(More information and downloadable material on my personal webpage: http://sites.google.com/site/lucabrayda/ )
Luca Giulio Brayda obtained his Master of Science in Computer Science Engineering at Politecnico di Torino in 2003, studying environmental robustness for automatic speech recognition. His Master Thesis was done in collaboration with the Panasonic Speech Technology Laboratory of Santa Barbara, CA, USA. He also obtained a DEA (diplôme d études approfondies) in Information Technology in 2003. In April 2007 he got his PhD, with the label of Doctor Europaeus, from the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, working in the Multimedia Department of the Eurecom Institute with Prof.Wellekens. During his PhD he developed new algorithms to exploit the multi-channel audio signal coming from a microphone array and improve performance of Hidden Markov Model-based speech recognizer thanks to a multiple feedback mechanism. Part of his doctorate was spent at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (formerly: ITC-IRST), Trento, Italy, where he worked on calibration and signal analysis with microphone arrays in noisy and reverberant environments. From 2007 to 2008 he worked at the Centro Supercalcolo Piemonte, Turin, where he joined the OmegaBox Mediacenter project, aiming to create a Linux-based versatile hardware-software platform for public information and entertainment.
Currently, he holds a Team Leader position at the Italian Institute of Technology, in the Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences dept. He has worked in telerobotics and social robotics, with specific emphasis on human-machine interfaces exploiting virtual reality or limited visual feedback. Currently he is working on haptics, cognitive mapping and sensory substitution interfaces, aimed at providing spatial knowledge to visually impaired and blind users with touch. He is coordinator of the FP7 EU STREP project BLINDPAD (www.blindpad.eu), starting at beginning 2014, aimed at the construction and field test of a touch-based personal assistive device for visually impaired users, mainly focussing on the accessibility of graphic and iconic information.
The TActile MOuse (TAMO) project
The TActile MOuse with threes degrees of freedom (TAMO3)
 | Result: we show that it is possible to approximate haptic perception of real 3D objects with virtual 3D objects, perceived with one finger only. The approximation is done with a stimulation mode and a novel device combining heigth and inclination cues. Spontaneous motion and proprioception cause exploration strategies which allow to mentally construct unknown geometrical shapes without the need of vision.
Download the paper:
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 | Result:we investigate the perception of curvature as the relative combination of height and inclination cues, using a novel assistive device. We show that inclination is the most precise cue for inclination, although with higher cognitive requirment. Download the poster: |
You can also download a brochure of the TAMO3 from here
You can see a video of the TAMO3 here
The TActile MOuse with one defgree of freedom (TAMO1)
The TActile MOuse is a low-cost assistive device for blind and visually impaired people. It allows the construction of mental maps from virtual objects, using only one tangible pin.
See some Youtube videos:
http://youtu.be/0HjYpVXmxRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhGfYzNrlIg
MAIN FINDINGS
- TAMO was found to reflect users' expectations. In particular, subjects can predict their own tactile sensitivity (we can say that "WYTIWYG: What You Touch Is What You Get"). Therefore, users can self-assess their tactile performance, combining their own judgements with objective data. This is crucial since TAMO is thought to be used in home-based scenarios. See more HERE
- TAMO is also used to discover how blind develop spatial exploration strategies, as compared to sighted. There is a long debate about how impaired subjects acquire and imagine maps. This is important to design correctly targeted rehabilitation devices. We found that blind subjects develop the same strategies as their sighted fellows. See a video of the strategies HERE and HERE.
- TAMO elicits similar brain areas in blind than in sighted people. This is important because it shows that spatial abilities can be developed independently from vision capabilities. Read the paper HERE.
- TAMO is a low-cost device. It is built with commercial-off-the-shelf components. If you are interested in it, please send me an e-mail (luca_dot_brayda_at_iit_dot_it)
Link to the old website:
http://www.iit.it/en/component/content/article/175-platforms/505-digeye.html
The BLINDPAD project
This European project will start on January 2014 and will last 3 years. It involves research centers and companies from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Poland and Hungary. The objective of the project is to make graphical contents accessible through touch by building and field-testing a Personal Assistive Device for BLIND and visually impaired people (BLINDPAD). BLINDPAD will put veridical touch-based information into the hands of users, exploiting and enhancing their residual sensory abilities. BLINDPAD will be a personal, portable and cheap solution to improve knowledge and independence, thus increasing chances of employment, of social inclusion and, ultimately, of a better quality of life.
More info at www.blindpad.eu
The Glassense project
 | Abstract: Actuator density is an important parameter in the design of vibrotactile displays. When it comes to obstacle detection or navigation tasks, a high number of tactors may provide more information, but not necessarily better performance. Depending on the body site and vibration parameters adopted, high density can make it harder to detect tactors in an array. In this paper, we explore the trade-off between actuator density and precision by comparing three kinds of directional cues. After performing a within-subject naive search task using a head-mounted vibrotactile display, we found that increasing the density of the array locally provides higher performance in detecting directional cues.Keywords: Haptic Interaction; Tactile Display; Head Stimulation. Download the paper: |
 | Abstract: Several studies evaluated vibrotactile stimuli on the head to aid orientation and communication. However, the acuity for vibration of the head's skin still needs to be explored. In this paper, we report the assessment of the spatial resolution on the head. We performed a 2AFC psychophysical experiment systematically varying the distance between pairs of stimuli in a standard-comparison approach. We took into consideration not only the perceptual thresholds but also the reaction times and subjective factors, like workload and vibration pleasantness. Results show that the region around the forehead is not only the most sensitive, with thresholds under 5mm, but it is also the region wherein the spatial discrimination was felt to be easier to perform. We also have found that it is possible to describe acuity on the head for vibrating stimulus as a function of skin type (hairy or glabrous) and of the distance of the stimulated loci from the head midline. Download the paper:
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Journals: Tonelli, Alessia, Luca Brayda, and Monica Gori 2015 Task-dependent calibration of auditory spatial perception through environmental visual observation Frontiers in systems neuroscience 9 (2015).Geronazzo M., Bedini A., Brayda L., Campus C. and Avanzini F. Geronazzo M., Bedini A., Brayda L., Campus C. and Avanzini F. 2015 Interactive spatial sonification for non-visual exploration of virtual maps International Journal of Human-Computer Studies DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2015.08.004 L. Brayda, C. Campus, M. Memeo, L. Lucagrossi 2015 The importance of visual experience, gender and emotion in the assessment of an assistive tactile mouse IEEE Transaction on Haptics, Special issue : Haptic Assistive Technology for Individuals who are Visually Impaired DOI: 10.1109/TOH.2015.2426692 L. Brayda, C. Campus, M. Gori 2013 Predicting successful tactile mapping of virtual objects IEEE Transaction on Haptics Volume:6 , Issue: 4 , pages 473-483, DOI: 10.1109/TOH.2013.49 L. Brayda, R. Chellali, 2012 Measuring Human-Robot Interactions, Editorial of Special Issue International Journal of Social Robotics, Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-012-0150-2 C. Campus, L. Brayda, F. De Carli, R. Chellali, F. Famà, C. Bruzzo, L. Lucagrossi, G. Rodriguez Tactile exploration of virtual objects for blind and sighted people: the role of beta 1 EEG band in sensory substitution and supra-modal mental mapping, Journal of Neurophysiology, May 15, 2012 vol. 107 no. 102713-2729, DOI:10.1152/jn.00624.2011 N. Mollet, R. Chellali, L. Brayda Virtual and Augmented Reality tools for teleoperation: improving distant immersion and perception in Transaction on Edutainment II, pp. 135-159, 2009 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-03270-7_10 Book chapter: N. Mollet, R. Chellali, L. Brayda Choosing the Tools for Improving Distant Immersion and Perception in a Teleoperation Context Remote & Telerobotics, IN-TECH, ISBN 978-953-307-081-0, publishing date: March 2010  PDF Patent & Prizes: X. Anguera Miro, R. Kuhn, L. Brayda and J.-C.Junqua Interactive personalized robot for home use Patent number: US 10/739,915 , March 2008 PDFK. Haynes, L. Brayda Design of an Electronic paper-based Embedded System First Prize at the Next Generation Entrepreneur Forum (NGEF), Monaco University Conferences: L. Brayda, C. Campus, M.Gori What you touch is what you get: self-assessing a minimalist sensory substitution device in Proc. of IEEE World of Haptics Conference 2013, Daejeong, Korea L. Brayda, C. Campus Conveying perceptible virtual tactile maps with a minimalist sensory substitution device in Proc. of IEEE symposium on Haptic Audio-Visual Environments and games (IEEE HAVE 2012), 8-9 Oct 2012, Munich, Germany, 2012 L. Brayda, C. Campus, R. Chellali, G. Rodriguez, C. Martinoli An investigation of search behaviour in a tactile exploration task for sighted and non-sighted adults in Proc. of ACM International conference on Human factors in computing systems (ACM CHI 2011), 7-12 May 2011, Vancouver, Canada. 