For real time image processing, a readout circuit for an infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) involving a new edge detection technique has been proposed in this letter. A non-uniformity correction unit (NUC), essential in an IRFPA because of bad non-uniformity characteristics of IR sensors is eliminated in this circuit by using a noise tolerant edge detection technique. In addition, real time edge detection can be possible, because of pixel-level integration and parallel processing. The proposed readout circuit shows an approximately three to nine times better edge error rate than other available methods using pixel-level parallel processing.

The research on displacement vector detection has gained increasing attention in recent years. However, no relationship between displacement vectors and the outlines of objects in motion has been established. We describe a new method of detecting displacement vectors through edge segment detection by emphasizing the correlation between displacement vectors and their outlines. Specifically, after detecting an edge segment, the direction of motion of the edge segment can be inferred through the variation in the values of the Laplacian-Gaussian filter at the position near the edge segment before and after the motion. Then, by observing the degrees of displacement before and after the motion, the displacement vector can be calculated. The accuracy compared to other methods of displacement vector detection demonstrates the feasibility of this method.

This paper addresses the issue of transmission scheduling in wireless ad hoc networks. We propose a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheduling scheme based on edge coloring and probabilistic assignment, called CP-TDMA. We categorize the conflicts suffered by wireless links into two types: explicit conflicts and implicit conflicts, and utilize two different strategies to deal with them. Explicit conflicts are avoided completely by a simple distributed edge-coloring algorithm µ-M, and implicit conflicts are minimized by applying probabilistic time slot assignments to links. We evaluate CP-TDMA analytically and numerically, and find that CP-TDMA, which requires only local information exhibits a better performance than previous work.

This paper presents batch processing protocols for efficiently proving a great deal of partial knowledge. These protocols reduce the computation and communication costs for a MIX-net and secure circuit evaluation. The efficiency levels of the proposed protocols are estimated based on the implementation results of a secure circuit evaluation with batch processing.

Numerical function generators (NFGs) realize arithmetic functions, such as ex,sin(πx), and , in hardware. They are used in applications where high-speed is essential, such as in digital signal or graphics applications. We introduce the edge-valued binary decision diagram (EVBDD) as a means of reducing the delay and memory requirements in NFGs. We also introduce a recursive segmentation algorithm, which divides the domain of the function to be realized into segments, where the given function is realized as a polynomial. This design reduces the size of the multiplier needed and thus reduces delay. It is also shown that an adder can be replaced by a set of 2-input AND gates, further reducing delay. We compare our results to NFGs designed with multi-terminal BDDs (MTBDDs). We show that EVBDDs yield a design that has, on the average, only 39% of the memory and 58% of the delay of NFGs designed using MTBDDs.

This paper presents an automatic edge segment based algorithm for the detection of moving objects that has been specially developed to deal with the variations in illumination and contents of background. We investigated the suitability of the proposed edge segment based moving object detection algorithm in comparison with the traditional intensity based as well as edge pixel based detection methods. In our method, edges are extracted from video frames and are represented as segments using an efficiently designed edge class. This representation helps to obtain the geometric information of edge in the case of edge matching and shape retrieval; and creates effective means to incorporate knowledge into edge segment during background modeling and motion tracking. An efficient approach for background edge generation and a robust method of edge matching are presented to effectively reduce the risk of false alarm due to illumination change and camera motion while maintaining the high sensitivity to the presence of moving object. The proposed method can be successfully realized in video surveillance applications in home networking environment as well as various monitoring systems. As, video coding standard MPEG-4 enables content based functionality, it can successfully utilize the shape information of the detected moving objects to achieve high coding efficiency. Experiments with real image sequences, along with comparisons with some other existing methods are presented, illustrating the robustness of the proposed algorithm.

Due to the decoding procedure and filtering for edge detection, the feature extraction process of MPEG-7 Edge Histogram Descriptor (EHD) is time-consuming and computationally expensive. We proposed the fast EHD generation method in wavelet domain of JPEG2000 images. Experimental results demonstrate the advantage of this method over EHD.

