Mobile spatial-audio telecommunication systems. We will develop an inter-personal electronic spatial-audio telecommunication system that works outdoors in a mobile environment. Talkers using the system will be acoustically aware of other talkers? locations because the communication channel is rendered as 3D audio. The system provides situational awareness useful during activities such as fire fighting, search and rescue, surveillance, audio/video teleconferencing. The research investigates syste ....Mobile spatial-audio telecommunication systems. We will develop an inter-personal electronic spatial-audio telecommunication system that works outdoors in a mobile environment. Talkers using the system will be acoustically aware of other talkers? locations because the communication channel is rendered as 3D audio. The system provides situational awareness useful during activities such as fire fighting, search and rescue, surveillance, audio/video teleconferencing. The research investigates system implementations using wearable computing with personal location sensors (differential GPS) and personal orientation sensors (hybrid gyroscopic/magnetic system). The work will result in fundamental data relevant to the development, testing and validation of a mobile telecommunication system with individualised spatial audio.Read moreRead less
Mobility and Location Information providing Social Equality for Blind and Vision Impaired persons. Providing reliable situational information to the blind and visually impaired (BVI) can deliver far greater independence. Confidence and autonomy will result from knowing where they are, what is in that location, how to go to the destination and the location related information. This will not only save a significant welfare costs but will also provide social equality to BVI. The underlying technolo ....Mobility and Location Information providing Social Equality for Blind and Vision Impaired persons. Providing reliable situational information to the blind and visually impaired (BVI) can deliver far greater independence. Confidence and autonomy will result from knowing where they are, what is in that location, how to go to the destination and the location related information. This will not only save a significant welfare costs but will also provide social equality to BVI. The underlying technology can also readily be extended to other socially useful and profitable applications.Read moreRead less
Filters reveal what flicker conceals: temporal processing in the human visual system. I have recently discovered a new form of camouflage using 10Hz luminance flicker. This project will quantify this effect and examine the extent to which it generalises across colour and spatial dimensions and to video sequences depicting natural scenes. This information is expected to provide foundational information to technologies relating to national security that rely on visual concealment. This research wi ....Filters reveal what flicker conceals: temporal processing in the human visual system. I have recently discovered a new form of camouflage using 10Hz luminance flicker. This project will quantify this effect and examine the extent to which it generalises across colour and spatial dimensions and to video sequences depicting natural scenes. This information is expected to provide foundational information to technologies relating to national security that rely on visual concealment. This research will examine the extent to which filtering out these camouflaging frequencies enhances our sensitivity to low temporal frequency information. This decamouflaging aspect of my research is expected to improve the clarity of digital video-based technologies including ultrasound, educational, info-tainment and defence applicationsRead moreRead less
Beamforming with acoustic vector sensors for audio user interfaces. We aim to create new Audio User Interfaces (AUIs) for the automatic separation and annotation of audio from complex sound scenes using acoustic vector sensor beamforming technology. Specifically, we will develop: speech AUIs for noisy, multi-talker, reverberant environments; and sound transcription AUIs for the deaf. Ultimately, users will be able to walk into a room, hold conversations and leave with a searchable, automatically ....Beamforming with acoustic vector sensors for audio user interfaces. We aim to create new Audio User Interfaces (AUIs) for the automatic separation and annotation of audio from complex sound scenes using acoustic vector sensor beamforming technology. Specifically, we will develop: speech AUIs for noisy, multi-talker, reverberant environments; and sound transcription AUIs for the deaf. Ultimately, users will be able to walk into a room, hold conversations and leave with a searchable, automatically-generated transcript of the audio events, tagged with metadata. The application of these technologies will create new possibilities for recording audio in the music, radio, TV industries, and future home based audio communication systems.Read moreRead less
Broadcasting 3D Audio: Recording, Transmission, and Playback. With the current state of the art, a performance at the Sydney Opera House cannot be recorded and broadcast such that you can listen to it as if you are in the best seat of the house. The goal of our project is to develop the ultimate form of multi-channel audio broadcasting to create this experience. We will develop and implement effective systems for recording, broadcasting and playback of 3D audio in three different scenarios: indi ....Broadcasting 3D Audio: Recording, Transmission, and Playback. With the current state of the art, a performance at the Sydney Opera House cannot be recorded and broadcast such that you can listen to it as if you are in the best seat of the house. The goal of our project is to develop the ultimate form of multi-channel audio broadcasting to create this experience. We will develop and implement effective systems for recording, broadcasting and playback of 3D audio in three different scenarios: individual headphone reproduction; small loudspeaker array reproduction; and large loudspeaker array reproduction. We will create optimal recording techniques and broadcasting software for each of these playback techniques.Read moreRead less
