Abstract: This paper focuses on issues of engagement by staff in professional development related to the delivery of e-learning. The paper reports on findings drawn from a New Zealand research project which is producing a sector-wide framework for professional development in tertiary e-learning. The research findings indicate that staff engaged in e-learning in tertiary institutions is not making the most effective use of the professional development opportunities available to them; rather they seem to gain their knowledge and support from a variety of informal means. This is despite an emphasis on the provision of professional development opportunities by both Government Policies and Institutions themselves. The conclusion drawn from the findings is that institutional approaches to professional development for e-learning do not yet fully reflect the demands and constraints that working in a digital context impose.
Abstract: In this study, a Loop Back Algorithm for component
connected labeling for detecting objects in a digital image is
presented. The approach is using loop back connected component
labeling algorithm that helps the system to distinguish the object
detected according to their label. Deferent than whole window
scanning technique, this technique reduces the searching time for
locating the object by focusing on the suspected object based on
certain features defined. In this study, the approach was also
implemented for a face detection system. Face detection system is
becoming interesting research since there are many devices or
systems that require detecting the face for certain purposes. The input
can be from still image or videos, therefore the sub process of this
system has to be simple, efficient and accurate to give a good result.
Abstract: The most planted cover crops in the Czech Republic
are mustard (Sinapis alba) and phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia
Benth.). A field trial was executed to evaluate root system size (RSS)
in eight varieties of mustard and five varieties of phacelia on two
locations, in three BBCH phases and in two years. The relationship
between RSS and aboveground biomass was inquired. The root
system was assessed by measuring its electric capacity. Aboveground
mass and root samples to be evaluated by means of a digital image
analysis were recovered in the BBCH phase 70. The yield of
aboveground biomass of mustard was always statistically
significantly higher than that of phacelia. Mustard showed a
statistically significant negative correlation between root length
density (RLD) within 10 cm and aboveground biomass weight (r = -
0.46*). Phacelia featured a statistically significant correlation
between aboveground biomass production and nitrate nitrogen
content in soil (r=0.782**).
Abstract: The X-ray technology has been used in non-destructive evaluation in the Power System, in which a visual non-destructive inspection method for the electrical equipment is provided. However, lots of noise is existed in the images that are got from the X-ray digital images equipment. Therefore, the auto defect detection which based on these images will be very difficult to proceed. A theory on X-ray image de-noising algorithm based on wavelet transform is proposed in this paper. Then the edge detection algorithm is used so that the defect can be pushed out. The result of experiment shows that the method which utilized by this paper is very useful for de-noising on the X-ray images.
Abstract: In the recent years, high dynamic range imaging has
gain popularity with the advancement in digital photography. In this
contribution we present a subjective evaluation of various tone
production and tone mapping techniques by a number of participants.
Firstly, standard HDR images were used and the participants were
asked to rate them based on a given rating scheme. After that, the
participant was asked to rate HDR image generated using linear and
nonlinear combination approach of multiple exposure images. The
experimental results showed that linearly generated HDR images
have better visualization than the nonlinear combined ones. In
addition, Reinhard et al. and the exponential tone mapping operators
have shown better results compared to logarithmic and the Garrett et
al. tone mapping operators.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a practical digital music matching system that is robust to variation in sound qualities. The proposed system is subdivided into two parts: client and server. The client part consists of the input, preprocessing and feature extraction modules. The preprocessing module, including the music onset module, revises the value gap occurring on the time axis between identical songs of different formats. The proposed method uses delta-grouped Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) to extract music features that are robust to changes in sound quality. According to the number of sound quality formats (SQFs) used, a music server is constructed with a feature database (FD) that contains different sub feature databases (SFDs). When the proposed system receives a music file, the selection module selects an appropriate SFD from a feature database; the selected SFD is subsequently used by the matching module. In this study, we used 3,000 queries for matching experiments in three cases with different FDs. In each case, we used 1,000 queries constructed by mixing 8 SQFs and 125 songs. The success rate of music matching improved from 88.6% when using single a single SFD to 93.2% when using quadruple SFDs. By this experiment, we proved that the proposed method is robust to various sound qualities.
Abstract: Information hiding for authenticating and verifying the content integrity of the multimedia has been exploited extensively in the last decade. We propose the idea of using genetic algorithm and non-deterministic dependence by involving the un-watermarkable coefficients for digital image authentication. Genetic algorithm is used to intelligently select coefficients for watermarking in a DCT based image authentication scheme, which implicitly watermark all the un-watermarkable coefficients also, in order to thwart different attacks. Experimental results show that such intelligent selection results in improvement of imperceptibility of the watermarked image, and implicit watermarking of all the coefficients improves security against attacks such as cover-up, vector quantization and transplantation.
