Performance of the minimum mean square error (MMSE) detection is far below that of the maximum likelihood (ML) detection in a multiuser environment and decreases significantly as the number of co-channel users increases. In this paper, we propose a combined MMSE and ML multiuser detection scheme for space-time block coded (STBC) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (STBC-OFDM) which has improved performance but with low complexity. In particular, we propose a reduced complexity ML post-detection (ML-PDP) scheme which can correct erroneously estimated bits from the outputs of MMSE multiuser detection. The proposed ML-PDP scheme performs sequential search to detect a predefined number of bits with higher probability of error and then uses ML detection to correct them. Upon controlling the number of corrected bits it is possible to balance the system performance with complexity associated with the ML-PDP. We show that significant improvement can be achieved at the cost of only small additional complexity compared with the MMSE multiuser detection.

To develop human interfaces such as home information equipment, highly capable word learning ability is required. In particular, in order to realize user-customized and situation-dependent interaction using language, a function is needed that can build new categories online in response to presented objects for an advanced human interface. However, at present, there are few basic studies focusing on the purpose of language acquisition with category formation. In this study, taking hints from an analogy between machine learning and infant developmental word acquisition, we propose a taxonomy-based word-learning model using a neural network. Through computer simulations, we show that our model can build categories and find the name of an object based on categorization.

This paper examines a coded Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) system which uses Reed-Solomon (RS) codes both in Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channels and Rayleigh fading channels. The performance of GMSK and RS code combinations is compared with the constraint that the transmitted signal bandwidth is constant. The coding gains were obtained using simulations and the best combination of GMSK and RS codes was found. The optimal code rates over AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels were also compared.

Short-range propagation measurements were carried out using ultra wideband (UWB) and continuous wave (CW) signals on a rectangular aluminum conductive plate, simulating typical office desks, with and without a low vertical metal partition panels. The frequency of the UWB signal spanned from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz and that of the CW signal was 6.85 GHz. A vector network analyzer and two omnidirectional UWB antennas were used to obtain the frequency-domain response of the propagation paths. With the partition panel, the CW reception level showed approximately a 20-dB spatial variation, induced by the interference between the direct and the reflected waves, but the UWB reception level had no particular plunges. The additional losses were also measured when the 500-mm propagation path was blocked with a human arm, a coffee cup, and a copy paper pile and when the receiving antenna was covered with a human palm on the plate without the partition panel. The maximum additional propagation losses were found as follows: 10-12 dB by a human arm, 10 dB with a coffee cup, and 2 dB with a paper pile. Further additional loss caused by a palm covering the antenna was found to be 10 to 12 dB, mainly due to palm absorption.

The encoding process of vector quantization (VQ) is a time bottleneck preventing its practical applications. In order to speed up VQ encoding, it is very effective to use lower dimensional features of a vector to estimate how large the Euclidean distance between the input vector and a candidate codeword could be so as to reject most unlikely codewords. The three popular statistical features of the average or the mean, the variance, and L2 norm of a vector have already been adopted in the previous works individually. Recently, these three statistical features were combined together to derive a sequential EEENNS search method in [6], which is very efficient but still has obvious computational redundancy. This Letter aims at giving a mathematical analysis on the results of EEENNS method further and pointing out that it is actually unnecessary to use L2 norm feature anymore in fast VQ encoding if the mean and the variance are used simultaneously as proposed in IEENNS method. In other words, L2 norm feature is redundant for a rejection test in fast VQ encoding. Experimental results demonstrated an approximate 10-20% reduction of the total computational cost for various detailed images in the case of not using L2 norm feature so that it confirmed the correctness of the mathematical analysis.

The radiation properties of oscillating electric dipoles are studied theoretically for three and four layered systems including a single metallic slab based on angular spectrum representation of vector spherical waves. One of the remarkable results obtained is the transmission energy spectrum showing strong dependence on the thickness of a dielectric layer placed between oscillating electric dipole and metallic surface, which explains the experimental results of molecular fluorescence into surface plasmon modes. The theory based on angular spectrum representation and tunneling current provides us with a clear identification of plasmonic excitation transfer, transmission loss associated with plasmon transport in metallic layer, and energy dissipation or quenching of excitation due to surface plasmon excitation at the metallic surface in relation to the characteristic complex wave number of evanescent waves.

