In this article, we introduce a new concept for the future information environment, called an "ambient information environment (AmIE)." We first explain it, especially emphasizing the difference from the existing ubiquitous information environment (UbIE), which is an interaction between users and environments. Then, we focus on an ambient networking environment (AmNE) which supports the AmIE as a networking infrastructure. Our approach of a biologically inspired framework is next described in order to demonstrate why such an approach is necessary in the AmIE. Finally, we show some example for building the AmNE.

This paper describes a distinctive phonetic feature (DPF) extraction method for use in a phoneme recognition system; our method has a low computation cost. This method comprises three stages. The first stage uses two multilayer neural networks (MLNs): MLNLF-DPF, which maps continuous acoustic features, or local features (LFs), onto discrete DPF features, and MLNDyn, which constrains the DPF context at the phoneme boundaries. The second stage incorporates inhibition/enhancement (In/En) functionalities to discriminate whether the DPF dynamic patterns of trajectories are convex or concave, where convex patterns are enhanced and concave patterns are inhibited. The third stage decorrelates the DPF vectors using the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure before feeding them into a hidden Markov model (HMM)-based classifier. In an experiment on Japanese Newspaper Article Sentences (JNAS) utterances, the proposed feature extractor, which incorporates two MLNs and an In/En network, was found to provide a higher phoneme correct rate with fewer mixture components in the HMMs.

A new hierarchical isosurface reconstruction scheme from a set of tomographic cross sectional images is presented. From the input data, we construct a hierarchy of volume, called the volume pyramid, based on a 3D dilation filter. After extracting the base mesh from the volume at the coarsest level by the cell-boundary method, we iteratively fit the mesh to the isopoints representing the actual isosurface of the volume. The SWIS (Shrink-wrapped isosurface) algorithm is adopted in this process, and a mesh subdivision scheme is utilized to reconstruct fine detail of the isosurface. According to experiments, our method is proved to produce a hierarchical isosurface which can be utilized by various multiresolution algorithms such as interactive visualization and progressive transmission.

Cooperative transmission is an efficient approach to improve the performance of wireless communications over fading channels without the need for physical co-located antenna arrays. In this paper, we propose a novel cooperative protocol with selective decode-and-forward relays and generalized selection combining (GSC) technique at destination. The advantage of this scheme is that it not only allows us to optimize the structure of destination but also to fully exploit the diversity offered by the channels with an appropriate number of chosen strongest paths. For an arbitrary number of relays, an exact and closed-form expression of the Symbol Error Rate (SER) is derived for M-ary PSK in independent but not identically distributed Rayleigh fading channels. Various simulations are performed and their results exactly match the results of analyses.

We propose a new band selective stop filter construction to decrease the out of band intermodulation distortion (IMD) noise generated in the transmitting power amplifier. Suppression of IMD noise directly improves the adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACLR). A high-temperature superconducting (HTS) device with extremely high-Q performance with very small hybrid IC pattern would make it possible to implement the proposed filter construction as a practical device. To confirm the effectiveness of the HTS reaction-type filter (HTS-RTF) in improving ACLR, investigations based on both experiments and numerical analyses are carried out. The structure of a 5-GHz split open-ring resonator is investigated; its targets include high-unload Q-factor, low current densities, and low radiation. A designed 5-GHz HTS-RTF with 4 MHz suppression bandwidth and more than 40 dB MHz-1 sharp skirt is fabricated and experimentally investigated. The measured ACLR values are improved by a maximum of 12.8 dB and are constant up to the passband signal power of 40 dBm. In addition, to examine the power efficiency improvement offered by noise suppression of the HTS-RTF, numerical analyses based on measured results of gallium nitride HEMT power amplifier characteristics are conducted. The analyzed results shows the drain efficiency of the amplifier can be improved to 44.2% of the amplifier with the filter from the 15.7% of the without filter.

When we watch television or computer monitor under a certain viewing condition, we partially adapt to the display and partially to the ambient light. As an illumination level and chromaticity change, the eye's subjective white point changes between the display's white point and the ambient light's white point. In this paper, we propose a model that could predict the white point under a mixed adaptation condition including display and illuminant. Finally we verify this model by experimental results.

