Presentation of odors is considered to be important as a means for giving a sense of presence. However, the basic odors have not been established to generate any kinds of odors by combining them, like the three primary colors in vision, the basic tastes in gustation. In order to present various kinds of odors, in general, it is necessary to prepare each corresponding odorant. In this research, an odor modulation method is proposed based on a cross-modal effect between olfaction and thermal sensation, which might be able to decrease the number of odorants used to generate odors presented to the user. The experimental results are reported to show that sensation of odors can be modulated by presenting warm/cool air with the odors even if the same odors are presented to the subjects.

We present fARFEEL, a remote communication system that provides visuo-haptic feedback allows a local user to feel touching distant objects. The system allows the local and remote users to communicate by using the projected virtual hand (VH) for the agency of his/her own hands. The necessary haptic information is provided to the non-manipulating hand of the local user that does not bother the manipulation of the projected VH. We also introduce the possible visual stimulus that could potentially provide the sense of the body ownership over the projected VH.

Remote surgery is one of the most desired applications in the context of recent advanced medical technologies. For a future expansion of remote surgery, it is important to use conventional network infrastructures such as Internet. However, using such conventional network infrastructures, we are confronting time-delay problems of data transmission. In this paper, a remote surgery experiment between Japan and Thailand using a research and development Internet is presented. In the experiment, the image and audio information was transmitted by a newly developed low latency CODEC system to shorten the time-delay. By introducing the low latency CODEC system, the time-delay was shortened compared with the past remote surgery experiments despite the longer distance. We also conducted several network measurements such as a comparison between TCP/IP and UDP/IP about the control signal transmission.

This paper proposes a new moving-objects tracking method processed by a local spiral labeling with CAM (Content Addressable Memory). The local spiral labeling method was proposed in order to improve one of the shortcomings of TV telephones. The conventional labeling, however, needs huge processing time and a memory capacity in order to compute connecting relations between label numbers. CAM has some functions to search and write the plural contents of the memory at the same time. CAM is suitable for a real time labeling. This paper shows a new labeling algorithm called local spiral labeling, a real-time labeling scheme utilizing CAM, and a prototype system of human head tracking using 0.5 micrometers BiCMOS gate-array technology.