L’effet de la familiarité sur l’identification des locuteurs : pour un perfectionnement de la parade vocale

La présente étude porte sur les effets de la familiarité dans l’identification d’individus en situation de parade vocale. La parade vocale est une technique inspirée d’une procédure paralégale d’identification visuelle d’individus. Elle consiste en la présentation de plusieurs voix avec des aspects acoustiques similaires définis selon des critères reconnus dans la littérature. L’objectif principal de la présente étude était de déterminer si la familiarité d’une voix dans une parade vocale peut donner un haut taux d’identification correcte (> 99 %) de locuteurs. Cette étude est la première à quantifier le critère de familiarité entre l’identificateur et une personne associée à « une voix-cible » selon quatre paramètres liés aux contacts (communications) entre les individus, soit la récence du contact (à quand remonte la dernière rencontre avec l’individu), la durée et la fréquence moyenne du contact et la période pendant laquelle avaient lieu les contacts. Trois différentes parades vocales ont été élaborées, chacune contenant 10 voix d’hommes incluant une voix-cible pouvant être très familière; ce degré de familiarité a été établi selon un questionnaire. Les participants (identificateurs, n = 44) ont été sélectionnés selon leur niveau de familiarité avec la voix-cible. Toutes les voix étaient celles de locuteurs natifs du franco-québécois et toutes avaient des fréquences fondamentales moyennes similaires à la voix-cible (à un semi-ton près). Aussi, chaque parade vocale contenait des énoncés variant en longueur selon un nombre donné de syllabes (1, 4, 10, 18 syll.). Les résultats démontrent qu’en contrôlant le degré de familiarité et avec un énoncé de 4 syllabes ou plus, on obtient un taux d’identification avec une probabilité exacte d’erreur de p < 1 x 10-12. Ces taux d’identification dépassent ceux obtenus actuellement avec des systèmes automatisés.

Modified Block Adaptive Predictive Coder For Speech Processing

This thesis investigated the potential use of Linear Predictive Coding in speech communication applications. A Modified Block Adaptive Predictive Coder is developed, which reduces the computational burden and complexity without sacrificing the speech quality, as compared to the conventional adaptive predictive coding (APC) system. For this, changes in the evaluation methods have been evolved. This method is as different from the usual APC system in that the difference between the true and the predicted value is not transmitted. This allows the replacement of the high order predictor in the transmitter section of a predictive coding system, by a simple delay unit, which makes the transmitter quite simple. Also, the block length used in the processing of the speech signal is adjusted relative to the pitch period of the signal being processed rather than choosing a constant length as hitherto done by other researchers. The efficiency of the newly proposed coder has been supported with results of computer simulation using real speech data. Three methods for voiced/unvoiced/silent/transition classification have been presented. The first one is based on energy, zerocrossing rate and the periodicity of the waveform. The second method uses normalised correlation coefficient as the main parameter, while the third method utilizes a pitch-dependent correlation factor. The third algorithm which gives the minimum error probability has been chosen in a later chapter to design the modified coder The thesis also presents a comparazive study beh-cm the autocorrelation and the covariance methods used in the evaluaiicn of the predictor parameters. It has been proved that the azztocorrelation method is superior to the covariance method with respect to the filter stabf-it)‘ and also in an SNR sense, though the increase in gain is only small. The Modified Block Adaptive Coder applies a switching from pitch precitzion to spectrum prediction when the speech segment changes from a voiced or transition region to an unvoiced region. The experiments cont;-:ted in coding, transmission and simulation, used speech samples from .\£=_‘ajr2_1a:r1 and English phrases. Proposal for a speaker reecgnifion syste: and a phoneme identification system has also been outlized towards the end of the thesis.

