Hitoshi Kihara

3D modeling system of human face and full 3D facial caricaturing

This paper proposes a method for modeling 3D face from the 3D facial images captured from the surrounding 2D cameras by which the color texture and surface shape information of the face are synchronously measured. And 3D facial caricature is proposed by applying 2.5D PICASSO system to the proposed surrounding 3D face model. Automatic method for extracting regions of the facial parts is technically maintained and the composition strategies for integrating a few 2.5D facial caricatures into surrounding 3D caricature are also proposed.

An ultrasonic air pump using an acoustic traveling wave along a small air gap

An ultrasonic air pump that uses a traveling wave along a small air gap between a bending vibrator and a reflector is discussed. The authors investigate ultrasonic air pumps that make use of bending vibrators and reflectors and confirm that air can be induced to flow by generating an asymmetric acoustic standing wave along an air gap. In this paper, we proposed a novel ultrasonic air pump in which a traveling wave along an air gap induces acoustic streaming and achieves one-way airflow. Two new reflector configurations, stepped and tapered, were designed and used to generate traveling waves. To predict airflow generation, sound pressure distribution in the air gap was calculated by means of finite element analysis (FEA). As a preliminary step, 2 FEA models were compared: one piezoelectric-structure-acoustic model and one piezoelectric- structure-fluid model, which included the viscosity effect of the fluid. The sound pressure distribution in the air gap, including fluid viscosity, was calculated by the FEA because it is expected to be dominant and thus have a strong effect on the sound pressure field in such a thin fluid layer. Based on the FEA results of the stepped and the tapered reflectors, it was determined that acoustic traveling waves could propagate along the gaps. Experiments were carried out with the designed bending vibrator and the reflectors. The acoustic fields in the air gap were measured via a fiber optic probe, and it was determined that the sound pressure and the phase distribution tendencies corresponded well with the results computed by FEA. Through our experiments, one-way airflow generation, in the same direction of the traveling wave and with the maximum flow velocity of 5.6 cm/s, was achieved.

High-Speed Ring Bar Code Reading Method

We have developed an inspection system that reads a ring bar code stamped on data recording discs, such as CDs and DVDs, with a high degree of accuracy and at high speed by using image processing technology. The system uses the following two methods to achieve high reading speed : a method of bar code position detection which uses a reduced number of reference pixels, and a method of brightness addition data production which determines the bar code thickness based on a polar projection table. The system allows us to inspect ring bar codes with a minimum element width of 130 μ m and 22 characters in approximately 250 ms (less than 1/3 the time required by the conventional method).