Robust Automatic Speaker Diarisation of Audio Documents by Exploiting Prior Sources of Information. Speaker Diarisation, the task of determining who spoke when, is a technology fundamental in deriving intelligent information from audio and multimedia resources. The requirement for efficient and accurate Speaker Diarisation systems, portable across different domains is heightened by the explosive growth of audio and multimedia archives online and throughout the world. This research will provide t ....Robust Automatic Speaker Diarisation of Audio Documents by Exploiting Prior Sources of Information. Speaker Diarisation, the task of determining who spoke when, is a technology fundamental in deriving intelligent information from audio and multimedia resources. The requirement for efficient and accurate Speaker Diarisation systems, portable across different domains is heightened by the explosive growth of audio and multimedia archives online and throughout the world. This research will provide the foundation for a commercial service of automatic Speaker Diarisation to be developed, growing Australia's impact on the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. The outcome of this research will also assist in the tracking of terrorist and unlawful activity by enabling effective intelligence gathering from different audio sources.Read moreRead less
Audio Visual Speech Recognition. Even though significant advances have been made in automatic speech recognition using acoustic information, the recognition accuracies are still poor in noisy and hostile environments such as in crowds, traffic, factory floors etc. In many of these applications visual information is or can easily be made available in addition to the audio. The aim of this project is to achieve an order of magnitude improvement in speech recognition accuracies in adverse environme ....Audio Visual Speech Recognition. Even though significant advances have been made in automatic speech recognition using acoustic information, the recognition accuracies are still poor in noisy and hostile environments such as in crowds, traffic, factory floors etc. In many of these applications visual information is or can easily be made available in addition to the audio. The aim of this project is to achieve an order of magnitude improvement in speech recognition accuracies in adverse environments by joint processing and modelling of the acoustic modality with visual information in the form of lip shapes and movements. The outcomes will be useful in human computer interaction in adverse environments as well as in the transcription and mining of multimedia data.
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Progressive Transmission of Street Directory Assistance and Business Pages over 3G and 4G mobile networks. Multimedia on-demand and live services over 3G and 4G mobiles will be enhanced. New methods for low volume, high information transfer multimedia transactions will be developed. This will create new jobs in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector. Progressive transmission of street directory assistance and business pages information to mobile handsets will enable citize ....Progressive Transmission of Street Directory Assistance and Business Pages over 3G and 4G mobile networks. Multimedia on-demand and live services over 3G and 4G mobiles will be enhanced. New methods for low volume, high information transfer multimedia transactions will be developed. This will create new jobs in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector. Progressive transmission of street directory assistance and business pages information to mobile handsets will enable citizens to make efficient use of their time and improve productivity. The 3G and 4G cellular telephone network, extended with 'mobile' base stations and satellite links, are especially attractive to a large country like Australia. Interactive information retrieval will become more universal and not limited through wired Internet connections.
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Automatic audio segmentation, classification, identification, search and retrieval. The research aims to develop generic tools for automated audio segmentation, classification, identification and search, with lowest possible computational complexity and highest accuracy and speed. The tools will be applicable to audio archive management, search of audio material over WWW and personal archives of music and audio-assisted video analysis. The industry will use the tools for automated broadcast ve ....Automatic audio segmentation, classification, identification, search and retrieval. The research aims to develop generic tools for automated audio segmentation, classification, identification and search, with lowest possible computational complexity and highest accuracy and speed. The tools will be applicable to audio archive management, search of audio material over WWW and personal archives of music and audio-assisted video analysis. The industry will use the tools for automated broadcast verification and identification for copyright surveillance and calculation of royalty payments, aiming to penetrate both Australian and overseas markets. The area of real-time audio scene analysis is in its infancy and the research aims to make significant contributions to this area.Read moreRead less
Tooth-mic Devices for Monitoring the Efficacy of Home-based Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Technology. Over 800,000 Australians suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA patients use twice the health resources compared to healthy people. They are 7 times more likely to cause traffic accidents; in NSW up to 43000 accidents/year are due to OSA. OSA is treatable & consequences such as strokes, diabetes & heart attacks are preventable. The standard OSA treatment is home-based Contin ....Tooth-mic Devices for Monitoring the Efficacy of Home-based Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Technology. Over 800,000 Australians suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA patients use twice the health resources compared to healthy people. They are 7 times more likely to cause traffic accidents; in NSW up to 43000 accidents/year are due to OSA. OSA is treatable & consequences such as strokes, diabetes & heart attacks are preventable. The standard OSA treatment is home-based Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy. Unfortunately, no effective technique exists to measure the efficacy of the treatment. We propose enabling solutions to this problem via developing technology centered on breathing sound analysis. The project proposes joint work with a US-company facilitating access to advanced technology highly beneficial to Australia.Read moreRead less
