We propose a CMOS image sensor that realizes wide dynamic range imaging and nonlinear representation of I/O characteristics. The proposed image sensor controls the integration time for each pixel based on the brightness distribution of objects. The histogram at the end of the integration is estimated from the early intermediate photodiode values that are read out to an external circuit. Using the estimated histogram, the imaging parameters, which control the integration time pixel-by-pixel, are optimized in the external circuit. According to the imaging parameters, the intermediate photodiode value is compared with the threshold and reset to the starting value depending on the comparison result. These processes repeat several times. At the end of the integration, the photodiode value is reconstructed by using the imaging parameters. Then, wide dynamic range images with adapted I/O characteristics are obtained. We have fabricated a prototype with a size of 6464 pixels using a 0.35-µm 2-poly 4-metal CMOS process. In this paper, we explain the principle of the proposed sensor and discuss the system architecture and its operation. The experimental results obtained using the prototype are also presented, and we verify its effectiveness.

We propose an implementation of the tapped delay line adaptive array (TDLAA) at the base station for improving the BER performance of asynchronous multi-user mobile communication over fast fading channels using multiple antennas. The data of each user at the mobile station, which applies two transmit antennas, are encoded by Space Time Block Code (STBC). The proposed scheme transmits the pilot signal and information data in alternate time slots. We derive performance criteria for designing such a scheme under the assumption that the fading is classified as fast fading. We show that the proposed scheme can suppress co-channel interference (CCI) and defeat Doppler spread effectively.

This paper simulates the dynamic behavior of the operating mechanism of ACB, and analyzes factors influencing the mechanism's operating time. First, it builds a dynamic model for the mechanism with virtual prototype technology. Experiment validation is carried out to prove the correctness of the model. Based on this model, it puts emphasis on analyzing the influence of electro-dynamic repulsion force on the operating time of the mechanism. Simulation and experimental results show that after adding electric repulsion force to the model, the operating time is shortened about 1.1 ms. Besides the repulsion force, other influencing factors including the stiffness of opening spring, locations of every key axis, mass and centroidal coordinates of every mechanical part are analyzed as well. Finally, it makes an optimum design for the mechanism. After optimization, the velocity of operating mechanism is improved about 6.7%.

When contact failure occurs in a connector in a coaxial HF signal transmission line, an electromagnetic field is radiated around the line. We have measured the electromagnetic field and examined the characteristics of such radiation. The results show that the radiation is related to the contact resistance and the symmetry of the distribution of contact points at the connector. When contact resistance is low, radiation is observed at resonant frequencies related to the length of the transmission line. If a connector has axially asymmetric contact points, its radiation is higher than that when the contact points are symmetric. We show that if contact points in a connector are axially symmetrical with resistance lower than 0.25 Ω, the electromagnetic interference caused by the connector contact failure is as low as the background noise.

This paper describes a 158 MS/s JPEG 2000 codec with an embedded block coder (EBC) based on bit-plane and pass-parallel architecture. The EBC contains bit-plane coders (BPCs) corresponding to each bit-plane in a code-block. The upper and the lower bit-plane coding overlap in time with a 1-stripe and 1-column gap. The bit-modeling passes in the bit-plane coding also overlap in time with the same gap. These methods increase throughput by 30 times in comparison with the conventional. In addition, the methods support not only vertically causal mode, but also regular mode, which enhances the image quality. Furthermore, speculative decoding is adopted to increase throughput. This codec LSI was designed using 0.18 µm process. The core area is 4.74.7 mm2 and the frequency is 160 MHz. A system including the codec enables image transmission of PC desktop with 8 ms delay.

