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"If you want to establish communication in a building--you don't
want interference from outside the building," said Dr. Amir
Zaghloul, an electrical and computer engineering professor. "You want
to collect only the signals from the building--and the Range Limited
Antenna (RLA) project will do that."
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An ARI project aims to track signals within a specified area.
The Range Limited Antenna (RLA) project, a collaboration between the Alexandria Research Institute (ARI) and the George Washington University (GWU), strives to create a system to pinpoint and identify emitters, such as cell phones, walkie-talkies and pagers within a given area.
“To track an RF emitter, which could be a cell phone or a pager, within a short range, requires specific, detailed prior knowledge of the RF signal being emitted for extremely accurate tracking,” said Zarak Khan, an electrical and computer-engineering master’s student who is working on the RLA project. “In high security areas, detailed information is not always available. The RLA project makes it possible to obtain detailed information from an emitter such as frequency, range and angle. This information is then used with direction-finding algorithms to locate the exact position of the emitter.”
Funded by the LUCITE program, a Washington area university consortium, the RLA project uses a patch antenna array, or a collection of antennas that work as one system. The patch antenna is a flat, multi-layered printed circuit with dielectric material, and is more robust than many other antennas. The patches are printed on a substrate—a special kind of insulation that keeps the antenna in place, and gives the antenna the desired radiation characteristics.
The patches are connected through specified hardware such as phase shifters, mixers, filters and transmission cables, which are in turn are linked to a computer that works using direction-finding algorithms to calculate the range and angle of the emitter being tracked.
By adjusting the elevation angle, the array offers the added feature of tracking cell phones on different levels of ground.
“It makes the whole process very feasible for practical implementation,” Khan said.
The figure to the left represents one part of the antenna array. The figure below shows two antenna arrays brought together into one system held together by tripod mounts to give the required support. The bases of these tripods are web-shaped roof sleds that give the whole structure support in out-door conditions.
Researchers working on the project at the Alexandria Research Institute include, Dr. Amir Zaghloul, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and master’s students Zarak Khan and Kunal Parikh. Professor Wasyl Wasylkiwskyj of the George Washington University leads the project. Other participants from GWU are Dr. Ivica Kopriva and PhD student Hossam
Abdallah.
For more information, please contact Amir Zaghloul,
Zarak Khan or
Kunal Parikh.
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Yao Liang, an electrical and engineering assistant professor at ARI, has recently been elected a member of IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Committee on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP-TC) at its annual workshop in Toulouse, France.
“I am very pleased to see that my work on neural networks has been recognized by colleagues in this area,” said Liang. “I also want to thank Dr. Joseph Wang for his nomination. Dr. Wang is in his second term on the same technical committee.”
The IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Committee on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP-TC) was formerly the NNSP Technical Committee. The purpose of the MLSP-TC is to promote the advancement of machine learning signal processing technology.
Some of the responsibilities for the position include reviewing technical papers for IEEE international conferences in signal processing, and participating and volunteering in organization activities of the IEEE Workshop on Neural Network for Signal Processing.
“One of the benefits of being a member is working at the cutting-edge of an area…another is having opportunities to interact with many experts in a world-wide area,” Liang said.
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