Personal site and blog of Dr Mu Mu: virtual reality, digital health, AI and teaching.https://drmu.net/https://drmu.net/2026/06/27/wavevr-merged-futures-8-feedback/https://drmu.net/2026/06/27/wavevr-merged-futures-8-feedback/21 people tried WaveVR at Digital Northants' Merged Futures 8 showcase. 75% said they felt calmer afterwards, on a busy exhibition floor where we weren't sure the calming side would land.Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/05/15/mu-mu-digital-northants-champion/https://drmu.net/2026/05/15/mu-mu-digital-northants-champion/RestoryVR has been recognised as a Digital Northants Champion for work on VR solutions supporting emotion regulation, trauma treatment, and addiction recovery.Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/05/07/wavevr-inspire-deployment/https://drmu.net/2026/05/07/wavevr-inspire-deployment/We've delivered two VR headsets and WaveVR licences to Inspire, an alcohol and drug service supporting adults, young people, and communities across West Northamptonshire.Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/04/23/wavevr-futurefest-2026/https://drmu.net/2026/04/23/wavevr-futurefest-2026/WaveVR was invited to SEND IASS North Northants FutureFest at the Corby Cube, where 20 young people experienced a VR mindfulness session. Results showed overwhelmingly positive outcomes.Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/04/17/wavevr-merged-futures-8/https://drmu.net/2026/04/17/wavevr-merged-futures-8/Prof Mu Mu will present WaveVR at Digital Northants' eighth annual innovation event, demonstrating how immersive VR can support emotional wellbeing.Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/04/10/wavevr-school-pilots-show-positive-results/https://drmu.net/2026/04/10/wavevr-school-pilots-show-positive-results/Early results from our WaveVR pilot programme in schools demonstrate significant improvements in mood, focus, and emotional resilience among young participants.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/03/15/emdr-vr-study-published/https://drmu.net/2026/03/15/emdr-vr-study-published/Our peer-reviewed mixed-method study on VR-based EMDR therapy for specific phobias has been published, demonstrating a 94.1% improvement rate.Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/02/01/innervoice-ukri-funding/https://drmu.net/2026/02/01/innervoice-ukri-funding/Our InnerVoice VR programme for addiction recovery has secured funding from UK Research and Innovation to advance development and begin feasibility testing.Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2026/01/17/saffron-emdr-vr-story/https://drmu.net/2026/01/17/saffron-emdr-vr-story/Saffron, a midwifery student at the University of Northampton, took part in our EMDR VR clinical trial to tackle an intense fear of needles and blood – and the results transformed her career.Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2025/12/19/arc-responsible-ai-event/https://drmu.net/2025/12/19/arc-responsible-ai-event/Prof Mu Mu presented and joined the panel at the Arc Universities Group event on Responsible AI and Automation, hosted by The Open University and Cranfield University in Milton Keynes.Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2025/12/14/wave-a-preventative-virtual-reality-therapeutic-intervention-for-youth-at-risk/https://drmu.net/2025/12/14/wave-a-preventative-virtual-reality-therapeutic-intervention-for-youth-at-risk/The provision of education for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is currently facing systemic challenges. In some local areas, the gap between strategic ambition and lived reality is stark, evidenced by nearly 7,000 school suspensions in one academic year. This crisi...Sun, 14 Dec 2025 11:10:56 GMThttps://drmu.net/2025/12/14/innervoice-vr-training-for-addiction-recovery/https://drmu.net/2025/12/14/innervoice-vr-training-for-addiction-recovery/We are funded by Innovate UK and West Northamptonshire Council to pilot a new VR training tool for addiction recovery. Many parts of the UK face a worsening drug and alcohol addiction crisis, with rising deaths and hospital admissions. Alcohol-related deaths tripled and drug-related deaths double...Sun, 14 Dec 2025 10:49:37 GMThttps://drmu.net/2025/05/29/new-clinical-trial-shows-clinical-effectiveness-of-vr-based-therapy-for-trauma/https://drmu.net/2025/05/29/new-clinical-trial-shows-clinical-effectiveness-of-vr-based-therapy-for-trauma/Following a feasibility and safety study with 5 participants over 25 sessions [1], we completed a clinical trial of VR EMDR specific phobias treatment with 17 participants (85 treatment sessions over 5 days) [2]. The completion of the trial is such an outstanding achievement of the team and the v...Thu, 29 May 2025 11:32:57 GMThttps://drmu.net/2025/05/27/from-fear-to-freedom-how-northamptons-vr-therapy-can-help-unlock-lives/https://drmu.net/2025/05/27/from-fear-to-freedom-how-northamptons-vr-therapy-can-help-unlock-lives/I will be doing a talk and hosting a demo booth at Merged Futures 7. Life shouldn’t be limited by fear. Yet, for many, intense phobias – whether a paralysing fear of air travel that restricts careers and holidays, a dread of needles that compromises essential medical care, or a fear of insects th...Tue, 27 May 2025 17:06:02 GMThttps://drmu.net/2024/11/23/vr-dolphin-experience/https://drmu.net/2024/11/23/vr-dolphin-experience/The original article was written by David Nicholls and posted at https://www.northampton.ac.uk/research-blogs/dolphin-experience-vr/ Dr Mu Mu, Andy Debus, and David Nicholls have been working on a prototype for VR Therapies based in Northampton to help relieve anxieties in patients. “The NHS is u...Sat, 23 Nov 2024 16:34:42 