the RAM clock may be of minimal importance if the duration of the recording period is short, for example, 10 sec. For very long periods of recording such as 300 sec or longer, it is essential, and therefore is invaluable in implementation of continuous or quasi-continuous recording required by methods such as Vibroseis Slip-Sweep. [0156] An average time error for a channel, computed over a time-window of relatively short duration, e.g. 10 sec, may be used to time-shift all of the amplitude samples within this window, if the amount of relative drift of the RAM clock is insignificant within the window (e.g. <0.2 ms). [0157] The RAM clock drift being different for each of the many RAMs in the recording system dictates that the original amplitude samples for different RAMs to be taken at differing times. In this respect the recording system in this invention is an asynchronous system rather than a synchronous system as in the prior art. Furthermore the deliberately-imposed delays in transmission of Interrogate Commands contribute to the asynchronous nature of the system (while at the same time allowing maximization of data throughput along base lines and receiver lines). [0158] The novel method of correcting the time samples enables an asynchronous system to achieve the desired sampling which is in effect synchronous. Because the system is initially asynchronous it is able to achieve network and system efficiencies not possible with synchronous systems. [0159] Although our invention has been described in terms of specified embodiments which are set forth in detail, it should be understood that this is by illustration only and that the invention is not necessarily limited thereto. Alternative embodiments and operating techniques will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the present disclosure. Accordingly, modifications of the invention are contemplated which may be made without departing from the spirit of the claimed invention

A seismic survey system having remote acquisition modules (RAMs) for acquiring seismic signals and communicating with a central recording system (CRU) via a network of cables, other RAMs, and line tap units (LTUs), arranged in a matrix of receiver lines and base lines. Each RAM cyclically converts analog signal values to digital, forming data packets. Interrogation commands emanating from the CRU and relayed with strategic delays by intervening LTUs and RAMs are received by the RAM. Each command causes the RAM to transmit a data packet. Strategic delays are set such that the transmission capacity of the line is best utilized. Power and frequency of transmission are selectable by the CRU to optimize performance. Cables contain multiple communication pairs. The network path between the RAM and the CRU is established from the CRU and altered in event of malfunction. All types of network elements are interconnectable. Recorded samples are synchronous.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates generally to crop harvesting combines and more particularly to an automatic control of the power drive to the feeder of a combine. 2. Prior Art The ingestion of a rock or an unusually large slug of crop material can damage the crop feeder or threshing mechanism of a combine. Moreover, a disruption of the material flow through the feeder can cause the material to build up at the feeder throat which can damage components of the crop harvesting header. The typical crop feeder includes a slip clutch in the power drive train operative to stop power drive to the feeder when the feeder is jammed with crop material or a foreign object. Slip clutches however, are subject to wear in normal use and require adjustment. Moreover, the slip clutch can be damaged through excessive slippage due to an undetected stoppage of the feeder. U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,798 addresses one aspect of machine protection wherein the presence of rocks is detected and the feeder drive is interrupted. The passage of rocks or other objects mixed with the crop material induces a vibration in the header. An electronic detection device senses the vibration and stops the drive to the header and feeder. However, the system of this patent is effective only as a rock detector since the vibrations induced by crop material alone have low frequencies producing voltages which are filtered out. Accordingly, this system would appear to be ineffective to stop feeder drive in response to a slug or build up of crop material per se. U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,696 shows a mechanical system for stopping power drive to a header and feed rake if the cylinder speed is reduced because of crop jamming therein. A centrifugal clutch 23 disengages drive to the sickle, header and feed rake when the speed of the cylinder allows the weight 49 in the clutch to move inwardly against centrifugal force. The drive disengaging speed of the cylinder can be selected by moving the weights to the various positions on the respective supporting arms 45. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,897,677 and 3,910,286 relate to threshing systems wherein the speed of the threshing cylinder is monitored or controlled. In both of these patents the concern is with jamming of the threshing cylinder. In very general terms, these patents show circuits which produce warnings or effect "controls". Neither of these patents is concerned with control of a feeder drive. SUMMARY The invention provides an electronic control system for disengaging power drive to a combine feeder in response to sensing the speed of the feeder. The control system compares the feeder speed with a predetermined minimum reference speed and generates a signal to stop the power drive to the feeder when the feeder speed drops below the reference speed. The reduction in feeder speed can be caused by the ingestion of rocks or a slug of crop material into the feeder. The system automatically shuts down the feeder enabling the operator to remove the rocks or crop slugs and thereby prevent damage to the feeder or components of the header and drive systems. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown a self-propelled combine having an axial flow type threshing mechanism denoted generally at 10. A feeder housing 12 is pivotally mounted on the front of the combine and upon which a crop harvesting header (not shown) is adapted to be mounted for cutting and/or gathering the crop. Within the housing 12 is an endless feeder 14 having a pair of chains 16 upon which are mounted a plurality of crop conveying channel members 18. The chains 16 are trained about an upper drive shaft 20 and a lower driven shaft 22 by means of suitable sprockets one of which being shown at 24 in FIG. 2 mounted on the drive shaft 20. Power is transmitted to the feeder 14 from the combine engine (not shown) by means including a pulley 26 mounted on the drive shaft 20, a pulley 28, and a belt 30 trained about the pulleys. Power drive to the feeder 14 is engaged and disengaged by systems shown schematically in FIG. 3. An idler pulley 32 is journalled on an arm 34 pivotally mounted on the combine for engagement with the feeder drive belt 30. The idler pulley 32 is moved into and out of engagement with the belt 30 by a hydraulic system including a pump 36 drawing hydraulic fluid from a sump 38 and delivering the fluid under pressure to a double acting cylinder 40 connected to the arm 34. A two-position solenoid valve 42 is interposed between pump 36 and cylinder 40 to direct pump output to either the piston end of the cylinder 40 to move the pulley 32 into engagement with belt 30 (dotted line position 32') or to the rod end of the cylinder 40 to move the pulley 32 out of engagement with the belt 30. The invention includes an electronic control system 46 for controlling the drive of the feeder 14 as shown schematically in FIG. 3. The inventive feeder drive cut-off control system 46, as shown in FIG. 3, receives an input from a shaft speed sensing device and provides the necessary control logic circuitry to disengage the feeder drive when the feeder shaft 20 is sensed to be rotating at less than a selected operating speed. The speed of shaft 20 may be sensed using a transducer 43 including a transducer wheel 44 mounted for rotation with the shaft 20. As will be described in detail hereinbelow, if the speed of shaft 20 is below a selected rate, the current to the solenoid valve 42 is interrupted, causing the idler pulley 32 to be disengaged from belt 30, to cause belt 30 to stop and thus permit the blockage to be removed. After removing the blockage, the feeder drive may be reenergized by toggling a feeder clutch switch 47, that is by opening and then closing the switch 47. This action will cause the solenoid valve 42 to be reenergized to actuate cylinder 40 to move pulley 32 into engagement with belt 30. Closure of feeder clutch switch 47 initiates operation of the system 46. Switch 47 couples a D.C. signal such as from a battery 48 through leads 52 and 53 to a two-input And gate 54; and, through lead 52 to an RC charging circuit 55. Circuit 55 is a conventional resistor-capacitor (RC) charging circuit which charges to a selected potential in about five seconds and functions as a time delay for purposes to be described. The output of the circuit 55 is coupled to the non-inverting input terminal of a conventional comparator amplifier 58. A second input to the comparator 58 is coupled to its inverting input terminal as a selected time reference voltage, indicated at 56. As mentioned, when switch 47 closes, the RC circuit 55 charges to a selected level in about five seconds; this voltage is compared with the time reference voltage 56 by the comparator 58. The output of comparator 58 will be relatively low or (-) level until such time as the RC circuit 55 charges to the selected level, at which time the output of comparator 58 will go relatively high or (+) level; thus comparator 58 functions as a time delay comparator. The output of the comparator 58 is coupled as one input of a two-input Nand gate 59. Refer now to the lower right hand corner of FIG. 3 which shows a reluctance transducer 43, which may be of any suitable known type, and which provides an electrical signal having a frequency dependent on the speed of rotation of the transducer wheel 44 mounted on the drive shaft 20. The signal from transducer 43 is coupled through a lead 62 to an operational amplifier 63. The output of amplifier 63 is coupled to a frequency-to-voltage converter 64, of suitable known type, which, as the name implies, provides a voltage output which is directly proportional to the frequency signal received from the transducer 43, which as mentioned, is proportional to the speed of shaft 20. The output of converter 64 is coupled to the inverting input terminal of a comparator amplifier 65 which functions as a speed comparator. A second input to comparator 65 is a reference voltage 66 coupled to the non-inverting input terminal of comparator 65 as a selected speed reference voltage. The output from speed comparator 65 switches to a low or (-) level when the voltage from the converter 64 exceeds the selected speed reference voltage. That is, when the shaft 20 is operating properly and its speed of rotation is above a selected rate, the output from converter 65 is low or (-). When this occurs, that is when shaft 20 is operating properly, a low or (-) input is provided from converter 65 to Nand gate 59. As long as this input to Nand gate 59 is low or (-), and the input from the delayed time comparator 58 is high or (+), Nand gate 59 will provide a high or (+) output to And gate 54; and in turn, And gate 54 will provide a high or (+) output which will cause output driver 57 to continue to energize the solenoid valve 42 causing cylinder 40 to maintain the pulley 32 in contact with belt 30 and thus to continue to drive shaft 20. Conversely, when the speed of the shaft 20 is below a selected rate, the speed comparator 65 provides a high or (+) output to Nand gate 59. When Nand gate 59 has two high or (+) inputs, that is, a high or (+) input from the speed comparator 65, and a high or (-) input from delay time comparator 58, it will provide a low or (-) output to And gate 54. At this point, And gate 54 will have a high or (+) input from switch 47, and a low or (-) input from Nand gate 59; accordingly, gate 54 will provide a low or (-) output to driver 57 which in turn will effectively deenergize the solenoid valve 42 to cause cylinder 40 to move pulley out of engagement with belt 30, and cause rotation of shaft 20 to stop. Thus, when the output from the transducer 43 indicates the speed of shaft 20 is below a selected level; that is, that something is interfering with its rotation, the cut-off control system 46 will cause shaft 20 to stop rotating. Any rock or other impediment in the feeder system can then be removed. The circuit of FIG. 3 also provides the operator with an audible and a visual indication of the slowing down or stoppage of the speed of shaft 20. Concurrently, as Nand gate 59 couples a low or (-) signal to And gate 54, Nand gate 59 will also couple a low or (-) output to an inverter amplifier 67 which will in turn provide a positive input to the base of an NPN switching transistor 68. Transistor 68 will thus be biased to conduct, and will complete a current path to ground for the parallel-connected audio device (horn) 71 and warning lamp (light bulb) 72. The current path for horn 71 extends from +12 volts through horn 71, a diode 69 and the collector to emitter electrodes of transistor 68 to ground. A current path from the +12 volts extends through lamp 72, a diode 70 and collector to emitter of transistor 68 to ground. After the rock or other impediment in the feeder system has been removed, the cut-off control system 46 may be reactivated, and drive of belt 30 and shaft 20 reinitiated as follows: The operator toggles switch 47; that is, switch 47 is opened for a brief interval and then reclosed. Opening of switch 47 causes the RC charging circuit 55 to discharge thereby providing a low or (-) input to comparator 58 which in turn will provide a low or (-) input to Nand gate 59. At this point in time, the shaft 20 is stopped hence the output of speed comparator 65 is at a high or (+) level. The low or (-) input from comparator 58 and the high or (+) input from comparator 65 cause Nand gate 59 to provide a high or (+) input to And gate 54. The other or second input to And gate 54 will be high or (+) when switch 47 is closed, thereby causing And gate 54 to provide a high or (+) voltage to enable output 57 to provide an input to solenoid valve 42 to cause cylinder 40 to activate pulley 32 to contact belt 30. As soon as switch 47 is reclosed, RC circuit 55 starts to charge; and as mentioned above, circuit 55 takes five seconds to charge to its full value. When circuit 55 charges to its full value, the output of comparator 58 will go positive; and if the shaft 20 has not attained its proper operating speed the control system 46 will again disengage the drive. This provides a time delay of five seconds to allow shaft 20 to increase its speed above the selected rate. When shaft 20 is rotating above the selected rate, the output from speed comparator 65 will to (-). After the five seconds time delay, comparator 58 provides a (+) input to Nand gate 59; however, by this time shaft 20 should be rotating at the selected speed and speed comparator 65 will provide a low or (-) voltage to Nand gate 59 indicating shaft 20 is rotating properly. Accordingly, And gate 54 will have a high or (+) input from switch 47 and high or (+) input from Nand gate 59 and will provide a high or (+) voltage to driver 57 to energize solenoid 42 (and thus cylinder 40) to the belt driving mode as described above. If after five seconds the speed of shaft 20 has not increased above the selected level, the input to Nand gate 59 from time delay comparator 58 will be (+) and the input from speed comparator 65 will be (+), thereby causing Nand gate 59 to provide a (-) input to And gate 54 which in turn causes output driver 57 to energize solenoid valve 42 to cause cylinder 40 to remove pulley 32 from belt 30. Thus, the control system 46 provides a five second delay to permit the shaft 20 to regain its minimum desired speed. The input and output signals to and from the control logic circuit of FIG. 3 may be coupled electrically in series with the main feeder drive circuitry. Such connection provides fail-safe operation for the feeder drive in that it allows the feeder cut-off control system 46 to be bypassed by electrically disconnecting the system 46, and reconnecting the basic feeder drive circuit leads to one another, should the automatic system 46 become defective for any reason. While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art, that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

A self-propelled combine for harvesting a crop and including a crop threshing and separating mechanism and a feeder for feeding crop material into the threshing and separating mechanism. The feeder has an electro-hydraulic control system for engaging and disengaging drive to the feeder. An electronic control system monitors the speed of the feeder drive and actuates the electro-hydraulic control system to disengage the feeder drive in response to sensing feeder drive speed below a predetermined minimum.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 145,446, filed on Jan. 19, 1988 now abandon, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 145,358, filed on Jan. 19, 1988 now abandon. The disclosure in this application consists exclusively of the disclosures contained in those two applications. FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention involves optical communications systems and techniques for polarization insensitive detection. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION An ideal circular single-mode fiber supports two modes with orthogonal polarizations and identical propagation constants. In such an ideal fiber, the state of polarization is maintained along its entire length. However, in real single-mode fibers, deviations from the ideal such as elliptic cores, twists or bends, and anisotropic stresses result in a difference in the propagation constants for these two modes. This induced briefringence leads to variations in the state of polarization of the transmitted light along the fiber. The state of polarization also changes slowly with time due to temperature and pressure changes (I. P. Kaminow, "Polarization in Optical Fibers", IEEE J. Quant. Electron., Vol. QE-17, No. 1, Jan. 1981, pp. 15-22). The unpredictability of the state of polarization presents a potentially severe detection problem in coherent optical communications systems. In order to exploit the potential advantages of these systems the polarization states of the received signal wave and the local oscillator wave must be matched (I. P. Kaminow, "Polarization in Optical Fibers", IEEE J. Quant. Electron., Vol. QE-17, No. 1, Jan. 1981, pp. 15-22; and T. Okoshi, "Recent Advances in Coherent Optical Fiber Communication Systems", J. Lightwave Tech., Vol. LT-5, No. 1, Jan. 1987, pp. 44-52). A mismatch may severely degrade the receiver sensitivity. In particular, when the polarization states are orthogonal, complete fading results. We can quantify the effects of this mismatch by considering the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the IF filter in a typical coherent optical communications system (see FIG. 1). In the standard derivation of the performance of shot-noise-limited heterodyne detection, it is usually assumed that the signal and local oscillator fields have constant amplitude and matched phase over the detector surface and that they have the same state of polarization. With these assumptions, it is easy to show that ##EQU1## where η is the quantum efficiency of the detector, P S is the received optical signal power and W is the noise bandwidth of the IF filter. If the above assumptions are relaxed, the SNR is then given by H. A. Haus, Waves and Fields in Optoelectronics, Prentice-Hall, 1984; and R. H. Kingston, Detection of Optical and Infrared Radiation, Springer-Verlag, 1979) ##EQU2## where A is the area of the detector and E S and E LO are the complex field amplitudes of the signal and local oscillator waves, respectively. The SNR in (2) is simply the ideal SNR in (1) modified by m, which is referred to as the "mixing efficiency". This mixing efficiency is a measure of the match between the incoming signal and local oscillator fields and will have some slowly-varying, random value between 0 and 1. For the special case where the complex field amplitudes E S and E LO are constant over the detector area and where the angle between the local oscillator and signal polarizations (assumed linear) is θ, the SNR in (2) reduces to ##EQU3## The above expression for SNR is also valid for any state of polarization, if θ is appropriately defined. A derivation of the mixing efficiency for arbitrary states of polarization is given in Appendix A. For matched polarizations (θ=0°), cos 2 θ=1, and no sensitivity degradation is encountered. On the other hand, when the polarizations are orthogonal (θ=90°), cos 2 θ=0 and complete fading results, that is, no signal appears at the output of the IF filter. In general, the strength of the signal in the IF filter will vary slowly between these two extremes. It is therefore obvious that techniques must be employed to minimize or, if possible, eliminate this problem. Several techniques have been proposed in the literature to handle the problem of polarization mismatch. These include the use of polarization-maintaining fibers, polarization-state controllers, polarization-diversity receivers (analogous to in-phase/quadrature radio receivers) and polarization-switching systems. Here we will concentrate on polarization-switching but, first, we will briefly review the non-polarization-switching methods for dealing with this problem (Section 2). Then (Section 3), several techniques based on polarization switching will be described. These schemes, which may be simpler to implement, all rely on forcing the polarization state of either the transmitted signal or the local oscillator to vary with time in a manner such that polarization-insensitive detection is possible. The result is a fixed level of detection performance, with a power penalty relative to ideal of 3 dB. 1. Non-Polarization-Switching Approaches A. Polarization-Maintaining Fiber An obvious solution for stabilizing the polarization state of the transmitted signal over the entire length of the fiber is the use of polarization-maintaining fibers (I. P. Kaminow, "Polarization Maintaining Fibers", Applied Scientific Research, Vol. 41, 1984, pp. 257-270; and J. Noda, K. Okamoto, Y. Sasaki, "Polarization-Maintaining Fibers and Their Applications:, J. Lightwave Tech., Vol. LT-4, No. 8, Aug. 1986, pp. 1071-1089). Polarization-maintaining fibers and other polarization-preserving devices needed in the network may become practical some day. However, the problems of high loss and polarization dispersion and the intricate alignment needed at every splice and connector (M. Monerie, "Polarization-Maintaining Single-Mode Fiber Cables: Influence of Joins", App. Optics, Vol. 20, No. 14, July 1981, pp. 2400-2406) make this approach difficult to implement. In addition, most of the existing optical wiring consists of standard fiber which would be costly to replace. B. Polarization-State Controllers Several techniques for actively controlling the state of polarization of the received signal and matching it to the local oscillator have been proposed in the literature (R. Ulrich, "Polarization Stabilization on Single-Mode Fiber", App. Phys. Lett., Vol. 35, No. 11, Dec. 1979, pp. 840-842; M. Kubota et al, "Electro-optical Polarisation Control on Single-Mode Optical Fibres", Electron Lett., Vol. 16, No. 15, July 17, 1980, p. 573; Y. Kidoh, Y. Suematsu, and K. Furuya, "Polarization Control on Output of Single-Mode Optical Fibers", IEEE J. Quant. Electron., Vol. QE-17, No. 6, June 1981, pp. 991-994; H. C. Lefevre, "Single-Mode Fibre Fractional Wave Devices and Polarisation Controllers", Electron. Lett., Vol. 16, No. 20, Sept. 25, 1980, pp. 778-780; T. Imai, K. Nosu, and H. Yamaguchi, "Optical Polarisation Control Utilising an Optical Heterodyne Detection Scheme", Electron. Lett., Vol. 21, Jan. 17, 1985, pp. 52-53; T. Okoshi, Y. H. Cheng, and K. Kikuchi, "New Polarisation-Control Scheme for Optical heterodyne Receiver Using Two Faraday Rotators", Electron. Lett., Vol. 21, No. 18, Aug. 29, 1985, pp. 787-788; and T. Ikoshi, N. Fukuya and K. Kikuchi, "A New Polarisation-State Control Device: Rotatable Fiber Cranks", Electron. Lett. , Vol. 21, No. 20, Sept. 26, 1985, pp. 895-896). These include the use of electromagnetic fiber squeezers (R. Ulrich, "Polarization Stabiliation on Single-Mode Fiber", App. Phys. Lett., Vol. 35, No. 11, Dec. 1979, pp. 840-842), electro-optic crystals M. Kibota et al, "Electro-optical Polarisation Control on Single-Mode Optical Fibers", Electron. Lett., Vol. 16, No. 15, July 17, 1980, p. 573; and Y. Kidoh, Y. Suematsu, and K. Furuya, "Polarization Control on Output of Single-Mode Optical Fibers", IEEE J. Quant. Electron., Vol. QE-17, No. 6, June 1981, pp. 991-994), rotatable fiber coils (H. C. Lefevre, "Single-Mode Fibre Fractional Wave Devices and Polarisation Controllers", Electron. Lett., Vol. 16, No. 20, Sept. 25, 1980, pp. 778-780), rotatable phase plates (T. Imai, K. Nosu, and H. Yamaguchi, "Optical Polarisation Control Utilising an Optical Heterodyne Detection Scheme", Electron. Lett., Vol. 21, Jan. 17, 1985, pp. 52-53), Faraday rotators (T. Okoshi, Y. H. Cheng, and K. Kikuchi, "New Polarisation-Control Scheme for Optical Heterodyne Receiver Using Two Faraday Rotators", Electron. Lett., Vol. 21, No. 18, Aug. 29, 1985, pp. 787-788) and rotatable fiber cranks (T. Okoshi, N. Fukuya, and K. Kikuchi, "A New Polarisation-State Control Device: Rotatable Fiber Cranks", Electron. Lett., Vol. 21, No. 20, Sept. 26, 1985, pp. 895-896). For an excellent exposition of these methods and their limitations, see T. Okoshi, "Polarization-State Control Schemes for Heterodyne or Homodyne Optical Fiber Communications", J. Lightwave Tech., Vol. LT-3, No. 6, Dec. 1985, pp. 1232-1237). All of the polarization-state control schemes consist basically of two controlling elements (a polarization state has two degrees of freedom, namely, the ellipticity and the azimuth). By varying these two parameters, the controller tries to match the state of polarization of the received signal to that of the local oscillator (or, equivalently, the controller tries to maximize the mixing efficiency). To achieve this, usually four photodetectors are used in an electro-optic or electromechanical feedback arrangement. The mechanical controllers tend to be bulky and slow (with a response time on the order of seconds), while the electro-optic controllers provide faster responses (milliseconds). Speed of response may not be a major issue in circuit-switched applications. However, for packet networks a faster response may be necessary. A limitation of all of these schemes, except for rotatable phase plates and rotatable fiber cranks, is that they cannot track changes in the polarization state in an endless fashion. When the polarization state changes beyond the tracking range of the controllers, they must be reset. C. Polarization-Diversity Receivers Another set of techniques, often called polarization-diversity receivers (T. Okoshi, "Heterodyne-type Optical Fiber Communications", IOOC'81", San Francisco, April 1981, p. 44; T. Okoshi, "Polarization-Diversity Receiver for heterodyne/Coherent Optical Fiber Communications", IOOC'83, June 1983, pp. 386-387; T. G. Hodgkinson, R. A. Harmon, and D. W. Smith, "Demodulation of Optical DPSK Using In-Phase and Quadrature Detection", Electron. Lett., Vol. 21, No. 19, Sept. 12, 1985, pp. 867-868; and B. Glance, "Polarization Independent Coherent Optical Receiver", J. Lightwave Tech., vol. LT-5, No. 2, Feb. 1987, pp. 274-276) or horizontal-vertical (H-V) receivers, is based on utilizing a receiver structure analogous to the in-phase/quadrature (I-Q) receiver (H. L. Van Trees, Detection, Estimation and Modulation Theory, Part I, John Wiley, 1968, pp. 335-348), which is the optimum detector for a received signal with random phase in additive white Gaussian noise. The performance of these receivers is independent of the polarization state of the received signal. A typical H-V receiver, similar to the radio I-Q receiver, is shown in FIG. 2. This receiver decomposes the sum of the signal and the local oscillator waves into two orthogonal components, for example, horizontal and vertical. Under normal operation, the local oscillator is linearly polarized and is launched at 45° to the principal axes of a polarizing beam splitter which splits the local oscillator evenly between the two branches. The output of the IF filter in the horizontal branch, X H , is proportional to cos θ, where θ is the relative angle between the received signal state of polarization and the corresponding axis of the polarizing beam splitter. Similarly, the output of the vertical branch, X V , is proportional to sin θ. If, for example, the received signal happens to be vertically polarized, then no signal goes through the horizontal branch while the entire signal goes through the vertical branch. In general, if the received state of polarization varies, then one output will increase while the other decreases so that the output, X H 2 +X V 2 , is independent of θ and polarization-insensitive detection is achieved. In addition, if the local oscillator power in the individual branches is sufficient to guarantee shot-noise-limited performance, then an SNR close to that of an ideal heterodyne receiver can be obtained. This approach has been analyzed and shown to work for optical DPSK (T. G. Hodgkinson, R. A. Harmon, and D. W. Smith, "Demodulation of Optical DPSK Using In-Phase and Quadrature Detection", Electron. Lett., Vol. 21, No. 19, Sept. 12, 1985, pp. 867-868; and B. Glance, "Polarization Independent Coherent Optical Receiver", J. Lightwave Tech., Vol. LT-5, No. 2, Feb. 1987, pp. 274-276) and for optical FSK (D. Kreit and R. C. Youngquist, "Polarization-Insensitive Optical Heterodyne Receiver for Coherent FSK Communications", Electron. Lett., Vol. 23, No. 4, Feb. 12, 1987, pp. 168-169). Some disadvantages arise in using H-V receivers. First, the implementation of these receivers requires a duplication of the receiver circuitry, including the use of two photodetectors. Second, polarizing beam splitters are needed to decompose the signal. Although polarizing beam splitters have been constructed as research devices with single-mode fiber technology (for example, see (A. J. Noda et al, "Single-Mode Fiber Devices", Optoelectronics-Devices and Technologies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Dec. 1986, pp. 175-194)), they are rather high-loss devices (≈2 dB) and are not available commercially. Also, the structures proposed in (A. J. Noda et al, "Single-Mode Fiber Devices", Optoelectronics-Devices and Technologies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Dec. 1986, pp. 175-194) are highly frequency-dependent, which may limit their widespread use. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is an optical communication system in which optical detection is insensitive to mismatches between the polarization states of the received optical signal and, for example, a local oscillator. In the inventive technique, a polarization switching or scrambling scheme is used to force the polarization state of either the transmitted signal or local oscillator to vary in time in a non-adaptive manner so that polarization-independent detection is obtained (T. G. Hodgkinson, R. A. Harmon, and D. W. Smith, Polarization Insensitive Heterodyne Detection Using Polarization Scrambling", Electronics Letters, Vol. 23, No. 10, May 7, 1987, pp. 513-514). This is analogous to averaging overfades in a radio embodiment by converting a slow fading situation to a fast fading one (L. J. Cimini, Jr., "Analysis and Simulation of a Digital Mobile Channel Using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing", IEEE Trans. Commun., Vol. COM-33, No. 7, July 1985, pp. 666-675). Accordingly, instead of having to contend with a value of m which is fixed during the bit period (between 0 and 1) and which yields unacceptable performance, we have an average mixing efficiency n (averaged over a bit period). This averaging causes a fixed degradation in performance. Several such polarization insensitive techniques requiring only a single photodetector will be described. A specific embodiment of the invention involves a particularly simple application of the inventive polarization-insensitive technique. In that embodiment, a combination of frequency and polarization modulation is used. In this specific embodiment, the frequency shift of the transmitted signal is used to induce the polarization switching by introducing a passive device with birefringence in the path of the transmitted signal. The polarization switching causes a 3 dB power penalty when compared to an ideal frequency shift keying (FSK) system but provides for polarization-insensitive protection. An advantage of this technique is that it is particularly well suited to local area networks because of the simple receiver design. Generally, the invention involves mixing two optical signals, at least one of which comprises a bit stream representative of intelligence which is transmitted at a given bit rate, the polarization of at least one of the signals varying independently of the polarization of the other signal at a rate slower than the given bit rate, and the polarization of the other of the two signals being caused to vary at a rate greater than or equal to the bit rate. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a representation of a coherent optical communication system; FIG. 2 is a representation of a polarization-diversity (H-V) receiver. This receiver decomposes the sum of the signal and the local oscillator waves into two orthogonal components, for example, horizontal and vertical. The two outputs are heterodyne-detected separately and combined so that polarization-insensitive detection is achieved; FIGS. 3a and 3b are a representation of four-photodetector polarization-diversity receivers; FIG. 4 is a representation of polarization switching. The polarization state of the local oscillator is switched between two orthogonal states during a bit period. In the first half of the bit, the output, s(t), is proportional to cos θ (θ=θ s -θ LO ) and in the remaining half the output is proportional to sin θ. Thus, the received signal energy, ε=1/2, and a signal level independent of the state of polarization of the received signal is achieved. The received signal energies for conventional heterodyne detection are shown for comparison; FIG. 5 is a representation of two-branch polarization switching; Using an external electro-optic device, the laser is periodically switched between two paths, one of which rotates the polarization by 90°. The output of the polarization-selective coupler is an optical signal whose polarization switches between two orthogonal states during a bit period; FIG. 6 is a representation of polarization scrambling. The polarization state of the transmitted signal is scrambled after ASK modulation. A phase modulator in one branch of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is used to make the polarization of the transmitted ASK signal rapidly alternate between two orthogonal states; FIG. 7 is a representation of polarization modulation/switching. By appropriately choosing the polarization angle for a mark (1) and a space (0), we can combine modulation and switching in a single device; FIG. 8 is a representation of the evolution of the polarization state along a birefringent fiber. For incident light which is linearly polarized and launched at 45° to the principal axes of the fiber, the state of polarization evolves periodically. The period with which the polarization state changes is defined as the best length, L B ; FIG. 9 is a representation of the impulse response of a birefringent fiber. The response is shown for an impulse ε(t) applied at the input of a birefringent fiber of length L at an angle θ to the principal axes; FIG. 10 is a representation of frequency switching the local oscillator. With a fiber of length, L, the polarization state at the output varies when the wavelength (frequency) of light launched at 45° to the principal axes is changed. By periodically switching between the two wavelengths, judiciously chosen, the polarization state of the output light can be switched between two orthogonal states. The IF frequency can be fixed at f IF =Δf/2 by choosing the signal center frequency to be f s =(f 0 +f 1 )/2; FIG. 11 is a representation of a birefringence simulator. Light launched at 45° to the principal axes of the polarizing beam splitter is separated into horizontal and vertical components. These components travel different distances and are combined again in a polarization-selective coupler with different phases. Thus, this assembly simulates a birefringent medium; FIG. 12 is a representation of FSK at the transmitter. At the transmitter a space (0) is sent as f 0 and a mark (1) as f 1 . These frequencies are chosen so that f 0 corresponds to a polarization state at the output of the birefringent fiber. P 0 , and f 1 corresponds to P 1 , where P 1 and P 0 are orthogonal states. The effect of AC coupling is indicated; FIG. 13 is a representation of ISI with frequency-shift-based implementations. An FSK signal is sent at 45° to the principal axes. The pulses at the input are decomposed into horizontal and vertical components which travel at different speeds. After traveling through a birefringent fiber, the pulses appear as shown. The region of overlap, Δt=kT, is regarded here as ISI and is unused in detection; FIG. 14 is a representation of spectral/power efficiency tradeoff. In frequency-shift-based birefringent techniques, there is a tradeoff between power and spectral efficiencies. For high modulation index, the relative power efficiency is high, but this is achieved at the expense of spectral efficiency; FIG. 15 is a representation of pulse-separation approach-transmitter implementation. Assume that a mark (1) is sent as a pulse of width T/2 and a space (0) is represented by the absence of light. The mark pulse is decomposed in the fiber into two pulses, one with horizontal polarization and one with vertical polarization. These pulses travel at different velocities and, after traveling though the fiber, the two pulses will just separate to fill the entire bit period. Thus, when a mark is sent, for half the bit period we receive light at one polarization and during the other half of the bit period we receive light at the orthogonal polarizations; FIG. 16 is a representation of a pulse-separation approach-local oscillator implementation. Assume that the local oscillator is modulated with a periodic waveform of period T. The "on" pulse is decomposed in the fiber into two pulses, one with horizontal polarization and one with vertical polarization. These pulses travel at different velocities and, after traveling through the fiber, the two pulses will just separate to fill the entire period. Thus, for half the bit period the local oscillator has one polarization and during the other half of the bit period it has the orthogonal polarization; FIG. 17 is a representation of an FSK-to-ASK converter. The laser, which is linearly polarized and launched at 45° to the principal axes of the birefringent fiber, is switched periodically between f 0 and f 1 . The frequency separation Δf=f 1 -f 0 and the fiber length L are chosen such that they given, at the output, f 0 with polarization P 0 and f 1 with polarization P 1 , where P 0 and P 1 are orthogonal. The output light is then passed through an ideal polarizer aligned with either P 0 or P 1 (say, P 0 ). The polarizer then blocks P 1 and therefore blocks f 1 , so that the output of the polarizer is an on-off signal, giving FSK-to-ASK conversion; FIG. 18 is a representation of a pulse-separation approach--all-fiber implementation. By combining the pulse separation approach with a fiber FSK-to-ASK converter, an all-fiber polarization-switching implementation is achieved; FIG. 19 is a representation of a polarization ellipse; FIG. 20 is a representation of transmission through a linear optical system. A linear optical system can be modeled by a 2×2 transmission matrix, T, of complex numbers. E 1i and E 2i are complex unit vectors describing the input states of polarizations and E 1o and E 2o are the corresponding complex vectors describing the states of polarization at the output; FIG. 21 is a representation of a polarization-insensitive coherent lightwave system usingwide-deviation FSK and data-induced polarization switching. At the transmitter a space (0) is sent as f 0 and a mark (1) as f 1 . These frequencies are chosen so that f 0 corresponds to a polarization state at the output of the birefringent medium, P 0 , and f 1 corresponds to P 1 , where P 1 and P 0 are orthogonal states. The effect of AC coupling is indicated; FIG. 22 is a representation of a birefringence simulator. Light launched at 45° to the principal axes of the polarizing beam splitter is separated into horizontal and vertical components. These components travel different distances and are recombined in a polarization-selective coupler with different phases. Thus, this assembly simulates a birefringent medium; FIG. 23 are representations of eye diagrams. In each column, the polarization states are varied from a perfectly matched to an orthogonal condition. For the conventional system, shown in the left column, we see an eye closure due to the loss of signal caused by a polarization mismatch. In contrast, in the righ column, we show the eye obtained for the polarization-insensitive system. We see that, in this case, the eye remains open regardless of the polarization mismatch; FIG. 24 is a representation of a bit error probability versus polarization angle. The plots indicates the bit error probability versus the angle of the local oscillator for the conventional system and the polarization-insensitive system. We see that, as expected, variations in the angle of polarization cause large variations in the bit error probability for the conventional FSK system. In contrast, the error probability of the polarization-insensitive FSK system changes only slightly as the polarization angle is varied; and FIG. 25 is a representation of error probability versus peak IF signal-to-noise ratio. The two theoretical plots pertain to linewidth/bit rate (βT) ratios of 0.64 and 2.56, respectively. In this case, βT=0.8, and the theoretical curve lies somewhere between these two. Measurements obtained for the conventional system with perfectly-matched polarizations are shown. Also shown are two curves obtained for the polarization-insenstive system corresponding to best- and worst-case results. Measurements are shown both for transmission through an optical attenuator and through 30 km of single-mode fiber. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention is an optical communications system in which a polarization-switching or scrambling scheme is used to force the polarization state of either the transmitted signal or local oscillator to vary with time so that polarization independent detection is obtained. In this discussion, we will concentrate on techniques which change the state of polarization in a discrete (and deterministic) manner. In general, the polarization can be changed in a discrete/continuous and deterministic/random fashion. Ideally, the range over which the polarization changes should cover two orthogonal states during a bit period. Assume that both the received signal and local oscillator are linearly polarized at angles of θ S and θ LO , respectively. A measure of the performance of any communication system is the received signal energy, ε, given by ##EQU4## where s(t) is the received signal and T is the bit period. In what follows, we normalize the received energy so that for perfect heterodyne reception (θ S =θ LO ) ε=1. (5) On the other hand, in a real heterodyne system without polarization control θ S ≠θ LO and, as shown previously, ε=cos.sup.2 (θ.sub.S -θ.sub.LO), (6) which is not acceptable due to the potential for fading. The above two cases are shown in FIG. 4. Now, assume that the polarization state of the local oscillator is switched between two orthogonal states during a bit period (see FIG. 4). The signal with polarization angle θ S is mixed with the local oscillator with polarization angle θ LO during one half of the bit period, and during the other half it is mixed with a local oscillator with polarization angle (θ LO +π/2). In the first half of the bit the output is proportional to cos θ (θ=θ S -θ LO ) and in the remaining half the output is proportional to cos (θ-π/2)=sin θ. Assuming that θ S and θ LO are constant over a bit period (that is, the variation in either polarization state is very slow compared to the bit rate), the received signal energy is ##EQU5## and a signal level independent of the state of polarization of the received signal is achieved. Since the detection process for the polarization-switching system is the same as for the non-switching case, the noise contribution is the same, and (7) implies that the polarization switching scheme suffers a fixed 3 dB loss in SNR when compared with ideal heterodyne reception (5). Note that, in general, the switching need not be synchronized with the received data. However, the switching rate should be an even integer multiple of the bit rate. Also, neither the received signal nor the local oscillator needs to be linearly polarized. An additional advantage of polarization-switching is that it can be used with any modulation technique that can be noncoherently demodulated (for example, ASK, FSK or DPSK). 1. Transmitter vs Receiver Switching Polarization switching can be used at the receiver to achieve polarization-insensitive detection. However, if the state of polarization is switched at the transmitter, then we have to consider the possible loss of orthogonality along the fiber, and whether this is severe enough to prevent the polarization-switching approach from being implemented at the transmitter. If two waves with orthogonal polarizations are launched into a fiber, then, in general, they will not remain orthogonal. The angle δ between the polarization states at the output is no longer 90° but is bounded by the following expression: ##EQU6## where T max and T min are the maximum and minimum power transfer coefficients as the input polarization state is varied. A formal proof of (8), which is valid for all states of polarization, is given in Appendix B. The fact that the loss in orthogonality in any linear optical medium is only related to the maximum and minimum power transfer coefficients is not intuitive. The relationship in (8) is very useful because the maximum and minimum power transfer coefficients are readily measurable. Preliminary loss measurements for dispersion-shifted fibers of lengths 4-50 km have indicated that γ in (8) is less than 0.01. This implies very little loss in orthogonality (less than 1°). Similar measurements have been made for 150 km lengths of standard fiber. These measurements indicate a loss in orthogonality of less than 6°. The same bound applies when using any device with coupling anisotropy (for example, a directional coupler). In particular, when implementing a local area network using a 1024×1024 star coupler made up many 3-dB 2×2 couplers (10-stage network), we find, using (8) and typical data (with polarization-dependent coupling of 50%±0.27%), that the worst-case degradation from orthogonality is still less than 4°. In general, the degradation encountered due to the loss of orthogonality while switching the polarization state of either the transmitted signal or the local oscillator depends on the relative angle between the two. This creates an additional penalty beyond the 3 dB indicated in (7). The worst-case additional penalty is equal to sin 2 δ. For example, for a degradation from orthogonality of 4°(δ=86°) almost no additional penalty is encountered. In particular, if we can tolerate an additional penalty of 0.5 dB, then the loss of orthogonality can be as much as 19°. Based on the above, the loss of orthogonality is not a major problem and therefore, polarization switching could be implemented at the transmitter. 2. Implementations A. Two-Branch Approach As described above, it is desirable to switch the polarization of either the transmitted signal or local oscillator between two orthogonal states during a bit period. One way to do this is shown in FIG. 5. Using an external electro-optic device, the laser is periodically switched between two paths, one of which rotates the polarization by 90°. The output of the polarization selective coupler is an optical signal whose polarization switches between two orthogonal states during a bit period. A scheme which scrambles the polarization state of the transmitted signal after ASK modulation is shown in FIG. 6 (T. G. Hodgkinson, R. A. Harmon, and D. W. Smith, "Polarisation Insenstive Heterodyne Detection Using Polarisation Scrambling", Electron. Lett., Vol. 23, No. 10, May 7, 1987, pp. 513-514). The scheme shown in FIG. 6 uses a phase modulator in one branch of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to make the polarization of the transmitted ASK signal rapidly alternate between two orthogonal states. An experiment was reported in (T. G. Hodgkinson, R. A. Harmon, and D. W. Smith, "Polarisation Insensitive Heterodyne Detection Using Polarisation Scrambling", Electron. Lett., vol. 23, No. 10, May 7, 1987, pp. 513-514) which verified the 3 dB loss encountered due to the switching. For this particular experiment, the state of polarization was switched at four times the bit rate. B. Polarization Modulators A more desirable alternative would be to implement the polarization-switching described in Section 3.1 with a single device. Ti:LiNbO 3 polarization modulators (R. C. Alferness and L. L. Buhl, "Electro-optic Waveguide TE-TM Mode Converter with Low Drive Voltage", Optics Lett., Vol. 5, No. 11, Nov. 1980, pp. 473-475; R. C. Alferness, "Electrooptic Guided-Wave Device for General Polarization Transformations", IEEE J. Quant. Electron., Vol. QE-17, No. 6, June 1981, pp. 965-969; R. C. Alferness and L. L. Buhl, "High-speed Waveguide Electro-optic Polarization Modulator", Optics Lett., Vol. 7, No. 10, Oct. 1982, pp. 500-502; and R. C. Alferness and L. L. Buhl, "Loss Loss, Waveguide Tunable, Waveguide Electro-optic Polarization Controller for λ=1.32 μm" App. Phys. Lett., Vol. 47, No. 11, Dec. 1985, pp. 1137-1139) could be useful for this purpose. These devices have also been proposed for use as active polarization state controllers. With these devices the modulation and switching functions may be combined in a single device. C. Birefringence-Based Polarization-Switching Techniques Ideally, we would like to force the laser itself to switch its polarization between two orthogonal states by applying some external signal. Some experiments with Nd:YAG and He-Ne lasers (D. G. Carlson, and A. E. Siegman, "Intracavity Electrooptic Frequency Tuning, Polarization Switching, and Q-Switching of a Nd:YAG Laser Oscillator", IEEE J. Quant. Electron., Vol. QE-4, No. 3, March 1968, pp. 93-98; and S. T. Hendow et al, "Observation of Bistable Behavior in the Polarization of a Laser", Optics Lett., Vol. 7, No. 8, Aug. 1982, pp. 356-358) have indicated that a bistability can occur in the polarization state of the laser output if birefringence is present inside the cavity. The laser can then be made to switch between two orthogonal states. Similar experiments have been performed with semiconductor lasers (Y. C. Chen and J. M. Liu, "Polarization Bistability in Semiconductor Lasers", Optics Lett., Vol. 7, No. 8, Aug. 1982, pp. 356-358). However, the need for birefringence inside the cavity further complicates the current problems in fabricating semiconductor lasers. One solution is to simply place the birefringence outside the laser, for example, in the form of a high-birefringence fiber. Several techniques for polarization switching using birefringent fiber will be described in this subsection. However, before describing these techniques, we present some characteristics of birefringent fibers which will be useful later on. C.1 Properties of Birefringent Fiber A single-mode fiber can propagate two principal modes. Each of these modes has associated with it a refractive index (n x and n y ) and a propagation constant (β x and β y ). In an ideal circular fiber, the modes are degenerate (that is, β x =β y ) while in a real fiber this degeneracy is removed (that is, β x ≠β y ). A measure of this non-degeneracy is the birefringence, B, defined as ##EQU7## The difference in the propagation constants causes the fiber to exhibit linear phase retardation Φ(z,λ) which depends on the length of the fiber in the z direction and is given by ##EQU8## This phase retardation leads to a polarization state which is generally elliptical but which varies periodically along the fiber. If the incident light is linearly polarized and is launched at 45° to the principal axes, the state of polarization evolves periodically as shown in FIG. 8 (I. P. Kaminow, "Polarization in Optical Fibers", IEEE J. Quant. Electron., Vol. QE-17, No. 1, Jan. 1981, pp. 15-22). The period with which the polarization state changes is defined as the beat length, L B =λ/B. In the following, we will assume that B is independent of wavelength. The birefringent fiber just described can be modeled as a linear system. For an impulse, δ(t), applied at the input of a birefringent fiber of length L at an angle θ to the principal axes (x and y), the output (impulse response) is h(t)=cos θδ(t-t.sub.x) x+sin θδ(t-t.sub.y) y(11) where t x =Ln x /c and t y =Ln y /c (S. E. Harris and E. O. Ammann, "Optical Network Synthesis Using Birefringent Crystals", IEEE Proc., Vol. 52, No. 4, Apr. 1964, pp. 411-412). This impulse response is shown in FIG. 9. C.2 Frequency-Switching the Local Oscillator The beat length, L B , is a function of wavelength. With a fiber of length L, the polarization state at the output varies when the wavelength (frequency) of light launched at 45° to the principal axes is changed. (The light is launched at 45° to ensure that the modes are excited equally and to make sure that the changes in polarization along the fiber cover two orthogonal states.) By periodically switching between two wavelengths, judiciously chosen, the polarization state of the output light can be switched between two orthogonal states. For example, let the input wavelengths be λ 0 and λ 1 with the associated output polarizations, P 0 and P 1 . For P 0 and P 1 to be orthogonal, the following condition must be satisfied* A formal proof of (12) is given in Appendix C. Φ(L,λ.sub.1)-Φ(L,λ.sub.0)=π. (12) Using (10) in (12), we get ##EQU9## which gives ##EQU10## Based on (13), for a given fiber length, L, and birefringence, B, we can implement polarization-switching at the local oscillator by alternating between two frequencies (separated by Δf) during a single bit period. A polarization switching system based on (13) is shown in FIG. 10. As an example, let B=5×10 -4 , which is representative of highly-birefringent fiber. For this case, LΔf=3×10 11 m/s and, therefore, for a frequency deviation Δf=1 GHz, the length of fiber L=300 m, which is not unreasonable. If a decrease in L is desired, we have to increase Δf which may be difficult, or increase B. One way of simulating such a large birefringence with bulk optics is shown in FIG. 11. This structure involves a more difficult alignment than using a single piece of birefringent fiber. However, it offers the potential of developing a small single-mode fiber device to replace the long, high-birefringence fiber. A system using frequency-switching at the local oscillator to implement polarization-switching can be used with ASK, FSK, and DPSK modulations. One disadvantage is that, in general, the IF frequency will be changing during the bit period. For ASK and DPSK, this problem can be remedied by choosing the frequencies so that the signal center frequency f S =(f 0 +f 1 )/2. In this case, the IF frequency is fixed at f IF =(f 1 -f 0 )/2. A similar condition can be found for FSK transmission. Of course, the frequency tracking problems at the local oscillator will be accentuated. As an alternative to switching the frequency of the local oscillator, which requires countermeasures to stabilize the IF, we can use a frequency/polarization diversity scheme in which the local oscillator outputs two frequencies with a separation Δf determined from (13) (either a dual-frequency laser or two local oscillators). With the local oscillator output launched into a birefringent fiber as before, the output of the photodetector is composed of two IF frequencies separated by Δf. These can then be detected and combined to give performance independent of the state of polarization of the received signal. This combination can be easily achieved if the frequency separation Δf is much greater than the bit rate. C.3 FSK at the Transmitter In the previous subsection, we switched the polarization state of the local oscillator. It is possible to switch the polarization state of the transmitter laser and modulate it externally. An alternative scheme combines polarization switching with FSK data modulation as shown in FIG. 12. Strictly speaking, this is not polarization switching as described before, because the polarization is not switched twice per bit but is switched at the bit rate. In particular, this is more like combined frequency and polarization modulation. At the transmitter a space (Q) is sent as f 0 and a mark (1) as f 1 . These frequencies are chosen as in the previous section so that f 0 corresponds to a polarization state at the output of the birefringent fiber, P 0 , and f 1 corresponds to P 1 and P 0 are orthogonal states. When FSK is performed at the transmitter, then, at the receiver, we get f 0 with polarization P 0 and f 1 with polarization P 1 . Assume that a space (0) is sent and that the angle between the local oscillator polarization and P 0 is θ. The output of the receiver in FIG. 12 is proportional to cos 2 θ. Assume now that a mark (1) is sent, the output is then proportional to -sin 2 θ. Thus, when data is sent, the separation between the two levels (eye opening) corresponding to a mark and a space (cos 2 θ-(-sin 2 θ)=1) remains fixed. However, if the received polarizations drift (that is, if θ changes), the signal variation is then superimposed on a slowly varying DC bias. This slow variation can be tracked out by AC coupling, as shown in FIG. 12. Because the signal separation is independent of θ, this detection operation is polarization-insensitive, suffering a power penalty of 3 dB when compared with ideal heterodyne detection. For all of the frequency-shift-based birefringent techniques, the difference in the propagation constants along the principal axes causes a given data pulse to interfere with adjacent pulses and thus gives rise to intersymbol interference (ISI). This is illustrated in FIG. 13. The time difference between the two components of the pulse along the principal axes (or, equivalently, the pulse overlap region), after traveling for L meters, is ##EQU11## Thus, from (13) and (14), ΔtΔf=1/2. For example, for Δf=1 GHz, Δt=0.5 ns which results in significant ISI if the transmission is at 1 Gb/s. For this case, half of the received pulse cannot be used for detection. Since this is known ISI, it may be possible to combat it by precoding the data, but this may not be an attractive solution at high speeds. To ensure that ISI is not a problem without taking any other measures, we can choose Δt<<T which implies that Δf>>f b /2, where f b is the bit rate. That is, one can use large modulation index FSK. In any case, this is a required condition for dual-filter detection. A consequence of the relationships for Δt and Δf is that there is a tradeoff between power and spectral efficiencies. Assuming that Δt=kT we obtain a relative power efficiency η.sub.power =1-k, (15) that is, due to the pulse overlap, a fraction k of the transmitted power is not used in the detection process (see FIG. 13). The spectral efficiency, using Carson's rule for the transmitted bandwidth, is approximated by ##EQU12## Thus, for small k, there is little overlap and the relative power efficiency is high. However, this is achieved at the expense of spectral efficiency, which from (16) is small for small k. A plot of spectral efficiency versus power efficiency is given in FIG. 14. C.4 Pulse Separation Approach In this subsection, we describe an alternative technique which makes use of the pulse spreading caused by the birefringence of the fiber. When a pulse of light is launched at 45° to the principal axes of the fiber, the pulse components along these axes travel with different propagation constants. We can exploit this phenomenon to combine ASK modulation with polarization switching as follows. Assume that a mark (1) is sent as a pulse of width T/2 (with a bit period of T) and a space (0) is represented by the absence of light. The mark pulse is decomposed in the fiber into two pulses, one with horizontal polarization and one with vertical polarization. These pulses travel at different velocities and, after traveling through a length L=cT/2B, the two pulses will just separate to fill the entire bit period, T. Thus, when a mark is sent, for half the bit period we receive light at one polarization and during the other half of the bit period we receive light at the orthogonal polarization. Therefore, irrespective of the local-oscillator polarization, we obtain a mixing efficiency of 1/2 (a 3 dB loss). For a bit rate of 1 Gb/s, we require 300 m of highly-birefringent fiber with B=5×10 -4 . A scheme using these ideas is shown in FIG. 15. The disadvantage of this approach is that it restricts the modulation techniques which can be used to ASK, which requires an external modulator. As alternative to the transmitter-based implementation, we can perform the same operation at the local oscillator, as shown in FIG. 16. We then truly have a polarization-switching implementation. This allows us to use any noncoherent modulation technique. Of course, an external modulator is still needed. However, the input signal to the modulator is now a simple periodic waveform, with period T, which may be simpler to implement. In the following section, we will describe an alternative implementation which avoids the use of an external modulator. C.5 FSK-to-ASK Converter It has long been recognized that conversion of frequency modulation to amplitude modulation (that is, frequency discrimination) can be accomplished by the use of birefringent crystals. The description of such a discriminator for analog communications is given in (S. E. Harris, "Demodulation of Phase-Modulated Light Using Birefringent Crystals", IEEE Proc., Vol. 52, No. 4, Apr. 1964, pp. 411-412; and M. Ross, Laser Receivers, Wiley, 1966, pp. 244-250). Using a similar approach, but replacing the birefringent crystal with a fiber, we can implement an FSK-to-ASK converter. This converter can then replace the external modulator required in implementing the technique described in the previous subsection, so that an all-fiber implementation of polarization switching is possible. The polarization switching is obtained by simply frequency-shift keying the local oscillator laser. An FSK-to-ASK converter can be constructed as follows. Let the local oscillator laser be linearly polarized and launched at 45° to the principal axes of the birefringent fiber. Also, let the laser be switched periodically between f 0 and f 1 , where the frequency separation Δf=f 1 -f 0 and the fiber length L are chosen such that they give at the output f 0 with polarization P 0 , and f 1 with polarization P 1 , where P 0 and P 1 are orthogonal. This was described previously in Section 3.3.3.2. The output light is then passed through an ideal polarizer aligned with either P 0 or P 1 (say, P 0 ), as shown in FIG. 17. The polarizer then blocks P 1 and therefore blocks f 1 , so that the output of the polarizer is an on-off signal, giving FSK-to-ASK conversion. The polarizer can also be implemented in fiber form (A. J. Noda et al, "Single-Mode Fiber Devices", Optoelectronics--Devices and Technologies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Dec. 1986, pp. 175-194). The output of the polarizer (which is an on-off signal and is linearly polarized) is launched at 45° to the principal axes of another piece of birefringent fiber of length L=cT/2B. If the input to this section of fiber consists of pulses of width T/2, then the rest of the operation is described as in Section 3.3.3.4. Thus, the polarization switching operation, shown in FIG. 18, is implemented entirely in fiber form, without requiring any external modulators. Potential alignment problems may be eased by using a birefringent fiber whose principal modes are circular (R. Ulrich and A. Simon, "Polarization Optics of Twisted Single-Mode Fibers", App. Optics, Vol. 18, No. 13, July 1979, pp. 2241-2251). Here, we present a demonstration of a particularly simple polarization-insensitive technique. In this approach, we use a combination of frequency and polarization modulation. We arrange for the frequency shift of the transmitted signal to induce the polarization switching by introducing a passive device with high birefringence in the path of the transmitted signal. The polarization switching causes a 3 dB power penalty when compared to an ideal frequency shift keying (FSK) system but provides for polarization-insensitive detection. An advantage of this technique is that it is particulary well-suited to local-area networks because the receiver design is kept simple. D. Specific Embodiments In the technique presented here, polarization switching is combined with FSK data modulation, as shown in FIG. 1. At the transmitter, a space (0) is sent as f 0 and a mark (1) as f 1 . The signal is then launched at 45° to the principal axes of a birefringent medium. For a given birefringence, we can choose a frequency separation, Δf=f 1 -f 0 , such that the polarization states at the output, P 0 and P 1 (corresponding to f 0 and f 1 , respectively), are orthogonal. When FSK is performed at the transmitter, then, at the receiver, we get f 0 with polarization P 0 and f 1 with polarization P 1 . Notice that frequency modulation of the laser has been converted into both frequency and polarization modulation at the receiver input. The polarization orthogonality between the two frequencies f 0 and f 1 remains virtually unaffected in transmission to the receiver (L. J. Cimini, Jr., I. M. I. Habbab, R. K. John and A. A. M. Saleh, "On the Preservation of Polarization Orthogonality Through a Linear Optical System", Electron. Lett., Vol. 23, No. 25, Dec. 3, 1987). At the receiver, the local oscillator mixes with the signal at frequency f 0 and polarization P 0 when a space (0) is transmitted and with a signal at frequency f 1 and polarization P 1 when a mark (1) is transmitted. Note that the relative angle between the states of polarization of the local oscillator and the received signal is arbitrary. To see that this is a polarization-insensitive system, assume that a space (0) is sent and that the angle between the local oscillator polarization state, P LO , and P 0 is θ. In this case, the output of the receiver in FIG. 1 is proportional to cos 2 θ. Assume now that a mark (1) is sent, the output is then proportional to -sin 2 θ. Thus, when data is sent, the separation between the two levels corresponding to a mark and a space (cos 2 θ-(-sin 2 θ)=1) remains fixed. However, if the received polarizations drift (that is, if θ changes), the signal variation is then superimposed on a slowly varying DC bias. This slow variation can be tracked out by AC coupling, as shown in FIG. 1. Note that the level separation obtained here is 1/2 of that obtained when the polarizations are perfectly matched. Because the signal separation is independent of θ, this detection is polarization-insensitive, suffering a power penalty of 3 dB when compared with heterodyne detection with perfectly-matched polarizations. Note that, in this approach, each pulse at f 0 or f 1 is decomposed into two components along the principal axes of the birefringent medium. These components travel with different propagation constants. This causes a given data pulse to interfere with adjacent pulses and, thus, gives rise to intersymbol interference (ISI) at the receiver. It can be shown that, for any birefringent medium, the frequency separation, Δf, and the time overlap between successive pulses, Δt, satisfy the relation ΔfΔt=1/2 [7]. If the bit rate is f b =1/T, then, to ensure that ISI is not a problem without taking any additional measures, we can choose Δt<<T, which implies that Δf>>f b /2; that is, we must use large modulation index FSK. In any case, this is a required condition for dual-filter detection. A consequence of the relationships for Δt and Δf is that there is a tradeoff between power and spectral efficiencies. Assuming the spectral efficiency is small (that is, a large modulation index), the loss in power efficiency is negligible. In the proposed system described above, the birefringent medium could be a long piece of highly birefringent fiber. In this fiber, the polarization state changes periodically with a period (known as the beat length) L B =λ/B, where λ is the wavelength and B is the birefringence. It can be shown that the length of fiber required to produce switching between orthogonal polarizations is L=c/2BΔf [7]. In this work, however, we use an alternative to the high birefringence fiber as described below. D.1 Experimental Set-Up FIG. 21 also shows the set-up used in the experiment. The transmitter consisted of a 1.3 μm single-cavity double-contact DFB laser with a linewidth of 40 MHz (K. Y. Liou, C. A. Burrus, U. Koren and T. L. Koch, "Two-Electrode Distributed Feedback Injection Laser for Single-Mode Stabilization and Electro-Optical Switching", App. Phys. Lett., Vol. 51, No. 9, Aug. 1987, pp. 634-636). We investigated the frequency response of the laser and found that it was flat between 1 and 500 MHz, with a response of 1.6 GHz/mA. The laser was frequency shift keyed with a 50 Mb/s pseudorandom sequence. A frequency deviation of Δf=1 GHz was used, giving a modulation index of 20 (1 GHz/50 MHz). The modulated signal then passed through two optical isolators (not shown) and a birefringent medium. In the experiment, a birefringence simulator, as shown in FIG. 22, was used as the birefringent medium. In this assembly, light is launched at 45° to the principal axes of a polarizing beam splitter and is separated into horizontal and vertical components. These components travel different distances and are recombined in a polarization selective coupler with different phases. It can be shown that the path difference, ΔL, required to provide orthogonal polarizations, is given by ΔL=c/2Δf=15 cm. As described in the previous section, the output of the birefringent device is an optical signal which changes its frequency and polarization in response to the data. This signal was then passed through a transmission medium which consisted of either an optical attenuator or 30 km of single-mode fiber. At the receiver, the signal was combined with the output of an external-cavity semiconductor local-oscillator laser through a 3-dB coupler. The combined signals were detected in a single PIN photodiode. The resulting photocurrent was amplified and split evenly into two branches. The photodiode was followed, as shown in FIG. 21, by a conventional FSK dual-filter receiver (S. Benedetto, E. Biglieri and V. Castellani, Digital Transmission Theory, Prentice-Hall, 1987, pp. 226-239; and I. Garrett and G. Jacobsen, "Theoretical Analysis of Heterodyne Optical Receivers for Transmission Systems Using (Semiconductor) Lasers with Nonnegligible Linewidth", J. Lightwave Tech., Vol. LT-4, No. 3, Mar. 1986, pp. 323-334). This consisted of two bandpass filters centered on 1.5 GHz (f LO -f 0 ) and 2.5 GHz (f LO -f 1 ), respectively, each having a 3-dB bandwidth of 400 MHz. The bandwidth of these filters is larger than the data bandwidth by a factor of 8 in order to reduce the effects of laser phase noise. The signals at the output of each bandpass filter were then passed through square-law detectors, producing baseband components which were then subtracted and passed through a lowpass filter. This filter has a 3-dB bandwidth of 30 MHz which is satisfactory for 50 Mb/s pseudorandom data. The frequency-locking circuitry provided an error signal which was used to lock the local oscillator with a separation of 2 GHz from the transmitter laser. D.2 Results and Discussion In this section, we present the experimental results obtained for both a conventional dual-filter FSK system and for the polarization-insensitive FSK system described in Sections 2 and 3. In FIG. 23, we show a series of "eye openings". In each column, the polarization states are varied from a perfectly-matched to an orthogonal condition. For the conventional system, shown in the left column, we see an eye closure due to the loss of signal as the polarization states become mismatched. It is important to stress that, for the worst condition (that is, minimum IF signal power), the eye closure cannot be compensated by increasing the gain. In this case, the polarizations of the signal and local oscillator are orthogonal and no signal appears in the IF. In contrast, in the right column, we show the eye obtained for the polarization-insensitive system. Notice, also, that virtually no ISI is present. This is expected since the time overlap Δt=0.5 ns is much less than the bit interval T=20 ns. In FIG. 24, we have controlled the angle of polarization of the local oscillator by inserting a half-wave plate in its path. The plots shown in FIG. 24 indicate the bit error probability for the conventional system and the polarization-insensitive system as the polarization angle of the local oscillator is varied. In order to reduce the error probability measurement time to a reasonable value, the received signal power was adjusted to give an error probability of about 10 -6 for the latter system. We see that, as expected, variations in the angle of polarization cause large variations in the bit error probability for the conventional FSK system. In contrast, the bit error probability of the polarization-insensitive system changes only slightly as the polarization angle is varied. Theoretically, this curve should be flat with respect to polarization angle. In practice, the measured performance changed by one decade (corresponding to a sensitivity variation of less than 1 dB, as shown in FIG. 25) and this is thought to be due to the nonideal nature of the square-law detectors. This also explains the slight variation in the magnitude of the eye observed in FIG. 23. Finally, in FIG. 25, we show the bit error probability versus peak IF signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for transmission through an optical attenuator or through 30 km of single-mode fiber. Essentially, we observed no difference between the performance for the attenuator and for the fiber. The two theoretical plots are obtained from and pertain to linewidth/bit rate (βT) ratios of 0.64 and 2.56, respectively. In our case, βT=0.8, and the theoretical curve lies somewhere between these two. We show measurements obtained for the conventional system with perfectly matched polarizations. These results agree within 1 dB of the theory. Of course, for the conventional FSK system, with orthogonal polarizations, we would have an error probability of 0.5, independent of SNR. For the polarization-insensitive FSK system, we show two curves corresponding to the best- and worst-case results. They show that this technique suffers a power penalty of 3 to 4 dB when compared to measurements for the conventional system with perfectly matched polarizations. This compares well with the expected penalty of 3 dB. FIG. 5 also shows a translation between measured peak IF signal-to-noise ratio and measured received optical power into the photodetector. These measurements also confirm that polarization orthogonality is essentially preserved in transmission through 30 km of optical fiber (L. J. Cimini, Jr., I. M. I. Habbab, R. K. John and A. A. M. Saleh, "On the Preservation of Polarization Orthogonality Through a Linear Optical System", Electron. Lett., Vol. 23, No. 25, Dec. 3, 1987). APPENDIX A The electric field vector of a uniform plane wave of arbitrary polarization traveling in the z-direction is in general, given by ##EQU13## This can be written as ##EQU14## where ##EQU15## is known as the Jones vector [46]. This vector contains complete information about the amplitudes and phases of the field components and, hence, about the state of polarization of the wave. In the most general case, both the received signal and local oscillator are elliptically polarized with Jones vectors E S and E LO given by ##EQU16## The mixing efficiency, m, is given by ##EQU17## where ∥·∥ denotes the norm, that is, ∥x∥=√x x, ∥ means the transpose complex conjugate of the vector and Δ=(δ SX -δ LX )-(δ SY -δ LY ). Let tan ρ LO =E LY /E LX and tan ρ S =E SY /E SX where, in each case a rectangle of coordinates (±E LX ,±E LY ) (±E SX ,±E SY ) contains the ellipse of polarization, as shown in FIG. 19. Using these definitions, the mixing efficiency in (A-6) becomes ##EQU18## An angle θ=ƒ(ρ LO ,ρ S , δ SX , δ LX ,δ SY ,δ LY ) can always be found such that the above mixing efficiency, m, is equal to cos 2 θ. In the simpler case where the local oscillator is linear, (A-7) is still valid with the angle of polarization ρ LO =θ LO =tan -1 E LY /E LX and Δ=δ SX -δ SY . In the simplest case where both the local oscillator and received signal are linearly polarized with the signal polarization angle ρ S =θ S =tan -1 E SY /E SX , (A-7) reduces to ##EQU19## which is the mixing efficiency in (3) with θ=θ LO -θ S . APPENDIX B In this appendix, we derive the bound on the loss of orthogonality after transmission through any linear optical system. These systems can be modeled by a 2×2 transmission matrix. T, of complex numbers as shown in FIG. 20, where E 1i and E 2i are complex unit vectors describing the input states of polarizations and E 1o and E 2o are the corresponding complex vectors describing the states of polarization at the output. Assume that the input waves have orthogonal states of polarization, that is, |E.sub.2i E.sub.1i |=0, (B-1) where ∥ means the transpose complex conjugate of the vector. The cosine of the angle between E 1i and E 2i is therefore zero. The degradation in orthogonality at the output is related to ##EQU20## where ∥·∥ denotes the norm, that is, ∥x∥=√x x. Using the similarity transformation and the fact that T T is Hermitian (real non-negative eigenvalues), then, T T=QΛQ, where Λ is a diagonal matrix ##EQU21## The eigenvalues T max and T min are the maximum and minimum power transfer coefficients of the medium as the state of polarization is varied. Therefore, (B-2) becomes ##EQU22## Defining two vectors X=QE 1i =(x 1 x 2 ) T and Y=QE 2i =(y 1 Y 2 ) T which are orthogonal and have unit norm, (B-4) becomes ##EQU23## Since X and Y are orthogonal and of unit norm, (B-5) can be written in terms of a single independent component as ##EQU24## |cos δ| 2 can be bounded by maximizing the quantity in brackets in (B-7). It is easy to show that the maximum value of this quantity is 1 and it is obtained for |x 1 | 2 =1/2. Therefore, ##EQU25## Equality is achieved in (B-8) when ##EQU26## If φ=0 (linear polarizations) X and Y are at 45° to the eigenvectors of T T. In general, (B-8) is satisfied with equality when each of the launched states has equal powers along the principal axes. APPENDIX C Assume that a linearly polarized optical wave at wavelength λ 0 is launched into a birefringent fiber of length L at 45° to the principal axes of the fiber. The Jones vector E in of the input polarization is then given by ##EQU27## The Jones vector E 0 of the output polarization is modified by the Jones matrix of a linear birefringent medium, and is given by (assuming no power transfer between the modes)* ##EQU28## For another input wavelength λ 1 , the Jones vector of the corresponding output polarization is ##EQU29## For orthogonality, we require E 1 E 0 =0 where ∥ means the transpose complex conjugate of the vector. This condition translates into ##EQU30## The above equation is satisfied if the difference between the exponents is an odd multiple of π. For the smallest frequency deviation satisfying this condition, we have

To exploit the potential advantages of coherent optical communications systems, the polarization states of the received optical signal and the local oscillator waves must be matched. A mismatch may severely degrade detection performance. These mismatches occur because the received signal state of polarization changes with time and along the fiber. We first review several existing techniques for handling this problem, such as polarization-maintaining fibers, polarization-state controllers and polarization-diversity receivers. The insensitive technique reduces the problem of polarization mismatch by forcing the polarization state of either the transmitted signal or local oscillator to vary with time in a non-adaptive manner so that polarization-insensitive performance is obtained. The proposed scheme adopts a completely new approach which uses high-birefringence single-mode fibers to implement polarization switching. These techniques require only a single photodetector and give a fixed level of detection performance, with a power penalty relative to ideal of 3 dB. A specific technique is presented in which polarization-insensitive heterodyne detection is achieved through data-induced polarization switching. The polarization switching is brought about by inserting a passive, birefringent optical device in the path of the transmitted FSK signal.

