Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

POLICY-BASED MIDDLEWARE FOR MOBILE CLOUD COMPUTING

Mobile devices are the dominant interface for interacting with online services as well as an efficient platform for cloud data consumption. Cloud computing allows the delivery of applications/functionalities as services over the internet and provides the software/hardware infrastructure to host these services in a scalable manner. In mobile cloud computing, the apps running on the mobile device use cloud hosted services to overcome resource constraints of the host device. This approach allows mobile devices to outsource the resource-consuming tasks. Furthermore, as the number of devices owned by a single user increases, there is the growing demand for cross-platform application deployment to ensure a consistent user experience. However, the mobile devices communicate through unstable wireless networks, to access the data and services hosted in the cloud. The major challenges that mobile clients face when accessing services hosted in the cloud, are network latency and synchronization of data. To address the above mentioned challenges, this research proposed an architecture which introduced a policy-based middleware that supports user to access cloud hosted digital assets and services via an application across multiple mobile devices in a seamless manner. The major contribution of this thesis is identifying different information, used to configure the behavior of the middleware towards reliable and consistent communication among mobile clients and the cloud hosted services. Finally, the advantages of the using policy-based middleware architecture are illustrated by experiments conducted on a proof-of-concept prototype

Signing and security of Hue software

Developing software for the Hue devices poses plenty of challenges among the engineers at Philips Lighting. These challenges arise at each stage of the Software Development Life-Cycle (SDLC). Improvement of it is of immense importance to the Philips Lighting. This report describes a project which focus was to automate the SDLC, as well as to improve the security in it. The end result solves many challenges. It delivers a complete release management tool dedicated to the engineers at the Home Systems department. First, it visualizes release workflows in a simple user interface. Second, the core activities of the SDLC, such as the software signing, are fully automated. What is more important is that the signing is executed in a highly secure environment. This is very important for Philips Lighting not only because this automation saves a lot of time, but also because it reduces the risk of a human error. The same benefits are gained through an automation of other activities, such as approvals, distribution of the software to the factories, and deploying the software to the device cloud. Third, the system provides a traceability about each step executed in the process. Finally, the system is highly configurable, which makes it easy to be extended and adjusted to support different device types with different release workflows

Database for LnL

This project originally sought to replace LnL’s Perl web based database system with a more modern Java MVC Servlet solution. Complications in the original project resulted in this project morphing into an analysis of the differences in web based technologies between 1995, 2008, and 2017. This project analyzes the differences in technologies over a twenty-two year period, with a special emphasis on the programming languages used, processing models, and decisions about hosting locations

Design and implementation of a web application for practising internet reading skills

Being able to critically evaluate the reliability of sources is an important skill, and a part of digital literacy competences and internet reading. Conducting research on the matter and teaching the skills related to internet reading in a digital environment require discrete software that is designed for said purposes. This thesis is associated with a project where one of the objectives is to design and implement a new web application, StudentNet, where pupils can practise and improve their skills in internet reading by completing assignments. Internet reading is goal-directed activity where the reader a) searches for information to set questions from the Internet, b) evaluates the reliability of the found information, and c) composes a synthesis based on several online sources. The basis of StudentNet is a web application called Neurone, which main purpose is research and measurement instead of education, and it provides a linear user flow. In contrast, StudentNet should provide a nonlinear model regarding the application’s user flow. In this thesis it is studied how this nonlinear model works in practice especially when the users are children, and what specific things should be considered when developing software for educational purposes. Several practical experiments were organised during the project. In these experiments, each participant completed an assignment in StudentNet and answered a set of statements in an end questionnaire. In addition, log data of users’ interactions in the application was recorded. The data collected from the questionnaire was analysed and utilised to get some information on what could be improved, and ideas for the development of new features as well as improving existing ones. In addition, the gathered feedback was used to answer the research question considering the application’s nonlinear model. It was found out that the model works very well for most pupils but for some individuals there should be additional support in the application in order to ensure a great user experience. The results also indicate that StudentNet was perceived useful, and it has good potential for further development and to be used as a complementary learning tool

Windows-pohjaisen myyntikonfiguraattorin muuntaminen web-pohjaiseksi sovellukseksi

