Electronic and Communication Engineering

Steganography is the art of message hiding in a cover signal without attracting attention. The requirements of the good steganography algorithm are security, capacity, robustness and imperceptibility, all them are contradictory, therefore, satisfying all together is not easy especially in audio cover signal because human auditory system (HAS) has high sensitivity to audio modification. In this paper, we proposed a high capacity audio steganography algorithm with good resistance to additive noise. The proposed algorithm is based on wavelet packet transform and blocks matching. It has capacity above 35% of the input audio file size with acceptable signal to noise ratio. Also, it is resistance to additive Gaussian noise to about 25 db. Furthermore, the reconstruction of actual secret messages does not require the original cover audio signal.

Steganography is an information hiding technique where secret message is embedded into unsuspicious cover signal. Measurement of good steganography algorithm includes security, capacity, robustness and imperceptibility. These measures are contradicted, therefore improving one, affects the others. In this paper, we propose a new high capacity audio steganography algorithm based on the wavelet packet transform with adaptive hiding in least significant bits. The adaptive hiding is determined depend on the cover samples strength and bits block matching between message and cover signals. The results show that message can be embedded up to 42 % of the total size of the cover audio signal with at least of 50 dB signal to noise ratio.

Data hiding, a form of steganography, embeds data into digital media for the purpose of identification, annotation, security, and copyright. The goal of steganography is to avoid drawing suspicion to the transmission of a hidden message. Digital audio provides a suitable cover for high-throughput steganography. At 16 bits per sample and sampled at a rate of 44100 Hz, digital audio has the bit-rate to support large color image messages. In addition, audio is often transient and unpredictable, facilitating the hiding of messages. In this paper a high robustness system against the attackers in hiding of color images is presented. We used the multi-resolution discrete wavelet transform in hiding process. The JPEG format type for color images and WAV format for speech cover signal that used in test of system .Programs and graphics are executed by using MATLAB version 6.5 programs.

In this study, a novel and high embedding capacity audio steganography scheme based on Lifting Wavelet Transform (LWT) and adaptive embedding positions is proposed. Specifically, the message data is inserted in the imperceptible positions that chosen from the coefficients of detail sub-bands taking advantage of our proposed Weighted Block Matching (WBM). The WBM is preceded by preparing the cover audio in order to select the bitspositions that can possibly be used for embedding from each detail coefficient based on coefficient amplitude then copy the contents of the selected bits-positions and arrange them in blocks of bits. Also, the message data is arranged in blocks of bits after preprocessed and encrypted. The WBM computes the matching between each message block and whole extracted cover blocks to find the similarity between them. This process help to provide optimal locations to hide the message blocks. These locations are considered as a stego-key that is ciphered and hided within the final detail sub-band which is specified for this purpose. The proposed approach attains higher security than other fixed embedding positions approaches because the random positions for the embedded message blocks based on adaptive selection for embedding positions. Experimental results show that the proposed technique is not only has very high embedding capacity (exceed 300 kbps) with excellent transparency (above 35 dB for the cover to noise ratio), but also achieve lossless massage retrieved. Comparisons with the related audio steganography algorithms also show that our proposed scheme outperforms all the selected algorithms.

The demand for more spectrums in a smart grid communication network is a significant challenge in originally scarce spectrum resources. Cognitive radio (CR) is a powerful technique for solving the spectrum scarcity problem by adapting the transmission parameters according to predefined objectives in an active wireless communication network. This paper presents a cognitive radio decision engine that dynamically selects optimal radio transmission parameters for wireless home area networks (HAN) of smart grid applications via the multi-objective differential evolution (MODE) optimization method. The proposed system helps to drive optimal communication parameters to realize power saving, maximum throughput and minimum bit error rate communication modes. A differential evolution algorithm is used to select the optimal transmission parameters for given communication modes based on a fitness function that combines multiple objectives based on appropriate weights. Simulation results highlight the superiority of the proposed system in terms of accuracy and convergence as compared with other evolution algorithms (genetic optimization, particle swarm optimization, and ant colony optimization) for different communication modes (power saving mode, high throughput mode, emergency communication mode, and balanced mode).

