Kyosuke AWAI Kazumasa TAIRA Kunio SAWAYA Risaburo SATO
A compensation method of the array element pattern is proposed to measure EM field distribution on an observation plane located several wavelengths away from electronic devices in a short time. Numerical and experimental data of the 3 and 5 element collinear dipole array sensors are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.
Yasuo SAMBE Shintaro WATANABE Dong YU Taichi NAKAMURA Naoki WAKAMIYA
This paper describes a distributed video transcoding system that can simultaneously transcode an MPEG-2 video file into various video coding formats with different rates. The transcoder divides the MPEG-2 file into small segments along the time axis and transcodes them in parallel. Efficient video segment handling methods are proposed that minimize the inter-processor communication overhead and eliminate temporal discontinuities from the re-encoded video. We investigate how segment transcoding should be distributed to obtain the shortest total transcoding time. Experimental results show that implementing distributed transcoding on 10 PCs can decrease the total transcoding time by a factor of about 7 for single transcoding and by a factor of 9.5 for simultaneous three kinds of transcoding rates.
The main contribution of this work is to present several hardware implementations of an "n choose k" counter (C(n,k) counter for short), which lists all n-bit numbers with (n-k) 0's and k 1's, and to show their applications. We first present concepts of C(n,k) counters and their efficient implementations on an FPGA. We then go on to evaluate their performance in terms of the number of used slices and the clock frequency for the Xilinx VirtexII family FPGA XC2V3000-4. As one of the real life applications, we use a C(n,k) counter to accelerate a digital halftoning method that generates a binary image reproducing an original gray-scale image. This method repeatedly replaces an image pattern in small square regions of a binary image by the best one. By the partial exhaustive search using a C(n,k) counter we succeeded in accelerating the task of finding the best image pattern and achieved a speedup factor of more than 2.5 over the simple exhaustive search.
A rotator graph was proposed as a topology for interconnection networks of parallel computers, and it is promising because of its small diameter and small degree. However, a rotator graph is a directed graph that sometimes behaves harmfully when it is applied to actual problems. A bi-rotator graph is obtained by making each edge of a rotator graph bi-directional. In a bi-rotator graph, average distance is improved against a rotator graph with the same number of nodes. In this paper, we give an algorithm for the container problem in bi-rotator graphs with its evaluation results. The solution achieves some fault tolerance such as file distribution based information dispersal technique. The algorithm is of polynomial order of n for an n-bi-rotator graph. It is based on recursion and divided into two cases according to the position of the destination node. The time complexity of the algorithm and the maximum length of paths obtained are estimated to be O(n3) and 4n-5, respectively. Average performance of the algorithm is also evaluated by computer experiments.
Yuan WEN Woon-Seng GAN Jun YANG
An algorithm for the sound projection using multiple sources is presented. The source strength vector is obtained by using a fast estimation approach instead of the conventional eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) method. The computation load is therefore greatly reduced, which makes the algorithm more efficient in practical applications.
This paper deals with the decomposition of surface data into several fractal signal based on the parameter estimation by the Mean Likelihood and Importance Sampling (IS) based on the Monte Carlo simulations. The method is applied to the feature extraction of surface data. Assuming the stochastic models for generating the surface, the likelihood function is defined by using wavelet coefficients and the parameter are estimated based on the mean likelihood by using the IS. The approximation of the wavelet coefficients is used for estimation as well as the statistics defined for the variances of wavelet coefficients, and the likelihood function is modified by the approximation. After completing the decomposition of underlying surface data into several fractal surface, the prediction method for the fractal signal is employed based on the scale expansion based on the self-similarity of fractal geometry. After discussing the effect of additive noise, the method is applied to the feature extraction of real distribution of surface data such as the cloud and earthquakes.
Rajkishore PRASAD Hiroshi SARUWATARI Kiyohiro SHIKANO
This paper presents a study on the blind separation of a convoluted mixture of speech signals using Frequency Domain Independent Component Analysis (FDICA) algorithm based on the negentropy maximization of Time Frequency Series of Speech (TFSS). The comparative studies on the negentropy approximation of TFSS using generalized Higher Order Statistics (HOS) of different nonquadratic, nonlinear functions are presented. A new nonlinear function based on the statistical modeling of TFSS by exponential power functions has also been proposed. The estimation of standard error and bias, obtained using the sequential delete-one jackknifing method, in the approximation of negentropy of TFSS by different nonlinear functions along with their signal separation performance indicate the superlative power of the exponential-power-based nonlinear function. The proposed nonlinear function has been found to speed-up convergence with slight improvement in the separation quality under reverberant conditions.
