This letter proposes a visible watermarking scheme for halftone images. It exploits HVS filtering to transform the image in binary domain into continuous-tone domain for watermark embedding. Then a codeword search operation converts the watermarked continuous-tone image into binary domain. The scheme is flexible for two weighting factors are involved to adjust the watermark embedding strength and the average intensity of the watermarked image. Moreover, it can be used in some applications where original continuous-tone images are not available and the halftoning method is unknown.

This paper deals with the random number generation problem under the framework of a separate coding system for correlated memoryless sources posed and investigated by Slepian and Wolf. Two correlated data sequences with length n are separately encoded to nR1, nR2 bit messages at each location and those are sent to the information processing center where the encoder wish to generate an approximation of the sequence of independent uniformly distributed random variables with length nR3 from two received random messages. The admissible rate region is defined by the set of all the triples (R1,R2,R3) for which the approximation error goes to zero as n tends to infinity. In this paper we examine the asymptotic behavior of the approximation error inside and outside the admissible rate region. We derive an explicit lower bound of the optimal exponent for the approximation error to vanish and show that it can be attained by the universal codes. Furthermore, we derive an explicit lower bound of the optimal exponent for the approximation error to tend to 2 as n goes to infinity outside the admissible rate region.

This letter presents an improved visible watermarking scheme for halftone images. It incorporates watermark embedding into ordered dither halftoning by threshold modulation. The input images include a continuous-tone host image (e.g. an 8-bit gray level image) and a binary watermark image, and the output is a halftone image with a visible watermark. Our method is content adaptive because it takes local intensity information of the host image into account. Experimental results demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed technique. It can be used in practical applications for halftone images, such as commercial advertisement, content annotation, copyright announcement, etc.

This paper presents a novel technique to compensate intermodulation distortion of a self-heterodyne direct conversion OFDM system in multipath propagation environments. A self-heterodyne direct conversion system has an advantage that simple receivers can be built that are completely immune to any phase noise or frequency offset. This system, however, has a disadvantage that the nonlinear square-law detector at the receiver of the self-heterodyne direct conversion system gives rise to second order intermodulation distortion. In this study, channel estimation is performed using a training sequence and then the predistortion coefficients with regard to estimated channel parameters are derived to compensate the receiver nonlinearity. Transmit power distribution is employed to overcome multipath fading channels as well. Computer simulation demonstrates that the proposed approach improves the BER performance of the self-heterodyne direct conversion OFDM system in a multipath fading channel. This scheme gives advantage to multi-carrier systems that are much more sensitive to frequency and phase error than single-carrier systems.

Data detection based on self organizing maps is presented for hematopoietic tumor patients. Learning data for the maps are generated from the screening data of examinees. The incomplete screening data without some item values is then supplemented by substituting averaged non-missing item values. In addition, redundant items, which are common to all the data and tend to have an unfavorable influence on data detection, are eliminated by a genetic algorithm and/or an immune algorithm. It is basically judged, by observing the label of a winner neuron in the map, whether the data presented to the map belongs to the class of hematopoietic tumors. Some experimental results are provided to show that the proposed methods achieve the high probability of correctly identifying examinees as hematopoietic tumor patients.

In this paper, a novel independent component analysis (ICA) approach is proposed, which is robust against the interference of impulse noise. To implement ICA in a noisy environment is a difficult problem, in which traditional ICA may lead to poor results. We propose a method that consists of noise detection and image signal recovery. The proposed approach includes two procedures. In the first procedure, we introduce a self-organizing map (SOM) network to determine if the observed image pixels are corrupted by noise. We will mark each pixel to distinguish normal and corrupted ones. In the second procedure, we use one of two traditional ICA algorithms (fixed-point algorithm and Gaussian moments-based fixed-point algorithm) to separate the images. The fixed-point algorithm is proposed for general ICA model in which there is no noise interference. The Gaussian moments-based fixed-point algorithm is robust to noise interference. Therefore, according to the mark of image pixel, we choose the fixed-point or the Gaussian moments-based fixed-point algorithm to update the separation matrix. The proposed approach has the capacity not only to recover the mixed images, but also to reduce noise from observed images. The simulation results and analysis show that the proposed approach is suitable for practical unsupervised separation problem.

