Applications in Electronics Pervading Industry, Environment and Society

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Developments and Applications of Electronic Nose Systems for Gas Mixtures Classification and Concentration Estimation

Abstract

In this paper, electronic nose systems consisting of five low cost gas sensors and three auxiliary sensors are described. The devices are effectively applied to gases mixtures classification in refinery environment and in monitoring of patients’ breath on haemodialysis treatment. The systems exploit a classification algorithm based on support vector machine method and a least square regression model for concentration estimation. In particular, in the present work, the systems implementation and the results obtained during data acquisition and post-processing phases are reported.

Calogero Pace, Letizia Fragomeni, Walaa Khalaf

Chapter 2. Machine Learning-Based System for Detecting Unseen Malicious Software

Abstract

In the Internet age, malicious software (malware) represents a serious threat to the security of information systems. Malware-detection systems to protect computers must perform a real-time analysis of the executable files. The paper shows that machine-learning methods can support the challenging, yet critical, task of unseen malware recognition, i.e., the classification of malware variants that were not included in the training set. The experimental verification involved a publicly available dataset, and confirmed the effectiveness of the overall approach.

Federica Bisio, Paolo Gastaldo, Claudia Meda, Stefano Nasta, Rodolfo Zunino

Chapter 3. Implementation of a Spread-Spectrum-Based Smart Lighting System on an Embedded Platform

Abstract

In the last years smart lighting systems have attracted a lot of attention due to the increasing interest in reducing wasted power consumption. This work describes the implementation on an embedded platform of a smart lighting system, where the lamps communicate together creating a cooperative network, to trim the amount of light a given place. The proposed implementation relies on the spread spectrum technique and on optical orthogonal codes borrowed from optical communication research. Experimental results performed on a Freescale Freedom board, prove the feasibility of the proposed system.

Maurizio Martina, Massimo Ruo Roch, Flavio Ghirardi

Chapter 4. Self-powered Active Cooling System for High Performance Processors

Abstract

Thermal stability in datacenter’s computing units is fundamental to ensure reliability, and durability of the equipment, besides, environmental concern and new regulations require a reduction of the power used. For these reasons, a novel energy neutral hybrid cooling system is proposed. We describe the design, and the prototype’s performance evaluated both in passive and active cooling modes. During normal operating conditions, the thermo-electric energy harvesting system transforms wasted heat into electric energy, and stores it in super-capacitors while the system is providing passive cooling. Active cooling can be activated when a boost in performance requires CPU overclocking, using free energy from the passive step. After the choice of the most suitable harvesting system we designed and tested the prototype on an ARM based CPU, the future core of low-power server architectures. The proposed governor switches to active cooling mode based on customizable thermal management policies. Experimental results demonstrate good passive cooling performance, and several minutes active cooling exploiting the recovered heat.

Maurizio Rossi, Luca Rizzon, Matteo Fait, Roberto Passerone, Davide Brunelli

Chapter 5. High Speed VLSI Architecture for Finding the First W Maximum/Minimum Values

Abstract

VLSI architectures for finding the first W maximum/minimum values are highly demanded in the fields of K-best MIMO detector, non-binary LDPC decoder and product-code decoder. In this paper, a VLSI architecture based on parallel comparing scheme is explored for finding the first W maximum/minimum values from M inputs. The place and route results using a TSMC 90-nm CMOS technology show that, despite some hardware cost, it achieves on average a 3.6x faster speed performance compared to the existing partial sorting architectures.

Guoping Xiao, Waqar Ahmad, Syed Azhar Ali Zaidi, Massimo Ruo Roch, Giovanni Causapruno

Chapter 6. Design and Implementation of a Portable fNIRS Embedded System

Abstract

We report on the design, development and operation of a portable, low cost, battery-operated, multi-channel, functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy embedded system, hosting up to 64 optical sources and 128 Silicon PhotoMultiplier optical detectors. The system is realized as a scalable architecture, whose elementary leaf consists of a probe board provided with 16 SiPMs, 4 couples of bi-color LED, and a temperature sensor, built on a flexible stand. The hardware structure is very versatile because it is possible to handle both the switching time of the LED and the acquisition of the photodetectors, via an ARM based microcontroller.