Digitales stochastisches Magnetfeld-Sensorarray

Digitales stochastisches Magnetfeld-Sensorarray Stefan Rohrer Im Rahmen eines mehrjährigen Forschungsprojektes, gefördert von der Deutschen Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG), wurden am Institut für Mikroelektronik (IPM) der Universität Kassel digitale Magnetfeldsensoren mit einer Breite bis zu 1 µm entwickelt. Die vorliegende Dissertation stellt ein aus diesem Forschungsprojekt entstandenes Magnetfeld-Sensorarray vor, das speziell dazu entworfen wurde, um digitale Magnetfelder schnell und auf minimaler Fläche mit einer guten räumlichen und zeitlichen Auflösung zu detektieren. Der noch in einem 1,0µm-CMOS-Prozess gefertigte Test-Chip arbeitet bis zu einer Taktfrequenz von 27 MHz bei einem Sensorabstand von 6,75 µm. Damit ist er das derzeit kleinste und schnellste digitale Magnetfeld-Sensorarray in einem Standard-CMOS-Prozess. Konvertiert auf eine 0,09µm-Technologie können Frequenzen bis 1 GHz erreicht werden bei einem Sensorabstand von unter 1 µm. In der Dissertation werden die wichtigsten Ergebnisse des Projekts detailliert beschrieben. Basis des Sensors ist eine rückgekoppelte Inverter-Anordnung. Als magnetfeldsensitives Element dient ein auf dem Hall-Effekt basierender Doppel-Drain-MAGFET, der das Verhalten der Kippschaltung beeinflusst. Aus den digitalen Ausgangsdaten kann die Stärke und die Polarität des Magnetfelds bestimmt werden. Die Gesamtanordnung bildet einen stochastischen Magnetfeld-Sensor. In der Arbeit wird ein Modell für das Kippverhalten der rückgekoppelten Inverter präsentiert. Die Rauscheinflüsse des Sensors werden analysiert und in einem stochastischen Differentialgleichungssystem modelliert. Die Lösung der stochastischen Differentialgleichung zeigt die Entwicklung der Wahrscheinlichkeitsverteilung des Ausgangssignals über die Zeit und welche Einflussfaktoren die Fehlerwahrscheinlichkeit des Sensors beeinflussen. Sie gibt Hinweise darauf, welche Parameter für das Design und Layout eines stochastischen Sensors zu einem optimalen Ergebnis führen. Die auf den theoretischen Berechnungen basierenden Schaltungen und Layout-Komponenten eines digitalen stochastischen Sensors werden in der Arbeit vorgestellt. Aufgrund der technologisch bedingten Prozesstoleranzen ist für jeden Detektor eine eigene kompensierende Kalibrierung erforderlich. Unterschiedliche Realisierungen dafür werden präsentiert und bewertet. Zur genaueren Modellierung wird ein SPICE-Modell aufgestellt und damit für das Kippverhalten des Sensors eine stochastische Differentialgleichung mit SPICE-bestimmten Koeffizienten hergeleitet. Gegenüber den Standard-Magnetfeldsensoren bietet die stochastische digitale Auswertung den Vorteil einer flexiblen Messung. Man kann wählen zwischen schnellen Messungen bei reduzierter Genauigkeit und einer hohen lokalen Auflösung oder einer hohen Genauigkeit bei der Auswertung langsam veränderlicher Magnetfelder im Bereich von unter 1 mT. Die Arbeit präsentiert die Messergebnisse des Testchips. Die gemessene Empfindlichkeit und die Fehlerwahrscheinlichkeit sowie die optimalen Arbeitspunkte und die Kennliniencharakteristik werden dargestellt. Die relative Empfindlichkeit der MAGFETs beträgt 0,0075/T. Die damit erzielbaren Fehlerwahrscheinlichkeiten werden in der Arbeit aufgelistet. Verglichen mit dem theoretischen Modell zeigt das gemessene Kippverhalten der stochastischen Sensoren eine gute Übereinstimmung. Verschiedene Messungen von analogen und digitalen Magnetfeldern bestätigen die Anwendbarkeit des Sensors für schnelle Magnetfeldmessungen bis 27 MHz auch bei kleinen Magnetfeldern unter 1 mT. Die Messungen der Sensorcharakteristik in Abhängigkeit von der Temperatur zeigen, dass die Empfindlichkeit bei sehr tiefen Temperaturen deutlich steigt aufgrund der Abnahme des Rauschens. Eine Zusammenfassung und ein ausführliches Literaturverzeichnis geben einen Überblick über den Stand der Technik.

Feature Selection for Face Detection

We present a new method to select features for a face detection system using Support Vector Machines (SVMs). In the first step we reduce the dimensionality of the input space by projecting the data into a subset of eigenvectors. The dimension of the subset is determined by a classification criterion based on minimizing a bound on the expected error probability of an SVM. In the second step we select features from the SVM feature space by removing those that have low contributions to the decision function of the SVM.

