The Role of Colour and Luminance in Spatial Location. How does the brain form our impression of the world? Black and white images appear normal to us. However, colour images without luminance variation have little depth, suggesting that the brain does not process colour in the same way as luminance. A series of fresh experiments examine how colour and luminance are utilised for seeing the depth and position of objects. The results will help us to understand how the first stages of visual process ....The Role of Colour and Luminance in Spatial Location. How does the brain form our impression of the world? Black and white images appear normal to us. However, colour images without luminance variation have little depth, suggesting that the brain does not process colour in the same way as luminance. A series of fresh experiments examine how colour and luminance are utilised for seeing the depth and position of objects. The results will help us to understand how the first stages of visual processing in the brain shape our sense of the world, and help develop theories of human vision, as well as animal and machine models of vision.Read moreRead less
Natural form, aesthetics and the human brain. This project aims to study how the brain represents the emotion of aesthetic experience. This project will establish the characteristics of flowers and floral design that govern their appeal using large scale web based data collection, and identify the neural representation of floral beauty using integrative data analysis. Outcomes of the project are expected to help flower growers and designers with product planning, supporting industry sustainabili ....Natural form, aesthetics and the human brain. This project aims to study how the brain represents the emotion of aesthetic experience. This project will establish the characteristics of flowers and floral design that govern their appeal using large scale web based data collection, and identify the neural representation of floral beauty using integrative data analysis. Outcomes of the project are expected to help flower growers and designers with product planning, supporting industry sustainability. The project will also establish how the brain generates positive experience in response to our visual environment, promoting well-being by enabling informed visual design decisions.Read moreRead less
Detection and Quantification of General Fetal Movements from Accelerometer Measurements using Nonstationary Signal Processing Techniques. There are approximately 1,750 fetal deaths per year in Australian with about one-third occurring late in gestation and without an apparent cause. The development of an automated system capable of long-term monitoring of fetal health will result in accurate diagnoses and prediction of future outcome. This will, in turn, allow early intervention by the clinicia ....Detection and Quantification of General Fetal Movements from Accelerometer Measurements using Nonstationary Signal Processing Techniques. There are approximately 1,750 fetal deaths per year in Australian with about one-third occurring late in gestation and without an apparent cause. The development of an automated system capable of long-term monitoring of fetal health will result in accurate diagnoses and prediction of future outcome. This will, in turn, allow early intervention by the clinician to reduce fetal deaths and enhance the chances of good outcomes with resultant savings in social and financial costs to the community. The development of such equipment would spawn future research into intervention treatments and contribute to Australia's position as a world leader in computerised health monitoring systems.Read moreRead less
A study of the potential for the public to be involved in the design of large scale public works. Public acceptability of infrastructure such as desalination plants or new public spaces, is a concern for the Australian Commonwealth and State Governments. However, tensions exist between the need for expedient planning and development of critical public infrastructure and Australian principles of democratic social and economic participation. The instrument developed by this research will inform pu ....A study of the potential for the public to be involved in the design of large scale public works. Public acceptability of infrastructure such as desalination plants or new public spaces, is a concern for the Australian Commonwealth and State Governments. However, tensions exist between the need for expedient planning and development of critical public infrastructure and Australian principles of democratic social and economic participation. The instrument developed by this research will inform public policy to negotiate and understand arrangements that balance social participation with Government objectives.Read moreRead less
Functional imaging of colour pathways in the living eye. In order to repair or regenerate a diseased eye, we require knowledge of the normal pattern or nerve cell connections, and knowing how biology solves the problem of colour vision can be used to improve the design of artificial vision systems. The adaptive optics machine we will build in this project can be used to image nerve cells, fine blood vessels, and nerve fibre bundles in the normal and diseased eye. This will improve Australia's re ....Functional imaging of colour pathways in the living eye. In order to repair or regenerate a diseased eye, we require knowledge of the normal pattern or nerve cell connections, and knowing how biology solves the problem of colour vision can be used to improve the design of artificial vision systems. The adaptive optics machine we will build in this project can be used to image nerve cells, fine blood vessels, and nerve fibre bundles in the normal and diseased eye. This will improve Australia's research and development capacity in this new area of medical diagnostics. Our machine will be made available to other Australian laboratories and will improve the national capacity for making further scientific discoveries about how the visual system works.Read moreRead less
Multiview video coding using cuboid data compression. This project investigates novel approaches to multiview video coding that use new data compression techniques and explicit occlusion handling. These new approaches complement the state-of-the-art, improving interactivity with instantaneous view change and VCR functionality, reducing encoding complexity, and increasing compression efficiency.
Structural-functional connectivity in the brain. This project aims to develop magnetic resonance imaging analysis methods to non-invasively study brain connectivity. Recent advances in imaging can comprehensively describe the brain’s complex network of functional and structural connections (the brain ‘connectome’). This project will simultaneously investigate structural and functional connectivity, and characterise the dynamic properties of the connectome using graph-theoretic approaches. This p ....Structural-functional connectivity in the brain. This project aims to develop magnetic resonance imaging analysis methods to non-invasively study brain connectivity. Recent advances in imaging can comprehensively describe the brain’s complex network of functional and structural connections (the brain ‘connectome’). This project will simultaneously investigate structural and functional connectivity, and characterise the dynamic properties of the connectome using graph-theoretic approaches. This project should give neuroscientists computational tools to comprehensively map the network architecture of the human brain.Read moreRead less
Methodologies for face recognition under varying imaging conditions. Face recognition systems are heavily dependent on the nature of the input to the system. Variability in appearance due to changes in illumination, expression, pose, etc. can reduce the recognition results of the existing systems. The aim of this project is to develop new techniques to improve the recognition accuracy in natural environment where unwanted image variations exist. The development of such techniques will be of grea ....Methodologies for face recognition under varying imaging conditions. Face recognition systems are heavily dependent on the nature of the input to the system. Variability in appearance due to changes in illumination, expression, pose, etc. can reduce the recognition results of the existing systems. The aim of this project is to develop new techniques to improve the recognition accuracy in natural environment where unwanted image variations exist. The development of such techniques will be of great importance to Australia's security and safety. The outcome of this research will provide the first steps towards formulating the next generation recognition systems that will improve the suitability of the face recognition for use in security, surveillance, intelligent robotics, banking, and smart environments.Read moreRead less
Efficient multi-view video coding with cuboids and base anchored models. This project aims to address current deficiencies in multi-view video coding technology to achieve the ultra-compression efficiency demanded by increasing display resolutions and synchronised viewpoints. The project expects to generate new knowledge, by moving from the current pixel-centric approach to methods that concentrate information common to many view-frames. The project is expected to improve compression of audio-vi ....Efficient multi-view video coding with cuboids and base anchored models. This project aims to address current deficiencies in multi-view video coding technology to achieve the ultra-compression efficiency demanded by increasing display resolutions and synchronised viewpoints. The project expects to generate new knowledge, by moving from the current pixel-centric approach to methods that concentrate information common to many view-frames. The project is expected to improve compression of audio-visual services that are of great interest to international standards bodies and industry, while facilitating free interaction and augmented reality. This project will provide significant benefits to broadcast, entertainment, surveillance and health industries and position Australia as a world leader in this field.Read moreRead less
Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising ap ....Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising approach, but its accuracy is far from satisfactory. The software systems developed in this project will be used in structural identification of target proteins in drug design. This will make drug design process more efficient, saving time and cost, potentially saving lives.Read moreRead less