Did You Know...
...that Charles Goodyear performed some of his experiments on rubber while in debtor's prison? He was there so often he referred to it as his "hotel". Chronically in debt because of poor business sense and ill health, Goodyear depended on the generosity of friends and family. Even after he unlocked the secret to vulcanizing rubber, he was unable to improve his financial situation. When he died, his estate was $200,000 in debt.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8175803 | Graphic interface method and apparatus for navigation system for providing parking information A graphic user interface method and apparatus for a navigation system graphically shows parking information which vary depending on conditions such as time ranges or days, etc. The method includes the steps of: examining a location specified by a user for retrieving... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8175801 | Link promotion method and apparatus for improving route search performance for navigation system A method and apparatus for link promotion for a navigation system allows expansion of search in a lower layer to determine an optimum climbing point to an upper layer to search an optimum route. The link promotion procedure includes the steps of determining whether ... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8156511 | Disc apparatus A shutter member is provided so as to be capable of moving in association with a roller bracket. The shutter member rotates by a predetermined range in association with the rotation of the roller bracket, and then a projection of the shutter member is pressed in a Y... | 04/10/2012 |
| 8155385 | Image-processing system and image-processing method A vehicle-periphery-image-providing system may include an image-capturing unit, a viewpoint-change unit, an image-composition unit, an object-decttion unit, a line-width-setting unit, and a line-selection unit. The image-capturing units, such as cameras, capture ima... | 04/10/2012 |
| 8155381 | Vehicle headlight detecting method and apparatus, and region-of-interest segmenting method and apparatus A method and apparatus for detecting vehicle headlights and a region-of-interest (ROI) segmenting method and apparatus are disclosed. The ROI segmenting method includes: performing an edge extracting operation on a captured image to obtain edges of the captured imag... | 04/10/2012 |
| 8150620 | Route search method and apparatus for navigation system utilizing map data of XML format A route search method for a navigation system using the XML map data that is layered based on administrative regions improves efficiency and accuracy of finding an optimum route. The method includes the steps of establishing boundary nodes on boundaries of administr... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8150618 | Method and apparatus to select city name associated with street located on border of two cities A method and apparatus for identifying correct city involving a street that borders on two or more cities for a navigation system. The navigation system identifies a correct city name associated with such a border street based on a direction of a vehicle travelling ... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8150095 | Thermal management system for speaker system having vented frame for establishing air passages A thermal management system improves thermal property of the speaker system by promoting air circulation to cool the speaker system. The thermal management system includes a speaker frame, an air guide formed on the speaker frame for guiding the air, a ventilation s... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8134538 | Touch panel input device and processing execution method A touch panel input device and a processing execution method eliminates wasteful operations of a user and increases user convenience. If a state determination unit (multiple key press detection unit) detects that multiple operation keys displayed on a touch panel sc... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8131990 | Data processing apparatus and method of mounting logical drive A data processing apparatus and a method of mounting a logical drive are provided which reduce the time required for completing start-up of an application. A priority level of each logical drive is determined based on access frequency by the automatically started ap... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8131466 | Navigation system, enlarged intersection image displaying method used in the system, and map information generating method When a vehicle travels along a guidance path and approaches an intersection, a vehicle navigation system determines crossing points between a circle having its center set to the intersection and a predetermined radius, and an approach link and an exit link for the i... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8131418 | Angular velocity calculating device, offset determination method for the same, and vehicle stopping detecting device Minimum and maximum values of an angular velocity signal output from a gyro while a vehicle is stationary are detected. A range of the angular velocity signal is set that is used to determine when the vehicle is stationary. When the angular velocity signal output fr... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8130329 | Monitor apparatus A monitor apparatus includes a display panel housed in a housed position, a driving section, a detecting section, and a controlling section. The driving section includes a gear transmission mechanism for driving the display panel and causes the display panel to perf... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8130271 | Image display method and image display apparatus An image display method for displaying a combined image by capturing images at areas surrounding a vehicle includes a) calculating a plurality of displacement vectors for a plurality of points taken on images captured by a plurality of cameras upon the application o... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8130270 | Vehicle-mounted image capturing apparatus Images captured by multiple cameras installed on a vehicle are combined, and an image of the ground is projected onto a plane and is displayed around a vehicle display portion. In the vehicle display portion, actual images of portions of the vehicle may be displayed... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8130214 | Input apparatus An input apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention may include an operation member that is rotatable and is movable in a direction along a rotation axis between an extended position and a pushed-in position. When a user rotates the operation mem... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8112283 | In-vehicle audio apparatus An audio apparatus has a function of correcting an audio signal in response to a noise level. The audio apparatus includes a correction unit that corrects an input audio signal on the basis of a weighting factor, an output unit that produces a played-back audio soun... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8103370 | In-vehicle audio device and method for performing imaging and transmission of information in in-vehicle audio device An in-vehicle audio device that can be connected to a portable audio device may include a display generating unit operative to generate transmission image data in a format that can be displayed in the portable audio device from tune information data corresponding to... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8098933 | Method and apparatus for partitioning an object from an image A method and apparatus for partitioning an object from an image, such that substantially the entire object is contained in the partitioned region, includes pre-setting a reference width for the object; extracting a shadow underneath the object from the image and det... