Jordan J. Bird

Nottingham Trent University | NTU · Department of Computer Science

There are growing implications surrounding generative AI in the speech domain that enable voice cloning and real-time voice conversion from one individual to another. This technology poses a significant ethical threat and could lead to breaches of privacy and misrepresentation, thus there is an urgent need for real-time detection of AI-generated sp...

Detecting fall compensatory behaviour from large EEG datasets poses a difficult problem in big data which can be alleviated by evolutionary computation-based machine learning strategies. In this article, hyperheuristic optimisation solutions via evolutionary optimisation of deep neural network topologies and genetic programming of machine learning...

Recent technological advances in synthetic data have enabled the generation of images with such high quality that human beings cannot tell the difference between real-life photographs and Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated images. Given the critical necessity of data reliability and authentication, this article proposes to enhance our ability t...

Forgery of a signature with the aim of deception is a serious crime. Machine learning is often employed to detect real and forged signatures. In this study, we present results which argue that robotic arms and generative models can overcome these systems and mount false-acceptance attacks. Convolutional neural networks and data augmentation strateg...

The ability to autonomously detect a physical fall is one of the many enabling technologies towards better independent living. This work explores how genetic programming can be leveraged to develop machine learning pipelines for the classification of falls via EEG brainwave activity. Eleven physical activities (5 types of falls and 6 non-fall activ...

In this paper, we introduce a GAN-based solution for generating synthetic multispectral images from fully-annotated RGB images for data augmentation purposes in forestry robotics applications at ground-level. Fully-annotated multispectral datasets are difficult to obtain with sufficient training samples when compared to RGB-based datasets, since an...

This study explores how robots and generative approaches can be used to mount successful false-acceptance adversarial attacks on signature verification systems. Initially, a convolutional neural network topology and data augmentation strategy are explored and tuned, producing an 87.12% accurate model for the verification of 2,640 human signatures....

In modern society, people should not be identified based on their disability, rather, it is environments that can disable people with impairments. Improvements to automatic Sign Language Recognition (SLR) will lead to more enabling environments via digital technology. Many state-of-the-art approaches to SLR focus on the classification of static han...

In state-of-the-art deep learning for object recognition, SoftMax and Sigmoid functions are most commonly employed as the predictor outputs. Such layers often produce overconfident predictions rather than proper probabilistic scores, which can thus harm the decision-making of `critical' perception systems applied in autonomous driving and robotics....

Contemporary Artificial Intelligence technologies allow for the employment of Computer Vision to discern good crops from bad, providing a step in the pipeline of selecting healthy fruit from undesirable fruit, such as those which are mouldy or damaged. State-of-the-art works in the field report high accuracy results on small datasets (<1000 images)...

In state-of-the-art deep learning for object recognition, Softmax and Sigmoid layers are most commonly employed as the predictor outputs. Such layers often produce overconfidence predictions rather than proper probabilistic scores, which can thus harm the decision-making of ‘critical’ perception systems applied in autonomous driving and robotics. G...

With growing societal acceptance and increasing cost efficiency due to mass production, service robots are beginning to cross from the industrial to the social domain. Currently, customer service robots tend to be digital and emulate social interactions through on-screen text, but state-of-the-art research points towards physical robots soon provid...

Much of the state-of-the-art in image synthesis inspired by real artwork are either entirely generative by filtered random noise or inspired by the transfer of style. This work explores the application of image inpainting to continue famous artworks and produce generative art with a Conditional GAN. During the training stage of the process, the bor...

In this work we present the Chatbot Interaction with Artificial Intelligence (CI-AI) framework as an approach to the training of a transformer based chatbot-like architecture for task classification with a focus on natural human interaction with a machine as opposed to interfaces, code, or formal commands. The intelligent system augments human-sour...

In this work, we achieve up to 92% classification accuracy of electromyographic data between five gestures in pseudo-real-time. Most current state-of-the-art methods in electromyographical signal processing are unable to classify real-time data in a post-learning environment, that is, after the model is trained and results are analysed. In this wor...

Contemporary Artificial Intelligence technologies allow for the employment of Computer Vision to discern good crops from bad, providing a step in the pipeline of selecting healthy fruit from undesirable fruit, such as those which are mouldy or gangrenous. State-of-the-art works in the field report high accuracy results on small datasets (<1000 imag...

In this work we achieve up to 92% classification accuracy of electromyographic data between five gestures in pseudo-real-time. Most current state-of-the-art methods in electromyography signal processing are unable to classify real-time data in a post-learning environment, that is, after the model is trained and results are analysed. In this work we...

Synthetic data augmentation is of paramount importance for machine learning classification, particularly for biological data, which tend to be high dimensional and with a scarcity of training samples. The applications of robotic control and augmentation in disabled and able-bodied subjects still rely mainly on subject-specific analyses. Those can r...

In modern Human-Robot Interaction, much thought has been given to accessibility regarding robotic locomotion, specifically the enhancement of awareness and lowering of cognitive load. On the other hand, with social Human-Robot Interaction considered, published research is far sparser given that the problem is less explored than pathfinding and loco...

