This paper presents a new statistical model-based voice activity detection (VAD) algorithm in the wavelet domain to improve the performance in non-stationary environments. Due to the efficient time-frequency localization and the multi-resolution characteristics of the wavelet representations, the wavelet transforms are quite suitable for processing non-stationary signals such as speech. To utilize the fact that the wavelet packet is very efficient approximation of discrete Fourier transform and has built-in de-noising capability, we first apply wavelet packet decomposition to effectively localize the energy in frequency space, use spectral subtraction, and employ matched filtering to enhance the SNR. Since the conventional wavelet-based spectral subtraction eliminates the low-power speech signal in onset and offset regions and generates musical noise, we derive an improved multi-band spectral subtraction. On the other hand, noticing that fixed threshold cannot follow fluctuations of time varying noise power and the inability to adapt to a time-varying environment severely limits the VAD performance, we propose a statistical model-based VAD algorithm in wavelet domain with an adaptive threshold. We perform extensive computer simulations and compare with the conventional algorithms to demonstrate performance improvement of the proposed algorithm under various noise environments.

A hardware algorithm for computing the reciprocal of the Euclidean norm of a 3-dimensional (3-D) vector which appears frequently in 3-D computer graphics is proposed. It is based on a digit-recurrence algorithm for computing the Euclidean norm and an on-line division (on-line reciprocal computation) algorithm. These algorithms are modified, so that the reciprocal of the Euclidean norm is computed by performing on-line division where the divisor is the partial result of Euclidean norm computation. Division, square-rooting, and reciprocal square-root computation, which are important operations in 3-D graphics, can also be performed using a circuit based on the proposed algorithm.

This paper describes an efficient PCRD (Post-Compression Rate-Distortion) scheme for rate control of JPEG2000. The proposed method determines the rate constant in consideration of the decreasing characteristic of RD-slopes and conducts rate allocation about only coding passes excluded from the previous rate allocation. As a result, it can considerably reduce the number of operations and encoding time with nearly the same PSNR performance as the conventional rate control scheme of JPEG2000.

The RC mismatch among S/H stages for time-interleaved ADCs causes a phase error and a gain error and the phase error is dominant. The paper points out that clock skew and the phase error caused by the RC mismatch have similar effects on the sampling error and then can be compensated with the clock skew compensation. Simulation results agree well with the theoretical analysis. With the phase error compensation of RC mismatch, the SNDR in 14b ADC can be improved by more than 15 dB in the case that the bandwidth of S/H circuits is 3 times the sampling frequency. This paper also proposes a method of clock skew and RC mismatch compensation in time-interleaved sample-and-hold (S/H) circuits by sampling clock phase adjusting.

We consider the classification problem to construct a classifier c:{0,1}n{0,1} from a given set of examples (training set), which (approximately) realizes the hidden oracle y:{0,1}n{0,1} describing the phenomenon under consideration. For this problem, a number of approaches are already known in computational learning theory; e.g., decision trees, support vector machines (SVM), and iteratively composed features (ICF). The last one, ICF, was proposed in our previous work (Haraguchi et al., (2004)). A feature, composed of a nonempty subset S of other features (including the original data attributes), is a Boolean function fS:{0,1}S{0,1} and is constructed according to the proposed rule. The ICF algorithm iterates generation and selection processes of features, and finally adopts one of the generated features as the classifier, where the generation process may be considered as embodying the idea of boosting, since new features are generated from the available features. In this paper, we generalize a feature to an extended Boolean function fS:{0,1,*}S{0,1,*} to allow partial knowledge, where * denotes the state of uncertainty. We then propose the algorithm ICF* to generate such generalized features. The selection process of ICF* is also different from that of ICF, in that features are selected so as to cover the entire training set. Our computational experiments indicate that ICF* is better than ICF in terms of both classification performance and computation time. Also, it is competitive with other representative learning algorithms such as decision trees and SVM.

This paper proposes a low complexity composite CDMA system based on MIMO (Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output) processing and LDPC (low-density parity-check) codec based a CDMA system, which works well even if the complicated case of multipath, multiusers and short length LDPC codes. To explore the practical application, the mobile user in the composite CDMA systems is with only two antennas and adopts short length irregular LDPC codec, each user's data has been divided two LDPC encoded substreams being sent to two transmitter antennas at base station. Since the LDPC encoded substreams of reaching the mobile user are orthogonal to each other in space and time, the CDMA system performances (BER and SINR) can be improved much, but the multipath may ruin the orthogonalilty. To solve the problems, the paper provides the algorithms of main function modules of transmitter and receivers, gives a simple method to test the girth of LDPC codes, and analyzes the performance of MIMO-LDPC CDMA systems theoretically and experimentally. The simulation results show that the hybrid CDMA systems can have better performance than the conventional CDMA systems based on single transmitted antenna at a base station.

