Novel microstrip lowpass filters are developed with reduced size and significantly improved stopband characteristics. After introducing quarter-wavelength open stubs, we get one or two transmission zeros in the stopband. By folding the high impedance microstrip lines, we reduce the size of the filter. Three-pole and five-pole lowpass filters are designed, and their measured frequency responses agree well with theoretical predictions.

This letter presents an image rectification scheme that can be used by any image watermarking algorithms to provide robustness against rotation, scaling and translation (RST) transformations.

At frequencies currently used by mobile communications, many of the microstrip half-wavelength resonators are too large to realize miniaturized filters. For this reason, very small-sized microstrip spiral resonators and filters, using high-temperature superconductors (HTS), have been studied recently. In this paper, the resonant and coupling characteristics of microstrip G-type and S-type spiral resonators are investigated first by using an electromagnetic simulator. Then small-sized 4-pole, 8-pole, and 16-pole Chebyshev bandpass filters using S-type spirals are designed, respectively, with a midband frequency f0 = 1.93 GHz. The frequency responses of the filters satisfy well the desired specifications, and the measured frequency response of the 8-pole HTS filter agrees well with the theoretical prediction.

JERS-1 L-band SAR data can be, especially over urban areas affected by ground radar interferences. For most of the applications of the data the interferences should be suppressed. Notch filtering during image correlation process is one of the straightforward ways to do this. However, lower the threshold is, more signals from earth surface is eliminated. In this paper, a probability density function (PDF's) model of the ground radar interference signal is worked out from experimental data, and used for the suppression of interferences and the preservation of backscattered signals. The validity of the model is confirmed against real SAR data, and a general filter threshold--applicable to all JERS-1 SAR data--without any conditions is proposed.

The partial projection filter gives optimal signal restoration in the presence of both the signal space and the observation space noises. In this paper, the filter has been characterized from the point of view of its signal restoration and noise suppression capabilities. The filter is shown to suppress the noise component in the restored signal while retaining the signal component, thus maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio. Further, a digital implementation of the filter is presented in matrix form in contrast to its original operator based derivation, for practical applications.

An adaptive interpolated FIR (IFIR) echo canceller was recently proposed for xDSL applications. This canceller consists of an FIR filter, an IFIR filter, and a tap-weight overlapping and nulling scheme. The FIR filter is used to cancel the short and rapidly changing head echo while the IFIR filter is used to cancel the long and slowly decaying tail echo. This echo canceller, which inherits the stable characteristics of the conventional FIR filter, requires low computational complexity. It is well known that the interpolation filter for an IFIR filter has great influence on the interpolated result. In this paper, a least-squares method is proposed to obtain optimal interpolation filters such that the performance of the IFIR echo canceller can be further improved. Simulations with a wide variety of loop topologies show that the optimal IFIR echo canceller can effectively cancel the echo up to 73.0 dB (for an SHDSL system). About 57% complexity reduction can be achieved compared to a conventional FIR filter.

The problem of signal restoration in the presence of observation space noise has been tackled extensively. However, restoration of degraded signals in the presence of signal space noise leads to considerable complexity because it becomes difficult to distinguish between the original signal and the noise. In this paper, a partial projection filter has been devised for the restoration of signals degraded by both the signal space and the observation space noises. A closed form of the proposed filter has been derived and its performance has been verified experimentally.

Many P2P lookup services based on distributed hash tables (DHT) have appeared recently. These schemes are built upon overlay networks and ignore distance to the target resources. As a result, P2P lookups often suffer from unnecessarily long routes in the underlay network, which we call overlay dilation. This paper proposes a new scheme for resource routing, called hybrid hierarchical overlay routing, dubbed Hyho. We introduce distance-weighted Bloom filters (dwBFs) as a concise representation of routing information for scattered resources in overlay networks. To further reduce the size of Bloom filters, so that they are linear in the number of distinct resources, Hyho splits overlay networks in accordance with DHT, where each subnetwork has a smaller set of resources and spans the entire network thinly. As a result, Hyho constructs a hierarchical overlay network and routes requests accordingly. Simulation results show that Hyho can reduce overlay dilation to one half that yielded by the Chord lookup service.

