Hardware accelerated VST plugins

Dr. Peter Dower (PD4): Douglas Pederick, Lin Yang

VST is a standard for audio processing plugins. These are software modules that provide specific effect processing and analysis functions to sound recording and editing programs. They are commonly used in film and television production, and in recording studios.

Our project implements a variety of VST plugins and an associated Digital Signal Processing hardware accelerator that performs the processing. This frees the PC host processing capacity for improved system performance and reliability. It also means that additional VST processing power can be added to a PC by adding additional accelerators as required for the specific application.

Project challenges include implementation of high speed communications, real time embedded system programming, user interface design, and high speed digital and analog hardware design.

High resolution fibre interferometer

A/Prof. Peter Farrell, Dr. Michael Cantoni (PF2): Justin Chong, Adam Peacock

Optical Fibre interferometers are robust devices which can detect small movements in surfaces. This project involves the construction of a fibre interferometer, together with the associated circuitry and signal processing. The ultimate goal of this project is to use the Fibre interferometer as an optical microphone, by using the interferometer to detect small movements of a glass pane or the side of a speaker box caused by sound, and then analysing the interferometer’s output via signal processing to reconstruct the sound.

High speed vision system

Dr. Michael Cantoni and Mr. David Jahshan (MC5): Ni Ma, Nathan Williams

This is a hardware design that performs object recognition from a colour video camera. The system is designed for use in robots that need to track and identify moving targets.

In the near future, this design may form part of a robotic soccer player. The nature of the design allows it to be adapted for use in a broad range of machine vision applications.

The digital system is implemented using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), which is a configurable hardware device. Multiple sub-systems can be designed to work in parallel. Clever use of parallel algorithms embedded in hardware leads to an effective use of resources and a faster overall system.

For more information, visit the project website.

Higher dimensional Steiner trees

Dr. Marcus Brazil (MB1): Krishna Panyam

The Steiner tree problem seeks to construct a minimal length tree that interconnects a set of points, and has many different applications: communication networks, interstate highway systems, and VLSI physical design.

The problem is NP-hard, which means the only way to find an optimal solution is a computationally-intensive, exhaustive analysis in which all possible outcomes are tested, so polynomial-time heuristics are desired. We use the programming language MATLAB to implement our heuristic algorithm. We will investigate several heuristic techniques for the Steiner tree problem, and hope to find an effective algorithm that will lead us closer to the global Steiner minimal tree for a given set of nodes.

This is a semester-long project, and may not be available for viewing on the day of the exhibition.

Home automation system

Dr. Alan Lee, Mr. Nishaanthan Nadarajah (AL1): Maksym Chamula, Derek Jayasuriya, Tomi Oyekanmi, Lilangie Perera

In Australia, each year there are more than 10,000 residential fires and over 488,000 households that are victims of household crimes. It has been found that over 70% of these events occur when the residents are absent from the home. The Home Automation System (HAS) combats this problem by informing residents of such events via instant alerts. In addition, the HAS aims to improve the quality of life for disabled occupants by providing easy access to common household tasks.

The HAS combines a variety of exciting technologies ? wireless communications, voice recognition, internet connectivity, hardware-software integration and power-line communications to allow users to control lights, doors and household appliances both locally and remotely. Users will receive email alerts of events in the home, for example intruder alerts or fire alarms.

Localisation in sensor networks

A/Prof. Marimuthu Palaniswami (MP1): Matthew Barber, Nicholas Korakis

Sensor networks are an emerging area of technology which enable reliable and accurate information to be gathered over a wide geographical area by distributed wireless sensors. The motivation for our project comes from research at the University of Melbourne led by Dr. Palaniswami into developing sensor networks to monitor the health of the Great Barrier Reef.

Wireless sensor networks rely heavily on the ability to establish the position of individual sensors. We are using Ambient sensor nodes to track the motion of sensors through a small scale (approx 100 m²) sensor network. This will involve testing and assessing localisation algorithms and developing new ones to be deployed in the Great Barrier Reef project.

Localisation using wireless sensor networks

Dr. Mark Morelande (MM3): Ji Xiong Huang, Chris Zheng

Wireless sensor networks can be used in a diverse range of applications. They can be deployed into remote areas with a high degree of reliability and scalability. For example, in air-crash investigation, the position of the black-box can be tracked using wireless sensor networks.

In our project, wireless sensors will be used for acoustic localisation, which involves pinpointing the exact location of a sound source which may be either moving or stationary. When a sound source is detected, the time of arrival (TOA) is calculated for several motes and MATLAB is used to estimate the source. A GUI will be implemented to give a visual description of how the object is located.

Low cost educational hand-held computer

Dr. Jen Davoren (JD1): Duane Leslie, Qiaoyan Liang, Hong Jie Teo

Starting in 2006, students enrolled in V.C.E. Maths Methods will be allowed to use CAS (Computer Algebra Systems) Calculators, and by 2009 they will have to use them. At the moment the recommended calculator for these students to use is the TI-89, which retails for $250-300, and there are few alternatives. The aim of our project is to produce a prototype of a device that will provide a low-cost alternative to the TI-89.

