Some qualitative properties of an inductively coupled circuit containing two Josephson junction elements with a dc source are investigated. The system is described by a four–dimensional autonomous differential equation. However, the phase space can be regarded as S1×R3 because the system has a periodicity for the invariant transformation. In this paper, we study the properties of periodic solutions winding around S1 as a bifurcation problem. Firstly, we analyze equilibria in this system. The bifurcation diagram of equilibria and its topological classification are given. Secondly, the bifurcation diagram of the periodic solutions winding around S1 are calculated by using a suitable Poincar mapping, and some properties of periodic solutions are discussed. From these analyses, we clarify that a periodic solution so–called "caterpillar solution" is observed when the two Josephson junction circuits are weakly coupled.

A novel optoelectronic mesoscopic neural device is proposed. This device operates in a neural manner, involving the electron interference and the laser threshold characteristics. The optical output is a 2–dimensional image, and can also be colored, if the light emitting elements are fabricated to form the picture elements in 3–colors, i.e. R, G, and B. The electron waveguiding in the proposed device is analyzed, on the basis of the analogy between the Schrödinger's equation and the Maxwell's wave equation. The nonlinear neural connection is achieved, as a result of the superposition an the interferences among electron waves transported through different waveguides. The sizes of the critical elements of this device are estimated to be within the reach of the present day technology. This device exceeds the conventional VLSI neurochips by many orders of magnitude, in the number of neurons per unit area, as well as in the speed of operation.

Fractal image coding using iterated transformations compresses image data by exploiting the self–similarity of an image. Its compression performance has already been discussed in [2] and several other papers. However the relation between the performance and the self–similarity remains unclear. In this paper, we evaluate fractal coding from the perspective of this relationship.

The warp model of the extended Hough transform (EHT) has been proposed to design the explicit expression of the transform function of EHT. The warp model is a skewed parameter space (R(µ,ξ), φ(µ,ξ)) of the space (µ,ξ), which is homeomorphic to the original (ρ,θ) parameter space. We note that the introduction of the skewness of the parameter space defines the angular and positional sensitivity characteristics required in the detection of lines from the pattern space. With the intent of contributing some solutions to basic computer vision problems, we present theoretically a dynamic and centralfine/peripheral-coarse camera vision architecture by means of this warp model of Hough transform. We call this camera vision architecture askant vision' from an analogy to the human askant glance. In this paper, an outline of the EHT is briefly shown by giving three functional conditions to ensure the homeomorphic relation between (µ,ξ) and (ρ,θ) parameter spaces. After an interpretation of the warp model is presented, a procedure to provide the transform function and a central-coarse/peripheralfine Hough transform function are introduced. Then in order to realize a dynamic control mechanism, it is proposed that shifting of the origin of the pattern space leads to sinusoidal modification of the Hough parameter space.

In this paper, we propose the architecture of BALANCE (Better Adaptive Load-balancing through Acquiring kNowledge of Characteristic of an Environment) in which users can submit their jobs without acquiring either a status of an environment or characteristics of jobs and servers even in a widely connected heterogeneous network. The architecture of BALANCE includes three types of information bases and two types of daemons. Information bases, namely job, resource, and environment information base, manage the knowledge of job characteristics, available resources for CPUs, and status of the environment, respectively, as a proxy for users. The dispatching daemon selects an adequate server for each job using knowledge stored in the information bases. A service daemon executes each job. On completing each job, a service daemon gets a statistic of the job and returns it to the dispatching daemon where the job came from so that the statistic will be available at the next dispatching time. BALANCE enables an environment (1) to balance the load, (2) to share software functions as well as hardware facilities, and (3) to learn a user's job characteristics. We have implemented a prototype with more than 50 heterogeneous UNIX workstations connected by different networks. Two simple experiments on this prototype are presented. These experiments show a load balancing scheme that takes the characteristics of each job into account.

We are developing GENESIS, a new seamless total environment for designing, developing, installing, and operating various types of telecommunication networks as extremely large distributed processing applications in the future network integrated by ATM. Similar uniform architectures for quick introduction and easy management of service or operation applications have been proposed, such as by TINA, but there has been insufficient study on how to operate and con figure those applications. This paper discusses the implementation model and execution environment in GENESIS from the viewpoint of flexible operation according to network conditions. The implementation model can describe detailed configurations under various conditions on design or operation, independently of the execution environment. To achieve the goals of GENESIS, our execution environment provides message handling functions and a transparent interface for controlling network resources independently of the configuration, and dynamic reconfiguration functions that are independent of the execution. This paper also reports the prototype system GENESIS-1. The GENESIS-1 message handling mechanism and the effect of the reconfiguration functions are described.

