Research
Research Carried out / Ongoing

• Characterisation and generation of picosecond optical pulses and their utilisation in high speed optical networks. Postgraduate collaboration with Prince Anandarajah. Funded by the DCU Research Committee, and School of Electronic Engineering, DCU.
• All-Optical switching and sampling devices for ultra-high capacity optical communications systems. Postgraduate student: Paul Maguire. Collaboration with Applied Optics Centre, Auckland University, New Zealand. Funding received from Enterprise Ireland International Collaboration Scheme.
• Developing semiconductor devices with high nonlinear absorption coefficients for use all-optical processing elements in future high speed optical networks. Postgraduate student: Paul Maguire. Collaboration with Optronics Ireland, Trinity College. Funded by Enterprise Ireland Basic Research Scheme.
• Developing hybrid radio/fibre based communication systems for broadband local access networks. Postgraduate students: Aleksandra Kaszubowska and Frank Smyth. Collaboration with ESAT Telecom. Funded by Enterprise Ireland Applied Research Scheme.
• Hybrid wavelength and time division multiplexed networks for future Terabit/s capacity optical systems. Personal Research.

• Sol-gel electroluminescent displays. Postgraduate research. Funded by DCU.

• Transient simulation of complex electronic circuits. Funded by Synopsys technologies.

• With Dr Marissa Condon and Mr Liam Sweeney (PEI Technologies). Control of Switched Reluctance Motor / Generator for automobile combined starter/alternator application. Research associate and Postgraduate research. Funded by Enterprise Ireland ATRP Grants
• With Mr Liam Sweeney (PEI Technologies). Generic Embedded Sensor: Interfacing Applications. Research associate and Postgraduate research. Funded by Enterprise Ireland ATRP Grants.

• Leaders: Prof Alan Smeaton, Dr Seán Marlow, Dr Noel Murphy, Dr Noel O'Connor. The FÍSCHLÁR project developed a system which can record and store a broadcast TV programme and play it back to users on demand. FÍSCHLÁR developed techniques to analyse the visual aspects of digital video and choose representative frames to present a browsing interface through recorded material. This project is due to finish at the end of this year. Funded by National Software Directorate.
• Leaders: Prof Alan Smeaton, Dr Seán Marlow, Dr Noel Murphy, Dr Noel O'Connor, Dr Barry Smith. This is a 12 month extension to the original FÍSCHLÁR project which is a collaboration between the FÍSCHLÁR group in DCU and Dr Barry Smith of the Smart Media Institute, NUI, Dublin. The objective of the collaboration is to integrate personalisation functionality into the current FÍSCHLÁR system. Funded by Enterprise Ireland.
• Leaders: Prof Alan Smeaton, Dr Seán Marlow, Dr Noel Murphy, Dr Noel O'Connor, Dr Barry Smith, Mr Joe Carthy. FÍSCHLÁR 2. This is a completely new three year project which takes as its starting point the original FÍSCHLÁR project and its extension. The project aims to greatly extend that work by further analysing the audio, the visual, the combined audio-visual and the text (closed caption) material associated with a recorded programme. Delivery over a number of different mobile platforms will also be investigated. Funded by Enterprise Ireland IP2000 Programme.
• Leaders: Dr Noel E O'Connor, Dr Sean Marlow, Dr Noel Murphy. A-VISAGE (Audio Visual Indexing Adapted to Genre). EU Marie Curie Development Host Fellowship supporting 1 postdoctoral researcher with expertise in the field of audio analysis for a duration of 24 months. The objective of the project is to investigate combining audio and visual analysis techniques in order to detects objects/event in particular types of broadcast television Contents. The results will be integrated into the FÍSCHLÁR system. Funded by European Union.

• With Damien O'Rourke. Compromising emissions from cryptographic devices. Postgraduate research. Funded by AEP Ltd. and Enterprise Ireland.

• Optimisation of Customer Satisfaction for E-Commerce Web Sites. Funded by Albert College Fellowship, School of Electronic Engineering Research Fellowship.

• With HASYLAB-DESY (Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor am Deutschen Elektronen- Synchrotron), Hamburg, Germany. Use of high intensity synchrotron X-radiation for perform state-of-the-art and novel materials/device processing characterisation. Funded by EU and Enterprise Ireland.
• With Optoelectronics Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. Collaboration on synchrotron x-ray topography (SXRT) analysis of materials/device processing. Funded by Enterprise Ireland.
• With Plasma Ireland Ltd., Cork. Examination of failure mechanisms in packaged LEDs using x-ray topography, micro-Raman strain measurements, optical emission spectroscopy and I-V characterization. Funded by EU and Plasma Ireland donation of services and materials.
• With Intel Ireland Ltd., Leixlip, Ireland. Use of synchrotron x-ray topography and micro-Raman spectroscopy to monitor the stress-related impact of copper metallization process options for CMOS processes. Analysis of stress/defect production due to Pb-based flip-chip technologies. Funded by Intel Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.
• Leader: Prof. T. Tuomi, Helsinki University of Technology. Physicalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany. Use of x-ray topographic techniques to verify the crystalline quality of Si single crystals used in the Avogadro Project, which aims to redifine the KILOGRAMME using perfect Si, in order to allow worldwide laboratory-based replication of this international standard. Funded by EU.

