Abstract: Provided is a quantum encryption communication apparatus of a transmission side which performs a communication process based on quantum encryption, including: a light source unit which generates a light pulse; a polarization modulating unit which performs polarization modulation of the light pulse by using a variable wavelength plate; and a controller which drives the variable wavelength plate to convert a polarization state of the light pulse to one of a plurality of predetermined polarization bases at random.

Abstract: A distributed processing system includes a plurality of operation devices that perform an operation using power derived from natural energy; and an operation control device that includes a task assigning unit that assigns the same operation task to the plurality of operation devices, and an operation control unit that controls the plurality of operation devices to perform the operation task assigned by the task assigning unit.

Abstract: Disclosed is a terminal device, which includes an encrypting section encrypting input data in a fully homomorphic encryption scheme to generate encrypted data; an encrypted data transmission section transmitting the encrypted data generated by the encrypting section to a server; an encrypted data reception section receiving the encrypted data on which the server implements a predetermined process; and a decrypting section decrypting the encrypted data on which the predetermined process is implemented.

Abstract: An ID-value assessment device includes: an assessment calculation section that calculates a value assessment of a user to be assessed by using an assessment function of outputting the value assessment, which represents values of the corresponding user, in response to inputs of user attribute information representing an attribute of the user and service attribute information representing an attribute of a service and general information; and an assessment output section that outputs a user ID of the user to be assessed and the value assessment of the corresponding user, which is calculated by the assessment calculation section, in association with each other.

Abstract: Provided is a method where a power management apparatus (a) acquires, from a server managed by a manufacturer of an electronic appliance, a public key paired with a secret key that the electronic appliance and the server hold, (b) generates a ciphertext by generating a random number and encrypting the random number by the public key, and (c) transmits the ciphertext to the electronic appliance and the server, where the electronic appliance (d) restores the random number by decrypting the ciphertext transmitted in (c), (e) causes an electrical part to operate, based on the random number, and (f) transmits to the server the value of current flowing through the electrical part, and where the server (g) restores the random number by decrypting the ciphertext transmitted in (c), (h) calculates the value of current to flow through the electrical part based on the random number, and (i) compares values of current.

Abstract: There is provided an outlet expansion apparatus including a first connection outlet to which an electronic appliance is to be connected, a second connection outlet that is for connecting to a power supply outlet that is to be a supply source of power, and a delegate authentication unit that carries out, in a case the electronic appliance not having a function of carrying out authentication with a power management apparatus managing an amount of power to be supplied to the electronic appliance is connected to the first connection outlet and the power supply outlet is connected to the second connection outlet, authentication to be carried out on the power management apparatus by the electronic appliance connected to the first connection outlet on behalf of the electronic appliance.

Abstract: There is provided an analysis server including a first verifying unit that analyzes data acquired from a local power management system composed of an electronic appliance provided with a sensor and a power management apparatus managing power supply to the electronic appliance connected to a power network, by using history information of the local power management system or data acquired from another local power management system with a power usage state similar to that of the local power management system, a second verifying unit that analyzes the data acquired from the local power management system, by using an estimated value calculated by simulation using characteristics information and/or specification information of the electronic appliance, and a control unit that controls the first verifying unit and the second verifying unit.

Abstract: Provided is a power management apparatus including an other-apparatus confirming unit that confirms presence of another power management apparatus that is operating that is managing a same electronic appliance, an attribute recognizing unit that recognizes, if N?1 (N?2) power management apparatuses are confirmed to be operating, an attribute of one specific apparatus, among N power management apparatuses including its own power management apparatus, to be a parent device and the attributes of remaining N?1 apparatuses to be a child device, a signal collecting unit that collects from N?1 child devices, if the attribute of its own power management apparatus is recognized to be the parent device, control signals for controlling the electronic appliance, and a signal selecting unit that selects, among the collected control signals, control signals of the same type, the number of which is largest, and transmits the control signals to the electronic appliance.

Abstract: There is provided a power management apparatus including an authentication processing unit that carries out an authentication process on each individual electronic appliance that is to be managed, a consumption amount acquiring unit that acquires information on power consumption from the electronic appliance, and an information display unit that displays an authentication state or an authentication result obtained from the authentication processing unit, together with the information on power consumption acquired by the consumption amount acquiring unit.

Abstract: There is provided an electronic watermark generating apparatus including an appliance characterizing information generating unit that generates appliance characterizing information that characterizes an electronic appliance, by using physical data acquired by a sensor that measures characteristics of the electronic appliance, an electronic watermark generating unit that generates, in relation to the appliance characterizing information, electronic watermark information that is used for detecting whether information has been tampered with or not, an embedded position deciding unit that analyzes the appliance characterizing information, and decides an embedded position for the electronic watermark information in the appliance characterizing information, and an electronic watermark embedding unit that embeds the electronic watermark information generated by the electronic watermark generating unit in a position on the appliance characterizing information decided by the embedded position deciding unit.

Abstract: There is provided a power management apparatus including: a managed appliance registering unit carrying out authentication on an electronic appliance connected to a power network and registering an electronic appliance for which the authentication has succeeded as a managed appliance, a control unit controlling operation of the managed appliance and supplying of power to the managed appliance, a managed appliance information acquiring unit acquiring, from the managed appliance, as managed appliance information, at least any of appliance information including identification information that is unique to the electronic appliance, information indicating an operation state of the electronic appliance, information indicating an usage state of the electronic appliance and power information of the electronic appliance, and an appliance state judging unit judging a state of the managed appliance based on the managed appliance information acquired by the managed appliance information acquiring unit.

