Ammar Zakaria
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Preferred name
Ammar Zakaria
Official Name
Ammar, Zakaria
Alternative Name
Zakaria, Ammar
Zakaria, A.
Main Affiliation
Scopus Author ID
36560557700
Researcher ID
D-2902-2015

Research Output
Now showing 1 - 10 of 27
  • Publication
    Improved maturity and ripeness classifications of Magnifera Indica cv. Harumanis Mangoes through sensor fusion of an electronic nose and acoustic sensor
    ( 2012)
    Ammar Zakaria
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    ;
    Masnan, Maz Jamilah
    ;
    Fathinul Syahir Ahmad Sa'ad
    ;
    Abdul Hamid Adom
    ;
    Mohd Noor Ahmad
    ;
    Mahmad Nor Jaafar
    ;
    Abu Hassan Abdullah
    ;
    Latifah Munirah Kamarudin
    In recent years, there have been a number of reported studies on the use of non-destructive techniques to evaluate and determine mango maturity and ripeness levels. However, most of these reported works were conducted using single-modality sensing systems, either using an electronic nose, acoustics or other non-destructive measurements. This paper presents the work on the classification of mangoes (Magnifera Indica cv. Harumanis) maturity and ripeness levels using fusion of the data of an electronic nose and an acoustic sensor. Three groups of samples each from two different harvesting times (week 7 and week 8) were evaluated by the e-nose and then followed by the acoustic sensor. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) were able to discriminate the mango harvested at week 7 and week 8 based solely on the aroma and volatile gases released from the mangoes. However, when six different groups of different maturity and ripeness levels were combined in one classification analysis, both PCA and LDA were unable to discriminate the age difference of the Harumanis mangoes. Instead of six different groups, only four were observed using the LDA, while PCA showed only two distinct groups. By applying a low level data fusion technique on the e-nose and acoustic data, the classification for maturity and ripeness levels using LDA was improved. However, no significant improvement was observed using PCA with data fusion technique. Further work using a hybrid LDA-Competitive Learning Neural Network was performed to validate the fusion technique and classify the samples. It was found that the LDA-CLNN was also improved significantly when data fusion was applied.
  • Publication
    Performance analysis of the Microsoft Kinect Sensor for 2D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) Techniques
    ( 2014-12-05)
    Kamarulzaman Kamarudin
    ;
    Syed Muhammad Mamduh Syed Zakaria
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    This paper presents a performance analysis of two open-source, laser scanner-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques (i.e., Gmapping and Hector SLAM) using a Microsoft Kinect to replace the laser sensor. Furthermore, the paper proposes a new system integration approach whereby a Linux virtual machine is used to run the open source SLAM algorithms. The experiments were conducted in two different environments; a small room with no features and a typical office corridor with desks and chairs. Using the data logged from real-time experiments, each SLAM technique was simulated and tested with different parameter settings. The results show that the system is able to achieve real time SLAM operation. The system implementation offers a simple and reliable way to compare the performance of Windows-based SLAM algorithm with the algorithms typically implemented in a Robot Operating System (ROS). The results also indicate that certain modifications to the default laser scanner-based parameters are able to improve the map accuracy. However, the limited field of view and range of Kinect's depth sensor often causes the map to be inaccurate, especially in featureless areas, therefore the Kinect sensor is not a direct replacement for a laser scanner, but rather offers a feasible alternative for 2D SLAM tasks.
  • Publication
    Predictive analysis of in-vehicle air quality monitoring system using Deep Learning technique
    ( 2022)
    Abdul Syafiq Abdull Sukor
    ;
    Goh Chew Cheik
    ;
    Latifah Munirah Kamarudin
    ;
    Xiaoyang Mao
    ;
    Hiromitsu Nishizaki
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    ;
    Syed Muhammad Mamduh Syed Zakaria
    In-vehicle air quality monitoring systems have been seen as promising paradigms for monitoring drivers’ conditions while they are driving. This is because some in-vehicle cabins contain pollutants that can cause drowsiness and fatigue to drivers. However, designing an efficient system that can predict in-vehicle air quality has challenges, due to the continuous variation in parameters in cabin environments. This paper presents a new approach, using deep learning techniques that can deal with the varying parameters inside the vehicle environment. In this case, two deep learning models, namely Long-short Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) are applied to classify and predict the air quality using time-series data collected from the built-in sensor hardware. Both are compared with conventional methods of machine learning models, including Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP). The results show that GRU has an excellent prediction performance with the highest coefficient of determination value (R2) of 0.97.