2011 DOI 10.1145/1979742.1979857 Campus, C., Brayda, L., Chellali, R., Rodriguez, G., Martinoli, C. A neurophysiological and behavioral investigation of tactile spatial exploration for sighted and non-sighted adults in Proc. of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting, September 19-23 2011, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 2011 DOI 10.1177/1071181311551047 L. Brayda, C. Campus, R. Chellali, G. Rodriguez Objective evaluation of spatial information acquisition using a visuo-tactile sensory substitution device in Proc. of International Conference of Social Robotics, 23-24 November 2010, Singapore ISBN:3-642-17247-4 978-3-642-17247-2 PDFL. Brayda, C. Campus, G. Rodriguez, R. Chellali Understanding the transfer from tactile feedback to spatial 3D representation through EEG using a virtual reality-based sensory substitution device in Proc. of Laval Virtual - 12th Virtual Reality International Conference (VRIC 2010), 7-9 April 2010, Laval, France. J. Ortiz, L. Brayda, R. Chellali, N. Mollet, J-G. Fontaine, Measuring the effects of visual feedback on mobile robot teleoperation in Proc. of Laval Virtual - 12th Virtual Reality International Conference (VRIC 2010), 7-9 April 2010, Laval, France. PDFL. Brayda, J. Ortiz, R. Chellali, N. Mollet and J-G. Fontaine Seeking perceptual-based metrics to assess the visuo-motor loop in mobile robot teleoperation in Proc. of IEEE 4th Int. Conf. on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems - Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (CIS-RAM 2010), June 2010, Singapore L. Brayda, J. Ortiz, N. Mollet, R. Chellali, J.-G. Fontaine Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of vision-based teleoperation of a mobile robot PDFin Proc. of 2nd Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robotics & Applications (ICIRA 2009), Singapore, December 2009 L. Brayda, N. Mollet, R. Chellali Mixing Telerobotics and Virtual Reality for Improving Immersion in Artwork Perception PDFin Proc. of Int. Conf. on E-Learning & Games (Edutainment 2009), Banff, Canada, August 2009 R. Chellali, L. Brayda, C. Martinoli, E. Fontaine How taxel-based displaying devices can help visually impaired people to navigate safely PDFin Proc. of 4th Int. Conf. on Autonomous Robots & Agents (ICARA 2009), Wellington, New Zealand, February 2009 N. Mollet, L. Brayda, R. Chellali and JG. Fontaine Virtual Environments and Scenario Languages for Advanced Teleoperation of Groups of Real Robots: Real Case Application in Proceedings of Advanced Human Computer Interaction, Cancun, Mexico, 1-6 feb 2009 N. Mollet, L. Brayda, R. Chellali and B. Khelifa Standardization and integration in robotics: case of Virtual Reality tools PDFin Proc. of Cyberworlds 2008, Hangzhou, China, 22-24 sept 2008 N. Mollet and L. Brayda and K. Baizid and R. Chellali Virtual and Augmented Reality with head-tracking for efficient teleoperation of groups of robots in Proc. of Cyberworlds 2008, Hangzhou. L. Brayda, C. Wellekens, M. Matassoni, M. Omologo Speech recognition in reverberant environments using remote microphones PDFin Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia 2006, San Diego, CA, USA L. Brayda, C. Wellekens, M. Omologo Reconnaissance robuste de parole en environnement réel à l'aide d'un réseau de microphones à formation de voie adaptative basée sur un critère des N-best Vraisemblance Maximales in Proceedings of JEP 2006, Dinard, France L. Brayda, C. Wellekens, M. Omologo Improving robustness of a likelihood-based beamformer in a real environment for automatic speech recognition PDFin Proceedings of Specom 2006, St Petersbourg, Russia. L. Brayda, C. Wellekens, M. Omologo N-Best parallel Maximum Likelihood Beamformers for Robust Speech Recognition PDFin Proceedings of EUSIPCO 2006, Firenze, Italy. L. Brayda, C. Bertotti, L. Cristoforetti, M. Omologo, P. Svaizer Modifications on NIST MarkIII array to improve coherence properties among input signals PDFin 118th Convention of Audio Engineering Society, 2005 L. Brayda, L. Rigazio, R. Boman and J-C. Junqua Sensitivity Analysis of Noise Robustness Methods PDFin Proceedings of IEEE ICASSP 2004, Montreal, Canada. Workshops: C. Campus, L. Brayda, G. Rodriguez, R. Chellali Evaluating visuo-tactile sensory substitution for navigation in virtual worlds: preliminary neurophysiological assessment and results on a tactile-based interface Tactile sensing workshop, within the 9th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids09), Paris, France, December 7-10, 2009 L. Brayda, L. Taverna, L. Rossi, R. Chellali Collaborative Virtual Environments for Sharing Product lifecycle PDFin Proceedings of 2nd International Workshop on Virtual Manufacturing (VIRMAN08), INTUITION 2008, Turin, Italy L. Brayda, C. Bertotti, L. Cristoforetti, M. Omologo, P. Svaizer On Calibration and Coherence signal analysis of the CHIL microphone network at IRST PDFin Proceedings of Joint Workshop for Hands-Free Speech Communication and Microphone Arrays 2005, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA. Research Reports: L. Brayda Multi-Hypotheses Feedback for Robust Speech Recognition using a Microphone Array input PDFPhD Thesis issued by University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (UNSA) and Institut Eurecom, France in collaboration with: Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Trento, Italy L. Brayda Metodi di compensazione del Rumore basati sul Segnale e sui Modelli per Riconoscimento Automatico della Parola PDFMaster Thesis issued by Politecnico di Torino, Italy in collaboration with: Panasonic Speech Technology Laboratory (PSTL), Santa Barbara, CA, USA Disclaimer Some of the publications are available on-line to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. 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K. Haynes, L. Brayda
Design of an Electronic paper-based Embedded System
First Prize at the Next Generation Entrepreneur Forum (NGEF), Monaco University, 2006
The BLINDPAD project ranked 1st out of 54 in the list of proposals of the call FP7-ICT-2013-10 for the objective ICT-2013.5.3 “ICT for smart and personalised inclusion”.
