2,838 research outputs found
Scaffolding in Indoor and Outdoor Mobility a Wearable and Mobile Application for Senior Tourism in a Playable City
The growth of urban population and the challenges of an ageing society have brought to the fore the need of innovative ways to re-invent sustainable healthy ageing lifestyles and meet the growing demand on transport and residents’ assistance with ageing-in-place. Fatalities involving older adult pedestrians is a major problem in EU urban areas, given the general lack of information about traffic and road conditions. Indoor and Outdoor Mobility are also likely to affect Senior Tourism and older adults’ travel patterns. This paper proposes a digital application designed for wearables and mobile devices that engages the users in a set of missions and routes that are customized to their context and mobility condition, based on a multi-peer review system.This work was supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and ESF under Community Support Framework III – the project SEDUCE 2.0 nr. POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 031696.publishe
The Socio-Economic Impact of the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Catalonia
This report presents the finding of a study undertaken in 2007 by the Centre of Land Policy and Valuations of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya on the socio-economic impact of the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of Catalonia. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission commissioned the study and recommended the methodology. The study is based on a sample of 20 local authorities participating in the Catalan SDI, together with 3 control local authorities not participating in the SDI, and 15 end-user organisations, of which 12 are private companies operating in the Geographic Information (GI) sector, and 3 are large institutional users of GI. The study found that the total direct cost of establishing and operating the Catalan SDI (IDEC) over a five year period (2002-06) was of ¿1.5 million, of which ¿325,000 for each of the first two years (2002-03) necessary to launch the SDI, and ¿283,000 per annum to operate and develop the infrastructure in the three subsequent years (2004-06). Human resources represented 76% of the costs during the launch period (the rest being capital investment), and 91% during operation. The economic benefits in terms of increased internal efficiency of local public administrations for 2006 alone exceed ¿2.6 million per year. Therefore the study concludes that the total investment to set up the IDEC and develop it over a four year period (2002-05) is recovered in just over 6 months. Wider socio-economic benefits have also been identified but not quantified. In particular, the study indicates that web-based spatial services allow smaller local authorities to narrow the digital divide with larger ones in the provision of services to citizens and companies. The illustrative case-study of the difference between two local communes, one which enables citizens to query their cadastral parcels and get all the necessary planning and building permission on line, while the other requires the process to be done by hand after making an appointment with the local technician illustrates well the opportunities offered by the IDEC. In addition to evaluating the socio-economic impact of the SDI in Catalonia, the study reflects on the indicators used for the study and the limitations encountered in collecting the necessary information, with suggestions for future work in this important field of research.JRC.H.6-Spatial data infrastructure
Digital fitness: Self-monitored fitness and the commodification of movement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY_ND) Licence. For information on use, visit www.creativecommons.org/licenses.This article moves beyond a history of domestic home video fitness programs to explore digital fitness with specific attention to the self-monitored fitness 'movement' and the hardware and software that facilitate its proliferation. The research in this area is currently conducted through preliminary small scale studies, alongside some flawed but still (inadvertently) useful undergraduate and graduate projects. Popular cultural interest is burgeoning, with the popularity of the Fitbit suite and the iWatch surging through an array of commentaries on blogs, YouTube videos, tweets and Facebook posts. This theoretical paper links digitisation with fitness to explore the balance between self-monitoring and surveillance, motivation and shaming. The Fitbit is an example of this self-monitored fitness 'movement' that reveals the ambivalence of quantifying steps and stairs while managing a volatile neoliberal working environment
An exploration of IoT platform development
IoT (Internet of Things) platforms are key enablers for smart city initiatives, targeting the improvement of citizens\u27 quality of life and economic growth. As IoT platforms are dynamic, proactive, and heterogeneous socio-technical artefacts, systematic approaches are required for their development. Limited surveys have exclusively explored how IoT platforms are developed and maintained from the perspective of information system development process lifecycle. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of 63 approaches. This is accomplished by proposing an evaluation framework as a cornerstone to highlight the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of these approaches. The survey results not only provide insights of empirical findings, recommendations, and mechanisms for the development of quality aware IoT platforms, but also identify important issues and gaps that need to be addressed
The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education
The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education
Feasibility Study for “Mobility as a Service” concept in London
Novel mobility services that heavily rely on technological advances could contribute to seamless mobility. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is such a concept. The objective of the FS-MaaS project is to propose the design of a MaaS concept for London, the MaaS-London, and examine its feasibility. To work towards the concept of MaaS-London, first, the supply and the demand sides of the London transport market are analysed. There are a variety of mobility services supplied in London such as car clubs (car sharing), ride sharing, bike sharing, public transport, rail and taxi which altogether make London an ideal ground to exploit MaaS-London. The MaaS-London is an integrated platform that includes registration and package selection, intermodal journey planning, booking, smart ticketing and payment functions so that the entire chain of transport can be managed in this centralised platform. The most outstanding feature of MaaS-London is the provision of mobility packages, which consist of tailored bundles of mobility services customised to individual needs. The feasibility study indicates that the introduction of MaaS-London will benefit both the supply and the demand side. Transport operators will benefit by creating a larger market via the integrated platform. Travellers will also welcome the concept due to travel expense and time reduction, and better service experience. MaaS-London is a feasible product that can well serve London transport market and contribute to London’s 2020 vision
Mobile services for green living
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Information Management, specialization in Geographic Information SystemsUrban cycling is a sustainable transport mode that many cities are promoting.
