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Updated: 21-Jan-2010

Research

  Home   >>   Applied Computing   >>   Research

The Applied Computing Department is a young department of modest size but is successful in attracting research funding from various sources in the UK and the EU (including industry, research councils and charitable foundations). It supports a significant range of research interest and over the last few years the number of research students has grown steadily. The Department has a history of involvement in EU framework projects. More recently, we were partners in two EU FP6 funded projects: SecurePhone and BroadWan. We have been working and collaborating with many European research institutions including The Technical University Graz, CNUCE, Pisa, Thales, Thomson, TELENOR, RAL, Salzburg, Telephonica - Spain, Atos Origin, The University of Saarbrucken - Germany, INFORMA - Italy, and ENST - France.

The main research areas of interest in the Department cover image / video processing and analysis techniques and applications; wireless mobile network technologies; and biometric-based authentications for constrained devices / environments. In image processing we mainly, but not exclusively, use wavelet transform techniques for facial feature detection and recognition, online image / video compression for constrained devices, visual speech recognition, feature detection in biomedical images, digital watermarking, content-based video indexing for biometric video databases. In the wireless networking area, our research effort focuses on convergence and integration of different wireless technologies and standards, wireless mesh technologies, intrusion detection and prevention, efficiency and stability of ad hoc networks.

Currently the Department has a number of research groups consisting of 5 research active academics, 12 PhD and 3 MSc/MPhil students at various stages of their studies.

A full description of the Department's research environment, including information about the support available to research students, is available in PDF format: research-environment.pdf (64 KB).

Facilities

A modern distributed network provides multimedia PCs and Linux workstations.

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Staff research interests

The research interests of the Department extend from the 'pure' to the 'applied' and include:

Professor Sabah A Jassim

Head of Department, a pure mathematician by training with strong interest in computation reliant on efficient mathematical techniques and structures. Research interests and expertise include: Group theory and Riemann surfaces; Wavelet-based image processing, Biometrics, Image/video compression and indexing; Watermarking; Feature analysis in biomedical images; Security and performance of mobile wireless networks; Image-quality based adaptive face recognition; Visual speech and word recognition; and Biometric CryptoSystems. He has been involved in EU projects including the FP6 SecurePhone and BroadWan, and is in active collaboration with European universities and research institutes.

Professor Chris Adams

Professor Chris Adams holds the Chair of Computer Science in the Department and is mostly involved in research and the teaching of postgraduate students, both MSc and DPhil. Up until recently he held a joint appointment with the Rutherford Laboratory where he works in the area of high speed computer networks, video compression and radio frequency broadcast networks. In recent years work has focused on a number of EU projects which have included CHARISMA (workflow and electronic documents), INK (video and TV on demand) and currently EMBRACE (broadband radio frequency networks).

Mr Hongbo Du

Mr Du's primary area of research is database systems and data mining. He is interested broadly in data mining techniques and their applications in various problems. He is currently interested in the application of data mining techniques in image and biological data. He is also interested in human-computer interaction and visual languages, and supervising research students in these areas. Mr Du is the grant holder of a European Tempus project (JEP-41058-2006), in developing the MSc in Computer Graphics for the Media Industry at Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, a partner institution of Buckingham.

Dr Naseer Al-Jawad

Dr Al-Jawad has two main research areas; image processing and networks. In image processing Dr Al-Jawad is interested in wavelet-based image/video processing / analysis, feature extraction, image/video feature preserving compression, wavelet based image quality measurements, noise detection, and content-based video indexing and retrieval. The network interest includes cross-technologies wireless networking, and wired & wireless routing. Finally Dr Al-Jawad is interested in multimedia and web techniques research where the two main research areas, image processing and networks, can be pooled together.

Dr Harin Sellahewa

Dr Sellehewa is Research Lecturer in Computer Science conducting research in context-aware biometrics and automated biomedical image analysis and contributes to the supervision of research students. During the latter stages of his DPhil at Buckingham, Dr Sellahewa worked on the EU-funded SecurePhone project as a Research Associate. Besides face recognition for constrained devices, his research interests includes biometric template security and user privacy; sample quality based adaptive biometric systems; automated analysis of biomedical images and biological assays; content-based image/video indexing.

