Location-Awareness

Standard tours combined with lack of information make many tourists miss some important experiences a destination has to offer. The target of the Dynamic Tour Guide (DTG) is to discover Tour Building Blocks (TBB), e.g. attractions like sights or restaurants, dependent on the actual context which is defined by personal interests, location and schedule of a tourist. It determines current information, e.g. opening hours or availability. It plans an individual tour, provides navigational guidance during the execution and offers information depending among others on the direction the tourist is approaching the attraction. All together the DTG is a mobile agent enabling a personalized, spontaneous and guided tour.

The Java Location API for J2ME TM integrates generic positioning and orientation data with persistent storage of landmark objects. It can be used to develop location based service applications for small mobile devices, and these applications can be tested using simulation environments. Currently the only simulation tools in the public domain are proprietary mobile device simulators that are driven by GPS data log files, but it is sometimes useful to be able to test location based services using interactive map-based tools. In addition, we may need to experiment with extensions and changes to the standard API to support additional services, requiring an open source environment. In this paper we describe the implementation of an open source map-based simulation tool compatible with other commonly used development and deployment tools.

NASA's vision for space exploration (February 2004) calls for development of a new crew exploration vehicle, sustained lunar operations, and human exploration of Mars. To meet the challenges of planned sustained operations as well as the limited communications between Earth and the crew (e.g., Mars exploration), many systems will require crews to operate in an autonomous environment. It has been estimated that once every 2.4 years a major medical issue will occur while in space. NASA's future travels, especially to Mars, will begin to push this timeframe. Therefore, now is the time for investigating technologies and systems that will support crews in these environments. Therefore, this summer two studies were conducted to evaluate the technology and systems that may be used by crews in future missions. The first study evaluated three commercial Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) (Versus, Ekahau, and Radianse) that can track equipment and people within a facility. While similar to Global Positioning Systems (GPS), the specific technology used is different. Several conclusions can be drawn from the evaluation conducted, but in summary it is clear that none of the systems provides a complete solution in meeting the tracking and technology integration requirements of NASA. From a functional performance (e.g., system meets user needs) evaluation perspective, Versus performed fairly well on all performance measures as compared to Ekahau and Radianse. However, the system only provides tracking at the room level. Thus, Versus does not provide the level of fidelity required for tracking assets or people for NASA requirements. From an engineering implementation perspective, Ekahau is far simpler to implement that the other two systems because of its wi-fi design (e.g., no required runs of cable). By looking at these two perspectives, one finds there was no clear system that met NASA requirements. Thus it would be premature to suggest that any of these systems are ready for implementation and further study is required. The second study evaluated current medical packs, used on-board the International Space Station (ISS), in the execution of an emergency medical procedure as compared to a modified design. An experiment using 13 participants found no difference in performance time between the two packs; however, it did find a marginally significant difference (p = 0.08) in the number of errors with the modified design resulting in less errors. Using the experimental data collected, a computer model was developed that allowed for running larger sample sizes. Results from this model found a statistically significant differences for time and errors (p<0.05). Further modeling evaluated the effect of errors on performance time. Results once again found a statistically significant difference for time and found that the current pack design's performance in time was 4 times greater when errors were considered as compared to the design when errors were ignored. However, the modified pack only saw a 2 times increase when errors were considered. Given that NASA typically is dealing with small samples and limited resources to test participants, modeling should be considered to evaluate designs prior to experimentation. Future work will investigate the value in developing a desktop application for modeling medical procedures independent of experimentation. This modeling does not preclude experimental efforts, but it does provide guidance in conducting experiments. Both studies highlight issues that require further investigation. These studies are just one step needed to prepare systems and technologies for future planned human exploration.

In this paper we develop on a geometric model of social choice among bundles of interdependent elements (objects). Social choice can be seen as a process of search for optima in a complex multidimensional space and objects determine a decomposition of such a space into subspaces. We present a series of numerical and probabilistic results which show that such decompositions in objects can greatly increase decidability, as new kind of optima (called local and u-local) are very likely to appear also in cases in which no generalized Condorcet winner exists in the original search space.

