282 results about "Situated computing" patented technology

A system and process is described for estimating the location of a speaker using signals output by a microphone array characterized by multiple pairs of audio sensors. The location of a speaker is estimated by first determining whether the signal data contains human speech components and filtering out noise attributable to stationary sources. The location of the person speaking is then estimated using a time-delay-of-arrival based SSL technique on those parts of the data determined to contain human speech components. A consensus location for the speaker is computed from the individual location estimates associated with each pair of microphone array audio sensors taking into consideration the uncertainty of each estimate. A final consensus location is also computed from the individual consensus locations computed over a prescribed number of sampling periods using a temporal filtering technique.

PCT No. PCT / JP97 / 02571 Sec. 371 Date Mar. 24, 1998 Sec. 102(e) Date Mar. 24, 1998 PCT Filed Jul. 24, 1997 PCT Pub. No. WO98 / 03314 PCT Pub. Date Jan. 29, 1998An operation section 32 of a teaching operation panel 30 connected to a robot controller 10 through a cable 40 has a general operation section 321 provided with a sub-display 323, and a graphic display operation section 322 for a display 31 provided with a touch panel. When a hand in touch with a hand mark 21' of the robot displayed along with a graphic image 20' is moved on the display screen (as indicated by an arrow A; from a position H1 to a position H2), the touched positions are sequentially sensed by the touch panel and converted to three-dimensional position data by using plane position data (which is calculated based on either a line-of-sight in graphic display or a specifically designated direction of a plane and the latest touched position). Thus obtained three-dimensional position data is, on one hand, used for sequentially updating the display of the graphic image 20', and, on the other hand, sent to the robot controller 10 in order to be used for jog-feeding the robot 20 (as indicated by an arrow A'). A mouse 34 may be used instead of the touch panel. The line-of-sight in graphic display may be determined by a sensor for detecting a three-dimensional orientation.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for accurately positioning a robotic pool-playing device. The system comprises a computer controlled robotic positioning device, such as a gantry robot, that can position a cue over the pool table and place a shot. A global camera is mounted on the ceiling looking down at the table, and the acquired images are transmitted to the computer for analysis to determine the identity and locations of the balls within the table coordinate reference frame. The computer also automatically determines which ball to strike. An aspect of the invention is the use of a local camera, mounted on or near the robotic end-effector in a fixed relationship with the cue, to improve the positioning error of the robotic device prior to placing a shot. By comparing the ball locations perceived from the vantage of the local camera with the known ball locations determined from the global camera image, the invention can calculate the acquired robotic positioning error, which can then be corrected for prior to placing the shot.

A graphics system comprising a rendering engine, a sample buffer and a filtering engine. The rendering engine receives graphics primitives, generates sample positions, computes a depth value and color values for each sample position interior to each primitive. The blur value is assigned to each sample based on its depth value relative to an estimate of the concentration depth of the viewer. The per-sample data are stored in the sample buffer. The filtering engine reads samples in a neighborhood of a current filter position, and filters the samples to generate a video output pixel which is transmitted to a display device. The filtering engine applies to each sample in the neighborhood a corresponding filter function. The filter function has a spatial cutoff frequency determined by the sample's blur value.

A control apparatus calculates a calibration value based on a position in the robot coordinate system 41 and a position in the vision coordinate system42, for at least three teaching points set within a calibration area. Markers 21 of two of the three teaching points have the same inclination in relation to an optical axis of a camera 3 as a visual sensor, and the two points are placed on different positions of the same plane normal to the optical axis. The remaining one of the three teaching points other than the two points is set such that the inclination of the marker 21 in relation to the optical axis is different from that of the two points. As a result, influence of a large quantization error in the optical axis direction as a measurement error of the camera 3 can be reduced.