• Investigation of Low Power and High Performance Architectures for Mobile Applications. Postgraduate research. Funded by School of Electronic Engineering, RINCE.

• With Dr Ovidiu Ghita. 3D Imaging / Industrial Vision. Funded by DCUET / RINCE.
• Colour Texture Analysis. Postgraduate research: Padmapriya Nammalwar. Funded by Private Donation / DCUET.
• Virtual Colonoscopy in Colorectal Cancer and Polyps. Postgraduate research: Robert Sadleir. Funded by Irish Cancer Society Grant / Health Research Board.
• Real-time Motion Segmentation and Tracking. Postgraduate research: Pradeep PP. Funded by Private Donation / DCUET.
• Automation of Painted Slate Inspection. Postgraduate research: Tim Carew. Funded by EI Applied Research Grant - HE/99/341. Industrial partner: Tegral Building Products Ltd.
• Mobius: A Visually Guided Robotic Mobile Platform. Postgraduate research: John Mallon. Funded by VSL / RINCE.
• Assistive Image Analysis based Virtual Colonscopy (AViC). Postgraduate research: Nicolas Sezille. Funded by Health Research Board (Inter-Disciplinary)
• Morphological Analysis of the Small Intestine. Postgraduate research: Kevin Robinson. Funded by Albert College Senior Fellowship / Mater Hospital.

• Leaders: Prof Alan Smeaton, Dr Seán Marlow, Dr Noel Murphy, Dr Noel O'Connor, Dr Barry Smith, Mr Joe Carthy. FÍSCHLÁR 2: This three year project takes as its starting point the original FÍSCHLÁR project and its extension. The project aims to greatly extend that work by further analysing the audio, the visual, the combined audio-visual and the text (closed caption) material associated with a recorded programme. Delivery over a number of different mobile platforms will also be investigated. Funded by Enterprise Ireland IP2000 Programme.
• Leaders: Dr Noel E O'Connor, Dr Sean Marlow, Dr Noel Murphy, Prof. Alan Smeaton. A-VISAGE (Audio Visual Indexing Adapted to Genre): EU Marie Curie Development Host Fellowship supporting 1 postdoctoral researcher with expertise in the field of audio analysis for a duration of 24 months. The objective of the project is to investigate combining audio and visual analysis techniques in order to detects objects/event in particular types of broadcast television Contents. The results will be integrated into the FÍSCHLÁR system. Funded by the European Union.
• Power Efficient Hardware Accelerators for MPEG-4 Mobile Multimedia. This is a 2 year project funded under Enterprise Ireland's Research Innovation Fund (RIF). The objective of the project is to develop power efficient algorithms and architectures for hardware implementation of specific tools in the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 standard for mobile devices. The project will fund one postdoctoral researcher and two MEng postgraduate students. Funded by Enterprise Ireland.
• MINERVA: Modular Inference Engine for Robust and Efficient VOP acquisition. This ongoing project is a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London and DCU. the objective is to develop a modular extensible and flexible reference system for video object segmentation and to promote this within the EU as the development platform for research in this area. There have been two lab visits to date and the reference software has been adopted by the EU COST 211 project as the basis for its work on video object segmentation.

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  Research visits / Travel

  Barry L
  • Visiting Researcher, Applied Optics Centre, Auckland University, New Zealand, 3 - 25 January 2001. Funded by Enterprise Ireland International Collaboration Programme.
  • Attended the IEEE Laser and Electro-optics Annual Meeting, Puerto Rico, November 2000.
  • Attended 27th European Conference on Optical Communications, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Funded by School of Electronic Engineering, DCU, September 2001.
  • Research Visit to Algety Telecom Research Labs, Lannion, France, September 2001.
  O'Connor N
  • SCHEMA NoE Negotiations. European Commission project negotiation meeting in Luxembourg. Funded by EU SCHEMA Network of Excellence. January 2001.
  Wang X
  • Travel to the IEEE Ninth Asia Test Symposium (ATS'00) in Taipei, Taiwan. Paper reviewer of the conference. IR£1,500 conference travel fund from DCU Research Committee, 4 - 6 December 2000.