畑 豊

Pulmonary diseases of the lung often cause the change of elasticity. This article proposes a novel elasticity imaging method using multidetector-row CT (MDCT). The new method is based on non-rigid image registration from MDCT images of the inspiratory lung to those of the expiratory lung. The elasticity is calculated by local volume change between respirations. Also, this article introduces a new image registration method based on a fuzzy control system. The fuzzy control deforms the given image according to knowledge on density of lung vessels, shape, and anatomical structure. The proposed elasticity imaging method was evaluated using computer synthetic data and subjects’ data. The experimental results showed that the proposed method deformed the given image successfully, and estimated the relative elasticity with a correlation coefficient of 0.86. © 2007, TSI® Press Printed in the USA.

Rupture of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a serious problem for playing sports, which causes in functional stability of the knee joint. To restore this problem, various operation techniques of ACL reconstruction are proposed. Thus, it is important to numerically characterize the knee kinematics after ACL reconstruction. Then, we proposed an analysis method to estimate the three-dimensional (3-D) knee kinematics. However, the estimation accuracy was not enough. Because the target image did not have high contrast, for example, at the boundary between the femoral bone and the tibial bone. Then, born regions can not be extracted preciously because the target image has low contrast. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy ROI (region of interests) based image registration. This method attend the region where has clear contour of bone region and ignore the region where has murky contour of bone region, by using fuzzy degree map which is assigned by the fuzzy region of interests (ROI). © 2007 IEEE.

Automated labeling of the cerebral gyri on the cerebral surface is a fundamental work for estimating the regional atrophy of the cerebrum. Estimating regional brain atrophy will help us to diagnose the cerebral diseases. This article proposes a fully automated method for labeling the cerebral gyri using 3-D human brain magnetic resonance (MR) images. The proposed method is composed of two steps; (1) initializing a surface model, and (2) deforming the surface model. They are based on fuzzy pattern matching and fuzzy inference systems based on anatomical knowledge. This article also introduces a knowledge extraction system for constructing the systems. Comparison between the automatically labeled gyri and the manually labeled gyri showed that the automatically labeled gyri overlap with the manually labeled gyri well. ©2007 IEEE.

Rupture of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a serious problem which causes in functional stability of the knee joint. To restore the knee injury, surgical operations, which replace the damaged ACL, have been applied. After ACL reconstruction, it is important to numerically evaluate the knee kinematics to diagnose the ACL reconstruction patients and to evaluate ACL reconstruction operation techniques. There are a few methods for analyzing 3-D knee kinematics based on image registration of multidetector-row CT (MDCT) and digital radiography (DR). However, estimation accuracy depends on the given initial pose/position by user-interactions. This paper proposes a fully-automated method for analyzing 3-D knee kinematics using MDCT and DR. The method firstly performs rough 3-D pose/position recognition with respect to anatomical landmarks, and secondly performs fine-image registration using digitally reconstructed radiography (DRR) images generated from MDCT images. Thus, the method requires no user-interaction. Performance of estimating 3-D knee kinematics was evaluated by using computer-synthesized images and subject's DR image. © 2007 IEEE.

Estimation of visual axis during sleep has been attracting a considerable attention. A simultaneous measurement system composed of functional MRI and infrared-video has been developed to investigate a relationship between eye-movement and brain function during sleep. Although there are some methods for measuring visual axis of opening eyes from video images, they cannot be applied to estimate visual axis of closing eyes during sleep. This paper proposes a method based on artificial neural network (ANN) for estimating visual axes during sleep from infrared-video images. Also, this paper introduces a novel calibration method using MRI. The method takes structural MR images of the eyeball and detects the visual axes from the MR images. And, using the detected visual axes and the simultaneously taken infrared-video image, the ANN is trained. The experimental results showed that the proposed method detected visual axes of the right and the left eyes with errors of 1.32±4.24 (RMSE±SD) deg and 1.26±4.20 deg, respectively. © 2007 IEEE.

