How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

An intelligent electronic appliance preferably includes a user interface, data input and/or output port, and an intelligent processor. A preferred embodiment comprises a set top box for interacting with broadband media streams, with an adaptive user interface, content-based media processing and/or media metadata processing, and telecommunications integration. An adaptive user interface models the user, by observation, feedback, and/or explicit input, and presents a user interface and/or executes functions based on the user model. A content-based media processing system analyzes media content, for example audio and video, to understand the content, for example to generate content-descriptive metadata. A media metadata processing system operates on locally or remotely generated metadata to process the media in accordance with the metadata, which may be, for example, an electronic program guide, MPEG 7 data, and/or automatically generated format. A set top box preferably includes digital trick play effects, and incorporated digital rights management features.

Intelligent electronic appliance system and method

An adaptive interface for a programmable system, for predicting a desired user function, based on user history, as well as machine internal status and context. The apparatus receives an input from the user and other data. A predicted input is presented for confirmation by the user, and the predictive mechanism is updated based on this feedback. Also provided is a pattern recognition system for a multimedia device, wherein a user input is matched to a video stream on a conceptual basis, allowing inexact programming of a multimedia device. The system analyzes a data stream for correspondence with a data pattern for processing and storage. The data stream is subjected to adaptive pattern recognition to extract features of interest to provide a highly compressed representation which may be efficiently processed to determine correspondence. Applications of the interface and system include a VCR, medical device, vehicle control system, audio device, environmental control system, securities trading terminal, and smart house. The system optionally includes an actuator for effecting the environment of operation, allowing closed-loop feedback operation and automated learning.

Ergonomic man-machine interface incorporating adaptive pattern recognition based control system

An adaptive interface for a programmable system, for predicting a desired user function, based on user history, as well as machine internal status and context. The apparatus receives an input from the user and other data. A predicted input is presented for confirmation by the user, and the predictive mechanism is updated based on this feedback. Also provided is a pattern recognition system for a multimedia device, wherein a user input is matched to a video stream on a conceptual basis, allowing inexact programming of a multimedia device. The system analyzes a data stream for correspondence with a data pattern for processing and storage. The data stream is subjected to adaptive pattern recognition to extract features of interest to provide a highly compressed representation that may be efficiently processed to determine correspondence. Applications of the interface and system include a video cassette recorder (VCR), medical device, vehicle control system, audio device, environmental control system, securities trading terminal, and smart house. The system optionally includes an actuator for effecting the environment of operation, allowing closed-loop feedback operation and automated learning.

Adaptive pattern recognition based control system and method

The invention is directed to manipulator assembly (2) for holding and manipulating a surgical instrument (14) in a telerobotic system. The manipulator assembly includes an instrument holder removably coupled to a drive assembly so that the holder can be sterilized. The assembly further includes a force sensing element (52) mounted distal to the holder and the drive assembly for detecting forces exerted on the surgical instrument and providing feedback to the surgeon. The invention is also directed to a system and method for releasably holding a surgical instrument (14). The system includes an instrument support for automatically locking mounting pins on the instrument within locking slots on the instrument holder to releasably couple the instrument to the holder. With a twist-lock motion, the surgeon can rapidly engage and disengage various instruments from the holder during a surgical procedure, such as open surgery, laparoscopy or thoracoscopy.

Surgical manipulator for a telerobotic system

This paper provides a novel method for detecting bottlenecks in manufacturing systems and the shifting of these bottlenecks. All manufacturing systems are constrained by one or more bottlenecks. Improving the bottleneck will improve the whole system. Yet, finding the bottleneck is no trivial task. Furthermore, the system may change over time or due to random events, and subsequently the bottleneck may shift from one machine to another machine. The shifting bottleneck detection method determines the bottleneck based on the duration a machine is active without interruption. The method is very robust, easy to apply and able to detect the primary and secondary bottlenecks in a wide range of production systems. This allows the use of simulation to predict bottlenecks for both steady state and variable systems. The measurement of the likelihood of a machine being the bottleneck aids in the decision-making regarding the allocation of the available resources.

Shifting bottleneck detection

This paper describes a novel method for detecting the bottleneck in a discrete event system by examining the average duration of a machine being active for all machines. The machine with the longest average uninterrupted active period is considered the bottleneck. The method is widely applicable and also capable of analyzing complex and sophisticated systems. The results are highly accurate, distinguishing between bottleneck machines and non-bottleneck machines with a high level of confidence. This approach is very easy to use and can be implemented into existing simulation tools with little effort, requiring only an analysis of the log file which is readily available by almost all simulation tools. This method satisfies not only academic requirements with respect to accuracy but also industry requirements with respect to usability.

A practical bottleneck detection method

Towards a Circular Economy for End-of-Life Vehicles: A Comparative Study UK – Japan☆

An apparatus for detecting the collision of objects including a moving object includes a face information memory for storing face information describing the surfaces of each object; hierarchical sphere model generator for modeling the surfaces of each object by hierarchically covering the surfaces with spheres having various radii on the basis of the face information; sphere model memory for storing the positions of the modeled spheres generated; sphere position updater for updating the position of each modeled sphere having various radii with respect to the moving object and outputting the updated position; and sphere collision computer for executing procedures in which mutually colliding spheres are detected on the basis of the positions of the modeled spheres concerning two of the objects generated at an arbitrary time and stored in the sphere model memory and colliding spheres among spheres belonging to the mutually colliding spheres and having a smaller radius are further detected with respect to only the spheres determined to collide with each other, and for determining the collision of the two objects with each other when finally mutually colliding spheres having the smallest radius are present. The procedures are executed hierarchically and consecutively starting with spheres having a large radius toward spheres having a smaller radius.

Apparatus for detecting the collision of moving objects

A basic image of objects is extracted from a two-dimensional image of objects. Geometrical elements of the objects are extracted from the extracted basic image. The objects to be recognized are identified by searching a combination of the geometrical elements which match a geometrical model and then utilizing candidate position/orientation of the objects to be recognized, said candidate position/orientation being determined from a relationship in relative position between the combination of geometrical elements and the geometrical model. Mesh cells fixed to the geometrical model are mapped on the basic image based on the candidate position/orientation. In addition, verification is made as to whether an image of the geometrical model mapped by the candidate position/orientation is accurately matched with an image of one of the objects to be recognized, through a neural network to which values got from the basic image included in the individual mesh cells are to be applied as input values. Combination weight factors employed in the neural network are learned according to the verified results. It is also possible to recognize the multi-purpose objects according to how to learn the combination weight factors.

Masaru Nakano

Papers

Shifting bottleneck detection

A practical bottleneck detection method

Towards a Circular Economy for End-of-Life Vehicles: A Comparative Study UK – Japan☆

Apparatus for detecting the collision of moving objects

Apparatus for visual recognition