Compared with previous standards, H.264/AVC adopts variable block size motion estimation (VBSME) and multiple reference frames (MRF) to improve the video quality. Full search motion estimation algorithm (FS), which calculates every search candidate in the search window for 7 block type with multiple reference frames, consumes massive computation power. Mathematical analysis reveals that the aliasing problem of subsampling algorithm comes from high frequency signal components. Moreover, high frequency signal components are also the main issues that make MRF algorithm essential. As we know, a picture being rich of texture must contain lots of high frequency signals. So based on these mathematical investigations, two fast VBSME algorithms are proposed in this paper, namely edge block detection based subsampling method and motion vector based MRF early termination algorithm. Experiments show that strong correlation exists among the motion vectors of those blocks belonging to the same macroblock. Through exploiting this feature, a dynamically adjustment of the search ranges of integer motion estimation is proposed in this paper. Combing our proposed algorithms with UMHS almost saves 96-98% Integer Motion Estimation (IME) time compared to the exhaustive search algorithm. The induced coding quality loss is less than 0.8% bitrate increase or 0.04 dB PSNR decline on average.

This paper describes the device fabrication process and characteristics of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) aimed for millimeter-wave applications. We developed three novel techniques to suppress short-channel effects and thereby enhance high-frequency device characteristics: high-Al-composition and thin AlGaN barrier layers, SiN passivation by catalytic chemical vapor deposition, and sub-100-nm Ti-based gates. The Al0.4Ga0.6N/GaN HFETs with a gate length of 30 nm had a maximum drain current density of 1.6 A/mm and a maximum transconductance of 402 mS/mm. The use of these techniques led to a current-gain cutoff frequency of 181 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency of 186 GHz.

The concept of personal networks is very user-centric and representative for the next generation networks. However, the present security mechanism does not consider at all what happens whenever a mobile node (device) is compromised, lost or stolen. Of course, a compromised, lost or stolen mobile node (device) is a main factor to leak stored secrets. This kind of leakage of stored secrets remains a great danger in the field of communication security since it can lead to the complete breakdown of the intended security level. In order to solve this problem, we propose a 3-way Leakage-Resilient and Forward-Secure Authenticated Key Exchange (3LRFS-AKE) protocol and its security architecture suitable for personal networks. The 3LRFS-AKE protocol guarantees not only forward secrecy of the shared key between device and its server as well as providing a new additional layer of security against the leakage of stored secrets. The proposed security architecture includes two different types of communications: PN wide communication and communication between P-PANs of two different users. In addition, we give a performance evaluation and numerical results of the delay generated by the proposed security architecture.

To examine the function of the superior colliculus (SC) in decision-making processes and the application of its single trial activity for "neural mind reading," we recorded from SC deep layers while two monkeys performed oculomotor go/no-go tasks. We have recently focused on monitoring single trial activities in single SC neurons, and designed a virtual decision function (VDF) to provide a good estimation of single-dimensional decisions (go/no-go decisions for a cue presented at a specific visual field, a response field of each neuron). In this study, we used two VDFs for multidimensional decisions (go/no-go decisions at two cue locations) with the ensemble activity which was simultaneously recorded from a small group (4 to 6) of neurons at both sides of the SC. VDFs predicted cue locations as well as go/no-go decisions. These results suggest that monitoring of ensemble SC activity had sufficient capacity to predict multidimensional decisions on a trial-by-trial basis, which is an ideal candidate to serve for cognitive brain-machine interfaces (BMI) such as two-dimensional word spellers.

A fast algorithm to speed up the search process of vector quantization encoding is presented. Using the sum and the partial norms of a vector, some eliminating inequalities are constructeded. First the inequality based on the sum is used for determining the bounds of searching candidate codeword. Then, using an inequality based on subvector norm and another inequality combining the partial distance with subvector norm, more unnecessary codewords are eliminated without the full distance calculation. The proposed algorithm can reject a lot of codewords, while introducing no extra distortion compared to the conventional full search algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing state-of-the-art search algorithms in reducing the computational complexity and the number of distortion calculation.

