Music composition by interaction between human and computer

This paper aims at constructing a music composition system that composes music by the interaction between human and a computer. Even users without special musical knowledge can compose 16-bar musical works with one melody part and some backing parts using this system. The interactive Genetic Algorithm is introduced to music composition so that users’ feeling toward music is reflected in the composed music. One chromosome corresponds to 4-bar musical work information. Users participate in music composition by evaluating composed works after GA operators such as crossover, mutation, virus infection are applied to chromosomes based on the evaluation results. From the experimental results, it is found that the users’ evaluation values become high over the progress of generations. That is, the system can compose 16-bar musical works reflecting users’ feeling. Muneyuki Unehara: He received his M.S. in Engineering in 2002 from Institute of Science and Engineering, University of Tsukuba. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate of Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba. His research interests include the construction of intelligent systems by considering soft computing techniques and human interface. Takehisa Onisawa, Ph.D.: He received Dr.Eng. in Systems Science in 1986 from Tokyo Institute of Technology. Currently, he is a Professor in the Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba. His research interests include applications of soft computing techniques to human centered systems thinking. He is a member of IEEE and IFSA.     

Direct 3D painting with a metaball-based paintbrush

This paper presents a direct 3D painting algorithm for polygonal models in 3D object-space with a metaball-based paintbrush in virtual environment.The user is allowed to directly manipulate the parameters used to shade the surface of the 3D shape by applying the pigment to its surface with direct 3D manipulation through a 3D flying mouse.     

A multimodal virtual reality interface for 3D interaction with VTK

The object-oriented visualization Toolkit (VTK) is widely used for scientific visualization. VTK is a visualization library that provides a large number of functions for presenting three-dimensional data. Interaction with the visualized data is controlled with two-dimensional input devices, such as mouse and keyboard. Support for real three-dimensional and multimodal input is non-existent. This paper describes VR-VTK: a multimodal interface to VTK on a virtual environment. Six degree of freedom input devices are used for spatial 3D interaction. They control the 3D widgets that are used to interact with the visualized data. Head tracking is used for camera control. Pedals are used for clutching. Speech input is used for application commands and system control. To address several problems specific for spatial 3D interaction, a number of additional features, such as more complex interaction methods and enhanced depth perception, are discussed. Furthermore, the need for multimodal input to support interaction with the visualization is shown. Two existing VTK applications are ported using VR-VTK to run in a desktop virtual reality system. Informal user experiences are presented. Arjan J. F. Kok is an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science at the Open University of the Netherlands. He studied Computer Science at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. from the same university. He worked as a Scientist for TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research) and as assistant professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology before he joined the Open University. His research interests are visualization, virtual reality, and computer graphics. Robert van Liere studied Computer Science at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. with the thesis “Studies in Interactive Scientific Visualization” at the University of Amsterdam. Since 1985, he has worked at CWI, the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam in which he is the head of CWI’s visualization research group. Since 2004, he holds a part-time position as full professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology. His research interests are in interactive data visualization and virtual reality. He is a member of IEEE.     

A method of model improvement for spotting recognition of gestures using an image sequence

We have developed a real-time gesture recognition system whose models can be taught by only one instruction. Therefore the system can adapt to new gesture performer quickly but it can not raise the recognition rates even if we teach gestures many times. That is because the system could not utilize all the teaching data. In order to cope with the problem, averages of teaching data are calculated. First, the best frame correspondence of the teaching data and the model is obtained by Continuous DP. Next the averages and variations are calculated for each frame of the model. We show the effectiveness of our method in the experiments. Takuichi Nishimura: He is a researcher of Multi-modal Function Tsukuba Laboratory and Information Basis Function Laboratory at the Real World Computing Partnership. He has engaged in motion image understanding, multi-modal human computer interface, multi-modal information retrieval, and mobile robot navigation. He completed the master’s course of the University of Tokyo in 1992. Hiroaki Yabe: He is from SHARP corporation working as a researcher of Multi-modal Function Tsukuba Laboratory and Information Basis Function Tsukuba Laboratory at the Real World Computing Partnership. He has engaged in motion image understanding, multi-modal human computer interface, multi-modal information retrieval. He completed the master’s course of the University of Tokyo in 1995. Ryuichi Oka, Ph.D.: He is a chief of Multi-modal Function Tsukuba Laboratory and Information Basis Function Laboratory at Tsukuba Research Center of the Real World Computing Partnership (RWC Japan) which started in 1992. His research interests include motion image understanding, spontaneous speech understanding, self-organisation information base, multi-modal human computer interface, multi-modal information retrieval, mobile robot, integration of symbol and pattern, and super parallel computation. He received his Ph.D degree in Engineering from the University of Tokyo.     

