We propose a new active vision system that mimics a saccadic movement of human eye. It is implemented based on a new computational model using neural networks. In this model, the visual pathway was divided in order to categorize a saccadic eye movement into three parts, each of which was then individually modeled using different neural networks to reflect a principal functionality of brain structures related with the saccadic eye movement in our brain. Initially, the visual cortex for saccadic eye movements was modeled using a self-organizing feature map, then a modified learning vector quantization network was applied to imitate the activity of the superior colliculus relative to a visual stimulus. In addition, a multilayer recurrent neural network, which is learned by an evolutionary computation algorithm, was used to model the visual pathway from the superior colliculus to the oculomotor neurons. Results from a computer simulation show that the proposed computational model is effective in mimicking the human eye movements during a saccade. Based on the proposed model, an active vision system using a CCD type camera and motor system was developed and demonstrated with experimental results.

The conventional back-propagation algorithm cannot be applied to networks of units having hard-limiting output functions, because these functions cannot be differentiated. In this paper, a gradient descent algorithm suitable for training multilayer feedforward networks of units having hard-limiting output functions, is presented. In order to get a differentiable output function for a hard-limiting unit, we utilized that if the bias of a unit in such a network is a random variable with smooth distribution function, the probability of the unit's output being in a particular state is a continuously differentiable function of the unit's inputs. Three simulation results are given, which show that the performance of this algorithm is similar to that of the conventional back-propagation.

The sign-language can be used as a communication means between avatars having no common language. As a trial to overcome the linguistic barrier, we have previously developed a 2D model-based sign-language chatting system between Korean and Japanese on the the Internet. In that system, there have been some problems to be solved for natural animation and real-time transmission. In this paper, we employ a 3D character model for stereoscopic gestures in the sign-language animation. We also utilize CG animation techniques which use the variable number of frames and a cubic spline interpolation in order to generate realistic gestures. For real-time communication, on the other hand, we make use of an intelligent communication method on a client-server architecture. We implement a preliminary communication system with Visual C++ 5.0 and Open Inventor on Windows platforms. Experimental results show a possibility that the system could be used for avatar communications between different languages.

When a failure or upset occurring in a controller computer induces a task failure durable for a substantial period, system dynamics apparently deviates from its desirable sample paths, and loses its stability in an extreme case for the period to exceed the hard deadline in a real-time control system. In the paper, we propose an algorithm to combine the deadlines of all elementary tasks (derived formerly by our work) executed in several operation modes with multi-sampling periods. This results in computing the hard deadline of the entire system through modifying task-state equations to capture the effects of task failures and inter-correlations among tasks.

We propose a novel adaptive multiple-symbol differential detection (MSDD) scheme that has excellent performance over frequency selective fading (FSF) channels. The adaptive MSDD scheme consists of an adaptive noncoherent least mean square channel estimator that can accomplish channel estimation without any decision delay and the MSDD. The M-algorithm is introduced into this detection scheme to reduce the complication of computation due to increasing observed sequence length in the MSDD. Because of the application of the adaptive channel estimator and the M-algorithm, this adaptive MSDD make it possible that channel estimation is accomplished for every symbol along M surviving paths without any decision delay. And the SER performance of this adaptive MSDD is not affected by phase fluctuation introduced by a channel because the MSDD and the noncoherent channel estimator are applied. The adaptive MSDD scheme is applied to typical constellation of 16APSK, the (4,12) QAM and the star QAM. The excellent tracking performance of this adaptive MSDD scheme over FSF channels is confirmed by computer simulations.

Reconfiguration of memory arrays using spare lines is known to be an NP-complete problem. In this paper, we present an algorithm that reconfigures a memory array without any faults by using spare lines effectively even if they contain faulty elements. First, the reconfiguration problem is transformed to an equivalent covering problem in which faulty elements are covered by imaginary fault-free spare lines. Next, the covering problem is heuristically solved by using the Dulmange-Mendelsohn decomposition. The experiments for recently designed memory arrays show that the proposed algorithm is fast and practical.

