Abstract: To provide a motion vector detection device capable of rapidly and accurately detecting a main motion vector from plot data on a computer screen. An edge extraction unit (201) extracts edge points from each of a previous frame and a current frame. A feature point extraction unit (202) extracts, as a feature point, an edge point which is uniquely determined based on a relative positional relationship with another at least one edge point within a frame to which the edge points belong, from among a plurality of extracted edge points. A feature point pair extraction unit (203) extracts, as a feature point pair, a pair of feature points having a common positional relationship, among pairs of a feature point of the previous frame and a feature point of the current frame. A motion vector calculation unit (240) calculates, as a motion vector, a difference between coordinate values of the feature point pair extracted from the previous frame and the current frame.

Abstract: To provide a moving region detection device capable of rapidly and accurately detecting a main moving region from plot data on a computer screen. A moving region detection unit (122) detects, as a moving region, an identical or similar image region which exist in both a previous frame and a current frame and whose position on a screen changes. Specifically, an initial candidate decision unit (301) decides an initial candidate for a moving region. Next, a moving region decision unit (302) decides a moving region for use in motion compensation, from among the initial candidate for the moving region determined by the initial candidate decision unit (301) and another at least one candidate for the moving region obtained by changing the size of the moving region of the initial candidate.

Abstract: The device for encoding a Bayer pattern image includes a two-dimensional high-pass filtering means for calculating a GH coefficient which is a high-pass component corresponding to a space coordinate of a G1 pixel, from the value of the G1 pixel and the values of four G0 pixels in the neighborhood of the G1 pixel; a two-dimensional low-pass filtering means for calculating a GL coefficient which is a low-pass component corresponding to a space coordinate of a G0 pixel, from the value of the G0 pixel and the values of four GH coefficients in the neighborhood of the G0 pixel; a first encoding means for encoding a two-dimensional signal including the GH coefficient; and a second encoding means for encoding a two-dimensional signal including the GL coefficient.

Abstract: There is provided a structure for mounting an attachment for vehicle capable of absorbing the marginal difference of a front spoiler and reducing the procedures for controlling the dimension of the front spoiler. The structure for mounting a front spoiler on a front bumper includes: a male clip provided on the front spoiler; an insertion hole provided on the front bumper for inserting the male clip therethrough; and a female clip engaged with the male clip and allowing the front spoiler to be held by the front bumper. The male clip is loosely inserted through the insertion hole and engaged with the female clip around the insertion hole via an abutting brim, thereby producing a gap between the insertion hole and the male clip, thus increasing the degree of freedom of positional adjustment, reducing the steps for mounting and controlling the accuracy of the attachment, reducing the overall cost.

Abstract: Encoding and decoding devices and methods are provided. All the components of LH, HL, HH sub-band coefficients of the same hierarchy and the same space coordinate are extracted as a set from a wavelet sub-band space. Furthermore, it is judged whether each component of each coefficient is zero and as 1-bit judgment result, the respective judgment results are combined to obtain multi-bit flag information. Upon encoding, firstly, the Huffman information is subjected to variable-length encoding by the Huffman encoding code. After this, only the coefficient values which are not zero are similarly subjected to the variable-length encoding by the Huffman code or the like and outputted.

Abstract: Disclosed is a microorganism that belongs to the genus Leptothrix and is capable of producing iron oxide that has a ferrihydrite or lepidocrocite structure and has a form of aggregates of ferrihydrite nanoparticles or lepidocrocite nanoparticles; a bacterium that is capable of producing an iron oxide that has a ferrihydrite or lepidocrocite structure and has a form of aggregates of ferrihydrite nanoparticles or lepidocrocite nanoparticles; a culture medium for use in screening a bacterium that is capable of producing a metal oxide; a method for screening a bacterium that is capable of producing a metal oxide; a culture medium for culturing a bacterium that is capable of producing a metal oxide; a method for culturing a bacterium that is capable of producing a metal oxide; a method for producing a metal oxide; and iron oxide.

