This book offers a comprehensive introduction to advanced methods for image and video analysis and processing. It covers deraining, dehazing, inpainting, fusion, watermarking and stitching. It describes techniques for face and lip recognition, facial expression recognition, lip reading in videos, moving object tracking, dynamic scene classification, among others. The book combines the latest machine learning methods with computer vision applications, covering topics such as event recognition based on deep learning,dynamic scene classification based on topic model, person re-identification based on metric learning and behavior analysis. It also offers a systematic introduction to image evaluation criteria showing how to use them in different experimental contexts. The book offers an example-based practical guide to researchers, professionals and graduate students dealing with advanced problems in image analysis and computer vision.

This book provides a step-by-step guide on how to construct a narrowband single photon source for the integration with atom-based memory systems. It combines the necessary theoretical background with crucial experimental methods and characterisations to form a complete handbook for readers at all academic levels. The future implementation of large quantum networks will require the hybridisation of photonic qubits for communication with quantum memories in the context of information storage. Such an interface requires carefully tailored single photons to ensure compatibility with the chosen memory. The source itself is remarkable for a number of reasons, including being the spectrally narrowest and brightest source of its kind; in addition, it offers a novel technique for frequency stabilisation in an optical cavity, together with exceptional portability. Starting with a thorough analysis of the current literature, this book derives the essential parameters needed to design the source, describes its individual components in detail, and closes with the characterisation of a single photon source.

Orthogonal designs have proved fundamental to constructing code division multiple antenna systems for more efficient mobile communications. Starting with basic theory, this book develops the algebra and combinatorics to create new communications modes. Intended primarily for researchers, it is also useful for graduate students wanting to understand some of the current communications coding theories.

The book focuses on soft computing and its applications to solve real-world problems occurring in different domains ranging from medicine and healthcare, and supply chain management to image processing and cryptanalysis. It includes high-quality papers presented in the International Conference on Soft Computing: Theories and Applications (SoCTA 2017), organized by Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, India. Offering significant insights into soft computing for teachers and researchers alike, the book inspires more researchers to work in the field of soft computing.

This book discusses the challenges in the convergence of technologies as the Internet of Things (IoT) evolves. These include sensing, computing, information processing, networking, and controlling intelligent technologies. The contributors first provide a survey of various assessment and evaluation approaches available for successful convergence. They then go on to cover several operational ideas to apply. The contributors then discuss the challenges involved bridging gaps in computation and the communication process, hidden networks, intelligent decision making, human-to-machine perception and large-scale IoT environments. The contributors aim to provide the reader an overview of trends in IoT in terms of performability and traffic modeling and efforts that can be spent in assessing the graceful degradation in IoT paradigms. Provides a survey of IoT assessment and evaluation approaches; Covers new and innovative operational ideas that apply to the IoT industry and the industries it affects; Includes chapters from researchers and industry leaders in IoT from around the world.

This book provides readers with an overview of the architectures, programming frameworks, and hardware accelerators for typical cloud computing applications in data centers. The authors present the most recent and promising solutions, using hardware accelerators to provide high throughput, reduced latency and higher energy efficiency compared to current servers based on commodity processors. Readers will benefit from state-of-the-art information regarding application requirements in contemporary data centers, computational complexity of typical tasks in cloud computing, and a programming framework for the efficient utilization of the hardware accelerators.

The book is a collection of best selected research papers presented at 6th International Conference on Innovations in Electronics and Communication Engineering at Guru Nanak Institutions Hyderabad, India. The book presents works from researchers, technocrats and experts about latest technologies in electronic and communication engineering. The book covers various streams of communication engineering like signal processing, VLSI design, embedded systems, wireless communications, and electronics and communications in general. The authors have discussed the latest cutting edge technology and the volume will serve as a reference for young researchers.

This book introduces the reader to the optical switching technology for its application to data centers. In addition, it takes a picture of the status of the technology and system architecture evolution and of the research in the area of optical switching in data center. The book is organized in four parts: the first part is focused on the system aspects of optical switching in intra-data center networking, the second part is dedicated to describing the recently demonstrated optical switching networks, the third part deals with the latest technologies developed to enable optical switching and, finally, the fourth part of the book outlines the future prospects and trends.