All the existing scheduling algorithms order the instructions of the program in such a way that it can be executed in minimal time only for one fixed number of processors. In this paper we propose a new scheduling method, called Parallelism-Independent Scheduling Method, which enables the execution of the scheduled program on parallel computers with any degree of parallelism in near-optimal time. We propose three Parallelism-Independent algorithms, which have the following phases: obtaining a parallel schedule by using a list scheduling heuristics, optimization of the parallel schedule by rearranging the tasks in each level, so that they can be executed efficiently with different degrees of parallelism, serialization of the parallel schedule, and insertion of markers for the parallel execution limits. The three algorithms differ in their optimization phase. To prove the efficiency of our algorithms, we have made simulations with random directed acyclic graphs with different size and degree of parallelism. We compared the results in terms of schedule length to those obtained using the Critical Path Algorithm separately for each degree of parallelism.

The reorder buffer is usually employed to maintain the instruction execution in the correct order for a superscalar pipeline with out-of-order issue. In this paper, we propose a reorder buffer structure with shelter buffer for out-of-order issue superscalar processors not only to control stagnation efficiently, but also to reduce the buffer size. We can get remarkable performance improvement with only one or two buffers. Simulation results show that if the size of reorder buffer is between 8 and 32, performance gain obtained from the shelter is noticeable. For the shelter buffer of size 4, there is no performance improvement compared to that of size 2, which means that the shelter buffer of size 2 is large enough to handle most of the stagnation. If the shelter buffer of size 2 is employed, we can reduce the reorder buffer by 44% in Whetstone, 50% in FFT, 60% in FM, and 75% in Linpack benchmark program without loss of any throughput. Execution time is also improved by 19.78% in Whetstone, 19.67% in FFT, 23.93% in FM, and 8.65% in Linpack benchmark when the shelter buffer is used.

Tracking many targets simultaneously using a search radar has been one of the major research areas in radar signal processing. The primary difficulty in this problem arises from the noise characteristics of the incoming data. Hence it is crucial to obtain an accurate association between targets and noisy measurements in multi-target tracking. We introduce a new scheme for optimal data association, based on a MAP approach, and thereby derive an efficient energy function. Unlike the previous approaches, the new constraints between targets and measurements can manage the cases of target missing and false alarm. Presently, most algorithms need heuristic adjustments of the parameters. Instead, this paper suggests a mechanism that determines the parameters in an automated manner. Experimental results, including PDA and NNF, show that the proposed method reduces position errors in crossing trajectories by 32.8% on the average compared to NNF.

In this letter we propose a new mode for block ciphers which uses an unknown random block as feedback. We show that the successful differential/linear cryptanalyses of DES under the mode require at least the complexity of the exhaustive key search. We also present the processing overhead of our scheme compared to that of ECB mode.

Agent-based simulations are expected to enable analysis of complex social phenomena. In such simulations, one of the important behaviors of the agents is negotiation. Throughout the negotiations, the agents can make complex interactions with each other. Therefore, the ability of agents to perform negotiation is important in simulations of artificial societies. In this paper, we focus on price negotiations, in which the two sides have opposing interests. In the conventional price negotiation model, the process consists of an alternate succession of directly presented offers and counter-offers exchanging the desired prices. As an extended price negotiation model, we introduce virtual words to mimic the negotiation techniques of humans for indirectly presenting the desired price. The process of the proposed negotiation model consists of an alternate succession of offers of desired price and counter-offers of a word. The words represent the degree of the agent's demand. We propose agents with reinforcement learning who can acquire the ability to distinguish words and use them to negotiate. As a result, we will show that the virtual words became meaningful in the process of negotiations between agents whose negotiating strategies are acquired by reinforcement leaning.

We report on a novel micromechanical photonic integrated circuits (PIC) for integrating free-space optical systems on a chip. Using polysilicon surface-micromachining technique, micro-optical elements, three-dimensional optomechanical structures, and microactuators are monolithically integrated on silicon substrate. We will discuss the basic building blocks of the micromechanical PIC, including XYZ micropositioners, 2-axis tilting micromirrors, scanning microlenses, and their integration with vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers. We will also discuss their applications in reconfigurable optical interconnect and active alignment in parallel free-space optical interconnect systems.

