This paper focuses on the problems how to organize and retrieve video data in an effective manner. First we identify several issues to be solved for the problems. Next, we overview our current research results together with a brief survey in the research area of video databases. We especially describe the following research results obtained by the the Japanese Ministry of Education under Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area: "Advanced Databases" concerned with organization and retrieval of video data: Instance-Based Video Annotation Models, Self-Organization of Video Data, and A Query Model for Fragmentally Indexed Video.

This paper describes a new floating-point divider (FDIV), in which the key features of redundant binary circuits and an asynchronous clock scheme reduce the delay time and area penalty. The redundant binary representation of +1 = (1, 0), 0 = (0, 0), -1 = (0,1) is applied to the all mantissa division circuits. The simple and unified representation reduces circuit delay for the quotient determination. Additionally, the local clock generator circuit for the asynchronous clock scheme eliminates clock margin overhead. The generator circuit guarantees the worst delay-time operation by the feedback loop of the replica delay paths via a C-element. The internal iterative operation by the asynchronous scheme and the modified redundant-binary addition/subtraction circuit keep the area small. The architecture design avoids extra calculation time for the post processes, whose main role is to produce the floating-point status flags. The FDIV core using proposed technologies operates at 42. 1 ns with 0.35 µm CMOS technology and triple metal interconnections. The small core of 13.5 k transistors is laid-out in a 730µm 910 µm area.

Page-based DSM systems suffer from false sharing since they use a large page as a coherence unit. The optimal page size is dynamically affected by application characteristics. Therefore, a fixed-size page cannot satisfy various applications even if it is small as a cache line size. In this paper we present a software-only coherence protocol called BCP (Buddy Coherence Protocol) to support multiple page sizes that vary adaptively according to the behavior of each application during run time. In BCP, the address of a remote access and the address of the most recent local access is compared. If they are to the different halves of a page, BCP considers it as false sharing and demotes the page to two subpages of equal size. If two contiguous pages belong to the same node, BCP promotes two pages to a superpage to reduce the number of the following coherence activities. We also suggest a mechanism to detect data sharing patterns to optimize the protocol. It detects and keeps the sharing pattern for each page by a state transition mechanism. By referring to those patterns, BCP selectively demotes the page and increases the effectiveness of a demotion. Self-invalidation of the migratorily shared page is also employed to reduce the number of invalidations. Our simulations show that the optimized BCP outperforms almost all the best cases of the write-invalidate protocols using fixed-size pages. BCP improves performance by 42.2% for some applications when compared against the case of the fixed-size page.

Network survivability against various unexpected failures is one of indispensable technologies for the B-ISDN infrastructure. Self-healing algorithm is the technique to automatically restore the failed VP's (virtual paths) in the backbone ATM network. Since the B-ISDN transports various kinds of traffic with various levels of priority (Grade of Service: GoS), the effective self-healing algorithm should orderly restore the failed VP's based on the priority of their traversing traffic. This paper proposes the priority based restoring self-healing algorithm, which realizes the priority based restoring function by the two-timer mechanisms and a simple capacity reserving protocol. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can schedule the restoration process so that the failed VP's with higher priority are restored before the others with lower priority. In addition, the significant improvement in restoration speed for the highest priority traffic class has been achieved.

A fuzzy Kohonen clustering network was proposed which integrates the Fuzzy c-means (FCM) model into the learning rate and updating strategies of the Kohonen network. This yields an optimization problem related to FCM, and the numerical results show improved convergence as well as reduced labeling error. However, the clusters may be either hyperspherical-shaped or hyperellipsoidal-shaped, we use a generalized objective function involving a collection of linear varieties. In this way the model is distributed and consists of a series of `local' linear-type models (based on the revealed clusters). We propose a method to generalize the fuzzy Kohonen clustering networks. Anderson's IRIS data and the artificial data set are used to illustrate this method; and results are compared with the standard Kohonen approach and the fuzzy Kohonen clustering networks.

This paper studies how the self-similarity of traffic changes through shaper (buffered leaky bucket) and switch in ATM networks by numerical experiments. Further the applicability of CAC algorithm to shaped self-similar traffic is also investigated. Numerical experiments show self-similarity of total output traffic from shapers and switch is kept while connection-wise self-similarity is broken.

A new traffic engineering and operation of ATM networks is described, which features adaptive virtual path (VP) bandwidth control and VP network reconfiguration capabilities. We call this operation system resilient self-sizing operation. By making full use of self-sizing network (SSN) capabilities, we can operate an ATM network efficiently and keep high robustness against traffic demand fluctuation and network failures, while reducing operating costs. In a multimedia environment, the multimedia services and unpredictability of traffic demand make network traffic management a very challenging problem. SSNs, which are defined as ATM networks with self-sizing traffic engineering and operation capability are expected to overcome these difficulties. This paper proposes VP network operation methods of self-sizing networks for high flexibility and survivability. The VP network operation is composed of adaptive VP bandwidth control to absorb changes in traffic demand, VP rerouting control to recover from failures, and VP network reconfiguration control to optimize the network. The combination of these controls can achieve good performance in flexibility and survivability.

