• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.110-117
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• 2014

This paper reports a depth-adaptive sharpness adjustment algorithm for stereoscopic perception improvement, and presents its field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation results. The first step of the proposed algorithm was to estimate the depth information of an input stereo video on a block basis. Second, the objects in the input video were segmented according to their depths. Third, the sharpness of the foreground objects was enhanced and that of the background was maintained or weakened. This paper proposes a new sharpness enhancement algorithm to suppress visually annoying artifacts, such as jagging and halos. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can improve stereoscopic perception without intentional depth adjustments. In addition, the hardware architecture of the proposed algorithm was designed and implemented on a general-purpose FPGA board. Real-time processing for full high-definition stereo videos was accomplished using 30,278 look-up tables, 24,553 registers, and 1,794,297 bits of memory at an operating frequency of 200MHz.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2019

The virtual reality (VR) is an immerging technology used in the serious games industry to treat psychological disorders like dementia. We created a system named as Virtual Reality Home (VRH) for the elderly who lived with Alzheimer's disease (or other form of dementia) and cognitive impairment using virtual reality technology. The purpose of our study is to measure the long-time immersion and retention of VRH on the moods and apathy, enhancement in physical and brain stimulation as well as a decision making with peoples of dementia and explore the experience of aged care home staff's member. The VRH shows a positive impact on the elderly participants and staff members. During the VRH experience, excitement and a great level of alertness were observed among the participants but few of them were feeling anxiety. Furthermore, we observed the improvement in physical, memory and brain stimulation, but the participants have a low focus on decision making because they wanted to explore all interactable objects in the VRH. This study suggests that the VR may have the potential to improve the quality of life, and these results can assist to expand the future development in the enhancement of efficiency of people with dementia.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.299-306
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• 2013

In the present study, we investigated the effect of ethanolic extract of the seed of Zizyphus jujuba var. spinosa (EEZS) on cholinergic blockade-induced memory impairment in mice. Male ICR mice were treated with EEZS. The behavioral tests were conducted using the passive avoidance, the Y-maze, and the Morris water maze tasks. EEZS (100 or 200 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly ameliorated the scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment in our present behavioral tasks without changes of locomotor activity. The ameliorating effect of EEZS on scopolamine-induced memory impairment was significantly reversed by a sub-effective dose of MK-801 (0.0125 mg/kg, s.c.). In addition, single administration of EEZS in normal naive mouse enhanced latency time in the passive avoidance task. Western blot analysis was employed to confirm the mechanism of memory-ameliorating effect of EEZS. Administration of EEZS (200 mg/kg) increased the level of memory-related signaling molecules, including phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase or cAMP response element-binding protein in the hippocampal region. Also, the time-dependent expression level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor by the administration of EEZS was markedly increased from 3 to 9 h. These results suggest that EEZS has memory-ameliorating effect on scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment, which is mediated by the enhancement of the cholinergic neurotransmitter system, in part, via NMDA receptor signaling, and that EEZS would be useful agent against cognitive dysfunction such as Alzheimer's disease.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.197-200
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• 2002

UVR-induced immunosuppression contributes to skin cancer. The aim was to construct accurate dose response curves for primary and secondary contact sensitivity for solar-simulated UVR (ssUVR; 290-400nm), UVA and UVB as the role of UVA in immunosuppression is controversial. We used a xenon arc source. The mice were immobilised, enabling accurate dosing. C57BL/6 mice were immunosuppressed at half the dose of ssUVR required to cause sunburn but not by higher doses (up to the sunburn dose). Thus, ssUVR causes systemic immunosuppression only over a narrow, low dose range. UVA caused suppression at low but not high doses whereas UVB induced immunosuppression at all doses tested. 8 weeks later the mice were resensitised to assess tolerance. Mice exposed to the minimum immunosuppressive dose of ssUVR prior to primary sensitisation were tolerant to re-sensitisation. However, at higher doses of ssUVR, these mice were protected from tolerance. Interestingly, while low doses of UV A caused immunosuppression, even lower doses enhanced the response to the second sensitisation. Higher doses of UVA had no affect. UVB induced tolerance in a dose related manner. Thus, ssUVR only induces immunosuppression and tolerance over a narrow dose range. Both UVA and UVB are immunosuppressive at this dose, while higher doses of UVA protect from the suppressive effects of UVB. Surprisingly very low doses of UVA enhanced memory development. Thus UVR has complex effects on the immune system depending on dose and spectrum.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.1227-1234
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• 2013

