On Educational psychology: A cognitive view.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the adoption of emerging sensing technologies for instrumentation within a variety of structural systems. Wireless sensors and sensor networks are emerging as sensing paradigms that the structural engineering field has begun to consider as substitutes for traditional tethered monitoring systems. A benefit of wireless structural monitoring systems is that they are inexpensive to install because extensive wiring is no longer required between sensors and the data acquisition system. Researchers are discovering that wireless sensors are an exciting technology that should not be viewed as simply a substitute for traditional tethered monitoring systems. Rather, wireless sensors can play greater roles in the processing of structural response data; this feature can be utilized to screen data for signs of structural damage. Also, wireless sensors have limitations that require novel system architectures and modes of operation. This paper is intended to serve as a summary review of the collective experience the structural engineering community has gained from the use of wireless sensors and sensor networks for monitoring structural performance and health.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jerlynch/papers/SVDReview.pdf

A summary review of wireless sensors and sensor networks for structural health monitoring

This paper presents an overview of ultrawideband (UWB) propagation channels. It first demonstrates how the frequency selectivity of propagation processes causes fundamental differences between UWB channels and "conventional" (narrowband) channels. The concept of pathloss has to be modified, and the well-known WSSUS model is not applicable anymore. The paper also describes deterministic and stochastic models for UWB channels, identifies the key parameters for the description of delay dispersion, attenuation, and directional characterization, and surveys the typical parameter values that have been measured. Measurement techniques and methods for extracting model parameters are also different in UWB channels; for example, the concepts of narrowband channel parameter estimation (e.g., maximum-likelihood estimation) have to be modified. Finally, channel models also have an important impact on the performance evaluation of various UWB systems.

Ultrawideband propagation channels-theory, measurement, and modeling

s should clearly state the purpose, brief statement of procedure, results and conclusions. Please include your name, full address and topic on all submissions. At least one author of each abstract should register for the conference. All accepted abstracts will be published as symposium proceedings. Additionally, commended abstracts may be published in a journal after they are expanded to a manuscript followed by extensive reviewing. The language of the conference will be English.

An international symposium

This paper presents a new iris database that contains images with noise. This is in contrast with the existing databases, that are noise free. UBIRIS is a tool for the development of robust iris recognition algorithms for biometric proposes.

We present a detailed description of the many characteristics of UBIRIS and a comparison of several image segmentation approaches used in the current iris segmentation methods where it is evident their small tolerance to noisy images.

/pdf/ubiris-a-noisy-iris-image-database-53y36eu8mv.pdf

UBIRIS: a noisy iris image database

The signal processing community needs quantitative standardized tools to assess student learning in order to improve teaching methods and satisfy accreditation requirements. The Signals and Systems Concept Inventory (SSCI) is a 25-question multiple-choice exam designed to measure students' understanding of fundamental concepts taught in standard signals and systems curricula. When administered as a pre- and postcourse assessment, the SSCI measures the gain in conceptual understanding as a result of instruction. This paper summarizes the three-year development of this new assessment instrument and presents results obtained from testing with a pool of over 900 students from seven schools. Initial findings from the SSCI study show that students in traditional lecture courses master approximately 20% of the concepts they do not know prior to the start of the course. Other results highlight the most common student misconceptions and quantify the correlation between signals and systems and prerequisite courses.

The signals and systems concept inventory

The Signals And Systems Concept Inventory

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication systems are investigated for their ability to operate in dense multipath environments. While a great deal of time and effort has been spent characterizing both the indoor and outdoor UWB channels, the effects of human body interaction with a close proximity UWB antenna remains unexplored. Measurements of a commercially available UWB antenna performance in an anechoic chamber and in various indoor multipath environments were conducted. Comparisons of these measurement results indicate that while the human body creates a deep null (23.6 dB) in a light multipath environment, this null is drastically reduced (6.8 dB) in a dense multipath environment.

The effects of the human body on UWB signal propagation in an indoor environment

A one-dimensional approach to iris recognition is presented. It is translation-, rotation-, illumination-, and scale-invariant. Traditional iris recognition systems typically use a two-dimensional iris signature that requires circular rotation for pattern matching. The new approach uses the Du measure as a matching mechanism, and generates a set of the most probable matches (ranks) instead of only the best match. Since the method generates one-dimensional signatures that are rotation-invariant, the system could work with eyes that are tilted. Moreover, the system will work with less of the iris than commercial systems, and thus could enable partial-iris recognition. In addition, this system is more tolerant of noise. Finally, this method is simple to implement, and its computational complexity is relatively low.

Use of one-dimensional iris signatures to rank iris pattern similarities

An iris identification algorithm is proposed based on adaptive thresholding. The iris images are processed fully in the spatial domain using the distinct features (patterns) of the iris. A simple adaptive thresholding method is used to segment these patterns from the rest of an iris image. This method could possibly be utilized for partial iris recognition since it relaxes the requirement of using a majority of the iris to produce an iris template to compare with the database. In addition, the simple thresholding scheme can improve the computational efficiency of the algorithm. Preliminary results have shown that the method is very effective. However, further testing and improvements are envisioned.

Thad B. Welch

Papers

The signals and systems concept inventory

The Signals And Systems Concept Inventory

The effects of the human body on UWB signal propagation in an indoor environment

Use of one-dimensional iris signatures to rank iris pattern similarities

A new approach to iris pattern recognition