Robust recognition of human behaviour in challenging environments

Novel techniques have been developed for the automatic recognition of human behaviour in challenging environments using information from visual and infra-red camera feeds. The techniques have been applied to two interesting scenarios: Recognise drivers' speech using lip movements and recognising audience behaviour, while watching a movie, using facial features and body movements. Outcome of the research in these two areas will be useful in the improving the performance of voice recognition in automobiles for voice based control and for obtaining accurate movie interest ratings based on live audience response analysis.

Autonomous forced landing system for light general aviation aircraft in unknown environments

This paper presents a system which enhances the capabilities of a light general aviation aircraft to land autonomously in case of an unscheduled event such as engine failure. The proposed system will not only increase the level of autonomy for the general aviation aircraft industry but also increase the level of dependability. Safe autonomous landing in case of an engine failure with a certain level of reliability is the primary focus of our work as both safety and reliability are attributes of dependability. The system is designed for a light general aviation aircraft but can be extended for dependable unmanned aircraft systems. The underlying system components are computationally efficient and provides continuous situation assessment in case of an emergency landing. The proposed system is undergoing an evaluation phase using an experimental platform (Cessna 172R) in real world scenarios.

Development of a computer based 1D-2D dynamic flood model. Case study of the Pagsangaan river basin in Leyte, the Philippines

Floods are among the most devastating events that affect primarily tropical, archipelagic countries such as the Philippines. With the current predictions of climate change set to include rising sea levels, intensification of typhoon strength and a general increase in the mean annual precipitation throughout the Philippines, it has become paramount to prepare for the future so that the increased risk of floods on the country does not translate into more economic and human loss. Field work and data gathering was done within the framework of an internship at the former German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in cooperation with the Local Government Unit of Ormoc City, Leyte, The Philippines, in order to develop a dynamic computer based flood model for the basin of the Pagsangaan River. To this end, different geo-spatial analysis tools such as PCRaster and ArcGIS, hydrological analysis packages and basic engineering techniques were assessed and implemented. The aim was to develop a dynamic flood model and use the development process to determine the required data, availability and impact on the results as case study for flood early warning systems in the Philippines. The hope is that such projects can help to reduce flood risk by including the results of worst case scenario analyses and current climate change predictions into city planning for municipal development, monitoring strategies and early warning systems. The project was developed using a 1D-2D coupled model in SOBEK (Deltares Hydrological modelling software package) and was also used as a case study to analyze and understand the influence of different factors such as land use, schematization, time step size and tidal variation on the flood characteristics. Several sources of relevant satellite data were compared, such as Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from ASTER and SRTM data, as well as satellite rainfall data from the GIOVANNI server (NASA) and field gauge data. Different methods were used in the attempt to partially calibrate and validate the model to finally simulate and study two Climate Change scenarios based on scenario A1B predictions. It was observed that large areas currently considered not prone to floods will become low flood risk (0.1-1 m water depth). Furthermore, larger sections of the floodplains upstream of the Lilo- an’s Bridge will become moderate flood risk areas (1 - 2 m water depth). The flood hazard maps created for the development of the present project will be presented to the LGU and the model will be used to create a larger set of possible flood prone areas related to rainfall intensity by GTZ’s Local Disaster Risk Management Department and to study possible improvements to the current early warning system and monitoring of the basin section belonging to Ormoc City; recommendations about further enhancement of the geo-hydro-meteorological data to improve the model’s accuracy mainly on areas of interest will also be presented at the LGU.

Making mangoes move

A landscape of mangoes most likely brings to mind a place in a tropical location. By the end of the nineteenth century that place could have been located on any continent in the world. Mangoes were found in geographic locations; in scientific institutions; as crop plants; and as a backyard trees. Here I trace the movement of mangoes Mangifera indica Linn., focusing on the transnational links formed through colonial botanic gardens in Australia. Botanic gardens were largely understood through their work in establishing economically successful plantation crops, such as sugar and tea. Mangoes were not a success crop of the age of botanic imperialism. Instead, mangoes were simply one species among the millions of plants that botanic gardens moved in addition to these well known commercial crops. Colonial science moved plants for a myriad of other types of reasons, for ornament, for curiosity, for lesser commercial purposes and for pure science. In each site the mango emerged, the discourses and technologies that traveled with it changed according to local needs. Indeed, rather than finding mangoes located in one place, tracing their movement demonstrates that this was an extended landscape connecting these things across time and space...

