Design of multimedia processor based on metric computation

Media-processing applications, such as signal processing, 2D and 3D graphics rendering, and image compression, are the dominant workloads in many embedded systems today. The real-time constraints of those media applications have taxing demands on today's processor performances with low cost, low power and reduced design delay. To satisfy those challenges, a fast and efficient strategy consists in upgrading a low cost general purpose processor core. This approach is based on the personalization of a general RISC processor core according the target multimedia application requirements. Thus, if the extra cost is justified, the general purpose processor GPP core can be enforced with instruction level coprocessors, coarse grain dedicated hardware, ad hoc memories or new GPP cores. In this way the final design solution is tailored to the application requirements. The proposed approach is based on three main steps: the first one is the analysis of the targeted application using efficient metrics. The second step is the selection of the appropriate architecture template according to the first step results and recommendations. The third step is the architecture generation. This approach is experimented using various image and video algorithms showing its feasibility

Support Systems on the Industrial Shop-floors of the Future – Operators’ Perspective on Augmented Reality

AbstractWith augmented reality, virtual information can be overlaid on the real world in order to enhance a human's perception of reality. In this study, we aim to deepen the knowledge of augmented reality in the shop-floor context and analyze its role within smart factories of the future. The study evaluates a number of approaches for realizing augmented reality and discusses advantages and disadvantages of different solutions from a shop-floor operator's perspective. The evaluation is done in collaboration with industrial companies, including Volvo Cars and Volvo GTO amongst others. The study also identifies important future research directions for utilizing the full potential of the technology and successfully implement it on industrial shop-floors

Exploring DIY practices of complex home technologies

We are surrounded by increasingly complex networks of smart objects, yet our understanding and attachment to them is rather limited. One way to support stronger end users’ engagement with such complex technologies is by involving them in the design process and with the advent of Arduino prototyping platform, even in their making. While DIY practice offers the potential for stronger user engagement with physical artifacts, we know little about end users’ DIY practice of making complex electronic technologies and their potential to ensure engagement with such devices. In this paper, we report on interviews with 18 participants from two green communities who built and used an open source DIY energy monitor, with the aim to explore the end users DIY practices of making such complex electronic devices. Findings indicate four key qualities of DIY monitors: transparent modularity, open-endedness, heirloom and disruptiveness, and how they contribute to more meaningful engagement with the DIY monitors, elevating them from the status of unremarkable objects to that of things. We conclude with three implications for design for supporting end user development of complex electronic DIY: designing transparent open hardware technologies, standardizing communication protocols for the current and future DIY of IoT; and deliberately calling for personal investment and labor in the assembling of DIY kits

IMPROVING ADAPTIVE LEARNING IN A SMART LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

It has been broadly argued that, in the near future, the demand for skilled labor will increase whilst that for routine activities will decrease. In this regard, the need for making greater investments in education to re-skill workers and support continuous learning has been invoked as an essential requirement for preserving people’s employability.Digital technology is deemed increasingly necessary to sustain the educational endeavor, for the possibilities it offers to make more accessible and low-cost educational interventions. It allows for the creation of personalized learning paths and customized digital learning solutions, for courses to be available to a large attendance of learners, and for teaching-learning activities to be offered at significantly reduced cost.In this article, a learning unit structure designed to improve adaptive learning is proposed, and mechanisms for adaptive learning in a smart learning environment are discussed.The implemented teaching-learning solution is also illustrated. This is a preliminary application based on an approach that combines the teacher experience with learning analytics.

High performance annotation-aware JVM for Java cards

Early applications of smart cards have focused in the area of per-sonal security. Recently, there has been an increasing demand for networked, multi-application cards. In this new scenario, enhanced application-specific on-card Java applets and complex cryptographic services are executed through the smart card Java Virtual Machine (JVM). In order to support such computation-intensive applica-tions, contemporary smart cards are designed with built-in micro-processors and memory. As smart cards are highly area-constrained environments with memory, CPU and peripherals competing for a very small die space, the VM execution engine of choice is often a small, slow interpreter. In addition, support for multiple applica-tions and cryptographic services demands high performance VM execution engine. The above necessitates the optimization of the JVM for Java Cards