The main objective of this book is to provide a multidisciplinary overview of methodological approaches, architectures, platforms, and algorithms for the realization of an Internet of Things (IoT)-based Smart Urban Ecosystem (SUE). Moreover, the book details a set of real-world applications and case studies related to specific smart infrastructures and smart cities, including structural health monitoring, smart urban drainage networks, smart grids, power efficiency, healthcare, city security, and emergency management. A Smart Urban Ecosystem (SUE) is a people-centric system of systems that involves smart city environments, applications, and infrastructures. SUEs require the close integration of cyber and physical components for monitoring, understanding and controlling the urban environment. In this context, the Internet of Things (IoT) offers a valuable enabling technology, as it bridges the gap between physical things and software components, and empowers cooperation between distributed, pervasive, and heterogeneous entities.

This book addresses the need for energy-efficient amplifiers, providing gain enhancement strategies, suitable to run in parallel with lower supply voltages, by introducing a new family of single-stage cascode-free amplifiers, with proper design, optimization, fabrication and experimental evaluation. The authors describe several topologies, using the UMC 130 nm CMOS technology node with standard-VT devices, for proof-of-concept, achieving results far beyond what is achievable with a classic single-stage folded-cascode amplifier. Readers will learn about a new family of circuits with a broad range of applications, together with the familiarization with a state-of-the-art electronic design automation methodology used to explore the design space of the proposed circuit family.

If you find visual illusions fascinating Programming Visual Illusions for Everyone is a book for you. It has some background, some history and some theories about visual illusions, and it describes in some detail twelve illusions. Some are about surfaces, some are about apparent size of objects, some are about colour and some involve movement. This is only one aspect of the book. The other is to show you how you can create these effects on any computer. The book includes a brief introduction to a powerful programming language called Python. No previous experience with programming is necessary. There is also an introduction to a package called PsychoPy that makes it easy to draw on a computer screen. It is perfectly ok if you have never heard the names Python or PsychoPy before. Python is a modern and easy-to-read language, and PsychoPy takes care of all the graphical aspects of drawing on a screen and also interacting with a computer. By the way, both Python and PsychoPy are absolutely free. Is this a book about illusions or about programming? It is both!

This book introduces readers to essential tools for the measurement and analysis of information loss in signal processing systems. Employing a new information-theoretic systems theory, the book analyzes various systems in the signal processing engineer's toolbox: polynomials, quantizers, rectifiers, linear filters with and without quantization effects, principal components analysis, multirate systems, etc. The user benefit of signal processing is further highlighted with the concept of relevant information loss. Signal or data processing operates on the physical representation of information so that users can easily access and extract that information. However, a fundamental theorem in information theory-data processing inequality-states that deterministic processing always involves information loss. These measures form the basis of a new information-theoretic systems theory, which complements the currently prevailing approaches based on second-order statistics, such as the mean-squared error or error energy. This theory not only provides a deeper understanding but also extends the design space for the applied engineer with a wide range of methods rooted in information theory, adding to existing methods based on energy or quadratic representations.

This book introduces context-aware computing, providing definitions, categories, characteristics, and context awareness itself and discussing its applications with a particular focus on smart learning environments. It also examines the elements of a context-aware system, including acquisition, modelling, reasoning, and distribution of context. It also reviews applications of context-aware computing - both past and present - to offer readers the knowledge needed to critically analyse how context awareness can be put to use. It is particularly to those new to the subject area who are interested in learning how to develop context-aware computing-oriented applications, as well as postgraduates and researchers in computer engineering, communications engineering related areas of information technology (IT). Further it provides practical know-how for professionals working in IT support and technology, consultants and business decision-makers and those working in the medical, human, and social sciences.

This book provides a technical approach to a Business Resilience System with its Risk Atom and Processing Data Point based on fuzzy logic and cloud computation in real time. Its purpose and objectives define a clear set of expectations for Organizations and Enterprises so their network system and supply chain are totally resilient and protected against cyber-attacks, manmade threats, and natural disasters. These enterprises include financial, organizational, homeland security, and supply chain operations with multi-point manufacturing across the world. Market shares and marketing advantages are expected to result from the implementation of the system. The collected information and defined objectives form the basis to monitor and analyze the data through cloud computation, and will guarantee the success of their survivability's against any unexpected threats. This book will be useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the field of computer engineering, engineers that work for manufacturing companies, business analysts in retail and e-Commerce, and those working in the defense industry, Information Security, and Information Technology.

