Abstract: A method of heating a steel sheet and a continuous annealing facility therefor wherein the temperature of the steel sheet in the longitudinal direction and sheet width direction is uniformized and overheating of the steel sheet exceeding the soaking temperature as the target heating temperature is prevented. ?T is a value of not less than a variation range of the steel sheet temperature when the sheet temperature is controlled by feedback control in the heating furnace but not more than ½ of a heating capacity of the steel sheet in the semi-soaking furnace.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus for recognizing the shape of a semiconductor wafer, capable of stably achieving accurate shape recognition without being affected by either a circuit pattern formed on the semiconductor wafer or the color of an adhesive sheet attached to a frame for adhering to the semiconductor wafer. The shape recognizing apparatus for recognizing the shape of a semiconductor wafer in accordance with the present invention comprises an image pickup means for picking up an image of the semiconductor wafer and providing video signals representing the image, the image pickup means being opposite to the semiconductor wafer, and a shape recognizing means for recognizing the shape of the semiconductor wafer by processing the video signals.

Abstract: The invention provides a cancel/undo method and system wherein the undo data amount upon changing of a tree structure is compressed and a cancel operation and an undo operation are united to significantly reduce the memory consumption and the processing time. A cancel data list and a undo data list are prepared, and undo data are classified into cancel type undo data and uncancel type undo data. Changed content information of tree structure data includes differential information of a changing object node position and a lower hierarchy side tree structure of the changing object node. Upon do operation, contents of the change are added as cancel data to the cancel data list while a cancel type is added to the undo data list. When cancel type data is object data of a cancel operation or an undo operation, a tree structure is restored with the last data of the cancel data list, and the data and contents of the change by the operation are added to the undo data list.

Abstract: An optimal menu inquiry system includes a skeleton data generating means, a tree structure data constructing means, a menu display means, a control means, and a menu candidate determining means. The skeleton data generating means generates inquiries, from a rule description describing the context of the inquiries, as skeleton data by sequentially linking the inquiries, from the first inquiry to the subsequent inquiries, in the form of a tree structure. The tree structure data constructing means constructs and updates tree structure data by sequentially retracing the skeleton data from first data. The menu display means displays menu items corresponding to constructed/updated tree structure data. The control means controls the tree structure data constructing means to update the tree structure data when one of the menu items displayed by the menu display means is selected.

Abstract: The front end portion of a rotational blade is accurately located in a non-contact manner although the quantity of wear of the blade has been changed. The structure is so arranged that a pair of prisms are disposed to oppose each other at a predetermined interval, either of the two prisms converges light beams emitted from a light emitting diode within a predetermined interval, and the residual prism again converges the light beams which have been diffused after they have been converged. A photodiode receives beams converged by the other prism. The disturbance light and noise are eliminated by an amplifier so as to fetch only light emitted from the light emitting diode. A blade shields light beams converged at the central portion located at a predetermined interval, while reading devices read the quantity of light received by the photodiode and as well as read the displacement of the blade.

Abstract: The front end portion of a rotational blade is accurately located in a non-contact manner although the quantity of wear of the blade has been changed. The structure is so arranged that a pair of prisms are disposed to oppose each other at a predetermined interval, either of the two prisms converges light beams emitted from a light emitting diode within a predetermined interval, and the residual prism again converges the light beams which have been diffused after they have been converged. A photodiode receives beams converged by the other prism. The disturbance light and noise are eliminated by an amplifier so as to fetch only light emitted from the light emitting diode. A blade shields light beams converged at the central portion located at a predetermined interval, while reading devices read the quantity of light received by the photodiode and as well as read the displacement of the blade.