Bio-metrics and Face Recognition Distinguish Lecturer Program, Prof Jean Luc Dugelay, 20 Oct 2015, Kuala Lumpur

Title:  Introduction to Biometrics and Face Recognition

Speaker:  Prof. Jean-Luc Dugelay, EURECOM, France. (IEEE Fellow)

Date & time: 20th Oct 2015, 2.30pm 

Venue: Seminar Room 14-1, 14th Floor, Wisma R&D, University of Malaya - can be accessed by LRT Kelana Jaya (Kerinchi Station)

For more information: koksheik@um.edu.my

Abstract

Face is one of the most investigated biometrics. It includes several advantages. This biometric trait is used by humans themselves to recognize each others; there is neither need of contact nor cooperation from the user. FR is a very dynamic domain. Beyond classical face recognition from still images based on well established techniques (e.g. PCA/LDA), numerous on-going R&D works exist around face recognition. In this presentation, after an introduction on biometrics and in particular face recognition, we will present and discuss some of the aforementioned items illustrated by works performed at Eurecom Sophia Antipolis for several years.

Biography:

Jean-Luc Dugelay received his PhD in Information Technology from the University of Rennes in 1992. He then joined EURECOM in Sophia Antipolis, where he is now a Professor in the Department of Multimedia Communications. His current work focuses in the domain of multimedia image processing, in particular activities in security (image forensics, biometrics and video surveillance, mini drones), and facial image processing. He has authored or co-authored over 300 publications in journals and conference proceedings, 1 book on “3D Object Processing: Compression, Indexing and Watermarking” by Wiley, 2008, 5 book chapters and 3 international patents. His research group is involved in several national projects and European projects. Prof. Dugelay is a Fellow of the IEEE. He is currently the Regional Director-at-Large of IEEE SP R8 (Europe, Middle East and Africa). He is an elected member of the EURASIP Board of Governors. He is/was Associate Editor of several international journals, such as IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and IEEE Transactions on Multimedia; Founding Editor-in-Chief, EURASIP Journal on Image and Video Processing (SpringerOpen); Member, SPS Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Processing Technical Committee (2002-07), SPS Multimedia Technical Committee (1999-2003 and 2005-08), and SPS Information Forensics and Security Technical Committee (2010-12). 

Webpage:http://www.eurecom.fr/~dugelay

Why Journal Paper Gets Rejected?

Peter Thrower, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of International journal of the American Carbon Society, reveals the 8 top reasons so many manuscripts don’t make it to the peer review process. His thought can also be applied to other discipline. Here is the 'Eight reasons I rejected your article':

1. It fails the technical screening.
2. It does not fall within the Aims and Scope.
3. It's incomplete.
4. The procedures and/or analysis of the data is seen to be defective.
5. The conclusions cannot be justified on the basis of the rest of the paper.
6. It's is simply a small extension of a different paper, often from the same authors.
7. It's incomprehensible.
8. It's boring.

read more 

Meet the experts in New SoC FPGA Technologies, November 3, 2015, Shenzhen, China

There will be Altera® SoC Developers Forum(ASDF) in Shenzhen, China on November 3, 2015. The ASDF event gives you an edge in developing your next system design through in-depth technical content and workshops, alone with the opportunity to interact with industry leaders such as Arrow, ARM, Lauterbach, MathWorks, Terasic, WindRiver and more.

Why should you attend?

• Get insightful keynotes from Altera executives and industry leaders on the future of technology
• Get in-depth technical content with presentations from industry experts, and experience a hands-on software workshop
• View leading-edge technology demos from SoC FPGA technology partners

Chance to Win an Apple Watch

Online registration is now open until October 27. Click here to register for the event and secure your seat now!

