Activities of daily life recognition using process representation modelling to support intention analysis

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on applying a range of traditional classification- and semantic reasoning-based techniques to recognise activities of daily life (ADLs). ADL recognition plays an important role in tracking functional decline among elderly people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Accurate recognition enables smart environments to support and assist the elderly to lead an independent life for as long as possible. However, the ability to represent the complex structure of an ADL in a flexible manner remains a challenge. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents an ADL recognition approach, which uses a hierarchical structure for the representation and modelling of the activities, its associated tasks and their relationships. This study describes an approach in constructing ADLs based on a task-specific and intention-oriented plan representation language called Asbru. The proposed method is particularly flexible and adaptable for caregivers to be able to model daily schedules for Alzheimer’s patients. Findings – A proof of concept prototype evaluation has been conducted for the validation of the proposed ADL recognition engine, which has comparable recognition results with existing ADL recognition approaches. Originality/value – The work presented in this paper is novel, as the developed ADL recognition approach takes into account all relationships and dependencies within the modelled ADLs. This is very useful when conducting activity recognition with very limited features

Implicit Contextual Integrity in Online Social Networks

Many real incidents demonstrate that users of Online Social Networks need mechanisms that help them manage their interactions by increasing the awareness of the different contexts that coexist in Online Social Networks and preventing them from exchanging inappropriate information in those contexts or disseminating sensitive information from some contexts to others. Contextual integrity is a privacy theory that conceptualises the appropriateness of information sharing based on the contexts in which this information is to be shared. Computational models of Contextual Integrity assume the existence of well-defined contexts, in which individuals enact pre-defined roles and information sharing is governed by an explicit set of norms. However, contexts in Online Social Networks are known to be implicit, unknown a priori and ever changing; users relationships are constantly evolving; and the information sharing norms are implicit. This makes current Contextual Integrity models not suitable for Online Social Networks. In this paper, we propose the first computational model of \emph{Implicit} Contextual Integrity, presenting an information model for Implicit Contextual Integrity as well as a so-called Information Assistant Agent that uses the information model to learn implicit contexts, relationships and the information sharing norms in order to help users avoid inappropriate information exchanges and undesired information disseminations. Through an experimental evaluation, we validate the properties of the model proposed. In particular, Information Assistant Agents are shown to: (i) infer the information sharing norms even if a small proportion of the users follow the norms and in presence of malicious users; (ii) help reduce the exchange of inappropriate information and the dissemination of sensitive information with only a partial view of the system and the information received and sent by their users; and (iii) minimise the burden to the users in terms of raising unnecessary alerts

The Proceedings of 14th Australian Information Security Management Conference, 5-6 December 2016, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia

The annual Security Congress, run by the Security Research Institute at Edith Cowan University, includes the Australian Information Security and Management Conference. Now in its fourteenth year, the conference remains popular for its diverse content and mixture of technical research and discussion papers. The area of information security and management continues to be varied, as is reflected by the wide variety of subject matter covered by the papers this year. The conference has drawn interest and papers from within Australia and internationally. All submitted papers were subject to a double blind peer review process. Fifteen papers were submitted from Australia and overseas, of which ten were accepted for final presentation and publication. We wish to thank the reviewers for kindly volunteering their time and expertise in support of this event. We would also like to thank the conference committee who have organised yet another successful congress. Events such as this are impossible without the tireless efforts of such people in reviewing and editing the conference papers, and assisting with the planning, organisation and execution of the conferences. To our sponsors also a vote of thanks for both the financial and moral support provided to the conference. Finally, thank you to the administrative and technical staff, and students of the ECU Security Research Institute for their contributions to the running of the conference

Tagging amongst friends: an exploration of social media exchange on mobile devices

Mobile social software tools have great potential in transforming the way users communicate on the move, by augmenting their everyday environment with pertinent information from their online social networks. A fundamental aspect to the success of these tools is in developing an understanding of their emergent real-world use and also the aspirations of users; this thesis focuses on investigating one facet of this: the exchange of social media. To facilitate this investigation, three mobile social tools have been developed for use on locationaware smartphone handsets. The first is an exploratory social game, 'Gophers' that utilises task oriented gameplay, social agents and GSM cell positioning to create an engaging ecosystem in which users create and exchange geotagged social media. Supplementing this is a pair of social awareness and tagging services that integrate with a user's existing online social network; the 'ItchyFeet' service uses GPS positioning to allow the user and their social network peers to collaboratively build a landscape of socially important geotagged locations, which are used as indicators of a user's context on their Facebook profile; likewise 'MobiClouds' revisits this concept by exploring the novel concept of Bluetooth 'people tagging' to facilitate the creation of tags that are more indicative of users' social surroundings. The thesis reports on findings from formal trials of these technologies, using groups of volunteer social network users based around the city of Lincoln, UK, where the incorporation of daily diaries, interviews and automated logging precisely monitored application use. Through analysis of trial data, a guide for designers of future mobile social tools has been devised and the factors that typically influence users when creating tags are identified. The thesis makes a number of further contributions to the area. Firstly, it identifies the natural desire of users to update their status whilst mobile; a practice recently popularised by commercial 'check in' services. It also explores the overarching narratives that developed over time, which formed an integral part of the tagging process and augmented social media with a higher level meaning. Finally, it reveals how social media is affected by the tag positioning method selected and also by personal circumstances, such as the proximity of social peers

