Internal inspection of semi-transparent objects by digital holographic micro-tomography

The combined use of digital holographic microscopy and computer tomography, here named digital holographic micro-tomography, is used to examine the interior of transparent channels. The proposed method is used to identify internal obstacles inside of transparent troughs having slightly different refractive index. The method is based in the acquisition of a set of digital holograms of the specimen whereas it is axially rotated from 0° to 180°. The phase differences retrieved from the obtained holograms are the inputs to a computerised axial tomography procedure. The technique has been numerically modelled in order to find the optimal tomographic conditions and also to realise the minimum difference of refractive index the method could detect. The obtained results show the feasibility of the proposed method for the non-destructive evaluation of transparent micro-objects.     

Digital photoelasticity of glass: A comprehensive review

The recent advances in digital photoelasticity have made it possible to use it conveniently for the stress analysis of articles and components made of glass. Depending on the application, the retardation levels to be measured range from a few nanometres to several thousand nanometres, which necessitates different techniques and associated equipments. This paper reviews the recent advances in the photoelasticity of glass with a focus on the techniques/methods developed in the last decade. A brief introduction to the residual stress in glass is provided initially to bring out its tensorial nature. The subsequent sections are organised thematically rather than chronologically, for better readability and easy access of information.     

A real-time dual watermarking algorithm of H.264/AVC video stream for Video-on-Demand service

A real-time dual watermarking algorithm of H.264/AVC compressed video is proposed for Video-on-Demand (VOD) service. The copyright information and user information are modulated by CDMA spreading strategies as watermark. At the encoder side, copyright information is embedded into the first non-zero coefficient of Intra 4 × 4 coded blocks in the luminance components of I frames. An effective error compensation mechanism is simultaneously introduced into the embedding process, which strictly restricts the distortion caused by quantization and watermark embedding within a step size of quantization. At the server side, a XOR based mapping rule is utilized for watermark embedding because the number of non-zero coefficients after quantization is quite less in P frames. Every two bits of the private user information is mapped to three non-zero coefficients of P frames. Experimental results on test sequences demonstrate that the proposed approach has just slight influence on bit rate and PSNR with real-time performance for VOD services, and achieves the dual purposes of copyright protection and pirate tracking.     

Scanning schemes in white light Photoelasticity – Part I: Critical assessment of existing schemes

The use of white light based Three Fringe Photoelasticity (TFP)/RGB Photoelasticity has gained importance in the recent years. With recent advances in TFP, it is possible to resolve fringe orders upto twelve. The main advantage of this technique is that it requires only a single image for isochromatic demodulation, which makes it suitable especially for problems where recording multiple images is difficult. The accuracy of isochromatic data obtained using TFP/RGB Photoelasticity is dependent on the scanning scheme used to refine the data, which is necessary to incorporate fringe order continuity. In this paper, the existing scanning schemes are critically evaluated for their ability to scan the entire model domain, influence of seed point selection and noise propagation. The scanning schemes are assessed using four problems of increasing level of geometric complexity – Circular disc under compression (simply connected), bi-axially loaded cruciform specimen with an inclined crack, a thick ring subjected to internal pressure and a finite plate with a hole (multiply connected).     

Mitigating adjacent channel interference in vehicular communication systems

In the last few decades, dedicated wireless channels were specifically allocated to enable the development and implementation of vehicular communication systems. The two main protocol stacks, the WAVE standards proposed by the IEEE in the United States and the ETSI ITS-G5 in Europe, reserved 10 MHz wide channels in the 5.9 GHz spectrum band. Despite the exclusive use of these frequencies for vehicular communication purposes, there are still cross channel interference problems that have been widely reported in the literature. In order to mitigate these issues, this paper presents the design of a two-stage FIR low-pass filter, targeting the integration with a digital baseband receiver chain of a custom vehicular communications platform. The filter was tested, evaluated and optimized, with the simulation results proving the effectiveness of the proposed method and the low delay introduced in the overall operation of the receiver chain.     

Synthesis of Dual Mode Logic

In recent years, the major focus of VLSI design has shifted from high-speed to low-power consumption. While standard CMOS-based digital design provides substantial flexibility during pre-silicon design phases, the characteristics of the gates are set by fabrication variations and environmental conditions and cannot easily be changed at runtime. The recently proposed Dual Mode Logic (DML) family provides a novel approach to provide this capability by introducing two configurable operating modes, static and dynamic, that enable fine-grained control of the power-performance tradeoff of a logic path. However, the introduction of a new topology requires the development of both a design methodology and techniques for integration in a robust design automation flow. Standard synthesis tools do not support dynamic gates, and in particular, dual-characteristic gates. Therefore, until now, DML has been limited to small, custom-made blocks and components. In this paper, we present a novel approach for the integration of DML into standard electronic design automation tools, as part of the standard digital design flow. The development of this approach and the accompanying design methodology enables DML to be used in larger designs, such as state-of-the-art, high-speed and/or low-power SoCs. We demonstrate the employment of the proposed approach in order to benefit from DML properties, and reduce the power consumption, while simultaneously improving the operating frequency of a number of test designs.     

Cryptocurrency value formation: An empirical study leading to a cost of production model for valuing bitcoin

This paper aims to identify the likely determinants for cryptocurrency value formation, including for that of bitcoin. Due to Bitcoin’s growing popular appeal and merchant acceptance, it has become increasingly important to try to understand the factors that influence its value formation. Presently, the value of all bitcoins in existence represent approximately $7 billion, and more than $60 million of notional value changes hands each day. Having grown rapidly over the past few years, there is now a developing but vibrant marketplace for bitcoin, and a recognition of digital currencies as an emerging asset class. Not only is there a listed and over-the-counter market for bitcoin and other digital currencies, but also an emergent derivatives market. As such, the ability to value bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies is becoming critical to its establishment as a legitimate financial asset.Using cross-sectional empirical data examining 66 of the most widely used cryptocurrencies, a regression model was estimated that points to three main drivers of cryptocurrency value: the level of competition in the network of producers, the rate of unit production, and the difficulty of algorithm used to “mine” for the cryptocurrency. These amount to relative differences in the cost of production of one digital currency over another at the margin, pointing to differences in relative cost of production – electricity goes in, cryptocurrency comes out. Using that as a starting point, a no-arbitrage situation is established for Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies followed by the formalization of a cost of production model to determine the fair value of a bitcoin.     

Error evaluation for Zernike polynomials fitting based phase compensation of digital holographic microscopy

Combining the experimental research with the simulation calculation, the error evaluation for Zernike polynomials fitting (ZPF) based phase compensation of digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is performed. The obtained results show that the reconstructed phase with high precision can be obtained by ZPF phase compensation algorithm. Moreover, the phase error for ZPF based phase compensation algorithm increases with both the variation of object height and object transverse area, the larger variation of object height, the larger of phase error, and the larger of object transverse area, the faster increase of RMS phase error. To decrease the error of ZPF phase compensation algorithm, it is required to ensure one of the variations of object height and object transverse area to be a small value. Importantly, the proposed method supplies a useful tool for the error evaluation of phase compensation algorithm.