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Research Highlights Multiple Sensor Fusion Technology for Non-contact Measurement of Vital Signs and its Clinical Applications
 Frontiers of state of the art precision molecular spectroscopy Technology for processing wood powder with natural additives

Researcher Video Profiles
 Guanghao Sun, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering Shohei Kajikawa, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering

Topics Weather monitoring in three dimensions: Rain rate estimates using X-band phased array weather radar network

News and Events
 Report：The kickoff meeting and the 5th UEC Seminar in ASEAN, 2019 with partner universities in Hanoi
 Announcement of Irago Conference 2019 to be held at UEC on 29 October 2019

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Multiple Sensor Fusion Technology for Non-contact Measurement of Vital
Signs and its Clinical Applications
There is increasing interest in technology for non-contact measurement of human vital signs (heart rate,
respiration, and body temperature), which are important for understanding the state of a person's health. New
biological measurement sensors have been developed as well as reports on methods for measuring respirationor heartbeat using pressure sensors, microwave radar, RGB camera, and thermography. This technology has
wide-ranging applications. Guanghao Sun's group is developing clinical applications for monitoring elderly
people, identification of sleep apnea, detection of patients who may carry infectious diseases, and noncontact
measurement of stress levels [1-2].

Infection screening system based on multiple vital-signs for preventing pandemic diseases
The outbreak of infectious diseases such as swine flu (H1N1) and avian flu (H5N1) are a threat to global
health. To prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases, many international airport quarantine areas
have adopted fever-based screening using infrared thermography to identify potentially infected individuals.
Unfortunately, some studies indicate that fever-based screening at early-stages of infectious diseases is limited
due to factors that can affect thermographic measurements, such as antifebrile intake, alcohol consumption,
and ambient temperatures.
Guanghao Sun has proposed an infection screening system that can rapidly and accurately perform medical
inspections. As a result of being infected, not only body temperature but also heart and respiration rates
increase. Sun's system automatically detects infected individuals within 15 seconds by a discriminant function
using measured vital signs. Heart and respiration rates are determined using a 24-GHz microwave radar bynoncontact way, and facial skin temperature is monitored by a thermographic camera. By using these threeparameters, the detection accuracy of the system improved to 88% in a case control study [1]. This is notably
higher compared to the conventional screening methods using only thermography.

An infection screening system based on multiple vital-signs for prevention of pandemic diseases

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Remote monitoring of respiratory rate using a medical radar system for the early detection ofpneumonia in elderly bedridden hospitalized patients.
The use of continuous and long‐term monitoring of respiratory rate is vital for predicting pneumonia in
symptomatic patients. However, it is often measured manually and discontinuously by counting chest wall
movements in routine practice. Sun has developed a point‐of‐care system for the early detection ofpneumonia in symptomatic elderly bedridden hospitalized patients on the basis of 24‐hours continuous andnoncontact monitoring of respiratory rate using a medical radar sensor [2].
Sun focused on designing a system that would improve hospitalized patient quality of life and reduce medical
staff workload. To this end, the system adopts a medical radar sensor for respiration monitoring that featured
an extremely low burden on the patient and enabled unobtrusive measurements without the need to attach
electrodes to the patient's body. To reduce medical staff workload, a prediction method, that is, return map,
was implemented into the system to analyze the time series respiratory rates, thereby extracting the risk periodof pneumonia and sending out an alarm. The novelty of the proposed system is that it introduces a new
approach to investigating respiration dynamics using a noncontact medical radar sensor for the early
prediction of pneumonia that has the potential to serve as a helpful tool for improving patient quality of lifeand reduce medical staff workload to meet the needs of the aging society.

