Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Fujitsu Corporation

Akihiro Abe

Takanori Shimada

Nobuhiro Kambe

Go Nakano

Satoshi Yoshino

Sumitake Kobayashi

Ichiro Kawabata

Tomomi Ohta

Atsuo Matsunaga

Seiichi Kamon

Hiromitsu Nishimura

Akinori Kamata

Kazuo Kobashi

Ryozo Furutani

Yasushi Abe

Akihiko Wada

Keiko Ishii

Hirotomo Terada

A vector block information indicating a plurality of line segment rows is read out from a block map. Each line segment row divides an area of a block from an area of a road in an image drawing region. Each point at which one end of a line segment row contacts with a boundary line of the image drawing region is set as a boundary point. In this case, a road crossing the boundary line of the image drawing region is indicated by a pair of line segment rows having a pair of boundary points close to each other. To determine an area of the road, the pair of boundary points are connected with each other through a connecting line segment. Therefore, a road area in the image drawing region can be automatically extracted from the block map. In addition, an end area of the road placed at the boundary line of the image drawing region is reshaped to have two right-angle corners at the end area of the road, a length of a road area at the boundary line of the image drawing region is shortened, an area of a narrow road is deleted from the road area, an area of a narrow road is widened, or a plurality of blocks placed in an administrative district is unified by deleting areas of a plurality of roads dividing the blocks.

ROAD AREA EXTRACTING APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING A ROAD AREA FROM A BLOCK MAP, DEFORMED MAP AUTOMATIC GENERATION SYSTEM FOR GENERATING A DEFORMED MAP FROM ROAD AREA DATA OBTAINED BY THE ROAD AREA EXTRACTING APPARATUS, MAP INFORMATION PROVIDING SYSTEM, GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION PROVIDING SYSTEM AND GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION DESCRIBING METHOD

Deformed map automatic generation system including automatic extraction of road area from a block map and shape deformation of at least one road area drawn in the map

In an image forming apparatus, an image forming section forms an entire object image using at least two dot-sequence forming units. At that time, at least two image quality control sections corresponding to the respective dot-sequence forming units control an actual-image forming state of each of dots of the object image. A buffer section has a predetermined number of line-data buffers each for storing the line data of an individual line of image data received from the image-forming request source for temporary retention and is shared by the plural image quality control sections. In the meantime a data-store-and-read control section controls a data store operation and a data readout operation so as to execute the two operations in parallel. Because possible duplicated line data is treated in an efficient way to minimize transmission of useless line data, it is possible to reduce the number of line-data buffers to a minimum, thus resulting in a simplified apparatus construction and a reduced cost manufacturing cost.

Image forming apparatus

Messages received through information delivery are classified by a message identification section. The thus-classified messages are stored into a specified folder by means of a folder management section and are managed for each level in a hierarchy. When a new message is stored into the specified folder, a folder setting section causes a paging control section to page the user by means of a speaker, a vibrator, or an LED or causes a display control section to display the arrival of a message on an LCD. So long as the folder is set to a shortcut folder, a desired information item can be read in a prioritized manner.

Radio pager having directory structure with user-defined notification of message receipt

A map editing apparatus is provided with various sections having respective editing functions which can be selectively specified for operating on one or more user-selected elements of a displayed map, with each editing function serving to automatically execute a specific editing operation, which may utilize one or more predetermined parameters. The apparatus includes a conformity management section having a function for detecting when execution of an editing operation will result in nonconformity in the map, such as mutual overlapping of map elements, and for automatically causing such an editing operation to be executed in a modified form, such as to prevent occurrence of the nonconformity.

Map editing apparatus enabling simplified editing through provision of user-selectable automatic editing functions

A system for controlling physical distribution pallets makes it possible to accurately identify status of pallets, to set up an adequate forwarding plan of pallets, and to accomplish physical distribution in smooth manner. The system includes a wireless detector device mounted on pallets and for detecting pallet control information transmitted from transmitting means 21 which stores pallet control information of said pallet and transmits in wireless, a pallet stock data storage for receiving and storing the pallet control information detected by the wireless detector via a wide area communication network, and a pallet status judging device for judging whether the pallet stored in memory of the pallet stock data storage is empty or not based on the pallet control information of said pallet. Further, the invention includes a supply and demand predictor for predicting supply and demand of pallets at physical distribution bases and a planning device for setting up a forwarding plan for forwarding pallets at minimal cost between physical distribution bases. It is possible according to the present system to accurately identify the status of pallets, to set up an adequate forwarding plan for pallets, and to accomplish smooth physical distribution.

System for controlling physical distribution pallets

Pedestrian information providing system, storage unit for the same, and

When a control unit is in a non-operating (non-printing) state, data to be saved (character-image data) in a RAM cache memory is transferred to a disk cache memory at regular intervals in order of priority, thereby saving the data in the disk cache memory. If a power supply is cut off and then power is reintroduced, high-priority character-image data, which has been transferred from the RAM cache memory to the disk cache memory and saved in the disk cache memory when printing is not being carried out, is restored in the RAM cache memory. As a result, the high-priority data saved in the RAM cache memory when the power supply was cut off can be restored in the RAM cache memory, thereby raising the hit rate.

