Sunday 30 October 2016

Dr Mu Talks about Ultrasound and Internet of Things

A member of the Computing academic team at the University of Northampton was interview by New Scientist as part of an article on Ultrasound as part of the Internet of Things and the potential for it to be hacked.

Read the article go to: 

Your home’s online gadgets could be hacked by ultrasound

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

Tuesday 25 October 2016

PhD student awarded best paper for her revolutionary research in wireless communication

Taken from: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/phd-student-awarded-best-paper-for-her-revolutionary-research-in-wireless-communication/



alyaareresearchpaper2
Not only was PhD student Alyaa Al-Barrak awarded the best paper at a recent conference, she has also had an offer for her paper to be published in a digital library, which hosts documents  from some of the world’s most highly cited publications in the engineering and computer science field.
The eighth Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Conference was held at the University of Essex and is a great opportunity for researchers to meet and network with peers in the same field. Alyaa presented her research paper on wireless communication and the errors that can occur due to noise, reflection, diffraction, shadowing, fading and in particular the multipath phenomenon and the most widely used technique to correct it. Her paper was awarded first place out of 93 other papers, which has led to an inclusion in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Xplore Digital Library and an offer to publish an extended paper in a journal.
Alyaa said: “I was so pleased to be awarded the best paper at the conference and consider this a great achievement which has encouraged me to go further in this field. It has also provided me with evidence that I am delivering high-quality research and it will be a great addition to my CV.”
Robin Crockett, Alyaa’s Director of Studies, said: “Alyaa’s supervisors, Ali Al-Sherbaz, Triantafyllos Kanakis and myself are immensely proud of Alyaa. This is a major achievement and major recognition of Alyaa’s work from other researchers in the field of digital communications.”
Triantafyllos Kanakis, Lecturer in Computing, commented: “The solution proposed in this paper is revolutionary, drastically increasing the overall performance of a wireless system while saving expensive channel resources from retransmission.”
Ali Al-Shabaz, Senior Lecturer in Computing, commented: “The research outcomes of this work will have an impact on future technology and smart applications. The next stage of Alyaa’s research is expected to find more interesting results which will be worthy of publication in a journal with a high impact factor.”


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

Saturday 22 October 2016

WiMAX-WiFi techniques for baseband convergence and routing protocols

Al-Sherbaz, A. (2010)
 WiMAX-WiFi techniques for baseband convergence and routing protocols. 
Doctoral thesis. The University of Buckingham.

Abstract
The focus of this study was to investigate solutions that, when implemented in any heterogeneous wireless network, shall enhance the existing standard and routing protocol connectivity without impacting the standard or changing the wireless transceiver’s functions. Thus achieving efficient interoperability at much reduced overheads. The techniques proposed in this research are centred on the lower layers. This because of the facts that WiMax and WiFi standards have not addressed the backward compatibility of the two technologies at the MAC and PHY layers, for both the baseband functions as well as the routing IP addresses. This thesis describes two innovate techniques submitted for a PhD degree. The first technique is to combine WiMax and WiFi signals so to utilise the same "baseband implementation chain" to handle both of these technologies, thus insuring ubiquitous data communication. WiMax-WiFi Baseband Convergence (W2BC) implementation is proposed to offer an optimum configurable solution targeted at combining the 802.16d WiMax and the 802.11a WiFi technologies. This approach provides a fertile ground for future work into combining more OFDM based wireless technologies. Based on analysis and simulation, the W2BC can achieve saving in device cost, size, power consumption and implementation complexity when compared to current side-by-side implementations for these two technologies. The second technique, called "Prime-IP", can be implemented with, and enhance, any routing protocol. During the route discovery process, Prime-IP enables any node on a wireless mesh network (WMN) to dynamically select the best available route on the network. Prime-IP proposes a novel recursive process, based on prime numbers addressing, to accumulate knowledge for nodes beyond the “neighbouring nodes”, and to determine the sequence of all the “intermediate nodes” used to form the route.

To read the thesis go to: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/4241/1/AlSherbaz20104241.pdf
Contact Ali.Al-Sherbaz@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

Friday 21 October 2016

The Dyslexic User's Interface Support Tool (DUIST) thesis

Johnson, Mark (2007) 
The Dyslexic User's Interface Support Tool (DUIST) - a framework for performance enhancing interface adaptation strategies for dyslexic computer users. 
Doctoral thesis. The University of Northampton.

