Digital Commons Network^™

Application Development Process For Gnat, A Soc Networked System, Christopher L. Plumlee

Master's Theses and Capstones

The market for smart devices was identified years ago, and yet commercial progress into this field has not made significant progress. The reason such devices are so painfully slow to market is that the gap between the technologically possible and the market capitalizable is too vast. In order for inventions to succeed commercially, they must bridge the gap to tomorrow's technology with marketability today. This thesis demonstrates a design methodology that enables such commercial success for one variety of smart device, the Ambient Intelligence Node (AIN). Commercial Off-The Shelf (COTS) design tools allowing a Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) approach are combined …

Project54 Vehicle Telematics For Remote Diagnostics, Fleet Management And Traffic Monitoring, Ian Cassias

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Project54 system was developed to introduce advanced technologies into the operations of the New Hampshire Department of Safety and other law enforcement agencies. The application of computing, sensing and telecommunication technologies within the Project54 system enables advanced telematics services that can provide benefits to vehicle operators, fleet managers and the public. This thesis describes the implementation of remote diagnostics and fleet management services for the Project54 system and investigates the use of radar equipped police vehicles as traffic probes.

Aftermarket diagnostic hardware has been integrated in the Project54 system and software applications have been developed to control the hardware …

Acoustic Calibration And Bathymetric Processing With A Klein 5410 Sidescan Sonar, James Michael Glynn Jr.

Master's Theses and Capstones

In 2001, NOAA acquired an L-3 Communications Klein 5410 bathymetric sidescan sonar system that simultaneously provided high resolution multibeam acoustic imagery and wide swath bathymetry. The sonar's inability to produce matching bathymetry in overlapping swaths motivated the detailed acoustic and signal processing analyses described in this thesis.

Results of this research include specific corrections for phase distortions introduced by the sonar's transmit pulses, receiver electronics, and transducer elements, which are implemented in a newly-developed full vector bathymetric processing algorithm to estimate accurate acoustic arrival angles for each sample of the seafloor echo acquired by the Klein 5410 sonar. Performance of …

Word Boundary Detection, Deepak Jadhav

Master's Theses and Capstones

Robust word boundary detection is essential for the efficient and accurate performance of an automatic speech recognition system. Although word boundary detection can achieve high accuracy in the presence of stationary noise with high values of SNR, its implementation becomes non-trivial in the presence of non-stationary noise and low SNR values. The purpose of this thesis is to compare and contrast the accuracy and robustness of various word boundary detection techniques and to introduce modifications to better their performance.

Project54 Handheld System Development And Pilot Deployment, Christopher Gaudreau

Master's Theses and Capstones

Police officers have been using the Project54 system in their vehicles for years. However once they step out of the vehicle they lose access to in-car services. Our goal was to develop and test a new Project54 Handheld (P54H) software system which would grant access to in-car services outside the vehicle and to evaluate the potential usefulness of those services. For this purpose applications were developed to interface with the in-car Project54 System on a handheld device. We then comprehensively tested the P54H system and confirmed that it operates correctly. We first performed functionality tests on a laboratory mock-vehicle setup. …

Blending Techniques For Underwater Photomosaics, Fan Gu

Master's Theses and Capstones

The creation of consistent underwater photomosaics is typically hampered by local misalignments and inhomogeneous illumination of the image frames, which introduce visible seams that complicate post processing of the mosaics for object recognition and shape extraction. In this thesis, methods are proposed to improve blending techniques for underwater photomosaics and the results are compared with traditional methods. Five specific techniques drawn from various areas of image processing, computer vision, and computer graphics have been tested: illumination correction based on the median mosaic, thin plate spline warping, perspective warping, graph-cut applied in the gradient domain and in the wavelet domain. A …

A Software Based Apco Project 25 Data Transmission Base Station For Local Police Headquarters, Eric Rene Ramsey

Master's Theses and Capstones

Project54 is a research and development effort to integrate embedded and wireless technologies into both NH State Police and local police cruisers. One of the features of the Project54 system, is the ability to query motor vehicle data. This is done through a Motorola APCO Project 25 digital voice/data radio in the cruiser and a digital voice/data base station at headquarters. An APCO Project 25 base station is a central hub for the transmission and reception of digital voice/data packets. The local police departments have the requisite radio infrastructure, but do not have the budget to purchase and support a …

