Finger Braille is one of tactual communication media of deafblind people. Deafblind people who are skilled in Finger Braille can catch up with speech conversation by changing length and strength of dotting at the end of clauses. In this paper, we developed a Finger Braille Teaching System and designed the teaching interface which taught the clauses explicitly. The Teaching System recognized non-disabled people's speech and converted to the Braille code. By parsing Braille code, the Teaching System segmented the Braille code into clauses. Then the dot pattern of the clauses was displayed explicitly. By observing the dot pattern, non-disabled people dotted Finger Braille to deafblind people. As results of two evaluation experiments, correct ratio of speech recognition except substitutions of interjections of 95.6% was achieved after one speech training and one restatement. Accuracy of conversion to Braille code and accuracy of clause segmentation was 100% in test sentences. Error ratio of dotting Finger Braille was only 1.3%. And a communication experiment with a blind receiver who is skilled in Finger Braille was carried out. Two non-disabled senders could communicate in Finger Braille. Total communication speed was 21.8 characters/min. One sender could change length of dotting at the end of clauses.

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[in Japanese]

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The purpose of this work is to develop an ultra-compact wearable pneumatic drive unit for ventricularassist device. The drive unit weighing 1.8kg consists of a brushless DC motor, a crankshaft, a cylinder-piston, noncircular gears and air pressure regulation valves. The reciprocating motion of the cylinder-piston generates the air pressure which drives the blood pump. The noncircular gears generate systolic ratio and the air pressure regulation valves regulate the maximum and minimum air pressure in the cylinder-piston. The drive unit was tested in an overflow type circulation mock test and a chronic animal test using a Toyobo blood pump of 70mL of stroke volume. The mock test showed that the maximum fl ow rate was more than7L/minat100bpm. The Holstein calf weighing 62kg with the drive unit on his back survived for 30 days in good general condition. The pumping rate and the systolic ratio were set at 80bpm and 53%. The average bypass flow and the average electric power consumption were maintained at 3.9+/-0.9L/min and 12+/-1W. These results indicate that developed drive unit has a potential to become a mechanical circulatory support system of the human heart.

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