The invention discloses an industrial robot safety protection intelligent control method and system. The method comprises the following steps that a detection image of a preset area around a robot is taken; to-be-detected target recognition is carried out on the current detection image; if a target to be detected is recognized in the current detection image, the current position and the current distance between the target to be detected and the robot are computed according to preset parameters; the current position and the current distance are stored in a time shaft module according to the time sequence; according to the current distance, the current position and the former distance and former position of the former time in the time shaft module, the moving speed of the target to be detected is computed; according to the current position, current distance and the moving speed of the target to be detected and the moving state data of the robot, the safe judgment relation between the target to be detected and the preset dangerous area as well as between the target to be detected and the preset safe area is determined; the robot is controlled to normally operate or stop operating or change a path according to the safe judgment relation. The safety of staff can be effectively ensured.

A parking assist device has a touch display (58) including a display unit for displaying a situation around a vehicle and an input unit for entering a target parking position of a vehicle, and also has a control device (60) performing parking assist control by calculating a path according to the target parking position. The control device (60) further performs, under a predetermined condition, assist control for position alignment of a vehicle-side power transmission / reception unit placed on the vehicle with an apparatus-side power transmission / reception unit of an apparatus placed on a ground. Preferably, the parking assist device further has a back monitor camera (53) for taking an image of a surrounding situation of the vehicle. When an identifier indicating the apparatus-side power transmission / reception unit is present in the vicinity of the target parking position in the taken surrounding situation, the control device (60) recognizes the position of the identifier and performs the position alignment assist control.

The present invention relates to a method and a system for determining the relation between a local coordinate system located in the working range of an industrial robot (1) and a robot coordinate system. The method comprises: attaching a first calibration object (10) in a fixed relation to the robot, determining the position of the first calibration object in relation to the robot, locating at least three second calibration objects (14, 15, 16) in the working range of the robot, wherein at least one of the calibration objects is a male calibration object having a protruding part shaped as a sphere, and at least one of the calibration objects is a female calibration object comprising at least two nonparallel, inclining surfaces arranged to receive the sphere so that the sphere is in contact with the surfaces in at least one reference position, determining a reference position for each of the second calibration objects in the local coordinate system, for each second calibration object moving the robot until the sphere is in mechanical contact with the surfaces of the calibration object, reading the position of the robot when the sphere is in mechanical contact with all of the surfaces, and calculating the relation between the local coordinate system and the robot coordinate system based on the position of the first calibration object in relation to the robot, the reference positions of the second calibration objects in the local coordinate system, and the positions of the robot when the sphere is in mechanical contact with the surfaces of the second calibration objects.

In a calibration data input process, a carriage 5 is moved toward an ink sensor 19 to a prescribed position while the ink sensor 19 detecting levels of reflected light. Then the amount of reflected light is read for over a range wider than the width of the carriage 5 including a theoretical detecting position P2. An actual detecting position P1 is found based on the level of reflected light. The difference between the theoretical detecting position P2 and the actual detecting position P1 is calculated and is stored as the calibration value alpha in a first calibration data memory M1. Accordingly, the actual detecting position P1 is set as P2±alpha. The calibration value alpha is used in a calibration process to calibrate the detecting position, so that the level of reflected light can be detected with accuracy.

By the use of an epsilon filter, in the case where a plurality of different illuminations exist, a boundary between the illuminations can be appropriately extracted, and an unnatural image pattern can be prevented from being generated, therefore subjectively preferable compression of a dynamic range can be achieved. An edge strength G(x, y) is calculated per position on an input image, and a threshold E(x, y) of an epsilon filter (12) is controlled on the basis of the edge strength G(x, y). The epsilon filter (12) filters the input image on the basis of the controlled threshold E(x, y). On the basis of the edge strength G(x, y), the threshold E of the epsilon filter (12) is adaptively changed according to a local gradient of a pixel value I(x, y), so in the case of using a linear lowpass filter or a fixed threshold epsilon filter, an illumination boundary can be more accurately extracted.

A training, rehabilitation, and recovery system comprises an exercise apparatus including a user interface member coupled to a plurality of links and joints, brakes capable of resisting movement of at least a subset of the links or joints, and sensors capable of sensing movement at the joints or the user interface member. The system also includes a processor configured to receive from the sensors positional data of the links or joints over an initial movement of the apparatus by a user, from which positional coordinates of the user interface member are calculated and a reference trajectory is established. An end space is defined based on the reference trajectory. Over a subsequent movement of the apparatus by the user, the processor receives additional positional data and determines a completion of a repetition based on the positional coordinates of the subsequent movement and the defined end space.

