Language：Japanese   Publisher：(一社)電子情報通信学会  

複数の文字(代替物)の中から特定の文字(ターゲット)を視覚的に探す作業を視覚探索と呼ぶ。代替物の数が増加しても視覚探索に費やす時間(探索時間)はそれほど増加しないことが知られており、視覚探索は効率的である。本研究ではネットワーク科学の用語を使って視覚探索が効率的になることを説明する。具体的には眼球運動を注視点時系列として計測し、文字盤上で注視点時系列が描く"注視点ネットワーク"の特性を分析した。その結果、注視点ネットワークにはスモールワールド性が内在しており、それゆえに任意の注視点間距離が相対的に小さくなることが示唆された。実際の探索平面が広くて文字数が多くても、注視点によって認知された文字間隔はスモールワールド性により小さくなる。すると探索時間も短縮され、視覚探索が効率的になるだろうと推察される。(著者抄録)

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Authorship：Corresponding author   Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

J-GLOBAL

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：ICST  

In this study, we constructed a continuous space simulation model for an evacuation in which the evacuees are represented by agents. The agents are designed to be self-driven and have intimate spaces around their bodies. An agent recognizes an exit and drives itself towards it while maintaining its distance from other agents. When a bottleneck occurs around an exit, the intimate space around the agent is reduced into its body and the agent can drive itself through the bottleneck to the exit. Using this model, we examined the influence of the placement of an obstacle on the outflow of the evacuees. The results suggest that the best position of an obstacle depends on the size of the exit.

DOI： 10.1145/3307363.3307369

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Authorship：Corresponding author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：Japanese  

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.56.190

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J-GLOBAL

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Other Link： http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6545-2097

Authorship：Last author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.14326/abe.6.129

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.  

In visually searching for a target symbol out of a number of alternatives, which may include not only symbols from the Latin alphabets but also Arabic, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, and Russian letters and numerals, and mathematical symbols, the time required to find the target, i.e., the response time, follows Hick's law, which states that the response time is proportional to the logarithm of the number of alternative symbols. How does movement of the human eye enable us to find the target in such a relatively short time? To examine this, we present a new hypothesis on the eye movement in a visual search, where the point of gaze, evaluated from movement of the eye across a monitor, is controlled by a hidden small-world network. First, in this study, we obtained experimental data for the points of gaze. A histogram of incremental movements of the point of gaze showed a power-law distribution. Then, using the histogram, we showed that the hidden network is a small-world one.

DOI： 10.1109/SMC.2017.8122885

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：看護理工学会・看護実践学会・国際リンパ浮腫フレームワーク・ジャパン研究協議会  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Fuji Technology Press Ltd.  

In this study, a web application of kikimimi, a game for visually-impaired persons, was created. The game rules were simplified to allow the visually-impaired to easily play it. This was verified in an experiment in which visually-impaired persons actually enjoyed the web application game. Moreover, it was confirmed that even the simplified version of the game was sufficiently entertaining.

DOI： 10.20965/jaciii.2017.p0359

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEICE-INST ELECTRONICS INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS ENG  

We present a hard-wired central patter generator (CPG) hardware network that reproduces the periodic oscillations of the typical gaits, namely, walk, trot, and bound. Notably, the three gaits are generated by a single parameter, i.e., the battery voltage E-MLR, which acts like a signal from the midbrain's locomotor region. One CPG is composed of two types of hardware neuron models, reproducing neuronal bursting and beating (action potentials), and three types of hardware synapse models: a gap junction, excitatory and inhibitory synapses. When four hardware CPG models were coupled into a Z(4) symmetry network in a previous study [22], two neuronal oscillation patterns corresponding to four-legged animal gaits (walk and bound) were generated by manipulating a single control parameter. However, no more than two neuronal oscillation patterns have been stably observed on a hard-wired four-CPG hardware network. In the current study, we indicate that three neuronal oscillation patterns (walk, trot, and bound) can be generated by manipulating a single control parameter on a hard-wired eight-CPG (Z(4) x Z(2) symmetry) hardware network.

DOI： 10.1587/transfun.E99.A.1600

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

<p>In order to contribute to the improvement of quality of life (QOL) for visually impaired persons, Niikawa has developed a sound-play-type game system, kikimimi. In general, it was impossible for the visually impaired to play the card games, because they have to recognize visually the patterns and digits printed on the cards. However, the kikimimi is a new table game system in the sense that the players play the card game with using only the auditory information. In this study we enhanced it to the web-based system on the internet. The developed game was too complicated to play for the visually impaired, especially, the aged and children, so that we simplified the rule of the game and evaluated the enjoyment using the flow state scale (FSS). As a result, it was suggested that the web game should be available to not only the visually impaired but the sighted.</p>

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.54Annual.S416

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

<p>It is thought that quadrupedal gaits are assumed to be generated by the central pattern generators (CPGs) which is hypothesized to exist in the spinal cord. We have modeled, using electronic circuits and hardware modules, a hard-wired network composed of eight CPGs (Z₄×Z₂ symmetry) that was originally proposed by Golubitsky et al. from the theoretical approach. Furthermore, we reproduced switching phenomena between quadrupedal locomotion patterns by manipulating the only one parameter (externally inputted DC voltage). In this study, we clarify the switching phenomena from the viewpoint of the necessary energy to change the locomotion patterns. Hoyt et al. experimentally examined that horses selected the gaits (locomotion patterns) so as to minimize the oxygen consumption per unit distance. We examined the relation between the switching phenomena in the hardware model and the necessary electric power, by using the circuit simulator, LT Spice IV.</p>

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.54Annual.S200

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Language：Japanese  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE EMBS  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japan Soc. of Med. Electronics and Biol. Engineering  

Picture books are one of the elements of childcare that are indispensable for emotional development. The reading of picture books to children or grandchildren by their parents or grandparents plays an important role in enhancing their imaginative power. However, visually impaired parents often experience trouble in communicating the contents and details of picture books to their children, since they have difficulties not only in reading the stories but also in describing the pictures. In this study, we developed a storytelling assistive system to use with picture books for the visually impaired, which is based on a tablet terminal using speech sounds.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.53.40

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

It is difficult for all evacuees to behave the smooth evacuation, when they are panicked in occurring some disaster. <br />
Such a man-made disaster will increase the damage. <br />
Evacuees have to give good influence to the global evacuation behavior by means that they evacuate calmly without preceding personal benefit. <br />
A lot of computer simulations, especially the multi-agent simulation, or MAS, have tried to clarify the valuable knowledge for the smooth evacuation. <br />
We also have made the MAS model on the evacuation behavior, and especially, investigated the influence of the mutual concession of the agents on the global evacuation time. <br />
As a result, the global evacuation time was minimized when the $\alpha$ (= the probability of concession) was around 0.4, <br />
or between 0.35 and 0.45. <br />
If the evacuees give their way to the others by the probability 2/5, the evacuation time as a whole will be minimized. <br />
This means that the evacuees may precede their personal benefits more than half of the event that they collided with each other.<br />
Furthermore, we analyzed the $\hat{\alpha}$ that gave the minimum point of evacuation time, and obtained $\hat{\alpha}=\sqrt{2}-1$.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEICE-INST ELECTRONICS INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS ENG  

We proposed a hard-wired CPG hardware network to reproduce the gaits of four-legged animals. It should reproduce walking and bounding, and they should be switchable with each other by changing the value of only one voltage.

DOI： 10.1587/transfun.E98.A.508

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

Many different quadrupedal walking patterns (gaits), such as “walking”, “trotting”, “bounding” and “galloping” can be generated by systems of coupled central pattern generators (CPG). However, the physiological mechanisms for the walking patterns are unclear. As a result, from an engineering viewpoint, many different mathematical models have been proposed to describe these walking patterns. In this report, we propose a hard-wired CPG network based on Rybak’s model that can reproduce quadrupedal locomotion walking patterns. In this network, we use the beating model proposed by Hoshimiya et al. and the bursting<br />
model proposed by Maeda and Makino. The main purpose of this study was to reproduce the typical walking patterns; “walking” and “bounding”, with a hardware model, and to switch between these patterns using only one parameter, which can be interpreted as voltage stimulation from the midbrain locomotor region. We found the transition from the “walking” to the<br />
“bounding” behavior to be due to a relative weakening of the coupling between the CPGs in the network by stimulation from the midbrain locomotor region.

DOI： 10.14326/abe.4.48

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

We proposed a multi-agent and multi-player artificial school class game. This game has been designed to solve the bullying problem in school. Human players participate in the game and interact with other players, or agents, to make friends with those who have similar sense of values.

DOI： 10.1109/GCCE.2014.7031323

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan  

Kamo Lake, located in Sado city, Niigata prefecture, Japan is approximately 4.9 km2 in circumference, 17 km in overall length, and 2 km across, at its widest point. While it is the largest lake in Niigata prefecture and ranks 46th in Japan, its deepest point lies about 10 meters below the surface. Being tidal in nature, with constant injections of seawater from the northern inlet, it has tended to be a bit brackish, making it suitable for the many oyster-farms dotting the area. But, the recent influx of red tide has resulted in a die-off of these oysters, costing local fishermen more than 100 million yen in lost revenue. Prefectural authorities have so far been unable to find a practical solution. The objective of the present research is to develop an original, automatic water temperature-sensing network in Kamo Lake to provide a web-based information-network that will allow fishermen to better understand the relationship between water temperature, red tides and dissolved oxygen. Based on our experimental results, we believe that the amount of dissolved oxygen has a clear connection with oyster die-off, and elevated water temperatures would seem to be the culprit. Network communications for water-temperature measurement achieved a 95% reliability-rating, for the past three years. ©2014 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

DOI： 10.1541/ieejeiss.134.411

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

It is difficult for all evacuees to behave the smooth evacuation, if they are panicked in occurring some disaster. Such a man-made disaster will increase the damage. Evacuees have to give good influence to the global evacuation behavior by means that they evacuate calmly without preceding personal benefit. So far, a lot of computer simulations, especially using the multi-agent system, or MAS, have tried to clarify the valuable knowledge for the smooth evacuation. We also have made the MAS model on the evacuation behavior. Especially, we have investigated the influence of the mutual concession of the agents on the global evacuation time, which was the time all agents in some space completely evacuated to the outside. As a result, the global evacuation time was minimized when the a, the probability of the concession, was in the range between 0.3 and 0.5. Also, the global evacuation time was decreased more by means of placing obstacles near the exit. © 2013 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/IWCIA.2013.6624785

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Language：English   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.51.R-121

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Japanese Association for an Inclusive Society  

Various kinds of tableware for the elderly requiring nursing care have been developed in recent super aging society in order to support their eating. Accordingly, usability assessment of such tableware has been done intensively up to now. As one of the usability factors, we focused on conformity between the edge of the inside of plate and spoon naturally affecting scooping motion. Its empirical analysis, however, has yet to be done sufficiently. In our previous study, we developed an effective experimental protocol using a combination of a spoon and a plate with an edge of its inside which is conformed well to the edge of the spoon. Using this protocol, we conducted experiments employing ten elderly subjects and a motion capture system in order to clarify the effects of the conformity on eating efficiency. Empirical results demonstrated that the conformity decreased the total number of scooping, the number of collecting and duration of the collecting phase as well as total time, strongly suggesting its significance in eating efficiency.

