Kabushikikaisha Equos Research

Equos Research Co., Ltd.

Imra Japan Kabushikikaisha

Yasuo Ito

Takashi Sugawara

Naoki Gorai

Satoshi Kitano

Hiroyuki Yamakawa

Shoji Yokoyama

Tomoki Kubota

Koki Hayashi

Kenichiro Sato

Hideaki Morita

Hiroki Ishikawa

Ryuya Muramatsu

Toshio Takaichi

Vu Chung Hoang

Jianwu Zeng

A photoelectric conversion element is realized in which the movement direction of electrons in the element changes according to the wavelength of light to be converted. A photoelectric conversion unit includes an active layer on which light to be converted is incident, an intermediate layer that is arranged on the active layer on a side opposite to the side on which the light to be converted is incident, and a reflection layer that is arranged so as to oppose the active layer with the intermediate layer interposed therebetween. The active layer includes a plasmonic material, which is a material in which plasmon resonance occurs due to a reciprocal action with the light to be converted. The intermediate layer has both a semiconductor property and transparency with respect to the light to be converted. The reflection layer has reflectivity with respect to the light to be converted.

Photoelectric conversion element and wavelength sensor

An electric power transmission system can include: a power transmission antenna that constitutes a series resonator with an inductance component of L1 and a capacitance component of C1, and to which AC power is input; a power receiving antenna that constitutes a series resonator with an inductance component of L2 and a capacitance component of C2, and which receives electromagnetic energy from the power transmission antenna via electromagnetic fields; a rectifying unit that rectifies an output of the power receiving antenna to output DC power; and a load to which an output of the rectifying unit is input, wherein, at times including when a coupling coefficient between the power transmission antenna and the power receiving antenna is k, if a load resistance value is R, the following relationships are established: 

Electric power transmission system with power transmission and receiving antennas

An electric power transmission system may include: a power transmission antenna that constitutes a series resonator with an inductance component of L1 and a capacitance component of C1, and to which AC power is input; a power receiving antenna that constitutes a series resonator with an inductance component of L2 and a capacitance component of C2, and which receives electromagnetic energy from the power transmission antenna via electromagnetic fields; a rectifying unit that rectifies an output of the power receiving antenna to output DC power; and a load to which an output of the rectifying unit is input, wherein, when a coupling coefficient between the power transmission antenna and the power receiving antenna is k, if load resistance value R is used in a range that satisfies Rmin&#x2266;R&#x2266;Rmax, the following relationships are established: 

A power transmission system for transmitting electrical energy from a transmission antenna to a reception antenna via an electromagnetic field, including: an inverter for converting DC voltage into AC voltage having a prescribed frequency and outputting the AC voltage; a transmission-side control unit for performing a control for keeping the drive frequency of the inverter at a prescribed frequency, controlling the voltage of the DC voltage inputted into the inverter, and controlling to keep the power value outputted from the inverter constant; a transmission antenna into which the inverter inputs the AC voltage; a rectifier for rectifying the output from the reception antenna into DC voltage; a step-up/step-down unit for stepping up or down and then outputting the DC voltage from the rectifier; a battery charged by the output from the step-up/step-down unit; and a reception-side control unit for controlling the step-up/step-down unit and charging the battery most efficiently.

Electric power transmission system

In this navigation apparatus, when speech recognition of inputted speech is carried out, keywords included in the content of the recognized speech are searched from a dictionary DB, and then these words are displayed as keywords of a POI search. When a correction of a keyword is required by the user, because most errors occur in the first phonetic symbol of the misrecognized word, a search of words each having phonetic symbols in which the first phonetic symbol of the misrecognized word is changed from the phonetic symbols of the word to be corrected (i.e., a search of words having one different first phonetic symbol) is carried out to present candidates for correction. In this navigation apparatus, because the displayed candidates for correction are limited to words having a different first phonetic symbol which has a high possibility of being the cause of misrecognition, the user can correct the misrecognized keyword by a simple operation. Further, it is possible to reduce the process burden as compared to the conventional misrecognition correction processes.

Navigation apparatus

Communication navigation system

A communication route guidance system provides exchange of data between an information center and each of a plurality of mobile units such as vehicles. The information center has the latest road data and searches it to prepare recommended route guidance data in response to a request from the mobile unit. The reccommended route guidance data is divided into a plurality of data segments, each usable as an independent guidance instruction in the mobile unit. The mobile unit has stored therein road data similar to the road data in the information center and determines if data communication with the information center is available. In a case where the mobile unit can not communicate with the information center, the mobile unit prepares route guidance based on the road data stored in the mobile unit. It thereby becomes possible to guide the user even in the case that the mobile unit can not communicate with the information center. Even in a case where a communication link is disrupted during transmission of route guidance data to the mobile unit, the mobile unit can effectively prepare whole route guidance data in combination with already-received route guidance data and additionally prepared route guidance data by reference to the road data stored in the mobile unit because the already received route guidance data is structured to be usable independently.

