We study the high-frequency asymptotic analysis methods for the scattered fields by a cylindrically curved conducting surface excited by the incident wave on the curved surface from the convex side. We first derive the novel hybrid ray-mode solution for the scattered fields near the concave surface by solving a canonical problem formulated under the assumption that the cylindrically curved conducting surface possesses only one edge. Then by applying the ray tracing technique and the idea of Keller's GTD (Geometrical Theory of Diffraction), the solutions derived for the canonical problem are extended to account for the problem of the radiation from and the scattering by the other edge of the cylindrically curved surface. We confirm the validity of the novel asymptotic representations proposed in the present study by comparing both with the numerical results obtained from the method of moment and the experimental results performed in the anechoic chamber.

This paper addresses the problem of joint transceiver design for Tomlinson-Harashima Precoding (THP) in the multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) downlink under both perfect and imperfect channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). For the case of perfect CSIT, we differ from the previous work by performing stream-wise (both inter-user and intra-user) interference pre-cancelation at the transmitter. A minimum total mean square error (MT-MSE) criterion is used to formulate our optimization problem. By some convex analysis of the problem, we obtain the necessary conditions for the optimal solution. An iterative algorithm is proposed to handle this problem and its convergence is proved. Then we extend our designed algorithm to the robust version by minimizing the conditional expectation of the T-MSE under imperfect CSIT. Simulation results are given to verify the efficacy of our proposed schemes and to show their superiorities over existing MMSE-based THP schemes.

A high-efficiency CMOS rectifier circuit for UHF RFID applications was developed. The rectifier utilizes a self-Vth-cancellation (SVC) scheme in which the threshold voltage of MOSFETs is cancelled by applying gate bias voltage generated from the output voltage of the rectifier itself. A very simple circuit configuration and zero power dissipation characteristics in biasing enable excellent power conversion efficiency (PCE), especially under small RF input power conditions. At higher RF input power conditions, the PCE of the rectifier automatically decreases. This is the built-in self-power-regulation function. The proposed SVC CMOS rectifier was fabricated with a 0.35-µm CMOS process and the measured performance was compared with those of conventional nMOS, pMOS, and CMOS rectifiers and other types of Vth cancellation rectifiers as well. The SVC CMOS rectifier achieves 32% of PCE at the -10 dBm RF input power condition. This PCE is larger than rectifiers reported to date under this condition.

One of the promising wireless access techniques for the next generation mobile communications systems is multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA). MC-CDMA can provide good transmission performance owing to the frequency diversity effect in a severe frequency-selective fading channel. However, the bit error rate (BER) performance of coded MC-CDMA is inferior to that of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) due to the residual inter-code interference (ICI) after frequency-domain equalization (FDE). Recently, we proposed a frequency-domain soft interference cancellation (FDSIC) to reduce the residual ICI and confirmed by computer simulation that the MC-CDMA with FDSIC provides better BER performance than OFDM. However, ideal channel estimation was assumed. In this paper, we propose adaptive decision-feedback channel estimation (ADFCE) and evaluate by computer simulation the average BER and throughput performances of turbo-coded MC-CDMA with FDSIC. We show that even if a practical channel estimation is used, MC-CDMA with FDSIC can still provide better performance than OFDM.

To address the low performance for channel scanning in the DVB-T system, we propose an enhanced front-end algorithm in this paper. The proposed algorithm consists of Auto Scan and Normal Scan, which is a part of the tuning algorithm for front-end (tuner) drivers in the DVB-T receiver. The key idea is that the frequency offset is saved when performing Auto Scan in order to reduce the channel change time for Normal Scan. In addition, the results of a performance evaluation demonstrate that our enhanced front-end algorithm improves the performance of channel scanning significantly, as compared to the generic front-end algorithm.

In this paper, performance of a novel interference cancellation technique for the single user detection in a direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system has been investigated. This new algorithm is based on the Cycle-and-Add property of PN (Pseudorandom Noise) sequences and can be applied for both synchronous and asynchronous systems. The proposed strategy provides a simple method that can delete interference signals one by one in spite of the power levels of interferences. Therefore, it is possible to overcome the near-far problem (NFP) in a successive manner without using transmit power control (TPC) techniques. The validity of the proposed procedure is corroborated by computer simulations in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and frequency-nonselective fading channels. Performance results indicate that the proposed receiver outperforms the conventional receiver and, in many cases, it does so with a considerable gain.