To perform a comparative study, we experimented on two differential epitaxial structures, the conventional metamorphic high-electron-mobility-transistor (MHEMT) using the InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs structure and the InP-composite-channel MHEMT adopting the InAlAs/InGaAs/InP structure. Compared with the conventional MHEMT, the InP-composite-channel MHEMT shows improved breakdown performance; more than approximately 3.8 V. This increased breakdown voltage can be explained by the lower impact ionization coefficient of the InP-composite-channel MHEMT than that of the conventional MHEMT. The InP-composite-channel MHEMT also shows improved Radio Frequency characteristics of S21 gain of approximately 4.35 dB at 50 GHz, and a cutoff frequency (fT) and a maximum frequency of oscillation (fmax) of approximately 124 GHz and 240 GHz, respectively, were obtained. These are due to decreases in go and gm.

A radio network (RN for short) is a distributed system with no central arbiter, consisting of n radio transceivers, henceforth referred to as stations. We assume that the stations run on batteries and expends power while broadcasting/receiving a data packet. Thus, the most important measure to evaluate protocols on the radio network is the number of awake time slots, in which a station is broadcasting/receiving a data packet. We also assume that the stations are identical and have no unique ID number, and no station knows the number n of the stations. For given n keys one for each station, the ranking problem asks each station to determine the number of keys in the RN smaller than its own key. The main contribution of this paper is to present an optimal randomized ranking protocol on the k-channel RN. Our protocol solves the ranking problem, with high probability, in O(+log n) time slots with every station being awake for at most O(log n) time slots. We also prove that any randomized ranking protocol is required to run in expected Ω(+log n) time slots with at least one station being awake for expected Ω(log n) time slots. Therefore, our ranking protocol is optimal.

The recent burst growth of the Internet use overloads networking systems and degrades the quality of communications, e.g., bandwidth loss, packet drops, delay of responses, etc. To overcome such degradation of communication quality, the notion of Quality of Service (QoS) has received attention in practice. In general, QoS switches have several queues and each queue has several slots to store arriving packets. Since network traffic changes frequently, QoS switches need to control arriving packets to maximize the total priorities of transmitted packets, where the priorities are given by nonnegative values and correspond to the quality of service required to each packet. In this paper, we first derive the upper bounds for the competitive ratio of multi-queue preemptive QoS problem with priority between 1/α and 1, i.e., for any α ≥ 1, the algorithm TLH is (3-1/α)-competitive. This is a generalization of known results--for the case that packets have only priority 1 (α =1), the algorithm GREEDY (or TLH) is 2-competitive; for the case that packets have priorities between 0 and 1 (α = ∞), the algorithm TLH is 3-competitive. Then we consider the lower bounds for the competitive ratio of multi-queue preemptive QoS problem with priority between 0 and 1, and show that the competitive ratio of any multi-queue preemptive QoS algorithm is at least 1.514.

A realistic computer graphics (CG) model of root growth that accounts for the effects of soil obstruction and moisture variations is proposed. While the exposed parts of plants have been modeled extensively in CG, realistic root models have received little attention, and the potential effects of root characteristics on the growth of foliage has yet to be considered in detail. The proposed model represents roots as series of bend points and link points and defines the root systems as a layered structure formed by roots connected via link points. This approach allows for two general types of root systems based on branching probabilities of lateral and adventitious roots: main root systems consisting of a thick main root and thinner lateral roots, and fibrous root systems consisting of adventitious roots of relatively uniform diameter. The model also expresses the behavior of root growth in terms of hydrotropism, gravitropism, flexion and growth inhibition by assigning gravity, moisture and consistency parameters to underground voxels. The model is shown through simulations of various growth conditions to generate individualized root systems that reflect the growth environment and characteristics of the plant.

We show that the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a balanced C4-trefoil decomposition of the complete multi-graph λKn is λ(n-1) ≡ 0 (mod 24) and n ≤ 10. Decomposition algorithms are also given.

An improved genetic algorithm for solving the graph planarization problem is presented. The improved genetic algorithm which is designed to embed a graph on a plane, performs crossover and mutation conditionally instead of probability. The improved genetic algorithm is verified by a large number of simulation runs and compared with other algorithms. The experimental results show that the improved genetic algorithm performs remarkably well and outperforms its competitors.

Affine projection algorithms perform well for acoustic echo cancellation and adaptive equalization. Although these algorithms typically provide fast convergence, they are unduly complex when updating the weights of the associated adaptive filter. In this paper, we propose a new subband affine projection (SAP) algorithm and a facile method for its implementation. The SAP algorithm is derived by combining the affine projection algorithm and the subband adaptive structure with the maximal decimation. In the proposed SAP algorithm, the derived weight-updating formula for the subband adaptive filter has a simple form as compared with the normalized least mean square (NLMS) algorithm. The algorithm gives improved convergence and reduced computational complexity. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm for a colored input signal is evaluated experimentally.

