Prioritizing Content of Interest in Multimedia Data Compression

Image and video compression techniques make data transmission and storage in digital multimedia systems more efficient and feasible for the system's limited storage and bandwidth. Many generic image and video compression techniques such as JPEG and H.264/AVC have been standardized and are now widely adopted. Despite their great success, we observe that these standard compression techniques are not the best solution for data compression in special types of multimedia systems such as microscopy videos and low-power wireless broadcast systems. In these application-specific systems where the content of interest in the multimedia data is known and well-defined, we should re-think the design of a data compression pipeline. We hypothesize that by identifying and prioritizing multimedia data's content of interest, new compression methods can be invented that are far more effective than standard techniques. In this dissertation, a set of new data compression methods based on the idea of prioritizing the content of interest has been proposed for three different kinds of multimedia systems. I will show that the key to designing efficient compression techniques in these three cases is to prioritize the content of interest in the data. The definition of the content of interest of multimedia data depends on the application. First, I show that for microscopy videos, the content of interest is defined as the spatial regions in the video frame with pixels that don't only contain noise. Keeping data in those regions with high quality and throwing out other information yields to a novel microscopy video compression technique. Second, I show that for a Bluetooth low energy beacon based system, practical multimedia data storage and transmission is possible by prioritizing content of interest. I designed custom image compression techniques that preserve edges in a binary image, or foreground regions of a color image of indoor or outdoor objects. Last, I present a new indoor Bluetooth low energy beacon based augmented reality system that integrates a 3D moving object compression method that prioritizes the content of interest.Doctor of Philosoph

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory: Instrumentation and Online Systems

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer-scale high-energy neutrino detector built into the ice at the South Pole. Construction of IceCube, the largest neutrino detector built to date, was completed in 2011 and enabled the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. We describe here the design, production, and calibration of the IceCube digital optical module (DOM), the cable systems, computing hardware, and our methodology for drilling and deployment. We also describe the online triggering and data filtering systems that select candidate neutrino and cosmic ray events for analysis. Due to a rigorous pre-deployment protocol, 98.4% of the DOMs in the deep ice are operating and collecting data. IceCube routinely achieves a detector uptime of 99% by emphasizing software stability and monitoring. Detector operations have been stable since construction was completed, and the detector is expected to operate at least until the end of the next decade.Comment: 83 pages, 50 figures; updated with minor changes from journal review and proofin

Towards Radio Analog Signal Processing

RÉSUMÉ La demande insatiable pour les services de radio et communication à large bande, stimule les fabricants à chercher des nouvelles façons d’augmenter la largeur de bande spectrale des systèmes. Traitement numérique du signal (DSP) comme la technologie la plus commune des radios d’aujourd’hui est souple, reproductible, compact, et fiable en basse fréquence. Cependant,le système digital est plage dynamique limitée, le largeur de bande du système DSP est limité par la fréquence d’échantillonnage. A haute fréquence, telles que la fréquence d’onde millimétrique, le système DSP a un manque de performance et une consommation de puissance excessive. En outre, la complexité et le coût de système augmente aux fréquences plus élevées. Contrairement à DSP, les systèmes traitement radio-analogique du signal (R-ASP) sont bonnes performances à haute fréquence. Les systèmes R-ASP manipulent des signaux à large bande, temporellement sous leur forme analogique d’origine. Donc, ils n’ont pas besoin des convertisseurs A/D et D/A, et des convertisseurs haut/bas, résultant complexité inférieure à vitesse plus élevée, ce qui peut offrir des solutions sans précédent dans le domaine de l’ingénierie de radio. Phaser comme une structure de délai dispersive (DDS) contrôlable est le noyau d’un système R-ASP. Les composantes des fréquences du signal dans le temps se différencient après avoir traversé un phaser. Cette caractéristique du phaser le rend pratique pour l’application radio analogique haute vitesse, comme renifleur de spectre, multiplexage par division de fréquence (FDM), et impulsion radio. Cette thèse par articles présente les concepts et les améliorations R-ASP, sur la base du phaser, comme une alternative potentielle au traitement basé sur DSP, pour l’application de radio haute fréquence et haute vitesse. Le premier Chapitre traite de la motivation R-ASP, contributions de la thèse et de l’organisation. Les concepts et les caractéristiques du phaser,les nouvelles techniques pour améliorer la dispersion des phasers ainsi que la performance du système R-ASP, en fonction des applications sont proposées dans le Chapitre 2. Les Chapitres 3 à 6 sont les articles qui introduisent des nouvelles applications du R-ASP. Dans le Chapitre 3, une nouvelle technique de loop afin d’améliorer la résolution du phaser est proposé. En plus des fréquence mètres et les discriminateurs de fréquence, cette technique peut facilement appliquer à divers autres systèmes en temps réel, tels que les transformateurs de Fourier en temps réel, convolveurs, corrélateurs, et les radars compressifs.----------ABSTRACT Insatiable demand for broadband radio and communication services spurs the manufacturers to seek new ways to increase the spectral bandwidth of the systems. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) as the most common technology of Today’s radios is flexible, reproducible, compact, and reliable at low spectral bandwidth. However, digital system is limited precision and dynamic range, the bandwidth of the DSP system is limited by sampling rate. At high frequency, such as millimeter-wave frequency, the DSP system is poor performance and power hungry. Moreover, the complexity and cost of the system increase at higher frequency. In contrast of DSP, Radio-Analog Signal Processing (R-ASP) systems have a good performance at high frequency. R-ASP systems manipulate broadband signals, temporally in their original analog form. So, They don’t need A/D and D/A, and up/down converters, resulting lower complexity at higher speed, which may offer unprecedented solutions in the major areas of radio engineering. Phaser as an engineerable dispersive delay structure (DDS) is the core of an R-ASP system. The component frequencies of the signal differentiate in time after passing through a phaser. This characteristic of the phaser makes it convenient for high speed analog radio application, such as frequency sniffer, frequency division multiplexing (FDM), and impulse radio. This paper based dissertation introduces R-ASP concepts and enhancements, based on the phaser, as a potential alternative to DSP-based processing, for high speed and high frequency radio applications. The first Chapter discusses R-ASP motivation, thesis contributions and organization. The concepts of the phaser and phaser characteristics, new techniques to enhance the dispersion of the phasers as well as performance of the R-ASP system, depending on the applications are proposed in Chapter 2. Chapters 3 to 6 are the articles that introduce new applications of ASP. In Chapter 3, a novel loop technique to enhance the resolution of the phaser is proposed. In addition to frequency meters and frequency discriminators, this technique may readily by applied to various other real-time systems, such as real-time Fourier transformers, convolvers, correlators, and compressive radars. The radio-analog signal processing system has a lot of applications in the impulse regime. However, UWB pulse generation is complex and high cost. This issue is addressed in Chapter 4, proposing a low-cost analog pulse compression technique for UWB pulse generation. In Chapter 5, a stepped group delay phaser is introduced for real-time spectrum sniffing application. The system listens to its radio environment through an antenna, and determines, in real time, the presence or absence of active channels in this environment

