Trust and obfuscation principles for quality of information in emerging pervasive environments

Non peer reviewedPostprin

Chapter Quality of Information within Internet of Things Data

Due to the increasing number of IoT devices, the amount of data gathered nowadays is rather large and continuously growing. The availability of new sensors presented in IoT devices and open data platforms provides new possibilities for innovative applications and use-cases. However, the dependence on data for the provision of services creates the necessity of assuring the quality of data to ensure the viability of the services. In order to support the evaluation of the valuable information, this chapter shows the development of a series of metrics that have been defined as indicators of the quality of data in a quantifiable, fast, reliable, and human-understandable way. The metrics are based on sound statistical indicators. Statistical analysis, machine learning algorithms, and contextual information are some of the methods to create quality indicators. The developed framework is also suitable for deciding between different datasets that hold similar information, since until now with no way of rapidly discovering which one is best in terms of quality had been developed. These metrics have been applied to real scenarios which have been smart parking and environmental sensing for smart buildings, and in both cases, the methods have been representative for the quality of the data

Value-of-Information based Data Collection in Underwater Sensor Networks

Underwater sensor networks are deployed in marine environments, presenting specific challenges compared to sensor networks deployed in terrestrial settings. Among the major issues that underwater sensor networks face is communication medium limitations that result in low bandwidth and long latency. This creates problems when these networks need to transmit large amounts of data over long distances. A possible solution to address this issue is to use mobile sinks such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to offload these large quantities of data. Such mobile sinks are called data mules. Often it is the case that a sensor network is deployed to report events that require immediate attention. Delays in reporting such events can have catastrophic consequences. In this dissertation, we present path planning algorithms that help in prioritizing data retrieval from sensor nodes in such a manner that nodes that require more immediate attention would be dealt with at the earliest. In other words, the goal is to improve the Quality of Information (QoI) retrieved. The path planning algorithms proposed in this dissertation are based on heuristics meant to improve the Value of Information (VoI) retrieved from a system. Value of information is a construct that helps in encoding the valuation of an information segment i.e. it is the price an optimal player would pay to obtain a segment of information in a game theoretic setting. Quality of information and value of information are complementary concepts. In this thesis, we formulate a value of information model for sensor networks and then consider the constraints that arise in underwater settings. On the basis of this, we develop a VoI-based path planning problem statement and propose heuristics that solve the path planning problem. We show through simulation studies that the proposed strategies improve the value, and hence, quality of the information retrieved. It is important to note that these path planning strategies can be applied equally well in terrestrial settings that deploy mobile sinks for data collection

Design Principles of Mobile Information Systems in the Digital Transformation of the Workplace - Utilization of Smartwatch-based Information Systems in the Corporate Context

During the last decades, smartwatches emerged as an innovative and promising technology and hit the consumer market due to the accessibility of affordable devices and predominant acceptance caused by the considerable similarity to common wristwatches. With the unique characteristics of permanent availability, unobtrusiveness, and hands-free operation, they can provide additional value in the corporate context. Thus, this thesis analyzes use cases for smartwatches in companies, elaborates on the design of smartwatch-based information systems, and covers the usability of smartwatch applications during the development of smartwatch-based information systems. It is composed of three research complexes. The first research complex focuses on the digital assistance of (mobile) employees who have to execute manual work and have been excluded so far from the benefits of the digitalization since they cannot operate hand-held devices. The objective is to design smartwatch-based information systems to support workflows in the corporate context, facilitate the daily work of numerous employees, and make processes more efficient for companies. During a design science research approach, smartwatch-based software artifacts are designed and evaluated in use cases of production, support, security service, as well as logistics, and a nascent design theory is proposed to complement theory according to mobile information system research. The evaluation shows that, on the one hand, smartwatches have enormous potential to assist employees with a fast and ubiquitous exchange of information, instant notifications, collaboration, and workflow guidance while they can be operated incidentally during manual work. On the other hand, the design of smartwatch-based information systems is a crucial factor for successful long-term deployment in companies, and especially limitations according to the small form-factor, general conditions, acceptance of the employees, and legal regulations have to be addressed appropriately. The second research complex addresses smartwatch-based information systems at the office workplace. This broadens and complements the view on the utilization of smartwatches in the corporate context in addition to the mobile context described in the first research complex. Though smartwatches are devices constructed for mobile use, the utilization in low mobile or stationary scenarios also has benefits due they exhibit the characteristic of a wearable computer and are directly connected to the employee’s body. Various sensors can perceive employee-, environment- and therefore context-related information and demand the employees’ attention with proactive notifications that are accompanied by a vibration. Thus, a smartwatch-based and gamified information system for health promotion at the office workplace is designed and evaluated. Research complex three provides a closer look at the topic of usability concerning applications running on smartwatches since it is a crucial factor during the development cycle. As a supporting element for the studies within the first and second research complex, a framework for the usability analysis of smartwatch applications is developed. For research, this thesis contributes a systemization of the state-of-the-art of smartwatch utilization in the corporate context, enabling and inhibiting influence factors of the smartwatch adoption in companies, and design principles as well as a nascent design theory for smartwatch-based information systems to support mobile employees executing manual work. For practice, this thesis contributes possible use cases for smartwatches in companies, assistance in decision-making for the introduction of smartwatch-based information systems in the corporate context with the Smartwatch Applicability Framework, situated implementations of a smartwatch-based information system for typical use cases, design recommendations for smartwatch-based information systems, an implementation of a smartwatch-based information system for the support of mobile employees executing manual work, and a usability-framework for smartwatches to automatically access usability of existing applications providing suggestions for usability improvement