Nari TANABE Toshihiro FURUKAWA Kohichi SAKANIWA Shigeo TSUJII
We have proposed in [5] a practical blind channel identification algorithm for the white observation noise. In this paper, we examine the effectiveness of the algorithm given in [5] for the colored observation noise. The proposed algorithm utilizes Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure and estimates (1) the channel order, (2) the noise variance and then (3) the channel impulse response with less computational complexity compared to the conventional algorithms using eigenvalue decomposition. It can be shown through numerical examples that the algorithm proposed in [5] is quite effective in the colored noise case.
This letter proposes a run-length code based test data compression technique capable of efficient compression. The proposed test compression method is based on a hybrid run-length encoding, which greatly reduces test data storage on the tester. The code words are carefully selected so as to increase the compression ratio for the test data. Also, a heuristic mapping algorithm and a scan latch reordering method for don't care values in the test cubes increase the compression ratio. Results indicate that the proposed code and heuristic mapping schemes are very efficient in reducing test data. Reduced test data results in less test storage and test time.
Norimasa NAKASHIMA Mitsuo TATEIBA
This paper describes an estimation of the computational and memory complexities of Greengard-Rokhlin's Fast Multipole Algorithm (GRFMA). GRFMA takes a quad tree structure and six calculation processes. We consider a perfect a-ary tree structure and the number of floating-point operations for each calculation process. The estimation for both complexities shows that the perfect quad tree is the best and the perfect binary tree is the worst. When we apply GRFMA to the computation of realistic problems, volume scattering are the best case and surface scattering are the worst case. In the worst case, the computational and memory complexities of GRFMA are O(Llog2 L) and O(Llog L), respectively. The computational complexity of GRFMA is higher than that of the multilevel fast multipole algorithm.
Wen-Huang CHENG Wei-Ta CHU Ja-Ling WU
This paper presents a framework for automatic video region-of-interest determination based on visual attention model. We view this work as a preliminary step towards the solution of high-level semantic video analysis. Facing such a challenging issue, in this work, a set of attempts on using video attention features and knowledge of computational media aesthetics are made. The three types of visual attention features we used are intensity, color, and motion. Referring to aesthetic principles, these features are combined according to camera motion types on the basis of a new proposed video analysis unit, frame-segment. We conduct subjective experiments on several kinds of video data and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.
Mohammad Shorif UDDIN Tadayoshi SHIOYAMA
A new and simple image processing approach for the measurement of the length of pedestrian crossings with a view to develop a travel aid for the blind people is described. In a crossing, the usual black road surface is painted with constant width periodic white bands. The crossing length is estimated using vector geometry from the left- and the right-border lines, the first-, the second- and the end-edge lines of the crossing region. Image processing techniques are applied on the crossing image to find these lines. Experimental results using real road scenes with pedestrian crossing confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Tetsuya IIZUKA Makoto IKEDA Kunihiro ASADA
This paper proposes a cell layout synthesis technique to minimize the sensitivity to wiring faults due to spot defects. We modeled the sensitivity to faults on intra-cell routings with consideration to the spot defects size distribution and the end effect of critical areas. The effect of the sensitivity reduction on the yield is also discussed. By using the model as a cost function, we comprehensively generate the minimum width layout of CMOS logic cells and select the optimal layouts. Experimental results show that our technique reduces about 15% of the fault sensitivities compared with the wire-length-minimum layouts for benchmark CMOS logic circuits which have up to 14 transistors.
In this paper, a complete X-tolerant test data compression solution is proposed for system-on-a-chip (SOC) testing. The solution achieves low-cost testing by employing not only selective Huffman vertical coding (SHVC) for test stimulus compression but also MISR-based time compactor for test response compaction. Moreover, the solution is non-intrusive, since it can tolerate any number of unknown states (also called X state) in test responses such that it does not require modifying the logic of core to eliminate or block the sources of unknown states. Furthermore, the solution achieves enhanced diagnosis capability over conventional MISR. The enhanced diagnosis requires the least hardware overhead by reusing the existing masking logic and achieves significant saving in diagnostic time. Experimental results for ISCAS 89 benchmarks as well as the evaluation of hardware implementation have proven the efficiency of the proposed test solution.
