Abstract: Attention is paid on the phenomenon that substantially no direct sun light or no reflected light from surrounding objects is applied, to a vehicle bottom side and tire travel surfaces and the vehicle bottom side and the tire travel surfaces have lower luminance values than all the other portions including the shades of trees or buildings along the road in an on-vehicle camera image. Luminance threshold specifying unit (13) analyzes an image luminance histogram and specifies the upper limit of the pixel luminance which can be assumed as a region of the vehicle bottom side. Vehicle assumed region extracting unit (15) assumes that the pixel position having a luminance value not greater than the upper limit is the region of the vehicle bottom side and sets a vehicle assumed region, thereby verifying presence/absence of a vehicle in the vicinity.

Abstract: A conductive composition capable of producing a conductive coating with excellent flexibility and a high conductivity comparable to that of metallic silver, without using high temperatures as film forming conditions. The conductive composition includes a particulate silver compound and a binder, and optionally a reducing agent and a binder. Silver oxide, silver carbonate and silver acetate and the like are used as the particulate silver compound. Ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, and ethylene glycol diacetate and the like are used as the reducing agent, and a fine powder of a thermosetting resin such as a polyvalent phenol compound, phenol resin, alkyd resin or polyester resin, or a thermoplastic resin such as a styrene resin or polyethylene terephthalate, with an average particle diameter from 20 nm to 5 ?m is used as the binder. Furthermore, the average particle diameter of the particulate silver compound may be from 0.01 to 10 ?m.

Abstract: A firing agent which is used in a gas generating device of a vehicle occupant protection device together with a non-azide gas generating agent, for firing the non-azide gas generating agent, wherein the firing agent contains a fuel and an oxidizing agent and is configured to burn at a combustion speed higher than that of the non-azide gas generating agent; a method for using the firing agent; and a gas generating device of a vehicle occupant protection device using the firing agent.

Abstract: Processing apparatuses A, B, C, and D are included in a job-shop production line, and process 1 to process 6 are performed by the processing apparatuses A, B, C, B, D, and B, respectively. The processing apparatus B is repeatedly used in process 2, process 4, and process 6; therefore, these processes are key processes. Based on the key processes, process 1 to process 6 are classified into a plurality of groups, and the number of in-process products of each of the groups is counted by a counting unit. According to this, a determining unit determines priority orders of the key processes such that a higher priority is given to a key process in a group having a large number of the in-process products. Thus, it becomes possible to perform determination of the priority orders further according to an actual situation, and to improve production efficiency.

Abstract: An explosive material composition containing, as an active ingredient, particles of a water-soluble reactive ingredient having an uniform particle size. Each particle is coated with an oil ingredient and/or a thickener. The coated particles form an agglomerate.

Abstract: A pattern recognizing method for matching a binary or ternary reference image and an input grayscale image, having a precision similar to the method in which a plurality of binary reference images are generated by supposing settable various binarization threshold value and comparing the distances between the plurality of binary reference images and the grayscale image, and enabling the processing time to be shorter. The first accumulated histogram of the pixels of the grayscale image corresponding to a high density region of the binary reference image and the second accumulated histogram opposite to it and of the pixels of the grayscale image corresponding to the low density region of the reference image are generated and summated. The existence or absence of a pattern is judged by comparing the minimum value of the summated accumulated histogram and a threshold value.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an aqueous ink, particularly an aqueous ink suitable for ink jet recording. The ink is an aqueous ink comprising a modified pigment having organic groups chemically attached to the surface of a particle of the pigment and an aqueous medium which is a dispersant of the pigment, wherein the above-described organic group includes a reaction product of a functional group chemically attached to the surface of the pigment directly or via another atomic group with a copolymer of an ionic monomer and a hydrophobic monomer.

Abstract: An emergency call panel which comprises call buttons previously assigned to standard calls transmitted from an emergency call server of an emergency communication system, and transmission buttons for transmitting the data regarding the call selected from the standard calls to a call server in situation that one of the call buttons is selected in response to one of the standard calls. An emergency call system comprising a call server and an emergency call panel for carrying out the call processing of the call server, which comprises selecting the call button in response to the standard call based on call content and sending an initiation demand data including the selected data for standard call to the call server at the emergency call panel, and carrying out the call processing at the call server when the call server receives the initiation demand data.

Abstract: To provide a vehicle alarm device, a vehicle alarming method and a vehicle alarm generation program, capable of describing driving characteristics of a driver in detail and generating an alarm at appropriate timing, without specifying a deceleration starting operation and the time when a driver is aware of the necessity of deceleration. An alarm determination unit refers to alarm speed data in an alarm speed database and obtains an alarm speed data value corresponding to the distance to an object recognized by an object recognition unit, and then compares the alarm speed data value with a current speed of the own vehicle outputted by a speed measurement unit. If the own vehicle speed exceeds the alarm speed data value, the alarm determination unit determines that it is an abnormal state where the driver is not aware of a “red light” or a “stop sign”.

Abstract: A production management system has processing devices A, B, C, D, E, and P. A kind of product ? is processed in the order of the processing devices A, P, B, P, and C, and a kind of product ? is processed in the order of the processing devices D, P, E, and P. To determine whether the processing device P is to be used to produce the product ? or the product ?, an input ratio of each kind of product is multiplied by the number of times of passing the processing device P for each kind of product, thereby calculating a core of each kind of product. Based on the calculated score, whether the processing device P is to be used to produce the product ? or the product ? is determined. Accordingly, the work-in-process balance of key processes between different kinds of products can be equalized.

