Sharif Digital Repository

A novel burst correction coding for correction of bulk errors in block-based image coding is developed. The algorithm makes artificial correlation between image pixels that distorts the image. By choosing appropriate parameters, one can control this distortion to lie in acceptable ranges. Our method can exactly correct an erroneously decoded block when using lossless codecs. In the presence of lossy codecs, the algorithm encounters a processing error which makes a noisy image after correction. The Wiener filter is used to reduce this noise. Experimental results show that our method can correct corrupted large blocks in images; the ability that other previously reported approaches have not... 

Photoplethysmography is a non-invasive method which is suitable to estimate vascular compliance. Photoplethysmogram (PPG) waveform has been used to evaluate vascular characteristic changes due to exercise. Quantification of the primary and secondary peak position is of interest as a potential objective, individualized measure of the level of exercise that a subject has achieved with respect to a baseline status, prior to the beginning of the exercise session. The modified bicycle ergonomic protocol was selected for this experiment. Two different signal processing methods were employed in processing the PPG waveform to characterize its changes through a single parameter. Both, the visual... 

Transmission of video over error prone and still bandwidth limited wireless channels demand high compression efficiency and resilience to packet losses and errors. Scalable or layered video coding applied to highly compression efficient codecs is an ideal solution to the problem. However, scalability reduces compression efficiency of the coders. In this paper we show how compression efficiency of two-layer SNR scalable video coders can be retained via joint base-enhancement layer optimization. Simulation results show that joint base-enhancement layer optimization significantly outperforms separate optimization of the layers, and it closely follows the compression performance of the... 

Real-time video transmission is considered as an important means for information distribution. One major application of it is E-learning, which requires real-time video processing and transmission. On the other hand, the process of cut detection is a fundamental component in automatic video browsing, indexing, searching, retrieval, and archiving. This paper introduces a new video cut detection technique that uses dominant lines and angles extracted from edge information of the video contents. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first works done for cut detection in E-learning application. This method is compatible with our application's requirements and has a low complexity and high... 

This paper presents a novel video encoding method for cooperative Educational Dissemination Systems. Taking into consideration the inherent characteristics of distance learning video streams, existing a few moving objects in the scene and objects having slow motions, we propose a novel content-based video encoding method which is very efficient on low bandwidth channels. In the encoding process, we apply a background subtraction algorithm for motion segmentation with a novel statistical background modeling. In each frame, the moving objects are extrapolated with rectangular bounding boxes which are the only data send over the low bandwidth channel. In the decoding process, we propose a new... 

There has been an increasing demand for interactive video transmission over the Internet for applications such as video conferencing, video calls, and telepresence applications. These applications are increasingly moving towards providing High Definition (HD) video quality to users. A key challenge in these applications is to preserve the quality of video when it is transported over best-effort networks that do not guarantee lossless transport of video packets. In such conditions, it is important to protect the transmitted video by using intelligent and adaptive protection schemes. Applications such as HD video conferencing require live interaction among participants, which limits the... 

In this paper, we exploit a fuzzy controller on a flexible bevel-tip needle to manipulate the needle's base in order to steer its tip in a preset obstacle-free and target-tracking path. Although the needle tends to follow a curvature path, spinning the needle with an extremely high rotational velocity makes it symmetric with respect to the tissue to follow a straight path. The fuzzy controller determines an appropriate spinning to generate the planned trajectory and, the closed-loop system tries to match the needle body with that trajectory. The swine's brain tissue model, extracted from an in-vitro experimental setup, is a non-homogenous, uncertain and fast-updatable network to model real... 

Noise reduction is a major concern in digital image processing systems, which have been investigated by several techniques. One kind of important noises in images is known as Salt & Pepper, which may have different causes. In this paper a new approach for eliminating this type of noise is presented. The approach is different from all previous works in this field, and is based on classification. More precisely, it tries to classify pixels of an image to one of two categories: noisy or not noisy. Afterward, it employs a median filter for pixels which have been classified as noisy, and remains others unchanged; hence, edges and other fine details are kept. Experimental results show this... 

In this paper, we consider sparse decomposition (SD) of two-dimensional (2D) signals on overcomplete dictionaries with separable atoms. Although, this problem can be solved by converting it to the SD of one-dimensional (1D) signals, this approach requires a tremendous amount of memory and computational cost. Moreover, the uniqueness constraint obtained by this approach is too restricted. Then in the paper, we present an algorithm to be used directly for sparse decomposition of 2D signals on dictionaries with separable atoms. Moreover, we will state another uniqueness constraint for this class of decomposition. Our algorithm is obtained by modifying the Smoothed L0 (SL0) algorithm, and hence... 

This paper presents a novel method for cooperative educational dissemination systems. Taking into consideration the inherent characteristics of distance learning video streams (existence of a few slow moving objects in a classroom), we have proposed a novel content-based video coding method that is very efficient at low bitrate channels. On the encoding side, we have applied a background subtraction algorithm for motion segmentation using a novel statistical background modeling approach. At each frame, the moving objects are extrapolated with a rectangular model and tracked frame by frame (which forms the only data needed to be sent over the channel). On the decoding side, we have used a new... 