Abstract: There is provided a power management apparatus including: a managed appliance registering unit carrying out authentication on an electronic appliance connected to a power network and registering the electronic appliance as a managed appliance if the authentication has succeeded; and a control unit controlling operation of and supplying of power to the managed appliance.

Abstract: There is provided a power management apparatus including a managed appliance registering unit that carries out authentication on an electronic appliance connected to a power network, and registers an electronic appliance for which the authentication has succeeded as a managed appliance, and a control unit that controls operation of the managed appliance and supplying of power to the managed appliance. The managed appliance registering unit transmits, to one or more electronic appliances, a challenge message that is used when registering an electronic appliance, and collectively verifies one or more response messages sent back from the one or more electronic appliances in reply to the challenge message.

Abstract: There is provided an electronic appliance including a plurality of electrical parts having electrical characteristics that are different thereamong and for each electronic appliance, a characteristics measuring unit that measures the characteristics of at least one electrical part, a switch that switches between the electrical parts whose characteristics are to be measured by the characteristics measuring unit, and a control unit that controls the switch and causes the characteristics measuring unit to measure the characteristics of a predetermined electrical part, and that transmits, to a power management apparatus managing at least power supply to its own electronic appliance, information relating to the characteristics measured by the characteristics measuring unit and an appliance ID of its own electronic appliance.

Abstract: There is provided a power management apparatus including a game service providing unit providing, to an electronic appliance, a service using game contents whose theme is power. The game service providing unit includes a game control unit controlling execution of the game contents, a real world constructing unit constructing a setting of a game reflecting a real-world environment, based on managed appliance information stored in a database, and a virtual world constructing unit constructing a setting of the game reflecting a virtual environment, based on a setting set in advance in the game contents. The game control unit is operable to initialize the game contents by combining the setting of the game constructed by the real world constructing unit and the setting of the game constructed by the virtual world constructing unit.

Abstract: In a quantum cryptography communication apparatus, a light pulse is generated by a light source and split into a signal light pulse and a reference light pulse on a receiving side. The signal light pulse and the reference light pulse are transmitted to a sending side via a communication channel. On the sending side, the received reference light is passed through a first optical path and phase-modulated by a randomly selected amount. Communication information is acquired on the basis of the reference light passed through the first optical path and the signal light passed via a second optical path. Frequencies of the signal light pulse and the reference light pulse are shifted. The intensity of the signal light pulses is attenuated and phase-modulated by an amount corresponding to the communication information. The resultant signal light pulse and the reference light pulse are returned back to the receiving side.

Abstract: A quantum cipher communication system performs communication processing based on quantum cipher. It may have a first communication terminal, a second communication terminal, and a communication path that connects them. The first communication terminal may contain an optical source, a first light-separating device, optical paths, a light-synthesizing device, a second light-separating device, a first phase-modulator, and a homodyne detector that performs homodyne detection based on the reference light separated in the second light-separating device and passed through the first optical path and the signal light separated in the second light-separating device and passed through the second optical path. The second communication terminal may contain a light-sending device, an optical attenuator, a second phase-modulator, and a photon-number-setting device that sets to a predetermined value an average photon number of the signal light sent to the communication path from the light-sending device.

Abstract: The invention provides a method and apparatus by which the direction in or the position at which a signal source such as a sound source is present is estimated. A signal or signals from a signal source or a plurality of signal sources are received by a plurality of reception apparatus, and the received signals are decomposed into signals of different frequency bands by a plurality of band-pass filters. Then, cross correlation functions between the different frequency band signals are calculated for individual combinations of the reception apparatus for the individual corresponding frequency bands. If the power of noise having no directivity is high in some of the frequency bands, then the cross correlation functions of the frequency band do not exhibit a maximum value. Therefore, an influence of the noise can be suppressed effectively when delay times of the individual reception apparatus which depend upon the direction or directions or the position or positions of the signal source or sources are estimated.

Abstract: The invention provides a method and apparatus by which the direction in or the position at which a signal source such as a sound source is present is estimated. A signal or signals from a signal source or a plurality of signal sources are received by a plurality of reception apparatus, and the received signals are decomposed into signals of different frequency bands by a plurality of band-pass filters. Then, cross correlation functions between the different frequency band signals are calculated for individual combinations of the reception apparatus for the individual corresponding frequency bands. If the power of noise having no directivity is high in some of the frequency bands, then the cross correlation functions of the frequency band do not exhibit a maximum value. Therefore, an influence of the noise can be suppressed effectively when delay times of the individual reception apparatus which depend upon the direction or directions or the position or positions of the signal source or sources are estimated.

Abstract: Phase transition is controlled by controlling fractal dimension of a fractal-coupled structure overall or locally. For a magnetic material, ferromagnetic phase transition temperature of magnetic particles arranged to have self-similarity is controlled by fractal dimension. For a half-filled electron system confined in a treelike fractal, Mott transition is controlled by fractal dimension of the system. Stronger quantum chaos than conventional ones is generated by adding magnetic impurities to the fractal-coupled structure, and through this process, Anderson transition is controlled.