This paper describes two main technologies for achieving reliable real-time distributed communications systems. One is the technology to prevent the influence of a fault in an autonomous distributed system from spreading to the whole system (called autonomous distributed system control). The other is a software structure based on distributed processing, the object-oriented approach, and layering for better maintainability and expandability (called OO software structure). For the autonomous distributed system control, several inter-subsystem communication methods are proposed and evaluated. From the standpoints of the fault processing and processing load, frames should be sent through a data link over ATM connection and when a fault occurs the link should be switched over without loss of data. A pilot system achieved good reliability without an excessive number of dynamic steps. This autonomous control method will lead to a highly reliable communications system with large capacity. For the OO software structure, this paper gives experimental results from the implementation of a prototype system. Its distributed environment should lead to high reliability by extending the CHILL run-time routine (RTR). This software structure promises to provide service quickly, to reduce costs, and to make the development of each layer's software independent. A real-time OS, e.g., CTRON kernel combined with RTR can give real-time performance, high reliability and high productivity over the distributed system. The use of RTR can reduce the time for the call recovery process.

A new algorithm, which is incorporated into the waveform relaxation analysis, for efficiently simulating the transient response of single lossy transmission lines or lossy coupled multiconductor transmission lines, terminated with arbitrary networks will be presented. This method exploits the inherent delay present in a transmission line for achieving simulation efficiency equivalent to obtaining converged waveforms with a single iteration by the conventional iterative waveform relaxation approach. To this end we propose 'line delay window partitioning' algorithm in which the simulation interval is divided into sequential windows of duration equal to the transmission line delay. This window scheme enables the computation of the reflected voltage waveforms accurately, ahead of simulation, in each window. It should be noted that the present window partitioning scheme is different from the existing window techniques which are aimed at exploiting the non–uniform convergence in different windows. In contrast, the present window technique is equivalent to achieving uniform convergence in all the windows with a single iteration. In addition our method eliminates the need to simulate the transmission line delay by the application of Branin's classical method of characteristics. Further, we describe a simple and efficient method to compute the attenuated waveforms using a particular form of lumped element model of attenuation function. Simulation examples of both single and coupled lines terminated with linear and nonlinear elements will be presented. Comparison indicates that the present method is several times faster than the previous waveform relaxation method and its accuracy is verified by the circuit simulator PSpice.

In this paper, the power dissipation issue is considered in the gate sizing procedure. In order to observe the tradeoff among area, delar and power dissipation in a circuit, gate sizing algorithms which can minimize power under delay constraints or minimize area under power and delay constraints are formulated. Experiments are performed to investigate the properties of area–power–delay tradeoff in the gate sizing procedure.

Numerical studies of reaction–diffusion systems which consist of chaotic oscillators are carried out. The Rössler oscillators are used, which are arranged two–dimensionally and coupled by diffusion. Pacemakers where the average periods of the oscillators are artificially changed are set to produce target patterns. It is found that target patterns emerge from pacemakers and grow up as if they were in a regular oscillatory medium. The wavelength of the pattern can be varied and controlled by changing the parameters (size and frequency) of the pacemaker. The behavior of the coupled system depends on the size of the system and the strength of the pacemaker. When the system size is large, the Poincar return maps show that the behavior of the coupled system is not simple and the orbit falls into a high–dimensional attractor, while for a small system the attractor is rather simple and a one–dimensional map is obtained. Moreover, for appropriate strength of pacemakers and for certain sizes of the systems the oscillations become periodic. It is also found that the largest and local Lyapunov exponents of the system are positive and these values are uniformly distributed over the pattern. The values of the exponents are smaller than that of the uncoupled Rössler oscillator; this is due to the fact that the diffusion reduces the exponents and modifies the form of the attractor. We conclude that the large scale patterns can stably exist in the chaotic medium.

In this letter we propose an interpolation technique for low-quality fingerprint images for highly reliable feature extraction. To improve the feature extraction rate, we extract fingerprint features by referring to both the interpolated image obtained by using a directional Laplacian filter and the high-contrast image obtained by using histogram equalization. Experimental results show the applicability of our method.

A systematic method for locating and computing branches of connecting orbits developed by the authors is outlined. The method is applied to the sine–Gordon and Hodgkin–Huxley equations.

In this paper, a novel coupler-type wavelength demultiplexer composed of the K+-ion diffused waveguides, which has an adjustment function for optimizing the diffusion depth, is proposed to achieve reliably the high extinction ratio. The optimization in the diffusion depth is made by repeating the K+-ion diffusion and extinction-ratio measurement alternatively, and the high extinction ratios more than 20 dB are measured reliably at both operation wavelengths of 0.6328 and 0.83 µm. Experimental results on the polarization dependence in the extinction-ratio adjustment are also reported.

This paper describes that a neural network, which consists of neurons with piecewise–linear sigmoid characteristics, is able to approximate any piecewise–linear map with origin symmetry. The neural network can generate "deterministic diffusion" originating from its diffusive trajectory.

