In order to prepare the health care industry for an increasingly aging society, a ubiquitous health care infrastructure is certainly needed. In a ubiquitous computing environment, it is important that all applications and middleware should be executed on an embedded system. To provide personalized health care services to users anywhere and anytime, a context-aware framework should convert low-level context to high-level context. Therefore, ontology and rules were used in this research to convert low-level context to high-level context. In this paper, we propose context modeling and context reasoning in a context-aware framework which is executed on an embedded wearable system in a ubiquitous computing environment for U-HealthCare. The objective of this research is the development of the standard ontology foundation for health care services and context modeling. A system for knowledge inference technology and intelligent service deduction is also developed in order to recognize a situation and provide customized health care service. Additionally, the context-aware framework was tested experimentally.

In this paper, a new subspace-based speech enhancement algorithm is presented. First, we construct a perceptual filterbank from psycho-acoustic model and incorporate it in the subspace-based enhancement approach. This filterbank is created through a five-level wavelet packet decomposition. The masking properties of the human auditory system are then derived based on the perceptual filterbank. Finally, the prior SNR and the masking threshold of each critical band are taken to decide the attenuation factor of the optimal linear estimator. Five different types of in-car noises in TAICAR database were used in our evaluation. The experimental results demonstrated that our approach outperformed conventional subspace and spectral subtraction methods.

A 1-V operational sigma-delta modulator with a second-order passive switched capacitor filter is designed and fabricated by using a 90 nm CMOS process. No gate-voltage bootstrapped scheme is adopted to drive analog switches, and the voltage gain of a comparator is chosen to be 94 dB. The experimental results show that the peak SNR reached 68.9 dB with a frequency bandwidth of 40 kHz when the clock was 40 MHz.

In this paper, we discuss the effects of switch resistances on the step response of switched-capacitor (SC) circuits, especially multiplying digital-to-analog converters (MDACs) in pipelined analog-to-digital converters. Theory and simulation results reveal that the settling time of MDACs can be decreased by optimizing the switch resistances. This switch resistance optimization does not only effectively increase the speed of single-bit MDACs, but also of multi-bit MDACs. Moreover, multi-bit MDACs are faster than the single-bit MDACs when slewing occurs during the step response. With such an optimization, the response of the switch will be improved by up to 50%.

It is an innovative idea for modern PLL generation to control the bandwidth proportionally to the reference frequency. Recently, a frequency of the operating clock in microprocessors has been required to be changed frequently and widely in order to manage power consumption and throughput. A new compact switched capacitor (SC) filter which has fully flat response has been developed for adaptive biased PLLs. We have also developed a new digital control method for achieving the wider frequency range. The measured performances of the test chip were good enough for the use in the microprocessors.

A highly multi-channel on-chip signal monitor and off-chip waveform acquisition processor established analog circuit diagnosis against environmental disturbances in SoC. An array of 53 distributed probes followed by a single shared waveform acquisition kernel is embedded in a 0.18-µm CMOS experimental on-chip test bench. In combination with the off-chip processor materialized in FPGA and a host PC, fully automated on-chip waveform monitoring achieves high-throughput data acquisition of 300 ms per sample point with adaptive 10-bit timing and voltage resolutions at a minimum LSB of 100 ps and 400 µV, respectively. Analog signals of interest in a 1.5-bit conversion stage of a pipeline ADC were evaluated in terms of their response to substrate noises that globally existed in a chip. On-chip diagnosis derives in-depth findings relating to dynamic, large-signal, and sensitive behaviors of analog circuits in a real SoC environment, far beyond simulations with inevitably limited capacity.

With advances in ubiquitous environments, user demand for easy data-lookup is growing rapidly. Not only users but intelligent ubiquitous applications also require data-lookup services for a ubiquitous computing framework. This paper proposes a backward-compatible, searchable virtual file system (S-VFS) for easy data-lookup. We add search functionality to the VFS, the de facto standard abstraction layer over the file system. Users can find a file by its attributes without remembering the full path. S-VFS maintains the attributes and the indexing structures in a normal file per partition. It processes queries and returns the results in a form of a virtual directory. S-VFS is the modified VFS, but uses legacy file systems without any modification. Since S-VFS supports full backward compatibility, users can even browse hierarchically with the legacy path name. We implement S-VFS in Linux kernel 2.6.7-21. Experiments with randomly generated queries demonstrate outstanding lookup performance with a small overhead for indexing.

