A new service developed by a researcher at the University of Southampton which makes it possible for users to maintain multiple online accounts using a scan of their fingerprint as a password, has been recognized by a recent major conference award.

The new service, FingerID, has been developed by Sara Alotaibi, of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University. Sara won Best Paper Presentation Award for her work at a recent IEEE World CIS (Congress on Internet Security) Conference 2011 in London, as recorded on WorldCIS’s Website: http://www.worldcis.org/Programme.html

“FingerID provides users with the facility to maintain multiple web accounts from a single source just using a fingerprint, and eliminates their concerns about having to remember multiple usernames and passwords,â€? said Ms Alotaibi.

In order to develop FingerID, Ms Alotaibi evaluated existing and proposed systems geared towards replacing the conventional form of authentication using a username and password on the Web, and found that not much work had been done in this field. She went on to evaluate these systems against criteria such as security, accessibility and usability, as a result of which she generated a concept which could fundamentally alter the entire authentication mechanism, replacing memorised passwords with fingerprint data. This laid the foundation for FingerID - a service to maintain multiple web accounts with the user's fingerprint.

She also ran an online survey to assess the need for this service among users. She received responses from 191 participants and found that almost half of those who took part (44.75 per cent) had more than 14 accounts on the Web and that just over 30 per cent did not like to share their personal information online.

The FingerID system is programmed to request the user’s fingerprint scan for registration purposes. Following registration, the user can then gain access to multiple web accounts under one service. The registration process of the user will only take place once, and later scans will be used to verify the user to provide access to web accounts. The FingerID system is composed of two main parts: web site and software (browser).

Ms Alotaibi will go on to develop her approach further in her PhD (supervised by Dr David Argles and Dr Mike Wald in ECS) when she will look at using other aspects of authentication such as palm prints and face gestures.

An extended version of Ms Alotaibi’s paper will be published in the International Journal of Intelligent Computing Research (IJICR), Volume 2, Issue 1, ISSN: 2042 4655 (Online), http://www.infonomics-society.org/IJICR/

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Sarah Alotaibi is working in the Learning Societies Lab at ECS-Electronics and Computer Science. If you are interested in PhD opportunities in this group, see our Postgraduate information pages.

For further information on this story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

Brothers Ollie and Cameron from Woolston were just two of the young visitors who took part in technology events organized by ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton's Science and Engineering Family Day held at the Highfield Campus last Saturday (12 March).

Along with their parents (also pictured here) Ollie and Cameron were 'detectives' in the 'Blood on the Stage Door' murder mystery event, devised and organized by ECS graduate Dr Reena Pau. Held in conjunction with the Nuffield Theatre, the event focuses on a dramatic (and ridiculous) murder, which is then solved by the participants, who use the results of different technological challenges in which they take part. Ollie and Cameron were especially good at managing traffic flows in the ECS undergraduate computer lab. This activity was organized by PhD student James Snowdon, building on his research on the computational modelling of traffic flows. Other clues in the event involved nutrition, sound, GPS, and pathology.

The inspiration for the event came from Reena’s work in schools as well as her passion for getting girls enthusiastic about science and technology. While interviewing schoolchildren for her PhD project she found that many didn’t understand how technology can be used in the real world. This suggested to her that merging theatre and technology would provide a narrative showing the real-world context in which technology can be used.

‘The narrative is really funny,’ said Reena, ‘but has the serious purpose of drawing the children into the story. As they work their way round the different technologies, they can understand their power in real-world settings and hopefully be excited by their potential.’

In another part of the University Dr Denis Nicole of ECS, with the help of a number of ECS students, organized the Technology Zone in the Activity Area, covering a range of activities such as robotics, augmented reality, computer games, energy transmission, and electronics. Thousands of people attended the event.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor of Computer Science in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, is today taking part in a UK Government summit on net neutrality.

Net neutrality is the important principle that there should be no favouritism for connecting to certain sites online. Sir Tim, inventor of the World Wide Web, has been a strong supporter of net neutrality, online privacy and the value of freely open data since he first founded the Web, and is now working through his World Wide Web Foundation to increase the number of people worldwide who are able to access the Web.

