4,002 research outputs found
An Android Generic Geo-Fencing Application: Proximity Triggered Notification Service Delivery
The widespread availability of smartphones, presents unprecedented opportunity to devise creative software solutions that leverage on the powerful hardware embedded in this devices to aid and improve interactions between the user and the environmen
A proof-of-proximity framework for device pairing in ubiquitous computing environments
Ad hoc interactions between devices over wireless networks in ubiquitous
computing environments present a security problem: the generation of shared secrets
to initialize secure communication over a medium that is inherently vulnerable to
various attacks. However, these ad hoc scenarios also offer the potential for physical
security of spaces and the use of protocols in which users must visibly demonstrate
their presence and/or involvement to generate an association. As a consequence,
recently secure device pairing has had significant attention from a wide community of
academic as well as industrial researchers and a plethora of schemes and protocols
have been proposed, which use various forms of out-of-band exchange to form an
association between two unassociated devices. These protocols and schemes have
different strengths and weaknesses – often in hardware requirements, strength against
various attacks or usability in particular scenarios. From ordinary user‟s point of
view, the problem then becomes which to choose or which is the best possible scheme
in a particular scenario.
We advocate that in a world of modern heterogeneous devices and
requirements, there is a need for mechanisms that allow automated selection of the
best protocols without requiring the user to have an in-depth knowledge of the
minutiae of the underlying technologies. Towards this, the main argument forming the
basis of this dissertation is that the integration of a discovery mechanism and several
pairing schemes into a single system is more efficient from a usability point of view
as well as security point of view in terms of dynamic choice of pairing schemes. In
pursuit of this, we have proposed a generic system for secure device pairing by
demonstration of physical proximity. Our main contribution is the design and
prototype implementation of Proof-of-Proximity framework along with a novel Co-
Location protocol. Other contributions include a detailed analysis of existing device
pairing schemes, a simple device discovery mechanism, a protocol selection
mechanism that is used to find out the best possible scheme to demonstrate the
physical proximity of the devices according to the scenario, and a usability study of
eight pairing schemes and the proposed system
Lessons learned from evaluating eight password nudges in the wild
Background. The tension between security and convenience, when creating passwords, is well established. It is a tension that often leads users to create poor passwords. For security designers, three mitigation strategies exist: issuing passwords, mandating minimum strength levels or encouraging better passwords. The first strategy prompts recording, the second reuse, but the third merits further investigation. It seemed promising to explore whether users could be subtly nudged towards stronger passwords.Aim. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of visual nudges on self-chosen password length and/or strength.Method. A university application, enabling students to check course dates and review grades, was used to support two consecutive empirical studies over the course of two academic years. In total, 497 and 776 participants, respectively, were randomly assigned either to a control or an experimental group. Whereas the control group received no intervention, the experimental groups were presented with different visual nudges on the registration page of the web application whenever passwords were created. The experimental groups’ password strengths and lengths were then compared that of the control group.Results. No impact of the visual nudges could be detected, neither in terms of password strength nor length. The ordinal score metric used to calculate password strength led to a decrease in variance and test power, so that the inability to detect an effect size does not definitively indicate that such an effect does not exist.Conclusion. We cannot conclude that the nudges had no effect on password strength. It might well be that an actual effect was not detected due to the experimental design choices. Another possible explanation for our result is that password choice is influenced by the user’s task, cognitive budget, goals and pre-existing routines. A simple visual nudge might not have the power to overcome these forces. Our lessons learned therefore recommend the use of a richer password strength quantification measure, and the acknowledgement of the user’s context, in future studies
CERN openlab Whitepaper on Future IT Challenges in Scientific Research
This whitepaper describes the major IT challenges in scientific research at CERN and several other European and international research laboratories and projects. Each challenge is exemplified through a set of concrete use cases drawn from the requirements of large-scale scientific programs. The paper is based on contributions from many researchers and IT experts of the participating laboratories and also input from the existing CERN openlab industrial sponsors. The views expressed in this document are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the view of their organisations and/or affiliates
Discovering TV contents in a second screen app: perspectives from Portuguese and Brazilian markets
The actual trends in the TV ecosystem present considerable social, organisational and technological challenges in the value-chain
of Pay-TV operators. Among these is the global increase in bandwidth, the shifting of the storage capacity in the cloud, and the
affordability of traditional content providers when facing the competitiveness of OTT content. In this framework, Pay-TV
operators are presenting their customers with a huge offer of contents available from linear-TV, Catch-up TV and VoD services.