Video compression is a process of reducing the size of a video file without degrading the video quality. There is a great deal of redundancy between frames of a video sequence. There is also redundancy with in the image of a single frame of a video sequence. In order to achieve the compression operation, one must reduce these redundancies using various techniques. Motion estimation techniques are used to reduce temporal redundancy between sequence frames. The technique that is used is block matching algorithm. The idea behind the proposed system to reduce spatial redundancy depends on the application of two level 2D-DWT on the error residual signal before estimating the motion between frames; A value of threshold is assigned to the coefficients of each layer, the resulting coefficients are quatized using the proposed quantizer and encoded using the EZW algorithm. Two digital video samples with different motions (simple, complex) are used in testing the system with different thresholds. The results of compression ratio, resolution of decompressed video, and required processing time are compared. Some of the reconstructed frames are shown. All the programs and graphics are executed using MATLAB version R2008a.

In public communication networks such as the internet, users can easily share and access multimedia products such as images, videos, and audios. Copyright protection is a vital issue to prove the ownership of products in these networks. Consequently, digital watermarking that hide invisible watermark or logo plays a significant role in overcoming copyright issue. However, any person has access to multimedia products can simply use these products. Also, there are professional attackers can remove the watermark or logo without loss the visibility of the multimedia product and claim their ownership for the digital products. This study proposes an image watermarking model that only allows authorized users to use the watermarked image. This model is robust against crop and rotation attacks. It is based on the proposed embedding method that we named a "concentric rectangles", which embeds data in rectangles starting from the center toward outer boundary to overcome the crop and rotation attacks. The resulted watermarked image is distorted in such a way to be recognized by any user, but only the authorized one can obtain a high quality of the watermarked image. The experimental results of the proposed model show that the embedding capacity can reach up to 25% from the size of the host image with watermarked image quality above 40 dB in terms of peak signal to noise rotation (PSNR). Furthermore, the proposed model is fully retrieval for the watermark image (logo) and the logo still retrieved a with a recognized vision until 10 dB of signal to noise ratio of noise adding.

Recent developments in communication and information technologies, plus the emerging of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine (M2M) principles, create the need to protect data from multiple types of attacks. In this paper, a secure and high capacity data communication model is proposed to protect the transmitted data based on identical frames between a secret and cover data. In this model, the cover data does not convey any embedded data (as in normal steganography system) or modify the secret message (as in traditional cryptography techniques). Alternatively, the proposed model sends the positions of the cover frames that are identical with the secret frames to the receiver side in order to recover the secret message. One of the significant advantages of the proposed model is the size of the secret key message which is considerably larger than the cover size, it may be even hundred times larger. Accordingly, the experimental results demonstrate a superior performance in terms of the capacity rate as compared to the traditional steganography techniques. Moreover, it has an advantage in terms of the required bandwidth to send the data or the required memory for saving when compared to the steganography methods, which need a bandwidth or memory up to 3-5 times of the original secret message. Where the length of the secret key (positions of the identical frames) that should be sent to the receiver increases by only 25% from the original secret message. This model is suitable for applications with a high level of security, high capacity rate and less bandwidth of communication or low storage devices.

The proposed device represents a new design and implementation of a smart system that helps blind and elderly people. The system can provide several services such as alert a blind person to avoid collision and calling family and/or ambulance automatically in emergency cases. Furthermore, the system can send SMS (short message service), which consists of the current position of the disabled person. Moreover, the family and any known phone numbers to the system can easily localize the position of the system user via automatic replied SMS at any time. The system has been implemented by employing new technologies such as microcontroller, Global Positioning System (GPS), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), gyroscope, and ultrasonic transceiver. The implemented system operates as standalone without need for any special servers and centers. Furthermore, it has been tested for realistic environment and it is identical and efficient for the real time requirements. The cost of the laboratory implemented system is less than 75 USD, and we hope the cost of the industrial one will be lesser with less weight.