Dr Kenneth Langlands

Dr Langlands is a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in Bioinformatics. His main expertise is in molecular biology, skin disease and bioinformatics including pathway analysis and biomedical image processing / analysis. He coordinates skin cancer research at the Clore Laboratory and has a key role in running an MD course in Clinical Medicine.

We also have a visiting Professor (Professor Choi-Hong Lai from Greenwich University), 2 visiting research fellows (Dr Jeremy Martin and Dr Andrew Edmonds) and 12 research students at different stages of their MPhil / DPhil programmes. In addition, we provide short-term research training for overseas postgraduate students (mainly from the University of Applied Sciences of Wedel, Germany).

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Publications

2009

  • H. Sellahewa & S.A. Jassim, "Image quality-based adaptive face recognition", accepted to appear in IEEE Trans. on Instrumentation and Measurement, Special Issue on Biometrics, 2009.
  • S.A. Jassim, H. Al-Assam & H. Sellahewa,"Improving performance and security of biometrics using efficient and stable random projection techniques”, forthcoming in Proc. ISPA 2009.
  • H. Al-Assam, H. Sellahewa & S.A. Jassim, "A lightweight approach for biometric template protection”, in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing, Security and Applications, SPIE vol.7351, April 2009.
  • A.J. Abboud, H. Sellahewa & S.A. Jassim, "Image quality approach for adaptive face recognition", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing, Security and Applications, SPIE vol.7351, April 2009.
  • Ali Al-Sherbaz, Chris Adams & S.A. Jassim, "WiMAX-WiFi convergence with OFDM bridge", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing, Security, and Applications, SPIE vol.7351, 73510T, April 2009.
  • H. Sellahewa & S.A. Jassim, "Image quality based adaptive illumination normalisation for face recognition", in Proc. Biometric Technology for Human Identification VI , SPIE vol.7306B, April 2009.

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2008

  • H. Sellahewa & S.A. Jassim, "Illumination and expression invariant face recognition: Toward sample quality-based adaptive fusion", in Proc. IEEE 2nd Intl. Conf. Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems 2008, September 2008.
  • Ali Al-Sherbaz, Chris Adams & Sabah Jassim, "Private synchronization technique for heterogeneous wireless network (WiFi and WiMAX)", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6982, 698203, April 2008.
  • Fanzhi Li, Ali Al-Sherbaz, Chris Adams & Sabah Jassim, "Credibility based secure route finding in wireless ad hoc networks", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6982, 698204, April 2008.

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2007

  • A.C. Morris, J. Koreman, B, Ly-van, H. Sellahewa, S. Jassim & R. Llarena, "Global features for rapid identity verification with dynamic biometric data", in Proc. Interspeech 2007, August 2007.
  • S.A. Jassim & H. Sellahewa, "Multi-stream face recognition for crime-fighting", in Proc. Biometric Technology for Human Identification IV, SPIE vol. 6539, 65390J, April 2007.
  • Johan Hendrik Ehlers & Sabah Jassim, "A wavelet library for constrained devices", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6579, 65790P.1-11, April 2007.
  • Fanzhi Li & Sabah Jassim, "Detecting and isolating malicious nodes in wireless ad hoc networks", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6579, 657909.1-7, April 2007.
  • Naseer Al-Jawad, "Exploiting statistical properties of wavelet coefficient for face detection and recognition", PAMM Online Journal 7.1 (December 2007), 1011005-1011006.

