• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.10 no.8
• /
• pp.1407-1413
• /
• 2006

The field of medical images has been digitalized as the development of computer and the digitalization of the medical instruments. As a result it causes a lot of problems such as an illegal copy related to medical images and property right of the medical images. Therefore, digital watermarking is used for discrimination whether the data are modified or not. It is also used to protect both the property right of medical images and the private life of many patients. The proposed theories, the Non-blind and the Blind method, have two problems. One is needed an original image and the other is using a gaussian watermarking. This paper proposes the new Blind Watermarking using binary images in order to easily recognize the results of watermark. This algorism is described that an watermark of a binary image is wavelet-transformed, and then a transformed watermark is inserted in medium-band of frequency domains of original image by the Circular Input method. This method don't have any loss when image didn't have any attack. As a result Watermark can be perfectly extracted by using this algorithm. And Maximam PSNR value is improved 3.35dB. This algorithm will be improved by using gray level image and color image.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2000

In this paper, a new digital watermarking algorithm using wavelet transform is proposed. Wavelet transform is widely used for image processing, because of its multiresolution characteristic which conforms to the principles of the human visual system(HVS). It is also very efficient for localizing images in the spatial and frequency domain. Since wavelet coefficients can be characterized by the gaussian distribution, the proposed algorithm uses a gaussian distributed random vector as the watermark in order to achieve invisibility and robustness. After the original image is transformed using DWT(Discrete Wavelet Transform), the coefficients of all subbands including LL subband are utilized to equally embed the watermark to the whole image. To select perceptually significant coefficients for each subband, we use level-adaptive thresholding. The watermark is embedded to the selected coeffocoents, using different scale factors according to the wavelet characteristics. In the process of watermark detection, the similarity between the original watermark and the extracted watermark is calculated by using vector projection method. We analyze the performance of the proposed algorithm, compared with other transform-domain watermarking methods. The experimental results tested on various images show that the proposed watermark is less visible to human eyes and more robust to image compressions, image processings, geometric transformations and various noises, than the existing methods.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.10-20
• /
• 2008

Generally, to acquire an HDR image, many images that cover the entire dynamic range of the scene with different exposure times are required, then these images are fused into one HDR image. This paper proposes an efficient method for the HDR image acquisition with small number of images. First, we estimated scenic dynamic range using two images with different exposure times. These two images contain the upper and lower limit of the scenic dynamic range. Independently of the scene, according to varied exposure times, similar characteristics for both the maximum gray levels in images that include the upper limit and the minimum gray levels in images that include the lower limit are identified. After modeling these characteristics, the scenic dynamic range is estimated using the modeling results. This estimated scenic dynamic range is then used to select the proper exposure times for the acquisition of an HDR image. We selected only three proper exposure times because entire dynamic range of the cameras could be covered by three dynamic range of the cameras with different exposure times. To evaluate the error of the HDR image, experiments using virtual digital camera images were carried out. For several test images, the error of the HDR image using proposed method was comparable to that of the HDR image which utilize more than ten images for the HDR image acquisition.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.520-529
• /
• 2011

In this paper, we propose the extension of the MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS) header for efficient adaptation of multi-layer coded video such as scalable video coding (SVC) and multiview video coding (MVC) in the HTTP streaming. First of all, the limit of the existing TS in terms of flexible adaptation of multi-layer video is investigated, and the signaling by extending TS header is proposed to provide efficient adaptation in a TS level. The proposed extension utilizes the private data field in the adaptation field of TS header to signal scalability and/or view information, which enable us to support diverse adaptation that suits underlying constraints of client capabilities, network conditions and user preferences. In short, the extension enables adaptation of scalable video with full scalability as well as view selection of multiview video in a TS level while keeping backward compatibility with the existing TS syntax/semantics. The performance of the proposed extension is compared with the existing adaptation using PID (packet ID) in terms of efficiency and complexity of adaptation. Furthermore, the increase of TS overhead caused by proposed extension is analyzed and an extension scheme to minimized the overhead is proposed.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
• /
• v.18A no.2
• /
• pp.45-52
• /
• 2011

In the past, a patient went to the room where an ultrasound image diagnosis device was set, and then he or she was examined by a doctor. However, currently a doctor can go and examine the patient with a handheld ultrasound device who stays in a room. However, it was implemented with only fundamental functions, and can not meet the high performance required by the focusing algorithm of ultrasound beam which determines the quality of ultrasound image. In addition, low energy consumption was satisfied for the mobile ultrasound device. To satisfy these requirements, this paper proposes a high-performance and low-power single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) based multi-core processor that supports a representative beamforming algorithm out of several focusing methods of mobile ultrasound image signals. The proposed SIMD multi-core processor, which consists of 16 processing elements (PEs), satisfies the high-performance required by the beamforming algorithm by exploiting considerable data-level parallelism inherent in the echo image data of ultrasound. Experimental results showed that the proposed multi-core processor outperforms a commercial high-performance processor, TI DSP C6416, in terms of execution time (15.8 times better), energy efficiency (6.9 times better), and area efficiency (10 times better).

