A content search system considering the activity and context of a mobile user

People routinely carry mobile devices in their daily lives and obtain a variety of information from the Internet in many different situations. In searching for information (content) with a mobile device, a user’s activity (e.g., moving or stationary) and context (e.g., commuting in the morning or going downtown in the evening) often change, and such changes can affect the user’s degree of concentration on his or her mobile device’s display and information needs. Therefore, a search system should provide the user with an amount of information suitable for the current activity and a type of information suitable for the current context. In this study, we present the design and implementation of a content search system that considers a mobile user’s activity and context, with the goal of reducing the user’s operation load for content search. The proposed system switches between two kinds of content search systems according to the user’s activity: the location-based content search system is activated when the user is stationary (e.g., standing and sitting), while a menu-based content search system is activated when the user is moving (e.g., walking). Both systems present information according to user context. The location-based system presents detailed information via menus and a map according to location-based categories. The menu-based system presents only a few options to enable users to get content easily. Through user experiments, we confirmed that participants could get desired information more easily with this system than with a commercial search system.     

InGaAs angled-grating distributed Bragg reflector lasers integrated with grating outcoupler for collimation

An angled-grating distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser integrated with a grating outcoupler (GO) is proposed and demonstrated. It consists of an angled broad-area gain stripe surrounded by angled DBR (/spl alpha/-DBR) gratings parallel to the gain stripe and two DBR gratings for feedback at the stripe ends, and a GO for emitting a collimated output beam. Due to distributed Bragg reflection in the /spl alpha/-DBR gratings, filamentation can be suppressed. Single-mode lasing up to 69 mW peak power was obtained under pulse condition. A collimated output beam with divergence angles, close to the diffraction limit, was obtained. These results confirm the effectiveness of the /spl alpha/-DBR gratings.     

Parabolic-confocal unstable-resonator semiconductor lasers-Modelingand experiments

Surface-emitting all-grating-based unstable-resonator lasers, suitable for integration with diffractive beam-forming elements, have been experimentally and theoretically studied. The lasers exhibit single spatial mode operation for a device width of 160 μm. The device performance is modeled using a beam propagation method, which accounts for spatial hole burning as well as thermal and carrier diffusion effects. Near- and far-field calculations are incorporated to facilitate the comparison with the experimental results. To achieve high-quality beam forming, it is essential that the wavefront of the guided optical mode is well defined and stable. Using the model, we study the dependence of the wavefront distortion on various parameters and show how these distortions affect the far-field characteristics. The results from the simulations agree well with the experimental work. We find that the laser performance is to a large extent controlled by thermal effects. At low-power operation, these effects can be compensated for, for a range of the injection current, by modifications of the resonator or outcoupler grating geometries     

Stereoselective partitioning of organic substrates by thermoresponsive polymers in aqueous phases

Partitioning of organic substrates by thermoresponsive polymer having N‐acryloylaminoalcohol moieties in aqueous phase has been studied. Thermoresponsive polymers, such as poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and poly(NIPAAm‐co‐N‐acryloyl‐(±)‐alaninol) (poly(NIPAAm‐co‐HIPAAm)), were found to concentrate several organic substrates into the hydrophobic field generated during their phase transition. The amount of the substrates recoverd from the polymer phase mainly depended on the hydrophobicity of the substrates. Aqueous solutions of PNIPAAm (lower critical solution temperature, LCST = 33°C) and poly(NIPAAm‐co‐HIPAAm) (LSCT = 41°C) containing 1‐phenylethanol showed LCSTs at 22°C and 33°C, respectively. The changes of LCSTs indicate that specific interactions such as hydrogen bonding between the side chain functionalities of the polymers and the substrates influence the phase transition behavior. Moreover, new optically active polymers having chiral aminoalcohol moieties have been synthesized by copolymerizations of NIPAAm with N‐acryloylaminoalcohols such as N‐acryloyl‐(S)‐alaninol and N‐acryloyl‐(S)‐prolinol. The (R)/(S) ratio of 1‐phenylethanol recovered from poly(NIPAAm‐co‐N‐acryloyl‐(S)‐alaninol) and poly(NIPAAm‐co‐N‐acryloyl‐(S)‐prolinol) were determined to be 75/25 and 68/32, respectively. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 3458–3464, 2013     

A web browsing system for cellular-phone users based on adaptive presentation

Cellular phones are widely used to access the Web. However, most available Web pages are designed for desktop PCs, and it is inconvenient to browse these large Web pages on a cellular phone with a small screen and poor interfaces. Users who browse a Web page on a cellular phone have to scroll through the whole page to find the desired content, and must then search and scroll within that content in detail to get useful information. This paper describes the design and implementation of a novel Web browsing system for cellular phones. This system includes a Web page overview to reduce scrolling operations when finding objective content within the page. Furthermore, it adaptively presents content according to its characteristics to reduce burdensome operations when searching within content.     

Monolithically integrated InGaAs-AlGaAs master oscillator poweramplifier with grating outcoupler

A monolithically integrated master oscillator power amplifier with a grating outcoupler, fabricated using a simple process without regrowth and emitting a collimated output beam, is proposed and demonstrated using an InGaAs-AlGaAs strained single-quantum-well gradient-index separate-confinement-heterostructure. Stable single-mode lasing up to 124-mW output power was obtained under continuous-wave operation. An increase of the output beam divergence, due to a wavefront distortion produced in the power amplifier, was observed with increasing power amplifier injection current. The wavefront distortion can be compensated by an appropriate design of the grating outcoupler     

Tunable external-cavity semiconductor laser using monolithicallyintegrated tapered amplifier and grating coupler for collimation

A novel lensless tunable external-cavity laser using monolithically integrated tapered amplifier, grating coupler (GC) and an external half mirror is proposed and demonstrated. It can be fabricated by a simple process and emits a collimated output beam. By making use of wavelength dispersion of the GC, the lasing wavelength can be angle tuned. Wavelength tuning over a wide range of 21.5 nm by 4.5° device rotation and an 84-mW output power were achieved under continuous-wave operation. A well-collimated output beam with a divergence angle as small as 0.3° was maintained over the entire tuning range     

Synthesis and catalytic activity of the thermoresponsive polymers having pyrrolidine side chains as base functionalities

Optically active polymers having chiral 2‐aminomethylpyrrolidine side chains have been newly synthesized by a radical homopolymerization of the corresponding protected acrylamide monomer and copolymerization with N‐isopropylacrylamide followed by deprotection. The resulting polymers were found to be thermoresponsive showing lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) at 27–65°C in their aqueous solutions. The pyrrolidine side chains of the resulting thermoresponsive polymer promoted aldol reaction between cyclohexanone and p‐nitrobenzaldehyde in water, and the reaction proceeded most smoothly at its LCST. Moreover, the diastereomeric ratio (syn : anti) of the aldol adducts obtained at the reaction at 40°C was 22 : 78, whereas the diastereomeric ratio (syn : anti) was 55 : 45 at 20°C. These results indicate that the pyrrolidine side chains catalyze the aldol reactions in the relatively hydrophobic field generated by the thermoresponsive polymer at its LCST. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013