Sun-Lon Jen

Fuzzy thermal modeling for MCM placement

This paper introduces a fuzzy analytical model for the optimal component placement of the power dissipating chips on a multichip module substrate. Our methodology considers multiobjective component placement based on thermal reliability as well as routing length criteria. The objective of the coupled placement methodology is to enhance the performance and reliability of the multichip module system by obtaining an optimal cost during multichip module placement. Case studies of the coupled placement are presented. In addition, the thermal distribution of the coupled placement results is simulated using the finite element method.

Video tracking algorithm of long-term experiment using stand-alone recording system

Many medical and behavioral applications require the ability to monitor and quantify the behavior of small animals. In general these animals are confined in small cages. Often these situations involve very large numbers of cages. Modern research facilities commonly monitor simultaneously thousands of animals over long periods of time. However, conventional systems require one personal computer per monitoring platform, which is too complex, expensive, and increases power consumption for large laboratory applications. This paper presents a simplified video tracking algorithm for long-term recording using a stand-alone system. The feature of the presented tracking algorithm revealed that computation speed is very fast data storage requirements are small, and hardware requirements are minimal. The stand-alone system automatically performs tracking and saving acquired data to a secure digital card. The proposed system is designed for video collected at a 640 x 480 pixel with 16 bit color resolution. The tracking result is updated every 30 frames/s. Only the locomotive data are stored. Therefore, the data storage requirements could be minimized. In addition, detection via the designed algorithm uses the Cb and Cr values of a colored marker affixed to the target to define the tracked position and allows multiobject tracking against complex backgrounds. Preliminary experiment showed that such tracking information stored by the portable and stand-alone system could provide comprehensive information on the animals activity.

Study of the Eye's Image Processing for the Determination of Driver's Fatigue

The motor vehicle is one of great inventions in recent century. It although brings more convenient life for us, it also makes more troubles at the same time. The number of traffic accidents that caused casualties in the past two years. It has 160,000 accidents in Taiwan, 1,800,000 in America and 7,000 in Singapore; about 90% of these accidents are man-made. Among them, over ninety percent of accidents are caused due to the careless of drivers. Therefore, the study of driver status detection is increase gradually. The development platform in the paper is based on LabVIEW, NIIMAQ Vision,and the hardware which are the CCD and the NI-PCI 1411 image acquisition card to realize an eyes state recognition system. In the paper, we designed the system that included the face detection, the face tracking, the eyes image locating and extracting, the eyes opening and closing state recognition. Finally, in order to avoid the situation of the tilted head will interfere with the systems operation, we realized no matter face tilts or not, the system can still recognize the eyes opening and closing. By the study effort of above, we hope to provide some contributions to the developer in the area of face detection and feature recognition, and contribute my mental and physical efforts to the study of driver status detection analysis to reduce the traffic accidents.

Stand-Alone Video-Based Animal Tracking System for Noiseless Application

Abstract The acoustic environment is an important variable in studies with animal behavior and psychology. Noise represents an important factor in laboratory settings. Noise of moderate intensity is produced by air conditioning devices and experimental equipment. Traditional automated video tracking systems require one personal computer per monitoring platform, which are noisy and inconvenient for large laboratory applications. This paper presents a stand-alone system for this function (noise-control environment/noiseless application). A novel system combination of FPGA and MCU simultaneously and automatically perform tracking and saving acquired data to an SD card. A fast and efficient tracking algorithm is designed and implemented. Detection via the designed algorithm uses the Y (luminance component), Cb (blue-difference chrominance component) and Cr (red-difference chrominance component) value of a colored marker affixed to the target to define the tracked position and allows multi-object tracking against complex backgrounds. The tracking result is updated every 30 frames/second and only the locomotive data are stored. The proposed system can track animals locomotion totally noiseless operating.

The Study of a Handheld Digital Microscope for Biomedical Applications

In recent years, biotechnology is a highly developed and popular research topic. Microorganism behavior measurement is an important method for biotechnology experiment. Microscope is often used to measure microorganism behavior. The disadvantages of using the tradition microscope are expensive, heavy when the magnification is too large its not easy to tracking microorganism. In this research, we focus on the development of a low-cost and convenient hand-held digital microscope platform. Based on digital microscope technology, we can observe and record any tiny objects behavior and movement, like Paramecium behavior etc. The platform is not only low-cost, easy to operation, but it can also connect to a computer for further data processing and analysis it let the digital microscope can be used in many applications.

The development of a low cost animal behavior measurement system

In this paper, we introduce a low-cost system for animal behavior measurement. This system includes four animal experiment cages, each cage being attached to a very sensitive vibration sensor. The output signal of each vibration sensor is connected to a four-channel data acquisition system. The vibration sensor we adopt here is modified from a low cost piezoelectric buzzer. The self-made data acquisition system has four 24 bit A/D converters controlled by a signal-chip microprocessor. The microprocessor then sends this vibration information into a PC computer from a RS-232 port for animal behavior analysis.

Development of a multitarget tracking system for paramecia

This investigation develops a multitarget tracking system for the motile protozoa, paramecium. The system can recognize, track, and record the orbit of swimming paramecia within a 4 mm diameter of a circular experimental pool. The proposed system is implemented using an optical microscope, a charge-coupled device camera, and a software tool, Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench (LABVIEW). An algorithm for processing the images and analyzing the traces of the paramecia is developed in LABVIEW. It focuses on extracting meaningful data in an experiment and recording them to elucidate the behavior of paramecia. The algorithm can also continue to track paramecia even if they are transposed or collide with each other. The experiment demonstrates that this multitarget tracking design can really track more than five paramecia and simultaneously yield meaningful data from the moving paramecia at a maximum speed of 1.7 mm/s.

A phase shift ultrasonic system for breath measurement

In this study, an ultrasonic breath measurement system based on the phase shift reconstruction principle has been developed. The phase-shift reconstruction techniques with a programmable logic device and NI LabVIEW tool were used to promote the performance of the system. The patients chest wall movement caused by breathing can be detected and the wave of the breath is clear. This approach can provide a low cost, high precision and non-contact type measurement system.

The development of a distributed pressure measurement cushion to prevent bad sitting posture

In this paper, a distributed pressure measurement system is described. This system can measure a persons sitting posture from the pressure distribution of the hip. This system is based on a self-made pressure sensing cushion and a single-chip microcomputer. A PC computer is used to display the measurement result.

The Implementation of an Internet Based Automatic Animal Behavior Experiment System

In tradition, animal behavior experiment need lots of time for data collection and analysis. Same behavior experiment has been repeat executed again and again in different laboratory around the world. The raw-data of the experiment need to be analysis to get the truly valuable result. Many analysis algorithms have been introduced in recent years. These algorithms are usually designed according to the setup of the experiment and the experiment’s raw-data. The idea of this research is to setup a standard experiment procedure which let the animal behavior experiment’s raw-data can share to the public. We have designed an animal behavior measurement system. After image been digitized, a logic circuit will proceed to analyze this image and obtain the animal behavior data from them. A Programmable Logic Device is used as the heart of the data processing and analyzing circuit. By using the Programmable Logic Device we can process the high resolution, full color, live image in real-time. The experiment’s raw-data is then saved into a SD card. By insert the SD card into a card reader, we can attach the experiment’s raw-data file with an Email and mail to a Website for information sharing. Any other researcher can obtain these data from this site and try to development many different kinds of analysis algorithm. This will improve the efficiency of animal experiment.