Adaptive learning of spatiotemporal patterns: Development of multi-layer spiking neuron networks using Hebbian and competitive learning. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change in time. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Aut ....Adaptive learning of spatiotemporal patterns: Development of multi-layer spiking neuron networks using Hebbian and competitive learning. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change in time. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Automatic techniques will be used to teach groups of spiking neurons the differences between sequences of events by adjusting connections between them. The significance of this approach is that it captures information about timing that is missed in existing techniques.Read moreRead less
Adaptive learning in networks of spiking neurons for recognising patterns that change with time. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change with time. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Automatic techniques will be developed to teach groups of spiking neurons the differences between sequences of events by adjusting connections between neurons. The significance of this approach is that it captures information abou ....Adaptive learning in networks of spiking neurons for recognising patterns that change with time. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change with time. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Automatic techniques will be developed to teach groups of spiking neurons the differences between sequences of events by adjusting connections between neurons. The significance of this approach is that it captures information about timing that is missed in existing techniques. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role.Read moreRead less
Temporal Pattern Learning and Recognition in Neural Systems. This project is relevant to the National Research Priority area of Frontier Technologies and addresses fundamental cross-disciplinary issues of how neural systems learn patterns that change with time, which is at the cutting edge of intelligent processing systems. Applications are in rapidly growing fields of automatic speech processing, robotics, machine learning and intelligent systems, all with applications in areas of economic impo ....Temporal Pattern Learning and Recognition in Neural Systems. This project is relevant to the National Research Priority area of Frontier Technologies and addresses fundamental cross-disciplinary issues of how neural systems learn patterns that change with time, which is at the cutting edge of intelligent processing systems. Applications are in rapidly growing fields of automatic speech processing, robotics, machine learning and intelligent systems, all with applications in areas of economic importance. Application to cochlear implant speech processing will provide benefit for the hearing impaired. The project will provide students with training at an international level within Australia, thus helping ensure Australia maintains and extends its science and technology base into the future.Read moreRead less
Carrier-scale defence against distributed denial-of-service attacks. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are one of the most persistent and damaging threats to services on the Internet. In recent years, there has been widespread use of DDoS attacks for both financial and political advantage by attackers. The challenge for our Australian industry partner (PowerGuard Pty Ltd) is to continue to scale their DDoS defence platform so that it can be used in much higher bandwidth environments, ....Carrier-scale defence against distributed denial-of-service attacks. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are one of the most persistent and damaging threats to services on the Internet. In recent years, there has been widespread use of DDoS attacks for both financial and political advantage by attackers. The challenge for our Australian industry partner (PowerGuard Pty Ltd) is to continue to scale their DDoS defence platform so that it can be used in much higher bandwidth environments, such as carriers’ backbone networks, or large government and commercial networks that have multiple high-speed links to the Internet. The results of this project will provide an Australian company with a leading position in this important and growing market. Read moreRead less
Pattern-Based Video Coding Techniques for Real-Time Low Bit-Rate and Low Complexity Encoding Applications. This project will benefit the National Research Priority on Frontier Technology with applications in video surveillance, smart home design, and patient monitoring. It will enable Australia to lead the world in setting up coding standards and thus impact directly on the manufacturing initiatives of the multimedia communication and entertainment industries. Telecommunication industries will b ....Pattern-Based Video Coding Techniques for Real-Time Low Bit-Rate and Low Complexity Encoding Applications. This project will benefit the National Research Priority on Frontier Technology with applications in video surveillance, smart home design, and patient monitoring. It will enable Australia to lead the world in setting up coding standards and thus impact directly on the manufacturing initiatives of the multimedia communication and entertainment industries. Telecommunication industries will be the immediate beneficiary by enabling quality live video transmissions at low bit rates in a cost-effective manner. This project will improve the ability of large organisations to operate virtually across huge distances in Australia with the aid of reliable multimedia communications using distributed devices of limited power and processing capacity.Read moreRead less
