Mutsuo Sano

A parametric template method and its application to robust matching

We propose a template-matching method in which a parametric template space is constructed from a given set of template images then quickly matched to a reference image. In this method geometrical changes in an image object due to translation, rotation or scaling, and non-geometrical changes such as illumination variations or individual variation between objects are represented by template images in the parametric template space. The method also provides a subpixel matching scheme that yields a high-precision estimation of the object position. Experiments using real images have confirmed the effectiveness of the method.

A cooking support system for people with higher brain dysfunction

This paper reports a cooking support system for persons with higher brain dysfunction. When a human injured its brain, various brain functions are damaged, such as memory and cognition. This symptom is known as higher brain dysfunction. An effective rehabilitation methods and support systems are essential factors for better Activity of Daily Life (ADL) of the persons with brain dysfunction. However, it is not easy to help the persons, because higher brain dysfunction is invisible and hard to understand. We aim to clarify helpful user interface design for such persons. Two aspects should be considered for the design. The aspects are an analysis of both ability and disability of patients, and customization of interface for a daily life. For the purpose, we focus on cooking, one of the most important ADL. Cooking is complex task because it includes many steps. We designed a multimodal interface of cooking-navigation to show instructions of such a complex task easily. We applied the system for rehabilitation training and a patient could use it nicely.

A method for inspecting industrial parts surfaces based on an optics model

Abstract. A new method based on an optics model for highly reliable surface inspection of industrial parts has been developed. This method uses multiple images taken under different camera conditions. Phongs model is employed for surface reflection, and then the albedo and the reflection model parameters are estimated by the least squares method. The developed method has advantages over conventional binarization in that it can easily determine the threshold of product acceptability and cope with changes in light intensity when detecting defects.

3D object representation using spherical harmonic functions

The authors provide an object representation method that describes 3-D shape and pose using a set of covariant quantities based on a group theoretical approach. These covariant quantities can produce coordinate-invariant features that represent an objects shape and coordinate variant features that represent its pose. First they formulate covariant quantities that are linearly transformed when the coordinate system is changed. Then they show that the invariant features capture coordinate-independent shape information and provide descriptors for indexing into a database of stored models. The variant features are obtained from the covariant quantities in terms of pose equations. A sufficient number of equations (at least three) can determine the object pose. The authors describe two pose estimation algorithms that use these equations, and present numerical simulation results which demonstrate that the algorithms yield close approximations of the object poses.

Social Skills Training Support of Cognitive Dysfunctions by Cooperative Cooking Navigation System

We have an important issue that the people with cognitive dysfunctions should improve social skills for self supporting. This paper notices their fundamental cooking activities and proposes a cooperative cooking navigation system supporting their social skills training. We have econstructed this system to be composed of cooperative behavior expression support and cooperative behavior evaluation support. We evaluate the experimental results of applying our proposed system to patients with cognitive dysfunctions and extract the essential conditions for working this system well.

Adaptive embodied entrainment control and interaction design of the first meeting introducer robot

This paper describes a robotic agent that can promote communication when people first meet. When two people meet for the first time, a communication mediator can be important because people often feel stressed and cannot talk comfortably. Our agent reduces their stress by using embodied entrainment and thus promotes communication. In the research field of embodied entrainment, suitable timing of a nod or back-channel feedback has been discussed, but situations to communicate in are limited. We have developed an embodied entrainment control system that recognizes communication states and adapts to them accordingly. For this, we focus on effective non-verbal information for communication. Using this information, our agent helps a talker and a listener to alternate their roles appropriately. We conducted communication experiments with the agent and confirmed its effectiveness. In the experiments, we used and compared different representation of the agent: an embodied robot agent, a computer graphics agent, and no agent. We report the comparison results and discuss representations for communication agents.

Gray‐level image recognition based on multiple cell‐features

This paper proposes a gray-level image recognition algorithm based on multiple cell-features for general-purpose model matching using the generalized Hough transform, which removes the instability of conventional edge-segment-based feature description and simplifies its feature matching. Image features are derived in terms of four basic representations: density; edge direction; edge density; and global edge configuration. These are integrated into a multidimensional feature vector for each “cell,” which is a sampled subregion of the image. This method provides powerful and stable description since it describes contour and area properties as well as local and global features. It also allows the effective use of generalized Hough transform matching. Multiple cell features are extracted systematically by combining three fundamental operations. These consist of two feature extraction operations, extended convolution and radial traverse probing, and a data compression operation which converts pixel features to cell features by calculating a histogram of extracted features for each cell. Feature dimensionality is decreased efficiently by selecting feature kinds and salient cell positions based on the F-ratio calculated from training samples. Using the gray-level images of prepaid telephone cards, a recognition experiment with 20 different card images and a positioning experiment with overlapping cards has been carried out.

Cooking Support System Using Networked Robots and Sensors

This paper introduces a concept of cooking support system using networked robots and sensors. The system can recognize human activities in a kitchen and offer helpful instructions appropriately. It is based on the integration of embedded sensors and mobile robots, and can monitor cooking activities widely.

Cooking rehabilitation support for self-reliance of cognitive dysfunction patients

Cognitive dysfunction patients often interfere with cooking action and give up it. We have proposed the navigation system which supports cooking according to the grade of cognitive dysfunction, and have conducted the experiments of cognitive rehabilitation program (the cycle of cooking, eating, and reviewing) for verifying the hypothesis of having a possibility that the rehabilitation using the proposed system will promote self-reliance of their daily life. Consequently, for cognitive dysfunction patients, it was verified that their self-efficacy improves and there was also a tendency of improving their cognitive function. In this paper, we notice four basic technologies of supporting this rehabilitation program, i.e., 1) recipe transformation according to the grade of disables, 2) support technology for cooking in parallel, 3) group cooking support for improving social skills, 4) remote cooking rehabilitation, and we discuss the verification results and how there should be any rehabilitation program.

A user adaptive cooking navigation system using ubiquitous sensing environment

This paper introduces a user adaptive cooking navigation system, which can deal with concurrent cooking. The system recognizes the situation of userspsila cooking and offers the helpful guidance by a movie or a text etc. Because the frequent order rearrangement of cooking steps occurs under the concurrent cooking task, the state recognition is difficult. To solve the problem, we propose a user adaptive model of cooking, which is a combination of flow graphs and state-machine-diagrams of UML. We experimented on the system, and confirmed the effectiveness of the model.