Diego Agrò, Riccardo Canicattì, Maurizio Pinto, Giuseppe Morsellino, Alessandro Tomasino, Gabriele Adamo, Luciano Curcio, Antonino Parisi, Salvatore Stivala, Natale Galioto, Alessandro Busacca, Costantino Giaconia

Chapter 7. Advancements on Silicon Ultrasound Probes (CMUT) for Medical Imaging Applications

Abstract

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) are micro-electromechanical devices (MEMS) fabricated using silicon micromachining techniques. The interest of this technology relies in its full compatibility with the microelectronic technology that makes possible to integrate on the same chip the transducer and the controlling/conditioning electronics, so as to achieve low-cost and high-performance devices. The design and fabrication of a 192-element linear array CMUT probe operating in the range 6–18 MHz is here presented. The CMUT array is micro-fabricated and packed using a novel fabrication concept specifically conceived for imaging transducer arrays. The performance optimization of the probe is performed by connecting the CMUT array with multichannel analog front-end electronic circuits housed into the probe body. Characterization and imaging results are used to assess the performance of CMUTs with respect to conventional piezoelectric transducers. This paper is a review on the activities of our group in this field.

Giosuè Caliano, Alessandro S. Savoia

Chapter 8. Open Platforms for the Advancement of Ultrasound Research

Abstract

The implementation and experimental test of new imaging methods has been hampered by the closed architecture of clinical ultrasound scanners for many years. The so-called open platforms, i.e. flexible scanners with unlimited access to raw echo-data, allow overcoming this limitation and are increasingly used in ultrasound research laboratories. In this paper, a family of open platforms developed in the MSD laboratory in Florence is described. The first system was designed by taking into consideration the need of accurately balancing computational power with cost, dimensions with programmability. A compact and flexible 64-channel system was thus implemented, and is presently adopted by more than 20 worldwide research centers. In the new version, which is in advanced development phase, emphasis is put on the capability of independently controlling a high number (256) of channels as well as on the computational power and memory size.

Enrico Boni, Luca Bassi, Alessandro Dallai, Gabriele Giannini, Francesco Guidi, Valentino Meacci, Alessandro Ramalli, Stefano Ricci, Piero Tortoli

Chapter 9. A Robust Tracking Algorithm for Super-Resolution Reconstruction of Vehicle License Plates

Abstract

We propose a novel, very robust method for tracking a vehicle license plate in a sequence of low-resolution frames acquired by a video surveillance camera in order to reconstruct the license plate view in a super-resolution image. The tracking method is able to follow the license plate corners position with sub-pixel resolution and to compensate for small non translational spatial movements of the target during the motion by adopting a perspective transformation. In the reconstruction of the target each frame is perspectively transformed, aligned, cropped, de-convolved and interpolated to higher resolution. Eventually the data are combined into a super-resolution image.

Stefano Marsi, Sergio Carrato, Giovanni Ramponi

Chapter 10. c-Walker: A Cyber-Physical System for Ambient Assisted Living

Abstract

The c-Walker is a smart rollator that provides physical sustain to people with mobility difficulties together with a cognitive support to overcome disabilities related to the decrement of sensorial abilities. The proposed system is made of a conventional walker equipped with a variety of sensors, actuators, user interfaces, and computing units. Various algorithms monitor environmental data. The system processes them to define the safest path for the user, and transmits useful information for navigation via multiple interfaces to the assisted person. Moreover, the system can take control of the direction to avoid hazards. To design and develop the c-Walker, we adopt state-of-the-art design methodologies that assist the designers in the integration phase. In this work we describe the technology of hardware and software components included in the prototype device.

Luca Rizzon, Federico Moro, Roberto Passerone, David Macii, Daniele Fontanelli, Payam Nazemzadeh, Michele Corrà, Luigi Palopoli, Domenico Prattichizzo

Chapter 11. 2D and 3D Palmprint Extraction by an Automated Ultrasound System

Abstract

In this work, some possible procedures to extract both 2D and 3D palmprints from the same experimental 3D ultrasound image of the human palm are presented. The ultrasound system used to achieve the 3D images is composed of a CNC commercial pantograph, which moves a high frequency (12 MHz) ultrasound probe along its elevation direction to cover the desired area of the human palm. The ULtrasound Advanced Open Platform (ULA-OP) is employed as ultrasound imaging system.