The growth of the Internet has resulted in an increasing need for personalized information systems. The paper describes an autonomous agent, the Web Robot Agent or WebBot, which integrates with the web and acts as a personal recommendation system that cooperates with the user in order to identify interesting pages. The Apriori algorithm extracts the characteristics of the web pages in the form of association words that are semantically related and mines a bag of association words. Using hybrid components from collaborative filtering and content-based filtering, this hybrid recommendation system can overcome the shortcomings associated with traditional recommendation systems. In this paper, we present an improved recommendation system, which uses the user preference mining through hybrid 2-way filtering. The proposed method was tested on a database, and its effectiveness compared with existent methods was proven in on-line experiments.

In this paper, we introduce a new technology to extract the unique features from an iris image, which uses scale-space filtering. Resulting iris code can be used to develop a system for rapid and automatic human identification with high reliability and confidence levels. First, an iris part is separated from the whole image and the radius and center of the iris are evaluated. Next, the regions that have a high possibility of being noise are discriminated and the features presented in the highly detailed pattern are then extracted. In order to conserve the original signal while minimizing the effect of noise, scale-space filtering is applied. Experiments are performed using a set of 272 iris images taken from 18 persons. Test results show that the iris feature patterns of different persons are clearly discriminated from those of the same person.

In this paper, a novel type of the step-up high frequency transformer linked full-bridge soft-switching phase-shift PWM DC-DC power converter with ZVS and ZCS bridge legs is proposed for small scale fuel cell power generation systems, automotive AC power supplies. A tapped inductor filter with a freewheeling diode is implemented in the proposed soft-switching DC-DC power converter to minimize the circulating current in the high-frequency step-up transformer primary side and high-frequency inverter stage. Using a tapped inductor filter with a freewheeling diode makes possible to reduce the circulating current without any active switches and theirs gate-drive circuits. The operating principle of the proposed DC-DC power converter with each operation mode during a half cycle of the steady state operation is explained. The optimum design of the tapped inductor turns ratio is described on the basis of the circuit simulation results. Developing 1 kW 100 kHz prototype with power MOSFETs and 36 V DC source verifies the practical effectiveness of the proposed soft-switching DC-DC power converter. The actual efficiency of the proposed DC-DC power converter is obtained 94% for the wide load and output voltage variation ranges.

This paper presents optimum and sub-optimal designs of noise-shaping FIR filters for single- and multi-bit data converters. In the designs, only three parameters, the number of taps, oversampling ratio (OSR) and l1-norm of the filter coefficients are specified, and the in-band peak of the amplitude response is minimized under the specifications. The minimization problem is formulated with the overload-free condition, which guarantees the rigorous stability, and an overload-free converter generates no distortion in any output signals. In the optimum design, the minimization problem is directly and exactly solved, but the sub-optimal method solves this problem by iteratively utilizing the simplex method. The iterative sub-optimal method without the exact optimality is far faster and more efficient than the optimum method. In design examples, optimum and sub-optimal noise-shaping FIR filters for single- and multi-bit data converters are designed, and their optimal performance is revealed. For single-bit data converters with OSR 64, a noise-shaping FIR filter is designed and then shown to achieve a signal to noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) 107.6 [dB] in the band of interest.

This paper treats the least-squares linear filtering and smoothing problems of discrete-time signals from uncertain observations when the random interruptions in the observation process are modelled by a sequence of independent Bernoulli random variables. Using an innovation approach we obtain the filtering algorithm and a general expression for the smoother which leads to fixed-point, fixed-interval and fixed-lag smoothing recursive algorithms. The proposed algorithms do not require the knowledge of the state-space model generating the signal, but only the covariance information of the signal and the observation noise, as well as the probability that the signal exists in the observed values.