Somchart CHOKCHAITAM Masahiro IWAHASHI Somchai JITAPUNKUL
In this paper, we propose a new one-dimensional (1D) integer discrete cosine transform (Int-DCT) for unified lossless/lossy image compression. The proposed 1D Int-DCT is newly designed to reduce rounding effects by minimizing number of rounding operations. The proposed Int-DCT can be operated not only lossless coding for a high quality decoded image but also lossy coding for a compatibility with the conventional DCT-based coding system. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results confirm an effectiveness of the proposed Int-DCT.
Tso-Bing JUANG Shen-Fu HSIAO Ming-Yu TSAI Jenq-Shiun JAN
In this paper, a cell-driven multiplier generator is developed that can produce high-performance gate-level netlists for multiplier-related arithmetic functional units, including multipliers, multiplier and accumulators (MAC) and dot product calculator. The generator optimizes the speed/area performance both in the partial product compression and in the final addition stage for the specified process technology. In addition to the conventional CMOS full adder cells, we have also designed fast compression elements based on pass-transistor logic for further performance improvement of the generated multipliers. Simulation results show that our proposed generator could produce better multiplier-related functional units compared to those generated using Synopsys Designware library or other previously proposed approaches.
Shinji FUKUMA Toshihiko TANAKA Masahiko NAWATE
In region-of-interest (ROI) image coding based on wavelet transforms, the tap length of the wavelet filter as well as energy compaction characteristics affect the quality of the restored image. This paper presents a wavelet transform comprised of two wavelet filter sets with different tap lengths. The wavelet filter is switched to the shorter-length set to code a ROI of an image and to the longer-length one for the remaining region, the region of non-interest (RONI). ROI coding examples demonstrate that this switching wavelet transform provides better quality levels than fixed transforms under the same total bits; the quality of the recovered ROI is improved in the lossy coding of both regions while that of the full image is improved in the lossless coding of the ROI.
Akio ANDO Masakazu IWAKI Kazuho ONO Koichi KUROZUMI
This paper describes a method for separating a target sound from other noise arriving in a single direction when the target cannot, therefore, be separated by directivity control. Microphones are arranged in a line toward the sources to form null sensitivity points at given distances from the microphones. The null points exclude non-target sound sources on the basis of weighting coefficients for microphone outputs determined by blind source separation. The separation problem is thereby simplified to instantaneous separation by adjustment of the time-delays for microphone outputs. The system uses a direct (i.e. non-iterative) algorithm for blind separation based on second-order statistics, assuming that all sources are non-stationary signals. Simulations show that the 2-microphone system can separate a target sound with separability of more than 40 dB for the 2-source problem, and 25 dB for the 3-source problem when the other sources are adjacent.
In this letter, we propose a complexity-scalable DCT-based video encoder which works for the highly resource-limited terminals, such as cellular phone, PDA, handheld terminals, etc. The basic concept in the proposed method is for DCT operations to be adaptively changing the complexity like buffer control algorithm in the CBR (Constant Bit-Rate) video encoder.
Kazuo IMAI Wataru TAKITA Sadahiko KANO Akihisa KODATE
While mobile networks have been enhanced to support a variety of mobile multimedia services such as video telephony and rich data content delivery, a new challenge is being created by the remarkable development of micro-device technologies such as micro processor-chips, sensors, and RF tags. These developments suggest the rapid emergence of the ubiquitous computing environment; computers supporting human life without imposing any stress on the users. The combination of broadband global networks and ubiquitous computing environment will lead to an entirely new class of services, which we call ubiquitous networking services. This paper discusses how to create ubiquitous service environments comparing global networking approaches which are based on fixed and mobile networks. It is shown that the mobile approach is better from service applicability and reliability viewpoints. Networking architecture is proposed which expand 4G mobile cellular networks to real space via gateways on the edges of the mobile network (i.e. mobile terminals). A new set of technical requirements will emerge via this approach, which may accelerate the paradigm shift from the current mobile network architecture and even from the Internet of today.