Hardware Implementation of Image Processing Algorithms

Digital image processing is done to improve the quality of images. The images are processed and enhanced in order to obtain the required information from it. It is an ever expanding field with a number of applications in medicine, space, art, meteorology, etc. Hardware implementation of digital image processing techniques is very commonly done using Verilog-HDL or VHDL gives a logical explanation of any circuit which can be further developed and tested. The main advantage of using HDLs is that any logical input can be simulated on FPGA (Hardware implementation).Application specific hardware implementation offers much greater speed than a software implementation.

Advancements in VLSI technology have made this hardware implementation an attractive, feasible and less time consuming task to undergo.  FPGA is one of the best technologies available for hardware design  because their structure is able to exploit spatial and temporal parallelism .FPGAs are ideal in many embedded systems applications because of their small size, low power consumption ,a number of input-output  ports and logic blocks. Also FPGAs are reprogrammable chips, hence are very versatile to be used.

Algorithms can be implemented in Verilog HDL using Xilinx ISE, MATLAB and MODEL SIM. Hardware implementation of Verilog codes provides us with the ability to verify the logical codes simulated using software. Hardware implementation helps in the co-simulation of the already simulated logic. It helps the designer to reformulate the algorithm.

It provides us an overlook of the way the respective logical circuit will work when brought to real life applications. Also, an idea of the market need of the circuit and how it will actually work, is provided by hardware implementation. The use of reconfigurable hardware to implement algorithms for image processing minimizes the time-to-market cost, provides prototyping and debugging.

Therefore, the reconfigurable devices like FPGA seem to be the ideal choice for implementation of image processing algorithms. SiliconMentor is a team with expertise in the fields both software implementation and hardware prototyping. The team focuses to provide a shared platform for the researchers and innovators by providing guidance in the specified areas.

Importance of Research Paper Publication in Your PhD Research

On internet you can find a million of research papers on different topics of the world. The topics can be related to different research areas such as Engineering, Science, arts or any other topic which can contribute in the advancement of the world in respective areas. Whenever a student enters in Second year or third year of their bachelor education, their mentors start to suggest them to publish their work. In the same scenario Master and PhD level students also publish research papers. Therefore the question arise why should we publish our research? This article is focused on importance of research paper publication in PhD and concludes pint wise the importance of research paper publication in PhD. PhD students usually begin their course to earn title ‘Dr’ in front of their name but after some time they realize that to earn a PhD degree they all need to publish more and more high quality research papers at national as well as international level.

This Research publication during PhD helps them in following ways:

•          Research paper publication is important if somebody wants to remain in academia after completion of the PhD.

•          Every university has their unique procedure to award PhD to their students. The usual process is to submit thesis but in some of the universities PhD students can submit few good quality published research papers instead of PhD thesis.

•          The high quality research papers during PhD helps recruiters to select the best PhD scholars for future academic or researcher position.

•          A high quality research paper helps PhD scholars to stand out from the group of ordinary researchers.

The importance of research paper publication can also be understood using an example. Let us suppose an academic or industrial organization want to test or measure the researcher reputation in national as well as international level for hiring or funding purpose. 

In that case the organization may pursue the following procedure.

•          The number of research papers and the quality.

•          The impact of research in terms of number of citations.

•          National and international level research papers.

•          National and international level research funding received.

There are many more factors for which a PhD scholar should publish a research paper anybody can explore it at Silicon Mentor.

Hardware Implementation of Cryptography techniques

When Julius Caesar sent information to his generals, he never believed his messengers. So he interchanges every A with a D, every B with an E, and so on through the alphabet in his message. Only authenticated person who knew the key could decipher his messages. By doing this only authenticated person could understand his message. This is somewhat called cryptography.

Cryptography: - Cryptography is a science and study of secret writing. It is a method in which data is stored and transmitted in a specific form so that only those for whom it is proposed can read and practice it. Following figure shows it in simple way.

                                    

                       

                                                                   Fig- Cryptography process

Plaintext- Original Data to be transmitted.

Ciphertext - Modified or encrypted data.

Cryptography key: - By using key, one can decrypt the ciphertext and get original data. Two types of key are there, public key and private key.

An overview of some cryptographic techniques is given below:-

1. RSA algorithm

RSA uses a public key and a private key. The public key is designed for everyone to encrypt a original data. The original data which is to be transmitted is encrypted using public key and by using private key it can be decoded in a reasonable amount of time. If a message M is transmitted than ciphertext would be

C=M^E mod n.

Where E is public key and n is product of two prime numbers.

2. RC4 algorithm

It is a stream cipher with byte oriented operations whose key size can be varied. Random permutations are used in this algorithm for encryption and decryption process. Length of the key can be in between 1 and 256 bytes to initialize a 256-byte state table. This state table is used to generate a sequence of pseudo random bytes and a stream. By xoring this stream with the plaintext, we get a ciphertext. Each and every element in the state table must be swapped at least once. Limitation of RC4 is that in every 256 keys there is one weak key. 

3. DES algorithm

Data Encryption Standard (DES) is a symmetric key algorithm that encrypt 64-bit blocks of plaintext into 64-bit of ciphertext by using 56-bit long keys. The encryption process completes in 16 rounds. DES encryption/decryption times are faster than those of RC4 encryption/decryption times.  DES is used to secure confidential information of smart cards and ciphering of images and so on.

4. 3DES algorithm

It is also Symmetric Key Algorithms. It is called Triple  DES(3DES) because it encrypts  original data  three times as compared to DES, first encrypted it with 56-bit key K by applying DES encryption and then applying DES decryption  with 56-bit key K2 final applying DES 56-bit key K1. Same operation takes place for Decryption but in reverse order.

5. IDEA algorithm

IDEA (international data encryption algorithm) operates on 64-bit blocks and uses a key of length 128-bit, and consists of a series of eight similar rounds or stages and a half output stage. Thus a total of 8 and half rounds are needed to encrypt message. IDEA is a much secure method of encryption because of its different operations such as- modular addition and multiplication, and bitwise exclusive OR (XOR) — which are algebraically incompatible in some manner. It used in steganography and other applications.

6. AES algorithm

AES is Symmetric Key Algorithms. Three different keys of different sizes can be used in this algorithm such as: 128, 192, or 256 bits long keys. If we use 128 bit key than 10 rounds are needed for encryption, if 192-bit key is used than 12 rounds needed, and for 256-bit keys, 14 rounds needed. AES is more protected than DES and 3DES, as this algorithm uses longer length key. AES provides faster encryption than DES and 3DES, and this feature of AES makes it ideal for software applications and those of hardware which require low-latency or high throughput.

7. Blowfish algorithm

Blowfish is a symmetric block cipher just like DES or IDEA. It takes a variable-length key. It’s key length could be in between 32 to 448 bits. It is designed such as it is a speedy alternative to that of existing cryptographic algorithms.

Comparison in terms of encryption time(TE), decryption time(TD) and total time(TT) as per literature survey

                       

                               

Comparison of encryption algorithms on the bases of hardware implementation as per the literature survey