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.403-410
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate the problems of a signal to noise ratio measurement using a two region measurement method that is conventionally used when using a multi-channel coil and a parallel imaging technique. As a research method, after calculating the standard SNR using a single channel head coil of which coil satisfies three preconditions when using a two region measurement method, we made comparisons and evaluations after calculating an SNR by using a two region measurement method of which method is problematic because it is used without considering the methods recommended by reputable organizations and the preconditions at the time of using a multi-channel coil and a parallel imaging technique. We found that a two region measurement method using a multi-channel coil and a parallel imaging technique shows the highest relative standard deviation, and thus shows a low degree of precision. In addition, we found out that the difference of SNR according to ROI location was very high, and thus a spatial noise distribution was not uniform. Also, 95% confidence interval through Blend-Altman plot is the widest, and thus the conformity degree with a two region measurement method using the standard single channel head coil is low. By directly comparing an AAPM method, which serves as a standard of a performance evaluation test of a magnetic resonance imaging device under the same image acquisition conditions, an NEMA method which can accurately determine the noise level in a signal region and the methods recommended by manufacturers of a magnetic resonance imaging device, there is a significance in that we quantitatively verified the inaccurate problems of a signal to noise ratio using a two region measurement method when using a multi-channel coil and a parallel imaging technique of which method does not satisfy the preconditions that researchers could overlook.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
• /
• v.14A no.2
• /
• pp.77-84
• /
• 2007

The intima media thickness(IMT) of the carotid artery from B mode ultrasound images has recently been proposed as the most useful index of individual atherosclerosis and can be used to predict major cardiovascular events. Ultrasonic measurements of the IMT are conventionally obtained by manually tracing interfaces between tissue layers. The drawbacks of this method are the inter and intra observer variability and its inefficiency. In this paper, we present a multiresolution snake method combined with the dynamic programming, which overcomes the various noises and sensitivity to initialization of conventional snake. First, an image pyramid is constructed using the Gaussian pyramid that maintains global edge information with smoothing in the images, and then the boundaries are automatically detected in the lowest resolution level by minimizing a cost function based on dynamic programming. The cost function includes cost terms which are representing image features and geometrical continuity of the vessel interfaces. Since the detected boundaries are selected as initial contour of the snake for the next level, this automated approach solves the problem of the initialization. Moreover, the proposed snake improves the problem of converging th the local minima by defining the external energy based on multiple image features. In this paper, our method has been validated by computing the correlation between manual and automatic measurements. This automated detection method has obtained more accurate and reproducible results than conventional edge detection by considering multiple image features.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.60-68
• /
• 2010

In case of sensorineural hearing loss, auditory perception can be activated by electrical stimulation of the nervous system via electrode implanted into the cochlea or auditory nerve. Since the tonotopic map of the human auditory nerve has not been definitively identified, the recording of auditory nerve signal with microelectrode is desirable for determining the tonotopic map. This paper proposes the multi-channel analog front-end for auditory nerve signal detection. A channel of the proposed analog front-end consists of an AC coupling circuit, a low-power 4th-order Gm-C LPF, and a single-slope ADC. The AC coupling circuit transfers only AC signal while it blocks DC signal level. Considering the bandwidth of the auditory signal, the Gm-C LPF is designed with OTAs adopting floating-gate technique. For the channel-parallel ADC structure, the single-slope ADC is used because it occupies the small silicon area. Experimental results shows that the AC coupling circuit and LPF have the bandwidth of 100 Hz - 6.95 kHz and the ADC has the effective resolution of 7.7 bits. The power consumption per a channel is $12\;{\mu}W$, the power supply is 3.0 V, and the core area is $2.6\;mm\;{\times}\;3.7\;mm$. The proposed analog front-end was fabricated in a 1-poly 4-metal $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.3C
• /
• pp.307-314
• /
• 2003

In the general multiple video object coder, more interested objects such as speaker or moving object is consistently coded with higher priority. Since the priority of each object may not be fixed in the whole sequence and be variable on frame basis, it must be adjusted in a frame. In this paper, we analyze the independent rate control algorithm and global algorithm that the QP value is controled by the static parameters, object importance or priority, target PSNR, weighted distortion. The priority among static parameters is analyzed and adjusted into dynamic parameters according to the visual interests or importance obtained by camera interface. Target PSNR and weighted distortion are proportionally derived by using magnitude, motion, and distortion. We apply those parameters for the weighted distortion control and the priority-based control resulting in the efficient bit-rate distribution. As results of this paper, we achieved that fewer bits are allocated for video objects which has less importance and more bits for those which has higher visual importance. The duration of stability in the visual quality is reduced to less than 15 frames of the coded sequence. In the aspect of PSNR, the proposed scheme shows higher quality of more than 2d13 against the conventional schemes. Thus the coding scheme interfaced to human- eye proves an efficient video coder dealing with the multiple number of video objects.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.29 no.1B
• /
• pp.73-85
• /
• 2004

SIn this paper, we introduce our experience for designing and implementing new concept of a global XML-based Peer-to-Peer (P2P) engine to support various P2P applications, and interconnection among PC, Web and mobile computing environments. The proposed P2P engine can support to heterogeneous data exchanges and web interconnection by facilitating with the text-base XML while message exchange are necessary. It is also to provide multi-level security functions as well as to apply different types of security algorithms. The system consist of four modules; a message dispatcher to scheduling and filtering the message, a SecureNet to providing security services and data transmission, a Discovery Manager to constructing peer-to-peer networking, and a Repository Manager to processing data management including XML documents. As a feasibility test, we implement various P2P services such as chatting as a communication service, white-board as an authoring tool set during collaborative working, and a file system as a file sharing service. We also compared the proposed system to a Gnutella in order to measure performance of the systems.