Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd

Atsushi Iisaka

Nobuhiko Yasui

Takashi Yoshida

Akira Ishida

Atsushi Yamashita

Masamichi Nakagawa

Shusaku Okamoto

Mamoru Kaneko

Noboru Nomura

Atsushi Morimura

Kiyomi Sakamoto

Kazufumi Mizusawa

Takuya Hirai

Kunio Nobori

Tomohiro Terada

Yoshiki Ueyama

Takefumi Inoue

Takatoshi Ono

Kiyotaka Sasanouchi

Michiharu Honda

Tetsuya Ishiguro

A power conversion device includes an input current sensor, an input voltage sensor, a power converter, an output voltage sensor for detecting an output voltage from the power converter, an output current sensor for detecting an output current value from the power converter, and a controller for controlling the power converter. The controller obtains an allowable current value that can be accepted from an external alternating current power source, and, controls the power converter so that the input current value does not exceed the allowable current value based on an input current value detected by the input current sensor. The controller detects an abnormality in the power conversion device based on the input current value, the input voltage, the output current value, the output voltage, and power conversion efficiency of the power converter.

Power conversion device

An in-vehicle charging apparatus () has: a charge control ECU (), which operates with power supplied from a low-voltage battery (), and which controls charging; an Sswitch, which is on/off controlled by means of the charge control ECU (), and which reduces a voltage of the pulse signals when the switch is in the on-state; and a switch (SW), which is controlled to be in an on-state by means of units other than the charge control ECU (), and which reduces the voltage of the pulse signals when the switch is in the on-state. In the cases where the switch (SW) is turned on, power from a charging cable () is supplied to the low-voltage battery () or the charge control ECU ().

In-vehicle charging apparatus

In relay weld diagnostic device, a threshold value determination unit () determines a threshold value on the basis of a resistance value that is set for each of a P-pole-side resistor () and an N-pole-side resistor () provided to charging equipment. A peak value measuring unit () measures the peak value of a voltage supplied to a voltage line by an alternating-current signal output circuit (). A comparison diagnosis unit () assesses the state of a relay () on the P-pole side and a relay () on the N-pole side by comparing the peak value and the threshold value, and makes a diagnosis as to whether the relays (), () are welded on the basis of the assessed state of the relays (), () and the state in which the relays (), () are controlled.

Relay weld diagnostic device

A camera for taking a state behind a vehicle is installed in a position laterally shifted from the rear center of the vehicle. An image processing unit generates a rear image from a camera image by shifting merely a rectangular area of the camera image so that a vertical center line thereof can substantially accord with the center line along the lengthwise direction of the vehicle. Furthermore, processing for correcting lens distortion may be performed. As a result, when the vehicle is moved straight backward, an object present on the center line of the vehicle moves vertically in substantially the center of the screen, so that a user can be prevented from having an odd feeling to see the image.

Monitoring system

Character information recognition means extracts, through a character recognition process, character information from a selection button included in an index image. Based on text data having been outputted from the character information recognition means, index dictionary creation means creates an index dictionary usable for a speech recognition process performed by speech recognition means. The speech recognition means performs the speech recognition process by using speech data retrieved through an ADC and the index dictionary stored in storage means. Based on a result of the speech recognition process performed by the speech recognition means, reproduction control means performs reproduction control of a chapter. Thus, a desired button can be selected by speech, from chapter selection buttons displayed on a chapter selection image of a DVD video.

Digital video reproducing apparatus for recognizing and reproducing a digital video content

A user interface system having an improved usability is provided. The user interface system comprises: an operation section () an operation section for receiving an instruction inputted by a user; a finger position detecting section () for detecting a group of first coordinate values, each indicating a current position of a fingertip, of a user, which is placed on an operation surface of the operation section; a component storing section () for storing component data representing a GUI (Graphical User Interface) component; an assignment section () for uniquely assigning the component data stored in the component storing section to each of the first coordinate values detected by the finger position detecting section (); an image generating section () for generating a GUI image representing a user interface in which the GUI component represented by the component data stored in the component storing section () is uniquely associated with each of the first coordinate values detected by the finger position detecting section (), in accordance with an assignment performed by the assignment section; and a display controlling section () for displaying the GUI image generated by the image generating section () on a display screen.

User interface system

The invention provides a vehicle surroundings monitoring system for synthesizing and displaying images captured by a plurality of cameras to provide images that, near the border between partial images, are more accurate and more readily understood by the user than has been the case conventionally. In the synthesized image, a partial image captured by a first camera and a partial image captured by a second camera are adjacent to one another at their border. Near this border, the capturing directions of the first and the second cameras both substantially match the direction of the border. Consequently, images of objects near the border extend along the border, and thus do not disappear on the synthesized image.

