26,164 research outputs found
High resolution observations of low contrast phenomena from an Advanced Geosynchronous Platform (AGP)
Present technology allows radiometric monitoring of the Earth, ocean and atmosphere from a geosynchronous platform with good spatial, spectral and temporal resolution. The proposed system could provide a capability for multispectral remote sensing with a 50 m nadir spatial resolution in the visible bands, 250 m in the 4 micron band and 1 km in the 11 micron thermal infrared band. The diffraction limited telescope has a 1 m aperture, a 10 m focal length (with a shorter focal length in the infrared) and linear and area arrays of detectors. The diffraction limited resolution applies to scenes of any brightness but for a dark low contrast scenes, the good signal to noise ratio of the system contribute to the observation capability. The capabilities of the AGP system are assessed for quantitative observations of ocean scenes. Instrument and ground system configuration are presented and projected sensor capabilities are analyzed
SoundCompass: a distributed MEMS microphone array-based sensor for sound source localization
Sound source localization is a well-researched subject with applications ranging from localizing sniper fire in urban battlefields to cataloging wildlife in rural areas. One critical application is the localization of noise pollution sources in urban environments, due to an increasing body of evidence linking noise pollution to adverse effects on human health. Current noise mapping techniques often fail to accurately identify noise pollution sources, because they rely on the interpolation of a limited number of scattered sound sensors. Aiming to produce accurate noise pollution maps, we developed the SoundCompass, a low-cost sound sensor capable of measuring local noise levels and sound field directionality. Our first prototype is composed of a sensor array of 52 Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones, an inertial measuring unit and a low-power field-programmable gate array (FPGA). This article presents the SoundCompass's hardware and firmware design together with a data fusion technique that exploits the sensing capabilities of the SoundCompass in a wireless sensor network to localize noise pollution sources. Live tests produced a sound source localization accuracy of a few centimeters in a 25-m2 anechoic chamber, while simulation results accurately located up to five broadband sound sources in a 10,000-m2 open field
Diffractive optics approach towards subwavelength pixels
Pixel size in cameras and other refractive imaging devices is typically
limited by the free-space diffraction. However, a vast majority of
semiconductor-based detectors are based on materials with substantially high
refractive index. We demonstrate that diffractive optics can be used to take
advantage of this high refractive index to reduce effective pixel size of the
sensors below free-space diffraction limit. At the same time, diffractive
systems encode both amplitude and phase information about the incoming beam
into multiple pixels, offering the platform for noise-tolerant imaging with
dynamical refocusing. We explore the opportunities opened by high index
diffractive optics to reduce sensor size and increase signal-to-noise ratio of
imaging structures.Comment: submitted to SPIE-DCS 201
Angular resolution limit for deterministic correlated sources
This paper is devoted to the analysis of the angular resolution limit (ARL),
an important performance measure in the directions-of-arrival estimation
theory. The main fruit of our endeavor takes the form of an explicit,
analytical expression of this resolution limit, w.r.t. the angular parameters
of interest between two closely spaced point sources in the far-field region.
As by-products, closed-form expressions of the Cram\'er-Rao bound have been
derived. Finally, with the aid of numerical tools, we confirm the validity of
our derivation and provide a detailed discussion on several enlightening
properties of the ARL revealed by our expression, with an emphasis on the
impact of the signal correlation
Angular Resolution Limit for Vector-Sensor Arrays: Detection and Information Theory Approaches
International audienceThe Angular Resolution Limit (ARL) on resolving two closely spaced polarized sources using vector-sensor arrays is considered in this paper. The proposed method is based on the information theory. In particular, the Stein's lemma provides, asymptotically, a link between the probability of false alarm and the relative entropy between two hypothesis of a given statistical binary test. We show that the relative entropy can be approximated by a quadratic function in the ARL. This property allows us to derive and analyze a closed-form expression of the ARL. To illustrate the interest of our approach the ARL, in the sense of the detection theory, is also derived. Finally, we show that the ARL is only sensitive to the norm of the polarization state vector and not to the particular values of the polarization parameters
CASTER - a concept for a Black Hole Finder Probe based on the use of new scintillator technologies
The primary scientific mission of the Black Hole Finder Probe (BHFP), part of
the NASA Beyond Einstein program, is to survey the local Universe for black
holes over a wide range of mass and accretion rate. One approach to such a
survey is a hard X-ray coded-aperture imaging mission operating in the 10--600
keV energy band, a spectral range that is considered to be especially useful in
the detection of black hole sources. The development of new inorganic
scintillator materials provides improved performance (for example, with regards
to energy resolution and timing) that is well suited to the BHFP science
requirements. Detection planes formed with these materials coupled with a new
generation of readout devices represent a major advancement in the performance
capabilities of scintillator-based gamma cameras. Here, we discuss the Coded
Aperture Survey Telescope for Energetic Radiation (CASTER), a concept that
represents a BHFP based on the use of the latest scintillator technology.Comment: 12 pages; conference paper presented at the SPIE conference "UV,
X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIV." To be
published in SPIE Conference Proceedings, vol. 589
Space Time MUSIC: Consistent Signal Subspace Estimation for Wide-band Sensor Arrays
Wide-band Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation with sensor arrays is an
essential task in sonar, radar, acoustics, biomedical and multimedia
applications. Many state of the art wide-band DOA estimators coherently process
frequency binned array outputs by approximate Maximum Likelihood, Weighted
Subspace Fitting or focusing techniques. This paper shows that bin signals
obtained by filter-bank approaches do not obey the finite rank narrow-band
array model, because spectral leakage and the change of the array response with
frequency within the bin create \emph{ghost sources} dependent on the
particular realization of the source process. Therefore, existing DOA
estimators based on binning cannot claim consistency even with the perfect
knowledge of the array response. In this work, a more realistic array model
with a finite length of the sensor impulse responses is assumed, which still
has finite rank under a space-time formulation. It is shown that signal
subspaces at arbitrary frequencies can be consistently recovered under mild
conditions by applying MUSIC-type (ST-MUSIC) estimators to the dominant
eigenvectors of the wide-band space-time sensor cross-correlation matrix. A
novel Maximum Likelihood based ST-MUSIC subspace estimate is developed in order
to recover consistency. The number of sources active at each frequency are
estimated by Information Theoretic Criteria. The sample ST-MUSIC subspaces can
be fed to any subspace fitting DOA estimator at single or multiple frequencies.
Simulations confirm that the new technique clearly outperforms binning
approaches at sufficiently high signal to noise ratio, when model mismatches
exceed the noise floor.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Accepted in a revised form by the IEEE Trans.
on Signal Processing on 12 February 1918. @IEEE201
- …