Engineering Commons^™

Computer Vision Based Classification Of Fruits And Vegetables For Self-Checkout At Supermarkets, Khurram Hameed

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The field of machine learning, and, in particular, methods to improve the capability of machines to perform a wider variety of generalised tasks are among the most rapidly growing research areas in today’s world. The current applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence can be divided into many significant fields namely computer vision, data sciences, real time analytics and Natural Language Processing (NLP). All these applications are being used to help computer based systems to operate more usefully in everyday contexts. Computer vision research is currently active in a wide range of areas such as the development of autonomous vehicles, …

Application Of Advanced Algorithms And Statistical Techniques For Weed-Plant Discrimination, Saman Akbar Zadeh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Precision agriculture requires automated systems for weed detection as weeds compete with the crop for water, nutrients, and light. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of machine learning methods to classify weeds/crops in agriculture. Statistical methods, support vector machines, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are introduced, investigated and optimized as classifiers to provide high accuracy at high vehicular speed for weed detection.

Initially, Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms are developed for weed-crop discrimination and their accuracies are compared with a conventional data-aggregation method based on the evaluation of discrete Normalised Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVIs) at two different …

Proactive Content Caching In Future Generation Communication Networks: Energy And Security Considerations, Muhammad Ishtiaque Aziz Zahed

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The proliferation of hand-held devices and Internet of Things (IoT) applications has heightened demand for popular content download. A high volume of content streaming/downloading services during peak hours can cause network congestion. Proactive content caching has emerged as a prospective solution to tackle this congestion problem. In proactive content caching, data storage units are used to store popular content in helper nodes at the network edge. This contributes to a reduction of peak traffic load and network congestion.

However, data storage units require additional energy, which offers a challenge to researchers that intend to reduce energy consumption up to 90% …

Extraction Of Patterns In Selected Network Traffic For A Precise And Efficient Intrusion Detection Approach, Priya Naran Rabadia

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis investigates a precise and efficient pattern-based intrusion detection approach by extracting patterns from sequential adversarial commands. As organisations are further placing assets within the cyber domain, mitigating the potential exposure of these assets is becoming increasingly imperative. Machine learning is the application of learning algorithms to extract knowledge from data to determine patterns between data points and make predictions. Machine learning algorithms have been used to extract patterns from sequences of commands to precisely and efficiently detect adversaries using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. Seeing as SSH is one of the most predominant methods of accessing systems it …

Development, Manufacture And Application Of A Solid-State Ph Sensor Using Ruthenium Oxide, Wade Lonsdale

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The measurement of pH is undertaken frequently in numerous settings for many applications. The common glass pH probe is almost ideal for measuring pH, and as such, it is used almost ubiquitously. However, glass is not ideal for all applications due to its relatively large size, fragility, need for recalibration and wet-storage. Therefore, much research has been undertaken on the use of metal oxides as an alternative for the measurement of pH.

Here, a solid-state potentiometric pH sensor is developed using ruthenium metal oxide (RuO2). Initially, pH sensitive RuO2 electrodes were prepared by deposition with radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) …

Automated Optical Mark Recognition Scoring System For Multiple-Choice Questions, Murtadha Alomran

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Multiple-choice questions are one of the questions commonly used in assessments. It is widely used because this type of examination can be an effective and reliable way to examine the level of student’s knowledge. So far, this type of examination can either be marked by hand or with specialised answer sheets and scanning equipment. There are specialised answer sheets and scanning equipment to mark multiple-choice questions automatically. However, these are expensive, specialised and restrictive answer sheets and optical mark recognition scanners.

This research aims to design and implement a multiple-choice answer sheet and a reliable image processing-based scoring system that …

Next Generation Wireless Communication Networks: Energy And Quality Of Service Considerations, Md Munjure Mowla

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The rapid growth in global mobile phone users has resulted in an ever-increasing demand for bandwidth and enhanced quality-of-service (QoS). Several consortia comprising major international mobile operators, infrastructure manufacturers, and academic institutions are working to develop the next generation wireless communication systems fifth generation (5G) - to support high data rates and increased QoS. 5G systems are also expected to represent a greener alternative for communication systems, which is important because power consumption from the information and communication technology (ICT) sector is forecast to increase significantly by 2030. The deployment of ultra-dense heterogeneous small cell networks (SCNs) is expected to …