Boundary detection is one of the most studied problems in computer vision. It is the foundation of contour grouping, and initially affects the performance of grouping algorithms. In this paper we propose a novel boundary detection algorithm for contour grouping, which is a selective attention guided coarse-to-fine scale pyramid model. Our algorithm evaluates each edge instead of each pixel location, which is different from others and suitable for contour grouping. Selective attention focuses on the whole saliency objects instead of local details, and gives global spatial prior for boundary existence of objects. The evolving process of edges through the coarsest scale to the finest scale reflects the importance and energy of edges. The combination of these two cues produces the most saliency boundaries. We show applications for boundary detection on natural images. We also test our approach on the Berkeley dataset and use it for contour grouping. The results obtained are pretty good.

A Policy-based Network Management (PBNM) in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) should be efficient and reliable. In this letter, we propose a mechanism for the policy-based management in ad hoc networks and we discuss methods to discover the Policy Decision Point (PDP), set the management area, and manage the movements of nodes in the PBNM system. Finally, we assess the results through simulations.

Recently, there has been growing interest in the design of wireless cooperative protocol to achieve higher diversity-multiplexing tradeoff among single antenna devices. We propose an automatic request for cooperation (ARC) scheme for wireless networks which can achieve higher order diversity by selecting the best relay. In this scheme, a source transmits a data packet towards a destination and a group of relays. The destination tries to decode the information from the source and if the detection is correct the process will stop. Otherwise, the destination transmits an ARC towards the relays. We utilize this ARC signal for selecting the best relay from the set of relays that have successfully decoded the source packet. The selected relay generates and transmits redundant information for the source packet. The destination combines the two packets received from the source and the best relay to improve the reliability of the packet. We analyze the packet error rate, spectral efficiency and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff of our proposal and compare them with some existing protocols. Analysis shows that our proposal can achieve higher diversity multiplexing tradeoff than conventional cooperative protocols.

In this letter, we propose a computationally efficient search space for QRM-MLD that is used for spatially multiplexed multiple antenna systems. We perform a set of computer simulations to show that the proposed method achieves a performance that is near to that of the original QRM-MLD, while its computational complexity is near to that of rank-QRM-MLD.

Because of an increasing number of security cameras, it is crucial to establish a system that protects the privacy of objects in the recorded images. To this end, we propose a framework of image processing and data hiding for security monitoring and privacy protection. First, we state the requirements of the proposed monitoring systems and suggest possible implementation that satisfies those requirements. The underlying concept of our proposed framework is as follows: (1) in the recorded images, the objects whose privacy should be protected are deteriorated by appropriate image processing; (2) the original objects are encrypted and watermarked into the output image, which is encoded using an image compression standard; (3) real-time processing is performed such that no future frame is required to generate on output bitstream. It should be noted that in this framework, anyone can observe the decoded image that includes the deteriorated objects that are unrecognizable or invisible. On the other hand, for crime investigation, this system allows a limited number of users to observe the original objects by using a special viewer that decrypts and decodes the watermarked objects with a decoding password. Moreover, the special viewer allows us to select the objects to be decoded and displayed. We provide an implementation example, experimental results, and performance evaluations to support our proposed framework.

This paper proposes a scan design for delay fault testability of dual circuits. In normal operation mode, each proposed scan flip flop operates as a master-slave flip flop. In test mode, the proposed scan design performs scan operation using two scan paths, namely master scan path and slave scan path. The master scan path consists of master latches and the slave scan path consists of slave latches. In the proposed scan design, arbitrary two-patterns can be set to flip flops of dual circuits. Therefore, it achieves complete fault coverage for robust and non-robust testable delay fault testing. It requires no extra latch unlike enhanced scan design. Thus the area overhead is low. The evaluation shows the test application time of the proposed scan design is 58.0% of that of the enhanced scan design, and the area overhead of the proposed scan design is 13.0% lower than that of the enhanced scan design. In addition, in testing of single circuits, it achieves complete fault coverage of robust and non-robust testable delay fault testing. It requires smaller test data volume than the enhanced scan design in testing of single circuits.

This paper proposes an adaptive transmission control method for massive and intensive telecommunication traffic generated by communication-broadcasting integrated services. The proposed method adaptively controls data transmissions from viewers depending on the congestion states, so that severe congestion can be effectively avoided. Furthermore, it utilizes the broadcasting channel which is not only scalable, but also reliable for controlling the responses from vast numbers of viewers. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through experiments on a test bed where approximately one million viewers are emulated. The obtained results quantitatively demonstrate the performance of the proposed method and its effectiveness under massive and intensive traffic conditions.

