273 results about "Situated computing" patented technology

PCT No. PCT/JP97/02571 Sec. 371 Date Mar. 24, 1998 Sec. 102(e) Date Mar. 24, 1998 PCT Filed Jul. 24, 1997 PCT Pub. No. WO98/03314 PCT Pub. Date Jan. 29, 1998An operation section 32 of a teaching operation panel 30 connected to a robot controller 10 through a cable 40 has a general operation section 321 provided with a sub-display 323, and a graphic display operation section 322 for a display 31 provided with a touch panel. When a hand in touch with a hand mark 21' of the robot displayed along with a graphic image 20' is moved on the display screen (as indicated by an arrow A; from a position H1 to a position H2), the touched positions are sequentially sensed by the touch panel and converted to three-dimensional position data by using plane position data (which is calculated based on either a line-of-sight in graphic display or a specifically designated direction of a plane and the latest touched position). Thus obtained three-dimensional position data is, on one hand, used for sequentially updating the display of the graphic image 20', and, on the other hand, sent to the robot controller 10 in order to be used for jog-feeding the robot 20 (as indicated by an arrow A'). A mouse 34 may be used instead of the touch panel. The line-of-sight in graphic display may be determined by a sensor for detecting a three-dimensional orientation.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for accurately positioning a robotic pool-playing device. The system comprises a computer controlled robotic positioning device, such as a gantry robot, that can position a cue over the pool table and place a shot. A global camera is mounted on the ceiling looking down at the table, and the acquired images are transmitted to the computer for analysis to determine the identity and locations of the balls within the table coordinate reference frame. The computer also automatically determines which ball to strike. An aspect of the invention is the use of a local camera, mounted on or near the robotic end-effector in a fixed relationship with the cue, to improve the positioning error of the robotic device prior to placing a shot. By comparing the ball locations perceived from the vantage of the local camera with the known ball locations determined from the global camera image, the invention can calculate the acquired robotic positioning error, which can then be corrected for prior to placing the shot.

A graphics system comprising a rendering engine, a sample buffer and a filtering engine. The rendering engine receives graphics primitives, generates sample positions, computes a depth value and color values for each sample position interior to each primitive. The blur value is assigned to each sample based on its depth value relative to an estimate of the concentration depth of the viewer. The per-sample data are stored in the sample buffer. The filtering engine reads samples in a neighborhood of a current filter position, and filters the samples to generate a video output pixel which is transmitted to a display device. The filtering engine applies to each sample in the neighborhood a corresponding filter function. The filter function has a spatial cutoff frequency determined by the sample's blur value.

A control apparatus calculates a calibration value based on a position in the robot coordinate system 41 and a position in the vision coordinate system42, for at least three teaching points set within a calibration area. Markers 21 of two of the three teaching points have the same inclination in relation to an optical axis of a camera 3 as a visual sensor, and the two points are placed on different positions of the same plane normal to the optical axis. The remaining one of the three teaching points other than the two points is set such that the inclination of the marker 21 in relation to the optical axis is different from that of the two points. As a result, influence of a large quantization error in the optical axis direction as a measurement error of the camera 3 can be reduced.

The invention discloses an industrial robot safety protection intelligent control method and system. The method comprises the following steps that a detection image of a preset area around a robot is taken; to-be-detected target recognition is carried out on the current detection image; if a target to be detected is recognized in the current detection image, the current position and the current distance between the target to be detected and the robot are computed according to preset parameters; the current position and the current distance are stored in a time shaft module according to the time sequence; according to the current distance, the current position and the former distance and former position of the former time in the time shaft module, the moving speed of the target to be detected is computed; according to the current position, current distance and the moving speed of the target to be detected and the moving state data of the robot, the safe judgment relation between the target to be detected and the preset dangerous area as well as between the target to be detected and the preset safe area is determined; the robot is controlled to normally operate or stop operating or change a path according to the safe judgment relation. The safety of staff can be effectively ensured.

