반향 환경에 강인한 음향 데이터 전송을 위한 오디오 정보 은닉 기법 연구

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 전기·컴퓨터공학부, 2014. 2. 김남수.In this dissertation, audio data hiding methods suitable for acoustic data transmission are studied. Acoustic data transmission implies a technique which communicates data in short-range aerial space between a loudspeaker and a microphone. Audio data hiding method implies a technique that embeds message signals into audio such as music or speech. The audio signal with embedded message is played back by the loudspeaker at a transmitter and the signal is recorded by the microphone at a receiver without any additional communication devices. The data hiding methods for acoustic data transmission require a high level of robustness and data rate than those for other applications. For one of the conventional methods, the acoustic orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (AOFDM) technique was developed as a reliable communication with reasonable bit rate. The conventional methods including AOFDM, however, are considered deficient in transmission performance or audio quality. To overcome this limitation, the modulated complex lapped transform (MCLT) is introduced in the second chapter of the dissertation. The system using MCLT does not produce blocking artifacts which may degrade the quality of the resulting data-embedded audio signal. Moreover, the interference among adjacent coefficients due to the overlap property is analyzed to take advantage of it for data embedding and extraction. In the third chapter of the dissertation, a novel audio data hiding method for the acoustic data transmission using MCLT is proposed. In the proposed system, audio signal is transformed by the MCLT and the phases of the coefficients are modified to embed message based on the fact that human auditory perception is more sensitive to the variation in magnitude spectra. In the proposed method, the perceived quality of the data-embedded audio signal can be kept almost similar to that of the original audio while transmitting data at several hundreds of bits per second (bps). The experimental results have shown that the audio quality and transmission performance of proposed system are better than those of the AOFDM based system. Moreover, several techniques have been found to further improve the performance of the proposed acoustic data transmission system which are listed as follows: incorporating a masking threshold (MM), clustering based decoding (CLS), and a spectral magnitude adjustment (SMA). In the fourth chapter of the dissertation, an audio data hiding technique more suitable for acoustic data transmission in reverberant environments is proposed. In this approach, sophisticated techniques widely deployed in wireless communication is incorporated which can be summarized as follows: First, a proper range of MCLT length to cope with reverberant environments is analyzed based on the wireless communication theory. Second, a channel estimation technique based on the Wiener estimator to compensate the effect of channel is applied in conjunction with a suitable data packet structure. From the experimental result, the MCLT length longer than the reverberation time is found to be robust against the reverberant environments at the cost of the quality of the data-embedded audio. The experimental results have also shown that the proposed method is robust against various forms of attacks such as signal processing, overwriting, and malicious removal methods. However, it would be the most severe problem to find a proper window length which satisfies both the inaudible distortion and robust data transmission in the reverberant environments. For the phase modification of the audio signal, it would be highly likely to incur a significant quality degradation if the length of time-frequency transform is very long due to the pre-echo phenomena. In the fifth chapter, therefore, segmental SNR adjustment (SSA) technique is proposed to further modify the spectral components for attenuating the pre-echo. In the proposed SSA technique, segmenatal SNR is calculated from short-length MCLT analysis and its minimum value is limited to a desired value. The experimental results have shown that the SSA algorithm with a long MCLT length can attenuate the pre-echo effectively such that it can transmit data more reliably while preserving good audio quality. In addition, a good trade-off between the audio quality and transmission performance can be achieved by adjusting only a single parameter in the SSA algorithm. If the number of microphones is more than one, the diversity technique which takes advantage of transmitting duplicates through statistically independent channel could be useful to enhance the transmission reliability. In the sixth chapter, the acoustic data transmission technique is extended to take advantage of the multi-microphone scheme based on combining. In the combining-based multichannel method, the synchronization and channel estimation are respectively performed at each received signal and then the received signals are linearly combined so that the SNR is increased. The most noticeable property for combining-based technique is to provide compatibility with the acoustic data transmission system using a single microphone. From the series of the experiments, the proposed multichannel method have been found to be useful to enhance the transmission performance despite of the statistical dependency between the channels.Abstract i List of Figures ix List of Tables xv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Audio Data Hiding and Acoustic Data Transmission 1 1.2 Previous Methods 4 1.2.1 Audio Watermarking Based Methods 4 1.2.2 Wireless Communication Based Methods 6 1.3 Performance Evaluation 9 1.3.1 Audio Quality 9 1.3.2 Data Transmission Performance 10 1.4 Outline of the Dissertation 10 Chapter 2 Modulated Complex Lapped Transform 13 2.1 Introduction 13 2.2 MCLT 14 2.3 Fast Computation Algorithm 18 2.4 Derivation of Interference Terms in MCLT 19 2.5 Summary 24 Chapter 3 Acoustic Data Transmission Based on MCLT 25 3.1 Introduction 25 3.2 Data Embedding 27 3.2.1 Message Frame 27 3.2.2 Synchronization Frame 29 3.2.3 Data Packet Structure 32 3.3 Data Extraction 32 3.4 Techniques for Performance Enhancement 33 3.4.1 Magnitude Modification Based on Frequency Masking 33 3.4.2 Clustering-based Decoding 35 3.4.3 Spectral Magnitude Adjustment Algorithm 37 3.5 Experimental Results 39 3.5.1 Comparison with Acoustic OFDM 39 3.5.2 Performance Improvements by Magnitude Modification and Clustering based Decoding 47 3.5.3 Performance Improvements by Spectral Magnitude Adjustment 50 3.6 Summary 52 Chapter 4 Robust Acoustic Data Transmission against Reverberant Environments 55 4.1 Introduction 55 4.2 Data Embedding 56 4.2.1 Data Embedding 57 4.2.2 MCLT Length 58 4.2.3 Data Packet Structure 60 4.3 Data Extraction 61 4.3.1 Synchronization 61 4.3.2 Channel Estimation and Compensation 62 4.3.3 Data Decoding 65 4.4 Experimental Results 66 4.4.1 Robustness to Reverberation 69 4.4.2 Audio Quality 71 4.4.3 Robustness to Doppler Effect 71 4.4.4 Robustness to Attacks 71 4.5 Summary 75 Chapter 5 Segmental SNR Adjustment for Audio Quality Enhancement 77 5.1 Introduction 77 5.2 Segmental SNR Adjustment Algorithm 79 5.3 Experimental Results 83 5.3.1 System Configurations 83 5.3.2 Audio Quality Test 84 5.3.3 Robustness to Attacks 86 5.3.4 Transmission Performance of Recorded Signals in Indoor Environment 87 5.3.5 Error correction using convolutional coding 89 5.4 Summary 91 Chapter 6 Multichannel Acoustic Data Transmission 93 6.1 Introduction 93 6.2 Multichannel Techniques for Robust Data Transmission 94 6.2.1 Diversity Techniques for Multichannel System 94 6.2.2 Combining-based Multichannel Acoustic Data Transmission 98 6.3 Experimental Results 100 6.3.1 Room Environments 101 6.3.2 Transmission Performance of Simulated Environments 102 6.3.3 Transmission Performance of Recorded Signals in Reverberant Environment 105 6.4 Summary 106 Chapter 7 Conclusions 109 Bibliography 113 국문초록 121Docto