Innovations in Clinical Education for Physiotherapy Students. Australia has workforce shortages and an ageing population. Physiotherapists are key players in promoting and maintaining good health through their leadership in physical activity and rehabilitation to retain Australians in the workforce and to ensure quality of life for our ageing population. There is a national shortage of physiotherapists. Increasing numbers of physiotherapists are being trained, requiring new models of clinical tr ....Innovations in Clinical Education for Physiotherapy Students. Australia has workforce shortages and an ageing population. Physiotherapists are key players in promoting and maintaining good health through their leadership in physical activity and rehabilitation to retain Australians in the workforce and to ensure quality of life for our ageing population. There is a national shortage of physiotherapists. Increasing numbers of physiotherapists are being trained, requiring new models of clinical training as there is no capacity in conventional training to cope with student numbers. This research will develop and evaluate new models of training incorporating standardised patients (actors) and simulators (mannequins) which increase education capacity. Models are transferable to other health professions.Read moreRead less
Bilateral Cochlear Implants for Children: Does a Second Implant Improve Language, Psychosocial and Other Outcomes? Severe-profound congenital hearing loss engenders significant costs to society. In 2005, specialised education cost -- on average $25,000 per child, loss of productivity cost -- $6.7 billion, and social security benefits were paid to approximately 129,000 individuals who were unemployed due to hearing loss. If bilateral cochlear implantation results in improved language, social dev ....Bilateral Cochlear Implants for Children: Does a Second Implant Improve Language, Psychosocial and Other Outcomes? Severe-profound congenital hearing loss engenders significant costs to society. In 2005, specialised education cost -- on average $25,000 per child, loss of productivity cost -- $6.7 billion, and social security benefits were paid to approximately 129,000 individuals who were unemployed due to hearing loss. If bilateral cochlear implantation results in improved language, social development, and academic outcomes, the community benefits arising will be greatly improved quality of life for these individuals and significant savings to society. In partnership with Cochlear Ltd, this study will provide some of the first data worldwide comparing the effects of an additional implant on language, social and educational outcomes.Read moreRead less
Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in her ....Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in heritage languages. Benefits include a pivotal contribution to early childhood education with the creation of a tailor-made, principle-based program, which will enhance children’s academic achievement, familial social and mental wellbeing, and cultural and economic opportunities for all Australians. Read moreRead less
Multi-modal, Multi-dimensional Virtual Microscopy for Diagnostic Quantitative Pathology. This project will contribute to the development of a new generation of virtual microscopy (VM) systems that provide new and innovative features capable of significantly increasing the adoption of digital imaging technology throughout the field of pathology. These systems have the potential to significantly enhance the efficiency and efficacy of not only primary diagnostic workflows, but also aspects of profi ....Multi-modal, Multi-dimensional Virtual Microscopy for Diagnostic Quantitative Pathology. This project will contribute to the development of a new generation of virtual microscopy (VM) systems that provide new and innovative features capable of significantly increasing the adoption of digital imaging technology throughout the field of pathology. These systems have the potential to significantly enhance the efficiency and efficacy of not only primary diagnostic workflows, but also aspects of proficiency testing and continuing education vital for a vibrant, well regulated discipline. In addition, the project will contribute to our knowledge of the pathology assessed in the screening and diagnosis of cancers such as cervical, lung and bladder cancers.Read moreRead less
Privacy Preserving Data Sharing in Electronic Health Environment. This project aims to improve access to electronic health data (EHD) while still ensuring patient privacy. EHD can provide important information for medical research and health-care resource allocations. However, data sharing in electronic health environments is challenging because of the privacy concerns of customers. Large-scale unauthorised access from internal staff has been reported in Medicare. This project aims to develop ne ....Privacy Preserving Data Sharing in Electronic Health Environment. This project aims to improve access to electronic health data (EHD) while still ensuring patient privacy. EHD can provide important information for medical research and health-care resource allocations. However, data sharing in electronic health environments is challenging because of the privacy concerns of customers. Large-scale unauthorised access from internal staff has been reported in Medicare. This project aims to develop new privacy-preserving algorithms on EHD database federations, which can provide efficient data access yet block inside attacks. It will significantly improve the data available for medical research, while reducing the cost of EHD system management and providing visualised decision supports to medical staff and the government health resource planners.Read moreRead less