Selected Papers from the 5th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications

This Special Issue comprises selected papers from the proceedings of the 5th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications, held on 15–30 November 2018, on sciforum.net, an online platform for hosting scholarly e-conferences and discussion groups. In this 5th edition of the electronic conference, contributors were invited to provide papers and presentations from the field of sensors and applications at large, resulting in a wide variety of excellent submissions and topic areas. Papers which attracted the most interest on the web or that provided a particularly innovative contribution were selected for publication in this collection. These peer-reviewed papers are published with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications. We hope this conference series will grow rapidly in the future and become recognized as a new way and venue by which to (electronically) present new developments related to the field of sensors and their applications

Automatic Mobile Video Remixing and Collaborative Watching Systems

In the thesis, the implications of combining collaboration with automation for remix creation are analyzed. We first present a sensor-enhanced Automatic Video Remixing System (AVRS), which intelligently processes mobile videos in combination with mobile device sensor information. The sensor-enhanced AVRS system involves certain architectural choices, which meet the key system requirements (leverage user generated content, use sensor information, reduce end user burden), and user experience requirements. Architecture adaptations are required to improve certain key performance parameters. In addition, certain operating parameters need to be constrained, for real world deployment feasibility. Subsequently, sensor-less cloud based AVRS and low footprint sensorless AVRS approaches are presented. The three approaches exemplify the importance of operating parameter tradeoffs for system design. The approaches cover a wide spectrum, ranging from a multimodal multi-user client-server system (sensor-enhanced AVRS) to a mobile application which can automatically generate a multi-camera remix experience from a single video. Next, we present the findings from the four user studies involving 77 users related to automatic mobile video remixing. The goal was to validate selected system design goals, provide insights for additional features and identify the challenges and bottlenecks. Topics studied include the role of automation, the value of a video remix as an event memorabilia, the requirements for different types of events and the perceived user value from creating multi-camera remix from a single video. System design implications derived from the user studies are presented. Subsequently, sport summarization, which is a specific form of remix creation is analyzed. In particular, the role of content capture method is analyzed with two complementary approaches. The first approach performs saliency detection in casually captured mobile videos; in contrast, the second one creates multi-camera summaries from role based captured content. Furthermore, a method for interactive customization of summary is presented. Next, the discussion is extended to include the role of users’ situational context and the consumed content in facilitating collaborative watching experience. Mobile based collaborative watching architectures are described, which facilitate a common shared context between the participants. The concept of movable multimedia is introduced to highlight the multidevice environment of current day users. The thesis presents results which have been derived from end-to-end system prototypes tested in real world conditions and corroborated with extensive user impact evaluation

Statistical Analysis on IoT Research Trends: A Survey

Internet of Things (IoT) is a novel and emerging paradigm to connect real/physical and virtual/logical world together. So, it will be necessary to apply other related scientific concepts in order to achieve this goal. The main focus of this paper is to identify the research topics in IoT. For this purpose, a comprehensive study has been conducted on the vast range of research articles. IoT concepts and issues are classified into some research domains and sub-domains based on the analysis of reviewed papers that have been published in 2015 & 2016. Then, these domains and sub-domains have been discussed as well as it is reported their statistical results. The obtained results of analysis show the most of the IoT research works are concentrated on technology and software services domains similarly at first rank, communication at second rank and trust management at third rank with 19%, 14% and 13% respectively. Also, a more accurate analysis indicates the most important and challenging sub-domains of mentioned domains which are: WSN, cloud computing, smart applications, M2M communication and security. Accordingly, this study will offer a useful and applicable broad viewpoint for researchers. In fact, our study indicates the current trends of IoT area

Indoor localization using place and motion signatures

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2013.This electronic version was submitted and approved by the author's academic department as part of an electronic thesis pilot project. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from department-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-153).Most current methods for 802.11-based indoor localization depend on either simple radio propagation models or exhaustive, costly surveys conducted by skilled technicians. These methods are not satisfactory for long-term, large-scale positioning of mobile devices in practice. This thesis describes two approaches to the indoor localization problem, which we formulate as discovering user locations using place and motion signatures. The first approach, organic indoor localization, combines the idea of crowd-sourcing, encouraging end-users to contribute place signatures (location RF fingerprints) in an organic fashion. Based on prior work on organic localization systems, we study algorithmic challenges associated with structuring such organic location systems: the design of localization algorithms suitable for organic localization systems, qualitative and quantitative control of user inputs to "grow" an organic system from the very beginning, and handling the device heterogeneity problem, in which different devices have different RF characteristics. In the second approach, motion compatibility-based indoor localization, we formulate the localization problem as trajectory matching of a user motion sequence onto a prior map. Our method estimates indoor location with respect to a prior map consisting of a set of 2D floor plans linked through horizontal and vertical adjacencies. To enable the localization system, we present a motion classification algorithm that estimates user motions from the sensors available in commodity mobile devices. We also present a route network generation method, which constructs a graph representation of all user routes from legacy floor plans. Given these inputs, our HMM-based trajectory matching algorithm recovers user trajectories. The main contribution is the notion of path compatibility, in which the sequential output of a classifier of inertial data producing low-level motion estimates (standing still, walking straight, going upstairs, turning left etc.) is examined for metric/topological/semantic agreement with the prior map. We show that, using only proprioceptive data of the quality typically available on a modern smartphone, our method can recover the user's location to within several meters in one to two minutes after a "cold start."by Jun-geun Park.Ph.D

