What's New @ IEEE in Signal Processing, February 2006

2. RADAR ON THE SCOPE OF "SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE" SPECIAL ISSUE

The latest issue of "IEEE Signal Processing Magazine" (v. 23, no. 1) includes a feature section on knowledge-based systems for adaptive radars. Topics covered include Knowledge-based systems for adaptive radar, cognitive radar, space-time adaptive processing as well as several others. The table of contents and abstracts for all articles are available online, where subscribers may also access the full text of all papers: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=33529

Also now online, the latest issue of "IEEE Signal Processing Letters" (v. 13, no. 3), covering signal modification for ADPCM based on analysis-by-synthesis framework, a new gradient search interpretation of super-exponential algorithms among other topics: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=33543

7. AIMING FOR MORE ACCURATE FISH POPULATION COUNTS
Many environmentalists and scientists believe the world's fish populations are shrinking, and new developments in signal processing technology seek to arm researchers with techniques that provide more accurate fish population data. Off the coast of Monterey, California, USA, a team of scientists demonstrated a new sonar technique to detect squid egg clusters in the ocean's depths. By towing a sidescan sonar with the California State University Seafloor Mapping Lab's research vessel, the team was able to conduct experiments that tested various ways to tune sound wave frequencies. After signals were drawn out, the sound data was translated into sonar images in the form of seafloor maps which displayed where egg clusters could be found, providing a portrayal of future populations. Meanwhile, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a remote sensor system that allows scientists to monitor large fish populations over a 10,000-square-kilometer area. While old surveying methods provide a smaller amount of data with high-frequency sonar beams, this new system employs low-frequency sonar beams that can travel farther distances, bringing data back in sharper detail through less intense signals. Read more about these developments:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/miot-oft013006.php
& http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/whoi-nsm020706.php

10. WORLD'S FASTEST CAMERA TO CATCH TRACES OF ELUSIVE PARTICLE
The Regional Calorimeter Trigger, the world's fastest image processor, can analyze a billion proton collisions per second, according to its developers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and will be used in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, to capture traces of the subatomic Higgs-Boson. The US$6 million device is composed of integrated circuits on 300 parallel processing computer cards, researchers say, creating a massive image processor capable of analyzing one trillion bits of data per second. The Higgs-Boson is one of the particles researchers say is necessary to complete the standard model of physics, the evidence for which has been sought for 20 years. When protons crash in a collider the event lasts no more than two-billionths of second, according to researchers. Read more:
http://www.physorg.com/news10589.html
and http://www.primidi.com/2006/02/08.html#a1436