In this paper, a robust watermarking algorithm using balanced multiwavelet transform is proposed. The latter transform achieves simultaneous orthogonality and symmetry without requiring any input prefiltering. Therefore, considerable reduction in computational complexity is possible, making this transform a good candidate for real-time watermarking implementations such as audio broadcast monitoring and DVD video watermarking. The embedding scheme is image adaptive using a modified version of a well-established perceptual model. Therefore, the strength of the embedded watermark is controlled according to the local properties of the host image. This has been achieved by the proposed perceptual model, which is only dependent on the image activity and is not dependent on the multifilter sets used, unlike those developed for scalar wavelets. This adaptivity is a key factor for achieving the imperceptibility requirement often encountered in watermarking applications. In addition, the watermark embedding scheme is based on the principles of spread-spectrum communications to achieve higher watermark robustness. The optimal bounds for the embedding capacity are derived using a statistical model for balanced multiwavelet coefficients of the host image. The statistical model is based on a generalized Gaussian distribution. Limits of data hiding capacity clearly show that balanced multiwavelets provide higher watermarking rates. This increase could also be exploited as a side channel for embedding watermark synchronization recovery data. Finally, the analytical expressions are contrasted with experimental results where the robustness of the proposed watermarking system is evaluated against standard watermarking attacks.

Recent advances in wireless technology and computing have paved the way to the unprecedented rapid growth in de- mand and availability of mobile networking and services coupled with diverse system/network applications. Such advances triggered the emergence of future generation wireless networks and services to address the increasingly strin- gent requirements of quality-of-service (QoS) at various levels. The expected growth in wireless network activity and the number of wireless users will enable similar growth in bandwidth-crunching wireless applications to meet the QoS requirements. Mobility prediction of wireless users and units plays a major role in efficient planning and manage- ment of the bandwidth resources available in wireless networks. In return, this efficiency will allow better planning and improved overall QoS in terms of continuous service availability and efficient power management. In this paper, we propose extreme learning machines (ELMs), known for universal approximation, to model and predict mobility of arbitrary nodes in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). MANETs use mobility prediction in location-aided routing and mobility aware topology control protocols. In these protocols, each mobile node is assumed to know its current mobility information (position, speed and movement direction angle). In this way, future node positions are predicted along with future distances between neighboring nodes. Unlike multilayer perceptrons (MLPs), ELMs capture better the existing interaction/correlation between the cartesian coordinates of the arbitrary nodes leading to more realistic and accurate mobility prediction based on several standard mobility models. Simulation results using standard mobility models illustrate how the proposed prediction method can lead to a significant improvement over conventional methods based on MLPs. Moreover, the proposed solution circumvents the prediction accuracy limitations in current algorithms when predicting future distances between neighboring nodes. The latter prediction is required by some applications like mobility aware topology control protocols

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with computer vision capabilities have been widely utilized in several remote sensing applications, such as precision agriculture, environmental monitoring, and surveillance. However, the commercial usage of these UAVs in such applications is mostly performed manually, with humans being responsible for data observation or offline processing after data collection due to the lack of on board AI on edge. Other technical methods rely on the cloud computation offloading of AI applications, where inference is conducted on video streams, which can be unscalable and infeasible due to remote cloud servers’ limited connectivity and high latency. To overcome these issues, this paper presents a new approach to using edge computing in drones to enable the processing of extensive AI tasks onboard UAVs for remote sensing. We propose a cloud–edge hybrid system architecture where the edge is responsible for processing AI tasks and the cloud is responsible for data storage, manipulation, and visualization. We designed AERO, a UAV brain system with onboard AI capability using GPU-enabled edge devices. AERO is a novel multi-stage deep learning module that combines object detection (YOLOv4 and YOLOv7) and tracking (DeepSort) with TensorRT accelerators to capture objects of interest with high accuracy and transmit data to the cloud in real time without redundancy. AERO processes the detected objects over multiple consecutive frames to maximize detection accuracy. The experiments show a reduced false positive rate (0.7%), a low percentage of tracking identity switches (1.6%), and an average inference speed of 15.5 FPS on a Jetson Xavier AGX edge device.