Presenting the networked home: a content analysis of promotion material of Ambient Intelligence applications

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) for the home uses information and communication technologies to make users’ everyday life more comfortable. AmI is still in its developmental phase and is headed towards the first stages of diffusion. \ud Characteristics of AmI design can be observed, among others, in the promotion material of initial producers. A literature study revealed that AmI originally envisioned a central role for the user, convenience that AmI offers them and that attention should be paid to critical policy issues such as privacy and a potential loss of freedom. A content analysis of current promotion material of several high-tech companies revealed that these original ideas are not all reflected in the material. Attributes which were used most in the promotion material were ‘connectedness’, ‘control’, ‘easiness’ and ‘personalization’. An analysis of the pictures in the promotion material showed that almost half of the pictures contained no humans but appliances. These results only partly correspond to the original vision on AmI, since the emphasis is now on technology. The results represent a serious problem, since both users, as well as critical policy issues are underexposed in the current promotion material

Proximal business intelligence on the semantic web

This is the post-print version of this article. The official version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 Springer.Ubiquitous information systems (UBIS) extend current Information System thinking to explicitly differentiate technology between devices and software components with relation to people and process. Adapting business data and management information to support specific user actions in context is an ongoing topic of research. Approaches typically focus on providing mechanisms to improve specific information access and transcoding but not on how the information can be accessed in a mobile, dynamic and ad-hoc manner. Although web ontology has been used to facilitate the loading of data warehouses, less research has been carried out on ontology based mobile reporting. This paper explores how business data can be modeled and accessed using the web ontology language and then re-used to provide the invisibility of pervasive access; uncovering more effective architectural models for adaptive information system strategies of this type. This exploratory work is guided in part by a vision of business intelligence that is highly distributed, mobile and fluid, adapting to sensory understanding of the underlying environment in which it operates. A proof-of concept mobile and ambient data access architecture is developed in order to further test the viability of such an approach. The paper concludes with an ontology engineering framework for systems of this type – named UBIS-ONTO

Human response to aircraft noise

The human auditory system and the perception of sound are discussed. The major concentration is on the annnoyance response and methods for relating the physical characteristics of sound to those psychosociological attributes associated with human response. Results selected from the extensive laboratory and field research conducted on human response to aircraft noise over the past several decades are presented along with discussions of the methodology commonly used in conducting that research. Finally, some of the more common criteria, regulations, and recommended practices for the control or limitation of aircraft noise are examined in light of the research findings on human response

Designing a gamified social platform for people living with dementia and their live-in family caregivers

In the current paper, a social gamified platform for people living with dementia and their live-in family caregivers, integrating a broader diagnostic approach and interactive interventions is presented. The CAREGIVERSPRO-MMD (C-MMD) platform constitutes a support tool for the patient and the informal caregiver - also referred to as the dyad - that strengthens self-care, and builds community capacity and engagement at the point of care. The platform is implemented to improve social collaboration, adherence to treatment guidelines through gamification, recognition of progress indicators and measures to guide management of patients with dementia, and strategies and tools to improve treatment interventions and medication adherence. Moreover, particular attention was provided on guidelines, considerations and user requirements for the design of a User-Centered Design (UCD) platform. The design of the platform has been based on a deep understanding of users, tasks and contexts in order to improve platform usability, and provide adaptive and intuitive User Interfaces with high accessibility. In this paper, the architecture and services of the C-MMD platform are presented, and specifically the gamification aspects. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Solar Air Conditioning with Metal Organic Frameworks