  • Publication
    Multi-Stage feature selection based intelligent classifier for classification of incipient stage fire in building
    ( 2016)
    Allan Melvin Andrew
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    ;
    Shaharil Mad Saad
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    In this study, an early fire detection algorithm has been proposed based on low cost array sensing system, utilising off- the shelf gas sensors, dust particles and ambient sensors such as temperature and humidity sensor. The odour or “smellprint” emanated from various fire sources and building construction materials at early stage are measured. For this purpose, odour profile data from five common fire sources and three common building construction materials were used to develop the classification model. Normalised feature extractions of the smell print data were performed before subjected to prediction classifier. These features represent the odour signals in the time domain. The obtained features undergo the proposed multi-stage feature selection technique and lastly, further reduced by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a dimension reduction technique. The hybrid PCA-PNN based approach has been applied on different datasets from in-house developed system and the portable electronic nose unit. Experimental classification results show that the dimension reduction process performed by PCA has improved the classification accuracy and provided high reliability, regardless of ambient temperature and humidity variation, baseline sensor drift, the different gas concentration level and exposure towards different heating temperature range.
  • Publication
    Performance analysis of the microsoft kinect sensor for 2D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques
    ( 2014)
    Kamarulzaman Kamarudin
    ;
    Syed Muhammad Mamduh Syed Zakaria
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    This paper presents a performance analysis of two open-source, laser scanner-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques (i.e., Gmapping and Hector SLAM) using a Microsoft Kinect to replace the laser sensor. Furthermore, the paper proposes a new system integration approach whereby a Linux virtual machine is used to run the open source SLAM algorithms. The experiments were conducted in two different environments; a small room with no features and a typical office corridor with desks and chairs. Using the data logged from real-time experiments, each SLAM technique was simulated and tested with different parameter settings. The results show that the system is able to achieve real time SLAM operation. The system implementation offers a simple and reliable way to compare the performance of Windows-based SLAM algorithm with the algorithms typically implemented in a Robot Operating System (ROS). The results also indicate that certain modifications to the default laser scanner-based parameters are able to improve the map accuracy. However, the limited field of view and range of Kinect's depth sensor often causes the map to be inaccurate, especially in featureless areas, therefore the Kinect sensor is not a direct replacement for a laser scanner, but rather offers a feasible alternative for 2D SLAM tasks.
  • Publication
    A Bio-Inspired herbal tea flavour assessment technique
    ( 2014)
    Nur Zatul 'Iffah Zakaria
    ;
    Masnan, Maz Jamilah
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    Herbal-based products are becoming a widespread production trend among manufacturers for the domestic and international markets. As the production increases to meet the market demand, it is very crucial for the manufacturer to ensure that their products have met specific criteria and fulfil the intended quality determined by the quality controller. One famous herbal-based product is herbal tea. This paper investigates bio-inspired flavour assessments in a data fusion framework involving an e-nose and e-tongue. The objectives are to attain good classification of different types and brands of herbal tea, classification of different flavour masking effects and finally classification of different concentrations of herbal tea. Two data fusion levels were employed in this research, low level data fusion and intermediate level data fusion. Four classification approaches; LDA, SVM, KNN and PNN were examined in search of the best classifier to achieve the research objectives. In order to evaluate the classifiers' performance, an error estimator based on k-fold cross validation and leave-one-out were applied. Classification based on GC-MS TIC data was also included as a comparison to the classification performance using fusion approaches. Generally, KNN outperformed the other classification techniques for the three flavour assessments in the low level data fusion and intermediate level data fusion. However, the classification results based on GC-MS TIC data are varied.
  • Publication
    A study on volatile organic compounds emitted by in-vitro lung cancer cultured cells using gas sensor array and SPME-GCMS
    ( 2018)
    Reena Thriumani
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    ;
    Yumi Zuhanis Has-Yun Hashim
    ;
    Amanina Iymia Jeffree
    ;
    Khaled Mohamed Helmy
    ;
    Latifah Munirah Kamarudin
    ;
    Mohammad Iqbal Omar
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    ;
    Abdul Hamid Adom
    ;
    Krishna C. Persaud
    Background Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from exhaled breath from human bodies have been proven to be a useful source of information for early lung cancer diagnosis. To date, there are still arguable information on the production and origin of significant VOCs of cancer cells. Thus, this study aims to conduct in-vitro experiments involving related cell lines to verify the capability of VOCs in providing information of the cells. Method The performances of e-nose technology with different statistical methods to determine the best classifier were conducted and discussed. The gas sensor study has been complemented using solid phase micro-extraction-gas chromatography mass spectrometry. For this purpose, the lung cancer cells (A549 and Calu-3) and control cell lines, breast cancer cell (MCF7) and non-cancerous lung cell (WI38VA13) were cultured in growth medium. Results This study successfully provided a list of possible volatile organic compounds that can be specific biomarkers for lung cancer, even at the 24th hour of cell growth. Also, the Linear Discriminant Analysis-based One versus All-Support Vector Machine classifier, is able to produce high performance in distinguishing lung cancer from breast cancer cells and normal lung cells. Conclusion The findings in this work conclude that the specific VOC released from the cancer cells can act as the odour signature and potentially to be used as non-invasive screening of lung cancer using gas array sensor devices.
