Cyber Physical System (CPS) is a system that accumulates information from physical space, analyzes them in cyberspace, and then feeds back the results. We aim to realize a Floating Cyber Physical System (F-CPS), a regionally distributed CPS. We have proposed a large-capacity spatio-temporal data retention system for delivering data and function (application) in the F-CPS. In a previous work, we proposed a data completeness-aware transmission control and evaluated it by simulation. However, considering the movement of obstacles and fluctuation of radio waves in the real environment, packet loss occurs frequently. Thereby, the system may not be able to have complete data and may not function. In this paper, we proposed a method to recover missing data using redundant packets and evaluated its impact on the entire system by testing it with actual equipment.

Half a century since the concept of a cyborg was introduced, digital cyborgs, enabled by the spread of wearable robotics, are the focus of much research in recent times. We introduce JIZAI ARMS, a supernumerary robotic limb system consisting of a wearable base unit with six terminals and detachable robot arms controllable by the wearer. The system was designed to enable social interaction between multiple wearers, such as an exchange of arm(s), and explore possible interactions between digital cyborgs in a cyborg society. This paper describes the JIZAI ARMS’ design process, an interdisciplinary collaboration between human augmentation researchers, product designers, a system architect, and manufacturers, to realize a technically complex system while considering the aesthetics of a digital cyborg. We also provide an autobiographical report of our first impressions of using the JIZAI ARMS and use our findings to speculate on a model of potential social interactions between digital cyborgs.

This paper redefines a block-lifting structure of M-channel (M ∈ N, M ≥ 2) filter banks and proposes an efficient reversible nonexpansive convolution at the boundaries for lossy-to-lossless image coding. The previous studies left two problems. One is that the conventional lifting-based filter banks (FBs) are restricted to having equal analysis/synthesis filter lengths. We derive block-lifting-based FBs (BLFBs) with not only equal analysis/synthesis filter lengths but also the longer synthesis filter lengths than those of the analysis banks. The other problem is that the conventional lifting-based FBs without the linear-phase property, such as BLFBs, cannot implement the conventional smooth nonexpansive convolution at the boundaries because of the rounding error in each lifting. We solve the boundary problem by using an efficient reversible nonexpansive convolution derived from a nonexpansive convolution for nonlinear-phase FBs with paraunitariness. We show that the redefined BLFBs with the efficient reversible nonexpansive convolution perform well at lossy-to-lossless image coding.

This study presents a pseudo reversible symmetric extension (P-RevSE) that solves the signal boundary problem of lifting-based nonlinear-phase paraunitary filter banks (L-NLPPUFBs), which have high compression rates thanks to their not having a constraint on the linear-phase property unlike the existing transforms used in image coding standards. The conventional L-NLPPUFBs with a periodic extension (PE) yield annoying artifacts at the signal boundaries. However, the P-RevSE is implemented smoothly at the signal boundaries by using a nonexpansive convolution of a symmetric extension (SE) and determinant control for the lifting factorization. Although the determinant control causes a pseudo SE, not a true SE, the resulting L-NLPPUFB with P-RevSE outperforms not only the L-NLPPUFB with PE but also the current transform used in JPEG XR.

A virtual organization (VO) is a group of organizations that have banded together to achieve a common goal. Often a VO could function more effectively if its members were willing to share certain information. However, a typical VO member will not want to share its own information because the member will not benefit directly from the information's reuse, yet will be blamed if the reuse turns out badly.

A novel gaze estimation method based on a novel aspherical model of the cornea is proposed in this paper. The model is a surface of revolution about the optical axis of the eye. The calculation method is explained on the basis of the model. A prototype system for estimating the point of gaze (POG) has been developed using this method. The proposed method has been found to be more accurate than the gaze estimation method based on a spherical model of the cornea.

