Series feature aggregation for content-based image retrieval

Feature aggregation is a critical technique in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems that employs multiple visual features to characterize image content. Most previous feature aggregation schemes apply parallel topology, e.g., the linear combination scheme, which suffer from two problems. First, the function of individual visual feature is limited since the ranks of the retrieved images are determined only by the combined similarity. Second, the irrelevant images seriously affect the retrieval performance of feature aggregation scheme since all images in a collection will be ranked. To address these problems, we propose a new feature aggregation scheme, series feature aggregation (SFA). SFA selects relevant images using visual features one by one in series from the images highly ranked by the previous visual feature. The irrelevant images will be effectively filtered out by individual visual features in each stage, and the remaining images are collectively described by all visual features. Experiments, conducted with IAPR TC-12 benchmark image collection (ImageCLEF2006) that contains over 20,000 photographic images and defined queries, have shown that the proposed SFA can outperform conventional parallel feature aggregation schemes.     

Scalability of MANET routing protocols for heterogeneous and homogenous networks

In Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET), mobility, traffic and node density are main network conditions that significantly affect performance of routing protocols. Much of the previous research in MANET routing have focused on developing strategies, which suit one specific networking scenario. Therefore, there is no existing protocol that can work well in all different networking scenarios. This paper reviews characteristics of several different classes of routing protocols. Moreover, most of current routing protocols assume homogeneous networking conditions where all nodes have the same capabilities and resources. This paper presents extensive studies simulations for DSR, AODV, LAR1, FSR and WRP in homogenous and heterogeneous networks that consist of different nodes with different resources. The results showed that while all protocols perform reasonably well in homogenous networking conditions, their performance suffer significantly over heterogonous networks.     

Efficient bit-parallel multipliers over finite fields GF(2)

Hardware implementation of multiplication in finite field GF(2^m) based on sparse polynomials is found to be advantageous in terms of space-complexity as well as the time-complexity. In this paper, we present a new permutation method to construct the irreducible like-trinomials of the form (x + 1)^m + (x + 1)ⁿ + 1 for the implementation of efficient bit-parallel multipliers. For implementing the multiplications based on such polynomials, we have defined a like-polynomial basis (LPB) as an alternative to the original polynomial basis of GF(2^m). We have shown further that the modular arithmetic for the binary field based on like-trinomials is equivalent to the arithmetic for the field based on trinomials. In order to design multipliers for composite fields, we have found another permutation polynomial to convert irreducible polynomials into like-trinomials of the forms (x² + x + 1)^m + (x² + x + 1)ⁿ + 1, (x² + x)^m + (x² + x)ⁿ + 1 and (x⁴ + x + 1)^m + (x⁴ + x + 1)ⁿ + 1. The proposed bit-parallel multiplier over GF(2^4m) is found to offer a saving of about 33% multiplications and 42.8% additions over the corresponding existing architectures.     

A CDMA/TDD approach for wireless mesh networks

Wide band mesh or star oriented networks have recently become a subject of greater interest. Providing wideband multimedia access for a variety of applications has led to the inception of mesh networks. Classic access techniques such as FDMA and TDMA have been the norm for such networks. CDMA maximum transmitter power is much less than TDMA and FDMA counter parts, which is an important asset for mobile operation. In this paper we introduce a code division multiple access/time division duplex technique CDMA/TDD for such networks. The CDMA approach is an almost play and plug technology for wireless access, making it amenable for implementation by the mesh network service station, SS. Further it inherently allows mesh network service stations to use a combination of turbo coding and dynamic parallel orthogonal transmission to improve network efficiency. We outline briefly the new transmitter and receiver structures then evaluate the efficiency, delay and delay jitter. By analysis we show the advantages over classic counter parts with respect to the total network efficiency achievable especially for larger number of hops.     

Dynamic routing of real-time jobs among parallel EDF queues: A performance study

This paper introduces an analytical method for approximating the performance of a firm real-time system consisting of a number of parallel infinite-capacity single-server queues. The service discipline for the individual queues is earliest-deadline-first (EDF). Real-time jobs with exponentially distributed relative deadlines arrive according to a Poisson process. Jobs either all have deadlines until the beginning of service or deadlines until the end of service. Upon arrival, a job joins a queue according to a state-dependent stationary policy, where the state of the system is the number of jobs in each queue. Migration among the queues is not allowed. An important performance measure to consider is the overall loss probability of the system. The system is approximated by a Markovian model in the long run. The resulting model can then be solved analytically using standard Markovian solution techniques. Comparing numerical and simulation results for at least three different stationary policies, we find that the existing errors are relatively small.     

Multi-spectral fusion for surveillance systems

Surveillance systems such as object tracking and abandoned object detection systems typically rely on a single modality of colour video for their input. These systems work well in controlled conditions but often fail when low lighting, shadowing, smoke, dust or unstable backgrounds are present, or when the objects of interest are a similar colour to the background. Thermal images are not affected by lighting changes or shadowing, and are not overtly affected by smoke, dust or unstable backgrounds. However, thermal images lack colour information which makes distinguishing between different people or objects of interest within the same scene difficult.By using modalities from both the visible and thermal infrared spectra, we are able to obtain more information from a scene and overcome the problems associated with using either modality individually. We evaluate four approaches for fusing visual and thermal images for use in a person tracking system (two early fusion methods, one mid fusion and one late fusion method), in order to determine the most appropriate method for fusing multiple modalities. We also evaluate two of these approaches for use in abandoned object detection, and propose an abandoned object detection routine that utilises multiple modalities. To aid in the tracking and fusion of the modalities we propose a modified condensation filter that can dynamically change the particle count and features used according to the needs of the system.We compare tracking and abandoned object detection performance for the proposed fusion schemes and the visual and thermal domains on their own. Testing is conducted using the OTCBVS database to evaluate object tracking, and data captured in-house to evaluate the abandoned object detection. Our results show that significant improvement can be achieved, and that a middle fusion scheme is most effective.     

An improved new error estimation algorithm for optimal filter lengths for stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation

In this paper, we propose an new error estimate algorithm (NEEA) for stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation (SAEC) that is based on the error estimation algorithm (EEA) in [Nguyen-Ky T, Leis J, Xiang W. An improved error estimate algorithm for stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation system. In: International conference on signal processing and communication systems, ICSPCS’2007, Australia; December 2007]. In the EEA and NEEA, with the minimum error signal fixed, we compute the filter lengths so that the error signal may approximate the minimum error signal. When the echo paths change, the adaptive filter automatically adjusts the filter lengths to the optimum values. We also investigate the difference between the adaptive filter lengths. In contrast with the conclusions in [Khong AWH, Naylor PA. Stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation employing selective-tap adaptive algorithms. IEEE Trans Audio, Speech, Lang Process 2006;14(3):785-96, Gansler T, Benesty J. Stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation and two channel adaptive filtering: an overview. Int J Adapt Control Signal Process 2000;4:565-86, Benesty J, Gansler T. A multichannel acoustic echo canceler double-talk detector based on a normalized cross-correlation matrix. Acoust Echo Noise Control 2002;13(2):95-101, Gansler T, Benesty J. A frequency-domain double-talk detector based on a normalized cross-correlation vector. Signal Process 2001;81:1783-7, Eneroth P, Gay SL, Gansler T, Benesty J. A real-time implementation of a stereophonic acoustic echo canceler. IEEE Trans. Speech Audio Process 2001;9(5):513-23, Gansler T, Benesty J. New insights into the stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation problem and an adaptive nonlinearity solution. IEEE Trans. Speech Audio Process 2002; 10(5):257-67, Benesty J, Gansler T, Morgan DR, Sondhi MM, Gay SL. Advances in network and acoustic echo cancellation. Berlin: Springer-Verlag; 2001], our simulation results have shown that the filter lengths can be different. Our simulation results also confirm that the NEEA is better than EEA and SM-NLMS algorithm in terms of echo return loss enhancement.     

A closed-form derivation of self and multi-user interference for time-reversed UWB communications

Multipath degradation is a significant consideration for all wireless communication systems. A time-reversed UWB system harnesses the multipath channel to achieve temporal and spatial focusing through signal pre-filtering at the transmitter side. In cases where the RMS delay spread of a channel is larger than a user’s transmitted pulse separation, inter-pulse, -frame, and -symbol interference may occur. Of even more concern is multi-user interference, which significantly reduces system performance. This paper presents closed-form expressions for self and multi-user interference for a UWB system utilizing a time-reversed approach. The influence of user multiplexing codes is taken to account through incorporation of a ‘separation probability’, which characterizes a family of hopping sequences. The standardized IEEE 802.15.3a channel model is applied, and the derived performances are compared with that of a simulated time hopped time-reversed UWB system.     

An empirical investigation of architectural prototyping

Architectural prototyping is the process of using executable code to investigate stakeholders’ software architecture concerns with respect to a system under development. Previous work has established this as a useful and cost-effective way of exploration and learning of the design space of a system and in addressing issues regarding quality attributes, architectural risks, and the problem of knowledge transfer and conformance. However, the actual industrial use of architectural prototyping has not been thoroughly researched so far. In this article, we report from three studies of architectural prototyping in practice. First, we report findings from an ethnographic study of practicing software architects. Secondly, we report from a focus group on architectural prototyping involving architects from four companies. And, thirdly, we report from a survey study of 20 practicing software architects and software developers. Our findings indicate that architectural prototyping plays an important and frequent role in resolving problems experimentally, but less so in exploring alternative solutions. Furthermore, architectural prototypes include end-user or business related functionality rather than purely architectural functionality. Based on these observations we provide recommendations for effective industrial architectural prototyping.     

Summary queries for frequent itemsets mining

There are many advanced techniques that can efficiently mine frequent itemsets using a minimum-support. However, the question that remains unanswered is whether the minimum-support can really help decision makers to make decisions. In this paper, we study four summary queries for frequent itemsets mining, namely, (1) finding a support-average of itemsets, (2) finding a support-quantile of itemsets, (3) finding the number of itemsets that greater/less than the support-average, i.e., an approximated distribution of itemsets, and (4) finding the relative frequency of an itemset (compared its frequency with that of other itemsets in the same dataset). With these queries, a decision maker will know whether an itemset in question is greater/less than the support-quantile; the distribution of itemsets; and the frequentness of an itemset. Processing these summary queries is challenging, because the minimum-support constraint cannot be used to prune infrequent itemsets. In this paper, we propose several simple yet effective approximation solutions. We conduct extensive experiments for evaluating our strategy, and illustrate that the proposed approaches can well model and capture the statistical parameters (summary queries) of itemsets in a database.