Improving reverberant VTS for hands-free robust speech recognition

Model-based approaches to handling additive background noise and channel distortion, such as Vector Taylor Series (VTS), have been intensively studied and extended in a number of ways. In previous work, VTS has been extended to handle both reverberant and background noise, yielding the Reverberant VTS (RVTS) scheme. In this work, rather than assuming the observation vector is generated by the reverberation of a sequence of background noise corrupted speech vectors, as in RVTS, the observation vector is modelled as a superposition of the background noise and the reverberation of clean speech. This yields a new compensation scheme RVTS Joint (RVTSJ), which allows an easy formulation for joint estimation of both additive and reverberation noise parameters. These two compensation schemes were evaluated and compared on a simulated reverberant noise corrupted AURORA4 task. Both yielded large gains over VTS baseline system, with RVTSJ outperforming the previous RVTS scheme. © 2011 IEEE.

Bias-free identification of a linear model-predictive steering controller from measured driver steering behavior

Recent developments in modeling driver steering control with preview are reviewed. While some validation with experimental data has been presented, the rigorous application of formal system identification methods has not yet been attempted. This paper describes a steering controller based on linear model-predictive control. An indirect identification method that minimizes steering angle prediction error is developed. Special attention is given to filtering the prediction error so as to avoid identification bias that arises from the closed-loop operation of the driver-vehicle system. The identification procedure is applied to data collected from 14 test drivers performing double lane change maneuvers in an instrumented vehicle. It is found that the identification procedure successfully finds parameter values for the model that give small prediction errors. The procedure is also able to distinguish between the different steering strategies adopted by the test drivers. © 2006 IEEE.

The development of a hot rolling process for variable cross-section I-beams

To meet targeted reductions in CO 2 emissions by 2050, demand for metal must be cut, for example through the use of lightweight technologies. However, the efficient production of weight optimized components often requires new, more flexible forming processes. In this paper, a novel hot rolling process is presented for forming I-beams with variable cross-section, which are lighter than prismatic alternatives. First, the new process concept is presented and described. A detailed computational and experimental analysis is then conducted into the capabilities of the process. Results show that the process is capable of producing defect free I-beams with variations in web depth of 30-50%. A full analysis of the process then indicates the likely failure modes, and identifies a safe operating window. Finally, the implications of these results for producing lightweight beams are discussed. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Outage probability of the gaussian MIMO free-space optical channel with PPM

Atmospheric effects can significantly degrade the reliability of free-space optical communications. One such effect is scintillation, caused by atmospheric turbulence, refers to random fluctuations in the irradiance and phase of the received laser beam. In this paper we inv stigate the use of multiple lasers and multiple apertures to mitigate scintillation. Since the scintillation process is slow, we adopt a block fading channel model and study the outage probability under the assumptions of orthogonal pulse-position modulation and non-ideal photodetection. Assuming perfect receiver channel state information (CSI), we derive the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) exponents for the cases when the scintillation is lognormal, exponential and gammagamma distributed, which cover a wide range of atmospheric turbulence conditions. Furthermore, when CSI is also available at the transmitter, we illustrate very large gains in SNR are possible (in some cases larger than 15 dB) by adapting the transmitted power. Under a long-term power constraint, we outline fundamental design criteria via a simple expression that relates the required number of lasers and apertures for a given code rate and number of codeword blocks to completely remove system outages. Copyright © 2009 IEEE.

An error free passive UHF RFID system using a new form of wireless signal distribution

A wide area and error free ultra high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogation system based on the use of multiple antennas used in cooperation to provide high quality ubiquitous coverage, is presented. The system uses an intelligent distributed antenna system (DAS) whereby two or more spatially separated transmit and receive antenna pairs are used to allow greatly improved multiple tag identification performance over wide areas. The system is shown to increase the read accuracy of 115 passive UHF RFID tags to 100% from <60% over a 10m × 8m open plan office area. The returned signal strength of the tag backscatter signals is also increased by an average of 10dB and 17dB over an area of 10m 8m and 10m × 4m respectively. Furthermore, it is shown that the DAS RFID system has improved immunity to tag orientation. Finally, the new system is also shown to increase the tag read speed/rate of a population of tags compared with a conventional RFID system. © 2012 IEEE.

