AmIE: An Ambient Intelligent Environment for Assisted Living

In the modern world of technology Internet-of-things (IoT) systems strives to provide an extensive interconnected and automated solutions for almost every life aspect. This paper proposes an IoT context-aware system to present an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environment; such as an apartment, house, or a building; to assist blind, visually-impaired, and elderly people. The proposed system aims at providing an easy-to-utilize voice-controlled system to locate, navigate and assist users indoors. The main purpose of the system is to provide indoor positioning, assisted navigation, outside weather information, room temperature, people availability, phone calls and emergency evacuation when needed. The system enhances the user's awareness of the surrounding environment by feeding them with relevant information through a wearable device to assist them. In addition, the system is voice-controlled in both English and Arabic languages and the information are displayed as audio messages in both languages. The system design, implementation, and evaluation consider the constraints in common types of premises in Kuwait and in challenges, such as the training needed by the users. This paper presents cost-effective implementation options by the adoption of a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, Bluetooth Low Energy devices and an Android smart watch.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

State of the Art, Trends and Future of Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication and Visible Light Communication in the Development of Smart Cities

The current social impact of new technologies has produced major changes in all areas of society, creating the concept of a smart city supported by an electronic infrastructure, telecommunications and information technology. This paper presents a review of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC) and Visible Light Communication (VLC) and their use and influence within different areas of the development of the smart city. The document also presents a review of Big Data Solutions for the management of information and the extraction of knowledge in an environment where things are connected by an “Internet of Things” (IoT) network. Lastly, we present how these technologies can be combined together to benefit the development of the smart city

Beacon-Based Gaming

Today, scavenger-hunt gaming applications on mobile devices navigate a player through multiple locations in a physical world via global positioning system (GPS) locating technologies. A scavenger-hunt gaming application that relies on alternate locating technologies, e.g., beacons, is described. A group of beacons can be associated to a series of points of interest (POIs) of a particular venue (such as a park or museum). The group of beacons, as well as the POIs, are subsequently indexed, recorded, and either downloaded as part of the scavenger-hunt gaming application or accessed via a cloud-based gaming service. The scavenger-hunt gaming application, referencing a group of beacons specific to a venue, is capable of being played at multiple venues in the physical world

Engfi Gate: An Indoor Guidance System using Marker-based Cyber-Physical Augmented-Reality

A guidance system is needed when freshmen explore their new building environment. With the advancements of mobile technologies, a guidance system using mobile computing devices such as mobile phones or tablets could aid freshmen in locating the desired destination with ease. The proposed system consists of three main subsystems: the marker-based cyber-physical interaction (CPI) system, the indoor positioning (IP) system, and the augmented-reality (AR) system. With the help of visible markers and invisible markers, the CPI system allows the users to do interactions between the physical and cyber environments; the IP system produces accurate user position information; the AR system provides the users with good user experiences. An Android application, named Engfi Gate, is developed to realize the system design in the test environment. This paper also shows the comparisons of the proposed system with other related systems. Furthermore, the design architecture of Engfi Gate system can be used in other location-based applications

A Classification Framework for Beacon Applications

Beacons have received considerable attention in recent years, which is partially due to the fact that they serve as a flexible and versatile replacement for RFIDs in many applications. However, beacons are mostly considered from a purely technical perspective. This paper provides a conceptual view on application scenarios for beacons and introduces a novel framework for characterizing these. The framework consists of four dimensions: device movement, action trigger, purpose type, and connectivity requirements. Based on these, three archetypical scenarios are described. Finally, event-condition-action rules and online algorithms are used to formalize the backend of a beacon architecture

Monitoring harness use in construction with BLE beacons.

This paper introduces a novel approach to measure and evaluate the proper use of harnesses at construction sites: we deploy Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons for delimiting areas where the use of a harness is mandatory and to detect whether the harness is attached to the corresponding lifeline when the worker enter these areas. Our method is based on local estimation, through statistical filtering of RSSI measurements (Extended Kalman Filter), of the proximity between the beacons that delimit the different areas and the one in the lifeline, followed by a finite state machine risk status detector. Experiments have been performed in a real construction work-place with a wearable device; their results show that our solution is ideal for dynamic construction environments. Its main advantages are robustness of the detection system, easy relocation of the beacons as the construction zone evolves, and no need for calibration, communication infrastructure, external processing support, or configuration/map updates. Additionally, optional remote IoT for online monitoring is possible.The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution from “Fundación Laboral De La Construcción” for allowing them to test the system on a real construction site

Designing the club of the future with data: A case study on collaboration of creative industries

This paper reflects on the development of a multi-sensory clubbing experience which was deployed during a two-day event within the context of the Amsterdam Dance Event in October 2016 in Amsterdam. We present how the entire experience was developed end-to-end and deployed at the event through the collaboration of several project partners from industries such as art and design, music, food, technology and research. Central to the system are smart textiles, namely wristbands equipped with Bluetooth LE sensors which were used to sense people attending the dance event. We describe the components of the system, the development process, the collaboration between the involved entities and the event itself. To conclude the paper, we highlight insights gained from conducting a real world research deployment across many collaborators and stakeholders with different backgrounds