Visual tracking of multiple objects: A stochastic geometrical approach. Reliable real-time visual multiple-object tracking techniques will open up new applications that enhance the quality of life such as driving safety, traffic monitoring, home security, security and surveillance of public facilities. These new applications have huge commercial potentials, and the technology developed from this project will provide the catalyst for vibrant new industries to grow. In addition, the expertise deve ....Visual tracking of multiple objects: A stochastic geometrical approach. Reliable real-time visual multiple-object tracking techniques will open up new applications that enhance the quality of life such as driving safety, traffic monitoring, home security, security and surveillance of public facilities. These new applications have huge commercial potentials, and the technology developed from this project will provide the catalyst for vibrant new industries to grow. In addition, the expertise developed from the project will provide a competitive edge for Australian industries in aerospace, oceanography, robotics, remote sensing, and biomedical engineering. Read moreRead less
Methodologies for face recognition under varying imaging conditions. Face recognition systems are heavily dependent on the nature of the input to the system. Variability in appearance due to changes in illumination, expression, pose, etc. can reduce the recognition results of the existing systems. The aim of this project is to develop new techniques to improve the recognition accuracy in natural environment where unwanted image variations exist. The development of such techniques will be of grea ....Methodologies for face recognition under varying imaging conditions. Face recognition systems are heavily dependent on the nature of the input to the system. Variability in appearance due to changes in illumination, expression, pose, etc. can reduce the recognition results of the existing systems. The aim of this project is to develop new techniques to improve the recognition accuracy in natural environment where unwanted image variations exist. The development of such techniques will be of great importance to Australia's security and safety. The outcome of this research will provide the first steps towards formulating the next generation recognition systems that will improve the suitability of the face recognition for use in security, surveillance, intelligent robotics, banking, and smart environments.Read moreRead less
Mathematical Foundations of Distributed Radar. Conventional military threats to Australia are large or fast moving objects such as ships and aircraft and conventional radar systems are designed to handle such threats. Recent global political shifts have changed the threats to include objects that are small and slowly moving, such as people, small vehicles and boats. Advances in radar hardware make feasible small, low-powered, devices with inherently reduced performance in comparison to deployed ....Mathematical Foundations of Distributed Radar. Conventional military threats to Australia are large or fast moving objects such as ships and aircraft and conventional radar systems are designed to handle such threats. Recent global political shifts have changed the threats to include objects that are small and slowly moving, such as people, small vehicles and boats. Advances in radar hardware make feasible small, low-powered, devices with inherently reduced performance in comparison to deployed systems. Methods for information integration over a dispersed system of such small devices, design of suitable waveform suites and clever local signal processing algorithms will be developed to achieve the performance improvements the hardware offers, to handle the new threats.Read moreRead less
Automatic Human Age Estimation Based on Visual Information. Age verification is important for many security applications including passport control for border security, and protecting children from adult websites, venues, or products. Accurate, reliable and practical age estimation or verification technologies would be of enormous benefit for 'Safeguarding Australia'. The ability of a machine to estimate a person's age and provide an age-appropriate interface also has benefits for the young and ....Automatic Human Age Estimation Based on Visual Information. Age verification is important for many security applications including passport control for border security, and protecting children from adult websites, venues, or products. Accurate, reliable and practical age estimation or verification technologies would be of enormous benefit for 'Safeguarding Australia'. The ability of a machine to estimate a person's age and provide an age-appropriate interface also has benefits for the young and old in our society. The outcome of this project, practical technologies for automatic human age estimation based on visual information, will dramatically change the current (non-technology based) methods of age verification and create new opportunities for customised human-machine interfaces. Read moreRead less
Reconfiguring women's professional sport - on and off the pitch. This project aims to develop a model that reconfigures how women’s professional sport is structured, valued and managed. The project intends to examine professional women’s competitions (AFL, cricket, football, Rugby League and Rugby Union), their co-existence within their respective national associations and the experiences of contracted women athletes. Expected outcomes include the development of a new model of women’s profession ....Reconfiguring women's professional sport - on and off the pitch. This project aims to develop a model that reconfigures how women’s professional sport is structured, valued and managed. The project intends to examine professional women’s competitions (AFL, cricket, football, Rugby League and Rugby Union), their co-existence within their respective national associations and the experiences of contracted women athletes. Expected outcomes include the development of a new model of women’s professional sport, advancing knowledge of inclusive gender relevancy at the individual, team and organisational levels. The adoption of strategies and policies to improve the support and playing experiences of women would position Australia globally at the forefront of changing approaches to women’s professional sport.Read moreRead less