Design of delay-tolerant linear dispersion codes

In cooperative communication networks, owing to the nodes' arbitrary geographical locations and individual oscillators, the system is fundamentally asynchronous. This will damage some of the key properties of the space-time codes and can lead to substantial performance degradation. In this paper, we study the design of linear dispersion codes (LDCs) for such asynchronous cooperative communication networks. Firstly, the concept of conventional LDCs is extended to the delay-tolerant version and new design criteria are discussed. Then we propose a new design method to yield delay-tolerant LDCs that reach the optimal Jensen's upper bound on ergodic capacity as well as minimum average pairwise error probability. The proposed design employs stochastic gradient algorithm to approach a local optimum. Moreover, it is improved by using simulated annealing type optimization to increase the likelihood of the global optimum. The proposed method allows for flexible number of nodes, receive antennas, modulated symbols and flexible length of codewords. Simulation results confirm the performance of the newly-proposed delay-tolerant LDCs.

Power allocation strategies for distributed space-time codes in two-way relay networks

We study a two-way relay network (TWRN), where distributed space-time codes are constructed across multiple relay terminals in an amplify-and-forward mode. Each relay transmits a scaled linear combination of its received symbols and their conjugates,with the scaling factor chosen based on automatic gain control. We consider equal power allocation (EPA) across the relays, as well as the optimal power allocation (OPA) strategy given access to instantaneous channel state information (CSI). For EPA, we derive an upper bound on the pairwise-error-probability (PEP), from which we prove that full diversity is achieved in TWRNs. This result is in contrast to one-way relay networks, in which case a maximum diversity order of only unity can be obtained. When instantaneous CSI is available at the relays, we show that the OPA which minimizes the conditional PEP of the worse link can be cast as a generalized linear fractional program, which can be solved efficiently using the Dinkelback-type procedure.We also prove that, if the sum-power of the relay terminals is constrained, then the OPA will activate at most two relays.

On the power amplifier nonlinearity in MIMO transmit beamforming systems

In this paper, single-carrier multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmit beamforming (TB) systems in the presence of high-power amplifier (HPA) nonlinearity are investigated. Specifically, due to the suboptimality of the conventional maximal ratio transmission/maximal ratio combining (MRT/MRC) under HPA nonlinearity, we propose the optimal TB scheme with the optimal beamforming weight vector and combining vector, for MIMO systems with nonlinear HPAs. Moreover, an alternative suboptimal but much simpler TB scheme, namely, quantized equal gain transmission (QEGT), is proposed. The latter profits from the property that the elements of the beamforming weight vector have the same constant modulus. The performance of the proposed optimal TB scheme and QEGT/MRC technique in the presence of the HPA nonlinearity is evaluated in terms of the average symbol error probability and mutual information with the Gaussian input, considering the transmission over uncorrelated quasi-static frequency-flat Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show the effects on the performance of several system parameters, namely, the HPA parameters, numbers of antennas, quadrature amplitude modulation modulation order, number of pilot symbols, and cardinality of the beamforming weight vector codebook for QEGT.

Mobile-to-mobile MIMO transmit-receive diversity systems: analysis and performance in three-dimensional double-correlated channels

Mobile-to-mobile (M-to-M) communications are expected to play a crucial role in future wireless systems and networks. In this paper, we consider M-to-M multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) maximal ratio combining system and assess its performance in spatially correlated channels. The analysis assumes double-correlated Rayleigh-and-Lognormal fading channels and is performed in terms of average symbol error probability, outage probability, and ergodic capacity. To obtain the receive and transmit spatial correlation functions needed for the performance analysis, we used a three-dimensional (3D) M-to-M MIMO channel model, which takes into account the effects of fast fading and shadowing. The expressions for the considered metrics are derived as a function of the average signal-to-noise ratio per receive antenna in closed-form and are further approximated using the recursive adaptive Simpson quadrature method. Numerical results are provided to show the effects of system parameters, such as distance between antenna elements, maximum elevation angle of scatterers, orientation angle of antenna array in the x–y plane, angle between the x–y plane and the antenna array orientation, and degree of scattering in the x–y plane, on the system performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analysis and compensation of I/Q imbalance in MIMO transmit-receive diversity systems

In wireless communication systems, all in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) signal processing receivers face the problem of I/Q imbalance. In this paper, we investigate the effect of I/Q imbalance on the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) maximal ratio combining (MRC) systems that perform the combining at the radio frequency (RF) level, thereby requiring only one RF chain. In order to perform the MIMO MRC, we propose a channel estimation algorithm that accounts for the I/Q imbalance. Moreover, a compensation algorithm for the I/Q imbalance in MIMO MRC systems is proposed, which first employs the least-squares (LS) rule to estimate the coefficients of the channel gain matrix, beamforming and combining weight vectors, and parameters of I/Q imbalance jointly, and then makes use of the received signal together with its conjugation to detect the transmitted signal. The performance of the MIMO MRC system under study is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability (SEP), outage probability and ergodic capacity, which are derived considering transmission over Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show that the proposed compensation algorithm can efficiently mitigate the effect of I/Q imbalance.

