Successful development of a robotic computer as a mediator in smart environments requires providing a certain level of behavior autonomy to the robot and a capability to adapt its behavior in long-term interaction with the users. We attempt to identify core autonomy-related functionalities and describe the design and implementation of an autonomous behavior control subsystem that provides them. The choice of dual-level behavior model with both rules and connectionist reinforcement learning is motivated by the desire to provide convenient specification of initial behaviors as well as efficient behavior adaptation capability. We present the results of two test scenarios illustrating basic use of the newly provided functionality.

With the advance of IT technologies, a new type of computing device will be introduced in our daily life in the near future. In this paper, we outline our on-going development of the robotic computer that naturally interacts with users, understands current situation about users and environments, and proactively provides users with services. We describe the system architecture and the implementation of a proof-of-concept prototype of the robotic computer proposed.

In this paper, we propose a blind watermark detection scheme which is robust against composite geometric distortions. The composite geometric distortions mean that an image or a video is rotated, perspective-projected, and resized at the same time. It commonly happens during capturing a movie in a theater by a camcorder illegally. Local auto-correlation function (LACF) with a novel estimation model is utilized for calculating composite geometric distortions. We demonstrate robustness of the presented scheme against composite geometric distortions for digital cinema.

Reversible or lossless data hiding enables host media to be restored from marked media without any loss of host information. However, since most of existing lossless data hiding methods are fragile, hidden data cannot be extracted after marked media goes through alteration such as JPEG compression. In this paper, we present a robust (referred to as semi-fragile) lossless data hiding method that utilizes sub-sampling and block gravity center. Gravity center of sub-sampled part of each block is insensitive to alteration, so it achieves robustness. This technique can be applied to selective authentication for images. That is, if a marked image does not change at all, the hidden data is correctly extracted and at the same time an original image is recovered. After compression, the hidden data is still extracted without error. Experimental results prove that the presented scheme achieves both reversibility and robustness against the predefined distortion.

In this paper, we propose a video fingerprinting method based on the orientation of luminance centroid. To attain robustness against frame rate change, variation in color characteristics and resizing, video frames are normalized in time, spatial and color domain. Thereafter, the orientation of luminance centroid is calculated as as video fingerprint. Under various distortions, the proposed method is evaluated and compared with other centroid-based methods. Experimental results show that the proposed method satisfies the requirements of video fingerprint, and performance comparison with other methods in terms of receiver operating characteristic indicates that the proposed method is more robust and has better discriminatory property than others.

This paper describes the ongoing development of a software framework for supporting interoperability and integration among heterogeneous network-based robotic development frameworks. We studied two of network based robotic software development frameworks named CAMUS framework and RT-middleware. The CAMUS (context-aware middleware for URC systems) is a middleware developed by Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), in Korea, based on the URC (ubiquitous robot companion) concept for developing network based robotic systems. On the other hand, The RT-middlware was developed by Agency of Industrial Science and Technology(AIST), in Japan, to promote applications of robot technology (RT) in various fields. The proposed framework supports interoperability and interconnection among modularized software named RT-components (RTC) in the context of RT-middleware and service agents (SA) in the context of CAMUS framework. We also implemented and tested some components based on the proposed approach.

In this paper, we propose a blind watermark detection scheme for digital cinema which is robust against D-A/A-D conversion attack. D-A/A-D conversion attack commonly happens during capturing cinema with a camera and is composed of various geometrical distortions as well as signal processing distortions. In many video applications, geometric distortions have been compensated by utilizing auto-correlation function (ACF). Since the ACF cannot resist projective transform but affine transform, we present a robust watermark detection scheme utilizing local auto-correlation function (LACF) with a mathematical model. Also, we suggest a way to design watermark pattern to improve performance of the LACF. We demonstrate robustness of the presented scheme against D-A/A- D conversion attacks for digital cinema as well as common video processing attacks.

This paper presents a lossless data hiding algorithm for medical images, where we embed the patient information into the segmented liver region of the CT image. This algorithm utilizes the characteristics of difference images and modifies pixel values slightly to embed a large amount of data while keeping high visual quality.

URC (ubiquitous robotic companion) is a new concept for a network-based robotic system, in which a different kinds of robots are connected to a server system to provide various robotic services. In this paper, we introduce the client/server framework to provide context-aware services to network-based robots. We call the framework as CAMUS (context-aware middleware for URC systems). The CAMUS is mainly composed of three parts: service agent managers, CAMUS server and planet. The service agent manager is the robot-side framework to send robot's sensing data to the CAMUS server and receive control commands from the CAMUS server. The CAMUS server is the server-side framework to manage information from service agent managers, generate and disseminate appropriate events according to the context changes, and finally execute server-based robot tasks. The planet is the communication framework between service agent managers and the CAMUS server. This paper also discusses the implementation of the URC field test applications.

In this paper, we propose a new public key watermarking scheme for reversible image authentication where if the image is authentic, the distortion due to embedding can be completely removed from the watermarked image after the hidden data has been extracted. This technique utilizes histogram characteristics of the difference image and modifies pixel values slightly to embed more data than other lossless data hiding algorithm. We show that the lower bound of the PSNR (peak-signal-to-noise-ratio) values of watermarked images are 51.14 dB. Moreover, the proposed scheme is quite simple and the execution time is rather short. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can detect any modifications of the watermarked image.

In this paper, we propose a new reversible image authentication technique based on watermarking where if the image is authentic, the distortion due to embedding can be completely removed from the watermarked image after the hidden data has been extracted. This technique utilizes histogram characteristics of the difference image and modifies pixel values slightly to embed more data than other lossless data hiding algorithm. We show that the lower bound of the PSNR (peak-signal-to-noise-ratio) values of watermarked images are 51.14 dB. Moreover, the proposed scheme is quite simple and the execution time is rather short. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can detect any modifications of the watermarked image

In this paper, we describe the adaptive hybrid watermarking scheme to improve the watermark detector's performance. In the hybrid watermarking, the conventional spatial watermarking and QIM scheme are applied simultaneously to the spatial domain of the image. According to the edge-map of the image the spatial watermarking is applied to the flat region and the QIM is applied to the high frequency region including edge and texture. The threshold between flat and edge is decided empirically and watermark blocks are embedded repeatedly into the image. In the detection process, we show how to estimate the threshold value by ACF(Auto-Correlation Function). Experimental results show the proposed hybrid watermarking estimates the watermark signal correctly than the conventional spatial watermarking.

This paper describes an open and flexible infrastructure to support dynamic collaboration among companies through the entire lifecycle of the virtual enterprise. The proposed approach is an agent-enhanced architecture on which the conversation model is grafted. The collaboration among enterprises is modeled by a collaboration policy which is a machine-readable specification of a pattern of message exchange among agents participating in the collaboration. The proposed system is widely open and highly flexible since various types of software, including Web services, can collaborate through the conversation model.

Fingerprinting is one of many copyright protection methods and an extended technique of watermarking. In fingerprinting the identity of customer is embedded into the content in a way that is difficult to erase. The main difference between watermarking and fingerprinting is that different copies for each customer can be produced. Attackers compare several fingerprinting copies and find the location of the embedded information and destroy it by altering the values in those places where a difference was detected. In this paper, we propose a short fingerprinting code which is robust to the collusion attack of N customers, in the proposed fingerprinting scheme, two kinds of code are used. The first code has the same value for all customers and is embedded at the same location like watermark. The second code is designed unique for each customer. We apply this scheme to the digital image and show that it has some robustness against collusion attacks.