Non-Invasive Keyboard Fatigue Monitoring System For Improving User Performance And Reducing Incidences Of Repetitive Strain Injuries, Satheesh Jayakumar

Master's Theses and Capstones

Computers are ubiquitous in their application and deployment all over the world. Along with their universal appeal and versatility they also pose dangers to their various users in the form of ailments such as Repetitive Strain Injuries, Carpals Tunnel Syndrome, etc. which are all specifically related to keyboard use. The objective of this thesis was to explore the possibility of developing a deterministic and non-invasive method of detecting keyboard fatigue. A software application was developed which allowed us to reliably monitor this as a function of the latency between keyboard key-press and key-release events recorded by the resident operating system. …

Intelligent Airlift System For Submersible Cage Aquaculture, Darren Landino

Master's Theses and Capstones

The University of New Hampshire's Open Ocean Aquaculture Project operates offshore fish cages in the exposed ocean near the Isle of Shoals. A need exists for improved vertical control of their cages that would permit continuous depth control, communication with operators, and logging of data. This thesis investigates the feasibility and practicality of applying a computer controlled lifting system to an experimental fish cage.

The submersible fish cage investigated has a diameter of 15.54 meters, and in internal volume of approximately 1500 cubic meters. The cage is moved through the water column via an airlift located beneath the cage. Air …

Statistical Characterization Of Correlation-Based Time/Frequency Synchronizers For Ofdm, Anupama Sankaran

Master's Theses and Capstones

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has been widely adopted as a modulation format for reliable digital communication over multipath fading channels, e.g. IEEE 802.11g "WiFi" networks, as well as broadband wireline channels, e.g. DSL modems. However, its robustness to channel impairments comes at the cost of increased sensitivity to symbol timing and carrier frequency offset errors, and thus requires more complex synchronization methods than conventional single-carrier modulation formats.

In this thesis, a class of synchronization methods based upon the intrinsic autocorrelation structure of the OFDM signal is studied from a statistical perspective. In particular, the reasons for the existence of …

A Prototype System For Human-Computer Interaction Logging, Post-Processing, And Data Visualization For The Project54 System, Edward Bourbeau

Master's Theses and Capstones

Police officers and other emergency responders have been using the Project54 system in their vehicles for many years. Over this time it is likely that certain trends have developed regarding how they use the system to make their daily tasks easier and safer. This thesis examines the use of human-computer interaction logging, post-processing and data visualization techniques to quantify and graphically present how police officers utilize the Project54 system. Specifically, data was retrieved from two deployed police cruisers that identified their use of Project54's speech user interface (SUI) and graphical user interface (GUI), as well as the vehicles' original hardware …

Prototype Mixed-Signal Hardware For Public Safety Radio Interoperability, Timothy Edwood Bond

Master's Theses and Capstones

In performing their required duties public safety personnel from differing departments often need to communicate with one another using their in-car radios. However, in many cases, especially involving small departments, this interoperability doesn't exist.

A prototype circuit design has been developed and tested within the laboratory using two common radio systems: EFJohnson and Motorola. The preliminary results have shown successful operation as a system gateway between the two radio systems with good performance regarding audio signal latency and minimizing the push-to-talk signal generation delay.

Software-Defined Radio Using Labview And The Pc Sound Card: A Teaching Platform For Digital Communications, Jose Carlos Lanzoni

Master's Theses and Capstones

Different modulation techniques and protocols require a standard communications laboratory for engineering courses to be equipped with a broad set of equipment, tools and accessories. However, the high costs involved in a hardware-based laboratory can become prohibitively expensive for many institutions. Software simulations alone can replicate most real-world applications with much lower costs. Nevertheless, they do not replace the real-world feeling provided by hardware-based systems, which can produce and receive physical signals to and from the exterior media.