Speaking last October to the Nokia World Conference in London, Sir Tim commented: “We assume that when we look up a web address and the domain name to get that page that you can get any page because that's how it's always been … but a lot of companies would love to limit that. If they're trying to sell you movies streamed online, they'd like to slow down your access to other people's movies, so you'd come back to them. If they sell you telephone services, they'd love to block voice-over-internet connections, or just slow it down so you decide it's not a very good technology and go and use theirs instead."

Today’s summit is being chaired by Government Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, and will include representatives from BT, Sky and Virgin Media, along with other leading internet service providers. The companies will outline their vision of an industry code of practice for the management of internet traffic. According to BBC Technology Editor Rory Cellan-Jones, the summit could be crucial in shaping the way the internet develops in the UK over the coming decade. ___

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a Founder Director of the Web Science Trust. To find out about PhD opportunities in Web Science see the opportunities in our Doctoral Training Centre for Web Science: http://webscience.ecs.soton.ac.uk/dtc/.

Members of the Electronic Systems Design group in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science made a substantial contribute to the prestigious DATE11 event held last week in Grenoble.

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi was General Chair of this year's DATE conference, which was the most successful of the series so far. 'Our attendance numbers at the DATE exhibition were up by more than 40 per on last year," said Professor Al-Hashimi, "demonstrating the importance and relevance of the event to our community. We believe it is one of the best examples of industry and research in partnership, with great significance for the micro and nanoelectronics industry and for embedded systems manufacture."

In addition to Professor Al-Hashimi, six other members of the ESD group attended the event and are pictured here (l-r) Dr Tom Kazmierski, Professor Al-Hashimi, Jatin Mistry, Dr Alex Weddell, Professor David Flynn, Dr Leran Wang and Dr Geoff Merrett. They presented five papers in total and demonstrated results from the EPSRC-funded project "Next Generation Energy-Harvesting Electronics: A Holistic Approach". Dr Kazmierski was elected to the Council of next year's event.

For information about PhD opportunities in the Electronic Systems Design Group see our PhD information pages.

A working robot controlled by a slime mould, and designed and built in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, will play a starring role in a major BBC4/Discovery Channel feature to be aired in the autumn.

A production team from BBC Scotland spent a whole day in ECS this week, filming with Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner and Dr Soichiro Tsuda, who developed the robot. Its central innovation is that it features a biochip which encapsulates a plasmodial cell of the slime mould Physarum polycephalum which is used to control the robot’s movements. An electronic interface enables the slim mould cell to be connected to a computer in order to monitor local mechanical oscillations in the cell and it also provides stimulation for the slime mould with light signals, causing the movement of the robot.

Dr Tsuda told the programme presenter, Dr George McGavin, that his inspiration for the robot had come from Dr Who’s Daleks! ‘It’s amazing that something that lives on dead trees can be used to control a machine,’ said Dr McGavin.

Physarum polycephalum has been used by Dr Zauner in research projects which have included both research students and undergraduates in ECS over a number of years: Gareth Jones, now a PhD student in ECS, developed the drive system of the robot in his Part III project and Paul Macey developed the electronic interface to the slime mould cell in his Part III project.

Klaus-Peter commented “There was a time when people in hot-air balloons looked at pigeons and realised that there is a radically different solution to the problem of flight. Now we marvel at nature's molecular computers which tell us that there are radically different solutions to the problem of information processing.

‘To harvest the potential of molecular computing, however, we need a generation of engineers with a broad concept of computation - I am therefore particularly pleased that the most important component of this robot was developed by an undergraduate, Paul Macey.â€?

Soichiro Tsuda will be returning to Japan in June to work in Professor Tetsuya Yomo's Symbiotic Network Design Laboratory.

Physarum is a popular model-organism in unconventional computing. It processes information from its environment in a distributed fashion that is not yet well understood.

The BBC/Discovery televisision feature has the working title ‘Afterlife’. It will examine many different aspects of decomposition and decay, including the complexity of organisms that are associated with decomposition, as well as exploring our attitudes to bacteria and the breakdown of bio-systems.

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For more information on this news story contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453

If you are interested in PhD research in this area, you can find out more information on our Postgraduate Admissions pages.