It is known that Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy of the neonate decreases the cerebral volume. And, the volume decrement occurs at the different rate on each gyrus. Therefore, it is helpful for diagnosing such symptoms to segment the cerebral region from neonatal MR images and measure the volume of each gyrus. Many conventional methods for segmenting brain region from adult brain MR images have been proposed. However, in case of neonatal subjects, these methods cannot extract the sulci correctly. This paper proposes a method for extracting the cerebral contour accurately using cerebral surface model, which is the novel segmentation algorithm proposed in this paper. We applied the proposed method to computer synthesized images MR images of a neonatal subject. The experimental results showed that the proposed method extracted the cerebral contour well. ©2007 IEEE.

In this paper, we describe medical ultrasonic systems, which evaluate a fine granule from a coarse granule. In ultrasonic systems, a measurement limitation is known as an object larger than the half-wavelength. However, we need to measure the object beyond the limitation. First, we describe an ultrasonic system for identifying a surface roughness. A fine granule evaluation model is made form the experiment. An ultrasonic system developed from the model can evaluate the roughness of a human imitated phantom with 89% accuracy. Second, we describe an ultrasonic system for identifying kinetic viscosity of liquid. The fine granule evaluation model is derived from a wave equation theoretically. The experimental results show that the developed system from the model can evaluate the viscosity. © 2007 IEEE.

Knee kinematics has been investigated to diagnose subjects with injured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Dejnabadi et al. presented a kinematics analysis method using accelerometers and gyroscopes. Although it can analyze the knee kinematics without accumulation of errors, it estimates only knee flexion/extension angle. Thus, this paper proposed a new method that can estimate all knee joint angles, flexion/extension, internal/external rotation, and varus/valgus angles. It is enabled by introducing earth magnetisms into Dejnabadi's method. The proposed method was validated by applying the proposed method a subject. And, the estimated angles were numerically evaluated by comparing the results with optical motion system. ©2007 IEEE.

Automated stripping of skulls from infantile brain MR Images is the fundamental work to visualize cerebral surface and to measure cerebral volumes. They are important to evaluate cerebral diseases because most cerebral diseases cause morphometric changes in cerebrum. This study proposes a novel image segmentation method based on fuzzy rule-based active surface model. The proposed method was validated by applying it to two neonatal (3W and 4W) and six infantile (5 W to 4Y2M) subjects. The mean sensitivity was 98.84 %, and false-positive rate was 1.21 %, and the cerebral surface was visualized well.

This paper proposes an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation method for estimating cellular quantity in artificial culture bone by an ultrasonic system. In order to measure the cellular quantity, we transmit ultrasound over the culture bone including stem cell. The characteristics of the amplitude and frequency of the obtained ultrasound waves are employed. Fuzzy inference system estimates the cellular quantity by using these characteristics. As a result, we can estimate cellular quantity in culturebone with 83.33% accuracy. © 2007 IEEE.

This paper describes a heart pulse monitoring system by both air pressure sensor and ultrasonic sensor systems. Our developed ultrasonic oscillosensor system can obtain the heart pulse information of human by setting to the under of the bed. Our developed air pressure sensor system can also detect a pressure change of vital information and a heart pulse by setting into the mattress on the bed. The air pressure sensor could detect the heart pulse at higher accuracy. However, it depends on the position of the senor in the bed. A system of the two sensor systems can complementary provides the heart pulse with high accuracy and robustness. ©2007 IEEE.

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) plays very important role of rotational stability of the knee function. To recover the rotational stability of the ACL injured knee, double bundle technique has been developed which drills two bone tunnels in the femur and tibia, and connects the femur with the tibia by using double bundle graft. However the double bundle technique can cause bone tunnel enlargement which results in instability of the knee. The goal of this study is to examine shape of the bone tunnel enlargement from Multi Detector row Computed Tomography (MDCT) data. The proposed method was applied MDCT data of two patients who were performed ACL reconstruction. As a result, our proposed method could extract region of the bone tunnels from MDCT data, and calculate volume of the bone tunnels quantitatively. It reminds as a future work to confirm direction of the bone enlargement. © 2007 IEEE.

