This paper proposes a technique for designing two-dimensional (2-D) digital filters approximating an arbitrary magnitude function. The technique is based on 2-D spectral factorization and rational approximation of the complex exponential function. A 2-D spectral factorization technique is used to obtain a recursively computable and stable system with nonsymmetric half-plane support from the desired 2-D magnitude function. Since the obtained system has an exponential function type transfer function and cannot be realized directly in a rational form, a class of realizable 2-D digital filters is introduced to approximate the exponential type transfer function. This class of filters referred to as two-dimensional log magnitude approximation (2-D LMA) filters can be viewed as an extension of the class of 1-D LMA filters to the 2-D case. Filter coefficients are given by the 2-D complex cepstrum coefficients, i.e., the inverse Fourier transform of the logarithm of the given magnitude function, which can be efficiently computed using 2-D FFT algorithm. Consequently, computation of the filter coefficients is straightforward and efficient. A simple stability condition for the 2-D LMA filters is given. Under this condition, the stability of the designed filter is guaranteed. Parallel implementation of the 2-D LMA filters is also discussed. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the design capability.

In order to realize flexible interaction control between user and information processing system, a special purpose user model is proposed on the basis of the knowledge-based design method of user interface system. The user-specific control knowledge of user-oriented interface environment is represented explicitly in the user model and utilized in the user-oriented interface system. Furthermore, the framework of user-oriented interface environment based on this user model called user-model-driven interface system, is proposed as one of user-adaptive human interface systems, in this paper. According to the proposed framework, a prototype system of the user-model-driven interface system is implemented and the facility of user-specific interaction control based on the user model has been verified with respect to an electronic mail handling task.

Proposed here is an internal representation and mapping method for multimedia information in which retrieval is based on the impression documents desired to make. A user interface design for a system using this method is also proposed. The proposed internal representation and mapping method represents each desired document impression as an axis in a semantic space. Documents are represented as points in the space. Queries are represented as subspaces. The proposed user interface design employs a method of visual presentation of the semantic space. Pictorial examples are given to illustrate the range of impressions represented by the axes. The relations between the axes are represented by dispersion diagrams for the documents stored in the document base. With this method, the user can intuitively decide the appropriate subspace for his needs and can specify it directly. For evaluation purposes, a prototype system has been developed. An image retrieval experiment shows that the proposed internal representation and mapping method and the user interface design provide effective tools for information retrieval.

The new notion of "multiuser interface", an interface for groups working together in a shared workspace, originated from the expansion of CSCW research and the spread of the groupware concept. This paper introduces a new multiuser interface design approach based on the translucent video overlay technique. This approach was realized in the multimedia desktop conference system Team WorkStation. Team WorkStation demonstrates that this translucent video overlay technique can achieve two different goals: (1) fused overlay for realizing the open shared workspace, and (2) selective overlay for effectively using limited screen space. This paper first describes the concept of open shared workspace and its implementation based on the fused overlay technique. The shared work window of Team-WorkStation is created by overlaying translucent individual workspace images. Each video layer is originally physically separated. However, because of the spatial relationships among marks on each layer, the set of overlaid layers provides users with sufficient semantics to fuse them into one image. The usefulness of this cognitive fusion was demonstrated through actual usage in design sessions. Second, the problem of screen space limitation is described. To solve this problem, the idea of ClearFace based on selective overlay is introduced. The ClearFace idea is to lay translucent live face video windows over a shared work window. Through the informal observations of experimental use in design sessions, little difficulty was experienced in switching the focus of attention between the face images and the drawing objects. The theory of selective looking accounts for this flexible perception mechanism. Although users can see drawn objects behind a face without difficulty, we found that users hesitate to draw figures or write text over face images. Because of this behavior, we devised the "movable" face window strategy.

In two-dimensional simulation of thin-base RHET, we combined three different simulation methods--the Schrödinger equation, the Monte Carlo simulation, and two-dimensional device simulation within a drift and diffusion model. We found that, in the thin-base RHET, the potential distribution differs from that expected from the thick-base RHET. In the thin-base RHET, the potential of the intrinsic base region does not equal that of the base electrode because the intrinsic base region is depleted and the negative emitter voltage (VEB0) raises the potential of both the intrinsic base and the nondoped region under the intrinsic base. There are also modified by the collector voltage. We also show emitter current-voltage characteristics, transfer ratio, and transit time calculated using this method and compare them with results for the one-dimensional case.

We review the role of optics in interconnects, analog processing, neural networks, and digital computing. The properties of low interference, massively parallel interconnections, and very high data rates promise extremely high performance for optical information processing systems.

