This paper presents a content-based retrieval algorithm for motion capture data, which is required to re-use a large-scale database that has many variations in the same category of motions. The most challenging problem is that logically similar motions may not be numerically similar due to the motion variations in a category. Our algorithm can effectively retrieve logically similar motions to a query, where a distance metric between our novel short-term features is defined properly as a fundamental component in our system. We extract the features based on short-term analysis of joint velocities after dividing an entire motion capture sequence into many small overlapped clips. In each clip, we select not only the magnitude but also the dynamic pattern of the joint velocities as our features, which can discard the motion variations while keeping the significant motion information in a category. Simultaneously, the amount of data is reduced, alleviating the computational cost. Using the extracted features, we define a novel distance metric between two motion clips. By dynamic time warping, a motion dissimilarity measure is calculated between two motion capture sequences. Then, given a query, we rank all the motions in our dataset according to their motion dissimilarity measures. Our experiments, which are performed on a test dataset consisting of more than 190 motions, demonstrate that our algorithm greatly improves the performance compared to two conventional methods according to a popular evaluation measure P(NR).

When handover events occur during the transmission of multimedia traffic, efficient handover control procedures and radio resource allocation are necessary to maintain the same QoS of transmitted multimedia traffic because the QoS may be degraded by additional delay and information loss. In this paper we propose a new handover control method for the next generation mobile multimedia networks, in which the handover setup process is done in advance of a handover request by predicting the handover cell from mobile terminal's current position. The handover procedures for real-time sessions are performed based on the handover cell information and the resource reservation condition. The radio resources in the estimated adjacent cells should be reserved and allocated to guarantee the continuity of the real-time sessions. We conduct a simulation model that is focused on the handover failure rate and packet loss rate. The simulation results show that our proposed method provides better performance than the previous methods.

We show the sufficient conditions for coding by nodes such that every sink can decode all information multicasted by the single source when there exists time-varying delay of information transmission at links in the network coding.

Time-Triggered Controller Area Network is widely accepted as a viable solution for real-time communication systems such as in-vehicle communications. However, although TTCAN has been designed to support both periodic and sporadic real-time messages, previous studies mostly focused on providing deterministic real-time guarantees for periodic messages while barely addressing the performance issue of sporadic messages. In this paper, we present an O(n2) scheduling algorithm that can minimize the maximum duration of exclusive windows occupied by periodic messages, thereby minimizing the worst-case scheduling delays experienced by sporadic messages.

In this paper, we propose a new approximate algorithm for the model predictive control (MPC) problem with a time-varying reference of hybrid systems. The proposed algorithm consists of an offline computation and an online computation. In the offline computation, candidates of mode sequences are derived. In the online computation, after the mode sequence is uniquely decided among candidates, the finite-time optimal control problem, i.e., the quadratic programming problem, is solved. So by applying the proposed algorithm, the computational amount of the online computation is decreased. First, the MPC problem with a time-varying reference is formulated. Next, the proposed algorithm is explained, and the accuracy of the obtained approximate solution is discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by a numerical example.

In this letter we give a lower bound on the worst-case time complexity of Dijkstra's three-state mutual exclusion algorithm by specifying a concrete behavior of the algorithm. We also show that our result is more accurate than the known best bound.

In this paper, the performance of multiuser MIMO E-SDM systems in downlink transmission is evaluated in both uncorrelated and correlated time-varying fading environments. In the ideal case, using the block diagonalization scheme, inter-user interference can be completely eliminated at each user; and using the E-SDM technique for each user, optimal resource allocation can be achieved, and spatially orthogonal substreams can be obtained. Therefore, a combination of the block diagonalization scheme and the E-SDM technique applied to multiuser MIMO systems gives very good results. In realistic environments, however, due to the dynamic nature of the channel and processing delay at both the transmitter and the receiver, the channel change during the delay may cause inter-user interference even if the BD scheme is used. In addition, the change may also result in large inter-substream interference and prevent optimal resource allocation from being achieved. As a result, system performance may be degraded seriously. To overcome the problem, we propose a method of channel extrapolation to compensate for the channel change. Applying our proposed method, simulation results show that much better system performance can be obtained than the conventional case. Moreover, it also shows that the system performance in the correlated fading environments is much dependent on the antenna configuration and the angle spread from the base station to scatterers.

We present a real-time video-based rendering system using a network camera array. Our system consists of 64 commodity network cameras that are connected to a single PC through a gigabit Ethernet. To render a high-quality novel view, our system estimates a view-dependent per-pixel depth map in real time by using a layered representation. The rendering algorithm is fully implemented on the GPU, which allows our system to efficiently perform capturing and rendering processes as a pipeline by using the CPU and GPU independently. Using QVGA input video resolution, our system renders a free-viewpoint video at up to 30 frames per second, depending on the output video resolution and the number of depth layers. Experimental results show high-quality images synthesized from various scenes.

