Abstract: A method for segmenting a digitized image includes providing a digitized volumetric image comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points in an N-dimensional space, identifying a target structure in said image, forming a window about said target structure whose size is a function of the target scale, and performing a joint space-intensity-likelihood ratio test at each point within said window to determine whether each said point is within said target structure.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing electrical parts is provided, which method comprises the steps of: forming a photoresist on a part of the surface of a substrate; forming a metal layer on the surface of the substrate after the photoresist has been formed; removing a part of the metal layer; removing a metal oxide film formed on the: surface of the metal layer as a result of removing a part of the metal layer; and removing the photoresist. With this method the contact resistance on the surfaces of the electrical parts can be decreased.

Abstract: An engine control system stores data indicating a monitor frequency ratio for each failure diagnosis target item in EEPROM and standby RAM being backed up by a battery. The failure diagnosis target items are designated based on Rate Base Monitor Method. A data item of the data indicating a monitor frequency is incremented by one, at one time at the maximum, for one operation period of the system. When the system starts its operation, whether a value S [i] in standby RAM is greater by one than a value E [i] in EEPROM is determined for each data item. When the determination is affirmed for a given data item, it is determined that storing of the given data item is not completed in EEPROM for the preceding operation period. The value S [i] is thereby written in EEPROM.

Abstract: Methods for image processing for detecting and recognizing an image object include detecting an image object using pose-specific object detectors, and performing fusion of the outputs from the pose-specific object detectors. The image object is recognized using pose-specific object recognizers that use outputs from the pose-specific object detectors and the fused output of the pose-specific object detectors; and by performing fusion of the outputs of the pose-specific object recognizers to recognize the image object.

Abstract: A method for three-dimensional segmentation of a target in multislice images of volumetric data includes determining a center and a spread of the target by a parametric fitting of the volumetric data, and determining a three-dimensional volume by non-parametric segmentation of the volumetric data iteratively refining the center and spread of the target in the volumetric data.

Abstract: A method for determining a structure in volumetric data includes determining an anisotropic scale-space for a local region around a given spatial local maximum, determining L-normalized scale-space derivatives in the anisotropic scale-space, and determining the presence of noise in the volumetric data and upon determining noise in the volumetric data, determining the structure by a most-stable-over-scales determination, and upon determining noise below a desirable level, determining the structure by one of the most-stable-over-scales determination and a maximum-over-scales determination.

Abstract: A method for determining a volume of interest in data includes determining fixed-bandwidth estimations of a plurality of analysis bandwidths, wherein the estimation of the fixed-bandwidth comprises, providing an estimate of a mode location of the volume of interest in the data, and determining a covariance of the volume of interest using a local Hessian matrix. The method further includes determining the volume of interest as a most stable fixed-bandwidth estimation across each of the plurality of analysis bandwidths.

Abstract: A method for determining the location, shape and orientation of a tumor in a medical image includes finding a plurality of spatial extrema ? of a D-dimensional spatial signal ƒ for a set of bandwidths H by performing mean shift-based gradient-ascent iterations for a set of bandwidths H and then determining a D-dimensional spread and orientation of the signal about each extrema ? by estimating a covariance ? of the signal ƒ for each extrema ?. The optimal estimate of ? and ? is determined by performing a Jensen-Shannon divergence on the full set of ? and ?.

Abstract: The burning of unburned fuel in an exhaust pipe is a technique for preventing a turbo lag. However, since the technique requires combustion in the exhaust pipe, the temperature in the exhaust pipe becomes high, which is likely to damage the exhaust pipe, cause the exhaust emissions to deteriorate. The present invention addresses this problem by providing an ignition control apparatus for an engine with a turbocharger, capable of adjusting an ignition timing and a turbocharger. When a throttle valve is opened rapidly, the ignition control apparatus causes the ignition timing to advance with respect to the ordinary ignition timing. Consequently, the start of combustion is advanced, and the speed of rotation of the engine is raised, thereby increasing the speed of an exhaust turbine to achieve the desired increase in engine performance, without the problems of conventional ignition control systems.

Abstract: A contact probe is fabricated by forming a resin mold with a cavity on a substrate having conductivity, and filling the cavity with metal through electroforming. The metal includes a cobalt-tungsten alloy. Alternatively, a cobalt-molybdenum alloy may be used instead of the cobalt-tungsten alloy. Alternatively, a contact probe can be made from nickel, cobalt or copper, and have a coat film of cobalt-tungsten alloy or cobalt-molybdenum alloy formed thereon to increase the abrasion resistance. A nickel-molybdenum alloy can be used instead of the cobalt-tungsten alloy or cobalt-molybdenum alloy.

Abstract: An electronic control unit continuously stores data indicating the monitoring frequency of the diagnosis items determined by the RateBase monitoring method and is increased one by one with the maximum amount of change in the single operating period to an EEPROM. When any data is incremented by one, this data is entered to the EEPROM and the write completion flag for this data is turned on. Thereafter, in this operating period, this data is never entered to the EEPROM. Therefore, reduction and increase in the number of times of data entry to the programmable non-volatile memory and reliable storage of this data can be realized effectively.