Antonio Iula, Gabriel Hine, Alessandro Ramalli, Francesco Guidi, Enrico Boni

Chapter 12. AA-Battery Sized Energy Harvesting Power Management Module for Indoor Light Wireless Sensor Applications

Abstract

Wireless sensor nodes and pocket devices are mostly supplied by batteries. These storage units are efficient but often not rechargeable or recycled. This leads to environmental and sustainability problems, which are avoided by implementing new types of environmentally-powered systems. In this work we present a new high-efficiency power management module for indoor light applications, which is fitted into an AA battery size adapter. This prototype can be used instead of AA-batteries to supply many low power devices by storing the energy collected from a solar cell into a built-in supercapacitor.

Alessandro Vinco, Rashid Siddique, Davide Brunelli, Wensi Wang

Chapter 13. A Framework for Network-On-Chip Comparison Based on OpenSPARC T2 Processor

Abstract

Network-on-Chip is gaining interest in these years thanks to its regular and scalable design. Several topologies have been proposed, and there is the need of a general framework for their test, validation and comparison. In this article a framework based on the OpenSPARC T2 processor is presented, where the NoC is used to replace the Cache Crossbar. With the introduction of protocol translators, it is possible to accomodate any NoC inside the T2. Processor regression tests can be used to validate the design and evaluate timing performance.

G. Causapruno, A. Audero, S. Tota, M. Ruo Roch

Chapter 14. A GPU 3D Segmentation Framework for Medical Imaging

Abstract

In this work we propose a fast and flexible GPU 3D level-set segmentation framework able to handle different segmentation tasks. Experiments on simulated and real images demonstrate the method ability at achieving high computational efficiency with no reduction in segmentation accuracy compared to its sequential counterpart. The method clinical applicability is demonstrated by addressing the task of Left-Ventricle myocardium segmentation in Real-Time 3D Echocardiography.

Francesca Galluzzo, Luca De Marchi, Nicola Testoni, Guido Masetti

Chapter 15. Augmented Reality Tools for Structural Health Monitoring Applications

Abstract

A novel Augmented Reality (AR) tool for structural health monitoring is illustrated in this work. It provides maintenance operators with the results of an impact detection methodology. It interacts with an eyepiece allowing the inspector to see the estimated impact position on the structure. Electric signals are collected by a network of piezosensors bonded on the structure to be monitored. Dispersive propagation compensation is performed to improve estimation robustness. Hyperbolic beamforming is exploited to locate the impact. Real-time impact data are finally fed to the AR eyepiece. The proposed approach is tested on a Cessna 150 engine cowling. Experimental results confirm the feasibility of the method and its exploitability in maintenance practice.

L. De Marchi, A. Ceruti, N. Testoni, A. Marzani, A. Liverani

Chapter 16. Squeeze the Lemon: Balancing as a Way to Use Every Drop of Energy in a Lithium-Ion Battery

Abstract

This work discusses recent research results obtained in tackling one of the most limiting factor for an effective use of a Lithium-ion battery: the charge unbalance between the cells constituting the battery. First, it is recalled how unbalancing affects the performance of a battery consisting of series-connected cells, then some possible techniques to balance the battery are described and compared to each other. The comparison is made by modeling the balancing circuit topologies and by performing statistical simulations. Finally, we describe two balancing circuits that efficiently address the problem and we report on the experimental results that validate the circuits.

Federico Baronti, Roberto Roncella, Roberto Saletti

Chapter 17. Fully Integrated 60 GHz Transceiver for Wireless HD/WiGig Short-Range Multi-Gbit Connections

Abstract

The paper presents the design of a 60 GHz transceiver, with all active and passive devices integrated on-chip including the antenna, for multi Gbit short-range wireless communications. To minimize circuit complexity and cost an on-off-keying (OOK) modulation scheme is selected as well as a 65 nm bulk CMOS technology instead of more costly CMOS SOI or SiGe or III-V technologies. At transmitter side a differential 2 stage common source power amplifier allows for an output power of about 11 dBm. The receiver includes a cascode LNA with a gain of 11 dB and a noise figure of 4.6 dB, followed by a simple envelop detector. For the on-chip antenna, half-wavelength dipole and inverted-F topologies have been designed. For the transceiver prototype the half-wavelength dipole is selected since it has better gain performance (radiation efficiency of 38 %, a peak directivity of 1.76 and a gain of roughly −2 dBi) although for an higher area occupation. The fully integrated transceiver allows for a data rate of roughly 4 Gbit/s at distances of few meters, being compliant with physical-layer specifications of WirelessHD and WiGig alliances. Work supported by NEWCOM # EU grant.

