Abstract: An obstacle detection device controls distance sensors to cause the distance sensors to transmit a transmission wave during a fixed time period, measures a first time which has elapsed from a time at which the transmission starts to a time at which a reflected wave is detected, and a second time which has elapsed a time at which the above-mentioned transmission is stopped to a time at which the reflected wave disappears, and determines that an obstacle exists when a time difference between the above-mentioned first time and the above-mentioned second time is equal to or shorter than a predetermined allowed time. Therefore, the obstacle detection device can reduce the time required for the determination to at least one-half that provided by a related art technique, and improves the accuracy of the detection of an object moving at a relatively high speed.

Abstract: An obstacle detection device includes one or more emitter ultrasonic sensors, each emitting an ultrasonic wave toward an obstacle, and one or more detection ultrasonic sensors for reception, each detecting a reflected wave from the obstacle. A control unit drives a specific one of the emitter ultrasonic sensors to cause it to emit an ultrasonic wave, stops the emission of the ultrasonic wave by the specific emitter ultrasonic sensor at the time that one of the detection ultrasonic sensors detects a reflected wave from the obstacle, and carries out detection of the obstacle and measurement of the distance to the obstacle from the time that the control unit stops the emission of the ultrasonic wave by the emitter ultrasonic sensor and the time that the reflected wave cannot be detected anymore.

Abstract: A parking support device is provided for extracting detection point data corresponding to a corner portion of a parked vehicle 2 from detection point data showing a series of detection points at each of which the distance to the parked vehicle 2 is detected, performing a noise component removing process and a data complementing process using a curve approximation of the series of detection points on the extracted detection point data, estimating reflection points of a detection wave in the corner portion from the detection point data and sensor position data showing a moving path of a distance sensor 3, and measuring the length of a parking space adjacent to the parked vehicle 2 according to a corner position which is determined from the positions of the estimated reflection points to determine if a vehicle 1 can be parked in the parking space.

Abstract: An automatic exposure control device built in a camera body provided with a flash-matic means for controlling the diaphragm aperture when taking pictures with flash light as well as an exposure control circuit for controlling the shutter speed or the diaphragm aperture in accordance with the scene brightness measured with a photodetector includes an automatic film speed setting means. The film speed setting means is comprised of a film speed sensing contact pair which senses a particular conductor attached to the surface of a film magazine containing a film of particularly high film speed, an electromagnet connected in series with the sensing contact pair, and a mechanism controlled by the electromagnet to selectively take one of two positions.