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 ====== Available projects ======
+<html><!--
 The following projects are presented in alphabetical order on the supervisor's last name:
-====== Simulation for Forest Fire Detection ======
+--></html>
-**Supervisor**: Rob Allison
+====== Localizing nodes and tracking targets in wireless ad hoc networks securely ======
-**Required Background**: General CSE408x prerequisites
+**Supervisor**: Suprakash Datta
-**Recommended Background**: CSE3431 or CSE4471 or equivalent
+**Required Background**: CSE4480 prerequisites
 __Description__
-Detection of forest fires is a challenging activity that requires considerable training. The objective of this project is to implement a virtual reality simulation to incorporate key aspects of this task and then to perform an evaluation with a small user study.
+A key infrastructural problem in wireless networks is localization (or the
+determination of geographical locations) of nodes. A related problem is the
+tracking of mobile targets as they move through the radio ranges of the
+wireless nodes.
+If security is not a concern, then any of numerous existing algorithms can be
+implemented to get reasonably accurate location estimates of nodes or targets.
+These algorithms typically involve nodes sharing locations and assume that
+there are no malicious nodes and no privacy issues in sharing locations.
+However, localization or target tracking in the presence of malicious nodes
+or nodes that do not wish to disclose their locations is much more difficult.
-====== Study of self-motion perception in microgravity ======
+This project will look at current research on localization algorithms. The
+student will read papers to learn about existing work and then implement
+a few algorithms to compare their performance. Then, with assistance from the
+supervisor, (s)he will attempt to propose improvements and/or combinations of
+ideas from the papers in a Java/C/C++/MatLab simulator.
-**Supervisor**: Rob Allison
+Expected learning outcomes: Apart from familiarity with the current literature,
+the project will provide the student an introduction to scientific research
+and analysis of experimental data.
-**Required Background**: General CSE408x prerequisites
+Skills required: Proficiency with one of Java, C, C++, MatLab; interest in
+developing algorithms for distributed systems; interest in experimental
-**Recommended Background**: CSE3431 or CSE4471 or equivalent
+approaches to problems.
-__Description__
-This is a computer graphics project to present visual motion stimuli to an observer. The software will experimentally control scene content, collect user responses and control the camera trajectory to simulate the desired self-motion profile.
-====== Stereoscopic cinema calculator ======
-**Supervisor**: Rob Allison
-**Required Background**: General CSE408x prerequisites
-**Recommended Background**: CSE3431 or CSE4471 or equivalent
-__Description__
-Directors of three-dimensional movies sometimes use 'stereo calculators' to compute the simulated depth of objects in the film show to the viewer in order to maximize the stereoscopic effects and maintain comfortable viewing. However current calculators have limited ability to visualize the results of the calculations. This project will combine stereo calculations with visualization software to assist the director in artistic and technical decisions.
-====== Three-Dimensional Context from Linear Perspective for Video Surveillance Systems ======
-**Supervisor**:  James Elder
-**Requirements**:  Good facility with applied mathematics
-__Description__
-To provide visual surveillance over a large environment, many surveillance cameras are typically deployed at widely dispersed locations.  Making sense of activities within the monitored space requires security personnel to map multiple events observed on two-dimensional security monitors to the three-dimensional scene under surveillance.  The cognitive load entailed rises quickly as the number of cameras, complexity of the scene and amount of traffic increases.
-This problem can be addressed by automatically pre-mapping two-dimensional surveillance video data into three-dimensional coordinates.  Rendering the data directly in three dimensions can potentially lighten the cognitive load of security personnel and make human activities more immediately interpretable.
-Mapping surveillance video to three-dimensional coordinates requires construction of a virtual model of the three-dimensional scene.  Such a model could be obtained by survey (e.g., using LIDAR), but the cost and time required for each site would severely limit deployment.  Wide-baseline uncalibrated stereo methods are developing and have potential utility, but require careful sensor placement, and the difficulty of the correspondence problem limits reliability.
-This project will investigate a monocular method for inferring three-dimensional context for video surveillance.  The method will make use of the fact that most urban scenes obey the so-called “Manhattan-world” assumption, viz., a large proportion of the major surfaces in the scene are rectangles aligned with a three-dimensional Cartesian grid (Coughlan & Yuille, 2003).  This regularity provides strong linear perspective cues that can potentially be used to automatically infer three-dimensional models of the major surfaces in the scene (up to a scale factor).  These models can then be used to construct a virtual environment in which to render models of human activities in the scene.
