Patent Application
20140188449
The present embodiments relate to a method and a system for performing a city lifecycle management which can be used by city stakeholders.
A city is a very complex structure including of many different sub-systems of different disciplines such as energy supply, water supply, waste removal, security, mobility, healthcare, education or manufacturing, environment and finances. Besides buildings and a complex infrastructure located in the city the urban area of the city is populated by humans having social and economic relations. Decisions made by stakeholders of a city, for example with reference to infrastructure objects, have also an impact on the environment and ecology of the respective area. Moreover, decisions made by stakeholders can have a direct or indirect impact on the humans living in the city. Decisions affecting one or several disciplines in a city can be made by different kinds of stakeholders at different levels of the city administration. For example, a mayor of a city or a planning or an engineering team can make an infrastructure decision with respect to an object of the city such as a building object affecting other disciplines of the city as well.
Currently city stakeholders use a multitude of different systems to plan, design, build, operate and to maintain different verticals or disciplines in a city. These conventional tools are disparate within and across the verticals hindering an optimization and sustainability of the city development. In conventional systems for planning a city development, the gathering of data information on a city is predominantly done manually. Furthermore, with conventional systems all relevant implications of decisions are at the very most backed only on a vertical/discipline level. Conventional systems do not take into account the complex interrelations between different disciplines in a city so that side effects and implications for other disciplines when making a decision in a specific discipline are not systematically evaluated and provided to city stakeholders making the decision.
The scope of the present invention is defined solely by the appended claims and is not affected to any degree by the statements within this summary.
Consequently, decisions made by city stakeholders are mostly heuristic and based on experience without any systematic evaluation of cross-discipline effects caused by the respective decision. Furthermore, conventional systems do not support city stakeholders by evaluating their decisions over different time horizons. Especially, long-time effects of decisions taken by city stakeholders are not considered by conventional tools. Accordingly, a city lifecycle management system that takes into account the complex interrelations of different disciplines within a city to support city stakeholders in making optimal decisions for a sustainable development of a city is desired.
Accordingly, the present embodiments provide a city lifecycle management system providing for city stakeholders to measure a performance of decisions against key performance indicators with respect to a sustainable development of an urban area, said city lifecycle management system comprising:
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the software modules of said modelling and simulation framework simulate multi-disciplinary interactions between city objects of different disciplines at different levels of detail and over different time horizons.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the data and software platform comprises a data backbone through which city stakeholders of the same or different disciplines can exchange data in real-time and have instant access to design rationales and decisions.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the software modules of said modelling and simulation framework have access to actual, historic and planned city data of said urban area stored in at least one data storage of said data and software platform via said data backbone.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the modelling and simulation framework comprises configurable model libraries describing a static or dynamic behaviour of city objects within said urban area.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the model libraries describe a static or dynamic behaviour of the city objects or relations between city objects of said urban area.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the behaviour of the city objects comprises a physical behaviour, a social behaviour, an economic behaviour, a structural behaviour and a logical behaviour of the city objects.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the city data comprises objects within said urban area including urban tangible and intangible city data, infrastructure, climatic and ecological data related to city objects and human objects within said urban area relevant to planning and sustainable development of a city.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, said urban infrastructure objects comprise objects of different disciplines.
