Computer Engineering Commons^™

Gathering Cows Using Virtual Fencing Methodologies, Dean M. Anderson, Marek Doniec, Carrick Detweiler, Iuliu Vesilescu, Daniela Rus, Barbara Nolen, Roy Libeau

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Free-ranging livestock are classically controlled by herders. Holding, moving, or gathering free-ranging cattle requires flexible husbandry practices for efficient and effective lowstress animal management. Behavioral theory and practical experience indicates cattle can be taught to respond to auditory cues. Preliminary research has demonstrated that cows can be gathered autonomously using recorded audio cues associated with manual gathering. However, efficient gathering requires movement in the proper direction. Therefore, we believe using audio cues administered from directional virtual fencing (DVF™) equipment can facilitate proper animal orientation and facilitate the gathering of animals with minimal human intervention. Results from applying directional audio cues …

Bluetooth Hacking: A Case Study, Dennis Browning, Gary C. Kessler

Security Studies & International Affairs - Daytona Beach

"This paper describes a student project examining mechanisms with which to attack Bluetooth-enabled devices. The paper briefly describes the protocol architecture of Bluetooth and the Java interface that programmers can use to connect to Bluetooth communication services. Several types of attacks are described, along with a detailed example of two attack tools, Bloover II and BT Info."--from the article

Application Of Parent-Child Uav Tasking For Wildfire Detection And Response, Stephen T. Kubik

Master's Theses

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become a dominant force in the aerospace industry. Recent technological developments have moved these aircraft from remote operation roles to more active response missions. Of particular interest is the possibility of applying UAVs toward solving complex problems in long-endurance missions. Under that belief, the feasibility of utilizing UAVs for wildfire detection and response was investigated in a partnership that included NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate, and the United States Forest Service. Under NASA’s Intelligent Mission Management (IMM) project, research was conducted to develop a mission architecture that would …

Implementing Arabic-To-English Machine Translation Using The Role And Reference Grammar Linguistic Model, Yasser Salem, Arnold Hensman, Brian Nolan

Conference Papers

This paper presents work-in-progress investigating the development of a rule-based lexical framework for Arabic language processing using the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) linguistic model. A system, called UniArab is introduced in this research to support the framework. The paper outlines the conceptual structure of UniArab System, which utilizes the framework and translates the Arabic language into another natural language. Also, this paper explores how the characteristics of the Arabic language will effect the development of a Machine Translation (MT) tool from Arabic to English. Several distinguishing features of Arabic pertinent to MT will be explored in detail with reference …

Emotional Speech Corpus Construction, Annotation And Distribution, Brian Vaughan, Charlie Cullen, Spyros Kousidis, John Mcauley

Conference papers

This paper details a process of creating an emotional speech corpus by collecting natural emotional speech assets, analysisng and tagging them (for certain acoustic and linguistic features) and annotating them within an on-line database. The definition of specific metadata for use with an emotional speech corpus is crucial, in that poorly (or inaccurately) annotated assets are of little use in analysis. This problem is compounded by the lack of standardisation for speech corpora, particularly in relation to emotion content. The ISLE Metadata Initiative (IMDI) is the only cohesive attempt at corpus metadata standardisation performed thus far. Although not a comprehensive …

Metadata Visualisation Techniques For Emotional Speech Corpora, Charlie Cullen, Brian Vaughan, Spyros Kousidis

Conference papers

Our research in emotional speech analysis has led to the construction of dedicated high quality, online corpora of natural emotional speech assets. Once obtained, the annotation and analysis of these assets was necessary in order to develop a database of both analysis data and metadata relating to each speech act. With annotation complete, the means by which this data may be presented to the user online for analysis, retrieval and organization is the current focus of our investigations. Building on an initial web interface developed in Ruby on Rails, we are now working towards a visually driven GUI built on …

The Design And Testing Of Hand Held Devices To Assist Persons With Disabilities To Navigate Bus Services, Daniel Fitch

Undergraduate Review

Many transit systems around the U.S. are using global positioning systems to track their buses. Some of these systems provide bus locations in real-time on web maps. With internet integration becoming common in portable electronics, this research project analyzed the opportunity to utilize mass market devices to assist the general public and persons with disabilities to access and navigate fixed route bus services. This study has taken advantage of the state of the art automatic vehicle location systems aboard the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority and MetroWest (Boston) Regional Transit Authority bus services, Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping services and Microsoft …

