Design and Development of a Testbed Prototype for Cognitive Radio Transmission over TV White Space

Considering the ever-increasing demand and the associated high costs of wireless electromagnetic spectrum, technologies that can facilitate efficient spectrum utilization are of utmost importance. Cognitive radio (CR), in conjunction with TV White Spaces (TVWS), can be a viable solution, where unlicensed or secondary users can opportunistically use the not-currently-in-use, aka idle, TV channels registered to licensed or primary users. This thesis focuses on the design and development of a testbed prototype for real-time testing of secondary user transmission in TVWS. Once an unused TV channel has been identified, our system uses that idle channel for transmitting and receiving signals. The testbed is built on Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) device powered by GNU Radio Software, Software Defined Radio (SDR) receptor, and Spectrum Analyser. The developed prototype splits a given TVWS channel into multiple small sub-channels and performs channel characterization through end-to-end transmission and reception of information carrying signals. The channel characteristics are presented through Bit Transfer Rate (BTR) and frequency spectrum results. The prototype also facilitates provisions for applying error correction coding as a mean of undertaking comparative performance testing

IoT-based systems for soil nutrients assessment in horticulture

Soil nutrients assessment has great importance in horticulture. Implementation of an information system for horticulture faces many challenges: (i) great spatial variability within farms (e.g., hilly topography); (ii) different soil properties (e.g., different water holding capacity, different content in sand, sit, clay, and soil organic matter, different pH, and different permeability) for different cultivated plants; (iii) different soil nutrient uptake by different cultivated plants; (iv) small size of monoculture; and (v) great variety of farm components, agroecological zone, and socio-economic factors. Advances in information and communication technologies enable creation of low cost, efficient information systems that would improve resources management and increase productivity and sustainability of horticultural farms. We present an information system based on different sensing capability, Internet of Things, and mobile application for horticultural farms. An overview on different techniques and technologies for soil fertility evaluation is also presented. The results obtained in a botanical garden that simulates the diversity of environment and plant diversity of a horticultural farm are discussed considering the challenges identified in the literature and field research. The study provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the development of technologies that enable horticultural farmers to improve resources management.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SIMULATION OF AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS COLLABORATING IN INDUSTRIAL PLANTS FOR MULTIPLE TASKS

The autonomous systems are continuously extending their application fields and current advances in sensors and controls are enabling the possibility to operate also inside buildings and industrial plants. These new capabilities introduce challenges to be addressed in order to carry out new tasks and missions. This paper proposes advances in Modeling, interoperable Simulation and Serious Games devoted to support researches supporting autonomous system operations within Industrial Facilities

Observing Networks initial Assessment

Report on assessment of the EuroSea observational (and thematic) networks coordination This Deliverable serves to present the initial situation, in terms of coordination, of the observation and thematic networks in EuroSea represented in work package 3 (WP3). The networks include the networks represented in EuroGOOS and additional ones. The study is based on a comprehensive questionnaire that was answered by all EuroSea WP3 tasks. In addition, information from the Global Observing Networks of GOOS was considered. An important basis for the questionnaire was the list of "Network Attributes, Commitment and Benefits -What it means to be an OPA network" which was compiled by the Observation coordination group (OCG) of GOOS. This deliverable is linked to the deliverable D3.10 that will repeat the assessment at the end of the EuroSea project to assess the evolution of the coordination over the period of the EuroSea project. The present study shows that the observation and thematic networks in EuroSea all have highly developed coordination mechanism elements, except for task 3.7 - ASV, which represents a new network to be established. Given the spectrum of coordination themes and envisioned targets significant heterogeneity across the networks is also evident. The coordination of ship-based observations is not fully represented in EuroSea (and thus in EuroGOOS) and ideally this task should have been divided into research vessels and commercial vessels (container ships, ferries) but as it stands currently is dominated by one technology only (Ferrybox). This reflects the situation in EuroGOOS. For the thematic networks it is interesting to note that the observatories that are operated in task 3.8 (Augmented observatories) are not represented in the observational networks (task 3.1-3.7). The assessment presented in this deliverable has its focus on the status quo. It does not question or analyze the necessity for individuals, institutions and countries to be represented in a network - “Why should individuals, institutions or countries feel a need or a motivation to engage with the networks?”. It seems logical that networks are only founded, maintained and developed when individuals see an advantage in their involvement in a network – for themselves, their institution or a country. The "characteristics" of the apparent advantage of contributing to a network is likely of central importance. For example, if the advantage is only that there are no disadvantages (e.g. fines), a further development and improvement of the network is questionable. This important investigation of the motivation of individuals will be part of final assessment prepared in D3.10