GMThttps://drmu.net/2024/06/28/video-demo-vr-emdr-therapy-and-swimming-with-dolphin-therapy/https://drmu.net/2024/06/28/video-demo-vr-emdr-therapy-and-swimming-with-dolphin-therapy/Fri, 28 Jun 2024 09:34:39 GMThttps://drmu.net/2024/06/26/invitation-to-participate-in-a-research-study-150-voucher-payment/https://drmu.net/2024/06/26/invitation-to-participate-in-a-research-study-150-voucher-payment/Wed, 26 Jun 2024 20:51:49 GMThttps://drmu.net/2024/03/28/we-will-be-at-the-merged-futures-6-event-get-your-free-ticket/https://drmu.net/2024/03/28/we-will-be-at-the-merged-futures-6-event-get-your-free-ticket/Thu, 28 Mar 2024 15:57:35 GMThttps://drmu.net/2024/03/13/3422/https://drmu.net/2024/03/13/3422/Wed, 13 Mar 2024 14:50:55 GMThttps://drmu.net/2024/01/22/new-innovation-projects-on-vr-based-therapies/https://drmu.net/2024/01/22/new-innovation-projects-on-vr-based-therapies/We had an excellent new year start with two new innovation projects on VR-based therapies. Swimming with AI dolphins The first Knowledge Exchange project will deliver an innovative VR therapy “Swimming with AI Dolphins” which offers a unique interactive underwater experience to ease the symptoms ...Mon, 22 Jan 2024 20:24:43 GMThttps://drmu.net/2023/09/02/marker-based-multi-camera-extrinsic-calibration-for-3d-body-tracking/https://drmu.net/2023/09/02/marker-based-multi-camera-extrinsic-calibration-for-3d-body-tracking/One of the main use cases of our metaverse lab is 3d body tracking. With Kinect DK’s SDK, 32 body joints can be detected or estimated from a single camera feed. The data for each joint include 3d coordinates (x, y, z) in the depth camera’s coordinate system, rotation matrix in quaternion (qw, qx,...Sat, 02 Sep 2023 19:32:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2023/07/10/publication-unstuck-in-metaverse-persuasive-user-navigation-using-automated-avatars/https://drmu.net/2023/07/10/publication-unstuck-in-metaverse-persuasive-user-navigation-using-automated-avatars/Mu, M., Dohan, M. “Unstuck in Metaverse: Persuasive User Navigation using Automated Avatars”, to appear in IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE, 2023 Were you ever lost in a new place that you are visiting? What do you do when that happens? In an established and populous area, Google Maps or asking...Mon, 10 Jul 2023 21:03:05 GMThttps://drmu.net/2023/07/02/smart-campus-data-visualisation-zoo/https://drmu.net/2023/07/02/smart-campus-data-visualisation-zoo/[UPDATE] I stopped the AWS instance due to the cost. They are now “on-demand”. Finally got a bit of time to move the code and some sample data to a public server. The data are all real but not live. Also, I am using an old version of Highcharts.js. They are sitting on tiny t3.microSun, 02 Jul 2023 21:44:17 GMThttps://drmu.net/2023/06/29/treating-mental-illness-in-the-comfort-of-an-english-cottage-garden/https://drmu.net/2023/06/29/treating-mental-illness-in-the-comfort-of-an-english-cottage-garden/The SIRIPP project team has made significant progress in our VR therapy project and successfully delivered our first VR prototype! It’s really amazing to see how things have come together. Developing a 3D VR game with professionally generated content and intuitive user interactivities is already ...Thu, 29 Jun 2023 21:37:13 GMThttps://drmu.net/2023/01/13/of-course-we-have-a-metaverse-lab/https://drmu.net/2023/01/13/of-course-we-have-a-metaverse-lab/I’ve led a successful Research Capital Fund at UON to help the university invest in key areas that can extend its research and innovation impact leading to the next REF submission. The Fund will support the first-phase development of a Metaverse Lab for health services, education, training, and i...Fri, 13 Jan 2023 06:57:32 GMThttps://drmu.net/2022/12/30/paper-on-data-driven-smart-communities-to-appear-in-ieee-network-magazine/https://drmu.net/2022/12/30/paper-on-data-driven-smart-communities-to-appear-in-ieee-network-magazine/A smart campus project started in 2019 finally sees its first academic paper titled “Network as a sensor for smart crowd analysis and service improvement” appear in a Smart Communities special issue of IEEE Network Magazine. It was meant to be a pure engineering project to showcase the potential ...Fri, 30 Dec 2022 13:40:28 GMThttps://drmu.net/2022/12/01/automating-mental-health-treatment/https://drmu.net/2022/12/01/automating-mental-health-treatment/Today marks the start of a new research project on automating mental health treatment using VR and game design. This short project is funded by the University’s Support for Innovation and Research Ideas, Policy and Participation (SIRIPP) grant. The SIRIPP grant supports staff in developing their ...Thu, 01 Dec 2022 11:25:48 GMThttps://drmu.net/2022/09/07/keynote-talk-at-institute-of-technology-federal-university-of-para/https://drmu.net/2022/09/07/keynote-talk-at-institute-of-technology-federal-university-of-para/It was a pleasure to be invited by Prof. Eduardo Cerqueira to meet with his postgraduate students at the Institute of Technology, Federal University of Pará. We had some interesting discussions on mobile VR, content distribution, and AI ethics in VR designs.Wed, 07 Sep 2022 11:15:38 GMThttps://drmu.net/2022/03/27/using-vr-and-machine-learning-for-art-and-mental-health/https://drmu.net/2022/03/27/using-vr-and-machine-learning-for-art-and-mental-health/[ update: the research idea described in this post has supported a successful outline proposal to EPSRC High-risk speculative engineering and ICT research: New Horizons ] In the past few years, we have had a series of projects on capturing and modelling human attention in VR applications. Our res...Sun, 27 Mar 2022 11:15:31 