This paper introduces a methodology for engineering best-effort P2P algorithms into dependable P2P-based network control mechanism. The proposed method is built upon an iterative approach consisting of improving the original P2P algorithm by appropriate mechanisms and of thorough performance assessment with respect to dependability measures. The potential of the methodology is outlined by the example of timely routing control for vertical handover in B3G wireless networks. In detail, the well-known Pastry and CAN algorithms are enhanced to include locality. By showing how to combine algorithmic enhancements with performance indicators, this case study paves the way for future engineering of dependable network control mechanisms through P2P algorithms.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which uses a number of narrowband orthogonal sub-carriers, is a promising transmission technique. Also multi-carrier code division multi-access (MC-CDMA), which combines OFDM and frequency-domain spreading, has been attracting much attention as a future broadband wireless access. It was shown that MC-CDMA has lower channel capacity than OFDM, due to inter-code interference (ICI) resulting from orthogonality distortion caused by frequency-selective fading. Recently, many ICI cancellers have been proposed to mitigate the effect of ICI. In this paper, we derive a channel capacity expression for MC-CDMA assuming perfect ICI cancellation taking into account both frequency diversity gain and space diversity gain and compare it to that of OFDM. Furthermore, we derive a channel capacity expression for the case of imperfect ICI cancellation to discuss the impact of the residual ICI.

Minimizing the residual impurity gases is a key factor for reducing temporal dark image sticking. Therefore, this paper uses a vacuum-sealing method that minimizes the residual impurity gases by enhancing the base vacuum level, and the resultant change in temporal dark image sticking is then examined in comparison to that with the conventional sealing method using 42-in. ac-PDPs with a high Xe (11%) content. As a result of monitoring the difference in the display luminance, infrared emission, and perceived luminance between the cells with and without temporal dark image sticking, the vacuum-sealing method is demonstrated to reduce temporal dark image sticking by decreasing the residual impurity gases and increasing the oxygen vacancy in the MgO layer. Furthermore, the use of a modified driving waveform along with the vacuum-sealing method is even more effective in reducing temporal dark image sticking.

A modified successive interference cancellation (SIC) algorithm for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system is presented. The presented modified SIC algorithm makes use of an index sequence to avoid the subcarriers re-ordering calculation. Furthermore, by combining the SIC with the conventional zero-forcing (ZF) detection, computation complexity of the presented algorithm can be significantly reduced and meanwhile excellent performance can be maintained.

This paper presents a unified test compression technique for scan stimulus and unknown masking data with seamless integration of test generation, test compression and all unknown response masking for high quality manufacturing test cost reduction. Unlike prior test compression methods, the proposed approach considers the unknown responses during test pattern generation procedure, and then selectively encodes the less specified bits (either 1s or 0s) in each scan slice for compression while at the same time masks the unknown responses before sending them to the response compactor. The proposed test scheme could dramatically reduce test data volume as well as the number of required test channels by using only c tester channels to drive N internal scan chains, where c = 「 log 2N 」 + 2. In addition, because all the unknown responses could be exactly masked before entering into the response compactor, test loss due to unknown responses would be eliminated. Experimental results on both benchmark circuits and larger designs indicated the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

This paper describes a vision-based and real-time system for detecting road signs from within a moving vehicle. The system architecture which is proposed in this paper consists of two parts, the learning and the detection part of road sign images. The proposed system has the standard architecture with adaboost algorithm. Adaboost is a popular algorithm which used to detect an object in real time. To improve the detection rate of adaboost algorithm, this paper proposes a new combination method of classifiers in every stage. In the case of detecting road signs in real environment, it can be ambiguous to decide to which class input images belong. To overcome this problem, we propose a method that applies fuzzy measure and fuzzy integral which use the importance and the evaluated values of classifiers within one stage. It is called fuzzy-boosting in this paper. Also, to improve the speed of a road sign detection algorithm using adaboost at the detection step, we propose a method which chooses several candidates by using MC generator. In this paper, as the sub-windows of chosen candidates pass classifiers which are made from fuzzy-boosting, we decide whether a road sign is detected or not. Using experiment result, we analyze and compare the detection speed and the classification error rate of the proposed algorithm applied to various environment and condition.

Power-line communication (PLC) technique is one method to realize high-speed communications in a home network. In PLC channels, the transmission signal quality is degraded by colored non-Gaussian noise as well as frequency-selectivity of the channels. In this paper, we describe our investigation of the performance of a OQAM-MCT system in which a noise canceller is used jointly with a time-domain per-subcarrier adaptive equalizer. Furthermore, we propose a noise cancellation method designed for the OQAM-MCT system. The performance of the OQAM-MCT system is evaluated in PLC channels with measured impulse responses in the presence of measured noise. Computer simulation results show that the bit rate of the OQAM-MCT system is improved using both an adaptive equalizer and noise canceller, and that the OQAM-MCT system achieves better performance than an OFDM system with an insufficient length of the guard interval.

This letter presents an efficient adaptive beamformer to deal with the multipath environments created by signal source scatterings. To improve the performance possible with the fixed forgetting factor, the regular adaptive forgetting factor algorithm is derived and applied to the subarray recursive least squares (RLS) beamforming. Simulations confirm that the proposed scheme has better performance than not only the conventional RLS algorithm but also the subarray RLS and adaptive forgetting factor RLS algorithms.