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/060,968, filed Jun. 12, 2008, and entitled UNIVERSAL PROJECTOR INTERFACE WITH SUSTAINABLE ALIGNMENT, said application being hereby fully incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to mounting devices and more specifically to universal adjustable mounting devices for projectors. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Multi-media presentations performed with video projection equipment have become very common for business and entertainment purposes. Often, the video projection equipment is a portable LCD projector that is placed on a table, cart, or stand in the room, with the image projected on a portion of the wall or a portable screen. Such impromptu arrangements, however, have a number of drawbacks. First, a considerable amount of time is often needed to position, aim, and focus the projector in advance of the presentation—time that is expended repeatedly whenever a different projector is set up. Further, it is often difficult to position a portable projector where it is not in the way of persons moving about in the room, or in the line of sight for those viewing the presentation. Moreover, the wires and cables used to connect the projector with the computer are in the open at ground level, presenting a tripping hazard and an opportunity for damage to the projector if someone comes in contact with them. In view of these many drawbacks of portable projectors, mounting devices have been developed to enable mounting of a projection device from the ceiling of a presentation room. Such devices have generally been successful in alleviating some of the problems associated with a projector at ground level having exposed wires. These prior ceiling mounting devices have presented certain drawbacks, however. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,655, a device for mounting a video/data projector from a ceiling or wall is disclosed in which struts are used to form channels for supporting the projector and to concealing cabling. The channels, however, result in a rather bulky device that may be difficult to harmonize with the aesthetic environment of a presentation room. In addition, adjustment of the projector for roll, pitch, and yaw may be time consuming and difficult due to the generally limited adjustment capability of the device. Also, the projector may be vulnerable to theft by anyone with common hand tools and access to the device during unattended hours. Other prior devices such as the low-profile LCD projector mount is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,068, offer a relatively more compact mount arrangement, but still offer only a limited range of projector pitch and yaw adjustment, and no roll adjustment at all. A projector mount is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,156,359, which alleviates many of the problems of prior devices. U.S. Pat. No. 7,156,359 is owned by the owners of the present invention and is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference. The disclosed mount provides independent projector roll, pitch, and yaw adjustments along with theft deterrence in the form of coded fasteners connecting each separate portion of the mount. Fine adjustment for position may be hampered, however, due to the number of separate fasteners to be loosened and tightened to enable adjustment (six for the pitch and roll adjustments), and by the tendency for the weight of the projector to pull the mount out of adjustment unless the projector is held in the desired position. Also, although the theft resistant security fasteners inhibit theft of the device, convenience of use of the projector device is compromised by the need to remove the security fasteners with a special tool in order to move the projector to a new location. A further improvement of this projector mount is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,412, hereby fully incorporated herein by reference. The projector mount described therein enables easy micro-adjustment of projector aim in roll, pitch, and yaw, and also enable quick disconnect of the projector from the mount. A difficulty with all these mounts, however, is that projectors of different makes often employ different mounting-fastener patterns for attaching a mount to the projector. This has required a multiplicity of different projector mount models, each matched to a different projector make. While universal mount interfaces, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,503,536, hereby fully incorporated herein by reference, have provided a way to attach a projector to a variety of different projector makes, a persistent difficulty, even with such universal mounts, has been that projectors often have serviceable parts, such as filters and bulbs, that are located in the vicinity of the fastener locations for attaching the projector to the mount. When these parts need to be replaced or serviced, the mount must be removed from the projector to obtain access. Because the projector typically cannot be simply reattached in precisely the same position at it was before the mount was removed, the projector typically must be tediously and time-consumingly re-aimed. This re-aiming typically is performed by a professional, causing expense and delay for the projector end-users. Hence, a need still exists in the industry for a projector mount easily and quickly adaptable to a multiplicity of different projector makes and that enables easy serviceability of the projector by end-users. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention address the need for a projector mount easily and quickly adaptable to a multiplicity of different projector makes and that enables easy serviceability of the projector by end-users. According to an embodiment, a universal projector interface includes a mount interface portion with a plurality of elongate arm assemblies coupled thereto. Each arm assembly is selectively rotatable and translatable relative to the mount interface, and includes a coupling portion. The coupling portion of each arm assembly is selectively shiftable between a first position in which the coupling portion is securely engaged with a projector attachment member on the projector and a second position in which the coupling portion is freely disengageable from the projector attachment member. The mount interface portion can be coupled with a projector mount that is in turn coupled with an element of a structure such as a ceiling. Each arm assembly can be rotated and translated so the coupling portion is positioned to be engagable with a separate projector attachment member on the projector. The projector can then be coupled to the universal projector interface and projector mount by engaging each projector attachment members with one of the coupling portions of the arm assemblies and shifting the coupling portion from the second position to the first position to secure the arm assembly to the projector. The projector may then be precisely aimed by making adjustments on the projector mount or the universal projector interface. Once the projector has been aimed, the projector can be easily and quickly removed from the projector mount and universal projector interface by shifting each of the coupling portions of the arm assemblies to the second position and removing the projector. Because shifting of the coupling portions does not affect any of the aiming adjustments on the projector mount or universal mount interface, the projector can be quickly and easily reattached with the need for reaiming by simply again engaging each projector attachment member with one of the coupling portions of the arm assemblies and shifting the coupling portion from the second position to the first position to secure the arm assembly to the projector. According to an embodiment, a universal projector interface includes a mount interface portion adapted to receive a projector mount, at least one projector attachment member adapted to couple with a projector, and at least one arm assembly operably coupled with the mount interface portion so as to be selectively shiftable relative to the mount interface portion. The arm assembly includes a coupling portion selectively shiftable between a first position wherein the coupling portion is engaged with the at least one projector attachment member so as to prevent vertical and horizontal translation of the at least one arm assembly relative to the at least one projector attachment member, and a second position wherein the coupling portion and the at least one arm assembly is freely disengagable from the at least one projector attachment member. The projector attachment member may be a fastener receivable in a fastener aperture of the projector and a selectively shiftable collar on the fastener, and the coupling portion may be a clip slidably received on an end of the at least one arm assembly. The clip may define a projection, the projection being engaged with the collar of the projector attachment member when the coupling portion is in the first position so as to inhibit threading movement of the collar on the fastener in order to prevent loosening of the engagement between the coupling portion and the projector attachment member. In further embodiments, the mount interface portion may define a plurality of elongate apertures, and the at least one arm assembly may be coupled to the mount interface portion with a fastener extending through one of the elongate apertures, the fastener selectively shiftable along the elongate aperture to shift a position of the at least one arm assembly relative to the mount interface portion. The at least one arm assembly may include an elongate arm member defining a channel oriented longitudinally along the elongate arm member, the fastener being selectively shiftable along the channel to enable shifting of the position of the at least one arm assembly relative to the mount interface portion. In further embodiments, the universal projector interface of claim 1 , further includes means for locking the coupling portion in the first position. The at least one arm assembly may define a first aperture and the coupling portion may define a second aperture, the first and second apertures being in registration when the coupling portion is in the first position. The means for locking may be a locking member insertable through the first aperture and the second aperture when the coupling portion is in the first position. In further embodiments, a visual display system includes a projector, a projector mount, and a universal mount interface operably coupling the projector and the projector mount. The universal mount interface includes a mount interface portion operably coupled with the projector mount, at least one projector attachment member coupled with the projector, and at least one arm assembly operably coupled with the mount interface portion so as to be selectively shiftable relative to the mount interface portion. The arm assembly includes a coupling portion selectively shiftable between a first position wherein the coupling portion is engaged with the at least one projector attachment member so as to prevent vertical and horizontal translation of the at least one arm assembly relative to the at least one projector attachment member, and a second position wherein the coupling portion and the at least one arm assembly is freely disengagable from the at least one projector attachment member. The projector attachment member may include a fastener receivable in a fastener aperture of the projector and a collar threaded on the fastener, and the coupling portion may include a clip slidably received on an end of the at least one arm assembly. The clip may define a projection, the projection being engaged with the collar of the projector attachment member when the coupling portion is in the first position so as to inhibit threading movement of the collar on the fastener. The mount interface portion may define a plurality of elongate apertures, and the at least one arm assembly may be coupled to the mount interface portion with a fastener extending through one of the elongate apertures, the fastener selectively shiftable along the elongate aperture to shift a position of the at least one arm assembly relative to the mount interface portion. Further, the at least one arm assembly may include an elongate arm member defining a channel oriented longitudinally along the elongate arm member, the fastener being selectively shiftable along the channel to enable shifting of the position of the at least one arm assembly relative to the mount interface portion. In further embodiments, a method of installing a projector may include providing a universal projector interface with a mount interface portion adapted to receive a projector mount thereon, at least one projector attachment member adapted to couple with a projector, and at least one arm assembly operably coupled with the mount interface portion so as to be selectively shiftable relative to the mount interface portion. The arm assembly includes a coupling portion selectively shiftable between a first position wherein the coupling portion is engaged with the at least one projector attachment member so as to prevent vertical and horizontal translation of the at least one arm assembly relative to the at least one projector attachment member, and a second position wherein the coupling portion and the at least one arm assembly is freely disengagable from the at least one projector attachment member. The method further includes providing instructions with the universal projector interface instructing a user to couple the at least one projector attachment member with the projector, couple the mount interface portion with the projector mount, and couple the projector with the projector mount by shifting the coupling portion of the arm assembly to the second position, engaging the coupling portion with the projector attachment member, and shifting the coupling portion to the first position. In still further embodiments, a visual display system includes a projector, a projector mount, and a universal mount interface operably coupling the projector and the projector mount. The universal mount interface includes a mount interface portion operably coupled with the projector mount, a plurality of projector attachment members coupled with the projector, and a plurality of arm assemblies operably coupled with the mount interface portion so as to be selectively shiftable relative to the mount interface portion. Each arm assembly includes a coupling portion selectively shiftable between a first position wherein the coupling portion is engaged with one of the projector attachment members so as to prevent vertical and horizontal translation of the arm assembly relative to the projector attachment member to which the arm assembly is attached, and a second position wherein the coupling portion and the arm assembly are freely disengagable from the projector attachment member. Each projector attachment member may include a fastener receivable in a fastener aperture of the projector and a collar threaded on the fastener, and each coupling portion comprises a clip slidably received on an end of the arm assembly. The mount interface portion may define a plurality of elongate apertures, and each arm assembly may be coupled to the mount interface portion with a fastener extending through a separate one of the elongate apertures, the fastener selectively shiftable along the elongate aperture to shift a position of the arm assembly relative to the mount interface portion. Each arm assembly may include an elongate arm member defining a channel oriented longitudinally along the elongate arm member, the fastener being selectively shiftable along the channel to enable shifting of the position of the arm assembly relative to the mount interface portion. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention may be more completely understood in consideration of the following detailed description of various embodiments of the invention in connection with the following drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a universal projector interface, according to an embodiment of the invention, supporting a projector; FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the universal projector interface of FIG. 1 ; FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the track assemblies and interface plate of FIG. 1 ; FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the track assemblies and interface plate of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 5 is a bottom plan view of the track assemblies and interface plate of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 6 a is a front elevation view of the track assemblies and interface plate of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 6 b is a side elevation view of the track assemblies and interface plate of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 6 c is a rear elevation view of the track assemblies and interface plate of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the interface plate of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 8 a is a top plan view of the interface plate of FIG. 7 ; FIG. 8 b is a front elevation view of the interface plate of FIG. 7 ; FIG. 8 c is a side elevation view of the interface plate of FIG. 7 ; FIG. 8 d is a perspective view of an interface plate according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 8 e is a top view of the interface plate of FIG. 8 d. FIG. 8 f is a front view of the interface plate of FIG. 8 d. FIG. 8 g is a side view of the interface plate of FIG. 8 d. FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the track assemblies of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 10 is a top plan view of the track assemblies of FIG. 9 ; FIG. 11 a is a perspective view of one of the track assemblies of a universal projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 11 b is a top plan view of the track assembly of FIG. 11 a; FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view of the track assembly of FIG. 11 a; FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the track bar of FIG. 12 ; FIG. 14 a is a side elevation view of the track bar of FIG. 13 ; FIG. 14 b is a top plan view of the track bar of FIG. 13 ; FIG. 14 c is a bottom plan view of the track bar of FIG. 13 ; FIG. 15 a is a front perspective view of the track bar of FIG. 13 ; FIG. 15 b is a rear perspective view of the track bar of FIG. 15 a; FIG. 15 c is a rear elevation view of the track bar of FIG. 15 a; FIG. 16 a is a fragmentary top-rear perspective view of the track bar of FIG. 13 ; FIG. 16 b is a fragmentary bottom-rear perspective view of the track bar of FIG. 13 ; FIG. 17 a is an exploded front elevation view of the slide assembly of FIG. 12 ; FIG. 17 b is an exploded perspective view of the slide assembly of FIG. 17 a; FIG. 17 c is a side elevation view of the slide bridge of FIG. 17 a; FIG. 18 is a perspective cross-sectional view taken at section 14 of FIG. 11 a; FIG. 19 is a perspective view of the engagement bracket of FIG. 12 ; FIG. 19 a is a top plan view of the engagement bracket of FIG. 19 ; FIG. 19 b is a bottom plan view of the engagement bracket of FIG. 19 ; FIG. 19 c is a side elevation view of the engagement bracket of FIG. 19 ; FIG. 19 d is an opposing side elevation view of the engagement bracket of FIG. 19 ; FIG. 19 e is a rear elevation view of the engagement bracket of FIG. 19 ; FIG. 19 f is a front elevation view of the engagement bracket of FIG. 19 ; FIG. 20 is a perspective cross-sectional view taken at section 21 of FIG. 19 a; FIG. 21 a is a fragmentary perspective view of the track bar of FIG. 13 and of the engagement bracket of FIG. 19 ; FIG. 21 b is a fragmentary side elevation view of the track bar and the engagement bracket of FIG. 21 a; FIG. 21 c is a fragmentary top plan view of the track bar and the engagement bracket of FIG. 21 a; FIG. 21 d is a fragmentary bottom plan view of the track bar and the engagement bracket of FIG. 21 a; FIG. 22 a is a perspective view of the pull cover of FIG. 12 ; FIG. 22 b is a top plan view of the pull cover of FIG. 22 a; FIG. 22 c is a side elevation view of the pull cover of FIG. 22 a; FIG. 22 d is a rear elevation view of the pull cover of FIG. 22 a; FIG. 23 a is a perspective view of the engagement fastener and engagement collar of FIG. 12 ; FIG. 23 b is a side elevation view of the engagement fastener and engagement collar of FIG. 23 a; FIG. 23 c is a perspective view of the engagement fastener and engagement collar of FIG. 23 a , depicting the engagement collar threaded to the engagement fastener; FIG. 24 a is a perspective view of the track bar with engagement collar and fastener according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 24 b is rear perspective view of the track bar with engagement collar and fastener of FIG. 24 a; FIG. 25 a is a perspective view of the track bar with engagement bracket, collar and fastener according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 25 b is a side view of the track bar with engagement bracket, collar and fastener of FIG. 25 a; FIG. 25 c is a side view of the track bar with engagement bracket, collar and fastener of FIG. 25 a with pull cover; FIG. 26 a is a perspective view of engagement bracket with collar and ring according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 26 b is a side view of engagement bracket with collar and ring of FIG. 26 a; FIG. 26 c is another side view of engagement bracket with collar and ring of FIG. 26 a; FIG. 26 d is a top view of engagement bracket with collar and ring of FIG. 26 a; FIG. 26 e is a perspective cross-sectional view of engagement bracket with collar and ring of FIG. 26 a; FIG. 26 f is a perspective cross-sectional view of engagement bracket with collar and ring of FIG. 26 a; FIG. 27 is a perspective cross-sectional view of track assembly 120 a according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 28 a is a top view of engagement bracket, collar, and ring according to an embodiment of the present invention in a locked position; FIG. 28 b is a top view of engagement bracket, collar, and ring according to an embodiment of the present invention in an unlocked position; FIG. 28 c is a perspective view of engagement bracket, collar, and ring of FIG. 28 b; FIG. 29 a is a perspective view of a rotating latching mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 29 b 1 is a perspective view of a watch-band clasp mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 29 b 2 is a partial cross-section of the watch-band clasp mechanism of FIG. 29 b 1 ; FIG. 29 c is a perspective view of a beveled pin locking mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 29 d is a perspective view of a turning key mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 30 a is a top view of a slide latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 30 b is a side view of a slide latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 31 a is a top view of a squeeze latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in a locked position; FIG. 31 b is a top view of a squeeze latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in an unlocked position; FIG. 32 is an exploded perspective view of a cross-pin latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 33 is a an exploded perspective view of a spring clip latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 34 a is a top view of another squeeze latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in an unlocked position; FIG. 34 b is a top view of another squeeze latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in a locked position; FIG. 35 is a side view of a rotating knob locking mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in the locked position; FIG. 36 a is a top view of a pivoting latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in a locked position; FIG. 36 b is a side elevation view of the pivoting latch mechanism of FIG. 36 a; FIG. 37 is an exploded side view of a plunger latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 38 is a side view of a hook latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in a locked position; FIG. 39 a is a side view of a tool-actuated latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in an unlocked position; FIG. 39 b is a side view of a tool-actuated latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in a locked position; FIG. 40 a is a top view of a top-pivoting latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in a locked position; FIG. 40 b is a top view of a top-pivoting latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in an unlocked position; FIG. 40 c is a perspective view of a top-pivoting latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention in an unlocked position; FIG. 41 is an exploded perspective view of a rotating latch mechanism of a projector interface according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 42 is a perspective view of a universal projector interface according to an alternative embodiment of the invention; FIG. 43 is a perspective view of the interface of FIG. 42 with the cover portion removed; FIG. 44 is a partial exploded view of the interface of FIG. 42 ; FIG. 45 is a side elevation view of a coupling portion and projector interface member of the interface of FIG. 42 with the coupling portion in an engaged position; FIG. 46 is a top plan view of the coupling portion and projector interface member of FIG. 45 ; FIG. 47 is a side elevation view of a coupling portion and projector interface member of the interface of FIG. 42 with the coupling portion in a disengaged position; FIG. 48 is a top plan view of the coupling portion and projector interface member of FIG. 47 ; and FIG. 49 is a partial exploded view of a coupling portion and track arm of the interface of FIG. 42 . While the present invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specifics thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the intention is not to limit the invention to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The accompanying Figures depict embodiments of the mount of the present invention, and features and components thereof. Any references to front and back, right and left, top and bottom, upper and lower, and horizontal and vertical are intended for convenience of description, not to limit the present invention or its components to any one positional or spacial orientation. Any dimensions specified in the attached Figures and this specification may vary with a potential design and the intended use of an embodiment of the invention without departing from the scope of the invention. Moreover, the Figures may designate, for reference purposes, the relative directions of x-y-z coordinate axes as applied to the invention. Any reference herein to movement in an x-axis direction, a y-axis direction, or a z-axis direction, or to rotation about an x-axis, a y-axis or a z-axis, relates to these coordinate axes. The y-axis is oriented fore-and-aft in relation to the mounted device, the z-axis is vertical and the x-axis is perpendicular to the z-axis and the y-axis, and is oriented laterally from side-to-side in relation to the mounted device. For the purposes of the present application, pitch is defined as angular displacement about the x-axis, roll is defined as angular displacement about the y-axis, and yaw is defined as angular displacement about the z-axis. As depicted in FIGS. 1-2 , projector mounting system 100 generally includes projector 102 , projector interface 104 , projector mount 106 , optional security cable assembly 108 , and pipe support 110 . Projector 102 may be any of a number of known projection devices, and generally includes projector mounting surface 112 , projector mounting holes 114 a , 114 b , 114 c , and access door 116 . The details of projector mount 106 are fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,412, owned by the owners of the present invention, said patent hereby fully incorporated herein by reference. As depicted in FIGS. 3-6 , projector interface 104 generally includes interface plate 118 , track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , and projector interface members in the form of engagement fasteners 121 . Track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c are pivotally coupled to interface plate 118 with plate-track fasteners 125 a , 125 b , 125 c , 125 d , as will be further described hereinbelow. Engagement fasteners 121 generally include engagement fasteners 121 a , 121 b , 121 c , and engagement collars 124 a , 124 b , 124 c . In the embodiment depicted, projector interface 104 includes three track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , but in other embodiments, may include four or more track assemblies depending on available mounting holes 114 , and other projector 102 characteristics. Referring now to FIGS. 7-8 , interface plate 118 may be generally rectangular or nearly square in shape, and resembling a shallow tray. Interface plate 118 generally includes two long perimeter walls 126 , 128 , two short perimeter walls 130 , 132 , floor 134 , raised corners 136 , 138 , 140 , 142 . Interface plate 118 further defines a generally central aperture 144 and a series of slots 146 . In alternative embodiments, interface plate 118 may include a series of circular holes, a combination of holes and slots, or may generally include openings of other shapes and sizes that are capable of receiving track assemblies 120 . Long wall 126 generally includes a top surface 148 , outer surface 150 , inner surface 152 , transition portion 153 , and traverses the width of interface plate 118 along the x-axis between raised corners 136 and 138 . Similarly, long wall 128 generally includes a top surface 154 , outer surface 156 , inner surface 158 , transition portion 159 , and traverses the width of interface plate 118 between raised corners 140 and 142 . The length of wall 126 generally is equal to the length of wall 128 . Short wall 130 generally includes a top surface 160 , outer surface 162 , inner surface 164 , transition portion 165 , and traverses the width of interface plate 118 along the x-axis between raised corners 136 and 142 . Similarly, short wall 132 generally includes a top surface 168 , outer surface 170 , inner surface 172 , transition portion 173 , and traverses the width of interface plate 118 between raised corners 140 and 142 . The length of wall 130 generally is equal to the length of wall 132 The heights along the z axis of walls 126 , 128 , 130 , and 132 define the depth of interface plate 118 , and in the depicted embodiment are substantially equal. In the embodiment depicted in the figures, the wall height is substantially less than either the length or width of the walls such that walls 126 , 128 , 130 , 132 , with floor 134 form a shallow tray. In other embodiments, the height of walls 126 , 128 , 130 , and 132 may vary depending on the characteristics of projector mount 106 , whether interface plate will house assembly tools, and so on. Short walls 130 and 132 traverse the length of interface plate 118 along the y axis, between corners 138 and 140 , and 136 and 142 , respectively. The height of short walls 130 and 132 are generally equal to the height of long walls 126 and 128 , such that top surfaces 148 , 154 , 160 , and 168 form a common plane. In the depicted embodiment, walls 126 , 128 , 130 and 132 are generally perpendicular to floor 134 , but in other embodiments may form other than an acute angle with floor 134 . Walls 126 , 128 , 130 , and 132 join with floor 134 via transition portions 153 , 159 , 165 , and 173 , respectively. Wall transition portions 153 , 159 , 165 , and 173 are generally curvilinear and join the vertical portions of their respective walls with floor 134 . In one embodiment, walls 126 , 128 , 130 , and 132 may each also define notches 174 , 176 , 178 , and 180 , respectively. Each notch 174 , 176 , 178 , 180 is generally semi-circular, and located in a top central portion of each wall such that it bisects its respective top surface 150 , 154 , 160 , 168 . Corners 136 , 138 , 140 , and 142 generally include respective tabs 182 , 184 , 186 , 188 and corner walls 190 , 192 , 194 , 196 Tabs 182 , 184 , 186 , 188 generally include respective tab top surfaces 198 , 200 , 202 , 204 , tab bottom surfaces 206 , 208 , 210 , 212 , outer edges 214 , 216 , 218 , 220 , and generally define respective circular tab holes 222 , 224 , 226 , 228 . Tab top surfaces 206 , 208 , 210 , 212 are substantially flat and generally lie in the same plane formed by the four wall top surfaces 150 , 154 , 160 , 168 . Each tab outer edge 214 , 216 , 218 , 220 forms a rounded corner edge or surface of interface plate 118 . Corner walls 190 , 192 , 194 , 196 include respective top portions 230 , 232 , 234 , 236 , middle portions 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , bottom portions 246 , 248 , 250 , 252 , inner surfaces 254 , 256 , 258 , 260 , and outer surfaces 262 , 264 , 266 , 268 . Top portions 230 , 232 , 234 , 236 extend from their respective tab top surfaces 198 , 200 , 202 , 204 downward to their respective middle portions 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 forming a generally concave structure as viewed from the center of interface plate 118 . Tab top surfaces 198 , 200 , 202 , 204 may further form an S-shape or L-shape as viewed along the z axis. The exact curvature and shape of top portions 230 , 232 , 234 , 236 may vary from embodiment to embodiment, but generally will form a concave, curved structure at each corner 136 , 138 , 140 , 142 . Middle portions 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 are located adjacent top portions 230 , 232 , 234 , 236 and bottom portions 246 , 248 , 250 , 252 and may be substantially perpendicular to floor 134 . Middle portions 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 may be curvilinear, generally forming a C shape, or L shape as viewed along the z axis. Bottom portions 246 , 248 , 250 , 252 are located adjacent middle portions 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 and floor 134 . Bottom portions 246 , 248 , 250 , 252 may be somewhat convex and generally follow the curvature of their respective middle and top portions. Central aperture 144 in the depicted embodiment is a circular opening located in the center of interface plate 118 . In other embodiments, central aperture 144 may be square, rectangular, or otherwise appropriately shaped to receive pipe support 110 . The size of central aperture 144 may vary to accommodate pipe support 110 or to allow for needed ventilation for projector 102 . In the depicted embodiment, the diameter of central aperture 144 is approximately 35% of the width of interface plate 118 . Central aperture 144 may be surrounded by raised lip 270 . Raised lip 270 rises upward from floor 134 in a vertical direction, and generally includes a top portion 272 and a bottom portion 274 . Top portion 272 is generally vertical with a flat top surface 276 , while bottom portion 274 may be slightly concave. In other embodiments, bottom portion 274 may be slightly convex. Top surface 276 generally lies in a plane beneath the plane formed by wall top surfaces 150 , 154 , 160 , 168 , but in some embodiments may lie in the same plane as that formed by wall top surfaces 150 , 154 , 160 , 168 . Slots 146 defined by floor 134 of interface plate 118 may vary in quantity, shape, and distance from central aperture 144 , but are generally arcuate in shape with a length longer than a width. In the depicted embodiment, the radius of the arc of each slot 146 is substantially equal, but in other embodiments may be unequal. Further the radius of the arc formed by each slot 146 is generally longer than the radius formed by central aperture 144 , though in other embodiments not depicted, the radius of the arc formed by each slot 146 may be equal to, or smaller than the arc formed by central aperture 144 . Generally, each slot 146 may be characterized as having a concentric or non-concentric arc with respect to the arc formed by central aperture 144 . For example, slots 278 and 280 form arcs that are concentric to central aperture 144 , while slots 282 and 284 form arcs that are non-concentric to central aperture 144 . Each slot 146 may also be characterized as generally perpendicular or non-perpendicular to central aperture 144 . For example, slots 286 , 288 , 290 , 292 may be considered generally perpendicular, while slots 270 , 280 may be considered non-perpendicular. Referring to FIGS. 8 d - 8 g , in an alternate embodiment, projector interface 104 includes an interface plate 119 that generally define a series of circular holes 145 , rather than slots 146 . In this embodiment, interface plate 119 is substantially the same as interface plate 118 , with the exception of defining holes 145 , rather than slots 146 . As such, interface plate 119 generally includes two long perimeter walls 126 , 128 , two short perimeter walls 130 , 132 , floor 134 , raised corners 136 , 138 , 140 , 142 , and defines a generally central aperture 144 . As depicted, interface plate 119 defines multiple holes 145 . Holes 145 may be circular, and all have substantially the same diameter. In other embodiments, holes 145 may not be circular, and may be oval, square, or shaped as necessary to receive various embodiments of track assemblies 120 . Holes 145 may be distributed in a relatively random manner in interface plate 119 , or may be evenly distributed in a more uniform fashion as depicted. Referring to FIGS. 9-12 , projector interface generally includes multiple track assemblies 120 . In the depicted embodiment, projector interface 104 includes three track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c . In other embodiments, projector interface 104 may include four or more track assemblies 120 . Track assembly 120 a generally includes track bar 294 a , a coupling portion in the form of engagement bracket 296 a , pull cover 298 a , and slide assembly 300 a . It will be understood that additional track assemblies 120 , including 120 b and 120 c , will be essentially the same as track assembly 120 a , and will also generally include respective track bars 294 , engagement brackets 296 , pull covers 298 and slide assemblies 300 . Referring to FIGS. 13-16 , track bar 294 a includes engagement end 297 a , mount end 299 a , left and right side walls 301 a , 302 a , bottom wall 304 a , left and right top walls 306 a , 308 a , left and right limit tabs 310 a , 312 a , left and right upper hooks 314 , 316 , left and right lower hooks 318 , 320 , and left and right bottom wall tabs 322 , 324 . Walls 301 a , 302 a , 304 a , 306 a , 308 a generally include respective inside surfaces 326 a , 328 a , 330 , 332 a , 334 a , defining track interior space 336 a. Left side wall 301 a adjoins bottom wall 304 at the left side of track bar 294 a , at a substantially right angle; right side wall 302 a adjoins bottom wall 304 a at the right side of track bar 294 a , also substantially forming a right angle. As such, left side wall 301 a , bottom wall 304 a , and right side wall 302 a form a U-shape when viewed from mount end 299 a of track bar 294 a , as depicted in FIG. 15 c . The portions of track bar 294 a where side walls 301 a , 302 a adjoin bottom wall 304 a may be slightly rounded as depicted. Left top wall 306 a is adjoined to, and forms a right angle with left side wall 301 a , while right top wall 308 a ; right top wall 308 a is adjoined to, and forms a right angle with right side wall 302 a . Left top wall 306 a extends inwardly from left side wall 301 a , lying in a plane parallel to bottom wall 304 a ; right top wall 308 a extends inwardly from right side wall 302 a , lying in a plane parallel to bottom wall 304 a. Track bar 294 a defines a pair of rectangular mount-side apertures, left mount-end aperture 338 a and right mount-end aperture 340 a , engagement fastener receiving hole 342 a , left engagement bracket receiving aperture 344 a , right engagement bracket receiving aperture 346 a , left and right side engagement slots 348 a , 350 a , track slot 352 a , and cable hole 354 . Left and right mount-end apertures may be generally rectangular in shape and located at a far end of mount end 299 a , near the top of their respective side walls 301 a , 302 a . Engagement fastener receiving hole 342 a is generally circular and is located at engagement end 297 a of track bar 294 a , in bottom wall 304 a . Hole 342 a is generally equidistant from side walls 301 a and 302 a , with an inside diameter slightly larger than the outside diameter of engagement fastener 121 a , such that a portion of engagement fastener 121 a may be inserted into hole 342 a without resistance. Although depicted as round, hole 342 a may be of a different shape that is adapted to accommodate, or receive, engagement fastener 121 a. Left and right engagement bracket receiving apertures 344 a , 346 a are located at engagement end 297 a of track bar 294 a , and may be rectangular in shape as depicted in the embodiment of the figures. In other embodiments, the shape of apertures 344 a , 346 a may be non-rectangular in shape so as to receive alternative embodiments of engagement bracket 296 a . Apertures 344 a , 346 a are may be equidistant from their respective top walls 306 a , 308 a , and bottom wall 304 a , as depicted. The size, shape, and location of engagement brackets 344 a , 346 a will vary as needed in order to accommodate various embodiments and locations of engagement bracket 296 a. Left engagement slot 348 a is located at engagement end 296 a , and is defined by left side wall 301 a , upper left hook 314 a , and lower left hook 318 a ; right engagement slot 350 a is located at engagement end 297 a , and is defined by right side wall 302 a , upper right hook 316 a , and lower right hook 320 a . A substantial portion of each engagement slot 348 , 350 may be rectangular in shape, with respective narrowed openings at the distal engagement end 297 of track bar 294 a. Track slot 352 a is defined by left and right side top walls 306 a and 308 a , is generally rectangular, and traverses the length of track bar 294 a . The width of track slot 352 may vary as needed to receive a portion of slide assembly 300 a , and in the depicted embodiment is approximately 30% to 40% of the width of bottom wall 304 a , and approximately the same width as left and right top walls 306 a and 308 a. Left and right cable holes 354 a and 356 a may be generally circular, and located near the distal end of engagement end 297 a . Each cable hole 354 a , 356 a may be located between, and slightly below the center of, their respective engagement bracket receiving aperture and engagement bracket receiving slot. In other embodiments, cable holes 354 a , 356 a may be located elsewhere, so long as insertion of a cable 108 assembly does not interfere with the functioning of track assembly 120 a . In some embodiments of track assembly 120 a , track bar 294 a does not include cable holes 354 a , 356 a. Left and right limit tabs 310 a and 312 a are generally square or rectangular in shape and respectively project from left and right side walls 301 a and 302 a into track interior 346 toward their opposite respective side walls. Limit tabs 310 a , 312 a may be located as depicted adjacent to engagement end 297 a of their respective engagement bracket receiving slots 344 a , 346 a. Left and right bottom wall tabs 322 a , 324 a are located in bottom wall 304 a adjacent to engagement fastener receiving hole 342 and generally project downward and away from bottom wall 304 a . Tabs 322 a , 324 a may be generally square or rectangular in shape as depicted, with only a slight downward projection. In one embodiment, track bar 294 a is made of a metal such as steel or aluminum, but in other embodiments may be made of plastic, fiberglass, or other materials of suitable strength. Referring to FIGS. 17 a - 17 c , slide assembly 300 a of track assembly 120 a generally includes slide bridge 358 a and slide fastener 360 a . Slide bridge 358 a generally includes top portion 362 a with guide projections 364 a , 366 a , 368 a , 370 a , top surface 372 a , and left and right support tabs 374 a , 376 a . Guide projections 364 a , 366 a , 368 a , 370 a are located at the four corners of top portion 362 a and project outward and away from top portion 362 a at a substantially 90 degree angle. The engagement side of distal ends of guide projections 364 a , 366 a , may define notches 378 a , 380 a ; the engagement side of distal ends of guide projections 368 a , 370 a , may define notches 382 a , 384 a . As depicted, notches 382 a , 384 a , 386 a , 388 a may generally form a 45° angle with respect to each guide projection, but may form other angles in other embodiments. Left and right support tabs 374 a and 376 a are connected to top portion 362 a , and bend downward and away from top portion 362 a . Each support tab 374 a and 376 a generally form an obtuse angle with top portion 362 a such that top portion 362 a in combination with tabs 374 a , 376 a form a bridge-like structure as depicted in FIG. 17 a . Support tabs 374 a , 376 a generally include bottom surfaces 386 a , 388 a. Slide fastener 360 a may be a threaded fastener such as a bolt or screw, and sized to be received by plate-track fastener 125 a . Slide fastener 360 a generally includes shaft 390 a , threads 392 a , and knurled base 394 a . Top portion 358 a of slide bridge 358 a defines slide fastener hole 396 . Slide fastener hold 396 is sized such that shaft 390 a may be inserted through hole 396 such that base 394 contacts top portion 358 a . Slide bridge 358 a may optionally include a recess such that a bottom surface of slide fastener 396 is flush with a bottom surface of slide bridge 358 . Slide fastener 396 may fit loosely into hole 396 , may be pressed into hole 396 for a tight fit, or otherwise held in place. Referring now to FIG. 18 , this cross-sectional depiction of FIG. 18 illustrates the position of slide assembly 300 a in relation to track bar 294 a . Slide assembly 300 a is slidably fit into track interior 336 a such that slide bridge 358 a is located entirely within track interior 336 a , with slide bridge support tab bottom surfaces 386 a , 388 a in contact with track bar bottom wall inside surface 330 a . Slide bridge top surface 372 a may be in slight contact with left and right top wall inside surfaces 332 a , 334 a . Slide fastener 360 a projects outward and away from track bar 294 a through track slot 352 . Referring now to FIGS. 19 a - f , engagement bracket 296 a generally includes left wall 398 a , right wall 400 a , front wall 402 a , and floor 404 a . Each wall 398 a , 400 a , 402 a is joined to floor 404 a at a substantially 90° angle. Engagement bracket 296 a may be steel, aluminum, or other bendable metal, as well as other formable materials including plastic, fiberglass, and composites. Left wall 398 a is generally flat and rectangular in shape and generally includes a left inner surface 406 a , left outer surface 408 a , left upper rear tab 410 a , left lower rear tab 412 a , left detent 414 a , and left front tab 416 a . Left rear tabs 410 a , 412 a are located at the rear, or mount side of left wall 398 a , with tabs oriented at a generally 90° angle to left wall 398 a . Left upper tab 410 a projects inward toward right wall 400 a , while left lower tab 412 a projects outward away from left wall 398 a . Tabs 410 a , 412 a are generally square, but may be rectangular, or shaped otherwise. In the depicted embodiment, left detent 414 a is located near the upper rear portion of left wall 398 a , is generally circular, and with a concave curvature that projects inward toward right wall 400 a . Left front tab 416 a may be T-shaped as depicted, square, rectangular, or otherwise shaped, and projects inward toward right wall 400 a. Left wall 398 a defines left engagement cable hole 418 a , upper cutout 420 a , and lower cutout 422 a . Left engagement cable hole 418 a is generally circular, similar in size to track bar 124 cable hole 354 a , and located generally towards the rear of engagement bracket 296 a . Upper cutout 420 a may be generally square or rectangular and extending from the top of left wall 398 a downward toward a middle portion of left wall 398 a , and located slightly forward of the center of left wall 398 a . Lower cutout 422 a is generally rectangular in shape and extending from the bottom of left wall 398 a upwards. The height of cutout 422 a is generally less than the length. Lower cutout 422 a extends horizontally along the lower portion of left wall 398 a from approximately the center of left wall 398 a in a rearwardly direction. Right wall 400 a is generally flat and rectangular in shape and generally includes a right inner surface 424 a , right outer surface 426 a , right upper rear tab 428 a , right lower rear tab 430 a , right detent 432 a , and right front tab 434 a . Right rear tabs 428 a , 430 a are located at the rear, or mount side of right wall 400 a , with tabs oriented at a generally 90° angle to right wall 400 a . Right upper rear tab 428 a projects inward toward left wall 398 a , while right lower rear tab 430 a projects outward away from right wall 400 a . Tabs 428 a , 430 a are generally square, but may be rectangular, or shaped otherwise. In the depicted embodiment, right detent 432 a is located near the upper rear portion of right wall 400 a , is generally circular, and with a concave curvature that projects inward toward left wall 398 a . Right front tab 434 a may be T-shaped as depicted, square, rectangular, or otherwise shaped, and projects inward toward left wall 398 a. Right wall 400 a defines right engagement cable hole 436 a , upper cutout 438 a , and lower cutout 440 a . Right engagement cable hole 436 a is generally circular, similar in size to track bar 124 cable hole 356 a , and located generally towards the rear of engagement bracket 296 a . Upper cutout 438 a may be generally square or rectangular and extending from the top of right wall 400 a downward toward a middle portion of right wall 400 a , and located slightly forward of the center of right wall 400 a . Lower cutout 440 a is generally rectangular in shape and extending from the bottom of right wall 400 a upwards. The height of cutout 440 a is generally less than the length. Lower cutout 440 a extends horizontally along the lower portion of right wall 400 a from approximately the center of right wall 398 a in a rearwardly direction. Front wall 402 a is generally flat and rectangular in shape, is connected to, and forms a 90° angle with, floor 404 a . In some embodiments front wall 402 a may be slightly taller and wider than both side walls 398 a and 400 a . Front wall 402 a generally includes an outer surface 442 a , inner surface 444 a , centrally-located rectangular opening 446 a , and outwardly projecting front wall tab 448 a. Front wall 402 a together with left wall 398 a defines a vertical slot 450 a , such that front wall 402 a is not connected to left wall 398 a . Front wall 402 a together with right wall 400 a defines a vertical slot 452 a , such that front wall 402 a is not connected to right wall 400 a . Front wall 402 a together with floor 404 a defines a pair of horizontal slots 454 a and 456 a , such that front wall 402 a is only connected to floor 404 a along a portion of the lower portion of front wall 402 a. Referring to FIGS. 19 and 20 , floor 404 a is generally flat and rectangular in shape, and generally includes a front portion 458 a and rear portion 460 a . Front portion 458 a generally includes an upper surface 462 a , projection 464 a , curved upper beveled edge 466 a , and curved lower beveled edge 468 a . In some embodiments, floor front portion 458 a may only include a single beveled edge. Curved upper beveled edge 466 a and curved lower beveled edge 468 a are generally semi-circular, with edge 466 having an arc radius slightly longer than the radius of curved lower beveled edge 468 a . The angle formed between curved upper beveled edge 466 a and floor 404 a is slightly larger, or steeper, than the relative angle between curved lower beveled edge 468 a and floor 404 a . Further, the distance from the left-most portion of each edge to the right-most portion is nearly equal to the distance between left wall 398 a and right wall 400 a. Rear portion 460 a of floor 404 a generally includes an upper surface 470 a and curved edge 472 a . The arc of curved edge 472 a spans from left wall 398 a to right wall 400 a with an arc radius that is slightly larger than either of the radii of curved beveled edges 466 a and 468 a of floor front portion 458 a . Rear curved edge 472 a of rear floor portion 460 a , together with curved beveled edges 466 a , 468 a of floor front portion 458 a , left wall 398 a , and right wall 400 a define engagement bracket opening 474 a. FIGS. 21 a - 21 d depict engagement bracket 296 a assembled onto track bar 294 a in an engaged position. Engagement bracket 296 a slidably mounts to engagement end 297 a of track bar 294 . Engagement bracket 296 a upper left and right rear tabs 410 a and 430 a project through track bar 294 a left and right engagement bracket receiving apertures 344 a and 346 a , respectively. Left and right wall inside surfaces 406 a and 424 a of engagement bracket 296 a locate adjacent to, and in contact with, left and right walls 301 and 302 , respectively. Detents 414 a and 432 a engage engagement bracket receiving apertures 344 a and 346 a , and cable holes 418 a and 436 a register with engagement bracket receiving apertures 344 a and 346 a . Engagement bracket left and right front tabs 416 a and 434 a extend through track bar left and right engagement slots 348 a and 350 a , nearest the rear-most end of slots 348 a and 350 a . As depicted, front wall 402 a does not contact track bar 294 a. FIGS. 22 a - 22 d depict pull cover 298 a that generally includes a left wall 476 , right wall 478 , left projection 480 a , right projection 482 a , top portion 484 a , and front portion 486 a . Left and right walls 476 a and 478 a are generally flat and rectangular, and extend away from front portion 486 a . Left and right walls include an outside surface each having a series of vertical striations 488 and 490 . Left and right walls define a pair of generally circular cable holes 492 , 494 . Left and right projections 480 a , 482 a extend outwardly away from walls 476 a and 478 a . Rear portions of projections 480 a and 482 a include striations 488 a and 490 a . Front portions of projections 480 a , 482 a are integral to pull cover front portion 498 a , which is generally flat and curved. Top portion 484 a is generally flat and T-shaped, and generally includes a head 492 a and shaft 494 a . Head 492 a extends from left projection 480 a to right projection 482 a , while shaft 494 a extends rearward from head 492 between walls 476 a and 478 b. Pull cover 298 a is adapted to fit on to engagement bracket 296 a as depicted in the figures and discussed further below. FIGS. 23 a - c depict the projector interface member in the form of engagement fastener 121 a and engagement collar 124 a . Engagement fastener 121 a as depicted is a generally cylindrical, hollow threaded fastener that is open on both ends and generally includes a tapered base 496 a , threaded shaft 498 a , top hole 500 a , and bottom hole 502 a . The inside diameter of engagement fastener 121 a is sized to receive fastener 123 a (depicted in FIG. 12 ), while the diameter of bottom hole 502 a is sized to receive a shaft of fastener 123 a , but small enough not to allow the head of fastener 123 a to pass through. Engagement collar 124 a generally includes an upper ring 504 a , lower ring 506 a , upper ring top surface 508 a , upper ring bottom surface 510 a , upper ring outer knurled surface 512 a , lower ring outer surface 514 a , lower ring bottom surface 516 a , and inside threads 518 . Engagement collar 124 a is sized and threaded such that engagement collar 124 a threads onto engagement fastener 121 a , such that collar 124 may be positioned vertically along threaded shaft 498 a of fastener 121 a as depicted in FIG. 23 c . Outer knurled surface 512 a enables a user to grip and turn engagement collar 124 a FIGS. 24 a - b depict the assembled position of engagement fastener 121 a and engagement collar 124 a with respect to track bar 294 a . As depicted, a portion of threaded shaft 498 a protrudes through engagement fastener receiving hole 342 a into track interior 336 a , while a portion of threaded shaft 498 remains below track bar bottom wall 304 a . The position of engagement collar 124 a on threaded shaft 498 a of engagement fastener 121 a determines the depth of penetration of shaft 498 a into interior space 336 a . Also as depicted upper ring top surface 508 of engagement collar 124 a abuts bottom wall 304 a of track bar 294 a surrounding engagement fastener receiving hole 342 a. FIGS. 25 a - c depict engagement bracket 296 a holding engagement fastener 121 a and engagement collar 124 a in an engaged position with track bar 294 a . As depicted, engagement bracket 296 a is assembled to track bar 294 a as described above. Also as depicted, engagement bracket 296 a holds engagement fastener 121 a and engagement collar 124 a into the position relative to track bar 294 a as described above with reference to FIG. 24 . In particular, floor front portion 458 is received under engagement collar 124 a , while upper ring top surface 508 a of engagement collar 124 a abuts track bar 294 a , thereby tightly clamping to engagement collar 124 a . It will be appreciated that projection 464 a is disposed between engagement collar 124 a and floor front portion 458 , and that an upward biasing force will thus be exerted on engagement collar 124 a at the point of contact with projection 464 a . This biasing force tends to increase frictional engagement between the threads of engagement collar 124 a and threaded shaft 498 a of engagement fastener 121 a , and thereby inhibiting undesired shifting of engagement collar 124 a on threaded shaft 498 a. Referring to FIGS. 19 and 20 , floor 404 a is generally flat and rectangular in shape, and generally includes a front portion 458 a and rear portion 460 a . Front portion 458 a generally includes an upper surface 462 a , projection 464 a , curved upper beveled edge 466 a , and curved lower beveled edge 468 a . In some embodiments, floor front portion 458 may only include a single beveled edge. Curved upper beveled edge 466 a and curved lower beveled edge 468 a are generally semi-circular, with edge 466 having an arc radius slightly longer than the radius of curved lower beveled edge 468 a . The angle formed between curved upper beveled edge 466 a and floor 404 a is slightly larger, or steeper, than the relative angle between curved lower beveled edge 468 a and floor 404 a . Further, the distance from the left-most portion of each edge to the right-most portion is nearly equal to the distance between left wall 398 a and right wall 400 a. FIG. 25 c depicts pull cover 298 a positioned over engagement bracket 296 a with engagement fastener 121 a and engagement collar 124 a held into track bar 294 a. Referring to FIGS. 26 a to 26 f , the relational positions of engagement fastener 121 a , engagement collar 124 a , and engagement bracket 126 a are depicted. FIG. 26 a is a perspective view depicting engagement collar 124 a threaded onto engagement fastener 121 a and protruding through engagement bracket opening 474 a of engagement bracket 296 a . Fastener 121 a and collar 124 a are depicted in an engaged position as described above, such that fastener 121 a and collar 124 a are located in the forward side of engagement bracket opening 274 a , and in contact with floor 404 . FIGS. 26 b - c provide side views of fastener 121 a and collar 124 a relative to engagement bracket 296 a. FIG. 26 d provides a top view of the components as previously depicted in FIGS. 26 a to 26 c , while FIGS. 26 e and 26 f provide cross-sectional views. FIG. 27 depicts a cross section of an assembled track assembly 120 a and its respective components. Referring again to FIGS. 1-2 , in one embodiment, projector mount 106 is the projector mount described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,412, previously incorporated by reference. In this embodiment, projector mount 106 includes a base assembly 520 , and a device orientation adjustment structure which includes guide assemblies 522 , 524 , and a support structure interface in the form of support structure interface assembly 526 . In other embodiments, projector mount 106 may consist of other known projector mounts for securing and adjusting projector 102 to a pipe support 110 . Projector mount 106 is operably coupled to projector interface 104 via plate-mount fastener 122 a , 122 b , 122 c , 122 d . Referring to FIG. 3 , plate-mount fastener sets 122 a , 122 b , 122 c , 122 d may each generally include an upper plate-mount fastener 122 a 1 , 122 b 1 , 122 c 1 , 122 d 1 , respectively, and a lower plate-mount fastener 122 a 2 , 122 b 2 , 122 c 2 , 122 d 2 , respectively. In other embodiments, plate-mount fastener sets 122 may include only a single fastener, or more than two fasteners. Further details regarding the structure, mounting, and operation of projector mount 106 , and of the manner of engagement with the plate-mount fasteners may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,412. Still referring to FIGS. 1-2 , a locking member in the form of optional cable assembly 108 includes a cable 528 and a cable lock mechanism 530 . Cable 528 may be threaded through the various cable holes associated with track assemblies 120 as described above and as depicted in FIG. 1 . Cable lock mechanism 530 secures the ends of cable 528 together, thereby forming a continuous loop that passes through each track assembly 120 . In one embodiment, cable lock mechanism 530 may be a mechanical lock such as a key-operated padlock. In other embodiments, cable lock mechanism may be a simpler, single use device, such as the one depicted, that latches about multiple portions cable 528 to form a closed loop. Such an embodiment of cable lock mechanism 530 may require that cable 528 be cut in order to remove cable 528 from projector interface 104 . In general operation and referring to FIGS. 1-28 , projector interface 104 is mounted to projector 102 , projector mount 106 is mounted to projector interface 104 , support pipe 110 is fastened into projector mount 106 , and the entire system 100 hangs downward from a ceiling or other overhead structure. A user generally manipulates projector interface 104 and projector mount 106 to adjust the position of projector 102 such that it appropriately directs an image to an intended display surface. More specifically, and referring to FIGS. 1-2 and 12 , at initial set up, each engagement fastener 121 a , 121 b , 121 c is fastened to projector 102 by inserting fasteners 123 a , 123 b , 123 c , into hollow engagement fasteners 121 a , 121 b , 121 c , respectively, and threading each fastener 123 a , 123 b , 123 c , into a corresponding mounting hole 114 (not shown) in projector mounting surface 112 . Each projector engagement collar 124 is threaded onto its respective engagement fastener 121 . Threading collar 124 further down on fastener 121 such that collar 124 is located relatively close to projector mounting surface 112 will cause track assembly 120 to also be relatively closer to projector mounting surface 112 as described below in further detail. If projector interface 104 is pre-assembled, plate-track fasteners 125 may be loosened such that track assemblies 120 may be moved relative to interface plate 118 . Fasteners 125 in one embodiment may be loosened or tightened by hand, and in other embodiments require a tool to be inserted into fastener 125 to facilitate rotation of the fastener. In one embodiment, such a tool may be placed on to interface plate 118 , and hidden from the sight of a projector user until such time that it is needed. Because interface plate 118 forms a shallow tray, any variety of small tools may be stowed in the tray formed by interface plate 118 . Referring more specifically to the arrangement depicted in FIG. 4 , plate-track fastener 125 b is threaded onto slide fastener 360 b , which protrudes through slot 282 . As such, track assembly 120 b is held loosely to interface plate 118 , and may be moved along slot 282 in a direction generally indicated by arrow A, or more generally may be moved back and forth along the previously defined x-axis. Further, slide mount assembly 300 b may be slid along track slot 352 b allowing track bar 294 a to be moved generally along the y-axis. Further track assembly 120 b may be pivoted about slide fastener 360 b , such that track assembly 120 b may be moved freely about an x-y plane, limited generally only by the length of track bar 294 a and size and shape of slot 282 . Although track assembly 120 b is depicted as operably coupled to interface plate 118 at slot 282 , track assembly 120 b could be moved to an alternative slot so as to move track assembly 120 b to another slot and location relative to interface plate 118 in order to accommodate the location of projector mounting holes 114 , or to adjust the aim of projector 102 . When projector interface 104 includes interface plate 119 with holes 145 , rather than slots 146 , track assemblies 120 may be moved relative to plate 119 in much the same way as described above with reference to interface plate 119 . When projector interface 104 uses interface plate 119 , slide fasteners 360 protrude through holes 145 , rather than slots 146 . In this particular embodiment, slide fasteners 360 are fixed in position relative to interface plate 119 , though track assemblies 120 may still move relative to interface plate 119 by changing the position of track bars 294 in relation to slide assemblies 300 . Similarly, track assemblies 120 a and 120 c may be moved and adjusted in a similar manner so as to accommodate a variety of projector 102 types and projector viewing environments. As such, projector interface 104 functions as a universal projector interface that may be used with a variety of projectors 102 and projector mounts 106 . In use, projector 102 is coupled to projector interface 104 by shifting engagement bracket 296 a on track bar 294 a . With engagement bracket 296 a pushed onto track bar 294 a to the limit of its travel, engagement bracket opening 474 a and engagement fastener receiving hole 342 a are registered. The top of threaded shaft 498 a is received through engagement fastener receiving hole 342 a with upper ring top surface 508 of engagement collar 124 a abutting bottom wall 304 a of track bar 294 a surrounding engagement fastener receiving hole 342 a . With engagement fastener 121 a received in this fashion, engagement bracket 296 a can be pulled outward relative to track bar 294 a . Front portion 458 a of engagement bracket floor 404 a is received under engagement collar 124 a , while upper ring top surface 508 of engagement collar 124 a is urged against bottom wall 304 a of track bar 294 a , thereby tightly clamping track bar 294 a to engagement fastener 121 a . Each track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , is thereby quickly and easily secured to an engagement fastener on projector 102 . In some instances, after projector mounting system 100 is set into place and properly adjusted via projector interface 104 and projector mount 106 , it may be desirable to remove projector 102 . For example, projector 102 may require replacement, servicing, or a simple bulb replacement. Most projectors 102 include an access door 116 similar to the one depicted in FIGS. 1-2 that must be opened to replace a projector bulb, or to otherwise perform service on projector 102 . To fully open access door 116 , projector 102 must be removed from projector interface 104 . In such instances, the track assemblies can be quickly disengaged for projector removal or service simply by pushing the engagement brackets onto the track arms such that front portion 458 a of engagement bracket floor 404 a slides out from under engagement collar 124 a , thereby releasing the engagement fasteners. In contrast, when a projector is reinstalled into a previous mounting system that does not include projector interface 104 of the present invention, the projector 102 must typically be readjusted for roll, pitch, and yaw. As noted previously, this process may be very time consuming and difficult due to the generally limited adjustment capability of the mounting system. When a projector 102 is installed as part of mounting system 100 that includes projector interface 104 , however, such time-consuming readjustment procedures are eliminated. The only parts that need to be shifted in order to remove and reinstall projector 102 are the sliding engagement brackets, which interface with the engagement fasteners on the projector in nearly precisely the same orientation upon reinstallation as upon removal. In this way, the alignment positioning of the projector is maintained without further adjustment even after the projector is removed for service and reinstalled. FIGS. 26-27 , depict track assembly 120 a engaged with engagement fastener 121 a and engagement collar 124 a . Engagement fastener 121 a and engagement collar 124 a are located in a forward-most position relative to engagement bracket opening 474 a . The arc radii of beveled edges 466 , 468 are less than the radius of collar top ring collar 504 a , such that a portion of top ring bottom surface 510 rests on bracket floor front upper surface 462 a . Bracket beveled edges are in contact with a portion of collar lower ring outer surface 514 a . In this engaged position, tabs 416 a , 434 a are in a forward-most position in slots 348 a , 350 a , respectively, while tabs 410 a , 430 a are in a forward-most position in apertures 344 a , 346 a , respectively. When track assembly 120 a is attached to projector interface 104 , engagement fastener 121 a is attached to projector 102 , and projector 102 is otherwise suspended in place by mounting system 100 , projector interface 104 is in the “engaged” or locked position with projector 102 . As such, projector 102 is attached to track assemblies 120 . The weight of projector 102 creates a downward force due to gravity on engagement fasteners 121 and collars 124 which are engaged with engagement brackets 296 , thereby tending to hold track assemblies 120 and projector 102 in place. FIG. 28 a is a top view of engagement bracket 296 a , engagement fastener 121 a , engagement collar 124 a , and fastener 123 a , assembled together in an engaged position such that projector interface 104 supports projector 102 in an aligned and adjusted position. FIG. 28 b is a top view of engagement bracket 296 a , engagement fastener 121 a , engagement collar 124 a , and fastener 123 a , in a disengaged position. In this position, engagement bracket 268 has been moved in a direction indicated by arrow B of FIG. 28 a to a disengaged position of FIG. 28 b . As such, the position of engagement fastener 121 a with collar 124 a is changed such that fastener 121 a and collar 124 a are located towards the rear, or mount-side, of engagement bracket opening 474 a. In this disengaged position, tabs 416 a , 434 a are in a rearward position in slots 348 a , 350 a , respectively, while tabs 410 a , 430 a are in a rearward position in apertures 344 a , 346 a , respectively. The radius of engagement bracket rear floor portion is larger than the radius of engagement collar 124 a , such that engagement fastener 121 a with collar 124 a attached to projector 102 may be pulled downward away from track assembly 120 a. To move an engagement bracket 296 back and forth between an engaged and disengaged position as depicted in FIG. 28 , a user may grip a pull cover 298 at cover projections 480 and 482 and pull cover 298 and attached bracket 296 in a direction of arrow B to engage, or push in a direction generally opposite to direction B to disengage. As such, the position of projector interface 104 relative to projector mount 106 remains fixed, with both assemblies remaining attached to support pipe 110 . Accordingly, when projector 102 is reattached to projector interface 104 , projector 102 is placed into substantially the same position it was in prior to removal, and no projector readjustment is required. In addition to the devices, systems, and methods described above, the present invention also includes a method of providing a projector interface as substantially described above and a set of instructions for using the projector interface. More specifically, the method includes the step of providing a universal projector interface 104 that includes a plate 118 with openings, operably coupled to a plurality of track assemblies 120 , and wherein the projector interface is adapted to operably couple a projector 102 to a projector mount 106 , such that after initial adjustment, projector 102 may be disconnected from, then reconnected to, projector interface 104 without readjusting the relative positions of the projector 102 , interface 104 , and interface mount 106 . The method also includes the step of providing a set of instructions that instruct a user on how to attach and detach the projector interface 104 to a projector 102 and a projector mount 106 . In FIGS. 29 a - 41 there are depicted various alternative coupling portion and corresponding projector interface member embodiments. Depicted in FIG. 29 a is a bayonet mount arrangement 600 a which generally includes projector interface member 98 and bayonet portion 602 . Projector interface member 98 generally includes barrel portion 600 and threaded interface 601 . Barrel portion 600 defines horizontally opposed hooked slots 600 a , 600 b . Threaded interface 601 is adapted to thread into threaded mounting apertures (not depicted) typically provided on a projector 102 . Bayonet portion 602 generally includes cylindrical body 603 with horizontally opposing projections 603 a , 603 b . Projections 603 a , 603 b , are disposed so as to correspond with hooked slots 600 a , 600 b. In use, threaded interfaces 601 are threaded into apertures of the projector 102 so that barrel portions 600 face upward. Bayonet portions 602 are rotatably attached to the bottom face of each of track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c . The track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , are then positioned so that each bayonet portion 602 is registered with one of barrel portions 600 . Projector 102 is then coupled to universal projector interface 104 by advancing bayonet portions 602 into barrel portions 600 with projections 603 a , 603 b , registered with hooked slots 600 a , 600 b . Bayonet portions 602 are then rotated relative to track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , to hook projections 603 a , 603 b , into hooked slots 600 a , 600 b . Removal is the reverse of installation. Referring to FIGS. 29 b 1 and 29 b 2 , a coupling portion in the form of a watch band-like clasp mechanism 605 may be employed to attach a projector 102 to a projector interface 104 . In this embodiment, projector interface 104 includes a track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , presenting end 604 with attached clamp 606 . Clamp 606 is adapted to clamp to a projector interface member in the form of dome-topped projection 608 attached to a portion 610 of projector 102 , thereby locking projector 102 to projector interface 104 . Referring to the embodiment of FIG. 29 c , coupling portions 611 are disposed on an end of each of track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , and each generally includes bifurcate receiving portion 612 and sliding key 622 . Receiving portion 612 defines horizontal slot 614 separating branches 613 a , 613 b , with transverse aperture 616 extending through both branches 613 a , 613 b . Key 622 defines keyhole slot 624 and guide slots 625 . Spring 627 projects from end 627 a of key 622 . Key 622 is received in slot 614 with guide posts 629 extending through guide slots 625 . Spring 627 bears on back wall 614 a and biases key 622 outward. Projector interface member 617 generally includes domed projection 618 defining horizontal groove 618 a . Threaded portion 620 threads into an aperture (not depicted) on projector 102 . In use, key 622 is pressed inward against the bias of spring 627 until large portion of keyhole slot 624 is registered with aperture 616 . Coupling portion 611 can then be engaged over projector interface member 617 such that projector interface member 617 extends through keyhole slot 624 and aperture 616 . With key 622 registered with groove 618 a , key 622 can be allowed to spring outward, biased by spring 627 . Projector interface member 617 engages in the narrower neck portion of keyhole slot 624 , thereby retaining coupling portion 611 on projector interface member 617 . Removal is the reverse of installation. Referring to FIG. 29 d , track assemblies 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , each include a coupling portion 626 defining a key slot 628 . Projector interface member 630 is threaded into an aperture (not depicted) on projector 102 and is adapted to fit through key slot 628 . Projector interface member 630 is inserted through slot 628 , and projector interface member 630 is rotated ¼ turn, hence locking projector 102 to projector interface 104 . Removal is the reverse of installation. Referring to FIGS. 30 a - 30 b , projector interface 104 generally includes track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c with end 632 defining aperture 633 , and a coupling portion in the form of post 634 , and coupling slide 635 defining guide slot 636 . A projector interface member in the form of grooved post 637 projects outward from projector 102 . Coupling slide 634 slides relative to track bar 632 , with post 634 engaging and riding in guide slot 636 . Grooved post 637 is sized to be inserted through aperture 633 of end 632 . When grooved post 637 is inserted through aperture 633 of end 632 , slide 634 may be advanced toward grooved post 637 such that bifurcate end 635 of slide 634 engages around grooved post 637 to couple into end 632 such that slide 634 engages grooved post 637 , thereby locking projector 102 to track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c. Referring to FIGS. 31 a - 31 b , a coupling portion in the form of squeeze latch mechanism 641 is used to attach a track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , of projector interface 104 to a projector 102 . In this embodiment, track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , includes a resilient squeezable end 638 which defines an opening 640 . Force is applied to two sides of squeezable end 638 such that opening 640 opens up as depicted in FIG. 31 b . As such, pressure may be applied to squeezable end 638 as depicted in FIG. 31 a to expand opening 640 . End 640 may then be placed over a