Abstract: A vehicle engine activation control system includes a starter connected to a battery; an idle stop control unit configured to automatically stop an engine and automatically reactivate the engine by the starter; an input unit configured to generate an operation request in response to input from a driver; an electric parking brake device including an electric motor connected to the battery, wherein the electric motor starts driving in response to the operation request; and a mediating unit configured to prohibit the reactivation of the engine by the idle stop control unit, when the electric motor is in a driving state in response to a predetermined operation request.

Abstract: A control apparatus for a vehicle with a continuously variable transmission, having an acceleration requirement determining portion determining operator required acceleration, a first restricted accelerator operation amount setting portion setting an accelerating member restricted operation amount that increases with a running speed increase, when the determining portion has determined required vehicle acceleration, and a shift control portion controlling the transmission speed ratio on the restricted amount basis, the control apparatus having: a second restricted accelerator operation amount setting portion decreasing the restricted amount from a value immediately prior to an accelerating member rapid releasing action determination moment, at a rate lower than an accelerating member operation actual amount decrease rate after the rapid releasing action determination moment, and an upper limit stop processing portion to limit the restricted amount after a determination moment that the operator requires vehicl

Abstract: An optical rangefinder based on time-of-flight measurement, radiates pulsed light toward an object (70), and receives reflected light from the object, the receiver operating in a photon counting mode, so as to generate a pulse for a detected photon. There is a variable probability of a photon detection on the receiver, and a controller (370, 380, 390; 365, 470, 475, 380, 390; 570, 580, 590, 390) controls the photon detection probability of the receiver, based on a light level. By controlling the detection probability according to a light level, the receiver can have an increased dynamic range, and without the expense of using optical components. This can apply even while detecting very weak signals since the receiver can still be in a photon counting mode while the detection probability is controlled. The light level can be indicated by an output of the receiver itself, or by another detector external to the receiver.

Abstract: A fleet management system for managing a plurality of vehicles is provided. The system includes means for receiving data related to a deposit of a personally owned vehicle from an owner of the vehicle, the deposit being of a predetermined duration, means for receiving a travel request from a traveler other than the owner, and means for assigning the personally owned vehicle for use by the traveler during the predetermined duration based on the travel request.

Abstract: A system for evaluating at least one state of a process is provided the system having means for segmenting the process into a plurality of process segments, one or more sensors configured to capture information related to each process segment of the plurality of process segments generated by the segmenting means, the information comprising a plurality of samples, and processing means configured to process the plurality of samples related to each process segment of the plurality of segments, and, based on the processing, provide an indication associated with the at least one state of the process.

Abstract: An image processor (10) has a window selector for choosing a detection window within the image, and a self similarity computation part (40) for determining self-similarity information for a group of the pixels in any part of the detection window, to represent an amount of self-similarity of that group to other groups in any other part of the detector window, and for repeating the determination for groups in all parts of the detection window, to generate a global self similarity descriptor for the detection window. A classifier (50) is used for classifying whether an object is present based on the global self-similarity descriptor. By using global self-similarity rather than local similarities more information is captured which can lead to better classification. In particular, it helps enable recognition of more distant self-similarities inherent in the object, and self-similarities present at any scale.

Abstract: A method (100) and system (300) is described for processing video data comprising a plurality of images. The method and apparatus is for obtaining for labeling of a plurality of objects or regions in an image of a sequence of images followed by label propagation to other images in the sequence based on an inference step and a model.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a sputtering magnetron assembly comprising a rotatable tubular target cathode and a magnetic field generating device installed within the tubular target cathode. At least part of the magnetic field generating device is configured to move within the tubular target cathode so as to maintain within a predetermined range a magnetic field strength at an outer surface of the tubular target cathode during erosion of said outer surface. The present invention also relates to a physical vapour deposition method using such a sputtering magnetron assembly.

Abstract: The present invention describes an electrode material based on carbon foam impregnated with particulate carbon, and a method for preparing the electrode material. The electrode material may be used as a cathode active material in a metal-air/metal-oxygen battery, such as a lithium-air, sodium-air, magnesium-air, zinc-air, tin-air or silicon-air battery.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a method for heating a polymer article reinforced with electrically conductive embedded fibers, comprising the steps of applying an outer, electrically non-conductive coating so as to cover exposed electrically conductive fibers, and irradiating the coated, fiber-reinforced thermosetting polymer article with microwaves within a predetermined frequency range so as to heat up the coated, fiber-reinforced thermosetting polymer article by dielectric heating.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are described for monocular 3D human pose estimation and tracking, which are able to recover poses of people in realistic street conditions captured using a monocular, potentially moving camera. Embodiments of the present invention provide a three-stage process involving estimating (10, 60, 110) a 3D pose of each of the multiple objects using an output of 2D tracking-by detection (50) and 2D viewpoint estimation (46). The present invention provides a sound Bayesian formulation to address the above problems. The present invention can provide articulated 3D tracking in realistic street conditions. The present invention provides methods and apparatus for people detection and 2D pose estimation combined with a dynamic motion prior. The present invention provides not only 2D pose estimation for people in side views, it goes beyond this by estimating poses in 3D from multiple viewpoints. The estimation of poses is done in monocular images, and does not require stereo images.