i-Light - Intelligent Luminaire Based Platform for Home Monitoring and Assisted Living

[EN] We present i-Light, a cyber-physical platform that aims to help older adults to live safely within their own homes. The system is the result of an international research project funded by the European Union and is comprised of a custom developed wireless sensor network together with software services that provide continuous monitoring, reporting and real-time alerting capabilities. The principal innovation proposed within the project regards implementation of the hardware components in the form of intelligent luminaires with inbuilt sensing and communication capabilities. Custom luminaires provide indoor localisation and environment sensing, are cost-effective and are designed to replace the lighting infrastructure of the deployment location without prior mapping or fingerprinting. We evaluate the system within a home and show that it achieves localisation accuracy sufficient for room-level detection. We present the communication infrastructure, and detail how the software services can be configured and used for visualisation, reporting and real-time alerting.This work was funded by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CCCDI-UEFISCDI, project number 46E/2015, i-Light-A pervasive home monitoring system based on intelligent luminaires.Marin, I.; Vasilateanu, A.; Molnar, A.; Bocicor, MI.; Cuesta Frau, D.; Molina Picó, A.; Goga, N. (2018). i-Light - Intelligent Luminaire Based Platform for Home Monitoring and Assisted Living. Electronics. 7(10):1-24. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics7100220S124710World Report on Ageing and Health http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/186463/1/9789240694811_eng.pdf?ua=1ECP Makes Switching to eMAR Easy http://extendedcarepro.com/products/Carevium Assisted Living Software http://www.carevium.com/carevium-assisted-living-software/Yardi EHR http://www.yardi.com/products/ehr-senior-care/Yardi eMAR http://www.yardi.com/products/emar/Botia, J. A., Villa, A., & Palma, J. (2012). Ambient Assisted Living system for in-home monitoring of healthy independent elders. Expert Systems with Applications, 39(9), 8136-8148. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2012.01.153Lopez-Guede, J. M., Moreno-Fernandez-de-Leceta, A., Martinez-Garcia, A., & Graña, M. (2015). Lynx: Automatic Elderly Behavior Prediction in Home Telecare. BioMed Research International, 2015, 1-18. doi:10.1155/2015/201939Luca, S., Karsmakers, P., Cuppens, K., Croonenborghs, T., Van de Vel, A., Ceulemans, B., … Vanrumste, B. (2014). Detecting rare events using extreme value statistics applied to epileptic convulsions in children. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 60(2), 89-96. doi:10.1016/j.artmed.2013.11.007Better Health Assessments Every Day, for Better Everyday Living http://healthsense.com/Home Telehealth https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/solutions/enterprise-telehealth/home-telehealthThe Carelink Network http://www.medtronic.com/us-en/healthcare-professionals/products/cardiac-rhythm/managing-patients/information-systems/carelink-network.htmlHaigh, P. A., Bausi, F., Ghassemlooy, Z., Papakonstantinou, I., Le Minh, H., Fléchon, C., & Cacialli, F. (2014). Visible light communications: real time 10 Mb/s link with a low bandwidth polymer light-emitting diode. Optics Express, 22(3), 2830. doi:10.1364/oe.22.002830Indoor Positioning System http://www.gelighting.com/LightingWeb/na/solutions/control-systems/indoor-positioning-system.jspIndoor and Outdoor Lighting Solutions http://www.acuitybrands.com/solutions/featured-spacesHuang, C.-N., & Chan, C.