In this paper, we consider the problem of overlay generation for video adaptation and streaming applications in a way to efficiently utilize the bandwidth and computing power of the participating peers. Therefore, the proposed architecture performs regular streaming functions as well as video adaptation functions, moving the video contents adaptation computation load away from dedicated media-streaming/adaptation servers to the participating peers. To verify the performance of our design, we followed an analytical approach based on 0-1 Integer Linear Programming method to model the system and to æakulate the optimum overlay. The performance of our scheme is evaluated by simulations.... 

Power and bandwidth constraints are two major challenges in wireless sensor networks. Since a considerable amount of energy in sensor networks is consumed for data transmission, compression techniques may prolong the life of such networks. Moreover, with fewer bits to transmit, the network can cope better with the problem of inadequate bandwidth. In this paper, we consider an image sensor network and propose a paradigm based on the principles of Distributed Source Coding (DSC) for efficient compression. Our method relies on high correlation between the sensor nodes. The algorithm consists of two phases: the Training Phase and the Main Phase. In the Training Phase an aggregation node or a... 

In this paper, a novel control approach for onedimensional bilateral teleoperated nanomanipulation system is proposed. While manipulating objects with a nanomanipulator, real time visual feedback is not available. So, force feedback is used to compensate for the lack of visual information. Since nanometer scale forces are dominated by surface forces instead of inertial forces as in macro world, scaling of nanoforces is one of the major issues of teleoperation system. The Hertz elastic contact model is used to model the interactions between the slave robot and the environment. The proposed approach uses the simple proportional derivative control, i.e., the master and slave robots are... 

In this paper, an algorithm for image coding based on a sparse 3-dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform (3D DCT) is studied. The algorithm is essentially a method for achieving a sufficiently sparse representation using 3D DCT. The experimental results obtained by the algorithm are compared to the 2D DCT (used in JPEG standard) and wavelet db9/7 (used in JPEG2000 standard). It is experimentally shown that the algorithm, that only uses DCT but in 3 dimensions, outperforms the DCT used in JPEG standard and achieves comparable results (but still less than) the wavelet transform. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009  

Balance impairment is critical for many patient groups such as those with neural and musculoskeletal disorders and also the elderly. Accurate and objective assessment of balance performance has led to the development of several indices based on the measurement of the center of pressure. In this study, a robotic device was designed and fabricated to provide controlled and repeatable mechanical perturbations to the standing platform of the user. The device uses servo-controlled actuators and two parallel mechanisms to provide independent rotations in mediolateral and anterior-posterior directions. The device also provides visual feedback of the center of pressure position to the user.... 

Fractional-pixel accuracy Motion Estimation (ME) has been shown to result in higher quality reconstructed image sequences in hybrid video coding systems. However, the higher quality is achieved by notably increased Motion Field (MF) bitrate and more complex computations. In this paper, new half-pixel block matching ME algorithms are proposed to improve the rate-distortion characteristics of low bitrate video communications. The proposed methods tend to decrease the required video bandwidth, while improving the motion compensation quality. The key idea is to put a deeper focus on the search origin of the ME process, based on center-bias characteristics of low bitrate video MFs. To employ the... 

This article is concerned with remote monitoring and control of the 2-degrees of freedom (DoF) robotic manipulators, which have nonlinear dynamics over the packet erasure channel, which is an abstract model for communication over the Internet, WiFi, or Zigbee modules. This type of communication is subject to imperfections, such as random packet dropout and rate distortion. These imperfections cause a significant challenge for monitoring and control of robotic manipulators in the industrial environments because sensitive data, such as sensor data and control commands may not ever reach to their destination resulting in significant performance degradation. Therefore, the effects of these... 

In this paper joint optimization of layers in the layered video coding is investigated. Through theoretical analysis and simulations, it is shown that, due to higher interactions between the layers in a SNR scalable codec, this type of layering technique benefits most from joint optimization of the layers. A method for joint optimization is then proposed, and its compression efficiency is contrasted against the separate optimization and an optimized single layer coder. It is shown that, in joint optimization of SNR scalable coders when the quantization step size of the enhancement layer is larger than half the step size of the base layer, an additional improvement is gained by not sending... 

H.264/AVC, the latest video coding standard, achieves better video compression rates since it supports new features such as a large number of intra- and inter-prediction candidate modes. H.264/AVC adopts rate-distortion optimization (RDO) technique to obtain the best intra- and inter-prediction, while maximizing visual quality and minimizing the required bit rate. However, the RDO reduces the encoding speed via the exhaustive evaluation of all candidate modes. In this paper, we decrease the encoding time by reducing the computational complexity of the prediction function and the number of candidate modes. First, we improve Pan's method, by eliminating the DC mode from the candidates. Second,...