Seeing with sound - Blast from the past

In a recent restructuring at the University of Northampton both the areas of Computing and Engineering joined the larger Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology (FAST). This is not the first time though that the computing technology has used by members the University's computing or engineering staff to provide social benefit, but with links to areas of visual and audio creativity .

In June 2000 Michael Capp, under the supervision of Professors Phil Picton and Jackie Campbell, completed his PhD  "Alternatives Approaches to Optophonic Mappings" 

Abstract
This thesis presents a number of modifications to a blind aid, known as the video optophone, which enables a blind user to more readily interpret their local environment for enhanced mobility and navigation. Versions o f this form of blind aid are generally both difficult to use and interpret, and are therefore inadequate for safe mobility. The reason for this severe problem lies in the complexity and excessive bandwidth of the optophonic output after the conversion from scene-to-sound. 

The work herein describes a number of modifications that can be applied to the current optophonic process to make more efficient use of the limited bandwidth provided by the auditory system when converting scene images to sound. Various image processing and stereo techniques have been employed to artificially emulate the human visual system through the use o f depth maps that successfully fade out the quantity o f relatively unimportant image features, whilst emphasising the more significant regions such as nearby obstacles. 

A series of experiments were designed to test these various modifications to the optophonic mapping by studying important factors of mobility and subject response whilst going about everyday life. The devised system, labelled DeLIA for the Detection, Location, Identification, and Avoidance (or Action) of obstacles, provided a means for gathering statistical data on users’ interpretation of the optophonic output. An analysis o f this data demonstrated a significant improvement when using the stereo cartooning technique, developed as part of this work, over the more conventional plain image as an input to an optophonic mapping from scene-to-sound. Lastly, conclusions were drawn from the results, which indicated that the use of a stereo depth map as an input to a video optophone would improve its usefulness as an aid to general mobility. For the purposes of detecting and determining text or similar detail, either a plain unmodified image or some form of edge (depth) image were found to produce the best results.

Published Outputs
[CapPicOOa] - Capp, M. and Picton, P., (Feb.-Mar. 2000). ‘Fast, Low Resolution Edge Depth Maps and their Application to a Blind Mobility Aid’, International Conference on Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition and Image Processing, Atlantic City, USA, C V P R IP -12, pp. 248-251. 
[CapPicOOb] - Capp, M., & Picton, P., (Jun. 2000). “The Optophone: an Electronic Blind Aid.” Engineering Science and Education Journal, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 137-143. 
[CapPicOOc] - Capp, M. & Picton, P., (Aug. 2000). ‘An investigation into stereo vision as a modification to optophonic mappings from scene-to-sound.’ l0th International Mobility Conference, Warwick, 4th-7th Aug. 2000. 
[CapPicOOd] - Capp, M. & Picton, P., ‘Relaying Scene Information to the Blind via Sound using Cartoon Depth Maps.’ - Vision, Image and Signal Processing, 2000.




To find out more contact Phil Picton phil.picton@northampton.ac.uk


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

6th Form students working with professional scientists - University of Northampton

Taken from: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/sixth-form-students-spend-their-summer-holidays-working-with-professional-scientists-at-the-university-of-northampton

Sixth Form students spend their summer holidays working with professional scientists at the University of Northampton

• Thursday 22nd August 2013
  Sixth Form students have had the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists at the University of Northampton on a research project as part of the Nuffield Research Placements programme.  
  
  
  The six students were from schools across the county and spent six weeks at the University’s School of Science and Technology, gaining hands-on experience and a valuable insight into a professional research environment. The University has been actively involved with this programme for several years and it is part of the School of Science and Technology’s larger commitment to outreach.
  
  
  The participants included Sheldon Kawonga from Kettering Science Academy, Emmanuel Hlouverakis and Hafiz Alaraf both from The Duston School, Agota Geciauskaite from Malcolm Arnold Academy, James Adams from The Northampton Academy and Phillipa Hawkley from Brooke Weston Academy. All were invited to give presentations on their individual projects, which varied from building a mobile device app to investigating the sensitivity of magnetic particle inspection technique.
  
  
  Nuffield Research Placements provides 1,000 students each year with the opportunity to work alongside professionals in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) sector. The programme is open to students on the first year of a post-16 STEM course and placements are available across the UK in universities, commercial companies, voluntary organisations and research institutions.
  
  
  One of the students, Phillipa Hawkley, said:  “I found this experience to be really good as we got to use facilities that we don’t have at school and the chance to use this software puts us above others our age and will really help with university applications.”
  
  
  James Adams said: “It’s been a good experience, especially from a software developer’s point of view, as I’ve never had the experience of developing something based on someone else’s specifications.”
  
  
  Dr Abdeldjalil Bennecer, Senior Lecturer in Engineering at the University of Northampton commented: “The sixth form students are about to enter the second year of their A-levels and have spent six weeks over the summer with us working on individual projects.
  
  
  We held interviews with each student and the ones we offered places to were the brightest in their class and expressed an interest in STEM subjects at university level. We tailored the project briefs to suit their interests.
  
  
  It's been a beneficial few weeks for these students and we have thoroughly enjoyed working with them and giving them the ultimate experience of working with professional scientists."
  
