Computational Sensing
Utilizing computation to improve sensing capabilities.
Our research in the area of computational sensing focuses on signal acquisition and design, signal modeling and reconstruction algorithms, including inverse problems, as well as array signal processing techniques.
Quick Links
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Researchers
Petros T.
Boufounos
Hassan
Mansour
Dehong
Liu
Pu
(Perry)
WangPhilip V.
Orlik
Toshiaki
Koike-Akino
Yanting
Ma
Kieran
Parsons
Karl
Berntorp
Joshua
Rapp
Wataru
Tsujita
Mouhacine
Benosman
Ye
Wang
Anthony
Vetro
Jianlin
Guo
Radu
Corcodel
Vedang M.
Deshpande
Siddarth
Jain
Suhas
Lohit
Saviz
Mowlavi
Kuan-Chuan
Peng
Abraham P.
Vinod
Ryoma
Yataka
Wael
Hajj Ali
James
Queeney
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Awards
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AWARD MERL’s Paper on Wi-Fi Sensing Earns Top 3% Paper Recognition at ICASSP 2023, Selected as a Best Student Paper Award Finalist Date: June 9, 2023
Awarded to: Cristian J. Vaca-Rubio, Pu Wang, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Ye Wang, Petros Boufounos and Petar Popovski
MERL Contacts: Petros T. Boufounos; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Pu (Perry) Wang; Ye Wang
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Computational Sensing, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Signal ProcessingBrief- A MERL Paper on Wi-Fi sensing was recognized as a Top 3% Paper among all 2709 accepted papers at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2023). Co-authored by Cristian Vaca-Rubio and Petar Popovski from Aalborg University, Denmark, and MERL researchers Pu Wang, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Ye Wang, and Petros Boufounos, the paper "MmWave Wi-Fi Trajectory Estimation with Continous-Time Neural Dynamic Learning" was also a Best Student Paper Award finalist.
Performed during Cristian’s stay at MERL first as a visiting Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and then as a full-time intern in 2022, this work capitalizes on standards-compliant Wi-Fi signals to perform indoor localization and sensing. The paper uses a neural dynamic learning framework to address technical issues such as low sampling rate and irregular sampling intervals.
ICASSP, a flagship conference of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS), was hosted on the Greek island of Rhodes from June 04 to June 10, 2023. ICASSP 2023 marked the largest ICASSP in history, boasting over 4000 participants and 6128 submitted papers, out of which 2709 were accepted.
- A MERL Paper on Wi-Fi sensing was recognized as a Top 3% Paper among all 2709 accepted papers at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2023). Co-authored by Cristian Vaca-Rubio and Petar Popovski from Aalborg University, Denmark, and MERL researchers Pu Wang, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Ye Wang, and Petros Boufounos, the paper "MmWave Wi-Fi Trajectory Estimation with Continous-Time Neural Dynamic Learning" was also a Best Student Paper Award finalist.
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AWARD Joshua Rapp wins Best Dissertation Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society Date: December 20, 2021
Awarded to: Joshua Rapp
MERL Contact: Joshua Rapp
Research Areas: Computational Sensing, Signal ProcessingBrief- Joshua Rapp has won the 2021 Best PhD Dissertation Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society.
The award recognizes a PhD thesis completed on a signal processing subject within the past three years for its relevant work in signal processing while stimulating further research in the field.
Dr. Rapp completed his PhD at Boston University in 2020 with a thesis entitled "Probabilistic Modeling for Single-Photon Lidar." The dissertation tackles challenges of the acquisition and processing of 3D depth maps reconstructed from time-of-flight data captured one photon at a time.
The award will be presented at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) in France.
- Joshua Rapp has won the 2021 Best PhD Dissertation Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society.
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AWARD Petros Boufounos Elevated to IEEE Fellow Date: January 1, 2022
Awarded to: Petros T. Boufounos
MERL Contact: Petros T. Boufounos
Research Areas: Computational Sensing, Signal ProcessingBrief- MERL’s Petros Boufounos has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, effective January 2022, for “contributions to compressed sensing.”
IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership of the IEEE. It honors members with an outstanding record of technical achievements, contributing importantly to the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology, and bringing significant value to society. Each year, following a rigorous evaluation procedure, the IEEE Fellow Committee recommends a select group of recipients for elevation to IEEE Fellow. Less than 0.1% of voting members are selected annually for this member grade elevation.
- MERL’s Petros Boufounos has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, effective January 2022, for “contributions to compressed sensing.”
See All Awards for Computational Sensing -
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News & Events
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TALK [MERL Seminar Series 2024] Fadel Adib presents talk titled Decoding Hidden Worlds: Unprecedented Sensing and Connectivity for Climate, Robotics, & Smart Environments Date & Time: Wednesday, April 3, 2024; 12:00 PM
Speaker: Fadel Adib, MIT & Cartesian
MERL Host: Wael Hajj Ali
Research Areas: Computational Sensing, Dynamical Systems, Signal ProcessingAbstract- This talk will cover a new generation of technologies that can sense, connect, and perceive the physical world in unprecedented ways. These technologies can uncover hidden worlds around us, promising transformative impact on areas spanning climate change monitoring, ocean mapping, healthcare, food security, supply chain, and even extraterrestrial exploration.
The talk will cover four core technologies invented by Prof. Adib and his team. The first is an ocean internet-of-things (IoT) that uses battery-free sensors for climate change monitoring, marine life discovery, and seafood production (aquaculture). The second is a new perception technology that enables robots to sense and manipulate hidden objects. The third is a new augmented reality headset with ``X-ray vision”, which extends human perception beyond line-of-sight. The fourth is a wireless sensing technology that can “see through walls” and monitor people’s vital signs (including their breathing, heart rate, and emotions), enabling smart environments that sense humans requiring any contact with the human body.
The talk will touch on the journey of these technologies from their inception at MIT to international collaborations and startups that are translating them to real-world impact in areas spanning healthcare, climate change, and supply chain.
- This talk will cover a new generation of technologies that can sense, connect, and perceive the physical world in unprecedented ways. These technologies can uncover hidden worlds around us, promising transformative impact on areas spanning climate change monitoring, ocean mapping, healthcare, food security, supply chain, and even extraterrestrial exploration.
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EVENT MERL Contributes to ICASSP 2024 Date: Sunday, April 14, 2024 - Friday, April 19, 2024
Location: Seoul, South Korea
MERL Contacts: Petros T. Boufounos; François Germain; Chiori Hori; Sameer Khurana; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Jonathan Le Roux; Hassan Mansour; Zexu Pan; Kieran Parsons; Joshua Rapp; Anthony Vetro; Pu (Perry) Wang; Gordon Wichern; Ryoma Yataka
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Computational Sensing, Machine Learning, Robotics, Signal Processing, Speech & AudioBrief- MERL has made numerous contributions to both the organization and technical program of ICASSP 2024, which is being held in Seoul, Korea from April 14-19, 2024.
Sponsorship and Awards
MERL is proud to be a Bronze Patron of the conference and will participate in the student job fair on Thursday, April 18. Please join this session to learn more about employment opportunities at MERL, including openings for research scientists, post-docs, and interns.
MERL is pleased to be the sponsor of two IEEE Awards that will be presented at the conference. We congratulate Prof. Stéphane G. Mallat, the recipient of the 2024 IEEE Fourier Award for Signal Processing, and Prof. Keiichi Tokuda, the recipient of the 2024 IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award.
Jonathan Le Roux, MERL Speech and Audio Senior Team Leader, will also be recognized during the Awards Ceremony for his recent elevation to IEEE Fellow.
Technical Program
MERL will present 13 papers in the main conference on a wide range of topics including automated audio captioning, speech separation, audio generative models, speech and sound synthesis, spatial audio reproduction, multimodal indoor monitoring, radar imaging, depth estimation, physics-informed machine learning, and integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). Three workshop papers have also been accepted for presentation on audio-visual speaker diarization, music source separation, and music generative models.
Perry Wang is the co-organizer of the Workshop on Signal Processing and Machine Learning Advances in Automotive Radars (SPLAR), held on Sunday, April 14. It features keynote talks from leaders in both academia and industry, peer-reviewed workshop papers, and lightning talks from ICASSP regular tracks on signal processing and machine learning for automotive radar and, more generally, radar perception.
