A Discrete Positioning Microactuator: Linearity Modeling and VOA Application

In this paper, we propose a discrete microactuator that can produce a desirable nonlinear displacement of the digital input. To develop a design algorithm with an arbitrary displacement function, we used curved comb electrodes that were electrically separated for each digital input. The algorithm was used to linearize the variable optical attenuator with a constant increment of 0.5 dB and an attenuation range of 32.6 dB. The experimental linearity was considerably improved down to 4.2% with an insertion loss of 1.1 dB     

法庭语音比对中话者自身变化性建模方法研究

针对法庭说话人识别中待鉴定人员语音样本不足的问题,提出了一种新的对说话人自身变化性建模的替代性方法以及相应的方差控制算法。使用同条件下的参考数据库构建识别系统的多个相同说话人得分模型,代替检验需要的多个非同期的带检验人员语音样本比较时的得分模型,以获得能反映说话人自身变化性的统计模型。基于目前最新的法庭证据评估的似然比证据强度评估体系,使用MFCC（Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients）和GFCC（Gammatone Frequency Cepstral Coefficients）特征对该方法的有效性进行了验证,并对上述特征进行了特征级和决策级融合。实验结果表明：该方法在纯净语音环境和噪声环境下都具有很高的识别率和稳定性,并且特征级融合能进一步提高识别系统的性能。     

PC Positioning: From DOS to OS/2

Selecting the best, most efficient operating system for the PC is an important decision for any organization. This column examines the current offerings of three of Microsoft Corps operating environments – MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2 /and assesses their potential as future adaptable and productive systems.     

PC Positioning: From DOS to OS/2

Selecting the best, most efficient operating system for the PC is an important decision for any organization. This column examines the current offerings of three of Microsoft Corps operating environments - MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2 /and assesses their potential as future adaptable and productive systems.     

Voice: synergy in design and integration

Validating Open System Architecture in Industrial CIM Environments (Voice) is a series of ESPRIT projects addressing computer-integrated manufacturing systems and environments. Voice I was created to experiment with and validate the concepts, methods, and tools for integrating processes in computer-integrated-manufacturing systems and environments, and for optimizing manufacturing systems. One of its major accomplishments was the development of McCIM, the first online implementation of an open-system architecture, Cimosa, for CIM, McCIM uses Petri nets and an integration strategy based on evolution and incremental development to rapidly prototype actual manufacturing systems. The Cimosa architecture and the use of McCIM to validate the Cimosa modeling framework and integrating infrastructure are discussed     

Writer identification using intra-stroke and inter-stroke information for security enhancements in P2P systems

Chinese language has enormous number of characters and complicated stroke structures. So it is very difficult to efficiently and accurately identify a Chinese writer from his/her handwritings. This paper proposes a novel writer identification method for Chinese characters commonly used in Japan which can be used in peer-to-peer (P2P) systems. As a preliminary task, we have analyzed the shapes of strokes and the types of block division structures in Chinese characters and selected some characters for writer identification. The method consists of two efficient algorithms, i.e. the Hidden-feature analysis and the Block-type model, which respectively utilize intra-stroke and inter-stroke features of handwritings to enhance the writer identification accuracy. The Hidden-feature analysis makes template classes of reference characters with online features of training samples such as pen-pressure, pen-speed, pen-altitude, and pen-azimuth of each stroke. The Block-type model also creates such classes for writer identification based on offline features, i.e. the positional information about blocks of sample characters. The experimental results show that the Hidden-feature analysis requires eight Chinese characters while the Block-type model requires only four characters and four ones to achieve writer identification accuracy over 98%. Additionally, the results also demonstrate that any eight Chinese characters are enough to achieve an identification accuracy over 99.9% when the combination of the two algorithms is applied.     

Rethinking Authenticity: Voice and Feedback in Media Discourse

As authentic communicative practices, news writing and media discourse have the potential to serve as pedagogical tools for foreign language students to explore content of interest. This study analyzed university students’ media discourse in the virtual world of Second Life and subsequent revisions of their works in progress with respect to (1) journalistic headlines, (2) journalistic vocabulary, (3) journalistic organization, and (4) journalistic style. The results have revealed connections between voice and composition—that is, exchanging and sharing true thoughts and feelings while maintaining a self-image facilitated more concise, engaging, clear, and relevant news writing from new or different perspectives. Participants’ actions, perceptions, and movements also facilitated a better understanding of communicative practices specific to the virtual world. The results suggest that we should rethink authenticity in terms of content, contexts, purposes, and audiences to design computer-mediated collaborative learning tasks and support students’ authentic engagement of peers or other international speakers in lingua franca communication. This study may shed light on the future use of new media literacy and playful peer discourse in foreign language writing.     

Voice in computing: an overview of available technologies

An attempt is made to bridge the differences between the voice and computing disciplines and foster crossdisciplinary dialogue by presenting an overview of the technologies useful in building voice/computing applications, along with some examples to illustrate how they can be used. The voice technologies relevant to computing are grouped into three general categories and explored in detail. They consist of: content processing, which is the manipulation and analysis of the payload of a voice channel; connection control, which is the setup and manipulation of connections between voice equipment; and software architectures, i.e. the organization of computing system software to facilitate the creation of voice-related applications     

Modeling packet-loss visibility in MPEG-2 video

We consider the problem of predicting packet loss visibility in MPEG-2 video. We use two modeling approaches: CART and GLM. The former classifies each packet loss as visible or not; the latter predicts the probability that a packet loss is visible. For each modeling approach, we develop three methods, which differ in the amount of information available to them. A reduced reference method has access to limited information based on the video at the encoder's side and has access to the video at the decoder's side. A no-reference pixel-based method has access to the video at the decoder's side but lacks access to information at the encoder's side. A no-reference bitstream-based method does not have access to the decoded video either; it has access only to the compressed video bitstream, potentially affected by packet losses. We design our models using the results of a subjective test based on 1080 packet losses in 72 minutes of video.     

