A Model-Driven Cross-Platform App Development Process for Heterogeneous Device Classes

App development has gained importance since the advent of smartphones to enable the ubiquitous access to information. Until now, multi- or cross-platform approaches are usually limited to different platforms for smartphones and tablets. With the recent trend towards app-enabled mobile devices, a plethora of heterogeneous devices such as smartwatches and smart TVs continues to emerge. For app developers, the situation resembles the early days of smartphones but worsened by the widely differing hardware, platform capabilities, and usage patterns. In order to tackle the identified challenges of app development beyond the boundaries of individual device classes, a systematic process built on the model-driven paradigm is presented. In addition, we demonstrate its applicability using the MAML framework to create interoperable business apps for both smartphones and smartwatches from a common, platform-independent model

Cross-Platform Video Management Solutions

With a multitude of platform and operating system combinations available to- day, ranging from laptops and workstations to tablets and smartphones, users want to use their favorite applications regardless of device. Cross-platform development has thus become more important in recent years. When devel- oping a new application the developers must decide what platforms to support and what strategy to use to reach out to them. By developing both native and cross-platform prototypes we try to find advantages and disadvantages of using a cross-platform strategy for video management applications. We show that it indeed is possible to develop cross-platform video management applications for both Windows and OS X and find both advantages and disadvantages of this strategy. The result of this thesis state that the choice of cross-platform or not depends much on the situation and the preferences of the developers

Study, design and implementation of WebRTC for a realtime multimedia messaging application

Social networks are no longer a phenomenon; nowadays it is not that they are a reality but have become something indispensable. During its growth and consolidations period internet has suffered a great transformation due to the new kind of most demanded content. Sharing images, videos or even making calls with another user are tasks that an average user would make several times a day. This transition could only happen thanks to new technologies that not only simplify those tasks but, due to handheld devices' irruption, would work successfully under reasonable data and battery consumption rates. Videoconferences over the network and multimedia data streams in general have always gone hand in hand of closed software products like Macromedia Flash, for instance, that required of a plugin installation on the browser by the end user. Under those premises, this project will focus on the investigation of WebRTC as a technology capable of successfully achieving videoconferences between users without the need of any browser plugin. In order to verify the knowledge gathered through the study of the technology, the design, architecture and implementation of an application capable of doing so will be proposed

Inter-domain interoperability framework based on WebRTC

Nowadays, the communications paradigm is changing with the convergence of communication services to a model based on IP networks. Applications such as messaging or voice over IP are increasing its popularity and Communication Service Providers are focusing on offering this kind of services. Moreover, Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC) has emerged as a technology that eases the creation of web applications featuring Real-Time Communications over IP networks without the need to develop and install any plug-in. It lacks of specifications in the control plane, leaving the possibility to use WebRTC over tailored web signalling solutions or legacy networks such as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). This technology brings a wide range of possibilities for web developers, but Communication Service Providers are adviced to develop solutions based on the WebRTC technology as described in the Eurescom Study P2252. The lack of WebRTC specifications on the signalling platform together with the threats and opportunities that this technology represents for Communication Service Providers, makes evident the need of research on interoperability solutions for the different kind of signalling implementations and experimentation on the best way for Communication Service Providers to obtain the maximum benefit from WebRTC technology. The main goal of this thesis is precisely to develop a WebRTC interoperability framework and perform experiments on whether the Communication Service Providers should use their existing IMS solutions or develop tailored web signalling platforms for WebRTC deployments. In particular, the work developed in this thesis was completed under the framework of the Webrtc interOperability tested in coNtradictive DEployment scenaRios (WONDER) experimentation for the OpenLab project. OpenLab is a Large-scale integrating project (IP) and is part of the European Union Framework Programme 7 for Research and Development (FP7) addressing the work programme topic Future Internet Research and Experimentation.Actualmente, el paradigma de comunicaciones está cambiando gracias a la convergencia de los servicios de comunicaciones hacia un modelo basado en redes IP. Aplicaciones tales como la mensajería y la voz sobre IP están creciendo en popularidad mientras los proveedores de servicios de comunicaciones se centran en ofrecer este tipo de servicios basados en redes IP. Por otra parte, la tecnología WebRTC ha surgido para facilitar la creación de aplicaciones web que incluyan comunicaciones en tiempo real sobre redes IP sin la necesidad de desarrollar o instalar ningún complemento. Esta tecnología no especifica los protocolos o sistemas a utilizar en el plano de control, dejando a los desarrolladores la posibilidad de usar WebRTC sobre soluciones de señalizaci on web específicas o utilizar las redes de señalización existentes, tales como IMS. WebRTC abre un gran abanico de posibilidades a los desarrolladores web, aunque también se recomienda a los proveedores de servicios de comunicaciones que desarrollen soluciones basadas en WebRTC como se describe en el estudio P2252 de Eurescom. La falta de especificaciones en el plano de señalización junto a las oportunidades y amenazas que WebRTC representa para los proveedores de servicios de comunicaciones, hacen evidente la necesidad de investigar soluciones de interoperabilidad para las distintas implementaciones de las plataformas de señalización y de experimentar c omo los proveedores de servicios de comunicaciones pueden obtener el máximo provecho de la tecnología WebRTC. El objetivo principal de este Proyecto Fin de Carrera es desarrollar un marco de interoperabilidad para WebRTC y realizar experimentos que permitan determinar bajo que condiciones los proveedores de servicios de comunicaciones deben utilizar las plataformas de se~nalizaci on existentes (en este caso IMS) o desarrollar plataformas de señalización a medida basadas en tecnologías web para sus despliegues de WebRTC. En particular, el trabajo realizado en este Proyecto Fin de Carrera se llevó a cabo bajo el marco del proyecto WONDER para el programa OpenLab. OpenLab es un proyecto de integración a gran escala en el cual se desarrollan investigaciones y experimentos en el ámbito del futuro Internet y que forma parte del programa FP7 de la Unión Europea.Ingeniería de Telecomunicació

