Kazumasa Takami

A study on the architecture and voice dialog scheme for a personal Web service in a ubiquitous communication environment

The expansion of the Internet and the development of a ubiquitous society are expected to bring about the convergence of ubiquitous networking technology and Web technology, which in turn will provide opportunities for the creation of entirely new services. In this paper, we propose a Web service tuned to individual users by integrating Internet home appliances (specifically weight scales) and Web service technology, and we discuss how it should be constructed. We further propose a system that holds VXML-written scenarios as metadata of Web pages, which enables Web page browsing to be controlled using voice dialog. We have built a prototype of the personal Web service including the use of Internet home appliances, and confirmed the systems feasibility. For the voice dialog, we have created VXML-defined metadata and carried out a desktop verification of the correspondence between Web page information and the associated dialog scenario.

Smart Pressure Sensing Mats with Embedded Hetero-Core Fiber Optic Nerve Sensors

In this article, we propose a smart mat application in the form of a thin mat placed on the floor designed for monitoring human motion, and specifically of a sole pressure mapping mat that uses hetero-core fiber optic nerve sensors. In addition to several advantages conferred by the use of optical fibers, namely, light weight, minimal use of material, and resistance to corrosion and electromagnetic interference, the novel hetero-core optic fiber nerve sensor is sensitive to the bending action of the hetero-core portion, and its fiber transmission line is unaffected by external disturbances such as pressure and temperature fluctuations owing to its single-mode stable propagation scheme. Therefore, the hetero-core fiber optic nerve sensor shows potential application for the distributed pressure sensing of natural human activities and for installation at various sites. Here, we successfully demonstrate the use of a distributed pressure sensing mat using hetero-core nerve sensors in detecting human activities in a bathroom by monitoring the motions of walking and falling and by sole pressure mapping.

A service logic program generation method for advanced intelligent network

An efficient service logic program (SLP) generation method for the advanced intelligent network is discussed. This method first generates the complete and optimum software specifications for SLPs based on INAP (Q.1218) from plain service specifications, and then translates these software specifications into programming languages. The method features the following key techniques: (1) the global state transition knowledge which defines the INAP-based global state transition rules of the advanced intelligent network service execution system; (2) a specification conversion algorithm using the global state transition knowledge; and (3) a specification supplement algorithm to automatically generate partial SLP software specifications for complex operations such as quasi-normal procedures. This method is expected to greatly reduce the manpower required for SLP creation.

A Method of Inferring the Preferences and Mood of Mobile Phone Users by Analyzing Pictograms and Emoticons Used in their Emails

As the ubiquitous communication environment advances, there is a demand for services that deliver the type of content appropriate for the preferences of the user. Services are already available that identify the user’s preferences by analyzing his/her log information, and recommend items of content suitable for him/her. Methods of inferring the user’s mood by partially analyzing pictograms frequently used in his/her emails have been proposed. In this paper, we extend such methods in order to enhance the accuracy of mood inference. Specifically, we propose a method of inferring the user’s mood from emoticons, a set letters to form a face that graphically expresses the user’s emotion, used in his/her multiple emails, and a method of identifying the user’s preferences by analyzing pictograms that are used in his/her single email. We extract mood elements and preference elements and their intensities from pictograms and emoticons, and register them in respective databases. We developed a prototype system for evaluation. The study of the sample emails collected using this system confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Architecture and emulator in ad hoc network for providing P2P type SIP_VoIP services

Provision of SIP-based, connection-oriented services can give rise to a variety of applications in an ad hoc network. Although there have been many studies on ad hoc networks, they have not sufficiently focused on the evaluation of SIP services. This paper proposes a MANET emulator architecture and local multipath routing suitable for SIP services. We have built a SIP_MANET emulator and confirmed the correct operation of a SIP_VoIP call. We confirmed that the proposed routing method has a high path retaining probability.

Hierarchically Distributed PCE for Flexible Multicast Traffic Engineering

The IPTV service, in which high-capacity content is broadcast from the IPTV server to a huge number of users, is becoming very popular. To establish an effective IPTV network, we need to minimize the cost of the IPTV multicast tree. That tree consists of a node, to which an IPTV server is connected, as the root node and other nodes, to which users are connected. In addition, we have to consider users who belong to multiple network domains. In this paper, we apply hierarchically distributed path computation elements (HDPCEs) to cooperatively create appropriate IPTV trees for multidomain users. Each HDPCE shares the burden of creating a multidomain multicast tree. Thus, we can reduce the computational burdens of creating a multicast tree. In addition, we enable choosing three different algorithms to create the cheapest multicast trees in individual domains. One of them is a new multiplex-aware-route- selection (MARS) algorithm. We evaluated the applicability of the three algorithms to various types of domains depending on network conditions.

Hierarchically distributed PCS for GMPLS multilayered networks

Recently, requirements for integration of various networks, such as optical fiber networks and IP networks, are becoming stricter. To achieve this integration, generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) is now receiving more attention. The main feature of a GMPLS network is its multilayered complexity, which sometimes places a large burden on source GMPLS routers to determine the optimal routes to destinations and causes label switching path (LSP)-setup delays. To reduce this source-router burden, we propose a hierarchically distributed path computation server (HDPCS) that reduces the setup delay and conducts flexible routing depending on each GMPLS domains or each GMPLS layers routing policy. Because each HDPCS is allocated to each domain, including interdomains, which have several domains under them, each domains security is also assured depending on each domains security policy. Forwarding adjacency (FA) is introduced as one of the countermeasures against GMPLS multilayered routing problems and the OSPF routing protocol is applied to determine the end-to-end routes. Therefore, we compare the performance of the HDPCS with OSPF-based routing and demonstrate its applicability

Home Appliance Virtualization Software Configuration for Home Network Services

Recently, there have been extensive studies on home networks, mainly undertaken by the home appliance industry. Service programs and device control programs of current home network systems are dependent on vendors and devices. In this study, we virtualize each home network device so that it can be considered to contain a number of logical devices, and propose a new software configuration based on this virtualization concept. Programs are written using logical interfaces, which define what types of information are exchanged. The proposed software configuration makes programs independent of vendors or physical devices. We have developed a prototype home network system and home network service programs, and confirmed the effectiveness of the new software configuration.

Estimation of locations in an underground shopping mall through inter-terminal message exchange

Recently, many location estimation methods have been proposed and used for navigation in a variety of environments. However, navigation inside shopping malls, including those underground, where the Global Positioning System (GPS) cannot be used reliably, is still at the research stage. This paper proposes a location estimation algorithm that relies on communication between the terminals of passers-by and salespersons in a mall, rather than on GPS. The level of accuracy of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated using an evaluation system that was built on a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) emulator and simulated a real underground shopping mall.

Configuration of the system for a fashion coordination service based on clothes life logs

As human interfaces enhanced by augmented reality (AR) and ubiquitous service environments begin to take hold in society, researches are undertaken on daily life support services that focus on the availability of life logs. This paper presents an intelligent mirror (IM) system that is intended to assist the user with fashion coordination based on his/her clothes life logs. A clothes life log used here consists of several information elements: a photo image of clothes worn by the user, the number of times a particular set of clothes has been worn, its category, its wear comfort, and the occasion when it was worn (place, temperature, sky conditions, and wind speed). The system recommends clothes suitable for the conditions of a particular day. This paper defines equations used to determine the degree of similarity between the users requirements and data in his/her clothes life logs, and presents an algorithm for recommending suitable clothes. An experimental system of the proposed IM was developed and was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm based on clothes life log data collected over 80 days.