Spread-spectrum techniques for environmentally-friendly underwater acoustic communications

PhD ThesisAnthropogenic underwater noise has been shown to have a negative impact on marine life. Acoustic data transmissions have also been shown to cause behavioural responses in marine mammals. A promising approach to address these issues is through reducing the power of acoustic data transmissions. Firstly, limiting the maximum acoustic transmit power to a safe limit that causes no injury, and secondly, reducing the radius of the discomfort zone whilst maximising the receivable range. The discomfort zone is dependent on the signal design as well as the signal power. To achieve these aims requires a signal and receiver design capable of synchronisation and data reception at low-received-SNR, down to around −15 dB, with Doppler effects. These requirements lead to very high-ratio spread-spectrum signaling with efficient modulation to maximise data rate, which necessitates effective Doppler correction in the receiver structure. This thesis examines the state-of-the-art in this area and investigates the design, development and implementation of a suitable signal and receiver structure, with experimental validation in a variety of real-world channels. Data signals are designed around m-ary orthogonal signaling based on bandlimited carrierless PN sequences to create an M-ary Orthogonal Code Keying (M-OCK) modulation scheme. Synchronisation signal structures combining the energy of multiple unique PN symbols are shown to outperform single PN sequences of the same bandwidth and duration in channels with low SNR and significant Doppler effects. Signals and receiver structures are shown to be capable of reliable communications with band of 8 kHz to 16 kHz and transmit power limited to less than 170.8 dB re 1 μPa @ 1m, or 1W of acoustic power, over ranges of 10 km in sea trials, with low-received-SNR below −10 dB, at data rates of up to 140.69 bit/s. Channel recordings with AWGN demonstrated limits of signal and receiver performance of BER 10−3 at −14 dB for 35.63 bit/s, and −8.5 dB for 106.92 bit/s. Piloted study of multipath exploitation showed this performance could be improved to −10.5 dB for 106.92 bit/s by combining the energy of two arrival paths. Doppler compensation techniques are explored with experimental validation showing synchronisation and data demodulation at velocities over ranges of ±2.7m/s. Non-binary low density parity check (LDPC) error correction coding with M-OCK signals is investigated showing improved performance over Reed-Solomon (RS) coding of equivalent code rate in simulations and experiments in real underwater channels. The receiver structures are implemented on an Android mobile device with experiments showing live real-time synchronisation and data demodulation of signals transmitted through an underwater channel.UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC): PhD Doctoral Training Account (DTA)