GMThttps://drmu.net/2022/03/22/the-development-of-bsc-ai-and-data-science-programme/https://drmu.net/2022/03/22/the-development-of-bsc-ai-and-data-science-programme/This is a belated post on developing a new BSc AI and Data Science (Hons) programme. This programme has successfully passed validation in early 2022 and we are now accepting applications for the 22/23 academic year. The development of the new programme is an answer to the growing demand for machi...Tue, 22 Mar 2022 22:10:22 GMThttps://drmu.net/2020/08/21/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-5-finding-sweeties-quick/https://drmu.net/2020/08/21/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-5-finding-sweeties-quick/In Part 4, I made a start with establishing a new training dataset by harvesting publicly accessible photos on social media. The main benefit of using user generated content is that they were taken in a real-world setting, hence close to what the targeting logos would look like in a film. For con...Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:42:30 GMThttps://drmu.net/2020/05/22/smart-campus-project-part-3-covid-19-in-progress/https://drmu.net/2020/05/22/smart-campus-project-part-3-covid-19-in-progress/I have been playing with the project data to study the impact of COVID-19 social distancing / lockdown to the university, especially the use of campus facilities. Meanwhile there are some time series analysis and behavioural modelling that I’d like to complete sooner than later. Everything has ta...Fri, 22 May 2020 13:57:22 GMThttps://drmu.net/2020/03/26/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-4-start-a-new-dataset-work-in-progress/https://drmu.net/2020/03/26/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-4-start-a-new-dataset-work-in-progress/Public image datasets are very handy when it comes to ML training but at some point you’ll face a product/logo that are not covered by any existing dataset. In our case, we are experimenting with detecting Cadbury Roses and Cadbury Heroes products. We need to construct an image dataset to cover t...Thu, 26 Mar 2020 14:50:15 GMThttps://drmu.net/2020/03/25/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-3-training-and-results/https://drmu.net/2020/03/25/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-3-training-and-results/Training has been an ongoing process to test what configurations work for our us the best. Normally you set the training config, dataset and validation strategy then sit back and wait for the model performance to peak. Figures below show plots of loss and mAP@0.5 for 4000 iterations of training w...Wed, 25 Mar 2020 00:48:14 GMThttps://drmu.net/2020/03/24/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-2-dataset-and-reference-implementations/https://drmu.net/2020/03/24/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-2-dataset-and-reference-implementations/Dataset for training Existing object detection models are most trained to recognise common everyday objects such as dogs, people, cars, etc. We’ll use these pre-trained models later on when we do scene/character detection. For logo detection, we need to train out own model for the logos we need t...Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:20:39 GMThttps://drmu.net/2020/03/23/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-1-background/https://drmu.net/2020/03/23/product-detection-in-movies-and-tv-shows-using-machine-learning-part-1-background/This blog series discusses some R&D work within an ongoing “Big Idea” project. The project is in collaboration with the Big Film Group Ltd , a leading Product Placement Agency working with Blue Chip clients across UK and International entertainment properties. Background Currently as part of the ...Mon, 23 Mar 2020 23:30:36 GMThttps://drmu.net/2020/01/27/ai-and-generative-art/https://drmu.net/2020/01/27/ai-and-generative-art/The new year started with a couple of interesting projects on AI. In a HEIF-funded “Big Ideas” project, I am working with a brand placement company to prototype a solution that uses computer vision and deep learning to automate the evaluation of how brands and products appear in movies and TV sho...Mon, 27 Jan 2020 00:52:09 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/12/17/associate-editor-of-springer-multimedia-systems/https://drmu.net/2019/12/17/associate-editor-of-springer-multimedia-systems/I am thrilled to join the editorial board of Springer Multimedia System journal. Since 1993, Multimedia Systems has been a leading journal in the field covering enduring topics related to multimedia computing, AI, human factors, communication, and applications. The world of multimedia and computi...Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:35:39 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/09/26/smart-campus-project-part-2/https://drmu.net/2019/09/26/smart-campus-project-part-2/In Part 1, I introduced the architecture and shown some sample charts of my Smart campus project. The non-intrusive use of WIFI data for campus services and student experience is really cool. As we are approaching the start of university term, I have reduced time to work on this project. So my fo...Thu, 26 Sep 2019 14:36:49 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/09/10/tb-to-unity-a-small-software-tool-for-creative-vr-artists/https://drmu.net/2019/09/10/tb-to-unity-a-small-software-tool-for-creative-vr-artists/[I am still learning Unity/abstract art. Do let me know if you spot me doing anything silly.] References:https://github.com/googlevr/tilt-brush-toolkithttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1YID89te9oDjinCkJ9R65bLZ3PpJk1W4S1SM2Ccc6-9w/edithttps://blog.google/products/tilt-brush/showcase-your-art-new-...Tue, 10 Sep 2019 12:09:40 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/08/12/research-on-the-fairness-of-networked-multimedia-to-appear-in-fat-mm-ws-at-acm-multimedia-2019/https://drmu.net/2019/08/12/research-on-the-fairness-of-networked-multimedia-to-appear-in-fat-mm-ws-at-acm-multimedia-2019/Originally posted on SDCN: Software Defined Cognitive Networking: Basil, A. et al., A Software Defined Network Based Research on Fairness in Multimedia, FAT/MM WS, 27th ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM MM 2019), France. 