70results about How to "Small and low-cost" patented technology

A wireless sensor network will be used to detect the location of subsurface infrastructures such as a pipeline. The objective is to alert the infrastructure operator and the construction equipment operator of the threat of damage to the infrastructure. Currently the equipment operator has to depend on the color marks made by the locater sent by the One-Call center. The low cost wireless sensor network will alert the operator when the machine tool gets close to an existing utility. A combination of radio frequency signal, ultrasonic pulse, and acoustic signals is used to determine the infrastructure location. A sensor network is then used to map the infrastructure location with respect to the construction equipment operator and provide a reliable, accurate system to alert the operator of the potential danger.

Learning, inference, and decision making with probabilistic user models, including considerations of preferences about outcomes under uncertainty, may be infeasible on portable devices. The subject invention provides systems and methods for pre-computing and storing policies based on offline preference assessment, learning, and reasoning about ideal actions and interactions, given a consideration of uncertainties, preferences, and / or future states of the world. Actions include ideal real-time inquiries about a state, using pre-computed value-of-information analyses. In one specific example, such pre-computation can be applied to automatically generate and distribute call-handling policies for cell phones. The methods can employ learning of Bayesian network user models for predicting whether users will attend meetings on their calendar and the cost of being interrupted by incoming calls should a meeting be attended.

A plurality of lenses (1a-1d) of a lens module (1), a plurality of wavelength selection regions (2a-2d) each having at least one optical filter, and a plurality of imaging regions (4a-4d) are placed in one-to-one correspondence. At least two of the plurality of wavelength selection regions transmit light in at least one wavelength band among infrared light, red light, green light, and blue light. The distance to an object is calculated based on at least two pieces of image information outputted respectively from at least two imaging regions respectively corresponding to the at least two wavelength selection regions. Furthermore, a camera module outputs an image signal based on image information outputted from at least one of the plurality of imaging regions. This can realize a small and low-cost camera module capable of measuring the distance to an object and capturing the object.

In an inverter device, a first three-level circuit includes first to fourth preceding-stage switch elements connected in series between a first input end and a ground and a first charging and discharging capacitor. A second three-level circuit includes fifth to eighth preceding-stage switch elements connected in series between a second input end and the ground and a second charging and discharging capacitor. The first and second two three-level circuits define a five-level circuit that is subjected to switching with the carrier frequency of PWM modulation. The output polarity of a subsequent-stage bridge clamping circuit is inverted between the anterior half cycle and the posterior half cycle of a power supply frequency.

A plasma processing apparatus includes a cathode 54 having a large diameter part 56 and a long thin small diameter part 58, and the upper end surface of the large diameter part 56 faces the plasma forming space 76. The substrate 66 which is to be processed is mounted on the upper end surface of the large diameter part 56. The lower end of the small diameter part 58 is connected via the matching circuit 60 to the high frequency power source 62. The transmission path within the chamber comprises a large diameter coaxial line, a small diameter coaxial line and a radial line which connects them. The large diameter coaxial line includes the large diameter part 56, the first side wall 42 and the insulator 70. The radial line includes the lower surface of the large diameter part 56, the upper surface of the bottom plate 46 and the gap 72 between them. The small diameter coaxial line includes the small diameter part 58, the second side wall 68 and the gap 74. Appropriate impedance matching is achieved between the two coaxial lines and the radial line.

An apparatus and method for displaying an image of a subject in low light conditions. The image is displayed on a video screen. The image is viewed through an eyepiece to reduce the amount of light illuminating a user's face while observing the subject. In an embodiment, the eyepiece is monocular to prevent night blindness in at least one eye. In an embodiment, the video screen is disposed within the housing of the night vision device. In an embodiment, a user can selectively filter the light emitted by the display screen to change its color or to reduce the amount of light received by the user's eye.

The present invention provides a lens barrel applicable to digital cameras, image pickup devices and cell phones. The lens barrel is small, low-cost and high-performance, and can suppress, by means of a simple mechanism provided in the lens barrel, a variation in the focal position of the lens barrel caused by the change in temperature. The lens barrel comprises a lens group consisting of a plurality of lenses and a lens chamber for holding the lens group. An elastic member is provided between a set of adjacent lenses of the lens group, for urging the set of adjacent lenses in an optical axis direction of the lenses. The space between the set of lenses is increased or decreased by the elastic member, which causes a back focus of the lens barrel to move in a direction opposite to the direction in which the focal position of the lens barrel varies due to thermal expansion or thermal contraction of the lens group and the lens chamber and the change of refractive index of the lens group resulting from a temperature change. Hence, by increasing or decreasing the space in the optical axis direction between the lenses at both ends of the elastic member, the variation in the focal position of the lens barrel is suppressed.