Two-dimensional resonant optical scanners actuated by vertical electrostatic combs with a unique electrical isolation structure have been developed. The isolation on the movable frame surrounding 1 mm-diameter gimbal mirror is made by trenching the top silicon layer of an SOI wafer with leaving the thick bottom layers. Thanks to the large mass of the frame, the resonant frequencies range in 65.0-89.2 Hz for the frame and in 11.9-36.8 kHz for the mirror in a 4 mm4 mm chip. The resultant frequency ratio of the fast/slow axes reaches over 500 and such a high frequency ratio is utilized to display QVGA image by raster scanning of a laser beam.

Point Pattern Matching (PPM) is an essential problem in many image analysis and computer vision tasks. This paper presents a two-stage algorithm for PPM problem using ellipse fitting and dual Hilbert scans. In the first matching stage, transformation parameters are coarsely estimated by using four node points of ellipses which are fitted by Weighted Least Square Fitting (WLSF). Then, Hilbert scans are used in two aspects of the second matching stage: it is applied to the similarity measure and it is also used for search space reduction. The similarity measure named Hilbert Scanning Distance (HSD) can be computed fast by converting the 2-D coordinates of 2-D points into 1-D space information using Hilbert scan. On the other hand, the N-D search space can be converted to a 1-D search space sequence by N-D Hilbert Scan and an efficient search strategy is proposed on the 1-D search space sequence. In the experiments, we use both simulated point set data and real fingerprint images to evaluate the performance of our algorithm, and our algorithm gives satisfying results both in accuracy and efficiency.

This paper proposes a novel channel estimation method for iterative equalization in MIMO systems. The proposed method incorporates co-channel interference (CCI) cancellation in the channel estimator and the channel estimation is successively performed with respect to each stream. Accuracy of channel estimation holds the key to be successfully converged the iterative equalization and decoding process. Although the channel estimates can be re-estimated by means of LS (Least Square) channel estimation using tentative decisions obtained in the iterative process, its performance is severely limited in a MIMO system because of erroneous decisions and ill-conditioned channel estimation matrix. The proposed method can suppress the above effects by means of CCI cancellation and successive channel estimation. Computer simulation confirms that the proposed channel estimation method can accurately estimate the channel, and the receiver with iterative equalization and the proposed method achieves excellent decoding performance in a MIMO-SM system.

Data compression is popularly applied to computer systems and communication systems in order to reduce storage size and communication time, respectively. Since large data are used frequently, string matching for such data takes a long time. If the data are compressed, the time gets much longer because decompression is necessary. Long string matching time makes computer virus scan time longer and gives serious influence to the security of data. From this, CPM (Compression Pattern Matching) methods for several compression methods have been proposed. This paper proposes CPM method for PPM which achieves fast virus scan and improves dependability of the compressed data, where PPM is based on a Markov model, uses a context information, and achieves a better compression ratio than BW transform and Ziv-Lempel coding. The proposed method encodes the context information, which is generated in the compression process, and appends the encoded data at the beginning of the compressed data as a header. The proposed method uses only the header information. Computer simulation says that augmentation of the compression ratio is less than 5 percent if the order of the PPM is less than 5 and the source file size is more than 1 M bytes, where order is the maximum length of the context used in PPM compression. String matching time is independent of the source file size and is very short, less than 0.3 micro seconds in the PC used for the simulation.

A residual acoustic echo cancellation method that employs the masking property is proposed to enhance the speech quality of hands-free communication devices in an automobile environment. The conventional masking property is employed for speech enhancement using the masking threshold of the desired clean speech signal. In this Letter, either the near-end speech or residual noise is selected as the desired signal according to the double-talk detector. Then, the residual echo signal is masked by the desired signal (masker). Experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method by deriving the echo return loss enhancement and by examining speech waveforms and spectrograms.

Wireless ad hoc communications such as ad hoc networks have been attracting researchers' attention. They are expected to become a key technology for "ubiquitous" networking because of the ability to configure wireless links by nodes autonomously, without any centralized control facilities. Adaptive array antennas (AAA) have been expected to improve the network efficiency by taking advantage of its adaptive beamforming capability. However, it should be noted that AAA is not almighty. Its interference cancellation capability is limited by the degree-of-freedom (DOF) and the angular resolution as a function of the number of element antennas. Application of AAA without attending to these problems can degrade the efficiency of the network. Let us consider wireless ad hoc communication as a target application for AAA, taking advantage of AAA's interference cancellation capability. The low DOF and insufficient resolution will be crucial problems compared to other wireless systems, since there is no centralized facility to control the nodes to avoid interferences in such systems. A number of interferences might impinge on a node from any direction of arrival (DOA) without any timing control. In this paper, focusing on such limitations of AAA applied in ad hoc communications, we propose a new scheme, Forward Interference Avoidance (FIA), using AAA for ad hoc communications in order to avoid problems caused by the limitation of the AAA capability. It enables nodes to avoid interfering with other nodes so that it increases the number of co-existent wireless links. The performance improvement of ad hoc communications in terms of the number of co-existent links is investigated through computer simulations.