Advances in computer technology are allowing software-defined radio (SDR) concepts to be applied in many areas of communications. In this type of …

Quantitative Assessment Of In-Vehicle-Generated Emi In A Real-World Environment, Maxim Khankin

Master's Theses and Capstones

Interference generated by electronic equipment inside a vehicle can interfere with radio reception even though that equipment is in compliance with FCC standards. The result of that interference is an undesired reduction in radio coverage at frequencies where the interference exists.

The contribution of this work is a method for measuring electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by in-vehicle electronic equipment when external radiation is present. The approach is to identify regions in the spectrum where externally generated signals exist and then to bypass those regions when measuring interference from in-vehicle-equipment. Using the FCC database of licensed radiation sources to identify those …

Prototype Remote Vehicle Diagnostics For Police Cruisers, Sung Yun Kim

Master's Theses and Capstones

The goal of this thesis was to suggest ways of evaluating the health of police cruisers without bringing these cruisers into a repair facility. The prototype in-car application was developed. The hardware connection was made between the in-car network and the Project54 network. The software was built to collect, process, and send the vehicle information to the server via a telecommunication tool. The prototype in-car application was tested in simulation and on the road. After the development of the prototype in-car application, the radio traffic research gives a few recommended methods for sending the car health information in the New …

Conformance Testing Of Epon Devices, Eric Lynskey

Master's Theses and Capstones

In June of 2004, the IEEE Standards Association approved IEEE 802.3ah-2004, which defined Ethernet for subscriber access networks, or Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM). Part of this standard contained a new type of Ethernet technology, that of Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON). EPON devices have introduced new and challenging requirements for both conformance and interoperability testing. This thesis lays the foundation, to be used by the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), for comprehensive conformance testing of EPON devices. A series of recommendations are put forth that allow for the creation and implementation of EPON test suites and …

Augmented Reality Device For First Response Scenarios, Robert Andrzej Bogucki

Master's Theses and Capstones

A prototype of a wearable computer system is proposed and implemented using commercial off-shelf components. The system is designed to allow the user to access location-specific information about an environment, and to provide capability for user tracking. Areas of applicability include primarily first response scenarios, with possible applications in maintenance or construction of buildings and other structures. Necessary preparation of the target environment prior to system's deployment is limited to noninvasive labeling using optical fiducial markers. The system relies on computational vision methods for registration of labels and user position. With the system the user has access to on-demand information …

Trigraph Latency As A Method To Infer Fatigue During Typing, Bhagirathi Nagaraju

Master's Theses and Capstones

Due to the use of computers for long durations and prolonged typing on keyboards many computer users are suffering from Repetitive Strain Injuries. In this thesis keystroke dynamics, specifically the changes in the trigraph latencies of some words are analyzed to infer fatigue during typing. These dynamics are collected using a software application and are represented as bar-graphs for data analysis. The technology developed is completely seamless and does not require any hardware modifications. The investigation here is one aspect of the integrated effort to infer fatigue from typing dynamics.

The thesis is divided into three phases. In the first …

A User-Friendly System To Measure Electromyographic Activity Of Dancers, Jianhua Zhou

Master's Theses and Capstones

A data acquisition system aided by virtual instrumentation was developed to measure electromyographic activity of the dancers. The system is composed of three main components: (1) Analog front-end with signal conditioning, (2) USB serial interface based A/D conversion, and (3) virtual instrumentation designed in LabView tools. The proposed system is able to accurately collect the magnitude of jump force and displayed the data using virtual instruments with alarm functions. The signal path is well-conditioned and processed, which makes the device suitable for feasibility studies for future research.

Design And Implementation Of A 10 Gigabit Ethernet Xaui Test Systems, Meghana Reddy Kundoor

Master's Theses and Capstones

10 Gigabit Ethernet has been standardized (IEEE 802.3ae), and products based on this standard are being deployed to interconnect MANs, WANs, Storage Area Networks, and very high speed LANs. The XAUI portion of the standard is primarily concerned with short range (up to 50 cm) chip-to-chip communication across printed circuit board traces. The UNH-IOL 10 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, an industry-supported organization, performs PHY layer testing on products using a test system that has been partially implemented on a Xilinx ML321 evaluation board using the Virtex II-Pro FPGA.

A new implementation of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet XAUI test system on the …