The system under study is a convolutionally coded and orthogonally modulated DS-CDMA system over time-varying frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels in multiuser environments. Iterative soft demodulation and decoding using the Turbo principle can be applied to such a system to increase the system capacity and performance. To combat multiple access interference (MAI), we incorporate the interference cancellation (IC) and decision-directed channel estimation (CE) in the demodulator. However, both IC and CE are subject to performance degradation due to incorrect decisions. In order to prevent error propagation from the decision feedback, soft interference cancellation and channel estimation assisted demodulation is proposed in this paper. The performance of this strategy is evaluated numerically and proved to be superior to the hard decision-directed approach with a minor increase in complexity.

We present a depth video enhancement algorithm in order to provide high quality haptic interaction. As the telecommunication technology emerges rapidly, the depth image-based haptic interaction is becoming viable for broadcasting applications. Since a real depth map usually contains discrete and rugged noise, its haptic interaction produces the distorted force feedback. To resolve these problems, we propose a two-step refinement and adaptive sampling algorithm. In the first step, noise is removed by the median-filtering technique in 2D image space. Since not all pixels can be used to reconstruct the 3D mesh due to limited system resources, the filtered map is adaptively sampled based on the depth variation. Sampled 2D pixels, called feature points, are triangulated and projected onto 3D space. In the second refinement step, we apply the Gaussian smoothing technique to the reconstructed 3D surface. Finally, 3D surfaces are rendered to compute a smooth depth map from Z-buffer.

During devastating natural disasters, numerous people want to make calls to check on their families and friends in the stricken areas, but many call attempts on mobile cellular systems are blocked due to limited radio frequency resources. To reduce call blocking and enable as many people as possible to access mobile cellular systems, placing a limit on the holding time for each call has been studied [1],[2]. However, during a catastrophe, emergency calls, e.g., calls to fire, ambulance, or police services are also highly likely to increase and it is important that the holding time for these calls is not limited. A method of limiting call holding time to make provision for emergency calls while considering the needs of ordinary callers is proposed. In this method, called the HTL-E method, all calls are classified as emergency calls or other according to the numbers that are dialed or the terminal numbers that are given in advance to the particular terminals making emergency calls, and only the holding time of other calls is limited. The performance characteristics of the HTL-E method were evaluated using computer simulations. The results showed that it reduced the rates of blocking and forced call termination at handover considerably, without reducing the holding time for emergency calls. The blocking rate was almost equal for emergency and other calls. In addition, the HTL-E method handles fluctuations in the demand for emergency calls flexibly. A simple method of estimating the holding-time limit for other calls, which reduces the blocking rate for emergency and other calls to the normal rate for periods of increased call demand is also presented. The calculated results produced by this method agreed well with the simulation results.

In this paper, we propose a construction method of three-dimensional deformable models that represent tree-shaped human organs, such as bronchial tubes, based on results obtained by statistically analyzing the distributions of bifurcation points in the tree-shaped organs. The models are made to be used as standard templates of tree-shaped organs in medical image recognition, and are formed by control points that can be uniquely identified as structural elements of organs such as bifurcation tracheae in bronchial tubes. They can be transfigured based on the statistical validity of relationships between the control points. The optimal state of that transfiguration is determined within the framework of energy minimization. Experimental results from bronchial tubes are shown on actual CT images.

We propose a shape resolution control method applying a tolerance caused by movement to object's shape and texture in order to represent efficiently a textured object that has a detailed structure. It is generally difficult to perceive the error of shape or texture of the object that is moving. Our method applies this error as a tolerance. The efficient object's representation is realized by the shape resolution control that tolerates errors of contour shape and textured surface by the tolerance caused by movement and reduces object's data. It was shown better experimental results of processing time and of the quality of images in comparison with other methods. Thus, it was proved that the method applying the tolerance caused by movement to the object's shape and texture is effective in the representation of textured object that has a detailed structure.

In this paper, we present a new class of public-key cryptosystem (PKC) using algebraic coding on the basis of superimposition and randomness. The proposed PKC is featured by a generator matrix, in a characteristic form, where the generator matrix of an algebraic code is repeatedly used along with the generator matrix of a random code, as sub-matrices. This generator matrix, in the characteristic form, will be referred to as K-matrix. We show that the K-matrix yields the following advantages compared with the conventional schemes: (i) It realizes an abundant supply of PKCs, yielding more secure PKCs, (ii) It realizes a short public key.

We have proposed Rate-based Multi-path Transmission Control Protocol (R-M/TCP) for improving reliability and performance of data transfer over the Internet by using multiple paths. Congestion control in R-M/TCP is performed in a rate-based and loss-avoidance manner. It attempts to estimate the available bandwidth and the queue length of the used routes in order to fully utilize the bandwidth resources. However, it has been reported that when the used routes' characteristics, i.e. available bandwidth and delay, are much different, R-M/TCP cannot achieve the desired throughput from the routes. This is because R-M/TCP originally transmits data packets in a round-robin manner through the routes. In this paper, therefore, we propose R-M/TCP using Packet Scheduling Algorithm (PSA). Instead of using the round-robin manner, R-M/TCP utilizes PSA that accounts for time-varying bandwidth and delay of each path so that number of data packets arriving in out-of-order at the receiver can be minimized and the desired throughput can be achieved. Quantitative simulations are conducted to show effectiveness of R-M/TCP using PSA.

