This papaer presents a data model and the database system architecture to handle multimedia data, especially video (or image sequence) data. A new scheme AIS diagram" is introduced, by which all informations about entities and relationships among bitmap frames or textual informations are described in a uniform way. We focus on the integration of engineering data. The most important problem to be solved is how to capture the objects" in each frame and to represent them in the data model. For this purpose we propose physical cut" and logical cut" as a unit of information in image sequences and, using those concepts, we developed a prototype system for multimedia data processing on a conventional database system.

This paper discusses an object-oriented approach to temporal multimedia data modeling in OMEGA; a multimedia database management under development at the University of Library and Information Science. An object-orientated approach is necessary to integrate various types of heterogeneous multimedia data, but it has become clear that current object-oriented data models are not sufficient to represent multimedia data, particularly when they are temporal. For instance, the current object-oriented data models cannot describe objects whose attribute values change time-dependently. Also, they cannot represent temporal relationships among temporal multimedia objects. We characterize temporal objects as instances of a subclass of class TimeInterval with the temporal attributes and the temporal relationships. This temporal multimedia data model is designed upward compatible with the ODMG-93 standard object model. To organize a temporal multimedia database, a five temporal axes model for representing temporal multimedia objects is also introduced. The five temporal axes--an absolute, an internal, a quasi-, a physical, and a presentation time axis--are necessary to describe time-dependent properties of multimedia objects in modeling, implementing and use. A concrete example of this organization method is also illustrated.

The ultraclean sputtering process (UC-process) was newly introduced in the fabrication of Co62.5Ni30Cr7.5 and Co85.5Cr10.5Ta4 thin film media to establish a new concept in controlling microstructure. UC-process enables the realization of high coercive force Hc up to 2.7-3 kOe in both CoNiCr and CoCrTa media (15/50 nm magnetic/Cr thicknesses) without the decrement of saturation magnetization. The purification of the atmosphere during sputtering and the removal of the adsorbed oxygen impurity on the substrate surface play important roles in obtaining high Hc by applying the UC-process. This high Hc is mainly due to the realization of large magnetocrystalline anisotropy field of grains Hkgrain and low intergranular exchange coupling. UC-process realizes the adequate separation of grains by segregated grain boundaries even in media with thin Cr thickness of 2.5 nm, and enables grain size reduction without the remarkable increment in intergranular exchange coupling. In these media, the reduction of the grain size is most effective for the improvement of readback signal to media noise ratio S/Nm. In the media with grains sufficiently separated by segregated grain boundaries fabricated by the UC-process, control of grain size reduction and further increase in Hc/Hkgrain value through the decrement in intergranular magnetostatic coupling are required to obtain higher S/Nm value.

A particulate recording medium with an ultrathin magnetic layer is presented in this paper. This medium consists of a magnetic layer and a nonmagnetic underlayer composed of very fine titanium dioxide powder. When metal powder was employed, we observed the anticipated advantages of decreasing the thickness of the magnetic layer in tapes and diskettes. By reducing the layer thickness to below 0.3 µm we were able to increase the reproduced output at short wavelengths, and improve both the overwrite erasability and the D50. There was also a decrease in the half peak width of an isolated pulse and a peak shift. Tribological advantages were also observed with this medium. When barium ferrite was employed as the magnetic powder, we observed that the modulation noise of thin-layer barium ferrite medium was less than that of a thinlayer MP medium while it generated an output as high as that of the MP medium. The advantages of the barium ferrite medium lie in its two-layer construction. Particulate media will continue to develop as magnetic powder is improved mainly in terms of its size, saturation magnetization, and coercivity.

Coherent and incoherent electromagnetic (EM) waves scattered by many particles are approximately expressed as solutions of integral equations by unconventional multiple scattering method. The particles are randomly displaced from a uniformly ordered distribution, and hence the distribution of particles can change from total uniformity to complete randomness. The approximate expressions of the EM waves are systematically given, independent of the distributions of particles, on the following assumptions. First the particles are identical in material, shape, size and orientation. Second each random displacement of particles from the ordered positions is statistically independent of each other and homogeneous in space. These assumptions may be extended to more general ones but have been used here to make clear the derivation process of the coherent and incoherent EM waves. The approximate expressions of the EM waves are reduced to known ones for both limiting cases: a periodic distribution and a very sparse random distribution. The effective dielectric constant of a random medium containing randomly distributed dielectric spheres can be calculated from the coherent EM wave and compared with those given by conventional methods such as the quasi-crystalline approximation, using the previous results. The comparison indicates the advantage of the method presented here. The present method is expected to be useful for the study of interaction of EM waves with many particles.