This book discusses the design of multi-camera systems and their application to fields such as the virtual reality, gaming, film industry, medicine, automotive industry, drones, etc. The authors cover the basics of image formation, algorithms for stitching a panoramic image from multiple cameras, and multiple real-time hardware system architectures, in order to have panoramic videos. Several specific applications of multi-camera systems are presented, such as depth estimation, high dynamic range imaging, and medical imaging.

Metal Halide Perovskites for Generation, Manipulation and Detection of Light covers the current state and future prospects of lead halide perovskite photonics and photon sources, both from an academic and industrial point-of-view. Advances in metal halide perovskite photon sources (lasers) based on thin films, microcrystals and nanocrystals are comprehensively reviewed, with leading experts contributing current advances in theory, fundamental concepts, fabrication techniques, experiments and other important research innovations. This book is suitable for graduate students, researchers, scientists and engineers in academia and R&D in industry working in the disciplines of materials science and engineering.

This book presents advances in biomedical imaging analysis and processing techniques using time dependent medical image datasets for computer aided diagnosis. The analysis of time-series images is one of the most widely appearing problems in science, engineering, and business. In recent years this problem has gained importance due to the increasing availability of more sensitive sensors in science and engineering and due to the wide-spread use of computers in corporations which have increased the amount of time-series data collected by many magnitudes. An important feature of this book is the exploration of different approaches to handle and identify time dependent biomedical images. Biomedical imaging analysis and processing techniques deal with the interaction between all forms of radiation and biological molecules, cells or tissues, to visualize small particles and opaque objects, and to achieve the recognition of biomedical patterns. These are topics of great importance to biomedical science, biology, and medicine. Biomedical imaging analysis techniques can be applied in many different areas to solve existing problems. The various requirements arising from the process of resolving practical problems motivate and expedite the development of biomedical imaging analysis. This is a major reason for the fast growth of the discipline.

This mathematically rigorous overview of physical layer wireless communications is now in a 4th, fully revised and updated edition. The new edition features new content on 4G cellular systems, 5G cellular outlook, bandpass signals and systems, and polarization, among many other topics, in addition to a new chapters on channel assignment techniques. Along with coverage of fundamentals and basic principles sufficient for novice students, the volume includes finer details that satisfy the requirements of graduate students aiming to conduct in-depth research. The book begins with a survey of the field, introducing issues relevant to wireless communications. The book moves on to cover relevant discrete subjects, from radio propagation, to error probability performance, and cellular radio resource management. An appendix provides a tutorial on probability and random processes. The content stresses core principles that are applicable to a broad range of wireless standards. New examples are provided throughout the book to better explain the more complex material to the reader. Additional problems have also been added to those already appearing at the ends of the chapters to make the book more suitable for course instruction.

This book presents lectures given at the 8th International Workshop on Spoken Dialog Systems. As agents evolve in terms of their ability to carry on a dialog with users, several qualities are emerging as essential components of a successful system. Users do not carry on long conversations on only one topic-they tend to switch between several topics. Thus the authors are observing the emergence of multi-domain systems that enable users to seamlessly hop from one domain to another. The systems have become active social partners. Accordingly, work on social dialog has become crucial to active and engaging human-robot/agent interaction. These new systems call for a coherent framework that guides their actions as chatbots and conversational agents. Human-Robot/Agent assessment mechanisms naturally lend themselves to this task. As these systems increasingly assist humans in a multitude of tasks, the ethics of their existence, their design and their interaction with users are becoming crucial issues. This book discusses the essential players and features involved, such as chat-based agents, multi-domain dialog systems, human-robot interaction, social dialog policy, and advanced dialog system architectures.

This book describes state-of-the-art approaches to Fog Computing, including the background of innovations achieved in recent years. Coverage includes various aspects of fog computing architectures for Internet of Things, driving reasons, variations and case studies. The authors discuss in detail key topics, such as meeting low latency and real-time requirements of applications, interoperability, federation and heterogeneous computing, energy efficiency and mobility, fog and cloud interplay, geo-distribution and location awareness, and case studies in healthcare and smart space applications.

