Conference Link: http://www.ictrs.org/

Foreword: Bringing together telecommunications (through areas, such as radio communications and signal processing) and remote sensing (through areas, such as pattern recognition and context awareness), and enriching this with eHealth-related topics, is characterizing ICTRS 2015 – the Fourth International Conference on Telecommunications and Remote Sensing. This book contains the proceedings of ICTRS 2015, held in Rhodes, Greece, on 17-18 September 2015. The proceedings consists of 19 high-quality research and experience papers that have not been published previously. Those papers have undergone a detailed peer-review process and were selected based on rigorous quality standards. Since 2012, we have enjoyed three successful ICTRS editions, namely: Sofia 2012, Noordwijkerhout 2013, and Luxembourg 2014, and this is mainly thanks to Prof. D.Sc. Blagovest Shishkov who inspired and led this conference, being its spiritual father. It is with great pain and sorrow that we mention the unexpected decease of Blagovest Shishkov at the age of 77. Our memory of him as a respected person as well as a great scientist will remain vivid. An inspiring person of a brilliant mind, he also always impressed with his honesty and modesty. Always devoted to his family, he was a loving husband and a caring, wonderful father of two sons. He was a great friend and an excellent team-mate. Blagovest’s work on telecommunications was remarkable, marked by impressive achievements and career. Graduating with honors secondary school in his home town – Topolovgrad, situated in South Bulgaria, he moved to Sofia to study electrical engineering at the Technical University. He got his MSc in 1961. This was followed by inspiring research activities related to noise detection, at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electronics. In 1974 Blagovest earned a Doctorate (PhD) in Physics (exploring the noise processes in receiving visual information) and in 1991 he got his D.Sc. degree in telecommunications (exploring the optimal statistical synthesis of information systems within a-priori undetermination). From 1994, Blagovest was Full Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Technical University of Sofia and after his retirement in 2003, he was Emeritus Full Professor of Statistical Signal Processing at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. Blagovest published over 100 scientific and professional articles and several books, many of which touching upon signals transmission (signals, filtering, and detection) and especially asymptotic methods in parameter estimation, signal detection and identification, pattern recognition and data quantization. His last work was related to signal processing of cyclostationary signals and detecting and studying of nonlinear wave interactions by using higher-order statistics. Both areas have been successfully incorporated into adaptive antenna beamforming and analysis of time series associated with space data. Some of his last research was devoted to mathematical modeling and optimization of the sidelobe level of large antenna arrays toward SPS/MPT applications. Blagovest created a variety of algorithms applicable to telecommunications, radar, remote sensing systems, space research, biomedical systems, and so on. Asymptotic algorithms for detection and estimation of weak signals on a background of noise are to be especially mentioned as well, together with new algorithms in adaptive antennas and space data analysis. He will be missed by everybody who had the privilege of knowing him, and we are honored to dedicate our work on furthering ICTRS to the memory of Blagovest! Further, we are especially grateful to our EHST Colleagues who contributed interesting eHealth-related papers to the Special Session on eHealth Services and Technologies (EHST), reflecting possible applications of telecommunications, remote sensing, (context-aware) information systems, and IT in general, in resolving problems and addressing challenges relevant to a domain of high societal importance, such as Health-care. ICTRS 2015 was organized and sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Institute for Collaboration and Research on Enterprise Systems and Technology (IICREST), being co-organized by the Association for Radio Systems and Intelligent Telecommunications (ARSIT) and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). Cooperating organizations were the BAS Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (IMI), the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority (BULATSA), and AMAKOTA Ltd. Further, the conference is performed under the auspices of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), covering topics relevant to the work in a number of URSI Commissions, namely commissions A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and K. Publisher of the current proceedings is SCITEPRESS. Besides printed proceedings we also deliver an electronic version – all presented papers will be made available on the SCITEPRESS Digital Library by November 2015. Furthermore, the authors of up to three selected papers presented at ICTRS 2015 will be invited to submit revised and extended versions of their papers to a special issue of the international journal Annals of Telecommunications. As it can be seen from the papers, ICTRS 2015 is addressing a large number of topics relevant to the areas of Telecommunications and Remote Sensing: Wireless Telecommunications and Radio Wave Propagation, Signal Detection and Signal Processing, Cognitive Radio and Context-Awareness, Radio Positioning and Localization, Data Transmission and Networking, Wireless Sensor Networks and Transmission Power, Surface Conductivity, Electromagnetic Radiation. This is complemented by the Special Session on e-Health Services and Technologies, addressing in turn topics, such as: Modeling of Hospital Processes and Data, Tele-Monitoring, Big Data and Machine Learning, Interoperability, Human-Computer Interaction, IT Products Usability, and also bringing forward practical experience on introducing e-Health services and technologies in Bulgaria, Burundi, and Turkey. This all allows for an inspiring interdisciplinary technical program that we hope will be interesting and stimulating for all participants. The high quality of the ICTRS 2015 program is enhanced by a keynote lecture, delivered by Dimitris Mitrakos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) who is a renowned expert in his field. The keynote speaker and some other ICTRS’15 / EHST’15 participants will take part in a panel discussion and also in other discussions stimulating community building and facilitating possible R&D project acquisition initiatives. Those special activities will definitely contribute to maintaining the event’s high quality. Organizing this interesting and successful conference required the dedicated efforts of many people. Firstly, we must thank the authors, whose research and development achievements are recorded here. Next, the program committee members each deserve credit for the diligent and rigorous peer-reviewing. Further, we would like to mention the excellent organization provided by the IICREST team, and especially Canka Petrova and Aglika Dikova plus the coorganizers, ARSIT and AUTH (supported by the logistics partner, AMAKOTA Ltd.) – the team did all the necessary work for delivering a stimulating and productive event, and we have to acknowledge also the inspiring support of our colleagues from Thessaloniki and our local partners in Rhodes, especially Vassilis Pappas. We are grateful to SCITEPRESS for their willingness to publish the current proceedings and we would like to especially mention Vitor Pedrosa with whom we collaborated excellently on the proceedings preparation. Last but not least, we thank the keynote speaker, Dimitris Mitrakos, for his invaluable contribution and for his taking the time to synthesize and deliver his talk. We wish you all an inspiring conference and an enjoyable stay in the beautiful Rhodes island. We look forward to seeing you next year in Milan, Italy, for the Fifth International Conference on Telecommunications and Remote Sensing (ICTRS 2016), details of which will be made available on http://www.ictrs.org. (More)

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