BaNa: a noise resilient fundamental frequency detection algorithm for speech and music

Fundamental frequency (F0) is one of the essential features in many acoustic related applications. Although numerous F0 detection algorithms have been developed, the detection accuracy in noisy environments still needs improvement. We present a hybrid noise resilient F0 detection algorithm named BaNa that combines the approaches of harmonic ratios and Cepstrum analysis. A Viterbi algorithm with a cost function is used to identify the F0 value among several F0 candidates. Speech and music databases with eight different types of additive noise are used to evaluate the performance of the BaNa algorithm and several classic and state-of-the-art F0 detection algorithms. Results show that for almost all types of noise and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values investigated, BaNa achieves the lowest Gross Pitch Error (GPE) rate among all the algorithms. Moreover, for the 0 dB SNR scenarios, the BaNa algorithm is shown to achieve 20% to 35% GPE rate for speech and 12% to 39% GPE rate for music. We also describe implementation issues that must be addressed to run the BaNa algorithm as a real-time application on a smartphone platform.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

On the Usage of Geolocation-Aware Spectrum Measurements for Incumbent Location and Transmit Power Detection

© 2017 IEEE. Determining the geographical area that needs to be excluded due to incumbent activity is critical to realize high spectral utilization in spectrum sharing networks. This can be achieved by estimating the incumbent location and transmit power. However, keeping the hardware complexity of sensing nodes to a minimum and scalability are critical for spectrum sharing applications with commercial intent. We present a discrete-space l1-norm minimization solution based on geolocation-aware energy detection measurements. In practice, the accuracy of geolocation tagging is limited. We capture the impact as a basis mismatch and derive the necessary condition that needs to be satisfied for successful detection of multiple incumbents' location and transmit power. We find the upper bound for the probability of eliminating the impact of limited geolocation tagging accuracy in a lognormal shadow fading environment, which is applicable to all generic I1-norm minimization techniques. We propose an algorithm based on orthogonal matching pursuit that decreases the residual in each iteration by allowing a selected set of basis vectors to rotate in a controlled manner. Numerical evaluation of the proposed algorithm in a Licensed Shared Access (LSA) network shows a significant improvement in the probability of missed detection and false alarm

Applying local cooccurring patterns for object detection from aerial images

Developing a spatial searching tool to enhance the search car pabilities of large spatial repositories for Geographical Information System (GIS) update has attracted more and more attention. Typically, objects to be detected are represented by many local features or local parts. Testing images are processed by extracting local features which are then matched with the object's model image. Most existing work that uses local features assumes that each of the local features is independent to each other. However, in many cases, this is not true. In this paper, a method of applying the local cooccurring patterns to disclose the cooccurring relationships between local features for object detection is presented. Features including colour features and edge-based shape features of the interested object are collected. To reveal the cooccurring patterns among multiple local features, a colour cooccurrence histogram is constructed and used to search objects of interest from target images. The method is demonstrated in detecting swimming pools from aerial images. Our experimental results show the feasibility of using this method for effectively reducing the labour work in finding man-made objects of interest from aerial images. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007

Chemical characteristics of Pacific tropospheric air in the region of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and South Pacific Convergence Zone

The Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM)-Tropics provided extensive aircraft data to study the atmospheric chemistry of tropospheric air in Pacific Ocean regions, extending from Hawaii to New Zealand and from Fiji to east of Easter Island. This region, especially the tropics, includes some of the cleanest tropospheric air of the world and, as such, is important for studying atmospheric chemical budgets and cycles. The region also provides a sensitive indicator of the global-scale impact of human activity on the chemistry of the troposphere, and includes such important features as the Pacific "warm pool," the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ), and Walker Cell circulations. PEM-Tropics was conducted from August to October 1996. The ITCZ and SPCZ are major upwelling regions within the South Pacific and, as such, create boundaries to exchange of tropospheric air between regions to the north and south. Chemical data obtained in the near vicinity of the ITCZ and the SPCZ are examined. Data measured within the convergent zones themselves are not considered. The analyses show that air north and south of the convergent zones have different chemical signatures, and the signatures are reflective of the source regions and transport histories of the air. Air north of the ITCZ shows a modest urban/industrialized signature compared to air south of the ITCZ. The chemical signature of air south of the SPCZ is dominated by combustion emissions from biomass burning, while air north of the SPCZ is relatively clean and of similar composition to ITCZ south air. Chemical signature differences of air north and south of the zones are most pronounced at altitudes below 5 km, and, as such, show that the ITCZ and SPCZ are effective low-altitude barriers to the transport of tropospheric air. At altitudes of 8 to 10 km, chemical signatures are less dissimilar, and air backward trajectories (to 10 days) show cross-convergent-zone flow. At altitudes below about 5 km, little cross-zonal flow is observed. Chemical signatures presented include over 30 trace chemical species including ultrafine, fine, and heated-fine (250°C) aerosol. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union

Multi-lepton signals from the top-prime quark at the LHC

We analyze the collider signatures of models with a vector-like top-prime quark and a massive color-octet boson. The top-prime quark mixes with the top quark in the Standard Model, leading to richer final states than ones that are investigated by experimental collaborations. We discuss the multi-lepton final states, and show that they can provide increased sensitivity to models with a top-prime quark and gluon-prime. Searches for new physics in high multiplicity events are an important component of the LHC program and complementary to analyses that have been performed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

QCD corrections to J/ψJ/\psi plus Z0Z^0-boson production at the LHC

The $J/\psi+Z^0$ associated production at the LHC is an important process in investigating the color-octet mechanism of non-relativistic QCD in describing the processes involving heavy quarkonium. We calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the $J/\psi +Z^0$ associated production at the LHC within the factorization formalism of nonrelativistic QCD, and provide the theoretical predictions for the distribution of the $J/\psi$ transverse momentum. Our results show that the differential cross section at the leading-order is significantly enhanced by the NLO QCD corrections. We conclude that the LHC has the potential to verify the color-octet mechanism by measuring the $J/\psi+Z^0$ production events.Comment: 14 page revtex, 5 eps figures, to appear in JHEP. fig5 and the corresponding analysis are correcte

Range Extension of Passive Wake-up Radio Systems through Energy Harvesting

Abstract—Use of a passive wake-up radio can drastically increase the network lifetime in a sensor network by reducing or even completely eliminating unnecessary idle listening. A sensor node with a wake-up radio receiver (WuRx) can operate in an extremely low power sleep mode until it receives a trigger signal sent by a wake-up radio transmitter (WuTx). After receiving the trigger signal, the attached WuRx wakes up the sensor node to start the data communication. In this paper, we implement and compare the performance of three passive wake-up radio-based sensor nodes: 1) WISP-Mote, which is a sensor mote that employs an Intel WISP passive RFID tag as the WuRx; 2) EH-WISP-Mote, which combines a novel energy harvester with the WISP-Mote; and 3) REACH-Mote, which uses the energy harvester circuit combined with an ultra-low-power pulse generator to trigger the wake-up of the mote. Experimental results show that the wake-up range and wake-up delay for the EH-WISP-Mote are improved compared with the WISP-Mote, while providing the ability to perform both broadcast-based and ID-based wake-ups. On the other hand, the REACH-Mote, which can only provide broadcast-based wake-up, can achieve a much longer wake-up range than any known passive wake-up radio to date, achieving feasible wake-up at a range of up to 37ft. I