A low cost eccentric mass motor vibrotactile transducer provides a point-like vibrational stimulus to the body of a user in response to an electrical input. Preferably the eccentric mass and motor form part of the transducer actuator moving mass. The actuator moving mass is constrained into vertical motion by a spring between the actuator housing and moving mass. The actuator moving mass is in contact with a skin (body) load. The actuator housing is in simultaneous contact with the body load. The mass of the motor / contactor assembly, mass and area of the housing, and the compliance of the spring are chosen so that the electromechanical resonance of the motional masses, when loaded by the typical mechanical impedance of the skin (body), are in a frequency band where the human body is most sensitive to vibrational stimuli 150-300 Hz.

An integrated circuit 2 is provided with one or more monitoring circuits 14, 16, 18, 20 in the form of ring oscillators 22. These ring oscillators 22 include a plurality of tri-state inverters 24, 26, 28 containing a current-limiting transistor 42 operating in a leakage mode. The leakage current through the transistor 42 is dependent upon an operating parameter of the integrated circuit 2 being monitored. Accordingly, the oscillation frequency Fosc of the ring oscillator 22 varies in dependence upon the operating parameter to be measured.

A series resonance circuit defined by a series circuit including an inductor and a capacitor and a series resonance circuit defined by a series circuit including an inductor and a capacitor are connected in shunt to a signal line. A diode is disposed between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the ground, and a diode is disposed between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the ground. The connection point between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the diode is connected to the ground via a frequency shifting inductor in a conductive state at high frequency, and the connection point between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the diode is connected to the ground via a frequency shifting inductor in a conductive state at high frequency. A matching circuit defined by a multistage T-shape LCL circuit is disposed between the series resonance circuits.

A series resonance circuit defined by a series circuit including an inductor and a capacitor and a series resonance circuit defined by a series circuit including an inductor and a capacitor are connected in shunt to a signal line. A diode is disposed between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the ground, and a diode is disposed between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the ground. The connection point between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the diode is connected to the ground via a frequency shifting inductor in a conductive state at high frequency, and the connection point between the grounding end of the series resonance circuit and the diode is connected to the ground via a frequency shifting inductor in a conductive state at high frequency. A matching circuit defined by a multistage T-shape LCL circuit is disposed between the series resonance circuits.

[Object] To provide a high-brightness, small, low-cost optical apparatus which covers a wide-angle to super-wide-angle region and which reliably corrects various aberrations with a small number of lenses.[Solving Means] At least one negative lens unit 1, a meniscus lens 2 that is convex on an object side, an aperture stop S, and a double-convex positive lens 3 are arranged in order from the object side. At least one of the lenses positioned on the object side of the aperture stop S and the positive lens 3 include respective aspherical surfaces. When va is an average Abbe number of all of the lenses excluding the meniscus lens, vb is an Abbe number of the meniscus lens, f is a focal length of the entire system, f12 is a combined focal length of the negative lens unit and the meniscus lens, ts is a distance between the aperture stop and the positive lens along an axis, L is a distance between a vertex of a lens surface nearest to the object side and a vertex of a lens surface nearest to the image side, t2 is a central thickness of the meniscus lens, θs is an incident angle of a chief ray that passes through the aperture stop at a maximum angle of view, 1.4<va / vb, 0<ts / L<0.1, 0.2<t2 / L<0.5, −10<f12 / f<−1.0, and 25°<θs<40° are satisfied.

An inductor comprising one or more windings disposed on opposed first and second surfaces of a flat-plate substrate. The windings are applied to the substrate by plating or photoresistive deposition techniques, with through-holes through the plate accommodating the windings from opposed surfaces. Windings of more than one layer are obtainable with insulation between adjacent layers. The resulting inductor is usable, for example, as a component of an EMI filter in a power converter circuit.

