Research - Bob Lawlor

I'm mainly into digital audio signal processing. My PhD was on Audio Time-Scale and Frequency-Scale Modification. That's to do with, for example, slowing down (or speeding up) speech or music without changing the pitch or alternatively changing the pitch of a piece of music without changing its tempo.

You can read my PhD abstract by clicking here and listen to a demo of my PhD research results by clicking here.

SlowTalk is an application project which has developed out of this research.

I’m also into sound source separation and with the help of some postgrads developed the Azimuth Discrimination and Resynthesis (ADRess) Algorithm for efficient sound source separation.

A long time interest of mine has been that of Linking Research to Teaching. This stems from my days working with Sony in the UK when I was involved in a scheme called Opening Windows on Engineering. This involved regular visits to post-primary schools and telling A-level students about my work in the Advanced Development Department of Sony Broadcast Ltd. I used to pass around old parts of prototype systems (UV-EPROMs, PCB’s etc) and explain in simple terms what they did. The kids loved it (or else they were just pretending!).

Recently I’ve been getting interested in eLearning through a company called examsupport who are based on campus. I’ve adapted some of their technology for use in 3rd and 4th level programmes (with their kind permission!). This enables me to very efficiently capture screencasts explaining topics that the students might be struggling with. Here’s an example of such a screencast. All of my classes have a mix of on-line and on-campus students so the screencasts save me having to explain things twice. It also means that students can listen to a screencast explanation as many times as they like at times of their choice.

Grant Funding Short History:

Enterprise Ireland Advanced Technology Research Programme (ATRP) 2001. 'Digital Interactive Tools for Computer Assisted Language Learning (DIT-CALL)'. €270k over three years.
Higher Education Authority Technological Research Sector Strand 3, 2001: 'Digital Interactive Tools for Music Education (DITME)'. €240k over three years.
Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation of Research and Development (CORD) 2002. 'Provision of Second Language Acquisition Software to the Language Teaching and Learning Community.' €38k over one year.
Enterprise Ireland Proof of Concept Programme. Aug 2005 – July 2006. ‘Mobile Phone Speech Quality Enhancement’. €51k
Enterprise Ireland, Commercialisation Fund, Technology Development Stage. Dec 2006 – Nov 2009. ‘High-Quality Efficient Sound Source Separation’. €287k (approved)

Last Update: Friday, 29-Jul-2011 18:52:26 IST