DOI： 10.18975/jais.15.3_A13

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

Rhythm in biology such as walking patterns (gait) is thought as being controlled by a neural network called central pattern generator, or CPG. However, its mechanism from a viewpoint of physiology has not been clear. Rybak et al. (2006) proposed a neural network model of the CPG using Hodgkin-Huxley type equations, and showed that the dynamics calculated by their model reproduced the experimental results using the decerebrate cat. Furthermore, they made several improvements on their model by means of adding the afferent stimulations from the extensor and flexor sites. In this paper, we constructed a similar network model from the viewpoint of the electronic circuit design, and, as such, reproduce completely the dynamics obtained from Rybak's mathematical model. Using such hardware simulations, one can design and control walking patterns of the locomotion robot without using software program, and implement its real-time simulation.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.50.620

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

Recently, we easily access 3-dimensional (3D) entertainments, i.e. 3D broadcastings or 3D cinemas. Stereoscopic visions in humans use binocular and monocular depth cues such as binocular parallax, vergence, lens accommodation, size of visual object, shading, and so on. Strong depth cues, however, may affect human visual systems and it may induce dizziness or headaches. Then it should be very important to know optimal condition of depth cues and interaction within the cues. In this study, we focused on two depth cues;binocular parallax and object size. We investigated how these cues affect depth perception and the interactions of the cues. We stereoscopically presented two visual stimuli on a 3D TV for subjects and they were required to answer which stimulus was presented nearby them. They answered correctly when viewing normal size condition, i. e. nearer stimulus presented larger than the farther one. On the other hand, their performances dropped when they watched illusion-condition stimulus, i.e. farther stimulus presented larger than the nearer one. These results indicate the object size may one of the important factors for stereoscopic depth perception in the virtual 3D environments. The subjects were divided into two groups according to their performance (cutoff was 50% correct). We found vergence eye movements in the lower score subjects were dysfunctional, especially on convergence. Vergence functions may affect depth perception.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.50.681

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Other Link： https://jlc.jst.go.jp/DN/JALC/10016417099?from=CiNii

Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Society of Biomechanisms  

<p>In an attempt to better understand the mechanism of human jaw-movement, we have been developing an autonomous jaw-movement simulator, <i>JSN</i>, with a life-like anatomical structure and a physiological control scheme. We first set about the task of building a chewing-movement simulator, <i>JSN</i>/3X, by providing the latest <i>JSN</i> with 1) a mechanism adjusting bite force according to the stiffness of a given food article; 2) a feed-forward control mechanism for bite force; 3) adjustment of bite-force and temporomandibular joint loading, all of which are believed to be effective for promoting chewing efficiency. Chewing experiments using <i>JSN</i>/3X were carried out by employing two different food analogs, for the hard one, a rubber eraser, and for the soft one, a polyurethane earplug. Bite-force conditions were set such that the ratio of the maximum force in masseter and internal-pterygoid muscles on the chewing side to that on the non-chewing side were 0.8 or 0.4. Results suggested that 1) the food elasticity-based bite-force control was effective for promoting efficient mastication; 2) the feed-forward control transformed a chewing movement into a more life-like and effective one driven primarily by masseter and internal pterygoid muscles; and 3) activities of masseter and internal pterygoid muscles on the non-chewing side posses the capability of adjusting both bite force and temporomandibular joint loading on the chewing side, particularly when biting hard food.</p>

DOI： 10.3951/biomechanisms.21.179

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：JAPANESE ASSOC MATHEMATICAL SOCIOLOGY  

The Gini coefficient is one of the indices most typically used to evaluate inequality amongst samples. However, it is inappropriate for evaluating inequality when negative samples are included in the population. This is because a precondition of the coefficient is that all samples must be positive. In order to enable the coefficient to evaluate inequality in such cases, Chen et al. attempted to extend it. However, their extended coefficient cannot be used to evaluate inequality when the sum of the samples is less than 0. In this paper, we extended the geometric expression of the Gini coefficient in order to enable it to be used to evaluate inequality even if the sum of the samples is less than 0. In addition, we confirmed that the extended coefficient was exactly equal to the Gini coefficient when all of the samples in the population were positive. Furthermore, we considered the algebraic expression of the extended coefficient, and using this, we clarified that the extended coefficient satisfied both Pigou-Dalton's population principle and the extended transfer principle.

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan  

We have developed a rehabilitation tool used for treatment of patients suffering from hemiplegia and evaluation of the paralysis-stage. The tool consists of a PC and button switches for a computer game so that it is not expensive, available in anywhere, and possible to get a change of air in the patients. In this study, we have evaluated behavior indices such as an operation time to play with the games both in healthy young students and patients with paralysis. From experimental results, it was shown that the recorded behavioral indices showed the strong dependence on the motion control function of a subject. Preceding evaluation of effectiveness in rehabilitation of the developed tool, possible application of the tool in evaluation of the motion control function of the patients with hemiplegia was discussed in this paper. © 2012 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

DOI： 10.1541/ieejeiss.132.384

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：バイオメカニズム学会  

In order to figure out motion mechanism of human shoulder joint, we have been analyzing in-vivo shoulder movements, particularly humeral elevation within the scapular plane, using open-MR imaging and 3D/3D-registration technique. In this paper, we applied this method to analyze the clavicle motion relative to the chest. To do so, we have to establish the cheat coordinate system having high reproducibility using 3D MR imagines of the chest. Then we manually extracted the apexes of six ribs connected to the sternum and set the sternum coordinate system denoted as ΣST using these apex points. We evaluated reproducibility of ΣST in the following two respects: 1) the variation of six apex points extracted by five different testers from the same MR images; 2) the variation of the extracted apex points as well as ΣST in different humeral elevation angles. Consequently, the apex points as well as ΣST had a high reproducibility in a level of the slice interval of MR imaging in both the same images and the different images, demonstrating the applicability of ΣST to the clavicle motion analysis. Using this coordinate system, we tried to analyze the clavicle motion of four different subjects. The results agreed well with its previous reports in both respects of the direction and range of the clavicle motion.

DOI： 10.3951/sobim.35.123

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEICE-INST ELECTRONICS INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS ENG  

In this paper we show that the performance workload of button-input interfaces do not monotonically increase with he number of buttons, but there is an optimal number of buttons in the sense that the performance workload is minimized. As the number of buttons increases, it becomes more difficult to search for the target button, and, as such, the user's cognitive workload is increased. As the number of buttons decreases, the user's cognitive workload decreases but his operational workload increases, i.e., the amount of operations becomes larger because one button has to be used for plural functions. The optimal number of buttons emerges by combining the cognitive and operational workloads. The experiments used to measure performance were such that we were able to describe a multiple regression equation using two observable variables related to the cognitive and operational workloads. As a result, our equation explained the data well and the optimal number of buttons was found to be about 8, similar to the number adopted by commercial cell phone manufacturers. It was clarified that an interface with a number of buttons close to the number of letters in the alphabet was not necessarily easy to use.

DOI： 10.1587/transfun.E94.A.789

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2011150103

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

Visually induced motion sickness is one of the detrimental effects of video images on human psychosomatic state. Several studies for alleviating this effect have been cumulated in recent years. One of the studies reported that people with high heart rate tended to be immune to the motion sickness. This fact motivated us to assume that the increase of subjects' heart rate through physical exercise before video watching could prevent them from the motion sickness. Then we investigated the effects of video exposure with such pre-exercise on the motion sickness. First we recorded psychosomatic state of 23 volunteers using the simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ) before and after watching extremely unpleasant video images of a mountain-bike ride capable of visually inducing motion sickness. Then we classified them into nausea and non-nausea groups, based on SSQ evaluation. Subjects' heart rate in nausea group increased gradually during video exposure, while that in non-nausea group was nearly constant. By imposing a 5-minute pre-exercise on 12 subjects in nausea group before video exposure, 10 subjects became immune to the motion sickness, demonstrating that the pre-exercise would be efficient for alleviating the motion sickness. In addition subjects' heart rate in nausea group remained at a higher level during video exposure than at rest, whereas it returned to the rest level immediately after the pre-excise without video exposure.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.48.98

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2010170942

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

This paper introduces hardware designs for a half-centered locomotor central pattern generator (CPG), composed of units reproducing the electrical behavior of neurons and synapses, such as action potentials, bursting discharges, and post-synaptic potentials. A typical phenomenon generated by the CPG is an alternating rhythmic activity of extensor and flexor sites, in the absence of external rhythmic input. In order to reproduce the phase resetting and non-resetting rhythmic activities observed after the afferent stimulation, a two-level CPG network and unit burst generators were proposed by Rybak et al. from an approach based on mathematical modeling. This paper confirms that such phase resetting and non-resetting rhythmic phenomena could be well reproduced by the hardware design of a two- level CPG using the electronic circuit simulator SPICE. In particular, it has been clarified that the phase resetting depends on the amount of stimulation of the extensor afferents during extension.

DOI： 10.1109/CIBEC.2010.5716041

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

A central pattern generator (CPG) is a half-center rhythm generator, which is constructed from neural networks of the spinal cord. The remarkable CPG's phenomena, observed in the experiments on the fictive locomotor activity of decerebrate cats, are that the rhythmic activity that re-emerges following a spontaneous omission of activity (deletion) is often not phase shifted. Rybak et al. (2006) propose a neural network model composed of multiple Hodgkin-Huxley type equations replicating such physiological phenomena. Maeda (2008) proposed a hardware design of the Rybak's mathematical model, using the SPICE simulation. Main purpose of this study is to reproduce dynamics of both the CPG and motoneuron networks using electronic circuits. As a result, the hardware CPG-motoneuron complex network showed the same response phenomena to the perturbation, which causes the deletion, as the mathematical model. Furthermore, the phase shift, observed after the perturbation to the rhythm generator of CPG, was nearly constant against increasing the amplitude of perturbation. The phase advanced about 0.2 seconds on average.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.47.436

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan  

Usability, or easiness of operation of a console such as a universal remote console (URC), has been investigated in terms of the optimum number of buttons of the console which minimizes the operation time. The console operation is consisted of two major processes, that is, cognition of the button and motion of hand to press it. Cognitive workload would increase in accordance with the increase in number of buttons because difficulty in finding a correct button is increased. Conversely, physical workload would increase when number of buttons is decreased, because one has to press many times the same buttons in different meanings. Thus the optimum number of buttons which minimizes the total operation time of a console appears. To verify this hypothesis, several virtual consoles equipped with different number of buttons were developed on a PC. Subjects were asked to input designated family names in Roman alphabets. Easiness of operation, i.e. usability was evaluated by the operation time among 49 subjects. The operation time showed the minimum value when the number of buttons was approximately 18. © 2009 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

DOI： 10.1541/ieejeiss.129.1853

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IEICE-INST ELECTRONICS INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS ENG  

This article presents an indoor positioning and communication platform, using fluorescent lights. We set up a practical implementation of a VLC (Visible Light Communication) system in a University building. To finalize this work. it is important that we analyze the properties of the reception signal. especially the length of the data string that can be received at different walking, speed. fit this paper, we present a model and a series of formulae for analyzing the relationship between positioning signal availability and other important parameters, such as sensor angle, walking speed. data transmission rate, etc. We report a series of real-life experiments using VLC system and compare the results with those generated by the formula. The outcome is an improved design for determination of the reception area with more than 97% accurate signals, and an optimal transmission data length. and transmission rate.