Functorial Coalgebraic Logic: The Case Of Many-Sorted Varieties, Alexander Kurz, Daniela Petrişan

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Following earlier work, a modal logic for T-coalgebras is a functor L on a suitable variety. Syntax and proof system of the logic are given by presentations of the functor. This paper makes two contributions. First, a previous result characterizing those functors that have presentations is generalized from endofunctors on one-sorted varieties to functors between many-sorted varieties. This yields an equational logic for the presheaf semantics of higher-order abstract syntax. As another application, we show how the move to functors between many-sorted varieties allows to modularly combine syntax and proof systems of different logics. Second, we show how to associate …

Linguatag: An Emotional Speech Analysis Application, Charlie Cullen, Brian Vaughan, Spyros Kousidis

Conference papers

The analysis of speech, particularly for emotional content, is an open area of current research. Ongoing work has developed an emotional speech corpus for analysis, and defined a vowel stress method by which this analysis may be performed. This paper documents the development of LinguaTag, an open source speech analysis software application which implements this vowel stress emotional speech analysis method developed as part of research into the acoustic and linguistic correlates of emotional speech. The analysis output is contained within a file format combining SMIL and SSML markup tags, to facilitate search and retrieval methods within an emotional speech …

Emotional Speech Corpora For Analysis And Media Production, Charlie Cullen, Brian Vaughan, Spyros Kousidis

Conference papers

Research into the acoustic correlates of emotional speech as part of the SALERO project has led to the construction of high quality emotional speech corpora, which contain both IMDI metadata and acoustic analysis data for each asset. Research into semi-automated, re-usable character animation has considered the development of online workflows based on speech corpus assets that would provide a single point of origin for character animation in media production. In this paper, a brief description of the corpus design and construction is given. Further, a prototype workflow for semi-automated emotional character animation is also provided, alongside a description of current …

New Classes Of Codes For Cryptologists And Computer Scientists, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Historically a code refers to a cryptosystem that deals with linguistic units: words, phrases etc. We do not discuss such codes in this book. Here codes are message carriers or information storages or information transmitters which in time of need should not be decoded or read by an enemy or an intruder. When we use very abstract mathematics in using a specific code, it is difficult for non-mathematicians to make use of it. At the same time, one cannot compromise with the capacity of the codes. So the authors in this book have introduced several classes of codes which are …

Desitv - The Indian Tv, Saurin Shah

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

DesiTV – The Indian TV project would utilize latest technology to provide live channels from the Indian Television World to Online World. The project would hence serve Indian demographic providing regional entertainment. It would contribute to the knowledge on how to utilize new technology and use it to provide better entertainment to the online users. Additionally, the project would help in learning how to build website/blog, how to host/post content and how to set up servers for broadcasting live channels. Also, how to maintain servers downtime and provide technical support. It would also contribute in the learning of how to …

Back-Up Server For Computer Science Department, Victoria Gaylord

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Because Western Kentucky University does not maintain a back-up system for its departments, the Computer Science Department has implemented its own. Using Bacula software on a Unix server, files from faculty desktop computers and servers are backed up to a tape drive on a daily basis. The server is protected from outside threats with a carefully configured firewall script. This paper explains how both the firewall and the back-up software were implemented and how successful that implementation has been.

Sexual Conflict Over Egg Allocation: A Dynamic Programming Approach To Modeling The Evolution Of Male Harm And Female Resistance, David Kelley

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Sexual conflict, which is expected to be ubiquitous among polygamous species, is known to occasionally result in male adaptations that are harmful to females. One theoretical model indicates that males may benefit from physically harming their mates by triggering a “terminal investment” reproductive response by them. Using dynamic programming, we explore how females optimize their lifetime egg allocation, how selection acts on males to exploit such allocation, and how females respond to resist this exploitation. The model reveals alternative female response pathways; one of the most effective of which is simply to forgo plasticity in egg allocation. By switching to …

Accessible Interactive Campus Mapping System For Syracuse University/Suny-Esf, Aaron C. Knight

