The importance of redundant technologies for improving dependability and delay fault testability are growing. This paper presents properties of a class of redundant technologies, namely two-rail logic, and analyzes testability of path delay faults occurring on two-rail logic circuits. The paper reveals the following characteristics of two-rail logic circuits: While the number of paths in two-rail logic circuits is twice that in ordinary single-rail logic circuits, the number of robust testable path delay faults in two-rail logic circuits is twice or more that in the single-rail logic circuits. This suggests two-rail logic circuits are more testable than ordinary single-rail logic circuits. On two-rail logic circuits, there may be some robust testable path delay faults that are functional un-sensitizable for any input vectors consisting of codewords of two-rail codes, i.e. for any input vectors that can occur during fault-free operation. Even if such faults occur, the circuits are still strongly fault secure for unidirectional stuck-at faults as well as they work correctly.

We propose a thresholding method based on interval-valued fuzzy sets which are used to define the grade of a gray level belonging to one of the two classes, an object and the background of an image. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing our classification results on eight test images to results from the conventional methods.

In this paper, we propose a new approach to rotation invariant texture analysis. This method uses the Radon transform with some considerations in direction estimation of textural images. Furthermore, it utilizes the information obtained from the number of peaks in the variance array of the Radon transform as a realty feature. The textural features are then generated after rotation of texture along principle direction. Also, to eliminating the introduced error due to rotation of texture, a simple technique is presented. Experimental results on a set of images from the Brodatz album show a good performance achieved by the proposed method in comparison with some recent texture analysis methods.

This Letter proposes a new kind of features for color image retrieval based on Distance-weighted Boundary Predictive Vector Quantization (DWBPVQ) Index Histograms. For each color image in the database, 6 histograms (2 for each color component) are calculated from the six corresponding DWBPVQ index sequences. The retrieval simulation results show that, compared with the traditional Spatial-domain Color-Histogram-based (SCH) features and the DCTVQ index histogram-based (DCTVQIH) features, the proposed DWBPVQIH features can greatly improve the recall and precision performance.

In OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing Protocol), the multipoint relay mechanism has been introduced to minimize routing overhead for flooding control traffic. In order to achieve as low a routing overhead as possible, the selection of MPRs (multipoint relays) is designed to limit the overall number of such relays in the network. OLSR provides the shortest paths in terms of hops; however, it does not take into account the QoS (quality of service) requirements. Therefore, QOLSR (Quality OLSR), which adds a QoS extension to the OLSR, has been proposed. Although QOLSR provides the best QoS path, its selection process does not consider the number of MPRs, which causes an increase in the routing overhead. In this paper, we focus on the selection process of MPRs in link state QoS routing protocol. We propose three heuristics for high-efficiency selections: MIMS, MQES, and MCIS. The basic approach of these selections is to determine a smaller set of MPRs that provide better QoS paths between any two nodes. The main objective in doing so is to maximize the QoS effect while limiting the routing overhead. In addition, we evaluate the performance of the routing protocols with the proposed selections by simulation. The results indicate that MIMS and MCIS achieve high-efficiency selection; as compared to QOLSR, MIMS reduces the maintenance cost by 30%, while the throughput of the resultant path is decreased by 13%, and MCIS reduces the cost by 21% without any decrease in the throughput.

Bessel beams are a family of diffraction-free beams. They have many unique properties and prospective applications. Much attention has been focused to this subject in optics. Recently, the studies of such beams at mm- and submm- wavebands have been carried out in our group. The investigation results, including their theories, generation, propagation and potential applications, are presented in this paper.

The predictability of network traffic is an important and widely studied topic because it can lead to the solutions to get more efficient dynamic bandwidth allocation, admission control, congestion control and better performance wireless networks. Support vector machine (SVM) is a novel type of learning machine based on statistical learning theory, can solve small-sample learning problems. The work presented in this paper aims to examine the feasibility of applying SVM to predict actual WLAN traffic. We study one-step-ahead prediction and multi-step-ahead prediction without any assumption on the statistical property of actual WLAN traffic. We also evaluate the performance of different prediction models such as ARIMA, FARIMA, artificial neural network, and wavelet-based model using three actual WLAN traffic. The results show that the SVM-based model for predicting WLAN traffic is reasonable and feasible and has the best performance among the above mentioned prediction models.

