We propose a fully automatic method for detecting the carotid artery from volumetric ultrasound images as a preprocessing stage for building three-dimensional images of the structure of the carotid artery. The proposed detector utilizes support vector machine classifiers to discriminate between carotid artery images and non-carotid artery images using two kinds of LBP-based features. The detector switches between these features depending on the anatomical position along the carotid artery. We evaluate our proposed method using actual clinical cases. Accuracies of detection are 100%, 87.5% and 68.8% for the common carotid artery, internal carotid artery, and external carotid artery sections, respectively.

We propose a knowledge-based instruction system for writing beautiful Japanese characters correctly, by using ICAI techniques. With this kind of CAI, it is important to relate the character pattern with the skill knowledge of handwriting because the rules of writing are indirectly shown as a feature of the character pattern. However, the CAI for penmanship previously reported was only based on the pattern analysis of the character. In this paper, we describe the rules of writing for this system as the skill knowledge of penmanship in the declarative way. This system evaluates and reforms the student's handwriting based on the rules of writing stored in a knowledge base. We would also introduce the error knowledge by the student's frequent handwriting mistakes. Finally, this system can estimate the student's degree of handwriting ability by their input charecters and give suitable guidance for improving their skills of writing. Students can learn the skills and the knowledge of penmanship effectively by this system. This system is also useful for foreign students learning the Japanese language.

In this paper, we propose a fully automatic method for extracting carotid artery contours from ultrasound images based on an active contour approach. Several contour extraction techniques have been proposed to measure carotid artery walls for early detection of atherosclerotic disease. However, the majority of these techniques require a certain degree of user interaction that demands time and effort. Our proposal automatically detects the position of the carotid artery by identifying blood flow information related to the carotid artery, and an active contour model is employed that uses initial contours placed in the detected position. Our method also applies a global energy minimization scheme to the active contour model. Experiments on clinical cases show that the proposed method automatically extracts the carotid artery contours at an accuracy close to that achieved by manual extraction.

Recently, many non-traditional applications of Switched-Capacitor circuits have been popularly studied. As one of those applications, we present here a new constructing technique of a Switched-Capacitor Impedance Simulation Circuit (SC-ISC) with unity-gain buffers. Any desired impedance can be obtained by applying this SC-ISC technique. To make up a SC-ISC simply and generally, four kinds of basic constructing Units and two types of feedback circuits are introduced. Furthermore, by applying those Units, an arbitrary transfer function can be easily synthesized. In addition, some algorithms to obtain useful impedances are proposed. Several SC-ISC impedances were experimentally constructed and theoretically analyzed. In particular, some kinds of simple filters and oscillators were made and tested. They were also theoretically analyzed.

A light, thin and flexible applicator using a microstrip patch array for microwave heating is presented and tested in this work. The applicator is made of a flat silicone rubber bag, inside of which flows cooling water. EM coupling feeding is applied, which has no direct contact between the feed and the patch, to improve durability and reliability when it is repeatedly applied to the uneven surface of the heated portion of the human body. Simulations of SAR distribution are performed using the finite difference time domain (FD-TD) method. Simulated data are compared with the experimental ones using cubic and cylindrical phantom models with single and multielement patch applicators. Simulations of temperature distribution are also performed using the heat transfer equation. Simulated data are compared with the experimental ones using cubic and cylindrical phantom models. The simulated results agree well with the experimental ones. The results obtained here show that the multielement flexible microstrip patch applicator which operates at 430MHz can heat a relatively shallow and widespread area on the human body for hyperthermia treatments.

There is currently much interest in the development of Optic Wireless and Visible Light Communication (VLC) systems in the ITS field. Research in VLC and boomerang systems in particular often remain at a theoretical or computer-simulated level. This paper reports the 3-stage development of a boomerang prototype communication and ranging system using visible light V2V communication via LEDs and photodiodes, with direct-sequence spread spectrum techniques. The system uses simple and widely available components aiming for a low-cost frugal innovation approach. Results show that while we have to improve the prototype distance measurement unit due to a margin of error, simultaneous communication and ranging is possible with our newly designed prototype. The benefits of further research and development of boomerang technology prototypes are confirmed.