An architecture for adaptive multimedia content delivery

In this paper, we propose an architecture for multimedia content delivery considering Quality of Service (QoS), based on both the policy-based network and the best-effort network. The architecture consists of four fundamental elements: multimedia content model, application level QoS policy, QoS adaptation mechanism, and delivery mechanism. Applications based on current architecture loses their meaning by drastically degrading quality when network congestion occurs. Despite of this all-or-nothing architecture, applications based on our adaptive architecture can reduce its quality and then negotiate with the network entity, keeping its quality measure as much as possible even when network congestion occurs. We may consider a quality measure for Web pages, total page transmission time, and transmission order of inline objects as a segregation. We then define a language to specify application level QoS policies for Web pages and implement a delivery mechanism and a QoS adaptation mechanism to fulfill these policies. Kaname Harumoto, Ph.D.: He received the M.E. and Ph.D. (Eng.) degrees from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 1994 and 1998, respectively. From 1994 through 1999, he was with the Department of Information Systems Engineering, Grauuate School of Engineering, Osaka University. Since November 1999, he has been an Assistant Professor in Computation Center (currently, the name has changed to Cybermedia Center), Osaka University. His research interests include database systems, especially in advanced network environments. He is a member of IEEE. Tadashi Nakano: He received the B.E. degree from Osaka University in 1999. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. His current reeearch interests include multimedia content delivery architecture. Shinji SHIMOJO, Ph.D.: He received the M.E. and a Dr.E. degrees from Osaka University in 1983 and 1986, respectively. From 1986 through 1989, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences, Faculty of Engineering Science, Osaka University. From 1989 through 1998, he was an Associate Professor and since 1998, he has been a Professor in Computation Center (currently, the name has changed to Cybermedia Center), Osaka University. He was engaged in the project of object-oriented multimedia presentation system called Harmony. His current interests cover wide diversity of multimedia applications such as News On Demand System, multimedia database and networked virtual reality. He is a member of ACM and IEEE.     

Oscillation amplitude-controlled resonant accelerometer design using a reference tracking automatic gain control

In this paper, it is presented a novel approach for the self-sustained resonant accelerometer design, which takes advantages of an automatic gain control in achieving stabilized oscillation dynamics. Through the proposed system modeling and loop transformation, the feedback controller is designed to maintain uniform oscillation amplitude under dynamic input accelerations. The fabrication process for the mechanical structure is illustrated in brief. Computer simulation and experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed accelerometer design, which is applicable to a control grade inertial sense system. Recommended by Editorial Board member Dong Hwan Kim under the direction of Editor Hyun Seok Yang. This work was supported by the BK21 Project ST·IT Fusion Engineering program in Konkuk University, 2008. This work was supported by the Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science & Technology(KICOS) through a grant provided by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science & Technology(MEST) in 2008 (No. K20601000001). Authors also thank to Dr. B.-L. Lee for the help in structure manufacturing. Sangkyung Sung is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received the M.S and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University in 1998 and 2003, respectively. His research interests include inertial sensors, avionic system hardware, navigation filter, and intelligent vehicle systems. Chang-Joo Kim is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received the Ph.D. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Seoul National University in 1991. His research interests include nonlinear optimal control, helicopter flight mechanics, and helicopter system design. Young Jae Lee is a Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received the Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990. His research interests include integrity monitoring of GNSS signal, GBAS, RTK, attitude determination, orbit determination, and GNSS related engineering problems. Jungkeun Park is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University. Dr. Park received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Seoul National University in 2004. His current research interests include embedded real-time systems design, real-time operating systems, distributed embedded real-time systems and multimedia systems. Joon Goo Park is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Gyung Book National University, Korea. He received the Ph.D. degree in School of Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University in 2001. His research interests include mobile navigation and adaptive control.     

