Input Devices to Support Communication for People with Serious Disability

Persons suffering from intractable disease like ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and spinal cord injury often show deterioration in muscular function. Some of these patients are obliged to use artificial respirators and cannot have verbal communication with others. In order to support their communication, there exist various input devices like touch sensor input devices, capacitance sensor input devices and also vision input devices. In addition, computer controlled environment is helpful for such patients. By developing proper computer controlled environment which is controlled by the proper input device, even the patient with serious disability can live sound life. Due to the infrared network system, the computer controlled environment could be well organized.9th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-Hoc and Sensor Networks, MSN 2013; Dalian; China; 11 December 2013 through 13 December 201

A sensor to measure hardness of human tissue

An innovative sensor is developed to evaluate hardness of human soft tissue. This sensor provides easy and accurate hardness measurements based on a unique sensing mechanism. Hardness of soft materials is often evaluated by using international standards of hardness such as IRHD (International Rubber Hardness Degree) and durometer hardness. However the conventional scales based on these standards requires a stable pressuring condition to the target. Therefore, these scales cannot be used for targets that are in motion or targets that require quick measurement such as human muscles during exercises and a liver exposed at a surgery. The prototyped sensor has a compact body and allows continuous hardness measurement with an arbitrary pressing force. This sensor always monitors the force exerted on the sensor and automatically eliminates the unintended effect from the fluctuation of the pressing force. Therefore, continuous time series of the hardness data is real-timely available. This paper reports results of a test as well as the detail of the mechanism and data processing technique of the latest version of the sensor.2006 5th IEEE Conference on Sensors : Daegu, Korea, 2006.10.22-2006.10.2

Effect of daily setup errors on individual dose distribution in conventional radiotherapy: An initial study

金沢大学医薬保健研究域保健学系Recent linear accelerators can perform cone-beam computed tomography to correct setup errors immediately before dose delivery. We calculated the dose distribution with setup errors acquired from cone-beam computed tomography to determine a more realistic and individual effect of setup errors. The differences in dose distribution were analyzed. The setup errors of three patients who were irradiated in the neck, esophagus, and pelvic area were obtained retrospectively. We found that the maximum dose variances for the three cases were 19.9-35.9%. The maximum dose variance points were relatively far from the isocenter. The volume of the 10% dose difference had widths of 1.3-1.85 cm around the beam edges. The V95 and mean doses at the clinical target volume were mostly unchanged. Doses around the beam edges were more varied than those around the isocenter for every case. The dose on the spinal cord located near the beam edges varied by 5-10% compared with the dose of the radiotherapy plan in two of the cases. We demonstrated the individual dose distributions of the cases affected by daily setup errors for all fractions. © 2009 Japanese Society of Radiological Technology and Japan Society of Medical Physics

Impact of pitch angle setup error and setup error correction on dose distribution in volumetric modulated arc therapy for prostate cancer

In volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for prostate cancer, a positional and rotational error correction is performed according to the position and angle of the prostate. The correction often involves body leaning, and there is concern regarding variation in the dose distribution. Our purpose in this study was to evaluate the impact of body pitch rotation on the dose distribution regarding VMAT. Treatment plans were obtained retrospectively from eight patients with prostate cancer. The body in the computed tomography images for the original VMAT plan was shifted to create VMAT plans with virtual pitch angle errors of ±1.5° and ±3°. Dose distributions for the tilted plans were recalculated with use of the same beam arrangement as that used for the original VMAT plan. The mean value of the maximum dose differences in the dose distributions between the original VMAT plan and the tilted plans was 2.98 ± 0.96 %. The value of the homogeneity index for the planning target volume (PTV) had an increasing trend according to the pitch angle error, and the values of the D95 for the PTV and D2ml, V50, V60, and V70 for the rectum had decreasing trends (p < 0.05). However, there was no correlation between differences in these indexes and the maximum dose difference. The pitch angle error caused by body leaning had little effect on the dose distribution; in contrast, the pitch angle correction reduced the effects of organ displacement and improved these indexes. Thus, the pitch angle setup error in VMAT for prostate cancer should be corrected. © 2016 Japanese Society of Radiological Technology and Japan Society of Medical PhysicsEmbargo Perios 12 month

Triggered single-photon emission and cross-correlation properties in InAlAs quantum dot

Triggered single-photon generation from InAlAs quantum dot (QD) was demonstrated for the first time. Emitted photon energy coincides with high detection efficiency range of Si single-photon detectors, which is highly suitable for free-space communication. Single-QD spectroscopy and crossed photon correlation measurements unambiguously revealed that several emitting lines observed in a single mesa structure originated from the identical QD, and two temporary competing decay processes associated with neutral states and charged states were identified. Presence of the competing process is also inferred from an analysis of steady-state photoluminescence intensities. Formation process of charged exciton in QD is also discussed

A sensor to measure hardness of human tissue

An innovative sensor is developed to evaluate hardness of human soft tissue. This sensor provides easy and accurate hardness measurements based on a unique sensing mechanism. Hardness of soft materials is often evaluated by using international standards of hardness such as IRHD (International Rubber Hardness Degree) and durometer hardness. However the conventional scales based on these standards requires a stable pressuring condition to the target. Therefore, these scales cannot be used for targets that are in motion or targets that require quick measurement such as human muscles during exercises and a liver exposed at a surgery. The prototyped sensor has a compact body and allows continuous hardness measurement with an arbitrary pressing force. This sensor always monitors the force exerted on the sensor and automatically eliminates the unintended effect from the fluctuation of the pressing force. Therefore, continuous time series of the hardness data is real-timely available. This paper reports results of a test as well as the detail of the mechanism and data processing technique of the latest version of the sensor.2006 5th IEEE Conference on Sensors : Daegu, Korea, 2006.10.22-2006.10.2

Photon Antibunching Observed from an InAlAs Single Quantum Dot

Single-photon emitters and detectors are the key devices to realize secure communications with single-photon-based quantum cryptography and single-photon-based quantum computing. InAlAs quantum dots (QDs) cover the wavelength range with high quantum efficiencies of Si-based single-photon detectors. Clear photon antibunching was observed from an InAlAs single QD under weak excitations. To realize single-photon emitters on demand, complete population of the QD energy states before the photon emission events is necessary, but the measured antibunching properties were dependent substantially on the photo-excitation powers. The physical origin of this problem is discussed and the criterion to distinguish the real deviation from the photon antibunching condition and the artifact of the measurements is clarified. The capability of single-photon emissions on demand will be demonstrated with photon antibunching under pulsed operations

Photon Antibunching Observed from an InAlAs Single Quantum Dot

Single-photon emitters and detectors are key devices to realize secure communications with single-photon-based quantum cryptography and single-photon-based quantum computing. InAlAs quantum dots (QDs) cover the wavelength range with high quantum efficiencies of Si-based single-photon detectors. Clear photon antibunching was observed from an InAlAs single QD under weak excitations. To realize single-photon emitters on demand, complete population of the QD energy states before the photon emission events is necessary, but the measured antibunching properties were dependent substantially on the photo-excitation powers. The physical origin of this problem is discussed. The criterion to distinguish the real deviation from the photon antibunching condition and the artifact of the measurements is clarified. The capability of single-photon emissions on demand will be demonstrated with photon antibunching under pulsed operations