The hippocampus is thought to play an important role in the transformation from short-term memory into long-term memory, which is called consolidation. The physiological phenomenon of synaptic change called LTP or LTD has been studied as a basic mechanism for learning and memory. The neural network mechanism of the consolidation, however, is not clarified yet. The authors' approach is to construct information processing theory in learning and memory, which can explain the physiological data and behavioral data. This paper proposes a dynamical hippocampal model which can store and recall spatial input patterns. The authors assume that the primary functions of hippocampus are to store episodic information of sensory signals and to keep them for a while until the neocortex stores them as a long-term memory. On the basis of the hippocampal architecture and hypothetical synaptic dynamics of LTP/LTD, the authors construct a hippocampal model. This model considers: (1) divergent connections, (2) the synaptic dynamics of LTP and LTD based on pre- and postsynaptic coincidence, and (3) propagation of LTD. Computer simulations show that this model can store and recall its input spatial pattern by self-organizing closed activating pathways. By the backward propagation of LTD, the synaptic pathway for a specific spatial input pattern can be selected among the divergent closed connections. In addition, the output pattern also suggests that this model is sensitive to the temporal timing of input signals. This timing sensitivity suggests the applicability to spatio-temporal input patterns of this model. Future extensions of this model are also discussed.

We show that characteristic functions of elements of self-similar tilings can be used as scaling functions of multiresolution analysis of L2(Rn). This multiresolution analysis is a generalization of a self-affine tiling multiresolution analysis using a characteristic function of element of self-affine tiling as a scaling function. We give a method of constructing a wavelet basis which realizes such an MRA.

In the future broadband networks, multicast services such as video conferencing and distance learning will become increasingly important. To support these multimedia services, one solution is to form an AMT(ATM Multicast Tree)to connect all the conferencing members. In this paper, based on AMT survivability requirements, we investigate the self-healing of an AMT. Self-healing on AMT is a new challenge of survivability of multimedia services. The pre-assign way is a method we usually considered on protection. If we construct a disjoint backup tree, the low building probability and complicated loading on constructing is the first problem. Second, if only one link or node failed on an AMT, we need to reroute links and reserve bandwidth on whole backup tree. Moreover, since the AMT usually transmits video images, the restoration rate will be decreased because even only one branch of backup tree does not endure the required bandwidth. These enhance us to restore the AMT by dynamic restoration scheme. Two proposed dynamic restoration schemes are developed to provide prioritized restoration from a link or node failure. In the first scheme, we apply a link-based restoration scheme on the AMT. The restoration is based on the failed links of network and does not take whole AMT into account. In the second scheme, without changing the multicast services to the members, we allow reconfiguration of the AMT during the restoration phase. Reconfiguration of the AMT is based on a tree-based restoration concept. By computer simulations, we verify the characteristics of the proposed schemes and the results show that the second scheme outperforms the first.

The advantage of random testing is that test application can be performed at a low cost in the BIST scheme. However, not all circuits are random pattern testable due to the existence of random pattern resistant faults. In this paper, we present a method for improving the random pattern testability of logic circuits by partial circuit duplication approach. The basic idea is to detect random pattern resistant faults by using the difference between the duplicated part of a circuit and the original part. Experimental results on benchmark circuits show that high fault coverage can be achieved with a very small amount of hardware overhead.

Recent technologies of organic film devices are reviewed. New technologies of fabrication and characterization of organic thin films, electro-mechanical conversion materials, and applications for electrical and optical devices are discussed. In this review paper, especially organic light emitting diodes, tunneling junctions using polyimide Langmuir-Blodgett films, tunneling spectroscopy and high-density recording, plastic actuators using conducting polymers, molecular self-assembly process for fabricating organic thin film devices are reviewed.

A photorefractive ring resonator with self-pumped four-wave mixing (PRRR-SPFWM) in which the Cat mirror region and the four-wave mixing region are formed in a single photorefractive crystal is proposed, and the steady-state analysis of this unknown device is first performed. Since the backward pump beam is generated as a phase conjugate of the forward pump beam in the Cat mirror region, counterpropagation of both pump beams is spontaneously obtained. We analyze its oscillation intensities in steady state, and show that the threshold coupling strength of oscillation depends on the cavity mirror reflectivity and the reflectivity of the Cat mirror region. We also show interesting property of PRRR-SPFWM, the possibility to switch over between unidirectional and bidirectional oscillation by controlling the amplitude of coupling strength.

