Improved macroblock level rate control for the spatially scalable extension of H.264/AVC

An improved rate control algorithm, designed for scalable video coders incorporating interlayer prediction, is proposed. Firstly, a Rate Distortion (RD) model for interlayer prediction involving the spatial enhancement layers is devised. An optimised Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) prediction model for the spatial enhancement layers that considers both the MAD from the spatial base layer in the same frame and the MAD from the corresponding macroblock in previous frames is also proposed. Simulation results show that the resulting algorithm produces accurate rate control with an average bit rate error of less than 0.26%. Compared with the JVT-W043 default rate control algorithm of the JSVM, the proposed algorithm improves the average PSNR by up to 0.53 dB or reduces the bit rate by an average of 10.95%. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm can be combined with the existing rate control scheme for H.264/AVC, resulting in further improvements.     

Monodisperse Six-Armed Starbursts based on Truxene-Cored Multibranched Oligofluorenes: Design,Synthesis, and Stabilized Lasing Characteristics

A series of monodisperse six-armed conjugated starbursts ( Tr1F , Tr2F , and Tr3F ) containing a truxene core and multibranched oligofluorene bridges capped with diphenylamine (DPA) units has been designed, synthesized, and investigated as robust gain media for organic semiconductor lasers (OSLs). The influence of electron-rich DPA end groups on their optoelectronic characteristics has been discussed at length. DPA cappers effectively raise HOMO levels of the starbursts, thus enhancing the hole injection and transport ability. Solution-processed electroluminescence devices based on the resulting six-armed starbursts exhibited efficient deep-blue electroluminescence with clear reduced turn-on voltages (3.2–3.5 V). Moreover, the resulting six-armed molecules showed stabilized electroluminescence and amplified spontaneous emission with low thresholds (27.4–63.9 nJ pulse⁻¹), high net gain coefficients (80.1–101.3 cm⁻¹), and small optical loss (2.6–4.4 cm⁻¹). Distributed feedback OSLs made from Tr3F exhibited a low lasing threshold of 0.31 kW cm⁻² (at 465 nm). The results suggest that the construction of truxene-centered six-armed conjugated starbursts with the incorporation of DPA units can effectively enhance EL properties by precisely regulating the HOMO energy levels, and further optimizing their optical gain properties.     

Temporal information based GoP adaptation for linear video delivery schemes

An original wireless video transmission scheme called SoftCast has been recently proposed to deal with the issues encountered in conventional wireless video broadcasting systems (e.g. cliff effect). In this paper, we evaluate and optimize the performance of the SoftCast scheme according to the transmitted video content. Precisely, an adaptive coding mechanism based on GoP-size adaptation, which takes into account the temporal information fluctuations of the video, is proposed. This extension denoted Adaptive GoP-size mechanism based on Content and Cut detection for SoftCast (AGCC-SoftCast) significantly improves the performance of the SoftCast scheme. It consists in modifying the GoP-size according to the shot changes and the spatio-temporal characteristics of the transmitted video. When hardware capacities, such as buffer or processor performance are limited, an alternative method based only on the shot changes detection (AGCut-SoftCast) is also proposed. Improvements up to 16 dB for the PSNR and up to 0.55 for the SSIM are observed with the proposed solutions at the cut boundaries. In addition, temporal visual quality fluctuations are reduced under 1dB in average, showing the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

A novel chaotic image encryption scheme using DNA sequence operations

In this paper, we propose a novel image encryption scheme based on DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) sequence operations and chaotic system. Firstly, we perform bitwise exclusive OR operation on the pixels of the plain image using the pseudorandom sequences produced by the spatiotemporal chaos system, i.e., CML (coupled map lattice). Secondly, a DNA matrix is obtained by encoding the confused image using a kind of DNA encoding rule. Then we generate the new initial conditions of the CML according to this DNA matrix and the previous initial conditions, which can make the encryption result closely depend on every pixel of the plain image. Thirdly, the rows and columns of the DNA matrix are permuted. Then, the permuted DNA matrix is confused once again. At last, after decoding the confused DNA matrix using a kind of DNA decoding rule, we obtain the ciphered image. Experimental results and theoretical analysis show that the scheme is able to resist various attacks, so it has extraordinarily high security.     