L2P2: A location-label based approach for privacy preserving in LBS

The developments in positioning and mobile communication technology have made the location-based service (LBS) applications more and more popular. For privacy reasons and due to lack of trust in the LBS providers, k-anonymity and l-diversity techniques have been widely used to preserve privacy of users in distributed LBS architectures in Internet of Things (IoT). However, in reality, there are scenarios where the locations of users are identical or similar/near each other in IoT. In such scenarios the k locations selected by k-anonymity technique are the same and location privacy can be easily compromised or leaked. To address the issue of privacy preservation, in this paper, we introduce the location labels to distinguish locations of mobile users to sensitive and ordinary locations. We design a location-label based (LLB) algorithm for protecting location privacy of users while minimizing the response time for LBS requests. We also evaluate the performance and validate the correctness of the proposed algorithm through extensive simulations.     

二维面片头发模型中的碰撞检测

在头发动画中,发丝之间;发丝和人体或其他物体之间的碰撞检测是真实感的重要保证.由于头发数量的巨大,简化的发丝模型和简化的人体模型都是实现实时碰撞检测的关键.在此选择使用二维发带对头发进行建模.引入椭球体包围盒进行发丝和人体及其他物体之间的碰撞检测,使得计算复杂性与人体的复杂性无关.对于发带之间的碰撞则采用最简单有效的密度值比较进行检测.     

Writing the future: computers in science fiction

Although we cannot be certain that science fiction directly influenced the course that computing technology has taken over the past 50 years (1950-2000), the genre has, at the very least, anticipated the technologies we are using and developing. Speculation about our future human relationship to computers, and to technology in general, has been the province of science fiction for at least a hundred years. But not all of that speculation has been as optimistic as those in the computing profession might assume. While cautionary tales in science fiction are plentiful and varied, the genre is also filled with more optimistic speculation about computer technology that will help save time, improve health, and generally benefit life as we know it. If we take a look at some of this speculation-both optimistic and pessimistic-as if it were prediction, it turns out that many science fiction authors have envisioned the future as accurately as historians have chronicled the past. Prediction is difficult, goes the joke, especially when it comes to the future. Yet science fiction authors have taken their self-imposed charters seriously; they've tested countless technologies in the virtual environments of their fiction     

L2-SVM: Dependence on the regularization parameter

The goal of this paper is to announce some results dealing with mathematical properties of so-called L2 Soft-Margin Support Vector Machines (L2-SVMs) for data classification. Their dual formulations build a family of quadratic programming problems depending on one regularization parameter. The dependence of the solution on this parameter is examined. Such properties as continuity, differentiability, monotony and convexity are investigated. It is shown that the solution and the objective value of the Hard Margin SVM allow estimating the slack variables of the L2-SVMs. The asymptotic behavior of the solutions of the primal problems in the inseparable case was investigated. An ancillary dual problem is used as investigation tool. It is in reality a dual formulation of a quasi identical L2-SVM primal.     

上海地铁ATM网中基于AAL2规程的话音中继打包密度

建立一个马尔科夫链模型，以分析ＡＴＭ适配层类型２规程的信元打包过程，证实信元中话音的打包密度及链路使用效率很大程度上取决于Ｔｉｍｅｒ－ＣＵ的值。还给出了为达到预计的链路效率计算Ｔｉｍｅ－ＣＵ值的算法，并联系上海地铁的具体情况给出仿真结果。     

Computer-mediated feedback for L2 learners: Challenges versus affordances

This paper reviews the theoretical and pedagogical affordances and challenges highlighted in studies on correcting second language (L2) learners' errors via computer-mediated feedback (CMF) in blended and distance learning. The study aimed at understanding and conveying the reported challenges and affordances of CMF to inform the computer-assisted language learning practitioners. To this end, 97 peer-reviewed articles published from 2012 to 2020 that discussed CMF with respect to receptive and productive language skills were systematically reviewed. The collected data were tabularized in terms of receptive and productive skills. To visualize the results, the obtained data were arranged in four hierarchical database formats with respect to four language skills. The implications of the study are twofold. Pedagogically, teachers are informed useful affordances that can be used to give feedback during teaching. Theoretically, researchers are informed about challenges that require further investigation.     

CAVA: Hiding L2 Misses with Checkpoint-Assisted Value Prediction

Load misses in on-chip L2 caches often end up stalling modern superscalars. To address this problem, we propose hiding L2 misses with Checkpoint-Assisted VAlue prediction (CAVA). When a load misses in L2, a predicted value is returned to the processor. If the missing load reaches the head of the reorder buffer before the requested data is received from memory, the processor checkpoints, consumes the predicted value, and speculatively continues execution. When the requested data finally arrives, it is compared to the predicted value. If the prediction was correct, execution continues normally; otherwise, execution rolls back to the checkpoint. Compared to a baseline aggressive superscalar, CAVA speeds up execution by a geometric mean of 1.14 for SPECint and 1.34 for SPECfp applications. Additionally, CAVA is faster than an implementation of Runahead execution, and Runahead with value prediction.