In this paper, we introduce a health monitoring system by both air pressure and ultrasonic sensors. The system of these sensors can complementary detect a behavior before getting out of bed with high accuracy aided by fuzzy membership functions. In this system, the ultrasonic sensor can obtain vibration information of human by setting it the under a bed frame. The air pressure sensor can also detect a pressure change of movement of human by setting it into the mattress on the bed. By using these sensors, we construct a fuzzy system to detect a behavior before getting out of bed. © 2007 IEEE.

This paper introduces an ultrasound identification system for cellular quantity of artificial culture bone with fuzzy inference. In our method, first, we measure ultrasound wave. Second, we obtain the two characteristics of the amplitude and the frequency. The amplitude is calculated as the Peak to Peak value, and the frequency is calculated from frequency spectrum of transfer-function by using cross-spectrum method. Our fuzzy inferences system estimates the cellular quantity from these values. As an experimental result, our identification system could evaluate the cellular quantity in culture bone with high accuracy. © 2007 IEEE.

Elasticity imaging is a new approach to diagnose the state of tissues in vivo. Almost all of elasticity imaging methods have been studied using ultrasound. However, such ultrasound systems can not be applied to the pulmonary tissues because the lung is fulfilled with air and almost power of ultrasound is reflected at the boundary of the lung. This paper proposes a novel tissue elasticity imaging method using multiderector computed tomography (MDCT). The present method estimates the elasticity based on image registration between the inspiratory MDCT images and the expiratory MDCT images of the same subject Use of the elasticity imaging for the lung will be a powerful tool for diagnosing the lung emphysema, the breast cancer or the other pulmonary diseases that cause the change of elasticity. Copyright - World Automation Congress (WAC) 2006,.

Unconstrained patients health monitoring systems are required in the field of medicine and nursing, Our developed ultrasonic oscillosensor can detect the vibration of human vital by setting to the under of the bed. This paper proposes an extraction method of the heart rate by using this sensor. Our method extracts the weakly detected heart pulse by enveloping the obtained data. Since our method employs fuzzy membership functions, it can adapt to extract the heart rate for various heart frequencies. As the result, we were able to successfully extract the heart rate for four volunteers. Copyright - World Automation Congress (WAC) 2006.

Measuring visual axis on the eye closure will play one of important roles to investigate the brain function during sleep. It has been investigated using a simultaneous measurement system composed of functional MRI and infrared-video which takes palpebra images with eye closure. Although there are some methods for measuring visual axis from video images, they cannot be applied to estimate visual axis with eye closure because their methods are based on tracing pupil reflection or Purkinje image. This paper proposes a novel method for fully- automatically estimating visual axis with eye closure using infrared-video. The method evaluates intensity profile on palpebra using artificial neural network (ANN). The ANN is preliminary trained using visual axes detected from MR image of eyeball. The experimental results showed that the proposed method detected visual axes of right and left eyes within the errors of 1.30±3.34 (RMSE±SD) deg and 1.12±3.70 deg, respectively. © 2007 IEEE.

This report describes a fracture surgery support system by using an eddy current. In fracture surgery, screw holes on an intramedullary nail are in invisible situation. Although conventional X-ray methods can visualize screw holes in bone, they pose a danger due to X-ray exposure. Therefore, a system to find screw holes without X-ray exposure is required. We solved this problem using a concept of soft computing and searching signals obtained by the eddy current. The screw hole position is lactated by using knowledge on the shape of an intramedullary nail, which means the size of the screw holes and the position of the not flat, after extracting information of the intramedullary nail from the searching signals. By using this knowledge, we can select only needful information. As a result, the screw hole positions could be identified with the smallest error of 0.99 mm when the distance between the probe and the intramedullary nail was 8. 00 mm. The screw was successfully inserted to the screw holes in this accuracy. © 2007 IEEE.