Adaptive filtering under minimum information divergence criterion

Traditional filtering theory is always based on optimization of the expected value of a suitably chosen function of error, such as the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) criterion, the minimum error entropy (MEE) criterion, and so on. None of those criteria could capture all the probabilistic information about the error distribution. In this work, we propose a novel approach to shape the probability density function (PDF) of the errors in adaptive filtering. As the PDF contains all the probabilistic information, the proposed approach can be used to obtain the desired variance or entropy, and is expected to be useful in the complex signal processing and learning systems. In our method, the information divergence between the actual errors and the desired errors is chosen as the cost function, which is estimated by kernel approach. Some important properties of the estimated divergence are presented. Also, for the finite impulse response (FIR) filter, a stochastic gradient algorithm is derived. Finally, simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness of this algorithm in adaptive system training. Recommended by Editorial Board member Naira Hovakimyan under the direction of Editor Jae Weon Choi. This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grants 50577037 and 60604010. Badong Chen received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Control Theory and Engineering from Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, in 1997 and 2003, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Technology from Tsinghua University, Beijing China, in 2008. He is currently a Postdoctor of the Institute of Manufacturing Engineering, Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His research interests are in signal processing, adaptive control, and information theoretic aspects of control systems. Yu Zhu received the B.S. of Radio Electronics in 1983 at Beijing Normal University, and the M.S. of Computer Applications in 1993, and the Ph.D. of Mechanical Design and Theory in 2001 at China University of Mining & Technology. He is now a Professor of the Institute of Manufacturing Engineering of Department of Precision and Mechanology of Tsinghua University. His current research interests are parallel machanism and theory, two photon micro-fabrication, ultra-precision motion system and motion control. Jinchun Hu received the Ph.D. in Control Science and Engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, in 1998. Since then, he has been a postdoctoral researcher in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1999 and Tsinghua University in 2002 respectively. His research interests are in flight control, aerial Robot and intelligent control. Dr. Hu is currently an Associate Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Technology of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Zengqi Sun received the B.S. degree from the Department of Automatic Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1966 and the Ph.D. degree in Control Engineering from the Chalmas University of Technology, Sweden, in 1981. He is currently a Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He is the author or coauthor of more than 100 paper and eight books on control and robotics. His research interests include robotics, intelligent control, fuzzy system, neural networks, and evolutionary computation.     

Delay-dependent robust stability criteria for delay neural networks with linear fractional uncertainties

This article investigates the problem of robust stability for neural networks with time-varying delays and parameter uncertainties of linear fractional form. By introducing a new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and a tighter inequality, delay-dependent stability criteria are established in term of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). It is shown that the obtained criteria can provide less conservative results than some existing ones. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. Recommended by Editorial Board member Naira Hovakimyan under the direction of Editor Young-Hoon Joo. This work was supported by the National Science foundation of China under Grant no. 60774013 and Key Laboratory of Education Ministry for Image Processing and Intelligent Control under grant no. 200805. Tao Li received the Ph.D. degree in The Research Institute of Automation Southeast University, China. Now He is an Assistant Professor in Department of Information and Communication, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. His current research interests include time-delay systems, neural networks, robust control, fault detection and diagnosis. Lei Guo received the Ph.D. degree in the Research Institute of Automation Southeast University, China. From 1999 to 2004, he has worked at Hong Kong University, IRCCyN (France), Glasgow University, Loughborough University and UMIST, UK. Now He is a Professor in School of Instrument Science and Opto-Electronics Engineering, Beihang University. His current research interests include robust control, fault detection and diagnosis. Lingyao Wu received the Ph.D. degree in The Research Institute of Automation Southeast University, China. Now He is an Assistant Professor in the Research Institute of Automation Southeast University. His current research interests include time-delay systems, neural networks, robust control, fault detection and diagnosis. Changyin Sun received the Ph.D. degree in the Research Institute of Automation Southeast University, China. Now He is a Professor in the Research Institute of Automation Southeast University. His current research interests include timedelay systems, neural networks.     

