Tokyo Institute of Technology

About: Tokyo Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Tokyo, Tôkyô, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Thin film. The organization has 46775 authors who have published 101656 publications receiving 2357893 citations. The organization is also known as: Tokyo Tech & Tokodai.

NetVLAD: CNN Architecture for Weakly Supervised Place Recognition

Abstract: We tackle the problem of large scale visual place recognition, where the task is to quickly and accurately recognize the location of a given query photograph. We present the following three principal contributions. First, we develop a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture that is trainable in an end-to-end manner directly for the place recognition task. The main component of this architecture, NetVLAD, is a new generalized VLAD layer, inspired by the "Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors" image representation commonly used in image retrieval. The layer is readily pluggable into any CNN architecture and amenable to training via backpropagation. Second, we develop a training procedure, based on a new weakly supervised ranking loss, to learn parameters of the architecture in an end-to-end manner from images depicting the same places over time downloaded from Google Street View Time Machine. Finally, we show that the proposed architecture significantly outperforms non-learnt image representations and off-the-shelf CNN descriptors on two challenging place recognition benchmarks, and improves over current state of-the-art compact image representations on standard image retrieval benchmarks.

Quantum annealing in the transverse Ising model

Abstract: We introduce quantum fluctuations into the simulated annealing process of optimization problems, aiming at faster convergence to the optimal state. Quantum fluctuations cause transitions between states and thus play the same role as thermal fluctuations in the conventional approach. The idea is tested by the transverse Ising model, in which the transverse field is a function of time similar to the temperature in the conventional method. The goal is to find the ground state of the diagonal part of the Hamiltonian with high accuracy as quickly as possible. We have solved the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation numerically for small size systems with various exchange interactions. Comparison with the results of the corresponding classical (thermal) method reveals that the quantum annealing leads to the ground state with much larger probability in almost all cases if we use the same annealing schedule.

Amorphous Oxide Semiconductors for High-Performance Flexible Thin-Film Transistors

Abstract: Recently, we have demonstrated the potential of amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) for developing flexible thin-film transistors (TFTs). A material exploration of AOSs desired as the channel layer in TFTs is most important for developing high-performance devices. Here, we report our concept of material exploration for AOSs in high-performance flexible and transparent TFTs from the viewpoints of chemical bonding and electronic structure in oxide semiconductors. We find that amorphous In–Ga–Zn–O (a-IGZO) exhibits good carrier transport properties such as reasonably high Hall mobilities (>10 cm2V-1s-1) and a good controllability of carrier concentration from <1015 to 1020 cm-3. In addition, a-IGZO films have better chemical stabilities in ambient atmosphere and at temperatures up to 500 °C. The flexible and transparent TFT fabricated using a-IGZO channel layer at room temperature operated with excellent performances, such as normally-off characteristics, on/off current ratios (~106) and field-effect mobilities (~10 cm2V-1s-1), which are higher by an order of magnitude than those of amorphous Si:H and organics TFTs.

Functional Molecular Flasks : New Properties and Reactions within Discrete, Self-Assembled Hosts

Abstract: The application of self-assembled hosts as "molecular flasks" has precipitated a surge of interest in the reactivity and properties of molecules within well-defined confined spaces. The facile and modular synthesis of self-assembled hosts has enabled a variety of hosts of differing sizes, shapes, and properties to be prepared. This Review briefly highlights the various molecular flasks synthesized before focusing on their use as functional molecular containers--specifically for the encapsulation of guest molecules to either engender unusual reactions or unique chemical phenomena. Such self-assembled cavities now constitute a new phase of chemistry, which cannot be achieved in the conventional solid, liquid, and gas phases.