DOI： 10.1093/ietcom/e91-b.11.3507

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

This paper addresses hardware designs of a half-centered locomotor central pattern generator (CPG), composed of units reproducing the electrical behavior of neurons and synapses, such as action potentials, bursting discharges, and post-synaptic potentials. The typical phenomenon generated by the CPG is an alternating rhythmic activity of extensor and flexor sites, in the absence of external rhythmic input. In order to reproduce the deletion phenomena, or the phase resetting and non-resetting rhythmic activities observed after during spontaneous cessation of activity, a two-level CPG network and unit burst generators (UBGs) were proposed by Rybak et al. (2006) from the viewpoint of mathematical modeling. The deletion at the first level, i.e., the rhythm generator (RG) level, caused the post-deletion rhythm to be phase shifted (reset) with respect to the pre-deletion rhythm. However, the deletion at the second level, i.e., the pattern formation (PF) level, caused the post-deletion rhythm to be un-phase shifted (non-reset) with respect to the pre-deletion rhythm. This paper confirms that such deletion phenomena, or the phase resetting and non-resetting phenomena, could be well reproduced in the hardware design of a two-level CPG using the electronic circuit simulator SPICE. In particular, it has been clarified that non-resetting deletions appeared, even with the cessation of activity occurring at any phase with respect to the observed temporal bursting. Hardware synapse models, phenomenologically reproducing excitatory and inhibitory post-synaptic potentials (EPSP and IPSP), were newly designed in order to connect the hardware neuron models, proposed by Hoshimiya et al. (1979) for the excitable and/or oscillatory neuron, and by Maeda and Makino (2000) for the bursting neuron.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.46.496

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2009175655

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

In this paper, we proposed a new guidance scheme of the GPS-GIS-based speech guidance system using the adaptive fuzzy inference neural network (AFINN). Geographic Information System (GIS) calculates some attributes of user-to-landmark relations, so-called, landmark celebrity, landmark facade, landmark area, representative point of latitude and longitude (the center of gravity) of the landmark, user's latitude and longitude from GPS, and user's direction. These attributes were transformed to six basic elements, such as the celebrity, the facade relative bearing, the Euclidean distance between the landmark and user, the area size, the direction relative bearing and the user's individual data, respectively. The AFINN, that has the above six elements as the input data, calculates a level of importance (LOI) corresponding to a "cognitive distance". We considered that acceptable guidance was achieved by using the LOI. We applied the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to the leaning data of the AFINN. Therefore, the guidance system reflected user's preference, and obtained the guidance suitable for diverse users. Numerical simulations suggested that the AFINN should be available for determining the guidance satisfying each user. Finally, the visually impaired pedestrians evaluated the guidance system from the user's viewpoints.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.46.93

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Other Link： http://hdl.handle.net/10191/25867

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

Bullying is a social problem that needs to be solved for happiness and well-being of the individuals. For junior high school students to make friends, it is very important that they find a common set of values, such as similar interests, the same hobbies, or some kind of common activity or striving. However, there is a minority of students who are unable to find a set of values in common with others, and these students are potential victims of bullying. To describe this phenomenon, we proposed a formalized agent-based model, both for the formation of a group and the exclusion of a minority, in order to clarify the mechanism by which a minority emerges. Secondly, in order to model real organizational and social phenomena, we upgraded the model to a hybrid multi-agent system consisting of both human and machine agents, in which a player could participate as in gaming. In this so-called multi-agent system model a player would be able to interact with the machine agents, which were controlled by the stochastic rules of the model. The game was made similar to amusement games by using interesting illustrations. We carried out a preliminary examination with a junior high school student playing the game and as a result, the appropriate number of parameters was determined.

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Usability, or easiness of operation of a console such as URC, has been investigated in terms of the optimum number of buttons of the console. The action of console operation is consisted of two major processes, that is, cognition of the button and motion of hand to press it. Ease of cognition will be decreased in accordance with increase in the number of buttons. Conversely, increased number of buttons will be useful for quick switch operation. Therefore, it is expected that the optimum number of buttons which minimizes the total operation time of a console exists. To verify this hypothesis, several virtual consoles equipped with different number of buttons were developed on a PC. Subjects were asked to input designated family name as input data by using those consoles and ease of operation was evaluated by the operation time among several subjects. As easily imagined, ease of operation, or usability in terms of the operation time showed the maximum value when the number of buttons was approximately 18 in this study.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

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Other Link： http://hdl.handle.net/10191/25910

Publisher：The Society of Life Support Engineering  

DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.19.Supplement_172

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DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.19.Supplement_69

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DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.19.Supplement_174

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

The ability to travel is important for disabled persons because it enables them to participate in social activities. Even though there is a wide range of technologies for supporting the visually impaired to travel, many of the technologies are under utilized. Part of the explanation lies in the behavioral patterns of many visually impaired who venture outdoors very little. To encourage travel, we have developed a system that selects travel routes suitable for visually impaired travelers. The algorithm uses an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-one of many decision-making mathematical models-together with a digital map. The preferred or favored amenities of the traveler are reflected quantitatively in the travel route selection. Therefore, it is important to prepare the appropriate travel routes before making use of the system. In this paper, we asked 10 people with normal vision to quantitatively evaluate the preset travel routes automatically presumed by the system. As a result, it was verified that several travel routes prepared by our system were available for 70% of the users. Finally, we had two visually impaired people qualitatively evaluate the system from the user's viewpoint.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.44.635

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2007253875

Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：MEDICAL IMAGING AND INFORMATION SCIENCES  

Chronic liver disease causes health problem such as hepatic failure or hepatocellular carcinoma. As the disease progresses, some fibroses become apparent, and, as such, influence a vascular structure. We have proposed, previously, a method to extract various vascular features from CTAP images. In this paper we suggested that the method improved in this paper should be applicable to CTAP images of 9 patients. It reveals that the vascular-structure analysis can be useful for estimating liver fibrosis level.

DOI： 10.11318/mii.23.130

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2008047878

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2006265930

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：IEEE  

The ability to travel is important for disabled persons. It enables participation in social activities. Although there is a wide range of technologies for assisting the visually impaired to travel, they are under utilized. Part of the explanation lies in the behavioral patterns of many visually impaired who venture outdoors very little. To enable and encourage travel we have developed system to select a travel route that is suitable for a visually impaired traveler. The algorithm uses an analytic hierarchy process (AHP): one among the decision making mathematical models, used with a geographic information system (GIS). The preferred or favored demands of the traveler are reflected quantitatively on the travel route selection. Therefore, it is important to prepare the appropriate travel routes before making use of the system. In this paper we evaluated the preset travel route presumed automatically by the system, using 10 sighted participants as preliminary experiments. As a result, it was verified that several travel routes prepared by our system were available for 60% users.

DOI： 10.1109/IEMBS.2006.259908

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A smart video magnifier for the people with visual disabilities is now being developed to assist their stress-free reading. In a video magnifier, the users watch the monitor screen that is displaying the book page to be read. Eye movement is needed for reading a book. The difficulty of character recognition that is dependent on the environmental conditions is reflected to the eye movement. Accordingly, information on the visibility of the user is extracted as physiological signals accompanied by the gazing motion. These signals are basically used to control the video magnifier. The advantages and usefulness of the adaptive-type video magnifier are discussed in this paper.

DOI： 10.1109/IEMBS.2006.259900

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DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.18.Supplement_92

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In a diffusively coupled system of mathematical models of cardiac cells, an acceleration phenomenon becomes apparent, with the period of the system becoming shorter than the periods of each isolated circuit. In order to investigate the energy or power consumption necessary to accelerate the oscillation of the coupled system, we propose an,electronic circuit oscillator model for cardiac cells with the action potential presented by square waves with plateaus of different duration. When the durations of the plateaus of the isolated circuits were set at different values, while keeping the periods the same, the coupled system was accelerated. As a result the power consumption was reduced by the coupling. A requirement for the acceleration driven by the lowest power consumption was that the duty cycle of the coupled system be equal to 0.4. This duty cycle can be physiologically observed in living cardiac cell tissue. This suggests that cardiac cells are self-organized so as to accelerate through the coupling of cells while the total power consumption is reduced to the minimum state. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.biosystems.2004.09.005

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DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.17.Supplement_33

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DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.17.Supplement_38

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Geographic Information Systems Association  

In order to identify the key factors involved in pedestrian search behavior, we analyzed experimental data using statistical designs. Firstly a GPS-GIS-based search mechanism was used and search time, together with geographical characteristics of the town, luminosity and GPS accuracy with between 25.0m and 61.5m in SPS (Standard Positioning Service) were measured. Then the sense of direction of the subjects was derived from SDQ-S (Sense of Direction Questionnaire-Short Form). Statistical methods of regression and path analysis were applied to the data. Results from the analyses identified geographical properties such as the complexity of the road network and the geographical density of landmarks as being most influential in the pedestrian's search process. The accuracy of the GPS system itself was much less important.

DOI： 10.5638/thagis.12.57

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SCRIPTA TECHNICA-JOHN WILEY & SONS  

In a diffusively coupled system using a mathematical model of heart muscle, an acceleration phenomenon has been reported in which the oscillation period after coupling becomes smaller than the intrinsic period prior to coupling. In the present research, an acceleration phenomenon is observed in a coupled system of an electronic circuit model. Also, by using an electronic circuit simulator, the conditions causing acceleration in a coupled system are studied. The power consumption of a coupled system is numerically derived. It is found that the power consumption can decrease when the acceleration phenomenon takes place. Heart muscle cells not only accelerate the oscillation (or increase the number of oscillations) by mutual coupling but also reduce the power (or energy) consumption at the same time. It is suggested that efficient information transmission may be carried out with less energy overall. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

DOI： 10.1002/ecjc.20081

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DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.16.Supplement_281

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DOI： 10.5136/lifesupport.16.Supplement_277

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A discussion on creation of several pigments for color printing, that share the characterstic of being transparent to near-infrared light, was presented. A method for object identification, in which concealed information was screen-printed onto clothing was also proposed and investigated. The results showed that it was possible to detect and identify a hidden encoded object.

DOI： 10.1002/scj.1159

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DOI： 10.5638/thagis.9.2_41

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We proposed a pulse-type hardware neuron model. It could reproduce simple excitations, beating and bursting discharges as well as an action potential with a plateau potential observed in living membranes. The model exhibited one of these dynamics depending on parameter values of the model's circuit. They include resistance, capacitance and externally injected DC current intensity. We studied the model's dynamics based on hardware experiments and mathematical analyses. Our results showed that two inward currents introduced into the model and differences in their operating time scales determined dynamics of the model. In particular, we illustrated a mechanism of the bursting discharges generation in terms of bifurcation theory and time-dependent changes in the form of instantaneous current-voltage characteristics of the model. Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.

DOI： 10.1016/S0303-2647(00)00111-8

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The eight-variable model for the giant neuron localized in the esophageal ganglia of the marine pulmonate mollusk Onchidium verruculatum is reduced to four-and-three-dimensional systems by regrouping variables with similar time scales. These reduced models replicate the complex behavior including beating, periodic bursting and aperiodic bursting displayed by the original full model when the parameter I(ext) representing the intensity of the constant DC current stimulation is varied across a wide range. The complex behavior of the full model arises from the interaction of fast and slow dynamics, and depends on the time scale C(s) of the slow dynamics. The four-variable reduced model is constructed independently from the parameter C(s) so that it reproduces the two-dimensional bifurcation structure of the full model for the two parameters I(ext) and C(s). The three-variable reduced model is derived for a specific value of C(s). The parameters of this model are tuned so that its one-parameter bifurcation diagram for I(ext) closely matches that of the full model. Correspondence between bifurcation structures ensures that both reduced models reproduce the various discharge patterns of the full model. Similarity between the full and reduced models is also confirmed by comparing mean firing frequencies and membrane potential waveforms in various regimes. The reduction exposes the factors essential for reproducing the dynamics of the full model; indeed, it shows that the eight variables representing the membrane potential and seven gating variables of six ionic currents in the full model account, in fact, for three basic processes responsible for excitability, post-discharge refractoriness and slow membrane modulation.

