News and Impact

#24

Best Presentation Award at SenseCam 2012 4th April 2012

Our presentation entitled "DejaView: help with memory, when you need it" was awarded the best presentation prize at the SenseCam 2012 Symposium. The prize was awarded by Steve Hodges from Microsoft Research.

Abstract: Promising findings in the use of wearable memory aids such as SenseCam have been widely reported. However, to date, there has been relatively little consideration of the potential for offering memory help in real-time during daily living. Such assistance, in the form of proactive visual prompts comprising the four reported types of cue (people, places, objects, and actions), could help people with memory problems to immediately orientate themselves in a situation -- supplying details of where they are, or who they are with. This paper reports on the three-tier DejaView system, designed to provide such help.

DejaView works across a wearable device, a smartphone, and a remote computer, simultaneously recording a lifelog, finding appropriate cues from past experiences, and feeding relevant information back to the user. The real-time nature of this system required the design of a new wearable device, similar to SenseCam but more customisable and additionally capable of transmitting data over Bluetooth. Fitting this into the three-tier architecture allows for complex processing in the system without limiting the battery lifetime of the portable and wearable parts.

In the currently-implemented example, photos captured by the wearable device are compared against a database of faces stored on the remote computer. The user subsequently receives information about people around them via their smartphone. More generally, the architecture permits a wide range of intelligent methods for selecting useful cues, based on the user's environment, to be integrated into the system, facilitating the provision of real-time help for memory problems.

For more information, click here.

#22

Invited to give Keynote Speech at EnHaNSS 2012 12th March 2012

This summer, I will be giving the keynote at the International Workshop on Algorithms and Concepts for Networked Sensing Systems Powered by Energy Harvesters (EnHaNSS'12) workshop in Antwerp, Belgium. The workshop is being organised as part of the Internationla Conference on Networked Sensing Systems (INSS 2012).

In the keynote, I will be talking about the holistic design of energy harvesting sensor nodes. Energy harvesting sensor nodes are gaining increasing potential and research interest, but they are inherently complicated systems. Numerous interactions exist between the microgenerator, power processing circuitry, energy storage, processor and radio transceiver etc, and designing and optimising an isolated component does not necessarily translate to equivalent improvements at the system level. Efficient and effective design needs to take a holistic approach, and consider the system's multiple components and their interactions. In this presentation, I will discuss different aspects of this holistic design process, from the design of generators, power processing circuitry and computation units through to system modelling, simulation and optimisation. Some of these aspects will be illustrated in the context of case-studies, both in constrained and real applications, including a wireless sensor performing condition monitoring on a ferry engine which is powered by a tuneable vibration-based microgenerator. I will also present a range of data on energy availability that we have collected, analysed and made freely available to the community.

For more information, click here.

#20

Reseach Featured in 'New Boundaries' Magazine 25th November 2011

Our research on the use of tactile devices in stroke rehabilitation, has been featured in the latest issue of the University's biannual research magazine: 'New Boundaries'. The magazine gives a flavour of the University's broad range of research, which crosses the boundaries separating the traditional disciplines.

The 4-page article from this issue, including an interview with myself, Cheryl Metcalf and Sara Demain, can be downloaded by following this link. An excerpt from this article is shown below:



For more information, click here.

#18

Two Papers Accepted for Publication in IEEE Transactions 26th September 2011

We have recently had two papers related to our work on Energy Harvesting electronics accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems. Both publications are a result of the EPSRC project on 'Holistic Energy Harvesting'.

The first paper, 'Accurate Supercapacitor Modeling for Energy-Harvesting Wireless Sensor Nodes' investigates supercapacitors, often used in energy-harvesting wireless sensor nodes (EH-WSNs) to store harvested energy. Until now, research into the use of supercapacitors in EH-WSNs has considered them to be ideal or over-simplified, with non-ideal behavior attributed to substantial leakage currents. In this brief, we show that observations previously attributed to leakage are predominantly due to redistribution of charge inside the supercapacitor. We confirm this hypothesis through the development of a circuit-based model which accurately represents non-ideal behavior. The model correlates well with practical validations representing the operation of an EH-WSN, and allows behavior to be simulated over long periods..