Low probability of detection underwater acoustic communications

Low probability of detection (LPD) underwater acoustic communications are an essential requirement for command and control of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) or submarines performing covert missions, avoiding their detection while communicating. Based on low power signals, these covert communications may also extend the autonomy of battery-operated AUVs, and contribute to reducing the impacts of the environmental noise level on marine life. The present thesis aims to develop LPD communications based on modeled and real data from three shallow water experiments. Thus, a superimposed training method has been proposed. A bitstream is created superimposing a long probe to the message before transmission. Computationally simple, the algorithm explores temporal diversity to increase the processing gain and uses a Wiener filter for equalization. Experimental results presented bit-error rates (BER) < 10−2 for signal-tonoise ratios (SNR) < −8 dB. To understand the effects of coastal upwelling phenomena over low SNR communications, a study compares the acoustic propagation for different sound speed profiles using a propagation model and analyzes data from the BioCom’19 experiment, performed off Cabo Frio Island (Brazil). Temporal and spatial coherence of low power signals propagating in this harsh environment are estimated, and both a criterion for multichannel combining and a double Wiener filter to improve equalization are presented. Passive time-reversal (pTR) techniques have been widely employed for communications. To address the pTR channel mismatch due to the environmental variability between the probe and the data transmissions, this work proposes a superimposed training pTR (STpTR) approach for single and multichannel systems. Despite the high noise levels, varying from -5 to +6 dB, the STpTR combined with a Wiener filter achieved BER < 10−2, for bit rates up to 220 bps. To improve covert communications for AUVs, this work also presents a study about vector sensor multichannel combining. Using the STpTR approach, results from an experiment on the coast of Algarve/Portugal indicate that combining the pressure and particle velocity channels of a vector sensor may provide an average SNR and mean squared-error gain of up to 9.4 and 3.1 dB, respectively, compared to the pressure channel. Therefore, a better understanding of the environment combined with the superimposed training pTR using a vector sensor may improve the LPD communication system’s performance and robustness while keeping covertness.No ´últimos anos, os trabalhos de investigação sobre comunicações acústicas submarinas com baixa probabilidade de deteção (BPD) tem sido incentivados pela indústria, pelos governos, e pela própria academia em razão de suas m´múltiplas aplicações. Na ´área militar, as comunicações BPD permitem que submarinos e veículos autónomos possam se comunicar sem serem detectados. Na ´área civil, permitem a economia de energia de sensores alimentados por baterias, aumentando o tempo de funcionamento, bem como contribui para reduzir os impactos sobre a vida marinha causados pelos altos n´ıveis de ru´ıdo submarino, entre outras aplica¸c˜oes. Neste contexto, esta tese pretende desenvolver comunica¸c˜oes BPD utilizando um modelo de propaga¸c˜ao ac´ustica e dados obtidos a partir de trˆes experimentos em ´aguas rasas. Este trabalho apresenta um m´etodo de treinamento superposto para comunica¸c˜oes submarinas em um ambiente com baixa rela¸c˜ao sinal/ru´ıdo, e demonstra sua aplica¸c˜ao para comunica¸c˜oes BPD. Computacionalmente simples, o m´etodo foi desenvolvido para funcionar com um ´único projetor acústico, transmitindo com baixa potência, e um hidrofone, sem o ganho de um arranjo de sensores distribuídos no espaço. Antes da transmissão, uma longa sequência de comprimento m´máximo ´e somada `a mensagem para efeitos de equalização e sincronismo. Os dois sinais são binários, modulados em fase e possuem 2047 bits. Porém, possuem amplitudes diferentes. Na realidade, a amplitude do sinal de treinamento ´e ligeiramente superior `a da mensagem. Em um ambiente com baixa rela¸c˜ao sinal ru´ıdo, um sinal de treinamento mais forte permite ocultar a mensagem a ser transmitida, bem como melhorar o ganho para a estima¸c˜ao da resposta impulsiva e para a sincroniza¸c˜ao do sistema. A mensagem ´e composta por 3 bits nulos e 4 sequˆencias de 511 bits. Delimitados por uma curta sequˆencia de comprimento m´aximo de 31 bits, para dupla sincroniza¸c˜ao, os pacotes de dados possuem 480 bits e transportam o seguinte pangrama: (The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog 0123456789!