Female game developers wanted low pay, long hours, inflexible work environments

Almost half of all game players are now women. However, women only represent a small proportion of game developers. There is a lack of previous research to suggest why women don't pursue careers in games and how we can attract more women to the industry. In this paper, we investigate the issues and barriers that prevent women from entering the games industry, as well as the solutions and steps that can be taken to attract more women to the industry. We draw on the lessons learned by the information technology industry and report on a program of events that was conducted at the Queensland University of Technology in 2011. These events provided some insight into the issues surrounding the lack of women in the games industry, as well as some initial steps that we can take as an industry to attract and support more female developers.

Datasets for the evaluation of multi-sensor perception in natural environments with challenging conditions

This paper presents large, accurately calibrated and time-synchronised datasets, gathered outdoors in controlled environmental conditions, using an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), equipped with a wide variety of sensors. It discusses how the data collection process was designed, the conditions in which these datasets have been gathered, and some possible outcomes of their exploitation, in particular for the evaluation of performance of sensors and perception algorithms for UGVs.

Augmenting traversability maps with ultra-wideband radar to enhance obstacle detection in vegetated environments

Operating in vegetated environments is a major challenge for autonomous robots. Obstacle detection based only on geometric features causes the robot to consider foliage, for example, small grass tussocks that could be easily driven through, as obstacles. Classifying vegetation does not solve this problem since there might be an obstacle hidden behind the vegetation. In addition, dense vegetation typically needs to be considered as an obstacle. This paper addresses this problem by augmenting probabilistic traversability map constructed from laser data with ultra-wideband radar measurements. An adaptive detection threshold and a probabilistic sensor model are developed to convert the radar data to occupancy probabilities. The resulting map captures the fine resolution of the laser map but clears areas from the traversability map that are induced by obstacle-free foliage. Experimental results validate that this method is able to improve the accuracy of traversability maps in vegetated environments.

Mobility and out-of-home activities of older people living in suburban environments : ‘Because I'm a driver, I don't have a problem'

Governments are challenged by the need to ensure that ageing populations stay active and engaged as they age. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the role of mobility in older people's engagement in out-of-home activities, and to identify the experiences they have within their communities. This research investigates the use of transportation by older people and its implications for their out-of-home activities within suburban environments. The qualitative, mixed-method approach employs data collection methods which include a daily travel diary (including a questionnaire), Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking and semi-structured interviews with older people living in suburban environments in Brisbane, Australia. Results show that older people are mobile throughout the city, and their car provides them with that opportunity to access desired destinations. This ability to drive allows older people to live independently and to assist others who do not drive, particularly where transport alternatives are not as accessible. The ability to transport goods and other people is a significant advantage of the private car over other transport options. People with no access to private transportation who live in low-density environments are disadvantaged when it comes to participation within the community. Further research is needed to better understand the relationship between transportation and participation within the community environment, to assist policy makers and city and transportation planners to develop strategies for age-friendly environments within the community.

Kelp detection in highly dynamic environments using texture recognition

This paper describes a texture recognition based method for segmenting kelp from images collected in highly dynamic shallow water environments by an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). A particular challenge is image quality that is affected by uncontrolled lighting, reduced visibility, significantly varying perspective due to platform egomotion, and kelp sway from wave action. The kelp segmentation approach uses the Mahalanobis distance as a way to classify Haralick texture features from sub-regions within an image. The results illustrate the applicability of the method to classify kelp allowing construction of probability maps of kelp masses across a sequence of images.

