Yukio Kobayashi’s research while affiliated with National Institute of Technology, Oyama College and other places

We have proposed a novel educational system named the active textbook (hereafter A-txt) system. A-txt system consists of an ordinary paper-based textbook, a general portable electronic terminal with a camera like a smartphone and application software for the system. A normal textbook can be evolved into a digital one through the attachment of additional digital information and all kinds of digital contents such as movie, animation, 3D CG and so on will be available. The teachers who use the system can create contents for A-txt freely without expertise about information technology. The introduction cost is relatively low, because the mobile terminal for students may be their owned general-purpose type, not special-purpose type, and authored educational materials do not need particular software. For the reasons above, the system has a large possibility to spread in multiple educational fields and it can be easy for students to understand several subjects into which the system is introduced.

We proposed a novel noninvasive power-supply system for medical implants at a deep position in the body. The system consists of the magnetic coupling and the small generator. The former system could keep the power of 1 W supplying until 2.5 cm from the skin and the maximum output power was 3.1 W at 1.5 cm. We have manufactured more powerful generators as the next step. The improvement points are to decrease or eliminate the interference between the magnets at the implanted rotor. As a result, the output power increases 6.6 W and the 1 W supplying distance is extended to 3.0 cm.

A wearable device is an electronic device miniaturized to a wearable size with computing and wireless communication functions. In this study, we have applied a communication system using ultrasonic waves to a wearable device. Ultrasonic waves are safe for the human body and do not cause the malfunction of electronic equipment. In addition, communication using ultrasonic waves is effective for preventing "skimming" because ultrasonic waves can transmit through the human body and have a large attenuation in air. Wearable devices can also be used in areas where electromagnetic waves are limited. We have developed an experimental prototype device. The prototype contains a one-chip microcomputer used to verify the size and battery consumption of the wearable device. As a result, the developed prototype realized bidirectional communication with a suitable device size and power consumption. The communication speed corresponds to 250 kbps. This value is equivalent to that of a conventional IC card system using electromagnetic waves. With this proposed system, we can achive various practical applications that can maintain absolute privacy while transmitting information through the human body. (C) 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics