Tomasz Bednarz

MAGNETIC AND GRAVITATIONAL CONVECTION OF AIR WITH A COIL INCLINED AROUND THE X AXIS

Air is filled in a cubic enclosure whose one vertical wall is isothermally heated and the opposite one is cooled while the other four walls are thermally insulated. A large coil is placed outside of this enclosure with the coil center coinciding with the cube center. An electric current in the coil generates a magnetic field to affect the convection of air, because the air contains oxygen whose magnetic susceptibility is exceptionally large among gases. The coil is further inclined around the X axis, which is horizontal and perpendicular to the hot and cold walls through the wall center. The heat transfer rate changes depending on the inclination angle. This system is studied numerically for convection for the following combination of parameters: Ra = 1.51 × 104, 9.06 × 104; Pr = 0.71; γ = 0 − 100; xEuler = 0–π/2, where γ represents the strength of magnetic field and xEuler is the angle of inclination of the coil. For example, at Ra = 1.51 × 104 and γ = 30, the average Nusselt number 2.535 at xEuler = 0 increased to 2.823 at xEuler = π/2. This study suggests that the coil inclination affects the heat transfer rate extensively.

Affective and Effective Visualisation: Communicating Science to Non-expert Users

This paper outlines Non-Expert User Visualisation (NEUVis), a mode of information visualisation commonly practiced by artists and designers. NEUVis, a wicked problem, accounts for design constraints related to the affective (or emotional) response by the user. This contrasts NEUVis from the tame, but complex, problems associated with scientific visualisation. Examples of scientific visualisation and NEUVis show how the challenge of NEUVis can be overcome by collaboration between artists/designers and scientists. Current Research at the Design Lab at The University of Sydney into NEUVis aims to map the different levels of cognitive and emotional response of different modes of visualisation.

Numerical study of joint magnetisation and gravitational convection of air in a cubic enclosure with an inclined electric coil

Numerical computations were carried out for thermal convection of air in a cubic enclosure under both magnetising and gravitational fields. A one-turned circular coil with electric current, which induces a magnetic field, was placed around the enclosure and inclined with its plane oblique to the hot and cold walls and with its centre at the centre of enclosure. Computations were carried out for several combinations of parameters: Pr = 0.71; Ra = 1.51 × 104, 9.06 × 104; γ = 10, 30, 60, 100; γeuler from - π/2 to π/2.

Tele-operation of a mobile mining robot using a panoramic display: an exploration of operators sense of presence

The mining industry is interested in tele-operation systems to remove mining operators from hazardous or inconvenient environments without losing efficiency. The increased availability of high-speed wired and wireless data networks is promoting the use of immersive environments, but there is not enough evidence yet to support whether such environments significantly improve the field-tested performance of tele-operation systems or not. We are interested in investigating a mixed-presence, tele-operation scenario involving an offsite operator remotely operating a robot as well as an onsite operator co-located with the robot. These scenarios are common in industry, yet poorly researched. We have conducted a trial to explore the effects of immersion on operator spatial awareness, sense of presence and satisfaction, in a mixed presence tele-operation scenario. This paper presents the results of our trial using a panoramic display system that provides some level of immersion. The outcome of our work provides a first step in the exploration of cost effective technologies of potential value to the mining industry.

Galaxy + Hadoop: Toward a Collaborative and Scalable Image Processing Toolbox in Cloud

With emergence and adoption of cloud computing, cloud has become an effective collaboration platform for integrating various software tools to deliver as services. In this paper, we present a cloud-based image processing toolbox by integrating Galaxy, Hadoop and our proprietary image processing tools. This toolbox allows users to easily design and execute complex image processing tasks by sharing various advanced image processing tools and scalable cloud computation capacity. The paper provides the integration architecture and technical details about the whole system. In particular, we present our investigations to use Hadoop to handle massive image processing jobs in the system. A number of real image processing examples are used to demonstrate the usefulness and scalability of this class of data-intensive applications.

Applications of heterogeneous computing in computational and simulation science

As the size and complexity of scientific problems and datasets grow, scientists from a broad range of discipline areas are relying more and more on computational methods and simulations to help solve their problems. This paper presents a summary of heterogeneous algorithms and applications that have been developed by a large research organization (CSIRO) for solving practical and challenging science problems faster than is possible with conventional multi-core CPUs alone. The problem domains discussed include biological image analysis, computed tomography reconstruction, marine biogeochemical models, fluid dynamics, and bioinformatics. The algorithms utilize GPUs and multi-core CPUs on a scale ranging from single workstation installations through to large GPU clusters. Results demonstrate that large GPU clusters can be used to accelerate a variety of practical science applications, and justify the significant financial investment and interest being placed into such systems.

Human-Computer Interaction Experiments Immersive Virtual Reality Applications for the Mining Industry

The present work concerns immersive virtual reality (IVR) experiments carried out for prospective applications in the mining industry. Demonstrated technologies are also suitable for use in generic training and e-learning fields. Visualisation is handled by the Unity3D 2.5 multiplatform game development tool, which communicates over .Net socket servers with data feeds from a 5DT Data Glove Ultra that measures finger flexures, and an iPhone based touchpad device. The iPhone also provides orientation data pertaining to acceleration and rotational attributes, such as, pitch, roll and yaw. The user is placed at the focal point of a 4-m dome and experiences the immersive virtual reality environment display. Navigation and object manipulation by the user is made possible through the combination of hardwired buttons, in-world selection techniques and gesture recognition. The techniques are directly applicable to the monitoring of mining environments, in which mining equipment is surrounded by various sensor networks.

Image Classification to Support Emergency Situation Awareness

Recent advances in image classification methods, along with the availability of associated tools, has seen their use become widespread in many domains. This paper presents a novel application of current image classification approaches in the area of emergency situation awareness. We discuss image classification based on low level features as well as methods built on top of pre-trained classifiers. The performance of the classifiers are assessed in terms of accuracy along with consideration to computational aspects given the size of the image database. Specifically, we investigate image classification in the context of a bush fire emergency in the Australian state of NSW where images associated with Tweets during the emergency were used to train and test classification approaches. Emergency service operators are interested in having images relevant to such fires reported as extra information to help manage evolving emergencies. We show that these methodologies can classify images into fire and not fire related classes with an accuracy of 86%.

Distributed Collaborative Immersive Virtual Reality Framework for the Mining Industry

This paper describes a framework for experiments in Human-Computer Interaction, using immersive virtual reality, computer vision and other sensors, and remote collaboration. The proposed framework is demonstrated in a number of applications.

Productivity Frameworks in Big Data Image Processing Computations - Creating Photographic Mosaics with Hadoop and Scalding☆

Abstract In the last decade, Hadoop has become a de-facto standard framework for big data processing in the industry. Although Hadoop today is primarily applied to textual data, it can be also used to process binary data including images. A number of frameworks have been developed to increase productivity of developing Hadoop based solutions. This paper demonstrates how such a framework (Scalding) can be used to create a concise and efficient solution to a big data image-processing problem of creating photographic mosaics and compares it to a Hadoop API based implementation.