This book presents high-performance data transmission over plastic optical fibers (POF) using integrated optical receivers having good properties with multilevel modulation, i.e. a higher sensitivity and higher data rate transmission over a longer plastic optical fiber length. Integrated optical receivers and transmitters with high linearity are introduced for multilevel communication. For binary high-data rate transmission over plastic optical fibers, an innovative receiver containing an equalizer is described leading also to a high performance of a plastic optical fiber link. The cheap standard PMMA SI-POF (step-index plastic optical fiber) has the lowest bandwidth and the highest attenuation among multimode fibers. This small bandwidth limits the maximum data rate which can be transmitted through plastic optical fibers. To overcome the problem of the plastic optical fibers high transmission loss, very sensitive receivers must be used to increase the transmitted length over POF. The plastic optical fiber limited bandwidth problem can be decreased by using multilevel signaling like multilevel pulse amplitude modulation or by using an equalizer for binary data transmission.

Silicon, the leading material in microelectronics during the last four decades, also promises to be the key material in the future. Despite many claims that silicon technology has reached fundamental limits, the performance of silicon microelectronics continues to improve steadily. The same holds for almost all the applications for which Si was considered to be unsuitable. The main exception to this positive trend is the silicon laser, which has not been demonstrated to date. The main reason for this comes from a fundamental limitation related to the indirect nature of the Si band-gap. In the recent past, many different approaches have been taken to achieve this goal: dislocated silicon, extremely pure silicon, silicon nanocrystals, porous silicon, Er doped Si-Ge, SiGe alloys and multiquantum wells, SiGe quantum dots, SiGe quantum cascade structures, shallow impurity centers in silicon and Er doped silicon. All of these are abundantly illustrated in the present book.

This book documents the recent vivid developments in the research field of ultrashort intense light pulses for probing and controlling ultrafast dynamics. The recent fascinating results in studying and controlling ultrafast dynamics in ever more complicated systems such as (bio-)molecules and structures of meso- to macroscopic sizes on ever shorter time-scales are presented. The book is written by some of the most eminent experimental and theoretical experts in the field. It covers the new groundbreaking research directions that were opened by the availability of new light sources such as fully controlled intense laser fields with durations down to a single oscillation cycle, short-wavelength laser-driven attosecond pulses and intense X-ray pulses from the upcoming free electron lasers. These light sources allowed the investigation of dynamics in atoms, molecules, clusters, on surfaces and very recently also in nanostructures and solids in new regimes of parameters which, in turn, led to the identification of completely new dynamics and methods for controlling it. Example topics covered by this book include the study of ultrafast processes in large molecules using attosecond pulses, control of ultrafast electron dynamics in solids with shaped femtosecond laser pulses, light-driven ultrafast plasmonic processes on surfaces and in nanostructures as well as research on atomic and molecular systems under intense X-ray radiation. This book is equally helpful for people who would like to step into this field (e.g. young researchers), for whom it provides a broad introduction, as well as for already experienced researchers who may enjoy the exhaustive discussion that covers the research on essentially all currently studied objects and with all available ultrafast pulse sources.

This book describes the development of a new low-cost medium wavelength IR (MWIR) monolithic imager technology for high-speed uncooled industrial applications. It takes the baton on the latest technological advances in the field of vapor phase deposition (VPD) PbSe-based MWIR detection accomplished by the industrial partner NIT S.L., adding fundamental knowledge on the investigation of novel VLSI analog and mixed-signal design techniques at circuit and system levels for the development of the readout integrated device attached to the detector. In order to fulfill the operational requirements of VPD PbSe, this work proposes null inter-pixel crosstalk vision sensor architectures based on a digital-only focal plane array (FPA) of configurable pixel sensors. Each digital pixel sensor (DPS) cell is equipped with fast communication modules, self-biasing, offset cancellation, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and fixed pattern noise (FPN) correction. In-pixel power consumption is minimized by the use of comprehensive MOSFET subthreshold operation.

