The e-Lab Research Group

The e-lab research group of the Artesis University College of Antwerp, focuses on two main research domains:

• Ambient Intelligence: RTLS, NFC, MEMS, ....
• Ambient Multimedia and Imaging: classification, segmentation, tracking, medical signal processing, ...

Ambient Intelligence (AMBIT)

The AMBIT research group aims at establishing itself as a centre of knowledge in the field of positioning on the macro, medium, and micro level, auto-identification, and the different RF communication technologies in general. The main focus of the AMBIT group for the upcoming years will be 3D location tracking and more specifically the development of a platform for an inter-working of embedded localization and communication systems. We want to seamlessly combine the possibilities for outdoor and indoor localization for the end user, through the use of different technologies such as GPS, Galileo, GSM, Wi-Fi, WSN, and RFID, augmented with extra input from different kinds of sensors (e.g. MEMS). Hence, we are capable of monitoring important assets and people, which enables us to create intelligent environments with an unlimited number of interaction possibilities for the end user. One of them, called Ambient Assisted living, is predicted to become one of the most promising solutions for the current situation of the ageing European society. All aspects of these subjects will be closely followed up and every possible opportunity will be examined to explore the possibilities for new project opportunities.

Today, several projects related to this subject are ongoing in the AMBIT research group. The first project initiated was the TETRA - LADI WITEPA project in association with KAHO Sint-Lieven of Ghent. The successful completion of this project led to a new TETRA project ‘SCALA’ and a EU-FP7 project ‘LocON’, closely related to a PhD project, that are both being conducted at this time.
The third project that is currently being worked on, is a Proof of Concept project in the domain of Near Field Communication (NFC) in the event industry.

The group is also familiar with organizing Intensive Programs, which is a cooperation between various foreign ERASMUS partners.  In the future, the outcome of past and new projects will be gathered in an RFID Demo-lab.

Ongoing search for opportunities of new and the sustention of current cooperating bonds with international (international projects of master projects and the intensive program) and national (ADM, GC LADI WITEPA, seminars, …), as well external (with university colleges and universities) as internal (department of healthcare, other research groups in the department, …). To build further on an ever growing network of contacts the researchers and the students will be employed to result in an accurate partner list.

Ambient Multimedia and Imaging (AMMI)

The AMMI research group is working on classification and segmentation problems. A PhD project in cooperation with Ghent University concerning gesture recognition is one of the research topics where classification and tracking algorithms are extensively used. 

Another focus is medical signal processing. Examples are the segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images and the investigation of MR spectroscopy data in order to detect adipose tissue. The study of electromyography (EMG) signals of professional violinists and elite archers in cooperation with Vrije Universiteit Brussel is also one of our ongoing research topics.