The new Google magazine, 'Think Quarterly', features an article in its first edition by Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

Since 2009 Professor Shadbolt has been working with Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, ECS Professor and inventor of the World Wide Web, as advisers to UK Government and leading advocates of the ‘open data’ movement. They developed the website data.gov.uk, which provides a single point of access to thousands of UK government datasets, and which has focused interest worldwide on the benefits of freeing up public data for business and citizens.

In the article in 'Think Quarterly' - 'Open for Business', Professor Shadbolt explains the scope and challenges of obtaining and publishing non-personal public data in a format that enables it to be re-used for public good, citing examples such as Who’s Lobbying, which reveals the many special interest groups which are aiming to influence government ministers, and TravelOptions which provides information to help citizens find their way round London.

He also reveals the extent to which companies are now turning their attention to Open Government Data, and asks whether businesses’ own data might benefit from similar exploitation. “We know that better information makes better marketsâ€?, he says. “Lack of access to information about demand and supply makes it difficult for both suppliers and traders to plan, economise and improve their activities.â€?

As one of the leaders of the Open Data revolution, Professor Shadbolt is in no doubt that it has plenty of momentum; he concludes: “The Open Government Data revolution is important. Viewed as a precursor to a wider open data movement, it could be as important as any we have seen in the web era.â€?

Earlier this month, the University of Southampton published its own open data, making it available under an open licence, from a single point of access and in a standard format – giving anyone permission to use and reuse the data.

For further information about this news story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453

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The Doctoral Training Centre for Web Science is based at the University of Southampton; for information about the four-year PhD programme in Web Science, see our DTC admissions pages

For further information about Web Science, see www.webscience.org.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, was honoured last night at a special 80th birthday celebration for former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Mr Gorbachev had chosen Sir Tim Berners-Lee, along with Ted Turner and Evans Wadongo, as the first recipients of the Mikhail Gorbachev awards.

Sir Tim holds a Chair of Computer Science in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton. He is 3COM Founders Professor of Engineering at Massachussetts Institute of Technology, and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium.

The Inaugural Gorbachev Awards were presented in three categories, intended to reflect the former Soviet leader's own achievements in the world. Mr Gorbachev, who turned 80 earlier this month, is widely credited with ending the Cold War and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.

The three ‘Man Who Changed the World’ awards were:

‘Glasnost’, awarded to Ted Turner for his ‘contribution to the development of the culture of an open world’. Ted Turner is also a philanthropist who donated one billion dollars to the United Nations.

‘Uskorenie’ was awarded to Mr Wadongo for his "contribution to the development of modern science and technology". Mr Wadongo invented a solar-powered LED lantern at 18 and founded Sustainable Development for All-Kenya.

‘Perestroika’ was awarded to Sir Tim for his "contribution to the development of global civilisation". Sir Tim created the World Wide Web in 1990.

Mr Gorbachev said: "These three people have each, in their own way, changed the world for their fellow men and women in ways which affect all our lives. Each and every one possesses the ability to make a difference and the Gorbachev Awards have been established to those people who achieve this and to provide inspiration to all of us to try."

Devices which could be used to rehabilitate the arms and hands of people who have experienced a stroke have been developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

In a paper to be presented tomorrow (6 April) at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Assisted Living Conference, Dr Geoff Merrett from ECS-Electronics and Computer Science, will describe the design and evaluation of three technologies which could help people who are affected by stroke to regain movement in their hand and arm.

Dr Merrett worked with Dr Sara Demain from the University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Dr Cheryl Metcalf who works across Health Sciences and ECS, to develop three ‘tactile’ devices which generate a realistic “sense of touchâ€? and sensation which mimic those involved in everyday activities.

“Most stroke rehabilitation systems ignore the role of sensation and they only allow people repetitive movement,â€? said Dr Demain. “Our aim is to develop technology which provides people with a sense of holding something or of feeling something, like, for example, holding a hot cup of tea, and we want to integrate this with improving motor function.â€?

Three tactile devices were developed and tested on patients who had had a stroke and on healthy participants. The devices were: a ‘vibration’ tactile device, which users felt provided a good indication of touch but did not really feel as if they were holding anything; a ‘motor-driven squeezer’ device, which users said felt like they were holding something, a bit like catching a ball; and a ‘shape memory alloy’ device which has thermal properties and creates a sensation like picking up a cup of tea.

