The objective of this paper is to provide an effective approach to infrared spectrum recognition. Traditionally, recognizing infrared spectra is a quantitative analysis problem. However, only using quantitative analysis has met two difficulties in practice: (1) quantitative analysis generally very complex, and in some cases it may even become intractable; and (2) when spectral data are inaccurate, it is hard to give concrete solutions. Our approach performs qualitative reasoning before complex quantitative analysis starts so that the above difficulties can be efficiently overcome. We present a novel model for qualitatively decomposing and analyzing infrared spectra. A list of candidates can be obtained based on the solutions of the model, then quantitative analysis will only be applied to the limited candidates. We also present a novel model for handling inaccuracy of spectral data. The model can capture qualitative features of infrared spectra, and can consider qualitative correlations among spectral data as evidence when spectral data are inaccurate. We have tested the approach against about 300 real infrared spectra. This paper also introduces the implementation of the approach.

This paper discusses the fixed-point smoothing and filtering problems given lumped covariance function of a scalar signal process observed with additive white Gaussian noise. The recursive Wiener smoother and filter are derived by applying an invariant imbedding method to the Volterra-type integral equation of the second kind in linear least-squares estimation problems. The resultant estimators in Theorem 2 require the information of the crossvariance function of the state variable with the observed value, the system matrix, the observation vector, the variance of the observation noise and the observed value. Here, it is assumed that the signal process is generated by the state-space model. The spectral factorization problem is also considered in Sects. 1 and 2.

The effects of α-particle-induced parasitic bipolar current on soft errors in submicron 6-transistor SOI SRAMs were numericaly studied. It was shown that the bipolar current induces soft errors and that there exists a critical quantity which determines the soft error occurrence in the SOI SRAMs. Simulated soft error rates were in the same order as those for bulk SRAMs.

Intricate Speech Communication Mode (I-SC Mode) is observed in verbal interaction during ISDN-TV conferencing. It is characterized by conflicts and multiple interactions of speech. I-SC Mode might cause mental stress to participants and be obstacles for smooth communication. However, the reasons of I-SC Mode on the environment of information transmission are hitherto unknown. Furthermore, analyses on the talks inside a conference site (LT: local talk or a talk inside a local site) and between remote sites (MT: media talk or a talk between remote sites) are originally conceived on assumed differences in cognitive distance and media intimacy. This study deals with communication effects/barriers and cognitive distance/intimacy of media correlated with audio-video transmission signals and speech modes or talk types and response delay in human speech interactions by using an innovated conference model (decision-making transaction model: DT-Model) in synchronous ISDN-TV conference systems (SYN) and asynchronous ones (ASYN). The effects of intricate communication can be predicted to a certain extent and in some ways. In I-SC Mode, because a timely answer can not be received from recipients (or partner), response time delay and response rate are analyzed. These factors are thus analyzed with an innovated dynamic model, where the recognizable acceptance of delay is evaluated. The nonlinear model shows that the larger the response time delay, the lower the response rate becomes. Comparing the response rate between SYN and ASYN, the latter is notably lower than the former. This indicates that the communication efficiency is lower in ASYN. An I-SC Mode is the main mode that occurs during ASYN conferences, and this in turn causes psychological stress. Statistics show the prevalence of a high incidence of complicated plural talks and a low response rate exists as the main factors preventing smooth human-to-human communication. Furthermore, comparing the response delays in face-to-face LT (Tf) and machine-mediated MT (Tm), human communication delay is significantly extended by the effects of initial mechanical delays. Therefore, cognitive intimacy of media is clearly affected by the existence of physical distance.

A system based on application of Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) to perform on-line fault diagnosis is presented. The diagnostic part of the system is composed of two diagnostic schemes. The first one (basic diagnostic algorithm) can be considered as a simple transition of Shiozaki's signed directed graph approach to FCM framework. The second one is an extended version of the basic diagnostic algorithm where an important concept, the temporal associative memories (TAM) recall of FCM, is adopted. In on-line application, self-generated fault FCM model generates predicted pattern sequence through the TAM recall process, which is compared with observed pattern sequence to declare the origin of fault. As the resultant diagnosis scheme takes short computation time, it can be used for on-line fault diagnosis of large and complex processes, and even for incipient fault diagnosis. In practical case, since real observed pattern sequence may be different from predicted one through the TAM recall owing to propagation delay between process variables, the time indexed fault FCM model incorporating delay time is proposed. The utility of the proposed system is illustrated in fault diagnosis of a tank-pipe system.