The Dst index is the most popular measure of a scale of magnetic storms, and it is widely used as a monitor of the conditions of the Earth's magnetosphere. Since the Dst index contains contributions from multiple magnetospheric phenomena, it is important to distinguish each of the contributions in order to obtain meaningful information about the conditions of the magnetosphere. There have been several efforts which modeled temporal evolution of the Dst index empirically, and these empirical models considers some contributions separately. However, they take only short-term varations into accout, and contributions from phenomena which show long-term variations are neglected. In the present study, we have developed a technique for estimating the component of long-term variations of the Dst index using solar wind data and a nonlinear empirical model. The newly-developed technique adopts an algorithm which is similar to the particle filter. This algorithm allows an on-line processing of a long sequence of Dst data, which would enable a real-time estimation of system variables in a nonlinear system model. The estimates of the long-term variations can be used for accurate estimation of other contributions to the Dst index, which would provide credible information about the conditions of the magnetosphere. The framework proposed in the present study could be applied for the purpose of continuous real-time monitoring of the environment of the magnetosphere.

The self-timed pipeline (STP) is one of the most promising VLSI/SoC architectures. It achieves efficient utilization of tens of billions of transistors, consumes ultra low power, and is easy-to-design because of its signal integrity and low electro-magnetic interference. These basic features of the STP have been proven by the development of self-timed data-driven multimedia processors, DDMP's. This paper proposes a novel scheme of interacting self-timed (clockless) pipelines by which the various distributed and interconnected pipelines can achieve highly functional stream processing in future giga-transistor chips. The paper also proposes a set of elementary coupling control modules that facilitate various combinations of flow-thru processing between pipelines, and then discusses the practicality of the proposed scheme through the LSI design of application modules such as a priority-based queue, a mutual interconnection network, and a pipelined sorter.

In this paper, we discuss software performability evaluation considering the real-time property; this is defined as the attribute that the system can complete the task within the stipulated response time limit. We assume that the software system has two operational states from the viewpoint of the end users: one is operating with the desirable performance level according to specification and the other is with degraded performance level. The dynamic software reliability growth process with performance degradation is described by the extended Markovian software reliability model with imperfect debugging. Assuming that the software system can process the multiple tasks simultaneously and that the arrival process of the tasks follows a nonhomogeneous Poisson process, we analyze the distribution of the number of tasks whose processes can be completed within the processing time limit with the infinite server queueing model. We derive several software performability measures considering the real-time property; these are given as the functions of time and the number of debugging activities. Finally, we illustrate several numerical examples of the measures to investigate the impact of consideration of the performance degradation on the system performability evaluation.

The inflection S-shaped software reliability growth model (SRGM) proposed by Ohba (1984) is one of the well- known SRGMs. This paper deals with the optimal software release problem with regard to the expected software cost under this model based on the Bayesian approach. To reflect the effect of the learning experience for the updated software system, we consider several improvement factors to adjust the values of parameters characterizing the inflection S-shaped SRGM. Appropriate prior distributions are assumed for such factors and the expected total software cost is formulated. The optimal release time is shown to be finite and uniquely determined. Because of the flexibility of prior distributions, the proposed Bayesian methods may be applied in many different situations. Numerical results are presented on the basis of the real data.

In this paper the time-domain analysis of two parallel traces is investigated. First, the telegrapher's equations for transmission line are applied to the parallel traces on printed circuit board (PCB), and are solved by using the mode decomposition technique. The time-domain solutions are then obtained by using the inverse Laplace transform. Although the Fourier-transform technique is also applicable for this problem, the solution is given numerically. Contrarily, the inverse Laplace transform successfully leads to an analytical expression for the transmission characteristics. The analytical expression is represented by series, which clearly explains the coupling mechanism. The analytical expression for the fundamental section of a meander delay line is investigated in detail. The analytical solution is validated by measurements, and the characteristics of the distortions in the output waveforms of meander delay lines due to the crosstalk are also investigated.

We introduce the interval timing correlation, which can establish timing correlation conditions to handle interval timing timestamps. Interval timestamps are adopted to handle the temporal uncertainties in the timestamps of stream data. A probabilistic querying approach is taken in order to support timing predicates such as deadline, delay, and within over interval timestamps. A timing correlation condition entails a desired confidence threshold (minimum satisfaction probability). We define the interval timing correlation and discuss how to implement the algorithm. We present an analysis result which can effectively identify only tuples that need to be considered in determining the correlation. The performance of the proposed algorithm is shown.

