When two and more stimuli are arranged in the space, an illusion such as the phantom sensation and the apparent movement appear in the sense of touch. The foundation research to build a system of presenting two-dimensional information by using the phantom sensation and the apparent movement is done by this research. When the apparent movement is used, information in the direction can be expressed between 2 elements of tactile stimulus in two-dimensional vector information. In this report, we propose the technique of informatrion expression in 3 elements of tactile stimulus that the apparent movement is used with the phantom sensation together. By this technique, two-dimensional vector information can be expressed by 3 elements of tactile stimulus.

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“Shape” has been regarded as one of the fundamental elements of plastic art, together with “color” and “material”. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of “shape” on affective meanings, under the condition that the visual stimulus of a three-dimensional shape is given. The semantic differential technique is used for extraction of affective factors, with samples of stimulus produced by 3DCG technique. Since it is difficult to separate the stimulus of “shape” and that of “color” in the visual stimulus of a three-dimensional shape, both of the single-color experiment and the colored three-dimensional-shape experiment are done; the influence of “shape” is investigated by comparison between the respective results. 33 single colors and 132 colored three-dimensional shapes with simple geometrical form (cube, cylinder, cone and sphere) are used as samples.
As a result, four factors are extracted for single-color stimulus by factor analysis: “Showiness”, “Pleasantness”, “Strength” and “Warmth”. Moreover, the factor of “Looseness” is added to the above factors under the condition of three-dimensional-shape stimulus. The following tendencies of these factors are obtained; the factors of “Pleasantness” and “Warmth” show the remarkable variation caused by the influence of “shape” among the single-color factors, and factor scores of “Looseness” depend on straightness/roundness of shapes.

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Method of measuring mechanical characteristics of human palm against small impact force is proposed. Medical doctors qualitatively evaluate the mechanical characteristics of the human body by manipulation and percussion. In the field of bioengineering, accurate quantitative analysis of the mechanical characteristics of the human body is required. In this paper, the mechanical characteristics of a human palm against small impact force are determined by means of the Levitation Mass Method (LMM). The LMM is a method for accurately measuring varying forces without the use of force transducers. Mechanical characteristics of a human palm were measured with high accuracy by means of an instrument based on the LMM. In the measurement, the mass, that is a moving part of an aerostatic linear bearing (a hydrostatic linear air bearing, an externally pressurized air bearing), is made to collide with a human palm under test. During the collision measurement, only the Doppler shift frequency of the laser light reflecting on the mass is highly accurately measured using an optical interferometer. The velocity, position, acceleration and inertial force of the mass are calculated from the measured time-varying Doppler shift. The mechanical response of a human palm against small impact loading is also characterized from the measured data.

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The surface modification by atmospheric pressure barrier discharge is effective in the improvement of adhesion performance of plastics. The remote plasma processing has several advantages against the direct plasma processing. They are free from the problem of surface damage and the charge accumulation and have larger freedom of setup of the system. However, it is necessary to improve the processing performances such as range of remote processing distance, reduction of contact angle and so on.
In this paper, we have investigated processing performances of the remote surface reforming. We used polyethylene film as the reforming object. It was found that the followings are very effective as processing condition; (1) use of nitrogen gas, (2) high speed gas flow and, (3) longer processing time.

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A new decomposition system for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), based on dielectric barrier discharges combined with zeolite honeycomb sheets, has been developed. A discharge element was made of layered flat metal sheets covered with mica sheets separated by 2 mm, in which corrugated (honeycomb-shaped) ceramic sheets embedded with zeolites were inserted. This element was shown to satisfy the requirements of durability and flexibility to meet various sizes. Barrier discharges were investigated using this discharge element over wide ranges of operating conditions, in terms of the power consumption and decompositions of various types of VOCs. By selecting suitable operating scenarios, it was found that decomposition of more than 90 % of most VOCs were possible, at reasonable power consumption and without electrode contamination by decomposition products. Finally, areas of competitive applications of the present system against existing decomposition systems are also discussed.

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At an open campus, it is necessary to prepare intuitive experience-based teaching materials for high school students without technical knowledge. In this teaching material, which is based on an algorithm derived from the MA method (i.e., the method of (1)) , the students can sequentially experience the following functions by the X-window of UNIX ; multi-level NAND circuit generation, simplification of the initially constructed circuit, proper rearrangement of circuit elements, verification of the obtained circuit, time-chart display, etc.

