IBM PC Research Articles

From Voting Machines to "Scary": HCIL Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary

includes children. The audience was wowed with two reports on the International Children’s Digital Library ‐ a five-year project to develop and test the best way of using technology to provide online access to children’s books in a format designed to mimic the thought processes of a child rather than an adult. The actual software technologies are based on previous NSF-funded research conducted between 1999 and 2002 by HCIL to develop an interface to support 7-9-year-olds in querying, browsing and organizing multimedia information. Two search methods are available and both are highly visual using zoom to move between the specific and the general. The first method shows a globe. The child clicks on a region and books from or about that region are displayed. The other method searches through 13 categories in a way that matches how a child would look for a book if actually present in a library. Working with children during the design, it was decided that books should be searchable by the color and shape of their covers as well as how they make children feel ‐ e.g., whether it is a “scary” book or a “happy” book. Other categories include subject, type of characters and “true” or “make-believe.” Although the interface is particularly usable and flexible, its downside is its requirement that the PC be a minimum of a 700 MHz Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, operate with a Java Virtual Machine plug-in and have broadband access. Identifying this as a significant limitation, HCIL just announced the launch of an HTML-only version that will work over dial-up. The other report related to the Children’s Library was on an effort funded by a threeyear NSF grant to analyze and expand functionality to meet the needs of children aged 10-13 years. The older kids rejected the “cute” design of the interface considering it too childish. They were interested in a “cool” interface, but there was a diversity of ideas as to what represented “cool.” The solution was to provide a way for the older kids to customize the “skin” of the interface. Younger children use the library for read

Photofragment image analysis using the Onion-Peeling Algorithm

With the growing popularity of the velocity map imaging technique, a need for the analysis of photoion and photoelectron images arose. Here, a computer program is presented that allows for the analysis of cylindrically symmetric images. It permits the inversion of the projection of the 3D charged particle distribution using the Onion Peeling Algorithm. Further analysis includes the determination of radial and angular distributions, from which velocity distributions and spatial anisotropy parameters are obtained. Identification and quantification of the different photolysis channels is therefore straightforward. In addition, the program features geometry correction, centering, and multi-Gaussian fitting routines, as well as a user-friendly graphical interface and the possibility of generating synthetic images using either the fitted or user-defined parameters. Program summary Title of program: Glass Onion Catalogue identifier: ADRY Program Summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADRY Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: none Computer: IBM PC Operating system under which the program has been tested: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT Programming language used: Delphi 4.0 Memory required to execute with typical data: 18 Mwords No. of bits in a word: 32 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 9 911 434 Distribution format: zip file Keywords: Photofragment image, onion peeling, anisotropy parameters Nature of physical problem: Information about velocity and angular distributions of photofragments is the basis on which the analysis of the photolysis process resides. Reconstructing the three-dimensional distribution from the photofragment image is the first step, further processing involving angular and radial integration of the inverted image to obtain velocity and angular distributions. Provisions have to be made to correct for slight distortions of the image, and to verify the accuracy of the analysis process. Method of solution: The “Onion Peeling” algorithm described by Helm [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 67 (6) (1996)] is used to perform the image reconstruction. Angular integration with a subsequent multi-Gaussian fit supplies information about the velocity distribution of the photofragments, whereas radial integration with subsequent expansion of the angular distributions over Legendre Polynomials gives the spatial anisotropy parameters. Fitting algorithms have been developed to centre the image and to correct for image distortion. Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: The maximum image size (1280×1280) and resolution (16 bit) are restricted by available memory and can be changed in the source code. Initial centre coordinates within 5 pixels may be required for the correction and the centering algorithm to converge. Peaks on the velocity profile separated by less then the peak width may not be deconvolved. In the charged particle image reconstruction, it is assumed that the kinetic energy released in the dissociation process is small compared to the energy acquired in the electric field. For the fitting parameters to be physically meaningful, cylindrical symmetry of the image has to be assumed but the actual inversion algorithm is stable to distortions of such symmetry in experimental images. Typical running time: The analysis procedure can be divided into three parts: inversion, fitting, and geometry correction. The inversion time grows approx. as R 3, where R is the radius of the region of interest: for R=200 pixels it is less than a minute, for R=400 pixels less then 6 min on a 400 MHz IBM personal computer. The time for the velocity fitting procedure to converge depends strongly on the number of peaks in the velocity profile and the convergence criterion. It ranges between less then a second for simple curves and a few minutes for profiles with up to twenty peaks. The time taken for the image correction scales as R 2 and depends on the curve profile. It is on the order of a few minutes for images with R=500 pixels. Unusual features of the program: Our centering and image correction algorithm is based on Fourier analysis of the radial distribution to insure the sharpest velocity profile and is insensitive to an uneven intensity distribution. There exists an angular averaging option to stabilize the inversion algorithm and not to loose the resolution at the same time.