This paper proposes the Multimedia Pre-allocation WDMA (MP-WDMA) media access control (MAC) protocol to provide an efficient packet transfer service for metro-wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) networks. MP-WDMA considers three traffic types: constant bit rate (CBR), variable bit rate 1 (VBR1), and VBR2 traffic for a multimedia service as categorized in Multimedia WDMA (M-WDMA) MAC protocol. MP-WDMA is based on pre-allocation WDMA (P-WDMA), but the three traffic types are simultaneously allocated at one time slot, and one of them is selected through low bandwidth control signaling. Namely, a station assigns appropriate priority to input traffic, based on proposed traffic priority rules in MP-WDMA in order to determine the type of traffic. Accordingly, MP-WDMA can reduce station complexity as well as the possibility of idle time slot occurrences, compared with M-WDMA. Additionally, we analytically investigate the channel utilization and channel access delay of MP-WDMA and compare them with those of M-WDMA to find a proper MAC protocol for the networks. As a result, MP-WDMA supports maximally 30% higher channel utilization than M-WDMA regardless of channel and traffic conditions. Furthermore, MP-WDMA reduces the channel access delay of the delay-sensitive VBR2 traffic at the cost of increasing the channel access delay of the delay-insensitive VBR1 traffic. In this regard, MP-WDMA is suitable for the networks in terms of station complexity, channel utilization, and the channel access delay for VBR2 traffic.

An optical CDMA (OCDMA) system is a flexible technology for future broadband multiple access networks. A secure OCDMA network in broadband optical access technologies is also becoming an issue of great importance. In this paper, we propose novel reconfigurable wavelength-time (W-T) optical codes that lead to secure transmission in OCDMA networks. The proposed W-T optical codes are constructed by using quasigroups (QGs) for wavelength hopping and one-dimensional optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) for time spreading; we call them QGs/OOCs. Both QGs and OOCs are randomly generated by a computer search to ensure that an eavesdropper could not improve its interception performance by making use of the coding structure. Then, the proposed reconfigurable QGs/OOCs can provide more codewords, and many different code set patterns, which differ in both wavelength and time positions for given code parameters. Moreover, the bit error probability of the proposed codes is analyzed numerically. To realize the proposed codes, a secure system is proposed by employing reconfigurable encoders/decoders based on array waveguide gratings (AWGs), which allow the users to change their codeword patterns to protect against eavesdropping. Finally, the probability of breaking a certain codeword in the proposed system is evaluated analytically. The results show that the proposed codes and system can provide a large codeword pattern, and decrease the probability of breaking a certain codeword, to enhance OCDMA network security.

We have developed a compact double-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor model for circuit simulation considering the volume inversion effect by solving the Poisson equation explicitly. It is verified that applied voltage dependence of the calculated potential values both at the surface and at the center of the silicon layer reproduce 2 dimensional device simulation results for any device structure, confirming the validity of the model for device optimization.

We present design procedures for using conducting wires in A-sandwich junctions to achieve high transmission performance; bench-test results validate the procedures. The scattering characteristics of the junction are obtained by solving the electric field integral equation of volumetric equivalent currents. The transmission performance is evaluated by subtracting the scattered fields of the same-sized A-sandwich panel in order to offset the effect of edge diffraction. Optimum wire width is determined by examining transmission performance with different arrangements. The designed junction achieves high transmission performance. The measured scattering characteristics of a bench model demonstrate the validity of the presented method.

In recent years, there has been increasing demand to miniaturize wiring harness connectors in automobiles due to the increasing volume of electronic equipment and the reduction of the installation space allocated for the electronic equipment in automobiles for the comfort of the passengers. With this demand, contact failure caused by the fretting corrosion is expected to become a serious problem. In this report, we examined micro-structural observations of fretting contacts of two different tin plating thicknesses using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and so on. Based on the results, we compared the microstructure difference of fretting contact caused by the difference of the tin plating thickness.

In on-line signature verification, complexity of signature shape can influence the value of the optimal threshold for individual signatures. Writer-dependent threshold selection has been proposed but it requires forgery data. It is not easy to collect such forgery data in practical applications. Therefore, some threshold equalization method using only genuine data is needed. In this letter, we propose three different threshold equalization methods based on the complexity of signature. Their effectiveness is confirmed in experiments using a multi-matcher DWT on-line signature verification system.

