Showing papers in "Journal of information and communication convergence engineering in 2012"

Adjusting Transmission Power for Real-Time Communications in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: As the new requirements for wireless sensor networks are emerging, real-time communications is becoming a major research challenge because resource-constrained sensor nodes are not powerful enough to accommodate the complexity of the protocol. In addition, an efficient energy management scheme has naturally been a concern in wireless sensor networks for a long time. However, the existing schemes are limited to meeting one of these two requirements. To address the two factors together, we propose real-time communications with two approaches, a protocol for satisfied conditions and one for unsatisfied. Under the satisfied requirement, existing real-time protocol is employed. On the other hand, for the unsatisfied requirement, the newly developed scheme replaces the existing scheme by adjusting the transmission range of some surplus nodes. By expanding the transmission range, the end-to-end delay is shortened because the number of intermediate nodes decreases. These nodes conserve their energy for real-time communications by avoiding other activities such as sensing, forwarding, and computing. Finally, simulation results are given to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scheme in high traffic environments.

Attribute-based Proxy Re-encryption with a Constant Number of Pairing Operations

Abstract: Attribute-based encryption (ABE) is an encryption scheme in which the user is able to decrypt a ciphertext with associated attributes. However, the scheme does not offer the capability of decryption to others when the user is offline. For this reason, the attribute-based proxy re-encryption (ABPRE) scheme was proposed, which combines traditional proxy re-encryption with ABE, so a user is able to empower designated users to decrypt the re-encrypted ciphertext with the associated attributes of designated users. However, previous ABPRE schemes demands a number of pairing operations that imply huge computational overhead. To reduce the number of pairing operations, we reduce the pairing operations with exponent operations. This paper provides a novel approach to an ABPRE scheme with constant pairing operation latency.

Tracking of 2D or 3D Irregular Movement by a Family of Unscented Kalman Filters

Abstract: This paper reports on the design of an object tracker that utilizes a family of unscented Kalman filters, one for each tracked object. This is a more efficient design than having one unscented Kalman filter for the family of all moving objects. The performance of the designed and implemented filter is demonstrated by using simulated movements, and also for object movements in 2D and 3D space.

Performance Analysis of ILEACH and LEACH Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the problems of the low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protocol and present ideas for improvement by selecting the cluster head node. The main problem with LEACH lies in the random selection of cluster heads. There exists a probability that the formed cluster heads are unbalanced and may remain in one part of the network, which makes some part of the network unreachable. In this paper, we present a new version of the LEACH protocol called the improved LEACH (ILEACH) protocol, which a cluster head is selected based on its ratio between the current energy level and an initial energy level, and multiplies by the root square of its number of neighbor nodes. The simulation results show that the proposed ILEACH increases the energy efficiency and network lifetime.

Hacking and Security of Encrypted Access Points in Wireless Network

Abstract: An increasing number of people who use a smart phone or tablet PC are accessing wireless networks in public facilities including cafes and shopping centers. For example, iPhones and Android Phones have been available since 2010. However, security incidents may occur through all sorts of malicious code infection of users’ personal information during the use of an insecure wireless network. In this paper, we will describe the Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) and WPA2 encryption systems used to access a wireless network from a smart phone and tablet PC, and demonstrate the access point (AP) hacking process in a wireless network to which a password is applied on the basis of the analyzed WPA and WPA2 passwords. We will analyze the method of successful AP hacking and propose an approach to enhancing wireless LAN security. This study will contribute to enhancing the security and stability of wireless networks.

An Energy Efficient Cluster Formation and Maintenance Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: Nowadays, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) comprise a tremendously growing infrastructure for monitoring the physical or environmental conditions of objects. WSNs pose challenges to mitigating energy dissipation by constructing a reliable and energy saving network. In this paper, we propose a novel network construction and routing method by defining three different duties for sensor nodes, that is, node gateways, cluster heads, and cluster members, and then by applying a hierarchical structure from the sink to the normal sensing nodes. This method provides an efficient rationale to support the maximum coverage, to recover missing data with node mobility, and to reduce overall energy dissipation. All this should lengthen the lifetime of the network significantly.

Analysis of Digital Hologram Rendering Using a Computational Method

Abstract: To manufacture a real time digital holographic display system capable of being applied to next-generation television, it is important to rapidly generate a digital hologram. In this paper, we analyze digital hologram rendering based on a computer computation scheme. We analyze previous recursive methods to identify regularity between the depth-map image and the digital hologram.

