In the present paper, we attempt to show that the information about input patterns must be as small as possible for improving the generalization performance under the condition that the network can produce targets with appropriate accuracy. The information is defined with respect to the hidden unit activity and we suppose that the hidden unit has a crucial role to store the information content about input patterns. The information is defined by the difference between uncertainty of the hidden unit at the initial stage of the learning and the uncertainty of the hidden unit at the final stage of the learning. After having formulated an update rule for the information minimization, we applied the method to a problem of language acquisition: the inference of the past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs. Experimental results confirmed that by our method, the information was significantly decreased and the generalization performance was greatly improved.

This paper describes an advanced rule-embedded neural network (RENN+) that has an extended framework for achieving a very tight integration of learning-based neural networks and rule-bases of existing if-then rules. The RENN+ is effective in pattern recognition with ill-posed conditions. It is basically composed of several component RENNs and an output RENN, which are three-layer back-propagation (BP) networks except for the input layer. Each RENN can be pre-organized by embedding the if-then rules through translation of the rules into logic functions in a disjunctive normal form, and can be trainded to acquire adaptive rules as required. A weight-modification-reduced learning algorithm (WMR) capable of standard regularization is used for the post-training to suppress excessive modification of the weights for the embedded rules. To estimate the effectiveness of the proposed RENN+, it was used for pattern recognition in a radar system for detection of buried pipes. This trial showed that a RENN+ with two component RENNs had good recognition capability, whereas a conventional BP network was ineffective.

Recognition of hand drawn shapes is beneficial in drawing packages and automated sketch entry in hand-held computers. Although it is possible to store and retrieve drawings through the use of electronic ink, further manipulation of these drawings require recognition to be performed. In this paper, we propose a new approach to invariant geometric shape recognition which utilizes a fuzzy function to reduce noise and a neural network for classification. Instead of recognizing segments of a drawing and then performing syntactical analysis to match with a predefined shape, which is weak in terms of generalization and dealing with noise, we examine the shape as a whole. The main concept of the recognition method is derived from the fact that internal angles are very important in the perception of the shape. Our application's aim is to recognize and correctively redraw hand drawn ellipses, circles, rectangles, squares and triangles. The neural network learns the relationships between the internal angles of a shape and its classification, therefore only a few training samples which represent the class of the shape is sufficient. The results are very successful, such that the neural network correctly classified shapes which were not included in the training set.

In this paper, a new off-line handwritten word recognition method based on the explicit modeling of character junctures is presented. A handwritten word is regarded as a sequence of characters and junctures of four types. Hence both characters and junctures are explicitly modeled. A handwriting system employing hidden Markov models as the main statistical framework has been developed based on this scheme. An interconnection network of character and ligature models is constructed to model words of indefinite length. This model can ideally describe any form of hamdwritten words including discretely spaced words, pure cursive words, and unconstrained words of mixed styles. Also presented are efficient encoding and decoding schemes suitable for this model. The system has shown encouraging performance with a standard USPS database.

This paper reports on a new dynamic scanning force microscope (SFM), in which the piezoelectric microcantilever is utilized for the lever excitation and displacement sensing. Piezoelectric cantilevers can detect their deflection without external sensing elements and be vibrated with no oscillator outside. The cantilever integrated with the deflection detector and the oscillator changes the conventional construction of a dynamic SFM and expands its range of applicability. The microcantilever used consists of a ZnO layer sandwiched with Au electrodes deposited on a thin beam of thermally grown SiO2. The length, width and thickness of the lever are 125 µm, 50 µm and 3.5 µm, respectively. We have characterized this cantilever by measuring the charge spectrum and the frequency dependence of the admittance. From the charge spectrum the mechanical quality factor measured 300 in free vibration. Typical piezoelectric constant of the ZnO film was estimated approximately as 80% of single-crystal's value. The piezoelectric cantilever can be vibrated by applying the voltage with the frequency near the resonance to the piezoelectric layer. The excited amplitude per unit voltage at the resonance frequency was calculated as about 5 µm/V. The cantilever amplitude can be detected by measuring the current between electrodes, since the admittance depends on the quality factor. We have constructed a dynamic SFM without external oscillator and detector, and successfully obtained the surface images of a sol-gel derived PZT film in the cyclic contact operation mode. The longitudinal resolution of the SFM system was 0.3 nm at a 125 Hz bandwidth.

