Effective human-computer interaction through cognitive biometrics

This is a paper I wrote exploring how brain-machine interfaces could change the way we interact with computers. The core idea was simple: most interfaces still demand motor work — hands on a keyboard, fingers on a mouse. What if you could skip that entirely? The problem Human-computer interaction has come a long way. Touchscreens let you bypass the mouse. But you still need hands. For some people — those with motor impairments, for example — that’s a real barrier. Even for everyone else, there’s something inherently slower about translating a thought into a hand movement, then into a keystroke or click. ...

11 November 2011 · Shafiq Alibhai

Applications of Neural Networks

This is a collection of research projects and applications I worked on using neural networks. Most of the video demos linked below are no longer available — the servers they lived on have been dead for years. I’m keeping the descriptions because they capture what the work was about. What is a Neural Network? An artificial neural network (ANN) is an information processing system inspired by biological nervous systems. It’s made up of a large number of interconnected processing elements — neurons — that work together to solve problems. Like people, ANNs learn by example. You configure them for a task, whether that’s pattern recognition or data classification, and they figure out the solution through a learning process. In biological systems, learning means adjusting synaptic connections between neurons. Neural networks do the same thing. ...

11 November 2011 · Shafiq Alibhai