Invisanet - 3rd place @ WESC 2005

Project name: Invisanet
Contest: WESC 2005
Award: 3rd place
Alpha Team: Anca Mihaela Hamuraru, Alin-Iulian Lazar, Florin Dinu si Cosmin Nicolae Stan
Mentor: Nicolae Tapus, Vlad Panait
(raport)

In the news:



Abstract:

Aerial reconnaissance has long been a field of engineering research. However, even powerful and accurate systems such as those based on satellite photography are flawed by their latency, cost and availability. Common commercially-available satellite imaging products offer data that is usually several months old and has an acceptable level of detail only for some locations [1]. Real time satellite surveillance is expensive and normally available only to military personnel for national security purposes [2]. There are situations when people need a fast and convenient way to obtain real time aerial images of the surrounding territory, on a small or medium scale, for such purposes as helping people in danger in crisis situations or for industrial applications.
Invisanet (Intelligent Visualisation Aerial Network) is a system that gathers and intelligently interprets bird’s eye views of nearby terrains. It uses a network of aerial units flying at a relatively low altitude that are able to take pictures of the terrain and send them to a ground station for processing and dissemination. The images are automatically adjoined in a broader view based on their relative position and orientation. Users provided with mobile devices can send requests to the system to visualise the incoming images in real time or to indicate areas to be explored. The system elaborates plans and trajectories to cover those areas and instructs the airborne units to follow them accordingly using motion control commands and GPS-based positioning feedback. Advanced services such as pattern recognition inside the incoming images are also provided to the users.
Invisanet is lightweight and cost-effective. It is made up of easy to deploy components:
Airborne Units (AUs) – they are primarily floating helium blimps equipped with an embedded photo camera module, navigational and positioning mechanisms and wireless communication equipment; they are responsible for data gathering.
Communication, Information and Control Coordinator (CIC) – a highly portable unit located on the ground that is built using an eBox II device; it receives data from the AUs, processes it and sends it to system users or accepts requests from the users and envisions plans to accomplish them.
Portable Devices (PDs) – they are provided to system users and consist of mobile platforms; they are used to connect to the CIC and request data or provide control commands for the AUs.
Thus, Invisanet comes with a novel approach to aerial imaging, making it more responsive, accessible and flexible. Its fast response time is critical in certain applications such as search-rescue missions and crisis response in floods or in an otherwise inaccessible territory. As dynamic data is fed into the system users can focus their exploration on certain areas of interest in real time. The ability to use Invisanet to monitor ongoing events makes it suitable for dealing with environmental issues such as cleaning oil spills or for crowd control and security surveillance. Versatility is also an important issue in the design of Invisanet: the system not only gathers raw data but also processes it in order to be mapped alongside geographical positioning information. Furthermore, application-specific processing algorithms are applied in order to obtain pattern or area matching.
Invisanet introduces an innovative approach to aerial imaging that can bring many benefits to fields such as industry, agriculture or the protection of people and of the environment. Its users can thus transcend their field of view, gain a new perspective on the local situation and ultimately expand their horizon.

NOMAD Positioning System - 3rd place @ CSIDC 2005

Project name: NOMAD Positioning System
Contest: CSIDC 2005
Award: 3rd
Team: Doru Arfire, Catalin Ioana, Bogdan Lucaciu, Marius Muresan
Mentor: Nicolae Tapus, Vlad Panait

(raport)

In the news:

9am

Curierul National

Abstract:

In the past few years we have entrusted our orientation needs to the Global Positioning System. Although the GPS is an effective method to determine a person's location, it has its limitations – it only works in open environments and it has limited accuracy.

The NOMAD positioning system was designed and developed to go beyond the boundaries imposed by conventional positioning systems, providing navigation and orientation facilities when and where they are needed. It is inexpensive, completely mobile, it doesn't depend on any external systems like satellites, and it works in almost any environment, including underground locations, large buildings or busy cities with skyscrapers.

