What's New @ IEEE in Signal Processing

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 9 SEPTEMBER 2001

CONTENTS:
1. New Signaling Option to Improve Power Ratio in OFDM Systems
2. IEEE Training Tools Special Offer Expires 31 October
3. Bluetooth-on-Chip May Cut Software Development Time
4. Mobile Phone Uses Dual-Band Decoding
5. New IEEE Compendium Focuses On Signaling and Routing
6. IEEE Email Aliases Block 35,000 Viruses in August
7. Call For Papers for New Biomedical Imaging Symposium
8. Growth of Electronic Services Drives 2002 Dues Increase
9. IEEE Spectrum Feature: "Teaching From a Clean Slate"
10. Telecommuting -- A View from the Trenches

WHAT'S NEW SPECIAL - 20% OFF SELECT IEEE PRODUCTS LISTED IN THIS ISSUE!
Look for the What's New Specials and ordering instructions below.

1. NEW SIGNALING OPTION TO IMPROVE POWER RATIO IN OFDM SYSTEMS
OFDM systems are used globally for wireless LANs, digital TV broadcasts and other applications. However the main drawback of OFDM systems is their high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). To decrease PAPR, designers either cut the signal (producing non-linearities and distortion) or operate it at a low power output, thereby decreasing its efficiency. Nokia researchers have found a possible solution to OFDM's high PAPR without compromising signal quality, while operating OFDMs at their maximum power: Partial-response signaling. www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010829S0035

MORE IN SIGNAL PROCESSING: FILTER IMPLEMENTATION RESOURCE NOW AVAILABLE
The recently published "Design and Analysis of Analog Filters: A Signal Processing Perspective," by L.D. Paarmann, focuses on signal processing/systems concepts and includes a discussion of filter implementation. Learn about Butterworth Filters, Chebyshev Type I & II Filters, Elliptic Filters, and Bessel Filters. A disc containing MATLAB functions, examples and exercise problems is also included. Now available from IEEE Fatbrain, an IEEE members-only site offering discounts on the most popular technology titles from the leading publishers in the field. www.ieee.org/ieeefatbrain (IEEE Web Account Required)

2. IEEE TRAINING TOOLS SPECIAL OFFER EXPIRES 31 OCTOBER
The IEEE offers education and training tools within the signal processing field. Selections include self-study courses on videos, CD-ROMs and multimedia packages, and books. These courses are perfect for learning at your own pace, and are suitable guides for classroom instruction. Many of these courses award Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The courses are available at a 15% discount for a limited time. For details go to shop.ieee.org/sigproc

3. BLUETOOTH-ON-CHIP MAY CUT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TIME
Bluetooth, one of the hot technologies in the communications world, may soon be implemented in appliances and electronics devices such as VCRs, thermostats and medical instruments. Rappore Technologies unveiled Bluetooth-on-Chip at the Intel Developer Forum on 27 August 2001. This technology preloads Bluetooth protocol stacks onto a controller which can be literally "dropped in" the particular appliance. The controller would work with the applianceâ€™s main microcontroller. This would save engineers the time it would have taken to install Bluetooth within the appliance itself. For more www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010829S0054

4. MOBILE PHONE USES DUAL-BAND DECODING
Sendo, an English mobile phone manufacturer, is releasing "Z100," a new multimedia, dual-band smart phone. The phone includes 65,000-color TFT display, a Java Virtual Machine, multimedia playback capabilities, WAP, HMTL 3.2, and Compact HTML, in the popular i-mode. Sendo teamed up with PacketVideo to develop software allowing the phone to perform enabling decoding, transmission and decoding services while recognizing and concealing transmission errors. Z100â€™s main benefit is the dual band it uses to decode -- the dual processor architecture features ARM7 and ARM9. To find out more on this dual band technology go to mwee.com/mwee_news/OEG20010828S0008

5. NEW IEEE COMPENDIUM FOCUSES ON SIGNALING AND ROUTING
"Optical Networking II: Analysis, Signaling and Routing, QoS, and Network Management: Selected Readings" brings you tutorial papers covering analysis of optical networks, signaling and routing, scalability, restoration, quality of service, control and management. This title is available at a discount for a limited time. shop.ieee.org/store/product.asp?prodno=SR119
***What's New Special - Use Code TIM for 20% discount - ordering instructions below***

INTELLIGENT AND MODEL-FREE TECHNIQUES DESCRIBED IN NEW BOOK "Intelligent Signal Processing" explores how ISP tools address the problems of practical neural systems, new signal data, and blind fuzzy approximators. This reference differs fundamentally from the classical approach to statistical signal processing by modeling the input-output behavior of a complex system through "intelligent" or "model-free" techniques, rather than relying on the shortcomings of a mathematical model. Information is extracted from incoming signal and noise data, making few assumptions about the statistical structure of signals and their environment. shop.ieee.org/store/product.asp?prodno=PC5860

6. IEEE EMAIL ALIASES BLOCK 35,000 VIRUSES IN AUGUST
It's been a busy season for computer viruses, and for antivirus software. IEEE's free Email Alias Service with virus scanning stopped over 35,000 viruses from being delivered to members in August. This is more than seven times the number of viruses detected in June. Don't let another virus infect your PC. IEEE members, sign up for your free email alias at eleccomm.ieee.org/personal-aliases.shtml

