The use of smartphone in the 21st century

Smartphone devices are nowadays common affordable devices not only for communication purposes but also for determining the user’s position, for sending emails, managing digital agendas and to allow internet access. Starting from last decade, they become interesting instruments also for engineering and biomedical applications, thanks to their high diffusion. In 2018, 66% of individuals in 52 key countries owned a smartphone, with an increment of about 3% in only one year. This fact permitted the rapid development of apps for different goals, starting from precise positioning both in outdoor and indoor scenarios, to the 3D reconstruction of the environment using images up to driving evaluation purposes or healthcare and biomedical engineering applications. This chapter resumes the main research fields where smartphone devices are considered, providing the main references. It also introduces and briefly describes the contributions contained in this book, guiding the reader through the logical structure of the book in order to point out new possible studies and future perspectives in different reserch fields

Roadmap to the Domestic Production of Mobile Phone and Its Market Feasibility in Nigeria

The mobile phone system is one of the instrumental devices that has helped shaped our socio-economic ecosystem in many ways, and it has been an integral part of many societies all over the world due to its versatility. Nigeria currently is facing a great deal of economic hardship owing to successive political failures to balance the import-to-export ratio over the years thus affecting the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI). Domestic production of mobile phones has been identified as one of the structures if put in place that can help in a national economic revival in terms of a technological revolution that would contribute to the GDP, GNI, and general economic effect. In this paper, we identified some key elements that could help establish the mobile phone production industry in Nigeria which include identifying the existing phone markets and buyers' usage patterns to guide in the kind of phone to be produced that would appeal to Nigerians and their neighbouring countries such that it would scale well and have a competitive advantage over imported phones. With the help of a survey aided by Google Form, an insight into the kind of phones Nigerians uses and preferred was elucidated. Furthermore, a small-scale design of a phone was carried out to test the technical or manpower know-how and feasibility of the venture. Overall, the feasibility of embarking on domestic production shows a green light

Introduction to star-tup creation for the smart ecoefficient built environment

This chapter starts by briefly reviewing worrying evidence concerning Earth?s environment. The importance of entrepreneurship is highlighted as a way not only to mobilize the energy of young people in developed countries for a sustainability based new economy. But also to tackle the despair of young people in poor countries that could end in terrorist actions. Dynamics of start-up creation are briefly reviewed. The stigma on startup failure is also briefly addressed. The importance of start-up creation for the smart eco-efficient built environment is highlighted.  An outline of the book is included

Simplifying the process to perform air temperature and UHI measurements at large scales: Design of a new APP and low-cost Arduino device

The main purpose of Urban Heat Island (UHI) studies and the monitoring of ambient temperatures at large scales is to gather temperature information in a certain area, so as to understand temperature heterogeneity and its drivers or detect locations that lack thermal comfort. However, these studies originate mostly from some research projects, with sufficient budget and manpower to carry out the measurements and the necessary calculations. Thus, there is a scarcity of air temperature information, making it difficult to implement appropriate mitigation actions worldwide. The present work aims to greatly simplify the process to monitor air temperatures and carry out UHI estimations through mobile transects. This is done by introducing the design of a low-cost device and a new APP, which performs automatically most necessary UHI calculations. A web tool based on the Inverse Distance Weighting interpolation method is also included to obtain heat maps. The methodology is illustrated using case studies in Seville (Spain) and New York city (USA). By introducing a straightforward and reproducible methodology, we aim to open the path for a more widespread availability of ambient temperature data anywhere in the world, without the need for costly equipment and many hours of dedication by the researcher

Combination of GIS and SHM in prognosis and diagnosis of bridges in earthquake-prone locations