DOI： 10.1007/s004220050432

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In this paper, we show bifurcation diagrams of various models of single neuron to direct current stimuli and to periodic pulse trains. We introduce a simple mathematical model of a. living pacemaker neuron and show that the phase transition curve is a useful tool to investigate the neuron's response to periodic pulse trains. We also mention a model for bursting oscillation and reduction of its dynamics.

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Japanese Neural Network Society  

<I>Onchidium</I> pacemaker (OP) neurons show oscillatory behaviors such as beatings and periodic or chaotic discharges. Hayashi et al. proposed a set of modified Hodgkin-Huxley equations as a model of the OP neurons and succeeded to reproduce the discharge patterns. The model consists of 8 variables including those of fast and slow potasium and sodium currents. It is difficult, however, to gain mathematical insight of the model because of high dimensionality. Recently, Kepler et al. proposed a systematic method to reduce a number of variables in H-H equations without loss of essential features of the dynamics. In the present work, we apply the method by Kepler et al. to reduce the model of OP neurons by Hayashi et al. and show that the reduced one mimics well the oscallatory behaviors of the OP neurons.

DOI： 10.3902/jnns.1.12

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：新潟医療福祉学会  

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In previous study, we examined to let the participants input alphabet of four characters and recorded performance time, tap interval and the number of taps, and we suggested that the optimal number of buttons (that performance time is minimum) is 10. In addition, the optimal number of buttons which was given from performance time accorded with that one which was estimated multiple regression from tap interval and the number of taps. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of increasing the necessary number of letters to input on the optimal number of buttons. As a result, it is suggested that the optimal number of buttons increases with increasing the input letters.

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In recent years, remote control operation robots have been studied, and, as such, must be expected that an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) should be used in various situations. We proposed an interface system to operate the UAV using movement of the human body. This study aims to construct the interface system that is capable of reducing the physical workload or increasing the work efficiency. In this technical report, we implemented the system sending the command to the UAV. The system generated the command when it obtained the data on human movement from Kinect. Especially, we focused on two operations to the UAV, by the right hand, and by the face recognition using Kinect. The latter case has not yet be implemented in the system, and it will be one of the future works.

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Visually impaired persons can use an equipment and service based on a concept of the barrier free in various living situations in modern society, because the ADL (Activities of Daily Living) ability of the visually impaired is enhanced by assistive technologies. However, the support of cultural activities, or QOL (Quality Of Life), for the visually impaired, such as entertainments and games, are under utilized. Visually impaired persons may have a lot of mental stress by depending on the sighted persons in the daily living. To solve this problem, not only ADL but QOL is important issue on the assistive technology development. We have developed the game to enhance the QOL of the visually impaired from the viewpoint of entertainment.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

The bullying problem (peer aggression or victimization) evolves from a situation in which anonymous bullies attack a particular victim with its negative attributes. There has been tried to solve the bullying problem from educational, medical, sociological and many other viewpoints. We also have investigated a mechanism of the bullying, using an artificial school-class model (ASC model) based on multi-agent simulation. In this technical report, we attempted to reproduce the concept of "frequency-dependent behavior" in the ASC model. The frequency-dependent behavior means that the agent which was often received the particular behavior from others in the past step becomes easy to receive the same behavior in the present step. If the behavior received repeatedly is negative, or non-friendly, then the agent will be easily a victim defined in the ASC model.

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To investigate the mechanism which the monetary exchange emerges from the barter exchange provides the insight about not only the history of a money economy but the appearance of local and electronic moneys. Field investigation at the local community is so difficult that we have investigated it virtually by using a method on the multi-agent simulation. So far, we have reproduced the simultaneous circulation phenomenon by a couple of moneys on the social-network-introduced Yasutomi model. However, the consumption behavior was hardly observed in it. In this technical report, we studied the simultaneous circulation phenomenon by a couple of moneys with having the consumption behavior, by means of introducing the mere-exposure effect to Yasutomi model.

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We proposed a hard-wired CPG hardware network to reproduce the gaits of four-legged animals. It should reproduce walking and bounding, and they should be switchable with each other by changing the value of only one voltage.

DOI： 10.1587/transfun.E98.A.508

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In the past decade, a rank system of student's groups qualitatively distinguished from others has been observed in Japanese school classes. It is called "school-caste", which is one of the cause of the school bullying as social problems. The school-caste can be observed inwardly from the students, but the outward observers such as teachers and parents can hardly find the school-caste in the students. In this technical report, we reproduced the school-caste-like phenomena on the artificial school class model using the multi-agent system, and investigated the effect of the teacher to prevent the school-caste from developing the school bullying. As a result, we suggested that the "prevention" should be useful for giving a stressless manner to the psychological personal relation of students, even under the school-caste.

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A picture book is one of the most important communication methods of parents with their children. Reading picture books to children is valuable to them in developing their emotional maturity. However, it is difficult for the parents with visual impairement, unlike the sighted, to read picture books to their children. Such support systems are under spread. In this technical report, we developed an assistive technology regardless of using OS to be possible that the parents with visual impairement read a picture book to their children, furthermore, made a function to add new picture books on our application. In the experiment, eight sighted participants operated the developed system and the usability was evaluated.

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In the mammalian spinal cord, a central pattern generator (CPG) is supposed to be as neural networks. The CPG is responsible for producing locomotor rhythms periodically, and the rhythms are propagated down to flexor and extensor legs. So far, we have constructed a hardware CPG model from the mathematical description proposed by Rybak et al., and, using it, reproduced oscillation behaviors corresponding to some quadrupedal gaits of four-legged animals. However, when reproducing their gaits, we need to change the structure of the network among the hardware CPG models. In this technical report, we reproduced the oscillation behaviors corresponding to the typical gaits, "walking", "trotting", and "bounding" with the hardware CPG model proposed, and switched them using the only one parameter, voltage V_<MLR>. As a result, we constructed two hardware networks that can switch between the walking and trotting, and between the trotting and bounding.

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In the mammalian spinal cord, a central pattern generator (CPG) is supposed to be as neural networks. The CPG is responsible for producing locomotor rhythms periodically, and the rhythms are propagated down to flexor and extensor legs. So far, we have constructed a hardware CPG model from the mathematical description proposed by Rybak et al., and, using it, reproduced oscillation behaviors corresponding to some quadrupedal gaits of four-legged animals. However, when reproducing their gaits, we need to change the structure of the network among the hardware CPG models. In this technical report, we reproduced the oscillation behaviors corresponding to the typical gaits, "walking", "trotting", and "bounding" with the hardware CPG model proposed, and switched them using the only one parameter, voltage V_<MLR>. As a result, we constructed two hardware networks that can switch between the walking and trotting, and between the trotting and bounding.

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It is difficult for evacuees to behave the smooth evacuation, especially in the case that they are panicked in occurring some disaster. Such a man-made disaster will increase the damage. Therefore, the evacuees have to give good influence to the global evacuation behavior by means that they evacuate calmly without preceding personal benefit. A lot of computer simulations, especially the multi-agent simulation, or MAS, have tried to clarify the valuable knowledge for the smooth evacuation. We also have made the MAS model on the evacuation behavior, and especially, have investigated the influence of the mutual concession of the agents on the global evacuation time. In this technical report, we investigated the effect of the mutual concession at the time of the collision through the virtual evacuation game. The game programmed in this study made the player select "go ahead of the agent," or "stop and concede to the agent" when the player serially and virtually collided with ten agents.

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It is difficult for evacuees to behave the smooth evacuation, especially in the case that they are panicked in occurring some disaster. Such a man-made disaster will increase the damage. Therefore, the evacuees have to give good influence to the global evacuation behavior by means that they evacuate calmly without preceding personal benefit. A lot of computer simulations, especially the multi-agent simulation, or MAS, have tried to clarify the valuable knowledge for the smooth evacuation. We also have made the MAS model on the evacuation behavior, and especially, have investigated the influence of the mutual concession of the agents on the global evacuation time. In this technical report, we investigated the effect of the mutual concession at the time of the collision through the virtual evacuation game. The game programmed in this study made the player select "go ahead of the agent," or "stop and concede to the agent" when the player serially and virtually collided with ten agents.

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In this study, in order to evaluate the usability of touch panel button interfaces, we examined to let the participants input alphabet of four characters and recorded performance time, tap interval and the number of taps. The optimal number of buttons which is given from performance time accorded with that one which is estimated multiple regression from tap interval and the number of taps. Based on this, we can estimate the optimal number of buttons from tap interval and the number of taps. The optimal number of buttons increases to ten from eight in comparison with precedent study which used mouse button interfaces. This is because tap interval become smaller significantly than the precedent study. Therefore, it is suggested that cognitive workload on touch panel interfaces should be smaller than mouse one.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

In this study, in order to evaluate the usability of touch panel button interfaces, we examined to let the participants input alphabet of four characters and recorded performance time, tap interval and the number of taps. The optimal number of buttons which is given from performance time accorded with that one which is estimated multiple regression from tap interval and the number of taps. Based on this, we can estimate the optimal number of buttons from tap interval and the number of taps. The optimal number of buttons increases to ten from eight in comparison with precedent study which used mouse button interfaces. This is because tap interval become smaller significantly than the precedent study. Therefore, it is suggested that cognitive workload on touch panel interfaces should be smaller than mouse one.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：一般社団法人電子情報通信学会  

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are networks that enable us to exchange information by tolerating a long delay time. DTNs can be applied to various purposes such as disaster communication, regional information dissemination and so on. In this report, we propose a method for spreading of information periodically generated by source nodes in a DTN. As a related work, a model of barter exchange generating the currency, which is called Yasutomi&#039;s model, is proposed. In this report, we try to apply this model to the above method for the information spreading. We propose an information-exchange method that utilizes the view vector, which is introduced in Yasutomi&#039;s model, and show that the proposed method can efficiently spread information in the network.

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A wide range of assistive technologies to support the visually impaired persons have been developed to enhance the activities of daily living (ADL). However, enhancing not only the ADL but also the quality of life (QOL), such as an entertainment game, is needed to relieve some of their stress. Such games should be developed from the following two viewpoints; One is that the visually impaired persons are on equality with the sighted persons at the game whether they win or not. The other is that the game must be played without visual information by the players, and, as such, must be played using only auditory information as one of the alternative perceptions of the visual cue. In this report, we developed Japanese backgammon type game played by four player, so-called, Japanese rotation shogi, using the speech-output interface for the visually impaired, was evaluated by the Csikszentmihalyi's flow.

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To investigate the mechanism which the monetary exchange emerges from the barter exchange provides the insight about not only the history of a money economy but the appearance of local and electronic moneys. Field investigation at the local community is so difficult that, we have investigated it using a method of the multi-agent simulation. So far, we have studied the influence of social network structure on the emergence and circulation of money, only for one community. In this technical report, we studied the money circulation between two communities by means of using intermediators. As a result, we verified that the intermediators played an important role in the increase of the sum of agent's consumption.

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In this technical report, we proposed a hardware model of the central pattern generator, or CPG, which controlled the gait such as "walk" and "run" presented by four-leg animals. Four-leg animals show four "run" phenomena, known as trot, pace, canter, and bound (or gallop), except for "walk" that is a gait slower than "run." We presented a hard-wired CPG network switchable between "run" and "walk" using only one parameter.