Abstract: A submillimeter wavelength radar system has a receiver (20, 27, 90) for receiving and downconverting signals from content in a field of view of the system and a signal processor (30) arranged to determine information about the content from the downconverted signals, the radar system being arranged to obtain signals of the same points in the field of view from different illumination or receiving angles by having multiple illumination or receive positions, and the signal processor being arranged to use the determined information from the signals from the two or more angles to determine location or orientation of the content. By using information from different angles, it becomes possible to address or overcome the drawback of submillimeter wavelengths that most of the reflection is specular and so only surfaces of an object facing the radar system are detectable, meaning that many objects are unrecognisable.

Abstract: A signal processor (30) for a submillimeter wavelength active radar system (10, 20, 30) processes signals received and downconverted by the radar system, the downconverted signals corresponding to a given pixel of the field of view having time varying amplitude and phase components which have a periodic component which is dependent on content. Information about the content is discriminated from the periodic component. By using phase rather than only amplitude, there is additional information in the downconverted signals. The phase is more sensitive to changes in the content such as objects, background and atmospheric conditions, than amplitude alone. The phase information enables the periodic component to be retained which can be characteristic of the content owing to content flutter, changes in submillimeter standing waves and interference fringes in received reflections of submillimeter illumination if surface layers have a thickness of a number of half wavelengths.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a lithium-air battery including: a negative electrode containing a negative-electrode active material; a positive electrode using oxygen as a positive-electrode active material; and an electrolyte medium arranged between the negative electrode and the positive electrode; wherein the electrolyte medium includes as primary solvent one or more compounds having an —N—CO— group in the molecule.

Abstract: Methods and systems for egomotion estimation (e.g. of a vehicle) from visual inputs of a stereo pair of video cameras are described. 3D egomotion estimation is a six degrees of freedom problem in general. In embodiments of the present invention, this is simplified to four dimensions and further decomposed to two two-dimensional sub-solutions. The decomposition allows use of a voting strategy that identifies the most probable solution. An input is a set of image correspondences between two temporally consecutive stereo pairs, i.e. feature points do not need to be tracked over time. The experiments show that even if a trajectory is put together as a simple concatenation of frame-to-frame increments, the results are reliable and precise.

Abstract: An antenna (80,90) has a one dimensional or multidimensional array of elements (20,40), wherein spacings between successive elements of at least part of the array are non periodic and correspond to a series of multiples of a unit spacing, the multiples following a Fibonacci sequence. Two dimensional arrays can be arranged as a Fibonacci grid or as a Fibonacci square tiling. The number of elements can be reduced for a given measure of resolution, while still enabling the signal being transmitted or received to have a peak in a single unique direction and thus form a beam. Furthermore, since there will be some elements clustered close together and a few which are well spaced, it can be more suitable for vehicles (30) than a regularly spaced array. It can be used as a transmit antenna or as a receive antenna for a submillimeter radar system.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are described for monocular 3D human pose estimation and tracking, which are able to recover poses of people in realistic street conditions captured using a monocular, potentially moving camera. Embodiments of the present invention provide a three-stage process involving estimating (10, 60, 110) a 3D pose of each of the multiple objects using an output of 2D tracking-by detection (50) and 2D viewpoint estimation (46). The present invention provides a sound Bayesian formulation to address the above problems. The present invention can provide articulated 3D tracking in realistic street conditions. The present invention provides methods and apparatus for people detection and 2D pose estimation combined with a dynamic motion prior. The present invention provides not only 2D pose estimation for people in side views, it goes beyond this by estimating poses in 3D from multiple viewpoints. The estimation of poses is done in monocular images, and does not require stereo images.

Abstract: A method (100) and system (300) is described for processing video data comprising a plurality of images. The method and apparatus is for obtaining for labelling of a plurality of objects or regions in an image of a sequence of images followed by label propagation to other images in the sequence based on an inference step and a model.

Abstract: An image processor (10) has a window selector for choosing a detection window within the image, and a self similarity computation part (40) for determining self-similarity information for a group of the pixels in any part of the detection window, to represent an amount of self-similarity of that group to other groups in any other part of the detector window, and for repeating the determination for groups in all parts of the detection window, to generate a global self similarity descriptor for the detection window. A classifier (50) is used for classifying whether an object is present based on the global self-similarity descriptor. By using global self-similarity rather than local similarities more information is captured which can lead to better classification. In particular, it helps enable recognition of more distant self-similarities inherent in the object, and self-similarities present at any scale.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a method for heating a polymer article reinforced with electrically conductive embedded fibers, comprising the steps of applying an outer, electrically non-conductive coating so as to cover exposed electrically conductive fibers, and irradiating the coated, fiber-reinforced thermosetting polymer article with microwaves within a predetermined frequency range so as to heat up the coated, fiber-reinforced thermosetting polymer article by dielectric heating.