Interactive learning and management of visual information via human-like software robot

To achieve smooth real-world interaction between people and computers, we developed a system that displays a three-dimensional computer-graphic human-like image from the waist up (anthropomorphic software robot: hereinafter “robot”) on the display, that interactively sees and hears, and that has fine and detailed control functions such as facial expressions, line of sight, and pointing at targets with its finger. The robot visually searches and identifies persons and objects in real space that it has learned in advance (registered space, which was our office in this case), manages the history information of the places and times it found objects and/or persons, and tells the user, indicating their three-dimensional positions with line of sight and its finger. It interactively learns new objects and persons with line of with their names and owners. By using this function, the robot can engage in simple dialogue (do a task) with the user. Osamu Hasegawa, Ph.D.: He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees from the Science University of Tokyo, in 1988, 1990 respectively. He received Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo, in 1993. Currently, he is a senior research scientist at the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), Tsukuba, Japan. His research interests include Computer Vision and Multi-modal Human Interface. Dr. Hasegawa is a member of the AAAI, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Japan (IEICE), Information Processing Society of Japan and others. Katsuhiko Sakaue, Ph.D.: He received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees all in electronic engineering from the University of Tokyo, in 1976, 1978 and 1981, respectively. In 1981, he joined the Electrotechnical Laboratory, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and engaged in researches in image processing and computer vision. He received the Encouragement Prize in 1979 from IEICE, and the Paper Award in 1985 from Information Processing Society of Japan. He is a member of IEICE, IEEE, IPSJ, ITE. Satoru Hayamizu, Ph.D.: He is a leader of Interactive Intermodal Integration Lab. at Electrotechnical Laboratory. He received the B.E., M.E., Ph.D. degrees from Tokyo University. Since 1981, he has been working on speech recognition, spoken dialogue, and communication with artifacts. From 1989 to 1990, he was a visiting scholar in Carnegie Mellon University and in 1994 a visiting scientist in LIMSI/CNRS.     

Magnetic collective excitations in the B phase of superfluid He-3

The dynamical susceptibility of the B phase of superfluid He-3 in the presence of dipolar coupling is calculated in the collisionless regime. Two poles of the susceptibility that correspond to the spin wave and the mode with energy gap (2/5)^1/2 2 are found. The result agrees with that of Tewordt and Einzel qualitatively and contradicts the recent work by Maki. The residue of the high-frequency mode becomes remarkable near the transition temperature. The dispersion relations of these modes atT=0 K and near the transition temperature are given in the most general form.     

Shear viscosity of the B phase of superfluid3He

The shear viscosity (T) in the Balian-Werthamer (BW) state of superfluid ³ He is calculated variationally throughout the region 0t 1(t=T/T _c) from the transport equation for Bogoliubov quasiparticles. Coherence factors are treated exactly in the calculation of the collision integral. The numerical result for =_s= _s(T)/_n(T_c) agree very well with experiment in the range 0.8t1.0. Analytic expressions = 0.577 (1–1.0008t) and =1–(23/64) [=(T)/k _B T] are obtained in the low-temperature region and in the vicinity ofT _c, respectively. From the numerical analysis it is shown that the latter equation is valid only in the temperature range 0.9997t1.0.Supported by the Research Institute for Fundamental Physics, Kyoto University.     

Real-time measurements of spatial velocity distribution with a laser Doppler imaging system

A new laser Doppler imaging system with a TV camera has been constructed, which brightly displays 1-D velocity distribution on a monitor. Some characteristics of this system have been experimentally investigated from measurements of simple velocity distribution on a constantly rotating ground glass disk. From an adaptation to fluid flow, it has been shown that the measurements of spatial velocity distribution can be achieved in real time.     

Role of frustration in quasi 1D conductor — Charge ordering and/or CDW in (R1,R2-DCNQI)2M (M=Ag, Li, Cu) system —

Synchrotron X-ray high-resolution measurements have been performed to investigate the nature of the insulating state of a quarter-filled quasi-one-dimensional conductor (DI-DCNQI)₂Ag and the π-d interacted conductor (DBr-DCNQI)₂Cu. The two-fold structure in the ground state of (DI-DCNQI)₂Ag system consists of not only charge ordering columns but also monotonic charge dimerized columns caused by frustration among DCNQI columns. On the other hand, Cu salt in the insulating phase realizes a commensurate structure where the Cu charge ordering is coupled with the 3c-CDW in the insulator phase. The frustration among charged columns is restrained by the charge ordering of the Cu ions.     