In this paper, we propose an intrablog-based informal communication encouraging system named "Attractiblog." It has been pointed out that daily informal communications at a shared public space play very important role in information sharing in an organization. However, in most cases, the communications are often mere chats. To make the communications more informative, it is necessary to feed some common and beneficial topics there. Attractiblog is a system that extracts some articles posted in an intrablog considering who are in the shared space, and show them on a large-sized display that is located in the space. Thus, Attractiblog attempts to seamlessly link on-line communications to off-line communications. We conducted user studies and confirmed that Attractiblog can achieve a natural correspondence between topics in face-to-face informal communications and issues related to the activities of an organization as given in its intrablog.

Note taking is a fundamental activity for learning, and many software tools which enable students to take digitized notes have been proposed. Digitized notes are advantageous because they can be easily edited, rearranged, and shared. Although many note-taking tools have been proposed, there has been little research to examine the effect of note annotation and rearrangement with a digitized tool in terms of knowledge acquisition. Therefore, we have investigated the effect of note annotation and rearrangement on how well lecture content is remembered by learners. By annotation, we mean adding both handwritten and typed text, and rearrangement includes moving and deleting handwritten notes. We developed a simple note-taking application specialized for explanation, and evaluated it through a laboratory experiment with eight participants. The results show that note annotation and rearrangement significantly improved how well the participants remembered lecture content. Thus, the effect of annotation and rearrangement on remembrance was confirmed with respect to digitized notes.

This paper presents a method to automatically acquire a given noun's telic and agentive roles from corpus data. These relations form part of the qualia structure assumed in the generative lexicon, where the telic role represents a typical purpose of the entity and the agentive role represents the origin of the entity. Our proposed method employs a supervised machine-learning technique which makes use of template-based contextual features derived from token instances of each noun. The output of our method is a ranked list of verbs for each noun, across the different qualia roles. We also propose a variant of Spearman's rank correlation to evaluate the correlation of two top-N ranked lists. Using this correlation method, we represent the ability of the proposed method to identify qualia structure relative to a conventional template-based method.

Expansion of imagination is crucial for lively creativity. However, such expansion is sometimes rather difficult and an environment which supports creativity is required. Because people can attain higher creativity by using words with a thematic relation rather than words with a taxonomical relation, we tried to extract word lists having thematic relations among words. We first extracted word lists from domain specific documents by utilizing inclusive relations between words based on a modifiee/modifier relationship in documents. Next, from the extracted word lists, we removed the word lists having taxonomical relations so as to obtain only word lists having thematic relations. Finally, based on the assumption what kind of knowledge a person can associate when he/she looks at a set of words correlates with how the word set is effective in creativity support, we examined whether the word lists direct us to informative pages on the Web for verifying the availability of our extracted word lists.

Basic microwave properties of magnetic photonic (MPC) and degenerate band edge (DBE) crystals are investigated mathematically and experimentally. Two dimensional and three dimensional models are considered demonstrating the very high sensitivity and field growth associated with these crystals. A major part of the paper deals with the development of realistic anisotropic periodic structures using a combination of layers constructed from thin film frequency selective surfaces, alumina, titanate and calcium vanadium garnet (CVG) materials. Measurements for antenna applications demonstrate and validate the theoretical performance of the MPC and DBE crystals. The latter part of the paper will present an exciting and promising development relating to microwave circuit applications. Specifically, a novel dual-line printed circuit is presented to emulate propagation in anisotropic media. As such, the MPC and DBE phenomena can be realized using very simple printed circuits (coupled lines). Lastly, physically small printed antennas and arrays based on the coupled transmission lines are presented.

We propose, in this article, the Hierarchical Behavior-Knowledge Space as an extension of Behavior-Knowledge Space. Hierarchical BKS utilizes ranked level individual classifiers, and automatically expands its behavioral knowledge in order to satisfy given reliability requirement. From the statistical view point, its decisions are as optimal as those of original BKS, and the reliability threshold is a lower bound of estimated reliability. Several comparisons with original BKS and unanimous voting are shown with some experiments.