Sustainable fiscal federalism and reform of the GST distribution system. The primary source of funds for Australian States and Territories is GST revenue distributed by the Commonwealth using an equalisation formula that has proved to be politically unsustainable and in recent times manifestly inadequate to provide the revenue needed in response to crises and natural disasters. A tipping point has been reached and reform is urgently needed. Drawing on international experience with GST distributi ....Sustainable fiscal federalism and reform of the GST distribution system. The primary source of funds for Australian States and Territories is GST revenue distributed by the Commonwealth using an equalisation formula that has proved to be politically unsustainable and in recent times manifestly inadequate to provide the revenue needed in response to crises and natural disasters. A tipping point has been reached and reform is urgently needed. Drawing on international experience with GST distributions specifically and fiscal federalism more generally, the project aims to develop a reform blueprint for a sustainable and equitable fiscal federalism regime in Australia that best aligns with Australia’s current and long-term fiscal needs.Read moreRead less
Effective privacy protection for smart metering data on cloud. Privacy in smart metering data on cloud is at risk because analysis of such data can reveal user privacy such as daily lifestyle. Current privacy protection approaches lack effectiveness because they omit some privacy leakage cases or cannot be applied to metering data which is collected continuously. This project aims to systematically investigate significant challenges in the effectiveness and expects to establish innovative resear ....Effective privacy protection for smart metering data on cloud. Privacy in smart metering data on cloud is at risk because analysis of such data can reveal user privacy such as daily lifestyle. Current privacy protection approaches lack effectiveness because they omit some privacy leakage cases or cannot be applied to metering data which is collected continuously. This project aims to systematically investigate significant challenges in the effectiveness and expects to establish innovative research and solutions for enabling effective privacy protection in smart metering data on cloud. The project outcomes aims to safeguard Australian home community with pervasive deployment of smart meters and data on cloud, and benefit fast-growing privacy sensitive data hosting and applications on cloud.Read moreRead less
Understanding the nature and characteristics of youth violence in Australia. This study addresses the important problem of violence in Australian youth and the need for early intervention/prevention to limit further reoccurrences and escalation of violence across the life span and its associated economic and health costs. For the first time we will have specific access to Australian data on violent offending patterns and risk in adolescents for use in service planning rather than attempting to a ....Understanding the nature and characteristics of youth violence in Australia. This study addresses the important problem of violence in Australian youth and the need for early intervention/prevention to limit further reoccurrences and escalation of violence across the life span and its associated economic and health costs. For the first time we will have specific access to Australian data on violent offending patterns and risk in adolescents for use in service planning rather than attempting to apply findings from North America and Europe to our unique population. Work in this field will help improve the characterisation and identification of at-risk individuals and should ultimately improve our ability to direct treatment interventions to the most needy and most high risk groups.Read moreRead less
Trustworthy Sensor Networks: Theory and Implementation. The fundamental importance of this project is that we are developing algorithms for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that provide accurate and trustworthy data to Australian researchers and users, so that they have confidence in the analysis of their data. The algorithms developed in this proposal will become essential for any large scale WSN. The research significantly leverages the resources of our international partners who complement our ....Trustworthy Sensor Networks: Theory and Implementation. The fundamental importance of this project is that we are developing algorithms for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that provide accurate and trustworthy data to Australian researchers and users, so that they have confidence in the analysis of their data. The algorithms developed in this proposal will become essential for any large scale WSN. The research significantly leverages the resources of our international partners who complement our work with several million dollars of investment. The result will put Australia on the international stage as a significant contributor to WSN technologies. By training PhD students, the project will also enrich local expertise in the technologies.Read moreRead less
Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while pres ....Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while preserving the data privacy. These tools should provide significant benefits to the privacy of cloud users, as well as financial and reputation benefits to the IT industry, by significantly reducing the likelihood of massive user data privacy breaches in the event of a cyber-hacking attack on the cloud server.Read moreRead less