Dr. Ian J. Hales

I obtained my BSc Computer Science from the University of Leeds in 2009, staying on there to undertake a PhD under the supervision of David Hogg and Kia Ng. My research involved the reconstruction of ground-planes in pedestrian scenes using only the motion of the people within it. During my time at Leeds, I also worked on a 3D registration and localisation project, allowing the view-point of a user to be identified frame-by-frame on a stitched panorama, resulting in an interactive installation at Leeds Grand Theatre.

I am currently a research associate in 3D Computer Vision at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. I have worked with Harper-Adams University to utilise computer vision techniques for precision weed management in crops, combining 2D features with 3D surface information captured using a custom tractor-mounted camera rig. Weeds could be identified, analysed, located and controlled early in the growth cycle without the use of wide-scale spraying. I have just finished working on a pioneering new technique for long-range 3D imaging using infra-red light sources and am currently working on a health and welfare monitoring system for dairy cattle.

My key research interests lie in structure-from-motion techniques and 3D morphological analysis for agriculture with application to weed control in pasture, fine-grained 3D analysis for phenotyping and plant deficiency monitoring.