This paper proposes an adaptive modulation/TDMA scheme to achieve high capacity personal multi-media communication systems. TDMA is employed to cope with various bit rate for multi-media services. The modulation scheme is selected from 1/4-rate QPSK, 1/2-rate QPSK, QPSK, 16QAM and 64QAM according to the received C/IC (power ratio of the desired signal to the co-channel interference) and the delay spread. The spectral efficiency is evaluated by using the simulated bit error rate (BER) performance as well as the cumulative distribution of the C/IC with parameters of cell configurations. The results show that the spectral efficiency of the proposed scheme is 3.5 times higher than that of the conventional QPSK systems at the outage probability of 10%, and the effect is more remarkable at lower outage probability. The results also show that the proposed adaptive modulation is effective in improving delay spread immunity.

This paper presents the M-LCELP (Multi-mode Learned Code Excited LPC) speech coder, which has been developed for the next generation half-rate digital cellular telephone systems. M-LCELP develops the following techniques to achieve high-quality synthetic speech at 4kb/s with practically reasonable computation and memory requirements: (1) Multi-mode and multi-codebook coding to improve coding efficiency, (2) Pitch lag differential coding with pitch tracking to reduce lag transmission rate, (3) A two-stage joint design regular-pulse codebook with common phase structure in voiced frames, to drastically reduce computation and memory requirements, (4) An efficient vector quantization for LSP parameters, (5) An adaptive MA type comb filter to suppress excitation signal inter-harmonic noise. The MOS subjective test results demonstrate that 4.075kb/s M-LCELP synthetic speech quality is mostly equivalent to that for a North American full-rate standard VSELP coder. M-LCELP codec requires 18 MOPS computation amount. The codec has been implemented using 2 floating-point dsp chips.

Radar signals fluctuate because of the incoherent scattering of raindrops. Dual-polarization radar estimates rainfall rates from differential reflectivity (ZDR) and horizontal reflectivity (ZH). Here, ZDR and ZH are extracted from fluctuating radar signals by averaging. Therefore, instrumentally measured ZDR and ZH always have errors, so that estimated rainfall rates also have errors. This paper evaluates rainfall rate errors caused by signal fluctuation. Computer simulation based on a physical raindrop model is used to investigate the standard deviation of rainfall rate. The simulation considers acquisition time, and uses both simultaneous and alternate sampling of horizontal and vertical polarizations for square law and logarithmic estimators at various rainfall rates and elevation angles. When measuring rainfall rates that range from 1.0 to 10.0mm/h with the alternate sampling method, using a logarithmic estimator at a relatively large elevation angle, the estimated rainfall rates have significant errors. The simultaneous sampling method is effective in reducing these errors.

The paper discusses properties of YBaCuO thick films produced by screen printing method and followed sintering of a paste made from pre-annealed powder on Yttrium Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) and MgO substrates. The prepared films have been studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and resistance vs. temperature measurements.

We have made an exhaustive computation to establish that 33 comparisons never sort 13 items. The computation was carried out within 10 days by a workstation. Since merge insertion sort [Ford, et al. A tournament problem, Amer. Math. Monthly, vol. 66, (1959)] uses 34 comparisons for sorting 13 items, our result guarantees the optimality of the sorting procedure to sort 13 items as far as the number of comparisons is concerned. The problem has been open for nearly three decades since Mark Wells discovered that 30 comparisons are required to sort 12 items in 1965.

This paper presents a new approach to the recovery of 3-D structure from multiple pairs of images from different viewpoints. Searching for the corresponding points between images, which is common in stereopsis, is avoided. Extracted edges from input images are projected back into 3-D space, and their intersections are calculated directly. Many false intersections may appear, but if we have many pair images, true intersections are extracted by appropriate thresholding. Octree representation of the intersections enables this approach. We consider a way to treat adjacent edge piexels as a line segment rather than as individual points, which differs from previous works and leads to a new algorithm. Experimental results using both synthetic and actual images are also described.

Gate-controlled negative differential resistance (NDR) due to interband tunneling has been observed at room temperature in a Surface Tunnel Transistor (STT). The STT consists of a highly degenerate p+-drain, an n+-doped channel with an insulated gate, and an n+-source connected to the channel. To demonstrate application as a functional device, a bistable circuit consisting of only one STT and one load resistor was organized and its operation was confirmed. The obtained valley current in the NDR characteristics of the STT, however, is relatively large and limits the device performance. In order to clarify the origin of the valley current, we fabricated p+-n+ tunnel diodes in which growth interruption was done at the pn junction, and investigated the dependence of the NDR characteristics on both the impurity concentration at the regrown interface and the temperature. These measurements indicate that the valley current is mainly caused by the excess tunneling current through traps formed by the residual oxygen at the regrown interface.