Sales configrator is a key component of a home builder ERP system. In a typical sales meeting the home buyer sits down with a sales representative to select where the home should be build, what kind of home will be build and what extra options will be selected. The configurator needs to be able to calculate correct prices, enable/disable options based on rule sets and store the selections to a permanent storage. Traditionally this meeting has been organized at the home builder's premises using a desktop computer but further flexibility is often needed. It is a general trend that traditional platform dependent applications have been migrated to web applications. There are several benefits for the users to be able to run applications in a web browser on most of the devices they might use without the need to install any application on their devices. The continuous development of different web framework technologies have made this possible and easier than ever before. The goal of this thesis is to migrate an old Windows native sales configurator to a web application and to find out what benefits such migration is expected to yield and what kinds of obstacles need to be overcome. This thesis presents one possible way to create a web application UI using React web development framework and the back-end server access using ODATA web API. This thesis also presents two different ways (code quality measurements and performance evaluation) to measure the success of an application migration from Windows native C\# WebForms application to a JavaScript based web application.Myyntikonfiguraattori on tärkeässä roolissa omakotitalorakennuttajille suunnatuissa toiminnanohjausjärjestelmissä. Tyypillisesti myyntitapahtumassa kodin ostaja istuu välittäjän kanssa konfiguraattorin äärellä ja valitsee, minkälaisen talon hän haluaa, mihin se tulee rakentaa ja minkälaisia lisävalintoja ostaja mahdollisesti haluaa. Konfiguraattorin tehtävä on laskea talolle oikea hinta, näyttää/piilottaa valinnat niihin liittyvien sääntöjen perusteella ja tallettaa asiakkaan valinnat johonkin pysyvään tietokantaan. Perinteisesti tämä tapaaminen on järjestetty talonrakennuttajan tiloissa pöytäkoneen äärellä, mutta nykyään tapaaminen usein halutaan järjestää joustavammin asiakkaan ehdoilla. Nykysuuntauksen mukaisesti ohjelmistoja kehitetään usein suoraan web-sovelluksiksi tai vanhoja alustariippuvaisia sovelluksia muunnetaan web-sovelluksiksi. Kyvyssä ajaa sovellusta selaimessa on useita hyötyjä kuten se, että web-sovelluksia voi ajaa eri laitteilla eivätkä ne vaadi käyttäjää asentamaan mitään niihin. Erilaisten web-kehitystekniikoiden kehitys on tehnyt monimutkaisten web-sovellusten tekemisestä mahdollista ja helpompaa kuin koskaan aikaisemmin. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on muuntaa vanha Windows-pohjainen myyntikonfiguraattori web-sovellukseksi sekä samalla tutkia, mitä hyötyjä muuntamisesta on ja minkälaisia haasteita muuntamiseen sisältyy. Tämä diplomityö esittää yhden mahdollisen toteutustavan käyttäen React web-kehitysympäristöä sekä ODATA web-ohjelmointirajapintaa. Tässä työssä esitetään myös kaksi eri tapaa (koodin laadun estimointi ja suorituskyvyn evaluointi), joilla tämänkaltaisen muunnostyön onnistumista voi arvioida ja mitata

Análisis comparativo de patrones de diseño de software para el desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles de calidad: Una revisión sistemática de la literatura

En este artículo de revisión se realizó un estudio cuyo propósito es el de encontrar los principales estudios sobre patrones de diseño de software para el desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles de calidad, para posteriormente determinar criterios de identificación que servirán como herramienta de selección de patrones de diseño de calidad. Para este estudio se realizó una revisión sistemática de la literatura en 3 bases de datos reconocidas (IEEE, Explorer, EBSCO). De un total de 3072 artículos encontrados, se identificaron 16, que debido a su gran relevancia con el tema de estudio se seleccionaron para su posterior revisión. Se utilizó como instrumento principal la estrategia PICO para hacer la búsqueda y selección de los artículos de interés según el propósito de este estudio. Los resultados indican que son 5 los principales patrones de diseño de software para el desarrollo móvil de calidad y que existen ciertos criterios de identificación para su análisis. Se puede concluir que gracias a estos criterios de identificación podemos obtener una herramienta de selección para comparar los principales patrones de diseño de software para el desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles de calidad, y finalmente poder implementar la más conveniente según las necesidades del proyecto.Trabajo de investigaciónLIMAEscuela Profesional de Ingeniería de SistemasIngeniería de Softwar

An architectural framework for developing advanced integrated environmental monitoring systems

The environment has become a topic of great public and academic concern. Monitoring studies of environmental variables are needed to allow control strategies and policy-/decision-making to be applied effectively. This thesis presents an overview of the main issues and requirements for the capabilities of integration, flexibility and scalability for complex environmental monitoring applications. The scope and depth of the topics are considerable and are developing rapidly in line with new technology and computational techniques. The author proposes and designs an architectural framework to develop advanced integrated environmental monitoring systems (A-ITEMS), which feeds the requirements of complex environmental monitoring systems. Afterwards, in terms of the theoretical and technical investigation on the A-ITEMS, this thesis demonstrates the key ideas by implementing an Integrated Watershed Telemetry (IWT) system. The practical design and simulation implementation of the IWT system does show that the A-ITEMS has the significant flexibility and capability to adapt to complex environmental monitoring applications

Systematic analysis of the decoding delay in multiview video

We present a framework for the analysis of the decoding delay in multiview video coding (MVC). We show that in real-time applications, an accurate estimation of the decoding delay is essential to achieve a minimum communication latency. As opposed to single-view codecs, the complexity of the multiview prediction structure and the parallel decoding of several views requires a systematic analysis of this decoding delay, which we solve using graph theory and a model of the decoder hardware architecture. Our framework assumes a decoder implementation in general purpose multi-core processors with multi-threading capabilities. For this hardware model, we show that frame processing times depend on the computational load of the decoder and we provide an iterative algorithm to compute jointly frame processing times and decoding delay. Finally, we show that decoding delay analysis can be applied to design decoders with the objective of minimizing the communication latency of the MVC system