Considered is the theory of several dielectric waveguide phenomena for which the vector nature of the electromagnetic field is essential. These phenomena are the following rotation of the plane of polarization in chiral and twisted waveguides, Bragg's reflection in a twisted waveguide in a narrow frequency band, and excitation of a waveguide at a near-cutoff frequency.

Information capture is a very desirable and important function in portable computers. The "Multimedia Notebook" is a portable tool for capturing information in multimedia format, which includes photos, voice, and handwritten memos. Recent portable units, sometimes called PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) or Communicators, have PIM (Personal Information Manager) software and some communication facility. Their purpose is to enlarge the desktop environment to follow the user outside the office. This is one application of portable equipment, however we felt that hand-held equipment can also be used for more general information capture. In the past, information capture was limited, because people had to carry bulky equipment to the information source. Recent portable computers that have the capability to handle still and motion pictures, voice, and handwritten drawings allow the implementation of more information capture capabilities. Capture of handwritten notes has already been implemented on portable equipment like PDAs. However, this application doesn't make the most of its potential. We feel that the Multimedia Notebook should integrate handwritten memos with pictures and voice. The advantage is that users can capture what they watch and hear easily in a variety of media for later review. The information in each medium complements the others. When arranging the recorded information, it is easy to use each medium efficiently. We have examined the human interface and designed it for user-friendliness and to be comparable to pen and paper. The prototypes also have a capture buffer which can operate continuously to capture voice and pictures that would otherwise be lost because of the user's delay in starting to record.

One of the major open issues in neural network research includes a Network Designing Problem (NDP): find a polynomial-time procedure that produces minimal structures (the minimum intermediate size, thresholds and synapse weights) of multilayer threshold feed-forward networks so that they can yield outputs consistent with given sample sets of input-output data. The NDP includes as a sub-problem a Network Training Problem (NTP) where the intermediate size is given. The NTP has been studied mainly by use of iterative algorithms of network training. This paper, making use of both rate distortion theory in information theory and linear algebra, solves the NDP mathematically rigorously. On the basis of this mathematical solution, it furthermore develops a mathematical solution Procedure to the NDP that computes the minimal structure straightforwardly from the sample set. The Procedure precisely attains the minimum intermediate size, although its computational time complexity can be of non-polynomial order at worst cases. The paper also refers to a polynomial-time shortcut to the Procedure for practical use that can reach an approximately minimum intermediate size with its error measurable. The shortcut, when the intermediate size is pre-specified, reduces to a promising alternative as well to current network training algorithms to the NTP.

Information systems to support cooperative work among people should be first designed to help humam communication. However, there are few systems based on the analysis of human communication. Standing on this situation, we propose a meeting support system for the participants' understandings by indicating the suitable information about the topic of the scene". Our system provides only useful information by monitoring each statement without complex methods. To show something useful multi-media information for members, we propose the following structure of the meeting on the basis of the analysis of communication. Each statement is classified into two levels, either; a statement about the progress" of the meeting (context-level utterances) or, a statement about objects" (content-level utterances). Further, content-level utterances are classified into two types, position utterances and argument utterances. Using this classification of statements, the proceeding of the meeting is represented as the tree model which is called a context-tree". If the structure of meetings is fixed, it is possible to select only useful information from all shared information for members by analyzing each content-level utterance. The system introduced in this paper shows appropriate multi-media information about the topic of the scene" by using the above model. We have implemented a prototype system based on the above ideas. Moreover, we have mode some experiments to show the effectiveness of this system. Those results show that our method is effective to improve the productivity" of meetings.

A channel equalization technique on a time division duplex CDMA/TDMA system for wireless multimedia networks is investigated, and the bit error rate performance of the system is theoretically analyzed. The assumed network connects mobile terminals to a node of ATM based high speed LAN through a radio central unit. Only human interface facilities are implemented into the terminal so that users access integrated services through the node of the network. The uplink (from a mobile terminal to a radio central unit) employs a CDMA scheme to transmit human interface signals and the downlink employs a TDMA scheme to transmit display interface signals. Both the CDMA and the TDMA signals occupy the same frequency band. To mitigate bit error rate degradation due to fading, the radio central unit estimates the impulse response of the channel from the received CDMA signals and subtracts the replica signal to cancel the major intersymbol interference (ISI) component. Numerical results using the Nakagami-m fading model and recent propagation measurements show that the proposed TPC technique compensates the fading attenuation and the proposed CEQ cancels the major ISI component. The bit error rate performance of the downlink with the proposed CEQ is superior to that with the DFE by 12dB of the symbol SNR at the BER=10-6 over a specular channel, and the system with the proposed CEQ achieves a BER=10-6 at the symbol SNR=12dB. Furthermore, the channel equalizer is implemented without increases in complexity of the terminal because all the processing on the equalization is carried out only in the radio central unit.