Abstract: To provide an update region detection device capable of accurately detecting an update region from plot data on a computer screen. In an update region detection unit (125), a pixel comparison unit (601) compares a difference between values of pixels at the same position in each of a reference frame and a current frame, with a first threshold and a second threshold, the second threshold being a value greater than the first threshold. An update region extraction unit (602) extracts, an update region, a group including a pixel where a difference greater than the second threshold has been detected, from among a group of pixels where a difference greater than the first threshold has been detected.

Abstract: This invention relates to a magnetic ceramic material comprising, as main components, (a) at least one magnetic iron oxide selected from the group consisting of Fe3O4 and ?-Fe2O3, and (b) an amorphous phase, and a process for producing a magnetic ceramic material, comprising (1) heating a microorganism-derived iron oxide ceramic material containing an iron atom, and (2) reducing the iron oxide ceramic material obtained in Step (1) by heating in the presence of hydrogen gas.

Abstract: An image is divided into subbands by wavelet transform using the Haar function as the base, and the lowest-frequency LL subband is entirely encoded. LH, HL, and HH subband coefficients which belong to the wavelet decomposition level of each hierarchy are encoded such that coefficients at the same spatial position are encoded based on a resolution or quantization accuracy mapping at each spatial coordinate. Additionally, an updated region detecting means detects an updated region from a plurality of sequential frames forming the two-dimensional signal, and obtains a changing period during which a signal value changes in each region. A resolution or quantization accuracy is set for each spatial coordinate based on the changing period, and a coefficient map is generated in which the resolution or quantization accuracy of the updated region differs from that of a region other than the updated region.

Abstract: A coding device is comprised of an initial resolution coding unit for coding an initial resolution image sub-sampled from an image at every interval of predetermined pixels, and a high resolution coding unit for coding images at sub-sampling intervals sequentially halved, wherein said high resolution coding unit comprises a pixel value predicting means for, out of the pixels that should be coded in present resolution, predicting a value of a pixel being positioned at a center of its adjacent four pixels already coded in previous resolution from said adjacent four pixels with a linear interpolation, and predicting a value of a remaining pixel from its adjacent four pixels having the above pixel at a center thereof with the linear interpolation, said adjacent four pixels being positioned in an upper, lower, left and right sides of the above pixel, a prediction error calculating means for obtaining a residual between the pixel value of the to-be-coded pixel and the predicted value, and a variable length coding m

Abstract: A wavelet transform encoding apparatus includes a coefficient encoding unit which encodes each group of multiple wavelet transform coefficients LH, HL, and HH located spatially at the same position within multiple high-frequency subbands belonging to the same hierarchy. At the time, the coefficient encoding unit calculates an encoding parameter for the wavelet transform coefficient of an encoding object based on multiple encoded vicinal wavelet transform coefficients within the multiple high-frequency subbands belonging to the same hierarchy, and encodes the wavelet transform coefficient of the encoding object into a variable-length code by utilizing the calculated encoding parameter.

Abstract: This moving image coding device has an update region detection unit, a coding target region detection and cache update unit, and a coding unit. The update region detection unit compares a reference frame and a current frame, and detects an update region that a pixel value changed. The coding target region detection and cache update unit replaces an image of an update region in the reference frame with an image in a cache frame, and thereafter, detects a region that a pixel value changed as a coding target region and stores an image of a region that a pixel value did not change for a predetermined past period in the image of the update region in the reference frame before the replacement, into the cache frame as an image of a stable region. The coding unit codes an image of the coding target region and cache information.

Abstract: Disclosed is an organic-inorganic composite material obtained by chemically modifying a microorganism-derived ceramic material with an organic group, and a process for producing the organic-inorganic composite material. The process is characterized by reacting a microorganism-derived ceramic material with at least one compound selected from the group consisting of silane coupling agents represented by formula (1), silane coupling agents represented by formula (2), and titanate coupling agents represented by formula (3). The organic-inorganic complex can be used in applications for immobilized catalysts and immobilized enzyme catalysts.