An analog array with a 1.2 double poly floating gate transistor has been developed with a standard CMOS fabrication process. The programming of each cell by means of an efficient control circuit eliminates the unnecessary erasing operation which has been widely used in conventional analog memories. It is seen that the path of the signal for both the programming and the reading is almost exactly the same since just one comparator supports both operations. It helps to eliminate the effects of the amplifier input-offset voltage problem on the output voltage for the read operation. In the array, there is no pass transistor isolating a cell of interest from the adjacent cells in the array. Instead of the extra transistors, one extra bias voltage, Vmid, is employed. The experimental results from the memory shows that the resolution of the memory is equivalent to the information content of at least six digital cells. Programming/erasing of each cell is achieved with no detectable disturbance of adjacent cells. Finally, the unique shape of the injector structure in a EEPROM is adopted as a cell of analog array. It reduces the programming voltage below the transistor breakdown voltage without any special fabrication process.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.171-176
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to establish smart signage in a certain space and to analyze not only media ingestion and advertising inducement as well as any information (high vs. low vs. low) and flow level And the memory effect related to whether or not to remember. The results of this study show that the higher the interaction level and the higher the engagement level, the higher the advertising engagement is. In addition, media involvement was high when interaction level was low and flow level was high. Finally, if the level of interactivity is low and the level of flow is high, then non - valued attribution information is more likely to be recalled than the comprehensive evaluation information. If the interaction of smart signage is high and the flow of users is low, Recalled more recall information. In the future, detailed strategies for enhancing user flow will be needed rather than a strategy for unconditional enhancement of interaction in smart signage strategy.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.31-37
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• 2018

This paper proposes an effective single-image haze-removal algorithm with low complexity by using a dual dark channel prior (DCP) and an adaptive brightness correction technique. The dark channel of a small patch preserves the edge information of the image, but is sensitive to noise and local brightness variations. On the other hand, the dark channel of a large patch is advantageous in estimation of the exact haze value, but halo effects from block effects deteriorate haze-removal performance. In order to solve this problem, the proposed algorithm builds a dual DCP as a combination of dark channels from patches with different sizes, and this meets low-memory and low-complexity requirements, while the conventional method uses a matting technique, which requires a large amount of memory and heavy computations. Moreover, an adaptive brightness correction technique that is applied to the recovered image preserves the objects in the image more clearly. Experimental results for various hazy images demonstrate that the proposed algorithm removes haze effectively, while requiring much fewer computations and less memory than conventional methods.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1462-1467
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• 2018

A number of algorithms for improving the image quality of low light images have been studied using a single image or multiple exposure images. The low light image is low in contrast and has a large amount of noise, which limits the identification of information of the subject. This paper proposes the hardware design of algorithms that improve the quality of low light image using 2 multiple exposure images taken with a dual camera. The proposed hardware structure is designed in real time processing in a way that does not use frame memory and line memory using transfer function. The proposed hardware design has been designed using Verilog and validated in Modelsim. Finally, when the proposed algorithm is implemented on FPGA using xc7z045-2ffg900 as the target board, the maximum operating frequency is 167.617MHz. When the image size is 1920x1080, the total clock cycle time is 2,076,601 and can be processed in real time at 80.7fps.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.76-84
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• 2002

Objectives：This study was conducted to investigate the effect of oxygen on attention and memory functions in healthy adolescents. Methods：The participant subjects were recruited from local advertisement. All subjects are students attending ordinary middle and high school. Their degree of achievement was average or below average. Before the study, its nature and purpose were fully explained to the patients and their parents, and a written informed consent was obtained from each child's parent and a written assent from each child for entire the procedure. The Ethics Committee and Clinical Research Committee of Gyeongsang National University Hospital approved the protocol. For baseline assessment, all subjects received tests for attention and memory. All tests were conducted by a certified psychologist. Stroop test, continuous performance test and trail making test A and B were used for evaluation of attention. As memory tests, we used memory assessment scale(MAS), standardized memory assessment tools. Ten to fourteen days after initial assessments, same tests was applied to the same subjects after prior 5 minute oxygen inhalation. Results：1) Attention test：Improved performances in trail making part B, and stroop test were found in normobaric oxygen inhalation group compared to air inhalation group. Improved reaction time in those tests seemed to reflect the enhanced executive prefrontal activity. 2) Memory test：More words and digits memorization were found in short-term memory subscale score in MAS in oxygen inhalation group compared to air inhalation group. This finding suggested the improved working memory function after oxygen inhalation. Conclusion：Though interpreted cautiously, these results suggested that normobaric oxygen inhalation could enhance executive function and working memory of prefrontal lobe. Further study, however, should be performed to investigate the mechanism of effects of oxygen on cognitive enhancement.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1051-1060
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• 2018

This study aims to propose instituting the serious games of language-based cognitive enhancement for the BIF children. The program consists of 4 cognitive areas (perception, attention, working memory, knowledge inference) in 4 language dimensions (phoneme, word, sentence, discourse). 16 games of 4 areas/2 dimensions with 3 difficulty levels were implemented in a mobile station and pilot-tested to children including BIFs. The results from the pilot tests supported for the validity and effectiveness of our games: Children's game performance correlated with their IQ scores (overall and sub-areas) revealing significant differences between the groups. The stroop scores in pre-and-post training hinted the increase of children's cognitive control.