Multidimensional Analyses of Social Media Related Geographic Information: a Study Concerning the Urban Area of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy)

The widespread diffusion of tourism social media platforms is playing an increasingly important role as information source both for tourists, who gather reliable information supporting destinations’ choice and services from peers, and for businesses, who can use the same information for improving their marketing strategies. The use of this type of information could also offer new opportunities for decision-support in tourism planning. By means of improved understanding of the travel motivations and by tailoring tourism service supply, decision making can be facilitated by emphasising the strengths of tourist destinations for past and potential visitors. However, information about tourists’ perceptions and opinions is not always properly analysed by planners. User satisfaction depends on factors related to the location and the services quality that the local industry proposes. Moreover, its understanding may offer valuable knowledge in tourism planning at the regional and local levels. The goal of the study of the paper is to propose an integrated approach to investigate, qualitatively and quantitatively, the relationships between tourists’ satisfaction, geographic locations and tourist enterprises in supporting decision-making processes. The methodology implemented in the study includes data collection from Booking and TripAdvisor.com and their integration with authoritative territorial data. Spatial and statistical analysis techniques are applied in order to assess tourists’ perceptions on success factors, which may be used as planning support tools. The case study concerns the municipality of Cagliari and demonstrates the value of social media-related data integrated by authoritative information in tourism planning. Finally, the paper proposes a critical discussion on the effectiveness of using the implemented integrated approach in order to address other planning issues. The discussion underlines the potential of the proposed approach in order to address other planning questions as well

Advances in Social Media Research:Past, Present and Future

Social media comprises communication websites that facilitate relationship forming between users from diverse backgrounds, resulting in a rich social structure. User generated content encourages inquiry and decision-making. Given the relevance of social media to various stakeholders, it has received significant attention from researchers of various fields, including information systems. There exists no comprehensive review that integrates and synthesises the findings of literature on social media. This study discusses the findings of 132 papers (in selected IS journals) on social media and social networking published between 1997 and 2017. Most papers reviewed here examine the behavioural side of social media, investigate the aspect of reviews and recommendations, and study its integration for organizational purposes. Furthermore, many studies have investigated the viability of online communities/social media as a marketing medium, while others have explored various aspects of social media, including the risks associated with its use, the value that it creates, and the negative stigma attached to it within workplaces. The use of social media for information sharing during critical events as well as for seeking and/or rendering help has also been investigated in prior research. Other contexts include political and public administration, and the comparison between traditional and social media. Overall, our study identifies multiple emergent themes in the existing corpus, thereby furthering our understanding of advances in social media research. The integrated view of the extant literature that our study presents can help avoid duplication by future researchers, whilst offering fruitful lines of enquiry to help shape research for this emerging field

Mobility is the Message: Experiments with Mobile Media Sharing

This thesis explores new mobile media sharing applications by building, deploying, and studying their use. While we share media in many different ways both on the web and on mobile phones, there are few ways of sharing media with people physically near us. Studied were three designed and built systems: Push!Music, Columbus, and Portrait Catalog, as well as a fourth commercially available system – Foursquare. This thesis offers four contributions: First, it explores the design space of co-present media sharing of four test systems. Second, through user studies of these systems it reports on how these come to be used. Third, it explores new ways of conducting trials as the technical mobile landscape has changed. Last, we look at how the technical solutions demonstrate different lines of thinking from how similar solutions might look today. Through a Human-Computer Interaction methodology of design, build, and study, we look at systems through the eyes of embodied interaction and examine how the systems come to be in use. Using Goffman’s understanding of social order, we see how these mobile media sharing systems allow people to actively present themselves through these media. In turn, using McLuhan’s way of understanding media, we reflect on how these new systems enable a new type of medium distinct from the web centric media, and how this relates directly to mobility. While media sharing is something that takes place everywhere in western society, it is still tied to the way media is shared through computers. Although often mobile, they do not consider the mobile settings. The systems in this thesis treat mobility as an opportunity for design. It is still left to see how this mobile media sharing will come to present itself in people’s everyday life, and when it does, how we will come to understand it and how it will transform society as a medium distinct from those before. This thesis gives a glimpse at what this future will look like

Research methods in engineering design: a synthesis of recent studies using a systematic literature review

Producción CientíficaThe relation between scientific research and engineering design is fraught with controversy. While the number of academic PhD programs on design grows, because the discipline is in its infancy, there is no consolidated method for systematically approaching the generation of knowledge in this domain. This paper reviews recently published papers from four top-ranked journals in engineering design to analyse the research methods that are frequently used. The research questions consider the aim and contributions of the papers, as well as which experimental design and which sources of data are being used. Frequency tables show the high variety of approaches and aims of the papers, combining both qualitative and quantitative empirical approaches and analytical methods. Most of the papers focus on methodological concerns or on delving into a particular aspect of the design process. Data collection methods are also diverse without a clear relation between the type of method and the objective or strategy of the research. This paper aims to act as a valuable resource for academics, providing definitions related to research methods and referencing examples, and for researchers, shedding light on some of the trends and challenges for current research in the domain of engineering design.Universidad de Valladolid (PID 2020 21 038)Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2020-118216RB-I00) and (PID2020-112584RB-C32)Publicación en abierto financiada por el Consorcio de Bibliotecas Universitarias de Castilla y León (BUCLE), con cargo al Programa Operativo 2014ES16RFOP009 FEDER 2014-2020 DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN, Actuación:20007-CL - Apoyo Consorcio BUCL