This special volume of "Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics "details the current theory, experiments, and applications of neutron and x-ray optics and microscopy for an international readership across varying backgrounds and disciplines. Edited by Dr. Ted Cremer, these volumes attempt to provide rapid assimilation of the presented topics that include neutron and x-ray scatter, refraction, diffraction, and reflection and their potential application.
Key features:

* Contributions from leading authorities * Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field

"Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics "merges two long-running serials--"Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics" and "Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy."
This series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.
* Contributions from leading international scholars and industry experts
* Discusses hot topic areas and presents current and future research trends
* Invaluable reference and guide for physicists, engineers and mathematicians

Session 2 includes 110 papers selected from 2011 3rd International Asia Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (CAR 2011), held on December 24-25, 2011, Shenzhen, China. As we all know, the ever growing technology in robotics and automation will help build a better human society. This session will provide a unique opportunity for the academic and industrial communities to address new challenges, share solutions, and discuss research directions for the future. Robotics research emphasizes intelligence and adaptability to cope with unstructured environments. Automation research emphasizes efficiency, productivity, quality, and reliability, focusing on systems that operate autonomously. The main focus of this session is on the autonomous acquisition of semantic information in intelligent robots and systems, as well as the use of semantic knowledge to guide further acquisition of information.

This is a guide to the physics and engineering of semiconductor lasers - from basic physics to modern design applications for optical communications and photonic switching. It offers descriptions of bistability, ultrashort optical pulse generation and the two-section laser diode. The text is aimed at engineers and system designers in the fields of communication, switching, measurement systems and information processing. It should also be useful for scientists and engineers studying laser diodes; and for graduate students in electronics and electrical engineering.

This book reports the latest findings on intelligent energy management of Internet data centers in smart-grid environments. The book gathers novel research ideas in Internet data center energy management, especially scenarios with cyber-related vulnerabilities, power outages and carbon emission constraints. The book will be of interest to university researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students in communication and networking areas who wish to learn the core principles, methods, algorithms, and applications of energy management of Internet data centers in smart grids.

Digital holography is an emerging field of new paradigm in general imaging applications. The book presents an introduction to the theoretical and numerical principles and reviews the research and development activities in digital holography, with emphasis on the microscopy techniques and applications. Topics covered include the general theory of diffraction and holography formations, and practical instrumentation and experimentation of digital holography. Various numerical techniques are described that give rise to the unique and versatile capabilities of digital holography. Representative special techniques and applications of digital holography are discussed. The book is intended for researchers interested in developing new techniques and exploring new applications of digital holography.

"Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics "merges two long-running serials--"Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics" and "Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy."

This series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.
Key features:

* Contributions from leading authorities * Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field

This book proposes a data-driven methodology using multi-way data analysis for the design of video-quality metrics. It also enables video- quality metrics to be created using arbitrary features. This data- driven design approach not only requires no detailed knowledge of the human visual system, but also allows a proper consideration of the temporal nature of video using a three-way prediction model, corresponding to the three-way structure of video. Using two simple example metrics, the author demonstrates not only that this purely data- driven approach outperforms state-of-the-art video-quality metrics, which are often optimized for specific properties of the human visual system, but also that multi-way data analysis methods outperform the combination of two-way data analysis methods and temporal pooling.

This book presents a comprehensive, systematic approach to the development of vision system architectures that employ sensory-processing concurrency and parallel processing to meet the autonomy challenges posed by a variety of safety and surveillance applications. Coverage includes a thorough analysis of resistive diffusion networks embedded within an image sensor array. This analysis supports a systematic approach to the design of spatial image filters and their implementation as vision chips in CMOS technology. The book also addresses system-level considerations pertaining to the embedding of these vision chips into vision-enabled wireless sensor networks.Describes a system-level approach for designing of vision devices and embedding them into vision-enabled, wireless sensor networks; Surveys state-of-the-art, vision-enabled WSN nodes; Includes details of specifications and challenges of vision-enabled WSNs; Explains architectures for low-energy CMOS vision chips with embedded, programmable spatial filtering capabilities; Includes considerations pertaining to the integration of vision chips into off-the-shelf WSN platforms."