The ATLAS TRT electronics

The ATLAS inner detector consists of three sub-systems: the pixel detector spanning the radius range 4cm-20cm, the semiconductor tracker at radii from 30 to 52 cm, and the transition radiation tracker (TRT), tracking from 56 to 107 cm. The TRT provides a combination of continuous tracking with many projective measurements based on individual drift tubes (or straws) and of electron identification based on transition radiation from fibres or foils interleaved between the straws themselves. This paper describes the on and off detector electronics for the TRT as well as the TRT portion of the data acquisition (DAQ) system

Low bandwidth, image transmission amateur microsatellites

Some recent amateur packet satellites carry open access digital store- and-forward transponders which implement common communication protocols known as PACSAT PROTOCOL SUITE. These standard protocols have improved a "friendly" interaction of different users of packet satellites throughout the world, hence, making packet satellites a more realistic means of communication. Application developments using packet satellites have resulted in an interesting electronic-mail network for medical applications, the Health-Net, where medical professionals in developing countries exchange information with their counterparts. The introduction of a higher rate of data transmission at 9600 baud rate compared to the traditional 1200 baud rate has improved the performance of these satellites. However, this new rate demands some modifications to the existing standard radio receivers and transmitters widely used. In particular, in view of the fact that, digital image technology has transformed microcomputers into powerful visual communication tools, this type of networks can be used for visual communications. Unfortunately, due to the orbit mechanics of satellites involved, the nature of communication protocols and the speed of data transmission currently available, transmission of image data through such networks is difficult in terms of transmission time. This thesis describes the application development of still-continuous tone image transmissions for visual communications, through such networks. It focuses on how to start a packet satellite transmission ground-station, and minimising the transmission time required for image data uploading and downloading, by compressing image data to remove visually insignificant data in the images. Image compression techniques, the internationally recognised JPEG compression technique and a novel compression technique based on FRACTAL, which are known to achieve higher compression ratios are used and compared in this work. Although expensive, FRACTAL compression technique has many advantages over the JPEG compression technique. However, owing to the cost effectiveness of the JPEG compression technique, it is recommended in this thesis for image compression application through Health-Net communication network

Wireless Sensor Needs Defined by SBIR Topics

This slide presentation reviews the needs for wireless sensor technology from various U.S. government agencies as exhibited by an analysis of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) solicitations. It would appear that a multi-agency group looking at overlapping wireless sensor needs and technology projects is desired. Included in this presentation is a review of the NASA SBIR process, and an examination of some of the SBIR projects from NASA, and other agencies that involve wireless sensor developmen