Twenty-four-hour continuous and remote monitoring of respiratory rate using a medical radar system

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

References
1. Guanghao Sun, Takemi Matsui, Yukiya Hakozaki, Shigeto Abe An infectious disease/fever screening radarsystem which stratifies higher-risk patients within ten seconds using a neural network and the fuzzy grouping
method. Journal of Infection, 70(3), 230-236, 2015.
2. Guanghao Sun, Masakazu Okada, Rin Nakamura, Taro Matsuo, Tetsuo Kirimoto, Yukiya Hakozaki,
Takemi Matsui Twenty-Four-Hour Continuous and Remote Monitoring of Respiratory Rate Using a Medical
Radar System for the Early Detection of Pneumonia in Symptomatic Elderly Bedridden Hospitalized Patients.
Clinical Case Reports, 7(1), 83-86, 2019.
・Author: Guanghao Sun・Affiliations: Guanghao Sun, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Informatics
and Engineering, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo.
・Department Website: https://sun-melab.com/
・Researcher Video Profiles:
http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/researcher-video-profiles/2019/guanghao-sun.
html

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Frontiers of state of the art precision molecular spectroscopy
The mid-infrared wavelength region is attractive and important for fundamental physics as well as
applications such as atmosphere chemistry due to the existence of so-called "molecular fingerprints" that are
inherent and strong absorption lines for individual molecules. The detailed analysis of fingerprints reveals theinternal structure of molecules and verifies fundamental theories of physics. In the mid-infrared region,
especially longer than wavelength of 5 μm, however, the availability of suitable light sources for precise
spectroscopy, that is laser source having high power and high frequency stability, are extremely limited. In
addition, it is technically challenging to do sensitive spectroscopy in the mid-infrared region because of large
noise and small dynamic range of photo detectors.

image of spatially separated 10 μm-comb modes. Missing dot is due to absorption of N2O molecule.

Kana Iwakuni and colleagues have developed a wide range of spectrometers using CW lasers and opticalfrequency combs [1,2,3,4] and made considerable contributions to molecular science [5,6,7]. Recently, theresearchers have developed a direct frequency comb spectrometer at 10 μm using an immersion grating, which
is a highly dispersive optical grating to separate each comb mode spatially [4]. The spectrometer can be used
to observe temporal development of broadband spectra every 10 μs and the fast acquisition characteristic
enables the detection of transient molecules such as NO3 and Crigee intermediates. Based on these
spectroscopic techniques, including optical frequency combs, Kana Iwakuni is aiming to develop novel
spectrometers in the mid-infrared region to offer the next advancement for precise spectroscopy whencombined with cold molecules.
1. K. Iwakuni, S. Okubo, H. Sasada, A novel frequency control scheme for comb-referenced sensitive
difference-frequency-generation spectroscopy, Opt. Express, 21,14832-14840 (2013).
2. S. Okubo*, K. Iwakuni*, H. Inaba, K. Hosaka, A. Onae, H. Sasada, F.-L. Hong, Ultra-broadband
dual-comb spectroscopy across 1.0-1.9 μm, Appl. Phys. Express, 8, 082402 (2015). *These authors
contributedequally.
3. M. Yan, P.-L. Luo, K. Iwakuni, G. Millot, T. W. Hänsch, N. Picqué, Mid-infrared dual-comb spectroscopy
with electro-optic modulators, Light Science & Applications 6, E17076 (2017).
The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

4. K. Iwakuni, T. Q. Bui, J. F. Niedermeyer, T. Sukegawa, J. Ye, Comb-resolved spectroscopy withimmersion grating in long-wave infrared, Opt. Express 27, 1911 (2019).
5. K. Iwakuni, H. Sera, M. Abe, H. Sasada, Hyperfine-resolved transition frequency list of fundamental
vibration bands of H35Cl and H37Cl, J. Mol. Spectrosc. 306, 19-25 (2014).
6. K. Iwakuni, S. Okubo, K. M. T. Yamada, H. Inaba, A. Onae, F.-L. Hong, H. Sasada, Ortho-para dependentpressure effects observed in the near infrared band of acetylene by dual -comb spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett.
117, 143902 (2016).
7. S. Okubo, K. Iwakuni, K. M. T. Yamada, H. Inaba, A. Onae, F. -L. Hong, H. Sasada, Transition
dipole-moment of the ν1 + ν3 band of acetylene measured with dual-comb fourier-transform spectroscopy, J.
Mol. Spectrosc. 314, 10-16 (2017).
・Author: Kana Iwakuni, Assistant Professor
・Affiliations: Institute for Laser Science, UEC, Tokyo.
・Website: http://www.ils.uec.ac.jp/