Multimedia Database Systems as the tool to extract and generate additional values from multimedia 'Contents' are discussed in this paper with putting emphasis on the mediator functions between users and contents. Firstly, we discuss about 'what to do' from the view point of four promising contents sources: 'on the network,' 'in the digital broadcasting' 'in the library' and 'in the real world.' From this view pont, four types of multimedia database systems are defined. 'What to do' for each database system is also discussed. Two concrete multimedia database systems with unique mediator functions, stream-type multimedia database platform GOLS and the intelligent access and authoring system using multiple media synchronization are proposed with experimental evaluation results and concrete multimedia database applications.

When people watch such motion pictures as documentaries or educational-type films, it is very natural for them to be interested in moving objects in the movies and be eager to know the detailed information related to these object. Therefore, a mechanism that enables users to directly pick up object information from motion pictures is necessary to make a movie system feasible. For this reason, we are researching techniques on using objects in motion pictures as hypermedia anchors. We call a movie system that provides the above mechanism a video hypermedia system. An object in a motion picture can generally be considered as a complex object which includes many parts. To allow users to obtain information related to each part, a system must be able to provide anchors corresponding to each part in each complex object. For this, authors cannot help defining all anchors in all frames, since the visual status of each part varies from moment to moment. This paper presents our approach for managing objects in motion pictures for video hypermedia systems. The main feature of the proposed method is to apply computer graphic techniques to the defining of anchors for a complex object.

In order to display complicated virtual spaces in real time, such as spaces consisting of a dynamic natural scenery, we earlier proposed a method for simplifying the shape data of 3-D trees whereby the amount of shape data is efficiently reduced. The method generates tree shapes based on a fractal model according to the required level of details (LOD). By using a texture-mapping technique, we experimentally showed that our method can display 3-D tree images with allowable image quality in real time. However, methods for controlling the LOD of 3-D tree shapes in virtual spaces have yet to be discussed. In this paper, quantitative evaluations were made on the effect of a data simplification method employing such visual properties as resolution difference between the central vision and peripheral vision. Results showed that it is possible to display a complicated scene containing many trees in real time by controlling the LOD of tree shapes in the virtual space considering such visual properties. Furthermore, so that reality can be added to the virtual space, we consider that it is important to display the natural sways of wind-blown trees and plants in real time. Therefore, we propose a method for generating sway data for simplified tree shape data based on a simple physical model, in which each branch is connected to several other branches by springs, and also a new texture-mapping technique for rendering simplified tree shapes, making it appear as if the shapes have a high LOD. Finally, we show some examples of images of trees generated in real time by using our method, in which many trees exist and sway due to wind.

Here we investigate the unique advantages of our proposed Virtual Space Teleconferencing System (VST) in the area of multimedia teleconferencing, with emphasis to facial emotion transmission and recognition. Specially, we show that this concept can be used in a unique way of communication in which the emotions of the local participant are transmitted to the remote party with higher recognition rate by enhancing the emotions using some intelligence processing in between the local and the remote participants. In other words, we can show that this kind of emotion enhanced teleconferencing systems can supersede face to face meetings, by effectively alleviating the barriers in recognizing emotions between different nations. Also in this paper we show that it is better alternative to the blurred or mosaiced facial images that one can find in some television interviews with people who are not willing to be exposed in public.

A practical structural representation of a segmented image is presented. The practicalness is defined according to whether or not the representation can be directly generated from its corresponding segmented image. Two structural representations have been proposed in the literature. They are hierarchical structure and relational graph. Because they are defined totally on the basis of human perception, neither of the representations can be directly generated from the corresponding segmented image. The structural representation described in this paper, however, is based on the relations among pattern primitives and generated by applying some human-oriented constraints.

This paper presents a vision-based human interface system that enables a user to move a target object in a 3D CG world by moving his hand. The system can interpret hand motions both in a frame fixed in the world and a frame attached to the user. If the latter is chosen, the user can move the object forward by moving his hand forward even if he has changed his body position. In addition, the user does not have to keep in mind that his hand is in the camera field of view. The active camera system tracks the user to keep him in its field of view. Moreover, the system does not need any camera calibration. The key for the realization of the system with such features is vision algorithms based on the multiple view affine invariance theory. We demon-strate an experimental system as well as the vision algorithms. Human operation experiments show the usefulness of the system.

In this paper,novel techniques for designing Finite Impulse Response (FIR) digital integrators have been given. The design is based on analytical approach for computing the weights required in the structures. Exact mathematical formulas for computing these weights have been derived.

