Abstract: In the knee protection airbag device of the present invention, an airbag folded and housed in a case opened rearward of the vehicle pushes open the door portion of an airbag cover assembled with the case, upon inflow of inflation gas from the inflator. Around the airbag cover, there is arranged an interior decoration member for vehicle which is provided separate from the airbag cover. The door portion includes at least an upper door openable upward. The upper door is formed in such a size as to cover a gap formed between the interior decoration member and the airbag cover when opened upon deployment of the airbag.

Abstract: A disc apparatus (10) includes an optical lens (14). A laser beam is irradiated onto a recording surface of the magneto-optical disc (68) through the optical lens (14), and a TE signal or an RF signal is detected on the basis of the laser beam reflected by the recording surface. Herein, an MPU (50) replaces the optical lens (14) in an optical axis direction, and a TE signal detection circuit (42) or an RF signal detection circuit (60) detects the TE signal or the RF signal at each of lens positions. A laser power is adjusted by the MPU (50) such that amplitude of each of the TE signal or the RF signal detected is below a saturation value. When a parameter is adjusted, a position of the optical lens (14) is controlled such that the amplitude of the TE signal or the RF signal detected thereafter is maximized.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section which transfers toner onto a latent image to form a toner image, a transfer section which transfers the toner image onto a recording material directly or via an intermediate transfer body, a fixing section which has a pair of rotatable members contacted and pressed each other, in which the recording material carrying the toner image is passed through the pair of rotatable members, and heats and presses the toner image to fix the toner image on the recording material, a cleaning section which cleans a peripheral surface of one of the pair of rotatable members, a paper dust amount measuring section which measures an amount of paper dust separably adhering to the recording material, before the toner image is transferred, and a control section which controls a cleaning operation rate of the cleaning section based on the measured amount of paper dust.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes performing a first etching process on a gate electrode layer to form a gate electrode of a first transistor group including a transistor pair, and performing a second etching process different from the first etching on the gate electrode layer to form a gate electrode of a second transistor group. Forming in this way enables characteristics of the transistor pair to be the same.

Abstract: A semi-transparent homogeneous-alignment LCD device including a transmission part and a reflection part, a first linear dielectric protrusion disposed between a common electrode and a liquid crystal layer so as to extend over a plurality of pixels in a short side direction of pixels and be disposed nearly in center of the transmission part, and a second linear dielectric protrusion disposed in the reflection part between the common electrode and a first substrate so as to extend over a plurality of pixels in the short side direction, wherein an alignment direction of liquid crystal molecules crosses the first and second linear dielectric protrusions at right angles and is parallel to a long side direction of pixels, and a tilt angle of the liquid crystal molecules is approximately 0°, or even if there is a pre-tilt angle, the tilt angle of the liquid crystal molecules is 2° or less.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section which transfers toner onto a latent image due to a difference of electrostatic potential to form a toner image, a transfer section which transfers the toner image onto a recording material directly or via an intermediate transfer body, a fixing section which passes the recording material carrying the toner image between a fixing rotation body and a pressurizing member contacted and pressed each other, and heats and pressurizes to fix the toner image, and a paper dust amount measuring section which measures an amount of paper dust adhering to the recording material. The image forming section forms an image pattern with high toner area coverage at a predetermined interval based on the measured amount of paper dust, and the fixing section fixes the image pattern with the high toner area coverage transferred onto a recording material.

Abstract: A film for hydraulic transfer having a supporting film formed from a water-soluble or water-swelling resin, and a transfer layer that is soluble in organic solvent provided on top of the supporting film, in which the transfer layer includes a curable resin layer that is curable by irradiation with an active energy beam, and a decorative layer composed of an ink or a coating film, wherein the curable resin layer is non-adhesive at room temperature, and contains: 1) a non-polymerizable thermoplastic resin (A), and, 2) a radical polymerizable oligomer (B1), having a weight average molecular weight within a range from 700 to 3,000 and being compatibility with the non-polymerizable thermoplastic resin (A).

Abstract: A steering column cover body accommodates therein at least one of an electric junction block, a meter and at least one switch which are directly connected with each other. The switch includes at least one of a turn switch, a wiper switch, a hazard switch and an ignition switch. The meter includes a circuit board on which a first circuit for driving the meter and a second circuit for driving the at least one switch is mounted.