The digital revolution has been a big shift in the creation, publication and storage of our digital heritage. New file formats and supports have followed over the years to produce and reproduce audio, photos and video. Based on these observations, the Puglia region started the Puglia Digital Library project with the aim to collect in a single public collection all the digital contents related to Puglia. Due to its public nature, all the items available in the collection have been described using also RDF-based annotations and the final dataset has been exposed via a SPARQL endpoint. During the data-engineering process, attention has been paid in the selection of shared vocabularies thus allowing a plain integration with other projects such as Cultura Italia, Europeana, Musei D’Italia, Internet Culturale and Sistema Archivistico Nazionale. Thanks also to its links to DBpedia, Schema.org, FOAF and GeoNames, Puglia Digital Library can be considered as a new player in the Linked Open Da...

In this paper we have analyzed energy efficient neighbour selection algorithms for routing in wireless sensor networks. Since energy saving or consumption is an important aspect of wireless sensor networks, its precise usage is highly desirable both for the faithful performance of network and to increase the network life time. For this work, we have considered a flat network topology where every node has the same responsibility and capability. We have compared two energy efficient algorithms and analyzed their performances with increase in number of nodes, time rounds and node failures.

Given a set of n points P in the Euclidean plane, we consider the problem of locating a 1-corner polygonal chain X such that min p∈P d(p, X) is maximized. The polygonal chain has the added property that its interior angle is α and it partitions P . This corresponds to computing an α-siphon that does not contain any point of P in its interior and whose radius is maximal. In this note we present an algorithm that solves the problem in o(n 3 ) time. The previous best running time for this problem was O(n 3 log 2 n) time [3].

Improving the performance of MapReduce scheduler is a primary objective, especially in a heterogeneous virtualized cloud environment. A map task is typically assigned with an input split, which consists of one or more data blocks. When a map task is assigned to more than one data block, non-local execution is performed. In classical MapReduce scheduling schemes, data blocks are copied over the network to a node where the map task is running. This increases job latency and consumes considerable network bandwidth within and between racks in the cloud data centre. Considering this situation, we propose a methodology, ''improving data locality using ant colony optimization (IDLACO),'' to minimize the number of non-local executions and virtual network bandwidth consumption when input split is assigned to more than one data block. First, IDLACO determines a set of data blocks for each map task of a MapReduce job to perform non-local executions to minimize the job latency and virtual network consumption. Then, the target virtual machine to execute map task is determined based on its heterogeneous performance. Finally, if a set of data blocks is transferred to the same node for repeated job execution, it is decided to temporarily cache them in the target virtual machine. The performance of IDLACO is analysed and compared with fair scheduler and Holistic scheduler based on the parameters, such as the number of non-local executions, average map task latency, job latency, and amount of bandwidth consumed for a MapReduce job. Results show that IDLACO significantly outperformed the classical fair scheduler and Holistic scheduler. INDEX TERMS Ant colony optimization, cloud computing, heterogeneous performance, MapReduce scheduler, virtualized environment.

While using mobile telephonynetworks, the serving network infrastructure is able to determine the mobile station'sl ocation. Until now, cellular telephonyh as been built on self-contained infrastructure, i.e. all network components have been certified and especially users have been unable to takeo vercontrol overtheir mobile equipment'sb ehavior.W ith the rising awareness on privacy issues, software-based mobile phone network stacks became available and thereby anew freedom degree for mobile subscribers is introduced. While slight modification to the mobile phones behavior will not impair with the general functionality of the network, cellular location determination becomes less reliable and trustworthy. We discuss user imposed measures to detect external location determination attempts and to obfuscate generated location information. With adedicated testbed setup, the effects of location obfuscation were evaluated.

In this paper, we present a study conducted to assess an Augmented Reality (AR) game called Auragame, developed using an AR platform (Aurasma) without software coding. The game was created to demonstrate the potential of AR authoring tools in developing usable and entertaining applications. Auragame proposes players to solve a set of enigmas by gathering facts in the form of augmented reality objects, spread throughout the environment. Additionally, Auragame requires users to handle physical objects and explore the real world through a set of tasks and challenges, thus revealing the possibilities for expanding game design and interaction. By developing and assessing Auragame, we claim that a game framework developed for people with little or no programming knowledge can be used to create fun pervasive applications by using AR features. We implemented a usability evaluation of the game with 20 users. Results indicate Auragame was considered entertaining by players and its game flow w...