A parking assist device has a touch display (58) including a display unit for displaying a situation around a vehicle and an input unit for entering a target parking position of a vehicle, and also has a control device (60) performing parking assist control by calculating a path according to the target parking position. The control device (60) further performs, under a predetermined condition, assist control for position alignment of a vehicle-side power transmission/reception unit placed on the vehicle with an apparatus-side power transmission/reception unit of an apparatus placed on a ground. Preferably, the parking assist device further has a back monitor camera (53) for taking an image of a surrounding situation of the vehicle. When an identifier indicating the apparatus-side power transmission/reception unit is present in the vicinity of the target parking position in the taken surrounding situation, the control device (60) recognizes the position of the identifier and performs the position alignment assist control.

In a calibration data input process, a carriage 5 is moved toward an ink sensor 19 to a prescribed position while the ink sensor 19 detecting levels of reflected light. Then the amount of reflected light is read for over a range wider than the width of the carriage 5 including a theoretical detecting position P2. An actual detecting position P1 is found based on the level of reflected light. The difference between the theoretical detecting position P2 and the actual detecting position P1 is calculated and is stored as the calibration value alpha in a first calibration data memory M1. Accordingly, the actual detecting position P1 is set as P2±alpha. The calibration value alpha is used in a calibration process to calibrate the detecting position, so that the level of reflected light can be detected with accuracy.

By the use of an epsilon filter, in the case where a plurality of different illuminations exist, a boundary between the illuminations can be appropriately extracted, and an unnatural image pattern can be prevented from being generated, therefore subjectively preferable compression of a dynamic range can be achieved. An edge strength G(x, y) is calculated per position on an input image, and a threshold E(x, y) of an epsilon filter (12) is controlled on the basis of the edge strength G(x, y). The epsilon filter (12) filters the input image on the basis of the controlled threshold E(x, y). On the basis of the edge strength G(x, y), the threshold E of the epsilon filter (12) is adaptively changed according to a local gradient of a pixel value I(x, y), so in the case of using a linear lowpass filter or a fixed threshold epsilon filter, an illumination boundary can be more accurately extracted.

A radiation image capturing system detects the position of a radiation detecting cassette disposed below a patient and the position of a radiation source for emitting a radiation, based on the differences between the propagation times of radio waves emitted from an antenna device to an image capturing apparatus and the radiation detecting cassette. Based on the detected positions, the relative positions of the image capturing apparatus and the radiation detecting cassette are calculated, and then compared with each other by a position determining unit to judge how the image capturing apparatus is positioned with respect to the radiation detecting cassette. If the image capturing apparatus is not positioned in head-on facing relation to the radiation detecting cassette, then a warning is issued, and an actuating mechanism moves the image capturing apparatus to an appropriate position.

The invention provides a method for tracking a target through WI-FI and a video monitoring device. The method is based on a video spatial database and includes the following steps that firstly, a hotspot AP connected with an IP address through the WI-FI within networking time is determined through the IP address of the target and the networking time, and positional information of the target is calculated according to the position of the hotspot AP; secondly, according to the positional information of the target and the networking time corresponding to the positional information, the video spatial database is searched for coherent video data of the target or a target possessor; thirdly, peripheral video monitoring is associated, the coherent video data are found, and the moving trajectory of the target or the target possessor is tracked. The invention further provides a known MAC address tracking method. According to the method for tracking the target and the known MAC address tracking method, a WI-FI network and the video monitoring device can be combined to track criminal suspects who execute cyber crimes or steal a mobile device.

A training, rehabilitation, and recovery system comprises an exercise apparatus including a user interface member coupled to a plurality of links and joints, brakes capable of resisting movement of at least a subset of the links or joints, and sensors capable of sensing movement at the joints or the user interface member. The system also includes a processor configured to receive from the sensors positional data of the links or joints over an initial movement of the apparatus by a user, from which positional coordinates of the user interface member are calculated and a reference trajectory is established. An end space is defined based on the reference trajectory. Over a subsequent movement of the apparatus by the user, the processor receives additional positional data and determines a completion of a repetition based on the positional coordinates of the subsequent movement and the defined end space.

