Hand gesture recognition based on vision is a challenging task in human-robot interaction. The sign language of finger spelling alphabets has been tested as a kind of hand gesture. In this paper, we test hand gesture recognition by detecting the contour shape and orientation of hand with visual image. The method has three stages, the first stage of finding hand component separated from the background image, the second stage of extracting the contour feature over the hand component and the last stage of comparing the feature with the reference features in the database. Here, finger spelling alphabets are used to verify the performance of our system and our method shows good performance to discriminate finger alphabets.

This paper presents the interactive behavior modeling method based on POMDP (Partially Observable Markov Decision Process) for HRI (Human-Robot Interaction). HRI seems similar to conversational interaction in point of interaction between human and a robot. The POMDP has been popularly used in conversational interaction system. The POMDP can efficiently handle uncertainty of observable variables in conversational interaction system. In this paper, the input variables of the proposed conversational HRI system in POMDP are the input information of sensors and the log of used service. The output variables of system are the name of robot behaviors. The robot behavior presents the motion occurred from LED, LCD, Motor, sound. The suggested conversational POMDP-based HRI system was applied to an emotional robot KIBOT. In the result of human-KIBOT interaction, this system shows the flexible robot behavior in real world.

The understanding of another's behavior is a fundamental cognitive ability for primates including humans. Recent neuro-physiological studies suggested that there is a direct matching algorithm from visual observation onto an individual's own motor repertories for interpreting cognitive ability. The mirror neurons are known as core regions and are handled as a functionality of intent recognition on the basis of imitative learning of an observed action which is acquired from visual-information of a goal-directed action. In this paper, we addressed previous works used to model the function and mechanisms of mirror neurons and proposed a computational model of a mirror neuron system which can be used in human-robot interaction environments. The major focus of the computation model is the reproduction of an individual's motor repertory with different embodiments. The model's aim is the design of a continuous process which combines sensory evidence, prior task knowledge and a goal-directed matching of action observation and execution. We also propose a biologically inspired plausible equation model.

A pattern classifier-based approach for recognizing internal states of human participants in interactions is presented along with its experimental results. The approach includes a step for collecting video recordings of human-human interactions or humanrobot interactions and subsequently analyzing the videos based on human coded annotations. The annotation includes social signals directly observed in the video recordings and the internal states of human participants indirectly inferred from those observed social signals. Then, a pattern classifier is trained using the annotation data, and tested. In our experiments on human-robot interaction, 7 video recordings were collected and annotated with 20 social signals and 7 internal states. Several experiments were performed to obtain an 84.83% recall rate for interaction engagement, 93% for concentration intention, and 81% for task comprehension level using a C4.5 based decision tree classifier.

This paper introduces a robot-based learning system which is designed to teach multiplication to children. In addition to a small humanoid and a smart device delivering educational content, we employ a type of mixed-initiative operation which provides enhanced multi-modal cognition to the r-learning system through human intervention. To investigate major factors that influence people's intention to use the r-learning system and to see how the multi-modality affects the connections, we performed a user study based on TAM (Technology Acceptance Model). The results support the fact that the quality of the system and the natural interaction are key factors for the r-learning system to be used, and they also reveal very interesting implications related to the human behaviors.

Asynchronous digital circuits working in military and space environments are often subject to the adverse effects of radiation faults. In this paper, we propose a new hardening technique against radiation faults. The considered digital system has the structure of DMR (Double Modular Redundancy), in which two sub-systems conduct the same work simultaneously. Based on the output feedback, the proposed scheme diagnoses occurrences of radiation faults and realizes immediate recovery to the normal behavior by overriding parts of memory bits of the faulty sub-system. As a case study, the proposed control scheme is applied to an asynchronous dual ring counter implemented in VHDL code.

We propose a measurement state feedback controller for a class of nonlinear systems that have uncertain nonlinearity and sensor noise. The new design method based on the matrix inequality approach solves the measurement feedback control problem of a class of nonlinear systems. As a result, the proposed methods using a matrix inequality approach has the flexibility to apply the controller. In addition, the sensor noise can be attenuated for more generalized systems containing uncertain nonlinearities.

Detection and diagnosis of incipient bearing fault in an induction motor is important for the prevention of serious motor failure. This paper presents an analysis of the effect of a faulty bearing on the stator current of an induction motor. A bearing fault leads to torque oscillations which result in phase modulation of the stator current. Since the torque oscillations cause specific frequency components at the stator current spectrum to rise sharply, the bearing fault can be detected by checking out the faultrelated frequency. In this paper, a mathematical model of the load torque oscillation caused by a bearing fault is presented. The proposed model can be used to analyze the physical phenomenon of a bearing fault in an induction motor. In order to represent the bearing fault effect, the proposed model is combined with an existing model of vector-controlled induction motors. A set of simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and represent that bearing fault detection using a stator current is useful for vector-controlled induction motors.

In this paper, we propose a controller for a ball and beam system which reduces the measurement error effect under AC and DC noise. The ball and beam system measures data through a sensor. If sensor noise is included in a controller via the feedback channel, the signal is distorted and the entire system cannot work normally. Therefore, some appropriate action for the measurement error effect is essential in the controller design. Our controller is equipped with a gain-scaling factor and a compensator to reduce the effect of measurement error in the feedback signal. Effectively, our proposed controller can reduce the AC and DC noise of a feedback sensor. We analyze the proposed controller by Laplace transform technique and illustrate the improved control performance via an experiment for a ball and beam system.