Localization is one of the significant techniques in wireless sensor networks. The localization approaches are different in several applications. Localization offers geographical information for managing the topology. In this paper, we propose optimized cooperative localization technique based on trilateration, multilateration and linear intersection. The approach reduces the error rates, communication cost and energy consumption for maintaining the high accuracy. Furthermore, the approach is implemented for controlling air craft system to avoid the landing and takeoff delays. To demonstrate the strength of the approach, we used network simulator ns-2 to validate the estimation errors, computational latency, energy consumption and error tolerance. Based on the simulation results, we conclude that the presented approach outperforms other existing cooperative scheduling approaches in terms of accuracy, mobility, consumed power.

This thesis describes a research work aimed at improving the interfaces of online discussion forums (ODFs) in relation to their functional support to enhance learning. These ODFs form part of almost all Learning Management Systems (LMSs) such as WebCT, Moodle and Blackboard, which are widely used in education nowadays. Although ODFs are identified as valuable sources to learning, their interfaces are limited in terms of providing support to students, such as in the areas of managing their postings as well as in facilitating them to quickly locate and obtain specified information. In addition, these systems lack features to support inter-institutional cooperation that could potentially increase knowledge sharing between students and educators of different institutions. The interface design objective of this study therefore was to explore and overcome the limitations identified as above, and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of ODFs' support to learning. Using a task centered design approach; the required features were developed, and implemented in a working prototype called eQuake (electronic Question answer knowledge environment). eQuake is a shared online discussion forum system developed as an add-on to a well-known open source e-learning platform (Moodle). This system was intended for use among interinstitutional students in New Zealand tertiary institutions that teach similar courses. The improved interface functionalities of eQuake are expected to enhance learning support in terms of widening communication among users, increasing knowledge base, providing existing matching answer(s) quickly to students, and exposing students to multiple perspectives. This study considers such improvements to ODF interfaces as vital to enable users to enjoy the benefits of technology-mediated environment. The perceived usefulness and ease-of-use of improved features in eQuake were evaluated using a quantitative experimental research method. The evaluation was conducted at three tertiary institutions in New Zealand, and the overall results indicated positive response, although some suggestions for improvement have been made in the evaluation. This thesis presents a review of the related literature, describes the design and development of a user interface, followed by its implementation in eQuake, and a description of the evaluation. The thesis concludes with recommendations for better interface design of ODFs and provides suggestions for future research in this area.

This thesis describes a research work aimed at improving the interfaces of online discussion forums (ODFs) in relation to their functional support to enhance learning. These ODFs form part of almost all Learning Management Systems (LMSs) such as WebCT, Moodle and Blackboard, which are widely used in education nowadays. Although ODFs are identified as valuable sources to learning, their interfaces are limited in terms of providing support to students, such as in the areas of managing their postings as well as in facilitating them to quickly locate and obtain specified information. In addition, these systems lack features to support inter-institutional cooperation that could potentially increase knowledge sharing between students and educators of different institutions. The interface design objective of this study therefore was to explore and overcome the limitations identified as above, and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of ODFs' support to learning. Using a task centered design approach; the required features were developed, and implemented in a working prototype called eQuake (electronic Question answer knowledge environment). eQuake is a shared online discussion forum system developed as an add-on to a well-known open source e-learning platform (Moodle). This system was intended for use among interinstitutional students in New Zealand tertiary institutions that teach similar courses. The improved interface functionalities of eQuake are expected to enhance learning support in terms of widening communication among users, increasing knowledge base, providing existing matching answer(s) quickly to students, and exposing students to multiple perspectives. This study considers such improvements to ODF interfaces as vital to enable users to enjoy the benefits of technology-mediated environment. The perceived usefulness and ease-of-use of improved features in eQuake were evaluated using a quantitative experimental research method. The evaluation was conducted at three tertiary institutions in New Zealand, and the overall results indicated positive response, although some suggestions for improvement have been made in the evaluation. This thesis presents a review of the related literature, describes the design and development of a user interface, followed by its implementation in eQuake, and a description of the evaluation. The thesis concludes with recommendations for better interface design of ODFs and provides suggestions for future research in this area.

