In this study, we achieved predictable control of a wheelchair by changing the existing mapping method of the joystick, which considers the consecutive operations of a motor of a wheelchair, to a new mapping method that corresponds to the internal model of a human being. Since the existing method uses the polar coordinate system, it is not easy at all to use this method to predict either the direction of motion or the operating order for changing the position of the wheelchair according to the requirements of an operator. In order to improve the embodiment, we divided the existing joystick mapping method into two degrees of freedom-one in the vertical axis that can control the velocity and the other, in the horizontal axis for direction control. Based on this division, we implemented a wheelchair model that can be controlled by the electromyography (EMG) signal from the neck and the arm muscles of an operator. This was achieved by mapping the divided degrees of freedom onto the degrees of freedom of the neck and arm of the operator. In this case, since the operator controls the direction of motion by the joint of his/her neck, he/she can move the wheelchair in the desired direction; thus, a more intuitive human interface is implemented.

Recently, voice over WLAN has become an attractive service, and it is expected to be the most popular application in the near future due to its low cost and easy deployment. It has been reported that there occurs unfairness between downlink and uplink in the 802.11 WLAN. This is mainly caused by CSMA/CA employed in DCF. All stations including an AP fairly compete for shared wireless medium. Thus, in particular, the unfairness has an adverse impact on bi-directional voice calls. Downlink voice connections become a primary factor to limit voice capacity. In this paper, we propose a novel medium access protocol, so called DCFmm, in order to improve QoS of downlink voice traffic as well as fairness between bi-directional voice connections. DCFmm is designed to enhance 802.11 DCF, and is fully compatible with the legacy DCF. In addition, it requires only protocol modifications of an AP. Thus, it can be easily implemented into existing 802.11 WLANs. DCFmm is compared with two conventional techniques through computer simulations. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed DCFmm can improve fairness between downlink and uplink, and consequently, support larger number of voice calls than DCF.

Metro networks are based on SONET/SDH which uses the circuit switching technology. Circuit switching is inappropriate for the Internet traffic which is very bursty nature. Therefore, metro networks can become a bottleneck. In order to resolve this problem, the IEEE 802.17 working group has proposed the Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) technology. In order to provide fairness among stations in the RPR network, two types of RPR fairness mechanisms have been defined. However, the IEEE 802.17 RPR fairness mechanisms have the problem of inefficient use of the available bandwidth after the congestion at a node has been resolved. In this paper, we propose an improved bandwidth allocation in which, after the congestion resolution at a node, the node estimates the number of effective nodes transmitting traffic, measures the remaining bandwidth and fairly allocates the available bandwidth to effective nodes. To show the performance of our proposed mechanism, we have performed simulation and show that the proposed mechanism gives higher bandwidth utilization than the existing RPR fairness mechanisms.

We deal with quadratic semi-assignment problems with symmetric distances. This symmetry reduces the number of variables in its mixed integer programming formulation. We investigate a polytope arising from the problem, and obtain some basic polyhedral properties, the dimension, the affine hull, and certain facets through an isomorphic projection. We also present a class of facets.

For backward compatibility, ECN-capable networks should be capable of handling both ECN-capable and ECN-incapable TCP flows. In this letter, we present a backward congestion notification (BCN) scheme that can provide fast congestion indication delivery, while improving fairness between ECN-capable and ECN-incapable flows. Simulation results reveal that the BCN scheme is more effective than the original ECN mechanism in terms of stability, throughput, and fairness.

The release of image processing techniques make image modification and fakery easier. Image fakery, here, is defined as a process to copy a region of source image and paste it onto the destination image, with some post processing methods applied, such as boundary smoothing, blurring, etc. to make it natural. The most important characteristic of image fakery is object copy and paste. In order to detect fake images, this letter introduces a blind detection scheme based on singular value decomposition (SVD). Experimental results also show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Multi-context FPGAs allow very quick reconfiguration by storing multiple configuration data at the same time. While testing for FPGAs with single-context memories has already been studied by many researchers, testing for multi-context FPGAs has not been proposed yet. This paper presents an architecture of testable multi-context FPGAs. In the proposed multi-context FPGA, configuration data stored in a context can be copied into another context. This paper also shows testing of the proposed multi-context FPGA. The proposed testing uses the testing for the traditional FPGAs with single-context. The testing is capable of detecting single stuck-at faults and single open faults which affect normal operations. The number of test configurations for the proposed testing is at most two more than that for the testing of FPGAs with single-context memories. The area overhead of the proposed architecture is 7% and 4% of the area of a multi-context FPGA without the proposed architecture when the number of contexts in a configuration memory is 8 and 16, respectively.