Since sentences are the basic propositional units of text, knowing their themes should help in completing various tasks such as automatic summarization requiring the knowledge about the semantic content of text. Despite the importance of determining the theme of a sentence, however, few studies have investigated the problem of automatically assigning a theme to a sentence. In this paper, we examine the notion of sentence theme and propose an automatic scheme where head-driven patterns are used for theme assignment. We tested our scheme with sentences in encyclopedia articles and obtained a promising result of 98.96% in F-score for training data and 88.57% for testing data, which outperform the baseline using all but the head-driven patterns.

This paper presents new algorithms for the Tate pairing on a prime field. Recently, many pairing-based cryptographic schemes have been proposed. However, computing pairings incurs a high computational cost and represents the bottleneck to using pairings in actual protocols. This paper shows that the proposed algorithms reduce the cost of multiplication and inversion on an extension field, and reduce the number of calculations of the extended finite field. This paper also discusses the optimal algorithm to be used for each pairing parameter and shows that the total computational cost is reduced by 50% if k = 6 and 57% if k = 8.

To find the best transformation between a "model" point set and an "image" point set is the main purpose of point pattern matching. The similarity measure plays a pivotal role and is used to determine the degree of resemblance between two objects. Although some well-known Hausdorff distance measures work well for this task, they are very computationally expensive and suffer from the noise points. In this paper, we propose a novel similarity measure using the Hilbert curve named Hilbert scanning distance (HSD) to resolve the problems. This method computes the distance measure in the one-dimensional (1-D) sequence instead of in the two-dimensional (2-D) space, which greatly reduces the computational complexity. By applying a threshold elimination function, large distance values caused by noise and position errors (e.g. those that occur with feature or edge extraction) are removed. The proposed algorithm has been applied to the task of matching edge maps with noise. The experimental results show that HSD can provide sufficient information for image matching within low computational complexity. We believe this sets a new direction for the research of point pattern recognition.

Finding intracranial aneurysms plays a key role in preventing serious cerebral diseases such as subarachnoid hemorrhage. For detection of aneurysms, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) can provide detailed images of arteries non-invasively. However, because over 100 MRA images per subject are required to cover the entire cerebrum, image diagnosis using MRA is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. This article presents a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for finding aneurysms with MRA images. The principal components are identification of aneurysm candidates (= ROIs; regions of interest) from MRA images and estimation of a fuzzy degree for each aneurysm candidate based on a case-based reasoning (CBR). The fuzzy degree indicates whether a candidate is true aneurysm. Our system presents users with a limited number of ROIs that have been sorted in order of fuzzy degree. Thus, this system can decrease the time and the labor required for detecting aneurysms. Experimental results using phantoms indicate that the system can detect all aneurysms at branches of arteries and all saccular aneurysms produced by dilation of a straight artery in 1 direction perpendicular to the principal axis. In a clinical evaluation, performance in finding aneurysms and estimating the fuzzy degree was examined by applying the system to 16 subjects with a total of 19 aneurysms. The experimental results indicate that this CAD system detected all aneurysms except a fusiform aneurysm, and gave high fuzzy degrees and high priorities for the detected aneurysms.

Electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers have been used for improving the EM environment of an electronic toll collection (ETC) system on an express highway or a wireless local area network (LAN) system in an indoor environment. In this paper, an efficient multi-ray propagation model, which uses 3D geometry and image techniques to trace multiple signal rays from transmitter to receiver, is employed to analyze the EM environment of a dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) system on an express highway. The validity of the model employed is discussed by the comparison with the results obtained by an experiment on the highways. The analysis shows that the possible undesired communications between onboard equipment that acts as a receiver and DSRC beacon which transmits the radio signals, is improved by increasing the EM wave-absorption capability of the sidewalls and the pavement of the highway. Another advantage of the employed model is that it is effective for investigating the location of wave absorbers to be set up on the highway, and it takes only a fraction of a minute for computation.

The least squares (LS) and the weighted least squares (WLS) algorithms are well known procedures that are used in the design of quadrature mirror filters (QMFs). It is known that these design techniques suffer from pass-band anomaly under certain conditions. A recent method, that overcomes pass-band anomaly for LS QMFs using a frequency sampling design for the initial filter, is extended to WLS design in this letter. A comparison between the modified LS and WLS designs based on experimental results is presented. Although WLS designs have been reported to have superior near-equiripple stop-band performance as compared to LS designs, we find that this is not always true. Specifically, LS designs, with inherent computational and robustness advantages, also have better peak stop-band ripple and transition bandwidth at higher cut-off frequencies than WLS.