10/2019 The demand for online distribution of high quality and...Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:52:42 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/08/02/disruptive-vr-art-a-quick-update/https://drmu.net/2019/08/02/disruptive-vr-art-a-quick-update/Our visited to the TVX 2019 has been a tremendous success. Murtada and Alison’s lightning talks were well received and we managed to have two demos in the BBC Quay House on the last day. Alison’s VR painting demo had a great start then took an interesting turn and became a community art creation ...Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:02:09 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/08/01/smart-campus-project-part-1/https://drmu.net/2019/08/01/smart-campus-project-part-1/Most research in communication networks are quite fundamental such as sending data frame from point A to point B as quickly as possible with little loss on the way. Some networking research can also benefit communities indirectly. I recently started a new collaboration with our University IT depa...Thu, 01 Aug 2019 20:47:38 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/04/22/data-science-and-network-management-at-ieee-im-2019-washington-d-c/https://drmu.net/2019/04/22/data-science-and-network-management-at-ieee-im-2019-washington-d-c/IEEE IM 2019 – Washington DC, USA (link to papers)Following IM 2017 in the picturesque Lisbon, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, this year’s event was held in the US capital city during its peak cherry blossom season. The conference adopted the theme of “Intelligent Management for the N...Sun, 21 Apr 2019 23:35:20 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/04/20/we-are-taking-vr-and-art-research-to-acm-tvx-2019/https://drmu.net/2019/04/20/we-are-taking-vr-and-art-research-to-acm-tvx-2019/I have been a regular visitor of ACM TVX since it first became an ACM sponsored event in 2014 (previously known as EuroITV). This year, the conference will be held at MediaCityUK, Salford in early June. We’ll bring two pieces of early-stage research to Salford: understanding the user attention in...Sat, 20 Apr 2019 22:53:48 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/03/28/on-the-use-of-technologies-in-higher-education/https://drmu.net/2019/03/28/on-the-use-of-technologies-in-higher-education/I had the great pleasure of joining a Westminster Higher Education Forum event today as a speaker. My session was chaired by the Labour MP Mr Alex Sobel and the main theme of the session is around the opportunities and challenges in adopting new technologies in colleges and universities in the UK...Thu, 28 Mar 2019 14:58:02 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/03/15/top-1-of-reviewers-in-computer-science/https://drmu.net/2019/03/15/top-1-of-reviewers-in-computer-science/Like many academics, I regularly engage with the reviewing process of renowned conferences and journals. I have not ventured into any substantial editorial role yet but I try to help out as much as possible. Any of my journal review activities are registered on Publons to keep a record (mainly fo...Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:42:18 GMThttps://drmu.net/2019/03/06/some-thoughts-on-artificial-intelligence-part-2-yes-but-why/https://drmu.net/2019/03/06/some-thoughts-on-artificial-intelligence-part-2-yes-but-why/While Part 1 “rants” about how function-based machine learning overwhelms data research, this part aims at future opportunities. Many of my childhood friends and I counted ourselves lucky to own a copy of the A Hundred Thousand Whys (Chinese: 十万个为什么), a children’s science book series. It was the ...Wed, 06 Mar 2019 23:48:18 GMThttps://drmu.net/2018/12/21/some-thoughts-on-artificial-intelligence-part-1/https://drmu.net/2018/12/21/some-thoughts-on-artificial-intelligence-part-1/In a recent issue (10/2018 Vol.61 No.10) of Communications of the ACM there is a very interesting article by Adnan Darwiche titled “Human-Level Intelligence or Animal-Like Abilities?“. Adnan took a balanced view of the current development in AI and its related field, and in many respect challenge...Fri, 21 Dec 2018 22:30:03 GMThttps://drmu.net/2018/12/12/interview-on-vr-cognitive-load-in-education/https://drmu.net/2018/12/12/interview-on-vr-cognitive-load-in-education/Recently Yoana Slavova and myself were interviewed by a research and consultancy company 3Rs IMMERSIVE on the use of VR in education. We shared our experiences from previous experiments and an outlook for future research. The interview can be found at: https://3rsimmersive.com/designing-vr-for-c...Wed, 12 Dec 2018 12:35:41 GMThttps://drmu.net/2018/10/01/moving-in-portfolio-innovation-centre/https://drmu.net/2018/10/01/moving-in-portfolio-innovation-centre/Originally posted on SDCN: Software Defined Cognitive Networking: While most University staff members are setteling in our new and modern Waterside campus, we have also welcomed a new workshop space at the Portfolio Innovation Centre on University’s Avenue Campus. The workshop has just had the fu...Mon, 01 Oct 2018 19:23:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2018/10/01/westminster-higher-education-forum-and-ieee-tale-2018/https://drmu.net/2018/10/01/westminster-higher-education-forum-and-ieee-tale-2018/I