A transmission power control technique on a TDD-CDMA/TDMA system for wireless multimedia networks is proposed. The assumed network connects mobile terminals to a node of an ATM based high speed LAN through a radio central unit. Only human interface facilities are implemented into the terminal so that users access integrated services through the node of the network. The uplink (from a mobile terminal to a radio central unit) employs a CDMA scheme to transmit human interface signals (2.4kbit/s) and the downlink employs a TDMA scheme to transmit display interface signals (24 Mbit/s). Both the CDMA and the TDMA signals occupy the same frequency band. To mitigate bit error rate degradation due to the fading, the radio central unit estimates the impulse response of the channel from the received CDMA signals and controls the transmission power of the TDMA signals to compensate the fading attenuation. The bit error rate performance of the downlink with the proposed transmission power control is theoretically analyzed under several fading conditions. Numerical results using the Nakagami-m fading model and recent propagation measurements show that the proposed power control technique compensates the fading attenuation and improves the bit error rate performances. The bit error rate of the downlink is reduced from 10-2 to 10-5 at the symbol SNR of 20dB by employing the proposed transmission power control, which is less sensitive to the severity of the fading. Furthermore, the proposed transmission power control is implemented without increasing the terminal complexity because all the processing on the power control of the downlink is carried out only in the radio central unit.

Closed-form solutions of the characteristic initial value problem for electric and magnetic fields propagating as nonsinusoidal plane TEM-waves in lossy unbounded media are calculated with Riemann's method and discussed in detail. As an application, the reflection and transmission of waves on a planar boundary is examined, when one semi-infinite medium is lossy.

Multimedia communication services are being made available with the advent of broadband optical fiber networks. As many different services will be accommodated in such networks, network survivability has been recognized to be a crucial concern. In this paper, we propose a new restoration algorithm for ATM networks providing multimedia services. Our proposed restoration algorithm adopts the message bundling scheme of the Multi-Destination Flooding (MDF) algorithm which was previously proposed for STM-based networks to handle catastrophic failures such as multiple link and node failures. Virtual Paths (VP) with the same communication speed are bundled and Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM) cells are used for communication of restoration messages. In addition, the following modifications are made on the original MDF to improve restoration performance. The pre-cancellation scheme is adopted to arbitrate reservation contention to realize high restoration ratio. The dual queue scheme is applied to avoid congestion of restoration messages. Moreover, the connection control scheme for VPI connections is proposed to prevent alternative routes from being misconnected. This paper describes the design concept of our restoration algorithm, processes in each restoration phase, and the performance evaluation by computer simulation.

New multimedia applications have emerged on top of information infrastructures, such as on-demand services, digital libraries and museums, online shopping, information Q & A, concurrent engineering, document management, and desktop program production, which require new databases. That is, next-generation database systems must enable users to efficiently and flexibly develop and execute such advanced multimedia applications. Moreover, in some applications, there is no existent data; in others, there are databases or files to be integrated. This requires both top-down and bottom-up database development. To this end, we focus on development of a database system which enables flexible and efficient acquisition, storage, access and retrieval, and distribution and presentation of large amounts of heterogeneous media data. In particular, we propose a multimedia data model as an integration of structural, temporal, spatial, and control functionality. That is, we take an approach based on an object-oriented database, which is more suitable for description of media structures and operations than a traditional relational database. And we extend the object-oriented approach by providing temporal and spatial operators, and control of distributing computing and QOS (quality of service). In this paper, we describe a multimedia data model and its efficient implementation.

At the beginning of the 21st century, 1 Gb DRAMs will be in practical use, and sufficient in terms of memory capacity for most memory applications systems. The key technologies for multimedia systems include data compression, communication, storage, and human interfaces. Image data processing, ATM switch, and microprocessor in multimedia applications require the high data transfer rate from several 100 Mbits/s to Tbits/s. Storage systems, on the other hand, require the reduction of the price per bit to less than 10 cents/Mbytes. Application specific design approaches towards a system-on-chip are strongly needed for ULSI memories in the multimedia era.

Synchronization of media streams is recognized as an important requirement not only in media retrieval such as a video on-demand service but also in groupware such as a remote conferencing system. In a remote conferencing system, synchronization is more complicated because Live Media Streams (LMS) such as the live raw voice of some participants must be taken into consideration as well as Retrieved Media Streams (RMS) such as media streams retrieved from video equipment. In this paper, we propose a mechanism to synchronize RMSs and LMSs in a remote conferencing system DMSIC (Distributed Multimedia System with Interactive Control) which has been implemented on UNIX workstations connected by Ethernet. In this mechanism, synchronization among RMSs (we call it R & R synchronization) is kept by maintaining the Current Presentation Positions (CPP) on Media Buffers (MB) close to the Ideal Presentation Position (IPP). Synchronization among RMSs and LMSs (we call it R & L synchronization) is kept by adjusting the IPPs among multiple nodes. We have implemented the synchronization mechanism in DMSIC to confirm the effectiveness of it.