Three experiments were conducted in this study to investigate the human ability to control pen pressure and pen tilt input, by coupling this control with cursor position, angle and scale. Comparisons between pen pressure input and pen tilt input have been made in the three experiments. Experimental results show that decreasing pressure input resulted in very poor performance and was not a good input technique for any of the three experiments. In "Experiment 1-Coupling to Cursor Position", the tilt input technique performed relatively better than the increasing pressure input technique in terms of time, even though the tilt technique had a slightly higher error rate. In "Experiment 2-Coupling to Cursor Angle", the tilt input performed a little better than the increasing pressure input in terms of time, but the gap between them is not so apparent as Experiment 1. In "Experiment 3-Coupling to Cursor Scale", tilt input performed a little better than increasing pressure input in terms of adjustment time. Based on the results of our experiments, we have inferred several design implications and guidelines.

Code density is often a critical issue in embedded computers, since the memory size of embedded systems is strictly limited. Echo instructions have been proposed as a method for reducing code size. This paper presents a new type of echo instruction, split echo, and evaluates an implementation of both split echo and traditional echo instructions on a MIPS R3000 based processor. Evaluation results show that memory requirement is reduced by 12% on average with small additional hardware cost.

Based on trace function over finite field GF(pn ), new construction of generalized Hadamard matrices with order pn is presented, where p is prime and n is even. The rows in new generalized Hadamard matrices are cyclically distinct and have large linear span, which greatly improves the security of the system employing them as spreading sequences.

The novel SCR-based (silicon controlled rectifier) device for ESD power clamp is presented in this paper. The proposed device has a high holding voltage and a high triggering current characteristic. These characteristics enable latch-up immune normal operation as well as superior full chip ESD protection. The device has a small area in requirement robustness in comparison to ggNMOS (gate grounded NMOS). The proposed ESD protection device is designed in 0.25 µm and 0.5 µm CMOS Technology. In the experimental result, the proposed ESD clamp has a double trigger characteristic, a high holding voltage of 4 V and a high trigger current of above 350 mA. The robustness has measured to HBM 8 kV (HBM: Human Body Model) and MM 400 V (MM: Machine Model). The proposed device has a high level It2 of 52 mA/ µm approximately.

This paper describes the characteristic of negative group delay (NGD) circuits for various configurations including first-order, distributed, and second-order RC circuit configurations. This study includes locus, magnitude, and phase characteristics of the NGD circuits. The simplest NGD circuit is available using first-order RC or RL configuration. As an example of distributed circuit configuration, it is verified that losses in a distributed line causes NGD characteristic at higher cut-off band of a coupled four-line bandpass filter. Also, novel wideband NGD circuits using second-order RC configuration, instead of conventional RLC configuration, are proposed. Adding a parallel resistor to a parallel-T filter enables NGD characteristic to it. Also, a Wien-Robinson bridge is modified to have NGD characteristic by controlling the voltage division ratio. They are fabricated on MMIC substrate, and their NGD characteristics are verified with measured results. They have larger insertion loss than multi-stage RLC NGD circuits, however they can realize second-order NGD characteristic without practical implementation of inductors.

In this paper, we present a revision of using eigenvalues of covariance matrices proposed by Tsai et al. as a measure of significance (i.e., curvature) for boundary-based corner detection. We first show the pitfall of Tsai et al.'s approach. We then further investigate the properties of eigenvalues of covariance matrices of three different types of curves and point out a mistake made by Tsai et al.'s method. Finally, we propose a modification of using eigenvalues as a measure of significance for corner detection to remedy their defect. The experiment results show that under the same conditions of the test patterns, in addition to correctly detecting all true corners, the spurious corners detected by Tsai et al.'s method disappear in our modified measure of significance.

In this paper, a low power current protection circuit implemented in a low dropout regulator (LDO) is presented. The proposed circuit, designed in a 0.35 µm CMOS process, provides a precise limiting current as well as holding current with low dependency on both supply voltage and regulator output voltage. The experimental results showed that the proposed circuit is operable in the regulator output voltage range from VOUT=1.2 V to VOUT=3.6 V and supply voltage range from VDD=VOUT+0.5 V to VDD=5.6 V. Since the proposed circuit is composed of few simple basic circuits such as a comparator and a Schmitt Trigger, it has a low current consumption of less than ISS=0.82 µA at a load current of ILOAD=200 mA. This makes the circuit suitable for low power and low voltage LDO design.

