Showing papers by "Sony Broadcast & Professional Research Laboratories published in 2009"

Thin film transistor and method of manufacturing thin film transistor

Abstract: The present invention provides a thin film transistor including: a channel layer mainly containing a conductive oxide semiconductor; a pair of electrodes on the channel layer; and a protective film covering an exposed surface of the channel layer, exposed to the gap between the pair of electrodes. The protective film includes at least an oxygen transmission film in contact with the channel layer, and an oxygen disturbance film hardly transmitting oxygen in comparison with the oxygen transmission film, in this order from the channel layer side. A length of the oxygen disturbance film in a direction where the pair of electrodes face each other is equal to or larger than a value obtained by multiplying a width of the pair of electrodes in a direction orthogonal to the direction where the pair of electrodes face each other by 0.55.

Communication device and communication method

Abstract: A communication device for performing communication by employing first and second communication units, includes: a reception unit for receiving a communication packet including a random number generated for every connection with another communication device, a certificate calculated with the random number, and authentication method information indicating whether or not an authentication method at the second communication unit is compatible with the public key system, through the first communication unit; and a method determining unit for determining whether or not an originator of the communication packet accepts public key encryption based on the authentication method information included in the communication packet; wherein in a case of the method determining unit determining that the originator of the communication packet does not accept the public key system, the random number included in the communication packet is replied to the originator as the identification information of the device itself.

Power transmission device, power transmission method, program, power receiving device and power transfer system

Abstract: There is provided a power transmission device including a communication part that performs communication with an external power transmission device that transmits power, a power transmission part that transmits power to a power receiving device that receives the transmitted power in a non-contact manner, a determination part that determines whether power can be transmitted, based on external power transmission information received by the communication part indicating a start of power transmission by the external power transmission device, and a power transmission control part that controls the power transmission part to selectively transmit power based on a determination result from the determination part.

Non-contact power transmission device

Abstract: An electromagnetic resonance non-contact power transmission device includes a transmitter including a transmitter resonance element having a mechanism for discretely or continuously varying a resonant frequency, a transmitter excitation element coupled to the transmitter resonance element by electromagnetic induction, and an alternating current source for applying an alternating current at the same frequency as the resonant frequency to the transmitter excitation element, and a plurality of receivers each including a receiver resonance element having a specific resonant frequency, a receiver excitation element coupled to the receiver resonance element by electromagnetic induction, and an output circuit for outputting an electric current induced by the receiver excitation element. Electric power is transmitted selectively from the transmitter to any of the receivers having different specific resonant frequencies by changing the resonant frequency of the transmitter.

Thin film transistor and display device

Abstract: Provided is a thin film transistor capable of improving reliability in the thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer. A thin film transistor including: a gate electrode; a gate insulating film formed on the gate electrode; an oxide semiconductor layer forming a channel region corresponding to the gate electrode on the gate insulating film; a channel protective film formed at least in a region corresponding to the channel region on the oxide semiconductor layer; and a source/drain electrode. A top face and a side face of the oxide semiconductor layer are covered with the source/drain electrode and the channel protective layer on the gate insulating film.

A high-power glucose/oxygen biofuel cell operating under quiescent conditions

Abstract: Biofuel cells are a next-generation energy device because they use renewable fuels with high energy density and safety. We have developed passive-type biofuel cell units, which generate a power over 100 mW (80 cm3, 39.7 g). Our biofuel cell, in which two-electron oxidation of glucose and four-electron reduction of O2 occurs at pH 7 in mediated bioelectrochemical processes under quiescent conditions, accomplished the maximum power density of 1.45 ± 0.24 mW cm−2 at 0.3 V. This performance was achieved by introducing three technologies: (1) Enzymes and mediator are densely entrapped on carbon-fiber electrodes with the enzymatic activity retained, (2) the concentration of buffer in electrolyte solution was optimized for the immobilized enzymes, and (3) the cathode structure was designed to supply O2 efficiently. The cell units with a multi-stacked structure successfully operate a radio-controlled car (16.5 g), which demonstrates the potential of biofuel cells in practical applications.

