An entire dual-mode transceiver capable of both the conventional GFSK-modulated Bluetooth and the Medium-Rate π/4-DQPSK-modulated Bluetooth has been investigated and reported. The transmitter introduces a novel two-point-modulated polar-loop technique without the global feedback to realize reduced power consumption, small chip area and also high modulation accuracy. The receiver shares all the circuits for both operating modes except the demodulators and also features a newly-proposed cancellation technique of the carrier-frequency offset. The transceiver has been confirmed by system or circuit simulations to meet all the dual-mode Bluetooth specifications. The simulation results show that the transmitting power can be larger than 10 dBm while achieving the total power efficiency above 30% and also RMS DEVM of 0.050. It was also confirmed by simulation that the receiver is expected to attain the sensitivity of -85 dBm in both modes while satisfying the image-rejection and the blocker-suppression specifications. The proposed transceiver will provide a low-cost, low-power single-chip RF-IC solution for the next-generation Bluetooth communication.

This paper reports a novel design in Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCFs) with nearly zero ultra-flattened dispersion characteristics. We describe the chromatic dispersion controllability taking non-uniform air hole structures into consideration. Through optimizing non-uniform air hole structures, the ultra-flattened zero dispersion PCFs can be efficiently designed. We show numerically that the proposed non-uniform air cladding structures successfully archive flat dispersion characteristics as well as extremely low confinement losses. As an example, the proposed PCF with flattened dispersion of 0.27 ps/(nmkm) from 1.5 µm to 1.8 µm wavelength with confinement losses of less than 10-11 dB/m. Finally, we point out that full controllability of the chromatic dispersion and confinement losses, along with the fabrication technique, are the main advantages of the proposed PCF structure.

In this paper, we propose a novel bicubic method for digital image interpolation. Since the conventional bicubic method does not consider image local features, the interpolated images obtained by the conventional bicubic method often have a blurring problem. In this paper, the proposed bicubic method adopts both the local asymmetry features and the local gradient features of an image in the interpolation processing. Experimental results show that the proposed method can obtain high accuracy interpolated images.

This paper proposes a novel robust fundamental frequency (F0) estimation algorithm based on complex-valued speech analysis for an analytic speech signal. Since analytic signal provides spectra only over positive frequencies, spectra can be accurately estimated in low frequencies. Consequently, it is considered that F0 estimation using the residual signal extracted by complex-valued speech analysis can perform better for F0 estimation than that for the residual signal extracted by conventional real-valued LPC analysis. In this paper, the autocorrelation function weighted by AMDF is adopted for the F0 estimation criterion and four signals; speech signal, analytic speech signal, LPC residual and complex LPC residual, are evaluated for the F0 estimation. Speech signals used in the experiments were an IRS filtered speech corrupted by adding white Gaussian noise or Pink noise whose noise levels are 10, 5, 0, -5 [dB]. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm based on complex LPC residual can perform better than other methods in noisy environment.

Ethical and legal requirements have made accessibility a crucial feature in any information systems. This paper presents a content adaptation framework, based on the MPEG-21 standard, to help low-vision users have better accessibility to visual contents. We first present an overview of MPEG-21 Digital Item Adaptation (DIA) and the low-vision description tool which enables interoperable content adaptation. This description tool lists seven low-vision symptoms, namely loss of fine detail, lack of contrast, central vision loss, peripheral vision loss, hemianopia, light sensitivity, and need of light. Then we propose a systematic contrast-enhancement method to improve the content visibility for low-vision users, focusing on the first two symptoms. The effectiveness of the low-vision description tool and our adaptation framework is verified by some experiments with an adaptation test-bed. The major advantages of the proposed approach include 1) support of a wide range of low-vision conditions, and 2) customized content adaptation to specific characteristics of each user.

Bicubic interpolation is one of the standard approaches for image magnification since it can be easily computed and does not require a priori knowledge nor a complicated model. In spite of such convenience, the images enlarged by bicubic interpolation are blurry, in particular for large magnification factors. This may be explained by four constraints of bicubic interpolation. Hence, by relaxing or replacing the constraints, we propose a new magnification method, which performs better than bicubic interpolation, but retains its compactness. One of the constraints is about criterion, which we replace by a criterion requiring that all pixel values are reproduced and preferential components in input images are perfectly reconstructed. We show that, by choosing the low frequency components or edge enhancement components in the DCT basis as the preferential components, the proposed method performs better than bicubic interpolation, with the same, or even less amount of computation.

