125results about How to "Reliable choice" patented technology

In a system comprising a beverage machine and comprising portion capsules of at least two different types which each contain a beverage substance, portion capsules of different types are provided with colour codings which differ from one another. The beverage machine is designed to prepare beverages, in particular to brew hot coffee beverages, by means of the portion capsules and has a pressurized-water device, a capsule holder which is provided to accommodate a portion capsule, and a control means. The beverage machine also contains a colour-identification device which is designed to detect the colour coding of a portion capsule which is to be or is inserted into the capsule holder and to select a program, in the control means, for operating the beverage machine, which program is associated with this colour coding.

An improved turning point system and method for performing data compression is disclosed. The system improves the conventional turning point compression method by selecting a predetermined number of the "best" turning points in the sample window including data samples X0 and XN. From this sample-window, ones of the data samples X1 through X(N-1) will be identified as turning points using a selected one of a disclosed set of turning point detection methods. In one embodiment, a turning point is identified by determining that the slopes in the lines interconnecting adjacent data points have different polarities. In an alternative embodiment, a data sample XM is considered a turning point if the slope of the line between the data samples XM and X(M+1) has a different polarity as compared to the slope of the last waveform segment that was encountered that did not have a slope of zero. According to one mechanism, amplitude thresholding is used to detect whether an identified turning point is likely the result of noise such that the turning point status of the data sample should be disregarded. After data samples are identified as turning points, ones of the identified turning points are identified as the "best" turning points to be selected for retention. The best turning points may be identified by determining which waveform segment included within a sample window has the largest change of amplitude. An alternative embodiment detects which of the turning points has the greatest signal amplitude compared to a reference value. Yet another embodiment selects as the best turning point that point having an amplitude that differs the most from the amplitude of the first data sample in the sample window. Still other embodiments retain the turning point having an amplitude which is more positive, or alternatively, more negative, than the other data samples. According to one aspect of the invention, the compression ratio varies based on the frequency of the input waveform. In another embodiment, position data is retained to indicate the relative position of retained data samples as compared to the position of other retained data samples. This position data may be calculated at a frequency that is less than the frequency of the sampled data.

A DA conversion device includes the following elements. A higher-bit current source cell portion includes uniformly weighted higher-bit current source cells to generate an identical constant current. A lower-bit current source cell portion includes a lower-bit current source cells that are weighted to generate 1 / two-to-the-power-of-certain-numbers constant currents. A constant current source selection controller includes a lower-bit controller having a scaler that uses clocks scaled down to 1 / two-to-the-power-of-certain-numbers to select the lower-bit current source cells, and a higher-bit controller having shift registers and using a signal indicating a carry bit or a borrow bit used in the lower-bit controller to sequentially activate shift outputs of the shift registers, and uses the shift outputs to select the higher-bit current source cells. Constant current outputs of the selected current source cells are added and output so that an output current corresponding to the digital input signal is obtained.

An environment information distribution unit transmits a policy ID for specifying an access policy to be applied to a terminal device. An environment information reception unit notifies an access policy application management unit of a policy ID specified based on information received from the environment information distribution unit. The access policy application management unit specifies a relevant access policy from an access policy storage region which stores at least one access policy based on a notified policy ID to notify an access control management unit in an OS of information designating the access policy. The access control management unit determines whether to allow or not to allow a request from a subject to access an object based on a specified access policy.

A routing protocol and inter-vehicle communication system adapted for use with a traveling host vehicle, and at least one traveling remote vehicle, includes a locator sub-system configured to determine a plurality of current position coordinates for the host and remote vehicles. The preferred system is configured to store trail coordinates, derive vehicular headings and trail polygons from the trail coordinates, and effect the directional multi-hop propagation of a message by comparing current position coordinates, trail coordinates, headings and / or trail polygons of the host and remote vehicles.

A module for determining speed set-point values vref for a vehicle's control systems, comprising an input unit adapted to input, e.g. by the vehicle's driver, of a reference speed vset which is the speed desired by the driver for the vehicle. The module comprises - a horizon unit adapted to determining a horizon by means of received position data and map data of an itinerary made up of route segments with at least one characteristic for each segment; - a processor unit adapted to calculating vref across the horizon according to rules pertaining to categories in which segments within the horizon are placed, so that vref is within a range bounded by vmin and vmax, where vmin = vset = vmax. The processor unit is further adapted to determining a control signal with control parameters for the vehicle's automatic gear change control unit, based on one or more vehicle-specific values and a calculated speed set-point value vref.

