Method for English pronunciation practice utilizing Computer Graphics: CG animation representing tongue movements together with mouse movements is proposed. Pronunciation practice system based on personalized CG animation of mouth movement model is proposed. The system enables a learner to practice pronunciation by looking at personalized CG animations of mouth movement model , and allows him/her to compare them with his/her own mouth movements. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the system by using personalized CG animation of mouth movement model, Japanese vowel and consonant sounds were read by 8 infants before and after practicing with the proposed system, and their pronunciations were examined. Remarkable improvement on their pronunciations is confirmed through a comparison to their pronunciation without the proposed system based on identification test by subjective basis. In addition to the mouth movement, tongue movement is represented by CG animation. Experimental results show 20 to 40 % improvement is confirmed by adding tongue movements for pronunciations of “s” and “th”.

Psychological status monitoring with Cerebral Blood Fflow: CBF, Electroencephalogram: EEG and Electro-oculogram: EOG measurements are attempted. Through experiments, it is confirmed that the proposed method for psychological status monitoring is valid. It is also found correlations among the amplitudes of peak alpha and beta as well as gamma frequency of EEG signals and EOG as well as cerebral blood flow. Therefore, psychological status can be monitored with either EEG measurements or cerebral blood flow and EOG measurements.

Method for most appropriate tealeaves harvest timing with Near Infrared (NIR) camera images is proposed. In the proposed method, NIR camera images of tealeaves are used for estimation of nitrogen content in tealeaves. The nitrogen content is highly correlated to Theanine (amid acid) content in tealeaves. Theanine rich tealeaves taste good. Therefore, tealeaves quality can be estimated with NIR camera images. Also, leaf area of tealeaves is highly correlated to NIR reflectance of tealeaf surface. Therefore, not only tealeaf quality but also harvest mount can be estimated with NIR camera images. Experimental results shows the proposed method does work for estimation of appropriate tealeaves harvest timing with NIR camera images.

This research is focusing on ornamental leaf with dual functionalities, which are ornamental and medicinal functionalities. However, only few people know about the medicinal functionality of this plant. In Indonesia, this plant is also easy to find because mostly cultivates in front of the house. If its medicinal function and that easiness are taken into consideration, this leaf should be an option towards the full chemical-based medicines. This image retrieval system utilizes color, shape, and texture features from leaf images. HSV-based color histogram, Zernike complex moments, and Dyadic wavelet transformation are the color, shape, and texture features extractor methods, respectively. We also implement the Bayesian automatic weighting formula instead of assignment of static weighting factor. From the results, this proposed method is very powerful from any rotation, lighting, and perspective changes.

Gender classification method based on Gait Energy Motion: GEM derived through wavelet analysis of human gait moving pictures is proposed. Through experiments with human gait moving pictures, it is found that the extracted features of wavelet coefficients using silhouettes images are useful for improvement of gender classification accuracy. Also, it is found that the proposed gender classification method shows the best classification performance, 97.63% of correct classification ratio.

Method for object motion characteristic estimation based on wavelet Multi-Resolution Analysis: MRA is proposed. With moving pictures, the motion characteristics, direction of translation, roll/pitch/yaw rotations can be estimated by MRA with an appropriate support length of the base function of wavelet. Through simulation study, method for determination of the appropriate support length of Daubechies base function is clarified. Also it is found that the proposed method for object motion characteristics estimation is validated.

With the rapid development of E-Learning, collaborative learning is important for teaching, learning methods and strategies. Studies over the years shown that students had actively and interactively involved in a classroom discussion to gain their knowledge. Collaborative learning is able to accommodate the situation, where student can exploit and share their resources and skills by asking for information, evaluating, monitoring one another’s information and idea. Therein, the activity allowing one question has many answer or information that should be selected. Every answer has a weighting and very subjective to select. In this paper, we introduce question answering for collaborative learning with domain knowledge and answer quality predictor. By using answer quality predictor, the quality of answers could be determined. On the other side, domain knowledge could be used as knowledge about the environment in which the target information operates as a reference. Through the process of collaborative learning, the usage knowledge base will be enriched for future question answering. Further, not only the student could get answers form others but also provided by the system.

The obstacle avoidance is currently treated by methods that fall into two broad categories: global and local approach. This paper considers the obstacles whose velocity and direction cannot be easily predicted. Such obstacle is called transient obstacle. To avoid such kind of obstacle, we introduce a local path planning method for a robotics by using cellular automaton approach. The cellular automaton was combined with Dijkstra shortest path algorithm as global path planning to obtain a path for mobile robot to be able to avoid transient obstacle along the path. Using the proposed method, a scene in a typical corridor has been created. Moreover, this paper also evaluated two kinds of obstacle avoidance motion. First, the robot uses the “stop and go” method, which is the robot decreases its speed while encounter a transient obstacle. The second one is detour method, in which the robot makes a detour motion to avoid a transient obstacle. To coupe the drawbacks of local path planning, this paper also propose the enhancement of detour method. The simulation results show that in dynamic environment with transient obstacles, the “stop and go” method produces minimal collision with shortest-distance path. While, using the detour method generates minimal collision with time-minimal navigation path.

Human has a duty to preserve the nature, preserving the plant is one of the examples. This research has an emphasis on ornamental plant that has functionality not only as ornament but also as medicine. Although in Indonesia, in general this plant is cultivated in front of the house; only few people know about its medicinal function. Considering this easiness to obtain and its medicinal function, this plant has to be an initial treatment or option towards full chemical-based medicines. This research proposes a system which able to identify properly ornamental plant from its leaf utilizing its shape or color features. Shape descriptor represented by Dyadic Wavelet Transformation and Zernike Complex Moment, and HSV-based color histogram as color descriptor. This research provides benefit of these three methods to solve various test aspects. It was obtained 81.77% of overall average-testing performance.

The increasing advances of Internet Technologies in all application domains have changed life styles and interactions. With the rapid development of E-Learning, collaborative learning is an important for teaching, learning methods and strategies. Studies over the years shown that students had actively and more interactively involved in a classroom discussion to gain their knowledge. Students can ask their questions to the classroom discussion when they want to collaborate with others, asking one another for information, evaluating one another’s ideas. Therein, the activity allowing one question has many answer or information that should be selected. Every answer has a weighting and its very subjective to select it. In this paper, we introduce question answering for collaborative learning with answer quality predictor. By using answer quality predictor the quality of the information could be determined. Through the process of collaborative learning, the knowledge base will be enriched for future question answering. Further, not only the student could get answers form others but also provided by the system.