On a desktop PC, one purpose of a virtual keyboard is to provide an alternative mechanism for disabled users that cannot use a physical keyboard. Another major use for an on-screen keyboard is for bi- or multi-lingual users, who continually need to switch between different character sets and/or alphabets. Although hardware keyboards are available with dual layouts (for example Cyrillic/Latin letters in various national layouts), the on-screen keyboard provides an handy substitute while working at different stations or on laptops, which seldom come with dual layouts.

The standard on-screen keyboard utility on most Windows systems allows hot-key switching between layouts from the physical keyboard (typically alt-shift but this is user configurable), simultaneously changing both the hardware and the software keyboard layout. In addition, a symbol in the sys-tray alerts the user to the currently active layout. Although Linux supports this fast manual keyboard-layout switching function, most popular Linux on-screen keyboards such as gtkeyboard, Matchbox-keyboard or Kvkbd do not react correctly.

Kvkbd for example defines its visible layout according to the first defined layout in Keyboard Preferences rather than the default layout, causing the application to output incorrect characters if the first layout on the list is not the default. Activating a hot-key layout switch will cause the application to change its output according to another keyboard layout, but the visible on-screen layout doesn’t change, leaving the user blind as to which keyboard layout he is using. Until these deficiencies are corrected, Linux on-screen keyboards remain of limited usefulness for multi-lingual / multi-alphabet users.

On devices which lack a physical keyboard (such as personal digital assistants or touchscreen equipped cell phones), it is common for the user to input text by tapping a virtual keyboard built into the operating system of the device. Virtual keyboards are also used as features of emulation software for systems that have fewer buttons than a computer keyboard would have.

Virtual keyboards can be categorized by the following aspects:

physical keyboards with distinct keys comprising electronically changeable displays integrated in the keypads

virtual keyboards with touchscreen keyboard layouts or sensing areas

optically projected keyboard layouts or similar arrangements of “keys” or sensing areas

optically detected human hand and finger motions

JavaScript virtual keyboards used to translate the input from one keyboard layout to another

An optical virtual keyboard has been invented and patented by IBM engineers in 1992. It optically detects and analyses human hand and finger motions and interprets them as operations on a physically non-existent input device like a surface having painted keys. In that way it allows to emulate unlimited types of manually operated input devices such as a mouse or keyboard. All mechanical input units can be replaced by such virtual devices, optimized for the current application and for the user’s physiology maintaining speed, simplicity and unambiguity of manual data input.

On the Internet, various JavaScript virtual keyboards have been created, allowing users to type their own languages on foreign keyboards, particularly in Internet cafes.

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There are two primary types of breast implants or boob jobs: saline-filled and silicone-gel-filled implants. Saline implants have a silicone elastomer shell filled with sterile saline liquid. Silicone gel implants have a silicone shell filled with a viscous silicone gel. There have been several alternative types of breast implants that were developed, such as polypropylene string or soy oil, but these are no longer manufactured.

History

Implants have been used since at least 1895 to augment the size or shape of women’s breasts. The earliest known implant was attempted by Vincenz Czerny, using a woman’s own adipose tissue (from a lipoma, a benign growth, on her back).  Gersuny tried paraffin injections in 1889, with disastrous results. Subsequently, in the early to mid-1900s, a number of other substances were tried, including ivory, glass balls, ground rubber, ox cartilage, Terylene wool, gutta-percha, Dicora, polyethylene chips, polyvinyl alcohol-formaldehyde polymer sponge (Ivalon), Ivalon in a polyethylene sac, polyether foam sponge (Etheron), polyethylene tape (Polystan) or strips wound into a ball, polyester (polyurethane foam sponge) Silastic rubber, and teflon-silicone prostheses.

In recent history, various creams and medicaments have been used in attempts to increase bust size, and Berson in 1945 and Maliniac in 1950 performed a flap-based augmentation by rotating the patient’s chest wall tissue into the breast to add volume. Various synthetics were used throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including silicone injections, which an estimated 50,000 women received.  Development of silicone granulomas and hardening of the breasts were in some cases so severe that women needed to have mastectomies for treatment. Women sometimes seek medical treatment for complications up to 30 years after receiving this type of injection.

