Impedance-step phenomenon of thin-film GMI element with inclined magnetic stripe domain

An extraordinary impedance-step phenomenon of GMI (giant magnetoimpedance) effect was studied. It is observed for a thin-film GMI element with an inclined magnetic stripe domain. The “inclined stripe domain” means a domain structure that has inclined domain walls against the width direction of the GMI strip. An observation of magnetic domain reveals that a sudden change of domain structure, such as stripe-domain vanishing or occurrence, happens simultaneously with the impedance step. A theoretical consideration, based on the bias-susceptibility model of a single-domain magnetic thin film with uniaxial anisotropy, qualitatively shows that the existence of an inclined stripe domain makes the impedance lower than that characteristic of a single-domain structure.     

Microstructure Control of Thermally Sprayed Co-Based Self-Fluxing Alloy Coatings by Diffusion Treatment

This article describes microstructure control aimed for wear-resistance improvement of Co-based (Co-Cr-W-B-Si) self-fluxing alloy coating by diffusion treatment. The diffusion treatments of thermally sprayed Co-based self-fluxing alloy coating on steel substrate were carried out at 1370-1450 K for 600-6000 s under an Ar gas atmosphere. Microstructural variations of the coating and the interface between the substrate and the coating were investigated in detail. A proper diffusion treatment precipitates two kinds of fine compounds in Co-based matrix. X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) analysis revealed these precipitates to be a chromium boride dissolving cobalt and a tungsten boride containing cobalt and chromium. The size of each precipitate became larger with increasing treatment temperature and time. A coating with the proper size borides showed a superior wear-resistance. This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at the 2007 International Thermal Spray Conference and has been expanded from the original presentation. It is simultaneously published in Global Coating Solutions, Proceedings of the 2007 International Thermal Spray Conference, Beijing, China, May 14-16, 2007, Basil R. Marple, Margaret M. Hyland, Yuk-Chiu Lau, Chang-Jiu Li, Rogerio S. Lima, and Ghislain Montavon, Ed., ASM International, Materials Park, OH, 2007.     

Predicting viewer-perceived activity/dominance in soccer games with stick-breaking HMM using data from a fixed set of cameras

We attempted to predict activity/dominance for soccer games, where activity is defined as the degree of activity of the game as perceived by the viewer, whereas dominance is the degree at which the viewer perceives a particular team to dominate over the other team. Such activity/dominance information would help a layman viewer understand the game. It would also enable construction of an automatic digest creation system that extracts scenes having high activity/dominance. There are two facets of this study: 1. The main part of the underlying prediction model consists of a Stick-Breaking Hidden Markov Model, where the data automatically estimates the number of states of the Markov process behind the data. 2. The data used in this paper is vector time-series data consisting of player, referee, and ball positions, together with team information, acquired by a set of fixed cameras. The problem was approached with a Bayesian framework where learning and prediction were implemented by three different methods: Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Expectation Maximization, and Variational Bayes. The proposed method was tested using a dataset consisting of 10 professional soccer games and was compared against standard regression methods.     

RUNA: a multimodal command language for home robot users

This article describes a multimodal command language for home robot users, and a robot system which interprets users’ messages in the language through microphones, visual and tactile sensors, and control buttons. The command language comprises a set of grammar rules, a lexicon, and nonverbal events detected in hand gestures, readings of tactile sensors attached to the robots, and buttons on the controllers in the users’ hands. Prototype humanoid systems which immediately execute commands in the language are also presented, along with preliminary experiments of faceto-face interactions and teleoperations. Subjects unfamiliar with the language were able to command humanoids and complete their tasks with brief documents at hand, given a short demonstration beforehand. The command understanding system operating on PCs responded to multimodal commands without significant delay. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Detection of a brain aneurysm and a way to search for a brain aneurysm aimed at the development of a system to simulate an operation

In this article, a system is proposed for a simulated operation which would help a trainee surgeon to perform a medical operation to ensure that a cerebral aneurysm does not burst. The physician will have acquired empirical medical technologies from operations in traditional clinical teaching. However, there is a problem with safety and the burden to the patient. Therefore, recently a new training approach for a simulated medical operation using virtual reality has been explored. With the aim of developing a simulated system for a medical operation for a cerebral aneurysm, we considered the necessary functions such as detecting the brain aneurysm that is the target of the operation, and searching for a suitable blood vessel to make a plan for the operation.     

Construction of a robot control system which understands a voice and pointing actions

This research was aimed at making a robot that can go and get an object designated by the user. We produced a robot control system that uses pointing and voice control. This control system is composed of two systems. One system is the object instruction system that uses pointing, and the other is the object instruction system that uses voice. The approximate position of a designated object is recognized by the object instruction system that uses pointing, and information about the object and instructions about the operation are conveyed by the object instruction system that uses voice. This time, the object instruction system that uses pointing has been designed and verified as the first step. A calculation resource to calculate the approximate position of the designated object is obtained when the user points directly at the object. A robot can be moved around a designated object by using this system. The object instruction system that uses voice will be constructed in future work.     

Success rates in a multimodal command language for home robot users

This article considers the success rates in a multimodal command language for home robot users. In the command language, the user specifies action types and action parameter values to direct robots in multiple modes such as speech, touch, and gesture. The success rates of commands in the language can be estimated by user evaluations in several ways. This article presents some user evaluation methods, as well as results from recent studies on command success rates. The results show that the language enables users without much training to command home robots at success rates as high as 88%–100%. It is also shown that multimodal commands combining speech and button-press actions included fewer words and were significantly more successful than single-modal spoken commands.     

Optimization of facial skin temperature-based anomaly detection model considering diurnal variation

Artificial Life and Robotics - The amount of blood under the surface of skin is controlled by the autonomic nervous system and directly influences the facial skin temperature. Classification models...     

Revolving Vernier Mechanism Controls Size of Linear Homomultimer

A new kind of the Vernier mechanism that is able to control the size of linear assembly of DNA origami nanostructures is proposed. The mechanism is realized by mechanical design of DNA origami, which consists of a hollow cylinder and a rotatable shaft in it connected through the same scaffold. This nanostructure stacks with each other by the shape complementarity at its top and bottom surfaces of the cylinder, while the number of stacking is limited by twisting angle of the shaft. Experiments have shown that the size distribution of multimeric assembly of the origami depends on the twisting angle of the shaft; the average lengths of the multimer are decamer, hexamer, and tetramer for 0°, 10°, and 20° twist, respectively. In summary, it is possible to affect the number of polymerization by adjusting the precise shape and movability of a molecular structure.