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is one of the most promising switching technologies for next generation optical networks. As delay-sensitive applications such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP) have recently become popular, OBS networks should guarantee stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for such applications. Thus, this paper proposes an Adaptive Loss-aware Flow Control (ALFC) scheme, which adaptively decides on the burst offset time based on loss-rate information delivered from core nodes for assigning a high priority to delay-sensitive application traffic. The proposed ALFC scheme also controls the upper-bounds of the factors inducing delay and jitter for guaranteeing the delay and jitter requirements of delay-sensitive application traffic. Moreover, a piggybacking method used in the proposed scheme accelerates the guarantee of the loss, delay, and jitter requirements because the response time for flow control can be extremely reduced up to a quarter of the Round Trip Time (RTT) on average while minimizing the signaling overhead. Simulation results show that our mechanism can guarantee a 10-3 loss-rate under any traffic load while offering satisfactory levels of delay and jitter for delay-sensitive applications.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) wireless systems offer both high data rates and high capacity. Since different signals are transmitted by different antennas simultaneously, interference occurs between the transmitted signals. Each receive antenna receives all the signals transmitted by each transmit antenna simultaneously. The receiver has to detect each signal from the multiplexed signal. A Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) algorithm is used for spatial filtering. MMSE filtering can realize low complexity signal detection, but the signal output by MMSE filtering suffers from interference by the other signals. MMSE-SIC combines MMSE filtering and Soft Interference Cancellation (SIC) with soft replicas and can achieve good Bit Error Rate (BER) performance. If an irregular LDPC code or a turbo code is used, the reliability and BER of the information bits output by the decoder are likely to be higher and better than the parity bits. In MMSE-SIC, bits with poor reliability lower the accuracy of soft replica estimation. When the soft replica is inaccurate, the gain obtained by SIC is small. M-ary Phase Shift Keying (PSK) and M-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) also achieve high data rates. Larger constellations such as 8 PSK and 16 QAM transfer more bits per symbol, and the number of bits per symbol impacts the accuracy of SIC. Unfortunately, increasing the number of bits per symbol is likely to lower the accuracy of soft replica estimation. In this paper, we evaluate three mapping schemes for MMSE-SIC with an LDPC code and a turbo code with the goal of effectively increasing the SIC gain. The first scheme is information reliable mapping. In this scheme, information bits are assigned to strongly protected bits. In the second scheme, parity reliable mapping, parity bits are assigned to strongly protected bits. The last one is random mapping. Computer simulations show that in MMSE-SIC with an irregular LDPC code and a turbo code, information reliable mapping offers the highest SIC gain. We also show that in MMSE-SIC with the regular LDPC code, the gains offered by the mapping schemes are very small.

A new adaptive model based on fuzzy integrals has been presented and used for combining three well-known methods, Eigenface, Fisherface and SOMface, for face classification. After training the competence estimation functions, the adaptive mechanism enables our system the filtering of unsure judgments of classifiers for a specific input. Comparison with classical and non-adaptive approaches proves the superiority of this model. Also we examined how these features contribute to the combined result and whether they can together establish a more robust feature.

A novel RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) refinement algorithm is proposed to enhance the resolution for indoor and outdoor real-time location tracking system. The proposed refinement algorithm is implemented in two separate phases. During the first phase, called the pre-processing step, RSSI values at different static locations are collected and processed to build a calibrated model for each reference node. Different measurement campaigns pertinent to each parameter in the model are implemented to analyze the sensitivity of RSSI. The propagation models constructed for each reference nodes are needed by the second phase. During the next phase, called the runtime process, real-time tracking is performed. Smoothing algorithm is proposed to minimize the dynamic fluctuation of radio signal received from each reference node when the mobile target is moving. Filtered RSSI values are converted to distances using formula calibrated in the first phase. Finally, an iterative trilateration algorithm is used for position estimation. Experiments relevant to the optimization algorithm are carried out in both indoor and outdoor environments and the results validated the feasibility of proposed algorithm in reducing the dynamic fluctuation for more accurate position estimation.

This paper presents a method for markerless human motion capture using a single camera. It uses tree-based filtering to efficiently propagate a probability distribution over poses of a 3D body model. The pose vectors and associated shapes are arranged in a tree, which is constructed by hierarchical pairwise clustering, in order to efficiently evaluate the likelihood in each frame. A new likelihood function based on silhouette matching is proposed that improves the pose estimation of thinner body parts, i.e. the limbs. The dynamic model takes self-occlusion into account by increasing the variance of occluded body-parts, thus allowing for recovery when the body part reappears. We present two applications of our method that work in real-time on a Cell Broadband EngineTM: a computer game and a virtual clothing application.

In Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET), transportation capability of wireless links' varies according to the size of the packets they transport. This instability, which is more acute in long links, has received little attention in the stabilizing schemes proposed so far for MANET. A lot of research has been carried out to utilize more reliable links in making end-to-end routes to avoid frequent route failures and realize higher packet delivery ratio. However, these approaches mainly consider the availability of a link over time and depend on link history which is difficult to acquire in highly dynamic systems. In this paper, we present an easy-to-implement but efficient method to find suitable end-to-end routes that are capable of transporting different sizes of the application data packets. Our scheme is stateless and does not rely on the underlying data link and physical layers. An extensive simulation shows the validity of our concept and highlights the improvement achieved by our proposal.

The RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag technology is expected as a tool of localization. By the localization of RFID tags, a mobile robot which installs in RFID readers can recognize surrounding environments. In addition, RFID tags can be applied to a navigation system for walkers. In this paper, we propose an adaptive likelihood distribution scheme for the localization of RFID tags. This method adjusts the likelihood distribution depending on the signal intensity from RFID tags. We carry out the performance evaluation of estimated position error by both computer simulations and implemental experiments. We show that the proposed system is more effective than the conventional system.