For system identification problems, such as noise and echo cancellation, FIR adaptive filters are mainly used for their simple adaptation and numerical stability. When the unknown system is a high-Q resonant system, having a very long impulse response, IIR adaptive filters are more efficient for reduction in the order of a transfer function. One way to realize the IIR adaptive filter is a separate form, in which the numerator and the denominator are separately realized and adjusted. In the actual applications, the order of the unknown system is not known. In this case, it is very important to estimate the total order and the order assignment on the numerator and the denominator. In this paper, effects of the order estimation error on the residual error are investigated. In this form, indirect error evaluation called "equation error" is used. Through theoretical and numerical investigation, the following results are obtained. First, under estimation of the order of the denominator causes large degradation. Second, over estimation can improve the performance. However, this improvement is saturated to some extent due to cancellation of the redundant poles and zeros. Third, the system identification error is proportional to the equation error as the adaptive filter approaching the optimum. Finally, there is possibility of recovering from the unstable state as the order assignment approaches to the optimum in an adaptive process using the equation error. Computer solutions are provided to aid in gaining insight of the order assignment and stability problem.

Three-dimensional display technologies that require special glasses are not suitable for telecommunications because wearing glasses is inconvenient and it is defficult to observe facial expressions. Our previous 6.3-inch 3D display was inadequate for presenting images with realistic sensation. In this paper, a direct view 15-inch 3D display is described. The display is made up of a l5-inch TFT LCD and a composite lenticular sheet (LS), and uses the head tracking technique. Quantitative evaluation of the stereoscopic sensation of the display was studied using the 3D display, and better stereoscopic sensation values were obtained compared with a 2D display mode, thus comfirming the display's usefulness.

In this paper, we first discuss on a framework for a 3D image display system which is the combination of passive sensing and active display technologies. The passive sensing enables to capture real scenes under natural condition. The active display enables to present arbitrary views with proper motion parallax following the observer's motion. The requirements of passive sensing technology for 3D image displays are discussed in comparison with those for robot vision. Then, a new stereo algorithm, called SEA (Stereo by Eye Array), which satisfies the requirements is described in detail. The SEA uses nine images captured by a 33 camera array. It has the following features for depth estimation: 1) Pixel-based correspondence search enables to obtain a dense and high-spatial-resolution depth map. 2) Correspondence ambiguity for linear edges with the orientation parallel to a particular baseline is eliminated by using multiple baselines with different orientations. 3) Occlusion can be easily detected and an occlusion-free depth map with sharp object boundaries is generated. The feasibility of the SEA is demonstrated by experiments by using real image data.

A new steepest descent linear adaptive algorithm, called the proportion-sign algorithm (PSA), is introduced and its performance analysis is presented when the signals are from zero-mean jointly stationary Gaussian processes. The PSA improves the convergence speed over the least mean square (LMS) algorithm without overly degrading the steady-state error performance and has the robustness to impulsive interference occurring in the desired response by adding a minimal amount of computational complexity. Computer simulations are presented that show these advantages of the PSA over the LMS algorithm and demonstrate a close match between theoretical and empirical results to verify our analysis.

This paper describes an image synthesis method based on an estimation of camera parameters. In order to acquire high quality images using image synthesis, we take some constraints into account, which include angle of view, synchronization of change of scale and change of viewing direction. The proposed method is based on an investigation that any camera operation containing a change of scale and a pure 3D rotation can be represented by a 2D geometric transformation. The transformation can explain all the synthesis procedure consisting of locating, synchronizing, and operating images. The procedure is described based on a virtual camera which is constituted of a virtual viewing point and a virtual image plain. The method can be efficiently implemented in such a way that each image to be synthesized undergoes the transformation only one time. The parameters in the image transformation are estimated from image sequence. The estimation scheme consists of first establishing correspondence and then estimating the parameters by fitting the correspondence data to the transformation model. We present experimental results and show the validity of the proposed method.

This paper describes small AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's for low-power and high-speed integrated circuits. The device fabrication is based on a new bridged base electrode technology that permits emitter width to be defined down to 1 µm. The new technology features oxygen-ion implantation for emitter-base junction isolation and zinc diffusion for extrinsic base formation. The oxygen-ion implanted emitter-base junction edge has been shown to provide a periphery recombination current much lower than that for the previous proton implanted edgs, the result being a much higher current gain particularly in small devices. The zinc diffusion offers high device yield and good uniformity in device characteristics even for a very thin (0.04 µm) base structure. An HBT with emitter dimensions of 12.4 µm2 yields an fT of 103 GHz and an fmax of 62 GHz, demonstrating that the new technology has a significant advantage in reducing the parasitic elements of small devices. Fabricated one-by-eight static frequency dividers and one-by-four/one-by-five two-modulus prescalers operate at frequencies over 10 GHz. The emitters of HBT's used in the divider are 12.4 µm2 in size, which is the smallest ever reported for AlGaAs/GaAs HBT IC's. These results indicate that the bridged base electrode technology is promising for developing a variety of high-speed HBT IC's.