Efficient algorithms for NMR quantum computers with small qubits

The security of the RSA cryptosystems is based on the difficulty of factoring a large composite integer. In 1994, Shor showed that factoring a large composite is executable in polynomial time if we use a quantum Turing machine. Since this algorithm is complicated, straightforward implementations seem impractical judging from current technologies. In this paper, we propose simple and efficient algorithms for factoring and discrete logarithm problem based on NMR quantum computers. Our algorithms are easier to implement if we consider NMR quantum computers with small qubits. A part of this work was done while both authors were with NTT Communication Science Laboratories. Noboru Kunihiro, Ph.D.: He is Assistant Professor of the University of Electro-Communications. He received his B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. in mathematical engineering and information physics from the University of Tokyo in 1994, 1996 and 2001, respectively. He had been engaged in the research on cryptography and information security at NTT Communication Science Laboratories from 1996 to 2002. Since 2002, he has been working for Department of Information and Communication Engineering of the University of Elector-Communications. His research interest includes cryptography, information security and quantum computations. He was awarded the SCIS’97 paper prize. Shigeru Yamashita, Ph.D.: Associate Professor of Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Nara 630-0192, Japan. He received his B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in information science from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in 1993, 1995 and 2001, respectively. His research interests include new type of computer architectures and quantum computation. He received the 2000 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems Best Paper Award.     

A grid-oriented genetic algorithm framework for bioinformatics

In this paper, we propose a framework for enabling for researchers of genetic algorithms (GAs) to easily develop GAs running on the Grid, named “Grid-Oriented Genetic algorithms (GOGAs)”, and actually “Gridify” a GA for estimating genetic networks, which is being developed by our group, in order to examine the usability of the proposed GOGA framework. We also evaluate the scalability of the “Gridified” GA by applying it to a five-gene genetic network estimation problem on a grid testbed constructed in our laboratory. Hiroaki Imade: He received his B.S. degree in the department of engineering from The University of Tokushima, Tokushima, Japan, in 2001. He received the M.S. degree in information systems from the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokushima in 2003. He is now in Doctoral Course of Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokushima. His research interests include evolutionary computation. He currently researches a framework to easily develop the GOGA models which efficiently work on the grid. Ryohei Morishita: He received his B.S. degree in the department of engineering from The University of Tokushima, Tokushima, Japan, in 2002. He is now in Master Course of Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima. His research interest is evolutionary computation. He currently researches GA for estimating genetic networks. Isao Ono, Ph.D.: He received his B.S. degree from the Department of Control Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1994. He received Ph.D. of Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, in 1997. He worked as a Research Fellow from 1997 to 1998 at Tokyo Institute of Technology, and at University of Tokushima, Tokushima, Japan, in 1998. He worked as a Lecturer from 1998 to 2001 at University of Tokushima. He is now Associate Professor at University of Tokushima. His research interests include evolutionary computation, scheduling, function optimization, optical design and bioinformatics. He is a member of JSAI, SCI, IPSJ and OSJ. Norihiko Ono, Ph.D.: He received his B.S. M.S. and Ph.D. of Engineering in 1979, 1981 and 1986, respectively, from Tokyo Institute of Technology. From 1986 to 1989, he was Research Associate at Faculty of Engineering, Hiroshima University. From 1989 to 1997, he was an associate professor at Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokushima. He was promoted to Professor in the Department of Information Science and Intelligent Systems in 1997. His current research interests include learning in multi-agent systems, autonomous agents, reinforcement learning and evolutionary algorithms. Masahiro Okamoto, Ph.D.: He is currently Professor of Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences, Kyushu University, Japan. He received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from Kyushu University in 1981. His major research field is nonlinear numerical optimization and systems biology. His current research interests cover system identification of nonlinear complex systems by using evolutional computer algorithm of optimization, development of integrated simulator for analyzing nonlinear dynamics and design of fault-tolerant routing network by mimicking metabolic control system. He has more than 90 peer reviewed publications.     