-T. (2011). ZigBee-based indoor location system by k-nearest neighbor algorithm with weighted RSSI. Procedia Computer Science, 5, 58-65. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2011.07.010Charlon, Y., Fourty, N., & Campo, E. (2013). A Telemetry System Embedded in Clothes for Indoor Localization and Elderly Health Monitoring. Sensors, 13(9), 11728-11749. doi:10.3390/s130911728Patient/Elderly Activity Monitoring Using WiFi-Based Indoor Localization https://wiki.cc.gatech.edu/designcomp/images/3/3d/HHH_Report.pdfReal Time Location System http://zonith.com/products/rtls/Accurate Positioning https://www.pozyx.io/yooBee System Overview https://www.blooloc.com/over-yoobeeThe Top Indoor Location Engine for Smart Apps https://senion.com/Locating People, Way-Finding, and Attendance Tracking https://estimote.com/products/Indoor Navigation, Indoor Positioning, Indoor Analytics and Indoor Tracking https://www.infsoft.com/Lighting Reimagined https://www.lifx.com/Tabu. Lumen. Simply Brighter http://www.lumenbulb.net/Philips Hue http://www2.meethue.com/en-usElgato Avea https://www.elgato.com/en/aveaiLumi—The World’s Most Intelligent Light Bulbs hhttps://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ilumi-the-world-s-most-intelligent-light-bulbs--5#/Bluegiga BLE112 Bluetooth® Smart Module http://www.silabs.com/products/wireless/bluetooth/bluetooth-low-energy-modules/ble112-bluetooth-smart-moduleISO/IEEE 11073 https://www.iso.org/standard/67821.htmlDescription https://www.diodes.com/assets/Datasheets/ZXLD1366.pdfDigital Humidity Sensor SHT2x https://www.sensirion.com/en/environmental-sensors/humidity-sensors/humidity-temperature-sensor-sht2x-digital-i2c-accurate/Photo IC Type High Sensitive Light Sensor https://industrial.panasonic.com/cdbs/www-data/pdf/ADD8000/ADD8000CE2.pdfWSP2110 VOC Gas Sensor http://www.winsen-sensor.com/products/flat-surfaced-gas-sensor/wsp2110.htmlLow Power-Consumption CO2 Sensor http://www.winsen-sensor.com/d/files/PDF/Solid%20Electrolyte%20CO2%20Sensor/MG812%20CO2%20Manual%20V1.1.pdfGP2Y1010AU0F Compact Optical Dust Sensor http://www.sharp-world.com/products/device/lineup/data/pdf/datasheet/gp2y1010au_e.pdfEKMC (VZ) Series http://www3.panasonic.biz/ac/e/control/sensor/human/vz/index.jspSensors for Automotive & Industrial Applications: Grid-EYE Infrared Array Sensor https://na.industrial.panasonic.com/products/sensors/sensors-automotive-industrial-applications/grid-eye-infrared-array-sensorGeneric Attributes https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/gattDeveloping NFC Applications. (2011). Near Field Communication, 151-239. doi:10.1002/9781119965794.ch5Matsuoka, H., Wang, J., Jing, L., Zhou, Y., Wu, Y., & Cheng, Z. (2014). Development of a control system for home appliances based on BLE technique. 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Independent Computing (ISIC). doi:10.1109/indcomp.2014.7011751Standard ECMA-404. The JSON Data Interchange Format http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-404.pdfThe EU General Data Protection Regulation http://www.eugdpr.org/Tews, E., & Beck, M. (2009). Practical attacks against WEP and WPA. Proceedings of the second ACM conference on Wireless network security - WiSec ’09. doi:10.1145/1514274.1514286Farooq, U., & Aslam, M. F. (2017). Comparative analysis of different AES implementation techniques for efficient resource usage and better performance of an FPGA. Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences, 29(3), 295-302. doi:10.1016/j.jksuci.2016.01.004Luo, X.-L., Liao, L.-Z., & Wah Tam, H. (2007). Convergence analysis of the Levenberg–Marquardt method. Optimization Methods and Software, 22(4), 659-678. doi:10.1080/10556780601079233Wammu https://wammu.eu/gammu