This paper proposes a novel dual-mode ring bandpass filter (BPF) using defect ground structure (DGS). The proposed filter provides wide stopband characteristic resulted from the bandgap characteristic of DGS for suppressing spurious response of the dual-mode ring BPF. The H shaped DGS cell is modeled as a parallel LC resonator and the equivalent circuit parameters are extracted. The relationship between bandgap characteristic and design parameters of DGS dimension is discussed and the bandgap characteristic of DGS on the filter performance is also investigated. The novel proposed filter has the frequency characteristics with a central frequency f0 = 7.7 GHz, a 3-dB bandwidth of 4.5% and wider stopband from 9 to 15.5 GHz at the level of -35 GHz. Measured results of experimental filter has good agreement with the theoretical simulation results.

In this paper, we present a new numerical method for the complex approximation of FIR digital filters. Our objective is to design FIR filters with equiripple magnitude and phase errors. The proposed method solves the least squares (LS) problem iteratively. At each iteration, the desired response is updated so as to have an equiripple error. The proposed methods do not require any time-consuming optimization procedure such as the quasi-Newton methods and converge to equiripple solutions quickly. We show some examples to illustrate the advantages of our proposed methods.

A finite impulse response (FIR) core based on the cascoded class AB SI technique is presented for low power wireless transceivers. Accomplished through both architectural and circuit developments, the filter's features include high speed, low power consumption, small silicon area and compatibility with standard CMOS process. For feasibility and performance assessments, an 8-tap 16 MS/s SI FIR filter with 5-bit coefficients and a 31-tap 80 MS/s SI matched filter (MF) for despreading task in future WCDMA receivers are demonstrated via simulations.

In this paper, a sub-optimal Rake receiver combined with a Wiener Filter is investigated for use in an indoor environment. Inner-Chip-interference is dominant when the application is indoors, so the inner-chip-interference rejection function becomes critical for the receiver. Pilot symbols in each slot are used for channel estimation and weight calculation of Rake combining through Wiener Filter. Compared to conventional combining which uses maximum ratio combining, Wiener combining using IRC (Interference rejection combining) achieves better ICI (Inner-chip-Interference) rejection. This paper clarified that the sub optimal Rake receiver using Wiener Filter is 4 dB better than the conventional Rake receiver under the indoor application.

This investigation proposes a novel dual-mode patch bandpass filter (BPF) that uses defect ground structure (DGS) to suppress spurious response. The proposed dual-mode patch BPF has exhibits a wide stopband characteristic owing to that uses the bandgap resonant characteristic of DGS in the harmonic frequency of the dual-mode patch BPF. The novel proposed filter demonstrates the frequency characteristics with center frequency f0 = 2.2 GHz, 3-dB bandwidth (FBW) of 8% and wider stopband from 2.6 to 6 GHz at the level of -35 dB. The experimental and simulated results agree.

This letter presents a new probability expression for a multi-carrier (MC) DS/CDMA acquisition system with a reference matched filter (RMF). To evaluate the mean acquisition time (MAT) as a measure of the system performance, the probabilities of detection, miss, and false alarm are derived. From the results, it is shown that the MAT of the MC-CDMA hybrid system with RMF is comparable to the optimum mean acquisition time of the conventional MC-CDMA hybrid system, maintaining approximately the same degree of structuring complexity.

A bandpass filter (BPF) with shielded inverted microstrip lines (SIMSL), previously demonstrated by the author, has shown the nontrivial asymmetry of filter responses in spite of adopting a conventional filter synthesis procedure. This paper will reveal the mechanism of the asymmetry and propose prescriptions for recovering the defect, in addition to observing the wave propagation property of SIMSL. Firstly, the behavior of phase constants or effective dielectric constants for various modes propagating on single SIMSL are indicated in terms of the line configuration, and the dispersion characteristics of the quasi-TEM mode are interpreted from the point of mode coupling between the pure TEM mode and dielectric slab modes. Then it is shown that the asymmetry is dependent only on the transmission characteristics of SIMSL parallel-coupled lines involved in the filter circuits. Theoretical considerations reveal that the asymmetry is due to the fact that SIMSL has quite different phase constants for the even- and odd-mode. On the basis of these results, the optimized BPF is designed and it is experimentally demonstrated that the symmetry of its responses is notably recovered. Furthermore, this optimization is still quite efficient for achieving high attenuation properties at its harmonics.