We propose an imaging system of brain surface and skull by considering the ultrasonic refraction of the skull. We do an experiment by using a cow scapula to imitate the skull bone and a biological phantom to imitate cerebral sulcus. We first visualize the shape of skull. We second calculate the thickness of the skull aided by fuzzy logic. Finally, we calculate the refractive angle of ultrasonic wave and visualize the image referring to the refraction of ultrasonic wave. In the result of applying this method, we can successfully visualize the phantom surface image. © 2007 IEEE.

In this paper, we describe an ultrasonography system for locating screw holes of intramedullary nail by one-direction freehand scanning using an ultrasonic array probe. Although conventional X-ray method can visualize the nail in the femur, it has serious problem of X-ray exposure. We propose a locating method of the nail screw holes by an ultrasonic array probe. We extract screw hole regions by calculating two fuzzy degrees: average of the intensity and variance of the intensity using fuzzy inference. Next, we do a registration between the obtained image with the true image, where the true image is the nail image obtained by scanning an array probe to the nail exactly. As the result, we could calculate the center distance of two screw holes within an error of 1.0 mm. © 2007 IEEE.

In this paper, we propose a personal identification method using sole information. We employ pressure changes of sole in walking. First, we do a preliminary examination using a load distribution sensor. We employ a neural network for a personal identification method. As the result, we show a possibility of an identification system by sole information using the load distribution sensor. Based on the result, we propose a personal identification method by sole pressure changes using three air pressure sensors. This method could identify one of five volunteers at 85.4% recognition rate.

Generating surface shaded display images and measuring the volumes of cerebral ventricles using 3-D SPGR MR images will help to diagnose many types of cerebral diseases with quantitatively and qualitatively. However, manual segmentation of cerebral ventricles is time-consuming and is subject to inter- and intra-operator variation. This article proposes a fully automated method for segmenting cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and cerebral ventricles from MR images. Our method segments the cerebral ventricles by using a representative line (RL), which can represent the abstract of the shape and position of the cerebral ventricles. The RL is found by fuzzy If-Then rules that can implement physicians' knowledge on the cerebral ventricles. The proposed method was applied to MR volumes of 20 normal subjects, 20 Alzheimer disease (AD) and 20 normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) patients. The segmentation error ratio of the lateral ventricles was 1.98% in comparison with the volumes of manually delineated region by a physician. Using the proposed method, we found that patients of NPH significantly increased the ratio of volume of the lateral ventricles to the total CSF volume in comparison with that of AD (significance level < 0.001) © Springer-Verlag 2006.

言語優位半球の判定は, 脳外科手術の術前計画や, 高次脳機能に関する研究において, 非常に重要な指標のひとつである. 従来はWada-testによる手法が用いられてきたが, 被験者に対する侵襲性等の理由から, 同手法に代わる簡便な手法が求められてきた. そこで, 本研究では小規模で非侵襲的な計測法である近赤外線分光法に基づく脳機能計測システムを用いた, 簡便な言語優位半球判定システムを提案する. 本提案法においては, 同計測システムでの計測点が言語野上に設置された度合いを示すファジィ所属度を導入することで, 計測位置のずれに対し, 高い精度, 再現性を有する手法を実現する. 本提案システムは, 14名の健常被験者に対し適用することで, 有効性を示した.

Rupture of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a serious problem on playing sports, and may cause knee pain or hemarthrosis To restore the damaged ACL, many operation techniques for ACL reconstruction have been proposed. Therefore, analyzing the knee kinematics after ACL reconstruction is important to evaluate the ACL reconstruction operations and to improve them. However, few methods for quantitatively analyzing the three-dimensional (3D) knee kinematics have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a fully automated measurement system of 3D knee kinematics after ACL resonctruction using multidetector-row CT and X-ray fluoroscopic images.