Design of robust differential microphone arrays with the Jacobi–Anger expansion

Due to their small size, differential microphone arrays (DMAs) are very attractive. Moreover, they have been effective in combating noise and reverberation. Recently, a new class of DMAs of different orders have been developed with the MacLaurin’s series and the frequency-independent patterns. However, the MacLaurin’s series does not approximate well the exponential function, which appears in the general definition of the beampattern, when the intersensor spacing is not small enough. To circumvent this problem, we propose in this paper to approximate the exponential function with the Jacobi–Anger expansion. Based on this approximation and the frequency-independent Chebyshev patterns, we derive first-, second-, and third-order DMAs. Furthermore, in order to improve the robustness of DMAs against white noise amplification, we propose to use more microphones combined with minimum-norm filters. It is also shown that the Jacobi–Anger expansion is optimal from a mean-squared error perspective. Simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed DMAs.     

CARTscans: A Tool for Visualizing Complex Models

We present CARTscans, a graphical tool that displays predicted values across a fourdimensional subspace. We show how these plots are useful for understanding the structure and relationships between variables in a wide variety of models, including (but not limited to) regression trees, ensembles of trees, and linear regressions with varying degrees of interactions. In addition, the common visualization framework allows diverse complex models to be visually compared in a way that illuminates the similarities and differences in the underlying methods, facilitates the choice of a particular model structure, and provides a useful check for implausible predictions of future observations in regions with little or no data.     

Noise Feedback Coding Revisited： Refurbished Legacy Codecs and New Coding Models

Noise feedback coding(NFC) has attracted renewed interest with the recent standardization of backward-compatible enhancements for ITU-T G.711 and G.722.It has also been revisited with the emergence of proprietary speech codecs,such as BV16,BV32,and SILK,that have structures different from CELP coding.In this article,we review NFC and describe a novel coding technique that optimally shapes coding noise in embedded pulse-code modulation(PCM) and embedded adaptive differential PCM(ADPCM).We describe how this new technique was incorporated into the recent ITU-T G.711.1,G.711 App.III,and G.722 Annex B(G.722B) speech-coding standards.     

Efficient disparity vector prediction schemes with modified P frame for 2D camera arrays

An efficient disparity estimation algorithm for multi-view video sequences, recorded by a two-dimensional camera array in which the cameras are spaced equidistantly, is presented. Because of the strong geometrical relationship among views, the disparity vectors of a certain view can for most blocks be derived from the disparity vectors of other views. A frame constructed using that idea is called a D frame in this work. Three new prediction schemes which contain D frames are proposed for encoding 5 × 3 multi-view video sequences. The schemes are applied to several multi-view image sequences taken from a camera-array and they are compared in terms of quality, bit-rate and complexity. The experimental results show that the proposed prediction schemes significantly decrease the complexity of the encoder at a very low cost of quality and/or bit-rate.     

A 3D-DCT video encoder using advanced coding techniques for low power mobile device

The three-dimensional discrete cosine transform (3D-DCT) has been researched as an alternative to existing dominant video standards based on motion estimation and compensation. Since it does not need to search macro block for inter/intra prediction, 3D-DCT has great advantages for complexity. However, it has not been developed well because of poor video quality while video standards such as H.263(+) and HEVC have been blooming. In this paper, we propose a new 3D-DCT video coding as a new video solution for low power mobile technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Drone. We focus on overcoming drawbacks reported in previous research. We build a complete 3D-DCT video coding system by adopting existing advanced techniques and devising new coding algorithms to improve overall performance of 3D-DCT. Experimental results show proposed 3D-DCT outperforms H.264 low power profiles while offering less complexity. From GBD-PSNR, proposed 3D-DCT provides better performance by average 4.6 dB.     

Joint impact of nodes-mobility and channel estimation error on the performance of two-way relay systems

This paper presents the performance analysis of a two-way relay system with nodes-mobility (NM) and channel estimation errors (CEE) under time-varying Rayleigh fading. Herein, analog network coding protocol is employed at the relay node. All the participating nodes are half-duplex and equipped with single-antenna devices. Specifically, we utilize first-order Markovian model to characterize the impact of NM in the channel. Along with the NM, we also consider that the CEE may exist in practical scenarios, where nodes require to estimate the channel state information. By incorporating these factors, we first derive the instantaneous end-to-end (e2e) signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) at two source nodes. Then, we obtain the exact closed-form expressions for distribution and density functions of the two e2e SNRs. After that, we derive the accurate expressions of various performance metrics, viz., sum-bit error rate, overall outage probability, and ergodic sum-rate. Further, to attain more insights into the considered system, we deduce the asymptotic behavior of these performance metrics. Finally, numerical and Monte-Carlo simulation results are provided to validate our theoretical analysis and to illustrate the impact of NM and CEE on the performance measures of the considered system.