Prediction of tread block forces for a free-rolling tyre in contact with a rough road

This paper describes a new approach to model the forces on a tread block for a free-rolling tyre in contact with a rough road. A theoretical analysis based on realistic tread mechanical properties and road roughness is presented, indicating partial contact between a tread block and a rough road. Hence an asperity-scale indentation model is developed using a semi-empirical formulation, taking into account both the rubber viscoelasticity and the tread block geometry. The model aims to capture the essential details of the contact at the simplest level, to make it suitable as part of a time-domain dynamic analysis of the coupled tyre-road system. The indentation model is found to have a good correlation with the finite element (FE) predictions and is validated against experimental results using a rolling contact rig. When coupled to a deformed tyre belt profile, the indentation model predicts normal and tangential force histories inside the tyre contact patch that show good agreement with FE predictions. © 2012 Elsevier B.V..

Free-space optoelectronic switching cores with MPLS for SANs over WDM ring networks

With increasing demands on storage devices in the modern communication environment, the storage area network (SAN) has evolved to provide a direct connection allowing these storage devices to be accessed efficiently. To optimize the performance of a SAN, a three-stage hybrid electronic/optical switching node architecture based on the concept of a MPLS label switching mechanism, aimed at serving as a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) ingress label edge router (LER) for a SAN-enabled application, has been designed. New shutter-based free-space multi-channel optical switching cores are employed as the core switch fabric to solve the packet contention and switching path conflict problems. The system-level node architecture design constraints are evaluated through self-similar traffic sourced from real gigabit Ethernet network traces and storage systems. The extension performance of a SAN over a proposed WDM ring network, aimed at serving as an MPLS-enabled transport network, is also presented and demonstrated. © 2012 OSA.

Carbon nanostructure-based field-effect transistors for label-free chemical/biological sensors.

Over the past decade, electrical detection of chemical and biological species using novel nanostructure-based devices has attracted significant attention for chemical, genomics, biomedical diagnostics, and drug discovery applications. The use of nanostructured devices in chemical/biological sensors in place of conventional sensing technologies has advantages of high sensitivity, low decreased energy consumption and potentially highly miniaturized integration. Owing to their particular structure, excellent electrical properties and high chemical stability, carbon nanotube and graphene based electrical devices have been widely developed for high performance label-free chemical/biological sensors. Here, we review the latest developments of carbon nanostructure-based transistor sensors in ultrasensitive detection of chemical/biological entities, such as poisonous gases, nucleic acids, proteins and cells.

The foundations of a new approach to additive manufacturing: Characteristics of free space metal deposition

In this paper, we report on the realisation of a free space deposition process (FSD). For the first time the use of a moving support structure to deposit tracks of metal starting from a substrate and extending into free space is characterised. The ability to write metal shapes in free space has wide ranging applications in additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping where the tracks can be layered to build overhanging features without the use of fixed support structures (such as is used in selective laser melting (SLM) and stereo lithography (SLA)). We demonstrate and perform a preliminary characterisation of the process in which a soldering iron was used to deposit lead free solder tracks. The factors affecting the stability of tracks and the effect of operating parameters, temperature, velocity, initial track starting diameter and starting volume were measured. A series of 10 tracks at each setting were compared with a control group of tracks; the track width, taper and variation between tracks were compared. Notable results in free space track deposition were that the initial track diameter and volume affected the repeatability and quality of tracks. The standard deviation of mean track width of tracks from the constrained initial diameter group were half that of the unconstrained group. The amount of material fed to the soldering iron before commencing deposition affected the taper of tracks. At an initial volume of 7 mm3 and an initial track diameter of 0.8 mm, none of the ten tracks deposited broke or showed taper > ∼1°. The maximum deposition velocity for free space track deposition using lead-free solder was limited to 1.5 mm s-1. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.