We previously reported, for a coherent optical code division multiplexing (OCDM) system using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) phase en/decoders, that the signals exhibited phase shift tolerance for a difference between the light source wavelength and the Bragg wavelength of an FBG phase en/decoder when the two signals were multiplexed. However, the phase conditions of only the central wavelength among the ones forming a pulse were analyzed. For a more specific consideration, we calculated the phase of each wavelength forming the decoded pulse. In this report, the measured and calculated reflecting properties were compared and the reliability of the method was confirmed. We calculated the phase conditions of the decoded pulses and clarified the phase characteristics with regard to the phase modulation and the interference between pulses overlapped during decoding. For the realization of an asynchronous access, the FBG phase en/decoders should be designed so that the spreading time is the inverse of 2(texttransmission rate).

To design secure blockciphers, estimating immunity against differential attack and linear attack is essential. Recently, Diffusion Switching Mechanism (DSM) is proposed as a design framework to enhance the immunity of Feistel structure against differential attack and linear attack. In this paper, we give novel results on the effect of DSM on three generalized Feistel structures, i.e. Type-I, Type-II and Nyberg's structures. We first show a method for roughly estimating lower bounds of a number of active S-boxes in Type-I and Type-II structures using DSM. Then we propose an improved search algorithm to find lower bounds for generalized structures efficiently. Experimental results obtained by the improved algorithm show that DSM raises lower bounds for all of the structures, and also show that Nyberg's structure has the slowest diffusion effect among them when SP-type F-functions are used.

This paper proposes a three-dimensional (3D) face recognition system using passive stereo vision. So far, the reported 3D face recognition techniques have used active 3D measurement methods to capture high-quality 3D facial information. However, active methods employ structured illumination (structure projection, phase shift, moire topography, etc.) or laser scanning, which is not desirable in many human recognition applications. Addressing this problem, we propose a face recognition system that uses (i) passive stereo vision to capture 3D facial information and (ii) 3D matching using an ICP (Iterative Closest Point) algorithm with its improvement techniques. Experimental evaluation demonstrates efficient recognition performance of the proposed system compared with an active 3D face recognition system and a passive 3D face recognition system employing the original ICP algorithm.

In multi-hop wireless networks, communication quality depends on the route from a source to a destination. In this paper, we consider a one-dimensional multi-hop wireless network where nodes are distributed randomly and theoretically analyze the relation between communication quality and routing policy using a measure called the Expected Transmission Count (ETX), which is the predicted number of data transmissions required to send a packet over that link, including retransmissions. First, we theoretically analyze the mean length of links, the mean number of hops, and the mean route ETX, which is the sum of the ETXs of all links in a route, of Longest Path Routing (LPR), and Shortest Path Routing (SPR). Second, we propose Adjustable Routing (AR), an approximation to Optimum Routing (OR), which minimizes route ETX. We theoretically compute the above characteristic values of AR. We also theoretically compute a lower bound of the mean route ETX of OR. We compare LPR, SPR, and OR using the results of analyses and show differences between these algorithms in the route ETX.

The main idea in perceptual image compression is to remove the perceptual redundancy for representing images at the lowest possible bit rate without introducing perceivable distortion. A certain amount of perceptual redundancy is inherent in the color image since human eyes are not perfect sensors for discriminating small differences in color signals. Effectively exploiting the perceptual redundancy will help to improve the coding efficiency of compressing color images. In this paper, a locally adaptive perceptual compression scheme for color images is proposed. The scheme is based on the design of an adaptive quantizer for compressing color images with the nearly lossless visual quality at a low bit rate. An effective way to achieve the nearly lossless visual quality is to shape the quantization error as a part of perceptual redundancy while compressing color images. This method is to control the adaptive quantization stage by the perceptual redundancy of the color image. In this paper, the perceptual redundancy in the form of the noise detection threshold associated with each coefficient in each subband of three color components of the color image is derived based on the finding of perceptually indistinguishable regions of color stimuli in the uniform color space and various masking effects of human visual perception. The quantizer step size for the target coefficient in each color component is adaptively adjusted by the associated noise detection threshold to make sure that the resulting quantization error is not perceivable. Simulation results show that the compression performance of the proposed scheme using the adaptively coefficient-wise quantization is better than that using the band-wise quantization. The nearly lossless visual quality of the reconstructed image can be achieved by the proposed scheme at lower entropy.