projector interface member in the form of post 642 projecting from projector 102 and the pressure released, thereby attaching projector interface 104 to projector 102 . Removal is the reverse of installation. Referring to FIG. 32 , track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , projector interface 104 includes a coupling portion in the form of bar end 644 . End 644 defines a pair of small side apertures 646 a , 646 b , and a larger bottom aperture 648 (not depicted). A projector interface member in the form of engagement fastener 649 defines side holes 650 a , 650 b , and is attached to a projector 102 . End 644 is placed over fastener 649 such that fastener 649 extends through aperture 648 . Apertures 650 a , 650 b register with apertures 646 a , 646 b , respectively. Pin 652 is inserted through apertures 650 a , 650 b , 646 a , 646 b , thereby coupling projector interface 104 and projector 102 . Referring to FIG. 33 , in another embodiment, each track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , includes a coupling portion in the form of spring clip 654 adapted to receive an end portion 656 of track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c . End portion 656 and spring 654 may be trapezoidally shaped as depicted. Spring clip 654 includes end tabs 658 and 660 that forcibly contact top surface 662 , thereby holding end 656 of track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , to projector 102 via spring clip 654 . Referring to FIGS. 34 a - 34 b , projector interface 104 includes a coupling portion in the form of squeeze mechanism 664 attached to an end 666 of track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , of projector interface 104 . As depicted in FIG. 34 b , squeeze mechanism 664 grips a projector interface member in the form of projector post 668 when force is not applied to it. When force is applied to mechanism 664 as depicted in FIG. 34 a , the grip on post 668 is released, allowing easy removal of projector 102 from projector interface 104 . Referring to FIG. 35 , projector interface 104 includes a track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , having an end 670 with a coupling portion in the form of end plate 672 , locking knob 674 with locking pin 675 , and track bar fastener 676 . Fastener 680 attaches a projector interface member in the form of engagement fastener 678 to projector 102 . Track bar fastener 676 is threaded into engagement fastener 678 . Alternatively, track bar fastener 676 is attached to engagement fastener 678 via fastener 680 . The track bar fastener attached to engagement fastener 678 is inserted up into track bar 670 via an aperture or slot (not depicted) in track bar 670 . Locking knob 674 is held in position by plate 672 , and is rotated inward such that an end 675 of locking knob 674 fits into a mating groove 682 of fastener 676 , thereby locking projector interface 104 to projector 102 . Referring to FIGS. 36 a , 36 b , track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , of projector interface 104 is removably coupled to projector 102 via a coupling portion in the form of pivoting latch mechanism 683 . Mechanism 683 generally includes a bar 684 with stop 686 , pivoting mechanism 688 , pivot point 690 , a projector interface member in the form of engagement fastener 692 , and pin 694 . Engagement fastener 692 is generally attached to projector 102 in the engaged or attached position. Engagement mechanism 688 pivots about point 690 , thus defining a large opening when pivoted away from bar 684 and a small opening when closed and adjacent to stop 686 . In the closed, or engaged position, the mechanism fits over, or grips engagement fastener 692 , thereby coupling projector 102 to interface 104 . In the open, or disengaged position, bar 684 and the associated pivoting mechanism or latch may be pulled away from fastener 692 , thereby disengaging projector 102 . Referring to FIG. 37 , a coupling portion in the form of plunger latch mechanism 699 may be used to removably couple a projector 102 to a projector interface 104 . The depicted system generally includes a track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , presenting end 700 , plunger assembly 702 and projector 102 . Plunger assembly 702 generally includes plunger 704 , plunger sleeve 706 , and a projector interface member in the form of receiving sleeve 714 . Plunger sleeve 706 includes a large diameter upper portion 707 small diameter lower portion 709 and movable ball detents 708 . Receiving sleeve 714 generally defines radial groove 716 . Receiving sleeve 714 is set into projector 102 and adapted to receive lower portion 709 and detents 708 . With lower portion 709 inserted into receiving sleeve 714 ball detents 708 move toward and into groove 716 when plunger 704 is raised, thereby locking projector interface 104 to projector 102 . When plunger 704 is pushed in, or lowered, bar 700 may be pulled upward and away from projector 102 . Referring to FIG. 38 , a coupling portion in the form of hook latch mechanism 717 may be used to removably connect projector interface 104 to projector 102 . The depicted system includes track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , of projector interface 104 presenting end 718 , hook latch assembly 720 , a projector interface member in the form of engagement fastener 722 , and engagement collar 724 . Engagement fastener 722 is attached to projector 102 with engagement collar 124 threaded over it. Latch hook assembly 720 includes a hook 722 and pivot pin 724 . When a downward force is applied to end 722 a of hook 722 , hook 722 pivots about pin 724 and disengages collar 724 from end 718 , thereby uncoupling projector 102 from projector interface 104 . Referring to FIGS. 39 a - 39 b , a coupling portion in the form of tool-actuated latch mechanism 725 may be used to removably connect track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , of projector interface 104 to projector 102 . The system of the depicted embodiment includes track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , presenting end 726 , inside fastener 730 , ridged slide bar 731 , a projector interface member in the form of engagement fastener 728 , engagement collar 729 , and tool 736 . Ridged slide bar 731 defines ridges 732 and retaining end 734 . Engagement fastener 728 is coupled to projector 102 and receives threaded collar 729 . Inside fastener 730 includes a head portion 730 a and defines groove 736 . Fastener 730 may be integral to, or separate from, engagement fastener 728 , and is inserted into an interior space of track bar 120 a , 120 b , 120 c . In the locked or engaged position, end 734 is located in groove 736 such that engagement fastener 728 and projector 102 are locked to track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c . Tool 736 is a Phillips screwdriver in one embodiment, but may be any other similarly functioning tool. Tool 736 is inserted into hole 727 and engages ridges 732 of slide 731 . The rotation of tool 736 causes slide 731 to move toward or away from groove 736 , thereby locking or unlocking projector 102 . Referring to FIGS. 40 a - c , a coupling portion in the form of pivoting latch mechanism 739 may be used to removably connect projector interface 104 to projector 102 . The system of the depicted embodiment generally includes track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , presenting end 740 , pivoting latch mechanism 742 and a projector interface in the form of post 744 . End 740 defines a pair of openings 746 a , 746 b . Latch mechanism 742 includes latch 748 with top portion 752 , side portion 754 , and pivot pin 750 . Latch 748 defines curved retention space 756 . Post 744 includes a head 758 with a diameter larger than the diameter of the shaft of pin 744 , and in the locked or connected position is inserted upward and through end 740 . Latch 742 is pivoted about pin 750 so that top portion 752 contacts post 744 . Curved retaining space 756 receives the shaft of post 744 , while post head 758 remains above latch top portion 752 , thereby locking projector 102 to end 740 . To unlock projector 102 from end 740 of projector interface 104 , latch 742 is pivoted away from end 740 , disengaging latch 742 from post 744 , allowing post 744 attached to projector 102 to be removed from end 740 . Referring to FIG. 41 , a coupling portion in the form of rotating latch mechanism 759 may be used to removably connect projector interface 104 to projector 102 . The system of the depicted embodiment generally includes track assembly 120 a , 120 b , 120 c , of projector interface 104 presenting end 760 , rotating mechanism 762 , and a projector interface member in the form of grooved engagement fastener 764 . End 760 may be cylindrical in shape so as to match the cylindrical shape of rotating mechanism 762 . Rotating mechanism 762 is rotatably attached to end 760 and generally defines an orifice 766 sized to receive grooved engagement fastener 764 , and one or more grooves 765 . Grooved engagement fastener 764 is attached at a bottom end to projector 102 , and is removably inserted through orifice 766 into rotating mechanism 762 . Rotating 762 causes an edge portion of rotating mechanism 762 near orifice 766 to be inserted into a groove 765 , thereby locking rotating mechanism 762 and bar 760 to grooved engagement fastener 764 and projector 102 . Another embodiment of a projector interface 104 according to an embodiment of the invention is depicted in FIGS. 42-49 . In this embodiment, projector interface 104 generally includes interface assembly 800 and identical track assemblies 802 , 804 , 806 , 808 . Interface assembly 800 generally includes tray 810 , cover 812 , and attachment studs 814 . Tray 810 defines a plurality of apertures 816 . Track assemblies 802 , 804 , 806 , 808 , generally include track bar 818 and coupling portion 820 . Track bar 818 defines upwardly facing channel 822 which slidably receives fastener 824 for coupling the track bar to tray 810 through one of apertures 816 . Coupling portion 820 generally includes slide clip 826 and grip portion 828 . Slide clip 826 is received on end 830 of track bar 818 with tabs 832 received in apertures 833 and tabs 834 received in notches 836 . Grip portion 828 is received on slide clip 826 to provide improved gripping purchase for the fingers of a user. Bottom side 838 of track bar 818 defines generally round aperture 840 . Bottom side 842 of slide clip 826 defines oblong aperture 844 . Oblong aperture 844 is generally registered with aperture 840 when slide clip 826 is received on track bar 818 . Projector interface member 846 generally includes threaded barrel 848 and collar 850 , which is threaded onto barrel 848 . Barrel 848 may be coupled to projector 102 with a fastener (not depicted) as described elsewhere in this application. Barrel 848 has a diameter smaller than that of aperture 840 , and collar 850 has a diameter larger than that of aperture 840 but smaller than the least dimension of aperture 844 . As depicted in FIGS. 45-48 , track assemblies 802 , 804 , 806 , 808 , may be coupled to a projector interface member 846 and an attached projector by shifting slide clip 826 . As depicted in FIGS. 47 and 48 , with slide clip 826 pushed onto track bar 818 to the limit of its travel as defined by the interface of tabs 832 in apertures 833 and tabs 834 in notches 836 , apertures 840 and 844 are registered. The top of barrel 848 is received through aperture 840 with collar 850 abutting bottom side 838 of track arm 818 . With projector interface member 846 received in this fashion, slide clip 826 can be pulled outward as depicted in FIGS. 45 and 46 . Rear edge 852 of aperture 844 is received under collar 850 , while the top surface of collar 850 is urged against bottom side 838 of track arm 818 . Each track assembly 802 , 804 , 806 , 808 , is thereby quickly and easily secured to a projector interface member 846 on projector 102 . The track assemblies can also be quickly disengaged for projector removal or service simply by pushing the slide clips onto the track arms such that the projector interface member is released. Various modifications to the invention may be apparent to one of skill in the art upon reading this disclosure. For example, persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art will recognize that the various features described for the different embodiments of the invention can be suitably combined, un-combined, and re-combined with other features, alone, or in different combinations, within the spirit of the invention. Likewise, the various features described above should all be regarded as example embodiments, rather than limitations to the scope or spirit of the invention. Therefore, the above is not contemplated to limit the scope of the present invention. For purposes of interpreting the claims for the present invention, it is expressly intended that the provisions of Section 112, sixth paragraph of 35 U.S.C. are not to be invoked unless the specific terms “means for” or “step for” are recited in a claim.

A universal projector interface including a mount interface portion with a plurality of elongate arm assemblies coupled thereto. Each arm assembly is selectively rotatable and translatable relative to the mount interface, and includes a coupling portion. The coupling portion of each arm assembly is selectively shiftable between a first position in which the coupling portion is securely engaged with a projector attachment member on the projector and a second position in which the coupling portion is freely disengageable from the projector attachment member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to molding, and more particularly to a modular mold for use in the manufacture and sale of molded objects. The present invention has particular, but not exclusive, application in the field of molding, which is responsible for the production of many objects and components in numerous consumer and manufacturing markets. One particular application is for plastic injection molding, although other types of molding and casting fall within the scope of the present invention. Plastic injection molding machines have a fixture which receives a mold composed of two or more mold members or plates which are moved by the machine between open and closed positions. The mold members each contain mold cavities of unique geometric shapes, which partially define the shape of the molded objects produced by the mold. In the closed position, the mold plates come together, registering opposing mold cavities and defining one or more enclosed volumes having the shape of the object or component to be produced. The mold plates are secured in the closed position by the molding machine with sufficient force to remain sealed while resisting the expansive force of the mold material during charging of the mold. Liquefied molding material (e.g., plastic) is injected under pressure through a series of runner channels and a port into the enclosed volume, typically filling the available space in the volume. Thermal energy is removed so that the molding material solidifies within the enclosed volume. The mold plates are moved to the open position by the injection molding machine, and the molded object remains with one of the mold plates. An ejector device including ejection pins pushes the object and attached runners (formed by molding material in the runner channels) out of the one mold plate and the machine is ready to cycle again for the production of the next object. Molded objects are separated from runners either during ejection, or during a secondary, post molding operation, with degating being a commonly accepted term for this separation process. In instances of concurrent molding of multiple different objects, a sorting operation is also employed. Plastic injection molding has enjoyed enormous commercial success because of its ability to produce large numbers of objects and components quickly and at low prices. Indeed, plastic injection molding may be the most prevalent method for the production of plastic objects. However, plastic injection molding has some drawbacks which limit its usefulness and can operate to prevent the introduction of certain types of products into the marketplace because of certain barriers to entry presented by plastic injection molding. More particularly, the mold which is used in the plastic injection molding machine is very costly to manufacture and maintain, requiring skilled artisans to produce and maintain. The cost savings previously mentioned are recognized only when a very great number of objects are manufactured. For products that will be sold in smaller numbers, or products which will be sold in numbers which are uncertain because of the uncertainty of commercial acceptance of the product, the cost of the mold is a large impediment to their production. The purchaser of molded parts is also faced with the dilemma of whether to spend the additional money to produce molds which are more efficient, i.e., as by having numerous cavities in a single mold for simultaneous production of many objects (parallel processing), or run the risk that if the product is needed in higher quantities than originally anticipated, an entirely new mold (or molds) will have to be purchased. This problem arises because the mold selected by the purchaser is strictly dedicated to production of one object (or group of objects) at one level of efficiency. Once constructed, the mold has essentially no flexibility in operation. It is known that to reduce the financial risk associated with acquisition of an efficient production mold, it is possible to first produce, in a comparatively short time of fabrication, an inefficient, but low cost bridge mold, also known as a prototype mold. The bridge mold is capable of producing a small quantity of molded objects, and thus permit testing of the physical design, as well as market appeal of a molded object prior to committing to the typically larger financial investment and longer fabrication time associated with more efficient production molds. If molded objects produced by a bridge mold are found to be acceptable, the bridge mold may also be utilized to produce limited production quantities of molded objects, bridging the span of time required to fabricate an efficient production mold, and thus permit faster market availability of the molded objects than would be possible if only the final production mold were used for production. In some instances, bridge molds may be produced by the same highly skilled artisan mold makers who are also employed to make production molds. The artisan mold makers use techniques for making the bridge molds that are similar to those used to fabricate production molds. In these instances of bridge mold fabrication, advantages of speed and economy are realized by compromising attributes of production molds. Such compromises typically include substitution of softer, more easily workable materials such as aluminum, as opposed to harder tool steel. Moreover, additive protective surface coatings for mold and cavity construction are not employed. Furthermore, the total number of mold cavities is typically limited to one for each object to be molded. And typically more primitive, less efficient methods of ejection, thermal regulation, degating and sorting are employed than utilized on production molds. However, even with these previously mentioned fabrication compromises, artisan mold makers are often able to produce complex molded objects which are nearly identical in shape, appearance and mechanical properties to those which will be produced by the final production mold. Bridge molds produced by artisan mold makers have a number of disadvantages. For one, the cost and time required to fabricate a bridge mold is additive to the cost and time to fabricate the final efficient production mold. Therefore, molding projects utilizing bridge molding processes have higher total mold fabrication costs than molding projects that utilize only production molds. Furthermore, utilization of bridge molds extends the overall time of a molding project, as bridge molds are constructed as a first step, then following analysis and approval of the bridge mold produced prototype-molded objects, fabrication of a production mold may be commenced. While the costs of a bridge mold may be substantially less than a production mold, bridge molds fabricated by artisan mold makers are still quite expensive, owing to the typically high wages earned by artisan mold makers, and to the overall difficulty of hand crafting custom molds, even when employing the various shortcuts previously mentioned. As an alternative to utilization of artisan mold makers to fabricate bridge molds in the traditional manner, several known systematic methods of mold design and fabrication may be used for the fabrication of bridge molds. In many instances these systematic mold fabrication methods may enable the fabrication of bridge molds faster and more economically than bridge molds fabricated by artisan mold makers. While being faster and less costly to fabricate, molds of these systematic processes contain all of the disadvantages of artisan-fabricated bridge molds. In addition to the disadvantages of the artisan fabricated molds, system constraints found in these systematic methods further limit molded object properties such as surface finish, part geometry and dimensional tolerances, and therefore often lack the capability to meet object design specifications. Bridge molds, whether fabricated by artisan mold makers or by systematic processes, are subject to additional disadvantages which limit their usefulness. More particularly, these additional disadvantages are found when a bridge mold is utilized to meet interim production requirements, fulfilling market demands while a more efficient production mold is fabricated to replace the bridge mold. One of these disadvantages is that objects produced by an inefficient bridge mold have significantly greater per object production costs, which may offset and erode any profits realized by the earlier market entry facilitated by the bridge mold. Furthermore, the efficiency limitations of a bridge mold are also overall production capacity limitations. If the market success, and subsequent production demands of a molded object exceed the production capacity of the bridge mold, customer orders will go unfulfilled, which may result in customer dissatisfaction, and ultimately difficulty in retaining customers until greater production capacity is provided with the completed fabrication of a production mold. Being of temporary construction, bridge molds are also particularly susceptible to the effects of wear and damage, and as a result typically have short and unpredictable life spans, making them unreliable for production molding, even on an interim basis, as the bridge mold may fail before a production mold is fabricated. The cost risks associated with insufficient production capacity and unreliability of a bridge mold are magnified when the molded objects produced by the mold are a unique component part of product containing many parts. The delivery failure of the one unique part will interrupt the delivery of the entire dependant product, and may result in lost sales of much greater scale than the costs of the individual molded object. Production molds may be designed to provide different levels of capacity and production efficiency, but these differing levels of capacity and efficiency have associated costs, which typically increase as the level of capacity and efficiency of the mold design is increased. Therefore, design and investment decisions of production molds require an assessment of the total molded object production requirements in order to select the most appropriate level of capacity and efficiency. As previously mentioned, fabrication of bridge molds prior to the design and fabrication of production molds enables a limited assessment of potential market acceptance and demand for molded objects. While production predictions based on market assessments from these bridge molded objects are useful, their accuracy and reliability are limited, as any prediction of future events is speculative. Furthermore, market demand for a particular molded object tends to change throughout the life cycle of the object, typically first growing as the market adopts the object, then declining as its life matures. Therefore, even if an accurate prediction of the overall demand for molded objects were possible, such predictions would still be inaccurate during various segments of the object's life cycle, and as such it is essentially impossible to make a single mold design and investment decision that is optimal for all phases of the molded objects life cycle. What is needed is a modular mold and modular method of molding capable of providing rapid and economical fabrication of bridge molds that can then be rapidly and economically upgraded and transformed into an efficient production mold, and also capable of meeting variable capacity and efficiency levels. It is known to provide some additional flexibility in mold making by constructing a mold which is modular. Instead of mold plates that are each monolithic, the plates are formed as frames which are capable of receiving several mold inserts. The mold inserts contain the mold cavities which mate with the mold cavities of corresponding mold inserts to define the mold volumes in the shape of the object or objects to be produced. The mold so configured may produce many of the same object or produce several different objects in a single mold cycle. Using a modular approach, much less material is required to form a mold insert than would ordinarily be required to form the entire mold plate with a cavity. The frame is generic and can receive different arrangements of mold inserts, and so the overall cost of producing a mold can be reduced. However, it is believed that the full potential of modular molds has not been exploited because of marketing methods which are still focused on single use molds. Morever, modular molds suffer to a greater degree from a problem which is generally present in plastic injection molding. Although generally considered being an efficient manufacturing process, one of the primary impediments to molding efficiency is the time in which the mold is at rest after the plastic is injected into the mold, waiting for the plastic to solidify. The solidification time is a function of the heat transfer rate out of the mold volume after hot molding material is injected into the mold. The use of mold inserts may exacerbate this problem because there is insufficient contact with adjacent components of the mold to produce the most ideal conductive heat transfer. As a result, the cycle time of the injection molding machine may be increased with a modular mold. Some attempts to resolve this problem have been made, such as by having the mold insert contain its own liquid coolant circulation loop connected to the coolant system of the injection molding machine. However, this requires that the mold insert be larger, increasing its costs and reducing its flexibility of positioning within the mold plate. The fluid connections to the mold insert required every time the mold is reconfigured are complex and a source of manufacturing delay, and mold configurations and designs are limited by the need to provide for such fluid connections. Still further, steel, the common material used in mold manufacture, does not have the most ideal heat transfer characteristics. In addition to transferring heat out of the mold at a lower rate, the heat transfer is not uniform, so that there may be hot and cold spots in the mold. It is known to use aluminum, which has better heat transfer characteristics, but aluminum is less resistant to wear and subject to greater thermal expansion and contraction within the mold. Another issue associated with existing injection molding molds and process relates to the reconditioning of molds. Over time, the molds (regardless of the type of material from which they are made) will wear to the point that reconditioning is required. Conventionally, skilled craftsmen are employed to perform this task. Reconditioning involves cutting down the mold to remove damage or wear, following by reforming of the cavity and runner channels leading to the cavity. The reconditioning causes the height of the mold to change, which can be particularly problematic if attempted for modular molds where the height and location of the upper surface of the mold inserts must remain the same for all mold cavities to seal. Still further, the modularity of the mold inserts is limited by the modularity of the runner channels delivering liquefied molding material to the inserts. Conventionally, the runner channels have been as dedicated to a single use as the molds themselves. Providing a modular mold using mold inserts still requires that the liquefied molding material be delivered in some manner to the mold inserts. Presently, these runner channels are dedicated to a particular mold insert, making it difficult to reconfigure the mold. Mold inserts conventionally must be made of the same material so that they have the same thermal expansion in use. Even if made of the same material, mold inserts are more difficult than one piece molds to register with mating mold inserts to form a sealed mold enclosure volume because of problems with accurately positioning removable mold inserts in the mold frame. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one aspect of the present invention, a mold member cooperable with at least one other mold member is used for forming a mold capable of receiving fluidized material into the mold for molding objects from said fluidized material. The mold member generally comprises a plate defining a submold receptacle therein. At least some submolds have cavities formed therein for receiving fluidized material to mold at least a portion of an object. At least one partition selectively mountable on the plate in the submold receptacle defines, in combination with the plate, submold receptacle sections into which respective submolds are capable of being received. The partition has a thermal transfer system for use in exchanging thermal energy with at least one of the submolds in the submold receptacle. In another aspect of the present invention, a mold member having a plate and submolds generally as described in the preceding paragraph. The mold member further includes partitions selectively mountable on the plate in the submold receptacle for defining, in combination with the plate, submold receptacle sections into which respective submolds are capable of being received. The partitions are adapted for mounting on the plate so as to define arrangements of sections that have different numbers of sections in two nonparallel directions in the submold receptacle. In a further aspect of the present invention, a mold member generally comprises a plate defining a submold receptacle therein. The plate has an internal heat transfer system for transporting thermal energy between the plate and a location outside the mold. At least some submolds have cavities formed therein for receiving fluidized material to mold at least a portion of an object. The submolds are receivable in the submold receptacle of the plate. At least one heat transfer member disposed generally in the submold receptacle has an internal heat transfer system therein for transporting thermal energy between the heat transfer member and a location outside the mold. At least one of the submolds as received in the submold receptacle has adjacent sides engaging the plate and the heat transfer member, respectively, such that thermal energy may be transferred between both adjacent sides of the submold and the internal heat transfer systems of the plate and heat transfer member. In yet another aspect of the present invention, a mold member generally comprises a mold plate defining a submold receptacle therein, and a base plate connected to the mold plate. At least some submolds have cavities formed therein for receiving fluidized material to mold at least a portion of an object. The submolds are receivable in the submold receptacle of the plate. Support members adapted for reception in the submold receptacle each define along one edge margin thereof a support ledge disposed for engaging and supporting an edge margin of one of the submolds as received in the submold receptacle. Other objects and features of the present invention will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective of a plastic injection molding machine including a modular mold of the present invention; FIG. 1A is an enlarged, fragmentary perspective of the mold machine and modular mold of FIG. 1 ; FIG. 2 is a perspective of the modular mold including first (ejection side) and second (static side) mold members shown apart from each other; FIG. 3 is the perspective of FIG. 2 , but with submolds of the mold removed; FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective of the ejection side mold member of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 4A is a section of a mold plate of the ejection side mold member taken in the plane including line 4 A— 4 A of FIG. 4 ; FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective of the static side mold member of FIG. 3 ; FIG. 6 is a perspective of the ejection side mold member of FIG. 3 with partitions exploded from the ejection side mold member; FIG. 7 is a perspective of the static side mold member of FIG. 3 with partitions exploded from the static side mold member; FIG. 8 is an elevation of a primary partition; FIG. 8A is an elevation of a secondary partition; FIG. 9 is a top plan of the primary partition of FIG. 8 ; FIG. 9A is a top plan of the secondary partition of FIG. 8A ; FIG. 10 is a section taken in the plane including line 10 — 10 of FIG. 9 ; FIG. 10A is a section taken in the plane including line 10 A— 10 A of FIG. 9A ; FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective of a primary partition; FIG. 12 is a perspective of the ejection side mold member having a different modular configuration of submolds; FIG. 13 is a perspective of the ejection side mold member having still another modular configuration of submolds; FIG. 14 is a perspective of the ejection side and static side mold members shown apart from each other and submolds including multiple mold components exploded from respective mold members; FIG. 15 is a partially exploded perspective of a submold of the submolds shown in FIG. 14 associated with the ejection side mold member; FIG. 16 is a portion of the submold of FIG. 15 showing submold components exploded from the frame; FIG. 17 is a perspective of a submold illustrating in phantom a portion of the submold cut away to a predetermined depth increment for subtractive reconditioning the submold and showing in phantom the predetermined depth for the next reconditioning of the submold; FIG. 18 is an exploded perspective of the submold of FIG. 17 seen from the underside and showing spacers used with the reconditioned submold; FIG. 19 is a perspective of a series of the spacers; FIG. 20 is a perspective of an ejection side, variable height submold of another embodiment, partially exploded and next to a mating static side submold; FIG. 21 is an exploded perspective of the ejection side submold of FIG. 20 ; FIG. 22 is a perspective of an ejection side submold of a height different from the submold of FIG. 20 ; FIG. 23 is a perspective of an ejection side submold of a different height than the submolds of FIGS. 20 and 22 ; FIG. 24 is an exploded perspective of a different version of a variable height submold. Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 and 1A , a plastic injection molding machine 1 including a modular mold 3 of the present invention is shown (the reference numbers designating their subjects generally). It will be understood that the present invention also has application to other types of molding besides injection molding. The plastic injection molding machine 1 includes a first or “ejection side” machine element (generally indicated at 5 ) having a movable platen 7 and a second or “static side” machine element (generally indicated at 9 ) having a fixed platen 11 . The mold 3 includes a first or “ejection side” mold member (generally indicated at 13 ) releasably mounted on the movable platen 7 of the ejection side machine element 5 , and a second or “static side” mold member (generally indicated at 15 ) releasably mounted on the fixed platen 11 of the static side machine element 9 . The ejection side machine element 5 includes a force ejection mechanism (not shown) that actuates the ejection side mold member 13 to eject molded objects from the mold 3 . The mounting of the mold members 13 , 15 could be reversed without departing from the scope of the present invention. The movable platen 7 moves relative to the fixed platen 11 to move the ejection side mold member 13 into engagement with the static side mold member 15 for molding objects, and moves away from the fixed platen to separate the ejection side mold member from the static side mold member to allow molded objects to be ejected from the ejection side mold member. The movable platen 7 and ejection side mold member 13 are urged against the fixed platen 11 and static side mold member 15 with great force so that the mold members experience large pressures at their interface. As is known, the reason for the large forces and pressure is to hold the mold members 13 , 15 in tight, sealing relation as plastic molding material is injected under high pressures into the mold members. The molding material may be other than plastic (e.g., a powdered metal), and may be gravity fed or otherwise delivered to the mold within the scope of the present invention. Plastic injection molding (and other forms of molding and casting) can be used to make complete parts, or components of larger products. The term “object,” as used herein, is intended to refer to either complete parts or components which are assembled in a different manufacturing step(s) into the complete parts. It will be appreciated that in FIGS. 1 and 1A , the movable platen 7 is shown spaced from the fixed platen 11 a much greater distance than it would be in operation of the injection molding machine 1 so that the mold members may be better seen. Four guide rails 17 (only three may be seen in the drawings) connect the fixed and movable platens 7 , 11 and guide the movement of the movable platen relative to the fixed platen. The static side machine element 9 mounts a liquefied plastic injection device 19 which melts a solid plastic source (not shown) and injects under pressure a predetermined quantity of the liquid molding material into the mold 3 after the movable platen 7 moves to close the mold members of the mold. The injection molding machine 1 includes a cooling system 20 for circulating a cooling liquid to the mold members 13 , 15 for use in cooling the injected plastic in the mold members. The cooling system includes a source of cooling liquid (e.g., water), a heat exchanger to remove heat from the cooling liquid and a pump to circulate the cooling liquid (not shown). The cooling system 20 further includes a feed manifold 21 and a return manifold 22 for distributing cooling liquid to the mold members 13 , 15 . Hoses 23 extend from the manifolds 21 , 22 to the mold members 13 , 15 to deliver the cooling liquid to the mold members and return heated cooling liquid from the mold members, as will be described in more detail below. Other hoses 23 extend from the manifolds 21 , 22 to the cooling system 20 that continuously provides the cooling liquid (e.g., water). FIGS. 1 and 1A show only a few hoses 23 extending from the manifolds 21 , 22 to the ejection side mold member 13 and static side mold member 15 for the sake of clarity of illustration. In actual operation, there would be many more hoses 23 extending to the static side mold member 15 and also hoses extending to the ejection side mold member 13 . The construction and operation of the injection molding machine 1 including the liquid cooling system 20 are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, and accordingly only a general description of the construction and operation is given here. In some molding operations heat or “thermal energy” may be applied to the mold instead of removed. For instance, thermosetting molding material is introduced into the mold at room temperature or below. Heat is transferred to the mold to initiate the thermosetting reaction. Heat may be applied by fluid, but most commonly is applied through electrical resistance heating (e.g., embedded heating rods). Although the embodiments described herein relate to injection molding and cooling, the present invention has application to situations where heat is added to rather than removed form the mold. Broadly speaking, the present invention makes provision for transfer of thermal energy between the mold and an exterior heat transfer system. The ejection side and static side mold members 13 , 15 are shown in additional detail in FIGS. 2–5 . In the illustrated embodiment, the ejection side mold member 13 has four submolds (designated generally at 27 , 29 , 31 and 33 , respectively) containing cavities ( 27 A, 27 B, 29 A– 29 G, 31 A and 33 A) shaped for molding respective objects. The objects in the illustrated embodiment are components and accessories for geomatics equipment supports, but the type of object being molded is not critical to the present invention. The ejection side mold member 13 comprises an ejector housing 35 (broadly, “a base plate”), a support plate 37 and a mold plate 39 (see FIGS. 2 and 4 ). The ejector housing 35 has a generally channel shape including opposite side walls 41 , and houses a first ejector device indicated generally at 43 . The space between the side walls 41 allows for movement of the first ejector device 43 . Longitudinally extending grooves 42 near the back of the ejector housing 35 on both sides receive respective clamps (not shown) associated with the movable platen 7 that releasably fix the ejection side mold member 13 to the movable platen. Eight bolts 44 (only six may be seen in FIG. 4 ) extend through the ejector housing 35 and support plate 37 , and thread into the mold plate 39 to secure the entire ejection side mold member 13 together. The first ejector device 43 includes an ejector bar plate 45 received between the side walls 41 of the ejector housing 35 and a pin retainer plate 47 resting on the ejector bar plate. The ejector bar plate 45 and pin retainer plate 47 are joined together by fasteners 49 . The ejector bar plate 45 and pin retainer plate 47 have aligned openings which slidably receive respective ones of four guide pins 51 (only three are shown) that extend from the ejector housing 35 , through four guide bushings 53 (only three are shown) received in the aligned openings, and to the support plate 37 . The guide pins 51 guide movement of the ejector bar plate 45 and pin retainer plate 47 . Ordinarily, the pin retainer plate would retain ejection pins (not shown) for use in ejecting plastic molded objects from the ejection side mold member 13 . However as will be described, the first ejector device 43 is used according to the present invention to actuate other ejector devices associated with the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 of the ejection side mold member 13 . Movement of the ejector bar plate 45 and pin retainer plate 47 relative to the ejector housing 35 , support plate 37 and mold plate 39 to eject objects is obtained by the aforementioned force ejection mechanism (not shown) of the ejection side machine element 5 . The force ejection mechanism includes a driven ejector bar which extends through the movable platen 7 and ejector housing 35 into connection with the ejector bar plate 45 . The ejector bar can be extended and retracted to drive operation of the first ejector device 43 . The force ejection mechanism is conventional and will not be further described herein. Return pins 57 rest against the ejector bar plate 45 and extend through holes in the pin retainer plate 47 , holes in the support plate 37 and holes in the mold plate 39 . The heads of the return pins 57 are received in counterbores (not shown) in the back side of the pin retainer plate 47 so that they do not interfere with the flush engagement of the pin retainer plate and ejector bar plate 45 . When the ejector bar plate and pin retainer plate 47 are moved toward the support plate 37 (i.e., to actuate ejection of objects), the return pins 57 project outward from a mold face 63 of the mold plate 39 . When the ejector bar plate 45 is fully seated against the ejector housing 35 (e.g., as shown in FIG. 2 ), the ends of the return pins 57 are flush with the mold face 63 of the mold plate 39 . The return pins 57 make certain that the ejector bar plate 45 is fully retracted when the mold members 13 , 15 are closed. If the return pins 57 project out from the mold face 63 of the mold plate 39 of the ejection side mold member 13 (i.e., because the ejector bar plate 45 is not fully retracted), they engage a mold face 65 of the static side mold member 15 which pushes the return pins back to flush with the mold face 63 of the ejection side mold member mold plate 39 and completely retracts the ejector bar plate. Failure to fully retract the ejector bar plate 45 could cause ejection pins (not shown in FIGS. 2–5 ) to protrude into mold cavities 27 A, 27 B, 29 A– 29 G, 31 A, 33 A during molding, which would cause the molding operation to fail, or at the least damage to the object being molded. As assembled, the support plate 37 of the ejection side mold member 13 lies directly on the forward faces of the ejector housing side walls 41 , transmitting force directly to the ejector housing 35 . The support plate 37 has a large central opening 69 that provides access of other ejector devices (to be described) to the first ejector device 43 . The support plate 37 is formed with ledges 71 around the periphery of the central opening 69 for engaging and supporting submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 and other structure of the ejection side mold member 13 requiring support. The submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 are subject to high loads when the mold members 13 , 15 are closed in order to maintain a seal between the mold members when the molding material is injected at high pressure. If the mold members 13 , 15 are not adequately supported, they tend to be pushed back into the ejection side mold member 13 , causing a sealing failure. An eyebolt 73 secured to the support plate 37 is used for raising and lowering the ejection side mold member 13 to attach the mold member to the movable platen 7 of the plastic injection molding machine 1 , and for removing it from the machine. The mold plate 39 receives the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 in a center opening or submold receptacle 77 of the mold plate. The submolds are not illustrated in FIG. 4 . In the assembled ejection side mold member 13 , the mold plate 39 rests directly on the support plate 37 so that loads experienced by the mold plate are transferred to the ejector housing 35 mounted on the movable platen 7 of the plastic injection molding machine 1 . The mold plate 39 is constructed with features to facilitate registration of the ejection side and static side mold members 13 , 15 in use. Leader pin bushings 79 fixed in the mold plate 39 , and parting line lock cups 81 mounted in the mold plate by cap screws 83 receive structure associated with the static side mold member 15 (described more fully hereinafter) to achieve course and fine registration during the molding operation. Two openings 85 located generally in the middle of each of the four sides of the mold plate 39 permit connection (as described hereinafter) to parts of the ejection side mold member 13 located in the submold receptacle 77 to the hoses 23 associated with the cooling system 20 . Additional openings 87 on the laterally opposite sides of the mold plate 39 provide for connection of the hoses 23 to internal cooling passages 88 located in the mold plate 39 ( FIG. 4A ). Each of the four cooling passages 88 extend from one opening 87 in the side of the mold plate 39 in a loop back to the adjacent opening 87 . Thus, cooling liquid from the cooling system 20 enters the passage 88 via a connection of hose 23 to the mold plate at opening 87 , circulates through the passage, and exits the mold plate via another hose 23 connected to the adjacent opening 87 . In this way, heat is removed from the mold plate 39 by the cooling system 20 . Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 5 , it may be seen that the static side mold member 15 comprises a clamp plate 89 secured by eight bolts 91 (only some of which are shown) to a mold plate 93 . The clamp plate 89 is attached to the fixed platen 11 of the static side machine element 9 of the plastic injection molding machine 1 . The mold plate has a submold receptacle 95 which receives submolds (generally indicated at 97 , 99 , 101 and 103 ), which correspond to submolds 27 , 29 , 31 and 33 , respectively, of the ejection side mold member 13 . The submolds 97 , 99 , 101 , 103 have cavities 97 A, 97 B, 99 A– 99 G, 101 A, 103 A, which mate with submold cavities 27 A, 27 B, 29 A– 29 G, 31 A, 33 A, respectively, when the mold members 13 , 15 are closed to form sealed, enclosed mold volumes for receiving molding material and forming the objects. A sprue bushing 107 is received through a hole in the center of the clamp plate 89 . The sprue bushing 107 has a passage through it for injection of liquefied molding material to the submolds. The clamp plate 89 engages and supports the submolds 97 , 99 , 101 , 103 against loads experienced during pressurized injection of molding material in the molding process. Thus, the clamp plate 89 maintains the submolds flush with the mold face 65 of the mold plate 93 of the static side mold member 15 . A locating ring 109 mounted on the back of the clamp plate 89 by locating ring screws 111 projects from the clamp plate and is received in a correspondingly shaped recess (not shown) in the fixed platen 11 for locating the static side mold member 15 relative to the fixed platen. The mold plate 93 rests against the clamp plate 89 so that loads applied to the mold plate 93 are transferred to the clamp plate (and hence the fixed platen 11 ). There are two grooves 113 and 115 on each longitudinal side of the mold plate 93 . The rearward groove 115 of the two grooves is constructed for receiving a clamp (not shown) associated with the fixed platen 11 that tightly secures the static side mold member 15 to the fixed platen. Openings 117 on all four sides of the mold plate 93 permit connection of parts (described hereinafter) in the submold receptacle 95 to the hoses 23 of the cooling system 20 . Additional openings 118 allow the hoses 23 to connect to internal cooling passages (not shown, but nearly identical to the internal passages 88 of the mold plate 39 ) in the mold plate 93 . An eyebolt 119 connected to the mold plate 93 is used for handling the static side mold member 15 , such as to install the mold member in the plastic injection molding machine 1 and to remove the mold member from the machine. The mold plate 93 also has features which permit very precise registration with the mold plate 39 of the ejection side mold member 13 . Leader pins 121 attached to and extending through the mold plate 93 of the static side mold member 15 are received in the leader pin bushings 79 in the mold plate 39 of the ejection side mold member 13 for guiding the mold plates 39 , 93 into engagement when the mold members are closed. Conical parting line lock studs 123 secured to the mold plate 93 by cap screws 125 are received in the parting line lock cups 81 just before the mold plates 39 , 93 make contact for very fine registration (e.g., within thousandths of an inch) as the mold members 13 , 15 close. The conical shape of the parting line studs 123 delays engagement with the parting line lock cups 81 until the last possible moment for final registration. The ejection side mold member 13 and static side mold member 15 are shown assembled, but without the submolds in FIG. 3 . The submold receptacle 77 of the ejection side mold member 13 is shown with partitions 131 , 133 , 135 , and the submold receptacle 95 of the static side mold member 15 is shown with partitions 137 , 139 , 141 , that divide their respective submold receptacles 77 , 95 into four sections. The submold receptacle sections of the ejection side mold member 13 are designated 143 , 145 , 147 and 149 . The submold receptacle sections of the static side mold member 15 are designated 151 , 153 , 155 and 157 . Referring now also to FIGS. 6–13 , the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 and 137 , 139 , 141 are capable of being variously positioned in the submold receptacles 77 and 95 of the mold members 13 , 15 to create sections of different sizes for receiving different configurations of submolds. FIG. 6 illustrates the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 of FIG. 3 exploded from the mold member. FIG. 7 illustrates the partitions 137 , 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 of FIG. 3 exploded from the mold member. Except as noted, the constructions of the partitions 137 , 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 are the same as for the ejection side mold member 13 so that a description of the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 associated with the ejection side mold member will largely suffice for all partitions. Referring again to FIG. 6 , the partitions of the ejection side mold member 13 include a primary partition 131 and two secondary partitions 133 , 135 . The primary partition 131 spans the full width of the submold receptacle 77 and is secured at opposite ends to the mold plate 39 . The secondary partitions 133 , 135 extend from the primary partition 131 to an adjacent side of the submold receptacle 77 . As shown in FIGS. 8 , 9 , 10 and 11 , the primary partition 131 comprises a body 167 made of a suitable material, such as a block of aluminum or steel. A particularly preferred aluminum alloy for the body 167 is sold under the trademark FORTAL. Preferably, the body 167 is formed of the same material as the mold plate 39 so that the two have identical or similar thermal expansion characteristics. The body 167 is drilled and plugged to form two distinct internal passages 168 ( FIG. 10 ) for circulating coolant through the body. The body 167 may be broadly considered a “heat transfer member”. It will be understood that heat transfer members (not shown) may be placed in contact with the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 , 97 , 99 , 101 , 103 (or with other submolds) for cooling the submolds without operating to partition the submold receptacle 77 , 95 into sections. Such heat transfer members that do not function as partitions would have a different shape than the body 167 . The coolant loop passages 168 in the body 167 communicate with the cooling system 20 of the plastic injection molding machine 1 by way of pairs of fittings 169 screwed into the body on opposite ends. Each fitting 169 is aligned with (and received in) one of the holes 85 in the mold plate 39 for connection to one of the hoses 23 extending from the cooling system manifolds 21 , 22 of the injection molding machine 1 (shown in FIGS. 1 and 1A ). It is also possible to connect (using a separate conduit, not shown) one fitting 169 on one end of the body 167 to another fitting on an opposite end of the body so that the internal passages 168 within the body are placed in series (i.e., as a single coolant loop). Preferably a suitable quick connect/disconnect fastening arrangement (not shown) of the hoses 23 and fittings 169 is employed. A runner channel plate 173 is mounted on top of the body 167 (broadly, “a substrate”) by bolts 175 that are threaded into inserts 177 screwed into the body ( FIG. 11 ). In the illustrated embodiment, the runner channel plate 173 is made of steel (e.g., P20 steel) for better wear results. The inserts 177 protect the aluminum body 167 from wear as the bolts 175 are taken out and screwed back in over the life of the partition 131 . However, it will be understood that the runner channel plate 173 can also be made of the same material as the body 167 without departing from the scope of the present invention. The runner channel plate 173 is also secured (along with the body 167 ) to the support plate 37 of the ejection side mold member 13 (see FIG. 4 ) by long bolts 179 extending through the runner channel plate and body, and threaded into the support plate 37 . Still further, keys 181 are received in corresponding channels 183 , 185 in the body 167 and in the underside of the runner channel plate 173 to secure the two together. The keys 181 are attached by screws 187 to the body 167 and are held in the channels 185 of the runner channel plate 173 by clamping achieved by the bolts 175 . The keys 181 are employed to restrict relative thermal expansion between the steel runner channel plate 173 and aluminum body 167 , which occurs because they are made of different materials. The runner channel plate 173 has a longitudinally extending runner channel 191 , and a series of transversely extending runner channels 193 that direct the liquefied molding material into the various cavities 27 A, 27 B, 29 A– 29 G, 31 A, 33 A of the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 . The configuration of the runner channels 191 , 193 is not arranged for use with a particular submold or submolds. The submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 are configured so that they block the transversely extending runner channels 193 which are not needed. Referring to FIG. 2 , it may be seen that, for example, only the transverse runner channel designated 193 ′ communicates molding material to submold 33 . The other transverse runner channels open into the sides of the submolds, which plug the transverse runner channels 193 not needed in the arrangement of submolds shown in FIG. 2 . The primary partition 131 also has two runner channel shutoff valves 197 mounted on the runner channel plate 173 and projecting into the longitudinal runner channel 191 (FIG. 11 ). The runner channel shutoff valves 197 each have a generally “U” shape, and can be rotated about a vertical axis between an open position in which the U-shaped valve is aligned with the longitudinal runner channel 191 to permit flow past the valve, and a closed position in which the valve is turned transverse to the longitudinal runner channel and blocks the flow of molding material past the valve. A friction ring 199 associated with each shutoff valve 197 holds the valve in a selected rotational position so that the valve will not be inadvertently turned by flow of molding material. The friction can be overcome manually to select the position of each shutoff valve 197 . A support panel 207 is attached by bolts 209 to the underside of the body 167 . The support panel 207 is engaged by multiple support pillars 211 that are secured to the support panel by threaded fasteners 213 . The support pillars 211 slidably extend through an ejector bar plate 215 and pin retainer plate 217 of a second ejector device (indicated generally at 219 ) associated with the primary partition 131 . The bottom ends of the pillars 211 pass through the pin retainer plate 47 and ejector bar plate 45 to abut the ejector housing 35 of the ejection side mold member 13 . Thus, loads applied to the primary partition 131 during molding operations are transferred to the ejector housing 35 and to the movable platen 7 . In addition, the end margins of the body 167 overlie and are pinned to ledges 71 of the support plate 37 of the ejection side mold member 13 . The support plate 37 and support pillars 211 cooperate to rigidly hold the partition 131 , so that an upper surface of the runner channel plate 173 is coplanar with the mold face 63 of the mold plate 39 at all times. The support panel 207 of the partition is located in the central opening 69 of the support plate 37 . The support panel 207 has ledges 223 , 225 which project laterally outwardly from the sides of the body 167 . Ledges 223 projecting from opposite sides of the body near the center, support the secondary partitions 133 , 135 . Pairs of oppositely extending ledges 225 nearer to the ends of the body 167 engage the undersides of respective submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 to support the submolds. The submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 are attached by threaded fasteners to the ledges 71 , 223 , 225 that they engage. It will be understood that the ledges 71 of the support plate 37 and the ledges 223 , 225 of the support panel 207 cooperate to rigidly position the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 and secondary partitions 133 , 135 against movement back into the ejection side mold member 13 away from the plane of the mold face 63 of the mold plate 39 . The second ejector device 219 is used to remove runners (not shown) that invariably reside in the runner channels 191 , 193 of the runner channel plate 173 after an object has been molded. The second ejector device 219 includes the ejector bar plate 215 and pin retainer plate 217 previously described. The ejector bar plate 215 and pin retainer plate 217 are secured together by bolts 231 . The ejector bar plate 215 rests on the pin retainer plate 47 of the first ejector device 43 when the primary partition 131 is installed in the submold receptacle 77 . Thus, actuation of the first ejector device 43 causes the second ejector device 219 associated with the primary partition 131 to be actuated, meaning the ejector bar plate 215 and pin retainer plate 217 move toward the body 167 of the partition. A plurality of ejection pins 233 have heads that rest on the ejector bar plate 215 and are received in counterbores (not shown) on the underside of the pin retainer plate 217 . The ejection pins 233 extend through the pin retainer plate 217 , the support panel 207 and the body 167 to respective holes in the runner channels 191 , 193 of the runner channel plate 173 . Steel sleeves 237 in the body 167 protect the body from wear as the steel ejection pins 233 slide back and forth in the body. Prior to ejection, when the ejector bar plate 215 is spaced farthest away from the body 167 , the distal ends of the ejection pins 233 are each generally flush with the bottom of runner channels 193 . When the second ejector device 219 is actuated, moving the ejector bar plate 215 and pin retainer plate 217 closer to the body 167 , the ejection pins 233 project out from the bottom of the runner channels 193 , pushing solidified molding material (runners) out of the runner channels 191 , 193 . The ejector bar plate 215 and pin retainer plate 217 slide along the support pillars 211 as they move. A sprue puller 239 looks similar to the ejection pins 233 , and extends through the pin retainer plate 217 , support panel 207 and body 167 in the same way as the ejection pins 233 . A steel sprue puller sleeve 241 in the body 167 protects the body from wear caused by movement of the sprue puller 239 . The sprue puller 239 extends into a hole 243 in the center of the runner channel plate 173 , and is shaped in a conventional manner for attaching to and pulling out the column of solidified molding material in the sprue bushing 107 . The primary partition 131 also has return pins 245 , which perform a function similar to the return pins 57 described above. The return pins rest on the ejector bar plate 215 of the second ejector device 219 and have heads received in counterbores (not shown) on the underside of the pin retainer plate 217 . The return pins 245 extend through the pin retainer plate 217 , support panel 207 and body 167 , and are received in notches 246 in the runner channel plate 173 near opposite ends of the runner channel plate. Sleeves 247 in the body 167 encircle the return pins 245 and protect the body from wear. Only two of the sleeves 247 are exploded from the body 167 in FIG. 11 . The return pins 245 may engage the mold plate 93 of the static side mold member 15 when the mold members 13 , 15 are brought together to push the ejector bar plate 215 to a fully retracted position away from the body 167 . The return pins 245 make certain that no ejection pin 233 is protruding into the runner channel 193 when molding material is being injected. The ends of the runner channel plate 173 projecting out from the ends of the body 167 are received in respective partition locator recesses 255 formed in the mold plate 39 (see FIG. 6 ). These recesses 255 can be precisely located when the mold plate 39 is machined for very accurate positioning of the primary partition 131 . The primary partition 131 extends transversely across the width of the submold receptacle 77 . The secondary partitions 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 have a construction substantially similar to the construction of the primary partition 131 , and so will not be described in detail. The corresponding parts have the same reference numerals as the parts of the primary partition 131 , followed by the letter “a” or “b”. The secondary partition 133 is shown in some additional detail in FIGS. 8A , 9 A and 10 A. The runner channel plates 173 a , 173 b are each shaped at one end to be received in a respective one of recesses 257 in the face 63 of the mold plate 39 of the ejection side mold member 13 for precise location of the partitions 133 , 135 relative to the mold plate. The other end of each secondary partition 133 , 135 has a dovetail shape that is received in a correspondingly shaped notch 259 in the runner channel plate 173 of the primary partition 131 . Two bolts 261 secure the dovetail end of each runner channel plate to the primary partition 131 . The bolts 261 are received in inserts 263 ( FIG. 11 ) in the partition body 167 . An additional pair of bolts 265 secure each secondary partition 133 , 135 to the ledge 223 of the support panel 207 that underlies and supports the secondary partition where it abuts the primary partition 131 . Another pair of bolts 267 secure each secondary partition 133 , 135 to one of the ledges 71 of the support plate 37 . The runner channel plate 173 a , 173 b of each secondary partition 133 , 135 lies flush with the runner channel plate 173 of the primary partition so that a longitudinal runner channel 191 a , 191 b of the secondary partition aligns with a short transverse runner channel 191 of the primary partition 131 so that liquid molding material can flow into the runner channel plate of the secondary partition. The secondary partitions 133 , 135 also have runner channel shutoff valves 197 a , 197 b to selectively block or open portions of runner channels 191 a , 191 b , 193 a , 193 b in the runner channel plates 173 a , 173 b of the secondary partitions. The runner channel shutoff valves 197 a , 197 b have the same construction and operation as the runner channel shutoff valve 197 of the primary partition 131 . Internal coolant passages 271 in the body of the secondary partition 133 are illustrated in FIG. 10A . There are only two fittings 169 a , 169 b for each body 167 a , 167 b of the secondary partitions. The internal passages 271 are formed in body in the same way (drilling and plugging) as the passages 168 of the primary partition 131 . The support panel 207 a , 207 b of each secondary partition 133 , 135 has a single support ledge 223 a , 223 b on each side of the body 167 a , 167 b for supporting one of the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 . However, the number of submolds supported by the ledges 223 , 225 , 223 a , 223 b of the support panels 207 , 207 a , 207 b of the primary partition 131 and secondary partitions 133 , 135 can be other than described without departing from the scope of the present invention. The secondary partitions also have second ejector devices 219 a , 219 b which are substantially similar to the second ejector device 219 of the primary partition 133 . The submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 are sized smaller than the submold receptacle sections 143 , 145 , 147 , 149 into which they are received. The amount by which the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 are smaller is determined according to the expected thermal expansions of the submolds and partitions 131 , 133 , 135 in use. Generally, the spacing between the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 and the adjacent partition 131 , 133 , 135 or side of the submold receptacle 77 is selected so that, when cool, the submolds can be easily slid into and out of the sections 143 , 145 , 147 , 149 , but when warmed by pressurized injection of hot molding material, the submolds expand into engagement with the partition or mold plate at the side of the submold receptacle to promote conductive heat transfer between the submold and the partition or mold plate 39 . In the illustrated embodiment, the spacing is about 0.5 thousandths of an inch per inch of length of the side of the submold 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 . In other words, if one side of the submold is five inches long, then the spacing between that side and the adjacent partition 131 , 133 or 135 or side of the submold receptacle 77 would be 2.5 thousandths of an inch. However it is to be understood that depending on the materials used and the configuration of the submold, the spacing ratio could be different. Moreover, it is possible that one or more of the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 could expand into contact with the submold 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 . For instance, if a partition (not shown) had internal heating rods for applying heat to the submold, the partition would expand before the submold. The coolant in the internal passages 168 , 271 of the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 can then offload the heat to the cooling system 20 of the plastic injection molding machine 1 . It is noted that each side of every submold 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 engages a surface that is cooled by an internal cooling passage that removes heat to a location outside the mold 3 . In this way a highly efficient heat transfer from the submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 can be accomplished. The heat transfer is further augmented when the material of critical parts of the submolds and the bodies 167 , 167 a , 167 b of the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 and mold plate 39 are made of aluminum (e.g., FORTAL aluminum alloy). In the embodiment of FIGS. 1–11 , the primary partition 131 and secondary partitions 133 , 135 are used to divide the submold receptacle 77 of the ejection side mold member 13 into the four sections 143 , 145 , 147 , 149 , receiving the four submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 . FIG. 12 illustrates a configuration in which only the primary partition 131 is used, dividing the submold receptacle 77 into two sections 281 , 283 containing two submolds, generally indicated at 285 and 287 . As shown in FIG. 13 , by using the primary partition 131 and one secondary partition 135 the mold receptacle 77 can be divided into three sections 289 , 291 , 293 holding three submolds, generally indicated at 295 , 297 , 299 . It may be seen that the number of sections of the submold receptacle 77 can be changed not only along the length of submold receptacle, but also along its width (i.e., in directions which are perpendicular to each other). It is envisioned that within the scope of the present invention, partitions could be constructed so as to form other arrangements including greater numbers of mold receptacle sections for more submolds (not shown). Moreover, the ejection side mold member 13 could be used without any partitions 131 , 133 , 135 , receiving a single submold (not shown) in its submold receptacle 77 . The partitions 137 , 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 have constructions which are very similar to the partitions 1 of the ejection side mold member 13 ( FIG. 7 ). A main difference is that none of the partitions 137 , 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 has an ejector device. The mold 3 is designed in a way known to those of ordinary skill in the art so that the molded object and attached runners remain with the ejection side mold member 13 when the mold members 13 , 15 are separated. The primary partition 137 of the static side mold member 15 includes a body 167 c which is mounted directly on the clamp plate 89 and is supported by the clamp plate. The body 167 c has internal coolant passages and two pairs of fittings 169 c for communication with these passages. A runner channel plate 173 c mounted on the body 167 c may be made of the same or different material than the body. As shown, the runner channel plate 173 c is made of steel and the body 167 c is made of aluminum. The runner channel plate 173 c has ends which are received in recesses 311 in the mold plate 93 for precise positioning. The primary partition 137 has a center passage 313 extending through the body 167 c and the runner channel plate 173 c which receives the sprue bushing 107 . Thus, the sprue bushing 107 opens into the runner channels 191 c , 193 c of the primary partition runner channel plate 173 c so that liquefied molding material flows into the runner channels. When the mold members 13 , 15 are closed, the runner channels 191 c , 193 c of the primary partition 137 are aligned with the runner channels 191 , 193 of the primary partition 131 of the ejection side mold member 13 to define completely enclosed passages in which the molding material may flow. The runner channel plate 173 c further includes runner channel shutoff valves 197 c for selectively closing off portions of the runner channels 191 c , 193 c from flow of molding material. The construction and operation of the shutoff valves 197 c are the same as the shutoff valves 197 of the primary partition 131 of the ejection side mold member 13 . The secondary partitions 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 each also include a body 167 d , 167 e and runner channel plate 173 d , 173 e , substantially as described for the secondary partitions 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 . The runner channel plates 173 d , 173 e are shaped at one end for reception in recesses 321 in the mold plate 93 , and at an opposite end in a notch 259 c in the primary partition runner channel plate 173 c . The primary partition 137 and secondary partitions 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 can be arranged in different ways, corresponding to the arrangements of the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 . The secondary partitions 139 , 141 are also mounted directly on the clamp plate 89 for their support. Thus, there is no support panel 207 such as is present with the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 . The secondary partitions 139 , 141 each have an internal coolant passage (not shown) and two fittings 169 d , 169 e for liquid connection to the internal passage. Runner channels 191 d , 193 d , 191 e , 193 e in the runner channel plates 173 d , 173 e of the secondary partitions 139 , 141 align with corresponding runner channels 191 a , 193 a , 191 b , 193 b in the secondary partitions 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 to form enclosed passages. The runner channel plates 173 d , 173 e of the secondary partitions 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 also have shutoff valves 197 d , 197 e to selectively close off portions of the runner channels 191 d , 193 d , 191 e , 193 e to molding material. The construction and operation of the shutoff valves 197 d , 197 e of the secondary partitions 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 are the same as that of the shutoff valves 197 , 197 a , 197 b of the primary and secondary partitions 131 , 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 . It will be appreciated that the location of the shutoff valves 197 c , 197 d , 197 e of the partitions 137 , 139 , 141 of the static side mold member 15 are aligned with the shutoff valves 197 , 197 a , 197 b of the partitions 131 , 133 , 135 of the ejection side mold member 13 . Referring again to FIG. 2 , the four submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 in the ejection side mold member 13 and the four submolds 97 , 99 , 101 , 103 in the static side mold member 15 come in two general types. The first type of submold is represented by submold 27 which is shown in solid lines in FIG. 17 , and also shown in FIG. 18 . The phantom lines in FIG. 17 illustrate a method of subtractive reconditioning of the submold 27 , which will be described hereinafter, but is not pertinent to the present description. Submold 27 is associated with the ejection side mold member 13 and comprises a unitary mold block 349 , which in the illustrated embodiment is aluminum (e.g., FORTAL aluminum alloy). The material could be steel or another suitable material within the scope of the present invention. An upper surface 351 of the mold block 349 is formed with a cavity, or as is the case with the submold 27 , two cavities 27 A, 27 B corresponding to the shape of approximately one half of an object to be molded. The submolds 31 , 33 show examples where only single cavities ( 31 A, 33 A) for producing a single object are formed in the submolds. The upper surface 351 of the mold block 349 is formed with a runner channel 353 leading from an edge of the mold block where liquefied molding material is fed from the runner channel plate 173 a into the mold block, and branch runner channels 355 leading from the runner channel to the respective cavities 27 A, 27 B. The submold 27 has a third ejector device (generally indicated at 357 ) including an ejector bar plate 359 attached to a pin retainer plate 361 . Ejection pins 363 are mounted on the ejector bar plate 359 and pin retainer plate 361 in the same way as described for the ejection pins 233 associated with the second ejector device 219 . The ejection pins 363 extend through the pin retainer plate 361 and mold block 349 to openings in the cavities 27 A, 27 B and channels 353 , 355 for pushing the object and connected runners out of the submold 27 . Return pins 365 captured by the ejector bar plate 359 and pin retainer plate 361 extend through the mold block 349 to the upper surface 351 of the mold block. A coil spring 367 surrounds each return pin 365 and bears against the pin retainer plate 361 and the underside of the mold block 349 , urging the ejector bar plate 359 back to a fully retracted position. As with the other return pins 233 , the free ends of the pins 365 are flush with the upper surface 351 of the mold block 349 if the ejector bar plate 359 is fully