XML-based EDI Document Processing System with Binary Format Mapping Rules

Abstract: Recently, the magnitude of electronic data interchange (EDI) document processing for the handling of port logistics is abruptly being increased. The existing system processes EDI documents in a script mode, but due to a complicated script preparation procedure and low document processing efficiency, it cannot meet the demand as the usage flow of documents increases. In this paper, an EDI electronic document processing system was designed and implemented in a document scanner and mapper, which are binary form electronic document processing tools and do not require script files during the conversion of extensible markup language (XML)-based electronic documents. This new system has the merits of XML features during reading and writing with improved speed, usage convenience, and good portability on systems when compared to the conventional ones.

Design of Filter to Reject Motion Artifacts of PPG Signal by Using Two Photosensors

Abstract: The photoplethysmography (PPG) signal measured from a mobile healthcare device contains various motion artifacts occurring from a patient’s movements. Recently, to reject the motion artifacts, the method of using an acceleration sensor was suggested, but such sensors are very expensive. Therefore, this study deals with a novel sensor device to replace the acceleration sensor, and evaluated the performance of the proposed sensor experimentally. In the results of the experiments, it is shown that the proposed sensor device can reconstruct the PPG signal despite the occurrence of motion artifacts, and also that the variation rate in heart rate analysis was 1.22%. According to the experimental results, the proposed method can be applied to design a low-cost device.

On the Accuracy of RFID Tag Estimation Functions

Abstract: In this paper, we compare the accuracy of most representative radio frequency identification (RFID) tag estimation functions in the context of minimizing RFID tag identification delay. Before the comparisons, we first evaluate the accuracy of Schoute"s estimation function, which has been widely adopted in many RFID tag identification processes, and show that its accuracy actually depends on the number of tags to be identified and frame size L used for dynamic frame slotted Aloha cycles. Through computer simulations, we show how the accuracy of estimation functions is related to the actual tag read performance in terms of identification delay.

On the Performance Evaluation of Energy-Aware Sleep Scheduling (EASS) in Energy Harvesting WSN (EH-WSN)

Abstract: Tree-based structures offer assured optimal paths from the data source to the sink. Shortest routes are disregarded since these do not consider the remaining energy level of the nodes. This shortens the lifetime of the whole network. Most tree-based routing protocols, although aware of the nodes’ energy, do not consider an energy aware sleep scheduling scheme. We propose an energy-aware sleep scheduling (EASS) scheme that will improve the sleep scheduling scheme of an existing treebased routing protocol. An energy harvesting structure will be implemented on the wireless sensor network. The depth of sleep of every node will be based on the harvested energy.

Experimental Demonstration of 4 × 4 MIMO Wireless Visible Light Communication Using a Commercial CCD Image Sensor

Abstract: We report an experimental demonstration of 4 × 4 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless visible light communications (VLC) using a charge-coupled device image sensor receiver instead of a photodiode receiver. An image sensor is a kind of digital camera, which is used in most mobile devices such as smart phones or laptop computers and a promising commercial candidate for a VLC receiver. The transmission distance of the experimental result is over 10 m, enough for most indoor communication applications. We expect that the MIMO VLC technique based on image sensor receivers can be widely used with the development of high-speed image sensors.

The Analysis of Breakdown Voltage for the Double-gate MOSFET Using the Gaussian Doping Distribution

Abstract: This study has presented the analysis of breakdown voltage for a double-gate metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) based on the doping distribution of the Gaussian function. The double-gate MOSFET is a next generation transistor that shrinks the short channel effects of the nano-scaled CMOSFET. The degradation of breakdown voltage is a highly important short channel effect with threshold voltage roll-off and an increase in subthreshold swings. The analytical potential distribution derived from Poisson’s equation and the Fulop’s avalanche breakdown condition have been used to calculate the breakdown voltage of a double-gate MOSFET for the shape of the Gaussian doping distribution. This analytical potential model is in good agreement with the numerical model. Using this model, the breakdown voltage has been analyzed for channel length and doping concentration with parameters such as projected range and standard projected deviation of Gaussian function. As a result, since the breakdown voltage is greatly changed for the shape of the Gaussian function, the channel doping distribution of a double-gate MOSFET has to be carefully designed.