A radiation image capturing system detects the position of a radiation detecting cassette disposed below a patient and the position of a radiation source for emitting a radiation, based on the differences between the propagation times of radio waves emitted from an antenna device to an image capturing apparatus and the radiation detecting cassette. Based on the detected positions, the relative positions of the image capturing apparatus and the radiation detecting cassette are calculated, and then compared with each other by a position determining unit to judge how the image capturing apparatus is positioned with respect to the radiation detecting cassette. If the image capturing apparatus is not positioned in head-on facing relation to the radiation detecting cassette, then a warning is issued, and an actuating mechanism moves the image capturing apparatus to an appropriate position.

The invention provides a method for tracking a target through WI-FI and a video monitoring device. The method is based on a video spatial database and includes the following steps that firstly, a hotspot AP connected with an IP address through the WI-FI within networking time is determined through the IP address of the target and the networking time, and positional information of the target is calculated according to the position of the hotspot AP; secondly, according to the positional information of the target and the networking time corresponding to the positional information, the video spatial database is searched for coherent video data of the target or a target possessor; thirdly, peripheral video monitoring is associated, the coherent video data are found, and the moving trajectory of the target or the target possessor is tracked. The invention further provides a known MAC address tracking method. According to the method for tracking the target and the known MAC address tracking method, a WI-FI network and the video monitoring device can be combined to track criminal suspects who execute cyber crimes or steal a mobile device.

Embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for associating a mobile device to a household. In various embodiments, a plurality of latitude-longitude pairs is received for a mobile device during a time period. The latitude-longitude pairs are organized into a plurality of clusters corresponding to geographic regions visited by the mobile device during the time period. For each cluster, a score is calculated that represents a likelihood that a user of the mobile device resides in a household within the cluster. The cluster with the highest score is identified as being the location of the user's household. The computation is preferably conducted recursively over time periods. The mobile device is then associated with the user's household.

A training, rehabilitation, and recovery system comprises an exercise apparatus including a user interface member coupled to a plurality of links and joints, brakes capable of resisting movement of at least a subset of the links or joints, and sensors capable of sensing movement at the joints or the user interface member. The system also includes a processor configured to receive from the sensors positional data of the links or joints over an initial movement of the apparatus by a user, from which positional coordinates of the user interface member are calculated and a reference trajectory is established. An end space is defined based on the reference trajectory. Over a subsequent movement of the apparatus by the user, the processor receives additional positional data and determines a completion of a repetition based on the positional coordinates of the subsequent movement and the defined end space.

In a calibration data input process, a carriage 5 is moved toward an ink sensor 19 to a prescribed position while the ink sensor 19 detecting levels of reflected light. Then the amount of reflected light is read for over a range wider than the width of the carriage 5 including a theoretical detecting position P2. An actual detecting position P1 is found based on the level of reflected light. The difference between the theoretical detecting position P2 and the actual detecting position P1 is calculated and is stored as the calibration value alpha in a first calibration data memory M1. Accordingly, the actual detecting position P1 is set as P2±alpha. The calibration value alpha is used in a calibration process to calibrate the detecting position, so that the level of reflected light can be detected with accuracy.

The present invention relates to shape control method for cold rolled steel strip, and discloses method of treating convexity degree of the hot rolled material in the cold rolled steel strip shape setting and calculating. The treating method includes compensating calculation based on the sectional convexity degree data from hot rolling to eliminate the error caused by post step, and calculating the current convexity degree as the input condition for the accurate pre-calculation and post-calculation of roller bending force based on the current steel strip rolling position. The present invention can realize accurate setting in the whole length of steel strip without need of complicated and costly convexity degree measuring instrument in front of the cold rolling mill, and has saving in investment and lowered cost.