Digital Fundamentals Lecture Notes

Engineers are responsible for truly understand how their designs work. What do you do when the real-world doesn't match the simulation? As they say in the Army, if the map doesn't match the terrain, trust the terrain.. Therefore, you should understand the analysis, even if the arithmetic was done by a computer. If you don't know how to do at least a reasonable approximation by hand, then how can you trust the result of the program? Learn the fundamental of Digital Logic Design as follow:  

• Number System: Representation and Code(2a)
• Number System: Representation and code (2b)
• Number System: Representation and code (2c)
• Hamming Code
• Boolean Algebra: Theorem and Boolean Function Law (3a)
• Boolean Algebra Calculator
• Boolean Algebra: Theorem and Boolean Function Law (3b)
• Function Simplification: Algebra manipulation and mapping method with don’t care state (4a)
• Function Simplification: Algebra manipulation and mapping method with don’t care state (4b)
• Basic logic gates (5)
• 7400 Series TTL IC
• Combinational circuit (6a)
•  XOR formula
•  Combinational circuit (6b) 
  •  4-bit Adder 
  •  M74HC238 3 to 8 Line Decoder 
• Combinational circuit (6c)
•  74AC32, 74ACT32 Quad 2-Input OR Gate 
• Latches and flip-flop (7a)
• Latches and flip-flop (7b)
• Crystal oscillator
• Sequential Circuit: Clock, counter, synchronous & asynchronous circuit, state diagram (8a)
• Sequential Circuit: Clock, counter, synchronous &asynchronous circuit, state diagram (8b)
• Sequential Circuit: Clock, counter, synchronous &asynchronous circuit, state diagram (8c) 
• Shift Register 

Seminar on Smart City Framework, 10 September 2015, Cyberjaya, KL

MCMC, in collaboration with MTSFB, is hosting a Seminar on Smart City Framework that will focus on  Malaysia's smart city landscape, international guidelines and standards framework available for smart city strategy, planning and development.  This seminar is the follow up to their successful Symposium on Empowering a Smart Digital Nation at KL Converge! 2015.

The seminar will be held on 10 September 2015 at Auditorium, MCMC Old Building, Cyberjaya. There will be 8 presentation sessions and a panel discussion. The tentative agenda for this seminar is as follows:

Time	Potential Topic
8.30	Registration
9.00	Welcoming Remark by Mr. Toh Swee Hoe MCMC Chief Officer, Digital Empowerment Sector
9.15	Official Opening by Dato’ Sri Dr Halim Shafie, MCMC Chairman
9.30	Smart Cities and Smart Communities – How to Make Them Work -      Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
10.00	Smart City Malaysia -      Huawei
10.30	COFFEE BREAK
11.00	Smart City Implementation – Requirements for Standards & Regulatory Input -      Telekom Malaysia (TM)
11.30	Smart City Services Enabled By Telecoms Operators' Digital Platforms -      Analysys Mason
12.00	Smarter Cities Analytics -      IBM Smarter Cities
12.30	NETWORKING LUNCH
2.00	ITU-T Activities on Smart City -      Dr Sang Ziqin, Vice Chairman ITU-T SG 20
2.30	IEEE Activities on Smart City -      IEEE Smart City Initiative
3.00	Smart Community Infrastructures - Principles and Requirements for Performance Metrics -      Mr. Isao Endou, Secretary ISO/TC 268/SC 1
3.30	Panel Discussion Moderator: MTFSB Panel members: BCG, ITU-T, IEEE, ISO
4.15	REFRESHMENT

This event is free to all participants from the industry, government agencies, regulatory bodies, academia, researchers and local authorities. Interested participants can register at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/seminar-on-smart-city-framework-tickets-18430432921 .

Hadoop Tutorial

To understand Hadoop, you have to understand two fundamental things about it. Imagine you had a file that was larger than your PC's capacity. You could not store that file, right? Hadoop lets you store files bigger than what can be stored on one particular node or server. So you can store very, very large files. It also lets you store many, many files.Mainstream business users don't need to know how Hadoop works.But they do need to understand that the constraints they once had on storing and processing data are removed when Hadoop is installed.the business can start thinking big again when it comes to data.There is less confusion than there was 12 months ago. Executives just know that it is a big data technology, and that is enough for them.