@#$). O m´etodo explora a diversidade temporal do canal, transmitindo a mesma sequˆencia diversas vezes para aumentar o ganho de processamento do sinal e implementar a corre¸c˜ao de erros atrav´es da soma coerente dos sinais. A resposta impulsiva do canal ´e estimada pela transformada r´apida de Hadamard, e a equaliza¸c˜ao do sinal ´e feita por um filtro de Wiener. A remo¸c˜ao da interferˆencia causada pelo sinal de treinamento ´e realizada pelo m´etodo “hyperslice cancellation by coordinate zeroing (HCC0)”, e a seguir a mensagem ´e decodificada. Resultados obtidos a partir de um experimento em ´aguas rasas, utilizando uma fonte e um ´único hidrofone, apresentaram taxas de erro de bit menores que 10−2, para relações sinal/ruído inferiores a −8 dB. A ressurgência costeira ´e um fenómeno oceanográfico dinâmico que modifica, profundamente, a estratificação de temperatura do oceano, influenciando diretamente na propagação acústica. Por outro lado, os crescentes n´níveis de ruído antropogénico não apenas reduzem o desempenho dos sistema de comunicação, corrompendo a informação transmitida, mas tamb´em afetam a vida marinha. Para compreender os efeitos da ressurgˆencia costeira sobre as comunica¸c˜oes com baixa rela¸c˜ao sinal/ru´ıdo, um estudo analisa os dados do experimento BioCom’19, realizado nas proximidades da Ilha do Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro (Brasil). As respostas impulsivas do canal e a propaga¸c˜ao ac´ustica, para diferentes perfis de velocidade do som, foram estimadas usando o modelo de propaga¸c˜ao ac´ustica “Monterey-Miami Parabolic Equation model (MMPE)”. Al´em disso, o desempenho do sistema de comunica¸c˜oes foi correlacionado com os perfis de temperatura durante o experimento. Os resultados obtidos indicam uma significativa redu¸c˜ao da energia ac´ustica nos receptores durante a ressurgˆencia, degradando o desempenho do sistema. A coerˆencia temporal e espacial dos sinais de baixa potˆencia transmitidos no experimento BioCom’19 foi estimada, e um crit´erio para combina¸c˜ao dos sinais, provenientes dos m´ultiplos hidrofones, foi proposto. Utilizando dados de um arranjo piramidal e um arranjo vertical linear, de 4 hidrofones cada, a coerˆencia foi estimada antes e depois do filtro de Wiener para mostrar o impacto do multicaminhamento sobre a taxa de erro de bit. Os resultados mostram que a coˆerencia temporal pode ser utilizada como crit´erio para combinar sinais consecutivos em um mesmo canal, enquanto a diversidade espacial permite a combina¸c˜ao de m´ultiplos canais do arranjo de sensores. Sequˆencias cuja coerˆencia temporal esteja acima de um limite pr´e-definido s˜ao somadas. A coerˆencia espacial entre canais foi estimada e comparada em termos da taxa de erro de bit. Para diferentes taxas de transmiss˜ao, as taxas de erro de bit est˜ao em concordˆancia com a evoluc˜ao da coerˆencia espacial. Quanto mais elevada a coerˆencia, melhor o desempenho e menor a taxa de erro de bit. Um duplo filtro de Wiener para melhorar a equaliza¸c˜ao dos sinais de baixa potˆencia, durante a ressurgˆencia, tambem foi proposto. Utilizando dados dos 4 hidrofones de um arranjo piramidal, as respostas impulsivas foram estimadas para observar a variabilidade das condi¸c˜oes de propaga¸c˜ao. Em uma condi¸c˜ao de perfil de temperatura isot´ermico, as respostas impulsivas apresentaram multicaminhamento curto, com chegadas mais fortes nos receptores. `A medida que a ressurgˆencia ocorria, foram observadas quedas abruptas de temperatura