This thesis describes research into the impact of digital imaging technology on the creative practice of artists and designers in the field of printed surface pattern for textiles. It examines how digital tools support creative thinking and enhance innovation through the visualisation, manipulation and communication of imagery, and assesses the role and importance of memory and physical experience in creative digital practice. Recent developments in digital ink jet printing technology now enable practitioners to translate digital imagery directly onto textiles. The research provides evidence to assist future technological development, and effective design strategies are identified for implementation within creative textile practice. A contextual review, informed by visits to practitioners, industry and education, and a critical review of published literature, identifies key issues examined in the research. These include the ways in which digital technology supports creative thinking and how communication of visual data facilitates collaborative practice. The rationale for the use of qualitative research methods in the project is explained. A case study, documented using video and audio recordings of interviews, and photography and research journals to gather data on site, is described. Practical investigations, emanating from the field study visits, and an independent experimental body of work created by the researcher provide additional data to elucidate how digital tools support creative practice. The findings are informed by feedback and evaluation from telephone conversations and personal correspondence from the participants, along with analysis of the research data. Digital tools are shown to support creative thinking, providing a means of stimulating, manipulating, and outputting printed digital imagery. The collaborative investigations demonstrate how communication of visual imagery, via the Internet and portable digital memory storage media, is able to enhance creative practice. Recommendations are also made for future research in areas including colour communication, 3D printing and flexible textile displays.

This PhD by published works dissertation includes seven peer reviewed publications. The author uses selected papers to demonstrate the novelty of the work, summarising papers’ findings and illustrating as appropriate. The Introduction explains the way in which the work has developed, its focus and the raison d'être for the order in which the papers are presented. Contribution to New Knowledge briefly summarises the contribution of the outputs individually and collectively to the author’s chosen field. The Background chapter explains the work’s origins, how the author became interested in the field, how he developed his initial interests into a research topic and the timescale of events. Two papers; The Virtual Environment in Design Projects (1999) and Designing a Learning Environment for Three Dimensional Thinkers (2000) are used as reference material. In the Current Practice and Application chapter the work of other researchers relevant to the field of enquiry and the current practices of the design and manufacturing industry are discussed. References to papers included in this submission are cited as necessary. The IE System; Origins and First Workable Manifestations chapter describes how the various elements of the system came together to form one coherent methodology. The chapter details how the work progressed from early manifestations and describes the development of the IE2 and IE3. The Trials and Empirical Performance Measurement chapter uses material from two papers: The Traditional Design Process Versus a New Design Methodology: A Comparative Case Study of a Rapidly Designed Information Appliance and Rapid Development of Tangible Interactive Appliances: Achieving the Fidelity / Time Balance. Through reference to these papers the author summarises the results of the various trials described in detail within them. The dissertation concludes by describing the latest and future work with colleagues at Lancaster University and Sony-Ericsson. The IE4, IE5 and IE6 are described and the plans for the future research are discussed.

The aim of this research is to investigate the use of the modern prediction algorithms in seabed mapping. These prediction algorithms can be used in enhancing the quality of the measured bathymetric data to help in filtering the measured data and excluding noise from actual data to ensure higher seabed mapping accuracy for more secure navigation. The work involves the development of a general purpose sonar simulation platform to generate the required data for testing the different prediction algorithms. The simulation platform consists of a seabed simulator and an interferometric sonar simulator for bathymetric measurements. Two methods of building the seabed simulator have been investigated and applied; the fractal geometry based method and the random generator based method. The interferometric sonar simulator is based on SAS (Synthetic Aperture Sonar) which is a widely accepted modern technology. The predictors investigated in this work are based on KNN (K Nearest Neighbours) and dynamic ANN (Artificial Neural Networks). Both dynamic feedforward and dynamic recurrent networks are investigated. The comparison between the performances of these different predictors reveals that dynamic recurrent networks outperform the other types of predictors and the Nonlinear AutoRegressive eXogenous (NARX) Neural Network is the best.

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