Research on mobile devices as interfaces between the citizen and the city.
Academic advisor: Prof Jeffrey Huang.
Course based on individual research and taught classes. Topics include location based applications and systems, affective computing, sensor technologies for interactive environments.
Master thesis on intimate interfaces for mobile human-computer interaction.
Academic advisor: Prof Pattie Maes.
Media Lab Europe is the European Research Partner of MIT Media Lab. I worked in the Liminal Devices research group under the guidance of Prof Rebecca Allen.
My focus within the group was on human interaction with mobile devices, with emphasis on unobtrusive interfaces, location based interaction and mixed reality (selected results were published at international conferences). Working with Prof Allen I also had a chance to be exposed to development and production of art installations and demos.
I developed the image processing and sound reproduction algorithms for the Audiophoto Desk. It is "an inclusive way of reviewing audiophotos from physical prints. An overhead camera and hidden computer are used to recognize a printed photograph and play its associated sound automatically". Designed by David Frohlich (HP Laboratories), it was implemented in C++ on Linux and works in real time.
The prototype was successfully exhibited at the Helen Hamlyn show 2003 at the RCA in London and at the Second International Conference on Appliance Design.
The course gives a strong electronics background with an emphasis on application to communication technologies. The lecture courses are supported by laboratory sessions. In addition to my main course in communications I also attended media technology course lectures.
I chose the Electronics Department at the University of York because a research group in visual information engineering and augmented reality had recently been set up there. This allowed me to broaden the course content, studying visual perception, computer vision, and video production (both from a technical and a creative point of view) and work on research into augmented reality and tangible user interfaces.
Academic advisor: Prof John Robinson
I received the Texas Instrument Prize for Best MEng Final Project: "A Tangible User Interface for Display and Manipulation of Multimedia Information".
I transferred to York University having completed half of the course, with average result of 90% (27/30). The subjects covered in depth mathematics (algebra, advanced calculus, numerical methods, statistics, geometry, mathematical physics) physics (mechanics, EM, advanced EM, thermodynamics), chemistry foundations, computer science, signal processing, circuit theory, and solid state devices. The course had a strong theoretical approach.
Mathematics, Physics, Inorganic and Organic Chem., Philosophy, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, English, History, Art History.
Experience in photography and darkroom techniques (personal exhibition in Palermo in December 2001, which I also set up and arranged), and in video making; one of my videos entered the final selection in an Italian national contest in June 2000 (all films in this contest had to be exactly 60 seconds long); I have completed video assignments for the courses that I have taken at York. From 2002 I have produced videos documenting research work.
Italian (native), English (fluent), Spanish (conversational), basic German (ZD).
Programming: C and C++ - including: embedded programming; Symbian OS programming; Bluetooth; sockets; use and creation of a variety of libraries and toolkits for real time image/audio/signal acquisition and processing; libraries for GUI and computer graphics. Java - including J2ME, SWING, XML parsing. PHP. HTML. XML. VHDL and Assembly to a basic level.
Operating Systems: Linux, Windows (XP, NT, 98, 95), MS DOS, IBM OS/2.
Engineering Applications: MATLAB, Eagle (PCB schematic and layout) MapleV, PSpice, Xilinx, Mathematica, CVS.
Other Applications: MS OFFICE, WordPerfect, PhotoShop, Premiere, Illustrator, Avid Cinema, CorelDraw!, PaintShopPro, CoolEdit and other wave editors, FastTracker, Flash, 3Dstudio4.0.
Clean full driving licence. Biking, Cinema, Concerts, Music, Art Exhibits.
Available on request