Indications

Breast implants are used for:

• primary reconstruction (to replace breast tissue that has been removed due to cancer or trauma or that has failed to develop properly due to a severe breast abnormality)
• revision-reconstruction (revision surgery to correct or improve the result of an original breast reconstruction surgery)
• primary augmentation (to increase breast size for cosmetic reasons)
• revision-augmentation (revision surgery to correct or improve the result of an original breast augmentation surgery)

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Scroll to the bottom of this article to see the latest Nikon promotions. From now till December 31st 2008, receive a $25 or $50 gift card for NikonProGear.com when you buy a Nikon ATB binocular.

Nikon Corporation was established in 1917 when three leading optical manufacturers merged to form a comprehensive, fully integrated optical company known as Nippon Kogaku Kokyo K.K. Over the next 60 years this growing company became a leading manufacturer of optical lenses and precision equipment used in cameras, binoculars, microscopes and inspection equipment.

During World War II the company grew to 19 factories and 23,000 employees, supplying items such as binoculars, lenses, bomb sights and periscopes to the Japanese military. After the war it reverted to its civilian product range with a single factory. In 1948, the first camera with the Nikon brand was released, the Nikon I.

Nikon lenses were popularised by the American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan’s use at the time of the Korean War. Fitting Nikon optics to his Leica rangefinder cameras produced high contrast negatives with very sharp resolution at the centre field.

Besides cameras, Nikon Corporation (Nikon) is recognized as a world leader in development and manufacturing of advanced optical and precision photolithography equipment. In 1980, the first stepper, the NSR-1010G, was produced in Japan. Since then, Free ATB Pro Gear has introduced over 50 models of steppers and scanners for the production of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays.

Nikon currently designs and manufactures precision equipment for use in semiconductor and liquid crystal display (LCD) fabrication, inspection, and measurement. Nikon also designs and manufactures visual imaging products including cameras; instruments such as microscopes; and other products such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) systems, binoculars, surveying instruments, eyewear, sport optics, and optical measuring and inspection equipment.

In 1982, Nikon Precision Inc. (NPI) was established in the United States. NPI is the North American sales and service arm specifically for Nikon Corporation’s semiconductor photolithography equipment and is headquartered in Belmont, California. Fueled by a rapidly growing customer base, the company quickly expanded.

In 1990, NPI opened its current headquarters and the facility now includes corporate offices, a fully equipped world-wide training center (WWTC), service operations, applications engineering, technology engineering, quality and reliability engineering, training, technical support, sales, and marketing for Nikon equipment serving the wafer, photomask, flat panel display, and thin-film magnetic head industries. Today, NPI is an industry leader in supplying and supporting advanced photolithography equipment used in the critical stages of semiconductor manufacturing.

Nikon Corporation also has research and development operations in the U.S. under Nikon Research Corporation of America (NRCA), which directly supports R&D efforts of the Precision Equipment Division in Kumagaya, Japan. By leveraging its strong and long-standing customer relationships, global brand recognition, and technological expertise.

Nikon has positioned themselves to maintain their market leadership through its emphasis on leading-edge research and development and its ability to adapt its products to meet its customers’ rapidly changing needs. The Nikon brand has recently slipped behind rival Canon in total sales. Nikon, once the industry leader, has found itself playing catch up to Canon, who was quicker to market with such innovations as image stabilization and piezo-electric (ultra sonic motor) focusing.

Today, Nikon Group Companies total nearly 17,000 employees worldwide.

In January 2006, Nikon announced it would stop making most of its film camera models and all of its large format lenses, and focus on digital models.

In late 2007, Nikon introduced the newest product in the Nikon Immersion Solution, the NSR-S610C, which uses a proprietary technology that eliminates bubbles, watermarks, and particles generated by immersion processing. This results in defect levels to occur at a rate similar to dry scanners.

Nikon’s All Terrain Binocular (ATB) line has earned a reputation among serious hunters for precision optics, great ruggedness and incredible value. If that alone is not incentive enough to get one for yourself, consider this: Nikon is currently giving out Gift cards for Nikon Pro Gear, allowing you to get some cool gear for no additional cost. You get a $50 gift card when you purchase one of the Monarch ATB binoculars, and a $25 gift card when you get either a Trailblazer ATB, an Action Extreme ATB, or a ProStaff binocular.

This Nikon ATB Promo offer will continue up till December 31, 2008. You can see more details on this offer by visiting the Nikon ATB Promotion Details Page. Once you have made your purchase, register your gift card by filling out the Nikon ATB rebate form on NikonProGear.com and follow the directions provided to redeem your card for whatever cool gear is to your liking.
Nikon Pro Gear offers a variety of high-quality men’s and women’s outdoor and casual garments, optics accessories and other high performance gear.

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