Abstract: The advances in multimedia and networking technologies
have created opportunities for Internet pirates, who can easily
copy multimedia contents and illegally distribute them on the Internet,
thus violating the legal rights of content owners. This paper describes
how a simple and well-known watermarking procedure based on a
spread spectrum method and a watermark recovery by correlation can
be improved to effectively and adaptively protect MPEG-2 videos
distributed on the Internet. In fact, the procedure, in its simplest
form, is vulnerable to a variety of attacks. However, its security
and robustness have been increased, and its behavior has been
made adaptive with respect to the video terminals used to open
the videos and the network transactions carried out to deliver them
to buyers. In fact, such an adaptive behavior enables the proposed
procedure to efficiently embed watermarks, and this characteristic
makes the procedure well suited to be exploited in web contexts,
where watermarks usually generated from fingerprinting codes have
to be inserted into the distributed videos “on the fly", i.e. during the
purchase web transactions.
Abstract: Network exchange is now widely used. However, it still
cannot avoid the problems evolving from network exchange. For
example. A buyer may not receive the order even if he/she makes the
payment. For another example, the seller possibly get nothing even
when the merchandise is sent. Some studies about the fair exchange
have proposed protocols for the design of efficiency and exploited the
signature property to specify that two parties agree on the exchange.
The information about purchased item and price are disclosed in
this way. This paper proposes a new fair network payment protocol
with off-line trusted third party. The proposed protocol can protect
the buyers- purchase message from being traced. In addition, the
proposed protocol can meet the proposed requirements. The most
significant feature is Non-transfer property we achieved.
Abstract: The recent growth of using multimedia transmission
over wireless communication systems, have challenges to protect the
data from lost due to wireless channel effect. Images are corrupted
due to the noise and fading when transmitted over wireless channel,
in wireless channel the image is transmitted block by block, Due to
severe fading, entire image blocks can be damaged. The aim of this
paper comes out from need to enhance the digital images at the
wireless receiver side. Proposed Boundary Interpolation (BI)
Algorithm using wavelet, have been adapted here used to
reconstruction the lost block in the image at the receiver depend on
the correlation between the lost block and its neighbors. New
Proposed technique by using Boundary Interpolation (BI) Algorithm
using wavelet with Pixel interleaver has been implemented. Pixel
interleaver work on distribute the pixel to new pixel position of
original image before transmitting the image. The block lost through
wireless channel is only effects individual pixel. The lost pixels at the
receiver side can be recovered by using Boundary Interpolation (BI)
Algorithm using wavelet. The results showed that the New proposed
algorithm boundary interpolation (BI) using wavelet with pixel
interleaver is better in term of MSE and PSNR.
Abstract: This paper describes the design of a voltage based maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for photovoltaic (PV) applications. Of the various MPPT methods, the voltage based method is considered to be the simplest and cost effective. The major disadvantage of this method is that the PV array is disconnected from the load for the sampling of its open circuit voltage, which inevitably results in power loss. Another disadvantage, in case of rapid irradiance variation, is that if the duration between two successive samplings, called the sampling period, is too long there is a considerable loss. This is because the output voltage of the PV array follows the unchanged reference during one sampling period. Once a maximum power point (MPP) is tracked and a change in irradiation occurs between two successive samplings, then the new MPP is not tracked until the next sampling of the PV array voltage. This paper proposes an MPPT circuit in which the sampling interval of the PV array voltage, and the sampling period have been shortened. The sample and hold circuit has also been simplified. The proposed circuit does not utilize a microcontroller or a digital signal processor and is thus suitable for low cost and low power applications.
Abstract: In this paper, a fractional-order FIR differentiator
design method using the differential evolution (DE) algorithm is
presented. In the proposed method, the FIR digital filter is designed to
meet the frequency response of a desired fractal-order differentiator,
which is evaluated in the frequency domain. To verify the design
performance, another design method considered in the time-domain is
also provided. Simulation results reveal the efficiency of the proposed
method.
Abstract: Internet is largely composed of textual contents and a
huge volume of digital contents gets floated over the Internet daily.
The ease of information sharing and re-production has made it
difficult to preserve author-s copyright. Digital watermarking came
up as a solution for copyright protection of plain text problem after
1993. In this paper, we propose a zero text watermarking algorithm
based on occurrence frequency of non-vowel ASCII characters and
words for copyright protection of plain text. The embedding
algorithm makes use of frequency non-vowel ASCII characters and
words to generate a specialized author key. The extraction algorithm
uses this key to extract watermark, hence identify the original
copyright owner. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of
the proposed algorithm on text encountering meaning preserving
attacks performed by five independent attackers.
Abstract: A new blind gray-level watermarking scheme is described. In the proposed method, the host image is first divided into 4*4 non-overlapping blocks. For each block, two first AC coefficients of its Hadamard transform are then estimated using DC coefficients of its neighbor blocks. A gray-level watermark is then added into estimated values. Since embedding watermark does not change the DC coefficients, watermark extracting could be done by estimating AC coefficients and comparing them with their actual values. Several experiments are made and results suggest the robustness of the proposed algorithm.
Abstract: In this study, a system of encryption based on chaotic
sequences is described. The system is used for encrypting digital
image data for the purpose of secure image transmission. An image
secure communication scheme based on Logistic map chaotic
sequences with a nonlinear function is proposed in this paper.