retracted. If the ejector bar plate 359 is not fully retracted, the return pins 365 will engage a mating surface of the submold 97 associated with the static side mold member 15 and push the ejector bar plate (and hence all of the ejection pins) back to the fully retracted position. The ejector bar plate 359 rests on the pin retainer plate 47 of the first ejector device 43 . Thus, when the first ejector device 43 is actuated, the pin retainer plate 47 pushes the ejector bar plate 359 and pin retainer plate 361 of the third ejector device 357 , causing the ejection pins 363 to push the object and runners out of the submold 27 . When the ejector bar plate 45 of the first ejector device 43 is retracted, the coil springs 367 push the ejector bar plate 359 of the third ejector device 357 back to a retracted position so that the ejection pins 365 are substantially flush with bottoms of respective cavities 27 A, 27 B and/or channels 353 , 355 in the mold block 349 . A support pillar 371 extends through the ejector bar plate 359 and pin retainer plate 361 into threaded engagement with the underside of the mold block 349 . The opposite end of the support pillar 371 extends down through the pin retainer plate 47 and ejector bar plate 45 of the first ejector device 43 into engagement with the ejector housing 35 . In this way a center portion of the submold 27 is supported directly by the ejector housing 35 . Moreover, the support pillar 371 also connects the third ejector device 357 to the mold block. The lower end of the support pillar 371 is enlarged so that the ejector bar plate 359 rests on the support pillar, and the top end is fastened to the mold block 349 , attaching the third ejector device 357 to the mold block. As stated previously, the submold 27 also rests on ledges 71 associated with the support plate 37 , ledges 225 of the primary partition 131 and ledges 223 a of the secondary partition 133 , which support the submold under the loads experienced during pressurized injection of molding material in the molding process. The submold 27 is attached to the ledges 71 , 223 a , 225 on which it is supported. In some instances, where the distance spanned by the mold block 349 between supporting ledges 71 , 225 is relatively short, the support pillar 371 is not necessary. Submolds 31 and 33 have a similar construction as the submold 27 , particularly in that they have their cavities 31 A, 33 A formed in respective, one piece mold blocks. Similarly, the corresponding submolds 97 , 101 , 103 associated with the static side mold member 15 also have their cavities 97 A, 97 B, 101 A, 103 A formed in unitary mold blocks. The mold blocks of the submolds 97 , 101 , 103 of the static side mold member 15 are attached directly to the clamp plate 89 of the static side mold member and are supported by the clamp plate. The second type of submold is represented by the submold 29 , which is shown in more detail in FIGS. 15 and 16 . The submold 29 is associated with the ejection side mold member 13 and has a fourth ejector device 391 . The submold 29 further includes a mold block (generally indicated at 393 ), which instead of being a unitary piece of material, comprises modular submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 attached to a generally H-shaped frame (generally indicated at 409 ) including end pieces 411 and a center beam 413 . Each of the submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 is a solid block of material (e.g., FORTAL aluminum alloy) into which is formed a respective one of the cavities 29 A– 29 G, corresponding to (approximately) one half of the object to be formed, and a runner channel 415 , 417 , 419 , 421 , 423 , 425 , 427 . One or more grooves 431 on one side of the submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 (only some of the grooves may be seen in the drawings) receive a corresponding number of tongues 433 (only some are shown) formed on the center beam 413 to precisely locate the submold components relative to the frame 409 ( FIG. 16 ). The submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 are made in widths of a fixed increment. Thus, the submold component 399 or 405 with two grooves is twice as wide as the submold component 395 having one groove, the submold component 403 having three grooves is three times as wide as the single groove submold component 395 , and the submold component 397 having four grooves is four times as wide. Submolds (not shown) as large as the one entire side of the center beam 413 are contemplated. Thus within the submold 29 , there is substantial flexibility as to the sizes of the objects which can be produced. However, the flexibility is achieved within the context of submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 of predetermined sizes. A range of submold component blanks (not shown, but like the illustrated submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 without a cavity or runner channels) can be provided for use in constructing the particular submold components to be used. A retainer plate 437 mounted by bolts 439 on the underside of the center beam 413 of the frame 409 is used for retaining the submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 on the frame. The bolts 439 are received in inserts 441 screwed into the center beam 413 . The inserts 441 protect the frame material (e.g., FORTAL aluminum alloy) from premature wear cause by fastening and releasing the bolts 439 . A runner channel plate 443 is mounted on top of the center beam 413 and is received in cutouts 445 in the end pieces 411 . Bolts 447 used to mount the runner channel plate 443 are also received in inserts 449 screwed into the end pieces 411 to protect the frame 409 from wear. The runner channel plate 443 cooperates with the retainer plate 437 to retain the submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 on the frame. A longitudinal runner channel 451 of the runner channel plate 443 communicates with a transverse runner channel 193 of the primary partition 131 to receive liquefied molding material. Certain transverse runner channels 453 of the runner channel plate 443 are aligned with the runner channels 415 , 417 , 419 , 421 , 423 , 425 , 427 of the submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 to deliver molding material to the submold components. Other transverse runner channels 453 are blocked by abutting portions of the submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 away from the runner channels 415 , 417 , 419 , 421 , 423 , 425 , 427 . The runner channel plate 443 is one which is not particularly dedicated to a particular arrangement of submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 , but can be used with different arrangements of submold components, including other submold components that are not illustrated. The fourth ejector device 391 is similar to the third ejector device 357 , but has a modular construction to conform to different arrangements of submold components making up the submold 29 . As shown in FIG. 15 , the fourth ejector device 391 includes an ejector bar plate 473 and a pin retainer plate 475 secured to the ejector bar plate by bolts 477 . Return pins 479 extend through the end pieces 411 of the submold frame 409 . Coil springs 481 are received around the return pins 479 between the pin retainer plate 475 the end pieces 411 of the frame 409 . The coil spring 481 in the foreground of FIG. 15 has been mostly broken away to add clarity to the drawing. The return pins 479 function exactly the same way as the return pins 365 of the third ejector device 357 . Ejection pins 483 have heads which are retained between the pin retainer plate 475 and modular retainer plates 485 , 487 , 489 , 491 , 493 , 495 , 497 mounted on the pin retainer plate by screws 499 . The ejection pins 483 extend up through modular ejector guides 501 , 503 , 505 , 507 , 509 , 511 , 513 that are received in pockets (not shown) formed on the undersides of respective submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 . The smallest modular retainer plate 485 and ejection guide 501 correspond to the submold component 395 which is one base increment wide and has one groove 431 . Another modular retainer plate 495 and ejector guide 511 correspond to the submold component 405 which is two base increments wide, and so on. These modular retainer plates 485 , 487 , 489 , 491 , 493 , 495 , 497 and ejector guides 501 , 503 , 505 , 507 , 509 , 511 , 513 can be variously positioned on the pin retainer plate 475 as needed to arrange ejection pins 483 corresponding to the particular submold component with which the ejection pins need to operate. If the submold components are changed, then the ejection pins 483 , modular retainer plates 485 – 497 and modular ejection guides 501 – 513 can be changed. The fourth ejector device 391 functions in the same way as the third ejector device 357 to eject the objects formed in the cavities 29 A– 29 G of the various submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 of the submold 29 . The submold 29 is secured by pairs of fasteners 519 on each end to a ledge 71 on the support plate 37 and to another ledge 225 on the primary partition 131 . Sides of the submold 29 are supported by another ledge 71 of the support plate 37 and one of the ledges 223 a of the secondary partition 133 . In addition, three support pillars 521 extend through the ejector bar plate 473 and pin retainer plate 475 into engagement with the underside of the submold 29 on the retainer plate 437 . The retainer plate translates the support of the support pillars 521 to all of the submold components 395 , 397 , 399 , 401 , 403 , 405 , 407 . The opposite ends of the support pillars 521 slidably extend through the pin retainer plate 47 and ejector bar plate 45 and rest directly on the ejector housing 35 . Thus, the support pillars 521 , ledges 71 of the support plate 37 and ledges 223 , 223 a of the partitions 131 , 133 cooperate to support the submold 29 against the loads applied to the submold as a result of pressurized injection of molding material during the molding operation. The support pillars 521 also function to attach the fourth ejector device to the frame 409 of the mold block 393 . Referring to FIG. 14 , the corresponding submold 99 associated with the static side mold member 15 has a construction substantially similar to that of the submold 29 associated with the ejection side mold member 13 . The submold 99 includes modular submold components 551 , 553 , 555 , 557 , 559 , 561 , 563 which are mounted on a frame indicated generally at 565 . A runner channel plate 567 acts to direct molding material to the various submold components 551 – 563 in the same way as the runner channel plate 443 . However, the submold 99 of the static side mold member 15 does not have an ejector device like the fourth ejector device 391 . The submold 99 is attached directly to and supported by the clamp plate 89 . The submold 99 mates with the submold 29 of the ejection side mold member 13 to enclose molding volumes defined by mating cavities 29 A– 29 G and 99 A– 99 G, and runner passages defined by mating runner channels of the runner channel plates 443 and 567 . The mold 3 of the present invention thus provides for modularity by allowing for different arrangements of submolds, and also by having a modular submold which can be configured and reconfigured for molding different objects. Over time, the submolds (and in particular the mold blocks and submold components) become worn and/or break in use, and are not capable of producing acceptable objects. It is well known to recondition mold blocks which are worn or damaged by cutting away a layer of the block which contains the wear or damage (“subtractive reconditioning”). The mold members 13 , 15 are removed from the plastic injection molding machine 1 , the submold or submolds are taken out of the mold members and the mold blocks (or submold components) are removed from any remaining ancillary structure of the submolds. Typically, the mold blocks are placed in a computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine capable of cutting off (or otherwise removing) material from the submold upper surfaces. The CNC machine is capable of accessing electronic data regarding the original configuration of the submold. The original acquisition of this data may be part of a virtual cavity or virtual mold existing in electronic form that was created from customer product specifications in electronic form. The minimum amount of material that can be taken off of the upper surface of each mold block is determined by ascertaining how much material needs to be removed to eliminate damage and cause all surfaces of the mold cavities to be exposed and freshly cut. In the method of the present invention, the depth of the cut is not arbitrary or peculiar to any one mold block, but is selected from a predetermined minimal cut depth increment and multiples of that increment. For instance in a preferred embodiment, the increment is 0.0625 inches, but other increments could be selected without departing from the scope of the present invention. A predetermined depth D 1 of cut removed from a reconditioned mold block 349 is illustrated in FIG. 17 by the exploded upper surface section 591 shown above the mold block in phantom lines. In practice, the removed upper surface section 591 would not be cut away as a unit as shown, but has been illustrated as a cohesive unit for purposes of showing the cut depth D 1 . The depth D 1 of the section 591 has been greatly exaggerated in proportion to the size of the mold block 349 in this drawing so that it is more easily seen. The phantom line 593 below the existing upper surface 351 illustrates the depth D 2 to which the next cut will be made for subtractive reconditioning the mold block 349 . As shown, D 2 is the same depth as the amount D 1 previously cut away. However, the depth D 2 of the next cut could be a multiple of the first cut D 1 (assuming the first cut was to a depth equal to the minimum increment). The precise depth of the cut would be determined when the damage to the upper surface 351 is evaluated at the beginning of the next subtractive reconditioning of the mold block 349 . Once the mold block upper surface has been cut to the predetermined depth and a new surface is exposed, a determination is made as to how the upper surface 351 will be finished. Almost always, the upper surface 351 is reformed with the same cavity (cavities 27 A, 27 B) as previously formed in the mold block 349 . The data for reforming the upper surface 351 of the mold block 349 is obtained from the aforementioned virtual cavity information. The data can be fed directly to a controller of a CNC machine (not shown) that reproduces the cavity and other features automatically. However, the data could also be used for a manual reconditioning of the mold block, or some combination of manual and automated reconditioning. If the cavity (e.g., cavities 27 A, 27 B) is to be reconditioned by bead blasting or other abrasive method, then a temporary protective layer (not shown) is placed at the depth of the mold parting line of the reconditioned mold block upper surface 351 prior to the onset of reconditioning of the cavity (i.e., after the predetermined increment of thickness has been cut away from the upper surface). After the cavity is reconditioned, the protective layer is removed. Abrasive reconditioning may damage the sharp edges of the cavities at the parting line surface (i.e., the upper surface 351 ). Thus after abrasive reconditioning, the mold block 349 may be returned to the CNC machine to sharpen the edges and form the upper surface 351 for close registration with the upper surface of the mating submold. The reconditioned mold block 349 is not, by itself, suitable for use in the submold because it is now shorter and would not register with the plane of the mold face 63 of the mold plate 39 . Moreover, the travel of the ejection pins would not be proper for the reduced height of the reconditioned mold block. In order to compensate for the loss of height, a preconstructed set of shims (designated 601 , 603 , 605 , 607 ) is provided ( FIG. 19 ). The number and thickness of shims 601 – 607 shown in FIG. 19 are exemplary only. The same set of shims 601 – 607 would be used for the mold blocks of all submolds of any mold constructed according to the illustrated embodiment. The shims 601 – 607 come in thicknesses which correspond to the amount of the incremental cut depth of the mold block. In other words, the shims in the illustrated embodiment come in thicknesses of 0.0625 and multiples thereof. The particular shim 601 – 607 which is selected depends upon the total depth of material which has been removed from the upper surface 351 of the mold block 349 after all subtractive reconditioning procedures. Multiple shims can be selected to equal the total depth of material removed. As is shown in FIG. 18 , two shims 601 and 607 of different thicknesses (e.g., 0.250 inch and 0.0625 inch) are used with the mold block 349 in the reconditioned submold 27 . The shims 601 , 607 are attached by bolts 609 on the underside of the mold block 349 so that as assembled in the submold 27 , the mold block will extend up to the same height it did originally, prior to removal of any material from the upper surface 351 . Although the shims 601 – 607 are shown as closed loops of material, they may be formed by one or more distinct segments of material (not shown) mounted on the underside of the mold block 349 . Typically, the shims 601 – 607 are made of a harder material than the mold block 349 . However, when the material of the shims 601 – 607 is different, the amount of thermal expansion among the different submolds in the mold member 13 or 15 may be different. The expansion differentials may be unacceptable in some circumstances. By considering factors such as the coefficient of thermal expansion of each material, the viscosity of molding material, injection pressure of mold material and range of operation temperatures, a maximum ratio of height of shims of differing material to the existing mold block height can be determined. If the ratio will be exceeded by using a single shim having a thickness corresponding to the full thickness of material removed from the mold block, then two shims can be used (e.g., shims 601 and 607 , as shown in FIG. 18 ). The thinner shim 601 would be made of the harder material and the thicker shim 607 would be made of the same material as the mold block 349 (e.g., FORTAL aluminum alloy). The thicker shim 607 would have to be thick enough so that the ratio of the thickness of the thinner shim 601 of harder material to the thickness of the mold block material (now including the thickness of the thicker shim 607 ) was below the maximum allowed. Ejection pins 365 and other submold parts are individually measured to determine whether reconditioning is needed. Often, these other parts are constructed of a hardened material and require reconditioning less frequently. If the pins 365 are found to be excessively worn, they are replaced. Guide holes for the pins are also measured for wear. If excessive wear in the guide holes is found, the holes are reconditioned. Either larger ejection pins are used for the guide holes of now larger diameter, or inserts (not shown) are placed in the guide holes so that the same ejection pins can be used. The mold 3 of the present invention retains the flexibility for the customer to reconfigure the mold should market conditions require, for instance, a larger number of objects to be produced in a given time. If a higher output of objects is needed, it is not necessary to construct an entirely new mold. Instead, the virtual cavity can be used to create additional submolds that are received in the same mold plate. A different number of partitions can be used to provide more submold receptacle sections to receive a greater number of submolds. In addition, or as an alternative, the submold with submold components can be reconfigured to make more parts. In any event, the customer does not have to incur the full costs associated with creating an entirely new mold. Of course, if all available space in the mold plate is already filled, the cost of making a new mold will have to be incurred. However, even then the pre-existence of the virtual cavity data will make the construction of the second mold more efficient and less costly than with conventional molds. Referring now to FIG. 20 , mating pairs of submolds of a second embodiment are shown to comprise an ejection side submold 651 and a static side submold 653 (the reference numerals designating their subjects generally). The submolds 651 , 653 are shown side-by-side rather than in opposed relation as they would be in use. The static side submold 653 has substantially the same construction as the static side submolds 97 , 99 , 101 and 103 of the first embodiment and can be mounted directly on the clamp plate 89 of the static side mold member 15 . The static side submold 653 has multiple cavities 655 each having an associated runner channel 657 and runner channel shutoff valve 659 . The ejection side submold 651 is similar to the ejection side submolds 27 , 29 , 31 , 33 , except that it has a modular height feature, as will be described. The ejection side submold 651 includes a fifth ejector device (generally indicated at 663 ) comprising an ejector bar plate 665 , a pin retainer plate 667 , ejection pins 669 , return pins 671 ( FIG. 22 ) and return springs 672 . A support pillar 673 extends through the ejector bar plate 665 , pin retainer plate 667 and attaches to the underside of the cavity block 677 . In addition to providing support for the submold 651 in use, the support pillar 673 attaches the fifth ejector device 663 the submold. The submold 651 further includes a mold block 675 comprising a cavity block 677 and a modular wall 679 (all numerals indicating their subjects generally). The cavity block 677 is made of a solid piece of material and has cavities 681 formed in it for shaping a portion of a molded object. The cavity block 677 is also formed with runner channels 683 and corresponding runner channel shutoff valves 685 . The wall 679 engages the underside of the cavity block 677 . When placed in the submold receptacle 77 of the mold member 13 , the underside of the wall 679 engages support ledges 71 , 223 a , 225 of the support plate 37 , the primary portion 131 and one of the secondary partitions 133 , 135 that may be mounted in the submold receptacle 77 (not shown in FIGS. 21–24 ). The wall 679 comprises multiple (four in the illustrated embodiment) wall members 687 that form a rectangle with an open center (see FIG. 22 ). The wall members 687 engage respective ledges 71 , 223 a , 225 and are secured to the ledges by threaded fasteners. It will be understood that the number of wall members 687 making up the wall 679 can be other than described without departing from the scope of the present invention. Moreover, the wall may be formed by a solid block of material. Referring to FIGS. 23 and 24 , the same basic assembly is used to construct submolds (designated 651 ′ and 651 ″, respectively) having cavity blocks 677 ′, 677 ″ of different heights. Although each cavity block 677 , 677 ′, 677 ″ has the same arrangement of cavities 681 , 681 ′, 681 ″, cavity blocks having different cavities may be (and most likely would be) used in the different submolds. The cavity block 677 ′ of submold 651 ′ shown in FIG. 23 is thicker than the cavity block 677 of the submold 651 of FIG. 21 . Accordingly, the wall 679 ′ has wall members 687 ′ which are shorter so that the overall height of the submold remains the same. FIG. 24 illustrates the submold 651 ″ having a thinner cavity block 677 ″ than the cavity block 677 of the submold 651 ( FIG. 21 ). The wall 679 ″ of submold 651 ″ is higher than the wall 679 of submold 651 to compensate for the difference. Again, the overall height of the submold 651 ″ remains the same as the submold 651 through use of different modular wall members 687 ″. When the objects to be molded are small and only relatively shallow mold cavities are required in the cavity block, it is permissible to use thinner cavity blocks. The walls 679 , 679 ′, 679 ″ use less material (e.g., aluminum) than a solid mold block, and therefore is less costly to construct. The same walls 679 , 679 ′, 679 ″ can be used with many different cavity blocks (not shown). Moreover, none of the walls 679 , 679 ′, 679 ″ are used when the cavity block (not shown) is the full height. The support pillars 673 , 673 ′, 673 ″ have extensions 673 A, 673 B, 673 C corresponding to the heights of the respective walls 679 , 679 ′, 679 ″ so that the support pillars can extend to the cavity blocks 677 , 677 ′, 677 ″. Only a minimum of material must be dedicated to any particular cavity block. Similar modular walls could be used for submolds (not shown) mounted on the static side mold member 15 without departing from the scope of the present invention. FIG. 25 illustrates a modified version of the submold of FIGS. 21 and 22 . The same parts from FIGS. 21 and 22 are indicated by the same reference numerals. A modified ejector bar plate 665 a and pin retainer plate 667 a are indicated by the same reference numerals plus the letter “a”. More specifically, the pin retainer plate 667 a comprises a frame 691 and a center portion 692 that can be separated from the frame. The center portion 692 has pin guide holes 693 which line up with the ejection holes (not shown) in the cavities 681 a of the particular cavity block 677 a used in the submold 651 a . The ejector bar plate 665 a has a center recess 695 what receives part of the center portion 692 when the plates 665 a , 667 a are assembled in use. Thus, the parts of the submold 651 a other than the cavity block 677 are completely modular for use with other cavity blocks (not shown) having different arrangements of cavities. When introducing elements of the present invention or the preferred embodiment(s) thereof, the articles “a”, “an”, “the” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising”, “including” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. The use of terms indicating a particular orientation (e.g., “top”, “bottom”, “side”, etc.) is for convenience of description and does not require and particular orientation of the item described. As various changes could be made in the above without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

A mold of the present invention is capable of modular configuration and reconfiguration for producing molded objects. Many of the same mold components are reusable in the mold to increase the flexibility of the mold and reduce expense associated with molding.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. provisional application No. 61/485,143, filed on May 12, 2011 as attorney docket no. 1052.088PROV, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. [0002] The subject matter of this application is related to the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 7,251,293, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND [0003] 1. Field of the Invention [0004] The present invention relates to signal processing and, more specifically but not exclusively, to linearizing non-linear systems, such as non-linear amplifiers, using digital pre-distortion. [0005] 2. Description of the Related Art [0006] Introduction [0007] This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art. [0008] FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of signal-processing system 100 , which implements a conventional linearization scheme that employs digital pre-distortion to linearize an analog sub-system 130 having a non-linear amplifier 134 . Signal-processing system 100 receives a digital input signal x[n] and generates a linearized, amplified, analog output signal y amp (t). [0009] In particular, the digital (e.g., baseband or IF (intermediate frequency)) input signal x[n] is processed by digital pre-distortion (DPD) module 114 to yield a pre-distorted digital signal x pd [n], which is converted into an analog pre-distorted signal x pd (t) using a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 120 . The output of the DAC is frequency converted to a desired frequency (e.g., RF (radio frequency)) using upconverter 132 to yield an RF analog pre-distorted signal x pd rf (t)=Re{x pd (t)e jw c t }. The RF signal x pd — rf (t) is amplified by non-linear amplifier 134 to yield the output signal y amp (t). [0010] Purpose of Digital Pre-Distortion [0011] The purpose of the digital pre-distortion in signal-processing system 100 is to ensure that the output signal y amp (t) is close to a linear scaled version of the (theoretical) analog version x(t) of the digital input signal x[n]. That is, y amp (t)≅Gx(t), where G is a constant. Note that, in the above notation, the digital signal x[n] is a sampled version of the analog signal x(t). [0012] Computation of the Digital Pre-Distortion Function [0013] In a typical implementation, a small portion of the amplifier output signal y amp (t) is removed at tap 140 and mixed down to a suitable intermediate frequency (IF) (or, alternatively, to baseband) using a downconverter 150 . The resulting downconverted feedback signal y fb (t) is digitized using an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter 160 to yield digital feedback signal y fb [n]. [0014] The digital pre-distortion function implemented by module 114 is initially computed and subsequently adaptively updated by comparing the input signal x[n] with the feedback signal y fb [n] using a controller (not shown in FIG. 1 ) that may be implemented as part of or separate from DPD module 114 . The computation can be performed in one of (at least) the following two ways: [0015] 1) In a non-real-time implementation, a block of samples of the input signal x[n] and a block of samples of the feedback signal y fb [n] are captured and processed by the controller offline to estimate the pre-distortion function. Such estimation is typically performed in a DSP (digital signal processor) or microcontroller. [0016] 2) In a real-time implementation, the pre-distortion function is updated by the controller on a sample-by-sample basis using an adaptive non-linear filter structure. [0017] Pre-Processing [0018] In both cases, one or both of the signals x[n] and y fb [n] are pre-processed before the controller estimates the pre-distortion function. The pre-processing aligns the delays, gains, and phases of the two signals. Mathematically, this can be described as follows: [0019] Estimate the delay τ and the complex gain α that minimizes the cost function: [0000] E{(x[n−τ]−αy fb [n]) 2 }, [0000] where E{·} denotes the expectation value operator (or average). In the non-real-time implementation, minimizing the cost function reduces to estimating values for the delay τ and the complex gain α that minimize the cost function in the least-squares sense. Note that the delay τ and the complex gain α can be estimated successively and/or jointly. Also, note that the delay τ can be a fractional delay. Techniques for least-squares estimation are well-known. See, for example, W. H. Press, B. P. Flannery, S. A. Teukolsky, and W. T. Vetterling, Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. [0020] Digital Pre-Distortion Function [0021] After the pre-processing, the digital pre-distortion can be described as estimating the arbitrary non-linear function f pd (·) that minimizes the cost function: [0000] E{(f pd (x[n−τ],x[n−τ−1],x[n−τ+1], . . . )−αy fb [n]) 2 }.   (1) [0022] Limitations of Prior Art [0023] FIG. 2 , which corresponds to FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 7,251,293, shows a block diagram of a digital pre-distortion architecture corresponding to the following Equation (2): [0000] x pd  [ n ′ ] = f 0  ( a  [ n ] ) · x  [ n - d 0 ] + ( f 1  ( a  [ n ] ) · x  [ n - d 0 ] ) * h d  [ n ] * h P  [ n ] , + ( f 2  ( a  [ n ] ) · x  [ n - d 0 ] ) * h d  [ n ] * h N  [ n ] ( 2 ) [0000] where: [0024] Complex input signal x[n]=I+jQ; [0025] Complex pre-distorted signal x pd [n′]=I′+jQ′ is the n′-th output sample corresponding to n-th input sample; [0026] Input signal power a[n]=∥x[n]∥ 2 =I 2 +Q 2 generated by power detector 502 of FIG. 2 , [0027] Delay d 0 is a synchronization delay applied by Delay — 0 block 504 of FIG. 2 to compensate for the processing delay of power detector 502 ; [0028] x[n−d 0 ] is the delayed input signal generated by Delay — 0 block 504 ; [0029] Delay d 1 is a synchronization delay applied by Delay — 1 block 510 of FIG. 2 to compensate for the processing delays of filters 518 , 520 , 526 , and 528 . Note that the use of sample index n′ in the output sample x pd [n′] represents the effect of delays d 0 and d 1 ; [0030] ∫ 0 (·), ∫ 1 (·), ∫ 2 (·) are (possibly non-linear) polynomial functions of the input signal power a[n] and are represented by Lookup Table #0 506 , Lookup Table #1 514 , and Lookup Table #2 522 of FIG. 2 , respectively; [0031] h d [·] is the impulse response of each differentiator filter 518 and 526 of FIG. 2 ; [0032] h P [·],h N [·] are the impulse responses of positive and negative Hilbert filters 520 and 528 of FIG. 2 for selecting the positive and negative frequencies, respectively; [0033] “·” represents the complex multiplication operator of complex multipliers 508 , 516 , and 524 of FIG. 2 ; [0034] “*” is the convolution operator, with x[n]*h[n] representing the output of filter h corresponding to the nth input sample x[n]; and [0035] Summation block 512 of FIG. 2 represents the addition operations in Equation (2). [0036] Pre-distortion architectures such as those shown in FIG. 2 do not provide adequate linearization for certain amplifier designs under some specific signaling conditions. An example is pre-distortion with extremely wideband signals and Doherty amplifiers. SUMMARY [0037] In one embodiment, the present invention is a method for reducing distortion in an output signal by applying pre-distortion to an input signal to generate a pre-distorted signal, such that, when the pre-distorted signal is applied to a non-linear system to generate the output signal, the pre-distortion reduces the distortion in the output signal. The pre-distorted signal is generated by (a) generating a first frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a derivative of a first pre-distortion function and (ii) the input signal; (b) generating a second frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a derivative of a second pre-distortion function and (ii) the input signal; (c) generating a third frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a third pre-distortion function and (ii) a derivative of the input signal; (d) generating a fourth frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a fourth pre-distortion function and (ii) a derivative of the input signal; and (e) generating the pre-distorted signal based on the first, second, third, and fourth frequency-dependent pre-distortion signals. [0038] In another embodiment, the present invention is an apparatus for reducing distortion in an output signal by applying pre-distortion to an input signal to generate a pre-distorted signal, such that, when the pre-distorted signal is applied to a non-linear system to generate the output signal, the pre-distortion reduces the distortion in the output signal. The apparatus comprises first, second, third, and fourth signal paths and a summer. The first signal path is configured to generate a first frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a derivative of a first pre-distortion function and (ii) the input signal. The second signal path is configured to generate a second frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a derivative of a second pre-distortion function and (ii) the input signal. The third signal path is configured to generate a third frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a third pre-distortion function and (ii) a derivative of the input signal. The fourth signal path is configured to generate a fourth frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal corresponding to a product of (i) a fourth pre-distortion function and (ii) a derivative of the input signal. The summer is configured to generate the pre-distorted signal based on the first, second, third, and fourth frequency-dependent pre-distortion signals. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0039] Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals identify similar or identical elements. [0040] FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a signal-processing system that implements a conventional linearization scheme that employs digital pre-distortion to linearize a non-linear sub-system having a non-linear amplifier; [0041] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a prior-art digital pre-distortion architecture; and [0042] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a digital pre-distortion architecture according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0043] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a digital pre-distortion architecture 300 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As in the digital pre-distortion architecture of FIG. 2 , digital pre-distortion architecture 300 receives a complex input signal x[n] represented by in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) components and generates a complex pre-distorted signal x pd [n′] that can be converted into an analog signal by a DAC analogous to DAC 120 of FIG. 1 for application to a non-linear analog sub-system analogous to sub-system 130 of FIG. 1 . Note that, although upconverter 132 of FIG. 1 can contribute to the non-linearity of sub-system 130 , since most of the non-linearity is generated by amplifier 134 , for convenience, the rest of this description refers simply to the amplifier, although the teachings technically apply to the entire non-linear sub-system. [0044] Like the architecture of FIG. 2 , the digital pre-distortion architecture of FIG. 3 represents the inverse of a model of the non-linear amplifier to which the pre-distorted signals are subsequently applied. Compared to the architecture of FIG. 2 , however, the digital pre-distortion architecture of FIG. 3 is based on a more-accurate model of that amplifier in order for the pre-distorter to sufficiently linearize more-complex amplifiers that exhibit significant nonlinear effects. As such, the architecture of FIG. 3 can provide better linearization for certain amplifier designs under some specific signaling conditions, such as Doherty amplifiers with extremely wideband signals (e.g., signals having a bandwidth greater than about 40 MHz). [0045] The digital pre-distortion architecture of FIG. 3 can be represented mathematically according to Equation (3) as follows: [0000] x pd  [ n ′ ] = f 0  ( a  [ n ] ) · x  [ n - d 0 ] + { x  [ n - d 0 ] · ( f 11  ( a  [ n ] ) * h d  [ n ] ) } * h B   1  [ n ] + { x  [ n - d 0 ] · ( f 21  ( a  [ n ] ) * h d  [ n ] ) } * h B   2  [ n ] + { f 12  ( a  [ n ] ) · ( x  [ n - d 0 ] * h d  [ n ] ) } * h B   3  [ n ] + { f 22  ( a  [ n ] ) · ( x  [ n - d 0 ] * h d  [ n ] ) } * h B   4  [ n ] ( 3 ) [0000] where: [0046] Complex input signal x[n]=I+jQ; [0047] Complex pre-distorted signal x pd [n′]=I′+jQ′ is the n′-th output sample corresponding to the n-th input sample; [0048] Input signal power a[n]=∥x[n]∥ 2 =I 2 +Q 2 generated by power detector 302 of FIG. 3 ; [0049] Delay d 0 is a synchronization delay applied by Delay 0 block 304 of FIG. 3 to compensate for the processing delay of power detector 302 ; [0050] x[n−d 0 ] is the delayed input signal generated by Delay 0 block 304 ; [0051] Delay d 1 is a synchronization delay applied by each of Delay 1 blocks 314 , 324 , 336 , and 346 of FIG. 3 to compensate for the processing delays of blocks 316 , 326 , 334 , and 344 ; [0052] Delay d 2 is a synchronization delay applied by Delay 2 block 310 of FIG. 3 to compensate for differences between the processing delays of blocks 306 and 308 and the processing delays of blocks 314 - 352 . Note that the use of sample index n′ in the output sample x pd [n′] represents the effect of delays d 0 , d 1 , and d 2 ; [0053] f 0 (·), f 11 (·), f 12 (·), f 21 (·), f 22 (·) are (typically, but not necessarily, non-linear) polynomial pre-distortion functions of a[n] and are represented by Lookup Table f 0 306 , Lookup Table f 11 316 , Lookup Table f 21 326 , Lookup Table f 12 338 , and Lookup Table f 22 348 of FIG. 3 , respectively. Although shown as being implemented using lookup tables, the pre-distortion functions can alternatively be implemented algebraically; [0054] h d [·] is the impulse response of each differentiator filter 318 , 328 , 334 , and 344 of FIG. 3 ; [0055] h B1 [·], h B2 [·], h B3 [·], h B4 [·] are the impulse responses of (e.g., linear) Hilbert filters 322 , 332 , 342 , and 352 of FIG. 3 possibly for selecting the different frequencies; [0056] “·” represents the complex multiplication operator of complex multipliers 308 , 320 , 330 , 340 , and 350 of FIG. 3 ; [0057] “*” is the convolution operator; and [0058] summation block 312 of FIG. 3 represents the addition operations in Equation (3). [0059] The non-linear distortion generated when a signal is amplified by an amplifier can comprise both a frequency-independent portion and a frequency-dependent portion. When pre-distorting the signal prior to its being applied to such an amplifier to pre-compensate for the amplifier's non-linear distortion, the pre-distortion can also comprise both a frequency-independent portion and a frequency-dependent portion. In Equation (2), the first term on the right-hand side (RHS) represents the frequency-independent portion of the pre-distortion operation, while the second and third terms represent the frequency-dependent portion of the pre-distortion operation. [0060] In a situation where f 1 =f 2 =f, the second and third terms would be equivalent to the time derivative of the product of two functions: the distortion function f and the signal “function” x, where h d represents the derivative function, since h P and h N represent linear filters that select the positive and negative frequencies, respectively. As such, Equation (2) is equivalent to the derivative of the product of two functions f and x, with the further relaxation (i.e., additional degree of freedom) that the distortion function f is allowed to be two different functions: f 1 for positive frequencies selected by the filter function h P and f 2 for negative frequencies selected by the filter function h N . [0061] Based on the well-known mathematical expansion, the derivative of the product of first and second two functions is equal to (1) the product of (i) the first function and (ii) the derivative of the second function plus (2) the product of (i) the second function and (ii) the derivative of the first function. [0062] As in Equation (2), the first term on the RHS of Equation (3) represents the frequency-independent portion of the pre-distortion operation. The second through fifth terms on the RHS of Equation (3) represent the frequency-dependent portion of the pre-distortion operation. In particular, the second and fourth terms on the RHS of Equation (3) correspond to the mathematical expansion of the second term on the RHS of Equation (2), with the further potential relaxations (corresponding to two additional degrees of freedom) that (i) the function f 1 of Equation (2) can be (but does not have to be) two different functions f 11 and f 12 and (ii) the positive-frequency filter function h P of Equation (2) can be (but does not have to be) two different frequency-dependent filter functions h B1 and h B3 . Similarly, the third and fifth terms on the RHS of Equation (3) correspond to the mathematical expansion of the third term on the RHS of Equation (2), with the further potential relaxations (corresponding to two additional degrees of freedom) that (i) the function f 2 of Equation (2) can be (but does not have to be) two different functions f 21 and f 22 and (ii) the negative-frequency filter function h N of Equation (2) can be (but does not have to be) two different frequency-dependent filter functions h B2 and h B4 . [0063] Note that, when f 11 =f 12 and f 21 =f 22 and h B1 =h B3 =h P and h B2 =h B4 =h N , then Equation (3) is equivalent to Equation (2). On the other hand, when any one or more of those four equalities is not true, including implementations in which all four equalities are not true, then Equation (3) will be different from Equation (2). Allowing one or more of those four equalities to be false allows Equation (3) to provide greater flexibility than Equation (2) in modeling the pre-distortion operation to better compensate for the amplifier's non-linear distortion, thereby providing improved pre-distortion performance. [0064] The (non-linear) polynomial functions f 0 (·), f 11 (·), f 12 (·), f 21 (·), f 22 (·) and the (linear) filter functions h B1 [·], h B2 [·], h B3 [·], h B4 [·] can be generated by an algorithm which minimizes the difference between the input signal x[n] and the feedback signal y fb [n] (see FIG. 1 ). Such an algorithm could consist of an adaptive filter algorithm such as LMS as described in, for example, S. Haykin, Adaptive Filter Theory (Prentice Hall), or an optimization algorithm as described in, for example, W. H. Press, B. P. Flannery, S. A. Teukolsky, and W. T. Vetterling, Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986). [0065] Note that one or more of the filter functions h B1 [·], h B2 [·], h B3 [·], h B4 [·] may be delays. [0066] Broadening [0067] Although the present invention has been described in the context of linearizing an analog sub-system having a non-linear amplifier, the invention can also be implemented in other contexts. For example, the invention can be implemented to linearize an analog sub-system having one or more of the following elements: baseband amplification, IF (intermediate frequency) amplification, RF amplification, frequency upconversion, frequency downconversion, vector modulation. Furthermore, depending on the frequency requirements of the particular application and the frequency capabilities of the physical components used to implement the various elements, upconverter 132 and/or downconverter 150 of FIG. 1 may be omitted. Note that, in certain implementations, upconversion and/or downconversion may be partially or even completely implemented in the digital domain. In addition, pre-distorter 114 might not be adaptive, in which case the entire feedback path of tap 140 , downconverter 150 , and ADC 160 may be omitted. [0068] The present invention may be implemented as (analog, digital, or a hybrid of both analog and digital) circuit-based processes, including possible implementation as a single integrated circuit (such as an ASIC or an FPGA), a multi-chip module, a single card, or a multi-card circuit pack. As would be apparent to one skilled in the art, various functions of circuit elements may also be implemented as processing blocks in a software program. Such software may be employed in, for example, a digital signal processor, micro-controller, general-purpose computer, or other processor. [0069] The present invention can be embodied in the form of methods and apparatuses for practicing those methods. The present invention can also be embodied in the form of program code embodied in tangible media, such as magnetic recording media, optical recording media, solid state memory, floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, or any other non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. The present invention can also be embodied in the form of program code, for example, stored in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including being loaded into and/or executed by a machine, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. When implemented on a general-purpose processor, the program code segments combine with the processor to provide a unique device that operates analogously to specific logic circuits. [0070] It should be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative circuitry embodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transition diagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and so executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown. [0071] Unless explicitly stated otherwise, each numerical value and range should be interpreted as being approximate as if the word “about” or “approximately” preceded the value of the value or range. [0072] It will be further understood that various changes in the details, materials, and arrangements of the parts which have been described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of this invention may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in the following claims. [0073] The use of figure numbers and/or figure reference labels in the claims is intended to identify one or more possible embodiments of the claimed subject matter in order to facilitate the interpretation of the claims. Such use is not to be construed as necessarily limiting the scope of those claims to the embodiments shown in the corresponding figures. [0074] It should be understood that the steps of the exemplary methods set forth herein are not necessarily required to be performed in the order described, and the order of the steps of such methods should be understood to be merely exemplary. Likewise, additional steps may be included in such methods, and certain steps may be omitted or combined, in methods consistent with various embodiments of the present invention. [0075] Although the elements in the following method claims, if any, are recited in a particular sequence with corresponding labeling, unless the claim recitations otherwise imply a particular sequence for implementing some or all of those elements, those elements are not necessarily intended to be limited to being implemented in that particular sequence. [0076] Reference herein to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments necessarily mutually exclusive of other embodiments. The same applies to the term “implementation.” [0077] The embodiments covered by the claims in this application are limited to embodiments that (1) are enabled by this specification and (2) correspond to statutory subject matter. Non-enabled embodiments and embodiments that correspond to non-statutory subject matter are explicitly disclaimed even if they fall within the scope of the claims.

An input signal is pre-distorted to reduce distortion resulting from subsequent signal amplification. Frequency-dependent pre-distortion is preferably implemented in combination with frequency-independent pre-distortion, where the frequency-dependent pre-distortion is generated by expanding the derivative of a product of a pre-distortion function and the input signal and then relaxing constraints on the pre-distortion function and/or on frequency-dependent filtering associated with the frequency-dependent pre-distortion. In one implementation, four different frequency-dependent pre-distortion signals are generated for the expansion using up to four different pre-distortion functions and up to four different frequency-dependent filters.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of computing the degree of membership of a fuzzy variable relative to a membership function thereof. Specifically, the invention relates to a method of computing the value of the degree of membership of a fuzzy variable defined within a universe of discourse that is discreted into a finite number of points relative to a membership function thereof, wherein the membership function is quantified into a finite number of levels corresponding to a finite number of degrees of truth and is stored by way of a characteristic value of each subset of fuzzy variable values being all mirrored in one value of said degree of membership corresponding to one of said levels. The invention also relates to a calculator circuit for carrying into effect the inventive method. 2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, a membership function (hereinafter also designated MF) is a single-variable function, and accordingly, can be expressed by a two-dimensional graph. In particular, a membership function MF represents the degree of membership, MF(x), of a fuzzy variable x, and can be described by a graph where the fuzzy variable x is plotted along one axis and its degree of membership, hereinafter designated α, is plotted along the other axis. Encoding the membership function MF has been an object of investigation because it uses up a large amount of memory area, for instance when the membership functions MF are to be stored into a calculator structure. Especially with a digital calculator structure, a much-needed simplification consists in the first place of discreting the membership functions MF for integer values of the fuzzy variable x within the so-called universe of discourse (U.d.D.). In particular, each membership function MF is defined at 0 to 2 n −1 levels, i.e., discreted into n bits. Several techniques are known for storing membership functions MF. A first conventional method uses a table for storing the value of the membership function MF point by point, meaning that a degree α of membership, corresponding to each discreted value of the fuzzy variable x, is stored. This method has a major advantage in that membership functions MF of any forms can be stored, and another advantage in that the degrees α of truth can be extracted from a given fuzzy variable x at a fast rate. It has, however, a serious disadvantage in that the punctual storing of all the membership functions MF involved claims a large amount of memory area. Also known is to reduce the representable set of membership functions MF to a subset containing only certain geometric figures, and under this constraint, to use parameters for storing the membership functions MF. In particular, the degree α of membership of a membership function MF can be computed from these parameters as a function of the fuzzy variable x, and much memory area be saved. This is accompanied, though, by a drastic reduction in the membership functions MF that can be represented accurately, i.e., easily led back to the admitted subset of geometric figures. One such method of membership function encoding and storing is disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,438, granted on Feb. 23, 1999. In addition, solutions of this kind require the provision of complicated hardware for computing the degree α of membership from a given fuzzy variable x, and long computation times for computing the degrees α of truth. Known is also a method of encoding and storing membership functions MF, wherein the values of the degree α of membership of a membership function MF are stored in a table whose address is indicative of the degree α of membership. Stored in this table for each address value is a maximum, tantamount minimum value in a subset of membership degree values representing all the fuzzy variable values that are mirrored by the same value of the degree α of membership. This membership function encoding and storing method forms the subject matter of a co-pending European patent application by this Applicant. The membership function MF is split into a first or non-decreasing monotone part and a second or non-increasing monotone part, as shown schematically in FIG. 1 . In addition, the membership function MF is quantified into a series of subsets that correspond graphically to horizontal segments, each having the same value α corresponding to said subset of values for the fuzzy variable x. Starting with the non-decreasing monotone part, i.e., from point 0, those subsets of values which give the value α for a result are created for the universe of discourse, and their minima considered. Let it be, for the first or non-decreasing monotone part: x 0 the minimum value in the set of values of the fuzzy variable, x[x ,x 1 [, whereby α=0; x 1 the minimum value in the set of values of x[x 1 ,x 2 [ whereby α=1; and so on to xk, being the minimum value in the set of values of x[xk,x(k+1)[ whereby α=k, i.e., the highest degree of membership max; and for the second or non-increasing monotone part: x (k+1) the minimum value in the set of values of the fuzzy variable, X[X (k+1) ,X (k+2) [ whereby α=(k−1); X (k+2) the minimum value in the set of values of x[x (k+1) ,x (k+2) [ whereby α=(k−2); and so on to x 2k , being the minimum value in the set of values of x[x (2k) ,max] whereby α=(k−k)=0, i.e., the lowest degree of membership. The first value x 0 is known beforehand from that it coincides with the lowest value in the universe of discourse U.d.D., usually equal 0. In this way, the universe of discourse is split into a number of contiguous ranges ([x i ,x (i+1) [), each having a single value of the degree of membership, MF(x 1 )=α i , where x i is the lowest value of the fuzzy variable x within that range, associated therewith. The membership function MF can now be encoded and stored into a membership function storage memory MMF, with x 0 being stored at address 0, x 1 at address 1, and so on to x k , which is stored at address k. In a similar manner, x (k+1) is stored at address k+1, x (k+2) stored at address k+2, and so on to X 2k , which is stored at address 2k, as shown schematically in FIG. 2 . Notice that the values x 0 x 1 x 2 , . . . , x (2k−1) , X 2k are not continuous values, but rather discrete values included between 0 and the highest value max in the universe of discourse U.d.D. For example, with values of the degree of membership within the range of 0 to 3 and values of the universe of discourse U.d.D. within the range of 0 to 16, the following values are obtained: x 0 =0, x 1 =4, x 2 =5, x 3 =8, x 4 =10, x 5 =13 and x 6 =15. The aforementioned patent application also discloses a method of computing the degree α of membership that corresponds to the degree of membership of the value x ing of said fuzzy input variable, which method comprises reading sequentially from the memory MMF until a characteristic value x m , contained in the memory MMF, is found whereby the first values are higher than or equal to the value of a fuzzy input variable x ing , the location of the value x m in the memory MMF being correlated with the value of the degree α of membership sought. In particular, the computation time of the corresponding calculator circuit described in that European patent application is a multiple of the clock frequency of the internal counter of the calculator circuit. Thus, assuming the highest degree of membership to be k=(2 n −1), computing the degree of membership for a given value of the fuzzy input variable x ing will require a time equal to 2k+1 clock beats, i.e., the time needed for the counter output signal to reach that maximum value. In other words, the time for computing the degree of membership of a fuzzy input variable x ing is directly proportional to the degree of membership, meaning that the more the bits needed to represent that degree of membership, the more will be the memory words needed to store the membership functions MF and the longer the time taken to compute the degree α of membership tied to the fuzzy input variable x ing . The size of the memory MMF storing the membership functions MF will be dictated by the universe of discourse U.d.D. and the magnitude of the highest degree of membership. Mathematically, assuming the universe of discourse U.d.D. to be represented by n bits and a degree of membership by p bits, with k=2 P −1, the membership function storing table will have (2k+1) rows of n bits each. With the calculator circuit described in the aforementioned European patent application, whereby the largest of the ranges is stored, the membership function storing table is read serially. In particular, the counter in the calculator circuit will keep generating read addresses to the table until a stored value x m equal to or higher than the value of the fuzzy input variable x ing is read, the location of this value in the table being correlated with the value of the degree α of membership sought. In particular, the degree α of membership is computed from the address ADD according to the following relations: α=ADD if ADD≦2 p −1, and α=ADD−2 p +1 if ADD>2 p −1. The computation time, therefore, amounts to (2k+1) read accesses to the memory MMF for the membership functions MF, with k=2 p −1. The underlying technical problem of this invention is to provide an optimized method of computing the value of the degree MF(x) of membership of a fuzzy variable by way of its membership function MF, wherein the computation time is reduced and the limitations of the computing method according to the prior art are overcome. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The solvent idea of the technical problem is achieved, according to the invention, by generating the following type of a binary sequence N: N=100 . . . 0, 110 . . . 0, 111 . . . 0, . . . , 111 . . . 1 from which an address signal can be computed to read the contents of the membership function memory, and a corresponding degree of membership obtained, without the memory having to be read sequentially. Based on this idea, the technical problem is solved by a method of computing the degree α of membership of a fuzzy variable by way of its membership function MF. The method includes generating a binary sequence of bits; generating an address signal from the bits in the binary sequence; reading the contents of the memory storing the membership functions on the occurrence of each address signal to obtain a characteristic value; comparing the characteristic value with the value of a fuzzy input variable; and repeating the foregoing steps until a characteristic value is found that is equal to or greater than the value of the fuzzy input variable, the degree of membership α sought being correlated with the address value ADD of the characteristic value according to the following relation: α=ADD when ADD≦2 p −1, and α=ADD−2 p +1 when ADD>2 p −1, where p is the number of levels corresponding to a finite number of degrees of truth. The technical problem is further solved by an optimized calculator circuit for computing the degree α of membership of a fuzzy variable by way of its membership function MF. The calculator circuit includes a memory table containing characteristic values of each subset of values of fuzzy variables being mirrored in one value of the degree of membership; a comparator connected to the input site of the table; a sequence generator having a clock terminal to receive a clock signal, a reset terminal to receive a reset signal, and an output terminal to supply a binary sequence; and an address generator by algorithm having an input terminal connected to the output terminal of the sequence generator, the sequence generator generating at each beat of the clock signal the binary sequence supplied to the address generator, the address generator generating an address signal to the table for reading the table of contents on the occurrence of the address signal and obtaining the characteristic value contained therein. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS The features and advantages of the method and the calculator circuit according to the invention will appear from the following description of embodiments thereof, given by way of non-limitative examples with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings: FIG. 1 illustrates a membership function MF as discreted and quantified for storing by a first conventional method; FIG. 2 shows schematically a memory table for storing up the membership function MF of FIG. 1 ; FIG. 3 shows schematically a calculator circuit for carrying out the computing method of this invention; FIG. 4 is a detail view of the calculator circuit shown in FIG. 3 ; FIG. 5 is another detail view of the calculator circuit shown in FIG. 3 ; FIG. 6 is a detail view of the circuit shown in FIG. 5 ; and FIG. 7 is another detail view of the circuit shown in FIG. 5 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION With reference to the encoding and storing method described hereinabove, a method of computing the value of the degree α of membership will be described, which is quite simple and can be carried out on hardware of moderate size. In particular, reference is made to storing the minimum values in the ranges that comprise the universe of discourse U.d.D. As said before, the size of the memory MMF for the membership functions MF is dependent on the size of the universe of discourse U.d.D. and the highest possible value of the degrees of truth. Assume the universe of discourse U.d.D to be represented with n bits, and the degree of membership with p bits. Given that k=2 p −1, a memory having (2k+1) rows of n bits will be employed to represent a membership function MF by the above encoding and storing method. Advantageously, in accordance with an embodiment of this invention, a method of computing the degree α of membership of a fuzzy variable by way of its membership function MF, wherein the membership function MF is encoded and stored into a memory MMF as previously described, is provided. Specifically, the computing method of this invention comprises generating a binary sequence N of the following type: N=100 . . . 0, 110 . . . 0, 111 . . . 0, . . . 111 . . . 1 after an appropriate reset signal RST is received, which signal gives the start to the computing of the degree α of membership that corresponds to a fuzzy input variable x ing . The binary sequence N is generated, from the value 100 . . . 0 to the value 111 . . . 1, by increasing the “1's”, from left to right at each beat of the clock signal CLK, so as to propagate a value “1” from the most significant bit (MSB) to the least significant bit (LSB). The bits in the binary sequence N are processed by the following algorithm, to obtain an address signal ADD: assuming ADD to be a binary number of i=(p+1) bits, ADD(i)=MSB, ADD(0)=LSB, and S an internal position signal, where CTRL is a control signal of the computation sequence. The address signal ADD is used for reading the contents of the memory MMF storing the membership functions MF; a characteristic value x m contained in the range [x 0 ,x 2k ] will be obtained at each address ADD. This characteristic value x m will correspond to the smallest or the largest of the ranges comprising the universe of discourse U.d.D., according to the storage method being used. In the instance under consideration, the characteristic value x m corresponds to the smallest of said ranges. This characteristic value x m is compared with the value of the fuzzy input variable x ing , and the binary sequence N is increased up to a characteristic value x m which is equal to or greater than the value of the fuzzy input variable x ing . In particular, the control signal CTRL and a blocking signal BL to interrupt generation of the binary sequence N are generated based on the result of said comparison. At the end of the search, the address signal ADD will include the location of the range sought in the memory MMF, whence the value of the degree α of membership can be computed conventionally. In particular, the degree α of membership is computed from the address signal ADD by the following relations: α=ADD if ADD≦2 p −1, and α=ADD−2 p +1 if ADD>2 p −1. Briefly, the method of computing the degree of membership, according to this invention, comprises no sequential reading from the membership function memory but starts from a middle position, thereby reducing to p+1 the number of steps required in order to find the desired value. Advantageously, the method of computing the degree of membership, according to this embodiment of the invention, provides for the use of a polarity signal POL to enable computation of the value of the degree α of membership or a negated value α′ of the degree of membership, according to the following criteria: when the polarity signal is null (POL=0), compute the value of the degree α of membership; when the polarity signal is one (POL=1), compute the negated value α′ of the degree of membership. It should be noted that, to compute the information sought, i.e., the value α or its negation α′, the following rules apply: if the input x ing occurs within the non-decreasing monotone part of the membership function MF, then the value ADD is coincident with the value α; if the input x ing occurs within the non-increasing monotone part of the membership function MF, then the value (ADD−2 p +1) is coincident with the negated value α′. The negated value α′ is defined notionally as the highest value of the degree of membership from which the value α is subtracted, i.e.,: α′=(Max degree of membership)−α. In the binary system, assuming the highest value of the degree of membership to be coincident with the highest value that can be represented by the available bits (a condition always adopted in order to optimize fuzzy systems), the negated value α′ may be simply computed by negating the value α bit by bit, and correspondingly, the value α computed by inverting the negated value α′ bit by bit. A calculator circuit 10 , implementing the computing method of this invention, will now be described with reference in particular to FIG. 3 . This calculator circuit 10 is used to compute, from the value of the fuzzy input variable x ing , either the value of the degree α of membership or its negated value α′, according to a polarity signal, and advantageously in this invention, has a computation time equivalent to (p+1) read accesses to the memory MMF storing the membership functions MF, with k=2 p −1 at the highest value of the degree of membership that can be represented with p bits. Advantageously in this invention, the computation time is shorter than the computation time of conventional devices, being in particular equal to p+1, i.e., less than half the computation time of the calculator circuit described in the co-pending European patent application by this Applicant. The calculator circuit 10 of this invention comprises basically a sequence generator 1 , which is cascade-connected to an address generator 2 by algorithm, in turn cascade-connected to a table 3 corresponding to the memory MMF storing the membership functions MF. In particular, the sequence generator 1 has a clock terminal CLK 1 , a reset terminal RST 1 receiving a reset signal RST, and an output terminal N 1 , the latter being connected to a corresponding input terminal N 2 of the address generator 2 by algorithm. The address generator 2 by algorithm has a clock terminal CLK 2 arranged to receive a clock signal CLK, a reset terminal RST 2 to receive the reset signal RST, a control terminal C 2 , and an output terminal P 2 connected to the table 3 containing the minima of the ranges [x i ,x j+1 ] and being adapted to supply an address signal ADD. The calculator circuit 10 further comprises a comparator 4 receiving, on a first input A, the value of the fuzzy input variable x ing , and receiving, on a second input B, the characteristic value x m =MMF(ADD) read from the table 3 at the address ADD provided by the address generator 2 . The comparator 4 also has a first output terminal C connected, through a first logic inverter NOT 1 , to the control terminal C 2 of the address generator 2 by algorithm, and has a second output terminal D connected to an input terminal of a logic gate 5 through a second logic inverter NOT 2 . The first output terminal C supplies a control signal CTRL, and the second output terminal D a blocking signal BL. In particular, the logic gate 5 is an AND logic gate, receiving the clock signal CLK on another input terminal and having an output terminal connected to the clock terminal CLK 1 of the sequence generator 1 . The comparator 4 operates according to the following logic (where the input and output terminals are specified instead of the signals, for simplicity): The control signal CTRL at the output terminal C is stored and used by the address generator 2 for the next address computations, and the blocking signal BL at the output terminal D is effective to stop the clock signal CLK through the logic gate 5 when the signal read from the table 3 , upon the occurrence of the address signal ADD on the input terminal B, corresponds to the value of the fuzzy input variable x ing at the input terminal A. In other words, the calculator circuit 10 of this invention allows the range ([x (i−1 ,x i [), containing the fuzzy input variable x ing , to be found within a number p+1 of clock beats. More precisely, the sequence generator 1 comprises a plurality of cascaded flip-flops FF 1 , . . . , FFi, as shown schematically in FIG. 4 . In particular, said plurality of flip-flops FF 1 , . . . , FFi are all supplied a supply voltage Vdd and input the clock signal CLK and reset signal RST, and will output a binary sequence N of bits, as follows: N=100 . . . 0, 110 . . . 0, 111 . . . 0, 111 . . . 1. In other words, the sequence generator 1 generates a binary sequence N, from value 100 . . . 0 to value 111 . . . 1, by increasing the “1's” from left to right at each beat of the clock signal CLK, through the flip-flop chain FF 1 , . . . , FFi. On the occurrence of the reset signal RST, these flip-flops will store and propagate an input value “1”, from the most significant bit MSB to the least significant bit LSB. The outputs from the flip-flop plurality FF 1 , . . . , FFi are combined, in an AND type of logic, with the corresponding bits of the binary sequence N, thereby providing address signals IND. In particular, and as shown schematically in FIG. 5 , the binary sequence N is fed to the address generator 2 , which operates by the following algorithm: assuming ADD to be a binary number of i bits, ADD(i)=MSB, ADD( 0 )=LSB, and S a position signal internal of the address generator 2 , An example of an address generator 2 using the above algorithm is shown schematically in FIG. 5 . The address generator 2 comprises a selector 6 arranged to receive the binary sequence N and to generate the internal location signal S, comprising a sequence of 0's and one 1 at the location to be read, and comprises a controlled zero setter 7 arranged to receive the internal position signal S and the control signal CTRL. In particular, the controlled zero setter 7 either leaves a value 1 or resets the output of a selected flip-flop FFn through the selector 6 , according to the value of the control signal CTRL. Embodiments of the selector 6 and the controlled zero setter 7 , which comprise logic gates and flip-flops, are shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 by way of examples. In particular, the selector 6 shown in FIG. 6 comprises a plurality of logic gates PL 1 , . . . , PLi being input the binary sequence N and outputting the internal position signal S. The controlled zero setter 7 shown in FIG. 7 comprises a plurality of flip-flops FF 71 , . . . , FF 7 i, having a first input terminal connected to one of a plurality of multiplexers MX 1 , . . . , MXi, a second input terminal receiving the clock signal CLK, a first output terminal connected to an input terminal of said multiplexers MX 1 , . . . , MXi, a second output terminal connected to a plurality of logic gates PL 71 , . . . , PL 7 i, and a control terminal receiving the reset signal RST. The multiplexers MX 1 , . . . , MXi have another input terminal to receive a signal C′, which signal is the value of the signal at the output terminal C of the comparator 4 as negated through the first logic inverter NOT 1 , and have a control terminal to receive the internal position signal S from the selector 6 . The logic gates PL 71 , . . . , PL 7 i are AND gates receiving, on another input terminal, the binary sequence N, and providing, on an output terminal, the address signal ADD. The operation of the calculator circuit 10 will now be described. The sequence generator 1 , after receiving a suitable reset signal RST indicating the start of the step of computing the degree α of membership corresponding to a fuzzy input variable x ing , will begin to generate the binary sequence N at each beat of the clock signal CLK. This binary sequence N is filtered through the address generator 2 , the latter generating an address ADD to the table 3 , whereby the contents of the memory MMF is read at the address ADD and the characteristic value x m =MMF(ADD) obtained. The characteristic value x m from the table 3 is input to the comparator 4 , and the comparator 4 compares its value with the value of the fuzzy input variable x ing , and generates accordingly the control signal CTRL to the output terminal C of the comparator 4 and the blocking signal BL to the output terminal D of the comparator 4 . At the end of the search, the address signal ADD will contain the location in the table 3 , and therefore in the memory MMF, of the range sought, from which the value of the degree α of membership can be computed, as explained before in connection with conventional calculator circuits. In particular, it will be recalled that the following rule applies to computing the information sought, i. e., the value α or its negation α′: if the input x ing lies in the non-decreasing monotone part of the membership function MF, then the address signal ADD coincides with the value α; if the input x ing lies in the non-increasing monotone part of the membership function MF, then the value (ADD−2p+1) coincides with the value α. It should be noted that the negated value α′ is defined notionally as the highest value of the degree of membership from which the value α is subtracted or, expressed in formulae: α′=(Max degree of membership)−α. Assuming that in a binary representation the highest value of the degree of membership is coincident with the highest value that can be represented by the available bits (this being a condition that is always adopted in order to optimize fuzzy systems), the negated value α′ can be simply computed by negating the value α bit by bit, and conversely, the value α can be computed by inverting the negated value α′ bit by bit. In addition, the applicability of the computing method of the invention can be readily extended to include membership functions MF having maxima and minima in larger numbers than one. This is achieved by splitting into several segments having one maximum and one minimum and applying the computation of the value α to each non-increasing or non-decreasing monotone segment. Finally, it should be noted that the calculator circuit 10 , shown schematically in FIG. 3 , is but one of many hardware circuits that can carry out the computing method of this invention. For example, by changing the operating propriety of the blocking signal BL that enables the sequence generator 1 , a comparator of the A<B type may be used as the block 4 . In conclusion, advantageously according to the invention, the computing method according to the invention takes less time to compute the degree α of membership, corresponding to the value of a given fuzzy variable x, than conventional calculator circuits. From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limited except as by the appended claims and the equivalents thereof.

