In recent years, with the rapid spread of IoT and the practical application of 5G, the demand for higher performance microwave devices is expected to grow further. This paper deals with a semi-lumped element power divider using LC-ladder circuits. We have designed the circuits to operate in the UHF/SHF (sub6) band, where demand is expected to increase in the future. Constant absolute bandwidth in the UHF and SHF bands is achieved by using a circuit that allows arbitrary determination and design of the three matching frequencies.

Wireless communication devices such as wireless LANs and RFIDs are essential for smart home appliances and IoT (Internet of Things) devices in Smart Cities. When measuring the high-frequency noise generated by devices, wireless signals of wireless communication devices and high-frequency noise are measured at the same time. As a result, spectrum analyzers have insufficient dynamic range, or the excess signal from wireless communication devices causes harmonic distortion of the mixer inside the receiver, resulting in inaccurate measurements. Accordingly, a band rejection filter (BRF) is required to attenuate the radio signal. CISPR 16-2-3:2016+A1: 2019 assumes that impedances are matched for measurement, so if the impedance mismatch is large, the expanded uncertainty specified in CISPR 16-4-2:2011+A1:2014+A2:2018 increases. In this study, we propose a new BRF with impedance matching in the attenuation range and show its principle. As a result, the extended uncertainty could be reduced to 3.96 dB for the BRF of this study compared to 10.63 dB for the conventional BRF. In addition, the method comparison of CISPR 16-2-3:2016+A1: 2019 and vector network analyzer shows that the difference in attenuation of the conventional BRF was about -0.8 to 3.3 dB, whereas the BRF in this study were about -0.2 to 0.3 dB. The reduction of the expanded uncertainty and the good measurement results confirm the high usefulness of the CISPR 16-2-3 measurement system for the measurement of weak electromagnetic noise.

A new architecture of the wireless terminal to creating the polarization rotating wave (RPW) using conventional RF chip and SoC which consists of CPU and FPGA is proposed. The prototype radio of this architecture was manufactured and tested by field experiments. Experimental results show that the prototype radios achieved a high-quality wireless data transfer by using RPW.

The multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) characteristic modes of the double ring circular array antenna were calculated, and it was confirmed that excitations equivalent to the orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes could be obtained. By calculating the array factors with the MIMO eigenvectors as the weighting coefficients, uniform excitation was obtained as the principal mode, and the mode in which the phase was rotated by an integer multiple of 360° in the circumferential direction was obtained as the higher-order modes. In addition, a non-null beam with a non-uniform distribution, which was not obtained in a single ring circular array, was observed. Non-null beams were observed in circular arrays with two or more rings even when the distance between transmission and reception, the number of elements, and the element arrangement were changed.

A large amount of variable renewable energies has been introduced, simultaneously, the energy storage, for example, lithium-ion batteries became necessary because of the fluctuation and surplus of them. For efficient use of them, we studied the method of charge-discharge energy estimation. It was constructed as a method applicable to any current and state of charge sections. According to the analytical studies of estimation error characteristics, it was suggested that this method was suitable to the stable lithium-ion batteries aimed to absorb the photovoltaic energy surplus.

Low Power Wide Area network (LPWA) is widely spread, and support for IoT is progressing in Japan. In the current LP gas market, Sellers and distributors are possible not only to monitor their customers remotely but also obtain customers daily usage at low cost by LPWA. Applying daily metering through LPWA system makes distributors decrease their peak demand cost because they can visit their customers at a better timing. Then, in this paper, we discuss the peak-shaving for LP gas distribution by daily metering. At first, we formulate the integer programming problem (IP) for peak-shaving. The optimal solutions of IP show that applying IoT usage data decrease the peak load by almost 30 percent. At next, we analyze characteristics of the optimal solutions and propose the operational peak-shaving strategies every week. Applied our strategies to the actual data presents that they are well-functioning. Our strategies can easily install when LP gas distributors renovate their system corresponding to store IoT usage data.

The Deepen understanding of why new technologies and innovative ideas that are the basis of innovation are difficult to understand and support from management and funders. In other words, although the Hype Cycle is actually multi-layered, the recognition will be clarified by considering the gap in recognition that occurs between the proposer/engineer and the entrepreneur. In this paper, taking blockchain and distributed ledger technology field (BC), and music contents service industry (using smart phone etc.), as examples as specific fields, if we consider in the context of this stratification, we will deepen our understanding of the current situation and future movements for innovation.

