Università  degli Studi di Udine

Federico Fontana is assistant professor in the Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica of the University of Udine, teaching sound processing. From 2005 to 2009 he was assistant professor in the Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica of the University of Verona. In 2001 he was visiting scholar at the Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, Helsinki University of Technology (Espoo, Finland). In 2003 he received the PhD in computer science from the University of Verona. He has ongoing collaboration with the Dipartimento di Informatica of the University of Verona, where he teaches non visual interaction and leads the sound branch of the Video, Image Processing and Sound Laboratory. He is in the Technical Program Committee of SMC2011. He was Guest Editor of the special issue "Virtual analog audio effects and musical instruments" in the IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing, and the special issue "Musical Applications of Real-Time Signal Processing" in the EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing. He was scientific program chair of HAID 2010, in Copenhagen. In 2000-2003 he has been consulting for the R&D divisions of several international and national companies and public institutions. His current interests are in the design and interactive synthesis of sounds, the evaluation of non visual interfaces, and in nonlinear signal processing.

A short synopsis of the present and past research interests is provided.

- (1995-present) Sound and Music computing deals with the analysis, synthesis, manipulation and evaluation of audio and musical information. This field is constantly vitalized by the modeling and design of interactive systems for applications of multi-modal (especially auditory and tactile) augmented reality, in which real-time feedback control is instantaneously and continuously informed by users' gestures, manipulation, intentions, and even affective characters. In this context, the design of non visual displays capable of supporting our tasks and seamlessly enriching the perception of our surroundings is a complex process, involving knowledge ranging across the psychology and ecology of hearing up to the user-centered, especially Sonic interaction design. Products of this research activity include (both software and physical) models and prototypes of interface components, covering issues of user's data acquisition up to the acoustic and tactile rendering and evaluation of non visual information.

- (2003-2006) Biosignal processing. Signal transduction networks are traditionally modeled in the continuous domain, via nonlinear differential equation systems. Alternative methodologies have been investigated as well, which work in the symbolic domain. Membrane computing is one of these alternative methodologies: by means of its generative tools, interesting observations can be made about the nature and behavior of sophisticate genomic signals such as those governing circadian cycles.

-(2000-2003) DSP software design and engineering of real-time signal processing algorithms for the synthesis, equalization and spatialization of piano sounds that were put onboard a marketed digital piano keyboard. Moreover, a digital "Dolby B" that has been patented in the EU and the US and was successfully employed in some widely marketed car radios.

 - Coordinator of the EU Project 222107 FET-Open NIW - Natural Interactive Walking (2008-2011).

- Coordinator of the project E-PHASE - Electronic Piano with Haptic And Spatial Enhancements, a "Joint Project" between the University of Verona and Viscount SpA (2008-2011).

- Coordinator of the project REVIVAL - Restauro dell'Archivio Vicentini di Verona e sua accessibilità come Audio e-Library, a "Joint Project" between the University of Verona and Fondazione Arena di Verona (2008-2010).

- Local coordinator from 2008 of the EU Project FP6-NEST-29085 CLOSED - Closing the Loop Of Sound Evaluation and Design under the path \Measuring the impossible" (2006-2009).

- Coordinator of the project Sound synthesis by physical models of the piano, a "Joint Project" between the University of Verona and Viscount SpA (2007-2008).

- MoogFF module for the SuperCollider real time sound processing software environment.
- Real-time system for the simulation of the analog "Dolby B" codec (contractor: STMicroelectronic Automotive Division, A. Brianza - MI, Italy).
- Real-time system for the virtual rendering of binaural cues (contractor: GeneralMusic, S.G. Marignano - RN, Italy).
- Real-time system for the dynamic reconstruction of piano sounds from static samples (contractor: GeneralMusic, S.G. Marignano - RN, Italy)

- Teacher of Sound processing for the Master in Computer Game Development at the Dipartimento di Informatica of the University of Verona - Italy (2009).
- Teacher of Non visual interaction at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Verona - Italy (2009).
- Teacher of Sound processing at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Verona - Italy (2008, 2009).
- Teacher of Object-based programming at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Verona - Italy (2006-2008).
- Teacher of Fundamentals of computer science and at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Verona - Italy (2005-2008).
- Tutor at the Summer School in Sound and Music Computing, Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal, July 18-21, 2009.
- Tutor of a PhD course entitled Introduction to an environment for scientific calculation, University of Verona - Italy (2009).
- Tutor at the Summer School in Sound and Music Computing, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, July 2-6, 2007.
- Teacher of Musical informatics (laboratory) at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Udine - Italy (2005).

- Local coordinator of the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD)-Novartis project Genetic Bases of -Cell Role in Glucose Homeostasis of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes:
A Computational Biomedicine Study (2008-2010).
- Team member in the national project COFIN 2004 Symbolic models of cellular dynamics: biomolecular algorithms and membrane systems funded by the Italian Ministry of University
Research (2005-2006).
- Consultant for the EU Project IST IST-2-511316-IP RACINE - IP funded by the European Community in the ICT-EU research activity (2004, 2005).
- Consultant for the EU Project IST 2001-37117 RACINE - S funded by the European Community in the ICT-EU research activity (2003, 2004).
- Team member in the national project Augmented Reality for Teleoperation of Free Flying Robots, funded by the Italian Space Agency (2002).