Coax core insulator waveguide

Abstract: A communication device consistent with certain implementations has a coaxial cable having length and first and second ends. The coaxial cable further has a central conductor, a dielectric insulator surrounding the central conductor, and an electric shield conductor surrounding the dielectric insulator. The dielectric insulator serves as a dielectric waveguide having a characteristic impedance Z at an operating frequency range. A termination for electrical energy coupled into or out of the dielectric insulator at approximately the characteristic impedance Z at the operating frequency range to utilize the dielectric insulator as a waveguide for transmission of signals along the length of the coaxial cable, and wherein the center conductor is further used to communicate an electrical signal between the first and second ends. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Display apparatus, display method, and program

Abstract: A display method including the steps of displaying document data and/or content data including a plurality of objects, controlling an arrangement position of a translucent focus area on a display unit, where the focus area is provided to make the object enter a selection state, detecting a position on the display unit, where a user contacts the display unit at the position, and moving the focus area as the contact position is moved when the detected arrangement position of the focus area is approximately equivalent to the detected contact position is provided.

Information processing apparatus and information processing method

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus including: a communication section configured to acquire application programs from external apparatus; a memory used for storing at least an application program and information relevant to the application program; an application execution section configured to execute the application program stored in the memory; and a control section configured to determine other application programs to be recommended in the course of execution of the application program in the application execution section, wherein information stored in the memory as the information relevant to the application program includes first relevant information and second relevant information which are used for determining the other application programs to be recommended in the course of execution of the application program in the application execution section

Power Exchange Device, Power Exchange Method, Program, and Power Exchange System

Abstract: A power exchange device includes: a connection portion that is connected to another device; a wireless communication portion that performs wireless communication with a power exchange device in the vicinity; a power exchange portion that exchanges power with the power exchange device in the vicinity; a power management portion that causes the power exchanged by the power exchange portion to be input and output between the connection portion and the other device; and a power control portion that, after the wireless communication portion has performed the wireless communication with the power exchange device in the vicinity, controls whether to cause the power exchange portion to exchange power with the power exchange device in the vicinity depending on a power source state of the other device.

Image pickup apparatus

Abstract: An image pickup apparatus capable of improving the image quality of a picked-up image at the time of closely picking up an image is provided. In an image processing section 14, after a process of clipping a central region 31 and an image reversing process are performed in each of image pickup regions 3 of microlenses on image pickup data D1 obtained by an image pickup device 13, an image synthesizing process using images is performed to obtain image-processed data (image pickup data D2). In the image pickup data D2, the process of clipping the central region 31 is performed in each of the image pickup regions 3 of the microlenses, so even if a living organism 2 as an object subjected to image pickup is closely placed, an overlap region 32 between the image pickup regions 3 by adjacent microlenses is removed. In addition, the range of the central region 31 may have a fixed value which is set in advance, or may be changed depending on a distance between the object subjected to image pickup (living organism) 2 and a microlens array 12.

Wireless communication apparatus, power supply method, program, and wireless communication system

Abstract: The present invention provides a wireless communication apparatus including: a communication processing unit that transmits and receives a radio signal; a wireless power transmitting unit that supplies power wirelessly to an apparatus located within a power supplyable range; a location data obtaining unit that obtains location data of a power receiver apparatus; and a control unit that controls a power supply to the power receiver apparatus based on the location data of the power receiver apparatus obtained by the location data obtaining unit.

Power transmitting apparatus, power transmission method, program, and power transmission system

Abstract: There is provided a power transmitting apparatus including a power transmission side communication unit for communicating with one or more power receiving apparatus for receiving transmitted power; a power transmission unit for transmitting power to the one or more power receiving apparatus in a non-contact manner; an allocating unit for dividing transmission of power from the power transmission unit to the power receiving apparatus to a plurality of dividing periods for every predetermined period, and allocating the one or more power receiving apparatus to one of the dividing periods; and a power transmission control unit for selectively transmitting power to the one or more power receiving apparatus for every dividing period based on the allocation result in the allocating unit.

Optimized image resizing using seam carving and scaling

Abstract: We present a novel method for content-aware image resizing based on optimization of a well-defined image distance function, which preserves both the important regions and the global visual effect (the background or other decorative objects) of an image. The method operates by joint use of seam carving and image scaling. The principle behind our method is the use of a bidirectional similarity function of image Euclidean distance (IMED), while cooperating with a dominant color descriptor (DCD) similarity and seam energy variation. The function is suitable for the quantitative evaluation of the resizing result and the determination of the best seam carving number. Different from the previous simplex-mode approaches, our method takes the advantages of both discrete and continuous methods. The technique is useful in image resizing for both reduction/retargeting and enlarging. We also show that this approach can be extended to indirect image resizing.

Head-mounted display apparatus

Abstract: A head-mounted display apparatus includes an image display device, a wearing device with which the image display device is worn on a head of an observer, and an attachment member with which the image display device is attached to the wearing device. The attachment member is capable of adjusting a position of the image display device relative to the wearing device independently in a first direction and in a second direction, the first direction being defined by a virtual line connecting centers of eyes of the observer, the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction and extending vertically with respect to the observer.