Abstract: An image is divided into subbands by wavelet transform using the Haar function as the base, and the lowest-frequency LL subband is entirely encoded. LH, HL, and HH subband coefficients which belong to the wavelet decomposition level of each hierarchy are then encoded such that coefficients at the same spatial position are encoded at once. The decoding side first decompresses the lowest-frequency LL subband, and then decodes sets of the LH, HL, and HH coefficients at the same spatial position in the subband of each wavelet decomposition level one by one. The decoding side immediately performs inverse wavelet transform by using the coefficient values, thereby obtaining the LL coefficient value of the next wavelet decomposition level. This makes it possible to sufficiently increase the processing speed even when the wavelet encoding/decoding is performed using a sequential CPU.

Abstract: An image is divided into subbands by wavelet transform using the Haar function as the base, and the lowest-frequency LL subband is entirely encoded. LH, HL, and HH subband coefficients which belong to the wavelet decomposition level of each hierarchy are then encoded such that coefficients at the same spatial position are encoded at once. The decoding side first decompresses the lowest-frequency LL subband, and then decodes sets of the LH, HL, and HH coefficients at the same spatial position in the subband of each wavelet decomposition level one by one. The decoding side immediately performs inverse wavelet transform by using the coefficient values, thereby obtaining the LL coefficient value of the next wavelet decomposition level. This makes it possible to sufficiently increase the processing speed even when the wavelet encoding/decoding is performed using a sequential CPU.

Abstract: There is provided a structure for mounting an attachment for vehicle capable of absorbing the marginal difference of a front spoiler and reducing the procedures for controlling the dimension of the front spoiler. The structure for mounting a front spoiler on a front bumper includes: a male clip provided on the front spoiler; an insertion hole provided on the front bumper for inserting the male clip therethrough; and a female clip engaged with the male clip and allowing the front spoiler to be held by the front bumper. The male clip is loosely inserted through the insertion hole and engaged with the female clip around said insertion hole via an abutting brim, thereby producing a gap between the insertion hole and the male clip, thus increasing the degree of freedom of positional adjustment, reducing the steps for mounting and controlling the accuracy of the attachment, reducing the overall cost.

Abstract: A wavelet transform encoding apparatus includes a coefficient encoding unit which encodes each group of multiple wavelet transform coefficients LH, HL, and NH located spatially at the same position within multiple high-frequency subbands belonging to the same hierarchy. At the time, the coefficient encoding unit calculates an encoding parameter for the wavelet transform coefficient of an encoding object based on multiple encoded vicinal wavelet transform coefficients within the multiple high-frequency subbands belonging to the same hierarchy, and encodes the wavelet transform coefficient of the encoding object into a variable-length code by utilizing the calculated encoding parameter.

Abstract: To provide a motion vector detection device capable of rapidly and accurately detecting a main motion vector from plot data on a computer screen. An edge extraction unit (201) extracts edge points from each of a previous frame and a current frame. A feature point extraction unit (202) extracts, as a feature point, an edge point which is uniquely determined based on a relative positional relationship with another at least one edge point within a frame to which the edge points belong, from among a plurality of extracted edge points. A feature point pair extraction unit (203) extracts, as a feature point pair, a pair of feature points having a common positional relationship, among pairs of a feature point of the previous frame and a feature point of the current frame. A motion vector calculation unit (240) calculates, as a motion vector, a difference between coordinate values of the feature point pair extracted from the previous frame and the current frame.

Abstract: To provide an update region detection device capable of accurately detecting an update region from plot data on a computer screen. In an update region detection unit (125), a pixel comparison unit (601) compares a difference between values of pixels at the same position in each of a reference frame and a current frame, with a first threshold and a second threshold, the second threshold being a value greater than the first threshold. An update region extraction unit (602) extracts, an update region, a group including a pixel where a difference greater than the second threshold has been detected, from among a group of pixels where a difference greater than the first threshold has been detected.

Abstract: To provide a moving region detection device capable of rapidly and accurately detecting a main moving region from plot data on a computer screen. A moving region detection unit (122) detects, as a moving region, an identical or similar image region which exist in both a previous frame and a current frame and whose position on a screen changes. Specifically, an initial candidate decision unit (301) decides an initial candidate for a moving region. Next, a moving region decision unit (302) decides a moving region for use in motion compensation, from among the initial candidate for the moving region determined by the initial candidate decision unit (301) and another at least one candidate for the moving region obtained by changing the size of the moving region of the initial candidate.