Abstract
Due to the nature of the symptoms experienced by dyslexic individuals (e.g. defective visual processing, short term memory deficit and motor control problems) an investigation into support strategies to aid persons suffering from the condition seems strongly justifiable. 

As such, an extensive review of existing support techniques for dyslexic computer users are explored leading to the formulation of four central research models; dyslexia symptoms, symptom alleviating interface strategies, adjustable interface components and a dynamically adaptable interface preference elicitation mechanism. These models provide the foundation for the design of the Dyslexic User’s Interface Support Tool (DUIST) framework.
Using a user centred design approach, the support framework is developed, tested and subsequently evaluated with positive results. Performance gains for dyslexic subjects in reading speed and reading accuracy exemplify the apparent benefits of framework utilisation (e.g. dyslexic mean reading speed increased by 4.98 wpm vs. control gains of 0.18 wpm; dyslexic mean reading errors reduced by 0.64 per 100 words vs. control reductions of 0.06 fewer errors per 100 words). 


Subsequent research into the long-term impact of framework utilisation; the perceived benefits of applying research formulated models to interfaces designed for dyslexics; and alternative strategies to portability all now seem justified. That said, the findings presented thus far warrants investigation by any reader actively interested in dyslexia; strategies for dyslexia symptom relief support environments for dyslexic computer users; applications of adaptive interfaces; and all potential system designers who may be considering developing any type of graphical interface for a dyslexic user group.


To read the thesis go to: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/2683/


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

Wednesday 19 October 2016

An efficient channel model for evaluating Wireless NoC architectures

An efficient channel model for evaluating Wireless NoC architectures
Opoku Agyeman, M.Vien, Q.-T.Hill, G.Turner, S. J. and Mak, T. 
Workshop on Applications for Multi-Core Architectures.  
7th Workshop on Applications for Multi-Core Architectures (WAMCA) 


Abstract
Wireless Networks-on-Chip (WiNoCs) have emerged to solve the scalability and performance bottleneck of conventional wired NoC architectures. However unlike communication in the macro-world, on-chip communication poses several constraints, hence there is the need for simulation and design tools that consider the effect of the wireless channel at the nanotechnology level. In this paper, we present a parameterizable channel model for WiNoCs which takes into account practical issues and constraints of the propagation medium, such as transmission frequency, operating temperature, ambient pressure and distance between the on-chip antennas. The proposed channel model demonstrates that total path loss of the wireless channel in WiNoCs suffers from not only dielectric propagation loss (DPL) but also molecular absorption attenuation (MAA) which reduces the reliability of the system


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

Tuesday 18 October 2016

BCS Northampton: All Quiet on the Ethical Front: Behaviour and Professionalism in Project Management

Northampton BCS Group
Thursday 10th November 2016 7:00pm

10th November 2016 - All Quiet on the Ethical Front: Behaviour and Professionalism in Project Management

Room NW205 Newton Building, Northampton University
Speaker: Brendan D'Cruz


Alistair Godbold stated in an article entitled Are You an Ethically Mature Project Manager? (APM Blog, July 2014): As our projects become more complicated and complex, and our activities span many countries and cultures through the supply chain or during roll out, the potential for conflict and differences on ethical views increases. The range of stakeholders we deal with is becoming wider; project initiators, investors, policy makers, sponsors, project leaders, members of project teams - all of whom are likely to face a broad range of issues. In many instances the managerial problems we used to face as technical challenges now often have an ethical dimension requiring reflection on individual or communal values. There is also the increasing importance of the long-term reputation of the business to consider which is becoming increasingly important.
This interactive session will explore how the issues of ethics, professionalism and compliance are being dealt with by professional bodies, and what this means for individuals operating at the front when delivering projects, programmes and business solutions. In particular, the session will consider:
* Codes of conduct - do they really mean anything?
* Competence standards - are they appropriate, and how can you evidence them?
* Project corruption - what is it and why does it matter?
* Professional behaviour - what are they, and how can they be enhanced?
* IT-enabled change initiatives - are we doing the right things right?
* A series of ethical dilemmas will be presented to participants during the session, and there may be occasional context and imagery derived from the First World War.