A monitoring framework based on exergetic analysis for sustainability assessment of direct laser metal deposition process

With the constant increase of energy costs and environmental impacts, improving the process efficiency is considered a priority issue for the manufacturing field. A wide knowledge about materials, energy, machinery, and auxiliary equipment is required in order to optimize the overall performance of manufacturing processes. Sustainability needs to be assessed in order to find an optimal compromise between technical quality of products and environmental compatibility of processes. In this new Industry 4.0 era, innovative manufacturing technologies, as the additive manufacturing, are taking a predominant role. The aim of this work is to give an insight into how thermodynamic laws contribute at the same time to improve energy efficiency of manufacturing resources and to provide a methodological support to move towards a smart and sustainable additive process. In this context, a fundamental step is the proper design of a sensing and real-time monitoring framework of an additive manufacturing process. This framework should be based on an accurate modelling of the physical phenomena and technological aspects of the considered process, taking into account all the sustainability requirements. To this end, a thermodynamic model for the direct laser metal deposition (DLMD) process was proposed as a test case. Finally, an exergetic analysis was conducted on a prototype DLMD system to validate the effectiveness of an ad-hoc monitoring system and highlight the limitations of this process. What emerged is that the proposed framework provided significant advantages, since it represents a valuable approach for finding suitable process management strategies to identify sustainable solutions for innovative manufacturing procedures

Spectrum Occupancy Estimation and Analysis

The goal of Cognitive Radio (CR) is to facilitate efficient utilization of the electromagnetic spectrum. CR applies spectrum sensing techniques to detect unused channels and then allows opportunistic usage of such channels by secondary users, i.e., un-licensed users, without interfering with primary users, i.e., licensed users. In order to implement a complete TV White Spaces (TVWS) based CR system, at first a model is needed that can be used for identifying TVWS, which can then be exploited for dynamic spectrum access. This work is focused on proposing a sensing method and building a probabilistic model for identifying the occupancy of the electromagnetic spectrum within the UHF TV bands. It also develops a hardware prototype for demonstrating the performance of the proposed technique. It proposes simultaneous sensing both noise and noise-contaminated user\u27s signal (composite signal) for detecting spectrum occupancy minimizing errors. The proposed sensing technique combines energy detection, pilot detection, and information obtained from an external source in order to reduce missed-detection probability. In addition to pre-defined threshold levels, the proposed probabilistic model considers parameters like probability of false alarm and probability of detection for measuring detection accuracy. Finally, a mobile sensing station is designed and implemented using off-the-shelf components to verify the developed technique for TVWS spectrum sensing. Using this mobile station, the UHF TV channels within the spectrum band of 500MHz-698MHz (Channel #19 to Channel 51) are scanned. Covering the total bandwidth of 198MHz, over 8 million data samples are collected through repeated scanning, ensuring possible spatio-temporal variations are taken into account. Results show that the availability of TVWS changes quite significantly with spatial variations. But, even in the most crowded spectrum locations, 28% of UHF channels were identified as TVWS. The model demonstrates about 10% improvement in detecting accuracy compared to other existing models

