Audio–Visual Active Speaker Tracking in Cluttered Indoors Environments

We propose a system for detecting the active speaker in cluttered and reverberant environments where more than one person speaks and moves. Rather than using only audio information, the system utilizes audiovisual information from multiple acoustic and video sensors that feed separate audio and video tracking modules. The audio module operates using a particle filter (PF) and an information-theoretic framework to provide accurate acoustic source location under reverberant conditions. The video subsystem combines in 3-D a number of 2-D trackers based on a variation of Stauffer's adaptive background algorithm with spatiotemporal adaptation of the learning parameters and a Kalman tracker in a feedback configuration. Extensive experiments show that gains are to be expected when fusion of the separate modalities is performed to detect the active speaker.     

Underdetermined-order recursive least-squares adaptive filtering:the concept and algorithms

Underdetermined recursive least-squares (URLS) adaptive filtering is introduced. In particular, the URLS algorithm is derived and shown to be a direct consequence of the principle of minimal disturbance. By exploiting the Hankel structure of the filter input matrix, the fast transversal filter (FTF) version of the URLS algorithm (URLS-FTF) is derived including sliding window and growing window types. The computational complexity is reduced to O(N)+O(m), where N is the adaptive filter length, and m is the order of the URLS algorithm. In addition, the efficient URLS (EURLS) algorithm, which does not compute the filter coefficients explicitly, thereby significantly reducing the computational load, is presented. Some earlier adaptive algorithms such as the averaged LMS, filtered-X LMS, and fast conjugate gradient are shown to be suboptimal approximations of the URLS algorithm. Instrumental variable approximations are also discussed. The URLS algorithm has a whitening effect on the input, signal, which provides immunity to the eigenvalue spread of the input signal correlation matrix. Although the algorithm is sensitive to observation noise, it has good tracking characteristics, and tradeoffs can be found by tuning the step size. The utility of the URLS algorithms, in its basic form and FTF realization, depends heavily on the practical applicability of the mth-order sliding window estimate of the covariance matrix and mth-order PTF relations. The feasibility of the URLS family in practical applications is demonstrated in channel equalization and acoustic echo cancellation     

Residual echo signal in critically sampled subband acoustic echocancellers based on IIR and FIR filter banks

The residual echo signal characteristics of critically sampled subband acoustic echo cancellers are analyzed. For finite impulse response (FIR) filter banks, the residual echo signal usually has a relatively broad spectral nature around the subband edges. The residual echo signal of power symmetric infinite impulse response (PS-IIR) filter banks, on the other hand, has very narrowband spectral components around the subband edges. These components can be efficiently removed with PS-IIR notch filters that integrate neatly into the filter banks without introducing perceptually noticeable degradation to the near-end speech. This solution has very low computational complexity and does not impinge on the system performance. Simulation studies with recordings from the cockpit of a car, based on a fast QR least-squares adaptive algorithm, demonstrate the potential of this approach for a practical AEC system     

Code-aided quasi-maximum SINR algorithms for blind linear multiuser detection

The problem of blind linear data-symbol estimation and data detection for the air- interface adopting the wide-band direct sequence code division multiple access multiuser multiplexing technique with the promising short-code configurations has been addressed. The superior interference-suppression ability of the code-constrained minimum output energy multipath- component estimation is utilised to develop three code-aided quasi-maximum signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) algorithms. These algorithms operate in such a way as to maximise approximate measures of the output SINR, each having variations, especially in the adaptive implementation, because of different criteria employed. The 'quasi-maximum SINR' nature is because of the approximations employed. Extensive simulations indicate that all of these algorithms significantly outperform the existing code-aided blind linear algorithms at considerably low computational complexity. Moreover their adaptive versions exhibit very high level of desirable trade-off between convergence speed and steady-state performance at further reduced computational complexity.     

