The lab is involved in two NSERC CREATE training programs

Brain in Action NSERC CREATE / IRTG Training Program

CREATE Training Program in Vision Science & Applications

This section is for open full-time research positions. For graduate and undergraduate student opportunities see below.

Post-doctoral researcher in S3D media

Post-doctoral researcher in stereoscopic cinema

We are also recruiting graduate students for this project.

Research at York summer undergraduate researcher

Open Research Positions (Filled)

NSERC Program in Computational Approaches to Sensorimotor Transformations for the Control of Action

I regularly employ a research assistant or two under the Research at York programme. Please see http://sfs.yorku.ca/employment/ray/index.htm for postings, typically in early September and at the start of summer term.

I will also consider supervising senior undergraduate projects and theses or graduate projects in:

Undergraduate CS

Graduate CS

Undergraduate CE

Graduate CE

Psychology Honours Thesis, MA, PhD (Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science)

Neuroscience

Cognitive Science

We have excellent opportunities for good Engineering, Computer Science and Psychology graduate students to work on on well-funded projects. Students interested in vision, virtual reality, or eye movements should contact me about these opportunities.

I have active research projects studying time delay in virtual reality, eye-movement tracking, and blur and disparity as cues to depth in computer graphics. There are several opportunities for CSE4080 projects arising from these for interested students.

I also regularly serve as advisor for ENG4000 project teams.

Forest fires are a continual threat to people, communities and natural resources across Canada. Early detection of forest fires, while the fires are still in their emergent stages would greatly improve suppression success and reduces overall costs. It would be advantageous to identify fires early and aggressively suppress them before they become unmanageable. This project seeks to combine advanced airborne imaging capabilities with remotely and directly obtained geospatial data to enable early detection of forest fires.

Undergraduate students will work at development of experimental and interface software, assisting in the conduct of experiments and flight trials, and in data analysis. These efforts will be undertaken either as summer students or as thesis or capstone project students. All these students will work intimately with the partner organisations in collaborative research. Given the large amount of data to be collected in the field we envision a significant fraction of the student’s time will be spent collaborating with partner organisations.

Future stereoscopic content will be delivered on platforms ranging from large format cinema screens to mobile devices. The issues involved in effectively and pleasingly scaling 3D content for multiple devices are not trivial. We will evaluate methods used to achieve 3D delivery on multiple output devices, characterize the viewing geometry, predict perceptual effects of scaling algorithms, objectively evaluate these predictions on depth perception and visual comfort, and modify and refine the scaling algorithms. The student will assist in the software development, experimentation, content creation and evaluation.

Motion sickness and spatial disorientation on entering the space environment are significant problems affecting the availability and effectiveness of astronauts. We are conducting experiments to develop the theory of how astronauts adjust to altered gravity and to study the time course of this adaptation. This will involve developing computer graphics displays, experimentation and data analysis.

In CAVE-like environments human locomotion is significantly restricted due to physical space and configural constraints. Interaction techniques based upon stepping in place have been suggested as a way to simulate long range locomotion. We have developed a new method for step detection and estimation of forward walking speed and direction in an immersive virtual environment. The student will assist in the development and application of these techniques to study human locomotion and navigation in IVY, the six-walled virtual environment at York.

Stereopsis is one of a number of depth cues that help us identify the three-dimensional layout of the environment. In stereopsis, differences or disparities between the images presented to the two eyes are interpreted by the visual system as depth. The goal of this work is to understand human stereoscopic perception and to explore the significance of these results for the design of software and hardware for stereoscopic and immersive displays. The student will assist in the software development, experimentation, content creation and evaluation.

The following are some project suggestions for students interested in undertaking a 408x project with me and some of my colleagues. Feel free to email me ( allison@cse.yorku.ca) or drop by to discuss these ideas or to discuss a project you have come up with yourself.

Required Background: General CSE408x prerequisites

Recommended Background: CSE3431 or CSE4471 or equivalent

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.

Required Background: General CSE408x prerequisites

Recommended Background: CSE3431 or CSE4471 or equivalent

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.

Required Background: General CSE408x prerequisites

Recommended Background: CSE3431 or CSE4471 or equivalent

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.

(co-supervisor S. Rushton) If an object is approaching on a collision course then a critical piece of information is how much time remains before collision? The person or robot can then time interception, deflection or avoidance (think of heading a ball or braking a car). A considerable amount of work has been done by vision scientists and experimental psychologists in the identification of potential sources of visual information (eg looming, changing binocular disparity etc) and algorithms that could be used in calculation of time-to-contact (TTC).

This project would involve taking some of the human vision algorithms and implementing them to produce a robotic TTC system. A stereo head consisting of two computer-slaved cameras will be used.

The student should have taken or be taking COSC 4422 (Computer Vision). Experience with robotics (i.e. COSC 4421) or experience interfacing with hardware would be helpful.

The use of optic flow (OF) systems has become popular in the the guidance of robot locomotion. An initial motivation for the use of OF was the belief that humans use OF during walking, driving etc. Recent experimental work seriously undermines the assumptions that humans use OF. A new account based upon egocentric directions has been proposed instead.

Egocentric directions are theoretically sufficient for the visual control of locomotion. This project involves implementing the egocentric control laws in a robot.

The student will use the mobile robot available in the robotics lab and their associated vision system. The project focusses on implementing the new control laws and builds on existing software for controlling the robots. Some familiarity with robotics, image processing and computer vision is required.

Fusional movements of the eyes are used to align the two eyes on objects of interest. Some children have difficulty in co-ordinating the movements of the two eyes and double vision and other problems can result. These patients are typically required to perform exercises to learn to co-ordinate their eye muscles. Patient compliance is a major problem as these exercises are difficult, time consuming and boring. The project involves integrating the eye movement exercises into suitable computer games for children. We have several ideas for doing this while enhancing the game experience. If this idea is successful it could improve compliance and lead to better treatment outcomes. Students should have taken or be taking COSC 4331 Computer Graphics.

As part of a CRESTech project, we are looking at the performance of sophisticated night vision aids. The student will develop experimental control and analysis software to assist in modelling and simulating advanced night vision devices.