PSNR-based Initial QP Determination for Low Bit Rate Video Coding

Abstract: In H.264/AVC, the first frame of a group of pictures (GOP) is encoded in intra mode which generates a large number of bits. The number of bits for the I-frame affects the qualities of the following frames of a GOP since they are encoded using the bits remaining among the bits allocated to the GOP. In addition, the first frame is used for the inter mode encoding of the following frames. Thus, the initial quantization parameter (QP) affects the following frames as well as the first frame. In this paper, an adaptive peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR)-based initial QP determination algorithm is presented. In the proposed algorithm, a novel linear model is established based on the observation of the relation between the initial QPs and PSNRs of frames. Using the linear model and PSNR results of the encoded GOPs, the proposed algorithm accurately estimates the optimal initial QP which maximizes the PSNR of the current GOP. It is shown by experimental results that the proposed algorithm predicts the optimal initial QP accurately and thus achieves better PSNR performance than that of the existing algorithm.

Design and Fabrication of an End-Launched Rectangular Waveguide Adapter Fed by a Coaxial Loop

Abstract: An end-launched adapter combining a coaxial loop within a rectangular waveguide has been analyzed and designed. The accurate electromagnetic modeling of input impedance for the adapter design has been developed using a modal analysis method. Also, design parameters to improve the end-launched adapter have been investigated. Numerical and experimental results of the proposed model have been compared with the results of previous works, and verified by an electromagnetic simulator of High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). The input voltage standing wave ratios (VSWRs) are smaller than 2 over the wide frequency band from 7.5 GHz to 10.5 GHz.

Fusion of Hierarchical Behavior-based Actions in Mobile Robot Using Fuzzy Logic

Abstract: This paper presents mobile robot control architecture of hierarchical behaviors, inspired by biological life. The system is reactive, highly parallel, and does not rely on representation of the environment. The behaviors of the system are designed hierarchically from the bottom-up with priority given to primitive behaviors to ensure the survivability of the robot and provide robustness to failures in higher-level behaviors. Fuzzy logic is used to perform command fusion on each behavior’s output. Simulations of the proposed methodology are shown and discussed. The simulation results indicate that complex tasks can be performed by a combination of a few simple behaviors and a set of fuzzy inference rules.

A Strategy for Adopting Server Virtualization in the Public Sector: NIPA Computer Center

Abstract: Many public organizations have been adopting and operating various servers. These servers run on Windows, Unix, and Linux operating systems that generally use less than 10% of their capacity. For migrating a public organization to cloud computing, we must first virtualize the server environment. This article proposes a strategy for server virtualization that the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) has done and describes the effects of a public organization migrating to cloud computing. The NIPA Computer Center planned an effective virtualization migration on various servers. This project of virtualization migration was conducted with the existing policy of separate x86 servers and Unix servers. There are three popular approaches to server virtualization: a virtual machine model, a paravirtual machine model, and virtualization at the operating system layer. We selected a VMware solution that uses the virtual machine model. We selected servers for virtualization in the following manner. Servers were chosen that had the highest rate of service usage and CPU usage and had been operating for five years or more. However, we excluded servers that require 80% or greater rates of CPU usage. After adopting the server virtualization technique, we consolidated 32 servers into 3 servers. Virtualization is a technology that can provide benefits in these areas: server consolidation and optimization, infrastructure cost reduction and improved operational flexibility, and implementation of a dual computing environment.

An Automatic Road Sign Recognizer for an Intelligent Transport System

Abstract: This paper presents the implementation of an automatic road sign recognizer for an intelligent transport system. In this system, lists of road signs are processed with actions such as line segmentation, single sign segmentation, and storing an artificial sign in the database. The process of taking the video stream and extracting the road sign and storing in the database is called the road sign recognition. This paper presents a study on recognizing traffic sign patterns using a segmentation technique for the efficiency and the speed of the system. The image is converted from one scale to another scale such as RGB to grayscale or grayscale to binary. The images are pre-processed with several image processing techniques, such as threshold techniques, Gaussian filters, Canny edge detection, and the contour technique.