have been invited as a speaker at a Westminster Higher Education Forum: Technology in higher education: the future of learning environments, the use of Artificial Intelligence and the impact of online courses. An short intro of this event (scheduled on Thursday, 28th March 2019 in London) is co...Mon, 01 Oct 2018 10:23:50 GMThttps://drmu.net/2018/09/20/orchastrated-media-demo-on-bbc-taster/https://drmu.net/2018/09/20/orchastrated-media-demo-on-bbc-taster/The Audio Team at BBC R&D North Lab has recently published an orchestrated media demo (the Vostok-K incident) and is now available on BBC Taster (https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/vostok). It shows how we can orchestrate media playback across multiple user devices to deliver a more immersive ex...Thu, 20 Sep 2018 19:53:48 GMThttps://drmu.net/2018/08/20/post-doctoral-research-assistant-position-open-for-applications/https://drmu.net/2018/08/20/post-doctoral-research-assistant-position-open-for-applications/The vacancy can be accessed directly via https://jobs.northampton.ac.uk/vacancy/research-assistant-fixed-term-361582.html and will remain active until 11.59pm on 12 September 2018. We wish to appoint a Research Associate to work on the EPSRC-funded project “Software Defined Cognitive Networking (...Mon, 20 Aug 2018 13:53:37 GMThttps://drmu.net/2018/02/08/does-wow-translate-to-an-a-a-comparative-study-of-vr-based-learning-in-higher-education/https://drmu.net/2018/02/08/does-wow-translate-to-an-a-a-comparative-study-of-vr-based-learning-in-higher-education/Congratulations to Yoana (previously a BSc Business Computing student and now on our MSc programme), for having a paper accepted by IEEE VR 2018, a leading conference on 3D and virtual reality research! Yoana’s research is centred around a simple but fundamental question: Does the “WOW!” effect o...Thu, 08 Feb 2018 23:02:08 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/12/04/phd-studentship-open-to-applicants/https://drmu.net/2017/12/04/phd-studentship-open-to-applicants/Originally posted on SDCN: Software Defined Cognitive Networking: UPDATE: The PhD advert is now online at http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BGD327/phd-studentship-software-defined-cognitive-networking-for-future-online-video-distribution/ It is also being circulated to relevant mailing lists and social ...Mon, 04 Dec 2017 16:21:45 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/11/29/sdcn-goes-to-ireland-for-a-project-review/https://drmu.net/2017/11/29/sdcn-goes-to-ireland-for-a-project-review/Originally posted on SDCN: Software Defined Cognitive Networking: [Author: Mu] I accepted an invitation from Science Foundation Ireland to conduct a project review for one of its prestigious research programmes. It was a fantastic experience to visit Ireland and see how resilient people are off t...Wed, 29 Nov 2017 14:43:17 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/11/28/sdcn-visits-bbc-rd/https://drmu.net/2017/11/28/sdcn-visits-bbc-rd/Originally posted on SDCN: Software Defined Cognitive Networking: [Author: Mu] It has been a great visit to the BBC R&D South Lab in London. The main purpose of the trip is to discuss potential collaborations and an MSc student project on immersive TV with Rajiv (thank you for inviting us!) off t...Tue, 28 Nov 2017 14:44:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/09/11/leveling-up-slowly-on-game-design/https://drmu.net/2017/09/11/leveling-up-slowly-on-game-design/Inspired by some interesting discussions with the game team at work, I recently picked up Scott Rogers’ Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design in an attempt to learn how to design an engaging game. There are a lot of fascinating conventions, rule, and forms of thoughts in game design we c...Mon, 11 Sep 2017 14:27:14 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/07/20/waste-not-a-lean-approach/https://drmu.net/2017/07/20/waste-not-a-lean-approach/What is productivity? A solid 8-hour of coding without interruption? Does it matter much if our project is on time or on budget, if we end up building something nobody wants? It would be a waste of human effort, investment, time and individual creativity, wouldn’t it? The Lean Startup by Eric Rie...Thu, 20 Jul 2017 11:08:08 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/06/30/alternate-realities-at-acm-tvx-2017/https://drmu.net/2017/06/30/alternate-realities-at-acm-tvx-2017/I am fortunate to be involved in both communication networks and multimedia community. Following my visit to IEEE IM, I ventured to Hilversum, the Netherlands for ACM TVX, a flagship conference on interactive online TV and immersive experiences. I am a regular attendee of TVX and there are simply...Fri, 30 Jun 2017 09:54:27 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/05/22/hooray-epsrc-first-grant/https://drmu.net/2017/05/22/hooray-epsrc-first-grant/There are few things that bring as much joy to an academic as receiving an approval email from EPSRC (on Monday morning!). My First Grant proposal Software Defined Cognitive Networking: Intelligent Resource Provisioning For Future Networks (EP/P033202/1) has been assessed through the EPSRC peer r...Mon, 22 May 2017 11:33:29 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/05/15/a-great-experience-at-ifipieee-im-2017-5g-slicing-cognitive-e2e-blockchain/https://drmu.net/2017/05/15/a-great-experience-at-ifipieee-im-2017-5g-slicing-cognitive-e2e-blockchain/The week trip to IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM 2017) in Lisbon was fantastic. I had the chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues (Edmundo, Marilia, Alberto, etc.) and