Plataforma de gestão para sistemas de transportes cooperativos

The rapid evolution of technology led to increased research in domains such as smart devices. As a result, the Internet of Things technology has expanded rapidly and is being used to solve challenges needing vast quantities of data from many devices. With this, the Smart City concept became more popular with the goal of establishing a healthy ecosystem in which the functioning of the city is enhanced. The European Commission subsequently adopted Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), which enables road users and traffic controllers to share information and coordinate their actions. In addition, the Institute of Telecommunications (IT) group has placed and continues to install Road Side Units (RSUs) on Portuguese roads. These intelligent devices may have radars, cameras, or other elements that aid in determining traffic patterns. This dissertation emerges in the context of offering a C-ITS platform capable of addressing the demands of IT researchers and delivering feedback to them and regular road users on traffic behavior or alerts. For the development of a proof-of-concept system, a user-centered design approach was adopted, beginning with the identification of target users and the collection of key requirements generated from usage scenarios. The developed system implemented a micro-service architecture. The proof-of-concept is composed by several modules responsible for handling the camera stream, admin privileges, radars data, creation of alerts and several streams of data. The presented system showed to be capable of providing useful information to the users and administrators. By using the developed platform, users may see a collection of information as charts, interact with the RSUs installed on the roadways, generate and display alerts, and interact with the camera’s live stream.A rápida evolução da tecnologia levou ao aumento da investigação em domínios como dispositivos inteligentes. Como resultado, a tecnologia da Internet of Things tem-se expandido rapidamente e está a ser usada para resolver desafios que necessitam de vastas quantidades de dados de muitos dispositivos. Com isto, o conceito de Cidades Inteligentes começou a ficar mais popular tendo por objetivo estabelecer um ecosistema saudável em que o funcionamento da cidade é melhorado. A Comissão Europeia adotou posteriormente os Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte Cooperativos (C-ITS), o que permite aos utilizadores de estrada e controladores de tráfego partilhar informações e coordenar as suas ações. Mais adiante, o grupo do Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) colocou e continua a instalar infraestrutura de comunicações (RSUs) nas estradas portuguesas. Estes dispositivos inteligentes podem ter radares, câmaras ou outros elementos acoplados que ajudam a determinar os padrões de tráfego. Esta dissertação surge no contexto de oferecer uma plataforma C-ITS capaz de atender às necessidades dos investigadores do IT e fornecer-lhes feedback bem como aos utilizadores regulares de estrada sobre o comportamento ou alertas do tráfego. Para o desenvolvimento de um sistema como prova de conceito, uma abordagem centrada no utilizador foi adotada, começando com a identificação dos utilizadores alvo e a recolha de requisitos-chave gerados a partir de cenários de uso. O sistema desenvolvido implementou uma arquitetura baseada em micro-serviços, composto por vários módulos responsáveis por manipular o fluxo de câmaras, privilégios de administrador, dados de radares, criação de alertas e diversos fluxos de dados. O sistema apresentado mostrou-se capaz de fornecer informações úteis aos utilizadores e administradores. Através da utilização da plataforma desenvolvida, os utilizadores podem ver um conjunto de informações como gráficos, interagir com as RSUs instaladas nas rodovias, gerar e exibir alertas e interagir com a transmissão ao vivo da câmara.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic

Liquid stream processing on the web: a JavaScript framework

The Web is rapidly becoming a mature platform to host distributed applications. Pervasive computing application running on the Web are now common in the era of the Web of Things, which has made it increasingly simple to integrate sensors and microcontrollers in our everyday life. Such devices are of great in- terest to Makers with basic Web development skills. With them, Makers are able to build small smart stream processing applications with sensors and actuators without spending a fortune and without knowing much about the technologies they use. Thanks to ongoing Web technology trends enabling real-time peer-to- peer communication between Web-enabled devices, Web browsers and server- side JavaScript runtimes, developers are able to implement pervasive Web ap- plications using a single programming language. These can take advantage of direct and continuous communication channels going beyond what was possible in the early stages of the Web to push data in real-time. Despite these recent advances, building stream processing applications on the Web of Things remains a challenging task. On the one hand, Web-enabled devices of different nature still have to communicate with different protocols. On the other hand, dealing with a dynamic, heterogeneous, and volatile environment like the Web requires developers to face issues like disconnections, unpredictable workload fluctuations, and device overload. To help developers deal with such issues, in this dissertation we present the Web Liquid Streams (WLS) framework, a novel streaming framework for JavaScript. Developers implement streaming operators written in JavaScript and may interactively and dynamically define a streaming topology. The framework takes care of deploying the user-defined operators on the available devices and connecting them using the appropriate data channel, removing the burden of dealing with different deployment environments from the developers. Changes in the semantic of the application and in its execution environment may be ap- plied at runtime without stopping the stream flow. Like a liquid adapts its shape to the one of its container, the Web Liquid Streams framework makes streaming topologies flow across multiple heterogeneous devices, enabling dynamic operator migration without disrupting the data flow. By constantly monitoring the execution of the topology with a hierarchical controller infrastructure, WLS takes care of parallelising the operator execution across multiple devices in case of bottlenecks and of recovering the execution of the streaming topology in case one or more devices disconnect, by restarting lost operators on other available devices

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue President\u27s Message Business Relationship Management: Does Your organization Need It? Predict Your organization\u27s ICT Future by Making lt Happen Safeguarding Campus Networks in an loT World What the Year 2020 Holds tor the Digital Campus Collaborating for Success The Campus of the Future: 2020 and Beyond The lnternet of Things, Higher Education, and lT: How Do We Fit ln? 201 6 institutional! Excellence Awar

Social augmented reality application: Enhancing remote collaboration in physical work context

Effective, collaborative problem solving in physical work requires building common ground and active awareness of the situation. The main hypothesis of this thesis is that mobile video conversations augmented with an on-screen drawing feature are beneficial for problem solving and communication in physical work contexts. The thesis consists of the description and analysis of the design process of a mobile video application called Social Augmented Reality (SoAR) and the results of related background and user research done in the construction, facility maintenance and quality management sectors. Mapping how the users experience solving physical tasks with SoAR and especially how the drawing feature is used are the key goals of the study. Methodologically the thesis is a combination of qualitative field and interview studies and digital tool design. The iterative design process of SoAR is founded on the research-based design framework developed by Teemu Leinonen (2010). The design and development steps are described and usability research is conducted in a controlled environment in order to learn how spoken language and drawing on screen intertwine when collaborating remotely using SoAR. Usability research indicates that pointing by drawing is experienced as effective and that drawing on screen allows compact use of spoken language. Data on current communication practices in construction, facility maintenance and quality management is collected through interviews and job shadowing. Augmented video calls with SoAR are piloted in actual work contexts, and the field tests are analyzed on the basis of recorded SoAR calls and final interviews with the users. Augmented video calls appear to have a lot of potential in enhancing remote collaboration due to effective pointing at task objects and locations. SoAR is an open-source mobile application and one of the products developed in the Learning Environments research group of Aalto University, Department of Media, as a part of the Learning Layers EU project. The original concept of the application was developed by Doctoral Candidate Jana Pejoska

A framework to achieve mobile business success

Num contexto de sociedade que continua a evoluir cada vez mais rápido, é apenas natural que o comércio acompanhe. Note-se a evolução etimológica que acompanha a palavra inglesa para negócio: business; e-business, m-business. A Internet trouxe um grande leque de possibilidades de sucesso para as organizações, empreendedores, equipas de gestão e consumidores. Em paralelo com a facilidade de acesso que esta nova cultura trouxe, nasce também uma nova personalidade associada aos consumidores, uma personalidade mais exigente. As possibilidades infinitas da Internet faz com que, para empreendedores e equipas de gestão, o estudo de mercado tenha de ser constante. Por isso mesmo, hoje, quais são os fatores chave de sucesso para o m-business? Quais são os fatores mais importantes na mente da amostra considerada neste estudo da comunidade online? Será que esses fatores estão correlacionados? E como? Quais são os fatores a que se deve prestar atenção? Os resultados mostram que há um conjunto de funcionalidades que se agrupam em três fatores principais: “confiança no negócio em si”; serviço ao cliente”; “trabalho de desenvolvimento web”. São ainda apresentadas diferentes correlações entre as variáveis, a ter em conta aquando da entrada no m-business.Following in the footsteps of society’s rapid evolution, business is undergoing a dramatic transformation of its own: from business, to e-business and now, mobile business. The Internet has brought forth a new and broad possibility of success to organizations, business owners, management teams and consumers. Furthermore, the accessibility to information has also created an increasing amount of consumers who are more informed and enlightened, and demand accountability and integrity. The infinite possibilities of the Internet for business entrepreneurs and management teams require more frequent studies for this market. The emerging questions are: what are really the key factors for the success of mobile business? What are the most important factors to a studied sample from the online community? Are any of those factors correlated, and if so, how? What factors should business pay close attention to? The results show that there are three main factors grouping the different features of mobile business and apps: trust for the business itself, costumer care, and web development work. Furthermore, different correlations are presented between the variables, which are essential to consider when entering m-business