A pair of thumb or finger sleeves incorporating electrically conductive tips operates as passive styluses that enable accurate user engagement with capacitive touch displays. Capacitive touch screens are commonly found on smartphones and other handheld devices. Capacitive touch screens are normally activated by direct thumb or finger touch. The human thumb or finger, however, provides a contact area that is too large to allow precise character selection on the small keys found on these devices. The present invention satisfies the electrical conductivity requirements for capacitive touch screens and, through its small contact point, reduces the excessive contact area of the thumb or finger. This invention also maintains or improves upon other operating characteristics of the thumb or finger when interacting with capacitive touch screens and small mechanical keyboards.

The invention discloses a wireless sensor network clustering routing method based on fuzzy control. The fuzzy control is used for carrying out experiential, intuitive, simple and intelligent control on cluster head selection, cluster routing selection, inter-cluster routing selection and cluster head data fusion. The fuzzy control is introduced in the clustering routing method disclosed by the invention to ensure that cluster heads can be uniformly distributed, thus the cluster heads are avoided being distributed in the same region. In addition, a distributed asynchronous cluster head selection is used in the invention, the cluster heads are replaced externally transparently, data transmission of the whole network is not interrupted due to reconfiguration of a cluster, data downlink transmission and frequent cluster head replacement are avoided; and an inter-cluster multi-hop cluster is optimized and reconfigured based on a static cluster head tag table, low energy consumption and high efficiency performance of routing are ensured, and network self-organizing ability is increased.

A flashlight assembly includes a bistable safety bail to prevent inadvertent depression of an operational push button switch. The flashlight assembly further includes a bistable pivoting mode selection lever which controls operational modes of the flashlight. Further, the flashlight operates with a thermal optimization circuit which automatically, over time, reduces the duty cycle of the control circuit to reduce the temperature of the LED junction, improve LED performance and increase battery life.

A method for the assisted steering, particularly the assisted maneuvering and parking, of a motor vehicle which includes determining a nominal driving path (X) with a starting point (S) and a destination point (Wnominal); providing an output of the nominal driving path (X), and setting the motor vehicle in motion. An actual position (W1) of the motor vehicle is determined, wherein a deviant circular arc (KA) traveled as well as a first (K1) and a second (K2) corrective circular arc are determined if the actual position (W1) deviates from the nominal driving path (X). The second corrective circular arc (K2) is a congruent projection of the deviant circular arc (KA) and ends at the destination point (Wnominal). A corrected nominal driving path (K1, K2) is provided as an output.

A selective one-way bit-driving apparatus includes a shaft for connection with a handle, a bit receiver including a plurality of teeth formed on an internal face, two one-way drivers pivotally connected with the shaft and each formed with a plurality of teeth for engagement with the teeth of the bit receiver and a switch installed on the shaft for causing the engagement of the teeth of at least one of the one-way drivers with the teeth of the bit receiver.

A method for encoding an image having been cut up into partitions. The method includes: predicting data of a current partition based on in already encoded and then decoded reference partition, generating a predicted partition; determining residual data by comparing data relating to the current partition with the predicted partition, the residual data associated with various digital data items. Prior producing a signal containing the encoded information, performing the following steps: determining, from the predetermined residual data, a subset containing residual data capable of being modified; calculating the value of a function representative of the residual data; comparing the calculated value with a value of at least one of the digital data items; based on the comparison, modification or non-modification of at least one of the residual data items of the subset; and, in the event of a modification, entropy encoding the at least one modified residual data item.

A desired printer can be reliably selected and the setting of which printer is permitted to communicate with which mobile terminal can be easily altered. A mobile terminal acquires printer identification information from a printer by NFC communication, and transmits the printer identification information and mobile terminal identification information to a server, thereby requesting an authentication. The mobile terminal transmits print data to the printer to instruct a printing execution when the authentication is successful. Therefore, the desired printer can be reliably selected by placing the mobile terminal close to the desired printer. Any stolen mobile terminal can be disabled for any printer only by rewriting the centrally managed information on the server.

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, a learning apparatus and method, and a program which allow reliable evaluation of whether or not the subject appears sharp.A subject extraction unit 21 uses an input image to generate a subject map representing a region including the subject in the input image, and supplies the subject map to a determination unit 22. The determination unit 22 uses the input image and the subject map from the subject extraction unit 21 to determine the blur extent of the region of the subject on the input image, and calculates the score of the input image on the basis of the blur extent. This score is regarded as an index for evaluating the degree to which the subject appears sharp in the input image. The present invention can be applied to an image capture apparatus.