An optimized method of computing the value of the degree of membership of a fuzzy variable defined within a universe of discourse that is discreted into a finite number of points by way of a membership function thereof, wherein the membership function is quantified into a finite number of levels corresponding to a finite number of degrees of truth, and is stored as a characteristic value of each subset of fuzzy variable values being all mirrored in one value of said degree of membership corresponding to one of said levels. The computing method includes generating a binary sequence; generating an address signal from the bits in the binary sequence; reading the contents of the memory storing the membership functions at each address signal to obtain a characteristic value; and comparing the characteristic value with the value of a fuzzy input variable. These steps are repeated until a characteristic value is found that is equal to or greater than the value of the fuzzy input variable, the degree of membership sought being correlated with the address value of the characteristic value.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This is a Continuation of Application Ser. No. 09/512,102 filed Feb. 24, 2000, which in turn is a Continuation of International Application No. PCT/JP98/03744 filed Aug. 24, 1998. The entire disciosure of the prior application(s) is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for controlling the temperature in the chamber of an exposure apparatus used in a photolithography process for producing a semiconductor element, an imaging element (CCD, etc.), a liquid crystal display element, a thin film magnetic head, etc., and to an exposure apparatus operated in the method. 2. Description of the Related Art When a semiconductor element, etc. is produced, an exposure apparatus which transfers a pattern of a reticle as a mask to each shot area on the wafer to which resist is applied as a photosensitive substrate directly or through a projective optical system. Conventionally, an exposure apparatus (stepper) of a contraction projection type in a step-and-repeat system has been widely used as an exposure apparatus. However, a projective exposure apparatus in a step-and-scan system for synchronously scanning the reticle and the wafer for the projective optical system for exposure has recently arrested attention. FIG. 1 shows the general configuration of a conventional exposure apparatus. In FIG. 1, for example, a semiconductor element can be formed by overlapping for exposure a multiple-layer circuit pattern on a wafer 6 in a predetermined arrangement. Therefore, in the process of exposing the wafer 6 , it is very important to improve the precision in alignment between the pattern image to be exposed and the existing pattern on the wafer 6 , and the precision in controlling a focus position. Therefore, the exposure apparatus has an isolation room called a ‘chamber’ which is controlled such that the temperature in the exposure apparatus can indicate a constant value, and contains the body of an exposure device including precision parts such as a projective optical system 5 , a stage, etc. The body of the exposure device includes a lighting optical system 2 , a reticle stage 4 for holding and aligning a reticle 3 , the projective optical system 5 , and a wafer holder 7 for holding the wafer 6 , and a wafer stage 8 for aligning the wafer 6 (the wafer holder 7 ). The wafer stage 8 is mounted on the floor of the chamber 1 through a frame material 9 . The chamber 1 is mounted on a floor F 1 in a semiconductor factory. To keep a constant temperature in the chamber 1 , a fluid supply device 11 is provided in the chamber 1 . The fluid supply device 11 is equipped with a cooler 13 and a heater 14 , introduces the air outside or inside the chamber 1 , controls the temperature at a constant value by the effect of the cooler 13 and the heater 14 , and supplies the air into the chamber 1 . The cooler 13 compresses and liquidizes a coolant by a compressor, etc., cools the air with evaporation heat, and has a power source such as a motor, etc. for operating the compressor. Each of the parts such as a stage provided in the chamber 1 is considerably heavy, and requires a high-speed operation, thereby largely heating each of them. Accordingly, the fluid supply device 11 of the chamber 1 is requested to maintain a strong cooling ability, thereby requiring a large compressor of the cooler 13 . In addition, to prevent fine dust harmful in transferring a circuit pattern from being lead into the chamber 1 , the temperature-controlled air is to be supplied to the chamber 1 through a dust filter 21 such as a HEPA filter (high efficiency particulate air-filter). Therefore, the compressor formed by a pressure fan 12 for a blow and a motor is required to output pressure strong enough to pass the air blow through the dust filter 21 . As a result, a large pressure fan 12 and a large motor are used. FIG. 2 shows the general configuration of another conventional exposure apparatus. The exposure apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is different from the exposure apparatus shown in FIG. 1 in that the fluid supply device 11 is not mounted in the chamber 1 , but on the external wall of the fluid supply device 11 . Otherwise, they have the same configuration. That is, each of them includes the lighting optical system 2 , the reticle stage 4 for holding and aligning the reticle 3 , the projective optical system 5 , the wafer holder 7 holding the wafer 6 , the wafer stage 8 , the frame material 9 , etc. in a constant temperature room 100 . In addition, the exposure apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is the same as that shown in FIG. 2 in that the fluid supply device 11 has the pressure fan 12 , the cooler 13 , and the heater 14 , and blows into the constant temperature room 100 by passing the temperature-controlled air through the dust filter 21 to control the temperature in the chamber 1 . The chamber 1 provided with the fluid supply device 11 is mounted on the floor F 1 in the semiconductor factory. Furthermore, a device has been developed not only to maintain a constant temperature in the chamber 1 , but also to supply a fluid at a constant temperature to a specific local area (a coil portion of a linear motor, etc.) of an exposure apparatus so that the portion can be more effectively temperature-controlled. As described above, the conventional exposure apparatus includes the fluid supply device 11 in the chamber 1 or on the external wall of the chamber 1 . As a result, the vibration generated during the operation of the fluid supply device 11 unfavorably lowers the precision in alignment, etc. of the exposure apparatus. That is, the vibrations generated by the compressor of the cooler 13 forming part of the fluid supply device 11 , and the pressure fan 12 and the motor of the compressor vibrate the wafer stage 8 of the wafer 6 , thereby deteriorating the alignment precision of the wafer 6 , and also the overlapping precision, or vibrate the projective optical system 5 to lower the contrast of the transferred image. In the conventional exposure apparatus, since the vibration of the fluid supply device for a chamber 1 during the operation has a minor influence with the requested precision taken into consideration, thereby generating a serious problem. However, with an increasing number of smaller semiconductor integrated circuits, etc., the influence of the vibration cannot be ignored because the alignment precision, etc. requested to the exposure apparatus becomes more strict. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been developed based on the above described background, and aims at the first object of providing a method of controlling the temperature in a chamber of an exposure apparatus having the body of an exposure device, and a method of controlling the temperature to reduce an unfavorable influence from the vibration caused by the temperature control. Furthermore, the present invention aims at the second object of providing an exposure apparatus capable of using the above described temperature control method. In the temperature control method according to the present invention is used with a chamber ( 1 ) containing the body of an exposure device for transferring a mask pattern to the substrate, a fluid (a gas, a liquid) supplied to the chamber ( 1 ) from a fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) provided independent of the chamber ( 1 ) is output, supplied from the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B), and is temperature-controlled before supplied into the chamber ( 1 ). With the present invention, the temperature in the chamber can be controlled by controlling the temperature of a fluid supplied to the chamber. Thus, the temperature adjustment equipment, which has been in a chamber as a vibration source, can be mounted outside the chamber, thereby removing the vibration source from the chamber. In addition, since the vibration during the temperature-control of the fluid is hardly transmitted into the chamber, an unfavorable influence such as the deterioration in the alignment precision in the body of the exposure device causing the vibration can be reduced. Furthermore, in the exposure apparatus according to the present invention, the body of an exposure device for transferring a mask pattern to the substrate is provided in the chamber ( 1 ). The exposure apparatus has a fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) mounted outside the chamber, and supplies a temperature control fluid into the chamber ( 1 ). With the above described present invention, the vibration of the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) for outputting a temperature control fluid is hardly transmitted into the chamber ( 1 ), the temperature control method according to the present invention can be used almost successfully. In this case, it is desired that the present invention includes a temperature control device ( 18 , 24 , 43 ) for controlling the temperature of the fluid output from the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B), and transmitting the fluid into the chamber ( 1 ), thereby controlling the temperature in the chamber ( 1 ) at a predetermined temperature. At this time, since the temperature control device ( 18 , 24 , 43 ) controls the temperature of the fluid transmitted into the chamber ( 1 ), the temperature control method according to the present invention can be applied. Furthermore, the final control of the temperature of the fluid led to the chamber ( 1 ) is not performed by the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) located away from the chamber, but by, for example, the temperature control device ( 18 , 24 , 43 ) located near the constant temperature room in the chamber ( 1 ). Therefore, although the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) is distant from the chamber ( 1 ), the feedback loop of the temperature control is not elongated, and the temperature in the chamber ( 1 ), or the temperature of the fluid used in the chamber ( 1 ) can be maintained precisely at a predetermined level. Thus, the body of the exposure device of a projective optical system ( 5 ), a stage system ( 4 , 8 ), etc. is maintained at a constant temperature, thereby realizing a precision exposure apparatus with little vibration. In this case, it is desired that the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) includes a fluid supply device ( 13 - 14 , 13 - 14 a - 14 b ) for controlling the temperature of the fluid. The level of the temperature control by the temperature control device ( 18 , 24 , 43 ) located near the chamber ( 1 ) is low when the temperature of the fluid to e supplied to the chamber ( 1 ) is roughly controlled by the fluid supply device ( 13 - 14 , 13 - 14 a - 14 b ), thereby easily designing the temperature control device ( 18 , 24 , 43 ) using a heater without a vibration source or temperature control elements such as a Peltier element ( 18 ), and reducing the vibration in the chamber ( 1 ). A liquid supply device ( 11 A) outputs, for example, a plurality of fluids at different temperatures, and a temperature control device ( 24 ) mixes the plurality of fluids at a predetermined ratio. A fluid at a desired temperature can be obtained by controlling the mixing ratio of the plurality of fluids at different temperatures. In addition, it is desired that the present invention further includes a detector ( 19 ) for detecting the temperature of the fluid controlled by the temperature control device ( 18 , 24 , 43 ), and at least one of the temperature control device ( 18 , 24 , 43 ) and the fluid supply device ( 13 - 14 , 13 - 14 a - 14 b ) controls the temperature of the fluid based on the detection result of the detector ( 19 ). The control precision of the temperature in the chamber ( 1 ) can be improved by feeding back the temperature of the detector ( 19 ) mounted together with the chamber ( 1 ). Furthermore, it is desired that the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) is mounted on the floor different from the floor on which the chamber ( 1 ) is mounted. Thus, the vibration of the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) is not transmitted into the chamber ( 1 ). It is also desired that the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) is designed such that the vibration of the fluid supply device ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) cannot be transmitted to the body of the exposure device. In the exposure apparatus according to the present invention, the body of the exposure device for transferring a mask pattern on the substrate is mounted in the chamber ( 1 ) controlled for a predetermined temperature, and the fluid machinery room ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) for controlling the temperature in the chamber ( 1 ) is mounted under the floor on which the chamber ( 1 ) is mounted. In the second exposure apparatus, the vibration during the temperature control of the machinery room ( 11 , 11 A, 11 B) is not transmitted into the chamber ( 1 ), thereby reducing the unfavorable influence caused by the vibration in the body of the exposure device such as the deterioration in alignment precision, etc. The exposure system according to one aspect of the present invention includes: a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate; a first temperature control unit, mounted separate from the body of the exposure device, for controlling the temperature of a fluid taken through the body of the exposure device; and a second temperature control unit, connected to the first temperature control unit, for controlling the temperature of the fluid taken through the first temperature control unit, and supplying it to the body of the exposure device. The second temperature control unit has a control ability different from that of the first temperature control unit. The exposure system according to another aspect of the present invention includes: a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate; and a fluid supply device, mounted on a plane different from the plane on which the chamber is mounted, for supplying a fluid into the chamber. The exposure system according to another aspect of the present invention includes: a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate; and a fluid supply device, mounted separate from the body of the exposure device, for supplying a fluid into the chamber. At least one of the chamber and the fluid supply device is mounted using a vibration-proof material The temperature control method according to another aspect of the present invention controls the temperature in a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate. In this method, a first temperature control unit mounted separate from the body of the exposure device controls the temperature of a fluid taken through the body of the exposure device, and a second temperature control unit having a control ability different from that of the first temperature control unit controls the temperature again of the fluid taken through the first temperature control unit, and then supplies the fluid to the body of the exposure device. The temperature control method according to another aspect of the present invention controls the temperature in a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate. In this method, a fluid supply device mounted on a plane different from a plane on which the chamber is mounted supplies a fluid whose temperature has been adjusted into the chamber. The temperature control method according to another aspect of the present invention controls the temperature in a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate. In this method, a fluid supply device mounted separate from the body of the exposure device supplies a fluid whose temperature is adjusted to the chamber. At least one of the chamber and the fluid supply device is mounted using a vibration-proof material. The exposure system producing method according to another aspect of the present invention produces an exposure system, and includes: a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which foims a pattern on a substrate; a first temperature control unit, mounted separate from the body of the exposure device, for controlling the temperature of a fluid taken through the body of the exposure device; and a second temperature control unit, connected to the first temperature control unit, for controlling the temperature of the fluid taken through the first temperature control unit, and supplying it to the body of the exposure device. The second temperature control unit has a control ability different from that of the first temperature control unit. The exposure system producing method according to another aspect of the present invention produces an exposure system, and mounts on a predetermined plane a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate, and mounts on a plane different from the plane of the chamber a fluid supply device for supplying a fluid to the chamber. The exposure system producing method according to another aspect of the present invention produces an exposure system, includes a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate, and mounts a fluid supply device for supplying a fluid to the chamber separate from the body of the exposure device using a vibration-proof material. The exposure system producing method according to another aspect of the present invention produces an exposure system, mounts using a vibration-proof material a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate, and mounts a fluid supply device for supplying a fluid to the chamber separate from the body of the exposure device. The exposure system according to another aspect of the present invention includes: a chamber, mounted on a predetermined plane, containing the body of an exposure device forming a pattern on a substrate; a fluid supply device, mounted separate from the body of the exposure device on the same plane, for supplying a fluid to the chamber; and a connection material mounted between the chamber and the fluid supply device, for connecting the chamber and the fluid supply device such that the fluid can be transmitted between the chamber and the fluid supply device. The exposure system is designed to prevent the vibration generated by the fluid supply device during the operations from being transmitted to the body of the exposure device. The temperature control method according to another aspect of the present invention controls the temperature in a chamber containing the body of an exposure device forming a pattern on a substrate. In this method, a fluid whose temperature is adjusted is supplied to the chamber from a fluid supply device mounted to the chamber through a connection material on the same plane as the chamber. Thus, the vibration generated by the fluid supply device during the operations is not transmitted to the fluid supply device. The exposure system producing method according to another aspect of the present invention produces an exposure system, includes on a predetermined plane a chamber containing the body of an exposure device which forms a pattern on a substrate, and mounts on the same plane a fluid supply device for supplying a fluid to the chamber separate from the body of the exposure device. A connection material for connecting the chamber to the fluid supply device is provided between the chamber and the fluid supply device so that the fluid can be transmitted between the chamber and the fluid supply device. The exposure system is designed to prevent the vibration generated by the fluid supply device during the operations from being transmitted to the body of the exposure device. According to the present invention described above, the vibration of the fluid supply device for providing a fluid for temperature control is hardly transmitted into the chamber, thereby realizing the exposure system using the temperature control method of the present invention. Since the fluid supply device for supplying a temperature control fluid and its chamber are mounted on different floors according to the present invention, the vibration is hardly transmitted between them, thereby realizing the exposure system using the temperature control method of the present invention. Since the vibration-proof material is applied to prevent the vibration from being transmitted between the fluid supply device for supplying a temperature control fluid and the chamber, the vibration is hardly transferred, thereby realizing the exposure system using the temperature control method of the present invention. According to the present invention, since the fluid supply device for supplying a temperature control fluid is located away from the chamber by the distance for attenuation of 25% (6 dB) or more of the vibration, the vibration is hardly transmitted, thereby realizing the exposure system using the temperature control method of the present invention. According to the present invention, the vibration of the fluid supply device for supplying a temperature control liquid is hardly transmitted to the chamber, thereby realizing the temperature control method of the present invention. According to the present invention, since the fluid supply device for supplying a temperature control fluid and the chamber are mounted on different positions, the vibration is hardly transmitted, thereby realizing the temperature control method of the present invention. According to the present invention, since there is a vibration-proof material to prevent the vibration from being transmitted between the fluid supply device for supplying a temperature control fluid and the chamber, the vibration is hardly transmitted, thereby realizing the temperature control method of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the general configuration of a conventional exposure apparatus; FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the general configuration of another conventional exposure apparatus; FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the general configuration of the best mode of an exposure apparatus embodying the present invention; FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the general configuration of the exposure light source of the exposure apparatus shown in FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the general configuration of the first embodiment of the exposure apparatus embodying the present invention; and FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the general configuration of the second embodiment of the exposure apparatus embodying the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The best mode for embodying the present invention is described below by referring to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the general configuration of the best mode of an exposure apparatus embodying the present invention. In FIG. 3, a box-shaped chamber 1 is mounted on the floor F 1 of a semiconductor factory through four vibration-proof pads (FIG. 3 shows two of them, that is, vibration-proof pads 10 a and 10 b ) comprising an air damper, or a hydraulic damper, etc. The chamber 1 is sectioned into a preliminary room 22 a through which a blow duct 16 of a temperature control gas (air in the present embodiment), a temperature control room 23 in which the temperature of the gas is finally controlled, a filter room 22 b in which the dust in the air is filtered at the ceiling of the chamber 1 , and the constant temperature room 100 in which the temperature of the internal air can be kept at a predetermined temperature. The body of the exposure device comprises: the lighting optical system 2 comprising an optical integrator for leveling the illuminance distribution of exposure light, a condenser lens system, etc.; the reticle stage 4 for holding and aligning the reticle 3 as a mask; the projective optical system 5 ; the wafer holder 7 for holding the wafer 6 to be exposed; and the wafer stage 8 for three-dimensionally aligning the wafer 6 (the wafer holder 7 ). An exposure light source can be a mercury lamp, a laser light such as an excimer laser light, etc. The exposure light source can be stored in the lighting optical system 2 . According to the present embodiment, an excimer laser light is used as the exposure light source. As described later, the excimer laser light source is mounted under the floor of the chamber 1 . The wafer stage 8 is mounted on the chamber 1 through the frame material 9 . During the exposure, a reduced image of the pattern formed by the reticle 3 is sequentially transferred to each of the shot areas of the wafer 6 through the projective optical system 5 in the step and repeat system. Thus, the exposure apparatus according to the present embodiment is operated in the stepper system, however, the present invention can also be applied when a projective exposure apparatus, etc. in the step and scan system is used as an exposure apparatus. As disclosed by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,118, the wafer stage 8 is not mounted on the floor of the chamber 1 , but the chamber 1 comprises walls and a ceiling, and the wafer stage 8 can be mounted directly on the floor F 1 of the factory through the frame material 9 . Thus, the reaction force generated by the movement of the wafer stage 8 can be mechanically released into the floor F 1 . In addition, as disclosed by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,820, the reticle stage 4 can be mounted directly on the floor F 1 of the factory. Thus, the reaction force generated by the movement of the reticle stage 4 can be mechanically released into the floor F 1 . Since there are heating units such as the wafer stage 8 , etc. in the apparatus, the temperature in the constant temperature room 100 gradually rises with the accumulation of the heat in the airtight state. Therefore, a gas A 1 (air in the present embodiment) which is kept at a constant temperature and has passed from the filter room 22 b through the dust filter 21 such as a HEPA filter, etc. is constantly supplied into the constant temperature room 100 of the chamber 1 . The gas A 1 receives the heat from the heating units such as the lighting optical system 2 , the wafer stage 8 , etc., turns into a high-temperature gas A 2 , and is exhausted outside the constant temperature room 100 from the opening of the floor of the chamber 1 through an exhaust duct 17 . The temperature of the gas in the constant temperature room 100 can be maintained at a predetermined target temperature (for example, 21° C.) by the blow of a gas at a constant temperature (constant temperature blow). The exhaust duct 17 passes through the hole in the floor F 1 of the factory, and reaches the fluid supply device 11 mounted under the floor F 1 . According to the present invention, the fluid supply device 11 corresponds to a machinery room, and is mounted on a floor F 2 under the floor F 1 . That is, a cover 11 a of the fluid supply device 11 is mounted on the floor F 2 through vibration-proof pads 15 a and 15 b , and the exhaust duct 17 is led into the cover 11 a . A gas A 3 exhausted from the constant temperature room 100 is pressured by the pressure fan 12 in the cover 11 a of the fluid supply device 11 , and is cooled and dehumidified by the cooler 13 . Then, the temperature of the gas A 3 is adjusted by the heater 14 for a predetermined temperature (for example, 21° C. if the target temperature in the constant temperature room 100 is 21° C.), and the gas A 3 is then supplied to the blow duct 16 . The blow duct 16 passes through the hole in the floor F 1 above from the cover 11 a , and is led to the temperature control room 23 through the preliminary room 22 a. It is desired that the exhaust duct 17 and the blow duct 16 are made of elastic materials such as rubber, or shaped as bellows structures to prevent the vibration generated by the fluid supply device 11 from being transmitted to the floor F 1 . In addition, the exhaust duct 17 and the blow duct 16 are connected to the chamber 1 through the hole using an elastic material inserted between the hole and the duct. A temperature-controlled gas A 4 supplied from the blow duct 16 is transmitted to the chamber 1 through the hole in the floor F 1 above, and enters the temperature control room 23 . A part of a Peltier element 18 is provided as a temperature control element in the temperature control room 23 , and the temperature of the gas A 4 supplied from the blow duct 16 is correctly adjusted to the target temperature in the constant temperature room 100 using the Peltier element 18 . A gas A 5 completely maintained at a constant temperature is transmitted to the filter room 22 b , and into the constant temperature room 100 as the gas A 1 through the dust filter 21 in the filter room 22 b. A temperature sensor (thermometer) 19 is provided near the exhaust of the temperature control room 23 in the filter room 22 b to correctly adjust the temperature of the gas in the filter room 22 b and the constant temperature room 100 to the target temperature. The measurement value of the temperature sensor 19 is transmitted to a control system 20 , and the control system 20 controls the polarity and the intensity of the electric current to be transmitted to the Peltier element 18 depending on the measurement value of the temperature sensor 19 , thereby maintaining the temperature of the gas exhausted from the temperature control room 23 at the above described target temperature. The Peltier element 18 is mounted such that, for example, one end 18 a projects into the temperature control room 23 while the other end 18 b projects outside the chamber 1 . With the Peltier element 18 mounted as described above, the polarity (positive or negative) and the intensity (electric current value) of the electric current flowing through the Peltier element 18 can be controlled to exhaust the heat in the temperature control room 23 out of the chamber 1 , that is, to lower the temperature of the gas exhausted from the temperature control room 23 , and to take the heat outside the chamber 1 into the temperature control room 23 , that is to rise the temperature of the gas exhausted from the temperature control room 23 . Thus, according to the present embodiment, the temperature of the gas supplied to the constant temperature room 100 of the chamber 1 is finally controlled precisely at a target temperature. In this case, the temperature of the gas A 4 supplied to the temperature control room 23 in which the Peltier element 18 is mounted is preliminarily controlled by the fluid supply device 11 on the floor below. The pressure fan 12 and the cooler 13 in the fluid supply device 11 contain a compressor, a fan, and a motor with a high-level output, and large vibration sources. However, since these vibration sources are mounted on the floor F 2 below the floor F 1 on which the chamber 1 storing the body of the exposure device (the body of the exposure apparatus) is mounted, the vibration cannot have an influence on the body of the exposure device mounted on the floor F 1 above. In addition, in the exposure apparatus of the present embodiment, an exposure light source is mounted below the floor F 1 on which the chamber 1 is mounted. FIG. 4 shows the exposure light source of the exposure apparatus shown in FIG. 3 . In FIG. 4, a light source cover 35 a is provided through vibration-proof pads 36 a and 36 b on the floor F 2 below. An excimer laser light source 31 is provided as an exposure light source in the light source cover 35 a . During the exposure, the ultraviolet pulse light LB as an exposure light from the excimer laser light source 31 is reflected upward by a mirror 32 for refraction of a light path, and then input to a light path cover 17 A provided for the hole in the upper plate of the light source cover 35 a through an optical material 33 for matching used to horizontally adjust the light path. The light path cover 17 A reaches the constant temperature room 100 of the chamber 1 through the hole in the floor F 1 above. An ultraviolet pulse light LB led to the constant temperature room 100 through the light path cover 17 A is reflected by a mirror 34 of the body of the exposure device, input to the lighting optical system 2 , and then irradiated from the lighting optical system 2 to the reticle 3 . In this case, the excimer laser light source 31 is a heat source. However, since the heat source is mounted under the floor of the chamber 1 storing the body of the exposure device, the heat source has no influence on the body of the exposure device. In FIG. 3, the fluid supply device 11 on the floor F 2 is mounted such that it can be adjacent to the exposure light source. In addition, according to the present embodiment, vibration-proof pads 15 a and 15 b are provided between the cover 11 a of the fluid supply device 11 and the floor F 2 such that the vibration of the pressure fan 12 and the cooler 13 can be prevented from being transmitted through the floor F 2 and then reaching the exposure light source. Thus, the fluid supply device 11 and the exposure light source can be provided close to each other in parallel below the floor of the chamber 1 . According to the present embodiment, when the fluid supply device 11 is separate from the chamber 1 , the temperature fluctuation (overshoot, etc. generated by unstable control) can be caused by an offset generated between the temperature around the blow window of the heater 14 and the temperature measured by the temperature sensor 19 if the heater 14 in the fluid supply device 11 is feedback-controlled using the temperature measurement value (for example, a measurement value by the temperature sensor 19 ) in the chamber 1 . However, according to the present embodiment, since the Peltier element 18 is mounted immediately before the temperature sensor 19 in the chamber 1 in addition to the fluid supply device 11 having a large output capacity, the distance between the temperature sensor 19 and the Peltier element 18 is short, and the control delay time can be shortened, thereby causing no possibility that the final temperature of the gas becomes unstable during the temperature control. Furthermore, the temperature control element in the temperature control room 23 is not limited to the Peltier element 18 . For example, if the temperature control value of the gas A 4 is constantly set to the value lower than a target temperature by the heater 14 in the fluid supply device 11 amounted on the floor below the floor F 1 of the factory, then a heater which is formed by an electric heating line, etc. and has only the heating function can be used as a temperature control element in the temperature control room 23 . Any element described above can be adopted as a temperature control element without generating vibration during the operations, thereby the alignment precision or the contrast of a transferred image, etc. can be maintained at a high level. When the temperature control using the Peltier element 18 in the temperature control room 23 indicates the heating or radiation at a level equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the control system 20 transmits an instruction to the heater 14 in the fluid supply device 11 to change the temperature of the gas A 4 output from the heater 14 . Another aspect of the first embodiment of the present invention is described below by referring to FIG. 5 . The present embodiment can be designed by changing the configuration of the fluid supply device of the best mode of the present invention. In FIG. 5, the portion corresponding to that shown in FIG. 3 is assigned the same unit number, and the detailed explanation is omitted here. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the exposure apparatus according to the present aspect of the embodiment. In FIG. 5, the body of the exposure device is mounted in the constant temperature room 100 of the chamber 1 . The gas A 3 transmitted from the constant temperature room 100 to the fluid supply device 11 A through the exhaust duct 17 is compressed by the pressure fan 12 in the cover 11 a of the fluid supply device 11 A, cooled and dehumidified by the pressure fan 12 , branched into two gases A 3 a and A 3 b , and respectively transmitted to different heaters 14 a and 14 b such as electric heaters, etc. Thus, in the heaters 14 a and 14 b , the branched gases A 3 a and A 3 b are set to a little different temperatures based on the target temperature (for example, 21° C.) in the constant temperature room 100 . For example, the gas A 3 a is set to the temperature different from the target temperature by +0.05° C. in the heater 14 a , and is supplied as the gas A 4 a to a blow duct 16 a . On the other hand, the gas A 3 b is set to the temperature different from the target temperature by −0.05° C. in the heater 14 b , and is supplied as the gas A 4 b to a blow duct 16 b . The blow ducts 16 a and 16 b are led to a gas mixer 24 in temperature control room 23 provided at the ceiling of the chamber 1 from the cover 11 a through the hole made in the floor F 1 above, and through the preliminary room 22 a in the chamber 1 . According to the present aspect, the gas mixer 24 functions as a temperature control device. Temperature-controlled gases A 4 a and A 4 b provided for the blow ducts 16 a and 16 b are led to the chamber 1 in parallel through the hole in the floor F 1 , and transmitted to the gas mixer 24 in the temperature control room 23 . The gas mixer 24 generates the gas A 5 by mixing at a set mixing rate the two gases A 4 a and A 4 b different from each other in temperature, and transmits the gas A 5 to the filter room 22 b . At this time, unnecessary gases are returned to the pressure fan 12 from the gas mixer 24 through a duct not shown in the attached drawings. Also according to the present aspect of the embodiment, the temperature sensor 19 is mounted near the exhaust opening of the temperature control room 23 in the filter room 22 b . The measurement value of the temperature sensor 19 is transmitted to the control system 25 , and the control system 25 maintains the temperature of the gas A 5 to be supplied from the gas mixer 24 to the filter room 22 b at the above described target temperature by controlling the mixing rate between the gases A 4 a and A 4 b in the gas mixer 24 based on the measurement value of the temperature sensor 19 . At least one variable valve is provided in the gas mixer 24 , and the mechanical opening/closing operations of the valve change the mixing rate of the two gases A 4 a and A 4 b . However, the vibration from the mechanical operations is very low, and hardly transmits the vibration to the body of the exposure device in the constant temperature room 100 . Then, the gas A 5 completely set at a constant temperature by the gas mixer 24 is blown into the constant temperature room 100 again as the gas A 1 through the dust filter 21 in the filter room 22 b , and is maintained at the target temperature in the constant temperature room 100 . According to the present embodiment, the distance between the temperature sensor 19 and the gas mixer 24 is also short, and the control delay time can be shortened. As a result, there is no possibility that the temperature of the gas A 5 becomes unstable during the temperature control. In addition, according to the present aspect of the embodiment, the control system 25 transmits an instruction to the heaters 14 a and 14 b in the fluid supply device 11 A when the mixing rate of the gas mixer 24 is set such that one gas is constantly used more in quantity in order to change the temperature of the gases A 4 a and 14 b provided from the heaters 14 a and 14 b . That is, when only a large volume of a high-temperature gas is used, the temperature of the gas provided from both heaters 14 a and 14 b is made to rise. When only a large volume of a low-temperature gas is used, the temperature of the gas provided from both heaters 14 a and 14 b is made to drop. In the present embodiment, the mixing rate between the two gases 4 a and A 4 b is controlled to adjust the temperature of a provided gas as described above. However, the present invention is not limited to this application, but three or more gases can be mixed to adjust the temperature. Thus, the temperature can be adjusted with higher precision. Although the fluid supply devices 11 and 11 A are mounted on the floor below the floor F 1 of the factory in which the body of an exposure device is mounted according to the above described embodiments, the position on which the fluid supply devices 11 and 11 A are mounted is not limited to this designation, but can be mounted on the floor above the floor on which the chamber 1 is mounted in the factory, can be mounted at separate positions on the same floor, or the fluid supply devices 11 and 11 A can be independently mounted in the chamber 1 . However, when the fluid supply devices 11 and 11 A are mounted on the same floor as the chamber 1 , it is necessary to keep a distance long enough to attenuate the vibration transmitted between them, or to provide a vibration-proof pad between the fluid supply device and the floor F 1 . It is desired that the distance is long enough to attenuate the vibration of the fluid supply device 11 in the chamber 1 by at least 25% (6 dB) of the original vibration. However, since the distance depends on various elements such as the material of the floor, the building structure, etc., it should be obtained with all elements taken into account when the fluid supply device 11 is mounted. The chamber 1 and the fluid supply device 11 can be mounted close to each other by providing a vibration-proof pad between the chamber 1 and the fluid supply device 11 , and the floor F 1 , forming the blow duct 16 or the exhaust duct 17 connected to the chamber 1 and the fluid supply device 11 with the material having a vibration-proof function (for example, rubber), or by designing a structure having a vibration-proof function (for example, a bellows structure). Furthermore, any one of the fluid supply devices 11 and 11 A can supply a gas for a constant temperature to a plurality of exposure apparatuses. In addition, the gas to be supplied from the fluid supply devices 11 and 11 A to the chamber 1 is not limited to air. For example, it can be a nitrogen gas, a helium gas, etc. In the descriptions above, the fluid to be supplied to the chamber 1 is a gas, but a liquid can be used for a constant temperature in the recent exposure apparatuses. Therefore, in the exposure apparatus described above, a predetermined liquid is set at a constant temperature in a fluid supply device located separate from the chamber 1 , led into the chamber 1 , and then the temperature is slightly amended as described above in each of the embodiments of the present invention. Otherwise, in an external fluid supply device, two kinds of liquids are generated as set at respective constant temperatures, and mixed in the chamber 1 to generate a liquid of a constant temperature so that the constant-temperature liquid can be used for adjusting the temperature of a local area of the exposure apparatus. FIG. 6 shows the configuration of the exposure apparatus according to the second aspect of the present embodiment. In the present aspect, a liquid is used as a fluid for temperature control to temperature-control the projective optical system 5 which is one of the local areas of the exposure apparatus. In FIG. 6, the portion corresponding to that shown in FIG. 3 is assigned the same unit number in explaining the system in detail. In FIG. 6, the body of the exposure device having the projective optical system 5 , etc. is mounted in the constant temperature room 100 . Round the projective optical system 5 , a temperature control pipe 48 through which a liquid for temperature control is spirally arranged, and the liquid flowing inside the pipe is temperature-controlled, thereby temperature-controlling the projective optical system 5 . For example, the water which is a liquid whose temperature is adjusted to control the projective optical system 5 at a constant temperature flows in a water supply pipe 46 , and is led to the constant temperature room 100 of the chamber 1 by a compressor 41 and a main temperature controller 42 in the fluid supply device 11 B mounted on the floor F 2 below the floor F 1 on which the chamber 1 is mounted. A temperature sub-controller 43 mounted in the constant temperature room 100 re-adjusts the water temperature which has slightly changed while the water flows through the water supply pipe 46 . The temperature adjustment by the temperature sub-controller 43 is different in small temperature adjustment from the temperature adjustment by the fluid supply device 11 B for adjusting the water temperature which may have largely changed. Therefore, the vibration can be generated by the fluid supply device 11 B while a vibration is hardly transmitted during the temperature adjustment by the temperature sub-controller 43 . The water whose temperature is adjusted by the temperature sub-controller 43 controls the projective optical system 5 at a constant temperature while it flows through the spiral temperature control pipe 48 mounted round the projective optical system 5 . After controlling the temperature of the projective optical system 5 , the water returns to the fluid supply device 11 B through a water supply pipe 47 , and repeats the above described temperature control. As described above, the present invention is applicable to the temperature control using a gas or a liquid. The fluid supply device 11 using each medium is 11 A and 11 B as individually described above. However, according to the present invention, the temperatures of both gas and liquid can be controlled using a fluid supply device. In this case, the area (footprint) required for an exposure apparatus can be reduced, thereby unifying a vibration source, and reducing the transmission of a vibration to the chamber. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any aspect of the above described embodiments, but can be used with various configurations within the scope of the gist of the present invention. According to the temperature control method, the temperature in a chamber can be controlled by controlling the temperature of the fluid transmitted between a fluid supply device and the chamber. Since there are no temperature control units generating a vibration, the deterioration in alignment precision of the body of the exposure device caused by the vibration during the temperature control, and the deterioration in the contrast of a transferred image can be successfully reduced. Then, according to the first exposure apparatus, the temperature control method according to the present invention can be almost completely used. In addition, when a temperature control device for controlling the temperature of a fluid output from the fluid supply device, and transmitting it into the chamber is provided so that the temperature in the chamber can be controlled at a predetermined temperature, the final temperature of the fluid input to the chamber is not controlled by a separately mounted fluid supply device, but by a temperature control device provided actually close to the chamber. Therefore, although the fluid supply device is separate from the chamber, the temperature in the chamber, or the temperature of the fluid used in the chamber can be constantly maintained with high precision. Furthermore, since the temperature control device for controlling the temperature in the chamber is mounted outside the chamber, the floor area (footprint) required to mount a chamber (body of the exposure device) can be reduced, and a larger number of exposure apparatuses can be provided in the same area of a factory. In addition, when the fluid supply device comprises a fluid supply device for controlling the temperature of a fluid, the fluid supply device roughly and preliminarily controls the temperature of the fluid. Therefore, the amount of control of the temperature by the temperature control device can be mostly suppressed. As a result, the temperature control device can be a temperature control element without a vibration source such as a Peltier element, a heater, etc., the influence of a vibration on the chamber can be furthermore reduced. Additionally, when the fluid supply device outputs a plurality of fluids at different temperatures, and the temperature control device mixes the plural fluids at a predetermined rate, the amount of the heat generated during the temperature control can be reduced. In addition, if a detector for detecting the temperature of the fluid controlled by the temperature control device is additionally provided, and at least one of the temperature control device and the fluid supply device controls the temperature of the fluid based on the detection result from the detector, then the temperature in the chamber can be controlled with high precision based on the actual temperature in the chamber. When the fluid supply device is mounted on a floor different from the floor on which the chamber is mounted, the vibration generated by the fluid supply device is not transmitted into the chamber. When the fluid supply device is mounted such that the vibration of the fluid supply device cannot be transmitted to the body of the exposure device, the alignment precision, etc. of the body of the exposure device can be furthermore improved. According to the second embodiment of the exposure apparatus of the present invention, the temperature control method of the present invention can be used. In addition, since a larger part of the temperature control device for controlling the temperature in the chamber is moved outside the chamber, the floor area (footprint) required to mount a chamber (body of the exposure device) can be reduced, and a larger number of exposure apparatuses can be mounted in the same area of a factory.