  
  Related links:
  
  

  Nuffield Bursary student 1 - Web sustainability

  Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 16 - Modelling and tying up loose ends!

  Junkbots - Nuffield Bursary Placement: Day 15 - Designing the Programming Project

  Robots, junk and 3D 

  
  
  
  

Machine to Machine Communication

The following paper is to be presented at Global Interactions, Annual Research Conference 2013 Postgraduate Research Degree Students and Early Career Researchers. University of Northampton 27th June 2013.

Compressive Sensing of Machine to Machine Communication Terminals as a Means of Enhancing their Energy Efficiencies (M2M Green Communications).

Sylvester Ajah 

School of Science and Technology, 

Computing and Immersive Technology Division

Abstract
Energy efficiency of the machine to machine (M2M) communications terminals is one of the major design goals of the M2M networks, going by the fact that there are over 50 billion of M2M communication devices to be deployed into the network by year 2020. The stakeholders in the M2M communications have observed that it will be environmental and economic catastrophic to deploy M2M communication terminals without solving the energy inefficiencies associated with wireless devices that are expected be used for M2M communications.

This research will examine compressive sensing of machine to machine communication terminals in collaboration with energy synchronisation techniques as the means for actualizing the over a decade life span of M2M communication terminals.


Supervisors
Dr Ali Al-Sherbaz
Prof. Phil Picton
Dr Scott Turner

image analysis of leather

A paper has recently been published with Dr Malcolm Wilson, (Department of Computing and Immersive Technology, School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton ) and Professor Phil Picton (School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton ) as co-authors on image analysis of leather.

Saqib Kabeer, Geoff Attenburrow ,Phil Picton , Malcolm Wilson (2013)

Development of an image analysis technique for measurement of Poisson’s ratio for viscoelastic materials: application to leather.

J Mater Sci (2013) 48:744–749

DOI 10.1007/s10853-012-6789-0

Abstract

The application of a computerised image analysis system to simultaneously measure longitudinal and axial strain in naturally available anisotropic-viscoelastic material like leather is described. The results are used to calculate Poisson’s ratio and indicate that this parameter varies with position and orientation on the hide and depends on the degree of pre-existing fibre orientation.The origins of this dependency can be explained by a simple microstructural model. The practical implication of the findings for detecting lines of tightness maximum fibre’s orientation) is discussed.

The full paper can be found at: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10853-012-6789-0 

evoked potentials, wavelets and evolutionary algorithms

Extraction of short-latency evoked potentials using a combination of wavelets and evolutionary algorithms

S Turner 

P Picton, 

J Campbell

Medical Engineering and Physics

Volume 25, Issue 5, J, Pages 407–412

Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1350453303000213

Abstract

Somatosensory evoked potentials, recorded at the spine or scalp of a patient, are contaminated by noise. It is common practice to use ensemble averaging to remove the noise, which usually requires a large number of responses to produce one averaged signal. In this paper a post-processing technique is shown which uses a combination of wavelets and evolutionary algorithms to produce a representative waveform with fewer responses. The most suitable wavelets and a set of weights are selected by an evolutionary algorithm to form a filter bank, which enhances the extraction of evoked potentials from noisy recordings.

Selecting Potentials Filter Banks to Enhance Evoked Recordings Using Evolutionary Algorithms

S. J. Turner, P. D. Picton and J. A. Campbell

Abstract

Evoked Potentials are electrical Signals produced by the body in response to a Stimulus. In general these Signals are noisy with a low Signal to noise ratio. In this Paper a method is proposed that uses sets of filters, whose tut-off frequencies are selected by an evolutionary algorithm. An evolutionary algorithm was investigated to limit the assumptions that were made about the Signals. The set of filters separately filter the evoked Potentials, and are combined as a weighted sum of the filter Outputs. The evolutionary algorithm also selects the weights. Inputs to the filters are sets of averaged Signal, 4 or 10 Signals per average. Even though there is likely to be variations between the Signals, this process tan improve the extraction of Potentials.

Paper is available: http://www.springerlink.com/content/t107316042353960/

Computational Model of Acute Pain

A Computational Model of Acute Pain 
Karen Prince, Jackie Campbell, Phil Picton, Scott Turner 

Paper available at: http://ducati.doc.ntu.ac.uk/uksim/journal/Vol-6/No.9/Paper1.pdf


Abstract: In 1965 Melzack and Wall proposed the influential gate control theory of pain.  This theory postulates that the substantia gelatinosa, located within the spinal cord, acts like a gating mechanism, which modulates the flow of information through the spinal cord to the brain and thus impacts on the pain experience. Subsequent research has, in general, supported this theory.  The explicitness of the theory and its well-defined architecture was translated into a mathematical model by Britton and Skevington in 1996.  However, the use of such modelling has been very limited in the field of pain.  

The fact that pain is still relatively a poorly understood phenomenon despite the abundance of literature that is available and because of the difficulty in obtaining some experimental data, suggest that it is an ideal candidate for mathematical modelling.  This paper successfully replicates the mathematical model as presented by Britton and Skevington.  It uses this as a platform to develop the model further to test some of the assumptions made in its original development and, more importantly, to produce a more biologically plausible model that can be used for further applications. 

Paper available at: http://ducati.doc.ntu.ac.uk/uksim/journal/Vol-6/No.9/Paper1.pdf