Implementation of JPEG compression and motion estimation on FPGA hardware

A hardware implementation of JPEG allows for real-time compression in data intensivve applications, such as high speed scanning, medical imaging and satellite image transmission. Implementation options include dedicated DSP or media processors, FPGA boards, and ASICs. Factors that affect the choice of platform selection involve cost, speed, memory, size, power consumption, and case of reconfiguration. The proposed hardware solution is based on a Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) implememtation of the codec with prefered realization using an FPGA board due to speed, cost and flexibility factors; The VHDL language is commonly used to model hardware impletations from a top down perspective. The VHDL code may be simulated to correct mistakes and subsequently synthesized into hardware using a synthesis tool, such as the xilinx ise suite. The same VHDL code may be synthesized into a number of sifferent hardware architetcures based on constraints given. For example speed was the major constraint when synthesizing the pipeline of jpeg encoding and decoding, while chip area and power consumption were primary constraints when synthesizing the on-die memory because of large area. Thus, there is a trade off between area and speed in logic synthesis

SARA: Self-Aware Resource Allocation for Heterogeneous MPSoCs

In modern heterogeneous MPSoCs, the management of shared memory resources is crucial in delivering end-to-end QoS. Previous frameworks have either focused on singular QoS targets or the allocation of partitionable resources among CPU applications at relatively slow timescales. However, heterogeneous MPSoCs typically require instant response from the memory system where most resources cannot be partitioned. Moreover, the health of different cores in a heterogeneous MPSoC is often measured by diverse performance objectives. In this work, we propose a Self-Aware Resource Allocation (SARA) framework for heterogeneous MPSoCs. Priority-based adaptation allows cores to use different target performance and self-monitor their own intrinsic health. In response, the system allocates non-partitionable resources based on priorities. The proposed framework meets a diverse range of QoS demands from heterogeneous cores.Comment: Accepted by the 55th annual Design Automation Conference 2018 (DAC'18

Spread spectrum-based video watermarking algorithms for copyright protection

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/2263 on 14.03.2017 by CS (TIS)Digital technologies know an unprecedented expansion in the last years. The consumer can now benefit from hardware and software which was considered state-of-the-art several years ago. The advantages offered by the digital technologies are major but the same digital technology opens the door for unlimited piracy. Copying an analogue VCR tape was certainly possible and relatively easy, in spite of various forms of protection, but due to the analogue environment, the subsequent copies had an inherent loss in quality. This was a natural way of limiting the multiple copying of a video material. With digital technology, this barrier disappears, being possible to make as many copies as desired, without any loss in quality whatsoever. Digital watermarking is one of the best available tools for fighting this threat. The aim of the present work was to develop a digital watermarking system compliant with the recommendations drawn by the EBU, for video broadcast monitoring. Since the watermark can be inserted in either spatial domain or transform domain, this aspect was investigated and led to the conclusion that wavelet transform is one of the best solutions available. Since watermarking is not an easy task, especially considering the robustness under various attacks several techniques were employed in order to increase the capacity/robustness of the system: spread-spectrum and modulation techniques to cast the watermark, powerful error correction to protect the mark, human visual models to insert a robust mark and to ensure its invisibility. The combination of these methods led to a major improvement, but yet the system wasn't robust to several important geometrical attacks. In order to achieve this last milestone, the system uses two distinct watermarks: a spatial domain reference watermark and the main watermark embedded in the wavelet domain. By using this reference watermark and techniques specific to image registration, the system is able to determine the parameters of the attack and revert it. Once the attack was reverted, the main watermark is recovered. The final result is a high capacity, blind DWr-based video watermarking system, robust to a wide range of attacks.BBC Research & Developmen

A comparison of digital transmission techniques under multichannel conditions at 2.4 GHz in the ISM BAND

In order to meet the observation quality criteria of micro-UAVs, and particularly in the context of the « Trophée Micro-Drones », ISAE/SUPAERO is studying technical solutions to transmit a high data rate from a video payload onboard a micro-UAV. The laboratory has to consider the impact of multipath and shadowing effects on the emitted signal. Therefore fading resistant transmission techniques are considered. This techniques paper have to reveal an optimum trade-off between three parameters, namely: the characteristics of the video stream, the complexity of the modulation and coding scheme, and the efficiency of the transmission, in term of BER

The impace of custom ROM backups on android external storage erasure

The Android operating system is the current market leader on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. The core operating system is open source and has a number of developers creating variants of this operating system. These variants, often referred to as custom ROMs are available for a wide number of mobile devices. Custom ROMs provide a number of features, such as enhanced control over the operating system, variation in user interfaces and so on. The process of installing custom ROMs is often accomplished through the use of a ROM manager application. Such applications often provide mechanisms to back up the contents of the mobile device prior to upgrade. This mechanism is utilised in the case of a failed update to restore the device to its previous functional state. Backups produced in this manner are often stored in on an external media such as a micro-SD card.In the conducted research we evaluated devices inbuilt data erasure mechanisms within the context of erasure of backups produced by ROM managers. It was found that simply using the devices Format External / SD function is not an effective means of completely erasing these backups. Once recovered, these backups offer a quick source of information that a potential attacker could carve to retrieve user files such as media transferred to the external or from applications. Although the same files could be recovered from an image of the external storage itself, the carving process is more efficient than traditional carving methods

The impace of custom ROM backups on android external storage erasure

The Android operating system is the current market leader on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. The core operating system is open source and has a number of developers creating variants of this operating system. These variants, often referred to as custom ROMs are available for a wide number of mobile devices. Custom ROMs provide a number of features, such as enhanced control over the operating system, variation in user interfaces and so on. The process of installing custom ROMs is often accomplished through the use of a ROM manager application. Such applications often provide mechanisms to back up the contents of the mobile device prior to upgrade. This mechanism is utilised in the case of a failed update to restore the device to its previous functional state. Backups produced in this manner are often stored in on an external media such as a micro-SD card.In the conducted research we evaluated devices inbuilt data erasure mechanisms within the context of erasure of backups produced by ROM managers. It was found that simply using the devices Format External / SD function is not an effective means of completely erasing these backups. Once recovered, these backups offer a quick source of information that a potential attacker could carve to retrieve user files such as media transferred to the external or from applications. Although the same files could be recovered from an image of the external storage itself, the carving process is more efficient than traditional carving methods

Distributed coding of endoscopic video

Triggered by the challenging prerequisites of wireless capsule endoscopic video technology, this paper presents a novel distributed video coding (DVC) scheme, which employs an original hash-based side-information creation method at the decoder. In contrast to existing DVC schemes, the proposed codec generates high quality side-information at the decoder, even under the strenuous motion conditions encountered in endoscopic video. Performance evaluation using broad endoscopic video material shows that the proposed approach brings notable and consistent compression gains over various state-of-the-art video codecs at the additional benefit of vastly reduced encoding complexity