An exposure system includes a chamber and first and second temperature control units. The chamber contains a body of an exposure apparatus which forms a pattern on a substrate. The firs temperature control unit is mounted separate from the body of the exposure apparatus, and controls a temperature of a fluid taken through the body of the exposure apparatus. The second temperature control units is arranged between the body of the exposure apparatus and the first temperature control unit, and controls the temperature of the fluid taken through the first temperature control unit. The second temperature control unit also supplies the fluid to the body of the exposure apparatus. The ability of the second temperature control unit is designed differently from the ability of the first temperature control unit in terms of a magnitude of a temperature range within which the temperature of the fluid changes.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This applications is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/014,968, filed Jan. 27, 2011, for Multielectrode Integration in a Visual Prosthesis, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 61/298,836, filed Jan. 28, 2010, for Multielectrode Integration in a Visual Prosthesis, which is incorporated by reference. GOVERNMENT RIGHTS NOTICE [0002] This invention was made with government support under grant No. R24EY12893-01, awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The government has certain rights in the invention. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention relates to visual prosthesis, and more particularly to apparatus and methods to compensate for integration of stimulation between geographically close electrodes. BACKGROUND [0004] Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are photoreceptor diseases that cause substantial vision loss and lead to subsequent blindness in over 15 million people worldwide. After the loss of the photoreceptor layer, the spatial organization of the inner nuclear and ganglion cell layers can become disorganized and inner nuclear and ganglion cell layers begin to thin. However, the inner nuclear and ganglion cell layers maintain relatively high cell density and some functional circuitry remains. These findings of residual function within the inner layers of the retina have inspired a variety of research focused on sight restoration technologies that interface with remaining retinal cells. [0005] A great deal of progress has been made in treating one type of RP (i.e., Leber's Congenital Amaurosis; RPE65 mutation) using a gene replacement therapy. However, current gene therapies focused on restoring function within photoreceptors necessarily require the maintenance of photoreceptors and are specific to a single gene mutation gene mutation. This limits the utility of this approach for many types of RP since photoreceptor cells generally die off as a function of the disease process, and the genetics of RP is highly heterogeneous. Over 180 different gene mutations have been positively identified as being involved with photoreceptor disease and this number is likely an underestimate. One recent estimate is that there are likely to be over 400 gene mutations associated with photoreceptor disease. [0006] A second approach to treatment is genetically targeting bipolar and/or ganglion cells with engineered photo-gates or light-sensitive proteins such as channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), which has the advantage of not needing to be specific to a given gene mutation. Still, ChR2 activation requires light stimulation levels that are 5 orders of magnitude greater than the threshold of cone photoreceptors and has a substantially limited dynamic range (2 log units). An ideal therapy would be able to treat blindness independent of the genetic mutation, in the absence of photoreceptors, and with reasonable response sensitivity. [0007] One typical application of neural tissue stimulation is in the rehabilitation of the blind. Some forms of blindness involve selective loss of the light sensitive transducers of the retina. Other retinal neurons remain viable, however, and may be activated in the manner described above by placement of a prosthetic electrode device on the inner (toward the vitreous) retinal surface (epiretinal). This placement must be mechanically stable, minimize the distance between the device electrodes and the visual neurons, and avoid undue compression of the visual neurons. [0008] In 1986, Bullara (U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,481) patented an electrode assembly for surgical implantation on a nerve. The matrix was silicone with embedded iridium electrodes. The assembly fit around a nerve to stimulate it. [0009] Dawson and Radtke stimulated cat's retina by direct electrical stimulation of the retinal ganglion cell layer. These experimenters placed nine and then fourteen electrodes upon the inner retinal layer (i.e., primarily the ganglion cell layer) of two cats. Their experiments suggested that electrical stimulation of the retina with 30 to 100 uA current resulted in visual cortical responses. These experiments were carried out with needle-shaped electrodes that penetrated the surface of the retina (see also U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,933 to Michelson). [0010] The Michelson '933 apparatus includes an array of photosensitive devices on its surface that are connected to a plurality of electrodes positioned on the opposite surface of the device to stimulate the retina. These electrodes are disposed to form an array similar to a “bed of nails” having conductors which impinge directly on the retina to stimulate the retinal cells. U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,049 to Byers describes spike electrodes for neural stimulation. Each spike electrode pierces neural tissue for better electrical contact. U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,088 to Norman describes an array of spike electrodes for cortical stimulation. Each spike pierces cortical tissue for better electrical contact. [0011] The art of implanting an intraocular prosthetic device to electrically stimulate the retina was advanced with the introduction of retinal tacks in retinal surgery. De Juan, et al. at Duke University Eye Center inserted retinal tacks into retinas in an effort to reattach retinas that had detached from the underlying choroid, which is the source of blood supply for the outer retina and thus the photoreceptors. See, e.g., E. de Juan, et al., 99 Am. J. Ophthalmol. 272 (1985). These retinal tacks have proved to be biocompatible and remain embedded in the retina, and choroid/sclera, effectively pinning the retina against the choroid and the posterior aspects of the globe. Humayun, U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,155 describes the use of retinal tacks to attach a retinal array to the retina. Alternatively, an electrode array may be attached by magnets or glue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,844 to de Juan describes a flat electrode array placed against the retina for visual stimulation. [0012] Any device for stimulating percepts in the retina must receive a signal describing a visual image along with power to operate the device. The device can not be powered by wires as any connection through the skin will create the risk of infection. Battery power is not practical as batteries are bulky and surgery is required to replace them. Such signal and power may be transmitted into the eye inductively as shown in Humayun U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,155. Humayun uses a primary (external) coil in front of the eye, possibly encased within the rim of a pair of glasses, and a secondary (internal) coil within the lens capsule or around the sclera just under the conjunctiva. Implanting within the lens capsule is difficult surgery and only allows for a small diameter coil. Larger coils are more efficient, can receive more power with less resulting temperature rise per unit of power received. Implanting around the sclera under the conjunctiva and near the surgical limbus (that is at the front of the eye) allows for a larger coil but may cause irritation or damage to the conjunctiva if the coil is placed in front near the cornea. [0013] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/761,270, Ok, discloses several coil configurations including a configuration where the coil is offset about 45 degrees from the front of the eye. The offset configuration allows the primary and secondary coils to be placed closer together allowing for better inductive coupling. The bridge of nose partially blocks placement of a primary coil when placed directly in front of the eye. [0014] A better configuration is needed allowing for close physical spacing of relatively large primary and secondary coils, without causing physical damages such as erosion of the conjunctiva. [0015] Several groups have recently developed microelectronic retinal prostheses with the ultimate goal of restoring vision in blind subjects by stimulating the remaining retinal cells with spatiotemporal sequences of electrical pulses. Analogous to cochlear implants, these devices are designed to directly stimulate remaining retinal neurons with pulsing electrical current. To date, both semi-acute and long-term implanted devices have been demonstrated to be safe and capable of generating visual percepts in human subjects. Note, however, that only the Second Sight Argus trials have thus far allowed use of the system outside of the clinic in subject's daily lives. The ultimate goal of these projects is to generate useful vision in blind patients by presenting a spatial and temporal sequence of electrical pulses that represent meaningful visual information, such as a continuous video stream that uses electrical pulses rather than pixels. [0016] Here we examine how systematic variations in spatiotemporal patterns of multi-electrode retinal stimulation influence the perceived brightness in our prosthesis patients. It is well known that for cochlear implants the precise timing of stimulation across electrodes has perceptual consequences as a result of both electrical field. However, to date, only limited data have been reported examining how electrodes interact during spatiotemporal stimulation in the retina. Earlier work from our group demonstrated significant interactions between pairs of electrodes, even when they are stimulated non-simultaneously. Here we systematically examined how these interactions affect perceived brightness and we present a simple computational model that describes these data. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0017] The present invention is a method of stimulating visual neurons to create the perception of light. A visual prosthesis electrically stimulating the retina with implanted electrodes exhibits interaction between electrodes stimulated closely together in both space and time. The method of the present invention includes determining a minimum distance at which spatiotemporal interactions occur, determining a minimum time at which spatiotemporal interactions occur, and avoiding stimulation of electrodes within the minimum distance during the minimum time. The minimum are ideally established for each individual patient. Alternatively, approximate minimums have been established by the applicants at 2 mm and 1.8 milliseconds. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0018] FIG. 1A depicts a pulse train for neural stimulation [0019] FIG. 1B depicts phase shifted pulse trains for neural stimulation. [0020] FIG. 2 depicts a graph of theoretical fit models. [0021] FIG. 3A is a graph depicting charge required to match the brightness of the standard stimulus, each curve representing a different phase sift for a first set of electrodes. [0022] FIG. 3B is a graph depicting charge required to match the brightness of the standard stimulus, each curve representing a different phase sift for a second set of electrodes. [0023] FIG. 3C is a graph depicting charge required to match the brightness of the standard stimulus, each curve representing a different phase sift for a third set of electrodes. [0024] FIG. 3D is a graph depicting charge required to match the brightness of the standard stimulus, each curve representing a different phase sift for a fourth set of electrodes. [0025] FIG. 4 a and FIG. 4 b (Table 1) form a data table of phase shift effects both theoretical and measured. [0026] FIG. 5 is a pair of graphs depicting data and model fits for electrode pairs separated by 1600 and 2400 μm. [0027] FIG. 6 (table 2) Parameter values for model fits of the various 1600 and 2400 μm separated electrode pairs. [0028] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the implanted portion of the preferred visual prosthesis. [0029] FIG. 8 is a side view of the implanted portion of the preferred visual prosthesis showing the strap fan tail in more detail. [0030] FIG. 9 shows the components of a visual prosthesis fitting system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0031] Methods: [0032] Subjects compared the brightness of a standard stimulus (where pulse trains across pairs of electrodes were synchronously presented) to the brightness of test stimuli (where pulse trains were phase-shifted by 0.075, 0.375, 1.8, or 9 ms). We measured the amount of total charge for each phase-shifted stimulus needed to make the test and the standard of equal brightness. [0033] Results: [0034] Depending on the electrode pair, interactions between electrodes could be either facilitatory (the amount of charge need to match the brightness of the standard summed across electrodes) or suppressive (more charge was needed to match the brightness of the standard than would be required for either individual electrode alone). Data were fit with a simple, 2-parameter model. The amount of interaction between electrodes decreased both as a function of increasing time (phase-shift between pulse trains) and space (center-to-center distance between the electrode pair). [0035] Conclusions: [0036] During multi-electrode stimulation, interactions between electrodes have a significant influence on subjective brightness that can be either facilitatory or suppressive. These interactions can be described using a simple computational model that has provided some insight into the underlying electrical and neural mechanisms responsible for spatiotemporal integration during multi-electrode stimulation of the human retina. Materials & Methods [0037] Referring to FIG. 1 Stimuli were programmed using Matlab® on a PC, which then communicated parameters to an external Visual Processing Unit (see FIG. 9 ). Power and signal information could be independently controlled for each electrode. In FIG. 1A (Pulse train) stimulation on each electrode was a 50 Hz pulse train that was 500 ms in duration. Unless otherwise noted, the cathodic and anodic phases or each biphasic pulse was 0.45 ms in duration, with a 0.45 ms interphase delay. In FIG. 1B (Brightness matching task) subjects compared the brightness of a standard ( 1 ) and test ( 2 ) stimulus. The timing of pulses across the two electrodes was time-synched (phase-shifted by 0 ms) in the case of the standard. The test stimulus was identical to the standard except there was a phase-shift between pulses across electrodes. [0038] To develop the experimental data, subjects were implanted, epiretinally, with an array of disk electrodes in the macular region. Electrodes were either 260 or 520 micrometers (μm) in diameter, arranged in an alternating checkerboard pattern with 800 μm center-to-center separation between each electrode. Psychophysical Methods [0039] All pulse waveforms consisted of biphasic, cathodic-first, charge-balanced square wave pulses, presented as trains of pulses ( FIG. 1A ). For safety reasons, all individual pulses within a pulse train were charge-balanced. Here, we used cathodic and anodic pulses of equal width (0.45 ms, unless otherwise noted), with the cathodic phase presented first. Each biphasic pulse within the pulse train contained a 0.45 ms interphase delay between cathodic and anodic phases. Pulse trains were 500 ms in duration at a rate of 50 Hz. All stimuli were presented in photopic conditions. Subjective Brightness Matching During Paired-Electrode Stimulation. [0040] Subjective brightness matching was carried out within a given electrode pair using a two-interval, forced-choice procedure. Each trial contained two temporal intervals. One interval always contained synchronized pulse trains across the pair of electrodes. The amplitudes of these synchronized pulse trains were set to 1.5, 2, 2.5, or 3 times the perceptual threshold of each electrode in the pair. [0041] The other interval contained pulse trains that were phase-shifted by 0.075, 0.375, 1.8, or 9 ms. At our stimulation frequency (50 Hz), a 9 ins phase-shift resulted in perfectly interleaved pulses across a pair electrodes, as shown in FIG. 1B ). The order of presentation of the two temporal intervals was randomized, and subjects were asked to report which interval contained the brighter stimulus. In most conditions pulse trains were presented on both electrodes in the pair. A one-up, one-down staircase method was used to adjust the amplitude of the phase-shifted pulse trains based on the observer's response. For example, if the observer responded that the test phase-shifted stimulus was brighter than the standard time-synched stimulus, the amplitude of the phase-shifted pulse trains was decreased by a fixed amount of charge. Depending on the condition, the increase or decrease in charge was applied to both electrodes in the pair or to only one of the two electrodes. We also compared the brightness of the standard time-synched electrode pair to test stimuli consisting of just one of the two electrodes in the pair. [0042] Each brightness match was based on a minimum of 100 trials. A cumulative normal was used to find the point of subjective equibrightness, and error bars were estimated using an adaptive sampling Monte-Carlo simulation. Each individual psychometric function was inspected to make sure that an adequate fit was obtained, and data was recollected if fits were inadequate (based either on the estimated error or visual inspection). Stimulus Set. [0043] Referring to FIGS. 3A-3D , data for electrodes separated by 800 μm was collected on a total of 13 electrode pairs across subjects. 4 and 3 electrode pairs were measured for electrodes separated by 1600 and 2400 μm distances, respectively. The results are shown in table 1, FIGS. 4 a and 4 b. [0044] The only criterion used to choose the electrode pairs used in these experiments was that single pulse thresholds were relatively low on both electrodes in the pair. This allowed us to collect suprathreshold data across a range of brightness levels while remaining within charge safety limits. Given this constraint, electrodes were then chosen that were distributed as evenly as possible across the array. [0045] For each phase-shift, we measured the current necessary to match the brightness of a standard pulse consisting of pulses presented simultaneously on E1-E2. Five different test stimuli were used: 1) E1 only, 2) E2 held fixed and E1 adjusted, 3) E1 and E2 adjusted simultaneously, 4) E1 held fixed and E2 adjusted, and 5) E2 only. The obtained amplitude values for electrodes E1 and E2 at the point of brightness match were normalized by the amplitude required to match the brightness of the test stimulus using only the E1 or E2 electrode, respectively. Example data sets are shown in FIGS. 3A-3D . The data presented here represent testing sessions that occurred on roughly a weekly basis (˜3 hours per session) over the course of 2 years. [0046] Model of Spatiotemporal Integration [0047] Data were fit using the following model: [0000] B τ =E 1 β +E 2 β +γ τ E 1 E 2   eq. 1 [0000] where B τ is the brightness of the percept generated by the given stimulation pattern on the electrode pair, i represents the delay in stimulation between the two pulses, and E 1 and E 2 are the normalized current amplitudes on each of the two electrodes in the pair (charge needed to match the brightness of the standard divided by the charge needed to match the brightness of the standard using E 1 or E 2 alone). The free parameter γ τ can be thought of as representing the mutual interaction between E 1 and E 2 . β can be thought of as representing the nonlinear increase in brightness as a function of the amount of current for electrodes E 1 and E 2 . [0048] FIG. 2 (A) Theoretical model outputs. The data above is theoretical and is an example of how the model output varied as a function of the parameters γ and β. The lines represent model fits using a range of parameters. [0049] FIG. 2 illustrates example model fits. The x and y axes represents normalized charge for electrodes E1 and E2, and each line represents model fits for six different parameter values of γ and β. The solid black curve represents the simplest case, linear integration, or perfect summation (β=1 and γ=0). In this case apparent brightness sums linearly across both electrodes in the pair. The gray dashed-dot curve is an example of perfect independence where brightness is essentially determined by whichever of the two electrodes appears brightest. Note that, since the values of E1 and E2 are always less than or equal to 1, the interaction term γ τ has very little effect on the final output when β is large. The red, green and blue lines represent three intermediate conditions. The red line represents β=3.5, γ=0, the green line represents β=2, γ=0, and the blue line represents β=3.5, γ=1. Note that the effect of increasing the interaction between the two electrodes is very similar to reducing the value of β. The dashed gray curve represents an example of mutual suppression between electrodes (β=3.5, γ=−1.0) resulting in a bowing out of the curve beyond the boundary of x<=1, y<=1. In other words the amount of current needed to match the brightness of the standard is greater than is required for either electrode stimulated in isolation. [0050] When fitting data we treated all four delays as part of the same data set. For each delay we generally collected three data points. With the end-points (which were constrained to fall on x=1, y=0 and y=0, x=1), this meant that there were in total 12 data points within each data set. [0051] Our assumption was that β can be thought to represent the nonlinear increase in brightness as a function of the amount of current and γ represents mutual interaction between electrodes. As described above, changes in γ and β trade off against each other in “bowing” the curves. This meant that, if γ and β were fit simultaneously the model was under-constrained—while we obtained a fairly well-defined curve representing changes in γ as a function of delay for each electrode pair, our function minimization procedure tended to converge on a fairly arbitrary value of beta which was compensated for by an absolute shift across all the obtained γ values. We therefore held β fixed at a value of 3.5 for all delays. This fitting process resulted in a model with 4 free parameters Results [0052] Subjects typically reported that phosphenes appeared white or yellow in color, and were round or oval in shape. At suprathreshold, percepts were reported as brighter and the perceived shape occasionally became more complex than a simple circle or oval. For single electrode stimulation, shapes were reported as being approximately 0.5-2 inches in diameter at arm's length, corresponding to roughly 1-3 degrees of visual angle. [0053] When stimulation was presented on electrode pairs, the percept was generally of a larger area of relatively uniform brightness which was reported to appear to be approximately 2-4 inches in length or width at arm's length, corresponding to roughly 3-6° of visual angle. Occasionally, a dark percept rather than a white or yellow percept was reported. In this case, the patient would use the relative contrast of the percept for subjective brightness comparison. We did not see any systematic differences in threshold or slopes of the brightness matching psychometric functions between light or dark percepts. The complexity of the stimulus was greater than with single electrodes: generally consisting of multiple phosphenes. It should be noted that these phosphene patterns did not necessarily align with the map of activated electrodes: i.e. the percept elicited by a 2×2 array of activated electrodes did not necessarily map neatly onto a 2×2 array of visual percepts in the expected location in space. Synchronous, pseudo-synchronous, and asynchronous stimuli were generally perceived as spatially identical, and only differed in perceived temporal properties (i.e. flicker) for the relative low pulse frequency of 20 Hz, which, as reported earlier, is likely to be near subjects' limit for perceivable flicker. [0054] In the brightness matching task, subjects were asked to ignore all aspects of the percept other than brightness/contrast. As described above, percepts could either be single or multi-phosphene percepts. In multi-phosphene percepts, subjects were asked to average the brightness across all phosphenes. The obtained psychometric functions for these brightness matches suggest that subjects were able to perform the task quite easily. Subjective Brightness and Pulse Timing Across Electrodes [0055] Referring to FIGS. 3A-3D , normalized charge required to match the brightness of the standard stimulus. Each curve represents a different phase-shift in the test stimuli. All electrodes shown here are separated by 800 μm. The data points plotted for 0.075, 0.375, 1.8, and 9.0 ms phase-shifts are represented by black, dark gray, medium gray, and light gray circles, respectively. Model fits for each of the different phase-shifts are solid, dash-dotted, dashed, and dotted lines of the same color. (A-B) Two electrode pairs are shown. Gamma values (γ are plotted (inset) as a function of phase-shift for each model fit. As shown in FIGS. 3A-3D , interactions varied considerably across electrode pairs: here we show examples of different kinds of interaction. [0056] Generally, the amount of charge required to match the brightness of the standard increased as a function of phase-shift, as represented by the curves “bowing out” further from the line x=y as a function of phase-shift in Panels A and B. [0057] The inset graphs of each panel represent γ as a function of phase-shift. As described above, γ and β trade off against each other in “bowing” the curves. With β fixed at a value of 3.5, we found that values of γ decreased as a function of delay (See FIGS. 3 and 4 insets), though curves shifted up or down the y-axis depending on the electrode pair. The drop in γ as a function of delay suggests a general progression from facilitatory interactions towards independence as a function of delay. In some electrode pairs, longer delays led to suppressive interactions as represented by negative values of gamma (and the curves describing interactions between electrodes bowing out beyond x=1, y=1). [0058] The curve for the 0.075 phase-shift generally overlapped the data point representing the standard stimulus (where the pulses were presented simultaneously). There was also little difference in the curves representing 1.8 and 9 ms phase shifts, suggesting that the interactions between electrodes within this dataset begin to asymptote by 1.8 ms. [0059] It might be expected that, since the size of the current field increases as a function of increasing current amplitude, there might be an increase in the spatiotemporal interactions at higher amplitudes (or for stimuli which were further above threshold). An increase in spatiotemporal integration would be thought to result in higher values of γ. However, we found no effect of pulse amplitude on spatiotemporal integration. Similar integration values were found for stimuli at threshold, 1.5× threshold, and 2-3× threshold. There was no statistical difference between these 3 different conditions using a two-way ANOVA (electrode x condition, p>0.05). On 4 pairs of electrodes, we tested all three conditions (threshold, 1.5×, 2×, and 3× threshold). When we limited our statistical analysis to those electrodes (paired single tailed t-test, p>0.05) we still found that interactions were no larger for stimuli that were further above threshold. [0060] Referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B (Table 1), parameter values for model fits for all electrode pairs. Column 1 is the subject being evaluated, Column 2 shows the brightness of the standard and the electrode distance. Column 3 lists the electrodes being evaluated. Column 4 lists the phase-shift. Column 5 and 6 are the γ and β parameter values. Column 8 shows the error values of the model fits. [0061] Referring to FIG. 5 , normalized charge to maintain equibrightness as a function of phase-shift between pulses across 1600 and 2400 pun separated electrodes. The data points plotted for 0.075, 0.375, 1.8, and 9.0 ms phase-shifts are represented by black, dark gray, medium gray, and light gray circles, respectively. The model fits for each of the different phase-shifts are solid, dash-dotted, dashed, and dotted lines of the same color. (A) One electrode pair for subject S 06 at 1600 μm. (B) One electrode pair for subject S 06 at 2400 μm separation. Gamma values (γ are plotted (inset) as a function of phase-shift for each model fit. [0062] FIG. 5 shows data and model fits for electrode pairs separated by 1600 and 2400 μm. We fit these data with same model as was used for the 800 μm separated data. Two example electrode pairs (one at 1600 and the other at 2400 μm separation). The values of the parameter γ are plotted in the inset graphs as a function of phase-shift in each 1600 and 2400 μm separated condition. The parameter values for the 1600 and 2400 μM separated electrodes are reported in FIG. 6 (Table 2). [0063] Referring to FIG. 6 (Table 2), parameter values for model fits of the various 1600 and 2400 μm separated electrode pairs. Column 1 is the subject being evaluated, including the theoretical data plotted in FIG. 2 . Column 2 is the distance between the electrode pairs being evaluated. Column 3 & 4 are the electrodes being evaluated. Column 5 is the phase-shift. Column 6 and 7 are the γ and β parameter values. Column 8 is the error value of the model fits. [0064] Earlier work of ours demonstrated significant interactions between pairs of electrodes, even when stimulated non-simultaneously. Here we examined how these interactions affect perceived brightness. We measured the perceptual change in brightness as a function of the temporal separation between suprathreshold electrical pulses across pairs of electrodes. [0065] The data described here demonstrate that when more than one electrode is stimulated over time, the percept that is generated is not independent from neighboring electrodes. Even when electric fields are not overlapping in time, there are still neural spatiotemporal mechanisms of integration. In this data set the effects of these interactions only seem to begin to asymptote when pulses are separated by approximately 1.8 ms. This time course is compatible with a number of physiological substrates. One possibility is that local differences in brightness are mediated by neural populations that lie between, and receiving stimulation from, more than one electrode. Such neural populations would integrate information from both pulse trains. Previously, we carried out multiple experiments and found no reason to assume that any other factor played a major role in determining spatiotemporal interactions. [0066] As with the data presented earlier, we found that spatiotemporal interactions decreased with electrode separation. However we did find some interactions even between electrodes separated by more than 2 mm on the retina. The electrodes in our display differ in their height from the retinal surface, which presumably means that the extent of current spread on the retinal surface is different across electrodes. [0067] Another possibility is that these long-range interactions are mediated by lateral connections in the retina. Recent evidence suggests very fine temporal sensitivity within lateral connections mediated by wide-field amacrine cells. These connections can span up to many millimeters within the retina. These connections therefore have the spatial and temporal qualities that would be required to influence our subjects' ability to discriminate between patterns differentiated by extremely fine temporal information across relatively wide regions of space within the retina. [0068] Finally, it is possible that these interactions may be mediated by cortical sensitivity to precise timing patterns across space. Stimulation using extremely short pulses (−0.1 ms) results in precise single spikes within ganglion cells that are phase-locked to the pulses with a precision of <0.7 ins, and presynaptic-driven spiking is abolished with stimulation frequencies above 10 Hz. If this precise timing information is passed from retina to cortex, as suggested by data showing behavioral adaptation to very high temporal frequencies, it is possible that the sensitivity to pulse timing across electrodes is the result of a cortical mechanism sensitive to spatiotemporal firing patterns originating in the retina. [0069] Modeling percepts would be much more computationally simple if the brightness of percepts did not interact nonlinearly across electrodes. However, the interactions described here do offer the potential for significant perceptual flexibility. Simply by altering the relative timing of stimulation, it is possible to vary the brightness elicited by a pair of electrodes. [0070] While interactions between electrodes were generally facilitatory at short phase delays, and became more independent, or even suppressive, at longer phase delays, there was significant variability across electrode pairs. The reason for this variability is not clear: we saw no clear relationship between the spatiotemporal interactions described here and electrode to tissue distances or the position of electrode pairs with respect to the macula, though our dataset was limited, and cannot exclude the possibility these two factors might play a role. Other possible sources of this variation between electrode pairs might include inhomogeneities in retinal rewiring or degeneration across the retinal surface. [0071] Although this variation across electrode pairs means that working out what factors impact spatiotemporal interactions across electrodes is likely to be a major concern for retinal prosthesis development, it should be noted that we were able to create a model to represent these interactions which required relatively few free parameters per electrode pair. Indeed, for a given overall brightness level (across both electrodes) and phase-delay, interactions can be described using a single free parameter. Although it is certainly the case that the model fits described here can be improved upon with more complex models, the simplicity of our model has the advantage that it would require a relatively small amount of data to be collected to estimate the necessary parameters—indeed for a fixed phase shift and brightness level only a single measurement would be necessary. As a result, simple ‘approximation models’ such as that described here may be of more practical use when designing stimulation protocols that involve multi-electrode arrays than more complex models. Given earlier work by our group showing that apparent brightness can be described as a power function of stimulation intensity it is likely that such models will extend relatively straightforwardly towards describing spatiotemporal interactions across multiple brightness levels. [0072] Previous studies on these patients by our group has demonstrated that it is possible to model perceived brightness as a function of electrical stimulation on a single electrode across a wide variety of timing configurations. The model described here is a further step towards showing that it should be possible to predict the perceived brightness for different regions of an array of percepts generated by a two-dimensional electrode array with relatively simple models. Such models are of course necessary to accurately represent a visual scene is that is constantly changing both in space and time. [0073] FIGS. 7 and 8 present the general structure of a visual prosthesis used in implementing the invention. [0074] FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of the implanted portion of the preferred visual prosthesis. A flexible circuit 1 includes a flexible circuit electrode array 10 which is mounted by a retinal tack (not shown) or similar means to the epiretinal surface. The flexible circuit electrode array 10 is electrically coupled by a flexible circuit cable 12 , which pierces the sclera and is electrically coupled to an electronics package 14 , external to the sclera. [0075] The electronics package 14 is electrically coupled to a secondary inductive coil 16 . Preferably the secondary inductive coil 16 is made from wound wire. Alternatively, the secondary inductive coil 16 may be made from a flexible circuit polymer sandwich with wire traces deposited between layers of flexible circuit polymer. The secondary inductive coil receives power and data from a primary inductive coil 17 , which is external to the body. The electronics package 14 and secondary inductive coil 16 are held together by the molded body 18 . The molded body 18 holds the electronics package 14 and secondary inductive coil 16 end to end. The secondary inductive coil 16 is placed around the electronics package 14 in the molded body 18 . The molded body 18 holds the secondary inductive coil 16 and electronics package 14 in the end to end orientation and minimizes the thickness or height above the sclera of the entire device. The molded body 18 may also include suture tabs 20 . The molded body 18 narrows to form a strap 22 which surrounds the sclera and holds the molded body 18 , secondary inductive coil 16 , and electronics package 14 in place. The molded body 18 , suture tabs 20 and strap 22 are preferably an integrated unit made of silicone elastomer. Silicone elastomer can be formed in a pre-curved shape to match the curvature of a typical sclera. However, silicone remains flexible enough to accommodate implantation and to adapt to variations in the curvature of an individual sclera. The secondary inductive coil 16 and molded body 18 are preferably oval shaped. A strap 22 can better support an oval shaped coil. It should be noted that the entire implant is attached to and supported by the sclera. An eye moves constantly. The eye moves to scan a scene and also has a jitter motion to improve acuity. Even though such motion is useless in the blind, it often continues long after a person has lost their sight. By placing the device under the rectus muscles with the electronics package in an area of fatty tissue between the rectus muscles, eye motion does not cause any flexing which might fatigue, and eventually damage, the device. [0076] FIG. 8 shows a side view of the implanted portion of the visual prosthesis, in particular, emphasizing the fan tail 24 . When implanting the visual prosthesis, it is necessary to pass the strap 22 under the eye muscles to surround the sclera. The secondary inductive coil 16 and molded body 18 must also follow the strap 22 under the lateral rectus muscle on the side of the sclera. The implanted portion of the visual prosthesis is very delicate. It is easy to tear the molded body 18 or break wires in the secondary inductive coil 16 . In order to allow the molded body 18 to slide smoothly under the lateral rectus muscle, the molded body 18 is shaped in the form of a fan tail 24 on the end opposite the electronics package 14 . The strap 22 further includes a hook 28 the aids the surgeon in passing the strap under the rectus muscles. [0077] Referring to FIG. 9 , the visual prosthesis system including external components may be used to configure and optimize the visual prosthesis ( 3 ) of the Retinal Stimulation System ( 1 ). [0078] The visual prosthesis system may comprise custom software with a graphical user interface (GUI) running on a dedicated laptop computer ( 10 ). Within the visual prosthesis system are modules for performing diagnostic checks of the implant, loading and executing video configuration files, viewing electrode voltage waveforms, and aiding in conducting psychophysical experiments. A video module can be used to download a video configuration file to a Video Processing Unit (VPU) ( 20 ) and store it in non-volatile memory to control various aspects of video configuration, e.g. the spatial relationship between the video input and the electrodes. The software can also load a previously used video configuration file from the VPU ( 20 ) for adjustment. [0079] The visual prosthesis system can be connected to the Psychophysical Test System (PTS), located for example on a dedicated laptop ( 30 ), in order to run psychophysical experiments. In psychophysics mode, the visual prosthesis system enables individual electrode control, permitting clinicians to construct test stimuli with control over current amplitude, pulse-width, and frequency of the stimulation. In addition, the psychophysics module allows the clinician to record subject responses. The PTS may include a collection of standard psychophysics experiments developed using for example MATLAB (MathWorks) software and other tools to allow the clinicians to develop customized psychophysics experiment scripts. [0080] Any time stimulation is sent to the VPU ( 20 ), the stimulation parameters are checked to ensure that maximum charge per phase limits, charge balance, and power limitations are met before the test stimuli are sent to the VPU ( 20 ) to make certain that stimulation is safe. [0081] Using the psychophysics module, important perceptual parameters such as perceptual threshold, maximum comfort level, and spatial location of percepts may be reliably measured. [0082] Based on these perceptual parameters, the fitting software enables custom configuration of the transformation between video image and spatio-temporal electrode stimulation parameters in an effort to optimize the effectiveness of the visual prosthesis for each subject. [0083] The visual prosthesis system laptop ( 10 ) is connected to the VPU ( 20 ) using an optically isolated serial connection adapter ( 40 ). Because it is optically isolated, the serial connection adapter ( 40 ) assures that no electric leakage current can flow from the visual prosthesis system laptop ( 10 ). [0084] As shown in FIG. 9 , the following components may be used with the visual prosthesis system according to the present disclosure. A Video Processing Unit (VPU) ( 20 ) for the subject being tested, a Charged Battery ( 25 ) for VPU ( 20 ), Glasses ( 5 ), a visual prosthesis system (FS) Laptop ( 10 ), a Psychophysical Test System (PTS) Laptop ( 30 ), a PTS CD (not shown), a Communication Adapter (CA) ( 40 ), a USB Drive (Security) (not shown), a USB Drive (Transfer) (not shown), a USB Drive (Video Settings) (not shown), a Patient Input Device (RF Tablet) ( 50 ), a further Patient Input Device (Jog Dial) ( 55 ), Glasses Cable ( 15 ), CA-VPU Cable ( 70 ), CFS-CA Cable ( 45 ), CFS-PTS Cable ( 46 ), Four (4) Port USB Hub ( 47 ), Mouse ( 60 ), LED Test Array ( 80 ), Archival USB Drive ( 49 ), an Isolation Transformer (not shown), adapter cables (not shown), and an External Monitor (not shown). [0085] The external components of the visual prosthesis system according to the present disclosure may be configured as follows. The battery ( 25 ) is connected with the VPU ( 20 ). The PTS Laptop ( 30 ) is connected to FS Laptop ( 10 ) using the CFS-PTS Cable ( 46 ). The PTS Laptop ( 30 ) and FS Laptop ( 10 ) are plugged into the Isolation Transformer (not shown) using the Adapter Cables (not shown). The Isolation Transformer is plugged into the wall outlet. The four (4) Port USB Hub ( 47 ) is connected to the FS laptop ( 10 ) at the USB port. The mouse ( 60 ) and the two Patient Input Devices ( 50 ) and ( 55 ) are connected to four (4) Port USB Hubs ( 47 ). The FS laptop ( 10 ) is connected to the Communication Adapter (CA) ( 40 ) using the CFS-CA Cable ( 45 ). The CA ( 40 ) is connected to the VPU ( 20 ) using the CA-VPU Cable ( 70 ). The Glasses ( 5 ) are connected to the VPU ( 20 ) using the Glasses Cable ( 15 ). [0086] Accordingly, what has been shown is an improved retinal prosthesis. While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments and applications thereof, it is understood that numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.

The present invention is a visual prosthesis for stimulating visual neurons to create the perception of light. The visual prosthesis electrically stimulating the retina with implanted electrodes exhibits interaction between electrodes stimulated closely together in both space and time. The visual prosthesis of the present invention includes means for determining a minimum distance at which spatiotemporal interactions occur, determining a minimum time at which spatiotemporal interactions occur, and avoiding stimulation of electrodes within the minimum distance during the minimum time. The minimum are ideally established for each individual patient. Alternatively, approximate minimums have been established by the applicants at 2 mm and 1.8 milliseconds.

GOVERNMENT RIGHTS This invention was made with United States government support under Grant CA-02817 from the United States Public Health Service. The United States government may have certain rights in the present invention. This is a division of application Ser. No. 07/403,533, filed Sep. 6, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,072. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is directed to novel sulfonylhydrazines and their use as antineoplastic agents. The present invention also concerns methylating agents, especially N-methyl-N-sulfonylhydrazines, and their use as antineoplastic and trypanocidal agents. 2. Background Information The synthesis and anticancer activity of a series of 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazines was reported in K. Shyam, R. T. Hrubiec, R. Furubayashi, L. A. Cosby and A. C. Sartorelli, J. Med. Chem., 30, 2157-2161 (1987). Base-catalyzed decomposition to generate the putative methylating species RSO 2 N═NMe was hypothesized to account for the observed biological activity. Trypanosomes of the brucei group are flagellated protozoa which produce lethal infections in humans and domestic mammals throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. (M. Katz, D. D. Despommier and R. W. Gwadz, Parasitic Diseases, Springer-Verlag, New York (1982); R. Allsopp, D. Hall and T. Jones, New Scientist, 7, 41-43 (1985); C. A. Hoare, Adv. Parasitol., 5, 47-91 (1967)). With the exception of alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), the trypanocidal drugs currently in use have been available for 25 to 80 years. Current treatment of early-stage infections consists of suramin for T. rhodesiense and pentamidine for T. gambiense (S. R. Meshnick, "The Chemotherapy of African Trypanosomiasis", In: Parasitic Diseases, J. M. Mansfield, ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York (1984); F.I.C. Apted, Manson's Tropical Diseases, 18th edition, Bailliere Tindall, Eastbourne (1983), pp. 72-92; W. E. Gutteridge and G. H. Coombs, The Biochemistry of Parasitic Protozoa, Macmillan, London (1977), pp. 1-25). These therapies require approximately six weeks of hospitalization due to drug toxicity. The only drug available for late-stage sleeping sickness is melarsoprol (S. R. Meshnick, supra). This drug has serious side-effects and up to 5% of patients die due to drug toxicity. Suramin, pentamidine and melarsoprol are all administered by intravenous injection. Recently, DFMO has been shown to be effective against early-stage sleeping sickness in man and animals. However, there are doubts as to its efficacy in late-stage disease unless it is used in combination with other less desirable agents such as bleomycin (P. P. McCann, G. J. Bacchi, A. B. Clarkson, Jr., J. R. Seed, H. C. Nathan, B. O. Amole, S. H. Hutner and A. Sjoerdsma, Medical Biol., 59, 434-440 (1983); A. B. Clarkson, Jr., C. J. Bacchi, G. H. Mellow, H. C. Nathan, P. P. McCann and A. Sjoerdsma, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 80, 5729-5733 (1983)). Therefore, better drugs are needed to treat trypanosomiasis. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention concerns sulfonylhydrazine compounds of the formula RSO 2 N(CH 2 CH 2 X)N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 , wherein R is an alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, preferably 1 to 6 carbon atoms and preferably methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, i-butyl or n-butyl, cycloalkyl, preferably having 3 to 6 carbon atoms, or an aryl, preferably having 6 to 12 carbon atoms, for example, phenyl, 4-tolyl, 4-methoxyphenyl, 4-chlorophenyl, 4-bromophenyl, 4-nitrophenyl, naphthyl or biphenyl and X is a halogen selected from the group consisting of F, Cl, Br and I, especially Cl, Br or I, or OSO 2 Y, wherein Y is an unsubstituted or substituted alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms or an unsubstituted or substituted aryl. Y is preferably methyl, but non-limiting examples of Y also include ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, trichloromethyl, trifluoromethyl, phenyl, p-tolyl, p-methoxyphenyl, p-chlorophenyl and other substituted phenyls. A preferred compound is CH 3 SO 2 N(CH 2 CH 2 Cl)N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 . The present invention also relates to a method of treating cancer (e.g., leukemias, lymphomas, breast carcinoma, colon carcinoma and lung carcinoma), in a warm-blooded animal patient, e.g., a human, by administering to such patient an antineoplastic effective amount of the aforesaid sulfonylhydrazine. The present invention is also directed to the following two classes of methylating agents: (1) R'SO 2 N(CH 3 )N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 , namely 1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)-1-methylydrazines, wherein R' is an alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, preferably 1 to 6 carbon atoms and preferably methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, i-propyl, n-butyl or i-butyl, cycloalkyl, preferably having 3 to 6 carbon atoms, or an aryl, preferably having 6 to 12 carbon atoms, for example, phenyl, 4-tolyl, 4-methoxyphenyl, 4-chlorophenyl, 4-bromophenyl, 4-nitrophenyl, naphthyl or biphenyl. (2) R"SO 2 N(CH 3 )N(CH 3 )SO 2 R", namely 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazines, wherein R" is an alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, preferably 1 to 6 carbon atoms and preferably methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, i-propyl, n-butyl or i-butyl, cycloalkyl, preferably having 3 to 6 carbon atoms, or an aryl, preferably having 6 to 12 carbon atoms, for example, phenyl, 4-tolyl, 4-methoxyphenyl, 4-chlorophenyl, 4-bromophenyl, 4-nitrophenyl, naphthyl or biphenyl. The present invention further relates to a method of treating trypanosomiasis in patients, e.g., warm-blooded animals, such as humans, horses, sheep, goats, swine, camels or cattle, by administering to such patients a trypanocidal effective amount of a methylating agent as described above. The present invention also concerns a method of treating trypansomiasis in a warm-blooded animal patient comprising administering to said patient a trypanocidal effective amount of a compound capable of generating a methylating agent of the formula CH 3 N=NX', wherein X' is a leaving group, e.g., OH or SO 2 R'", wherein R'" is an alkyl or an aryl, more particularly an unsubstituted or substituted alkyl having 1 to 10, preferably 1 to 6, carbon atoms or an unsubstituted or substituted aryl, including other species capable of generating methyl radicals (CH 3 •), diazomethane (CH 2 N 2 ) or methyldiazonium (CH 3 N 2 + ). Non-limiting examples of such compounds which generate CH 3 N═NX' include N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, 5-(3,3-dimethyl-1-triazenyl)-1H-imidazole-4-carboxamide, streptozotocin and 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazines. Typical substituents for the substituted alkyl and substituted aryl for R', R" and R'" in the above formulas include halogen, e.g., chlorine, fluorine or bromine, hydroxy and nitro. Furthermore, the aryl can be substituted by C 1 -C 10 alkyl or C 1 -C 10 alkoxy. The present invention is also directed to a method of treating cancer in a warm-blooded animal patient, e.g., human patient, comprising administering to such patient an antineoplastic effective amount of a methylating agent selected from the group consisting of (a) R'SO 2 N(CH 3 )N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 , wherein R' is an alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms or an aryl, for example, phenyl, 4-tolyl, 4-methoxyphenyl, 4-chlorophenyl, 4-bromophenyl, 4-nitrophenyl, naphthyl or biphenyl, and (b) R"SO 2 N(CH 3 )N(CH 3 )SO 2 R", wherein R" is an alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms or an aryl, for example phenyl, 4-tolyl, 4-methoxyphenyl, 4-chlorophenyl, 4-bromophenyl, 4-nitrophenyl, naphthyl or biphenyl. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Synthesis 1-Methyl-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine was synthesized by reacting methylhydrazine with an excess of methanesulfonyl chloride in pyridine. 1,2-Bis(methylsulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazine was prepared by reacting methanesulfonyl chloride with 1,2-dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloride in approximately a 2:1 molar ratio in pyridine. 1-(2-Chloroethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine was synthesized as shown in the following reaction scheme: ##STR1## The use of lithium bromide and potassium iodide in lieu of lithium chloride in the second step gave the 2-bromoethyl and the 2-iodoethyl analogues, respectively. 1-Arylsulfonyl-1-(2-chloroethyl)-2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)hydrazines were synthesized by reacting the corresponding 1-arylsulfonyl-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine with lithium chloride in acetone. The (methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl compound, in turn, was prepared by reacting the appropriate 1-arylsulfonyl-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)hydrazide with an excess of methanesulfonyl chloride in pyridine. The 1-arylsulfonyl-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)hydrazides were prepared by methodology analogous to that described by K. Shyam, R. T. Hrubiec, R. Furubayashi, L. A. Cosby and A. C. Sartorelli, J. Med. Chem., 30, 2157-2161 (1987). Mechanisms of Activation The 1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazines are believed to undergo spontaneous hydrolysis in aqueous solutions at neutral pH to generate 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazines as shown below. ##STR2## In the case of 1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine, this reaction occurs slowly. A 50 μM solution of this compound hydrolyzes at an initial rate of 1% per minute in phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.6) at 37° C. Hydrolysis is expected to occur preferentially at N-2 to generate the 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine. The sulfonic acid and 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine that are generated are both ionized under these conditions. The release of protons can be used to follow the decomposition of these and related compounds. The release of protons can be assayed by following the decrease in absorbance at 560 nm of a weakly buffered (1 mM potassium phosphate) phenol red (21 mg/l) solution; initial pH 7.6 at 37° C. The assay can be calibrated using HCl standards. The 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine anions are believed to decompose under these conditions by a two-step process, generating the putative alkylating species RSO 2 N═NCH 3 as an intermediate. The intermediate can methylate nucleophiles, such as water and other biomolecules as shown below. RSO.sub.2 e,ovs/N/ --N(CH.sub.3)SO.sub.2 R→RSO.sub.2 N═NCH.sub.3 +RSO.sub.2.sup.- RSO.sub.2 N═NCH.sub.3 +H.sub.2 O→RSO.sub.2.sup.- +N.sub.2 +CH.sub.3 OH+H.sup.+ The reaction of 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine with water at pH 7.4-7.6 at 37° C. can be followed by proton release and/or methanol generation. Methanol generation can be assayed using alcohol oxidase and measuring the resultant O 2 consumption using a Gilson oxygraph. This assay can be calibrated using methanol standards. The reaction of 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine with water is relatively fast [a 50 μM solution of 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine decomposes at an initial rate of 12-15% per minute in phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.6) at 37° C.] compared to the hydrolysis of 1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine. RSO 2 N═NMe may also decompose by a free radical mechanism to a smaller extent and methylate by the generation of methyl radicals. The 1-(2-chloroethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine would be expected to undergo hydrolysis and base-catalyzed elimination in a manner analogous to the 1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazines. The chloroethylating species generated in this case, ClCH 2 CH 2 N═NSO 2 CH 3 , would be expected to act as a bifunctional alkylating agent as shown below. ##STR3## wherein Nu and Nu' are biological nucleophiles, e.g., primary or secondary amines, sulfhydryl groups or carboxy groups. Compounds of the general structure R"SO 2 N(CH 3 )N(CH 3 )SO 2 R" may act as methylating agents by several mechanisms including: (i) hydrolysis to generate 1,2-dimethylhydrazine followed by oxidation to give 1,2-dimethyldiazene as follows: RSO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.3)N(CH.sub.3)SO.sub.2 R→CH.sub.3 NHNHCH.sub.3 →CH.sub.3 N═NCH.sub.3 CH.sub.3 N═NCH.sub.3 →CH.sub.3.sup.• +N.sub.2 +CH.sub.3.sup.• (ii) N-demethylation to give 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine. Formulations and Modes of Administration The invention further provides pharmecutical compositions containing as an active ingredient the aforementioned sulfonylhydrazines, the aforementioned 1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine, or the aforementioned 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazine in the form of a sterile and/or physiologically isotonic aqueous solution. The invention also provides a medicament in dosage unit form comprising the aforementioned sulfonylhydrazines, the aforementioned 1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine, or the aforementioned 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazine, all hereinafter referred to as the "active ingredient" or "active compound". The invention also provides a medicament in the form of tablets (including lozenges and granules), caplets, dragees, capsules, pills, ampoules or suppositories comprising the aforementioned sulfonylhydrazine, the aforementioned 1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine or the aforementioned 1,2-bis(sulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazine, all hereinafter referred to as the "active ingredient" or "active compound". "Medicament" as used herein means physically discrete coherent portions suitable for medical administration. "Medicament in dosage unit form" as used herein means physically discrete coherent units suitable for medical administration, each containing a daily dose or a multiple (up to four times) or a sub-multiple (down to a fortieth) of a daily dose of an active compound of the invention in association with a carrier and/or enclosed within an envelope. Whether the medicament contains a daily dose, or for example, a half, a third, or a quarter of a daily dose will depend on whether the medicament is to be administered once, or for example, twice, three times, or four times a day, respectively. The pharmaceutical compositions according to the invention may, for example, take the form of suspensions, solutions and emulsions of the active ingredient in aqueous or non-aqueous diluents, syrups, granulates, or powders. The diluents to be used in pharmaceutical compositions (e.g., granulates) adapted to be formed into tablets, dragees, capsules and pills may include one or more of the following: (a) fillers and extenders, e.g., starch, sugars, mannitol and silicic acid; (b) binding agents, e.g., carboxymethyl cellulose and other cellulose derivatives, aliginates, gelatine and polyvinyl pyrrolidone; (c) moisturizing agents, e.g., glycerol; (d) disintegrating agents, e.g., agar-agar, calcium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate; (e) agents for retarding dissolution, e.g., paraffin; (f) resorption accelerators, e.g., quaternary ammonium compounds; (g) surface active agents, e.g., cetyl alcohol, glycerol monostearate; (h) adsorptive carriers, e.g., kaolin and bentonite; (i) lubricants, e.g., talc, calcium and magnesium stearate and solid polyethylene glycols. The tablets, dragees, capsules, caplets and pills formed from the pharmaceutical compositions of the invention can have the customary coatings, envelopes and protective matrices, which may contain opacifiers. They can be so constituted that they release the active ingredient only or preferably in a particular part of the intestinal tract, possibly over a period of time. The coatings, envelopes and protective matrices may be made, for example, from polymeric substances or waxes. The active ingredient can also be made up in microencapsulated form together with one or several of the above-mentioned diluents. The diluents to be used in pharmaceutical compositions adapted to be formed into suppositories can, for example, be the usual water-soluble diluents, such as polyethylene glycols and fats (e.g., cocoa oil and high esters, [e.g., C 14 -alcohol with C 16 -fatty acid]) or mixtures of these diluents. The pharmaceutical compositions which are solutions and emulsions can, for example, contain the customary diluents such as solvents, solubilizing agents and emulsifiers. Specific non-limiting examples of such diluents are water, ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, ethyl carbonate, ethyl acetate, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, propylene glycol, 1,3-butylene glycol, dimethylformamide, oils (for example, ground nut oil), glycerol, tetrahydrofuryl alcohol, polyethylene glycols and fatty acid esters of sorbitol or mixtures thereof. For parenteral administration, solutions and emulsions should be sterile and, if appropriate, blood-isotonic. The pharmaceutical compositions which are suspensions can contain the usual diluents, such as liquid diluents, e.g., water, ethyl alcohol, propylene glycol, surface-active agents (e.g., ethoxylated isostearyl alcohols, polyoxyethylene sorbite and sorbitane esters), microcrystalline cellulose, aluminum metahydroxide, bentonite, agar-agar and tragacanth or mixtures thereof. All the pharmaceutical compositions according to the invention can also contain coloring agents and preservatives, as well as perfumes and flavoring additives (e.g., peppermint oil and eucalyptus oil) and sweetening agents (e.g., saccharin and aspartame). The pharmaceutical compositions according to the invention generally contain from 0.5 to 90% of the active ingredient by weight of the total composition. The pharmaceutical compositions and medicaments according to the invention can also contain other pharmaceutically active compounds. The discrete coherent portions constituting a medicament according to the invention will generally be adapted by virtue of their shape or packaging for medical administration and may be, for example, any of the following: tablets (including lozenges and granulates), pills, dragees, capsules, suppositories and ampoules. Some of these forms may be made up for delayed release of the active ingredient. Some, such as capsules, may include a protective envelope which renders the portions of the medicament physically discrete and coherent. The preferred daily dose for administration of the medicaments of the invention is 60 to 600 mg/square meter of body surface per day of active ingredient. Nevertheless, it can at times be necessary to deviate from these dosage levels, and in particular to do so as a function of the nature of the human or animal subject to be treated, the individual reaction of this subject to the treatment, the type of formulation in which the active ingredient is administered, the mode in which the administration is carried out and the point in the progress of the disease or interval at which it is to be administered. Thus, it may in some cases suffice to use less than the above-mentioned minimum dosage rate, while in other cases the upper limit mentioned must be exceeded to achieve the desired results. Where larger amounts are administered, it may be advisable to divide these into several individual administrations over the course of a day. The production of the above-mentioned pharmaceutical compositions and medicaments is carried out by any method known in the art, for example, by mixing the active ingredient(s) with the diluent(s) to form a pharmaceutical composition (e.g., a granulate) and then forming the composition into the medicament (e.g., tablets). This invention provides a method for treating the above-mentioned diseases in warm-blooded animals, which comprises administering to the animals an active compound of the invention alone or in admixture with a diluent or in the form of a medicament according to the invention. It is envisaged that the active compounds will be administered perorally, parenterally (e.g., intramuscularly, intraperitoneally, subcutaneously, or intravenously), rectally, or locally, preferably orally or parenterally, especially perlingually or intravenously. Preferred pharmaceutical compositions and medicaments are, therefore, those adapted for administration, such as oral or parenteral administration. Administration in the methods of the invention are preferably oral administration or parenteral administration. Treatment of Trypanosomiasis One aspect of the present invention is the treatment of trypanosomiasis by administration of methylating agents. Such methylating agents are effective against T.rhodesiense and T.gambiense, which cause fatal diseases in man, and also against T.brucei, T.evansi and T.equiperdum, which are of veterinary importance (C. A. Hoare, Adv. Parasitol., 5, 47-91 (1967)). Some methylating agents for use in the present invention are described in K. Shyam, R. T. Hrubiec, R. Furubayashi, L. A. Cosby and A. C. Sartorelli, J. Med. Chem., 30, 2157-2161 (1987). Non-limiting examples of methylating agents for use in the present invention include CH 3 NHNH 2 , CH 3 NHNHCH 3 , CH 3 SO 2 N(CH 3 )NHSO 2 CH 3 , CH 3 SO 2 N(CH 3 )NHSO 2 C 6 H 4 --p--OCH 3 , (CH 3 ) 2 SO 4 , CH 3 SO 2 OCH 3 , N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, procarbazine, 5-(3,3-dimethyl-1-triazenyl)-1H-imidazole-4-carboxamide and streptozotocin. Thirty-day "cures" of mice bearing T.rhodesiense were obtained with some of these agents at single dose levels which produced no overt signs of toxicity. In general, compounds lacking a reactive methyl group, but structurally identical to the corresponding N-methyl analogues in all other respects, or containing the methyl group, but lacking good leaving groups, are inactive as trypanocides (see Table III hereinbelow). The kinetics of the loss of activity of methylating agents upon the "aging" of an aqueous solution correlates well with the kinetics of methanol generation, a measure of the spontaneous breakdown of these agents to generate the reactive methyl group. These findings provide strong evidence that methylation is essential for the observed biological activity of these compounds. Methylating agents appear to have two major effects on trypanosomes, depending upon the dose level. At high levels, cytokinesis appears to be inhibited almost immediately and the cells are transformed into transitional forms containing multiple nuclei and kinetoplasts. These cells disappear from the bloodstream in 48 to 72 hours. When administered at repetitive low doses, methylating agents induce the entire population to differentiate into short-stumpy forms (short-stumpy forms cannot differentiate further unless they are taken up by a feeding tsetse fly or placed in appropriate culture conditions), as judged by morphology, NADH diaphorase positivity and other biochemical and physiological criteria. Short-stumpy forms are non-dividing differentiated cells and are not infective to the mammalian host. The latter property may make these agents useful biochemical tools in the study of differentiation in trypanosomes, since, with these compounds, it is possible to induce the entire population of trypanosomes to differentiate in a moderately synchronous manner and through this approach early events in the differentiation process can be studied. Both single high dose regimens and repetitive low doses can result in cures using a number of the methylating agents described herein. DFMO has also been shown to induce differentiation in T. brucei (B. F. Giffin, P. P. McCann, A. J. Bitanti and C. J. Bacchi, J. Protozool., 33, 238-243 (1986)). This effect is generally attributed to the depletion of polyamines. DFMO, however, also causes a 1000-fold increase in decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine (DSAM) and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) (A. H. Fairlamb, G. B. Henderson, C. J. Bacchi and A. Cerami, Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 7, 209-225 (1983)). These latter metabolites are weak chemical methylating agents and, therefore, may be in part responsible for the differentiating action of DFMO. The depletion of polyamines and trypanothione as a result of the DFMO treatment may potentiate the actions of SAM and DSAM as methylating agents by decreasing the levels of competing nucleophiles. Depletion of polyamines may also make the nucleic acids more susceptible to methylation (R. L. Wurdeman and B. Gold, Chemical. Res. Toxicol., 1, 146-147 (1988)). SAM is also the methyl donor used by many methylases; therefore, enzymatically mediated methylation reactions may also be affected. Orally active trypanocidal agents are desirable, since in areas where trypanosomiasis is endemic, other routes of drug administration frequently present problems. Although methylating agents in general are mutagenic, in cases of multi-drug resistant trypanosomiasis which have failed to respond to existing therapies, these compounds may be extremely effective. The distinct advantages of methylating agents over existing trypanocides include (a) high therapeutic indices, (b) oral activity, (c) novel mechanism of action, (d) broad-spectrum antitrypanosomal activity, and (e) favorable pharmacokinetics which make these compounds candidates for both agricultural and clinical development. The invention will now be described with reference to the following non-limiting examples. EXAMPLES Melting points were determined on a Thomas-Hoover capillary melting point apparatus and are uncorrected. Proton magnetic resonance spectra were recorded on a Varian EM-390 spectrometer with Me 4 Si as an internal standard. Elemental analyses were performed by the Baron Consulting Co. (Orange, CT.) and the data were within 0.4% of the theoretical values. EXAMPLES 1 to 6 A. 1-(2-Methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)hydrazines Example 1 Preparation of 1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine To an ice-cold stirred solution of 2-hydroxyethylhydrazine (6.08 g, 0.08 mol) in dry pyridine (40 ml) was added methanesulfonyl chloride (41.2 g, 0.36 mol) dropwise, while maintaining the temperature between 0° and 5° C. After keeping the reaction mixture stirred at this temperature range for an additional 3 hours, it was left in a freezer (-10° C.) for 48 hours. It was then triturated with a mixture of ice and concentrated hydrochloric acid (100 ml, 1:1, v/v). A thick semi-solid separated and settled at the bottom of the flask. Sometimes a solid separated, which was filtered and treated as described below. The clear supernatant was carefully decanted and the semi-solid was warmed to 60° C. in glacial acetic acid (150 ml) and was cooled to 5° C. The solid that separated was filtered, washed with cold glacial acetic acid (20 ml), dried and recrystallized from ethanol-acetone (1:3, v/v) using Norit A as a decolorizing agent to give 9.6 g (31%) of the title compound: m.p. 160°-162° C.; anal.