| 2005 |
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YEAR BOOK |
Institute of Technology Blanchardstown
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Highlights from computing research at ITB
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The Graphics and Gaming Research Group completed a project entitled "Application of Learning Techniques to Achieve Believable Agent Behaviour in Computer Games". This dealt with the design of Non Player Characters (NPCs) for games that are suitable for navigating around dynamic environments. Artificial Intelligence learning techniques were used to train agents to carry out tasks such as steering and pathfinding in real time within environments whose geometry and layout can change dynamically as gameplay progresses. This is particularly important in the newer generation of computer games which use sophisticated physics engines to allow complex interactions with the game geometry.
The enterprise development team completed a project entitled "Using XML Web Services to Innovate and Orchestrate the Automation of Document Driven Business Processes" . We focused on finding a framework to manage a business process involving a range of software systems running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks. Basing our prototype on an insurance policy renewal workflow, we used Web Services and a BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) workflow engine to manage this heavily paper driven process that encompassed a number of trading partners. We concluded that these technologies can be successfully used to orchestrate such a workflow, and transfer documents securely between systems. (Funded by Enterprise Ireland & CGS).
The computational linguistics team is wrapping up a project entitled "Voice Activated Command and Control with Speech Recognition over Wireless Networks" , which developed a Java controlled Lego Mindstorm� robot. An important goal was to determine the feasibility of using speech recognition technology in a ubiquitous computing paradigm. To accomplish this, distributed speech recognition architecture was developed. The iPaq Pocket PC is used as a client for capturing audio which is sent to a server application over a wireless network for speech recognition. Valid commands were then sent to the robot. An additional grammar for sending SMS messages via voice command was developed to prove the flexibility and power of the framework.
Last but not least, a research project which has generated a lot of excitement amongst academic staff here at ITB is "e-Learning � The delivery of e-Learning in a third level environment" . This project is concerned with strategies for e-Learning and the design and development of an e-Learning project. In tandem with this project, we delivered the first year of a graduate diploma in computing through e-Learning.
Contact: Hugh Mc Cabe, E-mail: [email protected] ;
Sheridan , E-mail: [email protected] ;
Gray , E-mail: [email protected] ;
Nolan , E-mail: [email protected] ;
Mc Nutt, [email protected] ;
Web: www.itb.ie