Abstract: A portable communication terminal includes a non-contact IC card. The non-contact IC card receives, from a passage verification apparatus, information indicating a passage of the non-contact IC card through the passage verification apparatus including a gate for verifying a passage; a passage detection device receives the information on the passage from the non-contact IC card, and then detects the passage of the portable communication terminal through the passage verification apparatus; and a mail transmission control device controls transmission of the electronic mail reserved for transmission in accordance with the detection.

Abstract: A microcontroller or state machine controls a light ballast utilizing a timer structure. The microcontroller can program the timer structure to generate pulses where the “average” frequency of a series of pulses can be varied with higher resolution than the frequency of a single pulse. This variation can occur without further microcontroller/state machine intervention. The pulses are used to control the on and/or off time of the light. The timer can be configured to modulate the outputs fast enough to ensure that the light does not appear to flicker to the human eye by limiting the number of pulses in a frame and by increasing the number of times the frequency shift occurs compared to the obvious implementation. The present invention relies on the fact that the human eye is not capable of detecting small frequency changes in high frequency signals and therefore uses pulses of two or more frequencies where the frequencies are close together.

Abstract: A battery comprising a storage section for storing battery management information transmitted/received to/from outside through a communicator; wherein, the battery management information is at least either available device information on a device which can use the battery or chargeable charger information on a charger which can charge the battery.

Abstract: The present invention is a data buffering system for buffering information from an optical recording medium into a buffer memory. The information comprises a main data and a subcode. The system comprises a main target comparator, a correction target comparator and a transfer/buffer module. The main target comparator selects a start main data frame of the main data, and triggers a main data transferring procedure when detecting the start main data frame. The correction target comparator gets a correction main data frame by adding an additional value to the start main data frame, and trigger a subcode transferring procedure when detecting the correction main data frame. The transfer/buffer module transfers and buffers the subcode to the buffer memory and the main data according to the subcode transferring procedure and the main data transferring procedure, respectively.

Abstract: An angular position determining apparatus is provided which includes a magnet affixed to a rotary shaft and a plurality of magnetic sensor elements and works to determine an angular position of the rotary shaft using outputs of the magnetic sensor elements. The apparatus also includes a malfunction detector which specifies which of the magnetic sensor elements is now malfunctioning and takes an action required to determine the angular position of the rotary shaft correctly in the event of such a malfunction.

Abstract: A user equipment (UE) located in a soft handover region transmits channel quality indicator (CQI) information bits for informing a Node B of quality of a downlink channel through a CQI field and a high speed pilot (HS-Pilot) field constituting a subframe of an uplink secondary dedicated physical control channel (DPCCH) in a code division multiple access (CDMA) communication system. The UE outputs a codeword of length 20 by coding the CQI information bits with a code of length 20, which is used when a high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) service is not supported, and permutes 15 coded bits coded by the same code, as a code of length 15, which is used when the HSDPA service is supported, among 20 coded bits constituting the codeword, thereby locating the 15 coded bits in the CQI field, and permutes the 5 remaining coded bits to be located in the HS-Pilot field.

Abstract: The CPU of the image forming apparatus sets up an ADF reading magnification in the ADF driving unit including the motor and the motor driver referring to the first magnification conversion table in the memory of the system unit when reading a document image while a document is being moved. Further, the reading magnification that is also in the ADF driving unit is also set in the specific document detection unit. The specific document detection unit makes the pattern matching as to whether the read image data is that of a specific document using the magnification dictionary (specific image data) that is set and outputs a detection signal as the result of the matching to the CPU. As that time, the CPU controls the output of the applicable read image data by a printer according to the detection signal.

Abstract: An apparatus for testing a specimen. The apparatus having means for withdrawing a small sample of the specimen thereby preventing the potential contamination of the majority of the specimen.

Abstract: A method (and system) of conducting business electronically between a first party and a second party, includes providing a third party who knows the identity of the first party but no privacy-compromising information regarding a proposed electronic business transaction between the first and second parties, and conducting the electronic business transaction between the first and second parties through the third party such that the identity of the first party is kept from the second party.

Abstract: A scanning module for scanning a document is provided. The scanning module comprises: a chassis; a light source on the chassis for emitting a light ray onto the document; a plurality of reflectors inside the chassis; a lens inside the chassis; an image sensing device inside the chassis, an image of the document being reflected by the plurality of reflectors and formed on the image sensing device, the image sensing device including a plurality of sensing cells; and a plurality of microlenses on the plurality of sensing cells, each of the plurality of microlenses having a top surface and a bottom surface, the top surface having a plurality of notches as an input window for changing an incident angle of the light ray, the bottom surface having a plurality of round curves as an output window for further focusing the light ray.

Abstract: The invention relative to a positioning device for the scanned object of a scanner may make a positioning function to a document or a book to be scanned. Through designing a positioning element on the shell body of a scanner, a book of many pages may be positioned or secured on the positioning element, which may be designed on the scanning window. According to the size, the form, or the thickness of the book, an appropriate positioning element may be used, and its number is selectively applied. The book is placed on the positioning element, wherein the middle recession part of the book is placed at the top end of the positioning element, by which a bulged-out part is formed and sandwiched into the middle recession part of the book to thereby secure the book in the positioning element.

Abstract: A pre-charge apparatus and method for controlling startup transients in a capacitively-coupled switching power stage provide lower cost and improved startup transient performance in Class D amplifiers, as well as in other AC power converter applications. A charging source is activated at startup to control the charging of an external capacitor from a single power supply rail to an operating point voltage equal to the average DC output of the switching circuit, while a control circuit disables the output power stage of the switching converter. The current source may be a constant-current source and/or may be controlled via feedback from the voltage or current at the output terminal of the converter to taper the current level to more accurately control the charging. A discharge circuit can also be provided to discharge the output terminal to an opposite power supply rail before commencing the controlled charging.

Abstract: The invention relates to time-of-flight mass spectrometers, equipped with ion reflector and ion detector, with orthogonal ion injection and outpulsing of a segment of the ion beam perpendicular to the direction of injection in a pulser. The invention is directed to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer in which a reflector and an ion detector each have an angular offset about an axis that is perpendicular to the respective directions of injection and deflection. This allows a large distance to be used between the pulser and detector with the highest possible utilization of ions.

Abstract: A stacked set of playing cards are supported to expose an information bearing portion bearing a first machine-readable indicia and an information bearing portion bearing a second machine-readable indicia, such that each of the first and second machine-readable indicia from a number of cards are read by at least one reader. The second machine-readable indicia may provide redundancy, or may be related to the first machine-readable indicia to allow the authentication of the playing card.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for allowing a television viewer to quickly and easily relate the teams' names and scores to the players are disclosed. The teams' names and scores are presented on a small scoreboard or banner on the television screen, and either the backgrounds of the names and scores or the names and scores themselves are colored the same color as the selected uniform portions of the respective teams. This can also be applied to presentations of statistics.