The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Shoichi Negami

Toshiya Hikami

Shigeaki Nishikawa

Matsue Murata

Takayuki Enomoto

Kyosuke Hashimoto

Naobumi Kuboki

Hiroyo Okamura

Hiromi Ogawa

A passenger detecting apparatus determines the presence of a passenger or an object, such as a child seat, in a seat unit, estimates the weight of the passenger or determines the build of the passenger, thereby improving the usability of peripheral devices of a seat. The passenger detecting apparatus has a dielectric sensor ( ) and a pressure-sensitive sensor ( ) in a seat cushion ( ) and detects the presence of a passenger or an object on a seat based on their outputs, or has a dielectric sensor and a pressure-sensitive sensor in the seat cushion and a dielectric sensor ( ) in the back rest and an angle sensor ( ) for detecting an angle defined by the seat cushion and the back rest and determines the build of a passenger based on their outputs.

Passenger detecting apparatus

External modulator for optical communication

There is provided a method for modulating the polarization of light that allows detection of any modulated output regardless if the optical analyzers are rigidly held in place. According to a first aspect of the invention, a method for receiving light with a modulated polarization comprises steps of dividing the light being propagated through an optical fiber 1 with a polarization modulated in accordance with a modulation signal into three branched beams, causing one of the branched beams of light with a modulated polarization to pass through a .pi./2 phase corrector 2 and a first optical analyzer 3a and causing the remaining branched beams of light to respectively pass through second and third optical analyzers 3b and 3c without passing through any .pi./2 phase correctors before in order to receive light with a modualted intensity from the optical analyzers 3a, 3b and 3c. According to a second aspect of the invention, an apparatus for receiving light with a modulated plane is provided, said second optical analyzer 3b and said third optical analyzer 3c forming an angle of 49.degree. therebetween.

Method and apparatus for receiving light with a modulated polarization

There is provided an optical external modulator that can modulate the polarization of incident light without regulating the state of polarization of the light entering the modulator. Such a modulator can be suitably incorporated into an optical telecommunications system. An optical external modulator according to the invention comprises a substrate 1, an optical transmission line 7, a polarization modulating section 11 and a phase changing section 8 for changing the state of polarization of the light passing through the optical transmission line by applying stress to the optical transmission line 7 as a function of a modulation signal given to the modulator such that the phase difference between the X-component and the Y-component of the light being propagated through the optical transmission line 7 is shifted by (2m-1)*.pi./2 (m is a positive integer).

Optical external modulator for optical telecommunications

Growing community of inventors

Hiratsuka, Japan

Shoichi Negami