A Sound Idea: An Investigation Into Accessible Video Game Design For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing, Luke James Brook

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A widely accepted, and incorrect, assumption towards hearing accessibility in video games is that deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) users are those who encounter the least barriers and are generally well catered for. Rapid advancement in video game technology has seen video game sound evolve from simple blips generated by internal circuitry to fully realised digital audio used to convey critical information. To accommodate the DHH, this information needs to be conveyed in an alternative manner. However, evidence suggests existing accessible design solutions for the DHH lack specificity and are insufficient. Thus, the inability to hear, or hear well, …

Interfacing Of Neuromorphic Vision, Auditory And Olfactory Sensors With Digital Neuromorphic Circuits, Anup Vanarse

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The conventional Von Neumann architecture imposes strict constraints on the development of intelligent adaptive systems. The requirements of substantial computing power to process and analyse complex data make such an approach impractical to be used in implementing smart systems.

Neuromorphic engineering has produced promising results in applications such as electronic sensing, networking architectures and complex data processing. This interdisciplinary field takes inspiration from neurobiological architecture and emulates these characteristics using analogue Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI). The unconventional approach of exploiting the non-linear current characteristics of transistors has aided in the development of low-power adaptive systems that can be implemented …

An Investigation Into Off-Link Ipv6 Host Enumeration Search Methods, Clinton Carpene

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research investigated search methods for enumerating networked devices on off-link 64 bit Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) subnetworks. IPv6 host enumeration is an emerging research area involving strategies to enable detection of networked devices on IPv6 networks. Host enumeration is an integral component in vulnerability assessments (VAs), and can be used to strengthen the security profile of a system. Recently, host enumeration has been applied to Internet-wide VAs in an effort to detect devices that are vulnerable to specific threats. These host enumeration exercises rely on the fact that the existing Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) can be exhaustively …

Intelligent Network Intrusion Detection Using An Evolutionary Computation Approach, Samaneh Rastegari

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the enormous growth of users' reliance on the Internet, the need for secure and reliable computer networks also increases. Availability of effective automatic tools for carrying out different types of network attacks raises the need for effective intrusion detection systems.

Generally, a comprehensive defence mechanism consists of three phases, namely, preparation, detection and reaction. In the preparation phase, network administrators aim to find and fix security vulnerabilities (e.g., insecure protocol and vulnerable computer systems or firewalls), that can be exploited to launch attacks. Although the preparation phase increases the level of security in a network, this will never completely …

Detection And Control Of Small Civilian Uavs, Matthew Peacock

Theses : Honours

With the increasing proliferation of small civilian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), the threat to critical infrastructure (CI) security and privacy is now widely recognised and must be addressed. These devices are easily available at a low cost, with their usage largely unrestricted allowing users to have no accountability. Further, current implementations of UAVs have little to no security measures applied to their control interfaces. To combat the threat raised by small UAVs, being aware of their presence is required, a task that can be challenging and often requires customised hardware.

This thesis aimed to address the threats posed by the …

Website Accessibility In Australia And The National Transition Strategy: Outcomes And Findings, Vivienne Conway

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In the most recent statistics, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2012, it was reported that slightly under one in five people stated they had a disability. A further twenty-one percent of the population (4.7 million people) reported that they had a long-term health condition that did not restrict their everyday activities. This total group of people who suffer either a disability or a long-term health condition numbers 8.9 million people, or over thirty-nine percent of the Australian population. Of the people reporting a disability, 3.7 million or eighty-eight percent of that group experienced limitations in the activities …

On A Joint Physical Layer And Medium Access Control Sublayer Design For Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks And Applications, Mahir Lumumba Meghji

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are distributed networks comprising small sensing devices equipped with a processor, memory, power source, and often with the capability for short range wireless communication. These networks are used in various applications, and have created interest in WSN research and commercial uses, including industrial, scientific, household, military, medical and environmental domains. These initiatives have also been stimulated by the finalisation of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which defines the medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) for low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPAN).

