• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.43 no.2 s.308
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• pp.21-32
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• 2006

The license plate recognition (LPR) unit consists of the following core components: plate region segmentation, individual character extraction, and character recognition. Out of the above three components, accuracy in the performance of plate region segmentation determines the overall recognition rate of the LPR unit. This paper proposes an algorithm for segmenting the license plate region on the front or rear of a vehicle in a fast and accurate manner. In the case of the proposed algorithm images are captured on the spot where unmanned monitoring of illegal parking and stowage is performed with a variety of roadway environments taken into account. As a means of enhancing the segmentation performance of the on-the-spot-captured images of license plate regions, the proposed algorithm uses a mathematical model for license plate colors to convert color images into digital data. In addition, this algorithm uses Gaussian smoothing and double threshold to eliminate image noises, one-pass boundary tracing to do region labeling, and MBR to determine license plate region candidates and extract individual characters from the determined license plate region candidates, thereby segmenting the license plate region on the front or rear of a vehicle through a verification process. This study contributed to addressing the inability of conventional techniques to segment the license plate region on the front or rear of a vehicle where the frame of the license plate is damaged, through processing images in a real-time manner, thereby allowing for the practical application of the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.83-93
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• 2013

Recently, the SURF algorithm, which is conjugated for object tracking system as part of many computer vision applications, is a well-known scale- and rotation-invariant feature detection algorithm. The SURF, due to its high computational complexity, there is essential to develop a hardware accelerator in order to be used on an IP in embedded environment. However, the SURF requires a huge local memory, causing many problems that increase the chip size and decrease the value of IP in ASIC and SoC system design. In this paper, we proposed a way to design a SURF algorithm in hardware with greatly reduced local memory by partitioning the algorithms into several Sub-IPs using external memory and a DMA. To justify validity of the proposed method, we developed an example of simplified object tracking algorithm. The execution speed of the hardware IP was about 31 frame/sec, the logic size was about 74Kgate in the 30nm technology with 81Kbytes local memory in the embedded system platform consisting of ARM Cortex-M0 processor, AMBA bus(AHB-lite and APB), DMA and a SDRAM controller. Hence, it can be used to the hardware IP of SoC Chip. If the image processing algorithm akin to SURF is applied to the method proposed in this paper, it is expected that it can implement an efficient hardware design for target application.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.170-174
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• 2014

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection leads to acute liver failure and death through the intake of contaminated food. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been used to detect HAV in food samples. HAV detection takes a long time, however, due to the virus concentration step required before PCR assay. In this study, a rapid method of detecting the HAVs present in lettuce using immunomagnetic separation combined with quantum dots (IMS-QDs) assay was developed. The detection limit of IMS-QDs for HAV was 10 $TCID_{50}/mL$, similar to the result that was obtained using RT-PCR combined with PEG or IMS. The application of IMS-QDs assay completed the viral detection within one hour, but this was not possible using PEG combined with RT-PCR. In conclusion, IMS-QDs assay is a rapid and efficient method for detecting HAV at a low concentration in agricultural products.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.576-590
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• 1996

