To understand the brightness uniformity for the driver of the LED array display, automatic electronic measurement equipment and its testing scheme will be proposed in this paper. The driving performance and dynamic characteristics will be investigated by using the proposed current-based bias voltage regulator. A complete testing procedure will be provided to assess the performance for the LED array display driver.

This work proposes a technique to automatically obtain timing constraints for a given timed circuit to operate correctly. A designated set of delay parameters of a circuit are first set to sufficiently large bounds, and verification runs followed by failure analysis are repeated. Each verification run performs timed state space enumeration under the given delay bounds, and produces a failure trace if it exists. The failure trace is analyzed, and sufficient timing constraints to prevent the failure are obtained. Then, the delay bounds are tightened according to the timing constraints by using an ILP (Integer Linear Programming) solver. This process terminates when either some delay bounds under which no failure is detected are found or no new delay bounds to prevent the failures can be obtained. The experimental results using a naive implementation show that the proposed method can efficiently handle asynchronous benchmark circuits and nontrivial GasP circuits.

This letter introduces a modified multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) signal with low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). From the presented results, we can see that the modified MB-OFDM signal can be implemented with low PAPR. When MB-OFDM signals is equipped with a partial transmit sequence (PTS) approach, the PAPR of the modified MB-OFDM signals using two partial transmit sequences is almost the same to that of the ordinary MB-OFDM signals using four partial transmit sequences.

A new sub-1-V CMOS bandgap voltage reference without using low-threshold-voltage device is presented in this paper. The new proposed sub-1-V bandgap reference with startup circuit has been successfully verified in a standard 0.25-µm CMOS process, where the occupied silicon area is only 177 µm106 µm. The experimental results have shown that, with the minimum supply voltage of 0.85 V, the output reference voltage is 238.2 mV at room temperature, and the temperature coefficient is 58.1 ppm/ from -10 to 120 without laser trimming. Under the supply voltage of 0.85 V, the average power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) is -33.2 dB at 10 kHz.

We are developing a helper robot that carries out tasks ordered by the user through speech. The robot needs a vision system to recognize the objects appearing in the orders. It is, however, difficult to realize vision systems that can work in various conditions. Thus, we have proposed to use the human user's assistance through speech. When the vision system cannot achieve a task, the robot makes a speech to the user so that the natural response by the user can give helpful information for its vision system. Our previous system assumes that it can segment images without failure. However, if there are occluded objects and/or objects composed of multicolor parts, segmentation failures cannot be avoided. This paper presents an extended system that tries to recover from segmentation failures using photometric invariance. If the system is not sure about segmentation results, the system asks the user by appropriate expressions depending on the invariant values. Experimental results show the usefulness of the system.

A batch process is a discontinuous and concurrent process which is suitable for multi-product, small-sized production. The distinctive feature of a batch process is that various decision making processes, such as scheduling, design, operation, etc. are strongly connected with each other. Interaction among these processes is necessary to dynamically and flexibly cope with a variety of unplanned events. This paper aims at presenting a batch scheduling technique based on Petri net models and showing the possibilities of integration between scheduling and design of batch processes. For this purpose, it first views the behavior of a batch operating system as a discrete event system and presents a Petri net model to be used for scheduling, design and operation. It next formulates batch scheduling problems based on Petri net partial languages, proposes their solution technique and last discusses the integration between scheduling and design of batch systems.

An accurate audio-visual speech corpus is inevitable for talking-heads research. This paper presents our audio-visual speech corpus collection and proposes a head-movement normalization method and a facial motion generation method. The audio-visual corpus contains speech data, movie data on faces, and positions and movements of facial organs. The corpus consists of Japanese phoneme-balanced sentences uttered by a female native speaker. An accurate facial capture is realized by using an optical motion-capture system. We captured high-resolution 3D data by arranging many markers on the speaker's face. In addition, we propose a method of acquiring the facial movements and removing head movements by using affine transformation for computing displacements of pure facial organs. Finally, in order to easily create facial animation from this motion data, we propose a technique assigning the captured data to the facial polygon model. Evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed facial motion generation method and show the relationship between the number of markers and errors.

The gamma correction for the CMOS image sensors are implemented by the method of piecewise linear approximation through a look-up table. In this paper, we propose a quantitative criterion to select the piece linear segment with the same output interval for the reduction of the error between the value of piece linear approximation and gamma correction. After the gamma correction is implemented, the average error occurred by implementing color interpolation in each segment is a basis for the optimum selecting of the piece linear segment of the gamma correction for the CMOS image sensors.

In this study, the new signal model suitable for ultrawide band (UWB) indoor environments with random angle spread is proposed to estimate the angle-of-arrivals (AOAs) of clusters in a UWB wireless communication. The subspace based estimation technique adopted for this model is investigated and the estimates of the AOA and distribution parameter on the received clusters are obtained. The proposed model and estimation technique are verified using computer simulations, and the performance of the estimation error is analyzed.

This paper describes an approach to generating speech with emotional expressivity and speaking style variability. The approach is based on a speaking style and emotional expression modeling technique for HMM-based speech synthesis. We first model several representative styles, each of which is a speaking style and/or an emotional expression, in an HMM-based speech synthesis framework. Then, to generate synthetic speech with an intermediate style from representative ones, we synthesize speech from a model obtained by interpolating representative style models using a model interpolation technique. We assess the style interpolation technique with subjective evaluation tests using four representative styles, i.e., neutral, joyful, sad, and rough in read speech and synthesized speech from models obtained by interpolating models for all combinations of two styles. The results show that speech synthesized from the interpolated model has a style in between the two representative ones. Moreover, we can control the degree of expressivity for speaking styles or emotions in synthesized speech by changing the interpolation ratio in interpolation between neutral and other representative styles. We also show that we can achieve style morphing in speech synthesis, namely, changing style smoothly from one representative style to another by gradually changing the interpolation ratio.