This paper describes a new method for pose estimation of human face moving abruptly in real world. The virtue of this method is to use a very simple calculation, disparity, among multiple model images, and not to use any facial features such as facial organs. In fact, since the disparity between input image and a model image increases monotonously in accordance with the change of facial pose, view direction, we can estimate pose of face in input image by calculating disparity among various model images of face. To overcome a weakness coming from the change of facial patterns due to facial individuality or expression, the first model image of face is detected by employing a qualitative feature model of frontal face. It contains statistical information about brightness, which are observed from a lot of facial images, and is used in model-based approach. These features are examined in everywhere of input image to calculate faceness" of the region, and a region which indicates the highest faceness" is taken as the initial model image of face. To obtain new model images for another pose of the face, some temporary model images are synthesized through texture mapping technique using a previous model image and a 3-D graphic model of face. When the pose is changed, the most appropriate region for a new model image is searched by calculating disparity using temporary model images. In this serial processes, the obtained model images are used not only as templates for tracking face in following image sequence, but also texture images for synthesizing new temporary model images. The acquired model images are accumulated in memory space and its permissible extent for rotation or scale change is evaluated. In the later of the paper, we show some experimental results about the robustness of the qualitative facial model used to detect frontal face and the pose estimation algorithm tested on a long sequence of real images including moving human face.

This letter presents the results of an analysis concerning the global, dynamical structure of a second order phase–locked loop (PLL) in the presence of the continuous wave (CW) interference. The invariant manifolds of the PLL equation are focused and analyzed as to how they are extended from the hyperbolic periodic orbits. Using the Melnikov integral which evaluates the distance between the stable manifolds and the unstable manifolds, the transversal intersection of these manifolds is proven to occur under some conditions on the power of the interference and the angular frequency difference between the signal and the interference. Numerical computations were performed to confirm the transversal intersection of the system–generated invariant manifolds for a practical set of parameters.

Along with the improvement of micro processors and local area networks, a distributed system becomes useful to realize a telecommunication system. It has potential advantage to achieve both high performance and high reliability. However, the design of a distributed system tends to be more complicated compared to a conventional centralized system. For the purpose of the standardization of distributed processing, ISO and ITU-T study the Open Distributed Processing (ODP) and are currently standardizing the Basic Reference Model of ODP (RM-ODP). To avoid dealing with the complexity of distributed systems, RM-ODP defines five viewpoints. The viewpoint approach of RM-ODP is proposed as a framework for the design of a distributed system. Although some previous works give the design methods of distributed systems based on the ODP viewpoint approach, the detailed design method has not been fully specified or all of the five viewpoints are not taken into account. In this paper, we describe a detailed design method for a distributed telecommunication system based on the ODP viewpoint approach. The method applies the five viewpoints to the three phases of design of a distributed system, that is, requirement analysis, functional design and detailed design phase. It clarifies what specifications for the target system should be made from the individual viewpoints and how the specifications are related each other. It also takes account of the platform which provides the distribution support, and gives the design method for both the platform and the application specific functions on the platform. The design method is examined by applying it to the design of a distributed MHS system supporting X.400 series protocols. In this example, the remote procedure call based on the client-server model is selected as the base of the platform. The result shows that our method is useful to simplify the complexity of the design for a distributed telecommunication system.

In this paper we propose a formal linearization method which permits us to transform nonlinear systems into linear systems by means of the Chebyshev interpolation. Nonlinear systems are usually represented by nonlinear differential equations. We introduce a linearizing function that consists of a sequence of the Chebyshev polynomials. The nonlinear equations are approximated by the method of Chebyshev interpolation and linearized with respect to the linearizing function. The excellent characteristics of this method are as follows: high accuracy of the approximation, convenient design, simple operation, easy usage of computer, etc. The coefficients of the resulting linear system are obtained by recurrence formula. The paper also have error bounds of this linearization which show that the accuracy of the approximation by the linearization increases as the order of the Chebyshev polynomials increases. A nonlinear filter is synthesized as an application of this method. Numerical computer experiments show that the proposed method is able to linearize a given nonlinear system properly.

Precise measurements of temperature dependence of the Andreev reflection current for the N–I–S junctions were carried out. Au and Pb were used as N (normal metal) and S (superconducting material), respectively. The experimental results agreed with the analyses based on the Arnold theory.

Telecommunication services are becoming more and more personalized, integrated, and refined. Advanced personal and mobile telecommunication services, intelligent networks, and network management operations require cooperative network-wide distributed processing on a very large scale. Telecommunication programs must support these services with great flexibility, efficiency, and reliability. This paper proposes a new call processing model that improves the availability and flexibility of telecommunication programs. It first points out requirements, outlines the distributed processing platform PLATINA, and discusses several approaches to the enhanced call processing model. Then it explains the call processing program structure, and gives illustrations of mobile and multi- party service control as typical examples. The Caller-Callee decomposition reduces the complexity of the call processing program and enhances the call model; the separation of call and bearer enhances service flexibility and integration; distributed object-oriented techniques meet software evolution requirements. A prototype program has been implemented and has proved the effectiveness of this approach.