In a possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, said urban infrastructure objects comprise building objects including different types of buildings, in particular residential buildings, commercial buildings and public buildings.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, said urban infrastructure objects further comprise mobility objects including transport means, roads, railroads, subways, parking lots, bus stations, train stations, airports, water channels, harbours, pedestrian zones, bridges, tunnels and cycle tracks.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, said urban infrastructure objects comprise energy supply objects including energy generators, energy storage means, energy consumers, energy prosumers, energy distribution entities and power supply lines.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, said urban infrastructure objects further comprise drinking water supply objects including water supply tanks, reservoirs, water supply pipes, pumps, valves and water consumers.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, said urban infrastructure objects comprise water sewage objects including spillway basins, sewer pipes, pumps, valves, rainwater collectors and sewage plants.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, said urban infrastructure objects comprises health care objects such as hospitals.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the urban infrastructure objects further comprise education objects including schools, universities and research facilities.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the urban infrastructure objects further comprise manufacturing objects including factories, productions facilities and industries.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the urban infrastructure objects further comprise communication objects including data networks, telephone networks and mail delivery facilities.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the urban infrastructure objects further comprise security objects including police stations, monitoring cameras, sensor networks and fire stations.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the urban infrastructure objects further comprise waste objects including garbage collection, waste recovery and recycling facilities.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the urban infrastructure objects further comprise environment objects including gardens, recreation parks, lakes, woods and riversides.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the urban infrastructure objects further comprise financial objects including expenditures, revenues, transfers, plant maintenance and administration.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the modelling and simulation framework comprises algorithms and assets that are adapted to administer calculations to evaluate the interactions between the city objects of said urban area.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the city stakeholders exchange data between each other by interfaces connected to said data backbone of said data and software platform.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the application programs of said application layer comprise:
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the key performance indicators comprise key performance indicators of cities for different disciplines including emission, budget, congestion, energy, water, waste, waste-water prosumption, quality of life, economic growth, land use, water usage, refurbishment potential, and population development, including demographic and employment development, indicators.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system, the city data comprises geodetic data and semantic information of said city objects within said urban area.
Other embodiments further provide a method for providing key performance indicators forming a basis for decisions taken by city stakeholders with respect to a sustainable development of an urban area comprising the acts of:
In a possible embodiment of the method, the interactions between city objects of different disciplines are evaluated and simulated at different levels of detail and over different time horizons.
In a possible embodiment of the method, the simulation of the interactions between the objects is performed on the basis of a static or dynamic behaviour of the city objects read from module libraries describing a behaviour of city objects and relations between city objects.
In the following, possible embodiments of a city lifecycle management system and of a method for providing key performance indicators are described with reference to the enclosed figures in more detail.
As can be seen from
The data and software platform 2 can include at least one data backbone including a data network. The city stakeholders can exchange data with each other and with other users by interfaces connected to the data backbone of the data and software platform 2. In some applications, this exchange of data can be performed in real-time. The different city stakeholders communicate with each other over the data backbone of the data and software platform 2 shown in
The city lifecycle management system 1 as shown in
In a possible embodiment, the modelling and simulation framework 3 further comprises configurable model libraries describing a static or dynamic behaviour of city objects within the urban area. The model libraries can describe a behaviour of city objects over time. Further, the model libraries can describe relations between city objects of the urban area. The behaviour of the city objects described in the model library includes a physical behaviour of the city objects but also a social or economic behaviour of city objects. Further, the behaviour of the city objects can include structural behaviour or a logical behaviour of city objects. The behaviour described by the configurable module libraries can be a static behaviour but also a dynamic behaviour of the respective city objects.
The modelling and simulation framework 3 includes, in a possible embodiment, algorithms and assets that are adapted to administer calculations to evaluate the interactions between the city objects of said urban area. The methods can administer generic algorithms and calculations to evaluate and process models, data and information. The models can, for example, include 3D models. The data extraction and data processing of data models is performed according to any kind of generic algorithms provided by said modelling and simulation framework 3.
The city lifecycle management system 1 as shown in the embodiment of
The application layer 4 includes application programs, such as city and infrastructure planning applications. Furthermore, the application layer 4 can include city and infrastructure design applications as well as city management applications. Further, the applications of the application layer 4 can include simulation applications or optimization applications. In a further possible embodiment, the application layer 4 can further include rescue and emergency applications or social impact evaluation applications. The applications programs can further include environment impact evaluation applications or forecast applications. The forecast applications can include short term, mid term or long term forecast applications.
The application programs can be executed by program execution units of processors or terminals connected via interfaces to the data backbone of said data and software platform 2. The terminals can be fixed or mobile terminals used by city stakeholders when making decisions having an impact on the development of the urban area. The application programs can be interactive and shared by several city stakeholders. The application programs can include software tools adapted to specific city stakeholder's demands and requirements.
The city data stored in data storage in distributed form can include a plurality of city objects within the urban area. These city objects can include infrastructure objects and human objects located within the urban area and being relevant to planning and sustainable development of the respective city. There can be other kinds of city objects, such as objects affecting the climate of the city or ecological objects.
