Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Automotive Engineering Co., Ltd.

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Hitachi Car Engineering Co., Ltd.

Yuichi Kashimura

Takafumi Miyatake

Akio Nagasaka

Naoto Miura

Toshio Ishii

Noboru Sugiura

Seiji Suda

Takashi Shiraishi

Tatsuo Morita

Yutaka Takaku

Ryoichi Kobayashi

Takashi Ito

Masami Shida

Yasunori Mouri

Mamoru Nemoto

Katsuaki Fukatsu

Shizuhisa Watanabe

Rogelio B Agustin

Akira Teragakiuchi

Terufumi Hidaka

A compact authentication device that prevents user from feeling pressure and is strong against external light, when capturing an image of a finger blood vessel pattern with transmitted light. The device includes a guidance part for determining the finger position, a light source disposed on at least one side of the guidance part to emit light to be transmitted though the finger, an image capture part for capturing the transmitted light, a shading unit for limiting an irradiation region of the light, a finger thickness measuring unit, a unit for controlling a light amount of the light source based on a result of the measurement, a unit for recording registered image patterns of the finger, a unit for collating a captured image pattern from the image capture part with the registered patterns, and a unit for controlling different processing according to the collation result.

Personal authentication device

To provide an ignition device advantageous in cost and space by using an inexpensive small-sized Zener diode having a Zener voltage lower than an induced voltage generated at a primary current supply timing, so as to prevent sparking of a spark plug due to the induced voltage. An ignition device for an internal combustion engine, includes a Zener diode provided on the secondary lower-voltage side of an ignition coil. The Zener diode comes into conduction at a voltage lower than an induced voltage generated at a primary current supply timing.

Ignition device for an internal combustion engine

A prescribed threshold level Dth for misfire judgment for each cylinder is recorded in a misfire judgment level retaining means 102 of a misfire judgment processing section 100. A combustion state parameter operation means 106 measures revolution speed of a multi-cylinder engine for each cylinder, and attains as a combustion state parameter a differential in revolution speed between a specific cylinder and other cylinders. In a misfire judgment level correction means 104, a plurality of combustion state parameters concerning the specific cylinder is attained, and the above-mentioned threshold level Dth is corrected as a function of the parameter. A misfire judgment processing means 108 compares the combustion state parameter with the threshold level Dth and diagnoses a combustion state in the specific cylinder. Namely, the corresponding cylinder is judged to be misfire when the combustion state parameter of the specific cylinder exceeds the prescribed parameter.

Multi-cylinder engine combustion state diagnosis apparatus and method

A malfunction monitoring apparatus for a secondary air supply system of an internal combustion engine includes an air flow sensor for measuring the flow rate of an air flowing into an intake air path of the engine, a secondary air introducing path disposed in the intake air path on the downstream side of a measuring position of the air flow rate for taking in a part of the air through the intake air path as a secondary air, a secondary air supply device for supplying the secondary air to an exhaust gas path, and a control unit. The apparatus may further include a pressure sensor for detecting the internal pressure of an intake manifold. The control unit determines a secondary air flow rate from a difference between a first air flow rate measured by the air flow sensor when the secondary air is not being supplied from the secondary air introducing path to the exhaust gas path and a second air flow rate measured by the air flow sensor when the secondary air is being supplied, or a difference between an intake air flow rate of the engine determined on the basis of the internal pressure of the intake manifold detected by the pressure sensor and an air flow rate measured by the air flow sensor when the secondary air is being supplied. In the case where the determined secondary air flow rate is out of a predetermined allowable range, the secondary air supply device is judged as being abnormal.

Malfunction monitoring apparatus and method for secondary air supply

The invention provides an internal combustion engine misfire detection device for a motor vehicle in which an output of an internal combustion engine is transmitted via a torque converter to a drive shaft. A primary misfire detecting unit detects an internal combustion engine misfire condition including a possible false condition thereof; and an external cause detecting unit detects an influence associated with an external cause variation in terms of an operating condition variation transmitted from the drive shaft via the torque converter. A misfire judging unit judges whether the internal combustion engine misfire condition detected by the primary misfire detecting unit is a true misfire condition or a false misfire condition based on the detection output from the external cause detecting unit. A processing unit performs a predetermined processing to detect a misfire operating condition in response to a judgment by the misfire judging unit that the detected operating condition is a true misfire operating condition; and a misfire judgment disabling unit renders the misfire judging unit inoperative in response to a judgment by the misfire judging unit that the detected operating condition is a false misfire operating condition.