This letter presents a new quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO) consisting of two n-core Colpitts voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) with a tail inductor. The VCOs are used as a single-ended injected injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD). The output of the tail inductor in one ILFD is injected into the injection node in the other ILFD and vice versa. The proposed QVCO has been implemented in the 0.18 µm CMOS technology. At the supply voltage of 1.0 V, the power consumption is 1.8 mW. The free-running frequency is tunable from 4.68 GHz to 5.03 GHz as the tuning voltage is varied from 0.0 V to 1.8 V. The measured phase noise is -113.58 dBc/Hz at the 1 MHz frequency offset from the oscillation frequency of 5.03 GHz and the figure of merit (FOM) of the QVCO is -185.06 dBc/Hz.

This investigation proposes two methods for embedding backdoors in the RSA modulus N=pq rather than in the public exponent e. This strategy not only permits manufacturers to embed backdoors in an RSA system, but also allows users to choose any desired public exponent, such as e=216+1, to ensure efficient encryption. This work utilizes lattice attack and exhaustive attack to embed backdoors in two proposed methods, called RSASBLT and RSASBES, respectively. Both approaches involve straightforward steps, making their running time roughly the same as that of normal RSA key-generation time, implying that no one can detect the backdoor by observing time imparity.

In this Letter, a robust system identification method is proposed for the generalized sidelobe canceller using dual microphones. The conventional transfer-function generalized sidelobe canceller employs the non-stationarity characteristics of the speech signal to estimate the relative transfer function and thus is difficult to apply when the noise is also non-stationary. Under the assumption of W-disjoint orthogonality between the speech and the non-stationary noise, the proposed algorithm finds the speech-dominant time-frequency bins of the input signal by inspecting the system output and the inter-microphone time delay. Only these bins are used to estimate the relative transfer function, so reliable estimates can be obtained under non-stationary noise conditions. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the performance of the transfer-function generalized sidelobe canceller, while only sustaining a modest estimation error in adverse non-stationary noise environments.

Recently, frequency-domain equalization (FDE) has been attracting much attention as a way to improve single-carrier (SC) signal transmission in a frequency-selective wireless channel. Since the SC signal spectrum is spread over the entire signal bandwidth, FDE can take advantage of channel frequency-selectivity and achieve the frequency diversity gain. SC with FDE is a promising wireless signal transmission technique. In this article, we review the pioneering research done on SC with FDE. The principles of simple one-tap FDE, channel estimation, and residual inter-symbol interference (ISI) cancellation are presented. Multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) is an important technique to improve the transmission performance. Some of the studies on MIMO/SC with FDE are introduced.

Analysis of waiting time to deliver a message M from a source S to a destination D is deeply related to connectivity analysis, which is an important issue in fundamental studies of mobile multi-hop networks. In [1], we compared the mean waiting times of two methods to deliver M with the mean value of the minimum waiting time. The mean minimum waiting time was obtained by computer simulation because theoretical analysis of this mean is not easy, although another two methods were analyzed theoretically. In this paper, we propose an approximate method to theoretically analyze the mean minimum waiting time in a one-dimensional street network, and show that this method gives a good approximation of the mean minimum waiting time. Also, we consider shadowing and change of directions of mobile nodes at intersections as negative factors arising in two-dimensional street networks. We extend the above method to compute the mean minimum waiting time considering these factors, and discuss how the mean minimum waiting time is affected by these factors.

It is well known that the performance of CDMA systems may degrade in the presence of spreading code mismatch. The diagonal loading multiple constrained minimum variance (DL-MCMV) approaches have been proposed to deal with the mismatch problem. However, they still cannot improve the robust capability efficiently due to the spreading code mismatch. In this letter, a detector based on the variable DL technique is presented that offers more robust capabilities than the MCMV and DL-MCMV detectors. Computer simulation results are provided that illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed detector.