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

User serviceable parts: Practice, technology, sociality and method in live electronic musicking

In live electronic musical research there is a need to confront the interrelationships between the social and the technological in order to understand our music as practice. These interrelationships form a complex and dynamic ecosystem that not only forms the context to, but is constitutive of practice. I interrogate from a variety of perspectives the musical practice that has formed over the course of this research in order to reveal the dispositions towards technology, the social situatedness and the musical approach that underlies my work. By taking a disposition towards musical practice-led research that is non-hierarchical, performative, ecological, phenomenological and pragmatic, I place into wider context compositional and technological decisions, in terms of their relationships to improvising, skill, design, performance and research. This work contributes both new theories of live electronic musical practice and new suggestions for practice-led methods aimed at investigating the interplay of social and material factors in musicking, and at interrogating the disciplinary status of our field vis-a-vis musical and technical disciplines

Continuous Authentication of Users to Robotic Technologies Using Behavioural Biometrics

Collaborative robots and current human–robot interaction systems, such as exoskeletons and teleoperation, are key technologies with profiles that make them likely security targets. Without sufficient protection, these robotics technologies might become dangerous tools that are capable of causing damage to their environments, increasing defects in work pieces and harming human co-workers. As robotics is a critical component of the current automation drive in many advanced economies, there may be serious economic effects if robot security is not appropriately handled. The development of suitable security for robots, particularly in industrial contexts, is critical. Collaborative robots, exoskeletons and teleoperation are all examples of robotics technologies that might need close collaboration with humans, and these interactions must be appropriately protected. There is a need to guard against both external hackers (as with many industrial systems) and insider malfeasance. Only authorised users should be able to access robots, and they should use only those services and capabilities they are qualified to access (e.g. those for which they are appropriately cleared and trained). Authentication is therefore a crucial enabling mechanism. Robot interaction will largely be ongoing, so continuous rather than one-time authentication is required. In robot contexts, continuous biometrics can be used to provide effective and practical authentication of individuals to robots. In particular, the working behaviour of human co-workers as they interact with robots can be used as a means of biometric authentication. This thesis demonstrates how continuous biometric authentication can be used in three different environments: a direct physical manipulation application, a sensor glove application and a remote access application. We show how information acquired from the collaborative robot's internal sensors, wearable sensors (similar to those found in an exoskeleton), and teleoperated robot control and programming can be harnessed to provide appropriate authentication. Thus, all authentication uses data that are collected or generated as part of the co-worker simply going about their work. No additional action is needed. For manufacturing environments, this lack of intrusiveness is an important feature. The results presented in this thesis show that our approaches can discriminate appropriately between users. We believe that our machine learning-based approaches can provide reasonable and practical solutions for continually authenticating users to robots in many environments, particularly in manufacturing contexts