Let u and v be any two distinct vertices of an undirected graph G, which is k-connected. For 1 w k, a w-container C(u, v) of a k-connected graph G is a set of w-disjoint paths joining u and v. A w-container C(u, v) of G is a w *-container if it contains all the vertices of G. A graph G is w *-connected if there exists a w *-container between any two distinct vertices. Let κ(G) be the connectivity of G. A graph G is super spanning connected if G is i *-connected for 1 i κ(G). In this paper, we prove that the n-dimensional burnt pancake graph Bn is super spanning connected if and only if n ≠ 2.

Frame loss of the optical layer protection switching using Plumbum Lanthanum Zirconium Titanium (PLZT) optical switch is evaluated. Experimental results show that typically 62 µs guard time is required for commercially available non-burst mode 10 Gigabit Ethernet modules.

Although software-attack detection via dynamic taint analysis (DTA) supports high coverage of program execution, it prohibitively degrades the performance of the monitored program. This letter explores the possibility of collaborative dynamic taint analysis among members of an application community (AC): instead of full monitoring for every request at every instance of the AC, each member uses DTA for some fraction of the incoming requests, thereby loosening the burden of heavyweight monitoring. Our experimental results using a test AC based on the Apache web server show that speedy detection of worm outbreaks is feasible with application communities of medium size (i.e., 250-500).

By use of the shadow theory developed recently, this paper deals with the transverse electric (TE) wave diffraction by a perfectly conductive periodic array of rectangular grooves. A set of equations for scattering factors and mode factors are derived and solved numerically. In terms of the scattering factors, diffraction amplitudes and diffraction efficiencies are calculated and shown in figures. It is demonstrated that diffraction efficiencies become discontinuous at an incident wave number where the incident wave is switched from a propagating wave to an evanescent one, whereas scattering factors and diffraction amplitudes are continuous even at such an incident wave number.

It is a tedious and subjective task to measure severity of a dysarthria by manually evaluating his/her speech using available standard assessment methods based on human perception. This paper presents an automated approach to assess speech quality of a dysarthric speaker with cerebral palsy. With the consideration of two complementary factors, speech consistency and speech distinction, a speech quality indicator called speech clarity index (Ψ) is proposed as a measure of the speaker's ability to produce consistent speech signal for a certain word and distinguished speech signal for different words. As an application, it can be used to assess speech quality and forecast speech recognition rate of speech made by an individual dysarthric speaker before actual exhaustive implementation of an automatic speech recognition system for the speaker. The effectiveness of Ψ as a speech recognition rate predictor is evaluated by rank-order inconsistency, correlation coefficient, and root-mean-square of difference. The evaluations had been done by comparing its predicted recognition rates with ones predicted by the standard methods called the articulatory and intelligibility tests based on the two recognition systems (HMM and ANN). The results show that Ψ is a promising indicator for predicting recognition rate of dysarthric speech. All experiments had been done on speech corpus composed of speech data from eight normal speakers and eight dysarthric speakers.

The Transition Edge Sensor (TES)-Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) is an X-ray detector with high-energy resolution (12.8 eV). The TES can be mounted to a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The TES-EDS is based on a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator. The high-energy resolution enables analysis of the distribution of various elements in samples under low acceleration voltage (typically under 5 keV) by using K-lines of light elements and M lines of heavy elements. For example, the energy of the arsenic L line differs from the magnesium K line by 28 eV. When used to analyze the spore of the Pteris vittata L plant, the TES-EDS clearly reveals a different distribution of As and Mg in the micro region of the plant. The TES-EDS with SEM yields detailed information about the distribution of multi-elements in a sample.

We report on the spurious suppression effect in low-microwave power transmitters by high temperature superconducting (HTS) bandpass filters (BPFs) which are promising for devices requiring BPFs with high-frequency selectivity. Some of the major issues on the power BPFs with HTS planar circuits for wireless communication applications are reviewed. As a case study for the HTS filter and its spurious suppression effect, this paper describes an example of the measured power spectrum density (PSD) on the suppression effect by one of our developed power BPFs with YBCO films for the 5 GHz band. It was designed with equivalent cascade resonators of 16 poles. We demonstrated the effect by HTS power filter in a power amplifier for the 5 GHz band.