Abstract: Conventional robot apparatus etc. can not perform name-learning naturally. Learning the name of an object is performed such a manner that the name of a target object is obtained through dialog with a human being, the name is stored in association with plural items of different characteristic data detected for the target object, and a new object is recognized based on the stored data and associative information, the name and characteristic data of the new person are obtained and this associative information is stored.

Abstract: The present invention provides an optical module and a method for manufacturing the optical module, in which a V-shaped or trapezoidal groove having a first slope and a second slope facing to the first slope is formed at the surface of a silicon substrate by anisotropic etching, an adhesive is applied to a portion of at least the second slope in a region except the first slope of the groove, and lens is fixedly put in the groove.

Abstract: The invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit and a method of manufacturing the same, and particularly, to prevention of a drop in the performance and reliability of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, which would otherwise be induced by degassing arising in a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film provided on a back surface of a semiconductor substrate. There are proposed a semiconductor substrate in which a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film provided on a back surface of the semiconductor substrate is coated with another dielectric film; a semiconductor substrate not having a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film on a back surface thereof; a semiconductor substrate in which a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film is removed from a back surface of the substrate; and a semiconductor substrate in which a thin TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film—which involves degassing falling within a tolerance is provided on a back surface of the substrate.

Abstract: The incident angle of the beam with regard to an etalon is arranged finely tunable by either rotating the etalon provided with a plane of incidence inclined with regard to the rotational axis thereof in the vicinity of the optical axis or rotating a lens whose edge surface is obliquely ground around the optical axis, which allows the incident angle of the laser beam with regard to the etalon to be adjusted and fixed with high precision.

Abstract: A sentence generating method and apparatus for generating a joke sentence set having a dual meaning. A predetermined word in a selected first idiom is stored in a W list. A word of analogous sound having the pronunciation same as or analogous with the word in the W list and also being of the same word class as the word in the W list is stored in a RW list. It is then checked whether or not the subject word stored in the P list has a semantic relationship with the word of the analogous sound in the RW list. If the result of check is affirmative, a first joke sentence having the subject word in the P list and composed of the subject word of the P list and the first idiom is generated. A second idiom, corresponding to the first idiom, in which the word in the W list is replaced by the word of the analogous sound in the RW list, is generated, and a second joke sentence composed of the subject word of the P list and the second idiom is generated.

Abstract: A dialogue control system, a dialogue control method and a robotic device are capable of remarkably improving the entertainment factor. In the dialogue control system in which a robot and the information processing device are connected via the network, in the case of conducting the conversation by word games between the robot and the user, the history data regarding the word game in said user's speech content is formed and transmitted to the information processing device. Then, said information processing device selectively reads out the contents best suited to the user based on said history data from the memory means and provides to the original robot.

Abstract: A semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof permitting the quality of gate insulating films to be prevented from deteriorating and thereby permitting electrical characteristics of the device to be prevented from deteriorating are provided. In a semiconductor device including a plurality of field effect transistors, an oxidation protection film 21 is formed on a side of one gate electrode 19.

Abstract: An optical module for use in detecting a plurality of different wavelengths by making use of the multiple wavelength selectivity of an etalon. The optical module includes a semiconductor laser, a lens for converting a beam emitted from the semiconductor laser into a substantially parallel beam, a beam splitter for splitting the converted beam into a reflected beam and a transmitted beam, and a light-receiving element disposed such that one of the split beams is incident thereupon through an etalon, wherein a center of the reflected beam from the etalon occurring as the beam is incident upon the etalon is arranged to return to a region other than a beam-emitting portion of the semiconductor laser.

Abstract: The incident angle of the beam with regard to an etalon is arranged finely tunable by either rotating the etalon provided with a plane of incidence inclined with regard to the rotational axis thereof in the vicinity of the optical axis or rotating a lens whose edge surface is obliquely ground around the optical axis, which allows the incident angle of the laser beam with regard to the etalon to be adjusted and fixed with high precision.

Abstract: A semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof permitting the quality of gate insulating films to be prevented from deteriorating and thereby permitting electrical characteristics of the device to be prevented from deteriorating are provided. In a semiconductor device including a plurality of field effect transistors, an oxidation protection film 21 is formed on a side of one gate electrode 19.