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Technology for processing wood powder with natural additives
Biomass materials such as wood are environmentally-friendly alternatives to fossil resources. As an example,
wood is typically non-toxic and carbon neutral. Furthermore, wood can be produced in a sustainable mannerby appropriate planting and trimming of trees. Therefore, the use of wood resources as industrial materials is
an important aspect for realizing a sustainable society.
Incorporating wood into industrial applications requires effective processing methods. Wood products are
generally shaped by cutting processes because the deformability of wood is inferior to that of metals andplastics. Therefore, much of the original material is turned into waste chips or powder during the cutting
process.
Shohei Kajikawa and colleagues at The University of Electro-Communications and Kyoto University
developed injection molding of wood powder with sucrose, which is a natural binder, for fabricating products
based on natural resources effectively.
In the molding process, the binder plasticizes upon heating and the material, which is composed of the woodparticles and the binder, flows due to the deformation of the binder and the slip of the particles. The binder
solidifies between the particles upon cooling, and then the material is self-bonded. Fluidity of the material isimportant for improving moldabiliy, and changes drastically with molding conditions, such as temperature andbinder content. Therefore, effects of added sucrose on the moldability of the wood powder were investigated,the molding conditions were optimized by thermal analysis, capillary flow test and injection molding.

Injection molding of wood powder with sucrose.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

As a result, the wood powder with the sucrose flowed at temperatures above 180 ºC, although flow wasrestricted above 220 ºC due to the effect of gases evolved from the sucrose. The minimum sucrose content
required for flow was 30 wt% within the temperature range of 180 to 200 ºC. The material was filled in themold under optimized conditions, and the product with good surface texture was molded at a sucrose content
of 30 wt% and 200 ºC.
This proposed method allows the fabrication of products from naturally occurring materials with minimal
environmental impact.

References
1. Shohei Kajikawa, Masaya Horikoshi, Soichi Tanaka, Kenji Umemura and Kozo Kanayama.
2. Title of original paper: Molding of wood powder with a natural binder.
3. Journal, volume, pages and year: Procedia Engineering 207, 113-118 (2017).
4. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.10.747
5. Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, The University ofElectro-Communications.
6. Kuboki & Kajikawa Lab. website: http://www.mt.mce.uec.ac.jp/
・Author: Shohei Kajikawa
・Affiliations: Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems
Engineering, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo.
・Department Website: http://www.mt.mce.uec.ac.jp/
・Researcher Video Profiles:
http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/researcher-video-profiles/2019/shohei-kajika
wa.html

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Guanghao Sun, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Informatics andEngineering
Multiple Sensor Fusion Technology for Non-contact
Measurement of Vital Signs and its Clinical Applications
Guanghao Sun is conducting research on the development of
non-contact biometric measurement and technology and their
medical applications.
In recent years, research and development of technology for measuring vital signs such as body temperature,heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure without touching the human body is attracting attention.
Such non-contact biometric technology has a much lower burden on patients than conventional contact
technology, and it can perform continuous monitoring without restraint and unconsciously, for a long time.
Therefore, Sun is using remote sensors such as radar, thermography, CCD cameras, photoelectric pulse wave
sensor (PPG), piezoelectric sensor (BCG), electrocardiograph (ECG), and ToF sensor for non-contact
measurement of vital signs by developing signal and image processing technology and commercialization anddevelopment of medical systems that implement this technology.
For example, microwave radar measures minute movements associated with respiration and heart rate that
occur on the surface of the human body and calculates the heart rate and respiration rate. In addition,
thermography measures infrared radiation emitted from the body-surface to measure the body temperature
without contact.
Utilizing this technology to measure such non-contact vital signs, I am promoting student projects on"infectious disease screening system applied to airport quarantine"; "elderly watching system for home healthcare"; "sleep evaluation system"; "respiratory function measurement system"; and "evaluation system tomeasure fluctuations of autonomic nervous function from the heart rate".
Aiming for such practical applications for the social implementation, go from the initial "idea stage", to"system design", "manufacturing", "biosignal processing", "clinical evaluation" and "academia- industry
collaboration" in a single process to create medical systems that are useful for people.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Further information
Guanghao Sun
Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, The University ofElectro-Communications.
Research Highlight:
http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/research-highlights/2019/multiple-sensor-fusion-technology-for-non-contac
t-measurement-of-vital-signs.html

