The Web has become a large-scale real-time information system forcing us to revise both how to effectively assess relevance of information for a user and how to efficiently implement information retrieval and dissemination functionality. To increase information relevance, Real-time Web applications such as Twitter and Facebook, extend content and social-graph relevance scores with “real-time” u...

A FPGA based, high speed, two channel, analog input card with a maximum input sampling rate of 1 Giga samples per second (Gsps) per channel has been designed and tested. The card has got an on-board cPCI interface but has been designed in a way that it can also work as a stand-alone system. The card can function as a platform for developing and evaluating different FPGA based hardware designs. ...

The GCI detection is a common problem in voice analysis used for voice transformation and synthesis. The proposed innovative idea is to use a glottal shape estimate and a standard lips radiation model instead of the common pre-emphasis when computing the vocal-tract filter estimate. The time-derivative glottal source is then computed from the division in frequency of the speech spectrum by the ...

The time derivatives of speech energy, such as the delta and the delta-delta log energy, have been known as critical features for automatic speech recognition (ASR). However, their discriminative ability in lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) could be limited or even becomes harmful because of the corruption of energy contour. By taking the advantage of the spectral characteristic of in-car noise...

Premature failure of rail axle bearings causes a significant increase in train operating costs and can impact train safety. A new on-board condition monitoring approach provided by Perpetuum Ltd is fitted on passenger trains to provide the operator with real-time information on bearing health. This new technology allows the detection of early bearing damage. This paper reports an initial study ...

A new type of self-rappelling search-and-rescue robot with chassis articulation, dubbed SPIDAR, has been developed and tested for use by first-responders. SPIDAR is built around a set of articulating body-sections, running a modular running-gear configuration (wheels, legs, tracks, etc.) to allow for maximum terrainability in chaotic collapsed urban structures. The on-board tether-system allows...

We realized a non-invasive wearable device able to record muscle activity using patch electrodes positioned on the skin over the muscle. It is an integrated system-on-board developed for the detection of several physical and physiologic human parameters which includes specific circuits for detecting the surface electromyography signal and algorithms for the real-time data processing optimized t...