Markov-jump-system-based secure chaotic communication

In this paper, a new Markov-jump-system (MJS)-based secure chaotic communication technique is proposed. An MJS evolves by switching from one state evolution model to another according to a finite state Markov chain. The transmitter in the proposed communication system is an MJS consisting of multiple transmission maps, that is, the transmitter switches from one chaotic map to another during the transmission of data. This switching feature makes it difficult to identify and follow the transmission without knowing the transmitter parameters, i.e., to eavesdrop, thereby increasing the security offered by the inherently secure chaotic communication system. If the chaotic maps used at the transmitter, and the corresponding Markov transition probability matrix of the MJS are known to the (authorized) receiver, then a multiple model estimator can be used to track the MJS transmitter. In this paper, the use of the interacting multiple model (IMM) estimator is proposed as part of the receiver to follow the switching transmitter. The effectiveness of the IMM-estimator-based receiver to follow the switching transmitter is evaluated by means of simulations. A new modulation technique that uses the MJS transmitter is also introduced. Further, it is shown that the same receiver framework, when used as a receiver for chaotic parameter modulation, provides significant performance improvement in terms of bit-error rate compared to a receiver that uses extended Kalman filter. In addition, the seemingly more complex IMM-estimator-based receiver is shown to significantly reduce the computational complexity per transmitted bit, thus resulting in increased data rate.     

PHD filter based track-before-detect for MIMO radars

In this paper a Probability Hypothesis Density (PHD) filter based track-before-detect (TBD) algorithm is proposed for Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) radars. The PHD filter, which propagates only the first-order statistical moment of the full target posterior, is a computationally efficient solution to multitarget tracking problems with varying number of targets. The proposed algorithm avoids any assumption on the maximum number of targets as a result of estimating the number of targets together with target states. With widely separated transmitter and receiver pairs, the algorithm utilizes the Radar Cross Section (RCS) diversity as a result of target illumination from ideally uncorrelated aspects. Furthermore, a multiple sensor TBD is proposed in order to process the received signals from different transmitter-receiver pairs in the MIMO radar system. In this model, the target observability to the sensor as a result of target RCS diversity is taken in to consideration in the likelihood calculation. In order to quantify the performance of the proposed algorithm, the Posterior Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (PCRLB) for widely separated MIMO radars is also derived. Simulation results show that the new algorithm meets the PCRLB and provides better results compared with standard Maximum Likelihood (ML) based localizations.     

An EM Algorithm for Nonlinear State Estimation With Model Uncertainties

In most solutions to state estimation problems, e.g., target tracking, it is generally assumed that the state transition and measurement models are known a priori. However, there are situations where the model parameters or the model structure itself are not known a priori or are known only partially. In these scenarios, standard estimation algorithms like the Kalman filter and the extended Kalman Filter (EKF), which assume perfect knowledge of the model parameters, are not accurate. In this paper, the nonlinear state estimation problem with possibly non-Gaussian process noise in the presence of a certain class of measurement model uncertainty is considered. It is shown that the problem can be considered as a special case of maximum-likelihood estimation with incomplete data. Thus, in this paper, we propose an EM-type algorithm that casts the problem in a joint state estimation and model parameter identification framework. The expectation (E) step is implemented by a particle filter that is initialized by a Monte Carlo Markov chain algorithm. Within this step, the posterior distribution of the states given the measurements, as well as the state vector itself, are estimated. Consequently, in the maximization (M) step, we approximate the nonlinear observation equation as a mixture of Gaussians (MoG) model. During the M-step, the MoG model is fit to the observed data by estimating a set of MoG parameters. The proposed procedure, called EM-PF (expectation-maximization particle filter) algorithm, is used to solve a highly nonlinear bearing-only tracking problem, where the model structure is assumed unknown a priori. It is shown that the algorithm is capable of modeling the observations and accurately tracking the state vector. In addition, the algorithm is also applied to the sensor registration problem in a multi-sensor fusion scenario. It is again shown that the algorithm is successful in accommodating an unknown nonlinear model for a target tracking scenario.     

Adaptive beamspace focusing for direction of arrival estimation of wideband signals

In this paper, we present an adaptive beamspace focusing technique for the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation of wideband signals. The proposed focusing scheme can perform coherent signal subspace transformation in the beamspace domain without preliminary DOA estimation or iteration. It can maintain low focusing error over a predefined sector-of-interest in the field-of-view (FOV) of the array while adaptively suppressing out-of-sector sources. The beamspace gain outside the sector-of-interest is controlled via additional constraints that provide robustness against moving or suddenly appearing out-of-sector sources. We formulate the adaptive beamspace design problem as a second-order cone program (SOCP) that can be solved efficiently using interior point methods. Numerical simulations are presented showing the superior performance of our approach compared to classical non-adaptive beamspace focusing techniques.     