Measurement of volume and surface area of the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes from magnetic resonance (MR) images shows promise as a method for use in diagnosis of dementia. This article presents a novel computer-aided system for automatically segmenting the cerebral lobes from 3T human brain MR images. Until now, the anatomical definition of cerebral lobes on the cerebral cortex is somewhat vague for use in automatic delineation of boundary lines, and there is no definition of cerebral lobes in the interior of the cerebrum. Therefore, we have developed a new method for defining cerebral lobes on the cerebral cortex and in the interior of the cerebrum. The proposed method determines the boundaries between the lobes by deforming initial surfaces. The initial surfaces are automatically determined based on user-given landmarks. They are smoothed and deformed so that the deforming boundaries run along the hourglass portion of the three-dimensional shape of the cerebrum with fuzzy rule-based active contour and surface models. The cerebrum is divided into the cerebral lobes according to the boundaries determined using this method. The reproducibility of our system with a given subject was assessed by examining the variability of volume and surface area in three healthy subjects, with measurements performed by three beginners and one expert user. The experimental results show that our system segments the cerebral lobes with high reproducibility. © 2006 IEEE.

人工膝関節置換手術後, 生体内の人工膝関節の動作機能評価を目的に, 従来X線透視動画像と3次元形状データを用いた2D/3D位置合わせ手法が提案されてきた.しかし, 多くの手法は膝の動作機能を考慮せず, 前フレームの推定パラメータを次フレームの初期パラメータとして解析を行っているため, 推定結果がばらついたり推定誤差が蓄積したりする問題があった.そこで本研究では, 処理するフレームの順番や膝の動作機能を考慮した3D/4D位置合わせ手法を提案する.提案手法では, キーフレームという概念を導入し, 解析を行うフレームを優先度により選択する.また, 推定値の推移が滑らかになるように制約条件を加える.精度評価を行うため, 本提案手法をシミュレーション動画像, ファントム動画像, 術後被験者の動画像に適用した結果, 従来法と比較して推定結果のばらつきは低減し, シミュレーション動画像では平均推定誤差0.037degで解析できることを確認した.

人工股関節全置換術(THA; total hip arthroplasty)後における再置換術により人体に埋め込まれたサポートインプラントにおいて, 術後の経年劣化や日常生活での荷重により生じた形状の歪み・折損は, 日常動作の妨げや痛みを与える危険性がある.そこで本論文では, 有限要素法と遺伝的アルゴリズムを用いて3次元形状データを変形させ, 生体内インプラントと最も合致する形状を効率的に探索する方法を提案する.シミュレーション実験結果より, 142.4Nの推定精度で応力を算出することができた.

認知症の進行により，ヒトの脳萎縮が観測される．しかしながら，疾患の種類や進行度合いにより各脳回ごとの萎縮度合いは異なる．そのため，各脳回単位の萎縮度を算出することは疾患の鑑別診断を行うために非常に有用である．脳回ごとの萎縮度を算出するためには，大脳表面に分布する脳回を同定することが必要である．本論文では，3次元頭部MR画像を用いた脳回自動同定法を提案する．提案手法の有効性を示すため，同手法を上前頭回，中前頭回，中心前回，中心後回を同定するために適用した．実験結果より，提案手法により対象脳回を適切に同定できていることを確認した．

再生医療の一端として骨の欠損部分に幹細胞を注入した人工培養骨を補填し,治癒の補助を行うことが考えられている．しかし現在人工培養骨内の細胞量を測定するには培養骨を粉砕し電子顕微鏡で目視により確認するのみであるため,細胞量の測定を行った人工培養骨は臨床および実験に用いることは不可能である．そのため人工培養骨内の細胞量が生体内で与える影響についても不明となっている．そこで本研究では超音波ノギスプローブを用いて人工培養骨内の細胞量を非破壊で評価できる知的システムを提案する．波形を獲得した人工培養骨を粉砕し電子顕微鏡により確認した細胞量を真値とし,ファジィ推論による推定結果との比較を行ったところ,本手法により評価できることを示した．