Automatic transaction of signal via statistical modeling

The statistical information processing can be characterized by the likelihood function defined by giving an explicit form for an approximation to the true distribution. This mathematical representation, which is usually called a model, is built based on not only the current data but also prior knowledge on the object and the objective of the analysis. Akaike^2,3) showed that the log-likelihood can be considered as an estimate of the Kullback-Leibler (K-L) information which measures the similarity between the predictive distribution of the model and the true distribution. Akaike information criterion (AIC) is an estimate of the K-L information and makes it possible to evaluate and compare the goodness of many models objectively. In consequence, the minimum AIC procedure allows us to develop automatic modeling and signal extraction procedures. In this article, we give a simple explanation of statistical modeling based on the AIC and demonstrate four examples of applying the minimum AIC procedure to an automatic transaction of signals observed in the earth sciences. Genshiro, Kitagawa, Ph.D.: He is a Professor in the Department of Prediction and Control at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. He is currently Deputy Director of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and Professor of Statistical Science at the Graduate University for Advanced Study. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Kyushu University in 1983. His primary research interests are in time series analysis, non-Gaussian nonlinear filtering, and statistical modeling. He has published over 50 research papers. He was awarded the 2nd Japan Statistical Society Prize in 1997. Tomoyuki Higuchi, Ph.D.: He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Prediction and Control at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics. He is currently an Associate Professor of Statistical Science at the Graduate University for Advanced Study. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1989. His research interests are in statistical modeling of space-time data, stochastic optimization techniques, and data mining. He has published over 30 research papers.     

A challenge towards next-generation research infrastructure for advanced life science

Recently, life scientists have expressed a strong need for computational power sufficient to complete their analyses within a realistic time as well as for a computational power capable of seamlessly retrieving biological data of interest from multiple and diverse bio-related databases for their research infrastructure. This need implies that life science strongly requires the benefits of advanced IT. In Japan, the Biogrid project has been promoted since 2002 toward the establishment of a next-generation research infrastructure for advanced life science. In this paper, the Biogrid strategy toward these ends is detailed along with the role and mission imposed on the Biogrid project. In addition, we present the current status of the development of the project as well as the future issues to be tackled. Haruki Nakamura, Ph.D.: He is Professor of Protein Informatics at Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University. He received his B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1975, 1977 and 1980 respectively. His research field is Biophysics and Bioinformatics, and has so far developed several original algorithms in the computational analyses of protein electrostatic features and folding dynamics. He is also a head of PDBj (Protein Data Bank Japan) to manage and develop the protein structure database, collaborating with RCSB (Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics) in USA and MSD-EBI (Macromolecular Structure Database at the European Bioinformatics Institute) in EU. Susumu Date, Ph.D.: He is Assistant Professor of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University. He received his B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Osaka University in 1997, 2000 and 2002, respectively. His research field is computer science and his current research interests include application of Grid computing and related information technologies to life sciences. He is a member of IEEE CS and IPSJ. Hideo Matsuda, Ph.D.: He is Professor of the Department of Bioinformatic Engineering, the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University. He received his B.S., M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from Kobe University in 1982, 1984 and 1987 respectively. For M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees, he majored in computer science. His research interests include computational analysis of genomic sequences. He has been involved in the FANTOM (Functional Annotation of Mouse) Project for the functional annotation of RIKEN mouse full-length cDNA sequences. He is a member of ISCB, IEEE CS and ACM. Shinji Shimojo, Ph.D.: He received M.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Osaka University in 1983 and 1986 respectively. He was an Assistant Professor with the Department of Information and Computer Sciences, Faculty of Engineering Science at Osaka University from 1986, and an Associate Professor with Computation Center from 1991 to 1998. During the period, he also worked as a visiting researcher at the University of California, Irvine for a year. He has been Professor with Cybermedia Center (then Computation Center) at Osaka University since 1998. His current research work focus on a wide variety of multimedia applications, peer-to-peer communication networks, ubiquitous network systems and Grid technologies. He is a member of ACM, IEEE and IEICE.     

A novel control loop design and its application to the force balance of vibratory rate sensor

