ITWALES.COM - Research and Development partnership case studies

Research and Development partnership case studies

The research and development aspect of IT Wales encourages partnerships between the Department of Computer Science and business. To give some insight into the nature and scope of what we can do for your company, the following is an example of R&D projects completed by final year and Masters degree Computer Science students.

JoFS - Secure online virtual file management
VIEWMED: Visualising nuclear medical imaging
Cutting costs through Rapid Crockery Design
InterRoute: Web-based navigation
CGI Wizard - An Automatic CGI Script Generator

JoFS - Secure online virtual file management

Aim: To use the Internet as a secure global file system
Student : Joanna Gooch
Company: Not applicable
Additional information: Winner of the WDA Software and Internet technologies prize and overall winner of the WDA Technology prize, 2002

The Internet has the potential to provide the mechanism for a globally integrated file system, however, it has yet to be properly utilised in this fashion. This project has designed such a system, called JoFS, and prototyped its major features to prove the concept.

JoFS allows the Internet to be used as a secure global file system, giving access to documents from anywhere in the world with a connection and appropriate authentication. In addition, JoFS offers a friendly user interface, which acts as a secretary, and which handles documents intelligently, managing confidentiality, filing location, document sharing and retrieval details in a hassle-free manner.

When a user wishes to store a document, the system files it using its own ordering algorithms. It then asks the user to specify access permissions for the document, and whether it requires encryption. When a user asks for a document, or indeed set of documents, all those that user is allowed to see that match the access criteria are given. Once a document has been given to JoFS, all users who are allowed to see the document are notified by email, together with the key for decryption if this document was encrypted. Throughout this process the user is only aware that the documents are secure and retrievable, but has no idea of where or how the documents are stored.

This concept can provide invaluable services to companies and organisations for managing documents systematically, cutting down unnecessary paperwork and email clutter, and reducing the amount of unorganised data stored on networked machines. It can provide the basic infrastructure for e-government, e-management and e-business.

VIEWMED: Visualising nuclear medical imaging

Aim: To assist in the visualisation of nuclear medical imaging
Student: Philip Roberts
Company: Swansea NHS Trust Singleton Hospital
Additional information: Winner of the Software & Internet Technologies and Healthcare & Bio Sciences categories of the WDA Technology Awards 2002

The objective was to develop a system to assist in the visualisation of nuclear medical imaging. Nuclear medicine images are generally of high quality but lack in structural information, making it difficult for doctors to associate accurately features in an image with a specific part of human anatomy.

A visualisation tool known as VIEWMED (Visualisation Interactive Environment With Medical Evaluation for Diagnosis), was developed to take a nuclear medicine image and combine it with an image containing structural information (such as an X-ray image). VIEWMED uses an image registration technique to align the two images correctly. The technique was designed to ensure real-time interaction and visualisation.

VIEWMED also provides a collection of visualisation effects, in terms of colour, opacity and artistic strokes, for enhancing the visual cues in the combined display. For example, a nuclear medicine image can be assigned a semi-transparent red colour, and be placed on the top of an X-ray image, coloured in blue with a pencil drawing stroke. This allows doctors to associate the structure information from the X-ray, without being confused by new features introduced through the combined display.

This tool has the potential to enhance doctor's capability of understanding of complex medical data, and hence improving correct diagnosis, surgical planning, and therapy planning.

Cutting costs through Rapid Crockery Design

Aim: Reducing design and prototyping time in crockery manufacture
Student: David Clark
Company: China Wales
Additional information: Winner of the WDA Technology prize, 2001

The design of crockery has taken place for many hundreds of years, and it is a time intensive process, with the creation of complex border patterns that fit the rim exactly, the manipulation of images and the production of prototypes. For smaller companies which do not have a large dedicated customer base, diversification is necessary to survive. One method of reaching further customers is through customised crockery design, but the more designs to be created, the slower the throughput and the higher the costs.

This project aimed to design and develop a computer-aided design system called CROtion (Crockery Creation) to reduce the design and prototyping time. It focuses on methods to solve a variety of problems encountered in the design processes using advanced graphics techniques. In addition, the system is also supported by an interrelated software tool, namely Presenter.