to meet other enthusiasts in network management, SDN, QoE, 5G, block chain and ...Mon, 15 May 2017 15:12:23 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/05/03/a-middleware-that-aims-at-helping-tv-broadcasters-to-create-and-deliver-immersive-experiences/https://drmu.net/2017/05/03/a-middleware-that-aims-at-helping-tv-broadcasters-to-create-and-deliver-immersive-experiences/Congratulations to my MSc student Hussein Ajam, who just had a paper accepted by ACM TVX Work-in-Progress (WiP) track. His work was inspired by a collaboration with Rajiv and Matt at the BBC R&D on prototyping a solution to 1) assist TV producers authoring immersive experience for TV programmes a...Wed, 03 May 2017 17:31:43 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/04/13/enabling-rapid-experimentation-of-contextual-network-traffic-management-using-software-defined-networking/https://drmu.net/2017/04/13/enabling-rapid-experimentation-of-contextual-network-traffic-management-using-software-defined-networking/The non-cooperative and unsupervised resource competition between adaptive media applications (such as Youtube and Netflix) leads to significant detrimental quality fluctuations and an unbalanced share of network resources. Therefore, it is essential for content networks to better understand the ...Wed, 12 Apr 2017 23:38:02 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/03/24/breaking-the-filter-bubble/https://drmu.net/2017/03/24/breaking-the-filter-bubble/A collaboration with the data mining group at TU-Berlin and folks at Lancaster and Glasgow has seen a full paper accepted by ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for Television and Online Video (TVX 2017), Hilversum, The Netherlands, 06/2017. The acceptance rate is 31%, a compe...Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:58:15 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/03/09/next-generation-internet-whats-next/https://drmu.net/2017/03/09/next-generation-internet-whats-next/The EC’s NGI group recently published the final report of their open consultation for next generation Internet. The report identifies seven Technology Areas (TAs), which are believed to have pivotal roles in future Internet. We shouldn’t be surprised to see the TAs being bound by current FP7/H202...Thu, 09 Mar 2017 20:22:07 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/02/24/now-we-are-talking/https://drmu.net/2017/02/24/now-we-are-talking/Originally posted on Transforming online learning experience using virtual reality and gamification: Nothing cheers you up more than a new gadget in the middle of a term. Oculus Rift, controllers and earphones (Thank you, Nick!) The 60+mph wind gusts (Storm Doris) nearly took them off my arms in ...Fri, 24 Feb 2017 18:36:01 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/02/17/packet-probing-for-media-synchronisation/https://drmu.net/2017/02/17/packet-probing-for-media-synchronisation/[A piece of work with Hans Stokking from TNO] Cross-device immersive media has been one of my main research topics for many years. To get the “immersion”, we inevitably need a mechanism to orchestrate media playback on different devices. This sounds easy but very often very hard to do in practice...Fri, 17 Feb 2017 16:48:26 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/02/10/uon-waterside-campus-in-vr/https://drmu.net/2017/02/10/uon-waterside-campus-in-vr/In the past few months, I have been working with a few colleagues, including Dr Anastasios Bakaoukas and Ewan Armstrong, at Computing on initialising a VR project. The idea is simple: build our new Waterside Campus (due open in 2018) in virtual reality using game development engine so we can all ...Fri, 10 Feb 2017 20:35:19 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/02/06/virtual-reality-in-higher-education/https://drmu.net/2017/02/06/virtual-reality-in-higher-education/Yoana Slavova is a third-year BSc Business Computing student at the University of Northampton. Yoana recently carried out some background research on utilising virtual reality in higher education f Source: Virtual Reality: Towards Better Learning Experience in Higher Education – A Literature Revi...Mon, 06 Feb 2017 17:15:32 GMThttps://drmu.net/2017/01/06/acm-tvx-2017-wip-cfp-online/https://drmu.net/2017/01/06/acm-tvx-2017-wip-cfp-online/Dr Elena Fedorovskaya (Rochester Institute of Technology, USA) and I are organising the Work-in-Progress session of ACM TVX 2017, to be held in the Netherlands this June. The call for paper is now online. What’s ACM? Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scienti...Fri, 06 Jan 2017 01:06:12 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/12/13/lightning-speed-ieee-j-stsp/https://drmu.net/2016/12/13/lightning-speed-ieee-j-stsp/You have to give it up for the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. I only sent them the final version on Thursday last week. Less than two working days later, it’s now online for Early Access. 