Information Processing Apparatus and Information Processing Method

Abstract: The present invention provides an information processing apparatus capable of displaying a plurality of elements at a display unit by being superimposed and selecting an arbitrary element rapidly and easily among the plurality of elements by the user and an information processing method The information processing apparatus includes an input reception unit to which signals are input from a first operation unit and a second operation unit, and a display control unit by which a plurality of first elements and a plurality of second elements are displayed by being superimposed The first elements are arranged to be selectable or movable in accordance with the input of the first operation unit on a virtual first layer and the second elements are arranged to be selectable or movable in accordance with the input of the second operation unit on a virtual second layer which differs from the first layer

Power transmitting apparatus, power receiving apparatus, power transmission method, program, and power transmission system

Abstract: There is provided a power transmitting apparatus including a power transmission side communication unit for communicating with a power receiving apparatus, a power transmission unit for transmitting power to the power receiving apparatus in a non-contact manner, a transmission power information deriving unit for increasing discretely a first transmission power to transmit from the power transmission unit to the power receiving apparatus, and deriving information related to power transmission for determining a second transmission power corresponding to power desired by the power receiving apparatus based on reception of received power information transmitted from the power receiving apparatus at the power transmission side communication unit, indicating that a received power level meet a predetermined level, and a transmission power determining unit for determining the second transmission power to transmit to the power receiving apparatus based on information related to power transmission derived by the transmission power information deriving unit.

A full-color eyewear display using planar waveguides with reflection volume holograms

Abstract: — A full-color eyewear display with over 85% see-through transmittance with a 16° horizontal field of view was developed. Very low color crosstalk, less than 0.008 Δu′v′ uniformity, and 120% NTSC color gamut were achieved. Waveguides with two in- and out-coupling reflection volume hologram elements enabled a simple configuration that has an optical engine beside the user's temples. The reflection volume hologram elements used on the waveguides realized a small thickness of 1.4 mm for each waveguide, and an out-coupling reflection volume hologram used as an optical combiner contributed a high see-through transmittance of 85% due to its wavelength selectivity. However, there are technical challenges in achieving a reasonable screen size and quality color images with optics that utilize holographic waveguides because holograms have large chromatic dispersions compared to conventional optical elements such as lenses and mirrors. Approaches to overcome these issues are described.

Image processing apparatus, image display method, and image display program

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a display device; a storage unit configured to store a plurality of image data having information corresponding to a search key; a search key specifying unit configured to specify a search key used for image search; a search unit configured to search and extract image data having information relating to the search key specified by the search key specifying unit from the storage unit; and a display control unit configured to control the image corresponding to image data extracted by the search unit to be displayed on the position corresponding to the degree of association as to the search key on the display screen of the display device.

Information processing device and information processing method

Abstract: A system-level management unit generates a system processing and makes a processing request to a task allocation unit of a user-level management unit. The task allocation unit schedules the system processing according to a procedure of an introduced user-level scheduling. A processing unit assigned to execute the system processing sends a notification of acceptability of the system processing to a main processing unit, by halts an application task in appropriate timing or when the processing of the current task is completed. When the notification is received within the time limit for execution, the system-level management unit has the processing unit start the system processing.

Wireless communication apparatus, wireless communication method, and computer program

Abstract: The present invention is to provide each communication station with a transmission prioritised period without any useless latency in an ad-hoc communication environment including no control station. For this end, each communication station periodically transmits the beacon signal and acquires the transmission prioritised period immediately after transmission of the beacon. If the number of communication stations in the network is small, a communication station transmit a supplementary beacon within the super frame period, thereby effectively shortening the beacon interval and reducing latency at the start of transmission. At the time when a new communication station enters the network, the supplementary beacon is released in order to accommodate such new communication station.

Information terminal, information presentation method for an information terminal, and information presentation program

Abstract: [Object] To enable a user to simply and easily confirm update information of a plurality of pieces of content data handled by a plurality of various application programs without any troublesome operation [Solving Means] A plurality of update information display cards (51) are aligned and displayed on a display screen (50) The update information display cards (51) displayed on the display screen (50) are associated with different pieces of content data, and update information of the content data is individually arranged on the corresponding update information display card (51) Moreover, the update information display cards (51) on which the update information of the different types of content data are arranged are aligned and displayed on the display screen (50) in a chronological order of the updates of the content data

Laser light source device and laser irradiation apparatus using the same

Abstract: A laser light source device includes a pump light source which emits transverse-multimode light; a plurality of resonator mirrors which define a resonator, at least part of the resonator mirrors outputting light to the outside, where the output light having plural wavelengths; a laser medium arranged in the resonator, the laser medium being pumped with the transverse-multimode light emitted from the pump light source; and a wavelength conversion element arranged in the resonator, the wavelength conversion element being irradiated with a transverse-multimode line beam of fundamental wave obtained by oscillation at the laser medium and outputting a line beam of converted wave.