The invention discloses a screen location control method comprising the following steps of: (1) obtaining a reference image: obtaining or pre-collecting at least one screen reference image in real time, and taking the screen reference image as a standard image in image identification; (2) acquiring a screen image: pointing a location control device disclosed in the invention to a screen, digitalizing the screen image by an image acquisition unit in the location control device, and obtaining a series of screen acquisition images; (3) identifying an image: A, extracting a reference characteristic set, i.e., extracting the reference characteristic set from the screen reference image, and taking the reference characteristic set as a standard set in an image identification process; B, extracting and acquiring an image characteristic set, i.e., extracting the characteristics of the screen acquisition image by using a method which is same as the method for extracting the reference characteristic set to obtain an acquisition image characteristic set; and C, matching the acquisition image characteristic set with the reference characteristic set by using a matching algorithm; (4) calculating a position: according to the matching result and a current coordinate of the location control device, calculating a screen coordinate instructed by the location control device next time; and (5) identifying a focus: sending a new focus coordinate in a focus control module, and identifying the position of the focus according to the current state of the screen by the focus control module.

Method for rapid inversion of data from a controlled-source electromagnetic survey of a subterranean region. Selected (51) common-receiver or common-source gathers of the data are reformed into composite gathers (52) by summing their data. Each composite gather is forward modeled (in the inversion process) with multiple active source locations (53). Computer time is reduced in proportion to the ratio of the total number of composite gathers to the total number of original common-receiver or common-source gathers. The data may be phase encoded to prevent data cancellation. Methods for mitigating loss of far offset information by data overlap in the summing process are disclosed.

A system using GPS data for locating a person requesting a support. The system includes a mobile terminal carried by a person to acquire the GPS data from GPS satellites and transmits the same upon a request by the person to a message center where the GPS data is processed to calculate the person(s position. The mobile terminal simply acquires the GPS data which is invalid for calculation of the position if the request is made where the GPS satellite is not available. For successfully locating the person's position, the mobile terminal acquires the GPS data regularly at different times in accordance with a time schedule and stores the time-series sets of the GPS data which are transmitted together with a current GPS data acquired in response to the support request, thereby giving the latest available position of the person if the current GPS data is found invalid.

A process for controlling an internal combustion engine, in which an actual position of a reciprocating gas valve is detected by a position sensor, a positional deviation is calculated from the actual position and a zero position, a total length change of the reciprocating gas valve is calculated as a function of the temperature of the reciprocating gas valve, a valve clearance of the reciprocating gas valve is determined from the positional deviation and the total length change, and the further operation of the internal combustion engine is determined on the basis of the valve clearance.

A robot simulation apparatus including: a display section which displays models of at least a conveyance apparatus, an object, and a robot respectively laid out at predetermined positions; a movement condition designating section which designates a direction and a speed of movement of the object; a imaging condition designating section which designates a relative position of the camera with respect to the object and imaging condition in order to obtain a still image of the object located within an imaging area; a teaching model storage section which stores a teaching model of the object to be compared with the still image obtained with the camera; ; a grasping position calculating section which calculates a grasping position of the object to be grasped by the robot based on a position and an attitude of the object obtained by comparing the still image with the teaching model, and on the direction and the speed of movement of the object; and a teaching position setting section which sets a teaching position for said robot based on the grasping position.

A graphics system comprising a rendering engine, a sample buffer and a filtering engine. The rendering engine receives graphics primitives, generates sample positions, computes a depth value and color values for each sample position interior to each primitive. The blur value is assigned to each sample based on its depth value relative to an estimate of the concentration depth of the viewer. The per-sample data are stored in the sample buffer. The filtering engine reads samples in a neighborhood of a current filter position, and filters the samples to generate a video output pixel which is transmitted to a display device. The filtering engine applies to each sample in the neighborhood a corresponding filter function. The filter function has a spatial cutoff frequency determined by the sample's blur value.

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and system for imaging radio and microwave electromagnetic radiation using a two-dimensional sensor array. A computing system receives a readout signal from one or more of a plurality of frequency sensors, arranged in a two-dimensional array, that have the ability to detect an image of focused radio and microwave frequency radiation. The computing system maps the readout signal of each of the plurality of sensors to a location corresponding to the physical location of the sensor on the two-dimensional array. The computing system converts the readout signal into a computer readable image.

