The VSTEP concept and its practical application in the form of an LED-type pnpn-VSTEP demonstrating low power consumption through electro-photonic operational modes are both shown. Further, with focus primarily on the new laser-mode VSTEP with high-intensity light output and narrow optical beam divergence, the design features such as threshold gain and optical absorptivity, device fabrication, and characteristics are explained. The possibility of ultimate performance based mainly on electrical to optical power conversion efficiency, important from the application viewpoint of optical interconnection, are also discussed. Also, as two examples of functional optical interconnection achieved by VSTEP, serial-to-parallel data conversion and optical self-routing switches are shown. Finally, future opto-electronic technologies to be developed for two-dimensionally integrable surface-type optical semiconductor devices, including the VSTEP, are discussed.

This paper proposes a new construction of the minimum knowledge undeniable signature scheme which solves a problem inherent in Chaum's scheme. We formulate a new proof system, the minimum knowledge interactive bi-proof system, and a pair of languages, the common witness problem, based on the random self-reducible problem. We show that any common witness problem has the minimum knowledge interactive bi-proof system. A practical construction for undeniable signature schemes is proposed based on such a proof system. These schemes provide signature confirmation and disavowal with the same protocol (or at the same time).

We propose Polarization-Shift-Keying (POLSK) homodyne system using phase-diversity receivers and theoretically analyze its bit-error-rate (BER) performance. Since the proposed system uses polarization modulation and homodyne detection, it can cancel the phase noise and is attractive at a high bit-rate transmission. It is found that the receiver sensitivity of the proposed POLSK homodyne system is the same as that of POLSK heterodyne system and is much better than that of DPSK phase-diversity homodyne systems at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We also cosider theoreically the effect of the fluctuation of state of polarization (SOP) on the BER performance of POLSK homodyne system.

This paper investigates the performance of the line spectrum pair (LSP) frequency parameter representation for speech recognition. Transitional parameters of LSP frequencies are defined using first-order regression coefficients. The transitional and the instantaneous frequency parameters are linearly combined to generate a single feature vector used for recognition. The performance of the single vector is compared with that of the cepstral coefficients (CC) representation using a minimumdistance classifier in speaker-independent isolated word recognition experiments. In the speech recognition experiments, the transitional and the instantaneous coefficients are also combined in the distance domain. Also, inverse variance weighted Euclidean measures are defined using LSP frequencies to achieve Mel-scale-like warping and the new warped-frequencies are used in recognition experiments. The performance of the single feature vector defined with transitional and instantaneous LSP frequencies is found to be the best among the measures used in the experiments.

In this paper we review the recent progress and basic technology of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers together with related parallel surface operating optical devices. First, the concept of surface emitting lasers is presented, and then currently developed device technologies will be reviewed. We will feature several technical issues, such as multi-layer structures, 2-dimensional arrays, photonic integration, etc. Lastly, future prospects for parallel lightwave systems will be discussed.

Transmittance distribution along a horizontal line in LCDs addressed by amorphous silicon TFTs was investigated using measurements and calculations. Nonuniformity of the distribution, in which the transmittance increased with increasing distance from the left edge of the LCD, was observed in a 10 inch diagonal TFT-LCD. The cause of the nonuniformity was attributed to the decrease in voltage drop due to the gate source parasitic capacitance and the increase in gate voltage fall time due to large line resistance, based on the measurements of voltage drops in TFT test elements and calculations considering the decrease in voltage drop. The distribution could be improved by reducing the line resistance and parasitic capacitance in the actual LCD.

This paper describes the future perspective of automatic telephone interpretation using a multimedia intelligent communication network. The need for language interpretation over a telecommunication system creates a strong drive toward integrating information modalities for voice, image, data, computation and conferencing into modern systems using the capability of language interpretation. An automatic telephone interpretation system will solve the problems of language differences in international human-to-human communication. The future prospective of advanced multimedia language communication will be stated as the versatile application of an integrated intelligent network.

This paper presents a new connected associative memory neural network. In this network, a threshold function which has two dynamical parameters is introduced. After analyzing the dynamical behaviors and giving an upper bound of the memory capacity of the conventional connected associative memory neural network, it is demonstrated that these parameters play an important role in the recalling processes of the connected neural network. An approximate method of evaluationg their optimum values is given. Further, the optimum feedback stopping time of this network is discussed. Therefore, in our network, the recalling processes are ended at the optimum feedback stopping time whether a state energy has been local minimum or not. The simulations on computer show that the dynamical behaviors of our network are greatly improved. Even though the number of learned patterns is so large as the number of neurons, the statistical properties of the dynamical behaviors of our network are that the output series of recalling processes approach to the expected patterns on their initial inputs.

We propose Polarization-Shift-Keying (POLSK) homodyne system using phase-diversity receivers and theoretically analyze its bit-error-rate (BER) performance. Since the proposed system uses polarization modulation and homodyne detection, it can cancel the phase noise and is attractive at a high bit-rate transmission. It is found that the receiver sensitivity of the proposed POLSK homodyne system is the same as that of POLSK heterodyne system and is much better than that of DPSK phase-diversity homodyne systems at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We also cosider theoretically the effect of the fluctuation of state of polarization (SOP) on the BER performance of POLSK homodyne system.

We study the depth of planar Boolean circuits. We show that planar Boolean circuits of depth D(n) are simulated by on-line Turing machines in space O(D(n)). From this relationship, it is shown that any planar circuit for computing integer multiplication requires linear depth. It is also shown that a planar analogue to the NC-hierarchy is properly separated.

The nonlinear optical properties of organics with unsaturated bonds were compared with those of inorganics including semiconductors and dielectrics. Because of the mesomeric effect, namely quantum mechanical resonance effect among configurations, aromatic molecules and polymers have larger optical nonlinear parameters defined as δ(n)X(n)/(X(1))n both for the second (n2) and third-order (n3) nonlinearities. Experimental results of ultrafast nonlinear response of conjugated polymers, especially polydiacetylenes, were described and a model is proposed to explain the relaxation processes of photoexcitations in the conjugated polymers. Applying the model constructed on the basis of the extensive experimental study, we propose model polymers to obtain ultrafast resonant optical nonlinearity.