Computer Engineering Commons^™

Asymptotically Optimal Algorithm For Checking Whether A Given Vector Is A Solution To A Given Interval-Quantifier Linear System, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical situations, we have a linear dependence between different quantities. In such situations, we often need to solve the corresponding systems of linear equations. Often, we know the parameters of these equations with interval uncertainty. In this case, depending on the practical problem, we have different notions of a solution. For example, if we determine parameters from observations, we are interested in all the unknowns which satisfy the given system of linear equations for some possible values of the parameters. If we design a system so that it does not exceed given tolerance bounds, then we need to …

Is The World Itself Fuzzy? Physical Arguments For -- And Unexpected Computational Consequences Of -- Zadeh's Vision, Vladik Kreinovich, Olga Kosheleva

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Fuzzy methodology has been invented to describe imprecise ("fuzzy") human statements about the world, statements that use imprecise words from natural language like "small" or "large". Usual applications of fuzzy techniques assume that the world itself is ``crisp'', that there are exact equations describing the world, and fuzziness of our statements is caused by the incompleteness of our knowledge. But what if the world itself is fuzzy? What if there is no perfect system of equations describing the physical world -- in the sense that no matter what system of equations we try, there will always be cases when this …

Cubic Spline Interpolation By Solving A Recurrence Equation Instead Of A Tridiagonal Matrix, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

The cubic spline interpolation method is proba- bly the most widely-used polynomial interpolation method for functions of one variable. However, the cubic spline method requires solving a tridiagonal matrix-vector equation with an O(n) computational time complexity where n is the number of data measurements. Even an O(n) time complexity may be too much in some time-ciritical applications, such as continuously estimating and updating the flight paths of moving objects. This paper shows that under certain boundary conditions the tridiagonal matrix solving step of the cubic spline method could be entirely eliminated and instead the coefficients of the unknown cubic polynomials …

Designing A Bayer Filter With Smooth Hue Transition Interpolation Using The Xilinx System Generator, Zhiqiang Li, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

This paper describes the design of a Bayer filter with smooth hue transition using the System Generator for DSP. We describe and compare experimentally two different designs, one based on a MATLAB implementation and the other based on a modification of the Bayer filter using bilinear interpolation.

A Game-Theoretic Analysis Of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Although nuclear non-proliferation is an almost universal human desire, in practice, the negotiated treaties appear unable to prevent the steady growth of the number of states that have nuclear weapons. We propose a computational model for understanding the complex issues behind nuclear arms negotiations, the motivations of various states to enter a nuclear weapons program and the ways to diffuse crisis situations.

Estimating The Flight Path Of Moving Objects Based On Acceleration Data, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Inertial navigation is the problem of estimating the flight path of a moving object based on only acceleration measurements. This paper describes and compares two approaches for inertial navigation. Both approaches estimate the flight path of the moving object using cubic spline interpolation, but they find the coefficients of the cubic spline pieces by different methods. The first approach uses a tridiagonal matrix, while the second approach uses recurrence equations. They also require different boundary conditions. While both approaches work in O(n) time where n is the number of given acceleration measurements, the recurrence equation-based method can be easier updated …

Organizing Video Search Results To Adapted Semantic Hierarchies For Topic-Based Browsing, Jiajun Wang, Yu-Gang Jiang, Qiang Wang, Kuiyuan Yang, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Organizing video search results into semantically structured hierarchies can greatly improve the efficiency of browsing complex query topics. Traditional hierarchical clustering techniques are inadequate since they lack the ability to generate semantically interpretable structures. In this paper, we introduce an approach to organize video search results to an adapted semantic hierarchy. As many hot search topics such as celebrities and famous cities have Wikipedia pages where hierarchical topic structures are available, we start from the Wikipedia hierarchies and adjust the structures according to the characteristics of the returned videos from a search engine. Ordinary clustering based on textual information of …

Cama: Efficient Modeling Of The Capture Effect For Low Power Wireless Networks, Behnam Dezfouli, Marjan Radi, Kamin Whitehouse, Shukor Abd Razak, Hwee-Pink Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Network simulation is an essential tool for the design and evaluation of wireless network protocols, and realistic channel modeling is essential for meaningful analysis. Recently, several network protocols have demonstrated substantial network performance improvements by exploiting the capture effect, but existing models of the capture effect are still not adequate for protocol simulation and analysis. Physical-level models that calculate the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for every incoming bit are too slow to be used for large-scale or long-term networking experiments, and link-level models such as those currently used by the NS2 simulator do not accurately predict protocol performance. In this article, …