Abstract: A method for preparing a high-pressure phase cubic spinel-type silicon nitride includes housing a molding containing low-pressure phase silicon nitride powder and a metal powder in a cylindrical container, arranging an explosive in the cylindrical container so as to surround the molding, and exploding the explosive to compress the molding. An X-ray diffraction pattern of the high-pressure phase cubic spinel-type silicon nitride produced according to the method of the present invention shows a maximum peak having a full width at half maximum of 0.65 degrees or less. TG-DTA analysis of the cubic spinel-type silicon nitride shows a weight change starting temperature of 700 to 1100° C.

Abstract: A firing agent which is used in a gas generating device of a vehicle occupant protection device together with a non-azide gas generating agent, for firing the non-azide gas generating agent, wherein the firing agent contains a fuel and an oxidizing agent and is configured to burn at a combustion speed higher than that of the non-azide gas generating agent; a method for using the firing agent; and a gas generating device of a vehicle occupant protection device using the firing agent.

Abstract: A water-based ink of the present invention comprises water, a plurality of different water-soluble organic solvents, and a water-insoluble coloring material, wherein the above water-soluble organic solvents consist of a good solvent to the above water-insoluble coloring material and a poor solvent to the above water-insoluble coloring material, and the total amount (% by mass) of the good solvents in the ink is represented by A and the total amount (% by mass) of the poor solvent in the ink is represented by B, the ratio of A to B ranges from 10:5 to 10:30 both inclusive, and when the respective Ka values of the above water-soluble organic solvents are determined by the Bristow method and compared with each other, a water-soluble organic solvent having the largest Ka value is the poor solvent. The pigment ink has a sufficiently large area factor even with a small amount of ink and provides an image of high OD.

Abstract: A water-based ink of the present invention comprises water, a plurality of different water-soluble organic solvents, and a water-insoluble coloring material, wherein the above water-soluble organic solvents consist of a good solvent to the above water-insoluble coloring material and a poor solvent to the above water-insoluble coloring material, and the total amount (% by mass) of the good solvents in the ink is represented by A and the total amount (% by mass) of the poor solvent in the ink is represented by B, the ratio of A to B ranges from 10:5 to 10:30 both inclusive, and when the respective Ka values of the above water-soluble organic solvents are determined by the Bristow method and compared with each other, a water-soluble organic solvent having the largest Ka value is the poor solvent. The pigment ink has a sufficiently large area factor even with a small amount of ink and provides an image of high OD.

Abstract: A stable, low-temperature ignition gas generating composition has a heating starting temperature of 170 to 220° C. The gas generating composition includes ammonium perchlorate, a chlorine scavenger, and microcrystalline carbon powder. The chlorine scavenger is sodium nitrate or aluminun/magnesium mixed powder, and the microcrystalline carbon powder is activated carbon or charcoal. The gas generating composition may include 40 to 58% by weight of ammonium perchlorate, 30 to 43% by weight of the chlorine scavenger, and 1 to 30% by weight of the microcrystalline carbon powder.

Abstract: Processing apparatuses A, B, C, and D are included in a job-shop production line, and process 1 to process 6 are performed by the processing apparatuses A, B, C, B, D, and B, respectively. The processing apparatus B is repeatedly used in process 2, process 4, and process 6; therefore, these processes are key processes. Based on the key processes, process 1 to process 6 are classified into a plurality of groups, and the number of in-process products of each of the groups is counted by a counting unit. According to this, a determining unit determines priority orders of the key processes such that a higher priority is given to a key process in a group having a large number of the in-process products. Thus, it becomes possible to perform determination of the priority orders further according to an actual situation, and to improve production efficiency.

Abstract: Words possibly included in a scene image shot by a mobile camera can be efficiently extracted using a word dictionary or a map database. Positional information acquiring means 101 measures a current position of the device to acquire positional information. Directional information acquiring means 102 detects a direction of the device to acquire directional information. Character recognizing means 104 determines a range of shooting of a scene image based on the current positional information and the directional information. The character recognizing means 104 extracts from a map database 103 information such as store names, building names, and place names associated with positions in the shooting range. Then the character recognizing means 104 conducts character recognition using word knowledge such as the extracted store names, building names, and place names.

Abstract: An angular velocity sensor includes a stem and a vibrator that is supported by the stem. The vibrator is inclined to a mounting surface of the stem. The angle of inclination of the vibrator to the mounting surface is adjustable. For this reason, the angular velocity sensor also includes a holding member that holds the vibrator. This holding member is elastically deformable. A single material may be folded to shape the holding member.

Abstract: A gas generating composition includes ammonium nitrate as an oxidizing agent, microcrystalline carbon powder as a reducing agent, and a stabilizer for preventing decomposition of ammonium nitrate. The amounts of the ammonium nitrate, the carbon powder, and the stabilizer are 89 to 99 wt %, 1 to 6 wt %, and 0.2 to 6 wt %, respectively, with respect to the total amount of ammonium nitrate, microcrystalline carbon and stabilizer. The amount of microcrystalline carbon is preferably 1.5 to 6 wt % with respect to the amount of ammonium nitrate, and the amount of the stabilizer is preferably 10 to 200 wt % with respect to the amount of microcrystalline carbon powder. The stability of present composition is improved, especially, at high temperatures. The composition has an appropriate burn rate, produces substantially no carbon dioxide, and has a proper sensitivity. The present composition is easy to handle and is inexpensive.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an aqueous ink, particularly an aqueous ink suitable for ink jet recording. The ink is an aqueous ink comprising a modified pigment having organic groups chemically attached to the surface of a particle of the pigment and an aqueous medium which is a dispersant of the pigment, wherein the above-described organic group includes a reaction product of a functional group chemically attached to the surface of the pigment directly or via another atomic group with a copolymer of an ionic monomer and a hydrophobic monomer.