This paper presents a user-calibration-free method for estimating the point of gaze (POG) on a display accurately with estimation of the horizontal angles between the visual and the optical axes of both eyes. By using one pair of cameras and two light sources, the optical axis of the eye can be estimated. This estimation is carried out by using a spherical model of the cornea. The point of intersection of the optical axis of the eye with the display is termed POA. By detecting the POAs of both the eyes, the POG is approximately estimated as the midpoint of the line joining the POAs of both the eyes on the basis of the binocular eye model; therefore, we can estimate the horizontal angles between the visual and the optical axes of both the eyes without requiring user calibration. We have developed a prototype system based on this method using a 19" display with two pairs of stereo cameras. We evaluated the system experimentally with 20 subjects who were at a distance of 600 mm from the display. The result shows that the average of the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of measurement of POG in the display screen coordinate system is 16.55 mm (equivalent to less than 1.58°).

In this paper, the authors conducted psychophysical tests to investigate the effect of the directionality of human tactile sensation capability in discriminating fine step-heights. We evaluated the capability of human finger to discriminate the step-heights of 0 to 20 mum moving at the angle of 0deg, 45deg and 90deg. The results suggest that the different directions of touching motion affect the human tactile sensation for recognizing step-heights.

Extraction of text from scene image is much difficult than extraction from simple document image. A lot of researches succeeded in extracting single text string from image, but can not deal with image including many text strings. Meanwhile, the result may be mixed with noises be similar to text. This paper describes an algorithm that uses mathematical morphology to extract text effectively, and edge border ratio is utilized to differentiate text region from noise region, using the edge contrast feature of the text region in real scene. This paper also describes the method which can connect characters into text strings, and distribute text strings to different subimages according to their width of strokes. The algorithm is implied to scene image like signs, indicators as well as magazine covers, and its robustness is proved.

This paper presents a one-point calibration gaze tracking method based on eyeball kinematics using stereo cameras. By using two cameras and two light sources, the optic axis of the eye can be estimated. One-point calibration is required to estimate the angle of the visual axis from the optic axis. The eyeball rotates with optic and visual axes based on the eyeball kinematics (Listing's law). Therefore, we introduced eyeball kinematics to the one-point calibration process in order to properly estimate the visual axis. The prototype system was developed and it was found that the accuracy was under 1° around the center and bottom of the display.

This paper presents a method to estimate the optic and visual axes of an eye and the Point Of Gaze (POG) on the bases of Listing’s law using stereo cameras for three-dimensional (3D) gaze tracking. By using two cameras and two light sources, the optic axis of the eye can be estimated on the basis of a spherical model of a cornea. A one-point calibration is required to estimate the angle of the visual axis from the optic axis. However, a real cornea has an aspheric shape and therefore it is difficult to estimate the POG in all the directions accurately. We have used three light sources to improve the estimation of the POG. Two light sources near the center of the pupil in the camera image are used for estimating the POG. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the estimation of the visual axis is under about 1°.

Current character extraction systems for scene images are not robust for most real-world applications. In contrast, the system present here achieves robust performance by using morphological segmentation. This paper describes a new morphological segmentation algorithm-differential top-hats (DTT). In, addition, a complete system for extraction of characters from color scene images is presented. The system was verified through experiments on sequences of outdoor color images with varying external conditions. A high average extraction rate of 95% is obtained.

The authors propose a method for distinguishing chaos from random fractal sequences which have been difficult to discriminate from chaos. In the proposed method, the time series is predicted both in the forward direction and in the backward direction, and the accuracy of the two types of predictions is compared. They show, considering the time reversal symmetry of time series, that if the time series is chaotic and originates from a dissipative dynamical system, the accuracy is in general better for the forward prediction than for the backward prediction, whereas the accuracy is the same if the time series is a random fractal sequence. The method is also applicable to distinguishing between chaos and stationary noise. It is possible to give a quantitative evaluation of the distinction without a large amount of data or calculation.

The authors present the visiting card understanding system, whose output is suitable for the input of a visiting-card database. The system consists of two modules. One is a document model which represents the hierarchical knowledge about the layout structure of visiting cards. The other is an understanding module which interprets the document model to general and test hierarchical hypotheses about the contents of a visiting card. Since the understanding module is fundamentally independent of document type, the system is applicable to many kinds of documents.>