Objective The novelty of this study consists of the exploration of multiple new approaches of data pre-processing of brainwave signals, wherein statistical features are extracted and then formatted as visual images based on the order in which dimensionality reduction algorithms select them. This data is then treated as visual input for 2D and 3D CN...

In this study, we present a transfer learning method for gesture classification via an inductive and supervised transductive approach with an electromyographic dataset gathered via the Myo armband. A ternary gesture classification problem is presented by states of ’thumbs up’, ’thumbs down’, and ’relax’ in order to communicate in the affirmative or...

In this work we present a three-stage Machine Learning strategy to country-level risk classification based on countries that are reporting COVID-19 information. A K% binning discretisation (K = 25) is used to create four risk groups of countries based on the risk of transmission (coronavirus cases per million population), risk of mortality (coronav...

The novelty of this study consists in a multi-modality approach to scene classification, where image and audio complement each other in a process of deep late fusion. The approach is demonstrated on a difficult classification problem, consisting of two synchronised and balanced datasets of 16,000 data objects, encompassing 4.4 hours of video of 8 e...

In this work, we present the Chatbot Interaction with Artificial Intelligence (CI-AI) framework as an approach to the training of deep learning chatbots for task classification. The intelligent system augments human-sourced data via artificial paraphrasing in order to generate a large set of training data for further classical, attention, and langu...

In this work, we show that a late fusion approach to multimodality in sign language recognition improves the overall ability of the model in comparison to the singular approaches of image classification (88.14%) and Leap Motion data classification (72.73%). With a large synchronous dataset of 18 BSL gestures collected from multiple subjects, two de...

Preliminary results to a new approach for neurocognitive training on academic engagement and monitoring of attention levels in children with learning difficulties is presented. Machine Learning (ML) techniques and a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) are used to develop an interactive AI-based game for educational therapy to monitor the progress of chi...

In this work, we show that a late fusion approach to multi-modality in sign language recognition improves the overall ability of the model in comparison to the singular approaches of Computer Vision (88.14%) and Leap Motion data classification (72.73%). With a large synchronous dataset of 18 BSL gestures collected from multiple subjects, two deep n...

The novelty of this study consists in a multi-modality approach to scene classification, where image and audio complement each other in a process of deep late fusion. The approach is demonstrated on a difficult classification problem, consisting of two synchronised and balanced datasets of 16,000 data objects, encompassing 4.4 hours of video of 8 e...

In speech recognition problems, data scarcity often poses an issue due to the willingness of humans to provide large amounts of data for learning and classification. In this work, we take a set of 5 spoken Harvard sentences from 7 subjects and consider their MFCC attributes. Using character level LSTMs (supervised learning) and OpenAI's attention-b...

In this work, we show that both fine-tune learning and cross-domain sim-to-real transfer learning from virtual to real-world environments improve the starting and final scene classification abilities of a computer vision model. A 6-class computer vision problem of scene classification is presented from both videogame environments and photographs of...

In this work, we argue that the implications of pseudorandom and quantum-random number generators (PRNG and QRNG) inexplicably affect the performances and behaviours of various machine learning models that require a random input. These implications are yet to be explored in soft computing until this work. We use a CPU and a QPU to generate random n...

Deep networks are currently the state-of-the-art for sensory perception in autonomous driving and robotics. However, deep models often generate overconfident predictions precluding proper probabilistic interpretation which we argue is due to the nature of the SoftMax layer. To reduce the overconfidence without compromising the classification perfor...

Autonomous speaker identification suffers issues of data scarcity due to it being unrealistic to gather hours of speaker audio to form a dataset, which inevitably leads to class imbalance in comparison to the large data availability from non-speakers since large-scale speech datasets are available online. In this study, we explore the possibility o...

Recent advances in the availability of computational resources allow for more sophisticated approaches to speech recognition than ever before. This study considers Artificial Neural Network and Hidden Markov Model methods of classification for Human Speech Recognition through Diphthong Vowel sounds in the English Phonetic Alphabet rather than the c...

Recent advances in the availability of computational resources allow for more sophisticated approaches to speech recognition than ever before. This study considers Artificial Neural Network and Hidden Markov Model methods of classification for Human Speech Recognition through Diphthong Vowel sounds in the English Phonetic Alphabet rather than the c...

In this work, we show the success of unsupervised transfer learning between Electroencephalographic (brainwave) classification and Electromyographic (muscular wave) domains with both MLP and CNN methods. To achieve this, signals are measured from both the brain and forearm muscles and EMG data is gathered from a 4-class gesture classification exper...

The implications of realistic human speech imitation are both promising but potentially dangerous. In this work, a pre-trained Tacotron Spectrogram Feature Prediction Network is fine tuned with two 1.6 h speech datasets for 100,000 learning iterations, producing two individual models. The two Speech datasets are completely identical in content othe...

This work presents an image classification approach to EEG brainwave classification. The proposed method is based on the representation of temporal and statistical features as a 2D image, which is then classified using a deep Convolutional Neural Network. A three-class mental state problem is investigated, in which subjects experience either relaxa...