This paper investigates a new loop design approach of force balance control for the vibratory rate sensor application. The proposed force balance control design takes advantages of the modified automatic gain control configuration in controlling the system’s oscillating dynamics at the sense mode. The adapted automatic gain control scheme and force balance strategy, which maintains a constant oscillation magnitude in the sense mode, have several advantages. First it is possible to analyze a complicated nonlinear feedback system using a linear control theory, which resulted in straightforward prediction of closed loop performance. Moreover the control system to achieve the design goals can be implemented using a relatively simple feedback configuration. An application to the vibratory rate sensor using the proposed automatic gain control configuration witnessed that the force balance control can be validated in a practical design process. Experiments using an actual micromachined rate sensor verified the feasibility of the proposed control scheme with demonstration of enhanced performance. Recommended by Editorial Board member Dong Hwan Kim under the direction of Editor Hyun Seok Yang. This work was supported by the BK21 Project, ST-IT Fusion Engineering program in Konkuk University, 2008. This work was supported by the KICOS through a grant provided by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science & Technology in 2008 (No. K20601000001). Sangkyung Sung is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University in 1998 and 2003, respectively. His research interests include inertial sensors, avionic system hardware, integrated navigation, and intelligent vehicle technologies. Sukchang Yun is a Ph.D. course student of the Department of Aerospace Information Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received the M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Konkuk University in 2009. His research interests include MEMS mechatronics and control, INS/GPS integration, and instrumentation. Woon-Tahk Sung is an Senior Engineer of the Communication Reserarch Center, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. He received the Ph.D. degree in School of Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University in 2007. His research interests include analog and digital control algorithm, MEMS piezo actuator, circuit design for microsystems using VCM. Chang Joo Kim is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received the Ph.D. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Seoul National University in 1991. His research interests include nonlinear optimal control, helicopter flight mechanics, and helicopter system design. Young Jae Lee is a Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University, Korea. He received the Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990. His research interests include integrity monitoring of GNSS signal, GBAS, RTK, attitude determination, orbit determination, and GNSS related engineering problems.     

InfoFilter: Supporting quality of service for fresh information delivery

With the explosive growth of the Internet and World Wide Web comes a dramatic increase in the number of users that compete for the shared resources of distributed system environments. Most implementations of application servers and distributed search software do not distinguish among requests to different web pages. This has the implication that the behavior of application servers is quite unpredictable. Applications that require timely delivery of fresh information consequently suffer the most in such competitive environments. This paper presents a model of quality of service (QoS) and the design of a QoS-enabled information delivery system that implements such a QoS model. The goal of this development is two-fold. On one hand, we want to enable users or applications to specify the desired quality of service requirements for their requests so that application-aware QoS adaptation is supported throughout the Web query and search processing. On the other hand, we want to enable an application server to customize how it should respond to external requests by setting priorities among query requests and allocating server resources using adaptive QoS control mechanisms. We introduce the Infopipe approach as the systems support architecture and underlying technology for building a QoS-enabled distributed system for fresh information delivery. Ling Liu, Ph.D.: She is an associate professor at the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. from Tilburg University, The Netherlands in 1993. Her research interests are in the area of large-scale data intensive systems and its applications in distributed, mobile, multimedia, and Internet computing environments. Her work has focused on systems support for creating, searching, manipulating, and monitoring streams of information in wide area networked information systems. She has published more than 70 papers in internal journals or international conferences, and has served on more than 20 program committees in the area of data engineering, databases, and knowledge and information management. Calton Pu, Ph. D.: He is a Professor and John P. Imlay, Jr. Chair in Software at the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology. Calton received his Ph.D. from University of Washington in 1986. He leads the Infosphere expedition project, which is building the system software to support the next generation information flow applications. Infosphere research includes adaptive operating system kernels, communications middleware, and distributed information flow applications. His past research included operating system projects such as Synthetix and Microfeedback, extended transaction projects such as Epsilon Serializability, and Internet data management. He has published more than 125 journal and conference papers, and served on more than 40 program committees. Karsten Schwan, Ph.D.: He is a professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He directs the IHPC project for high performance cluster computing at Georgia Tech. His current research addresses the interactive nature of modern high performance applications (i.e., online monitoring and computational steering), the development of efficient and object-based middleware, the operating system support for distributed and parallel programs, and the online configuration of applications for distributed real-time applications and for communication protocols. Jonathan Walpole, Ph.D.: He is a Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Lancaster University, U.K. in 1987. His research interests are in the area of adaptive systems software and its application in distributed, mobile, multimedia computing environments. His work has focused on quality of service specification, adaptive resource management and dynamic specialization for enhanced performance, survivability and evolvability of large software systems, and he has published extensively in these areas.     