The second characteristic of Hadoop is its ability to process that data, or at least (provide) a framework for processing that data. That's called MapReduce. Moving data over a network can be very, very slow, especially for really large data sets. Imagine if you're opening a really, really big file on your laptop, it takes a long, long time. It takes much longer than if it's a short, tiny file.

Apache™ Hadoop® is an open source software project that enables distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of commodity servers. It is designed to scale up from a single server to thousands of machines, with very high degree of fault tolerance. Rather than relying on high-end hardware, the resiliency of these clusters comes from the software's ability to detect and handle failures at the application layer.

Hadoop makes it possible to run applications on systems with thousands of nodes involving thousands of terabytes. Its distributed file system facilitates rapid data transfer rates among nodes and allows the system to continue operating uninterrupted in case of a node failure. This approach lowers the risk of catastrophic system failure, even if a significant number of nodes become inoperative.

Hadoop was inspired by Google's MapReduce, a software framework in which an application is broken down into numerous small parts. Any of these parts (also called fragments or blocks) can be run on any node in the cluster. Doug Cutting, Hadoop's creator, named the framework after his child's stuffed toy elephant. The current Apache Hadoop ecosystem consists of the Hadoop kernel, MapReduce, the Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) and a number of related projects such as Apache Hive, HBase and Zookeeper.

The Hadoop framework is used by major players including Google, Yahoo and IBM, largely for applications involving search engines and advertising. The preferred operating systems are Windows and Linux but Hadoop can also work with BSD and OS X.