This book features papers presented at IIH-MSP 2018, the 14th International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing. The scope of IIH-MSP included information hiding and security, multimedia signal processing and networking, and bio-inspired multimedia technologies and systems. The book discusses subjects related to massive image/video compression and transmission for emerging networks, advances in speech and language processing, recent advances in information hiding and signal processing for audio and speech signals, intelligent distribution systems and applications, recent advances in security and privacy for multimodal network environments, multimedia signal processing, and machine learning. Presenting the latest research outcomes and findings, it is suitable for researchers and students who are interested in the corresponding fields. IIH-MSP 2018 was held in Sendai, Japan on 26-28 November 2018. It was hosted by Tohoku University and was co-sponsored by the Fujian University of Technology in China, the Taiwan Association for Web Intelligence Consortium in Taiwan, and the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, as well as the Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Big Data Mining and Applications (Fujian University of Technology) and the Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School in China.

This book is a collection of essays written by the very scientists and engineers who have led, and continue to lead, the scientific quest known as SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Divided into three parts, the first section, 'The Spirit of SETI Past', written by the surviving pioneers of this then emerging discipline, reviews the major projects undertaken during the first 50 years of SETI science and the results of that research.

In the second section, 'The Spirit of SETI Present', the present-day science and technology is discussed in detail, providing the technical background to contemporary SETI instruments, experiments, and analytical techniques, including the processing of the received signals to extract potential alien communications.

In the third and final section, 'The Spirit of SETI Future', the book looks ahead to the possible directions that SETI will take in the next 50 years, addressing such important topics as interstellar message construction, the risks and assumptions of interstellar communications, when we might make contact, what aliens might look like and what is likely to happen in the aftermath of such a contact.

This book presents the theory of electromagnetic (EM) waves for upper undergraduate, graduate and PhD-level students in engineering. It focuses on physics and microwave theory based on Maxwell's equations and the boundary conditions important for studying the operation of waveguides and resonators in a wide frequency range, namely, from approx. 10**9 to 10**16 hertz. The author also highlights various current topics in EM field theory, such as plasmonic (comprising a noble metal) waveguides and analyses of attenuations by filled waveguide dielectrics or semiconductors and also by conducting waveguide walls. Featuring a wide variety of illustrations, the book presents the calculated and schematic distributions of EM fields and currents in waveguides and resonators. Further, test questions are presented at the end of each chapter.

(Preliminary): The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) digital transmission technique has several advantages in broadcast and mobile communications applications. The main objective of this book is to give a good insight into these efforts, and provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the scientific progress which was achieved in the last decade. Besides topics of the physical layer, such as coding, modulation and non-linearities, a special emphasis is put on system aspects and concepts, in particular regarding cellular networks and using multiple antenna techniques. The work extensively addresses challenges of link adaptation, adaptive resource allocation and interference mitigation in such systems. Moreover, the domain of cross-layer design, i.e. the combination of physical layer aspects and issues of higher layers, are considered in detail. These results will facilitate and stimulate further innovation and development in the design of modern communication systems, based on the powerful OFDM transmission technique.

This book is designed to highlight the basic principles of fiber optic imaging and sensing devices. The book provides the readers with a solid foundation in fiber optic imaging and sensing devices. The text begins with an introductory chapter that starts from Maxwell s equations and ends with the derivation of the basic optical fiber characteristic equations and solutions (i.e. fiber modes). Also covered within are reviews of the most common fiber optic interferometric devices which are the basis for many fiber optic imaging and sensing systems. The author discusses the basics of fiber optic imagers with an emphasis on fiber optic confocal microscope. Including chapters on fiber Bragg grating based sensor and various applications and fiber Sagnac loop based sensors. The book also provides useful forms of device characteristic equations.