The dispersion and the splice characteristics of optical fibers with trench-index profile are investigated. The normalized distance between core and trench is preferably larger than 3.0 to realize complete compatibility with the standard G.652 fiber in terms of chromatic dispersion. The optical fiber realizes compatibility with ITU-T Recommendation G.652 fiber and bend-insensitivity simultaneously. Fabricated fibers with the trench-index profiles can be spliced to standard single-mode fiber with low losses, which have similar values with simulation results.

This paper studies packet scheduling schemes with QoE (user-level QoS) guarantee for audio-video transmission in a wireless LAN with HCF controlled channel access (HCCA) of the IEEE 802.11e MAC protocol. We first propose the static scheduling (SS) scheme, which grants adjustable transmission opportunity (TXOP) duration for constant bit rate (CBR) traffic. The SS scheme can determine the minimum TXOP duration capable of guaranteeing high QoE; it can maximize the number of admitted flows. As the burstiness of variable bit rate (VBR) traffic cannot be absorbed by the SS scheme, we also propose the multimedia priority dynamic scheduling (MPDS) scheme, which can absorb the burstiness through allocating additional TXOP duration. We then compare the SS scheme, the MPDS scheme, and the reference scheduler (TGe scheme) in terms of application-level QoS and user-level QoS (QoE). Numerical results show that in the SS scheme, the QoE can be kept relatively higher even when the TXOP duration is reduced in the case of video with the I picture pattern; this implies that more flows can be admitted. In the case of video with the IPPPPP picture pattern, which has the VBR characteristic more remarkably, reducing the TXOP duration according to the SS scheme will deteriorate the QoS level. In this case, the MPDS scheme performs better when the number of multimedia stations is small. However, the performance of the MPDS scheme deteriorates with the increase of the number of multimedia stations, though the results are comparable to or even better than those of the SS and TGe schemes.

We propose a new bidirectional gigabit mm-wave wavelength division multiplexed-radio over fiber link which shares the same wavelength. As the downlink, the central station transmits a 30 GHz single sideband wireless signal which is modulated 1.25 Gbps and also transmits a remote 32 GHz local oscillator for down-conversion of a uplink wireless signal by using a mach-zehnder modulator and a fiber bragg grating. As the uplink, the base station transmits a down-converted 1.25 Gbps wireless signal by using a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier. We achieve a BER < 10-9 in the downlink at -14.05 dBm and uplink at -12.5 dBm after 20 km transmission.

The IEEE 802.11e standard defines several important techniques that guarantee the quality of service (QoS) of multimedia communications in wireless LAN applications. A key technique introduced in the standard is an efficient media access control based on the Hybrid Coordination Function (HCF), which assigns an appropriate transmission opportunity (TXOP) to each flow for satisfying several requirements on the flow, such as delay bound and communication bandwidth. Although the simple scheduler designed in HCF could provide an efficient tool to guarantee the QoS in wireless LAN applications, it has a serious drawback, wherein a useless bandwidth assignment frequently occurs. Such assignments occur primarily due to a limitation of the scheme, wherein all the flows share the same service interval (SI). In this paper, we propose a new scheduling scheme that associates each flow with its own SI according to the hardness of the required SI. The effect of this approach is experimentally evaluated by simulation, the results of which indicate that the number of admitted flows and network resource utilization increase due to the proposed scheme.