Advanced countries such as the USA and Japan are eagerly seeking ways to improve health and welfare of the elderly. One of the services is home health care service using the telephone. Various types of services using the telephone have been developed, improved and are being utilized ranging from the basic consulting to emergency response systems in the area of health care for the elderly. A demonstration project was launched to study the feasibility of a consulting system and telemedicine for the elderly using the public phone system in Korea. For this project, a gathering site for the elderly was selected and those who visited this place were interviewed to find out what kinds of services they wanted and what kind of system they needed to provide the required services. Based on the users' requests and the surrounding environment, a telephone consulting facility was established at the Research Institute of Nursing Science at Seoul National University and consulting personnel was recruited, trained and posted at the center. An Application program for home health care nurses to use when they visited the patients at their homes was developed. This system operates on a notebook Computer and allows nurses to communicate with a doctor at a local hospital through a modem and telecommunication line. These systems were implemented for three months and problems which developed during operation of the systems were identified and progressively modified. Through system evaluation, it was found that a consulting system using phone service will be an invaluable system for the welfare of the elderly in the future. But in order to meet the elderly's need, more services than mere consultation are needed. That is, communication with physicians and hospitals are needed. Thus, when there is any need for physicians' attention, physicians or hospitals should be contacted directly. Similarly for telemedicine, when the home health care nurse visits elderly patients she can assess the patient's problem and provide nursing care, access a physician or hospital to refer her patient to or consult directly using the telecommunication the system. The above mentioned system is a basic form of futuristic telemedicine for the elderly and those who have chronic disease problems. This kind of system will be of great value when it is used on the national information super-highways in the future. In order to get to that stage, of course, this project needs great improvement in the technical, academic, and legal aspects.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.961-974
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• 2005

Various biological approaches to the promotion of periodontal regeneration have been used. These can be divided into the use of growth and differentiation factors, application of extracellular matrix proteins and attachment factors and use of mediators of bone metabolism. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of enamel matrix protein and platelet-rich plasma on the treatment of intrabony defect, with bovine-derived bone powder in humans by digital subtraction radiography. 12 teeth(experimental I group) were treated with enamel matrix protein combined with bovine-derived bone powder and 12 teeth(experimental II group) were treated with platelet-rich plasma combined with bovine-derived bone powder. The change of bone density was assessed by digital subtraction radiography in this study. The change of mineral content was assessed in the method that two radiography were put into computer program to be overlapped and the previous image was subtracted by the later one. Both groups were statistically analyzed by Wilcoxon signed Ranks Test and Mann-whitney Test using SPSS program for windows(5% significance level). The results were as follows: 1. The radiolucency in 3 months after surgery was significantly increased than 1 month after surgery in both groups(experimental I and II groups)(p<0.05). 2. The radiopacity in 6 months after surgery was significantly increased than 3 months after surgery in both groups(experimental I and II groups) (p<0.05). 3. In experimental I group, there was no significant difference between 1 month and 6 months after surgery. 4. In experimental II group. the radiopacity in 6 months after surgery was significantly increased than 1 month after surgery(p<0.05). 5. There was no significant difference between experimental I and II group at 1 month and 3 months after surgery, but the radiopacity in experimental II group was significantly increased at 6 months after surgery(p<0.05). In conclusion, platelet-rich plasma can enhance bone density than enamel matrix protein until 6 months after surgery.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.279-282
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• 2017

Kinect depth sensor, a depth camera developed by Microsoft as a natural user interface for game appeared as a very useful tool in computer vision field. In this paper, due to kinect's depth sensor and its high frame rate, we developed a distance measurement system using Kinect camera to test it for unmanned vehicles which need vision systems to perceive the surrounding environment like human do in order to detect objects in their path. Therefore, kinect depth sensor is used to detect objects in its field of view and enhance the distance measurement system from objects to the vision sensor. Detected object is identified in accuracy way to determine if it is a real object or a pixel nose to reduce the processing time by ignoring pixels which are not a part of a real object. Using depth segmentation techniques along with Open CV library for image processing, we can identify present objects within Kinect camera's field of view and measure the distance from them to the sensor. Tests show promising results that this system can be used as well for autonomous vehicles equipped with low-cost range sensor, Kinect camera, for further processing depending on the application type when they reach a certain distance far from detected objects.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.98-106
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• 2001