We propose a new compaction problem that allows layout elements to have many shape possibilities. The objective of the problem is to find not only positions but also shapes of layout elements. We present an efficient method to solve the problem--compaction with shape optimization. This method simplifies the problem by considering the optimization of shapes only for the layout elements on a critical path. The layout is compacted step by step while optimizing the shapes of layout elements. Another importance of this compaction technique is that it makes layout to be "recyclable" for other set of device parameters. The experimental examples, which attempt shape optimization and recycle of analog layout, confirms the importance and efficiency of our method.

A systematic theory of the optimum multi-path interpolation using parallel filter banks is presented with respect to a family of n-dimensional signals which are not necessarily band-limited. In the first phase, we present the optimum spacelimited interpolation functions minimizing simultaneously the wide variety of measures of error defined independently in each separate range in the space variable domain, such as 8 8 pixels, for example. Although the quantization of the decimated sample values in each path is contained in this discussion, the resultant interpolation functions possess the optimum property stated above. In the second phase, we will consider the optimum approximation such that no restriction is imposed on the supports of interpolation functions. The Fourier transforms of the interpolation functions can be obtained as the solutions of the finite number of linear equations. For a family of signals not being band-limited, in general, this approximation satisfies beautiful orthogonal relation and minimizes various measures of error simultaneously including many types of measures of error defined in the frequency domain. These results can be extended to the discrete signal processing. In this case, when the rate of the decimation is in the state of critical-sampling or over-sampling and the analysis filters satisfy the condition of paraunitary, the results in the first phase are classified as follows: (1) If the supports of the interpolation functions are narrow and the approximation error necessarily exists, the presented interpolation functions realize the optimum approximation in the first phase. (2) If these supports become wide, in due course, the presented approximation satisfies perfect reconstruction at the given discrete points and realizes the optimum approximation given in the first phase at the intermediate points of the initial discrete points. (3) If the supports become wider, the statements in (2) are still valid but the measure of the approximation error in the first phase at the intermediate points becomes smaller. (4) Finally, those interpolation functions approach to the results in the second phase without destroying the property of perfect reconstruction at the initial discrete points.

This paper describes, based on generation mechanism of conductive noise, that the real conductive noise on AC-mains can't be measured by LISN and 50 Ω-input impedance instrument specified by regulations such as CISPR. Second, it is pointed out that one of the causes of poor reproducibility in radiated emission measurement is the difference among line impedances of AC-mains. Finally, it is insisted that the apparatus such as LISN is necessary for stable measurement of radiated emission, and what improvement on LISN characteristics for higher frequency range should be done is introduced.

FM laser operation of a Ti:sapphire laser is studied experimentally for the first time with an internal phase modulator. We obtained extremely wide FM sidebands of 8 THz width whose phase modulation index was 25,000 rad at a modulation frequency of 160 MHz.

The polarization dependence of femtosecond soliton-soliton interactions is investigated in detail. When the polarization direction of two solitons is orthogonal, the soliton interaction can be reduced in comparison to that for parallel polarization. The soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) is still observed even in the orthogonal condition, but the quantity of the SSFS is much smaller than in the parallel condition. A stronger soliton interaction is observed between two solitons in an in-phase condition, than in an out-of-phase condition. The largest SSFS occurs in-phase with parallel polarization. The polarization dependence of femtosecond soliton interaction in a distributed erbium-doped fiber amplifier (DEDFA) is also investigated. It is shown that when the optical gain of the DEDFA is given adiabatically, the input pulse separation at which the first soliton occurs is less with orthogonal polarization. This is because the soliton pulse width is reduced due to the adiabatic soliton narrowing caused by the optical amplification.

Most current management systems employ graphic-user-interface displays to visualize the networks being managed. Some networks are so large that it is difficult to display all network elements in a single window alone, and therefore, the hierarchical multi-window style presentation is commonly used. This form of presentation has disadvantages, however, including the fact that window manipulations are complex. Our approach (bifocal network visualization) is able to display both the context and any detail of a network within a single window, and overcomes the disadvantages of hierarchical multi-window presentation. We implemented this bifocal network visualization on a workstation using a frame buffer memory called DUALQUEST that is able to generate images in real-time and is simple to operate. This paper describes bifocal network visualization and its implementation. Furthermore, we present an experiment to compare our interface with conventional hierarchical multi-window presentation.

Laser diodes for optical interconnections are ideally high speed, work over a wide temperature range, and are simple to bias. This paper reports high bit-rate modulation with nearly zero bias with very low threshold 1.3µm-wavelength laser diodes over a wide temperature range. At the high temperature of 80, lasing delay was 165 ps with nearly zero bias. We demonstrated 2.5 Gbit/s modulation over a wide temperature range. Eye opening was over 34% of one time slot.

