This paper studies effect of packet scheduling algorithms at routers on media synchronization quality in live audio and video transmission by experiment. In the experiment, we deal with four packet scheduling algorithms: First-In First-Out, Priority Queueing, Class-Based Queueing and Weighted Fair Queueing. We assess the synchronization quality of both intra-stream and inter-stream with and without media synchronization control. The paper clarifies the features of each algorithm from a media synchronization point of view. A comparison of the experimental results shows that Weighted Fair Queueing is the most efficient packet scheduling algorithm for continuous media among the four.

A technique was developed to reconstruct the cross-sectional image of the absorption distribution in a diffuse medium using backscattered light. In this technique, we illuminate an object with an ultra-short pulse, and measure the time-resolved pulse shape of the light backscattered from the object. The absorption distribution of the scattering object can be estimated using the propagation-path distribution of photons at each detection time and the optical impulse response of backscattered light. In a simulation, the effectiveness of this technique was verified in the cases of a layered absorber and a three dimensional absorber. The nonlinear relationship between the depth of the probing region and the propagation time was clarified. The accuracy of the image reconstruction was significantly improved by the aperiodic sampling of the backscattered impulse response according to the nonlinear relation. The feasibility of the proposed technique was verified in the experiment with a model phantom.

The reverse link signal power required for multimedia traffic in multipath faded single-code (SC-) and multi-code CDMA (MC-CDMA) systems is investigated. The effect of orthogonality loss among multiple spreading code channels is characterized by introducing the orthogonality factor. The required signal power in both CDMA systems is analyzed with varying system parameters of spreading bandwidth, the orthogonality factor, and the number of spreading codes. Analytical results show that MC-CDMA users transmitting only a single traffic type require significantly more power than SC-CDMA users with only a single traffic type. On the other hand, MC-CDMA users transmitting multimedia traffic require power levels approximately identical to SC-CDMA users with multimedia traffic.

Recently, code division multiple access scheme with time division duplex (CDMA/TDD) has drawn considerable attention as means to realize efficient wireless multimedia communications system. In this paper, we propose two time slot allocation algorithms for CDMA/TDD systems to efficiently accommodate multimedia traffic. Assuming a practical multiple cell environment and a multimedia service model which consists of several kinds of circuit-switched and packet-switched services with different quality of services (QoSs), we evaluate the average delay (average time from call generation to channel assignment) of the CDMA/TDD system with the proposed algorithms, and compare the performance with that of CDMA with frequency division duplex (CDMA/FDD) and time division multiple access with TDD (TDMA/TDD) systems. Our computer simulation results show that the CDMA/TDD system with one of the proposed algorithms, which can effectively avoid interference among users with different QoSs, can improve the average delay performance as compared with the other systems.

We propose a software architecture for one-stop services of electronic commerce (EC). Users currently have trouble using multiple EC services because they are provided independently. Therefore a mediator that combines EC services and provides one-stop services to users would be useful. Service matching and service collaboration are important issues in the mediator because they are the main difficulties for users. The proposed architecture provides solutions to these issues. Multiple service assignment provides suitable combinations of EC services, flow division enables efficient execution of the combined EC services, and dynamic alternative service assignment enables flexible failure avoidance during the execution of combined services. These features make the proposed architecture a suitable mediator for EC services.

This paper presents a multimedia architecture extension design for a 200-MHz, 1.6-GOPS embedded RISC processor. The datapath architecture of the processor which realizes parallel execution of data transfer and SIMD (single instruction stream multiple data stream) parallel arithmetic operations is designed. Four SIMD parallel 16-bit MAC (multiply-accumulation) instructions are introduced with a symmetric rounding scheme which maximizes the accuracy of the 16-bit accumulation. This parallel 16-bit MAC on a 64-bit datapath is shown to be efficiently utilized for DSP applications such as the correlation and the matrix-vector multiplications in the multimedia RISC processor. By using the parallel MAC instruction with the symmetric rounding scheme, a 2D-IDCT which satisfies the IEEE1180 can be implemented in 202 cycles.

Employing reactive sputtering using an electron-cyclotron-resonance microwave plasma without oxidation process, high coercivity ferrite thin-films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy were successfully prepared without NiO underlayer at low substrate temperature. The ferrite thin-film deposited on glass substrate had smooth surface and were composed of small grains. Perpendicular recording was performed on the ferrite thin-film hard disk. The ferrite thin-films with high coercivity could be prepared on flexible film substrates (Polyimide and PET).