This paper presents external load disturbance compensation that used to deadbeat load torque observer and regulation of the compensation gain by parameter estimator. As a result, the response of PMSM follows that of the nominal plant. The load torque compensation method is compose of a dead beat observer that is well-known method. However it has disadvantage such as a noise amplification effect. To reduce of the effect, the post-filter, which is implemented by MA process, is proposed. The parameter compensator with RLSM(recursive least square method) parameter estimator is suggested to increase the performance of the load torque observer and main controller. Although RLSM estimator is one of the most effective methods for online parameter identification, it is difficult to obtain unbiased result in this application. It is caused by disturbed dynamic model with external torque. The proposed RLSM estimator is combined with a high performance torque observer to resolve the problems. As a result, the proposed control system becomes a robust and precise system against the load torque and the parameter variation. A stability and usefulness, through the verified computer simulation and experiment, are shown in this paper.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2002

Effect of scatter media materials and thickness, located between radioactivity and small gamma camera, on imaging characteristics was evaluated. The small gamma camera developed for breast imaging was consisted of collimator, NaI(T1) crystal(60$\times$60$\times$6 ㎣), PSPMT(position sensitive photomultimplier tube), NIMs and personal computer. Monte Carlo simulation was performed to evaluate the system sensitivity with different scatter media thickness(0~8 cm) and materials(air and acrylic) with parallel hole collimator and diverging collimator. The sensitivity and spatial resolution was measured using the small gamma camera with the same condition applied to the simulation. Counts was decreased by 10%(air) and 54%(acryl) with the parallel hole collimator and by 35%(air) and 63%(acryl) with the diverging collimator. Spatial resolution was decreased as increasing the thickness of scatter media. This study substantiate the importance of a gamma camera positioning and the minimization of the distance between detector and target lesion in the clinical application of a gamma camera.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 1998

To make practical application of the MR image for stereotactic radiosurgery, the target point-achieved by acquisition of MR image in stereotactic radiosurgery planning system must agree with the actual isocenter of irradiation in real treatment. And the amount of distortion of the MR image must be known to make a correction for the agreement. A radish containing abundant water content was chosen as a homogeneous phantom for the purpose of verification of the agreement in this experiment. A dosimetric film was firmly attached to the small specially fabricated acryl plate and needle puncture was made through the film just into the acryl plate and a drop of oil was dropped into the hole of the film. The acryl plate with film was inserted into the radish and the dorp of oil represented the target point in MR image. After the image acquisition by stereotatic radiosurgery planning system, we achieved stereotactic coordinate of the target point represented by the oil drop. And we proceeded to actual irradiation to the target point according to the procedure of stereotactic radiosurgery. After the irradiation, the film in the radish was developed and processed and the degree of coincidence between the center of the radiation distribution and the target point represented by the hole in the film was measured. The discrepancy between two points was under 0.5 mm. so we could confirm good coincidence in homogeneous phantom such as radish. On the other hand, authors tried to use our home-made device for estimation of distortion of MR image.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.1123-1129
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• 2015

A pair of two-way valves typically is used in automotive washing machines, where the water flow direction is frequently reversed and highly pressurized clean water is sprayed to remove the oil and dirt remaining on machined engine and transmission blocks. Although this valve system has been widely used because of its competitive price, its application is sometimes restricted by surging effects, such as pressure ripples occurring in rapid changes in water flow caused by inaccurate valve control. As an alternative, one three-way reversing valve can replace the valve system because it provides rapid and accurate changes to the water flow direction without any precise control device. However, a cavitation effect occurs because of the complicated bottom plug shape of the valve. In this study, the cavitation index and percent of cavitation (POC) were introduced to numerically evaluate fluid flows via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. To reduce the cavitation effect generated by the bottom plug, the optimal shape design was carried out through a parametric study, in which a simple computer-aided engineering (CAE) model was applied to avoid time-consuming CFD analysis and difficulties in achieving convergence. The optimal shape design process using full factorial design of experiments (DOEs) and an artificial neural network meta-model yielded the optimal waist and tail length of the bottom plug with a POC value of less than 30%, which meets the requirement of no cavitation occurrence. The optimal waist length, tail length and POC value were found to 6.42 mm, 6.96 mm and 27%, respectively.