Denso Corporation

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Nobuaki Kawahara

Yukihiro Takeuchi

Takashi Kaneko

Takeshi Matsui

Takahiko Yoshida

Kazuhiko Kano

Hiroshi Ando

Morito Akiyama

Akira Kamiya

Nozomi Kitagawa

Takayuki Fujikawa

Akihiko Teshigahara

Shinji Kashiwada

Kazuhiro Tsuruta

Naohiro Ueno

Makoto Inomata

Masaru Kakizaki

Koji Nakamura

Junya Inada

Makiko Tauchi

Takanari Sasaya

Naoyuki Aoki

Akira Takahashi

Hideaki Nishikawa

Naoki Mitsumoto

Toshihiro Kamohara

Kazuya Yasuda

Yoshio Shinoda

Tomoo Aoki

A travel control device includes: a vehicle detection device configured to detect a position of a peripheral vehicle that travels in a periphery of a host vehicle in a lane, in which the host vehicle travels, or a lane adjacent to and heading in a same direction of the host vehicle; a generation device configured to assign a potential field to a predetermined region, which is adjacent to the position of the peripheral vehicle, the potential field indicating a degree of psychological pressure received by a driver of the host vehicle, and configured to generate a potential distribution that represents a distribution of the potential field of the peripheral vehicle on a road; and a control device configured to control a travel condition of the host vehicle that the host vehicle travels in the potential field relatively low in the potential distribution.

Travel controller, server, and in-vehicle device

A piezoelectric thin film of the present invention includes an aluminum nitride thin film that contains scandium. A content ratio of scandium in the aluminum nitride thin film is 0.5 atom % to 50 atom % on the assumption that a total amount of the number of scandium atoms and the number of aluminum atoms is 100 atom %. According to this arrangement, the piezoelectric thin film of the present invention can improve a piezoelectric response while keeping characteristics of elastic wave propagation speed, Q value, and frequency-temperature coefficient that the aluminum nitride thin film has.

Piezoelectric thin film, piezoelectric material, and fabrication method of piezoelectric thin film and piezoelectric material, and piezoelectric resonator, actuator element, and physical sensor using piezoelectric thin film

A vehicle information display system includes a head-up display for reflecting an image on a windshield of a vehicle and displaying the image so that a driver recognizes the image as a virtual image. Information is collected for being displayed by the head-up display. A circumstance of the vehicle, a circumstance of surrounding of the vehicle, or a circumstance of the driver is detected. The collected information is classified in accordance with a detection result. Then, display contents of the head-up display are controlled in accordance with a classification result.

Vehicle information display system

A scanning apparatus includes a mirror coupled to a base via a spring portion, and a light source for emitting a beam toward a reflecting surface of the mirror so that the beam is incident thereon. The mirror reflects the beam from the light source and rotationally swings under a resilient force of the spring portion when a force is applied thereto. The reflecting surface of the mirror includes a plurality of mirror surfaces at different angles. The beam from the light source is simultaneously reflected by the mirror surfaces at different angles.

Scanning apparatus

A plurality of grooves, each having a depth of 10 &mgr;m or more and arranged adjacent to each other, are formed at a predetermined portion of a semiconductor substrate where a passive element is formed. Then, a thermal oxidation treatment is performed to let an oxide film grow from an inside surface of each groove so as to fill an inside space of the groove with a thermal oxide film thus grown and turn an entire portion intervening between adjacent grooves into a thermal oxide layer. Each groove has a width of 1 &mgr;m or less, and a width of a semiconductor material intervening between two adjacent grooves is 81.8% or more with respect to the groove width.

Semiconductor substrate for a one-chip electronic device and related manufacturing method

An optical scanner and a two-dimensional scanning device using the same are provided. The optical scanner includes a scanning mechanism and a swing support. The swing support is designed to support the scanning mechanism on a housing so as to allow the scanning mechanism to swing and made up of a plurality of springs. The springs are so constructed so as resist unwanted vibrations acting on the optical scanner in directions different from a scan direction, thereby ensuring a stable scan of a light beam at all the time.

Vibration-resisting structure of optical scanner

A total-focus imaging apparatus comprises a variable-focus lens unit with a focal position thereof changeable at high speeds, a CCD element, a microcomputer and a liquid-crystal display unit. The microcomputer includes an image memory, an image processing circuit and a control circuit. The variable-focus lens unit and the CCD element allow an object of observation to be photographed to generate a number of images with the focal positions thereof slightly different from each other and the image to be stored in the image memory. Pixels each brought to a focus are selected by the image processing circuit from pixels of the images to generate an image of the observation object comprising only pixels each brought to a focus. Such an image is then displayed on the liquid-crystal display unit. Thus, an image of the observation object which is all but completely brought to a focus can be presented in a semi-real-time manner. An image of an observation object all but completely brought to a focus is an image with all portions of the observation object brought to a focus.

Total-focus imaging apparatus using a variable-focus lens

A variable focus lens device having a temperature compensation function whose construction is simple and which can be inexpensively manufactured. The device has a lens member including a lens container having a transparent elastic film, a transparent sealing member forming an internal volume, and a transparent liquid filling the internal volume, a stack-type piezoelectric actuator for varying the focus of the lens member by deforming the transparent elastic film by fluctuating the pressure inside the internal volume, and a tank connected to the internal volume by narrow passages. The tank and the narrow passages absorb temperature fluctuation components of the transparent liquid, which varies due to thermal expansion and contraction. The tank and the passages thereby form a temperature compensator, that, because the passages are narrow, does not react to sudden oscillating pressure components caused by the stack-type piezoelectric actuator.

Variable focus lens device having temperature fluctuation compensating feature for lens device liquid

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Nisshin, Japan

Nobuaki Kawahara