Chasing Lions: Co-Designing Human-Drone Interaction in Sub-Saharan Africa

Drones are an exciting technology that is quickly being adopted in the global consumer market. Africa has become a center of deployment with the first drone airport established in Rwanda and drones currently being used for applications such as medical deliveries, agriculture, and wildlife monitoring. Despite this increasing presence of drones, there is a lack of research on stakeholders' perspectives from this region. We ran a human-drone interaction user study (N=15) with experts from several sub-Saharan countries using a co-design methodology. Participants described novel applications and identified important design aspects for the integration of drones in this context. Our results highlight the potential of drones to address real world problems, the need for them to be culturally situated, and the importance of considering the social aspects of their interaction with humans. This research highlights the need for diverse perspectives in the human-drone interaction design process.Comment: To be published in the ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '20

People Can Be So Fake: A New Dimension to Privacy and Technology Scholarship

This article updates the traditional discussion of privacy and technology, focused since the days of Warren and Brandeis on the capacity of technology to manipulate information. It proposes a novel dimension to the impact of anthropomorphic or social design on privacy. Technologies designed to imitate people-through voice, animation, and natural language-are increasingly commonplace, showing up in our cars, computers, phones, and homes. A rich literature in communications and psychology suggests that we are hardwired to react to such technology as though a person were actually present. Social interfaces accordingly capture our attention, improve interactivity, and can free up our hands for other tasks. At the same time, technologies that imitate people have the potential to implicate long-standing privacy values. One of the well-documented effects on users of interfaces and devices that emulate people is the sensation of being observed and evaluated. Their presence can alter our attitude, behavior, and physiological state. Widespread adoption of such technology may accordingly lessen opportunities for solitude and chill curiosity and self-development. These effects are all the more dangerous in that they cannot be addressed through traditional privacy protections such as encryption or anonymization. At the same time, the unique properties of social technology also present an opportunity to improve privacy, particularly online

Automated Library Booktruck For Traditional Libraries

Published ArticleLibraries are an integral part of our society’s knowledge repository and even though technological advances such as the internet, smart devices and an ‘always-connected-society’, provide avenues for fast and almost instantaneous access to knowledge, libraries still provide a physical place for the collection and dissemination of knowledge. The prompt shelving of the physical returned library books is an important task in any traditional library. To help speed up the shelving process, this paper proposed and simulated an automated booktruck that is capable of moving returned library books from the return desk back to the shelves. The simulation models currently available robotic hardware and implemented path finding and localization. The simulation results showed that returned books can be delivered to the shelves four times faster than the by using the current practices

AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs

This report is the latest in a sustained effort throughout 2014 by the Pew Research Center's Internet Project to mark the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (The Web at 25).The report covers experts' views about advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, and their impact on jobs and employment

A gentle transition from Java programming to Web Services using XML-RPC

Exposing students to leading edge vocational areas of relevance such as Web Services can be difficult. We show a lightweight approach by embedding a key component of Web Services within a Level 3 BSc module in Distributed Computing. We present a ready to use collection of lecture slides and student activities based on XML-RPC. In addition we show that this material addresses the central topics in the context of web services as identified by Draganova (2003)

Utilization of Contemporary Technologies for Service Delivery in Special Libraries in Enugu State, Nigeria : A Survey

Contemporary technologies involve the application of modern scientific knowledge in doing things in a much quicker and efficient ways which improve the workflow. Either it could be helping humans or doing the task alone, machines are always better in terms of accuracy and efficiency. This study therefore examines the extent at which special libraries in Enugu State, Nigeria utilize contemporary technologies for service delivery. The study which employed descriptive survey design, was guided by five research questions framed in line with the research objectives with a sampled population of 15 librarians derived from the six selected special libraries while the principle instruments used in obtaining data for the study were Observational checklist of 24 items and structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using frequency count, mean, Standard deviations and rankings and presented in tables. The outcome of the study did show that contemporary technologies are under-utilized for service delivery in most special libraries in Enugu State a microcosm of the macrocosm Nigeria, although they complement many of the services provided by the special libraries, also the study revealed that contemporary technologies to a high extent are beneficial and contribute immensely to quality services delivery whereas, inadequate funding and epileptic power supply were part of the challenges identified militating against optimal utilization of these technologies of which solutions were proffered. . Recommendations were made based on the findings which includes steady or alternative power supply, adequate funding, consistent and constant training of staff to upgrade their skill on the use of contemporary technologies

Enlightened shelf awareness

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-55).The use of RFID technology in libraries has increased to the point where it is now the centerpiece of emerging automated self-checkout, return, and theft detection systems. With the external borders of the library secure, focus has shifted to improve the internal state of a library's collection, which is subjected daily to use and abuse by library patrons. In this thesis I present BookBot, a robot equipped with RFID readers, that automates the otherwise manual shelf-reading process and helps librarians keep their database in sync with the library's physical inventory. Experiments on single shelves and entire bookcases confirm that this robot-assisted approach to inventory management can not only detect misplaced books reliably, but accurately determine the order of the books on the shelves and even localize the coordinates of each book to within a few centimeters, enabling both the librarian and the user to reach a state of Enlightened Shelf Awareness.by Isaac M. Ehrenberg.S.M

Quo vadimus? The 21st Century and multimedia

The concept is related of computer driven multimedia to the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP). Multimedia is defined here as computer integration and output of text, animation, audio, video, and graphics. Multimedia is the stage of computer based information that allows access to experience. The concepts are also drawn in of hypermedia, intermedia, interactive multimedia, hypertext, imaging, cyberspace, and virtual reality. Examples of these technology developments are given for NASA, private industry, and academia. Examples of concurrent technology developments and implementations are given to show how these technologies, along with multimedia, have put us at the threshold of the 21st century. The STI Program sees multimedia as an opportunity for revolutionizing the way STI is managed