Tatsumi Watanabe

Voice selection apparatus voice response apparatus, and game apparatus using word tables from which selected words are output as voice selections

A game apparatus of the invention includes: a voice input section for inputting at least one voice set including voice uttered by an operator, for converting the voice set into a first electric signal, and for outputting the first electric signal; a voice recognition section for recognizing the voice set on the basis of the first electric signal output from the voice input means; an image input section for optically detecting a movement of the lips of the operator, for converting the detected movement of lips into a second electric signal, and for outputting the second electric signal; a speech period detection section for receiving the second electric signal, and for obtaining a period in which the voice is uttered by the operator on the basis of the received second electric signal; an overall judgment section for extracting the voice uttered by the operator from the input voice set, on the basis of the voice set recognized by the voice recognition means and the period obtained by the speech period detection means; and a control means for controlling an object on the basis of the voice extracted by the overall judgment means.

Improvement of color quality with modified linear multi-scale retinex

With popular of Digital Still Camera-DSC, higher image quality is required. One of the subjects is that image quality at shadow area caused by the narrow dynamic range of the CCD devices is improved automatically. Conventionally, gamma transformation, histogram equalization, and etc. have been utilized for this improvement, but these are not always enough improvement. Recently, examinations applying to retinex theory taking into account of human eyes characteristics proposed by Land are paid attention. This algorithm renders image at shadow area clearly and effectively using spatial information between surrounding pixels arranged into two dimensions. Typical methods are Single-scale retinex(SSR) and Multi-Scale Retinex(MSR). These methods, however, does not always work on practical use in terms of color correction of the printed images with different RGB density distribution. In order to improve the issues of MSR, we propose the Modified Linear Multi-scale retinex (ML-MSR) method. A modified method consists of (a) linear computation processing and (b) synthesis both the original images and the images obtained by the linear MSR. By the simulation for the images printed by DSC, we show that ML-MSR can improve the visibility at shadow areas keeping with both the color balance and saturation, comparing with the conventional methods, such as histogram equalization and MSR proposed by Jobson. In general, a processing time of MSR remarkably increases with the size of Gaussian averaging filter to compute the weighted average. We describe about faster processing method of the ML-MSR algorithm, which has been shorten by using the thinning out of surrounding pixels and simplicity of average processing.

High quality color correction method combining neural networks with genetic algorithms

A variety of color correction technologies have been applied to hardcopies to eliminate the crosstalk caused by unwanted absorption in colorants. However, since the accuracy of color correction is not sufficient, an improvement in color correction technology is required as an aspect of the appearance of color devices. This paper proposes a new color correction method combining neural networks with genetic algorithms. An evaluation experiment of RMS color difference has been done with the chart pattern of 1331 colors inside the printer color gamut. As a result, it has been shown that the proposed method is qualitatively and quantitatively superior to the conventional color correction masking method using the least squares method.

Enhancement of 3D Shape in 2D Natural Images using a Non-Photorealistic Shading Approach

This paper presents a non-photorealistic shading approach to enhance 3D shape appearance given in 2D natural images that do not have depth information. The approach is based on estimating and controlling normals on areas having relatively gentle shapes. Experimental results show effective and natural enhancement of 3D shapes, or improvement in 3D appearance.

Display. Special Contribution from Asia Display/IDW'01. Enhancement of JPEG Coded Images Using a Region-based Algorithm.

We describe an improved post-processing algorithm that reduces the blocking and ringing artifacts caused by quantization noise of the DCT coefficients in block-coding techniques such as JPEG without excessively blurring. It is a region-based algorithm that is iteratively applied based on projection onto convex sets. It first segments the decoded image into three regions : the region where blocking artifacts are strongly presented, the region consisting of edge pixels, and the region where ringing artifacts are presented. A process for reducing quantization noise suitable for each region is then calculated. Finally, the DCT coefficients are modified in accordance with the quantization constraint. Some experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm effectively removes the blocking and ringing artifacts in each region without excessively blurring.