However, few cities are taking advantage of geospatial technologies to represent
and analyse behavioural patterns and barriers faced during cycling. This thesis
is within the fields of geoinformatics and serious games, and the motivation
came from our desire to help both citizens and cities to better understand cyclist
behaviour and mobility patterns. We attempted to learn more about the impact
of gamified strategies on engagement with cycling, the reasons for choosing
between mobile cycling applications and the way such applications would provide
commuting information. Furthermore, we explored the potential benefits of offering
tools to build decision-making for mobility more transparent, to increase cycling
data availability, and to analyse commuting patterns. In general, we found our
research useful to enhance green living actions by increasing citizens’ willingness
to commute by bicycle or communicating cycling conditions in cities.
For urban cycling, data coming from mobile phones can provide a better assessment
and enrich the analysis presented in traditional mobility plans. However,
the diversity of current mobile applications targeting cyclists does not provide
useful data for analysing commuter (inner-city, non-sporting) cycling. Just a few
cyclists are adopting these applications as part of their commuting routine, while
on the other hand cities are lacking a valuable source of constantly updated cycling
information helpful to understand cycling patterns and the role of bicycles in urban
transport.
This thesis analyses how the incentives of location-based games or geo-games
might increase urban cycling engagement and, through this engagement, crowdsource
cycling data collection to allow cities to better comprehend cycling patterns.
Consequently, the experiment followed a between-groups design to measure the
impact of virtual rewards provided by the Cyclist Geo-c application on the levels of intention, satisfaction, and engagement with cycling. Then, to identify the frictions
which potentially inhibit bicycle commuting, we analysed the bicycle trips crowdsourced
with the geo-game. Our analysis relied on a hexagonal grid of 30-metre
cell side to aggregate trip trajectories, calculate the friction intensity and locate the
frictions.
The thesis reports on the results of an experiment which involved a total of
57 participants in three European cities: M¨unster (Germany), Castell ´o (Spain),
and Valletta (Malta). We found participants reported higher satisfaction and
engagement with cycling during the experiment in the collaboration condition.
However, we did not find a significant impact on the participants’ worldview when
it comes to the intentions to start or increase cycling. The results support the
use of collaboration-based rewards in the design of game-based applications to
promote urban cycling. Furthermore, we validated a procedure to identify not only
the cyclists’ preferred streets but also the frictions faced during cycling analysing
the crowdsourced trips. We successfully identified 284 places potentially having
frictions: 71 in M¨unster, Germany; 70 in Castell ´ o, Spain; and 143 in Valletta,
Malta. At such places, participants recorded trip segments at speeds below 5
Km/h indicating a deviation from a hypothetical scenario with a constant cycling
speed.
This thesis encompasses the cyclist and city perspectives of offering virtual
incentives in geo-games and crowdsourcing cycling data collection to better comprehend
cycling conditions in cities. We also compiled a set of tools and recommendations
for researchers, practitioners, mobile developers, urban planners and
cyclist associations interested in fostering sustainable transport and the use of
bicycles
Integrated Urban Sensing: A Geo-sensor Network for Public Health Monitoring and Beyond
Pervasive environmental monitoring implies a wide range of technical, but
also socio-political challenges, and this applies especially to the sensitive context of
the city. In this paper, we elucidate issues for bringing out pervasive urban sensor
networks and associated concerns relating to fine-grained information provision. We
present the Common Scents project, which is based on the Live Geography
approach, and show how it can overcome these challenges. As opposed to hitherto
sensing networks, which are mostly built up in monolithic and closed systems, the
Common Scents approach aims to establish an open, standards based and modular
infrastructure. This ensures interoperability, portability and flexibility, which are crucial
prerequisites for pervasive urban sensing. The implementation – a real-time data
integration and analysis system for air quality assessment – has been realised on top
of the CitySense sensor network in the City of Cambridge, MA US together with the
city’s Public Health Department responding to concrete needs of the city and its
inhabitants. The second pilot using mobile sensors mounted on bicycles has been
deployed in Copenhagen, Denmark. Preliminary results show highly fine-grained
variability of pollutant dispersion in urban environments.Singapore-MIT Alliance. Center for Environmental Sensing and MonitoringSingapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology CenterEuropean Commission (FP7 GENESIS project)Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und ForschungResearch Studio iSPAC
The Emerging Internet of Things Marketplace From an Industrial Perspective: A Survey
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a dynamic global information network
consisting of internet-connected objects, such as Radio-frequency
identification (RFIDs), sensors, actuators, as well as other instruments and
smart appliances that are becoming an integral component of the future
internet. Over the last decade, we have seen a large number of the IoT
solutions developed by start-ups, small and medium enterprises, large
corporations, academic research institutes (such as universities), and private
and public research organisations making their way into the market. In this
paper, we survey over one hundred IoT smart solutions in the marketplace and
examine them closely in order to identify the technologies used,
functionalities, and applications. More importantly, we identify the trends,
opportunities and open challenges in the industry-based the IoT solutions.
Based on the application domain, we classify and discuss these solutions under
five different categories: smart wearable, smart home, smart, city, smart
environment, and smart enterprise. This survey is intended to serve as a
guideline and conceptual framework for future research in the IoT and to
motivate and inspire further developments. It also provides a systematic
exploration of existing research and suggests a number of potentially
significant research directions.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing 201
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