Seatfinder monitors seating remotely so patrons can check for availability before they leave home

When students at Stevens Institute of Technology want to meet and study or plan their senior design project, they tend to head for the S.C. Williams Library. Unfortunately, during the busiest periods of the semester, it can be difficult to find a seat. “We noticed that we and many of our fellow students spent precious study time looking for seating in the library,” says team leader and computer engineer Richard Sanchez. Rather than simply grumble and head back to their dormitories, his team dedicated their capstone senior design project to wiring the library with Seatfinder, an innovative way of detecting seat availabilities in the library utilizing image processing to identify the presence of a person in a seat.

VIDEO about Seatfinder

“The Seatfinder team exemplifies the initiative and entrepreneurial spirit of our students,” says Dr. Michael Bruno, Dean of the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science. “They take four years of hard work, and apply all that they've learned to solve really difficult problems in truly creative ways.”

SeatFinder will increase student productivity by maximizing study time and reducing time spent searching for available space. The team hopes to add more cameras and monitor more tables to increase the utility and sophistication of their system. “The scalability of this project is immense,” says electrical engineering major Tony Dominguez. Eventually, the Seatfinder team envisions moving to other venues where space can become scarce, such as restaurants, movie theatres, or parking lots. If the technology is widely adopted, the frustration and disappointment of being turned away at the door or driving endlessly around a lot could become a thing of the past.

The Seatfinder group consisted of Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science majors. Because their project had both a major electrical engineering component and a programming component, the students saw a tremendous advantage in having an interdisciplinary team. “We’re such a diverse group,” says David Leon, electrical engineer. “Working with [students from other disciplines] gives me a greater understanding of their background and gives me a fresh approach to other problems,” says Henry Vizuete, electrical engineer.

With the assistance of their advisor, Professor Bruce McNair, Distinguished Service Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and the Stevens IT department, the team chose an IP camera with network connectivity to capture a live MJPEG feed in the library. “The senior design project is the students’ opportunity to get as close as they can to real-world work experience,” says Professor McNair.

The team’s design approach consisted of four major phases through which the system loops in order to monitor seating: Capture, Detect, Process and Update.

In the Capture phase, the IP Camera connects to the Stevens Wired Network and transmits a live video feed to a remote computer using an open source application called iSpy. During the “detect” phase a Motion Detection region is established behind an individual’s chair, triggering a snapshot of the live camera feed any time an individual leaves or enters the table. The team’s code then processes the image, separating it into four quadrants—one for each seat—and determining if each quadrant is free or occupied. It then updates the website with an image that correctly represents occupied and empty chairs around a table.

“To see our interface changing constantly based on what’s happening in the library is an amazing accomplishment,” says Amilcar Javier, Computer Engineering and Computer Science major. “It’s a great feeling to solve a math problem, but solving a life problem with math, programming and engineering skills is something else entirely.”

Visit the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department or Computer Science Department for more details, or admissions to apply today.

Faculty Position:

Burchard Chair Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering

https://www2.apply2jobs.com/Stevens

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology invites applications for the Burchard Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

• Candidates for this chair must have a Ph.D. in a related discipline and must have a demonstrated record of exemplary achievement and leadership in their field of research. Responsibilities will include research, teaching, and service.

• Successful applicants are expected to be dynamic and visionary and to lead teams of faculty in significant funded research activity. Appointment will be at the Full or Associate Professor rank.

• Key areas of interest include classical core subjects in electrical and computer engineering research as well as emerging important domains such as embedded systems, cyber security, cyber physical systems, virtual reality/simulation, autonomous and adaptable systems, distributed sensing and processing systems, health and medical systems, smart grid, sustainable computing, homeland security, and other areas where electrical and computer engineering plays major roles.

https://www2.apply2jobs.com/Stevens

Please contact Maria Toloza <mtoloza@stevens.edu> for more information.

Stevens Institute of Technology is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and is dedicated to recruiting a diverse faculty community. We welcome all qualified applicants to apply, including women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities.

Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have recently been awarded a DARPA grant to undertake one of the most ambitious challenges ever presented by the defense research agency. Dr. Hong Man and Dr. Yu-Dong Yao, both of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, are helping the US military tackle the incredible task of intelligently managing all sensor and surveillance data collected in their global quest to secure American lives and interests.

"In today's digital landscape we all struggle with information management, but for the military, effective data use impacts decisions that can save lives," says Dr. Michael Bruno, Dean of the Schaefer School of Engineering and Science. "Any DARPA grant is an achievement, but this is particularly prestigious for Professors Man and Yao, given the priority and size of this pervasive problem."

To streamline military data, Dr. Man and Dr. Yao have proposed using cognitive linguistics to bridge the semantic gap between the deluge of raw sensor data and the situation awareness that currently only human analysts can provide. By adding this linguistic framework to the daily flood of information from military radar systems, video surveillance, and audio recordings, the Stevens researchers enable sensors to understand, communicate, and even respond to threats. This unique approach turns a sensor's stream of 1s and 0s into actionable information that can accelerate the decision-making process in critical situations.

According to principles of cognitive linguistics, language is shorthand for our experience of the world, breaking down the complex environment around us into concepts that we can use to reason and communicate. By teaching sensors to linguistically identify primitive concepts—like thing, places, and actions—in their data streams, the systems can then produce a language that functions across sensing platforms and can be made coherent to humans.

"The scope of the problem naturally draws one's attention to the scientific specialty of cognitive linguistics for inspiring insights into the nature of semantic representation as the intersection between human languages (i.e. queries) and technical languages (i.e. sensor data processing outputs)," reports Dr. Man, the Principal Investigator on the Stevens grant.

This grant was made in response to DARPA's Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation and Execution (MSEE) program announced earlier this year. With the goal of centralizing all Department of Defense sensor data and automating much of the data interpretation, it is a program so ambitious that Wired Magazine termed it a search for "a new language to explain everything."

Dr. Hong Man is an Associate Professor at Stevens and directs the Visual Information Environment Laboratory, which researches the integration of visual information acquisition, processing, presentation, understanding, communication, archiving, and user interaction. Dr. Yu-Dong Yao brings extensive industry experience to Stevens as Professor and Department Director for Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Yao also oversees the Wireless Information Systems Engineering Laboratory, providing resources for exploration of advances in wireless communication systems, including performance analysis, algorithm development, and experimentation.

Visit the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to learn more about research and education at Stevens, or Undergraduate Admissions or Graduate Admissions to apply.

Dr. Hongbin Li Wins Outstanding Paper Award at IEEE Africon 2011

As proliferating wireless devices make greater demands on communications spectrum, researchers seek to develop new technologies that allow smarter utilization of these frequencies. Dr. Hongbin Li of Stevens Institute of Technology recently presented a paper on a new method for sensing spectrum use in schemes to dynamically switch between frequencies, in a paradigm known as cognitive radio. In recognition of the quality his research and its applications, Dr. Li received the Outstanding Paper Award at IEEE Africon 2011.

The paper, "Rapid Spectrum Sensing with Multiple Antennas for Cognitive Radio," is a joint work with Dr. Li's current and former PhD students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dr. Pu Wang, now a research assistant professor at Stevens; Dr. Jun Fang, now on faculty at the University of Science and Technology and China; and current student Ning Han.

The research group's goal was to develop a rapid spectrum sensing method by leveraging multiple antennas with efficient algorithms. This combination was selected to overcome the limitations of existing detection methods, which are limited by being either computationally demanding or requiring large amounts of prior knowledge. Dr. Li and his colleagues were successfully able to model a system that could rapidly scan spectrum to determine use, but does not require prior knowledge of the primary spectrum user's signaling scheme, channel information between users, or noise power.

"This research has many practical applications for the coming era of ubiquitous wireless communications, wherein devices will need to be able to rapidly scan spectrum without using enormous resources of data or memory," reports Dr. Yu-Dong Yao, Department Director for ECE. "That they took home this award from a major IEEE event demonstrates the value of the group's research."

Cognitive radio, a term coined by Stevens Vice President of The Research Enterprise, Dr. Joseph Mitola, is an approach to wireless networking incorporating dynamic spectrum access to more efficiently utilize communications spectrum. Beyond enabling more device connections and faster, more robust communications, cognitive radio also lays the foundation for a new generation of flexible and customized wireless services.