One of the most exciting moments in a prenatal ultrasound session is learning the sex of the baby. Following a conversation analysis perspective, we present a multimodal analysis of sequences of interaction between patient and practitioner at the time the foetus' sex is the focus of attention. Based on video data collected from maternity wards and private practitioners, we report on two types of sequences, which illustrate the different ways of responding to the perceptuallyoccasioned formulation of the foetus' sex: as a telling or as a noticing (in which case participants orient towards jointly seeing). While the possibility of both response is inherent to the sequential properties of noticing-based claims in general, we will discuss how the production of both types of sequences is sensitive and articulated to the distribution of epistemic authority as a practical achievement in this medical setting, along two dimensions: expert versus ordinary knowledge, and professional vision versus lay gaze.

In recent years, spatio-temporal databases have been studied intensively. This paper proposes how to process k closest pair queries in spatio-temporal databases for the first time. A spatio-temporal k closest pair query continuously searches the k closest pairs between a set of spatial objects and a set of moving objects for a specified time interval of the query. To maintain the order of the k closest pairs, we use a time function that can represent the change in distance between a spatial object and a moving object as time passes. For efficient processing of k closest pair queries, we present an event-based structure, instead of a simple split list structure to avoid unnecessary computations, along with a distance bound used to prune unnecessary node accesses. Our event-based method is 9 to 43 times faster, compared to a method using a simple split list structure. Also, our event-based structure can be applied to process spatio-temporal k nearest neighbor queries. In various experiments, our event-based approach is 11 to 46 times faster than an existing approach for processing spatio-temporal k nearest neighbor queries.

Tourism is a rich and growing activity in the world. The digital support of the tourist experience is typically based on Tourist Recommender Systems (TRS). Widely spread TRSs typically recommend the visit of a set of Point of Interests (POIs). Unfortunately, some of these have also proved inappropriate because they do not consider in detail the indoor visit of a POI, such as a museum, which may contain several artworks and may have limited or regulated access. In this paper, we present our ongoing work on a Context-Aware Touristic Recommender System (CATReS). It provides an outdoor recommendation to select POIs suitable for a visit, as well as an indoor recommendation to select the artwork to visit. The overall recommendations are based on contextual information coming from both visitors' profile and the POIs' contextual information (e.g., the waiting time to access the museum, the average time to visit it). Our tour recommendation system is available and is being experimented at the Uffizi Galleries (Florence, Italy).

Challenges and Opportunities in the area of Collaborative Augmented Reality Games Irma Lindt, Leonie Schäfer 1 Fraunhofer Institute FIT, Schloss Birlinghoven, D-53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany [name. surname]@ fit. fraunhofer. de Abstract. In this paper we describe our ...

The view of VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) on the development of selected information and communication technologies is presented. The views are given as technology roadmaps in the areas of interoperability and mobility in future networks, micromechanical radio frequency systems, service architectures and smart human environments. The work is a part of a theme called Future Communications Technologies, one of VTT's strategic technology themes. The purpose of the work is to help the planners and players direct their activities towards better competitiveness in this rapidly developing field.

Preventing moving objects location tracking from intruders. In recent years moving
object databases have gained much interest due to the advances in mobile communications and
positioning technologies. To provide security to moving object needs monitoring. Monitoring
moving objects have two fundamental issues like efficiency and privacy. This paper proposes an
efficient algorithm for finding good anonymization group for given moving objects (MOB) with
respect to its quasi-identifier (QID) and dynamic query updation. To address the efficiency and
privacy issues we are using a new technique which updates the query of the MOB in the base
stations automatically. Furthermore, by using the location management method we are solving
the issues of location updating.

With globalization and outsourcing, maintaining competitive advantage often requires design innovation that takes into account local user-needs and social practices. Of particular currency to technology students, is gaining an understanding of how to engage in innovative ubiquitous computing application design. In the real world, such applications are typically designed by small teams of creative individuals in a highly iterative fashion. Unfortunately, relevant design skills are difficult to teach through traditional lecture- ...

