A soft-start circuit is provided. When diagnosing degradation of the ternary catalyst, the downstream air-fuel ratio feedback control unit is stopped or its control constant is set at a smaller value. The right-angled member is mounted so as to be rotatable between a rest position, in which the cutting blade is pressed by a spring against a protective member, and a working position, in which the cutting blade is lifted from the protective member so that serrations thereon intersect the path of the adhesive tape. The apparatus further inludes a conditional inverter to apply the invert signal to the pluraility of bits. The electrical current is supplied at a controlled cycle rate and for a controlled duration. An exemplary method includes obtaining a hyperspectral image of an object; analyzing the hyperspectral image according to an algorithm; and correlating data obtained from the analysis with material properties of the object.