In this work, we argue that the implications of Pseudo and Quantum Random Number Generators (PRNG and QRNG) inexplicably affect the performances and behaviours of various machine learning models that require a random input. These implications are yet to be explored in Soft Computing until this work. We use a CPU and a QPU to generate random numbers...

In this work, we argue that the implications of Pseudo and Quantum Random Number Generators (PRNG and QRNG) inexplicably affect the performances and behaviours of various machine learning models that require a random input. These implications are yet to be explored in Soft Computing until this work. We use a CPU and a QPU to generate random numbers...

This work presents an image classification approach to EEG brainwave classification. The proposed method is based on the representation of temporal and statistical features as a 2D image, which is then classified using a deep Convolutional Neural Network. A three-class mental state problem is investigated, in which subjects experience either relaxa...

The implications of realistic human speech imitation are both promising but potentially dangerous. In this work, a pre-trained Tacotron Spectrogram Feature Prediction Network is fine tuned with two 1.6 hour speech datasets for 100,000 learning iterations, producing two individual models. The two Speech datasets are completely identical in content o...

This study suggests a new approach to EEG data classification by exploring the idea of using evolutionary computation to both select useful discriminative EEG features and optimise the topology of Artificial Neural Networks. An evolutionary algorithm is applied to select the most informative features from an initial set of 2550 EEG statistical feat...

This paper proposes an approach to selecting the amount of layers and neurons contained within Multilayer Perceptron hidden layers through a single-objective evolutionary approach with the goal of model accuracy. At each generation, a population of Neural Network architectures are created and ranked by their accuracy. The generated solutions are co...

This study proposes an approach to ensemble sentiment classification of a text to a score in the range of 1-5 of negative-positive scoring. A high-performing model is produced from TripAdvisor restaurant reviews via a generated dataset of 684 word-stems selected by their information gain ranking. Analysis documents the few mis-classified instances...

Phoneme awareness provides the path to high resolution speech recognition to overcome the difficulties of classical word recognition. Here we present the results of a preliminary study on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) methods of classification for Human Speech Recognition through Diphthong Vowel sounds in the English...

Phoneme awareness provides the path to high resolution speech recognition to overcome the difficulties of classical word recognition. Here we present the results of a preliminary study on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) methods of classification for Human Speech Recognition through Diphthong Vowel sounds in the English...

This paper proposes an approach to selecting the amount of layers and neurons contained within Multilayer Perceptron hidden layers through a single-objective evolutionary approach with the goal of model accuracy. At each generation, a population of Neural Network architectures are created and ranked by their accuracy. The generated solutions are co...

This study proposes an approach to ensemble sentiment classification of a text to a score in the range of 1–5 of negative-positive scoring. A high-performing model is produced from TripAdvisor restaurant reviews via a generated dataset of 684 word-stems, gathered by information gain attribute selection from the entire corpus. The best performing cl...

Accent classification provides a biometric path to high resolution speech recognition. This preliminary study explores various methods of human accent recognition through classification of locale. Classical, ensemble, timeseries and deep learning techniques are all explored and compared. A set of diphthong vowel sounds are recorded from participant...

This paper explores single and ensemble methods to classify emotional experiences based on EEG brainwave data. A commercial MUSE EEG headband is used with a resolution of four (TP9, AF7, AF8, TP10) electrodes. Positive and negative emotional states are invoked using film clips with an obvious valence, and neutral resting data is also recorded with...

This study suggests a new approach to EEG data classification by exploring the idea of using evolutionary computation to both select useful discriminative EEG features and optimise the topology of Artificial Neural Networks. An evolutionary algorithm is applied to select the most informative features from an initial set of 2550 EEG statistical feat...

In this paper we propose an approach to a chatbot software that is able to learn from interaction via text messaging between human-bot and bot-bot. The bot listens to a user and decides whether or not it knows how to reply to the message accurately based on current knowledge, otherwise it will set about to learn a meaningful response to the message...

Many image classification models have been introduced to help tackle the foremost issue of recognition accuracy. Image classification is one of the core problems in Computer Vision field with a large variety of practical applications. Examples include: object recognition for robotic manipulation, pedestrian or obstacle detection for autonomous vehi...

This work aims to find discriminative EEG-based features and appropriate classification methods that can categorise brainwave patterns based on their level of activity or frequency for mental state recognition useful for human-machine interaction. By using the Muse headband with four EEG sensors (TP9, AF7, AF8, TP10), we categorised three possible...

Many image classification models have been introduced to help tackle the foremost issue of recognition accuracy. Image classification is one of the core problems in Computer Vision field with a large variety of practical applications. Examples include: object recognition for robotic manipulation, pedestrian or obstacle detection for autonomous vehi...

In this paper we propose an approach to a chatbot software that is able to learn from interaction via text messaging between human-bot and bot-bot. The bot listens to a user and decides whether or not it knows how to reply to the message accurately based on current knowledge, otherwise it will set about to learn a meaningful response to the message...