The invention discloses a screen location control method comprising the following steps of: (1) obtaining a reference image: obtaining or pre-collecting at least one screen reference image in real time, and taking the screen reference image as a standard image in image identification; (2) acquiring a screen image: pointing a location control device disclosed in the invention to a screen, digitalizing the screen image by an image acquisition unit in the location control device, and obtaining a series of screen acquisition images; (3) identifying an image: A, extracting a reference characteristic set, i.e., extracting the reference characteristic set from the screen reference image, and taking the reference characteristic set as a standard set in an image identification process; B, extracting and acquiring an image characteristic set, i.e., extracting the characteristics of the screen acquisition image by using a method which is same as the method for extracting the reference characteristic set to obtain an acquisition image characteristic set; and C, matching the acquisition image characteristic set with the reference characteristic set by using a matching algorithm; (4) calculating a position: according to the matching result and a current coordinate of the location control device, calculating a screen coordinate instructed by the location control device next time; and (5) identifying a focus: sending a new focus coordinate in a focus control module, and identifying the position of the focus according to the current state of the screen by the focus control module.

Method for rapid inversion of data from a controlled-source electromagnetic survey of a subterranean region. Selected (51) common-receiver or common-source gathers of the data are reformed into composite gathers (52) by summing their data. Each composite gather is forward modeled (in the inversion process) with multiple active source locations (53). Computer time is reduced in proportion to the ratio of the total number of composite gathers to the total number of original common-receiver or common-source gathers. The data may be phase encoded to prevent data cancellation. Methods for mitigating loss of far offset information by data overlap in the summing process are disclosed.

The purpose of the present invention is to have the angles of each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system infallibly reach the angle of the work completed position, while maintaining the rate of movement and position of the working parts of an articulated robot. If exception conditions are not satisfied, the drive shafts of first and second articulation drive systems are driven individually (S64) on the basis of interpolated points calculated in step 5 (S5). After exception conditions are satisfied (Yes side of S61), until the working parts reach the work completed position (No side of S12), the angle of each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system required to vary each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system in a linear manner with the angle at the work completed position as a target is calculated (S8), and the angle of each of the drive shafts of the second articulated drive system is calculated on the basis of the position of the working part at the interpolated point calculated in step 5 (S5) and the angle of each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system as calculated (S9), and the drive shafts of the first and second articulated drive systems are driven according to said calculation results (S11).

A body-insertable apparatus system includes a body-insertable apparatus introduced into a subject to acquire intra-subject information while moving inside the subject; and a position detecting apparatus detecting a position of the body-insertable apparatus inside the subject. The position detecting apparatus includes a magnetic field generator that generates a position detecting magnetic field in an area inside the subject; a position calculator that acquires magnetic field information of the position detecting magnetic field at the position of the body-insertable apparatus, and calculates the position of the body-insertable apparatus based on the acquired magnetic field information; a moving speed calculator that calculates a moving speed of the body-insertable apparatus based on variations of the position calculated by the position calculator over time; and a magnetic field controller that controls a magnetic-field generation timing of the magnetic field generator according to the moving speed of the body-insertable apparatus.

In time phases except a first time phase, a contour tracking part tracks the position of a region of interest based on image data acquired in each of the time phases. A re-tracking part receives correction of the position of the region of interest in a second time phase, and obtains the position of the corrected region of interest in and after the second time phase based on the image data acquired in and after the second time phase. From position information of the region of interest in and before the second time phase and position information of the corrected region of interest in and after the second time phase, a position calculator obtains position information of the region of interest in all the time phases. A computing part obtains motion information of a tissue within the region of interest based on the position information of the region of interest.

The present invention provides systems and methods for monitoring a heart. According to one embodiment, the system includes an implantable registering unit for registering an electrical signal from the heart. The system includes a local data unit in operable communication with registering unit. The local data unit may be placed in communication with a computer, which may be at a location remote from the local data unit. The computer is adapted to receive the data from the local data unit corresponding to the registered electrical signal and to compare the registered electrical signal to a reference electrical signal to determine whether the heart is functioning properly.