Aesthetic geometry evolution in a generic interactive evolutionary design framework

An interactive evolutionary design framework is presented which provides a testbed for the development and exploration of a range of visual aesthetic design spaces. A commercial 3D digital content development software package is used to leverage the strength of existing 3D algorithm implementations and familiar interfaces and tools. The domain of non-representational 3D forms sculpted with a series of non-linear deformers is discussed as the primary example. Additional simple problem domains are shown which are being developed to serve as examples for non-programmer artists and designers who are familiar with digital content authoring in Maya. These examples will enable such individuals to rapidly construct their own interactive evolution systems. Matthew Lewis, Ph.D.: He is a researcher at The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) at The Ohio State University, where he received his M.S. (1993) and Ph.D. (2001) degrees in Computer Science. His research interests include evolutionary design, generative art, and data remapping for artistic performance and installation. Keith Ruston: He is a student at The Ohio State University where he has earned his B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering (2003) and is currently pursuing his M.S. His major field of study is graphics and animation. His career goals include working in the animated film industry and/or computer game development.     

RHiNET-2/SW: a high-throughput, compact network-switch using 8.8-gbit/s optical interconnection

We have developed a high-throughput, compact network switch (the RHiNET-2/SW) for a distributed parallel computing system. Eight pairs of 800-Mbit/s×12-channel optical interconnection modules and a CMOS ASIC switch are integrated on a compact circuit board. To realize high-throughput (64 Gbit/s) and low-latency network, the SW-LSI has a customized high-speed LVDS I/O interface, and a high-speed internal SRAM memory in a 784-pin BGA one-chip package. We have also developed device implementation technologies to overcome the electrical problems (loss and crosstalk) caused by such high integration. The RHiNET-2/SW system enables high-performance parallel processing in a distributed computing environment. Shinji Nishimura: He is a researcher in the Department of Network System at the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd., at Tokyo. He obtained his bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1989, and his M.E. from the University of Tokyo in 1991. He joined a member of the Optical Interconnection Hitachi Laboratory from 1992. His research interests are in hardware technology for the optical interconnection technologies in the computer and communication systems. Katsuyoshi Harasawa: He is a Senior Enginner of Hitachi Communication Systems Inc. He obtained his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Tokyo Denki University. He is a chief of development of the devices and systems for the optical telecommunication. He was engaged in Development of Optical Reciever and Transmitter module. He joined RWCP project from 1997. His research interests are in hardward technology for optical interconnection in distributed parallel computing system (RHiNET). Nobuhiro Matsudaira: He is a engineer in the Hitachi Communication Systems, Inc. He obtained his bachelors degree in Mercantile Marine Engineering from the Kobe University of Mercantile Marine in 1986. He was engaged in Development of Optical Reciever and Transmitter module at 2.4 Gbit/s to 10Gbit/s. He joined RWCP project from 1998. His reserch interests are in hardware technology for the optical interconnection technology in the computer and communication systems. Shigeto Akutsu: He is a staff in Hitachi Communication Systems Inc. He obtained his bachelors degree in Electronics from Kanagawa University, Japan in 1998. His research interests are hardware technology for the optical interconnection technology in the computer and communication systems. Tomohiro Kudoh, Ph.D.: He received Ph.D. degree from Keio University, Japan in 1992. He has been chief of the parallel and distributed architecture laboratory, Real World Computing Partnership since 1997. His research interests include the area of parallel processing and network for high performance computing. Hiroaki Nishi: He received B.E., M.E. from Keio University, Japan, in 1994, 1996, respectively. He joined Parallel & Distributed Architecture Laboratory, Real World Computing Partnership in 1999. He is currently working on his Ph.D. His research interests include area of interconnection networks. Hideharu Amano, Ph.D.: He received Ph.D. degree from Keio University, Japan in 1986. He is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Information and Computer Science, Keio University. His research interests include the area of parallel processing and reconfigurable computing.     

Automatic model-based 3D object recognition by combining feature matching with tracking

We propose a vision-based robust automatic 3D object recognition, which provides object identification and 3D pose information by combining feature matching with tracking. For object identification, we propose a robust visual feature and a probabilistic voting scheme. An initial object pose is estimated using correlations between the model image and the 3D CAD model, which are predefined, and the homography, byproduct of the identification. In tracking, a Lie group formalism is used for robust and fast motion computation. Experimental results show that object recognition by the proposed method improves the recognition range considerably. Sungho Kim received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Korea University, Korea in 2000 and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea in 2002. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the latter institution, concentrating on 3D object recognition and tracking. In So Kweon received the Ph.D. degree in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, in 1990. Since 1992, he has been a Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAIST. His current research interests include human visual perception, object recognition, real-time tracking, vision-based mobile robot localization, volumetric 3D reconstruction, and camera calibration. He is a member of the IEEE, and Korea Robotics Society (KRS).     