The city objects stored in the data storage of the system include urban infrastructure objects of different disciplines. The urban infrastructure objects can include a plurality of buildings of different kinds and types. The urban infrastructure objects can include building objects including different types of buildings, such as residential building objects, commercial building objects and public building objects. More kinds or types of building objects can be defined and stored as city objects in the data storage of the city life cycle management system 1.
A second kind of urban infrastructure objects can include mobility or transport objects, including transport means, roads, railroads, subways, parking lots, bus stations, train stations, airports, water channels, harbours, pedestrian zones, bridges, tunnels and cycle tracks within the respective city.
The urban infrastructure objects of the city data can further include energy supply objects. These energy supply objects can include energy generators, energy storage means, energy consumers, energy prosumers, energy distribution entities and power supply lines.
The urban infrastructure objects of the city data as stored in the distributed data storage of the city lifecycle management system 1 can further include drinking water supply objects, including water supply tanks, reservoirs, water supply pipes, pumps, valves and water consumers.
The urban infrastructure objects can further include water sewage objects, including spillway basins, sewer pipes, pumps, valves, rainwater collectors or sewage plants.
In a possible embodiment, the urban infrastructure objects stored as city data in the data storage of the city lifecycle management system 1 can further include health care objects, such as hospitals or the like.
In a further possible embodiment of the city lifecycle management system 1, the urban infrastructure objects of the city data stored in the data storage of the city lifecycle management system 1 can include education objects including schools, universities and research facilities.
Furthermore, the urban infrastructure objects of the city lifecycle management system 1 can include manufacturing objects, including factories and production facilities or whole industries.
In a further possible embodiment, the urban infrastructure objects stored as city data in a data storage of the city lifecycle management system 1 can include communication objects including network elements, data networks, public and cellular telephone networks as well as mail delivery facilities.
City objects stored as city data in a data base or data storage of the city lifecycle management system 1, can further include security objects, including police stations, monitoring cameras, sensor networks, fire stations or the like.
In a possible embodiment, the urban infrastructure objects stored as city data in a data base or data storage of the city lifecycle management system 1 can include waste objects, including garbage collection, waste recovery or recycling facilities.
In a possible implementation, the urban infrastructure objects stored as city data in a data storage of the city lifecycle management system 1 can include environment objects, including gardens, recreation parks, lakes, woods or riversides.
In a possible implementation of the city lifecycle management system 1, the city data include as city objects also financial objects, including expenditure, revenue, transfer, plant maintenance and administration objects.
The above mentioned urban infrastructure objects can be objects of different types and complexity and might be, in a possible implementation, sub-entities including objects of their own. For example, a train station as a mobility object might include different mobility objects, such as train platforms for different trains including transport devices, which can include wagons used for transporting goods or persons. Each city object can include several other city objects, wherein interrelations between city objects can be stored in a repository.
Each city object can have a determined static or dynamic behaviour. For example, a mobility object, such as transport device for transporting persons, can have a transport velocity as a physical behaviour for transporting people from one station to another station. For example, an energy generator forming an energy supply object can have a photovoltaic generation unit, which generates energy depending on the current weather (e.g., producing more energy on a sunny day than on a cloudy day). Besides, this kind of dynamic behaviour, the city objects can also include a static behaviour. For example, a road forming a mobility object can have the static behaviour that the road connects two other roads being mobility objects to each other. The city object can include a dynamic or static behaviour with respect to different disciplines. For example, a train as a transport forming a mobility object can have the behaviour of transporting a predetermined number of passengers from a first train station to a second train station and showing further the behaviour of consuming more energy when transporting the passengers from the first train station to the second train station than when standing idle at a train station. Accordingly, each city object can be a complex object including behaviour describing data describing the behaviour of the city object with respect to other city objects of different disciplines and indicating relations to other city objects.
In particular, each city object can include geodetic data indicating the position of the respective city object within the urban area. Some city objects can include static geodetic data. For example, building objects include static geodetic data or coordinates indicating the permanent location of the building object within the city. Other city objects, for example mobility objects, include dynamic geodetic data showing the current position of the city object within the urban area.
The city data can also include semantic information of the respective city objects within the urban area.
