The goal of the LIACS Media Lab (LML) at Leiden University is to unify education and
scientific research in the areas of
multimedia analysis/understanding, artificial intelligence,
databases/mining and internet technologies. It is regularly used
in a wide variety of university courses, by at least 30 student
research projects per year, and is directly tied to tasks in numerous
ongoing national and international research grants.
Specifically, the LIACS Media Lab provides three important aspects
which are not available in any other lab or facility in LIACS.
These are (1) Light-controlled facilities to perform controlled
scientific experiments (in computer vision and human-computer interaction) and development of virtual studio technologies;
(2)
facilities (space, hardware, software, etc.) for university courses to
perform multimedia/internet related workshops including special very
high electrical current power for special purpose multimedia equipment,
and (3) most importantly, the lab provides the scientific and technical
expertise to support the courses, student projects, and external
research projects (many thanks to Ernst Lindoorn, the multimedia expert).
This has resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and
exceptional student enthusiasm for multimedia research.
Moreover, the existence of the lab has assisted in helping us get
research funding from Dutch government organizations, world-class
research organizations such as Philips Research Labs, and the European
Union.
Highlights
- MediaTechnology courses and student research
Role: LML provides both facilities and expertise and
guides research publications
- approx. 7 courses use the
facilities and 80% of the Master's projects are published
- Multimedia research publications
Role: LML provides the main source for multimedia
and bio-image pattern recognition publications
- Over 100 peer-reviewed
scientific publications mostly in ACM, IEEE and LNCS.
- International Research Journals and Conferences
Role: LML provides websites, paper reviewer systems,
and central scientific leadership
- ACM Multimedia 2005, ACM
MIR 2004, IEEE HCI 2005, ACM Trans. Multimedia,
- LIACS infrastructure
Role: LML provides a wide variety of web and
information services
- lobby/plasma screen wall
system, LIACS webpages and courses
- Multimedia Helpdesk
Role: LML members provides multimedia help and
expertise to students and staff
- student projects, special
purpose hardware, LIACS open days, demonstrations
Grant
Funding Support (External)
- DIAL - Data Integration, Analysis and Logistics
Funding: ~56M Euros, ~16M Dutch gov., ~40M
University and third parties, 2004-2008
LIACS Project Manager: Erwin Bakker
- Relevance Feedback for Content Based Retrieval
Funding: ~150K Euros, NWO (Dutch NSF), 1999-2004
LIACS Project Leader: Michael Lew
- Advanced Information Processing in Bioinformatics: Data Interlinking
and Integration (Sub-proj)
Funding: ~5.8M Euros, NBIC Biorange IV – VL-e,
2005-2009
LIACS Investigators or Participants: (project is starting) Joost Kok,
Erwin Bakker, Michael Lew
- NODES - Novel Techniques for Describing Shapes in Computer Graphics
and Image Processing
Funding: ~100K Euros, European Union Research
Framework, 2000-2001,
LIACS Project Investigators: Michael Lew and Frans Peters
- Cyttron - Virtual multi-modal microscope and visualization platform
Funding: ~9M Euros for entire project, Bsik, Dutch
Government,2004-2008
LIACS Bio-Search Project Leaders: Michael Lew and
Erwin Bakker
- Data Integratie en Data Mining
Funding: ~1.7M Euros, BTS/Senter, BTS-Project
BTS98040, Economics Affairs, Dutch Government, 1997-2002
LIACS Project Leader: Erwin Bakker
- Content-based Searching of Very Large Multimedia Databases
Funding: ~200K Euros, Philips Research Labs,
1996-2000
LIACS Project Leaders: Nies Huijsmans and Michael Lew
- MMIPPS - Multispectral and Multitemporal Image Processing on Parallel
Systems
Funding: ~100K Euros ESPRIT HPCN Project No. 20970,
European Union Research Framework, 1996-1997
LIACS Project Manager: Erwin Bakker
- WEPTEL - Innovative Weather Presentations on TELevision
Funding: ~500K Euros, European Union Research
Framework, 1996-2000,
LIACS Investigators or Participants: Harry Wijshoff (P.I.), Lex
Wolters (P.M.), Ernst Lindoorn, Michael Lew
Involvement in University Courses
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computer Graphics
- Interfaces
- Internet Systems
- Multimedia Systems
- Speech Recognition and Understanding
- Web Technology
Examples of Other Involvement
- DIAL Project group development server
- Cyttron Project Virtual Studio Task/responsibility
- Cyttron Bio-Image Search
- LIACS Web Pages - Design and Implementation - Ernst Lindoorn
- LTEC Seminar 2000-2002 - Organization: Ernst Lindoorn with Herbert Bos
- Challenges in Computer Science Seminar 2003-2004 - Organization:
Michael Lew, Ernst Lindoorn and Nicu Sebe
- Demonstrations of LIACS research: Ernst Lindoorn, Erwin Bakker,
Michael Lew
Unique Features of the LML
(in
its current state)
- Light control: both creating
completely dark and creating extra bright well lit environments.
This is necessary for both workshops and creating controlled scientific
test sets.
- Power: Very high current
electrical power and our own circuit-breakers for special multimedia
equipment and computers
- Cooling: Air-conditioner for
high-heat generating equipment and computers
- Internet: Direct internet
access for internet research, project servers, video teleconferencing,
etc. It is noteworthy that many internet technologies have
been proven not to work
behind the LIACS firewall.
- Security: From past breakins,
only a locked door is not sufficient. Thus, now we have higher
security both inside and outside the lab