Click-Through-Based Subspace Learning For Image Search, Yingwei Pan, Ting Yao, Xinmei Tian, Houqiang Li, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

One of the fundamental problems in image search is to rank image documents according to a given textual query. We address two limitations of the existing image search engines in this paper. First, there is no straightforward way of comparing textual keywords with visual image content. Image search engines therefore highly depend on the surrounding texts, which are often noisy or too few to accurately describe the image content. Second, ranking functions are trained on query-image pairs labeled by human labelers, making the annotation intellectually expensive and thus cannot be scaled up. We demonstrate that the above two fundamental challenges …

Vireo @ Trecvid 2014: Instance Search And Semantic Indexing, Wei Zhang, Hao Zhang, Ting Yao, Yijie Lu, Jingjing Chen, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper summarizes the following two tasks participated by VIREO group: instance search and semantic indexing. We will present our approaches and analyze the results obtained in TRECVID 2014 benchmark evaluation

A Microfluidic Device For Thermal Particle Detection, Ashwin Kumar Vutha, Benyamin Davaji, Chung-Hoon Lee, Glenn M. Walker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

We demonstrate the use of heat to count microscopic particles. A thermal particle detector (TPD) was fabricated by combining a 500-nm-thick silicon nitride membrane containing a thin-film resistive temperature detector with a silicone elastomer microchannel. Particles with diameters of 90 and 200 μm created relative temperature changes of 0.11 and −0.44 K, respectively, as they flowed by the sensor. A first-order lumped thermal model was developed to predict the temperature changes. Multiple particles were counted in series to demonstrate the utility of the TPD as a particle counter.

Gammatone And Mfcc Features In Speaker Recognition, Wison Burgos

Theses and Dissertations

The feature analysis component of an Automated Speaker Recognition (ASR) system plays a crucial role in the overall performance of the system. There are many feature extraction techniques available, but ultimately we want to maximize the performance of these systems. From this point of view, the algorithms developed to compute feature components are analyzed. Current state-of-the-art ASR systems perform quite well in a controlled environment where the speech signal is noise free. The objective of this thesis investigates the results that can be obtained when you combine Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Gammatone Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (GFCC) as feature components …

Using Embedded Systems To Determine The Configuration Of A Static Wheelchair Mounted Robotic Arm, Daniel Ashley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The calibration of a 9 degree of freedom (DOF) robotic manipulator using multiple three axis accelerometers and an embedded system will be accomplished in this work. The 9-DOF robotic system used in this study is a 7-DOF robotic arm attached to a 2-DOF power wheelchair. Combined they create a Wheelchair Mounted Robotic Arm (WMRA). The problem that will be solved by this thesis is the calibration of the robotic system during start up. The 7 DOF robotic arm is comprised of rotational joints only. These joints have dual channel encoders to determine the joint position, among other useful data. The …

Human Mirna Sequence Based Variations Database, Nadim Georges Bou Zeidan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are studied as key genetic elements that regulate the gene expression involved in different human diseases. Clinical sequence based variations like copy number variations (CNVs) affect miRNA biogenesis, dosage and target recognition that may represent potentially functional variants and relevant target bindings.

To systematically analyze miRNA-related CNVs and their effects on related genes, a user-friendly free online database was developed to provide further analysis of co-localization of miRNA loci with human genome CNV regions. Further analysis pipelines such as miRNA-target to estimate the levels or locations of variations for genetic duplications, insertions or deletions were also offered. Such …

Analysis And Prevention Of Code-Injection Attacks On Android Os, Grant Joseph Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Injection attacks are the top two causes of software errors and vulnerabilities, according to the MITRE Common Vulnerabilities list [1]. This thesis presents a threat analysis of injection attacks on applications built for Android, a popular but not rigorously studied operating system designed for mobile devices. The following thesis is argued: Injection attacks are possible on off-the-shelf Android systems, and such attacks have the capacity to compromise the device through resource denial and leaking private data. Specifically, we demonstrate that injection attacks are possible through the OS shell and through the SQLite API. To mitigate these attacks, we augment the …

Mapping Aadl To Petri Net Tool-Sets Using Pnml Framework, Hassan Reza, Amrita Chatterjee