This paper investigates the accepting powers of two-way alternating Turing machines (2ATM's) with only existential (universal) states which have inkdots and sublogarithmic space. It is shown that for sublogarithmic space-bounded computations, (i) multi-inkdot 2ATM's with only existential states and the ones with only universal states are incomparable, (ii) k-inkdot 2ATM's are better than k-inkdot 2ATM's with only existential (universal) states, k ≥ 0, and (iii) the class of sets accepted by multi-inkdot 2ATM's with only existential (universal) states is not closed under complementation.

We discuss the problem of finding a dominant sequence for sending input data items from a low-end client to a server for computational intensive tasks under the realistic assumption of unpredictable communication behavior. Under this assumption, the client has to send the input data items using a specified sequence to maximize the number of computations performed by the server at any time. The sequence-finding problem is NP-hard for the general case. In this paper, we address three fundamental and useful applications: the product of two polynomials, matrices multiplication and Fast Fourier Transform. We show that the sequence-finding problems of the three applications can be solved optimally in linear time. However, we also show counter examples to rule out any possibility of finding a dominant sequence for sparse cases of the three applications. Finally, a simulation is conducted to show the usefulness of our method.

Recently, researches and developments for measuring and modeling of the human body have been receiving much attention. Our aim is to reconstruct an accurate shape of a human foot from multiple camera images, which can capture dynamic behavior of the object. In this paper, a foot-shape database is used for accurate reconstruction of human foot. By using Principal Component Analysis, the foot shape can be represented with new meaningful variables. The dimensionality of the data is also reduced. Thus, the shape of object can be recovered efficiently, even though the object is partially occluded in some input views. To demonstrate the proposed method, two kinds of experiments are presented: reconstruction of human foot in a virtual reality environment with CG multi-camera images, and in real world with eight CCD cameras. In the experiments, the reconstructed shape error with our method is around 2 mm in average, while the error is more than 4 mm with conventional volume intersection method.

There are two principal aspects of "mobility" in location-aware computing: (1) how to support mobility and (2) how to exploit it. This paper considers the latter, while many existing works only concentrate on the former. This work is trying to prove that the performance of location-aware systems will be greatly improved by understanding the user's movement. In this paper, we propose a novel location update protocol called state-based location update protocol (SLUP), which significantly minimizes the energy consumption of mobile client by exploiting a syntactic information of a user's movement. This concept is called mobility-awareness which is a kind of context-awareness. Moreover, there are three variations of the proposed protocol in terms of how to choose the optimal state: SLUP/BS, SLUP/UITR, and SLUP/IUT. Experimental results show that the proposed protocol outperforms the well-known existing protocols such as dead-reckoning and distance-based protocol, and that the SLUP/IUT approach can achieve different performance tradeoffs between energy efficiency and location accuracy by fine-tuning its algorithmic parameter Tiut.

The release of image processing techniques make image modification and fakery easier. Image fakery, here, is defined as a process to copy a region of source image and paste it onto the destination image, with some post processing methods applied, such as boundary smoothing, blurring, etc. to make it natural. The most important characteristic of image fakery is object copy and paste. In order to detect fake images, this letter introduces a blind detection scheme based on singular value decomposition (SVD). Experimental results also show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

We have developed an open-architecture router (OAR) prototype using industrial standard hardware, software components, and interfaces. The prototype is built with Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA)-compliant hardware. Carrier-grade Linux (CGL) is used as the operating system. A new OAR configuration method is described where industrial standard hardware and software interfaces are used. Basic forwarding functions with routing protocol processing are demonstrated for the first time.

This paper presents a design method of multi-stage, multi-way microstrip power dividers with the aim of constructing a compact low-loss power divider with numbers of outputs. First, an integration design technique of power dividers composed of multi-step, multi-furcation and mitered bends is described. Since the analytical technique is founded on the planar circuit approach combined with the segmentation method, the optimization of the circuit patterns can be performed in a reasonable short computation time. Next, the present method is applied to the design of broadband Nn-way power dividers such as 32-way power divider consisting of 3-way dividers in two-stage structures, respectively. In addition, a 12-way power divider constructed from a series connection of a 3-way and three 4-way dividers is designed. The dividers equivalently contain a 3-section Chebyshev transformer to realize broadband properties. As a result, the fractional bandwidths of nearly 85% and 66.7% for the power-split imbalance less than 0.2 dB and the return loss better than -20 dB are obtained for the 9- and 12-way power dividers, respectively. The validity of these design results is confirmed by a commercial em-simulator (Ansoft HFSS) and experiments.