This paper proposes a modification approach for phased-based EVM in order to reduce the processing time without effect the quality of the magnified video. The proposed approach applies a resizing process on the input video using Lanczos-3 algorithm. Then, it decomposes video frames using steerable pyramid to obtain multi-scale frame with its orientation. Subsequently, the resulted frames are filtered by temporal filters for specific bands and the filtered frames are multiplied by a magnification factor. Now, both the magnified regions and the unmagnified regions for each frame are added together. Finally, reconstructing the produced magnified multi-scale frames using the inverse steerable pyramid. The experimental results show that superiority of the proposed approach compares to the conventional phase-based EVM in processing time, where the processing time reduction about 60-65%. Furthermore, this approach does not affect on the video quality, which maintain it in the boundary of the conventional Phase-based EVM.

Presently electronic devices such as smart
phones, games consoles have requirement for
heterogeneous tasks that need to execute in real time. To
meet this challenging requirement heterogeneous multi core processor is the likely platforms to host the different
application of tasks. However, there are many
hardware/software challenges on multi-core processor
heterogeneous design that can include; sharing of
resources, task balancing, throughput, communication and
scheduling. This paper presents a review on a
heterogeneous multiprocessor reconfigurable design using
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) hardware
platforms. The FPGA-based hardware design represents a
middleware structure to manage the communication
between cores in any specific processor through varying
hardware blocks physically in FPGA platforms. The
FPGA-based design provides efficient platforms for
developing hardware/software multi-cores system
designing for re-configurable heterogeneous
multiprocessor. Finally, the re-configurable design
improves heterogeneous multiprocessor performance in
term of decreasing the latency in communication, power
consumption and execution time.

Monitoring and managing data from a remote asset to optimize maintenance and operation schedules using wireless communication
have received more attention recently than before. Meanwhile, the rapid development of global system for mobile communication (GSM)
systems makes communicating parties more vulnerable than ever to security attacks. The weaknesses in GSM security, such as flaws in
implementation and cryptography algorithms, still need additional improvements and investigation to enhance the system performance
in terms of security, cost and power consumption. In this study, a new security system design for securing GSM messaging with a
lightweight PRINCE algorithm Intellectual Property (IP) Core using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) is proposed. An energy and
cost-efficient implementation of PRINCE algorithm implemented in an environment of a microprocessor system using XILINX FPGA board
is developed. A complete microprocessor system is designed consisting of MicroBlaze processor, memory, serial communication and a
PRINCE IP Core that can be contained in a single XILINX VIRTEX chip. The system can cipher the data using PRINCE algorithm on a
VIRTEX-403 FPGA evaluation board and using GSM modems to communicate over a cellular network. Results show that the proposed
design achieves a high speed of 31.765 MHz with a throughput of 2.032 Gbps at a low power consumption of 0.165 W and an efficiency
of 2.126 Mbps per slice.

Monitoring and managing data from a remote asset to optimize maintenance and operation schedules using wireless communication have received more attention recently than before. Meanwhile, the rapid development of global system for mobile communication (GSM) systems makes communicating parties more vulnerable than ever to security attacks. The weaknesses in GSM security, such as flaws in implementation and cryptography algorithms, still need additional improvements and investigation to enhance the system performance in terms of security, cost and power consumption. In this study, a new security system design for securing GSM messaging with a lightweight PRINCE algorithm Intellectual Property (IP) Core using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) is proposed. An energy and cost-efficient implementation of PRINCE algorithm implemented in an environment of a microprocessor system using XILINX FPGA board is developed. A complete microprocessor system is designed consisting of MicroBlaze processor, memory, serial communication and a PRINCE IP Core that can be contained in a single XILINX VIRTEX chip. The system can cipher the data using PRINCE algorithm on a VIRTEX-403 FPGA evaluation board and using GSM modems to communicate over a cellular network. Results show that the proposed design achieves a high speed of 31.765 MHz with a throughput of 2.032 Gbps at a low power consumption of 0.165 W and an efficiency of 2.126 Mbps per slice.