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© 2014, Japan Soc. of Med. Electronics and Biol. Engineering. All rights reserved. In the nervous system, an exquisite controller, so-called, the central pattern generator (CPG), exists indirectly in rhythm phenomena of organism. Many mathematical network models have been proposed to account for the phenomena, and yet, the physiological detail has not been clear. The basic form of this model is a combination of reciprocal inhibition of nervous systems that control extensor and flexor, respectively, and, as such, must be observed mutually firing bursting discharges in both sites. Rybak et al. proposed a Hodgkin-Huxley type mathematical CPG model composed of two levels. In this study, we reproduced quadrupedal locomotion (walking patterns, or animal gaits) by means of coupling four hardware CPG models, based on Rybak&#039;s mathematical model. So far, such the networked CPG models were needed to be controlled simultaneously by plural parameters to generate abundant gaits, or the network structure had to be changed topologically every gait. We propose in our hardware hard-wired CPG network model that two typical gaits, walk and bound, can be switchable by changing just one parameter corresponding to a constant voltage stimulation from the midbrain locomotor region .

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.52.O-269

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering  

Exquisite controller of nervous system, so-called, a central pattern generator (CPG), exists in rhythm phenomena of organism. Mathematical network models were proposed to account for the phenomena, however, the physiological details has not been clear. The basic form of this model is a combination of reciprocal inhibition of nervous systems that control extensor and flexor, respectively, and, as such, must be observed mutual bursting discharge. Rybak et al. proposed a Hodgkin-Huxley type mathematical CPG model composed of two levels.We constructed, in this study, reproduced quadruped walking patterns (gaits) by means of coupling four hardware CPG models, based on Rybak's mathematical model. So far, such the networked CPG model was simultaneously controlled by plural parameters to generate abundant gaits, or network structure itself was changed every gait. In this study, we proposed a hard-wired CPG network that has been possible to generate two gaits, by changing just one parameter.

DOI： 10.11239/jsmbe.52.O-269

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On the button-input interfaces used in information devices, such as controllers, automatic teller machines (ATM) and ticket machines, we have conducted the experiment using virtual button interface to evaluate the physical workload, or usability. In our experiment, it was formulated a U-shaped curve against increasing the number of buttons, and, as such, must have a unique optimal number of buttons in the sense of reducing the physical workload. Furthermore, we globally analyzed that it was evaluated by two sorts of sub-workload, search and operational workloads on the button input. In this report, we investigated statistical distributions obtained by local behaviors on the button input. To this end, we measured gaze points during the button-input operation. We showed that the motion of gaze points was able to be modeled by the Levy flight.

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One method to enhance not only ADL (Activities of Daily Living) but also QOL (Quality Of Life) is to enhance the empowerment of the visually impaired. The visually impaired often become the relatively powerless because they are usually dependent on the sighted (or "guide helper") in going out of home to inexperienced places. In order to enhance the empowerment of the visually impaired, it is necessary that the visually impaired have opportunities to increase their self-efficacy by means of not depending on the sighted for their activities. We have presented speech-output entertainment games to make a fight possible from an equal footing with the sighted, and, as such, must hope that the visually impaired increase their self-efficacy through the game play. In this technical report, we redesigned the table game "kikimimi," on the internet to have an opportunity that the visually impaired or the sighted living geographically far from the others can play the game "kikimimi".

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For the last several decades, the bullying problem (peer aggression or victimization) has transformed, from a situation in which a particular bully attacks a particular victim with negative attributes into one in which a bully may become a victim depending on circumstances. There has been tried to solve the bullying problem from educational, medical, and so on. We have investigated a mechanism generating the bullying, using an artificial school class model (ACM) based on multi-agent simulation (MAS). Every agent is programmed so as to make friends with those who have similar interests, hobbies and tastes. The player can think of the school bullying to manipulate the pseudo-experience game. In this technical report, first, a gaming simulation of the ACM, or a serious game, was used to investigate friendship formation, by means of changing one agent to a human player who is the participant in the ACM to virtually interact with other agents. Next, we programmed agent's behavior using the data obtained from human behaviors through the game playing to imitate human behaviors.

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For the last several decades, the bullying problem (peer aggression or victimization) has transformed, from a situation in which a particular bully attacks a particular victim with negative attributes into one in which a bully may become a victim depending on circumstances. There has been tried to solve the bullying problem from educational, medical, and so on. We have investigated a mechanism generating the bullying, using an artificial school class model (ACM) based on multi-agent simulation (MAS). Every agent is programmed so as to make friends with those who have similar interests, hobbies and tastes. The player can think of the school bullying to manipulate the pseudo-experience game. In this technical report, first, a gaming simulation of the ACM, or a serious game, was used to investigate friendship formation, by means of changing one agent to a human player who is the participant in the ACM to virtually interact with other agents. Next, we programmed agent's behavior using the data obtained from human behaviors through the game playing to imitate human behaviors.

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It is difficult for all evacuees to behave the smooth evacuation, when they are panicked in occurring some disaster. Such a man-made disaster will increase the damage. Evacuees have to give good influence to the global evacuation behavior by means that they evacuate calmly without preceding personal benefit. A lot of computer simulations, especially the multi-agent simulation, or MAS, have tried to clarify the valuable knowledge for the smooth evacuation. We also have made the MAS model on the evacuation behavior, and especially, investigated the influence of the mutual concession of the agents on the global evacuation time. In this technical report, we introduced a phenomenon, "homing instinct," which is observed in the evacuation behavior into the evacuation model proposed, the case of two-exit model, and investigated the evacuation time which all agents were completely evacuated. As a result, we confirmed that the evacuation behavior with having mutual concession makes the evacuation time be shorter than all agents independently move to their exits.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ)  

For the last several decades, the bullying problem (peer aggression or victimization) has transformed, from a situation in which a particular bully attacks a particular victim with negative attributes into one in which a bully may become a victim depending on circumstances. There has been tried to solve the bullying problem from educational, medical, and so on. We have investigated a mechanism generating the bullying, using an artificial school class model (ACM) based on multi-agent simulation (MAS). Every agent is programmed so as to make friends with those who have similar interests, hobbies and tastes. The player can think of the school bullying to manipulate the pseudo-experience game. In this technical report, first, a gaming simulation of the ACM, or a serious game, was used to investigate friendship formation, by means of changing one agent to a human player who is the participant in the ACM to virtually interact with other agents. Next, we programmed agent's behavior using the data obtained from human behaviors through the game playing to imitate human behaviors.

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A central pattern generator (CPG) is a half-center rhythm generator, which is constructed from neural networks of the mammalian spinal cord. The CPG generates rhythmic locomotion. Thus, it can transmit alternating rhythmic activity of extensor and flexor sites, in the absence of external rhythmic input. This mechanism contributes to generate involuntary walking patterns of the mammalian. Rybak et al. have proposed mathematical networks of the CPG composed of Hodgkin-Huxley type differential equations. Maeda et al. have constructed a hardware CPG based on Rybak's mathematical networks. Furthermore, they have controlled a legged locomotion robot by their hardware CPG. In order to make a biologically inspired robot, we are planning to employ shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators for the robot with the hardware CPG. This paper describes basic experimental study on SMA actuators driven by the hardware CPG.

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Amusement-environment of the disabled persons becomes important to improve their stress. So far, we have developed a game, The10-1(Zatouichi), which enables the players (not only the visually impaired but also the sighted) to reduce their stress by means of playing with simple body motions. The features of the game are that the system is composed of simple rules easy to participate in the game, and the progress of the game is based on using only speech. In this technical report, we investigated the players' degree of satisfaction during playing the game, The10-1, by using the flow proposed by Csikszentmihalyi.

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Amusement-environment of the disabled persons becomes important to improve their stress. So far, we have developed a game, The10-1(Zatouichi), which enables the players (not only the visually impaired but also the sighted) to reduce their stress by means of playing with simple body motions. The features of the game are that the system is composed of simple rules easy to participate in the game, and the progress of the game is based on using only speech. In this technical report, we investigated the players' degree of satisfaction during playing the game, The10-1, by using the flow proposed by Csikszentmihalyi.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：一般社団法人電子情報通信学会  

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs)are networks that enable us to exchange information by tolerating a long delay time. DTNs can be applied to various purposes such as disaster communication, regional information dissemination and so on. In this report, we consider to apply DTNs to regional spreading and automatic collection of electronic free papers. As a related work, a model of barter exchange generating the currency, which is called Yasutomi&#039;s model, is proposed. In this report, we try to apply this model to the above spreading and collection of electronic free papers. We propose an information-exchange method that utilizes the view vector, which is introduced in Yasutomi&#039;s model, and show that the view vector accelerate the spreading of new electronic paper and the collection of 01d electronic paper. In addition, we propose another method to make the above method more effective and evaluate this method.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

It is difficult for all evacuees to behave the smooth evacuation, when they are panicked in occurring some disaster. Such a man-made disaster will increase the damage. Evacuees have to give good influence to the global evacuation behavior by means that they evacuate calmly without preceding personal benefit. A lot of computer simulations, especially the multi-agent simulation, or MAS, have tried to clarify the valuable knowledge for the smooth evacuation. We also have made the MAS model on the evacuation behavior, and especially, investigated the influence of the mutual concession of the agents on the global evacuation time. As a result, the global evacuation time was minimized when the a (= the probability of the concession)was in the range between 0.3 and 0.4. If the evacuees give their way to the others by the probability 1/3 , the evacuation time as a whole will be minimized from our study.

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Recently, local currency has been important in the economic and social viewpoints of local communities. Therefore the investigation of social foundation which local currency is easy to emerge and circulate is important. However the investigation is difficult in the real local community, so in this study we investigate it using multi-agent simulation. We have re-created the circulation of several different of moneys in our simulation model. However the scale and supply of one of those moneys is nearly identical to another one, that is, all those moneys are global money. In this study, in order to emergence the local money which the scale and supply is less than global money, we introduce social network to Yasutomi's model.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

For the last several decade, the bullying problem (peer aggression or victimization) has transformed, from a situation in which a particular bully attacks a particular victim with negative attributes into one in which a bully may become a victim depending on circumstances. There has been tried to solve the bullying problem from educational, medical and sociological viewpoints. We have investigated a mechanism generating the bullying, using an artificial school class model (ACM) based on multi-agent simulation (MAS). Every agent (or student) is programmed so as to make friends with those who have similar interests, hobbies and tastes. In this technical report, a gaming simulation of the ACM, or a serious game, was used to investigate friendship formation, by means of changing one agent to a human player who is the participant in the ACM to interact virtually with other agents. We obtained the results of 11 human players' behaviors observed through the gaming simulation to evaluate the ACM from the viewpoint of, whether or not, behaviors of the agents would be close to those of actual students.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

A wide range of assistive technologies to support the visually impaired persons have been developed to enhance the activities of daily living(ADL). However, enhancing not only the ADL but also the quality of life(QOL), such as an entertainment game, is needed to relieve some of their stress. Such games should be developed from the following two viewpoints; One is that the visually impaired persons are on equality with the sighted persons at the game whether they win or not. The other is that the game must be played without visual information by the players, and, as such, must be played using only auditory information as one of the alternative perceptions of the visual cue. In this report, we developed Japanese backgammon-type entertainment game played by four players, so-called, Japanese rotation shogi, using the speeh-output interface for the visually impaired.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

On the button-input interfaces used in information devices, such as controllers, automatic teller machines (ATM) and ticket machines, we have conducted the experiment using virtual button interface to evaluate the physical workload, or usability. In our experiment, it was formulated a U-shaped curve against increasing the number of buttons, and, as such, must have a unique optimal number of buttons in the sense of reducing the physical workload. Furthermore, we globally analyzed that it was evaluated by two sorts of sub-workload, search and operational workloads on the button input. In this report, we investigated statistical distributions obtained by local behaviors on the button input.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：一般社団法人電子情報通信学会  

This paper addresses hardware modeling of replicating several walking patterns (gaits) observed in four-leg animals. They show a lot of gaits such as walk, trot, bound, etc., depending on their travel velocity. Mathematical modeling has been useful to replicate plausible oscillatory rhythms corresponding to the biological gaits. However, you have to change simultaneously many parameters in such models to switch on some gait from another. In this report, we reproduced four typical gaits (stand, pronk, walk and bound) by designing and constructing a network model using electronic circuits. The remarkable point was that the gait was switchable by an only single parameter in the hardware model. Furthermore, we regulated the bifurcation structure of the hardware model, to adjust to the typical bifurcations observed in the mathematical models.