Optical device, and virtual image display

Abstract: A virtual image display device with an optical waveguide to guide, by internal total reflection, parallel pencil groups meeting a condition of internal total reflection, a first reflection volume hologram grating to diffract and reflect the parallel pencil groups incident upon the optical waveguide from outside and traveling in different directions as they are so as to meet the condition of internal total reflection inside the optical waveguide and a second reflection volume hologram grating to project the parallel pencil groups guided by internal total reflection inside the optical waveguide as they are from the optical waveguide by diffraction and reflection thereof so as to depart from the condition of internal total reflection inside the optical waveguide.

Apparatus and method for manipulating a touch-sensitive display panel

Abstract: The present invention enables to easily perform a graphic processing even when a touch panel is used. When a resistance film unit is pressed with a pen or a finger, output voltages associated with the X coordinate and the Y coordinate position are changed and these output voltages are transmitted as the X coordinate data and the Y coordinate data to a touch panel driver. According to the output from the resistance film unit, the touch panel driver generates an event for supply to a GUI handler. The touch panel driver includes a two-point specification detector which detects two point specifications and causes to calculate coordinates of the two points. The GUI handler generates a message corresponding to the GUI according to the event and supplies the message to an application. The GUI handler includes a processing mode modification block which differently interprets the event when a single point is specified and when two points are specified, thereby modifying the graphic processing mode.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, program and recording medium

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: an imaging information calculation unit acquiring a first image and higher-resolution second images, and calculating coordinate positions of the second images to the first image and differences in imaging direction between second cameras and a first camera; an eyepoint conversion unit generating eyepoint conversion images obtained by converting the second images based on the differences in imaging direction so that eyepoints of the second cameras coincide with an eyepoint of the first camera and matching the first image with the eyepoint conversion images to calculate phase deviations of the eyepoint conversion images from the first image; and an image synthesizing unit extracting high-frequency images, having frequency components higher than or equal to a predetermined frequency band, from the second images, and pasting the high-frequency images at the coordinate positions in correspondence with the first image to eliminate the phase deviations to generate a synthesized image.

Image processing apparatus and method

Abstract: A method of matching a pose of a synthesised representation of a human or animal body to a captured image of that human or animal body is provided, which can be used to generate a graphical model of the body when disposed on a plane, such as a synthesised model of a football player on a field of play. The method includes receiving the captured image data, determining from the captured image data a plurality of limb position estimates, each position estimate corresponding to an amount by which limbs of the body are separated with respect to each other and deriving from the plurality of limb positions an estimated gait phase of the body. The estimated gait phase is then applied to a basis gait model in order to provide an estimated pose of the body, the basis gait model comprising data which defines a displacement of the limbs or parts thereof with respect to a gait cycle period. The estimated pose is then matched to that of the synthesised representation of the body.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method and program

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a plurality of addition means and an image processing means. The addition means performs addition processing of adding pixels of a differential image at a second resolution representing a difference between an inputted image at a first resolution and an image at the second resolution higher than the first resolution as pixels of an inputted image at the second resolution. The image processing means is configured to perform second and subsequent addition processing, and generate an image of the second resolution as a processing result by performing the addition processing for a predetermined number of times. The addition processing is performed with inputs of an image at the first resolution and an image at the second resolution obtained by an immediately preceding addition processing, which are different from each other.

Light-emitting diode display and method for manufacturing the same

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a light-emitting diode display is provided. The method includes pre-fixing first, second, and third light-emitting diodes on a light emitting unit production substrate to produce light-emitting units each including first, second, and third light-emitting diodes, first electrodes of the first, second, and third light-emitting diodes being connected to a sub-common electrode. The method also includes transferring and fixing the light-emitting units from the light-emitting unit production substrate to a display substrate to produce a light-emitting diode display including the light-emitting units which are arranged in a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction (i.e., arranged in a two-dimensional matrix).

Wireless communication system, wireless communication device and wireless communication method, and computer program

Abstract: A wireless communication system which includes a transmitter and receiver each having two or more antennae, the system including: a channel condition determining unit which determines a condition of a channel between the transmitter and the receiver; and a system control unit which changes a transmitting system in the transmitter and a receiving system in the receiver in accordance with a determination result obtained by the channel condition determining unit.