Gordon Wichern will present an invited keynote talk on analyzing and interpreting audio deep learning models at the Workshop on Explainable Machine Learning for Speech and Audio (XAI-SA), held on Monday, April 15. He will also appear in a panel discussion on interpretable audio AI at the workshop.
Perry Wang also co-organizes a two-part special session on Next-Generation Wi-Fi Sensing (SS-L9 and SS-L13) which will be held on Thursday afternoon, April 18. The special session includes papers on PHY-layer oriented signal processing and data-driven deep learning advances, and supports upcoming 802.11bf WLAN Sensing Standardization activities.
Petros Boufounos is participating as a mentor in ICASSP’s Micro-Mentoring Experience Program (MiME).
About ICASSP
ICASSP is the flagship conference of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, and the world's largest and most comprehensive technical conference focused on the research advances and latest technological development in signal and information processing. The event attracts more than 3000 participants.
- MERL has made numerous contributions to both the organization and technical program of ICASSP 2024, which is being held in Seoul, Korea from April 14-19, 2024.
See All News & Events for Computational Sensing -
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Research Highlights
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Internships
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ST1763: Technologies for Multimodal Tracking and Imaging
MERL is seeking a motivated intern to assist in developing hardware and algorithms for multimodal imaging applications. The project involves integration of radar, camera, and depth sensors in a variety of sensing scenarios. The ideal candidate should have experience with FMCW radar and/or depth sensing, and be fluent in Python and scripting methods. Familiarity with optical tracking of humans and experience with hardware prototyping is desired. Good knowledge of computational imaging and/or radar imaging methods is a plus.
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ST2090: Radiation Source Localization
The Computational Sensing Team at MERL is seeking an intern to work on estimation algorithms for radioactive source localization. The candidate should have experience with statistical modeling and estimation theory. A detailed knowledge of interactions of particles with matter, imaging inverse problems, and/or computed tomography is preferred. Hands-on experience with high-energy physics simulators (e.g., Geant4) is beneficial but not required. Strong programming skills in Python are essential. Publication of the results produced during our internships is expected. The duration is anticipated to be 3-6 months.
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ST2083: Deep Learning for Radar Perception
The Computation Sensing team at MERL is seeking a highly motivated intern to conduct fundamental research in radar perception. Expertise in deep learning-based object detection, multiple object tracking, data association, and representation learning (detection points, heatmaps, and raw radar waveforms) is required. Previous hands-on experience on open indoor/outdoor radar datasets is a plus. Familiarity with the concept of FMCW, MIMO, and range-Doppler-angle spectrum is an asset. The intern will collaborate with a small group of MERL researchers to develop novel algorithms, design experiments with MERL in-house testbed, and prepare results for patents and publication. The expected duration of the internship is 3 months with a flexible start date.
See All Internships for Computational Sensing -
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Recent Publications
- "Tracking Beyond the Unambiguous Range with Modulo Single-Photon Lidar", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10446835, March 2024, pp. 6-10.BibTeX TR2024-021 PDF
- @inproceedings{Fernandez-Menduina2024mar,
- author = {Fernandez-Menduina, Samuel and Rapp, Joshua and Mansour, Hassan and Greiff, Marcus and Parsons, Kieran},
- title = {Tracking Beyond the Unambiguous Range with Modulo Single-Photon Lidar},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
- year = 2024,
- pages = {6--10},
- month = mar,
- doi = {10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10446835},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-021}
- }
, - "Single-pixel imaging of dynamic flows using Neural ODE regularization", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), March 2024.BibTeX TR2024-024 PDF
- @inproceedings{Sholokhov2024mar,
- author = {Sholokhov, Aleksei and Rapp, Joshua and Nabi, Saleh and Brunton, Steven and Kutz, Nathan and Mansour, Hassan},
- title = {Single-pixel imaging of dynamic flows using Neural ODE regularization},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