A circuit design of a CMOS integrable heartbeat spike-pulse detection circuit is proposed in this paper. This circuit is developed to be implemented on a small-sized RFID sensor tag (which we call a smart RFID tag throughout this paper) implanted in a transgenic mouse. This circuit can detect only spike pulses with magnitude higher than the prescribed level from a mouse's heartbeat signal, which is sensed by a small microphone sensor and/or an electrocardiogram (ECG) microsensor attached to the RFID tag. The proposed circuit features robustness to the device tolerances and temperature variations thanks to its auto-bias technique based on good device matching and its switched-capacitor auto offset-canceling technique. The circuit was fabricated by a standard 0.35 µm CMOS process and works at a supply voltage of 3 V and dissipates less than 800 µW.

Copyright protection is a major issue in distributing content on Internet or broadcasting service. One well-known method of protecting copyright is a traitor tracing scheme. With this scheme, if a pirate decoder is made, the content provider can check the secret key contained in it and trace the authorized user/subscriber (traitor). Furthermore, users require that they could obtain services anywhere they want (Anywhere TV). For this purpose, they would need to take along their secret keys and therefore key exposure has to be kept in mind. As one of countermeasures against key exposure, a forward secure public key cryptosystem has been developed. In this system, the user secret key remains valid for a limited period of time. It means that even if it is exposed, the user would be affected only for the limited time period. In this paper, we propose a traitor tracing scheme secure against adaptive key exposure (TTaKE) which contains the properties of both a traitor tracing scheme and a forward secure public key cryptosystem. It is constructed by using two polynomials with two variables to generate user secret keys. Its security proof is constructed from scratch. Moreover we confirmed its efficiency through comparisons. Finally, we show the way how its building blocks can be applied to anywhere TV service. Its structure fits current broadcasting systems.

We propose a novel capacitorless twin-transistor random access memory (TTRAM). The 2 Mb test device has been fabricated on 130 nm SOI-CMOS process. We demonstrate the TTRAM cell has two data-storage states and confirm the data retention time of 100 ms at 80. TTRAM process is compatible with the conventional SOI-CMOS and never requires any additional processes. A 6.1 ns row-access time is achieved and 250 MHz operation can be realized by using 2 bank 8 b-burst mode.

This paper proposes new resource management schemes for multiple data streams in an orthogonal frequency and space division multiplex access (OFSDMA) system using Radio-on-Fiber (RoF) ubiquitous antennas. The proposed schemes classify the services into some classes in which the number of sub-carriers is dynamically assigned according to the requested data size. The computer simulation results show that the proposed schemes improve the number of users satisfying the required bit error rate (BER) level as well as the average throughput and also show that the RoF ubiquitous antennas can improve system capacity.

Guiding and nanofocusing of a two-dimensional (2D) optical beam in a negative-dielectric-gap waveguide is studied theoretically. An index-guiding method along the dielectric core embedded in the negative-dielectric-gap is proposed and the confinement properties of the 2D optical beam are studied by the effective-refractive-index method and FDTD simulations. We have shown that the lateral beam width of the 2D optical beam can be shrunk to zero beyond the diffraction limit. A tapered negative-dielectric-gap waveguide using adiabatic propagation achieves nano-focusing and can be applied to nano-optical couplers. This is a gateway from conventional dielectric waveguides to nano-optical integrated circuits.

Under the broadband-ubiquitous environment, digital content creation/distribution will be the key factor to activating new industries. This paper first describes the impact of a broadband-ubiquitous environment on digital content creation/distribution; then it proposes new models for digital content creation/distribution businesses. In a broadband-ubiquitous environment, the key is creation of moving picture content; thus the paper describes a system that allows non-CG experts to make CG movies easily.

In this paper, we describe detailed experimental demonstrations of blue/violet light generation by the injection of ultrashort optical pulses into photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). Two lightwaves appear one on each side of the injected pulses in the spectral domain. They simultaneously evolve in the PCFs, changing their center wavelengths so as to spectrally stand apart from each other. Such behaviors are explained on the basis of the theory of nonlinear optics. The final center-wavelength difference between the two lightwaves at the end of the PCFs, depending on the power density of the injected pulse, is increased up to a limit imposed by the PCFs. Owing to this increase, the shorter wavelength limit reaches approximately 400 nm, which shows that short-pulse injection in PCFs is a promising method of realizing simple blue/violet light sources.