We introduce here a tangible user interface implemented by passing objects between a human and a computer.

This interface deals with realization and virtualization: when we realize an object, it disappears from the screen and we get a real object out of the screen, as it were. Virtualization is the opposite action: we pass real object into the user interface, it disappears, and we get a virtual object on the screen.

Our experiment included a grocery shop game with a coin machine as an input-output device. The virtual money that was earned in the game was realized as metal coins. The metal coins paid into the user interface were represented virtually on the computer screen.

The experiment included two ages groups: adults and children 6–8 years old. Reference groups played the same game without tangible components, i.e. all the money in the game was virtual (a common implementation in the game industry).

Adults bought less products in the version with tangible interface, and the decision period was longer in that case.

The children’s results were completely different: they bought many more products when playing the game with the tangible interface (about 3 times more). Children perceived the game with tangible interface as a totally different game: intuitively understandable and more engaging.

These results accord with cognitive theory, and we are look forward to further research studying the effectiveness of the use of tangible user interfaces.

In this paper we propose the research on how semantic web technologies can be used to mine the web, for information extraction. We also examine how new unsupervised processes can aid in extracting precise and useful information from semantic data, thus reducing the problem of information overload .The Semantic Web adds structure to the meaningful content of Web pages; hence information is given a well-defined meaning; which is both human readable as well as machine-process able. This enables the development of automated intelligent systems, allowing machines to comprehend the semantic documents and data. Here we propose techniques for automating the process of search, analysis and categorization of semantic data, further we examine how these techniques can aid in improving the efficiency of already existing information retrieval technologies by implementing reporting functionalities, which is highlighted in the future work and challenges.

Abstract: In the last few years, many middlewares for context awareness have claimed to be agent-based. In this paper, we make a survey on the most known frameworks. We classify them according to their level of conformity to the agent paradigm and we discuss the usefulness of agents in these frameworks. Based on this survey, we enumerate several advantages of using agents in context-aware mid-dlewares and give illustrative examples. We also point to the weakness of existing frameworks and identify challenges to be addressed.

Researchers and companies of the telecommunication sector have been working hard to enhance wireless network infrastructure to fulfill end users' needs for Internet connectivity. However, it is not easy to satisfy the high demands and expectations of end users always. There are some situations where Internet connectivity is not enabled due to location and environmental constraints. For example, network infrastructure breakdown during a disaster or the user's device is out of a network coverage area. Besides relying only on network infrastructure provided by telecommunication companies, one possible strategy to provide Internet connectivity in the ubiquitous environment is to exploit the functionality of end-user mobile devices as a tool to share Internet connectivity. This paper aims to identify the constraints and challenges of setting up Wireless Collaborative Network (WCN) using end user devices. To identify the constraints and challenges, the researchers reviewed and categorized past and current research focusing on collaborating mobile devices in the mobile ad-hoc network for communication and resource sharing. For validation, a simple test case was conducted which involved a few mobile devices in a random formation. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the biggest challenge of setting up WCN was the ability of mobile devices to provide bridging functionality. This paper also discussed the expected architecture of WCN and suggests simulation tools with relevant metrics to be considered in this research area.

Mixed Reality games are becoming more and more popular these days and offer unique experiences to the players. However, development of such games typically still requires expert knowledge and access to Mixed Reality toolkits or frameworks. In this paper, we present the so-called Magic Lens Box that follows a different approach. Based on standard hardware The Magic Lens Box enables game designers with little technological background to create their own Mixed Reality games in a simple yet powerful fashion. We further outline the development process of the magic Lens Box, describe the conceptual model behind it and discuss three games that have been developed with our system. Evaluation of these games shows the viability of our approach, enabling the creation of a variety of rather different Mixed reality games while keeping the development process simple.

Reconfiguration is the action of modifying the operation or behaviour of a system, a network node, or functional entity. The end-to-end notion dictates that, in certain cases, control and management plane interactions may occur from source to destination in order to adapt the system, the equipment, the application, the service, or the content. This paper describes an integrated control and management plane framework for end-to-end reconfiguration, and maps this model to a Beyond 3G mobile network architecture. Policy control aspects for end-to-end reconfiguration differentiation are also described, aiming at diverse service offering.

