Abstract: An electromagnetic induction heating apparatus comprises: a resonance circuit that includes a inductor and a capacitor; a direct-current electric power supply; and a switching element performing ON and OFF switching of electric power supplied to the resonance circuit by the direct-current electric power supply; performs intermittent control of the electric power supply by controlling the ON and OFF switching at regular intervals, and by performing control to stop the electric power supply when not controlling the ON and OFF switching, wherein during the intermittent control, the switching control unit performs gradual control such that, upon beginning the control of the ON and OFF switching, the electric power supply gradually increases to reach a target value, and upon stopping the control of the ON and OFF switching, the electric power supply gradually decreases from the target value until stopping, such that the gradual decrease involves fewer steps than the gradual increase.

Abstract: A power system stabilization method includes: receiving a power command value from a power control center that monitors a power system; transmitting the power command value to a power supply device; causing the power supply device to supply power to the power system according to the power command value; generating a prediction command value according to past power command values received from the power control center, the prediction command value being a prediction value of a power command value to be transmitted from the power control center next after the power command value; transmitting the prediction command value to a power supply device; causing the power supply device to supply power to the power system according to the power prediction command value; receiving the next power command value from the power control center; transmitting the next power command value to the power supply device.

Abstract: A method for designing a control apparatus includes: determining first, second and third threshold values; setting a first weighting function for calculating a first controlled variable by being multiplied by a difference between a control target value and an output value of a storage battery, a second weighting function for calculating a second controlled variable by being multiplied by the output value of the storage battery, and a third weighting function for calculating a third controlled variable by being multiplied by an integrated value of the output value of the storage battery; and determining a transfer function of the control apparatus in accordance with an H-infinity control theory such that the first controlled variable, the second controlled variable and the third controlled variable are respectively smaller than the first, second and third threshold values.

Abstract: An image pickup apparatus capable of obtaining a high AF accuracy while reducing unnecessary power consumption and a release delay when photographing while detecting a focusing state using auxiliary light. The image pickup apparatus is capable of mounting a light emission device with which a first light emitting section of which an irradiation direction can be changed with respect to a body of the light emission device and a second light emitting section of which an irradiation direction is fixed to the body are provided. An obtaining unit obtains information about the irradiation direction of the first light emitting section. A control unit controls one of the first light emitting section and the second light emitting section on the basis of the information about the irradiation direction obtained as a light emitting section for irradiating with auxiliary light at the time when the focus detection unit performs focus detection.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a timing roller for conveying paper in the image forming apparatus, a first motor receiving supply of electric power from a power source for driving the timing roller, a second motor receiving supply of electric power from the power source, a sensor for detecting whether a jam occurs at the conveyance roller, a drive relay for cutting off supply of electric power from the power source to the first and second motors, if occurrence of a jam is detected, and a control circuit for controlling an operating state of the second motor such that regenerative power produced at the first motor due to rotation of the conveyance roller is supplied to the second motor, if occurrence of a jam is detected.

Abstract: A method including: setting a weighting function based on an amount of change in impedance of a control target; and determining, for a power controller, a transfer function composed of a transfer function of an internal model obtainable by performing Laplace transform on the voltage reference value and a transfer function of a partial controller, the transfer function of the partial controller being for outputting the control output after receiving, as an input, an output of the transfer function of the internal model, wherein the determining includes determining the transfer function of the partial controller using an H?control theory so as to reduce (i) a first amount of control obtainable by multiplying the control output and the weighting function and (ii) a second amount of control that is an output of the transfer function of the internal model.

Abstract: Super-resolution processing is regarded as a kind of intersample interpolation process and performed by using a linear interpolation filter designed according to sampled-data control theory. In an error-system model used in the process of designing the filter, a pre-filter is disposed before a sampler and a post-filter is disposed after the zero-order hold in a signal restoration system. At least either one of the characteristic Q(s) of the pre-filter or the characteristic P(s) of the post-filter is designed to be a low-pass characteristic, whereby the gain of the characteristic K(z) of a digital filter within a middle-to-high frequency range is raised. Raising the gain makes jaggies more prominent. To reduce this effect, in an actual processing system, the image to be processed is passed through a low-pass filter to reduce high-frequency components before the linear interpolation is performed.

