Finding information again using an individual’s web history

In a lifetime, an “average” person will visit approximately a million webpages. Sometimes a person finds they want to return to a given page at some future date but, having no recollection of where it was (URL, host, etc.) and so has to look for it again from scratch. This paper assesses how a person’s memory could be assisted by the presentation of a “map” of their web browsing activity. Three map organisation approaches were investigated: (i) time-based, (ii) place-based, and (iii) topic-based. Time-based organisation is the least suitable, because the temporal specificity of human memory is generally poor. Place-based approaches lack scalability, and are not helped by the fact that there is little repetition in the paths a person follows between places. Topic-based organisation is more promising, with topics derived from both the web content that is accessed and the search queries that are executed, which provide snapshots into a person’s cognitive processes by explicitly capturing the terminology of “what” they were looking for at that moment in time. In terms of presentation, a map that combines aspects of network connectivity with a space filling approach is likely to be most effective

Omnidirectional underwater surveying and telepresence

Exploratory dives are traditionally the first step for marine scientists to acquire information on a previously unknown area of scientific interest. Manned submersibles have been the platform of choice for such exploration, as they allow a high level of environmental perception by the scientist on-board, and the ability to take informed decisions on what to explore next. However, manned submersibles have extremely high operation costs and provide very limited bottom time. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) can partially address these two issues, but have operational and cost constraints that restrict their usage. This paper discusses new capabilities to assist scientists operating lightweight hybrid remotely operated vehicles (HROV) in exploratory missions of mapping and surveying. The new capabilities, under development within the Spanish National project OMNIUS, provide a new layer of autonomy for HROVs by exploring three key concepts: Omni-directional optical sensing for collaborative immersive exploration, Proximity safety awareness and Online mapping during mission time.Peer Reviewe

High dimensionality carrierless amplitude phase modulation technique for radio over fiber system

Advanced modulation formats such as carrierless amplitude phase (CAP) modulation technique is one of the solutions to increase flexibility and high bit rates to support multi-level and multi-dimensional modulations with the absence of sinusoidal carrier. Recent work are focussing on the 2D CAP-64 QAM Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) system but no extension of higher dimensions is reported. This thesis expands the area of CAP modulation technique and RoF system. The work described in this thesis is devoted to the investigation of 1.25 GSa/s sampling rate for multi-level and multi-dimensional CAP in point-to-point (P2P) and RoF system at 3 km single-mode fiber (SMF). Another advanced modulation format which is known as discrete multitone (DMT) is compared with CAP modulation in order to observe the performance in different modulation schemes. The 4QAM-DMT and 16QAM-DMT at different number of subcarriers are carried out in this propagation. Based on the results, the transmission performance in terms of BER and received optical power for RoF transmission are degraded to almost 3 dB when comparing to 3 km SMF transmission. These are caused by the wireless power loss and impairment effects. The bit rate and spectral efficiency can be increased with the increasing number of levels, and may decreased once the number of dimensions is increased due to the higher up-sampling factor. However, the additional dimensions can be used to support multiple service applications. Therefore, it can be concluded that CAP has better performance as compared to DMT in terms of higher spectral efficiency and data rate. To conclude, the results presented in this thesis exhibit high feasibility of CAP modulation in the increasing number of dimensions and levels. Thus, CAP has the potential to be utilized in multiple service allocations for different number of users

Campus Mobility for the Future: The Electric Bicycle

Sustainable and practical personal mobility solutions for campus environments have traditionally revolved around the use of bicycles, or provision of pedestrian facilities. However many campus environments also experience traffic congestion, parking difficulties and pollution from fossil-fuelled vehicles. It appears that pedal power alone has not been sufficient to supplant the use of petrol and diesel vehicles to date, and therefore it is opportune to investigate both the reasons behind the continual use of environmentally unfriendly transport, and consider potential solutions. This paper presents the results from a year-long study into electric bicycle effectiveness for a large tropical campus, identifying barriers to bicycle use that can be overcome through the availability of public use electric bicycles

Collaborative Control for a Robotic Wheelchair: Evaluation of Performance, Attention, and Workload

Powered wheelchair users often struggle to drive safely and effectively and in more critical cases can only get around when accompanied by an assistant. To address these issues, we propose a collaborative control mechanism that assists the user as and when they require help. The system uses a multiple–hypotheses method to predict the driver’s intentions and if necessary, adjusts the control signals to achieve the desired goal safely. The main emphasis of this paper is on a comprehensive evaluation, where we not only look at the system performance, but, perhaps more importantly, we characterise the user performance, in an experiment that combines eye–tracking with a secondary task. Without assistance, participants experienced multiple collisions whilst driving around the predefined route. Conversely, when they were assisted by the collaborative controller, not only did they drive more safely, but they were able to pay less attention to their driving, resulting in a reduced cognitive workload. We discuss the importance of these results and their implications for other applications of shared control, such as brain–machine interfaces, where it could be used to compensate for both the low frequency and the low resolution of the user input