A. El Saddik

RST-invariant digital image watermarking based on log-polar mapping and phase correlation

Based on log-polar mapping (LPM) and phase correlation, the paper presents a novel digital image watermarking scheme that is invariant to rotation, scaling, and translation (RST). We embed a watermark in the LPMs of the Fourier magnitude spectrum of an original image, and use the phase correlation between the LPM of the original image and the LPM of the watermarked image to calculate the displacement of watermark positions in the LPM domain. The scheme preserves the image quality by avoiding computing the inverse log-polar mapping (ILPM), and produces smaller correlation coefficients for unwatermarked images by using phase correlation to avoid exhaustive search. The evaluations demonstrate that the scheme is invariant to rotation and translation, invariant to scaling when the scale is in a reasonable range, and very robust to JPEG compression.

A Universal Ontology for Sensor Networks Data

In this paper, we present our work towards the development and evaluation of an ontology for searching distributed and heterogeneous sensor networks data. In particular, we propose a two layer prototype ontology that utilizes the IEEE Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO) as a root definition of general concepts and associations and two sub- ontologies: the sensor data sub-ontology and the sensor hierarchy sub-ontology. The proposed ontology was implemented using Protege 2000 and eventually evaluated using the RDQL language (RDF Data Query Language). The performance analysis demonstrated the ability of the ontology-based search to improve both the precision and recall rates and enhance the interoperability between different sensor networks domains through the use of the universal SUMO ontology.

Ant Colony-Based Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

The field of routing and sensor networking is an important and challenging research area of network computing today. Advancements in sensor networks enable a wide range of environmental monitoring and object tracking applications. Routing in sensor networks is a difficult problem: as the size of the network increases, routing becomes more complex. Therefore, biologically-inspired intelligent algorithms are used to tackle this problem. Ant routing has shown excellent performance for sensor networks. In this paper, we present a biologically-inspired swarm intelligence-based routing algorithm, which is suitable for sensor networks. Our proposed ant routing algorithm also meet the enhanced sensor network requirements, including energy consumption, success rate, and time delay. The paper concludes with the measurement data we have found.

An implementable architecture of an e-learning system

This paper analyses current standards and proposals for e-learning system architecture. Its main objective is to contribute an original proposal for a functional architecture and service architecture for building standard-driven distributed and interoperable learning systems. The functional architecture defines components that make up an e-learning system and the objects that must be moved among these components. We implement the service model with Web Services technology to provide a standard means of communication among different Learning management systems and different content authoring tools. This paper focuses on how to integrate Web Services on the e-learning application domain. We use J2EE as our technical infrastructure to build our components and integrate with Web service.

Haptic Virtual Rehabilitation Exercises for Poststroke Diagnosis

Nowadays, stroke is one of the most frequent causes of severe adult disability in the world. Virtual reality and haptic technologies have emerged as promising assistive tools for effective diagnosis and rehabilitation intervention. The objective of this paper is to develop and test a set of five virtual exercises on top of a framework, which is designed for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of patients with hand impairments. We have implemented task-oriented exercises based on well-established and common exercises, namely the Jebsen Test of Hand Function and the Box and Block Test. These include moving a cup, arranging blocks, navigating a maze, training with a dumbbell, and grasping a rubber ball. Furthermore, key performance measures (metrics) are proposed for each exercise to quantitatively evaluate and judge the performance of stroke patients. Our evaluation of these exercises shows promising potential to define ldquogoldenrdquo reference metrics for healthy subjects, against which the performance of a patient is compared. This will facilitate the ability of occupational therapists to assess the patients progress.