The purpose of the present invention is to have the angles of each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system infallibly reach the angle of the work completed position, while maintaining the rate of movement and position of the working parts of an articulated robot. If exception conditions are not satisfied, the drive shafts of first and second articulation drive systems are driven individually (S64) on the basis of interpolated points calculated in step 5 (S5). After exception conditions are satisfied (Yes side of S61), until the working parts reach the work completed position (No side of S12), the angle of each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system required to vary each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system in a linear manner with the angle at the work completed position as a target is calculated (S8), and the angle of each of the drive shafts of the second articulated drive system is calculated on the basis of the position of the working part at the interpolated point calculated in step 5 (S5) and the angle of each of the drive shafts of the first articulated drive system as calculated (S9), and the drive shafts of the first and second articulated drive systems are driven according to said calculation results (S11).

A system using GPS data for locating a person requesting a support. The system includes a mobile terminal carried by a person to acquire the GPS data from GPS satellites and transmits the same upon a request by the person to a message center where the GPS data is processed to calculate the person(s position. The mobile terminal simply acquires the GPS data which is invalid for calculation of the position if the request is made where the GPS satellite is not available. For successfully locating the person's position, the mobile terminal acquires the GPS data regularly at different times in accordance with a time schedule and stores the time-series sets of the GPS data which are transmitted together with a current GPS data acquired in response to the support request, thereby giving the latest available position of the person if the current GPS data is found invalid.

The invention discloses a biological recognition method and system combining a face and gestures. The biological recognition method combining the face and the gestures comprises the steps that (1) a face image and a gesture image are collected for background modeling; (2) the positions of eye pupils are positioned on the face image after the background modeling, the size of a face area is calculated according to the distance between the eye pupils, and then normalization processing is carried out on the face image; (3) the central coordinates of features of the five sense organs in the normalized face image are calculated according to the positions of the positioned eye pupils, and the face image is divided into F face areas; (4) the features of the gesture image after the background modeling are described, a feature subspace of the gesture image is built, and the gesture image is divided into M types; (5) F*M face-gesture modes are built according to the F selected face areas and the M types of gesture recognition images in the step (4); if the eyes of a user open and close continuously for N times, F*M*N face-gesture modes are further built.

An augmented reality (AR) system for generating and displaying a pre-disaster Enhanced Situation Visualization (ESV) is provided. The AR system may include an ESV computing device, a user computing device operated by a user and a reference database. The user computing device may transmit a reference request message to the ESV device, the reference request message including an image and / or GPS location of a property. The ESV computing device may determine the subject of the image is the property, retrieve reference information including peril maps associated with the property from the reference database, and determine situation information specific to the subject. The reference and situation information including a loss estimate may be displayed on the user computing device to provide an ESV of the property. The ESV may be used for insurance-related activities, such as handling, adjusting, and / or generating an insurance policy, premium, and / or discount, and / or generating insurance-related recommendations.

A body-insertable apparatus system includes a body-insertable apparatus introduced into a subject to acquire intra-subject information while moving inside the subject; and a position detecting apparatus detecting a position of the body-insertable apparatus inside the subject. The position detecting apparatus includes a magnetic field generator that generates a position detecting magnetic field in an area inside the subject; a position calculator that acquires magnetic field information of the position detecting magnetic field at the position of the body-insertable apparatus, and calculates the position of the body-insertable apparatus based on the acquired magnetic field information; a moving speed calculator that calculates a moving speed of the body-insertable apparatus based on variations of the position calculated by the position calculator over time; and a magnetic field controller that controls a magnetic-field generation timing of the magnetic field generator according to the moving speed of the body-insertable apparatus.

In time phases except a first time phase, a contour tracking part tracks the position of a region of interest based on image data acquired in each of the time phases. A re-tracking part receives correction of the position of the region of interest in a second time phase, and obtains the position of the corrected region of interest in and after the second time phase based on the image data acquired in and after the second time phase. From position information of the region of interest in and before the second time phase and position information of the corrected region of interest in and after the second time phase, a position calculator obtains position information of the region of interest in all the time phases. A computing part obtains motion information of a tissue within the region of interest based on the position information of the region of interest.