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J-GLOBAL

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生体医工学シンポジウム ベストリサーチアワード受賞

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：一般社団法人電子情報通信学会  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

This paper describes a new subjective assessment for the alignment of tibial prosthesis. In the alignment adjustment of the prosthesis, patient's subjective assessment of the loading position in sole is usually used in clinic. Then, we developed an assessment sheet in which patient depicts the loading position in sole during standing statically. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between such assessment and the inset-outset alignment change of prosthetic foot. Experiments employing three patients with trans-tibial amputation revealed that the estimated position of the loading in an appropriate alignment was located nearly on the line segment connecting toe and heel, while the medio-lateral deviation of the alignment shifted the position laterally and medially. Biomechianical parameters showing nearly the same change of the value were merely the mediolateral component of the floor reaction force, which was determined primarily by the geometrical change of the alignment.

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2013003683

Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

It is difficult to behave the smooth evacuation, when the mobs, or the crowds, are panicked in occurring some disaster. The scale of victims does not depend on that of the disaster. Therefore, the people have to behave calmly with each other without being panicked. Because it is difficult to investigate experimentally such the evacuation behavior from a safety aspect and a psychological view point, engineering strategy in terms of computer simulation may be available for clarifying solutions of the evacuation. In this technical report, we considered the evacuation behaviors using multi-agent simulation, especially in the case that the agents behave with mutual concessions. The influence of the mutual concession s among agents on the evacuation of all agents was evaluated.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

It is difficult to behave the smooth evacuation, when the mobs, or the crowds, are panicked in occurring some disaster. The scale of victims does not depend on that of the disaster. Therefore, the people have to behave calmly with each other without being panicked. Because it is difficult to investigate experimentally such the evacuation behavior from a safety aspect and a psychological view point, engineering strategy in terms of computer simulation may be available for clarifying solutions of the evacuation. In this technical report, we considered the evacuation behaviors using multi-agent simulation, especially in the case that the agents behave with mutual concessions. The influence of the mutual concession s among agents on the evacuation of all agents was evaluated.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

It is difficult to behave the smooth evacuation, when the mobs, or the crowds, are panicked in occurring some disaster. The scale of victims does not depend on that of the disaster. Therefore, the people have to behave calmly with each other without being panicked. Because it is difficult to investigate experimentally such the evacuation behavior from a safety aspect and a psychological view point, engineering strategy in terms of computer simulation may be available for clarifying solutions of the evacuation. In this technical report, we considered the evacuation behaviors using multi-agent simulation, especially in the case that the agents behave with mutual concessions. The influence of the mutual concession s among agents on the evacuation of all agents was evaluated.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

We developed a computer-assisted system for arthroscopic surgery, which is navigated by means of overlaying a 3D bone model reconstructed from CT images upon the arthroscopic image on a real-time basis. Such overlaying requires the positional relationship between the target bone in the actual space and the bone model in the virtual space. In order to obtain this relationship, we have employed a 2D/3D registration method, where two different fluoroscopic images taken in the directions perpendicular with each other were used. However, it is not necessary to use fluoroscopy in arthroscopic surgery. In order to apply this system to surgery, the development of a new registration method was required. Then, we developed an arthroscopic image-based registration method, where at least three different arthroscopic images of the articular surfaces and corresponding 3D cartilage-model reconstructed from MRI images are used. Experiments carried out under a surgical environment using a bone model revealed that the accuracy of the overlaying would be less than 1 [mm] and less than 3 [deg] on average in translation and rotation, respectively. In the next step, rotational accuracy should be improved to meet a clinical target, less than or equal to 1 [deg] on average.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

In baseball pitching, the pitcher's trunk is known to have an important role for conveying the movement energy from the lower limb to the upper limb. In coaching for the trunk motion achieving such role, a term "the stretching of the chest" is used frequently. Its kinematic features, however, has yet to be clarified quantitatively. To clarify "the stretching of the chest" in a scientific sense, we have developed a novel parameter S, which was defined from the positions of several skin markers mounted on the chest and the back. Our preliminary study revealed that the value of S depends primarily on the horizontal abduction of the upper extremity, which is a motion for stretching the chest. Then, in this paper, we applied it to the analysis of baseball pitching in an attempt to evaluate its efficiency in baseball coaching. Empirical results employing three skillful players and three beginners suggested that parameter S has a possibility of analyzing "the stretching of the chest" quantitatively in terms of both time-varying features and kinetic chain to the trunk and the upper extremity.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

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In this study, we propose a multi-agent simulation model which reproduces the phenomenon which multi currency emerge and circulate through a community. The proposed model is a model which is added two rules, reciprocal help activity and economic depression, to Yasutomi's model. As a result, we showed that new money emerges in the situation which the traditional money has already circulated through the community, and it circulates simultaneously with the traditional money. Furthermore, it was showed that the new money should emerge depending on both factors, i.e., the reciprocal help activity and economic depression. This will provide insight about the emergence and circulation of the local money.

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People with serious motor disabilities can operate electronic devices like personal computers with the help of a &quot;control-interface switch&quot; operable even by slight voluntary body-movements. Such switches, however, have a defect of being affected significantly by involuntary body movements, resulting in erroneous operations of the devices. Then, we have been attempting to develop a geomagnetic sensor-based control-interface switch, GSN/1, which is able to eliminate involuntary movements. In this paper, we evaluated two characteristics of GSN/1 as follows: 1) detection ability of voluntary movement and 2) elimination ability of involuntary movement. Experiments employing healthy volunteers demonstrated that GSN/1 could be sensitive to thumb movements with a tip motion distance of more than 6 [mm] and insensitive to involuntary body movements like twitch.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

In recent times, the problem of bullying(peer aggression or victimization) has evolved from a situation in which a particular bully attacks a particular victim with negative attributes into one in which a victim may become a bully depending on circumstances. There has been tried to solve the bullying problem from educational, medical and sociological viewpoints. We have investigated a mechanism of the bullying, using an artificial class model (ACM) based on multi-agent simulation. Every agent (or student) is programmed so as to make friends with those who have similar interests, hobbies and tastes. In this report, a gaming simulation, or a serious game, was integrated to the ACM by means of changing one agent to a player who is the participant in the ACM to interact with other agents.

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Recently, the number of the handicapped person increases with aging. In society, barrier-free is also progressing and came to often pass a handicapped person in town. When people do not notice the existence of the handicapped person, clash with each other and may lead to other accidents for it on this occasion. So, in this research, the quantitative evaluation of whether the circumference is how much careful, perform extraction of the face which may cross by image processing, and presumption of the direction of a face, photo the circumference from the handicapped person side.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：バイオメカニズム学会  

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2012149830

Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

Cardiac cells generate the action potential, which has relatively long absolute refractory period, so-called, the plateau phase, and, as such, show an acceleration phenomenon, or an increase of the frequency, driven by the low energy consumption when the cells are coupling. In this study, we investigated such a "high-efficiency acceleration phenomenon" on the 40-cell coupling of Noble equation, which is one of the Hodgkin-Huxley type neuron models, using the software insilicoIDE. We were simulated about influences of the number of couplings of cardiac cell models (from 2 to 12 models) As a result, the "high-efficiency acceleration phenomenon" was observed after coupling. Furthermore, it was suggested that there was the optimal number of couplings which gives the influence to the "high-efficiency acceleration phenomenon," and the optical number was nearly equal to that observed in the actual cardiac tissue.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

Backhand drive in table tennis is getting more important in recent years because the rally is becoming speedy. Its coaching method, however, has yet to be established due to the lack of basis motion data. In order to obtain kinematic features in backhand drive for evidence-based coaching, we compared four different backhand-drive motions with an emphasis on speed or control and with top or back spins of the ball. Experiments using five experienced table-tennis players and an optical motion capture system revealed that the angular velocity of the elbow supination and extension should be increased in case of speed emphasis, and the elbow joint valgus would be necessary in case of backspin ball, demonstrating the importance of the elbow joint motion in backhand drive.

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Biological rhythms are generated by a central pattern generator, or CPG, that are controlled by the spinal neural networks. Rybak et al. proposed mathematical networks of the CPG composed of Hodgkin-Huxley type differential equations, to regenerate their experimental results on the locomotion of the decerebrate cat. Furthermore, they improved the CPG model by afferent feedback terms from extensor and flexor sites. In order to analyze such rhythms and apply to the control engineering, we have constructed hardware neuron and synapse models, and, as such, regenerate the dynamics of the experimental results of the CPG and their mathematical simulation. In this report, we regenerated several dynamics using the hardware CPG with the afferent feedbacks. We thought that it would be easy to control the locomotion robots and real-time simulation by using our hardware models.

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Neurons show an electrical excitation called the action potential, which are the main actor of information in neural networks. Some neurons show repetitive firings which form the bursting discharge composed of active and silent phases. Mathematical models replicating the neuronal bursting excitation need three variables at least, from a viewpoint of the dynamical system theory. Maeda and Makino (2000) proposed three-capacitance type hardware bursting model, which was equivalent to three-variable dynamical system models. In this report, the method known as dissection (Rinzel and Lee, 1987) is applied to the hardware bursting neuron model proposed by Maeda and Makino, to analyze the mechanism of the bursting generation. To this end, the circuit simulator SPICE is used. As a result, it was suggested that the hardware bursting neuron model should behave like a so-called square-wave bursting.

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In baseball pitching, pitcher's trunk has several functions for conveying the movement energy from the lower limb to the upper limb. The stretching of the chest is known to be one of such functions, which is usually used for baseball coaching. Its biomechanical meaning, however, is still unclear, consequently being used in a broad sense. In order to use the term clearly and effectively in the coaching, we have to establish a quantitative evaluation of the stretching of the chest. Then, this paper proposed a novel evaluation parameter using the curvature of the thoracic spine. Anatomical and motion experiments using an open-MR system and an optical motion-capture system respectively suggested that the proposed parameter could be dependent primarily to the stretching of the chest in the baseball pitching, while being independent from other components of the motion.

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Personal computers have become indispensable for persons with severe motor disabilities in order to ensure communication and social participation. When such patients carry out a mouse-pointer manipulation, they usually use an operation support software together with a single switch. As typical software for such support, the Cartesian scanning method is widely used. This method necessitates us to determine the values of several parameters in a preparatory stage. This determination, however, has been done on a trial-and-error basis up to now. Then, our previous study proposed a parameter optimization method using measured response time of individual user. Subsequently, we attempted to validate the efficacy of the parameter optimization through experiments using three volunteers with motor disabilities in this study. Consequently, the optimum values were verified to be effective for decreasing the operation time without increasing the number of operation.