Abstract: An induction heating device including a coil which inductively heats a workpiece of a fuser with an input voltage obtained from an alternating current voltage by rectification; a switching element coupled in series with the coil; a peak voltage detector which detects a peak value of the input voltage; an effective voltage detector which detects an effective value of the input voltage; a crest factor calculator which calculates an actual crest factor of the input voltage based on the peak value of the input voltage and the effective value of the input voltage; and a power controller which achieves control of power to the fuser by controlling the duty ratio of ON and OFF periods of the switching element.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus having: a power source applying alternating current voltage to the magnetizing coil; a demagnetizing coil switchable between a conductive state and a cutoff state, and when in the conductive state, cancelling out a portion of a magnetic flux produced by the magnetizing coil; a contact switch and a semiconductor switch electrically connected in parallel, and, in combination, bringing the demagnetizing coil into the conductive state or the cutoff state; and a control unit opening or closing the switches separately. The control unit: opens or closes the semiconductor switch in synchronization with a zero-crossing of the alternating current voltage at least when the contact switch is open; opens or closes the contact switch only when the semiconductor switch is closed; and opens the semiconductor switch when the demagnetizing coil brought into the conductive state by the contact switch needs to be maintained in the conductive state.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a timing roller for conveying paper in the image forming apparatus, a first motor receiving supply of electric power from a power source for driving the timing roller, a second motor receiving supply of electric power from the power source, a sensor for detecting whether a jam occurs at the conveyance roller, a drive relay for cutting off supply of electric power from the power source to the first and second motors, if occurrence of a jam is detected, and a control circuit for controlling an operating state of the second motor such that regenerative power produced at the first motor due to rotation of the conveyance roller is supplied to the second motor, if occurrence of a jam is detected.

Abstract: An electromagnetic induction heating apparatus comprises: a resonance circuit that includes a inductor and a capacitor; a direct-current electric power supply; and a switching element performing ON and OFF switching of electric power supplied to the resonance circuit by the direct-current electric power supply; performs intermittent control of the electric power supply by controlling the ON and OFF switching at regular intervals, and by performing control to stop the electric power supply when not controlling the ON and OFF switching, wherein during the intermittent control, the switching control unit performs gradual control such that, upon beginning the control of the ON and OFF switching, the electric power supply gradually increases to reach a target value, and upon stopping the control of the ON and OFF switching, the electric power supply gradually decreases from the target value until stopping, such that the gradual decrease involves fewer steps than the gradual increase.

Abstract: While a recording sheet is passing through a fixing nip formed between a heating roller 41 having a heating layer and a pressing roller 42 pressed against the roller 41, a coil 43 is exited by high-frequency power from a power source and causes the layer to generate heat. An unfixed image on the recording sheet is fixed by the heat. The power source detects a zero cross timing of a rectified alternating current, detects an instantaneous value at a point a predetermined period after the zero cross timing, calculates an effective power of the alternating current based on the instantaneous value, and controls the output power to be a desired value determined based on the effective power and the surface temperature of the roller 41. Thus power input to the power source can be quickly detected and power output to the coil can be quickly and stably controlled.

Abstract: An FFT analysis is performed on the decoded image data of one frame, and a cutoff frequency based on the assumption that the original signal has first-order attenuation characteristics is obtained in both the horizontal and vertical directions. A sampled-data H? filter (digital filter), previously designed to have different parameters corresponding to different cutoff frequencies is selected. By using this filter, a filtering process is performed on the image data decoded both in the horizontal and vertical directions. Since the variety of the analog frequency characteristics of the original image is taken into account for every frame of the image, the information that seems to be noise in the original image is less likely to be removed, and mosquito noise and block noise associated with a coding/decoding process can be efficiently removed.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a linear-chain beta-1,3-glucan is disclosed that comprises polymerizing glucose-1-phosphate serving as a substrate by contacting the glucose-1-phosphate with a beta-1,3-glucan phosphorylase derived from a species in the genus Ochromonas. A laminarioligosaccharide may be added to serve as a primer. A linear-chain beta-1,3-glucan having a degree of polymerization between about 30 to 70 is also disclosed.