In this paper, we show that by suitably selecting a notation to construct synchronization requirement specifications (SRS) for multimedia presentation we can express the timing characteristics at an abstract level, verify the specification, and obtain a hardware implementation through a sequence of transformations of the specification. First, we introduce the notion of a well-formed SRS and its hardware model. Second, we model an SRS as a timed Petri net and interpret the transitions of the net as hardware signals. To obtain logic functions from the SRS, we simplify the net and obtain a signal transition graph satisfying the unique state coding property. Finally, we show how to obtain a logic-level design of synchronizers.

This paper designs recursive least-squares fixed-point smoother and filter, which use the observed value, the probability that the signal exists, and the covariance information relevant to the signal and observation noises, on the estimation problem associated with the uncertain observations in linear continuous-time systems.

A structural active-object system (SAOS) is a transition-based object-oriented system suitable for rapid development of hardware logic simulators. A SAOS consists of a collection of interacting structural active objects (SAOs), whose behaviors are determined by the transition statements provided in their class definitions. Furthermore, SAOs can be structurally and hierarchically composed from their component SAOs like hardware components. These features allow SAOs to model components for circuit simulation more naturally than passive objects used in ordinary object-oriented programming. Also, we can easily create new kinds of components by using the inheritance mechanism. Executions of transition statements may be event-and/or time-driven, and hence digital, analog, and mixed-mode simulation is possible. Prototype simulation programs with graphical user interfaces have been developed as SAOS programs for digital, analog, and mixed-mode circuit simulation.

This paper illustrates activities and accomplishments being made by DAVIC, a non-profit organization pushing forward its open, international, cross-industry standards for audio-visual information systems, of which video-on-demand is the representative. Core technologies selected in its firstly published specifications and their interoperability aspects are summarized here. Preliminary results in our interoperability testing are also shown. Finally, we touch upon the coming work plan of DAVIC which covers wider range of access network capabilities and service domains, e.g. internet.

String grammars (languages) have been extensively studied from the 60's. On the other hand, the transformational grammar, proposed by N. Chomsky, contains the transformation from the set of derivation trees of a context-free language to the surface set. Here the grammar regarded a tree as an input sentence to some transducer. After that from the second half of 60's, the studies of acceptors, transducers, and so on, whose inputs are trees, have been done extensively. Recently pushdown tree automata were introduced, and their fundamental and some other various properties were investigated [12],[13],[22]-[26]. Furthermore a top-down pushdown tree transducer (t-PDTT for short), which is an extension of a top-down pushdown automaton (t-PDTA for short), was introduced and its fundamental properties were investigated [27]. In this paper we focus on t-PDTT, linear t-PDTT, t-FST (top-down finite state transducer), and t-PDTA. The main subjects discussed here are as follows: (1) the class of domain/surface tree languages of t-PDTT properly contains the class of tree languages accepted by t-PDTA, (2) the class of domain/surface tree languages of linear t-PDTT's coincides with the class of tree languages accepted by t-PDTA's, (3) the class of tree languages accepted by t-PDTA's properly contains the class of surface tree languages of t-FST's.

In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a hypermedia system that has the following characteristics. First, being designed according to the Dexter hypertext reference model, it has a layered architecture and thus maintains commonality with other hypermedia systems based on the Dextermodel. Second, being designed based on the MHEG standard, it has data structures that are inherently suitable for data interchange and synchronization. Third, adopting the MIME protocol, it provides multimedia mail services. Finally, being built on top of an object-oriented DBMS, it makes it easy to represent Dexter and MHEG models and also provides efficient storage and search capabilities. The contribution of this paper is combining these characteristics to build an integrated hypermedia system reflecting reference architectures and international standard efforts.

Discrete-time chaotic circuits realizing a tent map and a Bernoulli map are synthesized using switched-current (SI) techniques. For these proposed circuits, simulations are performed concerning the return maps and bifurcation trees. The theoretical analysis is carried out to predict the bifurcation tree under the existence of the nonidealities in the return map. This analysis has been done by assuming the return maps to be piecewise linear. The proposed circuits are built with commerciallyavailable IC's. And their return maps and bifurcation trees are measured in the experiment. The design formulas are obtained for the bifurcation trees and they are confirmed by the simulation results. The proposed circuits are integrable by a standard BiCMOS technology.

In this paper, a super-resolution method based on the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is proposed for a signal with some frequency damage. If the damage process can be modeled as linear convolutoin with a type 1 linear phase FIR filter, it is shown that some DCT coefficients of the damaged signal are the same as those of the original signal except for the DCT coefficients corresponding to the frequency damage. From this investigation, the proposed method is provided for the DCTs with four types as expanding the super-resolution method based on the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). In addition,two magnification approaches based on the proposed method are described to improve the conventional approach.