Abstract: An engine control system stores data indicating a monitor frequency ratio for each failure diagnosis target item in EEPROM and standby RAM being backed up by a battery. The failure diagnosis target items are designated based on Rate Base Monitor Method. A data item of the data indicating a monitor frequency is incremented by one, at one time at the maximum, for one operation period of the system. When the system starts its operation, whether a value S [i] in standby RAM is greater by one than a value E [i] in EEPROM is determined for each data item. When the determination is affirmed for a given data item, it is determined that storing of the given data item is not completed in EEPROM for the preceding operation period. The value S [i] is thereby written in EEPROM.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a contact probe includes an electroforming step of, using a resist film (522) arranged on a substrate (521) as a pattern frame having a shape corresponding to a contact probe, performing electroforming to fill a gap in the resist film (522) to form a metal layer (526), a tip end shaping step of obliquely removing and sharpening that part of the metal layer (526) which serves as a tip end portion of the contact probe, and a take-out step of taking out only the metal layer (526) from the pattern frame.

Abstract: A personal watercraft having an engine provided in a body formed from a hull and a deck, and a supercharger provided for the engine. An oil exit of the supercharger is disposed higher than an oil surface in the oil pan when the engine is not running. An oil tank is provided on an extension line of a crankshaft. A one-way valve is interposed in an oil returning passage, which communicates with the oil exit of the supercharger. This configuration minimizes oil residing in the supercharger when an engine is not running, and thus reduces the degradation of the entire oil supply for the engine and supercharger.

Abstract: To provide a supercharger cooling structure for a small watercraft which can sufficiently cool the supercharger. In a small watercraft in which an engine with a supercharger is incorporated, cooling water from a jet pump is supplied to the supercharger through a different supercharger cooling water passage independent of any other cooling water passage. The cooling water from the supercharger cooling water passage is first supplied to the supercharger to cool the supercharger and then supplied to an exhaust system provided on the downstream with respect to the supercharger in an exhaust system for the engine, whereafter it is discharged to the outside of the watercraft together with exhaust gas. Oil is supplied to the supercharger for lubrication of a bearing portion of the supercharger and is supplied to an oil jacket formed in a bearing casing to cool the bearing casing.

Abstract: To augment the durability of a turbocharger. A hull and a deck of a personal watercraft are formed watertight and an opening of the deck is closed with a seat to form a body internal space. An intake duct for introducing atmospheric air from outside the body is provided in the space. An engine and a turbocharger connected to an exhaust manifold of the engine are provided in the space and the turbocharger is disposed higher than a body internal opening of the intake duct. A water jacket is formed in a casing of a turbine portion of the turbocharger and an oil jacket is formed in a bearing casing of the turbocharger, and cooling water is supplied to the water jacket and cooling oil is supplied to the oil jacket. The cooling water to the water jacket is supplied by a different turbocharger cooling water passage independent of any other cooling water passage.

Abstract: A network system is formed with a parent station and programmable controllers and a programmable display devices serving as child stations connected to a single general-purpose serial communication circuit. Whichever child station received the token from the parent station outputs a command. Data are exchanged between the programmable display device and any of the programmable controllers by command-response communication. Data are exchanged among the programmable controllers by data link operations.

Abstract: The burning of unburned fuel in an exhaust pipe is a technique for preventing a turbo lag. However, since the technique requires combustion in the exhaust pipe, the temperature in the exhaust pipe becomes high, which is likely to damage the exhaust pipe, cause the exhaust emissions to deteriorate. The present invention addresses this problem by providing an ignition control apparatus for an engine with a turbocharger, capable of adjusting an ignition timing and a turbocharger. When a throttle valve is opened rapidly, the ignition control apparatus causes the ignition timing to advance with respect to the ordinary ignition timing. Consequently, the start of combustion is advanced, and the speed of rotation of the engine is raised, thereby increasing the speed of an exhaust turbine to achieve the desired increase in engine performance, without the problems of conventional ignition control systems.

Abstract: To provide a supercharger cooling structure for a small watercraft which can sufficiently cool the supercharger. In a small watercraft in which an engine with a supercharger is incorporated, cooling water from a jet pump is supplied to the supercharger through a different supercharger cooling water passage independent of any other cooling water passage. The cooling water from the supercharger cooling water passage is first supplied to the supercharger to cool the supercharger and then supplied to an exhaust system provided on the downstream with respect to the supercharger in an exhaust system for the engine, whereafter it is discharged to the outside of the watercraft together with exhaust gas. Oil is supplied to the supercharger for lubrication of a bearing portion of the supercharger and is supplied to an oil jacket formed in a bearing casing to cool the bearing casing.

Abstract: A personal watercraft having an engine provided in a body formed from a hull and a deck, and a supercharger provided for the engine. An oil exit of the supercharger is disposed higher than an oil surface in the oil pan when the engine is not running. An oil tank is provided on an extension line of a crankshaft. A one-way valve is interposed in an oil returning passage, which communicates with the oil exit of the supercharger. This configuration minimizes oil residing in the supercharger when an engine is not running, and thus reduces the degradation of the entire oil supply for the engine and supercharger.