Go with the flow : optimal AUV path planning in coastal environments

This paper describes a novel optimum path planning strategy for long duration AUV operations in environments with time-varying ocean currents. These currents can exceed the maximum achievable speed of the AUV, as well as temporally expose obstacles. In contrast to most other path planning strategies, paths have to be defined in time as well as space. The solution described here exploits ocean currents to achieve mission goals with minimal energy expenditure, or a tradeoff between mission time and required energy. The proposed algorithm uses a parallel swarm search as a means to reduce the susceptibility to large local minima on the complex cost surface. The performance of the optimisation algorithms is evaluated in simulation and experimentally with the Starbug AUV using a validated ocean model of Brisbane’s Moreton Bay.

Anatomy of sand beach ridges : evidence from severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi and its predecessors, northeast Queensland, Australia

[1] Four well-identified tropical cyclones over the past century have been responsible for depositing distinct units of predominantly quartzose sand and gravel to form the most seaward beach ridge at several locations along the wet tropical coast of northeast Queensland, Australia. These units deposited by tropical cyclones display a key sedimentary signature characterized by a sharp basal erosional contact, a coarser grain size than the underlying facies and a coarse-skewed trend toward the base. Coarse-skewed distributions with minimal change in mean grain size also characterize the upper levels of the high-energy deposited units at locations within the zone of maximum onshore winds during the tropical cyclone. These same coarse skew distributions are not apparent in sediments deposited at locations where predominantly offshore winds occurred during the cyclone, which in the case of northeast Australia is north of the eye-crossing location. These sedimentary signatures, along with the geochemical indicators and the degraded nature of the microfossil assemblages, have proven to be useful proxies to identify storm-deposited units within the study site and can also provide useful proxies in older beach ridges where advanced pedogenesis has obscured visual stratigraphic markers. As a consequence, more detailed long-term histories of storms and tropical cyclones can now be developed.

Open-ended art environments motivate participation

In this research we observe the situated, embodied and playful interaction that participants engage in with open-ended interactive artworks. The larger project from which this work derives [28] contributes a methodological model for the evaluation of open-ended interactive artwork that treats each work individually and recognises the importance of the artist intent and the traditions from which the work derives. In this paper, we describe this evolving methodology for evaluating and understanding participation via three case studies of open-ended interactive art installations. This analysis builds an understanding of open-ended free-play non-narrative environments and the affordances these environments enable for participants.

Building sensitising terms to understand free-play in open-ended interactive art environments

In this paper we introduce and discuss the nature of free-play in the context of three open-ended interactive art installation works. We observe the interaction work of situated free-play of the participants in these environments and, building on precedent work, devise a set of sensitising terms derived both from the literature and from what we observe from participants interacting there. These sensitising terms act as guides and are designed to be used by those who experience, evaluate or report on open-ended interactive art. That is, we propose these terms as a common-ground language to be used by participants communicating while in the art work to describe their experience, by researchers in the various stages of research process (observation, coding activity, analysis, reporting, and publication), and by inter-disciplinary researchers working across the fields of HCI and art. This work builds a foundation for understanding the relationship between free-play, open-ended environments, and interactive installations and contributes sensitising terms useful for the HCI community for discussion and analysis of open-ended interactive art works.

Talk2Me : engaging interactive installation environments

In this research I explore what elements there may be in common between tangible interactive-technology works that successfully engage their participants. An exploration of existing methods for obtaining useful evaluations for non-use and ambiguous environments forms a part of the discussion.

Characteristics of spatial variation, size distribution, formation and growth of particles in urban environments

This thesis is the first comprehensive study of important parameters relating to aerosols' impact on climate and human health, namely spatial variation, particle size distribution and new particle formation. We determined the importance of spatial variation of particle number concentration in microscale environments, developed a method for particle size parameterisation and provided knowledge about the chemistry of new particle formation. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of processes behind the transformation and dynamics of urban aerosols. This PhD project included extensive measurements of air quality parameters using state of the art instrumentation at each of the 25 sites within the Brisbane metropolitan area and advanced statistical analysis.