However, this overloaded TV ecosystem is likely to lead viewers to get lost and face difficulties when deciding what to watch on
TV. To overcome these difficulties and be competitive, operators need to provide innovative and trustable solutions, alternative
to traditional EPGs, enabling users to discover the right content for a specific context.
To target this problem, a second screen application (GUIDER) was developed to offer an original user interface, based on a
multidimensional spatial representation of TV contents for those mindless zapping situations where viewers do not know, in
advance, what they are in the mood to watch.
This paper reports on the evaluation of the GUIDER App, aiming to determine the level of interest in the several features
implemented and in the filtering criteria available; identify usability issues; and predicting the future uses of the App in domestic
scenarios. The evaluation was made in Portugal and Brazil with a convenience sample of 20 participants in each country. Despite
the differences in the TV ecosystems, both countries appear to be promising markets for this new kind of second screen
applications, with Brazilians showing a higher perception of the added value of GUIDER
An examination of the weaknesses in current online help systems and a proposed solution using an integrated information base
This thesis reports results of a research study into the usefulness of On-line Help
Systems for application software users. The main objective of the research was to
examine existing On-line Help systems, identify their weaknesses, and propose a
means of rectifying the problems identified.
A study of the available relevant literature revealed that both users and designers
have divergent views as to the overall usability and efficacy of On-line
Information, and this diversity has contributed to the problems inherent in On-line
Help systems.
An initial user survey was conducted with a group of computer users who were
professionals in their own areas, many of whom also have considerable experience
in the applications examined. The results are in agreement with the hypothesis that
in spite of the long history of software development and the existence of research
in the area, users of On-line Help Systems still find them unsatisfactory. The
results also revealed that even experienced users find some aspects of existing Online
Help Systems difficult to use, and that, in general current versions are not well
received.
A set of exploratory experiments has been carried out with users interacting with
Microsoft Excel, using the On-line Help system at one sitting and the User
Manual at another. These investigations revealed the existence of design and
accessibility problems. Three terms best describe the problems identified -
Vocabulary, Compartmentalisation, and the lack of an Integrated Base. An
optimal approach to the design of On-line Help systems that will overcome these
problems is proposed and a prototype system implemented and evaluated.
The research has achieved its aim of providing a contribution to the design and
implementation of On-line Help Systems that should enhance both the usability
and efficacy of On-line support systems
An architecutre for the effective use of mobile devices in supporting contact learning
The features and capacities of mobile devices offer a wide range of significant opportunities for providing learning content in workplaces and educational institutions. This new approach of teaching, called mobile learning, allows for the delivery of learning content on the move at any time. Mobile learning supports learning by producing learning content to learners in a modern and acceptable way. The number of mobile learning applications has increased rapidly in educational environments. There are, however, limited mobile learning applications that take advantage of mobile devices to support contact learning in the classroom environment. The aim of this research was to design a mobile learning architecture to effectively support contact learning in the classroom. The researcher investigated the historical and theoretical background of mobile learning and reported these findings. This included an overview of existing mobile learning architectures. After identifying their limitations, the researcher designed the Contact Instruction Mobile Learning Architecture (CIMLA) to facilitate the use of mobile devices in the classroom. The researcher developed the LiveLearning prototype based on the proposed architecture as a proof of concept. He conducted a usability evaluation in order to determine the usability of LiveLearning. The results indicated that the LiveLearning prototype is effective in supporting contact learning in the classroom
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