A novel wireless multimedia network employing a time division duplex CDMA/TDMA scheme is proposed. The network connects mobile multimedia terminals to an ATM based LAN through a radio central unit, and provides both uplink and downlink with unbalanced data rates in the same frequency band. The uplink (from a mobile terminal to a radio central unit) employs a CDMA scheme to transmit low speed human interface signals (-2.4kbit/s), and the downlink employs a TDMA scheme to transmit high speed video signals (-24Mbit/s). The data rates of both links are independent from that of the LAN. The uplink also employs a RAKE receiver and a forward error correction (FEC) scheme using a BCH code in order to reduce bit errors caused by multipath fading. To mitigate channel degradation caused by the near-far problem and multipath fading, a transmission power control (TPC) method for both links and a channel equalizer (CEQ) for the downlink are proposed. The control signals for the TPC and the CEQ are estimated from the impulse response of the channel which is extracted as the output of the matched filters in the CDMA receiver. Theoretical analyses are performed to evaluate the bit error rate (BER) characteristics of the proposed network. The BER performance is derived for a general multipath fading condition modeled by the Nakagami-m distribution and a typical delay profile. Numerical calculation using recent propagation measurements shows the bit error rates of both uplink and downlink to be less than 10-6 when both of the TPC and the CEQ are employed if there are some specular components in the received signals. This excellent performance can cut a way to realize a mobile multimedia terminal for customer premises. Furthermore, the configuration of the mobile terminal is quite simple even if the high speed TDMA signals are received over a multipath fading channel.

Recently, through high speed computer networks, multifarious information such as text, moving and still images, video, voice and control data is available. There is a natural demand to store such multimedia data in databases to facilitate their reuse in a wide variety of applications. Therefore, important research issues pertain to the investigation of appropriate database systems in multimedia computer network environments. In this paper, we first discuss the required technologies for multimedia information systems. Then we look at many multimedia information services through computer networks, and consider the importance of storing and effectively reusing such available multimedia data. To facilitate developing databases for use in these environments, we discuss the evolution of the notion of database systems. Finally, we demonstrate, as practical examples of such database systems, two prototype systems that we are currently implementing, i.e., the campus wide news on demand system and the ASN. 1 database system.

This paper proposes a functional video handling technique based on structured video. The video handling architecture, which includes a video data structure, file management structure, and visual interface structure, is introduced as the core concept of this technique. One of the key features of this architecture is that the newly proposed video indexing method is performed automatically based on image processing. The video data structure, which plays an important role in the architecture, has two kinds of data structures: content and node. The central idea behind these structures is to separate the video contents from the processing operations and to create links between them. Video indexes work as a backend mechanism in structuring video content. A prototype video handling system called the MediaBENCH, a hypermedia basic environment for computer and human interactions, which demonstrates the actual implementation of the proposed concept and technique, is described. Basic functions such as browsing and editing, which are achieved based on the architecture, exhibit the advantages of structured video handling. The concept and the methods proposed in this paper assure various video-computer applications, which will play major roles in the multimedia field.

In this paper, the ATM Mini-Bar System (AMBS) which is a future information providing service infrastructure is proposed. The purpose of AMBS is to provide a multi-media environment in which a user can (1) select and get quickly any needed information, in low cost, at any time, among very large amount of different media information provided by a variety of providers, (2) be charged only for the information which is selected and used, (3) edit or process informations into users' individually requested style or format before using them. The basic concept and configurations of AMBS are also addressed. This system is basically a center-end oriented one-way information providing system. The information center broadcasts its contents to all user equipments based on a user request forecast, and every user equipment stores the delivered contents in its large storage. A user can select one's needed informations from the storage, and may edit or process them within the user equipment. The charge is only on the read informations from the storage, not on all contents in it. The key points of this system are the following three. (A) Introduction of a broadcast (or multicast) media for economical information delivery (exactly speaking, it is a predelivery which means a delivery before request) to user equipments. (B) Introduction of a 1 to 1 communication network for selective charging and control of each user equipments. (C) Introduction of the user equipment storage for Quick response to user information request in most cases with the broadcast (or multicast) information delivery media described above, Separation of information delivery speed and replay speed to increase system flexibility, Local user information processing or editing. As an example of technical solutions, a memory architecture, which is based on hierarchical architecture, is described. AMBS is expected to give some impacts to information industries because it can integrate many kinds of services into the same platform, but some standerdization items are needed to realize it.