A floor sensor system for gait recognition

This paper describes the development of a prototype floor sensor as a gait recognition system. This could eventually find deployment as a standalone system (eg. a burglar alarm system) or as part of a multimodal biometric system. The new sensor consists of 1536 individual sensors arranged in a 3 m by 0.5 m rectangular strip with an individual sensor area of 3 cm2. The sensor floor operates at a sample rate of 22 Hz. The sensor itself uses a simple design inspired by computer keyboards and is made from low cost, off the shelf materials. Application of the sensor floor to a small database of 15 individuals was performed. Three features were extracted : stride length, stride cadence, and time on toe to time on heel ratio. Two of these measures have been used in video based gait recognition while the third is new to this analysis. These features proved sufficient to achieve an 80 % recognition rate

A smart environment for biometric capture

The development of large scale biometric systems require experiments to be performed on large amounts of data. Existing capture systems are designed for fixed experiments and are not easily scalable. In this scenario even the addition of extra data is difficult. We developed a prototype biometric tunnel for the capture of non-contact biometrics. It is self contained and autonomous. Such a configuration is ideal for building access or deployment in secure environments. The tunnel captures cropped images of the subject's face and performs a 3D reconstruction of the person's motion which is used to extract gait information. Interaction between the various parts of the system is performed via the use of an agent framework. The design of this system is a trade-off between parallel and serial processing due to various hardware bottlenecks. When tested on a small population the extracted features have been shown to be potent for recognition. We currently achieve a moderate throughput of approximate 15 subjects an hour and hope to improve this in the future as the prototype becomes more complete

Building a Better Naked-mole rat Trap MEMS 411- Senior Design Course

In this paper, we design, analyze, test, and construct an improved naked mole rat trap for Prof. Stan Braude of Washington University in St. Louis

A Third Space in Lewiston: Exploring the Feasibility of Trinity Commons

The practice of “community building” is a complex and intricate mission. For communities that are populated by people of significantly different life experiences, this task may be especially challenging. Intermingling between subcommunities, generations, people of varying income levels, etc may not occur and neighbors may not have the chance to meet and build relationships with each other. This is evidently a huge loss - forging meaningful relationships with the people we share bits of our lives with is an incredibly valuable and rewarding experience. Unfortunately, in the context of the busyness of our daily lives, we are often inhibited from pursuing community building in its many forms. One potential avenue to escaping this cycle of isolation from one’s community is to create a context where community building is not only possible, but easy, simple, and the default. But how can this context be created? As explored by sociologists, this sort of effortless community building can be facilitated by the creation of a Third Space - a location that is distinct from both home and work environments and which is characterized by open communication, mutual respect and trust, and a safe space for self-expression, relationship building, and skill development. These spaces have the potential to create genuine and lasting relationships between community members by providing an equalizing and accessible location to socialize. The city of Lewiston, Maine is a vibrant, diverse, and complex place in the heart of south-central Maine. Previously a mill town, the city is now home to around 36,500 people, nearly 11,000 of whom live in the densely populated Tree Street neighborhood in downtown Lewiston (John T. Gorman Foundation). The Tree Street neighborhood is populated by a wide array of people of all ages, nationalities, races, ethnicities, income levels, etc. Though there are many community based organizations that prioritize community building, the missing piece of the puzzle is a physical location where different groups within the community could participate in classes, activities, art shows, performances, etc together in a neutral, accessible, and equalizing space. Our community partner, Klara Tammany, envisioned such a space existing in the Trinity Church building. Together, our team worked with Klara to create goals. Our project was focused on three main pillars of research: 1) exploring the function of community spaces as Third Spaces, 2) investigating the financial and management structure of organizations similarly situated to their community as Trinity Commons would be, and 3) producing a comprehensive overview of the potential expenses and revenue of the space. Our ultimate goal was to generate an expense report of the space and determine the financial viability of the project

The Scholarship of Teaching: A Canadian Perspective with Examples

Scholarship is the heart of academic work. Recognizing this the Carnegie report (Boyer, 1990) urges universities to extend the definition of scholarship to include application, teaching, and integration, as well as discovery, thereby making it possible to value all academic work. Although this inclusive view of scholarship holds promise, questions remain concerning the scholarship of teaching and how such scholarship differs from the activities which presently comprise teaching. How would scholarship be identified with teaching, enhance practices, and foster the development of teaching? These questions are addressed, examples given of teaching scholarship, and of institutional policies which support it. The enhancement of teaching, as it meets scholarship's criteria, is discussed.Les activités savantes sont au coeur du travail universitaire. Conscient de cette réalité, le rapport Carnegie (Boyer, 1990) incite les universités à définir l'activité savante de façon à y inclure la pratique de l'enseignement, son intégration et ses découvertes-ce qui permettrait de valoriser toutes les facettes du travail universitaire. Bien que cette définition élargie de l'activité savante soit prometteuse, il faut se poser de nombreuses questions sur "l'enseignement comme activité savante" et sur la façon dont cette activité savante se distingue des activités dont l'enseignement est présentement constitué. Comment peut-on incorporer la notion d'activité savante à l'enseignement, et dans quelle mesure viendrait-elle à la fois perfectionner les méthodes pédagogiques et favoriser l'essor de l'enseignement? Cet article se penche non seulement sur ces questions, mais aussi sur des exemples de l'enseignement comme activité savante et sur des politiques institutionnelles qui en font la promotion. Enfin, l'article discute du perfectionnement de l'enseignement au fur et à mesure que celui-ci répond aux normes de ce qu'est l'activité savante

Lightning Talk Session 2: Treating Shoulder Pain collaboratively; an innovative waiting list initiative clinic

Creative collaboration for clinical placements combining physiotherapy undergraduates with a NHS waiting list initiative