Single image rain/snow removal using distortion type information

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Rainy or snowy weather conditions can severely impair the visual quality of images and videos. The rain streaks or snow particles that may vary in shape and size...     

A Blind Sequential Monte Carlo Detector for OFDM Systems in the Presence of Phase Noise, Multipath Fading, and Channel Order Uncertainty

In this paper, an efficient detector is developed to address the blind detection problem for an orthogonal- frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) system in the presence of phase noise and unknown multipath fading, even with channel order that is possibly not known and time varying. The proposed maximum a posteriori detector is a combination of the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) method and the variance reduction strategy known as Rao-Blackwellization. Being blind, the developed detector, does not rely on pilot tones for the detection of the transmitted data. However, as in most work found in the literature, the aforementioned detector, which we call the RB-SMC detector, invokes the assumption of a fixed and known channel order, which may be a limitation in a number of scenarios. Therefore, to relax this assumption, we model channel order uncertainty via a first-order Markov process and subsequently introduce appropriate extensions to the RB-SMC detector, thereby proposing a novel algorithm called the E-RB-SMC detector. The performance of the novel SMC-based detectors are validated through computer simulations. It is shown that the proposed SMC-based detectors achieve near bound performance. In terms of convergence speed, the proposed E-RB-SMC detector also shows the smallest acquisition time amongst the considered algorithms.     

Aerial image dehazing using a deep convolutional autoencoder

Aerial images and videos are extensively used for object detection and target tracking. However, due to the presence of thin clouds, haze or smoke from buildings, the processing of aerial data can be challenging. Existing single-image dehazing methods that work on ground-to-ground images, do not perform well on aerial images. Moreover, current dehazing methods are not capable for real-time processing. In this paper, a new end-to-end aerial image dehazing method using a deep convolutional autoencoder is proposed. Using the convolutional autoencoder, the dehazing problem is divided into two parts, namely, encoder, which aims extract important features to dehaze hazy regions and decoder, which aims to reconstruct the dehazed image using the down-sampled image received from the encoder. In this proposed method, we also exploit the superpixels in two different scales to generate synthetic thin cloud data to train our network. Since this network is trained in an end-to-end manner, in the test phase, for each input hazy aerial image, the proposed algorithm outputs a dehazed version without requiring any other information such as transmission map or atmospheric light value. With the proposed method, hazy regions are dehazed and objects within hazy regions become more visible while the contrast of non-hazy regions is increased. Experimental results on synthetic and real hazy aerial images demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method compared to existing dehazing methods in terms of quality and speed.

     

Cloud/haze detection in airborne videos using a convolutional neural network

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In airborne videos surveillance, moving object detection and target tracking are the key steps. However, under bad weather conditions, the presence of clouds and...     

The Problem of Test Latency in Machine Diagnosis

The impact of delayed sensor alarm data upon a diagnostic inference engine appears not to be well appreciated. In this paper, we illustrate the effect of sensor latency, and we propose an inference approach to obviate it.     

Large-Scale Optimal Sensor Array Management for Multitarget Tracking

In this paper, we are concerned with the problem of utilizing a large network of sensors in order to track multiple targets. Large-scale sensor array management has applications in a number of target tracking domains. For example, in ground target tracking, hundreds or even thousands of unattended ground sensors may be dropped over a large surveillance area. At any one time, it may then only be possible to utilize a very small number of the available sensors at the fusion center because of physical limitations, such as available communications bandwidth. A similar situation may arise in tracking sea-surface or underwater targets using a large network of sonobuoys. The general problem is then to select a small subset of the available sensors in order to optimize tracking performance. In a practical scenario with hundreds of sensors, the number of possible sensor combinations would make it infeasible to use enumeration in order to find the optimal solution. Motivated by this consideration, in this paper we use an efficient search technique in order to determine near-optimal sensor utilization strategies in real-time. This search technique consists of convex optimization followed by greedy local search. We consider several problem formulations and the posterior Cramer-Rao lower bound is used as the basis for network management. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the algorithms, both in terms of their real-time capability and the resulting estimation accuracy. Furthermore, in comparisons it can also be seen that the proposed solutions are near-optimal.