Arrive 7pm for drinks and biscuits, with 7:30pm start


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

Sunday 16 October 2016

Near Northampton: BCS Coventry - Data Driven Dance


Taken from http://coventry.bcs.org/data-driven-dance-7pm-19th-oct-2016/

Brief AGM followed by Data Driven Dance

Date:  Wednesday 19th October 2016
Time: AGM: 18:15 prompt – please. Refreshments from 18:00. Main talk from 18:45.
Speaker:  Genevieve Smith-Nunes   – Chief Cyborg  – Readysaltedcode – www.readysaltedcode.org
Location:    EC 1-03 Coventry University – Engineering and Computing block, first floor (room 3 on the first floor)
BCS Meetings are free to attend.
Our AGM is intentionally short: we will have our usual planning meeting February (2017) ; the report from the  Treasurer will be available from here shortly – please read them in advance of the meeting so we can quickly get through the AGM and get on with the very interesting talk! Please forward all nominations for Chair, Secretary and Treasurer to the Branch Secretary:  coventry_secretary@bcs.org.uk
The report from the Chairman and Secretary are here:  agm2016chairman          secretarysreport2016
Data Driven Dance Abstract:
Where the worlds of computing and classical ballet collide Readysaltedcode are bringing computer science theory and concepts to life through the art of classical ballet and the world of digital through the use of a variety of technologies to enhance the performance which are then turned into classroom resources for educators around the world to use. From theory to data to dance.
One of the main aims of readysaltedcode is to engage girls into loving computing; this talk is especially apt this month as it is Lady Ada day on 11th October.

See also http://coventry.bcs.org/data-driven-dance-7pm-19th-oct-2016/


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

Saturday 15 October 2016

Patents and Computing Staff 2: Dr Scott Turner

Members of the Computing staff within the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology have held or still hold patents as the inventors.


Dr Scott Turner
Abstract:In a system to detect an analyte concentration eg.blood sugar level, the body part 6 is illuminated by multiple wavelength illumination. The transmitted or reflected intensity at three discrete wavelengths are analysed by a computer. The wavelength at which the transmissivity of blood is unaffected by the analyte is denoted A and acts as a reference. At wavelengths B and C the transmissivity of the blood is respectively increased and decreased by the analyte, and the output signal, So, is generated from the relation The device incorporates a white light source 2 and a plurality of photodiodes 8 to monitor light at each predetermined wavelength or alternatively a plurality of light sources generate the predetermined wavelengths and a single photodiode receives the light. 



Patents Granted (not renewed)
    1.  Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (2001) Optical Glucose Detector Patent No. GB2328279 (B) UK. 10 October  2001. Patent number GB2328279 (B)
     2.   Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (2002) Optical Glucose Detector Patent No US6466807 (B1)  
USA. 15 October  2002. Patent number US6466807 (B1)


Related Applications
     1. Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (1999) Three wavelength in-vivo analyte detector UK, 17th February 1999, Patent Application GB2328279(A) 
     2. Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (1999) Optical Glucose Detector, World Intellectual Property Organization, 18th February 1999, Patent Application WO9907278 (A1)
     3. Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (1999) Optical Glucose Detector, Canada, 18th February 1999, Patent Application CA2299727 (A1)
     4. Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (1999) Optical Glucose Detector, Australia, 1st March 1999, Patent Application AU8639198 (A)
     5. Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (2000) Optical Glucose Detector, European Patent Office, 28th June 2000, Patent Application EP1011428 (A1)
     6. Dobson PJ, Turner SJ (2001) Three wavelength in-vivo analyte detector Japan, 4th September 2001, Patent Application JP2001513351(A) 

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

Patents and Computing Staff 1: Dr Ali Al-Sherbaz


Members of the Computing staff within the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology have held or still hold patents as the inventors.



Dr Ali Al-Sherbaz
Abstract: The algorithm proposed in this patent enables any node in a Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) to have knowledge of all intermediate nodes, in all the possible-routes towards the destination node. The algorithm uses a novel recursive algorithm to accumulate knowledge beyond the neighbouring nodes, as well as the sequence of all the intermediate nodes used to form these routes. Prime numbers are used in the address of the host portion of the WMN node IP address to identify the optimum route.



