Abstract: An onboard environment recognition device is obtained with which it is possible to improve recognition performance within the headlight illumination range and outside the headlight illumination range of a vehicle with an onboard camera. This onboard environment recognition device has: an imaging unit 100 for imaging, using a camera installed in the vehicle, at a wider-angle range than the headlight illumination range; an in-illumination/out-of-illumination exposure adjustment unit for setting appropriate exposure conditions separately within the headlight illumination range and outside the headlight illumination range; and a recognition unit 500 for recognizing images on the basis of the acquired images. Therefore, it is possible to maintain high recognition performance in the boundary regions of the headlight illumination range, and outside the range, and the present invention can also be used for wide-angle sensing at night.

Abstract: A motor drive device includes an inverter that drives a motor, a power source smoothing capacitor of the inverter, and a control unit that controls the inverter to drive the motor. The control unit precharges the capacitor with a power source voltage, and calculates a capacity value of the capacitor, based on a ratio of the power source voltage and a voltage with which the capacitor is charged, or an amount of time taken until the voltage with which the capacitor is charged, after the passage of a predetermined amount of time from the start of the precharge, reaches a voltage corresponding to the power source voltage. The control unit performs torque limitation of the motor when the capacity value of the capacitor has decreased.

Abstract: Valve timing is held to a position close to a target value as much as possible while suppressing control errors of valve timing even though a crankshaft rotates in reverse. In an internal combustion engine which controls the valve timing by a variable valve timing mechanism (an electric VTC) driven by an electric motor, an intake valve timing is controlled after an output of an engine stop command such that: when the engine rotates in a forward direction, a real valve timing (a VTC real angle ?r) detected by a sensor is converged to a target valve timing (a VTC target angle ?trg) advanced for the time of start; and when the engine rotates in a reverse direction, a manipulated variable of the electric VTC is set so that the VTC real angle ?r is held to the VTC real angle ?r detected just before the detection of the reverse rotation.

Abstract: By reducing the serial transmission amount of pulses between a driving IC and a control IC, the transmission times of various commands other than the transmission time of the pulses can be secured, so that the improvement of reliability and high performance of the entirety of an electronic control device can be realized. The serial transmission between the driving IC and the control IC is started at the time when the edges of the pulses are detected.

Abstract: In order to provide a stereoscopic imaging apparatus that can acquire, in a case in which a brightness different is large, parallax information containing a parallax image in all image capturing frames, provided are an image acquisition unit that acquires a first image and a second image different from the first image in exposure time, a gain and offset correction unit 102 that corrects brightness of one of the acquired first and second images, a parallax calculation unit 103 that calculates parallax from one of the images corrected by the brightness correction unit and the other of the images and outputs a parallax image and parallax information, and a combination image generation unit 105 that combines the acquired first and second images together to generate a combination image and outputs the generated combination image.

Abstract: To provide a high-quality, high-output, and low-cost automotive alternator by suppressing heat generation through the reduction of current loss in a heat dissipating plate of a rectifier without expanding a space for placing the heat dissipating plate and reducing the cooling performance of the heat dissipating plate. An automotive alternator includes a rectifier, wherein the rectifier is configured such that a heat dissipating plate of positive pole to which the rectifier element of positive pole is mounted is disposed opposite to a heat dissipating plate of negative pole to which a plurality of rectifier elements of negative pole are mounted; wherein the heat dissipating plate of positive pole is made up of a first heat dissipating plate and a second heat dissipating plate, which are made of two different materials.