Abstract: In an image conversion method and apparatus, luminance Y3 of each pixel of a converted image is obtained by use of an expression Y3=C1Y1+C2Y2 and from luminance Y1 of a corresponding pixel of a source image, luminance Y2 of a corresponding pixel of a low frequency image, and C1 and C2 which are functions of the luminance Y2. Since C1+C2 is constant when Y2≦T2, contrast of a low frequency component can be prevented from decreasing. In a portion in which the luminance Y2 of the low frequency image is low, the low frequency image is enhanced. In a portion in which the luminance Y2 of the low frequency image is high, the low frequency image is suppressed. In a method and apparatus for detecting noise level of an original signal in real time, a plurality of local regions are set on an input image in such a manner that the local regions are distributed uniformly over the entire area of an image. In each local region, determination as to whether or not luminance is saturated is performed.

Abstract: The present invention is intended to provide a text-to-speech synthesis apparatus, including a storage for storing phoneme data of a plurality of speakers; a selector for selecting one of the plurality of speakers in accordance with an operation performed by a user; a searcher for searching the storage for phoneme data of the speaker selected by the selector; a text-to-speech synthesis processor for linking the phoneme data of the speaker retrieved by the searcher to convert input data into a synthetic speech; and a fee-charge controller for controlling a fee-charge operation for the user in accordance with the phoneme data selected by the selector. Consequently, the user can perform text-to-speech synthesis on the desired input data such as drama data by use of the obtained phoneme data.

Abstract: A surrounding conditions display apparatus captures an image of an area surrounding a movable body and displays the captured image. The apparatus includes a CCD camera for capturing an image of the surrounding are, ultrasonic sensors for detecting a distance to an obstacle present in the surrounding area, and a liquid crystal display for displaying the image captured by the image capturing unit. A color image representing an area including the obstacle is superposed on the displayed image in such a manner that the brightness of the color image decreases with increasing distance from the origin of the area.

Abstract: The invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit and a method of manufacturing the same, and particularly, to prevention of a drop in the performance and reliability of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, which would otherwise be induced by degassing arising in a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film provided on a back surface of a semiconductor substrate. There are proposed a semiconductor substrate in which a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film provided on a back surface of the semiconductor substrate is coated with another dielectric film; a semiconductor substrate not having a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film on a back surface thereof; a semiconductor substrate in which a TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film is removed from a back surface of the substrate; and a semiconductor substrate in which a thin TEOS/CVD silicon oxide film—which involves degassing falling within a tolerance is provided on a back surface of the substrate.

Abstract: The present invention provides a hollow ceramic monolithic support that has high isostatic strength, a method of manufacturing the hollow ceramic monolithic support at low cost, and a molding die therefor.

Abstract: There is provided an information processing apparatus which may be applied to an information processing apparatus being connected, for example, to an information network such as Internet for transmitting and receiving various pieces of information in order to make access to such network through a terminal of simplified structure such as a telephone terminal. A code for uniquely identifying, for example, a telephone terminal and a computer terminal may be formed with the codes corresponding to operators of a telephone terminal.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a salicide transistor, a semiconductor storage, and a semiconductor device that can solve both an increase in narrow-line resistance and an increase in P-N-junction leakage, and can give an optimized process as the total LSI device manufacturing process flow. After adding an impurity in the high-concentration source/drain region on a semiconductor substrate, a heat treatment is performed at a first temperature, then a heat treatment is performed for forming salicide at a second temperature higher than a predetermined temperature and lower than the first temperature for a first period of time, an interlayer insulating film is formed, and heat treatment is performed at a third temperature higher than the second temperature and lower than the first temperature. Since the crystallinity of the implanted layer 109 has been recovered before forming the silicide protecting film, salicide can be formed under the conditions where the crystallinity of the diffusion layer is good.

Abstract: A semiconductor device is implemented having dummy patterns arranged by designedly determining the ratio of area occupied by a protruded portion of an element formation region considering the deposited state of a buried insulating film which becomes an isolation insulating film. The ratio of area occupied by a protruded portion of a dummy pattern to a predetermined cell region is defined to be almost the same as the maximum or average value of ratios of areas occupied respectively by protruded element formation regions to a plurality of predetermined regions each including a plurality of predetermined cell regions.

Abstract: A compact liquid discharge regulator is provided at low cost by arranging a channel spirally formed in the surface of a passage forming member. The surface of the passage forming member is brought into close contact with the inner surface of a housing part, and the channel functions as a liquid passage. In this construction, the sectional form and length of the channel can be formed at high precision in accordance with the design. Therefore, a desired pipe loss is obtainable only by designing in advance the sectional form and length of the channel so as to correspond to the pipe loss. Particularly, with injection molding, mass production of a passage forming member of identical pipe loss can be effected merely by preparing a mold corresponding to the pipe loss, thus leading to a considerable reduction in the manufacturing cost of the discharge regulator.