superiores a 10◦C, na posi¸c˜ao dos hidrofones, acarretando uma forte refra¸c˜ao da onda sonora para o fundo marinho. Em consequˆencia, sinais mais fracos foram observados nos hidrofones. Os resultados obtidos com dados do BioCom’19 mostram que, para uma rela¸c˜ao sinal/ru´ıdo variando entre −3.9 e 7.3 dB, o duplo filtro de Wiener forneceu um ganho do erro m´edio quadr´atico de at´e 2.8 dB, comparado com o filtro de Wiener simples. As t´ecnicas de tempo reverso passivo (TRP) tem sido amplamente empregadas nas comunica¸c˜oes submarinas. Por´em, as r´apidas altera¸c˜oes das condi¸c˜oes de propaga¸c˜ao em canais submarinos variantes no tempo, durante as transmiss˜oes da sequˆencia de treinamento e da mensagem, degradam o desempenho das t´ecnicas TRP de equaliza¸c˜ao. Assim, esse trabalho prop˜oe um m´etodo de TRP utilizando treinamento superposto, para sistemas com um ou m´ultiplos sensores. O m´etodo proposto utiliza uma sequˆencia de treinamento, com o efeito Doppler corrigido, para estimar o canal e realizar o TRP. O m´etodo compara 3 differentes estrat´egias para melhorar a performance do sistema de comunica¸c˜ao: a diversidade temporal devido aos sinais idˆenticos transmitidos continuamente, a diversidade espacial devido aos 2 arranjos de hidrofones, piramidal e linear, com 4 hidrofones cada um, al´em da combina¸c˜ao dos 2 arranjos (8 hidrofones). Neste m´etodo, a t´ecnica de TRP com treinamento superposto minimiza o multicaminhamento e realiza a corre¸c˜ao de erros atrav´es da soma coerente dos diferentes canais. A interferˆencia intersimb´olica residual ´e removida pelo filtro de Wiener. Resultados obtidos com dados do experimento BioCom’19 mostram que o m´etodo proposto pode fornecer um ganho do erro médio quadrático de até 1.62 dB para canais independentes, e 3.13 dB, para canais combinados, comparativamente ao m´etodo sem o TRP, usando apenas o filtro de Wiener. Neste contexto, o m´etodo de TRP utilizando treinamento superposto alcan¸cou taxas de erro de bit < 10−2 para uma rela¸c˜ao sinal ru´ıdo, na banda de transmiss˜ao, variando entre −5 a +6 dB. Focado em comunica¸c˜oes com baixa probabilidade de detec¸c˜ao para pequenos ve´ıculos submarinos, este trabalho tamb´em apresenta um estudo sobre a combina¸c˜ao dos canais de press˜ao e velocidade de part´ıcula dos sensores vetoriais. Os sensores vetoriais possuem pequenas dimens˜oes, adequadas `a utilizac˜ao em ve´ıculos autˆonomos, e permitem obter um ganho de diversidade para as comunica¸c˜oes BPD. Para testar o m´etodo de treinamento superposto com o tempo reverso passivo utilizando sensores vetoriais, um experimento foi realizado, em ´aguas rasas, na costa do Algarve/Portugal. Para reduzir a rela¸c˜ao sinal/ru´ıdo para uma faixa de 0 a −10 dB, foi adicionado ru´ıdo gravado no experimento. Os resultados experimentais indicam que a combina¸c˜ao dos canais podem fornecer um ganho da rela¸c˜ao sinal/ru´ıdo e do erro m´edio quadr´atico de at´e 9.4 e 3.1 dB, respectivamente, comparados com os resultados do sensor de press˜ao. Portanto, as principais contribui¸c˜oes dessa tese s˜ao (i) a proposta do m´etodo de treinamento superposto para comunica¸c˜oes com baixa probabilidade de detec¸c˜ao, (ii) a compreens ˜ao dos efeitos da ressurgˆencia costeira sobre as comunica¸c˜oes, e seus impactos sobre a coerˆencia temporal e espacial, (iii) o m´etodo de treinamento superposto em conjunto com o tempo reverso passivo para lidar com a varia¸c˜ao do canal entre o tempo de recep¸c˜ao do sinal de treinamento e da mensagem, e (iv) a combina¸c˜ao dos m´ultiplos canais dos sensores vetoriais para comunica¸c˜oes BPD. Dessa forma, uma melhor compreens˜ao do canal submarino e a utiliza¸c˜ao dos m´etodos propostos combinados com sensores do estado da arte, como os sensores vetoriais, se configura como um avan¸co neste campo do conhecimento, permitindo aumentar a robustez do sistema BPD, bem como reduzir a probabilidade de detec¸c˜ao, mantendo a ocultação das comunicações.I am also grateful for the sponsorship provided by the Brazilian Navy through the Postgraduate Study Abroad Program, Grant No. Port.227/MB/2019

