Showing papers in "Journal of ICT Research and Applications in 2009"

The Investigation on Using Unity3D Game Engine in Urban Design Study

Abstract: Developing a virtual 3D environment by using game engine is a strategy to incorporate various multimedia data into one platform The characteristic of game engine that is preinstalled with interactive and navigation tools allows users to explore and engage with the game objects However, most CAD and GIS applications are not equipped with 3D tools and navigation systems intended to the user experience In particular, 3D game engines provide standard 3D navigation tools as well as any programmable view to create engaging navigation thorough the virtual environment By using a game engine, it is possible to create other interaction such as object manipulation, non playing character (NPC) interaction with player and/or environment We conducted analysis on previous game engines and experiment on urban design project with Unity3D game engine for visualization and interactivity At the end, we present the advantages and limitations using game technology as visual representation tool for architecture and urban design studies

Hard Decision Fusion based Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio System

Abstract: Cooperative spectrum sensing was proposed to combat fading, noise uncertainty, shadowing, and even hidden node problem due to primary users (PUs) activity that is not spatially localized. It improves the probability of detection by collaborating to detect PUs signal in cognitive radio (CR) system as well. This paper studies cooperative spectrum sensing and signal detection in CR system by implementing hard decision combining in data fusion centre. Through computer simulation, we evaluate the performances of cooperative spectrum sensing and signal detection by employing OR and AND rules as decision combining. Energy detector is used to observe the presence of primary user (PU) signal. Those results are compared to non-cooperative signal detection for evaluation. They show that cooperative technique has better performance than non-cooperative. Moreover, signal to noise ratio (SNR) with greater than or equal 10 dB and 15 collaborated users in CR system has optimal value for probability of detection.

Design of RCPC Encoded V-BLAST MIMO System

Abstract: A Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time Multiple-Input Multiple Output (V-BLAST MIMO) enhanced with Unequal Error Protection (UEP) to achieve highly reliable wireless communication is proposed. The UEP scheme is based on Channel State Information (CSI) available at the transmitter whose calculation utilizes Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of the MIMO matrix channel. Using Rate-Compatible Punctured Convolutional (RCPC), a different code rate is given for each sub-stream of source information, according to its level of transmit power. To analyze the system performance, an analytical BER comprising the performance of V-BLAST MIMO BPSK-modulated signals and the performance of RCPC codes in Rayleigh fading environment is presented. Simulation results show that increasing the code rate can attain a bandwidth efficiency of 33.3% in expense Eb/No, but this penalty is not severe as the high code rate is used in sub-channels with high attenuation level. It is also shown that a system with 2 transmit and 4 receive antennas will have an improved performance within only 1 dB range compared to a system with 2 transmit and 2 receive antennas. The performance of the proposed system is mostly affected by the type of puncturing matrices chosen.

Ranking the Online Documents Based on Relative Credibility Measures

Abstract: Information searching is the most popular activity in Internet. Usually the search engine provides the search results ranked by the relevance. However, for a certain purpose that concerns with information credibility, particularly citing information for scientific works, another approach of ranking the search engine results is required. This paper presents a study on developing a new ranking method based on the credibility of information. The method is built up upon two well-known algorithms, PageRank and Citation Analysis. The result of the experiment that used Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient to compare the proposed rank (generated by the method) with the standard rank (generated manually by a group of experts) showed that the average Spearman 0 < rS < critical value. It means that the correlation was proven but it was not significant. Hence the proposed rank does not satisfy the standard but the performance could be improved.

Simulation and Noise Analysis of Multimedia Transmission in Optical CDMA Computer Networks

Abstract: This paper simulates and analyzes noise of multimedia transmission in a flexible optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) computer network with different quality of service (QoS) requirements. To achieve multimedia transmission in OCDMA, we have proposed strict variable-weight optical orthogonal codes (VW-OOCs), which can guarantee the smallest correlation value of one by the optimal design. In developing multimedia transmission for computer network, a simulation tool is essential in analyzing the effectiveness of various transmissions of services. In this paper, implementation models are proposed to analyze the multimedia transmission in the representative of OCDMA computer networks by using MATLAB simulink tools. Simulation results of the models are discussed including spectrums outputs of transmitted signals, superimposed signals, received signals, and eye diagrams with and without noise. Using the proposed models, multimedia OCDMA computer network using the strict VW-OOC is practically evaluated. Furthermore, system performance is also evaluated by considering avalanche photodiode (APD) noise and thermal noise. The results show that the system performance depends on code weight, received laser power, APD noise, and thermal noise which should be considered as important parameters to design and implement multimedia transmission in OCDMA computer networks.

Surveillance and Protection-Based Approach for Link Failures over Fiber-to the-Home (FTTH) with Combination of ACS and SANTAD

Abstract: This paper introduces an in-service transmission surveillance and protection-based approach for fiber failures/faults over fiber-to-the-home passive optical network (FTTH-PON) with an excellent combination of Access Control System (ACS) and Smart Access Network Testing, Analyzing and Database (SANTAD). Our hardware design works on a standard local area network (LAN) using a specially designed hardware interfaced with a microcontroller integrated Ethernet to monitor the status of optical signals flow and provide the restoration against fiber failures/faults in FTTH-PON. We also introduce the centralized management and access control program by means of SANTAD. ACS is used to control the troubleshooting mechanism carried out by SANTAD. This design will be implemented at central office (CO) for distant monitoring and remote controlling each optical fiber line’s status as well as for detecting any failures/faults that occurs in the network system downwardly from CO towards multiple optical network units (ONUs). The scope of this discussion only highlighted on the monitoring and controlling instead of the restoration scheme.

Robust Automatic Speech Recognition Features using Complex Wavelet Packet Transform Coefficients

Abstract: To improve the performance of phoneme based Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) in noisy environment; we developed a new technique that could add robustness to clean phonemes features. These robust features are obtained from Complex Wavelet Packet Transform (CWPT) coefficients. Since the CWPT coefficients represent all different frequency bands of the input signal, decomposing the input signal into complete CWPT tree would also cover all frequencies involved in recognition process. For time overlapping signals with different frequency contents, e. g. phoneme signal with noises, its CWPT coefficients are the combination of CWPT coefficients of phoneme signal and CWPT coefficients of noises. The CWPT coefficients of phonemes signal would be changed according to frequency components contained in noises. Since the numbers of phonemes in every language are relatively small (limited) and already well known, one could easily derive principal component vectors from clean training dataset using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). These principal component vectors could be used then to add robustness and minimize noises effects in testing phase. Simulation results, using Alpha Numeric 4 (AN4) from Carnegie Mellon University and NOISEX-92 examples from Rice University, showed that this new technique could be used as features extractor that improves the robustness of phoneme based ASR systems in various adverse noisy conditions and still preserves the performance in clean environments.

An Infrastructural IP for Interactive MPEG-4 SoC Functional Verification

Abstract: This paper introduces a specific architecture including an infrastructural IP for functional verification and diagnostics, which is suitable for functional core-based testing of an MPEG4 SoC. Our advanced MPEG4 SoC results in a high complexity SoC with limited physical access to many different functional cores. The proposed test method provides direct monitoring and control for each core, which enables core verification at actual speed. It significantly decreases the verification time due to the large number of required test vectors in typical MPEG4 verification. Furthermore, it also makes the system scalable for functional core expansion due to upgrading of standards. The proposed infrastructural IP is also linked to PC-based interactive tools to simplify the verification of individual and integrated cores. It also provides detailed diagnostic data that enables simple system debugging. The debugging tools also feature test-pattern generation and simulation of expected values. Actual system implementation has shown full functionality of our proposed method.