A simple digital circuit based on the probabilistic cellular automata is proposed whose temporal evolution generates 1/f noise over many frequency decades. The N cells with internal states form a one-dimensional network and probabilistically interact with nearest-neighbor ones. The internal state of the cell is either the stable state or the unstable state. Each cell obeys simple rules as follows. When the excitatory signal is applied to the cell in the stable state, the state changes to the unstable state. On the other hand, when the state is unstable, the state changes to the stable state, and then the cell generates the excitatory signal. The excitatory signal is applied to the cell which is randomly chosen between the right side cell and the left side cell. The edge condition of the network is open, so that the excitatory signal can leave both the first edge and the last edge. The excitatory signal is randomly added to the first edge of the network at intervals of T time. Then the sequential interactions may occur like avalanche breakdown. After the interactions, the network goes to the equilibrium state. Considering that the breakdown happen simultaneously and assigning the stable state and the unstable state to 0 and 1, respectively, one can get the random pulse stream on the internal state of each cell. The power spectra of pulse streams are Lorentzian with various pole frequencies. The probability distribution of the pole frequency is inversely proportional to the frequency, i. e. , obeys Zipf law. Then the total sum of the internal states of all cells fluctuates following 1/f power law. The frequency range following 1/f power law can be easily varied by changing the number of the cells for the summation. A prototype generator using 15 cells generates 1/f noise over 3 frequency decades. This simple circuit is composed of only full adders and needs not complex components such as multipliers. Fine-tuning of any parameters and precise components also are not needed. Therefore integration into one chip using standard CMOS process is easy.

Cellular automata (CA) implementations are expected as potential test-pattern generators (TPGs) for Built-In Self-Testing of VLSI circuits, in which highly random parallel patterns ought to be generated with simple hardware. Objective here is to design one-dimensional, binary, and linear CA implementations with cyclic boundary conditions that can operate on maximum length of period. To provide maximum period of operations, it is necessary to bring some irregularities into the configurations. It is also expected for TPGs to make maximum or sufficiently long period of operations to prevent re-initialization. Our approach is to generate transition matrices based on fast parallel implementations of LFSRs which have trinomials as characteristic polynomials and then to modify the diagonal components. Some notable properties of diagonal vectors were observed.

This paper presents a new architecture for multiple-input signature analyzers. The proposed signature analyzer with Hδ inputs is designed by parallelizing a GLFSR(δ,m), where δ is the number of input signals and m is the number of stages in the feedback shift register. The GLFSR, developed by Pradhan and Gupta, is a general framework for representing LFSR-based signature analyzers. The parallelization technique described in this paper can be applied to any kind of GLFSR signature analyzer, e. g. , SISRs, MISRs, multiple MISRs and MLFSRs. It is shown that a proposed signature analyzer with Hδ inputs requires less complex hardware than either single GLFSR(Hδ,m)s or a parallel construction of the H original GLFSR(δ,m)s. It is also shown that the proposed signature analyzer, while requiring simpler hardware, has comparable aliasing probability with analyzers using conventional GLFSRs for some CUT error models of the same test response length and test time. The proposed technique would be practical for testing CUTs with a large number of output sequences, since the test circuit occupies a smaller area on the LSI chip than the conventional multiple-input signature analyzers of comparable aliasing probability.

This paper proposes a novel representation scheme for self-healing networks, and estimates the performance of restoration algorithms in terms of survivability. This representation is based on that of ring networks. For an arbitrary topology, the network is partitioned into ring sub-networks which are independent of each other, and we consider an extended network constructed by the concatenation of the ring sub-networks. After the statement of the general case, examples of a self-healing ring and a Digital Cross-connect System(DCS)based network are described.

Physics principles of a new type of microwave input amplifiers are described. Cyclotron wave electrostatic amplifier (CWESA) has a low noise level, broad band, switchable gain, super high self-protection against microwave overloads, rapid recovery and small DC consumption. CWESAs are widely used in Russian pulse Doppler radars and other systems.

Theoretical calculations of the pulsing operation and the intensity noise under the optical feedback are demonstrated for operation of the self-sustained pulsation lasers. Two alternative models for the optical feedback effect, namely the time delayed injection model and the external cavity model, are applied in a combined manner to analyze the phenomena. The calculation starts by supposing the geometrical structure of the laser and the material parameters, and are ended by evaluating the noise. Characteristics of the feedback induced noise for variations of the operating parameters, such as the injection current, the feedback distance and the feedback ratio, are examined. A comparison to experimental data is also given to ensure accuracy of the calculation.

In this paper an algorithm of Connection Admission Control in ATM is considered. It is shown that it works under many different kinds of dependence among arrivals, including long range dependence. This point is relevant, since recent papers show that ATM traffic is characterised by self-similarity, and hence by long range dependence. An upper bound for CLR is given, without assuming any specific cell arrival process. Applications to simulated and real data (obtained by segmenting and shaping Ethernet packets) are considered. They show the goodness and the tightness of the considered upper bound.