Blind Signal Separation from Unidentifiable Systems. This project will contribute to the designated national research priority goal on frontier Information and Communications Technology. The outcomes of the project will advance the theory of signal processing and enable performance improvement of a wide range of hi-tech applications. This project will enhance Australia's research reputation and competitiveness, promote the understanding and applications of advanced signal processing techniques i ....Blind Signal Separation from Unidentifiable Systems. This project will contribute to the designated national research priority goal on frontier Information and Communications Technology. The outcomes of the project will advance the theory of signal processing and enable performance improvement of a wide range of hi-tech applications. This project will enhance Australia's research reputation and competitiveness, promote the understanding and applications of advanced signal processing techniques in local industries, and provide excellent training opportunity for PhD and Honours students.Read moreRead less
Mobile Device Autoconfiguration. Todays cellular networks are built to optimise spectrum efficiency by combining specific codecs and matching bearer services. With general purpose mobile terminals that can access different network types the applications will break this optimisation by using generic codecs. This project aims at solving this problem by letting the access networks configure the terminals with the natively supported codecs and bearer service definitions. The project will lead to con ....Mobile Device Autoconfiguration. Todays cellular networks are built to optimise spectrum efficiency by combining specific codecs and matching bearer services. With general purpose mobile terminals that can access different network types the applications will break this optimisation by using generic codecs. This project aims at solving this problem by letting the access networks configure the terminals with the natively supported codecs and bearer service definitions. The project will lead to considerably higher cost effectiveness in the emerging mobile Internet.Read moreRead less
Bio-inspired speech analysis: Specialised information processing of vocalisations in the auditory brainstem. This project has the potential to benefit bionic ear and hearing aid users through the development of signal processing methods that mimic the amazing abilities of the brain. Speech perception performance by bionic ear users has reached a plateau and these new strategies could produce the breakthrough needed to provide the next increase in performance. The benefit for greater improved hea ....Bio-inspired speech analysis: Specialised information processing of vocalisations in the auditory brainstem. This project has the potential to benefit bionic ear and hearing aid users through the development of signal processing methods that mimic the amazing abilities of the brain. Speech perception performance by bionic ear users has reached a plateau and these new strategies could produce the breakthrough needed to provide the next increase in performance. The benefit for greater improved hearing has enormous benefit and potential for improving the quality of life of the hearing impaired, especially those with severe and profound hearing loss. In addition, the algorithms may provide more robust automatic speech recognition, making this technology more useful in everyday situations; the markets that this would open up are enormous.Read moreRead less
Iterative subspace expansions for space-time adaptive wireless communications, radar and sonar. This project addresses the fundamental challenge of high receiver complexity for bandwidth-efficient, high data-rate wireless communications, radar and sonar. We do this by designing the signal transmissions so that smart receivers can detect the signals in "warp speed". We expect these results to have an immediate impact on the design of next generation communications technologies. Information and Co ....Iterative subspace expansions for space-time adaptive wireless communications, radar and sonar. This project addresses the fundamental challenge of high receiver complexity for bandwidth-efficient, high data-rate wireless communications, radar and sonar. We do this by designing the signal transmissions so that smart receivers can detect the signals in "warp speed". We expect these results to have an immediate impact on the design of next generation communications technologies. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has been recognised by the Australian Government as a National Research Priority. This research project will contribute to the intellectual property in ICT held by Australia, and help supply Australian industries with the knowledge necessary to participate in the development of frontier technologies.Read moreRead less
Adaptive Modulation For OFDM Signals. The sub band Signal To Noise Ratio in an OFDM communications channel varies by as much as 30 dB. In order to optimise the bandwidth efficiency of OFDM signalling it is desirable to adapt the chosen modulation technique such as M-ary QAM to the SNR available in sub bands. In this way high quality channels transmit the highest bit rates, whilst low quality channels accommodate the lowest bit rates. The net result is that the capacity of the communications link ....Adaptive Modulation For OFDM Signals. The sub band Signal To Noise Ratio in an OFDM communications channel varies by as much as 30 dB. In order to optimise the bandwidth efficiency of OFDM signalling it is desirable to adapt the chosen modulation technique such as M-ary QAM to the SNR available in sub bands. In this way high quality channels transmit the highest bit rates, whilst low quality channels accommodate the lowest bit rates. The net result is that the capacity of the communications link does not have to be limited by designing for worst case conditions.Read moreRead less
Optimal Waveform Design and Compensation Techniques for Non Linear Communication Channels. Distortion effects in satellite amplifiers have a serious impact upon communication system performance, for example, by increasing the error rates.
