Research

As a researcher, my students and I strive to design, develop and evaluate novel human machine interfaces. We have a strong background in multimedia information systems, cognitive psychology, pattern recognition, signal processing, virtual reality, visualizations and computer graphics. This gives us a unique opportunity to develop systems that enhance human-machine symbiosis. For more information on this theoretical construct and our design philosophy please visit this page.

The area of multimodal simulations is a rich and diverse area giving our group a unique opportunity to develop symbiotic interfaces and systems. We specifically focus on simulations that combine psychomotor skill and cognitive skills and can be applied to a variety of areas such as surgical simulations, simulation and practice aided physical rehabilitation, simulation and practice aided neural rehabilitation etc. it also allows for measurement of group activities and group cognition. Please see this webpage for details.

Human movement analysis research is a major component of many projects in our lab. We employ human movement analysis for movement proficiency judgment systems. Pattern recognition tools and algorithms form the basis of developing theoretical framework for ascertaining quality of movement, ergonomic information etc. I have worked on specific algorithms and paradigms for this purpose which have been tested on dance movements, surgical movements and haptic exploratory movements. Please see this webpage for more details.

Our research philosophy revolves around using human machine symbiosis (HMS) design paradigm in various applied areas to prove its validity. A powerful example of such applied research lies in design, development and evaluation of haptic user interfaces where haptics refers to the science of touch. While initial research has been promising, there are considerable research challenges to development of natural haptic interfaces. One of the major problems is that the human tactile system is not as well understood as other modalities such as vision, speech or motor systems. The study of human tactile abilities is a recent endeavor and many of the available systems still do not incorporate the domain knowledge of psychophysics, biomechanics and neurological elements of haptic perception. Development of smart and effective haptic interfaces and devices requires extensive studies that link perceptual phenomena with biological measures and incorporation of such domain knowledge in the engineering of haptic interfaces. Please visit this page for more information on haptic user interfaces research.

While most of the research by my group has focused on applied psychology, we have been conducting theoretical research in cognitive elements of psychology. This research has revolved around exploring memory and categorization of haptic stimuli. Our test group includes individuals who are blind and individuals with Alzheimer's disease giving us unique insight into how haptic memory is formed and retained. Please visit this page for relevant information.

Finally our lab is embarking on new projects with multitouch interfaces. These include developing visualization tools for complex multi-layered hierarchical data, The main objective of this research is to develop novel tools that allow people to interact over disparate locations and visualize and perceive important details. Please visit this page for more details