Abstract: A sensing baseball game apparatus (10) has a game machine (12) connected to a television monitor (18). A bat input device (32) is provided with an acceleration sensor. An acceleration signal is transmitted by an infrared-ray LED (34) to an infrared-ray receiving part of the game machine (12) whereby the game machine (12) determines a moving speed of the bat input device (32) to calculate a moving parameter of a ball to be batted. Accordingly, a batted ball is moved in the game scene according to the parameter.

Abstract: A method of detecting an image of a reflective object includes the steps of: capturing an exposure image by an image sensor while an LED is ON; down-sampling an exposure image signal from the image sensor to a first digital signal by comparing the level of the first image signal with a first reference level; capturing a dark image by the image sensor while the LED is OFF; down-sampling a second image signal from the image sensor to a second digital signal by comparing the level of the second image signal with a second reference level; computing an image of difference between the exposure image and the dark image by subtracting the second digital signal from the first digital signal; and specifying the image of the reflective object by locating a bright point remaining in the image of difference.

Abstract: There are provided an infrared light emitting diode 42 operable to emit light in a predetermined cycle; a phototransistor 44 operable to receive light which is emitted by the infrared light emitting diode 42 and reflected from a retroreflective sheet 40 of the operation article 3, and output a light reception signal “Sp”; and a highpass filter unit 116 operable to pass a high frequency component of the light reception signal “Sp”, output the high frequency component as a light reception signal “Ss” and operable to generate a reference voltage. The highpass filter unit 116 supplies the reference voltage to a node to which the light reception signal “Ss” is output, and the processor 110 counts the number of pulses included in the light reception signal “Ss”, and calculates the speed of the operation article 3.

Abstract: A CMOS image sensor 1 outputs a differential signal (VF?VU) between a pixel signal (VF) in a period when a LED 7 is turned on in an exposure period and a pixel signal (VU) in a period when the LED 7 is turned off in the exposure period. This does not obtain a difference between a pixel signal in an exposure period and a pixel signal in a non-exposure period. It is possible to increase simplicity in utilization as well as suppressing fixed pattern noise by generating the difference between pixel signals in different exposure spans from each other.

Abstract: A photo-transistor 31 is arranged to overlap with a light emitting diode 33 in a longitudinal direction of a barcode reader 7 and on a side, to which the light emitting diode 33 emits light. In this case, the photo-transistor 31 and the light emitting diode 33 are arranged on the same optical axis. As the result, since depth of focus and depth of field overlap with each other in the optical axial direction, it is believed that resolution in reading a bar-code is secured in wide range in the optical axis direction. The depth of focus includes an image point when the light emitting diode 33 is positioned at an object point. The depth of field includes an object point when the photo-transistor 31 is positioned at an image point.

Abstract: A method of detecting an image of a reflective object includes the steps of capturing an exposure image by an image sensor while an LED is ON; down-sampling an exposure image signal from the image sensor to a first digital signal by comparing the level of the first image signal with a first reference level; capturing a dark image by the image sensor while the LED is OFF; down-sampling a second image signal from the image sensor to a second digital signal by comparing the level of the second image signal with a second reference level; computing an image of difference between the exposure image and the dark image by subtracting the second digital signal from the first digital signal; and specifying the image of the reflective object by locating a bright point remaining in the image of difference.

Abstract: A vertex sorter 114 converts a polygon structure instance into a polygon/sprite shared data Cl, and a vertex expander 116 converts a sprite structure instance into a polygon/sprite shared data Cl in the same format. Subsequent circuits 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 11, 130 and 132 generate an image to be displayed in a screen on the basis of the polygon/sprite shared data Cl with the same format. It is possible to generate an image which is formed from any combination of polygons and sprites, while suppressing the hardware scale, and furthermore it is possible to increase the number of the polygons and sprites capable of simultaneously drawing without incurring an increased memory capacity.

Abstract: A CPU 5 is provided with both the functionality of issuing an external bus access request directly to an external memory interface 3 and the functionality of issuing a DMA transfer request to a DMAC 4. Accordingly, in the case where data is randomly accessed at discrete addresses, an external bus access request is issued directly to the external memory interface 3, and in the case of data block transfer or page swapping as requested by a virtual memory management unit or the like, a DMA transfer request is issued to the DMAC 4, so that it is possible to effectively access the external memory 50.

Abstract: A data processing unit for performing a high speed drawing operation of arbitrary patterns even in individual pixels is provided. It is assumed that the color mode is set to 3 bits per pixel. A pixel “N” is written to a drawing position designated by a byte address [29:3] and a bit address [2:0]. The subsequent pixel “N+1” is written immediately after the pixel “N”. The next subsequent pixel “N+2” is written immediately after the pixel “N+1” to span the adjacent bytes. Thereby, the pixel data is continuously stored within each byte and across the boundary between bytes with no space. In this case, the operation of writing pixel data, i.e., the drawing is performed not in words or bytes but in pixels. In addition to this, high speed drawing is possible by the use of a caching system.

