Due to the revitalization of the semiconductor industry and efforts to reduce labor and unmanned operations in the retail and food manufacturing industries, objects to be recognized at production sites are increasingly diversified in color and design. Depending on the target objects, it may be more reliable to process only color information, while intensity information may be better, or a combination of color and intensity information may be better. However, there are not many conventional method for optimizing the color and intensity information to be used, and deep learning is too costly for production sites. In this paper, we optimize the combination of the color and intensity information of a small number of pixels used for matching in the framework of template matching, on the basis of the mutual relationship between the target object and surrounding objects. We propose a fast and reliable matching method using these few pixels. Pixels with a low pixel pattern frequency are selected from color and grayscale images of the target object, and pixels that are highly discriminative from surrounding objects are carefully selected from these pixels. The use of color and intensity information makes the method highly versatile for object design. The use of a small number of pixels that are not shared by the target and surrounding objects provides high robustness to the surrounding objects and enables fast matching. Experiments using real images have confirmed that when 14 pixels are used for matching, the processing time is 6.3 msec and the recognition success rate is 99.7%. The proposed method also showed better positional accuracy than the comparison method, and the optimized pixels had a higher recognition success rate than the non-optimized pixels.

High altitude platform (HAP), known as line-of-sight dominated communications, effectively enhance the spectral efficiency of wireless networks. However, the line-of-sight links, particularly in urban areas, may be severely deteriorated due to the complex communication environment. The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is employed to establish the cascaded-link and improve the quality of communication service by smartly reflecting the signals received from HAP to users without direct-link. Motivated by this, the joint precoding scheme for a novel RIS-aided beamspace HAP with non-orthogonal multiple access (HAP-NOMA) system is investigated to maximize the minimum user signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio (SLNR) by considering user fairness. Specifically, the SLNR is utilized as metric to design the joint precoding algorithm for a lower complexity, because the isolation between the precoding obtainment and power allocation can make the two parts be attained iteratively. To deal with the formulated non-convex problem, we first derive the statistical upper bound on SLNR based on the random matrix theory in large scale antenna array. Then, the closed-form expressions of power matrix and passive precoding matrix are given by introducing auxiliary variables based on the derived upper bound on SLNR. The proposed joint precoding only depends on the statistical channel state information (SCSI) instead of instantaneous channel state information (ICSI). NOMA serves multi-users simultaneously in the same group to compensate for the loss of spectral efficiency resulted from the beamspace HAP. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the derived statistical upper bound on SLNR and the performance enhancement of the proposed joint precoding algorithm.

A rectangle-of-influence drawing of a plane graph G is a straight-line planar drawing of G such that there is no vertex in the proper inside of the axis-parallel rectangle defined by the two ends of any edge. In this paper, we show that any given 5-connected plane graph G with five or more vertices on the outer face has a rectangle-of-influence drawing in an integer grid such that W + H ≤ n - 2, where n is the number of vertices in G, W is the width and H is the height of the grid.

In this letter, we study the dynamic antenna grouping and the hybrid beamforming for high altitude platform (HAP) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. We first exploit the fact that the ergodic sum rate is only related to statistical channel state information (SCSI) in the large-scale array regime, and then we utilize it to perform the dynamic antenna grouping and design the RF beamformer. By applying the Gershgorin Circle Theorem, the dynamic antenna grouping is realized based on the novel statistical distance metric instead of the value of the instantaneous channels. The RF beamformer is designed according to the singular value decomposition of the statistical correlation matrix according to the obtained dynamic antenna group. Dynamic subarrays mean each RF chain is linked with a dynamic antenna sub-set. The baseband beamformer is derived by utilizing the zero forcing (ZF). Numerical results demonstrate the performance enhancement of our proposed dynamic hybrid precoding (DHP) algorithm.

Devices presenting audiovisual information are widespread, but few ones presenting olfactory information. We have developed a device called an olfactory display that presents odors to users by mixing multiple fragrances. Previously developed olfactory displays had the problem that the ejection volume of liquid perfume droplets was large and the dynamic range of the blending ratio was small. In this study, we used an inkjet device that ejects small droplets in order to expand the dynamic range of blending ratios to present a variety of scents. By finely controlling the back pressure using an electro-osmotic pump (EO pump) and adjusting the timing of EO pump and inkjet device, we succeeded in stabilizing the ejection of the inkjet device and we can have large dynamic range.

