Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Pegasus Sewing Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Masanori Hayashi

Yoshifumi Watabe

Yoshiaki Honda

Takayuki Nishikawa

Hirotaka Matsunami

Kiyoshi Goto

Kiyoshi Gotou

Yoshifumi Suehiro

Takashi Nakagawa

Yuji Takada

Toru Baba

Shinji Kirihata

Satoshi Sugino

Shoichi Oka

Takeshi Wada

Koji Sakamoto

Atsushi Okita

Takashi Kishida

Kouji Yamato

Noriyuki Yasuike

Satosi Sugino

A water content sensor includes: a light emitter that emits detection light having a first wavelength band and reference light a second wavelength band toward a road surface; a first light receiver that converts the detection light reflected by the road surface to a first electric signal; a second light receiver that converts the reference light reflected by the road surface to a second electric signal; and a computation processor that detects the amount of water based on a signal ratio between the first electric signal and the second electric signal. The computation processor detects the amount of water based on the signal ratio obtained when the signal intensity of at least one of the first electric signal and the second electric signal is within a predetermined range defined relative to a reference value.

Water content sensor and road surface state detection device

A moisture amount detection device includes: a light source that projects light that flickers at a predetermined frequency toward an object; a light receiver that receives the light reflected by the object and outputs a detection signal; an amplifier that outputs an amplified signal obtained by amplifying the detection signal by a predetermined amplification factor; a lock-in amplifier that outputs an extracted signal obtained by extracting a signal of a predetermined frequency from the amplified signal; an A/D converter that performs A/D conversion on the extracted signal, and outputs a digital signal; a second low-pass filter whose passband is changeable, and that allows a signal of a frequency in the passband in the digital signal to pass therethrough; and a controller that performs first control to change the passband according to a signal intensity indicated by the digital signal.

Moisture amount detection device

Light-dimming device includes: first and second terminals; switch including switching device connected between terminals; adjuster for varying conduction angle of switch; controller for controlling switch and power supply module for supplying power to controller. Controller includes zero-cross detection circuit for detecting zero-cross of AC voltage, control circuit for generating PWM signal of on-duty ratio corresponding to conduction angle from adjuster, and driver circuit for turning device on and off by PWM signal. Controller allows device to conduct and then turn off within variable period of time, from start of half cycle of AC voltage, shorter than half cycle. Circuit starts generation of pulse in PWM signal when prescribed period of time, shorter than variable period of time, from zero-cross of voltage elapses.

Light-dimming device

A light-dimming device includes a switch including a switching device, a controller, and a power supply module. The power supply module includes a capacitor to be charged by a constant voltage circuit. The controller includes a driver circuit, a zero-cross detection circuit, a detecting circuit, and a control circuit, and receive electric power from the capacitor. The driver circuit drives the switching device in accordance with a PWM signal. The control circuit starts generation of a pulse, to be contained in the PWM signal, for turning on the switching device after the zero-cross detection circuit detects zero-cross and also a voltage across the capacitor is threshold or more.

A driver includes a converter sectionwhich includes a switching element Qand which is configured to output a desired DC voltage by switching the switching element Q, a control sectionconfigured to control the switching operation of the switching element Q, capacitors CA, CB charged by the output of the converter section, turn-on circuitsA,B configured to supply gates of a bidirectional switch elementusing electric charges stored in the capacitors CIA, CB with drive powers to turn-on the bidirectional switch element, and turn-off circuitsA,B configured to discharge the capacitors CIA, CB to turn-off the bidirectional switch elementin response to the halt of the switching operation of the switching element Qby the control section

Driver for semiconductor switch element

A load control device includes a switching unit which is connected to a power source and a load in series and has a switch device having a transistor structure, a control unit configured to control start-up and stop of the load, and a gate driving unit, which is electrically insulated from the control unit and outputs a gate driving signal to the gate electrode of the switch device. The control unit controls the gate driving unit to supply a higher driving power to the gate electrode of the switch device for a predetermined period of time starting at the start-up of the load than that in a steady state.

Load control device

A fire alarm system, determining existence or nonexistence of a fire by using an ultrasound wave, comprises a sound wave generator and a sound wave detector to detect sound waves propagated through two propagation paths having different lengths each other. The system comprises a calculation means for calculating a pressure ratio between a first sound pressure, which is a sound pressure of a sound wave propagated through a first propagation path, and a second sound pressure, which is a sound pressure of a sound wave propagated through a second propagation path, and a smoke density estimator. The smoke density estimator calculates a change ratio between the pressure ratio calculated by the calculation means and a predetermined standard pressure ratio, and determines a smoke density from the change ratio based on a predetermined relational expression describing the relation between the change ratio and the smoke density, and determines existence of a fire when the smoke density exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Fire alarm system

A radio receiving apparatus of the present invention is for receiving a radio signal having pulsating signals occurring at specific periods, wherein the radio receiving apparatus corrects signal levels received during communication in individual regions into which each of the aforementioned periods is divided based on signal levels received in the individual regions under conditions where the radio signal is not received. As a result of this correction, the radio receiving apparatus of the present invention can decrease the influence of noise having periodicity and improve reliability of communication.

Radio receiving apparatus and radio receiving method

A particle sensor has a gain control and an offset voltage adjustment so as to provide a consistent sensor output indicative of the particle density in match with a predetermined relationship between the sensor output and the particle density, while compensating for background noises. The gain control and the offset voltage adjustment are realized respectively by digitally controllable variable resistor networks each having a plurality of switches. A memory module is included in the sensor to store instruction data for control of the switches and therefore responsible for the gain control and the offset voltage adjustment. In particular, the particle sensor includes a memory interface which enables the selective use of two types of memory means, one is an intelligent memory module composed of EEPROM and a microcomputer, and the other is a normal memory module consisting of EEPROM.

Particle sensor

A sewing machine related to the present invention comprises a needle plate and feed dogs. A second feed dog slot provided at the cloth send-in side of a portal shaped needle hole of the needle plate is shifted to the right side from the center of the portal shaped needle hole. The left side first feed dog slot is extending toward the second feed dog slot side in the cloth send-in side of the portal shaped needle hole, so as to be formed a wide breadth portion from side to side. A first cross-piece of the needle plate is disposed between the wide breadth portion and a needle drop portion of the portal shaped needle hole, and a second cross-piece of the needle plate is disposed between the second feed dog slot and said needle drop portion. The first cross-piece is formed wider in the cloth feed direction than the second cross-piece. A differential feed dog disposed in the cloth send-in side of the needle drop portion is composed in a shape combining each feed dog slots. Therefore the cloth can be fed so as not to deviate in the lateral positions of the cloth end, and the spacing margin between the outlet seam end and the seam is controlled at a specified level, so that a sewn product of excellent appearance is obtained.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Masanori Hayashi