Bridge infrastructures are essential nodes in the transportation network. In earthquake-prone areas, seismic performance assessment of infrastructure is vital to identify, retrofit, reconstruct, or, if necessary, demolish the structural systems based on optimal decision-making processes. This research proposes the combined use of advanced tools used in the management and monitoring of bridges such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in a synergistic manner that can enable observation of bridges to construct an earthquake damage model. Post-earthquake disaster data can enhance and update this model to mitigate further damages both to the structure and transportation network in the future. Implications of new technologies such as drones and mobile devices in this scheme constitute the next step toward the future of the Cyber-Physical SHM systems. The proposed intelligent and sustainable cloud-based framework of SHM-GIS in this paper lays the core behind more robust impending systems. The synergistic behavior of the offered framework reduces the overall cost in large scale implementation and increases the accuracy of the results leading to a decision-making platform easing the management of bridges

DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY ON SMARTPHONE PREFERENCE AMONG STUDENTS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

This study investigated smartphone preference among undergraduate and postgraduate students in Nigerian universities. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which students’ demographic attributes such as gender, age, usage experience and educational level influence their preference for smartphones. The study also identified and ranked smartphone brands based on selected factors like brand name, brand attachment, perceived usefulness, social influence, price, aesthetic value and product design and features. A cross-sectional survey research design was used for the study. The study population comprised all full-time university students in Nigeria both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Questionnaire was designed and electronically administered using Google Form to the target respondents. After three weeks (10th June to 1st July 2020), five hundred and forty-three (543) responses were collated. However, seventy-eight (78) were found to be invalid. As a result, four hundred and sixty-five (465) responses that formed the sample size were used for the study. The data collected were statistically analyzed using frequency table, percentages, mean, standard deviation and t-test with the aid of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The study found that Samsung is the most preferred smartphone among students. It was also revealed that the first three most important factors that influence students' preference for smartphones are brand name, perceived usefulness, and design/features. The study revealed that demographic attributes do not significantly influence smartphone preference among university students. The study, therefore, recommends that demographic attributes such as gender, age, usage experience and programme should not be significantly considered by manufacturers and marketers of smartphones in product differentiation

Comparative Analysis of Smartphone Preference Among Nigerian University Students

The study comparatively analysed university students’ preference for smartphone brands based on demographic profiles such as gender, age, and usage experience. The study also established whether a significant difference exists in students’ preference for three selected brands of smartphones. The study employed a cross-sectional research design. The study population comprised undergraduate students in a Federal government-owned university in Edo State, Nigeria. The administration and retrieval of the questionnaire used for the study were done electronically via Google Form which was voluntarily filled and submitted by the students. A total of three hundred and ninety (390) responses were received after two weeks of the exercise. Data collected were descriptively analysed using frequency counts and percentages while inferential statistics such as t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to establish the influence of the different demographic profiles on the students’ preference for smartphone brands. The study found that students’ gender, age and usage experience did not significantly influence their preference for a smartphone. It was also found that Apple and Samsung brands were preferred to Tecno by most of the students. The study concluded that demographic profiles such as gender, age and user experience should not serve as the basis for smartphone manufacturers to differentiate their products but they should sustain and possibly improve their products’ durability, camera quality, long-lasting battery and impressive aesthetic appearance among others

Review on smartphone sensing technology for structural health monitoring

Sensing is a critical and inevitable sector of structural health monitoring (SHM). Recently, smartphone sensing technology has become an emerging, affordable, and effective system for SHM and other engineering fields. This is because a modern smartphone is equipped with various built-in sensors and technologies, especially a triaxial accelerometer, gyroscope, global positioning system, high-resolution cameras, and wireless data communications under the internet-of-things paradigm, which are suitable for vibration- and vision-based SHM applications. This article presents a state-of-the-art review on recent research progress of smartphone-based SHM. Although there are some short reviews on this topic, the major contribution of this article is to exclusively present a compre- hensive survey of recent practices of smartphone sensors to health monitoring of civil structures from the per- spectives of measurement techniques, third-party apps developed in Android and iOS, and various application domains. Findings of this article provide thorough understanding of the main ideas and recent SHM studies on smartphone sensing technology