• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.02a
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• pp.218-223
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• 2008

In this paper, we implement several methods to improve an audio collaboration system over IP networks, and then evaluate the performance of the implemented methods. In general, speech and audio quality degrades depending on the characteristics of IP networks such as jitter and packet loss. In order to reduce this quality degradation, we propose a lower bit rate audio delivery scheme using the MPEG-2 AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) audio codec in a viewpoint that a packet loss rate could be reduced by a smaller packet size. In addition, iLBC (Internet Low-Bitrate Codec) and the G.711 packet loss concealment algorithm defined by IEFT and ITU-T, respectively, are applied to a audio collaboration system. RAT (Robust-Audio Tool)[7] is used as a baseline platform for the implementation of the proposed methods. It is shown from the implementation that the implemented MPEG-2 AAC audio codec with a bitrate of 256 kbit/s performs as similar as the uncompressed audio quality with a bitrate of 512 kbit/s, and that iLBC and the G.711 packet loss concealment algorithm can improve speech quality when a packet loss rate is 2~10%.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.927-933
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• 2011

This study aimed to evaluate the quality of herbal medicine-related RCT (Randomized controlled clinical trial) papers. 79 papers were searched from the domestic Hakjin paper list, and 16 papers of them were evaluated in terms of the Jadad Quality Assessment Scale and the adequacy of allocation concealment, and ethical validity. The evaluation results from Jadad Quality Assessment Scale showed that 15 papers showed high quality with the Jadad score of 3 points or higher, and none of the papers had a problem with randomization and double-blinding. The evaluation results from adequacy of allocation concealment showed that 3 of the papers were executed proper allocation concealment, and all of them had 5 points of Jadad score. IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval and written consent was investigated for the evaluation of ethical validity, and 12 papers had the IRB approval, and 14 papers had written consent. The papers published before 2005 were absent of IRB approval and written consent, and none of the papers had IRB approval number. From the above results, it is concluded that rigorous clinical research led high quality of research papers, and the ethical aspect of clinical researches are getting more important to protect the rights of research participants.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.42 no.3 s.303
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• pp.91-98
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• 2005

In this paper, we propose a temporal error concealment method based on the edge adaptive masking. In the method, four regions around the corrupted block - top, bottom, left, and right - are defined and the edge features of the regions are extracted by applying an edge operator for each direction. The size of a mask for the boundary matching is determined by the edge information, which can be considered as a criterion to measure the activity of the boundary region. In other words, it is determined such that the size of the mask is proportional to the amount of edge-component extracted from each region in order to yield the higher reliability on boundary matching. This process is equivalent to applying weights depending on the edge features, which leads the improved motion vector. In experiments, it is verified that the proposed method outperforms the conventional methods in terms of image quality, and then its merits and demerits are discussed.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.5C
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• pp.490-496
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• 2006

H.264 is the most recent video coding standard, containing improved error resilience tools than previous video compression schemes. This paper shows an analysis of the dependency of error concealment (EC) performance on the expected number of correctly received neighboring macroblock(MB)s for a lost MB, applying error concealment schemes to the raster scan mode that is used in the previous video coding standard and the flexible macroblock ordering (FMO) which is one of error-resilience tools in H.264. We also present simulation results and performance evaluation with various packet loss rates. Simulation results show that the FMO mode provides better EC performances of $1{\sim}9dB$ PSNR improvements compared to the raster scan mode because of larger expected number of correctly received neighboring MBs. The PSNR improvement by FMO mode becomes higher as the intra-frame period is larger and the packet loss rate is higher.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.5C
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• pp.503-511
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• 2006

H.264 adopts new coding tools such as intra-prediction, loop filter, etc. The adoption of these tools enables an H.264-coded bitstream to have more information compared with previous standards. In this paper we proposed an effective spatial error concealment method for H.264. Among the information included in an H.264-coded bitstream, we use intra-mode for recovering a damaged block. This is because prediction direction in intra-mode is highly correlated to the edge direction of a lost macroblock. We first estimate the edge direction using intra-modes of blocks adjacent to a lost macroblock, and classify the area in a damaged macroblock into the edge and the flat area. And then our method recovers pixel values in the edge area using edge-directed interpolation, and recovers pixel values in the flat area using weighted interpolation. Simulation results show the proposed method yields better video quality than conventional approaches by 0.35 to 5.48 dB.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.8C
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• pp.777-785
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• 2006