We have been presented a frequency dependence measurement technique for a low loss dielectric plate using several resonators by a cut-off circular waveguide method in the millimeter-wave region. This technique requires a high cost and long fabrication time to prepare the resonators. We propose a frequency dependence evaluation technique by only one resonator using multiple samples and two resonant modes. We validated the usefulness of the proposed procedure to evaluate frequency dependence for quartz glasses in the range from 25 GHz to 50 GHz using a 36 GHz resonator.

Millimeter-wave frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar has been introduced to 24-hour monitoring applications of ground movements. Because of the rainy and summer seasons in Japan, the ground for monitoring is usually covered with weeds. Therefore, it is important to clarify the influences of vegetation on ground movement detection by millimeter-wave FMCW radar. This paper presents a quantitative evaluation of the detection characteristics and influence of vegetation through experiments using a 24GHz FMCW radar.

In this paper, for safe indoor hygiene management utilizing ozone gas, we present a simple control system that we have realized using Arduino that can control both the gas generator and the measuring sensor of the gas concentration. The hardware elements in the system consists of a silent discharge ozone generator module, an ozone sensor of tungsten trioxide (WO₃) thin film and other sensors of temperature and humidity, which are connected to a micro-processor Arduino Uno with an IoT wireless communication device of SigFox. Although they are commercially available devices, as far as we know, there is no such low-cost and simple ozone gas concentration control system. Also in this paper, illustrating the results of evaluation experiment, we show that the system can appropriately control and maintain the ozone gas concentration at the safe level (≦0.1 ppm) recommended by the Japan Society for Occupational Health.

This commentary article describes the forthcoming information systems should have several aspects from the viewpoints of “sustainable societies”, which are closely related to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations States. Along with the progress of the information and communication technologies (ICT), the information system architecture has been varying in design. Current “cloud computing” is expected to absorb diverse requirements such as business, industries and consumers. Information systems initially tackled solutions from business and industry process infrastructure viewpoints. However, ICT comes to penetrate daily information activities of consumers, which includes more diverse problems. Based on short outlook on computer architecture and information systems history, what aspects and technologies as to new values for “sustainable societies” are also discussed.

This study proposes a smartphone application to transmit regional information that utilizes analog and digital media characteristics using the Internet and Augmented Reality (AR) technology to promote a shopping district around a university. The proposed smartphone application adopts printed copies as the primary information medium and augments immediate information with AR. This paper firstly discusses the configuration of the proposed system, especially its appropriateness and relevance to the revitalization of shopping malls. Second, after describing the regional characteristics of Hiroshima, the target city of this study, we clarify the reasons for setting the main objective as “promoting interest in the local shopping district among younger generations”. Finally, we show the concept and the details on the implementation of the proposed system and give an experimental result showing its usefulness.

Food loss is a big problem all over the world. Many recommendation methods for cooking recipes are proposed in previous research. There are many studies on reducing food loss cost, but few studies on minimizing food loss cost. In the previous research the total cost of food loss and additional purchase is minimized. But there is no research on minimizing food loss cost under the constraint of the limit on the cost of purchasing additional ingredients. In this research new recommendation and purchase methods are proposed. Dynamic programming is applied in the proposed methods. The first proposed method minimizes the food loss cost under the constraint of limit on the cost of purchasing additional ingredients. The second method also minimizes the additional purchase cost among the optimal solutions of the first method when there are multiple optimal solutions in the first method. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is shown by some experiments.