Encryption and decryption keys are obtained by one-dimensional
Logistic map that generates secret key for the input of the nonlinear
function. Receiver can recover the information using the received
signal and identical key sequences through the inverse system
technique. The results of computer simulations indicate that the
transmitted source image can be correctly and reliably recovered by
using proposed scheme even under the noisy channel. The
performance of the system will be discussed through evaluating the
quality of recovered image with and without channel noise.
Abstract: This experiment discusses the effects of fracture
parameters such as depth, length, width, angle and the number of the
fracture to the conductance properties of laterite using the DUK-2B
digital electrical measurement system combined with the method of
simulating the fractures. The results of experiment show that the
changes of fracture parameters produce effects to the conductance
properties of laterite. There is a clear degressive period of the
conductivity of laterite during increasing the depth, length, width, or
the angle and the quantity of fracture gradually. When the depth of
fracture exceeds the half thickness of the soil body, the conductivity of
laterite shows evidently non-linear diminishing pattern and the
amplitude of decrease tends to increase. The length of fracture has
fewer effects than the depth to the conductivity. When the width of
fracture reaches some fixed values, the change of the conductivity is
less sensitive to the change of the width, and at this time, the
conductivity of laterite maintains at a stable level. When the angle of
fracture is less than 45°, the decrease of the conductivity is more
clearly as the angle increases. But when angle is more than 45°,
change of the conductivity is relatively gentle as the angle increases.
The increasing quantity of the fracture causes the other fracture
parameters having great impact on the change of conductivity. When
moisture content and temperature were unchanged, depth and angle of
fractures are the major factors affecting the conductivity of laterite
soil; quantity, length, and width are minor influencing factors. The
sensitivity of fracture parameters affect conductivity of laterite soil is:
depth >angles >quantity >length >width.
Abstract: With the approaching of digital era, various interactive
service platforms and systems support human beings- needs in lives by
different contents and measures. Design strategies have gradually
turned from function-based to user-oriented, and are often customized.
In other words, how designers include users- value reaction in creation
becomes the goal. Creative design service of interior design requires
positive interaction and communication to allow users to obtain full
design information, recognize the style and process of personal needs,
develop creative service design, lower communication time and cost
and satisfy users- sense of achievement. Thus, by constructing a
co-design method, based on the communication between interior
designers and users, this study recognizes users- real needs and
provides the measure of co-design for designers and users.
Abstract: Exact expressions for bit-error probability (BEP) for
coherent square detection of uncoded and coded M-ary quadrature
amplitude modulation (MQAM) using an array of antennas with
maximal ratio combining (MRC) in a flat fading channel interference
limited system in a Nakagami-m fading environment is derived. The
analysis assumes an arbitrary number of independent and identically
distributed Nakagami interferers. The results for coded MQAM are
computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code
and compared with uncoded MQAM by plotting error probabilities
versus average signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) for various values of
order of diversity N, number of distinct symbols M, in order to
examine the effect of cochannel interferers on the performance of the
digital communication system. The diversity gains and net gains are
also presented in tabular form in order to examine the performance of
digital communication system in the presence of interferers, as the
order of diversity increases. The analytical results presented in this
paper are expected to provide useful information needed for design
and analysis of digital communication systems with space diversity
in wireless fading channels.
Abstract: In this paper, we proposed a new framework to incorporate an intelligent agent software robot into a crisis communication portal (CCNet) in order to send alert news to subscribed users via email and other mobile services such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and General Packet Radio Services (GPRS). The content on the mobile services can be delivered either through mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistance (PDA). This research has shown that with our proposed framework, the embodied conversation agents system can handle questions intelligently with our multilayer architecture. At the same time, the extended framework can take care of delivery content through a more humanoid interface on mobile devices.
Abstract: In the last decade digital watermarking procedures have
become increasingly applied to implement the copyright protection
of multimedia digital contents distributed on the Internet. To this
end, it is worth noting that a lot of watermarking procedures
for images and videos proposed in literature are based on spread
spectrum techniques. However, some scepticism about the robustness
and security of such watermarking procedures has arisen because
of some documented attacks which claim to render the inserted
watermarks undetectable. On the other hand, web content providers
wish to exploit watermarking procedures characterized by flexible and
efficient implementations and which can be easily integrated in their
existing web services frameworks or platforms. This paper presents
how a simple spread spectrum watermarking procedure for MPEG-2
videos can be modified to be exploited in web contexts. To this end,
the proposed procedure has been made secure and robust against some
well-known and dangerous attacks. Furthermore, its basic scheme
has been optimized by making the insertion procedure adaptive with
respect to the terminals used to open the videos and the network transactions
carried out to deliver them to buyers. Finally, two different
implementations of the procedure have been developed: the former
is a high performance parallel implementation, whereas the latter is
a portable Java and XML based implementation. Thus, the paper
demonstrates that a simple spread spectrum watermarking procedure,
with limited and appropriate modifications to the embedding scheme,
can still represent a valid alternative to many other well-known and
more recent watermarking procedures proposed in literature.