On sharing and synchronizing groupware calendars under android platform

(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Sharing a calendar of tasks and events is a cornerstone in collaborative group work. Indeed, the individual work of the members of the group as well as the group work as a whole need the calendar to guide their activity and to meet the deadlines, milestones, deliverables of a project, etc. Additionally the members of the group should be able to work both offline and online, which arises when members of the group use smartphones and can eventually run out of Internet connection from time to time, or simply want to develop some activities locally. In the former case, they should have access to the calendar locally, while in the later case they should access the calendar online, shared by all members of the group. In both cases they should be able to see eventually the same information, namely the local calendars of the members should be synchronized with the group calendar. For the case of smartphones under Android system, one solution could be using the Google calendar, however, that is not easily tailorable to collaborative group work. In this paper we present an analysis, design and implementation of group work calendar that meets several requirements such as 1) sharing among all of members of the group, 2) synchronization among local calendars of members and global group calendar, 3) conflict resolution through a voting system, 4) awareness of changes in the entries (tasks, members, events, etc.) of the calendar and 5) all these requirements under proper privacy, confidentiality and security mechanisms. Moreover, we extend the sharing of calendars among different groups, a situation which often arises in enterprises when different groups need to be aware of other projects' development, or, when some members participate in more than one project at the same time.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Improving Collaborative Drawing using HTML5

This research looks into improving online web-based collaborative drawing using HTML5. Although many systems have been developed over a number of years, none of the applications released have been satisfactory for many artists; the core drawing experience was too different from a stand-alone drawing applications. Stand-alone drawing applications have better freedom of control with functions like undo and allow artists to work efficiently with hotkeys. The advent of the HTML5 Canvas Element and Websockets in recent browsers has provided new opportunities for collaborative online interaction. This research used an incremental development approach to build a prototype HTML5 drawing application providing new functionality for online collaborative drawing. The project was supported by two experienced artists throughout investigation, design, implementation and testing. The project artists helped validate design decisions and evaluate the implementation. As a result, a robust HTML5 collaborative drawing application was built. The prototype contains core drawing functionality that existing applications did not. Features include: undo and redo, free canvas transformation, complex hotkey interaction, custom canvas size support, colour wheel, and layers. All these features work smoothly in a fully synchronized network environment under a client-server model. The collaboration system uses an authoritative server structure with local prediction and re-synchronization to hide latency. Although the result is only a prototype, the evaluations from the project artists were very positive. Once more functionality targeted towards social interaction is built, the prototype will be ready for mass public testing. Although there are some issues caused by the immaturity of HTML5 technology, this project affirms its capability for collaborative web applications

Addressing the major information technology challenges of electronic textbooks

Electronic textbooks (e-Textbooks) are digitized forms of textbooks which are envisioned to replace existing paper-based textbooks. After intensive literature review, together with interview results, our study has figured out four major IT-based challenges associated with e-Textbooks in its pursuit to replace the traditional textbooks, namely standardizing format of content, improving service reliability, improving quality and accuracy of content, and improving readability. This paper also provides an extensive review on how these challenges have been approached using existing e-Textbook solutions, such as N-Screen services, cloud computing, open market place, P2P between devices and HTML5. For each solution, we develop a usage scenario in which users apply the aforementioned technologies to interact with e-Textbooks and share contents among themselves. This article aims to provide a strong foundation for further investigations into the development and distribution of e-Textbooks for eventual successful adoption of e-Textbooks in school education

Medical Data Visual Synchronization and Information interaction Using Internet-based Graphics Rendering and Message-oriented Streaming

The rapid technology advances in medical devices make possible the generation of vast amounts of data, which contain massive quantities of diagnostic information. Interactively accessing and sharing the acquired data on the Internet is critically important in telemedicine. However, due to the lack of efficient algorithms and high computational cost, collaborative medical data exploration on the Internet is still a challenging task in clinical settings. Therefore, we develop a web-based medical image rendering and visual synchronization software platform, in which novel algorithms are created for parallel data computing and image feature enhancement, where Node.js and Socket.IO libraries are utilized to establish bidirectional connections between server and clients in real time. In addition, we design a new methodology to stream medical information among all connected users, whose identities and input messages can be automatically stored in database and extracted in web browsers. The presented software framework will provide multiple medical practitioners with immediate visual feedback and interactive information in applications such as collaborative therapy planning, distributed treatment, and remote clinical health care

RESTful PUBLISH/SUBSCRIBE FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILE DEVICES

The growing popularity of mobile platforms is changing the Internet user’s computing experience. Current studies suggest that the traditional ubiquitous computing landscape is shifting towards more enhanced and broader mobile computing platform consists of large number of heterogeneous devices. Smartphones and tablets begin to replace the desktop as the primary means of interacting with IT resources. While mobile devices facilitate in consuming web resources in the form of web services, the growing demand for consuming services on mobile device is introducing a complex ecosystem in the mobile environment. This research addresses the communication challenges involved in mobile distributed networks and proposes an event-driven communication approach for information dissemination. This research investigates different communication techniques such as synchronous and asynchronous polling and long-polling, server-side push as mechanisms between client-server interactions and the latest web technologies namely HTML5 standard WebSocket as communication protocol within a publish/subscribe paradigm. Finally, this research introduces and evaluates a framework that is hybrid of REST and event-based publish/subscribe for operating in the mobile environment