On the basis of the RF characteristics of p-type diamond field-effect transistors (FETs) with hydrogen surface termination, we establish an equivalent circuit (EQC) model. From comparisons of three cases we reveal that to represent the device performance in the EQC, the source, gate, and drain resistance should be considered but that the gate-source and gate-drain resistance can be ignored. The features of diamond FETs are (1) a plateau of the gate capacitance in a certain gate voltage range. (2) maximum fT and fMAX cut-off frequencies near the threshold gate voltage, and (3) a high fMAX/fT ratio 3.8. We discuss these features in terms of the energy barrier between the gate metal and the two-dimensional hole channel and drift region below the gate.

We propose a polymeric waveguide optical switch using a novel drive mechanism. The switch uses a flexible polymeric waveguide film where trenches are formed at cross-points of the waveguides. Light passes through the trench while it is closed. When the trench opens, light path changes by total internal reflection between the air gap and the polymeric waveguide. Therefore, we can control light paths by changing the trench state between closed and open one. In order to realize this, a rotating arm is inserted near the trench. As rotational force transfers to the trench through the arm and the film, the trench switches from closed to open state and vice versa. We investigated this rotary drive mechanism by three-dimensional (3D) structural analysis, designed the optical switch, and experimentally demonstrated the switching operation.

AlN/GaN Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MISFETs) were designed, simulated and fabricated. DC, S-parameter and power measurements were also performed. Drift-diffusion simulations using DESSIS compared AlN/GaN MISFETs and Al32Ga68N/GaN Heterostructure FETs (HFETs) with the same geometries. The simulation results show the advantages of AlN/GaN MISFETs in terms of higher saturation current, lower gate leakage and higher transconductance than AlGaN/GaN HFETs. First results from fabricated AlN/GaN devices with 1 µm gate length and 200 µm gate width showed a maximum drain current density of 380 mA/mm and a peak extrinsic transconductance of 85 mS/mm. S-parameter measurements showed that current-gain cutoff frequency (fT) and maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) were 5.85 GHz and 10.57 GHz, respectively. Power characteristics were measured at 2 GHz and showed output power density of 850 mW/mm with 23.8% PAE at VDS = 15 V. To the authors knowledge this is the first report of a systematic study of AlN/GaN MISFETs addressing their physical modeling and experimental high-frequency characteristics including the power performance.

Wyner and Ziv characterized the rate distortion function for lossy source coding with side information at the decoder. It is well known that for the quadratic Gaussian case, the Wyner-Ziv rate-distortion function coincides with the conditional rate-distortion function. In this paper, we extend the problem to the coding of multivariate Gaussian source with multiple Gaussian side information at the decoder. The achievable region is obtained, and it is easily extended to the case that the difference between the source and the side information is multivariate Gaussian, no matter what distributions the source and the side information are. We apply this theoretical model to Distributed Video Coding (DVC) by considering the difference of the Distributed frame (D frame) and the Side-information frame (S frame) to be multivariate Gaussian distributed. This introduces rate allocation problem into DVC, which can be solved by a reverse water-filling method. Simulation results show that around 1.5-2 dB coding gain benefits from the multivariate Gaussian Wyner-Ziv coding model.

In this letter, we propose a partial access mechanism to be used on a register file for low-cost embedded multimedia processor architecture. In the embedded system, supporting the SIMD operations is a burden because of the wide SIMD register file and its execution unit. So a new architecture is proposed to increase the performance of SIMD operations with minimal additional hardware overhead. To evaluate the performance and hardware overhead, this architecture is adopted to an embedded multimedia processor and simulated with five DSP benchmarks. The simulation results indicate that the performance is increased by 38% and the total area is increased by 13.4%. The proposed partial access mechanism may be useful for low-cost embedded multimedia ASIP.

The mechanism of current collapse of AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors (HFETs) was investigated by gate bias stress with and without illumination. It is clarified that there are two positions where negative charges accumulate, at the gate edge and in the bulk epi-layer. In the gate-edge mode, the charge comes either through the passivation film or the AlGaN layer, depending on the resistance of the films. Reduction of leakage current in the passivation film will be important to suppress the surface-related collapse.

In a proxy multi-signature scheme, a designated proxy signer can generate the signature on behalf of a group of original signers. Recently, Wang and Cao proposed an identity based proxy multi-signature scheme along with a security model. Although they proved that their scheme is secure under this model, we disprove their claim and show that their scheme is not secure.

This paper proposes the Extended Bag-of-Visterms (EBOV) to represent semantic scenes. In previous methods, most representations are bag-of-visterms (BOV), where visterms referred to the quantized local texture information. Our new representation is built by introducing global texture information to extend standard bag-of-visterms. In particular we apply the adaptive weight to fuse the local and global information together in order to provide a better visterm representation. Given these representations, scene classification can be performed by pLSA (probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis) model. The experiment results show that the appropriate use of global information improves the performance of scene classification, as compared with BOV representation that only takes the local information into account.