(C 6 H 16 N 2 O 9 S 4 ) C,H,N: 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 4.5 and 4.1 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.6 [s, 6H, N 2 (SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.3 [s, 3H, N 1 SO 2 CH 3 ], 3.2 [s, 3H, OSO 2 CH 3 ]. Example 2 Preparation of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1-(4-toluenesulfonyl)hydrazine To an ice-cold stirred mixture of 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-(4-toluenesulfonyl)hydrazide (6.9 g, 0.03 mol) and dry pyridine (12 ml) was added methanesulfonyl chloride (14.1 g, 0.12 mol) dropwise, while maintaining the temperature between 0° and 10° C. After an additional 3 hours of stirring at this temperature range, the reaction mixture was left in a freezer (-10° C.) for 48 hours. It was then triturated with a mixture of ice and concentrated hydrochloric acid (100 ml, 1:1, v/v). A thick semi-solid separated and settled to the bottom of the flask. The clear supernatant was carefully decanted and the residue was boiled with ethanol (100 ml). A solid separated that was filtered while the ethanol mixture was still hot, washed with ethanol and dried. It was recrystallized from a mixture of ethanol and acetone (Norit A) to give 4.7 g (34%) of the title compound: m.p. 153°-155° C.; anal. (C 12 H 20 N 2 O 9 S 4 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 7.9 and 7.4 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 4.4 and 4.0 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.6 [s, 6H, N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.0 [s, 3H, OSO 2 CH 3 ] and 2.4 [s, 3H, ArCH 3 ]. Example 3 Preparation of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1-phenylsulfonylhydrazine 1-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-1-phenylsulfonylhydrazide (10.8 g, 0.05 mol) and methanesulfonyl chloride (29.6 g, 0.26 mol were reacted in dry pyridine (25 ml) and the product was isolated in a manner identical to that described for 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1-(4-toluenesulfonyl)hydrazine (see Example 2 above): yield, 3.1 g (14%); m.p. 107°-108° C.; anal. (C 11 H 18 N 2 O 9 S 4 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 8.0 and 7.7 (d and m, 5H, aromatic H), 4.3 and 4.0 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.6 [s, 6H, N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.0 (s, 3H, OSO 2 CH 3 ). Example 4 Preparation of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl))-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1-[(4-methoxyphenyl)sulfonyl]hydrazine To an ice-cold stirred mixture of 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-[4-methoxyphenyl)sulfonyl]hydrazide (10.0 g, 0.04 mol) and dry pyridine (25 ml) was added methanesulfonyl chloride (29.6 g, 0.26 mol) in portions, while maintaining the temperature between 0° and 5° C. After an additional 2 hours of stirring at this temperature range, the reaction mixture was left in a freezer (-10° C.) for 48 hours. It was then triturated with a mixture of ice and concentrated hydrochloric acid (100 ml, 1:1, v/v), the clear supernatant was decanted and the thick semi-solid that separated was boiled with ethanol (100 ml) and cooled to 5° C. A yellow solid separated that was stirred with methylene chloride (200 ml) and filtered. The filtrate was evaporated to dryness in vacuo to give the crude title compound, which was recrystallized from a mixture of ethanol and acetone (Norit A): yield, 6.7 g (34%); m.p. 144°-145° C.; anal. (C 12 H 20 N 2 O 10 S 4 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 7.9 and 7.1 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 4.3 and 4.0 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.9 [s, 3H, OCH 3 ], 3.6 [s, 6H, N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.0 [s, 3H, OSO 2 CH 3 ]. Example 5 Preparation of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-[(4-chlorophenyl)sulfonyl]-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethylhydrazine To an ice-cold stirred mixture of 1-[(4-chlorophenyl)sulfonyl]-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)hydrazide (12.5 g, 0.05 mol) in dry pyridine (20 ml) was added methanesulfonyl chloride (23.68 g, 0.21 mol) dropwise, while maintaining the temperature between 0° and 10° C. After an additional 2 hours of stirring at this temperature range, the reaction mixture was left in the freezer (-10° C.) for 48 hours. It was then triturated with a mixture of ice and concentrated hydrochloric acid (100 ml, 1:1, v/v). The solid that separated was filtered, stirred with chloroform (300 ml) for 10 minutes, treated with Norit A and filtered. On evaporation of the filtrate to dryness in vacuo a solid was obtained that was recrystallized from ethyl acetate-petroleum ether (Norit A) to give 6.3 g (26%) of the title compound: m.p. 152°-153° C.; anal. (C 11 H 17 ClN 2 O 9 S 4 ) C,H,N: 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 8.1 and 7.7 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 4.5 and 4.1 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.6 [s, 6H, N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.1 [s, 3H, OSO 2 CH 3 ]. Example 6 Preparation of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-[(4-bromophenyl)sulfonyl]-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethylhydrazine This compound was prepared by reacting 1-[(4-bromophenyl)sulfonyl]-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)hydrazide (5.2 g, 0.018 mol) with methanesulfonyl chloride (9.0 g, 0.079 mol) in dry pyridine (15 ml) in a manner analogous to that described for 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-[(4--chlorophenyl)sulfonyl]-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethylhydrazine (Example 5): yield, 2.5 g, (27%); m.p. 154°-155° C.; anal. (C 11 H 17 BrN 2 O 9 S 4 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 7.9-8.0 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 4.4 and 4.1 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.6 [s, 6H, N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.0 [s, 3H, OSO 2 CH 3 ]. EXAMPLES 7 TO 14 B. 1-(2-Haloethyl)-1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)hydrazines Example 7 Preparation of 1-(2-chloroethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine A mixture of 1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine (2,0 g, 0.005 mol), lithium chloride (2.0 g, 0.047 mol) and dry acetone (50 ml) was heated under reflux for 96 hours. The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature, filtered and the filtrate evaporated to dryness in vacuo. The residue was warmed with chloroform (100 ml) to 50° C., filtered and the filtrate was evaporated to dryness in vacuo. Recrystallization of the residue from ethanol gave 1.1 g (65%) of the title compound: m.p. 154°-155° C.; anal. (C 5 H 13 ClN 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ) δ 3.6-4.0 (m, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.5 [s, 6H, N 2 (SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.2 (s, 3H, N 1 SO 2 CH 3 ). Example 8 Preparation of 1-(2-bromoethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine 1-(2-Bromoethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine was prepared in a manner analogous to that of the corresponding 2-chloroethyl analogue by reacting 1(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine with lithium bromide in acetone for 48 hours: yield, 35%; m.p. 147°-148° C.; anal. (C 5 H 13 BrN 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ) δ 4.0 and 3.6 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.5 [s, 6H, N 2 (SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ] and 3.2 [s, 3H, N 1 SO 2 CH 3 ]. Example 9 Preparation of 1-(2-iodoethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine 1-(2-Iodoethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine was prepared in a manner analogous to that of the corresponding 2-chloroethyl analogue by reacting 1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine with potassium iodide in acetone for 48 hours: yield, 66%; m.p. 136°-138° C.; anal. (C 5 H 13 IN 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ) δ 4.0 and 3.4 (2t, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.5 [s, 6H, N 2 (SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ] and 3.2 [s, 3H, N 1 SO 2 CH 3 ]. Example 10 Preparation of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-chloroethyl)-1-(4-toluenesulfonyl)hydrazine A mixture of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1-(4-toluenesulfonyl)hydrazine (2.0 g, 0.0043 mol), dry lithium chloride (2.0 g, 0.047 mol) and dry acetone (50 ml) was heated under reflux for 4 days. The reaction mixture was filtered and the filtrate was evaporated to dryness in vacuo. The residue was warmed with chloroform (100 ml) to 40° C., filtered and the filtrate was evaporated to dryness. The residue was boiled with ethanol (150 ml) and cooled to 10° C. The unreacted sulfonate which crystallized was removed by filtration and the filtrate was evaporated to dryness in vacuo. The residue thus obtained was recrystallized from chloroform-petroleum ether (Norit A) to give 1.2 g (69%) of the title compound: m.p. 99°-101° C.; anal. (C 11 H 17 ClN 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ) δ 7.9 and 7.4 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 3.6-3.9 (m, 4 H, CH 2 CH 2 ), 3.5 [s, 6H, (SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ] and 2.4 [s, 3H, ArCH 3 ]. Example 11 Preparation of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-chloroethyl)-1-phenylsulfonylhydrazine A mixture of 2,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-methylsulfonyloxy)ethyl-1-phenylsulfonylhydrazine (2.0 g, 0.0044 mol), dry lithium chloride (2.0 g, 0.047 mol) and dry acetone (50 ml) was heated under reflux for 5 days. The reaction mixture was filtered and the filtrate was evaporated to dryness in vacuo. To the residue was added chloroform (100 ml) and the mixture was stirred for 10 minutes and filtered. The filtrate was evaporated to dryness and the semi-solid residue obtained was dissolved by boiling in a minimum quantity of ethanol and was filtered. On cooling, the title compound was obtained as white crystals: yield, 0.68 g (39%); m.p. 114°-115° C.; anal. (C 10 H 15 ClN 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 8.0 and 7.7 (d and m, 5H, aromatic H), 3.6-4.0 (m, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ) and 3.6 [s, 6H, 2CH 3 ]. EXAMPLES 12 TO 14 The following 1-(2-chloroethyl)-1,2,2-tris(sulfonyl)hydrazines were synthesized using procedures similar to those described above: Example 12 2,2-Bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-chloroethyl)-1-[(4-methoxyphenyl)sulfonyl]hydrazine Yield, 68%; m.p. 109°-110° C.; anal. (C 11 H 17 ClN 2 O 7 S 3 ) C,H,N: 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ) δ 7.9 and 7.0 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 3.9 (s, 3H, OCH 3 ), 3.5-3.8 (m, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ) and 3.5 [s, 6H, (SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ]. Example 13 2,2-Bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-(2-chloroethyl)-1-[(4-chlorophenyl)sulfonyl]hydrazine Yield, 69%; m.p. 122°-123° C.; anal. (C 10 H 14 Cl 2 N 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ) δ 7.9 and 7.5 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 3.6-4.0 (m, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ) and 3.5 [s, 6H, 2CH 3 ]. Example 14 2,2-Bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-[(4-bromophenyl)sulfonyl]-1-(2-chloroethyl)hydrazine Yield, 45%; m.p. 117°-118° C.; anal. (C 10 H 14 BrClN 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 7.9-8.0 (2d, 4H, aromatic H), 3.7-4.1 (m, 4H, CH 2 CH 2 ) and 3.6 [s, 6H, 2CH 3 ]. Example 15 C. 1,2-Bis(methylsulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazine 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloride (2.6 g, 0.02 mol) was suspended in ice-cold dry pyridine (6 ml) and the mixture was stirred for 10 minutes. Methanesulfonyl chloride (5.0 g, 0.043 mol) was added in portions to this mixture, while maintaining the temperature between 0° and 10° C. After an additional 1 hour of stirring at 0° to 5° C., the reaction mixture was left in a freezer (-10° C.) overnight. The pH of the reaction mixture was adjusted to pH 1 with cold dilute hydrochloric acid. The solid that separated was filtered and recrystallized from ethanol (Norit A) to give 1.4 g (32%) of the title compound: m.p. 168°-169° C.; anal. (C 4 H 12 N 2 O 4 S 2 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (CDCl 3 ) δ 3.1 [2s, 12H, 2(CH 3 SO 2 NCH 3 )]. Example 16 D. 1-Methyl- 1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine To an ice-cold stirred solution of methylhydrazine (4.6 g, 0.1 mol) in dry pyridine (30 ml) was added methanesulfonyl chloride (44.6 g, 0.39 mol) dropwise, while maintaining the temperature between 0° and 10° C. The reaction mixture was left in a freezer (-10° C.) for 2 days. It was then triturated with a mixture of ice and concentrated hydrochloric acid (1:1, v/v, 100 ml). The precipitate that formed was collected, washed with cold water and dried. This product was stirred with chloroform (200 ml) and filtered. The undissolved material, consisting mainly of 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine, was discarded and the filtrate was treated with decolorizing carbon, filtered and evaporated to dryness in vacuo to give a yellow solid, which was crystallized twice from ethanol (Norit A) to give 5.1 g (18%) of the title compound: m.p. 123°-124° C.; anal. (C 4 H 12 N 2 O 6 S 3 ) C,H,N; 1 H NMR (acetone-d 6 ) δ 3.6 [s, 6H, N 2 (SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 ], 3.5 (s, 3H, N--CH 3 ), 3.2 (s, 3H, N 1 SO 2 CH 3 ). Example 17 Antineoplastic Activity The tumor-inhibitory properties of several compounds, e.g., 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine, 1-methyl-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine, 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazine and 1-(2-chloroethyl)-1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)hydrazine were determined by measuring the effects of these agents on the survival time of mice bearing the L1210 leukemia as described by K. Shyam, L. A. Cosby, and A. C. Sartorelli, J. Med. Chem., 28, 525-527 (1985). The results are summarized in Table I. TABLE I__________________________________________________________________________Effects of Sulfonylhydrazine Derivatives on theSurvival Time of Mice Bearing the L1210 Leukemia Optimum effectiveCompound Daily Dose, mg/kg.sup.a AvΔ Wt, %.sup.b % T/C.sup.c 60-day cures,__________________________________________________________________________ %MeSO.sub.2 N(Me)N(SO.sub.2 Me).sub.2 150 -7.7 186 0MeSO.sub.2 N(Me)N(Me)SO.sub.2 Me 20 -11.3 158 0MeSO.sub.2 N(Me)NHSO.sub.2 Me 40 -10.7 180 0MeSO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 Cl)N(SO.sub.2 Me).sub.2.sup.d 60 -7.2 -- 100MeSO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 Br)N(SO.sub.2 Me).sub.2 150 -2.0 213 0MeSO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 OSO.sub.2 Me)N(SO.sub.2 Me).sub.2 100 -4.2 198 0MeSO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 I)N(SO.sub.2 Me).sub.2 150 +8.0 110 0C.sub.6 H.sub.5 SO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 Cl)N(SO.sub.2 Me).sub.2 150 +0.5 187 40MeO--4--C.sub.6 H.sub.4 SO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 Cl)N(SO.sub.2Me).sub.2 200 +5.9 -- 100Me--4--C.sub.6 H.sub.4 SO.sub.2 N(CH.sub. 2 CH.sub.2 Cl)N(SO.sub.2Me).sub.2 150 -12.0 215 60Cl--4--C.sub.6 H.sub.4 SO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 Cl)N(SO.sub.2Me).sub.2 200 -3.4 203 60Br--4--C.sub.6 H.sub.4 SO.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 Cl)N(SO.sub.2Me).sub.2 150 +0.9 241 60__________________________________________________________________________ .sup.a Administered once daily for 6 consecutive days, beginning 24 hours after tumor transplantation with 5-10 animals being used per group. .sup.b Average change in body weight from onset to termination of therapy .sup.c % T/C = average survival time of treated/control animals × 100. .sup.d % T/C vs. P388 leukemia = 218 (80% 60day cures) at 60 mg/kg/day The methylating agents displayed considerable activity against this tumor and the chloroethylating agent [MeSO 2 N(CH 2 CH 2 Cl)N(SO 2 Me) 2 ] was exceedingly active, giving 60-day "cures" of the L1210 leukemia at levels of 40 and 60 mg/kg per day x 6. Replacement of the chloroethyl group in MeSO 2 N(CH 2 CH 2 Cl)N(SO 2 Me) 2 by bromoethyl or methylsulfonyloxyethyl resulted in retention of activity against the L1210 leukemia, the compounds giving maximum % T/C values of 213 and 198 percent, respectively. Activity was abolished when the chloroethyl group was replaced by iodoethyl. A single intraperitoneal dose of 1.2 g/kg or six daily intraperitoneal doses of 200 mg/kg of MeSO 2 N(CH 2 CH 2 Cl)N(SO 2 Me) 2 produced no lethality in normal mice. Thus, the relatively great efficacy of this compound against the L1210 and P-388 leukemias and its relative lack of toxicity makes it an agent of significant promise. Example 18 Trypanocidal Activity The trypanocidal properties of several methylating agents including MeSO 2 N(Me)N(SO 2 Me) 2 and MeSO 2 N(Me)N(Me)SO 2 Me were determined by measuring their effects on the survival time of CD-1 mice infected with T. rhodesiense (Y Tat 1.1), a pleiomorphic strain that produces a non-replapsing disease in mice. The level of parasites in the bloodstream and body fluids increases by approximately 10-fold per day and the animals die when the parasite burden exceeds 1 to 2×10 9 cells/ml. Infection with a single viable parasite will kill a mouse in approximately 9 to 10 days. Mice were infected ip with approximately 10 6 trypanosomes/mouse in phosphate buffered saline containing glucose. This level of parasites produces death in 4 days post-infection. These mice were treated (ip) with a single dose of drug dissolved in the appropriate vehicle 3 days after infection, when the parasitemia was 1 to 3×10 8 cells/ml of blood and the mice, if untreated, would survive for only 24 additional hours. The number of days the mice survived beyond that of the untreated controls was used as a measure of trypanocidal activity. The level of parasitemia in treated mice was measured at regular intervals to distinguish between parasite-related and drug toxicity-related deaths. No toxic deaths were observed. Mice that survived for 30 days without detectable parasitemias were considered cured. The effects of a single dose of various methylating agents on the survival time of trypanosome-bearing mice are summarized in Table II. TABLE II______________________________________Effects of Methylating and Ethylating Agents onthe Survival Time of Mice Bearing T. rhodesiense Dose Mean ExtensionCompound (mmol/kg) of Life (Days)______________________________________MeNHNH.sub.2 .sup.a 0.5 1MeNHNHMe.sup.a 0.2 4.3EtNHNHEt.sup.a 0.2 0MeSO.sub.2 N(Me)NHSO.sub.2 Me.sup.b 0.2 11.8MeSO.sub.2 N(Me)NHSO.sub.2 C.sub.6 H.sub.4 -p-OMe.sup.b 0.2 4.5PhSO.sub.2 N(Me)NHSO.sub.2 Ph.sup.b 0.2 5.0MeSO.sub.2 N(Me)N(SO.sub.2 Me).sub.2 .sup.b 0.2 7.7 1.0 100% cureMeSO.sub.2 N(Me)N(Me)SO.sub.2 Me.sup.b 0.2 25% cure 9.7 for relapsing animalsMe.sub.2 SO.sub.4.sup.b 0.2 3.0Et.sub.2 SO.sub.4.sup.b 0.2 0MeSO.sub.2 OME.sup.b 0.2 1.0N-Methyl-N-nitrosourea.sup.b 0.2 8.0Procarbazine.sup.a 0.2 5.0DTIC.sup.a 0.2 6.0Streptozotocin.sup.a 0.2 4.3______________________________________ .sup.a Drug that was administered was dissolved in 0.5 ml of phosphate buffered saline containing glucose. .sup.b Drug that was administered was dissolved in 0.05 ml of DMSO. As mentioned above, compounds lacking a reactive methyl group(s), but structurally identical in all other respects, or containing the reactive methyl group(s) but lacking good leaving groups, were inactive and failed to generate methanol in phosphate buffered saline (Table III). TABLE III______________________________________Structural Requirements for Antitrypanosomal ActivityCompoundAdministered in Mean Extension Relative Methanol0.05 ml of DMSO of Life (Days) Generation in vitro______________________________________PhSO.sub.2 N(Me)NHSO.sub.2 Ph 5 1.0PhSO.sub.2 NHNHSO.sub.2 Ph 0 0PhCON(Me)NHCOPh 0 0______________________________________ Methanol was produced by these agents in aqueous solutions free from strong competing nucleophiles. Formation of this alcohol was used as a measure of the rate of spontaneous breakdown of these compounds to generate reactive methyl groups. When aqueous buffered (pH 7.6) solutions of 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine were assayed over time for the formation of methanol, no further alcohol was generated after 15 minutes, indicating that decomposition was complete within this time period. This result correlated with the loss of biological activity upon aging of equivalent solutions, where essentially all antiparasitic activity was lost after aging for 15 minutes, (i.e., 0, 21, 73 and 97% of the antitrypanosomal activity was lost after 0, 1, 5 and 15 minutes of aging, respectively). These findings provide strong evidence that methylation is essential for the observed biological activity of these compounds. In support of this hypothesis, a number of structurally unrelated methylating agents, but not ethylating agents were found to have significant biological activity (Table II). The absence of clear-cut structure-activity relationships is probably due to the large number of variables introduced in vivo test systems and may reflect variation in parameters other than stability and rate of generation of the alkylating species. A representative agent, 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine, was also tested against several other trypanosoma species. Activity has been demonstrated against T. gambiense which, like T. rhodesiense, causes a fatal disease in man, and against I. brucei brucei, T. evansi and T. equiperdum, which are species of veterinary importance. The therapeutic indices of some of the invented compounds are significantly greater than that of the antineoplastic agents tested for antitrypanosomal activity; for example, cures are obtained with 1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine at approximately 10% of the LD 50 , whereas animals given streptozotocin at 50% of the published LD 50 survived for only 4 to 5 days longer than the control animals. Preliminary results indicate that 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine, 1,2,2-tris(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine and 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1,2-dimethylhydrazine have comparable activity to that reported in Table II when administered orally in aqueous solutions. The decomposition of 1,2-bis(methylsulfonyl)-1-methylhydrazine in aqueous solutions can be inhibited by dosing in acidified solutions. Orally active trypanocidal agents are desirable since, in areas where trypanosomiasis is endemic, other routes of drug administration frequently present problems. It will be appreciated that the instant specification and claims are set forth by way of illustration and not limitation, and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Sulfonylhydrazines of the formula RSO 2 N(CH 2 CH 2 X)N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 , wherein R is an alkyl or an aryl and X is a halogen or OSO 2 Y, wherein Y is an alkyl or an aryl. Such sulfonylhydrazines are useful in treating cancer. Methylating agents of the formula (a) R'SO 2 N(CH 3 )N(SO 2 CH 3 ) 2 , wherein R' is an alkyl or an aryl and (b) R"SO 2 N(CH 3 )N(CH 3 )SO 2 R", wherein R" is an alkyl or an aryl. Such methylating agents are useful as antitrypanosomal and anticancer agents.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This disclosure is a continuation of and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/550,377, filed 21 Nov. 2014, entitled “Male Penile Sexual Enhancement Device and Medical Aid,” by inventor Ron Howard, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all available purposes. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present disclosure relates generally to an apparatus to assist in copulation and prevent undesired movement or displacement of the testicles. More particularly, this disclosure relates to an apparatus that circumferentially encompasses the upper portion of a penis at the juncture with the torso (i.e., at the base of penis) and includes contoured extensions to fit between the scrotal sack and the torso. BACKGROUND [0003] Referring to FIG. 1A , view 100 illustrates a cross-sectional view of the human penis. The human penis contains at least three cylinders (e.g., 105 , 110 and 115 ) encased in a sheath 120 . Sheath 120 is called the bucks fascia or deep fascia of the penis. The three cylinders are the corpus spongiosum 115 and two corpus cavernosum penis (i.e., 105 and 110 ). The function of the corpus spongiosum 115 in erection is to prevent the urethra 116 from pinching closed, thereby maintaining the urethra 116 as a viable channel for ejaculation. To do this, the corpus spongiosum 115 remains pliable during erection while the two corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ), which are collectively referred to as the corpora cavernosa, become engorged with blood. The two corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ) each contain spongy erectile tissue. Cavernosal arteries ( 106 and 111 ) run along the middle of each corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ). The function of the corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ) is purely erectile. Muscles surround the corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ) and spongiosum 115 . Generally, in the male penis, an erection is produced when arterial blood flows to the erectile tissues of the penis, but the veinal return flow of blood to the body is restricted so that the erectile tissues become filled or engorged with blood. The restriction is normally performed by sphincter muscles (not shown in FIG. 1 ) which function in response to sexual arousal. Some men have various problems, e.g., advancing age, physiological or psychological problems, or premature relaxation prior to completion of coitus. This may lead to these men and/or their partner being unsatisfied with their performance during sex. It is noted that the veinal return flow of blood (i.e., outflow from each corpus cavernosum penis 105 and 110 ) to the body is accomplished, at least in part, by blood flowing in veins (e.g., superficial dorsal vein 125 and deep dorsal vein 126 ) located near the outer circumference of the penis. These sphincter muscles and other muscles work together to physically and functionally support the penis when erect and then gradually contract after ejaculation. To achieve erection the brain sends impulses to the nerves in the penis to cause the multiple muscles around each corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ) to relax. This allows blood to flow, in part via cavernosal arteries ( 106 and 111 ), into the open spaces inside each respective corpus cavernosum penis (each of 105 and 110 ). This blood creates pressure making the penis expand which then compresses the veins (e.g., 125 and 126 ) that normally allow blood to drain. Once the blood is trapped, a muscle (not shown) located in the corpus cavernosum penis (each of 105 and 110 ) helps to sustain the erection. An erection is reversed once the muscles in the penis contract preventing further blood flow into corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ) and allowing veinal return flow of blood through veins 125 , 126 and other veins (not shown) to the body from each corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 ). [0004] Retractile testicle is a medical condition affecting mostly young children but can also be a problem for mature adult men. Retractile testicle refers to a condition where one or even two testicles may move back and forth between the scrotal sack and the groin. When the testicle is in the groin region it may cause discomfort or even pain and may have to be manipulated by hand to return it to its proper location in the scrotal sack. Obviously, it would be undesirable to have a testicle retract during sexual intercourse. Sometimes the retracted testicle cannot be moved back to its proper location in the scrotal sack and medical intervention may be required. This condition is sometimes referred to as an ascending testicle. [0005] The position of one testicle is usually independent of the position of the other testicle. That is, they may migrate independently. Retractile testicle is different from an undescended testicle, an undescended testicle is a medical condition known as cryptorchidism. The undescended testicle is one that has never properly entered the scrotal sack. Undescended testicles are not pertinent to this disclosure and will not be discussed further. [0006] The cremaster muscle is a thin pouch-like muscle in which each testicle rests. An overactive muscle may cause a testicle to become a retractile testicle. When the cremaster muscle contracts, it pulls the testicle up toward the body. Alternatively, even without retraction of the cremaster muscle, certain movements or positions during sexual intercourse may cause a testicle to retract and cause a disruption to the intercourse. The main purpose of the cremaster muscle is to control the temperature of the testicle. In order for a testicle to develop and function properly, it needs to be slightly cooler than normal body temperature. When the environment is warm, the cremaster muscle should be relaxed; when the environment is cold, the cremaster muscle contracts and draws the testicle toward the warmth of the body. The cremaster reflex may also be stimulated by rubbing the genitofemoral nerve on the inner thigh or by extreme emotion, such as anxiety. If the cremaster muscle is strong enough, it may cause a retractile testicle by pulling the testicle up out of the scrotal sack and into the groin. [0007] Prior art devices include “cock-rings” and other tourniquet type devices that completely encircle the penis and constrict blood circulation in the penis in an attempt to sustain an erection. However, penile constrictor rings and other tourniquet type devices are subject to certain well known disadvantages. First, they may be difficult to use because of application issues and timing of application such as having to be applied before an erection occurs. Second, they may be dangerous to use, in that if left in place too long, they may result in permanent damage to the penis because of restricted circulation. Third, if applied and fully operative at the moment of orgasm and ejaculation, they may interfere and reduce the pleasurable sensations of orgasm and ejaculation or even inhibit ejaculation altogether by constriction of the urethra 116 prohibiting the natural passage of bodily fluids. Further, tourniquet type devices, penile rings, and other prior art devices do not take into consideration a retractile testicle condition in any manner. To address all of these and other issues, the disclosed apparatus, in one embodiment, performs multiple functions and has several attributes that are explained further below to assist a male in his performance, enjoyment and comfort during sexual intercourse. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0008] The following figures form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present claimed subject matter, and should not be used to limit or define the present claimed subject matter. The present claimed subject matter may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the description of embodiments presented herein. Consequently, a more complete understanding of the present embodiments and further features and advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. For clarity, not all reference numerals will be repeated in conjunction with each of the drawings. Unless otherwise stated, directional terms (e.g., left, right top, bottom) used to discuss the disclosed apparatus are from the perspective of a person wearing the device. Additionally, like reference numerals in the drawings identify identical or substantially similar elements, wherein: [0009] FIGS. 1A-B illustrate a cross-sectional view 100 of a human penis; [0010] FIG. 2 illustrates a left-side view of apparatus 200 , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; [0011] FIG. 3 illustrates a front facing view of apparatus 200 , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; [0012] FIG. 4 illustrates a rear view of apparatus 200 , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; [0013] FIG. 5 illustrates a right-side view of apparatus 200 , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; [0014] FIG. 6 illustrates a second front facing view of apparatus 200 , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; [0015] FIG. 7 illustrates a side view at an angle of apparatus 200 , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; [0016] FIG. 8 illustrates an orientation of apparatus 200 , with respect to male genitalia, in an operative position in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and [0017] FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart 900 describing a possible method of manufacture of apparatus 200 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. NOTATION AND NOMENCLATURE [0018] Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claims to refer to particular components and configurations of an apparatus. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, the same component may be referred to by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . ” [0019] This disclosure describes embodiments of an apparatus 200 configured in the form of a substantially U-shape member to both constrict a portion of the outer circumferential portion of the penis and restrict movement of one or both testicles to ensure they stay within the scrotal sack. In use, apparatus 200 is an inverted U-shape from the perspective of the wearer as will be made clear in the following description. FIG. 8 shows such an apparatus 200 and selected relevant portion of the male anatomy, with apparatus 200 being shown in the orientation in which it would be worn. FIG. 8 shows the left side of apparatus 200 . The directional terms “left,” “right,” “front,” “rear,” “below,” “behind” and the like are used herein from the point of view of one wearing apparatus 200 . Thus, e.g., FIG. 8 shows the left side of apparatus 200 . Furthermore, while “front” refers to the side directed away from the body and “rear” refers to the side directed toward the body, as seen in FIG. 8 the “front” of apparatus 200 is also directed downward in the figure while the “rear” of the apparatus is also directed upward in the figure. One benefit of the disclosed apparatus is to facilitate and maintain an erection through partial constriction of the penis and another benefit is to deter if not prevent movement of a testicle from the scrotal sack back into the body. For purposes of this disclosure, prevention of movement of a testicle from the scrotal sack back into the body will refer to prevention of movement of a testicle from the scrotal sack into the “groin region.” The groin region may also be referred to as the abdomen in other literature; however, the term groin region will be used to indicate an undesirable location of the one or two testicles when they are not properly positioned within the scrotal sack. Additionally, when reference is made to the “torso” of the body, it is understood that the torso of the body does not include the scrotum or scrotal sack and it would be undesirable for a testicle to migrate from the scrotal sack to any part of the body inside the torso. The “torso” will be understood to include the groin region and inner thigh portions of both the left and right legs. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0020] The foregoing description of the figures is provided for the convenience of the reader. It should be understood, however, that the embodiments are not limited to the precise arrangements and configurations shown in the figures. Also, the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, and certain features may be shown exaggerated in scale or in generalized or schematic form, in the interest of clarity and conciseness. The same or similar parts may be marked with the same or similar reference numerals. [0021] While various embodiments are described herein, it should be appreciated that the present disclosure encompasses many inventive concepts that may be embodied in a wide variety of contexts. The following detailed description of example embodiments, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, is merely illustrative and is not to be taken as limiting the scope of the invention, as it would be impossible or impractical to include all of the possible embodiments and contexts of the invention in this disclosure. Upon reading this disclosure, many alternative embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art. For example, the two distinct benefits of this disclosure may be accomplished without a single integral apparatus [0022] The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof. Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in every embodiment disclosed in this specification. In the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions may need to be made to achieve the design-specific goals, which may vary from one implementation to another. It will be appreciated that such a development effort, while possibly complex and time-consuming, would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for persons of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. [0023] The present disclosure relates generally to an apparatus to assist in copulation and prevent undesired movement or displacement of the testicles. More particularly, this disclosure relates to an apparatus that circumferentially encompasses the upper portion of a penis at the juncture with the torso (i.e., at the base of penis). The disclosed apparatus further includes contoured extensions to fit between the scrotal sack and the torso such that the apparatus applies a squeezing type pressure on any superficial veins (not shown), the dorsal veins of the penis (e.g., veins 125 and 126 of FIG. 1A ), and the corpus cavernosum penis erectile tissues located on each side of the penis shaft (e.g., elements 105 and 110 of FIG. 1 ). Disclosed apparatus 200 therefore may be configured to assist in maintaining placement of the testicles in the scrotal sack by preventing their retraction into the abdomen region. Disclosed apparatus 200 is configured, in some embodiments, to perform at least four functions to enhance sexual intercourse and testicular control for the male partner wearing apparatus 200 . These four functions include, but are not limited to, 1) assisting in obtaining and maintaining an erection; 2) reducing or eliminating the condition referred to as retractile testicle; 3) permitting the natural passage of bodily fluids, at least in part because unlike penile rings or other tourniquet type devices, the disclosed apparatus does not constrict the urethra 116 ; and 4) because the disclosed apparatus only applies pressure on the erectile tissues of the penis during sexual arousal, the disclosed apparatus allows for normal evacuation of blood upon relaxation of the penis and can thus be worn for extended time periods to control a retractile testicle. [0024] Referring now to FIG. 2 , apparatus 200 is shown from a view of the left side of the apparatus. It will be noted that apparatus 200 in FIG. 2 is shown in an orientation with its front facing upward and thus the orientation of FIG. 2 is substantially upside down from that shown in FIG. 8 . Apparatus 200 has a top portion identified by reference number 230 located at the apex of the substantially U-shaped member, a left-side arc at element 220 and a left anchoring node as indicated by reference number 210 . Apparatus 200 has a front facing side 222 and a rear facing side 224 , seen also in FIG. 8 . Front facing side 222 and rear facing side 224 are named relative to how apparatus 200 would be worn in use. Thus, rear facing side 224 would be toward the torso (and groin region) of the person wearing apparatus 200 (and also angled upward, as seen in FIG. 8 ) and front facing side 222 would be facing away, in a frontward direction, from the person wearing apparatus 200 (and also angled downward, as seen in FIG. 8 ). Apparatus 200 , as shown in FIG. 2 , also has a torso-arc as illustrated by the region defined by element 240 . The torso-arc 240 is along rear facing side 224 and may be made so as to conform to the contour of the torso of the body while apparatus 200 is in use. That is, torso-arc 240 curves inward toward the torso of the person wearing apparatus 200 . Apparatus 200 will generally also curve around the base (or root) of the penis and each anchoring node (e.g., 210 ) will be behind the scrotal sack and between the scrotal sack and the torso, as shown in FIG. 8 . [0025] FIG. 3 illustrates a front view of apparatus 200 and provides a portion of a ruler 250 to indicate approximate scale for one example embodiment. It will be noted that many different sizes of apparatus 200 may be manufactured to adapt to different size males and may optionally be custom fit and/or built to order to achieve optimal results. Different sizes of apparatus 200 may allow for varying degrees of pressure to be applied to either an erect or a non-erect penis. Further, as the penis becomes erect, pressure applied by apparatus 200 may increase. In one embodiment, little or no pressure is applied to a non-erect penis and pressure will begin to be applied and increase as the corpus cavernosum penis (each of 105 and 110 ) fill with blood. FIG. 3 also introduces top inner portion 235 , right-side arc 225 , and right side anchoring node 215 of apparatus 200 . Left-side arc 220 and right side arc 225 may be configured to extend beyond a region of pressure applied by apparatus 200 to a penis and curve behind and apply a squeezing type pressure to the top portion of the scrotal sack to reduce movement of testicles. In one embodiment, anchoring nodes 210 and 215 are at least beyond a region of penile pressure applied by apparatus 200 in the direction of the gap or opening between respective ends of each arc element 220 and 225 . Although anchoring nodes 210 and 215 are illustrated at the terminal ends of their respective side arcs, it is possible that anchoring nodes 210 and 215 may be placed at an appropriate midpoint (e.g., midpoint 221 , not necessarily at the exact middle of arc element 220 or 225 ) along each arc with a portion of each arc extending beyond its corresponding anchoring node. This extension portion (not shown in the figures) for each arc may be formed as a continuation of the arc angle or continue at a lesser or greater angle. For example, the extension portion (not shown) may increase in angle (i.e., curve more sharply) and further curve around and behind the scrotal sack. Note also, in the embodiment of FIG. 3 , anchoring nodes 210 and 215 protrude from the rear facing side 224 of their respective side arc (e.g., 220 and 225 ). [0026] Referring now to FIGS. 4-7 , FIG. 4 illustrates a rear-view of apparatus 200 and shows a portion of a ruler 251 to indicate approximate scale for one example embodiment. FIG. 5 illustrates a view from the right side of apparatus 200 and shows elements from a right view perspective analogous to those described above for FIG. 2 . FIG. 6 illustrates a second front facing view of apparatus 200 and introduces elements 226 and 227 . Element 226 is to roughly indicate a point on the inside of right-side arc 225 and element 227 is to roughly indicate a corresponding point on the inside of left-side arc 220 . The region from the top inner portion 235 to point 226 and the region from top inner portion 235 to point 227 indicate regions where pressure from each inner arc portion would be applied to a penile shaft when apparatus 200 is in use. Obviously, different users would have slightly different points where pressure from each inner arc would end because of different size penises, so the locations of 226 and 227 are approximate. FIG. 7 illustrates a side view at an angle of apparatus 200 , in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In FIG. 7 the continued curvature of side arcs 220 and 225 toward anchoring nodes 210 and 215 (which in this example are at an endpoint of each respective side arc) in addition to torso arc 240 can be seen. To clarify, the curvature of the side arcs 220 and 225 is seen as in FIG. 7 as a curvature between foreground and background, while the torso arc 240 is seen in FIG. 7 as a curvature between top and bottom; in FIGS. 2, 5 and 8 only the torso arc 240 curvature can be seen, while in FIGS. 3, 4, and 6 only the side arc curvature can be seen. As explained above, if anchoring nodes (e.g., 210 and 215 ) are at a midpoint (e.g., 221 ) curvature of side arcs 220 and 225 may continue past each anchoring node (e.g., 210 and 215 ). [0027] Referring now to FIG. 8 , view 800 illustrates apparatus 200 in its operative (i.e. worn) position with point 810 illustrating the base of a non-erect penis 805 that corresponds to inner top 235 of apparatus 200 . Point 820 of FIG. 8 illustrates where the scrotal sack 840 attaches to a male groin region. Note that anchoring nodes 210 and 215 maintain a position beneath point 820 such that the scrotal sack 840 is slightly gripped to deter or prevent movement of one or more testicles 850 toward the groin region and to prevent slippage of apparatus 200 . As explained throughout this disclosure, apparatus 200 is configured to apply circumferential pressure to the upper portion and two side portions of penis 805 , where the upper portion includes the superficial dorsal vein ( 125 in FIG. 1 ) and deep dorsal vein ( 126 in FIG. 1 ) and the two side portions include corpus cavernosum penis ( 105 and 110 in FIG. 1 ). One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the phrase “the upper portion and two side portions including corpus cavernosum penis” as used in this disclosure refers generally to the area of penis 805 to the left of urethra 830 as shown in FIG. 8 . Note urethra 830 is the same as urethra 116 shown in cross-sectional view 100 of FIG. 1 . The gap between respective ends of side arcs 220 and 225 of apparatus 200 (not shown in FIG. 8 ) is adapted to position below and behind a bottom portion of penis 805 so that side arcs 220 and 225 do not cause substantial constriction at the bottom portion of penis 805 . The bottom portion of penis 805 is generally the area of penis 805 to the right of and including urethra 830 as shown in FIG. 8 . To be clear, reference is made to FIG. 1B to explain that “the upper portion and two side portions including corpus cavernosum penis,” where apparatus 200 provides circumferential pressure, generally refers to the area outlined circumferentially by element 190 in FIG. 1B , while the “bottom portion of the penis” generally refers to the area not outlined circumferentially by element 190 in FIG. 1B . It may be noted that while the directional terms “upper,” “bottom,” etc. are clearly reflected in FIG. 1B , in contrast, because FIG. 8 shows a non-erect rather than an erect penis, the “upper portion” appears on the left side and the “bottom portion” appears on the right side in FIG. 8 . [0028] This disclosure may include descriptions of various benefits and advantages that may be provided by various embodiments. One, some, all, or different benefits or advantages may be provided by different embodiments. For example, apparatus 200 may have different degrees of flexibility or rigidity and may be manufactured from a multitude of materials including but not limited to rubber, plastic, fiberglass, or any of a variety of metals, such as, stainless steel, chromed steel, aluminum, etc. Apparatus 200 may be made from a single material or multiple materials configured to collectively perform the disclosed benefits. In one example, apparatus 200 may be formed of a single shaped piece of plastic, formed, at least in part, by using a plastic extrusion process. In another example, a metal covered in a layer of rubber material may allow the metal material to provide structure and the rubber (or similar material) portion to provide comfort and grip. Apparatus 200 may be smooth or textured on its different surface areas. Texture may provide added benefit in function and feel or may simply provide aesthetic appeal. One example of texture enhancing function may be an enhanced grip on the person wearing apparatus 200 . As used in this disclosure, a material that is flexible but inelastic refers to a material that is not completely rigid and thus allowed to bend slightly but does not stretch and retract like, for example, a rubber band. A rigid material refers to a material that will either break or conform to a new shape after enough pressure is applied. For example, a rigid and non-bendable material may be glass which would hold its shape until a breaking force is applied. Alternatively, a rigid material may also be a bendable metal that would take on a new shape and not return on its own to its original shape after bending. Thus, a rigid and bendable material utilized to manufacture apparatus 200 may include a bendable metal that may be bent after purchase to be appropriately sized by a user. Clearly, if apparatus 200 were built from a rigid but bendable material, it would be desirable to require sufficiently more force to bend apparatus 200 than apparatus 200 is expected to encounter during use because apparatus 200 should substantially maintain its shape while in use. [0029] Referring now to FIG. 9 , process 900 illustrates a possible method of manufacture for an apparatus according to disclosed embodiments, such as apparatus 200 . As will be clear to those of ordinary skill in the art there are many different manufacturing processes that may be used to form an apparatus according to disclosed embodiments and this simplified process flow is merely one example with several optional steps. Beginning at block 905 , a substantially U-shaped member is created by forming a material in an appropriate shape in accordance with this disclosure. The forming process may consist of a single step or a combination of steps to result in an apparatus, such as apparatus 200 , in conformance with disclosed embodiments. Obviously, a choice of material to form the substantially U-shaped member may causes changes to a manufacturing process. At block 910 , anchoring nodes (e.g., 210 and 215 ) may be added to an already formed substantially U-shaped member using an overlay material. Clearly, anchoring nodes ( 210 and 215 ) may have been formed at the same time as forming the substantially U-shaped member, for example, by using an extrusion mold. At block 915 , a texture may be optionally added to one or more surfaces of the substantially U-shaped member if texture is desired and if texture was not already present from original creation or on the overlay material. It will be noted that the order of steps of process 900 may be altered in a number of ways. For example, forming the substantially U-shape may take place as a final step by bending a material or composite of materials that already have some attributes of the disclosed apparatus into the substantially U-shaped member. [0030] In view of the wide variety of useful permutations that may be readily derived from the example embodiments described herein, this detailed description is intended to be illustrative only, and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. What is claimed as the invention, therefore, are all implementations that come within the scope of the following claims, and all equivalents to such implementations.

An apparatus for assisting in copulation and preventing discomfort due to testicular retraction or displacement (e.g., retractile testicle) during copulation and other activities is disclosed. The apparatus substantially encompasses, circumferentially, the upper portion of the shaft of a penis without constricting the urethra area at the base of the shaft of the penis. The apparatus further conforms to the torso behind the scrotal sack (i.e., between scrotum and torso) to prevent undesired movement of testicles into the abdomen area. The apparatus has a substantial U-shape, the legs curving inwardly toward respective anchoring nodes. Anchoring nodes may be included at the end of each leg of the apparatus to assist in minimizing movement of the apparatus while in use. The apparatus may rigid or may be slightly flexible and, when in use as a copulation aid, provides pressure to restrict outflow of blood from corpora cavernosa thus assisting to maintain erection.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 06/185,188, filed Sept. 8, 1980 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,019. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to masking machines. More particularly, the instant invention relates to masking machines such as the type used for applying tape and paper to a surface preparatory to applying a finish to the surface. In a further aspect, the present invention concerns improvements to enhance the utility of masking machines. 2. Description of the Prior Art The prior art is replete with various devices for applying tape and paper to a surface in preparation for painting, trimming and other finishing techniques. In general, such devices, which have achieved broad acceptance by both industrial and non-commercial users alike, are employed for protecting a designating portion of a surface from a finish or treatment applied to an adjacent portion of the surface. Exemplary is the general painting and decorative trimming of vehicle bodies, walls of buildings and other large and small items in connection with vocational and advocational pursuits. Generally referred to as masking machines, the devices are available in a variety of sizes and configurations especially adapted for various uses. While having similar function, specifically the dispensing of tape and paper, and having commonly analogous components including a holder for a roll of tape, a holder for a roll of paper and a cutting edge for severing the tape and the paper, the various masking machines present exceedingly dissimilar appearances. The apron machine, for example, is usually a large, bulky, floor-supported apparatus. The hand held machine, on the other hand, is a relatively lightweight compact unit. Exemplary of masking machines, and herein chosen for purposes of orientation in connection with the instant invention, is the hand held device set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,214. The referenced device includes a handled frame having a rotatably affixed paper roll holder and a rotatably affixed tape roll holder for supporting a roll of coiled paper sheet and a roll of coiled, pressure sensitive tape, respectively. The holders, which have parallel axes of rotation, are oriented such that the tape is dispensed along and overlapping an edge of the paper sheet. As the machine is moved along, the paper and the tape are drawn therefrom and the free portion of the tape is adhesively secured to the surface by the wiping action of the curved portion of a guide bar. When the end of the area to be masked has been reached, the tape and paper are severed by an elongate cutting edge extending from the frame parallel to the axis of rotation of the holders. The masking machine, as described above, has proven to satisfactorily achieve the objects for which it was devised. This is attested, in part, by commercial success. Observation, however, has indicated areas of interest and concern not before considered in connection with the instant machine or analogous devices. Tape and paper, for example, are available in various widths. Users, therefore, frequently exchange the rolls of tape and paper in accordance with the requirements of the immediate task. As a result, the cardboard tube forming the core of the roll becomes enlarged, impairing proper fit of the roll upon the holder. An analogous problem of improper fit, either too loose or too tight, occurs in new rolls as a result of the inherent variance in the size of cores. Observations of operators utilizing the machine has revealed other phenomena. For example, users frequently carry an additional roll of tape for periodic or continuous taping along the free edge of the paper sheet. Also, it is noted that the paper tension spring which insures even movement of the roll of paper and prevents inadverent unrolling requires independent manual manipulation as the paper roll is installed upon the paper roll holder. In view of the foregoing and other observations, experimentation has been conducted for the purpose of improving the referenced masking machine and other similar devices. Accordingly, it is an object of the instant invention to provide improvements for masking machines. Another object of the invention is the provision of improvements which will enhance the function of the machine and facilitate the convenience of the operator. Still another object of the invention is to provide improved means for detachably securing the roll of tape and the roll of paper to the respective roll holders. And another object of this invention is the provision of an improved roll holder which will properly accept rolls of varying size. Yet another object of the invention is to provide means which will reduce manual manipulation while affixing a roll of paper. And still another object of the invention is the provision of presenting a conveniently available roll of tape for selective use by the operator. Yet still another object of the invention is to provide selectively usable means for optional continuous taping along the free edge of the paper sheet. And a further object of the present invention is the provision of improved paper tensioning means. Still a further object of the invention is to provide means which facilitate the rapid and convenient exchange of rolls upon the roll holders. Yet still a further object of the invention is the provision of improvements, as above, which are usable upon hand held and other masking machines. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly, to achieve the desired objects of the instant invention in accordance with a preferred embodiment thereof, first provided are retention means usable in connection with the respective roll holders for holding the roll of tape and the roll of paper sheet. The retention means includes an element extendably and retractably movable relative the holder and normally extendably biased so as to engage the bore of the respective roll. More specifically, the retention means includes a flexible contact element having an outwardly projecting contact portion which engages the bore of the roll. Next provided are means for checking the uncoiling of the paper sheet including an arm having a fixed end pivotally connected to the frame of the machine and a bearing element carried at the free end. Biasing means, preferrably a torsion spring carried at the fixed end of the arm, urges the bearing element toward the holder for bearing against the outer surface of the roll of paper. More specifically, the bearing element is in the form of a pivotally connected roller. Also carried at the free end of the arm are guide means for lifting the arm and positioning the bearing element over the outer surface of the roll in response to the movement of the roll during assembly with the roll holder. The guide means may include a camming surface. Further improvements for the masking machine includes tape dispensing means carried by the frame of the machine for supporting an auxiliary roll of tape at a position remote from the primary roll of tape. In a further aspect, the tape dispensing means includes an auxiliary tape roll holder and an auxiliary cutting edge for severing the tape. The auxiliary cutting edge is carried by an arm extending from the frame of the machine. Yet another improvement includes an auxiliary tape applying unit detachably securable to the machine for supporting a second roll of tape which is dispensed along the free edge of the paper sheet. More specifically, the tape applying unit includes an auxiliary tape roll holder and means for detachably securing the auxiliary tape roll holder to the machine. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the attachment means includes a subframe having the auxiliary tape roll holder pivotally secured thereto and a support member extending therefrom and detachably securable to the frame of the machine. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing, and further and more specific objects of the instant invention will become readily apparent to those silled in the art from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a prior art hand held masking machine incorporating improvements constructed in accordance with the teachings of the instant invention; FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the right-hand end of the device of FIG. 1, the roll of tape being removed for purposes of illustration; FIG. 3 is a side elevation view taken from the left-hand end of the illustration of FIG. 1, the roll of tape and the roll of paper being removed for purposes of illustration; FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the masking machine of FIG. 1 and illustrating further improvements thereof; FIG. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of the forward portion of the device of FIG. 1 especially illustrating a particular improvement thereof; FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the improvement shown in FIG. 5; FIG. 7 is an enlarged front elevation view of the improved tape roll holder shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 8 is a side elevation view of the improved tape roll holder of FIG. 7; FIG. 9 is a rear elevation view of the improved tape roll holder illustrated in FIG. 7; and FIG. 10 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of the improved tape roll holder seen in FIG. 3; DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Turning now to the drawings in which like reference characters indicate corresponding elements throughout the several views, attention is first directed to FIG. 1 which shows a hand held masking machine including a frame 20 having substantially flat section 22, offset section 23 and offset bracket 24. Offset section 23 and bracket 24 extend in opposite directions from flat section 22. For purposes of orientation, it is considered that frame 20 includes a forward portion 25 and a rearward portion 27, as further seen in FIG. 2. At the forward portion 25, frame 20 is provided with a transverse elongate mounting bracket 28 having outer arcuate surface 29. Frame 20, including each of the foregoing named elements, is integrally formed of plastic in accordance with conventional injection moulding techniques. An elongate guide bar 30, stamped from relatively thin sheet metal, is detachably carried by mounting bracket 28. Guide bar 30 includes an arcuate portion 32 and serrated cutting edge 33. Orientated perpendicularly to flat section 22, guide bar 30 further includes a fixed end 34 detachably secured to mounting bracket 28 and a free end 35. Arcuate surface 29 of bracket 28 is matingly received within arcuate portion 32. Tape roll holder 36 is rotatably mounted upon a spindle, not immediately illustrated, integral with rearward portion 27 of frame 20. Holder 36 is retained upon the spindle by means of a washer 37 and a screw 38 which is threaded into the spindle. Holder 36 rotates about axis A, which is generally parallel to guide bar 30, especially cutting edge 33. A roll 39 of coiled, pressure-sensitive tape 40 having core 42 with bore 43 is detachably carried by tape roll holder 36. A roll 44 of coiled paper sheet 45 having first end 47, second end 48 and outer surface 49 is held by a paper roll holder rotatably carried by offset section 23. The paper roll holder, which will be described in further detail as the description ensues, is rotatable about axis B which is parallel to axis A. Elongate handle 50, having an axis generally parallel to flat section 22 and generally perpendicular to axes A and B, extends from offset bracket 24. During operation, a human hand, such as designated by the reference character 52, holds handle 50 and moves the masking machine in the direction of arrowed line C. Accordingly, as sheet 45 is dispensed and remains stationary, tape roll 39 and paper roll 44 rotate in the direction of arrowed lines D and E, respectively. Paper roll 44 is offset relative tape roll 39 such that tape 40 overlaps end 47. Therefore, tape 40 includes a first continuous component 53 which is secured to the edge of paper sheet 45 and a second component 54 which is available for continuous adhesion to the surface to be masked. Arcuate portion 32 of guide bar 30 functions as a shoe wiping along tape 40 to ensure adhesion to the surface. For purposes of orientation, sheet 45 is considered to have a fixed edge 55 and a free edge 57. The foregoing description of the prior art hand held masking machine is set forth for purposes of environment and orientation concerning the improvements which are the subject of the instant application. It is understood that the above described masking machine is intended to be typical of such devices and not limiting upon the improvements hereinafter set forth. For a further description of such machines, attention is invited to U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,021, issued 20 June 1978 and entitled HAND HELD MASKING MACHINE. Further detailed description of the machine will be made as necessary in connection with the improvements of the instant invention as will now be described in detail. IMPROVED PAPER TENSIONING MEANS Attention is now directed to FIG. 4 which generally shows the improvements of the instant invention including the improved paper tensioning means, generally designated by the reference character 60, for applying tension to the outer surface of the paper roll and checking uncoiling of the paper sheet. As the description ensues, it will become apparent to those skilled in the art that the paper tensioning means 60 has a further utility in connection with other apparatus for dispensing sheet material from a coiled roll thereof. Referring more specifically to FIGS. 5 and 6, it is seen that the improved paper tensioning means 60 includes an arm 62 having fixed end 63 and free end 64. Aperture 65 extends through free end 64. Screw 67, passing through washer 68 and aperture 65, pivotally connects fixed end 63 to frame 20 in accordance with conventional practice. The pivotal axis of arm 62 about screw 67 is generally parallel to previously described axes A and B of the exemplary hand held masking machine. Recess 69, concentric with aperture 65 and notch 70, are formed in the free end 64 of arm 62. In addition to an aperture for receiving screw 67, connection of the instant improvement requires further modification in the form of opening 72 formed in frame 20. Conventional torsion spring 73 having ends 74 and 75, resides within recess 69. End 74 resides within notch 70. End 75 resides within opening 72. Accordingly, torsion spring 73 functions as biasing means for urging free end 64 of arm 62 in a direction toward paper roll holder 77 as indicated by arrowed line D in FIG. 3. A projection 78 extends from the free end 64 of arm 62 in a direction toward the fixed end 34 of guide bar 30. Roller 79 is secured to projection 78 by washer 80 and screw 82 in accordance with conventional practice. The axis of rotation of roller 79 is substantially parallel to the axis of rotation B of paper roll holder 77. An ear 83 projects from free end 64 of arm 62 in a direction toward free end 35 of guide bar 30. Ear 83 terminates on the underside with a camming surface 84, which for purposes of orientation, is considered to diverge upwardly in a direction toward the free end 35 of guide bar 30. During operation, roller 79 functions as a bearing element, and in response to spring 73, maintains tension upon the outer surface 49 of roll 44 ensuring the even movement of roll 44 during the dispensing of paper sheet 45, and, as is apparent from FIG. 1, urges component 53 of tape 40 onto the edge of paper sheet 45 so as to ensure adhesion of the tape thereto. The tension of roller 79 against roll 44 further ensures that it does not become inadvertently unrolled during storage or transportation between uses. Camming surface 84 functions as guide means for lifting arm 62 and positioning roller 79 over the outer surface 49 of roll 44 in response to movement of roll 44 during assembly with roll holder 77. During assembly, roll 44 is moved along axis b in a direction toward frame 20. During this movement, first end 47 of paper roll 44 contacts surface 84 causing arm 62 to move in a direction away from roller 77, counter to the direction of arrowed line D and compressing spring 73. Accordingly, the outer surface 49 of roll 44 will pass under the free end 64 of arm 62 and roller 79. Ear 83 also functions as a handle for manual rotation of arm 62, if desired. FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate paper tensioning means 60 during operation. IMPROVED PAPER ROLL HOLDING MEANS Referring again to FIG. 4, there is seen improved paper roll holding means, generally designated by the reference character 90, which is a modification of conventional prior art roll holding means. In accordance with the masking machine described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2, which typifies the prior art, a spindle 92 extends from offset section 23 of frame 20 in a direction toward the free end 35 of guide bar 30. Paper roll holder 77, having inner end 93, outer end 94 and fluted outer surface 95, further includes blind bore 97 which is rotatably journaled upon spindle 92. Screw 98, passing through washer 99 and outer end 94, threadedly engages the free end of spindle 92 for attachment of holder 77 to frame 20. Conventional prior art practice teaches that fluted outer surface 95 is slightly larger than the bore of the cardboard core of the paper roll whereby the flutes partially embed within the core for retention of the paper roll. Roll holder 77 is modified, by the teachings of the instant invention as seen in FIG. 10, by a counterbore 100 and four equally spaced slot 102 extending inwardly from inner end 93. A further modification includes a pair of diametrically opposed recesses 103, only one specifically herein illustrated, in outer surface 95 extending inwardly from outer end 94 in alignment with two of the slots 102. Retention member 104, fabricated of a flexible material such as music wire, includes elongate contact elements 105, each having a forward end 107 and a rearward end 108. Intermediate ends 107 and 108, each contact element 105 is bent to form outwardly projecting contact portion 109. Rearward ends 108 terminate with inwardly directed portions integrally joined as arcuate member 110. Retention member 104 is assembled with holder 77 such that rearward ends 108 of contact elements 105 extend through respective slots 102 and forward ends 107 reside within respective recesses 103. Arcuate member 110 resides within counterbore 100 partially encircling spindle 92. Spring guide 112 includes ring element 113 slidably received within counterbore 100 and abuting arcuate member 110 and ends 108 of retention member 104. Four equally spaced fingers 114 project from ring element 113 in a direction toward frame section 23. Fingers 114 are slidably received within respective slots 102 and encase compression spring 115 such that spring 115 bears against ring element 113 to ensure pressure against retention member 104. The other end of spring 115 bears against frame 20. Spring 115 functions as biasing means normally urging retention element 104 in a direction toward the outer end 94 of roll holder 77. The normal distance across contact portions 109 is greater than the diameter of the bore of a paper roll. The paper roll is assembled with holder 77 in a direction from outer end 94 toward inner end 93. In response to movement of the paper roll, contact elements 105 flex such that contact element 109 move toward outer surface 95 and ends 107 and 108 extend. That is, ends 107 move toward end 94 within recesses 103 and ends 108 move within slots 102 toward end 93. It is noted that the distance across ends 107, residing within recesses 103, is less than the diameter of the bore of the core of the paper roll. The employment of retention member 104 suggests that the outer surface 95 of holder 77 may be reduced in size to not larger than the diameter of the core of the paper roll. IMPROVED TAPE ROLL HOLDING MEANS The improved tape roll holding means of the instant invention, generally designated by the reference character 120 in FIG. 4, in general similarity to the improved paper roll holding means 90, is a modification of conventional tape roll holding means. The conventional tape roll holding means, as exemplified by the previously described hand held masking machine, includes a tape roll holder 122 having inner end 123, outer end 124 and cylindrical outer surface 125. Spaced apart outwardly projecting longitudinally extending ribs 127 normally engage the bore of the core of the tape roll as previously described. Bore 127, having a counterbore not shown but extending inwardly from inner end 123, extends axially through holder 122. The counterbore is rotatably received upon spindle 128 projecting from frame 20 in a direction opposite spindle 92. Screw 129 passing through bore 127 and carrying washer 130 is threaded into spindle 128 for attachment of holder 122 to frame 20 in accordance with conventional practice. The counterbore 132, concentric with bore 127 and sized to rotatably receive spindle 128, is illustrated in FIG. 9, which, along with FIGS. 7 and 8, illustrate the modifications of the instant invention. Tape roll holder 122 is modified by the formation of four radial slots 133 extending inwardly from inner end 123 and four openings 134 extending longitudinally inward from outer end 124. Each opening 134, which is preferrably near outer surface 125, is aligned with a respective slot 133. Two identical retention members 135 are carried by roll holder 122. Each retention member 135 cooperates with two slots 133 and two openings 134. Each retention member 135, in general similarity to previously described retention member 104, is generally U-shaped including contact elements 137 having forward end 138 and rearward ends 139. Intermediate ends 137 and 139, each contact element 137 is bent to form outwardly projecting contact portion 140. Rearward ends 139 are directed inwardly extending through slots 133 and integrally joined by member 142. Each forward end 138 is generally hook-shaped having a terminal portion thereof slidably extending into a respective opening 134. Being commonly fabricated of a flexible material, such as music wire, the function and operation of retention element 135 is generally analogous to that of retention element 104. Contact elements 137, by virtue of the material of construction, are normally biased outwardly from the outer surface 125 of holder 122 so as to engage the bore of the roll. During assembly of the roll with the holder, contact portions 140 deflect inwardly imparting longitudinal movement to ends 138 and 139 within the openings 134 and slots 133, respectively. AUXILIARY TAPE DISPENSING MEANS The auxiliary tape dispensing means of the instant invention, generally designated by the reference character 150 in FIG. 4, includes a tape roll holder 122 having retention members 135 as previously described in connection with FIGS. 7-8 and combination bracket 152. Combination bracket 152 includes arm 153 having fixed end 154 and free end 155. Boss 157 carried at free end 155 is shaped to be received against frame 20. Specifically, boss 157 terminates with a surface 158 which bears upon an offset section 23 and a depending flange 159 which extends over the edge thereof. Spindle 160, sized to be rotatably received within bore 132, projects from fixed end 154 in a direction opposite the direction of boss 157. Screw 162 extending through washer 163, bore 127 and bore 164 coaxial with spindle 160 and boss 157, threadedly engages opening 165 in offset section 23 to secure the assembly to frame 20. While holder 122 is free to rotate, combination bracket 152 is stablized against rotation by the abutment of flange 159 against the edge of offset section 23. Bar 167, extending upwardly from free end 155, supports serrated cutting edge 168. Bar 167 is spaced sufficiently from holder 122 to accommodate a roll of tape therebetween. It is also noted that cutting edge 168 is generally parallel to the axis of rotation of holder 112. The positioning of auxiliary tape dispensing means 150 on offset section 23 in close proximity to handle 50, reduces the leverage and imparts maximum stability between the hands of the user as tape is drawn from the roll upon auxiliary tape roll holder 122 and severed upon auxiliary cutting edge 168. AUXILIARY TAPE APPLYING MEANS Auxiliary tape applying means, generally designated by the reference character 170 in FIG. 4, is another improvement contemplated by the present invention. The immediate improvement is detachably securable to a masking machine for the purpose of applying tape along the free edge 57 of paper sheet 45 in an arrangement similar to the application of tape along the fixed edge 55 of paper sheet 45. The auxiliary tape applying means includes subframe 172 having first offset section 173 and second offset section 174 terminating with respective first and second free ends 175 and 177. An auxiliary tape roll holder, another tape roll holder 122 which may or may not be modified by retention members 135, is secured to first offset section 173 proximate end 175 in accordance with means herein previously described. An auxiliary paper roll holder, another holder 77 which may or may not include retention member 104, is secured to second offset section 174 proximate end 177 by means previously described. Attachment means for detachably securing subframe 172 to frame 20 includes elongate support member 178 having inner end 179 and outer end 180. A socket 182 is formed in inner end 179. Several equally spaced grooves 183 are carried by support member 178, extending inwardly from inner end 179 and communicating with socket 182. Correspondingly, another socket 182 and grooves 183 are formed in outer end 180. A projection 184 having tabs 185 extends from subframe 172 in a direction toward frame 20. A similar projection 187 having tabs 188 extends from frame 20 in a direction toward subframe 172. Auxiliary tape applying means 170 is optionally attached to a masking machine when it is desired to adhesively affix both edges of the paper sheet to the surface to be masked. Paper, such as roll 44, is available in various widths. Accordingly, several support members 178 are available corresponding in length to the available widths of paper. The initial step of assembly includes selection of the proper length of support member 178 and attachment thereof to subframe 172. During assembly projection 178 is entered into socket 182 with tab 185 entering respective grooves 183. The assembly is then moved in a direction toward frame 20 with auxiliary roll holder 77 being guided into the bore of roll 44 and the other socket 182 and associated grooves 183 being engaged with projection 187 and tabs 188, respectively. The engagement of the respective tabs and grooves prohibits rotation of subframe 172 relative frame 20. It is noted that the axis of rotation of the auxiliary paper roll holder is coincident with previously described axis B. Due to the offset of subframe 172, a roll of tape held by auxiliary tape roll holder 122 is dispensed to overlap free edge 57 of paper sheet 45 as previously described in connection with the dispensing of tape 40. For this purpose, the axis of rotation of the auxiliary tape roll holder carried by subframe 172 is parallel to the axis of rotation of the auxiliary paper roll holder carried by subframe 172. It is also within the scope of the instant invention, that for purposes of convenience in hand held masking machines, subframe 172 is oriented such that the auxiliary paper roll holder rotates about an axis of rotation coincident with the axis of rotation of the primary tape roll holder carried by frame 20. IMPROVED TAPE GUIDING MEANS With reference to FIG. 1, it is seen that the tape roll 39 is mounted upon freely rotating holder 36. Tape 40 extends as a ribbon between roll 39 and paper roll 44. Inadvertent advancement of roll 39 in the direction of arrowed line D, without corresponding movement of paper roll 44, uncoils and dispenses surplus tape 40 which then adheres to offset section 23. Correction must be made, normally by rerolling of the surplus tape upon the roll, prior to further use of the machine. The instant invention remedies the foregoing malady by virture of improved tape guiding means illustrated in FIG. 4 and generally designated by the reference character 190. Improved tape guiding means 190 includes roller 192 secured to frame 20 in accordance with conventional techniques by washer 193 and screw 194. A semicircular recess 195 for receiving roller 192 is formed at the location previously occupied by the apex of sides 197 and 198 of offset section 23. Inadvertently unrolled surplus tape will sag between the roll of tape and the roll of paper becoming adhered to roller 192. The roller 192, being pivotal about an axis parallel to axes A and B, functions as a guide to feed the surplus tape onto the roll of paper. This is in contrast to the previous arrangement in which the tape became adhesively secured to an immovable object. Various modifications and changes to the embodiments herein chosen for purposes of illustration will readily occur to those skilled in the art. To the extent that such modifications and variations do not depart from the spirit of the invention, they are intended to be included within the scope thereof which is assessed only by a fair interpretation of the following claims.