A kernel thread running on the outside of the kernel and its implementation

AbstractIn this paper, the authors propose a kernel‐mode thread that runs independently of the kernel and external to the operating system, then discuss its implementation and scope of application. Using a test system running FreeBSD 2.2.5 on an IBM PC, the authors were able to create a new thread that had virtually no impact on the Unix system. This external thread and the Unix system are executed via the meta‐scheduler using round‐robin scheduling that allows for CPU preemption. The external thread runs over an interval of several tens of milliseconds, that is periodically in real time. In addition, by making a few changes to the Unix kernel, this interval can be reduced to 1 millisecond, and so can be used for continuous multimedia processing and robot control. This system is superior in terms of how it acquires control from the Unix system. Because control is acquired using the kernel function timeout(), programming the external thread is easier to do compared to other systems. Using this system, the authors created a system that visualizes the states of memory maps for designated processes and periodic monitoring of Unix process states. The system operates reliably, and in the future the authors plan to evaluate various uses for it. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 34(8): 42–50, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.10305

An Instrument for Measuring the Frequency Content of High-Power Nanosecond Microwave Pulses

An instrument for measuring the frequency content of single high-power nanosecond S-band microwave pulses was developed and tested. The measurement technique is based on the comparison of microwave signals arriving from two frequency-dependent channels with the use of a digital oscilloscope, a personal computer (IBM PC), and the MathCad software package. The meter allows one to record the spectrum and time variation of the carrier frequency of the radiation of a vircator-type relativistic oscillator in a frequency band of 2.7–3.7 GHz.

A Controller for the Study of Fast Processes

A controller has been developed that forms a sequence of rectangular RF pulses, performs a fast synchronous (synchronized with the pulse sequence) analog-to-digital (AD) conversion of the electric signals, writes digital data in to the RAM, and transmits these data to the ISA (IBM PC) bus. The program control of the position and duration of the formed pulses (with a step of 20 ns), as well as of the carrier frequency of RF pulses (up to 25 MHz with a step of 0.01 Hz), is ensured. The fast parameters of the AD conversion are the following: the digit capacity is eight bit and the sampling frequency is 50 MHz.

A Modular VME Or IBM PC Based Data Acquisition System For Multi-Modality PET/CT Scanners Of Different Sizes And Detector Types

A Modular VME Or IBM PC Based Data Acquisition System For Multi-Modality PET/CT Scanners Of Different Sizes And Detector Types

스포츠화의 구매요인별 속성 및 구매행동 분석

The purpose of this study was to analyze purchasing behavior and factor of sports shoes in the university students who are in the large part of sports shoes consumer, and to elucidate the difference of characteristic relation, and this study was to provide information that strategic planning of effective sports marketing. To accomplish the purpose of this study, the subjects were 643 university students(Males=332, Females=302) which is located in Seoul, Kyungki, Kangwon. The information collected was analyzed by IBM PC SAS(Ver. 6.12) Package. All statistical data were tested with α=.05. The result were as follows ; 1. The purchasing frequency of sports shoes consumer was showed that totally over a year per once was the highest. Statistically, the significant difference of purchasing frequency is showed in sex, residence, income(p.01). 2. The purchasing place of sports shoes consumer was showed that totally certified shop was the highest. Statistically, the significant difference of purchasing place is showed in sex, residence, income(p.01). 3. The choosing factor on purchasing place of sports shoes consumer was showed that totally convenience of traffic was the highest. Statistically, the significant difference of the choosing factor on purchasing place is showed in sex, residence, income(p.01). 4. The information search of sports shoes was showed that totally visiting shop was the highest. Statistically, the significant difference of the information search was showed in income(p.01), but in sex residence was not showed significant difference. 5. The using purpose of sports shoes was showed that totally sport activity with fashion was the highest. Statistically, the significant difference of using purpose is showed in sex(p.01), residence(p.05), income(p .01). 6. About the purchasing factor, in sex, canvass of friend, design and color(p.05), quality(p.01), prevailing style(p.001) was showed significant difference, and in residence, prevailing style, convenience, the use of sport star(p.05), design and color, exchange and AS(p.001) was showed significant difference, and in income quality, convenience, introduction of sailer(p.01), price, brand, design and color, prevailing style(p.001) was showed significant difference.