“We now have a number of technologies, which we can use to develop sensation,â€? said Dr Merrett. “This technology can be used on its own as a stand-alone system to help with sensory rehabilitation or it could be used alongside existing health technologies such as rehabilitation robots or gaming technologies which help patient rehabilitation,â€? Dr Metcalf concluded.

The academics’ paper: Design and Qualitative Evaluation of Tactile Devices for Stroke Rehabilitation will be presented at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Assisted Living Conference. A copy of the paper can be accessed at: http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/21802/

See our video on the ECS News channel on YouTube.

This weekend (9/10 April) sees the culmination of the Student Robotics Challenge with school teams from around the country and as far afield as Grenoble coming to the University to take part in a day of furious and frenzied competition.

The schools taking part have been working on their robots for six months, designing them, building them and perfecting their ability to execute particular manoeuvres in the most efficient and successful way.

On the final day of competition, Sunday 10 April, the robots will be put through their paces in a specially-constructed arena in the University Students’ Union, performing tasks which will test the design and construction skills of their student architects.

The school teams have all been mentored by a member of the Students Robotics team, which is drawn from current and former engineering students of the University of Southampton, University of Bristol and Imperial College London and is based at ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

The competition is now in its fifth year, and is highly regarded by sponsors, who include Motorola and BitBox, and teachers at the competing schools. “I was tremendously impressed with the set up (of the competition day) and the ingenuity displayed by the various teams. It is quite incredible what relatively young students can achieve,â€? said a member of the teaching staff at Peter Symonds College, Winchester.

The school teams arrive in Southampton on Saturday 9 April, and have the opportunity to spend a day of final preparations for the competition, which begins on Sunday morning at 10 am. After inspection of the robots to ensure they meet the competition regulations, the event begins at 10.30 and continues until 3.45 in the afternoon. After a short period of judging, the prize-giving ceremony takes place at 4 pm.

“This is the culmination of a huge amount of ingenuity, inventiveness, and hard work,â€? says Alex Forward, this year’s Student Robotics Chairman. “Student Robotics is an inspirational activity, both for students at the University who have the opportunity to work with sixth-form students and see what they can achieve, and for the students and their teachers, who try to coax the best out of their robots to such great effect on the competition day.

“It’s definitely a day of unexpected outcomes, including triumph and disaster! But it’s a lot of fun.â€?

Professor Neil White, Head of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science, will be presenting the prizes on Sunday: “The competition is a very practical way of helping sixth-formers acquire an understanding of the kind of engineering design skills that are fundamental to the country’s technological development.

“We are very proud of our students who run this Challenge so professionally, and I am looking forward to seeing some excellent robots and stiff competition on Sunday.â€?

For further information contact Joyce Lewis; tel. 023 8059 5453

The Chair of this year's international conference on electromagnetics will warn next week that the amount of energy lost from UK power devices will remain high if the industry does not design better products.

According to Professor Jan Sykulski of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, at the moment the total energy loss associated just with transmission of electricity in one day in the UK is the equivalent of three nuclear explosions of the Nagasaki Bomb.

Speaking at the opening session of CEM 2011(the 8th international Conference on Computation in Electromagnetics) on Tuesday 12 April, Professor Sykulski will argue that electromechanical and electromagnetic communities need to use better design tools and modern simulation techniques to produce products that are more efficient and competitive.

"Modelling and simulation of electromagnetic fields is an integral part of the vast majority of devices, including everyday items such as computers and mobile phones," he said. "Whether they are big or on the nanoscale, the same principles apply."

Professor Sykulski also claims that despite the wide reach of electromagnetics and the very real need for more efficiency, the industry is slow to subscribe to this need. This year's CEM will bring together the three key communities in this field: power engineering, antennas and propagation, and electromagnetic compatibility and hazards.

"I am excited about these three communities coming together for the first time in this way," said Professor Sykulski. "It is helpful for them to talk to each other, exchange experiences and to see the benefits of better, more efficient examples."

CEM 2011 – an international conference organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) – will take place in Wroclaw, Poland from 11-14 April 2011.

Professor Sykulski is Chair of CEM for the third time this year; he has just been appointed Editor of IEEE Transactions on Magnetics and has been General Secretary of the International Compumag Society since 1993.

-- For more information contact Joyce Lewis; tel.023 8059 5453.