This paper considers a more generalized capacitor that can decrease its width using its own electrical force. We consider a model in which the capacitor with plate distance d is coupled with repulsive mechatronical potential energy, which is proportional to 1/dn. In the conventional case, n is considered to be approximately very large. In our capacitor model, there is a stable point between attractive electrical force and repulsive mechatronical force. In this system, electrostatic energy is equal to the sum of mechatronical potential energy and energy dissipation. Moreover, the mechatronical potential energy is 1/n times smaller than the electrostatic energy. All energies, including the electrostatic energy, potential energy, and energy dissipation, are proportional not to ordinary value V2, but to V2/(n-1)+2, where V is the power supply voltage. This means the voltage dependence of energy is unusual. It is strongly dependent on the capacitor matter, i.e., on the characteristics of the mechatronical system. In addition, the energy dissipation of the system can be reduced to zero using the adiabatic charging process.

This paper proposes a Miller capacitor which has a wide input signal range. By discharging the charge of the capacitor connected between the input and output terminals of an amplifier before the output voltage of the amplifier exceeds its maximum range, the amplifier always operates in the active region and the Miller operation can be guaranteed. Thus a large value capacitor with a wide dynamic operation range can be realized using a small value capacitor. The Miller capacitor proposed in this paper is applied to a loop filter of phase locked loop (PLL) circuit that requires a large value capacitor to realize a low cutoff frequency. SPICE simulation of the PLL circuit using the Miller capacitor confirms the operation of the Miller capacitor and shows good performances that are similar to those obtained using a passive capacitor of a large value.

In ubiquitous computing environments supporting mobile agents, agent anonymity is a critical issue in protecting the privacy of users. Agent anonymity means that no other entity can identify the identity of the agent performing an action. For agent anonymity, the information, that the user creates or contributes to, and the agent itself should not be revealed, which can be accomplished by hiding the identity of the agent working on behalf of the user. In this paper, an anonymity framework is described for mobile agent systems, providing agent anonymity facilities using agent identity encryption and access control facilities, based on partially blind signature. It is possible to service anonymous mobile agents in ubiquitous computing environments while reducing the abuse resulting from anonymity, by deploying the proposed agent anonymity framework.

To apply network monitoring functions to emerging high-quality video streaming services, we proposed an application-coexistent monitor (APCM). In APCM, a streaming server can works as an active monitor and a passive monitor. In addition, IP packets sent from the server carry monitoring information together with application's data such as video signals. To achieve APCM on a 10-Gbps network, we developed a network interface card for an application-coexistent wire-rate network monitor (AWING NIC). It provides (1) a function to append GPS-based accurate timestamps to every packet that streaming applications send and receive, which can be used for real-time monitoring of delays and inter-packet gap, and (2) functions to capture and generate 10-Gbps wire-rate traffic without depending on packets' size, achieved by our highly-efficient DMA-transfer mechanisms. Such monitoring capability are unprecedented in existing PC-based systems because of the limitation in PC system's architecture. As an evaluation of APCM in an actual network, we conducted an experiment to transmit a 6-Gbps high-quality video stream over an IP network with the system in which we installed the AWING NIC. The results revealed that the video stream became highly bursty by passing through the network, and the observed smallest inter-packet gap corresponds to the value of 10-Gbps wire-rate traffic, which supports the effectiveness of our development.

In situ observations were mainly performed by using slab optical waveguide (SOWG) spectroscopy synchronized with potential step measurements to investigate the time dependent spectral change of the adsorbed heptyl viologen cation radicals (HV+) in thin deposition layer on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrodes. Several absorption bands, which indicated a monomer and dimer of HV+ were co-adsorbed on ITO electrode surface with a monolayer or a few layers deposition, were observed in UV-visible region. The time dependent spectra yielded some important molecular information for the adsorption phenomena of HV+ on the electrode surface. All observed absorption bands disappeared completely when the electrode potential of -200 mV vs. Ag/AgCl was applied, which indicated the adsorbed HV+ species were electrochemically reoxidized on the ITO electrode.

This letter proposes a novel approach for mel-cepstral analysis based on the psychoacoustic model of MPEG. A perceptual weighting function is developed by applying cubic spline interpolation on the signal-to-mask ratios (SMRs) which are obtained from the psychoacoustic model. Experiments on speaker identification and speech re-synthesis showed that the proposed method not only improved the speaker recognition performance, but also improved the speech quality of the re-synthesized speech.