Besides, the infrastructure objects the city data can also include other city objects, in particular human objects of people living in the respective urban area. Human objects can be interrelated to urban infrastructure objects. For example, a human object can be located in a residential building object during night and work in an office building represented by another building object during the day. Further, a mobility object such as a train can be configured to transport a predetermined number of human objects from one location to the other. Further, a human object can, for example, be a consumer of drinking water provided by drinking water supply objects and produce waste water supplied to water sewage objects. Further, human objects can show a static or dynamic behaviour with respect to different disciplines. Human objects can include data describing the behaviour of single humans but also of a group of people. Human objects can interact with infrastructure objects and other human objects.
The city lifecycle management system 1 as shown in
The city stakeholders can include a city major, city planners or any kind of decision makers. The city stakeholders can even include citizens of the respective urban area. The indicators provided by the application programs of the application layer 4 can include key performance indicators KPI of cities for different disciplines including key performance indicators of emissions, budget, congestion, energy, water, waste, waste-water prosumption, quality of life, economic growth, land use, water usage, refurbishment potential and population development, including demographic and employment development. This calculated key performance indicators (KPI) can be displayed by the city lifecycle management system 1 to stakeholders making decisions with respect to the development of the city. This allows a collaborative, interactive and immediate feedback of the city stakeholders.
The city lifecycle management system 1 allows to substantiate decisions in specific verticals or disciplines such as traffic, water and/or energy supply for example by the assistance of simulative evaluation and forecast application programs. Specifically, a technical analysis using a simulation can be performed in order to predict a behaviour of at least parts of a respective discipline in parallel to several other disciplines on a city level. The city lifecycle management system 1 provides a cross-discipline simulation. The city lifecycle management system 1 provides technical ways for city decision makers or stakeholders to evaluate and to predict the impacts of the decisions on the city and its relevant key performance indicators (KDI). For example, users and city stakeholders of the city lifecycle management system 1 can include city planners, traffic planners, building planners or utility planners. The forecast provided by the city lifecycle management system 1 can, for example, provide a forecast concerning a traffic situation, a security situation, an ecological balance, an economic development, a social impact, a financial status and even a quality of life for the people living in a specific area of the city. The city lifecycle management system 1 can use as a database a current city status including, for example, statistical figures or field data. Further, global factors such as ecological trends, economic trends, demographic trends, changing laws or global policies provided by a database via a network such as the internet can be used to calculate the key performance indicators (KPI). Further, the key performance indicators can also be calculated on the basis of influencable factors which can be influenced by the city stakeholders such as city budget or local policy regulations.
In a first act S1, city data including urban infrastructure objects and/or human objects within the urban area are provided. In a second act S2, the interactions between the objects are evaluated. Finally, in act S3 the key performance indicators (KPI) are derived depending on the evaluated interactions.
The evaluation of the interaction between the objects of different disciplines in act S2 can be performed at different levels of detail and over different time horizons. In a possible embodiment, the city stakeholders can select different levels of detail for calculation of the key performance indicators (KPI). Moreover, the city stakeholders can set different time horizons for the calculation of the key performance indicators (KPI), in particular to evaluate also long-term developments. The evaluation of the interactions between the objects can be performed on the basis of a static or dynamic behaviour of the city objects read from model libraries, which can describe the behaviour of city objects and relations between the city objects. A plurality of different kinds of city objects and of different disciplines can be available in a database. It is possible that city stakeholders can generate by a creation tool a city object and define a corresponding behaviour of the city object. For example, a city planner as a city stakeholder can generate as a city object as an urban infrastructure object, for example, a road consisting of lanes each having a traffic transport capacity for a predetermined number of cars per hour. Accordingly, a city stakeholder can create and configure a city object.
A plurality of city objects of the same discipline can be provided by the data base of the respective discipline. For example, a water supply network of the city can include a plurality of drinking water supply objects including water supply tanks, reservoirs, water supply pipes etc. For each water supply object specific data such as height, area, capacity or the like can be stored in a repository along with behaviour data of the respective water supply object.