The second paper, 'Photovoltaic Sample-and-Hold Circuit Enabling MPPT Indoors for Low-Power Systems' presents an ultra low-power maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit with a novel sample-and-hold and cold-start arrangement, enabling efficient indoor MPPT (which has not been reported, or considered possible, before). The circuit is validated in practice, and the sample-and-hold behaviour analysed using real light data.

For more information, click here.

#16

Haptics Research in Government Report 11th July 2011

Our research on haptic devices for stroke rehabilitation has been featured in an annual government report on assistive technology. Our bit can be found on page 51 of the report (follow the link at the bottom of this news item).

The report is prepared by FAST (the Foundation of Assistive Technology), and is an annual publication by the Department of Health (UK Government). The report has a number of uses (including giving researchers an overview of other work in the field, and service providers information on new technologies and devices), but is also used by Government to highlight promising and successful areas of research that may require future funding.

The annual report is published pursuant to section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, and describes the wide range of government funded projects supporting the development, introduction and evaluation of assistive technology that might increase the range of activities and independence or well being of disabled and older people.

For more information, click here.

#14

DATE Paper Nominated for Best Paper Award 18th March 2011

Our 'Holistic Energy Harvesting' project was well represented at the DATE 2011 conference, with consortium members from Southampton, Newcastle and Imperial in attendance.

• Four papers from the Holistic project were accepted for publication at the conference
• The consortium shared a stand with the Energy Harvesting Network, giving attendees to the exhibition the opportunity to see videos, presentations, posters and demonstrators on the project, alongside holding discussions with consortium members.
• Dr. Paul Mitcheson co-organised a special day on "Intelligent Energy Management - Supply and Utilisation".

From the four papers presented at the conference, one ("Accelerated simulation of tunable vibration energy harvesting systems using a linearised state-space technique") is a candidate for a best-paper award.

For more information, click here.

#12

Launch of My New Website 1st January 2011

Today sees the launch of a major website redesign. Visually, it might not look like much of a change, but a lot has changed under the bonnet. Hopefully there's now a lot more information on here and, more importantly for me, it is much easier for me to actually keep it up-to-date... The three most noticeable additions that you may have spotted are:

1. 'News and Impact': a page that contains information on major developments in my research, and specifically some of the ways that this research has had an impact outside of the lab!
2. 'Research Team': a page containing information on my current (and past) team of researchers, PhD students, and intern students. This page also gives information on how to join the team!
3. 'Research': my research page(s) have finally seen a complete overhaul to bring the up-to-date with my research over the past couple of years. Hopefully I'll do a better job of maintaining this from now on!

Now I just need to get around to redesigning and populating the photography section of the website...

For more information, click here.

#10

EH Network Dissemination Event 15th December 2010

Today we announced the Energy Harvesting Network's first dissemination event, which will be held at the IET, London on 7th February 2011. This one-day event will provide a platform for disseminating advances in energy-harvesting technology and research in the UK.

Keynote presentations will be given by Daniel Inman and Rob van Schaijk, and these are supplemented by a full series of presentations by well-respected speakers from academia and industry. There will also be demonstrations from companies and a series of posters from postgraduate students (including a £200 prize for the best poster). We expect around 100 participants from both industry and academia, and PhD students that are presenting a poster can register for free.

For more information, click here.

#8

Tactile Devices Trialed on Stroke Patients 19th November 2010

'Phase 3' of the human evaluation of the haptic devices that we have been developing is now complete.

The human evaluation section of this project had four phases; phases 1, 2 and 4 testing the devices on normal subjects, with phase 3 testing on partipicants with stroke.

The information and feedback that we have received from these trials has been invaluable in influencing the design of the devices, and has uncovered a wealth of information on the sensory perception of people following stroke.

For more information, click here.