🙂 It has been a great pleasure working on this subject with a great team. It’sTue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:33 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/11/12/paper-accepted-by-ieee-im/https://drmu.net/2016/11/12/paper-accepted-by-ieee-im/Fawcett, L., Mu, M., Broadbent, M., Hart, N., and Race, N., SDQ: Enabling Rapid QoE Experimentation using Software Defined Networking, in Proceedings of IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IEEE IM), Lisbon, Portugal, 5/2017 Abstract: The emerging network paradigm o...Sat, 12 Nov 2016 20:41:43 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/11/12/take-acm-multimedia-to-classes/https://drmu.net/2016/11/12/take-acm-multimedia-to-classes/I used about 30 minutes of lecture time going through some state-of-the-art research outcomes presented at ACM Multimedia 2016 conference. Students seemed to enjoy it and some even tried to download the paper for more details of the research. A keyword of this year’s ACM MM is deep learning and t...Sat, 12 Nov 2016 20:30:59 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/10/20/we-won-the-innovation-fund/https://drmu.net/2016/10/20/we-won-the-innovation-fund/http://myvrlearning.wordpress.com Project title: Transforming online learning experience using virtual reality and gamification. At UoN, the Innovation Fund has been established by the Vice Chancellor as a way of promoting innovation from amongst staff through the funding of projects which will s...Thu, 20 Oct 2016 19:57:28 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/10/13/linkedinyou-appeared-in-newscientist-com/https://drmu.net/2016/10/13/linkedinyou-appeared-in-newscientist-com/LinkedIn kindly found an article on New Scientist that quotes my comments on near-ultrasound communication (and subsequently spammed all my contacts). It’s a cool piece of technology and I am glad to praise for its great potential. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230952-900-tv-shows-coul...Thu, 13 Oct 2016 16:03:35 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/07/14/ieee-icme-bitmovin-grand-challenge-award/https://drmu.net/2016/07/14/ieee-icme-bitmovin-grand-challenge-award/Well, it turned out that we were not just invited to present our work at the Bitmovin Grand Challenge at IEEE ICME conference, we actually won it! http://www.icme2016.org/ https://bitmovin.com/icme2016grandchallenge/Thu, 14 Jul 2016 08:50:52 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/06/27/santander-staff-research-award/https://drmu.net/2016/06/27/santander-staff-research-award/Two of my proposals entitled: Software defined wireless networking and Multimedia alternate realities have won the Santander Staff Research Award at the University of Northampton.Mon, 27 Jun 2016 13:34:14 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/06/17/ieee-interest-group-on-quality-of-experience-for-multimedia-communications/https://drmu.net/2016/06/17/ieee-interest-group-on-quality-of-experience-for-multimedia-communications/IEEE Interest Group on Quality of Experience for Multimedia Communications posted my “QoE Pitch”: https://sites.google.com/site/ieeeqoeig/Fri, 17 Jun 2016 22:02:17 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/05/23/altmm-2016-multimedia-alternate-realities/https://drmu.net/2016/05/23/altmm-2016-multimedia-alternate-realities/I have been invited to join the programme committee of AltMM 2016 (Multimedia Alternate Realities), an workshop at ACM Conference on Multimedia (October 15-19, 2016 . Amsterdam, The Netherlands). It’s an exciting new workshop that explores how the synergy between multimedia technologies and effec...Mon, 23 May 2016 22:17:51 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/04/30/paper-accepted-by-ieee-icme-grand-challenges/https://drmu.net/2016/04/30/paper-accepted-by-ieee-icme-grand-challenges/Congratulations, Yusuf. A Bio-inspired HTTP-based Adaptive Streaming Player (accepted by bitmovin challenge) The 2016 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2016) will be held in Seattle, USA from July 11 to July 15, 2016. The IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo...Sat, 30 Apr 2016 08:15:05 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/04/19/paper-to-appear-in-ieee-computer-magazine/https://drmu.net/2016/04/19/paper-to-appear-in-ieee-computer-magazine/Niamut, O., Mu, M., Denazis, S., and Race, N., “Social Telemedia: The Relationship between Social Information and Networked Media”, to appear in IEEE Computer Magazine (IF 1.443). 2016Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:54:18 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/04/01/a-paper-in-submission-for-internet-qoe-2016/https://drmu.net/2016/04/01/a-paper-in-submission-for-internet-qoe-2016/ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on QoE-based Analysis and Management of Data Communication Networks (Internet-QoE 2016) CFP: http://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2016/files/workshops/cfp-qoe.pdf Abstract (draft): The emerging network paradigm of Software Defined Networking (SDN) has been increasingly adop...Fri, 01 Apr 2016 14:49:12 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/03/08/a-paper-is-in-submission-for-ieee-journal-of-selected-topics-in-signal-processing-j-stsp/https://drmu.net/2016/03/08/a-paper-is-in-submission-for-ieee-journal-of-selected-topics-in-signal-processing-j-stsp/A paper is in submission for IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing (J-STSP) Special Issue on Measuring Quality of Experience for Advanced Media Technologies and Services. This is a piece of work on cross-device media orchestration using web technologies and human factor modelling, ...Tue, 08 Mar 2016 14:32:09 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/01/29/acm-tvx-2017-organising-committee/https://drmu.net/2016/01/29/acm-tvx-2017-organising-committee/I am in the organising committee of the ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for TV and Online Video (ACM TVX 2017). I’ll be taking the role of “Work in progress chairs” championing brave new ideas and findings in their early stages. The general chairs of ACM TVX 2017 are Omar ...Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:52:58 GMThttps://drmu.net/2016/01/19/article-summerises-collective-work-in-ec-steer-project/https://drmu.net/2016/01/19/article-summerises-collective-work-in-ec-steer-project/STEER: Exploring the dynamic relationship between social information and networked media through experimentation (by Sylvie Dijkstra, Omar Niamut, Nikolaos Efthymiopoulos, Spyros Denazis, Nicholas Race, Mu Mu and Jacco Taal) Abstract: With the growing popularity of social networks, online video s...Tue, 19 Jan 2016 20:24:48 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/11/17/paper-to-appear-in-ieee-journal-on-selected-areas-in-communications-j-sac/https://drmu.net/2015/11/17/paper-to-appear-in-ieee-journal-on-selected-areas-in-communications-j-sac/A paper with the title “A Scalable User Fairness Model for Adaptive Video Streaming over Future Internet” is under recommended revision for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (J-SAC) Special Issue on “Video Distribution in the Future Internet” (Publication date: Second Quarter 2016)...Tue, 17 Nov 2015 14:29:39 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/10/29/mediasync-acm-mmsys-2016/https://drmu.net/2015/10/29/mediasync-acm-mmsys-2016/Next year, ACM Multimedia Systems (MMSys 2016) will include a special session on media synchronization (MediaSync). MediaSync is a longstanding annual event with special interests in the latest advances and remaining challenges on media synchronization to accommodate emerging forms of immersive, ...Thu, 29 Oct 2015 10:39:20 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/09/18/paper-accepted-by-ieee-ism-2015/https://drmu.net/2015/09/18/paper-accepted-by-ieee-ism-2015/A paper entitled “Improving Interactive TV Experience Using Second Screen Mobile Applications” is to appear in IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia (IEEE ISM), Miami, Florida | December 14-16. Abstract The past two decades have seen a shift in the multimedia consumption behaviours from tha...Fri, 18 Sep 2015 15:29:47 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/09/13/full-paper-accepted-by-ieee-ccnc-2016/https://drmu.net/2015/09/13/full-paper-accepted-by-ieee-ccnc-2016/A full paper entitled “QoE-aware Inter-stream Synchronization in Open N-Screens Cloud” has been accepted by the the QoE and Human-Centered Communications and Application track of IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, January 9-12, 2016. The conference is held in ...Sun, 13 Sep 2015 18:41:58 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/08/27/network-resilience-with-anomaly-detection-in-the-cloud/https://drmu.net/2015/08/27/network-resilience-with-anomaly-detection-in-the-cloud/Since July 2015, I’ve been involved in Lancaster University’s activities in the EC FP7 SECCRIT (SEcure Cloud computing for CRitical infrastructure IT) project, a multidisciplinary research project with the mission to analyse and evaluate cloud computing technologies with respect to security risks...Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:08:00 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/08/24/ieee-multimedia-special-issue-on-social-multimedia-and-storytelling-july-september-2015/https://drmu.net/2015/08/24/ieee-multimedia-special-issue-on-social-multimedia-and-storytelling-july-september-2015/Quick link to my paper: http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/mu/2015/03/mmu2015030054-abs.html Social Multimedia and Storytelling July–September 2015 From the Editor This special issue touches on many significant aspects of multimedia retrieval, including content analysis and understanding, content-...Mon, 24 Aug 2015 09:07:42 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/08/04/a-collaboration-with-tu-berlin-sees-an-accepted-paper-on-context-aware-user-behaviour-modelling-at-recsystv-recsys-2015/https://drmu.net/2015/08/04/a-collaboration-with-tu-berlin-sees-an-accepted-paper-on-context-aware-user-behaviour-modelling-at-recsystv-recsys-2015/With over 2,000 registered users, Lancaster’s Vision IPTV system is a purpose-built research platform that allows experimentation of new media and web technologies. In a collaboration between Lancaster and TU-Berlin’s Distributed Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (DAI-Labor), Jing Yuan and her c...Tue, 04 Aug 2015 12:15:57 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/06/19/won-the-best-paper-award-at-iwqos/https://drmu.net/2015/06/19/won-the-best-paper-award-at-iwqos/It was a great fun visiting Portland, Oregon, the city of roses (and beers!), and getting to know a great research community on QoS. Winning the best paper award was certainly one of the highlights of the trip. If you are ever around Portland, don’t forget to visit Washington Park. I particularly...Fri, 19 Jun 2015 20:47:35 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/05/21/i-am-working-on-a-jsac-and-a-tomm-submission/https://drmu.net/2015/05/21/i-am-working-on-a-jsac-and-a-tomm-submission/Setting up OpenFlow testbed for user-level resource allocation experiments using a number of HP 3800 switches. We use VLAN to bridge OpenStack VMs to physical ports (hence the little connections). After that, its all controlled by software. A Dell server running OpenStack virtualization. We used ...Thu, 21 May 2015 20:56:41 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/05/21/london-calling-we-are-invited-to-the-sigcomm-netethics-workshop/https://drmu.net/2015/05/21/london-calling-we-are-invited-to-the-sigcomm-netethics-workshop/Paper attached!Thu, 21 May 2015 20:44:51 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/05/21/ill-present-a-paper-in-iwqos-this-june/https://drmu.net/2015/05/21/ill-present-a-paper-in-iwqos-this-june/Thu, 21 May 2015 20:42:40 GMThttps://drmu.net/2015/05/21/hello/https://drmu.net/2015/05/21/hello/I’ll attend the TVX 2015 in Brussels and present my work on collective experience at the WSICC workshop.Thu, 21 May 2015 20:28:57 GMT