The building objects BO1, BO2, BO3 are connected to an energy supply grid and a water supply infrastructure. A main power supply line forms an energy supply object ESO1 which supplies energy to the first building object BO1 via a power supply distribution entity forming an energy supply object ESO2 and a power supply line ESO3. Further, there is a power supply distribution unit ESO4 for supplying energy via the energy supply line ESO5 to a further energy distribution unit forming an energy supply object ESO6. The third building BO3 is connected to the power supply distribution object ESO6 via a power supply line ESO7. The second building object BO2 is connected to the energy supply object ESO6 via the power supply line ESO8.
Furthermore, the building objects BO1, BO2, BO3 can receive drinking water from water supply objects WSO. A main water supply line WSO 1 is linked by water supply distribution entities WSO2, WSO3 to water supply lines WSO4, WSO5. At a water distribution entity WSO6 the first building object BO1 is connected to the water supply object WSO4 by a water supply line WSO8. The second building object BO2 is connected to the water supply object WSO5 via a water supply line WSO 9 at the water supply distribution entity WSO7. The third building object BO3 is connected to the water supply object WSO5 by a water supply line WSO10 at a water supply distribution entity WSO11.
Accordingly, the city data includes a plurality of city objects, in particular urban infrastructure objects of different disciplines. In the shown example of
The construction of the building represented by the building object BO3 does also have impacts on other disciplines of the city as well, for example the energy supply. For example, as shown in
The decision makers or city stakeholders will see the impact of their decision on the different key performance indicators (KPI) to provide a sustainable development of the urban area. For example, a decision with respect to an urban infrastructure object can have a positive impact on some key performance indicators (KPI) and influences other key performance indicators (KPI) negatively. For example, by building a big commercial building represented by a building object BO3 the economic growth in the respective area will be enhanced. However, the quality of life of residents living in the respective area might diminish. Consequently, trade-off effects become visible to city stakeholders in this way. City stakeholders planning a building in the city area, such as a building represented by a building object BO3, might consider disciplines such as the traffic situation or energy supply but might otherwise overlook other effects concerning other disciplines, such as water supply or effects on the environment. The city lifecycle management system 1 helps a city stakeholder or a team of city stakeholders to take a complete look to the effects caused by the decision in different disciplines of the city. In this way, it is also easier for city stakeholders to communicate decisions to residents living in the affected area. In a possible embodiment, residents as well as city stakeholders can have access to the key performance indicators (KPI) calculated by the city lifecycle management system 1, for example via a data network. In this way, citizens of a city can better understand, for example, infrastructure decisions taken by city stakeholders or planners, so that the decision-making process as a whole becomes more transparent. The city lifecycle management system 1 can be used for planning and optimizing infrastructure decisions taking into account the impact on other disciplines, such as environment. Further, a forecast of future developments is possible. The city lifecycle management system 1 can also be used for real-time evaluations of existing urban areas. The city lifecycle management system 1 allows a what-if scenario management and can demonstrate strategic planning. It provides an efficient decision support, facilitates communication, and increases transparency. The city lifecycle management system 1 ensures a seamless data management along the lifecycle of a city or of a city area. The city lifecycle management system 1 can be used for any kind of urban area, such as a big city but also for smaller entities such as towns, communities and even villages. The city lifecycle management system 1 can be linked in a possible embodiment to a virtual reality environment showing city objects in three-dimensional simulations.
In an exemplary use case, the city lifecycle management system 1 can show an interplay or interactions of buildings and traffic. For example, a city stakeholder can model an office park near an existing infrastructure. The existing infrastructure can include residential homes, commercial homes, shopping malls as well as roads. After downloading infrastructure files from a server, the city stakeholder can see that the traffic is balanced through the week days by looking, for example, at road colours coding traffic on roads on a displayed map. For example, a slider allows the city stakeholder to select different times of the day and different days of a week to see whether this has an impact on the traffic flow. City stakeholder can see the impact of constructing a new office park by modelling the three-dimensional office buildings and connecting a building parking lot to existing roads of the infrastructure. The traffic simulation result can show that there is a traffic jam during the morning and evening on week days when employees commute on the road. The city stakeholder can then extend the lanes of an existing road and even construct a complete new road to resolve the traffic issue.
