Designing for visual and auditory attention in complex high-tempo worlds. This research addresses the national priority of developing frontier technologies through smart information use. Advanced display technologies are positioned for rapid uptake in many sectors of the economy but are not fully tested. Results of our research will generalise to manufacturing, defence, aviation, and medicine. Given the focus on anaesthesia in this proposal, our research may help to make anaesthesia safer for pa ....Designing for visual and auditory attention in complex high-tempo worlds. This research addresses the national priority of developing frontier technologies through smart information use. Advanced display technologies are positioned for rapid uptake in many sectors of the economy but are not fully tested. Results of our research will generalise to manufacturing, defence, aviation, and medicine. Given the focus on anaesthesia in this proposal, our research may help to make anaesthesia safer for patients and easier for anaesthetists to administer. With this research, an Australian group will enhance its international lead in the area of innovative interfaces for safety critical applications. The proposed research should lead to further inventions that have the potential to benefit Australian industry.Read moreRead less
Sonification for complex, mission-critical work environments. Human operators must often pay attention to an immediate task while monitoring background information, but intrusive alarms often capture operators' attention inappropriately. We investigate how continuous auditory information ("sonification") can provide low-level background information when all is normal, yet capture attention to abnormalities only when needed. The results of three experiments will determine the most effective combi ....Sonification for complex, mission-critical work environments. Human operators must often pay attention to an immediate task while monitoring background information, but intrusive alarms often capture operators' attention inappropriately. We investigate how continuous auditory information ("sonification") can provide low-level background information when all is normal, yet capture attention to abnormalities only when needed. The results of three experiments will determine the most effective combination of visual and auditory information delivery; how well sonification captures attention when needed; and whether sonification captures attention to deviations from expected changes. Our findings will help establish principles of attentional mapping that significantly extend current approaches to interactive systems design.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
Reading facial expressions from real and virtual humans. This project aims to advance understanding of human emotional communication and improve human rapport with the virtual humans and avatars that are rapidly infiltrating our social world. Using two unique stimulus sets - naturalistic human expressions and highly realistic virtual faces - together with powerful genetic, experimental, and individual differences designs, the project expects to answer previously intractable questions in emotion ....Reading facial expressions from real and virtual humans. This project aims to advance understanding of human emotional communication and improve human rapport with the virtual humans and avatars that are rapidly infiltrating our social world. Using two unique stimulus sets - naturalistic human expressions and highly realistic virtual faces - together with powerful genetic, experimental, and individual differences designs, the project expects to answer previously intractable questions in emotion science, as well as deliver tangible outcomes, such as new psychological tests to better understand human social connection. This should provide significant benefits, by improving emotion communication and offering a new perspective on how artificial intelligence can best serve human social needs.
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Subcortical control of human reaching? This project will test a radical new hypothesis about how the human brain generates visually guided behaviour. Conventional thinking assumes that visuomotor control of limb movements occurs exclusively within the cerebral cortex. However, the project team’s recent observations of extremely rapid visually guided muscle activity strongly imply that the human brain controls reaching movements via more primitive midbrain and brainstem structures. The project’s ....Subcortical control of human reaching? This project will test a radical new hypothesis about how the human brain generates visually guided behaviour. Conventional thinking assumes that visuomotor control of limb movements occurs exclusively within the cerebral cortex. However, the project team’s recent observations of extremely rapid visually guided muscle activity strongly imply that the human brain controls reaching movements via more primitive midbrain and brainstem structures. The project’s hypotheses challenge long-standing ideas about the functional organisation of the human brain and may have wide-ranging implications for the design of human-machine interfaces as well as training protocols in rehabilitation, industry, and sport.Read moreRead less
A Scalable Theory of Behavior Composition for Practical Engineering Models of Human Performance. Minimizing human error and maximizing human performance is a major design goal in safety critical systems. The development of methods for affordable human performance modeling has widespread applicability for evaluating user-system interfaces. The compositional method explored here has been shown to make accurate predictions reduce model development time by an order of magnitude. Large safety critica ....A Scalable Theory of Behavior Composition for Practical Engineering Models of Human Performance. Minimizing human error and maximizing human performance is a major design goal in safety critical systems. The development of methods for affordable human performance modeling has widespread applicability for evaluating user-system interfaces. The compositional method explored here has been shown to make accurate predictions reduce model development time by an order of magnitude. Large safety critical applications, such as military or air traffic control systems, would benefit greatly. The proposed work tests whether the compositional methods will scale to more complex domains. The work will be coordinated with Australian industry, academia, and government research efforts.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
Audio-visual Information for Speech-hand Gestures. How does audio-visual information influence human movement and communication? We will investigate whether speech and hand gestures involve shared information about the timing of rhythmic movements. Using dynamical systems theory and brain imaging techniques, we will study rhythms that emerge during simultaneous speaking and finger tapping in both stutterers and non-stutterers, and in left-handers and right-handers. The communicative interaction ....Audio-visual Information for Speech-hand Gestures. How does audio-visual information influence human movement and communication? We will investigate whether speech and hand gestures involve shared information about the timing of rhythmic movements. Using dynamical systems theory and brain imaging techniques, we will study rhythms that emerge during simultaneous speaking and finger tapping in both stutterers and non-stutterers, and in left-handers and right-handers. The communicative interaction of two persons performing speech-hand gestures will be examined. Results will clarify how brain asymmetry affects gestural coordination in stutterers, how stuttering can be treated, and the hypothesis that speech and language evolved from a communication system based on hand gestures.
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Neural metrics for space time and numerosity. What we propose is ground-breaking research. It will increase Australia's international competitiveness is science, expand the knowledge base of brain function and psychology and provide valuable training for research scientists.
Identification and Examination of Visual Cues for Aircraft Glideslope Control. While aviation safety has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, accidents are still more common during landing than any other stage of flight. This project aims to improve our understanding of the way pilots use visual information to land an aircraft. Once our findings have been incorporated into existing training programs, this much-needed information should result in: (i) reduced pilot training time and cost ....Identification and Examination of Visual Cues for Aircraft Glideslope Control. While aviation safety has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, accidents are still more common during landing than any other stage of flight. This project aims to improve our understanding of the way pilots use visual information to land an aircraft. Once our findings have been incorporated into existing training programs, this much-needed information should result in: (i) reduced pilot training time and cost; (ii) increased trainee pilot safety and confidence; and (iii) reduced aircraft maintenance costs. A PhD student, who will be trained in visual perception and aviation, should contribute significantly to future aviation research in this country.Read moreRead less