In this paper, we propose a framework that provides users with personalized interfaces by sharing user-centric context between real and virtual environments. The proposed framework consists of ubi-UCAM for generating user's contexts, NAVER for managing virtual environment, and rv-Interface for linking ubi-UCAM with NAVER. Firstly, personalized interface helps users to concentrate on their tasks of interest by reducing burdensome menu selections according to user's context. In addition, user-adaptive contents based on user's preferences allow more pleasure personal experiences. Finally, personalized interface with context hand-over mechanism enables users to continuously interact with virtual environments, even if the users move around. According to experimental results, we expect that the proposed framework can play an important role for realizing user-centric VR applications by exploiting personalized interface that adapts to user-centric context.

Recently with the high expectation of voice over WLAN service, to support fast inter-AP security transition in WLAN Access Point (AP) is one of the most actively investigating issues. It is also very important problem to minimize inter-AP security transition (IAPST) latency, while maintaining constantly the secure association from old AP when a station transits to new AP. With this background, this paper presents a novel association control mechanism whose objective pursues to minimize IAPST latency time and to take countermeasures against attacks of rogue transition station. Experiment shows that the proposed scheme outperforms the legacy AP over 70% with regard to the transition latency.

Recent studies of high quality, high resolution traffic measurements have revealed that network traffic appears to be statistically self similar. Contrary to the common belief, aggregating self-similar traffic streams can actually intensify rather than diminish burstiness. Thus, traffic prediction plays an important role in network management. In this paper, Least Mean Kurtosis (LMK), which uses the negated kurtosis of the error signal as the cost function, is proposed to predict the self similar traffic. Simulation results show that the prediction performance is improved greatly over the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm.

This paper deals with the diffraction of TM plane wave by a perfectly conductive periodic surface. Applying the Rayleigh hypothesis, a linear equation system determining the diffraction amplitudes is derived. The linear equation is formally solved by Cramer's formula. It is then found that, when the angle of incidence becomes a low grazing limit, the amplitude of the specular reflection becomes -1 and any other diffraction amplitudes vanish for any perfectly conductive periodic surfaces with small roughness and gentle slope.

This paper describes a max-min fair rate allocation scheme in multicast networks based on the supervisory control framework for discrete event systems. Based on the discrete event model of multicast networks, we design a supervisor to guarantee the max-min fair allocation of bandwidth. Analysis and simulations are used to show that the controlled networks guarantee the max-min fair sharing with a low message exchange overhead and fast convergence time.

For multilevel-coded modulation, the cut-off rate of multiple antenna systems over frequency-flat, fast fading channels is derived. Following Wozencraft's approach, a closed-form expression for the cut-off rate is obtained as a function of energy ratio per dimension It is shown that the maximum value of cut-off rate increases linearly with the number of transmit antennas.

This letter presents the characteristics of complex antenna factors of a resistor loaded dipole antenna with a balun consisting of two coaxial feeders (coaxial cable balun). The resistor loading is used to realize dipole antennas with higher fidelity than unloaded dipole equivalents. The complex antenna factor for a resistor loaded dipole antenna with coaxial cable balun is derived by extending the power loss concepts. The numerical results show that the series resistor loaded dipole antenna offers higher fidelity than the unloaded dipole. The result of the calculated complex antenna factors are in good agreement with that of the measured results.

Refactoring is one of the promising techniques for improving program design by means of program transformation with preserving behavior, and is widely applied in practice. However, it is difficult for engineers to identify how and where to refactor programs, because proper knowledge and skills of a high order are required of them. In this paper, we propose the technique to instruct how and where to refactor a program by using a sequence of its modifications. We consider that the histories of program modifications reflect developers' intentions, and focusing on them allows us to provide suitable refactoring guides. Our technique can be automated by storing the correspondence of modification patterns to suitable refactoring operations. By implementing an automated supporting tool, we show its feasibility. The tool is implemented as a plug-in for Eclipse IDE. It selects refactoring operations by matching between a sequence of program modifications and modification patterns.