Sergio Saponara, Bruno Neri

Chapter 18. Low Cost FMCW Radar Design and Implementation for Harbour Surveillance Applications

Abstract

The prototype of a low power radar with a coverage range from some hundred meters to a few kilometres is presented in this paper. A Frequency Modulate Continuous Wave (FMCW) X-band solution has been chosen from the architectural point of view, and an hybrid realization has been adopted. In fact, one of the main target of the design was to demonstrate the feasibility of high sensitivity radar sensor implemented in a low cost technology. Some original solutions have been adopted to reach this target. The radar prototype is composed by a radio frequency front end, entirely realized by using commercial components, and by a DSP platform implemented by using open source software. The prototype has been realized and tested. The main interesting results are: (i) the low cost of the radio frequency front end; (ii) the high sensitivity of the sensor which resulted capable of monitoring the movements of object and peoples in a range of some hundred meters with a transmitted power as low as a few mW; (iii) a very low level of EM pollution; (iv) a coverage range of 1 mile with an output power of 2 W; (v) the detection of range and velocity for targets with a radar cross section larger than 1 m inside the coverage range. The main application will be as a node of a radar network for harbour surveillance.

Sergio Saponara, Stefano Lischi, Riccardo Massini, Luca Musetti, Daniele Staglianò, Fabrizio Berizzi, Bruno Neri

Chapter 19. Healthcare System for Non-invasive Fall Detection in Indoor Environment

Abstract

Fall incidents and the sustained injuries represent the main causes of accidents for elderly people, and also the third cause of chronic disability. The rapid detection of a fall event can reduce the mortality risk, avoiding also the aggravation of injuries. In this paper an embedded healthcare system based on a microwave radar is presented. A Continuous Wave (CW) Doppler radar is used to detect the changes in speed of different persons experienced during daily activities, namely falling and normal/random movements. The resulted speed signals are then processed in real-time by a digital signal processor (DSP) in order to detect fall incidents. Experimental results, conducted on real human volunteers in a real room setting, have shown a success rate of 100 % in detecting fall events. Moreover, no false positives have been reported.

Marco Mercuri, Carmine Garripoli, Peter Karsmakers, Ping Jack Soh, Guy A. E. Vandenbosch, Calogero Pace, Paul Leroux, Dominique Schreurs

Chapter 20. Analysis of Spread-Spectrum Clocking Modulations Under Synchronization Timing Constraint

Abstract

Spread spectrum clocking slowly sweeps clock frequency of a digital system to reduce the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). In a digital system-on-chip there can be subsystems where clock spreading is not allowed. This paper analyzes the performances achievable by spread spectrum clocking when a constraint is imposed to easily synchronize clock modulated and unmodulated subsystems. It is shown that the best modulation gain (7.7 dB) is achieved by using optimized discontinuous modulation.

Davide De Caro, Michele De Martino, Nicola Petra, Antonio G.M. Strollo

Chapter 21. Towards a Frequency Domain Processor for Real-Time SIFT-based Filtering

Abstract

The Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) extracts relevant features from images and video frames. The extracted features are robust against luminance variations, geometrical transformations, and image resolution. Due to its performances, the SIFT algorithm is of great importance in fields such as object recognition, content retrieval from image databases, robotic navigation, and gesture recognition. Main drawback of the SIFT algorithm is the high computational complexity. This paper presents the development of a hardware filtering accelerator for the implementation of SIFT-based visual search. The accelerator works in the frequency domain, operating on a block-by-block basis. This enables to work faithfully to the original Scale-Space theory, which employes non-separable Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) filters. The targeted throughput is of \(\sim \)20 fps, making the coprocessor suitable for real time processing.