In this paper, some classes of arithmetic circuits are introduced that capture the computational complexity of computing the determinant of matrices with entries either indeterminates or constants from a field. An arithmetic circuit is just like a Boolean circuit, except that all AND and OR gates (with fan-in two) are replaced by gates realizing a multiplication and an addition, respectively, of two polynomials over some indeterminates with coefficients from the field, and the circuit computes a (formal multivariate) polynomial in the obvious sense. An arithmetic circuit is said to be skew if at least one of the inputs of each multiplication gate is either an indeterminate or a constant. Then it is shown that for all square matrices M of dimension q, the determinant of M can be computed by a skew arithmetic circuit of (q20) gates, and is shown that for all skew arithmetic circuits C of size q, the polynomial computed by C can be defined as the determinant of a square matrix M of dimension (q). Thus the size of skew arithmetic circuit is polynomially related to the dimension of square matrices when it is considered to represent multivariate polynomials in both arithmetic circuits and the determinant. The results are extended to some other classes of arithmetic circuits less restricted than skew ones, and by using such an extended result, a difference and a similarity are demonstrated between polynomials represented as the determinant of matrix of relatively small dimension and those polynomials computed by arithmetic formulas and arithmetic circuits of relatively small size and degree.

This paper discusses new trends and directions in human interface (HI) technologies, and the effects of HI technologies on human life or on social activities. This paper postulates that the HI subsumes man-machine interface, human-computer interaction, human-human interaction, human-organizational interface, human-environmental interface, human-social interface, etc. A new communication model, called Human Interface Communication Model (HICOM), and a new human dialogue model, called Human Interface Dialogue model (HIDIM), are derived by reexamining trends and directions on HI technologies from the viewpoint of functional meanings of interfaces, and from the viewpoint of a socially distributed cognition mechanism.

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(l))n both for the second (n=2) and third-order (n=3) 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.

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.

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.

This article briefly looks at the future of telecommunication education in the universities as it evolves from present concerns and trends. Five year bachelor's programs and top-down curricular design will be common. Textbooks supplemented by advance organizers, instruction and testing according to individual learning styles and global integration of education using multi-media services and broadband technology will be some of the other features. Finally, the importance of industry-university partnership in all aspects of engineering education is emphasized.

A new MOS linear operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) for the up-to-4 MHz range OTA-C filters is proposed. The proposed OTA is designed using a new linearizing technique based on bias-current modulation, to compensate nonlinearities in the transfer characteristic of the conventional current-source-biased source-coupled pair. The design and SPICE simulation are presented in detail, assuming the implementation by the typical p-well CMOS process. The simulation of a 3.58 MHz OTA-C band-pass filter built with the proposed OTAs showed close agreement with the desired performance.

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.

There have been several studies related to a reduction of the amount of computational resources used by Turing machines. As consequences, Linear speed-up theorem", tape compression theorem" and reversal reduction theorem" have been obtained. In this paper, we discuss a leaf reduction theorem on alternating Turing machines. Recently, the result that one can reduce the number of leaves by a constant factor without increasing the space complexity was shown for space- and leaf-bounded alternating Turing machines. We show that for time- and leaf-bounded alternating Turing machines, the number of leaves can be reduced by a constant factor without increasing time used by the machine. Therefore, our result says that a constant factor on the leaf complexity does not affect the power of time- and leaf-bounded alternating Turing machines.

Circuit complexity of a Boolean function is defined to be the minimum number of gates in circuits computing the function. In general, the circuit complexity is established by deriving two types of bounds on the complexity. On one hand, an upper bound is derived by showing a circuit, of the size given by the bound, to compute a function. On the other hand, a lower bound is established by proving that a function can not be computed by any circuit of the size. There has been much success in obtaining good upper bounds, while in spite of much efforts few progress has been made toward establishing strong lower bounds. In this paper, after surveying general results concerning circuit complexity for Boolean functions, we explain recent results about lower bounds, focusing on the method of approximation.

Multiple context-free grammars (mcfg's) are a subclass of generalized context-free grammars introduced by Pollard in order to describe the syntax of natural languages. First, this paper shows that the universal recognition problem for mcfg's is EXP-POLY time-complete, where the universal recognition problem is the one to decide whether G generates w for a given grammar G and string w. Next, it is shown that the problem for linear context-free rewriting systems introduced by Vijay-Shanker et al., which is a proper subclass of mcfg's, is PSPACE-complete.

In this letter we study the wave propagation in a diode-equipped microstrip line and show that soliton generation at microwave frequencies is possible with monolithic fabrications of such nonlinear transmission lines. We propose that this phenomenon be utilized as a new method of obtaining ultrashort electrical pulses with picosecond durations. The perdicted soliton generation has been confirmed by computer simulations based on the harmonic balance method.

This paper describes a new configuration and control method for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with a bidirectional cycloconverter. When commercial AC power is operating normally, the load is supplied by commercial AC power and the bidirectional cycloconverter operates as a battery charger. During interruptions of commercial AC power, the bidirectional cycloconverter operates as an inverter and supplies AC power to the load. Unlike a conventional UPS, this new configuration does not require a battery charger, so it can be small, light-weight, cost-effective, and highly efficient. The output voltage characteristics and the transient voltage drop in the output when commercial AC power fails are also discussed by numerical analysis and experiments.

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.