This volume includes papers presented at IIH-MSP 2017, the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, held from 12 to 15 August 2017 in Matsue, Shimane, Japan. The conference addresses topics ranging from information hiding and security, and multimedia signal processing and networking, to bio-inspired multimedia technologies and systems. This volume of Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies focuses on subjects related to massive image/video compression and transmission for emerging networks, advances in speech and language processing, information hiding and signal processing for audio and speech signals, intelligent distribution systems and applications, recent advances in security and privacy for multimodal network environments, multimedia signal processing, and machine learning. Updated with the latest research outcomes and findings, the papers presented appeal to researchers and students who are interested in the corresponding fields.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the basics of Hindustani music and the associated signal analysis and technological developments. It begins with an in-depth introduction to musical signal analysis and its current applications, and then moves on to a detailed discussion of the features involved in understanding the musical meaning of the signal in the context of Hindustani music. The components consist of tones, shruti, scales, pitch duration and stability, raga, gharana and musical instruments. The book covers the various technological developments in this field, supplemented with a number of case studies and their analysis. The book offers new music researchers essential insights into the use the automatic concept for finding and testing the musical features for their applications. Intended primarily for postgraduate and PhD students working in the area of scientific research on Hindustani music, as well as other genres where the concepts are applicable, it is also a valuable resource for professionals and researchers in musical signal processing.

Here's the only book to comprehensively address integrated optics from both the theory and practical modeling standpoints -- it reveals crucial design methods that decrease your overall device modeling effort.

This thesis explores a route to induce and control the structure formation process in thin films by the use of strong electric fields. We investigate, establish and apply the use of the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) lithography as a versatile patterning tool on the sub-micrometre and nanometre length scales for functional materials. Thin films are ubiquitous, they are found in nature and used in almost every aspect of daily life. While film instabilities are often undesirable in nature and technology, they can be utilized to produce structures by precisely controlling the destabilization of the film. EHD lithography utilizes instabilities induced by means of an electric field to fabricate periodic structures. EHD patterning is set to become a competitive candidate for low-cost lithographic technology for a number of applications. Herein, the applied potential of this lithographic process is explored by expanding its applicability to a broad range of materials and by a simultaneous patterning of multilayer systems or functional polymers yielding hierarchical architectures with novel functionalities.
EHD pattern formation enables for instance, the fabrication of multi-scale structured arrays as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active platforms. Furthermore, crystalline and conductive polymers are patterned using the EHD approach and the underlying structure formation mechanisms are discussed. This extension towards functional material systems offers interesting prospects for potential applications. Findings of this thesis are very promising for use in optoelectronic devices.

This thesis demonstrates techniques that provide faster and more accurate solutions to a variety of problems in machine learning and signal processing. The author proposes a "greedy" algorithm, deriving sparse solutions with guarantees of optimality. The use of this algorithm removes many of the inaccuracies that occurred with the use of previous models.

It is through images that we understand the form and function of material objects, from the fundamental particles that are the constituents of matter to galaxies that are the constituents of the Universe. Imaging must be thought of in a flexible way as varying from just the detection of objects -- a blip on a screen representing an aircraft or a vapour trail representing the passage of an exotic particle -- to displaying the fine detail in the eye of an insect or the arrangement of atoms within or on the surface of a solid. The range of imaging tools, both in the type of wave phenomena used and in the devices that utilize them, is vast. This book will illustrate this range, with wave phenomena covering the entire electromagnetic spectrum and ultrasound, and devices that vary from those that just detect the presence of objects to those that image objects in exquisite detail. The word fundamentals' in the title has meaning for this book. There will be no attempt to delve into the fine technical details of the construction of specific devices but rather the book aims to give an understanding of the principles behind the imaging process and a general account of how those principles are utilized.