-Although the Manhattan world assumption provides powerful constraints, there are many technical challenges that must be overcome before a working prototype can be demonstrated.  The prototype requires six stages of processing:    1)The major lines in each video frame are detected.  2)  These lines are grouped into quadrilaterals projecting from the major surface rectangles of the scene.  3)  The geometry of linear perspective and the Manhattan world constraint are exploited to estimate the three-dimensional attitude of the rectangles from which these quadrilaterals project.  4)  Trihedral junctions are used to infer three-dimensional surface contact and ordinal depth relationships between these surfaces.  5)  The estimated surfaces are rendered in three-dimensions.  6)  Human activities are tracked and rendered within this virtual three-dimensional world.
-The student will work closely with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at York University, as well as researchers at other institutions involved in the project.  The student will develop skills in using MATLAB, a very useful mathematical programming environment, and develop an understanding of basic topics in image processing and vision.
-For more information on the laboratory: [[http://www.elderlab.yorku.ca]]
-====== Estimating Pedestrian and Vehicle Flows from Surveillance Video ======
-**Supervisor**:  James Elder
-**Requirements**:  Good facility with applied mathematics
-__Description__
-Facilities planning at both city (e.g., Toronto) and institutional (e.g., York University) scales requires accurate data on the flow of people and vehicles throughout the environment.  Acquiring these data can require the costly deployment of specialized equipment and people, and this effort must be renewed at regular intervals for the data to be relevant.
-The density of permanent urban video surveillance camera installations has increased dramatically over the last several years.  These systems provide a potential source of low-cost data from which flows can be estimated for planning purposes.
-This project will explore the use of computer vision algorithms for the automatic estimation of pedestrian and vehicle flows from video surveillance data.  The ultimate goal is to provide planners with accurate, continuous, up-to-date information on facility usage to help guide planning.
-The student will work closely with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at York University, as well as researchers at other institutions involved in the project.  The student will develop skills in using MATLAB, a very useful mathematical programming environment, and develop an understanding of basic topics in image processing and vision.
-For more information on the laboratory: [[http://www.elderlab.yorku.ca]]
-====== Computer pointing devices and the speed-accuracy tradeoff ======
-**Supervisor**: Scott MacKenzie
-**Required Background**: General 4080 prerequisites, CSE3461, and (preferably) CSE4441
-**Recommended Background**: Interest in user interfaces and human-computer interaction (HCI). Understanding of experiment design.  Experience in doing user studies.
-Please click [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~mack/4080/ComputerPointingDevices.pdf|here]] for full description.
-====== One key text entry ======
-**Supervisor**: Scott MacKenzie
-**Required Background**: General 4080 prerequisites, CSE3461, and (preferably) CSE4441
-**Recommended Background**: Interest in user interfaces and human-computer interaction (HCI). Understanding of experiment design.  Experience in doing user studies.
-Please click [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~mack/4080/OneKeyTextEntry.pdf|here]] for full description.
-====== The Algorithmics Animation Workshop ======
-**Supervisor**: Andy Mirzaian
-**Required background**: General prerequisites
-**Recommended background**: CSE 3101
-__Description__
-The URL for Algorithmics Animation Workshop (AAW) is [[http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~aaw]].  The main purpose of AAW is to be a pedagogical tool by providing animation of important algorithms and data structures in computer science, especially those studied in courses CSE 3101, 4101, 5101, 6114, 6111. This is an open ended project in the sense that more animations can be added to this site over time.
-====== Automated Reasoning System for Quantified Propositional Logic ======
-**Supervisor**: Zbigniew Stachniak
-**Required background**: General prerequisites
-**Recommended background**: Passion for programming and experimentation; Some knowledge of propositional and predicate logic
-__Description__
-Quantified Propositional Logics (QPL) plays an important role in a number of computer science disciplines from the theoretical computer science to knowledge representation and verification. There are also a number of open problems concerning this logic, and formulated more than 70 years ago, that can be finally solved (or at least approached) using automated reasoning techniques. The first step in such investigations has to be the design and implementation of a theorem prover, or automated reasoning system, for QPL. Such a system should, in principle, be able to determine whether or not a given formula of QPL is a theorem (or a tautology) in this logic.
-The theorem prover for QPL is to be designed, implemented, and fully tested.
-Background: Various variants of QPL have been formally formulated for the first time in the 1920s by a number of logicians and mathematicians. In modern computer science, QPL plays a significant role in theoretical computer science (proof complexity, satisfiability) as well as in verification and AI.