A rigorous modal approach based on the transmission-line description has developed to explore effectively the filtering characteristics of planar optical DFB guiding structures. Using the modal transmission-line theory, the leakage and filtering characteristics of metal-strip gratings and dielectric gratings with gain or loss are first evaluated in details at the first- and third-order Bragg regimes. It can thus serve as a powerful template for computational algorithms to determine systematically and rigorously the optical effects of multilayered periodic guiding structures, which are not readily obtained by other methods.

The call processing capacity of a base station in CDMA cellular network can be changeable due to the additive loads from handoff, paging and location registration as well as call setup/release. In general, the load box test is widely used for measuring the call processing capacity of a exchange in the fixed network. But, it is difficult to estimate the processing capacity accurately because system load includes hand-off, paging in a mobile network. In this paper, we propose a new methodology for the calculation of call processing capacity to investigate the effect of traffic parameters on the system capacity, through the traffic modeling of call flow in base station. This result shows that the traffic load of hand-off limits the system capacity largely and is more severe than has been expected. Regression analysis will be also derived for the investigation of unit load and linear relation between CPU load and traffic load. This analysis using the field data from an operating site indicates that the call processing capacity in the wireless network must be specified with the rates of hand-off, paging and location registration, in contrast with the fixed network.

We demonstrate a large nonlinear optical response of GaAs thin films using degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) with picosecond pulses. The obtained DFWM signal is thickness-dependent and peaks at around 110 nm. The nonlocal theory fully explains these results.

In this paper, the theory and the design of a new class of orthogonal transforms are presented. The novel transform is derived from a correlation matrix in which an arbitrary orthonormal system is embedded. By embedding an orthonormal system designed empirically, we obtain the transform that is not only adapted for perceptual information but also possess statistical property like the Karhunen-Loeve transform. Our main motivation is the application in block-based adaptive transform coding of images. We show a design example of the transform, which is adapted for directionality such as edges and lines. Using this transform, we perform orientation adaptive coding. Experimental results show that image coding using the transform is effective in rate-distortion sense and subjective quality.

Taking traveling salesman problems (TSPs) as examples of combinatorial optimization problems, an "optimal" Hopfield network for ("optimal" neural representation of) TSPs is presented, where a vertex of state hypercube of the network is asymptotically stable if and only if it is an optimal solution. Of all the Hopfield networks for TSPs, this network most sharply distinguishes an optimal solution from other nonoptimal solutions and infeasible solutions. In this sense, we call this network "optimal" for TSPs. Whenever the network converges to a vertex, we can always obtain an optimal solution. However, we can not design such network without knowing an optimal solution to the problem. So, its approximate realization, which can be designed without a-priori knowledge of an optimal solution, is proposed. Simulations show that the "optimal" network and its approximate realization obtain optimal or good feasible solutions more frequently than familiar Hopfield networks. We can also design such "optimal" Hopfield networks for many combinatorial optimization problems as well as for TSPs.

In this paper, a new network structure called generalized Hierarchical Completely-Connected networks (HCCs) is proposed, and its properties and features are evaluated. Simple routing strategies for HCCs are also developed for shortest-paths routing algorithms. A set of HCCs constructed by the proposed method includes some conventional hierarchical networks, then it is called generalized one. The construction of an HCC starts from a basic block (a level-1 block) which consists of n nodes of constant degree. Then a level-h block for h 2 is constructed recursively by interconnecting any pair of macro nodes (n level-(h-1) blocks) completely. An HCC has a constant node-degree regardless of an increase in its size (the number of nodes). Furthermore, since an HCC has a hierarchically structured topology and the feature of uniformity, a wide variety of inter-cluster connections is possible. Evaluation results show that an HCC is suitable for very large computer systems.

We have reviewed recent progress on arrayed waveguide gratings for DWDM applications. AWGs can be used to realize not only mux/demux filters with various channel spacings, but also highly integrated optical components.

We report a new type of electrooptic deflector using lens effect which is able to scan a space in two dimensions. The proposed device was developed from a quasi-velocity-matched electrooptic phase modulator with periodic domain inversion, therefore, it can operate efficiently at a microwave frequency. In the experiments, the demonstration of its operation and applications to ultrafast light control was done at 16.25 GHz.