Abstract: An improved single-row multi-point-contact ball bearing for an electromagnetic clutch and pulley and for a compressor for an automobile air conditioner is provided, which has a low relative inclination between the inner and outer rings and rotatable at a high revolution of about 10,000 rpm, and yet inexpensive requiring a small axial space. A single-row four-point contact angular ball bearing is provided which comprises an one-piece inner and outer rings. Each raceway surface of the inner and outer rings is made to form a Gothic-arched configuration having two curved surfaces, and each radius of curvature of the two curved surfaces is made to range substantially 0.515 to 0.55 of the outer diameter of a ball.

Abstract: Within a vacuum vessel, there are arranged an electron emitting part emitting an electron beam in a first direction, and an optical amplifying part amplifying incident light with the help of energy of the electron beam. The optical amplifying part includes a flat dielectric substrate made of a quartz glass, a rectilinear dielectric optical waveguide provided on the flat dielectric substrate, made of a dielectric material having a high refractive index and extending in said first direction, input and output optical waveguides provided on the dielectric substrate and being coupled with both ends of the dielectric optical waveguide, and a pair of electron beam converging electrodes arranged on respective sides of the dielectric optical waveguide. A velocity of the incident light is delayed during propagation through the dielectric optical waveguide, and a part of the incident light penetrates from the dielectric optical waveguide into the vacuum in the form of evanescent light.

Abstract: To realize a speech recognition method and speech recognition device that reduce erroneous recognition for words that are not to be recognized and ambient sounds, and to improve the recognition capability, characteristic parameters of words to be recognized and characteristic parameters of words that are not to be recognized and ambient sounds are previously entered in a vocabulary template 40. Degrees of similarity are obtained in a speech recognition section 30 between characteristic parameters for input words (or sounds) and all the characteristic parameters stored in the vocabulary template 40. Information indicating one characteristic parameter, from among the characteristic parameters stored in the vocabulary template 40, that is the closest approximation to the characteristic parameter of the input word (or sound), is generated as a recognition result.

Abstract: A light-emitting array and its driving circuitry are integrated into a single device. The driving circuitry is formed in a semiconductor substrate and has an array of output terminals on a surface of the substrate. Organic electroluminescent elements are formed directly over the output terminals, in electrical contact with the output terminals. The electroluminescent elements are driven by direct current. An optical head assembly has one or more of these light-emitting arrays mounted on a printed circuit board.

Abstract: A booster circuit uses a source voltage to generate a boosted voltage that is higher than the source voltage. The booster circuit has two capacitors. The two capacitors are alternately charged and discharged in response to a signal voltage applied to an input terminal. The first capacitor is discharged to boost the voltage at a boosting node, whereas the second capacitor is discharged to boost the voltage at an output terminal. Further, the booster circuit includes a control circuit. When the voltage at the input terminal changes from an “H” level to an “L” level, the control circuit supplies a voltage for discharging the first capacitor to the first capacitor after the second capacitor has been brought into a charging state. Since the voltage at the output terminal is reduced by the charging of the second capacitor, a transistor is deactivated in response to the voltage at the output terminal.

Abstract: A semiconductor device has a drift region in which a drift current flows if it is in the ON mode and which is depleted if it is in the OFF mode. The drift region is formed as a structure having a plurality of first conductive type divided drift regions and a plurality of second conductive type compartment regions in which each of the compartment regions is positioned among the adjacent drift regions in parallel to make p-n junctions, respectively.

Abstract: An exchange executes a reserved camp-on. For executing the camp-on, the exchange monitors idle/busy states of telephones for which the camp-on is reserved, as well as idle/busy states of corresponding channels. When it is judged that the foregoing telephones and the corresponding channels are all idle, the exchange executes the camp-on.

Abstract: In a method for locking a probe of a scanning probe microscope at any desired position on a specimen surface plane for any desired time period, after taking a first microscopic image of a specimen surface area including the desired position, the probe is moved into the desired position and a second microscopic image is obtained. After moving the probe to the desired position again, a driving voltage applied to a piezoelectric element for driving the probe is kept unchanged during a given time interval T. At the end of the time period, a third microscopic image is taken. The amount of probe drift during the time interval is derived by comparing the relative positions of the second and third images to the first image, and the driving voltage is controlled in accordance with the thus derived amount of the probe drift such that the probe is moved automatically into the desired position.

Abstract: An inexpensive conveying system using a linear motor permits accurate stop positioning and controls generation of dust. The conveying system has a unit including a passive moving assembly and a plurality of sets of fixed coils to perform sending, non-energization travel, receiving, and positioning. The conveying and positioning unit is formed by the passive moving assembly composed of a permanent magnet and a linear sensor scale, and a fixed assembly having coils opposed to the moving assembly and sending and receiving sensor heads for detecting the position of the liner scale of the moving assembly. To achieve lower cost, the coils of the fixed assembly are provided only at a sending station and a receiving station, no additional coil being disposed therebetween.

Abstract: In a pretreatment process, a silicon oxide film (13) with nitrogen content is formed on a semiconductor substrate (10). In a segregation process executing heat treatment in an inert gas atmosphere, a silicon nitride layer (14) segregates out at the interface of the silicon substrate (10) and the silicon oxide film (13). In a high dielectric film forming process, the unnecessary silicon oxide film (13) on the silicon nitride layer (14) is removed, a high dielectric oxide layer (15) is formed on the exposed silicon nitride layer (14). Whereby, a gate electrode (16) consisting of the silicon nitride layer (14) and the high dielectric oxide layer (15) is formed.

