This letter presents a Monte-Carlo FDTD technique to determine the scattered field from a perfectly conducting fractal surface from which the useful information on the incoherent pattern tendency could be observed. A one-dimensional fractal surface was generated by the bandlimited Weierstrass function. In order to verify the numerical results by this technique, these results are compared with those of Kirchhoff approximations, which show a good match between them. To investigate the incoherent pattern tendency involved, the dependence of the fitting curve slope on the different D and is discussed for the bistatic and back scattering case, respectively.

We have developed a low-power, high-performance MPEG-4 codec LSI for mobile video applications. This codec LSI is capable of up to CIF 30-fps encoding, making it suitable for various visual applications. The measured power consumption of the codec core was 9 mW for QCIF 15-fps codec operation and 38 mW for CIF 30-fps encoding. To provide an error-robust MPEG-4 codec, we implemented an error-resilience function in the LSI. We describe the techniques that have enabled low power consumption and high performance and discuss our test results.

This paper presents a maximum likelihood (ML) identification and restoration method for noisy blurred images. The unitary discrete sine transform (DST) is employed to decouple the large order spatial state-space representation of the noisy blurred image into a bank of one-dimensional real state-space scalar subsystems. By assuming that the noises are Gaussian distributed processes, the maximum likelihood estimation technique using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is developed to jointly identify the blurring functions, the image model parameters and the noise variances. In order to improve the computational efficiency, the conventional Kalman smoother is incorporated to give the estimates. The identification process also yields the estimates of transformed image data, from which the original image is restored by the inverse DST. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method and its superiority over the recently proposed spatial domain DFT-based methods.

In this letter, we investigate a diversity scheme which employs a simple transform, symbol interleaving and decision-feedback differential detection (DF-DD) for differential phase-shift-keying signal transmission over correlated Rayleigh fading. The proposed scheme merits instinct time diversity within each transmitted block and thus presents patent resistance to fading. It is shown that the considered technique provides significant diversity gains in a correlated Rayleigh fading channel.

Caching web files reduces user response time as well as network traffic. When implementing caches, the file caching problem must be addressed; the problem is how to determine which files should be evicted from a cache when there is insufficient space for storing a new file so that the sum of the mis-hit (fault) file costs is minimized. Greedy-Dual-Size (GDS) is the best online algorithm in terms of competitiveness, i. e. , (k)/(k-h+1)-competitive, where k and h are the storage space of, respectively, GDS and an optimal offline algorithm. GDS performs very well even in trace-driven simulations. The worst-case time taken to service a request is another important measure for online file caching algorithms since slow response times render caching meaningless from the client's view point. This paper proposes a fast randomized (k)/(k-h+1)-competitive algorithm that performs in O(2log ^* k) time per file eviction or insertion, whereas GDS takes O(log k) time, where 2log ^* k is a much slower increasing function than log k. To confirm its practicality, we conduct trace driven simulations. Experimental results show that our algorithm attains only slightly worse byte hit rates and sufficiently large reduced latency in comparison with GDS, and our algorithm is a good candidate for caches requiring high-speed processing such as second-level caches in the large networks.

This paper describes an ultra low power, motion estimation (ME) processor for MPEG2 HDTV resolution video. It adopts a Gradient Descent Search (GDS) algorithm that drastically reduces required computational power to 6 GOPS. A SIMD datapath architecture optimized for the GDS algorithm decreases the clock frequency and operating voltage. A low power 3-port SRAM with a write-disturb-free cell array arrangement is newly designed for image data caches of the processor. The proposed ME processor contains 7-M transistors, integrated in 4.50 mm 3.35 mm area using 0.13 µm CMOS technology. Estimated power consumption is less than 100 mW at 81 MHz@1.0 V. The processor is applicable to a portable HDTV system.

An accurate, fast delay calculation method suitable for high-performance, low-power LSI design is proposed. The delay calculation is composed of two steps: (1) the gate delay is calculated by using an effective capacitance obtained from a simple model we propose; and (2) the interconnect delay is also calculated from the effective capacitance and modified by using the gate-output transition time. The proposed delay calculation halves the error of a conventional rough calculation, achieving a computational error within 10% per gate stage. The mathematical models are simple enough that the method is suitable for quick delay calculation and logic circuit optimization in the early stages of LSI design. A delay optimization tool using this delay calculation method reduced the worst path delay of a multiply-add module by 11.2% and decreased the sizes of 58.1% of the gates.

