Noam Wagner

Bio: Noam Wagner is an academic researcher from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Compressed sensing & Beamforming. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 9 publications receiving 462 citations.

Compressed Beamforming in Ultrasound Imaging

Abstract: Emerging sonography techniques often require increasing the number of transducer elements involved in the imaging process. Consequently, larger amounts of data must be acquired and processed. The significant growth in the amounts of data affects both machinery size and power consumption. Within the classical sampling framework, state of the art systems reduce processing rates by exploiting the bandpass bandwidth of the detected signals. It has been recently shown, that a much more significant sample-rate reduction may be obtained, by treating ultrasound signals within the Finite Rate of Innovation framework. These ideas follow the spirit of Xampling, which combines classic methods from sampling theory with recent developments in Compressed Sensing. Applying such low-rate sampling schemes to individual transducer elements, which detect energy reflected from biological tissues, is limited by the noisy nature of the signals. This often results in erroneous parameter extraction, bringing forward the need to enhance the SNR of the low-rate samples. In our work, we achieve SNR enhancement, by beamforming the sub-Nyquist samples obtained from multiple elements. We refer to this process as “compressed beamforming”. Applying it to cardiac ultrasound data, we successfully image macroscopic perturbations, while achieving a nearly eightfold reduction in sample-rate, compared to standard techniques.

Sub-Nyquist radar prototype: Hardware and algorithm

Abstract: Traditional radar sensing typically employs matched filtering between the received signal and the shape of the transmitted pulse. Matched filtering (MF) is conventionally carried out digitally, after sampling the received analog signals. Here, principles from classic sampling theory are generally employed, requiring that the received signals be sampled at twice their baseband bandwidth. The resulting sampling rates necessary for correlation-based radar systems become quite high, as growing demands for target distinction capability and spatial resolution stretch the bandwidth of the transmitted pulse. The large amounts of sampled data also necessitate vast memory capacity. In addition, real-time data processing typically results in high power consumption. Recently, new approaches for radar sensing and estimation were introduced, based on the finite rate of innovation (FRI) and Xampling frameworks. Exploiting the parametric nature of radar signals, these techniques allow significant reduction in sampling rate, implying potential power savings, while maintaining the system's estimation capabilities at sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Here we present for the first time a design and implementation of an Xampling-based hardware prototype that allows sampling of radar signals at rates much lower than Nyquist. We demonstrate by real-time analog experiments that our system is able to maintain reasonable recovery capabilities, while sampling radar signals that require sampling at a rate of about 30 MHz at a total rate of 1 MHz.

A Sub-Nyquist Radar Prototype: Hardware and Algorithms

Abstract: Traditional radar sensing typically involves matched filtering between the received signal and the shape of the transmitted pulse. Under the confinement of classic sampling theorem this requires that the received signals must first be sampled at twice the baseband bandwidth, in order to avoid aliasing. The growing demands for target distinction capability and spatial resolution imply significant growth in the bandwidth of the transmitted pulse. Thus, correlation based radar systems require high sampling rates, and with the large amounts of data sampled also necessitate vast memory capacity. In addition, real-time processing of the data typically results in high power consumption. Recently, new approaches for radar sensing and detection were introduced, based on the Finite Rate of Innovation and Xampling frameworks. These techniques allow significant reduction in sampling rate, implying potential power savings, while maintaining the system's detection capabilities at high enough SNR. Here we present for the first time a design and implementation of a Xampling-based hardware prototype that allows sampling of radar signals at rates much lower than Nyquist. We demostrate by real-time analog experiments that our system is able to maintain reasonable detection capabilities, while sampling radar signals that require sampling at a rate of about 30MHz at a total rate of 1Mhz.

Xampling in Ultrasound Imaging

Abstract: Recent developments of new medical treatment techniques put challenging demands on ultrasound imaging systems in terms of both image quality and raw data size. Traditional sampling methods result in very large amounts of data, thus, increasing demands on processing hardware and limiting the exibility in the post-processing stages. In this paper, we apply Compressed Sensing (CS) techniques to analog ultrasound signals, following the recently developed Xampling framework. The result is a system with significantly reduced sampling rates which, in turn, means significantly reduced data size while maintaining the quality of the resulting images.