After the sequential end of feed-in tariff (FIT), the electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) power generation system must be consumed by consumers themselves. Since PV power generation volume is easily affected by weather conditions, it is often used in combination with a power storage device to provide a stable power supply using PV power generation system. However, in order to efficiently control the power storage device according to the amount of power supplied by PV power generation system, it is necessary to accurately predict PV power generation volume. In this research, we will propose a method for predicting PV power generation volume by grasping the snow cover condition of the panel based on the panel image taken by the surveillance camera. We will compare and evaluate the prediction of PV power generation using the snow cover predicted from the panel image with related research and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Open data is a data that is provided by public sector or social infrastructure companies like transportation service providers, and recently tried to be utilized in various applications. When plural open data are successfully used in combination for an application, its usefulness would certainly exist. However, it is a little difficult to straightly retrieve such combinable open data, and the difficulty brings a lot of trial process or go and back process in ideation and development of applications that use open data. In this paper, we propose an exploration method of useful open data for combinational use. In the method, an evaluation approach of the data for application ideation in advance to start application ideation is embedded. The method evaluates the combinability and the usefulness based on the structure change of consolidated data, especially in the amount change on its volume and attributes, also uniqueness of its cell values. The result of experiments applying the method to some actual municipal open data shows sufficient capability to distinguish the combinability and the usefulness of plural open data for application ideation.

An automatic posture evaluation method based on image recognition for working ability evaluation is proposed. Feature values are obtained by skeleton estimation from images and used for machine learning of Random Forest and SVM method based on professional trainer's posture evaluation. Through the evaluation based on deep squat movies of 16 people, 94% automatic FMS^® evaluation accuracy is confirmed by SVM based method. Through the false evaluation cause analysis, the prospect of evaluation accuracy improvement by using more machine learning data has been got.

Residential appliances remotely controlled by IoT for demand response has attracted much attention for effective peak demand reduction of the uncertainty of consumers' behaviors. To promote the technology development of such appliances, estimation of the potential for peak demand reduction according to the type of appliances is strongly needed. With this background the authors conducted a data analysis of demand curves of not only entire household but also branches acquired at 496 dwellings in Osaka. Based on this analysis, the potential of peak reduction of aggregated demand of various groups with different dwelling size were quantified for major 5 appliances, namely air conditioners, microwave ovens, refrigerators, washing machines and dish washers.

The development of a chatbot requires the definition of a dialogue template for the chatbot, called a scenario. This paper proposes a method for generating the chatbot scenario using data from the external system, aiming to reduce the man-hours required for scenario definition and management. In the proposed method, the problem of the difference in format between the data of the external system and the chatbot scenario is solved by defining the mapping between the data. This mapping corresponds to two standard data structures in the external system: table format and object format. The scenario creator can create the mapping definition as a part of the scenario and can combine the scenario specific to the chatbot and the scenario generated from the external system. As a result of the trial, the proposed system reduces the required time for scenario creation by 50% compared with the existing method.

Improving the energy efficiency of air conditioning in data centers, which accounts for about 20% of the total power consumption of ICT equipment, is an important issue in the SDG goals. However, current temperature monitoring solutions are unable to observe the spots where heat accumulates in the space, resulting in power inefficient cooling. To solve this problem, we measured the spatial temperature distribution in the machine room of a telecommunication company using a mobile robot equipped with a temperature sensor. As a result, we achieved to visualize differences in the temperature at each spatial point in the aisle.

Maintaining and improving customer satisfaction is one of the key challenges in revitalizing regional public transport. In this paper, we investigated and analyzed the satisfaction level of community bus customers at Imizu City in Toyama Prefecture. From the results of factor analysis and clustering, the characteristics of clusters with high satisfaction and those with low satisfaction were clarified. In addition, we examined a method to improve customer satisfaction from the relationship between satisfaction and operational characteristics.

Quantum ghost imaging is the protocol that uses entanglement to obtain images of an object, which was realized by T.B. Pittman et al. In quantum ghost imaging, one of the two entangled lights is illuminated to the object, and the other is illuminated directly to the detector. Then, the image of the object is generated by correlating the intensity of these lights. Thus, compared to ordinary cameras, it is less affected by noise. However, it takes a long time to obtain the image of the object because it requires many times of illuminations of light. Therefore, in this study, we consider quantum ghost imaging that illuminates multiple positions simultaneously. We evaluate the effect of reducing the time to obtain the image by multiple positions illumination by the peak signal-to-noise ratio performance of quantum ghost imaging depending on the number of illuminated positions N and transmissivity η. Then we clarify that large N realizes better performance than small N when the attenuation is severe but a value of N that is too large degrades the performance when the attenuation is low.