In a further use case, the city lifecycle management system 1 may be used to show the interplay or interactions between buildings and an energy grid of the city. When planning a new office park or big commercial building, this can be built as a prosumer in the city energy grid (e.g., if the building includes a photovoltaic facility as well as energy storages within a certain generation or storage capacity built on the roof of the constructed office park building). The city stakeholder can see the impact of these installations on the energy profile of the respective building by looking at a displayed building energy graph. This aggregated energy graph can show, for example, an electricity demand and a required electric production capacity of the utility. For example, a city stakeholder can see that adding photovoltaic and/or energy storage units will change the daytime energy demand of the building and will have an impact on the energy supply of the city.
As a further use case, the interplay of buildings, traffic and energy can be implemented. For example, a city stakeholder can choose to have a certain percentage of cars as e-cars with the additional assumption that these e-cars will be charged during daytime at the office and at home in the evening. A city stakeholder of the city lifecycle management system 1 can, for example, see that traffic jams are not only causing arrival time delays but will have an impact on the building energy consumption profile. In a possible implementation, the city lifecycle management system 1 can show an impact of at least one made decision on other interesting key performance indicators (KPI), for example within a district of a city. This can be done, for example, from a management point of view or for example from the perspective of a city major. The relevant data can be displayed to a city stakeholder such as the city major through numerical key figures or graphs showing for example on air pollution, energy usage, budget status, average congestion or quality of life of the residents in the district. The city lifecycle management system 1 can use a complete data model of the city with a plurality of city objects of different disciplines for performing an analysis of a decision concerning, for example, the infrastructure of the respective city.
In a possible embodiment, a city stakeholder, such as a city mayor, may invite a plurality of other city stakeholder, for instance residents of the affected district within the city, to vote in favour or against a decision on the basis of the calculated key performance indicators (KPI). The voting may be performed by individuals living in the area or by their representatives.
With the city lifecycle management system 1, the city stakeholders have instant access to up-to-date data and are able to collaborate in an efficient way.
An aspect of the city lifecycle management system 1 tion is the efficient collaboration during the entire lifecycle beginning with first requirements and concept drawings throughout development and engineering phases up to operation and service for a city object.
A second aspect of the city lifecycle management system 1 is the support in the evaluation of taken decisions. The development and engineering acts can be backed by technical analysis and simulations to foresee a behaviour caused by the decision. Accordingly, the city lifecycle management system 1 allows one to substantiate decisions in specific verticals or disciplines. The decision taken with the help of the city lifecycle management system 1 can be recorded and can form part of a report or a decision recommendation. In the city lifecycle management system 1, city objects can be created, changed or cancelled depending on the taken decision. Any taken decision, for instance, with respect to infrastructure objects will have an impact on the city budget. A decision on an infrastructure object may also have an impact on the tax revenues of a city. For example, if a production facility is built within the perimeter of the respective city, the city will get taxes paid by the manufacturer whereas if the production facility is built outside the urban area there will be no affluence of revenues to the city. Accordingly, the city lifecycle management system 1 assists a city stakeholder in planning a budget of the city as well. The city lifecycle management system 1 can also discover automatically inconsistencies and errors when planning an object. A simple example would be the planning of a building object BO having geodetic data indicating that another building is already existing at this location.
It is to be understood that the elements and features recited in the appended claims may be combined in different ways to produce new claims that likewise fall within the scope of the present invention. Thus, whereas the dependent claims appended below depend from only a single independent or dependent claim, it is to be understood that these dependent claims can, alternatively, be made to depend in the alternative from any preceding or following claim, whether independent or dependent, and that such new combinations are to be understood as forming a part of the present specification.
While the present invention has been described above by reference to various embodiments, it should be understood that many changes and modifications can be made to the described embodiments. It is therefore intended that the foregoing description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that all equivalents and/or combinations of embodiments are intended to be included in this description.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| EP 11176160 | Aug 2011 | EP | regional |
The present patent document is a §371 nationalization of PCT Application Serial Number PCT/US2012/037070, filed May 9, 2012, designating the United States, which is hereby incorporated by reference. This patent document also claims the benefit of EP 11176160, filed Aug. 1, 2011, which is also hereby incorporated by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US12/37070 | 5/9/2012 | WO | 00 | 1/28/2014 |