Method for saving generated character image in a cache system including

The present invention provides a system for controlling physical distribution pallets, by which it is possible to accurately identify status of pallets, to set up an adequate forwarding plan of pallets, and to accomplish physical distribution in smooth manner. The system comprises wireless detecting means 22 mounted on pallets and for detecting pallet control information transmitted from transmitting means 21 which stores pallet control information of said pallet and transmits in wireless, pallet stock data storage means 23 for receiving and storing the pallet control information detected by the wireless detecting means via a wide area communication network, and pallet status judging means 24 for judging whether the pallet stored in memory of the pallet stock data storage means is empty or not based on the pallet control information of said pallet. Further, it comprises supply and demand predicting means 27 for predicting supply and demand of pallets at physical distribution bases and planning means 29 for setting up a forwarding plan for forwarding pallets at minimal cost between physical distribution bases. It is possible according to the present system to accurately identify the status of pallets, to set up an adequate forwarding plan for pallets, and to accomplish smooth physical distribution.

Transportation network information relating to a transportation network constructed by arranging a plurality of collection/delivery base points, a plurality of transportation hubs, a plurality of collection/delivery services and a plurality of relay transportation services are hierarchically stored in a transportation network storing unit. Schedule information relating to the collection/delivery services and the relay transportation services are stored in a transportation schedule storing unit. Transportation rules based on experimental knowledge, transportation restrictions for the article transportation and route rules based on business knowledge are stored in a knowledge storing unit. When transportation conditions for an article are input to a condition receiving unit, an optimum transportation route from a transportation starting point to a transportation arriving point, a relay of relay transportation services along the optimum transportation route, transportation starting time and date and transportation arriving time and date are determined according to the transportation network information, the schedule information, the transportation rules and restrictions and the route rules. Also, in cases where a transportation starting or arriving point is unknown, candidates of the unknown point are determined and displayed.

Method and system for determining transportation route

A method for transferring data from one memory to another within a memory hierarchy in a data processing system. The memory hierarchy includes a random access memory (RAM) cache within a control unit and a lower level disk cache memory. When the control unit is in a non-operating (non-printing) state, data to be saved (character-image data) in the RAM cache memory is transferred to the disk cache memory at regular intervals in order of priority, thereby saving the data in the disk cache memory. If a power supply is cut off and then power is reintroduced, high-priority character-image data, which has been transferred from the RAM cache memory to the disk cache memory and saved in the disk cache memory when printing is not being carried out, is restored in the RAM cache memory. As a result, the high-priority data saved in the RAM cache memory when the power supply was cut off can be restored in the RAM cache memory, thereby raising the hit rate.

Method of controlling data transfer and a safe shutdown in a

An impact printer which can detect halfway defects of printing coils such as partial short circuits is disclosed. The impact printer according to the present invention includes at least one printing coil for driving a printing element and driving transistor which controls the printing element by switching a current flowed through the printing coil, and further includes an inductance detection means for detecting whether or not said printing coil has an appropriate inductance.

Impact printer which can detect partial defects in coils

A line printer apparatus with which a printing control operation is carried out by using a printing mechanism and printing operation control unit in which the reversal of the motion of a printing unit is carried out in synchronization with the feeding of a paper to be printed. The apparatus includes a decision unit for deciding whether or not a shuttle carrying the printing unit should be stopped during the reversal of the motion in accordance with printing information supplied to a unit for controlling the driving of the shuttle and the condition of feeding of the paper; reversing motion stopping means for stopping the reversing motion of the printing unit and holding it in the stopped state by supplying reversing stopping information to the printing operation control means when the paper feeding time of the paper to be printed is greater than the time of the reversing motion of the printing unit; and releasing means for releasing the stopping of the reversing motion of the printing unit in relation to the timing of termination of paper feeding of the paper to be printed and restarting the printing from a printing starting position. Therefore, the printing operation is restarted immediately after the termination of a paper feeding operation even when the time of the paper feeding is longer than the time of reversing motion of the printing unit.

Shuttle printer which stops shuttle for paper feed

A printing apparatus includes an advancing circuit, such as a tractor, disposed on a first side of a printing head for feeding recording material. The printing apparatus has an improved tension circuit for providing adequate tension to the recording material in order to eliminate slack in the recording material, particularly during a manual feeding operation. Tension is provided by a motor driven driving roller which is disposed on a second side of the printing head opposite the first side. The driving roller is rotated in a direction in which tension is to be provided to the printing material by a tension motor. A rotary encoder, for example, is fixed to a rotating portion of the motor for driving a tractor which advances the recording material. The rotary encoder outputs position pulse signals indicating the displacement of the advancement elements. The tension motor is driven in response to the position pulse signals by a position feedback control operation performed by a control circuit. The tension circuit can also be employed in a printing apparatus which automatically advances recording material, thereby attaining the advantages set forth above.

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Yokohama, Japan

Akihiro Abe