In virtue of great progress in computer graphics technologies, CG movies have been getting popular. However, cinematography techniques, which contribute to improving the contents' comprehensibility, need to be learned from professional experiences, and not easily acquired by non-professional people. This paper focuses on film cutting as one of the most important cinematography techniques in conversational scenes, and presents a system that automatically generates shot transitions to improve comprehensibility of CG contents. First, we propose a cognitive model of User Involvement serving as constraints on selecting shot transitions. Then, to examine the validity of the model, we analyze shot transitions in TV programs, and based on the analysis, we implement a CG contents creation system. Results of our preliminary evaluation experiment show the effectiveness of the proposed method, specifically in enhancing contents' comprehensibility.

CR (Computed Radiography) is characterized by high sensitivity and wide dynamic range. Moreover, it has the advantage of being able to transfer exposed images directly to a computer-aided detection (CAD) system which is not possible using conventional film digitizer systems. This paper proposes a high-performance clustered microcalcification detection system for CR mammography. Before detecting and classifying candidate regions, the system preprocesses images with a normalization step to take into account various imaging conditions and to enhance microcalcifications with weak contrast. Large-scale experiments using images taken under various imaging conditions at seven hospitals were performed. According to analysis of the experimental results, the proposed system displays high performance. In particular, at a true positive detection rate of 97.1%, the false positive clusters average is only 0.4 per image. The introduction of geometrical features of each microcalcification for identifying true microcalcifications contributed to the performance improvement. One of the aims of this study was to develop a system for practical use. The results indicate that the proposed system is promising.

The pulsed backlight system has been introduced for reducing motion blurs of LCDs in high motion pictures. But applying the pulsed backlight, full screen flicker and inconsistency of transmissivity for entire frame at a lightening time should be considered. This paper discusses the analysis of blurs in high motion pictures and proposes the design method for more suitable display terminal of LCDs.

A rack-mounted DC power-supply system utilizing Li-ion batteries, which have higher energy density than conventional VRLA batteries, was developed. The system was designed to have the management functions of Li-ion batteries, such as overcharge protection, over-discharge protection, and cell-voltage equalization, by taking operational requirements into consideration. The volume and weight of the entire system were decreased to one-fourth and three-fifths, respectively, of the volume and weight of a conventional system, making the proposed system ideal as a high-energy-density backup power supply. The functions, system configuration, and characteristics of this rack-mounted DC power supply system utilizing Li-ion batteries are described.

This paper proposes a new detection ordering scheme, which minimizes average error rate of the MIMO system with per antenna rate control. This paper shows an optimal scheme minimizing average error rate expressed by the Q function, and simplifies the optimal scheme by using the minimum equivalent SINR scaled by modulation indices, based on approximated error rate. In spite of reduced complexity, the simplified scheme demonstrates the almost same performance as the optimal scheme. Owing to the diversity of detection ordering, the proposed scheme has over 2 dB higher SNR gain at the BER of 10-3 than the existing ordering schemes in balanced array size systems.

A range top-k query returns the topmost k records in the order set by a measure attribute within a specified region of multi-dimensional data. The range top-k query is a powerful tool for analysis in spatial databases and data warehouse environments. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to answer the query by selectively traversing an aggregate R-tree having MAX as the aggregate values. The algorithm can execute the query by accessing only a small part of the leaf nodes within a query region. Therefore, it shows good query performance regardless of the size of the query region. We suggest an efficient pruning technique for the priority queue, which reduces the cost of handling the priority queue, and also propose an efficient technique for leaf node organization to reduce the number of node accesses to execute the range top-k queries.

We can model embedded systems as hybrid systems. Moreover, they are distributed and real-time systems. Therefore, it is important to specify and verify randomness and soft real-time properties. For the purpose of system verification, we formally define probabilistic linear hybrid automaton and its symbolic reachability analysis method. It can describe uncertainties and soft real-time characteristics.

In this paper, Information-Spectrum characterization is derived for the reliable transmission of general correlated sources over the general multiple-access channels. We consider the necessary and sufficient conditions for the transmission of general correlated sources over the general multiple-access channels by using Information-Spectrum methods which are introduced by Han and Verdu.

Petri nets are a well-known graphical and modeling tool for concurrent and distributed systems, and there have been many results on the theory, and also on practical applications. In the last decade, various Object-Oriented Petri nets (OO-nets) are proposed. As object orientation was adopted for programming languages, extension to OO-nets inspired from object-oriented programming is a natural flow. This article presents state-of-the-art on OO-nets.

The blind separation problem of analog modulated radio signals and their DOA (Direction Of Arrival) estimation problem are considered. These problems are very important in radio surveillance. Based on the idea of Carlos and Takada [1], the following two methods are proposed for an Independent Component Analysis (ICA) based radio surveillance system. The first method is concerned with the improvement of DOA estimation accuracy after signal separation by ICA. Another method treats separation and DOA estimation in multipath environment. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is proved by computer simulation.