Multidimensional Cube Packing

We consider the d-dimensional cube packing problem (d-CPP): given a list L of d-dimensional cubes and (an unlimited quantity of) d-dimensional unit-capacity cubes, called bins, find a packing of L into the minimum number of bins. We present two approximation algorithms for d-CPP, for fixed d. The first algorithm has an asymptotic performance bound that can be made arbitrarily close to 2 – (1/2)^d . The second algorithm is an improvement of the first and has an asymptotic performance bound that can be made arbitrarily close to 2 – (2/3)^d . To our knowledge, these results improve the bounds known so far for d = 2 and d = 3, and are the first results with bounds that are not exponential in the dimension.     

Stabilizing effect of the cyclodextrins additive to spray-dried particles of curcumin/polyvinylpyrrolidone on the supersaturated state of curcumin

Although curcumin is considered to have various therapeutic effects, its use as a functional food or supplement is restricted owing to its low water solubility and bioavailability. To increase the solubility of curcumin in water, the use of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and vinylpyrrolidone-vinyl acetate copolymers with a pyrrolidone skeleton was noted to be promising. In particular, the bi-component formulations of curcumin/PVP prepared through spray drying exhibited an amorphous state in powder X-ray diffraction observations and temporally increased the apparent solubility of curcumin to over 5000 times that of untreated curcumin; nevertheless, after 24 h, the solubility decreased owing to the unstable supersaturated state of curcumin. The addition of α-cyclodextrin (α-CyD) in the bi-component curcumin/PVP formulation helped maintain the supersaturated state of curcumin, whereas the addition of β- and γ-CyD led to the collapse of the supersaturated state. The addition of α-CyD can likely help inhibit the nucleation and crystal growth of curcumin, through the interaction among the solubilized units of curcumin/PVP and α-CyD.     

Thermal diffusivity and porosity of solid materials by the electromagnetic ultrasonic technique. Part 3—simultaneous measurement of ultrasonic velocity and thermal diffusivity

The objective of this study is to evaluate simultaneously the time dependence of the thermal diffusivity of carbon-carbon composites (C/C composites) and their porosity during heat treatment using the electromagnetic ultrasonic technique. This paper describes two kinds of experiments conducted to confirm the principle for simultaneous measurement of both the ultrasonic velocity (used to evaluate the porosity) and the thermal diffusivity at room temperature. For each material, the samples used in both experiments were identical. The ultrasonic velocity of type 304 stainless steel and its thermal diffusivity were 5.85 km/s and 3.8 mm²/s with precisions of ±1.6 and ±8 percent, respectively. The ultrasonic velocity of a two-dimensional woven C/C composite and its thermal diffusivity were 2.86 km/s and 4.8 mm²/s with precisions of ±5.0 and ±8 percent, respectively. The results appear to indicate that the electromagnetic ultrasonic technique can measure the ultrasonic velocity and the thermal diffusivity simultaneously and that it is also applicable to C/C composites. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Heat Trans Jpn Res, 25(5): 308–322, 1996     

Diporphyrin tweezer for multichannel spectroscopic analysis of enantiomeric excess

Chiral 1,1’-binaphthyl-linked diporphyrin ‘tweezers’ (R)-1/(S)-1 and the corresponding zinc(II) complexes (R)-2/(S)-2 were prepared as chiral host molecules, and their utility for chiral analyses (especially enantiomeric excess (ee) determinations) were evaluated. Tris(1-n-dodecyl)porphyrins were used for the first time as the interacting units. Host capabilities of the diporphyrin tweezers were investigated by titrations with (R,R)- and (S,S)-cyclohexane-1,2-diamine (CHDA). The host molecules could be used as multichannel probes of ee by using UV-vis, circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence emission and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) methods. Chiral configurations could also be differentiated using CD or ¹H-NMR spectroscopy. All three optical techniques give good resolution of ee with reasonable sensitivity considering the low concentrations used (ca. 10⁻⁶ mol·L⁻¹). The ee determination of CHDA enantiomers using NMR spectroscopy is also possible because of the reasonably well separated resonances in the case of (R,R)- and (S,S)-CHDA. Non-metallated (R)-1/(S)-1 hosts could not be used to detect chiral information in a strongly acidic chiral guest. This work demonstrates the utility of 1,1’-binapthyl-linked chiral hosts for chiral analysis of ditopically interacting enantiomers.