A Study on Wavelet-based Image Denoising Using a Modified Adaptive Thresholding Method

Abstract: Thedenoising of a natural image corrupted by Gaussian noise is a long established problem in signal or image processing. Today the research is focus on the wavelet domain, especially using the wavelet threshold method. In this paper, a waveletbased image denoising modified adaptive thresholding method is proposed. The proposed method computes thethreshold adaptively based on the scale level and adaptively estimates wavelet coefficients by using a modified thresholding function that considers the dependency between the parent coefficient and child coefficient and the soft thresholding function at different scales. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides high peak signal-to-noise ratio results and preserves the detailed information of the original image well, resulting in a superior quality image.

Detection of Mycobacterium kansasii Using DNA-DNA Hybridization with rpoB Probe

Abstract: A microtiter well plate DNA hybridization method using Mycobacterium kansasii-specific rpoB DNA probe (kanp) were evaluated for the detection of M. kansasii from culture isolates. Among the 201 isolates tested by this method, 27 strains show positive results for M. kansasii, but the other 174 isolates were negative results for M. kansasii. This result was consistent with partial rpoB sequence analysis of M. kansasii and the result of biochemical tests. The negative strains by this DNA-DNA hybridization method were identified as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (159 strains), Mycobacterium avim (5 strains), Mycobacterium intracellulare (8 strains), and Mycobacterium flavescens (2 strain) by rpoB DNA sequence analysis. Due to high sensitivity and specificity of this test result, we suggest that DNA-DNA hybridization method using rpoB DNA probes of M. kansasii could be used for the rapid and convenient detection of M. kansasii.

City-Scale Modeling for Street Navigation

Abstract: This paper proposes a semi-automatic image-based approach for 3-dimensional (3D) modeling of buildings along streets. Image-based urban 3D modeling techniques are typically based on the use of aerial and ground-level images. The aerial image of the relevant area is extracted from publically available sources in Google Maps by stitching together different patches of the map. Panoramic images are common for ground-level recording because they have advantages for 3D modeling. A panoramic video recorder is used in the proposed approach for recording sequences of ground-level spherical panoramic images. The proposed approach has two advantages. First, detected camera trajectories are more accurate and stable (compared to methods using multi-view planar images only) due to the use of spherical panoramic images. Second, we extract the texture of a facade of a building from a single panoramic image. Thus, there is no need to deal with color blending problems that typically occur when using overlapping textures.

Internal Accounting Controls

Abstract: Internal controls of accounting are an essential business function for a growth-oriented organization, and include the elements of risk assessment, information communications and even employees' roles and responsibilities. Internal controls of accounting systems are designed to protect a company from fraud, abuse and inaccurate data recording and help organizations keep track of essential financial activities. Internal controls of accounting provide a streamlined solution for organizing all accounting procedures and ensuring that the accounting cycle is completed consistently and successfully. Implementing a formal Accounting Procedures Manual for the organization allows the financial department to facilitate several processes and maintain rigorous standards. Internal controls also allow organizations to keep detailed records, manage and organize important financial transactions and set a high standard for the organization's financial management structure and protocols. A well-implemented system also reduces the risk of accounting errors and abuse. A well-implemented controls system allows a company's financial managers to regulate and streamline all functions of the accounting department. Internal controls of accounting can be set up for every area to track deposits, monitor check handling, keep track of creditor accounts, and even assess budgets and financial statements on an ongoing basis. Setting up an effective accounting system to monitor accounting reports, analyze records and protect sensitive financial information also can help a company set clear goals and make accurate projections. Creating efficient accounting processes allows an organization to set specific policies and protocols on accounting procedures, and reach its financial objectives on a regular basis. Internal accounting controls can help keep track of such areas as cash-receipt recording, payroll management, appropriate recording of grants and gifts, cash disbursements by authorized personnel, and the recording of assets. These systems also can take into account any government regulations and requirements for financial reporting. Keywords—Internal controls, risk assessment, financial management.

Network and Data Link Layer Security for DASH7

Abstract: The sensor network standard DASH7 was proposed to improve transmission quality and low power communication. Specifications for the standard are currently being developed, so the security specification has not been firmly implemented. However, without a security specification, a network cannot work due to threats from malicious users. Thus we must ensure confidentiality and authentication of data packets by using a cryptography method. To contribute to the DASH7 security specification, this paper shows the implementation results of network and data link layer security by using advanced encryption standard (AES) counter with CBC-MAC (CCM) over CC430 sensor nodes.