Method and apparatus for detecting misfires in an internal combustion

An electronic control apparatus for use in an automobile has a base of a good thermal conductivity having one side disposed in contact with engine cooling water. Semiconductor devices are disposed on the other side of the base so that the semiconductor devices are maintained at the temperature of the engine cooling water, whereby the influence of high ambient air temperature to the semiconductor devices is reduced.

Automotive liquid-cooled electronic control apparatus

A system and method for controlling an ignition timing for an internal combustion engine. In the ignition timing control system and method, with a retardation angle correction amount stored as a learning value according to an engine operating region, a newly learned learning value is used as the retardation angle correction amount so that an optimum retardation angle correction amount can be provided regardless of an individual difference in engine performance and of an operating environment. Consequently, an effective suppression of occurrence of engine knocking can be achieved and engine performance and fuel economy can be improved. In addition, since the updating of the learning value is inhibited only when an engine revolutional speed is increased, an opportunity of updating the learning value is increased so that the learning value can always be set at optimum.

System and method for controlling ignition timing for an internal

An ignition timing control apparatus for an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders. The apparatus includes a knock sensor for detecting a knocking condition in the engine, sensors for detecting other operating conditions of the engine, a microprocessor unit for receiving signals from the sensors to determine a basic ignition timing of the engine and generate an ignition timing control signal, and a power transistor circuit responsive to the ignition timing control signal from the microprocessor unit to switch on and off the primary current in an ignition coil and generate a high-voltage ignition signal. The microprocessor unit has a control function of retarding the basic ignition timing a predetermined amount in response to a knock detected during an ignition operation at the basic ignition timing and another control function of gradually restoring the retarded ignition timing to the basic ignition timing in response to a knock detected during an ignition operation at the retarded ignition timing from the basic ignition timing. The apparatus includes control means responsive to the occurrence of a knock to correct the basic ignition timing for each cylinder of the engine whereby the basic ignition timing of each cylinder is controlled to be retarded in response to the detection of a knock in each cylinder.

Ignition timing control apparatus for an internal combustion engine

An angle of an ignition timing for a specific cylinder is gradually advanced. A comparison is made between the previous output of a knock detection circuit for the cylinder having its angle advanced and the present output thereof by a comparator. The comparator evaluates an occurrence of a knock when an output signal therefrom changes drastically. The signal from the comparator rewrites the knock evaluation reference value in each cylinder written in the memory. When an output from the knock sensor is larger than that of the memory, an ignition timing retard angle signal is output from the comparator. As a result, the apparatus of the present invention can control ignition timing without errors due to the deterioration with age or manufacturing errors, as it can correct knocking detection sensibility of the apparatus.

Apparatus for controlling ignition timing for internal combustion engine

In an air-fuel ratio control apparatus for controlling the air-fuel ratio of an engine in accordance with the output of an O.sub.2 sensor, in response to the starting of the engine the output voltage of the O.sub.2 sensor is sampled at intervals of a unit time. The slope of the output voltage waveform of the O.sub.2 sensor is computed from the successively sampled values. The computed value is compared with a predetermined value indicative of a slope value attained when the O.sub.2 sensor is activated and thus it is considered that the O.sub.2 sensor is activiated when the computed value is greater than the predetermined value.

Air-fuel ratio control apparatus

The output of a knock sensor for detecting a knock signal of an engine is applied to a bandpass filter for bandpassing only the knock signal. The output of the bandpass filter is applied to an automatic gain control circuit for variably controlling the gain of the knock signal. The output of the automatic gain control circuit is applied to an averaging circuit via a maximum clamp circuit. A comparator supplies an output to an integration circuit of the next stage when the output of the bandpass filter becomes greater than that of the averaging circuit. An ignition control device for controlling the spark timing of an ignition coil energizes the ignition coil by the output from a pick-up coil and that of the integration circuit and delivers a feedback signal to the integration circuit.

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Hitachinaka, Japan

Yuichi Kashimura