Abstract: The present invention provides a DMA transfer controller includes: a transfer parameter storing unit for storing a bus occupation time value and transfer parameters of one set or a plurality of sets of DMA transfers for each of a plurality of logical processors; a data transfer performing unit for performing the DMA transfer on the basis of the DMA transfer parameters; a control unit for controlling the receive and transmit of the DMA transfer parameters and the start and the interruption of the DMA transfers; and a time measuring unit for starting to measure bus occupation elapse time when a first DMA transfer is started for each of the logical processors. When the bus occupation elapse time reaches the bus occupation time value, the control unit interrupts the DMA transfer that is currently performed to start the DMA transfers based on the transfer parameters related to the logical processors of a prescribed sequence.

Abstract: An autonomous action robot which can turn its line of sight to face a person who calls out, can recognize the face of a person, and can perform various actions in response to commands. First, a sound emitted from a person or other sound source is detected by a sound detector, and the direction of the sound source is specified based on the detected sound. Then, a robot head section is controlled, and the imaging direction of the robot head section is moved to face the specified direction of the sound source. Next, an image is captured in the direction of the sound source, and a target image of a specific shape is extracted from the captured image. Then, the imaging direction of the robot head section is controlled and moved to face in the direction of the extracted target image.

Abstract: A 32-bit instruction 50 is composed of a 4-bit format field 51, a 4-bit operation field 52, and two 12-bit operation fields 59 and 60. The 4-bit operation field 52 can only include (1) an operation code “cc” that indicates a branch operation which uses a stored value of the implicitly indicated constant register 36 as the branch address, or (2) a constant “const”. The content of the 4-bit operation field 52 is specified by a format code provided in the format field 51.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system for recognizing gestures made by a moving subject. The system comprises a sound detector for detecting sound, one or more image sensors for capturing an image of the moving subject, a human recognizer for recognizing a human being from the image captured by said one or more image sensors, and a gesture recognizer, activated when human voice is identified by said sound detector, for recognizing a gesture of the human being. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a hand recognizer for recognizing a hand of the human being. The gesture recognizer recognizes a gesture of the human being based on movement of the hand identified by the hand recognizer. The system may further include a voice recognizer that recognizes human voice and determines words from human voice input to the sound detector.

Abstract: An apparatus 1 for controlling a movable robot recognizes the person to be followed up from an image taken by a camera C by an image processing portion 20, controls leg portions R1 of a movable robot A so as to keep a prescribed interval between the movable robot A and the person by a portion 50 for detecting an action, and notify the degree of the distance between the movable robot A and the person to the person by a voice from a voice outputting portion 62.

Abstract: An SZ (size information) section is provided for each of registers that make up a register file. Suppose an instruction decoded requests that operand data of a particular size be loaded from a RAM into the register file or that immediate operand data of a particular size be transferred to the register file. Then, the size information of the operand data will be retained in the SZ section. The instruction decoded may also be an arithmetic and logical operation instruction requesting that operand data in the register file be referred to or an instruction requesting that the operand data be stored from the register file into the RAM. In such a case, the size information will be read out from the SZ section of the register file and only parts of various components constituting manipulation means (like ALU), which have been specified by the size information, will be enabled. As a result, the power, which is usually dissipated by a processor handling data of multiple sizes, can be cut down effectively.

Abstract: In an image transmission system for a mobile robot that can move about and look for persons such as children separated from their parents in places where a large number of people congregate, a face image is cut out from a captured image of a detected human, and the cut out face image is transmitted to a remote terminal or a large screen. By thus cutting out the image of the face, even when the image signal is transmitted to a remote terminal having a small screen, the face image can be shown in a clearly recognizable manner. Also when the image is shown in a large screen, the viewer can identify the person even from a great distance. The transmitted image may be attached with various pieces of information such as the current location of the robot.

Abstract: In an image transmission system for a mobile robot that can move about and look for persons such as children separated from their parents in places where a large number of people congregate, a human is detected from the captured image and/or sound. An image of the detected human is cut out from a captured image, and the cut out image is transmitted to a remote terminal or a large screen. By thus cutting out the image of the detected human, even when the image signal is transmitted to a remote terminal having a small screen, the image of the detected human can be shown in a clearly recognizable manner. Also when the image is shown in a large screen, the viewer can identify the person even from a great distance. The transmitted image may be attached with various pieces of information such as the current location of the robot.

Abstract: In a biped robot control system, stereoscopic images captured by CCD cameras are analyzed, the analyzed images are then utilized to detect presence of any moving object around the robot and if it present, to calculate moving object information, and based on the calculated moving object information, it is determined whether or not walking of the robot needs to be stopped. If it is determined to be stopped, the robot is controlled to stop within a period that brings the travel distance at stopping (distance moved between image capture by the CCD cameras and stopping of robot walking) to within a predetermined distance. With this, when the robot approaches a moving object during walking, it can be stopped within the predetermined distance to avoid collision with the moving object.

Abstract: A gesture recognition apparatus for recognizing postures or gestures of an object person based on images of the object person captured by cameras. The gesture recognition apparatus includes: a face/fingertip position detection means which detects a face position and a fingertip position of the object person in three-dimensional space based on contour information and human skin region information of the object person to be produced by the images captured; and a posture/gesture recognition means which operates to detect changes of the fingertip position by a predetermined method, to process the detected results by a previously stored method, to determine a posture or a gesture of the object person, and to recognize a posture or a gesture of the object person.