Run-Time Integration of Reconfigurable Video Processing Systems

Embedded systems in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can be customized and adaptive if assembled from modular components at run time. This paper examines realizing run-time system assembly by extension of platform-based design. Two major challenges are addressed in this paper. First, the design of a reconfigurable platform architecture suitable for run-time system assembly is described. Different systems are constructed by integrating the platform architecture with different modular components, which employ the communication infrastructure supplied by the platform in order to interact. Second, where on-chip communications channels use shared media, we propose techniques for modeling the intermodule communication behavior based on statistical time-division multiplexing. The proposed techniques enable system designers to guarantee that logical communication requirements between the adjunct modules can be satisfied by the infrastructure. An in-depth analysis is presented and then verified with cycle-accurate simulations for an example reconfigurable platform for real-time video applications.     

Audio-visual active speaker tracking in cluttered indoors environments

We propose a system for detecting the active speaker in cluttered and reverberant environments where more than one person speaks and moves. Rather than using only audio information, the system utilizes audiovisual information from multiple acoustic and video sensors that feed separate audio and video tracking modules. The audio module operates using a particle filter (PF) and an information-theoretic framework to provide accurate acoustic source location under reverberant conditions. The video subsystem combines in 3-D a number of 2-D trackers based on a variation of Stauffer's adaptive background algorithm with spatiotemporal adaptation of the learning parameters and a Kalman tracker in a feedback configuration. Extensive experiments show that gains are to be expected when fusion of the separate modalities is performed to detect the active speaker.     

Truncation noise in fixed-point SFGs [digital filters]

A new model for predicting truncation error variance in fixed-point filter implementations is introduced. The proposed model is shown to be more accurate than existing models, particularly for some direct hardware implementations. In addition, some comments are made on the applicability of existing error models     

The development of generic definitions of hyperslice packages in Hyper/J

In this paper we investigate the notion of reusability of aspect definitions. We discuss the development of generic aspects in Hyper/J and compare it with the AspectJ approach. In doing that, we follow the design principle of “developing with hyperslice packages” and we show that hyperspace structure, concern mapping, hyperslice definitions and merging stategies exhibit well-defined patterns. An approach to constructing and merging generic aspects with base core concerns in Hyper/J is presented.     

Integrated Approaches to Efficient Water Use in South Africa

Post-apartheid South Africa is in the throes of incredible challenges. One of the more important challenges is the access of all citizens to basic services. South Africa is doing this against a backdrop of strongly differential servicing that is its apartheid legacy, which has prompted many a commentator to label South Africa as a country living in two worlds-a developed First World component and an impoverished developing world component. The challenge for water is to ensure universal access in this context over the added hurdle that South Africa is a water-scarce country. One of the important ways in which more water can be made available for this extended servicing is through the development and implementation of water-efficient practices in both reticulation and end use. This paper talks to the development of a national policy that is supported by the new national water law in order to achieve these goals. An urban case study on the implementation of these practices is also described.     

Impacts of impulse-based ultra-wideband data links on cooperative wireless ad hoc networks

The recently permitted unlicenced use of the regulated ultra-wideband (UWB) radio spectrum (regulated first by the US FCC in 2002 and subsequently by the standardisation bodies of EU and other major countries) provides wireless ad hoc networks a cheap and promising air-interface technology for their adopted wireless data links, thus offering the potential to greatly boost their applications. The impacts of such UWB data links, mainly the more likely adopted impulse-based UWB data links for low data rate applications, on the extensively developed cooperative wireless ad hoc networks are investigated. First, the authors investigate the diversity order of data transfer of each impulse-based UWB data link working in a corresponding fading channel, and give an approximate relationship between the diversity order and the channel model parameters (here the Saleh?Valenzuela model parameters); Secondly, the authors develop efficient cooperative and decentralised diversity schemes that can utilise the widely spread and independently distributed multiple paths of the fading UWB channels. Performance analysis and simulation studies show that proposed decentralised cooperative beamforming schemes can achieve full diversity and are more efficient than their decentralised cooperative routing counterparts.