Animated interface agent applying atms-based multimodal input interpretation

Two requirements should be met in order to develop a practical multimodal interface system , i . e ., ( 1 ) integration of delayed arrival of data and ( 2 ) elimination of ambiguity in recognition results of each modality . This paper presents an efficient and generic methodology for interpretation of multimodal input to satisfy these requirements . The proposed methodology can integrate delayed - arrival data satisfactorily and efficiently interpret multimodal input that contains ambiguity . In the input interpretation the multimodal interpretation process is regarded as hypothetical reasoning , and the control mechanismof interpretation is formalized by applying the assumption - based truth maintenance system ( ATMS ). The proposed method is applied to an interface agent system that accepts multimodal input consisting of voice and direct indication gesture on a touch display . The systemcommunicates to the user through a human - like interface agent's three - dimensional motion image with facial expressions , gestures , and a synthesized voice .     

Anode‐voltage‐control circuit for compensation of luminance deterioration

Abstract— An external driving circuit that has realized long lifetime, power‐consumption control, and peak luminance for organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) displays have been developed. This circuit realizes an effective method for constant‐anode‐voltage (CV) driving refered to as clamped inverter (CI) driving. The feature of CV driving is to achieve low‐power consumption compared with constant‐anode‐current (CC) driving and to control the power consumption and peak luminance according to the image because display luminance can be easily changed by controlling the anode voltage. On the other hand, CV driving has the problem that luminance deterioration appears to be serious compared with that of CC driving because the current of the OLED element decreases according to usage time. To cope with this, a lifetime compensation circuit that has increased the anode voltage so that it compensates for the luminance deterioration has been developed. This circuit can compensate not only the decrease in current but also the decrease in luminance at a constant current that CC driving cannot. However, increasing the anode voltage causes an increase in stress on the OLED element. The influence of stress on OLED lifetime was verified. As a result, it was confirmed that this circuit can extend the lifetime by 32% even if the anode voltage is increased, causing stress on the OLED structure.     

Texture evolution during hot-rolling and recrystallization in B2-type FeAl, NiAl and CoTi intermetallic compounds

The texture evolution during the hot-rolling and the recrystallization of B2-type Fe–48Al, Ni–50Al and Co–50Ti (expressed by at.%) intermetallic compounds were investigated. By hot-rolling at 973 K, Fe–48Al showed a microstructure with coarse grains elongated along rolling direction, while Ni–50Al and Co–50Ti showed a deformed microstructure featured by the heavily distorted (elongated) grains and/or the deformation bands. The hot-rolling texture of Fe–48Al was composed of {111}<uvw>, while those of Ni–50Al and Co–50Ti were composed of {111}<110> and {111}<112>, respectively. After annealing, the recrystallized grains were preferentially nucleated at the grain boundaries for Fe–48Al, and in the heavily distorted regions or the deformation bands for Ni–50Al and Co–50Ti. The orientations of the recrystallized grains were similar with those of the deformed matrix, especially for Ni–50Al and Co–50Ti. The recrystallization textures were generally more dispersive than the hot-rolling texture. Based on these results, the texture evolution during the hot rolling and the recrystallization of the B2-type intermetallic compounds were discussed.     

A reduction method of dynamic false contour utilizing the frame‐rate‐control method with suppression of the side effect on PDPs

Abstract— The plasma‐display panel (PDP) is a type of flat‐panel display that can display a high‐quality image. However, when moving images are displayed, annoying disturbances such as false contour noise occurs. This noise is called dynamic false contour (DFC). To achieve a higher‐quality image, DFC has to be reduced. Therefore, a new method to reduce DFC is proposed. To find a way to reduce DFC, a new evaluation value for it has been defined: the evaluation value of dynamic false contour (EVDFC). This value is defined on the basis of a person's subjective evaluation. By applying this value, the cause that generates DFC can be identified. On the basis of these studies, a new method for reducing DFC by applying frame‐rate control (FRC) with suppression of the side effect is proposed. This improved method can be used to provide high‐quality images.     

