Privacy Architectures: Reasoning About Data Minimisation and Integrity

Privacy by design will become a legal obligation in the European Community if the Data Protection Regulation eventually gets adopted. However, taking into account privacy requirements in the design of a system is a challenging task. We propose an approach based on the specification of privacy architectures and focus on a key aspect of privacy, data minimisation, and its tension with integrity requirements. We illustrate our formal framework through a smart metering case study.Comment: appears in STM - 10th International Workshop on Security and Trust Management 8743 (2014

An effective AMS Top-Down Methodology Applied to the Design of a Mixed-SignalUWB System-on-Chip

The design of Ultra Wideband (UWB) mixed-signal SoC for localization applications in wireless personal area networks is currently investigated by several researchers. The complexity of the design claims for effective top-down methodologies. We propose a layered approach based on VHDL-AMS for the first design stages and on an intelligent use of a circuit-level simulator for the transistor-level phase. We apply the latter just to one block at a time and wrap it within the system-level VHDL-AMS description. This method allows to capture the impact of circuit-level design choices and non-idealities on system performance. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology we show how the refinement of the design affects specific UWB system parameters such as bit-error rate and localization estimations

Human emotional response to energy visualisations

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.Past research has found that frequent energy usage feedback is an important factor in reducing home energy consumption, and that the sensory appeal and cognitive relevance of the feedback are key components of user engagement with energy systems. The visual design of the information interface is important not just due to its role in communicating data of cognitive relevance, but also because the choice of information type and format is important towards achieving interactive Hebbian learning. The objective of the current research study was to investigate the possible effect of image format on the human emotional response to scenes of energy systems, and to evaluate whether any gender related differences in emotional response occurred. An automated PC-based test was developed which utilised five visual image formats (Optical Gray-Scale, Optical Coloured, Optical Augmented, Infrared Gray-Scale and Infrared Blue-Red) and nine home energy scenes (hot water boiler, radiator, water faucet, kitchen oven, tea kettle, toaster, electrical connector, laptop computer and tea mug). The emotional response of the participant was measured in the automated test by means of a Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) which provided symbolic graphical representations of the human body under various degrees of emotional response, and associated Likert format rating scales for the valence and activation level of the emotional response. Comparison of the results obtained for the different visual scenes suggests that the greatest level of human emotional activation was achieved by the Infrared Blue-Red (thermal image) format, and that, generally, coloured images provided higher levels of emotional activation than gray-scale images. The increased activation achieved by the infrared images suggests attention capturing potential due to novelty, or due to the direct link to heat and energy, or both. Significant differences in emotional response (both activation and valence) were found to occur as a function of gender. The current results provide first guidance which a designer can use when choosing image spectrum and colours to represent energy systems on the displays of thermostats, smart meters and the energy devices. Relevance to industry - The current results provide first guidance which a designer can use when choosing image spectrum and colours to represent energy systems on the displays of thermostats, smart meters and the energy devices. Such design guidance is currently lacking internationally but is of increasing importance due to the expansion of digital devices, internet services and the upcoming internet-of-things