Abstract–Rapid technological advances in areas like wireless communications, embedded systems, networking and software engineering are in the course of incurring dramatic changes in the way that mobile services are being developed, delivered as well as their impact on end-user activities and business processes. Research and industrial efforts worldwide are progressing towards the goal of supporting anywhere, context-conscious provision of ubiquitous, personalized multimedia services. Adaptability, an issue that was ...

In this paper, we present the design and the implementation of a contextual and multimodal information diffusion system for museums. We propose a proactive service (1) with the ability to sense the profile of nearby visitors, using RFID and WLAN connectivity, (2) that adapts the information content to the target user, and finally (3) that distributes automatically the information to several devices, collective devices like large wall panels disseminated in museum or directly to digital guide carried by visitors.

This paper addresses the issues of analysing and developing added value geoenabled content for use in Mobile Information Systems in Nature Areas. The research was carried out under the framework of WebPark, an EC-IST R&D project that developed a location aware application for nature/protected Areas. The research started with an evaluation of the existing services in terms of what information is currently available and its spatial relevance. This led to the observation that the tourism information analysed did not have an active geographic component and the geographic research data (e.g. animal counts/observations) had a clear mismatched as regards the visitors' information needs. Therefore, different types of data processing (including importing, remodelling, aggregating, reformatting, generalising and reclassifying) were performed and new methodologies in handling and presenting nature information had to be developed.

According to Nielsen (1990), "hypertext is non-sequential writing: a directed graph, where each node contains some amount of text or other information. The nodes are connected by directed links. In most hypertext systems, a node may have several outgoing links, each of them is then associated with some smaller part of the node, called an anchor. When users activate an anchor, they follow the associated link to its destination node, thus navigating the hypertext network". When the content of a node is made not only of textual information, but also of other kind of media, like graphics, sound, and so on, we may use the term hypermedia.

This paper is primarily about design and some of the difficulties of&#x27;appropriate&#x27;design in care settings: about the interaction between technologies, application domains, design methodologies and about some of the challenges of informing design. This is hardly a novel concern, but this particular focus arises as a consequence of digital technologies maturing and transferring to the everyday domain; as the convergence of interactive digital systems, networks and mobile devices potentially transforms the ways that we carry out mundane, ...

This deliverable reports on the research results achieved in the field of Output Sensitive Rendering Techniques, covered in the project's Work Package 3. We list the contributions from the main involved partners, we summarize the project publications, classifying them in terms of the main data kind handled, list the awards received, and summarize the events that have used the developed technology.

New embedded CPUs that sport powerful graphics chipsets have the potential to make complex 3D applications feasible on mobile devices. In this paper, we present a scalable architecture and its implementation for mobile exploration of large point clouds, which are nowadays ubiquitous in the cultural heritage domain thanks to the increased performance and availability of 3D scanning techniques. The quality and performance of our approach is demonstrated on gigantic point clouds, interactively explored on Apple iPad and iPhone devices using in variety of network settings. Applications of the technology include on-site exploration during scanning campaigns and promotion of cultural heritage artifacts.

Pervasive and autonomic environments make extensive use of contextual information to guide adaptations to changing external demands and circumstances. Context takes many forms, and some form of categorisation of information from different viewpoints can assist designers in deciding how information should affect behaviour, and inform the handling of uncertain or conflicting information. We discuss the various approaches to context modeling, and derive an initial methodology for including contextual information in adaptive applications.

Chess is an ancient and widely popular tabletop game. For more than 1500 years of history chess has survived every civilization it has touched. One of its heirs, computerized chess, was one of the first artificial intelligence research areas and was highly important for the development of A.I. throughout the twentieth-century. This change of paradigm between a tabletop and a computerized game has its ups and downs. Computation can be used, for example, to simulate opponents in a virtual scenario, but the real essence of chess in which two human opponents battle face-to-face in that familiar black and white chessboard is lost. Usually, computer chess research focuses on improving the effectiveness of chess algorithms. This research, on the other hand, focuses on trying to bring back the essence of real world chess to a computerized scenario. To achieve this goal, in this paper we describe a model inspired by the field of Pervasive Gaming, a field that profits by the mix of real, virtual and social game elements.