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Recently, a bullying problem has transformed from fixed situation which a particular bully attacks to a particular victim with having negative attributes into mobilized one which a victim can become a bully depending on circumstances. It is difficult for every student to foresee when it can be the victim. Therefore, the students have changed the interaction and communication style with others to "flat," in the sense that they are not best friends each other but avoid becoming conflicting. They have to be always approved from peer classmates, to establish their positions in the class. In order to clarify the recent bullying phenomena arising on such "flat" communication, we proposed an artificial class model composed of agents that interact with others using formal sense of values. As a result, we observed several bullying features among the agents. Especially, conflict-avoiding feature proper to the "flat" communication is observed in spite of not programming it in the artificial class model. Furthermore, a bullying feature yielded by power-law distribution that makes teachers be difficult to find bullying phenomena is also observed.

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In this study, we simulated the social dilemma game of agents allocated to the lattice on the computer. The social dilemma is one of social phenomena so that the whole society becomes an unfavorable situation, whereas every agent pursues personal profit. Agents are requested whether or not they cooperates to the neighbor. If the agent cooperates, then the agent is cost. However, the agent can gain much profit if many neighbors cooperate with him. Every agent evolves a strategy to enhance own gain through the interaction with others. In this report, we chiefly investigate a possibility of coexistence of cooperation and non-cooperation among agents, spatial chaos, and dynamic fractal.

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In order to solve the bullying problem, we have proposed an artificial class model based on the machine agents. In the artificial class, every agent performs the interaction with others, such as the conformity, the inclusion, the exclusion and the distinction, to make friends with having the coincidence on the sense of values. In this report, we introduced a preferential attachment to generate a lot of groups. Furthermore, using the Bayesian update, the action of the agents was improved to make it mimic the human action, to be possible that a human player participates in the artificial class as the gaming simulation.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers  

Excessive pronation in running is known to be one of the dominant causes of running injuries. In order to prevent it, the trilateral relationship of pronation, foot anatomy, and shoe structure has been studied in detail up to now. In addition, we assumed that the foot position at the heel contact (HC) and running speed could also affect pronation significantly. Then, we studied the relationship among foot motion, shoe sole stiffness and running speed using a multi-regression analysis. We conducted several experiments using 11 experienced runners, an optical motion capture system, a treadmill with two different speed and two types of running shoes with different inner-sole stiffness. Consequently, in low-stability shoe, pronation could be estimated primarily by foot position at HC and this relationship between them depended upon running speed. In high-stability shoe, on the other hand, the same relationship could not hold, probably due to other primary personal factors.

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Video Fluoroscopy (VF) is widely used in clinic for recording in-vivo shoulder joint motions in two dimensions. In order to achieve VF-based 3-D measurement, a method using a combination of fluoroscopic image and a 3-D model of the bone has been developed by using a 2D/3D registration technique. Since its measurement accuracy depends on the bone shape and other measurement conditions, the measurement accuracy of the humeral position and orientation also has to be validated before measurement. To achieve this, we developed an empirical system using a humeral bone model, a bone-fixation equipment with high reproducibility and an X-ray projection calibration frame. Using this system, we validated the accuracy in the three different humeral orientations within the scapula plane with an elevation angle of 30[deg], 60[deg] and 90[deg]. The accuracy in the orientation was verified to be less than 1 [deg] on average in adduction/abduction and horizontal adduction/abduction, and to be less than 4[deg] on average in internal and external rotation. The accuracy in the position was verified to be less than 1[mm], 2[mm] and 5[mm] on average in the supero-inferior, medio-lateral and antero-posterior positions, respectively.

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2011101861

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A wide range of assistive technologies to support the visually impaired persons have been developed to enhance the activities of daily living (ADL). However, enhancing not only the ADL but also the quality of life (QOL), such as an entertainment game, is needed to relieve some of their stress. Such games should be developed from the following two viewpoints; One is that the visually impaired persons are on an equality with the sighted persons at the game whether they win or not. The other is that the game must be played without visual information by the players, and, as such, must be played using only auditory information as one of the alternative perceptions of the visual cue. In this report, we developed Japanese backgammon type game played by four players, so-called, Japanese rotation shogi, using the speech-output interface. In the experiment, four players, composed of two sighted and two visually impaired, were evaluated by the Csikszentmihalyi's flow.

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A wide range of assistive technologies to support the visually impaired persons have been developed to enhance the activities of daily living (ADL). However, enhancing not only the ADL but also the quality of life (QOL), such as an entertainment game, is needed to relieve some of their stress. Such games should be developed from the following two viewpoints; One is that the visually impaired persons are on an equality with the sighted persons at the game whether they win or not. The other is that the game must be played without visual information by the players, and, as such, must be played using only auditory information as one of the alternative perceptions of the visual cue. In this report, we developed Japanese backgammon type game played by four players, so-called, Japanese rotation shogi, using the speech-output interface. In the experiment, four players, composed of two sighted and two visually impaired, were evaluated by the Csikszentmihalyi's flow.

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A wide range of assistive technologies to support the visually impaired persons have been developed to enhance the activities of daily living (ADL). However, enhancing not only the ADL but also the quality of life (QOL), such as an entertainment game, is needed to relieve some of their stress. Such games should be developed from the following two viewpoints; One is that the visually impaired persons are on an equality with the sighted persons at the game whether they win or not. The other is that the game must be played without visual information by the players, and, as such, must be played using only auditory information as one of the alternative perceptions of the visual cue. In this report, we developed Japanese backgammon type game played by four players, so-called, Japanese rotation shogi, using the speech-output interface. In the experiment, four players, composed of two sighted and two visually impaired, were evaluated by the Csikszentmihalyi's flow.

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Tail resorption takes place during metamorphosis in Xenopus laevis. Tail resorption has been thought to be controlled by a programmed cell death. However, we think tail resorption is controlled by a immune system. We proposed, then, a model of Thyroid hormone control system to analyze the tail resorption program. This model was not included Thyroid hormone receptor (TR), that is thought to be key factor of amphibian metamorphosis. In this report, we add TR to the model.

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At the first stage of braille learning, it is preferable to use braille characters which are easy for beginners to read tactually. This is the motive for exploring such braille characters through an experiment. The experimental results showed that braille characters with less than three dots, space in the second row, or a simple arrangement of dots were read with short reading times. At the same time, it was found that beginners tend to misunderstand the angle of the dotted lines and miss the space in the second row. Based on these results, we discussed the relationship between the arrangement of the dots and the reading time and the application of the experimental results to braille educational textbooks.

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IT support centers for persons with disabilities in local areas have a small number of staff members and volunteers as well as clients. This situation makes it difficult to supply high quality services continuously. Additionally, large support areas make it difficult for the supporters to travel over to the users, vice versa, in terms of cost and time. This paper describes the current status of one of local support centers, Niigata IT Support Center for Persons with Disabilities, to share and discuss the tasks with other local support centers.

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A cardiac cell keeps the potential plateau in the absolute refractory period, and, as a result, peculiar behaviors are observed in the coupling system of the cells. Meunier showed the so-called acceleration phenomenon whereby the oscillation accelerated after coupling of the Hodgkin-Huxley type models. Maeda et al. showed that energy consumption can be reduced when the acceleration phenomenon is observed, from the study using hardware models. In this report we investigated that, when the coupling system formed as the ring lattice network was replaced with the small-world network, two reductions of the period and the energy consumption simultaneously occur on the diffusively coupling of 20 Noble equations which are Hodgkin-Huxley type models of the cardiac cell.

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2010257402

Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

Knee motion analysis has many clinical applications such as diagnosis of knee diseases and evaluation of postoperative knee functions. For analyzing knee motion in three-dimensions, a 3-D model based approaches were introduced recently by combining a fluoroscopic image-sequence of knee motion and a 3-D model of related knee bones. In order to expand such analysis into that including the articular cartilage, we need a 3-D model of the cartilage as well as bones. Then this paper proposed a semi-automatic extraction of cartilage contour in MR images. This extraction method has an advantage that a contour of the cartilage partly unclear in MR image can be estimated iteratively by using a function of evaluating the overall difference between present contour and that estimated from its neighboring gray distribution, from an initial contour roughly digitized manually. To evaluate its validity, we carried out several experiments using two different MR images of the knee. All empirical results suggested that our method would have a potential of easily extracting an accurate contour of the cartilage with high reproducibility.

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2010257404

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In baseball pitching, pitcher's pectoral tension is believed to be effective to accelerate the upper extremity. Then a term "pectoral tension" is frequently used subjectively in baseball training scenes. But its definition is still unclear, limiting its use in quantitative evaluation of pitching motion. In order to eliminate such limitation, we proposed an independent parameter capable of evaluating pitcher's pectoral tension quantitatively. The parameter is defined as the area of a triangle formed by three marker points attached over the acromion, the manubrium of sternum and the processus xiphoideus. In order to evaluate its validity, we first introduced three necessary conditioned that the parameter should satisfy as follows 1) the non-throwing shoulder is in the horizontal flexion; 2) the hips rotate clockwise quickly relative to the chest when the area is maximized on the non-throwing side; 3) the maximum area is not correlated to the horizontal flexion/extension of the shoulder on the throwing side. Experiments using 15 adult and 15 young volunteers demonstrated that the proposed parameters satisfied all the conditions, suggesting its validity in pitching training.

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A central pattern generator (CPG) is a half-center rhythm generator, which is constructed from neural networks of the mammalian spinal cord. The CPG generates rhythmic locomotion. Thus it can transmit alternating rhythmic activity of extensor and flexor sites, in the absence of external rhythmic input. This mechanism contributes to generate involuntary walking patterns of the mammalian. In this study, we rearranged the CPG structure of locomotion pattern generation, and, as such, divided the circuit system into four categories with preserving the dynamics.

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Personal computers are indispensable for persons with severe motor disabilities to ensure communication and social participation. For poinier operation, they usually use a scanning mouse emulator together with a single switch. As a typical emulator, Cartesian-cursor method is widely used in most interface software assisting computer operation. Several parameters of the method, however, have been determined based on empirical knowledge or on a trial-and-error basis. In order to determine them from user's physical ability, we investigated the relations between parameter values and total operation time by means of computer simulation in this study. If user's response time is given empirically, we already proposed how to optimize the speed of cursor movement and focus stationary time in a previous study. In addition, this study demonstrated that the ratio of high speed to low speed and the travel distance of the cursor before acceleration can also be optimized.

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Recently musclar strength training is getting popularity in nursing facilities due to its introduced into the care program. In order to carry out such training safely and effectively, we have to customize several training parameters such as the load and the frequency. In an attempt to establish a customization method, we have been studying biometric information-based methods for evaluating muscle fatigue during training. This study analyzed how motion parameters regarding electromyography and movement of the lower extremity changes over time during repetitive squat movement. Experiments employing 10 healthy subjects demonstrated that muscle fatigue primarily affected the maximum angular velocity during flexion and electromyography in the motion phases near the maximum flexion.

