Thesis title: Geospatial Computing using Embedded and Mobile Devices: Games Consoles, GPGPU, Smart Phones and Internet Data Stores
Primary supervisor: Professor Andrew Hudson-Smith
Secondary supervisor: Professor Anthony Steed
Starting date: October, 2011
Projected completion date: September, 2018
Embedded computing devices are now a part of daily life, from the smart phones that we carry around in our pockets to the increasingly powerful games consoles capable of advanced 3D rendering. This research will explore the application of embedded architectures, like the Xbox 360 and PS3, to geospatial analysis, making use of fast 3D rendering for visualisation and adapting existing algorithms to take advantage of the speed and parallelism of GPGPU programming. Mobile devices will be included to act as sensors, allowing more data about the city to be captured.
The approach taken is to create tools to visualise data from different sources, unlocking the raw data being stored in Internet repositories under Open Data initiatives. By providing analysis and data mining tools to the public, the aim is to further encourage the crowd sourcing of geospatial data. Using this source of data and including real-time feeds like traffic and commuter flows, there is also the potential for using modelling to run "what if" scenarios and run experiments on a real city. This, coupled with data visualisation, is expected to show gaps in our knowledge, which is where new types of sensor need to be designed to fill in the gaps.
- Biography
Position: Senior Research Associate, TALISMAN Project, CASA
Degrees: BEng (Hons) Imperial College, Information Systems Engineering
Previous Positions
1995-2001 Programmer, UK Meteorological Office
2001-2002 Programmer, Criterion Software
2004-2005 Researcher, UCL Equator eScience project, "Mapping carbon monoxide pollution with tracked GPS sensors"
2005-2008 Researcher, GeoVUE
2008-2011 Researcher, GENeSIS, NeISS
Research Work
Richard is the key programmer and developer on the GENeSIS e-social science project being responsible for GENeSIS's e-infrastructure. Current developments include the GMapCreator software and MapTube website for creating, publishing and sharing maps on the web. This draws on our previous experience with the GeoVUE project, disseminating complex geographic information to the general public. Another part of this project was the ImageCutter software for publishing large panoramic images. In his previous Equator e-Science project in UCL Computer Science, he used GPS tracked sensors to measure environmental factors and display carbon monoxide levels on a 3D model of the city. At Criterion Software, as part of the Renderware 3D engine for the games industry, he wrote art tools and plugins for 3DS Max. Previously, at the UK Meteorological Office, he developed weather visualisation systems for various commercial and military customers. This used Delphi, with Oracle and PL/SQL for a distributed database deployed at 120 sites around the world showing real time weather information and included a satellite based mobile weather display system for NATO and USAFE.
- Richard Milton
Steed, A., Spinello, S., Milton, R., Croxford, B. (2004), Data Visualisation within Urban Models, Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics, Jones, M. W. (ed.) IEEE Computer Society, 9-16, 2004.
Milton, R., Steed, A. (2005), Correcting GPS Readings from a Tracked Mobile Sensor, in T. Strang and C. Linnhoff-Popien (Editors) Location and context-awareness: First International Workshop, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3479, 83-94, 2005.
Milton, R., Steed, A. (2007), Mapping Carbon Monoxide Using GPS Tracked Sensors, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 124(1-3), 1-19, 2007. ISSN: 01676369
Steed, A., Milton, R. (2008), Using Tracked Mobile Sensors to Make Maps of Environmental Effects. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 12(4), 331-342