Abstract: A packaging bag has a bag body. A body shaping member is disposed inside the bag body to maintain the packaging bag so as to provide a hexahedron shape. The bottom surface portion of the packaging bag is formed from a film material which is overlapped several times for applying strength and rigidity.

Abstract: A method of forming a protective film that restrains gas adsorption while preserving durability and corrosion resistance of a plasma CVD carbon film is disclosed. A protective film of a slide-resistant member is deposited by means of a plasma CVD method using a raw material of hydrocarbon gas, wherein a bias voltage higher than ?500 V is applied to the slide-resistant member in an initial stage of depositing the protective film, and a bias voltage of ?500 V or lower is applied in a final stage of deposition. A proportion of time duration of the final stage is preferably at most 25% of the total time for depositing the protective film. A magnetic recording medium comprising a magnetic recording layer and a protective film formed by the method also is disclosed.

Abstract: Each signal line enters a preliminary polarity inversion period prior to a normal polarity inversion period so as to be inverted to the opposite polarity. By the preliminary polarity inversion a signal line on a border of blocks experiences a potential hike and the potential oscillates, which, however, is restored later by the application of a correct potential in the normal polarity inversion period. When transferring data per block, the problem of different potential states between the border of the blocks and an area surrounding it, which is caused by the potential oscillation of the signal line on the border of the blocks, is relieved.

Abstract: A display panel excellent in reduction in weight and excellent in reliability is provided. The display panel of the invention includes a cover member having a peripheral part bonded and secured to a back surface of a cathode panel, and a central part enclosed by the peripheral part which central part is joined to a reinforcing panel. The reinforcing panel is pressed against a peripheral part of the cathode panel via a support frame by atmospheric pressure exerted on the cover member.

Abstract: A remote controller 1 is capable of achieving switching operation even when the user presses substantially any place of a switch. A toilet seat open/close switch 12 has a tiltable member 20 which is tiltably supported at its front lower portion to an upper portion of a main body 2, a switch body 30 which is pressed by the tiltable member 20 when the tiltable member 20 tilts, and a cap 40 which is mounted to the upper portion of the main body 2 such that the cap 40 can be freely displaced in the anteroposterior direction and the vertical direction. The tiltable member 20 is disposed in a cavity 41 formed inside the cap 40. As the cap 40 is pressed from front or from above, the tiltable member 20 is pressed by the cap 40 to tilt, whereby the switch body 30 conducts the switching action.

Abstract: An information providing system, an information providing apparatus, an information providing method, and a program storing medium makes it possible to always provide provision information suitable for personal user information about a user regardless a user's terminal the user uses. Provided are a user identifying means 12 for identifying a user, a user information taking-out means 13 for taking out personal user information about the identified user from a user information storage means 16, a control information creating means 14 for creating control information based on the taken-out user information, and a provision information supplying means 22 for creating provision information suitable for the personal user information on the basis of the control information and supplying it to the user.

Abstract: A defibrillator is disclosed. The defibrillator includes a secondary battery having a volume less than 5 cc. One or more capacitors are configured to store electrical energy from the battery in an amount sufficient to provide a patient with one or more defibrillation shocks. A processing unit is configured to control the storage of electrical energy in the one or more capacitors and to control the discharge of the electrical energy from the one or more capacitors. The battery can have a total volume of less than 4 cc or less than 3 cc.

Abstract: The usage amount of a pool area is avoided from becoming equal to 100%, thereby preventing all snapshot images from being crashed. There is provided a disk-array apparatus including a control processor. Here, the control processor controls a data reading/writing from/into a first logical volume created using a memory area of plural disk drives, and controls past data such that the past data is written into a second logical volume as differential data on each generation basis, the past data being stored into the first logical volume, and manages the differential data. If the amount of the differential data stored into the second logical volume has exceeded a first predetermined value, the control processor determines a generation of the differential data to be deleted from among the differential data written into the second logical volume. The control processor deletes the differential data of the generation determined.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a diffraction pattern of a diffraction element or hologram polarization element to guide a reflected laser beam divided into a predetermined number is suitably combined as one body in a photodetector, and an optical head unit is easily designed to obtain a focus error signal, a track error signal, a correction track error signal (in a system with a lens shift), and a reproducing signal (RF) from a laser beam reflected on an optical disc. Therefore, when reproducing information from a recording medium of optional standard, it is possible to provide an optical head unit and optical disc apparatus which provides a stable reproducing signal regardless of the standards of recording media.