STAMP: A Model for Generating Adaptable Multimedia Presentations

The STAMP model addresses the dynamic generation of multimedia presentations in the domain of Multimedia Web-based Information Systems. STAMP allows the presentation of multimedia data obtained from XML compatible data sources by means of query. Assuming that the size and the nature of the elements of information provided by a data source is not known a priori, STAMP proposes templates which describe the spatial, temporal, navigational structuration of multimedia presentations whose content varies. The instantiation of a template is done with respect to the set of spatial and temporal constraints associated with the delivery context. A set of adaptations preserving the initial intention of the presentation is proposed.Ioan Marius Bilasco is a Ph.D. student at the University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, since 2003. He received his BS degree in Computer Science form the University Babes Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and his MS degree in Computer Science from the University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France. He joined the LSR-IMAG Laboratory in Grenoble in 2001. His research interests include adaptability in Web-based Information Systems, 3D multimedia data modelling and mobile communications.Jérôme Gensel is an Assistant Professor at the University Pierre Mendès France in Grenoble, France, since 1996. He received his Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of Grenoble for his work on Constraint Programming and Knowledge Representation in the Sherpa project at the French National Institute of Computer Sciences and Automatics (INRIA). He joined the LSR-IMAG Laboratory in Grenoble in 2001. His research interests include adaptability and cooperation in Web-based Information Systems, multimedia data (especially video) modeling, semi-structured and object-based knowledge representation and constraint programming.Marlène Villanova-Oliver is an Assistant Professor at the University Pierre Mendès France in Grenoble, France, since 2003. In 1999, she received her MS degree in Computer Science from the University Joseph Fourier of Grenoble and the European Diploma of 3rd cycle in Management and Technology of Information Systems (MATIS). She received her Ph.D. in 2002 from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble (INPG). She is a member of the LSR-IMAG Laboratory in Grenoble since 1998. Her research interests include adaptability in Web-based Information Systems, user modeling, adaptable Web Services.     

A futures market-based model for dynamic network resource allocation

Management of telecommunication network requires quick, continuous and decentralized allocation of network bandwidth to various sorts of demands. So as to achieve the efficient network resource allocation, this paper describes a market-based model combining futures market with the agent-based approach. That is, utilization time is divided into many timeslots, and futures markets in hereafter use of bandwidth are opened. In our model, all market participants (software agents) observe only market prices and decide to buy or sell bandwidth trying to maximize their utilities over time so that they can secure enough network resources. The authors discuss network resource allocation through simulation using the proposed model. Masayuki Ishinishi, Ph.D.: He graduated from National Defense Academy in 1995 and 2000. He received the B.E. (1995) and M.E.(2000) degrees in computer science from National Institution for Academic Degrees (NIAD). He received his Ph.D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2003. He has been a communications officer at Air Communications and Systems Wing in Japan Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF) since 2003. His research interests include information assurance, agent-based modeling and simulation, multi-agent system and market-based control. He is a member of IEEJ, IPSJ and JSAI. Yuhsuke Koyama, Ph.D.: He received the B.Econ., M.Econ., and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Kyoto University, in 1996, 1998, 2002, respectively. He has been a research associate of Tokyo Institute of Technology since 2002. His research field is evolutionary economics, mathematical sociology and experimental economics. He is a member of JAFEE, JAMS, JASESS and JASAG. Hiroshi Deguchi, Ph.D.: He received his Ph.D. degree in systems science from Tokyo Institute of Technology, in 1986. He also received the Dr. Econ. degree from Kyoto University in 2001. He has been a Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology since 2002. His research field is evolutionary economics, computational organization theory, agent-based modeling, social system theory, gaming simulation, and philosophy of science. He is a member of SICE, JAMS, IPSJ, PHSC, JASAG and JAFEE. Hajime Kita, Ph.D.: He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Kyoto University, in 1982, 1984, 1991, respectively. He has been a Professor of Kyoto University since 2003, His research field is systems science/engineering, and his research interests are evolutionary computation, neural networks and socio-economic analysis of energy systems, and agentbased modeling. He is a member of IEEJ, IEICE, ISCIE, JNNS, JSER, ORSJ and SICE.