umagazine issue 18 36 Collecting Images by Drones Prof Vong Chi Man, associate head of the Department of Computer and Information Science, is committed to incorporating AI technology into drone application. By controlling drones to collect images within the University of Macau campus, AI technology may be leveraged to analyse and reconstruct the data to build a 3D image, with semantic labels automatically generated for the objects or areas in the 3D sample, such as sky, road, cars, trees, etc. This technology is known as Semantic 3D Reconstruction. According to Prof Vong, ‘The Semantic 3D Reconstruction technology is vital to unmanned piloting technology. The traffic condition and structure could be presented in real time, preceded by the unmanned vehicles’ identification of objects or spatial scope, thereby better forecasting whether a human being or an object lies ahead. Correspondingly, driving safety could be enhanced.’ He further elaborated, ‘Unmanned vehicles can run on the pre-set route. Take the University of Macau for example, if we apply the unmanned piloting technology to the campus shuttle bus, the bus can run on a pre-set route and there is no need to worry about hiring drivers anymore. The campus shuttle can also work on a 24/7 basis’. Image Recognition and Target Tracking Algorithm Prof Zhou Yicong, associate professor of the Department of Computer and Information Science, is an expert in multi-media information security, image processing, and comprehension. He underlines the immense potential of AI, stating that the future trend of the world lies in AI research. At present, Prof Zhou is working on the algorithm for image recognition and target tracking. Image recognition technology is applied to identification of individuals at Macao Customs. It is also instrumental in locating criminals and determining their whereabouts. The Macao SAR government is resolute to build Macao into a smart city featuring the concept of ‘digital guiding technology, smart technology serving people’. In a similar vein, Prof Zhou believes that this government plan will guide resesarch and development for Macao. ‘This government agenda has made it imperative to train a wealth of talents in cloud computing and AI, which, indubitably, would provide Macao with tremendous opportunities to further tap the AI development’. Prof Zhou is firmly convinced of the enormous potential of AI at the University of Macau. ‘PhD students in our lab have recently published two high-quality papers about image recognition, marking the debut of UM researchers to publish wholly independent research findings on computer vision and AI in top international conferences. Besides, our department has ample postgraduate and PhD applicants in recent years, which reflects student’s interests and aspiration to explore AI.’ 潘治文教授 Prof Pun Chi Man 黃志文教授 Prof Vong Chi Man
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