Semi-direct tree reconstruction using terrestrial LiDAR point cloud data

A new method was developed for reconstructing the geometric structure of large plants such as trees at the leaf-scale by utilizing terrestrial LiDAR data. The primary goal of the work was to develop a feasible means for accurately and rapidly reconstructing or “digitizing” entire trees in order to specify the position, orientation, and size of every leaf in digital tree models that provide geometric inputs for high-resolution biophysical models or analyses. As with any optical measurement technique, a primary challenge is accurately accounting for plant matter that is occluded from view of the sensor. The present method is termed “semi-direct” because it uses a triangulation procedure to approximately directly reconstruct as many leaves as possible that are in view of the scanner. For plant matter obstructed from view, a statistical backfilling procedure was used to add additional leaves such that the three-dimensional distribution of leaf area and orientation of the reconstructed plant matched that of the actual plant on average. In a best case scenario such as when leaf density is low, nearly all leaf area is directly reconstructed from the scan and the branch and clumping structure is preserved within the reconstruction. In the worst case scenario such as when the leaf density is very high and nearly all leaves are occluded from view of the scanner, only a small fraction of leaves can be directly reconstructed, but at a minimum the distribution of leaf area and the leaf angle distribution across the reconstructed plant will be consistent with that of the actual plant. Unlike many other approaches, the present method does not rely on the woody matter of the plant to provide a skeleton for reconstruction, and can be used in dense plants where little woody matter is visible from the scanner

