928702
Non-ubiquitous digital watermarking for record indexing and integrity protection of medical images
Two novel non-ubiquitous digital watermarking schemes are proposed and evaluated in parallel (one in the spatial domain and one in the wavelet domain) for the purpose of record indexing and integrity protection of medical images. A fingerprint of the regions of interest (ROI) in a medical image is generated using the MD5 message-digest algorithm [R. Rivest, April 1992], and it is embedded along with the medical record information into the non-ROI parts of the image. Our experiments show that with both schemes, a payload of 420 bits of information can be achieved watermarking clinical cytogenetic images, without affecting image content in the ROI nor incurring perceptible differences between original and watermarked images. Furthermore, the resulting watermarked images can survive common image processing operations such as cropping, JPEG compression, sharpening, and their combinations.
8002270
Audio coding and image denoising based on the nonuniform modulated complex lapped transform
Xiong and Malvar recently introduced a nonuniform modulated complex lapped transform (NMCLT) with good time-localization and controllable frequency resolution by using an oversampled nonuniform filter bank to generate its real and the imaginary components. In this paper, we first show that oversampling in the NMCLT is not necessary in theory but a by-product of fast implementation in practice. We also point out that the amount of oversampling, which can be flexibly controlled, depends on the application. We then describe in detail the implementation of the inverse transform, which was not addressed clearly by Xiong and Malvar. We present the first applications of the NMCLT to audio coding and image denoising. A scalable audio coder has been implemented by controlling the amount of oversampling and exploiting redundancy among the NMCLT coefficients via predictive coding. Experimental results show that the audio coder reduces pre-echoes and improves the sound quality of audio clips with transient sounds. A simple denoising algorithm based on the NMCLT has also been devised to provide images with better visual quality than those obtained with wavelet-based soft thresholding.
6799009
On packetization of embedded multimedia bitstreams
We study the problem of packetizing embedded multimedia bitstreams to improve the error resilience of source (compression) codes. This problem is important because of the increasing popularity of embedded compression methodology and its suitability for scalable streaming media over IP or/and mobile IP. We study various packetization schemes against packet erasure at both low and high bit rates. Maximizing packetization efficiency for embedded bitstreams is formulated as a discrete optimization problem and globally optimal packetization (OP) algorithms are proposed under different settings. Suboptimal packetization algorithms are also devised to reduce the complexity of the OP algorithms. In order to assess their effectiveness, the proposed packetization algorithms are used to packetize embedded image and video bitstreams with simulated packet loss. Experimental results show that our OP algorithms slightly outperforms suboptimal ones. In addition to confirming the superiority of the OP algorithms, these results also provide justification of heuristic packetization methods published in the literature.
19385806
Lossy-to-lossless compression of medical volumetric data using three-dimensional integer wavelet transforms
We study lossy-to-lossless compression of medical volumetric data using three-dimensional (3-D) integer wavelet transforms. To achieve good lossy coding performance, it is important to have transforms that are unitary. In addition to the lifting approach, we first introduce a general 3-D integer wavelet packet transform structure that allows implicit bit shifting of wavelet coefficients to approximate a 3-D unitary transformation. We then focus on context modeling for efficient arithmetic coding of wavelet coefficients. Two state-of-the-art 3-D wavelet video coding techniques, namely, 3-D set partitioning in hierarchical trees (Kim et al., 2000) and 3-D embedded subband coding with optimal truncation (Xu et al., 2001), are modified and applied to compression of medical volumetric data, achieving the best performance published so far in the literature-both in terms of lossy and lossless compression.
18292356
On dualities in multiterminal coding problems
It has been shown recently that under certain conditions there exist dualities between different multiterminal (MT) source and channel coding problems. Following these results, we study lossless MT source coding and deterministic MT channel coding problems and point out different dualities between them. In particular, we show that there exists a functional duality between a Slepian-Wolf (SW) coding problem and a deterministic broadcast channel (DBC) coding problem and between a lossless multiple-description (MD) coding problem and a deterministic multiple-access channel (DMAC) coding problem. In analogy to the duality established between DBC and DMAC coding problems, we further propose a similar duality between SW and lossless MD coding problems; in this way, we form a closed "duality loop" of four MT coding problems, which imposes the existence of a single common rate point in the achievable rate regions of all four dual problems. We also consider duality in zero-error MT coding and shed light on practical code design with an example. Finally, extension to the case with only one lossless/deterministic component in the source/channel coding problem is provided.
206577228
Fast Trellis-Coded Color Quantization of Images
We examine color quantization of images using trellis-coded quantization (TCQ) in both the RGB domain and YUV domain. Together with a simple dithering scheme, an eight-bit trellis-coded color quantizer reproduces images that are visually indistinguishable from the 24-bit originals. It can be viewed as a predictive trellis-coded color quantization scheme. We also study trellis-coded vector quantization (TCVQ) for color quantization. Our proposed TCQ-based color quantization schemes are universal in the sense that no training or look-up table is needed. The complexity of TCQ is linear with respect to image size, making trellis-coded color quantization suitable for color printing, real-time interactive graphics and window-based display environment.