Hadoop Video Tutorial from http://onlinetrainingcources.blogspot.in/

1. Hadoop Series Introduction

- The State of Data

- Hadoop

- Series Layout

2 Hadoop Technology Stack

- Hadoop Core

- Hadoop Projects

- Hadoop Incubator

- Stack Implementation

3 Hadoop Distributed File System HDFS

- HAFS Architecture

- HDFS Internals

- HDFS Interaction

4 Introduction to MapReduce

- MapReduce Architecture

- MapReduce Internals

- MapReduce Example

5 Installing Apache Hadoop Single Node

- Installation Overview

- Installing Hadoop

- Hadoop Daemons Stuff

6 Installing Apache Hadoop Multi Node

- Cluster Configurations

- Configuring Masters

- Configuring Slaves

- Cluster Stuff

7 Troubleshooting, Administering and Optimizing Hadoop

- Hadoop Troubleshooting

- Hadoop Administration

- Hadoop Optimization

8 Managing HDFS

- Data Data Data

- HDFS Interacton

- HDFS Management

- Upgrade Process

- Rack Ayareness

9 MapReduce Development

- Development overview

- Configuring IDE Projects

- Writing Testing Jobs

- Running Jobs Against Clusters

10 Introduction to Pig

- Pig Overview

- Pig vs SQL

- Pig Latin

- Installing PIG

11 Developing with Pig

- Loading storing

- Filter Transform

- Grouping Sorting

- Combining Splitting

- User Defined Function

- Debugging/Diagnostics

12 Introduction to Hive

- Hive Overview

- Hive QL-Overview

- Hive Installation

- Hive Example

13 Developing with Hive

- Creating Tables

- Loading Data

- Creating View

- Creating Indexes

14 Introduction to HBase

- HBase Overview

- HBase Architecture

- HBase Installation

- HBase Admin Test

15 Developing with HBase

- HBase Client Loading Overview

- Fully Distributed HBase Configuration

- Loading HBase

- HBase Data Access

16 Introduction to Zookeeper

- Zookeper Overview

- Zookeper Architecture

- Zookeper Installation

17 Introduction to Sqoop

- Sqoop Overview

- Sqoop Installation

- Importing Data

- Exporting Data

18 Local Hadoop Cloudera CDH VM

- Cloudera CDH Overview

- Getting Started with Cloudera CDH VM

- Cloudera CDH VM walkthrough

19 Cloud Hadoop Amazon EMR

- Amazon EMR Overview

- Loading S3

- Running EMR LOB Flows

20 Cloud Hadoop Microsoft HDInsight

- Microsof HDInsight Overview

- Provisioning An HDInsight Cluster

- Administering HDInsight Cluster Running Jobs

GPU Developer Conference, Singapore 27th August 2015

GPU Technology Conference (GTC) is the largest and most important event of the year for GPU developers and the entire ecosystem.This year, the GTC Asia South highlights the growing revolution in deep learning, and how technology enables growing number of Smart Cities around the world.

GTC ASIA SOUTH 2015 TRACKS:

• Smart City
• Deep Learning & AI
• High Performance Computing & Accelerated Science

To learn more about agenda and speakers, please visit GTC Asia South website.

EVENT DETAILS
DATE: August 27, 2015
VENUE: Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre

ARM mbed Microcontroller IOT Device Platform Tutorial

ARM is eyeing on building new operating system, software components, tools and ecosystem that will make creation and deployment of commercial, standards-based Internet of Things devices is possible at scale. The ARM® mbed™ IoT Device Platform has been introduced to make this vision a reality. The design principles of this ARM based platform focus on connectivity, efficiency, security and productivity. For this reason, mbed OS, mbed Device Server and mbed Tools were built. To have insight of this platform, below are video tutorials on mbed microcontroller by Bme Builds:

• mBed Tutorial 1: Getting Started with mBed  
• mBed Tutorial 2: DigitalOut   
• mBed Tutorial 3: Pulse Width Modulation   
• mBed Tutorial 4: DigitalIn   
• mBed Tutorial 5.1: ADC and DAC Introduction   
• mBed Tutorial 5.2: Digital to Analog Conversion   
• mBed Tutorial 5.3: Analog to Digital Conversion   
• mBed Tutorial 6: Serial Communications using mBed   
• mBed Tutorial 7: Interfacing with an LCD Display   
• mBed Tutorial 8.1: I2C Introduction pt. 1   
• mBed Tutorial 8.2: I2C Introduction pt. 2   
• mBed Tutorial 8.3: I2C Introduction pt. 3   
• mBed Tutorial 8.4: I2C Set up   
• mBed Tutorial 8.5: I2C Reading the TCS34725 Spec Sheet   
• mBed Tutorial 8.6: I2C Interfacing with the TCS34725   
• mBed Tutorial 8.7: I2C Reading Data from the TCS34725   
• mbed Tutorial 9.1: SPI Introduction pt. 1   
• mbed Tutorial 9.2: SPI Introduction pt. 2   
• mbed Tutorial 9.3: SPI Introduction pt. 3   
• mBed Tutorial 9.4: SPI Spec Sheet for the LSM9DS0 (Gyroscope)   
• mBed Tutorial 9.5: SPI Interfacing with the LSM9DS0 (Gyroscope)   
• mBed Tutorial 9.6: SPI Spec Sheet for the LSM9DS0 (Accel/Mag)   
• mBed Tutorial 9.7: SPI Interfacing with the LSM9DS0 (Accel/Mag) 

Top 50 Internet of Things Applications

Libelium listed top 50 Internet of Things sensor applications ranking which include Smart Cities, Smart Environment, Smart Water, Smart Metering, Security and Emergencies, Retail, Logistics, Industrial Control, Smart Agriculture, Smart Animal Farming, Domestic and Home Automation, e-Health. On top of the list is the Smart Parking that can reduce the possibility of your car being towed. 