視覚機能を持ったロボットや,複合・強調現実感に関する研究が盛んである.これらの技術の多くは,ロボットや人間の自己位置姿勢情報が必要である.また都市部を中心として精緻な地図情報が整備されてきている.本報告では,簡易なGPSを用い撮影位置付近の地図情報とカメラ画像を照合することでカメラ位置を推定する方法を提案する.とくに本方法は屋外環境に適用され,地図上の建造物外形情報を利用して簡単にカメラ位置を推定することを目的とする.画像中の建造物の接地角部分を特徴点として用い,地図上の建造物外形と撮影画像との照合を行うことで達成される.実験により,簡易GPSのみより正確なカメラ位置を安定して推定できることを示す.

視覚機能を持ったロボットや,複合・強調現実感に関する研究が盛んである.これらの技術では,カメラの自己位置姿勢情報が必要である.本報告では,簡易なGPSをカメラの初期位置として用い,屋外にて撮影された動画像からカメラの移動軌跡を推定する方法を提案する.提案手法では,画像上の建造物の角の位置を追跡し,地図上の建造物の角の位置と対応させることでカメラ軌跡を推定する.また,地図と撮影画像の建造物の輪郭をマッチングすることで,画像における建造物や地面の正しい位置を得る.実験では,カメラ軌跡を短い処理時間で推定できることを示し,推定したカメラパラメータに対応する画像が入力画像とよく一致することを示すことで,提案手法の有効性を明らかにする.

In the field of orthopedic surgery, many types of implant have been used. Especially, revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) uses a metallic implant called support implant to reconstruct the damaged acetabulum. After the revision THA, the support implant might be deformed or be broken in serious cases by the strong load or by the other factors. However, there are few effective diagnosing methods for evaluating the 3-D deformation of the support implant in vivo. This study proposes a novel approach for finding the deformation of the support implant in vivo. The proposed method uses Multidetector-row CT images to take the 3-D shape of the support implant, and employs the combination of finite element method (FEM) and genetic algorithm (GA). The new combination gives us the new application of FEM. The proposed system was evaluated by computer-simulation experiment, and the effective of the system was demonstrated by applying it to the revision THA patient. © 2006 IEEE.

This paper proposes an ultrasonic estimation system for the degradation of the insulating oil of electric power supply aided by fuzzy inference. In general, it is known that the viscosity of insulating oil depends on the acidity. We employ the viscosity as characteristic value for estimating the degradation. First, we show a strong positive correlation between the acidity and the viscosity. Second, we construct a fuzzy estimation system. Third, we infer the acidity of insulating oil by using the system. Our experimental results show that the fuzzy system can identify the acidity with the accuracy of 74% on 50 samples. Thus, this system can successfully estimate the degradation of the oil.

This paper proposes an ultrasonic estimation system for the degradation of the insulating oil of electric power supply aided by fuzzy inference. In general, it is known that the viscosity of insulating oil depends on the acidity. We employ the viscosity as characteristic value for estimating the degradation. First, we show a strong positive correlation between the acidity and the viscosity. Second, we construct a fuzzy estimation system. Third, we infer the acidity of insulating oil by using the system. Our experimental results show that the fuzzy system can identify the acidity with the accuracy of 74% on 50 samples. Thus, this system can successfully estimate the degradation of the oil.

It is difficult to reconstruct 3D shape of an object from information of a monocular image. In this paper, we propose a method for 3D shape acquisition and arbitrary view image generation of objects on the ground. By using 3D spatial information of background and dividing object's shape into simple shape such as rectangular parallelepiped and triangle pole, we achieve to acquire it from a monocular image. In some experimental results, we show that 3D shape can be simply estimated and arbitrary view images can be generated from monocular vision. ©2006 IEEE.

