Helicopter radar return analysis: Estimation and blade number selection

The problem of helicopter parameter estimation and blade number selection is addressed. The parameters are estimated based on Maximum Likelihood methods and the corresponding Cramér-Rao bounds are derived. To avoid ambiguities in blade number estimation, we apply information theoretic criteria for blade number selection incorporating alternate penalty functions. We assume that a clutter filter essentially removes all of the clutter and also part of the signal returns, lowering the effective signal-to-noise-ratio. The fractional Fourier transform is used to separate the combined tail and main rotor signals into two different returns, allowing initial estimates of their corresponding rotor parameters. The proposed technique is validated by using returns from a helicopter observed experimentally with a pulse-Doppler radar.     

On the relationship between emission color and Ce concentration in garnet phosphors

It is known that the emission color of Ce³⁺ doped garnets is strongly redshifted at higher Ce³⁺ concentrations. In this report, we study the cause of this redshift in Lu₃Al₅O₁₂:Ce³⁺ (LuAG:Ce) phosphors. These changes in emission color with Ce³⁺ concentration are mainly attributed to a combination of inhomogenous broadening for Ce³⁺ in LuAG and energy transfer from high energy Ce³⁺ ions to low energy Ce³⁺ ions. Evidence for inhomogenous broadening and energy transfer is given through time resolved measurements. Potential reasons for inhomogenous broadening of Ce³⁺ in these phosphors are also discussed.     

Environmental and economical impact of LED lighting systems and effect of thermal management

Solid‐state lighting (SSL) technologies such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been of interest for the last 15 years. This article focuses on inorganic LED technology and their evolving applications, energy efficiency, and economic impact as well as the effect of thermal management on LED lighting systems. The efficacy of the best commercial 1 W LED packages currently surpasses 120 lm/W, which is more efficient than typical metal‐halide and fluorescent lamps. This high efficacy will eventually allow LED lighting systems to be used in specialty and general illumination applications. However, higher lumen requirements for LED systems will inevitably lead to significant thermal challenges at both the chip and the system level that need to be addressed to enable practical applications at low costs. In this article, the basics of LED lighting will be discussed first. It will be followed by the potential economic benefits for high efficiency LED lighting systems in the general illumination market. We will then discuss the thermal challenges and possible candidate cooling technologies in LED lighting systems. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Devanagari OCR using a recognition driven segmentation framework and stochastic language models

This paper describes a novel recognition driven segmentation methodology for Devanagari Optical Character Recognition. Prior approaches have used sequential rules to segment characters followed by template matching for classification. Our method uses a graph representation to segment characters. This method allows us to segment horizontally or vertically overlapping characters as well as those connected along non-linear boundaries into finer primitive components. The components are then processed by a classifier and the classifier score is used to determine if the components need to be further segmented. Multiple hypotheses are obtained for each composite character by considering all possible combinations of the classifier results for the primitive components. Word recognition is performed by designing a stochastic finite state automaton (SFSA) that takes into account both classifier scores as well as character frequencies. A novel feature of our approach is that we use sub-character primitive components in the classification stage in order to reduce the number of classes whereas we use an n-gram language model based on the linguistic character units for word recognition.     

Retargeting images and video for preserving information saliency.

A nonphotorealistic algorithm for retargeting images adapts large images so that important objects in the image are still recognizable when displayed at a lower target resolution. Unlike existing image manipulation techniques such as cropping and scaling, the retargeting algorithm can handle multiple important objects in an image. To identify the important objects in an image, we must first segment the image. We use mean-shift image segmentation to decompose an image into homogeneous regions.     

Large scale address recognition systems Truthing,testing, tools,and other evaluation issues

This paper describes the issues involved in the design of a system for evaluating improvements in the performance of a real-time address recognition system being used by the United States Postal Service for processing mail-piece images. Evaluation of the performance of recognition systems is normally carried out by measuring the performance of the system on a representative sample of images. Designing a comprehensive and valid testing scenario is a complex task that requires careful attention. Sampling live mail-stream to generate a deck of images representative of the general mail-stream for testing, truthing (generating reference data on a significant number of images), grading and evaluation, and designing tools to facilitate these functions are important topics that need to be addressed. This paper describes the efforts of the United States Postal Service and CEDAR towards developing an infrastructure for sampling, truthing, and testing of mail-stream images. Received: July 25, 2000 / Revised version: July 31, 2001     

Using a boosted tree classifier for text segmentation in hand-annotated documents

A boosted tree classifier is proposed to segment machine printed, handwritten and overlapping text from documents with handwritten annotations. Each node of the tree-structured classifier is a binary weak learner. Unlike a standard decision tree (DT) which only considers a subset of training data at each node and is susceptible to over-fitting, we boost the tree using all available training data at each node with different weights. The proposed method is evaluated on a set of machine-printed documents which have been annotated by multiple writers in an office/collaborative environment. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other methods on an imbalanced data set.     

An advanced engine thermal management system: nonlinear control and test

Internal combustion engine thermal management system functionality can be enhanced through the introduction of smart thermostat valves and variable speed electric pumps and fans. The traditional automotive cooling system components include a wax based thermostat valve and crankshaft driven water pump. However, servo-motor driven valves, pumps, and fans can better regulate the engine's coolant fluid flow to realize fuel economy gains and tailpipe emission reductions. To study these cooling system actuators, with accompanying nonlinear control strategy, a scale experimental system has been fabricated which features a smart valve, electric coolant pump, radiator with electric fan, and immersion heater. In this paper, mathematical models will be presented to describe the system's behavior. A nonlinear controller will then be designed for transient temperature tracking. Representative experimental results are presented and discussed to demonstrate the smart valve's operation in maintaining the temperature within a neighborhood of the target value for various scenarios including highway mode, full power with load disturbance, and quick heat.     

Photon Cascade Emission through Energy Transfer in Pr^3＋and Er^3＋Codoped System

Energy transfer processes in Pr^3 -codoped CaAl12O19crystal from 12 to 290K were studied.Energy transfer from Pr^3 toEr^3 ions in this system was observed,The transfer can partially convert the ^1S0UVfluorescence of Pr^3 into green emission of the characteristic of Er^3 ,The efficiency of the energy transfer was estimated based of the spectroscopic data,The temperature dependence on the transfer was also discussed.