Smart Cities

1. Smart Parking - Monitoring of parking spaces availability in the city.
2. Structural health - Monitoring of vibrations and material conditions in buildings, bridges and historical monuments.
3. Noise Urban Maps- Sound monitoring in bar areas and centric zones in real time.
4. Smartphone Detection - Detect iPhone and Android devices and in general any device which works with WiFi or Bluetooth interfaces.
5. Eletromagnetic Field Levels - Measurement of the energy radiated by cell stations and and WiFi routers.
6. Traffic Congestion - Monitoring of vehicles and pedestrian levels to optimize driving and walking routes.
7. Smart Lighting - Intelligent and weather adaptive lighting in street lights.
8. Waste Management - Detection of rubbish levels in containers to optimize the trash collection routes.
9. Smart Roads - Intelligent Highways with warning messages and diversions according to climate conditions and unexpected events like accidents or traffic jams.

read more at Libelium

Can we convert video images into sound?

Most of us know that sound comes from vibrations. These vibrations create sound waves which move through mediums such as air and water before reaching our ears.But, can we recreate sound from video images? Abe Davis takes one step further to proof his method to these hidden properties. A software called "the motion microscope" finds the subtle motion of a video and amplifies them so that it become large enough for us to see. Thus, it can be used as touch sensor to monitor breath and pulse. The same concept can be applied to what we hear. The motion is used to capture the vibration of sound and turn everything that we see into microphone. Watch the video below:

Reference:

Abe Davis, Michael Rubinstein, Neal Wadhwa, Gautham Mysore, Fredo Durand,William T. Freeman "The Visual Microphone: Passive Recovery of Sound from Video", ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH, 2014,   Volume 33, Number 4, Pages 79:1-79:10

The Internet of Things New Direction

The IoT is advancing and beginning to visualize a very different world. System architects think that it could change change Things, data centers, and even the Internet. The sensor selection can be one thing to watch since a single camera may be able to collect more data, more reliably, than a swarm of simple sensors. If camera is chosen, should we move the raw data up to the cloud for analysis? Or do they design-in substantial computing power close to the sensors? If your algorithm is highly intolerant of latency, you have no choice but to rely on local computing by having hardware accelerators such as GPU, FPGA, or Xeon-Phi chips. But if you can tolerate some latency between sensor input and system response, the question becomes how much, and with how much variation. Here, the limitations of the Internet will become an issue.

Read more

Postgraduate Potluck Event @ FCSIT, UM

A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food prepared by the person or the group, to be shared among the larger gathered group. (Wikipedia).

The Department of Computer System & Technology has successfully organized Postgraduate Potluck Event on the 9th April 2015. The goal of the event is to chill, relax and socialize among Postgraduate students and supervisors while enjoying good food brought by themselves. Other than tasting different types of food from different cultures, this event aims to bridge the gap between supervisors and students, cultivate team spirit and recharge positive attitude. Great thanks to all who have help to make the event a great success.

One head cannot carry an entire roof alone and that friendship means adding value. 

When cobwebs unite, they can tie up a lion. 

Ants united will drive a dead elephant to their abode

Malaysia Public Research Grants Workshop

We managed to conduct grant preparation workshop on the 1st April 2015 @ The Cube, Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare grant proposal for public grants and to expose the post graduate student with grant application. Grants are normally divided into two categories i.e Fundamental and Applied. Fundamental grants focus on fundamental research which questions the proposed algorithm, methodology or approach whether they will work or not. The Applied grants on the other hand looks at how the proposed method can be applied to certain area. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right title and objectives according to the grant applied. The Applied grants are also divided into several stages such as idea, prototype, pre-commercialization and commercialization.  There are also grants which target multidisciplinary research.    

In Malaysia, 2 main public grant comes from Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). Below are the grants

Ministry of Education (MOE)  (MOE Grant Info, applied through mygrants.gov.my)

• Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS)
• Long Term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS)
• Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS)
• Prototype Development Research Grant Scheme (PRGS)
• Geran Sanjungan Penyelidikan (GSP-KPM)
• Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (RAGS)
• Niche Research Grant Scheme (NRGS-KPM)
• Trans Disciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TRGS)
• Research Acculturation Collaborative Effort (RACE)

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) (MOSTI grant info)

• Science Fund
• Techno Fund
• Inno Fund
• Flagship Program

If you're interested to have collaborative joint research project (national/international), please do not hesitate to contact us.

