Ubiquitous healthcare profile management applying smart card technology

Nowadays, the patient-centric healthcare approach is focused on ubiquitous healthcare services. Furthermore, the adoption of cloud computing technology leads to more efficient ubiquitous healthcare systems. Moreover, the personalization of the delivery of ubiquitous healthcare services is enabled with the introduction of user profiles. In this paper, we propose five generic healthcare profile structures corresponding to the main categories of the participating entities included in a typical ubiquitous healthcare system in a cloud computing environment. In addition, we propose a profile management system incorporating smart card technology to increase its efficiency and the quality of the provided services of the ubiquitous healthcare system

The use of social media for improving energy consumption awareness and efficiency: An overview of existing tools

Raising consumers’ awareness of energy consumption is one of the first steps in encouraging the adoption of energy saving behaviours that result in energy efficiency. Green information systems are becoming recognised as a solution to many environmental problems although information technology (e.g. disposal of IT devices) has also been associated with causing detrimental effects on the environment. Researchers and practitioners have begun to focus on Green ICT but there is little scholarly research on the use of ICT tools such as social media from an energy efficiency context to raise consumer awareness and improve their engagement in tackling environmental issues. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the use of social media and existing tools for the interaction of people on energy saving discussions and for generating awareness and engagement (which thereby leads to energy efficiency behaviour). In this paper the authors provide a state of the art review around the concept of energy awareness, models of consumer engagement, and more importantly the use of social media in the energy efficiency context. This research is based on a desk-based normative review and seeks to provide a better understanding to both scholars and practitioners involved in the use of ICT for driving energy consumer awareness and engagement for energy efficiency.This work evolved in the context of the project DAREED (Decision support Advisor for innovative business models and useR engagement for smart Energy Efficient Districts), www.dareed.eu, a project co-funded by the EC within FP7, Grant agreement no: 609082

System architecture and deployment scenarios for SESAME: small cEllS coordinAtion for Multi-tenancy and Edge services

The surge of the Internet traffic with exabytes of data flowing over operators’ mobile networks has created the need to rethink the paradigms behind the design of the mobile network architecture. The inadequacy of the 4G UMTS Long term Evolution (LTE) and even of its advanced version LTE-A is evident, considering that the traffic will be extremely heterogeneous in the near future and ranging from 4K resolution TV to machine-type communications. To keep up with these changes, academia, industries and EU institutions have now engaged in the quest for new 5G technology. In this paper we present the innovative system design, concepts and visions developed by the 5G PPP H2020 project SESAME (Small cEllS coordinAtion for Multi-tenancy and Edge services). The innovation of SESAME is manifold: i) combine the key 5G small cells with cloud technology, ii) promote and develop the concept of Small Cells-as-a-Service (SCaaS), iii) bring computing and storage power at the mobile network edge through the development of non-x86 ARM technology enabled micro-servers, and iv) address a large number of scenarios and use cases applying mobile edge computing

Fall Prediction and Prevention Systems: Recent Trends, Challenges, and Future Research Directions.

Fall prediction is a multifaceted problem that involves complex interactions between physiological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Existing fall detection and prediction systems mainly focus on physiological factors such as gait, vision, and cognition, and do not address the multifactorial nature of falls. In addition, these systems lack efficient user interfaces and feedback for preventing future falls. Recent advances in internet of things (IoT) and mobile technologies offer ample opportunities for integrating contextual information about patient behavior and environment along with physiological health data for predicting falls. This article reviews the state-of-the-art in fall detection and prediction systems. It also describes the challenges, limitations, and future directions in the design and implementation of effective fall prediction and prevention systems

Delivering elder-care environments utilizing TV-channel based mechanisms

In this paper, we present a smart environment for elderly. What makes the development of such system challenging is that the concept of smartness for elderly brings to the extreme the idea of invisibility of the technology. In our experience, elders are well-disposed to new technologies, provided that those will not require significant changes - namely, they are invisible - to their habits. Starting from this consideration, 200 caregivers responses were collected by questionnaire, so as to better understand elders' needs and habits. A system was subsequently developed allowing elders to access a number of "modern web services" as standard TV channels: at channel 43 there is the health status, at channel 45 the photos of the family, at 46 the agenda of the week, just to mention few of the available services. The content of such services is automatically generated by the smart devices in the environment and is managed by the caregivers (e.g., family members) by simple web apps. Fourteen families were asked to install the system in their house. The results of these experiments confirm that the proposed system is considered effective and user-friendly by elders

Management and Service-aware Networking Architectures (MANA) for Future Internet Position Paper: System Functions, Capabilities and Requirements

Future Internet (FI) research and development threads have recently been gaining momentum all over the world and as such the international race to create a new generation Internet is in full swing: GENI, Asia Future Internet, Future Internet Forum Korea, European Union Future Internet Assembly (FIA). This is a position paper identifying the research orientation with a time horizon of 10 years, together with the key challenges for the capabilities in the Management and Service-aware Networking Architectures (MANA) part of the Future Internet (FI) allowing for parallel and federated Internet(s)

Rationality VS Fashion In Cloud Adoption Decisions: The Case of Cloud-Enabled Payroll Systems

Cloud computing is an innovation said to be bringing radical changes in the way organisations interact with information systems. Decision makers seek for reasons that make the adoption of cloud computing meaningful (or not) for their organisation. At the same time, several stakeholders strive to promote cloud as a ‘must-do’ innovation. Given the hype that currently surrounds cloud computing, it is worth investigating whether the rationale behind the decision to adopt cloud is partly muddled by an apparent simplicity of choice for decision makers: ‘to adopt or fail’. Based on indications in the existing literature and recent empirical findings, weargue that in addition to the factors grouped under cloud’s relative advantage, IT- Fashion also influences the intention to adopt cloud which is currently overlooked. By using the example of cloud-enabled payroll systems, we demonstrate that IT-Fashion has also a significant impact on the intention to adopt cloud services

Taming the cloud: Safety, certification and compliance for software services - Keynote at the Workshop on Engineering Service-Oriented Applications (WESOA) 2011

The maturity of IT processes, such as software development, can be and is often certified. Current trends in the IT industry suggest that software systems in the future will be very different from their counterparts today, with an increasing adoption of the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) design pattern and the deployment of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on Cloud infrastructures. In this talk we discuss some issues surrounding engineering Software Services for Cloud infrastructures and highlight the need for enhanced control, service-level agreement and compliance mechanisms for Software Services. Cloud Infrastructures and Service Mash-ups