We demonstrate a novel method of automatically generating facial expressions from still images of faces. Human-computer interaction would greatly benefit from automatic facial expression generation as arbitrary images of faces could be used to govern many applications. This new technique is a hybrid of Ekmans [19] Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and Cootes [10,11,16] Active Appearance Model (AAM). The FACS system is based on an anatomical analysis of facial muscles and the AAM is a statistical model of shape and texture based on faces used during a training phase. This method along with the correct warping procedure enhances the accuracy of the generated facial expressions. We describe the technique in detail and give results that suggest that the technique is feasible. We anticipate that this new technique will be used to automatically generate facial expressions in many applications.

This project was motivated by the growing apprehension among Irish citizens over the electronic voting system being introduced here. The aims of the project were three: to discover what would be required of an electronic voting system to make it a suitable replacement for the existing paper-ballot system; to examine whether the Nedap/Powervote system meets those requirements; to begin the process of designing and implementing a system which could meet the requirements. The first two goals were achieved through research into the opinions of experts on electronic voting and computer security. The third was achieved with the use of formal methods.

A distributed Java platform has been designed and built for the simplified implementation of distributed Java applications. Its programmable nature means that code as well as data is distributed over a network. The generality of the system is demonstrated through the emulation of a MIMD (multiple instruction, multiple data) architecture. This is achieved by augmenting the server with a virtual pipeline processor. One of the key features of our system is that it can dynamically alter the size of work units to achieve the optimal processing time per unit. The user of the system is only required to extend 2 Java classes to fully implement a distributed computation. This manual and the supporting webpage give all of the information required to completely design, compile, and test such a computation so that it can be run on the distributed system.

We prove computability and complexity results for an original model of computation called the continuous space machine. Our model is inspired by the theory of Fourier optics. We prove our model can simulate analog recurrent neural networks, thus establishing a lower bound on its computational power. We also define a (log₂n) unordered search algorithm with our model.

This paper describes new dynamic class level coupling metrics suitable for the runtime evaluation of a program. It characterizes the ability of these metrics to evaluate the external quality attributes of a design. These dynamic coupling metrics are then applied to assess the quality of Java programs from the Java Grande Forum Benchmark Suite and the SPECjvm98 Benchmarks. An investigation is also conducted to see if the results bear any relation to those obtained from a static analysis.

This paper describes new dynamic class level cohesion metrics suitable for the run-time evaluation of a program. It characterizes the ability of these metrics to evaluate the external quality attributes of a design. These dynamic cohesion metrics are then applied to assess the quality of Java programs from the Java Grande Forum Benchmark Suite and the SPECjvm98 Benchmarks. An investigation is also conducted to see if the results bear any relation to those obtained from a static analysis.

This technical report outlines a set of software development documents, tailored for use by students in software engineering projects. It is based on IEEE standards and, in general, IEEE terms and abbreviations have been used to provide exposure to professional terminology. This is a revised version of the document templates and guidelines described in technical reports NUIM-CS-TR2002-05 and NUIM-CSTR2002-06. In this report the contents have been consolidated and the guidelines condensed to reflect experience with the previously defined document templates. The titles of each document are now preceded by the word educational to distinguish them from the actual IEEE documents from which the document titles are derived.

Traditionally, the emphasis among computer scientists has been on the more rigorous and theoretical modes of worst-case and average-case analysis of algorithms. However, theoretical analysis cannot tell the full story about real-world performance of algorithms. This has resulted in a growing interest in experimental analysis. This paper presents the development of a solution that aides in the experimental analysis of Java-based implementations.

This report describes research carried out during a final year B.Sc. research project. The research is based on the work of Moore and Sato. A function converts Turing machines into switching baker's maps. The theory of switching baker's maps and the converter function are both explained and adapted. A switching baker's map simulator is implemented and used to recognise a number of languages in the Chomsky hierarchy. The computation path of the switching baker's map simulator is graphically represented and output patterns are examined.