Abstract: A hearing aid tailored to a hard-of-hearing person is designed using sampled-data control theory. The method is for designing an audio signal processing system for a hearing aid, wherein the system comprises an AD converter for converting an analog audio input signal (yc) inputted to the hearing aid into a digital audio input signal, a hearing aid digital filter (K(z)) for performing a signal processing on the digital audio input signal outputted from the AD converter, and a DA converter for converting a digital signal outputted from the hearing aid digital filter into an analog audio output signal to be outputted to the hard-of-hearing person.

Abstract: A method for designing a control apparatus includes: determining first, second and third threshold values; setting a first weighting function for calculating a first controlled variable by being multiplied by a difference between a control target value and an output value of a storage battery, a second weighting function for calculating a second controlled variable by being multiplied by the output value of the storage battery, and a third weighting function for calculating a third controlled variable by being multiplied by an integrated value of the output value of the storage battery; and determining a transfer function of the control apparatus in accordance with an H-infinity control theory such that the first controlled variable, the second controlled variable and the third controlled variable are respectively smaller than the first, second and third threshold values.

Abstract: Super-resolution processing is regarded as a kind of intersample interpolation process and performed by using a linear interpolation filter designed according to sampled-data control theory. In an error-system model used in the process of designing the filter, a pre-filter is disposed before a sampler and a post-filter is disposed after the zero-order hold in a signal restoration system. At least either one of the characteristic Q(s) of the pre-filter or the characteristic P(s) of the post-filter is designed to be a low-pass characteristic, whereby the gain of the characteristic K(z) of a digital filter within a middle-to-high frequency range is raised. Raising the gain makes jaggies more prominent. To reduce this effect, in an actual processing system, the image to be processed is passed through a low-pass filter to reduce high-frequency components before the linear interpolation is performed.

Abstract: An induction heating device including a coil which inductively heats a workpiece of a fuser with an input voltage obtained from an alternating current voltage by rectification; a switching element coupled in series with the coil; a peak voltage detector which detects a peak value of the input voltage; an effective voltage detector which detects an effective value of the input voltage; a crest factor calculator which calculates an actual crest factor of the input voltage based on the peak value of the input voltage and the effective value of the input voltage; and a power controller which achieves control of power to the fuser by controlling the duty ratio of ON and OFF periods of the switching element.

Abstract: An induction heating device comprises: a resonant circuit provided with a coil heating a workpiece inductively and a capacitor, the coil and the capacitor being coupled in parallel with each other; a switching element coupled in series with the resonant circuit; a power supply which applies to the resonant circuit, a direct-current input voltage whose instantaneous value can be changed with the lapse of time; and a power controller which controls power to the workpiece by turning the switching element ON at a certain time and changing an ON period of the switching element, and the power controller is characterized by turning the switching element ON with a delay of an integral multiple of a resonant period of the resonant circuit if a value of power to the workpiece is equal to or lower than a first threshold which is predetermined.

Abstract: A game apparatus causes a character object to perform a first hitting motion on the necessary condition that a to-be-hit object is present in a first area 104a which is set based on a position of the character object in a virtual game space, and causes the character object to perform a second hitting motion on the necessary condition that the to-be-hit object is present in a second area 104b, 104c, or 104d. Furthermore, the game apparatus adjusts a position of at least one of at least a part of the character object and the to-be-hit object, such that when the character object is caused to perform the second hitting motion, the character object and the to-be-hit object are in a predetermined positional relationship.