Trying to break new ground in aerial archaeology

Aerial reconnaissance continues to be a vital tool for landscape-oriented archaeological research. Although a variety of remote sensing platforms operate within the earth’s atmosphere, the majority of aerial archaeological information is still derived from oblique photographs collected during observer-directed reconnaissance flights, a prospection approach which has dominated archaeological aerial survey for the past century. The resulting highly biased imagery is generally catalogued in sub-optimal (spatial) databases, if at all, after which a small selection of images is orthorectified and interpreted. For decades, this has been the standard approach. Although many innovations, including digital cameras, inertial units, photogrammetry and computer vision algorithms, geographic(al) information systems and computing power have emerged, their potential has not yet been fully exploited in order to re-invent and highly optimise this crucial branch of landscape archaeology. The authors argue that a fundamental change is needed to transform the way aerial archaeologists approach data acquisition and image processing. By addressing the very core concepts of geographically biased aerial archaeological photographs and proposing new imaging technologies, data handling methods and processing procedures, this paper gives a personal opinion on how the methodological components of aerial archaeology, and specifically aerial archaeological photography, should evolve during the next decade if developing a more reliable record of our past is to be our central aim. In this paper, a possible practical solution is illustrated by outlining a turnkey aerial prospection system for total coverage survey together with a semi-automated back-end pipeline that takes care of photograph correction and image enhancement as well as the management and interpretative mapping of the resulting data products. In this way, the proposed system addresses one of many bias issues in archaeological research: the bias we impart to the visual record as a result of selective coverage. While the total coverage approach outlined here may not altogether eliminate survey bias, it can vastly increase the amount of useful information captured during a single reconnaissance flight while mitigating the discriminating effects of observer-based, on-the-fly target selection. Furthermore, the information contained in this paper should make it clear that with current technology it is feasible to do so. This can radically alter the basis for aerial prospection and move landscape archaeology forward, beyond the inherently biased patterns that are currently created by airborne archaeological prospection

Storing encrypted patient data in a public cloud

The Finnish laws on individual’s data security as well as The General Data Protec- tion Regulation (EU) (GDPR) are legislations requiring caution from an organiza- tion handling private data. A healthcare organization is required to exercise extreme caution when handling health data as the GDPR considers individual’s health data ”a special category of personal data”, as it is sensitive by nature. Public cloud providers such as Google Cloud Platform promise to make developing and hosting web applications simpler. However trusting a third party such as Google with individual’s health data increases the requirements for security. The developer may want to implement additional security measures on top of those provided by default by the cloud provider. Modern cryptographic algorithms use keys to encrypt and decrypt data. However, storing the keys in a secure and performant way is no simple task. This thesis includes an implementation of a server application built to mimic a real world application for handling patient data. The application is built with TypeScript and hosted in Google Cloud Platform’s services. The application is used to analyze the added complexity and performance deficit of implementing strong encryption. The complexity and performance differences with the application in encrypted mode are notable. However, a lot of the complexity can be mitigated with good design. No complex cryptographic algorithms have to be understood by the developer to be able to implement strong encryption. Existing tools and libraries handle most of the work

Monitoring and Detection of Hotspots using Satellite Images

Nowadays, the usage of optical remote sensing NOAA-AVHRR satellite data is getting familiar as it is known can save cost in order to capture a wide coverage of ground image. The captured images are meaningful after several processes done over it to produce hotspot detection. Developing a specific database to store information of Hotspots (LAC images) would make datamanagement and archiving purpose in more efficient and systematic way. Real-time data gathered are monitored countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei within the region of NOAA Satellite coverage area. PostGIS, PostgreSQL, Mapserver and Autodesk MapGuide Studio software are to be studied as a guide to develop a system with simple database using object-relational database management system to store raster and vector images. This paper describes a solution for efficient handling of large raster image data sets in a standard object-relational database management system. By means of adequate indexing, retrieval techniques and multi resolution cell indexing (Quad-Tree) can be achieved using a standard DBMS, even for very large satellite images. Single image will be divided equally into 64 small squares (3 levels of image hierarchy - each level has 4 sub images of the higher image). Partial information of Daily Haze report (processed Hotspot on image map) produces by NREB can be viewed using web-based application. The final product of this project is a web-based application for displaying Hotspots on maps (combination of raster and vector images) with the ability to search record from database and functions to zoom in or zoom out the map. The objective of this paper is also to show the way satellite images and descriptive information are combined and amalgamated to form an Internet or Intranet application

Development of a Radiology Information Systems (RIS)

