Fourth International Conference on Digital Information Management ICDIM 2009

Sethuraman Panchanathan
Professor
School of Computing and Informatics
Arizona State University
&
Deputy Vice President of Research and Economic Affairs,
Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs

In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on the need for human-centeredness in multimedia computing. Existing approaches have largely relied on the so-called “able” population to derive insights in order to shape the efforts towards achieving human-centeredness. In contrast, in this talk, a new archetype to human-centered multimedia computing inspired by the needs of individuals with disabilities is presented. The study of sensory, motor, perceptual and cognitive disabilities help us understand the subtleties of human capabilities and limitations, thereby necessitating the design of newer methodologies for data capture, information processing and mutlimodal delivery. At the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) at Arizona State University, we employ a transdisciplinary research approach for solving the challenges in human-centered multimedia computing. This approach results in not only the design and development of innovative multimedia solutions for enriching the lives of individuals with disabilities, but is also valuable for gaining a deeper understanding towards realizing unique solutions for mainstream multimedia applications. An overview of projects that we are engaged in CUbiC in the domains of assistive, rehabilitative and healthcare technologies will also be presented.

Biography of Sethuraman (Panch) Panchanathan

Dr. Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan is responsible for conceptualizing, promoting and implementing strategic research initiatives at Arizona State University (ASU). He is a foundation chair in Computing and Informatics in the School of Computing and Informatics and the director of the Research Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) at ASU. He is also a Professor-Associate in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Arizona College of Medicine- Phoenix. He is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at ASU.

He leads a team of Researchers and Graduate students working in the areas of Human-centered Multimedia Computing, Content-based and Compressed Domain Indexing and Retrieval of Images and Video. Multimedia Communication, Face/Gait Analysis and Recognition, Haptic User Interfaces, Confidence Measures for Medical Decisions, Medical Image Processing, Genomic Signal Processing, Media Processor Designs; and Ubiquitous Computing Environments for individuals with disabilities. CUbiC’s flagship project CARES designs diagnostic rehabilitative assistive technologies for individuals with physical, cognitive and neural impediments. The iCARE project for individuals who are blind and visually impaired won the Governor’s Innovator of the Year-Academia Award in Nov. 2004.

Dr. Panchanathan was the Founding Director of the School of Computing and Informatics (2006-2008), was the Chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department (2003-2008) and the Founding Director of the new Biomedical Informatics department (2005-2007). He was an Adjunct Professor in the School of Information Technology and Engineering at the University of Ottawa (1997-2004). He was an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia from (1997-1999). He was the Chief Scientific Researcher of Obvious Technology (1995-2004) and was a Scientific Advisor for Luxxon Corp., in San Jose (2000-2003). He co-founded a start-up company MotionEase Inc. which is focused on developing video based motion capture solutions for rehabilitative applications.

Dr. Panchanathan has published over 350 papers in refereed journals and conferences and book chapters. He has been a Chair/Co-chair of over 25 International symposia, workshops, conferences and he was the general chair of ISCAS 2002. In addition, he is a program committee member of numerous conferences, organizer of special sessions in several conferences and an invited panel member of special sessions. Dr. Panchanathan has presented several invited talks in conferences, universities and industry.

Dr. Panchanathan is the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Multimedia Magazine and has been /is associate editor of seven other journals and transactions: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, IEEE Multimedia Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Journal of Visual Communications and Image Representation, Journal of Electronic Imaging, World Scientific Publishing Company Imperial College Press, International Journal on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, and the International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools Architectures, Languages, Algorithms, He served as a guest editor of several special issues in Transactions and Journals.

Dr. Panchanathan is currently a PI/Co-PI of projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Health (NIH), Department of Economic Security (Rehabilitation Services Administration), Banner Health and industry. He was also a PI of projects funded by Intel, Motorola, ARM and SUN.

Dr. Panchanathan was a member of the Electronic Health Steering Committee appointed by the Governor of Arizona. He is a member of the Academic Working group of the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University

Dr. Panchanathan is a Fellow of the IEEE, SPIE and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He is senior member of Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (APEO), European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP), American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).

Dr. Panchanathan can be contacted by email at panch@asu.edu. His office address is P.O. Box 877205
Fulton Center, 300 East University Drive, Suite 310, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-7205

Web Address:

CUbiC – http://cubic.asu.edu

Office of the Vice-President of Research and Economic Affairs – http://ovprea.asu.edu

Today, systems, devices, sensors, data and human participation enable something more than a “human instructs machine” paradigm. Traditionally, we had to artificially simplify the complexity and richness of the real world to constrained computer models and languages for more efficient computation. Now, sensing through fixed and mobile sensors as well as human-in-the-loop sensing, social computing and ubiquitous Web access work in concert to enrich interactions, information sharing and collective intelligence. Increasingly intelligent systems and participatory sensing capture observations that can be contextually integrated and enhanced to create awareness of events and situations— they not only deal with documents or entities but also support situational awareness by incorporating thematic (“what”), temporal (“when”), spatial (”where”), causal (“why”) and other relationships between objects and events. This positions us for what we call an era of “computing for human experience” that supports a seamless interaction between the physical world and the virtual or cyber world. This encompasses advanced integrated capabilities in sensing, perceiving and recognizing the physical world (e.g., in extending sensory engagement with environments and narrowing the gaps between the real world and computing). It also uses “humans as sensors” of intensions and emotions, historical facts or background knowledge and community generated knowledge or collective intelligence. Semantic techniques and technologies (annotations, conceptual models/ontologies and reasoning) play a central role in important tasks such as building context, integrating online and offline interactions, and help enhance human experience with focus on natural activities while relegating explicit computing and communication activities to background.

Amit Sheth is the LexisNexis Ohio Eminent Scholar at the Wright State University, Dayton OH. He directs the Kno.e.sis Center (http://knoesis.org) which performs leading research in Semantic, Social, Sensor and Services computing over Web. Prof. Sheth is an IEEE fellow and is one of the best cited authors in Computer Science (h-index = 59) for his publications in semantic information integration, workflow management, semantic web, and semantic web services. He is EIC of ISI indexed Intl. Journal of Semantic Web &Information Systems (http://ijswis.org), is joint-EIC of Distributed & Parallel Databases, is series co-editor of two Springer book series, and serves on several editorial boards. By licensing his funded university research, he has also founded and managed two successful companies. Several commercial products and many operationally deployed applications have resulted from his R&D.