H.264 is the prominent video coding standard in various applications such as real-time video streaming and digital multimedia broadcasting, since it provides enhanced compression performance, error resilience tools, and network adaptation. Since compressed video stream is vulnerable to packet loss, error resilience and error concealment(EC) tools are essential for the transmission of video over the Internet. In this paper, we first propose a simple temporal EC method that improves the EC performance for intra-frame in H.264 when the amount of motion is relatively small. Then we propose a new hybrid EC method for intra-frame in H.264, which combines the spatial EC and temporal EC adaptively. The simulations are performed in packet-lossy environments, and the proposed hybrid EC method shows about 0.5-4dB PSNR improvement compared to the conventional spatial EC method that is used for intra-frame in H.264.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.13B no.3 s.106
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• pp.197-204
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• 2006

Recent advances in information technology have resulted in rapid growth in the mobile communication. With this explosive growth, reliable transmission and error concealment technique become increasingly important to offer high quality multimedia services. In this paper, we propose an improved BMA(Boundary Matching Algorithm) method using gradient vectors to conceal channel errors in inter-frames of H.264 video images. General BMA method computes the sum of pixel differences of adjacent pixels of the candidate block and its neighbouring blocks, assuming that adjacent pixels have almost the same value. In real images, however, there exist some gradients, which means that the pixel values are increasing or decreasing in a specific direction. In this paper, we develop a precise estimation method of errors in candidates blocks using gradient information and try to recover lost blocks with this technique. Experimental results show the improvement of picture quality about $1{\sim}3dB$ compared to existing methods.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.30 no.2C
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• pp.49-58
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• 2005

For the improvement of coding efficiency, the H.264 standard uses new coding tools. Using these coding tools, H.264 has achieved significant improvements from rate-distortion point of view. The adoption of these tools enables a macroblock in H.264 to have more information, sixteen motion vectors, four reference frames and a macroblock mode. In this paper, we present an efficient temporal error concealment algorithm by using not only motion vectors and reference frames but also macroblock mode of neighbor macroblocks. Our algorithm conceals the macroblock error with variable sizes, $16{\times}16,\;16{\times}8,\;8{\times}16,\;8{\times}8$ depending on the macroblock modes of neighbor macroblocks. Simulation results show that the proposed method increase the objective quality regardless of bit-rate and block error rate.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.12B no.7 s.103
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• pp.755-760
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• 2005

To transmit a video bit stream over low bandwith, such as mobile, channels, encoding algorithms for high bit rate like H.263+ are used. In transmitting video bit-streams, packet losses cause severe degradation in image quality. This paper proposes a new algorithm for the recovery of missing or erroneous motion vectors when H.263+ bit-stream is transmitted. Considering that the missing or erroneous motion vectors are closely related with those of neighboring blocks, this paper proposes a temporal-spatial error concealment algorithm. The proposed approach is that missing or erroneous Motion Vectors(MVs) are recovered by clustering the movements of neighboring blocks by their homogeneity. MVs of neighboring blocks we clustered according to ALA(Average Linkage Algorithm) clustering and a representative value for each cluster is determined to obtain the candidate MV set. By computing the distortion of the candidates, a MV with the minimum distortion is selected. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm exhibits better performance in subjective and objective evaluation than existing methods.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.286-296
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• 2005

This paper presents a stereo-based image compression and transmission system for 3D realistic television. In the proposed system, a disparity map is extracted from an input stereo image pair and the extracted disparity map and one of two input images are transmitted or stored at a local or remote site. However, correspondences can not be determined in occlusion areas. Thus, it is not easy to recover 3D information in such regions. In this paper, a reconstruction image compensation algorithm based on error block concealment and in-loop filtering is proposed to minimize the reconstruction error in generating stereo image pair. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is shown in term of objective accuracy of reconstruction image with several real stereo image pairs.