Giorgio Lopez, Ettore Napoli, Antonio G. M. Strollo

Chapter 22. A Real-Time FPGA-based Solution for Binary Image Thinning

Abstract

This paper presents an optimized FPGA implementation for real-time binary image thinning algorithm. The reference thinning technique is based on iterated comparisons with a set of eight \(3\times 3\) binary masks. In the proposed architecture, the processing logic and the internal memory are implemented in a way that the mask matching on each \(3\times 18\) image segment can be done in parallel within a single clock cycle. This optimization entails a reduction of more than one order of magnitude in terms of execution cycles with respect to the original algorithm. The algorithm was implemented on an ALTERA Stratix II EP2S30 FPGA. The resource occupation of the thinning block and the dedicated memory controllers is 4 % at 100 MHz clock frequency. The proposed solution produces the output in 0.03 s on a standard PAL \(720 \times 576\), allowing for further real-time processing.

Daniele Davalle, Berardino Carnevale, Sergio Saponara, Luca Fanucci, Pierangelo Terreni

Chapter 23. Low Cost Electrical Current Sensors with Extremely Wide Measurement Range

Abstract

A new electrical current measurement system is presented. It features the ability to dynamically and automatically change its measurement range to the sensed current amplitude without user action. It also exhibits galvanic isolation and near zero insertion loss characteristics.

N. Galioto, F. Lo Bue, L. Mistretta, C. G. Giaconia

Chapter 24. Pathological Voice Analysis via Digital Signal Processing

Abstract

The interest in pathological voice analysis for specific neurological diseases is growing up aiming to offer more Health-care tele monitoring services since new high performing electronic devices are available for the end-user. In this article we show some parameters that can be digitally extracted and analyzed from pathological voices, in order to find a distinctive sign of the Parkinson disease. As a result, we will show a parameter that gives some information about the Parkinson disease characterization, particularly for male patients. We will also discuss about the needed computational cost related to parameters extraction and elaboration, aiming to target a possible tough yet portable hardware architecture capable to carry out the whole calculation or at least part of them locally.

Francesco Lo Bue, Natale Galioto, Costantino Giaconia

Chapter 25. A Platform-Based Emulator for Mass-Storage Flash Cards Evaluation in Embedded Systems

Abstract

In this work we present a simulation environment, built around the QEmu emulator, that allows the evaluation of mass-storage Flash-Card memories, specifically embedded Multimedia Cards (e-MMC). Flash card memories are internally complex systems containing, along with the memory array, an intelligent controller, running its own firmware. The controller is a critical unit, since its functions are not limited in providing a standard interface between the internal memory array and the user, but they are much more elaborate (e.g. buffering, erase sequences, garbage collection, flash memory wear leveling, etc.). It is then clear that the implementation of these functions can have a strong impact on performances. In this scenario, a simulation environment would be a valuable resource in the design flow, since it could allow the exploration of different internal architectures and firmware implementations, the verification and the estimation of performances of new devices during their design. Using QEmu as base environment, we have developed a fast emulator of a complete embedded system platform, containing a behavioral model of next-generation e-MMC devices, parametrized in order to be portable to future generations of e-MMCs. The whole emulator is fast enough to boot a complete Linux kernel and to launch applications, allowing the analysis of e-MMCs behavior on real use cases, based on actual file systems (e.g. ext2, FAT32, NTFS, etc.) and actual applications or benchmarks.

Francesco Menichelli, Mauro Olivieri

Chapter 26. A Model-Based Methodology to Generate Code for Timer Units

Abstract

In this paper we present a model-based methodology and a tool-chain supporting pseudo-automated code generation for different Timer Units, which represent a new approach in this field. Programmable Timer Units are timing co-processors used to elaborate complex high-resolution timing functions subject to hard real-time constraints. Verification at the different design stages, as required per safety standards’ certification, is becoming a major concern for Timer Units code development life-cycle. Enabling correct-by-construction code generation, our methodology supports code development, integration and testing across all design phases. We show how high-level functional models derived from functional requirements can be mapped onto the target architecture and how architecture-specific code can be generated. Our methodology is then applied to an automotive reference example.

Marco Marazza, Francesco Menichelli, Mauro Olivieri, Orlando Ferrante, Alberto Ferrari