A speech enhancement method is proposed that can be implemented efficiently due to its use of wavelet packet transform. The proposed method uses a modified spectral subtraction with noise estimation by a least-squares line method and with an overweighting gain per subband with nonlinear structure, where the overweighting gain is used for suppressing the residue of musical noise and the subband is used for applying the weighted values according to the change of signals. The enhanced speech by our method has the following properties: 1) the speech intelligibility can be assured reliably; 2) the musical noise can be reduced efficiently. Various assessments confirmed that the performance of the proposed method was better than that of the compared methods in various noise-level conditions. Especially, the proposed method showed good results even at low SNR.

An audio-based shot classification method for audiovisual indexing is proposed in this paper. The proposed method mainly consists of two parts, an audio analysis part and a shot classification part. In the audio analysis part, the proposed method utilizes both principal component analysis (PCA) and Mahalanobis generalized distance (MGD). The effective features for the analysis can be automatically obtained by using PCA, and these features are analyzed based on MGD, which can take into account the correlations of the data set. Thus, accurate analysis results can be obtained by the combined use of PCA and MGD. In the shot classification part, the proposed method utilizes a fuzzy algorithm. By using the fuzzy algorithm, the mixing rate of the multiple audio sources can be roughly measured, and thereby accurate shot classification can be attained. Results of experiments performed by applying the proposed method to actual audiovisual materials are shown to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper describes a novel discrimination method of pulmonary nodules based on statistical analysis of thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans. Our previous Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system can detect pulmonary nodules from CT scans, but, at the same time, yields many false positives. In order to reduce the false positives, the method proposed in the present paper uses a relationship between pulmonary nodules, false positives and image features in CT scans. The trend of variation of the relationships is acquired through statistical analysis of a set of CT scans prepared for training. In testing, by use of the trend, the method predicts the appearances of pulmonary nodules and false positives in a CT scan, and improves the accuracy of the previous CAD system by modifying the system's output based on the prediction. The method is applied to 218 actual thoracic CT scans with 386 actual pulmonary nodules. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis is used to evaluate the results. The area under the ROC curve (Az) is statistically significantly improved from 0.918 to 0.931.

There are two methods of writing servo signals with high speed in a perpendicular magnetic recording medium by magnetic duplication: bit printing (BP) and edge printing (EP). In this study, the influence of spacing between master and slave media on duplication characteristics in both BP and EP has been investigated by the three-dimensional finite-element method. The results show that the duplication characteristic in each method is deteriorated with a large spacing. Also, the influence of a small spacing is stronger in BP than in EP.

In this paper, we presented a computer simulation analysis of high-density hologram recording, which is a promising mass optical memory technique. A simulation method for off-axis speckle-shift multiplexed recording by three-dimensional computer simulation analysis was presented, as well the signal evaluation of recording and reproduction. By this simulation method, the characteristic features of recording and reproduction are studied from the viewpoints of signal-to-noise-ratio and the reproduced image's quality, and a high-density speckle-shift multiplexed recording condition is proposed.

Recently, the decision feedback channel estimation based on the minimum mean square error criterion (DF-MMSE-CE) using a fixed DF filter coefficient has been proposed to improve the channel estimation accuracy for DS-CDMA with frequency-domain equalization (FDE). In this paper, we propose adaptive DF (ADF)-MMSE-CE, in which the DF filter coefficient is adapted to changing channel conditions based on a recursive least square (RLS) algorithm. Furthermore, the channel estimate is phase corrected upon the reception of the periodically inserted pilot chip blocks. The average BER performance of DS-CDMA with MMSE-FDE using ADF-MMSE-CE is evaluated by computer simulation in a frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channel and the simulation results show that our proposed scheme is very robust against fast fading.

Effect of dispersions of medium parameters and structure on the recording performance was systematically investigated. Moderately increased M-H loop slope is effective for obtaining higher thermal stability, smaller saturation fields, and higher resolution. It was found that the most influential factor is the dispersion in anisotropy field, Hk. Small Hk dispersion reduced the noise when exchange coupled media were used. Reduced grain size and a stacked structure of the media were expected to give a restricted gain in the signal to noise ratio.

As a powerful computational test for nonexistence of a DC solution of a nonlinear circuit, the LP test is well-known. This test is useful for finding all solutions of nonlinear circuits; it is also useful for verifying the nonexistence of a DC operating point in a given region where operating points should not exist. However, the LP test has not been widely used in practical circuit simulation because the programming is not easy for non-experts or beginners. In this paper, we propose a new LP test that can be easily implemented on SPICE without programming. The proposed test is useful because we can easily check the nonexistence of a solution using SPICE only.