Dr. Hongbin Li is a leading individual conducting research that advances fundamental understanding and novel applications in signal processing, sensing, and wireless communications. He has attracted high-profile funding from NSF, AFRL, AFOSR, ONR, and other sponsors, and is Director of the Signal Processing and Communications Lab. Together with his PhD students in the Lab, Dr. Li is developing the software for technologies that enhance our nation's security and communications infrastructure.

Founded in 1983, Africon is Africa's top IEEE event, bringing together professionals, academics, and industry representatives to exchange ideas, present research findings, and to network. Africon 2011 brought together leading individuals from the international engineering community on the theme of sustainable energy and communications development, with special interest in development within Africa. This year's conference was held in Livingstone, Zambia on September 13-15.

Research paper wins ACM MobiCom 2011 Best Paper Award

To increase safety on the road, wireless researchers are looking for technologies that can passively influence the behavior of drivers who put themselves and others at risk through distracting cell phone use. For their paper demonstrating a technique that detects drivers using phones, Dr. Yingying Chen and her graduate students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology recently won the Best Paper Award at the ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom 2011).

"Their research addresses the problem of distinguishing between a driver and passenger using a mobile phone, which is a key milestone for enabling numerous driver safety and phone interface enhancements," says Dr. Yu-Dong Yao, Department Director for Electrical and Computer Engineering. "MobiCom is a competitive and highly-regarded conference for mobile computing and network research, and it is a great honor to receive the Best Paper Award."

The research was led by Dr. Chen at Stevens and Drs. Marco Gruteser and Richard Martin of WINLAB at Rutgers University. The other authors of the paper, "Detecting Driver Phone Use Leveraging Car Speakers," are Jie Yang, Simon Sidhom, Gayathri Chandrasekharan, Tam Vu, Nicolae Cecan, and Hongbo Liu.

The team developed a cell phone detection scheme using an acoustic approach wherein a phone leverages the built-in Bluetooth and car stereo to generate a series of high frequency beeps over the stereo. The phone records these beeps, which are spaced in time across the left, right, and if available, front and rear speakers, and times their arrival. Using a differential ranging approach to estimate the phone's distance from the car's center, a passenger or driver classification can be made.

Although a car is a relatively small space, a moving car with the radio on or windows down is an extremely complex acoustic environment. Despite this multipath noise, experimental trials with the team's detection technique, using two different phones in two different cars, demonstrated that the customized beeps are imperceptible to most drivers yet robust to background noise. They achieved accuracy in pinpointing a driver's phone up to 95% of the time, with a low false positive rate.

Their passive technology approach reflects statistics that demonstrate hands-free phone operation has not effectively reduced phone-related accidents. In 2009 alone, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identified cell phone distraction as a factor in crashes that led to 995 fatalities and 24,000 injuries. And while simply conducting a cell phone conversation provides more than enough distraction to increase a driver's accident risk, the wide range of activities available on mobile devices—including texting, checking email, using navigation, and even playing games while driving—has the potential to create extremely dangerous situations.

Mitigating dangerous driver behavior requires a detection technique such as proposed and tested by Dr. Chen and her colleagues. Their demonstrated success provides a foundation for future applications that will assist drivers to maintain safer cell phone habits.

As an Assistant Professor at Stevens, Dr. Chen leads the Data Analysis and Information Security Laboratory (DAISY Lab), which facilitates research into access and security of data on wireless networks. She has been the PI on multiple National Science Foundation (NSF) grants as well as the recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER Award. Dr. Chen's research addresses wireless security and the challenges faced as wireless networks become increasingly pervasive and ubiquitous. This work supports new approaches to conventional and wireless security by building location-oriented information into the wireless stack.

MobiCom 2011 was the 17th annual iteration of the conference dedicated to addressing challenges in mobile computing and wireless and mobile networking. A premiere international forum on the systems and applications that progress our mobile computing power, MobiCom covers a wide range of topics and is highly selective. MobiCom 2011 was held in Las Vegas from September 19-23.