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This written component of my Capstone Thesis in Computer Science covers the conceptualization and realization, and the process in between those stages, of my project, the Syracuse University Accessible Interactive Campus Map system. The system in its present state is launched at http://map.syr.edu. This project creates a usable and useful map and directions system for the Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF communities, which have long suffered without any properly oriented or fully functional map, much less an online one of any use. What this project also does is turn the Syracuse University Accessibility Map, produced by the Office of Disability Services …

Phobias: The Evolutionary Trend, Grant Brown

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Using Concept Maps To More Efficiently Create Intelligence Information Models, Christopher E. Coryell

Theses and Dissertations

Information models are a critical tool that enables intelligence customers to quickly and accurately comprehend U.S. intelligence agency products. The Knowledge Pre-positioning System (KPS) is the standard repository for information models at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). The current approach used by NASIC to build a KPS information model is laborious and costly. Intelligence analysts design an information model using a manual, butcher-paper-based process. The output of their work is then entered into KPS by either a single NASIC KPS "database modeler" or a contractor (at a cost of roughly $100K to the organization). This thesis proposes …

A Study Of Rootkit Stealth Techniques And Associated Detection Methods, Daniel D. Nerenberg

Theses and Dissertations

In today's world of advanced computing power at the fingertips of any user, we must constantly think of computer security. Information is power and this power is had within our computer systems. If we cannot trust the information within our computer systems then we cannot properly wield the power that comes from such information. Rootkits are software programs that are designed to develop and maintain an environment in which malware may hide on a computer system after successful compromise of that computer system. Rootkits cut at the very foundation of the trust that we put in our information and subsequent …

Some Peer-To-Peer, Democratically And Voluntarily Produced Thoughts About 'The Wealth Of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets And Freedom,' By Yochai Benkler, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

In this review essay, Bartow concludes that The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom by Yochai Benkler is a book well worth reading, but that Benkler still has a bit more work to do before his Grand Unifying Theory of Life, The Internet, and Everything is satisfactorily complete. It isn't enough to concede that the Internet won't benefit everyone. He needs to more thoroughly consider the ways in which the lives of poor people actually worsen when previously accessible information, goods and services are rendered less convenient or completely unattainable by their migration online. Additionally, the …

A Map Estimator For Simultaneous Superresolution And Detector Nonunifomity Correct, Russell C. Hardie, Douglas R. Droege

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

During digital video acquisition, imagery may be degraded by a number of phenomena including undersampling, blur, and noise. Many systems, particularly those containing infrared focal plane array (FPA) sensors, are also subject to detector nonuniformity. Nonuniformity, or fixed pattern noise, results from nonuniform responsivity of the photodetectors that make up the FPA. Here we propose a maximuma posteriori (MAP) estimation framework for simultaneously addressing undersampling, linear blur, additive noise, and bias nonuniformity. In particular, we jointly estimate a superresolution (SR) image and detector bias nonuniformity parameters from a sequence of observed frames. This algorithm can be applied to video in …

Pi-Calculus In Logical Form, Marcello M. Bonsangue, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Abramsky’s logical formulation of domain theory is extended to encompass the domain theoretic model for picalculus processes of Stark and of Fiore, Moggi and Sangiorgi. This is done by defining a logical counterpart of categorical constructions including dynamic name allocation and name exponentiation, and showing that they are dual to standard constructs in functor categories. We show that initial algebras of functors defined in terms of these constructs give rise to a logic that is sound, complete, and characterises bisimilarity. The approach is modular, and we apply it to derive a logical formulation of pi-calculus. The resulting logic is a …

Musical Pattern Design Using Contour Icons, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper considers the use of Contour Icons in the design and implementation of musical patterns, for the purposes of detection and recognition. Research work had endeavoured to deliver musical patterns that were both distinct and memorable, and to this end a set of basic melodic shapes were introduced using a Sonification application called TrioSon that had been designed for the purpose. Existing work in the field (such as that concerning Earcon design) has considered the mechanisms by which patterns may be made distinctive, but it is argued that separate consideration must be given to the method of making such …