Assessment and rehabilitation of patients with unilateral visual neglect has been one of the fields that require assistive technology. Paper-and-pencil tests, including the LBT (Line Bisection Test), have been one of the most commonly used visual neglect assessment methods used in a clinical setting. The key motivation of this study was to establish a computer-based real-time assessment system for the hemi-neglect patients without altering the conventional paper-and-pencil based user tools. A digital penbased assessment and rehabilitation system, the ePen System, could eliminate the manual assessment time while maintaining measurement accuracy. As a result, the proposed system may assist rehabilitation specialists to assess and diagnose patients with unilateral visual neglect. This system can be applied to a range assessment and rehabilitation modalities based on a pen and paper. It can also be applied to various patients such as those with Parkinson's disease, stroke sufferers, or those who have experienced different forms of brain lesions.

This paper presents a compensation method for an accelerometer to measure acceleration data accurately when a robot manipulator moves slowly. Although the accelerometer works fine under the fast movement of a robot manipulator, low cost accelerometers provide relatively inaccurate acceleration data under slow movements. In order to correct the error of the sensor data in the slow motion, correction factors are obtained experimentally. Then those corrected data are used for the disturbance observer. Experimental studies of the position control of a robot manipulator are conducted by applying the DOB (Disturbance Observer) control using corrected acceleration data.

Usually, spatial information can be incorporated into histograms by taking histograms of a multiresolution image. For these reasons, many researchers are interested in multiresolution histogram processing. If the relation and sensitivity of the multiresolution images are well combined without loss of information, we can obtain satisfactory results in several fields of image processing including histogram equalization, specification and pattern matching. In this paper, we propose a multiresolution histogram specification method that improves the accuracy of histogram specification. The multiresolution decomposition technique is used in order to overcome the unique feature of a histogram specification affected by a quantization error of a digitalized image. The histogram specification is processed after the reduction of image resolution in order to enhance the accuracy of the results by histogram specification methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method enhances the accuracy of specification compared to conventional methods.

This paper presents a hook-type finger force measuring system with force sensors. The system is composed of a body, two three-axis force sensors, a hook, and so on. The two three-axis force sensors system was specially designed using FEM(Finite Element Method) and fabricated using strain-gages. The sensors measure the finger forces of both normal people and handicapped people in the system, and the forces are combined. The developed hook-type finger force measuring system can measure the pulling finger force of both normal and handicapped people. The pulling force tests of men and women were performed using the developed the system. It is thought that the developed system can be used to measure the pulling force of fingers.

In this paper, we described the investigated theoretical time synchronization performances and experiment results obtained by commercially provided PTP (Precise Time Protocol) modules when the time of a slave clock is synchronized to the master clock. In the case of the theoretical performance analysis, we investigated 3 types of clock levels such as Crystal Oscillator (XO), TCXO (Temperature Compensated XO) and OCXO (Oven Controlled XO). From the analysis, it was observed that the synchronization performance is greatly influenced by the synchronization period and the required performance under 1 us can be achieved by using XO level clocks when the synchronization period is less than 2 seconds and the uncertainty of the propagation delay is under 100 ns. For the experiments using commercial PTP modules, the synchronization performance was investigated for direct, through 1 hub and through 2 hubs connections between the master clock and the slave clock. From the experiment results, we observed that time synchronization under 90 ns with 1,000 seconds observation interval can be achieved in the case of direct connection.

The IEEE 802.11e EDCA (Enhanced Distributed Channel Access) mechanism has been proposed to improve the QoS (Quality of Service) of various services in WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks). By differentiating the channel access delay depending on ACs (Access Categories), this mechanism can provide the relative service differentiation among ACs. In this paper, we consider that WLAN is deployed in medical environments to transfer medical traffic and we reveal that the quality of the medical traffic (in particular, ECG signals) is significantly deteriorated even with the service differentiation by IEEE 802.11e EDCA. Also, we analyze the reason for performance degradation and show that IEEE 802.11e EDCA has difficulty in protecting the transmission opportunity of high-priority traffic against low-priority traffic. In order to assure medical-grade QoS, we firstly define the service priority of medical traffic based on their characteristics and requirements, and then we propose the enhanced channel access scheme, referred to as DIFF-CW. The proposed scheme differentiates CW (Contention Window) depending on the service priority and modifies the channel access procedure for low-priority traffic. The simulation results confirm that the DIFF-CW scheme not only assures the QoS of medical traffic but also improves the overall channel utilization.

An SPLC (Safety Programmable Logic Controller) must be designed to meet the highest safety standards, IEEE 1E, and should guarantee a level of fault-tolerance and high-reliability that ensures complete error-free operation. In order to satisfy these criteria, I/O modules, communication modules, processor modules and bus modules of the SPLC have been configured in triple or dual modular redundancy. The redundant modules receive the same data to determine the final data by the voting logic. Currently, the processor of each rx module performs the voting by deciding on the final data. It is the intent of this paper to prove the improvement on the current system, and develop a voting system for multiple data on a system bus level. The new system bus protocol is implemented based on a TCN-MVB that is a deterministic network consisting of a master-slave structure. The test result shows that the suggested system is better than the present system in view of its high utilization and improved performance of data exchange and voting.