New Zealand’s premier regional science excellence awards recognised two scientists from The University of Waikato for their exceptional work in the field of science.
According to a recent press release, Dr Lee Streeter received the Datamars Engineering Award for his work with time-of-flight technology.
Dr Matthew Luckie, meanwhile, received the Hamilton City Council ICT Award for his research around the Internet at scale.
- Time-of-flight technology
Time-of-flight cameras have been designed to measure the distance within static scenes. However, they usually cannot interpret scenes with complicated motion.
The world-leading mathematical modelling of the University’s scientist has fixed just that. This meant capturing motion more accurately and with little corruption.
As reported, the scientist is researching ways to improve and measure motion in time-of-flight photography.
The cameras being used for the research measure distance as well as allow operators to see how big objects are, how far away they are, and how flat or how round the sides are.
He is also researching how to use time-of-flight photography to measure distance despite motion, and measure the speed and direction of that motion.
His work has sparked interest from diverse industries and fields that include robotics, herd monitoring and baggage handling at airports.
Additional commercial applications of the cameras include being used on a farm to measure the shape, size and movement of animals to enhance husbandry.
In horticulture, the camera could be used to identify density and flaws in fruit and vegetables travelling along a conveyor belt.
Moreover, big electronic companies are interested in time-of-flight technology, and use it for things like augmented reality, games, and image sensors.
About 10 people in the world are working on the same thing he is. However, he has one idea that he is ready to patent.
He is fairly confident these big players will want a piece of it. For now, loose ends in the research finding are being tied.
According to him, there are only four to five major forms of error left, which need to be solved.
- Measurement and analysis of the Internet at scale
Dr Matthew Luckie’s research focuses on measurement and analysis of the Internet at scale.
Furthermore, the research spans understanding of Internet infrastructure, operations, and engineering.
Measurement and analysis of the Internet is a multi-faceted discipline involving engineering, computation, empirical observation, exploratory data analysis, validation, and instrumentation creation.
The University’s scientist has demonstrated an ability to make important contributions in all of these dimensions.
Through his research, he hopes to improve transparency of how the Internet behaves in reality, both technically and economically.