Abstract: In a moving object detection system, an edge image is generated from captured images taken by CCD cameras and a moving object distance image indicative of a distance to a moving object (such as a human being) is generated by extracting pixel corresponding thereto. Then, pixels in the moving object distance image are summed to generate a histogram and a profile extraction region is set in the moving object distance image with its center line focusing on a position whose histogram is greatest, while the edge image is superposed on the moving object distance image to correct the center line of the profile extraction region such that the moving object is detected by extracting its profile in the region. With this, it becomes possible to detect the moving objects respectively even when the two or more objects are present in neighborhood.

Abstract: To automate the work of recognizing a guest, check the appointment, notify a host of the arrival of the guest and conduct the guest to a designated place, a robot having a function to autonomously travel is equipped with camera/microphone for recognizing a guest at least according to image information. The system comprises management database adapted to communicate with the robot and equipped with an information database for identifying the recognized guest, and identifies the guest according to the information obtained from the camera/microphone and management database. The robot recognizes the guest from the image thereof, and the recognized guest is identified and verified by comparing the image of the visitor with the information contained in the database so that the robot can automatically conduct the guest to the designated meeting room according to the information of the appointment stored in the database.

Abstract: A moving object detection device comprising: an object distance setting part, determining the distance to a moving object that moves the most based on a distance image, in which information on distances to image-taken objects are embedded, and a difference image, in which the movements of moving objects are embedded as movement information; an object distance image generating part, generating an object distance image corresponding to the abovementioned distance; and a contour extraction part, extracting a contour inside the object distance image to detect a moving object.

Abstract: A mobile apparatus is provided, which includes a plurality of imaging devices, a measurement device for measuring a current position and direction of the imaging devices, a map data storing section which stores map data including at least registered information on positions of stationary objects, a recognized distance calculating section which obtains a parallax for a plurality of images, a reference distance calculating section which calculates a reference distance from the imaging devices to a front border of each stationary object, a retracting section for determining a range of image processing, which selects a set of pixels to be processed so as to generate a retracted image, a detecting section for detecting objects from the retracted image, a transport device, and a transport controller for controlling movement of the transport device according to information about the objects detected by the detecting section.

Abstract: A posture recognition apparatus recognizes instructions signified by postures of persons present in the surroundings, from images obtained with an image capture device. The posture recognition apparatus includes an outline extraction device that extracts an outline of a body which is a candidate for a person from the images; a distance calculation device that calculates a distance to the body being the candidate, from distance information of each pixel within the outline in the image; a search device that searches for a candidate for a hand of a person based on the outline and the distance to the body represented by the outline; and a posture determination device that determines an instruction corresponding to the relative position of the candidate for a hand and the outline, and outputs this determination result as a posture determination result.

Abstract: Processor and instruction conversion apparatus, including a technique for reducing the number of types of instructions and processor hardware scale when conditional instructions are used. The processor includes a stare hold unit, an obtaining unit, a decoding unit, a judging unit, and an execution unit. The judging unit judges whether a state hold unit renewal state is included in either of the state and the plurality of states specified by the first state condition in the first conditional instruction when decoded by the decoding unit. When the judgment is affirmative, the execution unit executes an operation specified by the operation code in the first conditional instruction decoded by the decoding unit. The instruction set is assigned first conditional instructions with a first state condition which is mutually exclusive with a second state condition for an unassigned second conditional instruction, both having the same operation code.

Abstract: A processor for sequentially executing a plurality of programs using a plurality of register value groups stored in a memory that correspond one-to-one with the programs.

Abstract: A circuit group control system which receives from a master processor a first command sequence and a second command sequence each of which is composed of a plurality of commands, each command being to be executed by one of a plurality of circuits, and causes any available circuits to execute the commands one by one in order of arrangement in each command sequence. The circuit group control system achieves concurrent execution of a plurality of command sequences by causing a circuit (a second circuit) to execute a command in the second command sequence while another circuit (a first circuit) is executing another command in the first command sequence.

Abstract: The present invention provides an autonomous action robot which can turn its line of sight to face a person who calls out, can recognize the face of a person, and can perform various actions in response to commands. First, a sound emitted from a person or other sound source is detected by a sound detector, and the direction of the sound source is specified based on the detected sound. Then, a robot head section is controlled, and the imaging direction of the robot head section is moved to face the specified direction of the sound source. Next, an image is captured in the direction of the sound source, and a target image of a specific shape is extracted from the captured image. Then, the imaging direction of the robot head section is controlled and moved to face in the direction of the extracted target image.

Abstract: In order to overcome the problem that conditionally executed instructions are executed as no-operation instructions if their condition is not fulfilled, leading to poor utilization efficiency of the hardware and lowering the effective performance, the processor decodes a number of instructions that is greater than the number of provided computing units and judges their execution conditions with an instruction issue control portion before the execution stage, Instructions for which the condition is false are invalidated, and subsequent valid instructions are assigned so that the computing units (hardware) is used efficiently. A compiler performs scheduling such that the number of instructions whose execution condition is true does not exceed the upper limit of the degree of parallelism of the hardware. The number of instructions arranged in parallel at each cycle may exceed the degree of parallelism of the hardware.