NOMAD is an user-centric system that was designed to provide position information by tracking, recording and analyzing the human movement. This is accomplished by the use of a Motion Tracking Unit (MTU) - a small device carried by the user that collects data from high-accuracy sensors (digital accelerometers, compass and accelerometer), processes the information and sends it over a wireless connection to the NOMAD Guide software that runs on a mobile platform.

The NOMAD Guide computes the traveled path in real-time and instantly reports visual mapping information to the user. It can be used for creating dynamic maps of unknown locations, based solely on the paths traveled by the user, or for guided navigation on existing maps.

Mine engineers, military, speleologists are often doing their jobs in the underground, and are subjected to all the specific perils of such activities. Tourists often venture in caves or other underground locations without proper maps, equipment or experience. Almost all large cities have vast underground sewage systems, where technicians perform daily maintenance activities on the various systems running in the underground. Even with a map, these are confusing whereabouts where conventional positioning systems do not work.

NOMAD gives an enriched orientation experience, being not only a navigation guide for the users, but also a mean to include additional information to the map for future analysis. Users can create multimedia maps by adding images, voice or text notes to key points on the location, turning their experience into an expedition journal. Although the NOMAD system is designed to be completely mobile and independent to other systems, it can also be used in a distributed network, where collaborative users cover distinct areas of an underground system. The NOMAD Guide Software allows users exploring the same territory to periodically synchronize their NOMAD maps, sharing the team experience and observations.

Another aspect of the NOMAD System are the on-line communities, meeting grounds for possible underground explorers. This feature is accomplished by the Online Repository, a web-based application that allows users to publish, download and review maps directly from the NOMAD Guide, or from a normal web browser on their desktop computer.

Hello Teddy - Honorable Mention @ WESC 2005

Project name: Hello Teddy
Contest: WESC 2005
Award: Honorable Mention
Team: Andrei Laurentiu Georgescu, Stefan-Valentin Guna, Gabriel Alexandru Ghiondea, Emil-Cristian Bîrsan
Mentor: Nicolae Tapus, Vlad Panait
(raport)

In the news:

Abstract:

Imagine you could be all day near your child, even while working or having to go on a business trip and your offspring has to stay home with its grandparents, your spouse or a baby-sitter. Think of being able to see it any minute of the day or talking to him any time you want to.
Statistics show that in most U.S. homes with two parents, both of them have a job. These parents have to ask for help from a relative, a neighbor or a day care provider. In the world, about 70% of parents place their young children in some type of daily care.
All the people would like to see and talk to their children when they are away from them. Hello TEDDY! is a system that goes beyond conventional boundaries in child care by providing support for these people; it is disguised as a toy (a teddy bear) and it allows parents to closely monitor their children while they are on a business trip and somebody else takes care of their children. Parents can use this system from a remote computer miles away from home and they are be able to watch, listen or speak to their children as if they were one foot away.
Stories are important elements in a child’s life as they develop the child’s imagination and the perception of the surrounding world. That is why Hello TEDDY! can tell such stories either by being programmed by parents or by playing when the child requests with a squeeze of one of teddy’s hands. Using sensors, one can monitor their children’s environment: if the baby-sitter forgets to close the window and the temperature drops, parents receive a notification. Scheduled memos can be stored and played at a proper time so the little ones know when it is bed time or time for dinner. If the children require their parents’ attention, they will be able to call them by squeezing another member of the teddy.
The system assures parents that baby-sitters have an adequate behavior in respect to their children. It has a psychological impact on parents, by making them feel close to their little ones; they will be relieved and they will be able to focus on their work.
It is important to know that Hello TEDDY! does not replace human guidance, but it is only a tool for persons who are taking care of children that can help organizing this activity in a more efficient way. Children will like this “toy” because it is funny and it tells bedtime stories. Just think what an impact advice coming from a toy that resembles the voice and warmness of a parent would have.