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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template
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Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. Emails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact details:
Peter Corcoran
School:
Engineering (Electronic Engineering)
Has project been agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed registration
school?
Yes
Research Centre / group
affiliation:
Consumer Electronics Research Group
Research group / centre
website:
http://www.eee.nuigalway.ie/Research/index.html
http://www.doc.com/Pages/digitaloptics.aspx
PI website / link to CV:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J6YWBB4AAAAJ&hl=en
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cregg
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
IEEE Fellow; more than 200 technical publications, 60+ peer reviewed journal papers, 95+ International peer reviewed
conference papers; co-inventor on 150+ granted US patents. Member IEEE Consumer Electronics Society 15 years.
Completed 20+ major funded research projects; co-founder of Fotonation, now DigitalOptics Corp. Currently Vice-Dean
of Research & Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering & Informatics at NUI Galway.
Research Field C - Consumer Biometrics
Automatic recognition and authentication of persons for consumer applications has been an attractive goal since
the 1980's. Nowadays, with the advent of smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices the potential
applications for robust authentication is even more compelling.
Biometrics in Consumer Electronics (CE): Many consumer electronic (CE) devices now incorporate sensors
which can provide biometric authentication. As examples (i) camera-phones employ camera modules which can
be leveraged to recognize face & iris; they also incorporate audio input and analysis subsystems; (ii) the latest
smartphones incorporate fingerprint sensing; (iii) laptop computers and tablets can also incorporate all three
subsystems and can utilize keystroke verification as a fourth means of biometric sensing; (iv) advanced haptic
and touch subsystems offer new sensing modalities.
Now the accuracy of sensing subsystems and the computing available in CE appliances does not yet match the
requirements of high security biometric authentication systems. However the authentication requirements of
most CE appliances are not at the same level as specialized applications. Simply stated, a CE appliance is
interested in “local authentication” rather than a “global" or "forensic" authentication. Consider the example of
a terrorist identification system: it must be able to uniquely distinguish between billions of individual
signatures, while being able to compensate for variances in the signature of a single individual without creating
an excessive number of false positives. On the other hand a CE appliance need only distinguish between a much
smaller subset of individuals; and in some use cases the device itself forms part of the authentication chain.
Active (foreground) and Passive (background) Authentication Techniques: It is also worth noting that there
are two distinct categories of authentication – (i) active or foreground and (ii) passive or background
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
authentication. In foreground authentication the user is required to perform an active response such as entering a
fingerprint, or presenting their face to a facial recognition system. Most conventional security and
authentication applications fall into this first category. In background authentication the user interacts with the
appliance in some normal activity which is simultaneously analyzed by the appliance while continuing to
perform its normal, expected functionality. Examples of this second mode include (i) a mobile phone which
perform speech analysis while a user is having a conversation on the phone, (ii) a computer that analyzes
keystroke data which a user is typing and determines authenticity based on known usage patterns. This form of
authentication is less well known and is only beginning to be studied in more detail.
Several PhD topics are available in this field.
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:
Work with a world-leading industrial partner in this field.
Access to the latest embedded imaging hardware and consumer electronics technologies, including GPU and
wide-field of view optical systems.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
As above
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
ICT and Engingering students with a background in Image Processing, Embedded Systems
Experience with Matlab and Electronic Hardware design a plus.
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)/Physical Sciences (Mathematics,
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences)
Health and Biomedical Sciences / Clinical, Pré-clinical and Health Sciences
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Computing
X
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals, Minerals Technology
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technologies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
Bioprospecting and Biodiversity
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
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Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): _ ____
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): _____
Suitable for either/Don’t know: __X_