A Novel Variable Geometry based Planar Inductor Design for Wireless Charging Application

In this thesis, the performance, modelling and application of a planar electromagnetic coil are discussed. Due to the small size profiles and their non‐contact nature, planar coils are widely used due to their simple and basic design. The uncertain parameters have been identified and simulated using ANSYS that has been run utilising a newly developed MATLAB code. This code has made it possible to run thousands of trials without the need to manually input the various parameters for each run. This has facilitated the process of obtaining all the probable solutions within the defined range of properties. The optimum and robust design properties were then determined. The thesis discusses the experimentation and the finite element modelling (FEM) performed for developing the design of planar coils and used in wireless chargers. In addition, the thesis investigates the performance of various topologies of planar coils when they are used in wireless chargers. The ANSYS Maxwell FEM package has been used to analyse the models while varying the topologies of the coils. For this purpose, different models in FEM were constructed and then tested with topologies such as circular, square and hexagon coil configurations. The described methodology is considered as an effective way for obtaining maximum Power transfer efficiency (PTE) with a certain distance on planar coils with better performance. The explored designs studies are, namely: (1) Optimization of Planar Coil Using Multi-core, (2) planar coil with an Orthogonal Flux Guide, (3) Using the Variable Geometry in a Planar coil for an Optimised Performance by using the robust design method, (4) Design and Integration of Planar coil on wireless charger. In the first design study, the aim is to present the behaviour of a newly developed planar coil, built from a Mu-metal, via simulation. The structure consists of an excitation coil, sensing coils and three ferromagnetic cores 2 located on the top, middle and bottom sections of the coil in order to concentrate the field using the iterative optimisation technique. Magnetic materials have characteristics which allows them to influence the magnetic field in its environment. The second design study presents the optimal geometry and material selection for the planar with an Orthogonal Flux Guide. The study demonstrates the optimising of the materials and geometry of the coil that provides savings in terms of material usage as well as the employed electric current to produce an equivalent magnetic field. The third design study presents the variable geometry in a planar inductor to obtain the optimised performance. The study has provided the optimum and robust design parameters in terms of different topologies such as circular, square and hexagon coil configurations and then tested, Once the best topology is chosen based on performance. The originality of the work is evident through the randomisation of the parameters using the developed MATLAB code and the optimisation of the joint performance under defined conditions. Finally, the fourth design study presents the development of the planar coil applications. Three shapes of coils are designed and experimented to calculate the inductance and the maximum power transfer efficiency (PTW) over various spacing distances and frequency

MEMS Accelerometers

Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) devices are widely used for inertia, pressure, and ultrasound sensing applications. Research on integrated MEMS technology has undergone extensive development driven by the requirements of a compact footprint, low cost, and increased functionality. Accelerometers are among the most widely used sensors implemented in MEMS technology. MEMS accelerometers are showing a growing presence in almost all industries ranging from automotive to medical. A traditional MEMS accelerometer employs a proof mass suspended to springs, which displaces in response to an external acceleration. A single proof mass can be used for one- or multi-axis sensing. A variety of transduction mechanisms have been used to detect the displacement. They include capacitive, piezoelectric, thermal, tunneling, and optical mechanisms. Capacitive accelerometers are widely used due to their DC measurement interface, thermal stability, reliability, and low cost. However, they are sensitive to electromagnetic field interferences and have poor performance for high-end applications (e.g., precise attitude control for the satellite). Over the past three decades, steady progress has been made in the area of optical accelerometers for high-performance and high-sensitivity applications but several challenges are still to be tackled by researchers and engineers to fully realize opto-mechanical accelerometers, such as chip-scale integration, scaling, low bandwidth, etc

Practical, appropriate, empirically-validated guidelines for designing educational games

There has recently been a great deal of interest in the potential of computer games to function as innovative educational tools. However, there is very little evidence of games fulfilling that potential. Indeed, the process of merging the disparate goals of education and games design appears problematic, and there are currently no practical guidelines for how to do so in a coherent manner. In this paper, we describe the successful, empirically validated teaching methods developed by behavioural psychologists and point out how they are uniquely suited to take advantage of the benefits that games offer to education. We conclude by proposing some practical steps for designing educational games, based on the techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is intended that this paper can both focus educational games designers on the features of games that are genuinely useful for education, and also introduce a successful form of teaching that this audience may not yet be familiar with