THE Centre for Innovative Engineering (CIE) at Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) has secured funding from ASEAN-IVO for its project proposal titled ‘Event Analysis: Applications of Computer Vision and AI in Smart Tourism Industry’, a UTB press release stated.
This is the first time ASEAN-IVO has selected a project led by a university from Brunei.
The proposal is a response to a theme in the ASEAN-IVO 2018 project – ‘Smart Tourism’.
Explaining the motivation behind the proposal, Director of CIE, Associate Professor Dr Somnuk Phon-Amnuaisuk said, “After the establishment of the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community), travelling has become easy for people living in this region.
“One of the main concerns of tourists when travelling is safety and well-being. Our ‘event analysis’ project explores a cost-effective approach to enhance safety and well-being of visitors.”
The project proposal is designed to exploit recent advances in media streaming technology, deep learning, computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI), the director said. “We hope to deliver ‘visual event analysis’ services to tourism industries after the successful completion of the project.”
CIE shall lead the joint collaboration with the following research institutes and universities: Lao-Japan Technical Training Centre, National University of Laos; Mahanakorn University of Technology, Thailand; Multimedia University, Malaysia; National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, Thailand; National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Japan; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and University of Computer Studies, Yangon, Myanmar.
UTB is also a member of two other projects selected by ASEAN-IVO. A senior lecturer from School of Computing and Informatics Dr Wida Susanty binti Haji Suhaili will be involved.
The first one is ‘A Mesh-topological, Low-power Wireless Network Platform for a Smart Watering System’ under the Smart-Agriculture project theme.
Her second project is ‘Harnessing ICT for Environmental Protection through the Networked ASEAN Peat Swamp Forest Communities’ under the Smart Environment Protection project theme.
An information and communication technology (ICT) virtual organisation, ASEAN- IVO is a global alliance of ICT research and development institutes and universities in the ASEAN region and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) Japan. UTB’s CIE is led by its director Associate Professor Dr Somnuk Phon-Amnuaisuk and Deputy Director Dr Minh-Son Dao.
The centre is focussed on applying innovative technologies across various industries of importance to Brunei including agrifood, education and learning, national security, disaster management and tourism, among others.