We have systematically studied the characteristics of Si doping in GaAs grown on (311)A GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The growth temperature dependence of Si doping has been investigated. It is found that the conduction-type sharply changes from p-type to n-type with decreasing growth temperature at a critical temperature of 430-480. The highest hole density obtained for uniformly doped layers was 1.51020 cm-3, while for δ-doped layers the sheet hole density as high as 2.61013 cm-2 was achieved. This is the highest hole density ever reported for δ-doped GaAs.

Kumar and Billinton have presented a new technique for obtaining the steady-state probabilities from a flow graph based on Markov model. By examining the graph and choosing suitable input and output nodes, the steady-state probabilities can be obtained directly by using the flow graph. In this paper this graphical technique is applied for a k-out-of-n: G repairable system. Consequently a new derivation way of the formulae for the steady-state availability and MTBF is obtained.

In this paper, we present Branching Oriented System Equation based on-line error correction scheme for recursive digital signal processing. The target digital signal processing is linear and time-invariant, and the algorithm includes multiplications with constant coefficient, additions and delays. The difficulties of the algorithm-level fault tolerance for such algorithm without structural regularity include error distribution problem and right timing of error correction. To escape the error distribution problem, multiple fan-out nodes in an algorithm are specified as the nodes at which error corrections are performed. The Branching Oriented Graph and Branching Oriented System Equation are so introduced to formulate on-line correction schemes based on this strategy. The Branching Oriented Graph is treated as the collection of computation sub-blocks. Applying checksum code independently to each sub-block is our most trivial on-line error correction scheme, and it results in, with appropriate selection of error identification process, TMR in sub-block level. One of the advantages of our method is in the reduction of redundant operations performed by merging some computation sub-blocks. On the other hand, the schedulability of the system is an important issue for our method since our on-line error correction mechanism induces additional data dependencies. In this paper, the schedulability condition and some modifications on the scheme are also discussed.

Mode separation of a multiplex mode in a mode-division multiplexing system is studied. The clear, desired single-mode pattern, which is separated from the multiplex mode by using a holographic filter, is observed in the experiment.

We present a method of extracting the digital inphase (I) and quadrature (Q) components from oversampled bandpass signals using narrow-band bandpass Hilbert transformers. Down-conversion of the digitized IF signals to baseband and reduction of the quantization noise are accomplished by the multistage decimator with the complex coefficient bandpass digital filters (BPFs), which construct the bandpass Hilbert transformers. Most of the complex coefficient BPFs in the multistage decimator can be replaced with the lowpass filters (LPFs) under some conditions, which reduces computational burden. We evaluate the signal to quantization noise ratio of the I and Q components for the sinusoidal input by computer simulation. Simulation results show that the equivalent amplitude resolution of the I and Q components can be increased by 3 bits in comparison with non-oversampling case.

The classical supervised learning algorithms for optimizing multi-layered feedforward neural networks, such at the original back-propagation algorithm, suffer from several weaknesses. First, they have the possibility of being trapped at local minima during learning, which may lead to failure in finding the global optimal solution. Second, the convergence rate is typically too slow even if the learning can be achieved. This paper introduces a new learning algorithm which employs a genetic-type search during the learning phase of back-propagation algorithm so that the above problems can be overcome. The basic idea is to evolve the network weights in a controlled manner so as to jump to the regions of smaller mean squared error whenever the back-propagation stops at a local minimum. By this, the local minima can always be escaped and a much faster learning with global optimal solution can be achieved. A mathematical framework on the weight evolution of the new algorithm in also presented in this paper, which gives a careful analysis on the requirements of weight evolution (or perturbation) during learning in order to achieve a better error performance in the weights between different hidden layers. Simulation results on three typical problems including XOR, 3-bit parity and the counting problem are described to illustrate the fast learning behaviour and the global search capability of the new algorithm in improving the performance of back-propagated network.

In this paper, we extend two-image photometric stereo method to treat a concave polyhedron, and present an iterative algorithm to remove the influence of interreflections. By the method we can obtain the shape and reflectance of a concave polyhedron with perfectly diffuse (Lambertian) and unknown constant reflectance. Both simulation and experiment show the feasibility and accuracy of the method.