A Case Study in Physical-Layer Steganography Applied to Multicarrier Transmissions

Covert communications can be a force for good, such as providing a means of message authentication to prevent malicious actors from spoofing networks. This dissertation explores the design of a covert signal to be hidden inside the bandwidth of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal. In order to make detection by unintended observers as difficult as possible, the covert signal operates as interference inside the OFDM signal and is set to a high Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR). Given the high SIR, the OFDM signal must be cancelled in order to recover the covert signal. The detectability of the covert signal is tested using multiple detectors with and without cancellation. Among the detectors used is a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) designed for image classification that has been repurposed through transfer learning to detect signal activity in noise and interference. The CNN detector demonstrates resilience in the presence of narrowband interference. The cancellation algorithm is enhanced with an estimate of OFDM windowing as applied at the transmitter, which is an often-overlooked parameter in cancellation applications. The enhanced cancellation-algorithm improves the cancellation of OFDM signals by 5.3 dB in an over-the-air test. The enhanced cancellation-algorithm also improves the Packet Error Rate of OFDM signals and improves the recovery of the covert signal. The improved recovery has direct application to Power-Domain Non-orthogonal Multiple Access and Rate-Splitting Multiple Access, which both rely on successive interference cancellation. Lastly, to frustrate any efforts to analyze the covert waveform, the covert signal is augmented with an adversarial waveform designed to exploit weaknesses in CNNs used for modulation classification. The classification system suffers from uncertainty in the bandwidth estimate of the covert signal. The system will likely err on the side of making the bandwidth wider than necessary. It is demonstrated that a wider bandwidth makes the attack more successful, as opposed to other estimation errors which prior literature has shown to weaken the effectiveness of these attacks