An efficient parallel algorithm for LISSOM neural network

We present a parallel algorithm for laterally interconnected synergetically self-organizing map (LISSOM) neural network, a self-organizing map with lateral excitatory and inhibitory connections, to enhance the computational efficiency. A general strategy of balancing workload for different sizes of LISSOM networks on parallel computers is described. The parallel algorithm of LISSOM is implemented on IBM SP2 and PC cluster. The results demonstrate the efficiency of this LISSOM parallel algorithm in processing networks with large sizes. Parallel implementation for different input dimensions in networks of the same size (i.e., 20×20) show that the speedup can sustain at a high level. We demonstrate the LISSOM can be applied to complex problems through the parallel algorithm devised in this study.

Historical review of computer-assisted cognitive retraining.

This article details the introduction and development of the use of microcomputers as adjuncts to traditional cognitive rehabilitation of persons with acquired brain injury. The initial application of video games as therapeutic recreation in the late 1970s was soon followed in the early 1980s by the use of the first personal computers and available educational software. By the mid-1980s, both the IBM PC and Macintosh platforms were established, along with simplified programming languages that allowed individuals without extensive technical expertise to develop their own software. Several rehabilitation clinicians began to produce and market specially written cognitive retraining software for one or the other platform. Their work was detailed and reviewed, as was recently released software from commercial sources. The latter discussion included the latest developments in the rehabilitation applications of personal digital assistants and related organizing, reminding, and dictation devices. A summary of research on the general and specific efficacy of computer-assisted cognitive retraining illustrated the lingering controversy and skepticism that have been associated with this field since its inception. Computer-assisted cognitive retraining (CACR) can be an effective adjunct to a comprehensive program of cognitive rehabilitation. Training needs to be focused, structured, monitored, and as ecologically relevant as possible for optimum effect. Transfer or training or generalizability of skills remains a key issue in the field and should be considered the key criterion in evaluating whether to initiate or continue CACR.

D.S.C.H. Shostakovich on DVD-ROM (review)

D.S.C.H. Shostakovich on DVD-ROM. Colchester, England: Chandos Multimedia CT-IAN 50001/CHAN 55001, 2000. [Requires IBM PC with 266MHz Pentium or higher with Windows 95/98/ME or higher, or Macintosh Power PC with MacOS 7.5 or higher; Quick Time 4.0 (included) or higher; 32MB RAM; 8X or faster DVD-ROM drive; 10MB of available hard-disc space; SVGA monitor/display card with 800x600-bit color (Mac 32K colors); 16-bit sound card and speakers, Mouse; and 28.8kbps modem or higher for Web links. $48.] first of the six principal sites I visited on D.S.C.H. Shostakovich, the initial volume in Chandos's multimedia Cultural Heritage Series, was the Archive, which offers thirty-three clips of footage relating to Dmitry Shostakovich and/or his works between 1934 and 1974. There is a lot of very rare and fascinating material here, including a conversation (with subtitles) between Shostakovich and impresario Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko during a 1933 rehearsal for the composer's second opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsansk, followed by a scene from the first Moscow performance of that opera. Near the end, this section offers scenes in color, taken from a Russian documentary on Shostakovich, from a rehearsal in 1974 of the composer's first opera, Nose. Initially we see fragments of the rehearsal with such figures as conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who brought this scathing, avant-garde work back to the stage after it had lain buried for more than forty years, the composer's son Maxim, and Shostakovich himself. But the clip ends with an extended section of the opera during which the film's director suddenly cuts to and holds a close-up of the attentive composer, whose usually placid, somewhat scowly faced demeanor suddenly--and very movingly--gives way to a long grin as he takes obvious delight in the antics of his own creation. One needs no more than a single moment such as this to justify the existence of this CD-ROM. But there are other jewels as well. As one other example, a clip of Shostakovich performing the finale of his First Piano Concerto, around the same time as Lady Macbeth, reveals pianism so relentlessly driven that one wonders at times whether the film is running at the proper speed. Even more stunning, however, is the second clip, labeled Bazar: Fragments from a Cartoon-film by M. Tsekhanovsky with Music by D. Shostakovich. There's a much larger story here, which can be learned only by reading the Russian of the title card, which indicates that this fragment in fact comes from an unfinished cartoon opera, in black and white, based on Pushkin's satirical tale The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda [or Blockhead]. Shostakovich began working on this with the animator Mikhail Tsekhanovsky in 1933, ultimately producing fifteen pieces that became his op. 36, dated 1936. I had never dreamed that any of this film survived, much less with Shostakovich's score. But the brilliance, in the two-and-one-half-minute fragment offered here, of Tsekhanovsky's multi-plane, highly rhythmic animation, which features quite grotesque drawings of characters and animals, combined with Shostakovich's often shrill and hysterical music, have made me more than eager to track clown whatever else might rema in of this aborted masterpiece, which film historian Jay Leyda suggests (Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film [New York: Collier Books, 1960], 809) might have changed the course of animation in the Soviet Union had it been finished. And therein lies one of the major problems I have with this multimedia project. A work such as Tale of the Priest represents major unexplored territory in Shostakovich's oeuvre, and one would think that anyone interested enough in the composer to explore the many offerings on this CD-ROM would like to know as much as possible about this unique cartoon opera, including how much of it survives. (I, for one, would gladly trade most of the political speeches also included in the Archive for even one extra minute of the cartoon, presuming more exists. …