Viruses and other security issues make computer use a constant battle to protect yourself. But it's a battle you can win -- if you keep fighting. http://slate.msn.com/webhead/01-08-13/webhead.asp

7. CALL FOR PAPERS FOR NEW BIOMEDICAL IMAGING SYMPOSIUM
The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and the IEEE Signal Processing Society have joined forces with the NIH National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to bring together, through a new symposium, researchers and practitioners with different backgrounds -- but with a common interest in biological and medical imaging. The opening symposium, the 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Macro to Nano (ISBI), will take place in Washington D.C., 7-10 July 2002. To submit a paper for review, or for more information on ISBI 2002, go to www.biomedicalimaging.org

UPCOMING CONFERENCES OF RELATED INTEREST
IEEE 2001 Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing (MMSP) 3-5 October 2001 in Cannes, France mmsp01.eurecom.fr/
MMSP brings together researchers and developers in the signal processing, communications and computer fields, and to offer a forum for interaction.

IEEE International Conference in Image Processing (ICIP) 7-10 October 2001 in Thessaloniki, Greece icip01.ics.forth.gr/
ICIP is the premier forum for the presentation of technological advances and research results in the fields of theoretical, experimental, and applied image and video processing.

IEEE Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding Workshop (ASRU) 9-12 December 2001 in Trento, Italy asru01.itc.it/
Advanced Registration Deadline: 15 October 2001
ASRU is a workshop where students and researchers from academia and industry are stimulated to collaborate and discuss problems of common interest.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS JUST RELEASED: The Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) were released last month. Topics include audio & electroacoustics, design and implementation of DSP Systems, image and multidimensional signal processing, multimedia signal processing, neural networks for signal processing, and much more. http://shop.ieee.org/store/product.asp?prodno=CH37221
***What's New Special - Use Code TIM for 20% discount - ordering instructions below***

IEEE sponsors more than 300 technical conferences and workshops each year that highlight today's very latest technological advances. The IEEE ConferenceSearch Web site can pinpoint an IEEE conference that can help you with the work you are doing today. http://www.ieee.org/conferencesearch/

8. GROWTH OF ELECTRONIC SERVICES DRIVES 2002 DUES INCREASE
For the first time since 1996, the IEEE Board of Directors has approved an increase in membership dues. The Board voted at its July meeting to increase base member dues for the 2002 membership year by US$15 to US$101. The Board also approved a US$4 increase to the IEEE-USA assessment and a new Region 1 assessment of US$2.

According to IEEE President Joel Snyder, during the past five years the IEEE has experienced increased demand for electronic delivery of technical information and member services. The dues increase reflects the cost of the significant investment in Internet and Web applications. Among the electronic services the IEEE has launched in recent years are IEEE Xplore; the IEEE Job Site featuring IEEE e-Recruiter; the Personal Email Alias Service; the Online Catalog & Store; IEEE Spectrum Online; the What's New @ IEEE series of e-mail newsletters; and the online membership renewal.

"The challenge for the future," Snyder said, "is to continue to provide cost-effective products and services that better serve our members and help them to remain competitive in today's wired world." Learn more about the value of IEEE membership by visiting www.ieee.org/membervalue

9. IEEE SPECTRUM SPECIAL FEATURE: TEACHING FROM A CLEAN SLATE
With engineering enrollments falling drastically in the United States and other regions, engineers and educators are desperate for solutions. Educators are hoping that a number of innovative new undergraduate electrical engineering programs will reverse this trend. New methods being implemented include allowing students to help professors design their own curriculum, complementing technical competence with an understanding of societal issues and an increased focus on transforming theory into real-world products. For the complete IEEE Spectrum feature, visit www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/sep01/edu.html

10. TELECOMMUTING -- A VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES It's not for everyone, but it may be for you. Telecommuting can shave years of commuting time off your life -- but it can also present some new and less-than-desirable challenges. Read about the advantages and disadvantages from someone who is living the experience. From IEEE-USA Today's Engineer. www.todaysengineer.org/careerfocus/Aug01te/aug01features/telecommuting.html

***WHAT'S NEW SPECIAL - 20% OFF SELECT IEEE PRODUCTS LISTED IN THIS ISSUE!***
As a thank you to our WHAT'S NEW @ IEEE subscribers, the IEEE is offering a 20% discount on your purchase of any of the specially noted IEEE books, conference proceedings, videos, self-study courses, and CD-ROM tutorials listed in this newsletter. If ordering from the IEEE Online Catalog & Store shop.ieee.org, include the code TIM in the Special Instructions field at final checkout. Offer expires 31 December 2001. If ordering by phone, provide the code TIM to the customer service representative.

Terms & Conditions: Discount applicable only to items noted in this newsletter and only to orders placed directly with the IEEE; orders placed through resellers and IEEE Fatbrain are not eligible for the discount. Discount may not be applied to orders already placed.

WHAT'S NEW @ IEEE IN SIGNAL PROCESSING is a monthly, opt-in email update designed to provide you with the latest news regarding IEEE activities, industry trends, career development tips, and new IEEE product releases. We welcome your feedback on this service.
Managing Editor: John Platt j.platt@ieee.org
Editor: Debbie Bell d.c.bell@ieee.org

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