MediaSync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization

This book provides an approachable overview of the most recent advances in the fascinating field of media synchronization (mediasync), gathering contributions from the most representative and influential experts. Understanding the challenges of this field in the current multi-sensory, multi-device, and multi-protocol world is not an easy task. The book revisits the foundations of mediasync, including theoretical frameworks and models, highlights ongoing research efforts, like hybrid broadband broadcast (HBB) delivery and users' perception modeling (i.e., Quality of Experience or QoE), and paves the way for the future (e.g., towards the deployment of multi-sensory and ultra-realistic experiences). Although many advances around mediasync have been devised and deployed, this area of research is getting renewed attention to overcome remaining challenges in the next-generation (heterogeneous and ubiquitous) media ecosystem. Given the significant advances in this research area, its current relevance and the multiple disciplines it involves, the availability of a reference book on mediasync becomes necessary. This book fills the gap in this context. In particular, it addresses key aspects and reviews the most relevant contributions within the mediasync research space, from different perspectives. Mediasync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization is the perfect companion for scholars and practitioners that want to acquire strong knowledge about this research area, and also approach the challenges behind ensuring the best mediated experiences, by providing the adequate synchronization between the media elements that constitute these experiences

Ubiquitous Semantic Applications

As Semantic Web technology evolves many open areas emerge, which attract more research focus. In addition to quickly expanding Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud, various embeddable metadata formats (e.g. RDFa, microdata) are becoming more common. Corporations are already using existing Web of Data to create new technologies that were not possible before. Watson by IBM an artificial intelligence computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language can be a great example. On the other hand, ubiquitous devices that have a large number of sensors and integrated devices are becoming increasingly powerful and fully featured computing platforms in our pockets and homes. For many people smartphones and tablet computers have already replaced traditional computers as their window to the Internet and to the Web. Hence, the management and presentation of information that is useful to a user is a main requirement for today’s smartphones. And it is becoming extremely important to provide access to the emerging Web of Data from the ubiquitous devices. In this thesis we investigate how ubiquitous devices can interact with the Semantic Web. We discovered that there are five different approaches for bringing the Semantic Web to ubiquitous devices. We have outlined and discussed in detail existing challenges in implementing this approaches in section 1.2. We have described a conceptual framework for ubiquitous semantic applications in chapter 4. We distinguish three client approaches for accessing semantic data using ubiquitous devices depending on how much of the semantic data processing is performed on the device itself (thin, hybrid and fat clients). These are discussed in chapter 5 along with the solution to every related challenge. Two provider approaches (fat and hybrid) can be distinguished for exposing data from ubiquitous devices on the Semantic Web. These are discussed in chapter 6 along with the solution to every related challenge. We conclude our work with a discussion on each of the contributions of the thesis and propose future work for each of the discussed approach in chapter 7

HbbTV-compliant Platform for Hybrid Media Delivery and Synchronization on Single- and Multi-Device Scenarios

[EN] The combination of broadcast and broadband (hybrid) technologies for delivering TV related media contents can bring fascinating opportunities. It is motivated by the large amount and diversity of media contents, together with the ubiquity and multiple connectivity capabilities of modern consumption devices. This paper presents an end-to-end platform for the preparation, delivery, and synchronized consumption of related hybrid (broadcast/broadband) media contents on a single device and/or on multiple close-by devices (i.e., a multi-device scenario). It is compatible with the latest version of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) standard (version 2.0.1). Additionally, it provides adaptive and efficient solutions for key issues not specified in that standard, but that are necessary to successfully deploy hybrid and multidevice media services. Moreover, apart from MPEG-DASH and HTML5, which are the broadband technologies adopted by HbbTV, the platform also provides support for using HTTP Live Streaming and Real-time Transport Protocol and its companion RTP Control Protocol broadband technologies. The presented platform can provide support for many hybrid media services. In this paper, in order to evaluate it, the use case of multi-device and multi-view TV service has been selected. The results of both objective and subjective assessments have been very satisfactory, in terms of performance (stability, smooth playout, delays, and sync accuracy), usability of the platform, usefulness of its functionalities, and the awaken interest in these kinds of platforms.This work was supported in part by the "Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional" and in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through R&D&I Support Program under Grant TEC2013-45492-R.Boronat, F.; Marfil-Reguero, D.; Montagud, M.; Pastor Castillo, FJ. (2017). HbbTV-compliant Platform for Hybrid Media Delivery and Synchronization on Single- and Multi-Device Scenarios. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBC.2017.2781124S12

ENABLING MOBILE DEVICES TO HOST CONSUMERS AND PROVIDERS OF RESTFUL WEB SERVICES

The strong growth in the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets in Enterprise Information Systems has led to growing research in the area of mobile Web services. Web services are applications that are developed based on network standards such as Services Oriented Architecture and Representational State Transfer (REST). The mobile research community mostly focused on facilitating the mobile devices as client consumers especially in heterogeneous Web services. However, with the advancement in mobile device capabilities in terms of processing power and storage, this thesis seeks to utilize these devices as hosts of REST Web services. In order to host services on mobile devices, some key challenges have to be addressed. Since data and services accessibility is facilitated by the mobile devices which communicate via unstable wireless networks, the challenges of network latency and synchronization of data (i.e. the Web resources) among the mobile participants must be addressed. To address these challenges, this thesis proposes a cloud-based middleware that enables reliable communication between the mobile hosts in unreliable Wi-Fi networks. The middleware employs techniques such as message routing and Web resources state changes detection in order to push data to the mobile participants in real time. Additionally, to ensure high availability of data, the proposed middleware has a cache component which stores the replicas of the mobile hosts’ Web resources. As a result, in case a mobile host is disconnected, the Web resources of the host can be accessed on the middleware. The key contributions of this thesis are the identification of mobile devices as hosts of RESTful Web services and the implementation of middleware frameworks that support mobile communication in unreliable networks