Nadarajah Sriskanthan

Bluetooth based home automation system

The past decade has seen significant advancement in the field of consumer electronics. Various ‘intelligent’ appliances such as cellular phones, air-conditioners, home security devices, home theatres, etc. are set to realize the concept of a smart home. They have given rise to a Personal Area Network in home environment, where all these appliances can be interconnected and monitored using a single controller. Busy families and individuals with physical limitation represent an attractive market for home automation and networking. A wireless home network that does not incur additional costs of wiring would be desirable. Bluetooth technology, which has emerged in late 1990s, is an ideal solution for this purpose. This paper describes an application of Bluetooth technology in home automation and networking environment. It proposes a network, which contains a remote, mobile host controller and several client modules (home appliances). The client modules communicate with the host controller through Bluetooth devices. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

How network topology affects dynamic loading balancing

Previous research has proposed several different load-balancing strategies and measured their performances on either a distributed system or a multiprocessor network of specific topology. The authors broadly classify all load-balancing strategies as being either static or dynamic. For certain applications, dynamic load balancing is preferable, because then the problems variable behavior more closely matches available computational resources. The authors address the performance of five dynamic load-balancing strategies: the Gradient Model strategy, the Sender-Initiated and Receiver-Initiated strategies, the Central Job Dispatcher strategy, and the Prediction-based strategy. The authors use a trace-driven simulation approach, collecting job traces from a production-distributed computer system and using them to simulate a loosely coupled multiprocessor network. This simulator enables performance comparisons across a range of network topologies, including a 2D-mesh, a 4D-hypercube, a linear array, and a composite Fibonacci cube.

Protocol for plug and play in Bluetooth based home networks

Home networks, interlinking devices like fridges, air conditioners, home theatres, security devices, lighting systems are about to realize the concept of a smart home. Among the competing technologies, Bluetooth, with its low cost, low power consumption and its easily configurable devices has emerged as one of the most suitable wireless standard for home networks. In order to find a large market for any automated home system, it must be user friendly, since most consumers are non-technical users. Hence, plug and play is an important feature that must be incorporated into any home network environment. In this paper we suggest a method for data transfer, through the proposed HomeBT protocol. This protocol provides plug and play feature to appliances, in home networks using the Bluetooth technology. Further, an appliance/spl I.bar/changed/spl I.bar/status command and status change event have been suggested as additions in the Bluetooth HCI specifications.

I/sup 2/C bus analyser

An I/sup 2/C bus analyser (I/sup 2/C-BA) has been designed as a module to operate on the PC. The hardware and software development associated with the I/sup 2/C-BA is presented. The analyzer can be operated in three functional modes, as master controller, as slave listener or as bus sniffer.

Classification of handwritten digits using evolving fuzzy neural network

Handwritten digits classification has many useful applications. This has prompted decades of research into algorithms to produce an effective system of classifying handwritten images into text. Image processing and feature extraction play a large role in this process. An intelligent system is one, which is taught and uses its learning for classification effectively. The neuro-fuzzy model of evolving fuzzy neural network (EFuNN) is used for this purpose. This paper aims to analyse and obtain the optimal number of features that produces the most effective classification using EFuNN.

An adaptive switching architecture for multiprocessor networks

Abstract The communication architecture in a distributed memory multi-processor system must provide reliable and flexible communications with minimal latency to fully utilize the performance advantage offered by the inherent parallelism. An inefficiently designed architecture introduces ‘hot spots’ in the inter-processor communications and degrades the potential speed-up possible. This paper compares existing switching strategies on multi-processor systems and describes the development of an adaptive switching architecture for a circuit-switched multi- processor system with an arbitrary interconnection topology. The switching architecture employs dynamic reconfiguration of the communications path to provide highly efficient and fault-tolerant inter-processor communications.

Design of a PC-based teletext terminal

A teletext adaptor has been designed with suitable software to make use of a personal computer (PC) as a low-cost, convenient, teletext terminal. The system was designed to work with ROM BIOS and PC DOS version 3.1. It has been demonstrated that teletext messages can be captured, displayed, analyzed, and stored in a PC without the need for a special character ROM. The hardware design and the software development are described. >

WAP-teletext system

The evolution of the Internet has linked the entire world together and revolutionized the way people communicate and exchange information. Wireless application protocol (WAP) further bridges the gaps by allowing people to link to the Internet through a mobile device. This paper introduces the concepts, and presents the methodology for the implementation of teletext WAP access system. The system converts the Teletext pages from the conventional TV screen format to WAP enabled handphone (WEHP) screen format, and stores in teletext-WAP database. A WAP enabled hand phone is able to access this database and display the information on its screen. The implementation of teletext-WAP site using active server pages (ASP) with wireless markup language (WML) is described in this paper.

Intelligent Fax Management System

Fax machines have become a ubiquitous equipment in todays office environment due to its ability to send information around with speed and convenience. Increasingly many personal computers nowadays are able to play the role of a fax machine by adding in a fax card and the relevant software. This paper proposes a Fax Management System employing character recognition technique to enhance the basic capability of a PC-based fax system. The proposed enhancement includes Personal Fax Handling, Automatic Information Retrieval and Order Processing. This enhancement is envisaged to be of significant commercial potential as it addresses certain unfulfilled needs in current PC-based fax systems.

A design methodology for PC-expansion card development

Abstract The development of PC-expansion cards has been an on-going process for which there are no existing formal methodologies. As newer buses emerge, the complexity of the hardware and software design increases. This paper aims to provide an integrated understanding of the hardware and software aspects involved in the development of expansion cards. A design architecture has been designed to guide such developments by encapsulating all the pertinent design factors into a layered model, known as the Adapter Development Model . The focus is on mitigation of the process complications, which have proven its prowess in disabling the successful completion of such projects that are subjected to manpower and time constraints. Concentration is placed on the PCI platform and an applicability example based on MPEG2 PCI design is considered.