  • Publication
    Improved maturity and ripeness classifications of magnifera indica cv. harumanis mangoes through sensor fusion of an electronic nose and acoustic sensor
    ( 2012)
    Ammar Zakaria
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    ;
    Masnan, Maz Jamilah
    ;
    Fathinul Syahir Ahmad Sa'ad
    ;
    Abdul Hamid Adom
    ;
    Mohd Noor Ahmad
    ;
    Mahmad Nor Jaafar
    ;
    Abu Hassan Abdullah
    ;
    Latifah Munirah Kamarudin
    In recent years, there have been a number of reported studies on the use of non-destructive techniques to evaluate and determine mango maturity and ripeness levels. However, most of these reported works were conducted using single-modality sensing systems, either using an electronic nose, acoustics or other non-destructive measurements. This paper presents the work on the classification of mangoes (Magnifera Indica cv. Harumanis) maturity and ripeness levels using fusion of the data of an electronic nose and an acoustic sensor. Three groups of samples each from two different harvesting times (week 7 and week 8) were evaluated by the e-nose and then followed by the acoustic sensor. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) were able to discriminate the mango harvested at week 7 and week 8 based solely on the aroma and volatile gases released from the mangoes. However, when six different groups of different maturity and ripeness levels were combined in one classification analysis, both PCA and LDA were unable to discriminate the age difference of the Harumanis mangoes. Instead of six different groups, only four were observed using the LDA, while PCA showed only two distinct groups. By applying a low level data fusion technique on the e-nose and acoustic data, the classification for maturity and ripeness levels using LDA was improved. However, no significant improvement was observed using PCA with data fusion technique. Further work using a hybrid LDA-Competitive Learning Neural Network was performed to validate the fusion technique and classify the samples. It was found that the LDA-CLNN was also improved significantly when data fusion was applied.
  • Publication
    Development of a scalable testbed for mobile olfaction verification
    ( 2015)
    Syed Muhammad Mamduh Syed Zakaria
    ;
    Retnam Visvanathan
    ;
    Kamarulzaman Kamarudin
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    ;
    Latifah Munirah Kamarudin
    The lack of information on ground truth gas dispersion and experiment verification information has impeded the development of mobile olfaction systems, especially for real-world conditions. In this paper, an integrated testbed for mobile gas sensing experiments is presented. The integrated 3 m × 6 m testbed was built to provide real-time ground truth information for mobile olfaction system development. The testbed consists of a 72-gas-sensor array, namely Large Gas Sensor Array (LGSA), a localization system based on cameras and a wireless communication backbone for robot communication and integration into the testbed system. Furthermore, the data collected from the testbed may be streamed into a simulation environment to expedite development. Calibration results using ethanol have shown that using a large number of gas sensor in the LGSA is feasible and can produce coherent signals when exposed to the same concentrations. The results have shown that the testbed was able to capture the time varying characteristics and the variability of gas plume in a 2 h experiment thus providing time dependent ground truth concentration maps. The authors have demonstrated the ability of the mobile olfaction testbed to monitor, verify and thus, provide insight to gas distribution mapping experiment.
  • Publication
    Classifying sources influencing Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) using Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
    ( 2015)
    Shaharil Mad Saad
    ;
    Allan Melvin Andrew
    ;
    Ali Yeon Md Shakaff
    ;
    Abdul Rahman Mohd Saad
    ;
    Azman Muhamad Yusof @ Kamarudin
    ;
    Ammar Zakaria
    Monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ) is deemed important nowadays. A sophisticated IAQ monitoring system which could classify the source influencing the IAQ is definitely going to be very helpful to the users. Therefore, in this paper, an IAQ monitoring system has been proposed with a newly added feature which enables the system to identify the sources influencing the level of IAQ. In order to achieve this, the data collected has been trained with artificial neural network or ANN—a proven method for pattern recognition. Basically, the proposed system consists of sensor module cloud (SMC), base station and service-oriented client. The SMC contain collections of sensor modules that measure the air quality data and transmit the captured data to base station through wireless network. The IAQ monitoring system is also equipped with IAQ Index and thermal comfort index which could tell the users about the room’s conditions. The results showed that the system is able to measure the level of air quality and successfully classify the sources influencing IAQ in various environments like ambient air, chemical presence, fragrance presence, foods and beverages and human activity.