This paper describes the results of an evaluation of vehicle power network modeling using Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI). FMI, developed by the Modelica Association, is a tool-independent standard for a model interface. This study compared simulation results between the vehicle power network model with Functional Mock-up Units (FMUs) connected and the model without FMUs. Conversion adaptors were inserted to generate and connect each FMU because it was necessary to convert physical connections from acausal connections to causal inputs and outputs. Using FMI for Model Exchange, it was confirmed that the results for both simulations showed good matches, without any time delays although algebraic loops which would often occur in electrical circuit modeling were included. This method possesses significant potential to reduce the validation effort using models created by other departments or suppliers.

We propose a novel compression technique on signs of DCT coefficients. The proposed technique utilizes a high correlation among pixels at boundaries of a current block and those of neighboring blocks and estimates the original signs. It encodes the difference between the original coefficient signs and the estimated signs. We also propose a speeding up technique for the estimation, utilizing concepts of Gray code and transform matrix decomposition. Compared to JM16.2, the proposed technique reduces 10% bitrate in sign bits of DCT coefficients and achieves 1% BD-bitrate reduction in total bitstream. With the speeding up technique, complexities increase only 8% and 5% on an encoder and a decoder side, respectively.

We propose a derivation scheme of a motion vector for interlace format. The adjustment of the vertical component of a chroma MV for 4:2:0 format and the adjustment of the vertical component of a luma prediction MV are introduced in order to remove inconsistency between the current derivation process of motion vector predictor and the nature of interlace format in HM4.0. The proposed scheme achieves up to 1.0dB PSNR improvements in chroma components and up to 3.4% bit-rate reduction.

Open Course Ware (OCW) was first adopted by universities to release text-based lecture notes, and lecture videos are a recent addition. We have designed Web site which can be shared among OCW member universities without their own facility for sharing lecture video and lecture-scene-related-knowledge. We initially propose the ‘Social Curator Collaboration Model’ which creates an environment that general public user other than course lecturer can participate as learning assistant to reply to other learner’s questions or opinions. We also propose Web-API function mash-up architectural design to realize OCW common platform. We have evaluated the functionality of our proposed model by prototyping the infrastructure and challenged it with real OCW lecture video.

A novel region-based approach is proposed to model semantic concepts using web images. Web images are mined to obtain multiple visual patterns automatically that then are used to model a semantic concept. First, the salient region groups corresponding to the representative visual patterns of a concept are mined and selected as positive samples. Next, a representative visual pattern is built in each salient region group by using a BDA classifier. Finally all the visual patterns are aggregated to describe the concept by using a BDA ensemble approach. Because the proposed method models a semantic concept utilizing multiple visual patterns, it enhances the visual variability of a visual model when learning from diverse web images and improves the robustness of the visual model in handling segmentation-related uncertainties. Experiment results demonstrate our method performs well on generic images including not only "object" concepts, but also complex "scene" concepts.

This paper presents an error-tolerant video retrieval method based on the shot composition sequence in a scene. Conventional video players in the home can not access interesting scenes directly because they offer only play, fast-forward, and rewind. What is needed is an easy-to-use video scene player that can directly access scenes important to the user. This paper presents an error-tolerant video retrieval method that assesses the shot composition sequence in each scene. Our method has three characteristics: (1) easy query generation since the regular interface is used for query generation; (2) similar video scene retrieval based on the sequence of symbols created by shot composition clustering to effectively identify scenes similar to the query; (3) fast similarity measurement based on sequences of symbols. An experiment shows that the proposed system can retrieve video scenes similar to the query quickly as well as allowing semantic retrieval to be constructed in a non-supervised way.

We present a posture measurement method that uses foot pressure distribution and video camera images. The method first estimates the position, posture and size of subject in the real world from his or her foot pressure distribution. These estimates are represented by a stick model. The position of the skeleton in the camera image is then detected by using the estimated skeleton obtained by projecting the stick model onto the camera image as initial value. We tested this method on 80 walking patterns of eight women. The results show that the detected skeleton lies at the center of the leg.

This paper introduces a method that can generate continuous human walking motion automatically on an arbitrary path in a three-dimensional (3D) modelled scene. The method is based on a physical approach that solves the boundary value problem. In the motion generation stage, natural-looking walking motion, which includes plane walking, walking upstairs and downstairs and walking on a curved path, is created by applying dynamics and kinematics. The human body is approximated as a simple rigid skeleton model, and dynamic motion is created based on the ground reaction force of the human foot. To adapt to the 3D environment, the 3D walking path is divided into steps which are tagged with the parameters needed for motion generation, and step-by-step motion is connected end-to-end. Additional features include fast calculation and a reduced need for user control. The proposed method can produce interesting human motion and can create realistic computer animation scenes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.