A sub-grid finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method was applied to analyze electromagnetic (EM) interaction between a 5 GH band antenna mounted laptop personal computer (PC) and a human body model in realistic use situations. The investigated situations were a typing and a non-typing PC users, who were simulated with a realistic whole body or half body model. It was found that the body proximity effect was mainly blocking the radiation up to 20 dB towards the body side, and the hands on the keyboard were mainly blocking the radiation up to 10 dB towards the direction at an angle to the head. It was also found that the highest EM absorption in the typing and non-typing situations occurred in the hand and in the chest, respectively, and the hands on the keyboard had a significantly blocking effect for the SAR spread to the head region. The peak SAR levels were low enough compared to the safety guidelines.

Many immersive displays developed in previous researches are strongly influenced by the design concept of the CAVE, which is the origin of the immersive displays. In the view of human-scale interactive system for virtual environment (VE), the existing immersive systems are not enough to use the potential of a human sense further extent. The displays require more complicated structure for flexible extension, and are more restrictive to user's movement. Therefore we propose a novel multi-projector display for immersive VE with haptic interface for more flexible and dynamic interaction. The display part of our system named "D-vision" has a hybrid curved screen which consist of compound prototype with flat and curve screen. This renders images seamlessly in real time, and generates high-quality stereovision by PC cluster and two-pass technology. Furthermore a human-scale string-based haptic device will integrate with the D-vision for more interactive and immersive VE. In this paper, we show an overview of the D-vision and technologies used for the human-scale haptic interface.

Fundamentals of parametric processing in highly nonlinear optical fiber are reviewed. Experimental procedures necessary for construction of one- and two-pump parametric amplifier architectures are described. Pump phase broadening, dispersion fluctuation and birefringence form basic impairment mechanisms in fiber parametric devices and are analyzed in two-pump parametric devices. Parametric signal processing is introduced with specific applications in all-optical regeneration, band conjugation, multicasting, packet switching and signal distortion reversal.

In this paper, we term multimedia streaming application traffic "stream flows" and the other usual application traffic "non-stream flows." Many problems occur when both flows are aggregated on a shared link because the different TCP and UDP behaviors cause negative interactions. One way to solve these problems is to isolate stream and non-stream flows to different classes. However, it is difficult to determine the bandwidth allocation for each class and dynamic bandwidth allocation schemes are hard to implement on large scale networks. We therefore propose a dynamic class assignment method that maintains the QoS and that has a higher scalability than dynamic bandwidth allocation schemes. It is workable on Diffserv AF PHB. The outline is as follows. We classify non-stream flows into four classes and dynamically assign stream flows to the classes, taking the conditions and characteristics of the classes into consideration. On assigning classes to stream flows, we map them to a higher drop precedence than non-stream flows not to degrade the QoS of them, based on the assumption that occasional packets being dropped do not create serious problems for them. In this paper, we first discuss our classification of non-stream flows, and present the characteristics of non-stream flows in each class. We then discuss our drop precedence mapping. After this, we propose an algorithm for our method of dynamic class assignment and provide some simulation results where it could provide constant qualities with stream and non-stream flows, adapting to changing traffic.

In this paper, we propose a formal method for detection of three automation surprises in human-machine interaction; a mode confusion, a refusal state, and a blocking state. The mode confusion arises when a machine is in a different mode from that anticipated by the user, and is the most famous automation surprise. The refusal state is a situation that the machine does not respond to a command the user executes. The blocking state is a situation where an internal event occurs, leading to change of an interface the user does not know. In order to detect these phenomena, we propose a composite model in which a machine and a user model evolve concurrently. We show that the detection of these phenomena in human-machine interaction can be reduced to a reachability problem in the composite model.

Much of the work on faces in computer vision has been focused on face recognition or facial expression analysis, but has not been directly related with face direction detection. In this paper, we propose a vision-based approach to detect a face direction from a single monocular view of a face by using a facial feature called facial triangle, which is formed by two eyebrows and the lower lip. Specifically, the proposed method introduces simple formulas to detect face rotation, horizontally and vertically, using the facial triangle. It makes no assumption about the structure of the face and produces an accurate estimate of face direction.

This paper proposes an algorithm for detecting 3-way interactions. As far as the authors know, this is the first proposal ever made for a detection algorithm of 3-way interactions. In this paper, by analyzing examples, the mechanism of 3-way interactions is clarified and a detection algorithm of 3-way interactions is proposed. Namely the proposed detection algorithm is heuristic. To evaluate the algorithm, we implemented a detection system based on the proposed algorithm and applied it to 12 services, and 82 3-way interactions were detected. This shows the proposed algorithm is effective.

