Engineering Commons^™

Telangiectasia Detection In Dermoscopy Images, David Erdos

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Melanoma lesions that exhibit irregular linear vessels can be misdiagnosed due to the fact that their clinical appearance can often closely resemble other skin conditions. Detection these irregular linear blood vessels, or telangiectasia could improve the accuracy of melanoma diagnosis. An algorithm that detects telangiectasia has been developed; it initially searches for color drops in an image in various directions and then uses various post processing techniques to improve the accuracy. The feasibility of using classifiers such as neural networks to further improve the accuracy has also been investigated.

Emc Investigations In Switch Mode Power Supply, Ashwin Shashindranath

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

An experimental investigation on the radiated emissions caused by a high current switched mode power supply (SMPS) that supplies a CPU was performed. The emissions testing revealed data that could be used to predict causes of electromagnetic radiation from inside the computer. The noise sources identified included clocks on the motherboard, which was excluded for the purposes of this study. Testing concentrated on the SMPS and some theoretical ideas are proposed for better construction of the power supply.

An Artifically Intelligent Word Recognizer To Control Appliances And Switches: The Home That Listens To Your Every Command, Joseph Bauer, Rick Steurer

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The most natural and informal means of communication and control is speech communication. Therefore, it also goes to say that control of home appliances, stereo, computer, and heating thermostat to name a few will naturally tend to this form of control.

A word recognition home controller was designed, constructed, and tested successfully. This paper will discuss the low-cost overall design, implementation, and results of a presently constructed and working "home controller." The results of this successful project in voice control are very promising and agree with the original hypothesis: A home that listens to your command is very much a …

A Design Methodology For A Multi-Fpga Based Rapid Prototyping System, William Eatherton

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The movement of universities from university-created digital design software to commercial design tools has resulted in a need for a revision of existing rapid prototyping systems. The rapid prototyping system created at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and centered on a FPGA-based board (called the Anyboard), was revised to use Mentor Graphics, a sophisticated industrial EDA tool, rather than board specific software. To provide a guide for future students at UMR and other schools using the Anyboard, an example design was created with Mentor Graphics to route data between a PC bus, SRAMs, and an arithmetic logic unit.

Fiber Optic Microdeformation Sensors For Smart Structures, Lawrence S. Criscione

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

When optical fibers are stressed, the deformations at the core-cladding interface induce signal attenuation. Because of their durable physical properties (high melting point) optical fibers can be embedded into certain composite materials at the manufacturing stage. Stresses on the composite induces stresses on the embedded fiber. The amount of stress on the fiber, and thus the stress on the composite, can be determined by measuring the attenuation of a signal passing through the fiber. Force was applied to a single mode and a multimode fiber in a microbend inducing plate, and the attenuation this stress created was measured.

Analysis Of Turnability For A Three Terminal Microwave Network, Michael J. Bahr

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Three-terminal microwave networks can be shown to exhibit qualities that would make them desirable to be used as multiple terminal devices. Using microwave theory, where instantaneous voltage is a function of position on the line, this situation will be examined. These devices use the interference principle of propagating waves as the basis of their characteristics. This investigation will probe a three- terminal microwave network with one input and two output. This configuration acts similar to a splitter where the outputs may be controlled. These three terminals, plus manipulation of the lengths of each side, actually makes this a four terminal …

Fiber Optic Fabry-Perot Sensors For Smart Structures, Thomas K. Edmondson

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Optical fiber sensors promise to play a large role in the development of smart structures which have the ability to continuously monitor themselves for internal and external structural deformation, and even actively change shape. This investigation studies one such sensor based on a fiber optic Fabry-Perot interferometer, which detects the displacement between two points of a material. Sensor theory and construction are discussed, and the tools used to analyze sensor output are developed. The interferometer is then tested by attaching it to a large cantilever beam which is deflected to produce strain. This experimental data is then used to determine …

Optimizing Energy Usage In A Solar-Powered Vehicle, William R. Macneil

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The University of Missouri - Rolla (UMR) will be entering SUNRAYCE '93 and the World Solar Challenge and expects to excel in these solar-powered car races. Some of the factors involved in winning a race include efficiency, reliability, and high power. All of these are important considerations, but will be ineffective unless appropriately harnessed by a power management scheme appropriate to a race strategy. The power management scheme will be used to efficiently and effectively distribute available power to the car's systems throughout a race day. My goal was to produce a software framework into which the specifications and performance …

Border Detection Of Skin Tumor Images, Salman Akhtar

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Color border programs are used to try to obtain a border for skin tumors. A series of programs are used to obtain a color segmented image. This color segmented image can then be passed through a program that searches for the border, "Colborder. Simple”. Problems have occurred in trying to obtain the color segmented image. Normal images were used instead of the color segmented image as input to the color border detection program. The program was unsuccessful in finding the border.

Development Of Software For Detecting Certain Key Features In Skin Tumor Images, Dana M. Brewer

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The goal of Dermvis is to develop a microprocessor-based system that will economically and clearly identify a skin tumor area and type. Dermvis is subdivided into various segments. This segment includes developing software, digitizing images, and manually defining borders in images. Manually drawing borders for digitized images creates bit-maps for average color analysis. Software is developed for determining the average color of the tumor and the surrounding tissue. Batch processing allows images to be analyzed in mass.

An Investigation Into The Engineering Considerations Required To Design An Ultra Low Noise Logarithmic Amplifier For An Ultrasound Imaging System, Michael Wilhelm

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Ultrasound imaging instruments and other "radar" type systems frequently employ variable gain amplifiers to effectively process signals of high dynamic range. One such device uniquely suited for this task is the logarithmic amplifier. Presented in this paper are many of the key design issues and solutions concerning the enhancement of one particular company's ultrasound system.