Recent progress in scaled CMOS technologies can enhance signal bandwidth and clock frequency of analog-digital mixed VLSIs. However, the inevitable reduction of supply voltage causes a signal voltage mismatch between a non-scaled analog chip and a scaled A-D mixed chip. To overcome this problem, we present a Delta-Amplifier (DeltAMP) which can handle larger signal amplitude than the supply voltage. DeltaAMP folds a delta signal of an input voltage within a window using a virtual ground amplifier, modulation switches and comparators. For reconstruction of the folded delta signal to the ordinal signal, Analog-Time-Digital conversion (ATD) was also proposed, in which pulse-width analog information obtained at the comparators in DeltAMP was converted to a digital signal by counting. A test chip of DeltAMP with ATD was designed and fabricated using a 90 nm CMOS technology. A 2 Vpp input voltage range and 50 µW power consumption were achieved by the measurements with a 0.5 V supply. High accuracy of 62 dB SNR was obtained at signal bandwidth of 120 kHz.

Continuous phase modulation (CPM) is a non-linear modulation technique whose power and bandwidth efficiency make it an attractive choice for mobile communication systems. Current research has focused on devising encoding rules for using CPM over multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems in order to obtain the improved bit error rate (BER) and high data rates promised by MIMO technology. In this paper, optimal and suboptimal non-coherent receivers for a class of CPM signals called orthogonal space-time CPM (OST-CPM) are derived under a quasi-static fading channel assumption. The performance of these receivers is characterized and shown to achieve the same diversity order as that of the corresponding optimal coherent receiver.

Time-interleaved (TI) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are frequently advocated as a power-efficient solution to realize the high sampling rates required in single-chip transceivers for the emerging communication schemes: ultra-wideband, fast serial links, cognitive-radio and software-defined radio. However, the combined effects of multiple distortion sources due to channel mismatches (bandwidth, offset, gain and timing) severely affect system performance and power consumption of a TI ADC and need to be accounted for since the earlier design phases. In this paper, system-level design of TI ADCs is addressed through a platform-based methodology, enabling effective investigation of different speed/resolution scenarios as well as the impact of parallelism on accuracy, yield, sampling-rate, area and power consumption. Design space exploration of a TI successive approximation ADC is performed top-down via Monte Carlo simulations, by exploiting behavioral models built bottom-up after characterizing feasible implementations of the main building blocks in a 90-nm 1-V CMOS process. As a result, two implementations of the TI ADC are proposed that are capable to provide an outstanding figure-of-merit below 0.15 pJ/conversion-step.

In recent years, the space-time block coding (STBC) method has attracted attention to provide transmission diversity in mobile communication systems. Although the STBC method is very effective in slow fading environments, its performance in fast fading environments has yet to be clearly verified. In this paper we propose a railway radio communication system using space-time coding in cooperation with two base stations. Here, we considered the differential STBC (D-STBC) method in railway communication system to overcome difficulties caused by the fast fading environment. We have compared the performance of STBC and D-STBC method where there is frequency offset between two base stations. Moreover, we have presented the simulation result of overall performance of the system including frequency offset and transmission time delay when operating D-STBC method. The overall evaluation on this paper shows that the D-STBC method is suitable for realizing highly reliable railway communication systems.

Time-interleaving is an efficient approach to increase the effective sampling rate of the ΣΔ modulators, but time-interleaved (TI) ΣΔ modulators are sensitive to channel mismatch, which causes the quantization noise folded back into the band of interest. To reduce the folded noise caused by the channel mismatch of two-channel TI ΣΔ modulators, a low-power second-order two-channel TI ΣΔ modulator is proposed. The noise transfer function (NTF) of the modulator is a band-pass filter. By using this band-pass NTF, the folded noised can be reduced. The entire modulator can be implemented by employing three op-amps, which is beneficial for power consumption. The circuit of implementation for the proposed modulator is designed in 0.18 µm COMS technology. The proposed modulator can achieve a SNDR of 78.9 dB with a channel mismatch of 0.5% and a linear gradient mismatch of 0.4% for unity sampling capacitors. Monte Carlo simulation is done with a random Gaussian mismatch of 0.4% standard deviation for all capacitors, resulting in an average SNDR of 80.5 dB. It is indicated that the proposed TI modulator is insensitive to the channel mismatch. The total power consumption is 19.5 mW from a 1.8 V supply.

A wide range, low jitter Duty Cycle Corrector (DCC) based on continuous-time integrator is proposed. It introduces little added jitter in the sampling edge, which make it good candidate for pipelined ADC application. The circuit is implemented in CMOS 0.35 µm 2P4M Mixed Signal process. The experimental results show the circuit can work for a wide frequency range from 500 kHz to 280 MHz, with a correction error within 50%1% under 200 MHz, and the acceptable duty cycle can be as wide as 1-99% for low frequency inputs.