Technology review has a short article on new work on doing gait analysis with the accelerometers built into many smart phones, Smart Phones that Know Their Users by How They Walk. The results are from the following paper:

Mohammad O. Derawi, Claudia Nickel, Patrick Bours and Christoph Busch, Unobtrusive User-Authentication on Mobile Phones using Biometric Gait Recognition, The Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, Darmstadt, 15-17 October 2010.

Abstract: The need for more security on mobile devices is increasing with new functionalities and features made available. To improve the device security we propose gait recognition as a protection mechanism. Unlike previous work on gait recognition, which was based on the use of video sources, floor sensors or dedicated high-grade accelerometers, this paper reports the performance when the data is collected with a commercially available mobile device containing low-grade accelerometers. To be more specific, the used mobile device is the Google G1 phone containing the AK8976A embedded accelerometer sensor. The mobile device was placed at the hip on each volunteer to collect gait data. Preproccesing, cycle detection and recognition-analysis were applied to the acceleration signal. The performance of the system was evaluated having 51 volunteers and resulted in an equal error rate (EER) of 20%.

The potential application is that a phone could recognize that it may have been stolen if it is being carried by a person with a different gait. I guess it would then phone home with it’s location, not unlike the golden harp in some version of Jack in the Beanstalk.

The accuracy would have to be improved to make this practical, of course, and it might not be a killer app, but it is a good example of how passive sensing by smart phones can acquire useful context information.

This is a call for bids to host the Twelfth International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) in 2013. Bids will be considered from all geographical regions; however, for the 2013 conference, we particularly encourage bids from the Americas.

Bids are sought from volunteers from the scientific community, though they may be supported by paid meeting professionals.

All correspondence regarding bids should be directed by email to the IFAAMAS Conference Committee Chair (Munindar P. Singh, singh@ncsu.edu) and Chair Elect (Onn Shehory, ONN@il.ibm.com).

Bids should be made by individuals or small groups, with the backing of a host institution, typically a university or research center. Groups or individuals who are planning to submit a bid should notify Drs. Singh and Shehory of their intention as soon as possible.

• Now: Expression of interest and queries
• November 17, 2010: Submission of final bid
• November 18, 2010-February 28, 2011: Potential discussions with bidders; internal discussions in the IFAAMAS Board
• March 1, 2011: Decision

See the full AAMAS-2013 call for bids for more information

Tues. 9/21, 3-4:30 pm, ITE 456

CWIT Panel. Attention women in technology majors! Networking is a vital and ongoing part of creating a successful  Engineering or IT career! Learn more about what networking and professional association involvement has meant to the careers of two incredible women in technology. Open to all UMBC students.

Dr. Morgan Trexler is a Senior Technical Staff member in the Research Center at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. She has a BS in Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She earned her MS and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Georgia Tech. She is currently the PI of a project to develop biomaterials for ocular repair. Morgan is President of the APL chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and a member of TMS, a materials society.

Ms. Susan Farley is currently an Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton. As a Software Engineer, she supports a number of  federal government agencies. She is actively involved in the Richmond, VA chapter of the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) group.  Susan is also involved in many activities centered around encouraging girls to pursue careers in technology. In addition, she is currently working on her PhD in Information Technology at George Mason University.