Tandem: A Context-Aware Method for Spontaneous Clustering of Dynamic Wireless Sensor Nodes

Wireless sensor nodes attached to everyday objects and worn by people are able to collaborate and actively assist users in their activities. We propose a method through which wireless sensor nodes organize spontaneously into clusters based on a common context. Provided that the confidence of sharing a common context varies in time, the algorithm takes into account a window-based history of believes. We approximate the behaviour of the algorithm using a Markov chain model and we analyse theoretically the cluster stability. We compare the theoretical approximation with simulations, by making use of experimental results reported from field tests. We show the tradeoff between the time history necessary to achieve a certain stability and the responsiveness of the clustering algorithm

The ArgoNeuT Detector in the NuMI Low-Energy beam line at Fermilab

The ArgoNeuT liquid argon time projection chamber has collected thousands of neutrino and antineutrino events during an extended run period in the NuMI beam-line at Fermilab. This paper focuses on the main aspects of the detector layout and related technical features, including the cryogenic equipment, time projection chamber, read-out electronics, and off-line data treatment. The detector commissioning phase, physics run, and first neutrino event displays are also reported. The characterization of the main working parameters of the detector during data-taking, the ionization electron drift velocity and lifetime in liquid argon, as obtained from through-going muon data complete the present report.Comment: 43 pages, 27 figures, 5 tables - update referenc

Designing Tactile Interfaces for Abstract Interpersonal Communication, Pedestrian Navigation and Motorcyclists Navigation

The tactile medium of communication with users is appropriate for displaying information in situations where auditory and visual mediums are saturated. There are situations where a subject's ability to receive information through either of these channels is severely restricted by the environment they are in or through any physical impairments that the subject may have. In this project, we have focused on two groups of users who need sustained visual and auditory focus in their task: Soldiers on the battle field and motorcyclists. Soldiers on the battle field use their visual and auditory capabilities to maintain awareness of their environment to guard themselves from enemy assault. One of the major challenges to coordination in a hazardous environment is maintaining communication between team members while mitigating cognitive load. Compromise in communication between team members may result in mistakes that can adversely affect the outcome of a mission. We have built two vibrotactile displays, Tactor I and Tactor II, each with nine actuators arranged in a three-by-three matrix with differing contact areas that can represent a total of 511 shapes. We used two dimensions of tactile medium, shapes and waveforms, to represent verb phrases and evaluated ability of users to perceive verb phrases the tactile code. We evaluated the effectiveness of communicating verb phrases while the users were performing two tasks simultaneously. The results showed that performing additional visual task did not affect the accuracy or the time taken to perceive tactile codes. Another challenge in coordinating Soldiers on a battle field is navigating them to respective assembly areas. We have developed HaptiGo, a lightweight haptic vest that provides pedestrians both navigational intelligence and obstacle detection capabilities. HaptiGo consists of optimally-placed vibro-tactile sensors that utilize natural and small form factor interaction cues, thus emulating the sensation of being passively guided towards the intended direction. We evaluated HaptiGo and found that it was able to successfully navigate users with timely alerts of incoming obstacles without increasing cognitive load, thereby increasing their environmental awareness. Additionally, we show that users are able to respond to directional information without training. The needs of motorcyclists are di erent from those of Soldiers. Motorcyclists' need to maintain visual and auditory situational awareness at all times is crucial since they are highly exposed on the road. Route guidance systems, such as the Garmin, have been well tested on automobilists, but remain much less safe for use by motorcyclists. Audio/visual routing systems decrease motorcyclists' situational awareness and vehicle control, and thus increase the chances of an accident. To enable motorcyclists to take advantage of route guidance while maintaining situational awareness, we created HaptiMoto, a wearable haptic route guidance system. HaptiMoto uses tactile signals to encode the distance and direction of approaching turns, thus avoiding interference with audio/visual awareness. Evaluations show that HaptiMoto is intuitive for motorcyclists, and a safer alternative to existing solutions

Buildings Sustainability — The Non-Intrusive Load-Identification System Contribution

Buildings are responsible for an important share of the global energy consumed with the associated consequences at economic and environmental level. To overcome this actual concern several objectives were put in perspective, being one of them the energetic performance of systems and appliances. Efficiency depends on working on optimal conditions and user behavior. Monitoring of the energy consumption of each electric load is important but the use of decentralized energy is not feasible at present due to the huge number of loads connected to the electric grid. An alternative consists on the use of a centralized measurement device able to identify loads. This work presents a measurement infrastructure that have, among others, the possibility to make the identification of electrical loads data will be used to improve the energetic performance of households and buildings and increase the sustainability of the energy system.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multistage, multiband and sequential imagery to identify and quantify non-forest vegetation resources

Earth Resources photographs from Apollo 6, 7, and 9 and photographs taken during Gemini 4, were used in the research along with high altitude and conventional aerial photography. A unified land use and resource analysis system was devised and used to develop a mapping legend. The natural vegetation, land use, macrorelief, and landforms of northern Maricopa County, Arizona, were analyzed and inventoried. This inventory was interpreted in relation to the critical problem of urban expansion and agricultural production in the study area. The central thrust of the research program has been to develop methods for use of space and small-scale, high-altitude aerial photography to develop information for land use planning and resource allocation decisions

Quality assessment technique for ubiquitous software and middleware

The new paradigm of computing or information systems is ubiquitous computing systems. The technology-oriented issues of ubiquitous computing systems have made researchers pay much attention to the feasibility study of the technologies rather than building quality assurance indices or guidelines. In this context, measuring quality is the key to developing high-quality ubiquitous computing products. For this reason, various quality models have been defined, adopted and enhanced over the years, for example, the need for one recognised standard quality model (ISO/IEC 9126) is the result of a consensus for a software quality model on three levels: characteristics, sub-characteristics, and metrics. However, it is very much unlikely that this scheme will be directly applicable to ubiquitous computing environments which are considerably different to conventional software, trailing a big concern which is being given to reformulate existing methods, and especially to elaborate new assessment techniques for ubiquitous computing environments. This paper selects appropriate quality characteristics for the ubiquitous computing environment, which can be used as the quality target for both ubiquitous computing product evaluation processes ad development processes. Further, each of the quality characteristics has been expanded with evaluation questions and metrics, in some cases with measures. In addition, this quality model has been applied to the industrial setting of the ubiquitous computing environment. These have revealed that while the approach was sound, there are some parts to be more developed in the future

A Self-Organization Framework for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks as Small Worlds

Motivated by the benefits of small world networks, we propose a self-organization framework for wireless ad hoc networks. We investigate the use of directional beamforming for creating long-range short cuts between nodes. Using simulation results for randomized beamforming as a guideline, we identify crucial design issues for algorithm design. Our results show that, while significant path length reduction is achievable, this is accompanied by the problem of asymmetric paths between nodes. Subsequently, we propose a distributed algorithm for small world creation that achieves path length reduction while maintaining connectivity. We define a new centrality measure that estimates the structural importance of nodes based on traffic flow in the network, which is used to identify the optimum nodes for beamforming. We show, using simulations, that this leads to significant reduction in path length while maintaining connectivity.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog