Design and test of a bit parallel 2nd order IIR filter structure

Test procedures for a pipelined bit-parallel IIR filter chip which maximally exploit its regularity are described. It is shown that small modifications to the basic architecture result in significant reductions in the number of test patterns required to test such chips. The methods used allow 100% fault coverage to be achieved using less than 1000 test vectors for a chip which has 12 bit data and coefficients.

Design and Analysis of an Independent, Layer 2, Open-Access WiFi Monitoring Infrastructure in the Wild

While WiFi monitoring networks have been deployed in previous research, to date none have assessed live network data from an open access, public environment. In this paper we describe the construction of a replicable, independent WLAN monitoring system and address some of the challenges in analysing the resultant traffic. Analysis of traffic from the system demonstrates that basic traffic information from open-access networks varies over time (temporal inconsistency). The results also show that arbitrary selection of Request-Reply intervals can have a significant effect on Probe and Association frame exchange calculations, which can impact on the ability to detect flooding attacks.

Image, Video and 3D Data Registration: Medical, Satellite and Video Processing Applications with Quality Metrics

Data registration refers to a series of techniques for matching or bringing similar objects or datasets together into alignment. These techniques enjoy widespread use in a diverse variety of applications, such as video coding, tracking, object and face detection and recognition, surveillance and satellite imaging, medical image analysis and structure from motion. Registration methods are as numerous as their manifold uses, from pixel level and block or feature based methods to Fourier domain methods.

This book is focused on providing algorithms and image and video techniques for registration and quality performance metrics. The authors provide various assessment metrics for measuring registration quality alongside analyses of registration techniques, introducing and explaining both familiar and state-of-the-art registration methodologies used in a variety of targeted applications.

Key features:
- Provides a state-of-the-art review of image and video registration techniques, allowing readers to develop an understanding of how well the techniques perform by using specific quality assessment criteria
- Addresses a range of applications from familiar image and video processing domains to satellite and medical imaging among others, enabling readers to discover novel methodologies with utility in their own research
- Discusses quality evaluation metrics for each application domain with an interdisciplinary approach from different research perspectives

Special issue on design and programming of signal processors for multimedia communication:Special issue on design and programming of signal processors for multimedia communication

The technical challenges in the design and programming of signal processors for multimedia communication are discussed. The development of terminal equipment to meet such demand presents a significant technical challenge, considering that it is highly desirable that the equipment be cost effective, power efficient, versatile, and extensible for future upgrades. The main challenges in the design and programming of signal processors for multimedia communication are, general-purpose signal processor design, application-specific signal processor design, operating systems and programming support and application programming. The size of FFT is programmable so that it can be used for various OFDM-based communication systems, such as digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) and digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H). The clustered architecture design and distributed ping-pong register files in the PAC DSP raise new challenges of code generation.

Design and measurement of reconfigurable millileter wave reflectarray cells with nematic liquid crystal

Numerical simulations are used to study the electromagnetic scattering from phase agile microstrip reflectarray cells which exploit the voltage controlled dielectric anisotropy property of nematic state liquid crystals (LC). In the computer model two arrays of equal size elements constructed on a 15?m thick tuneable LC layer were designed to operate at centre frequencies of 102 GHz and 130 GHz. Micromachining processes based on the metallization of quartz/silicon wafers and an industry compatible LCD packaging technique were employed to fabricate the grounded periodic structures. The loss and phase of the reflected signals were measured using a quasi-optical test bench with the reflectarray cells inserted at the beam waist of the imaged Gaussian beam, thus eliminating some of the major problems associated with traditional free-space characterisation at these frequencies. By applying a low frequency AC bias voltage of 10 V, a 165o phase shift with a loss 4.5 dB-6.4 dB at 102 GHz and 130o phase shift with a loss variation between 4.3 dB – 7 dB at 130 GHz was obtained. The experimental results are shown to be in close agreement with the computer model.

A comparison of monkey and human motion processing mechanisms

Single-cell recording studies have provided vision scientists with a detailed understanding of motion processing at the neuronal level in non-human primates. However, despite the development of brain imaging techniques, it is not known to what extent the response characteristics of motion-sensitive neurons in monkey brain mirror those of human motion sensitive neurons. Using a motion adaptation paradigm, the direction aftereffect, we recently provided evidence of a strong resemblance in the response functions of motion-sensitive neurons in monkey and human to moving dot patterns differing in dot density. Here we describe a series of experiments in which measurements of the direction aftereffect are used to infer the response characteristics of human motion-sensitive neurons when viewing transparent motion and moving patterns that differ in their signal-to-noise ratio (motion coherence). In the case of transparent motion stimuli, our data suggest suppressed activity of motion-sensitive neurons similar to that reported for macaque monkey. In the case of motion coherence, our results are indicative of a linear relationship between signal intensity (coherence) and neural activity; a pattern of activity which also bears a striking similarity to macaque neural activity. These findings strongly suggest that monkey and human motionsensitive neurons exhibit similar response and inhibitory characteristics.

Architecture and Construction Management at Queens University Belfast:Regional Cultural Centre

The Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny is a new 2000sqm arts center containing theatre, galleries, workshops and ancillary offices. The site is set back from the street, on high ground with good views. The form and envelope of the building was derived from geometrically connecting the site with the town’s two other main public buildings, the Cathedral (1901) and new Civic Offices (2002, also designed by MacGabhann Architects). This geometrical connection or vectors informed the geometry and shape of the building. This urban matrix of geometrically connecting three corner stones of society, namely the ecclesiastical headquarters, the administrative head quarters and the art centre helps to improve the town planning and urban design of the disparate and chaotic development that Letterkenny has become.
The large cantilever, which houses a 300sqm gallery, is aligned towards the Civic Offices, marks the entrance, and signifies a change of direction of the pedestrian route past the building, like a modern day obelisk.
The circulation routes and stairs internally provide views towards the civic offices and cathedral, thus reinforcing the connection between the three buildings and helps visitors make some sense of Letterkenny as an urban center. The main stairs and vertical circulation are contained behind the large glazed foyer, which is framed to be viewed externally like a proscenium stage, with visitors to the building passively acting their routes through the building.

Design and analysis of matching circuit architectures for a closest match lookup

This paper investigates the implementation of a number of circuits used to perform a high speed closest value match lookup. The design is targeted particularly for use in a search trie, as used in various networking lookup applications, but can be applied to many other areas where such a match is required. A range of different designs have been considered and implemented on FPGA. A detailed description of the architectures investigated is followed by an analysis of the synthesis results. © 2006 IEEE.

Design and implementation of the symmetrically extended 2-D wavelet transform

The inclusion of the Discrete Wavelet Transform in the JPEG-2000 standard has added impetus to the research of hardware architectures for the two-dimensional wavelet transform. In this paper, a VLSI architecture for performing the symmetrically extended two-dimensional transform is presented. This architecture conforms to the JPEG-2000 standard and is capable of near-optimal performance when dealing with the image boundaries. The architecture also achieves efficient processor utilization. Implementation results based on a Xilinx Virtex-2 FPGA device are included.

Design and experimental validation of liquid crystal-based reconfigurable reflectarray elements with improved bandwith in F-band

A reconfigurable reflectarray which exploits the dielectric anisotropy of liquid crystals (LC) has been designed to operate in the frequency range from 96 to 104 GHz. The unit cells are composed of three unequal length parallel dipoles placed above an LC substrate. The reflectarray has been designed using an accurate model which includes the effects of anisotropy and inhomogeneity. An effective permittivity that accounts for the real effects of the LC has also been used to simplify the analysis and design of the unit cells. The geometrical parameters of the cells have been adjusted to simultaneously improve the bandwidth, maximize the tunable phase-range and reduce the sensitivity to the angle of incidence. The performance of the LC based unit cells has been experimentally evaluated by measuring the reflection amplitude and phase of a reflectarray consisting of 52x54 identical cells. The good agreement between measurements and simulations validate the analysis and design techniques and demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed reflectarray to provide beam scanning in F band.