We propose a new algorithm for blind source separation (BSS), in which frequency-domain independent component analysis (FDICA) and time-domain ICA (TDICA) are combined to achieve a superior source-separation performance under reverberant conditions. Generally speaking, conventional TDICA fails to separate source signals under heavily reverberant conditions because of the low convergence in the iterative learning of the inverse of the mixing system. On the other hand, the separation performance of conventional FDICA also degrades significantly because the independence assumption of narrow-band signals collapses when the number of subbands increases. In the proposed method, the separated signals of FDICA are regarded as the input signals for TDICA, and we can remove the residual crosstalk components of FDICA by using TDICA. The experimental results obtained under the reverberant condition reveal that the separation performance of the proposed method is superior to those of TDICA- and FDICA-based BSS methods.

A heterogeneous parallel computing environment consisting of different types of workstations and communication links plays an important role in parallel computing. In many applications on the system, collective communication operations are commonly used as communication primitives. Thus, design of the efficient collective communication operations is the key to achieve high-performance parallel computing. But the heterogeneity of the system complicates the design. In this paper, we consider design of an efficient gather operation, one of the most important collective operations. We show that an optimal gather schedule is found in O(n2k-1) time for the heterogeneous parallel computing environment with n processors of k distinct types, and that a nearly-optimal schedule is found in O(n) time if k=2.

We have classified parenchymal echo patterns of cirrhotic liver into four types, according to the size of hypo echoic nodular lesions. The NN (neural network) technique has been applied to the characterization of hepatic parenchymal diseases in ultrasonic B-scan texture. We employed a multilayer feedforward NN utilizing the back-propagation algorithm. We extracted 1616 pixels in the two-dimensional regions. However, when a large area is used, input data becomes large and much time is needed for diagnosis. In this report, we used DCT (discrete cosine transform) for the feature extraction of input data, and compression. As a result, DCT was found to be suitable for compressing ultrasonographic images.

This paper proposes a gradient ascent learning algorithm for the elastic net approach to the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The learning model has two phases: an elastic net phase, and a gradient ascent phase. The elastic net phase is equivalent to gradient descent of an energy function, and leads to a local minimum of energy that represents a good solution to the problem. Once the elastic net gets stuck in local minima, the gradient ascent phase attempts to fill up the valley by modifying parameters in a gradient ascent direction of the energy function. Thus, these two phases are iterated until the elastic net gets out of local minima. We test the algorithm on many randomly generated travel salesman problems up to 100 cities. For all problems, the systems are shown to be capable of escaping from the elastic net local minima and generating shorter tour than the original elastic net.

This paper presents the design considerations for a digital dental X-ray system with a commercial CCD sensor. Especially the system should be able to work with several X-ray machines even with them for the classical film. The hardware-software co-design methodology is employed to optimize the system. The full digital implementation is assumed for the reliability of the system. The considered functions cover the pre-processing such as the exposure detection, clamping and the dark level correction and the post-processing such as gray level compensation. It is analyzed with some other constraints in order to make the final partition. The entire system based on the partition will be described.

A method of error concealment for JPEG2000 images is proposed in this paper. The proposed method uses the layer structure that is a feature of the JPEG2000. The most significant layer is hidden in the lowest layer of the JPEG2000 bit stream, and this embedded layer is used for error concealment. The most significant layer is duplicated because JPEG2000 uses bit-plane coding. In this coding, when the upper layers are affected by errors, the coefficients of the lower layers become meaningless. A bit stream encoded using the proposed method has the same data structure as a standard JPEG2000. Therefore, it can be decoded by a standard decoder. Our simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The main purpose of our method is to obtain realistic worst-case delay in statistical timing analyses. This paper proposes a method of statistical delay calculation based on measured intra-chip and inter-chip variabilities. We present a modeling and extracting method of transistor characteristics for the intra-chip variability and the inter-chip variability. In the modeling of the intra-chip variability, it is important to consider a gate-size dependence by which the amount of intra-chip variation is affected. This effect is not captured in a statistical delay analysis reported so far. Our method proposes a method for modeling of the device variability and statistical delay calculation with consideration of the size dependence, and uses a response surface method (RSM) to calculate a delay variation with low processing cost. We evaluate the accuracy of our method, and we show some experimental results the variation of a circuit delay characterized by the measured variances of transistor currents.

