Svetha Venkatesh
John Curtin Distinguished Professor
Svetha Venkatesh is a John Curtin Distinguished Professor and was recently named a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. To have her work recognised in this way is extremely exciting for the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Professor Venkatesh is also the Director of Curtin's Institute of Multi Sensor Processing and Content Analysis (IMPCA). The internationally-renowned Institute develops technology that can recognise patterns, applying it in the area of intelligent living spaces, content creation, surveillance and process control industries. IMPCA combines the expertise of computer scientists, engineers, process engineers and health specialists, working collaboratively to solve complex technical and social problems.
IMPCA presents exciting new projects for young computer scientists at Curtin. One such project recently undertaken by the Institute is titled Intelligent Surveillance Systems for the Transport Industry, which addresses the Federal Government's need for better transport surveillance in Australia.
The research team, led by Professor Venkatesh, will develop intelligent tools that sense, track and respond to behaviours, affecting the next generation of surveillance systems. Algorithms will analyse and respond to critical patterns of sensor data - for example suspicious behaviour or vehicles stationary in a no-parking zone - and respond to it.
The research team, led by Professor Venkatesh, will develop intelligent tools that sense, track and respond to behaviours, affecting the next generation of surveillance systems.
Another project, known as the 'smart house', aims to improve the ability of the elderly and people with disabilities to have an independent lifestyle in their own homes. The Smart House project is developing an intelligent human behaviour recognition system that can monitor an occupant's activities in a non-invasive manner. A key feature of the system will be a communication loop. For example, if a heater has been left on, the occupant will be alerted by an alarm or a portable phone. If the occupant does not respond, the system may conclude that an emergency exists and call for help. The model has been termed 'emotive computing' due to the internal cycle of monitoring and communication to make sure the situation is normal. Emotive computing is seen as a way to introduce human-like processing to computing.