The recent Internet needs a network structure and traffic engineering that can support various applications requiring differentiated traffic processing and a high quality of service. The extension of the Internet from wired to wireless systems that generate location-dependent and burst errors has made the support of good services more difficult with existing packet scheduling algorithms. Accordingly, this paper proposes a wireless differentiated service packet scheduling (WDSPS) algorithm that can provide reliable and fair services in differentiated wireless internet service networks. As such, the proposed scheduling algorithm solves the HOL blocking problem within a class packet queue that occurs in a wireless network, supports differentiated services for each class defined in a differentiated service network, and facilitates gradual and efficient service compensation not only among classes but also among flows within a class, thereby preventing a monopoly by one class or one flow. Simulations confirmed that the proposed WDSPS scheduling algorithm could provide the required QoS differentiation between classes and enhanced the service throughput under various wireless network conditions.

We investigate the optimal chip rate of power or rate adapted direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS/CDMA) communication systems in Nakagami fading channels. We find that the optimal chip rate that maximizes the spectral efficiency depends upon both the channel parameters, such as multipath intensity profile (MIP) and line-of-sight (LOS) component, and the adaptation scheme itself. With the rate adaptation, the optimal chip rate is less than 1/Tm irrespective of the channel parameters, where Tm is multipath delay spread. This indicates that with the rate adaptation, correlation receiver achieves higher spectral efficiency than RAKE receiver. With the power adaptation, however, the optimal chip rate and the corresponding number of tabs in RAKE receiver are sensitive to MIP and LOS component.

We propose a method for the recovery of projective structure and motion by the factorization of the rank 1 matrix containing the images of all points in all views. In our method, the unknowns are the 3D motion and relative depths of the set of points, not their 3D positions. The coordinates of the points along the camera plane are given by their image positions in the first frame. The knowledge of the coordinates along the camera plane enables us to solve the SFM problem by iteratively factorizing the rank 1 matrix. This simplifies the decomposition compared with the SVD (Singular Value Decomposition). Experiments with both simulated and real data show that the method is efficient for the recovery of projective structure and motion.

Space-time array manifold model is usually used in a fast fading channel to estimate delay for the radio location. The existing additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) estimation error model significantly overestimates the delay estimation. In this paper, we model the estimation error of the space-time array manifold channel impulse response (CIR) matrix as a correlated AWGN matrix and its performance is shown to be closer to the estimation error of practical systems than the existing model.

Under dynamic and heterogenous environment, the need for adaptability and rapid response time to information service systems has become increasingly important. To cope with the continuously changing conditions of service provision and utilization, Faded Information Field (FIF) has been proposed, which is an agent-based distributed information service system architecture. In the case of a mono-service request, the system is designed to improve users' access time and preserve load balancing through the information structure. However, with interdependent requests of multi-service increasing, adaptability, reliability and timeliness have to be assured by the system. In this paper, the relationship between the timeliness and the reliability of correlated services allocation and access is clarified. Based on these factors, the autonomous network-based heterogeneous information services integration technology to provide one-stop service for users' multi-service requests is proposed. We proved the effectiveness of the proposed technology through the simulation and the results show that the integrated service can reduce the total users access time compared with the conventional systems.

A fast encoding technique is described for vector quantization (VQ) of line spectral frequency parameters. A reduction in VQ encoding complexity is achieved by using a preliminary test that reduces the necessary codebook search range. The test is performed based on two criteria. One criterion uses the distance between a specific single element of the input vector and the corresponding element of the codevectors in the codebook. The other criterion makes use of the ordering property of LSF parameters. The fast encoding technique is implemented in the enhanced variable rate codec (EVRC) encoding algorithm. Simulation results show that the average searching range of the codebook can be reduced by 44.50% for the EVRC without degradation of spectral distortion (SD).

This paper discusses a generalized concept of multiple-symbol differential detection (MDD) and analytically derives weight parameters based on channel prediction for MDD on fast time-varying channels. At first, this paper shows that adaptive maximum-likelihood sequence estimation employing per-survivor processing (PSP-MLSE) with a single channel tap is similar concept to MDD. Next, the weight parameters for MDD are derived according to the channel estimation of PSP-MLSE based on a high order channel prediction. Finally, computer simulation confirms that MDD with the analytically derived parameters mitigates floor of bit error rate (BER) on fast time-varying fading channels without channel state information.

The performance of asynchronous fast frequency hopping-multiple access (AFFH-MA) systems with multiple hops per bit is investigated with a linear-combining receiver in Rayleigh fading. We present an accurate approximation method for evaluating the error probability by using the characteristic function, Taylor series, and Gauss-Chebyshev quadrature rule. We will show that the proposed method provides an accurate approximation, compared with a simple Gaussian approximation. The validity of proposed analytic works is verified through Monte Carlo simulations.