Robust feature extraction for automatic speech recognition. Speech is perhaps the most natural and efficient mode of communication for humans. Therefore, it has always been a dream for many people to communicate with machines via speech. Significant advances have been made in the last five decades in the area of automatic speech recognition. Though the currently available speech recognisers work reasonably well in noise-free office environments, their performance deteriorates drastically when th ....Robust feature extraction for automatic speech recognition. Speech is perhaps the most natural and efficient mode of communication for humans. Therefore, it has always been a dream for many people to communicate with machines via speech. Significant advances have been made in the last five decades in the area of automatic speech recognition. Though the currently available speech recognisers work reasonably well in noise-free office environments, their performance deteriorates drastically when they are deployed in real-life situations due to the presence of background noise and other distortions. The problem of robust speech recognition will be researched in this project. Read moreRead less
Determinants of Audio-Visual effects in degraded and non-degraded speech. Seeing a speaker's face can affect the perception of their speech in a number of ways. This project proposes a detailed comparison of factors that affect Audio-Visual (AV) facilitation of degraded speech detection and identification. Detection-based tasks should be more sensitive to signal based correlations whereas identification-based effects more sensitive to complementary information. The significance of the current pr ....Determinants of Audio-Visual effects in degraded and non-degraded speech. Seeing a speaker's face can affect the perception of their speech in a number of ways. This project proposes a detailed comparison of factors that affect Audio-Visual (AV) facilitation of degraded speech detection and identification. Detection-based tasks should be more sensitive to signal based correlations whereas identification-based effects more sensitive to complementary information. The significance of the current proposal is that it offers both a strategy and a connected series of experiments for determining key behavioural constraints on AV speech integration. Understanding AV interactions will build links between neurophysiological processes and coherent perception and have important implications for AV application.Read moreRead less
Visual Solutions for Automated Translation Between Spoken and Signed Languages. We propose to build a robust visual speech recognition system that analyzes images of spoken language and achieves a recognition of the utterances with at least human expert recognition rates. This visual speech recognition system will then be integrated with our existing gesture recognition system to improve performance, just as humans combine visual and audio data for language understanding. The result will be a sy ....Visual Solutions for Automated Translation Between Spoken and Signed Languages. We propose to build a robust visual speech recognition system that analyzes images of spoken language and achieves a recognition of the utterances with at least human expert recognition rates. This visual speech recognition system will then be integrated with our existing gesture recognition system to improve performance, just as humans combine visual and audio data for language understanding. The result will be a system providing translation between English and the Australian sign language Auslan in a practical application domain. Significantly, our work will provide insights into the cognitive models of neural activity linking language and gesture.Read moreRead less
ARC Communications Research Network. Building on a strong platform of existing research excellence, the Aim of the Network is to facilitate nation-wide collaborative research, promoting four intersecting research Themes: Mobile and Wireless Communications, Rural Communications, Broadband and Optical Networks, and Fundamentals of Emerging Media. Each Theme is formulated to drive multidisciplinary, innovative research as well as inspire new collaborative initiatives. Four Programs encapsulate the ....ARC Communications Research Network. Building on a strong platform of existing research excellence, the Aim of the Network is to facilitate nation-wide collaborative research, promoting four intersecting research Themes: Mobile and Wireless Communications, Rural Communications, Broadband and Optical Networks, and Fundamentals of Emerging Media. Each Theme is formulated to drive multidisciplinary, innovative research as well as inspire new collaborative initiatives. Four Programs encapsulate the core activities of the Network: Researcher Mobility, Workshops and Conferences, Postgraduate Education, and Knowledge Management Systems. The Network is expected to add significant value to pre-existing investments and raise the profile of Australian telecommunications research.Read moreRead less
Bio-inspired speech analysis: Specialised information processing of vocalisations in the auditory brainstem. This project has the potential to benefit bionic ear and hearing aid users through the development of signal processing methods that mimic the amazing abilities of the brain. Speech perception performance by bionic ear users has reached a plateau and these new strategies could produce the breakthrough needed to provide the next increase in performance. The benefit for greater improved hea ....Bio-inspired speech analysis: Specialised information processing of vocalisations in the auditory brainstem. This project has the potential to benefit bionic ear and hearing aid users through the development of signal processing methods that mimic the amazing abilities of the brain. Speech perception performance by bionic ear users has reached a plateau and these new strategies could produce the breakthrough needed to provide the next increase in performance. The benefit for greater improved hearing has enormous benefit and potential for improving the quality of life of the hearing impaired, especially those with severe and profound hearing loss. In addition, the algorithms may provide more robust automatic speech recognition, making this technology more useful in everyday situations; the markets that this would open up are enormous.Read moreRead less