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2010153101

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In recent years, gait rehabilitation for patients with spinal cord injury has been progressed by introducing advanced robotics. As an equipment for such advanced rehabilitation, robot-driven gait orthosis "Lokomat[○!R]" (Hocoma AG) is available. In order to promote patient's voluntary muscle activity, Lokomat[○!R] has a function of adjusting the driving torque for knee and hip joints required for gait. Parameter regarding this torque adjustment is named the guidance force (GF). This study analyzed the relationship between the GF value and electromyography and motion of the lower extremity under nearly the same kinematic condition, in an attempt to clarify the effects of the GF value on patient's gait. Experiments employing 5 healthy volunteers demonstrated that the decrease of the GF value affected primarily to the local activity in electromyography of the lower extremity without modifying overall activity pattern as well as the ratio of 4 gait phases in kinematics.

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Other Link： http://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2010153100

Language：Japanese   Publisher：電気学会東京支部新潟支所  

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Head movement during video oculography is considered as a major source of artifacts. However, little quantitative information is available as to how pupil detection is affected by head motions. Here we show that the accuracy of pupil detection was significantly higher with head fixation devices than without ones in humans. Moreover, a preliminary study in a macaque monkey indicated that some visual targets on a screen or reward apparatus could improve pupil detection under non head-fixated conditions. These results confirmed the importance of had fixation in video oculography.

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In this report, we evaluated pedaling skills from muscle activation patterns of both vastus lateralis of agonist and biceps femoris of antagonist, to classify them quantitatively. To this end, four parameters to classify muscle activation were prepared by means of calculating cross-correlation coefficients between the above two muscles. In the four-parameter space, we classified the pedaling skills into four groups in terms of the discriminant analysis based on Mahalanobis distances. As a result, the classification method presented in this report corresponded about 70.6% accuracy with a qualitative classification based on the human subjectivity. Furthermore, the groups classified by this method were statistically more significant than the qualitative classification.

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Persons with severe motor disabilities usually use a single switch for operating personal computer. Patients with progressive motor disabilities have difficulty in the purchase of a switch and the training for its skillful use, due to frequent update of the switch according to the progression of disabilities. Then we have been developing a versatile single switch, VSN/1, with a photo-reflective sensor array, which is applicable to the detection of both blinking and finger motion. Its data processing schemes for the two motions, however, were slightly different with each other, limiting its versatility in application. To eliminate this limitation, this study proposed a versatile detecting method applicable to both blinking and finger motion. This method was verified to be effective for detecting blinking accurately through experiments using five healthy volunteers.

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In recent years, a "social divide", such as income and professed divides, has noticed as one kind of social issue. It is defined that, in the divided groups, the member belonged to one group cannot move on any other groups. Such fixation of social careers causes non-activation of economy. In this study, we suggested a dynamic economic model described by a multi-agent system, and evaluated it's dynamics in order to try to understand mechanisms how the social divide emerges in the model. We used Gini's coefficient to evaluate the social divide and the economic efficiency. As a result, it's suggested that high competitiveness economics have higher negative relation between Gini's coefficient and the economic efficiency than low competitiveness one.

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Department of Biocybernetics, Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University, opened a PC class for the visually impaired who lived in Niigata Prefecture, in cooperated with Niigata Prefectural Association of the Visual Impairment, in 2003. So far, we have had twelve classes for six years. In this technical report, we reported this PC class, which is one of the contribution of Niigata University to the visually impaired.

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This paper presented how the change of the environmental condition affects the solution of social dilemma including the second-order dilemma. Such social dilemma can be solved by using generalized tit-for-tat (TFT) strategy, which is an extended version tit-for-tat strategy applied in n-person games. However, it was not suggested what kind of environmental condition be achieved the solution. In this paper, we formally modeled a community by using a multi-agent system, and simulated it under various environmental conditions. As a result, a cooperation tendency of the agents changed by depending on the cost necessary to the cooperation. Furthermore, the cooperation tendency did not changed depending on the size of gain, but changed depending on the penalty point.

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This paper presented how the change of the environmental condition affects the solution of social dilemma including the second-order dilemma. Such social dilemma can be solved by using generalized tit-for-tat (TFT) strategy, which is an extended version tit-for-tat strategy applied in n-person games. However, it was not suggested what kind of environmental condition be achieved the solution. In this paper, we formally modeled a community by using a multi-agent system, and simulated it under various environmental conditions. As a result, a cooperation tendency of the agents changed by depending on the cost necessary to the cooperation. Furthermore, the cooperation tendency did not changed depending on the size of gain, but changed depending on the penalty point.

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On the button interfaces used in information devices, such as controllers, automatic teller machines (ATM) and ticket machines, we programmed a virtual button-interface software to assess workload. Then, the total operation time, the number of clicks and the click intervals were experimentally measured. The 35 subjects, formed themselves in groups of 5 using 7 sorts of interface identified by the number of buttons, accomplished the task of inputting the Japanese family names which composed of 6 alphabets. As a result, the total operation time changed non-monotonously against the number of buttons, and was a minimal point when the number of buttons is set around 18 on the interface window. In order to clarify why such a unique minimum appears, we phenomenologically modeled the non-monotonous change of total operation time using liner equation, composed of two variables on the workload, i.e., the search and operation behaviors. It was suggested that anti-synergism of them for the workload generated the non-monotonousness.

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We proposed a new guidance scheme of the GPS-GIS-based speech guidance system using the adaptive fuzzy inference neural network (AFINN). Geographic Information System (GIS) calculates some attributes of user-to-landmark relations, so-called, landmark celebrity, landmark facade, landmark area, representative point of latitude and longitude (the center of gravity) of the landmark, user's latitude and longitude from GPS, and user's direction. These attributes were transformed to six basic elements, such as the celebrity, the facade relative bearing, the Euclidean distance between the landmark and user, the area size, the direction relative bearing and the user's individual data, respectively. The AFINN, that has the above six elements as the input data, calculates a level of importance (LOI) corresponding to a "cognitive distance". We considered that acceptable guidance was achieved by using the LOI. We applied the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to the leaning data of the AFINN. Therefore, the guidance system reflected user's preference, and obtained the guidance suitable for diverse users. Numerical simulations suggested that the AFINN should be available for determining the guidance satisfying each user. Finally, the visually impaired pedestrians evaluated the guidance system from the user's viewpoints.

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The 40% visually impaired people, or Hikikomori, have low self-efficacy on travel because their guide helpers in traveling lead always them to the destination safely. Then, it is few for the Hikikomori visually impaired to have opportunity of self-determination on travel. We have developed the AHP-GIS-based travel assist system for the visually impaired of especially the 40% who are almost staying home. To promote their outgoings, they should decide, or advise equally the guide helper, when determining the travel route. The system developed tends to assist the self-determination of users. In this report, we presented that the system was added new function to presume landmark-contained routes, and, as such, outputted the better route of satisfying user's preferences at least the 12 sighted university students. We tested the validity of this method in the Bandai district of Niigata city, and the addition of new function increased significantly the AHP score.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ)  

Indoor pedestrian navigation systems using a location based service will become as useful as the better known 'GPS' outdoor systems. We have proposed a digital signal processing method for signals in a fluorescent light (FL) communication system. In this paper we investigate transmission speeds and sampling frequencies when using FL communication. The first step is to calculate the upper transmission speed and to propose how to reduce sampling frequency. Based on the analyses of their parameters we have used a decoding method with a transmission speed of 19.2kbps, and a sampling frequency of 1MHz, at a distance of 3.0m between a photo sensor and the FL, and we have checked the bit error rate associated with the digital signaling process. Our experiments have confirmed that the error rate of each decoded bit was less than 10^<-6>.

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Other Link： http://hdl.handle.net/10191/25821

Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

The purpose of this study is to investigate how spatially restricted condition affects solution of social dilemma. We often get social information, whereas we do not get the all. We are provided only local information around ourselves. In our study, we presented the multi-agent system model with spatially restricted condition as the information limited, and investigated influence on social dilemma. As a result, the spatially restricted condition made the model's society keep stable, but the whole benefit of agents reduced. It was suggested that an appropriate amount of spatially restricted condition should reproduce both benefit and stability of the model's society.

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In recent years, a "social divide" such as income and professim divides, has noticed as one kind of social issue. It is defined that, in the divided groups, the member belonged to one group cannot move on any other groups. Such fixation of social careers causes non-activation of ecomomy. In this study, we suggested the dynamic economic model described by a multi agent system, and tried to understand mechanisms how the social divide emerges in the model. Particularly we discussed how achieved a good balance between fairness and efficiency in the model.

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Language：English   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

Bullying is one of social problems and we have to solve this problem for happiness and well-being of the individuals. It is very important for junior high school students that, to make friends, they find conunon sense of values, such as similar interests, same hobbies, and some kind of common activity or striving. However, a few students who cannot find the common sense of values are capable to be the minority, or the potential victim of the bullying. To describe such phenomena, we proposed the formalized agent-based model of both the group formation and minority exclusion to clarify the appearance of the minority. Secondly, in order to model real organizations and social phenomena as hybrid multi-agent systems consisting of both human and machine agents, we upgraded the model to a participation type, so-called, multi-agent system model with making the gaming simulation possible. Thus, an actual player could interact the machine agent, or agent, who worked by the stochastic rules of the model. We examined the availability in both university students and a junior high school student, and obtained similar results so as to be shown by the formalized agent-based model.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：新潟大学災害復興科学センター  

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Other Link： http://hdl.handle.net/10191/5968

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Other Link： http://hdl.handle.net/10191/5974

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A coupled system of nonlinear differential equation models that reproduce action potential form shows chaotic complex behaviors and acceleration phenomena. In this report, we investigated behaviors of electronic circuit models reproducing action potentials, proposed by Maeda et al. The electronic circuit model is effective in discussing relation between simultaneously dynamics and power consumption (or energy consumption), whereas the differential equation model contributes to the analysis of dynamics. When the coupled resistance is relatively small, a coupled system of this electronic circuit model shows acceleration phenomena with low power consumption, and, as such, shows that the synchronized period is small and the power consumption is reduced in the coupled system. Conversely, when the coupled resistance becomes large, the synchronization collapses and progressive wave is observed. We investigated the generation of the progressive wave in relation to the peristaltic motion, from the viewpoint of the power consumption.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

School bullying is one of the most important problem we must solve, but we have never found clues of solution. This study examines a school bullying by MAS (Multi-Agent System) method, based on an assumption that the bullying emerges from perspective of student-student interaction [9]. In the report, we presented two improved models based on the original model [9], "Teacher-agent added model" and "Substituted conformity model". Then, by simulating these models, we proposed to understand group formation dynamics and the bullying structure.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers  

We have developed the AHP-GIS-based travel assist system for the visually impaired of especially the 40% who are almost staying home (Hikikomori). The Hikikomori visually impaired people have low self-efficacy on travel because their guide helpers in traveling lead them to the destination safely. Then, it is few for the Hikikomori visually impaired to have opportunity of self-determination on travel. The visually impaired should decide, or advise equally the guide helper, when determining the travel route. This system developed tends to assist the self-determination of the Hikikomori visually impaired. In this report, we suggest that, in the AHP or the decision-making process of the system, a relative position measurement approach should be available in comparison with the other approaches.

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ)  

Indoor pedestrian navigation systems using a location based service will be as useful as the better known 'GPS' outdoor systems. We have been studying a position based system using fluorescent light communication. In this paper we describe how to extract location signals from fluorescent light using digital signal processing. The first step is to calculate the optimal sampling frequency for the signal processing. This is followed by an analysis of the characteristics of the received waveform from the fluorescent light. Based on the analyses of the waveform characteristics we used a decoding method with a sampling frequency of 2MHz at the 1.5m distance between a photo sensor and the fluorescent. Our experiments confirmed the suitability of the method and the error rate of each decoded bit was less than 10^<-4> in all combinations of 8 bit length transmission signal patterns.

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