This study investigated an algorithm for estimating “Stir fried food” and “Deep fried food”, which are events that occur during cooking activities. Three peak frequencies were extracted using linear predictive analysis, a feature used in speech processing, and the sounds of “Stir fried food” and “Deep fried food” were classified using a classifier. Linear Predictive Analysis is a feature used in speech coding in the frequency range of 100-1000 Hz (for a source with a sampling frequency of 8000 Hz), but in this study, the acoustic events “Stir fried food” and “Deep fried food” (for a source with a sampling frequency of 44100 Hz), which contain high-frequency components, were pre-processed using a digital filter. In this study, we preprocessed the acoustic events “Stir fried food” and “Deep fried food” (sources with a sampling frequency of 44100 Hz), which contain high-frequency components, using a digital filter, and then obtained the spectral envelopes by setting the LPC order from 20 to 200. The peaks of the spectral envelopes were arranged in order from the lowest frequency to the highest frequency, and K nearest neighbor classifiers of each order were created as feature vectors. Using these classifiers to classify unknown sound sources, we found that when the LPC order was set between 46 and 50, the accuracy of event estimation was 0.91 to 0.94 for “Stir-fried food” and 0.82 to 0.97 for “Deep fried food”.

In industries, it is difficult to measure physical quantities such as product quality. In order to estimate it, soft sensors have been proposed. In recent years, the Just-In-Time (JIT) method has attracted attention. According to this method, the output is estimated by extracting data from the database similar to the current situation. On the other hand, a database-driven control system has been proposed in which the JIT is equipped with a learning algorithm. This method calculates the control parameters using a database and has the scheme to learn the control parameters to minimize the control error. This paper proposes a new design method for soft sensors which uses a database-driven approach. Specifically, this paper proposes a method to improve the estimation accuracy without modifying the stored past data by introducing a new modifier c into the learning algorithm. Furthermore, a control system is designed in which the estimated value using the soft sensor is fed back.

Estimated response iterative tuning (ERIT) can updated the feedforward controller so as to realize desired closed-loop responses. If ERIT can be applied to vehicle yaw-rate control of automated vehicle, good autonomous driving can be realized. However, ERIT cannot realize desired control performance in the case where the control signal velocity is saturated. To solve this problem, I propose a new data-driven tuning method for vehicle yaw-rate control. Proposed method can update the feedforward controller by using estimation method of a closed-loop transfer function. Compared to ERIT, the proposed method can realize desired control performance even when the initial steering angle velocity is saturated. Furthermore, the proposed method can predict vehicle yaw-rate/steering angle velocity responses. The validity of proposed method is verified through vehicle simulators.

Two novel strategies for incremental searching of interest patterns are proposed in context of sequential search of multiple patterns in the scene. One is based on a scheme based on union operation to extend search regions depending on all of the proceeding searches, which can possibly adapt the search to some local distortion in the scene or the objects. Another strategy utilizes incremental setting of confidence intervals to the search regions depending on their statistics in position errors of respective patterns. In addition to them, a new scheme of repetitive trials for realizing reliability in the search. By using a set of real objects, many experiments show the effectivity and the efficiency of the proposed strategies.

In autonomous driving systems, the resolution, frame rate and the number of in-vehicle cameras have been increasing, and it is necessary to record images efficiently. The H.264/AVC standard has better coding efficiency comparing with former video coding standards, but it cannot reduce bit rate sufficiently while keeping image quality of ROI regions.

In this paper, we propose a method to reduce bit rate by scaling down the input image in non-ROI regions. In detail, 2×2 MBs are set as a block in the input image, and if ROI regions are included in the block, the coding process is performed as usual. On the contrary, if no ROI region is included in the block, the 2×2 MBs image is scaled down in 1 MB size and then coded. As our evaluation result, we confirmed that our proposed method can reduce bit rate by 20.2-46.9 [%] on city street and 49.6-68.0 [%] on highway while suppressing PSNR deterioration of ROI regions within 0.2 [dB].

In this paper, a structure and an adaptive algorithm of the fast convergence active noise control (ANC) system using sliding DFT (SDFT) are considered. The proposed method replaces the pseudo noise used as a dither signal in the conventional method with a white signal for the purpose of simplifying the system. The effectiveness of the proposed system was clarified by the proof of the stability of the adaptive algorithm and the verification of the convergence performance by computer simulation.