Three-Dimensional Password for More Secure Authentication

Current authentication systems suffer from many weaknesses. Textual passwords are commonly used; however, users do not follow their requirements. Users tend to choose meaningful words from dictionaries, which make textual passwords easy to break and vulnerable to dictionary or brute force attacks. Many available graphical passwords have a password space that is less than or equal to the textual password space. Smart cards or tokens can be stolen. Many biometric authentications have been proposed; however, users tend to resist using biometrics because of their intrusiveness and the effect on their privacy. Moreover, biometrics cannot be revoked. In this paper, we present and evaluate our contribution, i.e., the 3-D password. The 3-D password is a multifactor authentication scheme. To be authenticated, we present a 3-D virtual environment where the user navigates and interacts with various objects. The sequence of actions and interactions toward the objects inside the 3-D environment constructs the users 3-D password. The 3-D password can combine most existing authentication schemes such as textual passwords, graphical passwords, and various types of biometrics into a 3-D virtual environment. The design of the 3-D virtual environment and the type of objects selected determine the 3-D password key space.

Architecture and Evaluation of Tele-Haptic Environments

A collaborative, haptic, audio and visual environment (C-HAVE) consists of a network of nodes. Each node in the C-HAVE world contributes to the shared environment with some virtual objects. These can be static, e.g., a sculpture or the ground, or dynamic, e.g., an object that can be virtually manipulated. We aim at developing a heterogeneous scalable architecture for large collaborative haptics environments where a number of potential users participate with different kinds of haptic devices. The main objective of the presented research is the development of three prototypes to demonstrate quantitatively the effects of adding haptics to a task. The experimental results reveal the effects of the different implementations on the performance and time delay of a particular task through objective measurement results.

Admux: An Adaptive Multiplexer for Haptic–Audio–Visual Data Communication

Research trends in multimedia strive to incorporate multiple modalities, such as audio, video, graphics, and haptics, into multimedia applications to enhance the users experience. Researchers have made significant progress in advanced multimedia by incorporating virtual reality environments, haptics, and scent into the human computer interaction paradigm. However, the communication of multimedia data over the Internet (particularly the haptic media) remains a real challenge since each media has varying and sometimes conflicting communication requirements. This paper proposes Admux, an adaptive application layer multiplexing framework (including a communication protocol) for multimedia applications incorporating haptic, visual, auditory, and scent data for nondedicated networks. Being an application layer framework, Admux is highly adaptable to the application requirements, the media type (haptic, audio, video, etc.), and the network conditions. To facilitate the application-Admux communication, we used haptic application metalanguage descriptions. Second, Admux enhances the network throughput by adopting statistical multiplexing. Finally, Admux enables media prioritization based on the application events and QoS requirements. By simulating an interpersonal teleconferencing system (named the HugMe system), our results showed that Admux provides dynamic bandwidth allocation based on the network conditions, media type, and application events.

Haptic-Based Biometrics: A Feasibility Study

Biometric systems identify users based on behavioral or physiological characteristics. The advantages of such systems over traditional authentication methods such as passwords are well known and hence biometric systems are gradually gaining ground in terms of usage. This paper explores the feasibility of automatically and continuously identifying participants in Haptic systems. Such a biometric system could be used for authentication in any Haptic based application, such as tele-operation or tele-training, not only at the beginning of the session, but continuously and throughout the session as it progresses. In order to test this possibility, we designed a Haptic system in which position, velocity, force and torque data from the tool was continuously measured and stored as users were performing a specific task. Subsequently, several algorithms and methods were developed to extract biometric features from the measured data. Overall, the results suggest reasonable practicality of implementing haptic-based biometric systems, and that it is an avenue worth pursuing; although they also indicate that it might be quite difficult to develop a highly accurate Haptic ID algorithm.

A Novel Ontology for Sensor Networks Data

Sensor networks have seen an exponential growth in the last few years. They involve deploying a large number of small sensing nodes for capturing environmental data. Searching such networks is limited by two major constraints: scalability and precision. We argue that the key to enabling scalable and precise sensor information search is to define an ontology that associates sensor information taxonomy for searching and interpreting raw data streams. We present the motivation and description of the development of the proposed ontology, partial evaluation of the early prototype ontology, a discussion of design and implementation issues, and directions for future research works