Section: Other Grants and Activities
International cooperation
INRIA associate team CorTexMex
Participants : Bernard Girau, Yann Boniface, Mauricio Cerda, Nicolas Rougier.
We are working with the Computer science department of the INAOEP (national institute of astrophysics, optics and electronics of Puebla) and the Cinvestav Tamaulipas research center (both in Mexico) on massively distributed connectionist models for embedded perception, within the INRIA associate team CorTexMex led by Bernard Girau.
Some perceptive tasks cannot be performed satisfactorily by standard algorithms due to the over simplified nature of classical models compared to the intrinsic complexity of the environment. To alleviate this problem, the research line of our team is directed to using brain-inspired models of perception. But the high computational cost of these models usually exceeds the time-multiplexed bounded computational resources of conventional systems. A solution lies in alternative hardware/software based processing architectures, supporting biological realism and providing the large scale computational resources to satisfy application constraints. The CorTexMex associate team focuses on the analysis, methods and techniques for the embedded implementation of bio-inspired connectionist processing for perception tasks on reconfigurable devices under a hardware/software approach. The main goal is to provide methods able to handle the massive distribution and the connection complexity of these models, as well as their specific recurrent differential computations. Another goal is to provide bio-inspired connectionist processing models to be embedded and directly integrated in perception-action loops.
This year, our activities have been mostly oriented towards a preliminary study of the properties of massively distributed elementary computations in bio-inspired models for sensori-motor systems in order to provide efficient implementations into reconfigurable logic devices. Three main subjects have been addressed: embedded spiking connectionist processing, biologically inspired visual perception on FPGAs (based on spiking neural fields), and bio-inspired models on-chip for the perception-action loop (based on Central pattern generators and multimodal neural maps). All these activities are strongly linked with § 6.2 and § 6.4 .
STIC-AmSud project BAVI
Participants : Bernard Girau, Mauricio Cerda.
This collaboration with the Computer science department of the University of Santiago (Chile) and the Laboratory for System Dynamics and Signal Processing, of the National University of Rosario (Argentina), lies in the field of audio-visual information integration. The approach is based on the derivation of distributed models from neurophysiologic studies of motion perception in the human brain, and takes advantage of advanced methods for audio-visual information integration and visual animation. Extracting visual patterns of phoneme-related face motions, and then relating acoustic signals, face motion features and visual animation, we aim at defining a bio-inspired model for audio-visual integration that derives from an implicit cortical sensory (audio/visual)-motor (animation) loop.
STIC-AmSud project BCI
Participants : Frédéric Alexandre, Laurent Bougrain, Carolina Saavedra.
The STIC Amsud project (2009-2010) BCI “Robust single-trial evoked potential detection for brain-computer interfaces using computational intelligence techniques” aims to develop computational intelligence techniques for pattern recognition of graphic elements (e.g. event-related potential, auditory evoked potential, k-complex, spindle) included in electro-encephalographic signals. More precisely, we want to develop adaptive computational intelligence techniques based on artificial neural networks, support vector machines and classical data analysis techniques to robustly detect evoked potentials in a single trial from noisy and multi-sources electro-encephalographic signals. The participants are: the Laboratory of Engineering Rehabilitation and Neuromuscular and Sensorial Research (L.I.R.I.N.S), Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos, Argentina ; The Department of Biomedical Engineering, Valparaíso University, Valparaiso, Chile ; The Computer Science Department, Federico Santa María University, Valparaiso, Chile ; The Laboratory of Neuro Imaging Research, Autonomous Metropolitan University, Mexico DF, Mexico.
Common project with United Kingdom
Participant : Axel Hutt.
The project partner is the Herriot-Watts University of Edinburgh and the project aims to study stochastic effects in neural networks. To this end the Royal Society of Scotland supported the initial visit in Edinburgh to discuss first mathematical details and software implementations besides a schedule for future common activities.