CROtion allows a user to perform a range of image manipulation tasks, such as border creation (using a seamless patterns or regularly spaced logos at intervals around the rim), image insertion, rotation, scaling, flip, removal, replacement for templates and transparencies, image layering and so on. Presenter is used to render a design created using CROtion onto a photograph of a plate, and to construct a 3D graphics model (in VRML) that can be interactively viewed on the Internet by the client. The graphics results can be used for rapid prototyping at the design stage, and they also provide visual feedback to clients efficiently and cost effectively.

Both CROtion and Presenter have been designed for future integration with a Web based client design system so that potential customers could design plates using they own logos with much the same, straightforward user interface that CROtion provides, obtaining instant previews and ordering online. This would help open up small crockery companies to the global market.

David Picton, owner of China Wales, learned of the opportunities open to SMEs through the seminars which the Computer Science Department regularly presents. Before the R&D project was explored, China Wales had employed a relatively low level of technology - just enough to operate a typical administration system, says Picton.

David Clark's project has been received with great interest by China Wales' manufacturers, and Picton feels that with a little time and funding, the project could lead to groundbreaking innovation within the tableware industry.

InterRoute: Web-based navigation

Aim: To study the feasibility of a Web based navigation service by designing and implementing a prototype system, and to develop an efficient and effective graphical method to provide a virtual walk/drive through.
Student: Marcus Davies
Company: Imagitech
Additional information: Winner of the WDA Technology prize, 1998

Over the past decade, with the advent of powerful personal computers, many software systems have been developed to navigate through digitised maps and assist the calculation of the best route for travelling.

However, the existing route navigation software has two major shortcomings. Maps are difficult to update; to use a route navigation system, a copy of the map data has to be stored on each computer. Such replication makes map updating costly. The information provider normally distributes updates in the same way as the software itself. It is up the user who purchased the product originally to keep the maps up to date.

Secondly, the lack of high quality visual information; maps are an abstraction of the real world, and most navigation systems indicate the calculated route as a line on a map. Reading a route from such a user interface requires both skills and experience as most people tend to remember visual landmarks better than symbols.

The project has resulted in a software system called InterRoute, which allows the user to browse hierarchical maps on the Web, and specify departure and destination points. The InterRoute server works out the shortest route for the user, and delivers an animation of a virtual walk/drive, accompanied by traditional line indication on a map.

The novelty of the InterRoute system is reflected mainly in its Web based approach which removes from the user the burden of keeping maps up to date, while facilitating a wide access to route navigation services. The project has also researched into the state of the art morphing techniques, and devised a new morphing technique specially for InterRoute in order to maximise the speed and quality of morphing.

The project was sponsored by Imagitech Ltd, which is closely involved with and has long standing links to the Computer Science department. The InterRoute system has augmented its product offerings. Marcus Davies is now a fulltime employee.

Gerhard Manogg, Imagitech MD, comments that the company has already considered further R&D partnerships, and will continue to do so in future.

CGI Wizard - An Automatic CGI Script Generator

Aim: Enabling companies with no experience of scripting languages to create dynamic Web pages
Student: Andrew Webb
Company: Not applicable
Additional information: Winner of the WDA Technology prize, 2000

E-commerce requires companies to not only put their products on the Web, but also allow customers to submit queries, orders and more through the Web. Such queries and orders are posted using forms. The data received through forms needs to be processed using scripting languages such as CGI, Perl or ASP, all of which are complex languages.

This project was concerned with enabling companies with no experience of scripting languages to create dynamic Web pages. It is specifically aimed towards small to medium sized enterprises which may already have a Web presence, and would like to expand this so that potential and existing customers could submit queries, buy products online, or even just register product interest with the company.

This CGI script generator automatically produces CGI for forms and Web pages. CGI Wizard uses a Web interface to lead the user through all the stages necessary to create CGI to handle the form data. Error checking can be introduced for form data, and the user can control the format and destination of data received from customers through their Web page.

Current research suggests there is no product which abstracts the user away from the underlying scripting language by creating it automatically. As the CGI Wizard is entirely Web based, it could be offered as a service from an Internet Service Provider. Customers of the ISP could create CGI using the Wizard, and therefore create dynamic Web pages on their own. ISPs are reluctant to run user-provided CGI because of potential security problems, but the Wizard could ensure that only code acceptable to the ISP is generated. Thus companies would have a cost-effective method for producing CGI and ISPs could be sure there are no security breaches.

This project can enable small companies to expand into e-commerce with minimum outlay and maximum potential.

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