Air conditioning is responsible for 5% of energy consumption in the United States as is increasingly in demand across the world as the global middle class continues to grow in size. During hotter months, electricity used to power cooling systems becomes taxing on electric grids, constituting approximately 40% of peak power demand. Traditional air conditioning (AC) systems are also associated with harmful environmental impacts. Both refrigerants used for cooling and fossil fuels used in power contribute to global warming by acting as green-house gases (GHG). Due to the negative effects associated with emissions, the ultimate goal of this research is to drastically reduce non-renewable energy consumption associated with AC units. Generations of technologies have been developed to address this ongoing issue. An emerging solution involves the integration of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) sorbents into a solar air conditioning system. Because of MOF properties, this integration allows for a thermally driven cycle without requiring a non-renewable energy input. This thesis is comprised of six chapters geared towards assisting in the determination of the most efficient and effective means of incorporation of MOFs into AC systems. Primarily by conducting an extensive literature review, the third chapter discusses Metal Organic Frameworks in depth for determining the most suitable candidates for this research project. Specific needs for the system are examined with different MOFs that meet the criteria considered. In chapter four, feasibility of integrating MOFs into a membrane through sorption measurements is tested for candidate MOF CAU-10. Chapter five is centered around modeling a MOF-assisted indirect evaporative cooler using EES: Engineering Equation Solver. Modeling outputs give a preliminary understanding of the cooling process and its effect on temperature. Together, these chapters move toward showing the feasibility of operation and its applicability to the field of renewable AC. The study of MOF attributes in Chapter 3 focused on Relative Humidity (RH) at which the MOFs demonstrated a steep water uptake, water adsorption capacity, temperatures for MOF regeneration, long term stability, and cost to synthesize and fabricate. These investigations showed Co2Cl2(BTDD), MIL-101, MIL-100(M), MOF-841, and CAU-10 to be the most promising applicants. Through sorption measurements of MOF material CAU-10 its isotherm demonstrated a capacity at the adsorption step below 0.30 gH2O/gMOF but a maximum capacity over 0.5 gH2O/gMOF. The EES model results showed 80-90% of recycled air provides a supply temperature necessary for indoor cooling below 21 oC. Chapter six summarizes all results and gives recommendations focused on thermodynamic optimization.No embargoAcademic Major: Mechanical Engineerin

Delivering elder-care environments utilizing TV-channel based mechanisms

In this paper, we present a smart environment for elderly. What makes the development of such system challenging is that the concept of smartness for elderly brings to the extreme the idea of invisibility of the technology. In our experience, elders are well-disposed to new technologies, provided that those will not require significant changes - namely, they are invisible - to their habits. Starting from this consideration, 200 caregivers responses were collected by questionnaire, so as to better understand elders' needs and habits. A system was subsequently developed allowing elders to access a number of "modern web services" as standard TV channels: at channel 43 there is the health status, at channel 45 the photos of the family, at 46 the agenda of the week, just to mention few of the available services. The content of such services is automatically generated by the smart devices in the environment and is managed by the caregivers (e.g., family members) by simple web apps. Fourteen families were asked to install the system in their house. The results of these experiments confirm that the proposed system is considered effective and user-friendly by elders

Enabling pervasive computing with smart phones

The authors discuss their experience with a number of mobile telephony projects carried out in the context of the European Union Information Society Technologies research program, which aims to develop mobile information services. They identify areas where use of smart phones can enable pervasive computing and offer practical advice in terms of lessons learned. To this end, they first look at the mobile telephone as * the end point of a mobile information service,* the control device for ubiquitous systems management and configuration,* the networking hub for personal and body area networks, and* identification tokens.They conclude with a discussion of business and practical issues that play a significant role in deploying research systems in realistic situations

Towards Evidence Based M-Health Application Design in Cancer Patient Healthy Lifestyle Interventions

Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases in Europe and the world. Significant correlations between dietary habits and cancer incidence and mortality have been confirmed by the literature. Physical activity habits are also directly implicated in the incidence of cancer. Lifestyle behaviour change may be benefited by using mobile technology to deliver health behaviour interventions. M-Health offers a promising cost-efficient approach to deliver en-masse interventions. Smartphone apps with constructs such as gamification and personalized have shown potential for helping individuals lose weight and maintain healthy lifestyle habits. However, evidence-based content and theory-based strategies have not been incorporated by those apps systematically yet. The aim of the current work is to put the foundations for a methodologically rigorous exploration of wellness/health intervention literature/app landscape towards detailed design specifications for connected health m-apps. In this context, both the overall work plan is described as well as the details for the significant steps of application space and literature space review. Both strategies for research and initial outcomes of it are presented. The expected evidence based design process for patient centered health and wellness interventions is going to be the primary input in the implementation process of upcoming patient centered health/wellness m-health interventions.ENJECT COST-STSM-ECOST-STSM-TD1405-220216-07045