We present and demonstrate a method for blind separation and bearing estimation of broadband traveling waves, impinging on a sensor array with dimensions smaller than the shortest wavelength in the sources. By sensing spatial and temporal gradients of the received signal, the problem of separating mixtures of time-delayed sources reduces to that of separating instantaneous mixtures of the gradient components of the sources using conventional tools of independent component analysis. Experimental results demonstrate real-world separation of speech in outdoors and indoors environments, using a planar array of four microphones within a 5 mm radius and analog circuits computing spatial and temporal derivatives.

Heterogeneous wireless sensor network (HWSN) is a trending technology in both the industrial and academic sectors, consisting of a large number of interconnected sensors. However, higher energy consumption and delay are significant drawbacks of this technology in applications such as military, healthcare, and industrial automation. The main objective of this research is to enhance the energy efficiency of HWSN using a clustering technique. In this article, a novel approach, namely power optimization and hybrid data aggregation (POHDA), is proposed to address these challenges in HWSN. POHDA-HWSN focuses on power optimization and congestion avoidance through effective CH selection using hybrid data aggregation based on parameters such as residual energy, distance, mobility, threshold value of the node, and latency. By weight-based effective cluster head (CH) selection, the energy consumption, end-to-end delay, and overhead during communication are reduced in this network. The POHDA-HWSN approach considers specific parameters to compare the results and outcomes with earlier research such as HCCS-WSN, FMCA-WSN, and APCC-WSN. The results prove that the proposed POHDA-HWSN approach achieves higher energy efficiency and delivery ratio.

People often only see what they explicitly look for. To provide mobile users with information on the spatial context of a location or a route we present an approach that gathers context information from freely available sources like Wikipedia and creates visualizations of this data that provide users with cues to increase awareness of their spatial context. By combining web 2.0 technologies and public data sources with filtering and visualization techniques we exploit the browsing capability of humans to provide a service that increases location awareness at arbitrary locations. The approach makes it easy to integrate &quot;authored&quot; content and can incorporate the ever increasing amount of available geo-referenced information.

Research into the use of Location Based Services (LBS) that can pinpoint the exact location of users using wireless networks is the fastest growing area in Information Technology (IT) today. This is because of the need to transform the radio waves which act as a wireless networks data's transmission medium into a private location. Contemporary research on LBS suggests that indoor location can be difficult as the geo positional satellites (GPS) cannot give an accurate positional computation due to insulation provided by physical barriers like the walls and furniture of a house. Previous research however suggests a way around this by making use of wireless fidelity (WiFi) cards signal strength but acknowledges limitations on the range which doesn't exceed 50 meters. Other researchers have suggested that using LBS technology would allow hackers to track the user's movement over time and so proposed that the user identity be kept secret by disposing the identifiers. Against this backdrop, some researchers have championed the call for a framework in LBS privacy in order to curtail the security risks that come with using wireless networks and suggested using a transactionbased wireless communication system in which transactions were unlinkable. This would in effect camouflage the movement of users as their location would not be able to be tracked. This paper aims to review contemporary issues on location based privacy in wireless technology and proposes a model for optimising LBS privacy and describes the initial stages of a research project aimed at filling the research void through the application of a hybrid research methodology

Spatial structures determine the ways we perceive our environment and the ways we act in it in important ways. Spatial structures also determine the ways we think about our environment and how we solve spatial problems abstractly. When we use graphics to visualize certain aspects of spatial and non-spatial entities, we exploit the power of spatial structures to better understand important relationships. We also are able to imagine spatial structures and to apply mental operations to them. Similarly, the structure of time determines the course of events in cognitive processing. In my talk I will present knowledge representation research in spatial cognition. I will demonstrate the power of spatial structures in comparison to formal descriptions that are conventionally used for spatial problem solving in computer science. I suggest that spatial and temporal structures can be exploited for the design of powerful spatial computers. I will show that spatial computers can be particularly ...