Method for arranging cameras in a vehicle surroundings monitoring system

In a rendering device Urnd, a processorreceives a front-left image Sfl and a front-right image Sfr at regular intervals, and therefrom, cuts out a partial front-left image and a partial front-right image for overlay onto a mask image. The processorthen overlays, with a predetermined timing, any one of vehicle model images varying in size onto the mask image. Here, the vehicle model image is overlaid in such manner as to create a moving picture as if the vehicle model image is moving forward. With such vehicle model image, a driver of a vehicle can instantaneously recognize that a drive assistant device is now showing the front side of the vehicle.

Rendering device for generating a display image for drive assistance

For supporting a complicated driving operation, a synthesized image is presented to the driver. The driver can view this image and thus drive with a sense of security. The synthesized image may include an image of at least one tire and may have an enlargement/reduction ratio that is relatively higher in a nearby area of the vehicle, including a grounding portion of at least one tire of the vehicle, as compared with a peripheral area of the vehicle.

The present invention provides a trackball and an in-vehicle device controller using the trackball. The trackball provides a stable operational feel and is easy to operate even in an environment in a vehicle where vibration and movement are present. The trackball includes a ball made of a non-magnetic material and having embedded therein bar members made of a magnetic material and arranged on three axes orthogonal to one another, a case enclosing the ball such that at least an upper portion of the ball is exposed, magnetic members fixed to the case on two axes penetrating through the center of the ball and orthogonal to each other so as to allow magnetic coupling to ends of the bar members, and another magnetic member fixed to the case on an axis penetrating through the center of the ball and orthogonal to the two axes so as to allow magnetic coupling to an end of one of the bar members.

Trackball and in-vehicle device controller using the trackball

In a mobile communication device, when an inquiry packet sent from another mobile communication device for inquiring whether to accept or deny the participation in an ad hoc network is transferred to a work area, a transmission/reception control section determines whether or not a denial flag set in a storage device is 1. When the denial flag is 1, the transmission/reception control section generates a first response for denying the participation in the ad hoc network, and transmits the first response through a transmission/reception section to the other mobile communication device that transmitted the inquiry packet.

Mobile communication device containable in ad hoc network

In a rendering device Urnda CPUreceives a captured image each from two image capture devicesandThe CPUthen receives a steering angle of a steering wheel of a vehicle from a steering angle sensorBased on the steering angle, the CPUderives an estimated trajectory for the vehicle to take in the course of time. Then, with reference to the estimated trajectory, the CPUselects several pixels each from the captured images, and then generates a drive assistant image based on those pixels. In this manner, the drive assistant image generated by the rendering device Urndhardly causes the driver to feel strange.

Image generation for assistance of drivers of vehicles

In a rendering device, a processor derives an estimated path to be traced by the left- and right-rear wheels of a vehicle based on a rudder angle that is provided by a rudder angle sensor. The processor then determines positions for overlaying indicators on the derived estimated path. The processor then renders the indicators on the determined points in a captured image which is provided by an image capture device, and generates a display image. In the display image, the indicators move along the estimated path in the direction the vehicle is heading towards. In this manner, the estimated path in the display image that is generated by the rendering device becomes noticeable for a driver of the vehicle.

Rendering device

In correspondence with each face of a rectangular parallelepiped obtained when the inside of the rectangular parallelepiped is shot, a monitor screen is split into a plurality of sub-screen areas. An image shot by a vehicle-mounted camera is processed and the processed image is split correspondingly to the sub-screen areas. Each split image is displayed in the corresponding sub-screen areas. This allows intuitive understanding of the direction of an image displayed in a sub-screen thereby providing the driver with an image free from a sense of incongruity.

Driving assistance display apparatus

In an image processing apparatus carried on a vehicle, an image of a scene around the vehicle, which is photographed by an image pick-up, is inputted into a white line failure extractor. Then, outline points of a white line on a road and a guardrail, which is parallel to the white line, are sought. Further, the outline points are detected as a polynomial. Moreover, the image photographed by the image pick-up is also inputted into an intermittent image obtainer. Then, the images from the image pick-up are intermittently obtained at constant periodical intervals, and further the images are compressed using JPEG compression method. Further, in a synthesizer, the feature data from the white line feature extractor and the image data from the intermittent image obtainer are aligned in order of time. Moreover, the image data and feature data, which are aligned in order of time, are conserved within a given constant period by a recorder. Thus, accurate data as to condition of the road can be recorded using a small capacity memory.

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Osaka, Japan

Atsushi Iisaka