An optical add / drop multiplexer of the invention includes: a wavelength blocker for blocking signal light having at least one wavelength out of a plurality of signal lights included in WDM light supplied from a transmission line and passing the other signal light; an optical coupler for multiplexing signal light having the same wavelength as that of the signal light blocked by the wavelength blocker to signal light passed through the wavelength blocker; a WDM amplifier for amplifying the WDM light multiplexed by the optical coupler and outputting the amplified light; and an optical branch coupler for branching the WDM light output from the WDM amplifier into two lights, extracting signal light having at least one wavelength different from the wavelength of signal light multiplexed by the optical coupler from one of the branched lights, and outputting the other branched light to the transmission line. With the configuration, a small and cheap optical add / drop multiplexer as a flexible OADM node can be provided.

A switching power supply apparatus has a plurality of switching power supply circuits. A control IC (IC1) in a switching power supply circuit generates a PWM drive signal and a synchronizing signal, and also generates DC voltage according to a duty ratio of the PWM drive signal. A control IC (IC2) in the other switching power supply circuit is provided with the synchronizing signal from the IC1 via a transformer, and controls based on a PWM drive signal synchronized with the synchronizing signal. Therefore, switching timing completely matches among the plurality of switching power supply circuits.

A monitoring circuit 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 for monitoring an operating parameter of an integrated circuit 2 comprises a ring oscillator circuit 80 comprising a plurality of serially connected inverting stages 82-1, 82-2, 82-3.At least one of the inverting stages 82-1, 82-2 comprises at least one leakage transistor 64-1, 64-2 which is configured to operate in a leakage mode in which substantially all current through the at least one leakage transistor is a leakage current, and a capacitive element 70-1 arranged to be charged or discharged in dependence on the leakage current. The ring oscillator circuit 80 thus generates an oscillating signal with an oscillation period dependent on a rate at which the capacitive element 70-1 is charged or discharged. The operating parameter controls a magnitude of the leakage current so that the oscillation period indicates the operating parameter.

A variable magnification optical system includes a positive first lens group, a negative second lens group, a stop, a positive third lens group and a positive fourth lens group, which are in this order from an object side. The first lens group, the stop and the third lens group are fixed, but the second lens group and the fourth lens group move in an optical axis direction during magnification change. The fourth lens group has a focusing function. The third lens group includes at least an aspherical surface, and consists of, in the following order from the object side, a positive lens and a cemented lens of a positive lens and a double-concave lens cemented together. The variable magnification optical system satisfies a predetermined formula.

To provide a high-brightness, small, low-cost optical apparatus which covers a wide-angle to super-wide-angle region and which reliably corrects various aberrations with a small number of lenses.At least one negative lens unit 1, a meniscus lens 2 that is convex on an object side, an aperture stop S, and a double-convex positive lens 3 are arranged in order from the object side. At least one of the lenses positioned on the object side of the aperture stop S and the positive lens 3 include respective aspherical surfaces. When va is an average Abbe number of all of the lenses excluding the meniscus lens, vb is an Abbe number of the meniscus lens, f is a focal length of the entire system, f12 is a combined focal length of the negative lens unit and the meniscus lens, ts is a distance between the aperture stop and the positive lens along an axis, L is a distance between a vertex of a lens surface nearest to the object side and a vertex of a lens surface nearest to the image side, t2 is a central thickness of the meniscus lens, θs is an incident angle of a chief ray that passes through the aperture stop at a maximum angle of view, 1.4<va / vb, 0<ts / L<0.1, 0.2<t2 / L<0.5, −10<f12 / f<−1.0, and 25°<θs<40° are satisfied.

A system incorporating safety features, for optical power transmission to receivers, comprising an optical resonator having end reflectors and a gain medium, a driver supplying power to the gain medium, and controlling its small signal gain, a beam steering apparatus and a controller to control at least the beam steering apparatus and the driver. The controller responds to a safety risk occurring in the system, by outputting a command to change at least some of the small signal gain of the gain medium, the radiance of the optical beam, the power supplied by the driver, the scan speed or the scan direction and position of the beam steering apparatus, or to register the scan pose which defines the location of said optical-to-electrical power converter. The controller may also ensure a high overall radiance efficiency, and may warn of transmitted power not received by a targeted receiver.