Analysis and compensation of power amplifier nonlinearity in MIMO transmit diversity systems

The nonlinearity of high-power amplifiers (HPAs) has a crucial effect on the performance of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In this paper, we investigate the performance of MIMO orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) systems in the presence of nonlinear HPAs. Specifically, we propose a constellation-based compensation method for HPA nonlinearity in the case with knowledge of the HPA parameters at the transmitter and receiver, where the constellation and decision regions of the distorted transmitted signal are derived in advance. Furthermore, in the scenario without knowledge of the HPA parameters, a sequential Monte Carlo (SMC)-based compensation method for the HPA nonlinearity is proposed, which first estimates the channel-gain matrix by means of the SMC method and then uses the SMC-based algorithm to detect the desired signal. The performance of the MIMO-OSTBC system under study is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability (SEP), total degradation (TD) and system capacity, in uncorrelated Nakagami-m fading channels. Numerical and simulation results are provided and show the effects on performance of several system parameters, such as the parameters of the HPA model, output back-off (OBO) of nonlinear HPA, numbers of transmit and receive antennas, modulation order of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), and number of SMC samples. In particular, it is shown that the constellation-based compensation method can efficiently mitigate the effect of HPA nonlinearity with low complexity and that the SMC-based detection scheme is efficient to compensate for HPA nonlinearity in the case without knowledge of the HPA parameters.

Impact of I/Q imbalance on the performance of two-way CSI-assisted AF relaying

In this paper, we investigate half-duplex two-way dual-hop channel state information (CSI)-assisted amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying in the presence of in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance. A compensation approach for the I/Q imbalance is proposed, which employs the received signals together with their conjugations to detect the desired signal. We also derive the average symbol error probability of the considered half-duplex two-way dual-hop CSI-assisted AF relaying networks with and without compensation for I/Q imbalance in Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show that the proposed compensation method mitigates the impact of I/Q imbalance to a certain extent.

Performance analysis of AF cooperative systems with HPA nonlinearity in semi-blind relays

In this paper, dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative systems in the presence of high-power amplifier (HPA) nonlinearity at semi-blind relays, are investigated. Based on the modified AF cooperative system model taking into account the HPA nonlinearity, the expression for the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the destination node is derived, where the interference due to both the AF relaying mechanism and the HPA nonlinearity is characterized. The performance of the AF cooperative system under study is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability (SEP), which is derived using the moment-generating function (MGF) approach, considering transmissions over Nakagami-m fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show the effects of some system parameters, such as the HPA parameters, numbers of relays, quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) order, Nakagami parameters, on performance.

Analysis and compensation of I/Q imbalance in amplify-and-forward cooperative systems

In this paper, dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative systems in the presence of in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance, which refers to the mismatch between components in I and Q branches, are investigated. First, we analyze the performance of the considered AF cooperative protocol without compensation for I/Q imbalance as the benchmark. Furthermore, a compensation algorithm for I/Q imbalance is proposed, which makes use of the received signals at the destination, from the source and relay nodes, together with their conjugations to detect the transmitted signal. The performance of the AF cooperative system under study is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability (SEP), which is derived considering transmission over Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show that the proposed compensation algorithm can efficiently mitigate the effect of I/Q imbalance.

Joint compensation of multiple RF impairments in MIMO STBC systems

In this paper, we propose a compensation method for the joint effect of high-power amplifier (HPA) nonlinearity, in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance and crosstalk in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) systems. The performance of the MIMO OSTBC equipped with the proposed compensation mechanism is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability and system capacity, in Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show the effects on performance of several system parameters, namely, the HPA parameters, image-leakage ratio, crosstalk, numbers of antennas, and phase-shift keying modulation order.

Analysis and compensation for the joint effects of HPA nonlinearity, I/Q imbalance and crosstalk in MIMO beamforming systems

In this paper, we investigate the joint effects of high-power amplifier (HPA) nonlinearity, in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance and crosstalk, on the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmit beamforming (TB) systems, and propose a compensation method for the three impairments together. The performance of the MIMO TB system equipped with the proposed compensation scheme is evaluated in terms of average symbol error probability and capacity when transmissions are performed over uncorrelated Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show the effects on performance of several system parameters, namely, the HPA parameters, image-leakage ratio, crosstalk, numbers of antennas, length of pilot symbols and phase-shift keying modulation order.