Un sistema d'informació de radiologia o RIS és un sistema de programari unificat que té com a objectiu gestionar totes les dades i donar suport a tots els processos de negoci i fluxos de treball necessaris en un centre de radiologia. Aquest document mostra el procés de dissenyar, desenvolupar, i implantar una solució de nova creació. En aquest document s'explica tot el procés des de l'anàlisi prèvia fins al resultat final. És important tenir en compte que, a causa de les restriccions d'extensió i de temps, s'ha seleccionat acuradament un abast representatiu més reduït de manera que encara il·lustra el millor posible el projecte.A Radiology Information System or RIS is a unified software system which that aims to manage all the data and support all the required business processes and workflows in a radiology center. This document showcases the process of designing, developing, and implanting a newly created solution. The whole process starting from the prior analysis up to the final result is explained in this document. It is important to note that due to extension and time constraints, a smaller representative scope has been carefully selected in a way that still illustrates the larger project as best as possible

Cloud-based system for IoT data acquisition

IoT permite-nos trazer o mundo físico para o mundo virtual, dando o poder de o controlar e monitorizar. Isto tem encorajado um aumento no interesse em IoT, devido às múltiplas aplicações nos mais variados contextos. Ainda assim sistemas de IoT enfrentam desafios tais como o suporte de altos volume de conexões ou a baixa capacidade de computação face a algoritmos para segurança dos dados. O objectivo desta dissertação é criar um sistema de recolha de dados de sensor de qualidade do ar que resolva esses desafios usando tecnologias de estado de arte, dando preferência a ferramentas de código aberto. O sistema foi implementado em volta Apache Kafka, com Spring Boot e VerneMQ responsáveis por receber dados e PostgreSQL, com plugin Timescale, encarregue de os guardar. Um protótipo do sistema foi implementado usando contentores Docker, mas não foi possível organiza-los com Kubernetes; Abstract: Cloud-based system for IoT data acquisition The purpose of IoT is to bring the physical world into a digital one and allowing it to be controlled and monitored from a virtual standpoint. The interest in IoT has increased due to its many applications in various fields, but IoT systems still deal with challenges such as the support of a high volume of connections or the low processing capacity of devices faced with data security algorithms. The objective of this dissertation is to create a data collection for air quality sensors system, that solves those challenges based on state of the art technologies, giving preference to open-source tools. Implementation was done around Apache Kafka, with Spring Boot and VerneMQ receiving data, HMAC granting a level security on data transport and PostgreSQL with the plugin Timescale storing the data. A prototype of the system was implemented in Docker containers, but we were unable to orchestrate them through Kubernetes

Evaluation of Arrowhead Framework in Condition Monitoring Application

The technological advancement in the field of electronics and information technology is changing how industrial automation systems are built. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. However, before this prophecy on the change can manifest, new architectural solutions are needed to fully leverage the abilities brought by cheaper sensors, more advanced communication technology and more powerful processing units. The Arrowhead Framework tries to tackle this problem by providing means for Service-oriented architecture via System-of-Systems approach, where so-called application systems consume services provided by so-called core systems, which provide means for service discovery, service registration and service authorization. The goal of the thesis was to evaluate The Arrowhead Framework by developing a demo application on the edge-cloud setup used in the condition monitoring system of vibrating screens manufactured by Metso. The demo applications objective was to ease the configuration and installation of industrial Linux PC’s at the edge of the network. The methodological model for the evaluation was based on the design science research process (DSRP), which provides a model for research of IT artefacts. As a result, the Arrowhead Framework’s core features were found helpful in the problem domain, and suitable for small-scale test setup. However, the implementation of the framework was found to be low quality and lacking features from a production-ready software artefact. The found shortcomings were reported as feedback for the ongoing development process of the framework

StudMap 3.0 : an interoperable web-based platform for geospatial data offers in academic life

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesGeographic Information Systems has now entered the realm of web and yields for feasible solutions to balance the technology offers with the users’ needs to share, access and explore the massive amounts of geodata available. Challenges occur when moving forward from old 2D platforms towards innovative and integrated webGIS systems that align functionality with the necessity to grant a complete understanding of the surrounding reality. 3D space responds to this but, however, stands only at the beginning of its era and cannot yet reach the development of 2D web integration. Research is now aiming at possible webGIS solutions to adapt to the special structure imposed by 3D data. In this context, this thesis focuses on designing an architecture for 2D and 3D geospatial data integration on a student-oriented web platform. This concept was further delivered and validated through a real case scenario – Studmap 3.0, a webGIS platform to serve the students of the University of Muenster in their academical life. The portal currently grants availability of geospatial data and web services of regional interest in a smart GIS environment that allows access and comparison of official services with own data. The implementation of Studmap 3.0 aided in the continuous improvement of the proposed architecture model and developed under a design science research cycle that reached its end once the final approval of its users was attained via a usability evaluation. Final strengths and drawbacks of the proposed architecture were ultimately identified together with an expert usability evaluation and a lab-based usability test of the resulting portal interface suitability for academic use. The results fall under the acceptable range with an 83.75 score for the System Usability Scale standardized questions when addressed to experts and a score of 83.87 when addressed to students. For the open-ended questions, the interface received an overall positive critique. A summary of future participants’ opinion on the benefits, drawbacks and proposed improvements was also delivered. Peers interested in similar concepts can use both this model and its final remarks as a reference for their work