30645069
Backtrack Routing and Priority-Based Wavelength Assignment in WDM Networks
In this paper, we consider two key problems in the WDM networks: the wavelengh assignment and routing problems. The objective of the problems is to minimize the request blocking rate. We propose two priority-based methods for the wavelength assignment problem: static and dynamic strategies. Based on the priority of an incoming request, the proposed methods allocate a wavelength among the available wavelengths for the given priority. Analytic models and simulations are presented for the proposed wavelength assignment methods so as to analyse the link blocking rate. The simulation results show that the link blocking rate by the dynamic strategy is less than that by the assignment strategy. We also develop a routing algorithm that works together with the proposed wavelength assignment methods to reduce the overall blocking rates. The proposed routing method maintains a routing tree for a given connection request. Based on the routing tree, the algorithm finds a route with one available wavelength for each link along the route. We compare the proposed routing method with the fixed routing and fixed alternate routing algorithms. The experiments show that the proposed routing algorithm performs better than the fixed routing and the alternate routing methods.
6666618
Low-Power Design for Real-Time Systems
Real-time Systems often are located in the special environments where the power consumption is a big concern. Upon presence of timing constraints, the low power design on the real-time systems has significant impact on the performance as well as the schedulability of the systems. The system developers are facing the challenges for reducing the power consumption and meeting the timing constraints in the real-time systems.This paper represents one of few attempts to address the issue of the low power design on real-time systems. We present two power reduction methods: one is at the software compilation level and the other at the operating system level. Given a real-time program, an inter-instruction power reduction technique is proposed to transform the program to another one with lower power consumption. In addition, a scheduling algorithm for real-time operating systems is proposed to reschedule real-time programs when the execution time of the programs is changed. Therefore, the proposed scheduling algorithm works together with the proposed power reduction technique to make sure all programs meet their deadlines and to improve the system schedulability. We also evaluate the performance of the proposed inter-instruction reduction method by comparing it with the cold scheduling algorithm and show that the proposed method outperforms the cold scheduling algorithm and reduces more energy power.
9588683
Performance evaluation of an admission control algorithm: dynamic threshold with negotiation
An admission control algorithm for a multimedia server is responsible for determining if a new request can be accepted without violating the QoS requirements of the existing requests in the system. Most admission control algorithms treat every request uniformly and hence optimize the system performance by maximizing the number of admitted and served requests. In practice, requests might have different levels of importance to the system. Requests offering high contribution or reward to the system performance deserve priority treatment. Failure of accepting a high-priority request would incur high penalty to the system.A novel threshold-based admission control algorithm with negotiation for two priority classes of requests is proposed in our previous study. The server capacity is divided into three partitions based on the threshold values: one for each class of requests and one common pool shared by two classes of requests. Reward and penalty are adopted in the proposed system model. High-priority requests are associated with higher values of reward as well as penalty than low-priority ones. In this paper, given the characteristics of the system workload, the proposed analytical models aim to finds the best partitions, optimizing the system performance based on the objective function of the total reward minus the total penalty. The negotiation mechanism reduces the QoS requirements of several low-priority clients, by cutting out a small fraction of the assigned server capacity, to accept a new high-priority client and to achieve a higher net earning value. Stochastic Petri-Net model is used to find the optimal threshold values and two analytical methods are developed to find sub-optimal settings. The experiment results show that the sub-optimal solutions found by the proposed analytical methods are very close to optimal ones. The methods enable the algorithm to dynamically adjust the threshold values, based on the characteristics of the system workload, to achieve higher system performance.
76461
Software Architecture-Based Adaptation for Pervasive Systems
An important requirement for pervasive computing systems is the ability to adapt at runtime to handle varying resources, user mobility, changing user needs, and system faults. In this paper we describe an approach in which dynamic adaptation is supported by the use of software architectural models to monitor an application and guide dynamic changes to it. The use of externalized models permits one to make reconfiguration decisions based on a global perspective of the running system, apply analytic models to determine correct repair strategies, and gauge the effectiveness of repair through continuous system monitoring. We illustrate the application of this idea to pervasive computing systems, focusing on the need to adapt based on performance-related criteria and models.
10474032
Dynamic quota-based admission control with sub-rating in multimedia servers
Abstract. An admission control algorithm for a multimedia server is responsible for determining if a new request can be accepted without violating the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of the existing requests in the system. A novel quota-based admission control algorithm with sub-rating for two priority classes of requests is proposed in this study. The server capacity is divided into three partitions based on the quota values: one for each class of requests and one common pool shared by two classes of requests. Reward and penalty are adopted in the proposed system model. High-priority requests are associated with higher values of reward as well as penalty than low-priority ones. Given the characteristics of the system workload, the proposed algorithm finds the best partitions, optimizing the system performance based on the objective function of the total reward minus the total penalty. The sub-rating mechanism will reduce the QoS requirements of several low- priority clients, by cutting out a small fraction of the assigned server capacity, to accept a new high- priority client and to achieve a higher net earning value. A stochastic Petri-Net model is used to find the optimal quota values and two approximation approaches are developed to find sub-optimal settings. The experiment results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than one without sub-rating mechanism, and that the sub-optimal solutions found by the proposed approximation approaches are very close to optimal ones. The approximation approaches enable the algorithm to dynamically adjust the quota values, based on the characteristics of the system workload, to achieve higher system performance.