IEEE ICMA 2014 Conference
Plenary Talk 3

Perception: Old Wine in New Bottles?

Max Q.-H. Meng, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Electronic Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin, Hong Kong
E-mail:max@ee.cuhk.edu.hk

Abstract:
Perception represents the benchmark capability of the new generations of intelligent robots. Research on perception is not new and many waves of research efforts on perception have come and gone since the rise of experimental psychology in the 19th century. Recent revolutionary development and progress in information technology in terms of both hardware capability and software power have made it possible for researchers to redefine what perception is and rethink how research on perception can take full advantage of the current information technology accomplishments. In this talk, we will start with an introduction to how research on perception started and what the milestone achievements are, and then move onto topics from classic psychophysics and sensory substitution to modern concepts of multi-sensory information fusion, soft-haptics and active perception. Intuitive examples and application scenarios will be presented to illustrate key points and important concepts. Personal thoughts and projections on future research efforts and potentials in perception will be outlined to conclude the talk.

Max Q.-H. Meng received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Victoria, Canada, in 1992, following his Master's degree from Beijing Institute of Technology in 1988. He has been a Professor of Electronic Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 2002, after working for 10 years in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta in Canada as the Director of the ART (Advanced Robotics and Teleoperation) Lab, holding the positions of Assistant Professor (1994), Associate Professor (1998), and Professor (2000), respectively. He was jointly appointed as an Overseas Outstanding Scholar Chair Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Dean of the School of Control Science and Engineering at Shandong University in China. He is currently jointly appointed as a distinguished professor at HIT supported by the China Global Expert Recruitment (1000 talents) Program, a distinguished provincial professor of Henan University of Science and Technology, and the Honorary Dean of the School of Control Science and Engineering at Shandong University, in China. His research interests include robotics and active medical devices, tele-medicine and healthcare, bio-sensors and sensor networks, network enabled systems and services, and adaptive and intelligent systems. He has published some 500 journal and conference papers and book chapters and led more than 40 funded research projects to completion as Principal Investigator. He has served as an editor of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics and an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, and is currently a technical editor of Advanced Robotics, Journal of Robotics and Biomimetics, Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics, and International Journal of Information Acquisition, as well as the honorary editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Automation and Logistics. He served as an Associate VP for Conferences of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (2004-2007), an AdCom member of the IEEE Neural Network Council/Society (2003-2006), a member of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics Management Committee (2001-2006), and the Co-Chair of the Fellow Evaluation Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. He is currently serving as a member of the Administrative Committee (AdCom) of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. He was the General Chair of IEEE CIRA 2001, IROS 2005, AIM 2008, and WCICA 2010 conferences. He is a recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal award and he is a Fellow of IEEE.