Xampling in ultrasound imaging

Abstract: Recent developments of new medical treatment techniques put challenging demands on ultrasound imaging systems in terms of both image quality and raw data size. Traditional sampling methods result in very large amounts of data, thus, increasing demands on processing hardware and limiting the flexibility in the postprocessing stages. In this paper, we apply Compressed Sensing (CS) techniques to analog ultrasound signals, following the recently developed Xampling framework. The result is a system with significantly reduced sampling rates which, in turn, means significantly reduced data size while maintaining the quality of the resulting images.

Compressed sensing : theory and applications

Abstract: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction to compressed sensing Mark A. Davenport, Marco F. Duarte, Yonina C. Eldar and Gitta Kutyniok; 2. Second generation sparse modeling: structured and collaborative signal analysis Alexey Castrodad, Ignacio Ramirez, Guillermo Sapiro, Pablo Sprechmann and Guoshen Yu; 3. Xampling: compressed sensing of analog signals Moshe Mishali and Yonina C. Eldar; 4. Sampling at the rate of innovation: theory and applications Jose Antonia Uriguen, Yonina C. Eldar, Pier Luigi Dragotta and Zvika Ben-Haim; 5. Introduction to the non-asymptotic analysis of random matrices Roman Vershynin; 6. Adaptive sensing for sparse recovery Jarvis Haupt and Robert Nowak; 7. Fundamental thresholds in compressed sensing: a high-dimensional geometry approach Weiyu Xu and Babak Hassibi; 8. Greedy algorithms for compressed sensing Thomas Blumensath, Michael E. Davies and Gabriel Rilling; 9. Graphical models concepts in compressed sensing Andrea Montanari; 10. Finding needles in compressed haystacks Robert Calderbank, Sina Jafarpour and Jeremy Kent; 11. Data separation by sparse representations Gitta Kutyniok; 12. Face recognition by sparse representation Arvind Ganesh, Andrew Wagner, Zihan Zhou, Allen Y. Yang, Yi Ma and John Wright.

Structured Compressed Sensing: From Theory to Applications

Abstract: Compressed sensing (CS) is an emerging field that has attracted considerable research interest over the past few years. Previous review articles in CS limit their scope to standard discrete-to-discrete measurement architectures using matrices of randomized nature and signal models based on standard sparsity. In recent years, CS has worked its way into several new application areas. This, in turn, necessitates a fresh look on many of the basics of CS. The random matrix measurement operator must be replaced by more structured sensing architectures that correspond to the characteristics of feasible acquisition hardware. The standard sparsity prior has to be extended to include a much richer class of signals and to encode broader data models, including continuous-time signals. In our overview, the theme is exploiting signal and measurement structure in compressive sensing. The prime focus is bridging theory and practice; that is, to pinpoint the potential of structured CS strategies to emerge from the math to the hardware. Our summary highlights new directions as well as relations to more traditional CS, with the hope of serving both as a review to practitioners wanting to join this emerging field, and as a reference for researchers that attempts to put some of the existing ideas in perspective of practical applications.

Sampling Theory: Beyond Bandlimited Systems

Abstract: Covering the fundamental mathematical underpinnings together with key principles and applications, this book provides a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of sampling from an engineering perspective. Beginning with traditional ideas such as uniform sampling in shift-invariant spaces and working through to the more recent fields of compressed sensing and sub-Nyquist sampling, the key concepts are addressed in a unified and coherent way. Emphasis is given to applications in signal processing and communications, as well as hardware considerations, throughout. With 200 worked examples and over 200 end-of-chapter problems, this is an ideal course textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate students. It is also an invaluable reference or self-study guide for engineers and students across industry and academia.

Radar and Communication Coexistence: An Overview: A Review of Recent Methods

Abstract: Increased amounts of bandwidth are required to guarantee both high-quality/high-rate wireless services (4G and 5G) and reliable sensing capabilities, such as for automotive radar, air traffic control, earth geophysical monitoring, and security applications. Therefore, coexistence between radar and communication systems using overlapping bandwidths has come to be a primary investigation field in recent years. Various signal processing techniques, such as interference mitigation, precoding or spatial separation, and waveform design, allow both radar and communications to share the spectrum.