The research study we are proposing involves analysing these distortion causing non linear effects and designing techniques to compensate for them. Although we are initially interested in the nonlinear satellite channel, we intend the results to be extended t ....Optimal Waveform Design and Compensation Techniques for Non Linear Communication Channels. Distortion effects in satellite amplifiers have a serious impact upon communication system performance, for example, by increasing the error rates.
The research study we are proposing involves analysing these distortion causing non linear effects and designing techniques to compensate for them. Although we are initially interested in the nonlinear satellite channel, we intend the results to be extended to other difficult nonlinear channels such as will be present in future 3G and 4G mobile communication systems.
The proposed research will place Australia at the forefront of cutting edge Information Technology and Communications research.
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High Bandwidth Efficient Schemes for Portable Multimedia Communications. The introduction of multimedia services for mobile users has resulted in a shortage of satellite spectrum. Spot beam technology is used to provide service in areas of high user density. Adjacent overlapping beams are allocated different frequency bands, however interference from neighbouring beams limits capacity. Multi-User Detection is a technology capable of significantly increasing capacity by frequency re-use in adj ....High Bandwidth Efficient Schemes for Portable Multimedia Communications. The introduction of multimedia services for mobile users has resulted in a shortage of satellite spectrum. Spot beam technology is used to provide service in areas of high user density. Adjacent overlapping beams are allocated different frequency bands, however interference from neighbouring beams limits capacity. Multi-User Detection is a technology capable of significantly increasing capacity by frequency re-use in adjacent spot beams. The aim of this project is to investigate receiver design for multi-user spot-beam channels and develop associated synchronisation and channel estimation methods. The outcome will be efficient communications systems supporting higher user populations, without increasing the bandwidth required.Read moreRead less
Frequency-related features derived from phase spectrum for robust speech recognition. Though the currently available speech recognizers work reasonably well in noise-free environments, their performance deteriorates drastically even in the presence of a small amount of noise. In order to overcome this problem, new frequency-related features are proposed in this project for speech recognition. These features are derived from the phase spectrum of the speech signal, and are expected to be robust t ....Frequency-related features derived from phase spectrum for robust speech recognition. Though the currently available speech recognizers work reasonably well in noise-free environments, their performance deteriorates drastically even in the presence of a small amount of noise. In order to overcome this problem, new frequency-related features are proposed in this project for speech recognition. These features are derived from the phase spectrum of the speech signal, and are expected to be robust to the additive noise distortion. These features will make the speech recognizer less sensitive to noise and will enhance its utility in a number of applications in the telecommunication and business world.Read moreRead less
Fixed and variable-length segment vocoders for very low bitrate speech coding. Reliable and secure voice communication is an important aspect of military and defence operations. In order to reduce the possibility of interception, low power transmitters are normally used for radio communications, where the bandwidth is often very low. Military voice communication, therefore, requires the coding of speech at very low bitrates. Our research proposal aims to develop speech coders that can operate ....Fixed and variable-length segment vocoders for very low bitrate speech coding. Reliable and secure voice communication is an important aspect of military and defence operations. In order to reduce the possibility of interception, low power transmitters are normally used for radio communications, where the bandwidth is often very low. Military voice communication, therefore, requires the coding of speech at very low bitrates. Our research proposal aims to develop speech coders that can operate at lower bitrates and reproduce speech of high quality and intelligibility. This is highly beneficial to the defence forces of Australia as it will permit the use of high-grade encryption technology to improve the security of transmission.Read moreRead less
Adaptive learning of spatiotemporal patterns: Development of multi-layer spiking neuron networks using Hebbian and competitive learning. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change in time. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Aut ....Adaptive learning of spatiotemporal patterns: Development of multi-layer spiking neuron networks using Hebbian and competitive learning. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change in time. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Automatic techniques will be used to teach groups of spiking neurons the differences between sequences of events by adjusting connections between them. The significance of this approach is that it captures information about timing that is missed in existing techniques.Read moreRead less