Indoor navigation and localization has gained a key attention of the researchers in the recent decades. Various technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, Ultra Wideband (UWB), and Radio-frequency identification (RFID) have been used for indoor navigation and localization. However, most of these existing methods often fail in providing a reasonable solution to the key challenges such as implementation cost, accuracy and extendibility. In this paper, we proposed a low-cost, and extendable framework for indoor navigation. We used simple markers printed on the paper, and placed on ceilings of the building. These markers are detected by a smartphone’s camera, and the audio and visual information associated with these markers are used as a user guidance. The system finds shortest path between any two arbitrary nodes for user navigation. In addition, it is extendable having the capability to cover new sections by installing new nodes at any place in the building. The system can be used for gui...

Tourists visiting unknown destinations become increasingly dependent on mobile city guides to locate tourist services and retrieve informative content about nearby points of interest (POIs). Several mobile guides already support the provision of personalized tour recommendations to assist tourists in making feasible plans and visiting the most interesting POIs within their available time. However, existing tourist tour planners only regard available attractions as sites lacking physical dimensions (i.e., POIs are treated as 'points'). This restricts the modeling of POIs as attractions that may be entered/exited from a certain location (e.g., the main entrance). Although this is adequate for scheduling visits at museums, galleries, small squares or parks with single entry points, it fails to capture practical properties of typical tourist visiting styles in urban destinations. Tourists commonly appreciate strolling through pedestrian zones, market areas or urban areas of architectural, cultural and scenic value rather than only visiting sites of restricted access or taking the fastest route to move among city landmarks. Herein, we introduce Scenic Athens, a context-aware mobile city guide for Athens (Greece) which provides personalized tour planning services to tourists. Far beyond than just providing navigational aid, Scenic Athens derives near-optimal sequencing of POIs along recommended tours, taking into account a multitude of travel restrictions and POI properties, so as to best utilize time available for sightseeing. Unlike similar tools, our application incorporates scenic (walking) routes (in addition to point POIs), thereby supporting more experiential exploration of tourist destinations. This broader perception of tourist attractions substantially increases the complexity of the entailed optimization problem's modeling. A user evaluation study validated the recommendation value, usability and perceived utility of the proposed application. Keywords Tourist trip design problem Á Scenic routes Á Orienteering problem Á Time window Á Context awareness Á Web service Á Mobile application Á Android Á Performance test Á User evaluation

Yifan Chen, for his excellent guidance, patience, and support throughout my academic career as a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. student. I am deeply indebted to him for accepting me as his Ph.D. student and providing me with all the academic support over the course of five years that I have worked under his guidance and supervision. Dr. Yifan Chen has been a persistent source of motivation and inspiration for me. He has always stood behind me, pushing me to aim higher, work harder, and achieve more. I thank him profoundly for being patient, tolerating my weaknesses and for all the painstaking efforts he has put in to improve my technical and presentation skills. I would also like to thank my cosupervisors Dr. Zhiguo Ding an Prof. Said Boussakta for their guidance and support. I take this opportunity to thank University of Newcastle upon Tyne and University of Greenwich for providing me with all the financial support and funding, without which undertaking this research programme would not have been possible for me. I would like to thank Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore for providing me the research internship opportunity. I wish to thank Prof. Predrag Rapajic, Prof. Chew Yong Huat and Dr. Chau Yuen who have collaborated with me on research ideas and provided constructive criticism and enriched my understanding and knowledge of this research domain. I would like to thank my parents, my brother and my wife for their constant support and motivation which allowed me to undertake this research programme. I thank my parents from the bottom of my heart for having the faith in me and providing me with the best upbringing. Above all, I thank God Almighty, for all the blessings He has bestowed upon me.

In this paper, an energy-efficient strategy is proposed for tracking a moving target in a mobile sensor network. The energy expenditure of the sensors in the network is assumed to be due to communication, sensing and movement. First, the target area is divided into a grid of sufficiently small rectangular cells in order to search for near optimal locations for the sensors in different time instants. The grid is then converted to a graph with properly weighted edges. A shortest-path algorithm is subsequently applied to route the information flow from the target to destination using a subset of sensors.