Results of ICDAR 2017 Robust Reading Challenge on Omnidirectional Video are presented. This competition uses Downtown Osaka Scene Text (DOST) Dataset that was captured in Osaka, Japan with an omnidirectional camera. Hence, it consists of sequential images (videos) of different view angles. Regarding the sequential images as videos (video mode), two tasks of localisation and end-to-end recognition are prepared. Regarding them as a set of still images (still image mode), three tasks of localisation, cropped word recognition and end-to-end recognition are prepared. As the dataset has been captured in Japan, the dataset contains Japanese text but also include text consisting of alphanumeric characters (Latin text). Hence, a submitted result for each task is evaluated in three ways: using Japanese only ground truth (GT), using Latin only GT and using combined GTs of both. Finally, by the submission deadline, we have received two submissions in the text localisation task of the still image mode. We intend to continue the competition in the open mode. Expecting further submissions, in this report we provide baseline results in all the tasks in addition to the submissions from the community.

In this paper, the author proposes an Energy-on-Demand (EoD) system based on combinatorial optimization of appliance operation modes, and describes its implementation and evaluation. Recently, efficient usage of limited amount of electrical energy has been an important issue. EoD is a novel power network architecture of demand-side power management, whose objective is to intelligently manage power flows among power generations under the limitation of available power resource. In an EoD system, the importance of each appliance is explicitly parameterized, and the amount of power consumption of appliances is measured by power sensors. When total power consumption exceeds the limit of power resource, a power allocation manager deployed in the system decides the optimal power allocation to all the appliances based on their parameters, and controls the amount of power supplied to the appliances in a way that causes minimum undesired effect to quality-of-life (QoL) of users. Therefore, one of the most crucial factors in an EoD system is the strategy for deciding the optimal power allocation. From a mathematical viewpoint, the power allocation management in an EoD system can be considered as an optimization problem of appliance operation modes. In the developed system, power allocation is based on the multiple-choice knapsack problem (MCKP), a kind of combinatorial optimization problem. The system measures power consumption of appliances, computes the optimal power allocation based on an algorithm for the MCKP, and realizes computed power allocation by controlling IR-controllable appliances and mechanical relays.

To cope with the recent increase of energy consumption in homes and to achieve efficient usage of the distributed power generation, there has arisen a novel concept of i-Energy home energy management. Toward realizing it, the authors have designed and implemented a smart tap, an intelligent power strip with communication, power sensing and control functions. The power management done by the smart tap is policy-based so that users can set versatile policies depending on their preferences. As an application of the policy-based power management, the authors have implemented a software-based breaker function on the smart tap.