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 .     

Depth from Refraction Using a Transparent Medium with Unknown Pose and Refractive Index

In this paper, we introduce a novel method for depth acquisition based on refraction of light. A scene is captured directly by a camera and by placing a transparent medium between the scene and the camera. A depth map of the scene is then recovered from the displacements of scene points in the images. Unlike other existing depth from refraction methods, our method does not require prior knowledge of the pose and refractive index of the transparent medium, but instead can recover them directly from the input images. By analyzing the displacements of corresponding scene points in the images, we derive closed form solutions for recovering the pose of the transparent medium and develop an iterative method for estimating the refractive index of the medium. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world data are presented, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

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.     

Hepatic Expression of Long-Chain Acyl-CoA Synthetase 3 is Upregulated in Hyperlipidemic Hamsters

Members of the mammalian long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase (ACSL) family are key enzymes for cellular fatty acid metabolism that catalyze the initial step in activation of long-chain fatty acids. However, the specificity of individual isoforms of ACSL to the lipid metabolic process is not well studied. In addition, the regulation of expression of individual ACSL isoforms under hyperlipidemic conditions is largely unknown. We cloned the hamster ACSL3 cDNA coding region and generated specific antibodies recognizing the ACSL3 protein. We next observed the changes in ACSL3 mRNA and protein expression in hamsters fed a standard chow diet or a high fat and high cholesterol (HFHC) diet. HFHC feeding significantly increased ACSL3 mRNA and protein expression in liver and to a lesser extent in muscle but not in adipose, brain, heart, or testis. Additionally, ACSL3 mRNA abundance was differentially regulated by the nutritional status in different tissues with liver, muscle, and adipose being the most sensitive tissues. Importantly, the hepatic ACSL3 mRNA expression pattern in response to fasting and refeeding in hyperlipidemic hamsters differed from that observed in normal chow-fed hamsters. Together, these results provide the first in vivo evidence of altered regulation of hepatic ACSL3 expression under hyperlipidemic conditions and suggest important regulatory roles for this enzyme in lipid metabolism.     

VLSI implementation of a variable-length pipeline scheme fordata-driven processors

A VLSI-oriented variable-length pipeline structure for data-driven processors is presented. Ordinary inline pipelines have the problem of minimizing the average total processing time through the pipeline, since subdivision of a function along the pipeline is usually optimized for the most complex operations in spite of the fact that simpler operations need fewer stages. As a solution to this problem, a variable-length pipeline scheme in which data go through only the necessary stages according to information contained within is proposed. The scheme has been implemented on a test chip to verify performance. The chip demonstrated a minimum fall-through time (data transmission time from input to output) of 14.4 ns and a data transmission rate in the pipeline of 59 megaword/s (that is, 1/16.9 ns) as a first-in first-out (FIFO) store. By modifying the data transfer control and allocating the processing functions corresponding to the data interval of 16.9 ns, this scheme is applicable as a high-performance processing unit for data-driven processors     

Performance evaluation of iterative geometric fitting algorithms

The convergence performance of typical numerical schemes for geometric fitting for computer vision applications is compared. First, the problem and the associated KCR lower bound are stated. Then, three well-known fitting algorithms are described: FNS, HEIV, and renormalization. To these, we add a special variant of Gauss-Newton iterations. For initialization of iterations, random choice, least squares, and Taubin's method are tested. Simulation is conducted for fundamental matrix computation and ellipse fitting, which reveals different characteristics of each method.     

Phase diagram and Raman spectroscopy of EuCl2---NaCl binary mixtures

A phase diagram of the EuCl₂---NaCl system was determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the activity coefficients of EuCl₂ and NaCl in this system were estimated under some assumptions. According to DSC measurement, it was found that there were two phase transitions at 1123.9 K and 1016.8 K. In order to specify the melting point of EuCl₂ we did Raman spectroscopy experiments. Thus, the melting point of EuCl₂ was evaluated to be 1016.8 K which was detected as the lower peak in the DSC curve. Raman spectroscopy of this system suggested that complex species were not formed clearly in the EuCl₂ poor system and the estimated activity coefficients of EuCl₂ also supported this suggestion.     

Three-Dimensional Measurement of Ice Crystals in Frozen Materials by Near-Infrared Imaging Spectroscopy

A novel technique was developed to recognize ice crystals in biological materials and to analyze their three-dimensional morphology using a Cryogenic Micro-Slicer Spectral Imaging System with a micro-slicer unit and a near-infrared spectral imaging unit. Consecutive cross-sections of a frozen sample were exposed by the multi-slicing operations with a minimum thickness of 1 µm, and their images were taken by the imaging unit. Spectroscopic analysis using a near-infrared spectrum meter showed an absorption peak at 1460 nm for pure water. Based on the observations of the absorption band of ice crystals in the wavelength range of 1450–1570 nm and its peak at 1495 nm, a commodity-type bandpass filter with a central wavelength of 1500 nm was adopted to identify ice crystals in near-infrared images. The absorption peak of water exhibited a tendency to move toward longer wavelengths with decreasing sample temperature from 25 °C to ?15 °C. The filtered images of ice crystals in frozen samples were darker than the other components at the peak wavelength of ice crystals. The three-dimensional reconstructed morphology of ice crystals revealed that they were formed along the direction of heat transfer while freezing. The proposed method provides a novel tool to investigate the effects of freezing conditions on the size, morphology and distribution of ice crystals.