Robotics Development And Design: Optical And Computer Controls, David E. Brown

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

In industry today, the use of robotic systems is growing. They can be found in many diverse applications including washing dishes, assembling automobiles and carrying explosives. With such a wide range of applications, robotic systems are a very important division of engineering.

Designing such systems requires an interaction between different disciplines of engineering. In the work world, engineers are required to interrelate with other engineers of differing disciplines and backgrounds. This research was designed to implement this type of partnership and develop a project that required the knowledge of an electrical, a mechanical and a computer science engineer.

Using the …

Microcomputer Control Of A Model Robot System, David N. Ilges

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The project involved creating an interface board that would allow an I.B.M.- AT computer to control a model robotic system already in existence. The I.B.M.- AT computer was then to be programmed in Pascal such that the model robotic system could perform various path movements and functions. The interface board involved taking various digital outputs from the computer and converting them to analog control signals or use them to turn devices off and on. The interface board also would collect inputs from the robotic system and convert these analog values back to digital words.

Implementation Of T1545 In Air Pressure Control, Kenneth D. Kangas

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The Texas Instruments Model 545 programmable logic controller is used to control the air pressure in a heating/ventilation simulator designed and built for a classroom experiment station. Through the use of the PLC's built-in PID algorithm, the pressure in the duct was controlled to within a 2% tolerance and over 72% of the sensor range for a load setting of 10%. The theory of PID controllers and their application to this problem are discussed. Also, the configuration of the simulator, and plans for future work are described.

Computer Software Control Of A Three-Joint Model Robot, John W. Fierke

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The general scope of the computer program to control a three-joint model robot is presented. Several existing and potential sources of difficulty are also mentioned. For all specific explanations the reader is referred to the thesis papers of Richard Wainwright and Eric Stelzer. This presentation merely adheres to the description of the software to control the robot using the existing information contained in these two papers.

Study Of Joint Flexibility In Steel Frame Structures, Randy R. Frank

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Joint flexibility plays an important role in the distribution of strains and displacements in the frame structures of buildings, towers, automobiles, etc.. The objective of this project is to study the effect of flexibility (or rigidity) of two simple mechanical joints in frame structures on the stress and displacement distributions, using both experimental and analytical methods. Three welded and three bolted samples were fabricated using A-36 low carbon steel in a two column and horizontal crossmember (table) arrangement. This arrangement allows for both shear forces and axial forces in the joint. From a three element rectangular rosette strain gage attached …

Identity Authentication Based On Keystroke Latencies Using Neural Networks, Angela Lammers, Sharon Langenfeld

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Most computer security systems verify the identity of a user through objects in the user's possession such as keys or magnetic cards, or through knowledge the user has, such as a password or PIN number. There are, however, two other methods of user verification, which have as yet received little or no attention. There has been some work done on the third method, recognition of physiological patterns (such as finger prints, retinal patterns, or voice patterns), but this work has been limited and requires expensive hardware to implement. The final method of user verification is through actions such as signature …

A Computer Simulation Of The Umr Reactor, H. Allen Wilkins

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The Opportunities for Undergraduate Research project entitled, "A Computer Simulation of the UMR Reactor" had two goals. To produce a reactor simulation to be used in creating an artificial intelligence based reactor simulation for the UMR Nuclear Reactor and to produce a means of teaching students the fundamentals of reactor operations.

The primary purpose was to create a program which would simulate all the situations one would encounter in actual reactor operation. With the simulator the artificial intelligence system could be thoroughly tested before use with actual reactor data.

This same simulator would be used as a teaching aid for …

Measurement Of Voltage And Current In Electric Power Systems, Michael Davis

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

A. B. Chance Company of Centralia, Missouri requested a study of the latest state-of-the- art technology to measure voltage and current on a normal distribution power line. (4kV - 35kV)

The particular device that A. B. Chance needs must be relatively inexpensive, $200.00 per measurement, reliable, and capable of being manufactured by them.

Four types of power line measurement techniques were investigated; electrooptics/magnetooptics, present day measurement devices, the Raychem Line Monitor, and remote voltage and current sensing (RVCS).

The remote voltage and current sensing idea is the basis of the following report.

The Detection And Quantification Of Atrophic Rhinitis Using Ditigal Image Processing Techniques, Timothy Mussman

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

This project focuses its attention on the detection and quantification of Atrophic Rhinitis (A.R.), a disease prevalent in pigs. A.R. causes some of the bony structure in a pig's snout to atrophy, which exposes the animal to other diseases that may effect its growth. It is studied by examining a cross section of the pig's snout. By comparing areas and perimeters of the nasal cavity to bony structures, or turbinates in the snout, one can determine the severity of the atrophy. Currently, the veterinarians diagnosis is based on a subjective analysis of the snout. The problem with this method is …

Border Detection Of Skin Tumor Images, Mike Tiehes

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Border detection of skin tumor images is part of a research project whose purpose is to identify key features in skin tumor images using machine vision techniques. The key features present in a skin tumor guide the dermatologist in making the proper diagnosis. A few examples of key features are crust, scale and ulcer.

Bundled Cable Parameters And Their Impact On Emi Measurement Repeatability, Deanna L. Weil

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

This research project was 99% experimental, therefore, not many theoretical ideas will be presented. The main idea behind the project was centered around cable bundling. The effect of cable bundling using analytical measurements and data from a network analyzer was investigated.