• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.66-78
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• 2009

A mobile ultrasound scanner developed for use in point-of-care applications is introduced, which can not only provide ultrasound images but can also measure various bio-signals. The mobile ultrasound scanner is also designed to meet the demanding requirements for point-of-care diagnosis, such as battery-powered operation, portability in terms of size and weigh, and real-time wireless communications capability for remote diagnosis. To meet these requirements, an efficient beamforming method for high resolution imaging with a small number of active elements, a hardware efficient beamformer architecture, and echo processing algorithms with greatly reduced computational complexity have been developed. Experimental results show that the prototype mobile ultrasound scanner is fully functional and satisfies most of the design requirements.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.10c
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• pp.554-556
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• 2006

A key component for autonomous mobile robot is to localize ifself. In this paper we suggest a vision-based localization and compensation of robot's location using ultrasound. Mobile robot travels along wall and searches each feature in indoor environment and transformed absolute coordinates of actuality environment using these points and builds a map. And we obtain information of the environment because mobile robot travels along wall. Localzation search robot's location candidate point by ultrasound and decide position among candidate point by features matching.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.119-128
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• 2011

This paper introduces design space exploration of many-core processors that meet high performance and low power required by the beamforming algorithm of image signals of mobile ultrasound. For the design space exploration of the many-core processor, we mapped different number of ultrasound image data to each processing element of many-core, and then determined an optimal many-core processor architecture in terms of execution time, energy efficiency and area efficiency. Experimental results indicate that PE=4096 and 1024 provide the highest energy efficiency and area efficiency, respectively. In addition, PE=4096 achieves 46x and 10x better than TI DSP C6416, which is widely used for ultrasound image devices, in terms of energy efficiency and area efficiency, respectively.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.18A no.2
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• pp.45-52
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• 2011

In the past, a patient went to the room where an ultrasound image diagnosis device was set, and then he or she was examined by a doctor. However, currently a doctor can go and examine the patient with a handheld ultrasound device who stays in a room. However, it was implemented with only fundamental functions, and can not meet the high performance required by the focusing algorithm of ultrasound beam which determines the quality of ultrasound image. In addition, low energy consumption was satisfied for the mobile ultrasound device. To satisfy these requirements, this paper proposes a high-performance and low-power single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) based multi-core processor that supports a representative beamforming algorithm out of several focusing methods of mobile ultrasound image signals. The proposed SIMD multi-core processor, which consists of 16 processing elements (PEs), satisfies the high-performance required by the beamforming algorithm by exploiting considerable data-level parallelism inherent in the echo image data of ultrasound. Experimental results showed that the proposed multi-core processor outperforms a commercial high-performance processor, TI DSP C6416, in terms of execution time (15.8 times better), energy efficiency (6.9 times better), and area efficiency (10 times better).

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.286-292
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• 2022

As mobile electronics become smarter, higher-level security systems are necessary to protect private information and property from hackers. For this, biometric authentication systems have been widely studied, where the recognition of unique biological traits of an individual, such as the face, iris, fingerprint, and voice, is required to operate the device. Among them, ultrasound fingerprint imaging technology using piezoelectric materials is one of the most promising approaches adopted by Samsung Galaxy smartphones. In this review, we summarize the recent progress on piezoelectric ultrasound micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) transducers with various piezoelectric materials and provide insights to achieve the highest-level biometric authentication system for mobile electronics.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.183-186
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• 2011

본 논문에서는 모바일 초음파(mobile ultrasound) 영상신호의 빔포밍 알고리즘에서 요구되는 고성능 및 저전력을 만족시키는 매니코어 프로세서에 대한 디자인 공간 탐색 방법을 소개한다. 매니코어 프로세서의 디자인 공간 탐색을 위해 매니코어의 각 프로세싱 엘리먼트(Processing Element, PE)당 초음파 영상신호 데이터의 수를 변화시키는 실험을 통해 실행시간, 에너지 효율 및 시스템 면적 효율을 측정하고, 측정된 결과를 바탕으로 최적의 매니코어 프로세서 구조를 선택하였다.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.64-69
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• 2014

Ultrasound system is one of the complex wireless signal processing systems that are widely used in the fields of modern industry such as medical diagnostics, underwater communications, and sensor-networks. Miniaturization of ultrasound system has been raging recently. In this paper, a hybrid LNA that is suitable for miniaturization and mobile diagnostic ultrasound system has been developed. The proposed LNA has low noise figure of less than 5dB, and the feedback resistor is designed to be electrically adjusted in order to attain the impedance-matching for various ultrasound transducers. It supports the whole ultrasound frequencies from 10KHz to 150MHz frequency band and also provides sleep modes. A gain from -18.8 to -29.5 dB is achieved by adjusting each transducer to fit the system character. Power consumption can be reduced up to 90% in similar performance as compared to the existing LNA.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.775-781
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• 2011

For the measurement of absolute position of mobile robot in indoor environments, the ultrasonic positioning systems using ultrasound have been researched for several years. Most of these ultrasonic positioning systems to avoid interference between the ultrasound are used for sequential transmitting. However, due to the use of sequential transmitting, the positions of transmitter to receive an ultrasound will change when the mobile robot moves. Therefore the accuracy of positioning is reduced. In this paper, the new position estimation algorithm with weighting factor according to the time of receipt is proposed. By applying the proposed algorithm to existing Ultrasonic Satellite System(USAT), the improved USAT is configured. The positioning performance of the improved USAT with the proposed position estimation algorithm are verified by experiments.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.4141-4144
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• 2012

This paper introduces a technique for resolving amino acids that combines the advantages of the conventional CSP (chiral stationary phase) method with the CMPA (chiral mobile phase additive) method. A commercially available chiral crown ether column, CROWNPAK CR(+), was used as the CSP and three cyclodextrins (${\beta}$-CD, ${\gamma}$-CD, HP-${\beta}$-CD) were used as the mobile phase additives. Chromatographic resolution was performed at $25^{\circ}C$ and $50^{\circ}C$ with or without sonication. A comparison of the chromatographic results under ultrasonic conditions with those under non-ultrasonic conditions showed that ultrasound decreased the elution time and enantioselectivity at all temperatures. In the case of the ${\beta}$-CD mobile phase additive, the elution time and enantioselectivity under ultrasonic condition were significantly higher than under non-sonic condition at all temperatures. Commercially available Chiralpak AD, Whelk-O2 and Pirkle 1-J columns were used as CSPs to examine more meticulously the effects of ultrasonication and temperature on the optical resolution. The optical resolution of some chiral samples analyzed at $25^{\circ}C$ and $50^{\circ}C$ with or without sonication was compared. As in the previous case, the enantioselectivity was lower at $25^{\circ}C$ but similar enantioselectivity was observed at $50^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.420-427
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• 2010

This paper describes a localization method based on Monte Carlo Localization approach for a mobile robot. The method uses range data which are measured from ultrasound transmitting beacons whose locations are given a priori. The ultrasound receiver on-board a robot detects the range from the beacons. The method requires several beacons, theoretically over three. The method proposes a sensor model for the range sensing based on statistical analysis of the sensor output. The experiment uses commercialized beacons and detector which are used for trilateration localization. The performance of the proposed method is verified through real implementation. Especially, it is shown that the performance of the localization degrades as the sensor update rate decreases compared with the MCL algorithm update rate. Though the method requires exact location of the beacons, it doesn't require geometrical map information of the environment. Also, it is applicable to estimation of the location of both the beacons and robot simultaneously.