- year = 2024,
- month = mar,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-024}
- }
, - "Object Trajectory Estimation with Multi-Band Wi-Fi Neural Dynamic Fusion", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10445972, March 2024, pp. 13261-13265.BibTeX TR2024-019 PDF
- @inproceedings{Kato2024mar,
- author = {Kato, Sorachi and Wang, Pu and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Fujihashi, Takuya and Mansour, Hassan and Boufounos, Petros T.},
- title = {Object Trajectory Estimation with Multi-Band Wi-Fi Neural Dynamic Fusion},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
- year = 2024,
- pages = {13261--13265},
- month = mar,
- publisher = {IEEE},
- doi = {10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10445972},
- issn = {2379-190X},
- isbn = {979-8-3503-4485-1},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-019}
- }
, - "Monostatic DMG Passive Sensing with Hypothesis Testing", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10447134, March 2024, pp. 13381-13385.BibTeX TR2024-020 PDF
- @inproceedings{Wang2024mar,
- author = {Wang, Pu and Boufounos, Petros T.},
- title = {Monostatic DMG Passive Sensing with Hypothesis Testing},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
- year = 2024,
- pages = {13381--13385},
- month = mar,
- publisher = {IEEE},
- doi = {10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10447134},
- issn = {2379-190X},
- isbn = {979-8-3503-4485-1},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-020}
- }
, - "Radar Perception with Scalable Connective Temporal Relations for Autonomous Driving", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10446449, March 2024, pp. 13266-13270.BibTeX TR2024-023 PDF
- @inproceedings{Yataka2024mar,
- author = {Yataka, Ryoma and Wang, Pu and Boufounos, Petros T. and Takahashi, Ryuhei},
- title = {Radar Perception with Scalable Connective Temporal Relations for Autonomous Driving},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
- year = 2024,
- pages = {13266--13270},
- month = mar,
- publisher = {IEEE},
- doi = {10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10446449},
- issn = {2379-190X},
- isbn = {979-8-3503-4485-1},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-023}
- }
, - "A model of spatial resolution uncertainty for Compton camera imaging", International Conference on Advancements in Nuclear Instrumentation Measurement Methods and their Applications (ANIMMA), DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/202328810002, January 2024, pp. 10002.BibTeX TR2024-005 PDF
- @inproceedings{Ma2024jan,
- author = {Ma, Yanting and Rapp, Joshua and Boufounos, Petros T. and Mansour, Hassan},
- title = {A model of spatial resolution uncertainty for Compton camera imaging},
- booktitle = {Advancements in Nuclear Instrumentation Measurement Methods and their Applications (ANIMMA)},
- year = 2024,
- pages = 10002,
- month = jan,
- publisher = {EPJ Web of Conferences, 288},
- doi = {10.1051/epjconf/202328810002},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-005}
- }
, - "The Role of Detection Times in Reflectivity Estimation with Single-Photon Lidar", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, DOI: 10.1109/JSTQE.2023.3333834, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 8800114:1-14, January 2024.BibTeX TR2024-003 PDF
- @article{Kitichotkul2024jan,
- author = {Kitichotkul, Ruangrawee and Rapp, Joshua and Goyal, Vivek K},
- title = {The Role of Detection Times in Reflectivity Estimation with Single-Photon Lidar},
- journal = {IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics},
- year = 2024,
- volume = 30,
- number = 1,
- pages = {8800114:1--14},
- month = jan,
- doi = {10.1109/JSTQE.2023.3333834},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-003}
- }
, - "Dual Parametric and State Estimation for Partial Differential Equations", IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, DOI: 10.1109/CDC49753.2023.10384246, December 2023, pp. 8156-8161.BibTeX TR2023-145 PDF
- @inproceedings{Mowlavi2023dec,
- author = {Mowlavi, Saviz and Benosman, Mouhacine},
- title = {Dual Parametric and State Estimation for Partial Differential Equations},
- booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)},
- year = 2023,
- pages = {8156--8161},
- month = dec,
- publisher = {IEEE},
- doi = {10.1109/CDC49753.2023.10384246},
- issn = {2576-2370},
- isbn = {979-8-3503-0125-0},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-145}
- }
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- "Tracking Beyond the Unambiguous Range with Modulo Single-Photon Lidar", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP48485.2024.10446835, March 2024, pp. 6-10.
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