Music signal processing

Dr. Erik Weyer (EW3): Sherwin Chan, David Lee

In some cases one would like to change the key, say from A major to B flat major, of a piece of music stored on a CD and played through a pair of speakers. In this project, development of digital signal processing algorithms will be used to change the key of individual instruments and implement them on a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) board.

Some challenges involved will be to handle the time varying amplitude of the audio signal, the phasiness artifacts introduced when using phase vocoders, and the recombination of the signal during the resynthesis stage.

Although the final implementation is on a DSP, the development and much of the testing of the algorithms will make use of MATLAB.

Nanoscale doping of diamond surface

A/Prof. Peter Farrell (PF3): Alastair Stacey, Jennifer Thompson

Particle detectors can be implemented in a variety of ways. One such way utilises the secondary electron emissions from a material, often silicon, to convert a physical event such as a particle impact into an electrical signal.

Diamond offers many advantages over silicon both in electronics and in detectors, and is rapidly becoming feasible due to advances in diamond growth technology. Our project aims to research the design of a diamond-based detector. We will examine the benefits of diamond over silicon, studying the properties of secondary electron emission and performance and determining some of the operational limits this device would have.

Performance evaluation of telecommunications networks

Prof. Moshe Zukerman (MZ1): Jayant Baliga, Garvesh Raskutti

Our project aims to investigate new methods for performance evaluation and traffic management of telecommunications systems and networks. To this end, we are examining Overflow Priority Classification Analysis (OPCA), which is a new method to estimate blocking probabilities in an overflow network. We are extending the currently published methods for estimating blocking in a distributed server network to general fully-meshed networks, with emphasis on situations where trunk reservation is used. The simulation for this is being done using MATLAB.

We are also investigating topology design in a wavelength-routed optical network, in particular, the degradation of utilisation that results from the evolution of traffic in a developed network. The optimal network architecture will be found by constructing a mixed integer linear program and then solving it using CPLEX. Finally, we will investigate Optical Burst Switching (OBS) as well as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The simulations for this will be carried out using ns-2, a network simulator.

Photonic sensors

Dr. William Shieh, Dr. Manik Attygale (WS1): James Lu, Glen Mason, Abdul Muqaddhim Moosa

The aim of this project is to demonstrate fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) stress sensors. A relationship exists between the environmental perturbations on the Bragg grating structure and the wavelength of light it reflects. This relationship is used to quantify the perturbations.

We will present a multiplexed optical fiber sensor system embedded in a test platform to demonstrate use in buildings for structural health monitoring. This can provide up-to-date condition reports for timely repairs of the building, reducing routine maintenance costs and increasing longevity and safety.

Photonics show for secondary schools

Dr. Sarah Dods, NICTA Senior Researcher (SD1): Chen Haur Chong, Yin-Ming Niu

The Melbourne CSIRO Science Education Centre, the sponsor for our project, run hands-on Science classes and Science & Technology shows that travel to schools with experiments and demonstrations for all year levels. Our task is to work with the CSIRO to develop, design and construct electronic hardware devices to enhance the content of their Photonics show. One device will allow students to see the output of an infra-red remote control through both visual and audio outputs. The second device will allow students to detect the speed of light using optic fibers.

Precision Optimised Tracking and Targeting Opto-Electronic System (P.O.T.A.T.O.E.S)

Dr. Michael Cantoni (MC3): Lawrence Cheng, Ju-Han Soon

Electronic tracking and targeting have become ubiquitous with the proliferation of automated systems in this technological age. One such implementation is in the field of wireless laser communications, where narrow laser beams are required to be accurately targeted onto receiver sensors located some distance away.

Our project, nicknamed P.O.T.A.T.O.E.S, uses infra-red (IR) optical sensors and basic concepts of difference beam-forming techniques to track an IR beacon around its perimeter. A system like this can have a wide array of other functions. These include (but are not limited to) localisation of the sensor or beacon using triangulation methods, angle measurements, as well as detecting the presence and direction of other similar devices.

Pressure, flow and water quality measurement

Ms. Yuping Li (YL1): Muhammad Firdaus Shah Ismail, Muadz Mohammed Zain

Delivery of water to farmers via an irrigation channel relies on gravity – there is no pumping. Water flows along an irrigation channel, and is stopped by a several gates. In this way, water may be drawn out evenly at each gate along the channel. Water levels in each pool are affected by the amount that has already been drawn out, so well-designed controller to regulate gate operation can help to reduce water wastage.

A decentralized control system can be used for this purpose due to its ease of implementation. Decentralised control means that each gate along the channel has its own controller. Our goal is to design a feedback controller and feedforward compartment for this system. We will analyse performance by simulating the water level in irrigation channels using MATLAB.