Shingo Aramaki

Slit-type one-dimensional brightness distribution sensor for object tracking

This paper presents a novel computational imaging method for object tracking. The proposed slit-type one-dimensional brightness distribution sensor (Obrid-Sensor) is designed to be applied to detect falls, localize, and track subjects without invading privacy. According to the vertical and horizontal one-dimensional brightness distributions acquired by the proposed sensors, the subjects motion is monitored without images or videos. The effectiveness of the proposed method to detect falls, localize, and track is verified by experiment. The motion detection and location can be implemented without requiring images or videos, which may invade privacy. The detection range of the proposed privacy-preserving sensor is also confirmed. Finally, the proposed sensor has a simpler structure than the traditional Obrid-Sensor, making it attractive owing to its simple design, facile application, and low cost.

Intelligent control of USM using a modified NN with PSO

As aging society problem goes severe In not only Japan but also the whole world, more and more attentions are attracted to the social and welfare fields. Many researches on science and technology for elders are implemented in rencent years. With the background, there are a lot of needs for techonologies with novel features for improvement. In this paper, a control method with attractive features for the actuator of Ultrasonic Motors (USMs) is introduced. In medical and welfare areas, the USMs are expected to play more important roles owing to their special characteristics. In this research, an intelligent PID control method using Neural Network (NN) combined with type Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is developed for the control of USM. In the method, the intelligent controller is designed based on variable gain type PID control using NN. The learning of the NN unit is implemented by the PSO. The gains of PID control are adjusted by the proposed method in real-time. The effectiveness of the method is verified by experimental results.

Meal-Assistance Robot Operated by Head Movement

The number of crippled people is growing in Japan. They are facing many kinds of difficulties in their daily lives. Especially, it is even difficult in having meals for upper-limb-crippled people. They need system which is able to help them in having meals. There are already several types of robots for meal assist with interface operated with hand originally. The upper-limb-crippled people needs interface with simple operation. Therefore, in this paper a meal assistance robot with maneuverable interface with head movement is proposed for upper-limb-crippled people. The head movement is designed to be detected by a Kinect sensor connected to control unit based on Raspberry Pi. In addition, the proposed robot with orthogonal structure, that offers simple and stable motions, is able to provide foods to users smoothly. Thus, the system in compact size can complete the food providing effectively.

Road Surface Condition Distinction Method Using Reflection Intensities Obtained by Ultrasonic Sensor

Accidents in daily life happen more often on elderly people owing to regressions in judgement and physical abilities. Meanwhile, the increasing number of accidents happened on visual impairment is becoming a social problem. Based on backgrounds, the movement support systems for improving the safety of elderly and visually impaired people are attracting a lot of attentions. In our previous research, road surface condition distinction method using reflection intensities obtained by ultrasonic sensor has been proposed. The proposed method is applied to the movement support system for elderly or visually impaired people for detecting dangerous road surfaces and giving an alarm to users. In this paper, the method based on the previous one with puddle detecting ability is proposed, and the evaluation of the improved method has been implemented according to experimental results. The proposed method can be applied in support systems on wheel chairs and white canes for improving safety.

Proposal of fall down detection method using shape of feature quantity obtained by Obrid-Sensor

In recent years, aging society is getting serious as many social problems rising in Japan. One of the problems that we should concern is the daily safety of the elderly people who live alone. Thus, sensors and integrated systems to confirm the safeness of the elder in their daily life have been developed. In our previous research, a system using a sensor named as One-dimensional brightness distribution sensor (Obrid-Sensor), which is able to detect the presence, position, and motion of a subject without privacy offending, was proposed. As an important improvement of previous research, the method to detect the standing/falling-down using Obrid-Sensor is proposed in this research. The obtained vertical feature quantity of subject is used in this method for detection of the standing/falling-down. The method to detect the standing/falling-down with employing a shape change of feature quantity is experimented by using the Obrid-Sensor. According to the experiment result, the settings of Obrid-Sensor were investigated. The system parameters were studied in different settings for high precision detection. Base on the research, the proposed safety confirmation system can be expected to be applied in more conditions for early detection of fall down accidents.

Application of Ultrasonic Sensors in Road Surface Condition Distinction Methods

The number of accidents involving elderly individuals has been increasing with the increase of the aging population, posing increasingly serious challenges. Most accidents are caused by reduced judgment and physical abilities, which lead to severe consequences. Therefore, studies on support systems for elderly and visually impaired people to improve the safety and quality of daily life are attracting considerable attention. In this study, a road surface condition distinction method using reflection intensities obtained by an ultrasonic sensor was proposed. The proposed method was applied to movement support systems for elderly and visually impaired individuals to detect dangerous road surfaces and give an alarm. The method did not perform well in previous studies of puddle detection, because the alert provided by the method did not enable users to avoid puddles. This study extended the method proposed by previous studies with respect to puddle detection ability. The findings indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method by considering four road surface conditions. The proposed method could detect puddle conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified in all four conditions, since users could differentiate between road surface conditions and classify the conditions as either safe or dangerous.