Abstract: An image mixing apparatus and a pixel mixer capable of mixing image data items having different pixel resolutions, and mixing image data items in an arbitrary display priority, irrespective of the order of mixing, even if the order of mixing is determined in advance is provided. Of two pixel data items having depth values “Zc” and “Zb”, one pixel data item having the depth value indicating that the pixel is located in a foreground position is selected by a pixel selection determination circuit 110. However, if a pixel data item has a hue indicating that the pixel is transparent, such a pixel data item is not selected but another pixel data item is selected instead. Multiplexers 112 to 116 output a pixel data item (hue “Hm”/color saturation “Sm”/brightness “Lm”) which is selected by the pixel selection determination circuit 110. Since pixel data items are input to the multiplexer 112 to 116 at different output rates, it is possible to mix images having different pixel resolutions.

Abstract: A sound processor is formed on a single semiconductor device and has a function as a bus master for a common bus to positively and effectively access a resource on a common bus. Outputted is data over N sets (N being a natural number greater than 2) of sound channels through time division multiplexing to M sets (M being a natural number) of independent digital/analog converting means for converting sound-channel digital data into an analog sound signal. This reproduces pulse-code-modulated sound waveform data capable of simultaneously reproducing over a plurality of sets of sound channels represented by a product of M and N.

Abstract: An effective bus arbitration unit is described in which it is possible to reduce, as much as possible, the waiting time until a bus master obtain bus ownership and improve the rate of operating the bus while improving the throughput of data transfer. A bus master issues a size signal (for example, signal “CDSZ”) indicative of the size of data to be read or written. A state machine 155 grants bus ownership to the bus master for the bus cycles corresponding to the size signal in order to enable the bus master to successively read or write data Arbitration is performed once for every series of bus cycles corresponding to the size requested by the bus master. Since the size signal is issued by the bus master as a size signal indicative of the necessary and sufficient size for data transmission, the state machine 155 can set an optimal number of bus cycles.

Abstract: There are provided an infrared light emitting diode 42 operable to emit light in a predetermined cycle; a phototransistor 44 operable to receive light which is emitted by the infrared light emitting diode 42 and reflected from a retroreflective sheet 40 of the operation article 3, and output a light reception signal “Sp”; and a highpass filter unit 116 operable to pass a high frequency component of the light reception signal “Sp”, output the high frequency component as a light reception signal “Ss” and operable to generate a reference voltage. The highpass filter unit 116 supplies the reference voltage to a node to which the light reception signal “Ss” is output, and the processor 110 counts the number of pulses included in the light reception signal “Ss”, and calculates the speed of the operation article 3.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes man-machine interface, a semiconductor memory and an information processor. The semiconductor memory is configured by an application software contents portion, an application software engine, an operating system, an information processor hardware driver and a man-machine interface driver. Clear definition is given to interfaces between modules including software and hardware.

Abstract: A sensing baseball game apparatus (10) has a game machine (12) connected to a television monitor (18). A bat input device (32) is provided with an acceleration sensor. An acceleration signal is transmitted by an infrared-ray LED (34) to an infrared-ray receiving part of the game machine (12) whereby the game machine (12) determines a moving speed of the bat input device (32) to calculate a moving parameter of a ball to be batted. Accordingly, a batted ball is moved in the game scene according to the parameter.

Abstract: A YSU (19) sorts structure instances #0 to #7 in order that the polygons #0 to #7 corresponding thereto are arranged in ascending order of the minimum Y-coordinates thereof. An RPU (9) sequentially reads the structure instances #0 to #7 sorted by the YSU (19), and performs the drawing process of corresponding polygons on the basis of the structure instances as read.

Abstract: The invention is a method of measuring blood glucose excursions in general, and postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetic patients in particular, by the 1,5-anhydroglucitol assay (1,5-AG) or A1C/1,5-AG assay combination. 1,5-AG levels and percent changes of 1,5-AG levels in short period are indicative of differing postmeal glucose levels in moderately-controlled diabetic patients with similar A1C levels. Thereby 1,5-AG assay is useful to identify diabetic patients who may be at risk for cardiovascular complications which would not be identifiable by A1C levels alone. Furthermore, ratios of A1C divided by 1,5-AG in each patient are superior indicators to 1,5-AG levels.

Abstract: A sensing baseball game apparatus (10) has a game machine (12) connected to a television monitor (18). A bat input device (32) is provided with an acceleration sensor. An acceleration signal is transmitted by an infrared-ray LED (34) to an infrared-ray receiving part of the game machine (12) whereby the game machine (12) determines a moving speed of the bat input device (32) to calculate a moving parameter of a ball to be batted. Accordingly, a batted ball is moved in the game scene according to the parameter.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a high-speed processor, and the high-speed processor processes a game program restored in a memory cartridge. A power control routine is then executed, and capacitors (C4, C5) included in a charge pump circuit is repeatedly charged and discharged. If an error occurs in the high-speed processor and then the power control routine is not properly executed, a difference in electric potential (VC) between one end of a resistor (R10) and a reference electric potential surface or point increases. When the difference in electric potential exceeds a threshold value, a supply of stabilized voltage is stopped by a power on/off control circuit, and an entire system including the high-speed processor is then turned off.

Abstract: A method of detecting an image of a reflective object includes the steps of capturing an exposure image by an image sensor while an LED is ON; down-sampling an exposure image signal from the image sensor to a first digital signal by comparing the level of the first image signal with a first reference level; capturing a dark image by the image sensor while the LED is OFF; down-sampling a second image signal from the image sensor to a second digital signal by comparing the level of the second image signal with a second reference level; computing an image of difference between the exposure image and the dark image by subtracting the second digital signal from the first digital signal; and specifying the image of the reflective object by locating a bright point remaining in the image of difference.