A new digital calibration scheme for a 14 bit binary weighted current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is presented. This scheme uses a simple current comparator for the current measurement instead of a high-resolution ADC. Therefore, a faster calibration cycle and smaller additional circuits are possible compared to the scheme with the high-resolution ADC. In the proposed calibration scheme, the lowest 8 bit part of the DAC is used for both error correction and normal operation. Therefore, the extra DACs required for calibration are only a 3 bit DAC and a 6 bit DAC. Nevertheless, a large calibration range is achieved. Full 14 bit resolution is achieved with a small chip-area. The simulation results show that DNL and INL after calibration are 0.26 LSB and 0.46 LSB, respectively. They also show that the spurious free dynamic range is 83 dB (57 dB) for signals of 24 kHz (98 MHz) at 200 Msps update rate.

The potential of optical circuit packaging technology is discussed. Special attention is paid to introduction of "optical wiring" at the printed wiring board level (i.e., in the "last 1 meter area") to overcome the bandwidth limitations of electrical copper-based wiring. The suitability of optical surface mount technology (O-SMT) as a possible solution is reviewed. It is shown that the key to the utility of O-SMT is high efficiency and alignment-free coupling between optical wiring and optical devices. O-SMT requires a method to change the beam direction from the horizontal to the vertical and vice versa in order to couple optical wiring in an OE-board and OE-devices mounted on the board. A novel method using an "optical pin" is proposed and investigated. Furthermore, an optical coupling method using a self-written waveguide called "optical solder" is reviewed. Several applications of self-written waveguides using a green laser and a photo-mask are demonstrated.

Twin-Channel (TC)-MOSFET with twin omega-gate (Ω-gate) Si channels and its fabrication process were proposed. The twin Si channels are able to be fabricated by self-aligned process utilizing wet etching of SiN and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. Three-dimensional (3-D) device simulation was performed to optimize gate structure for TC-MOSFET with 10 nm10 nm (TSiWG) channels with the gate length of 30 nm, and it was found that TC-MOSFET with right-angled Ω-gate in case the Lunder was 3 nm showed excellent device characteristics similar to the gate-all-around (GAA) devices corresponding to the gate structure as Lunder=5 nm. Fabrication process of twin Si channels was also investigated experimentally, and approximately 40 nm40 nm twin Si channels were successfully fabricated on SOI by the proposed fabrication process.

Light-induced self-written (LISW) technology is a unique and simple method of forming low-loss 3-dimensional (3-D) optical circuits in photopolymers using radiation from an optical fiber. Since this technology is applicable to almost all kinds of optical fiber and optical wiring, many studies have been carried in a number of different organizations on the applications of this technology. The technology helps simplify optical interconnections, and it is expected that it will reduce the cost of mounting optical devices. In this paper, we introduce LISW technology and report on related studies developed in our research group.

In order to reconstruct 3-D Euclidean shape by the Tomasi-Kanade factorization, one needs to specify an affine camera model such as orthographic, weak perspective, and paraperspective. We present a new method that does not require any such specific models. We show that a minimal requirement for an affine camera to mimic perspective projection leads to a unique camera model, called symmetric affine camera, which has two free functions. We determine their values from input images by linear computation and demonstrate by experiments that an appropriate camera model is automatically selected.

Recently, self-reconfigurable devices which can be partially reprogrammed by other part of the same device have been proposed. However, since conventional self-reconfigurable devices are LUT-array-based fine-grained devices, their time efficiency is spoiled by overhead for reconfiguration time to load large amount of configuration data. Therefore, we have to improve architectures. At the architecture design phase, it is difficult to estimate the performance, including reconfiguration overhead, of self-reconfigurable devices by static analysis, since it depends on many architecture parameters and unpredictable run-time behavior. In this paper, we propose a simulation-based platform for design exploration of self-reconfigurable devices. As a demonstration of the proposed platform, we implement an adaptive load distribution model on the devices of various reconfiguration granularities and evaluate performance of the devices.

The Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is an unsupervised neural network introduced in the 80's by Teuvo Kohonen. In this paper, we propose a method of simultaneously using two kinds of SOM whose features are different (the nSOM method). Namely, one is distributed in the area at which input data are concentrated, and the other self-organizes the whole of the input space. The competing behavior of the two kinds of SOM for nonuniform input data is investigated. Furthermore, we show its application to clustering and confirm its efficiency by comparing with the k-means method.

This paper describes a method of reducing substrate noise and random variability utilizing a self-adjusted forward body bias (SA-FBB) circuit. To achieve this, we designed a test chip (130 nm CMOS 3-well) that contained an on-chip oscilloscope for detecting dynamic noise from various frequency noise sources, and another test chip (90 nm CMOS 2-well) that contained 10-M transistors for measuring random variability tendencies. Under SA-FBB conditions, it reduced noise by 35.3-69.8% and reduced random variability σ (Ids) by 23.2-57.9%.

We develop a maximum likelihood estimation scheme for correcting the carrier frequency offsets prior to the general intercarrier interference (ICI) self-cancellation in the OFDM systems. Since the same data symbols employed for ICI self-cancellation are also used for frequency offset estimation, the proposed scheme does not consume additional bandwidth. The combined use of the estimation algorithm and ICI self-cancellation scheme provides both frequency offset compensation and ICI reduction hence improves the system performance greatly. The effectiveness of the proposed estimation-cancellation scheme is further verified by calculating the bit error rates of various OFDM receivers, and substantial improvements are found.

Performance analysis of ultra-fast all-optical analog-to-digital converter using optical multiple-level thresholding module based on self-frequency shift in fiber is described. In analog-to-digital conversion, the purposes of optical sampling and optical quantization are in the possibility of the speed-up of sampling and quantization processes using various ultra-fast nonlinear phenomena depending on an intensity of a light. The result of analysis indicates that the number of achievable quantized levels of the proposed approach is in the increasing tendency with an increase in the peak power of an input pulse.

We propose and demonstrate the all-optical analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) using optical delay line encoders. Experimental results show that input analog signals are successfully converted into 3-bit digital signals at a bit rate of 40 Gb/s.

This paper proposes a two-dimensional self-matching receiver for Free Space Optics (FSO) communication system using chaotic spatial synchronization. This system is able to obtain the information of two-dimensional code from received pattern. This paper considers that proposed system is applied to two applications. The first application is image transmission. This paper shows that applying proposed system to image transmission enables to restore the desired image, which doesn't require strict alignment of receiver, and evaluates transmission optical power. The second application is Code Division Multiplexing (CDM). This paper shows that applying proposed system to CDM system enables to demodulate desired digital signals regardless of the uncertainty of received position. Moreover, the required transmission optical power and bit error rate performance are obtained by computer simulation.

A 10-GHz sub-harmonic Gilbert mixer is demonstrated in this paper using the 0.35 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The time-delay when the sub-harmonic LO (Local Oscillator) stage generates sub-harmonic LO signals is compensated by using fully symmetrical multiplier pairs. High RF-to-IF isolation and sub-harmonic LO Gilbert cell with excellent frequency response can be achieved by the elimination of the time-delay. The SiGe BiCMOS sub-harmonic micromixer exhibits 17 dB conversion gain, -74 dB 2LO-to-RF isolation, IP1 dB of -20 dBm, and IIP3 of -10 dBm. The measured double sideband noise figure is 16 dB from 100-kHz to 100-MHz because the SiGe bipolar device has very low 1/f noise corner.

Menger's sponge (MS) is a kind of three-dimensional fractal structure. To analyze non-resonant electromagnetic properties of MS composed of isotropic paraelectric material, a novel, high-speed computation method employing simple recursion equations in terms of scattering amplitudes for two MS's with adjacent stage numbers, which are the parameters describing structural differences of MS's, is formulated. Within the scope of non-resonant electromagnetic phenomena, scattering patterns, forward and backward scattering amplitudes, and total cross sections of MS are investigated as a function of stage number and incident plane waves, and behaviors typical to fractal structures are extracted from the numerical results of the above equations. In addition, scattering properties at infinite stage number are discussed.