-====== NABU Network Emulator ======
-**Supervisor**: Zbigniew Stachniak
-**Required background**: General prerequisites
-**Recommended background**: Java (including 2D graphics); Some knowledge of PC hardware architecture; Some knowledge of (any) assembler language is an asset.
-__Description__
-Have you ever considered writing your own emulator of an interesting system?
-There has been a substantial activity in building software emulators of historically significant computers, game consoles, and, recently, smart communication devices. As a result, there is at least one emulator of almost every significant system. This activity contributes, in the first place, to the preservation and dissemination of significant hardware and software technologies. It also allows for cost-effective development of contemporary software and hardware. The project's objective is to design and implement an emulator of the NABU Network -- one of the earliest "proto-Internet" networks. The emulator is to be implemented in Java.
-Background : The NABU Network was designed and implemented by a Canadian company NABU Manufacturing between 1981 and 1983. The underlying idea behind the network was to link home personal computers to cable television networks which would supply a continuous, high speed stream of computer programs and information (at the rate of 6.5 Mbits per second) to almost an unlimited number of users. Cable television was a uniquely ideal technology for NABU to deliver software and data to home computers because of its high bandwidth and networking capabilities.
-After the official launch on Ottawa Cablevision in October of 1983, the NABU Network was introduced by Ottawa's Skyline Cablevision in 1984 and a year later in Sowa, Japan, via a collaboration between NABU and ASCII Corp. NABU Network subscribers could rent or buy a NABU PC and dedicated network adaptor, and use an ordinary television set as a display monitor. Once connected to the network, a user could choose from various application programs and services in categories including entertainment, information and guides, education, and professional programs. Dedicated NABU magazines, newsletters, programming guides, and user groups provided subscribers with supplementary information and support. To learn more, visit [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/museum/research/NABU.htm|here]] .
-====== CPS/1 Emulator ======
-**Supervisor**: Zbigniew Stachniak
-**Required background**: General prerequisites
-**Recommended background**: Java (including 2D graphics); Some knowledge of PC hardware architecture; Some knowledge of (any) assembler language is an asset.
-__Description__
-There has been a substantial activity in building software emulators of historically significant computers, game consoles, and, recently, smart communication devices. As a result, there is at least one emulator of almost every significant system. This activity contributes, in the first place, to the preservation and dissemination of significant hardware and software technologies. It also allows for cost-effective development of contemporary software and hardware. The project's objective is to design and implement an emulator of the CPS/1 computer -- one of the earliest commercially available microprocessor-powered computers.
-BACKGROUND: The CPS/1 computer was designed and built by a Canadian company Microsystems International Ltd between 1972 and 73. The computer was built around the first Canadian microprocessor--the MF7114--one of world's earliest microprocessors. Although none of the CPS/1 computers have survived, technical information about the CPS/1 has been preserved. This makes the design and implementation of an emulator possible. More information [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/museum/collections/MIL/MIL.htm|here]].
-====== Robotic tangible user interface for large tabletops ======
-**Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
-**Required Background**:  General CSE4080 prerequisites
-**Recommended Background**: CSE3431 or equivalent
-__Description__
-Tangible user interfaces provide the user with object that they can touch and use as input devices. One example is the use of (tracked) toy houses to perform a city planning task on a large surface. This project implements a new form of tracking/identification scheme for tangible objects via LED arrays mounted on them. Furthermore, and using robotic components, the tangible objects will have the ability to move around autonomously, which enables important functionalities such as undo and replay.
-====== Different "snapping" techniques in drawing systems ======
-**Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
-**Required Background**: General CSE4080 prerequisites
-**Recommended Background**: CSE3461
-__Description__
-Many graphics programs implement snapping to facilitate drawing. Snapping ensures that end-points of lines meet, that the endpoint of one line correctly "touches" another, that objects align side-to-side, etc. One problem of simple snapping techniques is that one cannot position objects arbitrarily close together - otherwise the snapping technique interferes. A novel snapping technique "Snap-and-Go" circumvents this problem by slowing the cursor over the line, instead of snapping it close to the line. The objective of this project is to implement several snapping techniques for two-dimensional drawing systems and then to perform an evaluation with a small user study.
+References:
+. Multiple target localisation in sensor networks with location privacy,
+Matthew Roughan, Jon Arnold· Proceedings of the 4th European conference on
+Security and privacy in ad-hoc and sensor networks (ESAS'07), Springer-Verlag,
+. Defending Wireless Sensor Networks against Adversarial Localization,
+Neelanjana Dutta, Abhinav Saxena, Sriram Chellappan, Proceedings of the 2010
+Eleventh International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM '10).