In 1960, the famous computer pioneer J.C.R. Licklider described a vision for human-computer interaction that he called "man-computer symbiosis. " Licklider predicted the development of computer software that would allow people "to think in interaction with a computer in the same way that you think with a colleague whose competence supplements your own. " More than 40 years later, one rarely encounters any computer application that comes close to capturing Licklider's notion of human-like communication and collaboration. We echo Licklider by arguing that true symbiotic interaction requires at least the following three elements: a complementary and effective division of labor between human and machine; an explicit representation in the computer of the user's abilities, intentions, and beliefs; and the utilization of nonverbal communication modalities. We illustrate this argument with various research prototypes currently under development at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (USA).

In this paper, the effects of visual information on associated auditory information were investigated when presented simultaneously under dynamic conditions on a wide screen. Experiments of an auditory-visual stimulus presentation using a computer graphics movie of a moving patrol car and its siren sound, which were combined in various locations, were performed in 19 subjects. The experimental results showed the following: the visual stimulus at the beginning of the presentation captured the sound image stronger than that at the end (i.e., beginning effect), the sound image separated from the visual image even when both stimulus locations were exactly at the same place and then when both stimuli moved in opposite directions from each other, the visual stimulus tended to capture the sound image stronger in the peripheral visual field than in the central visual field, and the visual stimulus moving toward the sound source captured the sound image stronger than that moving away from the sound source.

Connectedness oriented communication denotes a mode of communication in which the activities of communication are more important than the contents of communication. It is targeted at maintaining and enhancing human social relationships. As our lifestyles and societies are shifting along with the progress of Information Technology, communication media that are connectedness oriented will play an important role. In this paper we propose a media called FaintPop, which is an example of such new media that are suitable for connectedness oriented communication. It is a communication media designed for a community, with which the sense of connectedness can be shared among members. Furthermore, it provides a general overview of the communication activities occurring in the community. We discuss several principles and points in designing the media, especially about the interaction of the users. Results and findings from the experiment using the media are reported.

Software agents are knowledgeable, autonomous, situated and interactive software entities. Agents' interactions are of special importance when a group of agents interact with each other to solve a problem that is beyond the capability and knowledge of each individual. Efficiency, performance and overall quality of the multi-agent applications depend mainly on how the agents interact with each other effectively. In this paper, we suggest an agent model by which we can clearly distinguish different agent's interaction scenarios. The model has five attributes: goal, control, interface, identity and knowledge base. Using the model, we analyze and describe possible scenarios; devise the appropriate reasoning and decision making techniques for each scenario; and build a library of reasoning and decision making modules that can be used readily in the design and implementation of multiagent systems.

This paper proposes a new concept of Interaction key. An interaction key is a group public key that corresponds to a shared key shared by multiple users, and it has a new feature that an interaction key generator can verify the following: the shared key has been generated now, and the shared key has not existed before. In other words, the multiple users can prove them to the key generator. This feature is different from Time-stamp technology proves that a message existed at a point in time. Here, the key generator is a third party that can observe communications of the multiple users. Present technology only allows a group member or a privileged entity to generate a group public key. We are not presently aware of a technology where a third party can generate the group public key as above. The interaction key technology is useful both for generating public key certificates and for message certification. In a certificate generation, a certificate authority can issue a public key certificate with the shared key (i.e. secret key) to be used by the multiple users. In a message certification, the users can prove the signed message has not existed before, since the message is signed by the shared key corresponds to the interaction key.

Feature interaction is the term used in telephony systems to refer to inconsistent conflict between multiple communication services. Feature interaction is considered a major obstacle to developing reliable telephony systems and many approaches have been explored to resolve it. In this paper we present an automatic method for detecting latent feature interaction in service specifications. This method uses bounded model checking as its basis. The basic idea behind bounded model checking is to reduce the detection problem to the propositional satisfiability (SAT) decision problem. For asynchronous systems like telecommunication systems, however, traditional bounded model checking does not work well because resulting propositional formulas tend to become very large. We propose a new encoding scheme to overcome this problem and show the effectiveness through comparative experiments with traditional bounded model checking and other model checking methods.