This paper describes combination rule of normal degrees in human body in automated medical diagnosis system. The normal degree is defined in a framework of fuzzy logic. Physician usually examines whether a patient is either normal or abnormal for a disease. The normal degree is calculated in automated medical diagnosis system. The practical examples of medical images and blood test are described. In it, it is shown that union or inter-section operators are introduced for calculating normal degrees on MR meniscal tear images and blood test for diabetes. © 2006 Springer.

This paper describes a design method for fuzzy ultrasonic medical system and its applications. First, we describe a design method for manipulating features of ultrasonic data. Second we apply this design method to the system identifying a surface roughness. A fuzzy inference system is designed with the average of amplitudes and the standard derivation of the echo duration for the learning waves. The system identifies the degree of roughness: one of smooth, medium and rough. In the experiments on phantoms, it has successfully identified their surface roughness. Third, we apply this design method to an location system for the screw hole position of the intramedullary nail in a bone. The screw hole position is determined by applying the fuzzy inference system. As the results, the accuracy can guarantee the clinical practice usage. © 2006 IEEE.

Based on principals of blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) effect, MR signals raised according to brain neural activity. Such temporal change of MR signal is called Hemodynamic response function (HRF). Because HRF varies among activation sites and among subjects, we have been considering that estimating HRF will be available for analyzing neurological condition of cerebrum and for investigating and diagnosing cerebral diseases. Many conventional methods for analyzing functional MR images have been proposed, however, there are few methods that can detect activation areas in the cerebral cortex and can estimate HRF. This paper proposes a method that detects activation areas and estimate HRF simultaneously. The performance of estimating HRF is evaluated by phantom study, and results are compared with statistical parametric mapping (SPM). ©2006 IEEE.

Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) caused by asphyxia in the womb causes the decrement of the white matter (WM), Therefore, calculating the volume of the cerebral tissues for the infant with such symptom helps us for the purpose of quantifying the acuteness of symptom. Many methods for classifying the adult brain tissues with magnetic resonance (MR) images have been studied. However, these methods cannot be applied to classify the infantile brain tissues because the WM undergoes a myelination process in infantile brain, and the infantile brain image features are very different from adult one. This paper aims to propose a method for classifying the brain tissues in the myelination process. The proposed method addresses the intensity nonuniformity (INU) artifact by locally adapting a fuzzy spatial model of MR signals. The fuzzy model represents transition of MR signals on a line from the cerebral contour to inside the cerebrum. By using the fuzzy spatial model, the proposed method assigns fuzzy degree belonging to the cerebral cortex into voxels dependent of their locations. ©2006 IEEE.

In this paper, we detect a pressure change of vital information and a heart pulse using an air pressure sensor. We could detect the heart pulse at higher S/N ratio for the various positions using an air pressure sensor. As the result for Ave volunteers, we could extract the heart pulse at the 1.28% error ratio. In the temporal transitional interval time of heart pulse between our method and a sphygmograph, the mean error is 4.73. This accuracy is enough to processing the heart rate monitoring in clinical usage. © 2006 IEEE.

This paper describes an ultrasonic testing system with a columnar rod. The general ultrasonic probe is affected by transmission pulse for measurement using the direct contact method. However, if we use a columnar rod between an ultrasonic probe and a target object, we can measure without the transmission pulse. This paper describes the measurement system of the object thickness by the rod and fuzzy logic. The evaluation method consists of three stages. First, the surface echo position is determined from the acquisition ultrasonic wave. Second, the bottom echo position is decided by using fuzzy inference. Finally, the object thickness is calculated from the surface position and the bottom position. We applied our method to ten materials with different thickness. As the result, our method was able to evaluate the thickness of all materials within the error rate of 6.0%. © 2006 IEEE.