ISSUE
01 Research Trends on Radar Tracking of Moving Targets
Engineering Student Success Story 2
December 2008
Quarterly-Published Newsletter of THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING
Get Tuned
Dr Ioannis Kyriakides
Engineering Quote Engineers are not boring people, they just get excited about boring things!
Engineering Joke The Board of Trustees of a nearby University decides to test the Professors, to see if they really know their stuff. First they take a Math Professor and put him in a room. Now, the room contains a table and three metal spheres about the size of softballs. They tell him to do whatever he wants with the balls and the table in one hour. After an hour, he comes out and the Trustees look in and the balls are arranged in a triangle at the center of the table. Next, they give the same test to a Physics Professor. After an hour, they look in, and the balls are stacked one on top of the other in the center of the table. Finally, they give the test to an Engineering Professor. After an hour, they look in and one of the balls is broken, one is missing, and he's carrying the
This issue
When tracking with radar, the accurate estimation of the target's position and velocity requires accuracy in radar measurements. The factors that affect measurement accuracy are the noise introduced by the environment and the type and parameters of the waveform transmitted by the radar sensor. Each waveform that we choose to transmit is associated with an ambiguity function (AF). The AF is the result of the two dimensional cross-correlation of the signal with its time-delayed (shifted in time) and its Doppler-shifted (shifted in frequency) versions. The ambiguity function describes the ambiguity that exists in knowing both the position and the velocity of a target simultaneously (uncertainty principle). Different waveforms have different AF characteristics and are, thus, associated with different measurement accuracies. In general, the more highly peaked the AF is, the more accuracy we have in measuring position and velocity at the same time. Traditionally radar tracking uses linearly frequency modulated (LFM) waveforms. LFM's are associated with AF shapes as the one shown in Figure 1. A new type of waveform, however, the constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) waveform, is recently becoming popular as a radar signal. CAZAC waveforms have highly peaked AF's as the one shown in Figure 2. Comparing Figures 1 and 2, we observe that CAZAC waveforms have better delayDoppler accuracy than the traditionally used LFM waveforms.
third out in his lunchbox.
RFIDs for Healthcare Digital Television in Cyprus
Message from the Dean of the School
Figure 3 In order for a radar tracking system (see Figure 3) to estimate the target state the following steps are taken. First, a waveform is transmitted by the radar sensor. The waveform reflects from targets and returns to the radar sensor (see Figure 4) with a certain time-delay and Dopplershift. The time delay of the waveform is associated with the distance from the target to the radar sensor, while the Doppler shift is a function of the velocity of a target with respect to the radar sensor. Next, the radar processing unit takes two-dimensional crosscorrelations of the return signal with template signals at the radar system site with each of the template signals having a different time-delay and Doppler-shift. The magnitude of these crosscorrelations reveals which timedelays and Doppler-shifts are closer to the associated true target position and velocity. Finally, the radar tracking system calculates an estimate of the target state using the information on time-delay and Doppler-shift from the return signal. Currently, new types of waveforms and constructs, as well as schemes that adaptively choose waveform parameters in real time are being developed making radar tracking a very promising and exciting research topic.
Rouzet Agaiby received her Associate Degree in Computer Engineering from Intercollege (now University of Nicosia), Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1997, and her B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Kennedy Western University in Wyoming, U.S.A, in 1999. She then pursued professional certification in Microsoft software of the Windows 2000 family making her a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) within 2 years. Following that, she embarked on graduate studies at Newcastle University, U.K, where, having scored the highest average from about 120 students on the same course, she graduated with distinction in 2005 with an MSc in Communications and Signal Processing.
She won best poster and best presentation in two consecutive years at conferences held at the University. She has an article in the Journal of Applied Physics awaiting publication and is hoping to have more publications before concluding her PhD.
the University of Nicosia as the first issue of “Get Tuned” becomes a reality. This quarterly newsletter is addressed to students, faculty, and alumni of the Department of Engineering. It will be posted on the Department’s web site with the hope that alumni and friends of the Department will read it.
Through “Get Tuned” we will try to get the readers tuned to departmental activities and
technology within the interests of the Department faculty and students. We will also try to keep in touch with our alumni. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those colleagues who have given us hope by their contribution and by sharing their wisdom with us. At the same time, I would encourage all
contribute towards the preparation of the issues to come. Best of luck in this new undertaking.
46 Makedonitissas Avenue P.O. Box 24005 1700 Nicosia CYPRUS (+357) 22841500 phone (+357) 22357481 fax www.unic.ac.cy
Department of Engineering at
faculty and students to
Department of Engineering
Dr George Gregoriou Dean, School of Sciences Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 4
Radar Tracking of Targets
A new journey begins for the
advancements in science and This triggered her interest in research and so she started a doctoral degree in Semiconductor Nanotechnology at the same University where she is currently in her final year.
Student Success Stories
Radio Frequency Identification for Healthcare Dr Anastasis Polycarpou The Department of Engineering has been recently awarded research funding (€ 128,350) by the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF) to work for two years on the implementation of RFID technology along with Information Technology (IT) and Wireless Communications in the healthcare environment.
A well-defined subsection of a hospital will be equipped with a set of static (immobile) as well as mobile RFID readers interconnected through a wireless network that serves as bridge to the hospital database system and backhaul Information and Communication Technology infrastructure.
Hospitals and healthcare clinics around the world are using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to identify patients and medical personnel, track assets and surgical equipment, and even control/monitor inventory. RFID technology is used to ensure that patients receive quality health care by eliminating patient mix-ups, reduce running costs and unnecessary expenses, and improve efficiency and overall patient satisfaction. RFID is an emerging technology that uses radio frequency signals to communicate between the RFID tag and the RFID reader. The RFID tags are similar to barcodes which are encoded with a unique identification number; however, RFID tags require no direct contact or line-of-sight between the reader and the tag in order to read the encrypted information. The primary objective of hospitals and clinics is to introduce RFID technology, together with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), in their healthcare environment in order to improve quality of service to patients and reduce operational costs. This can be achieved by using RFID technology for a) inventory control and monitoring; b) tracking and locating of valuable medical equipment; c) identification and tracking of blood, specimen, organs, etc.; d) automatic identification of inhospital patients through the use of RFID wristbands; e) real-time access/update of patient's profile and medication records by medical staff. The direct benefits of adopting this technology in the healthcare sector include a) reduction of errors and patient mix-ups due to traditional paper-bound processes; b) real-time access and update of patient's medical profile; c) increased productivity and efficiency at workplace; d) better healthcare service to patients; e) fast and error-free identification of specimen and blood samples during laboratory work; f) item and equipment loss prevention; g) labour savings; h) automatic and accurate record of inventory.
Patients will wear low-cost, wristband RFID tags and medical personnel will be equipped with simple-to-use handheld terminals (e.g., RFID readers) able to rapidly receive and decode patient’s unique ID, wirelessly communicate with the medical record database, and quickly, securely and reliably retrieve patient’s information. In that way, medical staff will be able to avoid mistakes, perform the appropriate medical treatment and update accordingly each patient’s profile. Furthermore, the proposed network of RFID tags and readers, in combination with the rest of the wired and wireless infrastructure, will be able to provide real-time location service (RTLS) for pre-tagged patients and valuable medical equipment.