An antenna system includes: and antenna module and a system module. The antenna module includes a substrate, and a plurality of planar dipole antennas each including a short-circuit section, two first radiator sections operable in a first frequency band and connected to the short-circuit section, and two second radiator sections operable in a second frequency band and connected to the short-circuit section. The planar dipole antennas are arranged such that geometric centers thereof are respectively spaced apart from a center point bounded by the planar dipole antennas by a predetermined distance, such that each of the planar dipole antennas is spaced apart from an adjacent one of the planar dipole antennas by a predetermined minimum distance. The system module has a grounding plane that faces toward and that is spaced apart from and parallel to the substrate.

Learning, inference, and decision making with probabilistic user models, including considerations of preferences about outcomes under uncertainty, may be infeasible on portable devices. The subject invention provides systems and methods for pre-computing and storing policies based on offline preference assessment, learning, and reasoning about ideal actions and interactions, given a consideration of uncertainties, preferences, and / or future states of the world. Actions include ideal real-time inquiries about a state, using pre-computed value-of-information analyses. In one specific example, such pre-computation can be applied to automatically generate and distribute call-handling policies for cell phones. The methods can employ learning of Bayesian network user models for predicting whether users will attend meetings on their calendar and the cost of being interrupted by incoming calls should a meeting be attended.

A time synchronizing signal for synchronizing the times of wireless nodes capable of wireless communication is transmitted to the wireless nodes by multihop. Optional information is transferred by multihop from a predetermined wireless node to an optional node along the same path as the transfer path of the time synchronizing signal by the wireless nodes. Information to respond the optional information is transferred by multihop from the optional wireless node to the predetermined wireless node along the reverse path to the transfer path of the time synchronizing signal.

An inductor comprising one or more windings disposed on opposed first and second surfaces of a flat-plate substrate. The windings are applied to the substrate by plating or photoresistive deposition techniques, with through-holes through the plate accommodating the windings from opposed surfaces. Windings of more than one layer are obtainable with insulation between adjacent layers. The resulting inductor is usable, for example, as a component of an EMI filter in a power converter circuit.

An electrolytic device and method for generating a disinfecting solution that utilizes a brine generator, an electrical circuit with an on-board solar panel and rechargeable storage battery. The electrical circuit preferably conditions the power received from a variety of power sources to charge the storage battery and conditions the power stored in the storage battery to provide the appropriate power to maximize the disinfection efficacy of the disinfecting solution. The on-board solar panel and / or rechargeable battery can be utilized as the power source to recharge or operate other devices such as cell phones, PDAs, flashlights, GPS systems, or other such devices. The device can incorporate a touch screen display and electronics that is an electronic “water finder” application for locating sources of water that can be made potable. The device can incorporate a biocidal agent and foul resistant water filter that can be folded up to provide a compact configuration for storage.

Circuit configurations for controlling an AC motor drive system wherein the control systems include redundancy features to compensate for possible failed system components.

A transmitter shown in FIG. 3 inputs to a mixer 36 an IF band modulation signal generated from transmission data and a frequency hopping signal obtained by a hopping synthesizer 38 controlled by a hopping pattern generator 37, thereby obtaining a frequency hopping radio signal to be transmitted. In a receiver shown in FIG. 4, a received signal is amplified and an unnecessary wave is removed from the signal, and the resultant signal is input to a mixer 44. The mixer 44 receives an output signal of a hopping synthesizer 47 controlled by a signal obtained by adding a fixed frequency offset signal to the hopping pattern generator 45. A signal downconverted to a first IF band without frequency hopping corresponding to the offset signal with a radio frequency band signal maintaining the relative spectrum relationship appears in the output of the mixer 44. An unnecessary wave of the signal is removed, a square unit 49 performs square detection, and a modulation signal in the intermediate frequency band used by the source is regenerated. The obtained IF band signal is modulated, thereby receiving desired data.

In an inverter device, a first three-level circuit includes first to fourth preceding-stage switch elements connected in series between a first input end and a ground and a first charging and discharging capacitor. A second three-level circuit includes fifth to eighth preceding-stage switch elements connected in series between a second input end and the ground and a second charging and discharging capacitor. The first and second two three-level circuits define a five-level circuit that is subjected to switching with the carrier frequency of PWM modulation. The output polarity of a subsequent-stage bridge clamping circuit is inverted between the anterior half cycle and the posterior half cycle of a power supply frequency.