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Shohei Kajikawa, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical andIntelligent Systems Engineering
Technology for processing wood powder with natural
additives
Shohei Kajikawa working on new processing methods formetals, wood, etc., and the optimization of methods forconventional processing methods.
The specific target of his research is materials processing technology, such as plastic forming, that is used to
manufacture parts for all kinds of products ranging from automobiles, home appliances, furniture, housingmaterials, stationery, etc., that we use daily. If such parts can be manufactured easily and in a short time, it ispossible to reduce the cost of products around us as well as reducing the burden on our environmental by
improving processing efficiency.
Also, if it is possible to create new shapes that could not be produced before, it would be possible to add newfunctions to products.
One topic is the development of wood processing technology. Wood is an environmentally friendly resourcewith low environmental impact, but it is difficult to process efficiently compared to metals and plastics widelyused as industrial materials, so the price of wood-made products is high. Also its applications are limited.
The goal is improving the formability of wood by heat treatment and using additives of natural origin, andcarry out efficient forming and processing used for metals and plastics.
Products obtained by this method have higher density and harder properties than ordinary wood. I going
forward with this research, I think it will be possible to use wood with low environmental impact as a material
to replace petroleum-based plastics.
Further information
Shohei Kajikawa
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, The University ofElectro-Communications.
Research Highlight:
http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/research-highlights/2019/technology-for-processing-wood-powder-with-nat
ural-additives.html

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Weather monitoring in three dimensions: Rain rate estimates using X-band
phased array weather radar network
X-band phased-array weather radars (PAWRs) are located at Osaka and Kobe. The PAWR provides athree-dimensional structure of the precipitation within 30 sec.
However, the rain rate estimated by PAWR tends to be underestimated because the rain attenuates thereceived power.
To resolve this issue Hiroshi Kikuchi, Tomoo Ushio and colleagues at The University ofElectro-Communications and Tokyo Metropolitan University show that network observations with two phasedarray weather radars improves the accuracy of estimating the rain rate within the networked area.
This study proposes a rain rate estimation method by sequentially varying the radar reflectivity factor (Z) andrain rate (R) relationship, the goal being to improve the rain rate estimation accuracy. To calculate the time
variation in the Z-R relationship, the rain rate estimated with the existing radar networks and the radarreflectivity observed by the PAWR are used.
The proposed method is significantly better than the other existing two methods at accurately estimating
rainfall rate for heavy or violent rain conditions.

Estimation of the rain rate with the existing methods (Z-R, k-R) and proposed method.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

For practical use, it is important to estimate accurate rain rate under heavy or violent rain conditions because
storm warnings are issued when the rain rate is over a threshold; the proposed method is particularly effective
under conditions of strong rainfall.

Reference
・Author: Hiroshi Kikuchi, Tomoo Ushio, Fumihiko Mizutani, and Masakazu Wada.
・Title of original paper: Improving the accuracy of rain rate estimates using X-band
phased array weather radar network.
・Journal, volume, pages and year: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing 56, 6986 - 6994 (2018).
・Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1109/TGRS.2018.2846818
・Affiliations: Center for Space Science and Radio Engineering (SSRE), The
University of Electro Communications, Tokyo.
・Department Website: http://kjk.office.uec.ac.jp/Profiles/75/0007481/profile.html

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.