We initiated development of our own data processing software for laser microscope data with C# language. This software is provided with volume calculation function of a target portion, based on a new calculation algorithm that can precisely handle the volume calculation of the portion located on a tilted surface or on a distorted surface. In this paper, this algorithm and some exemplary results obtained thereby, as well as some further development aims, are briefly described.

It has been demonstrated that a common-mode (CM) current can dominate the EMI processes up to 1 GHz, despite the fact that a CM current is smaller than a differential-mode (DM) current. However, this description is insufficient to describe behavior above 1 GHz. In this paper, the correspondence of CM and DM components for total electromagnetic (EM) radiation from a printed circuit board (PCB) with surface microstrip line, which is commonly used in microwave integrated circuits, at gigahertz frequency is studied experimentally and with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) modeling. In order to characterize the EM radiation, the frequency response of the CM current, the electric field near the PCB, and the electric far field are investigated. First, the frequency response of the CM current, near and far-fields for the PCB with an attached feed cable are compared up to 5 GHz. Although the CM current decreases above a few gigahertz, near and far electric fields increase as the frequency becomes higher. Second, in order to distinguish between CM and DM radiation at high frequency, the frequency response and the angle pattern of the far-field from a PCB without the feed cable are discussed. The results show that radiation up to 1 GHz is related to the CM component. However, depending on polarization and PCB geometry, radiation may be dominated by the DM rather than the CM component. The results indicate that the DM component may be more significant relative to the CM component, and the increase in EM radiation can not be predicted from only the frequency response of CM current. Therefore, identifying the dominant component is essential for suppressing the EM radiation. This study is a basic consideration to realize a technique which is effective on the suppression of the EM radiation from the PCB with an attached feed cable.

Theoretical analyses are carried out on the height dependence of the antenna factor of an EMI antenna to develop an antenna calibration method that can provide the free-space value of the antenna factor. It is found that the antenna factor in general varies with the antenna height in a quasi-periodic way with a period of about λ/2. Thus, the present paper proposes to take an average of the antenna factors over a height range of about λ/2 to obtain an accurate estimate of the free-space antenna factor. Effective antenna arrangements are also proposed for the antenna calibration. Deviations in the estimate from the free-space antenna factor are less than 0.1 dB for tuned dipoles in the frequency range above 50 MHz. But the errors increase up to 0.3 dB at about 35 MHz. For broadband antennas, the free-space antenna factor can be accurately estimated by taking the average of the antenna factors. Errors are estimated to be less than 0.3 dB in the frequency range from 30 MHz to 1000 MHz.

An ultra-small (0.3-mm0.3-mm0.06-mm) radio frequency identification chip called the µ-chip has been developed for use in a wide range of individual recognition applications. The chip is designed to be thin enough to be applied to paper and paper-like media that are widely used in retailing to create certificates with monetary value, as well as to token-type devices. The µ-chip has been designed and fabricated using 0.18-µm standard CMOS technology. This ultra-small RFID chip also has a low-cost oriented device structure of a double-surface electrode to simplify the process of connecting the antenna and chip. The measured characteristics of the prototype chip are presented, demonstrating the capability of the new chip as an RFID device.

This paper describes a digital impedance controller (DIC) [1] for high-speed signal interface. The proposed DIC provides the wide range impedance control covering from 23 Ω to 140 Ω with 3.29% maximum quantization error. The maximum quantization error of the proposed DIC is 2.26% with RQ ranging from 23 Ω to 53 Ω, the same range covered by conventional scheme. The high resolution and wide range impedance control is implemented by using automatic gate voltage optimization. The amount of jitter caused by quantization error is 6.9 ps while 13.8 ps in conventional scheme. The data input valid window is 623 ps at 0.75200 mV and maximum eye open is 641 mV meaning about 10% improvement at 1.5 Gbps/pin DDR3 SRAM interface.

Animation video is becoming very popular with the availability of low cost computing resources. The cell animation is a popular method, used for producing animation video. In order to efficiently encode these videos, conventional video codecs, such as AutoDesk Animation Pro FLC, Intel Indeo 5, and MPEG-4 can be used to achieve high compression. However, when cell animation videos are compressed at very low bit rate by these traditional codecs, objectionable artifacts, e.g., false color, blurred contours, and blocking artifact, are severely occurred. In this paper, we propose an efficient compression method for cell animation images. The proposed method employs hybrid coding scheme which includes intraframe and interframe coding modes. The intraframe mode consists of color quantization, adaptive differential pulse code modulation, forward classification, and Golomb-Rice coding. The interframe coding consists of block-based techniques and exploits the characteristics of motion. Simulation results show that the proposed method provides superior performance over AutoDesk Animation Pro FLC, MPEG-1, Intel Indeo 5, and MPEG-4 standards.