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Blurring is almost an omnipresent effect on natural images. The main causes of blurring in images include: (a) the existence of objects at different depths within the scene which is known as defocus blur; (b) blurring due to motion either of objects in the scene or the imaging device; and (c) blurring due to atmospheric turbulence. Automatic estimation of spatially varying sharpness/blurriness has several applications including depth estimation, image quality assessment, information retrieval, image restoration, among others. There are some cases in which blur is intentionally introduced or enhanced; for example, in artistic photography and cinematography in which blur is intentionally introduced to emphasize a certain image region. Bokeh is a technique that introduces defocus blur with aesthetic purposes. Additionally, in trending applications like augmented and virtual reality usually, blur is introduced in order to provide/enhance depth perception. Digital images and videos are produced every day in astonishing amounts and the demand for higher quality is constantly rising which creates a need for advanced image quality assessment. Additionally, image quality assessment is important for the performance of image processing algorithms. It has been determined that image noise and artifacts can affect the performance of algorithms such as face detection and recognition, image saliency detection, and video target tracking. Therefore, image quality assessment (IQA) has been a topic of intense research in the fields of image processing and computer vision. Since humans are the end consumers of multimedia signals, subjective quality metrics provide the most reliable results; however, their cost in addition to time requirements makes them unfeasible for practical applications. Thus, objective quality metrics are usually preferred.

Signal processing. --- Signal, Speech and Image Processing .

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Gaussian quadrature is a powerful technique for numerical integration that falls under the broad category of spectral methods. The purpose of this work is to provide an introduction to the theory and practice of Gaussian quadrature. We study the approximation theory of trigonometric and orthogonal polynomials and related functions and examine the analytical framework of Gaussian quadrature. We discuss Gaussian quadrature for bandlimited functions, a topic inspired by some recent developments in the analysis of prolate spheroidal wave functions. Algorithms for the computation of the quadrature nodes and weights are described. Several applications of Gaussian quadrature are given, ranging from the evaluation of special functions to pseudospectral methods for solving differential equations. Software realization of select algorithms is provided. Table of Contents: Introduction / Approximating with Polynomials and Related Functions / Gaussian Quadrature / Applications / Links to Mathematical Software.

Signal processing. --- Signal, Speech and Image Processing .

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With human-computer interactions and hands-free communications becoming overwhelmingly important in the new millennium, recent research efforts have been increasingly focusing on state-of-the-art multi-microphone signal processing solutions to improve speech intelligibility in adverse environments. One such prominent statistical signal processing technique is blind signal separation (BSS). BSS was first introduced in the early 1990s and quickly emerged as an area of intense research activity showing huge potential in numerous applications. BSS comprises the task of 'blindly' recovering a set of unknown signals, the so-called sources from their observed mixtures, based on very little to almost no prior knowledge about the source characteristics or the mixing structure. The goal of BSS is to process multi-sensory observations of an inaccessible set of signals in a manner that reveals their individual (and original) form, by exploiting the spatial and temporal diversity, readily accessible through a multi-microphone configuration. Proceeding blindly exhibits a number of advantages, since assumptions about the room configuration and the source-to-sensor geometry can be relaxed without affecting overall efficiency. This booklet investigates one of the most commercially attractive applications of BSS, which is the simultaneous recovery of signals inside a reverberant (naturally echoing) environment, using two (or more) microphones. In this paradigm, each microphone captures not only the direct contributions from each source, but also several reflected copies of the original signals at different propagation delays. These recordings are referred to as the convolutive mixtures of the original sources. The goal of this booklet in the lecture series is to provide insight on recent advances in algorithms, which are ideally suited for blind signal separation of convolutive speech mixtures. More importantly, specific emphasis is given in practical applications of the developed BSS algorithms associated with real-life scenarios. The developed algorithms are put in the context of modern DSP devices, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants, where design requirements dictate low power consumption and call for portability and compact size. Along these lines, this booklet focuses on modern BSS algorithms which address (1) the limited amount of processing power and (2) the small number of microphones available to the end-user. Table of Contents: Fundamentals of blind signal separation / Modern blind signal separation algorithms / Application of blind signal processing strategies to noise reduction for the hearing-impaired / Conclusions and future challenges / Bibliography.

Signal processing. --- Signal, Speech and Image Processing .

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Recent innovations in modern radar for designing transmitted waveforms, coupled with new algorithms for adaptively selecting the waveform parameters at each time step, have resulted in improvements in tracking performance. Of particular interest are waveforms that can be mathematically designed to have reduced ambiguity function sidelobes, as their use can lead to an increase in the target state estimation accuracy. Moreover, adaptively positioning the sidelobes can reveal weak target returns by reducing interference from stronger targets. The manuscript provides an overview of recent advances in the design of multicarrier phase-coded waveforms based on Bjorck constant-amplitude zero-autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequences for use in an adaptive waveform selection scheme for mutliple target tracking. The adaptive waveform design is formulated using sequential Monte Carlo techniques that need to be matched to the high resolution measurements. The work will be of interest to both practitioners and researchers in radar as well as to researchers in other applications where high resolution measurements can have significant benefits. Table of Contents: Introduction / Radar Waveform Design / Target Tracking with a Particle Filter / Single Target tracking with LFM and CAZAC Sequences / Multiple Target Tracking / Conclusions.

Signal processing. --- Signal, Speech and Image Processing .

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The MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3) algorithm is one of the most successful audio formats for consumer audio storage and for transfer and playback of music on digital audio players. The MP3 compression standard along with the AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) algorithm are associated with the most successful music players of the last decade. This book describes the fundamentals and the MATLAB implementation details of the MP3 algorithm. Several of the tedious processes in MP3 are supported by demonstrations using MATLAB software. The book presents the theoretical concepts and algorithms used in the MP3 standard. The implementation details and simulations with MATLAB complement the theoretical principles. The extensive list of references enables the reader to perform a more detailed study on specific aspects of the algorithm and gain exposure to advancements in perceptual coding. Table of Contents: Introduction / Analysis Subband Filter Bank / Psychoacoustic Model II / MDCT / Bit Allocation, Quantization and Coding / Decoder.

Signal processing. --- Signal, Speech and Image Processing .