Future applications may require large WSNs consisting of huge numbers of inexpensive wireless sensor …

Investigation On The Mobile Robot Navigation In An Unknown Environment, Ahmed S. Khusheef

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Mobile robots could be used to search, find, and relocate objects in many types of manufacturing operations and environments. In this scenario, the target objects might reside with equal probability at any location in the environment and, therefore, the robot must navigate and search the whole area autonomously, and be equipped with specific sensors to detect objects. Novel challenges exist in developing a control system, which helps a mobile robot achieve such tasks, including constructing enhanced systems for navigation, and vision-based object recognition. The latter is important for undertaking the exploration task that requires an optimal object recognition technique.

In …

A Model For Systematically Investigating Relationships Between Variables That Affect The Performance Of Novice Programmers, Vivian Campbell

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research was motivated by an interest in novices learning to program

and a desire to understand the factors that affect their learning. The

traditional approach to performing such an investigation has been to select

factors which may be important and then perform statistical tests on a few

potential relationships. A new research model is proposed and tested to

ensure that a thorough and systematic investigation of the data is performed.

This thesis describes the data, defines the model and explains the

application and validation of the model.

The research process is managed by a control algorithm that is the …

An Improved Medium Access Control Protocol For Real-Time Applications In Wlans And Its Firmware Development, Sushil Dutt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), commonly known as Wi-Fi, has emerged as a popular internet access technology and researchers are continuously working on improvement of the quality of service (QoS) in WLAN by proposing new and efficient schemes. Voice and video over Internet Protocol (VVoIP) applications are becoming very popular in Wi-Fi enabled portable/handheld devices because of recent technological advancements and lower service costs. Different from normal voice and video streaming, these applications demand symmetric throughput for the upstream and downstream. Existing Wi-Fi standards are optimised for generic internet applications and fail to provide symmetric throughput due …

Strategies For The Intelligent Selection Of Components, Valerie Maxville

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

It is becoming common to build applications as component-intensive systems - a mixture of fresh code and existing components. For application developers the selection of components to incorporate is key to overall system quality - so they want the `best'. For each selection task, the application developer will de ne requirements for the ideal component and use them to select the most suitable one. While many software selection processes exist there is a lack of repeatable, usable, exible, automated processes with tool support. This investigation has focussed on nding and implementing strategies to enhance the selection of software components. The …

Predictive And Adaptive Game Development A Practical Application Of Development Models To The Independent Video Game Industry, Liam A. Hunt

Theses : Honours

Through the process of researching a number of game and system development models, this study defines two archetypical development models - the predictive and the adaptive. Using each of these models, two video games have been developed in order to measure the practical effect that they can have on the design, development process and player experience of a game. Using the knowledge gained through playtesting and an analysis of the relationship between each game and its development methodology, a number of development guidelines and recommendations have been specifically constructed for use by independent games developers. The practical development and written …

An Investigation Into Internetworking Education, Woratat Makasiranondh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Computer network technology and the Internet grew rapidly in recent years. Their growth created a large demand from industry for the development of IT and internetworking professionals. These professionals need to be equipped with both technical hands-on skills and non-technical or soft skills. In order to supply new professionals to the industry, educational institutions need to address these skills training in their curricula. Technical hands-on skills in internetworking education can be emphasised through the practical use of equipment in classrooms. The provision of the networking equipment to the internetworking students is a challenge. Particularly, university students in developing countries may …

Survivable Mesh-Network Design & Optimization To Support Multiple Qop Service Classes, Hoang N. Nguyen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Every second, vast amounts of data are transferred over communication systems around the world, and as a result, the demands on optical infrastructures are extending beyond the traditional, ring-based architecture. The range of content and services available from the Internet is increasing, and network operations are constantly under pressure to expand their optical networks in order to keep pace with the ever increasing demand for higher speed and more reliable links.

A Jittered-Sampling Correction Technique For Adcs, Jamiil A. Tourabaly

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In Analogue to Digital Converters (ADCs) jittered sampling raises the noise floor; this leads to a decrease in its Signal to Noise ratio (SNR) and its effective number of bits (ENOB). This research studies a technique that compensate for the effects of sampling with a jittered clock. A thorough understanding of sampling in various data converters is complied.