Talk on Approximate Computing & Its Research Potential

Knowledge Sharing Session

Date/Day : 26 March 2015/Thursday
Time       : 12.00 noon until 2.00 p.m
Venue     : The Cubes, Block A, Faculty of Computer Science & IT, University of Malaya
Speaker  :  Dr. Rehan Hafiz

Title: 
Approximate Computing & Its Research Potential

Abstract:

Power & energy is increasingly a first-order concern in computer systems. Approximate computing is an emerging computing paradigm that exploits energy-accuracy trade-offs. This talk shall discuss the various levels at which approximate computing is being explored. There are a number of challenges however when designing reliable systems based upon approximate computing. These include: Isolating & identifying parts of a program that must be precise, defining the correct matrices for accuracy and exploiting the application domain for error resilience.

BIODATA

Dr. Rehan Hafiz is an Assistant Professor (HEC Approved Supervisor)
Department of Electrical Engineering
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS)
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)
NUST Campus H-12, Islamabad


Research Interest:

My research revolves around algorithm development and their digital implementations. Some of my research projects can be broadly classified as:

• Computer Vision / Digital Image / Video / Signal Processing
• Video Mosaics, Image registration, Video Surveillance
• Immersive Environments & Interactivity
• FPGA based system design
• Digital balanced detection for multichannel optical tomography
• VHDL system development for real time Image registration
• Algorithm development
• Game simulation for battlefield simulation
• Analysis of equation generation for GSM A5/2 encryption
• Real time noise suppression algorithm for Laser based spectroscopic and Tomographic application

Specialization:
Digital Image Processing, Computer Vision, Digital System Design

Mobile Application Competition (MyAppsTEC 2015)

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN APPS ASIA – UM MOBILE APPS DEVELOPMENT COMPETITION (MyAppsTEC 2015)

Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya is proudly organizing the Mobile Applications Development Competition challenge, co-supported by AppAsia Sdn Bhd. The competition serves as a platform that allows young talents from schools, colleges and universities in Malaysia to exhibit their creativity and innovative ideas in developing mobile applications.

Participants have the chance to win cash prizes and medals.  This competition is open to all students from schools and higher education institutions, as follows:

- Category A : School/Polytechnic/Matriculation/IPTA/IPTS – Idea Generation of Mobile Application (Fee: RM100)

- Category B :  School/Polytechnic/Matriculation – Mobile Application (Fee: RM200)

- Category C : IPTA/IPTS – Mobile Application (Fee: RM200)

If you or your students have ideas and skills that needs exposure, MyAppsTEC is the right platform to exhibit your innovation. Important dates are as follows:

Registration of products/ideas: 17th February 2015 to 15th April 2015

Competition Day: 9th May 2015

The event will be held at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT),

University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For more information, email us at: myappstec@gmail.com or visit our Facebook at

www.facebook.com/MyAppsTEC or website at URL: http://myappstec.fsktm.um.edu.my  .

Thank you.

International Scholarship Ministry of Education 2015

The Ministry of Education (Malaysia) Communication Corporate Unit is pleased to inform that the online application for Malaysian International Scholarships(MIS) and Commonwealth Scholarship & Fellowship Plan(CSFP) for the year 2015 is open for application. The closing date is on 31 March 2015.

Information regarding the online application can be found at  https://biasiswa.moe.gov.my/INTER/. Any questions can be directed to the officer below:

1. Asnira bt Mohtar (+603-8870 6692, asnira.mohtar@moe.gov.my)
2. Nurfarahin Zainuddin  (+603-8870 6337, nurfarahin.zainuddin@moe.gov.my)
3. Muhammad Nasseri (+603-8870 6368, nasseri.yusof@moe.gov.my)
4. Nazreen Amira (+603-8870 4950, nazreen.rahmat@moe.gov.my)