In this letter, we present a new numerical design method for 2-D FIR quincunx filter banks (QFB) with low-delay, equiripple magnitude response, and perfect reconstruction (PR). The necessary conditions for the system delay of QFB are derived. The dual affine scaling variant of Karmarkar's algorithm is employed to minimize the peak ripples of analysis filters, and a linearization scheme is introduced to satisfy the PR constraint for QFB. We have included several simulation examples to show the efficacy of this proposed design technique.

In this paper, we propose a method to solve the distributed optimal power flow problem and discuss the associated implementation. We have combined this method with a projected Jacobi (PJ) method and a modified parallel block scaled gradient (MPBSG) method possessing decomposition effects. With the decomposition, our method can be parallel processed and is computationally efficient. We have tested our method for distributed OPF problems on numerous power systems. As seen from the simulation results, our method achieved a dramatic speed-up ratio compared with the commercial IMSL subroutines.

In this paper authorization-limited transformation-free proxy cryptosystems (AL-TFP systems) are studied. It is a modification of the original proxy cryptosystem introduced by Mambo et al.[8] in which a ciphertext transformation by the original decryptor is necessary, and also a modification of the delegated decryption system proposed by Mu et al.[10]. In both systems proposed in [8] and [10], the original decryptors have to trust their proxies completely. The AL-TFP system allows the proxy decryptor to do decryption directly without any ciphertext transformation from the original decryptor, so that it can release the original decryptor more efficiently from a large amount of decrypting operations. Moreover, the original decryptor's privacy can be protected efficiently because the authority of proxy decryptor is limited to his duty and valid period. An active identity-based and a directory-based AL-TFP systems from pairings are proposed. Furthermore, an application of directory-based AL-TFP system to electronic commerce is also described. The securities of our schemes introduced are based on the BDH assumption.

Contribution of this paper is twofold: First we introduce weaknesses of two Mix-nets claimed to be robust in the literature. Since such flaws are due to their weak security definitions, we then present a stronger security definition by regarding a Mix-net as a batch decryption algorithm of a CCA secure public-key encryption scheme. We show two concrete attacks on the schemes proposed in [1] and [2]. The scheme in [1] loses anonymity in the presence of a malicious user even though all servers are honest. The scheme in [2] also loses anonymity through the collaboration of a malicious user and the first server. In the later case the user can identify the plaintext sent from the targeted user by invoking two mix sessions at the risk of the colluding server receiving an accusation. We also point out that in a certain case, anonymity is violated solely by the user without colluding to any server. Heuristic repairs are provided for both schemes.

Contents delivery services are deployed over the Internet and its technology. Contents delivery services demand high quality. Consequently, a large network capacity is required. In order to efficiently deliver such contents and to meet high quality demands, network operators are required to explicitly indicate the branch node and/or the link so that packets are efficiently sent. Fast restoration at the time of trouble has become an important issue. MPLS technology has been utilized to realize Traffic Engineering and Fast Reroute to cope with this issue. However, only a point-to-point path is allowed in the current MPLS technology. To allow an efficient high-quality contents delivery, a point-to-multipoint path called as P2MP-LSP is under discussion. However, proposed methods lack of getting information about P2MP-LSP node due to the current MPLS signaling method to establish P2MP-LSP. This paper introduces a discovery technique of the P2MP-LSP node and an establishment technique of the P2MP-LSP using BGP. In addition, a basic function of this proposal is experimented, and its practicality is evaluated.

Recently, the radix-3 representation of integers is used for the efficient implementation of pairing based cryptosystems. In this paper, we propose non-adjacent form of radix-r representation (rNAF) and efficient algorithms for generating rNAF. The number of non-trivial digits is (r-2)(r+1)/2 and its average density of non-zero digit is asymptotically (r-1)/(2r-1). For r=3, the non-trivial digits are {2, 4} and the non-zero density is 0.4. We then investigate the width-w version of rNAF for the general radix-r representation, which is a natural extension of the width-w NAF. Finally we compare the proposed algorithms with the generalized NAF (gNAF) discussed by Joye and Yen. The proposed scheme requires a larger table but its non-zero density is smaller even for large radix. We explain that gNAF is a simple degeneration of rNAF--we can consider that rNAF is a canonical form for the radix-r representation. Therefore, rNAF is a good alternative to gNAF.

In this paper, we present the Tangible Media Control System (TMCS), which allows users to manipulate media contents through physical objects in an intuitive way. Currently, most people access digital media contents by exploiting GUI. However, it only provides limited manipulation of the contents. The proposed system, instead of a mouse and a keyboard, adopts two types of tangible objects, i.e. a RFID-enabled object and a tracker-embedded object. The TMCS enables users to easily access and control digital media contents through tangible objects. In addition, it supports an interactive media controller which can be used to synthesize media contents according to users' taste. It also offers personalized contents, which suits users' preferences, by exploiting context such as the users' profile and situational information. Accordingly, the TMCS demonstrates that tangible interfaces with context can provide more effective interfaces to satisfy users' demands. Therefore, the proposed system can be applied to various interactive applications such as multimedia education, entertainment, multimedia editor, etc.