Technologies and solutions for location-based services in smart cities: past, present, and future

Location-based services (LBS) in smart cities have drastically altered the way cities operate, giving a new dimension to the life of citizens. LBS rely on location of a device, where proximity estimation remains at its core. The applications of LBS range from social networking and marketing to vehicle-toeverything communications. In many of these applications, there is an increasing need and trend to learn the physical distance between nearby devices. This paper elaborates upon the current needs of proximity estimation in LBS and compares them against the available Localization and Proximity (LP) finding technologies (LP technologies in short). These technologies are compared for their accuracies and performance based on various different parameters, including latency, energy consumption, security, complexity, and throughput. Hereafter, a classification of these technologies, based on various different smart city applications, is presented. Finally, we discuss some emerging LP technologies that enable proximity estimation in LBS and present some future research areas

An Interactive Zoo Guide: A Case Study of Collaborative Learning

Real Industry Projects and team work can have a great impact on student learning but providing these activities requires significant commitment from academics. It requires several years planning implementing to create a collaborative learning environment that mimics the real world ICT (Information and Communication Technology) industry workplace. In this project, staff from all the three faculties, namely the Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science, Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development, and Faculty of Business and Law in higher education work together to establish a detailed project management plan and to develop the unit guidelines for participating students. The proposed project brings together students from business, multimedia and computer science degrees studying their three project-based units within each faculty to work on a relatively large IT project with our industry partner, Melbourne Zoo. This paper presents one multimedia software project accomplished by one of the multi-discipline student project teams. The project was called 'Interactive ZooOz Guide' and developed on a GPS-enabled PDA device in 2007. The developed program allows its users to navigate through the Zoo via an interactive map and provides multimedia information of animals on hotspots at the 'Big Cats' section of the Zoo so that it enriches user experience at the Zoo. A recent development in zoo applications is also reviewed. This paper is also intended to encourage academia to break boundaries to enhance students' learning beyond classroom.Comment: 11 Page

Smart technologies and beyond: exploring how a smart band can assist in monitoring children’s independent mobility & well-being

The problem which is being investigated through this thesis is not having a device(s) or method(s) which are appropriate for monitoring a child’s vital and tracking a child’s location. This aspect is being explored by other researchers which are yet to find a viable solution. This work focuses on providing a solution that would consider using the Internet of Things for measuring and improving children’s health. Additionally, the focus of this research is on the use of technology for health and the needs of parents who are concerned about their child’s physical health and well-being. This work also provides an insight into how technology is used during the pandemic. This thesis will be based on a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research, which will have been used to review the following areas covering key aspects and focuses of this study which are (i) Children’s Independent Mobility (ii) Physical activity for children (iii) Emotions of a child (iv) Smart Technologies and (v) Children’s smart wearables. This will allow a review of the problem in detail and how technology can help the health sector, especially for children. The deliverable of this study is to recommend a suitable smart band device that enables location tracking of the child, activity tracking as well as monitoring the health and wellbeing of the child. The research also includes an element of practical research in the form of (i) Surveys, the use of smart technology and a perspective on the solution from parents. (ii) Focus group, in the form of a survey allowing opinions and collection of information on the child and what the parents think of smart technology and how it could potentially help with their fears. (iii) Observation, which allows the collection of data from children who were given six activities to conduct while wearing the Fitbit Charge HR. The information gained from these elements will help provide guidelines for a proposed solution. In this thesis, there are three frameworks which are about (i) Research process for this study (ii) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which are findings from the literature review and (iii) Proposed framework for the solution, all three combined frameworks can help health professionals and many parents who want an efficient and reliable device, also deployment of technologies used in the health industry for children in support of independent mobility. Current frameworks have some considerations within the technology and medical field but were not up to date with the latest elements such as parents fears within today’s world and the advanced features of technology

Does Your Boss Know Where You Are? Predicting Adoption of LBS in the Workplace

To date there has been no tested model to predict uptake of LBS services in a real world setting. The leading theoretical contribution to our understanding of attitudes and behaviour towards LBS comes from Junglas & Spitzmüller (2005). They hypothesised that intentions to use LBS would be influenced by technology characteristics, task characteristics, personality type, perceived privacy, perceived usefulness, trust and perceived risk. We developed a questionnaire to test and refine their model with a UK employed population

Intelligent Safety Transport Framework for Schools: A Review of Route Planning and Tracking Systems

This work presents a review of recent literature in intelligent school transportation frameworks, particularly focusing on route planning, real time vehicle and children tracking. The focus on route planning and tracking is to identify the hidden practical problems and threats present in school transportation, bearing in mind safety. Different methods and technologies used for route planning and vehicle as well as children tracking are reviewed. A discussion is provided on the current frameworks along with the challenges and future research direction

Development and Hardware Implementation of IoT-Based Patrol Robot for Remote Gas Leak Inspection

The Internet of Things Robot (IoTR) is an emerging paradigm that brings together robotic systems with the Internet of Things (IoT) that connect sensors and smart objects pervasively embedded in everyday environments. With the recent developments in robotic system applications, it becomes apparent that the mobile robot has great importance in real-world applications such as navigation and surveillance. One of the most important applications of a mobile robot is patrolling and gas leak detection. This paper proposes a real-time IoT Robot (IoTR) that can be used indoors or outdoors for gas leak detection purposes. The proposed mobile robot is equipped with microphones, speakers, the hub of smart sensors that are necessary for patrolling and gas leak detection, a high-resolution IP video camera for live video streaming, Bluetooth for indoor applications and tracking, and GPS/GPRS for outdoor applications and tracking. The experimental testing of the preliminary prototype confirms the design objectives. The robot has been tested for indoor and outdoor modes; the robot can detect gas leakage and provides a live video streaming of the surrounding area, which can be tracked on Google maps. At the same time, the robot can be controlled remotely through a mobile app or website, the robot can move autonomously and avoid obstacles. The proposed work provides a low-cost IoT robot through the use of the available and cheap components and sensors, which featured a high quality at the same time. Our proposed system exhibits promising gas sensing performance in harsh environments, using intelligent gas sensors that have a fast response (>10s), low cost, high sensitivity, long life, robustness, and physical size

D-Tags Design by Combining Bluetooth Router, IoT, and Mobile Phone to Track Personal Items

Losing personal items such as a wallet or room keys is disturbing. Problems arise when clues to find the item are lacking or even non-existent. Of one hundred-two people who filled out the questionnaire about how often losing their belongings, 76% had experienced it. Because of that, it must be hard to remember where the last they put the stuff. Therefore people need tools that can help them easily find their item with a transmitter and connect to a mobile phone. Previous research showed that the transmitter with a frequency system had a detection distance of only 5 meters. From this weakness, the authors propose the development of a tracking items device that combines an Internet of Things-based Bluetooth transmitter and receiver system approach called D-Tags by combining Bluetooth routers, IoT, and mobile phones. The system is designed for both indoor and outdoor areas. Bluetooth testing allows the device to detect items up to 7.43 meters without wall obstacles. The system provided location information such as Living Room or Bedroom and the coordinates when outside the room. Regarding time, a single detection item is faster in the range of 15.13 seconds to 15.60 seconds than searching for two things simultaneously. From the tracking radius of the outdoor area, the device can track items up to 31.8 meters from the last item's position. All information tracking history can be seen on the web application. The experiment results prove that D-Tags can be used to track items by indicating their location and with a relatively short search duration