Passive radar on moving platforms exploiting DVB-T transmitters of opportunity

The work, effort, and research put into passive radar for stationary receivers have shown significant developments and progress in recent years. The next challenge is mounting a passive radar on moving platforms for the purpose of target detection and ground imaging, e.g. for covert border control. A passive radar on a moving platform has many advantages and offers many benefits, however there is also a considerable drawback that has limited its application so far. Due to the movement the clutter returns are spread in Doppler and may overlap moving targets, which are then difficult to detect. While this problem is common for an active radar as well, with a passive radar a further problem arises: It is impossible to control the exploited time-varying waveform emitted from a telecommunication transmitter. A conventional processing approach is ineffective as the time-varying waveform leads to residuals all over the processed data. Therefore a dedicated clutter cancellation method, e.g. the displaced phase centre antenna (DPCA) approach, does not have the ability to completely remove the clutter, so that target detection is considerably limited. The aim must be therefore to overcome this limitation by exploiting a processing technique, which is able to remove these residuals in order to cope with the clutter returns thus making target detection feasible. The findings of this research and thesis show that a reciprocal filtering based stage is able to provide a time-invariant impulse response similar to the transmissions of an active radar. Due to this benefit it is possible to achieve an overall complete clutter removal together with a dedicated DPCA stage, so that moving target detection is considerably improved, making it possible in the first place. Based on mathematical analysis and on simulations it is proven, that by exploiting this processing in principle an infinite clutter cancellation can be achieved. This result shows that the reciprocal filter is an essential processing stage. Applications on real data acquired from two different measurement campaigns prove these results. By the proposed approach, the limiting factor (i.e. the time-varying waveform) for target detection is negotiated, and in principle any clutter cancellation technique known from active radar can be applied. Therefore this analysis and the results provide a substantial contribution to the passive radar research community and enables it to address the next questions

Methods of covert communication of speech signals based on a bio-inspired principle

This work presents two speech hiding methods based on a bio-inspired concept known as the ability of adaptation of speech signals. A cryptographic model uses the adaptation to transform a secret message to a non-sensitive target speech signal, and then, the scrambled speech signal is an intelligible signal. The residual intelligibility is extremely low and it is appropriate to transmit secure speech signals. On the other hand, in a steganographic model, the adapted speech signal is hidden into a host signal by using indirect substitution or direct substitution. In the first case, the scheme is known as Efficient Wavelet Masking (EWM), and in the second case, it is known as improved-EWM (iEWM). While EWM demonstrated to be highly statistical transparent, the second one, iEWM, demonstrated to be highly robust against signal manipulations. Finally, with the purpose to transmit secure speech signals in real-time operation, a hardware-based scheme is proposedEsta tesis presenta dos métodos de comunicación encubierta de señales de voz utilizando un concepto bio-inspirado, conocido como la “habilidad de adaptación de señales de voz”. El modelo de criptografía utiliza la adaptación para transformar un mensaje secreto a una señal de voz no confidencial, obteniendo una señal de voz encriptada legible. Este método es apropiado para transmitir señales de voz seguras porque en la señal encriptada no quedan rastros del mensaje secreto original. En el caso de esteganografía, la señal de voz adaptada se oculta en una señal de voz huésped, utilizando sustitución directa o indirecta. En el primer caso el esquema se denomina EWM y en el segundo caso iEWM. EWM demostró ser altamente transparente, mientras que iEWM demostró ser altamente robusto contra manipulaciones de señal. Finalmente, con el propósito de transmitir señales de voz seguras en tiempo real, se propone un esquema para dispositivos hardware

Passive radar based on WiFi transmissions: signal processing schemes and experimental results

Aim of this work is to study innovative techniques and processing strategies for a new passive sensor for short range surveillance. The principle of work of the sensor will be based on the passive radar principle, and WiFi transmissions - which usually provide Internet access within local areas - will be exploited by the passive sensor to detect, localize and classify targets

Intelligent Circuits and Systems

ICICS-2020 is the third conference initiated by the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Lovely Professional University that explored recent innovations of researchers working for the development of smart and green technologies in the fields of Energy, Electronics, Communications, Computers, and Control. ICICS provides innovators to identify new opportunities for the social and economic benefits of society.　 This conference bridges the gap between academics and R&D institutions, social visionaries, and experts from all strata of society to present their ongoing research activities and foster research relations between them. It provides opportunities for the exchange of new ideas, applications, and experiences in the field of smart technologies and finding global partners for future collaboration. The ICICS-2020 was conducted in two broad categories, Intelligent Circuits & Intelligent Systems and Emerging Technologies in Electrical Engineering