An Invitation to Hypercomplex Phase Retrieval: Theory and Applications

Hypercomplex signal processing (HSP) provides state-of-the-art tools to handle multidimensional signals by harnessing intrinsic correlation of the signal dimensions through Clifford algebra. Recently, the hypercomplex representation of the phase retrieval (PR) problem, wherein a complex-valued signal is estimated through its intensity-only projections, has attracted significant interest. The hypercomplex PR (HPR) arises in many optical imaging and computational sensing applications that usually comprise quaternion and octonion-valued signals. Analogous to the traditional PR, measurements in HPR may involve complex, hypercomplex, Fourier, and other sensing matrices. This set of problems opens opportunities for developing novel HSP tools and algorithms. This article provides a synopsis of the emerging areas and applications of HPR with a focus on optical imaging.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Multi-Antenna Dual-Blind Deconvolution for Joint Radar-Communications via SoMAN Minimization

Joint radar-communications (JRC) has emerged as a promising technology for efficiently using the limited electromagnetic spectrum. In JRC applications such as secure military receivers, often the radar and communications signals are overlaid in the received signal. In these passive listening outposts, the signals and channels of both radar and communications are unknown to the receiver. The ill-posed problem of recovering all signal and channel parameters from the overlaid signal is terms as dual-blind deconvolution (DBD). In this work, we investigate a more challenging version of DBD with a multi-antenna receiver. We model the radar and communications channels with a few (sparse) continuous-valued parameters such as time delays, Doppler velocities, and directions-of-arrival (DoAs). To solve this highly ill-posed DBD, we propose to minimize the sum of multivariate atomic norms (SoMAN) that depends on the unknown parameters. To this end, we devise an exact semidefinite program using theories of positive hyperoctant trigonometric polynomials (PhTP). Our theoretical analyses show that the minimum number of samples and antennas required for perfect recovery is logarithmically dependent on the maximum of the number of radar targets and communications paths rather than their sum. We show that our approach is easily generalized to include several practical issues such as gain/phase errors and additive noise. Numerical experiments show the exact parameter recovery for different JRCComment: 40 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2208.0438

Factor Graph Processing for Dual-Blind Deconvolution at ISAC Receiver

Integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) systems have gained significant interest because of their ability to jointly and efficiently access, utilize, and manage the scarce electromagnetic spectrum. The co-existence approach toward ISAC focuses on the receiver processing of overlaid radar and communications signals coming from independent transmitters. A specific ISAC coexistence problem is dual-blind deconvolution (DBD), wherein the transmit signals and channels of both radar and communications are unknown to the receiver. Prior DBD works ignore the evolution of the signal model over time. In this work, we consider a dynamic DBD scenario using a linear state space model (LSSM) such that, apart from the transmit signals and channels of both systems, the LSSM parameters are also unknown. We employ a factor graph representation to model these unknown variables. We avoid the conventional matrix inversion approach to estimate the unknown variables by using an efficient expectation-maximization algorithm, where each iteration employs a Gaussian message passing over the factor graph structure. Numerical experiments demonstrate the accurate estimation of radar and communications channels, including in the presence of noise.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Dual-Blind Deconvolution for Overlaid Radar-Communications Systems

The increasingly crowded spectrum has spurred the design of joint radar-communications systems that share hardware resources and efficiently use the radio frequency spectrum. We study a general spectral coexistence scenario, wherein the channels and transmit signals of both radar and communications systems are unknown at the receiver. In this dual-blind deconvolution (DBD) problem, a common receiver admits a multi-carrier wireless communications signal that is overlaid with the radar signal reflected off multiple targets. The communications and radar channels are represented by continuous-valued range-time and Doppler velocities of multiple transmission paths and multiple targets. We exploit the sparsity of both channels to solve the highly ill-posed DBD problem by casting it into a sum of multivariate atomic norms (SoMAN) minimization. We devise a semidefinite program to estimate the unknown target and communications parameters using the theories of positive-hyperoctant trigonometric polynomials (PhTP). Our theoretical analyses show that the minimum number of samples required for near-perfect recovery is dependent on the logarithm of the maximum of number of radar targets and communications paths rather than their sum. We show that our SoMAN method and PhTP formulations are also applicable to more general scenarios such as unsynchronized transmission, the presence of noise, and multiple emitters. Numerical experiments demonstrate great performance enhancements during parameter recovery under different scenarios.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

D2^\text{2}UF: Deep Coded Aperture Design and Unrolling Algorithm for Compressive Spectral Image Fusion

Compressive spectral imaging (CSI) has attracted significant attention since it employs synthetic apertures to codify spatial and spectral information, sensing only 2D projections of the 3D spectral image. However, these optical architectures suffer from a trade-off between the spatial and spectral resolution of the reconstructed image due to technology limitations. To overcome this issue, compressive spectral image fusion (CSIF) employs the projected measurements of two CSI architectures with different resolutions to estimate a high-spatial high-spectral resolution. This work presents the fusion of the compressive measurements of a low-spatial high-spectral resolution coded aperture snapshot spectral imager (CASSI) architecture and a high-spatial low-spectral resolution multispectral color filter array (MCFA) system. Unlike previous CSIF works, this paper proposes joint optimization of the sensing architectures and a reconstruction network in an end-to-end (E2E) manner. The trainable optical parameters are the coded aperture (CA) in the CASSI and the colored coded aperture in the MCFA system, employing a sigmoid activation function and regularization function to encourage binary values on the trainable variables for an implementation purpose. Additionally, an unrolling-based network inspired by the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) optimization is formulated to address the reconstruction step and the acquisition systems design jointly. Finally, a spatial-spectral inspired loss function is employed at the end of each unrolling layer to increase the convergence of the unrolling network. The proposed method outperforms previous CSIF methods, and experimental results validate the method with real measurements.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Multi-dimensional dual-blind deconvolution approach toward joint radar-communications

We consider a joint multiple-antenna radar-communications system in a co-existence scenario. Contrary to conventional applications, wherein at least the radar waveform and communications channel are known or estimated \textit{a priori}, we investigate the case when the channels and transmit signals of both systems are unknown. In radar applications, this problem arises in multistatic or passive systems, where transmit signal is not known. Similarly, highly dynamic vehicular or mobile communications may render prior estimates of wireless channel unhelpful. In particular, the radar signal reflected-off multiple targets is overlaid with the multi-carrier communications signal. In order to extract the unknown continuous-valued target parameters (range, Doppler velocity, and direction-of-arrival) and communications messages, we formulate the problem as a sparse dual-blind deconvolution and solve it using atomic norm minimization. Numerical experiments validate our proposed approach and show that precise estimation of continuous-valued channel parameters, radar waveform, and communications messages is possible up to scaling ambiguities.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)