System of personal identification by using tactile stimuli

This paper proposes a personal identification system that uses tactile stimuli. Recently, scientists have been conducting research in biometrics using biomedical information. However, there is the problem that biomedical information is unchangeable. For example, if a thief steals another user’s biomedical information, that person has no information to register. Due to the problems of sight information and unchangeable biomedical information, we propose a solution that uses the sense of tactile stimuli. Tactile information is difficult to steal and relies on human memory, which is unchangeable. This paper proposes a system that uses a pattern formed by a tactile stimuli time series instead of a password number as the identification key. We also discuss the results of an identification experiment and a memory property experiment. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

An Si concentrator cell by single photolithography process

A mid-range concentrator cell by low-cost process is investigated and a new design is proposed. We tried to develop a single lithography CZ-Si cell process. The current conversion efficiency (not optimized) is 16% under X20 concentration without AR coating. The present moderate efficiency is possibly due to low bulk lifetime (approx. 5 μs after process). Cell efficiency and open-circuit voltage (V_oc) are expected to improve by using a better quality Si material and developing a low-stress process to maintain crystal quality. The equivalent circuit analysis reveals degradation of diode characteristics under concentration, which implies decline of fill-factor (FF) by use of low-quality concentrator optics.     

Swing analysis of body-parts motion accompanied by apparent movement

In this research, we examined the tactile sense for sensory substitution in people who have lost one sense. We considered the use of apparent movement to communicate something via the tactile sense. It is necessary to measure the apparent movement objectively and quantitatively because apparent movement is normally a subjective thing. We extracted swing motion, a vital reaction characteristic accompanied by apparent movement, by using electromyography (EMG). We presented individual stimuli and performed a t-test with a combination of the stimuli presented. From the t-test results, the difference in the vital reaction characteristic for each combination of stimuli presented was not small. The result presented here was obtained using only one subject, and therefore it will be necessary to increase the number of subjects in future.     

Rapid multiplex single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping based on single base extension reactions and color-coded beads

A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing method using color-coded beads is promising because it is easy to use and inexpensive. However, the present protocols are not suitable for clinical and diagnostic applications because they need centrifugation for bead-washing. Here, we developed a simplified protocol without a bead-washing procedure that enables SNP typing of PCR amplified fragments in only 30 min.     

Total sputtering yields of solids under MeV-energy Si ion bombardment

Total sputtering yields have been measured for SiO₂ and Cu targets bombarded with Si ions at an incident energy between 500 keV and 5.0 MeV using a quartz crystal microbalance technique. In order to measure total yields accurately, we have developed a beam modulation technique to avoid the effect of thermal drift. In the MeV energy range, an ion penetrates through thin SiO₂ and Cu targets and is implanted into a quartz crystal. Therefore, the thickness of these layers deposited on quartz crystals was carefully controlled to avoid damage of quartz crystal by incident ions. As a result, total sputtering yields of SiO₂ increased with incident Si ion energy, while those of the Cu target decreased. The total yields of the SiO₂ target were represented well by a power low of the electronic stopping power.     

Idea divergent editor using analogy: The IDEA system

In this article, an idea divergent editor using analogy (IDEA) system has been proposed. The analogies between two concepts are learned using a neural network through training. First, the problem that a user wants to solve is input to the proposed IDEA system. Second, the IDEA system can draw effective analogies from a knowledge base containing large‐scale and wide‐ranging concepts for solutions to various problems. The user chooses one of the analogies. Then, the IDEA system presents questions that prompt the user to analyze the problem with reference to the background of the analogy. Answering the presented questions triggers off an inspiration of a solution. The IDEA system facilitates users' divergent thinking, which creates many fragments of ideas. We performed an experiment to examine the effectiveness of the IDEA system; the number of ideas generated is increased about 1.5～2.0 times using the IDEA system. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.