Design Of Survivable Wdm Network Based On Pre-Configured Protection Cycle, Byungkyu Kang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is an important technique which allows the trans- port of large quantities of data over optical networks. All optical WDM-based networks have been used to improve overall communication capacity and provide an excellent choice for the design of backbone networks. However, due to the high traffic load that each link can carry in a WDM network, survivability against failures becomes very important. Survivability in this context is the ability of the network to maintain continuity of service against failures, since a failure can lead to huge data losses. In recent years, many survivability mechanisms have been …

An Investigation Into The Use Of B-Nodes And State Models For Computer Network Technology And Education, Gurpreet Kohli

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis consists of a series of internationally published, peer reviewed, conference research papers and one journal paper. The papers evaluate and further develop two modelling methods for use in Information Technology (IT) design and for the educational and training needs of students within the area of computer and network technology. The IT age requires technical talent to fill positions such as network managers, web administrators, e-commerce consultants and network security experts as IT is changing rapidly, and this is placing considerable demands on higher educational institutions, both within Australia and internationally, to respond to these changes.

The Development Of An Interactive Multimedia Based Professional Development, James New

Theses : Honours

The role of the teacher has changed over time such that teachers are asked to augment their own specialist knowledge with skills from other domains, for example information technology. This study has examined the perceptions and experiences of teachers and speech pathologists involved in the production of an instructive Interactive Multimedia (IMM) product to deliver Professional Development (PD). The individuals involved in this project were teachers from the High Valley Language School (HVLS) -a specialised primary school. The study used a social action research methodology, which allowed the researcher to build theories from emergent data. The data collection process consisted …

Wireless Local Area Network Security : An Investigation Into Security Tool Usage In Wireless Networks, Susan Webb

Theses : Honours

Many organisations and individuals installing wireless local area networks (WLANs), which are based on the IEEE 802.11 b standard, have little understanding of the security issues that surround this technology.

This study was initiated to determine how WLAN security issues affect organisations in Perth, Western Australia. The scope of the study was restricted to 802.llb WLANs operating in infrastructure mode, where all traffic is transmitted by wireless access points (APs). This study was conducted in two phases. The general aims of the first phase were to determine the number of detectable WLANs in the Perth Central Business District (CBD) and …

A University Wide Smart Card System, Philip Cummins

Theses : Honours

Presently, many tertiary educational institutions utilise card technologies for staff and student identification and the support of other related services within the institution. A new type of card technology has been developed known as a Smart Card, where an existing plastic card has an embedded integrated circuit and is capable of expanding the range of applications and services capable within an institution. This thesis will detail the advantages that these new Smart Cards have over existing institution cards, detail other institution's attempts to use Smart Cards and finally, this thesis proposes a suitable system for integrating Smart Cards into an …

Automatic Human Face Detection In Color Images, Son Lam Phung

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Automatic human face detection in digital image has been an active area of research over the past decade. Among its numerous applications, face detection plays a key role in face recognition system for biometric personal identification, face tracking for intelligent human computer interface (HCI), and face segmentation for object-based video coding. Despite significant progress in the field in recent years, detecting human faces in unconstrained and complex images remains a challenging problem in computer vision. An automatic system that possesses a similar capability as the human vision system in detecting faces is still a far-reaching goal. This thesis focuses on …

Database Development And Intranet Based Image Included Database Management System For Ballistic Firearm Identification System, Toni C. Jiao

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The process of imaging, collecting and searching a cartridge case to identifying its suspected firearm is a time consuming procedure. Within this study, a cartridge case identification database management system in an Intranet environment is designed and implemented, thus enabling firearm examiners from different forensic laboratories to engage firearm identification without the constraints of time and location. Specifically, the study investigates appropriate database management system for image involved and Intranet secured ballistics firearm identification database. The results demonstrated that a computerized firearm identification system could be implemented in Intranet with a secure, scalable, performable Intranet database management system.

Determining The Effectiveness Of Deceptive Honeynets, Nirbhay Gupta

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Over the last few years, incidents of network based intrusions have rapidly increased, due to the increase and popularity of various attack tools easily available for download from the Internet. Due to this increase in intrusions, the concept of a network defence known as Honeypots developed. These honeypots are designed to ensnare attackers and monitor their activities. Honeypots use the principles of deception such as masking, mimicry, decoying, inventing, repackaging and dazzling to deceive attackers. Deception exists in various forms. It is a tactic to survive and defeat the motives of attackers. Due to its presence in the nature, deception …