Abstract: An individual animal identification apparatus has an eye region image pick-up unit for obtaining an input image by taking a picture of an eye, including an iridial granule, of an animal to be registered and identified, a geometric normalizer for performing a coordinate transformation process by using a specified parameter to move the iridial granule region of the input image onto predetermined coordinates, a feature extractor for extracting the feature of the normalized iridial granule, a dictionary memory for registering data on the features of the iridial granule regions corresponding to animals to be registered, the data having been extracted by the feature extractor, and a collator for checking whether or not an animal to be identified has been registered by comparing data on the feature of the iridial granule region corresponding to the animal under identification, the feature having been extracted by the feature extractor, with the feature data registered in the dictionary memory.

Abstract: Bit data of a received video signal is partially converted into a first signal representing a data sequence corresponding to the resolution of an LED head. The first signal is transmitted to the LED head in the form of a real printing data signal that is to be printed on a basic raster line in synchronism with a line timing signal. The remaining bit data of the received video signal, which are not converted into the first signal, are converted into a second signal representing another data sequence, and then stored in a line buffer. The second signal stored in the line buffer is transmitted to the LED head in the form of a real printing data signal that is to be printed on an additional raster line in synchronism with an additional line timing signal. The LED head drive energy with which the basic raster lines are printed and another LED head drive energy with which the additional raster lines are printed are set independently of each other. The LED head may be provided with such a resolution function.

Abstract: An interleaving apparatus is provided which stores input bits temporarily and transfers some of the bits only required to execute an operation to code each of the stored bits to a coding circuit. This allows a storage region to be decreased as compared with a conventional system.

Abstract: An optical amplification medium doped with Er3+ ions is selected from the group of a fluoride glass, a chalcogenide glass, a telluride glass, a halide crystal, and a lead oxide based glass. The Er3+ ions are excited by light of at least one wavelength in the range of 0.96 &mgr;m to 0.98 &mgr;m. A laser or an optical amplifier includes this optical amplification medium doped with Er3+ ions. Furthermore, an optical amplification method performs an optical amplification using the optical amplifier having the optical amplification medium doped with Er3+ ions. Thus, the laser to be applied in the field of optical communication, the optical amplifier having the characteristics of low noise and high gain, and the optical amplification method can be provided.

Abstract: The first operation means of a master communication device computes a parity bit of main data. The parity bit and the main data are transmitted to a slave communication device. The second operation means of the slave communication device performs parity check of the main data using this parity bit. The third operation means computes a parity bit of a data constellation comprising a signal for indicating the result of the parity check and the main data to be transmitted to the master communication device. This parity bit is transmitted to the master communication device along with the main data. The fourth operation means of the master communication device performs parity check of the main data using this parity bit. If the result of parity check by the second operation means indicates generation of an error, the result of parity check by the fourth operation means always indicates generation of an error.

Abstract: A method of operating ozone production facilities comprises supplying a starting gas from oxygen production facilities alone to an ozonizer when the consumption of oxygen is within the production capacity of the oxygen production facilities; or mixing pure oxygen gas from liquid oxygen facilities with the gas from the oxygen production facilities, and supplying the resulting mixed gas as the starting gas to the ozonizer, when the consumption of oxygen exceeds the production capacity of the oxygen production facilities. Thus, the ozone production facilities, even if small in scale, can always supply an ozone-containing gas having an arbitrary ozone concentration, ranging from the maximum to a lower concentration.

Abstract: An apparatus for performing a generator locking for a video signal including a first video processing circuit for processing an input video signal, an expansion module having a second video processing circuit and a delay circuit having a delay time introduced by said second video processing circuit, a synchronizing signal separating circuit for separating a synchronizing signal from an external reference signal, and a phase-lock loop circuit for generating a reference control signal for said first video processing circuit as well as a phase comparison signal. Said phase comparison signal is fed-back to the phase-lock loop circuit by means of said delay circuit. Although the expansion module is connected to the expansion slot, a phase of a finally obtained video signal is remained in a same fixed relationship as a phase relationship when a connection board is connected to the expansion slot.

Abstract: Telecommunication is exchanged between first telecommunication equipment and second telecommunication equipment. A response monitoring packet is sent from the first telecommunication equipment towards the second telecommunication equipment during telecommunication exchange. A timer is activated in the first telecommunication equipment and a response packet is received from the second telecommunication equipment during telecommunication exchange. A response time, defined as a time length from a time at which the response monitoring packet is sent and a time at which the response packet is received, is calculated. The response time is compared to a threshold value, which is defined corresponding to a specific communication class. A telecommunication line connecting the first telecommunication equipment and the second telecommunication equipment is disconnected if the response time is in excess of the threshold value.

Abstract: An optical coupling module suitable for use as an optical-communication terminal station, which facilitates alignment and helps to reduce production cost. The module comprises a semiconductor substrate 14 having a mirror-finished surface 14a and having mounted on this mirror-finished surface an optical functional element 11 with an optical functional surface 11a kept substantially parallel with the mirror-finished surface 14a and with a reverse surface, opposite the optical functional surface 11a, facing the mirror-finished surface 14a; and an optical device 15, supported on the mirror-finished surface 14a of the semiconductor substrate in such a way that the optical device is optically coupled to the optical functional element 11.

Abstract: In an automobile on-board and/or portable telephone system capable of increasing the capacity of subscribers easily on the basis of changing of the information transmission bit rate, spread codes obtained by multiplying orthogonal spread codes (m in number) by a pseudo-random noise series are assigned to individual channels in the same cell in such a manner that the orthogonal spread codes are multiplied by some types of pseudo-random noise series having different phases, thereby making it possible to maintain the number of channels in the same cell at a value which is a multiple of the number of the orthogonal spread codes.