Nec Corporation

Bridgestone Corporation

Nec Electronics Corporation

Tokyo Medical and Dental University

Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Lsi Medience Corporation

Mitsubishi Chemical Medience Corporation

Yasuda, Kenji

Tomoyuki Kaneko

Kaoru Narita

Taras Kushta

Takao Kokubu

Takanori Saeki

Kenji Yasuda

Hirokazu Tohya

Fumimasa Nomura

Shin-ichi Ogou

Norihiro Honda

Atsushi Sugiyama

Tokuhiro Murayama

Seiji Watanabe

Shohei Yamaguchi

Yoshiaki Hirata

Akinobu Mizutani

Yoshitaka Fujisawa

Norimichi Uchida

Hideyuki Terazono

Hirotaka Iino

Kentaro Ando

Tsuneo Kobayashi

Mamoru Fukushima

A tire appearance inspection apparatus and method employing image processing is capable of performing tire appearance inspection with great accuracy. The tire appearance inspection apparatus includes a sectional shape acquiring device for acquiring cross-sectional shapes of a tire in the radial direction along the circumference of the tire, an arc fitting device for fitting an arc to each of the cross-sectional shapes, an arc center position calculating device for calculating the center positions of the arcs, and a sectional shape aligning device for aligning the cross-sectional shapes using the center positions of the arcs for the cross-sectional shapes.

Tire appearance inspection apparatus and method

In the present invention, a cardiomyocyte cluster is disposed on a transparent substrate, and the quality of the cardiomyocytes is evaluated from the response of the cells to a forced pulsation stimulus applied to the cardiomyocytes. The cardiomyocyte cluster is disposed on the transparent substrate, and is exposed to the flow of a liquid containing an agent in a manner so that the agent acts on the cells, which configure a network. The extent of cardiac toxicity resulting from the agent is evaluated from measuring the fluctuations obtained from a comparison of adjacent cardiomyocytes of the network.

Method and apparatus for testing cardiotoxicity and evaluating cardiomyocytes

Provided is a device and a method for examining myocardial toxicity, which can be realized in vitro in an equivalent manner as those conventionally carried out in vivo. A cell population as a pulsating pacemaker is arranged on a transparent substrate. Myocardial pulsating cells are arranged while being spaced apart appropriately. Fibroblast cells are arranged with/connected to the myocardial pulsating cells to form a cell network. Each of the myocardial pulsating cells and fibroblast cells forming the network is arranged on a transparent electrode provided on the transparent substrate. The cells forming the network are exposed to a flow of a solution containing a drug and QT delay due to the drug is evaluated.

Device for examining myocardial toxicity, chip for examining myocardial toxicity and method for examining myocardial toxicity

A measuring apparatus for automatically measuring the height, the dimensions of the inner and outer surfaces, and the shape of a cylindrically-shaped object. The measuring apparatus includes a measuring head vertically moving along a positioning guide supported by a support post integral with a measuring table, a height displacement measuring device, which comprises a laser distance meter provided on the measuring table, and an arithmetic processing unit. The measurement starts as the measuring head is raised by a weight from a measuring start position of the measuring table. The inner and outer surfaces of a tire are measured based on the measurements by an inner surface measuring device provided with three laser distance meters mounted to the measuring head and an outer surface measuring device having a laser distance meter and the displacement change measurement of the measuring head by the height displacement measuring device. Required dimensional values are calculated from the measured values, using the arithmetic processing unit.

Apparatus and method for measuring cylindrically-shaped object and apparatus for inspecting tire appearance

The present invention provides an apparatus for evaluating a drug effect enabling on-chip evaluation of the effect of a drug while the drug is acting on hERG-expressing cells. The present invention also provides a myocardial toxicity test apparatus and method therefor enabling in vitro myocardial toxicity testing that has previously been performed in vivo. A pulsating cell population and hERG-expressing cells (target model cells) are suitably isolated and arranged on a transparent substrate so that the two form gap junctions. The hERG-expressing cells are arranged on transparent electrodes provided on the transparent substrate. The hERG-expressing cells are exposed to a flow of a liquid containing a drug such that the drug acts thereon. The difference between the normal pulsation of hERG-expressing cells and the pulsation when a drug is acting thereon is captured via electric signals obtained from electrodes, and the properties of the change in potential are evaluated.

Model cell chip, apparatus for evaluating drug effect using the model cell chip and method of evaluating drug effect

According to one embodiment, a broadband transition to joint a via structure and a planar transmission line in a multilayer substrate is formed as an intermediate connection between the signal via pad and the planar transmission line disposed at the same conductor layer. The transverse dimensions of the transition are equal to the via pad diameter at the one end and strip width at another end; the length of the transition can be equal to the characteristic dimensions of the clearance hole in the direction of the planar transmission line or defined as providing the minimal excess inductive reactance in time-domain according to numerical diagrams obtained by three-dimensional full-wave simulations.

Broadband transition from a via interconnection to a planar transmission line in a multilayer substrate

An image of respective figures is cut out by selecting a figure from tire CAD drawings, and an arranging position of the figure is set in accordance with a distance in a radial direction form a tire center and a deformed angle in a circumferential direction of the tire from a designated location, so that a height of respective regions of the cut-out image is set. Then, the cut-out image is transformed into an image having a gray scale in accordance with the height by using the height information of respective regions, and, at an arranging position of the figure, the image having a gray scale is sampled by a predetermined interval in a radial direction from a tire center and is sampled by a predetermined angle interval in a circumferential direction of the tire, so that master data are created by the image and a distance between intersecting points becomes equal.