Context Aware Computing or the Sense of Context

ITALIANO: I sistemi ubiquitous e pervasivi, speciali categorie di sistemi embedded (immersi), possono essere utilizzati per rilevare il contesto che li circonda. In particolare, i sistemi context-aware sono in grado di alterare il loro stato interno e il loro comportamento in base all’ambiente (context) che percepiscono. Per aiutare le persone nell’espletare le proprie attivitá, tali sistemi possono utilizzare le conoscenze raccolte attorno a loro. Un grande sforzo industriale e di ricerca, orientato all’innovazione dei sensori, processori, sistemi operativi, protocolli di comunicazione, e framework, offre molte tecnologie definibili abilitanti, come le reti di sensori wireless o gli Smartphone. Tuttavia, nonostante tale sforzo significativo, l’adozione di sistemi pervasivi che permettano di migliorare il monitoraggio dello sport, l’allenamento e le tecnologie assistive é ancora piuttosto limitato. Questa tesi individua due fattori determinanti per questo basso utilizzo delle tecnologie pervasive, principalmente relativi agli utenti. Da un lato il tentativo degli esperti e dei ricercatori dell’informatica di indurre l’adozione di soluzioni informatiche, trascurando parzialmente l’interazione con gli utenti finali, dall’altro lato una scarsa attenzione all’interazione tra uomo e computer. Il primo fattore puó essere tradotto nella mancanza di attenzione a ció che é rilevante nel contesto dei bisogni (speciali) dell’utente. Il secondo é rappresentato dall’utilizzo diffuso di interfacce grafiche di presentazione delle informazioni, che richiede un elevato livello di sforzo cognitivo da parte degli utenti. Mentre lo studio della letteratura puó fornire conoscenze sul contesto dell’utente, solo il contatto diretto con lui arricchisce la conoscenza di consapevolezza, fornendo una precisa identificazione dei fattori che sono piú rilevanti per il destinatario dell’applicazione. Per applicare con successo le tecnologie pervasive al campo dello sport e delle tecnologie assistive, l’identificazione dei fattori rilevanti é una premessa necessaria, Tale processo di identificazione rappresenta l’approccio metodologico principale utilizzato per questa tesi. Nella tesi si analizzano diversi sport (canottaggio, nuoto, corsa ) e una disabilitá (la cecitá), per mostrare come la metodologia di investigazione e di progettazione proposta venga messa in pratica. Infatti i fattori rilevanti sono stati identificati grazie alla stretta collaborazione con gli utenti e gli esperti nei rispettivi campi. Si descrive il processo di identificazione, insieme alle soluzioni elaborate su misura per il particolare campo d’uso. L’uso della sonificazione, cioé la trasmissione di informazioni attraverso il suono, si propone di affrontare il secondo problema presentato, riguardante le interfacce utente. L’uso della sonificazione puó facilitare la fruizione in tempo reale delle informazioni sulle prestazioni di attivitá sportive, e puó contribuire ad alleviare parzialmente la disabilitá degli utenti non vedenti. Nel canottaggio, si é identificato nel livello di sincronia del team uno dei fattori rilevanti per una propulsione efficace dell’imbarcazione. Il problema di rilevare il livello di sincronia viene analizzato mediante una rete di accelerometri wireless, proponendo due diverse soluzioni. La prima soluzione é basata sull’indice di correlazione di Pearson e la seconda su un approccio emergente chiamato stigmergia. Entrambi gli approcci sono stati testati con successo in laboratorio e sul campo. Inoltre sono state sviluppate due applicazioni, per smartphone e PC, per fornire la telemetria e la sonificazione del moto di una barca a remi. Nel campo del nuoto é stata condotta una ricerca in letteratura riguardo la convinzione diffusa di considerare la cinematica come il fattore rilevante della propulsione efficace dei nuotatori. Questa indagine ha richiamato l’attenzione sull’importanza di studiare il cosiddetto feel-for-water (sensazione-dell’-acqua) percepito dai nuotatori d’alto livello. É stato progettato un innovativo sistema, per rilevare e comunicare gli effetti fluidodinamici causati dallo spostamento delle masse d’acqua intorno alle mani dei nuotatori. Il sistema é in grado di trasformare la pressione dell’acqua, misurata con sonde Piezo intorno alle mani, in un bio-feedback auditivo, pensato per i nuotatori e gli allenatori, come base per un nuovo modo di comunicare la sensazione-dell’acqua. Il sistema é stato testato con successo nel campo e ha dimostrato di fornire informazioni in tempo reale per il nuotatore e il formatore. Nello sport della corsa sono stati individuati due parametri rilevanti: il tempo di volo e di contatto dei piedi. É stato progettato un sistema innovativo per ottenere questi parametri attraverso un unico accelerometro montato sul tronco del corridore ed é stato implementato su uno smartphone. Per ottenere il risultato voluto é stato necessario progettare e realizzare un sistema per riallineare virtualmente gli assi dell’accelerometro e per estrarre il tempo di volo e di contatto dal segnale dell’accelerometro riallineato. L’applicazione per smartphone completa é stata testata con successo sul campo, confrontando i valori con quelli di attrezzature specializzate, dimostrando la sua idoneitá come ausilio pervasivo all’allenamento di corridori. Per esplorare le possibilitá della sonificazione usata come una base per tecnologia assistiva, abbiamo iniziato una collaborazione con un gruppo di ricerca presso l’Universitá di Scienze Applicate, Ginevra, in Svizzera. Tale collaborazione si é concentrata su un progetto chiamato SeeColOr (See Color with an Orchestra - vedere i colori con un’orchestra). In particolare, abbiamo avuto l’opportunitá di implementare il sistema SeeColOr su smartphone, al fine di consentire agli utenti non vedenti di utilizzare tale tecnologia su dispositivi leggeri e a basso costo. Inoltre, la tesi esplora alcune questioni relative al campo del rilevamento ambientale in ambienti estremi, come i ghiacciai, utilizzando la tecnologia delle Wireless Sensor Networks. Considerando che la tecnologia é simile a quella usata in altri contesti presentati, le considerazioni possono facilmente essere riutilizzate. Si sottolinea infatti che i problemi principali sono legati alla elevata difficoltá e scarsa affidabilitá di questa tecnologia innovativa rispetto alle altre soluzioni disponibili in commercio , definite legacy, basate solitamente su dispositivi piú grandi e costosi, chiamati datalogger. La tesi presenta i problemi esposti e le soluzioni proposte per mostrare