™ Every aspect of our personal and business lives is impacted by mathematics. Its influence is far reaching – from occurring as patterns in nature to being a prime component in technology and commerce. It was described by an 18th century mathematician as “the science that draws necessary conclusions.” This still stands today as a good working definition of the outcomes of mathematical process when designing, troubleshooting, manufacturing, and producing a range of products and applications. Breaking Down the Problem
Winning businesses rely on process and product efficiencies, business optimization, market forecasting, product innovation and other areas of strategic focus. As a matter of course, their leaders, directors and managers of technical projects must address a variety of pivotal problems or challenges, especially at the early stages of analysis and design. Frequently, when these situations present themselves, the team cannot be sure how to solve them or what level of difficulty is entailed.
The Common Thread
The underlying factor in all of these disciplines is the use of mathematics. As the complexity of the product or application increases, the more pivotal mathematical reasoning becomes in analyzing and understanding patterns that will lead to a solution.
Building a Path to the Answer
Math is not about knowing the answer; it shows what to do and how to think when you don’t know the answer. Yet, many organizations do not have in-house mathematics expertise, even though companies who use mathematical methods have a clear edge on the competition. STAR is ideally positioned to assist information-intensive organizations with contract mathematical expertise – designing the problem approach, ascertaining the necessary inputs, and identifying the solution that delivers the results you need. Let us do the math so you can run your business.
CUSTOMERS:
ExxonMobil
McKesson Corporation
AmeriSource-Bergen
Phonologics, LLC
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AcoustiMap Grant Announcement January 2, 2012: STAR today announces the award of a $186,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an innovative navigation assistance device for the blind. The system, called AcoustiMap, will consist of three components -- an auditory “display” that places sound sources in three dimensions around the user; a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit with a map database; and a Dead Reckoning Module – to provide precise location and orientation for the user.
All three components use proven, commercial products. Users will be able to listen to existing audio “landmarks” – or place their own waypoints. This device will be the first to implement such an auditory “augmented reality” for the blind.
Says STAR Principal Investigator Dr. Andrew W. Howitt, “Researchers have experimented for many years with auditory displays as information conduits for blind users. But the ability to synthesize virtual audio landmarks and combine them with real audio landmarks – say a bus stop – stands to give sight-disabled persons unprecedented control and understanding of their auditory landscape.” Both blind and sighted users have found the auditory display more effective and easier to use than either tactile-feedback (haptic) displays or voice directions.
The award is made under NIH’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. SBIR supports research and development of products and services by small business concerns which show strong potential for commercialization. For further information on NIH’s research program at the National Eye Institute, see http://www.nei.nih.gov/
New Grant Announcement
November 1, 2010: STAR Analytical Services announces the award of a $160,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to apply advanced mathematical techniques to the development of smart sensors for assistive hearing devices. STAR received the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from NIDCD, an institute of NIH, to improve the lives of people with communication disorders.
We’ve all experienced the so-called “Cocktail Party Problem”, the babble of many voices which is particularly difficult in echoing environments, such as restaurants and airports. STAR's solution, as research-team member Keith Gilbert points out, is designed to “let you listen to exactly what you want to listen to” despite the confusion.
This innovative research, conducted by Chief Scientist Dr. Joel MacAuslan and his team, will improve on algorithms for audio analysis. To hear a demonstration of this processing, with a stirring speech and a fascinating discussion of the mathematical techniques, review the samples below.
Sample Input:
Sample Output 1:
Sample Output 2:
You will hear the result as the system “learns” how the two microphones have mixed the two signals, and, after about 30 seconds, determines how to un-mix them. It does this with virtually no information about the sources, the sensors (microphones), or the environment — It determines all this information automatically, minimizing the requirements on the listener.
This system will allow listeners to focus on a particular source of sound against a background of interference. Drs. MacAuslan and Richard Goldhor explain that the research will further emulate what the human auditory system does very well. We use “binaural” hearing, the ability to interpret differences in the sounds arriving at our two ears, to focus on sounds of interest in the presence of competing noise.
In collaboration with UMass-Dartmouth’s Professor Karen L. Payton, Department of Electrical Engineering, the research team will develop the system to separate unwanted signals and to extract desired ones, all automatically. This enabling technology can be applied to a wide range of applications, from toolkits that allow other researchers to analyze just the target utterances they are studying, such as a baby vocalizing, to better hearing aids.
STAR has expertise in enabling technologies that disentangle mixed sounds coming from independent acoustic sources. For instance, by placing a microphone near a known source, a listener can indicate whether this is a sound to be firmly suppressed, such as air conditioning during a baby’s vocalizing, or to be enhanced, such as a conversation partner’s voice. The long-term objective is to provide better recording and live listening experiences for clinical researchers and hearing-aid developers.
The SBIR program supports research and development of products and services by small business concerns which show strong potential for commercialization. For further information, see http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/STAR Analytical Services featured on Microsoft’s Health Tech Today
STAR Analytical Services Receives
$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations Grant for Innovative Global Health Research STAR Analytical Services announced
today that it has received a US $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr. Suzanne Smith, Senior Investigator, and Dr. JoelMacAuslan, Co-investigator, titled “Using Acoustic Analysis of Cough to Diagnose Pneumonia." Dr. Suzanne Smith's project is one of 76 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the third funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. The grants were provided to scientists in 16 countries on five continents.
For more information: click here
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