L’Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) è una fondazione di diritto privato - cfr. determinazione Corte dei Conti 23/2015 “IIT è una fondazione da inquadrare fra gli organismi di diritto pubblico con la scelta di un modello di organizzazione di diritto privato per rispondere all’esigenza di assicurare procedure più snelle nella selezione non solo nell’ambito nazionale dei collaboratori, scienziati e ricercatori ”.
IIT è sotto la vigilanza del Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca e del Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze ed è stato istituito con la Legge 326/2003. La Fondazione ha l'obiettivo di promuovere l'eccellenza nella ricerca di base e in quella applicata e di favorire lo sviluppo del sistema economico nazionale. La costruzione dei laboratori iniziata nel 2006 si è conclusa nel 2009.
Lo staff complessivo di IIT conta circa 1440 persone. L’area scientifica è rappresentata da circa l’85% del personale. Il 45% dei ricercatori proviene dall’estero: di questi, il 29% è costituito da stranieri provenienti da oltre 50 Paesi e il 16% da italiani rientrati. Oggi il personale scientifico è composto da circa 60 principal investigators, circa 110 ricercatori e tecnologi di staff, circa 350 post doc, circa 500 studenti di dottorato e borsisti, circa 130 tecnici. Oltre 330 posti su 1400 creati su fondi esterni. Età media 34 anni. 41% donne / 59 % uomini.
Nel 2015 IIT ha ricevuto finanziamenti pubblici per circa 96 milioni di euro (80% del budget), conseguendo fondi esterni per 22 milioni di euro (20% budget) provenienti da 18 progetti europei, 17 finanziamenti da istituzioni nazionali e internazionali, circa 60 progetti industriali
La produzione di IIT ad oggi vanta circa 6990 pubblicazioni, oltre 130 finanziamenti Europei e 11 ERC, più di 350 domande di brevetto attive, oltre 12 start up costituite e altrettante in fase di lancio. Dal 2009 l’attività scientifica è stata ulteriormente rafforzata con la creazione di dieci centri di ricerca nel territorio nazionale (a Torino, Milano, Trento, Parma, Roma, Pisa, Napoli, Lecce, Ferrara) e internazionale (MIT ed Harvard negli USA) che, unitamente al Laboratorio Centrale di Genova, sviluppano i programmi di ricerca del piano scientifico 2015-2017.
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) is a public research institute that adopts the organizational model of a private law foundation. IIT is overseen by Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca and Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze (the Italian Ministries of Education, Economy and Finance). The Institute was set up according to Italian law 326/2003 with the objective of promoting excellence in basic and applied research andfostering Italy’s economic development. Construction of the Laboratories started in 2006 and finished in 2009.
IIT has an overall staff of about 1,440 people. The scientific staff covers about 85% of the total. Out of 45% of researchers coming from abroad 29% are foreigners coming from more than 50 countries and 16% are returned Italians. The scientific staff currently consists of approximately 60 Principal Investigators, 110 researchers and technologists, 350 post-docs and 500 PhD students and grant holders and 130 technicians. External funding has allowed the creation of more than 330 positions . The average age is 34 and the gender balance proportion is 41% female against 59% male.
In 2015 IIT received 96 million euros in public funding (accounting for 80% of its budget) and obtained 22 million euros in external funding (accounting for 20% of its budget). External funding comes from 18 European Projects, other 17 national and international competitive projects and approximately 60 industrial projects.
So far IIT accounts for: about 6990 publications, more than 130 European grants and 11 ERC grants, more than 350 patents or patent applications, 12 up start-ups and as many which are about to be launched. The Institute’s scientific activity has been further strengthened since 2009 with the establishment of 11 research nodes throughout Italy (Torino, Milano, Trento, Parma, Roma, Pisa, Napoli, Lecce, Ferrara) and abroad (MIT and Harvard University, USA), which, along with the Genoa-based Central Lab, implement the research programs included in the 2015-2017 Strategic Plan.