Report：The kickoff meeting and the 5th UEC Seminar in ASEAN, 2019 withpartner universities in Hanoi
https://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/news/announcement/2019/20190422_1799.html
As of 8 January, 2019, the University ofElectro-Communications (UEC) has signed a Global Alliance
Lab: GAL agreement between four sister institutions of the
Universities of UEC (Hanoi Us), located in Hanoi Vietnam. The
four sister institutions are Le Quy Don Technical University(LQD), VNU University of Engineering and Technology

HanoiUs-UEC GAL kickoff meeting(VNU-UET), National Hospital of Tropical Diseases (NHTD), and Hanoi University of Science andTechnology (HUST). GAL recognized "HanoiUs-UEC GAL" as a part of the GAL organization, and a kickoff
meeting was held at the executive secretary school of the Hanoi district, LQD, on 27 March 2019. The
opening ceremony was held on 29 March during the 5th UEC seminar in ASEAN 2019, as organized by the
UEC ASEAN Research and Education Center (UAREC). HanoiUs-UEC GAL is the first of five universities
to become part of GAL, and it will promote international collaborative endeavors on research and education.
At the kickoff meeting and the opening ceremony, Prof. Ky
Nam Le, the vice president of LQD, Prof. Bao Son Pham, thevice president of VNU-UET, Prof. Van Kinh Nguyen, thedirector of NHTD, Prof. Huu Thanh Nguyen, the dean of HUST,Prof. Abe, the vice president of UEC, Prof. Ishibashi, professorof UEC, and other professors of these institutions attended.

The 5th UEC Seminar in ASEAN, 2019

At the kickoff meeting, constructive discussions on promoting future collaboration under the name of
HanoiUs-UEC GAL was held.
After the vice president of Prof. Koji Abe's speech at the opening ceremony, he explained the organization andintroduced examples of inter-organizational collaboration. All members expressed their expectations andaspirations for this collaboration. Approximately 50 welcomed participants attended the 5th UEC Seminar in
ASEAN 2019, including those from partner schools in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. In addition
to the HanoiUs-UEC GAL opening ceremony mentioned above, information was given on the co-sponsoredthe ECTI-UEC Workshop on AI and Applications and the UEC Seminar are scheduled for September 2019 in
Bangkok.

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Exchanging various examples, ideas, and comments was helpful in promoting future collaborations at this 5th
UEC Seminar in ASEAN 2019. The co-sponsorship of the ECTI Workshop on AI and Applications was also
fully recognized.

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Announcement of Irago Conference 2019 to be held at UEC on 29 October 2019
Main theme of Irago Conference 2019 Insights into the sustainable development goals: "What
About The Earth's Resources? "Internationally renowned experts will share their insights into the challenges for achieving the goals set out by
the UN.

Date: 29 October 2019
Venue: Auditorium, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo.
http://iragoconference.jp/

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The University of Electro-Communications (UEC) in Tokyo
is a small, luminous university at the forefront of pure and applied sciences, engineering, andtechnology research. Its roots go back to the Technical Institute for Wireless Commutations,which was established in 1918 by the Wireless Association to train so-called wireless engineers
in maritime communications in response to the Titanic disaster in 1912. In 1949, the UEC wasestablished as a national university by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and moved in 1957
from Meguro to its current Chofu campus Tokyo.
With approximately 4,000 students and 350 faculty, UEC is regarded as a small university, butwith particular expertise in wireless communications, laser science, robotics, informatics, andmaterial science, to name just a few areas of research.
The UEC was selected for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities as a result of its strengths inthree main areas: optics and photonics research, where we are number one for the numberof joint publications with foreign researchers; wireless communications, which reflects ourroots; and materials-based research, particularly on fuel cells.
International Public Relations
The University of Electro-Communications
1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585
E-mail : kokusai-k@office.uec.ac.jp
Website : http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/

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182-8585 © 2019 The University of Electro-Communications.