In this paper, based on Equivalent Active Flow, we propose a novel technique called Approximate Fairness Dropping, which is able to approximate fairness by containing misbehaving flows' access queue opportunity with low time/space complexity. Unlike most of the existing Active Queue Management schemes (e.g., RED, BLUE, CHOKE), Approximate Fairness Dropping does not drop the packets whose arriving rate is within the maximum admitted rate, so it protects the well-behaving flows against misbehaving ones, moreover, improves the throughput and decreases the queuing delay. Our simulations and analyses demonstrate that this new technique outperforms the existing schemes and closely approximates the "ideal" case, where full state information is needed.

Supporting Quality of Service (QoS) over the Internet is a very important issue and many mechanism have been already devised or are under way towards achieving this goal. One of the most important approaches is the class-based architecture, which provides a scalable mechanism for QoS support in a TCP/IP network. Class-based service differentiation can be realized without resource reservation, admission control and traffic policing. However, the resulting services are only relative. While it is, in principle, not feasible to provision for absolute guarantees without admission control and/or traffic policing, such a service can be reasonably well emulated using adaptive rate allocation at the link scheduler of routers. In this paper, we propose mechanism for link scheduler of router that achieve emulated absolute and other relative guarantees using dynamic weighted fair queueing (DWFQ) combining with class packet dropping. The weights of DWFQ are frequently adjusted to current load conditions and based on prediction of realistic class traffic. These mechanisms can realize many approaches to QoS guarantees and class-based differentiation.

We have proposed a neural network called the Lagrange programming neural network with polarized high-order connections (LPPH) for solving the satisfiability problem (SAT) of propositional calculus. The LPPH has gradient descent dynamics for variables and gradient ascent dynamics for Lagrange multipliers, which represent the weights of the clauses of the SAT. Each weight wr increases according to the degree of unsatisfaction of clause Cr. This causes changes in the energy landscape of the Lagrangian function, on which the values of the variables change in the gradient descent direction. It was proved that the LPPH is not trapped by any point that is not a solution of the SAT. Experimental results showed that the LPPH can find solutions faster than existing methods. In the LPPH dynamics, a function hr(x) calculates the degree of unsatisfaction of clause Cr via multiplication. However, this definition of hr(x) has a disadvantage when the number of literals in a clause is large. In the present paper, we propose a new definition of hr(x) in order to overcome this disadvantage using the "min" operator. In addition, we extend the LPPH to solve the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). Our neural network can update all neurons simultaneously to solve the CSP. In contrast, conventional discrete methods for solving the CSP must update variables sequentially. This is advantageous for VLSI implementation.

This paper investigates the design curves of class E amplifier with nonlinear capacitance for any output Q and finite dc-feed inductance. The important results are; 1) the capacitance nonlinearity strongly affects the design parameters for low Q, 2) the value of dc-feed inductance is hardly affected by the capacitance nonlinearity, and 3) the input voltage is an important parameter to design class E amplifier with nonlinear capacitance. By carrying out PSpice simulations, we show that the simulated results agree with the desired ones quantitatively. It is expected that the design curves in this paper are useful guidelines for the design of class E amplifier with nonlinear capacitance.

It is well known that TCP does not fully utilize the available bandwidth in fast long-distance networks. To solve this scalability problem, several high speed transport protocols have been proposed. They include HighSpeed TCP (HS-TCP), Scalable TCP (S-TCP), Binary increase control TCP (BIC-TCP), and H-TCP. These protocols increase (decrease) their window size more aggressively (slowly) compared to standard TCP (STD-TCP). This paper aims at evaluating and comparing these high speed transport protocols through computer simulations. We select six metrics that are important for high speed protocols; scalability, buffer requirement, TCP friendliness, TCP compatibility, RTT fairness, and responsiveness. Simulation scenarios are carefully designed to investigate the performance of these protocols in terms of the metrics. Results clarify that each high speed protocol successfully solves the problem of STD-TCP. In terms of the buffer requirement, S-TCP and BIC-TCP have better performance. For TCP friendliness and compatibility, HS-TCP and H-TCP offer better performance. For RTT fairness, BIC-TCP and H-TCP are superior. For responsiveness, HS-TCP and H-TCP are preferred. However, H-TCP achieves a high degree of fairness at the expense of the link utilization. Thus, we understand that all the proposed high speed transport protocols have their own shortcomings. Thus, much more research is needed on high speed transport protocols.