#6

Press Coverage for Instrumented Crutches 14th November 2010

My research on instrumented forearm crutches received a fantastic amount of press coverage and public interest. A selection of the online coverage that it received, at least that which I have spotted, is listed below:

• BBC News Website
• BBC South Today [Video]
  Local BBC news for the South of England
• The Daily Mail - Download PDF
  British tabloid newpaper
• The Southern Daily Echo
  Local newspaper
• 'Frontline' Magazine
  The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's magazine
• British Satellite News [Video]
  Free international television news service covering British news
• London Press Service
  Reporting on latest developments in UK industry, science and technology
• The British Council
  The UK's international cultural relations body
• UK Foundation for Assistive Technology (FAST)
  National strategic body on assistive technologies
• The Wessex Scene
  Southampton's student newspaper
• The Engineer
  UK engineering magazine
• OandP.com
  Online resource for information on prosthetics and orthotics
• medGadget
  Independent internet journal of emerging medical technologies

#4

Energy Harvesting Network Launched 1st March 2010

The Energy Harvesting Network, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, was launched on Monday 01 March. The Network is managed by Steve Beeby and Geoff Merrett in the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), and will bring together UK academic and industrial researchers and end-users of energy harvesting (EH) technology.

The Network will define new research challenges and stimulate collaborative research proposals. It will also ensure more effective dissemination on the current and future capabilities of energy harvesting technologies to all potential users in both industry and academia.

If you are interested in joining the Network, please visit eh-network.org/join.php.

For more information, click here.

#2

WiSE Project Day 12th November 2008

WiSE held it's first 'Project Day', an intensive one-day problem-based exercise for PhD students in ECS that are researching wireless sensing related topics. Ten students took part in an intensive day which ran from 8am to 7pm! Two teams were formed, one of which was tasked with developing a piece of clinical equipment (in response to a request from a Surgeon at the local University Hospital), while the other was required to develop a sensor network to monitor our building.

The exercise promoted a wealth of discussion between researchers, and also provided everybody with a great opportunity to familiarise themselves with sensor network hardware and develop practical and problem-solving skills. The following day saw presentations from both teams, who demonstrated that they had developed solutions to their respective problems. The event was a great success, entirely thanks to the efforts of those who took part, with many requests for a similar event to be held in the future... Watch this space!

WiSE (Wireless Sensing in ECS) is an interest group bringing together researchers in ECS. WiSE operates as part of the sensor networks research theme of the PSC. WiSE addresses the 'sensor networks' research theme by bringing together researchers with a common interest in wireless sensing and sensor networks.

For more information, click here.

#23

Energy Harvesting 2012 28th March 2012

Following from the success of our conference "Energy Harvesting 2011", held in London last year, today we held this year's conference. Energy Harvesting 2012 was held in London on 28th March 2012.

Speakers included Prof Peter Woias (IMTEK, Germany), Frank Schmidt (CTO Enocean), Prof Vittorio Ferrari (University of Brescia, Italy), Roy Freeland (Perpetuum) and Prof Eric Yeatman (Imperial College, London).

The event provided a platform for disseminating energy-harvesting advances in the UK, and contained presentations from well-respected speakers from academia and industry, demonstrations from companies, and posters from postgraduate students. Around 100 participants attended from both industry and academia.

The event was very well received by all that attended, and we look forward to Energy Harvesting 2013!

For more information, click here.

#21

Energy Harvesting Network's Data Repository Launched 13th February 2012

The Energy Harvesting Network, coordinated by myself and Prof Steve Beeby at the University of Southampton, have launched the Network's 'Data Repository' - an online catalogue for researchers worldwide to share data on ambient energy availability - for example acceleration levels, solar irradience, or wind speeds. It is hoped that, by using a common dataset, this will encourage the comparitive evaluation of energy harvesters and fuel advances in the field.

Natuarlly, the repository will only suceed if it is adopted by the community and used; hence, we invite everyone working in energy harvesting to contribute data to it, and/or use the data that is available. To kick-start the process, we have made available a selection of the data that we have obtained through our research on the 'Holistic Energy Harvesting' project - this includes vibration data from cars, household appliances, machinary and structures.

See our press release on the data repository on EETimes.

For more information, click here.

#19

Press Coverage for Tactile Devices in Rehabilitation 14th November 2011

Our research on tactile devices for stroke rehabilitation has already received a fantastic amount of press coverage and public interest.