Patents
  1. Jasim, S.Lami, I.Adams, C. and Al-Sherbaz, A. (2014) Method and process for routing and node addressing in wireless mesh networks. UK. 27 August 2014. Patent number GB2479136 (B).
  2. Al-Sherbaz, A.Jasim, S.Lami, I. and Adams, C. (2011) Method and process for routing and node addressing in wireless mesh networks. UK. 5 October 2011. Patent number GB2479136 (A).











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

Thursday 13 October 2016

Dr Mu Talks about Ultrasound and TV

A member of the Computing academic team at the University of Northampton was interview by New Scientist for an article on Ultrasound as a way of streaming bonus data from TV shows.

Read the article go to TV shows could use ultrasound to send bonus extras to your phone.

Related post
https://computingnorthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/dr-mu-mu.html


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

Tuesday 11 October 2016

We can compute – undergrads scoop society awards

Taken from: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/we-can-compute-undergrads-scoop-society-awards/


Computing undergraduates from the University of Northampton have been recognised for their work with awards from two prestigious bodies.
Ten students received awards during the Northampton British Computing Society branch annual general meeting, which was held at Avenue Campus on Thursday 29 September.
Gongs were awarded by the British Computing Society (BCS) and HM Government Communications Centre (HMGCC)
Gary Hill, Head of Computing at the University, said: “I’m proud that our students have been recognised for their achievements from the British Computer Society and HMGCC.
“To have such an award win on their CVs will help to give them a competitive edge when they embark on their chosen careers.”
The award winners were:
BCS Best Computing 1st Year Award – Oloruntobi Abimbola Ayilara
BCS Best Computing Student Performance Prize – William Hurer-Mackay
BCS Best Business Computing 1st Year Award – Florin-Sebastian Ciobanu
BCS Best Business Computing Student Performance Prize – Souad McFarlane
HMGCC Best Dissertation Prize – Riyam Khalid Kareem Marjan
HMGCC Best Group Project Prize – Doaa Mundher Dalal Al-Midhatee, Gideon Awuah, Solomon Green, Ohood Hazim Sabr Sabr and Sana Ullah.



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

Friday 7 October 2016

BCS Bedford Event: Disability, Accessibility, Personalisation, inclusion and Design


                    Disability, Accessibility, Personalisation,
                Inclusion and Design
                       Peter Abrahams
                               Secretary, BCS Digital Accessibility Specialist Group

Tuesday, 8th November 2016
6.30-8.00pm
(Registration starts at 6:00pm)
Tavistock Suite
The Park Inn Hotel, 2 St Mary's Street,
Bedford MK42 0AR
(Free Parking at the rear – Inform Hotel Reception)


                                   


Peter joined IBM as a student in 1966. Specialised in databases and system design. Retired in 2003 and joined Bloor Research.
In 2004 his experience with some disabled friends and a report by the Disabilities Rights Commission prompted him to start research into IT accessibility for the disabled. Recognising the growing importance of this area he set up Bloor's Usability and Accessibility practice and now devotes most of his research to this area.
He is a founder member and secretary of the BCS Digital Accessibility Specialist Group.

Agenda
6.00pm                 Registration, refreshments and networking
6.30pm                 Guest Speaker – Peter Abrahams
7.20pm                 Opportunity to question the speaker
7.45pm                 Opportunity to network and talk to the speaker

If you require additional information, have difficulty accessing / downloading this email or have a specific question in relation to this talk
please send an email to sabongo@gmail.com


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

Sunday 2 October 2016

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

Saturday 1 October 2016

Funded Project: Robots in 9 Schools



Santander UK recently provided the funding for an outreach project within the Department of Computing, University of Northampton - loaning robot arm kits, which are pretty much self-contained, out to schools to see what they can come up with and share with the wider community. 

The project is to provide a robot arm kit to support computing and STEAM activities for a year and the schools taking part write a blog post (or more than one) http://robotschools.blogspot.co.uk/, sharing what they have done. Ten kits have been made available.
 
The chosen kit is the CBiS Education robot arm hub - select as it comes with the robot arm, cables, raspberry pi computer, etc as well as screen, keyboard and mouse (see the picture above). So it has everything needed to get going within a few minutes.  

Nine Schools are now part of the project.
The interactive map below shows the schools who are part of the project.




The project team is  grateful to Santander UK for the funding; CBiS Education for their support and advice so far; last but not least the schools who have enthusiastically expressed an interest in taking part or who are taking part now. A blog for the project is now available at http://robotschools.blogspot.co.uk/.



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