In a previous study about a combinatorial optimization problem solver using neural networks, since the Hopfield method, convergence to the optimum solution sooner and with more certainty is regarded as important. Namely, only static states are considered as the information. However, from a biological point of view, dynamical systems have attracted attention recently. Therefore, we propose a "dynamical" combinatorial optimization problem solver using hysteresis neural networks. In this paper, the proposed system is evaluated by the N-Queen problem.

GPS receivers are susceptible to jamming by interference. This paper proposes a recurrent neural network (RNN) predictor for new application in GPS anti-jamming systems. Five types of narrowband jammers, i. e. AR process, continuous wave interference (CWI), multi-tone CWI, swept CWI, and pulsed CWI, are considered in order to emulate realistic conditions. As the observation noise of received signals is highly non-Gaussian, an RNN estimator with a nonlinear structure is employed to accurately predict the narrowband signals based on a real-time learning method. The node decoupled extended Kalman filter (NDEKF) algorithm is adopted to achieve better performance in terms of convergence rate and quality of solution while requiring less computation time and memory. We analyze the computational complexity and memory requirements of the NDEKF approach and compare them to the global extended Kalman filter (GEKF) training paradigm. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme achieves a superior performance to conventional linear/nonlinear predictors in terms of SNR improvement and mean squared prediction error (MSPE) while providing inherent protection against a broad class of interference environments.

The 2-vertex-connectivity augmentation problem for specified vertices (2VCA-SV) is defined as follows: Given an undirected graph G=(V,E), a subgraph G0=(V,E') of G, a specified set of vertices S V and a weight function w:E R^+ (nonnegative real numbers), find a set E" E-E' with the minimum total weight, such that G0+E"=(V,E' E") has at least two internally disjoint paths between any pair of vertices in S. In this paper, we propose an O(|V||E|+ |V|2 log |V|) time algorithm 2-ABIS, whose performance ratio is 2 (3, respectively), for 2VCA-SV if G0 has a connected component containing S (otherwise).

Ordered attribute grammars (OAGs for short) are a useful class of attribute grammars (AGs). For some attribute grammars, even though they are not circular, OAG circularity test reports that they are not ordered and fails to generate attribute evaluators because some approximation introduces circularities (called type 3 circularities in this paper). First we discuss that it is sometimes difficult for programmers to eliminate type 3 circularities by hand. Second, to reduce this difficulty, we propose a new AG class called OAG* that produces less type 3 circularities than OAG while preserving the positive characteristic of OAG. OAG* uses a global dependency graph GDS that provides a new approximation algorithm. We obtained good results with our experimental implementation of OAG*. It is shown that OAG* is different from the existing GAG and Eli/Liga systems. Finally, two combinations of Eli/Liga and OAG* are provided.

A fast-motion-estimation (ME) algorithm called a "breaking-off-search (BOS)" was developed. It can improve processing speed of the full-search (FS) method by a factor of 3.4. The BOS algorithm can not only sometimes achieve better visual quality than FS, but can also solve visual degradation problems associated with conventional fast-ME algorithms whenever picture patterns change (i. e. , presence of scene changes). The power dissipation of a 0.6-µ m CMOS parallel Wallace-tree motion estimator using BOS was reduced to about 281 mW which was 1/28.7 that of the 0.6-µ m CMOS binary-tree motion estimator using FS.

Existing routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks assume that all nodes have the same transmission range. In other words, the mobile ad hoc network has symmetric links, which means that two neighboring nodes A and B are within the transmission range of one another. However, since nodes consume battery power independently according to their computing and communication load, there exist asymmetric links, which means that node A is within node B's transmission range, but not vice versa. In this paper, two approaches are presented to support routing in the existence of asymmetric links: GAHA (GPS-based Hop-by-hop Acknowledgment) and GAPA (GPS-based Passive Acknowledgment) schemes. Both GAHA and GAPA can be applied to any routing protocols by utilizing GPS (Global Positioning System) location information. Simulation results reveal that both GAHA and GAPA protocols cope well in the presence of asymmetric wireless links and nodes' mobility.