Some of this has been reported elsewhere on this webpage (for example our appearances in BBC radio and the 'FAST' government report), but a selection of the online coverage that it received (at least that which I have spotted) is listed below:

• 'Frontline' Magazine
  The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's magazine
• London Press Service
  Reporting on latest developments in UK industry, science and technology
• The Engineer
  UK engineering magazine
• The Voice (Aug 2011, iss 10)
  The University of Southampton's magazine for staff

I even received an email saying that it had featured as far away as the 'Borneo Post' and the 'Vietnam Tribune' newspapers!

For more information, click here.

#17

Awarded Prestigious Vice Chancellor's Teaching Award 25th July 2011

I was recently awarded a Vice Chancellor's Teaching Award for my work on incorporating online learning into ELEC1032: Engineering Challenges. This module is delivered to all first-year Electronic, Electrical and Electromechanical undergraduates in ECS (in 2010/11, 139 students). It is primarily skills-based and, in previous years, disengagement has been witnessed as the semester progresses. This year, I introduced the delivery of lecture material online with an aim to improve the learning experience and students' perception of the module.

All module material was categorised into one of two equally sized categories: one for background and factual material that could be 'disseminated' to students (to be delivered online), and the other where interaction and learning activities were necessary (to be delivered traditionally). This meant that students could watch these lectures when it fitted their personal learning styles. In a number of cases, the online lecture was used to teach the theoretical principles, while the subsequent traditional lecture delivered linked and appropriate learning activities, thus best exploiting the contact time. The online lectures were delivered using specially recorded videos (supplemented by printable lecture slides and other additional resources) on Blackboard, the institutional VLE. These were strategically scheduled into the module as if they were traditional lectures.

The changes were very well received by the students, with the overall module rating improving from 2.9 (static over the last three years) to 3.8. The changes have given students greater freedom in the way in which they learn, for example allowing them to watch lectures when it best suits their learning style, pause the lecture while they look up more information, and rewind and watch again difficult topics. This has also proved beneficial to international students, as the majority found the online lectures easier to understand, and were able to pause the lecture while they translated unknown words.

For more information, click here.

#15

Tactile Device Research on BBC Radio Solent's 'Drive Time' 5th April 2011

Dr Sara Demain and I appeared live today on BBC Radio Solent's 'Drive Time' show, and talked about our research on tactile devices for stroke rehabilitation.

This follows the a press release earlier in the week, that can be seen on the ECS website or, to give an example, on The Engineer. Our paper, titled 'Design and Qualitative Evaluation of Tactile Devices for Stroke Rehabilitation' will be presented tomorrow (06 April) at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Assisted Living Conference.

The interview aired during the Steve Harris show, between 16:00-19:00 on 05 April 2011. A clip of the radio interview can be downloaded here (copyright BBC, 2011).

For more information, click here.

#13

Haptics Demo in Multidisciplinary Research Week 2nd February 2011

Multidisciplinary Research Week was a programme of activities aimed at showcasing different aspects of multidisciplinary work at the University of Southampton.

As a part of the week, we gave a demonstration of our haptic devices to attendees during a drop in session, where visitors could try out the devices and find out more about the research. We were also able to highlight the benefits that were obtained through a multidisciplinary approach to the research. One of the attendees commented: During the event, we were interviewed by BBC Radio Solent, and gave the reporter a demonstration of our devices. The interview aired during the Alex Dyke show, between 9:30-13:00 on 02 February 2011. A clip of the radio interview can be downloaded here (copyright BBC, 2011).

For more information, click here.

#11

Book on Wireless Sensor Network Applications 31st December 2010

I recently edited a book titled "Wireless Sensor Networks: Application-Centric Design". It is an open-access book, meaning that you can download and read it for free, by following the link below. My contribution (the preface) can also be downloaded in isolation from our ePrints server, at http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/21705/.

This book is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all WSN applications and deployments to date. Instead, it is a collection of state-of-the-art research papers discussing current applications and deployment experiences, but also the communication and data processing technologies that are fundamental in further developing solutions to applications. Whilst a common foundation is retained through all chapters, this book contains a broad array of often differing interpretations, configurations and limitations of WSNs, and this highlights the diversity of this ever-changing research area. The chapters have been categorised into three distinct sections: applications and case studies, communication and networking, and information and data processing. The readership of this book is intended to be postgraduate/postdoctoral researchers and professional engineers, though some of the chapters may be of relevance to interested master's level students.

