IPUS: an architecture for integrated signal processing and signal interpretation in complex environments

Abstract

This paper presents the IPUS (Integrated Processing and Understanding of Signals) architecture to address the traditional perceptual paradigm's shortcomings in complex environments. It has two premises: (1) the search for correct interpretations of signal processing algorithms' (SPAs) outputs requires concurrent search for SPAs and control parameters appropriate for the environment, and (2) interaction between these search processes must be structured by a formal theory of how inappropriate SPA usage can distort SPA output. We describe IPUS's key components (discrepancy detection, diagnosis, reprocessing, and differential diagnosis) and their instantiation in an acoustic interpretation system. This application, along with another in the radar domain, supports our claim that the IPUS paradigm is feasible and generic. Introduction In traditional knowledge-based perceptual systems [8, 17], numeric signal processing is fixed, and interpretation processes are limited to an...