Method of creating master data used for inspecting concave-convex figure

Disclosed is a tire surface inspecting technique capable of surely discriminating rubber pieces of a quality different from that of a tire embedded in the surface of the tire by vulcanization from the tire. A first illuminating unitinclude paired first light projectorsandthat project light respectively from opposite sides toward an objective line L on a tire T. A second illuminating unitinclude paired second light projectorsandthat project light respectively from opposite sides toward the objective line L in a direction different from that in which the first illuminating unitproject light. The first illuminating unitand the second illuminating unitoperate alternately for illumination. The line cameraforms an image of a part of the surface of the tire corresponding to the objective line L in synchronism with the respective illuminating operations of the first and second illuminating unit. Illumination and image formation are repeated for different parts of the surface of the tire that are moved successively to a position corresponding to the objective line L. Images formed by the line camera are analyzed for the inspection of the surface of the tire T.

Method and system for inspecting tire surface

According to one embodiment, a broadband transition to joint a via structure and a planar transmission line in a multilayer substrate is formed as an intermediate connection between the signal via pad and the planar transmission line disposed at the same conductor layer. The transverse dimensions of the transition are equal to the via pad diameter at the one end and strip width at another end; The length of the transition can be equal to the characteristic dimensions of the clearance hole in the direction of the planar transmission line or defined as providing the minimal excess inductive reactance in time-domain according to numerical diagrams obtained by three-dimensional full-wave simulations.

A via transmission line for a multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) in which a wave guiding channel is formed by a signal via or a number of signal vias, an assembly of ground vias surrounding the signal via or corresponding number of coupled signal vias, a set of ground plates from conductor layers of the multilayer PCB, and a clearance hole. In this via transmission line, the signal via, or the number of signal vias forms an inner conductive boundary, ground vias and ground plates from conductor layers of the multilayer PCB form an outer conductive boundary, and the clearance hole provides both isolation of the inner conductive boundary from the outer conductive boundary and high-performance broadband operation of the via transmission line by means of the predetermined clearance hole cross-sectional shape and dimensions where the cross-sectional shape of the clearance hole is defined by the arrangement of ground vias in the outer conductive boundary and dimensions of the clearance hole are determined according to a method to minimize frequency-dependent return losses caused by specific corrugations of the outer conductive boundary formed by ground plates in the wave guiding channel of the via transmission line.

Via transmission lines for multilayer printed circuit boards

A compact via transmission line for a printed circuit board having preferred characteristic impedance and capable of miniaturizing the printed circuit board including a multilayer printed circuit board, and extending the frequency range of a via transmission line mounted on the printed circuit board, and a design method of the same. The transmission line has a central conductor forming an inner conductor layer boundary make up a signal via hole, a plurality of via holes arranged around the central conductor form an outer conductor layer boundary, and a plurality of conductor plates formed of a printed circuit board conductor layer, is further provided with a constitutive parameter adjustment clearance hole between the inner and outer conductor layer boundaries of the compact via transmission line, and electrically isolates to prevent cross-talk of a signal propagating through a signal via hole with other signals in a high-frequency signal band.

Compact via transmission line for printed circuit board and design method of the same

Compact via transmission line for printed circuit board and its designing method

A tire T as a workpiece mounted on a rotary tableis imaged by using floodlight meansfor applying white slit light and a color CCD camerafor imaging a portion illuminated by the slit light while it is turned, the coordinates and brightness of the tire T are detected from the obtained image data by coordinate computing meansand brightness computing means, and the 3-D coordinate data and color image of the tire T are re-formed from the obtained shape data and brightness data of the tire T by shape image forming meansand appearance image forming meansand compared with tire appearance and shape data prestored in tire information storage meansto judge whether the appearance and shape of the tire T are acceptable or not.

Method and apparatus for detecting a workpiece, and method and apparatus for inspecting a workpiece

There are provided an inspection method of tire uneven marks capable of judging defect of three-dimensional form of the mark in a higher reliability without depending on a brightness distribution image of unevenness, and an inspection apparatus of tire uneven marks. The inspection method of tire uneven marks comprises a step of measuring heights of unevenness inclusive of marks to be inspected with respect to each area element in a predetermined tire surface region to acquire unevenness distribution data, a step of specifying a tire surface portion corresponding to a mark model in the tire surface region from data of three-dimensional form of a mark model previously prepared as a template of the each mark and the above acquired unevenness distribution data, and a step of determining a coincidence between the unevenness distribution data of the specified tire surface portion with respect to the each mark and data of three-dimensional form of the mark model to judge an acceptance of the three-dimensional form of the mark based on the coincidence.

Inspection method and apparatus for uneven marks on tire

The present invention discloses a tire chuck apparatus for holding a tire having a tire bead. The apparatus comprises: a gripping mechanism with at least two gripping members movable in tire radial direction from a retracted position to an extended position for pressing against the inner side of the bead portion of the tire, thereby holding the tire; gripping rollers as the gripping members adapted to be rotatable around an axis substantially parallel to a central axis of the tire; and a rotation drive mechanism for rotating the tire around the central axis of the tire. According to this apparatus, even if the center of the tire and the center of the chuck are out of alignment with each other, by rotating the gripping rollers so as to rotate the tire, the tire is shifted so that the center thereof is aligned with the center of the chuck apparatus, thus reducing mispositioning.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tomoyuki Kaneko