A New Fault Injection Approach to Study
the Impact of Bitflips in the Configuration
of SRAM-Based FPGAs

Abstract: A new method for injecting faults in the configuration bits of SRAM-based FPGAs is proposed. The main advantages over previous methods are its ability to simultaneously inject several faults or bit-flips in the FPGA by “pipelining” the fault injection process. The design to be tested is divided into modules. The first step in the fault injection technique would be inserting one fault in each of the modules and observing the potential misbehavior of these modules. In the second step the effects on the whole system of the misbehavior of the module are independently evaluated. Using this technique makes possible to inject several faults when reconfiguring the FPGA with the faulty bitstream, while other techniques were able to insert only one fault on each reconfiguration. Thus the speed in which faults are injected is significantly increased and the time needed to conduct the experiment is shortened. A simulation is described to validate the new fault injection process.

Keywords: FPGA, Fault injection techniques, SEU, and fault tolerance.

Received November 20, 2008; accepted May 17, 2009

GUI Structural Metrics

Abstract: User interfaces have special characteristics that differentiate them from the rest of the software code. Typical oftware metrics that indicate its complexity and quality may not be able to distinguish a complex GUI or a high quality one rom another that is not. This paper is about suggesting and introducing some GUI structural metrics that can be gathered ynamically using a test automation tool. Rather than measuring quality or usability, the goal of those developed metrics is to easure the GUI testability, or how much it is hard, or easy to test a particular user interface. We evaluate GUIs for several easons such as usability and testability. In usability, users evaluate a particular user interface for how much easy, convenient, and fast it is to deal with it. In our testability evaluation, we want to automate the process of measuring the complexity of the user interface from testing perspectives. Such metrics can be used as a tool to estimate required resources to test a particular application.

Keywords: Layout complexity, GUI metrics, and interface usability.

Received July 14, 2009; accepted August 3, 2009

A Survey of High-Level Programming
Languages in Control Systems

Abstract: This paper explains how advanced programming language concepts can be used to increase the readability and imaintainability of control process software. The programming language concepts presented in this paper are: function pointers, variable argument functions and three concepts related to object-oriented programming: polymorphism, relationship of composition between classes and class methods. The advantage of every one of these concepts is demonstrated by using control applications. The paper also demonstrates that intelligent control algorithms can be improved by using these concepts.C and C++ programming languages are used to implement the code of the control systems.

Keywords: Kalman filter, intelligent control, adaptive control systems, polymorphism, function pointers, and object-oriented programming.

Received March 6, 2009; accepted November 5, 2009

An RFID-Based Validation System for Halal Food

Abstract: In recent years, Muslims have depended on the Halal logo, displayed on food packaging, to indicate that the products are prepared according to Halal precepts. As laid out in the Quran, Halal designates that which is lawful and permitted. However, due to the rapid development of advanced technology and the stringent procedures legislated by the Department of Islamic Development in Malaysia, manufacturers may sometimes resort to fabricating a fake logo to attract Muslim consumers. This study is focused on validating Halal status for food products by using radio frequency identification technology to enhance existing methods in Malaysia. A preliminary survey was carried out to evaluate the industry’s readiness to implement radio frequency identification technology in Malaysia. A process model and prototype were developed to enhance existing systems. Through this new approach, the authentic Halal logo that is issued by JAKIM can easily be validated, because every stamp that will be embedded into food packages is identified with its own unique identification number. An radio frequency identification reader will be placed in retail venues for consumers to validate their food’s Halal status. User evaluation has been conducted to measure satisfaction in terms of usability, efficiency, security, affordability and profitability. Based on the evaluation, all respondents are satisfied with the performance of this new technology and fully support implementing this system globally, as the Malaysian government is now moving towards becoming the world’s Halal hub.

Keywords: Radio frequency identification, automatic identification, food industry, acceptance, and Malaysia.

Received June 10, 2009; accepted January 3, 2010

Speech Segmentation in Synthesized Speech
Morphing Using Pitch Shifting

Abstract: This paper discusses the speech morphing process showing some limitations of using the directly obtained LPC and excitation parameters of speech. The algorithm here depends on changing the pitch of the source to match that of the target based on analyzing the speech signals to its basic components. Different experiments for changing the female to female, male to male, male to female and female to male speech were performed. Interesting results were obtained while dealing with children's speech. Difficulties of obtaining the pitch period were overcome but the obtained results have some diversity in the quality of performance even though the pitch has been changed correctly. The method for obtaining LPC and excitation used could be improved which could provide better results for this application.

Keywords: Speech morphing, linear prediction, pitch detection, and speech synthesis.

Build Electronic Arabic Lexicon

Keywords: Arabic lexicon, hash function, Al Farahidy, dictionary, and search engine.

Received October 6, 2008; accepted May 17, 2009

Evaluation for Diaphragm’s Deflection for Touch
Mode MEMS Pressure Sensors

Keywords: MEMS, Touch mode, capacitive pressure sensor; harsh environment, FEA, and circular diaphragm.

Received October 27, 2008; accepted May 17, 2009

An Ontology-based Semantic Extraction
Approach for B2C eCommerce

Keywords: Semantic correspondence, ontology, and schema.

Received November 28, 2008; accepted May 17, 2009

Multilayer Model for Arabic Text Compression

Keywords: Text compression, morphological analysis, multilayer based compression, word lexical form, word based compression, and Arabic language.

Received March 12, 2009; accepted November 5, 2009

Blocked-Based Sparse Matrix-Vector
Multiplication on Distributed
Memory Parallel Computers

Hi-Tech Authentication for Palette Images Using
Digital Signature and Data Hiding

Data Hiding Based on Contrast Mapping
Using DNA Medium

Improving the Accuracy of English-Arabic
Statistical Sentence Alignment

Extended Average Magnitude Difference
Function Based Pitch Detection

An End-to-End Support for Short-Lived TCP
Flows in Heterogeneous Wired-cum-Wireless
Networks: An Analytical Study