In this paper, we consider ZKIPs for promise problems. A promise problem is a pair of predicates (Q,R). A Turning machine T solves the promise problem (Q,R) if, for every x satisfying Q(x), machine T halts and it answers "yes" iff R(x). When ¬Q (x), we do not care what T does. First, we define "promised BPP" which is a promise problem version of BPP. Then, we prove that a promise problem (Q,R) has a 3-move interactive proof system which is black-box simulation zero knowledge if and only if (Q,R) ∈ promised BPP. Next, we show a "4-move" perfect ZKIPs (black-box simulation) for a promise problem of Quadratic Residuosity and that of Blum Numbers under no cryptographic assumption.

We measured the longitudinal electric field of the electrical pulses with a rise time less than 1 ps on a coplanar transmission line by electrooptic sampling. The longitudinal component is a sharp pulse and is only observed at the wavefront. The transverse component has no overshoot or undershoot. The mixing of longitudinal component to the transverse component is discussed for C3v crystals whose electrooptic coefficient is large. We developed the method to estimate the longitudinal and the transverse component of the electric field by the polarization control of a probe light without changing the probe configuration which affects sensitivity severely. The waveform and the rise time of the transverse electric field were eatimated, for the first time, by subtracting the influence of the longitudinal component.

The improved point-matching method with Mathieu function expansion for the accurate analysis of the W-type elliptical fiber with layers of any ellipticity is proposed. Results of our method are reliable, because we expand the electromagnetic fields by a sum of the complete set of wave functions in each layer of the fiber. Numerical results are presented for the highly-birefringent fibers with a hollow layer outside an elliptical core. It is found that such fibers can realize the large value of the modal birefringence as well as they can be suitable for the single-mode and single-polarization transmission. From the convergence tests, it is confirmed that the relative error of the modal birefringence is less than 0.01%. The comparison of our results with those by previously reported method is presented. The proposed method can be extended for analysis of the elliptical-core fibers with hollow pits and electromagnetic scattering by targets of the complex elliptical geometry.

Long term phase noises are characterized for network synchronization using two time domain measurement techniques: the Maximum Time Interval Error (MTIE) and Time Variance (TVAR). First, the characteristics of previously measured fiber delay variations are evaluated. The diurnal and annual delay variations and the long term noise feature of random walk phase modulation are well represented by the TVAR technique. The delay variation due to the AU pointer operation is then measured using commercial SDH demultiplexing equipment and compared with the simulation result; the simulation result agrees well with the experimental result. The delay variation in the SDH equipment is simulated using the thermal fiber delay variation measured in the actual network as the input phase of the equipment. It is shown that the SDH equipment sometimes generates delay steps of 617ns, which are larger than the normal pointer operations of 154ns. The long term delay variation, periods over 107s, due to the threshold spacing between the positive and negative stuffing is described. We also show that TVAR is suitable for evaluating the phase noise feature and MTIE can clearly show the peak value of phase noise. The long term phase noises evaluated in this paper are the dominant sources that degrade network synchronous performance. The results of this paper will be useful in designing the equipment synchronous specification.

The networked reality is defined to be the virtual reality used in networks and using networks. The paper describes several levels of the networked reality and their applications.

Genetic algorithms have been shown to be very useful in a variety of search and optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a modified genetic channel router. We adopt the compatible crossover operator and newly designed compatible mutation operator in order to search solution space more effectively, where vertical constraints are integrated. By carefully selected fitness function forms and optimized genetic parameters, the current version speeds up benchmarks on average about 5.83 times faster than that of our previous version. Moreover the total convergence to optimal solutions for benchmarks can be always obtained.

In this paper, chaos synchronization in coupled discrete-time dynamical systems is studied. Computer results display the interesting synchronization behaviors in the mutually coupled systems. As possible applications of chaos synchronization, parameter estimations and secure communications are proposed. Furthermore, a modified OGY method is given, which converts a chaotic motion into a periodic motion.

We have developed a Virtual Playground," which allows various activities such as virtual playground and virtual visiting areas for hospitalized children who can not usually go outside. A Virtual Playground system is composed of TV monitors, joysticks, cameras, video transmission devices, and a graphics workstation. In a Virtual Playground environment, children can experience what is impossible or difficult during their stay in a hospital. We have completed a couple of experiments already and discussed its effects.* In our recent work, we also introduced a simple version of the Cave display to the Virtual Playground system.