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) has been utilized to specify and verify non- functional properties of Real-Time Embedded Systems (RTES) used in critical application systems. Examples of such critical application systems include medical devices, nuclear power plants, aer- ospace, financial, etc. Using AADL, an engineer is enable to analyze the quality of a system. For example, a developer can perform performance analysis such as end-to-end flow analysis to guarantee that system components have the required resources to meet the timing requirements relevant to their communications. The critical issue related to developing and deploying safety critical systems is how to …

Strategies For Sensor Data Aggregation In Support Of Emergency Response, X. Wang, A. Walden, M. Weigle, S. Olariu

Computer Science Presentations

PDF of a powerpoint presentation from the Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), Baltimore, Maryland, October 7, 2014. Also available on Slideshare.

If We Take Into Account That Constraints Are Soft, Then Processing Constraints Becomes Algorithmically Solvable, Quentin Brefort, Luc Jaulin, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Constraints are ubiquitous in science and engineering. Constraints describe the available information about the state of the system, constraints describe possible relation between current and future states of the system, constraints describe which future states we would like to obtain. To solve problems from engineering and science, it is therefore necessary to process constraints. We show that if we treat constraints as hard (crisp), with all the threshold values exactly known, then in the general case, all the corresponding computational problems become algorithmically unsolvable. However, these problems become algorithmically solvable if we take into account that in reality, …

Why Ricker Wavelets Are Successful In Processing Seismic Data: Towards A Theoretical Explanation, Afshin Gholamy, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many engineering applications ranging from engineering seismology to petroleum engineering and civil engineering, it is important to process seismic data. In processing seismic data, it turns out to be very efficient to describe the signal's spectrum as a linear combination of Ricker wavelet spectra. In this paper, we provide a possible theoretical explanation for this empirical efficiency. Specifically, signal propagation through several layers is discussed, and it is shown that the Ricker wavelet is the simplest non-trivial solution for the corresponding data processing problem, under the condition that the described properties of the approximation family are satisfied.

Wi-Fi Real Time Location Systems, Benjamin A. Doll

Open Access Theses

This thesis objective was to determine the viability of utilizing an untrained Wi-Fi real time location system as a GPS alternative for indoor environments. Background research showed that GPS is rarely able to penetrate buildings to provide reliable location data. The benefit of having location information in a facility and how they might be used for disaster or emergency relief personnel and their resources motivated this research. A building was selected with a well-deployed Wi-Fi infrastructure and its untrained location feature was used to determine the distance between the specified test points and the system identified location. It was found …

Likert-Type Fuzzy Uncertainty From A Traditional Decision Making Viewpoint: How Symmetry Helps Explain Human Decision Making (Including Seemingly Irrational Behavior), Joe Lorkowski, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the main methods for eliciting the values of the membership function μ(x) is to use the Likert-type scales, i.e., to ask the user to mark his or her degree of certainty by an appropriate mark k on a scale from 0 to n and take μ(x) = k/n. In this paper, we show how to describe this process in terms of the traditional decision making, and we conclude that the resulting membership degrees incorporate both probability and utility information. It is therefore not surprising that fuzzy techniques often work better than probabilistic techniques (which only take into account …

Discretized Agent-Based Model Of Infectious Disease Spread That Uses Contact Probability, Tyrell L. Gardner

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This study uses contact probability in an agent-based model to simulate the spread of an infectious disease. In order to perform the study, the agent-based model must first be discretized into events. Each agent in the model is given its own infectious disease state machine taken from the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (SEIR) model. The agents move between squares in a grid environment where each square represents a group. Groups have a contact probability as an attribute that is used to predict whether an agent comes in close contact with another agent. The transitions between the states in the SEIR model are easily …

Developing A Practical Wireless Monitoring Solution For A Size-Constrained, Low-Power, Biomechanical, Sports Telemetry System, Jeffery Ray King

Open Access Theses

As sport-related concussions become more prevalent, the ability to quickly and reliably assess brain injury risk is increasingly essential. Commercially-available systems exist with the goal of assessing the risk of traumatic brain injury in athletes in real-time. These systems utilize a pre-determined acceleration threshold, discarding all captured information below this arbitrary threshold. The use of an event-based model to assess the risk of traumatic brain injury has been shown to be inadequate. Therefore, these systems falsely promote "accurate" real-time communication of risk. Research conducted by the Purdue Neurotrauma Group (PNG) seeks to advance the field by developing a biomechanical sports …