l’applicazione dell’approccio progettuale cercato e definito durante lo sviluppo delle attività sperimentali e la ricerca che le ha implementate. ---------------------------------------- ENGLISH: Ubiquitous and pervasive systems, special categories of embedded systems, can be used to sense the context in their surrounding. In particular, context-aware systems are able to alter their internal state and their behaviour based on the context they perceive. To help people in better performing their activities, such systems must use the knowledge gathered about the context. A big research and industrial effort, geared towards the innovation of sensors, processors, operating systems, communication protocols, and frameworks, provides many "enabling" technologies, such as Wireless Sensor Networks or Smartphones. However, despite that significant effort, the adoption of pervasive systems to enhance sports monitoring, training and assistive technologies is still rather small. This thesis identifies two main issues concerning this low usage of pervasive technologies, both mainly related to users. On one side the attempt of computer science experts and researchers to induce the adoption of information technology based solutions, partially neglecting interaction with end users; on the other side a scarce attention to the interaction between humans and computers. The first can be translated into the lack of attention at what is relevant in the context of the user’s (special) needs. The second is represented by the widespread usage of graphical user interfaces to present information, requiring a high level of cognitive effort. While literature studies can provide knowledge about the user’s context, only direct contact with users enriches knowledge with awareness, providing a precise identification of the factors that are more relevant to the user. To successfully apply pervasive technologies to the field of sports engineering and assistive technology, the identification of relevant factors is an obliged premise, and represents the main methodological approach used throughout this thesis. This thesis analyses different sports (rowing, swimming, running) and a disability (blindness), to show how the proposed design methodology is put in practice. Relevant factors were identified thanks to the tight collaboration with users and experts in the respective fields. The process of identification is described, together with the proposed application tailored for the special field. The use of sonification, i.e. conveying information as sound, is proposed to leverage the second presented issue, that regards the user interfaces. The usage of sonification can ease the exploitation of information about performance in real-time for sport activities and can help to partially leverage the disability of blind users. In rowing, the synchrony level of the team was identified as one of the relevant factors for effective propulsion. The problem of detecting the synchrony level is analysed by means of a network of wireless accelerometers, proposing two different solutions. The first solution is based on Pearson’s correlation index and the second on an emergent approach called stigmergy. Both approaches were successfully tested in laboratory and in the field. Moreover two applications, for smartphones and PCs, were developed to provide telemetry and sonification of a rowing boat’s motion. In the field of swimming, an investigation about the widespread belief considering kinematics as the relevant factor of effective propulsion of swimmers drew attention to the importance of studying the so called "feel-for-water" experienced by elite swimmers. An innovative system was designed to sense and communicate fluid-dynamic effects caused by moving water masses around swimmers hands. The system is able to transform water pressure, measured with Piezo-probes, around hands into an auditive biofeedback, to be used by swimmers and trainers, as the base for a new way of communication about the "feel-for-water". The system was successfully tested in the field and proved to provide real-time information for the swimmer and the trainer. In running sports two relevant parameters are time of flight and contact of feet. An innovative system was designed to obtain these parameters using a single trunk mounted accelerometer and was implemented on a smartphone. To achieve the intended result it was necessary to design and implement a system to virtually realign the axes of the accelerometer and to extract time of flight and time of contact phases from the realigned accelerometer signal. The complete smartphone application was successfully tested in the field with specialized equipment, proving its suitability in enhancing training of runners with a pervasive system. To explore possibilities of sonification applied as an assistive technology, we started a collaboration with research group from University of Applied Science, Geneva, Switzerland, focused on a project called SeeColOr (See Color with an Orchestra). In particular we had the opportunity to implement the SeeColOr system on smartphones, in order to enable blind users to use that technology on low cost and lightweight devices. Moreover, the thesis exposes some issues related to a field, environmental sensing in extreme environments, like glaciers, using the innovative Wireless Sensor Networks technology. Considering that the technology is similar to the one used in other presented contexts, learned lessons can easily be reused. It is emphasized that the main problems are related to the high difficulty and low reliability of that innovative technology with respect to other "legacy" commercially available solutions, based on expensive and bigger devices, called dataloggers. The thesis presents the exposed problems and proposed solutions to show the application of the design approach strived during the development and research

Beyond 3D Printing: The New Dimensions of Additive Fabrication

Additive fabrication, often referred to as 3D printing, is the construction of objects by adding material. This stands in contrast to subtractive methods, which involve removing material by means of milling or cutting. Although additive fabrication and 3D printing are thought of as synonymous, additive fabrication encompasses a far broader range of construction, and new dimensions are on the horizon, inspiring innovation across scales and applications. For instance, can you print a full-scale building? How can we structurally engineer color and alter on the nanoscale? If trees grow additively, can biology be designed for fabrication