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8086404 | On-vehicle navigation system The present invention provides an on-vehicle navigation system in which a user can perform predetermined driving using a special lane such as a carpool lane appropriately and without anxiety where advancing from a normal lane in a predetermined advancing authorized ... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8077741 | Multiplexing network system and digital information transferring method In a multiplexing network system in which media devices are interconnected through a digital transmission path, during system startup, a device that is used as a master device holds management information for recognizing bands used by media devices connected to the ... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8077203 | Vehicle-periphery image generating apparatus and method of correcting distortion of a vehicle-periphery image A vehicle-periphery image generating apparatus and a method of correcting distortion of vehicle-periphery image corrects distortion of the obstacle image appearing in the vehicle-periphery image after viewpoint conversion, so that visual discomfort experienced by th... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8068982 | On-vehicle navigation system An on-vehicle navigation system reliably performs guidance of a necessary exiting authorized section while avoiding the guidance of a needless exiting authorized section on a plural-lane road having a normal lane and a special lane where advancing from the normal la... | 11/29/2011 |
| 8041115 | Method and apparatus for determining a classification boundary for an object classifier In a method and apparatus for determining a classification boundary between an object, such as a vehicle, and a background, using an object classifier, a trained classifier is configured to classify and recognize each of a plurality of object images and a plurality ... | 10/18/2011 |
| 8040260 | System and method of displaying traffic information on a display device using a graphical element to indicate a category of the traffic information A traffic information display system comprises a traffic information processing unit adapted to receive traffic information data which are transmitted in multiple cycles and to generate at least one portion of traffic information from the traffic information data wh... | 10/18/2011 |
| 8032298 | Method and apparatus for incorporating adaptive scroll operation for navigation system A method and apparatus for a navigation system achieves a smooth and, intuitive scrolling operation by checking available resources such as a computational power of the navigation system and map data stored in a video memory to determine an optimum scrolling operati... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8024197 | Sampling rate conversion apparatus and method thereof A sampling rate conversion apparatus and a method thereof are provided which increase the sampling rate of a discrete audio signal sampled at a predetermined sampling rate by using a fractal interpolation function (FIF). An audio signal portion formed by a predeterm... | 09/20/2011 |
| 8019122 | Vehicle side image recognition method and apparatus A vehicle side image recognition method and apparatus inputs images containing recognized vehicles captured by a camera apparatus; sorts images with the recognized vehicles located at left and right sides of the camera apparatus from the input images; performs vehic... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8018488 | Vehicle-periphery image generating apparatus and method of switching images A vehicle-periphery image generating apparatus and an image switching method which provides a rear view image displayed additionally from a vehicle-periphery image is presented at an adequate timing with eye-friendliness. There are provided a parallel detector for d... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8010638 | Method and apparatus for updating firmware for interface unit connecting portable audio/video player with another audio/video player A method and apparatus updates software data for an interface unit that interfaces a portable audio/video player with another audio/video system. When the portable audio/video players are updated by adding new features, etc., the method and apparatus enables the use... | 08/30/2011 |
| 7991546 | Display method and apparatus for navigation system for efficiently searching cities on map image A display method and apparatus for a navigation system promotes to quickly search a desired on a map image with respect to an order of distance from a current vehicle position or other reference position. On the screen of the navigation system, it displays a special... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7991545 | Method and apparatus for selecting POI by brand icon A method and apparatus for selecting a desired point of interest (“POI”) for a navigation system displays matching brand icons associated with POIs to assist the user in finding an intended POI. When the user inputs characters indicating a POI name or a POI type... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7969423 | Display control system, operation input apparatus, and display control method A system includes a display, a touch panel, a controlling unit, and an LCD driver. The display can display, on a screen, different images when viewed from different sides. The touch panel is disposed on the screen. The controlling unit and the LCD driver cooperate t... | 06/28/2011 |
| 7965325 | Distortion-corrected image generation unit and distortion-corrected image generation method An internal parameter storage unit stores, in advance, a plurality of sets of internal parameters each of which can be applied to correct a pixel position in a direction from an image principal point, i.e., a plurality of sets of internal parameters for accommodatin... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7925438 | Method and apparatus for displaying route guidance list for navigation system A navigation system displays a route guidance list on a monitor screen in an intuitive and organized manner so that a user can easily understand information regarding the maneuvering locations and actions associated with the route to the destination. The route guida... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7925428 | Method and apparatus for efficiently storing map data regarding calculated route for navigation system A method and apparatus for a navigation system efficiently stores the data associated with a calculated route to the destination in a backup memory by incorporating a direction coding method. The method and apparatus can be advantageously implemented in such a situa... | 04/12/2011 |
| D635970 | Audio disc player with tuner for marine vessel | 04/12/2011 |
| D635969 | Audio disc player with tuner for vehicle | 04/12/2011 |
| 7921434 | Disc device having multiple disk carry-in speeds When a normal disk having the diameter of 12 cm is inserted into the disk device, first and second optical detecting elements detect the insertion, and transitions to a first detection state, which initiates transfer operation of first and second transfer rollers. I... | 04/05/2011 |
| 7920711 | Audio device and method for generating surround sound having first and second surround signal generation units An audio device capable of easily generating two or more sets of surround signals based on 2-channel stereo signals and a method for generating surround sound are provided. The audio device 100 includes: an SL signal generation section 20 and a BL sign... | 04/05/2011 |