Rapid Indirect Trajectory Optimization On Highly Parallel Computing Architectures, Thomas Antony

Open Access Theses

Trajectory optimization is a field which can benefit greatly from the advantages offered by parallel computing. The current state-of-the-art in trajectory optimization focuses on the use of direct optimization methods, such as the pseudo-spectral method. These methods are favored due to their ease of implementation and large convergence regions while indirect methods have largely been ignored in the literature in the past decade except for specific applications in astrodynamics. It has been shown that the shortcomings conventionally associated with indirect methods can be overcome by the use of a continuation method in which complex trajectory solutions are obtained by solving …

Impact Of License Selection On Open Source Software Quality, Benjamin J. Cotton

Open Access Theses

Open source software plays an important part in the modern world, powering businesses large and small. However, little work has been done to evaluate the quality of open source software. Two different license paradigms exist within the open source world, and this study examines the difference in software quality between them. In this thesis, the author uses technical debt as a measure of software quality. Eighty open source projects (40 from each paradigm) were downloaded from the popular open source hosting website SourceForge. Using complexity, code duplication, comments, and unit test coverage as inputs to the SonarQube technical debt model, …

Effects Of Hip And Ankle Moments On Running Stability: Simulation Of A Simplified Model, Rubin C. Cholera

Open Access Theses

In human running, the ankle, knee, and hip moments are known to play different roles to influence the dynamics of locomotion. A recent study of hip moments and several hip-based legged robots have revealed that hip actuation can significantly improve the stability of locomotion, whether controlled or uncontrolled. Ankle moments are expected to also significantly affect running stability, but in a different way than hip moments. Here we seek to advance the current theory of dynamic running and associated legged robots by determining how simple open-loop ankle moments could affect running stability. We simulate a dynamical model, and compare it …

Principle Of Bio-Inspired Insect Wing Rotational Hinge Design, Fan Fei

Open Access Theses

A principle for designing and fabricating bio-inspired miniature artificial insect flapping wing using flexure rotational hinge design is presented. A systematic approach of selecting rotational hinge stiffness value is proposed. Based on the understanding of flapping wing aerodynamics, a dynamic simulation is constructed using the established quasi-steady model and the wing design. Simulations were performed to gain insight on how different parameters affect the wing rotational response. Based on system resonance a model to predict the optimal rotational hinge stiffness based on given wing parameter and flapping wing kinematic is proposed. By varying different wing parameters, the proposed method is …

Joint Architecture For Reusable Vehicle-Integrated Software (J.A.R.V.I.S), Anthony Mark Kane

Open Access Theses

An integrated software architecture for development of unmanned research vehicles is developed. It has been created under the premise that all unmanned vehicles require a core set of functionality that is common across platforms and that priority should be to the readability and reusability of the code base. The architecture defines the top-level system interfaces allowing internal algorithms to be manipulated without affecting the rest of the system. A robust aerospace toolbox has been developed that provides a means to rapidly prototype algorithms without the need of recreating commonly used functions or the use of expensive, proprietary software.

Design And Analysis Of A Cable-Driven Test Apparatus For Flapping-Flight Research, Stephen J. Musick

Open Access Theses

The biology, physiology, kinematics, and aerodynamics of insect flight have been a longstanding fascination for biologists and engineers. The former three are easily obtained through the observation of the organic species. The latter though, is very difficult to study in this fashion. In many cases, aerodynamic forces and fluid-body interactions can be simulated with computational fluid dynamics; another option is to use dynamically-scaled, experimental set-ups to measure physically these values.

An archetypal, experimental set-up may include one or two scaled wings, where each wing is actuated to achieve upwards of three degrees of freedom. The three degrees of freedom correspond …

Automatic Translation Of Non-Repetitive Openmp To Mpi, Fahed Jubair

Open Access Dissertations

Cluster platforms with distributed-memory architectures are becoming increasingly available low-cost solutions for high performance computing. Delivering a productive programming environment that hides the complexity of clusters and allows writing efficient programs is urgently needed. Despite multiple efforts to provide shared memory abstraction, message-passing (MPI) is still the state-of-the-art programming model for distributed-memory architectures. ^ Writing efficient MPI programs is challenging. In contrast, OpenMP is a shared-memory programming model that is known for its programming productivity. Researchers introduced automatic source-to-source translation schemes from OpenMP to MPI so that programmers can use OpenMP while targeting clusters. Those schemes limited their focus on …