This book provides readers with the necessary background information and advanced concepts in the field of circuits, at the crossroads between physics, mathematics and system theory. It covers various engineering subfields, such as electrical devices and circuits, and their electronic counterparts. Based on the idea that a modern university course should provide students with conceptual tools to understand the behavior of both linear and nonlinear circuits, to approach current problems posed by new, cutting-edge devices and to address future developments and challenges, the book places equal emphasis on linear and nonlinear, two-terminal and multi-terminal, as well as active and passive circuit components. The theory is developed systematically, starting with the simplest circuits (linear, time-invariant and resistive) and providing food for thought on nonlinear circuits, potential functions, linear algebra and geometrical interpretations of selected results. Contents are organized into a set of first-level and a set of advanced-level topics. The book is rich in examples and includes numerous solved problems. Further topics, such as signal processing and modeling of non-electric physical phenomena (e.g., hysteresis or biological oscillators) will be discussed in volume 2.

This book reviews research towards perceptual quality dimensions of synthetic speech, compares these findings with the state of the art, and derives a set of five universal perceptual quality dimensions for TTS signals. They are: (i) naturalness of voice, (ii) prosodic quality, (iii) fluency and intelligibility, (iv) absence of disturbances, and (v) calmness. Moreover, a test protocol for the efficient indentification of those dimensions in a listening test is introduced. Furthermore, several factors influencing these dimensions are examined. In addition, different techniques for the instrumental quality assessment of TTS signals are introduced, reviewed and tested. Finally, the requirements for the integration of an instrumental quality measure into a concatenative TTS system are examined.

This handbook brings together a variety of approaches to the uses of big data in multiple fields, primarily science, medicine, and business. This single resource features contributions from researchers around the world from a variety of fields, where they share their findings and experience. This book is intended to help spur further innovation in big data. The research is presented in a way that allows readers, regardless of their field of study, to learn from how applications have proven successful and how similar applications could be used in their own field. Contributions stem from researchers in fields such as physics, biology, energy, healthcare, and business. The contributors also discuss important topics such as fraud detection, privacy implications, legal perspectives, and ethical handling of big data.

This book brings together work on Turkish natural language and speech processing over the last 25 years, covering numerous fundamental tasks ranging from morphological processing and language modeling, to full-fledged deep parsing and machine translation, as well as computational resources developed along the way to enable most of this work. Owing to its complex morphology and free constituent order, Turkish has proved to be a fascinating language for natural language and speech processing research and applications. After an overview of the aspects of Turkish that make it challenging for natural language and speech processing tasks, this book discusses in detail the main tasks and applications of Turkish natural language and speech processing. A compendium of the work on Turkish natural language and speech processing, it is a valuable reference for new researchers considering computational work on Turkish, as well as a one-stop resource for commercial and research institutions planning to develop applications for Turkish. It also serves as a blueprint for similar work on other Turkic languages such as Azeri, Turkmen and Uzbek.

This textbook provides a detailed introduction to the use of software in combination with simple and economical hardware (a sound level meter with calibrated AC output and a digital recording system) to obtain sophisticated measurements usually requiring expensive equipment. It emphasizes the use of free, open source, and multiplatform software. Many commercial acoustical measurement systems use software algorithms as an integral component; however the methods are not disclosed. This book enables the reader to develop useful algorithms and provides insight into the use of digital audio editing tools to document features in the signal. Topics covered include acoustical measurement principles, in-depth critical study of uncertainty applied to acoustical measurements, digital signal processing from the basics, and metrologically-oriented spectral and statistical analysis of signals. The student will gain a deep understanding of the use of software for measurement purposes; the ability to implement software-based measurement systems; familiarity with the hardware necessary to acquire and store signals; an appreciation for the key issue of long-term preservation of signals; and a full grasp of the often neglected issue of uncertainty in acoustical measurements. Pedagogical features include in-text worked-out examples, end-of-chapter problems, a glossary of metrology terms, and extensive appendices covering statistics, proofs, additional examples, file formats, and underlying theory.