Communication route guidance system

A navigation system includes a navigation center and at least one moving body. The navigation center of the navigation system comprises memory means for storing navigation information; updating means for constantly updating the navigation information stored in the memory means; route searching means for setting a route from a current position of the moving body to a destination on the basis of the newest navigation information updated by the updating means; dividing means for dividing the searched route into at least two portions; extracting means for extracting navigation data concerning at least a head portion of the divided route from the memory means; transmitting means for transmitting to the moving body the extracted navigation data; and control means. After transmitting the navigation data for the head portion to the moving body and before transmitting navigation data for a remaining route, the control means controls each of the route searching means, the dividing means, the extracting means and the transmitting means so that each means performs the respective processes. This arrangement enables a user of the moving body to be provided with route guidance which is conducted using the navigation data formed based on the newest navigation information that reflects various road conditions.

Navigation method, navigation system, and information communications apparatus used in the navigation system

In a communications navigation system, data is transmitted and received between a navigation base apparatus provided at a navigation base and each of a plurality of navigation apparatuses provided in moving bodies such as vehicles using communication. A determining section of the navigation base apparatus determines untraveled route portion by comparing user's information stored in a user information storage with information of a recommended route provided by a route search section. The navigation base apparatus extracts necessary route/guidance information for untraveled route portion determined by the determining section from route/guidance data stored in a database, and then transmits the extracted route/guidance data to the navigation apparatus identified by the identification information. The route/guidance information may be transmitted to the navigation apparatus in the form of segmented data. In this way, it becomes possible for the navigation apparatus to extract only the route/guidance information needed by the user from the route/guidance data stored in the database.

Communications navigation system, and navigation base apparatus and navigation apparatus both used in the navigation system

A navigation system includes a navigation center and a plurality of navigation apparatuses each of which has a data storage that stores various information. In this navigation system, data (coordinate data of each of traveling intersections) concerning a recommended route is transmitted from the navigation center to the navigation apparatus, and then route guidance is carried out in the navigation apparatus using the data received from the navigation center. In the case where the navigation apparatus has intersection data for an intersection specified by the data received from the navigation center, the navigation apparatus extracts the intersection data for the intersection from the data storage. Further, in the case where the navigation center does not have intersection data for an intersection specified by the data received from the navigation center, the navigation apparatus establishes the intersection as a newly-built intersection on the recommended route. Then, the navigation apparatus produces route guidance data (which is used for providing route guidance to a user) using the extracted intersection data, and/or intersection data concerning the established newly-built intersection in addition to the information in the data storage.

Navigation system and navigation apparatus used in the navigation system

Disclosed is a communicatory navigation system including an information center (,), at least one navigation unit (,) each mounted on a vehicle and communication means for allowing bi-directional data communication between the information center and the navigation unit. Data transmission from the navigation unit to the information center is made during a period of communication that begins when the navigation unit become communicable with the information center and ends when the bi-directional data communication therebetween is disconnected. The navigation unit is provided with a drive route history memory area (,) and an instrument operation history memory area (,), and data in these memory areas are transmitted to the information center, together with the vehicle current position data and the destination position data. The information center determines a recommended drive route from the current position to the destination, not only with reference to its own database (,) but also taking into consideration the history data. For example, if it is determined that there is a traffic accident or heavy traffic jam in some route, a bypass route is determined and transmitted back to the navigation unit. When the previous drive route indicated by data in area (,) is not found in the database (,), it can be recognized as a newly constructed road for inclusion in the database.

Communicatory navigation system

A commucations navigation system in which data is transmitted and received between a navigation base apparatus provided at a navigation base and a vehicle navigation apparatus provided in a vehicle using communication. The vehicle navigation apparatus is adapted to transmit at least data concerning the current position of the vehicle and the destination thereof to the navigation base apparatus, and the navigation base apparatus stores navigation data in its data base and is adapted to determine a recommended route based on the transmitted data of the current position of the vehicle and the destination thereof and then extract data of the recommended route from the navigation data stored in the data base and transmit the extracted data to the navigation apparatus. The navigation base apparatus is adapted to be able to extract detailed navigation data only for a surrounding areas of a specified point on the recommended route from the navigation data stored in the data base and then transmit the detailed navigation data to the navigation apparatus. The specified point includes a departure point, a destination and a course-change point which are located on the recommended route. During traveling other places on the recommended route such as intermediate sections, the navigation apparatus transmits simple navigation data such as a simple map to the vehicle, thereby enabling to reduce an amount of data to be transmitted from the navigation base apparatus to the vehicle navigation apparatus.

Communications navigation system, and navigation base apparatus and vehicle navigation apparatus both used in the navigation system

Disclosed is a communicatory navigation system including an information center (,), at least one navigation unit (,) each mounted on a vehicle and communication means for allowing bi-directional data communication between the information center and the navigation unit. Data transmission from the navigation unit to the information center is made during a period of communication that begins when the navigation unit become communicatable with the information center and ends when the bi-directional data communication therebetween is disconnected. The navigation unit is provided with a drive route history memory area (,) and an instrument operation history memory area (,), and data in these memory areas are transmitted to the information center, together with the vehicle current position data and the destination position data. The information center determines a recommended drive route from the current position to the destination, not only with reference to its own database (,) but also taking into consideration the history data. For example, if it is determined that there is a traffic accident or heavy traffic jam in some route, a bypass route is determined and transmitted back to the navigation unit. When the previous drive route indicated by data in area (,) is not found in the database (,), it can be recognized as a newly constructed road for inclusion in the database.

Growing community of inventors

Hokkaido, Japan

Yasuo Ito