In this paper, a simple piezoelectric floating mass transducer (PFMT) for implantable middle ear hearing devices (IMEHDs) is proposed and its modeling and designing are studied. The transducer which can be implanted in the meddle ear consists of a PMN-PT multi-layered piezoelectric actuator, an elastic material, and a metal case. The proposed transducer has a simple structure and the force generated from the piezoelectric actuator is efficiently transferred to the ossicles of the middle ear. For the analysis of the vibration characteristics, the transducer attached on the ossicle is simplified into a simple mechanical model considering the mass of an incus. And the vibration displacement of the model is calculated using computer simulation and verified by the experimental results. It is shown that the designed PFMT can allow implantation in the middle ear cavity and provide a sufficiently high output of more than 100 nm of vibration displacement. Plus, it is verified that the vibration characteristics of PFMT can be controlled through adjustment of the metal case size and the elastic material of the transducer.

Mn1-xZnxFe2O4 thin films with various Zn contents, 300 nm in thickness, were synthesized on glass substrates directly by electroless plating in aqueous solution at 90 without a heat treatment. With XRD, SEM, VSM, the crystallographic structure, morphology of the films and the macroscopic magnetic properties were characterized. The Mn-Zn ferrite films have a single phase spinel structure and well-crystallized columnar grains grow perpendicularly to the substrate. The change of the coercivity is not consistent with that of the bulk materials. As the Zn content in the films increases, the value of Hc decreases firstly, and then increases. At x=0.5, the minimum value of Hc is 3.7 kA/m and the value of Ms is 419.6 kA/m. The hyperfine magnetic fields, cation occupations and the distribution of the magnetic moments in film plane were studied by the conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy (CEMS).

In this paper, we propose a low complexity realization method for compensating for nonlinear distortion. Generally, nonlinear distortion is compensated for by a linearization system using a Volterra kernel. However, this method has a problem of requiring a huge computational complexity for the convolution needed between an input signal and the 2nd-order Volterra kernel. The Simplified Volterra Filter (SVF), which removes the lines along the main diagonal of the 2nd-order Volterra kernel, has been previously proposed as a way to reduce the computational complexity while maintaining the compensation performance for the nonlinear distortion. However, this method cannot greatly reduce the computational complexity. Hence, we propose a subband linearization system which consists of a subband parallel cascade realization method for the 2nd-order Volterra kernel and subband linear inverse filter. Experimental results show that this proposed linearization system can produce the same compensation ability as the conventional method while reducing the computational complexity.

In previous research, we have proposed a parallel block scaled gradient with decentralized step-size (PBSGDS) method. The method circumvents the difficulty of determining a step-size in the distributed computing environment and enables the proposed parallel algorithm to execute in a distributed computer network with limited amount of date transfer. In this paper, we implement the parallel algorithm within two real Independent System Operator (ISO) Networks, including homogeneous and heterogeneous types PCs-Networks environments, and demonstrate the computational efficiency and numerical satiability through numerous simulation test results in solving a Convex Block Additive Unconstrained (CBAU) optimization problem. Furthermore, the test results show that the performance of the proposed parallel algorithm appears more attractive due to the asynchronous effect in the distributed computing environment.

In this paper, a novel speech enhancement algorithm based on the MAP estimation is proposed. The proposed speech enhancer adaptively changes the speech spectral density used in the MAP estimation according to the sum of the observed power spectra. In a speech segment, the speech spectral density approaches to Rayleigh distribution to keep the quality of the enhanced speech. While in a non-speech segment, it approaches to an exponential distribution to reduce noise effectively. Furthermore, when the noise is super-Gaussian, we modify the width of Gaussian so that the Gaussian model with the modified width approximates the distribution of the super-Gaussian noise. This technique is effective in suppressing residual noise well. From computer experiments, we confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Shift margins in down and cross track directions and skew angle were investigated using micromagnetic simulation with a shielded planar head for patterned media with an areal density of 1 Tbit/in2. The shift margins were quantitatively estimated using parameters of the head field and the magnetic properties of media. It is essential to use a head with a higher field gradient and a medium with a small field width between saturation and nucleation fields, to obtain a larger down track shift margin, and a head with a narrower cross track field distribution to obtain a larger cross track shift margin and skew angle margin.