Koh Kakusho

Blog as a Tool to Develop e-Learning Experience in an International Distance Course

This paper describes the implementation of blog system in an international distance course between Japan and Taiwan. In the study, blog was used as a tool to encourage students reflective learning and communication. Findings suggested that blog was effective for students to document their learning, share experience and knowledge, have direct interaction with peers especially internationally. Students preferred blog over the LMS where this course builds an course Web site and they proved to use blog in developing their e-learning experience. We proposed the use of blog could lead to a technologically enhanced support for instructional strategy that serves as an informative model for other Web-assisted international courses

Graphic and movie illustrations of human prenatal development and their application to embryological education based on the human embryo specimens in the Kyoto collection

Morphogenesis in the developing embryo takes place in three dimensions, and in addition, the dimension of time is another important factor in development. Therefore, the presentation of sequential morphological changes occurring in the embryo (4D visualization) is essential for understanding the complex morphogenetic events and the underlying mechanisms. Until recently, 3D visualization of embryonic structures was possible only by reconstruction from serial histological sections, which was tedious and time‐consuming. During the past two decades, 3D imaging techniques have made significant advances thanks to the progress in imaging and computer technologies, computer graphics, and other related techniques. Such novel tools have enabled precise visualization of the 3D topology of embryonic structures and to demonstrate spatiotemporal 4D sequences of organogenesis. Here, we describe a project in which staged human embryos are imaged by the magnetic resonance (MR) microscope, and 3D images of embryos and their organs at each developmental stage were reconstructed based on the MR data, with the aid of computer graphics techniques. On the basis of the 3D models of staged human embryos, we constructed a data set of 3D images of human embryos and made movies to illustrate the sequential process of human morphogenesis. Furthermore, a computer‐based self‐learning program of human embryology is being developed for educational purposes, using the photographs, histological sections, MR images, and 3D models of staged human embryos. Developmental Dynamics 235:468–477, 2006.

Toward the Human Communication Efficiency Monitoring from Captured Audio and Video Media in Real Environments

The paper presents a method designed to monitor the human–to–human communication and to estimate its efficiency based on recorded audio and video. The efficiency is estimated during the communication process, based on face and body movements tracking and nonverbal audio information classification. The members of the communication process are temporally classified as senders and receivers for short time intervals, since the role in the process usually changes in time. For our experiments we consider the situations of communication that is intended by their members (intentional) and that can be observed as main activity (primary communication) like project meetings, lectures or academic debates, where people join the discussion and the direction of information (knowledge) flow can be evaluated.

Modeling hypermedia-based communication

In this article, we explore two approaches to modeling hypermedia-based communication. It is argued that the classical conveyor-tube framework is not applicable to the case of computer- and Internet-mediated communication. We then present a simple but very general system-theoretic model of the communication process, propose its mathematical interpretation, and derive several formulas, which qualitatively and quantitatively accord with data obtained on-line. The devised theoretical results generalize and correct the Zipf-Mandelbrot law and can be used in information system design. At the papers end, we give some conclusions and draw implications for future work.

Evaluation of the Communication Atmosphere

This paper discusses the problem of human communication situation analysis. Remaining outside a methodological context, a declarative model to explore diverse communication situations is described, and illustrative examples are given.

Silhouette Extraction with Random Pattern Backgrounds for the Volume Intersection Method

In this paper, we present a novel approach for extracting silhouettes by using a particular pattern that we call the random pattern. The volume intersection method reconstructs the shapes of 3D objects from their silhouettes obtained with multiple cameras. With the method, if some parts of the silhouettes are missed, the corresponding parts of the reconstructed shapes are also missed. When colors of the objects and the backgrounds are similar, many parts of the silhouettes are missed. We adopt random pattern backgrounds to extract correct silhouettes. The random pattern has many small regions with randomly-selected colors. By using the random pattern backgrounds, we can keep the rate of missing parts below a specified percentage, even for objects of unknown color. To refine the silhouettes, we detect and fill in the missing parts by integrating multiple images. From the images captured by multiple cameras used to observe the object, the objects colors can be estimated. The missing parts can be detected by comparing the objects color with its corresponding backgrounds color. In our experiments, we confirmed that this method effectively extracts silhouettes and reconstructs 3D shapes.

Smart sensor mesh: intelligent sensor clusters configuration and location discovery for collaborative information processing

This paper discusses a concept of an intelligent self-configuration of sensors clusters in a grid network as an overlay on contemporary grid technologies for processing of the sensory information locally and collaboratively. An approach for information exchange among sensors with utilisation of sensor agents for later service discovery in sensor mesh is proposed. The main task of sensor agents is to localise themselves in information space from the point of view of captured sensory data and not only a geographical location, which is often unknown to the sensors. The experiments were conducted in a large scale lecture room, where several microphones and cameras were installed in order to capture students audiovisual activities.

Construction and application of 3D model sequence to illustrate the development of the human embryo

Embryology is one of the basic subjects in medical education, to learn the process of human development especially from fertilization to birth. The shape deformation in the development of human embryo is one of the most important points to be comprehended, but it is difficult to illustrate the deformation by texts, 2D drawings, photographs and so on, because it is extremely complicated. The purpose of our research is to construct a 3D model sequence to illustrate the deformation of human embryo, and to make the model sequence into the teaching materials for medical education. Firstly, 3D images of the specimens of human embryo were acquired using MR microscopy. Next, an initial 3D model sequence was manually modified by comparing with the features of the acquired images under the supervision of medical doctors, because the images were influenced not only by the noise or limitation of resolution in MR image acquisition, but also by the variation of shape depending on the difference of subject. Using the constructed 3D model sequence, CG animations and an interactive VRML system were composed as the teaching materials for embryology. These materials were quite helpful to understand the shape deformation compared with the conventional materials.

Communication of Social Agents and the Digital City - A Semiotic Perspective

This paper investigates the concept of digital city. First, a functional analysis of a digital city is made in the light of the modern study of urbanism; similarities between the virtual and urban constructions are pointed out. Next, a semiotic perspective on the subject matter is elaborated, and a terminological basis is introduced to treat a digital city as a self-organizing meaning-producing system intended to support social or spatial navigation. An explicit definition of a digital city is formulated. Finally, the proposed approach is discussed, conclusions are given, and future work is outlined.

Usage of needle maps and shadows to overcome depth edges in depth map reconstruction

Photometric stereo is a method of recovering surface normals (needle map) from images. The surface integral of surface normals is used to reconstruct a depth map; however, the depth edges, which are discontinuous boundaries of the depth map, pose a problem for photometric stereo. When the surface of objects includes depth edges, the reconstructed depth map may contain errors. To solve this problem, we detect depth edges using shadows and compute a relative depth between two distant points using the widths of the corresponding shadows. We define an error function and reconstruct the depth map by minimizing the error function. Experimental results with synthetic and with real image data demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.