The analysis of the radiating properties of a multilayer structure where chirality is introduced is here addressed. Both the effects on the resonant behaviour and on the radiation patterns have been considered for different multilayer structures. The adopted procedure is full wave and leads to the numerical analysis performed via the Methods of Moment in the spectral domain.

Magnetoplumbite type Ba ferrite (BaM) disks were prepared on Pt and Pt-Ta underlayers using facing targets sputtering apparatus. Pt underlayers are more effective than ZnO underlayers to promote c-axis orientation of BaM layers, especially for extremely thin BaM films. Pt-Ta underlayer was used to decrease the grain size of BaM layers. BaM/Pt-Ta disks revealed larger S/N ratio than BaM/Pt disks because of their larger signal output and lower media noise level. BaM disks with 50 nm thick BaM layers revealed lower noise level and larger S/N ratio than that with 100 nm thick BaM layers due to smaller grain size.

Microstructures of CoCr-alloy thin film media were investigated by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy focussing on the initial growth region of the magnetic layer grown on nonmagnetic underlayers. An introduction of nonmagnetic hcp-CoCrRu layer between an hcp-CoCrPt recording layer and an hcp- or a bcc-underlayer improved the crystallographic quality of the initial growth region. Sharp compositional distributions of alloying elements at the interfaces of a CoCrPt/CoCrRu/CrTi perpendicular medium and a CoCrPt/CoCrRu/CrTi longitudinal medium were respectively confirmed by electron energy loss spectroscopy employing a finely focussed electron beam. Coercivity and squareness of the thin film media increased by realizing good hetero-epitaxy between the nonmagnetic and the magnetic hcp-layers.

Physical limitation of the conventional longitudinal media has been actualized recent days according to the dramatic increase in storage area density with a growth ratio of more than 100%/year so that perpendicular recording is being watched with keen interest. Development in perpendicular recording media from the proposal to actual usage for HDD system are reviewed in terms of historical back ground, recent media design and preparation, new media proposal and recording performances, mainly basing on the author's results. In case of perpendicular media, physical limit of thermal stability could not be so serious but media noise reduction with sophisticated preparation method has been research topics as the breakthrough for the commercialization. Improvements on Co-Cr system alloy media were made by introducing proper additives and under layers so that a high storage density over 60 Gb/inch2 has been achieved. Far higher density up to 1 Tera bits/ inch2 is expected to be possible by using newly proposed Co/Pd multilayer or Fe-Pt metal compound films. It is prospected that breakthrough for the future progresses would be mechanical issues such as head medium spacing and tribology problems rather than magnetic properties of media.

Skew angle effects on the transition noise are analyzed in the longitudinal disk media by micromagnetic simulations at area densities from 14.3 Gb/in2 to 31.5 Gb/in2. The transition noise, including the peak, width and jitter noise, is the dominant noise in ultra-high density disk recording systems. An isotropic medium and an oriented medium, with a fixed grain size of 135 and a coercivity of 2900 Oe, are chosen for the noise analysis. The peak noise is studied by the distribution of the peak magnetization amplitude Mp in each bit. The transition a-parameter is no longer the value as given in the William-Comstock approximation. It is found that the transition noise is highly dependent on both the linear den sity and the skew angle, where the bit length and the grain size are on the same order. In both media, the medium noise increases severely when the skew angle is above 10 degrees.

Analysis of electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering in a random medium is a field of great interest. This research field becomes more important if we consider the study of phsyical effects on wave propagation and scattering from targets in random media. Curvature of the targets' cross-sections plays an important parameter in the radar detection problem. In previous study, analysis of scattering data from nonconvex conducting targets has pointed out to the effect of target configuration together with both effects of the spatial coherence length of incident waves around the target and the double passage on the backscattering enhancement. Here, we make sure this fact by considering targets with relatively large sizes in continuous random media for H-wave incidence. We assume the cross-section of targets to be smoothly deformed contour comprising concave and convex portions.

The (cinema) caption processing that adds descriptive text on a sequence of frames is an important video manipulation function that a video editor should support. This paper proposes an efficient MC-DCT compressed domain approach to insert the caption into the MPEG compressed video stream. It basically adds the DCT blocks of the caption image to the corresponding DCT blocks of the input frames one by one in the MC-DCT domain as in [6]. However, the strength of the caption image is adjusted in the DCT domain to prevent the resulting DCT coefficients from exceeding the maximum value allowed in MPEG. In order to adjust the strength of the caption image adaptively we need to know the exact pixel value of the input image. This is a difficult task in DCT domain. We propose an approximation scheme for the pixel values in which the DC value of a block is used as the expected pixel value for all pixels in that block. Although this approximation may lead to some errors in the caption area, it still provides a relatively high image quality in the non-caption area, whereas the processing time is about 4.9 times faster than the decode-captioning-reencode method.