To achieve precise measurement without landing, the high-mobility vehicle-mounted theodolite needs to be leveled quickly with high precision and ensure sufficient support stability before work. After the measurement, it is also necessary to ensure that the high-mobility vehicle-mounted theodolite can be quickly withdrawn. Therefore, this paper proposes a hierarchical automatic leveling strategy and establishes a two-stage electromechanical automatic leveling mechanism model. Using coarse leveling of the first-stage automatic leveling mechanism and fine leveling of the second-stage automatic leveling mechanism, the model realizes high-precision and fast leveling of the vehicle-mounted theodolites. Then, the leveling control method based on repeated positioning is proposed for the first-stage automatic leveling mechanism. To realize the rapid withdrawal for high-mobility vehicle-mounted theodolites, the method ensures the coincidence of spatial movement paths when the structural parts are unfolded and withdrawn. Next, the leg static balance equation is constructed in the leveling state, and the support force detection method is discussed in realizing the stable support for vehicle-mounted theodolites. Furthermore, a mathematical model for “false leg” detection is established furtherly, and a “false leg” detection scheme based on the support force detection method is analyzed to significantly improve the support stability of vehicle-mounted theodolites. Finally, an experimental platform is constructed to perform the performance test for automatic leveling mechanisms. The experimental results show that the leveling accuracy of established two-stage electromechanical automatic leveling mechanism can reach 3.6″, and the leveling time is no more than 2 mins. The maximum support force error of the support force detection method is less than 15%, and the average support force error is less than 10%. In contrast, the maximum support force error of the drive motor torque detection method reaches 80.12%, and its leg support stability is much less than the support force detection method. The model and analysis method proposed in this paper can also be used for vehicle-mounted radar, vehicle-mounted laser measurement devices, vehicle-mounted artillery launchers and other types of vehicle-mounted equipment with high-precision and high-mobility working requirements.

Boolean functions with a few Walsh spectral values have important applications in sequence ciphers and coding theory. In this paper, we first construct a class of Boolean functions with at most five-valued Walsh spectra by using the secondary construction of Boolean functions, in particular, plateaued functions are included. Then, we construct three classes of Boolean functions with five-valued Walsh spectra using Kasami functions and investigate the Walsh spectrum distributions of the new functions. Finally, three classes of minimal linear codes with five-weights are obtained, which can be used to design secret sharing scheme with good access structures.

We explore the maximum total number of edge crossings and the maximum geometric thickness of the Euclidean minimum-weight (k, ℓ)-tight graph on a planar point set P. In this paper, we show that (10/7－ε)|P| and (11/6－ε)|P| are lower bounds for the maximum total number of edge crossings for any ε ＞ 0 in cases (k,ℓ)=(2,3) and (2,2), respectively. We also show that the lower bound for the maximum geometric thickness is 3 for both cases. In the proofs, we apply the method of arranging isomorphic units regularly. While the method is developed for the proof in case (k,ℓ)=(2,3), it also works for different ℓ.

An efficient optical power splitter constructed by a metal-dielectric-metal plasmonic waveguide with a resonator structure has been analyzed. The method of solution is the finite difference time domain (FD-TD) method with the piecewise linear recursive convolution (PLRC) method. The resonator structure consists of input/output waveguides and a narrow waveguide with a T-junction. The power splitter with the resonator structure is expressed by an equivalent transmission-line circuit. We can find that the transmittance and reflectance calculated by the FD-TD method and the equivalent circuit are matched when the difference in width between the input/output waveguides and the narrow waveguide is small. It is also shown that the transmission wavelength can be adjusted by changing the narrow waveguide lengths that satisfy the impedance matching condition in the equivalent circuit.

We address a path planning problem for heterogeneous multi-robot systems under specifications consisting of temporal constraints and routing tasks such as package delivery services. The robots are partitioned into several groups based on their dynamics and specifications. We introduce a concise description of such tasks, called a work, and extend counting LTL to represent such specifications. We convert the problem into an ILP problem. We show that the number of variables in the ILP problem is fewer than that of the existing method using cLTL+. By simulation, we show that the computation time of the proposed method is faster than that of the existing method.

