James Rainey

Computer Vision Researcher

James Rainey

Postdoctoral Researcher at Newcastle University

I build AI-powered vision systems that take research ideas from prototype to real-world deployment, from hospital food monitoring and satellite algae detection to retinal imaging.

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INFORM

An edge AI system that tracks what patients eat and what goes to waste, plate by plate.

Food detection in 0.65 seconds on a Raspberry Pi 5.

  • Edge AI
  • Food recognition
  • Patent

ALGAE-watch

Combining radar and optical satellite imagery to track harmful algal blooms in Lough Neagh, whatever the weather.

0.359 mIoU with radar, optical imagery and super-resolution training.

  • Remote sensing
  • Multimodal fusion
  • SAR

About

My research combines computer vision with practical system development. I work on embedded food monitoring, satellite-based algae detection and retinal vessel segmentation, with experience spanning model development, hardware integration and evaluation.

I’m also involved in the JPEG Trust standard, which provides a framework for assessing trust in digital media. Explore OpenJPT to learn more about JPEG Trust tools.

Outside of work I’m into hands-on technology and making things: 3D printing, Raspberry Pi projects and other maker activities that let me prototype ideas and tinker with hardware.

Research areas

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Food Recognition

Systems that recognise, segment and monitor food on embedded hardware.

Algae Detection

Monitoring harmful algal blooms by fusing radar and optical satellite imagery.

Medical Imaging

Segmenting retinal blood vessels in OCTA scans to support treatment of diabetic eye disease.

Neuromorphic Vision

Brain-inspired spiking neural networks running on low-power FPGAs.

Media Authenticity

Detecting manipulated images and verifying where visual content came from.

Gait Recognition

Identifying people by how they walk using markerless 3D motion capture.

News

  • Paper on monitoring algae blooms in Lough Neagh with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite data accepted at the ICIP 2026 Workshops.

  • Our paper on INFORM, a food monitoring and tracking system for sustainable healthcare facilities, was published at VISAPP 2026.

  • Finished the KTP with Falcon Foodservice Equipment and started a new postdoctoral researcher role at Newcastle University.

  • Presented our FPGA-based neuromorphic vision accelerator at SPIE Artificial Intelligence for Security and Defence Applications II.

  • Three papers at SPIE Applications of Digital Image Processing XLVII: embedded food recognition, combating AI image manipulation and neuromorphic digit classification.

Selected publications

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  1. SPIE
    Food recognition and segmentation using embedded hardware
    James Rainey, Inés R Blach, Douglas MacLachlan, John Wannan, and Deepayan Bhowmik
    Applications of Digital Image Processing XLVII · SPIE · 2024
    Paper Project 
    @inproceedings{rainey2024food,
  title = {Food recognition and segmentation using embedded hardware},
  author = {Rainey, James and Blach, In{\'e}s R and MacLachlan, Douglas and Wannan, John and Bhowmik, Deepayan},
  booktitle = {Applications of Digital Image Processing XLVII},
  volume = {13137},
  pages = {151--163},
  year = {2024},
  organization = {SPIE},
}
  2. ICB
    Gait recognition from markerless 3D motion capture
    James Rainey, John Bustard, and Seán McLoone
    2019 International Conference on Biometrics (ICB) · IEEE · 2019
    Paper Project 
    @inproceedings{rainey2019gait,
  title = {Gait recognition from markerless 3D motion capture},
  author = {Rainey, James and Bustard, John and McLoone, Se{\'a}n},
  booktitle = {2019 International Conference on Biometrics (ICB)},
  pages = {1--6},
  year = {2019},
  organization = {IEEE},
}
  3. DSP
    TRAIT: a trusted media distribution framework
    James Rainey, Mohamed Elawady, Charith Abhayartne, and Deepayan Bhowmik
    2023 24th International Conference on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) · IEEE · 2023
    Paper Project 
    @inproceedings{rainey2023trait,
  title = {TRAIT: a trusted media distribution framework},
  author = {Rainey, James and Elawady, Mohamed and Abhayartne, Charith and Bhowmik, Deepayan},
  booktitle = {2023 24th International Conference on Digital Signal Processing (DSP)},
  year = {2023},
  organization = {IEEE},
}
  4. SPIE
    An FPGA-based neuromorphic vision system accelerator
    Teymoor Ali, James Rainey, Sook Yen Lau, Elena Gheorghiu, Patrick Maier, Kofi Appiah, and Deepayan Bhowmik
    Artificial Intelligence for Security and Defence Applications II · SPIE · 2024
    Paper Project 
    @inproceedings{ali2024fpga,
  title = {An FPGA-based neuromorphic vision system accelerator},
  author = {Ali, Teymoor and Rainey, James and Lau, Sook Yen and Gheorghiu, Elena and Maier, Patrick and Appiah, Kofi and Bhowmik, Deepayan},
  booktitle = {Artificial Intelligence for Security and Defence Applications II},
  volume = {13206},
  pages = {144--151},
  year = {2024},
  organization = {SPIE},
}
  5. ICIP-W
    Monitoring Algae Blooms in Lough Neagh, United Kingdom using Sentinel-1 statistical modelling and Sentinel-2 multimodal fusion
    Mahsa Nazarimehrabani, James Rainey, Jessie Smith, Ashwaq Aldhawi, Maria Valasia Peppa, Sam Wilson, Ken Pierce, Rishad Shafik, and Deepayan Bhowmik
    2026 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) Workshops · IEEE · 2026
    Project 
    @inproceedings{nazarimehrabani2026algae,
  title = {Monitoring Algae Blooms in Lough Neagh, United Kingdom using Sentinel-1 statistical modelling and Sentinel-2 multimodal fusion},
  author = {Nazarimehrabani, Mahsa and Rainey, James and Smith, Jessie and Aldhawi, Ashwaq and Peppa, Maria Valasia and Wilson, Sam and Pierce, Ken and Shafik, Rishad and Bhowmik, Deepayan},
  booktitle = {2026 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) Workshops},
  year = {2026},
  organization = {IEEE},
}
  6. VISAPP
    INFORM: A Food Monitoring and Tracking System for Sustainable Healthcare Facilities
    James Rainey, John Wannan, Douglas MacLachlan, Boguslaw Obara, and Deepayan Bhowmik
    Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP) · 2026
    Project 
    @inproceedings{rainey2026inform,
  title = {INFORM: A Food Monitoring and Tracking System for Sustainable Healthcare Facilities},
  author = {Rainey, James and Wannan, John and MacLachlan, Douglas and Obara, Boguslaw and Bhowmik, Deepayan},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP)},
  volume = {2},
  pages = {243--250},
  year = {2026},
}