I am a Lecturer at Heriot Watt University Heriot Watt University. My main areas of interest are image understanding, sensor fusion and underwater robotics. I am and active member of the Oceans Systems Laboratory and the Signal And Image Group. Finally I am a director of SeeByte Ltd, a Spin-out of the Oceans Systems Laboratory commercialising some of the technologies we have developed.
I hold an Engineering degree in Telecommunications with a specialisation in Image and signal processing from ENSTBr. I also have a M.Sc. in optics and signal processing and a Ph.D. in optical image processing.
I currently manage three EPSRC projects:
This project deals with concurrent sensor registration and fusion applied to multimodal image segmentation and classification. It is a 3 years program funded under the First Grant Scheme Initiative.
WEDDEMI: This project looks at automated detection of concealed weapons using mm-wave imagery. At mm-wavelength, plastic and clothes are allowing the detection of weapons with very little illumination (unlike X Rays). This project is funded by EPSRC under the CRIME PREVENTION Initiative. It is a collaboration with QinetiQ, world leaders in mm-wave imagery.
Sonar MCM: This project is the work of a PhD Student on Mine Detection using Sonar imagery. The technique is model-based and unsupervised and we have consistently obtained results of 80-90% detection and classification on different Seabed using different Sonars.
I am also involved in several other EU funded projects:
AUTOTRACKER: This EU funded project (Framework V) is developing technologies for autonomous survey of pipelines and cables for the off-shore industry. I managed the early stages of the project and supervise the sonar tracking and obstacle avoidance algorithms development.
AMASON: AMASON (Advanced MApping with SONar and Video) provides marine science with an inexpensive, modular, reconfigurable multi-sonar and video sensor system, with advanced data processing algorithms implemented within a geographic information system (GIS). I am supervising the sensor fusion and sonar processing aspects of the project.
ARAMIS: This EU funded project (MAST 3) was a collaborative European project developing technology to carry out integrated multidisciplinary seabed research of physical, chemical and biological processes. I was in charge of the development of an obstacle avoidance system based on sonar imagery for autonomous underwater vehicles.