For more information, click here.

#9

Crutch Research in Government Report 10th December 2010

Our research on instrumented crutches for rehabilitation has been featured in an annual government report on assistive technology. Our bit can be found on page 29 of the report (follow the link at the bottom of this news item).

The report is prepared by FAST (the Foundation of Assistive Technology), and is an annual publication by the Department of Health (UK Government). The report has a number of uses (including giving researchers an overview of other work in the field, and service providers information on new technologies and devices), but is also used by Government to highlight promising and successful areas of research that may require future funding.

The annual report is published pursuant to section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, and describes the wide range of government funded projects supporting the development, introduction and evaluation of assistive technology that might increase the range of activities and independence or well being of disabled and older people.

For more information, click here.

#7

Haptics Demoed at SoNG Outreach Event 18th November 2010

Our interdisciplinary research on haptic devices for tactile interaction was showcased at this year's SoNG 'Outreach' event'. The Outreach event was held to showcase research to both the University and selected school teachers, charities, patient groups and industrialists. At the event, we demonstrated some of the wearable tactile devices that we have produced through the project, and reported on the findings of their evaluation on human participants.

The Southampton Neuroscience Group (SoNG) is a network of more than 100 academics, clinicians, and practitioners. SoNG activities improve opportunities for interdisciplinary research, dialogue with stakeholders and links with the local community through public engagement and outreach.

For more information, click here.

#5

Energy Harvesting Book Chapter 30th June 2010

My book chapter on "Wireless Devices and Sensor Networks," that I co-authored with Dr Alex Weddell and Dr Nick Harris has just been published! The book, titled "Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Systems", is published by Artech House, and edited by Professor Neil White and Dr Steve Beeby. The majority of my chapter is (at least currently) available to read on Google Books.

The chapters of the book are:

1. Introduction
2. Wireless Devices and Sensor Networks
3. Photovoltaic Energy Harvesting
4. Kinetic Energy Harvesting
5. Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting
6. Power Management Electronics
7. Energy Storage
8. Case Study: Adaptive Energy-Aware Sensor Networks
9. Concluding Remarks

"This unique resource provides a detailed understanding of the options for harvesting energy from localized, renewable sources to supply power to autonomous wireless systems. You are introduced to a variety of types of autonomous system and wireless networks and discover the capabilities of existing battery-based solutions, RF solutions, and fuel cells. The book focuses on the most promising harvesting techniques, including solar, kinetic, and thermal energy. You also learn the implications of the energy harvesting techniques on the design of the power management electronics in a system. This in-depth reference discusses each energy harvesting approach in detail, comparing and contrasting its potential in the field."

For more information, click here.

#3

Stands at Technology World 2009 24th November 2009

I have just returned from the Technology World 2009 event, where I manned two stands over the two-day event:

1. The first stand was part of EPSRC's 'Impact!' display, where we presented research on intelligent sensing and energy harvesting.
2. The second stand was for the Electronics KTN on the 'No Batteries Included' grand challenge, where we showcased research on energy harvesting electronics, and gave out information on our upcoming Energy Harvesting Network and Holistic Energy Harvesting projects.

Technology World 09 was held on 23 and 24 November 2009 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. It was a focal event for the ICT sector to showcase the best of UK technology to a national and international audience and to generate business for UK companies.

#1

Seminar Given at CENS, UCLA 30th July 2008

I have spent a couple of days in the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the USA. It's been very interesting, and great to see the place where so much excellent WSN research is being done.

During the visit, Professor Neil White and I gave a seminar to CENS researchers on 'Energy Aware Remote Sensing', reflecting on the work that is being undertaken by researchers within the Electronic Systems and Devices (ESD) group and the Pervasive Systems Centre (PSC) at Southampton.

Later in the visit, we also give the seminar to researchers at the University of Duke, North Carolina.

For more information, click here.