COBRA Annual Report 2007 - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

modulation, network coding, adaptation,
equalization, timing recovery, and detection
techniques. Systems-oriented work demonstrates
these techniques in optical storage and wireless
and optical transmission. Commercial impact is
evidenced by many patents.
For optical storage we developed backwards
compatible techniques for future 4 th generation
systems, e.g. for near-minimum-bit-error rate
adaptation [3], 2-dimensional intersymbol
interference cancellation, and characterization of
mixtures of modulation noise and additive noise.
We also developed bit-detection techniques that
optimally handle these mixtures and that use
parity-check codes for significant performance
improvements. In the context of our new Center
for Wireless Technology Eindhoven, we reported
the world’s first MIMO channel characterization
techniques in the so-called angular domain, which
admits a simple ray-tracing-like view of the link
between transmit and receive antennas. With
Philips Research we developed innovative agile
transmission strategies that exploit the basic
channel state information that is available in
modern communication standards.
Medical signal processing
This research deals with medical monitoring and
decision-support techniques. It aims at improving
diagnostic capabilities, at reducing risk to the
patient, and at lowering complexity and cost.
Scientifically it focuses on simple dynamic models
of physiology, on efficient parameter-estimation
for these models, on robust spatiotemporal signal
processing in highly nonstationary settings. Crossappointments
ensure a close collaboration with
strategic partners.
Our award-winning cardiovascular quantification
techniques were clinically validated and refined
[4], and were extended to new pathologies (e.g.
prostate cancer) and to the MRI imaging modality.
Our work on fetal monitoring, with the Maxima
Medical Center, has led to a new standard for
suppression of the maternal electrocardioagram,
to an award-winning non-invasive technique
for assessment of intra-uterine pressure
that may replace invasive techniques, to the
word’s first contactless registration of the fetal
electrocardiogram via capacitive electrodes (with
Philips Research), and to a prototype system for
clinical validation of these techniques. Our work on
neurometry has led to a breakthrough in correction
of eye-movement artifacts, by using a camera as
a basis for correction, bringing the ideal of singletrial
analysis a significant step closer [5].
Key publications
1 M.J. Bastiaans and T. Alieva, ‘Classification of
lossless first-order optical systems and the linear
canonical transformation’, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 24,
2007, pp. 1053-1062.
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