Tetsuya Higuchi

Evolvable hardware chips for industrial applications

I n contrast to conventional hardware, in which the structure is irreversibly fixed in the design process, evolvable hardware is designed to adapt, as the chameleon changes its color to blend in with the environment, to changes in task requirements or in the environment, through its ability to reconfigure its own hardware structure dynamically and autonomously. This capacity for adaptation, achieved by employing efficient search algorithms known as genetic algorithms, has great potential for the development of innovative industrial applications. Although the concept of EHW is relatively new, some EHW chips are already being evaluated for their commercial value. In this article, we introduce four

Recognition of Dynamic Texture Patterns Using CHLAC Features

In this paper, we propose a statistical scheme for recognizing three-dimensional textures shown in motion images, which we call dynamic textures. The texture characteristics emerges in the distinct movement in the motion images, and the dynamic cues would be useful especially for recognizing ambiguous texture patterns in noisy images. We apply cubic higher-order auto-correlation (CHLAC) to extract features both of the textures and their movements, and then simply multiple regression analysis (MRA) to evaluate (recognize) the texture. In the experiment for estimating quality of beef meat by using ultrasound motion images, the proposed method exhibits the favorable performances which are close to ground truth given by the experts.

An evolutionary approach to GHz digital systems

Genetic-algorithm based techniques have been used to successfully calibrate both analogue and digital VLSI chips. This paper investigates the potential of applying the developed techniques to a generic high-speed digital system, which comprises an analogue-to-digital converter and digital logic integrated on a single chip. It is concluded that evolvable calibration techniques are most likely to be applied to VLSI design where the actual value of a variable is critical rather than the more common instance of the variable having to be greater than a given value or the quantity of interest is the ratio of two matched components. Probably the best example of this is delay. As clock frequencies approach 1 GHz variation of buffer delay and clock skew become increasingly important.