Harmonically Combined Contour Icons For Concurrent Auditory Display, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper considers the harmonic combination of basic melodic shapes known as contour icons in concurrent auditory displays. Existing work in the field (such as that concerning earcons) has considered the combination of patterns designed using low level cognitive features, and so effective streaming is difficult. This work investigates means by which musical patterns with high level cognitive features (such as contour) representing data values can be rendered concurrently, so that multiple data sets can be effectively conveyed using an auditory display. The detection and comprehension of harmonically combined contour icons was tested in comparison to those combined uniquely (non …

Coalgebras And Their Logics, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

"Transition systems pervade much of computer science. This article outlines the beginnings of a general theory of specification languages for transition systems. More specifically, transition systems are generalised to coalgebras. Specification languages together with their proof systems, in the following called (logical or modal) calculi, are presented by the associated classes of algebras (e.g., classical propositional logic by Boolean algebras). Stone duality will be used to relate the logics and their coalgebraic semantics."

A Case-Based Technique For Tracking Concept Drift In Spam Filtering, Sarah Jane Delany, Padraig Cunningham, Alexey Tsymbal, Lorcan Coyle

Articles

Spam filtering is a particularly challenging machine learning task as the data distribution and concept being learned changes over time. It exhibits a particularly awkward form of concept drift as the change is driven by spammers wishing to circumvent spam filters. In this paper we show that lazy learning techniques are appropriate for such dynamically changing contexts. We present a case-based system for spam filtering that can learn dynamically. We evaluate its performance as the case-base is updated with new cases. We also explore the benefit of periodically redoing the feature selection process to bring new features into play. Our …

Trioson: A Graphical User Interface For Pattern Sonification, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

The TrioSon software allows users to map musical patterns to input data variables via a graphical user interface (GUI). The application is a Java routine designed to take input files of standard Comma Separated Values (CSV) format and output Standard Midi Files (SMF) using the internal Java Sound API. TrioSon renders output Sonifications from input data files for up to 3 user-defined parameters, allocated as bass, chord and melody instruments for the purposes of arrangement. In this manner each parameter concerned is distinguished by its individual instrumental timbre, with the option of rendering any combination of 1 to 3 parameters …

Software Development Project Risk Management: A Literature Review, Kevin Macg. Adams, C. Ariel Pinto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The rapid and unprecedented growth in software has brought with it some of the most spectacular and costly project failures in modern history. How risk management is presented in the scholarly journals may give insight into the risk management methods and techniques in use on software development projects. This paper provides a glimpse into the risk management methods, methodologies and techniques available to those who are responsible for software development projects by conducting a non-experimental content analysis. The findings reveal that risk management has not received sufficient attention and does not appear to be widely accepted within the software engineering …

Jess – A Java Security Scanner For Eclipse, Russell Spitler

Honors Theses

Secure software is the responsibility of every developer. In order to help a developer with this responsibility there are many automated source code security auditors. These tools perform a variety of functions, from finding calls to insecure functions to poorly generated random numbers. These programs have existed for years and perform the security audit with varying degrees of success.

Largely missing in the world of programming is such a security auditor for the Java programming language. Currently, Fortify Software produces the only Java source code security auditor; this is a commercially available package.

This void is what inspired JeSS, Java …

Information Delivery On Mobile Devices Using Contour Icon Sonification, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper examines the use of musical patterns to convey information, specifically in the context of mobile devices. Existing mechanisms (such as the popularity of the Morse code SMS alert) suggest that the use of musical patterns on mobile devices can be a very efficient and powerful method of data delivery. Unique musical patterns based on templates known as Contour Icons are used to represent specific data variables, with the output rendering of these patterns being referred to as a Sonification of that data. Contour Icon patterns mimic basic shapes and structures, thus providing listeners with a means of categorising …

Information Delivery On Mobile Devices Using Boolean Sonification Patterns, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

Sonification is the means by which non-speech audio can be used to convey information. Existing work has produced methods for delivering information in a wide range of fields, and recent work has considered the huge potential of mobile devices for Sonification. Boolean Sonification is a method of defining two related musical patterns as boolean conditions (true/false, yes/no etc.), such that one is considered contrary to the other by the listener. The final pattern set ideally comprises of two musical events that are closely enough related as to be considered a group, yet distinct enough to be perceived as separate entities. …