Evolutionary design of dynamic neural networks for evaporator control

This paper presents a novel neural network (NN) to control an ammonia refrigerant evaporator. Inspired by the latest findings on the biological neuron, a dynamic synaptic unit (DSU) is proposed to enhance the information processing capacity of artificial neurons. Treating the dynamic synaptic activity after the nonlinear somatic activity helps to capture the dynamics demarcated by the Gaussian activation pertaining to the input space. This practice leads to a remarkable reduction in curse of dimensionality. The proposed NN architecture has been compared with two other conventional architectures; one with dynamic neural units (DNUs) and the other with nonlinear static functions as perceptrons. The objective is to control evaporator heat flow rate and secondary fluid outlet temperature while keeping the degree of refrigerant superheat in the range 4–7 K at the evaporator outlet by manipulating refrigerant and evaporator secondary fluid flow rates. The drawbacks of conventional approaches to this problem are discussed, and how the novel method can overcome them are presented. An evolutionary approach is adopted to optimize the parameters of the NN controllers. Then evaporator process model is accomplished as a combination of governing equations and a sub NN resulting in a simple and sufficiently accurate model. The effectiveness of the proposed dynamic NN controller for the evaporator system model is validated using experimental data from the ammonia refrigeration plant.     

Synthesis of sulfonated organic–inorganic hybrids through the radical copolymerization of vinyl sulfonate esters and vinyl trialkoxysilanes

Novel organic–inorganic hybrids with sulfonic acid groups were prepared using random copolymers composed of vinyl sulfonate esters and vinyl trialkoxysilanes. Five vinyl sulfonate esters with different substituent groups were employed as protecting monomers for the production of the poly(vinyl sulfonic acid) component, and three vinyl trialkoxysilanes were used as cross-linkable monomers. Free radical and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) copolymerizations were performed for the production of random copolymers with two different functional groups. The selective deprotection of the sulfonate esters of the copolymers proceeded smoothly and resulted in the formation of copolymers with lithium vinyl sulfonate units and cross-linkable trialkoxysilane units. The co-condensation of the trialkoxysilane moieties in the deprotected copolymers with cross-linkers yielded transparent hybrid films that contained lithium sulfonate groups without aromatic rings or ester linkages.     

Metal-Induced Structural Switching of a Folded Quinone-Sandwiched Porphyrin

We report the synthesis of a novel quinone-sandwiched porphyrin in which two benzoquinones are connected oppositely at the meso positions of a porphyrin through rigid 3-amido 2,2′-bipyridine linkers. ¹H-NMR and single crystal X-ray analyses revealed that the quinone-sandwiched porphyrin has a folded structure in which the porphyrin unit was inserted into the two quinone moieties via π-stacking. Insertion of a Zn(II) ion into the porphyrin center induced a drastic conformational change which is resulted in coordination of the oxygen atoms of both benzoquinone moieties to the Zn-porphyrin to afford a 6-coordinated structure.     

Novel Structures for Porous Silicon Light-Emitting Diodes

In this paper, two novel structures of porous silicon (PS) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are proposed aiming at the reduction of series resistance, R_s. The basic idea of the novel structures is to suppress the excessive growth of nanoporous silicon (nano-PS) layer that is electroluminescence- (EL-) active but highly resistive. The initial wafer of the first structure consists of a lightly-doped layer stacked on a highly-doped substrate. As a consequence of anodization, nano-PS layer is formed only in the lightly-doped layer, while meso-PS layer with moderate resistivity is formed in the highly-doped substrate. The second structure consists of alternately stacked nano- and meso-PS layers, since it is expected that multiple thin nano-PS layers connected in series are less resistive than a single thick nano-PS layer. Preliminary experimental results proved the effectiveness of these novel structures on the reduction of R_s.     

Contact force detection on a minute aperture mounted optical contact slider using an acoustic emission sensor

Advances in the digital network society require both higher density and higher transfer rates in all sorts of storage systems. Especially in optical recording, the trend toward higher density and larger capacity requires novel surface-recording technologies that can drastically diminish head-to-medium spacing, resulting in an improvement in spatial resolution and, finally, a higher recording density. To this end, we have already proposed a novel contact optical head slider that is able to almost cancel the suspension load by generating hydrodynamic pressure, thus realizing a lower net contact force. Evaluating the dynamic contact force is requisite in realizing its stable sliding operation and higher signal readout performance. In this study, a continuous acoustic emission (AE) signal was utilized to detect the dynamic contact force. AE signal modulation was compared with the applied out-of-plane acceleration on a medium generated by a spindle combined piezo-electric actuator. It was clarified that the detected AE modulation amplitude was approximately proportional to the applied acceleration, and that utilizing AE modulation will be a useful method for evaluating dynamic contact force.