This paper proposes a novel technique in designing the optimum pulse shape for ultra wideband (UWB) systems under the presence of timing jitter. In the UWB systems, pulse transmission power and timing jitter tolerance are crucial keys to communications success. While there is a strong desire to maximize both of them, one must be traded off against the other. In the literature, much effort has been devoted to separately optimize each of them without considering the drawback to the other. In this paper, both factors are jointly considered. The proposed pulse attains the adequate power to survive the noise floor and at the same time provides good resistance to the timing jitter. The proposed pulse also meets the power spectral mask restriction as prescribed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for indoor UWB systems. Simulation results confirm the advantages of the proposed pulse over other previously known UWB pulses. Parameters of the proposed optimization algorithm are also investigated in this paper.

The extraction of acoustic features for robust speech recognition is very important for improving its performance in realistic environments. The bi-spectrum based on the Fourier transformation of the third-order cumulants expresses the non-Gaussianity and the phase information of the speech signal, showing the dependency between frequency components. In this letter, we propose a method of extracting short-time bi-spectral acoustic features with averaging features in a single frame. Merged with the conventional Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) based on the power spectrum by the principal component analysis (PCA), the proposed features gave a 6.9% relative lower a word error rate in Japanese broadcast news transcription experiments.

This paper proposes a new algorithm named Adaptive Running Spectrum Filtering (ARSF) to restore the amplitude spectra of speech corrupted by additive noises. Based on the pre-hand noise estimation, adaptive filtering is used in speech modulation spectra according to the noise conditions. The periodic structures in the amplitude spectra are kept against noise distortion. Since the amplitude spectral structures contain the information of fundamental frequency, which is the inverse of pitch period, ARSF algorithm is added into robust pitch detection to increase the accuracy. Compared with the conventional methods, experimental results show that the proposed method significantly improves the robustness of pitch detection against noise conditions with several types and SNRs.

A high-speed triangular-modulated spread-spectrum clock generator using a fractional phase-locked loop is presented. The fractional division is implemented by a nested fractional topology, which is constructed from a dual-modulus divide-by-(N-1/16)/N divider to divide the VCO outputs as a first division period and a fractional control circuit to establish a second division period to cause the overall fractional division. The dual-modulus divider introduces a delay-locked-loop network to achieve phase compensation. Operating at the frequency of 3.2 GHz, the measured peak power reduction is around 16 dB for a deviation of 0.37% and a frequency modulation of 33 kHz. The circuit occupies 1.41.4 mm2 in a 0.18-µm CMOS process and consumes 52 mW.

A method for extracting a sound signal from a particular area that is surrounded by multiple ambient noise sources is proposed. This method performs several fixed beamformings on a pair of small microphone arrays separated from each other to estimate the signal and noise power spectra. Noise suppression is achieved by applying spectrum emphasis to the output of fixed beamforming in the frequency domain, which is derived from the estimated power spectra. In experiments performed in a room with reverberation, this method succeeded in suppressing the ambient noise, giving an SNR improvement of more than 10 dB, which is better than the performance of the conventional fixed and adaptive beamforming methods using a large-aperture microphone array. We also confirmed that this method keeps its performance even if the noise source location changes continuously or abruptly.

This paper is aimed to present the design and feasibility investigations of adopting the available on-site optical inspection system, which is commonly used for steel plate dimension measurement, to supply on-line dynamic gap measurements of a non-contacting conveyance structure in a steel mill. Adequate software and hardware implementations based on digital image processing techniques have been adapted to the entire system formulations and estimations. Results show that the system can supply accurate and rapid gap measurements and thus can fulfill the design and operational objectives.

This paper extends previous analytical approaches for the study of CDMA systems to the relevant case of multipath environments where users can operate at different bit rates. This scenario is of interest for the Wideband CDMA strategy employed in UMTS, and the model permits the performance comparison of classic and more innovative spreading signals. The method is based on the characteristic function approach, that allows to model accurately the various kinds of interferences. Some numerical examples are given with reference to the ITU-R M.1225 Recommendations, but the analysis could be extended to different channel descriptions.

We propose a novel asynchronous direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) using feedback-controlled spreading sequences (FCSSs) (FCSS/DS-CDMA). At the receiver of FCSS/DS-CDMA, the code-orthogonalizing filter (COF) produces a spreading sequence, and the receiver returns the spreading sequence to the transmitter. Then the transmitter uses the spreading sequence as its updated version. The performance of FCSS/DS-CDMA is evaluated over time-dispersive channels. The results indicate that FCSS/DS-CDMA greatly suppresses both the intersymbol interference (ISI) and multiple access interference (MAI) over time-invariant channels. FCSS/DS-CDMA is applicable to the decentralized multiple access.

Outage performance of cognitive radios is analyzed in this paper. The scenario under consideration requires the cognitive radio to sense whether the primary user (PU) link is free (i.e. a spectrum hole exists) before making an active transmission using that link. Multiple antennas are available at the cognitive radio link to provide array gains at the sensing stage. We derive a closed-form expression of the outage probability for cognitive transmission by classifying it into several cases. A sensing threshold is deduced according to the PU arrival model illustrated in this paper. Simulation results verify our analysis.