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2006

  • S.A. Jassim & H. Sellahewa, "Multi-stream face recognition on dedicated mobile devices for crime-fighting", in Proc. Optics and Photonics for Counter-Terrorism and Crime-Fighting, SPIE vol.6402, 6402-24, September 2006.
  • J. Koreman, A.C. Morris, D. Wu, S. Jassim, H. Sellahewa, J. Ehlers, G. Chollet, G. Aversano, H. Bredin, S. Garcia-Salicetti, L. Allano, B. Ly Van & B. Dorizzi, "Multi-modal biometric authentication on the SecurePhone PDA", in Proc. Second Workshop on Multimodal User Authentication, MMUA 2006, May 2006.
  • L. Allano, A.C. Morris, H. Sellahewa, S. Garcia-Salicetti, J. Koreman, S. Jassim, B. Ly-Van, D.i Wu & B. Dorizzi, "Nonintrusive multibiometrics on a mobile device: a comparison of fusion techniques", in Proc. Biometric Technology for Human Identification III, SPIE vol.6202, 62020P, April 2006.
  • H. Sellahewa, N. Al-Jawad, A.C. Morris, D. Wu, J. Koreman & S.A. Jassim, "Comparison of weighting strategies in early and late fusion approaches to audio-visual person authentication", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6250, 62500C, April 2006.
  • H. Sellahewa & S.A. Jassim, "Performance evaluation of wavelet-based face verification on a PDA-recorded database", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6250, 62500A, April 2006.
  • A.C. Morris, S. Jassim, H. Sellahewa, L. Allano, J. Ehlers, D. Wu, J. Koreman, S. Garcia-Salicetti, B. Ly-Van & B. Dorizzi, "Multimodal person authentication on a smartphone under realistic conditions", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6250, 62500D, April 2006.
  • Fanzhi Li, Xiyu Shi, Sabah Jassim & Chris Adams, "The effect of malicious nodes on the performance of mobile ad hoc networks", in Proc. Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6250, 62500K.1-6, April 2006.
  • R. Ricci, G. Chollet, M.V. Crispino, S. Jassim, J. Koreman, M. Olivar-Dimas, S. Garcia-Salicetti & B. Dorizzi, "The 'Securephone': a mobile phone with biometric authentication and e-signature support for dealing secure transactions on the fly", International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT2006), Setubal, Portugal, 2006.
  • Naseer Al-Jawad, Johan Ehlers& Sabah Jassim, "An efficient real-time video compression algorithm with high feature preserving capability", Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6250, 625002.1-9.
  • Florian Stumpf, Naseer Al-Jawad, Hongbo Du & Sabah Jassim, "Content-based video indexing and searching with wavelet transform", Mobile Multimedia / Image Processing for Military and Security Applications, SPIE vol.6250, 62500Q.1-10.

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2005

  • S. Jassim, H. Sellahewa & J.-H. Ehlers, "Wavelet-based face verification for mobile personal devices", Proc. COST 275 Workshop on Biometrics on the Internet (Hatfield, 2005), 81-84.
  • H. Sellahewa & S. Jassim, "Face recognition in the presence of expression and/or illumination variation", Proc. Automatic Identification Advanced Technologies (AutoID), The 4th IEEE Workshop (Oct. 2005), 144-148.
  • S. Jassim & H. Sellahewa, "A wavelet-based approach to face verification / recognition", Proc. Unmanned / Unattended Sensors and Sensor Networks II, SPIE vol.5986, 77-86, September 2005.
  • H. Sellahewa & S. Jassim, "Wavelet-based face verification for constrained platforms", Proc. Biometric Technology for Human Identification II, SPIE vol.5779, 173-183, March 2005.
  • S. Jassim & H. Sellahewa, "Face verification schemes for mobile personal devices", Zanin, Kurdish Scientific and Medical eJournal 1.1 (Jan. 2005), 21-30. http://www.zaninonline.org/volume/issue001/article04.html (external link).
  • Naseer Al-Jawad & Sabah Jassim, "Feature-preserving image / video compression", SPIE, Unmanned Sensors Network II, vol.5986 (Bruges, 2005), 59860A.1-8.

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2004

  • Martin Dietze & Sabah Jassim, "Filters ranking for DWT-domain robust digital watermarking", EURSIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing (Special Issue on Multimedia Security and Rights Management) 2004.14 (Oct. 2004), 2093-2101.

2003

  • S. Jassim, J. Ma & C. Adams, "A non-uniform wavelet-based video / image compression technique", in Proc. Intl. Conf. Imaging Science, Systems, and Technology , CISST '03, vol.2, 389-95, June 2003.

2002

  • M. Dietze & S. Jassim, "The choice of filter banks for wavelet-based robust digital watermarking", in Proc. ACM Multimedia 2002 Workshop on Multimedia and Security (ACM, 2002), 37-41. ISBN: 1-58113-639-0.

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Financial assistance

Bursaries may be available for suitably qualified graduates who are applying to do research degrees. The availability of bursaries is dependent on external research funding.

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How to apply

Please contact Sabah Jassim or the Admissions Office to discuss your research proposal.

See also: