Mobile application platform heterogeneity: Android vs Windows phone vs iOS vs Firefox OS

Modern smartphones have a rich spectrum of increasingly sophisticated features, opening opportunities for software-led innovation. Of the large number of platforms to develop new software on, in this paper we look closely at three platforms identified as market leaders for the smartphone market by Gartner Group in 2013 and one platform, Firefox OS, representing a new paradigm for operating systems based on web technologies. We compare the platforms in several different categories, such as software architecture, application development, platform capabilities and constraints, and, finally, developer support. Using the implementation of a mobile version of the tic-tac-toe game on all the four platforms, we seek to investigate strengths, weaknesses and challenges of mobile application development on these platforms. Big differences are highlighted when inspecting community environments, hardware abilities and platform maturity. These inevitably impact upon developer choices when deciding on mobile platform development strategies

Web Tracking: Mechanisms, Implications, and Defenses

This articles surveys the existing literature on the methods currently used by web services to track the user online as well as their purposes, implications, and possible user's defenses. A significant majority of reviewed articles and web resources are from years 2012-2014. Privacy seems to be the Achilles' heel of today's web. Web services make continuous efforts to obtain as much information as they can about the things we search, the sites we visit, the people with who we contact, and the products we buy. Tracking is usually performed for commercial purposes. We present 5 main groups of methods used for user tracking, which are based on sessions, client storage, client cache, fingerprinting, or yet other approaches. A special focus is placed on mechanisms that use web caches, operational caches, and fingerprinting, as they are usually very rich in terms of using various creative methodologies. We also show how the users can be identified on the web and associated with their real names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, or even street addresses. We show why tracking is being used and its possible implications for the users (price discrimination, assessing financial credibility, determining insurance coverage, government surveillance, and identity theft). For each of the tracking methods, we present possible defenses. Apart from describing the methods and tools used for keeping the personal data away from being tracked, we also present several tools that were used for research purposes - their main goal is to discover how and by which entity the users are being tracked on their desktop computers or smartphones, provide this information to the users, and visualize it in an accessible and easy to follow way. Finally, we present the currently proposed future approaches to track the user and show that they can potentially pose significant threats to the users' privacy.Comment: 29 pages, 212 reference

Mobile Reporting Application

Barclays uses an external service platform, ServiceNow, to report and track application issues internally. The platform is available on work computers and BlackBerries. With the increase in personal smartphones, specifically iOS and Android devices, it is imperative to provide this platform on these devices as well. The team was tasked with creating a live prototype application to fill this void. The outcome of the project was a prototype application that works on iOS devices and reports real-time incident data

2.1. Reflections on Custom Mobile App Development for Archaeological Data Collection

With the widespread adoption of tablet computers in 2010, archaeologists quickly began to envision new ways of completing traditional tasks. The technology seemed particularly well-suited for replacing the paper-and-pencil approach to data collection. In 2011, a custom mobile application—PKapp—was developed for the 2012 field season of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project in Cyprus. That application illuminated numerous possibilities for digital workflow in archaeological field research. Subsequently, mobile devices and software development tools have improved, making it easier to develop custom applications for data collection. Open-source HTML5 standards can ensure the software runs on any device regardless of platform, a robust selection of coding interfaces, libraries, and frameworks can speed up the development process and help avoid coding each line of the application by hand. This paper reflects upon the development of PKapp, considers the lessons learned, and describes how custom app development with open-source standards might be currently undertaken.https://dc.uwm.edu/arthist_mobilizingthepast/1009/thumbnail.jp

Smart cities: event everywhere

The research attempts to provide a big picture from the literature through a Systematic Literature Review about the smart city and the existing standards topics for interchanging data through Smart City Apps. Additionally a prototype was created to analyze one of the standards found in the SL

Modelling gesture recognition systems

Gesture recognition technologies have recently become available to a general consumer market. The most notable of these technologies rely on camera to support gesture recognition using multiple sensors that allow for standard color pictures, infrared pictures and depth sensing. These capabilities allow for variety of applications, including a body's skeleton or hand recognition. The recognition features allow for a multiple type input control. They allow an actor, who is in front of the camera, to apply different hand gestures, or body movements as the controls for an application or game that is running on the system the camera is plugged into. This paper discusses modelling and simulation of gesture recognition technologies