Radar Target Extractor에 의한 선박운동정보의 추출에 관한 연구

This paper describes on the extraction of ship`s real-time movement information using a combination full-function ARPA radar and ECS system that displays radar images and an electronic chart together on a single PC screen. The radar target extractor(RTX) board, developed by Marine Electronics Corporation of Korea, receives radar video, trigger, antenna bearing pulse and heading pulse signals from a radar unit and processes these signals to extract target information. The target data extracted from each pulse repetition interval in DSPs of RTX that installed in 16 bit ISA slot of a IBM PC compatible computer is formatted into a series of radar target messages. These messages are then transmitted to the host PC and displayed on a single screen. The position data of target in range and azimuth direction are stored and used for determining the center of the distributed target by arithmetic averaging after the detection of the target end. In this system, the electronic chart or radar screens can be displayed separately or simulaneously and in radar mode all information of radar targets can be recorded and replayed In spite of a PC based radar system, all essential information required for safe and efficient navigation of ship can be provided

Development of computerized Kana Pick-out Test for the neuropsychological examination

The Kana Pick-out Test, which was developed in Japan and done with paper and pencil, is said to be suitable for inspecting higher-order brain function and to be a good method for screening persons with mild or slight dementia. We have developed a computerized version of the Kana Pick-out Test, which runs on a stand-alone computer, intended to be utilized for mass screening and self-administration. The program was developed with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and runs under the Windows operating system on any IBM PC compatible computer. In this study, all subjects could use the system by interacting with the computer and it was found that the system seemed to have the capability of detecting cognitive status equal to the paper-based Kana Pick-out Test. Besides this, we developed a network-based Kana Pick-out game software which was intended to attract user's notice. The game program was written in java language and runs on a web-browser supporting java on any operating system. The program, a so called applet, is located on our web site ( http://environ.med.tottori-u.ac.jp) and anyone can use the applet by accessing our homepage.

Partitioned Parallel Radix Sort

Load balanced parallel radix sort solved the load imbalance problem present in parallel radix sort. By redistributing the keys in each round of radix, each processor has exactly the same number of keys, thereby reducing the overall sorting time. Load balanced radix sort is currently known as the fastest internal sorting method for distributed-memory multiprocessors. However, as the computation time is balanced, the communication time emerges as the bottleneck of the overall sorting performance due to key redistribution. We present in this report a new parallel radix sorter that solves the communication problem of balanced radix sort, called partitioned parallel radix sort. The new method reduces the communication time by eliminating the redistribution steps. The keys are first sorted in a top-down fashion (left-to-right as opposed to right-to-left) by using some most significant bits. Once the keys are localized to each processor, the rest of sorting is confined within each processor, hence eliminating the need for global redistribution of keys. It enables well balanced communication and computation across processors. The proposed method has been implemented in three different distributed-memory platforms, including IBM SP2, Cray T3E, and PC Cluster. Experimental results with various key distributions indicate that partitioned parallel radix sort indeed shows significant improvements over balanced radix sort. IBM SP2 shows 13% to 30% improvement while Cray/SGI T3E does 20% to 100% in execution time. PC cluster shows over 2.4-fold improvement in execution time.