Displacement current is the last piece of the puzzle of electromagnetic theory. Its existence implies that electromagnetic disturbance can propagate at the speed of light and finally it led to the discovery of Hertzian waves. On the other hand, since magnetic fields can be calculated only with conduction currents using Biot-Savart's law, a popular belief that displacement current does not produce magnetic fields has started to circulate. But some people think if this is correct, what is the displacement current introduced for. The controversy over the meaning of displacement currents has been going on for more than hundred years. Such confusion is caused by forgetting the fact that in the case of non-stationary currents, neither magnetic fields created by conduction currents nor those created by displacement currents can be defined. It is also forgotten that the effect of displacement current is automatically incorporated in the magnetic field calculated by Biot-Savart's law. In this paper, mainly with the help of Helmholtz decomposition, we would like to clarify the confusion surrounding displacement currents and provide an opportunity to end the long standing controversy.

In this work, template attacks that aimed to leak the nonce were performed on 256-bit ECDSA hardware to evaluate the resistance against side-channel attacks. The target hardware was an ASIC and was revealed to be vulnerable to the combination of template attacks and lattice attacks. Furthermore, the attack result indicated it was not enough to fix the MSB of the nonce to 1 which is a common countermeasure. Also, the success rate of template attacks was estimated by simulation. This estimation does not require actual hardware and enables us to test the security of the implementation in the design phase. To clarify the acceptable amount of the nonce leakage, the computational cost of lattice attacks was compared to that of ρ method which is a cryptanalysis method. As a result, the success rate of 2-bit leakage of the nonce must be under 62% in the case of 256-bit ECDSA. In other words, SNR must be under 2-4 in our simulation model.

A user wearing a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) is likely to feel isolated when sharing virtual reality (VR) experiences with Non-HMD users in the same physical space due to not being able to see the real space outside the virtual world. This research proposes a method for an HMD user to recognize the Non-HMD users' gaze and attention via a projector attached to the HMD. In the proposed approach, the projected HMD user's view is filtered darker than default, and when Non-HMD users point controllers towards the projected view, the filter is removed from a circular area for both HMD and Non-HMD users indicating which region the Non-HMD users are viewing. We conducted two user studies showing that the Non-HMD users' gaze can be recognized with the proposed method, and investigated the preferred range for the alpha value and the size of the area for removing the filter for the HMD user.

Synthesis problems on multiplayer non-zero-sum games (MG) with multiple environment players that behave rationally are the problems to find a good strategy of the system and have been extensively studied. This paper concerns the synthesis problems on stochastic MG (SMG), where a special controller other than players, called nature, which chooses a move in its turn randomly, may exist. Two types of synthesis problems on SMG exist: cooperative rational synthesis problem (CRSP) and non-cooperative rational synthesis problem (NCRSP). The rationality of environment players is modeled by Nash equilibria, and CRSP is the problem to decide whether there exists a Nash equilibrium that gives the system a payoff not less than a given threshold. Ummels et al. studied the complexity of CRSP for various classes of objectives and strategies of players. CRSP fits the situation where the system can make a suggestion of a strategy profile (a tuple of strategies of all players) to the environment players. However, in real applications, the system may rarely have an opportunity to make suggestions to the environment, and thus CRSP is optimistic. NCRSP is the problem to decide whether there exists a strategy σ0 of the system satisfying that for every strategy profile of the environment players that forms a 0-fixed Nash equilibrium (a Nash equilibrium where the system's strategy is fixed to σ0), the system obtains a payoff not less than a given threshold. In this paper, we investigate the complexity of NCRSP for positional (i.e. pure memoryless) strategies. We consider ω-regular objectives as the model of players' objectives, and show the complexity results of the problem for several subclasses of ω-regular objectives. In particular, the problem for terminal reachability (TR) objectives is shown to be Σp2-complete.

In this letter, we present a new lower bound for the treewidth of a graph in terms of the second smallest eigenvalue of its Laplacian matrix. Our bound slightly improves the lower bound given by Chandran and Subramanian [Inf. Process. Lett., 87 (2003)].

