Clare D. McGillem

A chaotic direct-sequence spread-spectrum communication system

The use of chaotic sequences as spectral spreading sequences in direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS/SS) communication systems is proposed. The error probabilities of such systems are investigated and shown to be, for all practical purposes, identical to the conventional DS/SS systems which use binary signature sequences. Among the advantages of the use of chaotic sequences in DS/SS are the availability of a great number of them, the ease of their generation, as well as their inherent improvement in the security of transmission. >

UHF fading in factories

The authors detail the results of narrowband propagation measurements performed at five factories. The extensive empirical data indicate that path loss is dependent upon local surroundings and is log-normally distributed, temporal fading is Rician, and small-scale signal fluctuations due to receiver motion are primarily Rayleigh, although Rician and log-normal distributions fit some of the data. Shadowing effects of common factory equipment likely to obstruct indoor radio paths are also examined. >

Comparison of two-sensor tracking methods based on state vector fusion and measurement fusion

There are two approaches to the two-sensor track-fusion problem. Y Bar-Shalom and L. Campo (ibid., vol.AES-22, 803-5, Nov. 1986) presented the state vector fusion method, which combines state vectors from the two sensors to form a new estimate while taking into account the correlated process noise. The measurement fusion method or data compression of D. Willner et al. (1976) combines the measurements from the two sensors first and then uses this fused measurement to estimate the state vector. The two methods are compared and an example shows the amount of improvement in the uncertainty of the resulting estimate of the state vector with the measurement fusion method. >

Spatiotemporal stability and patterning of speech movement sequences

In order to examine the stability and patterning of speech movement sequences, movements of the lip were recorded as subjects produced a phrase at normal, fast, and slow rates. Three methods of analysis were employed. First, a new index of spatiotemporal stability was derived by summing the standard deviations computed across amplitude- and time-normalized displacement records. This index indicated that normal and fast rates of speech production result in more stable movement execution compared to slow rates. In the second analysis, the relative time of occurrence of the peak velocity of the three middle opening movements of the utterance was measured. For each of the three peaks, the preservation of relative timing was assessed by applying Genters (1987) slope test. The results clearly indicate that the relative timing of these events does not remain constant across changes in speech rate. The relative timing of the middle opening gestures shifted, becoming later as utterance duration increased. In a third analysis, pattern recognition techniques were applied to the normalized displacement waveforms. A classification algorithm was highly successful in sorting waveforms into normal, fast, and slow rate conditions. These findings were interpreted to suggest that, within a subject, three distinct patterns or movement templates exist, one for each rate of production. Speech rate appears to be a global parameter, one that affects the entire command sequence for the utterance.

A beacon navigation method for autonomous vehicles

A method for navigating autonomous vehicles is presented. Based on the three-point problem from land surveying, this navigational technique makes use of angular measurements between fixed beacon pairs. Extremely accurate position information can be obtained over a large area with simple trigonometric or analytic geometry calculations. Typical worst-case errors are of the order of 10 cm throughout a 2500 m/sup 2/ workspace. An experimental position-measuring system has been built and tested, and it demonstrated the ability of this technique to function as a key element in a navigation system for autonomous vehicles. >

Measurements of Signal Components in Single Visualy Evoked Brain Potentials

A two step procedure is described for measuring the characteristics of visual evoked brain potentials. First, the recorded waveforms are processed by a filter designed to minimize the mean square error produced by the ongoing EEG. This filter is different for each subject and is based on certain statistical properties of the measured data. Second, the filtered potentials are searched automatically by a computer to determine the existence and location of the individual components in the responses. By aligning the corresponding components in different waveforms and averaging over the waveform segment in the immediate vicinity of the peak, a latency corrected average is obtained that provides a new representation of the response waveform.

Image Registration: Similarity Measure and Preprocessing Method Comparisons

An experimental comparison of several similarity measures and preprocessing techniques used for the registration of temporally differing images is carried out. It is found that preprocessing of the images via a gradient operator improves the registration performance. This is in agreement with a derived optimal processor (described in the Appendix) based upon image and temporal difference characteristics.

Infra-red location system for navigation of autonomous vehicles

A beacon method for locating autonomous vehicles in a flexible manufacturing environment is presented, and typical positioning errors of such a method are computed. Data obtained from an experimental beacon navigation system support the analytical results which indicate excellent positioning accuracy is possible over a large workspace, and that unlike dead reckoning systems, navigation errors are dependent solely upon the vehicles position in the workspace and not the distance traveled.<<ETX>>

A statistical model for the factory radio channel

A statistical model, based on experimental data, is presented to characterize the multipath propagation medium in typical manufacturing environments. The statistical behavior of the medium is described by a time-varying impulse response which includes the distribution of the parameters of the channel such as the gain, the interarrival time, and the number of paths. The resolvable components in a number of experimentally measured pulse responses of indoor factory radio channels were used to estimate the channel statistics. The interarrival times of the signals were modeled by the Weibull distribution. A model for the distribution of signals was presented using the modified beta distribution. The path gain coefficients were represented using the Rayleigh, Rician, or log-normal distributions. The model for the factory channel is flexible enough to fit the data for other indoor sites by changing the parameters of the factory channel appropriately relative to the size, topography, and other structural features of the site. >

Improved Waveform Estimation Procedures for Event-Related Potentials

Several methods of estimating the waveform of event-related potentials are presented. The techniques of conventional averaging, Woody cross-correlation averaging, latency corrected averaging, continuous latency corrected averaging, and enhanced averaging are described and their results compared. It was found that the continuous latency corrected average appears to offer the most useful representation of the waveform of the event-related potential.