In this paper, sampling rate selection diversity (SRSD) scheme for Direct-Sequence/Spread-Spectrum (DS/SS) is proposed. In DS/SS communication systems, oversampling may be employed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, oversampling enlarges the power consumption because signal processing of the receiver has to be carried out at a higher clock rate. Higher sampling rate does not always maximize the SNR. In the proposed SRSD scheme, the power consumption can be reduced by selecting the optimum sampling rate depending on the characteristics of the channel. The proposed SRSD scheme can also reduce the BER more than the conventional oversampling scheme under certain channel conditions.

In a Cognitive Radio system, it is essential to recognize and avoid sources of interference signals. This paper describes a study on a location sensing scheme for interference signals, which utilizes multi-beam phased array antenna for cognitive wireless networks. This paper also elucidates its estimation accuracy of the interference location for the radio communication link using an OFDM signal such as WiMAX. Furthermore, we use the frequency spectrum of the received OFDM interference signal, to create a method that can estimate the propagation status. This spectrum can be monitored by using a software defined radio receiver.

Cognitive Radios (CR) can recognize the communication environment and switch its communication scheme to more efficiently and flexibly utilize the radio spectrum. The performance of ultra wideband (UWB) degrades if interference is not suppressed properly. We propose here a series of adaptive chirp waveforms in UWB systems. By designing waveform shaping of both linear chirp and non-linear cases, we avoid the estimated spectrum of the on-going applications without the necessity of notch filters, and thus reduce the system complexity. We evaluate system performance of the proposed scheme by simulations and verify that the proposed scheme is a candidate for cognitive UWB systems.

In this paper, an architecture of MIMO mesh network which avoids co-channel interference and supplies link multiplexing simultaneously, namely MIMO spatial spectrum sharing, is proposed. As a MIMO transmission scheme, linear (such as zero-forcing) and nonlinear (such as dirty paper coding and successive interference cancellation) MIMO algorithm are developed for the proposed mesh network. It is found from numerical analysis that the proposed MIMO mesh network achieves significantly higher channel capacity than that of conventional mesh networks.

We describe a way to write state machines inductively. The proposed method makes it possible to use the standard techniques for proving theorems on inductive types to verify that state machines satisfy invariant properties. A mutual exclusion protocol using a queue is used to exemplify the proposed method.

In this paper, we propose a new code set which has very low spectral peak to average ratio (SPAR) and good correlation properties for DS-UWB. The codes which have low SPAR are suitable for DS-UWB system which operates in UWB (3.110.4 GHz) because they can utilize more power than high SPAR codes can do. And, in order to reduce inter symbol interference (ISI) and inter piconet interferences, the codes which have good auto- and cross-correlation properties must be used. In this paper, we propose three items; (1) a new code generation method which can generate good SPAR and auto-correlation codes, (2) code selection criteria, and (3) a code set, which has been selected according to the proposed selection criteria. The proposed code set has SPAR reduced about 0.22 dB and GMF improved by 30% compared to the previous code set while it is maintaining almost same cross-correlation properties. Each code of the proposed code set, therefore, has gained 1.43 dB SIR on an average compared to that of the previous code set.

A multiple-output function can be represented by a binary decision diagram for characteristic function (BDD_for_CF). This paper presents a method to represent multiple-output incompletely specified functions using BDD_for_CFs. An algorithm to reduce the widths of BDD_for_CFs is presented. This method is useful for decomposition of incompletely specified multiple-output functions. Experimental results for radix converters, adders, a multiplier, and lists of English words show that this method is useful for the synthesis of LUT cascades. An implementation of English words list by LUT cascades and an auxiliary memory is also shown.

The thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) image has nonuniform brightness, which is a major difficulty in finding the Mura defect region. To facilitate Mura segmentation, globally widely varying background signal must be flattened and then Mura signal must be enhanced. In this paper, Mura signal enhancement and background-signal-flattening methods using wavelet coefficient processing are proposed. The wavelet approximation coefficients are used for background-signal flattening, while wavelet detail coefficients are employed to magnify the Mura signal on the basis of an adapted contrast sensitivity function (CSF). Then, for the enhanced image, trimodal thresholding segmentation technique and a false-region elimination method based on the human visual system (HVS) are employed for reliable Mura segmentation. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithms produce promising results and can be applied to automated inspection systems for finding Muras in a TFT-LCD image.

Eye tracking is a useful tool for accurately mapping where and for how long an individual learner looks at a video/image, in order to obtain immediate information regarding the distribution of a learner's attention among the elements of a video/image. This paper describes a quantitative investigation into the effect of voice navigation in web-based learning materials.

We propose a filtering method for optimal estimation of TFT-LCD's surface region except defect's region. To estimate the non-uniform intensity variation on TFT-LCD surface region, the 4-directional Gaussian filter based on image pyramid structure is proposed. The experimental result verified the proposed method's performance

The objective of this paper is to analyze a pull type multi-product, multi-line and multi-stage flexible manufacturing system whose resources are subject to planned and unplanned breakdown conditions. To ensure a continual supply of the finished products, under breakdown conditions, parts/materials flow through alternate routes exhibiting routing flexibility. The machine resources are flexible in this study and are capable of producing more than one item. Every machining and assembly station has been equipped with automated inspection units to ensure the quality of the products. The system is modelled through coloured Petri net methodology and the impact of input factors have been shown on the performance of the system. The study has been extended to explore near-optimal conditions of the system using design of experiment and response surface methods.