Discovery of and Recovery from Failure in a Costal Marine USN Service

Abstract: In a marine ubiquitous sensor network (USN) system using expensive sensors in the harsh ocean environment, it is very important to discover failures and devise recovery techniques to deal with such failures. Therefore, in order to perform failure modeling, this study analyzes the USN-based real-time water quality monitoring service of the Gaduri Aqua Farms at Songdo Island of Yeosu, South Korea and devises methods of discovery and recovery of failure by classifying the types of failure into system element failure, communication failure, and data failure. In particular, to solve problems from the perspective of data, this study defines data integrity and data consistency for use in identifying data failure. This study, by identifying the exact type of failure through analysis of the cause of failure, proposes criteria for performing relevant recovery. In addition, the experiments have been made to suggest the duration as to how long the data should be stored in the gateway when such a data failure occurs.

Audio Watermarking Using Independent Component Analysis

Abstract: This paper presents a blind watermark detection scheme for an additive watermark embedding model. The proposed estimation-correlation-based watermark detector first estimates the embedded watermark by exploiting non-Gaussian of the real-world audio signal and the mutual independence between the host-signal and the embedded watermark and then a correlation-based detector is used to determine the presence or the absence of the watermark. For watermark estimation, blind source separation (BSS) based on independent component analysis (ICA) is used. Low watermark-to-signal ratio (WSR) is one of the limitations of blind detection with the additive embedding model. The proposed detector uses two-stage processing to improve the WSR at the blind detector; the first stage removes the audio spectrum from the watermarked audio signal using linear predictive (LP) filtering and the second stage uses the resulting residue from the LP filtering stage to estimate the embedded watermark using BSS based on ICA. Simulation results show that the proposed detector performs significantly better than existing estimation-correlationbased detection schemes.

OSEK/VDX Porting to the Two-Wheel Mobile Robot Based on the Differential Drive Method

Abstract: In this paper, we propose an implementation of a real-time operating system for the two-wheel mobile robot. With this implementation, we have the ability to control the complex embedded systems of the two-wheel mobile robot. The advantage of the real-time operating system is increasing the reliability and stability of the two-wheel mobile robot when they work in critical environments such as military and industrial applications. The real-time operating system which was ported to this implementation is open systems and the corresponding interfaces for automotive electronics (OSEK/VDX). It is known as the set of specifications on automotive operating systems, published by a consortium founded by the automotive industry. The mechanical design and kinematics of the two-wheel mobile robot are described in this paper. The contributions of this paper suggest a method for adapting and porting OSEK/VDX real-time operating system to the two-wheel mobile robot with the differential drive method, and we are also able to apply the real-time operating system to any complex embedded system easily.

Four Anchor Sensor Nodes Based Localization Algorithm over Three-Dimensional Space

Abstract: Over a wireless sensor network (WSN), accurate localization of sensor nodes is an important factor in enhancing the association between location information and sensory data. There are many research works on the development of a localization algorithm over three-dimensional (3D) space. Recently, the complexity-reduced 3D trilateration localization approach (COLA), simplifying the 3D computational overhead to 2D trilateration, was proposed. The method provides proper accuracy of location, but it has a high computational cost. Considering practical applications over resource constrained devices, it is necessary to strike a balance between accuracy and computational cost. In this paper, we present a novel 3D localization method based on the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values of four anchor nodes, which are deployed in the initial setup process. This method provides accurate location estimation results with a reduced computational cost and a smaller number of anchor nodes.

Analyses of Characteristics of U-Healthcare System Based on Wireless Communication

Abstract: The medical industries are integrated with information technology with mobile devices and wireless communication. The advent of mobile healthcare systems can benefit patients and hospitals, by not only providing better quality of patient care, but also by reducing administrative and medical costs for both patients and hospitals. Security issues present an interesting research topic in wireless and pervasive healthcare networks. As information technology is developed, many organizations such as government agencies, public institutions, and corporations have employed an information system to enhance the efficiency of their work processes. For the past few years, healthcare organizations throughout the world have been adopting health information systems (HIS) based on the wireless network infrastructure. As a part of the wireless network, a mobile agent has been employed at a large scale in hospitals due to its outstanding mobility. Several vulnerabilities and security requirements related to mobile devices should be considered in implementing mobile services in the hospital environment. Secure authentication and protocols with a mobile agent for applying ubiquitous sensor networks in a healthcare system environment is proposed and analyzed in this paper.