Physicality, tactility, intimacy: interaction between humans and robots. Until recently robotics has been regarded as a strictly technological discipline. This research brings a fresh perspective to interactive robotics by investigating new ways that humans and robots can interact physically in socially empowered environments. The knowledge created in the project will advance both interactive media arts and robotics science. The theoretical outcomes of this research will open up an entirely new ....Physicality, tactility, intimacy: interaction between humans and robots. Until recently robotics has been regarded as a strictly technological discipline. This research brings a fresh perspective to interactive robotics by investigating new ways that humans and robots can interact physically in socially empowered environments. The knowledge created in the project will advance both interactive media arts and robotics science. The theoretical outcomes of this research will open up an entirely new cross-disciplinary approach to engagement between humans and machines, promoting Australia's growing reputation for innovation and creativity. The practical demonstration of this approach will lead to a new level of advanced robotics capability in applications such as health- and aged-care.Read moreRead less
Fish-Bird: Autonomous Interactions in a Contemporary Arts Setting. This research aims to investigate and expand the dialogical possibilities that exist between multiple autokinetic objects within a new media arts environment. Communication between the objects, and with their audience, will be explored through the modalities of gesture, motion and written text. A new aesthetic framework for interactive artwork will be created through research into autokinesis and the behavioural patterns that evo ....Fish-Bird: Autonomous Interactions in a Contemporary Arts Setting. This research aims to investigate and expand the dialogical possibilities that exist between multiple autokinetic objects within a new media arts environment. Communication between the objects, and with their audience, will be explored through the modalities of gesture, motion and written text. A new aesthetic framework for interactive artwork will be created through research into autokinesis and the behavioural patterns that evolve between people and autokinetic machines. Outcomes will include a major artwork in three stages, underpinned by a robotics software tool set that facilitates composition and experimentation with autokinetic artwork.Read moreRead less
Gaze Tracking Haptic User Interface for the Blind. It is estimated over 40 million people suffer from sever visual impairment in the modern world. Although blind people are able to use the computer with the aid of a screen reader and output devices like Braille displays, it remains difficult for the blind to use many applications with Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) due to the need for hand-eye coordination when manipulating screen objects with the mouse. This project intends to overcome this d ....Gaze Tracking Haptic User Interface for the Blind. It is estimated over 40 million people suffer from sever visual impairment in the modern world. Although blind people are able to use the computer with the aid of a screen reader and output devices like Braille displays, it remains difficult for the blind to use many applications with Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) due to the need for hand-eye coordination when manipulating screen objects with the mouse. This project intends to overcome this difficulty by providing a means for the blind to perceive and control the GUI of typical computer applications. This potentially could provide increased computer access, job opportunities and education for the blind.Read moreRead less
Acoustic Filter Functions from Morphological Measurements. This project works toward enabling the broadcast of high-fidelity 3D audio. By developing an efficient technique for deriving personalised acoustic filter functions based on image data of the listener's head and ears, we hope to enable high-fidelity 3D audio decoding and rendering. Morphological parameterisation techniques and databases recently developed at the University of York will be combined with the statistical synthesis technique ....Acoustic Filter Functions from Morphological Measurements. This project works toward enabling the broadcast of high-fidelity 3D audio. By developing an efficient technique for deriving personalised acoustic filter functions based on image data of the listener's head and ears, we hope to enable high-fidelity 3D audio decoding and rendering. Morphological parameterisation techniques and databases recently developed at the University of York will be combined with the statistical synthesis techniques and databases developed at the University of Sydney to substantially reduce the development time required for either group alone. Psychoacoustic experiments carried out at the University of Sydney will demonstrate the fidelity of the delivered 3D audio.Read moreRead less
Audio Nomad - A Location-based Handheld Audio Device for Sound-Art Applications. Audio Nomad is a cross-disciplinary project exploring location-aware, mobile audio devices for augmented audio reality systems. A unique and exciting combination of people and research in mobile devices, user interface design, spatial audio and streaming, spatial information systems, and positioning systems with new media arts and sound-art will create a handheld platform and design tools for use in culturally-signi ....Audio Nomad - A Location-based Handheld Audio Device for Sound-Art Applications. Audio Nomad is a cross-disciplinary project exploring location-aware, mobile audio devices for augmented audio reality systems. A unique and exciting combination of people and research in mobile devices, user interface design, spatial audio and streaming, spatial information systems, and positioning systems with new media arts and sound-art will create a handheld platform and design tools for use in culturally-significant applications. User-centred design embracing audio artists and content developers will create design tools for the emerging industry of virtual audio environments. Artists will be energised with new tools to create enriched and unique mobile audio user experiences for entertainment or productivity.Read moreRead less