A PARAMETER-BASED COMBINED CLASSIFIER FOR INVARIANT FACIAL EXPRESSION AND GENDER RECOGNITION

In this paper an learning vector quantization network architecture based on varying parameters and eliminating blind neurons28 is developed that learns the correlation of gender patterns and recognizes facial expressions of human faces. The network is developed to classify the 1 — neutral, 2 — smile or happiness, 3 — anger and 4 — scream or fear expressions. A peak accuracy rate of (a) 100% on the expression recognition task and (b) 100% on the gender recognition task for random training and test samples is achieved. The computer execution time for the recognition is about 0.004 seconds per face image for the latex expression classification task and 0.02 for the gender recognition task on an IBM PC. It is demonstrated that the proposed architecture is capable of achieving better recognition results with both good generalization performance and a fast training-time on a variety of test problems. The developed system showed potential for real life application domains.

Procedure for Automated Measurement and Calculation of the Electrophysical Parameters of Solar Cells

We described the procedures for automated measurement and calculation of the electrophysical parameters of solar cells on the basis of the IBM PC, a solar radiation simulator, V7‐21A digital voltmeters, and a program‐controlled potentiometer which ensure the programmed assignment of the load resistance in the range 0.002–15,000 Ω and measurement of the light volt‐ampere characteristics of the solar cells, a short‐circuit current, and the open‐circuit voltage and also calculated the basic parameters of the solar cells, such as the efficiency, the full‐factor of the volt‐ampere characteristics, optimum and maximum power, optimum load resistance, series and shunt resistance, and the matching factor for the ideal and experimental volt‐ampere characteristic of the solar cells. The error in the measurement and calculation of the solar cell parameters does not exceed 0.2%.

High-Temperature Pyrometric Measurement of Thermal Diffusivity by a Flash Method: Co–Si and Co–Ge Systems

The paper deals with an automated system for measuring the thermal diffusivity of metals and alloys by a flash method involving the use of a contactless technique of recording the superheat temperature of a specimen. The solution of the heat equation for a cylinder with due regard for the Gaussian distribution of energy over the laser beam cross section forms the basis of the measurement method. The structural scheme of the experimental facility is described using an IBM PC and a GOR-100M type laser. The results of measuring the thermal diffusivity of Co–Si and Co–Ge systems in the temperature range of 300–1650 K are presented. The polytherms of the thermal diffusivity in the vicinity of the Curie point and in e → α structural transitions exhibit anomalies. These anomalies are smoothed out as the concentrations of Si and Ge increase, and are not observed at a concentration of admixtures higher than 10 at. %. The obtained results are in satisfactory agreement with the diagrams of state for Co–Si and Co–Ge alloys.

Application of Computerized Polysomnographic Systems in Psychophysiology and Clinical Studies

The development of sleep medication, computer technologies, and microelectronics in the past decade brought about the creation of a new class of instruments for the diagnostics of sleep disorders, i.e., computerized polysomnographic systems. The application of the IBM PC PENTIUM using the MS Windows system for software development and standard hardware and software allows a user to economically supplement the basic equipment of the instrument with novel advanced programs. The possibilities of the application of algorithms of the manual and automated methods of sleep analysis for research purposes are discussed.

Implementation of a Neuro-Fuzzy Controller for DC Motor Friction Compensation

Abstract This paper presents an application of a neuro–fuzzy controller for compensating the effects induced by the friction in a DC motor system. The neuro–fuzzy controller is a combination of a linear controller and aneuro–fuzzy network which compensates for nonlinear friction. The proposed scheme is implemented and tested on an IBM PC–based DC motor control system. The algorithm, simulations, and experimental results are described. The results are relevant for precision drives, such those found in industrial robots.

MASSHA– a graphics system for rigid-body modelling of macromolecular complexes against solution scattering data

A program,MASSHA, for three-dimensional rendering and rigid-body refinement is presented. The program allows display and manipulation of high-resolution atomic structures and low-resolution models represented as smooth envelopes or ensembles of beads.MASSHAis coupled with a computational module to align structural models of different nature and resolution automatically. The main feature is the possibility for rigid-body refinement of the quaternary structure of macromolecular complexes. If high- or low-resolution models of individual subunits are available, the complex can be constructed on the computer display and refined to fit the experimental solution scattering data.MASSHAprovides both interactive and automated refinement modes to position subunits in a heterodimeric complex (general case) and in a homodimeric complex with a twofold symmetry axis. Examples of application of the program (running on IBM PC compatible machines under Windows 9x/NT/2000) are given.

Masters and servers: battle of the giants

We are fast approaching a birthday. In just a few short months, the IBM PC will be twenty years old. The time is long past when IBM were the main purveyors of that familiar desktop architecture, but the term sticks. I wonder how many readers of this journal can remember the GEM interface? It wasn't always obvious that Microsoft would become the market leader, or that the stand-alone PC would determine how networks and the internet would be configured thereafter.