With no doubt the Internet will achieve advantages in exploiting software agents for applications, thanks to their autonomy in carrying out tasks. In such a scenario, appropriated methodologies are needed to manage the interactions among agents. The BRAIN framework proposes an interaction model based on roles, each one composed by a set of capabilities and an expected behavior. The achieved advantages are agent-oriented features, separation of concerns and reuse of solutions and experiences. In this paper we present two interaction infrastructures, Rolesystem and RoleX, which rely on the above mentioned role-based interaction model. These infrastructures allow agents to assume roles and to interact. An application example and the comparison with other approaches show the effectiveness of our approach.

In order for the agent-based applications to be truly autonomous and decentralized, heterogeneous multi-agent systems themselves must communicate and interoperate with each other. To solve the problem, we take a two-step approach. First, message-level interoperability is realized by a gateway agent that interconnects heterogeneous multi-agent systems. Second, higher-level interoperation of conversations, which consist of bi-directional streams of messages, is achieved by dynamically negotiating the interaction protocols. We demonstrate the concept, technique and implementation of integrating multi-agent systems and show how the method improves the assurance of real-world applications in autonomous decentralized systems.

Metal particulate tape is one of the most advanced tape media to offer excellent performance at high recording densities. An accurate micromagnetic model of the metal particulate tape has been developed to analyze the magnetic properties of MP tapes. Both particle size distributions and orientation distribution are included in the model, and the magnetostatic interactions among particles are accurately calculated with the shape of ellipsoids. A partial mean field approximation applied in the calculation is proved to be effective by M-H loop analysis.

Services that operate normally, independently, will behave differently when simultaneously initiated with another service. This behavior is called a feature interaction. A feature interaction, where the next state can not be determined uniquely for one event, is called a non-determinacy feature interaction. To detect the interaction, judgment has to be made as to whether the state, where the non-determinacy occurs, is reachable from the initial state or not. For the judgment, many methods have been proposed. But, still now, it is required huge computation time to judge the reachability. This paper proposes a new method to test the reachability using a little knowledge elicited beforehand. By using the proposed method computation time was reduced drastically. Besides, by applying the proposed method to a benchmark, the proposed method was confirmed to be effective and reasonable.

The paper proposes a vision-based system for adaptively inferring the interactional intention of a person coming close to a robot, which plays an important role in the succeeding stage of human/robot cooperative handling of works/tools in production lines. Here, interactional intention is ranged in the meaning of the intention to interact/operate with the robot, which is proposed to be estimated by the human head moving path during an incipient period of time. To implement this intention inference capability, first, human entrance is detected and is modeled by an ellipse to supply information about the head position. Second, B-spline technique is used to approximate the trajectory with reduced control points in order that the system acquires information about the human motion direction and the curvature of the motion trajectory. Finally, Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are applied as the adaptive inference engines at the stage of inferring the human interactional intention. The HMM algorithm with a stochastic pattern matching capability is extended to supply whether or not a person has an intention toward the robot at the incipient time. The reestimation process here models the motion behavior of an human worker when he has or doesn't have the intention to operate the robot. Experimental results demonstrate the adaptability of the inference system using the extended HMM algorithm for filtering out motion deviation over the trajectory.

In this paper, a discrete-time convergence theorem for continuous-state Hopfield networks with self-interaction neurons is proposed. This theorem differs from the previous work by Wang in that the original updating rule is maintained while the network is still guaranteed to monotonically decrease to a stable state. The relationship between the parameters in a typical class of energy functions is also investigated, and consequently a "guided trial-and-error" technique is proposed to determine the parameter values. The third problem discussed in this paper is the post-processing of outputs, which turns out to be rather important even though it never attracts enough attention. The effectiveness of all the theorems and post-processing methods proposed in this paper is demonstrated by a large number of computer simulations on the assignment problem and the N-queen problem of different sizes.

Particulate media composed of very small particles were studied to determine high-density recording performance and thermal stability. Studied media included metal particulate media with mean particle length of 71, 102 and 148 nm, and Ba ferrite particulate media with mean diameter of 22, 28 and 50 nm. Using a loss-term simulation program, taking into account gap-loss, spacing-loss and particle length loss, the recording capability (D20 of 265 kFRPI for MP and 290 kFRPI for Ba ferrite media) was estimated. Thermal stability was evaluated from magnetization time decay measurements. It was found that MP media with large Ku values and 71 nm particles were satisfactorily stable, and the particle volume is still large enough in respect of thermal stability. However, 22-nm Ba ferrite media were less stable, primarily because of small Ku values and particle volume. It was also clarified that positive inter-particle interaction accelerates magnetization time decay, in the presence of a large reverse field.