16143751
Portrait video phone
As the Internet and wirless networks are developed rapidly, the demand of communicating anywhere, anytime on any device emerges. However, most of the current wireless networks still work in low bandwidths, and mobile devices still suffer from weak computational power, short battery lifetime and limited display capability. We developed portrait video phone systems that can run on Pcs and Pocket Pcs at very low bit rates through the Internet. The core technology that portrait video phones employ is the so-called portrait video (or bi-level video) codec. Portrait video codec first converts a full-color video into a black/white image sequence and then compresses it into a black/white portrait-like video. Portrait video processes clearer shape, smoother motion, shorter initial latency, and cheaper computational cost than MPEG2, MPEG4 and H.263 for low bandwidths. Typically the portrait video phone provides QCIF-size video with a frame rate of 5-15 fps for a 9.6 Kbps video bandwidth. The portrait video is so small that it can even be transmitted through an HTTP proxy as text. Experiments show that the portrait video phones work well on ordinary GSM wireless telecommunication networks.
15802971
Subjective preference of spatio-temporal rate in video adaptation using multi-dimensional scalable coding
Video adaptation allows for direct manipulation of existing encoded video streams to meet new resource constraints without having to encode the video from scratch. Multi-dimensional scalable coding, such as motion-compensated subband coding (MCSBC), offers an effective and flexible representation for video adaptation. In order to develop robust criteria for selecting optimal spatio-temporal rates used in adaptation, knowledge about subjective preference of spatio-temporal rates is needed. We study the optimal temporal frame rate over a wide range of bandwidth (50 kbps to 1 Mbps) using subjective quality evaluation with 128 clips and 31 subjects. We analyze the results using statistical testing methods and investigate the dependence of optimal frame rate on user, bandwidth, and video content characteristics. Our findings indicate agreement among most users and the existence of switching bandwidths at which preferred frame rates change. Dependence of the preference on video content types is also revealed.
16943053
Towards an indoor location system using RF signal strength in IEEE 802.11 networks
Location is one of the most important contexts used in pervasive computing environments. GPS systems are intensely used to detect the location information; they mainly work in outdoor environment. Applications call for precise, easy-to-build, and easy-to-use indoor location systems. This paper presents our work to implement an indoor location determination system for Microsoft-Windows-based platforms using a preexisting IEEE 802.11 wireless network. The location is determined from radio signal strength information collected from multiple base stations at different physical locations. Our experiments show a high accuracy rate of this approach.
10079260
The sum number and integral sum number of complete bipartite graphs
Let N denote the set of positive integers. The sum graph G + (S) of a 1nite subset S of N is the graph (S; E) with vertex set S and edge set E such that for u; v ∈ S; uv ∈ E if and only if u + v ∈ S. A graph G is called a sum graph if it is isomorphic to the sum graph G + (S) of some 1nite subset S of N . The sum number � (G) of a graph G is de1ned as the smallest nonnegative integer m for which G ∪ mK1 is a sum graph. Let Z be the set of all integers. By extending the set N to Z in the above de1nitions of sum graphs and sum numbers, Harary [3] introduced the corresponding notions of integral sum graphs and integral sum number of a graph. In this paper, we evaluate the value of the sum number and integral sum number of the complete bipartite graph Kr; s. While the former one corrects the result given in [4], the latter settles completely a problem proposed in [3]. c � 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
12789585
A Secure Agent Architecture for Sensor Networks
Advances in sensor and wireless technologies will enable thousands, or even millions of small but smart sensors to be deployed for a wide range of monitoring applications. The sensor networks must be dynamically configurable and adaptive in order to response actively to events. Security must also be built into sensor networks at the very initial design stage to prevent any potential threats. This paper presents a design of a generic software architecture based on tiny active agents for sensor networks. The architecture has built-in security components. This architecture will significantly benefit the dynamic and secure deployment and configuration tasks of large sensor networks for various applications.
2456151
Subdivision Schemes and Refinement Equations with Nonnegative Masks
We consider the two-scale refinement equation f(x)=@?^N"n"="0c"nf(2x-n) with @?"nc"2"n=@?"nc"2"n"+"1=1 where c"0, c"N 0 and the corresponding subdivision scheme. We study the convergence of the subdivision scheme and the cascade algorithm when all c"n>=0. It has long been conjectured that under such an assumption the subdivision algorithm converge, and the cascade algorithm converge uniformly to a continuous function, if and only if only if 00} is 1. We prove the conjecture for a large class of refinement equations.
1333188
Querying approximate shortest paths in anisotropic regions
We present a data structure for answering approximate shortest path queries ina planar subdivision from a fixed source. Let ρ ≥ 1 be a real number.Distances in each face of this subdivision are measured by a possiblyasymmetric convex distance function whose unit disk is contained in aconcentric unit Euclidean disk, and contains a concentric Euclidean disk withradius 1/ρ. Different convex distance functions may be used for differentfaces, and obstacles are allowed. Let ε be any number strictly between 0and 1. Our data structure returns a (1+ε)approximation of the shortest path cost from the fixed source to a querydestination in O(logρn/ε) time. Afterwards, a(1+ε)-approximate shortest path can be reported in time linear in itscomplexity. The data structure uses O(ρ<sup>2</sup> n<sup>4</sup>/ε<sup>2</sup> log ρn/ε) space and can be built in O((ρ<sup>2</sup> n<sup>4</sup>)/(ε<sup>2</sup>)(log ρn/ε)<sup>2</sup>) time. Our time and space bounds do not depend onany geometric parameter of the subdivision such as the minimum angle.