As Information Technology progresses, our daily lives are getting "connected" more and more. At the same time, however, problems are appearing. The center of these problems can be captured as the "Communication Overflow. " To cope with such problems, we propose an approach that tries to provide a communication environment that assists users in managing their communication activities. The key notion of this approach is to enhance the "Awareness of Connectedness. " Here, agents which are suggestive of awareness of connectedness play an important role. In this paper, we describe the key notion and introduce a brief road-map towards the environment for the awareness of connectedness. Two candidate tools for the environment are described. The first one is a visualization tool for communication media that provides feedback of users' communication activities. Its purpose is to enhance the awareness for communication. The second tool is a simple, intuitive interactive media that exchanges the statuses of users. It is an alternative network communication media that might be suitable for very light-weight, almost-acknowledge-only communication mode. Some results on an experiment of these two tools are also reported.

The Active HYpermedia Delivery System (AHYDS) facilitates the access to multimedia information over a large-scale network and wide spectrum of media. We developed intelligent access facilities that build on the access paradigms supported by current web applications. This facility generalizes not only different kinds of logical data models (relational, object, hyperlink), but also access mechanisms of multimedia applications to make them customizable and scalable. This paper proposed the distributed management mechanism of the AHYDS platform. The major contribution of this paper is the mechanism for distributed multimedia delivery management over large-scale network and heterogeneous environment. We also propose the mechanism to manage huge multimedia data.

In distributed network systems, it is one of the most important problems how to assign the files to servers in view of cost and delay. It is obvious that there is a trading-off relationship between costs and delays in these systems. In order to evaluate the optimization that the total cost is minimized subject to the total delay, we have presented the Optimal File Allocation Model as 0-1 integer programming, and have investigated the general characteristics in distributed systems. In this model, we have introduced many cost and delay parameters to evaluate the total cost and delay in the system more exactly. In constructing practical systems, it is necessary to investigate the weight and the contribution of each parameter to the total cost. It is very useful to show how to estimate cost and delay parameters on the basis of this analysis. In this paper, we analyze the sensitivity of these parameters and make clear the influence between principal parameters.

Coherence resonance in propagating spikes generated by noise in spatially distributed excitable media is studied with computer simulation and circuit experiment on the FitzHugh-Nagumo model. White noise is added to the one end of the media to generate spikes, which propagate to the other end. The mean and standard deviation of the interspike intervals of the spikes after propagation take minimum values at the intermediate strength of the added noise. This shows stronger coherence than obtained in the previous studies.

This paper proposes a bandwidth allocation scheme which improves degradation of communication quality due to handoffs in mobile multimedia networks. In general, a multimedia call consists of several component calls. For example, a video phone call consists of a voice call and a video call. In realistic environments, each component call included in one multimedia call may have different requirements for quality-of-service (QoS) from each other, and priorities among these component calls often exist with respect to importance for communications. When the available bandwidth is not enough for a handoff call, the proposed scheme eliminates a low priority component call and defers bandwidth allocation for a component call whose delay related QoS is not strict. Moreover, in the allocation, the scheme gives priority to new calls and handoff calls over a deferred call and also performs bandwidth reallocation to eliminated component calls. By computer simulation, we evaluate the performance such as call dropping probability and show effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

This paper proposes a very small on-chip multimedia real-time OS for embedded system LSIs, and demonstrates its usefulness on MPEG-2 multimedia applications. The real-time OS, which has a conditional cyclic task with suspend and resume for interacting hardware (HW) / software (SW) of embedded system LSIs, implements the minimum set of task, interrupt, and semaphore managements on the basis of an analysis of embedded software requirements. It requires only about 2.5 Kbytes memory on run-time, reduces redundant conventional cyclic task execution steps to about 1/2 for HW/SW interactions, and provides sufficient performance in real-time through implementing two typical embedded softwares for practical multimedia system LSIs: an MPEG-2 system protocol LSI and an MPEG-2 video encoder LSI. This on-chip multimedia real-time OS with 2.5 Kbyte memory will be acceptable for future multimedia embedded system LSIs.