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We used the Method of Moments (MoM), which is a numerical electromagnetic field computation method, to study the surge characteristics of twisted pair single phase electric power lines. The result shows that wires stranded less than with several turns/m have almost same surge characteristics as parallel lines, but the surge impedance decreases in tens of % when the number of the strands increases. To verify the simulation results, we measured the surge characteristics of a model line of twisted pair experimentally, and there is good accordance between them. It is possible to simulate the surge in twisted pair covered with polymer dielectric insulators by MoM.
Moreover, we studied the surge characteristics of twisted pair which is inserted into a metallic tube. According to the result, the effect of the strand is smaller than that in free space without the metallic pipe. There are two propagation modes in common mode that are fast surge and slow one. Few influences of the number of the strands on the surge velocity occur in the fast propagation surge, but the increase of the surge impedance and the slow down of the propagation speed are caused by twining in the slow propagation mode.

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X-ray micro-analysis of insulating material for XLPE cable was investigated to elucidate the influence of ion to water-tree extension. We analyzed the water-trees by applying a fluorescence scanning x-ray microscope at the beam-line BL16XU in SPring-8. Focused x-ray beam sizes at sample position are about 1μm at 9˜10keV. Then we confirmed the diffusion of the ion in water-tree. The ion diffused toward the electric field. Then the situation of the diffusion of the ion from metal particle was different entirely from the case of electrolyte.
And X-ray diffraction was measured by adjusting the beam size to 100×100μm. The diffraction peak of the water-tree region was broadcloth in comparison with a normal region. It was confirmed that the crystal is disordered and that the degree of crystallinity of the BTT region is decreased.
It was guessed that the ionized materials in under water were diffused widely by electrophoresis and that the diffusion of the ions promotes the growth of the water-tree.

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The purpose of this study is to elucidate the microstructure of printed wiring board (PWB) under the condition of ion-migration (IM) using a three dimensional (3D) measuring system and an atomic force microscope (AFM). In order to calculate the spatial variation of the electrodes for ion migration on a glass epoxy (FR4) PWB, we applied the WDT method which is one of the IM acceleration testing methods. We also investigated the spatial shape and its variation of dendrite after short circuit for various cases of non-uniform field strength. As a result the phenomenon of immigration peak of separated matter from cathode to anode due to non-uniform was reported. From the analysis of microstructure of electrodes, we confirmed that the height of an anode electrode was decreased, on the other hand, the height of a cathode electrode was increased. From the results of nano-structure analysis of an electrode by an AFM, we found the relationship between the color of an electrode and the size of grain boundary of the electrode.

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La_2-xSr_xCuO₄(LSCO) and Sm_2-xCe_xCuO₄(SCCO) polycrystal bulks with x = 0 ∼ 0.10 were made by solid-phase reaction method. From the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, LSCO and SCCO were confirmed single phase. Seebeck coefficient, resistivity and heat conductivity decreased with increasing an amount of Sr²⁺ and Ce⁴⁺ substitution. We estimated ZT from these values and found that the highest value of ZT = 0.034 at 323 K was achieved in the LSCO with x= 0.02. As a result, we conclude that LSCO and SCCO showed high thermoelectric properties around room temperature. We can expect RE_2-xM_xCuO₄ is very useful material for thermoelectric module operating at room temperature.

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An analytical formula of induced electric field E in a spherical conductor by an ELF dipole magnetic field source M = M_// + M_⊥ is mathematically derived in vector form based on the equivalent multipole moment method with re-expansion technique (RE-EMMM), where M_// and M_⊥ are parallel and perpendicular components of M, respectively. The validity of the formula is confirmed by the following three ways. (i)The derivation of the formula from the Sarvas equation with the reciprocity theorem derived by Eaton. (ii)The convergence of the formula to that of homogeneous magnetic field when M_// is located at the infinite distance. (iii)Comparison of the analytical solutions with numerical solutions by RE-EMMM. Furthermore, an formula for the trajectory, which satisfies E = 0, is derived for the field by M_//.

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A new structure is proposed for the magnetostrictive effect type force sensors using a pickup head layered with magnetostrictive foil and a pair of planar coils. Mutual coupling between two planar coils is used as a measure of force applied to the magnetostrictive foil glued to a mechanical component. The mutual coupling is governed by force-induced anisotropic permeability at the magnetostrictive foil. In this type of the force sensor, the output voltage is zero when force is zero, and the planar coils with electric wires can be put on and taken off easily because the magnetostrictive foil does not need a current contact. Basic characteristics of the force sensors are examined using Metglas2605SC amorphous foil glued to the side of an aluminum square bar of 15mm×15mm in cross-section area and a pair of 16-turn planar coils. Sensitivity was 38.4 mV/Nm (1.57 mV/με(ε= δl/l)) at the coil excitation condition of 1 MHz, 60 mA.

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