Record/replay is one essential tool in clouds to provide many capabilities such as fault tolerance, software debugging, and security analysis by recording the execution into a log and replaying it deterministically later on. However, in virtualized environments, the log file increases heavily due to saving a considerable amount of I/O data, finally introducing significant storage costs. To mitigate this problem, this paper proposes RR-Row, a redirect-on-write based virtual machine disk for record/replay scenarios. RR-Row appends the written data into new blocks rather than overwrites the original blocks during normal execution so that all written data are reserved in the disk. In this way, the record system only saves the block id instead of the full content, and the replay system can directly fetch the data from the disk rather than the log, thereby reducing the log size a lot. In addition, we propose several optimizations for improving I/O performance so that it is also suitable for normal execution. We implement RR-Row for QEMU and conduct a set of experiments. The results show that RR-Row reduces the log size by 68% compared to the currently used Raw/QCow2 disk without compromising I/O performance.

Herein, we propose a volumetric 3D display in which cross-sectional images are projected onto a rotating helix screen. The method employed by this display can enable image observation from universal directions. A major challenge associated with this method is the presence of invisible regions that occur depending on the observation angle. This study aimed to fabricate a mirror-image helix screen with two helical surfaces coaxially arranged in a plane-symmetrical configuration. The visible region was actually measured to be larger than the visible region of the conventional helix screen. We confirmed that the improved visible region was almost independent of the observation angle and that the visible region was almost equally wide on both the left and right sides of the rotation axis.

Most existing multi-view subspace clustering approaches only capture the inter-view similarities between different views and ignore the optimal local geometric structure of the original data. To this end, in this letter, we put forward a novel method named shared latent embedding learning for multi-view subspace clustering (SLE-MSC), which can efficiently capture a better latent space. To be specific, we introduce a pseudo-label constraint to capture the intra-view similarities within each view. Meanwhile, we utilize a novel optimal graph Laplacian to learn the consistent latent representation, in which the common manifold is considered as the optimal manifold to obtain a more reasonable local geometric structure. Comprehensive experimental results indicate the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed method.

To establish a network service in network functions virtualization (NFV) networks, the orchestrator addresses the challenge of service chaining and virtual network function placement (SC-VNFP) by mapping virtual network functions (VNFs) and virtual links onto physical nodes and links. Unlike traditional networks, network operators in NFV networks must contend with both hardware and software failures in order to ensure resilient network services, as NFV networks consist of physical nodes and software-based VNFs. To guarantee network service quality in NFV networks, the existing work has proposed an approach for the SC-VNFP problem that considers VNF diversity and redundancy. VNF diversity splits a single VNF into multiple lightweight replica instances that possess the same functionality as the original VNF, which are then executed in a distributed manner. VNF redundancy, on the other hand, deploys backup instances with standby mode on physical nodes to prepare for potential VNF failures. However, the existing approach does not adequately consider the tradeoff between resource efficiency and service availability in the context of VNF diversity and redundancy. In this paper, we formulate the SC-VNFP problem with VNF diversity and redundancy as a two-step integer linear program (ILP) that adjusts the balance between service availability and resource efficiency. Through numerical experiments, we demonstrate the fundamental characteristics of the proposed ILP, including the tradeoff between resource efficiency and service availability.

An output voltage estimation and regulation system for a wireless power transfer (WPT) circuit is proposed. Since the fluctuation of a coupling condition and/or a load may vary the voltage supplied with WPT resulting in a malfunction of wireless-powered devices, the output voltage regulation is needed. If the output voltage is regulated by a voltage regulator in a secondary side of the WPT circuit with fixed input power, the voltage regulator wastes the power to regulate the voltage. Therefore the output voltage regulation using a primary-side control, which adjusts the input power depending on the load and/or the coupling condition, is a promising approach for efficient regulation. In addition, it is desirable to eliminate feedback loop from the secondary side to the primary side from the viewpoint of reducing power dissipation and system complexity. The proposed system can estimate and regulate the output voltage independent of both the coupling and the load variation without the feedback loop. An usable range of the coupling coefficient and the load is improved compared to previous works. The validity of the proposed system is confirmed by the SPICE simulator.