Incorporação da inteligência competitiva às atividades de planejamento estratégico do projeto de produtos industriais

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento, Florianópolis, 2009De acordo com as perspectivas da Gestão do Conhecimento, com a evolução do mercado e com o crescimento do volume das informações disponíveis para a empresa, percebe-se uma necessidade crescente por parte das empresas de coletar as diversas informações disponíveis e definir qual a sua melhor aplicação às atividades da empresa, por meio da geração de inteligência, caracterizando o uso de um sistema desenvolvido para a competitividade. Este trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de um modelo de incorporação de ações da Inteligência Competitiva (IC) ao Planejamento Estratégico do Projeto de Produtos (PEPP). Uma pesquisa exploratória foi a base metodológica deste trabalho. Dentre as cinco empresas que se dispuseram a participar da pesquisa, uma foi escolhida para aplicação do estudo de caso, outra para aplicação do teste-piloto e outra como referência em melhores práticas de IC ou benchmarking. A pesquisa exploratória serviu para (i) conhecer melhor a realidade das empresas em termos de IC e (ii) fazer da seleção para o estudo de caso uma ação também embasada teórica e metodologicamente. O Modelo de Incorporação da IC ao PEPP possui quatro fases, com duas etapas cada, correspondendo aos objetivos específicos da tese. Os resultados mostram que a seqüência estabelecida para a aplicação do Modelo facilitou esta atividade. A verificação da aplicabilidade do Modelo por meio do software i tink® e com base na Dinâmica de Sistemas mostrou a plausibilidade do mesmo. Os resultados apresentados demonstram que, ao se acrescentar informações de IC relevantes em termos de qualidade, se terá um menor tempo gasto no Planejamento Estratégico do Projeto de Produtos da empresa Beta. Com o acréscimo das informações dos elementos de IC conforme os resultados do modelo, se obteve um tempo de PEPP na empresa Beta de 64 dias, menor do que o da empresa selecionada para benchmarking em IC 79 dias. Com base nos resultados obtidos, e tendo em vista que a empresa pesquisada trabalha com produtos sob pedido, considera-se, cada produto desenvolvido pela empresa como um produto inovador em relação àqueles desenvolvidos anteriormente. Como a inovação está relacionada diretamente às informações que a empresa coleta e como quem desenvolve um projeto de produto e um produto com mais rapidez chega antes ao mercado, pode-se dizer que esse tipo de incorporação estimula a criação de produtos inovadores.According to the Knowledge Management tenets, with the evolution of the market and with the growing of the available information for the enterprises volume, a need is felt by the enterprises to collect a variety of available information and to define its best application on the enterprises activities through the generation of intelligence, thus characterizing a competitive system. This piece of research provides the development of a model for inclusion of the Competitive Intelligence (CI) actions into the Strategic Product Project Planning (SPPP). The present work belongs in the Knowledge Management subarea of the Knowledge Engineering and Management Post-Graduation Program at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. An exploratory survey was the methodological basis for the present investigation. Among the five enterprises that took part in this piece of research, one was chosen as the case study, the other was chosen for the application of the pilot-testing, and another one was chosen as the reference of best practices or benchmarking. The exploratory survey was useful for (i) getting to know better the reality of the enterprises and (ii) making the choice for the case study a methodologically-based selection. The MIPE the model of inclusion of the Competitive Intelligence (CI) actions in the Strategic Product Project Planning (SPPP) - is composed of four phases with two sub-phases each, corresponding to the specific objectives of the present work. The results show that the sequence established for the application of MIPE has contributed for its success. The verification of the applicability of MIP through the ithink® software and based on Systems Dynamic theory has shown its plausibility. The results also show that the higher CI relevant information quality level is added Competitive Intelligence (CI) actions in the Strategic Product Project Planning, the more SPPP spent time will be reduced. The addition of information to the CI elements caused a gain in the PEPP time: 64 days, which is less than the time of enterprise selected as benchmarking for the same activity 79 days. Thus, due to the fact that the case study enterprise works on an Engineering-to-Order production basis, it can be stated that each product developed by this enterprise is an innovative product regarding the previous one. As innovation is directly related to the information that the enterprise collects and as the company that develops a product planning and a product faster reaches the market first, it can be stated that this kind of incorporation stimulates the creation of innovative products