Brian Avery

Background

I joined NRC Cambridge in November 2005 to pursue my interests in featherweight devices engaged in opportunistic communications.

I spent the last nine years working for HP Labs on a variety of projects. While there I worked on a number of projects including an HCI project centered on a kiosk that used machine vision to track and engage people in public spaces; a Linux port to the HP PDA; a SIP-based VOIP infrastructure that did double duty as a research platform as well as the lab’s production telephony system; and an 802.15.4 based location-aware computing project focused on healthcare applications. Before HP Labs, I worked for a couple of small machine vision companies.

Publications

A. Christian, B. Avery, S. Ayer, F. Bomba, J. Hicks.

"HPL-2005-113 SNAP Computing: Wireless Location-based Plug and Play". HP Labs Tech Report. June 2005.

A. Christian, J. Hicks, B. Avery, B. Kuris, D. Denning, S. Ayer, J. Ankcorn.

"HPL-2005-114 Fingertips of the Network: Featherweight Communicators and Sensors". HP Labs Tech Report. June 2005.

J. Hicks, A. Christian, B. Avery.

"HPL-2005-115 Integrating Presence and Location Services using SIP". HP Labs Tech Report. June 2005.

A. Christian, B. Avery.

"Speak Out and Annoy Someone: Experiences with Intelligent Kiosks". ACM SIGCHI 2000, April 2000

A. Christian, B. Avery.

"Digital Smart Kiosk Project". CHI '98, 18-23 April 1998.

Patents & Pendings

U.S. Patent 6,043,827

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for acknowledging multiple objects using a computer generated face, March 2000

U.S. Patent 6,052,132

A. Christian, B. Avery, K. Waters, Technique for providing a computer generated face having coordinated eye and head movement, April 2000

U.S. Patent 6,141,434

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for processing images, October 2000

U.S. Patent 6,163,822

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for controlling and processing a section of an interactive presentation simultaneously with detecting stimulus event in manner that overrides process, December 2000

U.S. Patent 6,184,858

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for updating a background image, February 2001

U.S. Patent 6,240,197

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for disambiguating proximate objects within an image, May 2001

U.S. Patent 6,239,292

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for controlling a presentation of a computer generated object having a plurality of movable components, June 2001

U.S. Patent 6,400,830

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for tracking objects through a series of images, June 2002

U.S. Patent 6,421,462

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for differencing an image, July 2002

U.S. Patent 6,434,271

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for locating objects within an image, August 2002

U.S. Patent 6,556,708

A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for classifying objects within an image, April 2003

Research Interests

My research interests include

• Featherweight wireless devices
• Mobile opportunistic communication
• VOIP/SIP extensions to make communication more pleasant

Personal Info

Education

• S.M.E. Mechanical Engineering, 1992, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, Force Control/Robotics.
• B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1989, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.