UWB pulse radars enable us to measure a target location with high range-resolution, and so are applicable for measurement systems for robots and automobile. We have already proposed a robust and fast imaging algorithm with an envelope of circles, which is suitable for these applications. In this method, we determine time delays from received signals with the matched filter for a transmitted waveform. However, scattered waveforms are different from transmitted one depending on the target shape. Therefore, the resolution of the target edges deteriorates due to these waveform distortions. In this paper, a high-resolution imaging algorithm for convex targets is proposed by iteration of the shape and waveform estimation. We show application examples with numerical simulations and experiments, and confirm its capability to detect edges of an object.

In this paper, we present a novel method to incorporate metadata into data mining. The method has many advantages. It can be completed automatically and is independent of a specific database. Firstly, we convert metadata into ontology. Then input a rule set to a reasoner, which supports rule-based inference over the ontology model. The outputs of the reasoner describe the prior knowledge in metadata. Finally, incorporate the prior knowledge into data mining.

In this paper we modeled and analyzed the ridge type InGaAlAs/InP semiconductor laser with lateral current confinement structure, and optimized the design for the ridge wave guide with the current confinement. We proposed and fabricated the ridge type InGaAlAs/InP laser with a cost effective selective undercut etching method and demonstrated the improvement of the ridge laser performance. This paper provides a solution to solve the cost/yield issue for conventional BH (buried hetero-structure) type laser and performance issue for conventional ridge type laser.

This paper investigates fast Packet Classification techniques, where a large routing table is divided into many much smaller tables by an index key at first; the resulting small tables are much easier to search. A traditional way is to use the front bits as the index key, but we show it's not an effective way to divide a routing table. In this paper, we propose three bit selection methods for division. They can be implemented by CAM or hash structure. Simulations show that the bit selection methods decrease the delay of classification 50% compared to the traditional method. We also propose an optimized method which is adapted to the biased traffic pattern, which shows 70% improvement in our simulation.

Single flux quantum (SFQ) circuit elements have been designed and fabricated using the YBa2Cu3O7-δ ramp-edge junction technology. Logic operations of SFQ circuit elements, such as a toggle flip-flop (T-FF), a set-reset flip-flop (RS-FF), and a 96-junction Josephson transmission line (JTL), were successfully demonstrated, and dc supply current margins were confirmed up to temperatures higher than 30 K. The circuit layout was improved in order to suppress the critical current (Ic) spread that appears during the junction fabrication procedure. By employing the new circuit layout rule, correct operations at temperatures from 27 K to 34 K with dc supply current margins wider than 7% were confirmed for the T-FF with a single output. Moreover, the maximum operating frequencies of T-FFs were measured to be 360 GHz at 4.2 K and 210 GHz at 41 K, which are substantially higher than the values for the circuits with the conventional layout. According to the simulation result, the maximum operating frequency at 40 K was expected to be approximately 50% of the characteristic frequency at a bit error rate (BER) less than 10-6.

This paper presents the Physical Optics field calculation in terms of only line integrations by using the Modified Edge Representation technique (MER), the alternative way of the surface integration. Not only the diffracted fields as in the conventional method of equivalent edge currents (EEC) but also the scattering geometrical optics fields are expressed in terms of the MER line integrals. The far field patterns of parabolic reflector antennas with the defocused dipole feed are discussed and the satisfactory agreement with those obtained by the Physical Optics surface integration is demonstrated.

We consider a problem for constructing a minimum cost r-edge-connected multigraph in which degree d(v) of each vertex v ∈ V is specified. In this paper, we propose a 3-approximation algorithm for this problem under the assumption that edge cost is metric, r(u,v) ∈ {1,2} for each u,v ∈ V, and d(v) ≥ 2 for each v ∈ V. This problem is a generalization of metric TSP. We also propose an approximation algorithm for the digraph version of the problem.