A roll of tape or paper is releaseably retained upon a roll holder by a flexible retention member, carried by the holder and normally outwardly biased to engage the core of the roll. A pivotally connected arm is biased to urge a bearing element at the free end thereof against the outer surface of the paper roll to check uncoiling of the paper sheet. The bearing element is automatically lifted and positioned in response to movement of the roll against a camming surface during attachment of the roll to the roll holder. A detachably securable auxiliary roll holder applies tape along the normally free edge of the paper sheet. Also disclosed is an auxiliary tape dispenser carried by the frame of a portable masking machine.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/617,978, filed on Nov. 26, 1990, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 07/441,836, filed Nov. 27, 1989. Application Ser. No. 07/617,978 is now U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,105 and application Ser. No. 07/441,836 is abandoned. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to highly advanced industrial processes to recover gold from its ores using a new combination process that includes (Au°) dissolution and oxidation to a gold ion-cyanide ion complex and subsequent or simultaneous biosorption of the dissolved gold complexes using certain microorganisms. The cyanide released by such microorganisms, which include algae, fungi and bacteria, is used to oxidize, dissolve and biosorp gold from metal ores or other media in a pollution free process. Thereafter, the dissolved gold may be selectively reclaimed in high yield. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION Gold is one of the rarest metals on earth. It occurs naturally as the reduced metal (Au°) or associated with quartz or pyrites as telluride (AuTe 2 ), petzite (AuAg) 2 Te or sylvanite (AuAg)Te 2 . Most frequently gold is dispersed in low concentration throughout large volumes of material, usually rock. Gold deposits occur in belts across the earth's crust in various forms: placers or aluminum quartz veins in sedimentary or indigenous formation, blanket or pebble beds or conglomerates, or as base metal ore associations. Gold bearing veins are found in rocks of all compositions and geologic ages, deposited in cavities and associated with rocks such as slates or schists. One object of this invention is to introduce novel methods for gold mining, which, unlike the methods used to date, do not pollute the air or water and are environmentally sound and safe. Another object of this invention is to increase gold production and the available domestic gold reserve. This invention achieves the latter object by both improving the economics of existing operations and making cost-effective the recovery of certain types of low grade material and generally surface minable material prevalent in the United States. The invention also may be used with carbon containing ores which are not processable with prior art methods. Each of these objectives will be explained below. Methods for recovering gold from its ores (termed "beneficiation methods") are extremely expensive and labor and heavy machinery intensive. Gold is one of the least reactive metals on earth. It does not combine with oxygen or with nearly any other chemicals, no matter how corrosive. Gold does combine with cyanide, however, and all of the commonly used industrial methods for removing gold ores from rock require the use of cyanide which is highly toxic, hazardous to the environment and difficult to remove. Basically, the first step in all methods is to subject the ore to cyanide leaching followed by a gold recovery process. The three known methods for extracting gold from the cyanide leach solution are the "Merrill-Crowe" or zinc dust precipitation process, the carbon-in pulp process, and the carbon in-leach process. Other gold recovery processes use gravity methods to extract the high proportion of free gold and flotation-roasting leaching to extract the remaining gold. Cyanide and cyanide by-products from cyanide leaching operations are responsible for several environmental impacts, including air and water pollution and solid waste disposal contamination. Free cyanide and various cyanide complexes are the by products of current leaching methods. Although cyanide will degrade, for example in a surface stream exposed to ultraviolet light, aeration and complexing with various chemicals present in the stream water, in-stream degradation is a wholly unsatisfactory approach to removing cyanide from the environment. Cyanide solutions are often kept in open ponds and frequently birds or other animals are exposed and killed by the toxic material. Air pollution with cyanide also is an unavoidable result of prior art methods for heapleaching of gold. Cyanide solutions are sprayed onto the heaps, The cyanide drifts and contaminates the surrounding environment. The air releases of cyanide instantaneously and adversely impact wildlife and vegetation. As is the case with cyanide released into water, eventually the cyanide is degraded by ultraviolet light, but not until after it has adversely affected the environment. The EPA directs considerable efforts and expense in regulating cyanide releases into the air and water. Chronic cyanide toxicity due to long-term exposures to low levels is also a health factor to be considered and, the effects such exposures are not presently well known. For these reasons there has been a long standing need for gold mining processes which do not pollute the environment with cyanide and cyanide by-products. This invention creates much lower levels of cyanide ion and the ion is produced in the presence of microorganisms which are capable of rapidly and efficiently metabolizing it. The most common methods for treating and destroying residual cyanide from heapleaching involve chemical treatments, including for example, alkali chlorination or other means of oxidizing cyanide to its intermediate or end constituents. These methods produce unstable cyanide complexes which gradually break down to produce residual free cyanide. For these reasons, the methods are inadequate from an environmental impact standpoint. The present invention is a breakthrough in gold mining technology which eliminates substantial environmental problems extant with the current technology. The present invention uses bacteria and algae and biotechnological methods to dissolve the gold. After biosorption, the gold is recovered from its ores, again without releasing harmful cyanide or cyanide by-products into the environment. As previously mentioned, another object of this invention is to increase gold production and the domestic gold reserves. The demand for gold is causing the rapid depletion of worldwide reserves. It has been estimated that most high grade ore reserves will be depleted within the next 10-50 years. Another problem for the United States is that many strategic metals, including gold, are vulnerable to embargoes. It would be very desirable for the U.S. to increase its domestic gold reserves by mining available low grade ores. Furthermore, much of the gold mined in the U.S. is exported to Korea and Japan for refining, processing and finishing. This is an undesirable balance of trade: like an underdeveloped country, the U.S. is exporting raw material resources and importing finished goods and gold ready for industrial applications. As a result, the United States consumes more gold than it produces. One of the reasons it is expensive to mine and refine gold in the U.S. is the cost of environmental protection. As will be explained below, the present invention solves all of these problems. There are four types of gold deposits: placer deposits, lode deposits, blanket (or reef-type) deposits and disseminated deposits. Placer deposits are flat-laying deposits composed of unconsolidated materials, such as gravel and sands, in which the gold particles occur as free particles ranging in size from nuggets to fine flakes. They are the result of erosion and transport of rock. Placer deposits most commonly are mined using water based surface methods, including hydraulicking, dredging and open pit mining. These deposits usually are not mined in underground operations. Lode deposits, by contrast consist of gold particles contained in quartz veins or country rock. Lode deposits usually are mined in deep underground mines using a variety of methods, although sometimes lode deposits are surface mined. The blanket or reef-type deposits are deposits in which the gold exists in quartz conglomerates. Such deposits have resulted from the consolidation of placer deposits. These types of deposits are mined exclusively using underground mining techniques. Disseminated gold deposits have three identifying characteristics. The gold mineralization is fairly evenly distributed throughout the deposit rather than being concentrated in veins (as in lode deposits) or in pay-streaks (as in placer deposits); the deposits consist of in place materials rather than transported materials; and the disseminated deposits are less flat. Generally, these types of deposits are mined using surface mining techniques. Nearly all of the world's gold production has come from mining reef-type or placer type deposits in the past. The Witwaterstrand and Orange Free State deposits in the Republic of Africa, the richest gold deposits in the world, are reef-type deposits. The mining in the United States and Australia by comparison, is now predominantly mining disseminated deposits. This type of gold mining is a relatively recent development, having begun in 1965. An estimated 75% of the recoverable gold in the United States is composed of surface minable material and an estimated 25% of the recoverable Australian gold is surface minable. By contrast, the greatest percentages of gold in the Republic of South Africa and Canada are contained in deep deposits which must be mined in large, underground operations. In addition to the surface minable gold, there are large bodies of gold ore currently are unminable in the United States because of problems with the current technology. This invention is most useful for in situ and with surface minable ore, although the invention also is useful with gold ore that has been pulverized and put into tanks. The present invention makes surface mining of gold easier and more cost effective, thereby increasing the domestic gold reserve. By greatly reducing the costs of mining gold and by eliminating the environmental problems with the current technology, it now becomes more attractive and feasible to refine and finish gold domestically. Description of the Prior Art Certain types of microorganisms, including algae, bacteria and fungi and even some higher plants are known to selectively accumulate gold if it is available in the water or soil, although not in amounts that heretofore would be profitable to extract for the metal value. See generally Shacklette, H. T., Lakin, H. W., Hubert, A. E., and Curtin, G. C. Absorption of Gold by Plants, Geological Survey Bulletin 1314 (U.S. Government Printing Office 1976); Jones, R. C. Gold Content of Water, Plants and Animals, Geological Survey Circular 625 (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970). Certain bacteria and algae, for example, are known to be cyanogenic. Castric, P. A. The Metabolism of HCN by Bacteria, 233-261 in Cyanide in Biology (B. Vennesland et al. ed.) Academic Press 1981; Smith, A. D. and Hunt, R. J., Solubilization of Gold by Chromobacterium violaceum, J. Chem. Tech. Biotechnol. 1985, 35B, 110-116; Vennesland, B., Pistorius, E. K. Gewitz, H. S., HCN Production By MicroAlgae 349-361 in Cyanide in Biology (B. Vennesland et al. ed.) Academic Press 1981. Since the early 1900's scientists postulated that plants had a major role in the deposition of gold throughout geological time. The biological method for dissolving gold may involve one or more poorly defined processes. Some authors have tried to understand these processes, with little success. See e.g., Korobushkina, E. D., Chernyak, A. S., and Mineev, G. G., Dissolution of Gold by Microorganisms and Products of Their Metabolism, Mikrobiologiya 43:49-54 (Engl. transl. p. 37-41). It has been postulated that certain proteins in the microorganisms (known as metallothioneins) may be responsible for gold concentration and uptake. The first metallothionein was discovered in the early 1980's in horse kidney cortex. It bound zinc, copper and cadmium and was characterized by a molecular weight under 6000, an unusually high cysteine content and a large number of metal-thiolate bonds. Since then, related proteins have been isolated in nearly every variety of organism tested. Metallothioneins currently known selectively bind zinc, copper, lead, nickel, tin, cadmium, copper, bismuth, mercury, silver, and gold. Depending on their particular structure, the metallothioneins can be extremely selective. In nature, this means that the one metal will be accumulated to the nearly complete exclusion of the other. In 1986, a medical research team investigating anti-arthritic drugs reported the discovery of a metallothionein capable of selectively concentrating gold. See generally, Metallothionein II Proceedings of the Second International Meeting on Metallothionein and other Low Molecular Weight Metal-Binding Proteins, Zurich, August 21-24, 1985 (Kagi, J. H. R. and Kojima, Y., ed.) reprinted in EXS Experientia Supplementum Vol. 52. To date, no one has developed a process for using cyanide-producing microorganisms or metallothioneins for gold mining, or for that matter, as mineral processing tools. The use of microorganisms or plants in the field of gold mining has been limited. See generally, Biotechnology For the Mining, Metal Refining and Fossil Fuel Processing Industries, May 28-30, 1985 Rensselear Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York (H. L. Enrlich and D. S. Holmes ed.). Plants have been used as geobotanical indicators of gold. Girling, C. A., Peterson, P. J. and Warren, H. V., Plants as Indicators of Gold Mineralization at Watson Bar, British Columbia, Canada, Economic Geology 74: 902-907(1979). Microorganisms also have been used in the pretreatment processes, including leaching and pretreatment of refractory sulfide ores. In bioleaching, microorganisms are used prior to cyanidation to break down arsenopyrite and pyrite within the ore. When present, these compounds occlude the gold thereby decreasing recoverable yield. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,690,894 and 4,789,481 to Brierley et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,788 to Hutchins et al., Hutchins, J. A., Briericy, J. A., and Briericy, C. L., Microbial Pretreatment Of Refractory Sulfide and Carbonaceous Ores Improves the Economics of Gold Recovery, Mining Engineering 40:249-254 (1988); Hutchins, S. R., Davidson, M. S., Briericy, J. A., and Briericy, C. L., Microorganisms In Reclamation of Metals, Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 40:311-36 (1986). Microorganisms also have been used in the treatment of mine effluents for removal of residual cyanide. Such microorganisms are known to take up gold and in some instances are thrown into the gold ore for hopeful recovery by the usual methods. Nonliving biomass also has been discussed for use in biosorption technologies. It has been postulated that biosorption may be applied to metal recovery and industrial work treatment. The industrial application of biotechnology to large scale gold mining operations is entirely novel. This invention represents the first time microorganisms have been employed directly to solubilize and recover gold for mining. Indeed, industry specialists have opined that organisms are too fragile, exhibiting poor kinetics, extremely limited in utility in the harsh outdoor and metallurgical processing environments common in the industry. Spisak, J. F., Biotechnology and the Extractive Metallurgical Industries: Perspectives for Success, Biotech. and Bioeng. Symp. No. 16, 331 (John Wiley & Sons 1986); Lakshmanan, V. I., Industrial Views and Applications: Advantages and Limitations of Biotechnology, Biotech. and Bioeng. Symp. No. 16, 351 (John Wiley & Sons 1986). Others have opined that organisms will prove useful only in limited pre-treatment applications such as leaching and that biosorption is not presently feasible for industrial applications. Bruynesteyn, Biotech and Bioeng. Symp. No. 16 (John Wiley & Sons 1986). In traditional mills, gold that has been dissolved from a large volume of ore with cyanide is passed through activated charcoal. The carbon in the charcoal has an affinity for the hydrophobic gold cyanide compounds and removes them from solution. The concentrated gold is later washed from the charcoal for final processing. However, if the ore naturally contains carbonaceous material, the charcoal will be unable to bind the gold in preference to the carbon in the ore. Instead, the native carbon competes successfully against the activated charcoal as a binding agent. As a result, the dissolved gold will not be removed from the general ore mass and concentrated on the charcoal. Such ores are described as "preg robbing" because they rob the metal from the solution pregnant with gold cyanide. In such cases, the ore requires expensive pretreatment, if it can be processed economically at all. This invention provides a biological alternative that has the same end result as pretreatment, but at a significantly lower cost. It uses organisms that produce gene products having a much higher metal ion binding affinity than the current charcoal technology. As a result, pretreatment will not be necessary. The organisms will successfully perform the task in carbonaceous ore that activated carbon can only perform in ores without carbon. Nearly 40% of the known gold resources in the United States cannot be processed without major additional expense using any known technology because of carbon contamination. In the trade, these ores are described as "refractory." Alternative Treatment Methods for Carbonaceous Ones At present, there are fundamentally six possible treatment methods for "refractory" ores, although not all of them are useful for treating carbon problems. Roasting and chlorination are the two methods that are most developed and applicable for treating carbon-bearing ores. The others may play some role in the future or are often confused with methods for processing carbonaceous ores even within the mining industry. 1. Roasting. This is the method used in all of the most recent pretreatment plants. In Nevada four roasters have been put into operation since 1986, and at least one more in the planning stage. Modern roasters use a fluidized bed construction and conventional fuel sources to heat the ores to about 700 degrees. The roasted ore is then quenched after being separated from dust and off-gasses. Following quenching, the oxidized ore can be processed using traditional cyanide/activated carbon extraction methods. For any particular ore composition, these plants operate in a narrow range of tolerances. Below optimum temperature the carbon in the ore remains actively "preg robbing". Above the optimum, the rock becomes increasingly less porous and cannot be cyanided successfully in later stages to remove the gold from it. As a result, roaster efficiency in an operating environment tends to vary widely with variation in the feed ore. Roaster costs are driven in large part by two factors: energy economics and environmental regulation. Energy sources are used for both heating and process control such as oxygen injection. As a result, this method is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in fuel prices. Environmental regulation is also a large and growing cost factor in the operation of roasters. The off-gas must be passed through an electrostatic precipitator to remove dust, then scrubbed to remove extremely toxic mercury and arsenic compounds and sulfur dioxide. As emission standards become stricter, process costs increase dramatically. .Almost without exception, both analytical studies and actual operators estimate the cost of roasting to be in the area of $25 per ton of ore, although one source claims an estimate for a proposed plant of $8 per ton. 2. Chlorination. This was the method most favored until process economics and environmental regulation tipped the decision in favor of roasting. At least two chlorination plants were operating recently, although one of them may already be off-line. In this process, the ore is ground and mixed with water to form a slurry. Chlorine gas is pumped into the slurry under pressure at a rate of about 60 to 120 lbs/ton, depending on residence time, organic carbon concentration in the ore and percent solids in the slurry. The chlorine gas will oxidize the carbon in the ore, rendering it less "preg robbing." After treatment, the hypochlorous acid generated must be treated with a reducing agent to prevent it from destroying the cyanide used later in the process. This process is particularly sensitive to the amount of sulfide in the ore, since sulfur is oxidized before carbon. Higher sulfide ores require much more chlorine gas. Environmental factors also play a large part in driving costs. Gas emissions from the tanks must be captured by alkaline scrubbers before being released to remove the 10% chlorine they contain. High pressure chlorine gas is extremely dangerous. Finally, the process is difficult to control in operation, and plants suffer from the corrosive gas. As a result of all of these factors, roasting will be the economically favored alternative for the foreseeable future. 3. Elextrooxidation. This technique is a variant of chlorination in which salt is added to the slurry and is then decomposed electrolytically to produce sodium and chlorine gas. The chlorine is then used in the same manner as in (2) above. However, unless there is a radical decrease in energy costs, this method will remain .even less economically attractive than chlorination. 4. Pressure autoclaving. This method is far more successful at destroying sulfidic materials that make the ore refractory than it is at destroying preg robbing carbon that may be present. It is mentioned here for the sake of completeness. 5. Blanking Agents. There has been some experimentation with a proprietary blanking agent described in the literature. While no details of its composition or mode of action have been given, the name suggests that it acts by masking the active carbon sites so that they do not bind gold cyanide complex. In the past, kerosene has been tried as a blanking agent with poor results. Research results reported do not raise recovery to economic levels for blanking, and the researchers continue to search for a more effective treatment. 6. Oxidation with Base Metals. A chemical method of oxidizing carbon using base metals and chemical oxidants has been issued a patent. It does not appear to be an economical alternative in practice, and has not been adopted by any of the major mining companies. A typical roasting and cyanidation plant operates as follows. The ore is first ground to a fine dust, concentrated to remove unproductive rock volume, roasted and quenched (carbon deactivation), slurried with water to about 50% solids and then treated with cyanide. Finally, the gold cyanide is adsorbed on activated carbon. While this is a logical order for these processes, an important point to note is that carbon deactivation does not need to precede cyanidation. The carbon interferes with removal of gold cyanide complex from process slurries, not dissolving of the gold. The process begins with the same grinding and concentrating steps as roasting. Following concentration, the ore is combined with a living biological agent in an aqueous slurry at a concentration of 0.01% biomass. The slurry is then treated with cyanide. The biological agent has an affinity for the gold cyanide complex several orders of magnitude greater than the native carbon. As a result, it will interfere with and nearly totally outcompete the "preg robbing" (carbon binding) qualities of the ore itself. The next step in the process will be recovery of the biomass-gold complex from the slurry by flotation. The agent can be dried to a tiny fraction of the initial ore weight (ca 0.4 lbs/ton of ore), and will contain ca. 1-2% gold. This concentration level is well within the parameters of biological heavy metal recovery reported in the literature. Finally, the dried biomass will be ashed and the gold recovered. The process of this invention and a roasting mill differ in the ways shown below: ##STR1## SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention teaches novel processes for recovering gold from gold ore using microorganisms. Broadly stated, the first step is to culture a microorganism capable of producing cyanide ion under conditions wherein the microorganism produces cyanide ion, thus forming a cyanide ion containing culture solution. Then the cyanide ion containing culture solution is brought into contact with gold ore, causing production of gold ion-cyanide ion complexes often as gold (I) ion, [Au + ][CN - ] 2 and biosorption of the complexes into the culture. It is also possible to induce the production of cyanide ion only upon interaction with the ore. By the method taught in this invention cyanide production by microorganisms may be controlled so as to maximize recovery. The gold ore may be a heap or an in situ blasted pieces of rock. Preferably the ore body will be crushed, milled or pulverized and either treated in a tank or piled in heaps; however, the invention has application in deep mines as well. Generally, ore grades of 0.02 oz/ton or greater may be treated using these methods. Finally, the gold may be recovered from the culture. In one embodiment, the gold-containing microorganisms may be separated from culture to form a sludge layer, which may, for example settle at the bottom or float to the top of a settling pond for harvesting. Algal species which may be used to practice this invention include Chlorella vulgaris, Cyanophora paradoxa and Cyanidium caldarium or Blue-Green Cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans. Likewise, the following strains of bacteria are prolifically cyanogenic and may be used: Chromobacterium violaceum; Chromobacterium flavum; Bacillus pyocyaneus; Bacillus flourescens; Bacillus violaceous; Bacillus megaterium; Bacillus mesentericus; Bacterium nitrificans; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas fluorescens; Pseudomonas aureofaciens; Pseudomonas cyanogena; Pseudomonas liquefaciens; and Pseudomonas cepacia. Certain fungi are known to produce large amounts of cyanide ion, particularly basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. Marasmius oreades (which causes fairy ring disease) and the snow mould basidiomycete may be used in this invention, as well as members of the Fusarium species. Definitions The following terms, as used in this disclosure and claims, are defined as follows: microorganism: a single celled microbe capable of self-replication including most algae, bacteria and some fungi. algae: either a single species or a population visible as a green or blue-green slime. Blue-green algae are known as cyanobacteria and/or photosynthetic bacteria. fungi: either a single fungal species or a fungal growth consisting of more than one species. culture: aqueous solution comprising one or more species of reproducing microorganisms. metallothionein: any polypeptide having several of the following characteristics: a molecular weight between 6000-7000; high metal content; an amino acid sequence characterized by high cysteine content and the absence of aromatic amino acids; unique distribution of cysteine residues in the amino acid sequences; spectroscopic features characteristic of metal-thiolate complexes and metal thiolate clusters. biosorption: the absorption and/or adsorption of metal ions and/or metal ion complexes to a surface of a microbe or other membrane of natural origin, including the following means: particulate ingestion or entrapment by flagellae or extracellular filaments, active transportation of ions, ion exchange, complexation, adsorption and inorganic precipitation, may also include subsequent reduction of metal ion to a metallic reduced state, and degradation of cyanide ion. adsorption: non-specific binding of metal or metal ion to a surface. in situ: a method of metal recovery involving the fragmentation of ore by, for example, underground blasting, and recovery of metal value from the ore without removal of the ore from the native location. tank process: a method of metal recovery involving the extraction of gold from ore after the ore has been pulverized and is being held in a tank. inducer: any organic compound, metal compound, ion or anion which is capable of inducing the pathway or pathways that produce a desired product, for example, cyanide ion. Examples of inducers include phosphate acetate, glycosides, amino acid precursors in the applicable cyanogenic pathway, iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, zinc, tryptophan and methionine. gold ion-cyanide ion complex: examples are: [Au + ][CN - ] - 2 , [Au +3 ] 2 [CN - ] 6 , [Au +2 ] [CN - ] 2 . gold ore: any rock, stone or debris containing gold in a concentration or condition that is economically recoverable. In general an ore suitable for economic recovery must be at least 0.01 oz/ton. The Biochemistry of Cyanogenesis The process of cyanogenesis is thought to be the same in the microorganisms listed above. Cyanide is produced by oxidative decarboxylation of glycine in a process which is stimulated by methionine or other methyl-group donors. The reaction is NH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 COOH→HCN+CO.sub.2 +4[H]. Cyanogenesis usually occurs in microorganisms at the end of the growth phase and it is affected by the iron and phosphate content of the medium. These factors suggest cyanogenesis is a secondary metabolism. Two likely mechanisms for cyanogenesis in bacteria, fungi and algae are discussed in Knowles, C. J., Cyanide Utilization and Degradation by Microorganisms, 1988 Ciba Foundation Symposium 140 Cyanide Compounds in Biology 3-9 (hereby incorporated by reference). The first mechanism is the amino acid oxidase/peroxidase system. When extracts of Chlorella vulgaris are grown in the presence of oxygen, manganese ions and peroxidase, several amino acids, notably D-histidine, act as substrates for cyanogenesis. A soluble flavoprotein amino and oxidase and a particulate protein (probably with a peroxidase activity) are involved. The amine intermediate formed by the action of the amino acid oxidase is believed to react with hydrogen peroxide and oxygen in the presence of peroxidase to give an aldehyde and cyanide. The second mechanism is the glyoxylic acid system. Chlorella vulgaris has a second system for producing cyanide from glyoxylate and hydroxylamine involving nonenzymatic formation of the oxime of glyoxylate followed by enzymic cyanide release: ##STR2## This reaction is stimulated by ADP and Mn 2+ and is thought to be part of the regulatory process for nitrate assimilation because nitrate reductase activity is reversible and highly sensitive to cyanide. The mechanism of cyanogenesis from glyoxylate may be related to cyanogenesis by bacteria and fungi from glycine, since glyoxylate oxime may be an intermediate in the later process. Furthermore, oxides are known intermediates in the conversion of amino acids to cyanogenic glycosides by plants. Microorganisms may use cyanide as a source of carbon or nitrogen. A strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens has been isolated which uses cyanide as a nitrogen source for growth when glucose is supplied as a carbon and energy source. Because cyanide (KCN or NaCN) is toxic to growth, the cultures should be grown in cyanide (KCN)-limited fed-batch or continuous culture. Cyanide may be supplied directly to the medium provided it is complexed, e.g., as nickel cyanide, Ni(CN) 4 2- . It is not known whether the bacterium acted on the very small amount of residual free cyanide, thereby displacing the free/complexed cyanide equilibrium, or whether it acted to release cyanide from the metal complex. A high-speed supernatant fraction of the Pseudomonas fluorescens strain released ammonia from cyanide with the following stoichiometry; NADH+H.sup.+ +O.sub.2 +HCN→AND.sup.+ +CO.sub.2 +NH.sub.3 At least two different proteins are involved, both of which are inducible by cyanide and repressed by ammonia. At least two mechanisms are possible: (a) a dioxygenase reaction according to the above equation; or (b) monooxygenase plus cyanate hydrolase (cyanase) activity. NADH+H.sup.+ +O.sub.2 +HCN→HCNO+H.sub.2 O+NAD+HCNO+H.sub.2 O→CO.sub.2 +NH.sub.3 Other routes for the assimilation of cyanide as a source of carbon and/or nitrogen by microorganisms may be postulated. For example: (a) via formation of β-cyanoalanine and aspartate: HCN+cysteine→β-cyanoalanine→aspartate+NH.sub.3 using β-cyanoalanine synthase and either a nitrilase or a nitrile hydratase with an amidase. The ammonia released could then be assimilated by conventional routes. Chain extension (one-carbon unit) of cysteine to aspartate also occurs and a cyclic series of steps could occur resulting in carbon assimilation. (b) via formation of mandelonitrile (benzaldehyde cyanohydrin) by mandelonitrile lyase: benzaldehyde+HCN→mandelonitrile. The mandelonitrile could then be acted upon by a nitrilase (or a nitrile hydratase and an amidase) to release ammonia, which could be assimilated. Formation and further metabolism of a range of other cyanohydrins from their parent keto compounds is also possible. (c) via formation of ammonia by either a cyanidase or a cyanide hydratase and a formamidase. (d) via formation of thiocyanate by the action of rhodanese (thiosulphate sulphurtransferase): S.sub.2 O.sub.3.sup.2- +CN.sup.- →SO.sub.3.sup.2- +SCN.sup.- followed by release of ammonia from the thiocyanate. As expected, the biochemistry of cyanogenesis involves cyanogenic glycosides and cyanolipids. These compounds are derivative of alpha-hydroxynitrilies (cyanohydrins). In the biochemical reactions involved, cyanogenic glycosides give off hydrogen cyanide and a carbonyl compound when the sugar moiety is removed. Similarly, cyanolipids give off hydrogen cyanide and a carbonyl compound when the fatty acid moiety is removed. Cyanogenic glycosides are known to occur in over two thousand species of plants, including ferns, gymnosperms, angiosperms, fungi and bacteria. The highest concentrations of cyanogenic glycosides usually are found in the leaves. To date, the cyanogenic glycosides studied are believed to be derived from the five hydrophobic protein amino acids, L-valine, L-isoleucine, L-leucine, L-phenylalanine and L-tyrosine, and to a single non-protein amino acid cyclopentenyglycine. See generally, Halkier, B. A., et al. Cyanogenic glucosides: the Biosynthetic Pathway and the Enzyme System Involved, 1988 Cyanide Compounds in Biology, Ciba Foundation 140 49-91 hereby incorporated by reference. Cyanolipids, on the other hand, occur most frequently in the seed oils of sapindaceous plants. The cyanolipids studied to date all are derived from L-leucine. Cyanogens have been detected in approximately thirty species of fungi, all basidiomycetes from five families, the Agaricaceae, Cortinariaceae, Polyporaceae, Rhodophyllaceae and the Tricholomataceae. The cyanogens studied in fungi to date all have been cyanohydrins of pyruvic acid and glyoxylic acid. The properties of cyanogenic glycosides include that they are not particularly stable and they are rather polar, therefore methanol and ethanol are good solvents for them. The metabolic precursor of cyanide in bacteria is glycine. In fact, the only source of hydrogen cyanide in microorganisms appears to be glycine. Cyanide production in bacteria is enhanced by glycine: hydrogen cyanide production is stimulated when Chromobacterium violaceum is grown on a glutamate salts medium containing L-threonine. This organism may have an enzyme capable of converting L-threonine to glycine. The origin of the cyanide carbon in Chromobacterium violaceum is the methylene group of glycine. A possible explanation for this has been suggested in Knowles, C. J. (Cyanide Utilization and Degradation By Microorganismd, 1988 Cyanide Compounds in Biology, Ciba Foundation Symposium 140 3-9. Microorganisms have a problem in terms of the supply of C 1 compounds for metabolism. They may obtain the C 1 compounds from either the conversion of serine to glycine with the transfer of the C 1 methylene group to tetrahydrofolate, and/or the conversion of glycine to CO 2 by a glycine synthase (which also requires tetrahydrofolate). However, bacteria require glycine for growth as well as for the production of C 1 units linked to the tetrahydrofolate pool. At the end of growth there might be a greater reduction in demand for C 1 compounds than for glycine or serine. If this were the case, the bacteria would need to get rid of excess glycine without an extra supply of C 1 compounds, which would occur when there is cyanogenesis. It is at the end of growth the cyanogenesis is observed. Furthermore, it is interesting that one of the primary acceptors for the methyl C 1 compounds is methionine which is a stimulator of cyanogenesis. Also cysteine is produced, because serine is converted into O-acetylserine and cysteine. In this complex sequence of events it could be that the only way to dump the excess glycine is to form cyanide, which would then build up as a toxic compound. Perhaps, when the glycine/C 1 crisis has been overcome, balance is restored by linking the potentially toxic cyanide to the cysteine to form non-toxic β-cyanoalanine. Cyanogenesis in fungi is metabolically similar in many respects to hydrogen cyanide production in bacteria. The metabolic precursor of hydrogen cyanide in the snow-mold basidiomycete is glycine where the methylene carbon and amino nitrogen are converted to cyanide carbon in nitrogen. Although the precursor of HCN in bacteria and fungi is well known, neither the metabolic pathways involved nor the nature of the cyanogenic enzyme system is well understood. In practicing this invention, the above-mentioned species may be grown in the presence of added glycine in order to maximize cyanogenesis. Glycine is a known substrate for bacterial cyanide production. The regulation of hydrogen cyanide synthase may be used as an element of control in practicing this invention. After the bacteria or algae is grown to a sufficient density, for example, 1 OD, the microorganism may be induced to produce cyanide ion by controlling hydrogen cyanide synthase production. Although glycine might be expected to be an inducer of enzyme production, the omission of this amino acid sometimes results in a slight increase in the specific activity of HCN synthase rather than a decline. Even so, intracellular glycine increases under these conditions and accounts for over one-third of the non-carbon source amino acid pool. These levels may be high enough to cause induction. In Chromobacterium violaceum the addition of small amounts of glycine to a glutamate-methionine salts medium actually partially suppresses hydrogen cyanide production, although higher amounts enhance cyanogenesis. The role of glycine in the regulation of hydrogen cyanide synthase biosynthesis is not well understood. Glycine may be taking part in the maintenance of stability of the enzyme during cyanogenesis. This could be used to promote hydrogen cyanide biosynthesis. The hydrogen cyanide synthase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is extremely sensitive to aerobic conditions and is only present in significant amounts when cultural oxygen levels are low. The fact that glycine protects against this oxygen mediated inactivation in vitro suggest that it may also have this function in vivo. Since glycine is known to have a positive affect on hydrogen cyanide synthase production, a microorganism capable of producing large amounts of glycine may be added and co-cultured with the cyanide in producing microorganisms in the culture pond. A particularly preferred method would be to incorporate a bacteria that produces glycine and which absorbs gold ion-cyanide ion complexes into a culture pond containing algae that produces cyanide by a pathway responsive to glycine induction. One skilled in the fermentation arts will be able to manipulate growth conditions of the co-habiting microorganisms to maximize the efficiency of the claimed process for recovering gold from gold ore. Another amino acid that could be added to the medium to maximize cyanogenesis in bacteria is methionine. Although methionine cannot replace glycine in the stimulation of cyanogenesis it significantly enhances the amounts of cyanide produced. Methionine may function as a methyl group donor and, in so doing may indirectly influence hydrogen cyanide biosynthesis. Alternatively, methionine may influence apparent cyanide levels by inhibiting the assimilation, but not the production, of hydrogen cyanide. Methionine may even act as either an inducer of synthesis of hydrogen cyanide synthase or a positive affector of this enzyme. Induction of cyanogenesis by methionine in Chromobacterium violaceum has been suggested. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa this is probably not the case because exogenous methionine is not required for maximal hydrogen cyanide synthase activity. Moreover, in the absence of added methionine the intracellular levels of methionine never rise above a basal level during the culture cycle. As was with the case with glycine, once methionine is shown in the lab or in a natural environment to enhance cyanogenesis in the selected microorganism or combination of microorganisms, this invention may be practiced by combining high methionine producing bacteria with either a single microorganism or a combination of microorganisms capable of solubilizing and adsorbing gold from gold ion-cyanide ion complexes. L-glutamate is known to be a good carbon energy source for growing bacteria for cyanogenesis. Substituting glucose for this amino acid with Chromobacterium violaceum results in a slight increase in total cyanide produced. By the same token, using either a glucose-urea or a glucose-ammonia medium results in very little cyanide production and low levels of hydrogen cyanide synthase. Sources of glutamate may be biological or chemical. Studies in Chromobacterium violaceum confirm that the presence of glycine, methionine, tryptophan and glutamate improve cyanide ion production and gold adsorption by that bacteria. While glutamate was sufficient to support adequate cell growth, both cyanogenesis and gold solubilization were enhanced when glycine and methionine also were present. The addition of tryptophan to glutamate induced some gold solubilization, but the addition of tryptophan to media containing glycine and methionine did not enhance the level of solubilized gold. Thus it was further established that gold solubilization was enhanced under conditions which produced cyanogenesis. Aeration has been known to have a positive effect on bacterial cyanogenesis. When selecting microorganisms and combinations of microorganisms for use in this invention, as taught by the described procedures, oxygen tension levels should be carefully be maintained and controlled. It has been shown, for example that aerobic stationary Pseudomonas aeruginosa cultures produce significantly less hydrogen cyanide as compared to shake cultures. This organism, grown anaerobically using nitrate respiration, produced very low amounts of hydrogen cyanide. The extent of aeration influences both growth and cyanogenesis. Oxygen may be necessary as am electron acceptor. Oxygen also appears to influence the regulation of bacterial cyanogenesis. Aerobic conditions result in the inactivation of the cyanogenic enzyme system and may play a physiological role in the termination of cyanogenesis during culture cycle. The control of oxygen is another feature which may be used as a control mechanism when practicing this invention. Vigorous growth and metabolism require a high respiratory rate which could result in reduced oxygen tension within the cell which, in turn, could protect the hydrogen cyanide synthase. This, along with high internal glycine levels, could result in significant enzyme production. Aerobic conditions favor cyanogenesis, yet they also favor respiration for which cyanide is a classic inhibitor. To avoid this, cyanogenic organism may metabolically detoxify cyanide or selectively turn to cyanide resistent respiration during cyanogenesis. This is the case with both Chromobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. One characteristic of bacterial cyanogenesis in batch cultures is the temporal relationship between hydrogen cyanide production and growth phase. Cyanide is produced mainly during a discrete portion of the cultural cycle corresponding to the transition between log and stationary phases. Cyanogenesis does not occur exclusively during this time period, however, with Chromobacterium violaceum as well as in certain Pseudomonas species, it can be seen that very low levels of cyanide are produced during log growth. The massive production of hydrogen cyanide at the end of log growth will present an amplification of this low rate. It was shown that this amplification can be prevented by inhibitors of protein synthesis. The synthesis of the cyanogenic enzyme system must occur during the later part of the culture cycle, a conclusion which is supported by the dramatic increase in specific activity of the hydrogen cyanide synthase as the culture cycle progresses. It is also possible to induce cyanide ion production after the culture is in contact with the ore. In this embodiment little cyanide ion is produced by the culture until the culture is contacted by the ore where natural inducers of cyanide ion may reside. This is one way to control the production of cyanide ion. For example, the ore may contain an iron that can cause induction of cyanide ion during contact with the ore. The production of hydrogen cyanide by Chromobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa also is known to be significantly influenced by iron. In gramnegative bacteria, secondary metabolism, including cyanogenesis tends to be stimulated by increases in the level of iron at amounts of iron in the medium that are greater than the concentration of iron required for growth but below that at which it becomes toxic. So, iron has no measurable effect on the amount or rate of growth, however, it can dramatically affect the amount of synthesis of secondary metabolites. In grampositive bacteria manganese can operate the way, and in the fungi, a range of metals, particularly cooper and zinc. With Pseudomonas aeruginosa the influence is specific to iron; cobalt, copper, manganese or zinc cannot act as a substitute. Iron concentrations which allow complete cell growth, added as ferric chloride for Pseudomonas aeruginosa or ferrous sulfate with Chromobacterium violaceum, limits cyanogenesis by these organisms. The concentration response to this metal ion is different with the two organisms and one skilled in the art will be able to adjust accordingly. Bacterial cyanogenesis responds dramatically to cultural phosphate levels. This occurs in both Chromobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Hydrogen cyanide production is greatly influenced by concentration of phosphates which permit optimal cultural growth. As with the iron effect, there are significant differences in the response of these two organism to inorganic phosphate. With Pseudomonas aeruginosa maximum hydrogen cyanide production occurs within a narrow range of phosphate concentrations which are sufficient to cause only minimal hydrogen cyanide production by Chromobacterium violaceum. At the time of cyanogenesis, optimal levels of phosphate are required. Adding phosphate at the time of culture cycle from lower nonpermissive to permissive levels is quickly followed by hydrogen cyanide production. This type of response also occurs with shift-ups of iron level (0.5 to 20 micromolar) during periods of cyanogenesis. These shift-ups are accompanied by synthesis of hydrogen cyanide synthase which is preventable by protein synthesis inhibitors. Shifting phosphate from permissive to upper nonpermissive levels results in prematurely shutting down cyanogenesis. The motive actions of these minerals is not clear. The iron and phosphate influence may be of a general nature, controlling cyanogenesis indirectly. In any event, the methods described herein should assist one skilled in the art in maximizing and timing of cyanogenesis in microorganisms. In addition to the aforementioned criteria relevant to selecting the proper bacteria and maximizing its ability to produce cyanide, this invention provides methods for optimizing gold extraction by controlling the kinetics of cyanogenesis. The rates of dissolution of gold in cyanide solution is related to surface area, agitation, cyanide concentration, oxygen pressure, temperature, pH and of various impurities. These factors may be manipulated by the selection and control of microorganisms to enhance gold recovery. Regarding surface area, there is a linear relation between the size of gold particles (10μ-100μ) and the time required for its dissolution. Regarding the effects of agitation, the rates of dissolution of gold increases as the square root of the number of rpm, up to about 1000 rpm. The rate of gold dissolution increases linearly with the number of rpm up to about 150 rpm, then it decreases and becomes nearly constant. The rate of dissolution of gold increases sharply with an increase in cyanide concentration, up to a limit. Beyond this, further increases in cyanide concentration tends to decrease the rate of dissolution. The cyanide concentration at which the dissolution rate of gold is maximized have been reported by many investigators. The concentration of cyanide at which the maximum dissolution rate is observed depends on the oxygen pressure. This invention uses a small amount of cyanide ion to dissolve the gold. Thereafter, the gold ion-cyanide ion complex rapidly is adsorbed, by biosorption driving the dissolution reaction forward. The biosorption reaction is a non-equilibrium reaction. When in contact with an ore body, the microorganism culture will absorb gold under very fast kinetic conditions such that very little cyanide ion or gold ion-cyanide ion complex will be free in solution, thus driving the gold solubilization reaction. This may be especially useful with carbon containing ores. Carbon containing ores adsorb the gold ion-cyanide ion complex and because of this, such ores cannot be successfully mined with the current cyanide processes. Studies with Chromobacterium violaceum have confirmed that the organism produces cyanide steadily during the stationary phase to replace cyanide removed as the [Au(CN) 2 ] - complex. The effect of temperature on the rate of dissolution has been measured by many researchers for the purpose of determining the activation energies. Since other variables such as oxygen pressure, rates of agitation, cyanide concentration and the pH also effect the rates of dissolution, it is hard to generalize. Nevertheless, the activation energies reported are usually low, 2.4-3.5 for Ag, 3.5 to 5.0 for Au except, at high agitation rate the activation energy for Au is near 14 Kcal/ml. Impurities at the metal solutions interfaces may adversely affect cyanogenesis through absorption. The absorption of xanthates on gold, for example prevent or decrease the rate of dissolution by cyanide ion. Transition metal cyanide complexes may absorb to gold ion-cyanide ion complexes and reduce the rates of their dissolution. Ca 2+ , especially at very high pH (>11) reduces the rate of dissolution of gold (pH 9 is optional). CaO 2 formed from the reaction of Ca 2+ with H 2 O 2 deposits on the surface of gold and may cause the formation of a protective coating. Not all impurities effect the cyanidation process adversely. Salts of lead, Bi, Th can increase the rate of dissolution. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that each of the factors discussed in this section may be manipulated to increase cyanide ion production. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS EXAMPLE 1 This invention may be practiced using mass cultivation of microorganisms in outdoor ponds. A shallow pond should be dug out in the vicinity of the ore body, preferably in an area with broad sunlit areas. In temperate climates, the pond may be set up to operate year-round. In harsher climates, the pond could be set up to operate in the summer months and allowed to be dormant in the winter months. Species specific cultivation technology will have to be developed for the microorganisms or combinations of microorganisms selected. The goal is to have continuous maintenance of the desired strains for prolonged periods of time. A considerable number of methods for large scale outdoor culturing of microorganisms has been developed in the last ten years for production of what is called "single cell protein." It is desirable to minimize invasion by pests, weeds and other unnecessary plants and animals. For the microorganism species mentioned, the literature teaches about specific environmental factors which affect specific species and result in their dominance or replacement by competing species. Prior to inoculating a pond with a microorganism, the selected microorganism should be studied in a natural environment system and a laboratory system. The following operational variables should be studied and adjusted to optimize the requirements of high productivity and species control: mixing, dilution rate, nutrient concentrations, depth and pH). See Richmond, A. Environmental Limitations in Outdoor Production of Algal Biomass, Algal Biomass 65-72 (G. Shelef and C. J. Solder, ed. 1980) Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press (hereby incorporated by reference). The culture pond should be shallow, approximately 10 to 30 meters wide, baffled and approximately 20 to 50 centimeters deep. An optional cover may be used to prevent water and/or cyanide ion evaporation. As will be discussed further herein, the pond should have a pumping system for intermittent mixing, removal of microorganisms for harvesting and recirculation of the media. Pumping through the system should provide sufficient mixing for a pond of the dimensions stated above, however for a discussion of useable pumping systems; see, Persoone, G. et al. Airlift Pumps and the Effect of Mixing on Algae Growth, Algae Biomass 505-522 (G. Shelef and C. J. Soeder, ed. 1980) Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press (hereby incorporated by reference). The pond may be lined with black plastic or concrete to retain heat. The pond should have year-round optimal ground cover so as to maximize utilization of sunlight. Invasion of the pond by other species should be controlled. The protein content of the micro-algal biomass should be about 50% of dry weight. EXAMPLE 2 Algae or Blue-Green Cyanobacteria are the preferred microorganisms because of convenience. Bacteria may be more expensive to feed and cultures are more susceptible to invasion by competing bacteria and other colonizing types of microscopic pond life, however they can be used in the process. Each algal species has a range of tolerated nutrient compositions, physical and chemical conditions. Phosphorous, nitrogen, sulphur, iron, magnesium and manganese, as well as trace metals and ions are required nutrients. Some green algae, particularly the flagellates need vitamins and some cofactors. Discretion must be exercised when extrapolating laboratory results to a natural environment; nevertheless, laboratory results are very useful in determining most physiological requirements and operative ecological phenomena. When selecting microorganisms for this invention, species able to produce cyanide at acceptable levels should be used in the culture pond. Likewise, species able to optimally adsorb gold in the presence of cyanide also should be selected. A combination of microorganisms may be used. Regardless of whether a single or multiple microorganisms are used, it is important to maximize cyanide ion production by the selected micro-organism(s), both by the initial selection process and by controlling conditions. Methods for qualitatively and quantitatively determining the production of cyanide are well known. See e.g., Brimer, L., Determination of Cyanide and Cyanogenic Compounds in Biological Systems, 1988 Ciba Foundation Symposium 140, Cyanide Compounds in Biology: 177-196, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Algal species which may be used to practice this invention include Chlorella vulgaris, Cyanophora paradoxa and Cyanidium caldarium and Anacystis nidulans (Blue-Green Algae/cyanobacteria). Cyanophora paradoxa and Cyanidium caldarium these are available from Carolia Biological Supply Co., 2700 York Road, Burlington, N.C. 27215. Other species are available from the ATCC, or various other culture collections. For a comprehensive list of culture collections and addresses see: World Directory of Collections of Cultures of Microorganisms, 2d ed. issued by World Data Center on Microorganisms, (V. F. McGowan & V. B. D. Skerman, eds). Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia 1982. Likewise, the following species of bacteria are prolifically cyanogenic and may be used: Chromobacterium violaceum; Chromobacterium flavum; Bacillus pyocyaneus; Bacillus flourescens; Bacillus violaceous; Bacillus megaterium; Bacillus mesentericus; Bacterium nitrificans; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas fluorescens; Pseudomonas aureofaciens; Pseudomonas cyanogena; Pseudomonas liquefaciens; and Pseudomonas cepacia. Certain fungal species are known to produce large amounts of cyanide ion, particularly basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. Marasmius oreades (which causes fairy ring disease) and the snow mould basidiomycete may be used in this invention, as well as members of the Fusarium species. Plant tissue culture also may be used in this invention, although it is more difficult and expensive to work with than algae or bacteria. The following cyanogenic plants may be used: Phacelia sericea, Artemesia terras alba, and Prunus laurocerasus. The methods of growing algae, bacteria and fungi for this invention are well known. Micro-algae single cell production is similar to conventional agricultural processes and much has been written about this topic. See Benemann, J. R., et al., Algal Biomass, reprinted in 4 Economic Microbiol. 177 (A. H. Rose Ed. Academic Press 1979) (hereby incorporated by reference). Modern molecular biological methods and fermentation methods have advanced tremendously in the last few years due to commercialization of genetically engineered microorganisms. EXAMPLE 3 This invention may be practiced with Chromobacterium violaceum. The laboratory growth methods disclosed in Smith, A. D. and Hunt, R. J. Solubilisation of Gold by Chromobacterium violaceum, J. Chem. Tech. Biotechnol. 1985, 35B, 110-116 (hereby incorporated by reference) can be supplemented by conventional fermentation methods to prepare the bacteria for inoculation into the outdoor culture pond. Prior thereto, however, this bacteria should be studied in a pilot pond under environmental conditions similar to those present at the desired site. Isolation and growth of microorganisms in laboratory cultures could result in loss of properties that would be maintained in natural environments by strong selective pressures. For this reason a pilot pond is suggested. Moreover, the pond likely will result in the development of particularly useful strains. Strains capable of high gold ion selectivity and affinity and low affinity for the other metals present at a given site are most useful in practicing this invention. The high selectivity and affinity phenomena may be exploited using artificial selection and genetic engineering methods. Cyanide is produced by Chromobacterium violaceum during the growth and stationary phase of culture and the solubilized gold species has been shown to be the complex anion [Au(CN) 2 ] - . Solubilization of gold becomes apparent after the end of exponential growth in moderately alkaline pH (pH 9) and steadily increases thereafter. Much has been published about the nutrient requirements of the microorganisms which may be of use in practicing this invention. (See e.g., Taub, F. B., Use of Continuous Culture Techniques to Control Nutritional Quality, Algal Biomass, 707-721 (G. Shelef and C. J. Soeder, ed. 1980), Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press (hereby incorporated by reference). Conditions known to optimize growth and/or cyanide ion production and/or gold absorption should be adapted for the applicable environmental conditions at the selected site. In the case of Chromobacterium violaceum, for example, laboratory studies show that a medium containing concentrations of glutamate, methionine, tryptophan and glycine as described by Rodgers, P. B. and Knowles C. J., J. Gen. Microbiol., 108: 261 (1978) should be used. When practicing this invention, one may pilot test adding microorganisms which optimally produce glutamate, methionine, tryptophan and/or glycine to the pond. Many microorganisms are known to release these amino acids as by products of metabolism. So long as these microorganisms do not interfere with the growth of the desired species Chromobacterium violaceum, or so long as the cohabitation of any added species can be adequately controlled, adding such microorganisms is an inexpensive source of nutrients for the desired cyanide ion and/or gold adsorbing microorganisms. More preferable is a microbe capable of cyanide ion production at the site of the gold ore. For example algae are grown photosynthetically in shallow ponds with nitrogen fertilizers and phosphates. This organism does not require special fermentors or phosphates and can be raised in an agricultural setting (i.e., shallow ponds, nitrogen fertilizers, a simple carbon source and ambient temperatures). EXAMPLE 4 A continuous algae or photosynthetic bacteria culture is preferred for practicing this invention. Accordingly, the growth kinetics of the microorganism selected must be considered. The non-steady state factors cannot be ignored and there is no available formula or program for accounting for them. For example, theories which predict algal productivity or algal species competition are complicated by the fact that large scale ponds have a plug-flow component (i.e., they are not perfectly mixed) and are exposed to temperature and light intensity variations. These non-steady state components in mass culture, and the fact that the conditions are constantly changing present severe difficulties in developing an accurate mathematical formula for outdoor microorganism mass culture. Some computer programs are available to determine growth and protein yield of certain species as a function of growth conditions, for example, the Dabes et al. program (1970) studies growth and yield of Chlorella in chemostats as a function of photosynthetic intracellular parameters. (See also Endo, H., and Shirota, M., Studies on the Heterotrophic Growth of Chlorella in a Mass Culture, Proc. IV IFS: Ferment. Technol. Today, 533-541 (1972) (hereby incorporated by reference). Since none of these studies can be extrapolating in toto to the natural environment, we recommend pilot testing at the desired site. Every natural environment where this invention is practiced will be different, a pilot or small scale operation in the desired location should be used. In any event, the following formula and the commercially available programs are a good approximation. As noted and explained by Breneman J. R. et al., cited supra, growth can be represented by continuous-culture theory as formulated by Monod and developed by Herbert et. al. J. Gen. Microbiol. 14, 601 (1956). ##EQU1## The relative growth constant μ (which represents the instantaneous growth rate where t indicates time and N is cell concentration) is related to the doubling time G of the algal cells (which, in the absence of recycling, is the same as the hydraulic detention time of the culture) by the equation μ=0.69/G. When everything is constant, larger algae would be expected to grow slower due to smaller surface:volume ratio. Preferably, small non-filterable algae would more freely contact and pass through fragmented, milled or crushed ore. In a chemostat one nutrient often becomes the limiting factor for cell growth in determining cell concentration (X) and thereby productivity (p=μX). The relationship between substrate concentration and cell growth normally is expressed by Monod kinetics. However, intracellular nutrient concentrations are more immediately responsible for observed growth rates than extracellular nutrients. Since light is the key growth-limiting nutrient in the preferred algal or Blue-Green Cyanobacterium embodiment, it is the one of interest. Sunlight, being a combination of wavelengths absorbed by pigments of different absorption bands, must be considered a multiple nutrient. Algal species that use different portions of the spectrum preferentially may co-exist in the pond. Despite this possibility in natural environments, the chemostat theory theoretically excludes the possibility of co-existence of two species on a single limiting nutrient. Controlled cultivation of micro-algal species must be accomplished within limits imposed by engineering feasibility and economic reality. This prevents the use of sterile growth units and media. As already discussed, species-specific cultivation technology will need to be tailored for the specific site in order to allow continuous maintenance of particular inoculated strains for prolonged periods of time. The inocula themselves can be built up under successively less rigorously controlled conditions. The inoculation level and degree of control over its production will be parameters determining the economics of such systems. The minimum engineering and operational characteristics of large-scale pond systems designed for low-cost, high productivity algal cultivation are reasonably well known (Oswald, W. J. and Golueke, C. G. (1960) Advances in Applied Microbiology 2:223. The basic design is called a "high-rate pond", a large, shallow compacted dirt pond bordered by a low level (about 1-1.5 m high), divided into a long, continuous 10 to 30 m wide channel by means of baffles. The operational pond depth is 20 to 50 cm, depending on the engineering requirements of leveling and mixing, and the operational optimization of temperature fluctuations, algal concentrations and harvesting costs. Mixing is provided by one or more mixing stations using very low head-high capacity pumps or, preferably, paddlewheels. In general, constant low-mixing speed of 10-30 cm/sec are used; however, a variable mixing schedule might allow minimizing power requirements while preventing algal settling. Power requirements for mixing are relatively minor as long as mixing speeds do not exceed about 30 cm/sec. The costs of a high yield algae protein production have been extensively studied for "single cell protein" systems. The pond construction costs are relatively low for the basic earthworks, baffles, paddlewheels and influent and effluent structures. Except for a concrete apron next to the mixing stations, the ponds can be unlined, with sealing provided by a clay layer in high-porosity soils. Spray sealing of ponds with a thin impermeable asphalt or plastic layer might be feasible and would be desirable to hold in the heat in cold weather. The costs of ponds are only slightly higher than preparation of agricultural crop lands. Nutrient supply, including carbon dioxide injection, would not be a significant expense; but the choice of the nutrients can be of critical importance for high density algae and cyanide, or production. Assuming a rate of inorganic nutrient recovery similar to that in agriculture, inorganic fertilizers would be utilized for micro-algal single cell production at an equivalent economic cost. Since microalgae are effective in decreasing nutrient concentrations in natural, eutrophic, and even highly fertilized bodies of water, micro-algae might utilize nutrients more effectively than higher plants. The minor nutrients and micro-elements should not provide any special difficulties; they may even be provided from sea salts. Provision of a carbon source such as methanol or carbon dioxide to ponds is a parameter which should be considered. Algae production differs from conventional plant cultivation, in which carbon dioxide is provided from the air. The diffusivity of carbon dioxide across the air-water interface can severely limit algal productivity, and may require both an enriched carbon dioxide source and a mechanical process for its introduction. Although pond carbonation is not difficult, it requires some engineering development for maximum productivity. Only a limited number of interrelated operational variables can be adjusted during pond operations. These include hydraulic dilution and loading rate, mixing velocity and schedule, inorganic nutrient concentrations, depth and pH value. Many of these are, of course, interacting. It is possible to vary detention times of various types and sizes of organisms independently, allowing some control over algae and bacterial populations. Insolation and temperature cannot be controlled, and must consequently be compensated for by changing pond operations. Small-scale (10 m 2 ) high-rate oxidation ponds have been operated under various regimens of detention times, mixing and selective biomass-recycle to determine the conditions under which large, filterable, colonial or filamentous algae are cultivated. Pond detention times are an important factor in determining the morphology and size of the pond algae, and thereby their use in ore bodies or milled ore, crushed ore, or fragmented ore bodies in situ. Algae is preferred for practicing this invention because it is inexpensive and easy to cultivate. The pond should be in optimal sunlight to provide energy for photosynthetic algae. Procedures for mass-cultivating Chlorella are taught in Krauss, R. (1962) American Journal of Botany 49, 425; Pistorius, E. K. et al., Reversible Inactivation of Nitrate Reductase in Chlorella Vulgaris in vitro, Planta (Berl.) 128, 73-80 (1976) (hereby incorporated by reference). The pH of the pond should be maintained between pH 7-10 using limes or phosphate buffers, preferably phosphate buffers and at an approximate temperature of 36° C. A good source of nitrogen for the algae would be fertilizers or ammonia. Other nitrocen sources include urea and nitrate nitrogens. If there is insufficient carbon dioxide from pumping action through the pond, a carbon source such as acetate or methanol may be added. Other possible carbon sources include ethanol, glucose, galactose, acetic acid, acetaldehyde and pyruvic acid. The algae should be cultivated continuously in yields of 40 dry tonnes/hectare/year. As previously mentioned, the pond could have a pump or spray means to transport the algae from the culture pond to the nearby ore body. The ore body may be either a heap, an in situ blasted piece of rock or milled, crushed or pulverized rock. Preferably the ore body will be a pile of cracked ore or pulverized ore piled in heaps or in tanks. The invention is not so limited, however, because the microorganism culture in a fermented tank or pond may be pumped into surface mines or deep mines (for example in in situ operations in which the ore has been blasted and pulverized). Ore grades of approximately 0.02 oz. per ton or higher (up to 0.5 oz. per ton) may be treated using these methods. The algae and/or bacteria should be pumped from the culture onto the ore body at a time of maximal cyanide production. Usually this occurs in late log phase, however, methods for maximizing cyanide production are discussed in detail in the next section. Once the algae or bacteria is in contact with the gold in the ore body, oxidation of gold to gold ion-cyanide ion complex will occur, then biosorption of the soluble gold ions will be automatic and immediate. Indeed, the biosorption process will occur with most bacteria and algae even if the microbes are dead. The microorganisms containing the adsorbed gold then should be pumped to a settling pond or vessel. The settling pond should be relatively deep, preferably more than 12 feet and should be unstirred. The algae and/or bacteria containing the adsorbed gold will settle to the bottom of the pond in a pulp or a slurry. The use of flocculants can enhance this process step. The sludge, slurry or pulp will contain both live and dead microorganisms containing the biosorped gold ready to be harvested and sent to the refinery. Suitable methods for drying the microorganisms would include spray drying, vacuum or sun drying, if they are to be dehydrated. Harvesting has been a limiting economic factor in micro-algal biomass protein production processes. The dilute nature of the standing crop in micro-algal cultures (150-700 mg per liter), the microscopic size of the plants, the large volume that must be processed due to continuous operation of the ponds, and the large differences between micro-algal types complicate harvesting for protein production. Benemann, J. R., et al., 4 Economic Microbiology 179-203 (A. H. Rose ed. Academic Press 1979). In practicing this invention, mass settling and/or flotation are the methods of choice. Settling is inexpensive and suitable for a small, but deep settling pond. Chemicals may be added to facilitate settling. Large quantities of adsorbed gold is toxic to most microorganisms and killed organisms can be expected to settle out. Centrifugation, chemical flocculation using lime or alum, coagulation, filtration and screening techniques may also be adapted for harvesting the microorganisms containing adsorbed gold. Large colonial micro-algae may be removed from pond effluents, concentrated using fine mesh screens then removed by spraying. For a discussion and evaluation of numerous devices and methods for harvesting microalgae from culture, see Mohn, F. H., Experiences and Strategies in the Recovery of Biomass from Mass Cultures of Microalgae, Algal Biomass, 547-71 (G. Shelef and C. J. Soeder, ed. 1980) (Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press) hereby incorporated by reference. See also Benemann, J., et al., Development of Microalgae Harvesting and High-Rate Pond Technologies in California, Algal Biomass, supra at 457-495 also hereby incorporated by reference. The water in the settling pond or vessel will contain living microorganisms and this water, along with the dilute microorganisms should be recycled back to the culture. By reinoculating the culture pond or vessel with microorganism variants which are resistant to cyanide and toxic metal ions which may have been released from the ore body, yields should be improved in subsequent cycles. Such organisms are most useful in practicing the invention. One can also develop genetically engineered or mutanized strains with enhanced or controllable cyanide ion production capabilities. The preferred embodiment is a continuous system in which the cycle is run over from several days to several months. The flow of water should be dictated by the size of the ore body. EXAMPLE 5 This invention may be practiced using two different microorganisms, one of which is capable of producing cyanide optimally and another which is capable of biosorption of gold optimally in the presence of cyanide. For example, an algae may be used with a bacteria or two different algae species may be used. In a one or two microbe system, the microbes could be settled or collected by filtration, centrifugation or spray drying according to known methods. Instead of a second microorganism, plant tissue culture might be used in some embodiments. Some plant varieties are known both to produce large amounts cyanide ion and to absorb gold ions. Some algae are known to be low producers of cyanide ion (less than 1 ppm cyanide ion) but very high gold ion and Au° biosorpers. Most gold biosorping bacteria will adsorb gold even if they are dead. These may be used with a bacteria, plant tissue culture or fungi which are high cyanide ion producers. The bacteria Pseudomonas cepacia is a good gold biosorper, and may be used for this purpose according to the methods described in Hisham, D. P., et al., Gold Resistant Bacteria: Excretion of a Cystine-Rich Protein by Pseudomonas cepacia Induced by an Antiarthritic Drug, J. Inorganic Biochem 28:253-261 (1986) (hereby incorporated by reference). Since this is a non-equilibrium system, even a small cyanide ion concentration will dissolve the gold and the microorganisms will rapidly biosorp the gold ions leaving a low cyanide ion concentration and gold-cyanide ion complexes in solution. Once the microorganism absorbs the gold cyanide ion complex it may reduce the gold ion back to Au°. The microorganism may metabolize the cyanide ion leaving the readily reducible Au 1+ Au 2+ or Au 3+ in the cell. In another embodiment, a microorganism may be artificially selected which is either a good cyanide ion producer and/or a good gold biosorper. One would do this by selecting or screening for a microorganism which is capable of excessive cyanide ion production and mutanize it according to known methods then screen for increased cyanide ion production. After mutanizing the microorganism one should check for both cyanide ion production properties and mutagenesis properties. Other criteria that may be useful to artificially select for include growth rate conditions which are susceptible to control and tolerance to metal toxicants which may be released from the ore bodies. Once suitable microorganism strains have been selected and improved by natural or artificial selection, one may use the modern tools of molecular biology and cloning to genetically engineer microorganisms capable of either high cyanide ion production and/or high gold absorption. The first step would be to obtain a genes for the cyanogenesis pathway in the organism selected. Genetic engineering methods may be used to identify the enzymes that are part of the cyanogenic pathway. These then may be purified sequenced and cloned. Thereafter vectors for introducing these genes into the microorganisms to increase cyanide ion production would De used. (See Hughes, M. A. et al., the Molecular Biology of Cyanogenesis, 1988 Cyanide Compounds in Biology, 1988 Ciba Foundation Symposium 140 111-130. Biosorption of gold ion-cyanide ion complexes This section discusses factors relating to increasing gold adsorption. Biological interactions with metals are numerous and complex. All evidence indicates that gold which has been solubilized by cyanide can only exist in solution for short periods of time and cannot migrate substantial distances before it is rendered insoluble. The microorganisms used in practicing this invention all are capable of almost instantaneously removing gold cyanide ion complexes, especially the gold (I) ion, from solution by a variety of means. Generally, concentration and removal of gold ion-cyanide ion complexes from solution may be accomplished by precipitation through biooxidation or bioreduction, or through large scale formation of a metabolic product which precipitates metals or by biosorption. It is preferred that the organisms are alive when biosorption is caused in the process of this invention. It should be understood that this invention is a process for gold recovery from ores and that various microorganisms with their inherent properties can be used in the processes. Biosorption is the adsorption and/or sequestration of metal ions by solid materials of natural origin. The mechanism of uptake may be by particulate ingestion or entrapment by flagellae or extracellular filaments, active transport of ions, ion exchange, complexation, adsorption or inorganic precipitation (e.g., by hydrolysis of sorbed species). The first two mechanisms are limited to living cells but both living and dead cells can perform the remaining mechanisms. Many marine microorganisms, for example, accumulate radionuclides in the sea by direct adsorption from water. The reversible flocculation of activated sludge bacteria with the help of bivalent cations like Ca 2+ or Mg 2+ is thought to be the result of ionic bond bridges formed among negatively charged cell surfaces and cations in solution. The sequestered metals may be found anywhere in the cells, from extracellular polysaccharides to cytoplasmic granules, depending on the microbial species and/or the mechanism of metal deposition within the cell. Cell walls of prokaryotes and eukaryotes contain polysaccharides as basic building blocks. The ion exchange properties of natural polysaccharides have been studied: bivalent metal ions are known to exchange with counterions of the polysaccharides. Microorganisms exhibiting high uptake of metals frequently sequester them within the cell wall via two mechanisms. The first is a stoichiometric interactnon, either ion-exchange or complexation, between the metal ions and active groups such as phosphodiester (teichoic acid), phosphate, carboxyl (glycosides) and amine (amino- and peptido-glycosides and bound protein) on the polymers making up the cell wall. Further uptake is the result of inorganic decomposition via adsorption or inorganic precipitation such as hydrolysis. Some microorganisms also can accumulate metals, including gold, intracellularly, sometimes because they need these metals for enzyme function. Special transport systems in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes operate in the cell envelope to pull the metals in ionic form through the cell membrane and into the cell interior. Some transport systems are nonspecific and are capable of transporting several different metal ions, with different affinities. The metal ions often compete in such systems for translocation, depending on their respective concentrations. Other transport systems are extremely specific. Both cationic and anionic species may be transported. In some cases, the metal transport into the cytoplasm requires energy. Many prokaryotes, including all bacteria, are able to enzymatically derive energy from metal oxidation and reduction. Enzymes for this purpose are located in the cell envelope. Bacteria, algae and fungi also undergo small-scale enzymatic interactions with metals, for example assimilation and detoxification. Microorganisms use metallothioneins in uptake of metals. Metallothioneins are induced by, and/or have a high binding capacity for certain metals, some with great affinity and selectivity. Amplification of production of metallothioneins by microorganisms and enhancement of certain metallothione characteristics are possible by genetic engineering. For example, modification of the primary structure of these proteins may increase gold binding capacity, specificity and the ability to exist in harsh conditions. Those skilled in the art will recognize that for enhancement of the biosorption properties of the microorganisms used in this invention, it is necessary to identify and understand the active agents and components involved in the intracellular uptake and biosorption of the gold. One such active agent may be the cyanide ion part of the gold ion cyanide ion complex. Several microorganisms are known to degrade cyanide ion. For example the fungi, Rhizopus Oryzae, ATCC 62073, has been shown to degrade cyanide ion, Padmaja, G., and Balagopal, C., "Cyanide degradation by Rhizopus oryzee", Canadian J. Microbiology 31, 663-669 (1985), as well as Stemphylium loti, ATCC 24601, Fry, W. E., Millar, R. L., Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 151, 468-474 (1972). Other microorganisms such as the Bacillus subtilis ATCC 21697 also known as Achromobacter nitriloclastes, and Corynebacterium sp. ATCC 21698 also known as Alcaligenes biscolactis ("Degradation of nitriles and cyanides in waste water effluent"), U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,947, and Rhodococcus rubropertictus ATCC 21930 also known as Nocardia rubropertincta ("Degradation of nitriles and cyanides in waste water"), U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,332 are also known to degrade cyanide ion. We studied the microorganism, Pseudomonas paucimobilis ATCC 39204, obtained from Homestake waste water treatment plant in Lead, S.D. These microorganisms, like others obtained from gold mining waste water treatment ponds, are known to degrade cyanide ion in the waste water. Such microorganisms, in the presence of very small amounts of gold ion cyanide ion, degrade the cyanide ion and were found to recover the gold by bioabsorption. The experiments described in Examples 6, 7 and 8 demonstrated this discovery. EXAMPLE 6 A sample of a cyanide degrading bacteria was obtained directly by scraping reactors at the Homestake waste water treatment plant in Lead, S.D. The microorganisms, in the form of a dense mass of about 5 mls, were used to inoculate one liter of media then removed by straining. The culture was grown for three days at 37° C. in 30 gm/lit. of Tryptic-Soy broth (Connecticut Valley Biological Supply, South Hampton, Mass. 01073), containing approximately 1 ppm in cyanide, and 0.02 M phosphate buffer at a pH of about 8.5. After three days at 37° C., in order to keep the culture resistant to cyanide, CaCN was added to make the medium approximately 2-3 ppm in total cyanide. After a total of six days, a gold [I] potassium cyanide solution, KAu(CN) 2 , was added to give a final concentration of about 7.6 mg/lit. Prior analysis of the KAu(CN) 2 solution, by atomic absorption analysis, indicated that the concentration in the culture would be about 5 ppm gold. The culture was separated into two cultures of 250 ml and 500 ml. To the 250 ml culture, 20 gm of powdered carbonaceous ore from the Carlin Gold Mine (Carlin, Nev.) obtained from the 6,180-foot level, were added to the culture and this culture/ore suspension maintained at about 23° C. for three days. The separate 500 ml bacteria culture was kept at the same temperature (approximately 23° C.) also for three days. The ore was separated from the bacterial/ore sample suspension by letting the ore settle out for about one hour. The bacterial culture was then clarified by centrifugation, and the collected bacteria were dried at room temperature and weighed. Approximately 0.3 gms of dried bacteria were obtained. On ashing at 500° C. for about 18 hours, this gave 0.135 gms of solid material. The 500 ml culture was also clarified and the bacteria collected dried and ashed, giving 0.14 gms dried and 0.054 gms on ashing. The supernatant media from both cultures, now substantially free of bacteria, were evaporated by heating at 100° C., and then treated at 100° C. with a 50/50 v/v solution of concentrated hydrochloric (37%) and concentrated nitric acid (100%). This liquid was then filtered and dried at 100° C. then analyzed for total gold by Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectroscopy at Spectro Analytic Instruments, 160 Authority Drive, Fitchburg, Mass. 01420. The collected, dried and ashed bacteria from the 250 ml Carbonaceous ore treated culture and the 500 ml culture were heated to 100° C. with concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acid as described above. After at least one hour acid heat treatment, the two samples were filtered and the liquid evaporated taken up in 1.0 M HCl, then analyzed for total gold also by Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectroscopy. From the 250 ml ore treated culture, 68.5 μg of gold were obtained from the bacteria (228 ppm), and 118 μg of Told were obtained from the clarified media (0.59 ppm). From the 500 ml culture, 28.9 μg of gold were obtained (206 ppm), and from the media, 826 μg of gold were obtained (1.62 ppm). EXAMPLE 7 A solution of 30 gm/lit of Tryptic-Soy broth with 0.02 M phosphate at pH 8.5 was made about 5 ppm in gold potassium cyanide, KAu(CN) 2 (7.5 mg/lit). About a 5 ml sample of dense bacterial culture taken from the Homestake waste water treatment plant was added to the medium. After 5 days, the sample of the dense bacterial culture was removed by straining and dried. The suspended new bacterial growth culture was collected by centrifuge and dried. The two bacterial samples were ashed at about 500° C. Also, the clarified medium was evaporated. The dried media sample and the ashed bacterial samples were treated with the concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acid mixture, filtered, dried and taken up in 1.0 M HCl as described in Example 6. Total gold was determined by atomic absorption analysis for each sample at the Carter Analytic Laboratories, 95 Lost Lake Lane, Campbell, Calif. 95008. On drying, the dense bacteria recovered by straining weighed 0.2 gms, and on ashing, weighed 0.09 gms. This material was found to contain 18 μg gold, or 90 ppm. The new growth culture was found to be 0.2 gms and on ashing was 0.05 gms. This material was found to contain 25.5 μg gold, or 127 ppm. The 250 mls of clarified and dried media were found to contain 160 μg gold, or 0.64 ppm. EXAMPLE 8 About a 5 ml sample of dense bacterial culture taken from the Homestake waste water treatment plant was added and grown for 4 days in a 700 ml culture of 30 gm/lit of Tryptic-Soy broth with 0.02 M phosphate at pH 8.5. At that time, gold potassium cyanide was added to give about 5 ppm in gold potassium cyanide, KAu(CN) 2 (7.5 mg/lit) and 20 gm of the carbonaceous ore powder from the Carlin Gold Mine (Carlin, Nev.) obtained from the 6,180-foot level, was added to the 700 ml culture. After 3 days, the sample of the dense bacterial culture was removed by straining and dried. After the ore had settled out, the suspended new bacterial growth culture was collected from the media by centrifugation and dried. The two bacterial samples were ashed at about 500° C. The 700 mls of clarified media were also evaporated. The dried media sample and the ashed bacterial samples were treated with the concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acid mixture, filtered, dried, and taken up in 1.0 M HCl as described in Example 6. Total gold was determined by atomic absorption analysis for each sample at the Carter Analytic Laboratories, 95 Lost Lake Lane, Campbell, Calif. 95008. On drying, the dense bacteria recovered by straining weighed 0.5 gms, and on ashing, weighed 0.2 gms. This material was found to contain 42 μg gold, or 76 ppm. The new growth culture was found to be 0.1 gms, and on ashing was 0.02 gms. This material was found to contain 9.5 μg gold, or 95 ppm. The 700 mls of clarified and dried media were found to contain 540 μg gold, or 0.77 ppm.

A variety of processes for recovering gold from gold ore are disclosed. Briefly, the methods include culturing at least one microorganism species capable of producing cyanide ion under conditions wherein the microorganism produces cyanide ion, thus forming a cyanide ion-containing culture; contacting the cyanide ion-containing culture with gold ore, causing production of gold ion-cyanide ion complexes and biosorption of said complexes to said cultures; and recovering gold from the culture. The invention may be practiced with a variety of microorganisms, including Chromobacterium violaceum and Chlorella vulgaris.